A couple weeks ago I was able to put in a pretty long session at Harrah's with Davey and for the most part it was pretty fun. Didn't get out there till pretty late and it took forever to park but I finally sat down around 10:00 in a really bad game but luckily it broke fairly early and I was moved to a game that much better. I didn't really do anything great but I was able to book a win which is always nice. Never really had any interesting hands except when I straddled and and had 4,6 and flopped open ended with 6 ppl in the hand. I bet it and hit it on the turn and broke the guy next to me who was pretty unlucky and flopped a set. Of course the guy at the other end of the table "knew" what I had, well he said it was either a straight or a flush.....no shit huh, not to much else beats a set.
I was fortunate enough to be dealt 12 pocket pair in one night and connect for ZERO flops. I guess I wasn't trying hard enough, at least that's what Davey told me. Never really had any big hands either. I got the pleasure of playing with a local by the name of Melvin. Melvin is prolly one of the funniest ppl I've played cards with and he's not trying to be funny. He constantly falls asleep at the table and just brutally honest with people. He's been known to tell people they should stay b/c they play so bad he's guaranteed to win. He'll also call complete strangers sweetheart and just create this very weird vibe for the tourist but we all know it's a joke. There was Russian kid at the table and when he asked where the kid was from and he said Russia, Melvin let us know that "Russians are fuckin crazy, you can't trust them at all....they're more nuts than China-men"...needless to say he's not very P.C.
The night ended pretty early in the morning around the 5am mark and it was pretty fun to get to play hang out with Davey and play some cards in a cash game....no tellin how long it had been, maybe since Vegas.
Last Thursday on whim I headed to Harrah's and put together a pretty good night for only about 4 hours of play. I wanted to play 2/5 and they had 3 games but one was shorthanded and I was not interested in that and the other two were pretty bad game. So I sat in a 1/2 game that was awful for the first 30 minutes and then it got really good. We didn't have a pot with less than $150 for about a 20 minute span. Right when the game was getting open I straddled and it got opened to $15 UTG and then it got raised to $30 (game was open and pretty weak, which is always nice). Guy calls the $30 and I look down at 4,4 and there's no way I'm folding to that weak ass reraise and I figure lucky number 13 on the pocket pair could be it for me. The original raiser just calls and there's a 4 in the window and I bet right out and called and raised. Get the guy to put all his chips in and the drought was over on pocket pair.
Never really did anything after that but I did pick off the same guys bluff 3 times and never had a hand better than 3rd pair when I called river bets. Guy wasn't too happy with my calls. I was also the target too, which was weird. I was racking up and when a guy sitting two to my left saw this he was pissed and said he's leaving if I'm leaving since I was taking so much money off the table. Kinda caught me off guard with that comment, I don't usually hear that. I asked him what he meant and said that since I'm the only one that had him covered he wanted to get in a hand with me so I could double him up. So I then unracked my chips and told him that sounds like plan, I'll give him 30 minutes to snap me. Unfortunately I was never able to get in a hand with him but it did make me wish it was a weekend b/c I would have prolly stayed as late as this guy wanted to play. It wasn't like he was even an above average player.
I did get to play with a little red headed chick who was drunk as hell and weighed about 95lbs. She was pounded Budweiser's and dropping f-bombs every other word. Definitely making fun of the guy who was wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket on the other end of the table. When she busted she got up from the table and said to me "fuck this game, these guys are bunch of bitches...I'm going play black jack" It was pretty funny and entertaining.
I had fun and look forward to playing soon again, not sure when. I know Harrah's is coming up in a couple weeks so I'll definitely be there for that and hoping to do some damage in the tourneys. Hopefully it gets a better turn out than the IP got, which I think it will.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
11.19.2009
11.07.2009
A.D.D.
Not sure why I haven't written anything in a while, I think I have found other things to do on the Internet rather than typing, I attempted to write and even had like 3 drafts that I could never complete. I have been pretty busy lately although I have played some poker in the last couple months. I made it out to the Beau back in September and played one event and made it past the dinner break but took some really crappy beats (don't we all??). I had Eskimo Clark at my table in the tourney and he was well, pretty bad. I three bet him 4 times and he never played back at me and a couple other players picked up on this and did the same to him, but he would just chip up b/c other ppl would just give him chips when they would get it all in on a 8 high flop and they held 99 and Eskimo had AA or some shit like that. Stuff like that doesn't usually happen to me. On two occasions I got the tightest player on the table to put all their chips in for a HUGE pot with slim hands and get bailed out by the deck. I raise w/ KQ and flop a Q and bet it out and get raised all in for more than half my stack which was double avg. and I call and the guy has AK for nothing until the turn and an Ace hits...Raise with J9 and flop two pair and get the other super tight player to check raise me all in with his one pair and he makes trips on the turn. It was pretty brutal but typical with tournament poker, I think.
I have mixed in some cash games and played pretty well for the most part. Made some trips to Harrah's and the Beau. I'm not sure what it is but I finally feel like I'm back to the way I used to play by making the bets and raises whenever I feel as though I can move ppl off a hand or even value bet weak hands b/c I know exactly how weak the other guy is...poker is a lot more fun when you're seeing almost everything coming at you.
Played at the imperial palace this past weekend and the tournaments were pretty bad for me on the Halloween weekend with no momentum going at all. Busted in the 3rd level of a tourney when I raised with Kc9c and flopped the second nuts and of course the one really bad player at the table flopped the nuts. I prolly wouldn't fold the hand no matter who it was against but it was impossible against this guy.
Played some cash game at the IP and it was really nice. The poker room was great. No problems with the dealers, the chairs were comfortable, the game was better than average. And one thing that was REALLY nice was that I didn't have to pay time rake. It was a regular drop and it makes the game sooooooooo much better. In the time rake games you often lose players on the push and with this rake the games stayed full and ppl just kept saying "I should leave" but they would never actually leave till they busted of course. I just wish the IP would have better action on a regular basis but I was told they only have maybe 4-6 games going on normal weekend so that means I will have continue to pay rake for the better games, but oh well...not a whole lot can be done about that.
I did go back to the IP and play a $200 tourney on Wednesday and finished around 17 or 18. It was pretty frustrating (which I guess it always is unless of course I win). I actually played pretty much mistake free. I lost one really huge pot when the chip avg was 12k and I had 27k and I lost just over 17k on the hand when I got it AIPF with my AA vs. AJ and three clubs on the flop and one on the turn and his jack high flush was good. That was really tough to take. I maintained and although I told the guy with a straight face "well played." I built my stack back up and got moved to a table that was nuts. A guy sitting with about 80k when the avg was 20k and another guy get moved to my table who had about 55k. This was the typical that you find on the coast. Very proud of his SEC team with a hat, t-shirt, and card protector (oh yea, the mullet too)....LSU being this guy's team of choice. Well he shows off right away how he gathered this mountain of chips buy moving all in preflop after someone made a standard raise. And he showed his KK and stated what else but "how else ya gonna play 'em, that Ace always comes." Well about 20 minutes later he was the one praying for that ace to come. In a three way AIPF hand where the guy with 80k and our LSU fan find a way to get it all in after another player moves in with a half the avg stack. First guy had KK, the chip leader had QQ and the last guy to put his chips in the pot was our beloved LSU guy who had duh da duah....A,10!!! (and you know that shit was suited!..lol) Well that shit blew my mind and he did not hit an Ace and found a way to lose over 50k in chips on one hand without a pair.
Well my bust out hand came in a battle of the blinds when I look down at AA and it gets folded all the way to the small blind of course. To my surprise and delight he raises and I move all in and he has to call. He has AK and the dealer didn't slow play me at all putting two kings on the flop and that was it for me. It just sucks b/c I wasn't dealt any big hands all tourney and the two times I had aces I found a way to get as much money in the pot as possible and I lost. I never called a river a bet and lost and I never got called on the river and lost. I'd say that's something to be proud of most of the time. But it's tournament poker and ya gotta get lucky and this wasn't one of those times for me so I'll dwell for a bit and then be back the next chance I get to my dreams of winning a tournament crushed when I get a little unlucky. But until I stop having fun playing I will just keep trying I guess.
I did get to go to grandma Harrah's house this past Friday night with Davey and that was kinda fun. Guess I'll try to get back in the swing of the blog thing and write about that in a few days.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
I have mixed in some cash games and played pretty well for the most part. Made some trips to Harrah's and the Beau. I'm not sure what it is but I finally feel like I'm back to the way I used to play by making the bets and raises whenever I feel as though I can move ppl off a hand or even value bet weak hands b/c I know exactly how weak the other guy is...poker is a lot more fun when you're seeing almost everything coming at you.
Played at the imperial palace this past weekend and the tournaments were pretty bad for me on the Halloween weekend with no momentum going at all. Busted in the 3rd level of a tourney when I raised with Kc9c and flopped the second nuts and of course the one really bad player at the table flopped the nuts. I prolly wouldn't fold the hand no matter who it was against but it was impossible against this guy.
Played some cash game at the IP and it was really nice. The poker room was great. No problems with the dealers, the chairs were comfortable, the game was better than average. And one thing that was REALLY nice was that I didn't have to pay time rake. It was a regular drop and it makes the game sooooooooo much better. In the time rake games you often lose players on the push and with this rake the games stayed full and ppl just kept saying "I should leave" but they would never actually leave till they busted of course. I just wish the IP would have better action on a regular basis but I was told they only have maybe 4-6 games going on normal weekend so that means I will have continue to pay rake for the better games, but oh well...not a whole lot can be done about that.
I did go back to the IP and play a $200 tourney on Wednesday and finished around 17 or 18. It was pretty frustrating (which I guess it always is unless of course I win). I actually played pretty much mistake free. I lost one really huge pot when the chip avg was 12k and I had 27k and I lost just over 17k on the hand when I got it AIPF with my AA vs. AJ and three clubs on the flop and one on the turn and his jack high flush was good. That was really tough to take. I maintained and although I told the guy with a straight face "well played." I built my stack back up and got moved to a table that was nuts. A guy sitting with about 80k when the avg was 20k and another guy get moved to my table who had about 55k. This was the typical that you find on the coast. Very proud of his SEC team with a hat, t-shirt, and card protector (oh yea, the mullet too)....LSU being this guy's team of choice. Well he shows off right away how he gathered this mountain of chips buy moving all in preflop after someone made a standard raise. And he showed his KK and stated what else but "how else ya gonna play 'em, that Ace always comes." Well about 20 minutes later he was the one praying for that ace to come. In a three way AIPF hand where the guy with 80k and our LSU fan find a way to get it all in after another player moves in with a half the avg stack. First guy had KK, the chip leader had QQ and the last guy to put his chips in the pot was our beloved LSU guy who had duh da duah....A,10!!! (and you know that shit was suited!..lol) Well that shit blew my mind and he did not hit an Ace and found a way to lose over 50k in chips on one hand without a pair.
Well my bust out hand came in a battle of the blinds when I look down at AA and it gets folded all the way to the small blind of course. To my surprise and delight he raises and I move all in and he has to call. He has AK and the dealer didn't slow play me at all putting two kings on the flop and that was it for me. It just sucks b/c I wasn't dealt any big hands all tourney and the two times I had aces I found a way to get as much money in the pot as possible and I lost. I never called a river a bet and lost and I never got called on the river and lost. I'd say that's something to be proud of most of the time. But it's tournament poker and ya gotta get lucky and this wasn't one of those times for me so I'll dwell for a bit and then be back the next chance I get to my dreams of winning a tournament crushed when I get a little unlucky. But until I stop having fun playing I will just keep trying I guess.
I did get to go to grandma Harrah's house this past Friday night with Davey and that was kinda fun. Guess I'll try to get back in the swing of the blog thing and write about that in a few days.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
8.20.2009
Deep Run With Anticipation
Haven't played live in a while mainly due to having other plans on the weekend and working some long hours and not really wanting to go play during the week. However a couple weeks ago I played the 35k gtd on Full Tilt with about 2100 players I managed to finish 32nd. Don't remember to many details and not like it would be all that interesting. I attempted to play some FTOPS satellites and didn't do to well in any of those.
The Beau is fast approaching and I'm ready to play a live tourney considering I haven't played a live tournament since Vegas back in June. Although I'm ready to play I'm a little bummed since I've seen the structure. The "Deep Stack" tourney sounds good and looks intriguing when you see the words "deep stack" next to the tourney info but then looking at the structure is kind of a downer. Not sure why they went to 30 minutes levels, that's just not a good thing. I would prefer to have 5k in chips and 50 minutes levels rather than 10k and 30 minutes. On top of such short levels it's not like they have automatic shufflers, so barring the competence level of the dealer it could make for some even quicker levels as far as hands dealt.
It just seems like every time a tournament director does something right they find a way to make me scratch my head. The Venetian without a doubt puts the best product out there as far as value for the money BUT the payout structure is horrible...I'm just not sure how they could look at that and say "yea bottom money is a $40 profit, that's sounds good." For the longest Harrah's found ways to screw up tournaments and this past May I think they finally got everything right...but who knows if that will be the same in 2010. And the Beau, they are so close. They treat the players great, the room is nice, the casino itself is just pleasant to walk in to. They make a "deep stack" event and everyone is hoping it will be like the Venetian and they go and cut a bunch of levels and make them 30 minutes. They do have something that looks really interesting and something I have never heard of. Event #2 is a very creative tournament idea. Day one is Saturday and Sunday is also a day one, so if ppl bust on Saturday they can show back up on Sunday and play then and day two is Monday. This should create a nice prize pool. I'm definitely playing on the Sunday b/c my Fantasy Football draft is on the Saturday. Not sure if I'm gonna play the Friday event #1 event.
Watching ESPN right now and Plexico Burress got two years for being a dumb ass and shooting himself. That's kinda retarded considering that he could have gotten off with like 2 months, community service and a couple years probation. Guess it's just the whole celebrity athlete thing where they're told they never do anything wrong their entire life and then the real world happens. Also a bad week b/c Brett Favre is back, I really don't like that guy and I hope he has the worst year of his career. I long for the day when he is forgotten and I don't have to watch sportscenter and here his name. Oh well, I'm ready for football season and the Beau.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
The Beau is fast approaching and I'm ready to play a live tourney considering I haven't played a live tournament since Vegas back in June. Although I'm ready to play I'm a little bummed since I've seen the structure. The "Deep Stack" tourney sounds good and looks intriguing when you see the words "deep stack" next to the tourney info but then looking at the structure is kind of a downer. Not sure why they went to 30 minutes levels, that's just not a good thing. I would prefer to have 5k in chips and 50 minutes levels rather than 10k and 30 minutes. On top of such short levels it's not like they have automatic shufflers, so barring the competence level of the dealer it could make for some even quicker levels as far as hands dealt.
It just seems like every time a tournament director does something right they find a way to make me scratch my head. The Venetian without a doubt puts the best product out there as far as value for the money BUT the payout structure is horrible...I'm just not sure how they could look at that and say "yea bottom money is a $40 profit, that's sounds good." For the longest Harrah's found ways to screw up tournaments and this past May I think they finally got everything right...but who knows if that will be the same in 2010. And the Beau, they are so close. They treat the players great, the room is nice, the casino itself is just pleasant to walk in to. They make a "deep stack" event and everyone is hoping it will be like the Venetian and they go and cut a bunch of levels and make them 30 minutes. They do have something that looks really interesting and something I have never heard of. Event #2 is a very creative tournament idea. Day one is Saturday and Sunday is also a day one, so if ppl bust on Saturday they can show back up on Sunday and play then and day two is Monday. This should create a nice prize pool. I'm definitely playing on the Sunday b/c my Fantasy Football draft is on the Saturday. Not sure if I'm gonna play the Friday event #1 event.
Watching ESPN right now and Plexico Burress got two years for being a dumb ass and shooting himself. That's kinda retarded considering that he could have gotten off with like 2 months, community service and a couple years probation. Guess it's just the whole celebrity athlete thing where they're told they never do anything wrong their entire life and then the real world happens. Also a bad week b/c Brett Favre is back, I really don't like that guy and I hope he has the worst year of his career. I long for the day when he is forgotten and I don't have to watch sportscenter and here his name. Oh well, I'm ready for football season and the Beau.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
7.28.2009
Hit and Run
Woke up Sunday morning and wasn't sure what I was going to do. CC was headed to brunch in the Quarter with the girls and I was contemplating driving to the Beau to play their Sunday tourney. I decided not to b/c I always end up leaving there a lot less enthused than when I got there. It's just so hard to play consistent in those things. I decided to drop in Grandma Harrah's house Sunday afternoon since I have heard that the games are actually pretty good on Sunday's. Well I get there and I'm like 4th or 5th on the list for the 2/5 game and there's only two 1/2 games. Well one of the 1/2 games looks pretty good. Three ppl on the table with over 1k and another two with over $500. I know I swore off that game but with that money on the table I'm sure it's playing bigger than usual.
I sit down with $500 and told myself I was not limping into in any pots unless from the button or the blinds. I think I raised 3 of the first 5 hands dealt to me. For as much money that was on the table there wasn't a whole lot of gambling in the short time I was at the table. I made a straight with 5,3 to win a nice pot and then had a hand that I love. I have 9d,10d and make it $15 to go and get three callers. Flop came jack high with one diamond and I was thinking about all the cards that could hit the turn for me to make a really nice draw. (I know that playing for the redraw isn't the best approach but sometimes ya gotta be an optimist...or wishful thinker). I bet $45 on the flop with my "redraw-draw" and get two callers. The turn is the Queen of diamonds and the redraw-draw got there..giving the best possible card in the deck. I check and guy bets $50 and I raise to $165 and he calls. River card is the jack of diamonds...I thought this would a great card to get paid off on since it paired the flops high card and I wasn't at all concerned about the guy being full. I bet $180 and he thinks waaaaay to long and folds showing his flopped two pair and the jack on the river counterfeited him. Still a nice little pot. A few minutes later they call me for my seat on the 2/5 game.
I move games and the game was a lot of old guys but a very easy game to maneuver and know exactly where I was in hands at all times. I end up playing in that game for about 40 minutes until CC showed up and after picking up a few bucks in that game too I racked up and left with her for a nice little win after about and hour and a half of play on the day. After cashing out we walked through the casino trying to find the best slot machine to play. I don't even know when was the last time I put money in a machine or anything other than the rake drop at a casino, but one of our friends gave us like $80 in free play coupons on the slots and they expire at the end of July. So we found the $1 slot game Monte Carlo (I think?). We started playing and after about 30 minutes we were like $150 winner and took our free roll profit and got out of there.
It was nice to do a little hit and run...I don't think I have ever done that but I think I'm entitled to it considering the hours I've put in at that place. Not sure what's gonna happen this coming weekend. Not gonna play Friday b/c I'm heading to Houma and Saturday is White Linen in the warehouse district so I know I'm not playing that night. Sunday is still a possibility and Davey and I tossed around the idea of heading to the Beau for the tournament but I'm not sure how likely that is as of right now.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
I sit down with $500 and told myself I was not limping into in any pots unless from the button or the blinds. I think I raised 3 of the first 5 hands dealt to me. For as much money that was on the table there wasn't a whole lot of gambling in the short time I was at the table. I made a straight with 5,3 to win a nice pot and then had a hand that I love. I have 9d,10d and make it $15 to go and get three callers. Flop came jack high with one diamond and I was thinking about all the cards that could hit the turn for me to make a really nice draw. (I know that playing for the redraw isn't the best approach but sometimes ya gotta be an optimist...or wishful thinker). I bet $45 on the flop with my "redraw-draw" and get two callers. The turn is the Queen of diamonds and the redraw-draw got there..giving the best possible card in the deck. I check and guy bets $50 and I raise to $165 and he calls. River card is the jack of diamonds...I thought this would a great card to get paid off on since it paired the flops high card and I wasn't at all concerned about the guy being full. I bet $180 and he thinks waaaaay to long and folds showing his flopped two pair and the jack on the river counterfeited him. Still a nice little pot. A few minutes later they call me for my seat on the 2/5 game.
I move games and the game was a lot of old guys but a very easy game to maneuver and know exactly where I was in hands at all times. I end up playing in that game for about 40 minutes until CC showed up and after picking up a few bucks in that game too I racked up and left with her for a nice little win after about and hour and a half of play on the day. After cashing out we walked through the casino trying to find the best slot machine to play. I don't even know when was the last time I put money in a machine or anything other than the rake drop at a casino, but one of our friends gave us like $80 in free play coupons on the slots and they expire at the end of July. So we found the $1 slot game Monte Carlo (I think?). We started playing and after about 30 minutes we were like $150 winner and took our free roll profit and got out of there.
It was nice to do a little hit and run...I don't think I have ever done that but I think I'm entitled to it considering the hours I've put in at that place. Not sure what's gonna happen this coming weekend. Not gonna play Friday b/c I'm heading to Houma and Saturday is White Linen in the warehouse district so I know I'm not playing that night. Sunday is still a possibility and Davey and I tossed around the idea of heading to the Beau for the tournament but I'm not sure how likely that is as of right now.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
7.23.2009
Joe Cool and a Bubble
Decided to venture off to Harrah's last Friday and I was not disappointed by everything that happened. First thing is as I'm pulling into the garage to park I see a sign on the parking ticket machine that says "special event parking"...I'm not even sure what exactly was going on but then I see that the fee is $30 and if you lose your ticket it's $100!! It wasn't always that expensive for a lost ticket but I guess Harrah's is falling on tough times or just like to screw ppl whenever they get the chance. There's also something about diamond and seven star free parking and now I'm wondering if they stopped giving free parking for 30 minutes of play...this is Harrah's so nothing would shock me. Well I find a place to park relatively quick and get out my car to head to the elevator and then I stop b/c I can't find my parking ticket to get validated and I momentarily panic. Go back to my jeep and pull everything out of my pockets, check the usual spots where I put the ticket and NOTHING...now I'm trying to figure out a way to not pay $100 for parking. I check one last place and sure enough it was there and I avoided the first shitty beat of the night.
Walk to the poker room and they have two 2/5 games and like 243 1/2 games going. I hang out at the desk of the poker room for 5 minutes before anyone acknowledges me and asks what game I'd like...poker room is nuts and they have two floor ppl. Well I'm on the list and like 12th or so and it's 9pm. To my surprise there isn't a game on every table. I find a spot to chill and sweat the 5/10/20 game and then they start to move around like they are opening a new table and they did...of course it was a 4/8 game. Well Matt and Joe show up so at least I have someone to talk to while waiting. After about an hour and a half on the list I finally get in the game and the game I got sent to didn't appear to be the better of the two mainly b/c the avg. age was around 68 years old. Well that was earlier in the night and when I got there the complexion of the game had somewhat changed. I was undecided on my buy-in before I sat down since they upped it to 1k. Well I wish I would have sat down with the full amount. I get my chips and sit down the dealer asks if I'd like to post but I'm UTG so I'll just wait...well then Harrah's version of "Joe Cool" tells me to straddle, so with my chips still in the rack I throw in $10. "Joe Cool" is actually a guy named LT...if you've ever played there you know who I'm talking about, always has a hat, sunglasses, and button up shirt. Doesn't say a whole lot and NEVER, I mean NEVER takes off his glasses, not sure if the guy even has eyes. Well he encourages my straddle and the douche on my left does the dumbest thing in the world (he's a regular who is pretty sure of himself for some reason) and makes it $20 blind raise...not sure what the point of that is? Well it gets to LT on the button and after a few limp for $20 he pops it to $100 and the guy on my right calls the $100 and of course I look down at QQ without even having my chips straight. I make it $400 total and LT calls w/out thinking and we see the flop heads up. I move in on the flop and he calls and mucks on the river. I more than double my money on the first hand. So much for playing small pots.
The night would slow down but the game didn't. It was wide open and raises ranged from $20 to $60 and action was given on almost all hands dealt. It played well and I think I might have won like 8 pots total on the night and was a pretty nice winner. The game stayed really good till I left. I got to play with Tex who made an appearance but I didn't get a chance to talk with him, he was on the other side of the table and all we got to do was shoot the occasional glance with a WOW expression on our faces from the shit that was being shown down.
Last night I decided I wanted to play something online but had no idea what it was going to be. I pulled up Full Tilt and they had a tourney that was double stack, non-turbo, and was in late registration. It seemed like a winner to me so I signed up and then I realized it was 6-handed which I was glad to see. I've done pretty well in 6-max online tourneys and this was no different. Had about 750 players and I played pretty well. Made quad aces on the third hand and then didn't see a pocket pair above nines for the next 3 hours. I had fun playing and did a lot of three betting and tried to play aggressive throughout. With about 40 players left I got into the top 5 in chips and stayed there till 10 handed. We played 7 handed for quite a while and had a lot swings. I ended up busting 7th and bubbled the final table. It would have been nice to win it but it was still fun to run deep. That was the first tourney I had played live or online since Vegas. I'm getting pretty excited to play some tourneys when the Beau starts up in September. Not sure if I'm gonna head to Harrah's this weekend, guess I'll just see what happens.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
Walk to the poker room and they have two 2/5 games and like 243 1/2 games going. I hang out at the desk of the poker room for 5 minutes before anyone acknowledges me and asks what game I'd like...poker room is nuts and they have two floor ppl. Well I'm on the list and like 12th or so and it's 9pm. To my surprise there isn't a game on every table. I find a spot to chill and sweat the 5/10/20 game and then they start to move around like they are opening a new table and they did...of course it was a 4/8 game. Well Matt and Joe show up so at least I have someone to talk to while waiting. After about an hour and a half on the list I finally get in the game and the game I got sent to didn't appear to be the better of the two mainly b/c the avg. age was around 68 years old. Well that was earlier in the night and when I got there the complexion of the game had somewhat changed. I was undecided on my buy-in before I sat down since they upped it to 1k. Well I wish I would have sat down with the full amount. I get my chips and sit down the dealer asks if I'd like to post but I'm UTG so I'll just wait...well then Harrah's version of "Joe Cool" tells me to straddle, so with my chips still in the rack I throw in $10. "Joe Cool" is actually a guy named LT...if you've ever played there you know who I'm talking about, always has a hat, sunglasses, and button up shirt. Doesn't say a whole lot and NEVER, I mean NEVER takes off his glasses, not sure if the guy even has eyes. Well he encourages my straddle and the douche on my left does the dumbest thing in the world (he's a regular who is pretty sure of himself for some reason) and makes it $20 blind raise...not sure what the point of that is? Well it gets to LT on the button and after a few limp for $20 he pops it to $100 and the guy on my right calls the $100 and of course I look down at QQ without even having my chips straight. I make it $400 total and LT calls w/out thinking and we see the flop heads up. I move in on the flop and he calls and mucks on the river. I more than double my money on the first hand. So much for playing small pots.
The night would slow down but the game didn't. It was wide open and raises ranged from $20 to $60 and action was given on almost all hands dealt. It played well and I think I might have won like 8 pots total on the night and was a pretty nice winner. The game stayed really good till I left. I got to play with Tex who made an appearance but I didn't get a chance to talk with him, he was on the other side of the table and all we got to do was shoot the occasional glance with a WOW expression on our faces from the shit that was being shown down.
Last night I decided I wanted to play something online but had no idea what it was going to be. I pulled up Full Tilt and they had a tourney that was double stack, non-turbo, and was in late registration. It seemed like a winner to me so I signed up and then I realized it was 6-handed which I was glad to see. I've done pretty well in 6-max online tourneys and this was no different. Had about 750 players and I played pretty well. Made quad aces on the third hand and then didn't see a pocket pair above nines for the next 3 hours. I had fun playing and did a lot of three betting and tried to play aggressive throughout. With about 40 players left I got into the top 5 in chips and stayed there till 10 handed. We played 7 handed for quite a while and had a lot swings. I ended up busting 7th and bubbled the final table. It would have been nice to win it but it was still fun to run deep. That was the first tourney I had played live or online since Vegas. I'm getting pretty excited to play some tourneys when the Beau starts up in September. Not sure if I'm gonna head to Harrah's this weekend, guess I'll just see what happens.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
7.10.2009
Vegas...part 3
I've been back from Vegas for a while but just haven't finished posting about it mainly b/c I haven't really wanted to sit down and type and the fact I haven't played since I've been back might have something to do with that too. I played a late night session at the Bellagio that was somewhat interesting. It took forever to get into a game and when I finally did it was at a very entertaining table....I only wish I would have been winning b/c it would have been even more fun. I sit down at the table and start playing and I'm in the two seat and there is an open seat in the 4 and the floor guy comes and puts a little piece of paper with a name on it and it says Bubbles. I'm not sure what to expect to here, possibly a stripper?!? Well about 20 or so minutes go by and the seat is still empty and someone at the table asks the floor guy about it since we could have had another player. The floor guy tells him that Bubble's walks with a cane and doesn't move to fast. The stripper thought just got a little more interesting. Well it turns out to be about a 6ft tall 300 pound 60+ year old Italian guy that sounds like he just got off the set of a Sopranos filming. He sits down at the table and just starts working the room. He was rude, definitely politically incorrect (referring to the 10 seat as china-men), dropping f'bombs...and most importantly he was fucking hilarious. I couldn't help but like this guy. He asked me where I was from and when I told him I live in New Orleans he said he's got a friend that owns a restaurant there. For whatever reason he wasn't giving me a hard time but the rest of the table I couldn't say the same. He let me off the hook about 4 times when he out drew me and told me to fold when I prolly would have paid him off and he showed me winners every time. It was one of those nights for me. He was also hammered, taking shots of Jack Daniels every time the cocktail waitress came around.
A couple things were really funny. I wasn't sure if this guy was big time or just full of shit but every dealer knew him and every floor guy and few of the guys playing in the big games gave him a hello while walking to the cage. Well it turns out he has some big role with a restaurant in Caesars Palace. Rao's is rated one of the best Italian restaurants in the United States and is pretty tough to get a reservation there. Well now I know this guy isn't full of shit and one of the funnier moments of the night came when Johnny Chan walked near our table and was standing about 10 feet away and Bubble's said "hey Johnny" and Chan replied with a "Hi Bubbles" and then Bubble's asked "how's your son"...Johnny said "he's doing fine Bubbles"...Bubbles then said "that's good news" and then before Johnny Chan can even turn his back Bubbles says...in a not so discrete voice "fucking prick" and I about spit my drink all over the table. Chan didn't acknowledge the comment and the dealer just smirked and said "he's the second biggest one next to Sammy"
I thought that shit was pretty funny. Later a guy tried to cut between the tables to run over and pretend to be friends with Prahlad Friedman who had just won about a 30k pot on the table next to us and while he was passing between the tables he stepped on Bubbles foot and Bubbles didn't hesitate to call the guy out on it and pretty much demanded the guy come back and apologize which the guy did about a dozen times. One last interesting thing about Italian restaurant guy from New York City is that he asked me if I saw The Hangover. I told him I did and then he asked if I remember then end when they showed the picture and the one with Wayne Newton in it....I did remember it and he was actually in the picture, When I got back home I pulled up the movie on project free TV and fast forwarded to the end and sure enough he was not full of shit, he was sitting next to Wayne Newton in the picture...that was pretty cool.
The session didn't go to well and I lost a couple hundred but it was mainly just boring b/c I know I woulda had a blast if I would have been winning, but oh well it happens. The last day there I didn't know where I was going to play and Davey and I decided on the Bellagio once again, mainly b/c he was determined the beat the 5/10 game there. I sat in a 2/5 game and got a pretty nice gift from the poker gods and had AA vs. KK and nearly got a double up but I had the guy covered by a few. It was nice and Davey was up from his game and asked if I wanted to get out of there and go catch the Wayne Brady show at the Venetian. Saw that I was a winner and said sure. That was a good call. The show was funny as hell and worth going see. It's an improv show and in a small theater so that made it cool. Best way to describe it is as a PG-13/R rated version of the tv show "who's line is it anyway?"
The Vegas trip was fun and I wish I was still there or could have stayed longer but it is what it is and I had fun. I did discover a few things that annoy me while I'm playing and most of it is just things that have become poker cliche' stuff. I'll be a sourpuss (whatever that means) another time. I haven't played since I've been back and haven't really had the itch but I heard the jackpot at Harrah's is still growing so I may have to head there and play next weekend.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
A couple things were really funny. I wasn't sure if this guy was big time or just full of shit but every dealer knew him and every floor guy and few of the guys playing in the big games gave him a hello while walking to the cage. Well it turns out he has some big role with a restaurant in Caesars Palace. Rao's is rated one of the best Italian restaurants in the United States and is pretty tough to get a reservation there. Well now I know this guy isn't full of shit and one of the funnier moments of the night came when Johnny Chan walked near our table and was standing about 10 feet away and Bubble's said "hey Johnny" and Chan replied with a "Hi Bubbles" and then Bubble's asked "how's your son"...Johnny said "he's doing fine Bubbles"...Bubbles then said "that's good news" and then before Johnny Chan can even turn his back Bubbles says...in a not so discrete voice "fucking prick" and I about spit my drink all over the table. Chan didn't acknowledge the comment and the dealer just smirked and said "he's the second biggest one next to Sammy"
I thought that shit was pretty funny. Later a guy tried to cut between the tables to run over and pretend to be friends with Prahlad Friedman who had just won about a 30k pot on the table next to us and while he was passing between the tables he stepped on Bubbles foot and Bubbles didn't hesitate to call the guy out on it and pretty much demanded the guy come back and apologize which the guy did about a dozen times. One last interesting thing about Italian restaurant guy from New York City is that he asked me if I saw The Hangover. I told him I did and then he asked if I remember then end when they showed the picture and the one with Wayne Newton in it....I did remember it and he was actually in the picture, When I got back home I pulled up the movie on project free TV and fast forwarded to the end and sure enough he was not full of shit, he was sitting next to Wayne Newton in the picture...that was pretty cool.
The session didn't go to well and I lost a couple hundred but it was mainly just boring b/c I know I woulda had a blast if I would have been winning, but oh well it happens. The last day there I didn't know where I was going to play and Davey and I decided on the Bellagio once again, mainly b/c he was determined the beat the 5/10 game there. I sat in a 2/5 game and got a pretty nice gift from the poker gods and had AA vs. KK and nearly got a double up but I had the guy covered by a few. It was nice and Davey was up from his game and asked if I wanted to get out of there and go catch the Wayne Brady show at the Venetian. Saw that I was a winner and said sure. That was a good call. The show was funny as hell and worth going see. It's an improv show and in a small theater so that made it cool. Best way to describe it is as a PG-13/R rated version of the tv show "who's line is it anyway?"
The Vegas trip was fun and I wish I was still there or could have stayed longer but it is what it is and I had fun. I did discover a few things that annoy me while I'm playing and most of it is just things that have become poker cliche' stuff. I'll be a sourpuss (whatever that means) another time. I haven't played since I've been back and haven't really had the itch but I heard the jackpot at Harrah's is still growing so I may have to head there and play next weekend.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
6.21.2009
continued....(part 2)
Left off busting 46th out of 660 players in the first tourney of the trip at the Venetian. I was pretty exhausted after a long day on the Thursday with the travel and like 13 hours of play. Davey and I played the $550 on Friday and I played terrible. Just pressed to much and never really hit a comfort zone. I did do certain things ok but had one guy at the table who was just getting run over with the deck and he was pissing me off. I folded a hand where later on I thought I may have laid down the best hand. Guy at our table had chipped up to like 60k in first 2 levels. I then saw this guy run two very bad bluffs and make a really loose all in call on the turn with like A,Q high. After I saw that shit I had a mission to abuse this guy and I never do shit like that. I then raised this guys blind every time I had the chance. I reraised him about three times with nothing. He even asked me once if I had something against him and I told he was the best player on the table and I think that comment confused him. Anyway it was my mission for this guy to lose his chips and he did. The shitty part was that I played for about 6 and half hours and finished about 300 out of 630.
I then hung out for a while and took a shower and ate some supper and then tried to find a good 2/5 game at the Venetian. I prefer to play with someone I know at the table and it was either Davey or Joe and the average age of Davey's game was about 72 and Joe's game looked better. Joe was getting run over with the deck and did really well that night. I made some big hands too and played well and lost one really shitty pot. One of the bigger pots came when I had JJ in the cutoff and and someone opened it for $35 in the 10 seat...I was in the two. I just called and the 5 seat and the 9 seat called. The 9 was pretty active and not a very good player but I think he was convinced he was. Flop came 10 high two diamonds and the 9 seat bet out $100 and the PFR folded and I called and the 5 seat called. The turn was the Queen of diamonds and it went checked through. River was a blank and 5 seat checked and the 9 seat bet out $280. Now this is where I had to put things together. I was positive no one had the flush b/c both players were smart enough to bet that out if they did. I wasn't sure if the queen beat me but I knew I had the 9 seat beat and my only concern was the 5. I took a while but when I noticed that the 5 seat was really concerned with the 9 seat and trying to get a read on him when it was my turn to act that kinda triggered that he might have been weak and was contemplating a thin call against that player. If he had a big hand he would have been more concerned with me and hoping I'd put money in the pot but with his focus being on the other player then I knew he couldn't call if I did. I called the $280 and he folded and the 9 seat very sheepishly turned over 66 and my JJ was good for a nice little pot. I managed to win some pots but still had to make some big decisions. The table was active so it was good have a draw b/c a lot of hands were getting paid off.
The shittiest hand I had was at the end of the session. I told myself I was leaving on my big blind or on the hour which ever came first. Well I look down at QQ with about 6 hands to go or 15 minutes. Guy opens for $35 in the 10 seat and I just call. (I'm getting sick just typing this). Well I call and the guy behind me calls. Flop comes Q,9,8 and PFR checks and I bet $90 and the guy behind me folds and the PFR calls. Turn is a 5 and he leads out for $180 and I call. I don't think he flopped the nuts and I can't really put him on 6,7. Maybe I'm just a pussy too by just calling. River is a brick and I don't fill up. He bets out $300 and I just look at him and roll my eyes and think to myself how shitty this is that I am just calling this bet on the river with top set. I call and he shows his 6,7 for the straight. So after losing $600 on one hand I rack up and leave. Pretty gross that I lost that pot. It was gonna be a great end of a shitty day as far as the tourney but instead I still turned a really nice profit but it would have been nice to rack up another $600.
I went to bed kinda sick but still up on the trip and free rolling on tourneys. I woke up early on Saturday and went register for the noon $550. That tourney didn't go so well either. Had about 460 players and finished around 240. That tourney was brutal. Thursday I played well and ran deep, Friday I played bad and didn't fare so well and Saturday I ran monsters into monsters. On three occasions I ran top two pair into a set and still had chips at the end of each hand. Never gave a double up with any of those hands so I was losing the minimum for the most part. The best part of the tourney was sitting by the rail and seeing all the fine ass women walking by. I got to see the ppl going to the pool and the later the same girls going to the club. Not sure which outfits I like better. That was about my only entertainment other than the show the dealers were putting on by the cards they were dealing me. Oh well, I played three tourneys on the trip and cashed in one. I'll take one cash out of every three tourneys.
Busted fairly early and Davey didn't fare too well in the tournaments either...wish I would have made last longer bets with him. We watched some college baseball in the sports book and then my phone rang and it was Jacob and he asked what we were up to and said he'd be there in 15 minutes. He decided last minute to come out to Vegas. We all chilled for a while and then went to Venetian to check things out. I eventually got in a game and it was terrible and I decided to get up even and go back to the Mirage and join Davey in a weak 2/5 game. It was pretty easy going and then the game started to break and it was must move and I lost $100 in that shitty game on the last hand when someone didn't believe me and called my $30 preflop with 10,3 and flopped a full house on a 3,3,10 board and of course I turn an Ace. Oh well it happens.
While I was at the Venetian I sat next to the same guy two nights in a row in a cash game, his name was Mike something. He was a nice guy but VERY MUCH A DOUCHE BAG!...he was about 42 years old and just talked like he knew everything about everything involving poker and the especially every poker room in Vegas. We were talking for a good bit but about stuff other than poker which I MUCH prefer. Talked about cars, he has one that he turned into a drag racing car and I grew up around classics. He was also a college basketball player at Long Beach St. and played with some NBA players. Those were good conversations but then he felt it necessary to tell us about shit we didn't care about and no one at the table was really paying attention. He told us that you can use your player comp money for any restaurant in the casino and massages. That's not bad information but of course he started the story by saying "name drop poker room director' asked me and a couple other players some things that could be better and "I" told him that we would like to use our comp stuff for different things...blah blah blah. So he listened to what I had to say and I was able to get that changed." As soon as I hear people talking about shit like that they automatically go into the douche bag category. I don't know why people want to take credit for stuff like that. He's the same guy that wants to talk to every freaking floor guy that walks by and feels it's his duty to be the one to greet every dealer by first name and let it be known that he IS A LOCAL AND PLAYS HERES A LOT!!!...wtf is the deal with people being "that guy", if you know the dealer...a simple what's up is good and anyone with a half of clue can tell weather this dealer things you're douche or actually wants to talk to you. Oh well, didn't know that rant was coming but just one of the annoying things about poker for me.
I'm done writing and almost done with the Vegas stuff. Sunday and Monday were kinda interesting and I'll get to that later. Also have a rant or two about shit that annoys me at the table that happened in the next two sessions I played.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
I then hung out for a while and took a shower and ate some supper and then tried to find a good 2/5 game at the Venetian. I prefer to play with someone I know at the table and it was either Davey or Joe and the average age of Davey's game was about 72 and Joe's game looked better. Joe was getting run over with the deck and did really well that night. I made some big hands too and played well and lost one really shitty pot. One of the bigger pots came when I had JJ in the cutoff and and someone opened it for $35 in the 10 seat...I was in the two. I just called and the 5 seat and the 9 seat called. The 9 was pretty active and not a very good player but I think he was convinced he was. Flop came 10 high two diamonds and the 9 seat bet out $100 and the PFR folded and I called and the 5 seat called. The turn was the Queen of diamonds and it went checked through. River was a blank and 5 seat checked and the 9 seat bet out $280. Now this is where I had to put things together. I was positive no one had the flush b/c both players were smart enough to bet that out if they did. I wasn't sure if the queen beat me but I knew I had the 9 seat beat and my only concern was the 5. I took a while but when I noticed that the 5 seat was really concerned with the 9 seat and trying to get a read on him when it was my turn to act that kinda triggered that he might have been weak and was contemplating a thin call against that player. If he had a big hand he would have been more concerned with me and hoping I'd put money in the pot but with his focus being on the other player then I knew he couldn't call if I did. I called the $280 and he folded and the 9 seat very sheepishly turned over 66 and my JJ was good for a nice little pot. I managed to win some pots but still had to make some big decisions. The table was active so it was good have a draw b/c a lot of hands were getting paid off.
The shittiest hand I had was at the end of the session. I told myself I was leaving on my big blind or on the hour which ever came first. Well I look down at QQ with about 6 hands to go or 15 minutes. Guy opens for $35 in the 10 seat and I just call. (I'm getting sick just typing this). Well I call and the guy behind me calls. Flop comes Q,9,8 and PFR checks and I bet $90 and the guy behind me folds and the PFR calls. Turn is a 5 and he leads out for $180 and I call. I don't think he flopped the nuts and I can't really put him on 6,7. Maybe I'm just a pussy too by just calling. River is a brick and I don't fill up. He bets out $300 and I just look at him and roll my eyes and think to myself how shitty this is that I am just calling this bet on the river with top set. I call and he shows his 6,7 for the straight. So after losing $600 on one hand I rack up and leave. Pretty gross that I lost that pot. It was gonna be a great end of a shitty day as far as the tourney but instead I still turned a really nice profit but it would have been nice to rack up another $600.
I went to bed kinda sick but still up on the trip and free rolling on tourneys. I woke up early on Saturday and went register for the noon $550. That tourney didn't go so well either. Had about 460 players and finished around 240. That tourney was brutal. Thursday I played well and ran deep, Friday I played bad and didn't fare so well and Saturday I ran monsters into monsters. On three occasions I ran top two pair into a set and still had chips at the end of each hand. Never gave a double up with any of those hands so I was losing the minimum for the most part. The best part of the tourney was sitting by the rail and seeing all the fine ass women walking by. I got to see the ppl going to the pool and the later the same girls going to the club. Not sure which outfits I like better. That was about my only entertainment other than the show the dealers were putting on by the cards they were dealing me. Oh well, I played three tourneys on the trip and cashed in one. I'll take one cash out of every three tourneys.
Busted fairly early and Davey didn't fare too well in the tournaments either...wish I would have made last longer bets with him. We watched some college baseball in the sports book and then my phone rang and it was Jacob and he asked what we were up to and said he'd be there in 15 minutes. He decided last minute to come out to Vegas. We all chilled for a while and then went to Venetian to check things out. I eventually got in a game and it was terrible and I decided to get up even and go back to the Mirage and join Davey in a weak 2/5 game. It was pretty easy going and then the game started to break and it was must move and I lost $100 in that shitty game on the last hand when someone didn't believe me and called my $30 preflop with 10,3 and flopped a full house on a 3,3,10 board and of course I turn an Ace. Oh well it happens.
While I was at the Venetian I sat next to the same guy two nights in a row in a cash game, his name was Mike something. He was a nice guy but VERY MUCH A DOUCHE BAG!...he was about 42 years old and just talked like he knew everything about everything involving poker and the especially every poker room in Vegas. We were talking for a good bit but about stuff other than poker which I MUCH prefer. Talked about cars, he has one that he turned into a drag racing car and I grew up around classics. He was also a college basketball player at Long Beach St. and played with some NBA players. Those were good conversations but then he felt it necessary to tell us about shit we didn't care about and no one at the table was really paying attention. He told us that you can use your player comp money for any restaurant in the casino and massages. That's not bad information but of course he started the story by saying "name drop poker room director' asked me and a couple other players some things that could be better and "I" told him that we would like to use our comp stuff for different things...blah blah blah. So he listened to what I had to say and I was able to get that changed." As soon as I hear people talking about shit like that they automatically go into the douche bag category. I don't know why people want to take credit for stuff like that. He's the same guy that wants to talk to every freaking floor guy that walks by and feels it's his duty to be the one to greet every dealer by first name and let it be known that he IS A LOCAL AND PLAYS HERES A LOT!!!...wtf is the deal with people being "that guy", if you know the dealer...a simple what's up is good and anyone with a half of clue can tell weather this dealer things you're douche or actually wants to talk to you. Oh well, didn't know that rant was coming but just one of the annoying things about poker for me.
I'm done writing and almost done with the Vegas stuff. Sunday and Monday were kinda interesting and I'll get to that later. Also have a rant or two about shit that annoys me at the table that happened in the next two sessions I played.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
6.16.2009
Back From Vegas (part 1)
It's time to re-enter the real world. Got back from Vegas Tuesday afternoon and did a whole lot of nothing. Thought about writing a blog, thought about doing some laundry, thought about hanging by the pool and found myself lounging on the couch watching college baseball instead. The trip was OK at best and I had intentions of posting while I was in Vegas but the Mirage made that a little difficult by not offering free Wi-Fi. It's 2009 and I can get free Wi-Fi at a Best Western but not at the freaking Mirage. They wanted to charge $15 for 24 hours of use and considering all of about 5-6 hours a day are actually spent in the room I opted not to pay for internet and didn't feel like bringing my computer across the street to the Venetian just to type.
I don't really feel like recapping the whole trip right now...mainly due to the fact that I want to continue with the theme of my day and be lazy. I did play everyday for 5 straight days which is something I haven't done in a REALLY REALLY long time. Had some good things and some bad.
After landing we went to the hotel to check in and then walked across the street to play the $330 deep stack event at the Venetian. Those guys really get it over there and it was the place that got most of my time on this trip. The tourney started off OK and I was able to get the table talking and it had a home game feel to it which was nice. I played well and withstood two tough beats. I minded my own business and was winning a lot of the pots that I was playing. Took a big hit when I raised with KhQh and flopped a Q, turned an opened ended straight flush draw and the other player moved in on me and I called with 19k (12k starting stack) and he had AQ and I hit a K on the river to give him the straight and my draw meant nothing. Lost about 7k on the hand was back to where I started. Chipped up again and made a really big bluff on a young Swedish player when I check called a flop with nothing and then it went checked on the turn and then I made a bet that would have crippled him if he was wrong. I normally would never play a hand that way but the board allowed me to make the bluff on the river without getting called when it paired...I also think he messed up when he started talking to me and he basically convinced himself he was beat. Ended up losing a pot that really hurt to him later.
Made another big bluff in a situation where I had to totally trust myself on the way I thought this guy played. He was pretty ABC and he just wanted to make good decisions and not go broke. I used that not going broke thing to my advantage. I had a really good table image and everyone got along which is good. Nothing worse than sitting at a table for 5+ hours with ppl who are mean. Either shut up or be nice. Well we saw a flop like 5 ways (100/200) and I was on the button with two cards that I honestly don't remember. Flop came 9,9,3 and it went checked to me and I bet 625 and get check raised by the bb to 2200. Now this is where I just completely trusted myself that I could get this guy to lay down a 9 in this spot. I took my time like I always do and came back over the top for 5k more and he was beside himself. He had no idea what to do and was squirming in his chair and started talking about how he hates this b/c he's in the blind and he has to be beat and this is just bad luck...he commented on how confident I looked. And he was right, once he told me it was bad luck I was as confident as though I had flopped the nuts. No way he was calling. He folds face up (I hate the face up fold, especially in this spot). He showed his 9,5 like he just made the biggest lay down in the world or as though I was gonna show him he made the right or wrong decision. Fuck that shit, I'm not showing my hand one way or another. Just bad for a player like him to show that he's gonna fold big hands like that, he got abused by like 3 players after he made that lay down...he was getting reraised every time he made a bet it seemed like.
The bad hand with the Swedish player when I had about 46k and he had about 21k. Blinds were 300/600/50 and I was in the BB with 88. Two ppl limped and Swedish guy raised from the button to 1250 which I knew he was going to do b/c he was pretty active with limpers in the pot. The two guys who limped were really weak and I often raised pots when those guys limped b/c they provided almost no resistance. SB folds and then I come over the top of him and raise to 2600 and he calls. Flop comes 9,7,6 rainbow and not a bad flop for 88. I lead out for 2200 to almost induce a raise and he cooperates and makes it 2500 more and then I set him in and he contemplated for a little while and called with Jd,9d. Lucky for him to flop top pair like that considering how the hand played and I was a little shocked he called but I'm pretty sure the bluff had a lot to do with it and he was frustrated. Well I turn the straight with the 10d of diamonds and he makes the flush on the river to win a big pot and take a chunk of my stack. Even though I was reraising him I still played the hand rather weak but if I would have had aces I would have played it the same way and got him to put all his chips in the pot. I just didn't think he had anything but he was going to try to win it with aggression. Oh well, not really sure if there is anything I could have done differently.
That was how my day went. I would chip up and then lose a pot in a crappy way. Didn't get flustered and just maintained. The good thing was that both hands came when we were within 3 minutes of a break. I also went 0-3 with QQ on the day and never saw a river or a turn card with them when the board had under cards. I was involved in a hand where I had QQ and the other two ppl in the pot had AA and KK and they got it all in on the flop and I didn't see the flop. Called a raise from the guy on the my right who was UTG and two other ppl called. Flop came 10 high he lead for a pot size bet and I just didn't think I could be good. I folded and one other guy called. PFR had KK and the other guy had A,K and flopped a flush draw and put it all in and hit an A on the river to take a massive pot late in the tourney. I did get to actually see the pain of the bubble boy (or girl in this situation). Playing hand for hand and she opens with a standard 3 times the big blind raise with an above avg. stack and got reraised all in by one of 2 ppl who had her covered at the table. He had KK she had AA and he made a flush. It was brutal to actually have to see and to make it worse there was 3 other ppl all in at the time on different tables and all of them held up and she busted all alone just outside the money instead of having a really nice stack.
Withstanding all that shit and a field of 660 players in the tourney I managed to pick spots wisely and never really had to gamble. The one thing that I thought I did extremely well was playing from the blind. I even started chants of "defense" when ppl raised my blind. If my blind was raised and it was heads up, I prolly took about 80% of those flops and won well over 50% of them (position heads up can be over rated IMO) I finished 46th in the tourney with an unimpressive cash but nonetheless it was a great way to start off the trip. It was looooooooooong day getting two extra hours when we got to there and playing from noon till 1:15am. I plan on posting more parts of my trip in the next couple days but I guess that depends on how much I feel like writing about poker after all the time I spent playing the last week.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
I don't really feel like recapping the whole trip right now...mainly due to the fact that I want to continue with the theme of my day and be lazy. I did play everyday for 5 straight days which is something I haven't done in a REALLY REALLY long time. Had some good things and some bad.
After landing we went to the hotel to check in and then walked across the street to play the $330 deep stack event at the Venetian. Those guys really get it over there and it was the place that got most of my time on this trip. The tourney started off OK and I was able to get the table talking and it had a home game feel to it which was nice. I played well and withstood two tough beats. I minded my own business and was winning a lot of the pots that I was playing. Took a big hit when I raised with KhQh and flopped a Q, turned an opened ended straight flush draw and the other player moved in on me and I called with 19k (12k starting stack) and he had AQ and I hit a K on the river to give him the straight and my draw meant nothing. Lost about 7k on the hand was back to where I started. Chipped up again and made a really big bluff on a young Swedish player when I check called a flop with nothing and then it went checked on the turn and then I made a bet that would have crippled him if he was wrong. I normally would never play a hand that way but the board allowed me to make the bluff on the river without getting called when it paired...I also think he messed up when he started talking to me and he basically convinced himself he was beat. Ended up losing a pot that really hurt to him later.
Made another big bluff in a situation where I had to totally trust myself on the way I thought this guy played. He was pretty ABC and he just wanted to make good decisions and not go broke. I used that not going broke thing to my advantage. I had a really good table image and everyone got along which is good. Nothing worse than sitting at a table for 5+ hours with ppl who are mean. Either shut up or be nice. Well we saw a flop like 5 ways (100/200) and I was on the button with two cards that I honestly don't remember. Flop came 9,9,3 and it went checked to me and I bet 625 and get check raised by the bb to 2200. Now this is where I just completely trusted myself that I could get this guy to lay down a 9 in this spot. I took my time like I always do and came back over the top for 5k more and he was beside himself. He had no idea what to do and was squirming in his chair and started talking about how he hates this b/c he's in the blind and he has to be beat and this is just bad luck...he commented on how confident I looked. And he was right, once he told me it was bad luck I was as confident as though I had flopped the nuts. No way he was calling. He folds face up (I hate the face up fold, especially in this spot). He showed his 9,5 like he just made the biggest lay down in the world or as though I was gonna show him he made the right or wrong decision. Fuck that shit, I'm not showing my hand one way or another. Just bad for a player like him to show that he's gonna fold big hands like that, he got abused by like 3 players after he made that lay down...he was getting reraised every time he made a bet it seemed like.
The bad hand with the Swedish player when I had about 46k and he had about 21k. Blinds were 300/600/50 and I was in the BB with 88. Two ppl limped and Swedish guy raised from the button to 1250 which I knew he was going to do b/c he was pretty active with limpers in the pot. The two guys who limped were really weak and I often raised pots when those guys limped b/c they provided almost no resistance. SB folds and then I come over the top of him and raise to 2600 and he calls. Flop comes 9,7,6 rainbow and not a bad flop for 88. I lead out for 2200 to almost induce a raise and he cooperates and makes it 2500 more and then I set him in and he contemplated for a little while and called with Jd,9d. Lucky for him to flop top pair like that considering how the hand played and I was a little shocked he called but I'm pretty sure the bluff had a lot to do with it and he was frustrated. Well I turn the straight with the 10d of diamonds and he makes the flush on the river to win a big pot and take a chunk of my stack. Even though I was reraising him I still played the hand rather weak but if I would have had aces I would have played it the same way and got him to put all his chips in the pot. I just didn't think he had anything but he was going to try to win it with aggression. Oh well, not really sure if there is anything I could have done differently.
That was how my day went. I would chip up and then lose a pot in a crappy way. Didn't get flustered and just maintained. The good thing was that both hands came when we were within 3 minutes of a break. I also went 0-3 with QQ on the day and never saw a river or a turn card with them when the board had under cards. I was involved in a hand where I had QQ and the other two ppl in the pot had AA and KK and they got it all in on the flop and I didn't see the flop. Called a raise from the guy on the my right who was UTG and two other ppl called. Flop came 10 high he lead for a pot size bet and I just didn't think I could be good. I folded and one other guy called. PFR had KK and the other guy had A,K and flopped a flush draw and put it all in and hit an A on the river to take a massive pot late in the tourney. I did get to actually see the pain of the bubble boy (or girl in this situation). Playing hand for hand and she opens with a standard 3 times the big blind raise with an above avg. stack and got reraised all in by one of 2 ppl who had her covered at the table. He had KK she had AA and he made a flush. It was brutal to actually have to see and to make it worse there was 3 other ppl all in at the time on different tables and all of them held up and she busted all alone just outside the money instead of having a really nice stack.
Withstanding all that shit and a field of 660 players in the tourney I managed to pick spots wisely and never really had to gamble. The one thing that I thought I did extremely well was playing from the blind. I even started chants of "defense" when ppl raised my blind. If my blind was raised and it was heads up, I prolly took about 80% of those flops and won well over 50% of them (position heads up can be over rated IMO) I finished 46th in the tourney with an unimpressive cash but nonetheless it was a great way to start off the trip. It was looooooooooong day getting two extra hours when we got to there and playing from noon till 1:15am. I plan on posting more parts of my trip in the next couple days but I guess that depends on how much I feel like writing about poker after all the time I spent playing the last week.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
6.04.2009
A Week Away
My heart starts pumping just thinking about it and I'm definitely ready. Just one week before Davey and I head to Vegas. It's hard to not get excited and start thinking about all things that "might be" while on this trip. Already starting to get things planned out and getting off the plane and going straight to the Venetian to play the noon event there. The fields have been really nice and in the first two $300 events first place was over 50k. The game plan is set and now the time is approaching to show up and play. I always have mixed emotions when playing tourneys during an event. Of course I'm confident and I expect to play well but I'm a realist to the extreme and all the positive thinking is put in perspective that there is a lot better chance to not win or go deep in a tourney than there is to take one down. A couple positives is that I played well during the circuit in NOLA and the last time I went to Vegas for CC's birthday I won a daily tourney. Telling myself everyday that I'm gonna play well and good things will happen isn't going to do a whole lot for me if I'm not focused and ready to play. Well I'm both as of today and now the clock won't move fast enough.
I saw yesterday that Jacob cashed in the Stimulus 1k event. I'm sure it was one of those mixed emotions things. He put in a mini-marathon and had a min-cash but if I would have been the guy that bubbled that thing I would have prolly thrown up. Not gonna do a whole lot till Vegas. Serving in a wedding this Saturday and then CC is headed off to Europe on Monday for 3 weeks. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are prolly gonna take forever. Good luck to anyone headed out to Vegas.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
I saw yesterday that Jacob cashed in the Stimulus 1k event. I'm sure it was one of those mixed emotions things. He put in a mini-marathon and had a min-cash but if I would have been the guy that bubbled that thing I would have prolly thrown up. Not gonna do a whole lot till Vegas. Serving in a wedding this Saturday and then CC is headed off to Europe on Monday for 3 weeks. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are prolly gonna take forever. Good luck to anyone headed out to Vegas.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
5.25.2009
Conspiracy Theory
I made it out to Harrah's Friday night but I didn't get lucky and hit the bad beat. I headed there about 8:45 or so and gave Joe a call to put me on the 2/5 list. When I got there it was perfect, they had two 2/5 games going and they opened a third as I was walking in and William the floor guy pointed me to table #2. This was a must move game which I'm not a fan of at all but the upside (if there was any) is that at least I'm on the bottom of the move list so when I have to move it may at least give a couple hours in the game. Well the first hand I got a chance to play was when I had jacks UTG and had $5 in b/c I thought I was the BB. Oh well I just kept it in there and then looked at my cards after the guy next to me made it $20. Well a few ppl call and this is an easy chance to pick up $100 if I repop and everyone folds. I make it $80 total and get two callers (not really what I was hoping for). Flop came 7,4,4 and the flop was harmless but I was more worried about being behind preflop. Not sure if it was the right play or not but I was just lost and checked the flop. PFR checked and the position guy bet $100. I almost had him locked in on a mid pair. Only thing that made sense. I was contemplating my action and the PFR grabbed $100 when it was barely my turn to act. After what seemed like forever I folded my JJ on a 7,4,4 board after I limp-reraised. They eventually get it all in and the guy in position flopped sevens full and the PFR called all his money off with A,Q. Kinda got lucky with that one.
The game then proceeded to get nuts. People in the main games were trying to get into our game and action was really good. I was relatively card dead and just wasn't connecting on flops. I bled away about $200 never really doing anything and this wasn't a game that I wanted to be short in so I added $300 more and was in for $800 total. Then something kinda weird happened at the table. I'm in the two (on a 9 handed table) and a guy comes into the one seat and is just slurring and seeming really drunk but a nice drunk. He starts with the whole "I never play in a casino and it's been a long time since I played so don't let me do anything stupid...just tell me if I do something wrong." Now sometimes these are guys are sincere, sometimes it's sarcasm b/c they think they are really good at poker and it's there clever way of saying coming into a game, and sometimes it just comes off really shady. Well this is one of those times that it comes off really shady, it was almost as though the guy wanted me to know this and was just volunteering a lot of "I'm a bad player information" Well it was a must move game and about 5 minutes later a seat opened up and another guy came to the table he was in the 7 seat and had a mardi gras bead around his neck and was drinking pina calodas (a real manly drink) and he was slurring and being drunk too. So between the drunk guy on my right and the one in the 7 seat and Henry (rich old guy) in the 9 this game is getting better. Well the whole table is talkative, everyone is talking to everyone...no shyness at all.
Something just isn't right the more I watch things progress. I start talking to the guy on my left who is a regular and we've played at the same table plenty times. I tell him that I'm not sure about these "drunk guys" that just got to the table. He's not sure what I mean and I just say, I doubt they are smart enough to pull it off but I kinda got this feeling they might being doing the whole drunk guy routine and are attempting to play together. He doesn't really buy it and I wasn't really trying to sell it...I was just making an observation that I wanted another player to pay attention to in case he picked up on something I missed. The more things go the more these two never really play a hand against each other and when they did we never saw a showdown and they never talked although they engaged everyone else in conversation while in a hand, they show up to the table similar times, they both have that thick Baton Rouge accent. (I'm not saying collusion, but I'm just saying). I eventually get moved to the main game before I could really put anything together.....(are they cheating, to be continued later this blog..)
The main game was very nice to me. I sit in the 10 seat and Bo, a regular is in the 9 and it was nice to have someone to bullshit with at the table. Well nothing really exciting happens and I pick up a few small pots and I have about $450 in front of me when the first big hand shows up and something that hasn't happened in a loooooong time happened. I have 55 in position and it's a $20 to go with 4 players. I flop a set with straight cards all over the place. It checks to me and I bet $50 and get called in one spot. The turn card is a 3 and it puts a gut shot draw getting there so I'm not too concerned about it. She checks and I bet $85 and she calls. River is another 3 and she leads for $100. Well I don't do too much Hollywood and she shows me how much she has left and I say all in and she calls. I hit gin on the river b/c she was opened ended on the flop with 3,4 and hit running three's. Only card that can hit to make her go broke.
About 10 minutes later I get a full double up in a limped pot. Flop comes A,3,6 and the BB leads for $25 which is the pot and it's a rainbow board and I have the nut draw. I call as well as the button. Turn card is a 7! Check to me and I bet $65 and the button raises me to $165 (that's such a good feeling..just thought I'd rub it in for y'all). The BB folds and now it's back to me and the question of what to do here? Now I've got about $685 in front of me and I need to figure out how to get it all in the pot. This is my thought process (I think it's the best plan of action):
-if I call it's gonna be a lot harder to get that in on the river b/c I can't just move all in and expect to get called, he could lay down a set if he doesn't fill up with that large of a bet. If I bet $xxx I have to hope he raises me. The best idea I had was to raise for value on the turn where he has to call the river. Well while I'm contemplating on how to play the nuts I can't see how much he has and I don't want to ask so I just kinda stare in his direction and he happily shows me that he's about $1k behind...this was good information b/c to me he's not scared at all. I then say raise and put the $100 more in the pot and whisper to the dealer to pull in the bets before I put out my raise. I make it $200 more and leaving about $285 and he thinks for about 5 seconds and says "all in". I call and praying the board doesn't pair and it doesn't and he slaps his hand down with his two pair and I drag a really nice pot. I'm a little biased but I think that was a good way to play the hand b/c $585 is a lot of money to put in the river with top two pair.
After that I was on cruise control and never really encountered trouble...at least for a few hours. My table breaks and of course table two (the must move that I was on) became a main game like 15 minutes after I got up. Gotta love Harrah's. I got moved from the game that I was now on the list to get back in...weird, huh? Anyway, I hang out and just bull shit with some people and a seat opens up. It was the 7 seat that drunk guy #2 was sitting in. Well what do you know, both guys got up from the table w/in 5 minutes of each other and it wasn't on or near a push and not even in their BB or button. After they leave and I sit down I couldn't help but say something to the table and ask if anyone thought they might have been trying to play together. The guy in the three seat perks up and says "no shit" and says they got here together and left w/in 10 minutes of each other and then says something that is pretty interesting. Apparently everyone noticed that they talked to everyone at the table except each other well right before they got up the guy in the 7 seat got in an argument with the guy in the 3. The argument came up when the 3 seat and the 1 seat got into it. Kinda weird that all of a sudden he was standing up for a guy who he never talked to at the table. We all kinda dismissed it but it was something to think about b/c I know people try to do it but I'm pretty sure more times than not it doesn't happen successfully. On top of that they really didn't take that much money off the table. (enough of the conspiracy theories)
When I moved back to that game I leaked off some money with a lot pocket pairs that never connected and one memorable hand where I folded QQ preflop and 33 won the hand without ever seeing a flop. This game was deep and one person had less than $1200 in front of him and that about $600 total (not exactly short). Guy with "short stack" opens for $15 in early position and 2 callers and I make it $60 total. Henry in the 9 seat repops it to $160. Now if you've ever played with this rich old man you know he's got a wiiiiiide range hands to that with...any pocket pair. Get back to the original PFR he ships it! Now it's back to me and I don't know how the hell I can do anything here except fold and as I'm pitching in my cards the dealer extends her hand out and cards hit her hand and expose my QQ. Henry is flustered by this and says "if those cards are exposed then I can't call" and folds his QQ face up. The other guy shows his 33 and wins the pot. No doubt Henry's logic is nonexistent but apparently if he was behind preflop then two outs is enough to call $500.
On the whole it was interesting night and nice a little win. Went to the Beau Sunday for the 10k gtd with Davey and that was about boring as it could be be. I finished in the neighborhood of 28 or so with a field of 70+. Was beyond card dead for the whole thing and my table was big hand after big hand. Reid even asked what the hell was going at my table b/c he kept hearin "all in." So with all that going on I had almost no chance to steal pots and then I couldn't find a spot to get all in b/c every pot was opened and I was card dead. It was a slow death and eventually got in heads up with A,2 against K,J and he made a full house of course. I'm ready to play some more and I'm gonna try to pick a week night to go and then I'll be at the Beau next weekend for my friend's bachelor party weekend.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
The game then proceeded to get nuts. People in the main games were trying to get into our game and action was really good. I was relatively card dead and just wasn't connecting on flops. I bled away about $200 never really doing anything and this wasn't a game that I wanted to be short in so I added $300 more and was in for $800 total. Then something kinda weird happened at the table. I'm in the two (on a 9 handed table) and a guy comes into the one seat and is just slurring and seeming really drunk but a nice drunk. He starts with the whole "I never play in a casino and it's been a long time since I played so don't let me do anything stupid...just tell me if I do something wrong." Now sometimes these are guys are sincere, sometimes it's sarcasm b/c they think they are really good at poker and it's there clever way of saying coming into a game, and sometimes it just comes off really shady. Well this is one of those times that it comes off really shady, it was almost as though the guy wanted me to know this and was just volunteering a lot of "I'm a bad player information" Well it was a must move game and about 5 minutes later a seat opened up and another guy came to the table he was in the 7 seat and had a mardi gras bead around his neck and was drinking pina calodas (a real manly drink) and he was slurring and being drunk too. So between the drunk guy on my right and the one in the 7 seat and Henry (rich old guy) in the 9 this game is getting better. Well the whole table is talkative, everyone is talking to everyone...no shyness at all.
Something just isn't right the more I watch things progress. I start talking to the guy on my left who is a regular and we've played at the same table plenty times. I tell him that I'm not sure about these "drunk guys" that just got to the table. He's not sure what I mean and I just say, I doubt they are smart enough to pull it off but I kinda got this feeling they might being doing the whole drunk guy routine and are attempting to play together. He doesn't really buy it and I wasn't really trying to sell it...I was just making an observation that I wanted another player to pay attention to in case he picked up on something I missed. The more things go the more these two never really play a hand against each other and when they did we never saw a showdown and they never talked although they engaged everyone else in conversation while in a hand, they show up to the table similar times, they both have that thick Baton Rouge accent. (I'm not saying collusion, but I'm just saying). I eventually get moved to the main game before I could really put anything together.....(are they cheating, to be continued later this blog..)
The main game was very nice to me. I sit in the 10 seat and Bo, a regular is in the 9 and it was nice to have someone to bullshit with at the table. Well nothing really exciting happens and I pick up a few small pots and I have about $450 in front of me when the first big hand shows up and something that hasn't happened in a loooooong time happened. I have 55 in position and it's a $20 to go with 4 players. I flop a set with straight cards all over the place. It checks to me and I bet $50 and get called in one spot. The turn card is a 3 and it puts a gut shot draw getting there so I'm not too concerned about it. She checks and I bet $85 and she calls. River is another 3 and she leads for $100. Well I don't do too much Hollywood and she shows me how much she has left and I say all in and she calls. I hit gin on the river b/c she was opened ended on the flop with 3,4 and hit running three's. Only card that can hit to make her go broke.
About 10 minutes later I get a full double up in a limped pot. Flop comes A,3,6 and the BB leads for $25 which is the pot and it's a rainbow board and I have the nut draw. I call as well as the button. Turn card is a 7! Check to me and I bet $65 and the button raises me to $165 (that's such a good feeling..just thought I'd rub it in for y'all). The BB folds and now it's back to me and the question of what to do here? Now I've got about $685 in front of me and I need to figure out how to get it all in the pot. This is my thought process (I think it's the best plan of action):
-if I call it's gonna be a lot harder to get that in on the river b/c I can't just move all in and expect to get called, he could lay down a set if he doesn't fill up with that large of a bet. If I bet $xxx I have to hope he raises me. The best idea I had was to raise for value on the turn where he has to call the river. Well while I'm contemplating on how to play the nuts I can't see how much he has and I don't want to ask so I just kinda stare in his direction and he happily shows me that he's about $1k behind...this was good information b/c to me he's not scared at all. I then say raise and put the $100 more in the pot and whisper to the dealer to pull in the bets before I put out my raise. I make it $200 more and leaving about $285 and he thinks for about 5 seconds and says "all in". I call and praying the board doesn't pair and it doesn't and he slaps his hand down with his two pair and I drag a really nice pot. I'm a little biased but I think that was a good way to play the hand b/c $585 is a lot of money to put in the river with top two pair.
After that I was on cruise control and never really encountered trouble...at least for a few hours. My table breaks and of course table two (the must move that I was on) became a main game like 15 minutes after I got up. Gotta love Harrah's. I got moved from the game that I was now on the list to get back in...weird, huh? Anyway, I hang out and just bull shit with some people and a seat opens up. It was the 7 seat that drunk guy #2 was sitting in. Well what do you know, both guys got up from the table w/in 5 minutes of each other and it wasn't on or near a push and not even in their BB or button. After they leave and I sit down I couldn't help but say something to the table and ask if anyone thought they might have been trying to play together. The guy in the three seat perks up and says "no shit" and says they got here together and left w/in 10 minutes of each other and then says something that is pretty interesting. Apparently everyone noticed that they talked to everyone at the table except each other well right before they got up the guy in the 7 seat got in an argument with the guy in the 3. The argument came up when the 3 seat and the 1 seat got into it. Kinda weird that all of a sudden he was standing up for a guy who he never talked to at the table. We all kinda dismissed it but it was something to think about b/c I know people try to do it but I'm pretty sure more times than not it doesn't happen successfully. On top of that they really didn't take that much money off the table. (enough of the conspiracy theories)
When I moved back to that game I leaked off some money with a lot pocket pairs that never connected and one memorable hand where I folded QQ preflop and 33 won the hand without ever seeing a flop. This game was deep and one person had less than $1200 in front of him and that about $600 total (not exactly short). Guy with "short stack" opens for $15 in early position and 2 callers and I make it $60 total. Henry in the 9 seat repops it to $160. Now if you've ever played with this rich old man you know he's got a wiiiiiide range hands to that with...any pocket pair. Get back to the original PFR he ships it! Now it's back to me and I don't know how the hell I can do anything here except fold and as I'm pitching in my cards the dealer extends her hand out and cards hit her hand and expose my QQ. Henry is flustered by this and says "if those cards are exposed then I can't call" and folds his QQ face up. The other guy shows his 33 and wins the pot. No doubt Henry's logic is nonexistent but apparently if he was behind preflop then two outs is enough to call $500.
On the whole it was interesting night and nice a little win. Went to the Beau Sunday for the 10k gtd with Davey and that was about boring as it could be be. I finished in the neighborhood of 28 or so with a field of 70+. Was beyond card dead for the whole thing and my table was big hand after big hand. Reid even asked what the hell was going at my table b/c he kept hearin "all in." So with all that going on I had almost no chance to steal pots and then I couldn't find a spot to get all in b/c every pot was opened and I was card dead. It was a slow death and eventually got in heads up with A,2 against K,J and he made a full house of course. I'm ready to play some more and I'm gonna try to pick a week night to go and then I'll be at the Beau next weekend for my friend's bachelor party weekend.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
5.21.2009
A Night of Almost and Back to Normal
I was ready to play some more and after eating some supper decided to go to Harrah's to catch a little of the final table and play some 2/5. I wish I would have just stayed home and watched the weird dude on American Idol. I'm pretty happy I'm not addicted to any television shows. The last show I was addicted to and never missed a new episode was the Sopranos. It was a sad day when that show ended....how can a mob show/movie end without the boss dying? It was the whole reason for the crappy Godfather III movie.
Anyway, I showed up to Harrah's and walked into the theatre and the winner was taking photos with alligator head and all that good stuff. No clue who the winner was or if he was a player or not. I walked over to the poker room and was somewhat surprised. By all means it wasn't packed like it had been but they still had like five 1/2 games and about 7 limit games going too. Even had a list of interest for 2/5 PLO. Had one 5/10 and one 2/5 game going. I put my name on the list for the 2/5 and I was 6th on the list and after about 20 minutes they had 10 ppl on the list. After about 40 minutes the list was 12 and I was still 6th on the list. HMMMMMMMMMM maybe we should get another table going?? But no, the circuit is gone and now things are back to normal over there. Two dealers on break instead of one and a list of 12 players and no new game. I told myself I was going to watch the first half of the Cavs/Magic game and leave if i didn't get in....kept holding on that they would open a new table. Finally 9:15 rolled around and I had no interest in getting in a game that late and it looked like they had no intent to open a new table. I left without ever playing after being on the list for more than an hour and half. But I was proud of myself for not sitting in the 1/2 game.
I also got a text from Gene that the bad beat jackpot should have been hit on the 3/6 table but instead someone won like a $14 pot. Apparently someone started the hand with like $5 (beautiful!) and they would have hit the jackpot with quads over quads but they didn't have the $20 minimum in the pot!...HAHAHA How brutal would that be? No sir you and the table do not get to share the 138k b/c you're playing a game made for retards. Maybe it'll get hit the next time I'm playing.
Maybe this Friday I'll have a chance to hit it unless of course I'm on the list for 2 hours and decide to go home instead. Davey and I might be headed to the Beau for the 10k gtd. on Sunday. That's still up in the air but I wouldn't mind going play.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
Anyway, I showed up to Harrah's and walked into the theatre and the winner was taking photos with alligator head and all that good stuff. No clue who the winner was or if he was a player or not. I walked over to the poker room and was somewhat surprised. By all means it wasn't packed like it had been but they still had like five 1/2 games and about 7 limit games going too. Even had a list of interest for 2/5 PLO. Had one 5/10 and one 2/5 game going. I put my name on the list for the 2/5 and I was 6th on the list and after about 20 minutes they had 10 ppl on the list. After about 40 minutes the list was 12 and I was still 6th on the list. HMMMMMMMMMM maybe we should get another table going?? But no, the circuit is gone and now things are back to normal over there. Two dealers on break instead of one and a list of 12 players and no new game. I told myself I was going to watch the first half of the Cavs/Magic game and leave if i didn't get in....kept holding on that they would open a new table. Finally 9:15 rolled around and I had no interest in getting in a game that late and it looked like they had no intent to open a new table. I left without ever playing after being on the list for more than an hour and half. But I was proud of myself for not sitting in the 1/2 game.
I also got a text from Gene that the bad beat jackpot should have been hit on the 3/6 table but instead someone won like a $14 pot. Apparently someone started the hand with like $5 (beautiful!) and they would have hit the jackpot with quads over quads but they didn't have the $20 minimum in the pot!...HAHAHA How brutal would that be? No sir you and the table do not get to share the 138k b/c you're playing a game made for retards. Maybe it'll get hit the next time I'm playing.
Maybe this Friday I'll have a chance to hit it unless of course I'm on the list for 2 hours and decide to go home instead. Davey and I might be headed to the Beau for the 10k gtd. on Sunday. That's still up in the air but I wouldn't mind going play.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
5.19.2009
Pizza Makes Me Smarter?
The circuit is over for pretty much everyone now and it was nice to see so many ppl I know do well this go around. I'm guessing with the improved structures it helped out that better players made deeper runs more consistently. As far as my circuit, the most disappointing part was not being able to play more than one tournament. The upside was that I finished 5th in the one that I played. While the circuit was in town I did have some clarity about my own game and now I'm looking forward to playing some more soon. I have bitched about the 1/2 game and how I just can't beat it so I decided that I wasn't going to play it anymore. I got to Harrah's Saturday morning to play a satellite and then hopefully play the $500 at noon. Well I run like a crippled person in those things. I played one Friday night and got three handed and flopped two pair from the BB and the SB moved in on the flop and he had bottom pair. Don't worry, he got diamond diamond to make a flush. I was so damn sick by this, I just can't even remember when was the last time I got bailed out like that. The one Saturday morning didn't go well either. We see a flop in a raised pot like 5 handed and I flop bottom two pair. A ton action and I folded on the river when I could be nothing. Flush got there, four card straight, and all I could beat was one pair.
Well Friday night after I was done playing I ran into Bill who had just finished day one of the Friday $340 and eventually finished 12th. and I also hung out while Jacob was still in the PLO Rebuy tourney. They broke and me, him and Tim went back to Jacob's and I got stuck in the elevator. That was a shitty feeling. He was pretty freaked out as well as myself when the elevator wouldn't move and the door wouldn't open. Eventually the door opened and I was able to just take the stairs. The pizza was pretty damn good, I'd recommend ppl to try Pie if you get the chance. While we were hanging out eating pizza and bullshitting about just random stuff like sports betting and crazy poker rumors a light went off that it was stupid for me to be trying to beat that 1/2 game. We were talking about when a game plays deep you can play snug and tight and just wait for good hands and when you do make a move it's easier to get away with when everyone has $500+. Well now I was ready to play the 2/5 game and be comfortable in the game that built my bankroll.
After my satellite Saturday morning I went to the poker room and their was an open seat on a 2/5 game and the game didn't look crazy. Seemed like a good spot to get my feet wet again and not be thrown in the deep end right away. Well I sat down with $500 and just felt comfortable right away. Well then I had some bad luck and was just card dead and called some raises and missed and before I knew it was I was down like $250 and was about to put another $200 on the table (and I wish I would have). The pot got raised to like $20 and we saw the flop 4 ways and I flopped a flush with 4c5c on and Ace high board. Well I made the right bets the whole way was able to get a full double up through a guy who made two pair on the end. I was up after that hand and never went below my buy in after that. I played for at least 8 hours b/w getting up to go check on Bill and Jacob's day two and snagging a free buffet with Joe B. Yea you read that right, we had free buffets. The food was actually descent but that could be the fact that it was actually free and not the $30 or so they rob ppl of at full price. Well I was happy to turn a profit and the game had spells of being really bad and then really good. I don't know why locals do that shit when the circuit is going on. There was 3 locals on the table and they had a good bit of money on the table and then all of a sudden we get two new players who wanted a table change. Well they get to the table at the same time and start complaining about how tight the game is. Well genius, you saw the three of us at the table and you and your buddy got a table change and took the places of the ppl who were losing.
Well I got up from the table and left Harrah's to go hang out with CC who I hadn't seen in a few days and on the way home I saw something that completely freaked me out. As I'm exiting I-10 to Airline Hwy I see this huge tornado! Not sure how anyone can ever be prepared to see that. Well it looked like it was right there and I was hoping that it was on the Lake which it was but apparently it did come onto land for a few minutes. It was pretty impressive but still not something that makes it easy to go home and hope a tornado doesn't come.
Well I wanted to go back to play some more Saturday night and the plan was if I woke up at any point in the middle of the night then I was going to Harrah's and play. Well I didn't wake up till Sunday morning so needless to say I never made it back. I'm definitely ready to go play some more in the 2/5 game. So many things make that game better and IMO, easier. For example, I put about $80 in the pot on a draw that missed. Now if $40-60 is put in the pot for a draw in the 1/2 game and missed it takes a lot more hands to get that back. In the 2/5 game I missed the draw and then the next hand I picked up a limped pot and added $25 to my stack. Three hands later I raised to $20 and got two callers. C-bet the flop and with the blinds and limper that folded I picked $50 profit on the hand and the $80 lost on the draw was wiped away. Makes it a lot easier when you pick up limped pots in the 2/5 compared to the 1/2. I also did something that I haven't done outside of a tournament in a while and that's firing (sorry for the poker cliche') a three barrel bluff. I just knew the PFR was weak and raised on the flop with a gutshot draw only and he called, He check called the turn. And when he check the river I knew he couldn't call. It felt so good to fire that bluff with 5 high and know that he wouldn't call. The game just plays so much better with more money on the table and I've always done better when the stakes are deep. I'm ready to go play some more and get on an over due rush.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
Well Friday night after I was done playing I ran into Bill who had just finished day one of the Friday $340 and eventually finished 12th. and I also hung out while Jacob was still in the PLO Rebuy tourney. They broke and me, him and Tim went back to Jacob's and I got stuck in the elevator. That was a shitty feeling. He was pretty freaked out as well as myself when the elevator wouldn't move and the door wouldn't open. Eventually the door opened and I was able to just take the stairs. The pizza was pretty damn good, I'd recommend ppl to try Pie if you get the chance. While we were hanging out eating pizza and bullshitting about just random stuff like sports betting and crazy poker rumors a light went off that it was stupid for me to be trying to beat that 1/2 game. We were talking about when a game plays deep you can play snug and tight and just wait for good hands and when you do make a move it's easier to get away with when everyone has $500+. Well now I was ready to play the 2/5 game and be comfortable in the game that built my bankroll.
After my satellite Saturday morning I went to the poker room and their was an open seat on a 2/5 game and the game didn't look crazy. Seemed like a good spot to get my feet wet again and not be thrown in the deep end right away. Well I sat down with $500 and just felt comfortable right away. Well then I had some bad luck and was just card dead and called some raises and missed and before I knew it was I was down like $250 and was about to put another $200 on the table (and I wish I would have). The pot got raised to like $20 and we saw the flop 4 ways and I flopped a flush with 4c5c on and Ace high board. Well I made the right bets the whole way was able to get a full double up through a guy who made two pair on the end. I was up after that hand and never went below my buy in after that. I played for at least 8 hours b/w getting up to go check on Bill and Jacob's day two and snagging a free buffet with Joe B. Yea you read that right, we had free buffets. The food was actually descent but that could be the fact that it was actually free and not the $30 or so they rob ppl of at full price. Well I was happy to turn a profit and the game had spells of being really bad and then really good. I don't know why locals do that shit when the circuit is going on. There was 3 locals on the table and they had a good bit of money on the table and then all of a sudden we get two new players who wanted a table change. Well they get to the table at the same time and start complaining about how tight the game is. Well genius, you saw the three of us at the table and you and your buddy got a table change and took the places of the ppl who were losing.
Well I got up from the table and left Harrah's to go hang out with CC who I hadn't seen in a few days and on the way home I saw something that completely freaked me out. As I'm exiting I-10 to Airline Hwy I see this huge tornado! Not sure how anyone can ever be prepared to see that. Well it looked like it was right there and I was hoping that it was on the Lake which it was but apparently it did come onto land for a few minutes. It was pretty impressive but still not something that makes it easy to go home and hope a tornado doesn't come.
Well I wanted to go back to play some more Saturday night and the plan was if I woke up at any point in the middle of the night then I was going to Harrah's and play. Well I didn't wake up till Sunday morning so needless to say I never made it back. I'm definitely ready to go play some more in the 2/5 game. So many things make that game better and IMO, easier. For example, I put about $80 in the pot on a draw that missed. Now if $40-60 is put in the pot for a draw in the 1/2 game and missed it takes a lot more hands to get that back. In the 2/5 game I missed the draw and then the next hand I picked up a limped pot and added $25 to my stack. Three hands later I raised to $20 and got two callers. C-bet the flop and with the blinds and limper that folded I picked $50 profit on the hand and the $80 lost on the draw was wiped away. Makes it a lot easier when you pick up limped pots in the 2/5 compared to the 1/2. I also did something that I haven't done outside of a tournament in a while and that's firing (sorry for the poker cliche') a three barrel bluff. I just knew the PFR was weak and raised on the flop with a gutshot draw only and he called, He check called the turn. And when he check the river I knew he couldn't call. It felt so good to fire that bluff with 5 high and know that he wouldn't call. The game just plays so much better with more money on the table and I've always done better when the stakes are deep. I'm ready to go play some more and get on an over due rush.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
5.15.2009
Seriously Getting Old
So in my attempt to play cash games sessions in order to save some money on buy ins in the tournaments my results have not been successful. I have played 3 cash sessions since last Friday and only booked one winner. That winner being last Friday and a small one. I played Wednesday night and just get my ass handed to me by the shuffle master. I was in for 1.25 buy ins and just couldn't beat the deck. I've tried to play this 1/2 bullshit game so many different ways and I'm coming to conclusion that I just can not beat this game. I consistently beat 2/5 games for years and then beat 5/10 games and then got bored with poker altogether and just stopped playing a while. Since playing on a regular basis again I have still not fully adjusted to this game, or maybe I'm just not having very good luck...I'd like to think it's the luck thing and the hands I'm losing with would imply bad luck but it's also pretty difficult to believe that I'm always unlucky. Wednesday night the game I was in was soft and I approached it with full intention of opening a lot of pots with any two cards and staying involved and not allowing the table to just limp fest and who ever hits the flop wins. I DEFINITELY DON'T RUN THAT WELL!
I have tried to stay positive and I think I have been doing a pretty good job with that. I think you have to when playing tournaments considering you can't reload. But in the cash games it's just getting retarded. It is absolutely impossible to win without hitting draws. And when you can't hit those hidden hands with so much implied odds it's completely frustrating. Wednesday and Thursday night on 5 that's F-I-V-E..one, two, three, four, 5th! times I actually called the flop either floating or with a one draw and picking up an additional 8+ outs on the turn and completely missing every single one of them in a situation where no doubt the other guy would have put as much money in the pot as possible. The biggest pots won are usually the ones where you come from behind. I battled my ass off Wednesday night and the only reason I was treading water was b/c I was making plays. Whenever I did make a strong hand I managed to lose. I folded two pair when the flush gets there and I was beat and then a little while I have top two and and the flush gets there but ppl can't have the flush every single time....XXXXXXXXXXX wrong answer, they most certainly can and those chances are greatly improved when I'm sitting across the table from them. I straddle and raise with QQ and a guy flops a straight with two clubs. Turn is the Q of clubs (of course) and the river is the fourth club....talk about never having a chance to win that hand....poker gods were laughing about that one while it was going on.
I flop two pair from the SB with 2,5 in an unraised pot and get A,Q to put all of their money in the pot ($200+) with one card to come on an Ace high board and of course the board pairs 4's and he wins...did I mention that I also picked up a flush draw on the turn to go with my two pair! It just seems like every time I get up a couple hundred or battle back to even there's always a big pot that someone gets bailed out on. This shit is just getting really old and I'm tired of bitching about it and I'd just like to run like a normal person for a little while. I don't need to get run over by the deck but I'd be thrilled if I could hit my flush or striaght just 20% ofthe time. Overall I've seen some really bad players just winning pot after pot and not acknowledge the fact that they are getting smacked in the face with the deck. Hell I'd love to say that I couldn't lose hands if I tried or that I misplayed hands and still won.
I'm not the only one that's feeling frustrated, I'm sure they have a lot ppl out there that are experiencing the same thing....problem is that most of those people prolly play bad anyway. I actually got involved in one of the dumbest conversations I've ever had at the poker table last night and it caused me to leave while I was stuck a little bit when I could have stayed and prolly got back even. Now I almost never and I mean NEVER engage in strategy conversation or proper play conversation when the table is having an open discussion and giving all their expert post game commentary but last night I fell victim and couldn't keep my mouth shut and had to let this guy know how dumb he was. Guy opens for $25 and I call and girl behind me calls and then then utg (douche bag) calls leaving himself with $50 left. Flop came A high and I check, girl bets $30, douche bag folds and the other guy raises all in and the girl calls. Of course they both have AK and the douche bag had A,8 and would have got there on the turn but instead he put 1/3 of stack in with A,8 suited..flopped an ace and folded. Starts bitching b/c he would have won and then starts talking about his pot odds to call preflop. I got tired of hearing of him and asked if had any idea what pot odds actually means (good gawd that was a bad decision). I basically had to give him and the table an entire lesson why he played the hand like an idiot....you know what, I'm not talking about this anymore...I'm getting annoyed just thinking about how retarded this guy was, I'm pretty sure he needs velcro shoes and and helmet to function daily.
I basically came to the conclusion that I can not beat that game b/c the people have zero clue about the concept of the game. Bad players are supposed to be easy to beat but maybe they are just a little too bad. Maybe I fare better against the player that can actually make sense of situations and has a clue.
Davey had a tough run last night. I'm pretty disgusted just talking about it but I'm sure he won't post about it b/c it's pretty gross. He played the 1k and played well. Withstood some beats and then had some upswings...I'm not sure how many ppl were left but I think about 5o or so and he got one guy all in preflop and and the other person shipped it on him on the flop and he called. Well he had the best hand until the person who moved in on the flop hit a gut shot to make a wheel. He would have had a more than double the average stack. Well he nursed his stack caused by that bad beat for what seemed like a couple hours. Just maintaining enough to where he wasn't forced to move all in. Well he finally had his chance to get back healthy when when he moved in with A,J and some one actually folded 6,6 preflop and then he got called by Ah,6h. Flop came A high and he was dodging one of the two sixes left in the deck and would have been back to around 50k with blinds 600/1200. Well of course it came heart on the turn and heart on the river he was busted with under 50 players left. That is absolutely sick. The gut shot to cripple and then runner runner heart to bust him. I'm not sure how to avoid these situations but if we ever figured it out it would be tough to lose. It's just impossible to win when those hands aren't holding up. It stirs the debate of what's the point to get it in good, it doesn't really solve anything or make me feel any better. I'd rather say I got lucky and smile that someone else got the misery that I've dealt with routinely.
Anyway, I'm done with the venting...hopefully this post was therapeutic for me and all the negative shit is out of my system and I can go play with a clear head. I do feel better now that I'm done with "poor me post"...Congrats to Bill for a chop in the second chance the other night. I'm going win that 9pm tourney tonight. Hopefully I get it in bad with someone who thinks the poker gods are against them and I drill them with my "bad play". Good luck to everyone headed out there this weekend. I really am in a great mood now that I'm done with this.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
I have tried to stay positive and I think I have been doing a pretty good job with that. I think you have to when playing tournaments considering you can't reload. But in the cash games it's just getting retarded. It is absolutely impossible to win without hitting draws. And when you can't hit those hidden hands with so much implied odds it's completely frustrating. Wednesday and Thursday night on 5 that's F-I-V-E..one, two, three, four, 5th! times I actually called the flop either floating or with a one draw and picking up an additional 8+ outs on the turn and completely missing every single one of them in a situation where no doubt the other guy would have put as much money in the pot as possible. The biggest pots won are usually the ones where you come from behind. I battled my ass off Wednesday night and the only reason I was treading water was b/c I was making plays. Whenever I did make a strong hand I managed to lose. I folded two pair when the flush gets there and I was beat and then a little while I have top two and and the flush gets there but ppl can't have the flush every single time....XXXXXXXXXXX wrong answer, they most certainly can and those chances are greatly improved when I'm sitting across the table from them. I straddle and raise with QQ and a guy flops a straight with two clubs. Turn is the Q of clubs (of course) and the river is the fourth club....talk about never having a chance to win that hand....poker gods were laughing about that one while it was going on.
I flop two pair from the SB with 2,5 in an unraised pot and get A,Q to put all of their money in the pot ($200+) with one card to come on an Ace high board and of course the board pairs 4's and he wins...did I mention that I also picked up a flush draw on the turn to go with my two pair! It just seems like every time I get up a couple hundred or battle back to even there's always a big pot that someone gets bailed out on. This shit is just getting really old and I'm tired of bitching about it and I'd just like to run like a normal person for a little while. I don't need to get run over by the deck but I'd be thrilled if I could hit my flush or striaght just 20% ofthe time. Overall I've seen some really bad players just winning pot after pot and not acknowledge the fact that they are getting smacked in the face with the deck. Hell I'd love to say that I couldn't lose hands if I tried or that I misplayed hands and still won.
I'm not the only one that's feeling frustrated, I'm sure they have a lot ppl out there that are experiencing the same thing....problem is that most of those people prolly play bad anyway. I actually got involved in one of the dumbest conversations I've ever had at the poker table last night and it caused me to leave while I was stuck a little bit when I could have stayed and prolly got back even. Now I almost never and I mean NEVER engage in strategy conversation or proper play conversation when the table is having an open discussion and giving all their expert post game commentary but last night I fell victim and couldn't keep my mouth shut and had to let this guy know how dumb he was. Guy opens for $25 and I call and girl behind me calls and then then utg (douche bag) calls leaving himself with $50 left. Flop came A high and I check, girl bets $30, douche bag folds and the other guy raises all in and the girl calls. Of course they both have AK and the douche bag had A,8 and would have got there on the turn but instead he put 1/3 of stack in with A,8 suited..flopped an ace and folded. Starts bitching b/c he would have won and then starts talking about his pot odds to call preflop. I got tired of hearing of him and asked if had any idea what pot odds actually means (good gawd that was a bad decision). I basically had to give him and the table an entire lesson why he played the hand like an idiot....you know what, I'm not talking about this anymore...I'm getting annoyed just thinking about how retarded this guy was, I'm pretty sure he needs velcro shoes and and helmet to function daily.
I basically came to the conclusion that I can not beat that game b/c the people have zero clue about the concept of the game. Bad players are supposed to be easy to beat but maybe they are just a little too bad. Maybe I fare better against the player that can actually make sense of situations and has a clue.
Davey had a tough run last night. I'm pretty disgusted just talking about it but I'm sure he won't post about it b/c it's pretty gross. He played the 1k and played well. Withstood some beats and then had some upswings...I'm not sure how many ppl were left but I think about 5o or so and he got one guy all in preflop and and the other person shipped it on him on the flop and he called. Well he had the best hand until the person who moved in on the flop hit a gut shot to make a wheel. He would have had a more than double the average stack. Well he nursed his stack caused by that bad beat for what seemed like a couple hours. Just maintaining enough to where he wasn't forced to move all in. Well he finally had his chance to get back healthy when when he moved in with A,J and some one actually folded 6,6 preflop and then he got called by Ah,6h. Flop came A high and he was dodging one of the two sixes left in the deck and would have been back to around 50k with blinds 600/1200. Well of course it came heart on the turn and heart on the river he was busted with under 50 players left. That is absolutely sick. The gut shot to cripple and then runner runner heart to bust him. I'm not sure how to avoid these situations but if we ever figured it out it would be tough to lose. It's just impossible to win when those hands aren't holding up. It stirs the debate of what's the point to get it in good, it doesn't really solve anything or make me feel any better. I'd rather say I got lucky and smile that someone else got the misery that I've dealt with routinely.
Anyway, I'm done with the venting...hopefully this post was therapeutic for me and all the negative shit is out of my system and I can go play with a clear head. I do feel better now that I'm done with "poor me post"...Congrats to Bill for a chop in the second chance the other night. I'm going win that 9pm tourney tonight. Hopefully I get it in bad with someone who thinks the poker gods are against them and I drill them with my "bad play". Good luck to everyone headed out there this weekend. I really am in a great mood now that I'm done with this.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
5.12.2009
A 5th Place Finish
So we started back day two of Event #6 with 18 players and I was pretty comfortable with my stack and chances to make the final table. I had great table draws for the entire tournament with never having anyone at the table with a massive stack and always having one of the larger stacks at my table throughout the tournament. When play resumed I picked up right where I left off and was lucky that my table was made up of all people that I had played with on day one. I never really got played back at and I never got called with marginal hands. Heard a lot from the other players when they folded to my raises that they were gonna let me have it and pick a better spot. My image was pretty close to the vest which allowed me to do a number of things such as raising utg with any two cards or three betting and getting virtually no resistance with that. Although ppl saw me as only playing good hands I made it clear that my BB was not to be a target and I defended it a good bit with the exception of maybe two players b/c these guys weren't raising with anything other than top 5 hands.
With about 14 players left I took a pretty big dent when I opened with AcQc utg+1 and one of the two super tight players moves in and it cost less than a complete reraise and I KNOW I'm behind. I call and he has AK and I actually turn a flush draw and whiff. I don't get flustered and just know that I will be able to accumulate unless our table gets wide open for some reason but I know that's not gonna happened. I make a raise or two and win a couple and lose a couple blinds and then one of the most important hands of my tourney came up while I was in the BB. The guy who was in the 9 seat and wasn't really that great of a player but was able to maintain his chip stack for the most part but I definitely had him on a wide range of raising hands ESPECIALLY from the button (he was "that guy"when he was on the button). Well he raises to 13k when the blinds were 3k/6k and I look down at 6,3 of hearts and start contemplating the situation. With him having a wide range I figured it was time to gamble and with 62k to start the hand I call with full intention of making a play at the pot NO MATTER WHAT FLOPS. There is a certain point in tourneys where you're not just taking flops but have to go into every hand with full intention of doing whatever it takes to win the pot. I call the raise and the flop comes 5,7,8 two clubs. I don't like moving all in b/c although it may be complete b.s. I just feel that ppl are more inclined to call thin when someone moves all in rather than making a bet. I bet 24k and he sets me all in and I call. He has Ac,Qc and I'm open ended with two live cards. Turn is a 6 and river a 3 and I double through. And like I have my own P.R. guy at the table the 8 seat tells the guy who just lost "I thought everyone realized by now not to mess with his blind"...I thought it was a little out of line but nonetheless was to the point and I didn't mind.
I had to hear this guy cry about me calling him with 6,3 preflop for a while. Some people just don't get it at all. It didn't matter what I had and he just couldn't comprehend that I wasn't folding any hand there. I don't know where the thought came from like it's against the rules to call with "not good" hands...ppl are just so scared to play after the flop if they don't hit their hand....these are the same guys that would never have the balls to call with Ace high on the river. I eventually went with "I'm sorry sir, I just play really bad...and if you'd like to provide me with a list of hands that is acceptable to call your raises with I'd be happy keep that in mind"....he kinda smirked and we moved on. It was nice b/c I eventually busted him when we were at the final table and he had JJ and I called his AIPF with AK. It even felt better to hit the Ace on the turn.
I lost a shitty hand to the eventual winner and doubled him up. This guy was a good player and he pretty much just had situations where the cards played themselves. I was utg with 88 and completely got lazy and didn't realize the blinds had gone up to 6k,12k and I made a minraise. The SB (who came to the final table with over 230k was not good....he just hemorrhaged like 100k limping and calling)...well he called my minraise and the BB moved all in. The pot was huge and I had moved all in over the top and the BB had 99 vs. my 88 and he held up and never really looked back after that. I made a comeback after that when I doubled after getting it in bad with A,5 vs. A,Q and hit a 5. The eventual winner picked up some good hands in key spots including busting a fellow GCP'er when Kai overplayed his A,10 and the other guy had 10,10 and it held. Kai was pretty disgusted with himself for playing it that fast. I eventually got it all in when the button raised with rags and I had 55. I moved in and he was somewhat embarrassed about his hand but he was in great shape. He had j,7 and the flop came paired over my fives and then turn gave him a gut shot. I was dodging half the deck and he hit his gut shot and I was out in 5th.
It was a good run and I had a great time but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed that I didn't win. I stayed relatively emotionless throughout the tourney which is tough and I've always said that I refuse to blind away in a tourney and stayed true to that and tried to pick my spots. Before the final table I only called one river bet and lost. Was only all in three times in the entire tourney and twice at the final table and obviously I only lost one of those. It would have been nice to get a ring, but it was nice to hear congratulations and have friends out there sweating me. Davey was also running pretty well in the nooner and me being on the stage and he being on the floor I could keep an eye on his table while I was at mine. He had a tough end to his night but he did cash so that's at least a positive. And it meant some more money won by some Houma boys as we've had a strong showing thus far. Not sure when I'm gonna play again. Might go play some cash game tonight or Wednesday and then prolly play the $500 on Saturday.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
With about 14 players left I took a pretty big dent when I opened with AcQc utg+1 and one of the two super tight players moves in and it cost less than a complete reraise and I KNOW I'm behind. I call and he has AK and I actually turn a flush draw and whiff. I don't get flustered and just know that I will be able to accumulate unless our table gets wide open for some reason but I know that's not gonna happened. I make a raise or two and win a couple and lose a couple blinds and then one of the most important hands of my tourney came up while I was in the BB. The guy who was in the 9 seat and wasn't really that great of a player but was able to maintain his chip stack for the most part but I definitely had him on a wide range of raising hands ESPECIALLY from the button (he was "that guy"when he was on the button). Well he raises to 13k when the blinds were 3k/6k and I look down at 6,3 of hearts and start contemplating the situation. With him having a wide range I figured it was time to gamble and with 62k to start the hand I call with full intention of making a play at the pot NO MATTER WHAT FLOPS. There is a certain point in tourneys where you're not just taking flops but have to go into every hand with full intention of doing whatever it takes to win the pot. I call the raise and the flop comes 5,7,8 two clubs. I don't like moving all in b/c although it may be complete b.s. I just feel that ppl are more inclined to call thin when someone moves all in rather than making a bet. I bet 24k and he sets me all in and I call. He has Ac,Qc and I'm open ended with two live cards. Turn is a 6 and river a 3 and I double through. And like I have my own P.R. guy at the table the 8 seat tells the guy who just lost "I thought everyone realized by now not to mess with his blind"...I thought it was a little out of line but nonetheless was to the point and I didn't mind.
I had to hear this guy cry about me calling him with 6,3 preflop for a while. Some people just don't get it at all. It didn't matter what I had and he just couldn't comprehend that I wasn't folding any hand there. I don't know where the thought came from like it's against the rules to call with "not good" hands...ppl are just so scared to play after the flop if they don't hit their hand....these are the same guys that would never have the balls to call with Ace high on the river. I eventually went with "I'm sorry sir, I just play really bad...and if you'd like to provide me with a list of hands that is acceptable to call your raises with I'd be happy keep that in mind"....he kinda smirked and we moved on. It was nice b/c I eventually busted him when we were at the final table and he had JJ and I called his AIPF with AK. It even felt better to hit the Ace on the turn.
I lost a shitty hand to the eventual winner and doubled him up. This guy was a good player and he pretty much just had situations where the cards played themselves. I was utg with 88 and completely got lazy and didn't realize the blinds had gone up to 6k,12k and I made a minraise. The SB (who came to the final table with over 230k was not good....he just hemorrhaged like 100k limping and calling)...well he called my minraise and the BB moved all in. The pot was huge and I had moved all in over the top and the BB had 99 vs. my 88 and he held up and never really looked back after that. I made a comeback after that when I doubled after getting it in bad with A,5 vs. A,Q and hit a 5. The eventual winner picked up some good hands in key spots including busting a fellow GCP'er when Kai overplayed his A,10 and the other guy had 10,10 and it held. Kai was pretty disgusted with himself for playing it that fast. I eventually got it all in when the button raised with rags and I had 55. I moved in and he was somewhat embarrassed about his hand but he was in great shape. He had j,7 and the flop came paired over my fives and then turn gave him a gut shot. I was dodging half the deck and he hit his gut shot and I was out in 5th.
It was a good run and I had a great time but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed that I didn't win. I stayed relatively emotionless throughout the tourney which is tough and I've always said that I refuse to blind away in a tourney and stayed true to that and tried to pick my spots. Before the final table I only called one river bet and lost. Was only all in three times in the entire tourney and twice at the final table and obviously I only lost one of those. It would have been nice to get a ring, but it was nice to hear congratulations and have friends out there sweating me. Davey was also running pretty well in the nooner and me being on the stage and he being on the floor I could keep an eye on his table while I was at mine. He had a tough end to his night but he did cash so that's at least a positive. And it meant some more money won by some Houma boys as we've had a strong showing thus far. Not sure when I'm gonna play again. Might go play some cash game tonight or Wednesday and then prolly play the $500 on Saturday.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
5.11.2009
Down to 18
The plan worked out pretty well Sunday and I hung out with CC, got some sun and was ready to play the $340 Event #6. It a was pretty uneventful start and by the first break I was down to 3400 in chips and got at as low as 2700 and didn't sweat it at all. Had some bad luck but managed to stay afloat and pick some spots. With about 50+ players I was stuck around the 34k chip mark and then started to assert myself more and chipped up fairly well. We played with 32 ppl for what seemed like forever and when we made it to 27 ppl and redrew seats, it was very little doubt I was gonna cash at that point. Never really got any action on any big pairs I had the whole night. I only called one river bet and lost (the first level) and I was only all in for my tourney life once as well (4th level). We played to the money and I'm sitting on 75k in chips. I'm ready to play and we'll just have to see what happens from here.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
5.10.2009
Do They Really Listen?
I must say I'm pretty pumped about the circuit right now. They had a huge turn out for the first event and some ppl I know ran deep...which always makes me a little more excited about going play for some reason. Some Houma guys did well in event one. Three top 20 finishes and one final table. Congrats to Jacob on his 9th place finish.
I was pretty pissed Friday. I was stuck at work and it seemed like EVERYONE I know was playing event #1. It definitely didn't help when I was traded texts with what seemed like 20 different ppl at the same time for updates while I was at work. I had a wedding party for one of my friends on Saturday afternoon so I knew playing Saturday was out of the question and I had some stuff to do Saturday morning in preparation for the party. Well the plan was to go ride by Harrah's when I got off of work if Davey had some chips and just go bull shit with him and take a look at the action. Well Davey busted before I got off of work and I came home to pack up and there was no way I was gonna head to Houma without going ride by Grandma's Harrah's house first. I get there it took 40 freaking minutes to park and I only went around the garage twice. After I parked it was great walking in there. Ran into a bunch of people I haven't' seen in a while and the poker room was packed. Had lists for every game and it almost looked like old times when the circuit would come to NOLA. The action seemed good but it's still not the same. There has definitely been a lack of big games at Harrah's over the last year or so. I think their might have been only two 5/10 games where it seems like there would be 5+ of those when the circuit used to come. Can't even remember when was the last time I saw a 10/25 game going. But nonetheless it was nice to see the room filled and lists with 20+ ppl on it.
I went walk around the tourney area and had my name on the list to play and after about 30 minutes of wait I got called and took my seat. Harrah's has all of a sudden seemed to slightly pull their head of their ass and lend a piece of it's ear to the players for the first time in maybe FOREVER! They did this a while back and stopped taking money out of your stack for the rake if you're not at the table. You get prorated if you leave on the push and come back. That's really cool, the Beau just takes it no matter what (but they're still the class of the Coast by all means). Harrah's has improved the structures and has everyone in a good mood about that. They also changed their buy in rules for the cash tables. On the 1/2 and 2/5 games it was capped or half the biggest stack. I've always felt if you're gonna cap a game then a person should be able to buy-in for at least the size of the biggest stack. Well low and behold they have changed this rule and now you can buy-in for the same as the big stack in the 1/2 and 2/5 games. Now if they change the straddle in the 1/2 to $5 instead of $4 that would be cool too. Well I sat in a game and it was a pretty good game with NO RISK at all. Had a couple interesting hands at the table. A guy in the 5 seat was pretty much a douche bag and he definitely slow rolled a guy and I gave him shit about that for pretty much the whole the time I was at the table. Board was 9 high and paired on the flop and it went checked. The turn was a back door club draw and he bet and got raised and called. The river was the 10 of clubs and he bet and a guy went all in behind for like $30 more and contemplated for a full minute. Now I thought he hit the river when he bet it considering he was playing scared but when he took that long to call that small raise when the pot had about $160 in it I was confused. Well he called and showed 10's full!! The other guy actually thought he won based on how long it took to get called and when he realized the guy took that long to call win a full house he was pretty pissed. I let a "WOW" and asked if was serious about taking that long? He said "I HAVE FOLDED FOR LESS IN BIGGER POTS, HE MIGHT HAVE HAD QUADS"....now this jerk off had over $600 in front of him and really took that long to call with the second nuts.
Well I had some fun him for a while and with the rest of the table for that matter. I made some hands but never won any big pots. Biggest pot of the night for me was when I flopped second pair on a 3 club board with 5,6 in a raised pot 3 handed. The flop went checked and the turn gave me opened ended. I thought I could take it down with a bet and was pretty sure if I got called on the turn that a river bet would take it down too if no club came...didn't think anyone was strong enough to call.....I put out $30 on the turn and it went call, call (oops). river card was my 5 and I made two pair with 3 clubs on board and four card straight. I was about 104384% sure I had the best hand but the key was to bet enough to get called here. I decided on $60 and the PFR folded and the kid who looked like he has never shaved contemplates with his $75 in front of him. I ask if he's gonna make me put the extra $15 in to pay him off and he says "yes" and turns over his q,10 for top pair. Sorry kid...no good but you can pick up a juice box on your way out...thanks for playing.
Well I called it a night at about 10pm and very very reluctantly left and headed to Houma. Saturday was a good day and got to hang out with some friends and gave the groom his gift from the groomsmen which was a pretty kick ass gift if you ask me. We got him a 42" LCD Samsung TV. He was pretty surprised and never expected to get that as his gift. After a long day of bar-b-q'in and hangin out in the sun I made it back to NOLA late Saturday night and wanted to rest before heading to Harrah's Sunday. Plan is to hang out and get some sun and enjoy the afternoon with CC and then go play the $300 at 5pm.
Watching Kill Bill right now and this is a bad ass movie. Much like all of Tarantino's movies. He actually has a war moving coming out in the fall named "Glorious Bastards" with Brad Pitt. It looks really cool. I really wish he would make a movie with Michael Madsen and John Travolta named the "vega brothers"...in Reservoir Dogs, Madsen's character is Vic Vega and Travolta is Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction. Tarantino never said they were brothers but it's a pretty cool coincidence and would most likely be a kick ass movie. Well I'm going to chill and get ready to go play later. Good luck to anyone playing the noon event.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
I was pretty pissed Friday. I was stuck at work and it seemed like EVERYONE I know was playing event #1. It definitely didn't help when I was traded texts with what seemed like 20 different ppl at the same time for updates while I was at work. I had a wedding party for one of my friends on Saturday afternoon so I knew playing Saturday was out of the question and I had some stuff to do Saturday morning in preparation for the party. Well the plan was to go ride by Harrah's when I got off of work if Davey had some chips and just go bull shit with him and take a look at the action. Well Davey busted before I got off of work and I came home to pack up and there was no way I was gonna head to Houma without going ride by Grandma's Harrah's house first. I get there it took 40 freaking minutes to park and I only went around the garage twice. After I parked it was great walking in there. Ran into a bunch of people I haven't' seen in a while and the poker room was packed. Had lists for every game and it almost looked like old times when the circuit would come to NOLA. The action seemed good but it's still not the same. There has definitely been a lack of big games at Harrah's over the last year or so. I think their might have been only two 5/10 games where it seems like there would be 5+ of those when the circuit used to come. Can't even remember when was the last time I saw a 10/25 game going. But nonetheless it was nice to see the room filled and lists with 20+ ppl on it.
I went walk around the tourney area and had my name on the list to play and after about 30 minutes of wait I got called and took my seat. Harrah's has all of a sudden seemed to slightly pull their head of their ass and lend a piece of it's ear to the players for the first time in maybe FOREVER! They did this a while back and stopped taking money out of your stack for the rake if you're not at the table. You get prorated if you leave on the push and come back. That's really cool, the Beau just takes it no matter what (but they're still the class of the Coast by all means). Harrah's has improved the structures and has everyone in a good mood about that. They also changed their buy in rules for the cash tables. On the 1/2 and 2/5 games it was capped or half the biggest stack. I've always felt if you're gonna cap a game then a person should be able to buy-in for at least the size of the biggest stack. Well low and behold they have changed this rule and now you can buy-in for the same as the big stack in the 1/2 and 2/5 games. Now if they change the straddle in the 1/2 to $5 instead of $4 that would be cool too. Well I sat in a game and it was a pretty good game with NO RISK at all. Had a couple interesting hands at the table. A guy in the 5 seat was pretty much a douche bag and he definitely slow rolled a guy and I gave him shit about that for pretty much the whole the time I was at the table. Board was 9 high and paired on the flop and it went checked. The turn was a back door club draw and he bet and got raised and called. The river was the 10 of clubs and he bet and a guy went all in behind for like $30 more and contemplated for a full minute. Now I thought he hit the river when he bet it considering he was playing scared but when he took that long to call that small raise when the pot had about $160 in it I was confused. Well he called and showed 10's full!! The other guy actually thought he won based on how long it took to get called and when he realized the guy took that long to call win a full house he was pretty pissed. I let a "WOW" and asked if was serious about taking that long? He said "I HAVE FOLDED FOR LESS IN BIGGER POTS, HE MIGHT HAVE HAD QUADS"....now this jerk off had over $600 in front of him and really took that long to call with the second nuts.
Well I had some fun him for a while and with the rest of the table for that matter. I made some hands but never won any big pots. Biggest pot of the night for me was when I flopped second pair on a 3 club board with 5,6 in a raised pot 3 handed. The flop went checked and the turn gave me opened ended. I thought I could take it down with a bet and was pretty sure if I got called on the turn that a river bet would take it down too if no club came...didn't think anyone was strong enough to call.....I put out $30 on the turn and it went call, call (oops). river card was my 5 and I made two pair with 3 clubs on board and four card straight. I was about 104384% sure I had the best hand but the key was to bet enough to get called here. I decided on $60 and the PFR folded and the kid who looked like he has never shaved contemplates with his $75 in front of him. I ask if he's gonna make me put the extra $15 in to pay him off and he says "yes" and turns over his q,10 for top pair. Sorry kid...no good but you can pick up a juice box on your way out...thanks for playing.
Well I called it a night at about 10pm and very very reluctantly left and headed to Houma. Saturday was a good day and got to hang out with some friends and gave the groom his gift from the groomsmen which was a pretty kick ass gift if you ask me. We got him a 42" LCD Samsung TV. He was pretty surprised and never expected to get that as his gift. After a long day of bar-b-q'in and hangin out in the sun I made it back to NOLA late Saturday night and wanted to rest before heading to Harrah's Sunday. Plan is to hang out and get some sun and enjoy the afternoon with CC and then go play the $300 at 5pm.
Watching Kill Bill right now and this is a bad ass movie. Much like all of Tarantino's movies. He actually has a war moving coming out in the fall named "Glorious Bastards" with Brad Pitt. It looks really cool. I really wish he would make a movie with Michael Madsen and John Travolta named the "vega brothers"...in Reservoir Dogs, Madsen's character is Vic Vega and Travolta is Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction. Tarantino never said they were brothers but it's a pretty cool coincidence and would most likely be a kick ass movie. Well I'm going to chill and get ready to go play later. Good luck to anyone playing the noon event.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
4.27.2009
I Definitely Crossed the Line This Time
After a loooooong weekend I feel like I could use a nap. Had a lot going for my first weekend in quite a while of not having anything to do...not sure if that makes sense. After what seems like an entirely too busy past couple months my girlfriend a.k.a. CC and I had very little calendar obligations this past weekend. Only thing that had to be done was traveling to the NorthShore for one her client's crawfish boil. Friday while just hanging out at the house and contemplating logging onto Stars or some other form of entertainment I suddenly got the itch to head to Harrah's and play some poker. Figured with Jazz Fest weekend, the Hornets playoff game, and the Zurich Classic going on it could be a good weekend. This is also a good time of the year to run into bachelor party ppl who dominate their home game in Ohio. Saturday was the draft and the Hornets game and I heard something on the radio this morning that was pretty interesting. Apparently the NFL draft dominated the NBA playoffs in TV ratings. Guess that's proof NFL is king. It was a pretty good weekend to be a sports fan and have a tv. Draft, bball playoffs, the Red Sox SWEEPING the Yankees (I HATE THE YANKEES!), Talladega Race (I'm not a big nascar fan but I know this race always has a ton of crashes and I'm not sure why else anyone would watch). Might have had some soccer on tv too...we'll have to hope Bill provides us with some insight to that!..haha
I was ok with the Saints draft. Really happy they didn't take Beanie Wells even though Malcom Jenkins isn't as fast as people thought he was. Mel Kiper rated the Saints draft as a "C" and I think that's fair for the most part. The Hornets squeaked out a win Saturday afternoon after trying to lose the game and still have yet to score more than 95 points in a game this series.
Saturday evening went eat at Tommy's on Tchoupitoulous with some friends and that was ok. I've eaten there a few times and I think I'm done with this restaurant. The food is somewhat mediocre and the service is ok for the most part. If you do find yourself going eat there I'd recommend just doing just doing drinks and ordering this $50 appetizer they have that has bunch of different food. This was pretty damn good but I barely ate half my main course. Our waiter wasn't exactly trying to win a big tip. We had five people so by default he was going to get an ok tip b/c we had some split bills. I am definitely one of those people that tip on service...I could careless you work for tips and I'm supposed to tip x% based off of what "they" say. I will no tip if the server is deserving and I'll tip 50% without thinking twice if the service is there. Me and CC showed up late and met the other three people who were enjoying a bottle of wine and hanging out and the waiter came and said hi and brought us menus and didn't ask if we wanted a glass for wine or anything else to drink. I then asked him for a glass of Makers Mark and he said ok and showed up 15 minutes later with it like he just saved the day or something. I had to ask for another drink (WHICH I HATE!)...you're a waiter, you serve people..you brought them the drink you see the glass is now empty you know they can't just go fix it themselves and being someone who wants to provide great service you should notice that person might want something else to drink??? So I asked for my second drink. Well after the meal he brought the check and my bill was like $55 or something and I was paying cash. I gave him $80 and when he finally made it back with the receipts for people to sign he asked if I needed change...no dude, I tipped you $25 on my $55 bill b/c the service was awesome. First of all that's just rude on his part, bring back the change and the person will leave you what they want to leave...I'm pretty sure that's the way they've been doing this tipping thing since forever. I tell him yes I need change and he brings me back the $20 bill I gave him and whatever else was the change. Now normally I would hit him with the dumb ass tax and only tip the $5. Someone tells you they need change I would bring them back maybe a $10 and 10 $1's or something like that or 10 and two 5's. Well on the third time he brought me back two tens. Gawd I hate dumb waiter/waitresses, but then again when you bring people their food for a living obviously you're not the brightest person walking among us.
I went to the Zurich Classic Sunday afternoon with some friends and that was enjoyable. The weather was great, the sights were great, and ran into some people I haven't seen in a while. Wasn't really feeling up for going because I was really looking forward to being lazy Sunday but it ended up being a good day. After that was over I felt like reading a book and after watching David Grey's two part interview on Cardplayer about "the big game" and talking about the corporation vs. Andy Beal it got me really interested in reading Michael Craig's book The Professor, The Banker, and the Suicide King. Rode over to Borders Books and bought it and also bought a book that gets donated to one of the boys and girls shelters in the city (guess the cashier caught me at a good time and I felt like doing something nice). It's a pretty easy read and I've been wanted to read it for a while so I'll prolly knock that out over the next week or so.
Well I did manage to get some poker in as I mentioned earlier. Decided to venture off to Harrah's around 8:30 or so and expected to see a lot of action and I wasn't disappointed. Walked up to the poker room and they had about six 1/2 games and three 2/5 games but no 5/10 or 10/25 games. Not sure if they have been running these at all lately. Well as I walked around the room trying to find the best 1/2 game with the most money on the table I couldn't find one that looked really good and eventually all the open seats were locked up and now I was on the list and got called for a brand new game which I was not thrilled about. I put my name on the move list after I found a game that had good amount of money on the table. While waiting I ran into Joe B. and Matt and apparently Joe dresses Matt now due to the awesome plaid shirt Matt was wearing, wasn't quite as stylish as Joe's 1994 Tommy Hilfiger oxford but he was at least trying. The plan was to play 1/2 a while and then jump in the 2/5 game after picking up 3 or $400. Nice plan!
I get in the bad game for a few minutes and raise 4 of the first 6 hands and quickly realize it's gonna be hard to get this game jump started. I see more money on table seven and get a table change. Get moved and just really hit stride right when I sat down. No one seemed to be all that aggressive or skilled. Some pretty novice players and one guy who I've played with a few times and he plays snug and always manages to lose all his chips with hands you just don't' expect him to turn over. I'm not even sure how I won most of my money but I was up pretty quickly and continued to play pretty well. But as I've learned, it doesn't matter how well one plays...it's really hard to be the shufflemaster. I straddle and get A,10 and about 5 ppl limp and I let it live and we saw the flop. A,10,9...not bad for a straddle, or anytime for that matter. I bet out $20 and get minraised to $40 by a guy who only bets when he has a good hand. I decided to mess with him just to see how he would react to the play and reraise to $60. This confused like half the table b/c they couldn't understand why I didn't have to make it $80 (AND I'M NOT JOKING!)...He was somewhat thrown off and just called. I checked when the board paired nines and he followed along with that and I was pretty sure I didn't like this card. River was not and Ace or 10 which I thought I needed to win and I checked. He bet $40 and I knew I had to call and showed me his 9,10. Nice hand sir, not a whole lot I can do there. I then played AK like a fag and lost a relatively big pot and all my profit when I raised on the flop and some other guy shipped it with Qs,7s and made his flush on the river.
I knew that guy wasn't going anywhere with money in front of him...He was there to play and thought he was really good. He also gave congratulated himself on pots, think I saw a mini fist pump once on a $50 pot...yea, he was that guy. He was an over weight bald guy that was mid 50's with a silk Hawaiian style shirt that he thought we be a good idea to not button all the way or wear an undershirt. And don't forget about the pinky ring and man bracelet. Well I eventually got some money from him and double through when I hit my 10,8 gutshot. I then had one of my more memorable hands I've played and completely took advantage of the rule and a dumb player.
(Man this post is getting long)
Here's the hand. I'm dealt 9,7o and from the hi-jack after 4 ppl limp I make it $15 to go and get two callers (button and mp). Flop comes 9,5,3 and check to me and I bet $35 and get called by the button and the other guy folds. This is where it got interesting. Turn card paired the 5 and I start to cut out some chips and kinda try to stall to see what this guy is thinking (chances are he isn't thinking anything!) Well I don't know what he has but I think I might have the best hand. I cut out $65 and push it forward and then the guy says "I'm all in" for like $250 total. Now usually this is where I'd lean back in my chair and start to talk to him BUT I still haven't made my bet and with the chips in my hand I try to grab all them but I left $10 out there and pulled back the $55. Well this guy starts to scream that I can't do that and some other player starts agreeing (and we all know what I think of dumbasses who aren't in the hand talking about the ruling that doesn't affect them). Well the guy is telling me I crossed the line and that's my bet and other people start to point out that I crossed the line, and I tell the dealer to just call the floor because I never released all the $65. She knew the floor was going to rule in my favor but we called them over and I only lost $10 on the turn. I was really happy with myself for thinking quick and not releasing my chips when he acted prematurely. I found it humorous and the other guy was totally flustered. He even made the comment a few minutes later about no hard feelings man. I looked at him dead serious and told him "I'm not really worried if you have hard feelings about it anyway, It's not like I did anything wrong." Well I showed him a bluff about 15 minutes later and he got up from the table completely flustered.
The night was fun. I never did make it to the 2/5 game I was dead even at 3:30am and moved to another game when my table broke. I told myself I was going to play 30 more minutes and win some money. I sat down and picked up a little profit and called it a night at 4am. Joe and Matt were still grinding it out. I had fun and I look forward to playing this coming weekend, not sure if it's gonna be Friday or Saturday. Hopefully Bill quits dragging his feet and gets us some gear before the circuit starts so I have something to wear at final tables.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
I was ok with the Saints draft. Really happy they didn't take Beanie Wells even though Malcom Jenkins isn't as fast as people thought he was. Mel Kiper rated the Saints draft as a "C" and I think that's fair for the most part. The Hornets squeaked out a win Saturday afternoon after trying to lose the game and still have yet to score more than 95 points in a game this series.
Saturday evening went eat at Tommy's on Tchoupitoulous with some friends and that was ok. I've eaten there a few times and I think I'm done with this restaurant. The food is somewhat mediocre and the service is ok for the most part. If you do find yourself going eat there I'd recommend just doing just doing drinks and ordering this $50 appetizer they have that has bunch of different food. This was pretty damn good but I barely ate half my main course. Our waiter wasn't exactly trying to win a big tip. We had five people so by default he was going to get an ok tip b/c we had some split bills. I am definitely one of those people that tip on service...I could careless you work for tips and I'm supposed to tip x% based off of what "they" say. I will no tip if the server is deserving and I'll tip 50% without thinking twice if the service is there. Me and CC showed up late and met the other three people who were enjoying a bottle of wine and hanging out and the waiter came and said hi and brought us menus and didn't ask if we wanted a glass for wine or anything else to drink. I then asked him for a glass of Makers Mark and he said ok and showed up 15 minutes later with it like he just saved the day or something. I had to ask for another drink (WHICH I HATE!)...you're a waiter, you serve people..you brought them the drink you see the glass is now empty you know they can't just go fix it themselves and being someone who wants to provide great service you should notice that person might want something else to drink??? So I asked for my second drink. Well after the meal he brought the check and my bill was like $55 or something and I was paying cash. I gave him $80 and when he finally made it back with the receipts for people to sign he asked if I needed change...no dude, I tipped you $25 on my $55 bill b/c the service was awesome. First of all that's just rude on his part, bring back the change and the person will leave you what they want to leave...I'm pretty sure that's the way they've been doing this tipping thing since forever. I tell him yes I need change and he brings me back the $20 bill I gave him and whatever else was the change. Now normally I would hit him with the dumb ass tax and only tip the $5. Someone tells you they need change I would bring them back maybe a $10 and 10 $1's or something like that or 10 and two 5's. Well on the third time he brought me back two tens. Gawd I hate dumb waiter/waitresses, but then again when you bring people their food for a living obviously you're not the brightest person walking among us.
I went to the Zurich Classic Sunday afternoon with some friends and that was enjoyable. The weather was great, the sights were great, and ran into some people I haven't seen in a while. Wasn't really feeling up for going because I was really looking forward to being lazy Sunday but it ended up being a good day. After that was over I felt like reading a book and after watching David Grey's two part interview on Cardplayer about "the big game" and talking about the corporation vs. Andy Beal it got me really interested in reading Michael Craig's book The Professor, The Banker, and the Suicide King. Rode over to Borders Books and bought it and also bought a book that gets donated to one of the boys and girls shelters in the city (guess the cashier caught me at a good time and I felt like doing something nice). It's a pretty easy read and I've been wanted to read it for a while so I'll prolly knock that out over the next week or so.
Well I did manage to get some poker in as I mentioned earlier. Decided to venture off to Harrah's around 8:30 or so and expected to see a lot of action and I wasn't disappointed. Walked up to the poker room and they had about six 1/2 games and three 2/5 games but no 5/10 or 10/25 games. Not sure if they have been running these at all lately. Well as I walked around the room trying to find the best 1/2 game with the most money on the table I couldn't find one that looked really good and eventually all the open seats were locked up and now I was on the list and got called for a brand new game which I was not thrilled about. I put my name on the move list after I found a game that had good amount of money on the table. While waiting I ran into Joe B. and Matt and apparently Joe dresses Matt now due to the awesome plaid shirt Matt was wearing, wasn't quite as stylish as Joe's 1994 Tommy Hilfiger oxford but he was at least trying. The plan was to play 1/2 a while and then jump in the 2/5 game after picking up 3 or $400. Nice plan!
I get in the bad game for a few minutes and raise 4 of the first 6 hands and quickly realize it's gonna be hard to get this game jump started. I see more money on table seven and get a table change. Get moved and just really hit stride right when I sat down. No one seemed to be all that aggressive or skilled. Some pretty novice players and one guy who I've played with a few times and he plays snug and always manages to lose all his chips with hands you just don't' expect him to turn over. I'm not even sure how I won most of my money but I was up pretty quickly and continued to play pretty well. But as I've learned, it doesn't matter how well one plays...it's really hard to be the shufflemaster. I straddle and get A,10 and about 5 ppl limp and I let it live and we saw the flop. A,10,9...not bad for a straddle, or anytime for that matter. I bet out $20 and get minraised to $40 by a guy who only bets when he has a good hand. I decided to mess with him just to see how he would react to the play and reraise to $60. This confused like half the table b/c they couldn't understand why I didn't have to make it $80 (AND I'M NOT JOKING!)...He was somewhat thrown off and just called. I checked when the board paired nines and he followed along with that and I was pretty sure I didn't like this card. River was not and Ace or 10 which I thought I needed to win and I checked. He bet $40 and I knew I had to call and showed me his 9,10. Nice hand sir, not a whole lot I can do there. I then played AK like a fag and lost a relatively big pot and all my profit when I raised on the flop and some other guy shipped it with Qs,7s and made his flush on the river.
I knew that guy wasn't going anywhere with money in front of him...He was there to play and thought he was really good. He also gave congratulated himself on pots, think I saw a mini fist pump once on a $50 pot...yea, he was that guy. He was an over weight bald guy that was mid 50's with a silk Hawaiian style shirt that he thought we be a good idea to not button all the way or wear an undershirt. And don't forget about the pinky ring and man bracelet. Well I eventually got some money from him and double through when I hit my 10,8 gutshot. I then had one of my more memorable hands I've played and completely took advantage of the rule and a dumb player.
(Man this post is getting long)
Here's the hand. I'm dealt 9,7o and from the hi-jack after 4 ppl limp I make it $15 to go and get two callers (button and mp). Flop comes 9,5,3 and check to me and I bet $35 and get called by the button and the other guy folds. This is where it got interesting. Turn card paired the 5 and I start to cut out some chips and kinda try to stall to see what this guy is thinking (chances are he isn't thinking anything!) Well I don't know what he has but I think I might have the best hand. I cut out $65 and push it forward and then the guy says "I'm all in" for like $250 total. Now usually this is where I'd lean back in my chair and start to talk to him BUT I still haven't made my bet and with the chips in my hand I try to grab all them but I left $10 out there and pulled back the $55. Well this guy starts to scream that I can't do that and some other player starts agreeing (and we all know what I think of dumbasses who aren't in the hand talking about the ruling that doesn't affect them). Well the guy is telling me I crossed the line and that's my bet and other people start to point out that I crossed the line, and I tell the dealer to just call the floor because I never released all the $65. She knew the floor was going to rule in my favor but we called them over and I only lost $10 on the turn. I was really happy with myself for thinking quick and not releasing my chips when he acted prematurely. I found it humorous and the other guy was totally flustered. He even made the comment a few minutes later about no hard feelings man. I looked at him dead serious and told him "I'm not really worried if you have hard feelings about it anyway, It's not like I did anything wrong." Well I showed him a bluff about 15 minutes later and he got up from the table completely flustered.
The night was fun. I never did make it to the 2/5 game I was dead even at 3:30am and moved to another game when my table broke. I told myself I was going to play 30 more minutes and win some money. I sat down and picked up a little profit and called it a night at 4am. Joe and Matt were still grinding it out. I had fun and I look forward to playing this coming weekend, not sure if it's gonna be Friday or Saturday. Hopefully Bill quits dragging his feet and gets us some gear before the circuit starts so I have something to wear at final tables.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
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