Wednesday, May 10, 2006
DEMS QUADS BEETCHES!!
Last night I ended up playing at the World Poker Exchange for a bit. The skeptic in me originally logged in to check and see if my rakeback got deposited as scheduled, and it had. Then I decided to look over the tourney list and see if there were any guaranteed tournaments that would provide an overlay. Unfortunately I had just missed the early 1K tourney that went off with 69 players, but I was in time for the $500 guaranteed which only had 3 players signed up with 26 minutes left until start. I decided to monitor the tournament lobby and play a little .05/.10 NLHE while I waited.
Bought in for $2.00. A few hands in, paying blinds, etc. I'm down to around 1.50. I get 88 in late position. I raise it to 2xBB. I should have gone 3x or 4x, but I was a little gun-shy at that point, having had several good hands broken by calling stations. A couple of chairs to my left it got raised to .40, then UTG+1 raised it to .60 with everyone else dropping out. I called, as did the other raiser. Flop comes AA8. WOO-HOO! Full house! I bet .40. Raiser one raises to .60, UTG+1 calls. I then go all-in for whatever I had left. Raiser 1 goes all-in also, as does UTG+1, making a side pot. Turn is a 2. River is an 8! WOO-HOO!!! DEMS QUADS, BEETCHES! I win 7.xx. The side pot gets chopped because both of the others had aces full of 8s. That was a fun hand.
The 500 guaranteed tourney ends up getting 45 players, so I decide to bail. I sign up for a 2.00 + .20 5 person SnG, and while waiting (FOREVER) for the table to fill, continue the ring game. Nothing else notable in the ring game.
In the tourney I hit a few good hands, and managed to hang on for 2nd. I was pretty evenly matched in chips when heads up started. I pushed with a less than stellar hand thinking either I'd make the tourney all but over or I'd be out because it was almost time for the Mavericks/Spurs playoff game to start. Well, I was out. :-) Good enough to cash for 3.00. And since they give me my rake back, that is a 1.00 profit. Good enough.
A couple of additional comments about the World Poker Exchange:
Apparently in their SnG tournaments there is no "lobby" to check stacks, rank, payout structure, etc. Not that with 5 people you need that all that much - that is just a personal preference.
WPX also makes it easy to get to the World Sports Exchange. Your bankroll at WPX is really in a World Sports Exchange account, and when you buy-in at a table that amount gets transferred to WPX. Now that means that it is very easy to make sports wagers as well. Since I've been playing at WPX, I've bet on the Spurs game last weekend (bet 11 to win 10 - I know, bad odds, but I was sure the spurs were going to win it, and they did - big), made 4 $2.00 wagers on the Kentucky Derby (with one of them being a win ticket on Barbaroa or whatever, which covered all my bets and gave me a $4.xx profit), and again last night on the Mavs in the Mavs/Spurs game (10 to get 13 with the mavs getting 2.5 points) and I won. This is not good. I do not want it to be so easy to give back the money I grind away at poker to earn. So far it has turned out OK for me, but I know that long term that is not likely. I think I'll try to transfer out of WPX soon. But I have to wait until at least next Monday for the rakeback I earned last night to be credited back to my account.
Bought in for $2.00. A few hands in, paying blinds, etc. I'm down to around 1.50. I get 88 in late position. I raise it to 2xBB. I should have gone 3x or 4x, but I was a little gun-shy at that point, having had several good hands broken by calling stations. A couple of chairs to my left it got raised to .40, then UTG+1 raised it to .60 with everyone else dropping out. I called, as did the other raiser. Flop comes AA8. WOO-HOO! Full house! I bet .40. Raiser one raises to .60, UTG+1 calls. I then go all-in for whatever I had left. Raiser 1 goes all-in also, as does UTG+1, making a side pot. Turn is a 2. River is an 8! WOO-HOO!!! DEMS QUADS, BEETCHES! I win 7.xx. The side pot gets chopped because both of the others had aces full of 8s. That was a fun hand.
The 500 guaranteed tourney ends up getting 45 players, so I decide to bail. I sign up for a 2.00 + .20 5 person SnG, and while waiting (FOREVER) for the table to fill, continue the ring game. Nothing else notable in the ring game.
In the tourney I hit a few good hands, and managed to hang on for 2nd. I was pretty evenly matched in chips when heads up started. I pushed with a less than stellar hand thinking either I'd make the tourney all but over or I'd be out because it was almost time for the Mavericks/Spurs playoff game to start. Well, I was out. :-) Good enough to cash for 3.00. And since they give me my rake back, that is a 1.00 profit. Good enough.
A couple of additional comments about the World Poker Exchange:
Apparently in their SnG tournaments there is no "lobby" to check stacks, rank, payout structure, etc. Not that with 5 people you need that all that much - that is just a personal preference.
WPX also makes it easy to get to the World Sports Exchange. Your bankroll at WPX is really in a World Sports Exchange account, and when you buy-in at a table that amount gets transferred to WPX. Now that means that it is very easy to make sports wagers as well. Since I've been playing at WPX, I've bet on the Spurs game last weekend (bet 11 to win 10 - I know, bad odds, but I was sure the spurs were going to win it, and they did - big), made 4 $2.00 wagers on the Kentucky Derby (with one of them being a win ticket on Barbaroa or whatever, which covered all my bets and gave me a $4.xx profit), and again last night on the Mavs in the Mavs/Spurs game (10 to get 13 with the mavs getting 2.5 points) and I won. This is not good. I do not want it to be so easy to give back the money I grind away at poker to earn. So far it has turned out OK for me, but I know that long term that is not likely. I think I'll try to transfer out of WPX soon. But I have to wait until at least next Monday for the rakeback I earned last night to be credited back to my account.
