Confusion on a Ruling

Well I know most people at this point have torn their bracket up moved on past the NCAA tourney unless of course you were one those people that picked UNC. Well Memphis got bounced and that eliminated me from my pool and a chance at cash, although in my other bracket challenge that I was head to head with SouthPawRounder our championship game was yesterday with UNC/OU b/c our final four and champion was the same except for him having OU and me UNC so now I have a free lunch when I get to Vegas in June. Saturday I boiled some crawfish and some friends over and after we were done eating and with a good bit of beer in us we decided we needed to go bowling. That was pretty fun and entertaining, bowling is definitely one of those things done better when drunk. Sunday was a weird day for me, I woke up and the weather was great and I definitely didn't wanna spend the day at home doing nothing. Being the good Catholic kid I am I woke up and went to Mass and then got some really sad news about a friend that I ride with in a carnival krewe. I received a text message saying that Bubba Dove was in automobile accident and was died on the scene. Just really unsettling news b/c he was a nice guy and was fun to hang out with the few months out of the year we had Mardi Gras parties. After a bunch of phone calls and texts messages from friends and the news kind of settled down I decided I really wanted to play live and NOT at Harrahs.

I hopped in the car and headed to the coast for some cash game action and a potential appearance in the $200 second chance tourney at 7pm. Well I got there and around 3:30 and went upstairs to see what was going on and ran into a few people I hadn't seen in a while and then went sit down and flopped the nuts on the first hand I played and broke a guy. After that I just pretty much maintained and was bouncing the idea back and forth if I wanted to play the second chance or not. While I was cashing out I ran into Jacob and he and I shot the shit for a while and went upstairs to sweat Clint at the final table from event 1. He and I ran into a bunch of familiar faces and talked to Reid for a few minutes while he was waiting for his dinner break to end. I opted to not play in the second chance for a couple reasons: one was that with about 10 minutes before 7 they only had like 30 players and two; was that I didn't know if I felt like driving back after that late after I won. My cash session wasn't that much to brag about but it was a win and got me really wanted to go play this week! I'm making plans and I'm pretty sure I'm going play cash Wednesday evening and I'm going play the Saturday tourney which should have a really big turn out.

One thing that had me confused was two rulings by the floor at the Beau, one was on my table and the other was on the 4/8 game next to us. I know they had a dealer that used to blog on GCP as well as a Tourney Director but I'm not sure if they check the site anymore. Well this is the situation and ruling on the 4/8 game:
The blinds are $1 and $2 in the game and a player wanted to straddle. The dealer didn't know how much the player had to straddle for b/c the bet is $8. (I'm still confused kinda). Anyway the dealer didn't know if the player should have to straddle for $4 or $8. The floor ruled the player should straddle for $4 and everyone has to call $8 to enter the pot. So based on this ruling the player who straddled can fold for $4 even if no one raises. This would make the straddle the dumbest play in the history of poker and makes the ruling one of the weirdest I've ever heard before. Please let me know if you know the proper ruling.

The second was in my cash game and once again I'm not sure if I agree with the ruling. This hand involves the 7 seat (playerA), 8 seat (PlayerB), and 3 seat (playerC), button is on the 4 seat:
After the flop: PlayerA checks, PlayerB bets $40, PlayerC calls as well as playerA.
Turn: PlayerA checks, PlayerB bets $100, PlayerC moves all-in for $130 toal PlayerA then attempts to raise to $200. The dealer tells him he can not raise that amount and pulls the raise back. This is the part that ANNOYS THE HELL OUT OF ME!! douchebag in the two seats starts talking to the guys next to him and they start questioning the dealer WHEN THEY ARE NOT INVOLVED IN THE HAND! (bit of advice, if you're not in the hand and it's not a pot/money issue then keep your mouth shut!) Regardless if I know I'm right or someone is wrong I refuse to make statements or anything that will affect someones money...it's the same as talking in a hand when you're not heads up. If the player has doubts he ask for a ruling not the dip shit who wears his sunglasses and hoodie and analyzing everyone's hand and watches entirely too much tv poker. Anyway, the floor is called and the floor rules that playerA can make it $200 b/c playerC did not make a full raise and all playerA is raising the original $100 bet. PlayerA put the $100 extra and PlayerB called. The river went check-check and PlayerA won the hand.
So my question is: Did the floor make the correct ruling? I can see how it would be the correct ruling and I could see an argument against $200 not being enough to count as a raise. And I could definitely see this being ruled differently in different poker rooms.

Well the plan is to head to the Beau Wednesday after work and win at least my buyin for Saturday's tourney. I really wish I had more time and could get away to play more tourneys the next two weeks. I might try to play a second chance or something the following week. Well good luck and safe travels to everyone heading to the Beau.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.

Appropriate...

I have a slogan or motto or whatever you wanna call it for PokerStars:

"PokerStars: making retarded people feel like a genius since 2001"

Multi-tabled two tourneys Sunday night and made it 30 from the money and keeping with the theme of usual...only one guy on the table had me covered. I reraise the cutoff with 10,10 and the big stack calls from the button and the flop is 8,8,8...I go bust and he had 10,8.

I cashed in the 6 handed tourney and took a crappy beat when i had about 24k in chips but the other guy had no choice but to move in and I got unlucky after flopping a set of queens. I then saw Stars put that motto to work a little while later. Button min raises to 2k, (sb is sitting out) and I move in for 14k more and he thinks about it forever and calls my A,Q with A,10....he had about 21k to start the hand. Flop is Q,J,8...9 on the turn and I was done. I aslo cashed in a tourney Saturday night when I couldn't fall asleep. So atleast I had some positive this weekend.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.

Obsession and Hooters

I guess the two things in the title can go hand and hand. I did what most guys with a pair do around this time of year and filled out my bracket and got ready to wonder if this was the year that I go perfect in the picks b/c after all, it looked pretty good once I was done. Well that dream ended when I pulled out my bracket to highlight the Texas A&M game and then to my complete surprise actually had BYU picked. No idea why I woulda done that and no clue that I actually did. I guess the upside to my mediocre 11-5 day was that all of my sweet 16 teams survived Thursday, but it's not looking for my side bet with SouthPawRounder. In the past before we head out to Vegas we usually end up having some type of competition where the loser has to buy lunch at the American Cafe in NY,NY Casino. Luckily for him this isn't a poker competition. Last time it was bowling and he didn't stand a chance, but this year he's got a pretty good lead going 15-1 on day one and the really shitty part is that our bracket's are pretty similar with the exception of the first round games that he managed to pick better than me.

It wasn't the easiest thing to stay focused at work except for being locked in on any and all scoring updates about the tourney. I guess it would be a lot cooler if my boss was a big sports fan but he's just pretty much a Saints fan. Not sure who listens to espn radio but I'm tuned in from 8-5 and anytime I get in my car. Colin Cowherd was going off about how brackets just make things better in life and how we become obsessed with picking winners in that format and said he could do a tournament of cereals and people would go nuts over that. Well he did and ppl did...they ranked 32 cereals and seeded them and people logged in to vote on the cereal with upsets and all. Frosted Flakes was the strong favorite and been steam rolling the other cereals. It was pretty interesting how many ppl actually voted on it and pretty funny at the same time.

Haven't played much poker this week, been trying to calm down before I break my computer. Before going to Hooters last night I multi-tabled some heads up sngs and won all 3 so that was nice. I have been playing on Full Tilt and PokerStars and I definitely think Stars is just a much better site, the tournament lobby is super easy to navigate compared to FTP and the game just moves so much faster on Stars. However it just feels like on Stars I'm playing against the software and not the other players. I don't know when I was actually a 4 to1 favorite with AA vs. KK. Last tourney I played was the $11 30k gtd and I was double the average with 12 away from the money and utg with KK and make a raise and get reraised from the cutoff and then I move in and of course he calls and has AA. It's getting completely ridiculous how many times I've ran into that. I was completely healthy and making the money was a given and then I was just staring at my computer screen with a blank face b/c I couldn't believe that I ran into that situation again!...all bullshit aside, in the 3 hours of play I witnessed KK vs. QQ 4 times at the same table!...I don't care that millions of hands are dealt out, that just insane to see that. But anyway, I don't mind playing heads up on full tilt but I just think things move way to slow in the tournaments. Well after my little victory in the sngs I headed to Hooters with two of my friends. We've been friends for a long time and been making Thursday night Hooters trips for a few months now. Wild Bill joined us to watch some basketball, talk about the new gcp logo that one of my friends who was there last night is helping design, and we shared some beers. Well we didn't really share our beers as much as we shared some pitchers of beer.

Not sure if any poker is gonna be played this weekend but I kind of have the itch to play somewhere. I know I'll prolly play online at some point over the weekend but been rattling around the idea of Harrah's. I really wish they would get a clue over there and do a weekend tourney. It doesn't haven't to be every weekend, but just do it like every other weekend...just something. If they did it at 11am on Saturday I don't think it could hurt anything and it would get people in the room early. After looking at the tournament schedule of events for the Harrah's circuit I'm really really really hoping they don't screw us over on the structures b/c they have some interesting tourneys with mixed events and a 6-handed event and a pot limit hold em event too. We'll just have to wait and see if Grandma Harrah's is gonna come through this time.
Till next time.
Keep It Real Homies.

Some Random Rants...

Well since mid February I have been running fairly descent but definitely not getting smoked in the head with the deck. Pretty much just standard and not making a lot of mistakes but since Saturday I have just been bitch slapped in every tourney I've played. Saturday was the tourney at the Beau which I felt even though I was unlucky I still felt ok about the way I played. Well Sunday was a totally different day! I had plans of hangin out and playing tourneys on PokerStars all day, well for the most part I did do that. Problem was that I played way more tournaments than I wanted to b/c I kept busting out. On the whole day I played 4 tournaments and 5 sngs. I managed to only lose $3 on the day that was impressive in it self. Busted from the first sng when I found AA with KK. Then played a tourney and was minding my own business and not really playing a lot of pots. I raised with 10c8c and got one caller, flopped a 10 and flush draw and bet and got called. Turn brought and 8!...I bet got raised, I three bet and we got it all in and I made my flush on the river b/c of course the board paired and he had 10's full!..I love busting like that! I then play another sng and on the second hand i have QQ and find KK and I'm done for that. Play the 6 max tourney and make it to the first break and then come back and lose half my stack with an all in preflop with my AK vs. A9 (he of course made a straight)..then I bust with 99 vs. 10,10. I then played two sngs and won one and finished second (finally something positive). That was short lived as I proceed to not even stand a chance in the next tournaments I played.

Decide to shrug it off and be happy that I kinda free rolled on the day. Sunday was the first time I've understood how ppl break their computers. That was first time the laptop almost went flying across the room with retarded beats I was taking. I can handle losing my chips on a bad bluff or a big call from someone but these are situations that I'm not/can't fold or get away from. I didn't play Monday night. I started reading Josh Hamilton's book....he's the guy who went nuts in the home run derby this past year...he was also the number draft pick out of high school in '99 and got 3.96 million signing bonus with Tampa Bay and then found himself doing a ton of drugs and blowing almost all his money. He was able to turn his life around and now he's in the majors again....pretty mind blowing story...pretty easy read too, I'm almost done with the book.

Tuesday I attempted to play. Played a sng and busted pretty quick. Davey was gonna buy some action on me in the $55 6-max but I declined and went run some errands with the girl and take a break from online and get ready to battle Wednesday night. Boy that was short lived too!...I played a sng waiting for the 6-max to start at 8:15 and the sng went just like I thought it would, TERRIBLE! I limp with A,10d and the big blind minraises...that's pretty dumb and I just couldn't see him doing that with anything good so I three bet and he minraises that and I move in and he snap calls 1200 more with KhQh. Flop is nothing, he turns a flush draw and you know how this one ends and I'm done. Play the 6-max and catch JJ four times in 20 minutes and 0-4 with it. One time I actually flopped a set on the button and it went, bet..raise, all-in for more than what I had. One guy had 8,9 for low end of straight, other guy QUEEN, QUEEN...for top set and the other guy had AK for the nuts....can't believe I actually folded that...oh yea, remember this is 6-handed!...this is kinda shit that makes you wonder about online poker. I then have Ad,9d and call a raise from the BB and the flop is q,j,10 two diamonds. I check-call an average bet and the turn brings an A to go with my straight and flush draw. The river is the jack of diamonds...he can't be full..XXXXXX, wrong answer..he most definitely is full. I bet and he raises all in and I call, drag your pot A,J. I then move all in for 500 with 9d,7d and get called by A,J and flop open ended and of course I miss the draw and I'm done.

I know this is a lot of bitching but not much else to do, I'd love to be saying how great I'm doing and how I cash in every tournament but that just ain't happening. The plan is to get back to battle Thursday night. Was watching American Idol, which I've basically concluded is the TV version of crack. Good gawd what kinda shit is Paula Abdaul on??..that bitch is tanked and I think if she ever actually completes a sentence I may fall out my chair. My stepbrother lives in LA and is an actor...he's also a magician which can appear lame but he does a lot of the David Blain stuff that he does walking around and all...I know they have a name for magic done right in front of ppl but I can't think of it.....anyway, he was hired to do that at a party in LA and he had an encounter with Ms. Abdaul where she was amazed by the magic and hanging on him and every other guy that talked to her...she could barely talk and almost couldn't stand up and was just an absolute idiot from what I gather. Anyway, that's my six degrees of separation for her.

After reading the Shannon Shorr blog and Shaniac's response I think I side more with Shaniac. I get what SS was saying but come on, give me a break. Poker is an industry..just like football, baseball, basketball, golf, etc... The people in charge want to brand their sport/competition. Poker is treated no different when the bottom line is profit, tv ratings, and any other thing that draws non-poker industries to the game. Lets just not be naive about where we all stand in the poker world. I know that thinking your better than people and being better than others are two different things and that SS has proved that he doesn't just think it, he's been consistent but has done nothing to let ppl know he's around and doing well. People can't stand Hellmuth but even though he's a prick he kinda gets "it" as far as making himself bigger than he is. Even if he didn't have 11 bracelets no doubt he'd still be a polarizing figure in the poker world with people having strong opinions on both sides. It's the "Tiger Effect" in golf...which is probably the best sport to use to compare poker. It's individual based, these guys have to hustle to get sponsorships to help with travel and on top of marketing themselves for additional income...they then have to perform consistently. Poker has some parallels with this, they have the elite players that always cause a draw and guys make a good living just with sponsorships and aren't forced to play every tournament stop. The proof they belong in the celebrity or showcase type tournaments is because we all know them by Daniel, Doyle, Barry, Jennifer, or Durrrr or Jesus. These are the ones that have elevated their status not only through play but the occasional smart business decision. The key thing is that the HeadsUp Poker Championship is NOT about recognizing who had the best year. It's about will I tune in to see Russo vs. Seed or two guys that have a good year? No one said this has to be fair, it's just gotta move the rating needle and put people in the audience and get BMW to pay for commercial spots. I understand both arguments but I just don't fully understand how SS could be disappointed by not being selected. If they're willing to put Don Cheadle and Orel Hershiser in this field of 64 obviously it's not about merit. All in all it would be cool if he got to play in it one year but I don't think this would be that year based on what the tournament is really all about.

I'm listening to Colin Cowherd (which is best sports talk show on the radio) and he's talking about Travis Henry...this guy has NINE KIDS!! He has to pay over 100k in child support a year and is complaining that it's too much money...he also just got about 7million two years ago and said he has ONLY spent about 200k on jewelry "which ain't a whole lot"(actual Travis Henry quote) He says he only has 3 cars. He claims that he has a big heart and takes care of a lot people but never really could get a grasp of that whole saving thing....what a freaking idiot. Some people are just impressively dumb and Mr. Henry...you are one of those people. Well I'm done with this little rant. Not sure if I'm gonna have poker going on this weekend, gonna play some Thursday night online...Friday I'm gonna be boiling some crawfish and Saturday I'm undecided if I'm going to the casino for some cash or some online tourneys. Hopefully the next few days go a lot better than the last couple. I was kinda all over the place on this one but that's what happens when I day dream.
Till next time.
Keep It Real Homies.

A Night at the Beau

I wasn't planning on the making the trip but a little bit of arm twisting by southpawrounder and we were off to the coast Friday evening. We got there around 7ish and we wanted to eat before we starting playing so being the good Catholic boys we are we couldn't eat meat and ventured across the street to the Waffel House where I got some "pre-meat chicken"....which are eggs. This was our first of two WH experiences on the weekend. With very little debate SPR and I agreed that WH is prolly the state restaurant of Mississippi. It's impossible to drive more than 10 miles without seeing a WH sign of some type. After the meal we went to the poker room and were seated right away at different tables. I bought into the 1/2 game for $300 and the game was kinda weird. When I first got there I was in the one seat and a regular named Tom was in the two with a young guy in the three and an ornery old baster in the 4, there was also a lady in the 9 who was in EVERY POT. Well the guy in the two was one of these guys who was very sure of himself and just knows that it's not luck when he makes hands. Well I don't have a problem catering to these types of guys ego's b/c it can be quite amusing. And of course he talked to every dealer like he knew them and picked on every cocktail waitress and was "that guy" who has his wife sitting behind him while he plays and she's just as clueless as can be. He's showing her every hand and she's just thinking that her hubby is the best darn card player this side the Mississippi River. Well as he's just running over the table and playing almost every hand b/c he will eventually make the nuts on the river I start to make some conversation with him and his wife if for anything that maybe it might prevent him from running me down. Well I make my first raise and feel the wrath of Tom and his running good ability. I make it $14 with AcJc and he calls as well as a couple others. Flop is A,3,6 and I bet $45 and makes it $100 right behind me. I contemplate and wait for him to start talking as he does in every hand he plays. I feel like if I can just get him talking a little bit he will let me know that he's very strong or just seeing if I'm full of shit. He says to me, "I got lucky...You don't wanna call" thanks for the info and I fold and shows me A,3 for two pair. Now I'm pumped b/c I haven't played live in a while and the first time I raise and make top pair I get smoked. Now the goal is to not go into a shell and get gun shy.

I then finally make a hand to build some confidence and was never under my buyin after this pot. Grumpy old man in the 4 raises and I call with about 4 others and flop a set of tens on an Ace high board. I bet right into the raiser and he calls with another guy. I set the old guy in on the river and he folds to save his $50 and I won a nice pot. I then witnessed some of the most retarded hands I've ever seen. Tom in the two seat decided he was going to put on a show and had about $600 in cash $1200 in chips in front of him and of course they were all in stacks of $50....Ok guys, lets have some chip stacking 101. Whenever you see a guy with stacks of $50 chips, he's not a good player and usually a guy who plays too many hands and when he has a lot of money in front of him is very self conscious of this...the good thing is that he will hemorrhage. Well the bad thing about this guy is when he's running good he thinks he's superman and will run you down. Well I watched Tom make every hand he wanted to. A couple that just blew my mind went down like this. He raised to $20 and got reraised to $50. Guy who reraised bet the flop, turn, and river with $50 on every street and got called except on the river when the back door heart draw got there and the board double paired...Tom raised him $50 more and the guy called. Tom promptly turned over his FLUSH and the other guy mucked. Now that's balls when you minraise on the double paired board and get called and still know you're good!...maybe this guy knows something I don't know? Then the other hand of amazement was when someone made it $15 and reraised to $50 and got called by two ppl and flopped a set of 4's and snapped someone. I jokingly told him he needed to teach me how to do that and he said with a straight face and 100% serious that when you have played as much poker as has and play as often as he does then you just know when to make raises like that. Point taken sir, are those triple strap velcro shoes you have on?? So I then was curious and decided to be amused and keep egging him on while his wife said there so proud that her husband was mentoring a younger man in the game her husband was so finely skilled at.

Eventually he left and gave back about $500 and got up with around $1200 profit off the $200 he bought in for. I on the other hand grinded away and got my stack up to almost about 1k and then took some uneventful swings that and turned an ok profit. SPR moved games and played most of the night sitting next to me and had more hands to play than I think anyone would want. He worked his ass off to lose $30. We finished our little marathon and went for round 2 at the WH...this time just for early morning snack before finally getting some rest. Hung out with Wild Bill for a while and we all decided to play the tourney Saturday morning and this wasn't exactly the most fun I've ever had playing a tournament. I get to my table and the tourney starts and I think there was almost 90 players and in the level and a half we played before my table was broke we never played more than 8 handed and we busted 4 ppl off. That's pretty impressive. The hand before we all get moved I picked up a nice pot and was somewhere near 11k in chips. The very first hand at the next table I flop and opened ended straight draw and a flush draw and don't improve and end up giving some old guy about $2400....o well, not a lot I can do about that hand. The next hand I played was about 9 hands later and I was on the button with QQ and it folded around to me and I made it $350 (blinds 50/100) and the SB and BB both call. Flop was 5,7,8 and the SB checks and the BB just moves all in for over 7k and now I'm flustered. This guy wasn't a complete moron. I couldn't really talk to him too much b/c there was a guy behind me. The ONLY thing that made sense was that he had a pair and a draw. If he had a set or two pair or anything he would have tried to trap me, if not then this was a hell of a play with a ton of reward if he had a set or two pair or a straight. Well I eventually come to the fact that he's not strong and just wants me to fold, well I call knowing that I'm prolly against a draw and before he turns his cards over he asks me if I have Jacks and turn over my QQ and he then pats himself on the back b/c he knew I had a hand like JJ or QQ...well no fucking shit!...what else would I call u with right there..AK, pocket 2's??...I'm pretty sure if I had a set I woulda snap called. Well he shows his 6,7 and now it's time to pray I can hold up. Well a 10 on the turn and then a 9 on the river and congratulations for getting it all in with your pair and a draw. I couldn't hold my tongue on this one after he kept telling everyone he knew I had a big pair. I asked how he knew I had a pocket pair when I raised and he said he just knew. So from me putting $350 in the pot from the button after it was folded to me he knew I had a big pair...his response was that he said I had JJ or QQ...whatever dude, I'm pretty sure anyone with a half of brain would have guessed I had a big pair after I called a 7k bet into a 1k pot. Anyway, I wasn't out and had about $700 and now it was time to get lucky and pick the right spots. I find a way to hang in there and double up and get some chips and make it to the break with over 5k in chips. Well the first hand back I have KK and end up having to fold after I get outflopped. After losing a hugh pot early I managed to last and bust out with about 38 players left when I ran my 55 into AA. It was disappointing and I was one double up away from giving myself at least a fighting chance. The guy who got lucky early actually came shake my hand when I busted and told me he would have never made that move against me if he knew I was that solid of a player....haha, thanks for the compliment but at I would have rather you make the move and my hand just hold up.

Davey didn't fare very well and had a nice little stack until the first level ended and never won a pot after the first level. Bill didn't last too long either, I wish I woulda made a last longer bet with them. I made it back to NOLA and went to the Hornets game with the girl and watched Chris Paul just take over the game when he feels like it. The guy is sick, the refs were terrible and that's the only reason Oak.City hung around. How gay is the name "Thunder"...not sure who sold them on that as their mascot but it sucks. It was an ok weekend as poker goes even though I didn't cash in the tourney. As I write this I'm playing the 4k gtd. 6max. Hopefully this turns out ok for me.
Till next time.
Keep It Real Homies.

Theory Proving Strong

Well after my last post on Tuesday I played a couple tournaments on Stars. Decided to lay low and not do anything on Mardi Gras except enjoy my day off, the nice weather, and play some tourneys. Woke up pretty early b/c the girl and her friends rode in the Krewe of Argus in Metairie and I went drop them off at the beginning of the route. Well once I got back I decided to see what PokerStars had to offer and signed up the $5 10k gtd. I continued to use the limited distraction game plan and put the iPod on and turned the tv down and had the parades on in the background. Well it started off pretty good and I was accumlating chips from the start. Made a flush on the first hand after flopping a pair and a heart draw...raising on the flop and hitting it on the turn to win a pretty good pot and then won the next two hands after that. Busted a guy w/ AK who rerasised me preflop and then decided to overplay the hell out of 66 on a King high board. Needless to say it was nice to get chips early and I was able dictate all action at my table for the first 3 hours of the tournament. I was moved tables and there was one guy who had the same amount as me and we had about double of any player at the table with around 25k or so. He was pretty weak and I had reraised him several times preflop and he folded everytime....I knew this could turn out to pay off HUGE for me.

Well after about 4.5 hours we were approaching the bubble around 270 players or so and I was in full mode to pick up some unwanted chips from bottom money feeders. It really blows my mind the ppl who tighten up so much in online mtt when the buy in like so little, but hey..maybe it makes these guys feel good about themselves. Anyhow, I'm not there to cash for $9 and be happy with those results. Well with about 285 players left I just get beat down. Get two pair counterfieted twice. Flop top pair and get a short stack all in and he hits his two pair on the turn and I go from twice the table avg. to right about even with everyone. Well the big stack who I was having a little fun with is now all alone at the table with biggest stack but I didn't let up. I raised a pot and he reraised (i guess he was making his stand) and I shipped it with AK and folded....I was really shocked by that fold and I was actually begging for a call. With a double up I could have still be able to take advantage of tight bubble play. Well the big stack finally got his revenge in the form PokerStars software. I open up a pot (which has been a trend for me..haha) and he repops me this time. Well I decide to just call and "let him make his stand".....well the flop comes jack high and I bet half my stack which is an overbet. He ships it and I call, congratulations you found my KK with your AA. UGH!!!!!!!!!.....He actually had the nerve to pop off in the chat box about setting me up!...give me an f'in break, people like this guy should be punched in the neck. I'm sure he's 'that guy' who wears his texas hold'em playa shirt and all. I actually asked him if he was serious and said "yea, i've been letting u reraise the whole time just to get all your chips at once"....give this guy a fucking helmet and some velcro shoes..de da de!

Anyway, I was happy that I played well....can't really do anything about other ppl's good luck. I then played 3 sngs and won two and finished 3rd in the other. Later that evening I played in the $2.20...2k gtd. Continued to use the iPod and started off the way I have been. I was able to play exactly how I wanted to and accumulated chips. I put myself in good situations and had southpawrounder sweating my $2 run. We were talking on IM and picking each other's brains about online play. He has more experience than me and quite a few cashes I'm definitely open to his opinions and advice about online mtt. Well he would occassionally tell me to slow down and make comments about how many hands I was playing but it was working and I have become fairly comfortable with that style. I ended up running pretty deep and had some sick swings with about 60 players left. Eventually I busted with AJ vs. AQ where there was no real escaping from that. I finished 44th for an astounding $8.49!!!!

I've been happy with my results in the last two weeks of online (which is pretty much when I actually made my first deposit). I know they're some things that I'm struggling to understand with online play and somethings that I have found easier to exploit online rather than live. I'm also moving up the pocketfives.com leader board in the Houma area. I've actually passed up Gene in the rankings who was sitting at number 10 for quite some time. Now I have Ruttley in my sites and look to do something about LT.Dan.
Till next time.
Keep It Real Homies.