West, west and a small hiatus

I'll be on a small hiatus, for about a week....(I wanted to tell my thousands of readers, err um, I wanted to tell that one guy, who out of pity reads my posts)

This trip is work related, so no long nights of counting stacks, calling a clueless bluff, or slow playing the nutz or......(wheels spinning, google search, eureka! a casino close to the hotel, mapquest the distance from the hotel to the casino, search the website, ahh a poker room)

The good part about this it's out in the southwest.....(where I belong), and if things work out like I plan, I might be able to slip off into the night. Leave the powerpoint behind, and get down to some real business.......

Unless I run into some unforseen challenges, I'll be back in a week, hopefully with a positive trip report recounting the sordid details of my assault on the card rooms of the southwest.
in the meantime....

save me a seat at the final table

uwannabet?

Tear it up kid, but watch out for that switch

The little man behind the curtain must have flipped the magic switch....

For the past 2-3 days you could not stop me, you could not contain me, as a matter of fact I'm pretty sure 3/4th of you couldn't even see me. It was a thing of beauty, averaging 50 bucks an hour playing 1-2.

It was a thing of beauty, a virtual masterpiece of poker playing, I started impressing myself. Perfect "virtual" reads, catching great cards, getting every dollars worth. Ru$h, Ru$h, Ru$h.

I started thinking.... from what I read the PP games don't change complexion that much until you hit the 5-10 level. What the hell I'm flush, stacks of cash hanging out of my virtual pockets.

Let's give it a run, see it there is any significant differences on the next rung of the ladder.

First hand 10c-10d, early position, let's see if a raise gets any respect at thi....re-raised, one other caller, I call (the tens are shrinking)  flop comes Kc-10s-Ac

I'm not on the defensive yet, let's toss a bet out there to check where I stand, call, call, hmmmm
either I'm getting slow rolled or we are looking at two smaller pairs.  Turn 7d

I'll check it and see if anyone decides to come out of their shell, check, check.

Now either one of these guys is doing a great milk job or my set is boss, river Jc

Now I'm convinced one of these guys has to have me, Three clubs on the board, I'll toss out one more bet to keep me in the drivers seat, check the temperature of the water, hell a bet here represents the flush, fold, Re-Raise damn this sob hit a J for a set or worse yet he hit the flush with some junk he shouldn't have even started with (sound familiar it's party after all).

Now I'm up against it, well, if this dude has me, he has he, but I'm not going to fold it on the river, (soo many players fold it on the river, and many times if you are in the hand with good starting cards it's worth the call).

This is where you get a little insight into my noggin, if I'm gonna pay this guy off he at least is gonna get his money's worth....I re-raise.

Long dramatic pause, cripes it felt like twenty minutes, (I like the pause, if he had me I'd expect a quick re-raise or call.)

He calls...with j-10 off suit....I smile, my heart rate starts slowing down, ship it.
I love this game.

And somewhere out there the little man behind the curtain, flipped the switch the other way, and I've been getting my head kicked in, at every level. It's been pretty rude, they may bust me but little do they know they'll never break me.

save me a seat at the final table
uwannabet?

recpoker.com

It's amazing the amount of posts that are on recpoker.com, profound to absurd but there seems to be one constant.......

See if you can figure out who this is, by these insightful comments:

Y'all are both wrong.

Are you nuts? Being an anti-war protestor was not generally considered to be a viable road to getting elected to anything.

You're wrong.

Bullshit.

So dealers should share tips with the players?

The invasion of Iraq had nothing at all to do with the war on terror.

Dump the g/f.  It's a much more effective use of your time to hire a h00ker to give you a bl0w j0b while you're playing online, that way you don't have to fool with that spending time with her stuff.

I usually pay attention.

What the hell does that mean?
---------------------------------
Now I'll admit that everyone is entitled to their opinion, I agree with some, disagree with many, but I've never seen anyone that has an opinion ON EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME, and can convey it in such a condescending manner.

And that is just the first few responses I found.

I posted this over the weekend and got no comment, no rebuttal, not even a whimper. (After reading the millionth post bashing Full-Tilt, Paul Phillips, Pros in general)
__________________
Let's all bash:

Full-tilt
For what? trying to provide another site? Having the resources to promote
their venture?

Paul Phillips
For looking out for the players? Being successful in life and poker?

Pros
For being successful? Having an opinion? Doing what 99% of the people that
subscribe to this group WISH THEY WERE DOING?

The Flamer
cuz everyone knows, despite his rants and threats of quitting, purging his
hard drive of poker etc. he'll be back posting the clueless posts in a
matter of days.
___________________

Am I missing something or did the flop hit me and I check raised you for all your chips??

save me a seat at the final table

 

 

ohhh how true

While watching a rerun of WPT yesterday........

the wife puts things in perspective (after seeing a big bluff called)

"Sometimes it just comes down to the cards."

Why always try to make moves? Make the stellar/crafty play?

I can hear her words after my AA gets cracked by a guy, calling 2 raises with 7h-8h this morning. He almost knocked me out (3-table PL) $300 left.

No wait that's the job of the guy who called 2 big raises with 6-6  against
(As-Qs me) and (Kc-Qc other dude). Of course the 6-6 holds up, well i'm off to get my K-K cracked by Q-2 off ........................ahh there it is. 

Clueless 2 Hometeam 0

save me a seat at the final table
uwannabet?

Royality, Radar Guns, and the 'boys

First, if you have not read Mean Gene's  latest, do so now he's got the pulse of the brewing Poker Gang Wars.

Every once in a while, you sit down at a table (or virtual table) and immediately you know, what everybody holds,  you know your 10 kicker is gonna be good. Zone, Rush, whatever you wanna call it.... you are dialed in.  I had a good little run on PP like this the other night.

The 45 minute span included a royal flush, (of which I'm convinced will only ever win you an average of $22), an idle threat of "I'm gonna get you" from another player ((toot toot, (my own horn) I busted him in 12 minutes)) and a nice little bankroll infusion.

When you are rollin like this push, push, push but be wary you never know when the train is gonna hit the station, and another conductor will start driving. I guess it's cautious agressiveness, kinda like flying down the expressway  at 90 mph with the cruise on, foot hovering over the brake, cuz pretty soon you'll turn a corner and it's smokey the bear, radar gun pointed at you and a big smile on his face.

I guess the moral of the story is (wow that sounds pompous) put the pedal to the floor but don't forget you still have a break.

Side note: I'm a huge Dallas Cowboys fan, (and I know what you are thinking) and have been a fan for 22 years, but this year is killing me, stomping on my soul, spiraling me into a pit of despair, Eddie Ge0rge, and Keyshawn J0hnson? I could not think of two players I dislike more, nonetheless it's Bill's ship now (as much as Jerry will let it be) and hopefully we will be sailing into the playoffs...

am I clapping with one hand?

save me a seat at the final table

The curse of Multi

In the age of media stimulation..........don't be a MULTI.
 
I typically play a "warm-up" on PP when first sitting down to play. A $5 single table NL, typically an easy way to pick up some dough and get a feel for how much of a butt-kickin I'm gonna unleash on a higher game (i wish it was that easy all the time).
 
Nonetheless, I been getting into this blog thing and holy heyzoouss there is soo much worth while to read (see read or perish on the left sidebar).....
 
Hi my name Uwannabet? and I'm a multitasker. (I think that the first of 12 steps)
 
So I read blogs and play at the same time flipping between screens, hell it's only a 5 bucker.
I typically finish in the money, and win alot of them.....but now I'm pissed (anger is that one of the 12 steps?).
 
One word of advice and please if you never read another word on this site READ THESE,
I don't care if you are playing for $5 or 5 million, keep focus on the game and pick up all the information on your opponents. That way while you're laughing at al can't hang or taking some advise from HDouble you wouldn't have missed that seat 6 has not played a hand in forever, is so tight, that just to call he would have to have  3 A's in the hole (yep AAA he's that tight, it's hard to get 3 pocket Aces in holdem, but he's that tight). If you would have picked up on that little bit of info, maybe I'd still be playing and not preachin.
 
and just for today save me a seat at the second to last table

tilt or post?

If I get rivered by some CLUELESS idiot on PP again my head will explode. Five times in a row! Why do people who catch a 25-1 shot on the river think they are good players? Unreal. So instead of going on tilt I thought I'd rant here thanks for listening....oh geez this guy just raised me $6 preflop with A-2s (I got A-Jd) it might be turning around.

save me a seat at the final table

The home tourney, an orange drink, and fold'em elbow

It's amazing sometimes you can sit and sit and sit waiting for cards and when you do finally get something worth playing everybody jumps in.
I played in a home tournament with 33 players, $30 buy in. Pretty nice set up, nice people. I'd just met the host last week at a tournament and when you get 30 some odd people together you gotta expect at least one asshole, and at least one big argument or fight. But none did. It goes to the credit of the vast majority of card players out there, we are good people, we want a good gamble and if you give us any free time it's gonna be spent on the felt or the virtual felt.

The vast majority of the night I spent getting a good case of fold'em elbow, fold, fold, fold,fold,fold, call...fold.

Three of my friends went with me and it's kinda funny, you almost always end up bustin out one of your best friends. And I did, raising preflop with A-Ks, garbage flop, and ended up hitting the straight on the river. I still do not know what the hell he was holding, but my guess would have been a small pair.

I lasted until about 15 or so were left. Which with the cards I'd been getting all night, that was quite a feat. It really sucks being chip deprived all night. I was so low the last hour that if I had an A I was all-in, didn't even look at the second card. (This is not typical of the way I play, but after 3 hours of nothing but rags, it felt good to blow off a little steam like this, hell if I got involved in any pot it was going to mean the rest of my stack)

That netted me, in the three times I did it over the course of an hour, 1) the blinds, 2) one double up with one caller (big blind) 3) a split pot with one of my friends, he called & flipped over A-K off, when I flipped over my second card (I had not looked at the second card yet) it was a K for A-K off.

We didn't stay until it finished up, they had just got it down to one table of seven at about 1:30 am. So I can't give you final table details, but I can pose one question.

Why in the hell do White Castle double cheeseburgers and an orange drink taste so good at 2 in the morning?

Save me a seat at the final table

Rant & Roll......

My 10 rants about online poker (you pick the order)

1- The I will raise every hand theory

2- Here let me give you playing tips

3- you mean calling a pre-flop raise with Q-5 off is not a good play?

4- raise with a pp and the flop always has at least one overcard

5- the bailout, the board pairing to eliminate kickers so you split with 2 other hands when they shouldn’t have even called the raise.

6- The mad bombers (I actually like them) jump into a limit game & hammer every pot with nothing. But they almost always catch one & end up with a big pot.

7- The never folding story, in the long run I like them but it stings when they have called 10 bets & catch their one miracle out, let me say that again, they catch their one miracle out.

8- The I play in big money games all the time chat...then why are you at a $5 single table tournament?

9- folding 2-7 off (like you should) and seeing the flop come with 2's or 7's FOR THE 8TH TIME IN THE SAME EVENING

10- sitting for an hour, having to pee, and getting knocked out of a tournament because some dude decided to call your all in with 3-5 off and he hits a straight.


in the meantime save me a seat at the final table

Just not enough

Well after some debate about an upcoming tournament this weekend (actually it's one on friday and one on saturday) better "business" sense has ruled them out. But man oh man I really wanna. It's a $100 buy-in, limited to 200 players, and here's where it gets ugly only $2,750 to the winner. Well $2750 and an engraved Champion's Bracelet (I don't really like jewlery, well there is one bracelet I would love to have). I'm not sure how far down they are paying but I would imagine 15th or to 20th.

I know, I know, it's for charity, to raise money for the church but if I beat out 199 others I want a little more on the win end. For those of you thinking, it's good experience, it's about the game, it's for a good cause, I agree but I would rather pick a better spot just in case I do happen to snap'em off.

any thoughts? anyone listening? anyone care?

Up next the saturday night home tournament details in the meantime save me a seat at the final table.

My Demise.....

OK, I've finally come to terms with getting busted out in a tournament last Friday. It's been about 2 1/2 hours (about 2/3rds of the field is already gone) and I'm playing pretty tight which suits our table. I've only stepped out and bullied one pot (against a real newbie, who had absolutely no clue, let me say that again he had absolutely no clue). The blinds are going up to 20/40 in 1 minute and I'm under the gun. Giving a quick peek I catch A-K off, with the table play up to this point I'm fairly sure that an all-in (I've got about $130 left from the starting $200) will pick up the blinds and pad my stack. Well fairly sure was not enough, seat 9 (I'm in seat 6) calls my all in. A scan of his chips he got $80 won't put me out and I figure he's on a pocket pair, and as tight as he's been I REAL sure I probably won't like it.

Here's where the chaos comes in...

This is a charity event, $200 buy-in almost 11K to the winner, with volunteers doing the dealing. Some of which had NO clue how to deal, let me repeat that NO clue how to deal. It's not their fault, and hell it's been pretty smooth at our table so far.

My caller in seat 9 pushed his chips forward and the dealer mucked his cards (seat 9 did announce a call). It was starting to get a bit heated, between various players at the table most of which agreed, protect your cards, and any cards that hit the muck are DEAD.

I told the dealer & seat 9, "Someone better go get the guy running this." About a minute later here comes "the guy" seat * start in on him right away, "I'll tell you what two cards they were and even the suits."

So seat 9 whispers them to the guy and he checks the muck, since earlier he had to settle a similar dispute and pulled the cards out of the muck for that table he had to do it again. Remember it's charity, and these are volunteer dealers so I'm not that mad. More mad that I stepped out for all my chips and got caught.

The rest of the table folds

I flip over Ah Ks, seat 9 turns over 10h 10s, well I'm thinking it could be worse...a coinflip situation.

The tens hold up.
I'm down to $50.
And now the blinds are 20/40 & I'm BB. Just peachy.

The small blind leans over and whispers, "so I guess you're gonna go all in?"

"Yep, in the dark babyeee!!!" ( with my worst Scotty Nguyen impersonation)

Seat 8 raises 75, all others fold...I call off my last $10.
He flips over.......NOOOOOOOOOOO Not THEM the same
10h 10s that just stuck it to me the hand before.

Time to get my money's worth..so I stood up and flipped them over one at a time...... Qs...not to bad an over.....8s.

The majority of the table was in my corner after the last hand...
I'm begging for some spades or queens
flop comes 5c.....Qc..... 7d

YES! I clap hands and feel pretty good, turn comes 2d, I still feel good...

River comes 10s

Now I'm not too happy...but that's the way it goes. I shake hands with the "10" BROTHERS and everyone else.

I got the left, right combo and busted out in two hands. I played pretty well, had a good time, and oh yes there will be more tournaments.....as a matter of fact there's another this Friday.

Save me a seat at the final table.

Tournament details

Ok here's the set up...$200 buy in No-Limit, no rebuys, 306 players entered. First place pays a little over 10,000, on down to 15 which pays 300. Anyone playing gets free food, beer, soft drinks etc. And all for a good cause, St Rita's School for the Deaf.

Everyone starts out with $200 in chips and the blinds are 5-10 for the first 2 hours...
The first guy busted out (#306) on the first hand at my table. The guy in seat 4, 40ish looks like he's played a bit in his time, raises 20...everyone folds except for seat 9. Mid to late 20's guy, never played in a tournament before, pretty nervous, not really sure of the betting, not really sure who's turn it is, (but at least he remembered to bring his shades). Nonetheless, he calls the raise, flop is Kd, 4d, Jd.
Seat 4 bets 50 seat 9 calls.
Turn is rag.
Seat 4 all-in, seat 9 calls.
When they flip 'em over Seat 4 has Ad, Qd for the nut flush, seat 9 has pocket 4's for a set. Everyone Ohhh's and ahh's remember, this is the first had and a total of about one minute into the tournament.

River card.....4

Nervous in seat 9 pulls the quad 4 on the river, UNBELIEVABLE. I'm not going to even calculate the odds UNREAL.

At least they did give seat #4 a prize for being the first knocked out.....the book Poker for Dummies. They should have at least let everyone know that he was beat by quads!

soon to follow......my demise

Tournaments

So living in the MidWest has it's good and bad sides. One of the drawbacks is places to play poker. But the recent poker craze has made the local charity/festivals/fundraisers a pokerplayers dream. Big tournaments, 25K, 30K in prize money and fairly low entry fees. So pick up your hometown paper check out the ads & you'd be surprised, no limit holdem tournament, $80 entry, and 25K in prize money.......all to benifit the local firefighters.

Ante up! just save me a seat at the final table.

The start of things as we know it...

This will be brief, this will be sporatic, but if you have ever pressed your bet, re-raised with K-7 off, or knew it was gonna be your night, this just might be fun.