A Poker Player and a Gentleman

I could tell you all how I took down the Mookie. It was pretty cool. I basically got good hands combined with that eerie radar you sometimes have. Every time I folded AK I would have lost, every time I called with it I beat a small pocket pair. I also got a lot of Aces. Duggles will tell you how I was really lucky and hey it is partially true. Busting Hoyazo was fun too.

However I want to commend my HU partner instead. GaryCox was the small stack at the table and played typical Gary from what I could tell. He raised his big hands. Was not afraid to get into it with a good hand or fold a bad one. Classic Gary Style. He held on and made the right moves until it was finally HU.

That is not the unbelievable thing though. Mr. GCox changed his game up so drastically that I did not know if I was coming or going when we got HU. I mean it was like Satan possessed the guy and some aggro-demon came out and started picking on me. Now I like to think I am good HU. Especially with a nice 4/5-1 chip lead.. but Gary played as well or better than me HU. The decisive hand came down to, well, Poker.

The Flop comes out 7h8cQc. Gary has the made part of Poker. Q7. I have the draw part of Poker QcTc. I had so many outs it made the hand a 50/50 coinflip and when the T came on the turn Gary took it well.

I was extremely concerned about losing this game several times. Great Game Sir! I did not know you had it in you to play that way HU but I will never underestimate you again.

Blog of the Month

What do you get when you mix a sexy Miami Vixen and a guy who can barely spell Poker? The first Twin Blogs of the month. CarmenSinCity and MiamiDon both took the leap and moved out to Vegas from sweaty, bug infested, Miami. Boy are they pioneers! I think Don’s recent post on luck is a very good one. The fact that he at least gets what I am trying to accomplish with my latest play is a plus too. Carmen.. well she is just Carmen, nothing else needed.

The Real Deal

First off thanks to Jordon for all of the encouragement lately. I think he really understands what I am trying to accomplish. First off let me say that I do not play 25o all the time.. you just get to read about those plays because they are the most fun and also generate alot of comments from people I respect. Discussing poker is the way to growth.

It is not so much that I love 25o or that I am trying to play crappy cards all the time. Honestly.. unless you play with me on a regular basis your just gleaming what you think I play like by a few hands. The thing I am trying to do is become a better player. I used to be the ABC guy to a tee. Probably WAY too much ABC for anyones good. If you played against me you would know if I raised I had a top ten hand. If I called a raise same thing. It was easy to play me. I looked at my 15% VP$IP and said "Wow! I am tight boyyyyyy!".. except IF people are paying attention and even when they are not you are going to only win small pots this way. If I raise pre-flop and hit my Ace or King then EVERYONE knows to fold. Sometimes I might get money in with rockets and make a nice killing, but how often do the rockets come? How often do you hit that set?

I am really trying to accomplish becoming a more rounded player. Not being scared of every monster. Not making big pots with vulnerable hands like TPTK. Making people pay me off because they have no idea what I am playing. I am trying to become dangerous. I used to think that standard raising my premium hands disguised them. Oooh, look, I am tricky. However people can at least put me on ten hands or so. By opening up my game and seemingly randomly playing strange hands I think I have become scary.

I get chewed out alot in NLHE games now. People call me names. They throw stones at me. It is really angry out there. Know what though? It kind of makes me think I am on the right track.. if people like me then I am not taking enough of there money to make it hurt. I want my table mates to hate me. Except it is really themselves they hate because they can not lay down a hand. The other night on FT I had another interesting hand. I played J9c to a small raise pre-flop. I flopped 4 to a flush and called a small bet. I turned the flush. My opponent pushed her entire stack in. As long as people can not lay down hands I will continue to get paid off. In that particular hand I was not in much of a gambling mood so I played it as classic flush-draw as you can and she still pushed with no outs on the turn.

The funniest thing about that hand. It started out with her yelling at me for calling an all in with a J high flush on the turn. It then turned into a 4 board flush. Finally she said that I called an all in with four to a flush on the turn and rivered her. Keep blaming me for your poor play. I enjoy it.

So anyway.. fear not for the Waffles, but Phear the Waffles! I am still experimenting with this somewhat different style and I am not sure how much of it will become a part of my regular game. All I can say is that stacking overpairs is a profitable business and if you have not tried it you should. Just be careful and make sure you understand the how and why. Do not get carried away with trying to do this every hand. Understand what your looking for in the flop. Do not slow play when these hands hit big either. Cause pressure. Make BIG pots with BIG hands. Make people make BIG mistakes.

Pimping and stuff

First off lets pimp the Mook! It is a great home-game type MTT and I love it. It is for sure one of my favorites.



I am also going to have to find a blog of the month. I have several ideas including some new friends, some old favorites, and other nick nacks. If you want to be considered for the Blog of the month drop me a comment.. at least you will get pimped in my comment section.

Long night..

So its been a long night. Had fun chatting with Gordo. He rocks. I won and sold another entry to the Sunday 1M. I think this is my third. So not bad. Gets the Stars bankroll up over 600. I stayed even on FT tonight. I lost a HU because of a bad connection. I won a HU. I played a PLO8 game and made two bad calls. Dummy. So I got fed up and pushed when I knew I had no chance in hell of winning and got ready for bed.

Fluxer had the night off so I played a little without him. He would be so proud:

PokerStars Game #5104444214: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2006/05/30 - 22:21:59 (ET)
Table 'Kresak' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: sublimenym ($174.35 in chips)
Seat 2: SirFWALGMan ($84.80 in chips)
Seat 3: Majin Legacy ($128.10 in chips)
Seat 4: BankItDrew ($102.40 in chips)
Seat 5: kaje17 ($97.50 in chips)
Seat 6: GiftedPlayer ($57.10 in chips)
Seat 7: streetclass ($144.60 in chips)
Seat 8: JohnFa ($106.90 in chips)
Seat 9: snakeeyes52 ($21.15 in chips)
BankItDrew: posts small blind $0.50
kaje17: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SirFWALGMan [5d 2c]
GiftedPlayer: calls $1
streetclass: folds
JohnFa: raises $2 to $3
snakeeyes52: calls $3
sublimenym: folds
SirFWALGMan: calls $3

Ok. We like Multi-way pots. Three bucks is not bad. So why not.

Majin Legacy: folds
BankItDrew: raises $5 to $8

Oops you bastard!

kaje17: folds
GiftedPlayer: folds
JohnFa: calls $5
snakeeyes52: calls $5
SirFWALGMan: calls $5

I am getting like 4-1 on my call here so why not see a flop? I have no problem here since I am last to act and know it will only cost me five more. I can easily get away from this on the flop too.

*** FLOP *** [Tc 5h 2s]

OMFG! I suck! I KNOW I am up against HUGE PAIR and I KNOW I am going to make money. Do I slow play this? Fuck no! ALL IN BABY!

BankItDrew: bets $10
JohnFa: folds
snakeeyes52: folds
SirFWALGMan: raises $66.80 to $76.80 and is all-in
BankItDrew: calls $66.80

To his credit he took a LONG time deciding to call this.

*** TURN *** [Tc 5h 2s] [7c]
*** RIVER *** [Tc 5h 2s 7c] [Ad]

The Ace on the river scared me a little but I was hoping he did not have AA. One of these times I will lose but I am wayyyyy ahead on my tiny cards when they flop two pair so far..

*** SHOW DOWN ***
BankItDrew: shows [Qc Qs] (a pair of Queens)
SirFWALGMan: shows [5d 2c] (two pair, Fives and Deuces)
SirFWALGMan collected $184.60 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $187.60 | Rake $3
Board [Tc 5h 2s 7c Ad]
Seat 1: sublimenym folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: SirFWALGMan showed [5d 2c] and won ($184.60) with two pair, Fives and Deuces
Seat 3: Majin Legacy (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: BankItDrew (small blind) showed [Qc Qs] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 5: kaje17 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: GiftedPlayer folded before Flop
Seat 7: streetclass folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: JohnFa folded on the Flop
Seat 9: snakeeyes52 folded on the Flop

That my friends is why you play small cards. Not all the time. If you go down that path you will surely lose. I think in some ways you need a random number generator.. and you factor in the pot, and how many players, how big your stack is, and it chooses a percentage of time to play these small cards. It spins the wheel and you play or do not play. Not based on any great read or special feeling.. just randomly and IN POSITION!

Small cards pay off on sites like Pokerstars at these limits for one reason: ACE TEN WOULD HAVE PUSHED THERE TOO! Not me mind you. However I can not tell you how many times I have seen AT push all in there and get CRUSHED by QQ. So when you actually do hit a hand people are more willing to pay you off.

I also have to laugh at "Value Betting" people. I have seen people with the nuts just put 1-2 bucks in on each street. Oh goodie. My nuts made me ten bucks. I am a superstar! Get paid people! If you bet HARD on your great hands AND great draws then you will make the optimal amount of money. Nobody will be able to tell which one you have. They will probably just leave the table because they KNOW they are outclassed. heh. I actually had someone call me "POKER GOD" yesterday.. that was pretty cool. Do you think he was kidding?

How Jordon Cost me 2K and other assoted things

I guess we will start with Jordon. The bastard. He convinces me to go onto Titan. To play some PLO with him. So I login and see a free $50 waiting for me! Woo hoo! So I am freerolling. However now that I have this free money I sort of do not want to play PLO. I am ok at it but I can never decide when I should fold. So a few hands in I flop a K high flush and well.. lets just say someone had the Ace. Ug! I am not sure if it is bad to get stacked in PLO with the K high flush or not? However since Jordon convinced me to play it is his fault. Shut up Felicia! Ok. I am willing to take responsibility for my unknown play.. I do not even know if it was a bad play. The dissapointing thing is that $50 on Titan is like an passkey to thousands of dollars. I mean the players are that bad.

So next thing on the list was the DADI. I was doing good until after the break when I let Falstaad catch his 14% worth of outs on the turn. I could not decide if I was ahead or behind on the flop when he came out firing so I called.. The seven on the turn did not SEEM to help anyone and by then I decided if he has AK/AQ he is going to stack me, so I pushed and he gleefully chuckled when he called with his set of sevens. Oh well. If I had decided sooner I am sure he would have folded the flop.

I read Felicia's recent post on Personal Responsibility and Poker (Redux). Some pretty good stuff in there. I really feel like I am letting Poker be a game and if I lose then I lose.. so be it. I think it is one of the biggest ways I have changed this year. Hope it continues. I do feel a couple of things are off.

That is why big tournaments with huge payouts are so attractive to most poker players. They want the lottery to take all of their troubles away. They don't want to have to "work" anymore.

I really think playing in tourneyments is fine. I enjoy them and yes it does give you a shot at winning huge for a very small risk to your bankroll. What is wrong with that? Is it any less poker? I know alot of people who I respect who only play MTTs. It is what they like to do. I do not think you necessarily work any less hard or are a weaker player because you either specialize in or enjoy playing MTTs. Felicia also spent MANY years playing MTTs.. I am sure nobody would say she was only out for a quick score.

I think people who play LHE or NLHE cash games can be just as lazy and wanting a quick buck as any MTT player.. It is all in the person. I do however agree that nothing comes easy especially in Poker and it takes alot of hours and hard work which I personally put into the game. Generalizations are nice as it makes little buckets to put people into but nothing is ever totally black and white.

I also do not think moving up and taking shots is necessarily a bad thing. Obviously if your putting your whole bankroll on one shot it is not such a great move. How are you going to learn to play better people if you never take a shot? I guess it is a thin line but at some point I think it is important to see what your going to face.

I think Veneno has poisoned me as I have been playing HU on Full Tilt. I had five bucks left on tilt and it is now over $120+. Mostly from HU play. Is everyone that bad? I swear the typical game is me limping into EVERY POT UNRAISED and flopping some monster hand and having the guy with TPTK give me all his chips because, well, he is stupid. I sometimes get a good game but mostly it is just taking money from babies. The fact that it is quick is kind of addicitive. I usually dispatch my player by the time the blinds his 30$ so I can get a game in under fifteen minutes easy. I am not sure if I want to continue down the HU path because I hate HU but it has been fun for now..

PokerNews Rules

I decided to sell my seat for once. I will try and win another one before Sunday though. So first I had heard DA was interested in buying and giving a good price. I sent him an email because hell he is a Brogger and if we can help each other we should. He was not around and I am an impatient bastard. So I started looking around for places that buy.

I first tried finding that Brian guy. You know the one. The dude who has people all over Pokerstars with Briancashman.com or something like that.. I guess I was not paying attention enough because I could not find him.

So I went to plan C -- Google. It is true. The ultimate intelligent Google is awesome. One day it will assimilate us all. I checked out PokerDB first. They had what I would find out is the standard deal of 90% for T$, and 80$ for W$. It seemed like a simple process. I had never really tried them before so I decided to keep searching.

I then found what I will say is the SirFWALGMan endorsed site: PokerNews. I found the flash interface (I think it might be flash) to be very easy to use. The simple to follow email directions were great. The thing that tipped the scale is that they pay an extra 2% for your dollars. So I entered my information and prepared to wait. Except it was instant. I got my cash in 5 seconds of the time that I put in the request. It was awesome.

180/SNG Woes Continue

I have been getting close. Often. In my last three tries I have 2 ITMs, and one BubbleBoy. I am also getting really frustrated. I do not care about ITM in these things. It sucks. If I want to make $40 I will sell my sperm or something. I want the big money. I desire the 1K prize. I almost hit the final table tonight. Out in 10th. Ug. Makes me want to puke. I did have fun playing with the star of the hour though: Hoyazo! He was so tired from last night that he missed it when I raised 8K into him when he was the SB and 20 people were left with, you guessed it, "THE HAMMER" (tm)Grubby inc. Like the asshole he is though he had to one up me. Look real close at the picture and you can see Carmen hitting on me.. lol. Just kidding Don!



Oh yeah, and what the fuck is up with the guy to my left two spots? Is that ZeeJustin? Either that is his fucking uncle or some retard was like: ooh ooh ZeeJustin! I am a Fanboy! Then when the cheater got caught he was like "Fuck! Stars will not let me change my avatar!!!!". Dochebag eitherway.

I then proceeded to drop all of my winnings on a 50/NL cash game. I hate 50/NL. I want to win the 180/SNG so I can play 100/NL fulltime. However that did not happen tonight. Actually the real plan for tonight was to win the 180/SNG, then win two 100/9 MTTs in a row to shame Hoyazo!!! My plans get foiled early.

So in dispair, all my plans in ruins, I jump on a $39 LHE Satelite to the Sunday 1M. My mentor is like, LHE? WTF! Idiot! Why do you want pain? I laugh and then when 73o rivers a straight I start agreeing. The game was the $39 LHE Satelite, and when I signed up there were only 6 players. HOWEVER -- By the time the late registration ended it was eighteen. I played a mean game. I decided early that bluffing these donks was a bad idea. It was right around the time my pre-flop raise got called by Q3 and K2. Umm.. Yeah. Not even s00ted. K2 won. We will get back to that though. So I hung tough, won a few nice hands, and found myself at the final table. The BEST guy in the world was there: HERBIE THE WONDER PLAYAH. He says he was just trying to leave. He had 10K in chips, by far the leader, and he raised most every hand. I was happy because he also had a horseshoe up his ass and was taking players out left and right. Finally I DECIMATED him when my KT stood up against his JT on a TTx flop. I actually only 2 bet the river because after capping the flop and turn he had me almost convinced he had AT. Almost. Once I dispatched him it was easy sailing to the goaline. I actually took out Mr. K2o in 4th place.. so the donkey got 3$. I would say that is even worse then 5th. Much worse than 18th. So I have played two of these 1M contests.. this time I am taking the money and running. I will try and qualify again but until that time I am increasing my current bankroll by 50%. It should get it back up to $800 which is where I left it at my last cashout. Looking for around $1500 to start playing 100/NL regularly. Wish me luck.

Happenings

Boring night for me. Down a few buck. However our favorite Hoy boy made out good! I REALLY want to score like that. How much is that buyin for the tourney anyways son? I wonder if some funds need to go to Poker Stars Bonus Code Iggy?



Miami Don has a VERY funny post at his sight. Not only does he donate to me but he makes me laugh too. What a guy! Just remember.. you will all be bowing down to the Waffle light soon enough.. so do not laugh at Wendel! I will rule the world! Did I say that out loud?

I may have a chance to get my friends Bachelor party moved to Vegas in July. Will you guys help me send him off? DAMN! That would rock. Best Friend + Bloggers + Vegas + Hooker + Strippers = WOW!

Plans and Pains

Plans WWDN: NOT, why? I do not want Darvel to be there alone.. heh.

Pains? I can not for the life of me figure out why Poker Tracker will not automajically import my hands from SNG/Tourney games. Does it do private tourneys? It is nuts. Any one else have this problem?

Thats exactly it..

Lately Waffles has been pimping Fluxer like he is the next coming, but I gotta tell ya, the more and more I read the more I'm interested to hear what they both (and others) have to say. At first I was pretty tired of Waffles seemingly over doing it, but after a while I liked hearing the way they think about the game and how they put the non traditional plays into perspective. Not saying it is right or the way, but it is great to get it out there to discuss. -- TripJax

What is the Matrix? -- Neo

Trip has it right here. The one reason I post different hands is because I like the feedback and discussion it generates. I could care less if anyone plays 24h ever.. or if they try and value bet their monsters instead of inducing huge calls.. nobody has to play any specific ways and certain ways can get you hurt if you do not understand the thinking behind them, or you do not have the personality to play that way. I respect the fact that many different styles work in poker and each new idea has merit. Alot of smart people disagree with things I write and I learn something from each of their comments. It all blends into a style that works for me and hopefull over time makes me a better player.

The only comments I do not respect are the ones where people say "Your a donkey" and do not explain a single thing about WHY. I think alot of this comes from many, many people spitting back up what they have heard from books and TV and not REALLY understanding WHY. They are unable to explain it to themselves and so they must fall back on ignorant comments. I challenge every one of you who want to become better to keep asking WHY.

3 Wins tonight

Win #1: 25$/Turbo SNG. Second place. I am in a rut in these. I seem to always get second in SNGs and MTTs lately. Very expensive rut. Hope it ends soon.

Win #2: CarmenSinCity Saying: Fuck, and then Blushing. Man does she have a sexy voice! One lucky guy Don!

Win #3: Took Second in the MOOK after an EPIC battle with JJOK. Although I think he needs to work on his final table aggression he played a good end game and won. The pivotal hands were when I pushed with A3 and he showed AQ. I got chipped down to about $1500 with huge blinds. JJOK was nice enough to let me back into the game. I retook the lead and then got crippled again when my 74 two pair got CREAMED by Q4 two pair. Ouch. That REALLY hurt. I could not make it back again. Epic battle though. Some other final tablers were TripJax, Drewspop, SowBug, MiamiDon.. I am sure I am forgetting some people. If you have not played a MOOK you really should get into one.

Big Stacks

Some people expressed a "Not care" attitude about the size of your opponents stack when deciding to play "interesting" hands. This is all my thinking from discussions with Fluxor and my own suppositions. Your interesting hands are only going to hit so often so you want to make sure when they do you are in a hand that matters. If I am playing 100/NL against guys with $25 stacks I do not want to get HU against them with my 24h. Who cares? So what if I stack them? They are scum under my heals and only keep me from my true goal of stacking the guys who have equal stacks to me. If my longshot hand hits I want to be fully paid off.

All the cool kids are doing it..

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476

We were ahead.. no really..

I figure I show all the hands that Flux and I get into when we are behind, so for a change a nice little hand where we were ahead.

POKERSTARS GAME #5034205629: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.50/$1.00) - 2006/05/23 - 23:38:23 (ET)
Table 'Knysna' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: coop488 ($60.65 in chips)
Seat 2: HawaiiHoldm ($92 in chips)
Seat 3: Robt1975 ($88.65 in chips)
Seat 4: BEntenman ($183.05 in chips)
Seat 5: Random_Rules ($96 in chips)
Seat 6: vluff ($25.95 in chips)
Seat 7: Layrisse1979 ($69 in chips)
Seat 8: SirFWALGMan ($71.35 in chips)
Seat 9: pounder55 ($72.80 in chips)
SirFWALGMan: posts small blind $0.50
pounder55: posts big blind $1
vluff: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SirFWALGMan [Jh Kh]
coop488: folds
HawaiiHoldm: raises $3 to $4
Robt1975: folds
BEntenman: folds
Random_Rules: folds
vluff: calls $3
Layrisse1979: calls $4
SirFWALGMan: calls $3.50
pounder55: folds


Now normally we might fold KJh here, but we are getting into it with a big stack. We want to mix it up with people who it pays to stack. KJh is a nice starting hand as far as draws and it is not too much to call, we also have three way action and some dead money so lets see what happens.

*** FLOP *** [4h 6h Th]

Now this is a really good flop for us. All we are scared of really here is the Ace high flush. So we are going to check. Are we going to call a bet? Well lets see how it unfolds.

SirFWALGMan: checks
HawaiiHoldm: bets $16
vluff: raises $5.95 to $21.95 and is all-in
Layrisse1979: folds

Oh my! This is pretty good. So vluff just called the raise pre-flop, but he likes his hand now. Flux says "SET". I am not sure. Why go all in with a set on a flush board? I guess we will have to see. Now I think Hawaii has some overcards or something. Should we string him along? No way. We were going all in on the check raise no matter what. Playing our strong hands strong and getting paid because nobody beleives us.


SirFWALGMan: raises $45.40 to $67.35 and is all-in

At this point Hawaii goes into the tank. Only real hand I put him on that scares me now is AA with the Ace of hearts. Does that hand call the all in here?

HawaiiHoldm: calls $51.35

Finally BOOYAH!

*** TURN *** [4h 6h Th] [Kd]
*** RIVER *** [4h 6h Th Kd] [As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SirFWALGMan: shows [Jh Kh] (a flush, King high)
HawaiiHoldm: mucks hand
SirFWALGMan collected $90.80 from side pot
vluff: shows [6d 6s] (three of a kind, Sixes)
SirFWALGMan collected $79.85 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $173.65 Main pot $79.85. Side pot $90.80. | Rake $3
Board [4h 6h Th Kd As]
Seat 1: coop488 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: HawaiiHoldm mucked [Tc Ts]
Seat 3: Robt1975 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: BEntenman folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Random_Rules folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: vluff showed [6d 6s] and lost with three of a kind, Sixes
Seat 7: Layrisse1979 (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 8: SirFWALGMan (small blind) showed [Jh Kh] and won ($170.65) with a flush, King high
Seat 9: pounder55 (big blind) folded before Flop

So basically we got into a perfect storm kind of hand. Two sets drawing to boats. No other flush outs. This actually gives us an even better hand because two more outs are dead.

So the questions are:

A. Is anyone afraid of the Ace high flush here?
B. If you had the set of tens or sixes do you get stacked here?

It is nice when you get multiple people to call an all in and scoop that nice pot. Very nice. Also one thing I *should* improve on in my NL game is topping of my buyin. I left $40 on the table because I was down that much. I tend to be the one buyin kind of guy who plays it to the felt but that can be unprofitable.

Sick Today

Not feeling well. Played a little. Played HU on Full Tilt. I now know why Veneno thinks she is so good HU.. man those guys stunk! heh. Veneno is 100x better than any random foe. Passive people can not win especially HU. V always keeps you guessing. Sleep time.

Heat Storm

Tonight tried my patience. I was in three MTTs. I was ahead on all of them. First place in one, third in another, and eigth in the 180/SNG. I had the cards going with me. Took CJ out even! However it was not to be. In a span of five minutes the following happened on all three SNGs:

AK vs KJ LOST (KJ called all in pre-flop)
AQ vs AT LOST (AT called all in on the flop)
A9d vs 27 (He hit trip 2's.. however I was never ahead on this one)
TT vs 77 (All in pre-flop, rivered a 7)

I know I was as ahead as you can be in each hand and I lost. Oh well. It is poker. It sucks. I admit I was getting HOT! Not the good, talking to women, type either.

One thing. I AM happy with my play in all games. I outplayed my opponents and won most of the hands I played. It is something to be happy with.

I then put all my chips in with JJ and got called by K3. I was HU at the time in a 25/Turbo. Guess he thought he was ahead. Idiot. He won. Of course. I lost with 56, six on the turn and he rivered his Ace. Ah well. I can not take first in these lately. I get it all in with the best hand by far and get beat. In a way even though I am winning I am on a bad streak.

It was not all bad. I took Veneno over my knee and spanked her. Until all the heat from my face went into her butt! Mungo enjoyed watching too. I have never beat Veneno thrice in a row. It took about five minutes. So I am happy. It makes us tied in our titanic war! She is afraid to play me again because I said once I get ahead I am quiting.

Last thing on the agenda: Shout out to BoneDaddy. He came by while I was playing and said hi. It was cool of him to do. He did not have to. Shows class. Good night and good luck to you all.

100 MTT

This is the game I want to play. Regularly. The players are terrible. I cashed tonight in my first one. I have played a couple. Did I mention the players are terible? I had a shot at some good money but ran into some bad timing when my 88 hit up against both AA and TT. No suckout for me. I then had to push as a small stack with AQ and again no suckout. Ahh well. I really need to increase my bankroll so I can play these more often.

TripSpam

Ok.. I am going to answer TripJax's TripSpam. Why? As a great man would say:I need a break from all the A7 tourist player haters out there. Experimenting and trying out new styles of play brings out all of the hate baby! I can take it though. Bring it on brighteyes bring it on.

I got sidetracked at a blog called Boobs, injures and Dr. Pepper. So that will have to come before the TripSpam. Funny shit. Trauma, you would like this:

My labia, pubic area...even my taint. Solid black. - Bullride post

Not many writers know how to use taint in a sentence. Good work! Crap. I should do some work today.

Ok. Now. Without further ado.

Lets light this candle.

1. What is the biggest mistake people make at a NL table?
Overplaying a pair. No Limit is all about making HUGE decisions correctly.

2. What is the biggest mistake people make at a Limit table?
Staying in a hand too long. Limit is all about making small decisions correctly over and over.

3. Why do you play poker?
I enjoy the whole community, the game is challenging, sort of like a video game
that you can spend forever trying to beat.

4. If you weren't playing poker, what would you be doing?
Playing something like World of Warcraft

5. What is your favorite poker book and why?
Phil Gordon's Little Green Book. He has a way of making difficult concepts easy and fun to understand.

6. Who is your favorite poker player and why?
Fluxer? He is teaching me how to play the cash game. It is causing me to think a lot about Poker which is always good. No hummers are involved Duggles.

7. Which poker player do you dislike the most and why?
Josh Areah. Did I even spell it right? I am not going to bother looking it up. I am starting to hate the winy, cry baby, I think I am better than you, type of Poker players..

8. Do your coworkers know about your blog?
Yes. At least they know I have one. Unlike Mr. Bracelet (Bracelets are gay you know) I have a live free or die kind of job and if my work told me to stop blogging I would say "Fucking make me". Probably get fired and have another job the next day.

9. What is the most you have won in a cash game or MTT (both live and online)?
I have only played live ONCE in my life and I won $60. In a cash game I took home
a $300 pot in a .50/1 game. It was sweet. I was trembling from the adrenaline because
I did not have the nuts, but I was pretty close. I thought I was ahead. I ended up winning. The biggest MTT scores I have had have been in the 1300-1500 range. I have done this multiple times in the 90 and 180SNGs and in a few MTTs.

10. What is the most you have lost in a cash game or in one day total (both live and online)?

3K. I busted my bankroll in a single day. I have never lost live.

11. Who was your first poker blog read?
Chris Halverson I believe. He has gone Pro since then and probably never reads me anymore. He was
a great help in getting me involved in the Blogger community though.

12. What satisfies you more, your aces holding up for a big pot or a bluff working for a big pot?

Bluff baby! Nothing is more satisfying than reading a person right and making them fold. Aces never hold up anyways.

13. Why do you blog?
I enjoy it. It gives me a chance to express not only my joys and frustrations about Poker but also about life in general. Of course being a shock jock I love the responses I get too.

14. Do you read blogs from an RSS reader like bloglines or do you visit each blog?
I use Bloglines. There are very few blogs I read regularly that are not in RSS feeds. However I do get through over 600 blogs a day. Of course they do not all update daily like me.

15. Would you rather play poker for a living than do what you currently do for a living?

I thought playing for a living would be fun when I first started but I am leaning towards not wanting to do it now. It is a tough life living and dieing by the cards.

16. Do you wear a tin foil hat on occasion?
All the time. I am wayyy to superstitious.

17. If you had to pin it down to one specific trait, what does a great poker player have (or do) that separates them from an average player?

I do not know. When I consider myself a great player I will let you know. I do think the better players that I know about are constantly examining their games and always looking for ways to improve.

18. Is Drizz the coolest person on the planet for naming his baby Vegas?
I actually that that was weird.. but I think Drizz is very cool!

19. What is your primary poker goal and are you close to accomplishing it?
I am not sure. Right now I am working on enjoying the game and trying to improve myself. No real solid goals.

20. What is your primary online site and why?
Pokerstars.. Because I have money there and am lazy. I also love the 180 and 90 person SNG tourneys and the wide variety of MTTs they run.

21. What site do you dislike and why?
Any site that has blackjack!

DuggleBubble

Had some amount of fun playing the WWDN:Not tonight. I got alot of flack for two plays I made. One against Bone Daddy and one against Sox. I ended up in third. Even better, DuggleBoggey Bubbled.. which normally I would only take a little joy in, but since he was mocking my game I felt it was nice to see him go from first to last and bubble out.

The first play was when I was in a hand with 37s or some hand like that. I do not beleive it was raised pre-flop and it was multi-way. The flop gives me a pair of three's, a gutshot, and a flush draw. So I push. I get called by Daddy. He has a zillion outs, two of which kill my flush draw. HOWEVER, according to some people, I made the right move because I WAS AHEAD. This is why results oriented talk makes no sense. I really should have folded. However since I made the power move, and all he had was Q high, he really should not have called most of his stack off. With all the outs he had it was not a bad call. He decided to gamble and lost. The funniest thing though was when he berated me throughout the rest of the game for that play. Uh.. Sorry for having the best hand, I will try not to next time. He even waited until I busted out of the tourney. In third place. ITM. I thought he had left by then but when I pushed all in against Hoyazo knowing he was going to call me Bone Daddy pops his little head up and berates me for playing the Hammer. Uh. Ok.

The other play that was kind of fun tonight was when SoxLover raised 3xB with KK. I called because I had him out chipped, I was way ahead in chips, and it was Sox! I had 64o btw. The flop of course comes 64x. He bets out, I push him all in, he calls, he loses, he cries. Actually he took it pretty well. Only berated me twice and did not wait until I busted out to go to sleep.

I have a couple of suggestions here. First off this is not the WSOP or some high stakes tourney. It is a fun game. Enjoy it. I know the ONLY reason I play any of these games is to have fun. I would never have gone all in against Hoyazo, when he had $210 left, and he had bet 2K into a pot, with "The Hammer" if it was not a fun game. I hear way too many of you people getting pissed off at these games. The point of this kind of game is to bond with your fellow Bloggers, have a fun time, talk trash.. it is not to take yourself too seriously and berate players who you think played a hand wrong.

The second point is: Always look at what you did wrong, not what the other person did. If you did nothing wrong then fine. However if you are just looking at your pretty kings and do not consider that someone could have something when they re-raise you then it is your fault. If you want to gamble basically your entire game on a flush draw then understand the conssciquences if you lose. Live with them. Do not blame the player who beat you.

Congrats for Hoyazo for going from worse to first and taking it all down. I guess the next game is the Blogger tourney. Cya There.

I like this line of thinking..

I liked my comment on how to play various hand so much that I thought I would repost it as it's own entry:

As long as I do not call every raise with small s00ted cards, and as long as I keep changing my game, keep going from tight-ass to loose and free and back again, I think it will make me a dangerous player. Changing from bluffing hands to having monsters. Nobody will be able to put me on a hand.. and that my friends is playing Poker. IMHO.

Et Tu IamHoff?

I played a cash table while hanging out at the WWDN. It was a fun one. I was up fifty bucks at one time and cashed out with a modest 25$ double up. I told the stupid players on the table "We should all fold every hand so we get more hands in and possibly hit the 5K bonus Stars is offering at milestone hands". I got blank stares from the fishies. There is a reason they do not make any money.

I got NAILED in the WWDN by the Donkey Playing Iamhoff Hammer! Hmm.. The spell checker says IAMHOFF=AMOEBA. Pretty close. heh. Just kidding man! I think, unlike some others, that you should be HONORED to be taken out by the Hammer in anything with the name Blogger associated to it. He did me good too. I hit TPTK on the turn and he rivered his third 2! BOOYAH! Nice Job Hoff! Hope you know I was just screwing with ya when you knocked me out!

So I played a 55/SNG. I took 4th. That sucked. I was in position to win it all and two hands later I am out. First hand was A4 vs JT. Straight. I then have A4 HU and AK calls my all in push. BB vs SB. Oooops. Oh well. I should have taken it easier. However once I lost to JT I was dooomed and had to make some chips. Just bad timing.

I then played some cash games. The first one I hit a set that turns a boat. 93o goes all in, I cold call, 99 cold calls. Turn makes my boat so what do you do with smart 100/NL players? PUSH of course. They never believe you have a hand when you do that. So 99 calls me and I bust two guys in one hand. Cash out of that table up $64. Hit a couple of 50/NL tables. I make another twenty and call it a night. A lot of fun. I think I need to play NL/HE ring games more often.

Just to stir up some more controversy. One of my biggest winning hands tonight was things like 52h to a pre-flop raise. He had Aces and could not lay down even though three hearts were on the board on the flop. I raised all in on the flop. Did I play incorrectly because I called off 1.50 with over fifty dollars in implied money? You decide.

Ok.. I got nothing more. I really feel like I am thinking in new directions in my poker life. Fluxer is probably the most polar opposite of my style there could be. I am not sure I could play exactly like him. I do however think that my play is benefiting from experiencing different methods of playing the game. I will find my own path and grow as a poker player this way. Some smart blogger once said Stasis = Death. It has been a while since I have grown. It feels good.

Poker is Interesting..

The night starts with the WWDN. I have been trying to mix it up a little. Not be such a tight ass. The problem with this idea is EVERYTIME I raise with a hand EVERYONE folds and EVERYTIME I raise with nothing EVERYONE calls.

Some of my chat at the time. Mind you I have not been really angry in a while. Tonight though I felt the old steam come up.

sirfwalgman: that was a must frustrating game
sirfwalgman: raise Q3
sirfwalgman: get called
sirfwalgman: have to fold
sirfwalgman: raise A8
sirfwalgman: get called by 46
sirfwalgman: fold to a bluff
sirfwalgman: get QQ
sirfwalgman: no callers
sirfwalgman: and then finally get taken out by 23o when I have 77.

So I am fuming. Someone .. I think Hoyazo invites me to full tilt. I lose a few tourneys there and I am really mad now. I lost by someone liking his AT enough to call a pre-flop bet, and call large post flop bets, but not enough to play-raise his hand. Um. Yeah. Keep winning that way. He then puts me out of my misery when he calls my all in.. AJ vs 77. Coinflip when the cards are turned over, but not something I really like myself.

SO NOW I AM FUMING. I go an play the 180/SNG. This happens to me.

sirfwalgman: remember I said
sirfwalgman: I get called with my bluffs
sirfwalgman: So
sirfwalgman: I go to bluff
sirfwalgman: 23o
sirfwalgman: I raise 1K
sirfwalgman: I get re-raised 800 more
sirfwalgman: the flop comes 3 clubs
sirfwalgman: I have the 2 of clubs
sirfwalgman: I check
sirfwalgman: he puts me all in
sirfwalgman: I am like "I am fucking sick of this fucking night"
sirfwalgman: I call
sirfwalgman: river is a club
sirfwalgman: So I Crack Aces with a 2 of clubs
sirfwalgman: LMAO

Poker is so fucked up. Making that suckout got me to 17th place in the whole damn 180/SNG. Besides the one bad play and calling too much off with AJo, I think I did well. A final table would have been nice but you can not always make it. Ah well.

Beware the Maleware!

Please read this article if you have ever download a utility called Rakeback calculator. Apparently it has a nasty password stealing Trojan!

Incompetence my Favorite

It is bad enough to be sooo busy I can not play Poker but to be soooooo busy I can not play poker BECAUSE people are incompetent is even worse. So I got nothing for you.. except a day in the mind of Sir. My days go sort of like this.

Woman talking about camera shots, etc, etc..

: Purple shirt.. ooh, slip of white.. boobies.. mm.. I love white shirts almost as much as School Girl skirts. Perky little things..

Later on new woman: The project management committee blah blah yakity smackity..

: Hmm .. pregnant.. big boobies. Not bad. Too bad she is not a little prettier. Oh well. Big Boobies..

Ok. I know none of this surprises you. However next time you have a conversation with me and I seem to be drifting off a little you will know why.. BEWARE THE TROUSER SNAKE!

Page Rank

So I thought I would check out some page rank stats. I do not really advertise here so they mean nothing to me but since a website I worked on made the top 1000 most hit sites according to Alexa I figured I would check it out.

I first took at look at my stats to see what my Traffic Rank was.
Traffic Rank for sirfwalgman.blogspot.com: 2,176,423

Ok. Not so bad. I guess. So then I wanted to compare this to several other populare sites on the web:

Traffic Rank for Tao Of Poker: 1,112,867
Traffic Rank for AlCantHang: 1,803,941
Traffic Rank for Blog Father: 145,529

Ok. So pretty cool. I am pretty close to an AlCantHang, not too far in back of a Pauly, and well, who can touch the Teflon Dwarf, the daddy of all bloggers, the king of the ring, IGGY!

Now this had me feeling alright about my little space in the BlogSphere until I did one final search which made me question all of the data and it's acuracy:

Traffic Rank for Texas (April): 763,598

Dirty filthy lies all of it.

Weird Table

My boy Flux was out sleeping or partying with some hot blonde or something last night so I hit the tables alone.

I got down about $35 initially and was getting fed up. Some really bad hands after a nice start. Oh well. So I sort of just want to go to bed so I start pushing all in every hand. I pushed five hands in a row without a single caller. I then start joking with the guys at the table and let them know what hands I had.. I then TELL them I am going to do it again when the blind comes to me. So I push again three times in a row. One time when someone raised, got a caller, and THEN I pushed, and both of them folded 4BB to me. So by this time I am back up to about $30, still down $20 and I start playing normally again.

I get enough action when I want it and end the night up around $7 on a 50/nl table. The weird thing about this table is they NEVER folded pre-flop except to my huge bets. I got beat by a 93c hand who called off four bucks pre-flop (alot of limpers) and called off two other large raises until he rivered his flush. He could have put me all in with his 93c flush too but was too scared. Um.. why are you drawing out on me with a 93c flush if you are not willing to bet it when it hits?

It was just a strange table. Alot of the reason I have been playing with Fluxer lately is because I am too tight. When I bet people fold. I never get involved in HUGE hands unless I am way behind to some strange k6o that hit against my AK. Some weird crap like that. I think by playing more hands and raising more when I do come into a hand. Showing down a few missed draws. Winning some big pots with draws. I end up getting the action I desire when I do have AA/AK/KK. I have to beleive being too tight is wayyyy to easy to play against. My biggest hand last night actually was when I raised pre-flop 4xBB with 36c. The flop gave me an OESD which I bet, and the turn completed me. Neither of the other players could put me on the hand and I busted them both.

So I guess some of what I am trying to accomplish is calling more raises with "interesting" hands, and raising with less than premium hands. I mix this in with my normal tight hands and it makes it harder to put me on a hand.

The other thing Fluxer does better than me is folding. He is a mad man when it comes to folding. I know the hands I have posted do not show this but he has no problem folding TPTK or overpairs against aggression. He is much better at it then I am.

Kidz

I walked into the building about fifteen minutes early. The rain and clouds making a dismal canopy to what was already going to be less than enjoyable. I walked around looking at the Japaneese fish art for about twenty minutes until my late wife scurried in. She will never be on time to anything and she will never accept responsibility for being late. Somehow it is always my fault. She must have found out that I have a Tardis and I secretly go back in time and do things that will make her late. I need to cover my tracks better.

We walk into the conference room and five teachers are sitting there. They are Would Be Cute if Didn’t Have Moustache Lady (Hairy Lady for short), Old Rock Face, TILF (Teacher Id Like to Fuck), Granny, and Glasses Cow. All women. Why are women the only one’s in the school system? I have no idea.

I have to describe Glasses Cow a little more too. Now this person is supposed to be a professional. She performs standard deviation tests. You know the kind. The ones that pidgeon hole people into certain categories. She had this dumpy looking face which is bad enough. With the buck teeth and all and that is not the funniest part. The thing that made me laugh the loudest was the pair of glasses she kept chewing on like a big fat glasses eating cow. See I know she was not just sucking on them because she had already chewed off one of the arms. So she had these broken glasses that she chews all during the meeting.

Anyway we were there to discuss my son. Unsurprising to some of you will be the fact that he tends to get out of line in school. The TILF has described him as “Donald Trump, you don’t tell Donald what to do, you negotiate and hope to get something out of it”. In addition it appears as if he has fallen behind a little in school. He has trouble spelling the word “there” I suppose. Basically what the assessment determined was that he was in the genius level for verbal skills and communication. He scored in the 97 percentile of children in his age group. The area that he has problem with are rote, repetitive learning of things like spelling and reading. You must say or write the same phonetic sounds over and over and over until you puke from boredom.

I believe one of the worse things about education in general is that except for a very few examples we learn by repetition and there is no creative thinking taught. So we create people who can not think for themselves. I guess it works out when we go to our little cubby holes every morning and do the same dull things over and over again. I guess that works for you people at least. I have never fit that mold. I roll in when I want to and follow my own rules. Dress codes are for tools. In exchange I work really hard, and intelligently, to get a wide variety of technical challenges done on time and under budget. It is a trade off that people have been willing to make for years. I am not going to change either.

So in my opinion I am not exceptionally worried about my son. I actually think that intelligent people have a lot more trouble fitting into the mold in early school years than the dumb ones do. I mean if you’re dumb then doing the same thing over and over is easy, right? Why strive for more? I for sure believe that extra tutoring to force the kid through the hard part is going to be necessary, either that or blatant bribery, but he will get through it. I actually think over time he is going to be shown to be a fricken genius. Hell, he doesn’t even tie his shoes, just like Mr. Einstein. My wife on the other hand thinks that if a first grader gets off to a slow start he is stupid and will be a failure his entire life. We kind of approach life from different perspectives. I mean is this going to be on his permanent record? The fact he needed some tutoring in first grade for reading? Is he going to get rejected from Harvard when they find out? I sort of doubt it.

Even Steven

Nothing much to report last night.. had a fun time. Lost a 25/SNG Turbo, lost a buyin at 100/NL, won a 55/SNG Turbo. Basically even for the night.

I lost my buyin on two hands bascially. I ran up against a pair of Aces on a KKx flop that turned a boat. He asked if I had a King, of course I did, *wink* *wink*. Heh. At least I hope he starts reading the blog. I think he is a fine player and getting a reader for a little less than 2/3 a buyin will be well worth it.

The second hand I flop bottom two pair with 62o, limping, in the SB. I check, the guy bets out, I raise him huge, pot committing myself. He calls with TP four kicker. WOW! Amazing read again there people. He knew he was good with that TP four kicker and when he turned the four he was right. Amazing player there. I would never say anything bad about him. I will never assume someone is not making the right plays because they think their (Edited the There for You Duggy) top pair is good. Never again. It is too arrogant of me. Actually in reality I think it just makes my point: ALOT OF PLAYERS CAN NOT LET GO OF TPTK OR EVEN TPFUK (Fucked up Kicker).. It is why people make money playing NLHE. Enjoy it. Do not give credit where it is not due.

Losing the buyin was fine. If I win the two pair hand I am back up to eighty and doing well. I lost and tomorrow the same people will be there again. (Phwehhwww I spelled There right).

Things are going well in the Poker world too. I am kind of amazed at myself. I really have been more under control lately for whatever reasons. Perhaps I am maturing as a player. Who knows. I do not think I have yelled CB in the last few months.

Oh, and anyone who disagrees with DuggleBugger you are all "Sycophants who worship a semi-literate tilty mouth-breather".. Wow you use such big words. I am so proud of you.

Blog Tilt?

Go read CJ's latest post.. in someways I have to beleive it is somewhat in response to my latest 24h hand and all the comments it has generated. So does that mean I Blog Tilted CJ? heh.

Actually I am very honored that he comes by and reads me.. he is an excellent player and even if I do not always agree with him or if I try different experiments to figure out things for myself I have the utmost respect for his game.

SO BUSY

I am so freaking busy.. I probably have 80 hours of work to do this weekend. Everything due on Monday. My poker time has been limited to 12AM-2AM. Sleep. Optional. I had a good time chatting with Bloody-P last night. Really cool guy. He watched me go out 200th in the damn 11$ rebuy. I had JJ and M<10 and pushed into QQ. Oh well. What can you do? I doubt I survive long enough to make the money at 135 and even if I do fold to the small money I have no shot at the big money. If I was ahead and won that hand I would have easily made the money and possibly even better.

I though this was pretty cool from 92o

1) Play one game on one site for the next 3 months.
2) Play a minimum of 5k hands per month (preferably more). Follow 50bb stoploss/500 hand max hands/session guidelines.
3) Post five hands every day to FOPT forum for discussion - two biggest winners, two biggest losers, one misc hands. Blog twice a week.
4) Read the mid-high stakes shorthanded forum every day. This will be higher than you play, but the commentary and thought here is golden. Also consider reading the High Stakes limit forum and some of the heads up forum.
5) Stay positive.

It comes from someone named Subby. I guess with a name like that you have to be good.
Well.. not if your name is Byron but that is another story. ** Warning: If you are at your work a gay wink is coming: ;).

24h is my new favorite hand by the way. I have some other things to post and all but I just do not have time so you will have to make due.

Love it

I love all the "Poker Talk" the last two posts have generated. I may have to call myself a poker blog or something.. Highly personal stuff coming next post. No nudity do not worry. The thing I like about hands like that one is they can generate alot of discussion. Alot of different ways to play hands like that.

Again though to summarize: I make up the 7% and more from the people who fold to me. The 24h straight draw is not what I am shooting for it, it is my safety rope in case I mis-judge the strength of the persons hand or there willingness to commit all there money with a vulnerable hand. So I make up the 7% easily when tighter opponents fold to my bet. I really do not want the call here but when he makes it I have to yank the rip cord and hope the shoot deploys. In this case it did.

CJ Asks..

CJ Asked: Kind of scary.. Calling 5$ Pre-Flop with 24 s00ted and raising $52 on a draw, I suppose that is one way of playing it...

Luckbox scared.. hmm.. That is a little scary to me.. ANYWAY.. Ya, I was a little nervous. But big Pocket pairs only have one way to win..

I am not at all concerned about calling $5 pre-flop with 24h. It is an easy enough hand to get away from and if it hits, like a 24 flop, then you can bust someone who overplays AA/99, etc.. Huge implied odds there. I do not think you ALWAYS play this but changing it up once in a while can make interesting hands.

As far as the OESD on the flop. We were not very far behind (basically a coinflip at 43%). The idea behind this hand (I think) was to assume Mr. 99 was smart enough to fold when we made a large raise. He had a lot of ways of being beat on that flop. So we have some amount of positive expected value in the fact that people will fold that hand (x) amount of the time to us. We only have to rely on our backup 43% a certain portion of the time.

Here was the conversation I had with Flux during the hand (paraphrased).

Sir: 24h
Sir: He raised 5$
Flux: Fuck him he is a fag
Sir: ok.
Sir: He bet 8$
Flux: Raise him 28$
Sir: he went all in
Flux: Fuck! How many outs do we have!
Sir: I think we have to call now

Actually I think the guy with the 9's played this TOTALLY wrong.. I will not entirely defend our play except we had outs and we were freerolling with earlier winnings.. Again, the concept behind the hand was the guy was smart enough to fold a marginal hand. He was not. So we had to rely on our backup outs. We would have been more than happy to only take 13$ from him. Although a clue to him not being smart enough would be the $40 buyin he made. Something to note in the future.

How can the guy with pocket 9's not even consider AA-TT, A made straight, draws which he had none of, and a small set. Especially something like JJ I would push hard there..

I think you need a better hand than 99 to call off a 28$ raise.. Once he called bullshit on our semi-bluff raise we were committed to the hand.

I am starting to think that big pots and big backup draws are what this game is about, I need to digest this a little more since I never play this way, but it is interesting..

This hand might make you think that all we were trying to accomplish was pushing alot of money in with a decent draw. That is not the point at all. Also, as Fluxer mentioned, we only posted the interesting suckout hand which made us $70 or so, not the other two tables where we made over $180 playing our made hands exactly the same way. What can I say I am a Shock Jock!

One more thing: Using my normal tight-aggressive style I might win $50 a night playing NL or lose a buyin, being more aggressive with made hands and draws, and making pots big when I want them to be, makes the whole dynamic change.. I end up making $100-$300 a night, and lose a buyin at about the same frequency as my tighter play.

Anyway.. I think this hand on the surface might have looked "fishy", I think delving deeper into the thinking behind the hand helps to show why it can be +EV. Fluxer may have some more to add too. If he ever wants to do a guest post he is totally welcome to. This is my analysis of the thinking behind this one hand.

Fluxer: The God of Poker

WOWOWO! This kid impresses me. I just spent two hours with him and made over $300. He is a mad playah in the cash game arena. Here was a funny hand though. It was interesting.

sadsad asdsad: PokerStars Game #4888170251: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2006/05/10 - 01:33:05 (ET)
Table 'Aldebaran IV' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: DaEmbezzler ($129.55 in chips)
Seat 2: sergio144 ($15.60 in chips)
Seat 4: PureMoney86 ($159.10 in chips)
Seat 5: Marcel T ($22.65 in chips)
Seat 6: kk947 ($19.20 in chips)
Seat 7: tripCCC ($84.95 in chips)
Seat 8: SirFWALGMan ($82.60 in chips)
Seat 9: stangracer ($124.35 in chips)
sergio144: posts small blind $0.50
Hoppypaa: is sitting out
PureMoney86: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Marcel T: calls $1
kk947: folds
tripCCC: folds
SirFWALGMan: calls $1
stangracer: calls $1
DaEmbezzler: calls $1
sergio144: calls $0.50
PureMoney86: raises $5 to $6
Marcel T: folds
SirFWALGMan: calls $5
stangracer: folds
sadsad asdsad: DaEmbezzler: folds
sergio144: folds
*** FLOP *** [5c 3d 4c]
PureMoney86: bets $8
SirFWALGMan: raises $20 to $28
PureMoney86: raises $52 to $80
Hoppypaa has returned
SirFWALGMan: calls $48.60 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [5c 3d 4c] [6h]
*** RIVER *** [5c 3d 4c 6h] [As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
PureMoney86: shows [9d 9s] (a pair of Nines)
SirFWALGMan: shows [4h 2h] (a straight, Deuce to Six)
SirFWALGMan collected $166.20 from pot
PureMoney86 said, "wowow"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $169.20 | Rake $3
Board [5c 3d 4c 6h As]
Seat 1: DaEmbezzler (button) folded before Flop
Seat 2: sergio144 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: PureMoney86 (big blind) showed [9d 9s] and lost with a pair of Nines
Seat 5: Marcel T folded before Flop
Seat 6: kk947 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

The chat after the flop is where I really like this game though. It is WORTH losing or WINNING because I laugh so hard.

PureMoney86: wowow
PureMoney86: are u kiddin me'
SirFWALGMan: i thought I had a straight
SirFWALGMan: oops
SirFWALGMan: sorry
SirFWALGMan: I miscounted
PureMoney86: oh i bet
PureMoney86: are u from nanimo
SirFWALGMan: you dont beleive me?
PureMoney86: no
SirFWALGMan: ok really I thought your a crap player and I had to call
PureMoney86: do u go to dover high shcool
SirFWALGMan: lol
PureMoney86: ok lol
SirFWALGMan: I make more than this in an hour
SirFWALGMan: it means nothing to me
PureMoney86: ol
SirFWALGMan: sorry if your momma's baby cant eat now
PureMoney86: dude chiil ur bad its alright

Beware

A friend of mine got his online account raped. He is going to get his money back (I think) but it serves as a lesson to everyone. The method used to do this was simple. He gathered some personal information about Aeq and was able to get Yahoo! to give him the online mail account using this information. It was then simple to log into his online poker accounts and click the "I forgot my password" option. It sent his password via Yahoo! and walla, free money. The guy ended up blowing the money at a 10/20 table and was eventually caught. I guess the lessons you can learn here are to not use an internet email account possibly. Also be careful about what information you give out to people.

zzzzzzz

I made it to 8th place in the 3$ rebuy for a WSOP seat. I spent 9$. Not too shabby. I kind of went out on a donkey play.. I had AK s00ted and I made it 24K pre-flop. Two callers made it an 80K pot. I had 80K behind me and decided to try and take down the pot. The flop was QTx. One spade. So I had backdoor flush, two possible overs, and a straight draw. The guy after me pushed all in and had me covered. He turned over AQ. I got a spade on the turn for something like 17 outs. I can't count. So anyway he ended up winning. I am not too upset about my play here. I personally think calling pre-flop with AQ is dumb. I easily could have had AA/KK and he would have been doomed. Lucky flop for him. If I win that hand though I am the chip leader and I make the money. Only three spots paid. Oh well. Next time. Right now I need some sleep.

Amazing

Now this chick knows how to play poker. Skip about 3/4th down the page to get to the good stuff on aggression. Remember also that FOLDING is a VERY AGGRESSIVE move.. its the weak calling stuff that is crap.

Shaaaarkay Baaaaabbbbyyyy

**Image above because I can not resist a swooning woman. Duh!

I was naughty last night baby. I played a little .50/1 cash game. Now I have played .50/1 before.. and I thought it was tight and rocky and hard. However I think I entered La-La land because I took $75 of the table in less than an hour. The play was loose, crazy, and stupid. With people call there entire stacks off with second pair. No draw. No Redraw. Nothing. Er. Ok. I may have to try that again..

Nothing great on the SNG/MTT front. I took 4th in an SNG after being chip leader for a while. It is all about what cards and coinflips you win when the blinds get high. Oh well. We shall see what happens tonight..

Proving his point?

Umm.. Don't we kind of prove his point when we do posts like this and this? I kind of found the post humorous, but you know my type of humor now SHOCK JOCK! There was a nasty comment about Dr. Pauly that I thought was uncalled for.. oh well.. he is a big boy and can defend himself.

I think the reason things like the above, and the comments I get by "they think they are" annonymous people do not bother me much is because they are usually made by uptight sticks in the mud who can not get over themselves. I love the comedy of Mind of Mencia. He is an equal opportunity insulter because he does not take himself seriously. When he tells a joke it is not because he hates blacks, whites, hispanics, jews, etc, etc, it is because he likes to make people laugh. He gets life. It should not be that stringent. Lighten up people.

I had fun playing poker last night. I missed the Blue Veiner because I had to work on a site that is due Monday. However I was able to join the WWDN:Not. It was fun. Congrats to SoxLover for winning the whole thing. I do not think he would have done it if he had not gotten AA sixteen times. He accused 23Skidoo of having a horseshoe up his *** but he was hitting like crazy. Sometimes things run REAL hot. I think Sox is in that phase of the moon and I am staying away from him until it passes.

The best part probably was out-poisining the poison! Now I can not say she has "never" been ahead when I put money into a pot. She has been ahead once. Oh well. Nothing lasts forever. Oh yeah, and if your name is Byron, don't pick a fight with anyone. Just saying Byyyyyyyyyyron makes me laugh. I am easy.

Lately poker has been kind of fun. I am not overly concerned about the bad beats and I am just playing. It feels kinda good. I am sure I will get back to my ranting soon enough. I could feel a little heat when I got killed in the WWDN when A5 paired on the turn to suckout on me. I really should not have raised with my A6, but I was ahead, I knew I was ahead by the way the opponent played the hand.

The problem with playing weak aces, and the problem my opponent had in this hand, was when I lead out they had no idea where in the hand they were. Do they call my bet? Do they commit half there stack with an Ace, not knowing where the hell they stand? Apparently so. Now when the lucky 3 outer hit on the turn it was a nice hit for the person. However how often is that going to happen? Oh wait I forgot it is Riverstars. I had committed myself to the hand by the flop so I had to call the re-raise on the turn. Oh well. That is how it goes sometimes.

Who me?

the Shock Jock (61% dark, 61% spontaneous, 63% vulgar)

your humor style: VULGAR | SPONTANEOUS | DARK Your sense of humor is off-the-cuff and kind of gross. Is it is also sinister, cynical, and vaguely threatening to the purer folks of this world. You probably get off on that. You would cut a greasy fart, then blame it on your mom, and then just shrug when someone pointed out that she's dead. Yours is hands-down the most outrageous sense of humor; you like things trangressive and hardcore. It's highly likely (a) you have no limits (b) you have no scruples and (c) you have no job. Ironically, it's your type of humor that can make the biggest bucks in show business. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Howard Stern - Adam Sandler - Roseanne Barr

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Integrity

I have spoken about this in the past however I think it is worth reviewing. People write blogs for all different reasons. Almost as many reasons as people come and read them. I think the one thing I like about my blog is the integrity. The bare ass naked truth about my views of the world. I have been writing this blog for over two years. I have never written that I liked something just for ad dollars. I do not link up blogs because it would increase my page ranking. If I like a product I will display an ad for it. You can be guaranteed that I use that product. I read every single blog on my bloglines. I have no problem with other people doing things for advertising or touting products they do not use. My blog just follows my rules.

I am deadly honest about my poker playing. I have never lied about winning or losing. I have been truthful about what I play – both the good and the bad. It is not always easy. It was not fun on those nights when I tilted away bankrolls or when I did stupid things. I felt it was very important to be painfully honest in those situations because I am not the only one. If it helps someone get the monster under control, or comforts someone that they are not the only moron on the planet, then my job is done.

I have only removed a post twice. One time because a very good friend asked that I delay posting something for a few days. I agreed to this and published the full article a few days later. I actually ended up changing my mind about what I posted and wrote a follow-up article saying so. I am often wrong. I admit it. One other time someone else said they were embarrassed by something I wrote. Reluctantly I removed it.

I really feel that as a pseudo writer all I have is my integrity. I refuse to compromise that anymore. Do not ask me to change anything in any of my posts beyond putting up safety warnings on my links. If someone reads a comment on my blog that offends them tough luck. I am sure I have offended many people over the years. I will continue to do so in the future too. If you can not get my sense of humor or think my writing is too cutting then read someone else. People read this blog not for the strategy, although you sometimes get good posts, or the news, or anything besides a down and dirty look at one poker players life. It will remain true to its roots.

In exchange I think I get some of the most loyal readers in the world. I may not be an "A" lister but the people who stop by this blog for whatever reasons tend to be the kind of people I like. They root each other on during those long cold nights on Riverstars. There always there to encourage you when you do well or tell you to shut up when you whine too much. Nightly "home" games are the norm with this group. I really feel blessed by all of you.

ALOT to cover..

John Daly, please, pay me 1 million dollars, I will give you lessons, and save you 32 million. PLEASE! I can help. Really I can. I am an expert in this kind of thing.

I lost the WWDN. HOWEVER. I played as well as I could. I placed in the top 20. I got all my money in with a great chance to double up and make the final table. No suckouts. Just did not win the coin flips.

Also, It was one of the most fun WWDN's that I have had in a long time. I had Kat, Loud Down There, Gracie, Psycho Chick, Irish Chick Friend of SoxLover, and a whole cast of charectors. It was a HELLA good time. I could not stop laughing. Psycho chick was alot of fun. I forget what blog you run but feel free to post it in the comments. The insults, inuendo, and graphical sexual talk kept me in stitches.

As well as a fun hand where SoxLover convinced Irish Chick to fold a hand to me and then I turn over six high. It would have been fun if she could have seen me yelling "Come on! Fold! Fold!". I did have outs. However they were slim. It actually is a sign of respect when I put a move on a player. It means I beleive they can fold. She played very well tonight. Sometimes gets too attached to pockets but overall a fun player.

I played a 55$/SNG TURBO! Took third place. I have been enjoying the turbos. Probably above what I should play but I am having fun and making the money more than I am not.
If you have not had much luck at final tables in the 180's and the like I highly suggest one of these. Usually you wind up with high blinds, a low stack, and you have to make tough decisions. Pushing with a good hand is not always the right decision especially in a 180/SNG when you have spent hours getting to the final table, and every person who goes out gets you more money (or in this case closer to the money). I was really surprised these were not push-fests all the way through and again I reccomend them if you find yourself going out 12th in the 180's or something like that. Approach them with the mindset of how do I hold on and yet not get so short stacked that I have no shot at first. You want to keep a dangerous amount of chips. You want your all-in to mean something. You also do not want to go wild on every weak ace you see just because the blinds are HUGE. It is more profitable to wait people out at that point. Obviously everything is situational but this is in general how I play these.

I also want to play more of the 50$/MTTs on Stars. The ones where you can win 5K+. Again slightly above my bankroll but I think I need to take some shots to both improve my game and possibly hit a nice payday. Something that will mean something to me. I always have the $500 I cashed out if I need to rebuy. However so far in a week I am down $80 or so. Not bad at all. I have not given up on the 20$/180's and the like. I am still playing those. I just want to take more shots at bigger prizes. I also want to see how "supposed" better players approach the game.

Tomorrow night is the Big-O Mookie Tourney.

Thursday night is the Blue Veiner Memorial for Poker champ. May his blog rest in peace.. we miss you champ! Password is monkey and it starts at 8EST. Blame Wes if you hate the time. Works for me though.

Also the WWDN:Not is running at 10:30. Darval is running this one. Password is monkey again.

Alot of cool "Blogger" events to have fun in. Be safe out there!

I cant beleive..

I was playing a 55$/Turbo SNG. Five times I have the guy all in with AQ vs hands like 84o.. and five times I lose.. and know what I can really not beleive? How fucking hard I was laughing. It was worth a second place finish. It was just too funny. I guess that is what accepting poker is about?

** Duggle, please read my highly edjamicated response to your gramma lesson. I am so happy when someone teaches me goot anglois. Butting into something you know nothing about is cool too.

Blog of the Month

First off.. Veneno your a NitWit.

Ok, Now that I got that off my chest. I would like to announce the next Blog of the Month: Drumroll please... WIRED PAIRS; POKER RECOLLECTIONS! Now having read his blog for a long time I know some people will go there and make idiotic comments and annoy him. I sometimes do not follow his strategy perfectly. I misread his posts and think he is making donkey plays. He for sure plays a different game than I do.

However I recently got a chance to sit down with him at a cash table and have him tutor me a little. He explained why each move made sense and the purpose behind doing it. Of course he yelled at me several times "READ SUPER SYSTEM YOU DONKEY!". Just talking to the guy I realized that he puts alot of thought into his poker game and is a VERY intelligent player. I would not be at all surprised to hear of him doing some amazing things in the near future. So best luck to you Fluxer! Keep on doing your own thing.

Still Here..

I missed the WBPT event this weekend. Let Kat gain a few spots on me. Oh well. I was really exhausted this weekend and decided to go fishing. My son really enjoyed it. We ended up catching two fish. The first one was a good sized perch. My son kept calling him "Perky". The second one was a monster size Big Mouth Bass. Now if I lived in Hicksville I might be able to eat the thing and not worry about mutant genes, however as it was we ended up throwing both guys back. After my son proudly displayed the fish to all the other fisherpeople.

Poker has been on an even keel. Somewhat downwards but not at epic proportions. I have been really analyzing my game lately. Not sure how much this is helping but I am turning a deep eye inward. We shall see what happens..