May monthly report

I made $231 in May, pretty good considering I only played on seven days. My profit for the year is $1353. Lifetime I'm up $8943.

With the US dollar dropping like a stone, and American players being locked out of online play, I think it might be time for Poker Stars to ditch the greenback as its currency of choice in favour of something slightly more stable. The Russian ruble, the Canadian loonie and the Indonesian rupiah would all be suitable choices, the Rupiah because it trades at 9000 to the US dollar. Last year I stayed in Bali; my hotel bill came to over four million.

There won't be many more updates I'm afraid. With my new job and plans to start a business (giving me effectively two jobs) I can't afford to be badugi-ing for much longer. It's a shame because it's a been an interesting ride, but as they say, as one door closes another one, er, slams you in the face? I hope not.

Big-bet badugi bonanza

Last night I won my second Poker Stars tournament in a row. It was a $2.20 pot-limit badugi with 49 runners - back in the day I played those all the time. If anything the play in the early stages was even worse than I remember. With such a low buy-in I could have a bit of fun patting junk and seeing what might happen. I ran pretty well but was pleased with how I played. It was the first tournament I'd played on Stars since 9th April when I took down a 22-man limit badugi at the same micro buy-in - that time I seemed to get an embarrassingly good run of cards.

I also had a good night at the $1/$2 badugi and 25c/50c single draw cash games. Overall I made $100 for the night, which might go some way to restoring the value of my bankroll in my local currency. The NZ dollar has soared to 82 cents against the US.

Here are three hands from last night's big-bet badugiment:

Hand 1
A tiny pot, but notable because I can't remember ever snowing in a two-to-pat situation before. My short-term memory is shocking but I knew I'd seen a lot of spades even if I couldn't remember which ones. My mistake here was going for a check-raise on the turn instead of just betting out.

PokerStars Game #62610445004: Tournament #396965571, $2.00+$0.20 USD Badugi Pot Limit - Level III (30/60) - 2011/05/27 5:54:14 ET
Table '396965571 2' 8-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: cindyana (1610 in chips)
Seat 3: plutoman20 (3520 in chips)
Seat 5: andrey738 (1555 in chips)
Seat 6: black813813 (5300 in chips)
Seat 7: BK1976 (2780 in chips)
Seat 8: bibisss21 (2305 in chips)
cindyana: posts small blind 30
plutoman20: posts big blind 60
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to plutoman20 [As Ks Th 3s]
BK1976: calls 60
cindyana: calls 30
plutoman20: checks
Everybody else folds
*** FIRST DRAW ***
cindyana: discards 2 cards
plutoman20: discards 3 cards [Ks Th 3s]
Dealt to plutoman20 [As] [4s 7d 7s]
BK1976: discards 1 card
cindyana: checks
plutoman20: checks
BK1976: checks
*** SECOND DRAW ***
cindyana: discards 2 cards
plutoman20: discards 2 cards [4s 7s]
Dealt to plutoman20 [As 7d] [Js Qs]
BK1976: discards 1 card
cindyana: checks
plutoman20: checks
BK1976: checks
*** THIRD DRAW ***
cindyana: discards 2 cards
plutoman20: stands pat on [As 7d Js Qs]
BK1976: discards 1 card
cindyana: checks
plutoman20: bets 140
BK1976: folds
cindyana: folds
Uncalled bet (140) returned to plutoman20
plutoman20 collected 180 from pot

Hand 2
I thought I was toast here. I found Nachti's two min-raises awkward, although in hindsight he was probably just clicking buttons. I nearly broke off the ten on the flop but there was a (not insignificant) chance I was drawing dead. Had my hand been T542 I'd have broken I think.

PokerStars Game #62611517418: Tournament #396965571, $2.00+$0.20 USD Badugi Pot Limit - Level VII (100/200) - 2011/05/27 6:46:10 ET
Table '396965571 5' 8-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: kepaxaneeeng (4390 in chips)
Seat 2: Aigil (2757 in chips)
Seat 3: bibisss21 (3105 in chips)
Seat 4: plutoman20 (7763 in chips)
Seat 5: cindyana (1885 in chips)
Seat 6: ramzes1975 (8033 in chips)
Seat 7: nachti52 (6030 in chips)
Seat 8: Pit theSnake (3619 in chips)
ramzes1975: posts small blind 100
nachti52: posts big blind 200
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to plutoman20 [2s 7h Td 6c]
Pit theSnake: folds
kepaxaneeeng: folds
Aigil: folds
bibisss21: folds
plutoman20: raises 440 to 640
cindyana: folds
ramzes1975: folds
nachti52: raises 440 to 1080
plutoman20: raises 1840 to 2920
nachti52: raises 1840 to 4760
plutoman20: calls 1840
*** FIRST DRAW ***
nachti52: stands pat
plutoman20: stands pat on [2s 7h Td 6c]
nachti52: bets 1270 and is all-in
plutoman20: calls 1270
*** SECOND DRAW ***
nachti52: stands pat
plutoman20: stands pat on [2s 7h Td 6c]
*** THIRD DRAW ***
nachti52: stands pat
plutoman20: stands pat on [2s 7h Td 6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
nachti52: shows [Jd 6h 3s 7c] (Badugi: J,7,6,3)
plutoman20: shows [2s 7h Td 6c] (Badugi: T,7,6,2)
plutoman20 collected 12160 from pot
nachti52 finished the tournament in 16th place
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 12160 Rake 0
Seat 1: kepaxaneeeng folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Aigil folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 3: bibisss21 folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 4: plutoman20 showed [2s 7h Td 6c] and won (12160) with a Badugi: T,7,6,2
Seat 5: cindyana (button) folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 6: ramzes1975 (small blind) folded before the Draw
Seat 7: nachti52 (big blind) showed [Jd 6h 3s 7c] and lost with a Badugi: J,7,6,3
Seat 8: Pit theSnake folded before the Draw (didn't bet)

Hand 3
I'll admit I was trying to be the big bully here, but hey, it's not often I'm in this stack-size situation.

PokerStars Game #62613307876: Tournament #396965571, $2.00+$0.20 USD Badugi Pot Limit - Level XII (400/800) - 2011/05/27 8:02:24 ET
Table '396965571 5' 8-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 2: a1951 (13194 in chips)
Seat 4: plutoman20 (47703 in chips)
Seat 5: Dr.Gerry (10332 in chips)
Seat 7: maddylow (2271 in chips)
a1951: posts small blind 400
plutoman20: posts big blind 800
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to plutoman20 [8h 9s 5d 6d]
Dr.Gerry: calls 800
maddylow: folds
a1951: calls 400
plutoman20: raises 1600 to 2400
Dr.Gerry: calls 1600
a1951: folds
*** FIRST DRAW ***
plutoman20: discards 1 card [6d]
Dealt to plutoman20 [8h 9s 5d] [2h]
Dr.Gerry: discards 1 card
plutoman20: bets 3400
Dr.Gerry: calls 3400
*** SECOND DRAW ***
plutoman20: stands pat on [8h 9s 5d 2h]
Dr.Gerry: discards 1 card
plutoman20: bets 5000
Dr.Gerry: calls 4532 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (468) returned to plutoman20
*** THIRD DRAW ***
plutoman20: discards 1 card [8h]
Dealt to plutoman20 [9s 5d 2h] [Th]
Dr.Gerry: stands pat
*** SHOW DOWN ***
plutoman20: shows [Th 9s 5d 2h] (3-card: 9,5,2)
Dr.Gerry: shows [Ad 6h 3c 4s] (Badugi: 6,4,3,A)
plutoman20 said, "nh"
Dr.Gerry collected 21464 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 21464 Rake 0
Seat 2: a1951 (small blind) folded before the Draw
Seat 4: plutoman20 (big blind) showed [Th 9s 5d 2h] and lost with a 3-card: 9,5,2
Seat 5: Dr.Gerry showed [Ad 6h 3c 4s] and won (21464) with a Badugi: 6,4,3,A
Seat 7: maddylow (button) folded before the Draw (didn't bet)

Gone burger!

I've been on a five-week badugi exclusion diet but I fell off the wagon just in time to play the MiniFTOPS $22 buy-in on Full Tilt which had a convenient start time of 9am (presumably they've moved the tourneys forward to an un-American time slot). Black Friday meant there were only 400-odd players instead of the hordes who entered last time; the standard of play on my table was surprisingly good. I couldn't make any headway, my 4000 starting stack never reached 6000, and after bricking the best draw twice in quick succession I was out. I only lasted an hour and a half.

My early exit is no bad thing. The sun is trying to break through the clouds and I've got a bunch of stuff to get from the market.

April monthly report and a wheel to start the new month

April was an understandably low-volume month. New city, new job, Black Friday and virtually no internet coverage made online poker a near-impossible task. I was up a couple of hundred at one stage, then nosedived into the red before taking a small profit for the month of $49.

For all you lowballers in America who now only get nuts in your breakfast cereal, take a look at this trailer I spotted at a market in Wellington today. It’s got an extra wheel!