Something from Phil

Well, since Poker is sucking, and I have no job this week.. something new. A sleezy bar trick from Phil Gordon himself. All credit to the Little Green Book he wrote. It is a really fun read. Very powerful too.

Pick the sucker, take out a deck of cards, and say "I am going to remove eight cards from the deck and I bet you can not make a 5 card straight". If they take the bet, remove the tens and fives, hand them the deck, order a double, and then toast me and the little green book. All straights contain either a five or a ten.

Whatafuckingday

So I am home playing Poker because my work has not work today. Not a good thing for a contractor. Anyways.. after losing a couple buyins at O8 I decide to try a 20/2. I am chip leader through most of it until this happens:

Ok. Not so much a bad beat. I am 2nd in chips. I am at the ONLY table where I can get busted out. It is 20 left and I am 13 to the money. An ass monkey has been going in all day. He raises me. I re-raise another 10K. He pushes his 50K stack in. So basically if he loses this I am chip god and he is back in the pack.

He turns over A9
I turn over KK

He of course flops an Ace.

Not the worse beat but it hurts spending so much time in a tourney and then getting your ass handed to you but a total and complete moron.

OmahhhOwwwie

Prospects the wonder donkey. Catches a 1 outer for a SF on the river to beat my high/lo NUT/NUT draw. Umm. Nice. Then it proceeds to mock me about its great play. I lost the rest of my stack to a wrap straight draw with QQ. That one was my fault. I berated the guy then apologized. It is tough going from +60 to -40 in like 5 hands. Ouch.

I can not believe the shemale looking bitch would suckout a one outer and then gloat like she played well. Id like to bend IT over a chair and figure out if it’s a man or a woman. We will meet again. It plays sooooo horribly I KNOW I am going to get my money back. It is just a matter of time.

Won back twenty of my fourty and called it a night. Oh yeah, won two bucks in the 1$ NLHE game too, lol. I get that for 50th out of 900.

O8 Mussings..

I have to say I am coming over to the scoop hands side of things. I do not know if I could be that tight.. but I do see a lot of advantages. I may follow the path of Drizz instead of Trauma.. or not..

I like the action. However splitting is dirty. Like man on man sex or something. Ewwww..

Bounce.. Bounce..

Well, I am over the sadness of going out with AQc today. Man I bounce fast. Sir Waffle may be a good name.. hmm.. At least good people like Joanne took it down today! Congrats to you! You still scare me.

Anyway, I want to thank Dr. Pauly for hosting what has to be one of the MOST fun events I have played in for a long time. It has been a long and interesting path. It has been some of the most fun I have had in months too. I somehow managed to play well in all of the events except one. I have been bubble boy and victorious. I ended up 7th out of all bloggerdome in the series. Wow! Usually I am a solid middle of the pack type of guy. I got to bust the Blogfather, and cripple Pauly. I even made time in between events to meet the illustrious Doctor and had a FANTASTIC time doing it. PLEASE!! PLEASE!! have another event sometime.

Until then I am going to continue playing poker my way. Try and build up the bankroll. Stop tilting it off. Get serious about the game? Maybe. I do have a goal of putting the roll in more personal terms. I intend to do many more cashouts this year instead of trying to build a titanic house of cards. If I can buy something nice with the money I may just try and keep it. Who knows.

I think the ole’ blog needs a facelift too. I am soooo stinking jealous of the banners some of the bloggers have been coming up with. So, since I am an Art Donkey, if anyone wants to donate something to the site.. a banner.. some look.. whatever.. then all I am offering is credit and the promise that your art work will be around for a while. I think.

Until later, I will catch you all on the O8 tables. Peace.

It was a fun month

Dr. Pauly’s Saturday. Synopsis. I played one hell of a game. Was short stacked. Pushed with AQ s00000ted and got killed by BG’s KJo. It’s poker. It happens. It feels sucky. It would be nice to win a coinflip (64% vs 35%) on occasion. Out in 18th.

Amazing

Amazing. Check this stat out. I went to Cardplayer.com. Make sure you check the O8 button. I was curious how well I played against the set of kings.

Him
[kskc6djh]
me
[2c3h4s5d]

Pre-flop equity:

Him: 63% on the high, 0% on the low.
Me: 37% on the high, 58% on the low.

Total:

Him: 36%
Me: 37%

So even pre-flop, with out anything, I am favored to win this pot against the guy. This totally blows my mind. I would never have guessed pocket pairs were so bad when they have nothing backing them up.

Now lets go to the interesting part. Where I put all my money in. The flop.

Him: 67% on the High, 0% on the low.
Me: 33% on the High, 74% on the low.

Total:

Him: 25%
Me: 33%

I am dominating him when ALL the money goes in. It again blows my mind. Ok, I am not soooooooo far ahead that I could not lose it all but not a donkey move by far.

Now the next card is a ten, but I have already committed myself. I am now a 23% to 50% dog. If I had just called the right move might be folding here. However since I already pushed this card is a moot point.

Then we hit the BINGO card, the river is my lovely 4! WOO HOO! Me: 100%. Thank you. So I guess the lesson to me on this is A) Learn the odds on Omaha-8 a little more, and B) NEVER play a hand that does not have a decent chance to scoop. The fact that his hand had no way to win except the high and hitting the K on the flop makes it a bad hand for him to play.

TILT

Last night was no fun at all.. welllllll scooping a $251 pot was a little bit of fun, but besides that! I know my tilt well at least. It has become VERY specific. I do not get mad when I lose a hand, or when I lose a buyin. It really is a set of things that have to happen. I do not tilt in game and start playing poorly. My tilt is induced by winning and then taking a sharp downturn. For instance this one. I am doing great. Up to $320 in the past week. Woo hoo! So then I have a good night where I win $80 and nip at the heels of $400. So I play some HE in a rebuy MTT. I rebuy a little too much and lose $40. I then lose $40 at an Omaha game. So my night is back to zero. Not terrible but dissapointing. I then come back the next day and donk off another $40. Ok. I can deal. However the bankroll is now down to $280. So I come back the next day and this is when I go off. I lose $40, and then instead of my usual routine of leaving down a buyin I decide to try and made it back. Because I am down to $240 now. So I lose another buyin.. and that drives me over the edge of no return. I will not stop until I win MY money back. So there you have it. A look into a very bad form of tilt. My personal pet monkey.

I am hoping that in time, when I get back to a larger bankroll, and play 1/2 PL08 consistantly, the swings will bother me less as they will be alot less of a percentage of my bankroll. However it is going to take a while to build up a 2-3K bankroll so we will just have to hope I make it there.

Oh, and if Veneno suggests you play the 5.50 PLO8 SNG game on Stars DO NOT. It take freaking forever. I won but I can never get those three hours of my life back!!!

ARGGG!

After I drop 80 playing somewhat poorly O8, I go to a ½. Take my $80, make $150. Then I get involved in this hand. I have AAK2 s00ted. I flop a straight draw, and turn the NUT high with no low. So I PUSH EVERYTHING and some moron with 4 spades and no brains calls me. He hits his river spade for a queen high flush and I am down to $25. Ouch. I am trying to work it back up. I woulda/coulda/shoulda had $300+ and been VERY well off, with the bankroll grown to epic proportions, however, now I am fighting to make a hand and break even.

So its getting better. I put the rest of my stack on the table. I get a trip 9’s. I bet out. Of course the guy with QQ catches his one outer. I probably should have slowed down, but I put him on the flush and completed my boat. Oh well. Down to $66 left on Stars. I guess this is the downside of O8. When the coachroaches catch every hand against you.

Busted. REBUY. Last $150 from Firepay. See if I can lose that with the best hands too.

Ok. I won a $251 buck pot. Up 150 now, or down 250 depending how you look at it. Here is the hand. I think I fucked up. Badly. But lets see. I am dealt 2345. So I limp. The flop is AK5. A player I know is GOOD (Sorry Mustafa!) bets 50. Now I have 12 outs to the NUT NUT and another 12 to the NUT low. So I re-raise him for my remaining 100 and he calls. I hit a 4 on the river and SCOOOOOOP! Bad play? Mustafa had trip kings on the flop. I do believe he overplayed them because I could easily of had AA.. However let me know what you all think of this play.

Won back $210 on the ½ table then decided to take my ill gotten gains back to the .50/1. I am up to $333 right now and want to stop at 450.

Ouch. Lost $40 on a bad river call.. Actually, I lost because I had AA.. I bet it pre-flop, raise it on the flop, and got creamed by a 7543 river straight and low. DANG! Man that sucked.

Ok. I totally forget what I started with.. but I have $220 in the bankroll, and $150 back in Firepay, for a grand total of $370 which is just shy of the $450 goal in 48 hours. After a tilt-o-rama of a night. I liked it better when I just lost one buyin a night and quit. Bah. Oh well.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you are all having a good time. I started things out interestingly. My mother asks me whats going on in my life, not much, same ole I say, then I turn to my sister and ask with a serious face, "So how are you doing.. how's the community service going?".. well, let's just say that is the last I saw of my sister on Thanksgiving.. yes, I can be an asshole sometimes.. oh well..

I can not wait to get back and hit the PL08 tables again. I need some revenge.

Dissapointing night..

Had a dissapointing night. Had the stack up to almost $400, after a nice +45 on the O8 tables.. then I proceeded to donk it off in some tourneys and THEN after the tourneys I donked another $40 off on the O8 table. I mean who was I to go all in with AA and a 9xx flop. Actually I am horrified by that play. That is NOT how you win. I should have possibly gotten away from the hand.. but sets are hard to see, and the guy called a pretty decent size raise pre-flop. Oh well. The other tourney I overplayed an OESD. The dummy who won had third pair. WHAT THE HECK?

The $40 went on a bad draw and a good draw. The bad draw was with a NUT low draw AND possibly a NUT straight. It wasnt a wrap. I was sorta chasing the low. Not good. The other hand I think was better. I called my last $20 off with the NUT straight and NUT flush draw with NO LOW. Missed everything AND the river made a low, LMAO. Some guy with two pair, rivered a boat with that, and won. WOW! Good players..

I also busted out of UB on an all in vs a low and a gutshot straight draw.. guess who caught and took it? If you want the worlds worse O8 players I nominate UB. I hate UB anyways and only had $25 on there. I think I owe some people money. From the HUCII. If I owe you let me know.

Drunking..

Hey Al,

This guy Chad has this post on his family site. Have you tried this yet?


You are drunk Elmo. You love to have fun and you
drink to lower your inhibitions and allow
yourself to cut loose a little more. You are
always hyper and happy and most people find you
to be very annoying, especially when you're
drunk.


What drunk cartoon are you? (PICS)
brought to you by Quizilla

Oh My, Here I Go Again

I am going to try and explain how I play PLO8. Please keep in mind I have been playing for a week. I have been mildly successful and my advice might suck.

Now I always tease Drizz about being a tightass player. I tell him he will not even limp into a pot without AA23 double s00ted. What I am talking about is his pre-flop play, post flop he is willing to gamble it up with the best of them. He takes a more wait-wait-wait attitude pre-flop. My VP$IP is usually around 40% and sometimes as high as 50%. I think he suggests around 30%. I have been reading up on PL08 and there seems to be a huge debate. Do you play more hands or less in this game? I am a fan of more hands. I am not always looking for a high and low draw. I will play hands that have to flop just right for me to win. Why? At the tables I am playing at if I hit any kind of hand I get paid. It is as simple as that. The implied odds are huge. Some hands most people would not play would be things like 789T or 89TJ. It has a real low percentage chance of being good, and if it is a good flop, you have a high chance of getting killed by the river. I have however made ALOT of cash with these types of hands. Alot of people will stay in with the flush draws and low draws and try and catch and I make them pay. My main criteria for a hand is not that it plays both ways, but that it works well together. I know this is probably a better strategy for PLO (high only for you newbiew, where PLO8 is Hi/Lo), but it seems to work.

The main key in PLO8 in my opinion though is to know when to foldem. I know it is very tempting to think the doofus in the three seat does not have the 79 to make the boat. Second best hands look mighty good to them Hold'em players. However that is the path to doom and damnation. I LOVE to fold in O8! I hate to fold in HE. I fold the flop alot of the time. My hands do not always flop well. If I only have the high side I sometimes need to dumb a low flop. The key in playing loose to me is evaluating the flop and deciding what to do. Calling of a couple buck bets or proceeding when in danger is bad news. I end up folding alot of flops, but the ones that hit just right get paid. In the .50/1 game you get paid with the NUTS by some weird ass draws. So trying to connect with more hands tends to be more profitable in my opinion. I tend to think if I played the higher stakes games I would face more aggression pre-flop and this strategy would be wrong. However in my low-limit world I am sticking with it. Post flop is so critical in this game, and as Drizz himself said, no one hand is so favored against another pre-flop. I think if you play solid post flop you do not lose alot of equity by playing a little loser in these low limit games.

One other thing I have noticed. I HATE .25/.50 PLO8. Why? I think it is because too many people limp. Nobody folds any draw. In the games I have been playing most people have been good about folding to the big bet. In the .25/.50 bottom sets and all manor of crappy hand is going to go to the river. It probably is profitable but I have not figured out how to win against 5-6 opponents that will not fold yet. I almsot think if you play these lower limits tighter is better.

SO anyway, enjoy, discuss, maybe something I say will trigger a good discussion on this top. I sure hope so. I see alot of contradicting advice on the subject and it is very interesting.

Stuff

LOVING Omaha Hi/Lo PL Wazzam! It is FUN. I doubled and trippled up my buyin today. Something I never do in HE. Well not alot at least. I have brought the roll back to $360 since I started playing O8 and $150 offline. Not a bad start. The best part is I enjoy the game. It is fun as hell. Challenging. The risk seems low. The rewards high. The best part: I have no expectations. Yeah, I assume I am going to win, but if my AA23 gets cracked, who cares. It is Omaha. It is SUPPOSED to happen. It is THE EXPECTATION. When suckout on someone, it is not a suckout. It is the game. You are SUPPOSED to do it.

Like tonight. Someone called me an Omatard because I called his $9 bet. I do not think he bothered to check the hand history. With one card to go I had the Nut high straight and nut low draws. He had a set of tens. I am NOT sure but when I have like 24 cards in the deck that help me, and you bet $9 into a pot of nine dollars giving me 3:1 odds .. I think I should.. whats the word. Gamble. Although with that kind of return I hate to call it that. I hit my NUT high straight btw, and there was no low SCOOOOOP Dere it is!

I also tried the Poker Stars 11/1 Rebuy. 40K Guarenteed. I finished around 300th. Ouch. Out of the money. Oh well. I had a short stack, pushed with AK s000ted, QQ calls, and I do not improve. Trauma finished a little ahead of that. He got busted AJ vs 55. I wanted him to slow down at the end of the tourney. The money was approaching. The blinds were not that bad. Ease into it brother. Ease. However I can not say aggressive play is bad. Just not the way I do it these days with 15-20xBB.

Some cool stats. I get 250-300 visitors a day! Thanks guys! A lot of unique/first time (last time?) visitors too. Sweet.

Top Google Searches for my blog:

>>man pushing ball
>>no hands holdem

April like a post I wrote. Ouch. Actually not to toot my own horn but my posts about the first time, and AK were pretty good in my opinion. Drizz said something nice also!!! How sweet. Acually Drizz is my best PLO8 buddy now! Woo hoo! I LOVE THAT GAME! COME PLAY AL!

I am getting more International traffic with India, England, Singapore, Australia (thanks Davee!) and Finland.

Ooohmahaaaagawwwwd

I AM SO EXCITED. I made a play in O8. It worked too. Here is the situation. I have ATQ4 2 diamonds to the Ace. Some tool raises $3 pre-flop and four people are in so I go along. The flop is AMAZING. It is 2 diamonds, 23. So I have the NUT high draw in multiple ways and the NUT low draw. I push on the flop. The draws HAVE to pay. I am scared I will not make anything but excited. I get two callers for the ride and I hit BOTH hands. I had to give 1/4th to another A4 low but I made a GREAT play and ended up making $32 in one hand. Which was almost double the $40 I bought in for. All this in the first 5 minutes of playing with a bunch of people I hope to get to know better.

My my my.. next hand. A2T9 two hearts. Again a nice two heart flop with the NUT high and LOW. I let my buddy bet this one out. I caught the low on the river. I fully expected to be quartered since three of us were in it. HOWEVER on guy was drawing to the K high flush, the other guy had the AA for the high. So I only took the low. All alone. Up another $15. This by the way was NOT the best way to play A2 low. However it worked out.

OMG. Next hand. A3 s00ted. I flop the NUT low with the A3, turn the NUT straight, with a river possibility of the NUT flush! Only made $11 on that one. Up to $86 right now.

My boy XXTICKERXX who is a decent player had this hand where he had the NUT set and then the NUT boat. I say nice hand Tik. The guy who loses a bunch of money and says “I had the lower boat”. I just GRIN and say “Wow, nice hand, tough luck there”.

Oh then I flop the NUT boat. I make it $3 into a $9 pot to play. I figured I would give the NUT low a chance to get to 4 to a low before I creamed him. I get 4 callers. The turn does not help the NUT low or any highs, so I push, and everyone folds. Up to $95 on my dream table.

OMG! It just got better! Holyman_Zed came by. I heard he is not very good either. Although the night I played with him I thought he was alright. My only fear right now is my wife coming home and telling me it is dinner time.

I can not thank Trauma and Drizz enough for talking through hands with me in Omaha. I play much better when they are there for support. Especially Trauma. They have very different styles, and for now I am more aligned with Drizz. He tends to be more conservative in my opinion.

Grow Up

I am inspired to write some good Poker content I thought of while in the shower. It combines some things I have read and listened to lately. It is about MTT play and I think it is decent. Of course as always you are allowed to ridicule me if you think I am wrong. First off I am going to borrow part of an Article sent to me by Full Tilt. It is by Rafe Furst and it talks about playing AK s00ted. Please do not sue me, and if anyone wants me to take it down it is gone. If someone would like me to forward it to them just let me know.

"Recently, a player on Full Tilt Poker lamented that he'd gone broke with A-K in his last several tourneys, and he suspected that he was doing something wrong. A few questions revealed that he was getting knocked out fairly early in these tournaments when he put his A-K up against pocket pairs for all his chips. It's a familiar lament"

"So why is A-K considered such a great starting hand? Folding equity. Under the right conditions, you can increase your pot equity to well over 50% by getting your opponents to fold in situations where they shouldn't. Here's a scenario: Blinds are $200-$400 and Jen Harman (who has $12,000 in front of her) raises to $1,200 from middle position with pocket tens. You re-raise all-in for $6,000 with A-K from the button. It is difficult for Jen to call here because, even though she suspects you might have A-K, she knows you could also make that play with A-A, K-K, Q-Q or
J-J. "

"Here are three keys to getting the most out of A-K pre-flop:

1) Jam with A-K, but don't call all-in with it.

2) Raise enough when you have A-K to give your opponents a chance to fold.

3) Don't raise so much that the only hands that are willing to call you are the hands that have you dominated (A-A and K-K).
"

Ok. So here is a situation I am in last night. I am ITM. I am about 100 players away from the good money. I have 9K in chips and see the Hilton sisters. The blinds are 600 so they do not bother me yet. I push and get called by the 20K big stack who has AKo. I think we both made a huge mistake and here is why. Like Rafe said, AK is a great DRAWING hand. It is not meant to call all in bets EXCEPT, in my opinion, against SMALL DESPERATE STACKS. Why risk 1/2 your stack and your tourney on a hand that your only going to win 50% of the time?

I must be glowing with pride because I played so fantastic, got all the chips in while I was ahead. HELL NO! Same thing applies. If I get called I am at best probably a 50% favorite. Why risk everything on that? Here is the good part. The grow up part. Why do I not trust that I can outplay the average player AFTER the flop? Joanne once said to me about a different move I made "Why act with incomplete information?". If I raise 1800 in that situation, get a caller, and the board falls Kxx (like it did) it is very easy to get away from, right? Obviously I open myself up to bluff steals. However if I GROW UP and TRUST MY PLAY post flop I remain in the tourney and give the Pocket Rockets a chance to come my way. Here is an even better situation. Let us say that the flop is all low cards. Now I can bet the pot. I have reduced AK's odds of sucking out on me by three cards. He has to be feeling nervous now as he did not hit anything and he only has two cards left to kill me with. Once it progresses beyond this point I obviously become pot committed and have to go to the river.. but I have given myself the most information, possibly gotten away from a bad flop, and could still make a ton of money without risking my entire tourney.

None of this applies if your are really short stacked, or by calling the All-in you are only going to lose a small amount of chips in my opinion. Those are different situations and I am talking about situations that REALLY effect your tourney either by knocking you out when you have enough chips left to play, or by cutting your stack in half when you are doing really well.

SO I will say it again, if you beleive you are a good player then do not be afraid to see a flop. Outplay your opponents there. Do not allow them to get a free flop, instead, make them pay every step of the way, and give yourself a chance to NOT be out-donkeyed. Every card you see gives you more information and allows you to make better decisions. It reduces your opponents odds or clarifies your situation. So GROW UP you donkeys and stop playing like fish.

PLO8 Success

I think I am getting better at this game, or luckier.. I basically played for 4 hours, kept my stack up, made a few bad plays, and nursed it to +90 for the night. Not bad for a $40 buyin. I COULDA-WOULDA-SHOULDA been WAYYYY up, except, with my trip Ks, betting HARD the WHOLE WAY, AND A STRAIGHT DRAW, some fishie caught a HIGHER straight on the river.. his excuse? Oh, I thought my set of 3's were good.. ummm.. I will be seeing you soon.

My hand of the day came with Gordo. I had the NUT low with A3, and three people went all in. I was the initiator. When I got two callers I thought I was DOOOOMED. However, fortunate for me, and unfortionate for Gordo, I ended up taking the low by myself, and they split the high.

So in conclusion -- I still suck, but I am getting a feel for PLO8 and it feels good. I am up to 236+ now and the bankroll is heading the right way. I have stopped all MTTs > $5 until I hit $300, and then I will fire up the 180 again. On Full Tilt I am playing anything I can..

Razz Again

I played in a Razz tourney. Scored 6th for $16 this time. Not bad. Of course it took me 16 hours to finish. Ok, I exagerate. A little. I ended up getting screwed by a guy who had a Q high draw with 2 pairs on the board and still caught runner-runner cards to beat me. MORON! Full Tilt has been fun though! The Angry money is up a few bucks and enjoying being angry.

I won a little in O8, however, I made a bad play drawing to a NUT NUT low that killed me. I had the 234 and a two low was on the board. A tool was betting into the pot, when someone who I KNOW plays well re-raised $46. Luckily I could fold to that bet, but I had called the $10 bet before.. GRRR!!!!! So I ended up only nine bucks instead of $39 for the night. Boo! I did win some money from the Bloggers too! That table is funnnn!

Saturdays with Pauly

Have you ever wanted to walk out into the street in a crosswalk in front of a stop sign just because you KNEW the guy flying down the road would hit you, but you could tell him what an ass he was for not stopping? Sometimes I feel like the right play is something like that. I went out in 12th or 13th place in the Saturdays with Dr. Pauly series. I am happy with the finish. I had a suckout during the game but for the most part I played well and did what I could.

Joanne was at my table when it was down to twenty or so and she WOULD NOT stop picking on me. Every hand I raised she re-raised or bet hard on the flop. Ok. I know I am tight. However give a guy a break. I had a few great chances against her but either I missed both my straight and flush draws as well as possibly good overs.. or I bet my good hands too hard and she backed off.

One of the draw hands I lost against her set me up to be small stacked towards the end. Booby was at my table and she was RAISING like CRAZY. I mean every blind. Too much. So when it came to me and I had A5o, I knew she did not have anything. I also knew either one of us could catch a card. So do I wait here for a better hand as I am blinded down? Do I push? What can I do? I think the correct move it to step in front of the car.. so I pushed. She confirmed my thinking by turning over 89o and promptly sucking out on me on the flop. Ouch. Not a bad call on her part at all.. just hurts getting hit by that car.

So I improve in the standing but several people are going to have to have total meltdowns for me to win that iPod. I also need to final table. Neither of which are inspiring much confidence. At least my PLO8 game continues to progress. I pulled out another $15 session today. There was a real whiney guy at the table, so I kept calling him Tina Tinkles and asking if he needed a bottle, or had to have his diaper changed. He was on MAD TILT. Either that or he sucked. I dunno.

Congrats to several of my Blogger buddies for going deep including Trauma, SoxLover and GaryCox. Also congrats to CJ on what has got to be the most suckoutiest (is that a word?) win ever. He came to the final table with very few chips, and proceeded to suck his way to first. He played a good tough game though, and you have to respect it. Congrats! Everyone I picked to win EXCEPT for him ended up going on tilt and losing.

Razz, Spazz, and Easy Money

I played a little Razz on Full Tilt last night. I have no idea why. I just like the game. I did ok. I ended up down a few bucks.. but whatever.. I do not intend it to be a source of income. If anyone can suggest some good tourneys on Full Tilt I would appreciate it.

At the same time I was playing PLO8 on Stars. Man is that a sick game. I have only had 5-6 sessions so far but it seems like a keeper. Basically I have had 1 monster, 4 doubled uppers, and 1 loser. The loser could easily have been a double upper but I made a bad play and started chasing..

I am hoping it keeps going well and the bankroll grows. It seems as if you can really do well in this game just by picking good starting hands and avoiding one phrase "Well.. I think I might have the best hand .. maybe.. ". Those words spell dooooooom in O8. Usually. I did get lucky when a guy with two pair bet the pot against my OESD. A flush turned so I could not bet any more into him, but I scoooooped with my straight on the river. No Low. Two pair. Do not bet ten dollars. Bad idea. It actually helped me because I know someone with a low flush draw dumped their cards to that bet.

So I know it is againt my moto but I am going to see how grinding it out in PLO8 goes for a while. The bankroll is healthy but not staggering. I have $208 on Stars, $51.00 on Full Tilt, and $150 sitting in Firepay.

I also tried to signup for Poker Time. Something went wrong because I can not login. Oh well. Screw them.

Popping the Cherry

“After a few minutes of playing I felt totally comfortable at the table, like I had been playing live for years. I felt certain I was the reincarnated soul of a old west gambler, I knew I belonged here.”

SirFWALGMan
- After a few hands at Foxwoods at his first live game ever

It was a great day. Everything worked out according to plan. I jumped in my car, holding Pauly’s lucky Word Series of Poker chip, his cell phone number, and directions to Foxwoods. After a little bit of traffic in Providence I arrived at Foxwoods almost an hour and a half later at 4:30. What the hell is up with Providence traffic anyways? Do these people not have jobs?

I figured I would either have to wait a few hours until the good Doctor arrived or possible he would want to play a little earlier. I dialed him up and found out he was already in the car and on his way. The earlier time worked out MUCH better for him.

I parked outside of the casino, took a deep breath, and headed to the game. First I had to piss like a racehorse though. Long ride. I renewed my Wampum card and headed over to check out the Poker room. It was interesting. There was a loud craps game going on before I even hit the room. Once past that I stopped to see if I could tell what was being played. None of the colors meant anything to me. The first games I paused to view were Stud games. One heated discussion erupted over a hand. Someone spurted off all kinds of crazy numbers and the other person was like, “I agree, now fuck you, and give me my money!” It was amusing.

I wandered past the check-in desk and into the land of the Holdem and Omaha games. I stopped by a table where a guy had a pyramid yellow of chips going. He had stacked them up very neatly and it looked impressive. I have no idea if he was winning or not. I later found out that these were two dollar chips and was less impressed.

I was a little nervous about sitting down and playing by myself so I just watched until the good Doctor arrived and took charge. As many of you know Pauly is an average looking guy. He does not dress fancy. His appearance might even be called a little disheveled, much like my own, but I have to say there is something special about him. Call it an aura or a sense of hidden power. A force that flows out from him, making you instantly comfortable in his presence. It has nothing to do with external appearance or what he says or does, it just emanates from his being. He has done a lot of remarkable things so far and I predict much greatness from him in the future.

It was open seating at the HE tables and we just sauntered up to a table and sat down. No wait. Sweet. I originally thought the table was going to cash us in but Pauly put his coat down and walked to the cashier. I followed and we talked a bit. I asked what the red chips were. Those are five dollars. Umm.. So why are you stacking up with those for a 1/2 NL table? It makes no sense to me. No problem Sir, they change the blinds on the table. It turns out that buying in for one or two dollar chips would have been a bad idea for our table.

Pauly got seated again and after a few minutes of squinting around I found my way back to the table with my $140 in chips. I stacked my chips on the table, tossed my rack on the floor, and sat down in the number one seat for a fun night of gambooling. I soon learned about the rent on the table. Five bucks every ½ hr. Pretty steep paying 2.5BB hr since most good players make barely that much an hour. Oh well, no rake at least. Unless you count the tips to the dealer. DOH!

The table was laid out in the following manor for the majority of my stay there:

1: SirFWALGMan (Fully decked in Bright Red Sox Shirt and Patriots Hat)
2: Tight Ass Cute Pink Red Sox Cap Chick
3. Pauly
4. Fat Red Sox Guy filling a seat
5. New Yawwwk Yankees Fan
6. Crazy Idiot who did not last long
7. Somewhat decent guy
8. Guy with Shades and No Clue
9. Aggro “Min the Master” Wannabe

It really did not take very long to get used to the styles of the players. The cute pink girl was very nice. I enjoyed her company. She spent several orbits folding and whenever she raised nobody would call her and several comments would go around the table saying in effect “I would not even call her if she had Aces, cause she is so tight she would have better”. She ended up down slightly.

The New Yaaawk Yankees Fan started out playing somewhat solid. He was a tough opponent. He busted out Crazy Idiot guy with his AK when Idiot guy pushed all in with AJ. It was cool. I congratulated him. One other interesting conversation went sorta like this:

Sir: Damn, your way to nice for a New Yaaawwwwker
NY: Yeah, how’s this, Fuck you.
Sir: YA! That’s the spirit!

Aggro “Min the Master” Wannabe was the typical call any raise pre-flop, be any card that hits post flop moron. He got lucky A LOT too. As his stack increased he got more aggressive. He was very interesting and any hand I was in with him I wanted to see the river with since he was just as likely to call as fold the river.

The table started out really aggressive and I am not sure I would have enjoyed playing. After idiot guy busted I found myself with “The Hammer”. So like I would online, I raise it twenty bucks pre-flop. Three callers. So what is a guy to do? A king hits the flop and I bet out twenty more bucks!!! I get re-raised and have to muck it. I mouth to Pauly “The Hammer” which gets a sympathetic grin.

I am down about $90 when Pauly decides to take a break. He is down a lot more. I can tell he is not playing well and, while I did not know it, he took the break to clear his head. He defiantly needed it. Up until now some of my being down was getting used to the chips and the bets by the other players. Some was on a little too aggressive play with OESDs and the like. Oh well. I then end up going on a nice run where I find two AK hands. One gets called down to the river by a guy holding bottom pair of threes. That hand paid off in spades. Thank you Somewhat decent guy, I think I may have to think of a new name for you.

The next big hand that Pauly missed was my one and only all-in hand. I am in EP and I look down to see a lovely AK s0000ted with two hearts. I bet twenty and I am INSTANTLY raised one hundred more by the Newwww Yawwwker. As people decided what to do around the table I start talking to the New Yawwker. I absolutely have decided he has a low pair. I know he has a pair. I know he is ahead. I know I am at best a little over 50%. I tell him I think I know what he has. I almost consider folding the third best hand in Holdem because I do not want to lose all my money that quickly and have to stand around watching Pauly or go home. I say to the New Yawwker. I put you on a pocket pair. Not Aces. Not Kings. I have a good hand. It will be 50/50. I am going to call you because I will not be able to live with myself if I do not. After I call he says, you are right, I have a pocket pair. It is a 50/50. He flips his tens and I flip my AK hearts. The LOVELY turn is a king and the river helps nobody. I now have some chips to play with.

One of the things I was concerned with was making a stupid mistake. Luckily, besides having to be kicked in the shins for a few BB, I made no real mistakes. I left them to Dr. Pauly. I am on the button and the good Doctor fires out a twenty dollar bet from EP. I have A8 clubs but something about his raise has me suspicious. It could be the fact he will not look at me. It might be a touch of a mischievous grin on his face. It was not the large bet, because 10-20 bucks was the normal raise at this table. So while I am in the tank thinking, Pauly is not paying any attention and he turns over his 72o. THE HAMMER! I quickly call and laugh at him. I thought about showing him my cards to make it even but the hell with that. The flop misses both of us. So I push all in. He says “I know that flop did not hit you”, and I retort “It does not matter; I KNOW for a FACT I have a better hand than you”. He obviously does not call and try and suck out on me, easiest hand of the night. He said I should have checked him to the river but no way am I letting him see any free cards. This is Poker beeatches not knitting class.

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful. I won a nice hand with JJ. I raised twenty pre-flop and bet out fourty on an all small board flop.

I had AA and KK. Both held up. The AA hand I re-raised thirty bucks pre-flop, had one caller, and on a JJx flop I bet out sixty bucks. How did I know he did not have a jack? I did not but if he called a bet of that size I would know he had a jack and be able to compensate.

I raised fifteen bucks pre-flop with AT and Min calls me. The flop is K2x and I bet twenty bucks here and on the turn. Min calls me down and flips over his A2o for the winning hand. Brilliant play there fucktard. I was fuming over that for a while. It basically took me from $230 to $190 and hurt .. a lot. I definitely overplayed the hand but have no idea how he could possible call.

I bet into a boat once. I have a knack for wanting to do that. I guess I mistake indifference for weakness sometimes and decide to make a play. At least it did not cost me too much.

Dr. Pauly played an excellent game also and we both ended up ahead. I was up a paultry $31 and he scored a bit more than that I believe. He had a secret strategy. Play crap. Any position. For a min limp and have it flop monster hands. It paid off BIG TIME against a slow playing QQ and again with someone else. I heard a little peep of “How could you play that crap” from someone, but hey, it was working. I beleive his biggest money makers were 47o and 69s or something..

I enjoyed myself A LOT tonight. It was a blast. I felt like I belonged there. I had some trouble with bet sizes and adjusting to big re-raises and I probably folded a few good hands. I bet out on a few flopped trips and just took down small pots. It is ok. I am not much for slow playing, but it would be nice if someone did not believe me. I bet, checked, raised, and played a good game and did not embarrass myself. I pretty much hit all the big hands tonight, the Aces, the Kings, the AK s00ted. The only situation I did not try out was the vaunted check-raise. I was waiting for a good time but it never came. I was a little nervous with all-in bets for some reason. Probably because I did not want to leave early.

It was EXTREMELY nice to play a game that had nothing to do with Bankroll management or online statistics. I played for the love of the game and had a great time. We ended up wrapping around 9PM and I made it home before midnight.

Dr. Pauly and I had a nice little chat before I left. It was very inspiring. I will not bore you with the content however I appreciated it. As I said before Pauly is a stand up kind of guy and I am glad he is the first Blogger I met. Truly a great person. Thanks for inviting me! It really makes me excited to meet the Iggy’s and Al’s of the world.

Getting closer..

I have decided to bail a little early from work just to avoid the traffic. So I now plan on leaving at 3:00. I should avoid MOST of the RI traffic (I hope). Nothing I hate worse than sitting in traffic.

Cell Phone is charging. Check.

Thanks for all the comments. I read a little bit about tells. I am for sure splashing the pot when I have AA pre-flop. lol. I have no idea if it will fool anyone but be prepared.

The glasses comment is a cool one, except for a few things:

A) I do not own glasses
B) I hate glasses especially indoors
C) I am currently concerned I will not be able to see the cards as is because my eyesite is somewhat poor, I broke/lost my glasses a few months ago and have not bothered to replace them yet (hey, fugly chicks look alot hotter when you blur them, and lets face it most of them you see during the day are closer to fuggly than model).

Anyway, I hope I do not think a 4 is an Ace and my AK hit the board when it did not. That would be ... interesting ...

Ready and waiting..

Tonight is the night. I am prepared. I cashed out of Titan. I have kind of lost my desire to play there. If they comp me some money again I might but with a slow run at MTTs and nothing really clicking there I decided to switch to Full Tilt. I started out with $50. I am going to try and grow the bankroll slowly there. First on the schedule is SNGs. I played last night. I basically had a 5K chip lead until the very end where one guy took out the last four players and had an 11K to 2K lead on me. I was able to take the lead on his poor play, but he got lucky with a straight draw on the river, and caught up again. I guess I can not complain because my push with 47s00ted against his Kx flopping a straight was kinda cool too. He finally took me out when I had to push with K6 vs KT. T6 flop basically sealed my deal. So I am up $16 on my first day at Full Tilt. I like there SNG layout much better than any other site out there. You start with chips. The rounds are long. The rounds are not so long that you knit a sweater with your nose hair. Next up more SNG action of the 10/1 variety and a small MTT to test the waters.

The Stars account is doing alright. I had my first losing session of PLO8. It did not have to be that way as I was up almost double for a while. After a bad call I just never got it back together. Oh well. I dropped one $40 buyin. Still up overall. I cashed a little out of Stars and will be building that bankroll up from $200.

I am ready for Foxwoods. Dr. Pauly's cell number, check. Directions to Foxwoods, check. Bright Red Sox shirt, check. Champion Patriots Hat, check. I decided to bring $150 for my first taste of live play. I hope it is enough. I am a little nervous about doing something stupid or saying the wrong thing. Forget it if I win a big pot. Especially if I have had anything to drink I am letting out a HUGE BOOYAH! I will try to contain my enthusiasm though. I forget what we are going to play, hopefully a little NL, as it would probably be more exciting than limit. Mapquest says it is 1.28 hours to Foxwoods from here. I remember it being longer but we will see. It is 80 miles. I plan on leaving at 6:00 and getting there around 7:30. I hope enough of the traffic has let up by then so this does not end up being a 3 hour trip. We will see.

The Plan for the Night

Ok. I have decided. Here it is. I have some money on Titan. Not a whole lot but some. So the plan for tonight is:

A) Beat Veneno HU for two games. I have to clear my record with her and become a winning HU player against the great Veneno.
B) Play PLO8 on Titan and try and hit a nice score
C) Cash out of Titan with whatever I have tonight and combine that with a few bucks I have in Firepay and head up to Foxwoods on Thursday.

The Plan is set. If I lose too much tonight I may not be playing too much Poker, however, I can drink and have a little fun. I drop Pauly a message and see what he is up to.. So my goals for tomorrow:

A) DO not get lost like I usually do going anywhere
B) Meet my first Blogger in Person
C) Play my first Live Poker
D) Have Fun

I would say I will be arriving around 8PM Thursday night. Leaving whenever. I plan on playing the room.. So what does this mean? Alot of Yankees and Jets fans go to Foxwoods as well as alot of MA residents. I plan to go full out with the BRIGHT red SOX shirt and the Championship Patriots hat. If that does not tilt some Newwwyaaawwkers than I do not know what will. The NY toolbags (no offence Pauly) will start gunning for me.. I expect to take 100-200 there and come home with thousands.. heh. What can I say, I have high expectations for myself!!!

Omaha 8 .. Pot Limit.. Ahhh..

So I am hanging with my boy Trauma on Pokerstars and I suggest he show me PL08. I mean it can not be that hard, right? So I sit down. The first hand I get basically is QJK9. I am like can I limp? Sureeeee.. I flop the NUT straight on a RAINBOW board. The turn keeps it a RAINBOW and I push. I get two callers with my NUT NUT hand and my first hand of the night I am up $80 to $120. Easy. I cashed out soon after and went to another table. The table had alot of tough competition. I basically held my own, up and down, until the end where I won $11. Drizz and Trauma sat down to take some of my money too. In casual conversation Drizz was saying I need about 2K to play .50/1.. I assume he is right because he is smaaaahhttt, but I am liking the results so far. The bankroll on Pokerstars is back to life support levels and if I am careful I hope to grow it a bit.

Empire sent me $10, and I got a horrific suckout AA vs QQ in a 5/1 SNG. So I got four bucks stuck on Empire. No idea what I can do with it.

Titan is hanging in there too.. Hoping to hit a big tourney and make some money to go see Pauly in Foxwoods. I might just take whatever I have on Titan and go..

Drizz and Sir Ride Again

Before the howling thang I had a nice night with Drizz. Very cool time. A little limit O8 with the little fishies for Drizz. Neither one of us ended up doing all that well but I learned a few things and had a great time. Thanks for the game! My favorite hand of the night though was on Titan when my "Thems Quads Beeatches" ran up again "Who gives a fuck, I flopped a straight flush mother fucker..", easy way to lose a buyin at Omaha. Live and learn..

Howl at the Moon

It’s a full moon tonight.. the light filters in through the windows and Sir can not sleep. SO what is he to do? PLAY of course. So there is O8.. yes, sometimes good, sometimes not so much.. and what is this.. a 130 person MTT. Ok. Not bad odds. The game goes well. I still have not regained my groove in MTTs. I make a bad move with AQ s00ted. It pays off when I river the flush. I then have the hand of all hands. The one called the NUTS. I have this hand on the river. It is a river strong with draws but nothing completed.. so I push with my 7K.. I get two callers.. The world is bright and sunny, because when I win this hand I will be set. It is the kind of hand that turns an MTT around. A set of Jacks.. one guy turns over his set of tens. Domination! The other guy, Q9 s00ted with a straight draw and a flush. As I hope to rack my chips in the inevitable 8 falls. Like a dark cloud I know my tourney is over.. yes, it would take another 25 hands for me to bust out, on an Ace high flush draw, but the real defeat happened on that previous hand. Who knows why Q9 s00ted called a pre-flop raise, or risked his entire game on a draw, albeit a good one, but that spelled the end of that chance as the Pokerstars account drains lower. Who knows what might happen another night with a full moon and a restless Sir.. who knows..

20/2 SNG Writeup

I usually do not do nice tourney writeups but I figured I would give it a shot. The scene is the Stars 180 person SNG. I blatently use the format of Dr. Pauly from Tao of Poker with my unique perspective into my own mind. I hope you enjoy.

11:49 I get pocket aces. I decide to change my game up and I limp. Hoping for a raise. I get one from the 6 and I push when it comes to me since 2 others limped. I was hoping for HU now. I get two callers. KJo and 77. Even though the flop is a scary OESD I hold. Third hand of the tourney and I am up to 4K. That fits my style great.

11:51 I get pocket 2’s. The BB. It is raised to me. I call. He bets out low on a KJx board, I re-raise the pot, take it, and then show.

11:54 I limp with 97. Flop is ATT. I call a few small bets to the river where I catch my 9 high flush. I win.

11:55 66. I flop the Satanic set. I bet the pot on the flop. No need to screw around. It was big enough. I am not up to 4755.

11:57 I bluff off 400 with the hammer. Fucker called me to the river. Probably had KQ. I should have shown.

11:58 Reading a bit of the little green book. Excellent book. Like it a lot.

11:59 Remind myself to calm down and play Tight Aggressive now. It is mine to lose. 138 people are left. I am GOING to win if I have anything to say about it.

12:02 Raise 150 with AJ s00ted and get called by QT same suit. He hits his ten. I have the flush draw and two overs by the river but do not improve. Down to 3400 now. Deep breaths. I want to keep playing aggressive. I have the stack and I need to improve.

12:06 In last position raise 180 with ATo. I get 2 callers. I have no idea what crap they called me with but with the board that fell they are both morons. 3K left in chips.

12:08 T8 draws out a runner straight on someone. One of these morons is going to double me up. 199 people left. Going to tighten up since the table is so fucked up and will call any pre-flop raise, and try and bring this baby home.

12:11 The two most idiotic people are all in. They both had the same hand. Wow. K6 and 63. Winnahs on the 66335 board. I folded my 3. I am so proud. 115 left. One of those two WILL double me up.

12:17 KJ in late position. Flop is KQ6. I think I am good. I raise 200. I get cold called. Another queen on the turn I bet 300. I get cold called. Now I am suspicious. He checks. I cold call. He turns over 66, flopped set, turned boat. Ouch. 2360 chips. Oh well. It started well and is nowhere near over but it hurts.

12:23 Finally win a hand with Q9 s00ted. Q on the flop. I bet the pot. Everyone folds. +400.

12:24 Lose to a min raise with A6h. Saw the flop. Folded. Like the hand pre-flop, but I think sometimes I am way too in love with s00ted Aces.

12:25 AK pushes on the turn when an Ace flops. A 6 hits the river to give 76o a win. LMAO. At least it wasn’t me.

12:27 AJ s000ted. Raise 300 pre-flop. Blinds are 100 now. One caller. The flop gives me the OESD so I bet out the 650 pot and take it down. 2760 in chips.

12:31 On of my main morons has lost most of his chips. It is sad really cause now only one guy wants to double me up. Oh well.

12:35 Breaks coming. 2610 chips. 150 blinds after the break. I have a little time. Not a lot. Need some good hands me thinks.

12:39 Got some cheese and water for the break. I suggest to all MTT players. Get up. Walk. Pee. Get some food, not sugary, and some water, then your mind will be ready for the next phase.

12:45 Ouch. I raise A9 s00ted to 900 pre-flop, 55 calls, and I hit my TPTK and he hits his set. Down to 500 now. What a tool. He is so beat like 90% of the time. Way too much of a bet to call with that. 510 left.

12:48 All in with AKo. 88 Calls me and I hold up. 1099 chips. Still super aggressive time with 150 blinds.

12:53 Have Pocket 6’s. Going to call a short stack all in for what I hope is a 50/50, but when it goes 3 ways I fold. QJ wins that one.

12:58 A9 s00ted holds and doubled me.

12:59 A min raiser. I have 99. I push again. I get 600 more chips. I have recovered to 2600. Not good but not bad.

1:00 I have AT s00ted. The small stack raises. I re-raise to isolate. Wow, I sound like a real poker player. She calls. I push her in for her remaining 250 on the flop. She turns Q9 s00ted. Same s00t as me. We both river flushes but mine is the nuts. I am going super tight super aggressive now that I double the blinds.

1:05 Out. AK in late position. One guy raises all in. I call. This is a 50/50 at worse I think AND if I win I am definitely taking final table. It is one of those times in every tourney where you have to take a chance and hope. Out in 47th is acceptable to me. I could have waited longer. However this was a possible turning point for this game. I would do it every time if the cards were flipped up. Every. Single. Time.

Dr. Pauly Mistakes

Ouch. I basically killed myself in this one. A guy raises TJo in early position. I have pocket 8's. First mistake, maybe, not re-raising to see where I was. The flop give all low cards and a little bit of a draw for me. He bets 200 and I see it as a continuation bet.. so I call. The turn gives me the 8 for the set. I make a HUGE mistake not just pushing here.. He might have called but I doubt it. The river gives him the 9 for the nut straight. I had just enough of a hand, and NEVER would put him on TJ offsuit, combined to knock me out just before the first break. I was feeling pretty good about making the first break until I got knocked out on the last hand before it. Ouch. I think my chances for an iPod are pretty slim now too..

Omatards

I was thoroughly frustrated with all forms of gambling except Blackjack and Video Poker tonight.. so I decide to play some O8 on Stars. I have 97 crap in the BB and the flop comes 978 all clubs. So I know I am fucked but I call a bet. Two other people are in. I am going to fold the turn. The turn is a 7. SWEET! I am like YA BOY! However, my good O8 buddy Trauma is uh uh sir.. as I blissfully cap .. uhhh SIR!!! Yeah? He could have 88 or 99.. OHHHHHH! FUCK! Ok, I will check-call the river. Umm.. hey, it’s a 9.. That’s good, right? YA!!!! I won! Oh, and the other guys had the flush and the 88. The following conversation ensues:

EaglesFan: nice catch
EaglesFan: good odds
Sir: Really, I just started playing Omaha today
Sir: How do you calculate odds?

The table breaks out in LMAO comments.. Oh well, I aim to entertain. Yes, I know I got luck, and yes, I know I should have folded. Oh well. I actually did think 97 with the 977 board might be good though.. never thought about 88.. oh well.. I am up $25 as we speak so I may try this more often..

So.. I moved over to Titan to see if the Omatards are as bad.. WORSE! Come to Titan, world of the fishies.. I made about $50 playing Omaha for an hour or so.. maybe I need a HE break..

Can you tell I am bored..

My blog is worth $65,486.64.
How much is your blog worth?

** BTW: If anyone wants to buy me out for 65K! You can be SirFWALGMan! WOO HOO!

In lue of..

As I wait in the lull, no bad beats this morning, because I did not play, and waiting for this weekend which is packed full of Tourneys that I either won my way into or got entered into for free, I figured I would try my hand at some commentary. I know, you come for the train factor, but lets try something different every once in a while, kay? I promise I will be back with some tales of my Video Poker adventures soon enough..

So I read this Haiku on High On Poker and was inspired to write down some comments.

After ten minutes,
Tiffany Williamsen folds.
What a dumb ass bitch.

I finally saw the amazing KJh laydown by Tiffany. I admit I chuckled when she went for her cell phone. I think ESPN did a great job of making her a hated character.. and yes she is not a great player.

I admit I felt that loathing when I first saw her at the WSOP, however.. I do not think any one of us can say how we would react in our first major television exposure. The woman has been playing Poker for just seven months. That is a newbie thrust upon the world stage of Poker. I might be nervous. I might make bad calls not wanting to look stupid for being bluffed. I sure as hell would take my time before committing my chips to a pot. A LOT of money is riding on every little decision.

I think it is great that she scored 400K. In every tourney I have played online there is the lucky fishy player. The one who forces things to happen so they can chip up and have a good shot at the final table. Why should she not be the lucky one to walk away with some cash. Also, how many times was Fossilman in deep shit with bad calls in last years WSOP. I am not saying Tiffany is as good of a player as Fossilman, I actually have a lot of respect for Greg, but I did not see a whole hell of a lot of smacking down of him for his win.

Anyway.. she was polite through most of the coverage, which is more than I can say for a lot of those players. Hell, a lot of the “Professionals” are total assholes. I wish her the best and I suspect we will see her in next years event.. and then we will see if lightning can strike twice..

Just keeps getting better

I thought the two out suckouts were bad. So I am in the first hand at a 25/NL table. I get pocket 9s. The flop is 578 2 clubs, so I got overpair, backdoor flush, and straight draw. An idiot goes all in and I KNOW I HAVE HIM BEAT. Why? Because I am better than you and I know these things.. So anyway, I call his $36 bet with my measly $20 and he flips over 76. Not bad. I have his ass. So Middle pair is so worth your entire stack. Sooooo anyways, the 6 on the turn gives me the straight. Cool. The 6 on the river however gives him the boat. Not cool. What exactly do I have to do to win again?

Break Time

After last night I am getting burnt on MTTs. So the next one I play will be Wil Wheaton on Friday night (is that on this Friday?). I think it will prepare me for a packed weekend of MTTs which includes, Saturdays with Dr. Pauly, and the Titan Poker 15K MTT.

So for the next day or so I will try and build the bankrolls on Titan and Stars so that I can keep playing these MTTs. I think a little NL cash game is in order.

SUCK-OWWWWTTT

Man am I bummed. Basically in the span of 3 minutes I had AA cracked by QQ and a set of 6’s cracked by runner-runner hearts. “That’s Poker”.. Monkey Boy Poker! I guess since it was a rebuy.. people say what the fuck.. oh well.. Frustrating so far.. but let us see if the Poker God grant me some revenge.

So I am still in the two games I got the bad beats on. I re-bought in both of them AND took the add-on. One was a $3 Qualifier to the 500K on Stars this weekend, the other is the 3K on Titan. We shall see what happens.. after this I think it is bed. Cause dem cards are not Quads Beeches!

..269 and 81 left in both respective tourneys...

After the break is looking good. My pocket 4’s hold up against AQ and my AA set stands. Both double my chips.

Mistake 1: Call a raise with KQ. Mistake 2: Push when a Q flops. I actually beat the original better but the 3rd player had AQ. Doh! I am still in the 3K though. Hanging in with 1500 chips. Pushing with AQ s00ted. Doubled and Kick the nuts out of JJ. Back up to my 3800.

Out of the Titan tourney with A9 vs KK. I flop an Ace and he turns a K. Ouch. I have been getting one out ass kicked all night.

3450 left with 400 blinds after a STUPID mistake. TPTK. Sucks. Remember these words. They art goot.

Ok. This is no good. Guess how I went out of the 500K Qualifier! Bet you never guess. Lets see. Push with AQ s00ted. Called by JJ. Flop the Ace. The turn is.. say it with me.. yes.. JACK! Is this not supposed to be umm.. what’s the word I am looking for .. RARE!!!!! God short term variance is a kick in the balls. I bet someone can tell me the odds of getting a two outer suckout three times in one night, twice within 5 minutes of each other. Ouch. I mean you can not just kick me in the balls, you have to poke my eyeballs with hot pins too..

Last shot.. the ole 180 person SNG. I feel as if I am just setting myself up.. but as you all know I am a glutton for punishment.. Well out in 56th, JJ vs AT. He caught his Ace. At least that was only a small favorite hand I lost.

Win a Poem

Veneno has been making side bets in her HU play. It gives her extra motivation to win. So go to her Blog and you too can win a Poem about your Exploits. I really like mine!

15K Qualifier - Check

I beat the field and took 2nd in the 15K Qualifier so I am playing in the 15K Tourney on Titan this weekend. Can I hear a booyah! It was close the whole way. I basically folded into the entry spot because 2 guys were MAJOR aggro! They tore each other up and I ended up smelling sweat. So now I just need to win the 15K.

10th Place

Well.. I took 10th in the 180 person SNG. I made one "mistake", but it is one I would make again. It would have been nice to have finished higher though. The mistake I made was calling a push with my 20K stack with KK. I was near the end. Almost ITM. She did not have me covered. She turned up AK. I had her way covered. The flop was a NICE AK! YES! I am fucking going to the promised land now.. oh wait, uh, its Sir, right? Ohhh yeah, I almost forgot, time to fuck with him. So naturally the A hits the river and I end up being a medium stack again. I would have been either chip leader or damn close with like 18 left if my set had held up. It is what it is though. Does anyone fold this?

I was able to hand on for 10th, but I ended up pushing with a crappy hand with like 2xBB left.. sorry, I just did not like the idea of getting chipped out by the blind. Oh well. What can you do? At least that adds a little to the Stars account. So far on Stars the SNGs have been tough. Some of it is my fault and some is dumb luck. I may just switch to the cash games for my influx of MTT money.

I have decided to diversify and try playing a little on Full Tilt. I like being an angry monkey, and who can beat Razz for a crazy ass, drive you mad game. Fits me perfect!

Thank You

Dear Sir,

We’re pleased to inform you that your Titan Poker account has been credited with $144.00 as a result of your recent play in our Side Games.

We hope that you continue to enjoy our Side Games, and that you will get back into the action at our poker tables as well.

See you at the tables and good luck!

Titan Poker Team

Curse of the Veneno Lifted

In this whole world there was one person who OWNED me, until tonight. Even though she still holds a slight lead Veneno is no more. I have defeated her in two HU matches in a row and I fear her no longer. I can not wait for my prize for beating her!

I will give her credit. She got nailed on one Psychological Thriller and one suckout. In match one, the hand earlier, I bluffed a win. The very next hand I flopped trips. She had the third card and called my all in. It was tricky because that last play was in her mind. I love getting in her mind..

The second game I had a draw and overs and decided to gamble it up. I caught my over card and that was it for her. So now she has to write me a Poem about my Great Skill in Poker. Sweeeeeeeet!

Oh My Word

Even more incredible than my winning yesterday is the fact that BigChiefTokem has started a Blog. Wow!

Anyway, back to my favorite subject, ME! You can read all about my amazing win on the Tao of Poker, Pauly as always has a great writing style for these things. Does anyone really need an intro to SirWaffle though? I thought not. I may actually try to do a real-world style writeup next time.

My worthy opponent Presdlee has a nice writeup.

Another worthy opponent has yet to put a writeup.. but I was very impressed by her final table play, good job Kat!

Really the whole final table was tough and it took alot of effort and patience to beat them. I am very impressed.

If anyone else has any writeups let me know.. I will for sure read them and put a link to them. I have to say winning any event with Bloggers is like winning a huge event, maybe not the WSOP, because millions of dollars would be better than beating you guys, but it feels really good. It is one of my best Poker moments ever I would say.

I noticed a lot of comments about Table Tilt lately and not laying down hands. It is fine that people think that way but it is going to be to your detriment when you play against me. I actually rarely every tilt on a table. The majority of my tilt has nothing to do with playing the game and everything to do with the outside of the game factors that make or break players.

I also lay down alot of really good hands. I make mistakes. I get too aggressive sometimes trying to bust people when I have a good stack. Do not mistake what I consider a good intuition for not being able to drop a hand. A good example of that would be the last hand of the tourney. I had second pair. When the flop came I said "I am going to check this hand, and then when Gary bets 12,000, I am going over the top of him and winning this thing". Could he have had the Jack or better? Yes. However every fiber in my being said I was ahead and I went with it.

I really think there are only a few time where this hurts me. Take the hand against Iggy where I busted him. I had Ace high nothing and the Blogfather was betting into me hard. I knew I was ahead. Again this was all intuition. I was however not very far ahead. Iggy could have caught any number of outs and crushed me again. So what do you do? Do you lay down the winning hand and wait for something better or do you go for it and accept the fact you were ahead when the chips went in? I have not come to any conclusions here yet, and there are definately times when I should let my hand go.. but you cant read instinct in a Poker book and I am happy to work through the mechanical issues.

Exciting

Wow. What a nice couple of days. I bubble out in Wil's tourney when favored, I then take a loan of $20 from BigChiefTokem to play the 180 person SNG (MTT?) on Stars. I cash in that for 3rd place. Then a WILD day winning Dr. Pauly's Saturday Special. These are running all month so catch one!

If you want the good play by play go read the Doctors Blog, he is much better at that than I am. You come to me for Raw Emotion and nervous breakdowns. So here are so of the key plays that I enjoyed.

Very early on I go over to Iggy to stoke the fires. He says to me "TT vs KK with SirFWALGMan.. Priceless.." we will get back to this later.

Early on. I play two hands really badly as the chip leader. Calling down draws and losing to third pairs. Dr. Pauly is ready to call any bet I make by this time because he thinks I am on tilt. Little does he know I have carefully laid a trap for him. Ok, I am not that smart, I got a good hand. I get pocket tens and raise it a little. The flop come 6xx. So I push and put the Doctor to the test. He has two things going against him. One, he has seen me do stupid things two hands in a row, and two, he has top pair top kicker (A6). So he calls. The tens hold up and Pauly gets crippled. Unfortionatly I had to leave him for another blogger.

The next high point is when Iggy sits down. Now I am still smarting from my last defeat. Not angry or anything but dissapointed and wanting some revenge. So I get AK and raise it. He calls. The flop is two spades and nothing else. The Iggster pushes and flips over a flush draw. I see signs of yesterday flash before my eyes but my AK holds up against his A7 and he is out. Revenge is .. priceless!

The final table was a blur. I basically channeled the spirit (or conversation) I had with Joanne last night. She was asking me why I was so aggressive with all the other small stacks around. So I tried to simmer down. Keep from calling all in unless I had a monster. I just basically played back and let people fall. They did fall off. Very quickly. I was a small stack until four left when I was able to double up. I then took Bob out and it was near even. Heads up I turned into a different monster, pushing in alot, raising hands, just not going too crazy with calling an all in or a huge raise. I was down to 30K in chips vs 100K at one point but I was able to catch up and finally this hand came.

I had A8o and I called a min raise with it. The flop was J86. I reached into my soul and pulled out the fact I was ahead. I let him bet 12K and then I pushed. With second pair. He thinks. He calls and turns over A6 for third pair and I hold up. I am so spent I can not even remember my worthy opponents name right now. Like I said go read Pauly. I think it was a good read and I am happy it worked out. First place in a Blogger event for the first time ever. I could not be happier.

Poker Gods Repay the KK

The Poker Gods were pissed that they had to let the Blog Father kick my ass in the Blogger tourney so they decided to be nice to me for a change..

I played the 1080 at Stars tonight. I finished a good but somewhat dissapointing 3rd place. I was a HUGE stack leader at one point, but I think I tried too hard to take people out. I had a 175K to 50K chip lead at one point but I screwed up.

Anyway.. I probably need to adjust my final table strategy. However it was fun to do and worth trying again. One thing that helped me was a point in time when I got like 3 Rockets and 2 Cowboys and they all held up.

Anyway, I will take the $428 and be happy with it. I also plan to do better next time. I was talking strategy with Chick and a Chair, check out her stuff at Card Squad too!! She really makes you think about why you do certain things.

Oh yeah, and 7th in the 1K turbo on Titan. Almost forgot that one.. so I should be 3 for 3 today. Not so bad for a slacker like me.

Bubble Boy

I was this close to making the money in my first “blogger” event. I always usually go out in the middle. I am fourth in chips. I am on the bubble. I get KK. Iggy raises me 1800. I push over the top with 4K. He sits back. Thinks. His Guiness muddled thinking skills call my all in. We are nearly even stacks but he covers me by 1K. The cards turn over. My Cowboys against his 10-10 Long Distance.. and the long shot does come through. A ten on the flop and I am basically drawing as dead as he was pre-flop. Out in 19th place. Sir weeps. All I have on Stars is 22 bucks too. So I can play the Pauly event tomorrow and that is it.

I am guessing that Iggy put me on lower pockets or AK because of my large raise. Either that or he felt pot committed or just hates me. I have no idea. Anyway being bubble boy smarts but I got all my chips in with the best hand and feel good about that. I was down to 500 chips at one point so it was a hell of a comeback. I also lost 4K on the hammer and finally dropped one to win a pot successfully once. I had a blast! Thanks Wil!

Exxxceeeeeelent

Drizz: Why dont you go play some more Blackjack man!
(umm, way to kick a guy when he is down?)
Drizz: last tourney of the evening at Party
Drizz: before I go 0 for 6
sirfwalgman: lol
Drizz: Tourneys suck
sirfwalgman: im in the 1K turbo
sirfwalgman: 3700 cheeeps, 200 blinds, 120 left
Drizz: I'm doing 3 tournies a night for a week
sirfwalgman: so you getting in 2 nights tonight?
Drizz: Whiffed at Stars, currently at FT wondering why I'm playing Stud H/L, and shootout at Party in 45 mins

sirfwalgman: LMAO
sirfwalgman: Some tool pushes all in
sirfwalgman: trying to steal blinds
sirfwalgman: with Q4
sirfwalgman: actually called my all in
sirfwalgman: then says "err, I pushed the wrong button"

allimcbeal_69: sir, what is yer fave BJ site? grubby wants to know....
sirfwalgman: Titan Poker
sirfwalgman: Grubby is my man
sirfwalgman: lol

sirfwalgman: Titan just added BJ, cause they were not making enough off my rake
sirfwalgman: slots too
sirfwalgman: lol
sirfwalgman: and some weird 3 card poker game
sirfwalgman: dunno how you play that
resipsa: is it rigged like Party?
sirfwalgman: I would have to say yes
(personal experience you know)
sirfwalgman: but live Blackjack is rigged too

sirfwalgman: lol
sirfwalgman: I fucking push with 5xBB
sirfwalgman: 55
sirfwalgman: AK calls me
sirfwalgman: catches 2 K's
sirfwalgman: I river the 5
sirfwalgman: LMAO
sirfwalgman: I type "This site is rigged"

sirfwalgman: 68 left
sirfwalgman: 20 pay
Iggy: http://www.sirfwalgman.blogspot.com/

sirfwalgman: lol
sirfwalgman: wtf?
Iggy: I LOVE YOUR BLOG

Texas: who wants to take the over/under on Sir making the money?
sirfwalgman: everyone likes my blog
sirfwalgman: I want 5% off the top
Texas: everyone?

Marge: under
Texas: not so fast there baby
Iggy: ill take some of that
sirfwalgman: 7140 chips
sirfwalgman: 600 blinds
sirfwalgman: gotta know the full details before you bet
Texas: we know it's you
allimcbeal_69: lol
sirfwalgman: lol
Texas: therefore the under is a solid bet
sirfwalgman: I actually can win, just cant keep it
Texas: you don't want to win
Texas: therefore you don't
(I thought you were Poli-sci not Head Shrinker, who knew?)
resipsa: If I ever get any money together, Sir, I want to stake you
sirfwalgman: lol
Texas: WHY?
resipsa: I want to turn my $50 into a lot
sirfwalgman: make sure you get a clause that says I have to pay you at 1K
sirfwalgman: its usually after 1K I get into trouble
sirfwalgman: Im great with a 200 buck roll

sirfwalgman: 45 left
sirfwalgman: 1K blinds
sirfwalgman: 6240 cheeps

sirfwalgman: AKo
sirfwalgman: wish me luck
sirfwalgman: this is it
sirfwalgman: YES!
sirfwalgman: 12480!
sirfwalgman: 40 left
sirfwalgman: T-20 to the over
sirfwalgman: get your bets in
sirfwalgman: Im only making the over to spite Texas

sirfwalgman: KK
sirfwalgman: all in
Iggy: FISH

sirfwalgman: 31 left
sirfwalgman: 11 to the money
pokeramarama: ugh
sirfwalgman: 14K cheeps
sirfwalgman: 2 f*ink K blinds though
Iggy: he cant help it

sirfwalgman: well, so many people put money on the under
sirfwalgman: I didnt want any suspence
resipsa: it'll take you what, 5 hours to finish?
sirfwalgman: it a f*ing turbo, 1hr max

sirfwalgman: 9 mo
Iggy: GO SIR
Iggy: WEEE
Texas: bye y'all
Texas: gl Sir

sirfwalgman: 7 mo
sirfwalgman: ty Texas
sirfwalgman: 5 more

sirfwalgman: im surrounded by huge stacks
Drizz: I need some cards in my cash game
sirfwalgman: karma

sirfwalgman: holding at 5 left
Iggy: hang tight sir
sirfwalgman: 24
sirfwalgman: doubled up with a7o
sirfwalgman: 19500 cheeps
sirfwalgman: 2KJ blinds
ramarama: Don't get all spazzy
sirfwalgman: lol
sirfwalgman: im waiting the tiny guys out
sirfwalgman: 3 stacks 1BB

sirfwalgman: 23 and 2 all in
sirfwalgman: 22

sirfwalgman: woot woot
sirfwalgman: I cleared the over!
sirfwalgman: now lets make some cash
sirfwalgman: oh Drizz, 1 for 1 ..
Drizz: I hate tourneys
Drizz: <---- cash game player

sirfwalgman: 18 and falling fast
sirfwalgman: lol
sirfwalgman: if I was 0 for 6 I would hate tourneys too
sirfwalgman: 16!!!
Drizz: I'm probably 0 for 12 or so
Iggy: make the damn final table and go from there
sirfwalgman: im working it Igs
sirfwalgman: 4 more to final table

Marge: except you are a MORON FLIPSIDE you had a bare K no draw
Marge: fucker
sirfwalgman: I love a gal with opinions

sirfwalgman: im getting ready to push with T3o right about now
sirfwalgman: 13
sirfwalgman: im so fucked though
sirfwalgman: unless I catch a pot
sirfwalgman: 12
sirfwalgman: i gotta push the blind no matter what
sirfwalgman: 4K blinds

sirfwalgman: 1400 cheeps
sirfwalgman: pushed with J6
sirfwalgman: hit 2 pair!
sirfwalgman: flush draw
sirfwalgman: cmon 6!
sirfwalgman: 6!!!
sirfwalgman: BOAT!
sirfwalgman: FUCK ME!
sirfwalgman: 45K!!!!
sirfwalgman: still a small stack
sirfwalgman: 11 left
hrking275: wish I had this much fun playing poker
sirfwalgman: fuck ya! This is my night!
sirfwalgman: maybe you should try harder
resipsa: drink more
resipsa: it's working for me
sirfwalgman: Thats the scary part, I dont drink
sirfwalgman: 10th!
sirfwalgman: WOOT!
sirfwalgman: bringing the bacon home now baby!
sirfwalgman: lol
Scott: whats first pay in that?
sirfwalgman: 375
sirfwalgman: 357
sirfwalgman: Im dyslexic
sirfwalgman: and cant speel
sirfwalgman: the cool thing
sirfwalgman: nobody has a stack
Scott: <---up $441.07 for my session
sirfwalgman: everyone has about the chips I have
sirfwalgman: lol
sirfwalgman: fuck you, you prodigy

sirfwalgman: 9th
sirfwalgman: and dropping like fleas

sirfwalgman: I got an incredibly crazy large stack who will call ANY all in and is lucky enough to win alot of them. Its sweeeet.
sirfwalgman: 3 guys in for 20L
sirfwalgman: crap
sirfwalgman: nobody out
sirfwalgman: 3 all in
sirfwalgman: 8th place
sirfwalgman: so far
sirfwalgman: 100x profit, lol
sirfwalgman: another all in
sirfwalgman: 2 all in
sirfwalgman: 7th place so far
sirfwalgman: only bad thing
sirfwalgman: I am sandwitches between 2 100K stacks
Iggy: riveting
polemarch: rofl
sirfwalgman: YES!
sirfwalgman: 6th!
sirfwalgman: and climbing
sirfwalgman: almost to the ok money
sirfwalgman: 3rd in chips too
sirfwalgman: AJ
sirfwalgman: Im pushing
sirfwalgman: A6 took me down
sirfwalgman: 7K now
sirfwalgman: damn
sirfwalgman: out in 6th
sirfwalgman: of 160
Iggy: you'
Iggy: you shall be a winning player from here on out
sirfwalgman: is this dwarf hypnotism
sirfwalgman: double my bankroll in a day, thats cool
Scott: stay away from guess the card and you will be back to normal soon
sirfwalgman: lol
sirfwalgman: cant I play a little?
Iggy: according to yer blog, no
sirfwalgman: true
sirfwalgman: according to my blog I should only play strip poker with hookers
helix: hookers are costly
helix: stick to catholic school girls
sirfwalgman: I make good scratch
sirfwalgman: mmmm
sirfwalgman: catholic dresses.. my favorite..
he1ix: mm hmm
sirfwalgman: anyway, I am spent, and its time to sleep.. have a good night all..

Thanks

I really appreciate all of the comments even if I am not willing to quit yet. Call it stubbornness. Stupidity? I dunno. It was not exactly that I thought blackjack was a better way to make money. I think this is important to say. Sometimes I ABSOLUTELY let the gambling take over and just can not stop myself. Yes. That is an addictive trait. I admit it. It scares me sometimes. Losing control is never fun. It is so easy to hit that button one more time online too. Thankfully most of the times I spend gambling I am not like that even if it might appear that way here.

The blackjack thing was interesting. I sort of just was tooling around, having fun, playing a game that is fun. I know it is –EV. So what. I was enjoying myself making some $1 bets. No harm in that. Then I kind of made a few $25 bets. Then I was like “oh oh, I lost a hundred or so..” so then I put a hundred down to try and make it back… same old pattern for sure!

Anyway.. There are a lot of things I get out of gambling that are well worth it. The best thing is probably the people. I have met some really nice people, which probably would surprise the casual outsider. I regularly socialize via IM and different events with some really interesting people.

Poker also reveals a lot of bad personality traits, like lack of discipline, which hopefully I can overcome with some practice. It is one of those things where other parts of my life will need to change in order to see differences in not only my game but everything I complain about. I actually am surprised I went a year with some pretty good discipline. If you read back through the early days you can see it unraveling at points but for the most part I was doing well.

It also handles the need to relieve stress from my life. Man do I have a lot of that! Escaping is a definite coping mechanism, but what the hell else do you want me to do? If it was not Poker it would be some other game or work. At least I have to talk to people this way.

In a good way I understand my weaknesses and can live with them. In a real way that is why I keep my bank account and bankroll so separated in my mind and in the physical world. If I lose my bankroll it is real money but only impacts me for $50 or less. The latest fiasco cost me exactly nothing except time doing something I enjoy anyway. As a matter of fact the costs for my whole adventure so far have been $600 over a two year period. Usually when I get up a little I will cash out whatever I had put in. So in a real way it has had no negative impact on me financially. Basically less than 8 hours of real-world work over almost a two year period. I am sure MANY people can not say the same.

So I am here to stay for a while. Amusing some. Annoying others. Back to grinding out the little levels. I actually do much better with a small bankroll because I hate to buy back in too quickly. I truly do appreciate all of your comments. Especially Al and DA who I hardly ever get to socialize with anymore. (All you other guys saying “What about me!!”, I appreciate you too, but you post comments all the time, so I take you for granted.) As long as I am having fun and not bankrupting myself I see no reason to quit.

Blow Job.. Not Exactly..

I know you guys enjoy my pain and suffering and who am I to disappoint you? I am not going into detail cause it still smarts a little. However I will say a few words. Bankroll. Bad. Titan. New. Game. Blackjack. Very Bad! At least it was not poker this time..

Don’t be a Hater

I have been writing some interesting posts lately about doing things outside of the normal thinking box. I guess in some ways it appeases my gamboooler nature. At every turn I have been faced with the lame ass stock answer of “Why not play Red 17”. Well screw you. Get off your high horses and join the dark side. Luke liked the little taste he got. Even though that wussy went back to the good side.

If I played Red 17 on the roulette wheel, or played a slot machine, I would have A LOT less chance of winning than playing Titan 5/10 with fifty bucks. I have some short term data that suggests I can do this well. I have had many sessions where I have bought in short, ran it up, and took my winnings and left. I am playing within my bankroll. Fifty bucks is well in the range of acceptable loss. The upside is circumventing a week or more of grinding. I do not know what you brainiacs make a night grinding, but normally I will win ¼ to ½ a buyin on a decent night per table. I might also lose anywhere from a few bucks to a buyin.

If I put down my fifty on the 5/10, with the expectation that I MIGHT lose it, I have a chance to make anywhere from 1-3 buyins at my normal 2/4 level easily. So by risking half a buyin I have a chance to buy a weeks worth of grinding time. Not a bad tradeoff.

If you are commenting without experiencing the 5/10 tables at Titan then you have no idea what you are talking about. Some examples of the hands from last night.

I get dealt 77. I raise pre-flop, and an ace hits the board. I assume at this point I am dead but bet out anyways. I have some tool that called my pre-flop raise with 94o call me all the way down to the river because he caught his 4. Now this is not the best example because I probably needed to fold, but daaaaamn, how can you lose?

Couple hands later. I get dealt pocket jacks and two people call my pre-flop raise. The flop is a very not scary Jxx rainbow board with no straight draws. So I cold call the first guys bet. We have three players at this time. The turn makes a flush possible as most turns do, so I raise the initial better and he re-raises me, so we end up capped. The middle guy is STILL in the pot. The first guy gets wise and just calls my river bet. BOTH GUYS are in on my river bet. The first guy, who was somewhat smart, turns over AJ. Ok. I can see that. The other guy turns over ATo drawing dead to an Ace.

The passivity and just bad poker play at these tables is AMAZING. If you are basing any of your opinions on 5/10 play you have seen at other sites please at least view a table for 10-15 minutes.

So just to recap:

Upside
1. Not Risking Much
2. Possible Large Gains
3. Staying in my Bankroll

Downside
1. Can not maximize my winnings on a monster until I win a few hands
2. I absolutely need to win some pots in 10 orbits, probably less. This does not bother me much as I have rarely seen ten orbits of unplayable hands.
3. If I get one suckout it is over.

It kind of amazes me how much I get the same answers when I bring these things up. I think people get indoctrinated into “The Way” of winning at Poker. While I agree grinding is a tried and true method it is not the only way to grow a bankroll. Using different methods to accelerate the process is not always a bad idea. Throwing your whole bankroll on one table would be bad, but taking calculated, minimal, risks is not.

What is there to lose? Why the hell would you not want to do this? ESPECIALLY if you have had some success at it. It is not like I am taking a $100 bankroll and trying this out. I have a $1400 bankroll and the $50 does not even make it sneeze. I have had a perfect winning record at playing short at higher stakes on Titan over a VERY short sample size. I know I will not always win. I can accept that. The times I win though more than make up for it. So for now I will keep mixing it up. Playing some MTTs. Grinding. Taking shots at the 5/10 tables for minimal buyins. Up over $1400 in a little over a month. Something is working. So Don’t be a Hater!