Smart Move and PLO

Heard I missed the dream game last night. All the maniacs at the table. I was so looking forward to playing too. I didnt. I made a very wise decision. See I got in a spat with my girl and I also had to read my son the riot act. It seems like Mondays are tough to make it through without some disturbing event to put me on life tilt. I cant even count how many times Ive made it to the Monday game totally upset about something and really loving the fact that poker takes my mind of whatever it is. The problem is that I play too many hands on those nights. I cant just sit n fold and stew in my life tilt. So typically I go broke and think about how I had a feeling I should sit it out. So Im sure I wouldve dumped $500 last night and Im glad I skipped it.

I did play tonight. I show up to the game and they are playing pot liimit omaha. I typically dont play omaha and wouldve declined come had I known. Of course I dont just leave. I buy in short for $100. I get lucky and quickly get up $170. I would basically fluctuate between being up $50 to $200 all night. We did play half n half and strangely I did way better at omaha. I flopped top set against a made straight and got all in and rivered quads. I flopped a straight flush once and got paid by a river boat. I flopped a boat in a raised pot. I was in the small blind so I was out of position. I smooth called the flop and bet out on the turn when the flush hit. The original raiser would make a crying fold. I dont really know how I could play it better. I cant check cause the flush will have him check behind and if he was betting the flush draw then he will be raising. I hope that he can at least call hoping Im just representing. I had just got caught bluffing the hand before. I tried to look just like I did the hand before but to no avail. Oh well. When it was all said n done I won $200. I didnt play terrible but I did make a few rookie calls and was no where near aggressive enough. I enjoyed the game. Most of the play is post flop and I think thats pretty fun and sick. Im sure it was the all time tiddily winks game of omaha donkeys ever but how are we supposed to learn anyway.

Choppy Chop Chop at Nawlins Nightly

Sofa King chops. Especially if I was wanting to chop earlier when I was in a worse position. I played the nightly Saturday in the New Orleans Bayou Classic. When got to 15 from 120 the average stack was 10 big blinds and we could chop for 5th place moolah. I was all for it. But there were a few hold outs who had 30 Big Blinds. Ive never been at such an evenly spread chip distribution with 15 to go. I had about 40k and blinds were 2k/4k with a 400 ante. So we played on. I have AK in BB and the kid who was raising and stealing a lot raised it to 10k which compared to my blind is a small raise. I decide to just call and hope to hit and check raise him. I do hit and Ace and he does bet and I check raise and he moves in. I gladly call expecting to see AQ but he only had A2. So now I got like 85k. And thats around the time we draw for the final table, sit and get a good look at stacks and blinds and decide for an even chop. A coupla short stacks but not worth nit picking. So sweet thats my 5th nightly in a row to make the money going back to last Bayou classic and including the IP last month. I sure wish I could cash in an actual circuit event soon.

Got Bob'd

Bout to go play poker. Last Monday night was the fucking worst shit. I got Bob'd like 5 times. First Bob knocks me out the tournament. Then he felts me twice and Justin once with 8 high all three times. This was all in the first 45 minutes of the cash game. He just kept calling raises with 8 high and flopping trips or 2 pair. He made Quad 7's the first damn tikme against my AA. I had just lost a pot with two pair of 9s n 8s to the straight (dude had 7,5) so i decide to call a small raise with 7,5. If you cant beat em, join em right? Well I flop bottom 2 pair. Im pretty tilted after running into like 3 coolers so I reraise Bob all-in. Well Bob had top 2. I left. I have never lost $550 in a 1/2 game that fast in my life.

I played for 20 min at Harrahs Sat night. I was there with a group goin out for a buddies bday. We were all just hanging out at the bar in the poker room so i sat at this open seat about 8 feet from my friends. I put $100 on the table and told my girl I was gonna play for 20 minutes. I flopped open ended in my first coupla hands. I bet the flop and the turn and still had 2 riders. Luckily I made the nutz on the river and got my all-in called by a guy who was riding with second pair and my straight card gave hime two pair. No respect. I guess i wouldnt have given much respect to the dude who only sat down cause he was at the bar 10 feet away with his friends. My last hand was a doozy. I was small blind with pockets 10s. I know its my last hand so Im not gonna get crazy. I was happy that my double up covered my slot losses so far. Well a few limp and the button raises. Im probably ahead most times but i decided to just set mine. The flop is all 5s. It checks all the way. I probably wouldve folded to a big bet but once he checked and then a 6 hits Im betting. I get my chips to put em out but the dealer skipped me and had the table check around. She claimed that since she called for the action that my bet wouldnt play. I argued and my friend who sat argued too but she didnt see it. She seemed to be claiming that I had hid my cards and was only betting cause I saw the check around. I had her call the floor. She sure seemed like she wanted me to be wrong which I dont get cause I tipped her a red chip on my only pot. Then the next dealer came up and he took her side. Then the floor came up and she whispered to him and then took her side. Then I explained to him exactly what happened and he quickly took my side. Funny thing is the button ends up calling anyway. Now Im a little scared he has a big pair but Im not folding. I shoulda checked the river to him so he could bet if he didnt have it cause if he calls my bet which put his last $50 in then I probably beat. Oh well. He folds and I rack up. I never even had to pay a time rake. I made $190 and was happy to have paid for the outting. Ive never had to call the floor that I can recall but frokm what Ive seen the dealers are usually right. Im glad to be 1 for 1.

Les Miles is a Grass Eatin Lunatic who has Fantastically Shut Me Up Again!

I sat down today to watch the LSU/Bama game by myself at my house. I was hopeful but fully prepared to see a struggling LSU offense lose. I knew our defense would keep it from being a blow out but knew that if we couldnt move the ball we had no chance. I put a steak on the grill and watched the first half which followed the pattern I had feared. I did see a spark in Jefferson before the end of the half and I told my buddy that I thought Les just wanted to let Jefferson fire some passes and was not thinking score since he wasnt calling timeouts as LSU was moving the ball at the end of the half. So we go into the locker room down 7 to 3. Not only was LSU down but Kansas and Penn State had both made huge comebacks to wreck my weekly College Pickem board. I had actually picked LSU but it was a fan pick. My brain told me the smart money was on Bama. And then came the second half. First let me say the MVP of this game was Drake Nevis. What a beast of a game and the sack that caused the fumble was so huge. Also let me give the runner up MVP to the FG kicker Jasper. But perhaps one of the top 5 moments in Tiger (aka Jacob Hester) Stadium was the play on 4th and 1. LSU was behind by one with like 8 minutes to go and Jasper could have kicked a 43 yd fg to put us up by 2. How you dont kick the FG there is beyond me. How you can muster up enough confidence in your offense to go for it there is also beyond me. Sure Jefferson had finally broke his no TD passes streak since the first game of the season but really? And how this team is 7-1 without their starting QB throwing a touchdown pass in 7 games is insane. Anyway, crazy ass grass eatin Les Miles (yeah he bends down and picks some grass and eats it when the pressure gets high) goes for the first down and calls for a short yardage package hand off to the running back with a flip reverse to the WR which goes for 40 yards and almost a TD. This was such an amazing call in the greatest regular season game in Jacob Hester Stadium since the Florida game in 2007 when we went for it on 4th down like 5 times and got it every time. After Ridley punches in the TD we go for 2 and Jefferson fires a bullet in to convert. Then Nevis causes the fumble and we get a clutch FG out of Jasper to go up by 10 with like 5 minutes to go. Then Bama drives and scores a TD which is why Les went for it on 4th because this Bama team is not just good but great.The ESPN guy said Bama was exposed as a one dimensional team after the game but I didnt see that at all. I saw a great running game and a shit ton of caught passes by Julio Jones. Now LSU has to get a first down or 2 to put the game away. First play is the controversial option play which nets us negative 3 yards and ohshit our QB gets injured and Lee has to come in. Lee had looked fairly bad today in his few series and everyone in the nation knew the second down ad 13 yd play call would be a straight up run. It was and now we see 3 and 13. Now for the next OMG how did he call that play play. Les lets Lee throw for the first down! Again how do you not punt and put the faith in your defense which is obviously the best in the nation? Well, Lee steps up and completes a pass that would go for 40 yards and the WR would run for like 10 seconds after the catch which may have also been the difference in the game cause giving Bama the ball with 18 seconds left instead of 28 when they only need a FG to send it to OT was huge. So there it is, LSU wins! So many plays and so many heros in this game. Nevis, Jefferson, Lee, Jasper, Ridley, the whole receiving core. Sure I've been bitching about the play calling, personnel decisions and clock management as usual. Hell Ive been bitching about Les since the Tennessee loss in his first season. But dammit if that dude isnt a great recruiter and it games like this that make players want to come to LSU and be a part of the Mad Hatter magic. Hell I will live with the head scratcher calls if we can always put the most talent on the field which always gives us edge in any game. Congratulations Les and the Tigers and the whole Tiger fan nation! Damn I wish I could rub it in to those Bama fans I played poker with last weekend at the IP.

Good Trip to the IP in Biloxi

I drove straight to the IP after work Friday.  Seemed kinda dumb to hauling ass to a little short stack turbo tournament. Last time i drove to Biloxi for the $350 i think i got AJ once and that was really exciting. I really figured I would bust out and play cash all night. I didnt have a place to stay but I figured I would get offers to crash if I needed it. I did. Thanks yall even though I stuck to my original plan of playing until sunrise and driving back. I had a good time in the tournament. Started at a very interesting table with two girls who the house had bought seats for. A nice touch putting dead money hot chicks in the game. I started out ok. Won a lot of little pots with bets. Then I raise with KQ and a limper calls out of position. He had a sweet mullet so I shoulda known what was going to happen. I whiffed and cbet and he pushed all in and I was getting the right odds to chase my pair assuming he didnt have a set. He didnt but I missed and was chopped down to half of the 3000 starting chips (thats with the extra 1000 for the $5 dealer toke). More to come shortly...

Meta Game (metaphysical that is)

Ok no excuses. Whatever. Im in the midst of a bad run. Ive made it worse by playing bad at times too. Inevitable I guess. I play for 4 hours and will be down a buyin and will be lookin to play another buyin to break even. The last time I played I did ok for losing a buyin. Just never had the ATMs at the table give me a big pot. In fact my favorite ATM who I beat in 80% of the pots took a bigger one off me to make up for all the small ones. People like that should never be allowed to have AA. I had AK on a king high ragged flop. FML. Im really starting to believe that my attitude makes my luck. You ever notice how the people who bitch about runnin bad tend to run bad? I think Im that way. Ive experimented with some mystical type stuff like reality creation or karmic manifestations but its so much work. Ive had good results though. Tipping every dealer before they deal has had good results. I bet most people just see it as a leak. I dont have enuff data. Theres this energy level thing done by this Abraham Hicks lady who believes in the Law of Attraction and when I do it I get big pairs a lot. But the reality is that im naturally negative and pesimistic and its too hard to play long sessions and not be your natural self. I think we saw Mike Matusow experimenting with this stuff last time he got in the top 30 of the WSOP. I think he would agree with positive results. Not very logical but whatever. I hope I get to play poker some this weekend. I wish the Belle had a 1/2 game. I think I will play the Sunday morning tournament. Hope to see you there.

Return to the Felt and the Computer

I just walked in to the Love Shack game and got blasted by my only reader. Apparently me talkin about a coupla hands ever now and then and whining about being card dead isnt gonna cut it. I have played a few times in the last few weeks and I played a $350 in Biloxi a few weeks ago but Im not gonna rehash any of it. Mostly I have been outta town visiting my son in Phoenix and having life shit pop up on poker night. I will say that last Friday I hosted a .25/.50 game at my house with just friends and the buyins were around $40 and we managed to get about $700 on the table. Unfortunately I had $400 in the game. I was on full tilt lookin to play big pots. I was down about $240 when I made a hero call with a pocket pair against AK playin it strong cept for a weak turn bet. His river bet was pot sized and I stuck it in. Maybe I fold if Im not stuck and pissed. After that I started big bluffing and then after that started getting my hands paid off. I ended up winning $40.

So I just kamakazied my way outta the $40 tourny. I was down to 4 big blinds and 2 people go all-in so I ask Chris if there were cash seats open to which he says a few so I call with 9,3 suited. If I win Im in it and if I lose Im in a good cash game. I lose and there were no open seats. Fuck me.

So now Im sitting here waiting. I guess I will just whine a little. So Biloxi sucked. Everytime I get pumped for a biggish tournament I get my feelings hurt by the poker gods. I pretty much blinded out of that fucker. I have never been so fucking card dead. I had pocket 10s once and 66 once. I never had any good Ace or King. Endless procession of J4off. I would be up so much this year if I never left Baton Rouge. Everytime I go to Nawlins or Biloxi it costs me half my roll. I never win at poker and if my girl is with me I dump to the slots too.

Congrats to my friend Linsey (who is always winning regular and womens tournaments) for chopping that tourney I played and also to Dave and Frank the night before. Oh and Devin too. 

Sooooo I finally got in the cash game. Actually I got on the must move table where the action usually isnt as good. More often than not the big gamblin cash players dont last too long in the tourney. I bought in for $155 and bulled a coupla pots and pretty much stayed between $180 and $150 for the next 4 hours. I moved to the main game pretty quick. Then foldfest. I got a good laugh around 11:30 when I flopped the nut flush after open limping on the button against the two blinds and checked the flop and turn and then pushed all-in for $160 on the river into a $6 pot. The funny thing was that one of them guys had two pair and really thought about calling. I played a coupla pots where I raised and missed and cbet and won the pot. I somehow got up to $250ish. Then I catch AK suited. Mr. 60% PFR made it $10 and I just wanted to isolate him so I 3bet to $30. I get 4 callers including Mr. Big Bet Bluff, Mr. 60% PFR and Bob who announced he was calling just to piss someone off. So theres $150 in the pot. The flop was A,6,2 two spades. I bet like $130 leaving myself $100 behind. Now what fuckin drugs must one be taking to think I can fold to a raise here. Answer: Mr. Big Bet Bluff. He thinks I have QQ. If I do Im still callin. Well he raises and Bob moves all his chips in. I know Bob is flushing. I have not clue with raiser has but Im callin. Well Im up against JJ and the flush draw. My hand holds up. Hiyoooo. Now Im sitting on $800. The reward for my patience and good spot picking.  I didnt sit on my chips and wons some more hands isolating against spewtard. I had AA twice and won a small pot and split a big one. I flopped top set and got all in vs a flush draw and ran it twice. Of coarse I won the first one. No regrets. I prefer the two run. I do think it hurts a little being known as a guy who runs it twice. It invites draws to play really aggressive against you. They maximize fold equity and split a lotta pots where they are behind. Maybe if I ever get a 50 buyin bankroll I will become a one timer. I guess I wont say what I won but it wasnt too much more than after my big triple up hand. I dont feel like a big winner since I dumped my last two poker sessions. I doubt Im even  in my last 3 sessions. However it didnt suck to book a nice win to get my roll back to health.

BTW Mr. 60% PFR you keep being flabbergasted after playing these pots so strong and getting your all in called by 2nd pair. Of coarse under normal circumstances they should fold but for God sake please consider your table image as a factor. Try having a pair every other time at least.

I want to say congrats to Will the Poker Monkey on his big hit in Biloxi. I read his blog and you should too. Probably you do because he links to me and well its way more likely you wandered in here through his site or maybe the Gulf Coast Poker site where he is featured and I have a little link too. I hope I get to play poker with him one day. Ive really had a good time playing against some big gulf coast names this year when they've come slummin in the $1/$2 games. I feel like I dont care who is sitting or what my seat is. I wanna play higher and better and have been holding my own in all the games Ive palyed lately.

Finally Got Pocket Aces

Jeez Im gettin behind.  Let see.... A week and a half ago I played the Monday tournament. About 20 minutes in someone tells me the line up at the cash game. Its the fuckin juiciest possible game imaginable. So I shove all in over two all ins with 7,4. Yeah I spit in the poker gods face. I dumped. Guess what. Totally not worth it. I played like 7 hours before I got in the positive. By the time cards started going my way there was only one crazy player left on the table. So Im sitting in this little 1/2 game with $800 on the table and Im covered by 3 people. Its like 2am by now and Im looking for the door. Then it happened. No big deal just the first time Ive had AA in a cash game in like 2 months. I reraise the raiser who has me covered. I dont wanna play a big pot really. I wanna leave. My buddy who raised first points out my shaking hands and I tell him its cause I got a big hand. He calls my big reraise. I know he is putting me on AA and Im putting him on QQ or KK. I offer to run it out from here and I think he decided maybe I didnt have AA. I really just didnt wanna crush him and then leave. Also I had way too much money on the table. Well the flop is Queen high and he bets into me. Im not real happy bout it. Im sure he would play Queens like this. I call. He bets the turn too. Im figuring I gotta go broke if I call here and he shoves the river. Fuck. The river is another Queen. He checks and I check. I coulda got another $200 outta him but I just wanted to insta leave so I didnt. He had KK. I played another round and split. Got my minimum 3 hours of sleep and off to work. It was a long night. I spent a lot of time outside smoking and trying to talk myself into staying patient. So much money was flying and it was 7 hours before I won a freakin decent pot.

Hit n Run at the Belle

Went down to the Belle again last Sunday. It was an ugly table but I had the best possible seat. I was on the insane Asian guys left. Unfortunately the rest of the table was littered with unpredictable players. I had Mr. Spoon on my direct left but he was buying in short like me ($300). The first thing that really happened was Spoon getting felted by the Asian guy who reraiased Spoon all in with top pair of 9's and a medium kicker. Spoon called and had a lot of outs he didnt hit. The game was basically to trap Asian guy. He wasnt a fool though. I actually hate playing those types. As soon as you take a stand against them with some big pair you end up all in with one pair against a ton of outs. If they have a lot of buyins you will go broke every third time you play a pot with em. My plan was to take me stab with my one short buyin then leave. I get my chance. Asian guy makes it $25 to go (its 2/5 NL btw). I find myself with 10s. Im not set mining here. I repop to $75. Well this weak tight behind me calls. Im thinking AK or maybe JJ. Well Asian guy calls. Im praying for a low flop but u never know with Mr. ATC whats gonna get ya. The flop is 9 high and Asian checks. I hi-de-ho my $205 into the pot and weak tight guys is instantly and openly fretting. Uh oh. He tells me only 3 things beat him. So he has JJ. I dont instanly cry or anything but Im thinking that most people make a crying call here. He folds. Phew. It was a good fold. My 3 bet range right there is very tight so over time I think he would lose money in that scenario. If you assume I dont ship it in with AK when I whiff then you gotta think 10s is the only hand you can beat there and people dont usually play tens like that anyway. Why I dont know. I think the only profitable way to play 10s or AK is to three bet but only cbet air heads up. Anyway Asian guy asks me how big my pair is and eventually calls. I say "Thats not gonna make this guy too happy." And I show my 10s to the folders dismay. Im thinking Asian guy had two high cards and was hoping to be good if one hit. If he is right which much of the time he wouldnt be then he is getting laid 2 to 1 but is only 3 to 1 to win (if he is live). Its a mistake Im happy for him to make once. He missed and Im up  like $350 now and Im leaving in 30 minutes for a thing at 7. I played two more pots and won one and lost one. I also broke even on my $20 slots investment which is a nasty little leak. If I donate $20 everytime just waiting on a seat Im really eating into my win rate. Those damn Sizzlin 7's.

Fun $60 Tournament

Well I didnt win or lose (other than time) in the $60 Saturday tournament. We got down to 6 and it took forever to lose the 6th and then we got down to 5 and it was taking forever. No one would call the 68 times the short stacks would push in. I proposed at that point that 4th and 5th get their buyin back and they agreed. About one hand later I flopped bottom two pair and got all in and got crapped on by the turn. Did I jinx myself with that deal or was I a genius? Whatever. Before that happened I started the tournament great. My first good pot I limped Aces UTG and the next guy raised everyone out. I decided to just call. I think if I reraise there I should just tell the guy I had KKs or AAs. So I let him bet the flop. I bet out on the turn because I know this guy and he is worried about that call and he might have checked behind. I bet out on the river too even though the flush got there. I was 90% he had JJ or QQ. He called and mucked when I showed. A little later I hit a queen high flop with AQ and made some good money against JJ and something else I never saw. Now Im doubled up and sitting pretty. I would run my stack from 25k to 85k before I lost my first big hand. It wasnt really a big hand. I called a raise from the button with 44 and the two guys in the hand checked the 10 high flop. So I make a big bet. At this point blinds are high and my big bet was 25% of my stack. The original raiser then reraises all in and I fold. It hurt. Both the guys in that hand would eventually out last me and they were both down to under 10k at a point. The rest of the game I just played short stack strategy. A lot of allins from the button and small blind with any ole Ace. A few standard raise and allin if I hit and dump if I dont. The only hand that sticks out with me was one I wasnt in. UTG who is very solid raised and kooky ass James pushes all in with 88. UTG decides to call. James is satisfied to be up against AK cause he was sure it was a coin flip. I asked James what he was smoking. UTG has a big hand. His range is AQ,AK, and Tens-AAs. Thats 7 hands and only 2 you wanna be against. I realize there are more combinations of AQ and AK but still lets not get too technical. To me thats such a bad move against this particular guy. But lucky ass James 88 held up. Of course the guy he left short stacked there would eventually be the chip leader long after James was busted out. This was a fun tournament and 4pm on a Sat is a great time for me. It doesnt kill Saturday night and if I bust out I can even play a coupla hours of cash before I go do something. And if i didnt have anything to do then it was cash all night. Actually I got a text at 10:45am the next day letting me know they were still playing. Jesus.

Chopped the Monday Tournament

Played the Monday tourny. It was so strangely easy. Every big pot I played I won. Every time I bet the flop with nothing I took it down. I dont think I ever made any marginal calls and ended up folding to another bet. I got AA against KK allin preflop. That was the hand that set me up because that was against another big stack. After that I just more less cruised to the chop. I did have one hand against my buddy who actually reads this blog. I had folded AK to him the hand before where he reraised his wife with QQ. I knew at best it was QQ. Well the next hand he raised UTG and I just call with AK. I dont flop nothing but he checks. I know he knows I have a big hand. I bet and he tanks. Im really thinking he has a flush draw but the blinds are real big so this pot could get ugly quick. He folds. So we chop soon after. I actually didnt wanna chop totally. I suggested everyone take $200 and we play for the $400 left. We had 5 left and all with very even stacks except for one who took less. I also want to play because one of the guys left was maybe in the top 3 tournament players on the gulf coast. I think he wanted to play it out but didnt care enough to insist. He said he wouldnt be the guy who wouldnt chop in a $40 home tournament. So I netted $245 after dealer tip and went and lost $45 in the cash game that I could only play an hour in. Im playing in a $60 tournament as I write this. Doing ok. Above average chips. I'll fill you in prolly after the Monday game.

A Harrahs, a LoveShack, and a Belle

Ok well I was not playing much but Ive gone a a playing frenzy (for me). I just got knocked out of the Sunday Double Deuce. Walked on 2 left feet the whole time. Mostly just had small pairs and Ace Kings and never hit a pair or a set. My big losing hand I limped in late position with QJ and flopped a pair. The open limper bet pot, pot, then half the pot on the river. I called the river because I had rivered top two but there was a pair on the board. Turns out he had open limped with Aces. I minimized my loses (givin that I didnt fold).

Yesterday I went to the Belle. I hadnt played that game in ages. It was the typical afternoon old man rock garden. I dont mind that. You always know where you are and its real easy to fold hands that in my Monday night game would be more of a decision. I still havent had AA or KK in a month now. Thats probably 1000 hands of live poker. There was only one guy at the table worth gunning for. He ended up insta calling an all in bet for like $400 dollars when he turned top two pairs on a board where any ole Queen wins. The guys had flopped the straight any way and bye bye went the one terrible donator. There were other bad players but they were bad on the tight side. I really like that game in the day time. Either the players play ABC poker but with no regard for position or they play limp in and be willing to go broke in a limp pot. Its really a game where I wanna not limp unless its in late position. Open raising or 3 betting is really the way to go there because they are usually gonna let you know where you are at. I only had one decent hand where I flopped good and made it to show down. I had AK and I three bet the original raiser from $50 on top of his $25. He just called. The flop is AA3. He bets $20 into me. Im thinking he either has an Ace and wants to see if I have a better Ace or he has a pair and is probing. I decide to just call. Im not too scared of the board. The turn is a Jack which I hate. He only bets $20 again which says that he isnt very strong. I just call. Im trying to represent KK or QQ and hopefully he will try to rep and Ace. He just checks the river. Now I just bet something pocket 10s can call. i bet $50 and he makes a crying call. He flips over KK. Whoops. Sorry dude. I stack my chips and realize Im $30 to $40 short. I say very low "damn how much do they rake here." Well my friend who was dealing heard me and started asking me what was the problem. I tell him how much I start with and we go through the last pot and Im $40ish short. But I tell him dont sweat it. We go back 20 years and know he didnt over rake me. Then we move on to the next hand and I say well maybe my stacks are tall. Yep I had an extra $10 in each stack. Idiot. I tip him another red bird and assure him I didnt think he had done anything wrong. I just knew something was wrong and obviously it was my stupidity. So that was my big pot. I took a picture of a guy who won with a straight flush against the nut flush because he had the baddest ass curly mullet ever. He even had his head shaved on both sides about 3 inches around his ears. Unfortunately the photos didnt come out good enough. I won a few smallish pots all day and left only $180 up.

My Monday game wasnt very fun. I was so very card dead. Sucks because I had 4 crazy players on my right. The only hand worth talking about was the time I flopped broadway holding A,10. I couldve actually went $300 in the black at that point and it wouldve made up for being card dead but how many times have I flopped the nut straight and lost especially broadway. Many many many times. The flop brings action and I make a big raise. A guy who hasnt had a hand all night goes all in for not much more than my bet and one of the crazies calls. The turn is nothing so I push in for like $130. The allin guy has basically told us he flopped 2 pair. Well mr crazy has 2 pair too but he knows they are no good. He folds after a long time. I ask the guy to run the last card twice. The other guy folded KJ so my opponent had 3 outs. Well the King hits and he wins the first and I win the second. I feel real smart and real lucky the other guy folded and opened up the running it twice possibility. It wouldnt matter though in the long run because i would eventually go broke. Lost $480.

The Sunday before that I went to Harrahs. Actually I stayed down there Sat night to play slots and table games and use a commp to the Besh Steak house. It was good food and we had a lot of fun but I dumped like $500 gambling. No regrets though. I did play the electronic roulette deal and that was fun. Sunday I hit the poker room. I was there for a really long time and I never had much. I didnt even get AK for the first 4 hours. Then of coarse AK would be my down fall. I three bet AK from the big blind and the UTG limper who was very very tight just called and the original raiser to $10 just called. So now there $100 in the pot and the flop is K,10,9. I bet out $100 to say I have it. and the UTG guy min raises and the original raiser moves in for his last $220. I only have like $130 left but I know Im drawing almost dead. I fold. I know the UTG has a set of 10s or 9s. I saw him check some huge hands and know he isnt doing that with out a set. Actually he flopped the straight with a heart draw to go with. the other guy had Aces. Damn. He fucked up just calling behind there. So that was my big hand. How I lost like $680 over the span of 6 hours and losing $130 in a hand was my big loss I dont know. I guess just calling too much with little pairs and suit connectors just adds up. I was probably chasing a little too much since I had dumped straight gambling the night before. Oh well.

So until my little cash yesterday I was on a 3 session losing streak and they were all pretty big in relation to my bankroll. Sucks coming of a good streak and then going on a losing streak right away. It pretty much wiped out my gains. Im still up for the last 45 days but it still stings a bit. I hope I can pull it together before the Bayou Classic. I would like to have some moolah ready to buyin to some nightlys and one $550.

Look for more updates since Im kidless and going to be playing more.

Played Fast and Stupid and Paid the Price

Well it happened. I dumped. In less than an hour Monday I lost $620. I had put together 10 straight winning sessions. Looking back I guess I can see what went wrong. I was probably not in a good place mentally because of personal stuff. It never seems to fail that when I am preoccupied with life issues I tend to lose. For some reason I pick these times to play loose, aggressive even though the table doesn't really call for it. My first big hand I raised from the button against a straddle with 5,6. I got 2 callers. The flop comes 7,5,4 with two diamonds. Both check. I'm delighted with the flop. I bet like 3/4 pot. Small blind calls. Other folds. The small blind is a guy that will make moves, will chase draws, and could have had very little to be calling there. He is also someone who usually gives me a lot of credit. The turn is a 9 and he checks. Now I have to decide if I bet or check. I thought that he would put me on JJ or better if I bet the turn big. He also wouldn't chase his flush draw. I bet big. He pushed in. I call another $40ish. He flopped the straight and had the diamond draw. Pretty sick. 8,6 of diamonds he had. Ok so there goes my first $220. Then I lose like $100 more chasing a flush draw all the way to the damn river. I lost another hundred probably calling $12 preflop raises with shit likke QJ. Then my last hand I have J,8 of spades and I call the guy who raised the button and we get another caller. I call because this guy is constantly raising with crap and trying buy pots. Well ithe flop is Q,8,3 and I check and the other caller checks and the typical maniac bets. I see the other guy getting calling chips out so now I figure I can't just call. So I raise. I don't believe the maniac and I think I can get the other guy squeezed out. Well he begrudgingly folds. Well my maniac friend flips over pocket Kings and says all in. I have another $120 left and I have about that in the pot now. I decide to make a bad call and go home. I ask him to run it twice and he says now but woujld run it 3 times. I decided to just gamble. I called the extra to gamble so why would I run it 3 times just to try and win that same amount back? I woulda just folded. So I declined and the dealer turns a King and its over. So that's how I dumped 3 buuyins in an hour. I never even had a playable starting hand. I shoulda come into the game with a plan. I shoulda planned to play tight and wait for good spots. Why? Because that's how I won 10 in a row AND because I was stressed about something to do with my son.

New Orleans Poker on July 4th and Essence Fest = Maniacville

Ok so normally I'm at the Monday night poker game right now. I got 2nd place in the little 27 player tournament last week I made the worst deal ever when it got heads up. I basically just upped second place by forty bucks and kept playin even though I had a 2 to 1 chip lead. Good thing I guess since I ended up getting second. My buddy was just pushing me around and when I picked up KJ suited I pushed back. Ended up all in vs Ace rag. Flops Ace high and that was that. Didn't play cash since I was supposed to be leaving 30 minutes later. I'm sure someone had something to say about that. Oh look he won so he's leavin. He don't wanna gamble his winnings. Whatever.

Went to Harrahs Sunday night. First time since the horrible circuit event weekend. How is it that I rarely go to Harrahs but I seem to make it there during Essence Fest every year. At least it wasn't Saturday night like last time when I had to park on fuckin Rampart and walk. I love the poker during Essence. The Essence festers tend to either be total maniacs or total chaser/calling stations. I sat there for the longest time catching nothing. I do remember a hand with this girl who had sat down with $100 and basically made the nuts like 6 hands in a row. She raised first and checked the all heart flop. I made 2 pair on the turn and it all checked around again. The Board is K,J, 10. She bets out $40 on the river and I laugh. She had been talking about buying a pair of $800 shoes with her winnings so I told her I was going to donate to the shoes fund because I put her on a set. Well she only had a straight. I think she would go on to cash out for like $800 within an hour of playing starting at $100. She only played the nuts and played them well. She was kind pretty too so maybe she gets a lot of why not calls. I didnt catch really anything else for a while. I finally got a chance to pretip the dealer before she sat down and she made up for it all in her 30 minutes. I had originally bought in short for a hundred to see what was going on. I kept buying up and up as the table got crazier. Buy the time that dealer sat I was $400 in the game and sitting on about $275. I was looking to play a big pot with the maniacs. Well I picked up a pair and raised to try an see the flop on my budget not theirs. They obliged and I flopped no help and folded. My set woulda come on the river. I mentioned quietly to the dealer she needs to tell me that's how she is gonna do it so I can stay in. See I feel like the Law of Attraction has given her a reason to deal me well because I gave her a reason to like me. I've done experiments before with tipping dealers as soon as they sit down. I think I have found a karmatic certainty. It also works is you know the dealer and they already like you. Anyway I received pocket 5s the next hand and raised to set the price again. The flop is like KK6. I check and the first maniac bets just $20 and the other one calls. I decide to chase a 2 outter for reasons of superstition, attraction and karma. I also may have had the best hand but I was never going to be able to stick around and I wasn't going to take a big stand against these guys in that spot with no outs if I was wrong. Well bingo my 5 on the turn. I check. The original lead better checks. Maniac number 2 bets $50. I decide that I really don't see them with much here and I would like to get the extra $50 from the guy behind me and raising here would likely end the hand. So I call and maniac behind me calls. The river is nice. It makes straight and flush. I decide to bet out hoping they had something. Nope. Two folds. I guess I shoulda checked to two maniacs. I'm guessing one of them is gonna bet something more often than not especially if like I was hoping they actually had something. Oh well. That pot brought me back to even. One pot made up for 3 hours of grinding and time rake. Very shortly after I pick up 99. The very passive calling station in the UTG raises to $12. I like the price and call. I don't see getting heads up here with a raise and I don't really wanna be heads up with this guy. Well maniac number 1 reraises. I think he was steamin a bit. 3 people call so I call. Flop is Ace, 9, 4 with two spades. UTG checks, I check, and maniac bets out $75. All fold to me. I decide to shove in for probably $275 more. The pot is pretty big and if he has a decent Ace he may pay me off because he just aint that bright. Well he looks at me and asks if I would do that with a flush draw. I kinda looked at him weird so he called. He wanted to make sure he had the only flush draw. He had 10,6 of spades. Your typical 3 bet hand. I fade the turn. Im leaning back kinda half looking when I see the river spade. Heart sinks. I belly up to the table and take a good look at it. Its the 4 of spades. I look all the way down at the first card on the board. A 4 of diamonds. Boat. I say "Ship it!" and then I hum the song from the Hangover about "wait till I get my money right" while Im stacking. I think my maniac friend left at that point. The other maniac who was still there was doing well and had me covered. It was weird how many times this guy bluffed, got called, and still somehow had the best hand. He was over betting the river with a lot of marginal hands too where if he was getting trapped he was fucked. It never hurt him though. He started hitting nut hands too. I decided I didnt wanna mess with him. My dealer had left and I had actually helped the new dealer out by giving her someones rake so the floor didnt have to come over. At some point I decided to rack up and o blow off some steam in penny slot hell. Thats a dangerous choice cause I can blow $400 in no time if the slots piss me off. Well the slots were kind and I broke even. I thought about going to the fireworks show on the levee. I didnt. I just rebought into a poker game and played a few more hours and ended up not losing or winning. I was tired at that point and cant even remember a hand worth mentioning. So another cash session win. Thats 10 in a row now.

I played the Wednesday night tournament at the H club. I didnt mind donating to a recently deceased poker players family fund. I knew the guy and he was super cool and a stand up guy. I decided not to rebuy or add on at the break cause I had 10k from a starting stack of 8k and another $40 would only buy me 8k more. I didnt see much value in 8k when blinds were at 400/800. It was about to be a shove fest any way. I just wanted to check out the club. It was real nice. Turns out the extra 8k would have probably kept me in the tournament since I probably wouldnt have shoved all in with 77 in late position with a coupla limpers in front of me and run into JJ in the small blind. Oh well. Had fun. It was good to have a long sad walk to the car having lost instead of won. I havent had one of those since the New Orleans disaster. Oh and the time me and my girl went to "have a little fun" in slot hell. Opps. I almost made it to the cage with a voucher that woulda put me at even. Almost. Fucking degenerate.

Streakin Still

Well the streak continues. One more bust out of the tournament and one more good cash in the cash game. I started a new job this week so my desire to do extra work is low so I appologize to my one reader (who only likes to cuss me and call me names) for the late post. I bubbled out Monday. One before the chop. I don't care since I'm on a cash streak. I know its not gonna last forever. I know one time I will get it in good all night and lose my ass. Like last week when I had AA against 3 players and won, this week I flopped a straight and against two all ins on the flop I held up. The board didn't pair. I was more happy with my marginal hand play. I made some prudent laydowns and also some well timed bluffs. The regulars were giving me shit about being tight and saying saying since I was up that my chips weren't in play. I let em. It makes it easier to steal later. Not that stealing is a great idea in that game but there are go spots sometimes. My favorite hand was when I raised a guy on the flop because I read him as weak and then another guy went all in behind me and I had nothin but a weak ace but I rivered the Ace and got to advertise and win. I also had a had where I floated the flop bet and another guy behind me called so when iraised the leader on the turn I got got called by the draw chaser and the guy with the best hand folded. I've been plying really well and I can't think of many mistakes I made other than getting a little to frisky raising preflop a coupla times. I am itching to go to Harrahs soon but I just haven't seen a good spot at a good time. So for now I will ride my Monday night streak of 9 winning sessions and counting. I did fluff of some Monday when we switched to half n half. I should really never play Omaha. I'm just not comfortable or knowledgable enough about it. I hope my friends in Vegas do so well that they stay and the Monday night game sucks because of it. Good luck dudes.

Grindin

Well crap I forgot to blog last week. I guess I have played twice. Last monday night and Saturday night. Last monday I played the tournament and got to the top ten with a short stack. I had A10 in the big blind and the super short stack moved in for 2k and the chip leader just called him and seemed iffy about it. I had 7k and I decided I was ahead of both of them. Well Mr. Chip Leader hemmed and hawed and called me with QJ. I dont rememeber what the short stack had but the Flop comes A,10, rag. Im almost about to get happy until the K hits the turn. I havent cashed in that tournament in the last 6 tries. Oh well who cares. Im doing well in the cash game anyway. I dont remember a whole lot about the cash game. I rememeber having bought in for $160 and still having about $130 when I get AA. I limp in early position. I do this because if I make a standard raise Im just gonna be up against 5 players. I pretty much grind with top hands so they arent gonna play back at me. Actually they rarely play back at anybody. So I limp and luckily a guy two to my left makes it $16. 3 people call and it gets to me. I make it $50 on top of the $16. I only lose 1 players. Seriously. And they know Im tight. Sometimes I think about mixing up my game but then I think why would I ever stop playing nut poker when I get all the action I want when I have my monster hands. If they dont change Im not gonna change. So the flop comes J,10, rag and I put the rest of my stack in. I dont love the flop but Ive only got $70 more and there $220 in the pot already. Guy to my left calls. I hate it. Im sure he has JJ or Tens. I also get called by both of the other players. I think they actually checked out from there. My Aces held. I was up against AK, Q10, and I think a low pocket pair. What a buncha degenerates. I cant believe I won that freakin hand. I tripple up and didnt lose much or win much after that. I hit quad 6's at some point and didnt get paid huge but maybe won $70 but that just paid for my $12 calls trying to hit flops. Fit or fold is so lame but against half a table of maniac calling stations what elese can ya do.

On Saturday night I showed up late. The game was small and I think I made 7 since they had just lost one. I saw him sitting in his car. I wondered if he was thinking about coming back or not. Maybe he was crying. I know that the previous Saturday night was a huge game and a real blood bath. Oh well I dont mind the table. Pretty quickly I won a pot off a guy when I raised the button with A10 suited and flopped the flush and he bet into me twice and I just called. I was representing the flush draw but I shoulda raised the turn. He says he wasnt gonna call. He checked the river because it paired queens and counterfeitted him if I had a big pocket pair and I bet and he folded. Oh well. Too many scare cards can hit the river. I need to raise the turn. Maybe even the flop. He might have stacked of the flop with two pair thinking I trying to end the hand with Aces. I didnt put him on a big hand though. I hadnt played with the dude a lot so I didnt assume he would put me on a big hand just cause I raised like some of the other playeers might have. So I won and he went broke a few hands later and I proposed a mandatory $5 straddle which was accepted. I dont really remeber much about the hands. I played a lot more aggressive and wwith a wider range because we were short handed and there was only one real aggressive guy at the table and he was on my right. I picked up decent amount of orphan pots and I made a lot of value calls against my player to my right. I did ok. I played my $200 up to $500 and then the cards kinda went south and I was back down to $260 eventually. And at some point my friend jumped to the open seat on my left which I hated because he loves to push me off hands. I would eventually win a good pot off him though. I had 10,9 and the flop is 8,7,3 with two hearts. I think I checked and he bet smallish. A ten hit the turn and I checked. He bets like $70 which isnt inline with his first bet for sure and he probably had $50 more behind. Its a big bet. He had been rebuying a lot and I figured he was pushing with any piece there. I decide that he probably has hearts and wants to take it away from me. I push him all in and he does and doesnt get there. I might not have played it like that if I didnt have the open end straight draw to go with my pair. The only other hand I remember was a hand where I had Ace, 6 and raised and got called and the flop is like 4,4,3 with two spades. I cbet and got called behind and a King hits the turn and I check and he checks and the river is another 3 and I check and he bets about pot. I guess he is repping a 3 here. That makes sense but there arent to many hands he is gonna call $20 preflop with that make sense. And if he had a three and thought he was good on the flop wouldnt he have repped something on the turn when I checked anyway? I really think he was flush or straight drawing. Anything else he is checking behind I think. I call and win with my Ace. He was flush and gutshot drawing. He had also bluffed a lot all night so it wasnt too hard to figure I had to call. I dont remember any big losing pots for me. Mostly my losses were chasing draws and cbets with nothing that got called or raised. But since the straddle was on it hurt to make any unsuccessful plays or calls. So after it was all said and done I won a little more than my buyin. Im going back tonight to play. I expect a huge action game which sucks cause Im a working stiff who always leaves before the real action starts. But Im not complaining. For now Id rather have a job and a girl to go see and grind out little wins. For now.

Jackpots and Regular Pots and My Leather Ass

As I had suspected there was a chip dump tard fest last week after I left. I guess I should be glad I have a life that sometimes cuts into my already limited poker hobby. Last night was Love Shack night and before I get going I wanna say yipee for getting a table share of the bad beat jackpot. The BBJP is paid anytime Aces full gets beat with all hole cards playing. Last night my old buddy who I started playing no limit with back in like 2002 won the big part of the jackpot which was I think $900 and it was his birthday. The jackpot goes back to $500 and will stay there until the actual jackpot goes above that. They also pay I think $50 (maybe $40) for Aces cracked after midnight and that comes out of the jackpot too. Plus cash players get fed pretty well. At least pizza and sometimes BBQ and sometimes steak night. Ok now to the poker.

We had 3 tables run for the $40 tournament. I wasnt making any head way and was down to 3500ish from the starting 4000 when I picked up KK. UTG raised to 400 with blinds at 50/100. Made it 1500 to go. UTG calls. Ace Jack rag flops and UTG (who is a great guy and fun to play with) asks a player to move so he can see me and then insta shoves like he could tell I hated the flop. I doubt that was the case but who knows. I frikin hate it and I muck saving 2200. He shows QJ and has a good time razzing me until later when I started taking chips from him in the cash game. Then he turn around and loses all those chips I just gave him to another crazy cash gamer. He says oh well there goes *****'s chips. I said well at least I know they are in the right hands with you two. A little while later blinds are at 100/200 and I ship my 1800 in over the UTG raiser and we race my AQ vs his 10s. Out. The two wackos would join us shortly in the cash game. It looks like they both went felt in the same hand.

Before the cash game I went to buy cigs and got a new big chipotle burger from Backyard Burgers and man was it a tasty burger. The drive thru chick gave me a free Diet Dr. Pepper no one wanted too. Quit a contrast from the McDonalds a-holes who without going into the story too much I had a tug of war with a bag of food with. I wanted the food for free since they had me sit through the line and dont inform me the the card machine was down till I get to the window. I drove up to the second window and they started handing me my food and I really wanted to just act like I paid but I didnt but I did get my drinks in the car and a hand on the food bag before I came clean. Then me as I wont relinquish the bag he calls over the manager who wont budge. I did get to keep my 3 cokes though. One time I chased a little MickeyDs burger punk back into the freezer. I was wearing flip flops and almost busted my ass running past the deep fryer. I cant wait until they automate fast food places. Anyhoo.

I bought in for $160. I had a series of crap starting with the first hand flopping top pair from the button and playing to weak by not raising the preflop raiser. The turn makes a 4 card straight and now both players check to me so I fire $25 and one calls and the original raiser pops to $75. Shit. Fold. He shows the straight. Another hand I dont exactly remember but I was good and getting chased and the runner runner 4 card flush comes and I have to fold. Well I didnt have to but I did. So anyway somehow I end up down to like $70 when I pick up JJ and I limped and reraised all in over 3 guys who had put $8 in. For some reason this guy who apparently loves to win with the worst hand decides to gamble with me with K9. No bad beat. Courtesy double up. I also remember another hand where like 6 people called $16 preflop me included with my A8 of clubs and I flopped nut flush draw and I opened for basically pot with not much behind and everyone folded. Anyway I guess I was around $140 when I completed the small blind with 6,5 in a big virtual family pot and I flopped the nuts 7,4,3. I check and early position bets and a few call and I repop it pretty healthy cause there a flush draw. I get pushed all in my Mr. Courtesy Double Up from before and I tell the dealer not to deal after I call. I call and he shows top set and I show the nuts and ask him if he wants to run it twice. Instant no. Fuck. The next card is Ace of spades giving him a spade flush draw and the last card is K of spades crushing my soul. Apparently I had him covered and was getting chips back but I stormed out to smoke prompting someone to run out to tell me I had chips still. I wasnt leaving anyway. I came back in and was commended with my good handling of the beat. I tell em no big deal but damn I really wanted to run it twice. I then proceed to fold a shit ton looking ship my $55 remaining chips in but the opportunity never comes and I eventually buy $100 more in chips so as not to miss out on the multitude of players at this table willing to go broke in a limp pot. my buddy is still razzing me about the KK fold in the tournament so I took a shot at him to say ha ha real funny mfer but Im glad Im not stuck hard as you right now Mr. Poker Genius. I want so bad to take some chips from him even though he was stuck a few buyins. My big break came a good while later after endless folds and being down to $130 when I limped with AQ and many other limped and I flop top two. Small blind bets out $8 gets two callers and I pop it to $25 and my crazy friend on my left who bluffed me in the tournament makes it $125 to go. The original bettor who was obviously tilting before the hand started called. Well Im not folding although I know my buddy either has a flush draw or a nd big hand and I was certainly more worried about a set of 8s than a flush draw but I know he would raised preflop with 88 there so I guess Im good and Im not to worried about small blind. I think he has Ace King or J,10 double gut shot. I never saw his cards. My buddy had top and bottom pair and I triple up. The rest of the night was almost uneventful except for the jackpot and what was supposed to be my last hand. I played way too conservative and it probably cost me at least $200 in retrospect but oh well. The jack pot was QQ vs KK and 3 Aces hit the board. Weeeeee. My supposed to be last hand I was UTG and get QQ. I limp to the inevitable raise and just call. Im trying to get outta there. Well The flop is KQ8. We are 3 handed I think. I check and a pretty tight player bets out $35 and my buddy calls. I raise to $90 and they both call the $55. Im putting Mr. Tight on AK or KQ. Im putting my psycho friend on J10. Well the damn 9 hits the turn and Im first to act. SOB. I cant check and let them check behind me and some gut shot hit. I bet out $150 and they both make crying folds. As Im stacking my decent pot I get dealt in for my big blind. I play round to the cut off and quit only 30 minutes past my intended and announced at the beginning of the night leaving time. So an up and down night helped out with a jackpot nets me $320. I didnt mind leaving too much. It didnt seem like the game was too good and there wasnt a shit load of bad players left that were gonna be staying late. I gotta have them bad players in to pay me off when Im nut peddlin. Else I might have to put my money in marginal situations and actually think some. Fuck that.

Coupla Bust Outs, Coupla Hours Cash

Very little poker to report. I played the $40 tournament last week and this week. Last week started out first hand with AK and got called by K9 and called on the flop when I cbet cause a 9 was there. I had never played the guy and ended up being glad I shut down because he never folded ever with anything. I would flop a flush draw against him too and same thing. I raised preflop with AQsuited and flopped the draw and bet and he called. I never got there and we checked it out. Being the true definition of a calling station this dude had pocket Aces and never raised or bet once. Anyway I went down and up a few times but never over my starting stack and eventually when I had 10 big blinds left and started pushing in preflop I got my little pair on the button called by AQ in the big blind and lost. Same thing happened last night. I got my little pair called by a bigger pair who only had a third of my chips but then the UTG limper who had me only slightly covered calls with 2 people all-in. He had the monster KJ and he put us both out.

The cash game was juicy from the start. I doubled my short stack of $100 to $200 pretty quick. The hands werent very memorable. I would pretty much stay around that same stack for the rest of the night. I only could play for 2 hours and man it was a good game. The big hand of the night for me I limped with 3,4 (cause I seem to do well with that hand for some reason) and no one raised. Flop 5,2,J and check. Guy to my left bets $15 and 4 people call so I call. There was a flush draw out there so I hate to draw to the worst draw but the perfect card would pay off so I chased. The turn is an Ace and I have the nuts. I decide to donk out $40 and the guy who had made the $15 bet raises. Then the guy to his left makes it like $150. It fold around to me and i ship it but I only had about $150 anyway. The original flop better and turn raiser flops top two pair. So what was I up against? 3,4. Chop. Lame. I had raised earlier with 3,4 out of boredom and history of running well with that hand but got reraised to like $100 and folded. My friend who dont give much of a shit called it with KJ. He was up against Aces. He flopped two pair and boated the river. Sicko. It was getting time to go and I hadnt really hadnt won or lost any big pots when I pick up AK. I decided I would limp and reraise. The straddle was on so I toss in my $5 and to my direct left makes it $80. Shit now I know its all going in and he isnt folding. But to my surprise the guy to his immediate left goes all-in for $150ish. This guy hadnt been messing around so I figured his range was pretty high and I would have to hope he had Jacks or Queens to play and I only had $5 bucks in. Plus the original raiser coulda had one or even two of my outs. I fold and the overbetter calls and evens up winning with his 88. The reraiser had 77 and said he was sick of getting nothing and ready to double up or go home. No Ace or King came so I was saved from going broke. So thats it. That was the big action. Net $65 for the night and it never sucks to leave up but man I know there was some serious chip dumping going on after I left.

My Only Reader Hates Me in a Scary Way

My favorite commenter stopped by again. He left a 181 word comment about how much I suck and have no balls, I'm a lair and I dont tell the whole story to make myself look better and how I should quit playing poker. He knows Im not publishing it but I just love to talk about it. He doesnt agree with the way I played AA with the heart flush draw. I didnt love it either really but I was probably beat by a low flush and I had a shit load of money on the table that I didnt feel like losing it by pushing there. My commenter thinks he coulda had an over pair and a heart. Really? So he was raising with multiple players in the hand and firing 3 streets with 99 and a heart? Good read. He was either bluffing the whole way or he had the flush or some 2 pair or set. I guess you would really hate the fact that I check folded AA to one bet in a 5 way pot when the flop was 9,8,7. But here is the apex of bad poker player: Why would you spend so much of your life trying to convince bad poker players like me to quit playing? I admit Im bad a lot of the time. But if I find someone even worse than me Im surely not going to discourage him. I guess he is one of those Phil Helmuth types that like to run the bad players off. Maybe he plays such high stakes that he doesnt really care what he says to the $1/$2 donkeys like me. Oh and he doesnt like my "gay" terms like cbet or set mine. I guess he prefers words like "lingo". Come to think about it he likes the word fagmo too. Maybe he has a thing for words the end in "o". So heres to you Mr. Angry Obsessed Commenter Guy. I hope all of the 70% of poker players you think are fucking losers, liars, no nuts, dumb asses, goof fuckers, fucking queers, and fagmos all quit playing so you will stop being so successful at poker and can find your true calling as maybe a militia soldier in Montana. But until then I got a habit so I aint quitting. Im sorry if my blog negatively impacts your life. I hope for you all the best things in this world including peace and serenity.

Good Bye Roll. Hope I See You Again Soon.

OK dammit I guess I gotta tell about my stupid poker Sunday. I went to Harrahs to play in the $555 6 handed nooner. I dont think 6 handed is a good format for me but fuck it. Its my big tournament splurge. I woulda rather the Saturday no limit tournament but family obligations didnt allow. Well I played $1/$2 cash before the tournament and was drooling over this numb nuts who raised it to $15 everyhand. He went broke every 2 hands. I got a coupla low pairs and didnt hit the flop. I woulda reraised the dude preflop with any pair but usually I had 4 callers of the $15 in front of me so I just set mined. Whatever. Probably a bad move. I dont really remember what happened but I went broke with AK with an Ace high flop against a set. I went to the tournament. Tried to oopen up just slightly and succeeded to fail. I didnt get any starting hands. I hovered around 9k for a long time. I moved tables to this dream table full of tight passives. I stole a few pots and lost a few too. I went up and down between 7 and 10K chips. Before the break I had JJ and raised pre and got 2 calls and the flop was 9 high so I cbet and got raised and then the guy behind the raise went all in for his last $2500ish. I wasnt worried about him but the raiser made it 4k to go so it was all or nothing. He just wasnt the kind to do that with A9 so I fold and he had a set of 3s. When I get back from the break I get a pair of 9s and I raise and get 2 callers and the flop is 8 high. I cbet and get basically min raised plus a few hundred from the only player at the table who was bluffing and being agressive with his position. Well my stack is pretty low now compared to the blinds. I just dont want to lay down every freaking over pair. I ship it. He has a set of 3's. Im out. Fuck it. I go put $10 on the number 3 a few times just to see if 3 wil give me some money back. I then go to play cash and do well and run good the first hour. Im up like $450 after an hour and would spend the next like 7 hours hovering around $400 up. Then I flop two pair and check raise and get called by top pair jack kicker and he hits a jack on the turn. I flop a set of Queens and get beat by a straight on the turn. I have AdAh and the flop is all hearts and I raised on the flop by a tight player so I call that and the turn and fold teh river. I probably shoulda ship it on the flop just on general principle. I reload and eventually go broke with an under set. That hand was shitty. Guy raises to $7 in early position and I call with 44. $7 was a sweetener. $15 was the standard raise. A guy in late position calls too. I flop a set and just call the cbet and so does the late position guy. I raise the turn which is a 3 and the late position guy puts in $200 over my $60. The original raiser must have AA because he is really upset even though he does have but $27 in the pot. I ship my stack to watch the guy turn over a set of Queens. He fucking smooth called in late postion with Queens. Maybe he had a read on the original raiser. I highly doubt it though. Just an old tourist dude with a wife running around the slots. I was really thinking a set of 3s made more sense but fuck me what do I know. So there it is. I dumped $700 in cash, $555 in tournament. Not to mention the roullette before and after my cash game. I just had to try and hit that 3. So 13 hours of straight poker and I busto. Fuck. But ya know Im ok with it. I have had a great week actually. Usually after a bad day I will stew in it for days but I never did. I may have missed a few marginal moves but Im not upset with the decisions I made that day. I had been running good and just had to give a few back to the cash gods and the tournament is a two or three times a year expense for me if i happen to have the bankroll. Anyway so it looks like Im in poker jail for a few weeks. My bankroll is loaned out except for a few hundred so I guess Im not gonna play this weekend. I may play Monday since I get paid and just play the tournament and 1 bullet for the cash game.

Big Fold. Good Win. New Orleans is on the Horizon.

Well another night at the Shack. I played the donkament. Bluffed my way to even until blinds got high and I pushed with JJ and was up against AA. Oh well. Went to the cash game with a good attitude. I was very ready and willing to lose my $200 buyin playing good poker. Actually I dont know if I was going to play good poker but I was going to play aggressive and try to open my game up a bit in the right spots. I raised the very first hand with A2 up to $8 and flopped an ace. I cbet and got check/called by a solid passive player in the small blind. Basically an old Belle of Baton Rouge style rock who likes to protect his good hands, call his medium hands and call his draws. Well at least thats how I read him. Who knows really. I bet the turn again to see if he was flushing. He wasnt. He obviously had a better Ace. Well the board paired on the river and any Ace worse than AK was gonna split. He checked to me and I bet. He made a crying call and we chopped. From that point on he called me wild man which was fine with me. I think it paid off later but it coulda really reversed itself when I had to consider that he might make a move with less than I would usually give him credit for. A few hands later I called a raise from the button with A6 suited. I missed the flop but floated the pretty weak cbet into me to see if he would check fold the turn. He checked but didnt fold to my turn bet. He checked the river and I was pretty sure he had 2nd pair or a very bad kicker so I bet a nice size on the river and he mucked after some torturous consideration. When I get to the Big Blind I have KQ. A couple people limp and the button raises but its a guy who loves to raise the button to limpers (which is very +EV and correct btw). The SB calls so I make a big raise. It folds around to the SB who calls. Huh? ok. The flop is J high and he checks. I make a big bet because Im representing a big pair. He folds AK. I would see this guy later triple up after playing KK pretty bad and being behind two allins until the river hit his 2 outter. At this point I make a lame joke to the massage girl about how much $4 would get me and she takes the time to explain it to me so I feel like now I gotta get a massage so she doesnt think Im clowning her. I get a 10 minute massage and wow it was worth the $15 I gave her. I felt very relaxed and since I wasnt picking up any hand I could really just enjoy it. I felt super relaxed for like an hour after that. A while later I get KK in late position. UTG raises to $10 and the next guy calls him. I fold to me and I make it $35 to go. The wild maniac degenerate behind me calls having nothing in the pot and the original raiser calls. Well the original smooth caller makes it $100 more. He is the older dude who likes to protect his hand. Aces right? Im like 90% he has AA and 10% AK but definitely not QQ, JJ, or 10s. He would have repopped the first time for sure. He isnt gonna slow play any of those hands. He coulda tried to play AK cheap and then since he was calling me wild man decided I was being wild again and decided to run with AK. I thought that was a long shot really with two people smooth calling 3 bets behind me though. It had to be AA. I took forever to fold until the dealer asked me to please act. I fold and so does everyone else. He shows AA. I fell smart and like a pussy all at once. Well now I feel like Im free rolling. I eventually go broke in a hand where I flop a flush draw and open end straight draw against the maniac. I check raised all in on the flop and he called. He didnt wanna run it twice. He had raised with 87 and flopped two pair. They turned into a boat for him. That would be about the last time he felt good for the next 7 hours. I rebuy. Im not so excited about losing this next $200 so I switch to value bet mode. I did have one hand where I raised preflop with 10,9 spades and got a few callers. I flopped open ended and bet it and got called by the guy I folded KK to. The straight hits the turn but it makes a flush. He checks and I check. He checks a blank river and he is so sure Im going to check that he also flips his cards. I quickly grab some chips and throw them out. I think he thinks I saw him wanting to check/check so maybe I was trying a last ditch effort to buy it. I really was gonna bet it the same way but wanted to get it out before he did something dumb. He called the $60. I dropped back to $200 ($400 in the game) when I smooth called the flop and turn out of position with top pair and got rivered by the bluffing buddy with A6 who checked behind. Later I got AK and raised and got a call from a very tricky player. The flop is AK3 and I bet after he checks. He calls. I bet the run and he calls. I move in on the river for a little more than pot and he calls. he has AQ. Double up and almost even. I would basically stay right there for a couple hours. I went card dead and there was a drunk friend of mine raising everything behind me so I probably lost $50 bucks limping or calling small raises and folding to his raise. Eventually I moved to the open spot that opened up behind him. Cha ching. My luck changed and I was in a good spot to use it. I called a raise with 42 suited and flopped the flush. I checked, the orig raiser bets and drunk friend reraises to like $40. I make $150. Orig folds and drunk friend goes all in. Now Im really very worried that Im crushed and dead. But I only have like $150 more. Call and ask him if he has the diamonds and he nods yes. Im starting to get that sinking why do I play this shit feeling when he then says "if a diamond comes". By the time I can get the real deal out of him the pot is over and he doesnt improve. I was still was on edge until he actually mucked. Sweet. Now Im up a buyin and a half for the game. I would then start hitting a bunch of straights and sets and two pairs and they were holding up. One hand I had QJ and flopped a gut shot in a limp pot. The flop bet was $6 so called with 2 overs and a gutter against 2 players. The turn gives me the nuts. The very aggressive guy who bet the $6 bets out $10 and I just call to the small stack behind me who goes all in for $55. The original guy calls but isnt happy. I move him in for another $120ish since there a flush draw that he could have. He woulda called the flush draw but he folded whatever he had. I beat the short stacks two pair. I wanted to leave since I had work in a few hours but I woulda felt bad runnin with the money. Not that I was gonna risk too much anyway though. My drunk friend left and the action slowed down. He had actually started playing very much more passive by the end of the night anyway. The maniac was still there but he was playing half buyins. There were actually 3 big stacks and like 3 short stacks and maybe an average stack who did really wanna get to involved. The other big stack woulda put his money in play but he was a tricky good player so I wasnt seeing an opportunity there. The other one was just protecting his win. We just played small ball for a couple hours at the end and then I left. I left in time to go get 1.5 hours of sleep for work and up 3 buyins. The next day was pure hell but I'd say I would do it all again. Looking forward to New Orleans this weekend. Probably play the Saturday night and hopefully the Sunday 6 handed depending on how the cash game runs. I really wanna play the Tuesday Head Up tournament but I will have to do really well this weekend to justify taking work time off and getting my sons to stay somewhere else for that night. Last New Orleans event I played 3 nightly's and cashed in all three but not in the top 10 ever. I wanna pop a top 5 in there this time.

Another Card Dead Double Deuce

Dammit I depressed. I just got knocked out of the Double Deuce again. I had one decent pair and it was in the small blind and no one came into the pot. I had A9 on the button later with no limpers and raised into AK and 10s. My last hand I flopped a flush draw with 2 probable overs and I check raised all in and got called by 53 cause he had a pair of 5s and a straight draw. His 5s held. Fuck this double deuce is pissing me off. I havent had a single rush in 2 tournaments. I just see donkey after donkey chip up with terrible plays and unreal luck. FUCK. I guess Im just gonna wire them some moolah cause Im sick of trying to convert my points to cash through tournaments. SHIT.

Another Shack Whackin (not that kinda whackin you sicko but we are a buncha guys in a circle)

I returned to the Gay Man-Love Shack (my no life havin psycho heckler thinks the Love Shack sounds gay so I changed it)on Monday to play the tournament and a little cash. Prior to that I had played in a coupla dying cash games for an hour here and there and a coupla one table tournaments that I didnt cash in. I did play in the 10000 person double deuce $22 buyin on Sunday at FTP. I went out 2200ish. I never had a hand bigger than 99 or AK. It was a real donkament and I look forward to playing in it again sunday. Im buying in with my bonus points and I have enough for 3 more buyins. It was real maniac fest. We were in the first round of blinds 10/20 with 3500 chips each and I saw this guy raise preflop to like 60 and this other guy goes all-in for like 3400 more and the original raiser calls. They both had AQ off-suit. See what Im saying. There were a ton of players like this so expect to be crushed by the worst hand eventually.

Anyway I played the tournament at the Shack Monday. I never had any good hands but I grinded and stole my way to 7th place which wasnt in the money but getting pretty close. The cash game was lively but with mostly good players. I actually had a local guy on my right (I will call him the intimdator) who had won a world series 10K circuit event on espn a few years ago and he had some buddies at the table too who I figured werent going to be your typical weak passive calling stations. I had A10 of hearts once and flopped an Ace and a flush draw. It was just me and the intimidator who had raised preflop. He cbet the flop into me and I just called. Why did I just call? Well if Im ahead I dont want to discourage him from betting especially if he was on a heart draw too. If Im behind I dont want to play a big pot just because I have the heart draw. The turn is a brick and he bets into me again and I just call. The river is a queen and he gives up and I just check behind. He didnt have anything. He ask or commented something about why I didnt raise and I explained all this to him and then wondered why I was telling the intimidator how I think so he can use it against me. Also the way I play may be totally wrong in his mind which would I guess give him incentive to get in pots with me. There was another small hand that was interesting to me that I played poorly. Im in a pot with a guy (mr. loose I will call him) who will call loose, bet loose, raise loose. I have flopped a flush draw and I bet. He calls. Then I checks and he check. He either has a middle or bottom pair or a draw. The river is another brick and I check and he bets a pot sized bet. The pot is very small and I fold my Ace but I should have called. He isnt betting a middle pair there. He either had nothing or a big hand. Nothing was way more likely. He showed his nothing. I didnt mind since letting him get away with moves is good for the game in the long run. A little while later I limp with K3suited and the button raised to 12 and mr. loose calls so I call even though its a really high raise because I wanna play pots with mr. loose. The flop is KJ3. Bingo for me. Mr. loose checks, I check, and the button bets 15. Mr. loose calls and I raise $35 more. They both call. The turn is a 4 and mr. loose check and I bet like $80. Button folds. Mr. loose asks how many chips I got because he cant fold the river if he calls the turn. I have $90 more. He calls. I push the 90 in on the river and he calls with his AK and I win a nice pot. The button who is a normally tight good player told me he called the flop just because he knows how unlucky I am. How sick is that. Im getting action based on my unluck. The other significant hand of the night for me I had KK in early position. I raised a standard amount. I never understand why people with KK or AA open raise for too much preflop. Anyway I get a coupla calls. The Flop is K53 with two diamonds. I bet maybe 35% of the pot. Mr. loose calls. I really dont put him on anything but Im worried about the flush draw for sure. Well the turn is a diamond but its the 5 giving me a house. I bet the same amount hoping he has the flush now. Mr. loose pushes all in. Yahtzee. He had the second nut flush. I dont know how that pot woulda played out had I ever checked or bet more on either street but probably me and mr. loose were gonna get it in anyway. He was steamin from the first big hand anyway. I tried to offer mr. loose some sympathy in the form of lettin ghim know he got unlucky and coolered but he just said "fuck you". If you know mr. loose you know he is joking but really just complaining. I laugh and he gives me the fist bump and all is well and Im tripled up. I played another hour and a half and left at 11 like I told D I would in my text at 5:30. I dont hit and run. I hate that. BUT I will leave at the correct time where as if Im stuck I have a tendency to say fuck it and chase my loses after my self or girl imposed curfew. But I couldnt have done that Monday either way. I had very firm plans. My last hour and a half I played a good many hands and chipped up a little more. Oh there was one other hand that was weird and I dont know what they had but the board was 4422 by the turn and the original better bet $2 into this $15 pot and got called by the intimidator. The guy then checks the river which was a Queen, the intimidator bets $15 and the guy min raises him $15 more. It was a very weird play. The intimidator thinks for a while and fires out $85. The guy folds. I would loved to have seen those hands. I wonder if the intimidator really played a 4 or a 2 that way or if he just picked the guy off. So yippee for me I won. If I would just never play any limit games at the Belle I woulda be having a decent month.

Drinkers Making the Love Shack Very Lively

Just got back from the Love Shack game. Got there late. The chips were already flyin. The chasers were doin damage. Within the first 20 minutes a guy who plays solid ABC poker got two outered on the river went ballistic cussin and chastising the biggest weak passive calling station at the table and then threw the cards at the dealer. I understand his pain but damn thats bad for the game. The guy he was berating left shortly after and it pissed someone else off enough for them to leave. I think they were both looking for a reason to leave anyway though. But without that reason one of them probably woulda stayed all night Im sure. Oh well. Mr. ABC was stuck big and drinkin so he just lost it. He left soon after too. Ive never done it to that extreme but I have left cussin and calling someone a fucking idiot before. Its really bad for poker but sometimes you just cant stand to not let them know how bad they played. Mr. ABC reads this blog so I will say dude I get it and I aint mad atcha. Its tough when you put your money in good most of the time but still leave broke. Thats the cruel thing about no limit. You can play good all night and never get unlucky until the last hand against the guy who has you covered and go home broke over one mistake or one suckout. Makes you question why ever play really. There was another dude there who was a real nice guy having a good time and bluffin a good bit. He eventually drank his way to the felt too. I dont think he really cared. I didnt get the felling he was a serious player. When the guy counts out $300 in stacks of 2 $5 dollar chips at a time its a pretty big sign that he dont play a lot. Watching then do it is like slowly scratching a chalk board. I pretty much got my usual terrible starting hands and folded for the first coupla hours. I bought in for $200 an stayed between $120 and $170 much of the first coupla hours. It wasnt till I played a 34off suit to a raise and a shit load of callers and hit a straight that I finally pushed above my original buyin. Actually it was a pretty big pot that tripled me up from my low point. I would venture below my buyin after that but I would drag another big one later with 34offsuit after flopping the straight. I stayed ahead after that. Later in the night my hands began improving and I won some good pots. I won with AK a coupla times against a really aggressive intoxicated player. I was in the small blind both times and just called him preflop and check raised him on the flop. One time he called and the other he didnt and I won both pots. My big hand at the end of the night was against the same guy. He was drinkin and playing very aggressive. I raised in the blind with QQ and got called by 2 players. Flop is AQ3rainbow and I bet out hoping Im against a good Ace. Mr. Aggressive raises and I go all in. I know its a pretty big raise but I thought he was pretty strong and I didnt want to call and let him check behind me on the turn. He called. I guess he had AK or maybe even A3. It was about a $500 pot. I was also betting a $1 a flop with my neighbor on the color of the flop and I swear I beat him like 20 to 6 and every time his color would hit it seemed like I won the hand anyway so I didnt mind. I do have one hand that has me talking to myself. I raised on the button with 10s and the flop comes 987 with a flush draw and I bet and get raised my Mr. Aggressive. I know Im supposed to push in there. I had $50 in the pot already and the raise was $75 more to me and was going to cost about $190 more if he called my allin and I lost. To make that bet normally he would have to have two pair at least or maybe straight and flush draw. I knew I could very well be a head and at the least I am open ended. I folded though. I just didnt want to put $250 more in on that marginal spot especially after I had just won a big pot. I realize how pussy it was but I dont care. I waited for a better spot and it came eventually. The game broke up after Mr. Aggressive busted my flop color betting neighbor. We had been 5 for a long time and had been 4 handed for a pretty good while too. We put the mandatory $5 straddle on after we went 5 handed so we wouldnt be chopping the blinds every other hand. I didnt want to play 4 hand really and certainly didnt want to play 3 handed against a very aggro player who had just rebought and was trying to get his chips back from me. So after all was said and done I cleared over $600 almost making up for last weeks Omaha fiasco. Very pleased.

The Cooler

Well I havent played much real poker since the AA vs KK. I sat a little while at the 2/5 game in the AM hours Sunday morning but the game broke up pretty fast. I did lose a shit ton of money playing 4/8 limit and then 4/8/12 Omaha. I played all night and had a lot of fun but I lost big. It was really the wee hours Omaha session that got me. Never made my hands and was alway against the nutz. There was this loud drunk jackass who as soon as he sat down at the NL table one guy told the dealer he had learned his lesson and took off. Obviously this jackass shows up drunk quite often and runs his mouth big time. He played terrible and lost a lot in a very short time. He shoulda broke even though because he got all in preflop with QQ and a very regular chick up there called him with 10,7 suited. I dont know why she had it out for him but she flopped the straight. Then the game broke and we went to the 4/8 game and jackass immediately started a fight with everyone who would let him. It was funny. At one point this terrible player with a date there was getting it from the jackass with both barrels and the guy on the date called jackass a "dago". That really upset the table for some reason. I thought it was about as smart as date guys 4 betting the river with pocket twos like he was gonna push someone of their hand. His date was nice looking but obviously not impressed with him or his constant rebuys. Funny thing was jackass did well and sucked out a ton of rivers. Funnier was that when we started playing Omaha he turned into a very consevative player. And he ran like God. The morning crew started coming in and this old guy who was not familiar with Omaha started playing and if I wanted to I could see his cards anytime but I hate doing that. He ran good too and I eventually felted. It didnt bother me too much although I did dump a lot. I just look at those latenight limit games as gambling. Like I was playing slots or something. It doesnt hurt my poker ego to lose there. Just my bankroll and also my wondering if Im just destined to be unlucky. I wonder if I could make a living as The Cooler. The guy who goes and hangs around the lucky players to cool them off.

Why Play Through Misery

When Im running bad and poker is miserable I sometimes get the questions about why. Why do it when it makes you so miserable so much of the time? Right after the beat I tend to be very fatalistic and talk about being cursed and pretty much just rant and rave for about 18 hours. But after I calm down I do return to the fact that I love to play. The best answer I can come up with is: Do you think Kevin Garnet should have quit playing basketball when he was with the T-Wolves because he was losing so much for so many years and it drove him absolutely crazy? Do you think his disappointment in the results shouldve caused him to give up the game? Im not saying Im the Kevin Garnet of poker or anything but the same way an NBA player practices and watches tape and gets ready to play, a lot of player including me like to read books, participate in online forums, and watch videos and learn more to play the game. Why? For the same reason. We love the game and want to play our best. I believe if you put in the work you can be at least a small winning player even with only situational math and no instinct for the game. We're not degenerates. If we get our money in good and get unlucky for a long stretch or if we get drafted by the Clippers and have the bad luck of being on a crappy team we dont just quit playing. We feel like everytime we step on the court or sit at a new table it is a new game. So why is it different to the wives or the friends who think we are just degenerate gamblers chasing cards?

Typical Results

Well I went out on the bubble in the tournament and I left the cash game after getting all in preflop with AA vs KK and losing. My long fun night of cash poker lasted about 45 minutes. I knew I had to leave because I was so damn pissed. I was also pissed because I had stuck $30 in one pot and $39 in another and didnt even get to see the flop. One of those times I raised 7.5 times the bb, got called, then a guy goes all in UTG with a $39 short stack so I call (coulda raised all-in here I guess or just folded) then I get an all-in push from the SB behind me. So I have 77 and figure Im at least looking at 3 or 4 over cards to beat and probably one over pair. I figure at best Im 40% to win and more likely Im like 17% if either has an over pair. I almost called even though it didnt make any sense to call but the way they played the hand was fubar too. It was $107 more to me. I had $39 in there. I gotta call $107 to win $230 which if they have overs and share an Ace would be barely correct to call. I fold and they both have A10. I woulda scooped. Anyway after the AA vs KK fiasco I just left.

J4 is a Monster

Going to play 1/2 tonight. I've quit smoking so I won't have that shit to deal with. I wonder how truly bad it is to miss a coupla free hands every hour due to smoke breaks. I'm bout to work out a little and maybe run. Quitting smoking have put 5 lbs on me. I hope I can not smoke through those spirit crushing bad beats. So anyway I played the Love shack tournament Monday. Started of playing loose and stupid. Cracked AA with J4 from the button but the raise was plenty to get me out. Maybe if this dude didn't love to show 7 duece in that spot all the time I wouldn't have put him on any two cards. But I flopped a flush draw and turned the flush and he bet it all into me since he had the Ace flush draw at that point. So I doubled up and won a few more pots playing stupid and then got called down light a coupla times and settled in a started playing right. Well right in my mind but I'm sure horribly wrong from a good players perspective. Blinds shot up fast and before you know it nobody has more than 20 big blinds and it was a shovathon. I'm usually pretty good about picking good spots to shove so I picked up a good amount of chips but then lost them not shoving and actually seeing a coupla flops. Anyway I bitched a cryed enough that we chopped it 6 ways. I was sitting with 4 big blinds when we chopped so it was a good outcome for me. Still made over $130 each. I made $80 in the short handed side table and ate good pizza and had to leave. I actually told then when I was leaving all night but it still feels crappy to win a little and bolt. Speaking of leaving my anonymous heckler made it pretty clear he is a Loveshack reg with his comment last post. Obviously he knows I left the game to go hang out with my girlfriend. Haha mother fucker. I'm at least glad that its someone fucking with me and not some random idiot who cares way too much.

Shit my game got cancelled. I thought about trying out the new club but just decided to hang out with friends. Looking forward to Monday night now.

Serial Killers and Florida Retirees and Life Tilt Session

Well Ive played two sessions since my last post. One 13 hour marathon at Harrahs and one 4 hour debacle at the Love Shack. The Harrahs session was bizzare. There was always some mentally unstable person at the table who was non-stop talking. Usually there was more than one and they talked to each other. The first one talked for 3 hours straight about basketball. A fucking Duke fan. At one point I asked him to leave the dealer alone cause we are on a time rake. Then there was this very scary looking guy. He looked like a nerdy scientist serial killer. He acted even more like one. Just erratic. Getting mad a starring people down for a coupla hands because they had the audacity to raise him. I check raised him of top pair one time with my flush draw and showed it and I thought I might end up as a head in his freezer. My favorite hand of the night was when I made it $20 to go (playing $1/$2 No Limit BTW) from the button against two limpers and I get called by the small blind who had just lost a pot and was on tilt. He tried to talk serial killer into playing to justify his odds. I even told him he was tilt calling and trying to get people to justify it. Also calling was this idiot old man from Florida (pronounced Flaariduh). I had Ace10 and the flop is 10,6,2. I bet the flop when they check to me and they both call. The turn is another duece and small blind (a talkative nice brotha named Corey) donks out $100. The old idiot from Flaariduh calls the $100. I cant even fathoim how Im beat but I fold anyway. The river is another 6 and SB bets out another $100 and Flaariduh idiot pushes all in. SB calls his last $130ish and the flip the cards. SB has K2 for the low boat but he is beat by 76 for the high boat. SB jumped up cussin and left and I cussed under my breath for the rest of the session at Mr. 76 offsuit for $20 preflop calling $150 more dollars to hit a 2 out on the river. There were tons and tons of morons floating to the table that session but I never could get the right situations to win a big pot. The biggest pot I got was when Mr. Juicy Poker himself dealt me AA and KK moved in on me preflop and I held up. I did buy my share of pots and that kept me a float but at the end of the 13 hour session basically my meager profit was from the AA vs KK. I woulda shoulda coulda won a big pot when I flopped a flush but I got four flushed on the river. I still made money because the side pot I was in with this horribad dude was bigger than the main pot and he was drawing to a straight on an all spades flop with a lot of action. Genius.

My Love Shack experience was so bad and so avoidable. I wanted to play so bad but for the wrong reasons. I had gotten some very disturbing medical news earlier and wanted to get my mind off it and thought it wouldnt effect me. It did. I played loose and weak and talked a lot and made bad moves at bad times and chased my losses and didnt quit when I was supposed to in order to go see my waiting girlfriend who was pissed and hurt by the time I quit way to late to go see her. That about sums it up. No hands to talk about really. My last hand I went broke after raising the pot with Q7 of hearts and getting a lot of callers and flopping a flush draw. I bet big and got pushed in. I had more in the pot than I had left and I called. The heart came. He had K6 of hearts. FML per usual.