Poker League Event 1

Well, I contiuned my bonus whoring activities, but this time I opened an account at Absolute Poker so that I could Participate in the Poker Source Online Poker League event that kicked off Friday night.

The structure was good. Around 43 people, which is not bad for a first time event, started at 1500 chips. I dislike the 9 max tables at absolute, but that was one of just a few things wrong with absolute.

I have heard people complain and complain about Pacific Poker software. It's a dream compared to absolute poker. The only thing that is better about Absolute is that you can run multiple tables at one time. If your system can handle it. My new computer, running at 3GHZ and 512meg of memory was struggling to run ONE table at absolute. I heard someone say you could run 7 tables at once, but I think that would choke a Cray.

Anyway, I deposited $100 there, got $35 bonus cash (play 100 hands, get $10 released at a time, I dunno how the last $5 gets released.) I played a few hands before the tourney so I could get a feel for the site. The sounds are shitty, the look and feel are shitty. Playing at absolute is like wading through waist deep shit, basically. I quickly lost $10 at a $.50/$1.00 table, that I played because I couldn't get into a $1/$2 table, and nobody was playing at $2/$4 tables. The 6 max tables seem to be popular. Not with me, however. Finally a spot opened on the $1/$2 table (35 minutes on the waiting list) and I won my money back, plus enough to pay for the league entry.

In spite of the software shortcomings, I did pretty well at the League. They will be playing 4 events in 5 weeks (Thanksgiving weekend is off) on Friday nights. I took second in Event 1, which won me 500 PSO points and put me in good position in the league standings. It seems like if you can make the final table in all 4 events, you will have a good shot at winning the whole thing, which is more PSO points. The buy in is $5+1 so I also got nearly $50 for my second place finish. That should help me clear my PSO bonus at Absolute, which requires 300 raked hands for 6000 PSO points. When I clear it I should have 27000 PSO points, and no idea what I want to spend them on. Plus whatever I win for playing in the league.

Two critical hands I played were one where I got myself way way overcommitted with only Ace high, but somehow I won the hand when the other player checked behind me on the river and couldn't beat the ace.

When we were down to 3 players I got AJs with the chip lead and the board flopped AAJ. I min bet and the second place player min raised me. I smooth called and checked the turn, which was the worst possible card for me. Another J. While it guaranteed me I couldn't lose, it made it either a sure split or easy for my opponent to lay down his hand. He made another bluff attempt and I just called again, which was probably a mistake. I should have min raised him. He might have called it, although any aggression here probably would have induced a fold. Hoping he would feel pot committed and maybe representing bluff, I went all in on the river, and he layed it down easily. He came back and beat me in the tourney when he had a slight lead and I didn't play my Pair of Jacks with an Ace kicker aggresively enough and he caught his flush on the turn. T3 of hearts beat AJ for the title.