Arigato!

I have a lesson in Poker for a change. The ancient art of war in Poker. My friends. You will make more money if you do not bluff too often, however if you do bluff, in your mind it must be as if you have these cards.

Now I am going to share a poorly played hand and some of the why I played it. I am in the blinds and get 77. Very poor hand. The guy before me raises $5. I am feeling a little cocky so I call. The flop is JTx. So I bet out half the pot and get called.

Now my thinking here is if I had rockets, there is a straight draw on board, I am not going to cold call. So either he has low pockets, possibly higher than 77, or maybe AK.

I check the turn and he bets 1/3 the pot. Now again, this is a weak bet for overs. I could be getting suckered but I had a feeling.

He bets $15 on the river and I just cold call him. My instincts are good and his AK loses him a lot of money.

The point my friends is if you are going to bluff, you have to believe you have AA. You must POT it on the flop. If you do not do this then you are causing people to doubt you. If he played as if he had AA then I would have folded the flop like I should have instead of wondering what he had. BTW – I do not recommend playing 77 the way I did. I just want to make a point. Also, if your bluff fails let it go. It is not worth it.

I decide to tweak him after that. I know, I am a mean bastard, but I gotta kill the pain somehow. So I say “Sorry about that, I just started playing Poker”.

So he tries to bite his tongue and a few minutes later says “I can not believe you called with 77 and played it to the river”. Instead of saying, “Me Either”, I keep on my earlier theme and say “Yeah, I am new at this, can you teach me how to bluff?”

He busted out shortly afterwards, still fuming mad I assume.

Sir Waffles Status

Alright, there has been a lot of confusion about the state of Sir Waffle and if anything this Blog is the god’s honest truth blog no matter what. So here is the chronological timeline of the story I like to call “Watch what you say, you might regret it”, or “March: The Month I love to Hate”.

Some of you who have read the Blog know that my life has not been extremely happy before March and there are a lot of stresses in it. I have issues with the Wifey. I have no energy, probably a sign of depression, so it effects what I can do with the kids. I have financial stresses. A lot of shit was going on before March.

After my birthday on March 8th, my dad passed away. I am not sure how much this affected me but it had to in some way. It adds to me being sad just knowing that he will not be around. March definitely did not start out great. Little did I know it was going to get worse.

One night my wife and I are hanging out in our bed and our son is acting up. So I decide to carry him into his room and put him in a timeout. I had warned him a few times and had enough. He starts crying and screaming and so my wife interferes and does not let me put him in timeout. Well this really set me off. I have no idea how much other stress related issues factored into this but I felt myself lose control and started yelling at the top of my lungs. I come from a long line of yellers and when I am that out of control I know better than to stay around the object of my anger. So I storm down the hallway yelling who knows what and when I hit the stairs I yell “Sometimes I wish I could kill you!” Now in hindsight this probably was not the right wording to use. I think something along the lines of “Sometimes I wish you would catch a cold” might have been a better choice. I can only say I had no intent to hurt my wife. It was like when you were a kid and got into a fight and said “Im gonna kill you”, when you really did not mean it. If that makes any sense. I also was smart enough to not want to do something like punch her so I took myself out of the situation. I went downstairs and hop on the avoidance machine, Party Poker, and start playing. My wife and kids leave the house. My son says goodbye to me, and that he is going to bring me back something from dinner.

A few hours later while talking to April on IM and wondering where my wife might be I get a knock on the door. It is Dovers finest serving me with a restraining order for the weekend. Oh goodie. So I grab some clothes, the computer, and my jacket and I am out. I was going to go to my buddy John’s house, but I really did not feel like being with people.

My wife and mother talked a little bit and Michele was going to drop the restraining order in court. At this time I was not allowed to talk to her. However some bitch from the court decides she must be saved from the evil monster and convinces her that DSS is going to take the kids away if she lets me come back. I tell the judge the whole truth and she extends the restraining order until September. I can talk with my wife on the phone now however. It is really great to be found dangerous with no prior record of anything more extreme than J-Walking.

Now at this point I was really expecting to come back home. I can not really tell you how devastating this new restraining order was. It really has put me in a funk. I will tell you that none of this has been any help to anyone. All this does is put additional financial burdens on our family, I.E. ME, and cause more stress. In addition I get to go from really sad all the time, to what is there to live for sad. It is really true that you never know how bad it can get until you get there. The other ludicrous thing about this order is that it really protects nobody. If I really wanted to kill my wife the restraining order would not stop me. The only people it stops are basically the good ones that said things that they regret. So anyway thanks Judge, let’s isolate and put more stress on the already depressed guy.

Anyhow the rain just kept falling. After I went to Easter dinner with my mother and sister I end up blowing my car engine on the way home. The Sheraton I am staying in ends up catching fire. In addition my job was supposed be ending tomorrow however I got a ten day reprieve. I really can not wait for this month to end.

I feel really out of touch and sad but I am getting better. It only took me two hours to get ready this morning. In addition this whole experience is impossible to ignore no matter how much Party Poker I play. I have shed tears for the first time in ten years. I turned those damn things off in High School! I have no idea how they came back.

The meeting with DSS and the kids is on Monday so I should be able to find out if I can come home after that. Since Tuesday is several days away, and since my friend John has a lot of booze, I am going to try and stay with him through next week. If it turns out I need more time I will probably look for something more permanent.

I have also set up an appointment to talk to someone, not only about this, but about my whole entire life. Hopefully things look up soon. A funny story about shrinks though. When you call them and say your wife thinks you might be suicidal they do not call you back. I guess it looks bad on there record if you kill yourself when they are counseling you. I swear. The best appointment I could get was for Tuesday. One doctor who knows the circumstances of the case does not want to see me. Several others waited a few days to call me back and had full schedules. I guess they were waiting to see if I was serious.

So life has kicked me in the nuts. Not the good Poker nutz either. I am not going to say that things can not get worse because I know they can. Not sure how well I would handle that. I am hanging in there for now though. Thanks for all of your support.

So that’s the honest truth the way you have come to expect it.

Be Nice to Doggies

So I am finally looking into options with regards to less expensive housing. I have learned a good lesson though: be nice to doggies. I was at my buddies house a few months back. We were discussing a project with WindowsCE that we wanted to take on. It was with Intel and looks good on the resume. So I am in his kitchen talking to him and his dog comes by. A very friendly lab. He tells me how his dog is really friendly and would never hurt anyone. So I offer to chat with the dog, and start making barking noises. Apparently I told the dog his mother slept with cats or something. He starts barking and growling at me. The damn dog would not stop and my buddy puts him in the garage. Last time I try to make small talk with a dog.

Fast forward to yesterday. The same buddy offers to let me stay in the spare room. Nice! However he is not going to be home all weekend. However the dog will be. The nice lab. Who hates me. Now I know dogs and they DO NOT forget. So while I would love to whine about being bitten on top of everything else I think I will pass. I might stay with my buddy John in Salem. You remember. Puking. Halloween Party. Cute Strawberry Shortcake chick. Electric Shock! Ya! John!! Hell, the Electric Shock game might be good for me. We shall see. So remember, be nice to doggies! You never know when you might want to room with one.

Sheraton: Day 7

Well Poker has been up and down. Like it is supposed to be. I actually pulled off a nice bluff last night. I usually get creamed by a Boat when I bluff. This time my read was good. I have AK and had just insulted Randy Johnson because a guy says he thinks that Randy is AEWSOME!! Why don't you fucking kiss him and get it over with you fag! So they guy I insulted raises me 15 bucks. So I decide there is no way in hell I am losing this hand. EVER. The flop is all low cards. So what do I do? Shoot out a $30 bluff bet. He types in chat "You are bluffing" and calls me. So now there is only one way to win this hand: I throw out another $30 bluff. All in Baby! Ok, so sometimes I get a little emotional here. The guy thinks and ends up folding. I show my AQ. End up with a $22 profit overall for the night at the table and leave. It turns out he had KQ. heh! I know bad Poker, but I figured he was just out to get me and went a little crazy.

At least I am not the only one who can not get a break, I type in Terri Schiavo in the Smurfinator and get Eboli Smurf. Yeah, she was destined for trouble. All Hail the all knowing Smurfinator!

Side work has been flowing at a pace a little hard to keep up with. It basically will pay for the hotel stay if I finish all these projects. Oh well, who wanted to get ahead anyways. Also the car is going to cost $4500 to fix. That should be nice. I have not yet figured out where to go besides the Sheraton. I figure being alone is good for me so I am there for now.

I got a weird annonymous comment last night. It was broken English and made no sense, but apparently I was making fun of people in my Blog and I have gotten what I deserved. Thanks for the laugh anyways. When you graduate from highschool at 39 please post a comment I can understand. At least have the balls to post it in a current Blog entry or something. Also please leave a fake name or something. Fucktard.

For the record I do not think I have offended anyone here except by giving bad advice. If I am wrong then either you do not get it or your stupid. Actually I will ammend that to exclude the stripper. I have said I dislike her comments. Possibly have said a thing or two about her. Oh yeah, and April, but she sucks. Oh and I did question BadBloods manhood with the Smurfinator.. hmm..

So Who Wants to be a Smurf

So I was a little bored:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mule/smurfgen.html

SirFWALGMan Fetid Smurf
AlCantHang Killdozer Smurf
Texas Junkie Smurf
DoubleAs Golden Flash Smurf
Pauly Litigious Smurf
Iggy Jojoba Smurf
Felicia Lee Chicken-Fried Smurf

For all you rednecks out there: Fetid derives from Latin fetidus, from fetere, "to stink.".

I can’t even catch a break at the Smurf site.. *sigh*. I guess it could be worse. Type in BadBlood and see what happens.

Beware!

I am sorry but even in my depressed stupor I can not let innocent Poker Blog readers fall into an insidious trap laid by a foul blackbird of doom! I have no idea why this harbinger of death would try to ensnare you in her web except for some devious and maliciously evil motivation that people of good will could never hope to understand. So like that Protective Angel of the Poker world Felicia Lee, I feel I must expose this plan before any of you can be trapped.

The plan was hatched in its full wickedness this day of the year 2005. It seemed like such an innocent post but bellied its true evil intend.

I'm looking for a job, and they say you should do something you're good at and enjoy. All this time I've been giving it away for free... It's clear now though that my railbirding services are marketable. Prices are negotiable, and I do have excellent references.

Somehow she also cast a spell and entrapped one of the most outstanding citizens of our community. A successful NL player, who soon shall be headed for the island of Aruba, to show all the power of the Poker Bloggers. His confused words did say the following:


I highly recommend April! She was on the rail when Otis and I got 2nd and 3rd respectively in an Empire tournament and then again during the link in the post.

I'd recommend contacting her before your next big tournament attempt. Hopefully her fees stay reasonable, so get in now.

However you can tell some spell of befuddlement was cast upon his innocent mind, for in his own words, of not a days past he did speak the truth:

I thought April jinxed me when she congratulated me on the final table appearance.

Indeed his words do speak volumes of the power of this evil crow who’s rail birding can be equivocated with the Raven in Edger Allen Poe’s works. A bringer of dreaded doom! DoubleAs had to use every skill he had to avoid the pitfalls she brought instead of cruising easily to victory! How she ever convinced him otherwise is beyond me. I believe at best they do not see through her veil of sweetness and helpfulness, or at worse they have been bought off or possessed by this demon!

As for her other references, I have seen instances of pure destruction brought on by her rail birding. For instance when Poker Geek was well chipped and in position to take first place in a large tourney and her shadow did touch his mind and cloud his judgment so that he though 97o was AA and played it to his doom!

I can speak from my own experience also. Whenever she shows up to one of my tourneys I am usually well chipped and half the field is gone. I am ready to take over the tournament. However she appears and I get busted out by 100th place at best, or if she is feeling really evil I will make it to just out of the money before her curse takes effect.

So my friends, before you use her services, take heed and run as far away as possible. Turn off your chat and ignore her invitation to Yahoo!, for if you do not you too may find yourself the victim of her infernal powers.

Im Koo Koo for Coco Puffs

Would it be considered a sign that you are cracking up if the first response to the pretty hotel manager’s question, “Can I help you with anything”, is “Well, some hot monkey sex would be nice, but barring that I suppose not.”

I am seriously considering moving out of the hotel into my rental car. I can park at Borders books during the day and read there comics and poker books. At night I can find some place to park and fall asleep to the stars. I think I should not have rented a compact car.

Two more days until unemployment. At least I will not have to worry about paying the hotel bill because I will not have any money. Fuck! Time to order room service! Yes, I will take that $100 lobster after all.

I would totally like to suckout on someone in Poker today. Feel the pain! As all expert level poker players know you’re at your most dangerous when you are wild and unpredictable. Heh.

Blazing Inferno Drives Sir Out

Well it’s just getting better. Blew my car engine. Almost got stuck in the elevator. Got my restraining order extended until September AND my Hotel caught on fire.

Wild

What a wild run. The bankrolls up to 924 now! I busted out 35th place in an MTT for the WSOP! Ok, so I did not win anything, but I am proud of my play. To give a frame a reference GDogg the winner of the last WSOP HORSE tourney busted out two in front of me. Paulies brother did well busting out a few back of me.

Hella asked: Nice hit! Can't believe nobody feared a Ten. (You'da still had the lock, but you sure had a crew along for the ride with ya!)

I find this to be a common problem with "good" players. The raise pre-flop was 6 bucks! So there was no hand they could imagine with a T that had them beat. I am really surprised they did not consider AA. I also think one other thing could have come in play. Sometimes the pot blinds us. When it started getting huge, and you were so committed, you just put your brain on hold, hope to hell for your hand to improve and/or win and keep putting money in. I am not complaining anyways. I am pokered out for now so have fun. One of these days I will score in an MTT!

Please do not come back..

***** Hand History for Game 1796265330 *****
$50 NL Hold'em - Saturday, March 26, 11:35:43 EDT 2005
Table Table 36962 (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 2: ThsIsTheYear ( $45.5 )
Seat 5: J9Spades ( $75.2 )
Seat 7: jash420 ( $35.15 )
Seat 8: frankyboy1 ( $45.8 )
Seat 10: FWALGMan ( $78 )
Seat 9: snowrider800 ( $45 )
Seat 6: playuh42 ( $24.9 )
Seat 4: crazyperry ( $72.45 )
Seat 3: Drunk_Mime ( $61.25 )
Seat 1: U_A_LOSER ( $23.8 )
playuh42 posts small blind [$0.25].
jash420 posts big blind [$0.5].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to FWALGMan [ 3h 3d ]
frankyboy1 raises [$2].
snowrider800 folds.
FWALGMan calls [$2].
U_A_LOSER folds.
ThsIsTheYear raises [$6].
crazyperry calls [$6].
J9Spades folds.
playuh42 folds.
jash420 folds.
frankyboy1 calls [$4].
FWALGMan calls [$4].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Tc, 3s, 5d ]
frankyboy1 checks.
FWALGMan checks.
ThsIsTheYear bets [$10].
crazyperry calls [$10].
frankyboy1 calls [$10].
FWALGMan calls [$10].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ts ]
frankyboy1 checks.
FWALGMan checks.
ThsIsTheYear bets [$10].
crazyperry calls [$10].
frankyboy1 calls [$10].
FWALGMan calls [$10].
** Dealing River ** [ 7s ]
frankyboy1 checks.
FWALGMan checks.
ThsIsTheYear is all-In.
crazyperry folds.
frankyboy1 calls [$19.5].
FWALGMan calls [$19.5].
frankyboy1 shows [ Kh, Ks ] two pairs, kings and tens.
FWALGMan shows [ 3h, 3d ] a full house, Threes full of tens.
ThsIsTheYear shows [ Kc, Kd ] two pairs, kings and tens.
FWALGMan wins $160.25 from the main pot with a full house, Threes full of tens.

Heap it on

What a crazy night. It starts off with some ABC poker with Chris Halverston and another blogger I had yet to read, 5,589 MILES FROM VEGAS. It was fun. It was ABC. I made a few mistakes. On my other table I hugely overplayed KK. Glad to see I can still do that. I chased a little and ended up the night about 11BB up. It was great playing with you Chris.

I then get the big fella, ChiefTokem at my table. I start playing when I hear a bang at my door. So I fold and go upstairs. It turns out that two Dover police officers are standing there serving me with a restraining order. Part of the reason I was downstairs in the first place was because I got extremely angry at the wife and yelled nasty stuff at her. Not the first time. What can I say. I lost my temper. Yelled a bunch of shit I did not mean while walking away from her so I could get on the computer and calm down. I think given all the possible options this was reasonable. Apparently this is not the case. So now I am being escorted out of the house. I am allowed to get some cloths and my computer and I am off into the night at 1AM in the morning. Sweet. So what do I do? Book a room in the Sheraton and fire up Party Poker. Now this is probably the worse thing I could choose to do with my bankroll at this point.

First hand I am fuming mad. I have BigChief and Aeq talking to me on IM. I overplay TT and lose $30 to trip 5’s. Now normally I lay this down but tonight, fuck no! I am NOT LAYING DOWN TO YOU BITCHES! I type a little of my sad story into the chat and tell the table I am on FULL TILT and if they are not little wussies they can come and take my money because I am giving it away!!! I start berating everyone. Hey, I was in a bad mood. I am dealt AA shortly after. I yell, I hate you Fags! I put my whole stack in the middle. Everyone folds. I berate them and the next hand I get QQ. So what do I do? Fuck ya! All in! I call them every name in the book, woosies!! Everyone folds. Now this is not working well. So very next hand I get AA. Well fuck ya! I say if you wussies are going to keep folding then I will just take every blind!!!!!! All in again! I finally get the desired result of two callers! WOO HOO! KK and TT! I triple up. I then continue berating them but switch gears to TIGHT-AGGRESSIVE. Nobody wanted a piece of me after that. I had not informed BigChief what my hands had been before and he must have thought I had gone insane.

So anyway the table ends up tightening up again even though I am berating them all. Hey, it made me feel better. ChiefTokem complains that the table is too tight. So what do I do for my buddy? Loosen it up of course. I raise pre-flop 4xBB three times in the next 5 hands with crap like 73o, 23o, really nowhere hands. I either take the blinds or win when I bet the flop every time. I show. Now the table is fuming at me. Time to show them I really am a fish. I get JJ and raise 4xBB. I get 3 callers. Big surprise. BigChief is one of them. The flop is bad for me and Chief bets out. I raise him. I then throw another bet in on the river before totally folding. I give the guy like fifteen bucks. So now I have cemented my image as a loose, maniac, bluffer who is getting lucky. Not too far from the truth. So few hands latter it pays off when some guy calls my trips down with Q high for 30+ bucks. Sweet! Hell, his kicker was only a T!! So that was about it for the night. Won a few more pots. Ended up winning 115.10 to get my bankroll up over $600. Very interesting.

Anyway life keeps up with the bad beats and suckouts, but Poker is good. Can not wait to see the next one outer!

Hellllooooooooo Donkey

I was going to write about what a crappy night I had. However for some reason I decided to visit the stripper. If I don’t get Poker, she doesn’t get life.

My e-mail runneth over, so I guess I better say something.

Apparently, Felicia has a serious illness of some kind (I do not have access, and my mail is all over the place). Even though I hear she once again refers to me as "the hooker", I certainly wish her good health and a speedy recovery.

My only response was:

You can not really be this insecure? I think it would have been better not to wish her well instead of this self fulfilling, insecure, drivel. It's all about Joy. I also doubt very much Felicia would call you a hooker.

Nuff said.

The Devil Inside

Crazy night. Fun and depressing all at the same time. So lets start with the obscenely funny:

[23:28] SirFWALGMan: 76 wins 66 bucks!
[23:28] SirFWALGMan: with 666
[23:28] SirFWALGMan: omg!
[23:28] SirFWALGMan: now thats weird
[23:28] Texas: the antichrist
[23:28] SirFWALGMan: fuck, satan is talkin to me
[23:29] SirFWALGMan: oh shit
[23:29] SirFWALGMan: I have a chill up my spine
[23:29] Texas: you are such a dork
[23:29] Texas: Jason Kirk named it that
[23:29] Texas: that's the name of his blog
[23:29] Texas: Catching the Antichrist

It was a funny hand. Trips on the board. I checked them down. Guy hits his two pair on the river and I call his large bet. I made my trips on the river, and was not sure they were good. However it was worth the call against this particular player.

I started the night losing a buyin btw. It sucked. I was in a weird hand. It was 4 way. I had a nut straight and a low flush draw (J). I just kept putting money in, but TT held up and won the whole damn thing! Four ways! I had odds! I just wasn’t hitting anything.

I decided to take my final $15 and play an SNG. I lost. I decided to then play an MTT. I have KK and triple up with 700 left. I could have cruised to 100th place, but instead I decided to call an all in with Big Slick. He had me covered. He flips his 77, and I just never improved. However, even though I felt bad, I want that match up every day. With my chip position I could have waited for a better hand however it was getting late and I have an interview tomorrow.

So I am kind of bumming about my lost buyin. I take this Poker stuff too personally, and when I lose I get sad. So I decide to play one last orbit. I am up a few bucks at my table and decide to just leave. I play a few more hands than I normally would and wind up with 76 s000ted again. So since I have a directive from Satan here I play it. The flop gives me a gutshot straight draw and a flush draw on the board. The bet is a couple into a four buck pot and I have three players in with me. So I decide to see the turn. Since I am getting close to pot odds and its my last hand and all. The turn is a 5 (Gutshot Baby!), and I promptly check it. The river does not hurt me so I have the NUT straight. It helps that the river is an A also. So I think for a second and go all in. Now you might be wondering why I would do that? Well, this table had been crazy. People bluffing. Going all in with shit. I mean real maniac table. So I say what the fuck. If he calls I am good. If he doesn’t I have won enough. So he calls! I am laughing my ass off so hard I cannot breath. He types into the chat “I hit call by accident”, yeah right, that’s why it took you 2 minutes.

So I end up ending out the night ten up. Weird. Image how good my night might have been.. Although I have to say this is gambling people. Sometimes its good to gamble. One last tidbit for the night. My winning hands in order: 76s, 76o, k9s, and the hand I lost the most on? AA! What a weird night.

Rolling

I had a wonderful night though. I ended up around 57 in the black. It was like it usually is on two hands. I can not win more than that in a night. Oh well. The hands were a little bit iffy play on my part but also good reads.

The first hand involved a little AA action. I raise it up pre-flop and get one player. The flop is a slightly scary KQ3. H bets out half the pot at $2. I desire to take it right here so I raise to $6.. He calls. I assume he could possibly have KQ, and firmly decide that is his hand. I could be wrong but I am convinced. So anyway the turn is a 3 to pair the board. So going with my initial hunch I now think I am good. However he bets out $8. VERY scary bet. However I think I am good and he has put me on AK. Of course he loses with this hand too. SO I am not sure what the hell he was doing. The river is a lousy eight to make a floosh. Now I know this guy is stupid, but runner-runner floosh? Nahh. He bets out 27.50 (All In). I think for a long while and make the hard call. He turns over K8 for KK88, thinking he beat my KK33, however I had AA33 so you go home unhappy! Booyah! Pot size: $45.

The second hand I thought I played well at the time but now I think it is questionable. I am in MP. The guy late EP raises to $2. The guy before me calls. I call too with my JJ (Hookers) and one guy after us calls. Now at this point in time I am scared as hell someone has a better over. However they could also have AK or other hands. The flop is 556. So the initial better checks as well as the guy after him. The guy in front of me goes ALL IN! I think for ages and then decide he MUST have a 6. If he hit trips he probably slow plays a little. He also could have a smaller or larger overpair than JJ. So I decide to end it here. I go ALL THE WAY! Every cent on the table into the pot. The HUGE error I made here is discounting the two checkers. They easily could have had better over pairs and been afraid of the trips. Also they might be slow playing. Although not many people do that with overs. So anyway they end up folding and the original guy calls my all in. He has me covered by thirty cents. The turn is a scary Q and the river a 9. My opponent turns over his pair of twos and that’s all she wrote: Pot size: 74.80.

Needless to say I had a good night. Last night was awesome also and I am now cruising around $559. Up over $100 in two days. I think this is a good rate. Lets keep at it. I also checked PT and I am a Yellow Smiley once again! It looks so much better than a green frowny. My BB/HR is somewhere around 12.36. Not too shabby. All is well in Poker land this week. Now if I can just fix my life.

Lets turn the sands of time forward...

I have spiraled further down the path of morbid sense of humor. I never thought I could go further down the path. I have always loved shows like Monty Python “’Tis But a Flesh Wound!”, Black Adder, “I want you to walk forward ten paces, step on that land mind, throw yourself 30 feet in the air, and land over there”. Last night on the ride home I was thinking how different bloggers might pass away in their old age. Here are a few of the untimely deaths I have come up with for you:

BadBlood: While playing in a Casino in Vegas he suddenly succumbs to Roid Rage and while trying to take out six cops, and doing a good job at it, he is shot to death and his chips are confiscated by the casino.

AlCantHang: Well this is a no-brainer. Lando and Al are having one of their late night binges by the pool in Aruba. Lando decides to try his swimming trick while drunk again and starts to drown. Al being the good friend he is dives in after him and their entangled bodies are found at the bottom of the pool the next day. Rumors soon start flying as to how they got that way.

Pauly: He is doing a tour for his latest best selling fiction book about Poker, Babes, and Booze. Little does he know that a fan of his had built up this elaborate imaginary relationship with him. Unfortunately some small reply he makes about one of her comments in his Blog causes her to spiral downward into a drug induced, paranoid delusional, schism in which Pauly has destroyed her life. She, rightly so, shoots him dead at his book signing.

Grubby: After years of pulling the slot machine handle he develops a clot in his right arm which dislodges and gives him a massive stroke which kills him instantly.

Iggy: Playing a high stakes game in a back alley poker house he wins an amazing pot with four of a kind A’s vs four of a kind K’s. Unfortunately the midget he won it off of does not like losing and pulls out his pocket knife, jumps up over the table, and plunges it through Iggys heart. His last words heard are “Oh the Humanity!”.

Aeq: After years of getting ahead in a very successful corporate law firm, I.E. Sleeping with the Boss, he tries to get cute and blackmail her. She hits a speed dial entry for her a hit man and he ends up sleeping with the fishies.

And so as to not to leave the readers out, BigChiefTokem: Eaten by an Alaskan Polar bear.

Finally your favorite Sir Waffle: After several years of success and amassing a small fortune playing Poker Sir Waffle goes on an all night binge of the highest stake NL poker and loses it all. In an attempt to build back his bankroll he borrows millions from a local loan shark and puts it all on BC in the NCAA. This does not work out as planned and that’s it for Sir.

WSOOOOOOOP

Congratulations! You've earned 100 Full Tilt Points!

That makes you eligible for our $10K World Series of Poker Championship Event Freeroll tournament!

The Freeroll will be held this Saturday, March 26th at 4:30PM ET and you don't even need to sign yourself up. Just look under the 'Special' tab in the Main Lobby and you'll find that you're already registered!

Good luck and maybe we'll see you at the World Series this summer!

Team Full Tilt

A few tips

Sir FWA’s Tips for Winning
or What the Poker Books don’t Teach you

#1: If you see a certain card come up a lot, play anything with that card,
It means the dealer or shuffler is broken and you will keep getting those cards.
#2: If you are in the 1 or 10 spot, and the dealer is a woman, make sure you take off your shoe and play footsies with her. She will give you some great cards!
#3: If you have 1 to a floosh draw, always go all in, it is Party Poker and you WILL make it.
#4: AA and KK are overrated. Always limp with these. That way the guy with Q-10 will not be able to put you on a hand when he hits his Q-10.
#5: Always raise with 22 and 33. This gives you a second way to win when an Ace or K hits the flop. Really. It does.
#6: Always pick a fight with the big guy who has a lot of chips. If he punches you in the face, you can grab some of his chips while the cops are dragging him away.
#7: Only tip the dealer is she has big boobs and will pretend not to be repulsed by you. Otherwise it is a waste of money.
#8: There are always 7 aces in the deck. Beware!
#9: Have Fun!!!!!!!!!!!

Threefer

Ok. So I am bored at work and I only have a week left. I also have been playing way too much Poker to try and drown my stress out and have alot of questions. I have invented a move that I would like to run by people. I say I invented this because I have a huge Ego. Either that or it is so stupid that nobody else would want to invent it. Here is what I like to call "The Move". If I have a 4-flush to the NUTS and the board is checked around to me no matter what my position or cards I bet the pot. Why? Here is what I have found. I have had one of two results every time. First result is everyone folds and I win the pot. Why? Because nobody likes chasing overs on a flush board. The second and much more rewarding result is a disguised monster. I can then check the turn if I make my flush and baby flushes or people who like to bluff (hey, I heard that!) will throw a huge bet out. Trying to scare me out or win the pot right away. Even people who hit an overpair will bet into me. It rocks! I had several situations where I was paid out HUGE sums of money when making my nut flush because people put me on TPTK. Anyone like this move?

Quick Question

I had a question about a hand I had last night. I think I played it well, even though I could have picked a better place to risk my remaining stack. So here is the situation. I am sitting in late position. I get AQ Spades. Not a strong hand. Actually one of my trouble hands. However I decide to play. There are three in including BigChiefTokem. The flop comes a REALLY nice KJx spades. So not only do I have the flush draw and the straight draw but the straight flush draw. I also possibly have an overcard out. So I figure I will never in my life get more odds to make a draw than this. I have about half my stack left and when the guy before me puts out a pot sized bet I decide to go over the top of him and go all in. The Chief steps aside with his 23o, and the other guy goes all in without a second though. He flips over trips so my overcard out is dead. However the turn is a spade and the board does not pair so I am a winnnnahhhh. Is this too agggressive for a ring game? Do you ever want to put all your money in with possibly 15 outs? In this case I really was looking for a call. If he folded then cool but I thought I had a good shot at winning the showdown. Is this a good way to think? Any thoughts?

Going South

Well I have finally descended into full white trash status. Having a defunct car in my yard for a *cough* year was not bad enough. No, I had to go and do it. My wife knocks the mirror off my car and what do I do? Go to the body shop? Get it fixed? Hah! I get out the coil of rope and tie that sucker on! Yeeeeee Hawwwwwww! I am ready to move to some hick backwater cesspool of the world and start voting republican. Texas here I come!

Poker has been up and down. I still am getting the feel for making good laydowns. A few mistakes here and there and the roll goes into variance land. It is sitting at about $450 now. I had gotten it up over the $525 mark but alas it tis no more.

Some examples of semi-hard laydowns I should have made:

I play the ole Mr. Crabs, 33, for you non Poker people. The flop is a nice 378 for a pretty looking set. Two floosh cards on the board. So I bet the pot. I get one caller. The turn is a rag that helps nobody. So I bet half the pot. I have put about ten bucks into this pot so far. I get cold called. The turn is a stinking T. So no floosh but a straight on the river. The guy bets out fifteen bucks. Now I think a laydown at this point would be acceptable. I also consider that he could have two pair or a better set. The only things I beat are two pair, and TPTK. I doubt he has TPTK. So it is either a straight or two pair. Want to guess what the chaser had? Yup. The Gutshot straight. Add another win to the fishies side. Anyone not lay this hand down?

I of course have made other blunders. Getting attached to AA a little much. I had a fun hand where I made an AEWSOME read and went all in with QQ vs JT, and the flop and turn and river are all variations of J’s and T’s. lol. Nothing you can do there, except maybe wait for a better opportunity. It seems like there are sets around every corner. My best loss though was with trip A’s. I bet them hard as hell and the guy just decided he HAD to draw to his RSF! I guess you can not blame him.

At least I got to witness another person’s misery. It was REALLY funny. A boat vs QUAD 7’s. Wow! Now there is hand I would be ok with not laying down.

So I keep learning and hoping to get better. I also keep looking for a job. I have a week and a half to go. I would not be too surprised if I do not find anything. I mean why should anything be going right in my life. It just looks odd with most of the bad stuff on one side, and a sickly but well paying job on the other. Come on over to the dark side Un-Employment and why don’t you bring your ugly red headed step sister bankruptcy while your at it. I always did say I wanted to play this game professionally, lol.

Poker is Mean

Man is Poker crazy or at least drives you crazy. I ended the night up $50 or so. It is like one minute every move you make sucks and is making you bend over and take it up the arse and the next your the Golden Child.

The funniest thing about last night was three hands I had one two seperate tables basically in a row. I am on table one, and I have a gutshot draw, four people in, so I am getting roughly 8:1 on my buck call. So I say wtf and go for it. I hit the gutshot. I end up betting four bucks and nobody bites so I do not make what I need to for that call to have been good.

I then get the same situation on my second table. Except I need a Q. Almost exactly the same. Four people in. A gutshot draw. So I say to myself "Well, I just made one at the other table so wtf!" and I toss my two bucks in. Whammo! The lovely lady falls! Now this is when it gets funny. I am sick to death of getting drawn out. So when the first guy bets a fiver into the pot I raise him to ten thinking he is going to fold. I mean there is a straight on the board, right? Instead he cold calls me. The river is an A giving me the NUT straight with no flush in sight. So he bets another fiver into into a thirty dollar pot. I raise him my entire stack of $16.15 and he calls. I expect a split here. I assume the A helped him complete the straight. Except I am wrong and he flips two pair! Booyah! I guess my big raise disguised my hand, besides the fact that I did not have 12:1 there either.

So now I am riding high. I got like $100 profit going and I get Presto Chango! The flop is, you guessed it, A,4,2. What do we have? Another GUTSHOT! Booyah! So I am getting horrible odds here. I am getting 6:1. Almost half of what I need. However my pair *might* be good, and I get an extra two possible outs with my five. Not clean mind you because it might make someones straight. The bet is a buck so I go for it. The turn is a fiver! Set, game, match? Ohh yeah, we bet a buck down to the river and he flips AJ for the looooooosahhhh! heh.

Just so you do not think I only made money on fishy calls I will show you my win of the night. I limp in with pocket 6's. The flop is a lovely 7K6. Now here I slow play it. I know, I am a tool, but I just call the dollar bet. The turn is a lovely 3 of spades keeping the most risk on that straight still but I am not too concerned. I call another dollar bet. The river is a seven! So the possible hands that beat me are KK, 77 and K7. I do not put my opponent on either of those. So when he bets six bucks on the river I decide I am good with my BOAT and go all in for $32.85. I expect a fold here but get a call with two pair. Booyah! K3o No Good! Sir rakes in $66 bucks to turn his frown upside down.

So my good tight play is finally rewarded with a few good hands. A few fishy calls end up paying off. The world is right once again. I am starting to come to the conclusion I am slow playing strong but vulnerable hands too much. I think when the turn comes I need to be more aggressive with my trips. Although in my last example if I was too aggressive he might have sniffed something out. I doubt it, but you never know. The other option is to keep making smallish bets with them until the river falls with no danger cards, and then be careful. If there is a danger card then do not call that $20 bet at the river. It is so hard to figure out which way is right. You end up losing some good hands when you slow play, but when you play too quick you do not give people a chance to develop that second best monster. I guess I will have to figure it out as I go.

The Pain Continues

What a fucked up night. Two pairs getting busted by trips. (again). Aces getting sucked out by a low straight on the river. Yes I was betting all the way. Pre-Flop raise, KK4 flop and I bet the fucking pot and some dork calls and catches his A. WHAT THE FUCK! It is nice to see the two most moronic players are winning the most at my table. It makes me feel so good. Oh yeah, and I go out in 62nd place in the 2500 freeroll with 12K in chips, a KJ, Heads up, against KQ. Flop is K9x. Now I know KJ is not great, but I was heads up. And then I was out. Fuck this night and last night too.

Got TPTK Down..

Quick Update. I had a horrible night. I only lost $35 but it was a bad night. Finally when I learn how to lay down TPTK and overpairs (sometimes), I wind up getting a new lesson: Two Pair vs Trips. Not once my friends, not twice, but three times in one night!!!! WTF Did I do?

I decided to play in a cheap freeroll for the MTT experience. I placed 67th out of 2000 which was nice. It took forever. I was doing very well at 12K until my AJ flop of AJx was up against a weak Ace (Yay!) and a Pair of Jacks. (boo!). So now I am down to 4K. I did manage to double up once, but the blinds started eating me and I decided to go all in with KQo. I got called by A9o and he improved but I did not. Oh well. I tried. Many thanks to the Geek, Texas, and ChiefTokem for IM’ing with me through the whole thing. I really thought we had a chance to place. Oh well.

Peace out. I need sleep.

Labor of Love

The things I do for you ingrates! I am soo freaking tired today. I usually stay up until 11:30EST and play Poker, then think about what I want to write. Finish up the Blog after midnight and maybe read a few others. I then hit the sack and let me tell you 7AM rolls around mighty fast!

What do I get for it? Less hits than April, less notoriety than Iggy, less booze than Al. I will not even go into the abuse I get in my comments section by that guy annonymous. I hate him! I tell ya, sometimes, I wonder. If I had something better to do with my life you all would be suffering from WPP: “Work Place Productivity”. Can you imagine never finding out what FWALGMan stands for? What would you do then?

In addition I will soon be unemployed if I do not find some work. I really cannot blame you for that. Well, maybe I can, lets give it a shot. If you stopped reading my Blog during the day and were more productive, then my company would not need to cut its budget by 20%, and I would not find my cushy contract job ending at the beginning of may. See, I constantly underestimate and amaze myself. Do you see why my wife hates me?

I think you guys planned my contract ending. I mean what could be more fun than seeing an unemployed Sir Waffle playing poker for a living because he has nothing better to do while looking for work. Omg! Can you see the hilarity that would ensue? I might even exceed April in hits! Just to spite you I am going to have to find something to do. Are there any openings in the High Stakes Backgammon club?

Slow and Steady wins the race...

The way my night started I thought I was going to lose a lot of money. In my first two hands I got my ass handed to me for 14 bucks on a weird 10-8 straight vs my J-10, and a floosh vs my straight. However the night would turn around after I got into a fight with one guy. He had A9, and the flop is AAx. Another guy re-raises his bet of four bucks by another four, and folds to another re-raise. This guy just goes off and berates the guy for making that kind of play with a pair of sevens. I told him to shut his pie hole, and that I hoped his A9 got creamed by AJ. It never happened, but when I left he was a lot less up than when I came.

My whole night was basically made on AA. It was vs the chaser who caught his straight against me. He was chasing again. Gutshot straight draw to be exact. I was kind of scared he had hit two pair but I was good.

The only other hand besides a few pot steals was AK vs AA limping. I totally could not put this guy on AA because he limped. I raised two bucks, and he cold called. The flop is a nice Kxx where x is a card lower than 7. So I do my usual pot sized bet to go ahead and take it down. Four bucks and he is going to fold like a blanket. Raise. Four bucks. Umm. I did not see that coming. So I already have one foot in the hen house and I call him. Is this a bad call? Not sure. I put him on possibly two pair. The turn brings me another K. YES! I have the nutz. Unless he has KK. So I decide to see what he is willing to call. I put out a five dollar bet. He cold calls. So I do it again on the river. He calls again. I say, “What the hell did you play? 45o? Serves you right for calling my raise!”. I then check the history and it is AA!!!!!?!?!? DO NOT SLOW PLAY AA! I actually saw AA busted several times tonight. So on my second to last orbit I get AQ s000ted and the guy in front of me bets half his stack. I decide to fold. He turns over JJ. So next hand I get AA. He has 13.06 left, it is my last orbit, and 6-7 people have limped and one guy raised a buck. So what the hell, I raise exactly 13.06, which is JJ’s entire stack. He actually folded. The guy next to me contemplated calling me with JJ but decided not to.

So solid play at the 50/NL table nets me twelve bucks for the night. I am not complaining. Since I started out fourteen down. Next time I am not calling a pot sized seven dollar bet on the river with a floosh staring me down. Almost cracked $500 tonight too. Woo Hoo! One more solid session and I will be there. I think my NL game is coming along. As long as I keep the wild child in check I should do alright.

Picking up steam..

Its been a mixed night. I logged a nice win at 25/NL. Small but nice. I then decided to go over to Full Tilt. I ran my stack down and out at Full Tilt. It is a shame since I still have Bonus money there. My play there today was sub-optimal. So I hopped onto Party Poker again. Aeq was hanging around so I decided to play some 50/NL with him. Standing at +29ish right now. I am leaving in twenty minutes. I enjoyed this table a lot. There was a MAJOR chaser. Any floosh. Any Straight. No matter the bet. He was up to around $120, and sits at around $50 now.

Couple things about tonight. I am not too disappointed about the Full Tilt thing. It is MUCH harder to build a roll from 50 to 300, than 300 to 1K. Why? Because with the extra cash you can survive a little sub-optimal play. Your going to have bad days. It is not impossible to go from 50 to 300 but it is not easy.

The roll is at its healthiest yet. I am enjoying the grinding out a living at NL. It is very much fun. It is nice to see some action upward also. I am slowly building the roll and it is to its healthiest point since the bust. Sitting around $480 right now. I am looking forward to hitting 3K again. A stack of that size, while not huge, has enough mass to make some real money. I would probably play a little short handed 5/10 and stick with the NL. I would have enough of a bankroll though where I could play more MTTs, SNGs and other fun things. The roll right now should be 25/NL ring only.

Actually on that subject, what is the rule of thumb for NL bankrolls? What roll do I need for 50/NL? The play does not seem any better than 25/NL for the most part. No worse either. So where should I stand? I was going to wait until 1K but I am not sure if I need to or not. Ideas? I talked with a few people and I think I will make 50/NL my regular game. See how it goes. Drop down if I lose $250. Wish me luck!

Dr. Pauly Robs me Blind

It was a mixed night. On Party I have been logging little scores. Doing well. I have not hit many monsters so I have been making half a buyin every night. Creeping the stack up. It is nice to see some progress.

I then pop over to full tilt. I think I played a GREAT game except for one play. I basically gave Pauly most of my money with QQ vs KK. After the flop. Not good! If I ever become consistent I will be dangerous. At least it was a blogger!

I then took my remaining 4.50 and declared to the table I was going all in with any good hand I have until I made it back to $20. I proceeded to go all in so many times that I finally was getting calls. Of course I was not being totally stupid. I had decent starting hands with my all in. I doubled up with a pair, and then got AK. I had eleven bucks by now and went all in. The hairy eyebrow lady calls me and flips over K-10o. Nobody hits anything and I am back to normal play. You know, only all in when I actually have the losing hand on the flop.

So I ended my night at Full Tilt with $26. It was fun. Aeq and Pauly were there as well as Maudie and Glyph and even a reader! The most fun move of the night was when I bet $2 pre-flop and got 4 callers. I had THE HAMMER! The flop was Kxx and I was determined to take this pot, because THE HAMMER will not be denied! I got everyone to fold even though it was close. I love it when a bluff works! Hell, I had outs too, there was a 2 on the board! It just goes to show it’s not what cards you have; it is what cards your opponent has and thinks you have. One other thing this night shows is one wrong All-In call and you are spending the rest of your night rebuilding your stack.

Off to the funeral in the morning. Should be fun.

HORSE's Ass

Well I ended the HORSE tourney with a dismal 80th place finish. The blinds went up really fast and I got beat up bad in the Stud and Razz games when either the river made someone a better low, or I chased a little too far. I definitely need some more practice in those games. I was really bumming after that tourney. I really thought I might do a little better. At least I beat Poker Nerd and Texas! Heh. My Arch Nemesis The Venetian survived past me also though! One high point of the game was when I was actually AHEAD of Felicia in the standings! It did not last long but it was most excellent.

I then went to Party and had a solid little game. I brought the roll there up a little. I then for some reason went back to Full Tilt. I knew I should leave. Do you ever get that feeling playing NL that you do not want to be patient? Like and anxious little gnawing in your chest. Every time I feel that I know I am going to have a bad session. I absolutely did this time. I was actually back to even at one point after several stupid plays but I went out with 10-10 vs AA and no help. I even knew the guy had AA. Like I said though, I was in a destructive mood. So I lost a buyin and the world tilted for a night. I will go get them tomorrow. There are some absolutely horrible players at Full Tilt.

I so love my Angry Monkey Avatar at Full Tilt. I am searching the net for replacement avatars though. Has anyone seen any good ones? All they are is 100x100 roughly JPG images. I am sure there must be some creative art out there.

So to sum up the night: I am still trying to find my peaceful center in Poker. Some nights I am there and others I am not. I think external pressures and issues effect this sometimes. One of these days I promise I will internalize all of this knowledge of Poker and become the player I should be. Either that or bust out again!

Razzle Dazzle

So tonight was awesome and kept getting better. I start out playing some 25/NL on Party. It was fun. I picked out this one maniac and knew I was going to double off of him. DoubleAs is drinking and having a fun night and so he sits down to watch my 25/NL game and try and stir up the table. Initially he has me call a bet that loses me some money. Some help he was! However he explained why I needed to call it and I agreed. Sometimes I wonder if higher level players forget how the 25/NL game is though. Save that thought for later. So DA has to go because he is whipped and his wife is calling him.

The very next hand I get K8 clubs and I am allowed to limp. Now you might be saying “There goes dumb Sir limping with crap again”. However I had folded pocket 2’s when 6 people went in pre-flop with a slight raise. The flop was A2x and maniac man went in with a huge bet. I believe in my soul that he had AK and I would have cleaned up. So there was no way in hell I was folding anything in the SB to a min raise and 7 callers. It just pays to see these flops. So the flop is a semi-scary but very cool KKQ. Now the hands that possibly beat me are AK, QQ, KQ. If AK or KQ are out there then screw me and I will take up knitting. I know it happens but it is not likely. I do not think he has QQ either. Not sure why. Anyway I check it to him because I KNOW he is a maniac and is GOING to make a big bet. He throws a fiver in and I raise him. Why? I want to say to him I have a Q. No way I have a K. So the flop is an 8 to complete my boat. Now I have nothing to fear unless I was wrong all along and then I am dead anyways. I decide to make a move and go all in. He is going to assume I have a Q. If he has a Q also then he might think his Q is good. There is also a four flush on the board. He thinks about it for a bit and calls me. He makes his QJ FLUSH! On the River!! Too bad it does not beat a boat!! I type into the chat “I have been waiting for two hours for you to do that!”. I know I am a jerk sometimes. So I Double up to $48, but the NL man himself is not there to see it. At least he saw some of my play and had no major fault with it.

So I am feeling good about my play. I am thinking about folding up and doing something else. I dunno. Go to Full Tilt and play Razz or something. I get dealt Pocket Rockets! Oh how sweet they are. I bet out three, and I am raised to five. I decide to just raise to ten. He calls. The flop is J77. Do you see where this is going yet? I go all in and he calls me with Pocket J’s. Sir loses his nice buyin. Wahhh! I never know when to push and when to hold back with those nasty Aces. Someday maybe. Would a better play be going all in pre-flop instead of the few buck raises back and forth? I am considering it. That and reading my list again! DO NOT GO ALL IN WITH OVERPAIRS!

So I am down to $21 and not happy about it. At least the other guy did not have me covered. I am then dealt 10-10. Now this is a good hand for me. I bet out a buck, get a small raise, and I call. The flop is all low cards. I have POSITION. The guy puts out a two buck bet which I cold call. Probably not the right move. He then bets an additional $3 on the turn. I have decided that enough is enough and I raise to $5. He thinks, asks me if I have overcards, and then folds. I laugh and ask him what he had. He had 10-10. The same exact hand as I did! Just goes to show you the cards DO NOT MATTER.

I end my night at the Party Poker Paradise with a meager few dollar win. I am however getting more into the long term mindset. Not just knowing, but feeling it. I do not know if I will ever get there but I can keep trying. I decide I need Razz experience for the HORSE tourney so I grab April and she grabs the Razz expert and we head over to Full Tilt for some fun and games. I end up doing really well on the Play money tables and decide to get cocky and try the real money. I had already signed up with the tourney so I had $5 to burn. I ended up losing two buyins. It was only ten bucks but still! Can I be that bad? I did get rivered a few times. I guess I need to figure out if I am beat a little better. I ran into someone named Blue something or other who read my blog. It seems like my readers are everywhere! Man does that sound good! I appreciate every one of you. If I was a little less tired right now I would remember his name but maybe he will say “hi” in the comments.

I decide to go back to my main game and play some NLHE on Full Tilt! I have thirty bucks left of my initial $50 buyin so I decide to just sit at a .50/1 and have some fun. Initially I am getting pushed off pots. Finally however I get AQ spades. The flop is 78Q. I bet the pot. The guy thinks a bit and calls. I am now not sure what he has. I think it is either a draw or second pair the way he has been betting. At this point in time I am basically pot committed so I go all in. He thinks a long time and calls. He flips 56o and misses his flop on the river by 1 number (he got a 10 instead of a 9). SO I end up doubling. He says “I should not have done that”. Mind you he still has 120 bucks left so I do not feel so bad for him. I then get a nice run of cards. I flop trips with QQ and take someone’s whole stack. I get KK the next hand and everyone folds to me. I then get AA a few hands later and I bet it. I get called by the maniac again. I bet out the flop and he folds. Somehow by this time I am up over $100 and doing just fine. There is a guy at the table who read me and he says hi, and how much he likes the blog. Woo hoo! I live for this, really I do! I also told another shark to come on by too. He ended up being the big stack at the table which really sucked. I wanted to be Da Man!

So all in all a good night. A fifty dollar profit on NLHE and some Razz experience, as well as a lot of cool things happening. I also get to harass Texas mercilessly! That Rocks! DA says that I am the best NL player he has ever seen. Ok, I am paraphrasing. See ya at the tables tomorrow night!

Who's a Stud?

I am becoming quite the Monkey Stud Player. What does this mean? Well according to Felicia the Stud game on party favors monkeys because the blinds in proportion to the stacks are HUGE. So any Monkey can catch a hand and win one of these. I was on both ends of this tonight in my 10/1 Stud MTT.

I started off playing a little loose. Trying to catch a few hands while it was cheap. I ended up sucking on a guy when my two pair beat his Broadway Straight. I was on 6th street before he made his straight so I was in for the end. I also had a straight draw, but he would have had that dominated.

So I am feeling good. Playing my best and somehow winning pots and keeping above the avg or just below. I have Lacerated Sky smoking me on the AIM and I hit a rush of cards. I shoot up from 7K to 28K in a matter of a few hands. This is when about seventy people are left. The top 56 pays. So I ignore how many are left and concentrate on my game. I steal some blinds here and there. Play well and get down to 26th place. I then get two of the most rotten bad beats of the game to knock my 22K stack out of the game. The first one I am dealt AKK. I come in with a raise. Everyone folds except Draw Lady. This is a portent of disaster for anyone who is watching. So I am betting every street. She has a couple of hearts appear at 5th and 6th street. I end up making two pairs. Actually 3 sets of pairs, but you can only use two. She flips a flush she makes at 7th street. She did not even have so much as a heart draw until 5th street when she had 3 hearts. I mean come on!

So now I am down to 11K. A few hands later I am dealt a small pair. I end up hitting my K on 5th street to make two pair! Kings and Two’s! I am good, right? WRONG! Some tool with a small pair hits his second, you guessed it, KING on the river to beat me with Kings and Four’s!!!!! So that was the end of the tourney for me.

I enjoy these little Stud tourneys. They start with 500+ people and the buyin is 10+1. The payout for first is over 1200! I like that!!! Basically anything 8th or up pays nicely. I ended up cashing $40. I could have folded or checked on the river when I lost my 11K, but I was going to be sickened if I lost and so I went all in. I could have maybe hit another ten bucks if I waited with my 2800.

I was thinking what Felicia said about this being Monkey Poker towards the end and I think that fits a good strategy for this game. Play a little loose early on, and try and catch something. Get your stack up a bit to 3-4K if you can in the first four rounds. Then sit back and wait for premium hands until the come-in becomes crazy ass ridiculous. You then just need to wait for one or two premium hands to connect. You will find yourself quickly into the 10-20K range and walla.. money! Anyhow this might not be a good strategy but if this is Monkey Poker then you might as well take advantage of it!!!

MRMBJC

Consistency. I am still struggling with it. That is going to be my main issue in NL. I am not sure if I am being too hard on myself or what. However there were a few times last night when I screwed up. One was when I had AA. I get bet into before the flop for a normal $2 bet. Nobody else is in the hand so I raise to $5. I get cold called. The flop is 9-10-9. Now I am figuring I am probably good here. So I go WAYYYYYYY overboard and go all in. Bad move. We flip and it is AA vs 10-10 for the loss. I really think my all-in rule is good, even though ½ the time I win against a smaller pair and ½ I lose against a set or boat or two pair.

I like the way I played my AA on one hand last night. I raise pre-flop to $2. Get a caller. 457 flop. I bet out the pot and get a quick call. The turn is a 7. I decide NOT to go all in, instead I make a smaller bet of $2. The river was no help and it was checked to me so I just checked to see if I was beat. It turns out that it was 45 vs AA and the guy flopped two pair. However the turn seven helped me out a lot and I ended up taking a decent pot.

One other thing I have been toying with is the initial bet on my good hands. I know you are supposed to go 4xBB but playing 25/NL it is IMPOSSIBLE to make anyone fold to a dollar bet. I mean cmon people, if you are going to call a $2 bet with 45 then $1 I am going to get 10 callers. No question. So I am currently raising 8xBB in the 25/NL games.

One more other thing. If you play NL go and read DoubleAs post. It is really good. Reading his prior post about his live game, I have to assume he uses different techniques in his higher stakes game. However the Basic Strategy post is excellent and gives a lot to think about.

Last thing I promise. I just got the coolest hit from Google: Poker Baby Jesus Cry! YES! I rock!

RIP

My father finally passed. I am happy that he is not suffering anymore. It was very quick. He was nice enough to die the day after my birthday. Not that my birthday is all the significant of a day. Thanks to everyone who has show support both online and off. I appreciate you all. The funeral will be held on Monday. Hopefully after that we can get back to Poker around here. No tears yet.

Sir South Park

Apparently I read April’s Blog for good reason.

Presenting SirSouthPark


(http://www14.brinkster.com/mfhowland/sirsouthpark.jpg)

Sweeeeeeeet!

Here is how this whole South Park thing started:

April: http://www.thisisApril.com/archives/000120.html
SirFWALGMan: im gonna get in so much trouble
April: lol
April: why?
SirFWALGMan: just wondering, I tried learning some German for a hot chick. Easiest language.
SirFWALGMan: IM A WORK!
SirFWALGMan: I cant make SP charectors at WORK!
April: lol
April: but it's your birthday
SirFWALGMan: but I CANT resist BECAUSE I HAVE NO DISCIPLINE
April: LMAO

I guess that Black Crow of impending doom is good for something or other. At least she listens to my stories:

[23:48] SirFWALGMan: wanna hear my night
[23:49] April: of course
[23:49] SirFWALGMan: I spent 6 hours trying to get home
[23:49] April: why?
[23:49] SirFWALGMan: Ok.. So my left Winshield Blade is a little loose or broken.. for a few weeks..
[23:49] SirFWALGMan: so Im going to work today, and it flies off totally. No Big deal, right?
[23:49] SirFWALGMan: So it starts snowing in the afternoon after being 52 this morning.
[23:50] April: wow
[23:50] April: i thought we had weather changes
[23:50] SirFWALGMan: Ok, So I go to the Gas Station to get a new blade.
[23:50] SirFWALGMan: So I try and put it on and cant figure it out. I do software. Not hardware.
[23:50] April: lol
[23:50] SirFWALGMan: So I decide to try and drive home.
[23:50] SirFWALGMan: Half way there I cannot see.
[23:51] SirFWALGMan: So I pull over and call AAA
[23:51] SirFWALGMan: and I wait
[23:51] SirFWALGMan: for two hours
[23:51] SirFWALGMan: until I am tired of waiting
[23:51] SirFWALGMan: and almost getting killed by maniac cars
[23:51] SirFWALGMan: So I drive to the next exit somehow and pull off in a Barnes and Nobel
[23:51] SirFWALGMan: I ask the guy when the store closes
[23:52] SirFWALGMan: 11PM
[23:52] SirFWALGMan: ok, SO I call AAA again. Oh, we missed you.
[23:52] SirFWALGMan: Thanks.
[23:52] SirFWALGMan: Are you warm? Why yes thank you.
[23:52] April: lolo
[23:52] SirFWALGMan: Ok, When does the store close.
[23:52] SirFWALGMan: 11:00
[23:52] SirFWALGMan: Ok. We will be there by then
[23:52] SirFWALGMan: ummmm.. ok
[23:52] SirFWALGMan: So I read some X-men comics and 10:00 rolls around
[23:53] SirFWALGMan: Sorry Sir we are closing
[23:53] SirFWALGMan: ummm.. but the doofus at the counter said 11.
[23:53] SirFWALGMan: Sorry Sir we are closing
[23:53] April: omg you are so my husband
[23:53] SirFWALGMan: So they kick me out into a blizzard
[23:53] SirFWALGMan: I go to start my car
[23:53] SirFWALGMan: and the battery is dead
[23:53] April: did you get Starbucks at least?
[23:53] April: OMG
[23:53] SirFWALGMan: I hate coffee
[23:53] April: hot chocolate?
[23:54] SirFWALGMan: So I sit in my care shivering for 10 minutes until the tow truck comes
[23:54] April: awwww....poor baby
[23:54] SirFWALGMan: He gets the Battery thing fixed. I have heat now.
[23:54] SirFWALGMan: Aewsome.
[23:54] SirFWALGMan: He can not fix the windshield whiper
[23:54] April: LOL
[23:54] SirFWALGMan: He says "Why dont you just drive home, keep your heater on high, and you will be fine"
[23:54] SirFWALGMan: So I am driving home. AAA calls me.
[23:55] SirFWALGMan: Did he tow you?
[23:55] SirFWALGMan: No, he never asked
[23:55] SirFWALGMan: Instead he wanted me to risk my life driving home in a blizzard with no windhield wiper, but thanks for asking.
[23:55] April: lol
[23:55] SirFWALGMan: So I finally get home
[23:56] SirFWALGMan: Wife, "What the hell!!! I can not beleive you did this!! The kids wanted to have cake with you!!!"
[23:56] SirFWALGMan: And you wonder why I play so much poker..
[23:57] April: awwwww
[23:57] April: i'm sorry baby
[23:58] SirFWALGMan: "Happy Birthday!"

Bah!

Oh and the Poker Park of Online Poker Thoughts. I broke my rule again tonight. Doh! I did win. My AA vs HIS QQ! Maggot! So that was cool. I also placed 2nd in an SNG. Was fun. So ended up $21 for the night. Getting rich now!

Blah

What a night. I start off by going to see my dad. It was kind of weird. My mother called me this afternoon at work and tells me I should probably come and see him. He is on a ventilator and they are removing the IV except for morphine and sleeping drugs. It is weird but I was starting to get teary eyed while talking to my mother. If I had to guess my reaction in a million years that’s would not be it. It kind of reminds me of when my dog Charlie “Went to the Farm”. I believed there was a farm until.. oh.. two years ago when my parents fessed up. One minute your sitting in class doing 5th grade math and the next your crying hysterically and do not know why. Hopefully I will not progress to this level. I am thinking it is possible though. So I decide to leave work early and drive up to see him. It is pretty scary looking. My sister the felon came by earlier and ran out of the room screaming or something. She could not deal at all. I dutifully stayed. He was in and out of conciseness. I do believe he knew I was there at least when he opened his eyes. I have to think he wanted to say something but with the respirator and his inability to breathe it was kind of hard. My wife and kids showed up for a little while too. It was pretty touching to see little Sarah go up and stroke his hand. She is a good girl. I mentally told my father that I forgave him for not being the best dad. Hell, it is hard to be a father. I feel at piece with the situation and hope that he passes on soon so that he can be out of pain. Tomorrow is my birthday and with my luck that will be the day.

So I came home and I was ready for some action. I decided to go to a freeroll first to see what I could do. I ended up placing 372 of 1850 for the satisfaction of being mediocre. Albeit slightly less mediocre than 400 people or so.

I decide to play some cash games. I deserve to be shot. I am playing well doing excellent at one table and end up 8.25. The table freezes and I have to leave. I then join a table and get 10-10. I should have sent it a long distance. I made a classic mistake along with several other just bad ones. The flop is 8JJ. I get raised eight bucks by a smaller stack (All In) and decide since he is loose to gamble a little. What I fail to take into account is the larger stack behind me that raises me. Now I decide to compound my error by calling his huge 16 buck raise. Hello? Anyone home? Just to top it off I throw my last seven bucks in on the river where a K fell, and made his KJ boat. Umm. Ok. So I am probably better off leaving for the night. Not me though. I sit down at an SNG. About half way into it I decide to jump on a cash table and take it easy. Four hands later I end up calling all in on a small flop with QQ. The other guy in the hand with me calls also. So we are talking almost a $75 pot here. The aggressor flips AA. Ooops. However the Poker Gods smile at me and I spike my two outer on the turn. It is more than enough to put me up for the night however I am very disappointed I broke my rules twice tonight it really reinforces why I made them in the first place. Top Pair is just not that strong.

So one step forward in taming my inner lion and two steps back. So be it. One of these days I will get that itchy trigger finger under control. For now I have the paper and if I can follow it I can win.

MTT, SNG, 25/NL, 50/NL, All over the place

Well tonight was not so bad. I played some 25/NL. I won a buyin and then lost some. Then won that back playing some 50/NL with the Bloggers. It did not seem like the night for them. I saw Jack leave with a few buck, and soon after –EV got creamed when his QQ went up against flopped trip jacks. I think my list might be right.. who knows.. I won a small pot against Chris. I had A-10 and he has A-Q. Three people in and I am last to act. I love position. The flop is KJx. So it is checked to me. I decide I can make a pot sized bet, represent K’s and if I get called either get a free card or maybe make my straight. The first guy buys the semi-bluff and folds. Chris thinks. Probably knows it is me and has me pegged as a LAG and so he calls. He checks the turn and give me a free card which is the wonderful Q! So I put out a few buck bet and collect my winning.

I made some really hard laydowns too. I had a 5 with a nice kicker. It made trips. Someone bets me a decent amount on the river. I fold like a wet blanket. Why you ask? Well I am trying to be more wimpy but besides that I am not a big fan of wasting ¼ my stack on hands where the cards pull down their pants and practically moon everyone. If someone is making that bet I think I am beat most of the time. Especially with a straight on the board. Now if it was a set I might have called..

I got screwed by the cards a little as happens. I played a small SNG. Was able to keep my head above water and then had 88. The blinds are like 200/400 and I have 1K left. So I decide I need to push. I peek and I am against A-10. Ok. Not so bad. Except he spikes the 10 on the river. I thought I might be good there for a while. Oh well. Not a bad beat. I played an MTT. I might stop playing these until I get more money to waste, but I love them. I end up being short stacked at 860 bucks through basically no cards. The blinds are 50/100. I get Pocket Rockets and I am raised all in by the EP. So its go time, right? He flips his 22’s and I am laughing hysterically, until a 2 shows on the flop. Wow! What does 22 ever beat? Oh yeeeaaahh, AA. Anyway what the hell are you going to do. In both instances I got all my money in the pot with the best hand and went for it. If I had won I would have at least taken 3rd in my SNG and who knows in my MTT. At least buys me a few orbits. I am at peace with my play.

Net Net for the night is I ended up pretty much break even for the night. I was up to 401.60 for a brief second.. but that did not last. So I keep grinding it out. I will be staying with the 10/1 NL games. They are good +EV for the most part. They are within bankroll limits. MTTs are more like lottery tickets and you eventually win but it takes a while and until then you need the money to invest.

The only bad thing to happen today was my dad was admitted to the Hospice. He is on morphine and is kind of out of it. He was having trouble breathing. Apparently the Hospice is the last stop on the way out. Audios Amigos! I am going to visit tomorrow. That should be fun. Still have no idea of how I am going to deal with this as I stuff everything down and avoid it with Poker, Video Games, etc, etc.. We shall see.

S000ted Connectors

Ok. I have what I hope is a great question. Everyone I have talked to has told me S00ted connectors good, K high flush card bad. Now what the hell is up with that? If you lose alot of money in NL with K high flushes then what the hell are you doing playing something that is going to end up being the 8 high flush? You really can only bet the high end of the straight hard. If both the straight and flush hit the board then you have some protection against suckout by a higher straight I guess.. but I just do not get S000ted Connectors. Anyone want to 'splain?

Solid Night

First hand of the night. I am dealt pocket 9’s. I limp in EP. The flop is a somewhat coordinated straight possible hand, all cards below 7! So ALL IN! No, just kidding. I glance at my notes (#1: Tho Shalt not go all in with any pair, even an over pair, unless it be AA before the flop) and bet out a pot sized bet of $2. I am raised to $6 and decide to fight another day. Down around $3 for the hand. No problemo. Nice laydown I think.

I am looking at this one wicked agro. I am talking to Hella on the IM. I say to her “This guy is a wicked Aggro, show any weakness and he will bet big. I can not wait to make a hand against him.”. Unfortunately vtc beats me to it and takes his whole stack with a boat, Aces over 9’s. Oh well. At least the agro had the baby side of the boat.

So to distract me from my hands and make me play better I was talking to Texas. She and I were arguing between standard raises, always leading out with the same raise, like 4xBB or mixing it up AA for 4xBB one time, and 2x the next. Here is how it ended:

[22:45] Texas: what does Phil (Hellmuth) think of your standard raise strategy?
[22:45] SirFWALGMan: he likes it
[22:45] Texas: did you even ask?
[22:45] SirFWALGMan: besides, what has he won lately
[22:45] Texas: lol

See my logic is sound. Heh. No wonder I never win anything! Doh!

So I played a 10/1 NL SNG and placed 3rd. So I decide to play another one and get into a limit SNG by accident. I HATE LIMIT! I came in 6th in that one. No cards. A couple bad moves. I decide to fold my 25/NL game for the night. I am down a buck but no biggie.

I then say “Well, I did not technically play the last NL that I wanted to”.. so I fire up a 10/1 SNG and play tight as hell, getting blinded down and losing a few AK hands. I have 675 left with the blinds going up and decide I need to make a move. So I raise with QQ. Everyone folds. Guess I had been playing too tight. I then get AK. I raise and everyone folds. I then get AA!! Now I could have slow played this but I decide that everyone now thinks I am a maniac so I go all in. I get called by a stack about even with mine and the aces stand up against KJ. She did hit here Jack. Jack shit that is. So now I am feeling good and I get dealt Q2 in the blind. I get the guy in front of me and that is it. The flop is Q-10-Q. I check. Glyphic screams at me “STOP SLOW PLAYING”. The other guy checks. The next card is a 10. I check. Glyph is really mad now. I say “Hold on I am trying to trap him”. The guy goes all in with $1200 on a stone cold bluff and I call him!
The rest of the tourney is a blur. I got up to 4K vs the old big dog HU who had 2K left. I applied some pressure, got some Kings, bluffed a little. Finally I took him out. First place in the SNG to end the night up around $40. Not bad. Tomorrow I hope my monsters will come back in the cash game. It would be nice to get out of the $300 range.

I know I should not share this but I feel inclined. I think it would be nice to make it to 1K in 10 days. Ha! The chances of doing this are slim to none, but I figure if I make $75 a night for the next 10 days I am there. I will be doing nothing to try and make this happen. Just dreaming.

A Tale of Two Nights

Tonights Blog Brought to you by the Letters Q and Q.

Yeah. Nice hands. First hand of the night. I get raised a buck in front of me. One guy calls and I also call. The flop is 792 and nothing too scary. Two people limp, I do a pot size bet of $5. I get two callers. A J is on the turn. The turn is checked to me. The pot is now $18. I have $17 left. I am not sure if someone is drawing to something but I think I am good. So I go all in. One guys thinks real hard and calls. I end up against AA and some tool trying to draw out a straight. AA stands up and its one hand and out for sir.

So I decide to switch tables. I am doing well. I am up about $12. I am starting to come back. I get QQ. I joke with Bad Blood that I am going to fold. Take note of this setup technique all us good writers use.The flop is J89. One guy bets me $5. I raise him to $10 and he goes all in. I have a feeling he has a J and decide to go for it. He turns over.. J6. Aight! Turn is a 5. Aight! River is a 7. Not aight. Wahh! Who the hell calls all in with J6..

Should I have walked away from either of those hands?

I blew the rest of my second buyin on a hand I knew I shouldn’t have played. Oh well. I really do not want to play anymore cash games tonight. I feel my anxiousness coming into play and that’s never good. Time for a freeroll or something.

I have written on paper: Do not go all in with a pair, Do not call all in with a pair, do not go all in with Overpair, do not call all in with Overpair. EXCEPTION: AA,KK pre-flop maybe. So if you’re playing with me and think I flopped TPTK just bet all in and I promise I will fold. I think.

SNG: 4th Place. KK. Being blinded out. 4 left. All in. 77 calls me. Flops a 7. Bah!
MTT: 900th place or something. No cards. Got blinded down. Had to go all in with A7 vs AQ.

Soooooooooooooo then I take what Felicia says to me tonight to heart and jump back on the 25/NL tables! Oh wait, she said I should quit the cash games!! I should play tourneys because aggression is good there. Well I ignored that part, sorta. I appreciate the advice more than you can know though. I think I have the ability to learn to be a good NL cash player. Only time will tell. The part I liked, and listened to, was how she always says “Wait for Monsters.. boo!”. So I glance at my paper again and hit the tables.

I wait and wait and wait.. and.. guess what. There are monsters in them there woods! The first good hand I get is against a guy I have been verbally sparing with. I like sparing and I called him Brown Eyes and told him he was full of shit. So we get into this hand. I have 9-10 or something. I was allowed to limp in. I flop a 9 with no over cards so I bet the pot like a good boy. He calls me. So I am preparing to fold when another 9 comes by. So I feel pretty good about my set. I check to see if I am going to get any action. The tool puts 20 bucks in the pot. I am somewhat sure he does not have a 9 with a better kicker. So I say “Is my 3 any good” and raise him my remaining eight bucks. He thinks for a long time and calls me. We flip and he has 23 for a pair of 3’s vs my trips.

The next good hand I get is when I play J-10 for a limp. I flop 10-9-8. The turn is a 10. Sweet! I can not really bet it though because of the straight so I call a few buck bet. The river is a J to make my boat. Now that I can bet! The guy with the straight throws out a nice size bet and I re-raise him all in. He calls.

I really do not remember any other hands. Somehow I got up to $92, winning back my 2 buyins and then some. Feels good! Not sure if Jeckle or Hyde is showing up tomorrow night.

I had QJ s000ted on the button. I bet a quarter. The flop is a great low cards, two of my suite, and I even had two over cards. The pot is 1.75. I am bet 3.00. Do I make that call? It was very hard for me but I laid it down. Was that right?

Progress

I am pretty damn proud of myself last night. I left four bucks down and did not go too crazy with a really dead night of cards. I know that’s pathetic. So what. I hate leaving behind and it causes me a lot of problems. I am better than most of the people I am playing again so why should I leave down, right? Heh. Working on it.

I got to play a total of six hands in about three hours of play. Either I am too tight or I was getting nothing. Looking at PT I see a lot of J4, J5, J6 cards so I think it was one of those nights. Hell I made .35 on AA and like 5 bucks on Q5. Go figure. I am coming around to the wait until you hit a monster mentality. It is obviously harder on nights when the monsters are hiding under the bed.

One hand that kills me even though I think it is the best choice normally was when two guys were both all in pre-flop. Just about the first hand of the night. No reads on the table. I was dealt pocket J’s, which are tough hands to play. I had one guy before me raise all in. I REALLY thought about it and decided that for the most part going all in with J’s before the flop is just stupid. So I fold. The guy behind me goes all in. They both turn over AK and do not improve. Helllooooo. Let’s go all in for the .35 cent blinds with a drawing hand. Even though I would have tripled up on my first hand of the night I need to make that fold. As Felicia tells me there is no woulda. The hand is over once I fold and that’s it. If I did the right thing then I can hold my head up.

I had a few really fun people at my table. One guy bets his entire stack on the flop of 7K7. He gets one caller, and flips over “The Hammer” for a nice win. He types in the chat “The Hammer!!”, so I ask if he is a blogger. Nope. He does read 2+2 a lot and says that there is A LOT of good press for Hank and Iggy’s book there! Go guys! You put the hard work in now reap the benefits. It is a MUST READ if you play limit.

The other fun guy was a maniac. He would go all in with any two cards anytime he felt like it, and then tighten up again. He goes all in pre-flop with J4 s000ted against AK. The flop is some J5J thing and it is over before it started. I was laughing my ass off. The guy who lost was not too happy and called me a Fag. Well I am a Blogger and I was wearing the Party purple shirt. I never said anything about the hand out loud; I was just chatting up the maniac and being pals so he would stay. Unfortunately I never caught any cards to take advantage of this crazy table.

Who are you?

I used to read comic books a lot and there was a concept that I am sure is familiar to physicists or some kind of theoretical scientists. The concept was that every move we make spawn off a whole new parallel universe where you actually made that decision. Sort of like sliders.

So Sir has finally lost his mind and is posting gibberish! Ye of little faith. Let us take a walk down the parallel universe that is my poker career. I have AQ on the button. I raise for two bucks. The flop misses me totally. So I throw out a pot sized bet. I raised pre-flop, right? I get cold called. I throw 3 more bucks in on the turn. Gotta follow up the bet. I get cold called AGAIN! Ok I may be dumb but I am not stupid. I get checked to on the river and I check. Turns out my HU buddy had a boat and I am down to $17.

Switch to a parallel universe. I bet my few bucks pre-flop or fold. When the flop misses me I am willing to just walk away. I fold. I end up down to $23 and life is ok.

Which play is better? I take a lot of pots in this universe, but make like $2 or $4 taking the pot on the flop. In the other universe I never got down to $17, so when I won $7 with a boat later on I was actually ahead. Hmm. What do you think?

One step forward, two steps back..

Have you ever had one of those nights where you put your brain on hold and play really bad Hold Em? I will not bore you with the details but for some reason I went back to the way I used to play, thinking TPTK was a good hand. I think TP is the hardest hand to play in Hold Em btw, limit or NL.

In Limit you could already be beaten by two pair, trips, whatever, and whoever has that is going to lead you to the river, maybe raise the turn. Hey, is he bluffing this time? Does he think his A-10 is better than my AK? Tough call.

In NL it is hard also. So you hit you’re A on the flop. You have TPTK. You bet the pot. Your cold called. Now what do you do? If you check the turn any baby ace is going to believe your bluffing, or at least try and force you off the pot. You cannot call a huge raise. Unless you have a brain cramp like I did last night. Twice even! So what the hell do you do? Do you put in a few bucks and wait for that guy to go all in on the river when you cannot call him? Do you do another pot sized bet and have him go all in over the top of you? It is almost as if you need to flop two pair at least to not fold a hand after the flop bet.

Any idea’s? BTW – I am purchasing an NL cash game book so I do not keep asking stupid questions. I have had several suggestions already, but if you want to throw one in too go ahead.

After I dropped 1.5 buyins last night (not too horrible), and being more upset that I did not play well, and also I kept running into monsters, I.E. I have 7 bucks left. I have AJ. I raise 2 bucks when everyone limps. The flop is an AEWSOME J64. Nothing even remotely scary. So I figure I have five bucks left. If I put a pot size bet in I am going to not have much left anyways, so I go all in. The other guy flips over his JJ for the win. I do not feel terrible about this play, but I got to take my finger off of the all in button sometimes. Anyway like I was saying AFTER this, I decided to just play a Freeroll. I ended up 192 out of 1700. I am the master of doing well for the longest amount of time but not making any money. Mediocre. I was short stacked (1700) when the blinds were 150/300 and soon to go up. So I decided to push with KQ. I ended up facing down one guy with A-10. He had huge money, and I did want to double up, so this was an ok thing even though I was the underdog. As indicitive of my night the flop was of course A-10 and I was drawing dead from that point on. I really enjoy MTTs. I would like to make some money on them but it is fun trying to figure out how to get a large chip lead early on. I usually stay in the middle of the pack for the first part of the tourney and then get blinded down towards the end. Oh well. There is always tomorrow.

Learning Experience

I do not think I would have posted the hand I had vs Sean at all except for the fact that it bothered me. I had to think through why it bothered me and posting and hearing people comment is the best way for me to get things out. The reason it bothered me was because, honestly, I like Sean from reading his Blog and respect his opinion and could tell he was at least annoyed at the hand.

If it had been someone I did not read every day and have a good deal of respect for I would not have even thought twice about it. I have made much worse bets than this for much worse reasons before.

Some that come to mind is sucking out on Felicia’s Aces. That hand really bothered me. I made a mistake with a King in hand and one on the board, and she did the right thing in trying to make me pay. I hit my 2-Outer and happened to win. Again the hand bothered me because I like to think I know Felicia a little. I read her a lot and like her as a person from what I read, and really respect her opinion.

Hands like these do not nearly bother me as much when they are against people I do not know at all. One hand like that I can remember is a recent one with 9’s. I had about half a stack left. I put out a $2 bet pre-flop with two people left to go. The guy after me raises to $5, and the guy after him re-raises. I think about it and make the reckless move of putting the rest of my $10 into the pot. Both people call me immediately. The cards look bad as it is AA vs JJ vs my puny 9’s. I was hoping for at least one AK. However the Poker Gods are kind to me that day and I spike a nine on the flop.

I felt a little bad about my extremely bad play being rewarded but not even close to what I feel when it is someone who I read a lot.

Poker is a cruel game. Even the best NL players make the wrong reads. I am not saying I am even close to good at NL. However there is not a game I see where someone either makes the wrong call with a hand, or tries to bluff a pot and gets called. It seems the nature of the game. Sometimes your good play costs you money and other times your marginal or down right horrible plays make you a lot. It is the nature of a game where you can put it all on the line without knowing what the final few cards will be. So this is the last I am saying on the hand. I am sure I will get over it soon.

So maybe I should stop playing with Bloggers, or at the very least become a hardened stripper. Either that or get some more self-esteem. I am such an idiot to let this bother me at all. What the hell is wrong with me? I doubt Felicia or Sean would throw me a quarter if I was a bum on the street. Ok, maybe they would, they seem like nice people, but really it is not like we went to high school together or something. Ok bad analogy, I would definitely hate them then. You get the idea though. Oh well fuck me for being me.

** UPDATE: I wrote this the other day when I was feeling really bummed about the whole hand situation. Since then I feel much better. Not because I think the play was right more, but just the contrary. All of the advice in the posts was EXCELLENT and some of it really got me to do what we all need to: THINK. Some people thought their advice might be harsh or perceived as picking on me. I really do not feel that way at all. Advice is AEWSOME. Heap it on!

There are a hundred reasons why the play on that hand was bad. I think the most relevant one was the fact that two huge stacks had yet to act behind me. If both had limped because they had the NUT flush I was going to be losing at least my twenty bucks. I am also coming around to what hands are good pre-flop in NL as opposed to limit. I know I have a little bit of a wild streak in NL. If I am convinced I have the best hand or that my opponent will not stand up to me I have no problem going all in.

Believe it or not, I have curbed this a lot. I used to have a seriously negative BB/100 for 25/NL in Poker Tracker. I am running around 10/BB 100 over 5K hands now a days. I know not enough sample size. Apparently I have a lot more to learn than I thought. I think I need to buy a book specifically about NL cash games. I have read stuff on tourneys but not really a lot on the cash games. Probably because I used to play extremely badly and hated the game, now I only play very badly and like the game. Anyway keep reading as my adventures continue.

Well, Day One: Goodie!

Quick post. Played NL tonight. Decided on only playing until 11:30 every night and only losing one buyin. Not sure if the second one is a good idea. Might change my mind. However I ended up not starting until 10:30. I was patient and got no hands and ended up down a few bucks. I left. I am proud of myself. Now if I can just do that 365 days a year..

I also have to say I have Party Pokers new blind structure. It does make me want to steal the flop alot less though. I mean who cares anymore. I think it sucks though. We should get a letter writing campaign going!!