Katrina/Gulfport/Biloxi and Party Poopers

It looks like it will only be 3 of us for AC this Friday. Which is fine with me…. The problem is that we aren’t sure where we are gonna be playing at. Moof and Alfred likes the setting at the Tropicana than the warehouse at Taj. So we probably will be arriving AC 9am with the intention of playing at Tropicana most of the morning/afternoon. We then may head out to Showboat for their 7pm $40+$10 tournament.

Katrina….For those of you who may not know, I was in Biloxi/Gulfport area about a month before Katrina hit. I was there for a “national softball” tournament (we finished 3rd out of 30 teams or so btw). CalvinTy, Francy, and I headed out to Grand Casino (Gulfport) to check out the action. Not much was happening there except some 1-4-8-8 hold’em and 1/2 NL. I asked about the 4/8 LO8 w/kill and was told it “starts @ 4pm”. Boooooooo…. That was when my team have practice… even though it was raining, a few of us still went out and hit some balls. Ol’ Francy used a teammate’s softball bat to hit a baseball…..oops big mistake…nice little dent….that is a whole other story… After going 3-0 in tournament play, CalvinTy and I decided to check out the poker action around Biloxi. Not much happening at Palace and a few others…so we settled for Grand Casino (Biloxi)…..no LO8 (as usual) going so jumped in the 1-4-8-8 game which seems to be the most popular limit there. CalvinTy joined the table besides me. Sitting down…folding some hands….my oh my…. A $4 preflop raise by UTG and gets called by 6 others. ….flop….another $4 bet….4 callers….. turn $8 bet….$8 raise….4 still in….. river…$8 bet….4 callers…. Massive massive stack of white chips there…. This is what was happening most of the night….super super loose players… I only brought in for $100 and wasn’t sure if it was gonna last…..after an hour….won only about 4 pots and got the hell out….wayyyy toooo much variance for me…. Left that table +$35 or so… I once picked up AQo UTG…raise preflop….missed the flop….bet….a few callers…missed the turn….bet….a caller (BB)….missed the river….I bet (am probably beat here)…BB wasn’t sure what to do with a K high board…his wife told him to lay it down cuz I’m a “good player”…and he FOLDS!!! Woooooooo boy did I get lucky that time….plenty of pocket Aces getting cracked here… if you think online poker is rigged then come down to Gulfport/Biloxi and play some 1-4-8-8 (obviously cant now).

When Katrina hit (on that Monday), I had absolutely NO CLUE how bad it was. I was so busy with work and family and didn’t think much about. It wasn’t until the following THURSDAY when I finally took the time to read the newspaper (USA TODAY) that it hit me. Pictures of the Grand Casino moved inland, Hard Rock completely destroyed, Palace turned sideways, and slots machines scattered all over the place got my attention. I know this isn’t funny but if I were in a “looting” mood, I would’ve been taking some poker tables and chips!!!!

I have only $20 left for online poker…major cashout for AC. Might do some .25/.50 or .50/1 LO8 tonight.

Party popped me an email stating that if I don’t keep my account active within a few days then they’ll take away my points…..*middle finger*….Seriously, what good are these points? There isn’t much in the store for me. Perhaps I’ll pickup some caps and shirts to give away as a gift for Xmas. Now if Party had a chipset with their logo on it….hmmmm

decisions decisions decisions

Gawddamn it….Timing couldn’t be any worse. Just when I cash out most of my money for AC next week, Paradise announced their reload. Well…I guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do right? THAT’S RIGHT!!!! PASS!!!!! I ain’t gonna do it. $$$$ for AC far out weights $$$ for the reload. I only have about $55 bucks in AP and about $10 in Titan. Rest of my moolah is in firepay ==bank. I actually have some singles in Stars too.

I still don’t know what I’m gonna do in AC yet. Play in a tournament? 2/4? 4/8? 1/2 NL? Trop? Taj? Caesers? Showboat? Will do some homework this weekend and get my plans all laid out. Ideally, I’d like to play 4/8 at Tropicana all day. However, I will be keeping my eye out for the 2/4 or 5/10 Omaha 8 at Taj.

We boys will be staying at Best Western Envoy Inn. Not the best….not the worst….but it’ll do for us.

Ol’ CalvinTy…why he aint keeping his blog updated, I’ll never know, is a PT whore. He just downloaded the software along with GT and Grapher. Now he wont stop talking about it. I don’t have it yet but will do so within a few weeks. Probably will get it free through PSO.

I bugged Greg at O8poker.com for an interview. He is cool with it…now I just need to get my questions in order.

There is a poker friend of ours who is “filthy rich” by our standards. He wont open an account online cuz he is too scared to risk $50 or so. Plus I think he is afraid of his wife.

In-laws...Horns...Titan Poker

The in-laws are in town this week!!!! RUN!!!!!!! HIDE!!!!!!!! Actually they aren’t all that bad…. Just a bunch of cheeseheads and Packer fans….They used to rub it when the Dallas Cowboys went through a down era (pre-Parcells). Now that the Packers are 1-5, I can rub it in them. Actually I wont, not worth my time. In the era of free agency, players bitching about dress codes, and etc., I pretty much lost my respect for pro sports. I still watch a game or two, but you wont see me buying jerseys or cry when my “team” wins the championship.

College football and basketball….now that is something to dig into. WOOOOO HOOK’EM HORNS!!!!! Actually, I’m a Razorbacks (Arkansas) fan. But since, Southwest Conference is “no-more”, I’ll support any former SWC teams. May TCU and Texas win the rest of their games. May Rice FINALLY win a game. I dream the day that Arkansas and Texas will play for the national championship once again. I seriously doubt that’ll happen though.

I didn’t play any poker last night. We had to sign the settlement for our house. THEN I WAS FORCED TO CLEAN THE HARDWOOD FLOORS WITH JUST A RAG AND FLOOR SPRAY BY THE MIGHTY ONE WHO I LIVE WITH!!!!! It only took an hour, but by then Prison Break (Fox) came on.

Absolute Poker will be sending me a shirt (and cap??) for free. I asked them to send me a shirt or something to wear when I join my boys for AC next week. Sure enough it is on its way.

I only have 320 stars from playing Titan….Sighhh another 3200 or so to go for the Nevada Jacks chip set. Just finally they are processing my cashout….SIX DAYS!!!! Why it takes them 6 days to process a firepay deposit, I have no idea. Most sites takes anywhere between 24-72 hours to process a firepay deposit before you can make a withdrawl. Titan takes the cake by making it 6 days. Party isn’t much better (5 days). However, support is top notch and the games are getting better….but SIX DAYS?!?! I’m doing pretty well at Titan so will be playing there for a little while longer.

I have not heard from Empire about being an affiliate. Actually I am an affiliate but want to change my “code”. I’m not going to nag Empire about it. One email should be enough. However, thinking about becoming an affiliate for Absolute. I wont be surprised to see AP as the #3 or #4 site in the very near future. Bye bye UB…bye bye Paradise....bye bye Prima…down the rankings you go.

Recent AC trip and etc...

Blahhhh….finished somewhere around 850th place out of 1400 participants at PokerStar Blogger’s tournament. Actually I started out pretty well getting 6500 chips after 90 minutes while the tournament avg. was around 2700 or so. But then….my little 2 year old woke up and mommy wasn’t home. FATHERLY DUTY TIME!!!! I tried to triple up by doing some heaving betting so that I could leave the tournament for at least an hour or so until Amy gets home. But….KJ ran into JJ and the finale…my AKo gets rivered by KQ with a very nice board of AK6TJ….how messed up was that???

I went to see Danzig/Blackest of the Black Tour in Atlantic City this past Wednesday (10/19). It was actually the VERY FIRST TIME seeing Danzig and also the first time being inside Showboat Casino/House of Blues. Showboat was always the “quite” one since its on the far northside of the boardwalk strip. But good golly miss molly, the place was PACKED with old folks!!!! I was probably the only one wearing non-black/non-make-up at the concert. But that didn’t seem to bother the 3000 headbangers much. But paying $2.50 for a can of diet coke? PLEASE!

Across from the music hall is Showboat’s new poker room. And it is a very nice room with 25-30 tables or so. As of 730pm that Wednesday night, only 13 tables or so were up and running. The room is still very new. Not many people are aware of it since it is on the 2nd floor “away from the public”. They are currently running daily WSOP shootout tournaments as well as some $40+$10 cash tournaments.

I dropped by Caesar’s and it turns out that they were filming a movie there. Who? What? When? I have no idea. Even the security guards were clueless.

Damn going to Atlantic City is EXPENSIVE!!!!! I finally just realized that.

Baltimore Harbor Toll: $2
Bay Toll: $5
Delaware Toll: $3
NJ TNPK: $1
AC Expressway: $1.50 (total)
Showboat Parking: $5

Going back home:
AC Expressway: $1.50
Walt Whitman Bridge: $3…I went that way cuz I needed to see some “lights” was dang tired
Delaware Toll: $3
Baltimore Harbor Toll: $2

Full tank of gas for my civic: $33

So the total round trip for me comes to: $60!!!!!

SIXTY BUCKS!!!!!
That does not include any hotel, food, and etc expenses. So basically if ya gonna go up to AC for some poker, you should probably be playing 6/12 and above or $2/$5 NL to cover some of the expenses. It doesn’t make any sense to be playing $2/$4 Texas or $1-$3 Stud.

I’ll be going back on Nov. 4th with friends but this time its gonna be 5 of us so it will help keep the cost down a bit.

Off to AC!!!!! not excatly poker related but still...

Wooooo….am about to leave for Atlantic City in 2 hours as soon as my little boy wakes up, eats his breakfast, and gets dropped off at preschool/day care. What will I be doing in AC? Blackjack? Let It Ride? Slots?...uhhhh nope….Poker!?!?!...uhhh ahem…nope… actually am going to a concert at the HOB/Showboat. I’ll be arriving AC around 12:30 will pick up my ticket then go grab a bite somewhere.

I plan to pick up $1 chips for each casino on the boardwalk and purchase some postcards. I want to make a nice little frame for the chips to put in my little bitty game room/office downstairs. Its something I’ve always wanted to do but never got around to it. Now here I am in AC ALONE with 6 hours to spare before the concert. So that’ll be plenty of time for me to take a nice a little walk on the boardwalk for once.

I am currently playing some LO8 at Titan for the PSO Nevada Jacks chipset. These are very very nice chips (Retails for about $300??). The only downside is that I will have to play about 1100 hands. Titan is a very very, again I will say it, very nice little site (shares the same platform with Noble and Betfair). I love the little hand histories and the smooth graphics. Traffic is not heavy there especially for LO8. You might find 2 or 3 tables at .50/1 and 1/2 (LO8)...plenty of Texas running. Many are not crazy about Titan since their bonus structure is pretty stingy (30x). I'm not there for the bonuses. I'm just there for the chipset. However the way I like it so far, I'll probably play there more often. It'll be interesting to see if traffic will pick up when Empire makes the switch to the same software (Playtec?).

Titan Poker
Pros:
1. Lobby is easy to navigate
2. Smooth graphics
3. These little cute micro limits turbo SNGs

Cons:
1. Cashouts take a few days (blahhhh)
2. very little LO8 traffic


The boy is up.... time to make his breakfast and get ready for the day!!!!

Scribbling on a notepad...

(From my notepad)

Here I am in the bedroom scribbling on this notepad with WSOP (ESPN) on tv. Ahhhh Jennifer Harmen just got knocked out….take it from me for what its worth, QQ is a trap hand. You can win big with them but you can also lose HUGE too.

I am upstairs since my wife is on the internet getting some info for a gala that she will help organize this spring. So a notepad and a pen with ESPN/WSOP running is fine with me.

Ahhh there is Raymer on TV sporting the Poker Stars outfit…geez Raymer its not Halloween yet!!! Though I think it is cool to sport some online poker and/or casino shirts and/or caps. All I have is a Cardplayer cap, Pacific Poker cap, Party Poker visor, and a Cardplayer shirt. Raymer just knocked someone out with his AK. Once again QQ loses and as I said before QQ is a trap hand. Speaking of Raymer, I have an autograph picture of him. Originally, I was going to send him “pocket 8s” for him to sign but he told me to wait and he will send me a 8 x10 picture of him as he was waiting for them to be processed. Classy guy in my book and is probably the most humble pro I know.

Today was a “good day” at Absolute….Oh crap did I just see a commercial from Paradise Poker? Dang now everyone is gonna sign up for that $1,000,000 freeroll. I wouldn’t recommend you signing up for it unless you have 2 days to spare which is approx. how long that freeroll lasted last time….I see someone at WSOP Raymer’s sunglasses…LAME-O!!!!....Dude go get your own style!!!!...Anyway, sorry this will not be a play-by-play post….ESPN and ESPN2 will be rerunning the show all this week so you can catch it then…

Anyway, at Absolute, I had an hour to kill before I pick up my son at preschool/daycare. So why not play a $2 NL SNG and some $1/$2 Omaha 8. I came in 2nd in the SNG for a super cool $3.50 profit. I have not problems getting ITM but when it comes to heads up and the blinds are super high, I truly suck…profited $19.50 at Omaha. I am thrilled to some more Omaha 8 tables running at Absolute. My only wish is that they’d have some LO8 MTT running in the evenings.

So anyways, a nice profit of $23 for an hour’s worth of work…not bad huh? Definitely nowhere near the hundreds that some of those “big-time” bloggers make. If only I was able to win $23 an hour COMSISTENTLY.

That reminds me to withdraw some funds out of AP for the Poker Stars reload. I am going to give the WPT/PCA a few tries as well as check out some tournaments and LO8. LO8 seems to be popular “6-max” at Stars than the full 9/10 rings.

Sighhh...stuck in traffic

This was actually written a few days ago….I just forgot to post it up until now
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here I am stuck in the traffic. Its raining here in the D.C. area and everyone is moving at a snail’s pace. So why not whip out the laptop and write up something for this blog. Please keep your “Why? You are crazy!” comments to yourselves.

I still have not downloaded PTO (trial version) yet. The fact it takes my computer 55 minutes to download the program (still on dial up) is a huge turn off. We will be hooking up with Adelphia (cable modem) pretty soon.

DC101 FM: Faith No More “Epic”

I’m still not keeping track on my poker sessions. I KNOW I should be doing this but I just keep forgetting to do it. So first order of business, get a spiral notebook and pen for record keeping. I know PT and PTO can do it for me but I ‘m not ready to plunk down $50. Perhaps I should sign up with PSO (Poker Source Online) and get PT for free. I have my eyes on Full Tilt.

The downside about playing at Full Tilt is that Omaha 8 action is very sparse. But anything for getting PT for free right? Nevermind getting rakeback…I have no intention in making Full Tilt my permanent site.

Speaking of rakeback, Empire Poker have asked me to be an affiliate. I have agreed to become an affiliate and in the process of changing my sign-up bonus code. I’m going to offer my clients a rakeback deal. More details later once I have everything sorted out.

Finally we booked a room...

It is official!!!!! We are set for Atlantic City on November 4th. We will be staying at Best Western Envoy Inn. Of course, like I said before, its not a 4 star Marriott but I am sure it will do us just fine.

This is probably my last trip to Atlantic City before our 2nd child is born (due in April). So I’m going to make the most of it by playing in a tournament at Tropicana. I got this email from Trop’s poker room manger:

"...FRIDAYS @ 5:15 P.M.
No Limit Hold'em; $100 Buy-In & $20 Entry Fee; Players start with $4,000 in play chips; NO REBUYS/Single Add-on; $10,000 GUARANTEED 1ST Place w/ 100 or more players! ..."

$120 is not bad….I’m willing to pony up $120 for this one rather than the $50 RA that Tropicana was running for awhile a few months back. The tournament starts at 5:15pm so I guess we will have a nice turnout. The only down side is that we are starting with only $4000 in chips with blinds starting at 50/100 (20 min blinds). Not a whole lot of leg room to do some moves.

I know there will be other tournaments going that day (Sands? Taj? Bally’s?) so will do some homework and check those out. Never mind Borgata…don’t ask.
However, I might skip this tournament if I’m running good at the cash tables. Caesar’s and Showboat have just opened up their poker room. I’ll swing by and see how it is. I’ve read so many “no so nice” things about the two rooms. Well, it can’t be as bad as Sahara’s and/or Circus Circus’ (Las Vegas). Both rooms makes Bally’s (AC) poker room a 5 star poker resort treat.

Tracking My Winnings and Multi-Poker

I have a major major problems with keeping track of my poker sessions. Did I win 20BB yesterday? Or was it 4? I don’t have PT or PTO though I probably should pony up the money and get one. I tried Spy-Poker for a while and did not like it. It is more of a “PT for dummies” than anything else. A friend of mine didn’t like PT because it was too complicated for him to read/understand.

So….First order of business tonight will be to download the trial version of PTO and PT. Usually when I am trying to finish up a bonus I would have 4 tables running (2 – texas and 2 LO8). So basically with the tracker running too, I’ll have 7 “programs” running. I’m afraid my computer will explode if I do this.

Currently, I’m at Multi-Poker as “Frederick Mob”. I couldn’t think of an alias for this site. Bird suggested some retarded names like MaxieSquat, SuperSquaty, and SquatNPoop. Finally I liked his Frederick Mob suggestion. Of all the “party skins”, Multi wins it hands down the best interface. I love the graphics and plus there are no “robot” looking figures too. Anyway, I’m at Multi to clear the sign-up bonus. The best sign up bonus code so far is HOTBONUS100. This is the “20% 5x” code. The other codes you might have heard about are 7x or worse. I didn’t deposit the whole $500. But $380 instead so I’m working to get the $76 released. Right now, I’ve done 205 hands so I have 175 more to go. I’m down $3 or so into the bonus. Major suckouts at the .50/$1 tables. Every once in awhile, my AA, KK, QQ, and AK will stand up. Yesterday, my set of 8s loses to pocket Aces with an A hitting the turn. I knew he had trips so I didn’t get into a raising match with him. That play alone probably saved me about $8 right there.

Sometimes when you don’t hit the flop you still have to play as if you have a premium pocket pairs. See Below:

***** Hand History for Game 2812615801 *****
0.50/1 Texas Hold'em Game Table (Limit) - Sun Oct 02 13:46:18 EDT 2005
Table Table 25432 (Real Money) -- Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: sappw ( $29.56)
Seat 2: p0rEmp ( $23.75)
Seat 3: brainbrother ( $23.75)
Seat 4: canoe98 ( $51.25)
Seat 5: FrederickMob ( $28.25)
Seat 6: demasonii ( $27.50)
Seat 7: jxh_pp ( $34.64)
Seat 8: vodkacrnbrry ( $18.37)
Seat 9: starzy333 ( $25.12)
Seat 10: Roland_tb303 ( $20.50)
brainbrother posts small blind (0.25)
canoe98 posts big blind (0.50)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to FrederickMob [ Ah, Kc ]
FrederickMob raises (1) to 1
demasonii folds.
jxh_pp calls (1)
vodkacrnbrry folds.
starzy333 folds.
Roland_tb303 folds.
sappw folds.
p0rEmp folds.
brainbrother folds.
canoe98 calls (0.50)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 3d, 7d, 2s ] Here I missed the flop completely. But its only 3 of us in the pot. I’m pretty sure one will fold if I bet.
canoe98 checks.
FrederickMob bets (0.50)
jxh_pp calls (0.50)
canoe98 folds.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 3h ] Dang still no A or K…but if I check I’ll be showing weakness…however if I get reraised then probably need to consider folding here.
FrederickMob bets (1)
jxh_pp calls (1)
** Dealing River ** : [ Ts ] Oh well…jxh_pp stalled a little bit when I bet the turn…I’m putting him on AJ or KJ…I know he is beat
FrederickMob bets (1)
jxh_pp folds.
** Summary **
Main Pot: $6.75 | Rake: $0.50
Board: [ 3d 7d 2s 3h Ts ]
sappw balance $29.56, didn't bet (folded)
p0rEmp balance $23.75, didn't bet (folded)
brainbrother balance $23.50, lost $0.25 (folded)
canoe98 balance $50.25, lost $1 (folded)
FrederickMob balance $31.50, bet $3.50, collected $6.75, net +$3.25
demasonii balance $27.50, didn't bet (folded)
jxh_pp balance $32.14, lost $2.50 (folded)
vodkacrnbrry balance $18.37, didn't bet (folded)
starzy333 balance $25.12, didn't bet (folded)
Roland_tb303 balance $20.50, didn't bet (folded)

Looking back at my play, if I had checked the flop or turn and one of the other two players bet into me. I might have folded. However, by being first to act, I’m showing strength here even though I only have an Ace high with a King kicker.


Multi-Poker is also having a reload going until the 10th of October. This is the monster one that everyone is talking about. Your choice:

2000 hands for $100
4000 hands for $200
6000 hands for $300
8000 hands for $400
10K hands for $500

The problem here is that you will have 20 days to clear it. Think about it, if I want to tackle the $500 bonus, I have to average 500 hands A DAY for the next 20 days to clear it. That’s about 5 hours a day (4 tabling). That’s simply too much especially when I have a full time job. However, since I will be “off” from work for 2 weeks. I might be able to do one of them. I’m thinking about the $300 bonus (6K hands). That’s gonna take me about 58 hours of online poker. Spread that out for 20 days which averages almost 3 hours a day. I figure I can get 8-10 of those hours during the day when the wife is at work and son is at day care/preschool. So that just leaves 48 hours to do in 20 days. Certainly do-able. However, Party and Empire should have a reload coming up this week and next week. That’s $100 bonus each right there. Plus the $100 IGMPAY bonus for Multi. That’s only 2200 hands for $300 bucks. Certainly more attractive than the 6000 on huh? However, if there is no reload going on this coming weekend from Party or Empire then I’m gonna tackle Multi’s $300 reload. If I’m VERY LUCKY with the timing of the bonuses, I might be able to get 4 of them done this month for a cool $600 in bonuses. Certainly is nice especially when I’m heading for Atlantic City in November.