Friday, February 27, 2009

Funniest thing in a long time

Warning: Inappropriate Language

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

I didn't realize my daughter was a big Alice Cooper fan


She obviously needs more training in her makeup application skills.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Revised Charity Tournament Blinds

I had to drop the levels to 25 minutes. Just too long with 30 minute blinds. I softened the transition before the first break and I tried to soften the transition between levels 9-11 (per OhCaptain suggestion. A good one, by the way.) Any suggestions? I am open. 1500 starting chips with 500 add on at the beginning only. most people will start with 2000 and right now we are expecting 80-85 players. We want 6 hours of play.

Monday, February 23, 2009

BBT4

I skipped the last BBT tournament. For no other reason than life-tilt. I am going to make an effort to play in this one, but 3 months of playing 3 or 4 times a week is really tough. I highly encourage you to play because the prizes are awesome! There will be some HUGE fields I am sure and some Red Pros from Fulltilt playing. Don't forget: You DON'T have to be a blogger to play.





Copied direct from Al's website:

It takes a little longer these days to get things set up with all the crazy stuff going on. But we will be kicking the challenge off on Sunday, March 1st and running through Sunday, May 31st.





Full Tilt has given us 7 seats to the 2009 World Series of Poker. 2 Main Event seats and 5 prelim seats. We'll have other prizes announced shortly but that should be enough to whet your appetite. I will be giving out the seats in the same was as BBT3. Two Main Event seats and two prelim seats will be part awarded as part of the Tournament of Champions. One prelim seat will be awarded to the Player of the Month for March, April and May.





Cake. There are no requirements to win the seats, no badges, no links. Hell, you don't even have to have a blog. This is open to bloggers and readers.





There has been a tweak to the roster of games. The Thursday Riverchasers game has gone the way of the dodo and the Hoyazo shut down the MATH game months ago. Because I already started to hear some wingnuts about the size of the buyins, we've decided to fill the Monday gap with a new and improved Riverchasers game.





We've also decide to reach across the big pond and give our English brethern a shot at the big prizes. This year, BBT4 will include the regular Sunday Brit Blogger game in the game rotation.





I'm waiting on word from MiamiDon about kicking things off with a Blogger Big Game on March 1st. Last challenge we set a blogger tournament record with a 105 players creating a prizepool over $7,000. Crazy.





I will have more specific details once I finish getting the FTP jump page complete but I wanted to give my blogger friends the head's up. Time to start working on those tokens.





Here is the game rotation.





Tournament: Brit Blogger Game


When: Sunday's at 16:00ET


Game: NLHE


Buyin: $5+.50


Password: donkament





Tournament: PPI / Riverchasers Tournament


When: Monday's at 22:00ET


Game: Deepstack NLHE


Buyin: $24+2 or token


Password: riverchasers





Tournament: Blogger Skillz Game


When: Tuesday's at 21:30ET


Game: rotation of non-NLHE games


Buyin: $10+1


Password: skillz





Tournament: The Mookie


When: Wednesday's at 22:00ET


Game: Deepstack NLHE


Buyin: $10+1


Password: vegas1





Per MiamiDon there will be 3 Big Games:


Tournament #81289088 (03/01/09) - NLH Super Stack


Tournament #81289230 (04/19/09) - NLH Rebuy


Tournament #81289279 (05/31/09) - NLH Super Stack

Get more information on his website.





Good luck to everyone...

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Charity Tournament Blinds

Once again, I am torn between making the tournament blinds longer but yet trying to keep a short tournament (6 hours or less). Also, I won't know the total number of players until the day of the tournament, so it could be 20 people + or -.

I wanted to keep small blinds for as long as I could so the first time players and the novices could get at least an hour of play with their starting chips. But then, I need to move the blinds up to compensate for the length of the tournament.

The starting chips are 1500 with a 500 add on at the door. I think all but 5 last year did the add on, so I just assume everyone is starting with 2000 chips. We are expecting around 80 players. I did 25 minute blinds last year, but wanted to stretch it to 30 minutes since 8 players per table will need 30 minutes to get around the table at least once. What do you think?

Monday, February 16, 2009

Really?

I don't use poker tracker right now. I bought it a couple of years ago, then changed laptops 3 or 4 times and have never set it back up again.

But I would be interested to know from anyone that tracks all of their tournaments and hands played if there is really no difference than what would be expected.

Because, I would say that this weekend, I got sucked out on WAY MORE than I won my coin flips. Is that statistically possible? Of course. But man, it is frustrating to have hands like these that I shove preflop and get called and then lose, time after time after time:

Saturday, February 14, 2009

17K guarantee

I used my frequent player points to get a $26 token and bought into the 17K guarantee.

Here I am late in the game with Scott Fischman shortstacked and to my right. I was dying to take him out, but it was not meant to be.



My aggression got me deep in the tournament, and my aggression took me out. I probably should have changed gears about here, since the payouts didn't get aggressive until the final table. I had about $120,000 and could have probably made top 18 easily. But I was going for bigger and bigger and lost a couple of big flips. I still came out a profit but was very disappointed to go as long as I did in this and not make any more.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

I am ARAGORN

Which Fantasy/SciFi Character Are You?

Putting your appointed path ahead of any inner conflicts, you make your own rules for the benefit of all.
If my life or death I can protect you, I will.
Aragorn is a character in the Middle-Earth universe. There is a description of him at TheOneRing.net.

Whatever that means???? Thank Riggs for showing me that. Try it yourself if you like, or BLOW

Monday, February 9, 2009

The Hawk part IV

15 runners this month. And the gigli goes to Bundy. 7 kicker no good.....



The Mighty Sting takes two in one swipe...


Babbs gets caught on a bluff or a shove with a shortstack or both...


Andybel is the next one out even though he had the higher kicker going in....


Ms scary goes out and we are down to the final table...
Here's the starting chips and who was in still...


Sting lost a big one with AK to thecloser's A9. He pushes with a super short stack and is the next one to go. . .


Blowinaduece takes out mbudstein with preflop allin. . .


trusturgutshot goes out and misses a chance to be a repeat winner...



rickphillips is the next one out giving more chips to thecloserx5


I put fatmansjake on a steal and shoved after the flop with my pair. Unfortunately, he did have a hand and I go out 5th...


Big0face is the bubble but I missed the screen shot. . . Next fatmansjake takes out blowinaduece (who was quite happy not to bubble 3 tournaments in a row). Congratulations to blow for getting 3rd and $30...


And the monster hand of the night. 62 takes out 42 to win it all. A hand to remember...
Congratulations to fatmansjake for winning the tournament ($75) and for winning the $10 bounty on theCloserX5. The closer almost takes down 3 of the first 4 HAWK tournaments but finishes 2nd for $45. People are starting to wonder "How good is he?". Come out next month and take him on. Sunday March 1st, 8pm CST on Fulltiltpoker. Don't forget referral code jamy600 to get your 100% match up to $600...

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Another winner

Not a big one but I'll take it! Thanks to theCloserX5 for railing me. . .

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Going DOWN?

It's funny how you can know the right choice, yet still not choose it. Why is this? It is plain as day that if you want to go UP in an elevator, yet you push the DOWN button, you will not get to where you are going. DUH! So you push UP to go UP.

But when playing poker, you (actually, I'll just say me -not you) sometimes push the down button when you want to go up. First example: I'm playing in the FTOPS last night (event #1) and I build up an average chip stack by the first break. 30 minutes later I am up to almost 8000 in chips from our starting stack of 5000. I'm playing good, not great. I'm making some good reads but I'm bluffing way too much.

From the big blind I check to the button limp with Q10off suit. The flop comes A24 rainbow. I lead out for 3/4 of the pot and the button calls. He didn't insta-call but didn't take forever thinking about it either. I should know right here that I'm done with this hand. But here is where I push the DOWN button to go UP. The turn brings another Ace. I fire out another 3/4 pot size bet and he comes over me all in. I have him covered but obviously have no business being in this hand. I fold and lose a good chunk of chips, unnecessarily.

Second example: I'm down to 3500 in chips, and I guess I'm tilty. I'm watching lots and lots of action at the table which should tell me: Only push the UP button to go UP - TIGHTEN UP. Instead, I min-raise from middle position with 78sooted. Only the BB calls. The flop comes K83 with no colors to help my flush draw. BB checks to me and I fire out a pot sized bet. He thinks for a bit and calls. Now, I'm not putting him on a King, but I don't finish thinking the hand through. The turn brings a Queen. He checks and I fire all in. He thinks for a moment and calls and shows QJ and the Queen holds to take me out.

I know: terrible play! I either need to push on the flop, or get out of the hand altogether. If I think both of those hands through, I could have made better choices, but I snapped off pushing the DOWN button when I should have pushed UP.

Last example: Playing in the MOOKIE last night. I have QQ and raise preflop and get one caller: Texansbaby . Flop comes 10 high with no obvious draw. I lead with 1/2 pot sized bet and Texansbaby raises me 3x my bet. Here is where I could 1)think the hand through or 2)quickly push the DOWN button and hope my elevator takes me UP. I obviously picked #2. I shove, she calls and her AA takes me out. I could have realized she has JJ, KK or AA and since she called my pre-flop raise instead of re-raising me, it's obviously AA.

Anyway... That's why poker is such an evil game. Sometimes I just get caught up in my cards rather than paying attention to what the action in the hand is telling me. There is always a story, you just have to take the time to read it.

Good thing poker isn't my day job.
Stay patient....

Monday, February 2, 2009

TV anywhere

Well, I got a slingbox this weekend. Have you heard of these yet?

It's a hardware device that you connect to your cable/satellite box and to your router and then you can watch your tv on any computer, anywhere in the world. I just wanted to be able to put a TV anywhere I wanted to in my house without having to drill holes in the wall and drop more cables to get a connection. I hooked up my TV to my laptop and "POOF", I'm watching the superbowl in my kitchen getting a wireless signal.

But the long term applications are incredible. I can watch daytime baseball games on my work computer. I can watch local television from anywhere that I travel to (as long as I have an internet connection). I can even just set up a TV/laptop on my back porch (temporarily) and watch the baseball or football games while grilling and playing with the kids.

Technology continues to blow me away. Especially wireless "everything". It's amazing that everything functions as well as it does when it is wireless. This "world frightens and confuses me!" (Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer) Sometimes when I get a message on my fax machine, I wonder: "Did little demons get inside and type it?" I don't know! My primitive mind can't grasp these concepts. But there is one thing I do know - when a man like my client slips and falls on a sidewalk in front of a public library, then he is entitled to no less than two million in compensatory damages, and two million in punitive damages. Thank you." LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Sorry, couldn't help myself there. Anyway, If you travel a lot or even if you just want to watch your favorite shows on your laptop (yes you can watch your recorded shows also), then check out a slingbox. I love it! And check out Tripjax's review of slingbox. He goes into quite a bit more detail here.

Poker sucked this weekend. 2 days until FTOPS begins. You playing? Good luck to everyone who is in any of the FTOPS events. I may only play one, since I could only satellite into the first event.

Good luck and stay patient....