RECOGNIZE AND REACT

Get my mind right!

2012-01-24T15:07:00.000-08:00

I sit here wading through thought, restlessness and activity that must be achieved. Very vague but true. I am in a great position here and truly appreciate what I have been blessed with and every day I must challenge myself to be better. I don't have a boss who has an office two doors down from me, he is in another city which is in another state! I am the one who runs this and I must step up on a daily basis and make sure all of the ground work I started in September continues to this day. There are days where team members make a mistake, now I have to look at that mistake and deem it a quick floor conversation or a "let's move to the office and talk" conversation. I've had a few of the later but my goal is to set it up that I should rarely set foot on that floor, I want and need to work to the next level while I am currently running operations here for example our Operations Excellence director is working all the CI projects, I am a CI guy and could help with quality input, travel to get productive data, take some of the workload off and make it my own, to solidify my position and set myself up to move to the next level when promotions are considered.
I have several books on styles of management, I am currently reading a book that talks about how I got to where I am will not get me to the next level. Very interesting stuff, of course there are a few other books I am reading at the same time along with my comic books and graphic novels. Yes, I enjoy reading and wish it would better me around my writing skills. A quote comes to mind, "You get out of it what you put into it,"...right?

So I sit here and thoughts of MW3 are streaming through my thoughts. Fifth prestige, 1.03 k/d, just doing work! Those thoughts are quickly followed by sitting at a poker table and felting a lunchbox who called my three beat with A 10 off and runs into my pocket aces. All of these things take effort, I am an okay texas hold'em player and have been a gamer since rocking and rolling on my commodore 64 in the 80's!

The last couple of years have been unsuccessful in poker in the cash games, it was so bad last year that I told my wife I'd have to take the rest of 2011 off and not play in a casino environment. Why? I had not put into it what I expected! I have a library of poker books, a lot of friends who play much better than myself and blogs to read and I have not leveraged any of those resources. I just went off of what I knew and told myself it was like riding a bicycle and I sat down and played. Of course I SKIMMED through a couple of my books looking at a few of the highlighted areas and told myself, "LET's DO IT!"
It was not that easy, I remember sitting at the table, holding K Q suited in the cut off seat and this lady in the hi jack, right next to me raises after two had limped into the pot and I just called but something in the way back of my head told me I should raise here, but I was not sure. I ended up winning the hand but after that indecision I continued to make bad decisions and eventually lost a buy in. I have over 10 books about poker and am reading through one that has opened my eyes and has me salivating to get to the tables. I plan on making a showing in late February and hope to play on Friday evenings going forward and look forward to documenting my WINS and how it was done. I am putting a lot of research into getting back on the tables and will be talking to a few of my buddy's about random thought processes throughout a session. I believe that putting the research time, the study in will pay off and it was something I did not do well before. Yes, I talked about it and said I was going to do it but I actually am and it has been insightful.

Barry Sanders...THE MAN!

I love my family, I love my home, I love my life and I look at others who have children and wonder if my desire to play and take some time from my kids is bad? It worries me and I hope it does not worry me so much that I will play bad. So as I stated in another post, I have to give up my x-box time and hang out with the kids during that time and the weekends are wide open for my little ones. I have a 17 year old who wants to play football for the first time IN COLLEGE and has asked me to show him some stuff! Color me excited! The only things I force on my kids are learning how to respect others, discipline and making sure they are getting an education. I envy my wife as she lives here life for my kids, not that I don't but it is much different in comparing how she is versus how I am with our kids. What the heck just happened, now should I delete all this mopey stuff about my kids or should I leave it, hell, going to leave it! We only live once folks, but we need to do what we want responsibly and hold ourselves accountable! I know my kids love me to death and I them, so it won't hurt if I am a bit successful at the tables and it pays off when Santa comes...just saying! Enough! I have ranted enough, you all stay frosty!

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

DEAD MONEY Last Chance table

2012-01-17T11:54:00.000-08:00

1-17-2012

I donned my Gulf coast poker.net hoodie, after parking in Harrah's garage, 8th floor. Grabbed my satchel, put on my size 8 throwback fitted hat and proceeded to the Queen and Crescent hotel, home of the Dead Money tournament. I arrived in a state of panic as I forgot that there are two entrances to the hotel and was hanging out in the wrong one, I had to cross the street to the main entrance and proceed to the Napoleon room. I flopped down into a black painted, hard wood chair, quickly took off the hoodie and the throwback Dallas Cowboy hat in order to cool down as I began to slowly perspire, a very uncomfortable feeling. Met Wild Bill, exchanged pleasantries, grabbed a card player and bluff magazine, have not seen any of these for about a year, good stuff to find out where the poker world is now. Of course getting on-line, and hitting those sites would be comparable, however; I enjoy holding a magazine and leafing through the pages. I started a conversation with Austin, another blogger on the site, who had a pretty good cash in the Choctaw Casinos Indian tournament series, (hope that's correct). He was pictured along side the other final table members in the current Card Player Magazine, cashed for 17K, but we were talking about the rise and fall of his poker website and then Gene D rumbled in and we started talking with him and he and Austin talked about his free roll in the million dollar event due to his tourney MVP at the recent IP circuit event.
There were some interesting characters, the three friends from Cleveland, Ryan is the one I remember and I believe he won himself into the Main Event this past Saturday. Also, met Brian from Nantucket, Ma, he's a captain of a fishing boat and had some pretty cool stories. He's also a pretty damn good poker player.

We had 18 players to try to win two seats to the main table the next day. I looked forward to this as it would be the first time I have played in 11 months. I did, lie, and say I have played in some home games but I didn't want to be perceived as weak due to my lack of current experience, one of the only things I regret about the night. The turn out has to be the 2nd largest if not the largest since Wild Bill started this back in 2004. That said a lot to me about where poker is today, not dead and growing, much slower but growing.

At my table I had, Brian from Nantucket on my left, followed by an older gentleman who, I believe, plays regularly at Harrahs, not sure. Followed by a young Russian(I think so because I heard him talking to the other Russian on the other table earlier and I think they were speaking in Russian, so I should be right) who plays at Harrahs, freaking highly aggressive as I saw him , later that night, put the older gentleman all in with an Ace on the board and the the old guy made a crying call with pocket queens, the young Russian said, "You called, you win," and insta mucked his hand. WOW! The old guy still turned his hand up. Then we had Ryan from Cleveland, Wild Bill, Dave Anderson, and Gene D on my right. I held my own, after starting in the big blind with 6 8 off and hitting my gutshot straight on the turn, while it completed a flush, I bet it and was called by only Wild Bill. I bet the blank on the river and was raised by WB, of course I should fold, but I called and he showed K3 suited for the flush.

I opened from position with good hands, had pocket pairs pretty often, lowest being treys. I had pocket Kings twice, pocket Aces twice, showed the pocket kings once and had a solid image at this table. Got involved in a hand with Gene D, I was in the hi-jack, he limped in after another before had limped as well, I look down at wired 8's and raise it, I get them both to call. Flop is A 7 6, they both check to me. I bet c-bet, looking for a check raise, the other guy folds and Gene D goes into this monologue, "Yeah, guess that hits your range, hmm, yep, that had to hit your range, good hand sir," and mucks. I was laughing inside, I guess he limped with K 9 or 10, or J. Maybe QJ or the very least Q 10. Another hand which had me feeling good about my self was towards the end of that first table, image has been established, so the old guy opens, Ryan from Cleveland flats, I'm in the cut-off and I see that Brian from Nantucket likes what he sees and I quickly think he wants to play so that helped my decision with pocket 4's, I re popped it. Brian, gives me a slight, "ugh," and the Old guy takes a long time before he folds, it comes back to Ryan, he looks at me and eventually calls. The flop is A 9 J, Ryan checks I c-bet half the pot and Ryan mucks, the old guy said he had pocket Jacks.

When we lost eight players we got together on one table, I did well at my table but when we combined I had to lay down once when I had AK, I raised pre-flop and got called by two players. The flop was babies, 7 5 2, Austin bet into us, fold and I folded. During this time I was getting blinded out and anted out, did not get a good hand and just did not play my position correctly nor understood the table dynamics enough to make the appropriate moves to win some money, what I am saying is I got very passive and finished by pushing all in with A 4 off into a pre flop raiser and caller. I hit a four on the flop but pre flop raiser hit a set with his pocket 10's and I was out in sixth place. Parfait and the other Russian advanced to the next day's final table, Gene D hit the bubble.

Wild Bill ran a good tournament, the only issue was the air, got pretty stuffy in there. A funny story that happened during the tournament was Ryan went out and picked up some Chinese food and about 20 minutes later we had Chinese delivered, no one ordered it but the fellas bought it anyway, I can remember Captain Ron wanting an egg roll. Looking forward to next years meeting and hopefully be in a position of playing a New Orleans table in November, last chance if I have to and have the ability to buy into the final table if I have to. Research and experience, and more conversation with better players are my key ingredients!

You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Alabama, Mardi Gras and Bad Beat jackpots

2012-01-11T11:52:00.000-08:00

1-11-2012

Alabama showed everyone why they should have been in this game. I am a University of Pittsburgh graduate so this is an impartial viewpoint (opinion). First, it was not a fluke that Alabama did what they did to LSU there were several contributing reasons. Defense-Alabama shut down LSU's option play, which allows LSU to open things up and do a lot out of this package, since it did not work for them Alabama was able to press their coverage and not worry to much about the deep ball. We did get a glimpse of Alabama's secondary and it is not as strong as their front line. That front line pressured, harassed and sacked LSU so much that the secondary did not have to worry too much about getting beat deep. Running back-Alabama had the edge, due to Trent Richardson, but look out for Lacy next year going forward, he had a strong game. Receivers and tight ends-Alabama's best receiver went down after a fantastic punt return and the receivers and tight ends stepped up. There were deflected passes that were caught at crucial times, deep passes caught at crucial times. Quarterback-not many, but the true Alabama fans, knew that McCarrion was as athletic as he showed us and he kept it under control while Jefferson looked confused and not in control. Mental Game-Alabama wanted this more than LSU. It felt like LSU thought that Alabama should roll over and hand them the win. Coaching-Alabama out coached LSU. Les even admits this in post game interviews, he said he as surprised and did not know how to help his team.."WHAT! REALLY?!?" Score- Alabama SHUT OUT LSU, case closed they showed that they are the best in the nation and showed it in dramatic form. They proved that they, not Oklahoma State or anyone else should have been in this game. Just to put an exclamation point on this, LSU had one penetration of the 50 yard line into Alabama territory and less than 100 total offensive yards!
This was my brief take on the BCS game, I didn't think it was boring, I really enjoyed the watching how well coached BOTH defenses played, but LSU's defense was on the field for a long time and those boys got tired.

Bird watchers have a blast waiting to see a particular bird and take great joy in watching all that they see and how those birds interact with their environment. As a former player, I really enjoy the trench play, how well the defense would stay squared, watching offensive line and tight ends drive block on running plays. How did the coaches teach them, what methods did they use? Watching the best, really is interesting, if you watched me during my tenure, you would laugh at how undisciplined and foolish I looked on the field.

This February the 21st is FAT TUESDAY but I believe I'll be visiting friends in Missouri so I will not be around to take dat money at Harrahs.

I believe that my first visit back to Harrahs will be on the 24th and I am eager! I am going through my library and reading through some scenarios, refreshing myself around certain plays and situations, re-reading my book on tells but I think I'll be working on not giving away too much. I have started my mantra, wait to play, wait to play, wait to play...because every time I take time off and get back to the tables, I usually play as soon as possible, out of position when someone has raised and the raiser gets called I look down at A9 suited and say, "yeah go for it you'll surprise 'em, they'll never see it coming," of course that has not worked ONCE! There is a teaching format that I think I'll share if I can find it. Helped me get my basics down.

I was thinking about bad beat jackpots the other day and how hitting one of those could elevate someone's bankroll, quickly! Well I have been involved in four at Harrahs and one in Biloxi, three at Harrahs were table stakes and the one in Biloxi was a table stake even though it was hit at another table! Very cool. The other that I was involved in was pretty special as I was the one who beat the guy for the bad beat, it was the beginning of my poker stint back in 2002, Harrahs poker room was in the back where the steak restaurant is, it had two levels and it was a great room! We were isolated, not too noisy from the slots but visible enough for people to find. This was before Moneymaker had hit it big and No Limit Texas Hold'em became "the" game. Here in New Orleans before Moneymaker, omaha was the big game, especially 1-4-8-8 limit omaha/hold'em. Well I was at the front table by the walk way towards the buffet. There was this old guy who had pissed me off on the prior hand by chasing and catching on the river, we were working through the omaha round, every time the button got to the dealer the game would switch from hold'em to omaha back and forth. I was in the 10 seat he was in the four seat, in the bad beat hand I had QJ suited 8 2, can't remember if it was hearts or diamonds. I still remember the guy, about 6'4', always wore a baseball hat, white hair, mustache and trimmed beard and had a look of "whatever" on his face at all times. (SIDE NOTE-Little history, I used to play 7 card stud, at the treasure chest. This is where I met Christy for the first time, she is an excellent dealer at Harrahs and usually deals the final table on the main events with Darrell. I used to look at the half/half game back then and was very intimidated at the speed and the bets. I finally start playing half/half and started to beat it eventually I would play during the week and the games would finish early so they told me about the room at Harrahs. I make my way there and really enjoyed it.) So we get a family pot, now I am steaming, this was during a time when my poker etiquette...SUCKED! I was steaming and you could see it. I think I was under the gun, yep, and the flop comes K, 10, 9 of hearts/diamonds. I bet out, it was four bucks, two callers to the lunchbox and he raises and my buddy, Chris, calls, I call and another one of the earlier callers call as well. The turn brings another heart/diamond like a 3 or 4, I check, check, lunchbox bets, Chris calls, I raise...yep...fold, lunchbox re-raises and Chris calls. I look at Chris and he says to me, "Hope you got what I think you have!" yes with three of us playing. I simply call because I am confused. I know that the lunchbox has the ace high flush so I am trying to get a lot of money from him, I just didn't know why Chris was still in it because a set should have let it go after the re-raise. Well the river is a king, I don't care, I bet, lunchbox gets frustrated and folds, Chris says you do don't you! He raises, I re-raise and he screams yes! He calls and yells "JACKPOT!" Now look, I haven't shown my cards yet, I could have been an idbot and raised with a full house or the ace high flush. He turns his cards over with two black kings that match the two red ones on the board. I scream and turn over my straight flush and the table erupts, even my nemesis. It was a sizable jackpot as I took home $8k, he got over $20k and the table got a nice chunk. I can't tell you what I did with that money but I promise you, bankroll management was not part of my vocabulary. I hope that one day I can get snapped off for a jackpot but until then...

(similar but represented what happened)

You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

2012: Resolutions, College Football Helmets.

2012-01-03T14:55:00.000-08:00

What up? So what are your New Year's resolutions? I have a few, of course, one being to lose weight. That one is key because my kids are getting a little more active and I need to show them how it is done! My 10 year old thinks he can dribble a basketball. He can't, however, he can bounce the ball with his hand, but he cannot dribble...not yet, but it'll come. One of the many things I want to be able to do, losing weight will help with that. Another resolution is to get more poker time, that will mean a huge reduction in XBOX time unless I am playing with the kids, because I will have to move that time to hanging with the kids so that I don't miss a beat in that department. I do enjoy playing MW3!
Projects for this year work and home: Patio around our Oak tree to include a fire pit. Enclosing part of the living room to create a gameroom/guest bedroom. Finishing our Five S project in the warehouse. Getting the offices cleaned up. Moving my office to the bigger office. Cleaning my closet. Setting up an ebay sales account, gots things I want to sell. So I will have a lot to do and will not be very idle after this weekend. Looking forward to Pitt playing SMU this Saturday. I don't know much about SMU, lately, but the program looks to be rising again. SMU Mustangs had been more like burros or mules but they have started playing football and have taken a long time to recover from the death penalty they were dealt so long ago. Pitt needs to be focused and finsh the season with a winning record. We picked up a new head coach , Paul Chryst, former Wisconsin Offensive coordinator. New coach and new conference, I am uber excited for the 2012 season! I don't know who is coaching the team in the bowl game but I suggest they start the true freshman from Texas, if he isn't hurt. Their senior...I hate to say this...hate to do this but it seems like he chokes. If they can get the run game going, and just control the ball and grind it out, we should win. Flashy isn't bad either but if it doesn't work it'll make us look bad. Go get that "W" Pitt! So, HAIL TO PITT!

In talking about college football, I secretly love the Oregon Ducks uniforms, all of them especially what they wore in the Rose Bowl. Those mirrored helmets were "BUTTERY!" I heard that the commentators were upset because they were so reflective (not against the rules) and it was hard to see the players numbers. As a fan who was watching I loved the look and enjoyed watching the game. I think those helmets will look better with the white uniforms with the gray wings. Maybe we will see them? I am not going to pressure my kids to go to that school but that is the only way I can wear another schools, of like caliber, colors. That is a rule! I am a PITT grad and I only rock that schools name. I also understand that the NFL is opening up the uniform policy and it looks like they are going to allow NIKE to get in there, starting in April 2012, moving away from Reebok. I have to show you all some of the cool helmets that were out there in college football. Shoot when I played we had one helmet, two different jerseys, freaking Oregon (In a class by themselves) have about six different uniforms and helmets! GEEZ! That, folks, is how much money college football is making, those uniforms are not just for the teams they are for spectators, we who like coolness and difference and will tune in and catch whatever ads that may play during that game, that is another reason, in my opinion, on why these schools get these different uniforms and helmets. With that said there will be a few who will not get multiple uniforms, for example, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Penn State. Here are a few of the helmets that I liked: Baylor's flat green helmet (NICE!) Arizona States Firey Pitch Fork (Awesome!) and Southern Mississippi's Flat black helmets(OUTSTANDING!)

Of course I think the flat paint jobs are due to an inspiration from the hit MTV show Rob and Big when they "murdered" out the Tahoe in all flat black.
Of course The New Years was great, we had Mitai's and frozen Margaritas. We fired off $40 worth of fireworks which seemed like a lot but was nothing compared to my neighbor who went through $2000 worth and what a show that was. Getting ready to start grinding it out in February. My first stop should be in Biloxi and then I'll make stops in Harrahs on Friday nights, so look for me in Harrah's grinding it out, I'm looking to try to make 40 big blinds an hour in the 1-2 NL game. I'll need prayer.

Okay, you all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

NFL football, and Old Friends

2011-12-27T13:19:00.000-08:00

What a day! A lot to do and just looking through my block and quality to see what we can sell and what we need to go ahead and scrap. So I jump over and look over yahoo news and see an article that motivated me to write this post...it has me a little irate, nah, really pissed off! The Saints crushed the Falcons last night. I mean they put a slacking on these guys, Micheal turner had 11 carries for 39 yards! SHUTDOWN! The Falcons had to throw the ball and M. Ryan was 65% for 373 yds and one touchdown! The Saints took over in the second quarter, scoring 14 points, and never looked back. The biggest story of the game is that New Orleans beloved Drew Brees set the NFL record for yards passing in a season, a mark that Dan Marino(HAIL TO PITT!) held for 27 years! Marino broke the record on Monday Night Football in 1984 flash forward to 2011 and Brees does so on Monday Night Football!

(A picture of the place where Marino played in his college days.)

OUTSTANDING! The thing is I am not a Saints fan, I love the Dallas Cowboys! Here is the thing that pissed me off! The writer basically accused the Saints of running up the score! Wow! It is my opinion that this writer got what he wanted, people to get pissed off at him and write about him and talk about this subject because if he was serious then I believe he's a moron! This isn't pop warner, middle school, highschool or Alabama playing Harvard! It was two NFL teams playing, professional football players who are paid a pretty penny to get the job done, quite frankly the Falcons DID NOT get the job done! All who play this game and have played this game should agree, I guess someone may not agree with this but they are playing at the highest level and if you cannot stop them that is on the opposing team's players and coaches...it is not on the other team to go, "Geez, they're having a bad day, try not to score." Those types of thoughts take place when you are playing El Paso High in 1990 and you are the Andress Golden Eagles and are up 42 to nothing in the first half and that is when your coach says guys, second and third team are playing the second half. NOT IN THE NFL do you do those things. I don't recall hearing this nonsense when the Saints smacked the Colts around! A fellow Gulf Coast blogger wrote that he hopes New Orleans appreciates what they have in Drew Brees. I love this blogger but believe me Drew is a freaking god around here. If he ran for mayor he would win in a landslide! I mean I have grown ass men who tell me stories of when they met Drew Brees and how down to earth he is and how freaked out they were that he actually stopped what he was doing to say a few words to them. Again, as a none fan of the Saints, I and 99% of New Orleans LOVE AND APPRECIATE Drew Brees! As a matter of fact I believe they need to pay Drew more than Peyton, as a base and then add the incentives, he should be the highest paid QB in the NFL! Also, yes, I believe, he needed to break that record on MNF and in front of all of America. Also, he will have to play next week for a few reasons 1-Brady just needs 190 yds to break the same record 2-He is still on track to getting another record that of consecutive tds in all games played 3-Brees needs to insure the victory just in case San Fran loses to shore up the number two seed. Poor taste to that sports writer for yahoo, trying to smear a class act like Drew Brees!
Okay, my final NFL item is the Cowboys are playing the Giants for all the marbles, a spot into the playoffs! My boys struggle too much with all the quality and talent that they have, until the last few weeks I believed Jason Garret was an outstanding coach but there have been some funkly flubs by him with the timeout and sitting Romo! WHAT! Also, is Jerry Jones a help or hinderance to the Boys? I mean they have not gotten back to where they were when they had Jimmy Johnson running the boys and we know why he left, TOO MUCH JERRY IN HIS KOOLAID! I am routing for my boys, but we know if they make it, who are they going to beat? UGH!

In my last post I talked about catching up with some old friends...I got in touch with them last night! Oh yeah, it was good to hear from them and it helped close that down and now they'll be a constant in my life. LIFE IS GOOD!

Finally, when it comes to taking care of business on the felt. I was reading Monkey's blog about Harrahs and their dealers and floor staff. Very funny! I do know part of that is because Harrah's is all that we have in the New Orleans area to get a good variety of poker.

(One of the best dealers I know in the business)

Boomtown is more lower stakes and I think the big game moved there for a while because of what Monkey talked about. My experiences have been more positive than negative but I wonder how it will be when I go to play here in the near future. I have not been there since May, and that was for the smaller tournaments they had there. Nothing to report, made it to the dinner break. Just cannot get myself to play without cards in those crucial levels where it is important to accumulate chips, my transition game...SUCKS!

Okay, you all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Pondering...

2011-12-20T11:45:00.000-08:00

Lots of stuff just running through my head and I just had to put it down here, for the record. I am in a great position with the company I am with, we just went through a huge audit on paperwork, safety and security and our inventory. I did well on the first three parts and the last, inventory, was horrible. Not to worry, I have been in this position for four months working on my fifth now, so we discovered that there were a lot of things not being done correctly and it's my job to get that fixed. I do not want to bore you with the details but let me throw a few in here. I control, the building, am responsible for all inside that work in it, responsible for the inventory and all shipping and receiving goes through me and my personnel. I work alongside another manager who is responsible for the store attached to my building...long story short on this piece, we are working well together. Getting back on topic I have to make sure the warehouse is professionally set up to retrieve product and it needs to look very good and be easy for a new employee to walk in and go to a location and pick what we need from it. I have a temporary solution set up and have plans to get a more permanent solution down, basically straighter lines using paint instead of warehouse floor tape. -Side note-A fellow Andress High Alumni invited me to join linkedin which was pretty cool, after I had pictures up on my facebook about my "5 S project".

Back on subject, so I need to set up processes around picking correctly, receiving correctly, sanitation schedules and making sure all paper work is signed and DATED correctly. We also go through SOX audits, some facilities are targeted monthly through a random selection process, all publicly traded companies must abide by Sarbanes Oxley-a law passed due to the Enron Crisis. So if my paperwork does not have a signature and DATE, or if missing one or the other, we fail. We just went through a SOX audit a few days ago, we failed the SOX audit, because four pieces of paper work had NO DATE! Laugh out Loud hilarious! Another item that I am going to have to control. Basically, the business ran well but inefficiently and not as cost effective as they could have, process was not followed on a consistent basis, it was almost like the wild west around here.

Another thing I have been pondering is friends, I have a few GREAT friends and then I have friends that I talk to rarely but were GREAT before and I have those friends that I get together with maybe once or twice a year. I have been really thinking about my former GREAT friends, the guys who honored me by asking to be in their wedding parties, both were white and they had the one big black guy in all their group wedding pictures...meant a lot to me then and well...I miss those guys! I don't know, I mean look at your friends, mine tend to be very similar, smarter then me, a bit more successful then myself and believe in a being higher then ourselves usually God or Jesus Christ. I think that if we associate ourselves with people in a better place we thrive to be better ourselves not because we envy what they have, just because...I wish I could elaborate but if you know what I am talking about, maybe you can explain it for me. Currently I have AT@T who is an engineer that works month off and a month on in Angola. He's also a great poker player. Another GREAT friend, WBP, has his own website and has leveraged different outlets in order to write for them and get paid. I studied English at the University of Pittsburgh and when I read his stuff I just wish I could write as well. He is also a great poker player. Just a couple of examples of my buddies whom I am proud of. I am abusing the English language by the way.

So I have been trying to get in touch with a couple of GREAT friends that live in Pittsburgh and I have not been successful, they are both engineers and OUTSTANDING people, who I learned a hell of a lot from.

The last thing I have been pondering is poker...the reason I started this blog. I have looked at the success of Wild Bill and "No Blood from a Rock" Gene, recently, and I want that...see they are pushing me to be successful!

Finally, I was watching a little WSOP Europe, geez those guys three bet with A10 off! So freaking aggressive! Believe me I thought I was aggressive. Ah, maybe he knew how the guy played and wanted to really see where he was and when the original raiser called the three bet he settled into a range for the guy, because after the board paired twice he must have thought the guy was on a pair higher then the two different pair the board was showing as he gave up his hand after the guy check called to the river where the board paired again and lead out with a bet 3/4 the pot. A10 let it go, the winner had deuces and took the pot without a showdown. Aggressive. I wanna play!

Alrighty, until next time...Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

New House, Fences and Trick or Treating...

2011-10-31T07:12:00.000-07:00

I have been very busy with our new home. Especially with it being brand new, had to hang blinds, had to frost some of the windows, had to set up the washer and dryer, instead of having the new furniture delivered (to save money) I picked it up and put it together. Just a few of the things we had to do as a homeowner, not to mention all of the items we had to purchase. For example, a lawnmover, I have a decently sized yard and three hoses, and three yard watering devices, weed eater, shovel, brooms and the list goes on. It is awesome being a home owner and scary, can't just call the land lord and say come get this fixed. It's on me! Through all of this, poker has always been on my mind. I am always reading people as I ask them questions, through the house hunt and working with our agent in the subdivision I asked a question he could not answer ,"how are race relations in this subdivision?"and I read him and was very comfortable with my read and it looks to be a good one...so far!
So this past Saturday we had trick or treating in the neighborhood. One of the families took it upon themselves to make flyers and pass them out indicating that we are going to do so in our subdivision. We have about 40-50 homes in our subdivision with more being made daily. Our HOA does not start until 2015, so I called the subdivison agent and asked if they sent that flyer, no they had not. Now, I guess that was a good idea, with Halloween being on a Monday, but I did not like something being done without my input, some of my neighbors felt the same way but for the kids sake we went with it. My kids started by giving out candy, then saw how heavy the kids bags were before getting to us so they asked to go themselves, my seven year old went on her own, that is another thing I love about my neighborhood. My ten year old went by himself as well. I walked my three year old around and she ran up to the houses with me sitting in the street, she had a ball! I look forward to being a part of the HOA, setting up block parties, rules and regulating the ones in place. I mean people have white mail boxes, only black allowed. Putting up a fence should have the good side out, some have put the bad side out and they did a crappy job of that! This leads me into my final point...
I started to put up our fence this weekend, well we started yesterday the 30th of October. New home, fences do not come with them unless you buy them but we did not know about the option but no worries my wife wants one, I will deliver!
Well, I got a helpful hand from our kids grandfather. We got the auger, 10-10 foot 4x4 and 30-8foot 4x4. We didn't get everything as we wanted to get the pieces as we went along. We started at 10am after eating a quick breakfeast, we drilled the four holes, lined out the fence line, and thank GOD for Mr. Rudy as he was instrumental in setting everything up. I learned a lot and am in awe, he is 57 and moves around like a 25 year old. Full of energy and gracious enough to take a couple of breaks for my sake. After we had the fence line marked we spaced it out for the 4x4's and started drilling, this was the hardest part of the job, we had to go down 3 feet for the 8 foot 4x4's and had to use the extender to get down two more feet for the 10 foot 4x4s. It wasn't easy peasy either as we had to sit on the auger at times to get it to dig down or we would hit a couple of roots where Mr. Rudy got down and had to move the auger's blade manually in order for us to pull it out. We got the poles into the ground but did not level them out yesterday as we finished up at about 5:30 pm. Today, I am beat! We have a trunk a treat tonight that we are going to in Ponchatoula at the park. I love Ponchatoula, if you don't mind the drive into the city and are looking for a good place to live...look into Ponchatoula, LA!
You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Holiday weekend

2011-09-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

As we move into the holiday weekend, Labor Day comes on the 5th of September, I tried to track back to see when I had that day off before starting my new career here at Lennox Industries. I had to go back FIVE years, when I was with Iron Mountain. I have been asked, don't you miss Frito...my answer is a very clear..."NO."

This would be an excellent opportunity to get away for the weekend and get some quality play at the tables. Maybe play a weekly tournament or two! The action seems to have grown, Harrahs has a Wednesday and Saturday tournament. The Beau and the IP have weekly tournaments. I understand Shorty's has a weekly tournament as well. This is my brief knowledge of some of the surrounding casinos. I hope to get back out there and travel to many of the poker rooms to check them out. My first excursion may be into Baton Rouge where I believe they have two poker rooms now, please correct me if I am wrong.

We are getting ready for a tropical storm and that is going to be fun.

I'll close with this, to anyone living in the Ponchatoula/Hammond area...where is the live action? Also, looking for participants in a dead money satelite. If you do not want to comment here e-mail me at bellyred@yahoo.com.

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Understanding

2011-08-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

I have been hearing a lot of alleged scams that have involved some of our seasoned pros! To my understanding, it all centers around...MONEY!

I understand that this world we live in is driven by the demand for more...but why compromise your morals for it?

I understand why we do, when we want more when we have less...sometimes we make some weak willed decisions in the pursuit of what that MONEY will get us! Want an example, look in the paper, watch the news.

I understand because I have compromised my integrity at a younger age and I will have to live with it and yes, if I could I would have willed myself to not make such a decision. Of course it was not illegal but in retrospect, it was not tottally cool and I hate that part of myself for going there. Maybe, if I get enough questions. I'll go there.

Poker has taken a big step backwards but it will be one of those things in life that will not go away. Texas Hold'em was not the most popular choice but it is today and could stay that way for sometime but another game may take it's place, hello omaha? Who knows, but the strategy and the ability to play with anyone and win will not go away.

Just understand...some of the integrity of the game got some dirt thrown on it, but overall it is straight up.

You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Abrupt slow down on the learning curve.

2011-04-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

Pretty wicked couple of days, two of the biggest sights, are shut down to U.S. players, Poker stars and Full Tilt. This has affected several friends that are not in close proximity of brick and mortar casinos and were making a comfortable living off of all of those lunch boxes on those sites.

Well I just wanted to get a quick opinion on what I think is going to happen:

I believe other poker sites are taking on U.S. customers but how are they going to pay them? This way of making a living is going to be hurt for the next few years. We will lose the Poker stars funded tournament series, we may lose poker after dark and the coverage of the WSOP. All may have been funded by those sites. Casinos are going to lose a percentage of players in the long run due to the lack of on-line play. Live tournaments and cash games at those tournaments are going to get a nice increase, especially at the lower buy ins, of people, but over time that will fade. The huge fields we had in the past are gone! Poker sites sent tons of these folks to play through sponsorship, through winning small buy in tournaments, or because people did so well and made the money through beating other people. Without being able to multi-table and show film of what was done to help with training videos there will be a set back in the learning curve. Before when you could play more hands in a month than an older seasoned pro who has 20 years under their belt, is going to go away...unless you like play money or you are moving out of the U.S. Poker will not die, it may fade a bit but it will still be popular but we may not get as many younger players in as their only means of playing for real money will be in casinos and most of the time they need to be 21, unless they can Phil Ivey their way in.

Again, Poker will not fade away into the night, it's popularity may fade a bit but we will have a new generation of lunch boxes and those who play in casinos should be ready to reap the riches!

Just my opinion...you all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

April Fools Day!

2011-04-01T00:03:00.000-07:00

What is up? Say? Where the heck did April Fools day come from? Just curious. My oldest daughter wants to team up with my wife to try to prank me, they think they will be successful but I asked them not to try. We will see what happens.

Looking forward to the games tomorrow, we have VCU and Butler and on the other side we have Kentucky and UCONN! I'd like to see Butler play UConn and UConn get the win, they need to represent the Big East! I am very happy about where Butler is as they barely beat Pitt so I am one who wants the team that beat my team to finish it out and they seem to be doing so.

I have been grinding out online a tad bit, it has been fun nothing substantial to talk to but I really want to get back to a table, feel the chips, and felt someone. I hope to do this in the WSOP circuit event coming to Harrahs New Orleans, soon. Through that I hope to take the family to Vegas, visit my sister, see some friends and maybe get a tournament in, but cash games will be played!

Still going through a lot of my magazines, notes, books and what not and it is amazing how much you can miss when you are not playing on a normal basis. All successful players have a sense about things at the table, a "spidey sense", and I remember when I had it. That feeling of when to call someone down with King high and when to lay down a set of jacks when broadway was made on the river. Now, it takes me time to get my rhythm back but this is the price you pay when you work as an exempt manager, supporting 3.5 kids and a wife. When you come home, it is tough to leave the little ones and wife as they are all just awesome to be around. However, there is always that itch that wants to get back to playing on some type of consistency. Just me blabbing away...so until next time.

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Know yourself...then maybe wins will come.

2011-03-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

Over the years playing poker you learn a lot of things through normal play, talking about hands with others, reading about poker etc. These lessons can stay with you, they may become your culture and you just do before thinking or they may be things that you used to do, switched your game up and may have forgotten but one day you re-read something or over hear something and it reminds you of a piece of your game that you could possibly go back to.

My wife really hates the fact that I have books, magazines and notebooks full of notes and has asked me to start getting rid of...something. I started by looking through my poker magazines and I happened upon an interview in Cardplayer August 2009 with Matt Hawrilenko, under the Capture the flag section with top cash game pros. Matt talked about an important aspect of his game and that is not learning to read your opponent's hand but learning to read your own hand. Here is an example of what he means, "Suppose someone raises, the big blind defends, and the board comes j-6-5 with two hearts. Some guys in the big blind will never check-raise a 6. All they will check-raise is a jack or any sort of straight draw or flush draw. So, when he check-raises, the bulk of his distribution will be flush draws and straight draws. If the board runs out Q-J, there are a lot of guys I'm calling down here with king high, because their hand distribution is just so heavily weighted toward drawing hands that have missed. This is where good players just eat people up. It's very important to have the appropriate mix of different types of hands in every situation. When I was really improving, that is the thing I focused on the most."

My take is this, when you are playing tell a good story in every hand that you play, bet size correctly to get the most value and represent your hand correctly, in doing so your game will improve and your wins will add more green to your pockets! Stay within your comfort zone and play to win, but try not to bluff bad!

Stay nice as Rice and Mello as Jello!

Attention to detail

2011-03-13T22:40:00.000-07:00

As an Ops Manager for Frito Lay, I am pretty laid back and not hyper aggressive. I tend to let most things go and allow my people a lot of leeway. I come down on the big things and continue to coach and train on the smaller issues. Working in the environment that I do it is important that you pay attention to details, address them before they become bigger issues. I know, it's only chips, but it is a business and it exists to make money. My point is when I am at the table I am very opposite of how I am at my job. I am very aggressive at the poker table, sometimes too aggressive for my own good. I make good reads and have been able to play a loose aggressive game for most of my poker experience. Recently however, I have transitioned to a more tight aggressive game. I don't get to go play very much so I have to reduce my negative variance. The key though is to watch out for the details. How did his hands move when he saw the flop, people have learned to control their facial features, however they still have not been able to work on the neck down. Watch and observe if you are not in the hand and see if they move towards the table or away after the flop and if he/she goes to the river what did they have? Usually when they move closer, their hand is pretty strong. Moving away sometimes indicates weakness. These are a couple of the basic reads. As you play, continue to observe the table when you are not in a hand. I know that others like to watch the ball game, cocktail servers or what have you, I suggest you watch the other players and how they might put a chip on their cards or keep the left hand on for a strong hand or their right had on for a weaker hand. How they bet could also indicate strong versus weak...if they throw in a big chip, they might be strong, if they bet smaller chips and try to make them look right, might be weakness. Consider this, because I am still working on this myself, when you are playing this game you are playing with real money, do everything in your power to get it in for the most profit. Observe the other players because when you do get into a situation you may have seen something from your opponent that would give you that extra insight to make the right decision. Pot control, bank roll management, bet sizing. These concepts will always be important as you continue to try to become a pro or if you are a pro. I just wanted to give my two cents...get out there and make the right decisions and you will eventually be rolling in the dough!

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Recent Biloxi Trip

2011-02-15T22:02:00.000-08:00

Greetings and salutations! It has been a long time since I put some words down and it is pretty awesome how big the site is! My time away from poker...SUCKS! However, I am enjoying my life as a husband and father, but...

So, I recently made my first move at a live game in Biloxi and I decided to try out the Hard Rock. Here is a quick review...the room is pretty small, only five or six tables. It is located on the right when you walk into the casino, can't miss it. The floor staff, very cordial and open to any questions, really appreciated the customer service. Dealers on a scale of 1-10, '8'. Very personable, and moved the action as best as they could. Also, was fun playing with a couple of them as well, when they got off an put jackets on, love that they can do that in mississippi. Very knowledgeable as well. Another interesting highlight, if you are a rock, very tight. There is not a time rake, they only rake the pot and that is maxed out at $4.

My play was average, there were many spots that I missed opportunities and many times that I made mistakes. The frustrating thing for me was that I made some bad calls and did not play aggressively when it warranted it, basically I was not prepared and the results showed it. I also may have played a little too long, however I had a ball!

The one highlight that I will talk to is this hand, now I had several highlights but this one just reminds me of those grinders that I used to play with and myself, several years ago. Okay, so I am on the button and action gets back to me and I look at two black jacks. Let me talk to Pocket Jacks up to the time I get them. In the previous five hands three people had pocket jacks and made considerable raises, took down the pot and showed them. Back to my hand, I am on the button, under the gun calls, middle calls, highjack calls, so I make it $17 to go, sb folds, bb folds...why 17, we have $11 in the pot, make it $17 and the price of another $15 for $28 was the wrong price...at least that was my thought, and I didn't want to make it look like I had pocket jacks by making it $20 or more. Hi jack is the only caller. I have some history with the hi jack seat, younger player, local, seems to be respected and has played a very good tight aggressive game. Earlier he made me lay down a big hand, so I respected the call and at the same time wondered what he would call with after limping? So my range was A weak, small to medium pair no higher than pocket 8's. He also had me covered. The flop is mixed 2 7 9, he checks and I bet out about $35. He thinks and calls...FRAK! He might have a set and is going to squeeze the milk outta me! Nah, he probably thinks I am making a continuation bet. The turn is a 3 offsuit, no flush possibilities. He checks I bet half the pot, again he thinks for a few seconds and calls. CRAP! Am I beat! The last time he got me off a hand, he had bet into me. The river brings a red JACK, he checks again and I bet 75% of the pot, he thinks about it and calls! Huh? I show my set and he acts like he let me get there and gets pissy! He had not acted like this ALL NIGHT! We were somewhat friendly and I quickly asked did you have me before that jack, he says of course I did. I smile and insert my headphones and stack my chips. BOGUS I think. Now he pulls out about $1000 and sets up. Got me covered again, he did this because I must have put him on tilt and he was going to try to get involved with me and try to snap me off, I was laughing inside because I used to do this and have seen it done many times before. He then goes and talks to an asian kid at another table, who also has a large stack, and they are looking at me while talking...maybe it was in my head but I really affected this guy that bad I should have broke it off in him later. I didn't get that opportunity but someone else did, taking a few hundred from him. So yeah, that was my highlight, I think I tilted a local and it was freaking fun! Yeah, I rambled through this one, hope you enjoyed it. Until next time be it poker or something else...stay frosty and...

You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

COULD OF BEEN...

2010-03-31T15:49:00.000-07:00

3-31-2010

I had a pretty good time this weekend. I met a pretty cool guy who is an actor in the play Wicked that is playing downtown. He says he is good friends with Taye Diggs, star of Private Practice on ABC, so that lead into other conversations about golf, the health care reform act, Tiger Woods and being happily married. Playing poker though, I made FIVE bad plays in six hours and they are living with me as I write this because they were embarassing.

So today I am going to talk about what could have been. We go into our sessions looking to come out on top with a profitable session, some come in to play for fun, and others just want to make people fold to bluffs. My goal is to win but to win through a correct process. That process involves thinking the hand through, making the right decision, pre-flop, during the hand and on the river. If I can do that, I should be able to leave with a profit. Or leave happy with my play.

One way to leave a session saying I could have been up so much money is playing a hand in this manner, I am early middle position and I look down at K 10 off and limp in, four people follow suit. The flop is K 7 2 with a flush draw, under the gun bets, I call everyone else folds. The turn is a 10, but completes the flush. UTG bets quickly, I DO NOT think the hand through and call. The river is a blank and he fires a big bet in, I DO NOT think it through and call. He shows a Jack high flush. "CRAP"!

Let us break this hand down. K 10 early middle position...should have folded. Since we played it, we go to the flop and get a bet into you, there are a few things we can do here, fold-10% of the time(We are out kicked, he is betting into three other guys so he is pretty strong, he may have two pair or a set already and wants the flush draws gone), Call-50%(We have a weak kicker, we want to see how the two behind react to the bet, we are looking to hit our kicker or another king) of the time, Raise-40%(Get heads up, we feel like we have the best hand because it was a limped pot, find out exactly where we are, if someone re-pops we are beat) of the time. The turn brings the 10 completing the flush. We are heads up and the player is playing FAST, he has his chips ready before the card comes off and when it hits he fires, no contemplation, maybe making it look like he has the King, he may not have seen the flush, or he has the flush and is being sneaky. Well we know he had it but I did not think it down because he was playing fast, his comment after was you didn't think I had the flush huh? I was playing it like I wasn't. He was being very respectful but I was not going to give him the satisfaction that I had played this hand as bad as I thought I had.

I made several other bad plays and wish I could have taken them back, but this is my forum to get it out and try to make myself get better. My point is, take your time, don't play fast and don't walk away telling yourself "could of been..."

You all stay nice as rice and mello as Jello!

MAJOR LEAK...one of my many...

2010-03-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

3-15-2010

Made it over to Harrah's this past Saturday and had to drive around for a bit as the parking garage was closed, but after about 10 minutes of looking for off street parking I head back over and it is opened.

I do not claim that I am the best player but I know my way around the poker table and have had success over the last six or seven years but I discovered a MAJOR LEAK this weekend that I need to get pass or it will eat me up!

Let me tell you about my day leading up to my major leak. I love to brag on the good things I have in life, not to the point of being an asshole but just so that I let folks know that life is good. I have the most wonderful wife ever. I know that those of you out there may seem to think the same thing about your wives, I hope you do, but I would like to share some reasons behind the rant. I am trying to act my age but still feel that I am still working on getting over being 21! I still play video games, stopped collecting comics and action figures due to space constraints and trying to grow up , but if I had the room...shoot, I would be doing it now! I love poker and have cut the playing time back considerably. My wife allows me to play Call of Duty 2 Modern Warfare (If you play look me up...Goondingy is my x-box live account), if I want to get on-line to play some poker, no problem. She backs me, as she is the CFO of the family, on playing poker at the casino. When I get home from work, a hot meal is ready for me and my family. She is a clean freak and has to clean the house, in stages , weekly. So I come home to a clean house, daily. She somewhat enjoys doing laundry but again her favorite thing to do is cook. She takes care of me in every way! Me and the kids are her priority.
So, I am able to provide the necessary tools for her to do what she needs and we were able to pick up a new washer and dryer from BEST BUY this saturday. The one in Metarie did not have the one we wanted but it was at the store on the Westbank, so I borrowed the truck from AT@T and rolled over to pick up the washer and dryer, this was at noon. I get back we unload and start to set up, it is about 2pm now, we picked up lunch and got through that, now it was time for the set up. At about 7:30 pm we finished...very frustrated but finished and my wonderful wife was HAPPY! That is key to a wonderful marriage, keep them happy. Now my wife and I knew that I wanted to play today as the following weekend I would not due to work commitments and some family outings we would be doing this coming weekend. So at about 6pm, I felt tired and even told myself..."SELF, you may be too tired to play today."
I made it clear that we would work through that because the DOCTORS were in town and they wanted to give their money away.
I got to Harrahs and into a game by 10:15 pm. I do a decent job and at about 5:30 am my table breaks and I am up two and a half buy ins. I was not at full alertness and they gave their money away I did not have to work too hard for it.

JUST LEAVE RAY, NOTHING ELSE TO PROVE AND YOU PADDED THE BANKROLL THAT MUCH MORE.

"Seat left on 19, Ray." The floor informs me.
"I'll take it, " I respond. I take my winnings to the cage and sit down with a buy in.
There is a good bit of money on this table as well so I am happy I made the move. They do not seem that strong, but I have an aggressive player to my right, to my left, two passive guys in the 9 and ten seats and probably the strongest player in the two seat who has about a grand at this point. I am in the seven seat.
SIDENOTE...Of course I see this guy snap guys off to put over $2500 in front of him the next two hours, it was fascinating that he caught the set on the turn because of the weak flop bet. How he did flop a king high flush when he was re-raised by a newbie lunchbox and got two callers behind the re-raise so it made the decision easier for number two seat to call the re-raise of two extra bets. The flush comes the lunchbox bets the two behind fold the two seat MIN raises and the lunchbox shoves with J 9 off suit, oh the jack was a diamond which was what the flush was on the board. If was amazing watching a guy get slapped in the face by the deck and have other players make moves into him and get it broken off in them!

I digress, I am at this table for ten minutes and under the gun has limped in...young caucasian, sitting back in his chair with less money than myself but enough to hurt....foreshadowing...I am in early late positon, right after the under the gun player and I make in $15 to go with Q 9 of hearts...

LOOSE AGGRESSIVE guys do stuff like this I should not! First mistake!

It is me and this guy heads up. The flop comes out 9 6 8, with a club draw. He checks and I fire out $40, trying to make any draws pay the price. He contemplates and calls.

SO HE LIMPED IN, CALLS THE RAISE, WHAT DOES HE HAVE? POSSIBLY 7-10 SUITED, A9 OFF OR SUITED, 5-7, OVER PAIRS? NAH, HE WOULD HAVE RE-RAISED ME OR HE COULD, BUT HE MAY HAVE RAISED ON THE FLOP THINKING I WAS BETTING WITH THE FLUSH DRAW. SO I THINK HE MAY HAVE A SMALL PAIR AND BELIEVES I AM BLUFFING.

The turn brings the six of hearts. He checks again and I bet $80...he contemplates and shoves all in. CRAP!

THINKING BACK HE COULD HAVE 68,69,NINES, EIGHTS, SIXES OR AN OVER PAIR OR HE COULD BE MAKING A MOVE ON ME. I DECIDE THAT HE DOES NOT HAVE A FULL HOUSE YET OR THE SIX FOR TRIPS. HE SEEMS LIKE THE GUY TO WANT TO WAIT TO THE RIVER WITH THAT KIND OF HAND TO GET MY MONEY. HE MAY HAVE AN OVERPAIR, BUT AGAIN, RAISING PREFLOP WITH 10'S OR HIGHER IS APPROPRIATE FROM THAT SPOT OR REPOPING WHEN SOMEONE HAS RAISED SO YEAH IT IS POSSIBLE HE HAS AN OVERPAIR BUT I DON'T PUT HIM ON THAT...SO A SEMI-BLUFF OR PURE BLUFF IS WHERE I AM.

"I call," I say after about five minutes of agony.
"Good call," he says and turns over the K 7 of spades.

I AM NOT OUT OF THE WATER YET, ANY KING (THREE POSSIBLE OUTS) ANY 10 (FOUR POSSIBLE OUTS), ANY 5 (FOUR POSSIBLE OUTS)...SO HE HAS 11 CARDS TO HIT THE RIVER TO BEAT ME. I DID GET HIM TO PUT IT IN WITH THE WORST HAND BUT I CAN STILL BE BEAT.

This is somewhat funny, there are some ohhs and ahhs about the call and when the dealer turns the river, the two seat goes "Dang, that's poker!" as she turns over the 10 of clubs. Not a bad beat story but where my next mistake was, I STAYED. I should have gotten up and left with the 70 or 80 I had in front of me for an overall win of at least one buy in. NOOOOO! I can get it back, shoot this guy put it in bad against me, who else is willing to do that. Well, he was willing to put it in bad but he did it against the kid in the two seat. I went against the kid in the two seat and bluffed him off the pot, probably with a weaker ace. It was hard to read him so I had to go off of betting tells and the way he cut his chips, it was weird to figure it out but when he had it he did a certain thing when he did not he did this other thing, very subtle but I caught it and played one pot with him and won. That was the last time he and I played and I watched him decimate everyone else. It is about 8 am and I am TIRED! My eyes are hurting and I am snoozing between hands. Not the way I like to play...but I want my money back. I now have my entire, come to casino limit, on the table and that has widdled down. I get it back to at least a one buy in win for the day by 9am but continued to play...very tired...another mistake. I eventually watched all that money go away as a guy made the nut flush on the river by making some bad calls to get there. I am down to my last hundo but I still continue to play...now I am embarrased and upset with myself for sitting down and opening with Q9...another mistake and my last as I berrated myself and gave away the last hundred. I even got more money and playe with that until 11 am and lost it as well as a lunch box hit his flush, with 3-6 suited from middle position, after limping and calling a raise! I hate talking about bad beat stories so I will not tell the tale. I should have left after the first beating and now I have taken another.

I left beating the hell out of myself, but the root cause was I got too greedy! This is a huge leak that lead to others like playing too tired, making bad moves out of position, making moves with AK into a bad board. I know what I did but writing about it should provide some therapy for me as I felt embarrassed at that table when I knew I was one of the better players there but did not act like it. I need to fix this leak and I hope I do but if you take anything away from this, get your rest and play until you have hit that wall, do not force yourself through...pick up and come back later the game will be there tomorrow or the next weekend or so, believe that, beat yourself up about the small loss instead of the bigger one that you may cause that I caused myself.

RANDOM RANTS:
I saw Tex in there playing his ass off doing work. He got on me about my Steelers hat as we are both Cowboys fans. I also so Joe "The Grinder" doing work as well. He is always happy and fun to talk to. I also saw my bud LT, we met back in 2004 or 2005, when he started playing 10-20 limit and eventually played 5-5 no limit as well. I used to pound the snot out of him, now he is playing the 2-5 game with at least 3k in front of him, he's doing well and I am proud of his growth. Heck he rags me about my game, which has helped in some regards. I used to play Ace off from any position, he broke down the reasons not to and was disappointed that I played that bad. Thanks LT.

So you went through my embarrassment with me and I hope you learned something...I have, now I need to apply it. Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Time Limits

2010-03-08T18:07:00.000-08:00

3-8-2010

At times I may put myself on a time limit when I go play and when it gets closer to that time to leave I tend to play a little more aggressive. I also, forget to go through my progressive thought process during proper decision making. That is an opportunity for me to fix and I will figure it out. Let me take you through my last hand of the session and what I learned and need to apply going forward. The guy involved in the hand with me is an older gentleman who sat down with $300 and as most calling stations, passively called it off to everyone even me at times. Well he rebought and started playing a little better and got his stack back up a bit, but was getting very lucky.

1-2 NL game and I am in the cutt off seat (one before the button) and look down at a couple of nines. Three people limped in so I make it $17 to go. Everyone folds but my buddy calls.

He is in the hi-jack seat (two from the button) his range of limping and calling is wide open. Plus he made a comment earlier that I had a lot of chips and he likes playing with me. So I do not have him on a big Ace, maybe a small pair, a weak Ace, some type of connectors, I do not put him on anything bigger than pocket 10s he is just not that savy or he just has crap.

The flop comes 8 5 3 rainbow, he checks and I fire out $30. He calls.

Now, if I would have went through my progressive thought process I probably put him on at least second pair, A 5, or even top pair with a six being the weakest kicker, since he only called. I would have also looked at the call as him thinking I am on a big ace maybe even an over pair, and he is hoping to hit his second pair on the turn or even his eight, remember he is a calling station.

The turn brings another 8. He checks, I think for three seconds... and fire out another bet. He says how much, and calls.

My freaking radar should have gone off at this time. Everything in his body is saying, I have three of a kind, and everyone at the table can probably see this but me, because I am leaving after this hand and if I get this guy to play a big pot here I can leave up quite a bit of money! YES!

The river is an off suit 3. He grabs his chips and puts in a nice value bet. Now I go into the think tank and start thinking the wrong things.

"Did you call me with A3? I freaking bet you called with some kind of three, what else can you have?" Inner small voice..."Fold Ray." Yet I did not do the right thing in this spot. Think about his range here and what he may have, think about what you beat and cannot beat. I can beat pocket sevens, sixes, fours and deuces or a bluff. He could have everything else that beats me and the way he bet it looked like he wanted a call. I was not in that place and thinking like this during the hand, I usually do this, but at that time, before I was going to leave, it all went out the window.

I called and he showed the 8 7 off suit. Now it was a lunchbox call from him pre-flop but I played this hand so bad and did not catch all of the blaring reads that told me that I was beat on the turn. I hope you learned something from this, yes I play bad 70% of the time, but seriously, do not rush your decisons and if you have a way to play the hand back do it and 8 out of 10 times you will be correct. 80% is a pretty good figure.

Some other notes of interest:

I believetheir is a huge convention downtown this week that involves Doctors. Doctors have a lot of money and they do love to play poker. So if you get to Harrah's this weekend look me up, I will be there extracting as much money as possible.

AT&T is back in town and he may roll through with me. Harrahs has a tournament twice a month with a $300+$40 entry fee. 8000 in chips and 40 minute levels...maybe something to jump into, hopefully this takes off.

Alright, until next time you all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

SUCKOUT!!!!

2010-03-02T20:17:00.000-08:00

3-2-2010

I made my move and hit the felt for my second session of the year. It was Saturday evening at about 4 pm and it was pretty cool as the convention center must have been having a cheerleading contest of some sort as multiple sets of matching young ladies in ribboned hair and colorful, skirts moved into and out of the convention center. Took me twenty minutes to get to the freaking garage!

I went into the session with a plan...I screwed that plan and 10 hours later I booked a session that paid 5.50 an hour! ARGH!!!

Here is a highlight on how well I played, after about 20 minutes of folding...about four hands. I look down at 7-8 of clubs, three limp to me and I open for 15. A young asian girl and a black guy come along. The flop is K 7 2 one club and two hearts. They both check to me and I fire out half the pot. Black guy folds and the other player calls. Must be a heart draw? The turn brings a 3 spades, she checks again, "Goodie," I think "She should fold to this BIG bet."
I fire 3/4 of the pot and she makes what looks like a crying call. What range does she have here...must be a KING, maybe? She must be a genius, getting me to bet this, I freaking fired two barrels...GO AWAY LUNCHBOX! YOUR KICKER SUCKS!!!! The river is the A of spades. She checks again, I fire in a bet to put her all in...she thinks on it, shrugs her shoulders (I now KNOW she has at least a KING at this point) and she calls. OH SHE IS A GENIUS! I say one pair and turn over my cards, she gets up and turns over K 10 offsuit, and looks to be leaving...the rest of the table say you win, she looks back and smiles big, sits down and buries her face in the black guys chest in embarrassment, "I thought he had three of a kind!"
LUNCHBOX! Of course she proceeds to bleed those chips off to the table and gets up an hour later with $50 and leaves.
What's the lesson learned? You cannot bluff a calling station.
So now, I am disgusted with myself and am down quite a bit...so I change tables and get position on a long haired, asian kid who has been playing since friday night. Ahh, I remember those days.
After about two hours of play I open from the button with 9-8 clubs, I get five callers, this was maybe the third hand I played, FIVE CALLERS! The flop is 2 9 3 rainbow, they check to me I push out half the pot and the only caller is the asian. The turn is an A, still no flush draw, the asian checks and I fire another decent bet...he calls. At this time, my thought process is this bet and he should fold, bet and he should fold...he called again. I give up! The river is a blank, he checks again and I check right behind...he tables the A 2 off suit! I don't know why, I usually don't do this, but I wanted to know why? What were you drawing for the deuce or the ace? I gave the guy a little lip and had to stand up and stretch before I sat back down. Not really like me to berate people as I am a HUGE guy, and I really don't need that attention. Moving on, this guy had about $1100 in front of him and I figured he was big stacking me. No problem, if he continued to play this way...I would see this stack dwindle away. If I continued to play this way I would be busted very soon myself. Last highlight....
I am playing so bad that I am straddling in a 1-2 nl game! I decide that no matter what I have, if I get three callers, I am going to raise. Five people call, I fire out $45. Two of them call me one being the long haired, asian kid. I check my hole cards and I see pocket threes. The flop is 6 7 4 unsuited. They both check to me and I fire out $75 the other guy folds and the asian raises, making it $105 to go...go ahead and fold ray. Yet I sit there and think about it, four fives and two sixes versus what's in the pot...I should push or fold. Another bad decison, here it comes, I called. My LORD, he must have been looking in on me as a FIVE hit the turn! WHAT THE HELL AM I SO HAPPY ABOUT! He could have raised with 7 8 suited and the five gave him the bigger straight...hell he may have raised with the 8 9 and now has the NUTS. The asian checks to me and I push in what I have left, about $300, quickly. He thinks on it for a few seconds, if he has me he just slow rolled me with the delay otherwise I don't think he has it, and calls, the river brings a deuce..."I got the bitch end of the straight." He looks at me and I turn over my threes and he tosses his cards into the muck. Someone yelled to see his cards and the dealer turned over the 6 7 off suit! WOW! I SUCKED OUT!!!!! Well I hope you enjoyed this view into my dumbass thought processes. Next time...I look for the results to work along with the process both being positive.
Untill next time...Stay Nice As Rice And Mello As Jello!

Goals and my first session of the year

2010-02-24T17:43:00.000-08:00

What is up? Long time since I have written anything. It is funny how we all think we are on the cusp of greatness in this game and still can not get there. I am going to work hard to try to get there and maybe with a little feedback from the readers, I may get over that hump. I have put together several goals, personal, work, and of course in this game we love poker. I have a large goal to win a medium buy in tournament this year ($500 or more buy in) my smaller goals are to keep playing the $1-$2 nl game and continue to beat it for at least one buy in a session. Even smaller will be the way I approach the game. I will be doing a lot of learning as I am not in the hand, watching players body language and betting patterns against the flops and from what positions they enter pots. I will also be on here at least twice a week. I hope by the end of the year you and I have learned quite a bit about this game and maybe ourselves.

Let's talk about my first action of the year. I entered Harrahs at about 10:30 pm this past Saturday and had a plan of action in place. Got into a game at about 11 pm and by 3:30 am was up two buy ins! That game broke and I got into another and proceeded to bleed off my winnings for the next six hours. During my last hour of play I got it all back! HUH? I KNOW!

The question is...Did I get lucky? Yep.

Well I went into the game playing tight/aggressive, told myself to not get involved with weak aces up front nor in back. If I did open it would always be for a raise, so I was only playing quality hands. I only played J 10, Q J, etc. in position if there was a raise into me otherwise I folded, and they had to be suited, so I sat around for awhile. For the most part it worked, my first three dealers were uneventful as I was only up a little when this asian player came over and plopped down in the four seat and started playing crazy, raising just about everything. Then I caught it, I got a nice tell on him, when he had a hand he leaned in a bit and would bet every turn. When he had a weaker hand, usually a drawing hand he would fire at the flop and check the turn, yet when he fired at the flop he sat back a little and thought on it for a few seconds. Well, I was on the button and had pocket sixes, under the gun limped, asian guy pops it for $15 one caller to me and I call. The lady in the three seat, in the big blind, comes along as well. Four to the flop of Q 7 4 two spades...I am watching the asian guy, indirectly, don't want to stare at him, he is sitting back a bit...good he missed. The lady checks, asian guy fires about forty into the pot, other guy folds and I call so does the lady. The turn card brings an off suit three, the lady checks again, the asian guy does it again thinks and fires about $80 into the pot. I am now looking at the lady, who looks nervous, because I am trying to figure out if she is going to come along or if I need to raise to get her out, but the nervous look told me she may not call. I simply called and she made a crying call. The river brought a beautiful card, an off suit deuce. The asian guy leaned back a little more and started talking to himself a little, he than fires out thirty dollars! Now how much do I want to raise is what I am thinking, how much can I get out of him? I am not worried about the lady to my left....I make it another $200 to go, the lady insta mucks and the asian guy just smiles and says something under his breath, probably something derogatory and he eventually folds. I instantly turn up by sixes and said,"that had you beat huh?" He smiled and nodded his head. Actually folks making that raise into both players probably was not the right move but I felt like I was way ahead yet it was probably not the right move. The table broke an hour later. I move to a new table yet I am really ready to go and should go but GREED is calling me to get more money because the line up was WEAK!!!!!

I gave away a few hundo the next few hours of play. At about 7am Tex, who blogs here as well, sat down next to me, he was not clear headed and was trying to get there but he sat down and picked up aces and got paid off, an hour later he got up, racked up his winnings wished me luck and went to get some sleep. Hope he slept it off well...nice play with the AQ, Tex!

Well it is 9:30 am and I rebuy, tell myself to start playing correctly and I start to build my stack back up. There is this dude in the eight seat, who was so easy to read. One of the easy tells that you all should look for is when a player is in the hand, and hits the flop their hand will move towards their stack, it is an involuntary muscle move. Well the eight seat did this several times and was snapping people off left and right with sets. He built himself a nice stack but he just could not outplay people during other hands, when he would miss with AQ he would make a continuation bet and when called, he would give up. Everytime he did so he did not make that move towards his chips. A very solid tell. I am on the button and look down at 5-6 off suit. Five of us limp in, the flop is A 8 7 two clubs. Three bets into me and I call, only for an off suit four! The last player folds. The turn is an off suit FOUR!!!!! Check, check, eight seat bets the pot, I make it three times the bet to get the flush draw out and the other two behind me fold. The bettor raises back into me!
"YES! No, wait am I reading the board correctly? Yep, I have the nuts right now! So he must have a set, two pair or the same hand."
I ask him how much he has left, he instantly says to me, "I'll go all in if that is what you want."
"All in!" I said.

He called and turned over A 4 off suit for two pair..."please no ace, no four!" The board bricked out and I take down a monster pot.

I continued to play much tighter and built back what I had won, packed up and left.

So yeah, I got lucky...because me and my opponent hit our hands at the same time otherwise I do not get paid off the way I did.

Until next time...You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Missing reads yet seeing them at the same time...

2009-09-11T20:19:00.000-07:00

What is up? So I had a pretty bad weekend, compared to the last 10 sessions, I took a couple of losses. No worries, you got to take these hits every now and than, yet, I believe I could have got away from them. This is the difference between amatuer (Me) and pro (Phil Ivey).

Okay, here are a couple of rules you should follow before going in to play live action. 1) GET A GOODNIGHTS REST! 2) Have your strategy set and adjust during the game 3)When making a big decision-slow down, walk backwards and understand the action up to this point.

Well Friday night, the cards were just not coming and the best hand I saw after two hours (actually one hour) just felt like two hours, was q 10 in middle position, I limp in so does the button, small blind and big blind taps the table. The flop came out Q 4 6 rainbow, I fire out a three quarter bet hoping to take the pot down, button calls and the blinds fold. The turn is another Q...I decide to bet $55...now the button says, "How much?" The alarm bells should have gone off in my head, BUT THEY DID NOT. I say what I bet and he calls. The river is a blank, I fire out $100 and he says all in...could I have gotten away from it before betting $55? Nah, could I have not bet the $100 on the river after the call on the turn, if my spidey senses were up, YEAH! Well, I call the extra, whatever, and he shows Q 6 suited. Now, we are not talking about the beat here, we are talking about how I could have possibly gotten away or paid less for that river.

Saturday, did not get enough sleep AGAIN! Even though I thought I did. I'm doing alright until about an hour into the session and I am under the gun and had straddled, six people called the four bucks, when it gets back to me I look at pocket 10s and pop it to $35. I get two callers, middle position and the button. The flop is 9 2 3 rainbow, harmless. I bet out out $55, middle folds and the button says, "HOW MUCH?" (YOU FREAKING KNOW HOW MUCH LUNCHBOX, YOU WATCHED ME STACK IT AND PUSH IT ACROSS THE FREAKING LINE!!!!!). "$55", I say. He called. The turn is a Q, I quickly...again I say, quickly run through what he may have, here is what I say to myself, "AQ, did he float with AQ, nah, he made those over bets when flush draws hit earlier, lets make sure and bet $100." Yes, that is all I thought about! What should I have thought...here, over pair, aces to jacks. Set of nines, deuces or threes...two pair maybe. A whole lot that beats me right? After I bet he goes all in, now I should againg think on it, right? I DON'T! I call and he shows a set of threes! The funny thing is he thought he out played me, NO LUNCHBOX, you profited off my freaking MISTAKE! I make bo bo you make money! YOU SUCK!!!! Sorry, I uh, got a little out of hand there. I basically beat myself this weekend and hopefully this will be a cleansing for me.

In conclusion, I may not have gotten away from these hands but I could have paid a lot less to see the beating.

What quesitons might you have?

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

chris my nemesis from the state of Mass. Let me tell you how he crushed me and how i came back!.jpg

2009-08-22T16:23:00.000-07:00

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Greetings and Salutations!
What a day! Got to meet some cool guys from the state of Mass.etc and a ringside judge for boxing matches. What I want to tell you about is my quick win, sudden loss and huge win after a four and a half hour rollercoaster!

So I get into Harrahs at about 1:45pm four 1-2 nl games going and they tell me that they are opening a game on table 12 at 2 pm. I set up in the three seat. Nine other guys that I don't know sit down...SWEET! Talked to a guy from Oklahoma on my left who had a cute girl sitting behind him telling me about the soft games he plays in and makes a $1000 a week there...WHERE? Get me that info bro! As we are talking he tells me that he told his girl that I seem to be the guy that he needs to look out for. As he finished this statement, he raises on the button. I smiled and looked down at two kings. Now, the right thing to do here is try to get heads up but these folks were very readable and I wanted to know how many aces may be out there. There were five limpers, and six callers to his raise. The flop was 10 high. I check, as does everyone else to him. He bets about $40, I call...everyone else folds. The turn is a Jack, I check again and he shoves all in..."Crap," I say as I look at him, "Did that , Jack hit you?" He tightened up even more, 'nope, it sure didn't' I telepathically said to him. I called the last 125 and turned my Kings over, he nodded and shoved his hand in the deck and pulled out another $100.

So by 4:30 pm I'm up pretty good. I'm talking to a kid from Mass.etc who is on his bachelor party, and one of the party is in the six seat. I've been getting hit in the face with overs, AJ, AQ, AK, A10...so i've been opening to get the junk out, the table seems to be getting anxious. So with a decent hand I opened from the hi-jack and, Chris, the guy in the photo, part of the bachelor party comes along with four others. I miss the flop but Chris, bets out $40 and takes the pot down. Two hands later I am in the cut off seat, while talking to the guy to my right about .357 magnums that have bullets that fire pelts for home security, I look down at KJ off and open again, I get six callers. The flop is K 7 5 two diamonds. They check around to me and I push out $40, Chris, my nemesis, is the only caller. The turn is a diamond. MISTAKE COMING! I bet out $100, Chris, gets REALLY excited and contemplates, I know as the 100 is flying in the air that FUCKED up. So Chris pushes all in for another $85. I need to fold here, no matter what I need to fold here...MISTAKE COMING! I called. Yes, I CALLED! River is a blank and Chris shows the A 6 diamonds. GEEZ RAY! I am so pissed at myself that I don't get up and continue to tell myself to learn from that obvious mistake and grow. Well I play for another hour and 15 minutes and am close to doubling my buy in when this hand comes up.

I am in the hi jack seat and Chris is under the gun plus one. He opens to $15, gets two callers before I look down at 8 10 spades, normally, I FOLD. In my spot, as I noticed the cutt off and button don't want to play, I called. Now I called because I can outplay Chris and the other callers at the table, I know which spots to mess with and which not to, but if I can hit my hand, Chris will never get away from his, at least I hoped. The small blind called and we went to the flop five handed. The flop was a 9c 8c 4c, sb checks, Chris bets out $40, fold, fold to me...now here is what I am thinking, AcKh, AQ, AJ, A10 maybe, 1010, JJ, qq, KK, AA and does not have the flush draw or is trying to bet off the flush draw. This is the range I put him on, more the over cards versus the over pair. I called. The sb folds. We are heads up folks. The turn is the 10 of hearts! YAHHHHHTTTTTZZZZZEEEEEE!!!!! Chris bets out $60, okay, now I put him directly on an over pair. I raised it to another $125, Chris tanked...so now I knew I was against an over pair, no set, no made flush. After a bit Chris went ALL IN! Crap! Over pair with a big flush draw now...Uhhh, $245 to you Ray. CRAP AGAIN! Okay, I call. River a red five! Stepped away from the table turned my back and did a weak Tiger pump and sat back down. Pulled in the pot and smiled. Chris came over, yes came over and shook my hand and told me he thought I was on a move because he had bluffed me two hands before the diamond hit and thought I was pissed at him. I told him he did the best he could to get value out of me it just worked out for me is all. We talked I asked him if I could get his picture and told him about the site and hopefully he is reading this, told you bro, no shit talking. You played the hand well enough. Maybe you could have played it different to get me off but remember Chris and folks...That's Poker!

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

brandon doing work..jpg

2009-08-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

8-15-09

The picture above shows my boy Brandon on the bottom left with the back of his head to us, my seat is to his right, a few stacks there with my water, mp3 player and the rest of the players on my table, who were there after hour four.

Bachelor Party! We started the festivities at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Ms. Four of the eight played in the $200 tournament and myself with the other three did other things in the casino. The later part of the day we were going to hit Bourban street in New Orleans, just the thing that my bud Alex was looking to do for his bachelor party, that's correct, no strippers!

Well I sit down in a 1-2 NL game, I LOVE THE BEAU, I adjust my my chair, get the cocktails that I want, pass my card over for my comps, place my cell phone on the table and plug in my mp3 player and start to play some poker. The reason why I went through this is because the only thing you can do at Harrah's in New Orleans is get a cocktail, except for RED BULL! What's up with that, unless you want to pay for it or you're a diamond club card holder, which means you have gambled over $50,000! Whatever!

So I am in this game and use my tight aggressive strategy and I will only play small pairs deuces and up on the button. The jackpot is quad fives beat. My goal is to find the regulars and non-regulars, find the nits, weak tights and loose aggressive players in the first two dealers. I found all of them by that time. In the one seat was a weak tight player, who happened to be winning, in seat three was a loose aggressive regular with Auburn attire on. He mixed it up well and his betting was varied and well done for the most part. If he is reading this, I figured you out by the time we played that big hand. In the five seat was another weak tight player. In seat six was a regular loose aggressive player with big sunglasses on, the other black guy at the table in the begining. In seats 7 and 8 were two more weak tight players.

Well I am going back and forth with my stacks and get somewhat back to even in about my second hour of play Brandon sits down to my left. I am on the button and there are four limpers to me, I look down at A 5 of spades. The flop comes K A 2 rainbow. Check to the big sunglass wearing black guy who fires out 15, I float (call) and the rest of the table folds. The turn card is a 7 of hearts, now there is a flush draw, BSBG fires $50 and I call. The river brings a non-flush 2. He contemplates and fires another $50. This is what I saw, I have more information than you as the reader, I know that when he has the best hand on the river he overbets a bit, but since he bet the same as the turn it made me suspicious plus the only thing he could have is a weak ace or maybe two pair but again if he had that he would have bet more to get that value out of me. I call and he shows air as I turn over the A5. He nods.

I am now in the cut-off, very next hand, one before the button and I look down at AJ diamonds. I really don't like this hand especially to a raise. Well in middle position a weak tight player makes it $15 to go, BSBG calls, I reluctantly call and we get two callers behind. Now let me tell you why I called and why it is dangerous to call here in other circumstances. When the raise occurred I looked over to the Auburn geared loose aggressive player who would act behind me and he looked like he was not going to play and I really wasn't worried about Brandon and the other two between him and I. Normally, if you don't know the table yet, this hand should not be called by an early raiser, that is a strong raise into the field and you are either facing AK, AQ or the top pairs, JJ, QQ, KK, AA. What is AJ going to do? Maybe hit the nut flush, or you hope for AAJ, JJA or q 10 k, is about it. Your kicker is not good here but with this field I new I could play with them. The flop cam A Q A, raiser bets out $30, fold to me and I call, I instantly put him on AK...AQ will not bet here, should not bet here and this guy does understand poker so I gave him a bigger kicker. The turn brought the 7 diamonds, which is a flush draw for me. The raiser bets out $50, I called for the flush and my J, so there is about 11 outs so I am about 25% to get there so i am a 4-1 dog, the pot is giving me about 3-1, I should only call at even or 5-1 on my money. When you look at the implied odds, if I hit my flush, maybe not my jack, with what he had left I was an easy 5-1. The river brought a hold'em card(blank). He put his remainder one hundred plus in the pot. Now I could call and HOPE that he had a weaker ace or be beat by my first thought, AK. It was AK, AQ that were the only two hands that beat me but I folded my hand up for the table to see. The BSBG said you called me with an ace but wouldn't call him with that ACE! During this same orbit (dealer) I am under the gun, and I make it $15 to go with pocket kings, I get SEVEN callers! My LORD! Well the flop comes K 8 8, two hearts. I check, Brandon looks like he is going to bet but decides not to and it gets back to Big Sunglass Black Guy, who bets out $50. I call and everyone else folds. The turn is the Q of hearts, I hesitate and check again, he bets out $100, I call. The river is a hold'em card and I want to bet but I may not get a call, so I get the remainder of my chips, about $130 and hold it in my hands looking at the board. He says, "Save your money."
I instantly plop it across the line, and say, "all this?"
He called quickly and I turned over my full house he showed me the A of hearts and King of clubs, without that hand he would not have doubled me up. Without my showing that I would not call with the AJ of diamonds he would not have called. If I would not have called him down with the A5 of spades he would not have called. Basically, when you are playing against the better players, you have to consider everything you do while they are there, they will remember. The weak tight ones only remember the hands they are in. Play chess?

You all be cool and stay nice as rice and mello as Jello!

Young and consistent...brandon and brett, harrahs regs that normally leave with your money..jpg

2009-08-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

So I get into Harrah's on a Wednesday afternoon...yes I snuck in and no one at home knew...my wife thinks i'm addicted to gambling and my answer was..."Only when there are lunchboxes at the table, babe."

The funny thing is I have not been in the poker room for at least 15 months...since my daughter was born. Well, when I got in there I saw a couple of guys who used to grind it out before I left on my hiatus. There they were killing the table. Still grinding it out on the 1-2 NL game and killing it! Usually the young ones want to get into the 2-5 NL game quickly but Brandon has done a pretty good job at staying in a spot where he knows he will make money and make money he has! Brett does play in the 2-5 game and does pretty well in both games. These guys are solid and I respect their games.

I get into the game after checking on my buddy AT&T(yep, he has those initials, pretty cool) and Davey both are pretty deep in the Wednesday tourney and look to final table, they both did and cashed! Nice job Davey and AT! I think AT&T is 7 for 8. I hate him for this, he has a pretty cool job, he goes off shore to West Africa for a month and comes home for a month! So now I tell my kids to study hard and become engineers! I mean if AT can graduate from PENN STATE and get a gig like this...shoot...Ya know?!?

Back to poker, so I'm at the table and look at the line up, a lot of regulars, guys who can't get away from hands, you know raise with pocket aces, get called in eight spots, a flush draw hits the flop they don't even have the ace for that draw, two people go with him to the river and check raise him all in when the flush hits and he says, "Pots too big, I can't fold!" When I'm thinking...you were probably beat on the turn, no further details on this type of player but you know the one I'm talking about...MARRIED TO THEIR HAND! There are a couple of spots that I decide I don't want to mess with, why give myself a headache trying to outplay them. I really want the one seat, older guy, who is splashing around and calling down with stuff like 7-2 suited and gets there to snap off a decent pocket pair in a three way pot, it was brutal.
In an hour I'm up one bone and doing pretty well, there are a couple of guys who keep grimacing every time I raise, looked like they wanted to play but didn't. I did not mind as the freaking deck keep smacking me in the face.

I usually go in with a tight/aggressive strategy even tighter because I try to only play jackpot starting hands. Any Ace none suited I folded unless I was in the cut-off or button where I would open with them. Any suited or gap connector I would limp from early to middle position with bigger than 6-5. I would call a raise only if I felt like I was last to act or with anything suited 9-10 or higher from the early to middle position. I played AK, AQ, and AJ suited from any position...I considered AJ off and A10 off bad hands from early to middle position...just trouble. This helped me to DO WORK! this session. There is more to this strategy but it involves reads, bet sizing and some body tells.

A new player sat down in the 7 seat, I was in the 10 seat, and made some money on his first hand. I am now in middle middle position and look at two red aces. I make it $15 to go and proceed to get FIVE callers! What the HELL! The flop comes J 2 7, two spades, I have the ace of spades, the deuce and seven are the spades. They check around to me and I push out $60 and only the new guy calls...now my heart starts to race, and my palms are getting sweaty but on the outside I'm looking at the cards and looking at him for any signs as the turn card comes off which is a red deuce. QUICKLY I diagnose his hand, if he called with j7, j2, 72 he would have raised on the flop to get rid of flush draws or he may have just called because he knew I had a big pair and was sitting on J7 or J2 for two pair and just got a full house on the turn or I just counterfeited his two pair with the second deuce or he would have raised to try to take it downd to get it done if he was savy enough...he was not savy. Now I am putting him on a big J, KJ, AJ, QJ, J10, possibly J9 and he could be suited and looking for a spade. He could have pocket queens, kings or jacks but I think he re-pops pre-flop with these hands so I discard those. He checks to me again and I push out $125...he freaking beat me to the pot! No raise so he must be drawing or has a big jack. The river brought a 6 of hearts, he checks, now I can do one of three things...check behind because he may not pay off a bet anyways and I can show my monster so that folks at the table don't think I am making moves...2) I push out a value bet about 1/3 of the pot and hope to get paid off...3) I push all in trying to make it look like I am buying the pot. I go with option two and he folds his hand up showing the J10 of spades. These situations are scary because that could have gone the other way, the freaking spade could have hit the river and he gets paid!

I've rambled long enough, I get into the poker room when I can and I hope to build the bankroll so that I can get into the 5-10 NL game one day, most guys sit with 2-5k in that game. Usually your bank roll should be about 10-15 times your buy in depending on how you play so, one day. My next step is the 2-5 NL game and the usual buy in is 500-1k, but we'll see.

After the tourney, AT&T and Davey come over and look at the table and laugh, as they also knew it was pretty soft. They wanted me to pick up and go to the Beau with them so they could play in the 6pm tourney on the coast. Tell you about that at another time and about the two footlongs that I ate...and the near bet for $300 to eat a third loaded with chilli and all kinds of shyte!

Until next time you all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

harrahs poker room in back.jpg

2009-08-01T21:02:00.000-07:00

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The blurry picture above is the back part of the Harrah's poker room. This is the way it looks after a 10 hour session...SERIOUSLY!

On to the good stuff...so I went into Harrahs, was going to try to make a move to the coast but after having a lazy day with the kids and wife, it turned out to be about 6 pm before I started moving around to get going. A drive to the coast takes about an hour and half, dependent on how fast you like to move. The coast has the Beau Rivage, Imperial Palace, Isle Of capri, and Hard Rock Cafe...there are more casinos but I am naming the ones with poker rooms, that I know of, because there could be more poker rooms that I don't know of. So I roll into Harrahs snap a few pictures and get into a 1-2 no limit game. I am at table 10. Table 10 and table four have got to be the coldest tables in the room, the freaking AC blows directly on these tables...good thing I always carry my jacket. So if you are in Vegas and you see somebody carrying a jacket into a casino, he's probaly going to play poker.

It has been a long time since I played at a table where it was weak not even weak tight...just weak! I got to play with the owner of Collettes...i hope I spelled that correctly, a bar/club that is for people of weird tastes (can't get into here but if you want to know message me)...good guy though. He had a lot of the chips on the table until he ran into quad queens.

I started a little loose, gave away $50 and reprimanded myself, got back into the groove and went into tight/aggressive mode. In the next 30 minutes I made $150, in less than two hours I'm up 3 beans!

HOW? Stuff like this. I'm limping under the gun with AJ suited, get five callers, hi-jack makes it $15, I re-pop to $45, all the limpers fold to him and he calls. Flop is 8 high. I lead for $40 and he folds, I take it down. I am in the hi jack seat and under the gun makes it $15 to go, three callers to me on the button and I see 89 suited, I put out $60 and get called in one spot, he is out of position, and probably has a big ACE. The flop is jack high, he checks, I bet out $50, he folds. WEAK...or was it? I mean, look...new kid sits down and is in the cut off seat, I look at A10 in the hi jack seat, i limp in as did five others in front of me, new kid opens to $10, all five limpers call! When it gets to me, (I was just going to call at first but when I saw that $60 in the pot they asked me if they could join my stack), so I re-pop to only $45! They all folded! WEAK! I can't really talk strategy here, it was like I was in a movie, like Rounders, yeah, when Mike was making his moves at the end of the movie to make all that money back and his reads were right on everytime, I was in that moment. I can play a bit but not as good as these folks were bad, I mean they made me look GOOD! It did help that the cards slapped me in the face also. I am on the button and look at 89 diamonds, there are six people limped into the pot. The flop comes, 5 6 7 rainbow. The nice lady in the big blind bets out, two people call behind as do I and the small blind. The turn is a deuce I believe, the small blind leads out, the lady raises, the other two fold and I feel like taking it down here, so I pop it again basically putting the sb and bb all in, sb folds and bb, the lady, calls quickly and tables the other side of the straight, 3 4. I made plays on several pots that would have got snapped off by good players! IT FELT GOOD! This is why I try not to ever talk badly to them, I offer them gum, I offer to get them drinks, you just have to keep them comfortable and happy as you take the money...'nuff said about that.

It was a good night, four hours of work that could have easily...EASILY gone the other way! You all stay nice as rice and mello as jello!

Harrah's jackpot sitting at over 100k

2009-07-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

I got in two sessions last week and came away winners through both. I did spend a lot of time playing though, I believe I put in about 36 hours in those two sessions...SICK!
Playing tight-aggressive nearly nit like is tough but I pulled it off my first session and came away a decent winner. My strategy going into this session was tight/aggressive, observe the table, play gap connectors and small suited connectors from position only, play pocket pairs from any position and be able to call one raise with them. Muck A baby off suit in all positons, call in position. This strategy worked out great, I think I got one big pot every two orbits. There was only one time I had to outplay someone and he was the loosest player at the table, I had to bet the river with Ace high and he contemplated calling but let it go due to the way I had played the entire session...normally this guy would call me without hesitation, because of my past before this session. That was good to see because I am sure he had a small pair.

My second session had me busting out in my third hour when my kings ran into aces. The only thing that stung here is the type of player, and I should have know better to just call and look at a flop but would I have been good enough to get away from the flop that was 9 high? I want to say yes but if I would have picked up this guys tells pre-flop, which I should have, then I could probably say yes, but this was a lesson learned for me. Here is the deal, the kid was pretty loose, he entered most pots and tried hit his hand. I've played in the past with him and I was just waiting. I saw him snap someone off with K2 hitting the king on the river for two pair, but it was the other players fault they barely bet! So this is how the hand went down...I'm in middle middle position, I have one limper, I make it 15 to go, small blind makes it $100 to go, the big blind(MR. LOOSE) simply calls. The limper folds now I have another $150 left, with $200 in the pot, and yes the small blind is all in, I decide to get a nice side pot so I shove! And the loose kid smiles and turns up his aces, LUNCHBOX in the small blind turns over pocket 10's. The flop is 9 high and I don't improve. I get up for a second come back to the table and the loose guy is racking up! I move to another table and sit there for awhile and finally another loose one sits at the table, well I proceed to get my kings in against 9 high and a flush draw on the board, there are three of us and J7 of hearts takes out queens and my kings. O for Two with the kings. This guy is like, don't worry i'm not leaving, i'll give you a chance to win this back. He wasn't being a dick he was truly sincere, and he went on a spree snapping people off with the worst and I just sat back and picked off other folks. I just kept waiting, it got so bad that the kid next to me with a titelist hat got busted and came back with a vegence and made four times his initial buy in through the j7 guy. At one point, after he had accumulated a monster stack, I make a raise into him he folds as does everyone else. He turns to me and says," I laid down AQ to you, you're too tight, i'm not going to take my chances against you." Inside I am laughing my ass off! If anyone that knew me heard that they would not believe what they heard but he said it and I took it as a compliment and felt like I did finally change up my image somewhat. Well, 15 hours later, the j7 guy busts out even after pulling out another $400. Three hours later I am up a bit and decide, especially after all the texts my wife sent me, that it was time to go. So good seeing you Wild Bill, and thanks, Good seeing you Joe Buesch and thanks! I hope to get back into Harrahs sometime soon because the jackpot is still pretty high, 144k...they hit the 230k on tuesday or wednesday. So remember your style of play may not matter but your image is what counts. Stay frosty!

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!