A Fool And His Money PokerGratis.Poquerbono.com
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11/20/2009 09:34 PM |
Long time no see...
Well fellow WPBTers, I'm sorry to say it doesn't look like I'll be making it to Vegas for this summer's event. Things could change, but that's the current outlook. I do wish F Train luck in defending his title!
Oh, and for old time's sake, I just played one of these fun hands :
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12/30/2006 08:09 PM |
These guys helped me save some money!
No poker content here, so those of you reading via RSS might want to move on, but I thought I'd post a link to the good folks at www.Flash-Memory-Store.com, who hooked me up with a deal on some memory for my PDA recently. So if you're in the market for SD cards or other things along those lines, check their store out.
Otherwise, happy new year everyone!!!
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12/17/2006 08:11 PM |
Don't look now...
But its a new post. And perhaps the last one for a LONG time.
I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone for all the cool stuff at WPBT out in Vegas last week. Good times all around with a group of great people from all walks of life. We've got an organically created beast in that bi-annual get-together, and we should all be thankful for what it is and what it has become.
I don't have the juice in me for an uber-post, but I'll throw some random thoughts out rapid fire.
 - To the folks who sat with me during the WPBT main event: you rule, and sorry about the massive suckouts. Particularly to Carter, who I think I luckboxed far too many times in both the tourney and in cash games at the IP. But I think he got revenge on my brother, if I'm not mistaken. Pauly, F-Train, Kat, Daddy, and many others felt the wrath of my "flop a set with trashy pairs" powers. Sadly, these powers did not transfer over to the no limit cash games, where I ran insanely badly over the weekend. Win some, lose some, I guess.
- Kat from Toronto, you are my hero for bringing that hammer. I needed it to wake my hung over brother up on Monday morning, so not only was it a great card protector, it has practical uses too!
- Veneno, Michael, Daddy, and Mr. Gallagher -- you guys were a tough, classy final 5. Any one of us could easily have won that thing given the blind structure. But aren't you glad I proposed a deal that essentially took $1000 out of 1st (where I eventually finished) and distributed it out to the others? See, I'm charitable!
- Iggy - that trophy is teh nuts. Honestly, I don't care about the money, I just love that damn trophy!! Not sure if you got the text message about TSA's reaction to it, but needless to say, they weren't amused about the fact that the handle could be screwed out and turned into a sharp screwdriver. One agent accused me of bringing in a "concealed weapon." Thank God her supervisor had some sense and just told me to stow it under the plane. But for an instant I felt the weight of the Department of Homeland Security coming down on me, and it wasn't fun.
- Falstaff - how was the strip club experience with Dutch Boyd? Loved your quick post about playing against him in 2/4 BOT. And who the hell was the annoying redhead woman with him? I wanted to punch her lights out, but I don't recall why.
- The Smoking Donkey. Man, I don't even know what to say about that thing, but wow, whoever created it deserves some kind of award or medal. Seriously.
- To the PokerTek people: thank you for hosting us at the IP and for having such awesome desserts. F-Train witnessed me eat two of them in about 2 minutes, seeing as I hadn't eaten since noon and it was 10pm.
 - I am pissed beyond belief that I walked by Flava Flav's CD release party at the MGM Grand on Dec. 9 and didn't go in. The pictures from that party make it look like an event that was NOT to be missed.
- To the floor guys and dealers at Cearar's: you ran a class act tournament, with a solid structure. I hope you'll have us again some time -- great job. Also, please spread double flop hold'em. Apparently, the otherwise lovely MGM Grand isn't down with that, which sucks.
- To April: you're a hero for setting the whole weekend up! A big, hearty thank you to you for all your time and efforts. Sorry about your Texans today, by the way.
- Drizz: don't ever stop your amazing buy-in strategy for the 2/4 games. Remember -- chip leader = instills deadly fear in limit poker, despite what the so-called "experts" might tell you to the contrary. Five racks isn't enough, though. At least seven to truly get the job done.
- Gracie: I'm seriously never letting you off the hook for mucking those Cowboys against me a year ago.
- Maudie: I want to know what you were listening to on the iPod. Pauly figured Megadeath. I guessed the Spice Girls or maybe Macarena. Whatever the case, I hope to Heaven it wasn't Coldplay. Those soulless emo fucks don't deserve a dime.
- Daddy: Did you honestly have Q2o when you re-raised me on that blind steal at the final table? I mucked KQo and I'm still thinking about whether it was the right play.
- The cash games at the Venetian were substantially overrated as far as what I had read on 2+2's B&M forum.
- CA April: you played amazing poker, but you need to work on your suckout prowess in the mixed games. More GAMBOOOOOOOOOL! Having no outs to win doesn't mean you don't have a good chop draw...
- AlCan'tHang: we need to do the AC thing PRONTO, my friend. Pinky, if you read this, start making reservations for a transatlantic trip. Honestly Al, you rule for coming out to the event, big time.
- Dawn: did you make the full $1600 back? You were well on your way at a very soft 1/2 table at the IP when we last crossed paths.
- Did anyone else miss cheering "Lewey! Lewey! Lewey! Oy! Oy! Oy!"? I did.
Last, but not least, the story Pauly posted about Daddy taunting a hooker at the IP is incredible in a big, big way. Read it if you haven't. Ok, as I alluded to above, this might be my last post for a long time. I may even have to delete this post shortly. So enjoy the semi-goodness while it lasts. I can't close without saying it again: THANK YOU to everyone for a great weekend!
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04/12/2005 11:01 AM |
An 84 hour bender in Atlantic City, Part III, and less
Ok, here it is folks... no fancy introduction... just the semi-long-awaited recap of THE HAND OF DESTINY (as referred to by Helixx, Pinky, and AlCantHang) from Taj 2/4, plus the rest of our blogger days in AC two weekends ago. I'll need another post to cover the remainder of Saturday and Sunday, so check back in a few days for Part III & 1/2 of this AC experience. I'll cover 5/10 O/8 with a full kill in that post, plus some crazy late night poker at Borgata.
Man I'm pumped up, so excuse the tone of this post. I just won a monster $370 pot in a NL$100 game on Party when a guy bet the pot into me on the river while I was holding the stone cold nuts. I re-raise all in, he calls (we both had 180BB at the start of the hand). He has some weak-ass two pair, I win. YES!
Friday
Ok, so we were talking about AC, right? When I left off, I had gone to bed Thursday night suffering some pretty bad losses. Well, I came back Friday playing strong, and met up with Pinky in the poker room at about 4pm. My sleep cycles were all effed up by that point. A few hours into a decent 1-2 NL table I picked up AA and got it all in on the flop vs QQ... my hand held up and I had over $600 in front of me. This momentum fueled me through the rest of the session, and combined with some smaller winnings from 6/12, I was nearly even for the trip, maybe even up a little.
Pinky, the bastard he is, snapped off my hammer bluff heads up with AQo unimproved on a 66K flop. I was the BB, he was UTG I believe, and when it was folded to me I popped it $20. He calls, we take the flop, I check, he pots it, and I meekly fold. I'd planned to check-raise, but wussed out. HEAVENLY POKER GODS, FORGIVE ME FOR MY WEAK HAMMER PLAY.
Fire up a cheesesteak, the thumping dance music from upstairs at Club Mixx, and bring on the drunken friday night jackasses at Borgata. I won some monster pots later on (and witnessed Pinky playing a really wild 2/5 NL game where they were sidebetting on what the flop would bring), but lost the extra winnings back on a few crappy hands. Since the game was really good, I stayed up with the fish until 8:30 am. Baaad idea.
Saturday
So, I wake up at 11 something and figure I have a matter of minutes before Borgata is gonna start charging me extra for missing the 11:00 checkout. Race through packing and a shower, and the phone rings... naturally its the AlCan'tHang experience, at the B-Bar with Guiness and shots in hand. I tell them I'll be there in 20 min, skip shaving (and look like a caveman by this point), check out, and hit the bar.
And there they were... Eva, ACH, Helixx, and Pinky popping the video poker buttons and kicking back booze. I look like shit, and inform them I'm on 3 solid hours of sleep. My reward? A tall Red Bull & Vodka, I down it and wonder when I'm going to just flat out hit the wall. I'd have had more, but at this point I was still contemplating driving back to DC around 4pm.
We pimp it at the bar for an hour, during which time we chat about online strategy, bankroll management, Grubby's foolish slot play (sorry man, I gotta call you out on this one!), and ACH's way with underage women. Sure enough, during that time Al manages to corral 4 21 year old coeds and get them into some serious conversation and photo-taking. Unbelieveable!
See -- proof! A semi-sketchy guy to our left at the bar picks up on our conversation of online poker and gets engaged in a discussion of how live play compares to online. Pinky and I take him through the similarities and differences, and the variance issues with 4 tabling. He seems reasonable but a little unreliable, if that makes any sense. Pinky and I complain that the higher limit games (10/20, 20/40) in B&M are soft as hell, but require more BR than we're likely to have any time soon. That's when the guy offers to back me with a 40/60 split any time I'm in AC, as long as I'd play a few orbits of 6/12 with him on my own money first. I don't think I'll ever take him up on it, but it was an interesting offer.
We head over to Noodles of the World, which was on my checklist of things to do, and quickly loaded up on noodles, some refreshingly non-alcoholic drinks, and conversation about tax cuts, English Premiereship Football, the buffet at Excalibur, and blogger sattelites for the NL$1,500 WSOP event. For more on that, check in with my man IGGY. BONUSCODE IGGY, that is.
After lunch, we roll to the Borgata poker room to see where our names are on the lists... bad shape and 30 to 40 people ahead of us for the group's preferred 3/6 game (I didn't want to play low, but others didn't want to play higher). Al asks the desk guy about spreading an O/8 game, he says there's a list for 40/80 omaha hi/lo, and we laugh our way out of there, heading for the Taj.
Its a monsoon outside, and Eva is driving her Nissan SUV or whatever like a maniac. Maybe she's just a better driver than I am, but man it was hairy. 40 mph winds and rain going everywhere. We park at the Taj and quickly take the Rounders-esque entry down the escalators to the poker room. Cool entryway, but man that place is still SHITTY.
The room smells musty, hasn't been upgraded in at least 10-15 years it seems, small TVs ring the top wall, etc. The layout of the huge poker room is horrible, and its impossible to get from point a to point b. You can't hear the announcer who's calling the list, and even if you could they give you about 1.5 seconds to lock up your seat. I won't be returning without a very, very good reason!
Here's where it really gets interesting, ok?
We get on the list for about 10 different games... 2/4, 3/6, 5/10 hold'em, 1-2 NL, 2/4 O/8, 5/10 O/8, whatever. Their list system is from the freaking stone age... a dry erase board and a camera broadcasting this erase board onto tiny monitors at each end of the poker room. Sad.
Pinky and I sit 1-2NL while we wait for the others to get seated. I pick up some big unpaired starters, whiff the flop but still take it down twice when I bet the pot against weak opposition. Helixx and ACH get seated in a 2/4 at the back of the room, and Pinky & I soon follow suit.
Now, it bears mentioning that I had over $350 in red chips from the 1-2 game. I exchange $200 of them for white, and keep the rest. I sit at a passive 2-4 one table away from Pinky, ACH, and Helixx, who are already downing the SoCo and loosening up the action. While at my starter table, I pick up top set once, and crack the hiltons with my trip 8's another time. I'm playing crazy and winning big pots -- really annoying the crap out of the rest of the table. This was just what I needed after so many hours of serious 6/12 and 1-2 NL at the Borg.
The 2 seat opens up at the "main" table with Al & Co, and I take it sitting down with 3 racks of white plus almost a full rack of red. The table rolls its eyes, and I toke the dealer for good fortune. My first move at the table? Straddle bet, baby. Now, technically you can't straddle in AC, so this was just a blind raise. I think I lose this first pot (I forget), but I started something amazing and REVOLUTIONARY with that straddle.
Because less than an orbit later, with Pinky in the 3 seat and ACH in the 4's, we were blind capping every flop. I'd blind raise, Pinky would blind re-raise, and ACH true to form would blind cap. This move was not reserved for pre-flop, as we got it capped to the river blind once or twice, winning about the same number each. Within 10 min most of the other players at the table had run away wondering what the fuck was going on.
Al goes broke and shouts "REBUY!" Goes to the cage, and gets some more white, plus maybe 4 or 5 shots of SoCo loaded up from the strange not nearly hot at all waittress. Again, Borgata > Taj. Did I mention the chips at Taj were just covered in filth? Man, what a horrible operation.
Anyhow, back to the story. I decide $400 is not enough to play 2-4, and ask Pinky if he wants any more chips to add to his $150-200. He says yes, hands me a C-note, and I wander to the cage to buy $200 more in white, $100 for myself and $100 for the Brit. The cage guy knows I'm up to no good, but doesn't stop me... what does he care. I sit back down and make a mountain of chips, when THE HAND OF DESTINY (as it shall now be known) happens.
THE HAND OF DESTINY OCCURED THUSLY:
So, I'm UTG and go about my blind straddle. I yell "LIVE FOUR" per JSD's (legendary) guide to straddling, for all to hear as a public service announcement. The Asian dealer is actually amused. Pinky and ACH follow suit raising their hands in the dark, Helixx in the 7s meekly folds, the wanker. In fairness to him, he'd been cold-decked and sucked out on like nobody's business. But he's still a solid player and needs to jump out of the kiddie pool!! One guy with a crappy trucker hat and a half-done goatee calls four bets cold in the 6s, having the temerity to LOOK AT HIS HAND! The nerve!
We take a flop of Kc7s2h. I bet blind, Pinky raises blind, ACH 3-bets blind, and Villian trucker hat guy in the 6s caps it. Uh-oh. Turn is a meaningless 9d, I bet blind again, Pinky raises blind, ACH 3-bets blind, Villian checks his hand again (FOUL!), caps it, and the three of us bloggerati mumble about the fate he will suffer for this transgression. We wuss out and check our hands.
I look down and what do I find? The second best hand I could find, frankly... AsAh. That's right -- pocket Aces blind capped on two streets. I've had this happen before, kinda!! I call, and the other two drop. We take the river heads-up, and its the 7c. I said pocket aces were second best because of course if I had the HAMMER, I'd have rivered a big, beautiful boat. Oh how crazy THAT would have been.
At this point in time, I go into full unabomber-WPT-wannabe-Bill Fillmaff move. I put on my black coat, zip it up all the way, put my iPod headphones on, as well as a pair of gas-station bought reflective oversize aviator sunglasses. I tell him I'm a pro and how dare he bet into my greatness.
Anyhow, I know he has a hand, and its a question of how good. With that much moolah in the pot, no way I'm folding. I bet, he raises, and I call. I'm a major sally for not re-raising here, but that's beside the point. I played this blind, and my idiot opponent didn't, ok? He rolls KQ for TPGK, and idiot Matador style I stare at him as I slow-roll my pocket aces, one at a time before slamming them down on the table and shouting "SHIP IT" a little too loudly. The whole side of the poker room has now noticed that something profoundly strange is going on at our table.
That is the story of THE HAND OF DESTINY, and it will forever be a part of blogger lore, or so I hope. I seriously had to do everything in my power not to shit my pants when I checked my hand at the turn. Wow.
We play some more crazy 2/4 and then decide its time for a change... I leave the table up a little, having lost many of my winnings at that table on my stupid straddle plays, though it was fully worth it. We decided some O/8 was in order, and got on the lists for 2/4 and 5/10. Neither seemed too unreasonable. Well, its past my bed time, but I'll definitely have to tell about that 5/10 game we played, because it was crazy. Another night... wait for Part III & 1/2, I promise, it *might* be an interesting read.
P.S. Go read Pauly's most recent post + "Coach's Corner" -- very good writeup of some blogger .50/1 play on Party plus Coach's MTT tourney experience. Additionally, DoubleAs keeps up the good work with a discussion of Party SnGs, which truly are the land of some pretty awful play! I'm quietly counting my blessings that DoubleAs won't be in the running for the blogger sattelite into the WSOP $1,500 NLHE event, as I have no doubt that he'd be the prohibitive favorite.
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