Lets get this straight

First off I will say I went overboard a little with Slb.. but let's get a few things straight here. I did not berate the guy in the chat for the table. Even though he did not mention it at all I only taked to him, I thought privatly, in IM. He then feels the need to broadcast it to the world in his blog. At least fucking present all the facts. Yes. I was pissed off at him. I guess I should be happy to play with him. I have played maybe 5 sessions with the guy. I have either made money off him or seen him lose alot of money most of the times. In those few sessions he has caught a 2-outer off of me for a bunch of money twice. He probably has better suckout powers than Veneno. I also in a way was trying to help the guy. Sure I went about it the wrong way but I doubt he will fold TPSK even after I yelled at him. So I guess I am trying to teach the wrong guy in the wrong way.

Also if Slb is trying to say something about my ability to take bad beats he should look in the mirror. I never claimed to be a saint. I am an emotional maniac for sure. I fully admit it. You all should admit thats what you like about me. However I can not count the number of times I have seen Slb berate players after a bad beat and even worse mock them after a nice win. I once saw him follow a guy around a tourney for a half an hour until he busted berating the player.

So if you really want to sling mud then go ahead but at least be honest. I will respect your wishes and not tell you a thing about how you play. I will not chat with you if you sit down at a game with me. I wont offer advice in chat or at a table. Play anyway you want. I just could care less.

Dejected

Outlasted over 1200 people to finish 23rd in the 5$/MTT. The hands that killed me? I was in the top five with 40 left when I flop trip 9's. I push. KK calls. The king on the turn was fun. I then try to get back to 50K by pushing KK. I get called by (to be fair) a huge stack with A7d. The flop is an Ace and I make a whole $44. Fuck you Poker Gods! Fuck you all.

The Black Widow

I decided to play a little live poker at Foxwoods last night. I blame MiamiDon entirely for corrupting me and making me like live play. In addition Dr. Pauly gets a shout out for getting me to Foxwoods the first time. It was now time for me to grow up and go to a casino all by my lonesome. It would be my third session playing live poker if you include Vegas as one long session.

So when do I choose to do this? I wait until the day that massive severe thunderstorms are scheduled and I head off right into the heart of them. Why? Because that is how Waffles roles. I am driving down the highway into this massive storm thinking maybe I have made a mistake but being too stubborn to turn around and all of the sudden the wind gusts push the edge of my windshield wiper blade over the side of the car. So do I stop? No way! I roll down my widow and stick my arm out to hold the wiper blade on the car. I mean picture this for a second I am flying down the highway at 60 miles per hour with lightning flashing all around me and my hand out the widow holding the car together. Rain was dripping down my arm and I had the other widow open because the AC is having some issues and it was damn hot. A whirlwind of McDonalds bags finally caused me to have to roll up the passenger side widow.

Finally I made it to Foxwoods. It is truly a beautiful casino. Where Vegas is all lights and glitter the Indian reservation is just a huge hotel surrounded by nature. I found my way to the new WPT poker room and signed up on the waiting list. I was not entirely happy with the way it worked. You put your name on and there was no board or
any way to tell where you were in the list. They had a thousand plasma TV sets laying all sorts of sports but not a single way for me to tell how long I had to wait. The speaker system was pretty good though and it only took about fifteen minutes to get seated on a Friday night with twenty people before me. The room itself is huge and
has widows to the outside so you can see time passing. Of course the 5$ toke they take every hour helps you tell that time is passing also.

I sat down at my first table and could not believe my good fortune. The things that people were willing to get stacked with were incredible. I bought $200 in chips but was informed it was maximum $100 buyin. So I stuck the other hundred in my pocket.

A few of the players on the table were pops and his son Fast Eddie. Pops was a decent player even though he over valued some of his hands. I think in this game that was not such a bad thing. He stacked his son consistently with some of the worse suckouts of the night. Every time Fast Eddie was all in he would call. My first hand of the night was with Eddie and basically his main problem was he did not know how to bet. I had KQc and the flop came Jxx one club. He checked TPTK on the flop and then only bet ten bucks on the turn. However when I completed my flush on the river he was more than willing to call my all in. Fast Eddie just needs to learn how to protect his hands.

Revlon was in the four seat for a while. He was a pretty boy who would give Ick a run for his money. He had his t-shirt showing just enough of his hairless chest and I swear he was wearing nail polish. He would be my bitch at the table as I repeatedly stacked his ass. I flopped trip tens against his AK and finally put him out of his misery. Every hand we were in he would stare me down and I would put a huge shit eating grin on my face. I love stacking pretty boys.

In the last seat was a decent player and I tried to stay away from him for the most part. He was a little too confident about his play and I used this to my advantage. He raised $15 before me and I decide to disguise my kings a little by raising it $25 more. I was hoping he had a pocket pair under aces and I was right. He immediately went all in with his queens and I stacked him.

It was going better than I could imagine. On my first $100 buyin I was up to a little over $300. It was going so well until SHE sat down. The Black Widow. I would learn her name after a big hand we were involved in. She was there to have fun. A Veneno type player in the true meaning of the word. She was attractive to look at and I figured it would
be fun to have a lady at the table. Immediately after sitting down she stacks someone when she calls off most of her chips on a flush draw. She then proceeds to flop a set of nines and just tear up the table. In about a half an hour she had me outchipped. I remember thinking to myself "She is on a run stay away". Did I listen to myself? If I did I would not be Waffles.

I look down and see a nice starting hand. Big Slick! A freaking K of hearts. I do not want to screw around with this hand so I immediately raise twenty and hope to get people to fold. I get called by the Widow. The flop comes Axx with two spades. I bet you can see where this is going? I bet out another forty and she looks at me and innocently puts her chips in the pot. The turn completes the flush but I refuse to be scared and I bet out again. She raises me another $50 into a pot that is over $200 already. I have to call. We both check the river and this is where I think she was bluffing me. Nope. She turns over T8s for the ten high flush. I asked why she did not bet the river and she replied in her sweet voice "You scared me".

Do not believe for a second she was innocent my readers. She was there to have fun. Her definition of fun was to suckout on people and make them cry. A true evil if ever there was one. Even her friends that she plays poker with realized this as she told me the name they called her "The Black Widow". So now my hard earned winnings of the night had been cut in half and I was fuming. I admit I muttered a few things under my breath as she continued to get incredibly lucky. I was on full blown Waffles tilt! My face was flush with anger and I started playing poorly. I finally got stacked with 44 on a Txx flop because I was mad and also there was enough money in the pot to try and suckout.

I pulled my other hundred in chips out of my pocket and placed them on the table. I took a deep breath and told myself to calm down and win my money back. I was more than a little upset at the huge swing I had taken. I would soon realize that this table was a HUGE variance type of table where anything could and often did happen.

One of he funniest hands of the night was when the Widow had raised fifteen before me. I declare to the table that I DO NOT want to play ANY hands with the widow and I slide sixty eight dollars into the middle of the table. Sixty eight dollars. Do I get one caller? Oh no. I get called by both the Black Widow AND a dope that does not even get a name. On the flop I push the rest of my stack in on a low board. The Widow finally decides to fold and it is HU between me and dummy. I river a boat and he turns over T8 s00ted. She had ATo. Unfuckingbeleivable. I think if an Ace had hit the flop I would have gone ballistic. She would have loved that. I then threatened her by saying I was going to write all about this and over two hundred people would learn of the Black widow.

After winning that hand I was in a slightly better mood. She yells over that we are even now and I laugh and say she owes me another fifty. It was true you know! Every time we would get into a hand together after that I would take my two fingers point to my eyes and then point to her eyes. I have no idea why. It was fun though. I would like to say I played perfect poker for the rest of the night but I was up and down. Some due to my play and other hands due to suckouts or bad laydowns. Pops got me good once when he had JJ and I flopped my queen. He lead out on the flop and I cold called. An ace showed on the turn and I chickened out. Nicely played old man.

A guy who thought he was a great player lost a hand to the Widow and called her a bitch. I called him Mr. Hat for the rest of the night because he wore a hat down over his eyes so you could not read his soul. I do not think this worked because every time he raised a hand someone re-raised him and he had to fold his bluff. It was comical.

I will say that the Black widow was a hell of a lot of fun. We both had the whole table in stitches at the end of the night. Her friend Dye Job (that was not her natural hair color was it?) came by later and played a few hands. I could feel a sucking out motion pulling at me from their end of the table. All in all it was a really fun time.

I think by the end of the night the Widow and I had come to a peaceful acceptance of each other. I accepted that she was there to have fun and you can not change omeone's nature and should not even try. I fell victim to not her suckout powers but her ability to have a good time and we left it at that. I finally decided I was tired and
racked up my chips. I was up a buyin and a half after a night of really wild poker. I wrote down my blog address for the widow and hopefully she will come by and possibly leave a comment or two. I never asked if she lived around there or was just visiting from out of town but I would love to play with her again sometime.

I hate my Job

Anyone want to hire me to be a male stripper? No? Ok then just go watch this. It is work safe.

I am uniquely Ugly

New Reader

Is it just me or when you are loosing bad and go on "tilt" do you start doing stupid shit? I lost that 15$ when i was holding pocket fives (oh boy) flopped a 5 for trips and got beat by the full house the other guy OBVIOUSLY had by the way he was betting. STUPID donkey move! - nijle

You have asked about my most expert subject: TILT. Alot of times you may not really feel your on tilt. Your face maybe gets a little warm. You chase a flush here and there. After taking a bad beat though it is usually a good idea to take a break. I also like to take a break after I have been playing for a few hours. You can only stay dialed in for so long. So breathers are good.

One thing I am trying to do is take a grinding approach. My goal on average is to make $13 a day playing two tables of 25/NL. I think it is a reasonable goal. Some nights I will hit a nice SNG score or do really well and make more, other nights I will lose a buyin or more and not do as well. I sort of think making a target or a goal is good because you can say: Ok, if I stick to this, I should be able to get to (X) dollars in 6 months. You may not make this goal. However it gives you something to look forward to.

As you make more and more of these small achievable goals you can start moving up the ladder and playing 50/NL and 100/NL or whatever you want. You can see the $13 a day become $26 at 50/NL and $52 at 100/NL and suddenly your bankroll has some momentum and is looking pretty nice. The whole key to making money in poker is grinding out sustainable wins over time and not sweating the variance.

I also am trying to keep my loses down on any given night. I give myself two buyins to play with. If I win great.. If I lose then I am not getting lucky or I am not playing well and so be it.

Check yourself against your goals every two weeks or so and see how your bankroll is growing. If it is not use a tool like poker tracker and figure out where you are losing. In your biggest losses did you tilt off and lose more than you set aside for the night. Did you get frustrated and start chasing every draw and calling all in with TPS(hit)K(icker).

I only gave one peice of advice to Kitty ever and it was this: FOLD. Fold often. Fold frequently. Fold all the time. Be a folding machine. She thought I was talking about a sweater she knitted but when I explained it helped her game. I noticed I was getting stacked way too often with top pair. I went back to the folding ways and it seems to be paying off. Be patient. You will get better hands than top pair to beat your opponent with but only if you give yourself the time to get those hands. In the limits we are playing right now it is especially important to fold. As a matter of fact I do not think it would be a bad thing to say: I will not lose more than 25% of my stack with TPTK or something like that. Getting stacked when your AK flops an Ace and someone else hits a set is just no fun. It is not profitable poker. I see alot of people cackle with glee as they put there whole stacks in on a marginally good read with TPTK and win. In the long run I think you lose more often.

So hang in there. Take it slow. Some people get lucky and win huge MTTs, but the cash grinder just consistantly makes a profit year after year. Play within your bankroll. Good luck.

Cardrunners

First off I would like to say things are running good. The bankroll is climbing. I have it near 400 now after buying back in for 100 a few weeks ago. I got a nice boost when I took second in a 45/SNG tonight. I think my game has been improving. I still have some bad nights and did give some back tonight. I will keep grinding those cash tables out and see where it goes.

I recently was contacted by www.cardrunners.com. I was told to try out the site and that I would be given some access to the site. I have not heard anything for almost a month I think so I will have to assume it was just a scam to get there database numbers up. If I am mistaken then I will let you know.

Old School Nerds Unite

Zork has been recreated in PHP. If you do not know what a Zork is and have never been eaten by a Grue you are not an Old School Nerd.

Three Hands

I want to review three hands. The first is the one Wes mentioned. I am in EP, raise my AQo, and get reraised. Let's play Wes's favorite game. What could he possibly have. AK but why re-raise? AA again most people are just going to call. So the most likely hand in my opinion is a pair less than Aces. So why should I re-raise when I know I am slightly behind? I think that would be stupid Wes. I saw a flop. I hit my Ace. I trusted I was ahead. I played the hand perfectly and got two outered. Oh well. I bet every street pre-flop, flop, turn, and even the river. We will get back to that in a minutte.

Now I would like to review a nice read I think I made. I was play a "Wes" type player that puts you on a hand range and will not think outside the box. I knew this guy was a good player from watching him. He raised 1$ before me. I re-raised $5 with pocket rockets. Now normally this would be a stupid move however I knew that this guy would put me on a small pair. He chose the range of hands I would re-raise five dollars and ruled out aces and kings. The flop came Kxx and from his read of lower pockets he felt he was ahead. I was then able to stack him.

Now back to my MTT. I think I misplayed one portion because of frustration. I could have cold called the river and had around 4K left. Now that would have sucked but at least I would have been in the game and able to possibly come back. I put the guy on kings. I roped him in and had him bent over.. and then I not only let him go but gave him a fifty and told him to call me later. I need to realize as long as I have chips I am able to do amazing things. So next time I will just cold call the river king. I will go with my read. I will then have minutes to hours of calling this guy a fucktard until I bust.

Duggles would be proud

Actually before we get to the meat of this post I have a question. Your playing a cash game. No reads lets say. A guy raises in MP 4xBB and another guy calls. You have AJo in position on a 9 player table. What do you do? What do you do?

Ok now that I got that out of the way, why would Duggles be proud? I was 40 to the money in a 5$ MTT that started with 1000+ people. I had a nice big 10K stack. I see AQo in EP. I raise 3xBB and get re-raised another 2xBB or so. So I call. The flop comes Axx. I figure I am ahead so I bet 2K. The turn is a blank and I fire out another large bet. At this point in time the guy has called off at least half his stack maybe more. The river is a KING. We get all in for the rest. I would have had 4K left. He turns over KK for the win. I did not call him an idiot. Unfucking beleivable. I would have had over 20K in chips and been 240 to the money. I would have been in the top ten of stacks. Ouch. That. Hurts. Why. Cant. The. Poker. Gods. Let. Me. Win. Just. One.

Cash games were up and down. I ended up like 15+ for the night at the 25/NL tables. I consider this good since I busted out of one table and got suckered into a hand on a second table where I pushed and rivered a set. Same as moron man above however I had about ten bucks left. I was not playing for over 1K. I am still steaming. Anyhow. Not a bad night. I almost doubled up on three tables so that worked out well. Bankroll is slowly grinding a profit. No complaints.

Ad Whores

I never have been interested in Ad Whoring and the like but sometimes it is nice to look at the stats. So in honor of you ad chasing whores I figured I would post a few stats. I like doing this from time to time. All stats are for this week only.

Top 10 Referrers to my Ramblings:

1. Le Suckout Artiste
2. MOOOOOOKIE!!!
3. Wired Pairs (Fluxer)
4. The Blogfather
5. Icky
6. Up For Poker
7. Dear Poker Diary
8. Poker Nerd
9. Sir AlCantHang
10. Yo Soy Veneno and Miami Don

Average unique visitors is about 250 a day. I have a loyal following. It brings tears to my eyes. Interesting enough 33% of my daily traffic is new people and the rest is returning visitors mostly 17+ times. Thanks!

Top Ten Keyword Searches:
1. waffles poker blog
2. game waffles
3. man on man sex
4. candle seeing through cards poker story
5. poker with michelle
6. online poker is rigged pokerstars
7. mookie and michelle
8. high stakes poker dvd
9. dwarf sex -sex dwarf
10. zeejustin

Me thinks I talk WAYYYYY too much about aberrant sexual acts.

This part is always fun.

Top Ten Countries:

1. USA
2. Canada (Thanks Kat!)
3. UK
4. Germany
5. Russia
6. Aussies (Thanks Loud!)
7. France
8. Ireland
9. Switzerland
10. Norway and Lithuania

If you guys from Russia and Lithuania have not signed my map please click on the link on the right hand side that reads "Click Here" and add yourself. It would be really cool to have you on my map of readers! I promise I will not show up at your door in Lithuania.

I always get a kick out of these stats. I really do not use them. I only shill sites that I use and like. I shill people and things that I think help my game. I really do not go for the whole ad whoring thing even though I have nothing against it.

One last funny stat, here are the page rankings for some of my favorite sites:

Pokerstars: 7
Full Tilt: 6
Party Poker: 6
Ultimate Bet: 6
DoubleAs: 6
Iggy: 6
Pauly: 6
Up For Poker: 6
Waffles: 5
AlCantHang: 5
JJOK: 5
Mr. Dreamy: 5
Duggle: 5
Jordon: 5
GCox: 5
TripJax: 5
Texas: 5
JoeSpeaker: 5
CarmenSinCity: 4
Poison: 4
Jewels: 4
MiamiDon: 4
Mookie: 3
Kitty: 3
Bobby Bracelet: 2
Hoy: 2
Fluxer: 0
Slb: 0

Interesting Night

I had a night that is pretty rare for me. I actually played somewhat poorly on a few hands. I know my loyal readers you can believe that they guy who gets the money in with the best hand 99.9% of the time actually sucked out. It is true. Sort of.

The night started with me playing the WWDN. I basically won like 2 hands. The only that got me to the final table was against Mowemdown. I had AJo with a fairly short stack and decided to raise. I believe Kelly had limped in or possibly was the BB. So he goes over the top of me and basically if I had folded I would have been down to like 700 chips. So I make a very loose very bad call. He flips over his cowboys and before he can start celebrating an Ace hits the flop. Ouch. Kelly basically got totally screwed all night. Some of which was his fault like when he limped Aces and let KJc get 13 outs on the flop. That is pretty dangerous as he found out when the turn made a flush for his opponent. I forget the other hand he lost. I think he got taken out when his TT was beat by both KQ and A5. LMAO. I feel for you brother. It was nice to get a little revenge on him as he has been kicking my ass lately.

I was able to final table in the WWDN which is a good sign. I think my game is really coming back around after it took a while off. I ended up busting out 8th but I had a brain fart at the final table. First hand I am looking at 99 and only the sb and bb left to call me. I meant to push as I had about 10M however I raised 3x the blinds and let myself be pushed off the hand on a AQx flop. I would have been more satisfied to finish 9th and have pushed and lost a race, than eight with that brain fart of a move. It crippled me and lead to me being sucked out on by the luckbox, 22 vs KJo. I had no chips and so even though I called him a fish I was just joking. I was proud of the laydown I made when JJOK went out. He basically pushed in front of me. I folded because he was all in. It only left me 1K in chips with 1K blinds BUT he did bust out and so I moved up a spot in the money. I did not like that K6d anyways. The ducks were better.

While all this was going on I lost a few bucks at a 25/NL cash table. It was pretty juicy. I got a guy to call my all in post flop with my QQ vs his K4. He had hit a 4 on the flop. He turned another 4 and there goes a buyin. I know I am such a lucky guy.

So after the blogger game we got a cash game going. Jordon was whining that 25/NL was too little so we went to a 50/NL table. I also had a 25/NL table running in the background. Jordon actually played a hand masterfully so I called him a fucktard. I actually would not have played it this way only because I hate giving free cards as they usually burn me. I had KK and he raised before me. I cold called and an Ace came on the flop. It went check-check and I convinced myself he did not have an Ace. It cost me ten bucks when he flipped over his AK. Oh well. He totally had me fooled so in that way it was a good play. Of course if I turned a king on him that would have been the end of his stack. I need to incorporate more slow playing into my game but I also think it is important to know when to slow play and when to stop.

The interesting hand of the night was one where I attempted a positional blind steal. I am getting into those because of my boy Don. I have QTo either on the button or cutoff and I raise to two bucks. I get re-raised three more. Normally I would end it here. However I had the Angels on one chat window (Don) and Satan on the other (Fluxer). Now I say they are good and evil only because their games are opposite. Flux like high variance, high risk, poker. He will make four or five buyins or lose one every time. Don is more of a slow and steady wins the race type. So Satan says "Go ahead and call, I would". So I call. The flop comes JJ9. Now I bet out eight bucks. The pre-flop raiser re-raises me all in which is 23$ more for me to call. The pot has about $26 in it so I am not getting odds. I ask the angel what he would do. He says "You must find your own path my son". I ask Satan what he would do, "Fuck man! Tough call, go for it! Your the man!". So my soul is saying what are you doing fucktard but my hand is clicking the call button. It is usually not a good thing to press call when every fiber of your being is saying "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!". So I miss the straight entirely. I am about ready to cry when he flips over 78o and misses his gutshot-bluff. Wow! I suddenly find myself up to $85 and end the table almost doubling.

I lost some of that profit on the other 25/NL table I was on. I basically was just not playing very well. I soon folded that and called it a night. It was kind of funny to be at the second table though because a reader shouted out to me. I have yet to convert him to blogging but it was fun playing with him. I Told him to stop chasing flush draws with no odds though! Baaastaaad!

One interesting thing in the chat tonight. A player who will not be named since I have been starting wayyyy too much trouble starts ragging on Slb for a questionable play he made. I kind of felt like it was too harsh and it kind of pissed me off. So later on when Don pushed his whole stack in against this guy and he was like "FUCK!", I said that Don only did that because he knew you were a pussy. I instantly got the desired effect of pissing the person off. It is kind of ironic to me though that he can dish it out and had a little trouble swallowing it. Now I do not mean to say this blogger is a jerk, I like him alot, and he is a good guy, but only I am allowed to pick on Slb and if anyone else tries it I will turn my evil powers towards you. Please don't rat the player out in comments. If he feels like coming forward and discussing anything that is his prerogative.

So anyways.. I really feel my MTT game is coming along with 4 ITM's in the past week. It needs something though because I have not made a big score. The cash game is on and off. I am still learning. My biggest problem is extracting enough value out of my hands. I also allow myself to get stacked on occasion when I know I should fold. Especially with KK pre-flop. If you see a raise, re-raise, and get re-raised should you be willing to go all in? I am on the fence. I actually folded pockets queens to two people raising-and-re-raising pre-flop in an SNG. It turned out I was up against AJc and 77. The 77 guy was the aggressor. Ug. I would have flopped a queen and been styling. Sick. Peace out biatches.

Playing better.. I guess..

I have been tearing up the 25/NL table. I am happy with that. I ran my KK into AA last night. I do not think there was any way I was getting away from that hand as the flop came AKJ. Oh well.

I finished 30th or so in a 560 person 10$ MTT. I finished 6th in a 180 person 4.40 SNG. The bankroll is building.

Duggles wrote a nice little piece on my play in the 180 person. I totally disagree with his Poker conclusion though. The situation was this. I pushed in the SB with 11K worth of chips into a guy who had 22K in chips. I had A7o, he had QJc. As Duggle mentioned it was a 60/40 coin flip. I think it is a bad call though. You are risking half your chips when each spot pays exponentially more. I only pushed because I had an M<10 and figured a naked ace was probably better than what the next guy had. I later saw the guy go out in third when he called the big stacks all in with J2h. He is a flushtard and their is nothing else to say. If he had just waited a little he would have outlasted the small stack and made twice as much. I beleive I made the correct move. period. I was right. I lost. I exploited an edge and got called by a moron. Period. End of story.

I have never claimed I am not emotional about my game. Hello? Have you not read this blog before? I usually try not to call people idiots but on occassion I can not resist. I think 6th sucks. I do not care that I beat 174 people. Hell I did not care when I beat 530 people. It still is not first. I play for the ring baby, second place is not for me. I play with some emotion and I think it helps me in some ways because if I am uninterested in the game I play like crap. While it is true I should not expect brilliance in any low limit game I play it can still be aggrevating.

I am officially boycoting the DADI this Wednesday. Even though Mookie agreed to cancel his tourney it is my favorite MTT and I for one think it could be on a different day.

I have a Talent

Man do I have a great talent. Apparently I was able to cost Slb over seven grand by talking to him in the girlie chat for five minutes. Even though he was a few thousand to the money I cursed him because that final table money was his. I knew I could piss people off but this is amazing. I am very happy at how my dark jedi powers are progressing. I knew I could annoy people in the chat. Soxlover and Jordon have been my targets frequently. However what I did not know was that I could pop into a chat room for five minutes, make one comment, and put someone on such bad tilt that they bust out a half an hour later when some tool makes his gutshot draw. I also made him harass the guy who busted him for an hour until he busted out. I am incredible. All of you bow down to my great dark powers. You can rent my powers for 19.99 an hour. Just transfer the money to stars and let me know who the target is. That is all.

iPods Meh

I did alright in the iPod race on Full Tilt. I was the chip leader for a little while. I then ran my AK s000ted into GamblingBlues 6's and again my AJ into his 9's. I owe you bitch. heh. I actually never get to play with him so I probably will not get payback for a while.

One of the most ironic things about the tourney was that Slb fronted me a buck on Ful Tilt to play in the game and I ended up busting him with a set. Oops. I love Irony. It is good for your bones you know!

I want to thank MiamiDon for his poker challenge. He challenged me to make it to $100 by the end of the weekend and to play better more patient cash game. I always like to yank his chain but I respect his game cash game alot. Although I really think that QJs hand I had was brilliant pressure poker. Oh well. I did fail the challenge as I only made like a little over eighty but I am getting a better feel for the cash game I think. Although I really should be making more money with my good hands.

I guess I give my opponents too much credit for having a better hand. Like tonight. Mookie and I tangled in a hand. The board ends up JJJxx and I have KK. I called the hand down to the river and then called a bet that put me all in. Is this a hand you are willing to go broke with? Just say "oh well" if you get stacked by AA or Jx? I did not think he had AA or AJ. He did raise pre-flop but not alot. If I had more chips I am not sure I would have re-raised him.

I had a fun time playing with Slb tonight too. We always have something nice to say about each other:

Shawn L.: giving a midterm tomorrow morning
SirFWALGMan: lol
SirFWALGMan: gl man
Shawn L.: differential equations
slb159: partial, or ordinary
Shawn L.: ordinary
slb159: k, cool
SirFWALGMan: slb is smart
SirFWALGMan: except in poker

One of my favorite things tonight was when I took my frustration at a guy and looked at it to see what was causing it. The guy basically noticed that he could push me off hands and also that if I checked the flop and called his bet he could usually put a bigger turn bet in and get me to fold. So what I did was tone down my aggression with him. I let him do all the betting for me. I ended up kicking his ass with kings when he caught part of the board. I had another good hand too which escapes me. After a few kicks in the balls that way he backed wayy the hell off whenever I was in a hand. I give him credit for his bluffs but I am happy to have found a way to defeat him. I love revenge.

Surflexus pissed me off a little tonight. I had a few bucks on FT and he calls a bet pre-flop and goes for a weak ass flush draw for my entire stack just because he usually plays higher stakes and did not care. I am sure he did not mean anything by it. Actually though it is why I hide myself from search on Stars now. I do not want people playing with me just because I am a blogger and donking around because they do not care. I have been trying to play seriously and that kind of thing sucks.

Ick still will not send me a picture of his wife. He promised me. Like months ago. Apparently the little lady is self conscience. How bad can it be though Ick? Is she a brace face little piggy or something? I am curious. You must send the picture. Respect my Authoratah! Send the picture! Hell send me an old picture of when she was young and sexy. I would probably like that better anyways.

Speaking of sexy I replayed my voice mail messages from Carmen tonight. *sigh*.

Pressure Poker

I finally got my copy of Pressure Poker by DoubleAs. I have read a little bit. I will be reviewing it after I finish the whole thing. It is just in time for my cash game life. I refuse to let cash games beat me anymore. I shall defeat you my nemesis!!

Full Tilt iPod Contest

Poker on a Mac

The Boy

The boy is a pain in the ass sometimes. It makes him both very loveable and very frustrating at the same time. He decided he wanted to break his arm so he could get a cast like Sarah. I convinced him not to do this. If he is not the center of attention he gets a little angry. So I made him a cast out of newspaper and that seems to have worked. Actually to get back at Sarah for getting so much attention he went an got bit by a bee or wasp or something. It swelled up a little but not too bad.

On another note I got to meet one of my favorite bloggers ever!!!! Well not really meet but I talked to.. get ready for it.. Lord Geznikor!!! What? You newbies do not know him? Well he is the only blogger who I would say is crazier than me. nuff said. If you have not read his archives you should. I really respect the honesty in his writing and it is a code I try to live up to. I am really hoping that he goes to the meet up in December.

My. Little Girls a Dope Addict

Ok. Possibly not. However she did get a nice shot of morphine tonight to head her down the path to become a crack whore. Just got back from the hospital where she had to have her broken arm fixed. She cracked both bones in the front of her arm. I guess the procedure for fixing this is to push the bones back into place. Sounds painful. She was a brave trooper though. Sorry I could not see Ick finish up second in his MTT. I think he won like 1300. No way could he have brought it all the way home.. he is just not that good.

I spawned another child this week.. Welcome Frodo to the blogging scene. I now take credit for the lovely Veneno, the mentally challenged Slb, and the missing in action Gordogg. If I have anymore children I will need to be on welfare like Frodo's babies momma.

You Decide

Waffles: I think this was a brilliant play on my part. I applied pressure the whole way through. I just ran into a moron. I can not see how he makes the call pre-flop, on the flop, or on the turn. The only place he even slowed down was the turn. I felt he thought I had the straight so I pushed. He waited for a long time before calling with a flush draw and 1 card left. I think this is the way you should play poker. I can find nothing wrong with my play except the end result.

Don: You are a fucking Donkey, you had Queen high, you will never win that way.

You Decide.

---

PokerStars Game #5636674606: Tournament #28509922, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level X (400/800) - 2006/07/21 - 22:13:07 (ET)
Table '28509922 4' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: Feety Five (10700 in chips)
Seat 3: Hilders (11410 in chips)
Seat 5: wayofbeing (10435 in chips)
Seat 6: jaywallin (22589 in chips)
Seat 8: SirFWALGMan (8645 in chips)
Seat 9: jagatty (3721 in chips)
Feety Five: posts the ante 50
Hilders: posts the ante 50
wayofbeing: posts the ante 50
jaywallin: posts the ante 50
SirFWALGMan: posts the ante 50
jagatty: posts the ante 50
jagatty: posts small blind 400
Feety Five: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SirFWALGMan [Qs Js]
Hilders: folds
wayofbeing: folds
jaywallin: folds
SirFWALGMan: raises 1600 to 2400
jagatty: folds
Feety Five: calls 1600
*** FLOP *** [3h 2s 5d]
Feety Five: bets 800
SirFWALGMan: raises 1600 to 2400
Feety Five: calls 1600
*** TURN *** [3h 2s 5d] [3s]
Feety Five: checks
SirFWALGMan: bets 3795 and is all-in
Feety Five: calls 3795
*** RIVER *** [3h 2s 5d 3s] [2h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Feety Five: shows [Ks 4s] (two pair, Threes and Deuces)
SirFWALGMan: shows [Qs Js] (two pair, Threes and Deuces - lower kicker)
Feety Five collected 17890 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 17890 | Rake 0
Board [3h 2s 5d 3s 2h]
Seat 1: Feety Five (big blind) showed [Ks 4s] and won (17890) with two pair, Threes and Deuces
Seat 3: Hilders folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: wayofbeing folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: jaywallin folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: SirFWALGMan (button) showed [Qs Js] and lost with two pair, Threes and Deuces
Seat 9: jagatty (small blind) folded before Flop

Brought to you by the letter "F"

That hurts, Waffles
- Marx1st

I am sorry man. Sometimes the truth does hurt though. I will tell you what I would tell anyone else I would hope would try and get better at poker: LEARN HOW TO FOLD. It is tough. It is actually one of the toughest things in poker. I hate doing it. You hate doing it. When that guy turns over his bluff and gleams at you with those eyes saying: PUSSY! it hurts. However when you learn to fold you win. Do you know what hand loses people the most money? Aces with weak ass kickers. Why would you ever want to play that crap? All it is going to do is get you in trouble. Ask Katitude, when she found the fold button she made many final tables at these things. Really it is there for a reason. Please use the call button with caution. It is a tool of the devil. Repeat after me: TP sucks. TP sucks. TP sucks. Ok. Now if I can remember this I might start doing better again myself.

I actually had a decent night at the cash tables. I was up 40 at one point in time and then gave most of it back. A win is a win though I guess. We had a brogger table going with Slb, Mook, Skiddooo, MiamiDon, Kitty, and myself. Oh yeah some new guy meanandhappy showed up too. Seems like a good guy. On the bad guys team were the convict, and Frodo.

Frodo was a tool. He was on a good run. He kept accusing us of collusion. I have no idea where he got this idea since we were totally enjoying stacking one another. Convict was great. He lost 2-3 buyins and kept challenging people to HU at higher stakes. It was a pretty fun time. Carmen was there for a while too. See I can mention Carmen in every post. She won some money then left a little ahead. I think online cash games bore me. I mean I spend 4 hours last night and made eight bucks. Woo hoo! I think I have better things to do sometimes like trim my toenails. I dunno. Anyway be careful out there.

Carmen Rocks

Of course my post of yesterday was just me screwing around.. Carmen is perfect in every way and if I do not mention her in at least every other post I start breaking out in hives. I have been playing less online poker since my return from Vegas. I think it might be boring me. My play has really been poor. I can not really think of any other reasons.

Last night I had another overpair situation. I know.. I am such a lucky guy getting alot of practice with these. I said to myself "Lead out and let it go if there is too much pressure".. so I lead out and pushed when Dnasty re-raised. Umm.. Why did you not listen to yourself? Apparently his pair of fives had outflopped my pair of eights. Oh well.

Marx1st finally put me out of my misery. I flopped a flush draw with about 200 behind and decided to go for it. I was getting 3:1 with my draw and as it turns out I had around 15 outs twice over. Marx called off about ten percent of his stack with A5o.. no pair.. and as he said and I quote word for word "I thought you had a lower pair and I was drawing to my Ace".. errr.. I do not think this requires any comments on my part as it basically speaks for itself. I think my notes on him are dead on "Never folds anything". At least he is a cool guy.

I think I am going to play some live poker this weekend at Foxwoods. Live is a bit different and takes some adjusting to. For instance even if you can read someone it does not always mean you can win. In Vegas I was in this hand where I read this one guy perfectly. He was scared that his hand was behind after I raised pre-flop and he caught a part of the flop. I had an underpair to his pair and I thought his scared manorism meant he actually WAS behind. Instead it meant that he though he was behind but was going to call any bet I made anyways.

The ability to identify not only when someone is nervous but what they do because of that is important. A calling station may be nervous but he will not be able to get away from his nature. He will call you no matter what. It is in his nature.

Oh yeah I almost forgot.. we got a very special visitor yesterday: Felicia! Her comment was "You look like a serial killer, btw. Charles Manson has nothing on your.". Now I know she does not read my blog so one of her stoolies must have said I mentioned her. I agree with her comment the thing that makes it so funny though is she looks alot like me.. except my man boobs are bigger than her's. I swear though you could mistake us for twins.

I have WAYYYYY too much free time..

Man work is slow

So I need something to keep me busy. I have always been interested in the spirit world. Do weird little spirits exist. Demons? Angels? Ghosts? I find that show on the SciFi channel to be really interesting. One of my favorite episodes was the LightHouse incident. It was freaky and has to make you think. The background on that clip was basically they saw this thing moving and it jumps up like two flights in a few seconds.. and moves all around where a motion detector is running and a huge, creaky, locked door is. No other way in or out. Weird.

I was surfing around the net and reading stories about Ouija boards and stuff. That is pretty freaky. Do not really think I can believe any internet posted drivel but this was a funny quote:

I pull out my Ouija board, lit some candles, and put on my crucifix (always good to have a little god on your side when you're messing around with the unknown).

I would assume that the church has a no-ouija policy. So basically it is like he is saying: When summoning demons from hell in an evil satanic ritual lets wear a cross. I like irony. It is good for my diet.

If you want to waste some time read a few of these: http://www.graveaddiction.com/.

We have had a weird experience or two at our house. The wife thinks that the guy who first built our house is still hanging around. For a little while there things got really freaky. I have always felt weird vibes at the front of our door and one time last July when I was coming home from work I swear I heard a voice say my name “Wafffflleeeesss…”, which was really strange since it was midnight and everyone in the house was asleep. We have always heard noises like footsteps running down our hallway. Could be the heater. We have forced hot water and it makes some interesting sounds.

The freakiest thing I ever saw though was one night when I was in the living room and I swear I saw some shadows move across the ceiling. It was pretty freaky. The kids claim they see ghosts in their rooms too.. I kind of think that they just want to sleep with mommy so they make things up.. but who knows..

My wife is the real ghost person though.. she used to live in Bucks County, PA and she told me that she had seen a guy in civil war garb fall down in her front yard and disappear. Strange stuff. She is always feeling like someone is watching over her shoulder and constantly see’s things out of her peripheral vision. I would like to assume she is just insane as this fits in nicely with my view of the world but I guess I have to give her the benefit of the doubt.

B.O.R.E.D

Ok.. I am bored.. so lets take a wacked out trip across the net. First up.

In The Ghetto
On a cold and gray Chicago mornin'
Another little baby child is born
In the ghetto
(In the ghetto)
And his mama cries
because if there's one thing that she don't need
it's another little hungry mouth to feed
In the ghetto
(In the ghetto)

Talking about the Ghetto check this out. Ick!!!! If you want to see the rest of the crack hoes and wacked shit go here.

The above was actually brought to you by the fine hot little peice of ass I get to work with every day. Thank god the intern is back!

Speaking of picking on poor people Marxst1 has a nice two part
post on his neighbor lady. Apparently she wants to call immigration before his damn roof is finished! Dammit lady let him finish his god damn roof.

In case you missed it our president has the solution for all the problems in the middle east.

Since the only possible reason anyone could have voted for the clown is because of the funny out takes.. sort of like politics meets Worlds Funniest Bloopers.. Here is a link to some of his
brightest days.

Wicked Chops comes through again with some nice poker imagery. I did not know wearing your shower curtain to a poker game was "in" but it works for her I guess.

I thought this was kind of funny too. Ok. That last one was pathetic.. which is a sure sign I am done.

Epilogue

It has been a lot of fun writing up these trip reports. It has come to my attention that some people may have taken them a little too seriously. In case you have not been reading this blog for a while it is and always will be my take on the world. No matter how demented that might be. We try to have a little fun here and if I offended anyone I am truly sorry. Please take these trip reports in context, an Alice in Waffleland if you will, they are for sure not meant to be taken as seriously as algebra books. The only bits you should really believe are the parts about Carmens respiratory system as it is truly amazing.

So now getting that out of the way we come to the end. The trip is over. I have a few regrets but mostly I think it was a positive experience. The largest regret I have is missing out on Saturday night. I imagine the trip report would have featured some great drunken conversations with Iggy and others if I had not passed out. It would have been cool to sit down at the HORSE table with Felicia and the others. I was on a somewhat limited bankroll and did not feel like getting my ass handed to me on the first night. Otherwise it would have been interesting. I actually like Felicia’s style a whole lot and it was too bad all I got in was a quick wave. I did not get nearly enough time with Al or Pauly or many of the other bloggers I have read for a long time.

All in all though it was a party for the ages. I had a really great time and it went down the way it did. I ended up winning a bit for the weekend which is always good. I met some really great people. Don was an awesome host as we partied in his back yard. As little, or as much, face time as I got with various people I really enjoyed myself. I can not wait to do it again. If you missed this trip you better start saving your pennies because there will be others. SOON! If I did not get a chance to meet you this time I expect your ass to be there next time. Everytime you chuckle at something I post put a quarter in a jar. Soon you will have enough to get to Al Vegas, Okie Vegas, Aye-Vegas or Las Vegas to meet some of the great people who entertain you during the drudgery you call work.

Odds and Ends

If you have not seen it yet our very own TrumpJosh has released a Coronet Fantasie Album. I never knew you could do that with a coronet!!!! Congrats man! I hope you sell fifty copies or whatever is good for coronet music. Honestly though it takes alot of talent to play an instrument and I have the upmost respect for you.

I played in the Hoy last night. I got creamed when my tens went up against aces. Oh well. It was actually an interesting hand. The board was all cards lower than a ten. So reasonably I could expect to be ahead here. Hoy continuation bets around 300. I re-raise him 1200 more. Here is where I made the mistake. I asked Hoy in a very loud and boisterous voice "DO YOU HAVE A MONSTER HAND" and he responded by re-raising me all in "YES I DO YOU DEAF MOTHERFUCKER". Of course I ignored his answer and called his all in. It is sometimes a mistake to not listen to what someone is saying. Especially when you ask. You do have to take into context who the person is and if they would be willing to commit there entire tourney on a hand like A7.. I.E. Are we talking to Helen Keller or Albert Einstein. Hoy probably falls somewhere in the middle and I should have listened to him. Oh well. I will play better next time.

Poker at the Red Rock

We were all headed to the Red Rock casino via Don’s white pimpmobile. It was Ick, Kitty, Jewels, Don, and we were joined by StatikKling. Unfortunately the fabulous Carmen had to work. I will tell you right now I was feeling a little sad that I would have to leave Vegas without seeing her again.

It was a crazy ride out to the Red Rock. Don was taking all kinds of pictures of the people in the van instead of ohhh lets say DRIVING! If someone has one of the pics with Don’s head turned 180 degrees around please send it to the Vegas PD immediately. It was a beautiful ride. It is hard to describe the mountains surrounding this part of Vegas. I found them to be stunning. We finally arrived at the Casino.

I have to say I liked this place a lot better than the MGM. In the MGM it was dark and noisy and really hard to concentrate. In contrast the Red Rock poker room is all by itself and close to the doors to the outside. You are allowed to see sunshine when you play. I am not a huge fan of sunshine but this worked out well. The dealers were more professional than at the MGM in my opinion. Very friendly and couple of real lookers in the group too. The waitresses were way classier than at the MGM. I mean we are talking New York escort vs Crack Whore on 22nd street here. I was very impressed as they tried to rub their huge mammary glands against Icks head.

The poker here was of a kind that I actually can play. I do not know what it says about people but I find Tight-Aggressive games to suit my style. I can put people on hands and clean up. I proceeded to do so this time.

Somehow at this game I got a reputation for being a stone cold killer. I took full advantage of it. I raised people blinds constantly and before I left I had a huge stack of whites and grays. All from uncontested blind steals. Tight-Aggressive people fold. I really can not remember any stellar plays. I did flop the nut straight and was able to stack the guy who had two pair. He wondered why in the world I would push all in on the flop with my nut straight. I guess because you were going to call me and I knew it. The guy who made that call would be my bitch for the night and most of my profit came from him. He was a good player. Solid Tight-Aggressive. Easy to read. Take some notes people.

Ick on the other hand could get no table respect at all. I saw him raise a hand four times and each time this Granny of about seventy years of age shouted out "Take that Bitch!" and re-raised him a huge amount. She then proceeded to outplay him on the flop so badly that I thought he was going to cry. If that was not bad enough once she left ANOTHER old guy sat down and did the exact same thing. I was laughing so hard I almost cried. I think pictures of Ick are now posted on the game board of the local Vegas nursing homes.

Sometime during the game the hot dealer said something about needing a rubdown. I must have misheard although Ick swears I was correct. Apparently while Ick, Kat and I were having fun at the 1/2NL fish house Jewels was cleaning out the 2/5NL tables. Don was treading water. I think Statik ended up bailing on the Poker early and nerded out with his awesome camera. It was a great time for everyone capped off by some delicious BBQ food and some solid poker conversation!! I again highly recommend the Red Rock and not just because I cashed out up over 175 without really having any high stress moments but because it is a great casino off the beaten path of the strip.

Afterwards we headed back to pickup my pants at Icks hotel room. Don then said we should head on over to Carmens work. I would not have suggested it because I did not want her to get in trouble with he boss but Don said it was ok. As we were walking over to her restaurant all of a sudden this BEAUTIFUL blonde rocket shoots between Ick and me and starts slurring something about wanting to do JelloShots off of Icks hardened abs. I can not possibly do justice to how gorgeous this creature was or how drunk off her ass either. Ick could have had her every which way but loose if he wanted to but being the faithful pup that he is he calmly pried her talons off of him and slinked away tail between legs. She trotted back to her friends almost in tears saying that she was shot down. Poor Princess JelloShots! Keep flying baby!

We finally arrived at Carmens place of employment and she came out. Instead of her stunning, cleavage revealing tops of the past, the heathens made her dress in a plain black shirt and black pants. While it was surely drabber than what I was used to it did not diminish her beauty at all. She quickly came up and gave me a huge warm hug goodbye.. when Ick went in for his hug I could see her body language pull away. Ha! Finally someone who saw Ick for the spawn of evil he really is! Sadly we had to leave her to her work.

As we left the restaurant Ick had a frightened, hunted look in his eyes. Don lead us back towards Princess JelloShot and Ick pleaded with him to find another way out. I cackled with glee as Don told him that this was a dead end. Of course I did my best to hide Ick from the princess as we passed by her again.. I swear I did not yell my loudest!!!! What are friends for?

Don drove me to the airport.. standup kind of guy that he was. I bought a few knick knacks for the kiddies and flew home on the red eye passing in and out of conciseness. My first trip with the bloggers was done. I had a great time. I would even say it was amazing.

Next Episode: Epilogue

How I left my pants in Icks room after the shower

I woke up Sunday morning after my nights sleep feeling horrible. My head ached, my stomach felt as if I would puke, hell even my balls hurt. I did not think I was going to make it through the day. I drank some water trying to feel a little better and then tried to figure out what to do. In my delirium I decide to give Ick a call and see if anyone has any plans. He tells me that Kitty and Jewels are going to see Ansel Adams. Afterwards it was going to be breakfast at the Bellagio buffet and poker with Don at the Red Rock. Only stupid chicks would want to do something edjumacational but the rest sounded good. I told Ick I would be up momentarily. So I grabbed my knapsack, checked out of the 13th floor, and went up to get Ick ready. Somehow he had arranged to be half naked and getting ready for a shower. I thought nothing of it at the time. As he showered I noticed that he had brought an iron to Vegas and was removing the wrinkles from his shirt. The clues were there piling up before my eyes.

We soon got going and met up with the classy ladies at the Excalibur. Jewels had the great idea of “walking” to the Bellagio. As we walked in the hundred and fifteen degree heat and my heart started beating through my chest I noticed the ground was littered by Hooker Trading Cards! Where were these when I was a little kid? I noticed that Kat and Jewels were walking ahead of me.. yipping at Icks heels like little poodles. I was left behind and totally ignored.

We finally made it back into the air conditioned paradise that was the casino. My thighs were sweating and a little chaffed but besides that I had made it in one piece. Ick peered at each photograph with a knowing glance commenting on the lighting and the use of color. Jewels and Kat oohed and ahhed at his deep insights. I personally found the little blonde with the pert tits to be the best exhibit. Of course she too shunned me as I caught her checking out Icks ass as he read one of the sayings on the wall.

Eventually we made it to the Bellagio buffet. If you do one thing while in Vegas go there. I hardly even noticed the girls fawning over Ick as I stuffed my face with Sushi, and fruit, and BACON!! It was awesome. Nothing better than eating until you want to puke! We had a great time ignoring me as I tried to get a word or two in edgewise between Ick talking about wearing bracelets on his dick and the girls ooohing and ahhhing.

I reminded Kat of her interesting time last night picking on poor little tarts. It was actually very funny. Some little kid was dressed in two strips of bright neon clothing and drunk as hell. Kat was like “Get out of my way sluts!”. I mean cmon, it was not her fault she was too drunk to walk. Just the way I like em.

I skipped the Champaign that Ick had ordered since a gnawing thought was coming into my consciousness and I did not want to be drunk with him. I had to get my clothes from his room afterward too. I was really scared. I mean lets review the facts here people. He brought an iron to Vegas, women talk to him “like a friend”, he likes art and I won’t even bring up the feathered boa I saw hanging in his shower... you decide.

After food it was off in the Don mobile to one of the best Poker rooms in Vegas IMHO, the Red Rock! I had a great time there.

Next Episode: Poker at the Red Rock

Saturday Keeps on Sucking

I have really been trying to get past Saturday. The posts get decidedly more interesting on Sunday so here is the final post for that day. I spent some time in the MGM poker room for the second time. The first days game was wild and loose. A real high variance – high profit kind of game. The second table I think I came a little too early. I was with a couple of semi-pro’s and a few looser guys mixed in. Nothing good came of it.

I will say I had my chances to make a lot of money. I think it added to my frustration that nothing hit. If a hand did hit it soon went to shit. Like when I was able to flop the nut straight, push all in, get called by two pair, AND another guy. The smoke finally cleared and I had to split the pot with another ATo. It is frustrating when your looking at the nuts and over $300 in a pot and your take becomes $50. Ug. Better than losing I guess.

I also got called by this nut job who played any high card. Of course my AK/AQ/AJ/88 never hit. He would never fold. Every flop was hitting him. I lost money. It was ugly. The other thing I noticed on this table is that the dealers were big assholes. Now the MGM was not a bad place in general. The club next door and all of the screaming dance music made it hard to concentrate but I had enjoyed myself the first night. The second time I played the dealers were crabby. They could not yell at you fast enough. Too slow this. Too fast that. Wait your turn. Play the game. How about you shut the fuck up and deal the cards? One hand that pissed me off was when I did not notice someone had raised before me. So I put two bucks into the pot thinking I am calling. I am not allowed to take my money back when I realize my mistake. A couple of hands later a guy puts fifteen into the pot because he thinks someone raised. He of course is allowed to take his money back. I was disappointed with the table in general. Not just because I was losing.

Veneno also had no luck as she quickly dropped a buyin. I think she gave a blowjob to an old guy at the 3-card poker table to make some of it back though! I am just speculating because she mentioned old guy, three card poker, and came back with fifty bucks. A little while after she left I busted out. I was minus 200 for the table and minus sixty for the trip so far.

I then pulled the worse mistake of the entire trip. I screwed up and went back to my room to watch a little TV and relax. Except before I knew it I was pulling an Icky! You got it.. I passed out cold. I was looking forward to meeting the bloggers later that night and it really pissed me off. One minute I am relaxing and the next thing I know it is morning. The birds or whatever Vegas has to replace them, the prairie dogs perhaps were chirping outside of my window. I had fucked up bad. What to do next?

Next Episode: How I left my pants in Icks room after the shower

WPBT and Ick Finally Wakes Up

I awoke on the day of the WPBT tired but excited. It was going to be a great time. I awoke and showered and then tried to figure out how to get to Caesars. Now I could have paid for a cab or taken a tram or even walked but I had a better idea: Call Ick and sneak out of the cab before he can complain! Hell he is a doctor he can afford it fuck him.

I patiently awaited in the lobby until I saw a JohnnyCakes stride by. I went up and said “Ick?”.. unfortunately I had the wrong JohnnyCakes. Finally the slowpoke showed up. We instantly hit it off. It was kind of like how the pretty girl always likes to hang with the fat girl so she looks even better. It would work very well for him.

We arrived at Caesars, after I successfully stiffed him on the cab fare. This would end up being a huge mistake since I would have to hear him whine about it all weekend. Ick made some gay remark about the ceiling of the hotel. I would find out he does a lot of gay things as the weekend continued. We made our way to the poker room and had to go through a three-phase registration process. People started wandering in and we were all seated up front.

We got to hear a semi-funny talk from Michael Craig. I am a harsh critic. It may have something to do with him always raising my blinds but we will get to that soon. He talked about his new stint with PokerWorks and the article he wrote. I tried to link up to it but got a 404 error. He talks about all the things he has stolen from poker pro’s. I guess he probably has been fired or arrested already.

Howard Lederer spoke on the important issues of Internet gambling bans. None of us would be here without online sites like Full Tilt, Poker Stars, and even evil Party Poker. He detailed a lot of the lobbying he has been doing for the cause. He also strongly recommended you join the Poker Players Alliance. I will say Howard is a lot scruffier in person than on TV. Shave and bath you stupid poker player.. oh wait, forget it.

A really scruffy Phil Gordon showed up too. He was really tall. Like a giant overgrow fuzz tree. He was talking about his great charity! The guy is a real giver. April wishes he would give her some. Soon afterwards the Roshambo contest kicked off. Now Cartman says Roshambo is a contest where I kick you in the balls and then you kick me in the balls. Last person standing wins. I go first. However they played Rock, Paper, Scissors instead. Veneno with her incredible suckout powers was able to win the whole thing! WOW! Great job! She gets a one-on-one session with Phil for her troubles.

Finally I was seated at what would be my only table of the tourney. Why? Well let’s see who was on my table at my first live tourney ever.

One seat was me. Two seat was Spaceman. The spaceman is a really cool guy. I got a chance to chat with him a little and he was really nice. A guy you could really hang out with if he didn’t bust out of the tourney first. Three seat was Helix. Four seat was Donkey Puncher.

Fifth seat was Derek! Dr. Paulies brother! One of my lifelong, ok, ok, since earlier this year, goals was to play some Poker with Derek. I finally got my wish. Mrs. Head in the 6th. We then had two poker book writers in the seventh and eighth seats. Russel Fox and Michael Craig, I wonder if they have ever played poker before? We finally rounded out the table with another one of my favorite people: Studio Glyphic. You might know him as last years winner of the WPBT. Needless to say this was not an ideal table for my first tourney ever.

The MTT actually went pretty quickly for me. Spaceman was good enough to Gigli so I did not have to worry about that. He was replaced by a much easier opponent: Absinthe. Who the hell did I piss off? Michael Craig played some tough poker. He raised every hand he decided to play almost. It also helped that he was hitting like Mike Tyson before he sucked.

I got involved in a hand with him that I played pretty poorly. He raised like he always does so I was looking down at A8c and re-raised him another three hundred. However this was probably not enough to get him to laydown. He got a nice flop of Qxx with two clubs. I decided to bet out for 500 and he cold called. The turn did not give me a club and he bet out another 1400. I had one card to go. Overs. A flush draw. He was giving me almost 3:1. I am not sure I should have called here. It was an iffy call especially with deep stacks. I did not improve and I think Michael hit a straight on the river or something like that. I just checked behind him with my A8c. The play in this hand would lead to my eventual demise.

I tried to bluff Mrs. Head off a hand but I forgot to say raise so it ended up just being a call. I am not sure she would have folded anyways. The final hand of the tourney at least let me whine a little. I am not sure who this blonde kid in the Full Tilt jacket was but he called my all in for 1K in chips with ATo. I had Jacks and of course he flops an Ace and rivers a T. Ouch. Oh well. Although it was an iffy play he did win. I was disappointed and out.

The Caesar’s did not have enough dealers to spread enough cash games for us so I ended up 16th on the list. I got to meet Smokkee and his Smokking girlfriend. Nice job man! I got to see DoubleAs, one of the poker players I respect the most. I walked around a little and met a few people. I saw the lovely EvaCantHang. So many people… So little time.

I finally decided to head back to the MGM. Veneno was heading that way so we shared a cab. It was good to get a chance to spend a little time with her. We quickly headed out to the tables when we got there.. and No, I did not stiff her on the Cab fare.

Next Episode: Saturday Keeps on Sucking

My Second Live Game Ever

Let’s see where was I when I last left you my dear readers.. Carmen and I will strolling naked through a field of flowers.. oh no, that was not it. I apologize, the delusional periods are lasting longer and longer these days. It must be the fever.. well at least my face is flush. Ahh yes, now I have it, Carmen had just finished signing me up for 1/2NL game at the MGM. As you might know if you read my blog this would be my second attempt at live poker.

Carmen and I were quickly seated next to each other in the 1 & 2 seats. My memory is another thing that fails me often so I will only be able to give you the highlights of this most juicy of games. In addition with Mr. Dreamy screaming at me to come over every five minutes it was a little hard to concentrate. You all know there is nobody he likes to stack more than yours truly. The people I remember at our initial table were the “Couple”, and the two Asians. I will call them Crazy and Crazier. The table was what I remembered at Foxwoods. It cost 15-20$, I.E. 10% of your stack to see any flop. The variance in these games is HUGE. It all depends if you stack the guy with third pair or if he sucks out his second pair before the river.

A few hands of note. I watched the couple in a hand that bothered me slightly. Basically the flop was AAT and the couple ended up checking the river where she turned over Ax and he flipped TT. In my opinion there is no reason to not stack your woman here. I do not care if your going to be sleeping on the couch. Please play poker.

Carmen was the way I like all my women: Tight and Aggressive. Rrrraaarrwwwrrrrrr baby. I believe she decided she would only play three hands that night. Any hand that contained AA, KK and sometimes QQ but only if there was not a lot of action pre-flop. I always like playing tight people because it is easy to put them on hands. Play some more 53o baby! Bluff a few hands like your darling Don. Well played in general though.

I got to make a play on one of the crazy Asians which made my night. Heck it may have made my weekend. The setup is something you see a lot in internet poker. I have K8c and the flop comes and ace two clubs. I bet out trying to take it down there. He calls and the turn brings me the nuts. I quickly grumble something about flush chasing idiots and check. He obliges me by pushing his entire stack in and I am suddenly up. It is sweet when it works.

Soon afterwards the lovely and drunk off her ass Veneno sits down at my table. I know this is going to get ugly and I am right. Three hands after she sits down it is all in with pocket 9s. Unfortunately the other guy had Jacks. Ouch. We will blame it on the 15 shots instead of her poker skills just to be nice. She would be alright though my fine readers as she dropped a few bucks on poker of the three card variety and flopped a RSF on her first hand. Some people have all the luck.

Carmen decided she had enough around 1-2AM and so I kept on playing until around 4AM. I finally decide to rack up and get some sleep for tomorrows WPBT game. I cashed my chips out, up around $140, and was about to hit my room when Iggy pops up out of nowhere. A bright mischievous twinkle is in his eyes. He commands me to accompany him to the Excalibur. Who am I a lonely Sir to turn down the blogfather himself. So I trudge along over to the casino with Igs and Maudie and a few others. I meet Otis for the first time. Have some interesting conversations with Iggy and Maudie. All of a sudden like a senior citizen with dementia Iggy wanders off. I can not figure out where he has gone. One minute he is talking to me next minute he has disappeared. I quickly check my shoes to make sure an accident did not happen with our little friend. Maudie reassures me that he is prone to wondering and will return home eventually. So I bid my farewells to the wonderful Maudie and decide to rest up for the WPBT tourney the next.. umm.. in a few hours. I hit my room, set my alarm, and get an hour or two of rest. I am excited for what will be a great day of meeting bloggers and hopefully winning some money.

Next Episode: WPBT and Icky Finally Wakes Up

Ouchie Boo Boo

The pain I had before came back. Now that I have had something that feels like a heart attack twice in three months I probably should call my doctor. Basically this one felt alot like a muscle pain but alot more severe. It was on my right peck again up towards my armpit. It was severe enough again that I could not breath and could not move very well. It lasted for 5-10 minutes. I then had a wave of dizzyness and lay down on the futon. Finally it was over. I knew I would need Icks tender touch sometime in my life but not so soon! I guess I will call the doctor this time.

** UPDATE: WebMD, hmm.

Chest Pain

Red "Yes"

You have answered "Yes" to a question that indicates you may need immediate care. Call your health professional now to discuss your symptoms and arrange for your care.

* Symptoms are likely to worsen without medical care.
* If you do not have a health professional, seek emergency care.
* Emergency transportation is not needed. However, if you are not able to travel safely either by driving yourself or having someone else drive you, call an ambulance.

You do not need to answer any of the other questions.

Poker hates me again..

When your Aces get cracked by 58o and your betting them hard all the way its time to take a break or something.. fucktards.. So I leave you with this. Is Hoff really Tronguy in disguise? You decide!

Still Laughing my ass off

Thank you so much Wicked Chops Poker. I am still laughing my ass off about this.

Meeting the Bloggers

I was finally in the great city of Vegas a few short minutes away from meeting all of the people I felt I knew. As we drove towards the MGM grand we passed some of the other sites of Vegas. It was 11:30 at night and the town was in full swing. Lights were everywhere. I passed the Disney World of Vegas: The Excalibur, with it's Disney like castles reaching for the skies belaying a darker more dangerous underbelly than Walt could ever imagine. I saw the huge neon signs showing different stage shows that sold one thing: Sex. Vegas was supercharged with both gambling and sexuality. A good combination in anyone's book. I passed NY NY which far surpassed the real city. I have been to the Big Apple and I was much less impressed. Finally we pulled into the towering green building that was the MGM, right across from the Hooters.

I quickly checked in with only two problems. The idiots at Travelocity sold me a package with a meal comp I could not possibly redeem. Someone should have told me that before. I will let you know how my complaint with those morons goes. I am more than willing to forgive if they pay me back. The second problem was my room. It was on the 13th floor. I was not sure if this was an additional omen but it put me on edge.

As for the MGM rooms themselves.. well, it was just another hotel. Nothing special. It was clean. Neat. Had a good view of the strip and was centrally located. It SHOULD have had some free HBO or something with the rates they charged. Even Hotel 6 gives you some movie channels for free. Not that I was going to spend much time in my room. The food was excellent too.

I hurried to my room and unpacked before giving MiamiDon a call. Apparently all of the Bloggers were in the MGM playing mixed games, drinking, and having a grand ole' time. I hurried down to the poker room and tried to find Don. He said he was sitting at a mixed game at table 15. I squinted my blind eyes and tried to spot him but to no avail. I did not see anyone. Finally I bumped into Don and he quickly swept me up in what would become a whirlwind of excitement. The next half hour of my life was a blur of activity.

As I was pushed over towards the bar a diminutive individual with a stature far exceeding his height came and shook my hand. I had finally met the legendary Blogfather. In many ways totally different than I expected however in the important ways I think we connected and got each other. It was truly a great experience.

Garth shouted out a "Hello Mate", the picture of an aussie rugby player. Soon afterwards I found the Canadian Double Trouble twins groping my hair. I would soon find out that this was because Ick had not yet shown up. He would set a bad precedence by passing out instead of hanging with the bloggers.

Carmen also caressed my hair with her long luscious fingernails. At least that’s my story and I am sticking with it. What a beautiful woman, only really overshadowed by the exquisite relationship she has with Don. I am truly jealous.

I also got the pleasure of meeting one of the most down to earth guys in the world for a second time: Dr. Pauly. Every time I get to stand in his presence I feel blessed. He truly makes you feel like you’re the only person in the world. If he ever decides to run for office he has my vote for King.

I was caught up by Carmen and brought to the 1/2NL signup. As I was whisked away I passed Felicia and waved to her. I saw AlCantHang, someone bought me a drink, Mr. Dreamy, The Lovely and talented Change100 told a real LA "story" saying she read my blog, I posed for pictures, met Veneno for the first time. It was a real pleasure. I am sure I am missing so many people but it was a real blur. Names. Faces. Shouts. Extremely fun and overwhelming to the mind.

Carmen took me over to the signup board and started what would become a common occurrence on this trip. No, not hand jobs under the poker tables – the inability to signup for any game or use my real name in any way, shape, or form. No blogger would allow me to utter my birth name. It was and always will be the one and only WAFFLES!

Next Episode: My Second Live Game Ever.

WWDN and some Cash

I played the WWDN last night. I think I played well even though I went out 30th or so to Mrs. Sox. She outplayed me pre-flop. Nice job. I was getting good cards and had a nice stack when I look down to see the pretty ladies. I am waiting for the little missie to play and she pops it up to 5x blinds. I put her on 88-QQ and figure I will re-raise her. I pop it back a bunch. She waits a few and then puts me all in. I have 1700 left to call. I go with my initial instincts and go ahead and call. I figure if she learned her game from SoxLover then she might even have pockets 9's.. however in this case she had the Cowboys. Nicely played. She busted me. Reminds me of a hand me and Sox had a while ago when I popped my Aces a silly amount and Sox pushed all in with some hand like jacks.. I think he yelled at me. Not sure. heh. I am also glad she went far with my chips.

I played some cash afterwards. I made a stupid mistake because I was angry at someone. The setup. I have pocket aces. I pop it to 1.25 in a .10/.25 (25/NL) game and this donkweed calls me with J9c. My raise was 3xBB+limpers. Obviously since it was s000ted he had to call. The flop comes JJx, and I get away from the hand, as he checks the river. However I lose about eight bucks between the flop, turn, and oblivion. I am fuming from that hand when I get AJx the very next hand. The flop comes 3 diamonds and I have the Jack. The same dimwad pushes all in and I do something I should never and usually would never do: CALL. He flips over two aces so my flush draw is good against his set - with a boat draw, and I do not hit. Terrible play. However this is why I am playing 25/NL. Until I can regularly crush this game I am not going higher. I can not make stupid mistakes out of anger, boredom, or frustration. I must get all the money in WAYYY ahead of my opponents every time and then I shall move up.

I bought back in to another table after a few minutes and managed to make like four bucks. Nice! I think one problem with my cash game (besides impatience) is that I need to have a bigger block of time to allow things to happen. I usually play cash after a Mook or WWDN or one of those which leaves me an hour or two to play. Anyway.. I refuse to let NLHE cash games kick my ass. I will defeat you. You will be my bitch! I will bend you over! You have been warned!

** Mookie tonight if you dare.

Getting to Vegas

My feelings on going to Vegas were a little bit mixed. On one hand I was incredible excited. The excitement was mounting so high that I could not even work on Friday. I was going to meet people I felt I had known for up to two years. These are people who had been with me through some enjoyable times and some difficult ones. In some ways it is easier to connect with people online. Instead of the bullshit of what they look like and how they act you get a deeper feeling of who they are through listening to what they have to say. I totally considered many of these people to be my friends.

On the other hand you never really know how these things are going to go. I remember my last trip to Vegas. Coincidentally this was eighteen years ago – when I was eighteen. I flew out to see my grandmother but my real reason was to meet Becky. I am surprised I can even remember her name. A lot of parallels exist in these two stories as she also was someone I met online. We had been talking for a few months and I was excited to see her. In this case the meeting did not go well as she ended up hanging out with another guy for most of my time there.

In addition I knew that in order to go out to Vegas and expand upon the relationships I had started I would have to leave my anonymity behind. Instead of the faceless insane Waffles I would now be a real person. People would know who I was and in some ways it was a little sad to kill of the persona and give a face to the wild man. It was however a sacrifice I was willing to make.

As I drove off to T.F. Green Airport I saw a billowing smoke cloud in the sky. “Oh fuck” I thought, the road would be closed off and I would miss my flight. As it turns out the burning car was on the other side of the road. Up on an embankment it was engulfed in flames. Being the true degenerate gambler I am, instead of thinking “I hope that nobody was in there”, I wondering if this was an Omen for my trip. If so would it mean that I was going down in flames or that I would rise in a splendid pyre of flame soaring towards the heavens as a phoenix reborn in the golden lights of Vegas.

I made my flight in plenty of time and had to spend a few hours in T.F. Green playing ancient arcade games. I rocked at Galaga although I could not beat the high score. I sucked at Donkey Kong which was how I remembered it. It is always fun to play the games I grew up on in the various Christies markets around Boston.

My stopover in Newark was not too bad with the exception of the poorly designed airport. It appears as if every speaker in the place is attached to every terminal. So when you hear, “Now Boarding Rows 19-31”, you can not tell where the hell it came from. The boarding wench was very angry when I went up in front of the line by accident. Fix your goddamn system then you morons. Just to rub it in you have to watch a movie where the dorky CEO tells you how great Continental is as you eat the soggy micro waved mystery meat on the flight. I got seated right in front of the restroom. Which sort of sucked as waifs of urine smell would assault my nose every once in a while. It would not have been so bad if not for ImTooGoodForPissBitch. She stated whining about how she ABSOLUTELY could not sit near the restroom. She did not know how anyone could possibly stand it. So the flight crew told her they would do what they could. I knew this meant doom for me and I was right. PissBitch was moved up front and a gaggle of screaming kids were moved back to the urinals. Great move stewardess let the little kids smell the piss, hell they smell like piss anyways. At least they fell asleep or were murdered soon after the flight took off. I did not notice which and really could care less. Finally we flew in over Vegas. My first impression of this Mecca of gamboolers was that it looked as if a Christmas tree had puked over an entire city. I saw greens and blues and purples. All the colors of the rainbow and some that had never been seen in nature. All calling out to me and beckoning me, screaming: “Welcome to Vegas” in short blinking S.O.S code. It was fantastic.

As I stepped off the plane I noticed instantly that Vegas wanted my money. Like some scary predators slots and all forms of gambling machines assaulted my senses as soon as I left the plane. I would not be able to escape this constant barrage for my entire trip. As if scared or excited by these predators the crowd pushed and bumped each other. Shoving and jostling for position. I hate being crowded and this annoyed the hell out of me.

I finally made it to the MGM hotel in one piece. I was here. For better or for worse I had made it to my first Blogger get together. I would soon be gambling it up with my brethren. For better or for worse I was in Vegas for the second time in my life.

Next Episode: Meeting the Bloggers.

Monday at the Hoy

I had a good time. It was fun. I screwed up royally. With four left I pushed my AJ in AA with an M of slightly less than 20. No need to do that. Sometimes we just hate seeing those post flop cards.. but if you do not give yourself a chance to play you also do not give yourself that chance to fold. Lesson learned. Tonight: WWDN. I am working on the Vegas post too.. need more suspense here anyways..

Good Idea..

Hey someone smart like Jewels or Kat had the idea to group some pictures together on Flickr. So I setup a group called WPBT. All you have to do is go to www.flickr.com, sign-in with your Girlie chat name, then as me to invite you to the group. That way we can all share the great pictures from Vegas if anyone desires to do so.

** OK, Apparently if you use Flickr and post your pics as public, and affix the tag WPBT then everyone can see them.. so do that, it sounds easier..

Immmm Bacccckkkkkkk

Wow. What a weekend. I know you never expected to hear this from me but I am speechless. I need time to collect my thoughts and bring you my *cough* un-biased opinion of the Blogger convention. If you missed it like Mookie your just plain stupid.

Pain and Suffering

Last post until after Vegas. All of you retards will have to get something more fun to do over the weekend, like chasing some ambulances or something. I actually busted out of PokerStars this past week while waiting for Vegas. I was down to a few hundred. Not been a great month learning the cash game. I will be recharged and ready to go when I get back though.

I have been thinking a lot about why our little community is good. I mean it is not like we do much of anything except fleece people of there hard earned welfare checks and the like. It has always made me somewhat uncomfortable to respond to someone's bad news. We have had a lot of it lately from the unemployed to close friends dying. I look at those posts and they touch me deeply. All I can really do is type in a lame ass "better luck next time" or some equally hallmark piece of crap. Looking around though I see a lot of people typing their dimestore novel quotes and trying in some small way to express the fact that we do care. Even though we are only connected through some digital text spoken across the vast world of the internet we actually really do care. So even if you only have some lame ass comment to make go ahead because I am sure the people going through their struggles really do appreciate it.

It sort of gives you hope that humanity in all is vast differences and struggles actually has something that ties us together. We all hurt. We can all understand that. In a lot of ways that shared pain binds us together and hopefully in some futuristic Star Trek kind of way we will start living together as one people, as the human race. Until then I will be enjoying Vegas. Good Luck and See you soon!

Thanks April!

Thanks again to everyone for letting me organize the event this time around - it's been fun. Can't wait to see everyone, but I suppose I can contain myself for a few more hours.
-- Texas

And thank you for giving us a chance to tell you how much you screwed up.. I can not wait.. that whole republican thing was only the start I think..

Ha! Just kidding! Great job so far! Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedule of darning your sox, feeling sorry for your poker losses, and folding your undies. mmmm.. I said undies.. *snap* anyways.. really, thanks!

On the serious side though planning any event takes a long time and for some it may take even longer.. so go give April a big hug and kiss (NO TONGUE UNLESS SHE REQUESTS IT!) and tell her how much you appreciate all of her hard work.

Top Ten List

Top ten things I would like to do in Vegas..

#10. Stack some tourists
#9. Stack some Bloggers
#8. Learn to not shake with monster hands
#7. Meet [Insert hundreds of cool ass bloggers I have never met here]..
#6. Watch Icky lose his bankroll on the first night
#5. Watch Icky lose the money he got from selling his body on the second night, wash, rinse and repeat.
#4. Curse and whine about not being able to meet the Ghey bloggers that are wimping out this year. Fuckers.
#3. PJ PARTY!
#2. Win the Blogger tourney

And the number one thing to do in Vegas: Have my baby ducky soft hair rubbed by CarmenSinCity!

Welcome New Blogger

Well.. Mr. Dreamy has one upped me again as he has pissed someone off so much that they started a blog just to yell at him. I love it. I bow to you Sir. So everyone welcome the newest blogger Junior!!! Here is an excerpt to wet your whistle.

Now, the reason for this long entry is simple. Check out htttp://deadmoneyinc.blogspot.com where you can see the biggest pack of lies on the web. Hey Scott, you took one large pot from me. Derek busted me not you so guess what, HATS OFF TO YOU JACKASS.

Please read through his pages and pages of bad beats and loses. He might have worse luck than I do.

Move along.. nothing to see..

I have been taking my hiatis in stride. It has been nice to fold my underwear draw instead of my crappy hands for the past few days. I did get a few hours in at Party Poker (Bonus Code IGGY) and it is worse than I remembered. Wow. I mean the hands people are willing to call all in bets with are amazing. I may have to go back there. Except for the fact that I hate the site. Oh well.

I was reading our newest blogger Slb lately and he was crying about some play made against him. Here is some good advice for you: If you dont want to play donkeys your not going to be playing much because they exist everywhere at every level of play. All you can control is your own game. Beleive it.

I know it is fun to go off on people. I have been enjoying my recent discussions with Smokkee alot. However everyone plays the game differently and are at different levels. It is your job as a poker player to understand who your playing against and tailor your game to that person. If you know someone is a donkey and will call every bet you make then wait until you have the nuts and take them out. If they get you once in a while so be it. Poker is a tough game. The edges are small. As long as your playing and improving your game you do not have to worry about other people. In the end you only have to answer to yourself. If you played a hand perfectly and lost then so be it. If you screwed up a hand then figure out why and improve. Find out what you do well and continue doing that. Good luck out there!

Three more days until I touch down in Vegas! WOO HOO! I am already having dreams about it. Actually more like wild fantasies that will never come true. Like last night when I stacked a fish at 200/NL six times. Yeah like that is going to happen. Oh well. Still. Cant. Wait. So. Excited.