O-Poker

I've been so busy that I just finally got around to listening to the 3/31 podcast of Cash Plays with Bart Hanson. It has become my favorite podcast, especially after the 3/31 episode. You can't beat 1 1/2 hours of Bart Hanson picking the brain of one of the best long term online cash game winners, Samoleus. Samoleus rambles a lot and goes off on a lot of tangents, but there some good stuff in the interview. He doesn't pull any punches, including his dislike for the "cardrunners" style.

If you play cash games (live or online), you should definitely listen to the interview.

Where do you hope to be in......?

I just read a really good blog post by Leatherass (one of the lead instructors at Stoxpoker who has probably played more cash game hands online that just about anyone). It is definitely worth taking the time to read. It really got me to thinking about what I am trying to accomplish in poker.

I am not talking about the lofty one in a million, one in a hundred thousand, one in a thousand, or one in 500 shot (depending on how you see your game) of winning the WSOP Main Event or a WPT Main Event. I am thinking about what are my long term goals with poker realistically - aside from winning a major tourney which would obviously drastically change all the other goals. Where do I hope to be in my poker career in 6 months? 1 year? 2 years? 5 years? 10 years?

I haven't played much poker or done much of anything since I got sick Sunday night and it has given me a little time to think about a lot of different things (poker being one of them). I set a goal at the beginning of the year of playing 275k cash game hands this year (about 23k hands/month) which seemed reasonable considering my work schedule and home life. From January to March, I only played about 35k hands (12k hands/month) which is about 1/2 of my monthly target.

I have gotten sidetracked with MTTs, WSOP steps and the BBT3. This weekend I decided to get back on track with the cash game hands and really step the number of hand that I play this month and next month. I am going to target 30k hands this month (little behind due to the sickness of the last few days) and 35k hands next month. It is my short term goal to build up a decent size roll to take to LV with me in June (probably the 10th-15th).

As for where I hope to be in 6 months? 1 year? 2 years? 5 years? 10 years? I think leatherass sums it up best, "Anyway, I was just doing some thinking about that and I guess the bottom line is I should just keep grinding and don’t even think about getting to the very top."

With that in mind, I'm going to keep grinding, use good (maybe overly nitty) bankroll management, and let the rest take care of itself. If I play enough hands this year, the money will follow and hopefully one day I can be at the point where I don't have to worry about money.

I'm going to keep playing the BBT3 events and still have the WSOP Step 6 ticket, but probably won't be playing much besides cash games with a few breaks for mtts here and there.

-----------------------
QQ in the SB - Follow Up

I posted this hand because it felt like I played it so weak - I folded PF. There was just something about it that screamed I was way behind. I guess you could call it one of those feelings that you get sometimes when playing and I went with that feeling. There are times when I would raise with the same hand against the same players, but this one just felt fishy so I folded.

I'm not sure what either of them had, but Seat 6 flat called pf. The flop came all low cards, Seat 6 checked and Seat 2 (who had a relatively low agg factor) bet about 3/4 pot. Seat 6 folded.

Full Tilt Poker Game #5928688441: Table St Ives (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 15:36:24 ET - 2008/04/06
Seat 1: god_ofgamblers2 ($209.95)
Seat 2: CommanderData ($253.25)
Seat 3: cmitch ($269.40)
Seat 4: Bluffsalot83 ($200)
Seat 5: marlon1410 ($134.80)
Seat 6: youenjoymystack ($208.40)
cmitch posts the small blind of $1
Bluffsalot83 posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to cmitch [Qh Qd]
marlon1410 calls $2
youenjoymystack raises to $9
god_ofgamblers2 folds
CommanderData has 15 seconds left to act
CommanderData raises to $32
cmitch has 15 seconds left to act

I played a decent amount of cash game hands Friday night and planned to grind out a ton more on Saturday night. FTP had some major issues and crashed for several hours Saturday night, but that wasn't the reason that I couldn't play. The entire family (except me at the time) being sick with the flu is what kept me away from poker. My wife started getting sick around mid-day Saturday and my son started throwing up again around dinner time. I probably changed my 2 yr old son's clothes and bedspread about 5 times Sat night. It was to the point where I couldn't wash his sheets and clothes fast enough.

The only people in the house that weren't sick were me and my 6 yr old daughter. Shortly before she went to bed, she started complaining that her stomach was bothering her. She is somewhat of a drama queen, so there was about a 50/50 chance she was either getting the same sickness or wanted some attention. I loaded her up with a trash can on her bed before she went to sleep. About an 1 1/2 hour later, she started screaming. I went in her room to find that she had thrown up all over the place - her bed, her hair, her clothes, etc, etc. I quickly carried her into her bathroom to get her out of her clothes. The whole time she was screaming at the top of her lungs, "This is so gross!! Get it off of me!!! This is so disgusting!!" There was such a mess in her bathroom that I decided to take her into our bathroom for a shower. I put her on the bath mat in her room and she looked in the mirror and screamed, "I look horrible!!!" Gotta love the drama queens - worrying about how she looked while we were in the process of trying to get here cleaned up.

The cycle of each kid getting sick finally ended around 1-2 AM. I headed off to bed - still the only one in the house that wasn't sick. Finally, Sunday night it hit me hard. I don't think I have gotten that sick since I was a kid. It wasn't fun and still isn't. Hopefully, I'll be back up to speed in another day or so.

QQ in the SB

I wasn't sure what to do with QQ in this spot. The button seemed like a solid player. I hadn't seem him 3 bet with anything but premium hands. The original raiser didn't seem to get to out of line either.

1. Given that they both seemed to be playing straight forward, what is your play here? Raise? Flat Call? Fold?

2. What do you do if the originial raiser re-raises and the button flat calls?

3. What is your plan for a low card rainbow uncoordinated flop if you flat call pf? if you raise pf?


Full Tilt Poker Game #5928688441: Table St Ives (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 15:36:24 ET - 2008/04/06
Seat 1: god_ofgamblers2 ($209.95)
Seat 2: CommanderData ($253.25)
Seat 3: cmitch ($269.40)
Seat 4: Bluffsalot83 ($200)
Seat 5: marlon1410 ($134.80)
Seat 6: youenjoymystack ($208.40)
cmitch posts the small blind of $1
Bluffsalot83 posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to cmitch [Qh Qd]
marlon1410 calls $2
youenjoymystack raises to $9
god_ofgamblers2 folds
CommanderData has 15 seconds left to act
CommanderData raises to $32
cmitch has 15 seconds left to act

I've been incredibly busy the last two weeks and that unfortunately has left very little time for poker or posting on the blog. I'm going to try to catch up and get back in the swing of things with some regular posts next week.

WSOP Steps

I did manage to squeeze in a Step 5 match one night this week and wound up finishing in the top 2 to advance to Step 6. I only have one other step ticket left (Step 2) and I'm not sure if I am going to try to work that one up to Step 6 before playing a Step 6 sng or not. Most likely, I'll play the Step 2 ticket and keep my eye on the Step 6s. If I see a relatively soft Step 6, I'll probably jump into it.



Riverchasers - Better Late than Never?

Last night I was ready to unwind and play a little poker after being in long stressful meetings all day, every day. We put the kids to bed, I went to blockbuster and rented a few movies. My plan was to watch a movie, have a couple of beers and play Riverchasers - pretty low key, low stress.

My plans changed pretty quickly. About 8:30, my 2 year old son started crying. This usually means that he just hasn't fallen asleep yet and wants a drink. I went in his room, got him a drink, and left hoping that he would calm down. He continued to cry and then seemed to calm down a little.

About five minutes after starting to watch a movie, he started to cry again. My wife finally went into his room about 8:55 PM. He started spewing chunks all over th place. It was everywhere - his crib, his hair, his clothes, the floor, my wife. I took him to the bathroom to clean him up and give him a bath while my wife cleaned up his bed and then herself. We got him cleaned up and put on a short show to help him calm down a little.

He was ready to head back to bed around 9:30. My wife picked him up and started walking to his room. About halfway there he started spewing chunks all over the place again - the floor, himself, and my wife. This time my wife got in the tub with him. I tried to finish cleaning up all the throw and realized we were out of paper towels (and laundry detergent).

To make a long story short, I finally logged in to play the Riverchasers mtt around 10:20 (1:20 after it started) after cleaning up throw up twice, giving our son two baths, and a trip to CVS for paper towels, Gatorade, and laundry detergent.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get some poker playing in this weekend. We'll see if life cooperates.....

I just discovered a new podcast and immediately listened to every episode of the podcast. It is the latest from PokerRoad - Cash Plays with Bart Hanson. You can listen to it on the PokerRoad website or on Itunes.

I listen to as many poker podcasts as I can (Ante Up, P5s Podcast, 2+2 Podcast, a few of the PokerRoad ones) and was excited when I heard an advertisement for a cash only podcast. I wasn't sure what to expect. So far, there haven't been any guests on the show and only one host, but Hanson does a good job of filling the show with cash poker content. He is mainly a live grinder, so a lot of the hands that he discusses are related to deep stack full ring live NL cash games and might not completely apply to online 6 max cash games. Listeners also email in tough hands and he comments on them.

So far, he has brought up a lot of great situations and concepts. Below are a few things that he discussed on the show. (I am probably going to expand on a couple of his topics for some future blog posts)

Thin Value Betting on the River - How often do you need your opponent to fold for it to be a profitable play? Don't let the times where you get called and lose discourage you from making the same play again if you feel that long term it is a profitable bet.

Preflop raises in live games - I forgot how big of bets people will call preflop in live cash games.

Negative Slow-Play - or why you need to play your big hands fast. He makes some really good points.

Deceptive play to represent big hands - along with the power of back door flush draws.

What sort of implied odds you need to call for your call to be profitable long term

Taking Small Edges (Is there ever a time not to take them?) - I disagree with his stance on this one. He says that sometimes you might not want to take a small edge (55/5) in a cash game. A couple of times mentioned are:

1. Early in a session if it will effect your play for the rest of the session. - I disagree pretty strongly with this one. If you getting stacked early in a session is going to make you play like crap for the rest of the session then you shouldn't be playing or should just make it a habit of quitting in any session that you get stacked early. This might be easier said than done, but you really need to think about your play if you are playing a lot different when you are stuck. (I'm sure we are all guilty of this at sometimes.)

2. If you are playing in a good game (where you are one of the better players) that is over your bankroll. - I can almost see his point here. If you feel like you have a big edge in a game that is over your bankroll then it might be better to get your money in in a spot with a bigger edge against a weak player. I am of the mindset that you should get your money in whenever you are a favorite, because that is how you win money long term. If you are playing with way too short of a bankroll (even in a really juicy game) then you probably shouldn't be playing that game or should sell some of your action in that game.

I'll try to expand more on some of the topics that he discussed on the show. So far, this is the only cash game podcast that I have found. I'm looking forward to Cardrunners starting up their podcast, but I'm not sure when they will ever get it off the ground.

I'm torn on what to do about the WSOP. At the beginning of the year, I posted the following as one of my goals:

Play 3-5 Medium to Large ($1,500+) Live Tourneys (Prelim/Main Events) – As I mentioned above, I may shoot for playing some smaller buy-in live tourneys instead of just the WSOP Main Event. I’m considering heading to Foxwoods for the Foxwoods Poker Classic for some of the mid-size events at the end of March/beginning of April. I’ll also probably plan a trip to the Las Vegas during the early WSOP events and maybe head back for the Main Event if I win my way in or do well in the early events.

I was unable to go to Foxwoods for the FPC because work is pretty crazy right now.

I'm debating between two options.

1. Head out to LV from 6/10-6/15 and play 1-2 prelim events and a lot of cash games.

Events taking place during this time frame:
6/11/2008 21 No-Limit Hold'em (3 day event) $5,000
6/11/2008 22 H.O.R.S.E. (3 day event) $3,000
6/12/2008 23 No-Limit Hold'em (3 day event) $2,000
6/12/2008 24 Pot-Limit Holdem/Omaha (3 day event) $2,500
6/13/2008 25 World Championship Heads Up No-Limit Hold'em $10,000
6/13/2008 26 Seven Card Razz (3 day event) $1,500
6/14/2008 27 No-Limit Hold'em (3 day event) $1,500
6/14/2008 28 Pot-Limit Omaha W/Rebuys (3 day event) $5,000
6/15/2008 29 No-Limit Hold'em (3 day event) $3,000
6/15/2008 30 World Championship Limit Hold'em (3 day event) $10,000

Would probably play some combination of Events 21, 23, & 27.

Pros

• I have a good excuse to head out during that time - My birthday and Father's Day. It could count as my wife's gift to me for both . :)
• I could play more than 1 WSOP event.
  
• I could stay at the Rio for very cheap thanks to a Harrah's Total Rewards flyer that I recently received in the mail.
• The $5k event has a pretty decent structure with 10k starting chips and 60 minute levels.
• There may be a blogger gathering during the same time. I've never made it to one of these. It would be awesome to meet a lot of other bloggers and put some faces to screen names.
  

Cons

• Probably wouldn't be able to go back and play in the Main Event even if I won a seat. (Not sure I could swing taking a week off and then another week 2 weeks later.)
• The structure for the smaller buy-in events isn't that great - $4k & $3k starting chips in the $2k and $1,500 events
  

2. Plan a trip during the Main Event and hope to win a seat before heading there.

Pros

• Get to play in the Main Event of the WSOP!!!
• Get to play in the Main Event of the WSOP!!!
• I had a blast when I played a couple of years ago (other than when Phil Ivey sat at my table)
• The field in the ME is weaker than any other large buy-in event. Some of the players are so horrible, you wonder how they are playing in a $10k Event.
• Potential for a lot larger win even if you just barely cash (lowest tier cash at the ME is probably equivalent to like 9-20th in a $1,500 event; 18th-27th in the $5k event)
• It is like 1,000 times more exciting to the play in the WSOP ME than any other tourney.
• If I win on a site like Pokerstars then I can get a free hotel on top of the WSOP package.
  

Cons

• All egss in 1 basket
• I may not qualify and be left standing on the sidelines watching like last year.
• May spend too much time, energy and bankroll trying to qualify and come up short.
• A long time to take off work.
• A lot of cash to put up for 1 tourney even if I win my way in.

Right now I am leaning more towards Option 1. I'll probably give myself another month to try and qualify for the WSOP ME. If I don't, I'll probably book the earlier trip.

Pokerstars WSOP Steps Follow Up

My original $100 investment in the steps is now down to one Step 5 Ticket and one Step 2 Ticket. I had been waiting around to find a weak Step 5 and stumbled across one last night. I wound up finishing a disappointing 3rd (replay Step 5). I'll probably play it one night this week. I have been amazed how many more beats you see in sngs vs. cash games due to the nature of the beast.

Sometimes, it is OK to......

...fold an overpair.

...fold top pair, top kicker.

...fold a set when you are sure you are beat.

...fold a draw when you aren't getting the correct odds against a nit's bet/shove.

...skip playing for the night because you are too tired or too sick or just sick and tired.

...only play very strong hands against calling stations.

...make big calls against over aggressive donkeys.

...overshove for value if there is a chance that your opponent might call.

...overshove bluff if you are pretty certain your opponent will fold.

...value bet 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th pair against calling stations.

...play 14/10. (vp$p/pfr)

...play 32/26. (vp$p/pfr)

...check behind on the river if you are fairly certain your opponent hit and is planning to c/r on the river.

...bet the river with air the next time you are in a hand against the same opponent.

...smooth call preflop with AA.

...shove preflop with AA.

...fold QQ preflop.

...shove with QQ preflop.

Just some quick random cash game thoughts. I haven't had time to post lately because I've been really busy

I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but......

I used to spend 90% of my playing time at UB until they started going downhill about 3 years ago. I don't ever play there anymore. It looks like they are bending over backwards to get me back. :)

I'm one of their special customers that got this email - weeeeeeee. They must really want me back.

What can you buy with 11 cents these days?

We’re running an invite-only 11-cent rebuy tournament and we’ve added you in. We will throw an additional $150 into the prize pool. It will cost you a staggering 11 cents to enter. It’s a no brainer!

Saturday March 15th 2008 at 8pm EST

Your 11 cents Loose change tourney is now available in the lobby under the Private tournaments tab.

Good luck and see you at the tables,
The UltimateBet Team

Holy Crap!! Lucko is on fire!! Two BBT3 wins in one week!! CONGRATS!! I hope he plays all the Sunday Majors this weekend and rides that hot streak to a huge score.

There is now one less seat in the BBT3 TOC. I hope Fuel didn't make too many side bets with Lucko.

Also, a big congrats to Smokkee for locking up his seat the other night. I'll be rooting for him to take down a WSOP package in the TOC in June.

I think that my last post about when/how often to cont. bet was probably a product of bubbling a few SNGs, especially one where I had a pretty big chip lead with 5 players left.

I wanted to get some advice for a few hands in a particular SNG. I haven't run any ICM or pokerstove calcs yet on these hands. This is different from a lot of SNG/MTT situations because we are 3 handed and the top 2 win a ticket to the next level.

Background

• Pokerstars WSOP Step 4 SNG ($215)

• Awards 2 seats to Step 5 ($700)/3rd place is a replay of Step 4 ($215)

• I played pretty tight straight forward poker for the first few levels, but had been raising a ton once we were down to 4-5 people. Based on my play, the other two guys have to figure that I am raising with about top 50% on the button.

• They were both usually either re-raising or folding preflop. Seat 1 was open shoving a ton. Seat 7 was a good player that was playing pretty solid poker.

Hand 1

PokerStars Game #Tournament #, $200+$15 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200)
Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: (5035 in chips)
Seat 6: Me (4897 in chips)
Seat 7: (3568 in chips)
Seat 7: posts small blind 100
Seat 1: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sportingimag [Jc Kh]
sportingimag: raises 400 to 600
Seat 7: calls 500 - When he flat called button raises from SB he had folded about 2/3rds of the time to c-bets.
Seat 1: calls 400 - unusual for him to flat call in this spot. He had shoved in spots like this earlier.
*** FLOP *** [7d 8h 2s] - Pot = 1,800
Both players check
My action???? How much??? Why???
IMO, it is and obvious c-bet if only one caller pf.

Hand 2

PokerStars Game #Tournament #, $200+$15 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200)
Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: (6135 in chips)
Seat 6: Me (3997 in chips)
Seat 7: (3368 in chips)
Seat 7: posts small blind 100
Seat 1: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sportingimag [Kd Jd]
sportingimag: raises 400 to 600
Seat 7: calls 500
Seat 1: folds
*** FLOP *** [As 2h 9s] - Pot = 1,300
Seat 7: checks (remaining stack is 2,768)
My stack is 3,397
My action???? How much??? Why???

I don't think that I let the bubble effect my play, but I may have. If I had a tight image then I think both of these situations would have been automatic c-bets. Given that I had a pretty loose image from the button, what would be your play in both situations?

I haven't played any cash games since the middle of last week thanks to trying to focus more on the BBT, WSOP sats, and the WSOP steps. I had forgotten how frustrating they can be. Most of that frustration is just a product of the end game SNG play or a low M late/middle stage MTT play. There are so many more times where you are getting all in with the worst or marginally best hands in SNGs/MTTs than in cash games thanks to deep stack vs. short stack play. When you have to get into the push/fold mode, there are obviously going to be times where you get in way behind or way ahead. I have been sucked out on a ton, but have also had my fair share of suckouts. I'm sure it is probably an equal mix, but it always feels like it is more heavily weighted to the getting sucked out on side. I'm not sure how SNG grinders don't go crazy. I guess it takes a certain mentality to be a good SNG grinder and avoid tilt.

I'm liking the new T$ on FTP. I didn't play many sats to the Sunday tourneys in the past because I can't usually play on Sunday. This weekend, I played a bunch of sats to the Sunday $216 because now you can unregister and receive the entry in T$. It looks like some people only play sats. I checked the satellite leaderboard for the FTP $750k mistakingly thinking that my 7 or 8 wins would be close to the top. There were about 10-12 people with more wins including a couple of guys that had won 20+ sats.

I think that I finished 3rd in a WSOP step about 6-7 times this weekend which meant repeating the current step - talk about frustrating. I currently have a couple of Step 2s, one Step 1, and one Step 4 remaining from my initial $95 worth of Step 1s. I have played Step 4 three times and finished 3rd or 4th all three times.

One of the biggest differences between MTTs/SNGs and cash games is when/how often to make continuation bets.

In cash games, there are a lot of times where you might make a -EV continuation bet because it will set you up for a greater +EV situation later. Also, in some more aggressive cash games, you will get picked apart by floaters both in and out of position if you aren't cont. betting enough or firing another barrel on the turn. This same play in a MTT or SNG might cost way too large a percentage of your stack to be long term +EV.

Continuation bets seem like much more of a science in MTTs/SNGs, especially in the mid-late stages. There are so many more variables that go into whether or not to make a continuation bet in a MTT or a SNG - stack sizes, your M, your opponent's M, your image, your view of how your opponent will react, what size continuation bet to make, whether your c-bet should be a shove, what you will do if he/she shoves/reraises you, what happened last time you c-bet, what you will do on the turn if he/she just flat called your c-bet, etc, etc. The line between c-betting and not c-betting is often a grey blurry line. I can see why a lot of good SNG grinders advocate pushing/folding pre-flop even with decent sized stacks. Once you raise pre-flop and c-bet, you will often find yourself committed and you might as well get some added fold equity by putting the decision on your opponent.

I'm going to try to go through some SNG/MTT hands this week a find a few examples of marginal c-bet situations to get thoughts from other people on what is the most optimal play. I think that it is one of the areas of my SNG and MTT game that needs work. I haven't used any ICM programs, but I'm thinking about looking at what is the most +EV play in certain marginal c-bet situations and an ICM program combined with pokerstove will probably prove invaluable.

Anyone know of a good ICM programs to download? Any other software recommendations? Any good articles out there on the subject? (FWIW, I am currently reading the Mathematics of Poker. I think that might help with some of the calcs.)

........but Samsung customer service is awesome!

I purchased a 24" Samsung widescreen monitor from Circuit City last November. I didn't have any problems with the monitor until a couple of weeks ago. The picture just stopped coming up. The power light to the monitor would go on, but no picture. I tried plugging it in to another computer with no luck. A few days later I finally found my receipt from Circuit City.

Yesterday, I made what I thought would be a quick trip to Circuit City to get the monitor fixed. When I left store, I'm sure that I looked like a guy that just lost with AA vs KK all-in preflop on the first hand of the WSOP ME.

I walked into the Circuit City store where I made my purchase with the monitor in one hand and the receipt in another hand and headed to the customer service desk. There was no one in line and I set the monitor down on the customer service counter. The guy behind the desk was typing on the computer and then started talking to another person behind the counter. Neither of them acknowledged me for at least 2-3 minutes. Not a big deal, but I expected a "Hold on. We'll be with you in a second." at least.

When the guy behind the customer service counter finally got around to helping me he said, "Oh, you didn't purchase our (Circuit City) warranty. There is nothing we can do for you." He went to hand me the receipt back as if that was all there was to it.

My response was, "What do you mean? I just bought this monitor here like 3-4 months ago and it has at least a 1 year warranty included."

CS guy: "Well, you should have bought our warranty. You need to call Samsung. There isn't anything we can do for you. If you had bought our warranty then we could do something, but since you didn't there is nothing we can do. You should have bought our warranty."

Me (starting to get pissed): "Can I speak to a manager?" Obviously not getting anyway with CS guy.

CS guy: "Why? There isn't anything he can do because you didn't buy the warranty."

A manager came over a few minutes later. I explained the problem to him.

Manager: "Well, if you had bought our warranty then we could do something for you. Since you didn't there is nothing we can do."

Me: "The monitor has at least a 1 yr warranty."

Manager: "Well you need to ship it to Samsung yourself and talk to them. I can look up their phone number for you or you can use one of our computers to go to their website." He didn't even attempt to help by offering to call Samsung for me or even try to explain how the process would work with Samsung.

I walked over to the monitors that they have in the store and found the display for the monitor that I purchased. I pulled the price tag out of the laminate under the monitor. In small letters, it read 3 yr full parts/labor warranty. In much bigger letters was "Add 4 Year Circuit City Performance Plan - $79.99" I took the tag over to the manager and asked why I would purchase an additional warranty from Circuit City when their is already a 3 yr full warranty on the product.

Manager: "Then you wouldn't have to hassle with sending the monitor back yourself. If you purchased that warranty then we would ship it back to Samsung for you." Sounds like that is worth $80 to me. "There is nothing we can do for you since you didn't purchase the warranty."

Me: "I'm upset that you guys are just telling me I should have purchased your warranty, but haven't even plugged the monitor in to see if it is an easy fix and possibly give me an idea of what the problem is if you have seen it before."

Manager: "We don't have anyone in the store that can do that. I'll plug it in for you if you want me to, but no one here will be able to tell what is wrong with it."

Me (really pissed now and realizing they aren't going to do anything): "This is the 2nd time in the last few months that I have been unhappy with CC response to a problem. A couple of months ago, my big screen TV was having problems. I had a warranty through CC and it took over 2 weeks (during college bowl game season) for CC to finally send someone to repair a problem that took 5 minutes to fix."

Manager: "Well, they did fix it eventually, didn't they?" Obviously is well trained in how to treat the customer. He kept repeating that I need to ship it myself to Samsung and that they could send it themselves if I had only spent $80 on their warranty. So basically, the $80 would have bought a box and shipping costs if I happened to have a problem with the monitor.

I went back to my office and called Samsung. About 3 minutes later, they told me that they would send a new monitor to the closest UPS store to me. It should arrive in about a week. I simply take in the bad monitor and the UPS store will give me the new monitor and ship the bad one back to Samsumg. Very simple. Very easy. Great customer service. They definitely gave me a good feeling about Samsung and if I will lean towards purchasing Samsumg products in the future. On the other hand I don't see myself ever making another purchase from CC.

My experience with Samsung customer service made me even more pissed off at how CC handled my visit to their store. Basically the manager could have taken the time that he spent chastising me for not purchasing the CC warranty, called Samsung for me, and gotten the problem resolved right there. Instead he pissed me off and CC lost a long time customer due to his extremely pitiful level of customer service.

/End Rant

I can't remember the last time that I played at pokerstars. I don't have anything against PS, but I just haven't had a reason to play there. You basically have to become at least supernova to even get close to the rakeback that you would be missing out on by playing on other sites with rakeback.

Fuel made a post the other day about WSOP sats starting at pokerstars including the WSOP steps. I'm a sucker for the money pit that is the steps, so I moved some money over from FTP to pokerstars. I decided to only move $100 over (I'm not that much of a sucker). If I moved more over, I would probably just jump into the $200 steps and that would add up fast. I decided that I am going to build up as many step tickets as I can at each level until I move to the next.

I four tabled the step 1s at the beginning of the night each of the last two nights before starting to really play for the night. Holy crap, these things are soft. I know these are step 1s and a lot of people don't take them seriously, but some of the things that people did left me saying, "WTF?" One guy berated me by saying, "Great F*cking call. What the hell are you thinking making a call like that?" after he busted in 3rd or 4th. I had 8k chips and was in the BB. A short stack UTG player went all-in for like 950. The button (3.5k) called. A shorter stacked (900-1k) SB (guy who berated me) called with A5. I had 49 and had to call like 550 more into a 4 way pot with two people all-in. I made a boat on a 449K2 board and ended the sng. The SB searched me out at another table to try to berate me some more about my horrible call.

I ran into a good thread in BBV on 2+2 about the steps. Some of the stuff in the thread is pretty basic, but ImNoSoGood has some good thoughts throughout the thread on the WSOP steps including the following:

I start at both steps 4 and 5, I've just been playing these steps while doing schoolwork. I just run PT, and sharkscope people prior to the sit and go. I don't join tables with a bunch of very good regs (though I have by accident).

There's alot of scared money in the step 6's and I just abuse that, and I did a bunch of ICM work on SNGPT for these kinds of steps. People tend to crack, and tilt when 3 handed and HU, and I just take advantage of it because I don't care nearly as much as they do.

If you're someone starting at step 1 I suggest following a system where you have to have multiple tickets to the next step before you play it. Say you start at step 1 - I'd say have 7 step 2's before you play Step 2, 6 Step 3's, 5 Step 4s, 4 Step 5s, and 3 Step 6s. You'll be far more confident, and you're likely to play much better when the stakes get very high. Also, you yourself should not take the small bubbles into account @ Step 6(0-500,500-1000,1000-1500), they matter a bit, but they are insignificant compared to 1500-12500, and alot of decent SNG players have a hard time disregarding money bubbles almost completely.

I think I am going to play 4 of these steps each night and stockpile a ton of step tix at each step before moving to the next. Hopefully this won't be a huge black hole and I'll end up with a WSOP seat.

LOL at the flip flopping announcer. "It's is a horrible play to fold in that spot. Wow, what a great play."

Sometimes it is OK to fold KK preflop. Sometimes you should fold QQ preflop. Sometimes good play is punished and marginal play is rewarded.

This is an awesome clip.