Presidential Poker

Frustration

2008-04-14T04:53:00.000-07:00

So, I won my way into the $750K on Friday and decided to pass on that and run the Bracelet Race. 91 runners, 9 seats, 10th got $400. I finished 14th. My last hand had me with a straight flush draw on a10 high board and my opponent had K10. I missed my many outs which would have put me with a manageable stack. Had 6k with 400/800 blinds. Also took a beating at the .25/.50 tables last night. I had won over 5 buyins the night before and dropped 4 last night.

Notable hands included 77 on a 764 flop losing to turned quad sixes. 22 losing to 99 on a 942 flop. AK losing to K10 on a AK10 flop. Thank you river ten. I know one of my problems has been too much limping with pairs and suited connectors when I get into these passive tables where everyone is limping in. It all starts when the table limps around with 3-5 callers and I have a hand like pocket 3's or 910s. How often should pressure be applied in this situation, how often should I be limping along with these type of hands? Suppose I limp and one of the blinds pots it and everyone calls, at this point I'm stuck with pot odds knowing if I hit I'm going to take someones stack. But, do you hit often enough to make this profitable? This situation happened more than normal last night when I ended up on the right side of some very smart and agressive players while having the loose donkey's on my right. I'll see if I can get some hands up soon. I've actually been winning a lot, and beyond the coolers and suckouts I'm still up a decent amount for the month. The wsop package would have been nice, but I'll just have to wait til next time. Take care everyone.

It's been a while...

2008-04-01T08:26:00.000-07:00

For good reasons. There's been a crackdown at work on non-work related sites. This has put a damper on many of my daily musings, but has been put on the back burner now. Some of you may have noticed me playing blogger events for two weeks. I got lucky enough to win the Dookie and cash twice in the Mookie. I was able to do this because of my two weeks on Active Duty for the reserves. I was in a hotel 2 minutes from work for two weeks, so I was able to sleep in until 7ish which allowed me to play at the gawd-awful times of these BBT3 events. I'm going to try to sneak in a couple here and there, but its hard when they end after mid-night and I'm up by 4. Very rough.

I really hate April Fool's day because I end up being a gullible bastard at least once a year. Thank you to The Goat for making me a fool once again. My wife and I read the Goat's LOST post's religiously and I was in panic mode this morning to get my wife to check the DVR for the "bonus episode". Well played, sir.

I'm hoping to start this crappy part of the blogosphere again, but I know you won't be surprised if another month goes by without a post.

It helps that I've actually been playing poker. As evidenced by qualifying for Bronze Iron man this month. Going to work on getting the next level for this month and see how it goes. I've been abusing the .25/.50 PL/NL tables to the tune of $700 last month. Hope everyone is well and have a great week.

Yesterday Hand

2008-01-09T04:35:00.000-08:00

This one turned out a lot different than I thought and none of the players had close to what I was thinking at the time.

UTG+1 ended up limping with 8's, not feeling like he could just call the reraise decided to put the pressure back on the BB who didn't seem overly powerful.

Short Stack had 10h7s and although he seemed like he was a decent player, this was a weird move when he had no fold equity and could have seen at least 3 more hands.

BB had pocket 9's with his insta call. I was shocked to not see at least Jacks, but I was expecting Q's, K's or Aces from his quick call.

BB was bereted for his move but it was a moot point really with the flop being 8, 9, A. The board bricked out and the BB became a monster stack while knocking out one player and crippling another. In the end, I told them both that even had the BB just called preflop, the money would have found a way into the middle with set over set. Let me know what you think and thanks for stopping by.

Interesting Hand

2008-01-08T05:13:00.001-08:00

So this came up at a home game I was playing last weekend.

Blinds are 1000/2000

We are down to 11 players. At 10 we drop to one table with 4 getting paid. 1st is $400, 4th is 60 and it was $40 to enter. Not relevant to the hand, but a lot of these players love playing just to get their money back and not many play to win.

Solid player limps UTG+1. One fold and then another player goes all in for 4500. Folds to the BB who reraises 6000 more. BB knows the game but is not as experienced, has never read a book about poker and trys to win every hand. So, that makes a main pot of 12K and a side pot of 6K.

Solid player has about 20K left and goes all in. BB instacalls for his last 13K.

Anyone want to take a guess as to what they are holding?

I'll come back later today with results.

Not a lot of time these days

2008-01-03T07:24:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year to all!!!

I've been a busy guy these last couple of weeks but I did manage to make it up to Atlantic City last Friday. $50 +15 tournament and 6 of us ended up chopping the $5400 prize pot at the end.

Big stack guy had over a million in chips and took $1200 (first was originally $2200) and everyone else too $870.

The 5 of us left each had between 200K and 250K with 20/40K blinds with 10K ante. In other words, it was a crap shoot. I'm really shocked that big stack walked away with only $1200, but he seemed happy. I was happy to make just under 2nd place money without having to get lucky the rest of the way.

Best play of the night saw me limp UTG with KK with 10 people left. There was a raise on every hand so I wanted to reraise when it happened instead of pushing everyone out. Of course there were 4 limpers. With 5/10K blinds there was over 60K in the pot. Flop was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, K 6 3 rainbow. Blinds check, I check and everyone else checks to the Cutoff who goes all in for 150K. Folds to me and I think about it for a little and call all in for my 75K. Everyone else unfortunately folds and he flips up A9o. I went from happy, to sad, to ecstatic all in a few moments. That gave me a lot of muscle as we dropped from 10-6 within about 25-30 minutes.

I was the last one holding out on the deal because one of the guys had about 80K and I wanted to see him gone before doing the deal. A couple of double ups put everyone at the same level with the ever increasing blinds and I got into the deal before things went sour.

Anyone have any thoughts on the deal? I wasn't entirely comfortable taking the deal because I was playing so well, but I think it would have been stupid to turn down the guaranteed big money with such huge blinds.

Sorry to Riggstad, since neglecting the blog for a couple weeks, I also neglected to read his comment that he would be in the area. Hopefully when I head back up in the end of January you can make it up.

Good luck in the New Year everyone!!!

Leeta Santos

2007-12-20T04:20:00.000-08:00

Deadspin posted this site where you can plug your name in and they'll tell you what your name would be if you played soccer for Brazil. Call me Leeta Santos bitches.

Accident

2007-12-12T06:36:00.000-08:00

Was in one last week. It was the other guys fault while driving down 270. I'm banged up and hoping the meds help ease my pain. Not much poker at all. Two home games last Friday and Saturday. Came out $10 ahead on Friday (ugh) and lost $40 on Saturday in the tournament. Couldn't push a calling station in the BB off his JackAce. I had KQ and fired on every street (I was in second place at the time, behind said calling station who had gotten there by calling off his entire stack with a pair of deuces for a huge all in on the flop, other guy had KK and lost to river deuce. His explanation was that he had an Ace kicker. Kick me in the nuts now.) Any way, the board was all low cards and I fired 20K on the river. He had about 25K left and called it off with Ace High. There was about 40K in the pot and blinds were 2000/4000 (numbers off a little I'm sure), so I can't come up with a reason for his play other than he was a calling station and I should have saved my chips. Oh well, we were on the final table bubble, with 5 getting paid (out of 18, so you need to win to get a decent pay out) and I was there to win. I'm going to AC on the 28th to play some tournaments at the Taj starting at noon and ending with the midnight tourney (depending on how I do early on and how I am playing). If you are around, drop me a line.

I wasn't asking much...

2007-12-04T11:54:00.000-08:00

In fantasy news (avert your eyes if you don't want to read it), I only asked a couple things last night (being a Ravens fan and all). Either, (a) Lose huge allowing my two receivers, Moss and Welker to catch 4 TD's between them, giving me the win and a locked up playoff spot. Or (b) Win, but hold Brady under 2 TD's. Still making me a loser, but also making the third place team a loser and knocking him from playoff contention and locking up a spot (along with $150 minimum) in the playoffs for myself.

Of course I didn't get either scenario and I lost by a big margin and the other guy won after being down a single point with :47 on the clock.

4th down stop nullified by a time out. Awful.
4th down stop nullified by false start. Awful.
4th down incompletion nullified by a holding call by biased referrees. To be expected from a bunch of paid off New England Band Wagoners. They should have all been wearing Brady jersey's last night.

Makes me sick. Now I get to fight for my spot in the playoffs next week and the only way I don't make it is if I lose and the other two teams win. Not probable, but you never know.

Disappointing Finish

2007-12-03T06:30:00.000-08:00

Ended up finishing in 10th in the PokerSavvy tournament yesterday. As you might remember, 1st place was a trip to the PokerStars PCA. I can't say I've ever played a tournament better. Very first hand I get all in with AsKs against KQo on a Ad6s7s board. I didn't need the flush to come through. From there I coasted to 8k chips during the first and stayed there until the second break. This was good for anywhere from 1st-8th place at all times. The third hour started the fireworks beginning with the previous hand. From there, I chipped back up to 10000 within two orbits. Then, with 10 people left the Cutoff raised and I went all in from the BB with QQ. He calls with AQ and one of the 27 Aces in the deck hits the river. Gone, with only 150 savvy points as a consolation. Will use that with some leftover savvy points for a $25 amazon card. Not a doubt in my mind though, if I win those two hands I win the package easily. The tournament was littered with bad players more than willing to give their chips away with middle pair/top pair no kicker. I would like to thank pokersavvy for putting this on, I read some complaints in the forum, but they hosted, I think, 14 tournaments worth $200-500 each as well as gave away a $12K PCA package and 5000 savvy points. I could not be more impressed, and if you get a chance, use the link and sign up. Lots of goodies for completing bonuses, like Ipods, gift certificates, and cash. Good luck everyone.

PokerSavvy Freeroll

2007-12-02T10:46:00.000-08:00

Still in, but this just happened.

PokerStars Game #13605675535: Tournament #56524733, Freeroll Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (100/200) - 2007/12/02 - 13:42:31 (ET)
Table '56524733 2' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: *II* (10235 in chips)
Seat 2: Troelg (8458 in chips)
Seat 3: presdlee (8263 in chips)
Seat 4: Skip_TinMan (7620 in chips)
Seat 6: KlLLAH (10482 in chips)
Seat 7: NRiver (9905 in chips)
Seat 8: will987 (9737 in chips)
Seat 9: Is It My Go? (5815 in chips)
*II*: posts the ante 25
Troelg: posts the ante 25
presdlee: posts the ante 25
Skip_TinMan: posts the ante 25
KlLLAH: posts the ante 25
NRiver: posts the ante 25
will987: posts the ante 25
Is It My Go?: posts the ante 25
NRiver: posts small blind 100
will987: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to presdlee [2s 2d]
Is It My Go?: raises 400 to 600
*II*: folds
Troelg: folds
presdlee: calls 600
Skip_TinMan: folds
KlLLAH: folds
NRiver: folds
will987: folds
*** FLOP *** [As Ts 2h]
Is It My Go?: bets 1700
presdlee: raises 1700 to 3400
Is It My Go?: raises 1790 to 5190 and is all-in
presdlee: calls 1790
presdlee said, "wow"
*** TURN *** [As Ts 2h] [Qh]
*** RIVER *** [As Ts 2h Qh] [4s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Is It My Go?: shows [6s 5s] (a flush, Ace high)
presdlee: shows [2s 2d] (three of a kind, Deuces)
Is It My Go? collected 12080 from pot
presdlee said, "what an awful play"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 12080 | Rake 0
Board [As Ts 2h Qh 4s]
Seat 1: *II* folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Troelg folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: presdlee showed [2s 2d] and lost with three of a kind, Deuces
Seat 4: Skip_TinMan folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: KlLLAH (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: NRiver (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: will987 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: Is It My Go? showed [6s 5s] and won (12080) with a flush, Ace high

Stupid Blogger Tournaments

2007-11-15T19:14:00.000-08:00

I don't know why I try. A baby flush draw with middle pair is absolute gold.

Yes, I'm a little pissy about it, fuck off.

Bee Movie

2007-11-15T05:30:00.000-08:00

So, we took the girls to see 'Bee Movie' yesterday. It was a very funny movie the whole way through. Also, any movie that can keep the attention of a 3 and 2 year old for an hour and a half is a blessing for parents. Shockingly, the little one was also cooperative and the wife was able to watch the movie as opposed to her usual routine of feed, burp, walk, feed, change diaper, walk, clean up spit-up, movie over. I got tagged again by IamHoff, but I will spare you all 7 more useless facts and I think that post is 2 or 3 down if you are curious. I will probably be at Riverchaser's tonight since I have off tomorrow. See you then.

Down the home stretch...

2007-11-13T11:29:00.000-08:00

School is over next Tuesday. That's all I have to say about that.

2 for 3 in token SNG's last night, I totally would have signed up for the MATH if I had known it was Turbo. Having off Monday, I didn't get online much, and when I did, I didn't read any blogs so I was unaware of this change. Very frustrating.

Also frustrating? Getting down to 30 in the 7K guarantee, and with 500/1000 blinds and 5000 chips getting called to the river by a big stack who had A8o. I had KQ and the board was K4567. In that order with no flushes possible. I led out preflop and on every street. Also had a third person in the pot for the flop and turn, and that still didn't scare off ole big stackin donk.

So, instead of having around 13K with 30 left I am out in 30th with nothing to show for it.

Does anyone else play in the WRGPT? If not, you should check it out for next year. I just doubled up today on our 5th hand. The villain's 75o was no match for A4 on an A62Q2 board. Still not when the call-bluff would work, but I would enjoy the insight one day. Good luck at the tables everyone.

Ready for this shitty week to be over

2007-11-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

Seriously, this week has sucked ass so far. Next week will be great working only 3 days. I have two live games this weekend on Friday and Saturday. I have multiple wins in very few tries for each of them, so here's hoping to another bankroll boost. Probably won't make the Mook tonight or Riverchasers tomorrow, I know I said that about the Math too, but I am jsut too damn tired recently and if I keep it up its going to be the death of me. Add in the fact that I've been playing like an assclown in everything NLH and it makes a good time to slow down. Probably will play me some Omaha hi/lo and LHE if the mood strikes me. Have a good week at the tables.

Tagged

2007-11-05T11:02:00.000-08:00

Riggstad tagged me so my other reader must suffer through more of my drivel. Here are da rules:

A). Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog...

B). Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself...

C). Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs...

D). Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

OK, here goes:

1. I work 71 miles from home and drive a minimum of 3 hours a day.

2. I was the Senior Class President in highschool and my very first email address that year (this was in 1999, we were a little late to the internet thingy at my house) was presidentdavelee at yahoo dot com. It stuck and it is still my main email today along with a gmail version as well.

3. I was active duty Navy for 5 years and advanced to E-5. I’ve been in the reserves for about a year and have advanced to E-6. A large part of advancement is knowing your shit on a 100 question test. I was in the 95th and 98th percentile the two times I took it.

4. I have incredible luck at just about everything. I’ve won 5 or 6 radio call in contests and can seemingly get through at will. I’ve won concert tickets, baseball tickets, cd’s, heavenly ham gift certificates and mccormick and shmicks gift certificate. I know I’m forgetting something though.

5. I worked in a bar when I was 14 through 17. It was in Fells Point in Baltimore and was the best job a kid could ever have. The tips working the night grill (8pm-2am) were amazing. I was clearing over $80 a night (huge money for a 14/17 yo, sometimes it was 50, sometimes it was 250, you never knew) working 4 days a week during the summer.

6. In college I took a biology class that was supposed to be insanely difficult. The word on the streets (or in the classroom) was that no one had gotten an “A” in 4 years. I went into the final with a grade of 89.5 and was told by the teacher that he prefers to round down (prick). Didn’t fucking matter since I scored a 95 on the test.

7. My wife and I currently have a foreign exchange student staying with us until the middle of next year.

Pick 7: I am pretty sure this has made its way around to everyone and if you haven’t done it, consider yourself tagged.

Pokersavvy Freeroll

2007-11-04T16:21:00.000-08:00

First picture is me kicking ass with 41 left.

Second picture is of the way the tournament ended. We were supposed to keep playing it out, but the tournament ended abruptly, no one at the final table made any money but,

We were all entered into a freeroll on December 2nd where 90 people will fight for a PCA Caribbean Main Event package. I can't wait!!!

Well, while I'm at it...

2007-11-04T10:46:00.000-08:00

I think I should have been a bit more aggressive here. Except delete "think I" and replace "a bit more" with "a lot more fucking aggressive". Owell, obv I'm having a good day at the O8 3/6 tables today up over 40 BB.

PokerStars 3/6 Omaha/8 (10 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Preflop: presdlee is MP3 with Ad, 9s, 3s, As.

4 folds, MP2 calls, presdlee calls, CO calls, 2 folds, BB checks.

Flop: (4.33 SB) Jd, 2h, 5d (4 players)

BB bets, MP2 folds, presdlee calls, CO calls.

Turn: (3.66 BB) Th (3 players)

BB bets, presdlee calls, CO calls.

River: (6.66 BB) 7h (3 players)

BB bets, presdlee calls, CO folds.

Final Pot: 8.66 BB

Results in white below:

BB has Ah 4d 8d Kc (Low: 7, 5, 4, 2, A | High: high card, ace).

presdlee has Ad 9s 3s As (Low: 7, 5, 3, 2, A | High: one pair, aces).

Outcome: presdlee wins 8.66 BB.

Yee Haw

2007-11-04T10:24:00.000-08:00

PokerStars 3/6 Omaha/8 (10 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Preflop: presdlee is BB with 8c, Th, Ts, 4c.

3 folds, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, MP3 calls, 2 folds, SB completes, presdlee checks.

Flop: (5 SB) 5h, 7h, Tc (5 players)

SB checks, presdlee bets, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, MP3 raises, SB calls, presdlee 3-bets, MP1 calls, MP2 caps, MP3 calls, SB calls, presdlee calls, MP1 calls.

Turn: (12.50 BB) 5s (5 players)

SB checks, presdlee checks, MP1 checks, MP2 checks, MP3 bets, SB raises, presdlee 3-bets, MP1 folds, MP2 calls, MP3 calls, SB calls.

River: (22.50 BB) Qs (4 players)

SB checks, presdlee bets, MP2 calls, MP3 calls, SB calls.

Final Pot: 26.50 BB

Results in white below:

presdlee has 8c Th Ts 4c (High: full house, tens full of fives).

MP2 has 2h Ah 4s 7s (High: two pair, sevens and fives).

MP3 has Ac 3s 5c Td (High: full house, fives full of tens).

SB has 2s 4d 3c 5d (High: three of a kind, fives).

Outcome: presdlee wins 26.50 BB.

Post Riverchasers

2007-11-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, I tried for two weeks. Time for two weeks off of the blogger tourney's. I am definitely sleep deprived. That didn't stop me from trying to get into the FTOPS. Made a good run and was chip leader going into the short-handed final table. We got into the money quick then we battled for an hour and a half three handed. The guy who finished third was a complete limit donkey. The guy who won played a solid game though.

Too. Damn. Busy.

2007-10-31T06:23:00.000-07:00

Got to play the Hoy. Played well for over an hour. Then played like ass.

I am backlogged at work.

I am backlogged for school.

Halloween is tonight and trick or treating is restricted from 5-6pm. What a fucking joke. They have a stupid parade that they are having from 7-8, so they want to restrict trick or treating to the day hours. Stupid people with their stupid ideas, I hope no one shows up to their stupid parade, I sure as hell won't be there.

I might be at the Mook though.

The Mookie

2007-10-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

This really should have went a lot better. I sucked out huge twice within a couple of hands. I said at the time I blamed the drugs, but really I was just getting tired and didn't want to be a short stack anymore. The drugs did a little, but more towards making me drowzy. After that I got a cup of coffee and decided to tighten up . I made it down to the money while knocking a few others out and then the major hand came when we had 13 left. Ricky raised in middle position and I had pocket Kings in the small blind. I should have pushed all in for 30K (he had 40K) but instead I just raised an Ace on the flop did me in when he couldn't fold the JackAce. So, two blogger tourneys in a row, two ITM, both times out with pocket Kings. Makes me sick. Thanks to Mookie for hosting, and Iggy for winning.

I'll probably be dazed on my Oxycodone, but...

2007-10-24T05:27:00.000-07:00

I'm signed up for the Mookie, are you?

I am probably going to be the deadest money out there because of the possibility of falling asleep at the keyboard, but I guess that may have helped on Monday at the Hoy. I guess we'll see. I'm so tired at work right now they might find me passed out under my desk. I cannot wait for this pain to go so I can stop with the medicine. See you tonight everyone.

Monday's at the Hoy

2007-10-22T22:36:00.000-07:00

I think this was only my 2nd or third time playing in the Hoy because of the gawd-awful start time, but I love the BBTwo format and want to start getting into them again. I will now, in honor of Hoy, give a short picture essay.

As evidenced, I didn't play a lot of hand, but when I did I won them early and often and when I did go to showdown they ended up wining most of the time. I made it to the final table as a medium stack. Dwindled down to a shorter (not short by the blinds yet) stack. And then this...

Joe Speaker said it before I could, but I think I threw up in my mouth. Happy with my performance though, as I'm taking oxycodone for the pain from the vasectomy.

Disappointing after playing so well to go out to the table donkey, but what are you going to do? I had fun everyone and I'm finally going to pack it in now that jjok and JoeSpeaker are heads-up. Thanks to Hoy for hosting, have a great day everyone.

Funny Story about Shit (Literally)

2007-10-22T04:48:00.000-07:00

I'm at work. Damn me and my work ethic. I would've loved to take a day today but I really need to take one at the end of the week so I can get waived from my military physical fitness test on Saturday. Under normal circumstances it is a test that can easily be passed (1 1/2 miles in under 13:45, 38 push ups, 47 sit ups). Those are just the lowest levels you can get. But, considering I am still limping around with a very tender set of balls and I am not supposed to lift anything over 10 pounds, I think I am going to have some trouble. I needed to come in as well to get some homework done (yes, I do it at work usually, it's the best place to concentrate).

Funny story today that I heard on the radio. Apparently, at Frederick Community College the school decided that you should not be able to smoke outside of the building's anymore. So, the new policy is you can only smoke in parking lots. Most are about 50 feet away or so, nothing major, others can be as far as 50 yards, again nothing too bad, I guess. But that is coming from a non-smoker. Apparently, the smokers are not taking it as well. You see, they have decided to conduct a protest against this harsh rule by taking it out on the bathrooms. Some tactics include removing entire rolls (think the huge rolls you find at a mall) of toilet paper, urinating in soap dispensers, and spreading their feces about the entire room. A message is always written on the mirror (in excrement, of course), that the protest will continue until the ban is lifted.

I can't imagine a time when I was so upset that I thought, "Damn it, I am so pissed off, I'm going to spread my shit on the wall to show it". I can't imagine what they would do if they banned smoking all together.

There have been no news reports about this (perhaps fear of copy-cat shit spreaders) but the radio show (Elliot in the Morning) had 4-5 people on verifying it was still happening.
The suspects are still on the loose.

I found that extremely amusing this morning and managed to give myself the hiccups for the last 30 minutes of my ride. I'm glad I decided to come in, just so I could hear that story.

My weekend,

2007-10-22T02:00:00.001-07:00

Besides holding ice on my balls for the majority of the weekend, I also got to play a ton of online poker.

PokerStars Tournament #64766513, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
45 players
Total Prize Pool: $450.00
Tournament started - 2007/10/21 - 14:34:23 (ET)

Dear presdlee,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $139.50 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 134.88 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/tlb_tournament_rankings.html

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Those are a couple of the highlights. I also ended up in Step 5 twice for the Pokerstars PCA package. Each time I was ousted in 6th place and knocked down a level where I proceeded to bust completely. I managed to collect a ton of FPP along the way of doing that and reached SilverStar status on Stars and am now within striking distance of gold. 2000 more with a 9 days left. Not completely crazy. Not probable though. I'm still very sore from the procedure Friday and was planning to go to work and deal with the pain, but I think I'm going to take a day today.
Have a great week everyone.

Weekend plans

2007-10-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

Vasectomy...ugh.
PokerStars Steps to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. I love the step program on Party Poker and I'm looking forward to playing them on Stars.

I think I am 400 FPP away from Silver status for the month.

Need to transfer $500 over to FTP to play BBT2, might need help with this.

Win $75 token in a hurry.

Would be nice to win the first one so I can keep getting my beauty sleep (6 hours) as opposed to when I play blogger tournaments (3 hours if going deep, if I'm lucky to fall right asleep at my desk).

Oh, and that pesky 27 page draft paper due on Tuesday. Of course I've started, if by "started" you mean giving it a title and putting my name up top.

Me = Awesome.

Tip from Google

2007-10-17T04:41:00.000-07:00

So, I signed into my Gmail account and Google always has some tip up at the top. This tip was obviously tailored specifically for me.

You can make a lovely hat out of previously-used aluminum foil.

Indeed you can, I'm wearing mine now!

Home Game Funny Story

2007-10-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

This actually happened a couple weeks ago and thought I'd share.

Before the game starts there are two new guys (to me at least) who show up. One is a big guy, looks like a lumberjack, the other looks as skinny as a rail and could have been (read: was absolutely) high. The skinny one is carrying 3 miller lite bottles in a six pack container. Nothing abnormal for people to be drinking beer at the game, so no biggie.

When we get down to 3 players I hadn't even noticed the guy drinking, but he was definitely not the best player. Hell, he wasn't even mediocre. He liked to limp in and min bet everything. So, my standard play was to play along and check raise every hand regardless. This worked 90% of the time. The other 10% he only called and I knew I was toast. Anyway, at least 5 times within an hour or so dude would knock his bottle over and it would clink around the floor until he picked it up. Only at the very end did we realize he had somehow switched from miller lite to a fifth of Jim Beam that was nearly polished off. There may have been a shot left. Not sure how much it had in it to start, but I am going to assume dude was completely blitzed at the end. Didn't show it too much as he just sat there the whole time looking dumb.

Yeah, probably not funny unless you were there, but still. I ended up winning that night taking a 150K chip lead against 5K. It only took one hand to finish him off. I'm sure it only took one more swig to finish off that bottle as well.

BBT2

2007-10-16T05:25:00.000-07:00

This is taken directly from Alcanthang's site regarding the upcoming BBT2. I started to do the first BBT and was faring well until exhaustion set in from the late nights. I've done well in Blogger tourney's in the past, so I'm hoping to play 2-3 a week and get into the TOC for a shot at the package.

From Alcanthang:

Full Tilt Poker has given us an $18k Aussie Millions package to give away for our next challenge.
$18,000 Prize Package for you and a friendThe 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event begins Monday, January 14th and promises to be bigger than ever.

Play for your $18K prize package, including:

* Aussie Millions Main Event entry worth AUD $10,500

* 10 nights stay at the luxurious Crown Casino Resort

* Round-trip airfare for the winner and a guest from Los Angeles to Melbourne

* $3,000 in spending money

* Winner & Pro golf outings, dinners, winery tours, seminars and a bounty tournament

Pretty god damn cool if you ask me and I was stunned when they brought it up. This was the package I really hoped to give away but thought was lost since I started so late on the planning. An opportunity to send a player and companion to the Land of Oz for 10 days with a $10k tournament thrown in there.

During the original BBT there was some positive and negative comments about the point system plus the number of people awarded points. For the BBTwo you won't have to worry about those points. We will be awarding the Aussie Millions package to the winner of a Tournament of Champions. So if you'd like to win the trip, you have to win one of the events during the eight week run. No worrying about making the points. No worrying about who made the most money during the challenge. Win an event and you are in the TOC and a shot at the Aussie Millions package.

So if you are interested in winning the Aussie Millions package, play them to win them.

But only so many people can win an event during this stretch so what about everyone else? We want everyone to play, enjoy themselves, and have a shot at winning something. Full Tilt Poker has given us the Aussie Millions Package but that's not all they're giving us.

FTP is giving us an entry into their weekly big Sunday guarantee tournaments whic we will reward to the Player of the Week. This is where that pesky point system comes in again. We will be using the same point formula as the last Challenge but this time around only the top 25% of players in each event will receive points. Whoever earns the most points during the week will get a ticket into the FTP Sunday Guarantee Tournament.

The point system will also be used to determine players to qualify for an end of challenge freeroll which is still being worked out.

There are just a couple more things to finalize and we'll get back to you with the details. I have an FTOPS Main Event seat to give away and we're just kicking around ideas of what to do with it. I also have an iPod Touch to give away courtesy of the folks at donkit.com. So many things to give away, so little time to figure out how to give them away.

So there you have it. BBTwo is about to kick off and it's time to reload your FTP account, start firing up those Token Frenzies, and strap in for an 8 week, 27 tournament challenge to see what you are made of.We are going to kick things off on Sunday, October 21st with the big prizepool in Miami Don's Big Game. The rest of the Blogger Schedule will go as planned except now the Riverchasers events will also be weekly during the challenge. The challenge will run for 8 weeks ending on Sunday, December 16th with another Big Game.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in comments or shoot Al an email.

If you don't have a Full Tilt account, consider signing up using the banner at the top of the screen.

Here are the tournaments you play to win:

Tournament: Mondays at the Hoy

When: Every Monday. 10pm ET

Game: NLHE DeepstackBuyin: $24+2

Password: hammer

Tournament: The Mookie

When: Every Wednesday. 10pm ET

Game: NLHE DeepstackBuyin: $10+1

Password: vegas1

Tournament: Riverchasers Online Poker Tour

When: Every Thursday. 21:00 ET

Game: NLHE DeepstackBuyin: $10+1

Password: Riverchasers

Home Game, Hero of the Week

2007-10-16T05:19:00.000-07:00

I'm back, more on that later, but first I want to start out with a weekly feature that will run titled, "Home Game Hero of the Week". For some background, I play in a home game that occurs every Friday night near my house. This game consists of a variety of players ranging from great, to good, to bad, to awful, to downright sick how the fuck can you play those to cards together?

It's a good mix with the good players winning 95% of the time and the other players sneaking a donkey win or place every now and again. The game normally consists of 15-20 people and I'll introduce them all to you throughout the course of this series. This way, you'll understand some of their tendencies and be able to evaluate hands with me as we go further along in the series. I won't be specific with names at all, but I'll try to provide you all the information necessary to understand a certain player.

The Home Game, Hero of the Week will generally consist of the donkey that busts me, not just because it gives me a chance to wallow in my own self pity, but also because I will have the maximum amount of information for that hand. I will occasionally list hands I was not involved with as well, since these hands are often as important as the hands that I would be playing. Got it? Good. Moving on. The game this week consisted of 9 people (considerably low for normal). Starting stacks of 20K, Unlimited Rebuys for the first hour.

This week's Home Game, Hero of the Week involves Five-Gap. Derived from the term one-gap or two gap. Also derived from amount of space that is seen in his upper set of teeth. Examples of hands seen by Five-Gap include J/5, 10/4, K/8(insert any number after a K, Q, or A). These hands are gold for Five-Gap. Of course, soooted is preferred. At the time of his famed move, there were 5 rebuys from 4 people and we are now down to 5. Two places paid tonight, first place gets $250, second place gets $100. There are 420K chips in play and Five-gap has luckboxed his way into over 180K. With blinds at 400/800 he is in no trouble of easing into the final 2 for his first every payout.

He has easily busted (whether they rebought or left after the rebuy period) 6 people thus far. Some of the hands used to collect chips to this point include A2o, 22 unimproved, Q8, J4 and 54s. Five-gap has been known to play ultra aggressive with any hand, call down with any hand, and cannot be bluffed. He is the ultimate aggressive calling station. Five-gap is the ultimate limper. He has been known to call raises against tight players with ATC and this sometimes causes players to stop raising with hands like AK, AQ, JJ-88 because they know Five-gap will call and they are better off controlling the pot size. Just because Five-gap bets a lot, does not mean he does so well. T200 into a T5000 pot is normal for Five-gap because he does not understand pot odds or pushing people out.

A second player in this hand, The Boss, runs the game out of his garage and is an exact replica (minus a foot in height and mustache length) of the father from Orange County Choppers, Paul Teutul, Sr. His game is very much like that of a calling station, but a very loose calling station who will actually bet when no one else is inclined. He will call you down with top pair in most situations, but he is a generally smart player who has just not gotten into a lot of the strategy involved in poker. Consistantly, and I cannot say that strongly enough, gets into the bottom 2-4, with one win. Seems to always know when he is ahead and behind and difficult to read because of his loose starting hand requirements. Back to the hand, 5 players left and I am is sitting with 75K in the BB. I've played with Five-gap on three different occasions and have seen many of his spectacular moves to this point.

I'm dealt Jh4h and am ready to check my option, as the table has been as passive as could possibly be (one guy has had KK twice and not raised either time). Limpers all around and we see a flop of Js 4s 3h. Check from the small blind and I check looking to check raise whoever got a piece of the pot with my top two. UTG, The Boss, leads out for T3000 into the T4000 pot. UTG+1 folds, Five-gap calls, SB folds and I reraise T12000 more. UTG thinks for a minute and calls. Five-gap instacalls. I have T59000 at this point and need to put them both on a hand while the turn is the 8h. At this point I've narrowed Five-gap down to a shitload of hands. Hands that I am getting beat by at this point include JJ, J8, 88, 44, 33. He could easily (this is what I initially put him on) have top pair with a 9+ kicker where I would be 88% to win. He could very easily have two spades which would put me at 70%-30%. A straight draw is possible which would put me close to 90%, two lower pair which would put me at 90% or just bottom pair which puts me at 91%. At the time, I put him on either top pair, a medium pair that's not a set, or a flush/straight draw, maybe both but not likely.

I put The Boss on a flush draw, from previously playing with him and he tends to think more about calling with draws, than calling with his made hands. I was inclined to think at the time that one had a flush draw, while the other had top pair, most likely AJ, QJ, KJ, 10J as these are all hands played frequently by this bunch. The 8h on the turn made my hand all the more stronger, as I now have a redraw in case I am up against an unfortunate set. I want to know on the turn if I am up against a set, or whether they are drawing so I decide to bet T45000 into the T49000 pot. Looking back I should have just pushed or bet smaller to give myself some room to get away, leaving T15000 doesn't do me much good either way. I don't like it now, but I thought it would be effective to punish or push out the drawing hand and punish the top pair hand. UTG thought for two minutes solid and folded. At this point I am certain that he had the draw, but the bet would have effectively put him close to all in and he chose to fight another day. Five-gap instacalls again. I've seen this call before and it screams, "I have top pair and I will call you down don't bluff me". I've seen it before, and I'll see it again. Thus the reason that the 3c did not scare me. I really didn't want to give him a chance out of this pot without paying me off for the rest. I was certain that he had top pair, and if I was wrong I was certain his flush did not get there and he might be tempted to call me down with Ace high for the price and the pot being T139000.

I put my T15000 in and as I was counting it out Five-gap thought about it and I grew more and more confidant. After counting it out, he waited another 20 seconds before calling and waiting for me to table my 2 pair. To say he slow rolled me would be an understatement, first he placed his cards face down, then he turned them over, one on top of the other with the Ks showing. Then he slid that to the side to reveal the 3d which tripped up on the river. That one took a minute to register and I had to actively think to myself to stay calm because I did not want to scare off the fish for next time.

For that hand, Five-gap earns my coveted Hero of the Week award. The Hero of the Week award would not be complete without telling how Five-gap finished. I stayed til the end because I drove one of my friends to the game and was able to witness Five-gap play every hand for the next hour, doubling up every player and eventually busting in 3rd place with no money. After he left, The Boss and I talked about his play and it was not the first time that Five-gap had taken a monster chip lead into the last couple of players. And we're both certain this would not be the last time he takes a monster fall like the one this week.

Portal the Flash Version

2007-10-16T04:48:00.000-07:00

This game is awesome. Portal the Flash Version. It looks like it's only been out a few days. There are 41 levels and it took me about 2 and a half hours to beat the whole thing. A well spent two and a half hours I might add.

WBCOOP

2007-10-15T04:47:00.000-07:00

Well, this was interesting. I was wiring my basement with my uncle yesterday. We started at 3:15, right after the blogger championship started. Third hand in I get QQ and raise. Get two callers on and take a 9 high flop. One bets the other calls and I push. Two folds and I am at 18000. I go help for an hour come back and have 14000. While my uncle smokes I play 10 hands, on #9 I get 9c10c in late position and call a raise with two others. Flop is 9h8c7c. There is a bet from the OR, a min raise and I push. Min raiser calls with 6h6d. Turn is the 6s. River 6c. Yep, straight flush > 4 of a kind. Go me. I am at 30000 only playing 10 hands an hour. I come back and there are 400 some-odd people left and I have 16000. First hand back I raise the 400/800 blinds to 4000 from MP with 99. Two callers including the button and BB and we see an A 10 9 flop rainbow. BB goes all in for 16000 or so and has me covered by a bit. I instacall and the button folds. He flips the JackAce. Turn 8. River Q and I am done. We stopped working right after that too and I could have came back with somewhere around 30K heading into the homestretch with 500/1000 blinds. Very shitty way to go. Also because of the work had to leave a HORSE tournament with 30K in chips and 50 people left. Ended up blinding out in 25th place. Really didn't think I'd go that quick, but I guess the antes and blinds got me. Probably a lot of bring-ins as usual in RSE.

I'm not complaining too much, my uncle the electrician did the whole back of our basement for free. We are turning it into a workout room and all we have paid for so far is the wood for the frame and the dry wall. My father in law did the framing, uncle for the wiring and a friend of mine will be doing the dry wall. The dry wall may have to wait unless I can get another big guy to come over and help lift it, as I'm having my vasectomy this Friday and won't be able to left anything. We'll just have to wait and be hopeful.

No, I didn't prepare my TPS reports, fuckers!!!

2007-10-12T13:29:00.000-07:00

Instead I spent my day flinging people down stairs. My high score is 707, what is yours?

I hate Friday Afternoon

2007-10-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here, I keep refreshing blogs, bloglines, deadspin, firejoemorgan anything to keep me occupied for another 2 hours and I can't get shit. This is some bullshit. What the fuck are ya'll doing? Huh? You are certainly not providing me with any entertainment. Now I'm forced to consider working the remaining 2 hours just so the damn thing will be over. Fuck me.

Anyways, got a call from a friend today who is running a cash game next Friday. Problem is I'm having a vasectomy that afternoon at 1. I know I'll be drugged a bit, but would I be totally pushing it to play that night. I don't think the boss is going to go for it either. She's already stuck with the kids all weekend with minimal help from me (not supposed to pick up anything that weighs anything). So, I'll probably have plenty of free time to play online poker, Woo Hoo.

Okay, I'm done ranting and raving. Someone post for Pete's sake!!!

Home Game Tonight

2007-10-12T05:13:00.000-07:00

Looking forward to another exciting home game. Especially because it might be the only poker I play until Monday. The weekends are so hard to fit itme in because of the kids and wife, but maybe I'll play a couple of nights this weekend after putting everyone down. If anyone is coming here from Poker Weblogs, thanks for stopping by. I really like how you can get a consolidated list of blogs there, so I'm hoping to check out some new ones today at work. (What, you think I'd actually work, while at work? Ha, you need to find yourself a government job like me!!!!)

Have a great weekend everyone.

Columbus Day

2007-10-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

I guess I am grateful that I had only driven an hour Monday morning before figuring out I had the day off. Thank you Elliot in the Morning!!! Awful night of poker Monday night, losing $170 in various forms. I made a very good play (I think) at the $50 NL tables. I had been fairly aggressive to this point on a pushover table and raise UTG with QQ to $2.50 (a standard raise at the time). CO+1 reraises to $5.50 and I immediately put him on AK. I decide to call (mistake 1 anyone?) and we see a flop of 2, 6, 7 rainbow. I check, he pots and I push all in for $30 more and he instacalls with AK. And do I ever mean insta, like he had the call any button pushed. River was a King, but I got my money in as a favorite and really against a normal player I'd have a lot more fold equity than against that guy. Any thoughts would be appreciated if anyone ever stumbles over this piece of shit in the blogosphere. I don't think I'm going to get a chance to play until Saturday, but who knows. Good luck at the virtual tables!!

Weekend Update

2007-10-08T03:55:00.000-07:00

1 tournament, $41.00 profit for 568th place out of 19000.
1 home game, 3-way chop for $140 profit
9 $27 SnG's, 7 2nd's and 2 1st's

Wow, is all I can say. I run goot. I raised my br from $600 to over $1100 online and added $140 to my live roll. Hope everyone had a good weekend as well.

2007-10-07T13:36:00.001-07:00

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: 2171815

Lost Connection

2007-10-03T04:44:00.000-07:00

So I get home from work yesterday and the fucking internet is down. Damn Comcast puts me on hold for 38 minutes before telling me the whole area is down. I was looking forward to playing last night but it was not meant to be. The connection was up this morning, so I'll get to play some tomorrow. Tonight, I have a supplemental draft for one of my fantasy football teams. I'm 4-0 so far, but my bench is downright awful, so come bye weeks (week 6, week 10) I'm going to be hurting. I get to pick 7th today out of 14 (yes, 14, who the fuck does 14 teams in a league?) yet somehow I ended up with Joesph Addai, Randy Moss, Matt Shaub, Purple Jesus, Reggie Wayne, Wes Welker and Jason Hansen (no defense used). Seriously, 14 teams picking and I end up stacked for the most part aside from Welker. Shaub is actually was my backup, as Mark Bulger is sitting on the fucking bench after I wasted a 3rd round pick on him. The QB's went Peyton in Rd. 1, Brady Rd. 2, then in round 3 the QB frenzy happened. I'm picking 7th now, and the top of Rd. 3 goes Brees, Mcnabb , Kitna (someone was thinking ahead), Palmer (really wanted him, but the guy in front got him), Romo, Vince Young (idiot), so I jumped on Bulger. I ended up getting Moss in Rd. 4, then Peterson in 5, and actually didn't get Shaub til Rd. 9. Ended up wasting a pick on Ladell Betts, and a couple of people in the late rds, so I need to amp up my bench.

Anyway, here is hoping to some poker tonight. Been getting killed in SNG's, played 12 on Monday, only cashed 3 times. Luckily two of them were first and one was third so I made up a substantial portion. The beats were horrid, but that is standard. I jumped to the $27 Turbo's, the play is the exact same as the $16 Turbos, which are the same as the $6.50's. I like the $27 though, first is $112.50, so if I can pull of a good run, I should be able to give the bankroll a nice boost to get up to the $37 turbos.

Stats

2007-09-28T04:16:00.001-07:00

As some other blogs have been mentioning, the Chris Ferguson challenge is a great way to control your bankroll. I always seem to be able to get up to $700 or $800, only to head back towards $200/300 during a bad string. Now that I'm up to $780, I want to start employing these three rules taken from Chris' website

"I'll never buy into a cash game or a Sit & Go with more than 5 percent of my total bankroll (there is an exception for the lowest limits: I'm allowed to buy into any game with a buy-in of $2.50 or less).
I won't buy into a multi-table tournament for more than 2 percent of my total bankroll and I'm allowed to buy into any multi-table tournament that costs $1.
If at any time during a No-Limit or Pot-Limit cash-game session the money on the table represents more than 10 percent of my total bankroll, I must leave the game when the blinds reach me. "

So right now, I have $780 which limits me to putting no more than $39 into a SNG or cash table, and no more than $15.60 into a tournament. I was sticking to $6.50 turbo SNG's, but I made the jump last night and played two $16 turbo SNG's. I took third in one, which was devestating because I started 3-handed play with 9000 chips. Doubled both of the other players up on consecutive hands with pocket 10's and 9's. Lost to AQ and AJ each time. Downhill from there culminating with a walk in the big blind with K10. Flopped two pair, got all the money in against pocket queens and he hit one of his two outs on the river. We each had 5000 chips at the time and he won on the next hand. So I lost $3 on the night.

I have a home game tonight, hopefully I'll get to pad my stats there, and I'm hoping to play a ton this weekend since I have no navy reserve activities, or anything for that matter other than watching football.

More SNG Madness

2007-09-27T04:22:00.000-07:00

Got a chance to play a good bit of poker (for me) yesterday. 12 SNG's and two tournaments. The SNG's either ended very fast, or went far. No bubbling, but too many 5/6/8 places. I finished ITM 4 times (1, 1, 2, 3) for a huge $3 profit. Woot. I have a document that I'm working on to track everything, just trying to work out some of the kinks and work in a way to show the T$ and W$. I played in two tournaments which were utterly frustrating.

Played in a $2 rebuy sattellite to an $88 sattellite. Down to 14 with 13 geting the seat and 14th getting $14. I'm in for $10 after an initial rebuy, a double rebuy after busting and the add-on. Both myself and another super short stack (think 1500 chips with 600/1200 blinds and an ante) are all in. I was forced in as the big blind already, the other shorty is all in and three others have called and check down. I've got shit, and don't improve. I have to hope that the other short stack busts too, because I had him outchipped starting the hand. Board is AKJ25, with a flush possible. Shorty has Q10 for broadway and I get $14.

Next tourney I play is $8.80 Omaha Hi/Lo. I was running really well in this one, and we are already in the second tier of payouts down to 17 players. Next bump is at the final table. I raise on the button with KK23 and the BB calling station (has been for hours) calls. Flop is 555 and he checks, I bet and he calls. Turn is a 4. I bet all in and he calls with AA96. River is a 9 making it a Hi hand only and he takes it. Very frustrating. After the hand he had 40K with 600/1200 blinds, and plenty of room to with a lot of mid/shorties still out there. $13.66 profit for my troubles. I like that I've gone deep in a ton of tournaments, but I'd like to step it up to go deep more often, rather than take that initial weak payout. Of course, I shouldn't be complaining too much with the HORSE win and all. Good luck at the tables everyone.

SNG's

2007-09-26T04:43:00.000-07:00

I took some time to play 5 SNG's two nights ago and started out with a 7th place finish. I picked it up after that and finished 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st. I'm trying to create an excel doc now where I can track my results, when I finish it, I'll post it and keep some of these mundane updates to myself :) In other news, I served as an election judge yesterday. It ended up being a boring election, as there were two commissioner chairs open, and only two people signed up. That, as opposed to last year when two seats were open and 7 people were involved. I still didn't get home until after 10. Not fun.

Great Weekend So Far

2007-09-23T06:23:00.000-07:00

Friday was a great day for poker. The day started pretty uneventful playing a couple of heads up SNG's. I won two and lost two and wasn't really into it. I played some $.25/.50 limit holdem, but that was not what I wanted to do either. I decided to do a couple of sattelites and tournaments. I settled on a $22 9-person SNG to the $100K that evening and played .25/.50 in the background. I had a massive suckout early against two players all in, which gave me a huge chiplead. I ended up dominating the final table until we were heads up. Second place was $30 bucks, so I wasn't looking to place in this one. I ended up taking it down when he jammed J9 into my AK and it held up. The tournament wasn't until 9, (it was around noon) so I decided to take the T$ and play some other tourneys later on.

I started a $10 HORSE tournament around 630 and a rebuy satellite to the 50/50 at 7. In the 50/50 after the initial rebuy, I had to double rebuy with about 5 minutes left after running AK into AQ when the board ran out AKQQ9. Rough, but I managed to double up before the break to around 8000 and doubled again shortly after the break when I flopped the nut flush and was paid off by a donkey big stack. I love when those guys forget they can't rebuy anymore and still play the same. They paid out 40 places and with 60 people left I had the chiplead. I took it easy for a bit and picked my spots to keep my stack healthy. When we hit 40, and the tourney ended, I was in 5th in chips, very happy with my play. Because I had to get up early the next morning, I decided to take the T$ from that as well.

At the same time, the HORSE tournament was going well. I stayed in the top 15 in chips the whole time, never having a big stack, but never in danger. There were 200 to start, and 24 paid. On the bubble, I lost a big pot in stud, but that only dropped me to 10th place from 3rd. Stud is by far my worst game. Limit hold'em is where I try to play my A game, I tend to crush the Omaha round, and barring a shitload of bricks, I am solid at Razz. Both of the stud games elude me though. I just find it hard to push people out of pots from drawing to two pair. I try to play tight, but to no avail. I ended up winning a couple nice pots in stud, but lost far more than I would have liked to even played.

When we got to the final table, I had 40K in chips and the chip leader had 100K. After knocking out a couple of the shorties we were 4 handed. 4th place was $160, 3rd was 200, 2nd was $350 and 1st was $525. I was the short stack at 100K with 8K/16K blinds. The hand the changed everything, I was dueling with the chipleader villain. He raised UTG, and I called from the SB with 88, BB called as well. Flop was 8AA. I led out, BB called, UTG raised and I reraised. BB called, UTG called. Turn was a 2 and we all got all of our money in. The BB had about 50K more than me, and the chipleader had 150K more. BB had A4 and UTG had AK. River was another 8 to seal the deal. I ended up having a monster stack at that point and was able to run the table over in the Holdem and Omaha parts. After getting rid of 3rd and 4th place, the former chipleader and I went to battle. I had a 6-1 chiplead and we got all in soon after starting heads up in the omaha section. I had A234 v. KKJQ. The board came out K3456 to give me the win and over $500. I ended up playing a hundred or so hands of limit poker during this time and won $6 the first session and $16 the second. I haven't been able to play since then, so I am itching for some more tonight. I have $180 T$ so I'll probably do a few tournaments with some cash mixed in and see if I can keep on my heater.

Ed Hollis

2007-09-19T05:55:00.000-07:00

I wanted to pass along a site that seems a bit unreal and made up, but still funny reading anyway. Think Tuff Fish without the videos, but with 10x the losing. That's our main man Ed Hollis. Enjoy.