RoccoBoxer Poker Blog

Poker - Recession Style

2009-04-21T00:39:00.006-04:00

Next Game - Saturday, April 25th, 6PM

$10 buy-in, rebuy, and add-ons

Max 20 players.

Registered List

Jim
Stacey
Todd
Rico
Toby
Sean
Patrick
Cristine
David
Stu
Cindy
Doyle
Ian

Game 15 Results - Championship Tourney Announced

2009-01-13T00:09:00.015-05:00

This is ging to be short and sweet. All I remember is I was the 1st one out back to back and I was the coffee boy at the club.

Game 15 Results

Points Standings

Money Standings

Jackpot - I may take a few bucks out for prizes.

FPP - These guys are eligible for the Free add-on at the Championship Game.

Buy-in for the Championship Game

Championship Tourney - Saturday, January 17th, 6PM

Freeze-out $20 buy-in, $10 or $20 one time add-on. Max 20 players.

Registered List

Jim
Stacey
Cristine
Justin
Toby
Armando
Cindy
Stuart
Mitch
Lori
Todd
Sean
Patrick
Ian
Michael

Game 14 in the books, Game 15 announced

2008-12-02T00:57:00.013-05:00

We played Game 14 and I'd like to congratulate David on his first win in his first attempt this season. I had a rough go of it when my AA were cracked by AJ heads-up. I was the first one out. And much to Stacey's delight, CRISTINE GOT QUADS!!!

Thanks to everyone that brought food to share - it was a feast!

REMINDER We are going to host the Season 3 Championship Invitational Tourney in the January/February time frame. We will have at least 2 more tourney's before the game. I am requesting you play at least 2 regular season tourney's to be invited to the lucrative Invitational Event. You can how many tourney's you played this season in the "Games" column of the standings below. I highlighted the eligible players on the list.

This event includes discounted buy-ins based on points and money standings AND an infusion of the Jackpot bucks into the pot. The jackpot is growing nicely and will ~~likely~~ definately top $250.

Here are the results for Game 14.

Here are the overall Points and Money (sorted on Money) standings.
Here is the current Jackpot status:
Here is the current FPP tally. Rico, Stuart and I have earned free add-ons. (I forgot to take mine last time)

Game 15 - Saturday, December 6th, 6PM

Freeze-out $20 buy-in, $10 or $20 one time add-on. Max 20 players.

Registered List (bold for early sign-up bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Mitch
Lori
Stuart
Justin
Toby
Ian
Todd
Kevin
Clint

Well it's about time.... Game 13 results, GAME 14 IS SCHEDULED

2008-11-15T21:49:00.014-05:00

We played Game 13 back in September during Hurricane Ike. Wow, I have been very negligent in getting this post up. Nevertheless, it's time to play again. This post includes the stats and the announcement for Game 14.

We are going to host the Season 3 Championship Invitational Tourney in the January/February time frame. We will have at least 2 more tourney's before the game. I am requesting you play at least 2 regular season tourney's to be invited to the lucrative Invitational Event. You can how many tourney's you played this season in the "Games" column of the standings below.

This event includes discounted buy-ins based on points and money standings AND an infusion of the Jackpot bucks into the pot. The jackpot is growing nicely and will likely top $250.

Here are the results for Game 13.

Here are the overall Points and Money (sorted on Money) standings.

Here is the current Jackpot status:

Here is the current FPP tally. Rico, Stuart and I have earned free add-ons.

Game 14 - Saturday, November 22nd, 6PM

Freeze-out $20 buy-in, $10 one time add-on. Max 20 players.

Registered List (bold for early sign-up bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Mitch
Lori
Justin
Armando
Toby
David
Cristine
Todd
Michael
Sean
Patrick

Review for Blackjack Stats

2008-09-23T02:19:00.003-04:00

Wow. Let's take a break from Poker sites for a minute and review something a little different. This is a pretty neat site for you blackjack strategists. You can get to the site by clicking this link: Online Casinos. The site is a little slow. It has all kinds of charts you can customize for the type of game and other settings including: # of decks, betting style, rules (like dealer must hit soft 17), the strategy you want to employ, and the type of table you want produced.

After selecting each item, a table is produced showing how the strategy worked out on a random deck. It's pretty complicated, but manageable by applying some simple blackjack strategies that are fairly well known and publicized. I ran a few through and it wasn't as daunting as it first appears. I used a couple strategies I employ in Vegas and as one would expect, their recommendations were a little different than what I was doing. no wonder my bankroll takes a hit when I play live blackjack.

There are some other cool items. There is a video blackjack calculator here. All of these calculators and strategies are designed to guide the user through an online gaming session. There are also bankroll calculators and an income calculator.

So if you get psyched after watching 21, then why not plunk down a couple hundred and try out some of these free strategies. Let me know how they work out with a comment.

Poker Ownage Site Review

2008-09-15T20:25:00.002-04:00

This sight, Poker News, has a weird name, but is probably the best organized and deepest sight I have come across. I like the diversity of topics on the sight including news, online sight reviews, gossip, and gambling coverage in the real world (not online).

Under POKER GOSSIP AND RUMORS it didn't take me long to learn of the rumor High Stakes Poker is not going to be on GSN anymore. That was disappointing, however, old news that might not even be accurate at this point in time. The problem is the latest news is form June?

Under the rakeback section, the sight site discusses how to choose the best online poker sight on the basis of rakeback. This would be more helpful if the sight included some current data.

The sight also posts a review for Titan Poker. I found it a little strange that all the major poker sights were listed on this sight, but Titan is featured in the header.

There are several lesser known sight reviews and these are interesting if you want to change your luck and try a new sight. The list here is intentionally small because Ownage has filtered them for you. The Doyle's Room link didn't work. Cake Poker has a link, but no review as of yet.

All in all the sight is handy. I bookmarked it and will return. Why don't you?

Game 13 Announced - 9/13/08 - 6PM

2008-09-13T13:18:00.000-04:00

Game 13 - Saturday, September 13th, 6PM

Freeze-out $20 buy-in, $10 one time add-on. Max 20 players.Registered List (bold for early sign-up bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Stuart
David O.
Ian
Toby
Cindy
Scott
Cristine

Note - Jeff dropped due to Ike.

Site Review: Spin Palace Casino

2008-09-13T12:56:00.002-04:00

Yet another review of an on-line related site. This time I am reviewing Spin Palace. The previous link takes you to an overview of the site. The actual casino site is located here.

I was impressed with this casino because of the attractive mega jackpot. $6.7 million. That would be nice. They also have slot tournaments and online video poker, blackjack, and roulette. You can see a lots of recent winners by country by going to this link.

I downloaded the software and it was easy to install. I toured around the site, but didn't put any money down. I was impressed with the sign-up bonuses, 100% 1st deposit, 50% 2nd deposit, and 25% 3rd deposit. The details are posted on their site here.

For each game they provide instructions and strategy tips. The tips for Craps were pretty good and I spent some time reviewing them and comparing them to my own winning strategies. I love craps and online craps is even better for action than that in a live casino game. It takes way too long for the staff to pay out, you don't have to worry about some jackass putting his hands down to foul the dice, and the dice never leave the table.

I will definitely check the site out when I get a few gambling bucks liberated from my allowance account.

Game 13 Announced - 9/13/08 - 6PM

2008-09-12T01:00:00.001-04:00

Game 13 - Saturday, September 13th, 6PM

Freeze-out $20 buy-in, $10 one time add-on. Max 20 players.Registered List (bold for early sign-up bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Stuart
David O.
Ian
Toby
Cindy
Scott

Note - Jeff dropped due to Ike.

The Online Gambling Database

2008-09-12T00:43:00.002-04:00

I am reviewing yet another online gaming site. This time it's Online Casinos. This site is similar to other sites I have seen except it is quite slimmed down. It gets right to the point. For each site it lists Online Casino Rank, Software & Games, Sign Up Bonus, Accepts US and if there is a Download. Of course all the sites have a download, so I wasn't sure of the purpose of this.

The beat part of this site is the link to the Casino Review Sites. This brings you to a list of other sites that have performed reviews of the various online casinos. There is a link that lets you add your own site and review. That's cool.

The "Latest Links" and "Top Links" at the top of this page were not functional. On the "sites" link on the bottom of the home page you can get to a table of contents that lists directories, forums, guides, blogs, bonus reviews, etc. This is clearly the most important page in this database. You can get to it via this link.

All in all, this is a handy site to find what you need in terms of world wide gaming sites. Plus it has the added feature of being interactive and allowing individuals to post their recommendations. This should make the information more rounded and less biased.

Game 13 Announced - 9/13/08 - 6PM

2008-09-11T09:11:00.003-04:00

Game 13 - Saturday, September 13th, 6PM

Freeze-out $20 buy-in, $10 one time add-on. Max 20 players.Registered List (bold for early sign-up bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Stuart
David O.
Ian
Toby
Cindy
Scott

Note - Jeff dropped due to Ike.

Website Review: Casino Scrutiny

2008-09-11T00:29:00.002-04:00

Here is another online Casino site review for Online Casino Gambling at Casino Scrutiny. This site is interesting in a few ways. It has strategy write-ups for video poker, craps roulette, and blackjack. They also have a strategy for "Quitting While You are Ahead".

They also have a nice casino News section to give you information about the latest promotions and happenings on various Casino sites. I thought this was quite helpful on staying up on the latest information.

Next, there is this link for Reviews of the three best UK and US casinos. I found this the best part of the site. I quickly plunked down $100 on the Rushmore site and turned it into $300 playing craps and roulette. I also played a little blackjack, but gave some back. I quit while I was ahead :-).We will see how cashing out goes. It was easy to download and the site I am reviewing had accurate descriptions and I agree with their comments.

Since I followed the site's advice, picked a casino and won, I can't complain at all, but rather recommend this site if you want some information about which site to pick or to sty up on the latest information on the various sites.

Game 13 Announced - 9/13/08 - 6PM

2008-09-09T21:04:00.002-04:00

Game 13 - Saturday, September 13th, 6PM

Freeze-out $20 buy-in, $10 one time add-on. Max 20 players.Registered List (bold for early sign-up bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Jeff
Stuart
David O.
Ian

UK Online Gaming Directory Site Review

2008-09-08T23:58:00.004-04:00

I reviewed the following site: http://www.gamingdirectory.co.uk/. Also, you can get to it from here UK Online Casinos

It was a nice site, but some of the data on the site is out of date. I checked out the site and it was a little hard for me to form a strong opiion because it is just UK based. I found it cool that it had a casino software providers link. Also, it covered sites it found reputable, very handy if you don't already know, on the Casino Portals link.

If you haven't already noticed, each major link from the home page has sub-links. The Casino Bonuses link had a no information. I did notice the main page has both the bonuses and the top UK Poker sites outlined. The 32RED casino was pretty cool - I checked it out. The money was in pounds, so get out your wheel barrel of US dollars :-).

I checked out the Vegas Links and this was really out of date. The still had Barbary Coast listed and that casino changed to Bill's Gambling Hall and Saloon at least a year ago. That said, it's a UK site, focused mainly on the UK based casinos. It has a signup for a newsletter too - pretty cool.

I checked out the links and it was good to see Party Poker at number 3 - I miss the days when Party Poker was available for the US.

Game 13 Announced - 9/13/08 - 6PM

2008-09-05T22:37:00.003-04:00

Game 13 - Saturday, September 13th, 6PM

Freeze-out $20 buy-in, $10 one time add-on. Max 20 players.
Registered List (bold for early sign-up bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Jeff
Stuart

100th Post WooHoo - Game 11/12 Stats - Game 13 Registration

2008-08-06T13:21:00.013-04:00

Well, although I don't post as much as I used to, this is my 100th post. No biggie really, just noteworth.

Games 11 and 12 were played on the same night. We had one table going and played two turbos. People generally like this format and so do Stacey and I. What do you guys think?

Here are the results for games 11 and 12.

Here are the overall Points and Money (sorted on Money) standings.

Here is the current Jackpot status:

Here is the current FPP tally. Congrats to Rico and Stuart for earning free add-ons.

Game 13 - Saturday, August 9th, 6PM

CANCELLED

Game 10 Recap - Game 11 Announced

2008-07-14T22:44:00.014-04:00

We had a nice turnout over the 4th weekend. Congrats to Mookie for taking it down. Congrats to Diane for with a 2nd place on her debut. I guess the old rule applies. Those that can't... teach. Sorry Todd. Just kidding. Seriously, the girl kicked ass. She and Todd have been working on teaching her the rules, etiquette, strategy, etc. It paid off.

Well, here are the results of game 10.

Game 10 Results

Points and Money Standings

Jackpot

FPP's

Game 11 - Saturday, July 19th, 6PM

Freeze-out $20 buy-in, $10 one time add-on. Max 20 players.
Registered List (bold for early sign-up bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Rico
Todd
Alper
Stuart
Cindy
Toby
Arnie

Games 8 & 9 recap - Game 10 Announced

2008-06-29T20:26:00.016-04:00

Well, it has been a while since the last post. We went to Europe for a few weeks, had a great time, and it is great to be back.

Last time we played, we had 9 players. we agreed to have two tourneys and made them TURBO. Everyone agreed to stay for the second tourney and it was great. This format was cool. I will post results from both games as they both counted towards points, money, and FFP's.

6/30/08 - UPDATE - I had an error on the points and Money standings. It should be correct now.

Game 8 Results

Game 9 Results

Points and Money Standings

Jackpot

FPP's

Game 10 - Saturday, July 5th, 6PM

Freeze-out $20 buy-in, $10 one time add-on. Max 20 players.
Registered List (bold for early sign-up bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Todd
Stuart
Rico
Kevin
Diane
Megan
Brad
Armando
Cristine
Henry
Michael A

Game 7 Results and Standings - Game 8 signup

2008-05-29T00:23:00.007-04:00

As usual lately, I have not had the time or energy to do a full blog like the days of old. I did however, work up the stats. I am glad we had 17 players for this game and congrats to all. I also appreciate all the good munchies brought by many of you.

Thanks to Jeff for the tokens/card markers and all the Rudy's BBQ.

Congrats to Toby on his first win of the year!

Game 7 Results

Points and Money through Game 7

Jackpot

Frequent Player Points

Game 8 - Saturday, May 31st, 6PM

Freeze-out $20 buy-in, $10 one time add-on. Max 20 players.

Registered List
(bold for early sign-up bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Rico
Stuey
Jeff
Alper
Mike H.
Becki
Henry
Carol
Toby
Michael

Game 7 Announced - Stacey's on a roll!!!

2008-05-09T11:04:00.012-04:00

Let's see if anyone can stop the unstoppable. Stacey has taken down the last two tourneys in Roccoland. And... she took down the WAM. Read all about it here.

Game 7 - Saturday, May 17th, 6PM

Freeze-out $20 buy-in, $10 one time add-on. Max 20 players.

Registered List
(bold for early sign-up bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Rico
Sean
Stuey
Jerry
Patrick
Jeff
Mac
Michael
Ian
Todd
Alper
Cristine
Armando
Clara
Toby

Updated Stats and Game 7 CANCELLED

2008-04-16T22:07:00.010-04:00

Stacey took down another tourney. Two in a row for the Jersey Girl. She mowed down the field by eliminating 5 of the tiny field of 9. A few late cancellations made the game a cozy one. Hey, I made the final table!

I played OK, putting a few people on hands, but it was a night where it was hard to get action when I had cards and i got plenty of action when I had OK hands or tried to make any sort of move.

We are scheduled to have another game on 4/19. See the signup below, right after the latest stats.

Game 6 Results

Standings After Game 6

Current Jackpot

FPP Update

~~Game 7 - Saturday, April 19th, 6PM~~

Cancelled

Freeze-out $20 buy-in, $10 one time add-on. Max 20 players.

Registered List
(bold for early sign-up bonus)

~~Jim~~
~~Stacey~~
~~Rico~~
~~Todd~~
~~Stuey~~

Updated Stats and Game 6 Announced

2008-03-31T21:00:00.014-04:00

Here are the stats from the last tourney. I can remember a few notable funny quotes. Enjoy. Thanks to everyone that brought something to share.

"Oh my God, I got QUADS!" - Stacey, when she rivered Quad 6's against Scott

"I will give you one chance to chop, because I am going to take this down." - Stacey, with about a 2.5 to 1 chip disadvantage to Michael heads-up. He took it.

Classic!

OK, here are the stats...

Results for Game 5

Standings After Game 5

Jackpot after Game 5

Frequent Player Points after Game 5

Game 6 - Saturday, April 12th, 6PM

Freeze-out $20 buy-in, $10 one time add-on. Max 20 players.

Registered List
(bold for early sign-up bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Sean
Ian
Stuart
Henry
Carol
Brad
Mac? - I think I got a verbal... Mac - please confirm.
ATC - also known as Michael
Justin
Toby
Cristine

Game 4 Results - Game 5 Registration (Sat - 3/15 @ 6PM)

2008-03-11T09:58:00.017-05:00

Well, this post will be another short one. We had Sales Training last week off-site and I had to speak in front of 130 people. It was a little nerve wracking and I was busy preparing. After that, Stacey and I were heading out of town and things were pretty hectic. Now, I finally have a few minutes to update the tournament results.

Unfortunately, most of the details have long faded. I was out fairly early, my ply was bad and I wasn't patient enough to wait out a bad run of cards.

To start things off, Rico was te fish, Mike was the Shark, Cindy was the Bounty Target.

Here are the results.

Congratulations to Rico on a big win. Of the last four tournaments, Rico has been the fish twice and the shark once. What is he doing with these stuffed animals?

Rico aslo collected the bounty on Cindy.

Point and Money Standings:

Jackpot Total:

Frequent Player Points:

Game 5 - March 15th - 6PM
Registered List
(bold for early sign-up bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Stuart
Rico
Michael Allan
Henry
Carol
Cindy
Peter
Todd
Armando

Game 3 Results - Game 4 Registration (3/1 @ 6PM)

2008-02-28T00:19:00.013-05:00

I am going to have to bail on the write-up this time. I am preparing for a conference next week and I am swamped. Here are the stats from last week's game. Also, I have added the latest registration entries for Game 4 - scheduled for this Saturday night, 3/1, at 6 PM.

Results from Game 3

Point and Money Standings (sorted on points)

Jackpot

Frequent Player Points (25 points = 1 free add-on or rebuy)

Game 4 - March 1st - 6PM

Registered List

(bold for early sign-up bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Rico
Conrad
Godfrey
Toby
Tim P.
Henry
Carol
Peter
Mike H.
Becky
Cindy
Armando
JoAnn

Game 3 - February 23rd 6 PM - Registration

2008-02-19T00:34:00.011-05:00

Game 3 - February 23rd - 6PM

Registered List

(bold for early sign-up bonus)

Jim
Henry
Carol
Stuart
Todd
Rico
Peter
Godfrey
Armando
Clara
Conrad
Mac
Jerry
Megan
Michael A.
Mike H.
Shawn

Game 2 - Evolution - Stuey's Top 10 - FFP Program

2008-02-11T21:57:00.002-05:00

We had a fantastic night of poker and it was great to play again. We had 15 ~~players~~ donkeys this week. We started off the night by returning to the shark and fish stuffed animal tradition. The player from the previous game that won gets the shark , and the player that was the first one out, you guessed it, gets the fish .

Because we chopped after 50 minutes of donkey on donkey violence the previous week, Armando and I were eligible for the shark. I gave the shark to Armando because he is “The best poker player Henry knows”.

Rico got the fish – ‘nuff said.

We also randomly selected a player to have a bounty on their head. Arnie won this honor and his head was worth $10.

Play started tight just like last week and there were not too many big hands in the first hour. Tim proved to be hyper-aggressive in his betting and went the full hour taking down a lot of pots and never showing his cards. We were all baffled. Was he playing strong starting hands, hitting flops, or full of $%^#? I think it was some of all three and that made it even tougher to figure out his cards.

Rico made a few good reads and put David O. squarely on 2 pair with AT. Rico folded AK on a board giving him TPTK. What to think? He’s making good reads but has the fish stuffed animal. If you look at my trophy case, there is a trophy with has name on it for the most rebuys in a tournament (5), a record he’s proudly held for over a year.

Maybe Rico’s poker improvement can best be described by this picture. The funny part is at the end he’s a Homo something or other. Michael made the chart too , based on Armando's previous claims.

Mac was the first player to exit the game. He played well and took some chips off me when I chased a flush and a straight. It was nice having him over and hope to see him at future games.

Ian, Stacey, Scott and Clara followed and we had a final table.

Play continued and Michael Allen was the first final table casualty. Stuart knocked out Arnie and took in the $10 bounty. Cindy and then Armando were eliminated and we were down to 6.

Play continued and Rico was eliminated. After were at this official bubble stage we decided to safe out $30. I am glad we did, because I was the next one out. I had 108K at one point and went three orbits without any playable hands. I was down to 40K in the BB with 78o. The flop was 694 and I jammed. Stuart called and I got no love for the straight. I was out in 5th.

The top four played for quite a while until Henry got eliminated. The next to fall was David O.

The chip stacks for Stuart and Tim were 265 and 260 respectively. It couldn’t be more even. They decided to play for 30 minutes and then discuss a chop. They traded chips back and forth until one critical hand.

Stuart had KJ
Tim had 44

They got it all-in and the board fell as 883, turn 5, river 5.

Tim’s 44 is counterfeited and Stuart wins with a K high, although the J was enough. This left Tim with about 100K.

Stuart stepped up the pressure. Tim made his move with J9o and Stuart called with KTo. The board fell as 48K, turn 6, (Tim drawing dead), river 3.

Stuart was this week’s champ. This boy is on a mad run. In his honor, we have the following video.

These are the standings to date:

Game 2 Results

Money Standings

Point Standings

Jackpot Status

The Frequent Player Program

I discussed an idea I have had with Stacey and we have decided to introduce a Frequent Player Program (FPP) for our players.

The program will allow players to earn points towards either a free rebuy or add-on. All you need to do is show up and play. The first time you play, you get 1 point. The next consecutive time you play, you get 2 points, another consecutive play, 3 points and so on. Once you reach 25 points, you will earn a free add-on or rebuy.

If you miss a consecutive week, you start back at 1 point. Once you cash in a rebuy or add-on points start collecting from 1 again, regardless of your consecutive streak. If you have over 25 points the balance will roll-over.

We decided to make this retroactive to Game 1 of this season.

I will post the status of the FPP program after each game.

FPP's to Date

Game 3 - February 23rd - 6PM

Registered List (bold for bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Henry
Carol
Stuart
Todd

Mooktual Respect

2008-02-02T10:44:00.000-05:00

We had a fun night with 13 runners. We used the format of a freeze-out with one add-on. Play was fairly tight as one would expect. Strangely, the starting tables were very unbalanced with the boy/girl mix.

I started off by winning a few small pots. I got into a big hand with David O. I had AA in late position, the blinds were 300/600. I just called a 2x raise. I put David on a middle pair. The flop was A9J rainbow. He bet 1200 again, I called. On the turn, he bet 3K, I raised to 12K - he called. On the river, he went all-in for about 4.5K, I called and scooped the pot. He never showed what he had. I had good chip position after this. David added on.

I also got involved in a major hand with Henry. I had 88 in middle position and raised 2x. Henry called on the button. The flop came QJ7. I checked, and he checked. The turn was a K. I checked and Henry bet 3K. The river was a 3. Henry bet 8K. I thought for a while, and called. I just didn't think the K or the 8 helped him. Henry had showed one bluff earlier and I was "suspicious". It was a questionable call because he could easily have beaten 8's, but my read was good and Henry showed 56o. Bluffer.

Later, I was tabulating the final table chips for this posting and discovered someone made a little note on the pad. I wonder who?

At the break, everyone added. We all had brownies and a delicious Chocolate chip cookie pie and Ice Cream. Thanks to Cristine for the pie and Stacey for the brownies. It was very good!!!

Joel was the first one out. He was at the Lady's Table (with Michael) . Not sure what happened?

Michael was the next one out and we were at the final table bubble. New comer Frank was that bubble.

The final table chip counts were as follows:

With the chip lead, I played very tight for a little while. Armando knocked out Henry's better half. ~~I think he may have hit the one-outer for Quads to beat her.~~ Per Armando: "For the record, I called a min-raise from Joanne as did Carol and flopped a set and turned quads to best Joanne's TPTK and Carol's OESD." Per Jim: "He's a lucky bastardo."

I can't remember anymore, but there were four sets of quads on this night and I think this was one of them.

JoAnn mowed down Henry, Stacey, and David O. That set up JoAnn and her stack was big enough to catapult her into the money.

I knocked out Justin and Cindy.

At this point we safed $10 from each spot and paid $30 to fourth. Crisitine took 4th. JoAnn 3rd.

Mook and I were heads up. The donkey race was on.

Mook had about 60K more than I with 445K in play. We played heads-up for 50 minutes and basically just swapped the 60K a few times. Knowing we were each capable of a tricky play at any time kept us from committing too many chips.

We had about a 20K different in our stacks, so we called it a draw. Mutual respect!

I am keeping the stats on this sheet and will retire the other sheet for the time being. I am keeping track of the money and other interesting statistics. For reference, the point table is here.

The standings and the results of the first game are the same this week.

The statistics I will keep this season are: Wins, FT (Final Tables Reached for each player), Bubble, ITM (In the Money), and Games. The jackpot is $16.

Announcing Game 2

When: Saturday 2/9 @ 6PM

Size: 20 players - first 20 to RSVP, then alternate list.

Please RSVP by Thursday midnight for 2,500 chip bonus, show up ontime for another 2,500 chips.

$20 freeze-out (20,000 chips), $10 add-on (10,000 chips) - same blind structure as previous tourneys.

Registered (bold for bonus)

Jim
Stacey
Henry
Carol
Megan
David O.
Rico
Stuart
Cindy
Mac
Mikey A.
Justin
Ian
Tim P.
Armando
Clara
Arnie

Mikey Likes It + 1/26 Tourney Sign-up below

2008-01-22T18:25:00.000-05:00

We had a great tournament and all the cool kids showed up. Unlike the last tournament, there were no controversies and it was very refreshing.

We had a full house of 20 players. With the format change to a freeze-out with onl;y one add-on, play was very tight for the first 3 rounds. Everyone added on and the chip count was a record 1,000,000 chips in play. This made the pot very large = $893. There was a safe for 7th and the prizes rounded out as follows:

1st = $325

2nd = $218

3rd = $128

4th = $94

5th = $58

6th = $40

7th = $30

Rico, the returning champion, was the first out. Then they fell fast down to my elimination when my 88 couldn't hold up to Jesse's 77.

The game summary follows:

8:50:53 pm 1/19/2008: Rico was busted out by Peter and got 20th
8:53:00 pm 1/19/2008: David O. was busted out by Carol and got 19th
9:15:23 pm 1/19/2008: Ian was busted out by Stacey and got 18th
9:19:29 pm 1/19/2008: Jim was busted out by Jesse and got 17th
9:27:46 pm 1/19/2008: Toby was busted out by Jesse and got 16th
9:53:07 pm 1/19/2008: Diana was busted out by Jeff and got 15th
9:55:19 pm 1/19/2008: Todd was busted out by Peter and got 14th
10:25:44 pm 1/19/2008: Henry was busted out by Cindy and got 13th
10:40:17 pm 1/19/2008: Jeff was busted out by Paul and got 12th
10:50:39 pm 1/19/2008: Joel was busted out by Armando and got 11th

Final Table

11:21:06 pm 1/19/2008: Paul was busted out by Jesse and got 10th
11:21:14 pm 1/19/2008: Cindy was busted out by Jesse and got 9th
11:39:16 pm 1/19/2008: Stacey was busted out by Michael Allan and got 8th

A $30 safe was declared

12:08:04 am 1/20/2008: Carol was busted out by Peter and got 7th = $30

12:08:17 am 1/20/2008: Armando was busted out by Stuart and got 6th = $40
12:15:51 am 1/20/2008: Stuart was busted out by Peter and got 5th = $58
12:33:24 am 1/20/2008: Jesse was busted out by Michael Allan and got 4th = $94
12:52:11 am 1/20/2008: Clara was busted out by Michael Allan and got 3rd = $128

Heads-up

12:57:13 am 1/20/2008: Peter was busted out by Michael Allan and got 2nd = $218

And the winner is Mikey = $325. On the final hand Peter pushed with QQ and Michael called with Q6o. The flop brought a 6 and the turn another one. It was over.

To honor Michael here is a little video in his name.

Tourney on January 26th - 6PM

All - we are hosting a tournament on Saturday January 26th at 6PM. Please RSVP by Thursday midnight for 2,500 chip bonus, show up ontime for another 2,500 chips.

$20 freeze-out (20,000 chips), $10 add-on (10,000 chips) - same blind structure as previous tourneys.

I will start keeping track of the Points and Money this season!

Signed-up so far (RSVP bonus chips):

Jim
Stacey
David O.
Justin
Henry
Carol
Cristine
JoAnn
Cindy
Mookie - AKA Armando
Michael
Joel
Frank

Been a While....

2008-01-14T23:04:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since I have posted, but we are well into the new year and it's time to get back into poker.

I have decided to run the Championship Tourney this weekend, January 19th. The Jackpot has grown to $361, so we should have a huge payoff. Like last year, we will have a discounted buy-in based on your ranking. I will update the prize pool as the players respond to the email. I have posted the rankings and the buy-in below. Click on the image to enlarge.

If your name isn't on the list, and you received the invite, your entry fee is $36 ($10 added because if your name isn't listed above, you didn't contribute to the Jackpot pool).

I have also decided to post the tournament RSVP's on my blog. I will send out the tourney announcements through email and post the people that have signed-up by replying to the email on my blog. Remember, I can only take the first 20 people.

Championship Tourney

January 19th, 2008

6 PM Sharp

Format: Freeze-out 40K chips to start

30 minute blinds first 3 rounds

20 minute blinds after 3rd round

$10 add-on for 10,000 chips (anytime in the 3 rounds)

Payout: 1st - 6th

Rico is the defending champion... see the post here.

Registered:

Stacey
Jim
Toby
Diana
Paul
Michael A.
Rico
Armando
Clara
Ian
Stuart
Todd
Henry
Carol
Peter
Jeff
Cindy
David O.
Jesse
Joel --> Projected Pot at this point = $892 (Assuming everyone adds on)

We are full - now if anyone else RSVP's we will start the alternate list.

Back from Iraq

2007-12-05T21:31:00.000-05:00

We had a smallish group last tourney and a few no shows because people forgot over the long weekend. I was out of town a few days doing customer presentations so I haven't had time to blog the last tourney.

I was first out, followed quickly by Armando and Henry. There were some brutal smack downs after Joel went on a major card run. I lost to him when he limped with K's and I had the Jimmy, KQ, and flopped 2 pair. His set of Kings was too much and even though I caught the Q on the turn for a boat, his boat was bigger.

I saw Joel get AA at least 4 times. The cards were in Joel's favor I figure a guy that spent (a lot of) time in Iraq and made it home safe HAS to be running good.

Joel and Diana chopped, and Joe took third for another cash. Congrats.

I posted the points, check out the link here.

Run, Joe, Run

2007-11-18T20:40:00.000-05:00

Joe is simply on a rampage. He has won 3 out of the last 4 tourneys he's been in. The one he didn't win, he got 2nd.

I thought of the title of this post and remembered this show. I googled it and found some funny stuff.

How cheesy were the shows we used to watch in the 70's.

The show is a cross between Lassie and the Fugitive. Joe always helps people in each episode.

I watched this show as a kid. If you watched this show, leave a comment. If you are not sure, check out this link.

I came across the last episode's theme when I was googling this and man it's not cool. Here is the recap:

Joe is picked up by a dog catcher and the man who takes Joe home intends on
using Joe's help to commit robberies.

That sucks for Joe (the dog) - he ends up a criminal. I guess kids were much tougher in the 70's. Today, if a kid saw this, they would need counseling and therapy. LOL

Back to Poker.

We lost Shawn before the break. Jeff was next and we were at the final table. I was happy with my, coming off a Vegas trip I felt comfortable and made a lot of moves. I was final table chip leader.

I got "NO LOVE" with AK in 3 hands and was down to 18K. I made a move (a bad one) when Michael raised 3x UTG and I pushed for another 9K. I had AQ, he had AK! Naturally the hand held up for him and I was out! Kitty was the bubble and Paul (Pavel) took third, his first cash at our house. Ian took down second. Congrats to all.

Thanks to those that brought food. We had a good time.

I really don't remember much else. I did capture the results and posted them here.

Another GREAT Weekend

2007-11-04T05:19:00.000-05:00

This weekend started out with a small group for some poker. We had only 9 players, but it was really nice to be able to conentrate on some poker. Our players included three new (experienced) players named Peter, Diana and Paul. They rounded out the group to make it 9. The other players included Toby, Godfrey, Tyrone, Todd, Rico, an myself. Rico brought some Queso and chips in a crock pot and it was very good. Thanks Rico.

Very early in the game, Todd and Diana went to war on a KT6 flop. Diana played aggresssively and got it all-in. Todd having AK called and was the first rebuy when she turned over TT. Todd called me names (in a friendly way) when I put him on his AK.

I started off pretty strong and within the first 20 minutes I had doubled my stack. A little later, I found KK in the BB. Rico was to my right in the small blind. The pot was raised 3x, and I reraised to 3x of that making it 9X. Original raser folded, Rico jammed. I immediately called and proudly flipped my KK. Rico turned over AA. Coolered. Nice play Rico... by you just calling, I could ever imagine you had them there rockets.

I did not go on tilt. (But I did call him names).

Several people got Rockets (some twice) and there were plenty of pocket pairs to go around. Todd got paid off with Quad Kings.

Later in the game I got all-in with QQ vs. JJ (Godfrey) and he turned a J.

I did not go on tilt.

Later I had a set cracked by a straigt, on the river.

I did not go on tilt.

I did get good cards and managed to knock a few players out. Rico ended up the bubble a few hands after I sucked out on him with TT vs. KK. I was fairly short stacked and jammed. Rico called and the JQ8 flop didn't bring the T we were both looking for. The turn was a 6, but the river a...........9! The worst part was Rico didn't see the straight and started for the pot. Its a tough beat. It was like Rico was making it past an intersection and to his surprise... I think this video sums up the situation.

Once Rico was out this happened... Rico was on his way out (he was steaming, and who wouldn't be). He was half way down the steps and he came back saying, "I forgot my crock pot." I thought a big can was going to come through the roof and crush him. Too funny.

Godfrey took 3rd when I raised with 55 and he made a move with A3o. I pondered and called. My 55 held up.

It was Tyrone and I heads-up. I got lucky on the first hand with KJ. I raised and Tyrone called. I hot top pair and Tyrone bluffed at the pot. I havd a 2:1 chip advantage and didn't want to lay down top pair so I called and Tyrone was bluffing. It was all over. My first win of the season.

Saturday I had to pick my daughter up at a lockin at 5AM. Then Stacey and I went to see play at Paramount Theater. It was very funny.

Now, I am heading to Vegas for another shot at some poker and fun. I will be meeting Stuart at the airport in 3 hours. We are meeting henry, carol, Scott, Mookie and Clara. Gonna be an awesome time as usual.

Oh yeah, check out the latest stats here.

25 on the 26th

2007-10-28T19:45:00.000-05:00

We had a record number, 25!, players this week. We had a lot of newbies and they all played like they have been playing longer than they actually had. The newbies included: Angela, Amil, Corley, Josue, Lyndsey, Ryan, Shawn, and Tolitz.

We had two bounties up for grab this week:

$10 Lowe's Gift Card for knocking out Jeff

$10 cash for a random head (Stuart this week)

We started nearly on time and almost all bonuses were paid out. Thanks for being on time.

We had 3 tables set at 8, 8, and 7. We lost Amil before the break (has happened before). After about 2 hours we had lost enough to combine to 2 tables of 10.

With 25 people, I was the points bubble in 14th. I managed to double-up after the rebuy period when my 92o flopped trips against Alper's 77. I managed to get it all-in and Alper called me. Lucky for me.

Alper struck back when I had about 16K in chips and made an early position push with K6o. My logic was with the blinds at 3 and 6K, I wouldn't see a hand better before I had my stack reduced in half. Alper made a good A9s call after a long deliberation. I was out in 14th.

I thought about my play and why I had to rebuy 4 times!!! One shy of Rico's record. I slow played a set into a flush early and that was really silly. I was really off my game with all the commotion of hosting 25. I also never saw a pair higher than 77. I did get AK twice. No excuses, but I should have been more patient , especially after i realized I was off my game and unsettled. A lesson.

Enough about me...

Shortly after I was out, my Vegas roommate got eliminated and Rico scooped the $10 cash bounty.

We made it to final table and the FTP's included:

Rico

Stacey

Jeff

Kitty

Armando

Shawn

Godfrey

Kevin

Alper

Shawn managed to bubble (not bad for his first time). Godfrey, Kevin, and Armando also fell short of the money.

Stacey got 6th and Alper 5th. Rico came through in 4th.

Play continued for a while between Kitty, Joe, and Jeff. Kitty moved all-in with JTo (uncharacteristically loose for her, IMHO) and Joe called with Ax. Joe won out and had a 3:1 chip advantage and was now heads-up with Jeff.

They only played a couple of hands until Jeff made a move with 86d. Joe looked him up and won the tourney and the $10 Gift Card Bounty! Wow - nice payouts for both 1st and 2nd.

Congrats to all the money winners and thanks to everyone that made it out. Special thanks to everyone that brought some snacks to share.

Check out the standings here.

Stacey and I decided to fix the cap at 20 players. The room was just a little too crowded. I will make an exception for the Championship Tourney.

I have sent an evite for a game on November 2nd. I will also be hosting on the 9th.

I will post the next few tourneys planned beyond these dates in a couple days.

Poker on the 12th of October and the October Classic

2007-10-22T19:50:00.001-04:00

We had a nice group of 13 players including two players from our Manila office. I didn't take down a lot of stats for this one, but did get the standings covered.

Check them out here.

I played at the Big-O last Friday and managed to take a 3rd place. After a long drought, I am finally moving up on the money and points lists. I knocked out Armando and I think Armando has given a new definition for "Little People, Big World". Congrats to Todd on a solid victory. He played extremely well and despite his lucky run (Dem's Quads Bitches x 2) would have won going away. Well done.

This week we will be hosting Friday night. The evite is sent and it will surely be a good time. I am putting a $10 Lowes Gift Card up for a bounty on Jeff. He got a BIG promotion and will be leaving Austin in a few months. We are really sad to have our good friends leave us, but understand opportunity can change things quickly. Jeff's daughter and my daughter are best friends and it will be difficult for both of them. Congratulations, Jeff.

We had a great time at Rico's party, there was plenty of food, fun, drinking, poker, darts, and scary stuff. As always, Rico throws a GREAT party - thanks ~~dude!~~ baby!
Rico threw this costume together in a jiffy because at the start of the party his girlfriend, Liz was the ONLY person dressed up. Others came dressed up later, and there were a lot of good costumes.

Pretty strong resemblance. Rumor has it, Scotty may return to the felt soon. Now, Rico just needs some major cash and no one will know the difference.

MLB = WTF happened to my teams?

I am sorry to see the Indians blow a 3-1 lead in the ALCS. However, they played bad and deserved to be watching the World Series just like the rest of us. They made really bad decisions in G7. Leaving in a pitcher inning after iinning even though he gave up 10 hits, not allowing K-Lo to score and tie the game. They held him at third and the next batter hit into a DP. Ouch!!!

I now want Boston to win.

I am not a Rockies fan, and the only NL teams I like is the D-backs (my AZ history) and the Cards because Todd is a bud and he likes them too.

Review of onlinecasinobluebook.com site

2007-10-09T21:08:00.000-04:00

The following is a paid review for onlinecasinobluebook.com. This site is an Online guide to popular online casinos and online poker rooms.

PRO's

I found the site to be rather simple to use.
I found many casino sites I have never heard of.
I found casino sites that gave a free bonus with no cash deposit.
I found casino sites that give the highest payouts.
For the sites with the highest payouts, you can drill down and get more info (games types, number of each game type, and a review and rating).
The site is informative and only takes a few seconds to get information.

CON's

Poker site content is weak. Only three sites listed in their "top 5".
The site has fixed content. For example the sports book only lists the top 5 sites, rather than all the sites or a longer list.
The column headings for the lists are fixed - you can't pick what things you would like to see. Also, they are not sortable.

I think the site is worth checking out. I will definitely try out some of the "free" stuff. If I score big, maybe I will move some money and get some bonuses for logging on other sites. It will be a good warm-up for a Vegas trip. Give it a try.

Carol, Carol, Carol...

2007-10-06T22:47:00.001-04:00

This girl is HOT.

She has absolutely dominated the felt. She has taken down the last 4 out of 5 games between Mookies and my house. She won both of the games on the 14th, and the game on the 29th. At the Mookie on Friday night, she shredded me at heads-up and I took 2nd, despite having a slight chiplead at the start. I had no chance. She hit trips several times and hit a straight and a flush. I was dominated. I am glad she got good cards, if she didn't, she would have simply outplayed me. I watched her do it in all the previous heads-up confrontations. Well done.

I didn't take down any stats again - lazy and tilting from being bounced early. However, I did update the standings here.

BASEBALL THOUGHTS

I am hoping the Indians take down the Yankees tomorrow. I lived in Cleveland for a couple years and got caught up in the deep love for the team in that city. I cheered them to two losses of the World Series in the 90's. I enjoy watching Kenny Loften (the only remaining player form the great team of the 90's) steal bases and run with amazing speed, even at his age now.

Last nights game was a pitching dual that ended bizzarly with swarms of midges. Yankees rookie Joba Chamberlain was covered with the midges, an insect related to mosquitoes. He threw a pair of wild pitches that allowed the tying run to score in the eighth, and Cleveland went on to win 2-1 in 11 innings and take a 2-0 lead.

check it out. All the little white specks are the BUGS!!!

I am glad to see the D-backs take down the Cubies (sorry Mook). I also lived in AZ and my Mom was a big fan up until she passed away. When they won the whole thing in 2001 it was really special for her, and therefore me.

It would be pretty cool if the D-backs and the Tribe went all the way.

Time will tell.

Pokerstars Blogger Event

2007-10-02T23:58:00.001-04:00

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: 4392840

A Poker Question

2007-09-25T21:19:00.000-04:00

Check out Mike's blog and let me know what the right move for him is after my all-in?

I am wondering how you may have played Mike's hand.

Leave a comment if you can.

Thanks.

Two in one night...

2007-09-22T16:05:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we played 2 tourneys due to the fact that we only had 9 players.

Congratulations to Carol for "bulldozing" both games. She took both games down with mad skilz.

I didn't capture any information except the stuff for the points competition. Here is an amusing video.

I think this lady had a few too many. Good thing this kid had extra chins...

Check out the stat pages here.

Season 2,Game 1 - Recap

2007-09-13T06:08:00.000-04:00

We kicked off the season with a small field of 11. We had a few last minute cancellations and lost 4 players. We had to lose one for the final table and that didn’t happen until after the break. Play was tight and we had 6 rebuys from 4 people. Everyone added on. We randomly selected a head for the bounty and JoAnne was the lucky (unlucky) winner.

We had a few boys down from the mountain. Jesse and Godfrey climbed down and joined us for the kickoff.

Armando raised to 3X and Kitty called as the BB. The flop brought JT9. Kitty bet big and Armando went all in and showed QQ. Kitty turned over AA, Armando had 10 outs and caught the K on the river for a straight to knock out Kitty. We were at the final table. Kitty got 11th.

Here are the chip counts.

Michael was the next one out. He got whacked by Stuart. Stu had KQ and Micheal’s Qx was no good when the board had a Q. Michael was “kicked” out in 10th.

Godfrey ran AK into Jesse’s KK and Jesse I thought Jesse may have left Godfrey on the Mountain. I saw Godfrey at a work convention this week and he seemed to be in the foothills and not on the mountain, so I think he’ll be back. Godfrey got 9th.

Stacey was the next one out when she jammed with 89s and Mookie showed TT’s. No help for Jersey girl and she was out in 8th.

Armando now went on a RAMPAGE.

He knocked out the next 6 players.

7th - Jesse fell with 88 vs. Mook’s AA.
6th - Joanne fell with A7 vs. Mook’s KQ (Jimmy) – KQ on flop
4th and 5th - Jeff (Q9s) and Joe (88) lost to Mook (AQc) – flop A62, turn, K, river T.
3rd– me A5s, Mook (66) – he limped, and slow played his set. I hit the 5 on the flop and was picked off when I made a move. Good play.

Armando donated the $5 bounty as a 5th place prize. A nice gesture from the Mook.

Stuart and Armando went heads up for about 30 minutes. Armando had a huge chip advantage, but Stuart was chipping away. The final hand was brutal.

They got it all in after the flop of A62. Stuart showed A8 and Armando A4. The turn brought a J, and he river…. a 4!

WOW – Mr. Lucky knocked out all but three of the eleven players. When he walked down the stairs, this fell out of his shorts. Nobody touched it.

In actuality, the Donkey played great. See the full tourney and season standings here.

Championship Game Recap

2007-08-16T21:47:00.000-04:00

Sorry this post took so long to pull together. I have been crazy busy at work. Well, here it goes. I was asked a bunch of times and felt a little like Brian this week, except people were asking me for the tourney write-up. (turn down your sound if you're at work).

We had 20 ~~players~~ donkeys. We got started pretty much on time, which was good because we started at noon.

The chip stacks were as follows:
25K buy-in
5K bonus -for RSVP and showing up on time
15K add-on

The blinds times were long and gradually deceased as shown below:
* Level 1 - 100/200 - 40 minutes
* Level 2 - 200/400 - 40 minutes
* Level 3 - 300/600 - 40 minutes
* BREAK - 10 minutes - Add-on Period Over
* Level 4 - 400/800 - 30 minutes
* Level 5 - 500/1000 - 30 minutes
* Level 6 - 600/1200 - 30 minutes
* Level 7 - 800/1600 - 30 minutes
* BREAK - 5 minutes - chip up whites
* Level 8 - 1000/2000 - 20 minutes
* Level 9 - 1500/3000 - 20 minutes
* Level 10 - 2000/4000 - 20 minutes
* BREAK - 5 minutes - chip up reds
* Level 11 - 3000/6000 - 20 minutes
* Level 12 - 4000/8000 - 20 minutes
* Level 13 - 5000/10000 - 20 minutes
* Level 14 - 6000/12000 - 20 minutes
* Level 15 - 8000/16000 - 20 minutes
* Level 16 - 10000/20000 - 20 minutes
* Level 17 – 15000/25000 – until it’s over

We gave out prizes, donated by PokerStars. They gave us hats and shirts if I agreed to hang up some posters. I gave the prizes out as follows:

Before play got underway, we did a couple random drawings and Armando and Cindy picked up a shirt each.

12:10 PM - Start

Play was tight, as expected, since this was a freeze-out.

1:13 PM - Todd was faced with a couple of bad calls and suckouts and was, unfortunately, the first one out in 20th. He was out before the break.

At the break we had another drawing and Joe picked up a shirt.

4:00 PM - Ian would be the 2nd victim at the hands of Armando. Armando was in the BB wih 83o. Ian flopped top pair with a Q83 flop and went all-in. Armando called and his monster hand held up. JK - he was in the BB!!! Ian was out in 19th.

4:54 PM - Justin was short stacked at about 7K. He went all-in blind and Joe called with A5h. The hand played out as: KK332. Justin turned over 94o and was out in 18th.

5:01 PM - Cindy and Stacey went at it with JK and J7. The better hand won, and Stacey was out in 17th. Stacey only won a single hand all day.

5:43 PM - Rocky got knocked out by two of us. Jeff and I had AJ, Rocky pushed his last 1500 chips with 52o. An A on the flop and a J on the turn had Jeff and I all in, only to chop. Rocky was out in 16th.

5:47 PM - I had an M of about 5 and should have jammed my 99. Instead I raised 3x to 12K. Rico called. The flop was 355. Rico checked as did I. The turn was a 10 and Rico pushed his larger stack all-in. I called and was blown away when Rico showed me 33. I had 4 outs, but the river sent me packing in 15th. Had I pushed all-in preflop - Rico folds and I live to play another hand. Bad decision. Earlier Rico had crumbs and was down to less than 5K. What an indestructible roach!!!

5:54 PM - Cristine was out in 14th when her QJ was no match for Kevin's runner runner straight with 89.

6:02 PM - Kitty got whacked in 13th. She pushed with 55 and Jeff called with K10. The turn brought a K and Kitty was out.

6:05 PM - Mike Baa got knocked out in 12th. He had Q9 and Joe 7T. The flop gave Joe a 7 (suck), the turn gave Mike a Q (re-suck), and the river delighted Joe when a T fell (re-re-suck).

6:11 PM - Clara was our unfortunate final table bubble girl. She had QQ against Michael's 66. Michael got a set on the flop, and QUADS on the river. Clara was out in 11th.

We had a final table. The chip stacks were as follows:

6:27PM - As we got under way, Stuart pushed all-in wit 33 and Armando called with TT. The T's held up and Stu was out in 10th.

6:30PM - Another shorty was knocked out when Joe ran his A3 into a Monster - AA. Jeff chipped up and Joe was out in 9th.

6:53 PM - Toby got his AQ involved with Jeff's KK. Toby saw a Q on the flop to make Jeff sweat, but Toby was out in 8th.

At this point a $20 safe was declared for 6th and 7th place. So Toby became the official bubble.

7:15 PM - Rico handed a bad beat to Jeff. They got it all-in preflop. Rico had AQd and Jeff AsQc. The odds for each pre-flop are shown below.

Jeff had no chance of winning and a 36% chance of losing after the two diamonds on the flop.

The turn brought another diamond and Jeff was out in 7th. Jeff got $20. Not bad considering the field had so many good players and he has only played for about 7 weeks.

8:26 PM - The next hand to eliminate a player (or two) was a three way all-in situation. Cindy (JJ), Melissa (77) and Michael (A3) played it out and Cindy wound up winning with a full-house. Michael had Melissa out chipped so he got 5th and she got 6th.

8:49 PM - Mookie had Rico on the ropes with his 7's against Rico's K6. Mook raised all-in and it was 17K more for Rico to call. Rico thought he was out and was two steps down the stairs when a K on the river brought him back to his seat. Mook was out in 4th.

9:03 PM - Rico continued his poker conquest when Kevin's A2 was beat by Rico's Q8 with a miricle 88833 flop. Kevin was out in 3rd.

We were heads-up.

Cindy vs. Rico - about even in chips.

9:32 PM - They played it out for about 1/2 hour. Rico came out on top with very aggressive play. Very few flops were seen. Congratulations to Rico for the WIN!!!

Before the tourney, Rico suggested I get a trophy and give it to the winner. I didn't have ime to get one and wanted a trophy so I hooked him up with this virtual trophy.

Thanks to everyone who was able to make it out and thanks to those that brought food.

We had a great time and appreciate everyone taking their Saturday to play some cards. Let me know what changes you might suggest for the next championship.

Review of Online-Casinos.com site

2007-08-08T22:36:00.000-04:00

What is Online-Casinos.com? Its a guide to online casino gambling that offers site reviews, information on which sites give the best bonuses, game rules and strategy advice on how to play lots of casino games correctly. It's designed to help maximize the return on your gambling time and money.

I checked it out and here's my review:

Pro's

A wealth of information. If you want to try some online gaming, this is the place to do it. It caters to the different goals of the user.

The tutorials are really cool. I checked out the craps and baccarat. Both are helpful for online play, or for study before a trip to Vegas. The blackjack strategy guide was nice too.

The poker odds calculator is a little more intuitive and easy to plug cards in than others I've used.

Con's

The combination of the half chip on the top of the page and the reverse colors on the vertical slider (slider had light color, slider background is dark) had me thinking I wasn't all the way scrolled to the top. A little annoying at first.

No search portal. Although the site is laid out well, sometimes it's nice to be able to search for site specifics.

Not easy to find which sites will allow US players. I happened to find this under "Top Picks", but it wasn't prominent. This is a big concern for the experienced US online gamer and should be a little easier to get too. Perhaps making an American flag and listing these sites with the translated versions you get when you pick the country flags would be a nice addition.

Overall this is a great site and the Pro's outweigh the Con's. I bookmarked it. Check it out.

Vegas Trip Update - Viva La France

2007-08-07T00:38:00.001-04:00

Turns out we got an invitation to play in a slot tourney at Paris. The invitation included 3 nights and $50 food voucher. I called Stacey's Dad, Vince, and wanted to see if he got the same offer. He did and after a few minutes we each rang them up and tried to change our reservations (they were also staying in Harrah's). I couldn't get in. WTF? I got the invitation TODAY.

I called her Dad back and he was psyched because he was IN, with an extra day, and luckily still on the phone getting his confirmation number. we were like you lucky @##^% you got the last spot!?!?!

Vince seized an opportunity. The girl helping him was from . On top of that she was Italian. We did the relay phone thing for my rewards number and other personal info and he managed sweet talk her a little and got us in, with the fourth free night, the $50 food credit, and adjoining rooms.

We are in Paris, comped, with a Grant's worth of food - NICE.

Here is a shot of her Dad and his gangsta car on one of our Vegas trips. We have gone to Vegas with her parents more than 10 times. They are a lot of fun. I actually had her Mom yelling for a "Monkey" on the blackjack table (any ten is a Monkey). You can call for it when you need it, or when you need the delaer to have it. I learned about this magic from the master blackjack playa - Rico - from my first Poker Gang Vegas trip back in '05 (click the link to an early Mookie Blog) with Armando, Clara, Rico, Henry, Carol, Scott, and a fun, hillarious, guy named Joe. Rico picked it up from this CMT show.

Is it obvious we are psyched to get to Vegas?

Championship Poker on the 11th... Update

2007-08-05T14:29:00.000-04:00

PokerStars has offered to supply some stuff for the game. They will be supplying hats, T-shirts, posters and maybe some other stuff. (props to Armando, the original loot moocher)

We have 19 people signed up. We are going to take alternates after 26. So hurry up and get your spot.

Payouts:

Currently as it stands if everyone adds-on, the pot should be $579. I will pay 5 spots, until the pot climbs to 650 or higher, then I will add a 6th spot.

I am working on one or two more things for this game.

Also, we will have another tourney later in the day, probably about 7:30. So if you can't make the day game, or get knocked out, come on over, we'll start again at 7:30.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

2007-08-02T13:21:00.000-04:00

Things got started a little late and a few didn’t get their bounties. The Bonus Nazi, Stacey, didn’t allow some people to get their “On-time Bonus” because they were tardy. She will now be the official Bonus Nazi. Her chant is, "No Bonus for You!!", so be punctual next time!

We had 16 players including: Mike Baaaa, Jim, Michael Allan, Carol, Henry, Stacey, Cindy, Alper, Clara, Jeff, Brad, Nick, Todd, Armando, Toby, and Justin. We used my program to randomly pick a head for a bounty and it was Apler. Whoever knocked out Alper, got an extra $5 from the pot.

Everyone but one added on and we had 13 rebuys. Henry and Jeff used both their rebuys and their add-on before the break. Only 7 people got the “no rebuy bonus” of 5,000 chips.

After the break, the chips were up to 506,000 in play.

I played tight, and managed not to rebuy. After the bonuses and add-on I had 32,500 chips. The average was 31,600. The blinds in round 4 are 400/800 so my M was greater than 20 and my Q was about 1. I was happy with this situation; I thought I had a shot at a final table.

For those that may not know:

M = the ratio of tour stack to cost of an orbit. > 20 is where you want to be.
Q = the ratio of your stack to the average. A Q > 1 is where you want to be.

You can learn about Q and M, inflection points, zones, , what they mean and how to play with these in mind in this book (links don't work since I shamelessly copied from Amazon):

However, you should read this book first.

These two books have really helped me and I am less of a donkey since I have read them.

Nick knocked Justin out in the 4th round. Nick had 77 and Justin A7. Justin loved the A on the flop, and the 7 on the turn. Nick loved it more and Justin was out in 16th.

Toby was out in 15th. Not sure what happened, but the father and son duo, had an early night.

The notes say that Armando flopped Quads and Nick rivered a straight flush, but I don’t believe it. If this is true, leave a comment. Armando was out in 14th.

Todd had a smallish stack of about 18K. He jammed his 47d when he saw a A73 flop. Henry looked him up with AJd. No help for Todd and he was packing in 13th.

Stacey ended Nick’s night when her AQ out paced the Jimmy (KQ). Nick was out in 12th..

Baaaaa played the dreaded KJh against Brad’s A5h. They got it all in when Brad hit a 5 on the flop, but Baaaaaa got lucky and found a J on the turn. Brad was out in 11th and we were at the final table.

The chip stacks were as follows:

I was in big trouble here. My M = 5 and my Q = 0.6. Very bad spot. No calling any more, no limping either. It’s either all-in or fold out of the blinds.

I was lucky to win the blinds a few times and catch an occasional limper out of position. I managed to climb to a Q ~ 1, but stayed with an M between 5 and 8 as the blinds went up. It’s like walking a tight rope, one wrong read or beat and you’re a big stain on the floor and spoiling the circus.

As play continued, Jeff was our first final table casualty. By the way, Jeff was even more generous than he was last time when he brought me the Mickey Mantle Ball. He brought me a Mickey Mantle “official” bat. I am rigging up a cool spot for the bat and will include a picture when I have it hung up. I have heard that poker players are the most generous and giving people around. Jeff has convinced me! Thanks man.

Carol raised to 12K and Jeff moved all-in with QQ. Carol called and showed AJs. Jeff was a 70/30 favorite. Jeff dodged Aces until the river. Jeff was out in 10th.

Clara and Mike Baaaa basically tangled with the same situation as Jeff and Carol. Baaa had KK and Clara had AJ. The flop brought a J, giving Clara three more outs. The turn was a K and Clara was in trouble. An A on the river didn’t help and Clara was out in 9th.

The next elimination had some 3 way action. Baaa who had the biggest stack, then Carol, then Alper. Alper pushed pre-flop. Mike and Carol had him outchipped and checked the all spade flop. Baaa bet the 6s turn. Carol took a looooooooong time to call. I didn’t get suspicious, but she was inducing another bet. Carol had turned the nut flush. The board paired on the river and Mike and Carol checked it down. Mike mucked, and Alper was out in 8th. Carol got a $5 bounty.

Cindy and Henry went head-to-head with another AJ vs. KK mega match. Henry caught an A on the river and Cindy was out in 7th.

Stacey jammed her 51K stack in early position. I looked down and woke up with a hand, KK. I immediately called. Stacey flopped a J on the flop and I began to sweat as she picked up 2 more outs. I managed to get comfortable on the couch. Stacey was out in 6th.

Now we were on the official bubble. We safed out for a 5th spot. We took $5 from 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. There was a 3 way pot and Carol pushed with 99 and 17K, Henry went all-in for 51K, and Baaaa called. The board ended up as 44AJT and Carol was out in 5th. She got the bounty too.

Henry and Baaa would clash. Henry flopped middle pair with 95 and Mike called on the draw with JQ on a T96 board. The turn gave Mike the Straight and Henry was out in 4th.

At this point, I had about 116K in chips. Michael Allen had about 100K and Mike Baaaaa had about 300K. Unfortunately for me, Mike A lost an all-in with Baaa with A6 vs. AJ. No 6 for Mike A and he was out in 3rd. Baaa and I were heads up with him having 390K and me with 116K.

We played it out. With Blinds at 5000/10000 it didn’t allow me any mistakes. I fell to about 50K, doubled up, and managed to climb to about 150K. A cold deck brought me down again to around 50K. I pushed with JQo and Mike called with 79d. A 7 on the flop ended it for me and Mike took it down.

Thanks to everyone that brought food. We now freeze the Jackpot and put that into the POKER CHAMPIONSHIP. The POKER CHAMPIONSHIP is scheduled for August 11th at Noon.

Pre-evite signups include: Mike Ba, Rico, Joe, Kitty, and Jeff and I responded on the evite for the, The evite is sent, so respond because I can’t take anymore than 26.

Poker on the 14th - Justin Time

2007-07-17T03:50:00.000-04:00

Poker this week brought 19 donkeys to the farm. The points list is heating up and people are jockeying to get their discount for the Big Tournament on August 11th. Remember, the buy-in will be $4 + your position on the points list, to a max of $25. One tournament is needed to qualify get on the list, and therefore qualify for the event. Only one tournament is scheduled between now and the 11th.

The players for this week included: Justin, David, Brad, Joe, Armando, Jim, Jeff, Rico, Stuart, Todd, Mike Baaaa, Clara, Stacey, Toby, Henry, Arnie, Kitty, Scott, and Jesse.

Things got underway without a hitch (a few technical difficulties were encountered (operator error on my part)) and we chose a random person to have a bounty on their head. I wrote a little VB script to choose a person randomly, it chose me. Last time it was Armando. With all this, we actually started only 3 minutes after the schedule.

There were several rebuys before the break. Jesse hadn’t been out since he took some bad beats a few months ago. He has stayed on the mountain since. He made a return to the felt, but Jesse was the first to rebuy. He had four tough beats/races and didn’t come out ahead in any of them.

Jesse had 99 and got it all in when Joe called with AKo. When a K was the first card off the flop everyone gasped. There was no help for Jesse and he was busted. He could rebuy, however, he said Uncle and decided to call it quits and stop the bludgeoning. This has happened before to several other players, sometimes it’s just not your night and it’s better to take a break and try again. “Gambling is more fun when you set limits.” He was out in 19th.

Today, I received an email from Jesse as follows:

Subject: Ain't no mountain high enough

Last four all-in
confrontations:

AQ vs. A4 – lose
TT vs. 77 – lose
JJ vs AQ –
lose
99 vs. AK – lose

Live poker is rigged.

Will Jesse return to the mountain? Time will tell.

By the break, we had lost one, had 12 rebuys, and all but two of the 18 remaining players added on.

Play resumed and we had another casualty. Scott (who felt it wasn’t his night and didn’t add-on) got AK all-in with Joe’s AA, The K on the flop gave Scott some outs, but without anymore help, Scott was gone in 18th.

Arnie returned to the felt and it was good to see him. He went all in with TT and Kitty called with AQ. No help for Kitty and she was out in 17th.

Arnie must have picked up bad karma from knocking Kitty out because he ran his KK into Jeff’s AA. No help for Arnie and he was out in 16th.

Henry, A9 and Toby, AK got it all in. The flop brought AQQ and the turn a 9, the river a 5. Once the board paired and the common Ace pairied, the kicker was brought into it and pairing the 9 for Henry meant nothing. I have had this happen to me many time and it sucks. Henry was out in 15th.

Joe and Toby mixed it up just like Arnie and Jeff. This time the better hand lost. Joe had KK and Toby AA. The first card off was a K (again for Joe) and Toby was out in 14th.

(Think of the kiddy tune, neener, neener… neener) and then read this with the same melody: “Brad sucked out on Stacey.” QQ vs. TT. T on the turn. Stacey is out in 13th. Stacey gave Brad some good natured shit all night. That’s my girl.

Clara and Rico mixed it up, Rico’s AA held against Clara’s 88. Clara was out in 12th and went down for some “Girlie Chat” with Stacey.

Jeff knocked Mike Baaaaaa out with A2. Mike had QJ and an A on the river sealed it. Mike Baa was out in 11th and we were at the final table.

The final table was as follows:

Todd was shorty and was the first one eliminated when he couldn’t get his 77 past Brad’s AT. Brad hit a T on the turn and Todd was out in 10th.

Stuart was Brad’s next victim. Stuart made his move with AT and Brad had KK. No help for Stuart and Brad was really gaining in chips. Stuart was out in 9th.

Rico was getting milked and and was the new short stack, With the blinds fast approaching, Rico mad a wise move and tried to take the pot. Rico had the Mookie, T8. Justin had AQd and decided to call the small over. Justin got an A on the flop and Rico got an insulting 8 on the turn. Rico was out in 8th.

Jeff was now the small stack and took a stab from the BB with 34s. Justin called with A8 and an A on the flop sealed it for Jeff. He ended the tourney in 7th. Not a bad showing for Jeff – 2 final tables and a win, in 6 games.

By this time I had bled down to 26K and was in a real bad spot chip wise. I found KK and called Joe’s all in. Everyone else folded and Joe showed A9d. The flop brought a K, but also 2 diamonds. The turn another diamond and the board didn’t pair so I was the bubble in 6th. Joe got the bounty! Tough beat to be the bubble.

Joe would strike again against Armando and take him out in 5th, Armando made a move with T9s and Joe found AQo. Joe it a straight on the river and Armanado was out.

Down to four.

Joe and Justin would tangle with AT vs AK, respectively. The K on the turn sealed the deal. Joe was out in 4th.

Bradand Justin got it all in and Brad’s A2 didn’t hold up against Justin’s 66. Brad out in 3rd.

At this point Justin had like an 8 to 1 chip lead over David. If you noticed. David hadn’t taken out anyone the whole tourney. He won pots and avoided being knocked out by not playing but maybe one or two all in moments. Pretty stealthy.

Justin wrapped it up with A3 vs Davis’s A2. This is like a huge percentage tie hand, but a 3 on the flop and the turn sealed the deal.

Thanks for all those that brought food and stuff. We always appreciate it.

We will have another game on August 4th. Look for the evite.

Check out the points list here.

The Perfect Weekend

2007-07-16T01:42:00.000-04:00

Things that were awesome this weekend. The follwoing are not in order of importance, they are all very, very awesome...

1. My daughter drove our car for the first time twice today - She is 14 and going to driving school this summer. I had her take the wheel in a deserted area and she did great. She cornered pretty good while coasting, and evenput her foot on the gas. She signaled when she turned and even parked in a spot. Pretty good for her first time out! My little girl is growing up.

2. Today is National Ice Cream Day - We (the family) went to get Carvel at the Schlotskys at 620 and 183.

3. My daughter is playing beginner softball at the church. I bought her a glove and she and I had a catch under the street light at 10:30PM tonight. It was the first time she ever wore a mit. This leads me to the next item...

4. A friend of mine whom has recently become a regular poker player has been saying he has something for me and kept forgetting to bring it. I didn't know what it could be? I was floored, shocked, and absolutely amazed when he reached into a bag and sprung it on me. He gave me this...

A baseball signed by... MICKEY MANTLE. I am in awe. I just can't get over what a nice gesture this was. Thanks a million, Jeff!!!

5. I managed to bubble in our 19 person tourney. That sucked, but I played solid and patiently. I am looking forward to going deep in Vegas Tourney's - and mayb even the Big-O. I have now secured the point list. I will post a full report in a day or so.

6. Our friends Henry and Carol are booked for Vegas, bringing our total to 10 confirmed and 2-4 maybe's. Rocky and Melissa are maybe's and so are my Dad and Bro.

7. went to the Dr. for what I thought might be the early onsight of bronchitis. I got a steroid shot and a Z-pack. The steriod shot is an anti-inflamitory, and I feel great. I think that is a sign I have some creaks and growns at my age that I have been "dealing with". Also, my BP was 124/78. Pretty good for a fat bastard.

8. I think my neice is coming out for a week in August (no conflict with Vegas). This is great for al of us, especially my daughter (they are 6 months apart). We will be going to Schlitterbaum for sure that week.

Hope your weekend was as good as mine!!! If not, this will surely cheer you up. Please watch to the end and then reread number 1 above.

Trunk Monkey Compilation

Lucky, Lucky, Lucky 7/7/07

2007-07-07T15:50:00.000-04:00

Well this post is short, but leads to some long content on the results link.

I have the update from the last three tournaments. Congrats to:

Armando and Jeff on their first place chop of the 6/30 - 22 person tournament.
Stacey and Rico on their first place chop of the 7/3 - 12 person tournament.
Joe for taking town the 6 person mini-turbo on 7/3.

Nice job to all of you. The next tourney will be 7/14/07 - look for the evite.

BIG-O Tournament

I played at the Big-O and it was wild. I played tight during the 5 rounds of rebuys. I managed to only rebuy 2 times with the second a push for equity. At the end of the frst break, I had a mere 25K. The blinds were 600/1200, so I had an M of 13 - 14.

I managed to get AA on the first hand after the break and took down the pot of the blinds and a couple limpers. A couple hands later I had 22 on the button and flopped a set, I jammed because there were two clubs on board and took the pot uncontested. I was up to about 39K.

I made a good call against Henry when I had 9T on the BB and flopped topped pair, we checked to the river and he bet 8K into a 15K pot. I didn't put him on more than a value/steal bet so I called and my flopped TP held.

Later, I made a big laydown when I raised in 4th postion with AQo. It folded to Phillip who went all in. I put him on KK and needed 5:2 pot odds to call, but they weren't there so I folded. He showed AA and I would have been crushed.

I managed to knock out both Mellissa and Clara - I flopped a straight against Mellissa and checked, she went all in, I called and it held up. Carol joined our table with about 21K. I found QQ on the first hand she played and I pushed. She called with KJo (not a bad call - considering her stack and the blinds were 3K/6K). She hit the JJ3 flop and my Q's were cracked. With Clara I had AQs, she jammed with AQs and I jammed to isolate. She showed A9 or A6, can't remember, and my Q was good.

At this point I had about 72K with the average riht around 57K. The blinds were 3K/6K, so my M was 8. Not too bad. I was button, Carol was SB, and Michael was BB. I limped on the button with JTc. Carol called the 3K and Michael checked. The flop came Jh5h7c. I hit TP. Carol checked and Michael pushed for about 77K. I thought he might be on a draw or weak hand. I called for my whole stack. Michael showed J7 for two pair. I was done.

STUPID MOVE - I should have either raised 3x on the button, or folded preflop. After the flop, I should have folded. Why risk my stack for TP shitty kicker?

Overall I played well, just one BIG mistake. Maybe Michael will write it up on his blog.

I left pretty pissed at myself. I was going 52 in a 40 and got pulled over across the 183 and the tracks from Armando's on Crystal Falls. I was real lucky to get a warning. With this in the mix, I will consider myself ahead for the night. 40MPH on that road is bullshit. Oh well.

Jackpot Tournament Announced

2007-06-26T23:04:00.000-04:00

Upcoming Jackpot Tournament

I am planning the Jackpot Tournament for Saturday, August 11 – Noon.

Mark your calendars.

Format

Freeze-out with 1 Add-on - Deep Stacks (30K start) and Long Blinds (40 minutes)

Add-on for 20K for $10 at the end of the third round or if you Bust (zero chips) before the end of round 3

Buy-in Cost = Points Rank + $4, or $25 for those ranked below 20th

So if you are ranked in:

Position 1, you pay 1 + $4 = $5 ($20 discount)
Position 5, you pay 5+ $4 = $9 ($16 discount)
Position 20, you pay 20 + $4 = $24 ($1 discount)

Position 21, you pay $25 (no discount)

I will add in the Jackpot as of that point. The current Jackpot and standings are here.

I am opening up a third table to host up to 30 people. You must have at least 5 points (one buy-in to one tourney since January) to play in this tourney.

Here is the remainder of the tournament schedule before August 11th.

We have three dates selected at this time:

Saturday - June 30th - Announced by evite
Saturday - July 14th
Saturday - July 28th

So, play some poker and move up on the list, or if you haven’t played, play and qualify for the big game with a large payout (estimated 800 - 1000 with 30 people). 5 - 7 places paid depending on entries.

I will be sending an evite soon, but I am open to early sign-ups by email or comments to this post.

Signed up:
1) Joe
2) Kitty
3) Mike Baaaaaaaa
4) Jeff

Lucky, Lucky, Lucky

2007-06-21T22:02:00.000-04:00

We had a nice showing for the last tourney of 15 people. The players included:

We had a newbie - Alper. He played well for his first time and showed down several big hands. Welcome Alper.

Play was a little looser than normal with 11 rebuys in the first hour. Alper and I rebought twice each. Nearly everyone added on.

After the first hour, we had our first casualty. Clara - AK - got it all in with Stuart - 88 - no help for Clara and she was out in 15th.

Jeff had a tough go of it. He had ran his boat aground twice. He was very unlucky to run two full houses into QUADS! Finally, Joe sunk him with a flush. Jeff finished 14th.

Alper made a move with AK. Joe had JJ and his JJ held up and Alper's debut ended for him in 13th.

Stuart filled his 10's up with a 3373Q board, but Armando's KK's made a bigger boat. Armando knocked out Stuart in 12th.

Armando went on a wild run and cracked Kitty's JJ wirh AJ. The magical A on the flop did the trick. Kitty was out of lives in 11th place and we were at the final table.

The chip counts were as follows. I have decided to list the average stack now to show the relative chip positions with respect to the avgerage. I did a little math and Armando has 31.8% of the chips with 10 players left = IMPRESSIVE!

Joe and Scott mixed it up with an AJ vs KK matchup. Props to http://www.twodimes.net/ for giving us the stats for this one:

Preflop:
Scott = Ks Kd 70.82 % to win
Joe = As Jc 28.77 % to win

The flop is Ad 4h 8c

Scott = 8.79% to win
Joe = 91.21 % to win

The turn is a K and now Joe is drawing dead. Joe is out in 10th.

Armando commits a double homicide on Rico and Todd. In a huge pot - Armando has KJs, Rico has A9, and Todd K8. They get it all-in. The flop brings nothing but air, but the turn brings a J and Armando whacks the both of them Sopranos style. Todd had Rico out chipped, so Rico gets 9th and Todd 8th.

Armando has knocked out 4 of the 8 out so far and has TONS of chips.

Armando turns his blade on Mike Baaaaaa. They get it all in with Armando holding TT and Mike Ac2c. After the flop, Mike had a club draw, but Armando's TT hold up. Mike is out in 7th.

Armando has knocked out 5 of the 9 out so far and has TONS and TONS of chips.

"It's hard work. Gambling. Playing poker. Don't let anyone tell you different. Think about what it's like sitting at a poker table with people whose only goal is to cut your throat, take your money, and leave you out back talking to yourself about what went wrong inside. That probably sounds harsh. But that's the way it is at the poker table. If you don't believe me, then you're the lamb that's going off to the slaughter." --Stu Unger, three-time WSOP Champion

I am NOT saying Mike's a lamb, but on this night, Armando was a butcher.

Nick played well and it was nice to have him out. He mixed it up with our bad ass soldier, David (has run a marathon - with a 50# pack) in the Baatan Memorial March. David is a reservist and I would like to give my thanks to him and another poker regular (when he's not in Iraq), Joel. Armando put it well in this post and I echo his appreciation to both of them.

Nick had Q5 and David A9. David flopped the nut flush on the flop and Nick was out in 6th.

With 4 places paying and 5 players left, we negotiated a safe for 5th place.

At this point, I was pretty low in chips with an M of about 7. I needed to push when I had position and/or a decent hand. I found 9To on the button and decided to make a move with Stacey on the big blind. She turned over AJ and I thought I was gone. I got real lucky and flopped a straight. I was kicked to the couch and Stacey finished in 5th. Good thing we secured the 5th place Safe or it would have been the curb.

As many of you know the "Jimmy" is KQ suited. Well, this was a first. A Jimmy vs. Jimmy hand matchup one hand with KQ of hearts and the other with KQ of spades. I had the spades and David the hearts. I managed a flush on the turn and David was out in 4th. A HORRIBLE beat.

And then there were 3. Scott, Armando and I played for some time. We were moving chips around and I managed to double-up through Armando the monster with A4 vs. A9. I made a questionable call when Armando raised, but I didn't put him on an Ace.

After the suckout, I had 110K and was third in chips with a little breathing room. Scott had a slight chip lead over Armando at this point.

The very next hand was brutal. Scott with KK and Armando with AA got it all in. The very first card off the deck was a K and Armando wasn't happy - but gracious as always. I didn't realize he was on tilt until he wrote this. Sorry bro.

Scott and I got started heads up. I love to play heads up so I didn't offer a chop. besides it would have been absurd with a 4:1 chip lead Scott had when we started.

I managed to double up once and win a few pots. With the blinds at 10/20K it was significannt to win (or lose) any raised pot. Before long, I was lucky enough to gain the chip lead.

We got it all in. Scott slow played trip 5's and I caught a flush on the turn. I managed to take this one down. This was my first win in a long time. Admittedly, I was one lucky bastard! See the latest results here.

Oh, I wanted to mention that Henry won the tournament before this one (5/25/07), but I didn't do a write-up on it because of our trip to Phoenix and Vegas. I need to make this up to Henry somehow. Here it is!

Thanks to everyone that brought food and stuff. We are looking at hosting on June 30th. I will send an evite out in a couple of days.

Vegas Trip

2007-06-17T19:33:00.000-04:00

Stacey and I went to Vegas from June 10th - June 12th. We went with her parents. We stayed at Paris. The rooms were pretty nice, but not as nice or spacious as the Rio. The Paris Poker Room is an after-thought, off to the side of the bar, and the dealers and floor are retards.

Paris is connected to Bally's and Bally's has a pretty active poker room. 8 tables of $1-2 NL with a $300 max buy-in. Paris had one table for cash.

The first day managed to be very profitable for me. I played the 1-2NL game at Bally's and made $550 profit. The game was soft - like butter. I had good table image and was the boss most of the day. My reads were good and I played tight-aggressive.

I played only a few negitive-equity games like Pai-gow craps, roulette, black-jack and Let it ride. I basically broke even on those games.

The second day - I went to the Venitian to see if I could satellite into their $330 no-limit tournament - I was late and the game had already started. I trekked back to Paris and found Stacey in their $65 freeze-out. There were 48 players signed up, and once again, I was too late.

I wished her luck, and headed over to Bally's and bought in for $300. I played tight-aggressive again and won a few pots. I was up about $100 when I found AA in middle position. I raised to $25. I was re-raised to $50 by a guy with $180 behind. I went all-in.

He said, " I know you have AA but I am going to call anyway."

He showed QQ - Q on the flop - and I'm done - down $230 in one hand. I cashed out and checked on Stacey.

Her tourney was down to about 3 tables and she was average in chips. I cruised over the the Pai-Gow tables with Stacey's Dad and lost $80 in about an hour. I cashed out to check on my girl.

Stacey had made the final table!!! They were paying 5 spots and the final table had 9 because two people busted in the last hand before the final table.

While the tables collapsed we talked strategy. Stacey didn't have many chips. But, neither did three other people. One guy had tons of chips, another guy had some (2nd in chips) and he was a Donkey (saw him call an all-in that would have crippled him if he lost - he had J8o). Our strategy was to fold all but AK, AA, KK, and QQ. If we had a good hand she would jam. 2 people got knocked out and Stacey was sitting in 7th. She found AK and jammed. One caller with AJ. She was a 70% to 30% favorite to win, but a J on the flop was all it took to knock our girl out in 7th. Bummer - but a nice showing.

I chilled for the rest of the day. I wanted to come home profitable and decided to play the same tourney Stacey played after dinner (7:30PM).

I bought into the tourney and got placed on a pretty solid table. We started with 2,000 chips. Two of the three ladies at the table played in the Ladies WSOP event. One of them cashed.

During the first orbit I got TT in late position. I was planning to raise 4 or 5x. But the pot was raised and re-raised so I folded them.

I did find QQ four times in the first 40 minutes:

First time: I raised 3x and had 2 callers. I bet 1/2 pot and they folded.
Second time: Same thing, same result with one caller.
Third time: One lady (not the WSOP's) went all in for about 925 chips, I went all-in to protect my hand and isolate. We were heads-up and she had KK. No help for me.
Fourh time: next hand after the all-in. Two limpers I push with a little stage show of tilt. No callers.

After that I was card dead. I was getting binded away and with an M of about 7, I jammed on the button with JTs. The small blind showed KK and I was out.

Stacey and her Dad also played this tourney, but were out soon after I was.

I went up to the room and chilled out before a long cash game session planned for that night.

I went again to Bally's and got into an incredible game. There were two very drunk Donkey's just shoveling chips to the table. With a $300 buy-in one guy was up to $1600+ in chips. I decided to avoid this guy unless I had a monster. I was again card dead for about an hour. Finally I was in the BB with 89o and no raise, so I checked. I flopped the nuts with 899!!!

I checked, both the donkeys were in the hand and one of them checked. Donkey #2 bets $67. A huge bet considering the pot is about $10. I call. Everyone else folds. The turn brings a 4. I check and donkey #2 bets $67 again. I push all-in. He calls and shows KK. I am a 20 to 1 favorite.

A K on the river gives him KKK99 which beats my 99988. Down another $300. I play a few table games and quit for the night down about $300 overall. Ouch.

All-in-all, I can't complain. I played good poker, but got some bad beats. I could have easily been up over $1,000. We left the next day and I didn't want to play negative equity games and there wasn't enough time for a tourney or more cash games.

I look forward to August...

Stats for the last tourney are up... finally

2007-06-16T01:13:00.000-04:00

Been real busy, so all I got up are the results, no write-up. Congrats to Henry on the win.

I will write-up this weeks game.

I will also do a brief write-up about Vegas last weekend.

3 Amigos, 3 Monk Appointments, and Short Stack Makes Good

2007-05-20T14:15:00.000-04:00

We had a great turnout for this weeks tourney. Michael brought three friends with him from ND. We also had a new player, Jeff. It takes some getting used to our bunch of lunatics and poker degenerates, but I think all four newbies had a good time. We played Ro-Sham-Bo before kicking off the tourney and Stacey took it down by defeating Brad. Stacey got 1000 chips for first and Brad 500 for second. I think everyone enjoys this game and so we will try to play it before each tourney at my house.

The players were - Kitty, Dylan, Joe, Armando, Toby, Jim, Brad, Mike Baaaa, Stacey, Phillip, Mark, Todd, Rico, Jeff, Stuart, David, and Michael Allan.

We got underway and there were 5 rebuys. We started with 10K in chips instead of 15K and I think this is the right mix with the no-rebuy bonus.

Michael Allen (K10) and Dylan (A3) got it all-in. Michael Allen was a good Texas host and gave all his chips to Dylan, his guest. Michael Allen was out in 17th and will be the recipient of the fish next week.

David got all-in with Dylan and his QQ was no match when Dylan found a third 7 for his 77. David was out in 16th, but happily on his way home to spend time with his new baby.

Stuart was Dylan's third victim - Stuart went in with the best AQo and Dylan called with A2h and caught a flush on the river. Three down and now Dylan had a very dominant chip lead at table 2. Stuart was out in 15th and began his trek up the mountain. (For the origin of this magical place, look at this post)

Jeff did well his first time out. He played aggressive and people had a hard time putting him on hands. I got lucky, lucky, luck when my 99 held against his A2. He pushed all in after the turn with a J577 board. I had chips so I called and my 9's held when the river was a 2. Jeff was out in 14th.

I unintentionally pissed Rico off. I had 66 in late position, Rico on my left. Blinds 1/2K. I limped, with three other players, including Rico. The pot was about 8K.

The flop was 659 rainbow. I bet 4K, Rico came over the top and raised it to 15K. Everyone else folded. I went into the tank and was thinking about what Rico might have to risk 15K of his 22K stack.

First, I thought about if I was ahead or behind? I was fearful he had 78 or 99. I assumed he did and did the math. I have to call 11K into 27K pot. Not quite 2.4:1. If he has the 99, I am drawing to 2 outs and I am basically dead, but set over set is very rare, so I discounted it. If he has 78, I will need a full house to beat him. I would have 3 outs for the 5 and three outs for the 9 + one out for my 4th 6 for a total of 7 outs. At that point I had ~3.5:1. In this case I should fold.

However, what if Rico is making a move? In that case I am in very good shape. He didn't go "all-in", so maybe his hand isn't GREAT. Maybe he paired the board? In that case I am a HUGE favorite. If I move all-in I would still have average stack even if I lose. If I push and he calls with a better hand, my odds increase. Do they increase enough?

If he calls the pot will be 8 + 22 + 22 = 52. I will have bet 18 (11 call his 15K bet, plus 7 for the all-in) to win 52. Roughly 3:1 odds. Close enough when considering the likelihood of him making a move over having 99 or 78. I pushed.

Rico turned over A9 for Top Pair Top Kicker. Another 9 came on the river and gave Rico trip 9's, but that gave me the full house.

Rico didn't mind losing - but he thought it was an automatic call. In the end it was, but for some reason I wasn't comfortable just calling. I took a long time to decide what to do and that may have sent the wrong signal. Not my intention... just a slow thinker. Sorry brotha... Rico left in 13th in a hurry. He had an appointment on the mountain.

Todd made a move with A9 and Kitty scratched his eyes out with 44. Todd was out in 12th. Todd was uncharacteristically tilting too. After Todd displayed some uncharacteristically "tilty" behavior, I had the following vision...

We were two to the final table now. Simultaneous hands occurred with all-in's on both tables.

I was involved in a hand with Phillip. He made a move with KJ and I called with AK for a huge pot. I was ahead and flop brought blanks for each of us. An A on the turn was all I needed and he was drawing dead on the river. I just about doubled up in this hand. Phillip fell in 11th.

On the other table... Joe took out Mark... no data provided... Mark was out in 10th.

Now two of the three Amigos were out.

We were at the final table with 9 instead of 10. The chip stacks were as follows:

Stacey was the first victim. She pushed with 77, but was no match for Toby's 10's. Stacey was out in 9th.

Mike Baaa, Brad, and Kitty got involved in a 3 way with Baaa all-in. Mike Baaa = A8o, Brad = k7d, Kitty = KJ. Kitty took down an 82K pot when a J was flopped and she and Brad checked it down. Mike Baaa was out in 8th.

I had started the final table in 2nd chip position. My strategy was not to get tricky and only play premium hands. My problem was I didn't get any premium hands. I did get AJs and raised to 18K (3x BB), Brad called with A7d and caught a 7 on the flop. That was an expensive hand for me and I was down to less than 50K.

My chip stack resembled this...

Brad took my chips and passed them on to Armando. Brad and Armando got all in with a race of AK vs. 44. A King on the river killed off Brad and made Armando a contender. Nice playing from being shorty at the beginning of the final table. Brad out in 7th.

I made a move with KJs and got called by Dylan (super-sized stack) with KQ. Knocked out by my favorite hand. Jim is out in 6th.

Our bubble-boy would be Toby. He was out in 5th by Dylan. Toby moved with AJd and Dylan played the jimmy again (KQ). A King on the flop ended the night for the Tobster.

Armando made the money. Nice play for a donkey.

Armando would be knocked out in 4th when he played the Jimmy against Kitty's JTd. Another J on the flop and Armando was done.

Joe would be Kitty's next victim. She buried him in the litter box by calling with 99 (9 lives twice) when he pushed with A4. Joe was out in 3rd.

Kitty and Dylan quickly chopped. He must have also seen the video. Kitty repeated with a chop. She will be the shark again.

Thanks for all those that brought food. We appreciate it!

Results of the points and jackpot are here.

Kevin was flying in from a business trip and never showed up, after he confirmed on the evite... maybe he will show up on the next episode of...

POKER and RO SHAM BO

2007-05-14T23:09:00.000-04:00

We has a good turn-out of 15 players. We played Ro-Sham-Bo to kick it off. Joe got first place and Scott got 2nd. (1000 and 500 chips, respectively). Play was very tight and we only had 2 rebuys, both unfortunately, by Stuart. At the break, we handed out the bonus chips and everyone rebought.

Being that Stacey and I celebrated our 15th Anniversary on May 9th, we had a small prize for those that showed down 5-9 of any flavor. A $1 lottery ticket was the prize. Stacey won two, Scott won another and I can't remember the other 2 lucky winners (unlucky as it turns out, not one ticket was a winner).

After the break I had 42K which was ~10K above average.

Todd and I got it all in preflop. My AK was good after a AT5 flop. Todd had 99 and the turn and the river were blanks. Todd was out in 15th.

Brad limped into the pot. Rico had 46o in the BB and paired up on a K6T flop. Rico checked and so did Brad. Rico got a 6 on the turn. Brad pusdhes all-in, Rico calls. Brad turns over KK and the river is a blank. Rico is out in 14th.

Henry and Greg mixed it up. Henry pushed after the all heart flop and Greg called wth TT. Henry turned over AKh and Greg was gone in 13th.

Ian got a King high fluch on the river, but the river gave Kitty a boat. Ian was out in 12th.
Ian was 2nd in chips at his table to Kitty, so Kitty had a monster stack.

Stuart and I had mixed it up a few hands. Stuart raised the 2x in middle position. Clara and I called (me in the BB with 5Th - lose call). The flop brought J58. With bottom pair, I called a 1/2 pot bet from Stuart after Clara called. The turn brought me the other 5. I checked, Stuart pushed and after a long contemplation, Clara folded. I called and Stuart showed KQ, he was drawing dead. Stuart was out in 11th, and we were at the final table.

Final table chip statcks were as follows:

After the final table got underway, Scott was the first to fall in 10th. Scott had the hammer (72o) and Brad had the Mookie - T8. The flop of T75 got scott all-in and Brad called with TP.

The next hand was the wildest hand I have played in a long time. I found AQs on the SB. Clara was the BB. The blinds at this time were 2 and 4K.

David Limps, 4K. Pot = 10K.
Kitty raises 3x to 12K. Pot = 22K.
Brad calls the 12K. Pot = 34K.
I call the 12K. Pot = 46K.
Clara goes all-in for 17.5K a 5.5K raise. Pot = 63.5K.
David goes all-in for 19K, a 2.5K raise. Main Pot = 81K. Side Pot = 2.5K.
Kitty folds.
Brad calls the extra 7K. Main pot = 86.5K. Side Pot = 5K.
I call the extra 7K. Main Pot = 92K. Side Pot = 7.5K.

Jim, David and Brad are in for the side pot.

The flop and turn are all low cards. The river is a Q. My AQ holds to take it all. 99.5K!!! Wow.

David is out in in 8th and Clara in in 9th. David had more chips than Clara, so he gets 8th.

At this point I had almost 200K of the 500K chips in play with 7 people left.

Toby got his stack all in with AQ, Brad called with AKc. 2 clubs on the flop and another on the river, sends Toby packing in in 7th.

Joe got whacked by Kitty. Joe was short stacked and jammed with JJ. Kitty caled with A8h and caught a flush. Joe was out in in 6th.

Henry and I got it all-in preflop. I had QQ under the gun and rased 4x to 24K. (Blinds 3 and 6K). Henry jammed with about 50K. I called and he showed JJ. My QQ held and he was out in in 5th as the bubble-boy. My stack is now about 250K.

Stacey had nursed her short stack very well. She either jammed or folded and it worked well. She doubled up at least once (maybe twice). She caught an 8 on the flopped and pushed with 48o. Brad called with KK. His KK held and Stacey was out in in 4th.

Now it was Brad, Kitty and I. I had about 250K, Kitty was way short at about 50K. brad had the rest.

It would have been prudent to just sit back, but I made a few moves and quickly realized playing a loose-aggresive and tight-aggressive player is very tough. I donked my stack after doubling Kitty at least once and losing a sizeable hand to Brad. The final hand for me was 88. I pushed and Kitty folded. Brad called with A7. He got a 7 on the flop... and another on the RIVER.

I was out in in 3rd. Brad and Kitty chopped with about even stacks. I believe Brad recalled seeing this video and didn't want to face the "Kitty". Wise move Brad. {You might want to turn your volume down before viewing.}

All in all it was a great night. I hope everyone had fun. Thanks to all that brought food.

We will be hosting again this week Friday, May 18th. Hope to see everyone there.

Stats are updated here.

Fun and Games on Saturday!!!

2007-05-11T00:53:00.000-04:00

We are looking forward to hosting Saturday.

We have two new things to add to this weeks game:

First - we will be honoring anyone that wins a hand with 5-9 of any suit. Why 5-9? Stacey and I celebrated our 15 Year Wedding Anniversary this week on May 9th. So, if you win a hand by showdown or bluff and show, you will win a small prize.

Second - we will be having a Ro-Sham-Bo (Rock Paper Scissor) tourney prior to the start of poker. We will pair off and do a best 2 out of 3. The winners will move on until one is left standing. The winner gets 1500 chips, the second place gets 500 chips. The Ro-Sham-Bo game will start promptly at 6PM.

Also, Stacey will be the proud holder of the . If Armando makes it out, he will get the , although I feel guilty giving it to him based on the crushing beat he took with AA and flopping a third. If he doesn't make it, I will feel better giving the to Rico.

There are still a few spots left, so don't forget to sign up.

See ya' Saturday.

4/27 Home Game

2007-05-05T10:59:00.000-04:00

This tournament completed the final leg of my recent slump. I am going to vent a little on this post.

I have been getting slaughtered lately, but I think I have emerged from the misery.

I bubbled the first tournament this week. I didn't money in the second tourney either. I was 2nd out of the tourney when Stacey's parents were here. I also blew a nice stack in Mook's $50 game. Among several other bad beats, I got beat with:

QQ vs JJ all in to bubble
Top Pair Top Kicker (TPTK) with the Nut Flush Draw (NFD)
A Set on the flop, by a pair of 5's for a rivered flush

I was playing really well, I was making good moves and had good reads. It just didn't seem fair. I got really pissed and said:

"I am taking the Month of May off."
"I am not going to Vegas this summer."
With people still in the Tourney, "I am going to bed, Stacey, finish up for me." To which she replied, "Bullshit".

I went here (figuratively):

The next day, Stacey and I went to lunch. We had a "talk"... she pointed some things out to me and they made sense. See, you have to know Stacey: She is genetically engineered to NEVER GO ON TILT. I have seen her AA get cracked on the river by JJ. I have seen her have her full House rivered by Quads. She ALWAYS stays cool and gracious. She is a rock. She cheers when people win, and apologizes when she does (unless it's Henry) .

That's the kind of attitude you need to be a good player. Stacey has it down cold.

I felt much better... I am off the mountain - and will not return. I now look at the game in a different way... and I am winning!

I had a win at a recent cash game where:

I ran my K high Flush into the A high flush
Ran a set into a straight Flush
Ran a flopped set into flopped straight

...no problem. Still a positive session.

I have tripled by bankroll on-line since the "talk".

I am ready to take on poker with a new attitude. Thanks Stacey.

Sorry for the late post...

2007-04-22T21:54:00.000-04:00

It has been a crazy couple of weeks. This tournament post for the Jersey Poker game will be very short. I have forgotten the details long ago. What I do remember is I was knocked out very early. I felt a little like this guy...

My FIL (father-in-law), Vince, chopped with Michael and my MIL (mother -in-law), Joan made the final table.

Oh yeah - we all had a great time. Thanks to everyone that brought food.

Please see the results here.

Mookie's Home Game

2007-04-02T05:27:00.000-04:00

Had a good run at the money and as always, a GOOD time at the Big O. The rebuys were feverish and the pot was huge. I managed not to have to rebuy. I had about average stack pretty much all night.

I was at the final table and had this situation:

I had about 75K in chips and was either shorty or shorty + 1. I had KTo on the SB with the button (biggest stack) limper and the BB checking. The flop was K75 of diamonds. I bet 25K, The BB folds and the button pushes all in, forcing me to go all-in or fold with TP, medium kicker.
The blinds were 5K and 10K. Michael was the button.

What do you do?

Please comment on the hand and let me know what you would do next, or what I should have done different.

Thanks.

I eventually got kicked in the junk in this situation:

I got knocked out with 99 when I pushed against 88 and QsTc. The flop missed the 88 and the QT, but brought two spades. The turn another spade, and the river... another spade. I dodged all the 8's, Q's and T's but not the spades. Runner, runner flush and I am out in 6th. Good thing we safed the $20.

It works out like this Preflop:

9c 9h 43.13%
8c 8d 17.86%
Qs Tc 38.72%

Post 2s 5s Jd FLOP:

9c 9h 61.68 %
8c 8d 7.97%
Qs Tc 30.34 %

Post 7s TURN

9c 9h 64.29 %
8c 8d 2.38%
Qs Tc 33.33%

I felt like this guy on the motrocycle.

In honor of April Fools day yesterday, you will enjoy this one:

A Bad Beat

2007-03-29T01:52:00.000-04:00

We have all had our share of bad beats, but next time keep this one in mind and you can save a trip to the mountain.

In front of the kids! And what's up with that cop?

Sharks and Fish

2007-03-26T23:03:00.000-04:00

It was another great donk fest last Friday. We had 19 players and some interesting stuff. First of all, we were glad to see Brad back in the fold. Godfrey was back and so was Jesse. I started a new tradition this week. The little shark, shown in the picture, goes to the previous week's winner. The fish goes to the previous weeks first to bust out.

This week Godfrey got the shark to himself (Bern didn't make it this week) and Todd the fish. See last weeks results here. We were happy to have almost a full-house again this week with the invitation climbing to16 "YES's" in the first 24 hours after sending. Act quickly or your going to be on the wait list.

The following players made it out:

Joe
Kitty
Todd
Stuart
Brad
Carol
David
Jim
Michael Allan
Armando
Clara
Justin
Rico
Jesse
Scott
Kevin
Stacey
Henry
Godfrey

Play was very tight with only 2 rebuys in the first hour. Godfrey had a very bad run on this night. He got knocked out within the first half-hour. He didn't option his rebuy. He headed right back up the mountain to regain the poker savy he demonstrated in the last game. He will reopen his text book and study harder.

Godfrey was out in 19th. Godfrey was out (not feeling it) but was a good sport and dealt for our table.

Everyone rebought. Henry used his add-on before the break. His chipstack was small and he pushed his 77 into Rico's 99's preflop and the flop brought Rico quad 9's. Henry was out in 18th. Henry went down to watch some basketball.

Stacey was getting second best all night* and she ran her AK into QQ and a Q on the flop knocked her out in 17th.

* nothing to do with being married to me

Stuart and Kevin mixed it up when Kevin pushed with 88. Stuart called with TT. The board brought some combination of T3385 and Stuart's fullhouse (TTT33) outpaced Kevin's (88833). A tough beat. Kevin hit the rail in 16th.

Scott was out in 15th (no info). Todd did the deed.

Jesse was the next one out 14th. His AA got cracked by Michael Allen's AQ. This hand is one of the most unusual I have seen. The flop was QJQ. The turn and river JJ. Michael Allen ended up with QQQJJ and Jesse with JJJAA. Weird. The bourd had a full house and each player improved the board with their hole cards. Jesse headed for the Mountain.

Here is a picture of Jesse and Godfrey discussing their bad fortunes on this night. There are a few others in there too. Do you recognize anyone?

I hope they finish their Monkships and return to the felt soon.

Rico wasn't feeling so hot and was very quiet (or maybe he wasn't, but who could hear him over Michael Allen's Boisterous, drunken banter? ). Rico got knocked out firing with middle pair only to be called by Joe's straight. Rico was out in 13th.

I knocked out Justin next with JJ. Justin had QT and my J on the flop let me relax a little. Justin was out in 12th.

Clara was the final table bubble girl. She got knocked out in 11th. She pushed with K8 and David called with the Jimmy (KQs). the board broght nothing and the Q kicker took it home for David.

Final Table chip counts:

Next out was Armando with 44 vs. Brad's 82. Manso only had 10K and it cost Brad 2K to call (no brainer). An 82K flop seized it for Brad. Our very own Mookie was out in 10th.

Michael Allen was next out in 9th by the hand (claw?) of Kitty (no info on hand). She followed in rapid succession and clawed me out in 8th. I had the Jimmy and she had big chick (AQ). A on the flop and an insulting K on the river ended my night. I went to the cash table and didn't keep very good track of the next eliminations.

David, 7th, was knocked out by Todd.

Carol, 6th, was knocked out by Joe.

Brad, 5th, was knocked out by Stuart.

Stuart, 4th, was knocked out by Joe.

Todd, 3rd, was knocked out by Joe.

Kitty and Joe celebrated being heads-up for the first time. They played for a little while and Joe's A2 was able to knock Kitty's Q7 out. The flop brought a 22.
Next game the Shark and Fish will be assigned as: Joe and Godfrey .

Thanks to everyone that made it out and those that were kind enough to bring food. We are hving our cabinets installed and hopefully the room will be complete by the next tourney on the weekend of April 13th.

See the tournament results here.

The Monk Returns for the Grand Opening of the New Gameroom

2007-03-13T20:45:00.000-04:00

We opened the game room with great success. We had 20 people, our max, and two alternates who didn't get to play. It will be interesting to see the response next tourney, now that it is known there may be a waiting list.

The room worked out as we hoped. We had put a lot of effort into painting, design, lighting, and all of it - we ended up with a room that's perfect for poker, and the whole family. The projector mount, new poker tables, spacing, "JEFF" chairs from IKEA, couch, tables for food, projector location, everything. We received lots of compliments and are glad everyone liked it. It was worth it. So, we had 20 players, which was good for a test since we wondered if it would be crowded.

The players included:

Bern
Godfrey
Stacey
Jim
Ian
Carol
Stuart
Armando
Diane
Henry
Susan
Rico
Arnie
Mike B.
Michael Allan
Mike G.
Jesse
Justin
Nick
Todd

We changed the format to one rebuy in the first hour and one add-on at the end of the first hour. As predicted, play was tighter for the first hour. There were only 6 rebuys, Bern, Stacey, Ian, carol, Armando, and Mike B. This was one more rebuy than Rico had himself in the last tourney. Everyone added on at the end of the first hour.

Play continued, I was in a very comfortable chip position at the end of the 1st hour with 10K over average. I managed to win a few nice pots and steal a few blinds. The table was playing solid for the most part.

Suddenly, at the other table, I heard a loud cracking sound. It was Todd's AA against "The Monk's" QJ. I call Godfrey "The Monk" because he was on tilt for a several weeks and made a triumphant return to the felt. His play was very solid, he was crushing people on the other table. I joked he had gone to Tibet and studied with the Monk's about Poker and discipline, because he was a new man.

I snapped a picture of him as he came down from the mountain to our house. Unfortunately Todd was out in 20th. Sorry Todd.

Nick was the next victim. He had QJd against Mike Baaaaaaaaa's AKo. He got a J on the flop, but the sheepman got the A on the turn. Nick was out in 19th.

Justin would soon face the Tibetan Rage when he tried to steal the pot from the Munk with KTh. The Monk caught two pair on the flop with his Q8o and Justin was out in 18th.

Jess had a commanding chip lead on his table before the break, but ran into trouble. He was down to 3K and pushed with 5Th. No luck against The Monk and Jess was out in 17th.

Godfrey had 3 of the first 4 eliminations and was up huge.

Next Ian would strike. Michael G's flush was busted on the river by Ian's fullhouse. Michael G. was out in 16th.

Next Henry would beat his nephew like a step child. Michael Allen got it all-in with AK. Henry said, "Start the car Weezy.", as he called with AA. Michael Allen was out in 15th.

A magician came in and made Mike Baaaaaaa disappear. I don't know what happened, except he "left the building" Rumor has it he caught a plane for Tibet. It is said he was on tilt bad and went to find peace in Tibet like Godfrey. Mike Baaaaa pusshed with Q5 after a 985 flop. Unfortunately for him, The Monk had 79. Mike Baaa was out in 14th.

Arnie was next out when his JT was matched against Rico libre's AQ. A Q on the flopped was topped by another on the river and Arnie was headed home when he was out in 13th.

Stuart started a man run at this point. He had been uncharacteristically been quite this Grand Opening night. He was picking his spots and layed some treacherous plays on people like when he min raised his pocket A's.

Stuart had A9d and Rico the Jimmy, KQ. The flop brought AdK3d and the turn a K. Stuart had Top two pair with a flush draw. Rico had trip K's. Rico was a 3:1 favorite at that point. But the 7d on the river sent Rico to the cash game. Rico was out in 12th.

Stuart then turned his guns on Susan. Susan got it all in with her signature hand, K8. Stu had A5. Stu caught the nut flush on the river and she was out in 11th.

FINAL TABLE

Chip counts were as follows:

Since we were at the final table, I wanted to post a picture of the table and give some props to BC Tables. Brandon of BC tables did a nice job on the tables (I got two). He is very good at customer service and his price is reasonable.
As you can see the quality of the table is great. It is well built and he uses excellent materials. If you want more information, let me know I I will give you Brandon's contact information.

I had never played on a racetrack table, but I have always been drawn to the design. I like the fact that you can stack the chips taaaaaaaallll. Not that I ever get a tall stack, but it's fun to look at tall stacks across the table, and eventually from the rail.

By the way, both tables and all twenty chairs fit in the closet in the background. I rigged up a system to suspend the tables long ways. It works pretty well, but getting the tables in and out is a little tight. Back to the tourney.

Henry was the first victim at the final table. He moved in with AJ and Bern called with AA. He was out in 10th. The cobra was off to the cash table. Carol was still in, so he didn't have to worry about being check-raised by her at the cash table.

Diane was the next one to fall. She pushed a small stack in and Stuart called. Stuart's K high held and Diane was out in 9th.

Armando was at the cash table before he was out of the Tourney. He was showing his Mookie prowess by multi-tabling the cash game and the tourney. This was a first I've seen of this in a live game. All I can say is he's awesome.

However, his JJ did not make it past my KK and he was out in 8th. Oddly enough, he has not monied at my house this season, and I haven't moneyed at his either. Further, he is near the top of his points and money list as I am mine. Hmmmmm.

I took out Stuart next when I called a big raise with the Jimmy, KQs. Stuart had the Mookie T8s. Stuart spiked a T on the flop, but the Q on the river took it home for me. Stuart was out in 7th. He was off to the cash game.

At this point I had 200K in chips and was chip leader. I began to donk of about 35K in each of 3 out of the next 10 hands. Had I managed this stack better, i would have gone deeper into the money.

Carol moved all-in with the Jimmy and Monk called with AK. the better hand won, Henry cashed out and Weezy started the car. Weezy (Carol) was out in 6th. I want to pay special thanks to Henry and Carol for our very nice doormat. Thanks guys, what a cool present!

Monk now went up against Ian. Ian's KQ started to race Monk's 44. The flop brought K72, but the 4 on the turn held up and the Monk sent Ian packing down the Tibetan trails. Ian was out in 5th. Ian was the bubble boy.

44 would prove to be a lucky hand for the Monk. My Tourist hand A7o would not be enough to win after making a move against Godfrey on the BB. He called and the 44 held through another race. I caught an A on the flop, but the 4 on the river killed me. I was in the money, but out in 4th.

Stacey was out in 3rd. Since I joined the cash game, I can't say what happened.

A few minutes later, Bern and Monk chopped and it was over.

We played cash for a few minutes more. At 145AM and we had 5 people interested in a second turbo tourney.

Rico
Stuart
Justin
Jim
Stacey

We began.

I didn't win a single hand. I was out in 4th. Stuart faired slightly worse. His aggression didn't pay off and he was out first, in 5th. I crashed on the couch while Justin, Rico and Stacey battled on. Justin was out in 3rd and Rico and Stacey chopped.

All in all it was an awesome night, ending at about 4Am. We appreciate all that made it out. Once again, thanks to all those that brought food.

We will be having another tourney the weekend of the 23rd. Check out the stats here.

Tourney Number 4

2007-02-25T16:20:00.000-05:00

This was the last "downstairs" tourney as we have the Game Room almost complete. I have new poker tables being built and they should be ready for number 5.

We had a repeat of last week as far as the number players, 17. We had a two players make their season debuts, Ian and Zack.

The playas were as follows:

Michael Allan
Ian
Mike B.
Scott
Justin
Stuart
Todd
Henry (the Cobra)
Kitty
Mike G.
Rico
Joe
Stacey
Carol
Armando
Jim
Zach

Play was crazy for the first four rounds with rebuys galore. Rico takes the trophy for the most rebuys at 5. A new record at our house. Scott and I had 2 each and Henry and Kitty had one a piece. Almost everyone added on.

Zach was the first victim of the tournament. First time playing at our house, first one out. Will he be back? He's welcome, but time will tell.

This donkey was the next one out. During the rebuy rounds, I played really loose and ran my TP into Michael Allen's set. I built my stack back up to over 40K. I was sitting pretty then, as usual, I blew it. I got into another hand with none other than... Michael. He had a set of 10s and I called his all-in with an OESD. No luck and I am rebuying again. He cost me two rebuys...

I rebought and had about lost the blinds and ended up with about 18K at the beginning of round 5, average stack was 30K+.

I made a move with AT to pick up the blinds and a limper. Michael G. called and his KK held up and I was out in 16th. YUCK!!!

Armando was soon to follow, being knocked out in 15th. His 55 made a set on a 256 diamond flop, but Ian hit his flush when he showed JTd. The turn and river didn't pair the board and Mook was out.

Carol got KT all-in with Joe's QQ. The QQ held up after the Qj5 flop, folled by a J on the turn. Carol was "starting the car". She ended the night in 14th.

VS.

Stacey and Henry mixed it up. Stacey stealthly played her AK and Henry his AJ. Henry was making his patented cobra sign at Stacey as he turned over his AJ. Stacey was a 3 to 1 favorite. The flop was A48 making Stacey a 7:1 favorite. But the turn was not merciful, a J for Henry and Stacey is a looking at a 6% chance to win. River = 9 and Stacey says, "The Cobra stung me in the ass". She was out in 13th and joined Carol for some Girlie talk.

Michael Allen's luck continued when he played his 79h against Joe's KT the flop gave Michael 4 to the flush and the turn sealed Joe's fate with the Ah. Joe was out in 12th.

Rico's $70 brought him him far. He got about 3 hours of play in doe a mere $23/hr. One hand in Vegas... of about 45 seconds. In those terms, I did well!!! Rico got whacked by Stuart when his 9Ts was bested by Stuart's JQo. Rico flopped two pair and Stu the straight on the 9TK flop... no help for Rico and he was out in 11th.

Let the cash game begin! Stacey, Joe, Rico, and I started a cash game....

FINAL TABLE

(forgot to get chip counts)

In 10th was Mike G. His 66 was no match for Michael's KK and Mike G. was out. A good showing...

Kitty had A8 on the BB, Mike B. Q6 the flop brought an A and a Q. Mike B. hit his 2 outer on the river, and Kitty was done in 9th...

Henry and Ian mixed it up, Henry (Cobra) had KK and Ian (Mongoose), AT. They got it all in and the Mongoose got an A on the flop and another on the turn. The cobra had Weazy start the car. Out in 8th.

Mike B. claimed another victim when his AJ killed Todd's QJ and Todd was out in 7th.

6th place went to Stuart when his KQd (the Jimmy) got run into Ian's AKo.

We were down to the bubble position. We had Justin, Michael Allen, Scott, Mike B. and Ian left in the game. The five of them decided to safe out $20. Pulling $5 from each place gave a 5th paying spot.

Watch this video to see how the technical bubble hand went down...

3rd time is a charm. Justin is the bubble for the third week in a row. Down to 4.

Watch this video to see how fourth place went down.

Not sure what Mike B's statement about "loving the Queens" was all about, maybe something like this...

Down to 3.

In this final video, watch how Michael Allen manages to knock out 2 people and spill his beer all over my floor. As he knocks it over, pay particular attention to "It's only on the wood". Actually, Michael, I am glad that happened, because you reaffirmed my decision to wait on replacing our carpet updstairs.

That's it. Michael Allen makes it a back to back victory and wins the last downstairs tourney. See the latest stats here.

Thanks to everyone who came out and all that brought food.

Blogger Pods Freerole

2007-02-17T02:04:00.001-05:00

I’m registered in the free BloggerPods poker tournament.
Poker Mac

I am registered, are you?

Tourney 3 Recap

2007-02-15T21:06:00.000-05:00

Sorry this post is late, and as a consequence, short.

We had another fine turn out for the third tourney of the year. I got off to a bad start running the tourney as I wasn't as ready as usual when we started. I was a bit frazzled as we started, but it worked out. I hadn't had that happen before... oh well.

The players were as follows:

1) Michael Allan
2) Joe
3) Jim
4) Stacey
5) Kitty
6) Justin
7) Clara - Mookie was Missing
8) Betty
9) Rico
10) Todd
11) Nick
12) Cristine
13) Stuart
14) Henry
15) Kevin
16) Carol
17) Scott

We got started off and the tables were loose. There were 13 rebuys. I got lucky and somehow managed to chip up to about 65K without rebuying. Part of my luck came from cracking Kitty's AA. I had 9T and got in cheap, the flop gave me top pair and I bet, Kitty raised and I called. We went back and forth as the turn wasn't an overcard and I ended up going all in after the river gave me TTT. Kitty rebought.

At the break, we had 14 add-ons which made for a nice pot.

After the break, Scott was the first victim and was eliminated by Michael Allen. Carol was next, followed by Kevin. At this point, I got moved to the other table between Todd and Henry. I had lots of chips and so did Todd. We went back and forth and he took a nice pot off me with a flopped set to my two pair.

I called Henry's AJ all-in with AQ. He was out. Next Stacey eliminated Stuart, Joe eliminated Cristine, and Stacey struck again and eliminated Nick.

We were at final table.

Chip counts were as follows:

Player	Count
Joe	143K
Stacey	129K
Michael	78K
Jim	61K
Clara	35K
Betty	43K
Todd	22K
Kitty	21K
Justin	19K
Rico	18K

Joe was 1st in chips and Stacey was a close 2nd. Average stack was 57.6 chips.

Todd was the first one out ast the final table, knocked out by me. Rico got knocked out by Michael Allen and Betty by Joe. I knocked out Clara and Justin and had some real chips now +220K.

Kitty was the bubble when she was knocked out by Stacey. Then I knocked out Stacey.

She still gave me a nice Valentine's Present.

We were down to the final three. I had the chip lead. I lost a big chunk to Michael when my AKo didn't improve against his TT. I lost the rest of my chips with top pair, improving into top two pair, but this wasn't enough to overcome Michael's rivered straight.

Michael and Joe were heads-up. Michael took it down and was the big winner.

See the latest standings here. Check out the new Donkey Point Leader.

Hammer Day Cash Game

2007-02-08T20:29:00.000-05:00

2/7/2007 is hammer day. I learned a lot about the celebrated hand from part of the post on Pauly's website.

I played a 0.25 and 0.50 cash game with Joe, Kitty, Rico, and Dave L. (sp?). I tried to use some things I learned from this book (I know I am behind in my reading). It worked out well. We were playing five handed so hands vs. pot odds needed to be adjusted a little. I was able to take an occasional pot away by betting the right amount to take away their pot odds when I put people on draws.

I was getting cards and that certainly helped, but I was able to make pretty good reads and avoid trouble.

The last hand of the night, I had 79o. I limped into a pot with 2 callers. The flop came A68 rainbow. I bet $2 and everyone folded except Joe, he called, on the button. The turn came as a 10, giving me the nut straight. I checked, he checked. The river brought a 3. I had the nuts, no pairs on board, only two of any suit. Assuming he had a pair at best, I bet $1.50, he raisied to $3, I re-raised to $6, he re-raised to 11, and I went all-in.

He showed AA for a set, brutal. He slow played the flop and I caught the turn for the nuts. I listened to Daniel Negreanu describe how to play this hand on a poker show. This is the 2nd big pot (relatively speaking) I have won with it, because nobody can put you on it. Sweet.

Playing again this Saturday night at our house, should be a blast.

Kings go Crack at the Mookie

2007-02-03T18:32:00.000-05:00

We played at the Mookie last night and it was a night of cracked Kings. Stacey and I both had our Kings cracked in a big way. On seperate tables, Stacey had her's cracked by Clara playing the (the Kittie, aka ). Stacey's beat cost her some chips, mine cost me my life.

I was playing +/- 2K from average. I was staying even by making a move every round or so. I wanted to play some big pots as people's M's went down.

I had KK one from the Button. I raised 3x = $3000 and Scott called in the SB. The flop came 78J rainbow. Scott checked, I bet $6000 and he went all in. I put him on a pair to start with and was somewhat concerned he may have JJ. I was pot committed with only about $13K left in chips and an M of about 6. I hoped he had TT or QQ. He had TT. Great! He's down to 6 outs.

Then, the 9 on the turn and I was OUT, NUTTED, BUSTED, DRAWING DEAD! That's ~~poker~~ bad luck! It happens...

I had a good time and it was nice to be at the Mookie. I was 2nd out (doesn't happen too often), but Stacey made it to the final table. See the tournament results here.

Reading is... cool

2007-01-31T11:42:00.000-05:00

I have been sick with Pneumonia this week, I an so sick of sleeping and watching lame TV, I have started reading this book. As always, when I read a book I like to dig a little deeper.

I found this video on Youtube and it is pretty telling. For one, the commentary and photography is horrible. They say Stuey had a drug problem, well, yeah - look at him. He's as skinny as a rail, a skeleton. I like the fact that they brought out the cash for all final table finishers and it's dwarfed by today's prizes.

It's cool to see Benny Binion in the picture with the cash. Also, if you listen, the field was 75 people. Perry Green seems to be a poster child for Binion's with the cheap hat and his little plug at the end. It is really cool to see how Poker has changed over the years.

Now for some Tourney Pimping:

Well, if you can you should play the Mookie tonight, and the Hammer tourney on February 7th, get it 2-7.

Family Feud

2007-01-29T11:25:00.000-05:00

We had 13 players for the 2nd Tourney of 2007. I used the Tournament Director 2 for the first time and had fun adding wav files. I warned everyone that some had bad words and some may not be what you want to hear when getting knocked out, but it's all in good fun - after all it is my joint.

I included links at various points in this post.

We started off the tourney with this one (caution some bad words).

The players were as follows:

1) Henry
2) Jim
3) Carol
4) Stacey
5) Cristine
6) Justin
7) Stuart
8) Jerry
9) Cindy
10) Todd
11) Rico
12) Godfrey
13) Armando

Play was fairly tight and we only had 3 rebuys, all from the same table. The un-lucky 3 were Justin, Jerry, and me. Not a good night for the J-names.

On the last hand before the break, I counted out 2900 chips to bring me down to 5K. I wanted to rebuy. I looked down and found KK and promptly misplayed them. Since I predetermined I would bet the 2900, that's what I did. Being the astute young lad that he is, Justin called figuring I was just chucking chips in for the rebuy.

Justin had A4 soooooted - otherwise known as "the Brad". The flop brought an Ace and Justin put me all in. I again misplayed by calling. Very dumb play.

Instead, the pre-flop move should have been to go all in or after the flop - fold. Why?

Basically there were three scenarios:

1) All in, Justin folds, pick up the blinds for an additional 1200. Result = 7,900 + 1,200 =9,100. Saving $10 and pretty much being close to the rebuy anyway.

2) Go in with the 2,900 like I did, but fold when the Ace is flopped, then rebuy = 7,900 -2,900 + 10,000 = 15,000.

3) Do what I did - lose all the chips, spend $10 and get 10,000.

Of course, I picked the worst play (number 3). Clearly, number 2 is the best choice given the Ace on the flop. Apparently, I didn't listen to the sound I played at the beginning of the 2nd, 20 minute round.

After the first break, everyone rebought and play continued. We were paying four spots.

Armando was the first one knocked out in 13th. His set of 6's were no match for Stuart's set of 7's. Tough one Mook. After he was out, I got moved to his seat. Armando being the first out is a real rarity. I programmed a special sound for him on the Tournament Director 2.

I was not at the table yet, but apparently earlier Godfrey had some tough hands against Cindy and Stacey and lost chips. He made a few successful attempts to gain his stack back with some all in moves, but was the next one out in 12th by Rico.

Rico moved all in with KK and i called with AK. The river brought me an A and Rico graciously bowed out in 11th. Todd fell in 10th and we were at the final table with 9. I played a sound clip from this guy

turn your volume down (bad words)

Chip counts were as follows:

Player	Count
Stacey	71K
Justin	68K
Stuart	53K
Jim	52.5K
Carol	51K
Cristine	32K
Henry	28K
Jerry	21K
Cindy	10.5K

Next a big multi-way pot came up and Henry took out both Jerry and Cindy. Their wee chip stacks fell to Henry and they were out in 8th and 9th. Cristine was also involved in the pot, but she and Henry checked it down so she didn't suffer much damage.

Stuart's nemesis, Carol, knocked him out in 7th. Stuart had AQ and Carol AK. AK held up and Carol chipped up huge.

Justin was the next victim in double-bubble position when my slow played set of 10's held out to his all-in move on the flush draw. Justin fell in 6th.

At this point Henry suggested a safe for $15. I declined, so it didn't happen. So he made a promise to Cristine. He said if she bubbled and he won - he would give her $15.

I was also lucky enough to knock out Cristine and we had the bubble girl out in 5th. She was a good sport when the sound for the bubble played through the room. she graciously laughed when this was played for the bubble girl.

Half of the proposition had come through - now Henry would need to win for Cristine to collect $15.

It was a family fued at this point. Henry, Carol, Stacey, and me.

Carol drew first blood- she knocked out Stacey in 4th.

I avenged Stacey, when my AK out lasted Carol's 66 without catching an ace or a king. This is a sick beat. The board flopped JJ8 and the turn was a 7 and the river another 8. Her 66 was orphaned and Carol was out in 3rd.

Henry and I had a duel that lasted a ridiculous 54 minutes. At some pont we chopped $90 each and played for a remaining $23. Initially, I had about a 4:1 advantage in chips. Henry reversed the advantage, I reversed it back, and then he reversed it again leaving me 1 5K chip. I was forced all in and it was over. Henry won again and has been on a real tear.

He happily paid Cristine the $15, which was cool.

Congratulations to Henry.

Thanks to everyone that brought food. It was nice to have both Cindy and Jerry. It had been a while since their last showing. Welcome back.

Here are the current standings.

2007 Season Opener

2007-01-15T16:45:00.000-05:00

This is my new mascot and card protector. I received him from our friends Michael and Diane as a gift. Thanks!! I need a name for this little guy. Open to suggestions.

We kicked of the 2007 Tourney Season Saturday night. We had 20 players, namely:

1. Toby
2. Justin
3. Carol
4. Jim
5. Henry
6. Rico
7. Stacey
8. Joe
9. David
10. Stuart
11. Armando
12. Godfrey
13. Clara
14. Kitty
15. Todd
16. Mike B
17. Cristine
18. Michael Allan
19. Michael G.
20. Diane G.

We got started very close to on-time and there were 10 rebuys (Henry Moneymaker had 4 - tying a record with me ) before the break. We had one casualty when Diane got knocked out by Rico and decided not to rebuy. This has happened a couple of times. I recall Godfrey and Carol doing the same ondifferent occasions. Next time Diane...

On his third rebuy, Henry almost decided to throw in the towel, but much like Rocky Balboa, he decided to keep reaching deep (for Henry - it was deep in his pocket) and saw the thing through to the final table and a cash.

In total we had 16 add-ons. The pot was 460 units and the jackpot was 10 units.

I chipped up nicely by coming out on top in all-in situations with Godfrey (TJ for nut straight), Stuart (trip 10's (I think)), and a three person all-in between Michael Allan, Cristine and myself (QQ). I think I may have been chip leader at the break with about 60K.

After the break, things slowed down as usual. I got moved to another table and lost a tough hand against Justin when he turned his flush and out played me. I won a nice hand off Joe a little later to recoup the loss.

We lost people one by one (Armando was the final table Bubble) until we collapsed to the final table consisting of (forgot to get chip counts):

Toby - clearly the chip leader +175K
Justin
Carol
Jim ~ 62K - about average
Henry Bubble Line

Rico
Stacey
Joe
David
Stuart

The total chip count was $610K.

Play continued and people dropped out. Rico and I tangled and I got lucky knocked him out. This hand becomes the...

SPOTLIGHT HAND

Blinds at 5,000/10,000, I was in middle postion with and just called. This turned out to be a weak play by me, a good player would have raised preflop 3 or 4x with this hand, but I had this hand 3 other times and when I raised like a good player, I got at least one caller that hit the flop and took the pot. Also, I am trying to vary my play, especially with the poker groups at my house and Armando's because we are getting too predictable.

Rico called and the small blind called bring the pot to 40,000.

The flop was . The SB and BB checked and I bet 10,000. This was a bet designed to keep as many players in the pot as possible and create action. Rico went all in and had me outchipped. Based on the information he had at the time, this was a good play. He didn't figure me for AK since I just called. Every donkey has his day. The SB and BB folded and I of course called.

Rico turned over and he was crippled .

Rico actually played the hand perfectly based on the information he had, and my weak play worked out for me. This is usually not the case and I got lucky, lucky, lucky.

Rico was knocked out in the next hand and bubbled. This realy sucks and I can say I know how it feels because I bubbled the last three tourney's at Armando's.

2006 Big O Season 3 Weekly Results <---- Look

It blows!

We moved along and Henry was the next one out in fifth place. Soon after, I tried to make a move with Q7 and Justin took me out with AJ. Bad timing.

The big three: Carol, Justin and Toby (father and son) chopped for equal money and equal points.

Take a look here for the points and jackpot total.

Thanks, as always, to those that brought food. We will host again on Saturday, Jan 27th. Stay tuned for an evite.

Tourney Points are Ready for Saturday

2007-01-10T22:40:00.000-05:00

The tourney points blog is ready for Saturday. Check out the new page here.

In the future, you can use the RED link I created on the link list on the right side of this page.

This is going to be a fun season!

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T12:14:00.000-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

If you're looking for the post that describes the points , click here.

Stacey started the New Year off by receiving a nice gift from her Mom. Stacey collects roosters and displays them in the kitchen, this is our newest edition. Stacey's parents are some of our best gambling pals and are always on the lookout for the themed merchandise. Remember the clock from her Dad (link)?

We had a nice relaxing time here in Phoenix. I saw the new Rocky movie and it was OK. It was the best sequal one could make of this movie series, but that said, the story line is way, way played out. I hope I am in as good physical condition as Sly when I am 85 (haha).

We also saw Nacho Libre - "It was Fantastic". This was Napaloen Dynamiteish, and had some very funny parts.

We played two 8 or so person live games here at Stacey's parent's house. The first one stacey and I chopped. The second one , I bubbled, and Stacey took third. Great fun.

We had a very mellow New Year's Eve. We had a great dinner, watched the main event final table on ESPN-HD (Jamie Gold is such a tool) and then we all turned in by about 11:30AM. We talked to Lexi, who is in Austin at her Friend's house, at 12AM Texas time. All in all - pretty meeeeellllllloooooowwww.

Vegas, Christmas, and 2007 Tourney changes

2006-12-29T14:43:00.000-05:00

Vegas

Vegas was a lot of fun. I did well in poker, not profitably well, but played solid and learned a few new tricks. I played a tourney at the Rio - it's not the best structure, but it's all right. There ere 80 players and was knocked out in 14th. Not bad - I made some good reads and plays. I got blinded out and was forced to make a move - that's when my A5 got beat with QT.

I played the Caesar’s tourney the next day and that was bad - no cards, best hand was QQ and no action, made a couple moves, but no good. I made it through a third of the field, but it was boring and frustrating.

At the Luxor I played the cash game, I got a ROYAL FLUSH (odds = 1 in 30,940). I won about $80 from the pot and an extra $100 from the high hand pool. If 40 minutes earlier, I would have won a high hand contest and an extra $500. Oh well.

I played a lot of negative equity games (exactly like I said I would NOT). I did real well in "Let it Ride", but shitty in most of the other games.

Christmas

We had a really nice Christmas, the tree days before i helped my brother put up a massive play set for his boys. It came fully UNassembled and it took 57 total hours to complete. It came in 4 200+ pond boxes and a 99 step manual. The weather didn't cooperate much either (rain, clouds, and 45-55 F), but its done and his boys LOVE IT!

That is my little brother, Matt, finishing out the crow's nest 6:30PM Xmas Eve.

Another View

My nephew, Wesley, tearing it up on the slide, Christmas Day.

We spent Christmas Eve at Stacey's parents, and Christmas Day at my brothers house. We had lots of fun and my daughter was happy, happy, happy when she got her 8 Megapixel Canon. We are blessed to have such a good family and friends.

Tournament Changes for 2007

As requested by several players. I will start keeping track of points just like the Big-O (yes, I am copying the master again). It's a lot more fun and its good to reward regular players with some recognition. I like the idea of having a big tourney with buy-in's as a portion of your place on the points lists too.

I am thinking of using 2% of each tourney's pot as a boost for the big tourney. I calculate about $6 a tourney based on an average $300 pot. At the end of the year, we will have a big tourney and based on each person's points position, they will get a discounted buy-in. I will take all the money collected from each regular tournament and add it to the total pot.

I haven't made up my mind, and I would appreciate some feedback on this through a comments post or email.

Psyched!!!

2006-12-14T20:10:00.000-05:00

In keeping with the Organic Chemistry theme from my last two posts, I decided to use this chemical symbol for this post. It is the chemical symbol for adrenaline. I am so ready for 1) some time off work, 2) some VEGAS action, and 3) the Holidays!!! I can hardly wait.

Oh yeah and I am in a Donkey race this Saturday at the Big-O. I think this picture sums it up.

This describes the duel for the Big-O points and Money leader title. So far, I hold the lead in both, but Armando is nipping at my ~~heels~~ hooves.

There are $9 separating him and and there are 60 points separating us on that list. It will be very interesting this week to see how it turns out. If he wins he will take both leads. If he doesn't money I retain. Shall I put a nice bounty on his ass?

I am not interested in anything except the bragging rights, as I realize this is just really for fun. However, my competitive nature can't be suppressed .

Also, I am finally back on Pokerstars playing low limit games in preparation for Vegas. I am doing fairly well after a 3 month hiatus (sp?).

My strategy this time in Vegas is to stay away from the negative equity games (every table game and slot and the Luxor's sit-and-go's (ha ah). I will play sessions and set time limits for the sessions. I will try to play the Caesar’s tourney every day. Also, I plan to make my debut at MGM's $200 NL game.

CH3CH2OH = MORE FUN!!!!

2006-12-11T19:32:00.000-05:00

I forgot to mention two incredible hands. Each involved quads.

The first one was when Armando got his AA cracked Clara's KK. She let him know by shouting "Dems Quads Bitches". Click the link and see a nice write up from Mookie.

The second occurred once to me and now happened to Ian. He had Ax and flopped AAA for quads. What are the odds? I worked out all the math on this and the odds and calculations can be found here.

Also, there were two other sets of quads and a straight flush on the same night. I chased the rabbit on heads-up once and a fifth set of quads was coming if it was played to 5th street.

All-in-all it was a wild night of cards and hands.

CH3CH2OH = FUN!!!!

2006-12-10T21:08:00.000-05:00

We had a wild night at the House this Friday night. With 21 players and lots of shots, we partied pretty hard. Stacey and I didn't money, I busted out fairly early and she made the final table. A few people got really shit faced and it was a blast. We can sum it up with one chemical symbol - ethanol.

Play was very tight on the outset, and I dropped the hammer for the first prize of the night. I was also the unlucky winner of the most rebuys prize package too. I won a damn dollar!!! Oh well.

Before the break we had 5 rebuys (I had 2). I was making moves and had chipped up pretty nicely until I had a fit of donkness and blew about a 35K stack in a couple of hands.

In one hand, I held Ac5c on the button, and the flop came 2c3c3, Todd bet 300 and I called. Before the turn I had gut shot at the wheel, the nut flush draw, and a gut shot straight flush draw. The turn brought me the 4h and I got the wheel. Todd bet 500 and I called. The river brought a delightfully harmless 5d. Todd bet 7K and I moved all in and he called. He showed me a big blind special, 35o... time for rebuy #1.

One hand later I rebought again after giving my chips to Stuart trying to bluff him off a set... it didn't work.

Virtually everyone added on and we were back after several shots. 8 people did a shot of something and few people did two shots. Mando's long pours on me got me pretty lit. I hit Stacey with the sink joke, that was very bad and I feel so ashamed. She fought back later with the "Welcome to the Club" quip. If you don't get those jokes... well too bad :-)

Back to poker...

Mike B. got the 1st out prize. Sorry dude...

Play continued and we got down to two tables. Stacey did some more shots and was really tearing it up. The more she drank the taller her stack got. The final table bubble was Kitty (no prize). I didn't take chip counts at the final table. But

Stacey looked like this....

and later... like this...

She is a liiiiiiighhhhht weeeeeigggghhhhhtttttt.... LOL

The prizes went down as follows:

Prizes	Who won...
Big Hand Losers	Godfrey-QQ, Kitty-QQ, Justin - QQ, Armando-AA (Clara whiped him out with KK to make quad K's)
Hammer Bluffers	Jim, Armando, Justin
Most Rebuys	Jim - 2
1st Out	Mike B.
Bubble	Clara
Win with the Jimmy (KQs) or the Mookie (T8s)	Clara KQs (to knock out Brad)

The final five were Rico (5th), Joe (4th) Justin (3rd) and stuart and Ian played it out for about 45 minutes heads up. I have 10 yellow chips I use for 25K chips. At one point Ian had all of them. The poker gods apparently were not going to let him keep them. Stuart fought back from a 6 to 1 chip disadvantage to take the title when he flopped a straight and got it all in.

We had a great year of Poker and fun. I want to personally thank everyone for coming out this week and all previous weeks. Thanks to all that brought food and for all the good times. thanks for Godfrey for helping keep the $$$ and the chips straight. We are glad we finished the year with a 21 person tourney. We got a little crazy, and probably won't again for a while, we'll mellow out and play some "good" poker.

A special shout out to Armando and Rico. Rico got a lot of us started playing tourney's and Armando brought this to a whole new level. Their selflessness has allowed me to copy all their good ideas!!! Thanks guys.

If you have some ideas on what I can change, add, or delete , leave a comment or shoot me an email. I am totally interested in keeping this going and making it as fun as possible.

Thanks for all the good times. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Jim and Stacey

Ready for the Last 2006 Home Tourney

2006-12-07T23:16:00.000-05:00

The tables, chairs, cards, buttons and most importantly PRIZES (they are really no biggie) are set and ready to go. We have 21 so far and will start at 7:00PM sharp.

So far we have 21 confirmed (in no particular order), and room for three more:

1 - Me
2 - Jersey Girl
3 - Jerry
4 - Henry
5 - Carol
6 - Mookie = Armando
7 - Diane
8 - Michael
9 - Godfrey
10 - Rico
11 - Todd
12 - David
13 - Greg
14 - Joe
15 - Kitty
16 - Brad
17 - Ian
18 - Justin
19 - Cristine
20 - Mike
21 - Stuart

Donkey Race

2006-12-06T07:50:00.000-05:00

This pretty much sums up the Christmas Bash at Armando and Clara's house. I had a fairly safe lead for the money leader at the Big_O going in. After the break I had 50K in chips. But then I fell apart and made bad calls and didn't push big hands when I had them. Mookie played well and took down back-to-back Big-O wins to take the money lead from me. Read all about it here.

I took the lead back by squeeeking into third place in a second smaller tourney. Mookie got 4th. I hold both the money and chip leads temporarily. As this video demonstrates, donkey races can end badly.

We have had a great RSVP response on our last tourney of the year at our house, 21 so far!!! We have prizes lined up for several classes of fish and donk behavior:

Lose a showdown with a Big Hand = AA, KK, QQ
Hammer Bluff - Bluff and show the hammer (7-2 un-suited)
Most Rebuys
1st Out after rebuys
Bubble :-(
Mook Out - Win a hand in a showdown with the Mookie = 10-8 sooooted
Jimmy - Win a hand in a showdown with the Jimmy = KQ sooooted

I will post the results.

Chick Fight

2006-11-30T17:11:00.000-05:00

We hosted during turkey weekend. We had 13 playas.

Mookie and Mrs. Mookie, Mike B., Joanne, Rico, Todd, David (Armyman), Godfrey, Crisitine, Michael, Diane, my fabulous wife (kung-foo fighter = inside joke) and me.

I played fairly loose and continued to pay my dues from last week at the Big-O. I have decided Mookie and David have hollow legs. We drank scotch and I got pretty crazy, so I don't remember too many hands. I rebought once with about 3 others. Cristine wasn't feeling it and tried to go home, but with some gentle nudging from me and some others, she rebought. You go Girl~!!!

We needed to lose 3 for the final table. Unfortunately Diane, Rico, and David bombed out.

When we took counts at the final table we were stacked as follows:

Player	Count
Stacey	31.6k
Godfrey	56K
Clara	40.4K
Michael	41.6K
Cristine	38.1K
Todd	19.6K
Mike B.	24K
Jim	26.1K
Mookie	64K
JoAnne	35.1K

Once I had a good buzz going I played two hands all-in KK and AA. I doubled up both times. I doulled though the Mook with KK vs. TT after I took it down, I said, "drink with me Brotha", and we had another shot. Unfortunately David had left by this time.

We played on and three were eliminated fairly quickly and we were down to 7.

Have you heard of the movie Clash of the Titans? Well, we experienced....

"Clash of the Tourists"

VS.

The flop was A7J rainbow and we got it all in. I was short stack with about 30K and Mook was the chip leader. A diamond came around the turn and Mook needed one more... and one flowed down the river , I was out in 7th. No mas drinking for me... since that 3% lose vs. 97% tie sobered me right up.

Godfrey would be the bubble boy and Mook took 3rd for another cash. The chicks (Crisitine and JoAnne would play a few hands and decide to chop it up...

It was all over.

Congrats to the Money makers. Once again thanks for all the food people brought and the good fun.

We are hosting again on the 8th for our last game of the year.

We had Michael, Todd, Godfrey, Armando, Joanne and Cristine.

Burger Mania

2006-11-23T09:45:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine recently set a record. He ate one Wendy's Hamburger... with 9 patties. The challenge needed to be complete in 75 minutes.

He and I have watched and liked Cool Hand Luke. In the movie Luke (Paul Newman) eats 50 hard-boiled eggs.

My friend was met by about 15 of us at the local Wendy's. He was calm and cool, but a little intense as the "MONSTER" burger was ordered, "I would like a Wendy's triple with 6 extra patties of meat, two pieces of cheese and two pieces of lettuce on the side."

The Wendy's people all freaked out and after it was rung up it cost $11.18!

The burger was carried to the table. We grabbed a booth and I sat directly across from him with people on all sides. I thought he might feel crowded. At any rate, the clock was started and my friend threw the lettuce away and "went to work". He ate the thing by eating the edges in a circular pattern as grease dripped steadily over his fingers and onto the foil wrapper. I was impressed how he attacked the thing - as if it was a "normal" burger.

I had ordered a single, one patty - "girlie" burger. I was pretty full when I finished mine, but my buddy kept after the monster. A few minutes went by and we began to wonder,"What percentage of the original burger has he eaten?" We estimated the quantity eaten was about 3 patties of the 9 total, but it was really hard to tell.

At the point when the entire bottom bun had dissolved (it just disappeared!), he set the burger down and began peeling off the patties and eating them one by one. This had many benefits, he had a yard stick for how many patties he had left, he freed his hands from the grease, and he didn't have to feel that "cold hunk of meat and grease" on his hands.

He would get up and walk around and jump in place (not sure what that was all about). Since he was walking around, I thought he might want some room so I moved to give him some room. I kept giving him encouragement, although he never faltered and just kept power eating through the monster.

With about 25-30 minutes to spare, he finished it. Applause rang through the restaurant. During the challenge several customers watched intently and my friend accumulated a small following.

Then the unthinkable...

He ordered another hamburger!!!

He stripped the bun and all the trimmings and ate the mustard covered patty. It took him about 5 minutes to choke it down. Man, it was disgusting and awesome at the same time.

All in all it was a lot of fun and eating that much "junk" is crazy. What impressed me the most was my friend’s ability to focus on the "job". There was a lot of heckling and jabbing at him, but he kept after his goal. He beat his goal and then stunned us all with an additional burger.

Wow, Wow, Wow!!!

Poker Home game back

2006-11-12T01:40:00.000-05:00

I have a few Vegas stories for my next blog, want to get the results of this weeks game in now.

Two weeks ago we cancelled the game because we didn't have enough players. November 10th was better. We had 11 - Mike, Mookie (Clara stayed home and it was bitter sweet = we missed her, but appreciated the weaker player of the two haha), Joe, Kitty, Rico, Godfrey, Ian, Cristine, Todd, and my lovely wife Stacey (aka Jersey Girl) and I .

*Picture credits to BIG_O's Mookie

We split into two tables of six and five and I had Mookie, Ian, Todd, Godfrey, Rico, and Joe at my table. Play was fast and loose for the first hour. There were several rebuys. I played some off the wall hands and got very lucky at Godfrey's expense. I played 35d and flopped a 7 high straight to stack him once, followed by K2d to take a big pot. I knocked him out after the break with A7s when I flopped two pair. It was one of those nights were you knock heads with the same player and come out on top each time.

Mookie did masterfully drop the hammer on me and played well (last emodicon, I promise). Joe played like a demon on steroids and raised aggressively to chip up well.

After the break Stacey was out when her set was topped by Mike's set (that turned into a boat). We combined at the final table and play went on. Ian knocked out both Rico and Kitty out when Rico's 44 and Kitty's QQ could not hold up to set. Ian had huge chips.

I had a huge hand against Mike when I had JJ on the button. The blinds were 100 and 2000. I raised to 7K preflop. Mike called. The flop came JK9, giving me a set of J's. Mike checked, I bet 7K, Mike called again. The turn was a K. I had J's full of K's now. I took a little time and considered going all in, instead I bet 12K after his check. He again called. The river was a 5. He checked again and I bet 17K. He called and showed 99 for a boat 9's full of K's. I was a bit afraid he had KJ. Now I had big chips.

What would you have done differently or did I make the right play? I believe he would have called an all-in and this would later haunt me in a big way.

We got downn to 4 with Joe, Ian, Mike and myself. Ian was the bubble boy and Joe took 3rd. Mike stacked both of them and had 2x on me when we went heads-up. I didn't play aggressive enough and he chipped away at me (he played well!) . He ground me down with aggressive play and I really never threatened him. I took home second wondering what would have happened on the earlier hand if I went all-in?

We had a great time and it was nice to play at home after the long hours in Vegas. Thanks to all the bought food and stuff!!! We always appreciate it!!

The Departed - and breaking the bubble

2006-10-22T08:01:00.000-04:00

Went to see the The Departed last night with Mook, MM, Henry, Carol, and my mobster wife mobster wife (LOL). It was a really great movie. Matt Damon and especially Jack Nicholsen were brilliant. DiCaprio took third.

Played a great tourney at The Big-O Friday night. 20 entries made for a lot of action. I doubled up early with K8 when Mellissa had J10 on a KJ6 flop. She went all-in from early position and I didn't want to fold top pair with a rebuy possible so early in the tourney. Everyone folded around to me and I called. My K held up and I doubled up. I made some good plays and after the rebuy had about 60K - I was 2nd in chips to Bubba.

Henry bluffed me off two pots when I had small pairs. Once he had 73 and once with J3. These were stone cold bluffs and I was outplayed with weak/winning hands. All were tough situations, but this means it is time to change up my play some. Apparently, I am too predictable.

Later I had 36o in the SB with the blinds at 500/1000. There we six callers so I limped (13to1 on the call) an absolute no-brainer. BB didn't raise and the flop was 456.

I was open ended and checked, then we had check, check, to LeeAnn who bet 2K, call, call, so the pot was 16K. I had an open ended straight with top (little) pair. I had 8 (straight) +2 outs (for trips), 10 outs gives me a 40% chance to improve my hand in the next two cards, so I called, the next two folded.

The turn was a 7 giving me the straight. I checked, LeeAnn bet 7K, it folded around to me and I raised to 15K. LeeAnn called. The river was a K. I went all-in and LeeAnn called. She showed 44 and had a set, my straight held up and I collected my first and only bounty card.

This a case where playing favorable pot odds with real shit cards can pay off. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does, it can be lucrative. There was no way she could put me on 36o.

At the next break, I had 104.5K and was 2nd in chips to Brad (106K). Brad sat to my immediate left all night, and that was a difficult situation as Brad is quite aggressive and my SB was always in jeopardy.

We played 5 and 6 handed for an excruciating long time before we combined tables. Clara out played me on two big pots and I lost about 50% of my nice stack before we combined. I chipped up a little and had 84K when we combined, but the blinds were 5/10K. Not much room to maneuver.

Somehow I made it past the bubble and took 5th. I was ousted by David when I pushed my last 10K with QTo. Unfortunately David had QQ, the Q on the river added insult to injury and I was - out.

Stacey hung on and took 3rd. So the Winter team took home some bacon. Stacey moved to within $16 from top ten on the money list.

For me, for now... Online NO, Vegas YES

2006-10-15T15:10:00.000-04:00

No online poker for me since October 4th. I am kind of sick of it. I could give a crap about HR 4954, so that's not my reason, just tired of spending hours and hours in front of the PC after spending hours and hours doing the same thing at work. I will return, but not just right now.

Interesting link about the sites that support (and don't support) US players for online Poker here

I am focusing on books and live games until... VEGAS BABY!!!

Steve and I are going to join Mook and Mrs. Mook in Vegas in early November. We are going to stay at the Rio. $57 a night is a real deal through the total rewards program at the RIO. Yeah!!!

I plan on playing poker at the MGM, Luxor, Ceasars, and the Sahara. I will also see if Black Jack, Craps, and Roulette will continue to treat me right at the RIO.

Next live game is at the Big-O on the 2oth, then my house on the 27th or 28th.

Time for Poker

2006-09-30T15:15:00.000-04:00

It was a very fun night at our Poker game this week. Add two crazy dogs, a birthday, some beer, some of our regular players, and the Big-O founders and you will have some fun!

Last night Stacey and I hosted: Armando, Clara, Diane, Michael, Henry, Carol, Cristine, Todd, Ian, and Joe.

We fired up our Poker clock, courtesy of Stacey's Dad, Vince. He and I are in the pic below - in front of the greatest spot on earth.

Play was tight and we only had 3 rebuys. Before the rebuy period ended we had one casualty - Joe. His AA was cracked by Mook's J7. Joe min-raised his AA, so Mook called and flopped 2 pair, then caught his boat on the river. Joe wasn't feeling too well (even before the AA's were cracked) and elected not to rebuy. Joe took 12th.

After the rebuy ended we had 8 add-ons. Three spots paid.

We resumed play after a brief Birthday celebration for Cristine.

Play continued and Henry knocked out Diane, 11th. Diane had 55 against Henry's JQ. Henry's QJ was good.

Todd was next out, 10th, when my KK held off his AQo.

The next hand is interesting and our featured hand.

It went down like this. There were 2 limpers and Michael and I. The flop was

, everyone checked, the turn was a . I checked, Michael (BB) bet 2K. Everyone folded and I called. River was the . I bet 4K and Michael went over the top and pushed all in. I called. Michael turned over the big blind special , he had filled up on the turn. I had the case ace with .

Michael was out in 9th.

We discussed the odds of this happening and I have now completed some statistical algebra to calculate the odds as follows:

Here goes:

The odds are calculated as the probability of the event happening, P(e), divided by the probability of the event not happening, P(ne). The probability of an event not happening is the same as 1 - the probability of it happening or 1 - P(e).

So we get:

Odds = P(e)/(1-P(e))

Ok so, how do we calculate the probability of three cards hitting on the flop with one lucky bastard holding one of them in his hand?

Well there are 3 cards left out of 50. And, the number of combinations of a set of n objects taken p at a time is given by _nC_p = (n!)/(p!(n - p)!).

So n=50 and p=3.

P(e) = 1 / ₅₀C₃

= 1 / {50!/(3!(50-3)!)} = 1 / {50!/3!*47!} =

= 1 / {50*49*47/3*2*1} = 1 / 19,600

So the odds are:

1 / 19,600 / ( 1 - 1 / 19,600 ) = 1 / 19599 or 19,599 to 1

Note: Thanks to Kitty for some coaching on how to perform this calculation, she gave me a little tweak since last time I added some math to the blog. Kitty let me know if this is correct....

Back to the hands:

Cristine was our next victim. Poker (nor Henry for that matter) showed no mercy even to the Birthday girl.

Cristine was out in 8th when her KJ all-in didn't hang tough with 5 players in the hand, it was 4 against 1. Henry took it down with a straight.

Next the wildest thing happened... I had 76 on the button, I raised to steal. Stacey was the little blind and didn't allow it, the BB folded. The flop was 666. Stacey and I checked, and I made a bet on the river and she folded. I hit a 19,599 to 1 shot twice in one night!

The Mookie met has match against Stacey. After a long contemplation he called her all-in and was out in 7th when his AQd didn't pick up the over card or his flush draw after a two heart flop and Stacey's KK held.

Ian was the next one out, Ian played very well all night. Clara was forced to call his K8 all in with 63 suited as it was only a few crumbs more to call. Clara got a 3 on the flop and Ian was out in 6th.

I was the next victim. I was out played by Carol and Henry earlier and my chip stack was very short. I made a move with 44. Carol called with KJ and caught a K on the river. Buh Bye for me - out in 5th.

Clara was knocked out by Henry - he had the nerve to call her all in with a K5. Clara should have taken the pot down uncontested, but Henry's K holds up and K-high took the pot. Clara bubbled in 4th.

Stacey mad a move with 88 and Carol called with A3, the turn brought Carol the Ace and Stacey was OUT in 3rd. She brought home some bacon with the 3rd place $$$.

Henry and Carol were heads-up. We had a husband and wife shooting it out. They would not hear of chopping. It was a fight to the death. I do recall a time at the Luxor no limit table where Henry was check-raised by Carol when they were heads up! I knew this would be interesting.

It didn't take long - Carol took it down when her A6 beat out his JJ. Henry lead with the 8T4 flop but then she caught the A on the turn and another one on the river for good measure.

Congrats to carol, Henry and Stacey for making the money. Thanks to all those that made it out and thanks to those that brought snacks. The fruit was delicious.

We will host again in 2 weeks.

Finally....

2006-09-23T10:48:00.000-04:00

I had a good week in poker. It didn't start off that way, but it ended well.

There is a saying in Texas, "If you don't like the weather, don't fret, it will change in 20 minutes."

On Sunday, after spending a lot of time on work stuff, I played in a 180 Person SNG on Stars. Well, when I started playing the weather was cloudy, but during the game a nasty storm cell moved through our area.

We were down to 34 players and I was 8th in chips with about 9K. The blinds were 300/600 with a 50 anty. I had QQ, raised 4x BB, two callers, the board was 7-9-4, I made a Pot sized bet and... blip - the power goes out. By the time I got back in the game, about 15 minutes later, I was down to 4200 chips and I busted out in 21st. 18th pays. Bummer.

Wednesday, I was 2nd out in the Mookie when I pushed on a A88 board with AJ, called by AQ and "buh bye"

Thursday I played in this one:

I took 3rd and moneyed, not bad against a pretty tough field of 15.

Friday night at the Big_O I took 1st with 7 bounties (including mine). I was lucky, lucky, lucky and knocked out some tough players: Rocky, Rico, Lee Anne, Carol, Clara, and Bubba.

I chipped up early when Justin ran into my set of 6's. I was lucky against Rocky with one over card to beat him. With Rico, I had AK against his AQ. I got a full-house over full-house with Bubba. With Clara my TT held against her lower pair (4's?). Can't remember what happened with Carol.

I was heads up with Lee Anne - we played a few hands and I caught a straight. Next hand I had AA and we got it all in. I was the winner.

I guess the saying still holds: "Every Donkey has it's Day."

A Positively Charged Ian

2006-09-16T18:46:00.000-04:00

We were 10 handed Friday Night. Joe and Kitty called in sick, we will have to find out about their Vegas experience later. The players this week included: Kevin, Todd, Jersey Girl, Stuart (The Pool Shark), Mike (Xanthius), Henry, Carol, Rico, Ian, and Me. We had the normal rebuy and add-on format.

Henry and Carol brought Sable (their female black lab) over and she and Rocco (our male boxer)had more fun than all of us!

We made the break and had 5 rebuys and 9+1/2 10K add-ons.

We lost our first player a little into the break - Rico (10th) went all-in blind and Mike called with TT. Rico exposed a K9 and the J710 flop was no friend to Rico - his prayers for a lady didn't come through either and he was out. Rico has had a couple tough nights, and is a better player than his last two, equivalent finishes at the Big-O and here. It's all upward from here, Rico!

Stacey was severely short chipped with T100 over the BB and pushed with 92c, Mike was again in for the assassination with QK, but joined the angry mob with AJ. Henry flopped an Ace and Stacey (9th) was gone. Luckily she didn't sound like this ------> Hilarious Video Link

Stuart (8th) was out next - Carol took him out, but I don't have the hand details.

Mike (7th) was ousted with a hand he didn't show. Kevin's AK was good enough for Mike to muck and call it a night.

Todd (6th) was eliminated with QJ against AK, nobody paired the board and Todd was out.

I was short stack for a while and I was down to 6K. I went all in and tripled up with A6, Then I tripled up again with KK. I was sitting at about 32K when this hand came along...

Our featured hand:

I got , I called. The flop came . Henry bet, I pushed, he called with . I needed runner-runner K's or 9's.

Here's how the odds went down for this one:

Preflop = http://twodimes.net/h/?z=2080164 <---- Start Your Engines
Postflop = http://twodimes.net/h/?z=2080173 <---- Blow'd my engine

I was out in 5th.

Kevin was out in 4th as the bubble boy. (I have no info)

Carol pushed with T5h and Ian called with K6h, no pairs, straignt, or flush - Carol was out in 3rd.

Henry and Ian played for a looooooooooong time . Ian pushed with 85s and caught 2 pair. Henry mucked and took 2nd.

Congratulations to Ian for winning and Henry and Carol for taking 2nd and 3rd.

Thanks to all those that contributed food and drinks. We'll host another in a couple weeks.

Convergence

2006-09-12T19:42:00.000-04:00

I titled this post convergence. Why you might ask?

I was perusing pokerblog.com and I came across an interesting tournament in Deadwood, SC. The town my favorite HBO show is centered on. I was browsing the pictures of the tournament and came across this:

Recognize her?

How about now?

She finished 12th in the last tournament and her name is Robin Weigert. Calamity Jane in HBO's "Deadwood"

How cool would that be to play a tournament in a place as famous for Poker as a place can be AND be playing against a character who played a one of the most notable female personalities of the Wild West? I say that's convergence.

I am putting this tourney on my Poker–to-do-list.

Poker is a godless game, full of random pain

2006-09-07T20:30:00.000-04:00

Wednesday night I had the pleasure of playing in the Tanner Benefit Tourney on Full Tilt.

Mookie has a great write-up about the tourney here. He did an awesome job hosting.

I played uncharacteristically tight-weak to begin with. I was a bit gun shy from some terrific beats lately. I had Dr. Pauly to my right. Mookie chimed in from another table and said that I was acting like Pauly's Beaaatch. I knew I was, and he helped me snap out of it. Pauly had to have picked up on it because was raising me out of every pot. I was growing tired of it, but Mookie woke me up. I needed it...

Because when Pauly got knocked out he was replaced by none other than Andy Bloch! Andy is a Full Tilt Pro. He was one of the MIT Crew that was kicking the crap out of Vegas in Blackjack - Bringing Down the House. I googled him during the Tourney and got 895,000 hits. He is responsible for the quote I copied as the title of this Blog.

Andy sat down and we played a few hands, I was the recipient of LUCK!!! Horsehoes, clovers, shamrocks, rabbit's feet, etc. we got Astin all-in before the flop, and checked the turn, then Andy bet big on the river, this was suspicious and I thought he was trying to isolate himself, so I called. In the first big hand between he and I, I got lucky when my 99 beat his 88. Astin was out and this moved me way up on the chipcount.

A few hand later I got real lucky... I got AA in middle position. Andy raised 3x. I raised the pot. Everyone else folded and Andy went all-in. I called and here is how it went down.

Andy was out - I was shocked, but no props to me, anyone would have played my AA exactly as I did. It was pure luck on my part and very unlucky for Andy.

At the break I was 2nd in chips. I was chipleader for a little while before the break.

I played on after the break and had a big hand against Iakaris. My A4 held against his KQ.

Later he got me all in with KT. He had AK. I caught a K on the flop, he had me outkicked until the river was a J to give me a straight. I should have been out at that point, but I got lucky.

This propelled me to the final table.

Later, at the final table, I had KQ on the button, I bet pretty big to steal, but NightRanger called. I repeated my bet, even though I didn't hit the low flop and NightRanger put me all in. I folded and he showed me JTo (he missed the flop too) and bluffed me off a really big pot. This took a big chunk out of me and I was .

I made a short stack move with A9 and was out in 6th. Overall I was pretty happy with my play. I was ecstatic to have taken Andy out (even though it was not with skill, but all luck). I was glad I could change gears and play better after Mookie slapped me around a little to wake me up.

Most of all I was glad to support the Evers family.

Looking forward to the next LIVE GAME benefit.

For my local Austin readers, let me know if you want to play and I'll hook you up with Mookie.