Mad Man Poker

Lately the swing is getting a bit too much!
These last few weeks I’ve been a bit less “into the game” than what people are used of me.
I have a small profit combining all my gambling activities, but that is mostly due to prop betting and non-poker games.
I have a big credit still open from one guy who wanted a game of Gin Rummy and ran into a 124 – 0 game on basic stakes that are about 10 times as much as the standard and double my normal amount, so that was a nice win. It’s still not paid off completely and I’m being pretty lenient on this guy, mainly because I don’t want to be the “gambling goon” going after my winnings too strong, also, I let him off the hook for a 100 – 0 game, waving the final 24 points.

A second huge success came in a prop bet about the NHL. When I was 9, the Pittsburgh Penguins had just won their second consecutive Stanley Cup, sporting a team with super heroes like Jaromir Jagr and Mario Lemieux. I was a kid, unfamiliar with this highly spectaculair game and saw a piece of the ’91 – ’92 season in chunks and bits, and I had found my team.
Over the years, I lost track a bit, even though I usually around playoff time always checked where we were at, the first few years, but my hockey passion got a bit dormant when the team lost it’s place among the top contenders.
I had vaguely heard something about financial troubles early in the new millennium and that Lemieux had become the owner of the team now, but the Pens were still at the bottom of the league and I didn’t really made time to renew my passion for the game.
Then in 2005, the Pens struck gold. The league had just gone through its worst crisis with the 2004 – 2005 shut out where not a single game was played due to differences between the NHL and their players, and so the drafts that year were full of young talent. All of them however had to humbly bow their heads to a kid of 17 that literally could do anything with a stick and a puck. Sidney Crosby might be the best player to have ever hit the ice since Lemieux in ’84. In a team that managed to obtain Marc-André Fleury in 2003 (1st draft pick) and Evgeni Malkin in 2004 (2nd overall pick, behind only Alexander Ovechkin of the Washinton Capitals) this was the cherry on top. “Sid the kid” would start his career so succesfull that Lemieux announced on January 24 of 2006 that he would retire a second time as a player, having found his replacement. It didn’t stop him though to pick Jordan Staal (2nd overall pick) in 2006, making sure the Pens had now Crosby – Malkin –Staal to fill up the centre position on their first 3 lines.
Succes was bound to come and in 2008, Crosby led his men to the Stanley cup finals facing the Detroit Red Wings of Nicolas Lidstrom.
The NHL started a series of commercials to make the game more popular in the US. One theme was pictures of the game coming to live. The Crosby version showed the Pens mere minutes after their loss in game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals, having Sid say “I never want to be in this picture again”.
One year later, lightning did struck twice when the same 2 teams met up again to play for the title, and this time Pittsburgh had no intention of letting the cup go.

Now, I have this online buddy, currently living in Florida, US, but originally from about 15 km outside of Ottawa and he’s probably the heaviest Senators fan you can imagine, even to the extent of flying back and forth about 4 times every season to catch a few live games.

Imagine our reaction when the Penguins ended up 4th seed, leaving the Atlantic Division title to the New Jersey Devils for 2nd seed, meeting up with 5th seeded Ottawa in the first round of the post season.

In the last 4 years, this was the 3rd time the Sens and the Pens battled it out in the first round of the playoffs and the series were equally split 1 – 1 with Ottawa missing the road to Stanley in 2007 and the Pens being the reigning champion.
In the season both teams took down their 2 home games for a split in points there and we eventually settled on making the Crosby bunch a favourite, with Ottawa missing their star forward Alexei Kovalev.
We worked out a 21 to 18 deal with a clause to 25 to 18 should Daniel Alfredsson get injured in the first 2 games or 18 tot 18 mirror bet when Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin end up in the sick bay before going to Ottawa for games 3 and 4.
I had a very sickening experience when Ottawa fought their way to a 1 – 0 lead in the series by taking down game 1 on Penguins ice, but, the Pens are a post season team and took down the second match before sweeping the Ottawa trip for a 3 – 1 rush, forcing Afredsson and his guys to defend their chances on an away game. The Sens, however did just that in a game going into triple overtime, and we both realised that whoever took game 6 would probably take the series. After two periods Ottawa had a 3 – 1 lead and I was already giving up when of all people 4th liner Matt Cooke was the one keeping Pittsburgh in the game with a tying goal for 3 – 3 about 12,5 mintues into the 3rd period, Pascal Dupuis eventually ended up scoring the game winner and the Penguins go through to the Eastern Semi-finals, leaving me with a nicely won bet. I’m now currently rooting for the Boston Bruins and Monreal Canadiens to take their series against the Buffalo Sabres and first seeded Washinton Capitals, since this would result in a match up between the Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers, a team we do not like (oh no!) and which would once again mean prop action for me. I do however fear that Ovechkin will not let the Habs take his Capitals out, which means we’re most likely meeting the Bruins in the semi’s.

For as far as poker’s concerned, we picked our WSOP-teams on Saturday and I was aiming to catch Ivey for my team together with some young guns and consistent pros. I managed to get Ivey on my 10th pick. That one went perfectly. I tried to end up with the most points left to outbet everyone should I be able to pick up Ivey on my last spot. I did get the chance to put up Ivey in the auction on my last pick and only Michiel Maes had more points left, but with 3 spots left on his team he needed to keep some behind to fill up his roster, meaning Ivey was mine. The seasoned pros were no problem either, I easily got Elky, had only a little fight to pick off Deeb from Mickey, swept Alaei, and off course, already had Daniel Negreanu. I still stand behind my decision to lay a lot of faith on the young guns, unfortunately, I picked them a bit too young. Thomas Marchese, Sorel Mizzi, Yevgenuiy Timoshenko and Tyler Reiman are all legit in Vegas, but I went after Harrison Gimbel as well (considered him a “must have” even) only to realise that the PCA is not played on US soil and finding out that Gibler321 is only 19. We haven’t even started and I’m already handicapped! Maybe it’s the poker gods levelling the field since I do have both Negreanu and Ivey.

In cash games I’ve been playing horrifically lately. Spewy moves, bad calls, frustrated plays, I did them all, these last few sessions. My results were consequently very bad. For once, however, luck did end up on my side at the very end of the game, resulting in a 800 BB big pot between Michiel Maes and myself in a match up between his full house vs my quads. For a win of about 125 BB to end the night.

For now, I’m mainly looking forward to TPC X, where all ex-champs will be present with a bounty on their heads. I don’t know what effect this is going to have, but hey, who knows, I might run into a hot streak of cards and make myself a masacre all the way to the win.

Untill next time,
Take care

The Mad Man