Harrah's Tournaments Suck!

So I had not played poker in a while as this would seem obvious from my lack of post. I did go play the Main Event at the IP a few weeks back (the one Reid final tabled), but to be honest I played so poorly that I didn't feel like reliving it on this little blog. I will some it up by saying that it was by far the poorest I have played in years and to be honest I was ashamed and embarrassed by my play as Reid was at my table the entire time and had to witness it. Enough of that though.

I was excited to get back to it finally so I rode up Sunday and decided to give the mega a shot. It was a rather cheap tourney w/ an ok structure and the reward was 1k chips for the tourneys. W/out going into a bunch of detail w/ 23 or 24 players remaining and 18 full chips being given away and 20 placed total getting paid I knew I needed to win 1 more pot and I would be in. Knowing that was the easy part. Actually winning the hand would prove to be not so easy. Sparing all the details the player utg ships his stack in the middle. He was short and I knew he would move w/ any connector, Ace , or face card for that matter. It folded to me and I thought this would be my shot as I was holding A10dd. The big blind would have to have a monster(more on that later) to call my shove as he barely had me covered and it would be his tourney if he lost the hand. I shove and the big blind decided to call also. I felt sick and just knew I was smoked. Everyone reveals there hands and I almost ashamed and upset turnover my A10dd and the bb proudly turns over K9off followed by the K10 off of the utg raiser! Could I possibly win this. HELL NO. The flop comes K high and then the part that pissed me off was the 9 on the turn to give the moron in the BB the whole damn pot. Oh well that is poker as they say. Who is they by the way? One tourney, One close call. Always tomorrow right.

So I go sit in a 1/2 for 300 and play for a few hours and recoup my loss from the satellite and another 220 for the next day's tourney. I then had to drive home so that I could wake up at the crack of dawn to bring my daughter to the babysitter. I accomplish all of this w/out getting much sleep b/c I am excited about Jason "Juice" Lipscomb and his new and improved tourney structures. Bahahahaaa what a joke that turned out to be!

So I get the baby to the babysitter bright and early and to my office to make sure I didn't have anything going on. What a shock, a pretty light day! Tex and I head to New Orleans and get registered for the tourney and grab a bite to eat at Mothers. We go to Ruttley's room from the previous day to relax and eat b/f the tourney starts.

Tex and I both fell asleep after eating and I woke up at 12:15 and headed to the tourney. I got there just in time to play QJ suited on my first hand turn a straight and lose a 1/3 of my stack to a guy's flush. I suppose I should have slept a few more minutes huh?

I eventually get my chips back by picking a few spots here and there. My table breaks and I move to a table w/ a mix of active players and absolute morons. This is about the time when GCP's newest blogger the Juice starts to show off his new and improved "Lets see how fast we can get this tourney over " Structure. After completing the 50/100 level we go to 100/200 which is normal. The only catch was that they introduce the ante right away! Everyone at my table(that had a clue about poker) was kind of upset, but we figured hey no big deal if they skip a level at least they gave us 3k in chips(sarcasm). So we next move to 150/300 w/ a 50 ante. Again I was pleased as this would be a logical jump after the 100/200 level.

But what happened from here on out was an absolute joke. At this point I believe there was about 95 players left out of 185 or so. The next jump was from 150/300 to 300/600 75 ante!
Did someone just decide to take out 200/400? We play this level and I figure we have to go to 4/800 next right? Boy am I a moron. How about 500/1000 w/ a 100 ante. By this point the avg chip stack is around 6000 or so and it is costing us 2500 to see one orbit of hands! That is by far the most absurd thing I have ever seen.
After this level, we go to 800/1600 200ante and just start to mow the field down. Why this is a 2 day tourney is beyond me, as it is 4:15 and there are only 35 players left out of 185 or so. Yes for those keeping track we lost 2/3's of the field in about a level and a half. The tables were breaking so fast that we had to play 7 handed most of the time b/c the 8 floor people couldn't collect the seat cards fast enough. This is the level I busted in w/ about 30 or 32 players left. I busted in a shitty hand where I raised the button from the small blind b/c I thought he was weak. I held 55 and wouldn't you know the BB is holding aces and has me covered. The guy making the move has Q6cc and is committed, as they say, so he calls and loses more chips.

When I got knocked out there were 30 players left give or take a couple and the blinds were 800/1600 w/ a 200 ante. That is 4200 a round and the avg chips stack is 10500 or 6 BB's as Gene would say. This is terrible as far as I am concerned. What is the goal of this? Do they want to end this thing as soon as possible or do they actually want people to play and enjoy themselves? The fact that someone thinks this is an improvement boggles my mind more than anything. In a time when all casinos are increasing starting stacks and improving structures and increasing the length of them you would think that Harrah's would jump on board. But instead GCP's newest addition THE JUICE takes out a black marker and decides to start having levels vanish. I really would like to know why. The structure for the main event is awesome and I really don't see what the problem would be w/ using that structure for all the events and just changing starting stacks and the time of the levels. Juice if you read this could you please answer this for me? Another point that is stupid it that the level for the mega satellites are the same blind levels and starting stacks, but they have a better structure. The 200/400 and 400/800 levels are still in those tourneys. Maybe I just don't get it, but I would really like for someone to attempt to make me understand it. Any takers out there?
Til next time,
Lata

Finally Some Poker & Sesame Street

So I finally played poker, but I wish I hadn't. I'll get to that in a bit.

Sunday, I had the priveledge of bringing my wife and daughter to the New Orleans arena. Were the Hornets playing? Nope. Sesame Street and Elmo were in town & my wife just new that my 10 month old daughter would love to see it. I am still not convinced whether or not that was an excuse b/c she wanted to see it or not. Anyway it was fun watching her reaction when we could actually get her to pay attention. She seemed more entertained by watching and laughing at the people behind us. Other than watching her laugh and enjoy the show, I would have obviously rather have been watching the Saints play the Chargers. If I could not do that I would rather have been shoving pencils in my eyes than having to watch Big Bird run around a fucking stage!

So I read Monkey's latest blog and I have to say that I think it is pretty shitty that they have not let him back in yet. Not only have they not let him back in but it does not seem like that will happen anytime soon. It is hard for me to have much of an opinion on the matter b/c I do not know him or the people that are pulling the strings at the Beau. I will say this though. The little that I do know about him, I think it is obvious that people either like him or really hate him. I have not talked to him or played with him enough to have an opinion. I can tell you that I can easily see how people do not like him. I have played in a few tourneys w/ him at the same table, been in the vacinity of him at various times in different poker rooms and even talked to him when he was checking into his hotel in Tunica and this much I know. Every single one of those times he has been either arguing w/ someone or giving someone shit about something. I am not saying that this makes him a bad person or that I would not like him if I got to know him. God knows I am a smart ass that fucks w/ everyone. Then there is this, In the last two years at 2 different casinos in the last 2 years(before any of this latest shit went down) I just happened to be around the floor staff of the casino I was at(once Harrahs & once the Beau) and Will walked in. At the time I had no idea who he was, I just recognized him as a guy I had seen around a few times. I had never talked to him or played with him at the time these two things happened. Each time the conversation was identical from the floor staff. One of them was saying how much shit he started and the other was saying how it was only a matter of time before he did something stupid enough or harsh enough to where they could kick him out of the poker room. Whether it be forever or for a specific period of time I have no idea and don't really care. My opinion is this:
Do I think Will is a cheater at poker or anything else for that matter? No I don't. He is brutally honest in his blog about everything. A lot more so than most people are.
I think is personality brings these situations on a lot more for him than for others just b/c he is so confrontational and rubs so many the wrong way. Again, I am not saying that there is anything wrong with it. It just seems to me that shit happens to him that just doesn't happen to other people. I mean the guy got accused of hacking peoples accounts online, duped out of sending someone money in another country, and got a lifetime ban from an entire list of casino properties! That is like getting struck by lightning 3 times. That kind of shit just doesn't happen to people, does it? Does he just have the worse luck in the history of life? It seems so.
I actually think that Jonny Grooms or someone was looking for a reason to stick it to him and they finally got there chance. Do I think it is just and deserved? Hell no. I hope that he gets it worked out soon. I just hope that if he does he keeps himself a little more under the radar for his ownsake. Good luck Will.

So I said that I finally played poker and wish I hadn't. I made it over to Shorty's last Wednesday and got into a game very quickly. The only way I could talk about this night would be to talk about shitty hand after hand. I believe that I had 5 or 6 sets flopped on me when I held an overpair and I doubled up shorter stacks. Once when I was fairly deep w/ KK against QQ on a Q high board. and Once w/ KK when QQ made broadway on the river. Oh well that shit happens all the time to everyone and I am not gonna bitch about it. It happens and you have to roll w/ it.
This is the hand that flusters me a bit though and I don't know if I should classify it as a bad beat or the right play w/ the wrong result. You be the judge. I thought I had played it pretty well.
This hand was a week ago so I will do my best to be accurate. I am down about 1300 on the night b/w the two tables I have been at and I am ready to gamble a bit more than normal.
I have ace/3 offsuit w/ the ace of clubs and I call a late position raise from truckdriver Alan(anyone that plays at shortys knows who I'm talking about). I believe he made it 25 or 30 and I call as does Mike O who had limped in from early position. I believe Mike is a decent player who will gamble but doesn't get out of line much. More importantly he knows that I don't get frisky all that often. We see the flop 3 handed and it is: AdKc2c. I flop top pair which I think may be good, but I want to see what develops and for the time being I want to control the size of the pot.

I check and Mike bets $40 and Alan calls the $40( I am thinkin at this point he has a bad ace or JJ QQ 1010. I thought about checkraising, but decided that I would call and then lead out on the turn(especially if it was a club b/c I knew Mike did not have the nut draw, but would lead w/ anyother one). The turn is the 10c and the flush is completed & I decide that I just made a flush! Or atleast I would treat is as such. There is roughly $195 in the pot and I was going after this one. I bet out $150 and Mike goes into the tank. I knew he could not call this bet from me w/out a monster. He folds and Alan calls after about 10 seconds. At this point I really thought he had a hand like AJ or A9 and I would have to fire on the river to get him to fold his hand if I didn't hit the club on the river. The river card is the Jd and I stick the rest of my stack in which was about $280. Alan calls and shows two red queens for the rivered straight! How the fuck does he make that call on the turn w/ the 2 overcards and the flush hitting. I know he is loose but I would not classify him as stupid. Now I am not sure. I thought I had played and thought the hand out pretty well. Thoughts? I guess not well enough. After the hand I was stuck somewhere in the neighborhood of 1600 or so and decided I needed a break. I wandered into the pits(big no no and lately I have been good about it, but that kind of set me off a bit) I managed to get all my money back and get off the bj table dead ass even. Then like a dumbfuck I go back to the poker room and lose another $400 and leave stuck that for the night. It still seemed like a win.

I will probably go to Shortys tommorow and I am leaning on going to the IP Sunday. If anyone wants to roll out w/ me give me a holla if you read this. Especially you Ray. We need to get together and bullshit a bit!

Take it easy

Still No Poker

I have not had much to write about lately. I have not played a hand of live poker since leaving Tunica between Gustav and Ike. I am hoping to go to Shortys Wednesday to put in a session and get back in the swing of things.

All I have done lately is watch football and bet on football. I have been doing surprisingly well on that front, but I need to slow myself down or I will be in for a beating sooner or later. I went to the saints/49ers game last week, and will also be in the dome Monday night for the Vikings game. I am hoping to get out of the office early to take part in all of the pregame tailgating.

Maybe I'll write something about the game tommorow and hopefully I'll beable to play this week.
Till then lata.

Denver Sports Weekend Continued

When we left off we were talking about the Thursday Night CU game.
After the game we went to a sports bar for a few beers and a burger. We called it a night pretty early b/c it was gonna be a long weekend. We got up Friday morning and sort of did the tourist thing. We went check out Red Rock which is this pretty cool outdoor theatre that Dave Matthews Band and tons of other people perform at. It is right at the foot of the mountains and is a very nice place. Next, we had lunch in Golden, Co which is home to Coor Beer. The tour of the Brewery is suppose to be pretty cool. The fact that you get to drink free beer is pretty cool in my opinion, but the tour pretty much sucked. One cool thing about it is this. Anyone that lives there(and it is a college town) can go to the Pub at the brewery and have 3 free beers every single day. There were college kids that would go do homework or just play cards and get there beer. There is also a tap in the cafeteria so that employees can just grab a beer during lunch.
This is the funniest to me: They have a wellness center for employees to workout and run on treadmills. It contains another beer tap. You guessed it, jump on the treadmill for 20 minutes and cool off w/ a beer.
Friday night we went to the Rockies game. The first thing that struck me as odd was that you can and are encouraged to bring in any type of food or drink you would like to the game. There were families bringing in Subway and McDonald's to the stadium. This would never happen at the Superdome in New Orleans. The game was good. The Rockies won 3-2 and the D-backs had a chance in the 9th. We saw 2 interesting things. The first was a race in between innings where the guy running from left field to first base fell to the ground like he'd been shot by a sniper. He grabbed his hamstring and was limping off the field in a manner that was very entertaining. He walked right by the full length of the Rockies dugout. I figured a trainer would check on him at some point, but this never happened. In fact, the Rockies players were imitating the guys limp and recreating it as the guy walked by. It was kinda fucked up b/c you could see how much pain he was in. The next was a 60 year old woman fighting over a t-shirt that was thrown into the stands b/w innings. She was fighting in the isle next to up w/ a guy in his mid 30's. She was hanging over his shoulder and couldn't see who the person was. He kinda flung her over his shoulder and she flew down like 2 steps and smoked her head on a chair and then the concrete step. She was bleeding from the head and out of her ear! The emergency staff came to attend to her and carried her out on the stretcher. As she was leaving the guy that threw her down did give her the shirt as he felt like shit.

That is enough for now. Maybe I will post the rest of the trip this afternoon regarding the saints game. I may even touch on all this shit going on w/ Monkey and Jon Little. That is a very fucked up situation. You can find info on in at www.gulfcoastpoker.net if you haven't seen about it yet.
Lata

The Best Sports Trip to Date Part 1

So in my last entry, I talked about going on a dream sports weekend. It did not disappoint to say the least. It got kicked off in an exciting way that I didn't bargain for. This is the recap in the best way I know how.
Thursday:
I left the office around 9 am as I had to pack and get all my shit together b/f my 3:15 flight leaving from New Orleans. For those that don't know I live about 50 minutes from New Orleans. After getting work squared away and all my errands completed I headed to New Orleans to meet a friend for lunch. It just so happens that he was at Harrah's so I headed to the parking garage and made it into the casino at about 12:35. I go find him in the poker room and he is sitting next to another friend of mine who we will call Jeff, who apparently didn't feel well enough to go to work on this beautiful Thursday afternoon. We decide to eat the very average buffet and catch up a little. He was in town because he was forced to evacuate Houston due to Hurricane Ike. After lunch we walk back to the poker room and I get my parking validated and tell Jeff and Brad later. Now the fun begins.
My brilliant ass decides to play a hand or 5 of blackjack before halling ass to the airport. It is 2:05 when I stand at a blackjack table to play a few hands. I just couldn't walk in a not place some sort of wager. So I play approximately 7 hands of blackjack and win $200. I am now on my way w/ what I thought was plenty of time. Not exactly. I soon realize the $200 might not have been worth it as I get stuck in traffic on I-10 trying to get to the airport. I fly through the airport traffic and bribe the shuttle driver to not pick anyone else up and get me to my gate. She obliges and leaves people in the parking lot waiting and gets me to my gate in about 4 minutes. I rush through security and make it onto the plane about 5 minutes before the plane takes off. When I land in Denver I realize that my belt is still on the conveyor belt in New Orleans since I took it off going through the metal detector.
We land in Denver about 20 minutes early and my cousin's friend Mason and I are picked up by My cousin Matt. We leave the airport on our way Boulder to watch the Thursday Night ESPN Game b/w West Virginia and Colorado. I thought we would be late based on all the times I have gone to LSU games. Well this is totally different. We drove straight onto campus and parked very close to the field right in front of what I believe was a dorm.
We make it into the game w/ time to spare. We grab a drink and a dog and get to seats right after kickoff.
Now for those that know me know that I bet on football from time to time. I felt like I had to bet on the game. I settled on Colorado +2.5 and the under 56.5. The emphasis on Colorado it was a bigger bet than the under. Well Colorado came out of the gates like wild fire as they score 2 touchdowns w/in the first 4 minutes of the game. WV promptly answers w/ a score and the game is 14-7 w/ 8 minutes left in the 1st qtr. Loving the under right?
This is the point where both offenses forgot what the object of the game was and both just stopped doing what was working for them for no apparent reason. The scored stayed the same going into the 3rd qtr when WV tied the game on the opening possesion. The game was very exciting as it went to overtime and saw WV's go ahead fg attempt bang off the upright and allow Colorado to win the game w/ a field goal of there own. Colorado escapes w/ a 17-14 win, and I escape w/ about a $800 victory myself! Very nice start to the trip if I do say so myself.
We get back to Denver and grab a burger and a beer b/f going to Matt's to get some sleep for Friday and the Rockies game...........More on that to come

No Poker. Off to Denver for Dream Sports Weekend.

I have not played a hand of poker since returning home from the storm. I have actually been busy since returning and have not had a chance to review any hands.
I played 2 of the $340 events at Harrahs Tunica while I was there. The first had a field of 150 and I busted uneventfully w/ about 60 players left. I got lucky early on in this one to double to about 21k from the starting stack of 8k when I played QQ very fast from the small blind and found aces in the cutoff. This is the history. This middle age guy sits down 5 minutes into the tourney and gives the typical this is my first tourney speech. A line that was total bullshit b/c no one plays in there first tournament w/ a black leather WSOP jacket and a black cowboy hat that is about 8 sizes to big for there head. He was just an overall douchbag(one that tricked the hell out of me I might add). Anyway, he is playing really fast. He opens for a raise on the button and gets reraised by the small blind and calls. The flop comes king high and the sb checks and he bets(like 800). The sb checkraises allin for like 5500. Keep in mind the blinds are 50/100 in the 2nd level of the tourney w/ 8k starting chips. The douchbag calls allin w/ the quickness and proudly shows k7cc for top pair 7 kicker and no draw. The sb promptly reveals ak and proceeds to watch the dealer stick it in his ass w/ a 7 on the river. Nice.
So about ten minutes later the exact same scenerio plays out w/ the douchbag except this time he has Ace 3 off against ak on an ace high flop. He check calls the flop after calling a rasie preflop. He then check raises allin on the turn and gets called by AK. The guy w/ AK has top pair and nut flush draw. The douchbag hits the 3 on the river to bust him.
Now this guy has had inferior hands for an hour and built up about 26k in chips and he has to be due to pick up a real hand. Just so happens to be the time for me to do the same. Well I don't like rasing from the sb or bb against a field of limpers. I am in the big blind and 4 people limp in for 200 and I look at QQ. As I saw everyone limping I thought to myself, Self you'll probably pick up a big hand. I make it 1400 more to attempt to thin the field. It worked except the douchbag w/ 26k in chips moves them all in the pot. This is almost always a fold for me this early as I have 11k in chips and I really do not need to play for all my chips, but then part of me really couldn't understand why or what anyone would limp from the cutoff w/ 3 limpers in front of him and then do that with. Did he think I was making a move from the blind against all the weak limpers? I was too curious to fold and given his history I just could see him flipping to 6's over after I fold to many times. So ofcourse I call and he proudly flips over his two Aces. OOPS. I flop the queen and double up. For the rest of this tournament I played as bad as humanly possible, chasing flush draws and stabbing at pots when I knew I shouldn't be. My last hand came when I moved over the top of a button raise who I figured to be weak from the sb w/ 88. My only miscalculation was that the bb had AK and this chick was not folding. She called and won the race. Oh well.

The next tournament was just torturne. It was the Monday b/f I came back. I dwindled my starting stack from 8k all the way down to 1400 in the first 40 minutes of the tournament. I don't know if anyone has ever felt this way, but 10 minutes into the tournament I was regretting signing up for it because I felt like I didn't want to be there. I am not sure if it was the hurricane shit going on or what, but I just wasn't into it on this morning. When I went down to 1400 I shipped it in the pot after one limper w/ A7hh figuring the sb who was very loose w/ his chips would call w/ any A,K,Q anything. He did w/ A3 and I doubled up. Before I knew it I was back to 7600 chips and 2 minutes b/f the break I pick up AA. 2 people limp and I am on the button. I raise to 950 at 100/200 and get one call from the big blind. The flop comes 953 w/ 2 spades. The blind checks to me and I bet 1200. He promptly check raises me to 3k as the break is starting. I count out my chips and tell him 5450 total. I'm allin. He snap calls. I said you have a set and he says no I just didn't believe you and reveals the almighty 77. He promptly his a 4 on the turn and a 6 on the river to give him a very nice stack going to the break. I got to go on a permanent break for that tournament. Shit happens.

I am hoping to get back to Shorty's next week, but first I have to deal w/ my big sports weekend. I am flying to Denver today to hook up w/ my cousin. He is picking me up at the airport and we are going straight to Boulder for the Colorado/West Virginia game. We are then going to the Diamondback/ Rockies game on Friday. Saturday we are going to have a day of drinking and eating as we watch college games all day. I am sure it will be split b/w my cousin's couch and a few sports bars around Denver. The weekend comes to an end Sunday as we are going to the Saints/Broncos game at Invesco field. I am super excited about this game as John Elway was my favorite QB growing up and the Broncos were my favorite team(except for the saints ofcourse). My friend Mason is coming on the trip also and when we are at football games together we tend to make crazy prop bets the whole time. It should be fun.
Matt got all the tickets ahead of time and we have excellent seats for all 3 games. I'll try to get some pics of the stadiums for all 3 of you reading. It should be fun.
Well I am at work and I still need to get out of here, pack, get a hair cut, and meet a friend for lunch. My flight is at 3; so getting all that done should be a challenge!
Lata

Harrah's Tunica

Just thought of this tidbit also. Anyone that is evacuted and will be for a while Harrah's Tunica has roomrates of $39 a night during the week and only $89 on Friday and Saturday. Farely cheap if you need a place to go and you want to play some poker.

I will be back when i get some time w/ some hands for you people to rip apart. Some I played well and some that I played like a moron.
Lata

In Tunica

Sorry for the delay folks. The internet has been a bit hard to get to recently.
I am currently in Tunica and have been here since getting the boot from the Beau at about 4am sunday.
As the site was updated by Bill I believe, I finished 18th in event number 2 at the Beau. It was a decent cash. It could have been really special, but I have still not learned how to win w/ AA when I get it allin preflop. A guy shipped it w/ kj off and I called w/ AA and the flop promptly came kk8. The turn was a jack and this guy said and I quote "wrap it up he's drawing dead" I do not think i have every wanted to hit a card so bad in my life. This guy did not even realize that I could beat him w/ one of the 2 aces. Go figure.
I played the 1st $500 event at the Beau which I believe had about 440 players. There is nothing that I remember eventful from that event except for the fact that I ran out of chips(busted) w/ around 90 players left.

I got to Tunica really expecting to have a decent amount of action. I was severely disappointed. I signed up for the nightly at the Goldstrike and gene was also in this tourney as well. There were only 44 others for the event. I chipped up early and then called a raise w/ JJ and saw a flop heads up. The flop was QJ6 I believe. The preflop rzr checks and I bet out. He ships it allin and I ofcourse call. He has QQ and my stack was crippled. I busted shortly b/f the break. These things happen and I was not upset in the least. I have been running well and if I have to take a beat like this i much rather it be in a tourney of this size.

I told myself and my wife that I would not play another tourney until Thursday when the events started at Harrah's. That lasted until Wednesday when I signed up for the bounty tourney at the horseshoe. It is a total of $130 to get in w/ 90 to the prize pool, 15 registration fee, and a $25 bounty for knocking out players. One super bounty was picked at random b/f the tourney started. This player gets $100 for his troubles and the player that knocks him out gets $125.
The Tourney director told me they get about 60 for this tourney (bullshit) so I signed up and went screw off for an hour or so. I came back to start the tourney and was less than thrilled to see 3 tables of 7. What the F**K. Do people not play poker anymore. Anyway you start w/ 2k in chips and I busted 1 player w/ a flush and take 70% of another players chips on the very first hand of the tourney. So this started nicely. I collected his bounty and got another shortly after. So I am sitting there w/ 7500 35 minutes into the tourney. The I set my sites on the super bounty and decide turn my attention toward him. He raises to 200 at 25/50 and I call on the button w/ 10 9 dd (which i woulda done anyway). The flop comes out 8d 7c 3c. Super Bounty bets out 600 and I settle on a call. I thought about pushing, but decided against it. The turn was a beautiful jd giving me the nut straight and a str8 flush draw. The SB bets out 900 and I put him in for his remaining 850. He calls and shows AKcc and hits his flush on the river. This would have given me a ridiculous chipstack and the $125 bounty giving me a profit of $70 on the tourney and freerolling w/ a huge stack. Oh well. We ended up playing to 5 handed and I lost 2 races for the chiplead and to knock out a player. We chopped after the blinds went to 500/100 w/ a 100 ante b/c since only 21 players started there were no chips in play. The biggest stack w/ 13k and i had right around 9. We chopped evenly for what amounted to be right around 2nd place money. Seemed like a no brainer.

I played even 1 at Harrahs today. $340 buyin w/ 8k in chips and an excellent structure. I was pleasently surprised. It got about 150 players and I was bounced around 60th or so. May play tommorow. I believe it is a $700 event. That is a bit strange I thought. We'll see.

I have not talked about many hands but I will try to do that later maybe. I had a few from the tourney at the beau, but this is already to long.
Goon I will try to do something about the color. I would hate to hurt your eyes.

I hope the 5 of you that read this are safe and dry from the storms. I will be in touch and hope that Ike stays away. I may be here through next Friday we will see.
Stay dry!

Shorty's Wednesday

The Tilted Texan and I made off on what is becoming it seems my weekly journey to Shortys on Wednesday. I believe I got in the game at about 3 pm and Tex was in the same game shortly after. This was the 3rd no limit game opened already as the room was pretty packed again.
The only real hand that comes to mind was the 2nd one that I was dealt.

I bought into the game for $400 and I am in the bigblind on my 2nd hand w/ 64ss. There is a player across from me that on my first hand loss $400 w/ top pair top kicker after slow playing it on the flop a waiting for everyone to catch up to him before he decided to put all of his money in. Well he rebuys for $300 and he prompty makes it $25 to go. One player calls and I decide to get things started right away and I call along w/ the one limper from under the gun. We see a flop of Js 6H 2d 4 handed. I check as do all 3 players behind me. The 4h peels off on the turn and there is no doubt in my mind that I have the best hand. I want to get as much action as possible and I am fairly certain that the idiot that raised is trying his little slowplay maneuver again. I decide to check eventhough I would normally lead out here. I think the reason is if I bet I could likely get called by at least 2 of the players and I could easily get counterfeited on the turn. I knew someone would bet the turn behind me and it would be easier to take the pot down with a checkraise in this spot or just go to the river with 1 opponent. The under the gun limper bet a very weak $25 and the preflop raiser just called. This confused me as I was sure that he would raise the turn no matter what. Well I was right and wrong about this. The other character folds and the action is on me. I decide to checkraise to $70 trying to get action from the preflop raiser. The utg bettor folds as exepected and the other guy decided it is time to make his move. He reraises to $215 more back to me and I start to count out my chips. I know that the only hand beating me is JJ, but this is a gamble I am gonna take most of the time. I call and ask if he has the set and he looks at me like I am crazy and says " No I have kings." He said it in a tone that there is no way he does not have best hand. He turned out to be right as the Kd hits the river and he drags the pot. He said he was sure I had ace jack. I said nice read sir.

These are the types of hands I have not been getting unlucky with over the past month or so. I played for only about 3.5 hours tonight and made that $300 back along w/ almost a full buyin profit to show for the trip. I really can't remember any hands along the way except for one where I made trip 10's on the turn after raising preflop. I busted the same guy from the earlier hand for his last $200 or so as he had already given most of his money away to others.

I will possibly be playing at Harrahs tonight at some point as my wife and I are going to the city for some kind of party tonight. I am not sure what to really classify this as. If I do play is will likely be the last session before Biloxi next week. I can't wait for that. I can not ever remember being so amped up about an event before.

A friend of mine Jerrard has started a blog also. We use to his local games and casinos probably 4-6 nights a week a few years ago. For varous reasons we both took breaks over the past year and a half. I have started playin a bit more and I believe he would like to follow suit. I am hoping that he starts playing a bit more as it gets lonely riding by yourself back and forth from time to time. His first post talks about how he got started. You can find it online at http://www.thehonestplayer.blogspot.com/ . I enjoyed reading it and thinking about the past. When I get some time I may talk about some of the same stories as I am sure we have quite a few.
The few people that read this I do welcome any thoughts that would make this more enjoyable to read.
Lata.

Fast Food Restaurants

I don't believe that I have many pet peeves, but stupid people are definitely the biggest one! I HATE stupid people. I don't know why they just annoy the ever living shit out of me. I do not think that people that work at fast food restaurants have ever been accused of being the sharpest tools in the toolbox, but it seems as if they are getting dumber than ever. I would bet that a few years ago they any given fast food joint would fuck up my order probably 3 out of 10 times. I would bet that now it seems like they fuck it up in someway at least 60% of the time. I may be just the 1 unlucky soul in this department, but I seriously doubt it. They don't even have to fuck up the order to show you how stupid they are. It really just shows in the questions they ask you when you order.
I have a quizno's by my house and I get a sandwich for lunch there at least 3 times a week. First of all, If I worked there and someone went there that often and ordered the same fucking thing every single time I probably would not even have to ask them what they want. Oh no, not these fucking idiots. This is an example of my normal exchange w/ the same woman every time I go there.
Dumb Idiot Bitch: What can I make for you today?
Me: I would like a regular oven roasted turkey w/ only extra cheddar cheese.
DIB: Would you like tomatoes on that?
Me: (very calmly) No thank you, Only cheddar cheese.
DIB: You don't even want mayonaise?
Me: No, I only want meat and cheese on the bread. I don't even want the little sprinkles ya'll put on the sandwiches. After that you can put it through the little toaster machine!
DIB: Ok sir no Problem. (At this point they make the sandwich and put the sprinkles half the time anyway.)

After a few moments, the sandwich comes out of the toaster and the same girl gets it and does one of two things. This is every single time I might add. She either takes it upon herself to just put lettuce on it or she says " You don't even want lettuce on your sandwich?"
When she goes w/ option one I really get aggravated b/c she tries to start picking it off and says would you like me to make you another one? I usually say yes just so she can start to be as aggravated as I now am. If she goes with option two, I usually say something to the effect of " Does only meat and cheese include lettuce?" She replies very seriously and not sarcastic (as far as I can tell) No I guess it doesn't.
She then wraps up my sandwich and rings it up.
This is the strangest part. I get this same sandwich and a Gatorade every time 3 days a week. I swear that my total has not come out to be the same amount 2 times in a row ever. It totally amazes me.

Anyway I am curious if anyone else feels the same way as this absolutely annoys the shit out of me. I go through this every single time I go there. I really would love to not go there b/c I feel like I get dumber every time I walk in, but it is right by my house and I really do not like Subway.
Nothing poker related for today. I just wanted to get that off my chest. Any comments regarding this would be welcomed if anyone happens to read this. Am I just the stupid one? Maybe so.
Take care!

Wednesday @ Shorty's

First off I wish Shortys was closer to my house although I am sure my wife would not like it so much. I do like the fact that they have raised the cap on the 5-5 nl game which was 300 or half the biggest stack. They actually did even better than changing it as they now have none at all. You can now buyin for the standard $500 which is the norm in most 5-5 games. This has really helped the action as the 5-10 game is not killing all the action in the room anymore. No one seemed to understand why the game sucked when everyone is buying into a 5-10 game w/ $200 or $300.
I was down early as I was not connecting w/ any flops and if I did connect it just was not quite good enough. I was down to about 200 left in front of me and I looked down at Q10dd and decided to make it 25 to go. I was looking to just play a hand really as 90% of the time I will just see a flop w/ this holding at Shorty's b/c raises really do nothing but create a big pot. I was ok w/ this in this case as I was looking to gamble a bit. So I make it 25 and Big Mike ask me if I realized the straddle was on. Oops, I sure did not sir. So we promptly see a flop 7 handed I believe for $25. Flop is: 10s 6d 4d. I would say that will work. It checks to me and I lead out for $65 trying to get some action for the rest of my money. It folds to a guy from Houma named Jaime who for whatever reason never seems to believe I have a hand. He checkraises me allin. Ok, I call. The turn is a diamond and the river is an 8. I reveal my hand and he studies it and says " Nice catch Davey" and shows 10-8 off suit. I had to point out to him that I did not need to catch anything b/c he had already started congratulating himself on a good call b/c he said he put me on over cards or a flush draw. I had to let him no (in a nice way ofcourse) that I would never have led into 6 people w/ just 2 over cards. I think he understood but who knows. Anyway, that pot moved me back to even and the rest of the night went well.
One funny thing b/f mentioning a few hands, Mike was down to about $70 bucks when he called the floor over for more chips. The floor guy (Shaun) tells the dealer $500 behind. This would mean that Mike's money is in play for the hand. Mike objects and tells him that he will wait for it to get here. I ofcourse open my mouth and tell him that I hope he flops top set against a hand and makes only $70. Oops!!! He sees a flop w/ 99 and the flop comes K 9 4. Bahahahahaa. The preflop raiser leads out for $40 and Mike puts the rest of his chips in. The guy calls and then Mike turns the 4th 9. The preflop raiser had KQ and was going no where no how if you know what I mean. I laughed my ass off for about 20 minutes as did Shaun when I naturally informed him about what happened. Mike took it well as it was ofcourse better than losing the hand.

A few hands I remember:
I had AA utg and I limp in. I swear this is the first time I do this in probably 6 months as the limp reraise hear normally kills your action if someone does raise. I just decided to change it up if you will. About 4 people limp to Jaime from earlier as he is on the button and he makes it $30 more. I actually contemplated calling and just playing very cautiously, but I notice every single player getting there $30 ready to go. I make it $105 total and it folds to Jaime. He announces allin and has me covered. I had right around $500. I was fortunate to say the least as he had KK and I turn an ace to end that. A little side note as the stacks were being counted down Tim H. says to the dealer to mess w/ me: Dealer you forgot to burn a card. I looked at him and then down. I said "as long as the turn card stays you can burn as many as you want." We had a cheap laugh and went on to the next hand.
I had AA one other time and just made it $20 from early position. We see a flop 7 handed again (YES 7 HANDED). Needless to say I am not gonna get crazy. Flop 10 8 4 w/ 2 clubs. Not a bad flop. I Lead for only $45 as I feel I can find out the same info as if I bet $80 and I want to control the pot as much as possible. I get 2 calls and we see an 8 on the turn. I liked that card as the str8 draw nor the flush draw hit. I bet $85 here and get one call from the blind who had flush draw stamped right across his head. The river bricks and he checks. I didn't even consider betting and show AA and put a few ones on my cards for the dealer b/f he even shows/mucks his cards. After I get the pot this little prick on the side of me says: hey did you forget the dealer." I almost slapped him as even if I wanted to forget the dealer it was none of his fucking business. I said "I am not sure why don't you ask her for me." He actually does which surprised me and I like the dealers reply. She says " Yes honey he got me before I shipped him the pot." He felt dumb and was quiet for the rest of the night.
I called off about $150 on a flopped str8 flush draw which I didn't hit and I did not feel the need to bluff on the river. Good thing b/c it would not have worked as the guy would never have fold his top pair jack kicker.
I did make one decent lay down which saved me a bit of money. I call a $25 preflop raise from late position from a player that plays a lot of hands, but he really doesn't get out of control. Most people think that he does b/c he just seems to be in a lot of pots. We see a flop 3 handed of 10 8 5 w/ 1 spade. I check along w/ the other guy and Pf Rzr bets $40. I call as I want to see his action on the turn and the other guy folds. The turn is a 3 which is no help to me. I check and he bets $100. I look at his stack and he had like $220 left. I really believe that if I call this 100 and he bets again on the river it would be a tough fold as not much will have changed. If he has me beat already w/ an over pair he is certainly gonna bet and if he is bluffing he is definitely gonna bet and I will have to call off $200 to win the pot w/ top pair. I really do not love doing this when I am this unsure. I tell him that I am gonna give him the pot and if he really had a hand he just got unlucky b/c not many people at this table are gonna fold this hand. He asks to see my hand and I said I would if he showed me his. He showed me a set of 10's and I revealed ace 10 to him. He agreed that not many at the table fold there and he drags his pot.
It feels good to make a laydown at the right time every now and then as opposed to my laydown w/ the flush a week or so ago in which I made a terrible lay down. This one was not that great but it definitely save me a hundred bucks or so.
That is all I have for now. I am not gonna get to play this weekend as I am looking forward to spending time w/ my wife and daughter as we are going to Houston for my Brother in laws graduation from Chiropractor school. It should be fun.
Lata

Nice night online and Summer Olympics

Just a quick update. I have not been doing much lately except watching the olympics. I think I am actually hooked on them. I came home today and started watching a handball match or game. I have no idea what it is called. Anyway. it looks kind of like a basketball court w/ soccer goals at the end and noone can go inside what looks like a 3 point line except the goalie. It was crazy, but I still watched. I also watched water polo. This sport is very boring. My favorites so far is swimming and beach volleyball. This Michael Phelps guy is an absolute freak. I do not think he can lose and the relay tonight they nearly lapped the field. Watched a special on him today and they said he eats 8000 calories a day. I have been on a meal plan eating 3000 a day and it is hard to do sometimes. I could not imagine doing this in a healthy fashion. I am more impressed w/ this than his swimming I believe.

While watching tonight I played a few sng's. I played 3 to be exact. 1 single table in which I was the first to bust. 1 two table in which I finished 3rd for a nice little profit. I also played a 45 man sng in which I won. This was easily the most ridiculous sng I have ever seen. There was hideous beat after beat for about 40 minutes for everyone at the table. It became almost predictable.

I am getting anxious for the end of the month to get here. I am really looking forward to going to Biloxi for 6 straight days(at least). I am excited to play a lot of tournament poker w/ a few cash games mixed in. More to come on this as it gets close.

Tommorow is Wednesday and this means I will be leaving work early to go to Shorty's. I hope it is as nice as it has been. I will try to pay more attention to any interesting key hands so I can talk about them.

Good Night Online

I had planned on going to Shortys tonight, but because of the weather and more importantly the need to spend some time at home w/ the family I stayed home. Once everyone fell asleep I logged onto Stars and entered the $55 1 rebuy 1 addon tourney. After almost 4 hours I busted in 2nd place for $1590. I was in for $105 so it was definitely a good night to stay home.

I was above avg the whole time as I entered the final table 4th in chips. The chip leader busted almost everyone at the table. He had me outchipped about 5-1 to start heads up play and it did not take long. I folded the first hand and on the 2nd he raised and I pushed allin. He had 99 and I had ace9 of hearts. I hit an ace on the turn, but he rivered the case ace to seal the deal. Could have gotten interesting if I win that, but I am not complaining.

It felt good to finally make a decent cash. I played this tourney last week and went out 9th when it was paying 9. This week I had cashed in 4 of 7 mtt's but had no quality cashes. This makes it 5 for 8 and much more substantial.

Another Fun Night at Shorty's

Wednesday at Shorty's lived up to the hype once again as the small poker room in Baldwin was buzzing w/ all sorts of people that wanted to play poker and really not much of a clue how to do it. When arriving it took about 30 minutes to get a seat in the game and when I did it was not the best of lineups. I sat in the 4 seat and had two of the best players that play there to my right driving much of the action. A kid named Cody and Tim Hebert. The only pot I can even remember at this table was a hand where I put the straddle on and 3 limped in. Tim popped it to $65 in the blind and I just called w/ KK on the straddle and one straggler behind called. Flop was 9-8-2, Tim checked and I bet and took down the pot. This was the only pair I had bigger than 99 in the 7 or 8 hours I played. That was not meant as a complaint as I am completely fine w/ that is this game.
I did witness possibly the most blatent slow roll I have ever seen. We are only 6 handed as we are waiting for the table to fill back up after the tournament had just started. This old man opens the pot for 25 after I had limped as I was seeing just about every flop shorhanded and he gets 2 callers and I decide to sit this one out. The flop comes 9 high and Tex leads for 40 into the pot from the blind. This kid on my right calls and the old man makes it 140. At this point I think even the people playing black jack in the pits are aware that this old man has atleast JJ. Well this kid is not convinced and calls the hundred after a minute of deliberation. The turn is a 7 and the kid checks and the old man bets 300 to set the kid in as he has 280 left. The kid starts thinkin out loud how he is not sure how he could lay it down and everyone at the table is looking at each other wondering why not! He decided to call and reluctantly puts his chips in the pot. The old man holds his hand out and says and I quote "Good Call, Nice Hand" Everyone at the tables head snaps around in amazement and I am already questioning my read of the hand. The kid then proudly(all of a sudden) flips over his Ace 9 and I look back at the old man with a you have to be shitting me kind of look. He looks at me, shakes his head for about 5 seconds(seemed like 5 minutes if you know what I mean) and then tables QQ. What the fuck was that about! The whole table went nuts including Gene D as I believe he may have something to say about this at some point. I was truly shocked as this guy is always in the poker room and really does know better.

Anyway, after that happened a few of us go eat and I comeback only to have the entire table pissed that I have been gone for 2 hours. They actually called my name on the intercom so I called the poker room and he said I had 2 minutes to get back. I told him that wasn't gonna happen and it said he was gonna have to pick me up. I was ok w/ that and took my time. When I did get there I found that he decided to not pick me up so I sat right in my seat. About half the table was pissed as I believe I had 5 buttons. Oh well! I proceeded to win like 5 of the first 9 hands that I played and added about 500 to my stack. There really aren't many hands that stick out b/c it was one of those night where you look down and you are up a couple of buyins w/out doing very much. I love those nights as I did not play any big pots and just kind of won the ones that nobody else wanted. We racked up and made it home fairly early. I hope to visit them again this weekend. We'll see.

" Hey Braaa why'd you slow roll him like that. That's fucked up!"
-GeneD after old fuck slow rolled the young kid.

Shortys On Sunday w/ Mean Gene & Ruttley.

What can I say I love that place and I wish it was closer to my house. A few friends of mine have said they do not like to play there b/c no one ever folds. I could not disagree more. If you like to play suited connectors and a lot of draws this place is heaven. But shhhh don't tell anyone. You are priced in to everysingle draw you can pick up and the implied odds for small pairs are out of this world. If you can manage to not get unlucky at this place a decent player may really never lose (knock on wood). I probably should not have even said that as I am slightly superstitious. In all honesty I love the place, but you do have to adjust your play somewhat. I for one am very cautious w/ big pairs and fold them on the flop and turn quite often. I know that I fold the best hand quite often, but I am ok w/ that as I prefer not to go broke w/ one pair that often.
As for Sunday Night, if anyone read Gene's blog about his hand w/ KK I am still jelous. I have been playin this game for a while, but still have not learned how to get 2 people to put $300 in the pot preflop w/ k5 and kq and I could give a shit if it is suited. I guess i'll keep trying.
Well the only hand I think I may have played differently is as follows. I am in blind w/ K5dd and call a preflop raise of $20 b/c naturally 5 or 6 others did. It goes w/out sayin that I would love to flop a flush draw as I really am not crazy about flopping a king. Well flop comes out Ad10d10c. I flop my flush draw but didn't want to bet out and have to call a raise. Well no one bets and a free card comes off. The 2 of diamonds and I turn the nut flush on a paired board. I lead out 25 to see who is gonna pay me off w/ a 10 or a worse flush. I get only 1 call and it is from this crazy woman that has already called Ruttley's $60 prelop raise w/ q5 and smoked his KK w/ a QQ board. So she calls and the river is the jack of clubs. I am pretty sure I am good and bet out $45. She very quietly announces that she is allin and has me covered as I have about $400 in front of me.
I quite honestly didn't know what the shit to do. After a few moments(as I tend to act quickly and prolly should take a little more time) I think that she is pretty strong. My only read on her besides her being strong is the fact that she can have absolutely any 2 cards here. The jack is a bad card if she has a 10 b/c most people w/ have j10, 10/9, or something of that nature. I decide to fold as I am fairly confident that I can find another spot to mix it up w/ her. Before folding I ask her if she would show me if she had j10. She says yes and i fold. She tables 78dd for a obviously weaker flush.
The sad thing is that my read of her being strong was correct b/c she loved her hand. She just had no clue of how bad of shape it was in. I for one never raise w/ her hand there so I could not imagine that she would have. IMO she just as easily could have turned over 10/2 as j/10.
Anyway it all worked out after a few more hours as I racked up to leave up about $800. The only problem w/ that was I played my last hand w/ my chips in the rack and picked up JJ. I rzd preflop and saw the flop 3 handed. It was 8 high and I bet $50 and got minrzed on the flop(I hate that). I call and turn is a 9. Guy bets $150 and I told the guy that I was pretty sure I was gonna let him bluff me since I was leaving. I then said that I had a crazy thought that he might have slow played a monster preflop to try and smoke me b/c he was stuck in the game and it was about to break. I fold and he shows me 2 queens. I guess it is a good thing I was leaving b/c I likely would have given him a few hundred more. He was not all that happy about me folding as he said "he knew I had jacks or tens." Sorry I could not be of more help sir.
Anyway I will likely be back there on Wednesday as the action is crazy on Wednesday due to the shitty tourney they run. I honestly don't know where these people come from.

Well as I type this I finished 2nd in a $27 45 man sng on stars for a little over $200 profit and I had the privledge of watching Gene drag a $3 sng for $15. Congrats Gene.
Oh I did let Ruttley bluff me out of a pot on the flop when I flopped the dummy end of the straight. I know I had you beat if you read this one day. lol.

If anyone reads this feel free to let me know what you think as I am pretty honest when talking to others about there play(whether I am right or not who knows). So it will not bother me if you think I am a complete dumbshit. Wow now I know how people end up w/ these long ass posts.

Welcome!

I know that no one is reading this, but if you happen to stumble upon it welcome and I hope you enjoy. Any feedback you may have I will definitely appreciate as this is something very foreign to me.
The object of this blog is to hold myself accountable for my actions and critique my play at the poker table objectively along with the play of others around me. It is my hope that this blog will help me to make better decisions as I will not want to have to relive stupid things I may do when I get back to the computer. I also want to use this as a journal to follow my journey through the various poker rooms that I roam through. Various friends of mine have done this and they seem to enjoy it so I figured I would give it a try.
Stay tuned as this will hopefully be an interesting journey.