Close?

Considering that I wasn't supposed to be around to play in The Hoy at all, I guess it's a bonus. I had a spare token sitting around, so I used that instead of buying in, so it only cost me $8.70 or whatever a level 1 peep costs. There were 52 runners, which is just scary for a MATH. Throw in double-stacks and this was going to be a looooong game. As expected, eliminations were slow to start, but picked up with the blinds. I played a solid aggressive game, but in the end, a series of boneheaded moves lead to my elimination in 12th. I'm not sure, but I think this means I missed At least I made the points in the BBT. as well (if they're going with the Poker Stars scoring system, then only the top 15% of the field gets points). That stings more than missing the final table and the money.

I'm at my best in two situations - either being the agressor or trapping. When I play a hand weakly (which happens), I usually end up shooting myself in the foot. My last hand went down like this (or a close approximation thereof):

I'm in the BB with KQo and an M in the same ballpark as 10ish. Button limps, SB limps. I think both were known bloggers, but I can't remember who exactly (edit: Lightning36 was the button). I go to raise and then decide to check and see what develops instead, figuring it's a strong enough hand to catch something with but weak enough to get away from.

Flop comes TQT and it's checked to me. Button puts out a weak bet and I call. Turn is an ace, I bet somewhere in the neighbourhood of the pot and the button re-raises. I'm shortstacked completely at this time and push. Easy call by the button as he happens to be holding QTc for the boat. River doesn't bring that 4th queen to split the pot and IGH as predicted by Waffles mere moments before (except he put me on KJ, which would have at least looked better).

Bah. Can't complain about the hand because it wasn't anything but a legit beat. I made two mistakes that I almost never make. I checked an unraised pot with KQo late in the tourney near the bubble in the big blind, and I gave no credit to my opponent holding a monster (or even a set). I walked right into a trap and got eaten by a Grue. Hell, I helped set the trap. It's not that I didn't trust my read, it's that I didn't make enough of one. My thought? "Q with a worse kicker than me. AQ gets raised pre-flop." I was right.. the kicker was the T, and it was suited, which is a perfectly acceptable "let's see if I catch" hand, especially on the cheap. Not like KQo, which is a hand that should be thrown in the garbage with TQTA is in front of you on the board and you're facing a sizeable bet by a solid player. See how earlier I said it was hand that was easy to get away from? Apparently not when your brain decides to reset after 2 1/2 hours of play.

Hypothetically, if I raised pre-flop, I imagine I'd be called on anything less than a push. So let's say I put a raise of 3-4x the BB in, get called and then TQT rainbow comes down. Do I still go broke? I make a continuation bet that will get called or possibly pushed... I probably still call in this situation because of the money I've put into the pot (and my now very short stack) and I still lose. Only chance I have is that QTs gets folded pre-flop.

Ah well. Wheatie's tonight, but I think I'll be going to see The Host instead. Maybe I'll make the second chance, as long as it isn't limit Razz/HORSE. Oh how I hate those for second chance tourneys.

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In other news - as expected (and I think I predicted pre-season) The Leafs missed the playoffs by ONE point. Let's look at the bright side... umm... that's one more point than they had last year? WAY TO GO TEAM!

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I'm a bit perturbed by these pullouts of deposit/withdrawl systems in Canada. There is NO push in Canada to ban online gambling or poker, hell it's provincially, not federally mandated. If anything, Canada would look to tax it. No, all I can figure is it's due to the U.S. situation. Tools. Both the US gubmint for the laws, and the payment processors for being such chickenshits.

So, no Neteller. Lucky me, I can still use a credit card to deposit on Tilt, but not withdraw. Can't use the card on Stars (gets denied by the bank), but they did have eChecks. Now that's down for some undisclosed problems (which worries the hell out of me security-wise). So that leaves ePassport which is for US accounts, and I have no desire to pay $50 to do a wire transfer to a Canadian account. On Tilt there's still Click2Pay, but I'm getting sick of signing up for more services... but since I never win enough to warrant a withdrawl, I'm not affected by that... yet.

Grr....