Sleep With the Fishes, Dine on the Whales

Donkley Chopzilla, Dead Money Winnah, and more...

2012-01-20T13:48:00.000-06:00

Lots of little tidbits:

**Congrats to all the folks I know and like, the few I know and love, and the many I know and hate, that cashed at the Beau so far. I don't really hate anybody so that last category isn't really true but it sort of just rolled off the tongue and onto my keyboard. Because, if I did hate them likely they wouldn't win anything as the power of my hate is so strong it's like a voodoo curse of lifelong bubbles. Just ask CarrotTop, I started hating him 10 years ago.

**Just wrapped up the Dead Money Poker Tournament, and I'm excited that our winner was Ryan Howard from Cleveland. He'll be a great representative for all that played and is a quality guy. Had a lot of fun with him and his buddies following the tournament--so much so, that I am already excited about next years weekend.

He's got a great shot to go deep, with the perfect demeanor and disposition to survive the grueling test of the World Series Main Event. I'll be doing a longer wrap-up sometime soon. He's called "Champ" in Cleveland for winning home tournaments and now he's called champ by all us dead money guys.

**Chopped the Donkley over at Harrahs. I think I got the best of it. With 10 handed they wanted a chop. I said I'd chop if I got 1100. That left everybody else with 455 a piece. First paid 1400 if we played it out and second 900. Pretty sure, I'll chop 10 handed every time if I'm guaranteed more than second place money. One guy objected, roughly second in chips, and then I crippled his stack about two orbits later and he conceded. Poker is fun.

**Looks like I'm headed to Tunica to chase WSOP-C points. My plan is to play as many nooners as I can. I have dropped off the red part of the leaderboard in Circuit points (though still within the 66 that qualify). I think the red boxes are just a guide to get your ass back in the action. http://www.wsop.com/circuit/2011-leaderboard.asp. I know Caufman Tally at this very moment is just one player behind me that is currently getting more points in Choctaw so I expect to slide further.

**I got my wife an Iphone 4s for her birthday. She is doing what everybody that owns an iPhone does when they get it and falling in love with the device. My Android is about to go, its battery sucks energy like a blackhole, and despite Steve Wozniack (Apple founding father) touting Androids (yesterday) I may have to bite the bullet and join the half a billion on the iPhone bandwagon. Principally because Facetime will allow me to see my kids (without Skype) when I'm in Tunica.

**I need to wrap-up that IP final table monster post though I've put off that task like I did homework in high school. Don't know why. If anybody still wants to read it, email me, and I'll get back to it. If nobody does... it'll just left it slip away into the Internet ether.

For Every Queen a King

2012-01-10T10:43:00.001-06:00

Taking a break from that tome on my run at the IP to touch on some more recent happenings (though I will wrap up the final table). Let's start with the Beau's Million Dollar Heater. I played Day 1 twice. I made it to about 160-180 both nights. I think the first day they stopped with under 100 players and on the second around 120. So I got to play all day twice for nothing. I don't remember much about day1a other than not liking the final outcome. Got to hand it to Gene D, he went out a little after me on 1A and made it through 1B and into the money. Glad we weren't doing last longers.

On day 1b, I remarked before the tournament I was overdue for some Aces and some big hands. I got 'em. The Aces held and gave me some chips in good spots. The Queens that's another story. In poker the longer you play the more you see. I once watched a guy at the IP get Queens like 7 times in two orbits and win every single time with them, always showing when not called. Crazy.

I've read online hand histories which defy the odds like a player getting Aces for four five hands in a row and winning with them. I used to doubt those unlikely occurrences but in truth everything WILL happen. When somebody asks me what's the odds in a hand they just saw, the answer is really 100%. Play enough hands the world over, just about everything will happen.

Anyway, I say that only because I retold this story to a few players at the Beau and received skeptical and dubious looks but it's true. Poker players like to exaggerate as one friend told me, but this is no exaggeration. I got pocket queens five times over the day. Guess what... I lost with the five times. No big deal right, what's strange about that. Well every time I had them somebody else had pocket Kings.

Hand one: new guy at the table raises, nit 3bets (first time of the day), I look at queens. I know Nit (nice guy, so I mean no disrespect for that term just describing in short hand his style) has KK or AA, I consider folding but looking at the stacks I decide to set mine and call. Original raiser is having none of that and puts out a huge bet. Nit stews and folds. While he was stewing I told myself I'd call if he folded because he likely has AK and so too the other guy. Then with action on me I revise my strategy (too early, too risky and no read on the new guy so based on the action I have to lean more to AA, KK than anything else and disregard the Nit's folding). I fold face up, new guy shows AA, and the Nit says he had KK. Sweet.

Hand two: I've got some chips. Guy just shoved and won. He shoves again for about 14% of my stack. I got queens. I call. Hello Kings. Bye-Bye Chips.

Hand three: I bet. Quickly a guy 3bets, then he's 4bet. I decide to sit this one out. They get it all in: JJ v. KK. KK holds--no queen either.

Hand four: I'm moved to my final table for the night and a guy that got moved from my previous table with me won the battle of the seat changes getting run-over by the deck with AA and KK multiple times in short order. The following action happens. He bets from UTG, I look at QQ I 3bet. He shoves. Whoa. We talk and I get a read of strength. He's a nice guy who I'd previously chatted with and tells me he has me and I should fold, because he's got me beat. I told him that's what the last guy said when he didn't. He tells me he'll show, I say that's what the last guy said too. He smiled broadly and I knew he was sitting on a monster. I fold face up and he shows KK.

I didn't ask for it, and didn't see it but somebody said the dealer rabbit hunted and I would have hit a queen on the flop. At that point that would have put me at 120k and I would have been sitting pretty. Instead I wear down. Then...

Hand five: UTG+1 raises, my buddy from the previous hand 3bets, and I looked at QQ. I stew and decide my buddy is not radiating the strength he had last time. My stack isn't big enough to do anything but shove, besides at some point I have to run into a hand other than KK. The initial raiser shoves over the top (... looking at the wrong guy). My buddy stews forever, both these guys have a lot of chips (so not as weak as I first thought). He folds. Hello KK. I get no help.

As I walked away I think I heard my buddy say he also had queens as the table laughed. I had been lamenting my misfortune earlier about queens vs. kings so if he did have them that is kind of funny. Part of me thinks I should find a fold there because when I looked at the queens it was almost like I was falling on my sword by putting my chips is in, saying to myself this hand was meant to beat me. Still, my read on the 3bettor was accurate so I can't fault my decision, and I can't limit the opener's range to a massive hand.

Anyway, played really well to get there but made a couple of mistakes, here are a couple of them and some other tidbits.

-I'm buying new contacts. I misread the board in an early hand and put in a third of my chips. I had A10 in a limped pot in the blinds. I thought the board came out 1052. I led out and the nit in the first hand shoved over the top. I called and he showed 52 (limped in late postion). I felt like I was going to suck out on him. Ace hit the turn. On the river the dealer pushed up the 52 and gave him the chips. Slow your roll buddy I thought. Then, I leaned in real close to the board and saw the card furthest from me, wasn't a ten but was a 9. A good player at the table didn't believe that I misread my hand and needled me a bit. I liked him so I didn't mind. He later accused me of Nit-rolling (which I did) an aggressive player that played a hand awkwardly and he needled me some more. It was all in good fun. By the way, I busted him and the needling stopped.

-On Day 1A, I got into a smallish hand with a guy that seemed to be no-fun in his conversations with the other players when I had just gotten there. On the river after a lot of checks I had the best no-pair hand KQ (on an Ace high board). He fired in a bet and I contemplated raising or calling. I figured I had a little showdown value and gathered my chips for a call, I didn't even get them halfway out when he showed his hand (a gross little bottom pair). I stopped perplexed. I knew I could pull the chips back to fold, and in the back of my head I wondered if he was angle-shooting me and in that case I was going to raise. Then I decided it was most likely an honest mistake, because at the time I didn't see value in angle shooting that way and I let the chips stand and gave him the pot. I said "If I was Shady I would have pulled them back." Another player, a good player I respect, who was having his way with the table, told me I should blog about it during a break and we discussed whether it would have been ethical to pull the chips back or to raise. Since he was no nonsense type player, the raise bluff would have been funny especially if I showed, and for that reason alone might have outweighed the ethics of sticking to what I intended. So, I blogged about it. Funny enough, now in retrospect it might have been an angle shoot, maybe he understood what I was thinking and didn't want to have to call a raise so acted quick enough to make it just a call.

-On Day 1B, I played with a nice kid who owns a logging truck company. We chatted for a while and he said he'd visit the site. Just so happened on the other side of me, I was sitting next to Jeremy Drewery (a guy I final tabled at the Main Event at the IP), who ironically is pictured in my previous post. The kid started asking me if I had any big scores or played a lot and I told him to just visit the site. I can only imagine what he thought if he came to my blog and saw the other guy he had been playing with all day as well. I didn't really say anything to Jeremy and pretty much enjoyed being on his left and being able to pick on the rest of the table and avoid him. I also didn't sell him out by saying what we both had done recently when the kid was asking. Anyway, if the kid is reading this I enjoyed playing with you, and you played well while I was there. I could tell you had already figured out not to mix it up with Jeremy too much, so no harm no foul?

IP Main Event Part Two

2011-12-30T19:14:00.000-06:00

So day two, I knew I had some work to do. I don't remember too much of it early. I know Michael Brawley, the gregarious Beau Rivage dealer was at my table, and being active. We never really played any hands together and he got busted after what looked like some bad luck. The rest of the table seemed an improvement from the night before and after an early hit to my stack I grinded it up.

Later I got on a table with an Internet kid and the player in the 1k who I think gave me the compliment about not tilting after that big hand. I'm sure ya'll remember that from a couple of posts ago (ha). I got shortish with some active players chipping away at me and then me and that gentleman got in a hand together.

With KQ or KJ, I flopped I think a flush draw with a gut shot and two overs. I'm sure I'll be criticized for this but I didn't get it all in there. With the stack sizes and the read of strength I got  I felt he was calling any shove so I lost my fold equity. I would have called if he had pushed but witrh my tournament life on the line I opted not to. He bet I called. The turn missed, he bet I called. The river bricked and he shoved. With most of my stack in there, I folded King high. I saw the internet kid shake his head and some of the others at the table quietly discuss in wonder how I could fold there.

I felt this was a crucial hand for me.  In retrospect, I had bought my self a chance. I didn't think I could get the guy off his hand so a shove on anything but a card that made my hand would have been fruitless. My opponent intimated he flopped a monster... it didn't matter, ace high was good and having played with him in the 1k I knew he had more than that. I also thought back to the novice the night before who was criticized by "Wes" for leaving most of his stack in the pot. I assured myself I did the right thing.

I won my first double up, against the same opponent when AJ held v. A10.

I saw the Internet kid get bad beat and shove his chips in like John D'Agostino at the Taj and leave. I felt that pang of shadenfreude that you sometimes get in poker and thought to myself at least that wasn't me.

Then I went on super grind mode. I sat at or about 10 to 15 BBs all the way to the money bubble. I won hands when I needed them. The bubble saved me a little bit because I folded hands that normally I'd shove that ended up getting crushed and somehow I made it to the money.

Pokernews came over and did chip counts and asked what I had. I told them next to the nothing and my friend sweating me, via text said they posted something like not applicable. I watched several players fall and won a hand or two in the meantime still grinding.

Lots of good players remained including Rex Clinkscales, Kenny Milam, Mohammed Moeini, Jacob Naquin, Mark Eddleman, Cameron Ainsworth, and John Holley. I don't know Jacob too well but I like and admire the guy and know a slew of people that hold him in respect. We kept saying to each other at the break that we were going to go 1-2 as encouragement, although we weren't ever on the same table except for one brief moment.

At some point when we were down to maybe four tables, I looked down at a baby pocket pair and thought my relentless tightness might be enough to win me this hand.  This was another memorable hand as I was blinding down to next to nothing but I thought in live poker I might have just enough fold equity to shove based on the preflop action.

Michael Nasserazad, who played wide open popped out a bet as he did just about anytime action was folded to him, and was called by John Holley on my right. In the small blind I looked at 66, I think, and I shoved. Nasserazad stewed and eventually called, a critical 50/50 decision that had my eventual tournament success completely in someone else's hands. Holley called because Nasserazad did. Holley told me if Nasserazad folded, which he almost did, he would have folded and I wouldn't have tripled up.

The flop came two hearts and Nasserazad led out. Holley folded. It didn't matter to me at the time that Nasserazad was betting because I felt like I had to hit a set to win. I hadn't yet but there were two cards to come. The turn brought the miracle 6 (I know I need to rethink my definition of a miracle if I call a two outer that but it sure felt like it). The river put four to a flush on there which neither of us hand. The guy who did have the flush was Holley. Wow.  Fate couldn't have played that hand any better especially with Nasserazad betting him out before he got the improved draw on the turn.

With chips, I started to finally get out of being card dead and drag some pots. Before I knew it we were down to two tables and it was getting late. At some point I sat next to Cameron Ainsworth and he told me about a big test hanging over his head and needing to study.

Interestingly enough, I never once looked at the money and the payouts. I didn't want to know what each pay jump was worth or what we were playing for. I only wanted to make correct poker decisions. I knew the money was in the top three and I was looking to get there.  And I knew my work was cut out for me.

I got into a pivitol hand where I 3bet AQ from the blinds after an early postion tight player led out and called me. Flop came AQ10. I bet it and he raised. AK made a lot of sense there and as I had AQ I wasn't that afraid of a monster set. I shoved and he called. KJ. Oh. The turn brought relief even as I was standing up to leave with a Queen ball. I never hit those. And twice in a night? Wow way to run good in a main event!

Then the kid got up and left and the dealer insta shoved me his chips even though I thought he had me covered and I was trying to leave a second before hand. In the moment, I didn't think about it but after the evening was over I wondered if I had him covered and if the dealer had bothered to check. PokerNews came over and took a pic of me thinking I was the chip leader. How quickly things can change when you are hitting two and four outers.

Mark Eddleman and I mixed it up when I had Ak.  He bet, I reraised he shoved, and I folded. He said he had KK and told me good fold. I think he was being honest. Later, with the clock almost on the break for the evening Mark told me to fold slowly, I did but I didn't quite use up all the time and we had one more hand. Showing how cruel poker can be, I looked at AK again, I opened, Mark three bet me, the tournament chip leader Jeremy Drewery (pictured) reraised and I mucked. Mark shoved and Jeremy called. Mark had KK again and Jeremy QQ. Actually, John Holley might have 3bet in there and Jeremy 4bet now that I think about it.

Flop was nothing and I was telling folks on the rail what a good fold I made when an A hit the turn. Uck. Then a Queen ball on the river gave Mark a bad beat, gave Jeremy an even bigger stack, and gave me a nice burst of confidence for the next day when we'd play 12 handed. I felt bad when I let out a little exhultation when the queen hit and quickly apologized to Mark. I wasn't trying to celebrate his elimination or bad beat, but in the moment I was just glad to know I folded correctly (from a results oriented perspective which is totally the right way to look at poker).   If I had just stalled a little more Mark would have joined us the next day and everything would have been different. Cruel game.

I regarded Jeremy, as one of the better players in the field so him with a lot of chips was not a good thing. Several players were sporting Circuit rings so I knew I wasn't playing just a bunch of luckboxes (like myself).   In truth even with the redraws I never really played with the guys at Jacob Naquin's table. It was almost like two tournaments were merging again as my group really hadn't played with his.

On to the IP Main Event...

2011-12-29T18:06:00.000-06:00

Lots of people, surprisingly and flatteringly, have asked when i was going to wrap up the IP series... I haven't even gotten to the Main Event. I'm going to do so today.

One quick sidenote, that I meant to include before, when I was at the table with Captain Tom and Kathy Liebert, shortly after I called her down with Queen high, and then she got bad beated (I believe) she remarked to him, "Remember when we used to be good at poker."

Nice little self-deprecation there (once upon a time I'd confuse the words self-deprecation with self-defecation which is an entirely different sentiment but anyway...). Obviously, she was joking and I'm confident she knows she still has "it" but Captain Tom wasn't on the same wavelength, he informed her he was still pretty good and started rattling off some scores in the past year.

Okay, after an aborted nap I went to down to see Gene play. Somehow the donk chipped away at him and then prevailed. I felt bad for Gene as it was so close to being a ring on his hand, and it just didn't happen. He had nothing to hang his head though as he played brilliantly all tournament and all seires.

Later the guy who had 15% of me, asked me if I wanted him to buy me in. I had to think about it and told him maybe I'd just sale of piece of me. Again, with a satellite win in my pocket the buy-in wasn't a concern.

We decided on the terms, and I went upstairs to try and nap again and buy-in late to the second flight of the Main. I slept too long, it felt like I just closed my eyes. The LSU-Bama game had just started. I awoke and went down partly to show up early enough in the tournament in case my backer busted out early so he could see I did indeed play.

I got to my table and I had a kid in the 1 seat I didn't recognize but was steamrolling the table a little bit with an internet style that I struggle against. Bev Cheney (pokernews pic above) one of the leaders on the circuit points chart, who had just finished second in a prelim event at the IP was in the three or four seat, and then the rest of the table was fairly inoculous.

I went to the 10 seat, and to my left in the 9 was a super nice guy from Atlanta (by the way you owe me an email), who was getting his feet wet for the first time in a tournament and really enjoying the experience. He brought a lot of life to the table and agonized over several tough decisions. Somehow he put 95% of his stack in on a hand with pocket queens when the board fell apart on him and he folded on the river face-up to the internet kid.

A guy next to him who called himself a pro but looked like and probably played much like "Wes" the red-headed hot-headed meat-headed roid boy from MTV's Real World said that was the dumbest move he had ever seen.

In the back of my head, I thought it is unless you are sure you are beat, and unfortunately, probably due to the way the kid played it he was beat.  "Wes" like his TV lookalike was a total team player. He quickly went to the head of my "I want to bust you list" as he endlessly complained to the dealer about how card dead he was and tirelessly rolled his eyes at the inferior play before him. I thought to myself it's a long tournament you can't win the Challenge in the first episode bra.

My buddy in the nine seat ended up in several hands with me. Doubling up when he caught a long shot on the turn but being hesitant to call with a big hand. Finally, I busted him and was sad to see him go. Before he left, he asked Bev if she was Annie Duke. His earnestness and humble behavior will always be memorable to me

The table broke and I landed on a table with Mark Eddleman (see GCP's Who's Who) who was nursing a shortish stack and playing pretty tight. On my left was a guy who has owned me in the IP events. I don't know why but he always beats me.

In my first hand, shit wish I remembered this more clearly, I dumped a big portion of my stack to him.  Unopened I looked at a decent hand and saw him getting ready to bet behind me. I put out my bet and he 3bet me quickly. I thing he must have seen me coming and started to salivate. Generally, I've laid down to his agression in the past but this felt forced. I decided my ~Ace Queen or Ace Ten (I think) was the best hand and called.

Flop came out paired but all babies. I checked to him and he insta fired. Whoops... I didn't think the hand had changed with the flop. I raised him leery of the spade draw on the board. He called. Turn was a jack. I led out and he called. River was a baby spade, I couldn't figure out how I was beat but felt beat and checked to him, not sure if I would call a bet. He turned over a Jack four of spades for a flush. Nice hand sir.  He got up to get some ice cream and I asked the guy next to him if he was frustrated or something. He said probably. I didn't see him threebet out of line too much more.

At some point I hear some cheering and see Les Miles get gatorade dumped on him on the TV. I wondered why they'd give the coach a gatorade bath at halftime. Uh... guess I slept much later than I thought on that nap. That was confirmed when LSU and Alabama fans stormed into the room to play a sit'n go.

I chipped up a little bit and then they dropped AJ Jejewolo at my table. He immediately started three betting everybody and hitting sets and winning everything. His chip stack swelled. I promptly donked off all of my profit for the day when I got in a hand with him and went below starting stack as the evening came to a close. Had I bought in at the very end of the night I would have been starting with 900 chips more as my day on stack ended at 19.1k.

BTW, I'm writing the rest of this episode out tonight but will schedule the remaining portions on later blogs, so it'll be up here soon.

Saving the environment and charity cons you fall for every day...

2011-12-07T10:48:00.001-06:00

Way overdue on my follow up... unfortunately, I just got time for a short post (which turned into a long off topic rant) been tied up with other stuff since the IP tournaments. I'll explain later. Now, I'm just going to bitch. Hope I don't sound like a 99%er (cause I only agree minimally with a small portion of their complaints... like 1% of them).

Anyway, todays rant is about rampant coporate greed and conning you by citing the environment or charity everyday and most people not even seeing it--three complaints:

1. Starbucks doesn't issue receipts, locally. Used to be they'd ask but the last few times now you have to ask. Other stores are following their lead. Yes, they are saving minimally a small portion of printing costs but it adds up with all their franchises. They'll tell you they are saving trees. Why this is bullshit. Ever worked for minimum wage? I have and of my co-workers probably 1 out of 4 would or did steal if they could get away with it. That means shorting you on the change, stealing from the register eating on the job, drinking on the job whatever.

I go to Starsbucks and these barristers probably make a little more than minimum wage, and I give them my debit or credit card and you want me to feel comfortable with them just handing it back without a receipt. I don't think so. No offense, but user error (which they have plenty of) is enough to fat key a mistake, and hey, with no receipt you won't ever catch it. Or maybe you will when you get your bill and then you got no proof you didn't order 10 drinks but just one... casue you don't have a receipt

Course, today when I requested my receipt they couldn't find it. Or print one. Or offer an alternative because they don't have official starbucks paper. Is that even legal?

Why don't they give you a receipt? The answer is to save money though they'll pitch it to you under the guise of saving the envirnoment. Oh, I'm a bad person because I want to cut down more trees by asking for the receipt? No, I just want to make sure you are doing your job right.

Hell, sometimes your job pays you back for meals and expenses, you mean everybody that's in that spot like salesmen has to request a receipt? And hope they can provide it. On my taxes I take out expenses for work trips... if I don't use my credit card how else can I prove I drink $20 worth of Starbucks. Bullshit.

If you put your faith in the company, fine, but perhaps they should share the savings of "helping the environment" or more accurately their bottom line. Maybe it's less than a cent, well to incentivise a motive for you to help their cause give you a rewards point or something for every receipt not taken.

2. Save the environment and don't wash your sheets when staying at hotel. More aptly save our bottom line and laundry costs.  Same deal, if I don't get my sheets washed I should profit from being enviromental responsible not the hotel.  Put a deposit for whatever that cost is--even if it's one cent on the hotel room and give it back to me when I check out.  If you are going to put those tiresome signs making me feel like a bad guy because that 2 by 2 towel of yours can't get dry and I want a fresh one, you better give me an incentive that's not some transparent bullshit. They don't care about the environment they care about their bottom line and are trying to con you.

3. Ever been asked at check out, "Do you want to donate to my charity?" or even worse "How much do you want to donate to our charity today." How about screw you, and how about this, I want to just buy an item without anybody asking me to donate to some bullshit charity I can't  research in the two minutes I'm at the register, and I want these corporations to stop training their employees to give me a guilt trip about it. My wife and I give money to four or five charities, we've vetted, where most of the money goes to the casue and not the overhead, the bosses, or annoying fundraising mailers. The Salvation Army being one.

Why are all these charities popping up at every counter? Some corporate lawyer or accountant told them that they could collect the money and then get credit for donating it. Yes, by donating your money and claiming it as their own, their taxes go down.   Their incentive is not to raise money for the charity but essentially for you to pay their taxes. Nice scam huh. Hey, readers I'm sending a check to United Way, just send me a check and I'll include it in a bigger one. I'll also get to claim your money on my taxes. Yes... so moral of the lesson is ttop paying for charities at the register.

My mother has pointed out well there is a greater good here, even if the business is being shady about it, because there is money raised for a charity that wouldn't normally be given. People at checkout might never give to charity except in that spot. I remind her, some of those business have just decided to use those register donations as their own. So it cuts into the charity profit there. Instead of donating 1 million of their own dollars, they donate 1 million of our dollars. Used to be there would be 1 million for them and whatever else we gave. Now their is just 1 million. So, there is a loss there. If everybody would have given anyway (which isn't true but just for example's sake) you've essentially halved the charity proceeds (2 million becomes 1). There are folks who don't cut checks to charities any more because they always give at the register.  Sure, one or two people who never give may be guilted into giving but not enough to overcome the other monies.

Then... you have to trust the guy at the register, the guy he gives the money to, the guy he gives the money to, all the way through the chain to get it to the charity without them taking some off the top.  I remember the shady folks I worked with and I don't want a jar of money sitting in front of them especially next to their tip jar. No... give directly people. Stop letting the corporations con you.

Obviously, there are some great charities and some great corporations. Some match whatever is raised... For those that do... Please donate. Though don't feel compelled to because it's double the money... usually there is a cap on the matching and it's a number they easily reach. And remember they are still claiming your donations as theirs.

Still, being aware that companies match is helpful. Next time you are given the guilt trip at the register ask if the corporation is matching. And I've yet, to hear an affirmative (either it's ill informed employees or everybody's scamming us in the name of charity... though I know some genuinely match). If the answer is no or no idea, then cite that as a reason not to give and return the guilt trip five fold. One clerk told me they don't match but they gave $500,000 last year. I corrected him... no their customers gave $500,000 and they got a $500,000 charity donation on their taxes.

If they do match then make your choice. I advise only donating if you buy using a credit card or electronically as nobody has the chance to get frisky with the pot so to speak before it gets to the right place. I'd also advise not donating when asked, going home looking up the charity to see what percentage of the money is actually going to the people in need and getting it double the next time you come back if you think it's a reasonable amount.

Wow... so much longer than I thought it would be....

**By the way, I found that Humane Image on the internet I have no idea if that is true, so look it up for yourself if you donate. But it is appropriate considering how many "charites" gobble up your donations on salaries and things unrelated to the areas you want to help.

Back From Disney World

2011-11-20T18:23:00.001-06:00

Did it seemed like I just upped and disappeared? Well, I did. At a very late moment we made a family decision to go to Disney World. Found a cheap trip through the mouse and instead of waiting a year or two for another time, made the most of the last week of my wife's maternity leave. Sorry, I left this blog dangling in the wind (so too GCP) but despite my intentions to update things during my two year old's naps I discovered two year olds don't take naps at Disney World.

But I'm back... Surprised by the number of hits I've gotten in my absence so I must reward those of you who have been checking in.

Anyway, with my memory a little less clear let's get back to the 1k. They move to a table with Chris Tyrba, (who's on fire this year), bracelet winner Captain Tom Franklin and on my left maybe the best women's player ever, bracelet winner Kathy Liebert. I love her outspokenness on twitter and I respect her chip on the shoulder and her game. She's also fun at the table. The other players also seemed pretty capable including a young kid I traded chips with but kind of felt like he had my number.

Early on I three bet him from the blinds with AQ and he called from the button. The flop was babies and I check raised him and he called. Whoops. On the turn, I checked and he shoved. I told him AK was good.

Kathy said "If AK is good you definitely weren't winning that hand." For my image, I had hollywooded my decision trying to convey I was laying down an over pair but for some reason I still felt like he was weak, but he had taken all the leverage with his shove. So, in opposite of my postering I changed tactics when he started to muck I made the Ak comment just to see if I could get a read on him.

Now in a hole, I informed Liebert that sometimes I just suggest a junk hand I didn't have. The pro wasn't buying it. Which was correct in that spot, but not in all spots because, that is a strategy I employ when I fold. I might suggest I was thinking of a hero call (when not) hoping to induce the victor to show the nuts or close to it. You'd be surprised how often this works and I can pat myself on the back for making a marginal fold. I explained the gambit to her and she didn't think much of it. At that point, I didn't care, I'd rather her think I didn't know what I was doing.

I reinforced that when the tabled folded to me in the small blind. I had noticed a lot of players thinking better of messing with Kathy's big blind. I looked at Qx (garbage) and remarked "Everybody's scared of you Kathy... but I'm not." I completed.

Then to my surprise Kathy did a move many lesser players make when I complete in the small blind that tells me how weak they are. It wasn't that she raised but how she did it. Oh... wow. I like to just call from the small blind sometimes because of this "tell" and recognize I can steal out of position with a lot of flops, but that wasn't my motivation for calling Liebert initially. I wasn't ready to raise with that hand in a clear stealing spot but I was willing to test the waters.

The flop comes AKx which is great for my hand. I check and she duplicates the move with a bet. I suppose if I had real guts I should have just raised and taken it down there but like the call on the flop I wanted to play a little bit of pot control with her and calling looks stronger for me to steal later. I didn't think it was a good idea to keep reopening the betting for her either. She didn't win 5 million + by betting and folding.

The turn pairs the board and I check call Lieberts next barrel (again same read). The river was garbage and I checked and mulled over shipping it should she fire again (yes with queen high) but decided my hand had a lot of showdown value. She could have caught the last card but I knew she didn't have the A or the K and didn't think she had trips on the turn. I felt like my queen high was the best hand. After a while she checked behind and showed a Queen with a better kicker (that didn't play because of the paired board) to my surprise.

She was miffed that I played her with that hand and put a lot of my stack at risk. She was almost tilted by the hand as I think she though she just ran into some donkey who chopped a pot with her being a donkey, though my read was pretty close to dead on. Much later on in the tournament a player at my table who saw that hand despite seeing me show down mostly tight hands since then stewed on a call of me (when I was in fact stealing again... lol) said "I've seen you put most of your stack in with Queen high, so I know you are full of it sometimes." He folded.

Okay... some more highlights from that table. Captain Tom broke out his iPad and he and Liebert were talking about sports betting. She asked if she could place a bet on it and he passed it to her. Apparently she had never used a touch screen before and Captain Tom said "Just treat it like a computer." Pretty good advice... just treat the computer... like a computer. Just treat that Dalmation like a dog. I laughed in my head.

A couple of hands later I said, "Captain Tom. Kathy's looking at porn on your iPad!"

The joke fell flat because the rest of the table looked at me like I was out of line. Don't know if it was because it was at the expense of poker royalty in the IP or that the porn line was too risque. Liebert played along saying "I don't even look at porn on my own computer." This time I missed her joke. More awkwardness ensued.

My tournament hit liftoff when Tyrba hit the table. Captain Tom called him "Mister Fast" and he wasn't kidding. The dude had a stacked and was bullying. Watching him at play the strategy was simple trap him. Sure enough, I catch pocket 7s in my big blind. He raises and we get a couple of callers. I say to myself hit this set and snap him off.

Board comes out 107(yippee)x. I check. Tyrba leads out folded to me, I call. Turn is another baby. I bet, Tyrba shoves I call.***(I'm not positive on this action because it's been a while but I think that's how it went). He had A10 I think. Suddenly I had some chips.

About one round later I'm in a blind again with pocket 8s. Tyrba raises I call. Flop is 8 high. Really? Been a LOOOOOOOOOOONG time since I flopped a couple of sets in so short a time. I think I should check, but then I consider a donk bet might look weaker to him especially since I already trapped him. I'm legitimately indecisive and notice the board had two to a flush out there and recently everybody seems to have the flush cards I can't fade so I start to check and pull it back.

I throw out the weak bet and Tyrba announces all in. To my amazement. After our last duel I had him covered and we might have been the two big stacks at the table. I don't insta-call because I'm surprised by the huge overbet. Yep, just to make sure, I'm not reading the board wrong I have the best possible hand I call looks like I'll have to fade this flush. He turns over AK no pair and only one of the flush draw.

As the board bricks for him he gets up and chastizes me saying "I can't believe you did the "fake check thing."

Now with a stack I'm on cruise control and I'm aware the tables are dwindling. Gene's still alive with almost as many chips as me. At about three tables left they put him on my left. I'm the button and he's the big blind. Incredibly I catch all my hands on the button. Usually, folded to me. I get action from Gene and the guy in the small until I knocked him out almost every time. I expose a couple of my hands to the table to let Gene know I'm not keying in on him.

Then, he ups his aggressiveness and as two of the bigger stacks we start mixing it up quite a bit. I felt like, and it may not be true, but I felt like after yet another raise and legit c-bet from the button on Gene (with pocket 10s) that he tilted a bit. I only saw him make one mistake all tournament and he made a real thin call on a guy a couple of hands later. It was strange to have those conflicting emotions. My pressure from the button I felt like had negatively impacted his game.

Obviously, Gene and I are never going to collude but I would say we play things pretty straight forward in hands we get heads up with. I not trying to bluff him and I doubt he is trying to bluff me nor do we want to collide with such big stacks.

Anyway, at this point we both chip up and up. I think when we broke at two tables I was the massive chip leader. I barely remember the bubble but I do know at that point, the maniac from earlier in the day suddenly got plopped down on my left.

I revveed up the aggressiveness even more and me and the maniac starting destroying the bubble. If he didn't raise I did. Then he started to raise almost every hand. I get mad at being shut out of the bubble play and I fire a big bet back at his open when I peel back a hand. Embarrassment prevents me from sharing the hand or the details of this hand too much because it turns out I made a terrible lay-down. He calls. He bets a flop I connect good with and I check raise him. He calls. On the turn... he open shoves. The board is AK9--K. This is basically for my entire stack even though half is in it.

I stew... I stew.

I fold. He scoops with a wry I got away with it smile.

Suddenly, my image of indestructability is destroyed for the rest of the table. They know my raises can be overcome and even though I get a steady diet of solid starting hands I can't hit a flop and start to bleed chips. I don't shift gears and recognize my shorter stack isn't scaring anybody and in fact, the other stacks are cognizant that now I have to be wary of their double ups. The bubble breaks and so do we. In the break, Gene asks me what happened to my stack and I tell him I lost a lot in the big hand. I hope he won't share the ludicrousness of my fold. "Okay," he says, "what happened to the rest of it.... I say "I spewed." He replied, "At least you can admit it because I was watching you spew from our table."

Oddly, another player at my table, perhaps in meta-game form, complimented me on not losing it and keeping my composure after folding in such a big hand. Either he was trying to get me on edge again or he couldn't spot the spewing Gene saw from a table away. Or maybe he saw enough of my subsequent folds to know I was doing well not to lose more. I thanked him for it and decided it was best if I treated it like a legitimate compliment and put the bubble play behind me.

Then I went card dead almost all the way to the final table (or whatever number we broke the night at). When we restarted we trimmed the fat to the final table pretty quickly and Gene and I had both gotten a little short.

I got in a spot where I needed to shove when we were still at 9 but couldn't find a hand. Then this action happens. A guy who had played tight all tournament opened, another tight guy three bets, there's a call and action finds me. It's AQ and it's ship or fold. I'm pretty sure it was Ace Queen of clubs. At the very least one was a club, this is only relevant because of the next two paragraphs. I fold because I'm pretty sure KK or AA was out there based on the players.

I think they went three to a flop, and all probably would have called my stack had I shoved.

Flop? KcJc10c.

Action? Bet. (ugh) Raise (double ugh). Okay, then it gets normal. Fold, fold. Raiser claims KK. Action would reinforce it but he never showed.

So, I folded either a royal flush, or just broadway with a royal flush redraw in case the sets of kings boats on the turn. AWESOME laydown bro. I start to tell my tablemates and then realize who's going to believe me and even more importantly who cares what I folded.

The maniac I gave all my chips to is quietly amassing chips.

A guy shoves on Gene and he wakes up with JJ in the big blind and it holds and he starts to turn a short stack around. Well, if it ain't me thank goodness it's Gene.

I get folded around to on the button and decide J10 is worth a ship and the big blind wakes up with Aces. First 30k. 8th... 3.8k yuck.

So I collect my winnings and do the sensible thing and sit down immediately at a single table sit 'n go for the main event. We get six to do a $100 last longer. Playing standard sng strategy I don't mind missing hands to sweat Gene, early. Late in the event we get three handed all three in the last longer. This guy Miguel or Michael... he's Greek so can't possibly be Miguel who is wide open in the cash games at harrahs goes on a three handed run where he gets at least one ace for about 15 hands straight. Crazily, me or the other guy get an ace too quite often. Even more crazily nobody goes broke despite aces coming out on the flop.

Finally, Michael gets knocked out. I turn to the guy I'm heads up with and ask if he wants to split the last longer, he says let's split the whole thing despite having me outchipped 2 to 1. ...okay. Michael can't believe the deal I just got.

I decide to sweat Gene some more. I know I'm going to buy-into the Main Event that night in the second session. I find the guy who took 15% of me and slip him his cut from the 1k. Four handed it's taking Gene some time to win the thing so I tell Ross I'm going up to take a nap. I start to close my eyes and he gives me the call that Gene is heads up. So much for that. Gene has the maniac outchipped by a large measure. Wow. I have visions of Gene's ring photo and know this will cinch the Casino Championship for him. I hurry downstairs to watch the coronation, so happy for him. I've legitimately lost all my disappointment in finishing 8th. Or my desire to sleep.

---more to come.

Run Good at the IP Part one...

2011-11-09T16:18:00.001-06:00

Okay... It's coming I promise. Blogtacular posts await. Just have to play catch up on all the family time I missed. So, we'll get started a little bit today and come back to wrap it up in a post or two later.

Let's get the niceties out of the way, I have a very special wife who thought I was just going to Biloxi for a night or two last week only for me to return late Monday night. My heavier pockets eased all the stress of the trip and for the first time she got to enjoy sweating me on the Internet in a poker tournament but I still need to fill up on some quality time with my two young uns. Leaving her with a newborn and son who's in and out of his terrible twos is quite a bit different than life was a couple of years ago when I'd take off for a tournament with no worries. Big thanks to my in-laws for helping out.

Yes... I had a hell of a run at the IP which I need to encapsulate. I hate posting after wins because it feels self-indulgent and bragging but oh well. First of all, it doesn't happen if Gene D doesn't have his epic run to the top of the Casino Champion. Two thirds and a second... wow! Some were talking if it's the single greatest Circuit event for any player. The WSOP media guy didn't know but thought it had to be up there. Odd thing is in the very last tournament Gene still could have been eclipsed by Ricky Romero from Louisiana. If Romero won outright Gene could lose his seat in the free roll. Right after I busted so did Ricky so GCP was guaranteed at least one seat in the Million Dollar free roll.

Let's back track a little bit. Of late I'm been running bad. I'm sure I played bad too, I don't know of any player running bad that is playing optimally, and I can list recent mistakes I've made in spots I didn't need to make 'em. In fact, I called Brian Lusk of Poker Immersion about a hand I played in the Donkley and I was asking him about my decision on a later street, and he basically reminded I had no business being in the hand in the first place. Basically I lost with QQ a hand or two before and then I mangled some suited one gapper from the blinds because I tilted into playing it.

Yup, a hand I used to never play especially out of position because unless I hit it square on the button I'll never know where I'm at. Let's say it was 810. In that spot I hit a 10 and A10 crushes me. So, I reflected on things and realized sometimes being able to outplay people doesn't mean you should try to every hand. Preflop it was 3bet or a fold, rather than make two pair and run into a straight.

Anyway, that was a good piece of ammunition to get me thinking right again and quickly got me to playing a stricter range of starting hands. Gene's success was even more helpful. I had been questioning the grind. Bubbling final tables and bubbling the money and being that guy that can't get lucky in those critical points in tournaments takes its toll. Then I have to watch some short stack soar late and wonder why couldn't that be me. Spoiler alert: It could be.

However, as down as I was feeling and mulling over moving back to cash games and working on plugging all my leaks there instead of suffering the variance of tournament poker, Gene gave me hope again. He's dealt with all the same mental trauma of being so close but so far away. Then the switch clicked for him.

I said well if Gene can run good in a tournament series so can I.

1K MEGA

The weekend for me is a tale as old as poker. I arrived with low expectations and not much money in the pocket. I late regged for the $235 mega for the 1k event with maybe a third of the field already on the rail. I went card dead for most of the tournament but built up enough of an image that I managed to short stack my way to a seat. One player gave me walks in my big blind after me and him had some words about the tournament structure.

Basically, they were supposed to play 10 handed, but with three tables left the TD said why not just play down to 18 and merge. Obviously, that's a huge disadvantage to the short stack. I was a short stack and not looking to pay blinds every two out of six hands. I spoke up and said if that sheet says play 10 handed we play ten handed. The other player asked something along the lines if I was a rules nit, and I somewhat angrily explained how I was at disadvantage. In retrospect i believe he hadn't thought of that and just thought I was being anal by the way he responded to my retort with a shrug and a nod.

Then he went easy on my blinds. Much appreciated and unexpected. Afterward I apologized for my tone and he said he would have done the same thing in my shoes. He's one of the leaders on the circuit points board. I also had that dude in the pic, Chris Bigler, at my table, with a lot of chips, he could have just got up and gotten some ice cream. In fact, several times other big stacks reminded him he was in a mega and didn't need to win the tournament as he tried to build big pots. I spoke with him during the tournament and several times after. He was a very nice guy that some of you might remember from a number of TV tables just at the beginning of the poker boom. Apparently, since then he's been touring the United States in a camper and having a blast. Still has it in terms of applying pressure to other players. I guess he didn't win that million or so in tournament earnings by accident.

Anyway, I did just enough to earn my seat despite being card dead, the highlight being that I bested Bigler for a big pot too. He complimented me by remarking how I qualified despite being short stacked all tournament when all the other players were dusting off their chips in coin-flips early.

So, I was definitely staying one more day. Call up the wife and tell her the news. She says "So you won money?" I stammered, "Well kind of... I won a 1k seat." Her reply was something along the lines of can you spend a 1k seat?

1K TOURNAMENT

The next day we are about to start and I approach a guy who has backed a friend or two of mine and asked if he wanted a piece of my action. I wanted to get more than the cost of the satellite to at least go home a winner and freeroll the 1k tournament. Think my conversation with my wife had something to do with that? We agreed on a price and I gave up 15% of myself.

That tournament started out wonderfully. I loved my table, unfortunately it was one of the first to break. Mohammed Moeini was thankfully on my right and I felt like were kind of just picking on most of the rest of table. He always seems to go deep in tournaments around the coast so I was enjoying the luxury of picking my spots around him. Nice guy. I chipped up pretty quickly. Then they dropped New Orleans Circuit winner Fred Berger in the one seat and though he wasn't wearing it I swear I could hear his World Series bracelet jangle with every decision he made (plus the 1 milly in earnings). Not as many weak spots in a 1k tournament. With Berger there, maybe I was grateful they were breaking my table... Side note, about Fred, I played with him in New Orleans and I watched him weild the power of position incredibly. In about every limped pot or raised and mulitple called pot that he was in late position he joined the fray. Everytime it was checked to him, he'd bet and most times add to his stack. Seems like it's poker at its most obvious and easiest but I'm quite sure he was the only guy applying it.

Back to the 1k, they move me and ahhh, it was awesome.... (that's sarcasm) because they sent me to Bert Ladner, Carwash (Mike Schneider out of Georgia who just seems to dominate events like this), and November Niner John Dolan's table (remember him? the guy in the hoodie up there). Even worse there was this maniac to my left that they were all slobbering looking at with a ton of chips. I didn't want to be in their predatory gaze by accident. The guy would give all those chips away and promptly get them back in the (thankfully) short time I was there. He was fond of 3betting and c-betting and triple barreling. Don't know if he really understood anything about the game except for aggressiveness but sometimes that's all it takes--just ask Pius Heinz. We'll come back to this guy later.

I win a couple of pots including some against the big three all next to each other in one corner and I'm feeling comfortable again. I executed a move at the first table that I duplicated at the second and now it's in my permanent arsenal for every table move I make. It's a fun one but I'm not sharing it.

My big hand came at Bert's expense. There was a limped pot in my big blind and I had 67 I believe. The flop came A95 (or something like that). Checked around. Turn was bingo 8 ball. I checked next guy checked. Bert bet, I called, first guy... raised... Bert called... shove time baby. First guy folded maybe AK. Bert stewed forever and showed a set when he called. Board didn't pair on the river and I was chipped up.

Then, the TD tapped me on the shoulder and told me they needed me to move to balance the table. Oh yeah? Me, leave the murderer's row in the corner, with the maniac on my left, yeah... good luck everybody, oh and I more than doubled up as a parting gift, yeah... thanks.

Then the put me down on maybe... a worse table...

Short and to the point...

2011-11-02T00:50:00.000-05:00

Short and to the point... Me? Doubt it.

I just wanted to give a shout out to Gene D. I know the 13k score was nice for him, but he really wanted first. Sucks about tournament poker usually exactly one guy is thrilled with the outcome. Second and third always have a touch of bittersweet to them. I know Gene well and he usually takes his eliminations hard. I hope in this one he realizes how well he must have played to have survived an almost 500 person field and finish third. Looking forward to reading his blog and seeing some hands and what he was going through mentality during the days.

Personally, the close but no cigar side of variance has been rearing it's ugly head. I haven't been able to get anything going... though I did win a $50 voucher to the mega satellite in one of my near misses recently lol. Should be back at the IP soon. Might rendezvous with Ross L.

Fortunately, for you short and sweet-ers I'm a little too tired to write too much more. I had a bundle of things I wanted to discuss and unfortunately none of it is springing to mind right now. Most importantly, congrats again to Gene D, it's been long overdue for him and nobody deserves it more.

Befriending according to Ben Franklin.

2011-10-21T16:12:00.000-05:00

Ben Franklin didn't just fly kites to get shocked by lightning as way to get high, crack the liberty bell to upset Paul Revere, and become the ambassador to France because of a love of pastries, he was actually a pretty smart guy. Actually, Gentleman Ben might not have done any of those things or had those reasons for doing it, but invariably somebody out there believes that he did and guess what if you try to explain why he's wrong, particularily on the internet, he'll only believe in his side all the more.

Been enjoying a pyschology site that suggest that we are wired pretty strangely. One thing I picked up was that when people believe in something stongly, sometimes evidence to the contrary only makes them believe all the more. They'll doubt the source, doubt the data, and write off the critic rather then ammend their way of thinking. As news sources have gotten narrower in their viewpoints it's become harder for a liberal to accept anything Fox says as accurate and vice versa for conservatives with MSNBC. In fact, watching the opposite viewpoint will only make you angrier and angrier and throw logic further out the window.

What's this got to do with Ben Franklin? He was fount of wisdom. They above quote couldn't be more applicable than to many of the problems we face today. Another, tidbit of pyschology I picked up was the something Franklin learned early in his career: that people that do something for somebody else are more likely to like that person than even if that person did something for them. You like the people you help more than the people that help you. And if somebody wronged someone else they are more likely to dislike that person (usually to rationalize their own bad behavior) than somebody else.

One of Ben's tactics in life would be to ask advice or favors of enemies and turn them into mentors and friends. Rather than drive deeper wedges into a fractured relationship, he knew he could curry favor by literally currying favors. Asking somebody that dislikes you to do something for you is not easy but once done, you create a congnizant disconnect, and they rationalize their actions or behavior by transforming their feelings. Therefore, they did something for you it must be because they like you.

Perception is reality.

Anyway, I find that interesting. How does it apply to poker? They say you should be liked by the person on your left and you should hate the person on your right. The money moves right to left. Watch some of the old timers and they'll be talking to the person to their left and ignoring the one to the right. If you feel slimely by playing a meta-game you can at least curry favors of the person by asking them to make change for you, move over just a little bit, tell you the time, whatever.

Do so gracefully, not to be a pest, but as a legitimate nice guy. You'll have them folding to their "buddy" in no time. Okay, probably not, and this probably won't earn you too much money in the long run but it can't hurt. If you are going to choose a guy to be friendly with make sure it's the guy to your left.

I once sat down at a table and asked the person to my left if the guy in the first hand I saw had been playing that wide open all day. The player turned to me and said venomously "You are barking up the wrong tree." In retrospect good for him, he should think of me as the enemy and do nothing to help me, but sure enough I wore him down.

Another snippet of wisdom applied to poker is the fact people that wrong other people are more likely to dislike those people than if they didn't. The obvious application is to debts. How many times have you seen people owe money to someone else, stiff them (even if it was a little bit out of their hands) and then turn around and start painting the other party as the bad guy. In their mind they've wronged that person, but they think of themselves (in most cases) as intrinsically good, so to have wronged them, that person had to have it coming. Those they'll justify not paying or justify not paying later because of the way the guy came at them.

If you made the mistake of loaning money you weren't willing to lose to a poker player and then the rent is due, you need to tread very carefully in getting that money back. Pyschologically speaking you should give them an "out" for their bad behavior that doesn't put the onus on them. Offer a payment plan, accept a tiny token of good faith and change the frame of that person's perception. Say you are owed $200 and you know they guy can't pay it then the best way to get the money in the long run is not to go off on him but to get him to pay something.

Collection agencies and other debt collectors understand this that you need to change the person's viewpoint from "I wronged this guy by stiffing him (he must be a bad guy for me to have wronged him)" to "I paid this guy just $10 of the $200 I owe him (he must be a pretty good guy for me to pay him, and I should probably get him the rest of the money sooner rather than later because he only took $10 out of the $200)."

If you don't have this understanding of human nature you might be offended by the offer of $10 rather than solicit it. Truth is...

Perception is reality.

Anyway...

Wanted to say thank you to those who read the blog. I've gotten a number of repsonses recently and I've made people think. That was the point of today's blog, rather then just recount some of the ugly knockout hands I've endured (cue bad beats... KK can't hold off QQ aipf, 99 can't beat 64 all in on turn with a 6 on river, and AK can never beat AJ). Yawn. I don't have to read a pyschology blog to know nobody likes complainers besides it's poker we've all been there, still in my next post, I respond to a reader who is fed up with the game and questioning his commitment to poker, his beats are worse then mine.

New baby, New features coming, and New uses for my pecs

2011-10-11T11:17:00.001-05:00

milk man

Lots of things happening at once in my life:

The biggest and most important is the birth of my second child. Awesome.

I have a daughter now and she's a late night partier. Yes, up all night, sleeps all day which hopefully won't be repeated in her college years. My wife, who has become a vending machine, somehow seems to do 100 things in a day and not get any sleep. She's up substantially more than me because, well, because my nipples don't work the same way hers do. Interesting fact though, some men have been known to develop milk when the mother of a newborn is out of the picture. Which answers the question from Meet the Parents "I have nipples too, Greg, can you milk me?" Well, yes.

Fortunately, my wife isn't out of the picture so I'm not becoming some sort of mutant man and lactating. However, I do advise for future fathers to not mention being tired or wanting a nap if your wife is nursing away all night. Granted there is a certain logic in the concept that being tired has a threshold and once you surpass it you are equally tired. For example Phil Laak set the poker record playing for like 5 days straight. He was tired. The guy playing 4 days straight he's also tired right?

Can he not complain about being tired? I'd like to think somewhere along the way, where you are almost falling asleep on yourself, probably, there is a level of tiredness you can't surpass. I'm obviously not talking about physical exhaustion, or athletic exertion, but just generally sleepiness. Maybe it's 24 hours without sleep. Whatever it is, you are fricking tired, and believe me when your kid is up all night, you are fricking tired.

Now, despite knowing this, don't admit to being tired future dads. I highly advise against it. And if you fall asleep, while your wife is nursing, do it with one eye open or risk getting the breast pump affixed to your chest and trying to find out if your nipples will in fact nurse.

POLITICAL RANT:

Got some positive feedback from liberals and conservatives alike about my last political post. Good to hear most of it was positive and rather then offend everybody more people took it as common ground.

GCP STUFF:

We are also in the process of getting our message board up on the site and (shhhh... on this one) putting together our podcast and getting our cover ready for the yearbook. For reasons that are a little bit outside our control we've been stymied and these things have taken a little bit longer then we'd like. However, I expect things to move pretty quickly, pretty soon.

POKER:

Haven't played much for obvious reasons, see the first couple of paragraphs, and no it has nothing to do with the wetspots that suddenly develop on my shirt when I hear a baby crying. And once again I deny that my wife put two breast pumps to my chest when I fell asleep last week to cause this rampant lactation. Anyway, when I have played poker can't seem to avoid big hands in the big blinds when I shove. Can't seem to set up against the overpairs either. Oh well, run good is headed my way next time out.

PHILLIES:

I hate baseball but for some reason I love the Phillies. Hard to explain. During the grotesque regular season that never ends I could care less about the sport or an individual game's outcome. Perhaps, I should like it more given my affinity for another competition of partial successs but something about a guy only being performing three out of ten times being a stud has never appealed to me. I also hate how capricious it is.

Seems like a five game series often times won't reward the best team. Seven is probably too few as well. I know they used to play best out of nine around the turn of the century and that makes more sense. Course I think they only had two teams in the postseason back then.

Baseball, like poker can only be measured over a long stretch of time. Streaks mislead both positively and negatively, and sometimes only the lens of a finished career can accurately describe a player. The Premier League recognizes the more accurate season long standings as the way to crown a team as a champion. Our sports should consider celebrating the best records a little more than they do. Of course our postseasons prohibits that (which is a more compelling argument for the bowl system in college football than most people recognize). Usually the hottest team wins in many of our sports. I find it funny when talking heads wonder why wildcard teams are winning a lot of titles of late. Seems obvious to me.

So, being bored by the regular season I find it odd that I'm so invested in the post-season that... I can't bare to watch the games then either. Constantly asking who will chance smile on on this day is hard to stomach. What does that make me? The worst bandwagon fan possible?

I was sad to see the Phillies lose to an overwhelming Chris Carpenter and an under-respected Cardinals team. In a seven game series maybe the Phils win the last two, but the Cardinals were certainly good enough to win just one more. I found it funny that in Philadelphia fans were calling in to complain about the makeup of a team that... has won their divison the last five years, each year has bettered their record from the year before, won more games this year than in any year of their franchise, has a world series ring already and a ton of playoff wins... but the fans think they can't win with them.

U.S. SOCCER

The men's national team gave me great hope when they signed Jurgen Klinnsman to be their manager. A series of dour performances and a lack of finishing has finally started to make some people question the hire. I've seen that he has a strange affinity for a couple of players that I can't quite figure out but I'll still give the man time. It's odd we are struggling when arguably our players have never shone brighter in the foreign leagues.

Truthfully, us and Mexico talentwise outclass our region and should be in the top 10, top 15 of teams worldwide. For some reason we are not. I hate to admit this but our rival Mexico may have their finest grouping of talent ever, and I think they are a legitimate World Cup champion possibility. We'll see tonight if they hang with Brazil in a game that I think should be a lot of fun to watch. Oodles of young talent all over the pitch. Also, scary for us considering how good we are, and how far ahead Mexico is of us. We need to beat Ecuador in the warm-up game and put some goals away.

OT: Political Attacks

2011-09-30T11:29:00.001-05:00

You may be a racist if support this man!

Couple of idiots in the news this past week, I hate it when people use bad logic, and dumb people just blindly follow it because they have similar political opinions and they look up to these people. This week, to be fair and balanced, I'll go after a liberal and a conservative. I'm sure liberals will come on here agreeing with the liberal and conservatives with the conservative and call me an enemy of both.

Maybe I am an enemy of both parties in a two party system that promises everything to their voters and delivers nothing. It's almost comical to me... people blindly put faith in their parties... when both parties fail, catastrophically over a period of decades, to do what they campaign for. I've said it before on here, but if I were some nebulous group of rich and powerful, the easist way to control a populace and retain power would be to give them two options... those options split on idealogoy, and mask themselves as opposites, but both are really shades of the same thing. Kerry and Bush almost the same guy when you really strip a lot of it away.

Then you always win, you shift the pendulum a little to the left or the right, and you never have a population wake up and realize you are just screwing them over because it's only half of you that's wrong. Instead of a complete overhaul of the system the masses look toward phyric victories in elections as solutions. I don't believe in an illumnati or some clandestine group running things in our country or in others, but I do believe that a side effect of our system of government has created this. People who tell you government is broken are wrong. It's a well oiled machine run by big banks and rich people with an army of lobbyists dictating policy. What a suprise a system devised by rich people favors rich people.

So before I get to dissing the morons, let me just say our system is truly broken as far as the ordinary American is concerned, just take a look at our last president. Whether you agreed with Obama or not is irrelevant. Guy came in on a platform of change had a Congress behind him and delivered little of what he said he'd do. If you believe every new President genuinely wants to change, then their ineffectiveness even when having a mandate and a friendly legislative body, gives you this idea that once they are sworn in some guy welcomes them to the White House and says, "look bub this is the way it's going to be. Last two guys that tried to go their own way were Ronald Reagan and JFK and both got shot." Or something to that effect. Suddenly, there is a disconnect from what their supporters thought they'd get and what they actually got.

Now, everybody is promsing the world. And everybody's calling the other side evil but it's like hating George Washington's head but liking the back of the quarter. These are the same group of people. Alright you lemmings, now let me offend all of you.

Idiot number 1: Jeanne Garafalo who came out and said Tea Party members support Herman Caine because they are racist. Her "logic" is they can mask their racism by supporting a black guy. Very intelligent, shrewd, and sublte point there. To elaborate, they differ with Obama because they are racist and they support Caine because they are racist. With that stellar intellectual premise couldn't the Tea Party also say dems mask their racism by supporting Obama and are outward with it by hating on Caine. Yeah. It's flat out stupid.

Morgan Freeman recently came out and said the Tea Party was created out of racism because their only goal is to get Obama out of office. Hmmm... so Democrats were racist against whites when their only goal was to get Bush out of office. It was quite a surprise to one of the founders of the Tea Party when he heard Freeman said what he said... because that founder is black.

Idiot number 2: The guy affialiated with the NRA. He came out and said that Obama's plan to outlaw guns, despite doing nothing in his first term that was even threatening to gun laws (WHEN HE HAD A SYMPATHETIC CONGRESS) was to do nothing his first term, thus to get reelected so he could do something his second term. Genuis. What a brilliant strategy. Maybe in his second term he'll also unmask himself as the anti-christ. Good thing he waited four years because... instead of doing it when he had record support behind him... he'll do it when his numbers are at their lowest?

Both idiots: This is exactly the type of lunacy that people who blind themselves idealogical to one party or the other create. Rather than say, well it looks like Obama's not that big a threat to the NRA but still we may get even more freedoms with a Republican candidate they just manufacture a lunatic theory to get the masses frothing at the mouth. Why tell it like it is when you create an illogical and ridiculous half truth--for the good of the party. Isn't it great that outspoken folks like Jeanne Garafolo and NRA executives support the cause so much they'll see the greater good is to lie to you so that their side can win. And the irony is then what? Their candidate wins and does nothing that different from the last guy in office.

It's crazy how the democrats blast Bush of his bailout packages and ignore Obamas and republicans do the same thing in the reverse. So many people get their news from one outlet, the one they agree with (and they've done studies to prove this) that they buy into the distractions and the lunacy and the fallacies.

I had a conversation with a person who hates Obama, he hates most politicians (like me), but is definitely a Fox news viewer. He slammed Obama, told me everything Obama was trying to do, and told me how evil he was. I had just heard how Obama's legislation cribbed a lot from Republicans and what he was trying to pass through Congress was kind of genuis because he was going to take those popular ideas and use them as his own (or perhaps he shared those ideas and they were truly common ground--doesn't matter). I ask this man about what he thought about this possible political gambit and Obama's speech. And he said, well hell if I know what Obama's doing I never listen that a-hole.

???

Have we really come to this, that we don't even listen to what the other side is saying, we just feed at the teat that filters the news for us and tells us what to think? The answer is obvious, yes. There is passionate and fervant discord and blindness to the fact little changes. Go on defending your filters, go on lauding your stand-ins that tell you what to think, no matter how ludicrous the logic is used to get there, and enjoy never really having a say in the politcal process because true change will never come at the hands of the democrats or the republicans, true change will only come when we completely tear the system down and start over... guess what billions of dollars will insure that will never happen, even if it's the billions of dollars of our money used to bail out the banks. Or the billions of dollars of our money cycled through government projects and back into the politicians pockets via lobbyists and businesses. Meanwhile, people will argue until they are blue (or red) in the face about the issues they are told are important.

Counterfeit Bill

2011-09-29T11:35:00.001-05:00

I have one thing to discuss this week poker wise.  I've been counterfeited quite a bit recently and I think that should be my new nickname for the week Counterfeited Bill. One of the hazards of being somewht good at poker is you figure out when you are beat, know you can't get a person off the hand with a bluff, know you don't have any implied odds to make the call, and make the correct fold... why? Because you'll rarely do the counterfeiting... so next week it's unlikely I'll call myself Counterfeiting Bill. That means you'll give a disproportionate amount of body blows than you receive. Course it also means you'll make more money than the suckers chasing hands when they shouldn't long run.

This brings me to my topic this week, and what I think this is the area of discipline that is hardest in poker. You get counterfeited all day. Doesn't matter if you price them off the draw or you price them in to risk getting a little more money before hammering 'em later. Then finally you hit your breaking point and can't fold when you know you should. How to do you find the strength to fold after being bad beated all day. Or does just everybody eventually break and call knowing they are beat?

Let's say your opponents have been hitting you back all day, after you hit some big hands on the flop or the turn, you know they've hit, and you fold on a later street. You've been counterfeited which is fine, but then it keeps happening. How do you find the discipline to keep folding, especially in a tournament. You see your chips dwindle away despite you making the right decisions. I struggle with this in poker in cash games and tournaments.

Last couple of weeks, this has been a theme for me. Final tabled the Donkley last week with a big chip stack. Limped with aces, took a few limpers with me, and as I expected the shortish big blind shove. He woke up with a hand and picked up his chips ready to move in, as he had done previously. When I saw bullets I set the trap. I reshoved covering the other limpers, pushing them out with that extra money in the pot and watched his pocket 5s go four to a flush. We discussed chopping and he refused despite the fact he had less than five big blinds. Thereafter, I run AK into JJ and I'm out. He departed shortly after me. The bad beat wasn't losing the hand but losing it to the one guy that wouldn't chop despite it hitting the "craps" stage of the tournament. Had the hand held, we chop right there or maybe a player later, because I have 33% of the chips in play.

This week, after making lay-down after lay-down, me and the same guy are in the blinds and both short. I have a hand I want to see a flop with but maybe I should have just shoved with a little over 3k and blinds 100-200. I flop open ended. There are two hearts on the board and he checks his cards to confirm he's on that draw. I make a bet and he quick calls (I know he has the hearts). I hit the straight on the turn and bet bigger, pricing him out, so I think. No.

River is the heart. I check and he shoves. Sweet. Now most of my chips are in the pot. But I know my straight is no good. Why call when I know I'm no good. Because I've been folding all day and just couldn't find the folded I needed in my frustration. In my mind, I fold again and move on to another hand with some chips to play with. In reality, I throw my chips in hoping I'm wrong but knowing I'm right. Sure enough flush and I'm left with 100 left.

Scan ahead if you don't like bad beats, for your convience I've italicized them, but for those interested in how I couldn't make the right fold...

Earlier, I flop bottom two pair on an Ace high board in the big blind. Multi-way pot, let the ace bet for me. Checked around. Nice job Bill. Turn is a ten. I bet big. The button calls me. River is an Ace. That can't be good. I check. She checks. I show my countefeirted two pair. She almost mucks her J10. Then realizes she hit and says "That's why I always turn the over."

Grumble, grumble.

I fold aces, on a queen high board, three to a flush for the rest of my chips.

Grumble, grumble.

I flop a pair of Kings with Queen kicker.  EP (preflop limper bets). I call. My friend who wouldn't chop last week calls. Turn is a second six. Bet, call, call. River is a brick. Flared nostrils from raiser... hmm not good.  Ready for a confrontation and a call.   Great bet size, have to call because I beat a lot of his hands that he think might be good, like KJ, K10, K9, even some other kings (though I think he checks most of those and doesn't three barrel). Guy behind me calls (I fold if I'm third to act).  Bettor shows A6 for trips. I had the other caller beat who showed K10.

Grumble, Grumble.

I run AA, bet huge pre, bigger on the flop, into a turned queen high flush and fold the shove on the river. Even better I was four to the flush with the Ace when I checked called a big turn bet.

Grumble, Grumble, Grumble.

So pray tell fellow players who do you convince yourself in the moment to fold when you know you are beat? In a cash game recently I have KQ suited hit the flush and know I'm beat and want to fold but I didn't. Evey time I have second nuts in that spot and feel bettered I always am. So why can't I fold?

Is it because the entire night I saw two pair become crushed by rivered straights. Guys chase their flushes and check in the dark against my kings going to the river, hitting it, and then me checking behind. So aggravating when people check and don't make the bet they have to, to justify calling a protection bet, on the turn. If you going to chase your draws people, at least bet to make it worth it.

Another issue I have with draws, is I know which players will make it worth it, if I hit and which won't. Against me, you may chase but short of nuts vs. second nuts you'll rarely get the pot necessary to justfiy the call. Still bumbleheads do it all the time. Checking in the dark when you are chasing the nuts... and hit it.

Please at least value bet in the dark or some sort of other strategy that might help you win the hand in more than one way.

That ended up being a lot of complaining, I apologize, but would greatly appreciate any insight on finding folds, after making frustrating folds, or getting coolered all day... If you know any tricks please reply...

Dead Money NOLA table 2011

2011-09-20T10:44:00.001-05:00

Recently wrapped up the Dead Money Poker Tournament satellite table #1 in NOLA. Our table only had seven players after a couple of late drop-outs but we played it out with a little higher buy-in for the seat at the final table. The aggressiveness of my wife's cousin, gave him a lot of chips early on, and I thought maybe an inside track to win the seat. I also hit a few hands and connected on flops, that I've recently been missing, to chip up.

He's a player I don't like to mix it up with in some respects because, I can't ever seem to know where's he at, which is a credit to him. We dueled in one big hand where I probably should have extracted more money if not for a fear of where he was. Usually, he does the betting for you so I was going to let him inflate the pot. I raised with J10 suited, from the button he said "I'll play with you, Bill." Forwhatever reason, I thought that meant he had a big hand. Trapping with AA or KK was possible but in retrospect less likely. As I held a J and a 10 in my hand maybe I should narrowed it to queens.

The flop hit J109. I started to bet but I had a feeling he'd do it so tapped the table. He put money in and I check-raised him. When he smooth called, I didn't like it. Again, knowing him, I should have probably known I was okay. I imagine he'd push back with KQ, KK, or AA. When he just called it shouldn't have scared me as much as it did.

I checked the turn, he followed suit. The river, another brick, and I mulled over my options, I didn't really want to stack off with two pair, this early and a ton of play, so I didn't really want to open the bettting and fold to a bluff if he pushed back. I checked with the intention of calling a river bet. He checked behind with QQ.

Shortly thereafer, and for whatever reason, probably socializing after exiting the hands, I was surprised to see Parfait and T.O. slim on chips when they went out early. Missed the pots they lost. Five handed saw Lee get short and saw the short stack Dave A rise from the ashes. Lee got knocked out and it was four of us with me a shortish stack.

Blinds were getting a bit heavy so I shoved AQ, K2 (from the small), and then KJ suited from the button in three out of four hands I think. Probably a mistake. Dave woke up with AJ on the last one and after some deliberation called for almost his entire stack. In retrospect I had enough to just bet and not shove. I should have known with recent history he was going to call me lighter than normal and KJ is in trouble against a variety of hands. Flop was dry and c-bet might have taken it down. Oh well.

Later my wife's cousin made two pair vs. Dave and Dave made a straight to end his night a little too early. Joe C was heads up with Dave, and had very quietly accumulated a lot of chips. I was talking too much to follow the action but ironically saw a final hand of 1010 vs. Ak for all the marbles. Ironic because we had been discussing a hypothetical situation of when you'd call off your stack as a small favorite in a coin flip and when you wouldn't the example we were using was saying you had pocket 10s and somehow knew for sure your opponent had AK. Pretty lively debate in all the situations you would and would not do it including deep in cash games, in tournaments, etc. Lots of opinions on that.

Obviously, heads up without knowing both those hands will get it in pre. AK flopped two kings and turned an Ace for Joe to win it comfortably with a full house. Congrats to Joe. Will have to get an update from him about the hands he was involved in. Very happy Joe qualified as he's played a lot of these satellites over the years.

Congrats also to local pro David Nicholson who also won a tournament with AK on the final hand. Course Nicholson won a WSOP Circuit Main Event for 150k against almost 500 players so his was probably a little sweeter victory.

The Future is Now...

2011-09-13T21:54:00.000-05:00

Computers talking to each other. Fun, stimulating conversation there. The beginning of the end?

Here's some links that interest me:

Minority Report is here. Predictive software on supercomputers are capable enough to predict riots, revolutions and civil upheavel. How long til people have to spam the internet to run interference on the next spot of revolt?
That's Levitation Holmes. From the folks that brought you invisibility cloaks now comes flying carpets. There is something called Casimir force and the science behind it is quite interesting if you like quantum physics and metamaterials that theorhetically could make levitation happen at a reasonable expense of energy.
David Einhorn gives up the Mets. You remember the poker playing donating to charity main event winnings hedge fund manager who was going to save the Mets, seems he's given up that pursuit. Also, seems like the gild is off the lily in his day job too.
This one goes to 11. Harry Shearer is a funny man (I liked him best stuck in a pod in Spinal Tap). He's also a smart man, that cares about New Orleans, his article on why you shouldn't be too happy with the Army Corps of Engineers yet. It is illuminating like a T-shirt of green bones.
To be the best you have to have you spouse beat you. Even if you don't like wrestling you have to read this engrossing article about the styling, profiling degenerate wrestler.

Had a few good cash sessions in a row. Still feel like I run terrible in cash despite being able to wait for godot. Somehow turned a profit after watching two and three outers nibble at my stack again and again.

I folded this hand on the flop and regretted it. I had 109 of hearts. Flop was Kx9x8h. Bet, call, and I folded, but I was priced in. Literally, as the cards were leaving my hand I was thinking why fold I might be able to take a big pot. Bettor and caller are pretty tight but overplay top pair and nothing. I knew if I hit a card that gave me a ton more outs, I might be paying off a big turn bet to see the river. Turn was literally the card I visualized hitting to tie me to the hand. Obviously... 7h. Bet, call. River 6h. They both got it all in on the river, each with over 400 in front of them and me with more than that. Umm... farts.

Weird Day at the Beau Part Two

2011-09-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

Then he bets a brick river card for less than half of my remaining stack and left me 1600 behind. Nice value bet, jive Turkey. The Internet kid and the donkey sneer at his play and whisper "Yeah, he's got the goods but you have to call at this point." Suddenly, as I relieve myself of additional chips, the fat Brit chick Adele starts singing in my head, "You could have had it all." I call. He shows 6-6-6.

I dispiritedly throw away my hand. I grind a short stack until almost the dinner break. The guy next to me had been in my ear for three levels about my resilience in folding, basically teasing my patience as my ammunition marched away in blinds and antes... yeah I know I'm under 10 blinds again. The pimply faced Internet kid in my brain is throwing a fit. He and a disapproving Dan Harrington are telling me just to throw the chips in.

Then the guy next to me seems to make it a chorus. I'm thinking... Yeah, I know it's sucks for you that you don't want to put in a raise and have to either fold or play for my stack I get it but could you just shut-up...

I've survived this long I'm not just going to throw them in there either. He bore a striking resemblance both vocally and follicle-ly to the bald short dude in the Princess Bride. I found it challenging to make sure he didn't drop poison in my coke. He was somewhat funny, so he wasn't intolerable. If I had a bigger stack I'm sure I would have found him more agreeable.

Finally, I have some good fortune. I win a few flips, he runs into my Aces (and folds) and I got a stack of about 30 BBs. I can play again!

I lose some chips playing hands that I just wanted to play. Needed my participation merit badge or something after watching the game all day. Felt like I was a stop motion camera as they'd play hands and I did nothing but observe and take mental pictures. Then suddenly to have chips all I wanted to do was to splash.

So, I look down at pocket Jacks and bet. This player goes all in over the top. I miscount his chips and quickly call. I think even if I did count correctly I would have called but it was marginal enough and he had shown down only premium hands when shoving that maybe I find a fold there. He had AK and I finally lost a coin flip after winning them all day to stay in. Then I get pocket Jacks again. My stack now below 15 BBs,

I hear the Internet geek inside say throw them in, of course the Donkey tells me to just throw them in every hand, so I finally do.

A capable player who I think ended up making the final table. Looked me over and asked if I had a big hand. I could see him studying me like I study others. Not sure what to do. Do we go false tells or not. I shrug. 10s, Ak or AQ. I'm ahead of all them I think, I'll take a call. But do I want another coin flip I'm due to lose a few more. He calls with AK. Splop, I'm walking away by the turn.

Weird Day at the Beau Part One

2011-09-02T13:43:00.000-05:00

So I've played at the Beau and at Harrahs in the last week or so. Heard the action at the Beau has been fast and furious in the cash games. Wish I had time to sit down for a spell. Considering how I run there maybe not. While at the Beau, I had a long conversation with Reid G. He alerted me to a thread on 2+2 peppered with a lot of Gulf Coasters. Think we need to try and recruit Gabe Costner to be a blogger. He gets people reading and talking that's for sure. I spent several hours reading every post in that thing, compelling stuff.

Back to the Beau, I thought their Sunday tournament would have a huge turnout and actually got there an hour early so I wouldn't have to wait in line. Mistake. I didn't take into account just how many people would be sitting it out to play the heads up tournament later in the day. The tournament on the whole was very strange, I picked up some decent hands in late position frequently in level one and basically bricked every time. But it would always check to me allowing me to steal pot after pot. I must have gotten some showdowns because at one point I started counting chips, and I realized my aggression had almost already doubled my stack. Very strange.

Then, I started hitting hands. Problem was so was everybody else. I kept finding folds and they kept showing me I was making the correct laydowns. I noticed keeping hold of my chips was like trying to catch water with a net. They just flowed to all corners of the table. **Sidebar, can't tell you how many gear shifts I saw in one table. Myself included, but if felt like people were playing drastically different a few levels in. The tight old guys became three betting maniacs. This one dude who almost passively call-call-folded his way to no chips suddenly started firing three bets with reckless abandon. The idiots because tight.

This made the game exhausting, especially when I tried to short stack my way out of trouble, My death blow almost came after I suffered an impact with a cranial impaired player that would have knocked me out if not due to his stupid play allowing me to stay. Here's the hand. In a multi-way pot I flop top two in late position K10 (other card was an 8). There is a flush draw and couple of guys gave me pause like they had hit something. I put out a pot sized go away bet and hoped the scrub at the end that was fiddling with his chips, and had checked from the blinds, but raised preflop would call me with AK.

He called. The others scattered despite probably some of their draws being price in. A brick 6 on the turn got another stiff bet from me. He promptly min-raised me. Really... Set of 8s? Set of 6s did you just call my flop bet with fourth pair and draw to your two outer. I went over my image, and yes possibly, I was in too many pots and he merely thought I was f.o.s. inducing a weird call with sixs. 8s might just pop me back on the flop. So it's really 6s. Or is it Ak putting me to a test?

Here's my belief when a guy like him, white guy who has the dour complexion of a man that has spent too much time in the once smokey poker rooms the aversion to exersize that I'm starting to adopt (ugh oh please don't be my future), who's not too creative and old enough in his 50s to never become creative check raises you or min raises or worse min-check raises you, you better start thinking about the best possible hands and if you aren't holding one of them get out.

Set of Kings didn't make too much sense, but possible, course I hold a K and a 10 so both sets are somewhat less likely. Set of 8s as mentioned above and sets of 10s and Ks probably bets the flop harder with people to act after him and some draws. So now, I'm putting this guy on one hand. I'm getting signals of immense strength from him. I need to find a fold here.

Then I got that nagging voice in the back of my head... It's like a pimply faced internet player inside me that's saying, "Only donkeys try to put people on one hand. Gotta be hand ranges."

"Alright, magic the gathering champion what else can be in his hand... air."

"So..."

"... he's polarized?"

The pimply faced internet player in my head picks his nose, rolls it and sticks it in my eye, "Don't say that. "Polarized" coming from you sounds like a Grandfather trying to say awesome, wicked, cool to relate to his 13 year old grandson as he's dragging him to an Elks lodge meeting in his 1989 Buick. Live players should just stick to body language not geek language." He went back to his nose, and said, "There's more where that come from especially if you try to say something like range merging."

So, the internal dialouge and the lure of the swelling pot gave me fodder to find reasons to call. The donkey inside of me suddenly weighs in with Eddie Muprhy's voice "Course, if you are wrong you got four outs and he probably checks the river anyway. Call him, Shrek!"

"Shut-up Donkey... wait a second Shrek?"

So, I call the min-check raise for over half of my remaining stack.

Assorted Thoughts

2011-08-25T09:56:00.004-05:00

Lots of things in the To Do box:

GCP:

-Adding a new blogger probably today.

-In the work... the Yearbook will finally come out at the end of this year. We'll have the mock cover up soon enough, though I understand ya'll have reason to doubt us, it's going to happen.

-We'll have two very big additions to the website soon that will add some entertainment to the readers.

POKER:

-Headed to the Beau, looking to play Sunday because of a variety of commitments family wise from now to then. Maybe some events after that depending on being able to get away.

-Dead Money Tournament also looks a go.

FRIEND VACATION:

-I must be a nut agreeing to take this on. Looking to coordinate a massive meet the families type reunion trip next year on the panhandle for assorted friends. It's really open to anybody, so email details if you are looking for a week to sit on the beach and have a good time in Florida with wives and kids.

----------------------
That's only the half of it. The rest is even more boring so I'll skip sharing it.

Okay, some poker. Played the Donkley. Took a gamble in a spot where I thought if I hit I'd be cruising to the final table. In retrospect, probably another mistake. In early position I opened with pocket nines. I think blinds were 200-400 and I made it 1000 or 1100. Shortish stack next to me shoves for ~4.5k. I have about 11k. An even shorter stack shoves for a little less. Big stack that plays a lot of pots just calls.

I think I'm flipping with a lot of his range and there is a lot of side money in there. Probably committed to shoving if I call, but I think with about 4 to 5k left if I call and I m ss, I'll still have life if I don't hit. If the board is ugly and I get a read, I can fold. If it's dry and I get a read I can also "stop and go." So I call. I also have a weird feeling I'm going to hit a set.

Flop comes Q high, I miss my set. I think a ten was there too. I check and big stack cool as a cucumber slides in his chips. He's not afraid to make that play with AK there, but I rethink him preflop and I know he'd probably isolate with those drawing hands like AK maybe AQ. KQ probably finds the muck. I have to give him credit for a big pair.

He turns over pocket queens when I fold. Top set. Bad bet. Even worse when a 9 hits the river (I did hit my set--ha, ha). He said he was scared of the two clubs. Course if he thought about it if I had two clubs I'm calling off my chips, so that bet wouldn't give any protection, especially considering the heavy pot odds. All it did was cost him money both ways.

Perhaps, if I hit my flush, I merely value bet him and he pays me off but saves him some money. If I don't have the flush draw his bet chases away all the hands he can get value from like... pocket 9s that improve to a set on the river.

Sometimes I feel like there is justice in poker. It seems like there is a high frequency of times where you get out of a hand that was supposed to bust you, and later your final chips find the stack of that same player. Later with a few bbs and the blinds two hands away I shove a suited king. The big stack was on the button with AQ and looked me up. Neither improved and I hit the cash game.

Talk to the mysterious Joe B. who gave me the details of a profitable trip to Vegas. I wouldn't be surprised to hear Joe make some more trips reading between the lines. Joe won two massive pots while I was there, both of which I considered playing, but decided the hands were too marginal to play against Joe. And what I mean by that is Joe is very selective about what he plays, and he plays his hands very well. So even if I hit, my profit margin is less than what it is vs. a couple of other opponents.

In one he flopped a set against two players and got all their chips when it went three to a flush on the turn. One guy had the A of the suit and chased it, and the other had maybe two pair. I would have made the winning flush (10 high). When he scooped the massive pot I looked on envious. Those six bills should have been mine.

Joe put his chips on lock down and I got busy trying to isolate a couple of the weaker players (and that table got squeaky quickly). Unfortunately, one of the targets ones was on my left and it was difficult to overcome his positional advantage but I mixed it up with him a good bit and turned a profit. The other, fortunately, was on my right and he paid me off good, and when he left so did the guy that replaced him.

In the hand, I had called his bets twice after flopping a set. Board went three to a flush, with a pair of deuces showing on the turn, and he led out again. I called. I didn't have the full house, I had quads. I was praying he had a set and the board would pair again. Just thinking about the jackpot, that had already been hit that day but was still at 18k or so, made my hand shake a little bit when I called the turn.

River was a brick and he checked. I overbet and he called off. He had two pairs over the deuces. Can't say I like his call that much. Anyway, that hand and a couple of other big ones I picked up in the last rotation gave me a nice little profit on the day.

Link Dump, Know Thyself, Know Karma...

2011-08-21T21:49:00.005-05:00

and some poker to follow...

Anyway... link dump:

-One of the great advantages of playing poker and improving at poker is improving your decision making. Sometimes there are other articles about improving as a human that can influence improvement as a player. Here's one "Know Thyself". Sounds like a book worth reading. All kinds of benefits, nefarious and otherwise for the anchoring effect (surely some of you salesmen and negotiators out there already utilize).

-The newest warning to become eco friendly, if we don't stop global warming Aliens may kill us to protect the galaxy. Not just anybody writing this garbage but a NASA scientist. They must be so proud. Makes me reconsider being upset at them killing the space program... with this literal Rocket Scientist at work how'd they get anything into orbit?

If you want to dissuade people from polluting and baking the Earth, and feel threatening them is the way to go just use Al Gore. Yes, sic old Al Bore on them... "Two more hours listening to him? Or filter my smoke stacks. Okay EPA you win." To read how they are trying to scare us with Alien invasion instead go here.

-I've debated folks about Karma but here is a case of what goes around comes around. Now, I'm not saying Karma isn't necessarily some force that works in the background of the universe that evens things out, sometimes it's just folks paying attention to what kind of person you are. Ever work in a restaurant? You probably aren't a difficult customer or a dick to the waitstaff. Well, at least until they are done handling your food and drinks. Hard to like thievery, but Robin Hood might like this ID scam. Tip the wrong waitiress bad? Well, good luck with that credit card balance this month. Read here.

Software is the new oil? The new gold? Maybe it is....

POKER:

The Harrahs Saturday tournament had 105 players. Not bad at all. I chipped up fairly quickly and then got short when I had a terrible mis-step.

Here it is:

In Big Blind with 10d8d. Blinds were 50-100. EP raises to 250. Two callers I complete. 1050 in the pot. I got maybe 9k to start the hand.

Flop spits out Jack,10,9 (rainbow). I'm open ended with middle pair. I fire out 450. Guy who led out was only one to call. Turn is a King. I try a blocking bet (uh... what?) when maybe a check here was the correct play. Just about every hand I have to give him credit for, except say a pair of 8s (which are less likely with me holding the 8) has improved on me. AK. KQ. KK. QQ. Maybe KJ. Ouch, ouch, ouch. He puts 1k on top.

Clearly the King has improved his hand. It's AK at best, but likely AQ. Easy fold. No I call.

River spikes a 7 and I check call for 2k more. Here it's AQ. Granted some oddly played sets Jacks or 9s could be in the mix but I just don't see that particular player playing them like that.

Maybe I am a call station.

Got to sit next to Kenny Milam and Parfait quite a bit as the tournament progressed. Kenny cracks me up, unfortunately he saw his run of four straight final tables come to an end. Parfait min-cashed and kept me on my toes. Always good and fun to chat with him.

Poker Disappoints

2011-08-17T23:09:00.005-05:00

So the computer died.

And when it did I discovered the software that we use for the site, an antique MSDOS application apparently, has gone the way of half of the species that used to fill the rain forest. Eventually, with some help from our friends I've gotten a copy, and been able to get an update on the site (tonight). Though I wonder if part of my love for poker died with that computer.

As I was sidelined, I quite enjoyed not trolling the web for new items or being fully immersed in poker. During that same stretch I've also traveled with the fam for a vacation in Pcola and to a wedding in Washington, DC, without playing much.

Poker has been on the brain in kind of a peripheral way, kind of like I'm musing about the vagaries of an NBA lockout and a poker thought will flutter through my mind. Sometimes a break can consolidate all those loose thoughts and give you clarity, other times as I've just learned they can blend into ennui.

Chino Rheem is a scum? Jungleman is a cheat? Phil Ivey is broke? Full Tilt have perpetrated the world's biggest heist. Guy Lilberte was teamed up on on high stakes poker? Invariably it appears the old saying "the most honest people are the cardplayers because there a handshake and reputation are the only commodities" is as empty as the salesman saying "Well, to be honest...".

Well to be honest, only implies that you are sometimes not honest, and since liars mostly lie, it probably also means the next words out of your mouth will be anything but the truth. As these scandals play themselves out on the forums that's what they feel like... Seems like you peel a layer back and it's somebody saying "Okay, well, here's THE TRUTH."

It's a bit disgusting. When I was in DC we played a home game and alternated decks. One was the most wanted deck they gave out around 2002 in coordination with the War on Terror. The crooks weren't limited to the deck. The Aces and Kings had folded corners. With the Aces slightly different folds than the kings. About as amateurish "a marking" as I've seen. I think my buddy tried that scam in fourth grade.

We played for a while, primarily because I didn't get dealt any Aces or Kings and it was only in a break in the action when I played with the cards and saw my suspicions were correct. We weren't playing for much so I didn't belabor the point. I told the host they were marked and he quickly did away with the deck, albeit somewhat quietly.

It's possible some visitor did it long ago, or it's possible he did it, I didn't really care. I didn't inspect the new decks either for fear of being let down again by poker and deciding I was willing to lose a couple of small dollar games just to enjoy the friends I hadn't seen in 10 years even if somebody was cheating or they were not.

I've been rereading some of my poker books and I keep dwelling on these stories of cheating that a few of them seem to have. In doing a google search to follow up I find quite a bit of unflattering information about many of the people in poker that the masses revere. Seems like cheating at cards is license to steal and even better you don't go to jail.

What's worse is I fear this just the beginning. Protect yourselves out there.

Link Dump

2011-08-03T22:36:00.004-05:00

How could you not be interested in the vocal stylings of Manny Pacquoio aka Pac-Man (but shouldn't it be Man-Pac), in particular his version of "Sometimes when we touch"... You know after you saw his commercial you wanted to hear more. Here it is.

Hard not to think about boxing with some of these lyrics, but I did have to remind myself this guy could probably deliver a death blow to me before I could blink especially when I thought about making fun of his "frear in me".

In the Ukraine they have all these bears they force to drink vodka in restaurants. It's entertainment and no it's not William The Refridgerator Perry and Mike Singletary these are the real thing, furry, angry beasts. They want to build a reserve just for them. I remember chimps dying of lung cancer and thought Hollywood did them wrong by forcing cigarettes on them, but here, I'm not so sure I understand this. Would you really want a bear, much less a drunk bear, in your restaurant?

http://news.yahoo.com/bears-saved-forced-vodka-drinking-144716393.html

Saw this link: "Swedish Man tries to split atoms in kitchen." http://news.yahoo.com/swedish-man-caught-trying-split-atoms-home-153341057.html

More Manny this time with Will Ferrel:

Oh yeah, AROD wrong place wrong time again:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/baseball/mlb/08/03/rodriguez.poker.ap/index.html?sct=hp_t2_a3&eref=sihp

Reap what you sow...

2011-08-01T21:19:00.003-05:00

Never thought something as seemingly easy as buying a computer could prove to be so difficult. In the last week, I've made two stops at separate Best Buys, four stops at Office Depots, and finally finding the device I wanted I am ready to go.

Frustration is being told they don't have what you want in stock despite their inventory saying they do, then being sent somewhere else that does... but lo and behold rinse and repeat, then being sent somewhere else with even grander assurances that they have it... but lo and behold rinse and repeat with three options they said were all viable including the first two stops. Finally, before going to my last stop, I said have them pull it out of the back room and set aside for me... I'm not leaving until someone is physically holding it. Eureka it was there.

I don't know if I felt exultation or frustration.

Btw, after the third stop at the chain and dealing with the same questions for the salesmen I embarrassed the wife a bit. He asked "Well, what are you using the laptop for?"

I said quite earnestly "Browsing porn. Is this a good machine for that?"

He said, "yes."

"No, I'm kidding."

He goes, "oh, really."

"Yeah, I'm not really browsing if you know what I mean."

He then started telling me about another customer who had a terrabyte of porn. He said "We saved it for him... and copied it... no just kidding."

I said, "I was just kidding... but I don't think you are."

He was also the salesman that went to the back and never returned after about 30 minutes only to have his sidekick who couldn't eat an Apple much less turn one on tell me that the manager couldn't find it in the back. Maybe I deserved that one.

Now, that I have the computer, and of course nit picking all the bad things, I just need to get the software I lost on my old computer and I can get back to updating the site. Lots of stuff I need to update and maybe a new blog or two to add as well.

Hopefully, getting the software won't prove as difficult as the Hardware.

Played some Donkleys. They pay 10. Recently I've chopped, finished 14th, 18th, and 8th. I've run well in all spots but the last two tables. Took some heat on facebook for announcing I was three for three in recent tournaments calling with A high to double up for my stack. Guess my hubris was paid back with my bubbles.

I've really been playing well (cue more run-bad when down to two tables for bragging). I managed to not go broke with a set. I flopped set over set with another guy OESF draw. I bet, the other set slowplay, OESTFD called. He checked when he hit it on the turn. I checked, other set checked too. River straight flush led out. I tried to find a fold but couldn't. Guy behind me called too. If I was third to act I fold. Straight flush could made a nice payday.

I also folded pocket queens to a three bet by an older player. Thanks to Joe Navarro I knew he was on Kings or Aces even though he had been three betting all morning.

The Ace high calls were the result of some funny lines by my opponents.

The first I had AK from early position and a guy I had played with for three straight tournaments on an opening table called as he tended to do against me when I opened. We had another with us. The flop came out like 885. I checked and the guy I knew insta led out as he tends to do any time a preflop bettor checks. Just felt like he was stealing. He bet sized like a lot of online players would do in the MTTs I played at low buy-ins when I checked the brick turn to him. Let's just call it a go away bet. I decided I was married to the hand. If he shoved the river I was calling. I felt I just had to fade some big cards.

River bricked again and after I checked he shipped the rest of his starting stack. I tried to see if I could fold there but my gut told me to call... I called. He humbly said Ace high with a 4 kicker or something. I showed AK. Another guy called me sniper. That guy I later called with bottom pair of fives and beat his pocket fours. Credit to Caro's tells for that one.

Next A high hand I had maybe A7. Flop was bricks. It was checked to me, I c-bet and one opponent called me as the rest folded. On the turn, he led out (??). I just knew he floated and was making a play here. I fired over the top of his bet (with air) and he called (?).

The river he checked to me and we both had about 2k left. I couldn't make up my mind what to do here. I felt he had nothing... but crappy pair or a better Ace scoops the pot for him. I stewed thinking I was supposed to bet, but with the stack sizes I open it up for him to come over the top and consider folding or have to shove. I considered the show-down value of my hand not very good. I bet, he shoved, I stewed. My gut told me to call. He said King high. I turned over the ace. Sweet.

Last one, which initiated me facebooking was in the second level of saturday's donkley. A guy was getting out of line with a lot of bets. I had AK and called him. The board came out paired with rags and he put out a tiny little scared bet. I should have come over the top but I thought I could pot control by calling. The turn... brick. He suddenly bet big (go away bet). Okay... very odd. Unless he just hit his set what changed... nothing. Maybe he has trips with an ace but just didn't match his betting style. I called with full intention of calling any size river bet if a face card didn't hit. He led out for most of his and my stack. Called. He had AQ. Gotcha.

Played some hands badly too, now that I've gotten the pseudo cyber bragging out of the way, let's get to the lessons I need to learn or relearn. In one tournament an old player limped under the gun. I was SB. I said to myself, self, he's limping with aces. Then I proceeded to put all my chips into the pot and hoped he wasn't. Umm he was, I walked to the door.

Another one involved a guy I thought to be wide open (turned out as the tournament proceeded, I saw that wasn't the case he was just getting slapped in the jaw with the deck in the early levels). On his turn bet, I thought he was full of it and I represented a big hand--nice read Bill. Action on the turn he bet for 1k, I doubled it and a little to 2.2k. Baron Whipple also in the hand let me know pretty quickly my two high cards were drawing dead when he shoved behind me. The kid made it worse by reshoving. Oh, the weakness I "sensed" were two sets, slow played on the flop. I got out of the way, and the kid one outed Baron for quads. Lol, tough game.

Anyway, hope to have the site chugging along soon.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

2011-07-20T06:57:00.005-05:00

--The Good. Sweated a lot of Gulf Coasters over ESPN2 and the internets in the main event the last couple of weeks.

--The Bad. Ben Mintz, David Diaz, Claudia Crawford, Shannon Shorr, Fred Berger, TK Miles (and more), all went out before the November Nine.

--The Ugly. Ryan Lenaghan and Sam Barnhart got to within a table away. Got to be heartbreaking, though six figure paydays have to ease the pain a little bit.

--The Good. Min cashed and chopped the Donkley recently.

--The Very Good. The chop was seven ways when we had over 90 people last saturday.

--The Bad. Prior to the chop had these finishes, 16th, 13th, 11th, and 10th. Yuck.

--The Ugly. One of those days compounded the loss with a bad day at the cash tables.

--The Good. Harrahs is adding a Tuesday night tournament starting August 5th.

--The Bad. It's a rebuy.

--The Ugly. If they are doing it to increase cash games on an off night why create a format where everybody will pour their money into rebuys instead of into 1-2 or 2-5 games?

--The Good. Probably going to get a new computer.

--The Bad. Because the motherboard of my old one is fried.

--The Ugly. I've been using my wife's glorified calculator since then and don't have any of the software I need to update the site, or do a slew of other things, I do on a daily basis.

--The Uglier. Will have to acquire all that software all over again. If the hard drive is lost, I lose most everything.

--The Good. Selling two cars.

--The Bad. Now, our neighbors won't confuse us for moderately priced cars of the early 80s collectors.

--The Ugly. Have to deal with car dealerships, and buyers.

--The Good. After a week of tantrums a few weeks ago, our son seems to be back to his normal cheerful self.

--The Bad. Terrible twos are looming and so is the addition of a baby sister.

--The Ugly. He's already jealous of the items that are for the baby and not for him. Uh-oh.

--The Good. The yearbook, much delayed and much anticipated, is back on the table.

--The Bad. Putting together 64 pages of glossy content that folks will want to advertise in and be in. Will be a lot of work, but I'm confident we'll be really happy with the finished product.

--The Ugly. Black Friday.

--The Good. Shannon Shorr, Bella Donkey, Poker Monkey, Kai Landry and Sofa King all have put up WSOP blogs in the last week or so.

--The Really Good. Those blogs. All worth the read.

--The Good. Finally found a place to make us some patches.

--The Really Good. Will probably bundle them with the Yearbook. We will presale and might include T-Shirts too. Going to lean on the readers a little bit to make this happen.

--The Bad. Patches are expensive.

--The Ugly. Like way more expensive than you'd think. Anybody know where we can get a deal let us know.

--The Good. USA women's making the World Cup Finals.

--The Bad. Everybody's new female athlete sex symbol, Hope Solo's skin on close-ups.

--The Ugly. That remark above.

--The Good. Japan winning. No offense to our women but that is one game I don't mind dropping. I said before and during the game it felt like Japan was on a bit of a Saints do it for New Orleans run. When all we could do is hit the post or crossbar on many of our shots it felt like it was going to be Japan's day. Bend but don't break.

--The Bad. American media and sportsfans. When we pull off a great upset (Miracle on Ice etc) it's a bunch of college kids rallying together for a common cause and playing above themselves one day. When we get beat by teams demonstrating that kind of spirit, we never give enough credit. On some days, other teams are just better and want it more. That final was far and away the best our ladies played all World Cup. We lost on penalties. Great job ladies. If you were "chokers" you wouldn't have beaten Brazil in the same format.

--The Ugly. The weird "the ladies are getting a pass because they are ladies." It's just a transparent way to pile on without piling on. The media called 'em out for choking and then get to call 'em out for choking again by saying everybody's handling them with kid's gloves and nobody is calling 'em out for choking... what? As Hope Solo responded on ESPN, "umm, no we are hearing the criticism, people think we choked."

--The Good. Ben Lamb.

--The Bad. Phil Hellmuth questioning Lamb in many regards (suddenly the Poker Brat has morphed into a passive aggressive Brat?) even as Lamb manages the Main Event minefield Hellmuth couldn't.

--The Ugly. Ben's scowl at other players.

--The Good. Phil Collins.

--The Bad. Phil Collins.

--The Ugly. Phil Collins', the singer, silence about the run Phil Collins, the poker player, is making.

Macy Gray plays Poker, Richie Rich plays Poker,

2011-07-08T17:36:00.004-05:00

Alright... let's get to some poker action. More on Mexico some other time.

Here's today's talking points. In journalism, I learned you should lead with the biggest most important bits first and leaving the boring details for the end. Unfortunately for you guys, I do the opposite today. Things are upside down in this post so feel free to skim around:

*Donkley
*Playing poker with singer Macy Gray
*"You'll never be as rich as me!"
*$3 costs me ~$600 to $700

**I had the chance to play one of the Donkleys at Harrahs last week. I traded ten per cent of myself to YardDog, we busted 11th and 13th. I got short and shoved from the sb with A10 suited unopened. I got a call from 8 4 or something or other. He hit a straight. Standard, except for the length of time it took for him to call. He was a monster stack and I had no fold equity.

Not too many things I would have done differently besides maybe bet AA on the river instead of checking behind after I got two biggish calls from my opponent. River was three to a flush and three to a straight maybe?

I also got involved in a biggish hand where I laid down pocket Jacks. I raised preflop and a solid regular called from the big blind after a guy called from the sb who was a bit of target so to speak. I had been raising the solid player's bb a lot but that had more to do with what I was dealt than picking on her... in fact, I prefer other spots as she loves to lead out all the time, and always seems to have it when she does it against me.

Flop came King high with two spades. They checked to me. I should have c-bet, but I felt like the sb because of recent history was looking to check raise. I gave it a free card and decided because of position I'd bet regardless. It came a rag. Check-check I bet. Sb insta-mucked (nice read huh). BB called.

River was brick-ish but put three to a flush, she went all in.

I stewed forever. I didn't give her credit for a king because she loves to lead and with two to a flush she checked twice? Unlikely.

When she shoved she had this weird hitch, where she started then stopped. I couldn't figure out if she was slowing herself down to not appear as strong when she just made her hand or she was authentically tentative. The other possibility was the flush scared her.
I folded and my cards were exposed and I think a couple of people thought I was foolish to tank so long.

She later confided, who knows if truthfully, that she had two pair. Which made a lot of sense. She could have flopped that and expected me to bet. Still think she would have protected herself from the draw but maybe not. Or she could have hit gin on the river and merely called me with something like second pair on the turn (which jacks beat).

**In the cash game I sat down and YardDog joined me. Then Macy Gray sat down. Half the table was there for Essence Festival (she was main performer Friday night) and I could tell who she was didn't really register. As soon as I heard her talk to the chip runner I knew it was her. I played with her years ago when she was in town for Celebrity Poker or maybe another Essence Festival.

On this day, in the short time I played with her she seemed pretty good. She was definitely trying to keep a low presence. It dawned on a couple of people who she was and she was quietly gracious. She also didn't say anything when the table were slamming the character's of the other Essence Festival performers.

I enjoyed it when after a big hand she got YardDog to fold and she exposed her hand and he refused to tell her his. She showed top set (queens) and came over the top of his check raise post flop. Finally, after she badgered him a bit he told her he'd tell her for an autograph. She ignored the remark, I think trying to stay low key.

**A kind of regular sat down and immediately started jawing in his fun way. I usually like sitting with him as he enlivens the table. I also seem to run pretty good against him. In one hand, we got to the flop heads up, I think I was raising with garbage again and he called me. I bet he called. I had top pair but it was like a seven. The turn came and I led and he folded showing me AK. I had made two pair with the brick. I said, "You sure you didn't want to catch on the river," in a friendly way with the intention of showing my garbage to get calls later.

This guy's always friendly with me and a joker at the table, but out of nowhere he just responds with "You know what you'll never be as rich as me."

As fast as lightning I said, "That depends, how long are you planning on playing tonight sir."

**Later I was getting the come home phone call from my wife, and I had a small profit on the day so was just waiting out the dealer basically. I had 6-5 offsuit in early position and decided to limp. This tight Asian kid told me had actually made it 5. For some reason I decided he had straddled, and was bored and going to jam a multi-way pot with a big bet (just flashed through my head). Yeah, I r stupid, so I insta pull back my chips and fold. Almost everybody else plays for 5. And ps I don't think it was a staddle but rather a raise to $5.
Flop comes 874. Of course it does.

Lady in middle position bets. Macy Gray right after her reraises. I'm trying to pull my cards out of the muck without security seeing me (okay, that thought went through my mind but I wasn't actually doing it). Asian kid folds. Rest of the table folded.

Lady pops Macy Gray again. Macy shoves, she calls. There is two to a flush out there driving the action.
Lady has a set of sevens. Macy has two pair 8-4. Neither had a flush draw (which didn't come anyway) and neither improved. I left five minutes later regretting not putting in $5 for what would have been a monster pot and what would have appeared to be a giant hit and run by me.

Long time, No blog...

2011-07-01T00:01:00.002-05:00

Back when I was a "promoter" over a decade ago in Washington DC, I'd start off emails to invite girls to a party or an event with "we never talk," at times it would be weeks between email conversations and much like this blog it would be solely my fault. Sometimes, the "we never talk" would absolve me from weeks of missed or unreturned phone calls. So, I say to you "We never talk."

This last couple of weeks for me have been a bit like the first time you successfully surfed, you kind of see the wave you want coming, then suddenly the wave is upon you, it takes you, it's a rush all happening at once, and then you are spat out. After the ride you've traveled much farther than you thought you had.

So, has been true for me. For those of you who are facebook friends you've seen some snapshots of me in exotic locales, but no explanation of why I was there. So, I've decided to come clean. I'm a much better online poker player than I've represented and under various handles I've kept private to myself, I've killed it. Only problem was online poker just got hit by Black Friday and suddenly so did my bottom line. What to do? Well, move.

Yes. About two weeks ago, I had a conversation with a friend of my brother, a man that owns condos in various corners of the world. We talked about the state of online poker and how fortunate I was that I mostly played on stars. He said to me, why let the government dictate to you when and where you can play poker. He does business when and where he choses. If the law is heavy handed in one country he'll work somewhere else. If I valued online poker as a profession I needed the same attitude and commitment. And, he stressed, even if I thought online poker was coming back to the states in a year, why not move and keep playing until then. Who takes a year long unpaid vacation.

So, having been to Mexico twice in college, and it being close to my wife's family, I did some research about Mexican citizenship and working as a foreign national. No surprise my brother's friend clued me in to a great place to live on the Beach in Cancun (one that has already withstood hurricanes and a condo he was looking to unload) and I quickly booked a flight to Mexico.

In short order, after a few whirlwind tours, and scouting of the locale, I've reach the conclusion, I'm moving to Cancun.

I've often represented on this blog that I play live tournaments for money and online ones just to stay fresh. Quite the opposite is actually the truth. I get bored playing online as often as I do, and I actually play live tournaments just to break the monotony. I play low stakes live because after a day the inactivity is so tilt inducing I often slip up out of boredom. I must confess I've had at least two accounts, one a I represented as GCPWildBill at the lower stakes MTTS, and others that play nosebleed cashgames.

I've never told even my friends about my poker "greatness" simply because I don't want to deal with constant requests to back people or to consider new business ventures. I've taken the Sam Walton approach to life. Be rich but live humbly. But now, as it stands, as I'm leaving town, and I'm shutting up shop, it's almost a relief to come clean. Fear not GCP is in good hands as I'm letting Gene D take over all of GCP and moving south. Though, he is considering selling the site to DonkDown, an overture we've refused countless times in the past.

I'm headed to Cancun, with one live casino that has two electronic poker board tables, and a sweet room with a beachfront view (yeah, that's the view), with mulitple screens of legal online poker, and a rocket internet access. I'll see ya'll in paradise, or if you ever get online poker back on the Internet.

Just kidding.

I'm not big on April 1st/April Fools jokes as they are too obvious, I guess I prefer July 1st jokes. Truth is almost every part of this post after "we never talk" was mostly b.s. just like it used to be in those emails to get girls to come to our bar crawls, parties or events. Though, there was more than just a few facts in that fiction.

Obviously, I did go to Cancun, but as a writer for a travel type magazine and the offer came up mere days before I went. The wave analogy was at least true. Before I knew it I had the offer, agreed to it, was on the flight, and suddenly I was in Mexico exploring the Yucatan peninsula, and just as soon I was back home.

It was a lot of fun and a great opportunity which may lead to others. So I haven't moved to Mexioc... yet. But now, I'm back on the site, and the updates will come faster and more furious as the WSOP winds down. And, my next blog post will include the reality of my trip.

Don't hate me because I lied to you. It was just a joke. You know like when I said that shirt doesn't make you look fat, but your man boobs sure do.

What's What...

2011-06-13T08:33:00.002-05:00

This isn't going to be too long of a blog post. Been really busy on a number of fronts recently. Lots of excitement and opportunities have been knocking on the door, both for me as an individual and for the site, so we will have word on them soon.

To give ya'll a taste:

*Expect the newest Gulf Coast Poker Magazine out some time after the world series.

*Haven't even had the chance to update Gene about this who was dealing with a family illness this past week. My thoughts and prayers have been with him, but I met some great guys that do a poker telecast in Lafayette, and the wheels have been spinning about some possibilities, and we hope to get GCP involved.

*Personally, we go see the doctor today about the baby in mommy's belly. Our son gets that "baby" and "belly" have something to do with each other, but interestingly, and perhaps, scary enough when we ask him "Are you excited about a baby sister?" or any variation like "Do you want a sister?" "Are you ready for a baby to come live with us?" The answer is always an emphatic "NO!" with a head shake. Gulp!