Moving forward, ever so slowly

Joel: Constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating.

”Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

There is only one thing I hate worse than an idiot at a table who won’t shut up, and that is an idiot at the table who won’t shut up keep hitting draws.

I was playing a $10 SNG last night, and the usual strategy (uber-tight early, wait for them to knock themselves out then move in for the kill) wasn’t going to work. Hello, we have a table of 10 tight players. One guy would not stop talking, and he never had anything good to say. He was the lone exception at the table, and made some of the most obvious bluff moves I have ever seen. And it wasn’t just me that was noticing, no less than four other players re-raised his turn or river min-bet to see him fold it through. Then on one hand instead of betting the minimum, he goes all in for about 6BB. Somebody called – and they were either not paying attention or gave this guy too much credit and thought he had made a different bluff move. He had the nut flush and knocked out 10th place. It was awful to hear him gloat about it too. He would also pester one player in particular who raised his bluff bet and then mucked their hand to tell him what he mucked. When the player declined, he continued on with it for every hand to come until that guy too was knocked out. I was up and down, and pushed with TT to get one caller holding JJ. Ouch – fortunately I had him out chipped and with $250 left (start with $800) I pushed the very next hand UTG with JJ. Everybody folded to me. Interesting – I know what I was holding, so I would have been in front of everybody else (and if I wasn’t then they really have no excuse), but it was a perfect example of a tilt push by a small stack about to encounter the blinds. No one was willing to take the chance though, so I got my blinds for free. Interesting at least for me.

I was able to finally hit a few hands and move into a respectable position, but still on the bubble. I was able to knock out the idiot when I had JJ again and he called me with 99. Playing the table policeman seems always –EV for me, but it does feel good – perhaps that is a big problem for me.

On the bubble again. I have been here so often lately in these SNG’s and have way too many 4th’s than I would like. I am one of two short stacks, and the blinds are getting big. Why oh why do big stacks fold small blinds to the small stack? I forgot how many free blinds I got with cards like 84o. I did manage to cripple the other small stack when his flush draw did not come and he was left with $30 – small blind was $200. He won 4 all-ins in a row, crawling his way back to a position where he could bet and then lost it all on one hand. Finally my streak of bubble finishes had been broken.

With three left, it became a game of when to push as the blinds increased again. I was able to steal a few times (and still they folded the small blind to me) and eventually knocked out 3rd and 2nd for an uplifting return to the winners circle. This to go along with a mighty profit of $1.50 at the Omaha tables earlier – I’m getting the hang of that game.

I too have signed up with Poker Source Online’s rake rebate, not that it will net anything huge for me, but the 100% sign-up bonus (up to $100) at Poker Now was appealing. 1000 hands to clear the bonus though – I don’t think I should have a problem with this.

So all in all, I have had a few decent days of playing without loosing any money. I'll take that for now.