IHO hand of the week...(Dawn)

On Alceste's blog!

My only hand of note was against Mary and Rebecca, a college friend of Dawn's who has apparently played in NL $20/40 home games. We were in level four with blinds of 100/200. I had about 8,000 chips after having re-bought for the full 6,000 chips a couple orbits earlier (losing with jacks all-in pre-flop to Mary and Rebecca's pocket aces). Mary raised under the gun to 700. I was on Mary's immediate left and re-raised to 2100 with pocket queens. Action folded to Rebecca in the big blind, who quickly called (exactly how she had played aces in the earlier hand), and Mary pushed all-in for about 7500 chips.

So, for those who've played against Mary what would you do?

Running Bad (Dawn)

Most people think running bad is just having your pocket aces cracked by KJ. Or your AQ getting outturned by KQ. Or your pocket fives being outflopped by 22.
Those people are right.
But running bad is also flopping a straight and having the table donkey fold to your minimum raise. Running bad is flopping the whole world and missing *everything.* Running bad is having AcKc being your first decent hand in two hours, only to have someone else get KK or QQ on the same deal.
This, my friends, is where my poker game is right now. I am grateful that I've only been playing $20-$30 tournaments.
A hearty congrats to Alceste for keeping up his winning streak. Check out his poker blog for the three part series on how a lowball donkey takes Vegas for $17,000.

No shit, suckbox (Dawn)

Tough year for me at WSOP! Some would be happy w 6 cashes, but i had no final tables. I felt like the deck was stacked against me most days.

And now, I am "no longer following @phil_hellmuth.

It's my birthday today... (Dawn)

And Alceste has taken the occasion to give me poker lessons:

Given the top-heavy payout structure of the Venetian tournaments, each additional place in standings adds only incremental value to the prize until one reaches the final table. Afraid to bust early and take home a small profit, players continued to fold away their chips and ended up too short to make effective plays. (Note to Dawn Summers: I am pretty sure this is what the “Fold to the Money” strategy gets you.)