Ramblings of a Mad Man (A.K.A Online Poker Thoughts)

Thanksgiving Memories

2009-11-30T11:44:00.000-08:00

I do not tend to be overly nostalgic but sometimes it just hits you. I have always had a weird relationship with my parents. I do not really like them. It was weird when my dad passed away from cancer a few years back because part of me felt like I owed him some tears and another part felt like who cares. It is not that I hate them. I guess it is more indifference. I feel like they were not in my life as a kid. A lot of my memories of my dad consisted of him being out on the road driving his big rig, sleeping all the time he was home, or beating me for waking him up.

Sometimes though there were good memories. As I wandered down my moms basement at Thanksgiving I ran smack into a pretty fun one. Sitting behind the boiler downstairs were two bow and arrows. They brought back some fun times. In front of our apartment complex with him hitting this skinny tree. Telling me stories of bow hunting in the woods. Letting me do some target shooting. I had a few of my own memories like the cops pulling me over while I was walking down the street looking for an arrow I shot into the air. oops. Luckily it was unstrung and I just got a warning.

My son eats up all the stories of my past life. He has already laid claim to one of the bows. Perhaps we can make some more memories at an archery range. Hopefully I can get my head out of my ass and be a better father for my kids.

I guess these nostalgic memories kind of surprise me. I have not visited my dads grave yet. Not because of any hatred or dislike but mostly because I do not see the point.

Really It Is Coming..

2009-11-30T07:28:00.000-08:00

I promise that Turkey Day writeup is coming.. Until then do you fucking believe this shit? DeSean Jackson my star! Fucking Concussion. Big Ben? Same. I am fucking single handedly destroying the hopes and dreams of football teams everywhere. Drizzle when Peterson goes down with the career ending knee injury I AM SORRY MAN! Really! Please do not hate. Being the cooler is not a controllable power. It just happens.

Poker is SUCH a Joke

2009-11-28T06:16:00.000-08:00

I mean how can it not be when you get all in with AK vs AQ and the Queen spikes and you have to get a miracle Jack to win. How is it not a joke when you pot for half a guys stack leaving almost the amount of your bet in your stack and you have the ass end of the straight but you KNOW your opponent has a naked Ace ON THE FUCKING TURN and you can not fade a fucking king? If you enjoyed that you will probably enjoy the thanksgiving writeup. Hope your holidays were fun.

Ansky Poker Bling

2009-11-23T08:11:00.000-08:00

Fun little ditty about the man and his titty. BLING BLANG BLAOW!

Bowling Fun

2009-11-21T18:25:00.000-08:00

We all went bowling this weekend. Was a fun time. First set I was doing pretty good. I then wind up and get ready to toss the ball and somehow I end up tripping on my own feet and face planting in the gutter.. straight down on my knees.. holy fuck that hurt. No permanent damage except my ego. Nothing stings more than a whole bowling alley of thirteen year old girls laughing at you.

I easily won the first match with some pathetic score like 85. This is small ball bowling so scores are lower but not that low. SO the second game we are cruising along and I notice that my seven year old daughter is killing it. Bumper help. SO she crushed my wife and son. I am on my last frame. She has a 21 point lead. I pooch fuck the first frame and only get back 7. So I need to score fourteen to crush her little dreams. Fuck me if I am going to let a seven year old beat me. So I reach down deep and pop it.. leaving three pins up on the left side. Now I have to dig down deep and get fucking lucky. SO I focus and nail the spare. It was sick. The wood just flew all around and nailed it for me. Final ball I only needed 4 and hit an 8 to end up with something like 96 for the win. Baby girl tears are the best!

She was not too upset to lose actually but I was really happy to beat her. I know I know pathetic. Fuck you too.

Up For Challenge?

2009-11-20T05:15:00.000-08:00

Luckfuck and the crew are challenging any three person team. Anyone game? My finishes in past WPBT have been 10th, 4th, 3rd.. See I am trending towards first. Let me know in comments.

Fun Times

2009-11-18T08:08:00.000-08:00

AQ < T2, J7 < 76, A8 < A4, etc, etc, etc.. All for opponents entire stacks and the win. Get's tiring getting in as a huge favorite and losing.. not to mention losing like ten coin flips in a row. If you lose ten is it really a coin flip? Did not think so. Least the suffering is done for the month.

On the personal front the wife is on the rag and my sister is apparently opening credit cards in my name again. Nice. Hope she likes her old prison buddies.

Testing One.. Two.. Three..

2009-11-16T08:44:00.000-08:00

I think I may need to get a phone for the Blogger gathering. I know I know. Fuck me. I have no phone, no car, no watch. Well the watch is because I do not believe in time. That is another story. If anyone wants to get my number (Not you April you already got it!) then drop me a line at SirFWALGMan@Gmail.com or look me up on Facebook. Chances are if you went to the last gathering I have your number. Scary huh?

Is it evil to wonder about hitting on the EMT when your co-worker is being attended to? If he dies is it evil? Lucky for me he is ok. Just a little Diabetic Shock. Nothing some candy can not fix right? Fuck if your gonna get a disease get one that makes you eat candy though!

Nothing else. Just checking in. Hoping Carmen is well. Something bad happened to her to put her in the Hospital. However I have no details. Stop making me worry bitch!! Oh oh now I am dead.

I am removed from the Tao of Poker until nothing is happening. I mean I swear. This week he will probably bump me because him and Change100 were getting hot and heavy and the cat puked on her and ruined it all. I would hose her down and keep going but that is just me. I mean seriously though it is not like Pollack died or something right? Who the fuck calls there family Polak too? I mean fuck that is the ultimate stupid name. How the fuck do surnames start anyways? Did his family like get to pick last or something? I am so confused.

You should never bump the Waffles though. NEVER!!!! Bastard!

Holy Snubbed Batman!

2009-11-13T06:56:00.000-08:00

Did Dr. Pauly drop his post about my questions? I see this in my RSS Reader. He even sent a link in the comments. However when I go to his site nothing. I think I have been snubbed. I mean was he like "Holy shit what did I do while hopped up on painkillers last night? Stupid fucking Waffles".

Reader Mail: Waffles, the Vegas Trip, and Hooters

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

Real readers. Real questions.

I was going to leave this in the comments section of Waffles' recent blog post, but I figured that I would post it here. The information provided might be of help to some of you some day.

Dear Dr. Pauly,

I need your advice desperately. If I stay at the Hooters Hotel in Las Vegas will I have any of the following problems:

1. Catch weird disease from the sheets
2. Get eaten by mutant cockroaches
3. Get Shot to death in the parking lot
4. Get Gang raped by a bunch of tweakers
5. Anything my lilly white Ass would not like.

Any advice would be appreciated.

You Bestest Fan Ever,
Waffles

And without further ado, here are my answers...

Waffles,

Thanks for taking the time out of busy schedule to write me. I'm pleased to hear that the Psychiatric Ward at St. Eligius allows in-patients unfettered access to email. By the way, if you can swipe any extra Klonapin or other anti-psychotic drugs for me I will be gratefully indebted to you. Those suckers sell at a premium in the parking lot of Phish concerts.

Anyway, I can tell by the tone of your email that you are concerned about many bad things happening to you in Las Vegas. Let me set the record straight... only bad things happen to bad people. Which is an Eastern way of saying, "You're totally fucked." Maybe you would rather spend the weekend at Foxwoods instead?

So let's start from the top with question #1 about staying at Hooters. You wrote, "Will I Catch weird disease from the sheets?"

Of course you will. Hooters is an off-the strip property which means they actually clean the sheets once a month. My advice is to sleep in your clothes. And never, for the love of god, never ever touch the bedspreads. That's where hookers fuck their johns and those NEVER GET WASHED.

Onto question #2. You wrote "Will I get eaten by mutant cockroaches?"

Vegas does not have mutant roaches. I'd be more worried about the mutant scorpions. They only attack smaller humans, so you're pretty much screwed.

Onto Question #3, "Will I get Shot to death in the parking lot?"

This has a 6% probability only because most of the gangs conduct drive-bys in North Las Vegas. They rarely target tourists on the Strip. However, you might want to purchase a side arm. If someone starts a ruckus, light 'em up.

Onto Question #4, "Will I get Gang raped by a bunch of tweakers?"

Tweakers don't gang rape. Addicts in the middle of hits of crystal meth are less interested in deviant sexual acts and more interested in finding a way to get more drugs. Tweakers might steal all of your clothes, but I'm pretty sure that you will not be violated as long as you comply with their wishes and hand over all of your drugs and money. Most of them will leave you alone. If you do get gang raped it will be by a gang of angry gangbangers because you said something completely retarded to them. Remember that Las Vegas is real life and nothing like the intertubes, blog posts, social media networks, or online poker chat boxes where you can act like a total jackoff and get away with it. In real life, no one likes an asshole. You will get beat down if you act like a punk.

And lastly, question #5, "Anything my lilly white Ass would not like?"

I don't think you will like the cowboys in town for the rodeo finals. There will be hundreds, if not thousands of them, roaming around like lost cattle. Cowboys don't like Northerners especially flaming liberals from Ted Kennedy's home state. Just tell them you're from Idaho and you'll fit in nicely.

I also think that you might be freaked out by the porn slappers on the Strip. Don't be intimated by the illegal Mexicans handing out business cards of prostitutes. They should be considered your friends and can totally introduce you to some nice women who like to eat Italian food, watch reality TV shows, and will do naughty things similar some of your favorite scenes from She Male Samba Mania Vol. 7. By the way, ask the local tranny prostitutes if you can get rake back. They'll give you a freebie if you find them steady work.

OK, I think that's it for now. Did I answer all of your questions properly? See you in Vegas.

Cheers,
Pauly

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

My response to his Post also --

Thank you Dr. Pauly. I knew you would have the lowdown on the Vegas scene. My single (I AM FUCKING SINGLE IT DOES NOT MATTER IF I LIVE WITH HER AND HAVE NOT FILED THE PAPERS YET AND SHE TAKES ALL MY MONEY I AM! I AM! I AM!!!!), Lilly, white ass will be flying in on Friday night as usual.. although I have attempted to make it in by 7-8 instead of my usual 12AM time. It will be good to see you hurry by surrounded by a crowd of groupies. I still remember the time you brushed past me a few years ago, I still have not washed that hand.

WoW

2009-11-12T22:52:00.000-08:00

I never really expected to get a good PUG together to do "For the Alliance" but tonight we went and killed all the HORDE war leaders. BOOM! Headshot! It was fun as hell and I got a black bear to boot.

Booked

2009-11-12T09:11:00.000-08:00

Boston (BOS) to Denver (DEN) 12/11/09 2:50 pm - 5:33 pm UNITED 779
Denver (DEN) to Las Vegas (LAS) 12/11/09 6:50 pm - 7:52 pm UNITED 779
Las Vegas (LAS) to Washington (IAD) 12/13/09 10:50 pm - 6:24 am UNITED 40
Washington (IAD) to Boston (BOS) 12/14/09 8:30 am - 10:06 am UNITED 860
Hotel: Hooters Casino Hotel
Room reservation: Marshall Howland - 1 adult

Hooters Casino Hotel
Check in: Fri 12/11/2009 Check out: Sun 12/13/2009 Nights: 2

Not bad for $400 total trip. I have some concerns so I am checking things out with Dr. Pauly the resident expert on scum hotels in Vegas:

Dear Dr. Pauly,

I need your advice desperately. If I stay at the Hooters Hotel in Las Vegas will I have any of the following problems:

1. Catch weird disease from the sheets
2. Get eaten by mutant cockroaches
3. Get Shot to death in the parking lot
4. Get Gang raped by a bunch of tweakers
5. Anything my lilly white Ass would not like.

Any advice would be appreciated.

You Bestest Fan Ever,
Waffles

I had to pull the trigger though so I went ahead and booked. Who else is going anyways?

A Collage of My Night

2009-11-11T21:37:00.000-08:00

In no particular order..

Fuck you Poker Wolf.

Full Tilt Poker Game #15963665553: The Mookie (115861803), Table 2 - 300/600 Ante 75 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:25:10 ET - 2009/11/12
Seat 2: VBPro7 (30,420)
Seat 4: butchhoward (7,784)
Seat 6: Maniac57 (10,984)
Seat 9: Pokerwoolf (43,812)
VBPro7 antes 75
butchhoward antes 75
Maniac57 antes 75
Pokerwoolf antes 75
butchhoward posts the small blind of 300
Maniac57 posts the big blind of 600
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Maniac57 [6d 5d]
Pokerwoolf raises to 1,800
VBPro7 folds
butchhoward folds
Maniac57 calls 1,200
*** FLOP *** [4s 2s 3d]
Maniac57 bets 9,109, and is all in
Pokerwoolf calls 9,109
Maniac57 shows [6d 5d]
Pokerwoolf shows [8s 9s]
*** TURN *** [4s 2s 3d] [Ad]
*** RIVER *** [4s 2s 3d Ad] [6s]
Maniac57 shows a straight, Six high
Pokerwoolf shows a flush, Nine high
Pokerwoolf wins the pot (22,418) with a flush, Nine high
Maniac57: figures
Maniac57 stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 22,418 | Rake 0
Board: [4s 2s 3d Ad 6s]
Seat 2: VBPro7 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: butchhoward (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Maniac57 (big blind) showed [6d 5d] and lost with a straight, Six high
Seat 9: Pokerwoolf showed [8s 9s] and won (22,418) with a flush, Nine high

So sick that I flop the nut, turn a great draw with my nut, get Pokerwolf to call off 1/4 his stack on a shitty draw.. AND yet lose. Now I will say that Wolf had a lot of chips. He also probably thought I had like top pair because he is an idiot but fuck man can't I fade the flush draw? Cunt.

==================

Waffles: I mean how many times can you do it in missionary on the bed? At least put on a wig and call yourself Donna.

=================

I was more disappointed about not busting NYRambler than losing the Mookie. Perhaps this is why I am break even. Fucker kept chickening out on me. I would like to believe I lead to his demise as I crippled him before he wimpered away from my table... he also seemed to loose his mojo after that point and just tried to win with T2o all in pre... nice job.

=================

Chat Monitor (Support): Maniac57 has lost their chat privilege for 1 minute. Inappropriate language is not tolerated.

After that I had a hard laydown of TT. I knew I was ahead but why race for my stack when I had a nice thing going. So I type @&*&@@ a bunch of times on different lines and then..

Chat Monitor (Support): Maniac57 has lost their chat privilege for 5 minutes. Spamming the table is prohibited.

Listen to me now Full Tilt. Imma tell you this because I like you. Stop treating adults like the government does!! Fucking let grown men swear and spam and have them use the fucking mute button if they are offended. Cocksucker. Your worse than the UIEGA you fucking hypocrites.

======================

Almost forgot. Butch! Fuck you too. Goddamn fucking tourist vs my 99!!! Asshole. That is all.

I haz Skillz

2009-11-11T13:07:00.000-08:00

Apparently I have inadvertently pissed off another person who I really like and did not mean to piss off. I am good at that. If someone asked what my super power is I would definitely say "Pissing off people power". I really do not mean to do it but I am a natural. Ah well. All I can say is Sorry.

I really thought, and still think, that what I said was correct. However if I said something that was construed as insulting I really did not mean it that way. The worst part is I seem to irritate this person semi-annually. It seems like every three or four months I say something offensive. I really think this person is awesome too so it is a shame. Ah well. Nuff said.

I am really thinking seriously of bailing on Vegas this year. I am just in a funk and do not feel like I am going to pull my head out of my ass enough to go. Perhaps something will happen to convince me otherwise. Anyway hope things are going better for you all than they are for me.

November Nine

2009-11-10T11:05:00.000-08:00

I was going to tell you about the fabulous writeup AlCantHang had on the November Nine and the final table action. I then read Dr. Pauly and saw what an ass clown Al really is. Seriously though really good work from both guys which especially surprises me with Al not so much the Doctor. Perhaps he hired a hooker to do his writing while he drank to oblivion in the bar? Either way worth reading both unless you do not want to ruin the surprise. I believe the broadcast is on ESPN tonight from 9-11 also. Have fun.

As for me I am still in a funk.

Idiot 2+2 Guys

2009-11-04T13:56:00.000-08:00

I think the 2+2 typical person is a moron. I do chuckle to the Bling Blang Blaow guy. You know the guy who took your money and is now going to rub it on his titties. I figure I need my own poker poem:

RANT RAVE SCREAM
YOU STOLE MY MONEY
I COULD HAVE BOUGHT FOOD
BUT YOU HIT YOUR FUCKING TWO OUTER
NOW I CANT RUB YOU MONEY ON MY TITTIES

TWO OUTS > MY MONEY > SAD TITTIES > BREAK EVEN

Freaking Aholes

2009-11-04T09:03:00.001-08:00

My wife just came back from a meeting with the arbitrator for special ed. Basically this is the person who fairly and unbiasedly steps in and discusses options for children with learning needs. My son is diagnoses as having dyslexia and other issues related to this. The school has been very unhelpful in getting him the education he needs. He is currently in fifth grade.

So the mediator basically told my wife that she should be happy and let my son become a basket weaver. He will do good in things that do not need reading skills she said like marketing and sales.

When this tact did not appear to get the desired result, the wife agreeing to the non-plan they have, she then said well if you decide to sue the school to get proper training and you lose then you will be stuck paying huge legal bills to the school for the case.

Mediator my ass. I am so fucking pissed. I swear I feel like shooting a load in her eye and saying "Hey you could be a fucking whore for a living". Stupid fat cow. Despite his reading issues my son is very intelligent and it makes me extremely mad that they are trying to write him off in fifth freaking grade. Although I have reservations about his proclamations of becoming a filthy rich baseball player or football player at this time I have no doubt he will be successful in whatever he does. He is too smart to fail. Bureaucracy is so fucking retarded.

Teh Suck

2009-11-03T16:00:00.000-08:00

Here I sit naked, curled in a ball of loathing and self hate surrounded by the discarded bones of poor unfortunate recess peanut butter cups. I am not sure why I am sick and tired but I am. I give up on exercise. I will just except the blah.

I hate Poker and Life Suicide might be good

2009-11-02T21:15:00.000-08:00

Alright not really serious about that but life is pissing me off. I had fun fucking .01/.02 table. I jammed every hand for fun. The little retards got really mad. It was fun as hell. Wish poker was fun in general.

SuperGirl126: for 2 cents..
Michael Cb: wtf dude
SuperGirl126: your not a maniac- your just dumb.....
pants_en_fuego: whoooooo
SuperGirl126: hahahahahaha
bruni87: nice
SuperGirl126: hahahahahaha
bruni87: loser
Maniac57: lol
Maniac57: im glad to make you laugh
Maniac57: it is my job
bruni87: thats good for you
Maniac57: please buy condoms with your winnings because we do not want any more .01/.02 people in the world
bruni87: keep on doing that

It is fun to play higher stakes games. Everyone playing those games are stupid as hell. I played a 100+9 SNG. I raise, fire three barrels, and what do I get called by? Some dick with A3o? I mean really? Not like I jammed the pot either. I made nice 3/4 pot bets. Stupid retards everywhere. I need to find a better way to make money. Perhaps I will become a Male Gigilo.

New Website

2009-10-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

I was thinking of a cool website "Fucked Up Interviews.Com". You basically get people to have you come in you bug the office before hand so you can get reactions of the key people and then you come to your interview and do some fucked up shit.

Like maybe dress up like a roman with a sword and shit and when they come to interview you draw your sword and say in a deep voice "I AM AN EPIC PROGRAMMER!". "HEROIC IN MY BUG FIXING". "YOU MUST HIRE ME!".

Or like wear a shirt that is inappropriate. Like have a black dude go in with a shirt that reads "The Honkey Oppresses my People" or a chick in a thong. She could ask the interviewers if they mind if she stretches before the interview.

1000 Words About Poker Tonight

2009-10-29T20:40:00.001-07:00

Bloggers Are Annoying

2009-10-29T07:16:00.001-07:00

A bunch of this is going to be tongue and cheek but I feel like calling out a bunch of retarded statements I have seen in recent blog posts. First one goes out to Rakewell. Congrats on winning the Mookie and going on a nice run. He writes

If so, may CK and the poker gods forgive me! Also if so, phenomenal laydown, CK.

So let's review. Rakewell flops the nut with A5 and CK maybe has two pair. It goes something like Bet, Raise, Re-Raise, Re-Re-Raise. How is this a PHENOMENAL laydown by CK? I mean fuck me. She knows that Rakewell is not a fucking total donkey. He is showing a ton of strength followed by a jam. Of course a stunningly beautiful and awesome player like CK is going to know she is beat. It is not a PHENOMENAL laydown. It is fucking average at best. Can we leave Phenomenal for really good laydowns please? Twit.

Next lets give the stupidest man alive a fucking shoutout. Hoyazo you stupid fuck. I love your ridiculous predictions. Instead of realizing that people get totally burned out after BBT events and some get busted and need some time to reload Hoyazo proclaims the end of the world. What a fucking moron. Thirty five fucking people last night. Another idiotic prediction by the jackass. He will obviously write another post now declaring how he was totally right and somehow his uber brilliance has lead to the Mookie regaining it's former luster. He is so fucking wrong so often I am glad he picked the Yankees. I think he picked the Yankees but I am unsure as I fell asleep after the nineteenth page.

While we are on the subject of fucktard Hoyazo can someone tell me why he contradicts himself in his own blog posts. I mean it is bad enough that he denies saying things, gets things totally wrong, and writes opposing posts later on but can he at LEAST keep his opinions consistent in a single post? It fucking drives me nuts. I mean I am reading about him saying one ridiculous thing and the like two paragraphs later he totally contradicts himself with some other moronic sentence. He is the epitome of monkeys smashing keys to try and make Shakespeare.

What the fuck is wrong with BuddyDonk and the morons playing to Mookie? I played last night and decided to fuck around. So I raise the hammer in EP. Now I know I am old school and that you yougins may not remember the hammer so well but fuck you all. The Hammer is king. So this retard in the Mookie in second position calls with A7o. Now raising the hammer in EP may be asking for trouble but you have to be special retarded to call with Ax. It is reserved for the white helmet retards.

The flop comes AAK. I am in the mood to have fun and see how far I can take a hammer bluff. So I lead out for half pot looking like I want a call. Repping a big hand or something to Stupid System retards. He calls. I then lead out again on the turn for half pot like I want a call and he obliges by calling. On the river I fucking go nuts to the wall ballah and jam my entire stack in. Now the reason I know this guy is a retard is because he uses up his timebank to make the call. He thought I had AK because I laid down a plausible line and he figured he was beat but made the call. Definition of a retard and ENTIRELY the reason you do not play A7 like that against an early position raise. You can NEVER know if your weak ace is good.

So then Buddy gives me crap about going to the felt with the Hammah? First off my play was 10,000,000 times better than my o-pponents but irregardless of that I DROPPED A MASSIVE HAMMER BLUFF!!! I should be given a fucking parade for Christ sakes. You married old school Buddy you better start liking the Hammah or I will dope slap you myself! Can you imagine the EPiC humor if he had actually folded to my river bet and I showed? That would have been priceless.

Gah I love Bloggers!

An Unpaid Review: Ultima Online

2009-10-28T07:54:00.001-07:00

I was perusing Facebook and the lovely and talently geeky HellaHoldem had posted about a free trial to Ultima Online. Now Ultima and I go wayyy back. I played the original Ultima. With the blocky orcs and shit. I mean old school. I played up until Ultima VI or VII. I did not really enjoy Ultima Underworld but the rest were really fun. I had wanted to try Ultima Online for a while. I even downloaded a trial before but I had install issues which killed me. Luckily this time it was painless.

I created a character and logged in. In a stroke of good fortune Hella was on with her character. She wanted to help me get off to a good start so she opened up a teleporter and off we went to her house. She brought me up to the attic where she had a million chests full of equipment. At this point it got a little Mrs. Robbinson weird as she undresses down to some cute garters. New baby Ultima character taken advantage of by the experienced lady of Ultima.. I wish!! So she finally found some good gear for my guy including a kickass colored jester hat and I was off to playing.

One thing that is interesting about UO is it's lack of concrete class and spec definitions. Even in the older Ultima games you would choose to be a Paladin or a Mage and get certain abilities. In this MMO EVERYONE has access to every ability. If you want to spec all your points into Carpentry and Tailoring you can. Just do not leave the city mmkay? You can make interesting combination's by mixing Necromancy and Warrior skills and things like that. I had a good time initially trying out different concepts I found online.

The learning curve is a bit huge though. Figuring out how all the points mix and match together is a bit daunting. The UI itself has some interesting quirks and is not entirely intuitive. An example of this is if you accept a skills quest then you can not train other skills until you finish it. I was confused about why my Necromancer could not get a head start by training new skills for a while. A lot of right click context menus and weird mechanics make it a little hard to get used to.

I kind of got tired of Death Waffles the Necromance after a while and then tried a few more characters. The one that was easiest to play was Postal Waffles the Archer. He was very powerful in that he could keep kiting monsters while shooting them from range. I was sporting a bunch of cool gear and had like 8k in gold feeling good about myself when I decided to try the magic gates. These gates like in the Ultima games teleport you to different locations. Not remembering much of my Ultima lore from my youth I choose MAGINCIA! Here is where I ran into problems. I find myself in the middle of a group of nasty magicians who kicked my ass. The teleporter home was BROKEN so I could not escape Magincia and even if I could resurrect the bad ass magicians just blasted me again. In addition you needed to get your gear off your dead body OR YOU LOST IT. So Postal Waffles died. Permanently.

Eventually I retrieved his life with help from a tough ass Paladin riding some weird bug. My gear was however gone. I was able to restart the gear from scratch and got a good start again. I started taking on the Orcs in their caves and did pretty well against all but the Magician Orcs.

I wanted to experience different classes so I started an Assassin. Very tough to get to the strong assassin part because you need to build up poisons which is a slow process. So I never got a feel for how this type of character would play. I then got him stuck in an ant cave and he is perma-dead too.

Do you see a pattern here? It is REALLY easy to screw yourself bad in this game. Not very enjoyable after putting a lot of hours into a character. I also could not figure out some easy things like how to get a rune book or cast a spell on a runestone to lock down a teleport point for myself.

Overall I found myself getting a little bit bored. Killing a lot of the same monsters. I do want to try some more things in the game but I am not sure what to do next and where I can have some fun. Hella has not invited me to her attic again XD. Perhaps I will try a few more things to give it a chance. At the moment though I can not see subscribing to the game. I also found the interface to be a little sluggish. I like some of the concepts of the game but I need to see more fun things to sway me into paying for a subscription.

Instinct vs Execution

2009-10-28T04:35:00.000-07:00

I was fucking with Dr. Chacko the other day. He made a bad laydown on the river. Reading his blog, taking his opinion of the person into account, and looking at the action it seemed to me like a ballah making a play on him. Excellent read by me since it was right. I ribbed him a little about it.

Last night I was playing PLO8. Had bottom two. A chick puts me all in on the river. There are some weak straights and better two pairs on the board. My instincts screamed at me that she was making a play with a busted draw. It would cost me my entire stack to call. I choked and folded. I was right again. She had an overpair and was making a move. If I win that hand I have top stack with 3 left and a huge lead against my opponents. I went out in fourth after a long struggle where a few shorter stacks doubled up.

Earlier in the game I see an all heart flop. I have top pair. Dude jams me in for my entire stack on the bubble. I have top pair. Nothing better. I make the call because I read that he is bullying me since I have shown some weakness. I double through his bluff, and cripple him a few hands later with QT straight vs T7 straight. It catapults me to the final table and the decent fourth place finish.

Brilliant reads are only good if your willing to act on them. I think in part it is what separates a good player from a great player. I know I have the instincts for the game ESPECIALLY online. I just need to work on trusting myself when it counts.

Running Baaaaad

2009-10-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

All in on the flop...

Fail

2009-10-23T07:53:00.000-07:00

Some nights are teh fail. I have been looking a lot into how I feel on nights that are not good. I think somedays I just do not have the patience to play MY GAME. I end up getting slightly gambooly or making calls I should not. Perfect example was last night in PLO8 SNG when I had a nice stack and ended up racing it twice before finally being knocked out as a semi shortie by the amazing K3xx where xx is shit. If I had played a little more conservatively then I would have cashed and probably taken first. I finally ended the night just fucking around and jamming various hands in PLO8 cash game. Blew off a buyin and went to bed. I am not sure what makes for an impatient night vs extreme amounts of waiting, stalking, and taking down the prey. I am also not sure that I should not play those nights as long as I keep to my plans of playing within my bankroll.. but recognizing that I am destined to lose on a given night may have some value.