Things I know....err rant, err random thoughts err...

I've been a bit lax in the posting arena (sorry to both of my readers, and Mom you can't fool me I know your IP address!) But blah blah blah work, blah blah blah work, unless you are the oil boy on the SI Swimsuit/Maxim/Stuff set of a photo shoot your job sucks. It's life, you work, you hate it, you go on.

I jumped into the pool at Stars and of course here's my take.
Stars is a tougher site, but like any place you play there are fish, they just don't seem to school as much at Stars. I don't particularly like the graphics, if I never see a stoopid picture icon again it will be too soon. Some of these people got to realize, I don't care what you look like, you are not attractive, I'd rather not see a picture of your frickin pet, I don't care what hockey/baseball/basketball/football team you like, I could care less. So run right out and post your picture on your Stars account, please do it just makes it easier for me to remember how you play (well that and notes). The variety of games is nice, I have yet to play in a bigger tourney, so I'll reserve judgment on that area. (by the way they are offering a deposit bonus of 20% right now, go get you some).

Now where was I... Ahh the Invitational tourney, can you say chop, chop. I'd have done a deal in a heartbeat, especially since second gets you zilcho. A million dollar chop not to shabby. I wonder if no deal was done, (and of course no one will ever know), will it eat away at Phil more to get cracked by Annie or if he got slapped around by Greg? Either way he is the show, the image, the love to hate, larger than life walking circus. I love some of his plays, but it's almost like he goes out of his way to outplay you with a marginal hand. He's what people want to see, whether it be seeing him lose or seeing him bust someone and then shower them with critiques of how bad they played it. He's a show. Doyle even got in a few jabs, about Phil posing for camera time.

If I never see or hear about the Crew it will be too soon. Let me repeat, If I never see or hear about the Crew it will be too soon. That's all the space they deserve here, and that's all they get.

Dan Harrington's bluff in the WSOP was the best move I've seen.

The more you play the better you (hopefully) will get. If you play with fish all the time you are bound to start smelling a little fishy. Everyone should, no must balance out their play. You must play players that are better than you to achieve the next level in your game.

Norm Chad is an idiot, but I must admit, over the course of the WSOP he did get a little better. He just has to learn when to stop, hell I even laughed a couple of times.

There are waaayyy too many good poker blogs to read. Let me repeat, there are way too many good poker blogs to read. I sit down to blog and end up reading for an hour and a half. Youse guyze is goot.

Gin and Tonic is the best drink in the world.

If they don't raise the buy-in to the WSOP it will get out of control.
Next year there will be 5500 players.
We may never see another back to back champion in our life time.
I will play in the WSOP main event before I die.

These are things I know.

Save me a seat at the final table

Uwannabet?

The Home Tourney

the set up...
$25 entry get you 1500tc
23 or so entered

The payouts
1st $250
2nd$140
3rd something
4th something

This was a pretty good mix of completely unskilled (I saw it on TV) to 6-7 that had a good amount of playing time under their belt.

The first table I started out on, began with only 7 players, 3 decent (I am including myself in this group) and 4 chip feeders.
Third hand, first victim, busted out on a all-in with the second pair. It's good to be at this table.
This tightens up the table a little bit, which affords me the opportunity to push the action a bit, and I mean a little bit. With some of the less experienced players (aka nofoldems) they will call you down with 4th best pair. (I'm not telling you guys/gals anything new)

Nonetheless, we are down to 4 in no time flat, I've got the second most at the table, while a youngish college age kid with big-ass aviator sunglasses has the chip lead.
He has been pushing pretty hard, and the two times I got to see what he held, it was marginal at best. Definitely overplaying marginal hands, but it's working well for this table, and I am getting sick of folding.

We wait for about ten minutes till the first break, and proceed to consolidate the tables.

For the most part I did not get into many big pots, most of my raises pre-fold were respected, and even a couple of my re-raises drew nothing but folders.

I'm at an advantage at this tourney, it's mostly family and friends of the host, and I'm a complete unknown. I have played in 3 tournaments with the host and we have never been at the same table.

We got down to three tables and I'm probably top 5th in chip count and they are dropping fast. Nothing very eventful at the next break, just solid, tight-aggressive play on my part and we are down to two tables. At this point I'm either 1st or 2nd in the chip count and my good buddy with the big-ass avaitors has a stack that equals mine. (maybe he wasn't pushing all the time)

I see-saw back and forth with big-ass avaitors trading the chip lead and we both seem to be taking control of the table (we ended up reseating and being at the same table). At this point we take turns winning pots, (not sure if he's avoiding a confrontation with the other big stack or if it has just worked out the we typically are not in the same pots).

Break, now we have the final table of 9, hey they actually did save me a seat at the final table. It's fairly evident the all but 3 of the final tablers are the better players in this group. A couple have arrived in the final nine with a lot of luck, or for the most part have been very conservative.

We slowly lose player by player until it's just me and the big-ass aviator. I was the benefactor of one nice river card against a small stack 8-8(me) vs J-9 suited (all-in), the flop was J-7-10 rainbow, turn 6, river (he actually asked for a Jack or nine here I told him "yeah a nine would be great" when he heard me say that he realized that a nine would give him 2pair but me the straight. Sometimes you get what you ask for... river 9.

Back to big-ass aviator....heads-up and now I have the chip lead 4-5K over him. First hand, the friggin first hand I get 6c-6d, he calls a medium raise pre-flop.

Flop is Ah-6s-Jh this looks pretty good for me, so putting him on high card and hoping he hit the top pair, I check, bingo, he pops out a quick bet of 2k, (reel him in, reel him in). I call.
turn 5h, damn not another heart, now I have to sweat the flush. Check, I'll be able to get a good gauge of his hand strength here. He shoots out a 2k bet, I immediately re-raise 2k more. I would rather fire another shell to see where I stand, than let him milk the flush.

I get a pause from him...and a slow call.....Is he working on an Oscar or... River 2h
Worst possible board 4 hearts and me with two shrinking 6's and not a heart between them.
Check..he flips over As-10h yeah he got outplayed, and the board bailed him out.
That's poker (sometimes).

I took a pretty big hit on that one and now it's time to draw a line in the sand. I start being very aggressive, it does not hurt that I'm seeing some decent heads-up hands. Twice after a pre-flop raise I showed him an A, which worked to my advantage a few hands later re-raising him off a medium-small pair. I keep pushing and slowly get the chip lead back. I've now got him covered by 1-2K.
Final Hand

9d-6d (me) I raise it 2k, preflop (I've got the big mo and have been raking pots left & right, (keep pushing). He calls a bit too quickly for my taste.
Flop Ad-Jc-7d...I immediately call all-in, looking to push him off what ever he might have, plus worst case I'm on a flush draw up against top pair. Not one nanosecond passes and he calls, stands and flips over As-Jh. Damn, the flop hit him well.
Turn 10d. And bingo was his name-o.
river is a rag.

In the words of Dan Harrington, "It's good to be lucky."

Slide me that first place envelope and save me a seat at the next final table.

Uwannabet?

Poker, Ike, Tina, Mike, Golf, Football, and a few points to ponder

You gotta be joking, Unfrickenbelieveable, you call a raise with that, !#$%&#!??, !$?{[*#$%,
great play ( you clueless fish), !##?%&$ !?*&*^%, unreal, you had what..one out good call jackass.

So that sums up my last week of poker, quite possibly the worst and longest series of beatings EVER (I exaggerate for effect). It's been bad. I now know what if feels like to be Tina after Ike gets home in a bad mood or what almost every boxer felt like when stepping into to the ring with Iron Mike (in his prime of course). Hell I'm even starting to relate to CUBS Fans, well not just yet. The New Orleans Ain'ts, the Red Sox, Charlie Brown trying to kick the football, the coyote trying to catch the roadrunner. You get the idea.

I don't keep stats (I know, I know), but I'm contemplating starting, at least this way if it's a hole in my game it'll jump out in the stats.

I've just been inspired by JW over at Outkicked this might be my longest post to date, better pack a lunch, grab a comfy chair, cuz this is gonna be a full-out-incoherent-rambling-everything and the kitchen sink kind of post (minus the play-by-play hands).

Football how I love thee, let me count the parlays.....

Finally football season is here. If you have not jumped into the fray, over at The Tao of Poker
time's running out. Dr. Pauly got himself a wing-ding, football pool. I was inspired by the well known (hell of a lot more well known than me!) poker bloggers that jumped into the pool.
So during this week of non-poker playing, well at least until Saturday night's home tourney, I'm focusing on fantasy football. I love competition.

Speaking of competition, last Friday wass the third installment of night golf with a couple of my friends. Yes night golf, a local (par 3 course) holds these every once in a while. It's just plain fun.
It averages 8-12 teams of 2 players and it's a scramble format. If I've completely lost you.
(it's golf at night, the golf ball you use has a light stick in it, the flags are lit with light sticks, and the cups have a light disk in the bottom, oh you can use a flashlight also).
You, yes you fine reader at looking, err reading the blog of the one any only
Winner of the longest putt. A 15-16 foot, downhill, left to right breaking, snake of a putt. It garners me nothing besides a piece of paper stating, when, where, who. It's about bragging rights. Well it might help my World Rankings too.

I can't do it, I've thrown in the towel, mostly due to blogger eating my first version of this post.

Points to ponder....

If you had $5 left to your name and had to make one sports bet with it what would it be?

If there were only two jars of food left and you have not eaten in a week, what would you choose and why?. Pickled pigs feet or cow tongue? (you have to pick one)

Why in movies do people who are getting chased by murderers/hitmen/monsters/killers etc. run to the bathroom lock the door and then proceed to get behind the flimsy (but ever so protective??) shower curtain?

save me a seat at the final table

UWannabet?

A Nascar Wilford Brimley and Granny get your club

Tournament Report

I wanted to think about my play for a few days before giving everyone my tournament report, and except for one hand 1/2 way through I played pretty damn good. Last Saturday a local school was having their charity Texas hold'em tournament, (the first one was in Aug. during their festival). It's a two hundred dollar buy-in, no-limit tourney that is capped at three hundred players (or close to three hundred). It pays down to 15th place which will get you a one hundred dollar profit. No rebuys (I love that), no add-ons (I love that) Everyone starts with $200 tc. Winner takes home nearly 11K. This time around there was only 209 (?) entered making top prize a little over 8K, (it's for charity they gotta get their cut right). Last time I finished about 150th out of 308, and was not very happy about it. I didn't see many cards and when I did see some playable ones everyone else did too.

Last time I think I was a little too passive, not aggressive enough, I wa bound and determined to make this tourney a better showing.

Early on blinds are 5/10 and from hand 2 on I start seeing a rush of good cards, A-Q, JJ, etc. etc. the flops were the rough part, this dealer could not flip a face card if his life depended on it, and worst yet at least 9 times he flopped, three consecutive cards, 678, 910J, 456 you get the picture. But after showing a good aggressive raise, two callers (yea!) and the flop being rags, I knocked out the second person from my table with pocket JJ, (he was chasing a straight that if he hit would have been the top end would have given him a 10 high and me a J high (life is good).

The good run continued for the first hour 1/2 and I amassed about 550-600 tc, the only other person at the table that was making any waves was sitting at my right (I'm in 5), For the first hour and a half we took turns winning almost every other pot. He actually was playing a little loose, and it worked to his advantage at our table. He is ahead of me with about 800tc (my numbers might not be dead on in chip count be they are very proportionate).

After losing 4 off our table new chips, err faces started being filtered in. Here's where I get a dose of medicine. So a 50ish guy with glasses sits down and begins stacking up his chips, which, obviously he has done a little damage to his previous table with. a good guesstimate would be 1200-1400.

And of course I gotta lock horns with him.....(let's call him bob)

so I'm in the BB, and peer down at KK (gotta love it), I'm thinking of all these callers that will fold off with a stiff raise from me. (I've showed 2 hands already, JJ, & AK) so I get a little respect with a good raise, (hoping to steal a couple later on). Fold, fold fold fold fold, fold call (bob), fold, great only one caller, figures. I'm not gonna drive bob out with a raise so I concede to slowplaying my KK, and with this guy dealing he will NEVER flip over and A.

The flop is rags 8h, 5s, 2d no flush, no straight and no aces, purrrfect. I check, bob bets 50, he obviously trying to push me out, I raise make it 75, he calls quick.
turn 5c.
Ok, the board paired 5's no big problem, I check, he slowly bets 50, I raise make it 75, now I figure he will drop it and fold, but bob's a tough guy call (he paused looked back at his cards & the board 2x, but he did call pretty quick on the first raise). I'm getting that bad feeling, bob's a good actor. river is Jc, either bob is doing a good job and is looking for the Oscar, or I really don't want him to flip over his cards, (damn bob's a tough read). Only one thing to do here, I bet 75, and bob (that crafty guy), pauses for about one onemillionth of a second and calls all-in.
I'm sunk. I know it, bob knows it.

I fold. Bob flips over 88, the sob, hit the set, on the flop and proceeded to cement his set with the board pairing 5's for the full house. Ouch my stack takes a hit,

Now I'm starting to see why Bob has so many chips every friggin flop hit him, I mean every friggin flop hit him.

A few more hands and our table breaks up and relocates throughout the room, but of course Bob gets re-seated at my table. I owe him one.

Now here's where it starts getting good.......

I proceed to sit, and sit and sit oh yeah and sit, for 45 minutes without getting a card over a ten.

Until dumb-de-dum-dum....I'm in the BB blind (20/40 now, I have ~$250 tc left) and I literally have been wasting away, this table has a little more action to it, no one gets to see the flop without a raise.

I peek down and ta-dah, AA in the BB (me likey), fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, call (Bob), fold, call(SB). Lets stop right here for a minute, the SB is Wilford Brimley's twin, except he's dressed in full NASCAR gear, FULL NASCAR GEAR (no Oatmeal).

Quick side note the real Wilford Brimley born Sept. 27th 1924 in Salt Lake City, Utah, has been in 63 movies, and done guest appearances in The Waltons, Kung Fu, Walker Texas Ranger and Seinfeld.

back to the show, well no slow playing this time, I raise to 75, Bob folds (damn I wanted to extract a little revenge). Wilford calls leaving him with about 60 left. (if you hand is good enough to call with that short of a stack, why not push it all in?????)
The flop is rags, I look at Wilford and he's already got his last 60 in his hand and pushing his chair back from the table. I bet $60, he resigns to his fate and splashes the pot with his last chips. (pushes chair back farther away from the table). He flips over Kc Qs, I flip the AA over and he immediately says yeah good hand.

AA vs. KQ is an 87% winner pre-flop.
AA vs. KQ after the rag flop is 97% winner.

Are we having fun yet? Turn Kh.
AA vs. KQ is still 95% winner.

Still having a good time?
River Q.

Wilford I curse you, you just hit runner-runner, to drop me down to $110 tc. I actually was very proud of myself, I showed no emotion, absolutely none. The table was giving it the ohhs, bad beat man, etc. The guy at the other end of the table even said to they guy in the seat next to him, "that guy (me) didn't even flinch."

Hearing that made me feel good, especially after seeing umpteen wanna-be Crew members doing everything from slamming their cards on the table to the Fischman flop.

Now on to Granny.....

Granny is in seat 5, I'm in seat 2, and now I'm the SB (90 tc left). Granny is about 65-70, she has played exactly 0 hands since arriving at the table, 0, by far the tightest player at the table. She's waaaayyy too tan, grey hair, done up, I mean UP. 5 foot 3, 5 foot 9 with the hair.
(ha, Fletch-ish if you will)

Two callers in the pot,(Granny & Bob) it comes to me, I squeeze them tight Ad OH please please please damn 9d. I'm basically sunk, It might be a while before I see another A and hell I'm suited, all-in 90 more. Granny pauses for one millisecond and calls, Bob decides to fold. Remember Granny has not played a hand in FOREVER. So I'm guessing this is not gonna be pretty when she flips them over. But, what she called with As 8c, holy hell....I'm in the lead.

The flop is rough, 2c, 10s, Jc
Hell, I'm still in the race here, turn 7c ugh thats 4 clubs for Granny.
Not quite as confident river 3c, Granny hits the Flush 8 high and I get to drive home.
79th that's just not good enough.

Granny I'd like to introduce you to Nascar Wilford Brimley.
Mr. Brimley this is Granny, why don't you two go count my chips over a good bowl of Oatmeal.

save me a seat at the final table

Uwannabet?