Help a brother out...

I'm certain that every donation, no matter what size, will help out.

From Vinnay's blog: A friend of mine, Jeff, has had an unfortunate Christmas. His home was destroyed by a fire on christmas morning and declared a total loss. Fortunately, he was not home at the time and no one was hurt, but he did lose his cat Maurice, along with all of his possessions. The fire was started in his tenants apartment, and quickly spread throughout the house. To make matters worse, he was just laid off from his long time manufacturing job.

http://helpjeffout.blogspot.com

Could you fold this?

59 players left and 36 get paid. The table has been getting more aggressive. I call a 5x bet that came from UTG +1. I am UTG+2. We get 1 caller from the big blind. So I am happy we have 3 players in the pot. Flop comes and first player checks and UTG raises to half his stack and puts me all in. You don't lay this down, do you?


**EDIT: $mokkee's comment is right. I didn't think of it that way. I was a 75% or better favorite pre-flop (depending on what the other villian had). After the flop, regardless of my read on the betting action, I am only a 52% favorite. So even though I figured out what the villian had, I was flipping a coin. And I don't typically like to flip a coin for my tournament life especially that late in the tournament.

I made a nice little score this weekend in an $8 tournament. I played it on a "whim" at 1am my time on Saturday night. I had nothing going on Sunday, so figured it might last 2-3 hours. After 2 1/2 hours we still had 20 people left, but I was in first place, so had to stay awake.



At the 3rd break, with 14 players left, I've dropped to 5th place. I no longer have the same "bully" affect on my table that I did with the chip lead, so I sit back and wait patiently for good hands or to make the final table. It's 4:19am my time and I am pinching myself to stay awake.



At the final table, players dropped like flies. I don't know if it was because of the time or because we went to the final table with 8 players (2 people went out at the same time). I almost just sat back and watched everyone going out.

Then with 3 players left, I had about $20,000 in chips and the other 2 players had over 100K. I get A4 sooted on the button and shove and get called by KQ off. King on the flop and I don't improve. I could have probably waited a bit longer, but I was under 10BB's and felt that was a good shove hand 3 handed in position. What do you think?


I really need to stop playing the bigger field tournaments like this late at night. At least for the smaller buy-ins. I wasn't as dead tired the morning after I won $6000+ (I had too much adrenaline flowing). But to stay up all night for $168, wears me out. I did manage to win a 45 player SNG at the same time I was playing this, so overall, I won $339.

Hope the tables are treating you well. Stay patient....

888 Pacific Poker

888’s pacific poker site wants to send out a massive thank you to all the players who consistently make it the popular place to sit back and stack chips. There is a choice, but players like the rake backs and bonuses. Players from all skill levels flock to poker online at pacific poker making it highly sought after for both amateurs and pros alike. So, a great big ‘cheers’ straight from the managers desks right to all you sitting behind your PC’s trying to decide which no limit table or texas holdem game to join! Without any coddling, you all know which poker room Is the most gracious. So, start getting appreciated!

FROM LAST TO FIRST

What a wild Fantasy Football year. I got a D from my peers for my Fantasy Draft, and rightfully so. My first 4 picks were pretty much a bust: Steven Jackson, Willis McGahee, Chad Johnson and Matt Hasselback. I went 0-4 to start the season.





But then I went on a tremendous run, thanks in big part to Deangelo Williams, whom I picked up off the waiver wire. I would only lose 1 more game all season long. I rode Donovan McNabb all year long, but played Tyler Thigpen for the playoffs (I picked him up off the waiver wire right before the playoffs started). I also played Green Bay DST all year but played the Seahawks for the Super Bowl. I won the Super Bowl 157-74. What a blowout! Here was my final roster (the checks were waiver wire additions):


Ship it!

why so serious?

That's my 18 year old son's favorite line from his favorite character (the Joker).

Things have gotten more busy at work for me (not really serious). 30 year mortgage rates dropped into the 4.x's and we are getting 4 times the normal work load right now. Don't get me wrong, it is great, but the work day no longer has any cracks to blog in it. I'm making more money now than I have ever in my life so I try to focus on it while the "gettin's good".

Poker has been great to me this year. I want to do a recap '08 and a GOALS for 09, but haven't found the time lately. I took out a huge chunk of poker money for savings, a big chunk for a laptop and recently a big chunk for my wife's Christmas present. So this year was really fantastic for poker winnings.

Hope you have a great Christmas. I'm gonna try to get some more posts done over the next week. Oh Yeah, and I said Christmas. Sorry if that is not your Holiday. You can wish me Happy Whatever and I'll be glad to say "Same to you". Have a great one!

Stay patient....

Another reason to check your child's homework

READ BELOW AFTER YOU SEE THE PHOTO.

Note sent the next school day with 1st grader . . .
Sorry, Ms. James. That's NOT a dance pole onstage in a strip joint!
I work at Home Depot and that's me selling a shovel. - Mrs. Smith

#301

WOO HOO! That last post was my 300th post. Wow, that's a whole lotta' BS thrown down on here.

But still we should celebrate. What better way than with a Monster Ballads XMAS song or two: Rokken with Dokken




I don't know which is funnier in this one: the song or the video?

Let's take a RIDE

I'm a Ferrari 360 Modena!

You've got it all. Power, passion, precision, and style. You're sensuous, exotic, and temperamental. Sure, you're expensive and high-maintenance, but you're worth it.

"Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Thanks OhCaptain for this. I'll default to what he said: If you are reading this, you are tagged...

Have Fun.

WBCOOP

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

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code: 293324

The Hawk part 2

We had a much bigger turnout this time. Thanks to everyone who played. At the very least, I hope you knew a bunch of people and/or had fun. Our gigli tonight was mbudstein. I didn't get to see the hand he had, but an Ace takes him down.

Next out is mandalgan. Should learn to fold those Kings. Just kidding. He gets sucked out on and goes out 2nd. (I folded preflop).


FFOG goes out next with AA. Aces end up going down a few times tonight.

Gwoo10 says "I hate 10's" after going out to KK.


This time Aces hold up and Hawkette5 takes out the young Ohlsen. Looks like his dad lasts longer for a 2nd time.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!! Somebody collects the bounty finally. 11allyr takes out the defending champ thecloserx5.

Aces hold up here to take out pjloch.



Top pair is no match for quad 5's . tgrazz goes home. (again, I was out preflop).


AA3850 loses to the mighty Queens.


Stl_phily can't hang on with 55. Sting70 takes him out with an Ace on the turn.


Hawkette5 goes out here and Andybel142 loses a big pot when Trusturgutshot hits two pair.

I'm a super donkey when I go out when shoving my shortstack with an Ace sooooooted.


Bigoface goes out to with an AJ sooooted to take us down to 1 table.

Then ifoldallthetime loses to a rivered flush and is the first out at the final table.

Senior ohlsen loses when his set gets "reset" to the losing hand. Out #8

Andybel142 goes out after a shortstack shove.


Trustyourgutshot puts another notch on his belt as he takes out rickphillips.


Sting70 goes down to 11allyr. We are ready for the bubble.


Blowinadeuce bubbles with a "givemetwolivecards shove".


These three players make the money. Trustyourgutshot shows it's his night when his AQ hits a a flush to take out jcw88's Queens. Congrats to jcw88 for getting $48 for 3rd place.


The final hand was won with a pocket pair. A5 was a losing hand all night. Congratulations to Trusturgutshot for taking it down and winning $120. Also congrats to 11allyr for getting $72 plus a $10 bounty for taking out thecloserx5.


Hope to see you next time. We will follow up with another Sunday night at 8pm. Date to be announced. Thanks to everyone for playing.

New site I'm playing on

In an effort to get some rakeback, I signed up a while back at CAKE Poker. I never loaded any money in because I was really focusing on tournament play and Full Tilt has the best variety of tournaments and SNG's.

But now I want to start trying to develop my skills at Omaha, especially in ring games, so I bought chips in CAKE Poker. I get my rakeback through RAKETHERAKE. It's funny that FTP and Pokerstars are so diverse in their interfaces. CAKE actually reminds me of Party Poker. I actually laughed when I heard the clapping for winning a hand.

Anyway, so far it seems to be a pretty decent site to play on. Especially if you want to wear blue high heels like you can see me wearing in the picture above. At this table, I sat down with $30 and cashed out over $100. We'll see if that continues. I'll keep you updated.

Stay patient....

CBS Story on Ultimate Bet's Cheating Scandal

Rebuy anyone?

I am really starting to love the rebuy tournaments. First of all, you get all the idiots who go all in on any draw. Even AK with any board, they are shoving hoping to hit high pair. I'll see more pots early in the tournament but keep the preflop bets as low as possible (Daniel Negranue style) and when you connect on a flop, you can get paid off well. Then after the rebuy time is over, it's tournament style as usual. Hopefully you have built up a nice sized chip stack from all the rebuys.

The second reason I love them is that there is so much extra prize money pumped in from the rebuys. So even if you finish the rebuy period with a below average chip stack, there is a lot more cash you are playing for with less players to beat for it. I will typically rebuy right away to maximize my doubling potential and then buy the add on.

Here are two I played simultaneously and ended up fairing well in both. I really hate missing that first place money though.

This one I finished 7th out of 205. I was really disappointed I did not finish higher, especially since I was chip leader for awhile when we were down to 2 tables. I did one rebuy as soon as the tournament started and 1 add on for a total of $93 dollars invested.

Here I finished 4th of 230 but since it was a lower buy in, it paid less than the 7th place finish above. I was never chip leader, so was pretty happy where I finished. I was dead tired though as this one finished around 6am my time. Luckily, I was already scheduled off for a vacation day. I did one rebuy and then the add on for a total of $15.50 invested. A much higher ROI, fore shore!

I'm starting to try to learn Omaha more. I have been playing Omaha for 10+ years and understand the game play and the differences from Texas Hold 'em, but I have never studied and don't understand the best starting hands, best hands after the flop, etc., like I know in Hold'em. Anyone with any shortcuts, I would greatly appreciate it. So far, I am finding that PL Omaha High is my favorite and it seems pretty easy to win.

I took a vacation day today and spent all day with Hawkette and all the little Hawks. It was a fantastic day. We did a whole lot of nothing but spent the entire day together. It was great. I highly recommend it if you ever find yourself too involved in the routines you have.

Stay patient...

Should have folded KK Part VII

I thought for a bit but did end up folding. Obviously, the min bet confirmed he had an Ace. He flipped it over and showed AJ after I mucked...





Hope everyone has a safe and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

All. My. Friends. Know the LOW RIDER

Rates are low, low, low...

Check out these graphs. The first one is courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis . It shows the average 30 year mortgage rates since 1970. I've marked the approximate dates of the Refi Boom; a time when some people would refinance their house 2 or 3 times over the course of A year.

The second graph (courtesy of Yahoo Finance) shows the 10 year treasury rates over the last 2 years. It corresponds with the shaded area of the top graph. Mortgage rates used to parallel the 10 year treasury pretty closely. Not anymore. No one really knows right now, how to predict the rates. You can see over the last 2 months how volatile the rates have been.

The 10 year Treasury is at it's lowest point ever. EVER! Lowest ever and it is threatening to go below 3%. But the 30 year mortgage rates are NOT at their lowest points ever. I underlined the lowest point from April, 2003 in green. You can see it is still a bit lower than today's rates, yet the 10 year is at record lows. Don't get me wrong, the 30 year rates are dropping. We might see record lows soon.

The Treasury rates are low, the Fed Funds Rates are low, so the Lending Institutions (the Banks) can pass along low rates to generate more loans, to generate more spending.... However, lately the Banks have been keeping the spread wider and trying to make up for their losses by pocketing that difference rather than passing it along to the borrowers.

AND they are begging for bailout money. It's a sick mess.

One thing I do know is that spending will help. Spend, spend, spend. As a family man, father, husband, provider, etc., I am inclined to save even more now to protect what I have in a rough economy. But this economy needs cash flowing. I guess we will see what this Holiday Season brings. I hope you buy everything you want for Christmas ; )

Oh, and if you haven't done so today already, be sure to google: Elephantitus of the Nuts

Stay Patient...

Technology Facts that will blow your mind...

Thank you

Thank all you donkeys who called my reraise when you thought I was bluffing. Thank all you donkeys who thought going all in with 88, 99, or K10 was a good idea. Thank all you donkeys who donated.

I cashed out a part of my bankroll to pick up this new laptop: 17" "desktop replacement". The 20" laptops are out, but at 2K I figured I could slum with a 17" for awhile. The great thing about these is that they have the added keyboard numbers on the right hand side, just like you'd find on a desktop. I love that for placing my bets. For $699 it was a steal!



Stay patient...

Every little bit counts

This was a nice little score for me. I was in 4 tournaments at once and took 1st in this one with 238 players and 1st in a 45 player, but couldn't cash in the other two that both had 4figure payouts. At least taking first in 2 was a nice boost of confidence.




Stay patient....

He's done it again! Sprstoner took down the $150 rebuy for $67K this time. Check out his score here: Sprstoner Big Win

I really enjoy the rebuy tournaments and hope to see the same kind of results someday. I took down the $50 rebuy but am not quite ready for the $150's level yet.

Go congratulate Sprstoner...

Stay patient...

The First HAWK tournament

Thanks to everyone for playing. It was pretty cool to know everyone that was playing. I set up a private tournament for people from the Saint Louis area only. We had 4 players at my house: Myself (Jamyhawk), My wife (Hawkette), My neighbor (Andybel142), and my son (Big0face). Here's how it looked:

It was pretty funny when my neighbor pushed all in on my son and he was dying to look around at his laptop and see if he should call or not.

Bowie 300 is the first to go out:

Stl_phily's aggressive play takes him out next:

Next, I take out my wife, proving there is no love in poker:

Andybel and my son both go out on the same hand and it is the last hand at their table so I don't get a chance at a screenshot.

The young Ohlsen is out after a coin flip goes my way:

Bill knocks out Dave with the un-foldable hand:

The senior ohlsen takes out a short stacked Tom:

Rich takes out Senior Ohlsen:

I've turned up the aggression, but get caught and Rich takes me out:

Joe knocks out Bill on a miracle river card:

The final hand gives it to the Closer!

Thanks again for playing. We'll do it again next month.

FTOPS Event #9 Recap

Here's my screen shot from the first break. I won a couple of decent sized pots, moving up to as high as 5800 (starting stacks were 5000). I had a pro at my table: Berry Johnston, but he played super super tight. He only played maybe 1 hand every 3 or 4 orbits. Somehow, people didn't realize it and he doubled up twice when he got dealt pocket Aces twice in 3 hands.







Here's a hand that I got burned on. I actually played it poorly. I raised pre-flop, as I tried to quite often from the button and cutoff. Harlindo is wearing an FTOPS jersey, so I know he has to be a decent player, since he has won an FTOPS event before. He has ~4000 to start and I have ~8000 in chips. He smooth calls my raise. After the flop, he checks and I decide to check behind. The turn comes a blank (but does give me some interesting outs) and he checks again. Now, I decide to fire out to see where I am and I bet about 3/4 of the pot. He smooth calls. Now I put him on a straight draw like K10 or maybe A6 or A5. After the river hits, he checks and I insta-shove to put his tournament on the line. I figure, he missed whatever draw he could be on and without a Queen, he can't call for his tournament to be over. He made a good read, called and won. I should have checked it down and saved myself about 2800 in chips. Now I'm right around 4100 in chips.




I still have enough chips to play aggressive, so I chip up buying blinds and c-betting a few times when needed. After the 2nd break, I am just under the average chips by about 1000. You can see Berry hit his two AA double ups, and Harlindo has hardly played anything.




This next hand is when I took Harlindo out. The nice thing was that I was putting in standard raise sizes still. I think later in the tournament you need to start varying things up, but this was in the third hour and I kept all my raises the same, so when I came at the blinds from the cutoff, AGAIN, Harlindo fired back at me all in and it was an easy call for me.




My buddy Rich (TheCloserX5), who plays fairly tight, at least a lot tighter than I do, was below average in chips but not short stacked by any means. He raised the big blind, who smooth called, and then couldn't get away from this flop no matter what. He finishes in 2511th place.




This is an example of the shitty play you will see, even though we have almost half the field gone. This guy was not short stacked at all. I raise pre-flop, then check call after the flop and after the turn. He checks on the river and when I shove all in and he calls, I think I might be in trouble. NOPE! I guess he put me on a total bluff.






Here's another race I won. I'm only a 53/47% favorite. I don't think I have lost a race yet, where I am getting my chips in ahead. That is critical in being able to continue moving up the ranks.




This is right at the 3rd break and I am sitting in 8th place with over 1700 players left still. The nice thing here is that my pre-flop raises are winning more pots now just because of my stack size. I'm still folding to large re-raises and I'm barely playing anything out of position.




Here's another hand where I got in ahead and it held up. I can't tell you how many times that I held up with the best hand in this tournament, and we all know how rare that can seem sometimes.




Here's one where someone limps, I re-raise and get two callers. After the flop, the first player fires all in from a short stack, so insta-reraise all in trying to isolate. Of course when I get a call behind me I know I am in trouble. This takes me from about 72000 in chips down to 50000. It was enough to sting. Are you getting away from this hand after the flop? Maybe if you don't have the other two covered, but I couldn't see anyway that I am folding this, especially given my relevant chip size.




Here's another example of the fabulous play on here. We are down to almost 1300 players and mc_gambler has been very aggressive with all in moves. And especially coming from the button, I put him on a pretty wide range. He had over 20,000 in chips and I had just over 50000, but I figured this was a pretty easy pre-flop call. I didn't realize how easy, but it was a nice gift he gave me. Again, getting it in with the best hand held up.




Here's another big hand that held up. I was a 60% favorite getting it all in after the flop, but it felt like he had about 45 outs.


4th break. I'm very happy to be in 10th place. I was in first or 2nd for half of the last hour so I'm starting to get excited that I have a shot at taking this down. But there is a lot of poker still to go!


This hand costs me half my stack, taking me from over 100K down to 50K. I really screwed this up as it was unnecessary to go all in preflop with QQ here. Especially since the Ace came on the flop, there would be an opportunity for me to outplay the Kings or get away from the hand. Either way, I was getting too cocky that all my good hands were holding up and I didn't take into account that I could be behind pre-flop.


Here's an easy laydown where I raised the blinds and got re-popped from the small blind. Some people are shoving with any pair here, but I think that I would rather play post-flop for all my chips.


Break #5 and I've dropped in the rankings considerably. I've basically hovered around the same chip stack for most of the hour by buying some blinds. But I'm starting to feel real pressure to make something happen. This is not a good feeling as I don't want to lose focus. We are in the money though, so even if I go out now, it is not a total loss.


Here's a hand I would like your feedback on. I'm in the small blind with 70,000 in chips and the big blind has 72000. The button is short stacked with 19,000. The button limps in and I simply call. The big blind raises 3 1/2 times the BB and the button comes over him all in. I folded. Would you have? Of course this would have been a huge double up for me.


Here's a hand I raise and get a call from the button. A c-bet takes it down. But it sets me up for the next hand which happens to involve the same player.


Here the villain raises pre-flop 2 1/2 times the BB. I insta-shove, hoping to take down the pot with antes. He insta-calls and tables the might ACEJACK-OFF. I absolutely hated the flop and confirmed that on the turn. I think if I smooth call him we are both getting it in after the flop anyway. So it was my time to go home.


214th place not bad, but was disappointed I couldn't go deeper. The real money didn't start until about 86th place and you needed to final table to make it to 20K or higher. Maybe next time.


Feel free to point out all the mistakes I made.

Hope the tables are treating you right. Stay patient...