It's Half Assed Because I Was High Schooled

Waiting for the Mookie to start. Flipping channels to see if anything worth watching. Yanks on ESPN again. What, third time this week already? Too bad the Yanks don’t play poker in the WSOP, ESPN would be covering it live wire to wire.

What’s going on with the blogs tonight? Comment I left on Waffles is no longer there. Waffles doesn’t seem the type to make one disappear. On to Josie’s and it says 3 comments but none are shown when I go to check. WTF is going on? I’ve entered the Mittelmarch.

On to the game. Seated at my table and recognize most of the names even if I haven’t had much converse with them. I see Julkeus, muhctim and Pushmonkey. Gary I’ve talked to. Trouble across the table in TwoBlackAces. See his name at too many final tables to take him lightly. MaggieO and DaBag make up the table. So far after 11 hands I’ve had a weak ace in 5 of them. Played it twice, in sb and otb. Won 1, lost 1, minimal pots. So far nothing major has taken place. Coop has joined the table. Take a decent pot when my ace gets stronger otb this time, A-K. Gary raised, coop and I call and flop comes A-Q-J. They both check, I bet 2/3 and take it. Been folding mostly but dump over 1000 to Gary. He raises, coop calls and I reraise with Q-Q. Gary calls and coop folds. Ace through the gate on the flop and I figure I’m cooked but Gary checks and I go 2/3s and he reraises and I fold. Get it back soon from coop however. I raise with A-Qs and he calls. Ace on the flop, he checks, I bet and he raises. I think a bit then call. Turn and he checks and I go all in. He calls, A-Q vs. A-8 and river bricks and I double. Soon take Julkeus out. I limp with K-Q off and he raises. I call and I hit a K in the door. I check and he shoves with about 900. I call and he has A-J and the Ks hold. Few small pots here and there as the tourney goes on. Mainly some steals. Have learned aggression pays.

Make it to the first break with about 6500. Gary is out. 23 Warsaw raises and Gary shoves his short stack. It’s only about 750 and I contemplate calling with 9-T suited but fold with regrets. Maggie calls and it goes to the flop and a check down to the river. Pair of 7s takes it but my T would have been good. Oh well. Lightning has joined the table as a shortie but soon doubles up. They must be putting all us nitty old men in one place. Where’s Mojo? Coop is out when his J-J loses to K-K. He hit his set but so did his adversary, Maggie. Too bad. Lightning has made a decent comeback from his short stack and guess who has taken coop’s seat. Shabazz Jenkins, wondered when he would show. Key Twilight Zone theme. Guess I’m going to have to link him this post just for FT’s persistence. Shabazz is gone, he shoves slightly over 900. I call with a weak ace and Lightning comes over the top. I fold and it’s Shabazz with A-Q vs. lightning K-K and the Ks hold. I soon take out microvillian when my T-T turns a set against his A-Q. Soon give it, and more, to muhctim. When I double him up with 5-5 against his 7-7. Thought he was C-betting a lo flop. Soon raise with T-T and get 2 callers but get no action when I flop a set and river a boat even though the turn is a K. Go into the second break with about 7500.mmThe rum is kicking in.

I get a few more chips after the break when my small pair gets no action but I get a double KO a few hands later. May have to continue this later. Game getting interesting and I’m buzzed. Do a double up when my A-K goes up against two all ins. BrainMc shoves his A-Q and Maggie comes along for the ride. Case ace hits but K kicker holds and I’m sitting decent. I do ok when my ducks flop a set against Warsaw. He min raise pre and I call from the BB. I hit the set and check as does he. Turn comes a Q and I check again and he bets. I minraise and he calls. River a blank and I shove my last 4900 and he folds. Couple hands later I chip up against AgSweep and my A-T hits top and bottom on the flop. Ag shoves bottom with gutter ball draw and my two hold up. My stack doesn’t last long as I shove Q-Q in to Dakota Black’s K-K. Board helps me not and my last chips go to OSU when he shoves top pair with a flush draw. I have 23 outs when I call with bigger draw, oesd and two overs but turn and river brick and I am gone in 16th place. Oh well, would love to cover final table but I’m shot for the night. GL all
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This is going to have to wait to be posted. Too tired to link and do the spell check. Didn't think one could get so screwed up on umbella drinks. Of course when you knock off the entire bottle maybe it makes a difference. Just found out that OSU won. Congrats, glad to see you put my chips to good use.

Thanks for the listen.

WTF Was I Thinking?

Quick hitter before the Mookie.

Was playing the Buy In League game at PA last night. Make the final table as short stack but somehow get to be chip leader at one point. Finally get to 3 way play and all about even. Play goes back and forth and the guy who was fighting me earlier in the tourney for chip lead, and took it after I got donkish, gains a decent lead on us. Finally I figure I'm tired and when he makes a play from the button I decide to defend my blind with a weak K. Having played with him a bit I know he is very good at playing big stack poker and isn't above bullying when he can. K hits, I bet and he shoves and I call. Of course A-K and I'm gone. Good game. As I'm signing out to hit the hay the screen pops up saying I won $25 for third. Whaaaaat? Somehow my mind was blanked, I never even thought of the frikkin payout. How the hell do you play a damned poker tournament, especially a buy in, and forget all about the money? Was I that tired? Have I degenerated that far? I play a frikkin tourney and forget about the prize money. Maybe I have ascended to a higher level where the beauty of the game is the thing. I check the lobby and find out that first was $60+. Not bad for a $3 buy in, games must be getting bigger. WTF was I thinking? This shit has got to stop.

See you at the Mookie. Thanks for the listen.

Saturday night

So I’m getting ready to eat some dinner, leftover pizza, I’m a real heath nut, before getting ready to head out to Saturday’s poker game when I get a call from Doug. He’s calling to ask if I can give him a ride to Ron’s. Even though it’s a bit out of my way I tell him sure. I like Doug even if he is my nemesis at the poker table. Doug is a good player of the LAG-tard variety. He makes ck seem almost passive and it’s almost impossible to put him on a hand. Not to mention he’s also lucky as hell. He’ll bluff and bluff and somehow if he doesn’t buy it he winds up with the best hand by the river any way. Actually playing Doug is one of the reasons my game improved. When I started playing NL I was a very passive player and used to let Doug control the action. Even when I figured I was best I reacted rather than acted and more times then not let Doug catch something to beat me. I finally figured that if I wanted to win against him when I was good I had to be the first off the mark so as not to let him get there which in turn led me to a much more aggressive playing style. Nowhere near what he does but a lot more than I was. While it has helped my overall game it hasn’t seemed to help me much against Doug. This is because while I’ve learned to attack when good and win some pots from him Doug will still think nothing of attacking back every so often and somehow it usually all winds up in the middle and then he still sucks out on me somewhere in the course of the night. Actually I think Doug occasionally reads this damned thing. Either that or he’s bluffing in a different sense. A couple times last night I bet into him with strong draws and/or over cards and he called me down with middle pair. Now at one time Doug would never have done that. He may have made a play and come over the top but never just called yet here it happened and he took my chips a couple times. Afterwards I asked him about it and he tells me to forget it, my image is shot. What the hell is he talking about I ask and he just says he hears things. Now what he could have heard is beyond me as I haven’t played anything local but these games, not even the bar games, so there is no one who could be telling anything about me. There are only two places where I have talked about my game and that is the poker forum I frequent online and here and I doubt he’s reading posts in that forum.

Be that as it may I’m getting ready to head out. Game starts at 7 and while I’m usually one of the first there most folks don’t wander in until a bit later. Today however I’m going to be one of the later guys. Due to circumstances beyond my control things go FUBAR and I’m running late. I start rushing around and finally am ready to book when I get a call from Doug saying Wookie just stopped by his house and so he’ll ride up with him but can he catch a ride home with me. Again, no problem, it will save me time and off I go. I get a mile down the road and it dawns on me I was rushing around so much that I left without various items including my card protector. Nothing that was necessary but just some things I like to have but I’m not running back for them. The omens are not looking propitious for this game. I stop at the Wawa on my way to pick up a cup of soda and a bag of ice for the bottle of umbrella drinks I brought with me. Ron has a great selection of whiskies at the Manor but it’s getting warm out and straight whisky is a thing for winter drinking for the most part as far as I’m concerned. Beer and boat drinks are for the heat. While there I wonder whether to tap MAC for some back up cash as I only have 3 buy ins with me but I get overconfident and decide not to. Forgot about those damned omens. So I got my stuff and head out and finally get to Ron’s. Game is already in progress and my favorite seat is already taken. Damn, them omens are really starting to suck. Put the ice in the freezer, the drinks on the kitchen table and head in to the game room.

The game is mostly NLHE, .25/.50, with a $40 buy in or 75% of the big stack if you are late or rebuying. As the night goes on we’ll throw in a round of the Pineapple variations or PLO or O8 just for a change of pace. It hasn’t been going on for long so it costs me $40 to start. There are 6 already seated. Ron, our host, banker and owner of the palatial Snakster Manor is at the head of the table. Very good solid players, not usually given to flashy moves but he will occasionally have his moments. Going clockwise the next player is the above mentioned Doug. Next is Chris, a friend of Doug’s, whom I know nothing about. Next is Wookie. Wookie is puzzlement. I’ve played with him only a couple times, usually in tourneys, so really have no idea how his cash game is. Also he has usually been heavily into the beer when we’ve played before but tonight there is a glass of ice water at his elbow. He does partake of Ron’s hospitality with the whisky eventually but compared to what I’ve seen him do to a beer supply it’s exceedingly moderate. What effect no beer will have on what little I do know about his game is any one’s guess. Next to him and in my favorite spot, is Trucker, Dave. We ran across Dave at the RPT games and he’s a pretty nice guy with an offbeat sense of humor at times and he wound up being invited to the game and is now a regular. A retired Teamster and a decent player though he’s mainly her to have fun and socialize which does color his play at times. Finally there’s Pops. Pops is Ron’s father-in-law, a great old guy and has in-law quarters at the Manor He only sits in for about the first two hours of the game then calls it a night. Have to be careful around Pops; you never know whether he’s got A high or the freaking nuts. He has a tendency to get frisky at times. I’m informed that Darryl and Frank are supposed to show later. Darryl I figure is a given, he’s pretty regular. There was a time I would have said the same of Frank but over the past year or so instead of showing up early he’s come late when he has shown at all. Last couple games he said he would be there and hadn’t shown so who knows. I mention that my nephew said he might come after he’s done work at 11.

So I pull up a seat between Chris and Wookie as I like keeping Doug to my right and right away some one mentions that Darryl’s gonna complain I’m in his spot. No biggie as I say I’m putting in my claim for Pop’s seat when he leaves. It puts Doug on my left but I hate sitting down on the corner of the table. First or second hand I dust off some chips to Dave. Talk about insult to injury, he’s in my seat and taking my chips. According to him it makes his night, he doesn’t care what happens as long as he won a pot from me. I did say Dave has an offbeat sense of humor didn’t I, especially as far as I’m concerned. A couple hands later I spread some of the cheer to Wookie. I really should have paid attention to the omens. I put another $20 in the bank as I hate being caught short stacked and play goes on. It’s not too much longer when I ship the stack to Wookie when my K-Q runs in to his A-K and the K hits the turn. Oh well. I put the rest of what’s in my pocket on the table and it ain’t even 9 yet. It’s already been a long night. I win a small pot or two and Darryl shows up just as Pops is getting ready to leave. I go out to pour me a drink, he takes his seat and I grab Pops’. Pops had been up earlier but I think he may have gotten frisky and put most of them back. I take a couple more small pots and think maybe my luck is turning even though I donked off a few to Doug when he called me down with middle pair and caught me with my hand in the cookie jar. Then I’m in the cutoff with T-T and after a couple limpers I make it $2.50. Ron, otb, sits there and thinks with Doug doing all he can to get him to call. Doug finally persuades him and then calls himself and everyone else folds. Flop comes 2-7-6 rainbow and Doug checks and I go $10, which is about the pot. Ron shoves for about $30 more. I figure that Ron might have had connectors, maybe suited otb, and hit top pair, maybe top two. I call thinking that I might have him beat or if not I still have outs. The turn and river are blanks and he turns over a pair of ducks for the set. Never figured that because didn’t think it would take him that long to decide to play a pair from otb. True it was a small pair but my raise wasn’t all that big by game standard and with Doug intimating that he was playing pre there was enough implied money to make it worthwhile to set mine. A couple hands later I dust off what I have remaining to Doug when he makes a play to my A-Q suited and I shove on a low board with the overs and nut flush draw. True, I didn’t have enough to really force him off but he only had middle pair and as I said later there was a time he would never have made that call knowing that he couldn’t come back and force me off my hand later. So I’m tapped and might have gone home but it was still early and I wasn’t in the mood to leave. So I tell them to keep my seat warm and back off to Wawa and the ATM I go.

I pick up another 4 buy ins and return and cash half of it. We’ll see where we go from here. My luck starts to turn a bit. A small pot here and there and I finally hit a decent one. I pull 5-5 and call a raise by Chris. I figure I’m racing at best so far and probably behind as he’s been playing tighter than a bull’s arse at fly time. There’s another caller, Dave I think. Flop comes 3 low and Chris bets which makes me think that he’s got a bigger pair and we both call. The turn puts a straight draw out there and puts me open ended and scares Chris as he checks as does Dave. I bet the 5s with the OESD and Chris folds, Dave calls. River gives me my straight and Dave checks and I bet and he calls and I win and Chris kicks himself as he thought I had made my straight on the turn and he laid down best hand at that point. Playing way too tight. I win a couple more nice pots though not as nice as I would have wished. One was when we were playing PLO. I’m in the BB and flop quad Qs. How do you get paid off here? Everyone is going to be cautious with that pair on the board. I fiddle around and get lucky when the turn puts flush possibilities out there and a couple of small bets get me some chips from Darryl as he has the nut flush but had to size them right because even as he was calling me on the river he was figuring I had a boat but bets weren’t big enough to lay it down. Another hand I had –T-T again and smacked the set on the flop with Dave and Doug in the hand with me in the middle. Dave and I checked and Doug bet out which is what I was looking for. Dave and I both called. On the turn Dave bet out, I called and Doug folded. Damn, I wanted Doug in this hand, not Dave. Doug had the bigger stack and I wanted to use his aggressiveness against him. River pairs the board and Dave bets again and I raise and he folds. Doug says that he had hit top pair on the flop but that when both of us came along for the ride when he bet he figured he was cooked. Damn Dave, Doug with top pair and a big stack? I could have made up all my losses and then some.

Somewhere along the line Frank actually showed. Frank’s a hell of a nice guy and a decent player or he was. Somehow he’s come to the conclusion he’s got to be like Doug and all the other LAG-tards out there and it doesn’t work out so well for him. While he still plays a solid game he has Matasow like blow ups usually at the wrong frikkin times and winds up donking back everything he has accumulated and then some. Last night I felt a bit sorry for him for while he made a few plays he shouldn’t most of his game was solid, just unlucky. I got to him first when he raised and I called with suited connectors. I flopped open ended and turned the straight and when I raised the river he called and I had outdrawn his pocket queens. As the board was draw heavy he should never have made the call but then again I was a bit loose as I called a pretty substantial flop bet with my draw. A bit later he got it all in with Qs again against Dave’s 9-9. After the turn Dave started to congratulate him on the hand and it was no sooner out of his mouth than the river comes a 9. Poor Frank He buys back in again but a bit later he runs across Doug. Forget how preflop went but I’m sure there was a raise in there somewhere as Frank had A-A. Flop comes 3 spades and Doug shoves. Frank is in the tank and Doug tells him he has the flush. Frank is still thinking and he and Doug are going back and forth about the hand. Frank finally calls and shows 2 black aces vs. Doug’s 9 hi flush. Both turn and river brick and Frank is broke. There ensues a lively discussion on the merits of the call with Frank saying that as it was a cash game it was entirely appropriate while Doug insisted that in the specific situation it wasn’t. Doug’s argument wasn’t that drawing to the nut wasn’t correct in a cash game but rather when you don’t have anything left to rebuy it becomes more like a tourney situation and you have to wait for a better spot. Kind of agree with Doug on this one.

Before Frank bottomed out my nephew Patrick joined the game and his arrival jinxed me. I had been doing halfway decent and it looked like I had made a recovery but after he got there I went card dead. Oh I took some small pots here and there and gave some chips back the same way. There is a house rule about giving a half hour notice before leaving, unless you bust out of course, just your table stake not your wallet, and along about 1 Wookie mentions he’s going to give notice soon. I say I’m booking at 2 anyway myself and Doug right away goes 2:30. 2, I say. Anyhow somewhere along the line we get started on a round of PLO8 and since I always stay to the end of the round it somehow wound up closer to 3 before the game broke up, mainly because of two hands. One was a 3 hand pot between Doug, Wookie and Dave where Dave wound up shoving the river and Doug calling leaving Wook contemplating a $100 bet into about a $350 pot with the second nut high. Here things got a bit dicey as the table talk, while appropriate for a HE game was not for a hi/lo one. Doug, figuring Dave was all in and the bet had Wookie about covered so he had no more at risk started discussing the hand with Wookie. Basically he was telling Wookie that he had the same hand and that if he couldn’t beat it he should fold because he would lose money. Part of the problem is that Wookie didn’t quite get the hang of the quarter figuring that even if he lost half the hundred to Dave because of the lo there was still enough in the pot to make up for it. What was inappropriate was that one didn’t know whether Dave was playing hi or lo so talking Wookie out of calling was depriving him of half the bet if low or maybe even the whole thing if hi. As it turned out Wookie finally folded Dave had lock lo and Doug had 2nd nut hi, the same as Wookie had laid down. I heard Doug did offer to make up Wookie’s missed bet as we were leaving but don’t know if Dave accepted. Knowing Dave, probably not. The other hand was again Wookie, this time with Ron on the last hand of the night. Wookie potted the flop which left Ron in the tank trying to put him on a hand. Seems Ron had top 2 with a lo draw and wasn’t sure if Wookie had bottom set. Took him awhile to figure it out but eventually he decided Wookie did have the set which he did. The rabbit hunt showed it was a good fold as Ron would have gotten neither a hi or lo. As Ron is the banker however we spent some time waiting to get cashed out as this hand played out.

All in all it turned out to be a decent night. It was enjoyable playing with these guys again and when I totaled things up I found I was $15 to the good. Not a great haul but considering where I had been earlier I’m not going to grouse about it. Was actually up a bit more but a couple of draw heavy PLO hands that didn’t pan out cost me about a buy in or so. I’ll be waiting for the next one.

Thanks for the listen

Grind, grind, grind

Why the hell do I play poker these days? I’m sure I could find some more productive activity for my time, like sticking burning splinters under my fingernails or being nice to Josie. Worst thing is I’m not even losing. Playing a couple hours a day of low stakes NL ring these days, usually .10//.20. Should probably throw in some tourney just to keep in practice as I get a bit loosey goosey in tourneys when I play long stretches of ring. Be that as it may I’m doing ok at the tables right now but it’s getting to be a real grind. Never have I seen such tight tables at these stakes. Admittedly that’s contributing to my winnings but it’s like trying to build a snowman one flake at a time. In addition it’s not really been giving me any blog fodder. Even given my deathless prose it’s kind of hard to make something interesting out of raising A-J off 3x’s and everyone folds 20 times. Even when I do get action it rarely goes beyond the flop. Today I’ve played 52 of 185 hands so far, 12 of which went to showdown, 6 of which I won. I have 33 other wins and am up 2 buy ins. That’s only because since I started writing this I doubled up against the big stack when we both flopped flushes with me holding the nut. The other 51 hands, 38 of which were wins had me up a whole half a buy in before that. Today the deck even smacked me as I’ve pulled K-K 4 times and A-A twice, the first time I’ve seen aces in my hand in almost a week. No action. None, nada, zilch. Twice I had them in the BB and not even a frikkin limper. And today I’m up big compared to the last few days. Usually it’s 4 hours of play and maybe up a buy in. Last night I wound up a whole 2 bucks, stuck in the same $4 range most of the night, up a few, down a few. Basically what I’m saying here is this is starting to feel like work except work had a guaranteed payoff and only half the frustration.

Probably play the Mookie tomorrow. At least that usually gives me material for here. Right now my mind is stagnating and I have no idea what to write about. Yea, I know, I’m pushing out a lot of words but mostly just a bunch of blather. Reading a lot and think about doing some book reviews but most of the stuff I’m reading is older stuff so not sure how of how much interest it will be. Especially since I have what, about 5-6 readers? Not like I’m Josie sucking up to (or bullying) everyone for links. Have a couple new books on pre-order but not sure when they will be in. One has been pushed back twice already. Summer movie season upon us but never was a big movie goer, usually wait until the video hits so nothing timely is going to come from there. Even Vegas is looking less likely this summer unless the Feds get off their duff and give me a quick resolution to my disability app. but that is unlikely. You know how fast the government is.

I see Josie has the first featured post on the Poker from the Rail site. Hell, she’s been crowing about it since before it happened. So much so that they probably heard her on the West Coast. Only thing is she says she got the spot without sucking up or other various techniques. C’mon Josie, no fibbing here. You’ll never get to heaven that way and considering that I’ve already got a waterfront lot and a reserved seat on the express elevator to the other place I sure don’t need to be spending eternity with you in the vicinity. ‘Fess up and maybe it will be forgiven. After all, the guys doing the selecting are guys. We know they can’t resist. I will sat they did make a good pick for their first selection as she does seem to have a large readership and gathers quite a bit of commentary on her blog. Hell, even I read it though mainly because she offers such opportunity for abuse. Face it Josie, you play poker, you comment here, you live in Boston, you crave abuse. Do you also golf? And by the way, that selection comment was not a nice one; it was based strictly on practicality. Don’t want you getting your hopes up.

Guess that’s enough for tonight. See you at the Mookie. Thanks for the listen.

A quiet Mother's Day

Got a new frikkin mattress the other day, memory foam. Lots of fun. It’s comfortable and supportive I will say that. OTOH it’s a bear to get out of when you have a weak side and are more than a tad out of shape. You sink in to the foam as you lie in it for a time and trying to lever up with only one good arm is a circus. If that is a circus trying to roll over is the whole 3 rings. I’m going to have to hit the gym just to be able to get out of bed. Or maybe not, just getting out of this thing is a workout in itself. But damn it is comfortable for a man with arthritis. Only my waterbed felt better.

Giving my ex a bit of a gift today seeing as it is Mother’s Day. Sundays I normally spend a couple of hours on the phone with my daughter but today I’ll not make the call as much as I want to talk to my daughter. I’ll let her have the time to spend with her mother. Now whether her mother will take advantage of it or appreciate it is a whole ‘nother story.

We’re going Jewish for Mother’s Day. Deli that is. Mom doesn’t want anything fancy and there is a great Jewish deli not too far away so we are headed there for dinner tonight. Mom’s a big fan of their soups; she could eat soup if it was 120 degrees out, and a corned beef or pastrami fan. As for me they have a great pastrami Reuben. I just love a pastrami Reuben with a thick slice of raw onion, regular, not red. In my younger days I visited a deli across the street from where I cashed my pay check every Friday. Got so that as soon as I walked in the door my glass of iced tea was on the table and the sandwich was on the grill. I hate being predictable. It’s a shame that place closed down. Pastrami now an occasional instead of a regular part of the diet. Probably a lot better for my health though.

Playing a bit of low level NLHE on UB while killing time on a Sunday afternoon. Couple of strange rangers to the left and right of me. Both put $10 up and they keep it up. Neither plays a lot of hands and when they lose, even the blinds, they restock. Haven’t the foggiest about what the hell is going on but I’m up a few bucks and they are contributing here and there so I can’t complain. Curious as hell though. My acquaintances with aces continue in this game. I’ve seen them twice today. Once when I was holding K-K and the other when I had Q-Q. I’m spending my time grinding out 30 to 60 cent pots and both times when I get big hands and it’s AIPF for a decent pot I frikkin run across bullets and there goes all that work. Only game more frustrating than frikkin poker is golf yet most poker players also golf. In fact I even did so for a number of years until my shoulder put the kibosh on it. Was even worse at it than I am at poker. Just goes to show you, we are nothing but a fucking bunch of closet masochists. Use us, abuse us and throw us away, we love it. No wonder I’m always in pain, I revel in it. I never knew this about myself. Just noticed a third one of these constant chip stack players has sat down. Have also noticed another thing about them. They bet a constant 4 times bb when they play and they also do not raise with an A-T when oop. Some kind of bot? If so they are not doing so hot. Whoops, take that back, one of them just played a hand to showdown. It all went in preflop and as I suspected, big pair against big pair. The suspect player had Ks vs. someone else’s A’s and hit the K on the flop to double up. Either a bot or some guy has an iron butt and rock solid patience. Just glad it wasn’t me finally holding A-A.

Back from dinner. So much for good intentions. Have been trying to behave myself in the food dept. lately but tonight was tough. Can feel my arteries clogging already from the pastrami. In addition the mushroom soup and onion rings were damned good also. At least I brought the carrot cake home for later. If I ate it there I would’ve had to been rolled from the place. We got there just in time because the place started to fill up about 15 minutes after we arrived. Was lots of fun because it was almost like being in a Chuckie Cheese from the amount of rug rats present. Every family that wanted to take mom out but had kids too young to go fancy decided to hit this place or so it seemed. Most of them were fairly well behaved though so except for one crying jag when a young boy conked his head it wasn’t all that bad. Passed a couple of the really fancy places on the way up and back and think they had to run shuttles in their lots. Lot of families out for dinner today.

Well, it’s early but think I’m going to call it a day, find a book and break in the new mattress while reading. I hope all you mothers out there had a Happy Mother’s Day and my best to you. Remind your families that every day should be Mother’s Day. (I think I got myself in deep with a lot of husbands out there) Thanks for the listen.

Some poker played, some to be played

Decided to play the PFTR game on Monday after all. Sorry I did. Didn’t really last long. Won a small pot or two early then got my table switched. Not long after that I went out when Lucko lived up to his name. He raised 3 times out of an early position. I was sitting with Q-Q in middle position and reraised 3 times his bet plus a scoch. Everyone folded and Lucko shoved, I called. He has A-K and rivers a K and I’m gone. I can never figure out why people are willing to shove A-K in this situation though it is commonly done. We were both about the same stack size with 65 BBs left, give or take so basically it’s putting your tourney at risk while it’s still fairly early. Yes, I know A-K is considered a premium hand but it still isn’t a made hand and if you have already raised and been reraised fairly strong I would be figuring a race at best with a good possibility of domination. Not to say I would fold in this situation but not sure I would risk the whole 9 yards here when there is still a decent stack in front of me. This also isn’t an indictment of this play in this instance; it’s a question I’ve been asking on some of my poker forums for quite awhile because it is a play I see quite often. I’ve yet to get a satisfactory answer to it. In fact listening to Rounders Radio one night (sorry Buddy) while playing their This Show Bites games on Reefer they did a show where a number of pros were remarking that they considered A-K on of the most overplayed hands in tourneys. As you might suspect, I’m beginning to agree with them though I’ve always thought it was either A-J or K-Q. Anyone willing to chime in on the subject I’m still looking for answers.

Some live poker this weekend. No, no casino trip, foot is still too screwed up for that but got a text asking if I was interested in playing at the Manor. As if he had to ask. Only thing that keeps me from a game there is a family function or a weekend with my daughter. While it’s probably better I stay off the foot it’s only a walk across the street so no great stress on the foot. I’m there. Been about two months since the last game which is a shorter time frame than the last period between games. Our host is a fanatic about the game with cards and chips worthy of a casino. Unfortunately his wife does not share this passion so his playing time is limited. Last game he said he did want to try and get the game on a monthly basis, give or take a week, so maybe he’s working on it. Only have heard one or two guys committed so far besides myself so have no real idea as to who will show. If I’m unlucky maybe Riggs might be there. He usually does get an invite though it’s been quite awhile since I’ve seen him at the Manor. .

Well, time to sack, need my rest. Early start tomorrow. Weather been so nice I gotta put on my walking cast and try and finish the berry trellis that’s been languishing since I screwed up the foot. Damn raspberries are throwing out runners all over the place so that even though only 3-4 canes survived the initial planting I may be glad of it to keep from being overrun in a couple years. Thanks for the listen.

Do I play tonight?

What to play? For some reason I never seem to do well on Tilt so that to play there I usually have to deposit. I have winnings on about 6 other sites but can’t seem to build a bankroll on Tilt. So now do I deposit a few more bucks to play the PFTR tourney tonight? I know I’m playing the Mookie this Wed. (and it is the fucking Mookie damn it, no matter what anyone else thinks. It amazes me that people are actually agreeing with Waffles.) but do I play in the VeryJosie tourney also. Maybe that’s my problem on FT, I don’t multi table much. Trying to concentrate on one online table usually doesn’t work out for me.

The good news is that I seem to be coming out of the bleak mood I was in last week. I finally finished the online story I was reading that I mentioned at the end of my last post though I haven’t gotten around to critiquing it yet. Still feeling too frikkin lazy to do a whole lot of mental work. Today I picked up a book I hadn’t read in years and started on it though if I’m playing tonight I have to make sure I put it down a couple hours early to give my eyes time to refocus.. If I’m reading I’m in much better shape as books have always been a major part of my life. If I’m neglecting them I’m in a really foul funk. Another good sign is that I’m starting to feel like playing poker again, another main vice. I played both BBT5 games last week but that and a couple of PA forum special games were about all I played and wasn’t really into them. Haven’t even played many league games. Have to take a short break every so often.

Yesterday I played some ring on Power and a tourney on AP to kill some time. Results were so-so. The tourney was HORSE. Main reason I played it was that except for the occasional league game that shows up don’t get to play much HORSE and I like it. This one actually had enough people registered to make it interesting, around 45-50 runners, so I jumped in. Poker gods obviously didn’t like me playing it however. Was doing ok in the top 7 or so in chips until the bets were up there and I pissed away all my chips in Razz. I learned quickly in the first round that this group chased because there was always one guy with two face cards up to my 9 high board who would keep calling me down. Bluffing wasn’t going to work with this crowd. Somehow I blew all my chips on two hands, a 7 high then a 6 high, almost back to back. Now someone has to be really pissed off at you to get trashed in Razz twice like that in that short a time. Ring however was a bit better. Played a bit of .10/.20 NL and picked up about $22. Hit one good hand, boat over flush, but mostly it was lots of small pots just adding up. That and avoiding the one big chip dump that usually kills me in NL ring no matter how good my session before it. Table was fairly soft, if anyone had anything they bet, if not they checked and a bet into them could usually take it down. Not even any calling stations. Picked up another $10 this morning, same type table but gave it up. It was so tight that even the small pots were too small to be worthwhile. Again hit one good hand, boat over trips this time, and some small ones but gave it up as too hard. I’m not that back in to the game that I can do that kind of grinding.

Reading Schaubs and Waffles blogs on the no shows at the Invitational and have to agree with them. Al spends a lot of time arranging this thing and Tilt is posting some great prizes and people can’t be bothered to show? C’mon, there are hundreds of us out here that would kill for invites and you guys are just blowing them off? Way to go people. Hope Al’s keeping a list and checking it twice. Come to think of it, dye that hair and beard and he might make a passable Santa though what the kids would make of the SoCo I don’t know. For that matter would he be able to tolerate the milk that goes with the cookies? Don’t know about you but I hate sitouts at online tourneys. It’s one of the features I appreciate at AP/UB. If you don’t hit the take my seat screen they pop up at the start by the end of the first level you are then removed from the tourney. That way you aren’t fighting the inertia of a dead table. They seem to be the only sites that do it however. Anywho, I know Sunday evenings can be a busy time for folks, especially the nice ones we’ve been having, but still think folks would jump at the chance to play these games. Of course I’m just a crippled up old fart with a lot of time on my hands so my point of view my be skewed. Either way, get with the program people.

Hey look, a whole post and no mention of Josie. Thanks or the listen.

Oh to slip the surly bonds of earth

Been catching up on my blog reading and came across a couple of mentions of a Survivor tourney, usually by Josie. Finally find a link to it in Rigg’s blog and follow it to check it out. What the fuck is going on here? I spend almost every night navigating the shoals of reality shows in hopes of finding something decent to watch and now someone has the frikkin brilliant ideas of bringing them to the poker table? Poker is my escape from such dreck. I take pride in being one of the few, if not the only, persons in the US with a TV set to have never seen one episode of either Survivor or American Idol. In fact I could almost claim to have never seen an episode of any of the multitude of reality shows that Survivor has spawned except I have to cop to having once watched an episode of Dancing with the Stars, but only one mind you. Yet now some peckerwood has seen fit to drag the garbage to the poker table. How come I smell Riggs in here somewhere?

Of course I can see why Josie is anxious to play. If I read this thing right it’s based on Survivor where so many start and one by one they get voted off. Just picture it, Josie and a bunch of drooling males thinking with the head between their legs rather than the one on their shoulders as the contestants. Can you picture one of them voting Josie off? Hell, they’re all going to be stabbing each other in the back in the hopes of getting to be the one to go one on one on top of with Josie. Damn, she’ll be able to play them and gut them like trout. No wonder she’s anxious to get it started, she’s practically got it locked up already. Might be interesting to follow at that.

What else is there to talk about? Right now not much. People dream about sitting around with nothing to do when they retire. Believe me, it sucks. Hell, even when I was in the hospital with my ass pinned to a bed there was still the obnoxious rules and officious attitudes to skewer and the enforcers of such to drive mad. I had fodder for this blog and an audience to enlighten. Sitting here, stuck in the house, my mind stagnates. I can’t even go to the bar games and make myself obnoxious there. Well, not that I really can’t go but I try to walk only when necessary to keep pressure off this fucked up foot so that it can heal faster. Of course if I should get a message that there is a real poker game somewhere walking becomes necessary. But on the whole I am bored. Bored, bored, bored. I don’t even feel like reading right now and anyone who knows me knows that is a bad sign. Hopefully this mood shall soon pass. Would be nice if the feds would make up their mind on the disability app I sent in. If they approve I can make some plans to visit Vegas knowing I have some cash flow and can blow a bit of savings. If they decline I can at least get fired up to fight. The waiting sucks even though I know it’s going to be at least another month until I hear anything. Of course I might even get an approval but the doc will say no because of the foot. That would be a bitch. Oh well, we’ll see. Enough being a whiney bitch. Something will break soon.

Oh, btw. If any of you folks enjoy sf/fantasy stories I said I would plug one for an online acquaintance from one of my literary forums. Guy is an aspiring writer and has put a couple of stories up on Smashwords.com. His name is Chris Northern and I read the first one he told me about, The Last King’s Amulet. On the whole not a bad story. He’s still a bit raw and needs a better proof reader in spots but it was enjoyable and kept me fairly interested and turning pages. It’s also got me reading the sequel, The Key to the Grave. The story is cheap compared to paperbacks, only $2 to download. So if you are interested in that kind of story and looking for a new author give him a try. Hey, if he makes it you’ll be able to say, I knew him when … Also you get to critique his work if you wish, something I’m sure he will appreciate as he’s still new to the game and working on improving where he can and if you enjoy there is another story out there already waiting. Give him a try if the genre is your thing.

Hokay, enough commercials. Thanks for the listen.

Another Mookie done done

Played the Mookie, and it is the Mookie, last night though wasn’t feeling the greatest. Even worse I had spent the previous couple of hours reading and when I do that my eyes go out of focus on the computer screen. That means I have to full screen the table to even see my chip count and tell the difference between a 6 and an 8. Given this there was absolutely no chance of any live blogging the game or even keeping a running tally of the table action to post later. Even worse there was no possible way to see, let alone participate in, the damned chat box so that the trash talk that makes this game so much fun wasn’t happening either.

I do remember a few things that happened. Was at ck’s table but she didn’t last long enough for a cup of coffee. Seems she got a bit aggressive against Blaargh and shoved a flopped mediocre top pair, 9s I think, into his pocket Ks. Early night for the Black Widow. Right after I told her she was getting to be as big a luck sack as Riggs too. Just had to go and make a liar out of me didn’t ya. I almost followed soon after and would have if I hadn’t won a small pot earlier. This time I was the one with the K-K and got trashed when Cracknaces gambled his tourney life on two over cards to the board and a flush draw when he raised my pot bet then called my shove on a 2 club, 10 high flop with K-J of clubs. As ck would say damned crubs. That left me sitting with about 250 chips while still at the first level. Somehow I was able to hang in and actually rebuild my stack up to around 2500 chips at one point but that point was somewhere after the first break so it wasn’t exactly a great stack by that point. Mainly a lot of shoves a couple that got calls here and there and hands holding up until my final shove with A-Qs came up dry against J-J. Would have been nice to make a deep run after being down that low early but it wasn’t meant to be. Used up that bit of luck when I pulled it off Monday night in a game amongst members of the Poker Analysis players when I went from an early mauling to tourney winner. Can’t expect that to happen too often.

Something I’ve been wondering about over the last couple of weeks is what gives with Josie? Don’t get me wrong Josie, it ain’t about you as such, you write a good blog, seem to be a decent person and don’t look half bad either if that is really you in that picture. However it seems every blogger with a dick is tripping over it in trying to make nice with you. C’mon guys, haven’t you ever dealt with a woman before? I mean Waffles I can understand, it’s entirely possible that he hasn’t if the rumor mill is correct but there can’t be that big a drought out there in blogger land.

Speaking of Waffles he seems to be desperate to get people on this change the name of the Mookie to the Dank bandwagon. Reading his blog I see he has Hoy listed as someone who is calling the Mookie by either The Dank or the Buddy in his effort to get others to do so. Hoy? Hoy? Now I don’t know what goes on between those two but from reading Waffles blog it sounds like Waffles would be the first guy to give Hoy a drink if he were in hell. Of Tabasco. Yet after reading nothing but trash talk from the aforementioned blogger he now cites him as an example. Oh the depths some people will sink to in pursuit of their agenda.

Damn, how did I live without all this fun when I took that hiatus? Donning my asbestos earmuffs. Thanks for the listen.

Some more politics

You know I keep hearing the GOP say they want banking and financial reform, a good political move from the way Main Street feels about Wall Street, yet they stand in a solid bloc behind Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as he yells NO at the top of his lungs and tries using the same scare tactics about the banking bill that he used concerning heath care. He’s not even saying that the GOP wants a bill and while they have problems with the one sitting there to be passed and that he and his fellow Republicans are working with the Democrats to iron out some differences he just keeps yelling NO and trying to convince Joe the Plumber that the bill is nothing but a big government bailout of banks should they again need one. So what is it? Are the Republicans just a bunch of dumb assholes or do they think that Joe and Jane Citizen are? Considering the amount of people who still believe that Obama was not born a US citizen or how many people they convinced that the health care bill was pure socialism it may be they are betting on the latter. All I can say is that considering it was their hurry to deregulate these self same institutions, and thereby causing the current economic situation. they now say they want to regulate I somehow find it hard to believe that they really feel regulation is necessary. After all, if we take care of the rich they’ll look after us. Hasn’t that been the GOP mantra since the days of Saint Ronnie if not longer? Maybe some of you may not agree with me but just remember this, these self same dickheads, who were in a great hurry to deregulate every thing in sight when they were in power were more than willing to take the time out to find some way to regulate your ability to play online poker. Think they are on your side?

It's not all gambling the GOP hates

Was reading the newspaper yesterday and came across an article where Mitch MCConnell and the GOP senators were trashing the new banking reform bill, not to mention the distortions and lies he was spreading about it. Weren't these the same characters that had no problem passing a financial bill that basically blocks US banks from dealing with online poker rooms and casinos thereby making it more difficult and expensive for us players to deposit and withdrawal from these sites? Seems the GOP doesn't mind the banks and Wall Street gambling with our money but have a problem with us doing so. Something to think about.

A good month so far

It’s been a hot couple of weeks on the poker front. As stated earlier I won the Buy in league I play which brought a couple of nice bennies although AP has reduced the guarantee from 40K to 35K on the tourney entry I won. Now that my daughter has gone back home I plan on playing it next Sunday night. Looks like they get somewhere around 350 players so should be interesting. It’s on AP so that’s a plus for me. Prefer the structure on the AP/UB sites to any I’ve played. There was a 30K deep stack listed that I inquired about as I much prefer a deep stack to a sniper but alas, it seems the agreement is for a sniper. I can change to the 25K on a Sat. but no deep stack.

Speaking of AP, this month’s GFN war games are being held on that site. A godsend considering Power Poker last month. The structure allows you to play some poker and even make a mistake or two rather than turning into a bingo fest after an hour or so. I prefer it as I said and so far it shows. I duplicated my showing of the first game last month by finishing fourth but in last night’s second game I followed it up with a second place finish last night which put me in a tie for first overall in the player standings. Should have taken first as I had a huge advantage going heads up but a misread or two, a change in my opponent’s style and a bit of luck on his part and I was vanquished. The change was a good move on his part as it caught me off guard but it was risky and that was where the luck came in. He caught when he had made a few questionable calls but I can’t blame him for the plays as earlier I had been forcing him off a lot of hands so he had to start playing some or get bled to death. It’s funny that the luck was on his side at the end because I hit a run of it earlier. It seemed the deck had come up and slapped me in the face as I seemed to win almost every race and even squirmed out of a few dominated situations. I was even being referred to as the luckiest guy online by some people. Yea, I’ll admit I was lucky, you have to be to go deep in tourneys but it wasn’t the kind of luck where you call a raise with 4-9 sooooted but the luck of winning the coin flips and the occasional suckout in a dominated situation but if people want to think it’s all luck hey, go ahead. I’ll happily take the second place as I was down to 400 chips at one point in the game. That’s one of the things I like about AP, I was able to wait a bit for a decent hand to make my play. At Power I would have been forced in to an atc shove almost as soon as I had hit the 400 chip mark. Two more games to go in this month’s wars. Hoping to keep myself near the top of the rankings.

Speaking of the top of the rankings and Power I got a pleasant surprise this week. I’ve been playing these games mainly for bragging rights and the freerolls the forum gets, never thought about personal prizes outside the tourney payouts. Given that I really didn’t care for Power Poker didn’t think I would be seeing much of the site. Reading the forum posts however I saw that the top 9 finishers received $111 and the rest of the participants got a $10 tourney coupon. So I go in to Power figuring I’ll check out this coupon thing and blow it on a quick tourney. Imagine my surprise that while I’m looking for the coupon I run across $111 in my account. Top 9? I hit the top 9? Except for that fourth place finish I thought my game sucked. Went to the results site and there it was, a tie for ninth. How the hell did that happen? Not going to complain though. While I might not like their tourney structure there seems to be a bunch of crazies at the Limit HE and PLO tables so I’ll work on my ring game with the money. So far I’ve added another $50 to the bankroll there. Another reason I wish to stay near the top of the rankings is that while last month the top 9 got the same payout this month it’s a graduated payout on the order of a final table.

Well, we’ll let it go for awhile. Still itching for some live play but with my foot still screwed up an AC trip ain’t happening for awhile unless I get someone to drive. Might give my opinion on the McNabb trade as if anyone gives a damn but for now, thanks for the listen.

Finally

Went out looking for a walking boot (cast). Hit a couple of major pharmacy chains, only type around here any more. While on my trek I actually noticed something I’ve obviously seen many times before. While supposedly people are mainly going to a drug store for drugs or something in that area because they are sick, the large chains put their pharmacy counters as far away from the front door as possible making sick people walk the maximum amount through their stores. Obviously a marketing deal from the looks of all the crap they have in there any more. It’s that crap that prompts this little spiel. After walking through the whole store on a bad foot, 2 stores actually, I get to the pharmacy counter and inquire about the boot. I received the same answer at both stores, they don’t carry such things. Now I didn’t expect them to have such a thing in inventory, too many sizes and models to carry, but I did think they would be able to order one. No they said they don’t even bother with such stuff. Oh, they can carry toaster ovens and alarm clocks, spearmint leaves and laundry detergent but god forbid they actually carry something that deals with an illness. There are two more chains in the area but figured I would hear the same from them so decided to save myself the walk and take a chance ordering online and hoping I got the right thing. With drugstores trying to become supermarkets and supermarkets adding pharmacy counters the lines are getting blurred. The supermarkets are winning the battle though as you can get cheaper generics in the supermarkets.

Back to some poker. End of the month has arrived and with it the final game of the Buy in league. I started off hot winning the first two games then tapered off a bit but still scoring in 3 of the next 5 games. I dnp in one and sat out one as I had no money on the site. Normally that would have been good enough but a late addition to the league arrived in the 3rd game and decided to put some pressure on. I had a chance to lock it up earlier when he stumbled and a win would have put it out of his reach but alas, I only got a 5th which enlarged my lead but not significantly. If he won last night he won it all. If he finished between 2nd and 4th I had to do no worse than two spots behind him to preserve my win. To further complicate matters a third contender had thrown herself in the mix but while a very good player she still needed to win and hope the two of us did not point to take it down so she was an outside shot. As it was she ran into some problems and couldn’t make the game which left it a two man race.

Game started and I knew right away the poker gods were pissed at me. In addition to there being a slightly bigger field than usual making it tougher to win obviously I find my main opposition two seats to my left. In addition to my immediate left is the league moderator who has already told me she planned on taking me out and making me sweat the finish. Nothing comes easy. Further proof of the ire of the gods was the fact that I was wishing I was playing acey-deucey for the first hour to 90 minutes instead of NLHE. They even teased me a bit as Venti, table name of my main opponent, lost a couple of decent pots early and was a bit short for awhile. He was able to build his stack back up however before they grabbed him and moved him to another table. At least he wasn’t on my left any more. In the meantime I was just folding along. Couldn’t even make a play with my garbage as the table was aggressive and there was usually a raise before my turn when I had position. All in all maybe a good thing as it kept me in the game even though my stack was slowly dwindling. It seemed my luck changed all at once, as if the poker gods got tired of their game and said enough. I had just won a big pot, doubling me up when Venti showed up in the chat box congratulating me, saying he was out of the game, meaning I had the league won for the month no matter what. It was nice but I still didn’t want just the back door, I wanted to finish with a bang. I finally started to catch some cards and as the blinds went up the aggressiveness seemed to slack off and I was able to make a few plays and somehow found myself reaching the final table with a reasonable stack. Needed more than that as only top 5 got points and as I already had my 5 scores for the month so needed a 4th or better to improve my total. Play went on and I played solid but not spectacular and took out a few players and made it to 4 handed with the second stack. Then we were 3 and it got interesting. Top stack was an unknown to me but had over double my stack. I was 2 with a couple thousand more than the third place player, who I knew was a good one. The leader played excellent big stack poker; either that or the deck had jumped up and spanked him. I know there was a lot of stealing going on. Finally slowed it down a bit when I caught a big hand the same time the chip leader did. Mine was bigger and he doubled me up and even though he remained in first he was only a few thousand ahead. It was a tight 3 way and I lost a few chips back to the leader. Stayed that way until he took out the 3rd place player and had a good sized stack on me again as we entered heads up. I was able to get him to double me up and even out the stacks a bit but was never really able to overcome that lead and got a bit frisky and made a play at the wrong time and wound up in second place. Oh well, while a win would have been nice I can’t complain about 2nd. Kept me from feeling I got in the back door for the league win.

As for that win I got myself an entry into AP’s 40K Sniper some Sunday and 10 bucks a month for a year added to my account on Reefer. That’s nice as it will keep me in the league games on Reefer for a year. Add in winnings on Cake and AP and UB and I’m covered for league games on those sites for a couple months. Two sites for the league have no funds so will have to debate about what to do with them. As for the Sniper that’s going to have to wait awhile as my daughter is on her way down this Friday for spring break visit and while I play some when she is down here I won’t be able to give that game the attention it needs while she is here so it will wait until she goes home. It also gives me a seat on the forum team for the Forum War games. Wanted that as I had a lackluster showing in this month's games. The structure on the site sucked as I think I have mentioned before. April's games are on AP with a better structure and will hopefully allow me to redeem myself.

OK, that’s about it for now. Thanks for the listen.

On a roll

Made a quick recovery it seems. League buy-in game Monday night after a long weekend of poker and wasn’t quite up to playing but as I won the first match of the month I didn’t want to handicap myself by missing the game. Have my sights set on winning the league this month and no sense trying to do it with one hand behind my back. Too many good players to give them a handicap. This game was at UB, an interface I don’t feel I’m fighting all the time so down I sat.

Grabbed a few chips early on and was doing fairly well when I made a stupid mistake. Somehow I hit the call button instead of the fold when preflop raise was made and I was holding 6-7. Kind of ironic considering my previous statement about the interface although I think this was more due to my touchpad than that. Anyway the flop came Q-x-6 and the raiser checked so I threw out a tester of about 1/3 the pot and was called. Turn brought a 7 and another check and another bet, a bit stronger this time and a check raise. Should have known better and dumped the hand, especially as this guy had my number the previous night, but kind of hard to turn loose of two pair so I called. Either I was slightly ahead to an A-Q or way behind to a set and the bet wasn’t big enough to cause me to turn loose. The river a blank and he bets and I call and he was sitting on a set of queens. So I make a dumb mistake that is compounded by actually getting a hand and still get smoked for not quite half my chips. It’s still early however and I still have more than the starting stack. After that though I went in to a stall, card wise. Deadly as the table turned aggressive and I was getting a run of 8-2 or 9-4s. Blinds started to hurt as I couldn’t even risk defending. Fold followed fold. Every so often I’d throw out a raise and steal some chips but that wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Went on like that until it folds to me in the SB and I’m sitting with K-4 suited so I figure against the BB it’s time to raise. I do, he calls. UH-oh, not good, need a flop. It don’t help, A-x-5, rainbow. I throw out a c-bet anyway and he raises. Guy has had my number for two days now. About ready to fold and then I figure what the hell. Those bets have hurt my dwindling stack even more and maybe this guy is thinking c-bet and trying to push me off. WTF, all in. Now he is chip leader with about twice my stack but a call can hurt him as the two others are on his heels and there aren’t a lot of chips in play due to a small field. He thinks for a bit and mucks showing Aces up. Aces up? He folded aces up? I didn’t think any one folded aces up at this level. Have to keep my eye on this guy in future games. Anyway I breathed a sigh of relief and it was like the damn had broken. I started to finally catch some cards. This allowed me to win a few pots showing good cards which, in addition to rising blinds, allowed a bit more stealing until we got down to 3 and I was decent position chip wise. A good read on catching someone with his hand in the cookie jar doubled me up and gave me a massive lead. All downhill after that and I score back to back wins in the buy in league. Was just trying to get some points to keep my lead but I can’t complain about winning. Gives me some more cash on UB and a pretty good sized BL lead. It’s early yet however and still a number of games to go so I can’t rest on my laurels yet. I might however be able to skip the games on those sites where I have no funds, think there are 2 of them. Of course I can try and cash a freeroll league game on those sites to give me something to play with. Or I can go for the threefor since the next game is on AP tonight. If I can grab some points there I’ll be in pretty good shape. If I win the war is over, call in the boats and piss on the admiral. I’m gunning for the win.


Despite my big poker weekend I am slightly depressed. Been reading all the blog posts about Mastodon weekend and sounds like another great time has passed me by. One of these days I’m going to be able to get to these things. Glad you folks had a great time.

Thanks for the listen.

It was a long weekend

Ok, hurdle 2 down, home game done. Turned out to be a decent night though it didn’t start that way. Was down a buck in the first 90 minutes. I rarely go down that much the whole night unless I get coolered a time or two. After all it’s only a quarter/half game. This time it was mainly bleeding though I did payout a few bucks I shouldn’t have. Twice I had the nuts on the flop only to have a guy catch up on the turn and both times I knew he had. Not just knew it in the sense that I figured it by the call and the card that hit but literally knew it because he telegraphed it when it did hit. Tells aren’t my strong suit but a blind man could have seen these. On one he literally jumped when it hit the board.

Took a time out to slip in a political commentary. Usually avoid such, mainly because they do no good any more. Not going to enlighten anyone, they already know every thing, so why bother. This time however after listening to all the bullshit about healthcare lately my ire was sent over the top by an email I received from a good friend, passing on some ridiculous bit of propaganda, supposedly based on something from a FOX News commentator and full of half truths and distortions, I just had to vent. My friend, whom I love like a brother even if we don’t quite see eye to eye on our political views, has the habit, as do a lot of folks, of passing on email that fits his preconceived notions without checking to see if they are factual or not. Most times I don’t worry about it, maybe send back a link debugging the myth if it is such or maybe a chuckle if what he sent was true and I enjoyed it but this one, on top of the other crap just made me have to vent. So I did. Now back to poker.

What part of turbo don’t people seem to understand? Normally I don’t play turbo. While I play quickly I don’t like to be rushed and I’m much more comfortable with longer levels. I’m not an action junkie so I don’t need the rush but these things are popular so I guess a lot of folks are. Sites must love them as they clear tables quicker. Anyway somehow I got persuaded to play the mini-FTOPS on Tilt for a buck with the 5 minute blinds. You would think people would kind of move along but most of them just mosey along as if there was all the time in the world. So why play turbo if you are going to play at snail’s pace? Just another reason I don’t like turbos. Just got knocked out. Won $6 so it wasn’t a bad ROI although that 9 grand first would have a lot nicer. Considering it was a drop down to an all in situation, double up and play some more the whole time I was in it I guess I can’t complain. Still in the OFC which started while the mini FTOPS was underway.

Started the OFC fast then rode the rollercoaster for a couple hours. Made the money but not a whole lot. Wound up in the 3rd level of the cash but again I couldn’t get much traction after the first couple of levels. The weak aces killed me. People just won’t let them go but they are afraid to bet them also. They kill me in these low limit buy ins. I bleed chips betting second pairs when everyone checks around.

Finished up a long weekend of poker with the first game of GFN’s forum wars. As I stated earlier I made the team as a result of the staff vote so didn’t want to fall flat on my face here. Wanted a decent showing if for no other reason than to prove they didn’t make a mistake in thinking I was good enough to help the team. This month’s games are played on Power Poker and boy was it an experience. Again I got off to a hot start which should have been hotter. Third or fourth hand I turned the nuts and check raised my opponent. I then value bet the river when it showed a blank and got called. If I had known he was holding second nuts I would have shoved. Could have used the extra chips. Added a few chips here and there and was chip leader early on. Disaster hit in the form of a bad card when my K-K ran in to A-K and the A hit the turn. Left me very short just as the tourney took a crazy turn. The blind structure of this tourney was ridiculous. Once past the third level it became a lottery. One guy remarked he was in the top 5 and had only 17 BBs. Not a good time to be a short stack. For me it became a game of wait for the moment and shove and then cross your fingers. Somehow I crawled out of the hole and got myself back up to the chip leaders by doing a good Greg Raymer imitation winning almost every race that came down the pike. The few I lost weren’t major so I stayed among the leaders and when I got lucky by sucking out of a dominated position I hit the final table in good position. Looked good for the forum I was playing for as we had 3 runners at the final and when we got down to the last 4 it was two from our forum and two from another. To cut it short the other forum went 1-2. I wound up 4th. Tried to get tricky with small pockets and made a misread and wound up donking most of my stack to a slightly higher pocket pair. Was left with a couple hundred chips with humongous blinds but actually doubled up 4 straight times before finally meeting my fate. As a capper to a long weekend of poker it was a rush. Congratulations to the members of the Suited Pockets forum for the 1-2 finish. Good game.

Can’t say I like that 4th place finish but guess I can’t complain too loudly either considering that this game took me entirely out of my comfort zone. I prefer to grind my way through a tourney rather than go for the quick kill. With this structure though that wasn’t happening. I found myself shoving hands that I would normally take my time with. The 8-8 was my friend yesterday. I shoved that combo at least 7 times yesterday counting all the tourneys and it came through every time. Add in the fact I was very short at level 3 and I guess I’ll have to live with the 4th and plan to do better in the next 3 tourneys. It’s gonna get interesting.

Well I never thought the day would come when I would say these words but after a long weekend of the game I am finally pokered out. It was hectic to say the least and I have to recover quickly as there is another buy in league game tonight. Normally I might pass on the game to catch a breath but right now I have a lead to protect. Guess I’ll relax with a book for awhile. Thanks for the listen.

More poker

Sitting here waiting for the OFC at Tilt to start wishing I had gone to G-Vegas. Would love to meet a number of people who I’ve enjoyed knowing through their posts and their support of mine. Would also love to find a shuflleboard table and renew my honor, and get my money back from the Black Widow since she was going to be there. Course it could be I might contribute to her bankroll. She’s good. Since a small medical matter and a prior commitment on Sunday made it impractical to make the trip I decided what better way to spend the weekend than playing poker.
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Started last night with the game for the buy in league at Poker Analysis. Was only a $3 buy in, most of the league games are either $3 or $5 but we got about 50 runners plus the added to put the first place payout around $55. I like these games. You get a good mix of very good players, good players who think they are better than they are because they are extremely lucky and donks. Basically the same mix you get at your live buy ins in AC so it’s good practice. In fact the leagues, actually the board itself, was originally designed as a place to not only chat about poker but to help improve your game. Their freeroll games, unlike a lot of sites, required a time period between joining the board and playing the games plus a decent contribution to the boards themselves. You also had to remain somewhat active on the boards to continue to play. Needless to say a number of people have, and are still trying to improve their game while others just roll along in blissful ignorance. To make a long story short, I won. Actually I steamrollered through most of the game. Both the cards and my game were on. That’s a tough combo to beat. The early game was a grind, mainly collecting blinds and the occasional limper. In fact that’s how most of the game went except for the times I caught a hand and someone in front decided to go all in. The boards were kind and I wish it had been a sniper game with the number of takeouts I had. I was big chip leader by the time the final table hit and I had double the chips of the other three when we got down to the final four. Heads up was a real bitch because it was against one of the better league players and he had a nose for the trap. I had gone from aggressive to trapping mode trying to sucker him in as he can get aggressive at times but he seemed to smell every one but the last when he actually made a hand also. Well played David, especially as I had you out chipped by a wide margin. So I match my win from last month but this time I get to sit atop the leader board. Won the first game lat month but forgot to register my table name for the sight so while I got the money I received no league points. Silly me.

So I started off with a bang. Now it’s time for the OFC freeroll at Tilt. For some strange reason I registered under RPT instead of PA as I usually do for these things. Let’s see how I do. If I do well I’ll probably hear about it on the boards, especially as the staff voted me on the team for this months Forum Wars. Oh well, I registered for the OFC before they gave me that honor. Don’t even know why I used the RPT listing as I haven’t played one of their games in months. Not being able to shuffle does put a kink in games where I need to deal but I’m probably the only one registered under them and I always did like to be the odd ball.

After the OFC it’s off to a live game at palatial Snakster Manor. It’s a fun game though not now what it once was. I met Snakster, Ron, through playing RPT games and heard about the games he held at his house. At that time they were fairly filled and people wrangled for an invite. Somehow I got myself one. It’s a fun game; people are good and fairly serious players. Ron himself is a very good player and also a very good judge of bourbon. Another reason the game is so good is that you get some excellent bourbon or rye if that’s your tipple. Ron also has a chip fetish. The cards and chips for the game are top of the line or damned close to it but Ron will get himself a nice set of chips and grow bored with them after a while and go looking for something new. He will talk all night about chips if you get him started. A good man to consult though if you are looking to get a good set of chips. One problem with the game is it is erratic. He used to hold it around once a month, maybe 6 weeks. Now you never know when he might text, game on. Don’t think his wife is sympathetic to us poker players even though her father sits in for a couple hours at the start of the game. “Pops” is a great guy though when he’s in a hand one never knows whether he has bottom pair or the stone cold nuts. Unpredictable he is. The other problem is you never know who is going to show up anymore. Since seating is limited only so many invites go out and lately a number of people say yes and then never show and by that time it’s hard to get someone to fill the seat. By then most off the fish you might call to donate have found another pond to swim in. Ah well, he’s called a game for tonight and that satisfies an urge that has been building since I haven’t been able to get to AC. Gonna go play some cards, drink some bourbon and hopefully have a good enough night to cover the chiropractor’s visit and dinner from yesterday.

Interlude here. Not enough guts to fire a third bullet costs me. Flop open ended with a flush draw in the OFC. Fire on flop and turn but give up on river. Character was chasing a gutter ball and his crap was higher than mine.

Ok, back to the story. As if this isn’t enough poker Sunday is also filled with it. In the afternoon I’m in for the buy-in part of the OFC followed by the GFN’s Forum Wars game in the evening. Was voted on to the team by the staff of PA so hope to make a good showing. First game is a freeroll so don’t know what to expect. Will they play decently as they are representing something or will it be the old hell it’s a freeroll mentality? Guess we’ll find out.

Well, as I finish this, and my plate of Singapore noodles, it seems I also finish in the OFC a very lackluster 2500 and something, or thereabouts. My short stack shove with 9-9 met a pair of tens and the board did no help. Hopefully my luck is better tonight. Will bore you with those details later. Thanks for the ear.

Some quickies

Just some fast and furious nuggets.

Sitting here playing some poker and looking over the blogs I’ve not been reading and notice that I’m not the only one who has taken a hiatus from writing. Either that links to those sites have been broken. Going to have to check to see if some folks actually quit or if they just upgraded their sites.

Reading about Mastodon Weekend. Shows how much I’ve aged and what the stroke took out of me. Time was I would think nothing of hopping in the car and driving through the night. Only thing to stop me would have been thoughts of work. Now there is no work to hold me back but as much as I would love to make the trip I’m not sure I want to make that drive alone. This from a guy who used to travel to Chicago by car by his lonesome a couple times a year. Not that I can’t make this trip, just the fact that I’m even thinking and rethinking it worries me. I’m getting old, no two ways about it.

Back at the limit at Cake. My hot streak seems to have ended today. The suckouts are coming fast and furious. Got guys not only calling me but raising with nothing but then catching on the river. Had one guy cap every round with a K-Q off against my set of tens and hit the gutter ball on the river. I could have done the same thing a few times but I’ve got the sense to bail when I have squat. Of course the squat turned into the nuts by river time. Looks like the bear is having a nice lunch.

I’ve got to get my library database finished. Seems I just wasted money on a book I already have. Was reading the summary and knew I hadn’t read it before so I ordered it. Got here today and I went to enter it in the database and lo and behold, it’s already listed. Purchase date on it is the week right before the stroke. Must have been in a batch of books I bought just before the stroke and never got around to reading. They were some of the first I tried to catalog a couple months back when I first started the project and then I packed them away to get them out of my bedroom. O well, only an EBay purchase for about $5-6 including shipping. Just as well too as I’m not really happy about the purchase. Book not quite up to the description Not real bad, just not something I would add to my collection unless it was a scarce commodity, which this one isn’t. More fodder for the e-store if I ever go that route.

Speaking of libraries, I was reading in their latest newsletter that they offer different kinds of classes and training, both classes and one on one session, through volunteers. Thinking I might go down and offer my services with computers. Not the greatest teacher on a group starting from scratch basis, not really patient enough, but if someone has an idea of what they want to do I can usually explain that to them. So maybe I’ll head down and see if they can use my services. Who knows, may make some useful contacts.

Well, time to get some things done before the poker league game tonight so I guess this trip to the land of boredom is over for now. Thanks for the listen.

Poker already

The other night I started playing some .10-.20 limit on Cake poker. Not exactly enamored of the Cake interface but it’s a site that my online leagues use so I play it every now and then. Somewhere along the line I must have cashed a league freeroll because a couple of weeks ago, when signing up for a league game, I found 20 bucks sitting there. Thanks to a combination of the live play I had been doing and the funk I had been in I hadn’t played too many league games so who knows how long that money was there. Point is, it was and the other night I was bored and so decided to go looking for a place to play. Decided to check out Cake and found, to my surprise, there were actually some limit games running.

Yes, I know, all you hot shot players look down your nose at limit. It’s NL for hold em and PL for Omaha. Can’t make money at limit. Can’t bet people off their draws in limit, get too many people chasing. Yup, you’re right, got those problems with limit. Of course they are considered problems only because most players view limit poker with a no limit mentality. Limit can be a gold mine if approached the right way, at least at lower levels. The NL mentality combined with the propensity of people not only to chase but to chase bad draws can make it profitable. People think I’m lying when I’ve said I’ve cashed out $500-600 after a night of 2-4 or 3-6 limit but I’ve done it on more than one occasion. It’s not common but it’s happened. A trip to Vegas a few years back I was up $1500 my first two days playing between 2-4 and 4-8 limit and $200 to $300 is not uncommon after a night of 3-6 in AC. I’ve been asked why even play NL if I can do so well playing limit. Hey, I like all the games, except maybe Badugi, and need to keep my hand in. Besides, never said NL was unprofitable. Maybe more on my limit philosophy another time. Back to Cake.

As I said, I saw the limit games and decided, what the hell, let’s see how they are. Was going to sit at a penny table and decided, why bother, if I lose my money here it’s not a great site for me anywho so who cares and went to a .10-.20 table and realized I walked in to a limit player’s dream. There was a character there who raised almost every hand preflop, rarely folding, and who would just keep firing bullets after the flop. No one gets that many good hands which usually means they think they scare people out or they just don’t give a damn. Works for them a lot of times but it also means that you can pull some money in on decent hands and really get paid off on your monsters, which is where it’s at in limit. You need those big pots on monsters to offset those payoffs on the suckouts and these are the kind of people who make sure those big pots are there. Watched the action for awhile and noticed some really weak hands winning on fairly strong boards even though there were pre and post flop raises and very little checking. The one guy was pushing the action and one or two people had caught on to him and would call him down to the river if they caught a pair even if it wasn’t all that big. Many times it was big enough. So I jump in to the action but my luck at the beginning ain’t so hot. I catch a number of hands of the kind I like to play in limit but the flops are unkind and those preflop raises are making the bite a bit bigger than it normally would be. I finally start to catch some cards and now it’s worth playing. Another crazy has sat down and between the two of them willing to bet with nothing and the natural calling stations that gravitate to limit games I wind up over 3 times my buy in. I like this. Returned the next night and did even better since a couple of the same people were sitting at the tables. Looking things over it seems they people are also multi tabling. Considering the way they are playing and the money they are tossing around you would think they would just play a more solid game at better stakes but who am I to argue if they want to hand over their money. It ain’t a whole lot but it will keep me in league buy in games, around 3 or 5 dollars a pop, for a month or so. It was interesting to note that one of the crazies eventually wised up a bit. I started noticing some checks and folds from him, at least the hands I was in, instead of the constant firing. Sat down for a third time later that day but the crazies weren’t there and the table was considerably tighter. Dropped a few bucks there as the cards sucked and there was no one paying off the decent hands and the monsters weren’t bringing the payouts to offset the suckouts. Left fairly quickly as soon as I realized that it wasn’t the kind of table to suit my play. I’m not looking for action the way some of these folks seem to be, I’m just looking for a way to relieve the boredom while adding some funds to the bankroll. Sitting here playing some as I type this. Table not to my total liking but cards are hitting when I play and enough calling stations to keep my head above water so far. Won’t be hard to leave if things go south however. Can’t stay at it too long anyway as have to do some running around shortly.

Well, ran my errands. Left the table after tripling the buy in. Might have stayed longer but one of the places I had to get to closes early today and since I was getting dinner fixins couldn’t afford to get there too late. After 3 days I’ve doubled the bankroll on Cake. Now that I’ve stated that fact I’ll probably donk it all off in the next few days. In regards to donking someone left me a text about a PLO game last night with a possible NLHE table going also. Too bad my phone was on charge and I didn’t see it until I picked it up before I went out today. PLO is always good for donking off some chips and I’ve been dying for some live play. Been 2 months since I’ve hit AC and even longer since we had a local game.

Speaking of poker and Cake in particular, it seems the staff of the poker forum I frequent has voted me to the forum team that plays in the forum wars sponsored by the Gaming Forum Network. It’s a monthly series of 4 games, a freeroll and 3 small buy ins in which the members of GFN put up a team of about 15 players each. In addition to the prizes for the game there are individual prizes for cumulative best showing and the winning forum gets a freeroll for its members. Of course the March games are being played at Power Poker, where I currently have no account and no money. That’s not a big problem as I already said that I would play if I made the team and would sign up if so. The problem with the situation is that Power is part of the Cake network. Problem with networked sites is that everyone has different rules on joining sister sites and no one ever seems to put these rules where they are readily available. Some networks want you to use the same account logon but different screen names. Some do it in reverse. Others tell you to open up brand new accounts from the word go. Of course nothing usually comes of violating these rules except every so often you hear the horror stories of someone hitting big and trying to cash and then find their account locked because they violated the rules by having 2 accounts on the same network. Does make you wonder if there is a reason the network rules are not positioned front and center. They make it sound so easy to sign up and no where, at least in all those sign up instructions, is there any clue as to what to do if you already have an account on the network. Might be buried somewhere in the TOS but that ain’t exactly front and center, more like the fine print. And it is not just the Cake network, it’s most of them. So caveat emptor for those signing on to new sites, check to see if they are part of a network and then find the network rules.

Damn, look at this. Said I wasn’t going to talk as much poker and here I am doing it on my 3rd post back. Of course discussing online poker is a lot easier for me as I can type while playing rather than trying to remember my live sessions after I get back from AC. So we wind up boring you about poker once again and it ain’t really about decent money either. Oh well, Thanks for the listen anyhow.

Mini vacation

The combination of my daughter finally coming for a summer visit and the fact my brother got us a room for a few days at the Shore got my interest level a bit elevated and me back at the poker tables. My father had been telling me that the Taj had been offering him a couple of nights and reminding him he had $78 in comps and since he hadn’t been going to AC told me he would let me use them as we both have the same name but even that hadn’t been able to get my ass in gear to do anything. Getting things with my daughter’s visit straightened out and a few days at the Shore with the family got me moving however. Plans were to head down Sunday night after my brother got off work but I decided to head down in my own car earlier figuring to play a little poker before we met at the hotel. My plans were beach during the day, poker at night though things didn’t quite work out that way. Spent the drive down talking to my daughter. Driving is a great time to talk to her. Gives her a couple hours to yak without interruption. Bluetooth headphones are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

So I get to Ballys and on a $1-3 NL table and get a call, it’s the family, they are on the road 3 hours earlier than scheduled. There goes my afternoon of poker; I now have about 90 min to 2 hours. It was an insignificant table, no really big stacks, no really notable style of play. Given some time I think I could probably have bled a few bucks out of it as it suited my style, mostly post flop play with a lot of loose calls to average sized bets post but folding to any real aggression. It was grinder’s heaven. Unfortunately time is what I didn’t have and when I left about 2 hours later I was about even, maybe down a few dollars. Not a notable afternoon. Only hand that sticks out is one I didn’t play because of a mistake. Last hand I played I was sitting OTB with a medium ace, suited, and decided that if it limped to me I was going to play it for about a 3-4xs raise. Unfortunately as it turned out a guy in mid position threw in 3 reds instead of 3 whites as if by accident and the dealer called it his bet and it had to stand. I was tempted to play because I didn’t think he was doing an acting job but decided not to because that weak ace could get me into trouble if he actually was so I folded and waited to color up as I planned to return later that weekend so easier to get chips rather than cash. As it turned out I would have hit nut flush on the flop and the accidental raiser hit top 2. Probably would have made a few bucks on that hand. As I later told him his accident probably saved him a few bucks he said it was an accident and as he played a J-9 off and given how he was playing I was inclined to believe him. Ah well, such is poker, a vast wasteland of missed opportunities. So I colored up and went to meet the family at the hotel.

Get to the hotel and the family was getting cleaned up and planning their evening. Plan was to go to the Taj and eat there using Dad’s comps up and then spend a few hours at the casino. Everyone expects me to take my own car as I’m usually out to the wee hours at the poker tables but I surprise them as I want to do some drinking plus they are talking about an early beach trip the next day and I figure some sun couldn’t hurt. So we head over to Taj and everyone stops to check their comps but me. Last time I was in Taj poker comps didn’t show up on the kiosks, you had to check in the poker room. Who knows what I have anyway as I hardly ever used them except for an occasional meal in the snack bar. Note, if anyone ever goes to the Taj the poker room snack bar has the best food in the place. It ain’t fancy but what they serve is cooked fresh and served hot, can’t beat it. So while they are checking the comps I hear Dad arguing with Mom and while me, the brother and nephew start looking for a place to eat we see the folks headed down on the escalator. WTF, don’t tell me they can’t refrain from hitting the casino before food. When they come back we find out that Dad had no comps on his card and the card center said, nope, got no record of any and Dad’s getting hot. While we decide on the place to eat, we decide on the place right next to us called Plate, my nephew chimes in that maybe the comps were mine. I never thought about it because, as a poker player, I never get mailings from the casinos. That’s for slots players, or was obviously, because I head down to the poker room and ask if there are any comps on my card. Yes I’m told, $78. Bingo! All month my father has been offering me what was rightfully mine to begin with. May have to get those names changed for the mailing list if poker players are going to get come ons. Cripes, I actually had a room offer and didn’t use it. 2 nites at that. So I head back upstairs and meet everyone at the restaurant and tell them “yup, my comps” so it looks like dinner is on me. As I said we were at a place called Plate and I had a bad feeling looking at the table settings and menus. I got the impression that trying to create an impression through fancy items and presentation was more important than the food itself. As far as I was concerned the impression was right. I ordered something called Not Quite Surf and Turf, supposedly a crab cake and a chopped steak made from Kobe beef. Not really what I was looking for that night but none of their other selections really moved me. Could have really gone for a good salad on the order of a Chef’s or something with chicken in it but the salads listed were all some variation of Caesar, had seafood in them and all were made with the fancy ass greens that remind me of weeds in my front lawn so that idea went down the drain. Ordered my chopped steak medium rare and started in on the bread they brought. That gave me some hope as it was sourdough and tasty. The drink wasn’t bad either. It only raised my hopes just to dash them totally. The meal came and it wound up worse than I feared. The crab cake was reasonably sized but covered in, and surrounded by, corn. No tartar sauce apparent. The “chopped Kobe steak” was no bigger than the crab cake, about the size and shape of one of my mother’s homemade homburgs. Overall mom’s burgers were better First; it was overcooked, well done instead of medium rare. Second I always thought Kobe beef was exceptionally fatty to make it tender. This thing was dry as dust, no juice whatsoever. Chopped Kobe steak didn’t have the flavor of a BK burger. Yes I could probably have complained about the well done but I waited long enough for that meal that I wasn’t going to wait longer while they tried to fix it. My poker night was going to be short enough since I wasn’t driving. I also tried some of the corn surrounding the crab cake and it was cold. Not cold as in it lost temp but cold as in just out of the fridge so obviously not a veggie but some sort of presentation dressing for the crab cake. It sucked and the crab cake not much better. While almost no filler it had a very fishy taste to it. I had some crab imperial the next night and it didn’t have half the strong taste that this thing did. All in all Plate is not a place I’m recommending to anyone even though I was later told, at the poker table, that they serve a pretty good breakfast. I don’t mind buying dinner but I do wish I could enjoy it when I do.

So dinners over and I head to the poker table and they have a seat at a 3-6 open so I head there. Bally’s rarely has 3-6, just 2-4 or 1-3 NL. 3-6 and 4-8 are my comfort zones. I’m a better limit than NL player and the play at those games is a bit better than that at 2-4 tables. Right away I realize what I’ve been missing. The players here are here to play poker, not kill time and hope to hit the bad beat. The words raise and reraise are not strangers to them. Betting rounds are getting capped, something I have seen rarely in limit at Ballys. Don’t get me wrong, there re your share of donkeys at the table but you don’t have 8 to the flop, increasing the chances of suckouts on the good players plus the donkeys are calling the 3 and 4 bets which means that your monsters are getting paid off. You can make up in a good hand all those flops you might miss with A-K or all those turn flushes that crack your straight or pp aces. When people do know more than call your raise when they have a strong hand the pots never get strong enough when you do get that nut flush or full boat to make up for all the bad beats. But when people are willing to reraise you figuring their flush is good even with the paired board then your night can be worthwhile. Sorry to say mine really wasn’t as there was one guy who had my number, and everyone else’s. That deck just up and smacked him in the chops. He’s an ATM when he’s off, he sees 90% of flops and chases down 8 hi flushes but when it’s favorable to him, as that night, there is no stopping him. Once I thought I was going to get paid off when I flopped trip Ks and turned quads and he was calling me down and the river put the potential flush out there but he was straight chasing instead and folded on the river. Ah well. As it was I wound up playing 3-4 hours and won $6. I was down about $100 early thanks to him but after he left I was able to come back and might have actually turned a bit of profit if the ride home wasn’t ready to pull out. But it was and I had to leave just as things were getting good. On a bad note when I got back to the hotel I found all the walking around had torn the skin off my toe on my left foot. It’s happened before and I actually have a kit I’ve prepared to take care of it but of course it’s been awhile since I did it so I didn’t pack the kit this trip. Wound up making my day at the beach screwed up but that’s for later.

Thank you for your time and attention. More later, I hope

Crubs don't come, beautiful crubs.

Warning, exceptionally long, even for me.

So I head out at 9 yesterday morning to see if Bally’s got things fixed on my hours and I’m in that tourney and to try to get over to the Borgata to check out the Summer Open. A lot of negativity wound up accompanying both those propositions.

I get to Bally’s about 30 min. before the tourney and go to the desk to check. Nope, not on the list and the guy there checks my hours and tells me they have me for 48. WTF??? I ask him what the hell is going on as I calculate 62-63 and last week they told me 57 and now it’s 48? Where did 9 hours go in the space of a week? The floor was great though and he got the room manager and between them the got my name on the list and so I was in the tourney. I do have to say the room manager is a pretty nice guy. I’m really liking this room more and more people wise. Dealers and floor persons are, for the most part, friendly and helpful. I wish they would get a more varied crowd so that their range of games would open up. Right now it’s basically 2-4 limit and 1-3 NL with a table or 2 of 2-5 NL and 1-5 stud. Wouldn’t mind trying to drum up some interest in 3-6 or 4-8 limit game. If I keep my face in the place I’m at least going to try and see if I can get them to put a kill button on a 2-4 table. Problem is, too many of their limit players are just there to put in hours and to try and catch a part of the bad beat jackpot. They come in and play a little then go wandering for awhile, the play, then wander. When they do play they really aren’t interested in the play itself as many don’t even raise or reraise even when holding the nuts. The room is trying to pull more people. They were the first in AC to move their bad beat to quads over quads minimum to build the jackpot and it worked for awhile but a few other rooms followed suit and things leveled out. They are the only room to pay the room, at least the hold’em tables, instead of just the table in case of the bad beat but don’t know how good an idea this was as it has lead to the situation described above. Gonna start doing some missionary work while at the limit tables to see if I can find some like minded souls to see if I can drum up interest in some slightly higher limit games. Have also inquired about mixed games as they seem to be the coming thing in Vegas but was told they tried them and found no interest. Thing is, was there no interest because it wasn’t advertised or because AC players are just provincial and prefer plain vanilla. The room seems willing to experiment, witness the bad beat rules and the fact they are the only room running 1-3 rather than 1-2 NL. Well I got time on my hands for awhile as the job hunt is slow. Have to work on this place’s image and game selection because they’re nice folks. One thing I did notice when I sat down to play cash later was that they didn’t mark the seat on the little sticky the put on your card when they seat you. They used to mark table and seat and this was the cause of a lot of the hours problems I think. If you changed seats at the table and didn’t tell the floor and they sat someone else in your old seat they clocked you out. But who tells a floor when you change seats. Tables yes but seats for Christ’s sake. So I noticed no seat on the sticky, just the table and limit and when I mentioned it the floor said they weren’t tracking the seat anymore. They’re learning. I made 3 table changes and 2 seat changes and when I checked as I left the hours were right. Good job Ari.

On to the tourney. After the fight to get in the rest was anti climactic. Couldn’t avoid the land mines in this on. Cards mainly sucked and mostly folded the first couple of levels. A few preflop raises got me some blinds and an occasional limper but lost most of those on a hand when my pre flop raise and C-bet on the flop were called by a guy playing 7-9 off and caught bottom pair and couldn’t let it go to a ¾ pot bet on the flop. As I said, minefield. Watched guys call pot sized bets chasing down mid range flushes and call preflop raise and reraise with hands like K-J. Bar style poker at its best. At the first break I’m sitting up about 200 in chips. Not good for this style game. You need some early chip ups to be competitive or you at the mercy of lady luck and she wasn’t riding with me just yet. Wound up going out at the 500-1000 level. Sitting with about 12k and OTB with pp6s. Folds to the hijack and he goes 3000. Cutoff folds and I call. So does the SB. Flop comes Q-4-8 and SB and hijack both check. Damn, both missed? 6s good? What the hell, I shove and SB beats me in the pot. Hijack folds and I figure I got suckered, he had to have smacked a set. Turn the cards and he shows A-Q. We had been chatting through most of the tourney so I ask him what he’s doing slow playing top, top. He tells me that since the other guy raised he wanted to see what he was going to do. Huh? I’m biting my tongue but I’m dying to ask him why. Is he going to fold if the guy bets? What does checking tell you if he does bet? I called the raise and he beats me in the pot when I shoved so it looks like he’s going all the way with that hand regardless so I have no idea what he’s looking for there. Oh well, I’m out and it’s time for some cash. One other thing, they announced the next freeroll promotion while I was there. Instead of just being Bally’s it’s going to take place with all Harrah’s properties and it’s a double. Instead of 60 hours for the month it’s 120 hours for two, July and Aug. Get the hours and it’s an entry into a $120 or 150K freeroll, $20K for first. Guess who has got time on his hands?

I have my winnings from the week before, a buy in at the NL tables so I figure I’ll try my luck. No luck, no seats. So I sit down at a 2-4 table to kill time. No great shakes, win a few, lose a few about even. Sitting there I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn to find the clean up guy. He points to the floor and there is $40 tangled up in a bit of trash paper. Problem with having limited use of my left arm is that I can only use my right pockets and so mostly everything goes in there and it can be a bitch getting one thing out without 50 others following it so I dropped the money without even noticing it. Being tangled with the paper the fellow could have swept it up and kept it with no one the wiser but he told me about it. Thanked him and gave him a $5 chip for being honest. To tell you the truth I felt for the guy as he too had a bad arm but his wasn’t going to recover. I could relate on a level. He thanked me profusely and figured it might have been the first tip the guy got in a room full of people all getting tips. As the saying goes, cast your bread upon the waters. It came back, believe me. The guy next to me thought it was a nice gesture and told me so and we started chatting. I asked him if he knew about the triple comps promotion. Harrah’s is running triple comps on weekdays but a guy last week said you had to swipe your card at the Rewards center to get them. He took a bunch of cards down there and swiped them for us as you don’t need to use your pin. I had stopped to look on my way up to the poker room but couldn’t see anything special anywhere so did nothing. So I ask the guy I’m talking to about it and he tells me that the bank of machines on the right are for that purpose so I decide to go swipe my card and take a whiz before I settle in. I grab my cane, still using one when walking any distance, kind of a security blanket rather than real need, and off I go. Gone about 15 min or so, get back to the poker room, stick my cane in the cubby hole I found to keep it out of the way, turn around and can’t find my table. Ever get that feeling of disorientation when something you know should be there isn’t? That was me. Did a slow 360 but nothing feels right but my original direction but the only thing that way is an empty table with a dealer at it. Huh? Look closer and I notice my chip stack and marker at the rail. Seems the table broke up while I was gone. As it was a full table it kind of shocked me but it was a most fortuitous circumstance. I grab my stuff and head to the desk to find a new table and notice open seating at the NL games and ask for a seat there and am directed to a table in back.

So here I am, ready to get my feet wet at the NL games again. Outside my little foray with a short buy a couple of weeks ago the only NL I’ve played in the past year have been .25/.50 home games and .05/.10 online. It’s been over a year since I’ve sat at a casino NL table. Hell, until last month it had been 8 months since I had been in a casino period outside a trip in Dec to a PA slots parlor to pick up a Christmas gift for Dad. It don’t help matters that I find myself in the 9 seat, not one of my favorites to start with, with the big stack at the table in the 10 and the second stack in the 8. Great, pass the Pepto. My $300 looks down right puny in the middle of this. On with the show. Table isn’t too bad. Standard preflop raises seem to be anywhere between 5 to 7 times the blind. None of the players really stand out except for the guy in the 4. CK’s term crasian is a pretty good description here. The table is schizoid. Sometimes a raise to 15 brings a fold around. A few hands later a 22 bet might get 5 callers. Me, I’m playing fairly cautious since it’s been awhile and with that stack to my left. I raise to 15 on a pair of 8s but the crasian goes all in for about 60 and I think about it for a bit but fold feeling I’m not quite ready to risk that much just yet. Yes, I know, overly cautious but then I’m the guy who folds A-J during the rebuy periods of tourneys, ask Falstaff. I pull Ks a bit later and my raise to 18 brings about a round of folds. That’s what overly cautious gets you, at least I hope it’s table image and not just a suck ass round of cards. Another orbit or two where I limp or play a couple of hands to small raises and miss the flop and fold when I catch A-A. My raise to 20 gets two callers, the guy in the 2 and the crasian. A couple of others have been into his pockets but I haven’t had the chance and I’m hoping that this might be it. I smack the flop with an A but there are two clubs out there. Ut-oh. Checks to me and I bet 20. Yes, small bet but I’m gambling here, looking for action and hoping the turn doesn’t bring the club or better yet that maybe someone check raises me. After all the crasian is still in. No such luck, all I get are two callers and the turn brings the third club, stupid club, and the 2 bets 25. The crasian folds and I call thinking the 2 has hit his flush but the 25 isn’t enough to keep me out as I figure I have 10 outs River brings one of those outs, pairing the board and giving me the nuts and the 2 smells something as he just checks. I throw out 50 hoping that the pot is big enough that the 2 won’t be able to resist if he has a decent flush but he decides to fold it and I get a decent pot. A few hands later the big stack picks up and leaves and the guy in the 6 gets felted and goes. I move to the 6 even though this puts the big stack in 8 to my left again but I just hate the 9. The game goes on, me playing a few hands and going nowhere mostly, winning a small pot or two. Couple of nice pots get played with the crasian getting felted twice and buying back in and showing a temper, finally being warned by both the dealer and the floor. I’m up between 100-150 in mid position and get 6-6 with a couple of limpers in. I decide to limp and cutoff does also and button raises to 15. Folds around to me and the cutoff is the big stack with about 700 or better in front of him and the button who is a recent arrival in my 9 seat with his full buy in still there so I figure it’s time to do a bit of set mining. 15 isn’t so much that I can’t get away if the flop isn’t there or if the cutoff reraises. He doesn’t and we get the flop. Hot damn, there’s a 6 there along with an A and a 3. Only problem is that there are two clubs there, damn clubs. I’m first to act and while I hate slow playing a set with a flush draw out there I figure the button is going to bet that ace giving me the chance to check raise and chase the middleman if he has the draw. Since the ace is a club I figure the button isn’t drawing. Of course I’m SOL if the button raised with a mid pair or K-Q suited. The 15 feels like A-paint however or that mid pair. A bigger pair is usually bringing a raise to 20 or better. The cutoff also checks and the button comes in, right on schedule with a close to pot sized bet of 50. That puts about 100 in the pot, give a few bucks but a pot sized reraise is only a minraise to 100 so I over bet a bit going to 125. I figure this will chase the middle man leaving the button with a decision as to whether his good A is any good to the check raise. Either way he goes is fine with me. I’ll take the action figuring I’m way ahead or I’ll take the pot. The middle man then proceeds to screw up all my carefully thought out plans by shoving. Huh???? WTF is he shoving with? Only hand that has me beat at the moment is A-A and considering the way the hand was played and that the button most likely has an ace I can’t believe that he’s holding rockets. I can believe he might have limped with A-A but I can’t believe he wouldn’t have reraised with them once the button raised. Besides he was pretty aggressive so even limping with them is a long shot. In the meantime the button decides his A is no good against this action and decides to fold leaving me with the decision. I go over the possibilities once more, figure there is no way I’m not ahead and he’s thinking that either I’m trying to buy the hand or trying to take advantage of my image and figuring I won’t risk the rest of my stack. Takes me just a couple of seconds to run through this before I say call. Yeah, I know, insta call but that’s not me, I gotta run through everything one last time, especially when it comes to putting 400+ on the turn of a card. I turn over the set and he turns over the club draw. Oh damn. Please no, no club or at least make it the 6 if it has to come. Damn 6s cost me the tourney, were they gonna cost me my stack here too? Turn a heart and river a spade and I let out my breath while the dealer starts stacking chips. Schweeeet!!!! After it settles down the game continues, the 8 decides to take a walk and the guy in the 9, the button that hand says he had A-Q and was debating a call until the 8 seat shoved. I stayed hot winning a few more bucks mostly small pots, a few semi bluffs that weren’t called, couple of top pairs that held up. This run at the table is the main reason I never made it to the Borgata to check on the Open. Who wants to leave a hot table?

Only one more hand of note before I called it a night though the crasian got felted again when his flopped 2 pair got rivered by an OESD. Was tempted to lend him my copy of the Poker Mindset. I was OTB with 4-7 suited. Was thinking about playing it to see a flop when UTG min raises and EP then goes 15. That was going to be that until 4 more players jump in. Hell, just too much money in that pot to not at least see a flop. BB and UTG join in and the flop brings x-5-6 rainbow giving me an OESD. Checks to me and I throw in a quarter and get 3 callers. Turn is a blank and it checks to me again and this time I go along. River brings me my 3 and it again checks to me. I toss in 50 and everyone folds. Talk about falling in the cesspool and coming up roses. I play a few more hands and then head for a 2-4 table. It was about 7:30 and I hadn’t eaten since 8 that morning so I decided to order some food but I wasn’t going to eat at the NL table, too distracting. So I decided to play some limit while eating then was going to pack it in after dinner and head home. Nothing much happened at the table card wise but did have a strange conversation with one of the women at the table. We were discussing the tourneys and she mentioned she loved playing the speed tourneys there, basically 12 min levels with blinds doubling each level. I stated I couldn’t stand them, that even the regular tourneys were too fast for me. Said I wish I had the money to play the deep stack, long level tourneys where the blind levels last an hour. She told me that no place has tourneys where the levels last an hour, wasn’t possible. I said huh? What do you think is going on in Vegas right now? What do you think happens during the Borgata Opens? No wonder you’re playing that 7-4 off UTG and calling 3 bets with it. Well I managed to donk off 30 during dinner and packed up a headed home with a bit of a bankroll to keep me coming back. Next trip an overnighter on Mon.. Let’s hope the good karma holds both then and on Sat at Rigg’s tourney for the posters to the RPT website. The top posters during the month of April qualified and anyone who has made it this far should realize that I have no problem being among the top even if Riggs told the official tally person to only count 1 in 10 of my posts. I am wordy if nothing else.

For those who have made it this far I Thank You for your attention and hope to see you (figuratively) again. Good luck to those playing in the WSOP events. Hope to see some of you on TV.