Is this still a poker blog?...aka Read Fuel...aka Does Change100 read this - and more importantly - will she admit it?

Welcome Back. Mmmmm? Where the hell have I been, you ask? Places dark and rainswept within the human heart. But the storm has passed and in passing, cleansed. And by cleansed I mean I had time to brush my teeth this morning before the hamster wheel of diapers and mealtimes began to turn for me.

So it turns out I have a few things I’d like to say. I just read this biotch over, and if anyone happens to read every damn word of this, say so in the comments and I just might send you steak knives. Probably not, but you never know.

First Up: It surprises me someone would have me on bloglines, but not have Fuel55. Now don’t misunderstand: the main reason I continue to stage this Theatre of the Absurd is that I know it’s not prose as solitaire. I like the fact that people come by, and feel only a little bit like a girlscout admitting that. But Fuel’s blog has made me a better NLHE player and I strongly believe it could help you – at bare minimum give you food for thought and the actual names of some real donkeys out there playing as we speak. I raised an eyebrow when Fuel posted that he had 20-something subscribers and I had 50+. Now I don’t really know how to use bloglines – I think it’s cause I can’t stand the light blue shading, but even I loaded it up specifically to subscribe. If the higher-limit players who actually post thoughts on strategy and play don’t feel the effort is worth their time, the rest of us schmucks would lose a lot. Thus, if you have bloglines, I yet again recommend you add http://www.fuel55.blogspot.com/. Hell, add me too while you’re at it: 50 is great, but like all good capitalists I’m a devotee of More. Not to worry: I give Flights of Iakaris my independently certified Seal of Approval too – at least through 2008, when it comes up for re-cert. No free passes for anyone kids, least of all this hobo.

What else? Token Hunt Update: 8/11 in $75 tokens in last week, including this morning’s barely unsuccessful attempt. Not hard, amigos, not hard at all. In what may be a first here, shall I share my well defined Token Strategy? [Capital Letters Make Things Look Important.]

Lean in.

Closer.

I am playing for fifth. All my decisions, my hand selection and betting are based on the goal of making fifth or busting ITM in 6th.

Obvious, you say? A sign it’s your first time here, I say. But my point is this - and Stev-o has watched me in action on a bunch of these and should back this up – there are a LOT of players who think they should be playing for first or second. I don’t know if these thumbsuckers just crave the security of a big stack in order to make up for the fact mummy didn’t breastfeed them long enough, but they create in their wake many an opportunity. They do things that make no tactical sense to those of us who could give a fuck about coming in first as long as we come in fifth. Thanks to them, you can just lay back and wait on your spots, steal a few times from position and shoot for a goal of about 3000 chips. With this game plan, you are going to win a lot more of these than you will lose. I also almost always try one or two EP steals after developing a tight image, when it’s still two tables, and if you’ve been out of the action for a couple of orbits, that’s an easy money steal in these things. If I should happen to double up early, that’s it – those 3000 babies will be defended by steals but I am not going broke with Jacks, and opt to check/fold AK on unhappy flops. The token race is not to the swiftest of foot, but to the guy who knows how to find shelter and wait the bezerkers out. At least that’s my take and with my miniscule sample size this is proving a workable strategy. I have even managed to win one when I had less than 400 chips left at the final table because I folded out the orbit and the impatient fuck to my immediate right decided to make a stand on the hand before I became an autopush BB. What can you say to such a fundamentally suicidal play? Not even at my most gracious could I manage a thankyou or a GG. Unlike the MTT itself, Tight/Weak is not a cardinal sin in these things, depending on your table.

Bad news about all those tokens? I only have three left, and nada to show for it. Spent three on satellites to bigger games, unsuccessfully. From now on, I will try to win the baby tokens and use them to try the 250k/500k satellites. Spent two buying into juicy MTTs and played inadvisably after getting to within 10 players of the bubble both times, got caught stealing and went home OTM. Had I opted for a more conservative route, or just been let alone to steal that would have made for a terrific ROI on my $26 buy-ins. As it is, I take some comfort my C-game is still good enough to get in range for a run just about every time out. Yes, I know that won’t last but I may as well enjoy it while it does. I have to learn to overcome the Ego’s resistance to folding when the fight can reasonably wait for the bubble to burst. I will be making regular goes at the $75 MTTs this week, and if I can just ITM a couple it will replete some of the pummeling my roll is taking as I switch tactical gears.

And not that this is of any interest to anyone but myself, but having cashed in the 20k about a quarter of the times I’ve played it (and coming within a hair’s breath of final tabling a couple of those times) I find myself falling slowly out of love. I think I’ll use most of my would-be 20k buyins on tokens to the 75ers, where the field runs about 300, for very close to the same reward. I’ll still play the weekend 30k, but I had a close look at my MTT stats and noted all my big scores came from this size MTT. I was also happy to see I have a positive expectation in MTTs, and am hopeful the path forward for me is to take a leap up in buy-ins. I am strongly considering the occasional $109 too. I moneyed in the only one I’ve played, but can’t deny the cost of the buy-in was in my head while playing – a fact as you know that actively erodes a TAG/LAG game. As always, let’s see.

Now as to the paucity of posts of late, consider me back in business. The wife is off for two weeks, so I am moving happily to the bullpen for a well deserved reprieve from the starting lineup on Team DiaperPatrol. Change100, indeed. This last month has felt more like Change100 000. Babies make a lotta poo, in case any of you were wondering. It’s a medical fact. A truth that reminds me it’s time for a new segment here at Flights in honor of the imminent BIG Game. Without further ado, I give you:

Wish You Were Here: A daily request for the presence of people I think I would enjoy taking money from, or losing it to at The Don’s Big Game - Change100 Edition.

Prime Reason Change100 should play The Big Game:
Dramatic Opportunities Abound (I smell screenplay potential – ideally I’d play myself as the mysterious ethnic with the brooding eyes, shaky hands and OCD. Oscar Gold. And I ain’t talking Steve Austin’s boss.)

What Change100 has to gain from The Big Game:
Unadulterated Glory - and the satisfaction of listening to me haze the people you bust with “You just lost to a GIRL!” Naturally, I’ll deliver the line with excessive irony, and we’ll chuckle knowingly in that way only the insanely self-referential can get away with.

What Change100 has to lose in The Big Game:
Only your dignity – and if you’re anything like me you put precious little stock in that; hence our careers as poker bloggers.

Only Acceptable Excuse Change100 will pass on The Big Game:
Screenplay completed, Change retires to her Fortress of Bongitude and is unable to penetrate the paralyzing fog for nigh on the next three years.

Okay. That’s all I got for now. Hurry up and sign up for the Big Game, or look for your name here next. And be careful out there. Little old lady got mutilated late last night. Werewolves of London again.

IWP