thecloserx5 cashes big!!!!!!

My good buddy Rich hit a big one yesterday. Way to go Closer!!!!!!!
Here's some notes from him on it:

1^st Break – 14680 chips ranked 11^th out of 2576 players

Top 19645

Avg 4022

Low 30

2^nd Break – 16010 chips ranked 64^th out of 1527 players

Top 32200

Avg 6785

Low 310

3^rd Break – 27098 chips ranked 73^rd out of 684 players

Top 57787

Avg 15149

Low 169

4^th Break – 58070 chips ranked 48^th out of 270 players

Top 139437

Avg 38377

Low 3579

5^th Break – 154630 chips ranked 17^th out of 100 players

Top 311723

Ave 103620

Low 21136

6^th Break – 622944 chips ranked 4^th out of 36 players

Top 1013392

Ave 287833

Low 33074

7^th Break – 845395 chips ranked 4^th out of 10 players

Top 2247483

Avg 1036200

Low 215644

8^th Break – 1812580 chips ranked 4^th out of 4 players

Top 3735765

Avg 2590500

Low 1812580

TOOK 3^RD FOR $52,500.00

Not bad for a $7.80 investment in a 36players shoot out satellite

How did we get here?

If anyone is interested in what is going on with the mortgage industry right now, this presentation pretty much sums it up. Caution: it does contain some profanity.




If you can't read it, click to make it bigger and you can run presentation directly from google docs. Thanks to everyone for the advice on how to load a powerpoint presentation into blogger. Riggs, I couldn't get your method to work. It just made my screen all sticky. Waffles and OhCaptain: I used google docs and copied the HTML to blogger....

Minor help needed

Does anyone know how to post a Powerpoint presentation? Or to upload it somewhere else and then link to it?

What chances are you taking?

Thanks to LUCKO for showing me this. It was too awesome not to pass along.

Urgent Wednesday Message

MOOKIE TONIGHT! And as a special treat: Waffles is adding $109 to the winner's prize money. Gotta love that! Check it out for yourself: CLICK HERE.

Full Tilt Poker Tournaments under Private tab

Poker has been kicking my ass lately! Well, really it has been about a week. Last Friday I went down big time, down Saturday, break even on Sunday and then another loss on Monday. Luckily, I think I have been making poor decisions, tilting easily, and losing patience at the worst times. That's easy to fix. Refocus and play my game.

I'll check back in in a day or so. Stay patient......

Live poker is so RIGGGGED!

So rigged. I played in my monthly WSOP wannabe tournament last night. I was card dead for the first hour, but managed to stay right at my starting stack amount. There were several "good" players at my starting table, but what tilted me was the calling station. She was calling every pre-flop raise and then most post flop bets. Worse than that, she was getting slapped on the ass by the deck. It was banging her hard!

I'll save the miserable details of the 5 straights and 1 flush she hit. The first big hand I lost to her I had AQ and bet preflop and every street. She called every bet and then bet out on the river. I had to call to see, and she flipped over 84off for a rivered straight.

A few hands later, I picked up QQ UTG+1. Blinds were 100/200 so I raised to 700 (that left me about 900 in chips). She was in the SB and was my only caller. The flop came Q106 rainbow. She checked and I did as well. Next card was a J. She bet into me and I re-raised all in. She quickly called and said "I hope you don't have a Queen". She flipped over 108 off for the pair of 10's. The dealer flipped over the river 9 and started pushing the chips to me. I pointed out the straight as I threw up all over the table.... BLECHHHHHHHHHHHH.

OK. So I didn't throw up, but I wanted to. She was out of the tournament a few rounds later, as she couldn't suck out every time.

So I ask: Is it more frustrating to get outplayed or to get sucked out on?

I say getting sucked out on. If someone outplays me, shame on me. I will learn from that though. If I outplay someone and then get sucked out on, I learn NOTHING! So frustrating.

And the worst news of all of this, is that I drop to 2nd place overall in the standings. I can make it back up. I just hate to lose... As I'm sure you do too.

Stay patient....

Weekend wrapup

I managed to play poker Friday night and cashed in more than half of the tournaments I played in. Problem was that none of them were huge. See below from official poker rankings website:

I did finally win a $75 super turbo. Have you played these yet? You start with 300 chips and the blinds go up every 3 minutes. Tight play is rewarded. I have won one at every level I can think of ($169, $75, $30, $15 and $4), but it seemed to take forever to get a first place win at the $75 level.

I like them because they take 20 minutes or so to play and if you can double up early, you can basically fold to the money. Win 2 hands and you have a great shot of taking first place. There is really no poker skill necessary until you get 3 handed. And even then it is questionable if you will need any skill to win. The nice thing is to watch a bunch of people slapping chips around while you wait for a big hand to shove with.

I got creamed again in fantasy football this weekend. My survivor pick was Green Bay, but with a lot of people taking Detroit as a potential upset, I changed it just before kickoff to Seattle. They won't lose at home to the 49er's, right??? Wrong! I'm out in week 2. My ffl team is down by 23 points going into tonight and the only thing I need is 24 or more points by McNabb to win. I don't really see that happening against Dallas. Maybe, I'll get lucky and suckout....

And I finally broke down and bought the first season of LOST. Everyone says it is so good and I haven't seen 1 single episode. Hawkette and I plan on diving into that now that Big Brother is wrapping up. We do have Survivor starting up soon, but we are excited to see this "LOST" that everyone raves about.

Saturday night I saw Cheap Trick. They were fabulous as always. Best band I have ever seen live by far. This time, I had to pay $150 a ticket since they were billed with Heart and Journey. I saw Heart twice 20+ years ago and they were terrible both times. This time they were alright. Ann Wilson has such a great voice, so I really enjoyed that. Journey was "blah". The lead singer they have now, "sounds like" Steve Perry. But he's not Steve Perry. Journey was the first concert I ever went to and I loved Journey. This time, I wasn't impressed and left about half way through their set. I was really only there for Cheap Trick. I just wish they were the headliners...

Hope the tables are treating you goot! Stay patient.....

Friday Night Lights (Final)

It is official today. Friday Night Lights is over for Cal. . . .

Why?

It was 3 weeks ago today, that Cal's team had a scrimmage to tune up for the start of the season. Cal was as healthy as he has been since the start of his Sophomore year, when he was the starting running back, starting safety and starting on all special teams for the Varsity team. Unfortunately, he broke his leg that year in the first game and missed the whole season.

Last year, some of you may remember the drama we went through as Cal was a third string running back only, but would consistently produce yards and touchdowns for the team when he did get in to play. At that time we felt the coach was playing favorites and we were getting the raw end of the deal.

Well this year, the head coach moved him to wide receiver and he earned the starting spot. I was not pleased and debated on calling the coach to ask why their star starter as a sophomore was now demoted to receiver as a senior. But I refrained. I figured that since I was not in practices, I would be blindly firing darts in the direction of the coach with no real ammunition other than to try to get my son back to being the star of the team: In other words, it was my personal agenda to see him at running back, so I let it go.

Cal worked hard at wide receiver and stated he was happy not to being playing running back. He was embracing his final season of High School Football with a positive attitude and looking forward to impressing some college scout enough to get a scholarship to play another year. He was also pushing hard to get a starting spot on the defense, even though he had not started a game on defense in 2 years.

During the scrimmage three weeks ago, Cal caught a pass over the middle and took a normal hit from the defensive back. But he felt a pop in his knee and limped off the field. There was swelling initially, but in a couple of days it went away, so he prepared for the first game of the season. The trainer told him it was probably a strained MCL, and a week or so off of it should heal it.

Monday after the scrimmage, the head coach called Cal in and told him he is going to start him on defense. Cal was thrilled. He was set to start at Wide Receiver, Cornerback, Kickoff team, and he was to be their kickoff returner. But his knee was still hurting, and by Friday, he knew he couldn't start. He dressed and played the end of the 3rd quarter and the 4th quarter on defense only. He made a couple of tackles and felt the knee held up well.

But the following week, the knee "popped" again in practice and he would be forced to sit out the entire 2nd game of the season. The trainer once again encouraged him to rest it to heal, and he would try to suit up for the 3rd game.

He tried to practice on Monday, but the knee "popped" on him again and this time the Trainer told him to go see a doctor. We went the next day and they set up an MRI. Today we got the results of the MRI: Torn ACL...... High School Football over. Cal had a great Freshman year, a frustrating Junior year, and now it is over.... What a change from what we expected at the start of his Sophomore year.

Oh well. He took it pretty well. "We've been through this before" he said. We will schedule his surgery in the next couple of weeks and then start rehab. He should be jogging in 6 weeks and fully rehabbed and ready for Track Season in 4 months. Then he tries to repeat earning a trip to State in the Open 200.

And so concludes Friday Night Lights (at lease for another 7 years, when my next son will enter high school).

This all pales in comparison to the people dealing with Hurrican Ike. Send your good thoughts and prayers to JJOK and any others you may know in Texas.

See you at the tables tonight....

Typical Day

I guess my posting has been pretty weak lately. I'm consumed with work, life, poker, etc. . .

My typical day:
6am -wake up, get myself ready and get kids ready (with hawkette's help)
7:30am -leave for work with kids. drive 45 minutes to their daycare which is right by my work.
8:30am -start work
5:00pm -Tues and Thurs -change clothes in car and race to make 6:00pm football practice. As an assistant coach, it's not critical if I am late, but I make it as long as no major traffic jams.
6:30pm -Mon, Wed -leave work. get home just in time to see my 2 and 3 year old for about an hour before they go to bed.
8:30pm -Mon, Wed -kids go to bed. I clean up a few things and settle in to play poker some time between 9-10pm
8:30pm -Tues and Thurs -I get home. 2 and 3 year old get kissed good night. kids go to bed. I clean up a few things and settle in to play poker some time between 9-10pm.
12am-2am -Depending on how poker goes, I go to sleep somewhere in here. If I am doing poorly, I will tend to keep playing "one more" until I can end on a cash (a positive note).
(Friday through Sunday is the non-stop parade of birthday parties, kids sports, family events, etc., but still leaves late nights free for poker).

So really, I would prefer to sleep a full 6 hours. And if I get online to play poker at 9:30pm that only leaves about 2 1/2 hours for a tournament. Not enough time for anything really decent. That's why I play a lot of single table and 2 table SNG's. The 90 player turbo tournaments finish in about 2 hours, but I hate the KnockOut format. I would rather see the prize money go into the winnings rather than get spread around throughout the tournament to people that might not even finish in the top 50%.

Of course, the nights I don't play poker I might be watching Big Brother 9, or doing a project around the house, or playing live poker, or maybe just catching up on my sleep.

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

$6400 win follow up

First of all: Thanks to everyone that gave me congrats on my win Tuesday morning. I really appreciate it. It was fun to win, but also nice to celebrate it with friends (even if they are invisible internet friends).

Tuesday was a whirlwind. I was just finishing the tournament and saving a screenshot to prove I won, when Hawkette came down the stairs from our bedroom. I usually come to bed by 2am if I'm playing poker and working the next day, but it was after 4am now and she noticed I wasn't in bed and was worried. I started excitedly waving her over to me at the computer: "Get over here! Get over here, right now". She perked up as she saw that I won over $6,000 in ONE poker tournament. It was surreal. Hopefully, it will become a more regular occurrence for me, or at least enough of one that it is not so unbelievable when it happens.

I never felt I had a lot of chips, until we reached the final two tables. I played fairly loose to start the tournament and had to rebuy twice in the first hour after chasing draws. But this may have helped me pick up some pots later when I had made hands. I went card dead for what seemed like, forever, but then hit a couple of nice pots. Then with about 7 or 8 spots from the money bubble, I got moved to a table where no one was defending their blinds and then it was ON! I chipped up, started bullying short stacks, even sucked out a couple of times to win nice sized pots (but I had the chips to gamble).

By the time we hit the final table, I had over $600,000 in chips with the next closest to me having $248,000. I pushed on the blinds constantly. I was SUPER AGGRO like I learned from the dynamic duo of poker. In the end, I think the heads up lasted 3 hands because I was so lopsided with the chips and so aggressive.

Nothing too exciting and I don't have exhausting hand histories and quite frankly, I'm sure I didn't play perfectly. But, I think the biggest thing I have been doing lately is folding hands when I think I am beat. You have so much more power raising than you do calling, so if you can't raise with the hand: FOLD IT! And I never call "with pot odds" if it's going to put me all in. I can double up later if I have to, but if that 4th heart falls on the river and I have a set with no heart, I can fold, even if the "pot odds" tell me not to.

OK, that's it for now. Hope the tables treat you right. Try the riverchasers tonight! See the banner on the right.

Stay patient.....

what else is there to say????