Phil Ivey vs. Andy Beal

Have taken a fairly long break from playing, except for a short session at FullTilt in Memphis and pulling an all-nighter Monday night. AK vs. AA was a nice way to flush a little cash...

Looks like Phil Ivey has had a productive two days at the Wynn. With stakes dropped to $30/60k, Ivey is either up $4.8MM or $7.0MM in two days vs. Andy Beal. See posts from Michael Craig.

If you've been following the action, JJProdigy won a Party MTT for $140k while using two accounts to play the tourney (ABlackCar, which was the account for his grandmother, was the account he used to win). Party ends up confiscating not only the $140k, but also his $40k in the JJProdigy account. And the current rumor mill is that he may actually be 16. Jump to this 2+2 link if you have a couple of hours to wade through it all. My take: a fundamental horrible component of online poker is the ability to have multiple accounts.

I'll play some tonight and will give you a quick recap tomorrow.

ADDENDUM: Playing $5/10 Limit on Party full table. First session was able to claw back including AA cracked by TT (river straight), KK by AJ (A on river) was down $27, then $27 on a quick stint at a bad table. Got down $100 when two-tabling, but let me put a hand forward and ask if anyone resonates. I'm UTG+4 with 98o, there is one limp before me, I then have that feeling that I should limp or maybe raise, but I muck and go to the next table. There ends up three other limpers plus the bb, so five in the pot when the flop comes 567 rainbow. Well, this elicits a bet, two calls, a raise, another raise, a cap, and one final caller. Kc brings a bet/raise/raise/call, and river is 2c (no flush possibility). There is a bet/call, with 84 beating 67. So the question is do you get these gut, visceral feelings, where you feel compelled to play a bad hand for no good reason? And how do you address this? Ignore, or act? This isn't meant as a woe-is-me, but I do have these types of feelings from time to time. They are different than deciding to raise with T9s or the calling with K3s from sb with a raise and three callers, I mean the feeling compelled to play a hand for no good reason. One of my favorite hands to fold is Q7, because I had a similar feeling once playing live in Phoenix, folded instead, flopped a boat, only to have the ultimate winner have 88 for two pair after outrageous play.

ADDENDUM TO THE ADDENDUM: Back from the brink, I did my typical stupid thing and decided that maybe $5/10 tight players should be left alone and headed to $15/30 table. Had one totally donkified play to mention, calling a five-way capped pot with 65s, flop comes 789, and I bet like a madman capping and recapping with a raiser and two callers. The $995 pot goes to JTs, who flopped the nuts then caught runner-runner flush. From the brink, I made a nice recovery, flopping bottom pair of a raised pot from bb with 54s then catching runner-runner flush (KK), betting out board with AKo and having a fold on river, and winning a nice pot with KK vs JJ on board of 99558 (probably missed a reraise, but I'm fraidy scared). ATs limp was raised on turn 7AK4 (raiser had called initial pre-flop raise) and river 4 chopped the pot with A9 (crap). I think it's important to stay with juicy games, when you've got every pot with a raiser and often three-way three-bet pots, a couple of tight players with some loose ones (one guy played 45% of hands and burned through $1063 in 115 hands). I'm sitting at 21%VPIP. Have to hate five-way pot with KcJc, flopping J with two spades only to lose to runner-runner spades by As8c.

AND THEN: Five folded sets of blinds and 7 lost pots with TT, 55, 66, 44, 99, QhJh (top pair vs. all-in set pre-flop). Pick up AQo in bb, three-bet and UTG caps, board comes AK657 (I check/call flop and turn, check/check river--sissified play on my part).