How could I be him and get caught by such foolishness

Because Riggs did it

For all you Target fans and my phantom readers

I didn't just write this

Omaha, where did I originally learn to play it? Good question, one I really don’t have an answer for. Mojo, you gonna rue the day you asked it. Poker in general I learned to play when I was knee high to the proverbial grasshopper. My family had a a regular Sat night game, nickel and dime, draw, stud, both 5 and 7 card, a few with wild card variations and a few games that resembled Omaha but weren’t quite. Instead of playing with the rest of the kids I sat tableside, watching, and then later filling in when someone went to get a drink or something to eat or to take a whiz. Once in awhile when someone didn’t show I could actually grab a seat but that was rare. It was a big night if someone won $20. When I-went away to college I basically gave up poker for a number of years as I didn’t play there and the home game fell by the wayside except on rare occasions. The opening of casinos in Atlantic City scratched the gambling itch of my family members. They played slots, I played blackjack. Never gave the poker room a thought.

Gave up blackjack after my second trip to Vegas. I was cold in general that trip but one day I wandered into the Mirage and sat down at a $5 table. I was up and down to start but then I went on a streak of 20 straight hands of 19 or better including a couple of blackjacks. Hell of a streak. Even more amazing, I didn’t win a single frikkin hand. Not one. Nada, zip, funjis, squadush. After that I packed it up, walked back to Excalibur, put on my bathing suit, went out to the pool, grabbed a paper and a lounger and told the girl working there to bring me a rum punch and to stop back every 20 minutes. Spent the last two days of my trip in that lounger, got a nasty burn. Have never played blackjack since. (Interesting aside to this is that my brother was out there again about 2 3 years later and ran across the girl from the pool working in one of the casinos. He was talking to her and mentioned that he remembered her from the pool a few years earlier. Her reply was, “oh yeah, you’re the brother of the guy who likes rum.” Guess I made an impression) so since I gave up blackjack I had also given up AC. Slots aren’t my thing except for maybe sticking a $20 in one while waiting around and while I like craps I can’t make a day of it so I just stopped going. Then one day, about a year or so before the poker boom hit I wound up being tricked into a trip to AC. Was told we were going to Cape May for awhile as my mother wanted to see the place and then stop at one of my favorite restaurants in Ocean City for dinner. I figured I could use the day out so I went along. Well we made Cape May but the restaurant in OC was closed, it was off season, and somehow dinner wound up being in a casino in AC. Of course it goes that since we are here … As the rest of the family went off to the slots I wandered around looking for something to do and found the poker room. Said what the hell got a seat at a 2-4 limit table and have been hooked ever since.

At this time poker was dying a slow death, no one was playing, the Borgata hadn’t opened yet and most of the rooms were closing. Eventually I think only the Trop and the Taj had rooms open. Luckily my family was big Taj goers so I had no problem when I went down with them. The room was right there. A little later I started futzing around online. Opened an account on UB and started with the play chips but quickly got bored with the idiot play sine it was only match sticks so I deposited on UB and stared playing micro games. It was probably somewhere around here that I found out about Omaha. Stated playing as a break from HE and found out I enjoyed it. Was helped along by the fact I won $10 bucks on a hi hand jackpot for a K hi straight flush, Hey, I was playing a penny game at the time, $10 was a lot. So that’s probably where I first ran across Omaha. Started with the hi game. Omaha complicated enough without worrying about splits. Still prefer the hi game though no one really plays it. Everyone wants to play O8. They get excited about those half pots. In live games finding an O8 game is tough enough, don’t even think about plain Omaha, at least in AC. Used to always put my name on the list for a game when I saw it but they rarely came together. The Taj had one at 2-4 that used to gather on Fri nights but the regulars locked up their seats and you weren’t getting in. Found out the Borg used to spread one n Wed afternoons at 4-8 with a half kill but that was usually locked up by regulars also. Besides, Wed is a work day. One week on vacation I actually got into the game. As I had gone up to AC from Ocean City to play on a Wed. It was great fun but never got back into it. O8 has since become a more regular game, at least the last couple ties I was at the Borg they had a list but I was there for tourneys and so never found out whether the game was actually going or just an interest list.

So I guess I started playing Omaha online. Of course as a newbie I had the same attitude you still see in a lot of games online, that of, Oh boy, I got 4 cards, I can probably make tons of hands. It wasn’t until much later I learned how to be selective in my starting hands. Basically picked up a lot of advice from the Poker Analysis forum and by playing. The one thing about Omaha and O8 is that the variance can kill you. Add this to the fact that many low limit players play it like they are playing Hold em and it can get expensive if you get cold decked especially in pot limit games. That’s why I prefer limit at low stakes.

OK MM, you sorry you asked that question? Totally bored yet? You really want to talk O8 you should probably talk to Riggs or CK; they seem to be playing a lot of it these days. One day I’ll have to ask you about bridge. Started to learn it while in high school but never stuck with it.


Thanks for stopping by boredom central

Lots of stored up poker

Guess we’ll make this one about some poker. Been trying to write for the last couple days but something, including my own freaking mind, keeps interfering.

We’ll start with last Sat. Simple $50 buy in, .25/.50 NLHE with friends, munchies and beer. My nephew decided to play which helped the transportation problem since I had a ride down but was going to have to rely on the kindness of strangers to get home. By the time the night was over he wishes he hadn’t but we’ll get to that in a moment. Knew about half the players at the table, Game started out decent for me if not great. Took down a few small pots early to put me up a bit and never really went into the red. Most of the pots I took down thru the night were smallish. Only one decent pot and two memorable hands, one the last hand of my night, one connected to the other in a way. Game was fairly straightforward which was a bit surprising given that at least two of the payers I did know aren’t exactly shy about being lagtards at times. Guess this wasn’t one of those times though there was at least one hand between the two where it did show thru. It was one of the biggest pots, and biggest suckout of the night. Our host Doug, who some may remember from Al’s bash, decided to pull one of his Doug moves and do a reraise shove on the flop with air. He got himself called and then proceeded to hit runner, runner for the nut flush. Doug is shitty that way. A similar situation later developed although at least this time the pusher had a hand. Ron shoved with top pair, good kicker and was called by Dave, the victim of Doug’s suckout, who flopped 2 pair. Ron then proceeded to runner, runner the nut flush. If I was Dave I think I would have called it quits right there but he gamely bought back in. A while later he was again involved in another massive suckout but this time he was playing Hoover. Guess he deserved it.

It was all these suckouts that contributed to my nephew’s disgust with the night. He had been playing fairly conservatively up to this point, he later told me his cards sucked all night and he had only a few really playable hands, but this had he called a preflop raise and the shoved on the flop. Think it was a reraise but he might have been acting first. His opponent, Kevin, also known as dogballs, called. Again some of you may remember Kevin from the Bash game. He was the “thinker”. My nephew turned over K-Q suited for two overs and flush draw while Kevin had 8-8. With that name should have known he wasn’t going to release them. Turn and river came up blanks for my nephew; in fact I think the river was an 8, adding insult to injury. Of course my nephew remarks that everyone hits their suckouts that night but him. He buys back in but not much later I hit my one decent pot and sorry to say it’s at his expense. I’m OTB with 9-9 and I raise it up and he’s SB and calls as does another player or two. Flop hits J-9-x, two suited and the nephew bets out $12 and it folds to me. Seeing the straight and flush draws out there, not to mention he’s my nephew and is already down a buy in I jack it up to $36.rather than slow play. He tanks for a bit and then pushes all in which I snap call. He turns up J-9 suited for top 2 and goes down in flames as blanks hit the turn and river. He gives up after that and goes wandering and since he’s driving I play a bit more and give my half hour rather than let him sit around. Besides he has to work at 7 and it’s getting near midnight. Not much went on in that last half hour except I dropped about $20-30 to Dogballs. I’m in the hijack with suited connectors and raise it up and Kevin in BB calls. Fop comes down 3 high cards giving me an open ender and Kevin checks so I put out a pot sized bet on the semi bluff and he calls. Turn is a blank and he checks again and I now know he’s either got a mid pocket pair or maybe paired one of the under cards on the flop and that if he didn’t fold to that flop bet there was no way a second bullet was getting him of them so I need to hit the straight so I check. River another blank, we check down and he’s got the damned 8s again. Oh well. So now it comes to my last hand but Doug, the ma in charge of the bank is dealing, so OK, I tell him I’m cashing out after the next hand. Great timing. Doug’s deal I get 8-6 off and fold. Next hand I get A-Q, raise and get a couple callers. While Doug is getting the bank the flop comes 2-A-2, not bad. Checks to me and I bet the pot, about $20.and it folds to the guy on my right, friend of Doug’s who has been playing fairly good poker all night, manly folding. He looks and says”20, I only got about 30 altogether.” This is where I should have smelled the rat. He then proceeded to go all in, not for $30 but more like $45. Since there is no way I can put him on the deuce unless he played A-2 or 2-2 to the raise I figure he’s got to have the A and I can’t figure the K since he limped. Could have been that since anything is possible but since it was only a bit more than a min raise I call. Then I found out what exactly was possible. He turned up his cards and I’m staring at a 2-3. A 2 fucking 3? WTF. So I don’t catch my A or runner Qs and after leaving $10 for the house I wound up cashing out up about $10 instead of about $60-70. What a freak combination of circumstances. An extra hand that I hadn’t planned to play because the banker was busy, good hole cards, catching the frikkin flop and having someone play a 2-3 to a raise and smacking the flop. Not a good night for the family in terms of luck but at least I came up in the black.


Online I’ve been playing a bit of O8, limit on UB, PL on Tilt. I started off decent the first couple night but the last few have not been kind. In O8 I usually only raise preflop on 3 types of hands, double suited spreads of 9 and up, corner spreads with at least 2 suited and low spreads containing an A. Other than that I’m usually content to play the game post flop. Basically I’m looking to build a pot for the scoop because at low limits a 2 bet in limit or a 3x in PL isn’t really scaring anyone off and all of those hands give great scoop opportunities. Well I’ve been getting a bunch of such hands lately. Problem is they aren’t synced with the flops. When I’m playing hi, lo cards flop, lo and I see the hi ones and somehow when I have the corner it never fails to come either a paired board or mid cards. I’m bleeding like a stuck pig here preflop. Add to this the chips I’m losing due to those characters who don’t seem to recognize the word quarter when all they have is the nut low and insist on reraising with it and all the winning hands I keep getting bet off by people who don’t seem to realize that trips and straights are not power hands on the turn with a paired board and the cash tables are now to the down side.


OTOH, the SnGs are still good to me, usually providing I with my MTT buy ins. Still working on my multi table game. Friday night I was playing a $5 KO tourney when the Donkament started up KOs don’t normally fit my style as I usually try to play to accumulate rather than chip up big. It’s a hole in my game that when I have the big hand I don’t seem to recognize how much my opponent will be willing to call so I probably underlet my hands trying to make sure I get something rather than going for the kill for fear the fish will spit the hook. Was doing reasonable in it had already collected 2 KOs and was in the top 15 in chips. When I got tangled in the screens between the two games, not once but twice, and had Tilt fold me when I probably had a winning hand. Damn mouse pad on this laptop is quirky and I have to stop multi tabling Tilt because their time doesn’t give you much fudge factor to play with. So with that I had to give up the Donkament. The game is more fun to play but the KO had a lot bigger payout. And since I was sitting so well in it I had to concentrate on it. Well I cashed it, though not big. I got my entrance money and a few extra in KO money and went out somewhere in the 20s for about another $20 some. Was sitting in the low teens in chips when 3 bads got me in the space of a few hands. Bad luck, bad read and bad timing. Bad read was when I had A-J and UTG raised pre. I called and 3 low came out and UTG bet. For some reason I put him on a steal and raised thinking the A might be good. He pushed and really didn’t have enough behind him that I could lay it down. He had a pair of tens and my overs didn’t hit. Bad timing came a couple hands later when I had A-4 suited in the hijack. Folded to me and I raised figuring I might have a shot to get the blinds and antes with some outs if called. In his I was dumb because I wasn’t paying attention to stacks and didn’t notice that 2 of the following 3 players had stacks that committed them to all ins if they played and would cost me about double the bet I laid out. Well of course the button goes all in for a bit less than a min raise and I have to call and he has A-J to my A-4. We hit the A but his kicker holds. A couple hands later, down to a lo stack I catch A-K and shove and get called by the big stack. Love it when I see A-J but of course here is where bad luck joined the party. River J put the kibosh on my hopes of making a come back and put those visions of decent cash back in the closet.


Finally, I had intended to write this post yesterday while waiting for the RPT TOC to start. How I qualified I don’t know since I spent the first month of the period in the hospital and my playing time since has been severely limited. but I guessed I did well enough in those I played to get the points to qualify. I thought I was going to get there early with time to kill and I would write this but it seems I misremembered the starting time and got there with only about 30 min to spare so no writing and the tourney gets included in the post instead. Not much to write about with the tourney. I managed to hang around to about 50th before going out. Got my chip stack up early but never really big and basically just futzed around. I have come to the conclusion that to do well in these things one cannot play the steady chip accumulation game. The blind structure after the first couple of levels requires you chip up early. That and the fact that there is always going to be some donkey willing to call off their stack with a draw make it impossible to play poker rather than cards. Twice I tried to make a move in the mid levels and both times the guy in the BB called me down both pre and post flop. It made 6 times total that he called preflop raises on me. He just hated to give up that blind. Later, about halfway thru the tourney and at a blind level where a lot of people start dropping out I saw a woman who, if not the chip leader at that time, was damned close to it, call off half her stack on a flush draw. She originally called two all ins and a call by another big stack with A-5 suited. Not a bad call given the size of her stack. However the after the flop the other big stack pushed all in, something not usually done in these situations unless one has a big hand since you really don’t want to risk keeping the all ins in the tourney with a good size stack . So you usually don’t bet unless you are sure you can take out the other players. She thought for a bit then made the call for somewhere about half the stack. Now half might not sound like it’s that bad a call but we were at a point in the blinds where the basically start doubling so you don’t have much time to recoup if you lose. BTW, she hit the flush on the river. So as I stated you need to be willing to gamble at these things. As for myself I lived and died by the suckout sword. About halfway thru I was down to 3 times the BB with an A-7 suited in EP. Figured it was that hand or the next as I never wait for the blind in that situation so I put it all in and get a caller. Oooppps. He turns A-K and I’m getting ready to call for my ride. A hits the flop but that’s no help. Turn a blank and I look at the dealer and say “I’ll take a 7”. Damned if he doesn’t oblige. That and another double up after I get moved keep me playing for another hour and a half but I push with A-K and get called with A-J and instead of doubling and possibly making the prizes the J on the river kills my tourney. Guess I deserved it. Just to give you n idea of what you play against in these games there was one hand, blinds 50-100 and the little old lady in the BB only has 60 behind. UTG goes all in for 165. Snap call on part of BB right? Nope. Lady shows a 3-4 and folds saying she can’t play that. Lady, in that situation you play atc and pray.


OK, down to the final 7 players in my league game. Ooops, now itm and have taken the chip lead. Time to concentrate. Won’t bore you any longer. Thanks for the visit.

It's harrasment (or is it) but is it sexual?

I had started to write my latest post about some poker since I’ve spent the last couple nights playing O8 and Doug had a home game last Sat but my mind started wandering thru the paths of social issues and social justice and I started asking myself questions. Since I couldn’t come up with any I thought I might ask my devoted readers. Oh alright, it’s probably more like any dumb, unlucky son of a bitch who stumbles across this site but I am still curious as to what people think. I know there are some lawyers out there in blogger land so feel free to chime in.


No we all know there is a lot of obvious sexual harassment out in the world and a lot of not so obvious. Some people have differing opinions as to what constitutes sexual harassment. Boss pressures an underling for a date, or more is harassment but is a coworker just asking another for a date such? Lewd remarks are definitely in the harassment category but is issuing a comment on appearance? As I said there is a grey area where some folks might consider a line being crossed and others not. This however isn’t where my mind was wandering.

The situations my mind was playing with are obviously harassment, the question is, do they come under the heading of sexual harassment? I’m sure most of you have come across these types at work. In a more physical labor situation such as construction or factory work they would probably be construed as jokesters having some fun but is what about an office setting? And should the factory floor be considered any different than an office? You know the type I’m talking about. There’s the typical juvenile who thinks that calling or insinuating someone is gay is the biggest insult they can hand out. They obviously never noticed that a lot of gay people are smart, successful and have a satisfactory sex life. Maybe a higher proportion of gays fall into this category than your average straight folks. Seems like it to me at times. Be that as it may, this character has no originality. They hurl the “gay” epitaph out there adnauseum as if one hadn’t heard it the first time. They purport to want to know how the “boyfriend” is doing or girlfriend in the case of the ladies, and want to now what you and the friend did on your date last night or over the weekend.


This brings us to the second type. They don’t bother with the gay situation. They just want to know all the details of your sex life and aren’t shy about asking or about making up hypothetical situations for you. Sometimes they may be honestly curious, if not tactful or in others the questions are asked in the sprit of implying you don’t have a sex life and that there is something wrong with you. Some members of the previous category use this tactic as a way of implying the target’s sex life is a gay one.

Then there is the character who thinks he’s killing two birds with one stone by picking on two people, either of the same or opposite sex and either saying that he is going to hook them up for a wild night of sex or, by asking them questions imply that they have already hooked up on their own and he’s just trying to solicit the details. You sometimes get one of the victims figuring it’s all in fun and “going along” with the “joke”.

So, as I said, most of you have probably encountered these characters. Is what is going on a joke or is it harassment? If harassment is it sexual harassment? It’s obviously not what is commonly considered sexual harassment, where one person is pressuring another for a sexual relationship but the context of the situation revolves around sexual content. What should be done about such characters? Is this kind of behavior OK in one setting but not others? As I said, my mind sometimes wanders strange paths at times and I wonder what others think. Feel free to share your opinion. Feel free to tell me to fuck off.

I appreciate the time spent listening to me. Thanks for the visit.

A little poker, very little

OK, played some online poker this weekend and getting really frustrated. While I have been playing mostly single tables when I have played lately this weekend I played mainly MTTs. I have a major flaw in my MTT game, I worry too much about survival early and so while I hang around, and cash at times, I usually get to the later stages without enough chips to really play except in desperation mode. My style seems to pay off in single tables as there aren’t as many chips in play but it’s killing me otherwise. So, since there were a number of multis I wanted to play going I decided to see if I could work on that aspect of the game.

First up was a freeroll, first half of the OFC, the second half being a $5 buy in on Sun. Followed that up with Cyndy Violette’s Rescue Pet charity game. Add in two buy ins from the Pokeranalysis league and the Shark tour and a PLO game on AP I like to play and I had a pretty good schedule and plenty of practice. Except for the PLO game they all went the same way. I started of accumulating chips, something I almost never do and the part of my game I wanted to work on so it was looking good. They all ended the same way too. Somewhere along the line I lost a good portion of my chips to a sick draw that caught and then had a good hands get beat by better, set over set, straight by higher straight, boat over boat. Enough to drive you crazy. The trend continued in Sunday’s portion of the OFC also. Was in top five from the first hand double up until about 10 min before break. I then flop top two and wound up losing to someone who called off their stack, in the top 20, on a flush draw with a pot bet and check raise in front of them. Their K-6 sooooted, played to a 4 times raise preflop also, somehow caught a runner, runner for a 9 hi backdoor straight. Left me crippled and took the other guy out. To be fair, I would have lost anyway as the guy that got knocked out would have beaten me any way as he had pocket As, a hand I didn’t put him on as I had an A and one was on the board. Thought he had A-paint. 4 hands after the break I lose straight over straight. Ah well. Only games I did do well in were a couple of single tables. Won a couple of $2 ones and a second and third in a couple of $5 ones. Maybe I should stick with the SnGs.

Tonight decided to sit at the ring tables. After a so-so session at nickel-dime NLHE I decide I haven’t played any Omaha lately. Since no one is playing regular Omaha I sit in on a .25-.50 limit game. Table looks lucrative as no one seems to understand the concept of scooping or folding. First hand I triple up when I flop nut low, practically counterfeit proof at that and nut hi draw and the hand only got better. Only problem is, I was first to act and had no chance to raise. Watching the calling stations in action while I had waited I figured I didn’t wish risk losing a bet by trying for a check raise. Afterwards the stake went up and down as I got smacked by a few boat over boat hands and quartered a couple of times when I had nut lo and decent but not nut hi. Some peckerwood couldn’t get it thru his thick skull that raising with only the nut low is not good sense, especially when someone else is already check calling in front of you, usually a sure sign that there is another low out there. Bastard caused me to be quartered at least 3 times. As of right now still up a bit as the table has tightened up and what pots I win aren’t that big. Just won a big pot by being on the higher side of the boat over boat situation but had to sign off the site as for some reason it won’t bring up the tourney list and I want to play in a PLO tourney in 10 min. Signed back on to AP and entered the tourney but now have to wait for a seat at the Omaha table.

Well, PLO game starting and just got a seat at the table so time to relieve you from your boredom. Thank you once again for your time.

A lot less this time

My poker sucks lately so before I dive back in to it, playing the Online Forum Challenge buy in on Tilt, I decided to do a little husbandry on the south 40. Well, more like one and a half but I do think it’s south. This fall I figured that some of the bushes needed some pruning and been waiting until the weather turned cold enough to do it. Then the weather went cold and I forgot completely about it. Ah, the bitch of turning old. Anyhoo, I remembered it yesterday, too late to do it of course, but was actually able to keep the thought in my mind until today so figured I better get it done or the next thing I know it will be spring. The year flies by faster the older you get. Besides, I need some relaxation. Which of course I didn’t get.

Started with the main blueberry. Not counting what I put in this fall I have about a half dozen blueberries but most are just about 4-5 years old. One however is close to 20 years old and a prolific producer but it’s been a number of years since it’s been pruned and the branches were getting in each others way. Plus older branches do not bear fruit so too much energy was going into maintaining these branches. Decided to take out one of the main shoots which was growing across the bush and through the middle. While taking it out would take out a lot of bearing shoots there are enough new side shoots growing up around it that will eventually take over on the production side, just may take a few years. Problem was, damn shoot was too thick for the pruners to cut. Need a saw to take it out and that isn’t going to happen until my other arm is good enough to balance me as it has to be cut about a foot from the ground. So I moved up a bit, cut off the shoots growing from the main one, and figure I’ll just have to do the job in a couple of years as new shoots grow across the bush again.. I also took out about another 4, fairly large shoots. There goes my blueberry production next summer. Hopefully though the production will be even better in two summers with all the new growth that will take place and be a lot easier to pick as the bush will not be as cramped together. I trimmed a few of the newer shoots off the discard pile hoping to be able to root a few of them. While I have a variety of bushes these days I cannot find this variety anywhere so I want to see if I can get a couple thru cuttings. It’s been a very big producer for me and unlike many varieties it is a self pollinator so you can get blueberries with just one bush though it does better with other types around. While gathering the branches to take back to the burn barrel I passed a walnut tree I planted about 4 years ago. Here is where the relaxation started to go by the wayside. The tree, while growing nicely is still really a sapling. While looking at it I noticed something funny about it, it had a fuzzy look to it. Then it dawned on me, it was a buck rub. A big chunk of the bark on it has been rubbed off leaving a frayed look to what was left. Just hoping the tree can survive it come the spring. Damned deer, has its choice of a number of full sized trees, most I really don’t care about, to rub one and the bastard wastes my sapling. Housing development or no, I may just have to dig out the bow next year.

After pruning the main blueberry I grabbed the smaller pruners and headed over to the cherry tree. That thing has been in the ground for 4-5 years and isn’t going anywhere. I looked at it and it has a lot of small shoots going every which way so I pruned it down to two main shoots and hopefully it will put its energy onto growing them this spring. After I finished the pruning I headed into the house to trim p the cuttings and get them into water, then get comfortable in front of the fire and play some online poker. I know sooner get settled than it dawns on me, I forgot to trim up some of the smaller bushes. They really didn’t have to be pruned but I figured that catching some of those crossing branches early would avoid the problem I had with the older bush later. So bundled up I get and trudge to the back of the property again. I get about halfway thru the job and a green branch doesn’t cut clean and jams the shears. I try clearing them but it ain’t working so I head back to the house and a screwdriver to leverage the blades so the branch can fall out. Get it fixed and then back to the cold and the job. So much for that relaxation. Got the job finished and ready to start playing the OFC.


Will be back later to bore you with some poker content. Thanks for your attention