Tuesday, December 30, 2008

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.

Monday, December 29, 2008

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....

Friday, December 26, 2008

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!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

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!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

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....

Monday, December 15, 2008

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





Thursday, December 11, 2008

#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?

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

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

Online Poker

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

Sunday, December 7, 2008

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.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

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....

Monday, December 1, 2008

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...