For the past week I’ve been playing the Bodog Poker Open series of tournaments. It’s good to see the smaller poker rooms making an effort to increase tournament traffic and do something to increase prize pool sizes. Up until yesterday I’d bombed out of every event despite the deep structure. Yesterday was event #4, $150 limit hold’em, a game I haven’t played since the 2007 WSOP.

Limit and no limit hold’em are to poker as Rosie O’Donnel and Jessica Alba are to sex appeal. For about a year during 2005 and 2006 limit was almost the only thing I played. That I’m still alive and possess the majority of my sanity is a true testament to my mental toughness. Still, I played the event because I’m a grinder and that’s what I do. It got something like 180 entrants with a first prize of $10,800.

Despite my limit game being awful, the games of those around me were considerably worse. I also found AA a ton and it held up every time. I ended up coming into the final table with a short stack after getting runner runnered at the final two tables for a major pot. I got things rolling for a while and it wasn’t long until we were 5 handed and I was tied for second. Unfortunately the blinds became enormous and I got involved in a huge pre flop pot with AK verse a guy who cold called a raise and then a 4 bet with AQo. The flop came A Q X and with over half my stack in the middle I got the rest in. The short stack on the table was also all in, so when we both busted I finished 4th for a little under $3,000. I guess things could be worse considering I never play the game.

Unfortunately for me day light savings is going into affect in the US. That means I have to pull my schedule back another hour to play the same tournament line up (which is the only realistic one available to me) and start my days at around 9:30am. So long late night social life. A month later it’ll be another hour, although at that point I may transfer over to more cash games for some deep stack practice leading up to my live poker tour.

Speaking of which, it would really be great if the APPT would go ahead and announce their schedule already. Or at least tell me when the first event is. It’s looking increasingly likely that Macau will be in May and therefore in conflict with the Party Poker Million cruise. I’m not giving hope that they pull it together in late April though. If there is an unavoidable conflict I guess I’d have to skip the cruise since Bondgirl is sponsored for the APPT. I could still do the Grand Prix de Paris then, depending roughly on when Macau finishes, but it seems probable. It’s a long way for one tournament, but I’d hate to go my whole life without being to give first hand examples of why Parisians are pretentious bastards everyone hates.

Meanwhile I’m still awaiting Full Tilts phone call which they said they were giving me three or four days ago about the writing content. Actually, they didn’t specify when they would call, just that they would, though I’m not sure why the large gap between the email and the call. No other site has so much as even sent a rejection email to what I emailed them, so it would appear that Tilt is the only site interested. Perhaps they went and did more research and decided a raving drunk who screams “I’M BOND18 BITCH!” at interview women was not someone they want to be associated with. Or perhaps they’re just a little busy. We’ll likely find out this upcoming week.

I also want to work on adding a few entries to the ‘Things it took me a while to learn’ series this week. I’ve brought Shaundeeb on as a guest writer for the next segment. It’s either going to take me weeks to edit and translate what he writes or I’m going to have to find Deebspellcheck and pay him to make Shaun’s butchered English legible. Still, I’m happy to have him working with me and I like the idea of bringing more and more guest writers on. It allows for a more diverse and thorough thought process, and affords me the chance to take credit for others work while I do less of it myself. Sweet deal if you ask me. Suckers.

EdmondDantes says

I didn't realize what gross was until I played 15/30 with a kill aka grind grind, win a few BBs and see stack decimated in massive kill pot that everyone chases with crap. That said, from an owner's perspective, limit poker is a sexy little game that everyone should learn to enjoy...

03/09/08

Anonymous says

Ahhh. limit.

03/09/08

Anonymous says

Ahhh. limit.

03/09/08

DeuceSeven says

Agreed limit sucks, limit with a kill sucks even more. Keep runnin hot bond!!!!!!!

03/09/08

lakeoffire says

Congrats on the limit FT, that couldnt have been easy. I played limit the other day and I had forgotten how different it was. The good thing is that the game was alot less stressful( aside from the swings) and I really had a good time.

03/09/08

Anonymous says

Baby Jesus invented limit to remind you not to go to hell.

03/10/08

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