Don't tap the aquarium....

Oh nice...forgot I had this blog....

2010-03-02T10:24:00.003-05:00

Maybe I should start it again....

Alot of limpers.....so I limped with this medicore hand....BAM!!

at this rate...was making $100 an hour

2007-10-24T11:09:00.001-04:00

ok sure whatever

I love these players chasing low draws with nothing else..this hand came in within 20 minutes after I sat down... won it...then call it a night.... too tired to continue playing..

crap

2007-10-19T13:32:00.001-04:00

crap

GG Me

2007-10-19T12:25:00.000-04:00

Strength - Omaha 8
Weakness - Stud 8

whatever

2007-10-15T10:52:00.001-04:00

PokerStars' Blogger tournament...

1300 participants...

492nd place....

whatever.....

Crap...

2007-10-10T10:55:00.000-04:00

Last night's $1,500 PLO8 tournament at AP...(won free ticket)

93rd out of 112....

Lesson: Slow down with AAxx...if flop/turn doesnt look fitting...

Me: AAT9....A9 diamonds

I pot preflop...all folds except UTG

Flop: T86

I pot again to represent AA2x or something....UTG took the LOOOOONGEST time to decide that he was gonna call....

Turn: 5

He wins by calling me down with A47Q.....

Wasnt that cool????

Wasnt easy...but did it!!!!!

2007-10-09T10:35:00.000-04:00

That that sucked....

2007-10-08T12:04:00.000-04:00

I was supposed to post the picture up here but didnt happen for some reason...

Tournament: No Limit Omaha Hi
Where: Poker Stars
Buy-In: Freeroll

6500 Players

Top 27 are "paid" which is a freeroll to a $1k tournament

after 4 1/2 hours.....I finished 28th....

That sucked

More good ol' days....

2007-10-05T12:08:00.000-04:00

all the reason to be playing again....

PokerStars Tournament #36191648, Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50
506 players
Total Prize Pool: $2530.00
Tournament started - 2006/11/22 - 21:30:00 (ET)

Dear MaxSquat,

You finished the tournament in 6th place.
A $110.06 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

---------------------------------------

PokerStars Tournament #37162558, Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50
422 players
Total Prize Pool: $2110.00
Tournament started - 2006/12/05 - 21:30:00 (ET)

Dear MaxSquat,

You finished the tournament in 5th place.
A $113.95 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Back in the good ol' days....

2007-10-05T11:35:00.000-04:00

cool hand
awww sorry man

Lovely!!! I am rich!!!

2007-10-05T11:14:00.000-04:00

PokerStars Tournament #62400994, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: 10 FPP
5140 players
$500.00 added to the prize pool by PokerStars.com
Total Prize Pool: $500.00
Tournament started - 2007/10/04 - 19:40:00 (ET)

Dear MaxSquat,

You finished the tournament in 612th place.
A $0.20 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Atlantic City baby

2007-10-04T14:01:00.000-04:00

What: Atlantic City
When: Dec. 7-8th
Purpose: To Retire

Reality: Gonna go broke

AWESOME!!!!! Time to get busy!!!!!

2007-10-03T19:04:00.000-04:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 3289235

This is true.....

2007-08-30T15:20:00.001-04:00

I'm not paying $800 to play softball in 2008.

Atlantic City...

2006-12-11T14:06:00.000-05:00

I wont got into much details...but here is a general overview on what happened:

Heffie, BvarianLvr, and I

$53+$12 Showboat Tournament....64 participants...top 6 paid...Heffie busted out when it got down to 3-4 tables... I came in 5th to collect a cool $203...1st place winner got $1400 or so...

Early Dinner at PF Chang (Tropicana)

Played an hour or so of $3/$6 LO8 (-$15)@ Tropicana while Bvar and Heffie went to Hilton for some $1/$2 NL.

Made a quickie $60 playing nickle slots...plus $20 playing Let It Ride...

Stayed at Days Inn next door to Trop... VERY NICE actually

Breakfast at Country-something...

Stopped by Borgata for an hour or so... Heffie and Bvar did some NL $1/$2... I hit some Let It Ride (-$60)...

Quick Note: Finally saw the poker room expansion (Borgata)...Hands down best room in AC

Not bad I guess Part Deux

2006-12-06T09:27:00.000-05:00

This time I came in 5th.... I was actually the chip leader when it got down to 6...but by this time everyone had even number of chips and its either push or fold... Oh well.... I was actually last in chips when it got down to about 17 or so but was able to double then triple up to the final table....

I've been to the final table the last two times now (2 out of 3)

Here is what I think I know:

- tournament starts at 9:30....wont "in the money" till around midnight...to be ITM ya need at least 20K-15K to be "safe"

- final table wont happen till around 1:30am (EST)...by then you will need about 50K-40K to make it there..

not bad I guess

2006-11-27T13:19:00.000-05:00

Pretty much until it got down to the final 25, I was laying low, under the radar with below avg. chip count.... by the time we got to the final table, I was actually the chip leader....

Got too cocky and played too loose...as a result, I'm out at 6th....1st paid something like $650 (crap)
---------------------------------------------

PokerStars Tournament #36191648, Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50
506 players
Total Prize Pool: $2530.00
Tournament started - 2006/11/22 - 21:30:00 (ET)

Dear MaxSquat,

You finished the tournament in 6th place.
A $110.06 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

hmmm....guess I am

2006-11-27T09:58:00.000-05:00

You are a
Social Conservative
(31% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(36% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Totalitarian

Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Workout plan for December...

2006-11-27T09:27:00.000-05:00

Sighhhh I'm not in the mood to hit the weights for this month....

instead will do series of cardio exercises and swings (softball related)

some stuff...

2006-11-22T08:10:00.000-05:00

Played about an hour last night....only made about $10 total...I went bust-o on one table...whatever....that'll happen now and then...

Last night's "biggest hand/pot"
This one

Yeah...got lucky...but what was my opponent thinking pushing and calling with a 99xx hand???

Time to clean up the "links" here....

Why A2xx....sucks

2006-11-20T09:53:00.000-05:00

I'm starting to fold more of these A2xx hands preflop and flop....

even though I flopped the nut low, I had nothing else going for it... so insta-fold here...

PokerStars Game #7090055738: Omaha Hi/Lo Pot Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2006/11/19 - 15:34:44 (ET)
Table 'Thyra II' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: Leo 53 ($41.70 in chips)
Seat 2: FREDSTOLLI ($52.55 in chips)
Seat 3: Gooned ($27.65 in chips)
Seat 4: jpollo ($31 in chips)
Seat 5: MaxSquat ($20.15 in chips)
Seat 6: bighouse324 ($38.95 in chips)
Seat 7: aucu ($32 in chips)
Seat 8: Gman1447 ($9.85 in chips)
Seat 9: HtCrnr31 ($46.15 in chips)
HtCrnr31: posts small blind $0.25
Leo 53: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaxSquat [Ac 2s Jh 8s]
FREDSTOLLI: folds
Gooned: calls $0.50
jpollo: folds
MaxSquat: calls $0.50
bighouse324: folds
aucu: calls $0.50
Gman1447: calls $0.50
HtCrnr31: calls $0.25
Leo 53: checks
*** FLOP *** [5c 6h 7d] yep flopped the nut low...but a pot to me and a few behind me....FOLD
HtCrnr31: checks
Leo 53: checks
Gooned: bets $2.85
MaxSquat: folds
aucu: calls $2.85
Gman1447: folds
HtCrnr31: folds
Leo 53: folds
*** TURN *** [5c 6h 7d] [4h]
Gooned: checks
aucu: checks
*** RIVER *** [5c 6h 7d 4h] [3d]...arrgghhh crap... bicycle...BUT!!!!!
Gooned: bets $8
FREDSTOLLI is disconnected
aucu: calls $8
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Gooned: shows [5d 8c 4c 8d] (HI: a straight, Four to Eight; LO: 7,6,5,4,3)
aucu: shows [2h 4d As Ts] (HI: a straight, Deuce to Six; LO: 5,4,3,2,A)
Gooned collected $11.75 from pot
aucu collected $11.75 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $24.70 | Rake $1.20
Board [5c 6h 7d 4h 3d]
Seat 3: Gooned showed [5d 8c 4c 8d] and won ($11.75) with HI: a straight, Four to Eight; LO: 7,6,5,4,3
Seat 7: aucu showed [2h 4d As Ts] and won ($11.75) with HI: a straight, Deuce to Six; LO: 5,4,3,2,A

So If I had stayed in till the river, I would have been quartered and split the pot with AUCU....I would have invested about $12 to this pot and only get back about $6 which means I would have lost $6!!!! Lesson so simple still I see people pushing A2 hands with nothing else going for it...

Atlantic City....

2006-11-20T07:52:00.000-05:00

Plumpstein, Hefner, and I are heading to AC on Dec. 8th/9th weekend...

5/10 LO8 (Taj)?
Hilton $50 MTT ?
Showboat $100 MTT ?
1/2 NL Cesears ?

So many choices... Borgata probably aint one of them...

Nov. progress report....

2006-11-20T07:39:00.000-05:00

As I reported on this post, here is a an update on my progess:

SilverStar VIP: 430 FPP to go.... Actually this should have been accomplished a week or so ago. I started with $50. I was only able to multi-table a few PLO8 $25. Now I've got the bankroll going I am currently multi-tabling PLO8 $50 and $100. Points are rolling in at a much faster pace now. However, I havent had the luxury of time to be able to play 3-4 hours a night. If I'm lucky I'll get in an hour or so.

Bankroll: Current bankroll is around $1000...roughly $505 at Stars and $520 at BoDog....so obviously I met this goal already....

Books: Currently reading Moneymaker's book...Free from the Libary...interesting read.

Those Sonics!!!!

2006-11-14T07:14:00.000-05:00

Last night was a bust as the Supersonics beat the Nets. Lost $44 right there....however the night wasnt a total lost as I got $21 of it back via PLO8 at Stars....

Current bankroll (combined): $935

Wow...major payday

2006-11-13T15:17:00.000-05:00

serious serious money here.... dunno why I wont pony up to play in one of these

HMMMM....

2006-11-13T10:10:00.000-05:00

PokerStars Game #6981262522: Omaha Hi/Lo Pot Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2006/11/11 - 13:05:36 (ET)
Table 'Proteus II' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Lightning142 ($95.95 in chips)
Seat 2: Fly18 ($104.45 in chips)
Seat 3: Tbird_NY ($88.95 in chips)
Seat 4: MaxSquat ($39 in chips)
Seat 5: Aleator ($79.20 in chips)
Seat 6: mjpuza ($69.60 in chips)
Seat 7: Phil_Lak ($81.45 in chips)
Seat 8: missMonique ($59.90 in chips)
MaxSquat: posts small blind $0.50
Aleator: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaxSquat [Kh Ad 4h 2s]
mjpuza: folds
Phil_Lak: folds
missMonique: calls $1
Lightning142: folds
Fly18: calls $1
Tbird_NY: calls $1
MaxSquat: calls $0.50
mjpuza leaves the table
Aleator: checks
*** FLOP *** [3h 2h 8d]
MaxSquat: bets $3
Aleator: folds
missMonique: folds
Fly18: calls $3
Tbird_NY: folds
*** TURN *** [3h 2h 8d] [Tc]
MaxSquat: bets $10.50
Fly18: calls $10.50
*** RIVER *** [3h 2h 8d Tc] [4d]
MaxSquat: bets $24.50 and is all-in
Fly18: calls $24.50
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MaxSquat: shows [Kh Ad 4h 2s] (HI: two pair, Fours and Deuces; LO: 8,4,3,2,A)
Fly18: mucks hand
MaxSquat collected $39 from pot
MaxSquat collected $39 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $81 | Rake $3
Board [3h 2h 8d Tc 4d]

Seat 2: Fly18 mucked [9d Qs 7c Qc]

Seat 4: MaxSquat (small blind) showed [Kh Ad 4h 2s] and won ($78) with HI: two pair, Fours and Deuces; LO: 8,4,3,2,A

So basically the guy called a huge river bet with a low and straight board with just a pair of Qs...

Silly... I was actually expecting him to fold to my river bet (busted low draw but was representing a nut low)

WHAT TO DO???

2006-11-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

...Here I have the nut low and a straight flush draw...

The question is....Do I "pot it" to push out anyone that might hit a "full house" on the river? Or just keep these bastards in and hope I still be able to scoop?

Actually...I "pot" it and everone folds to me.... crap

Workout plan for the next two weeks....

2006-11-13T09:59:00.000-05:00

Close Grip Bench
Power Cleans

30 yard sprints
Tee work

It was a good night....

2006-11-10T12:30:00.000-05:00

Biggest "hand/pot" of the night....

That particular table at the .25/.50 PLO8 (PLO8 $50) I turned my buy-in $20 into $126...but got quartered big time (hard lesson there) but still was able to leave with $103.

While I was 3 tabling PLO8, I decided to play one of those silly $1 MTT at Stars...

top 243 got paid... finished 270th or so... I'm not complaining really I just needed an extra table to keep me busy. I was extremely short stacked with T2100 with the blinds at 100/200 ante 25. In middle position, dealt with JJ. ALLLL IN baby...LP (T4200) calls.... HUGE Stack (T22000) early limper folds (WTF??)...JJ vs AhJh.. flop nothing, turn nothing...river...sweet looking ugly spaded Ace.

Deaf Poker

2006-11-07T08:11:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Firefighter Jake and I head out to Atlantic City to see "whats up". Mind you, I didnt bring my bankroll since it is still tied up online (BoDog and Stars).

Lo and behold theres a
National Deaf Poker Tour going on. So Jake and I decided to observe and see how these participants play. By the time we got there, it was down to 30 players or so.

Hmmmmm....

These players fall into one of the 3 categories:
1. Weak/Tight
2. Weak/Passive
3. I don't know what the heck I'm doing

Example:
Table Chip Leader (TCL) and Medium Stack (MS)

MS in middle position raise it 2x
TCL in BB calls

Flop: 2Q5
MS makes a min. bet
TCL calls

Turn: T
check...check

River: 3
MS bets 2x
TCL goes all in

MS took about 5 minutes....folds and shows his QT
TCL shows his bicycle (A-5 straight)

Yep....

Another one....
Down to 7 players...

"I dont know what I'm doing" (IDKWID) UTG limps....folds to SB who makes a 3x raise...BB folds...

Flop comes AK4...

SB makes the same preflop bet....IDKWID quickly says "all-in" in which it only cost SB another "min bet".

SB flips over AT
IDKWID shows....eh eh...Q9 suited spades....

Turn: T

River: 5

IDKWID wins with a "runner runner" flush. Everyone was shaking their heads (WTF??).

Some solid players here and there but can't say that for the whole field.

Makeover!!!!

2006-11-07T08:10:00.000-05:00

Time to remove and add some links to this blog....

So much info.... so little time

OHHHH YEAHHHHH

2006-11-07T08:06:00.000-05:00

Largest Pot of the night:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?598465

SCORE!!!!

2006-11-07T07:59:00.000-05:00

First attempt I came in 5th... this time I took home the premium bacon. I know its nothing compared to those who play in the $100 buy-ins. But I'll take it for now.

Goals for November...

2006-11-02T14:20:00.000-05:00

1. Bankroll $500 to $1K

2. Silver Star VIP at Stars

3. Read the following books: Small Stakes Hold'em and Hold'em for Advanced Players

Thats pretty much it...cute n' simple

Easy win...YAWN

2006-11-02T09:29:00.000-05:00

OHHH YEAHHH!!!

2006-10-31T08:10:00.000-05:00

LA Kings beat NY Rangers...

YTD: 1-0 (+1 unit)

eh eh eh

World Tavern Poker update #2

2006-10-30T10:09:00.000-05:00

Currently I'm ranked:

#19 locally
#50 regionally

gawd... need to pick it up!!!!!!

Softball workout plan for the next two weeks...

2006-10-30T09:48:00.000-05:00

Monday/Friday/Wednesday (next week)
Weights:
Incline Press
Deadlifts

Wednesday/ next week Monday and Friday
Softball specific:

100 hits (tee)
hill sprints

PLO8 at Stars 10/29

2006-10-30T09:45:00.000-05:00

So... I downloaded Stars and jumped in the PLO8 .10/.25 tables...

First hand I am dealt with this gem:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?583554

Biggest win of the night:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?583552

Last night's total +$47

Yeah...I sucked here...but so did 6600 others

2006-10-30T09:40:00.000-05:00

Yeah I sucked...PokerStars gave me a “free ticket” for this tournament. With 7.4K other players and turbo blinds, a lot of crazy and stupid plays. Just about every hand someone was "all-in" either preflop or at the flop. So it was LAG BIG TIME. Anyway, I wont go into much details about the hands and situations. Blinds 100/200…I’m at about 1400 (short stacked)…super short stack goes all in…I go all in as well with my JJ…UTG calls both of us…. JJ vs QQ vs 99….I’m out…Not gonna cry about it...The entry was free and only cost other 10 FTP points for others...not like I'm gonna get a serious game here.

whatever.....

2006-10-23T12:54:00.000-04:00

So I get this letter from Pokerroom.com:

".....We regret that the U.S. has taken this step to make it virtually impossible to offer real money entertainment to U.S. customers. It is doubtful that the U.S. authorities will achieve their stated goals by introducing such legislation. We believe that a properly monitored forward-looking regulation would be much more effective than this general ban....."

Whatever....

not like I'm gonna lose sleep over this...

There are 8-10 other sites still up and running....

Workout Plan of the Week

2006-10-23T12:45:00.000-04:00

My softball-specific workout plan for this week...

Had to make some adjustments here since my garage is "occupied". Minter saw and wood trim to be painted are in the way so I am not able to do the power exercises (deadlifts and etc).

Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Lunges with 35lb plates (20-28 steps)(flat ground Monday....Wed/Friday uphill)

Swing drills 3x10:
wiffle bat
PST
broom
metal rod
medicine ball (10 lbs)

World Poker Tavern

2006-10-23T09:52:00.000-04:00

Alrighty...

waiting for my $$$ from Firepay to hit the bank from Paradise....

BYE BYE Paradise...

Hello...um.... BoDog? Full Tilt?? UB?? AP???

After 5 events, I am ranked #19 at my local tavern (MD/Frederick County...Belle's)

Tavern rankings are based on a player's top 6 scores.
So far my finishes have been:
2nd
3rd
2nd
9th
11th

I got ZERO points for registering online but was a no-show so that hurt my rankings a bit.

2 or 3 more good finishes SHOULD bolt me within the top 5.

Where I've been....

2006-10-20T13:26:00.000-04:00

Busy.....

New family member....softball...work....housework....sleep....

I'm gonna see if I can re-start this blog thing....

good luck to me

PLO8 $100 hand

2006-03-21T16:13:00.000-05:00

http://www.pokerhand.org/?274030

Thats right honey....slide the pot over here gently please....

Major Party Upgrade

2006-02-16T15:25:00.000-05:00

Wow....looks like Party just went through a major upgrade....I have not logged in yet but will do so as soon as I get home from work. One huge plus is that one can change the size of the tables. My video card will not allow me to have 4 tables up and running without any overlap. Now with this new teature, it'll be much much easier to play 4 or more tables....

2K in starting chips for SNGs: Might be much easier to implement the Kill Phil strategy. However one major change is the introduction to antes and 10 minute blinds.
Now, just maybe the "steps" might be much easier to climb up...

Limit O8 6-Max .50/$1: I've been waiting for this one for quite awhile...However, I do prefer to play LO8/PLO8 with 9-10 players. Hopefully the full rings will not dry up...

Major loss last night at the PLO8 table....boy do I have a way to go

Friday vs Monday

2006-02-14T07:56:00.000-05:00

http://www.vidilife.com/index.cfm?f=media.play&vchrMediaProgramIDCryp=4AFF12F3-0DA7-4128-8062-C

SHIP IT!!!!!

2006-02-12T20:56:00.000-05:00

I had very little money in any poker sites since they are tied up at the casinos...so why not tackle a freeroll at Empire?? Every time I won a pot, I would type in "Ship It"...

Casino #2 update....

2006-02-10T22:18:00.000-05:00

Just finished hitting the 2nd online casino...+$73

Total so far...+$185

blackjack whore I am....

ThePounder

2006-02-07T09:28:00.000-05:00

ThePounder at Party's PLO8 tables.....the one who always put everyone on tilt...the one who sits at the PLO8 400 tables and leave with $800 or so....is finally revealed....I had a hunch who it might be

CalvinTy

2006-02-07T08:07:00.000-05:00

Many thanks to CalvinTy for cleaning up the blog....it was a total mess before...

His blog sucks though

yeah....I know

2006-02-06T14:47:00.000-05:00

The blog is messed up here....what happened??? I have no idea....will consult the ever-trusting CalvinTy to have a look

Casino #1 update....

2006-02-06T11:16:00.000-05:00

so far so good...just finished the bonus at "Casino #1"...

+$113

Blackjack is still boring....

Blackjack is boring....

2006-02-02T08:11:00.000-05:00

You read it right..it is....after 30 minutes...Blackjack online is damn boring...

+$4.50
$100.00 (bonus pending)

I have about 4 hours of "blackjacking" to go to release the bonus...$25 an hour

Taking a "Sabbatical"

2006-02-01T12:05:00.000-05:00

Yep...am taking a small "Sabbatical" from Poker for about 2-3 weeks. I'll be hitting some of the casinos for the time being to hit up some of the bonuses there. Within 2-3 weeks, if all goes well, I'll have a nice cool $600 or so.

Last night, I chipped in with Alfred to clear the IGMPAY bonus at Party. Fortunately, we were still able to attack the beginner's table (.25/.50). A little tiny profit but splitting $111 ($55 each) is just fine with me for 90 minutes of work. That translates to $36 an hour....I'll take it....

Paradise SuperBowl reload..
PokerRoom SuperBowl reload..
PASS!!!!!

Building your bankroll....

2006-01-31T08:25:00.000-05:00

Building your Bankroll (PLO8, Texas NL):

Its all about patience and how much time and effort you want to put in. Lets say there is cliff with the most fantastic view on top. You name it...sun descending...lake below...trees every everywhere....etc etc...whatever suits your fancy. Now you have two choices to get to the top. One way is to take a 5 hour hike. Its not too steep but steep enough to give your legs a good workout. The other way is a one hour rock climb. Now the question is, do you wanna spend 5 hours or 1 hour to reach your goal? If you take the long route, you'll probably get there. Perhaps might slightly sprain your ankle but you'll get there eventually. If you take the short cut, its a hit or miss. One misstep and down you go to the rocks below. If you're lucky and skilled enough, then you'll make it to the top without any incidents.

Tournament result from some warehouse

2006-01-30T14:12:00.000-05:00

Word of mouth...a $50 tournament at some warehouse...I decided to put in my 3 years of online experience along with 5 other friends....

Results? I suck!!!!...

Out of 82 players...top 5 getting paid

Aquaman - 65th-70th
Shark - 45th-50th
MaxSquat - 35th-40th
Alfred - 30th-35th
Besser - 20th-25th
Bird - 2nd!!

Congrats to Bird for winning a nice cool $1100...We made a 75/25 deal prior the tournament so I was able to come away with about $285...I'll take it!!!...where did the $285 go? Well actually $200 went to my son's "playground swing set" fund...

How the hell did I finish in the middle of the pack? Well I'm not going to bore you with details...but let me give you the tournament structure and then you can decide for yourself...If you think those $5 Party SNGs is a crapshoot then wait till you hear this:

Starting chips: 2K
Blinds increase every 30 mins

Level 1: 25/50
Level 2: 50/100
Level 3: 100/200
Level 4: 150/300...and so on....

Ain't that a "crapshoot"? I played excatly THREE hands...Limped in LP with JT (100)..BB makes a 5x raise...I fold....Raised 3x (300) with AcQc in EP...EP2 calls and so does LP....flop comes something like 2Q6...I make it another 300...EP2 calls...LP makes it 1K...here I am down to about 1K and he is making me decide to either push or fold...I fold..EP2 pushes....EP2 flips over his set of 6 while LP just had KQ...chitty cards...blinds eating me up...now its Level 4 and I have about 800 chips left....I pick up TT in LP...two limpers...I push...BB calls and so does MP....MP flips over JT...I have TT...but BB has KK...I'm out.....just like that...not a whole lot of room for error with that kind of structure.

Phuckers....

2006-01-30T08:33:00.000-05:00

I didnt get the hand history cuz I was pissed....basically went like this at the NL25 table...

Me: $47....hard earned +$22
Dealt: AKo LP

Raised it to $1....3-4 callers....

Flop...BEAUTIFUL!!!!! AA2

I get cute....bet $1.... all folds...except...MP who calls too....Ax??

Turn 3.... MP checks....I bet $2...MP raises it to $4...HUH???

River Q.... MP checks....I bet $3....MP raises it to $15...WTF???

Should I fold? does he have a straight? did cold called my preflop raise with A2 or A3??

I call.... that phucker flips over pocket 3s for his full house... why the hell did he play/call with that at the flop, I'll never know

Hand of the night....

2006-01-26T15:35:00.000-05:00

http://www.pokerhand.org/?225842

Sat down...played 3 hands.....then boom.... thank you...bye bye....time for TV

Helped a friend...

2006-01-24T11:10:00.001-05:00

Alfred was having trouble clearning the 20to100Jan bonus at party so I took over...

4 hours of 4-6 tabling .25/.50 texas (beginner's tables)

920 hands

+$40 plus the release of $100

deal was that we'll split since I did pretty much everything...

not bad for $70 since I didnt get any pop up from Party :(

SHERIFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-01-24T11:10:00.000-05:00

SHERIFF JOE

you have to read this to the end !!

To those of you not familiar with Joe Arpaio, he is the Maricopa
(Arizona)
County Sheriff and he keeps getting elected over and over.

These are some of the reasons why:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio created the "tent city jail".

He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights. Cut off all but "G" movies.

He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.

Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued
for discrimination.

He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal
court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked up the cable TV
again but only let in the Disney channel and the weather channel.

When asked why the weather channel he replied, so they will know
how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs.
He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value.
When the inmates complained, he told them, "This isn't the Ritz Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back."

He bought Newt Gingrich' lecture series on videotape that he pipes into the jails.

When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series might explain why a lot of the inmates were in his jails in the first place.

More on the Arizona Sheriff:

With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116
degrees this summer set a new record), the Associated Press
reports:

About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire surrounded tent
encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip
down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts.

On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled
up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before.

Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on
their chests and dripped down to their pink socks. "It feels like we are in a furnace," said James Zanzot, an inmate who has lived in the tents for one year. "It's inhumane."
Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches,
is not one bit sympathetic He said Wednesday that he told all of
the inmates: "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are
living in tents too, and they have to wear full battle gear,
but they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your damned mouths!"

Way to go, Sheriff! Maybe if all prisons were like this one there
would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.

I dont drink but.....(interesting)

2006-01-18T12:54:00.000-05:00

From softballfans.com

RETIREMENT PLAN

INVESTING FOR YOUR RETIREMENT:
----------
If you had purchased $1000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth
$49.00.
-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

With Enron,

you would have had
$16.50
left of the original $1,000.00.

-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

With WorldCom,

you would have had less than
$5.00 left.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

But, if you had purchased $1,000.00
worth of Beer one year ago,
drank all the beer,
then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND,
you would have had
$214.00.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Based on the above,

current investment advice is to

drink heavily and
recycle.

It's called the 401-Keg Plan

Dear Idiot...

2006-01-18T12:36:00.000-05:00

Dear Idiot,

You probably don't remember me. On Jan. 8, we sat at the $1-$3 stud table at Taj. I was the one right of the dealer. Anyway, just because you were sporting a WSOP cap with all of those "pros" autograph does not make you any better than any of us at that particular table. Tossing/throwing chips in the middle because you were pissed for whatever reason, yelling out that you have a straight flush on 5th street (actually didnt), getting angry because "grandma's" two pair beats your aces, and getting frustrated because you couldn't maneuver well from your electric chair makes you look like a total dumbass. We were all at the table to have a good time. No we are not going to get rich playing $1-$3 stud. Some of us are playing stud for kicks (me), some are there for socializing (all the old folks), and some are there to try a different game. Why you decide to spend your Sunday afternoon in a foul mood is beyond me. Hopefully next time you play at Taj or any other poker room for that matter, you will be in a better playing mood.

Who says players at Stars are better than Party??

2006-01-17T20:57:00.000-05:00

PokerStars Game #3670962853: Tournament #18225165, Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2006/01/17 - 20:53:14 (ET)
Table '18225165 2' Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: CrazyNiko (2085 in chips)
Seat 3: Chaquipu (280 in chips)
Seat 4: MaxSquat (2545 in chips)
Seat 5: woody-46 (4800 in chips)
Seat 7: BirdPoker95 (1390 in chips)
Seat 9: mibman (2980 in chips)
BirdPoker95: posts small blind 15
mibman: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaxSquat [Qd Qh]
CrazyNiko: folds
Chaquipu: folds
MaxSquat: raises 180 to 210
woody-46: raises 180 to 390
BirdPoker95: folds
mibman: folds
MaxSquat: raises 2155 to 2545 and is all-in
woody-46: calls 2155
*** FLOP *** [7s 4s Tc]
*** TURN *** [7s 4s Tc] [6d]
*** RIVER *** [7s 4s Tc 6d] [7d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MaxSquat: shows [Qd Qh] (two pair, Queens and Sevens)
woody-46: shows [Ks 7h] (three of a kind, Sevens)
woody-46 collected 5135 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5135 | Rake 0
Board [7s 4s Tc 6d 7d]
Seat 1: CrazyNiko folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Chaquipu folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: MaxSquat showed [Qd Qh] and lost with two pair, Queens and Sevens
Seat 5: woody-46 (button) showed [Ks 7h] and won (5135) with three of a kind, Sevens
Seat 7: BirdPoker95 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: mibman (big blind) folded before Flop

K7!?!?!!?!

this is why you dont pick on fat kids....

2006-01-17T16:11:00.000-05:00

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...994927&q=Funny

Aint much...much I'll take it

2006-01-17T15:39:00.001-05:00

PokerStars Tournament #18152522, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $0.10
2086 players
$50.00 added to the prize pool by PokerStars.com
Total Prize Pool: $258.60
Tournament started - 2006/01/16 - 23:07:00 (ET)

Dear MaxSquat,

You finished the tournament in 110th place.
A $0.34 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Red Sox Poker Table

2005-12-19T12:27:00.000-05:00

Alfred's new table!!!!!!!!!

Hmmm...players at UB...good golly

2005-12-17T09:39:00.000-05:00

Hand #10100966-6310 at Parker (Pot Limit Omaha 8/b)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 15/Dec/05 20:38:39

Luckyspuds is at seat 0 with $9.95 (sitting out).
Jaywong is at seat 1 with $7.35.
streetheartko is at seat 2 with $15.
mlbucket is at seat 3 with $8.05.
ugahoosier is at seat 4 with $10.50.
Raise it is at seat 5 with $9.45.
DrRockets is at seat 6 with $16.30.
cooken4u is at seat 7 with $5.50.
Bubbamaster is at seat 8 with $5.
SAMIAM is at seat 9 with $6.30.
The button is at seat 9.

Jaywong posts the small blind of $.10.
streetheartko posts the big blind of $.25.
Bubbamaster posts out of turn for $.25.

Jaywong: -- -- -- --
streetheartko: -- -- -- --
mlbucket: -- -- -- --
ugahoosier: -- -- -- --
Raise it: -- -- -- --
DrRockets: 7c 5d Ac 3s
cooken4u: -- -- -- --
Bubbamaster: -- -- -- --
SAMIAM: -- -- -- --

Pre-flop:

mlbucket calls. ugahoosier folds. Raise it calls.
DrRockets calls. cooken4u calls. Bubbamaster
checks. SAMIAM calls. Jaywong calls.
streetheartko checks.

Flop (board: 2c 9h 6c):

Jaywong checks. streetheartko checks. mlbucket
checks. Raise it checks. DrRockets bets $2.
cooken4u folds. Bubbamaster calls. SAMIAM calls.
Jaywong folds. streetheartko folds. mlbucket folds.
Raise it folds.

Turn (board: 2c 9h 6c 4c):

DrRockets bets $8. Bubbamaster goes all-in for $2.75.
SAMIAM goes all-in for $4.05. DrRockets is returned
$3.95 (uncalled).

River (board: 2c 9h 6c 4c Kh):

(no action in this round)

Showdown:

DrRockets shows 7c 5d Ac 3s.
DrRockets has 7c Ac 2c 6c 4c: flush, ace high (high).
DrRockets has Ac 3s 2c 6c 4c: 6 4 3 2 A (low).
Bubbamaster shows Qc Jd 2h 5c.
Bubbamaster has Qc 5c 2c 6c 4c: flush, queen high (high).
Bubbamaster has no qualifying low hand.
SAMIAM shows 8c 6d 9d Ts.
SAMIAM has 6d 9d 9h 6c Kh: two pair, nines and sixes (high).
SAMIAM has no qualifying low hand.

Hand #10100966-6310 Summary:

$.90 is raked from a total pot of $18.85.
$.80 is raked from the main pot of $16.25.
$.10 is raked from side pot #1 of $2.60.
DrRockets wins the main pot $7.75 with flush, ace high (high).
DrRockets wins the main pot $7.70 with 6 4 3 2 A (low).
DrRockets wins the side pot $1.25 with flush, ace high (high).
DrRockets wins the side pot $1.25 with 6 4 3 2 A (low).----------------------------------------------------------------

Some people never learn....

2005-12-15T08:30:00.000-05:00

Seat 1: omaha4u ($17.55 in chips)
Seat 2: Ocko70 ($11.35 in chips)
Seat 3: girls_lie_to ($8.10 in chips)
Seat 4: arrigoto ($36.75 in chips)
Seat 5: Texas Foldum ($37.15 in chips)
Seat 6: andrewhime ($54.40 in chips)
Seat 7: Celtshark ($95.90 in chips)
Seat 8: meshanticut ($21.20 in chips)
Seat 9: MaxSquat [2H,AC,6S,3S] ($26.55 in chips)
Seat 10: Frigatebird ($16.55 in chips)

ANTES/BLINDS
Ocko70 posts blind ($0.25), girls_lie_to posts blind ($0.50).

PRE-FLOP
arrigoto folds, Texas Foldum calls $0.50, andrewhime calls $0.50, Celtshark folds, meshanticut folds, MaxSquat calls $0.50, Frigatebird folds, omaha4u folds, Ocko70 folds, girls_lie_to checks.

FLOP [board cards 5H,10D,4C ]
girls_lie_to bets $0.50, Texas Foldum calls $0.50, andrewhime calls $0.50, MaxSquat calls $0.50.

TURN [board cards 5H,10D,4C,3C ]
girls_lie_to bets $1, Texas Foldum calls $1, andrewhime bets $2, MaxSquat calls $2, girls_lie_to calls $1, Texas Foldum bets $2, andrewhime bets $2, MaxSquat calls $2, girls_lie_to folds, Texas Foldum calls $1.

Basically what happened here is that...TexasFoldum and Andrewhime decided to get cute and cap the turn with their nut low... I too have the nut low but also a 6 high straight...

RIVER [board cards 5H,10D,4C,3C,KS ]
Texas Foldum checks, andrewhime bets $1, MaxSquat bets $2, Texas Foldum calls $2, andrewhime calls $1.

Arghhhhh not much action here..... so lets see what happens below...

SHOWDOWN
MaxSquat shows [ 2H,AC,6S,3S ]
Texas Foldum shows [ 2C,KC,AH,9H ]
andrewhime shows [ JS,AD,QS,2D ]
MaxSquat wins low $3.95, Texas Foldum wins low $3.95, andrewhime wins low $3.95, MaxSquat wins high $11.90.

SUMMARY
Dealer: omaha4u
Pot: $24.25, (including rake: $0.50)
girls_lie_to, loses $3
Texas Foldum, bets $7, collects $3.95, net -$3.05
andrewhime, bets $7, collects $3.95, net -$3.05
MaxSquat, bets $7, collects $15.85, net $8.85

So basically here is a simple lesson....if you only have a nut low with nothing else going for it, it makes no sense to be aggressive with it... Both TexasFoldum and Andrewhime were betting/raising at the turn...it was sooo obvious that they had A2...should have clued them in that they should have slowed down....oh well...their loss, my gain....whether or not these low limit LO8'ers will ever get a clue, I surely hope not..eh eh

Jealous...

2005-12-07T12:47:00.000-05:00

Dang....3 of my poker buddies will be heading over to Las Vegas in Feb. Normally I wouldn't give two flying cow pies about it. That is until....I saw pictures of MGM's new poker room in "All-In" magazine....SCORE!!!! very very nice room...I'll see if I can find more pixs...

Now this is interesting...

2005-12-07T07:48:00.000-05:00

This is a well written post...something we should think about....But how often to we come up with a "master get rich quick at playing poker" scheme and dont follow it??

Limit Challenge

Perhaps I'll run over to Pacific and give this a go for LO8

Sitting and waiting....then BOOM

2005-12-07T07:17:00.000-05:00

Hand #10100985-412 at Baden (Pot Limit Omaha 8/b)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 06/Dec/05 21:10:23

rudefella5123 is at seat 0 with $24.40.
Sparks46 is at seat 1 with $4.75.
SOSHHSB is at seat 2 with $27.
Jaywong is at seat 3 with $20.80.
lilcasino is at seat 4 with $26.70.
mrgaming is at seat 5 with $16.85.
show911 is at seat 6 with $41.05.
jonydllr is at seat 7 with $3.45.
witness is at seat 8 with $140.85 (sitting out).
DrRockets is at seat 9 with $19.55.
The button is at seat 3.

lilcasino posts the small blind of $.10.
mrgaming posts the big blind of $.25.

rudefella5123: -- -- -- --
Sparks46: -- -- -- --
SOSHHSB: -- -- -- --
Jaywong: -- -- -- --
lilcasino: -- -- -- --
mrgaming: -- -- -- --
show911: -- -- -- --
jonydllr: -- -- -- --
DrRockets: Ah 7c Qs Ac

Pre-flop:

show911 calls. jonydllr calls. DrRockets calls.
rudefella5123 calls. Sparks46 calls. SOSHHSB folds.
Jaywong folds. lilcasino folds. mrgaming checks.

Flop (board: 4d 6d Th):

mrgaming checks. show911 checks. jonydllr checks.
DrRockets checks. rudefella5123 checks. Sparks46
checks.

Turn (board: 4d 6d Th 4h):

mrgaming checks. show911 checks. jonydllr checks.
DrRockets checks. rudefella5123 checks. Sparks46
checks.

River (board: 4d 6d Th 4h Ad):

mrgaming bets $1.60. show911 raises to $6.40.
jonydllr folds. DrRockets goes all-in for $19.30.
rudefella5123 folds. Sparks46 folds. mrgaming goes
all-in for $16.60. show911 calls.

Showdown:

DrRockets shows Ah 7c Qs Ac.
DrRockets has Ah Ac 4d 4h Ad: full house, aces full of fours (high).
DrRockets has no qualifying low hand.
mrgaming shows 2s 3s 8c 5h.
mrgaming has 8c 5h 4d 4h Ad: a pair of fours (high).
mrgaming has 2s 3s 4d 6d Ad: 6 4 3 2 A (low).
show911 shows 3d Jh 2h Tc.
show911 has Jh Tc 4d Th 4h: two pair, tens and fours (high).
show911 has 3d 2h 4d 6d Ad: 6 4 3 2 A (low).

Hand #10100985-412 Summary:

$2.80 is raked from a total pot of $56.80.
$2.55 is raked from the main pot of $51.40.
$.25 is raked from side pot #1 of $5.40.
DrRockets wins the main pot $24.45 with full house, aces full of fours (high).
mrgaming wins the main pot $12.20 of a $24.40 pot with 6 4 3 2 A (low).
show911 wins the main pot $12.20 of a $24.40 pot with 6 4 3 2 A (low).
DrRockets wins the side pot $2.60 with full house, aces full of fours (high).
show911 wins the side pot $2.55 with 6 4 3 2 A (low).
----------------------------------------------------------------

In this .10/.25 PLO8 (started with $15), all kinds of LAG stuff going on. I was waiting for someone to bet the flop or turn so that I can fold this hand. Well golly geez!!!! It gets checked to the river....BAM! thanks to both "nut lows" for calling my all-in. Thus, the best hand/pot won of the night... I made a cash withdrawl from UB a few days ago and left me at $33 or so....currently its back up to $62...

I get bored playing "fold'em till you get a very good hand" PLO8 so I had to play a tournament or something.....ahhhhh $5 turbo NL MTT at UB... with 15 minutes left only 183 registered!!!! sure!!! OHHHHHH darn it, now registration is over with 486 players with top 60 getting paid. How did I do, well... was TAG the whole way...potting and going all in after the flop...I did pretty well...then of course with you are in a TAG mode, blinds will get ya especially when playing turbo...my AKh failed to hit vs. JJ...and I'm out at 110th...

I'm starting to like UB more and more...sure the bonus sucks but the games are super fast and I like the things that UB offers (tournaments and cash games). I think you can probably play 3 hands of hold'em by the time Absolute finish dealing out the Omaha 8 cards.

Speaking of bonuses, "everyone" at 2+2 are whining and bitching about bonuses are becoming more difficult to clear. This is true...however...if you are a winning player then bonuses shouldn't matter...take note of that Bird....

Days of 20% up to $100 at Party are pretty much over...

THATS RIGHT BABY!!!!

2005-12-03T22:04:00.000-05:00

Actually this is nothing to brag about. I'm currently playing a little at Pokerroom since some of my buddies and I will be playing in a private tournament tomorrow. So why not jump in the PLO8 $5 SNG tournament?? Actually I didnt do much until it got down to 4 of us. I was 3rd in chips with 1300 (4th had 500) while the leaders had about 6k each. Sometimes its a good idea to get out of the way and let people knock off each other. I find myself after folding the flop many times going "ohhhh gawd why did I fold??"...then by turn and river saying "whewwww glad I'm not in this one!"

Pokerroom is "ok"....nothing special about it yet. Then again I've only been playing on it for an hour while I was multi-ing PLO8 at UB.

Danzig

2005-12-02T11:18:00.000-05:00

"Mother
Tell your children not to walk my way
Tell your children not to hear my words
What they mean
What they say
Mother..."

Its all about being patience....

2005-12-02T07:37:00.000-05:00

A had a chance to talk with Sirfwalgman yesterday through AIM. I basically told him I sucked at PLO8 and I need some pointers. Ol' Sir said something like "It all about being patience...".

Hmmmmm

Last night once again I jumped in the PLO8 .10/.25 tables with $15. Playing a nice game of fold'em....A588 double suited? fold.....A367 rainbow? fold.... A28J rainbow? fold....

But...then this happened:

Getting Hand History Information...
----------------------------------------------------------------

Hand #9779069-4831 at Burnaby (Pot Limit Omaha 8/b)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 01/Dec/05 19:58:57

aces4sure is at seat 0 with $25.80.
Wolfie_Smith is at seat 1 with $19.55.
brian6876 is at seat 2 with $23.75.
DrRockets is at seat 3 with $13.40.
herbtech is at seat 4 with $25.
holdummy is at seat 5 with $41.90.
wattsmit is at seat 6 with $20.95.
mattspoker is at seat 7 with $24.30.
Just_Bowler is at seat 8 with $28.
got2ctheflop is at seat 9 with $3.55.
The button is at seat 0.

Wolfie_Smith posts the small blind of $.10.
brian6876 rejects big blind.
DrRockets posts the big blind of $.25.

aces4sure: -- -- -- --
Wolfie_Smith: -- -- -- --
DrRockets: 3h 4d 2h 2d
holdummy: -- -- -- --
wattsmit: -- -- -- --
mattspoker: -- -- -- --
Just_Bowler: -- -- -- --
got2ctheflop: -- -- -- --

Pre-flop:

holdummy calls. wattsmit folds. mattspoker calls.
Just_Bowler calls. got2ctheflop calls. aces4sure
folds. Wolfie_Smith calls. DrRockets checks.

Flop (board: 6s 3d Qd):

Wolfie_Smith bets $.25. DrRockets calls. holdummy
calls. mattspoker calls. Just_Bowler calls.
got2ctheflop raises to $.50. Wolfie_Smith calls.
DrRockets calls. holdummy calls. mattspoker calls.
Just_Bowler calls.

Turn (board: 6s 3d Qd Ad):

Wolfie_Smith checks. DrRockets bets $4.50. holdummy
folds. mattspoker calls. Just_Bowler calls.
got2ctheflop goes all-in for $2.80. Wolfie_Smith
folds.

River (board: 6s 3d Qd Ad 5h):

DrRockets goes all-in for $8.15. mattspoker folds.
Just_Bowler calls.

Showdown:

DrRockets shows 3h 4d 2h 2d.
DrRockets has 4d 2d 3d Qd Ad: flush, ace high (high).
DrRockets has 4d 2h 3d Ad 5h: 5 4 3 2 A (low).
Just_Bowler shows 9s 4c 7s 2s.
Just_Bowler has 4c 7s 6s 3d 5h: straight, seven high (high).
Just_Bowler has 4c 2s 3d Ad 5h: 5 4 3 2 A (low).
got2ctheflop shows Qs 8s Jc Qh.
got2ctheflop has Qs Qh 6s Qd Ad: three queens (high).
got2ctheflop has no qualifying low hand.

Hand #9779069-4831 Summary:

$1.80 is raked from a total pot of $37.10.
$.75 is raked from the main pot of $15.70.
$1.05 is raked from side pot #1 of $21.40.
DrRockets wins the main pot $7.50 with flush, ace high (high).
DrRockets wins the main pot $3.75 of a $7.45 pot with 5 4 3 2 A (low).
Just_Bowler wins the main pot $3.70 of a $7.45 pot with 5 4 3 2 A (low).
DrRockets wins the side pot $10.20 with flush, ace high (high).
DrRockets wins the side pot $5.10 of a $10.15 pot with 5 4 3 2 A (low).
Just_Bowler wins the side pot $5.05 of a $10.15 pot with 5 4 3 2 A (low).
----------------------------------------------------------------

wooooooo....that one put me at +$10...I was able to leave UB at +$15.... I was only able to win one more big pot after this one. Everyone kept folding to me everytime I made a pot bet.....hmmmmmm

Yeah thats the same Mattspoker that we all love and adore at the limit Omaha 8 tables over at Absolute. A true bonus whore he is....

Hmmmmm.....evaluation time

2005-12-01T07:32:00.000-05:00

Last night at the PLO8 (.10/.25)tables....I totally sucked..-$30....I don't know what the hell happened...maybe I'm not suited to be playing 4 tables of PLO8 yet... However on the bright side....I did cap the evening playing some LO8 $1/$2 at Absolute (+$45) and coming in 2nd at a $5 LO8 Sng at Party (+$9)..

Biggest win of the night:

Stage #237259053: Omaha Hi/Lo Normal $1/$2 - 2005-11-30 20:59:30 (ET)
Table: GINGER LEE DR. (Real Money) Seat #1 is the dealer
Seat 1 - SPEAKS61 ($50 in chips)
Seat 2 - BESTDANE ($67.64 in chips)
Seat 3 - MAXSQUAT ($47.24 in chips)
Seat 4 - PAPERLAMP ($66.08 in chips)
Seat 5 - KINGM ($40 in chips)
Seat 6 - SDANOS ($37.25 in chips)
Seat 7 - CARDSRULE11 ($38.50 in chips)
Seat 8 - THEUSA ($178.62 in chips)
BESTDANE - Posts small blind $0.50
MAXSQUAT - Posts big blind $1
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to MAXSQUAT [Kc 2s 4h Ks]
PAPERLAMP - Folds
KINGM - Folds
SDANOS - Calls $1
CARDSRULE11 - Folds
THEUSA - Raises $2 to $2
SPEAKS61 - Folds
BESTDANE - Calls $1.50
MAXSQUAT - Calls $1
SDANOS - Calls $1
*** FLOP *** [Kh 8c Ad]
BESTDANE - Checks (Timeout)
MAXSQUAT - Bets $1
SDANOS - Calls $1
THEUSA - Raises $2 to $2
BESTDANE - All-In (Timeout)
MAXSQUAT - Calls $1
SDANOS - Calls $1
*** TURN *** [Kh 8c Ad] [3d]
MAXSQUAT - Bets $2
SDANOS - Calls $2
THEUSA - Calls $2
*** RIVER *** [Kh 8c Ad 3d] [9h]
MAXSQUAT - Bets $2
SDANOS - Raises $4 to $4
THEUSA - Calls $4
MAXSQUAT - Raises $4 to $6
SDANOS - Calls $2
THEUSA - Calls $2
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MAXSQUAT - Shows [Kc 2s 4h Ks] (Three of a kind, kings)
SDANOS - Shows [Ac 7d 4s 2d] (One pair, aces)
THEUSA - Mucks
BESTDANE - Mucks
MAXSQUAT Collects $21.53 from side pot-1
SDANOS Collects $7.17 from side pot-1
MAXSQUAT Collects $5.67 from main pot
SDANOS Collects $1.88 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($38:$8,$30) | Rake ($1.75:$0.45,$1.30)
Board [Kh 8c Ad 3d 9h]
Seat 1: SPEAKS61 (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 2: BESTDANE (small blind) HI: [Mucked] [5d 8d 8h 6c]
Seat 3: MAXSQUAT (big blind) won Total ($27.20) HI:($18.15) with Three of a kind, kings [Kc 2s 4h Ks - P:Ks,B:Kh,P:Kc,B:Ad,B:9h] LO:($9.05) [B:Ad,P:2s,B:3d,P:4h,B:8c] Seat 6: SDANOS won Total ($9.05) HI:with One pair, aces [Ac 7d 4s 2d - B:Ad,P:Ac,B:Kh,B:9h,P:7d] LO:($9.05) [B:Ad,P:2d,B:3d,P:4s,B:8c]

Seat 8: THEUSA HI: [Mucked] [9d Ah 10c 3h]

-----------------------------------------------------------

Played a little more during "Prison Break"

2005-11-28T22:09:00.000-05:00

***** Hand History for Game 3112249861 *****
0/0 Omaha Hi/Lo Game Table (PL) - Mon Nov 28 21:40:29 EST 2005
Table Table 68515 (Real Money) -- Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 7
Seat 1: MaxSquat ( $24.85)
Seat 2: Finstad21 ( $21.30)
Seat 3: SofieFatale ( $24.25)
Seat 4: hurley1968 ( $8.22)
Seat 5: tbag0110 ( $25.27)
Seat 6: badcreditIII ( $34.57)
Seat 8: payupdog99 ( $24.40)
Finstad21 posts small blind (0.10)
tbag0110 posts big blind (0.25)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to MaxSquat [ 8h, Ah, Qh, 2s ]
badcreditIII folds.
MaxSquat calls (0.25)
Finstad21 calls (0.15)
tbag0110 checks.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 8c, Tc, 4d ]
Finstad21 checks.
tbag0110 checks.
MaxSquat bets (0.25)
Finstad21 calls (0.25)
tbag0110 calls (0.25)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 6c ]
Finstad21 checks.
tbag0110 checks.
MaxSquat bets (1.45)
Finstad21 folds.
tbag0110 calls (1.45)
** Dealing River ** : [ 6s ]
tbag0110 checks.
MaxSquat bets (3)
tbag0110 folds.
** Summary **
Main Pot: $7.20 | Rake: $0.20
Board: [ 8c Tc 4d 6c 6s ]
MaxSquat balance $27.10, bet $4.95, collected $7.20, net +$2.25
Finstad21 balance $20.80, lost $0.50 (folded)
tbag0110 balance $23.32, lost $1.95 (folded)

I am not excatly sure what Tbag had and why he called the turn bet...Perhaps T8xx??

Quickie +2.10 eh eh eh.....boy did I earn less than minimum wage this evening...

+$155 since Oct. 14th

Because I was stupid.....

2005-11-28T21:06:00.000-05:00

I jumped in and 4 tabled PLO8 .10/.25 for about 45 minutes....1 at Party and 3 at UB....Nothing much was happening at Party...left there with a nice tidy profit of 85 cents...just enough to buy a candy bar...UB however pretty good +$11....but overall for the night...I broke near even...Being retarded, I decided to jump in the recent popular Royal Hold'em at UB...soooooo silly...I dont know which is worse...Royal Hold'em or NL Omaha 8...lost 11 bucks in there.....Full House losing to Quads....Quads losing to royal flush...NEVER NEVER AGAIN

----------------------------------------------------------------

Come here little piggy piggy...BITE DAMN IT

Hand #9633284-9449 at Mount Angel (Pot Limit Omaha 8/b)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 28/Nov/05 20:52:01

Scotty O is at seat 0 with $17.05.
KittyKlaus is at seat 1 with $12.55.
deep23 is at seat 2 with $31.95 (sitting out).
MonsterNutz is at seat 3 with $24.75.
jeff3694 is at seat 4 with $3.70.
Nevada City is at seat 5 with $7.
BarTab is at seat 6 with $16.90.
DrRockets is at seat 7 with $10.
gloria martin is at seat 8 with $19.
czar653 is at seat 9 with $5.
The button is at seat 8.

czar653 posts the small blind of $.10.
Scotty O posts the big blind of $.25.
Nevada City posts out of turn for $.25.
DrRockets posts out of turn for $.25.

Scotty O: -- -- -- --
KittyKlaus: -- -- -- --
MonsterNutz: -- -- -- --
jeff3694: -- -- -- --
Nevada City: -- -- -- --
BarTab: -- -- -- --
DrRockets: As Ad Jh Kc
gloria martin: -- -- -- --
czar653: -- -- -- --

Pre-flop:

KittyKlaus folds. MonsterNutz folds. jeff3694
folds. Nevada City checks. BarTab calls.
DrRockets checks. gloria martin calls. czar653
folds. Scotty O checks.

Flop (board: 4h 2s Jd):

Scotty O checks. Nevada City checks. BarTab checks.
DrRockets checks. gloria martin checks.

Turn (board: 4h 2s Jd Js):

Scotty O checks. Nevada City checks. BarTab checks.
DrRockets bets $1.35. gloria martin folds. Scotty
O folds. Nevada City folds. BarTab calls.

River (board: 4h 2s Jd Js Jc):

BarTab checks. DrRockets bets $1. BarTab folds.
DrRockets is returned $1 (uncalled).

Hand #9633284-9449 Summary:

$.20 is raked from a pot of $4.05.
DrRockets wins $3.85.

I bet you my house that BarTab had A3xx

So it begins....

2005-11-28T15:33:00.000-05:00

So it begins….

Currently my total bankroll at the sites is at $202 with about $300 in bonuses to clear. The goal? Bring the bank roll up to $500 by Christmas. Actually it is quite “doable”. But I am on a time constraint so it is a lot harder than it looks. If it is “break-even” poker with just the bonuses, that’s alllllllll righty with me.

So all in all since my $50 PLO8 investment, I’m up +$152. Birdy Bird told me that Absolute had several O8 tables going….

Birdy Bird (BB): Lots of Omaha last night at Absolute
Max: Yeah?
BB: 1/2 up to 3/6….5-6 tables at each limit
Max: Yeah? Any PLO8 going on?
BB: No
Max: (thinking) “Who gives a flying bird doo-doo about LO8 nowadays??...Its PLO8 or bust”

Funny last year AP’s LO8 traffic was very sparse…MAYBE 3 tables will be up and running (.25/.50, .50/1, 1/2 …one each)…now on a given night they’ll be 8 or more tables going…things are looking for us Omaha 8 lovers over at AP….now if only the PLO8 will pick up some traffic. Seems odd that there is a good number of players playing PLO8 SNG and MTT but not the cash games.

Tonight’s mission….turn that +$152 profit to +$200….should be easy right??

It only took one hand.....

2005-11-22T08:24:00.000-05:00

It only took one hand, the very first hand, and then decided to call it a night...

***** Hand History for Game 3072855860 *****
0/0 Omaha Hi/Lo Game Table (PL) - Mon Nov 21 18:00:47 EST 2005
Table Table 66590 (Real Money) -- Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: MaxSquat ( $25)
Seat 2: bocamama1941 ( $18.18)
Seat 3: Hillmouth ( $8.23)
Seat 4: jiggers2 ( $24.75)
Seat 5: miraclejack ( $39.85)
Seat 6: Grendel_Kahn ( $24.40)
Seat 7: sdahl82 ( $17.81)
Seat 8: emmettsmith ( $23.40)
Seat 9: Gost1 ( $34.15)
Seat 10: ret72689 ( $47.99)
emmettsmith posts small blind (0.10)
Gost1 posts big blind (0.25)
MaxSquat posts big blind (0.25)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to MaxSquat [ Ah, 8c, 9c, 3s ]
ret72689 folds.
MaxSquat checks.
bocamama1941 calls (0.25)
Hillmouth calls (0.25)
jiggers2 folds.
miraclejack folds.
Grendel_Kahn folds.
sdahl82 calls (0.25)
emmettsmith calls (0.15)
Gost1 checks.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ As, Ad, Tc ]
emmettsmith bets (0.25)
Gost1 folds.
MaxSquat raises (1) to 1
bocamama1941 folds.
Hillmouth folds.
sdahl82 calls (1)
emmettsmith folds.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 3c ]
MaxSquat bets (3.60)
sdahl82 calls (3.60)
** Dealing River ** : [ Ts ]
MaxSquat bets (10.45)
sdahl82 calls (10.45)
** Summary **
Main Pot: $30.30 | Rake: $1.55
Board: [ As Ad Tc 3c Ts ]

MaxSquat balance $40, bet $15.30, collected $30.30, net +$15 [ Ah 8c 9c 3s ] [ a full house, Aces full of threes -- Ah,As,Ad,3s,3c ]

sdahl82 balance $2.51, lost $15.30 [ 7s Ac 8s Qd ] [ three of a kind, aces -- Ac,As,Ad,Qd,Tc ]

Gost1 balance $33.90, lost $0.25 (folded)
--------------------------------------------------------------

That was it...Prison Break (Fox) was about to come on and I only wanted to play a few hands...A nice quickie $15 huh??

So far I am +$46 for this PLO8 experiment...I've only been doing this for about a week and I'm gonna guess about 430 hands...

What is odd is that I'm looser (see about 35% of the flops) at the PLO8 tables than I am at LO8 (usually about 20%)....hmmmmm
--------------------------------------------------------------

Cowboys are 7-3...so suck it up

--------------------------------------------------------------

Ok ok....I will do the Stars reload tonight...dunno why I keep putting that one off

Stars reload!!! wooooooooo!!!!!

2005-11-21T14:01:00.000-05:00

So far so good…. +31.99 for the PLO8 experiment. I finally had my first crash n’ burned session. I wont go into much details about that one hand. Basically I ran my $25 up to $64 or so. All of the sudden, I couldn’t let go of “this hand” in which it got potted TWICE on the turn. A major scoop by one player in which he had $135 (started from $25?). Guess sometimes having the 2nd nut low/high aint gonna do it….

One good hand this past weekend….

***** Hand History for Game 3059648259 *****
0/0 Omaha Hi/Lo Game Table (PL) - Sat Nov 19 07:32:46 EST 2005
Table Table 65857 (Real Money) -- Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: hottrick ( $25)
Seat 2: sukoutdotcom ( $19.27)
Seat 3: obdachloser ( $25.45)
Seat 4: glmi444 ( $11.65)
Seat 5: gabjma ( $46.92)
Seat 6: mustbesweet ( $68.31)
Seat 7: LeeLay ( $19.84)
Seat 8: MaxSquat ( $26.35)
Seat 9: MYBONNIE ( $19.20)
Seat 10: ajm1975 ( $23.22)
MYBONNIE posts small blind (0.10)
ajm1975 posts big blind (0.25)
hottrick posts big blind (0.25)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to MaxSquat [ 9c, 2s, Ah, 8c ]
hottrick checks.
sukoutdotcom folds.
obdachloser folds.
gabjma folds.
mustbesweet calls (0.25)
LeeLay folds.
MaxSquat calls (0.25)
MYBONNIE folds.
ajm1975 checks.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 7d, Tc, 3c ]
ajm1975 checks.
hottrick checks.
mustbesweet checks.
MaxSquat bets (0.75)
ajm1975 folds.
hottrick folds.
mustbesweet calls (0.75)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Qh ]
mustbesweet checks.
MaxSquat bets (2.50)
mustbesweet calls (2.50)
** Dealing River ** : [ 5c ]
mustbesweet checks.
MaxSquat bets (7.25)
mustbesweet calls (7.25)
** Summary **
Main Pot: $21 Rake: $1.10
Board: [ 7d Tc 3c Qh 5c ]
mustbesweet balance $57.56, lost $10.75 [ 4d 7c As 9s ] [ LO: 7,5,4,3,A HI: a pair of sevens -- As,Qh,Tc,7c,7d ]
MaxSquat balance $36.60, bet $10.75, collected $21, net +$10.25 [ 9c 2s Ah 8c ] [ LO: 7,5,3,2,A HI: a flush, ten high -- Tc,9c,8c,5c,3c ]

Must be sweet to be an idiot to chase 2nd nut low when the bet was potted to him at the turn and river.

Looking back at that 2399 hand that was posted previously…I got some good feed back from the guru at 2+2:

" Horrible preflop. Don't play this at all, much less to a raise."
"I'm just a begginer at this game but to me:

pre-flop, this looks bad. If you want to limp late on in a loose game then I can kind of see it. But, when the big raise comes back to you it's time to get out.

turn, doesn't look so bad but it depends on the guy going allin. If there were any significant number of callers before you then I'm not sure it's a call. But you get HU with a nut low draw and flush draw. You're getting about 5-1 which seems ok? But they are weak draws, the low could be counterfeit/miss and the flush is a long way short of nut. I think you can call HU tho."

"If we ignore the preflop play, post flop, shoving is fine if and only if you think your flush draw is good.
There is never anything wrong with shoving a low draw and flush draw on the flop so long as both draws are good. If someone has a higher flush draw you're in trouble big time, which is why nut flush draws are always the best.
Your hand post flop plays well with 1 opponent or multiple opponents so long as no-one has a higher flush draw. I would have no problems shoving on that flop from time to time if the table is full of calling stations. There are very few hands that dominate you here which is the important thing to note."

I then made a comment: Thanks for some of your feedback guys.. I'm still learning a thing or two about PLO8. I've decided to take it a little more serious after a year of LO8.
The only reason, I limped in is because of position (late). The table was a bunch of preflop limpers, no one was raising preflop. The raiser just busted out 2 hands ago. He brought back in for $5 and raised preflop and everyone folded to him. Then the very next hand (this one), he did it again. Whether he was on tilt or had a good hand, I dont know. With 4 other people in the pot calling the preflop raise, I thought I'd gamble a little bit to see if anything hit. If not, then simply would fold at the flop. That is what it takes to be a little successful isnt it? Gamble and mix up your play a little bit rather than july play only premium hands?

Ribbo, the famous PLO8 guru, wrote: “Position is no excuse to make bad calls preflop. The limp was fine, but when it is potted behind you, you let the hand go. If you don't learn to do this, you will never be a winner. PLO8 is a very mechanical game at low limits, almost all bets are for value and there is very little scope for personal flair (bluffing etc) due to the large proportion of calling stations. You proved that point yourself with your preflop call where you should have folded.”
----------------------------------

Somethings just make me think about my plays, hand selection, and etc…

PLO8 thoughts...interesting hand

2005-11-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=170173

I'll be posting this hand history at 2+2 later for feedback. I'm not sure if I made the correct call here at the turn. The way I see it, I had a nut low draw and a flush draw. Calling a $3 bet at the turn when theres $16 or so already in the pot, is a good call. I'd probably get flamed at the forum. But sometimes you gotta take criticism from the experts if you want to get better.

So far so good....+$45.15 after 356 hands or so.

so far so good I guess

2005-11-16T09:29:00.000-05:00

Hmmm.... about 300 hands...I'm up $21.02 at the PLO8-$25 tables...dunno if thats good or bad...perhaps I'll go bug Ribbo about it (www.ribbo.com)

PLO8 FEVER!!!!!!!

2005-11-14T14:42:00.000-05:00

I’ve got the Pot Limit Omaha 8 fever this time around. After reading Ribbo’s and Greg’s journals, decided to give PLO8 another shot. After Party gave me my points back, decided to put in $50 there strictly for PLO8-25. I’ve only played about 70 hands so far and am up +$17.63. Not bad…slowly but surely am learning the tricks of trade about this game and gaining some confidence.

So far, it looks like the game of the game is to flop the nuts…let others do the betting then “pot” the SOB at the river. Bluffing rarely seems to work here at the $25 table.

If all goes well…I am hoping to turn my $50 investment into $500 by Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, we will be driving up to Wisconsin for the holidays. Good news and bad news…. Bad news is that we wont be stopping at Harrah’s or Trump’s in Chicago…Good news is that I’ll probably be able to get away from the inlaws for some 3/6 or 4/8 at Oneida in Green Bay.

It looks like Bird and Moof will be heading to AC in Jan….hmmm…dunno about me…might have to pass….told Bird if I have enough bankroll to tackle the 5/10 or 6/12 game then I may consider going…I aint going back to AC again for another “2/4 fest”

I recall that Pacific offered me a $25 first time reload sticky bonus about a year ago. I decided to follow up on them about it. “Sorry…nothing in our files about it”…oh well….PASS!!!!!

Eurobet will be hooking up with Pokerroom and skins….hmmmmm shall I sign up through Eurobet for rakeback? Or should I do Hollywood instead since they have reload bonuses and etc?

Sighhhh….am gonna have to redo my win/loss records again….

Interview with Greg (O8poker.com)

2005-11-08T06:58:00.000-05:00

So many great blogs and so little time to read them all…Many bloggers are fantastic writers and are very very informative. So...for my blog, I would like to “interview” bloggers now and then. Sounds cheesy? Probably so….I am going to try to interview a blogger every two weeks or so…just to learn more about them and etc…

About Greg: I came across his site, O8poker.com, through 2+2. I find that his site is one of the top Omaha 8 websites out there. His advice and suggestions are fundamentally sound and great for beginners and for those who are thinking about the game. Ray Zee’s book is highly recommended and Greg covers some of the things Zee talks about in his book and add some of his own wisdom and interpretation on how to play certain hands/tables.

1. As you stated in your blog, you went to Chi-town for the weekend, any poker?

No, just hung out with family. I did retrieve my copy of Ciaffone and Reuben’s “NL and PL Holdem” from my brother and read thru it tho.

2. I find that O8poker.com is a very comprehensive site for LO8. Those who are "beginners" or who needs to "reevaluate" their play can really benefit from your site. However, you seem to be more on the PLO8 side than LO8 on your blog. Will there be a PLO8poker.com coming soon?

Probably not. More likely I would split the site up into Limit and PLO8 and build it up that way. But really I don’t know that there is enough demand to warrant sub-dividing it so much, and the concepts are similar anyway.

Btw, I am more focused in my blog on PLO8 these days, but that’s because that’s the main game I’m playing right now. I played NL primarily for the first 9 months or so I played poker, then switched to LO8 for both a change of pace and because I thought it might be a better fit for my skillset, then switched after 6 months or so to PLO8 because I thought my winrate would be higher and I could draw on my NL background. But I still dabble in LO8 and NL a few times a month.

3. Personally, I totally suck at PL08. When I jump in the PL games (PLO8*$25*), I still have that LO8 mentally. Any suggestions on how to change my approach (ex. A23Q a good hand in PLO8?)?

PLO8 definitely requires some adjustment. Aggression is more rewarded, semi-bluffing and bet-ability are key concepts, and position is critical. In PLO8, I play a bit looser, focus much more on position, pay more attention to my opponents tendencies as opposed to my cards (vs. LO8), and look for spots where I can steal/bet big to get weaker hands to pay and stronger hands to fold. Not sure how helpful that is, because the correct answer to a given hand in PLO8 vs. LO8 is “it depends” much more frequently.

4. Any online tournament suggestions? I get extremely bored in first 90 mins or so when the blinds are small. Even when I make a nice 5x preflop raise with a premium, I still get a few callers who will hit the flop and will eventually suck me out.

Personally, I think playing very tight early on is the way to go in tourneys. In many of my biggest successes in tourneys on-line, I’ve had VPIP scores around 14-18% for the first third of the tourney. Some people can play looser and make it work, but not me. But you need to find your own style.

I also get fairly bored in the early going, and have found my EV goes up if I play multiple tables so I’m not tempted to try and play bad hands early on. And I don’t mind a few callers with weaker hands – that’s how you make money in the long run – you just need to realize you’ll have bad luck at times.

5. Any good poker blogs out there that you recommend?

Yeah, I list a bunch in the links section of my site. I read LawSchoolDropout, BigDaveD, Daniel Negreanu, Paul Phillips and a few others periodically.

(below are quick questions/answers)

6. Sirus or XM?

I have no idea what this question is even asking. A quick google search suggests something to do with radio, but I’m about the least musically inclined person you’ll ever find.

7. WSOP PLO8 or WSOP Main Event (if you were able to participate in one)?

WSOP Main Event. More fish would play there. PLO8 isn’t offered, and if it was, playing against an expert table wouldn’t be much fun.

8. Favorite Online Poker Site?

It used to be Empire but you can’t find any ring games there these days. I’ll probably open accounts at Full Tilt and UB, and continue to play Party and Stars in the meantime.

9. Played with any pros?

No. But I did challenge Daniel to an O8 match!

10. Annie Duke or Ray Zee?

Ray Zee is the man. His advice is gold.

11. Raymer or Hansen?

Both are awesome tourney players, but I’ll go with Raymer. When I first started playing tourneys, I went back thru the 2+2 MTT forum and read everything he has written, both in the MTT forum and the archives going back 5 years. I learned a ton from him and consider him a bit of a “mentor” even tho I’ve never met him and he's never communicated with me personally!

12. Wintermute or Ribbo?

I’ll go with Wintermute here. He’s taken more money from me in live NL play, and besides, he’s got enough chest hair scare the fish into giving him their money.

--greg

Thanks for your time Greg!!!!!!

Dear Tropicana...

2005-11-08T06:56:00.000-05:00

Dear Tropicana:

Please upgrade your damn wait list. Install those fancy electronic flatscreens like the ones at Borgata, Caesars, and Showboat. This makes it easier for me to keep track and see what games are being offered.

Thank you,

A customer that won’t be playing at Trop until this demand is met....

Alfred's $175 lesson....Our AC trip

2005-11-07T18:54:00.000-05:00

Ol’ Alfred paid $175 for a painful but helpful lesson in 2/4 Hold’em this past weekend at Tropicana and Showboat. Simply just played wayyyy too many hands.

A little about Alfred here: He sucks….there you have it…

A little bit more here: …his wife plays the game better and doesn’t play nearly as much as he does.

A few days before our trip, Alfred proudly announced that he was looking forward to AC and that he ponied up $20 to Shulman’s book (52 tips) to read before heading out. Showing me the book on the way up, I noticed that he only read 20 PAGES!!!! That’s all!?!?! The first 20 pages only covered the first 2 VERY VERY basic tips.

Dude?!?! 20 pages!?!? That’s all?
Yeah…been busy…plus reading makes me sleepy

Flipping through the tips….I showed the probably the most important tip: “Preflop…raise or fold if it is folded to you”...and no he didn’t follow that advice.

Moof and I sat down with Alfred at Tropicana 2/4 Friday morning. After about 2 ½ hours, his whole rack of whites ($100) slowly disappeared. I had Alfred to sit behind me and watch me play….

Our conversation was something like this:
“WTF?”
“Man I was getting good cards….Ace 4…Ace 6….Ace 3 suited but wasn’t catching or was enough to win”
“Huh?? FOLD THOSE!!!”
“I had an Ace….fold them?”
“yeah man….What if someone had an Ace Jack….your Ace 5 doesn’t look so good huh?”
“yeah…but….yeah you know…” (started to cry a bit) *actually not true…but he should’ve*

Moof and I joined Alfred for lunch at Johnny Rockets….we didn’t do too well….Me -$30…Moof -$44 (or so)…I was going up and down between -$40 and -$15….I didn’t get any cards for an hour or so….10-4, 6-9o, J3o…you get the picture…none of them were playable. The very first pot I won was from the BB…my 72o hit its 2nd pair at the turn (879 – 2). I bet…all folded (dang surprised)….I show my 72o…and I bet you my house that not a single person at that table knew that 72o is the worst starting hand in hold’em.

Anyways…at Rockets…I explained to Alfred some points and things to consider when playing his hands and how to play them. Then off to Showboat we go….did he followed my advice??

Well….sorta…Alfred started out playing about 25% of his hands (compared to 60% earlier)…and slowly did his stack grew…$100….$110….$120…$130…. Around that point I snapped at him for his sloppiness on how he stacks his chips...basically told him “Alfed…embarrassing…stack up your chips neatly man or get the hell out….so how are you doing?”

“pretty good….up about $30…am folding more hands like you told me to…etc etc etc”

“good…keep it up”

….but….remember this is the $175 lesson story….slowly but surely Alfred was seeing more flops and getting trapped by better hands….lost a major pot when his Q3 flush got manhandled by Moof’s Ace high flush…Why he was in the pot with Q3, I have no idea... his 67o bottom straight getting punked by Granny’s (QJ) higher straight...

After my cowboys (UTG) got bitch slapped by Granny’s boat (96o from middle position), I had enough….cashed out $105 for 4 hours of play…Moof played one more round before jumping out at +$125 (or so)….a few rounds later, Alfed’s flopped a set with his pocket fours and Grumpy flopped a straight….bet, raise, call….bet raise call….even with the board A2476, Alfred was sure his set was the best hand….Grumpy flips over his 35 SPADES….cashing out his remaining white chips….all 25 of them (-$75)….

So ‘Fred…$175 in the hole huh….wife gonna kill ya?
Nah…I had fun

Hmmm….I guess it was fun to play if you are not a serious player…but a painful $175 lesson it was...

Point of the story:….actually there isn’t a point…I just wanted to make fun of him….

Actually ‘Fred pretty much have a good idea on how to play well...sometimes a player just don’t drive 3 hours just to play a mean game of “fold’em” like I do.

Suggestion for Alfy:
1. Finish reading Shulman’s book and reread it again.
2. Pick up Lee Jones’ book and read it again…and again….and again
3. THEN pick up SSHE
4. Quit doing “web business” on the side and play more online poker for MONEY not play chips...and son…jump in the 50/1 game or higher not the .02/.04 limits

Alfred and his doggone pretty wife will be heading out to Foxwoods during the winter vacation. So there’s plenty of time between now and then to practice a mean game of “fold’em” my dear friend.

Taj had a 5/10 LO8 (no kill this time) table going….sweet!!!!....5-6 were seeing the flops…but…it was midnight…the wait list was 8 players deep…time to head back to Best Western Envoy Inn and call it a night…

Best Western a dump? Actually not bad considering we only paid $81 for it. Did the room smell?...no….Were the bathrooms clean?...yes….Bed(s) comfy?....Front desk people helpful/friendly?....friendly and helpful enough, no need for them to act like we are staying at Borgata…..so all in all, the room was decent…

Last night WSOP observation....

2005-11-02T07:47:00.000-05:00

Amy and Sarah (sister in law) decided to "hog" the TV in the family room. Something about Tuesday night is their favorite favorite night to watch tv. So that forced me to bring up my laptop to the bedroom and watch WSOP.

I only had $27 in my AP account so why not jump in the 50/1 game for a hour or so make some bucks and get some points for bonuses...not a bad night...played about 60 hands (75 minutes?) and left the table with $41 ($14 profit). I think I only got "A2xx" twice or so.

Best hand of the night:

Stage #216975002: Omaha Hi/Lo Normal $0.50/$1 - 2005-11-01 20:57:19 (ET)
Table: BREWERY ST. (Real Money) Seat #3 is the dealer
Seat 3 - DEVVLIN ($49.60 in chips)
Seat 4 - PBNJELLY ($13.45 in chips)
Seat 5 - DRAGO88 ($16.98 in chips)
Seat 6 - MAXSQUAT ($31.20 in chips)
Seat 7 - FARMERTOM ($19.35 in chips)
Seat 8 - JAZZHANDS ($20.90 in chips)
Seat 9 - POKERW0LF ($6 in chips)
Seat 1 - PUDDY561 ($8.68 in chips)
Seat 2 - UPRIGHT BILL ($39.23 in chips)
PBNJELLY - Posts small blind $0.25
DRAGO88 - Posts big blind $0.50
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to MAXSQUAT [Ad 8s 2d 6s]
MAXSQUAT - Calls $0.50
FARMERTOM - Calls $0.50
JAZZHANDS - Folds
POKERW0LF - Calls $0.50
PUDDY561 - Folds
UPRIGHT BILL - Folds
DEVVLIN - Folds
PBNJELLY - Calls $0.25
DRAGO88 - Checks
*** FLOP *** [Qc 6d 5h]
PBNJELLY - Checks
DRAGO88 - Checks
MAXSQUAT - Checks
FARMERTOM - Checks
POKERW0LF - Checks
*** TURN *** [Qc 6d 5h] [8d]
PBNJELLY - Checks
DRAGO88 - Bets $1
MAXSQUAT - Calls $1
FARMERTOM - Calls $1
POKERW0LF - Calls $1
PBNJELLY - Folds
*** RIVER *** [Qc 6d 5h 8d] [9d]
DRAGO88 - Bets $1
MAXSQUAT - Raises $2 to $2
FARMERTOM - Raises $3 to $3
POKERW0LF - Folds
DRAGO88 - Calls $2
MAXSQUAT - Raises $2 to $4
FARMERTOM - Calls $1
DRAGO88 - Calls $1
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MAXSQUAT - Shows [Ad 8s 2d 6s] (Flush, ace high)
FARMERTOM - Mucks
DRAGO88 - Shows [Ah 2s 6h 10d] (One pair, sixes)
DRAGO88 Collects $4.40 from main pot
MAXSQUAT Collects $13.20 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($18.50) | Rake ($0.90)
Board [Qc 6d 5h 8d 9d]
Seat 1: PUDDY561 Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 2: UPRIGHT BILL Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 3: DEVVLIN (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 4: PBNJELLY (small blind) Folded on the TURN
Seat 5: DRAGO88 (big blind) won Total ($4.40) HI:with One pair, sixes [Ah 2s 6h 10d - P:6h,B:6d,P:Ah,B:Qc,B:9d] LO:($4.40) [P:Ah,P:2s,B:5h,B:6d,B:8d]
Seat 6: MAXSQUAT won Total ($13.20) HI:($8.80) with Flush, ace high [Ad 8s 2d 6s - P:Ad,B:9d,B:8d,B:6d,P:2d] LO:($4.40) [P:Ad,P:2d,B:5h,B:6d,B:8d]
Seat 7: FARMERTOM HI: [Mucked] [3d Kd Ac 5d]
Seat 8: JAZZHANDS Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 9: POKERW0LF Folded on the RIVER

Ahhh....Sucks to be the FarmerTom guy...the had the 2nd nuts to high and low...just got caught the in the middle...2nd nuts both hi and low are hard to let go of...but to go crazy reraising me without the nuts was just plain stupid.

Now about WSOP...

Can someone tell me EXCATLY why Andrew Black was crying? The booth boys said it was because his "friend" (one of the players) wasn't back from the break yet. Theres gotta be something more to it.

By now the forums are jumping allll over Tiffany Williams about her play.
Quick review:
1. Took what seems like a good 5 minutes to decide what to do with her KQh when she was reraised all-in by someone holding AA (preflop).

2. With AJo, she was reraised by Raymer holding KK and she calls.. loses a major bulk of her chips (preflop).

3. Decided to go all-in with A7o in early position and gets called by QQ and hits her ace on the flop

Bloggers, internet boards, forums and etc are already jumping on her arse and calling her the most vile name of all: "FISH".

Here is my two cents: She only had one year under her belt, the fact that she made it this far (during the KQh fiasco) is fantastic. The pressure with TV, millions within her reach, and etc can be overbearing. I dont blame her for taking a lengthy time to decide to fold.

Her AJ vs KK...we see this ALLLLLL THE TIME on WPT/WSOP...Hansen, Ivey, Raymer, Brunson....they've all made these calls before...did we ever jump on them?

Remember WSOP was edited, she probably made a bunch of silly decisions, then again she probably made a bunch of fantastic moves that just were never shown. And I'm sure many of those so-called "pros" made some silly decisions too.

Katrina/Gulfport/Biloxi and Party Poopers

2005-10-31T12:13:00.000-05:00

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

2005-10-28T13:01:00.000-04:00

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

2005-10-25T12:47:00.000-04:00

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...

2005-10-24T14:53:00.000-04:00

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...

2005-10-19T06:55:00.000-04:00

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...

2005-10-12T13:23:00.000-04:00

(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

2005-10-11T18:48:00.000-04:00

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...

2005-10-07T13:08:00.000-04:00

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

2005-10-03T12:42:00.000-04:00

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.

The little boy who will rule the world

2005-09-30T12:58:00.000-04:00

My priorities have changed regarding with online poker. In the past, I would play almost nightly 2-3 hours. But then came, softball, Ty (son), and rest. When my son was born, my wife laid down the law. NO POKER UNTIL TY IS IN BED. Really she didn’t have to tell me but I could use a woman guiding me every now and then. There are times when I get home after Ty is in bed and just sit back on the couch, relax, and watch some tube or read a poker magazine/book. I spent almost the whole last year playing poker that I missed out some good television shows. This tv season looks pretty good with Prison Break, Invasion, WSOP (espn), and a few other shows.

Now we are expecting baby #2 in April. I seriously doubt I’ll be playing as much poker as I am now (about 10 hours a week). I’ll be lucky to play 2 nights a week. Hell I don’t even think I’ll be playing softball with the buddies. Sometimes you just gotta sit back and think about things that are important in your life. Softball and poker aren’t way up there on my list.

Ty (now 2 years old) can count up to 20. This is very very good since normally that is a skill for a 3 year old. At this rate I’ll be teaching him how to count cards by the time he is 5. By the time he is 6 or 7, I’ll be replacing his Elmo dvds with Mike Caro and Phil Gordon eh eh…

Some tournament success

2005-09-30T12:57:00.000-04:00

I’ve played 2 $100 freeroll tournaments at Intertops the past 2 nights. The first night I came in 10th out of 378 or so. Won a cool $1!!! Yep….100 pennies, 20 nickels, 4 quarters, 2 half dollars, or whatever. I really wasn’t going to play this one seriously but since I was also playing Party’s mini-steps (2nd step) and a $5 NL sng, before I knew it I was in the money. Of course, I get AhTh in BB, MP made a small raise and folds to me. I defended it.....nice flop AKT rainbow….I check…MP bets…I raise…MP goes all-in…I call…OUCH…MP has AA….oh well…

XM: Guns ‘N’ Roses “Don’t Cry”

Last night I registered for another $100 freeroll but I didn’t participate in it. Intertops sent me an email apologizing that the tournament shut down half way through. Apparently I still had some chips left (auto-fold/sit out). So they rewarded me with $0.35!!!! woooo 35 cents!!!!

So that’s $1.35 bucks!!!!! Nice huh? That’s enough for me to get one KING SIZED candy bar at my local Exxon. Hmmmm Snickers? 100 Grand?? Almond Joy?

I’m still stuck at mini-step 2 at Party…..dont ask me why or WTF….

Currently I’m at Absolute Poker. You’ll see me at the 50/1 Omaha 8 or 1/2 Texas tables. Last night didn’t go too well. Down $8 at 1/2 6 max but +1.50 at 1/2 Texas full ring and +3.00 at 50/1 Omaha 8.

I even came in 2nd at the 50 cents SNG which netted me a cool $1.50. Actually this was the shortest 9 player SNG ever. I DID NOTHING!!! One player was wiping everyone out. By the time the blinds got to 50/100, it was down to two of us. Me at 1300 and the BULLY at 12,200. Thanks for the quick $1.50 Mr. Bully.

XM: Ratt “Back for More”

AC Trip still undetermined!!!!

2005-09-30T12:56:00.000-04:00

Since 9/19/05
+$105.36
Bonus(es) Pending: $60 Absolute Poker

Sigh…..the boys still cant seem to make up their minds about our Atlantic City trip. Here is the thing. I can only make it Friday night and I have to be back home Saturday afternoon (4 hour drive from Maryland). The original plan was to stay in AC on the 4th-6th of November. I’m encourage the boys to go ahead and stay longer without me. But now it looks like they are like “ehhhh I’ll come back home Saturday afternoon too”. Some guys want to come up and join us Friday afternoon after work but are not willing to come back so “quickly” Saturday afternoon. I don’t blame them. Atlantic City ain’t fun without MaxSquat!!!!

XM: Skid Row “Quicksand Jesus”

I gave the boys till 3pm TODAY to decide what they want to do. And the verdict??? We will be staying Friday night only. I will make reservations sometime tonight.