Thursday, August 20, 2009

The Sickest Hand Ever

The debate about who the best poker player in history is can be a bit tiring. The ones who count bracelets claim that it must be Mr. Hellmuth, the ones who are keen on relentless aggression often give the title to Stu Ungar and all-round poker enthusiasts often have Chip Reese as their #1 player.

I’m not going to get into this debate, but I think it’s fair to say that Phil Ivey is up there among the best – his performance in this year’s WSOP didn’t exactly lower his value on the poker stock market.

To prove my point, just watch this hand. Many of you have probably seen it already. But it’s a poker classic that is worth seeing a countless number of times. In this hand, Ivey degrades us all to video poker players.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I just realized that my last post was #400. That's a lot of hot air I put on the internet.


Check out this pic of Pujols with Shaq:

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Heading into August

Wow! I have been busy. Here are some quick points:

-We started our monthly "wannabe poker series again". Last year I finished 2nd in points after 12 tournaments. I was the 4th person to go out in the first tournament this year. Not a strong start at all. The very 1st hand of the tournament, I limp in with 34 sooted. Flop comes 34J. A player that I know will fire with complete air bets the pot. I just smooth call, hoping to get another bet from him on the turn. We are heads up and the turn is an Ace. He fires another bet out the same size as the flop bet. I read this as weak, no Ace in his hand, so I smooth call again to see if I can get another bluff bet from him on the river. The river brings a 5 (no flush draws on the board). He bets out about 3/4 of the pot and I decide to only call, just in case he has a J5 in his hand. He flips over a K2 for a runner runner straight. I'm down to 2,000 in chips from a starting stack of 5000 on the first hand. I never really recovered and shoved with A10 only to be called by 88. I'll take that any day, having two overs, but in the end the snowmen held. Luckily, there are 11 more tournaments to go.

-Football season has started for me. I'm the head coach of my 8 year old's team. That means that 3 nights a week, I will go straight from work to practice and then get home at 9pm, just in time to tuck in my 3 and 4 year olds. I hate missing an entire evening with them, but I'm sure I'll be doing the same for them when they get into sports.

-Online poker has been poor for me. I will build up my bankroll a couple hundred then lose a couple hundred. Back and forth. I feel like I'm getting nickle and dimed by the juice. Poker is like a lot of things in that you have to get in a groove to keep it going good. You know what I mean. Your making good decisions, good reads, good laydowns. But, if you stop playing for a while, you start making poor choices or whatever; your just not in your groove. That's where I'm at now. I'm not playing enough to feel like I'm getting any better.

-My buddy Mike Eise is trying to go pro. He's the one that won a bracelet this year in the WSOP. Anyway, he found a sponsor and is going to play in some circuit events and WPT events. Good luck to him. I really hope he makes it. I still owe you a write up on everything building up to his bracelet win. Hopefully, I can get it done soon.

That's about it. Hope the tables are treating you right.... Stay patient.