Went to play live poker last night. I probably shouldn't have. The spousal unit wanted to play last night as she was going to be busy today driving down to Cape Coral and back to see our nephew ride in the BMX state championships. She didn't want to play tonight and be tired. Thing was I didn't sleep well on Thursday night so I was pretty tired Friday. Knew it would impact my play, and it did. Especially in the tournament when I need to be super focused. Oh well.
So the tourney starts at 8. I play a little low limit holdem prior to the tourney and make a few bucks. The tourney starts and my table is very very aggressive. I don't play many hands at all, mostly cuz my hands continually suck but also the raising going on. A while ago I read an article about tells and it was fascinating and informative. The biggest tell most people have is their hands. Now I already knew that a lot of people grab their chips when they are preparing to bet so I always look to my left to see if anyone is getting ready to raise before I play but this article specifically mentioned how people put in their chips when they bet can often times tip you off to the strength of their hands. So I checked it out last time I played and it was VERY HANDY. So I'm watching the guy just to my right and I have a good read on him but I never get a chance to use it. I finally get QQ and raise to 4 times the big blind, which was my first mistake. I get 5 callers. And I hadn't played a hand in almost an hour. The flop is 10-7-6 and the moron 2 places to my right pushes in. Now I know he has played all kinds of crap hands and so if I thought about it I would have had to put him on either 6-7 or 8-9 but I was tired and so I called. He has 8-9 and I lose 2/3 of my stack. I ended up going out a while later with A-8 (yes I know it's Ace rag but it's the best I had) when the same yahoo of course has AA. Lately it seems every time I push someone has AA and when I have it I manage to lose with it.
After that I ended up playing low limit holdem. The poker room at Derby Lane is running a special that all hold em tables are eligible for. The highest hand each hour gets $250, the next highest gets $150 and the 3rd highest gets $100. So I mostly played to try to get a high hand. Minimum hand is Aces full but most hours the 3rd best high hand is quads. So I am only playing good high hands and suited connectors and pairs trying to either get quads or a straight flush. I don't play many hands at all. Well last night I am running well. Hitting some hands that hold up and staying out of most hands. Many of the players are playing every single hand trying to win a bonus. Then I get the hand that really illustrates limit holdem. I am in the big blind. The guy to my left opens for a raise. A few people call including the small blind and myself. I am sitting with A5 of clubs. Not a great hand but has possibilities with the right cards. Flop is a pretty 6-5-5 with the 6 as a club. I immediately bet out as I am pretty vulnerable. Guy to my left folds immediately. Lady in seat 10 calls as does a couple of other people. Turn is a 2 which I don't like but I am pretty sure I'm still ahead. I bet and lady in seat 10 calls along with 1 guy. River is a 4 which I HATE. I'm sure people are staying in with straight draws and so I check. Lady in seat 10 of course bets and I have to call. She flips over a shitty 8-3 offsuit. I could not believe that. First to call a preflop raise with it then every bet I made on the off chance you can get runner runner to win the hand?? WTF. I had seen her play every hand so I knew she had a shitty hand but I put her on something like 6-3 where she actually had a pair on the flop and a reason to call. Calling with 8-3 was just tossing money away except of course I was in the hand so she was bound to win. So I muttered something to my wife in the seat to my right and waited cuz I knew I was gonna get her if I waited long enough.
She made a couple of other hands with complete shit and got a bit of a stack. A little later I am sitting with 55 and call an unraised pot. Flop is Q-9-2 and seat 10 bets out. I put her on a 9-4 or some such crap and decide to call as most of the table does as well. We go 7 handed to the turn and there is my 5. Seat 10 leads out and 3 people call till it gets to me where I raise her. I was hoping she would re raise but she only calls as does everyone else in the pot. River is another 9 and it's checked to me. Everyone checks and I bet out. Seat 10 calls though I was hoping she would raise with a 9 in her hand. One other guy calls and I flip over my boat and say 5's full which gets me a dirty look from Seat 10 when she flips over KK. I was surprised on that hand since she didn't raise preflop but it was typical for her. I was just happy to take back a bunch of my chips from her. She continued to spew off chips and was about half the stack she had before I hit her up by the time I got up and left.
So I at least left with some cash and a decent attitude. I'm thinking of going today while the wife is away but I got some chores to do first so I better get cracking. Remeber the golden rule, playing with schmucks can be very profitable- just ask Very Josie - and don't let the bastards get you down.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Why do the English pronounce it Darby?
Hope everyone had a fiscally rewarding weekend this weekend. Mine was actually decent though it was not from playing poker where I scraped all weekend to stay even. I didn't even play any live poker either, just online. I did make it over to Derby Lane Saturday but only to place bets for the Kentucky Derby. My wife and I do it every year, mostly I pick long shots and she picks whatever horse strikes her fancy. We also put down some bets for a couple of her friends and her grandmother. Then we went over to her grandmother's place and picked up some KFC on the way which is another thing we do every year for the Derby.
So the wife, the daughter and I are there eating KFC with my mother in law and her mother and waiting for the race to go off. I'm not much of a horse racing enthusiast but I do watch the triple crown every year and since I can go to the local dog track and poker room to bet on it, that makes it even more interesting. I placed about $40 worth of bets. A few horses to win/place and a couple of exacta boxes (an exacta bet picks the 1st and 2nd place finishers in order, a box takes them in either order but with half the winning amount) with both the 1 horse (Lookin at Lucky) and the 2 horse (Ice Box). I played about 6 other horses with both the 1 and 2 and hoped for the best. With all the rain and the muddy track, no one could predict who was gonna win I thought but from what I read, the only 2 horses that showed they could come back and pass other horses to win were Ice Box and Lookin at Lucky. Of course you saw the race you saw that the 4 horse (Super Saver) come along the rail and pass Paddy O Prado to win the race. I had a win ticket on Paddy but not on Super Saver so I didn't like that. Also I needed Lucky or Icebox to finish first or second to win an exacta bet. So a 4-10 finish screws me pretty badly. One of our friends bets hit with Super Saver but none of us had him so we were not thrilled with the Derby even though it was a good race.
But lo and behold, we see a replay of the finish and see that Ice Box kept coming and ended up taking second place. YESSS. I hit one of the exactas plus a place ticket on Ice Box. The place was about 12 bucks and the exacta was 153 but since I had it boxed, I got 76. I'll take it.
That was the most success I had for the weekend as even with the winnings I was too broke to play cards live. I did play online a good bit (as I have this weekend as well) but it was bad beat hell for me. I managed to lose with AA to K8 and J8 and I raised them both preflop, I don't slow play AA. Seemed like when I was ahead I lost, when I was behind I never caught up, and it was suckout hell for me. This weekend has been much the same though not quite as bad. I'm hoping it turns soon, before I am completely bust lol.
So the wife, the daughter and I are there eating KFC with my mother in law and her mother and waiting for the race to go off. I'm not much of a horse racing enthusiast but I do watch the triple crown every year and since I can go to the local dog track and poker room to bet on it, that makes it even more interesting. I placed about $40 worth of bets. A few horses to win/place and a couple of exacta boxes (an exacta bet picks the 1st and 2nd place finishers in order, a box takes them in either order but with half the winning amount) with both the 1 horse (Lookin at Lucky) and the 2 horse (Ice Box). I played about 6 other horses with both the 1 and 2 and hoped for the best. With all the rain and the muddy track, no one could predict who was gonna win I thought but from what I read, the only 2 horses that showed they could come back and pass other horses to win were Ice Box and Lookin at Lucky. Of course you saw the race you saw that the 4 horse (Super Saver) come along the rail and pass Paddy O Prado to win the race. I had a win ticket on Paddy but not on Super Saver so I didn't like that. Also I needed Lucky or Icebox to finish first or second to win an exacta bet. So a 4-10 finish screws me pretty badly. One of our friends bets hit with Super Saver but none of us had him so we were not thrilled with the Derby even though it was a good race.
But lo and behold, we see a replay of the finish and see that Ice Box kept coming and ended up taking second place. YESSS. I hit one of the exactas plus a place ticket on Ice Box. The place was about 12 bucks and the exacta was 153 but since I had it boxed, I got 76. I'll take it.
That was the most success I had for the weekend as even with the winnings I was too broke to play cards live. I did play online a good bit (as I have this weekend as well) but it was bad beat hell for me. I managed to lose with AA to K8 and J8 and I raised them both preflop, I don't slow play AA. Seemed like when I was ahead I lost, when I was behind I never caught up, and it was suckout hell for me. This weekend has been much the same though not quite as bad. I'm hoping it turns soon, before I am completely bust lol.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Back from points unknown
Been off the blogging thing for a while now but decided to get back into it again. Not that I have all that much to say but I may as well say it. I've been playing a fair amount of online poker, no big stakes as I almost solely play tourneys with a buy in of 11 or less, sometimes I'll do 20 but that's my limit. Also played some poker at Derby Lane but not too much. I have a nice (enough) stack of cash to play low buy in tourneys and still keep playing but the live stuff is a bit more expensive.
The wife and I did play in the Valentines Day tourney at Derby Lane. We have played all but one year and done pretty well. This time we did well again. It's a time limit tourney, you play 6 blind levels and then they add your chipstack with your spouse/partner's stack and the top 5 stacks get paid. They only take 50 couples and it's usually a fun relaxed tourney. Early on I noticed a couple of people at my table were people I played with before, one was especially aggressive. So I waited on him and made top pair top kicker and checked it to him. He made a very healthy raise and I went over the top of him big and took a nice chunk out of his stack. Also had a really good read on a couple of ladies at the table and took them pretty good. Wasn't getting great hands but was able to work with the few decent flops I did get. I had a little above average stack then the hands did come. I slow played AA in late position with only 1 caller and a lady I had a good read on was the only early caller. Flop was Q and 2 low cards and the lady kept calling my raises with KQ. She was shocked when I turned over AA on the river to beat her queens. This came into play later on when I raised UTG with AA and a guy didn't believe I had aces and pushed all in over the top with AK. I broke him and became the chip leader at my table. Few hands later I had KK on the button. Guy raises in early position with almost the as big a stack as me. KQ lady pushes all in with the short stack. Lady 2 places down pushes all in with a slightly bigger stack and I push all in. I was surprised when the original raiser pushed all in and then flips over 7-5 suited. KQ lady turns over KQ again, other short stack has QQ and I have KK. Unfortunately a Q hit the flop but I was able to fade the flush draw on the 7-5 and even though the one short stack quadrupled up, I still made chips on busting the other guy. A couple of hands later, the lady to my right pushes all in and I'm sitting on AJ. She had about half my stack and I was so wanting to call her. I had seen her play weak aces really strong and thought I had her but didn't want to risk so much on one hand. I should have. She had A7 and I would have broken her.
Little later the table breaks and I go to a new table where I proceed to get the worst cards for the last 30 minutes of the tourney. Everyone else is making moves and I am folding like a mad man cuz I can't pull any cards worth a damn. My wife is on an adjacent table and she was almost out but doubled up twice and had almost 10K in chips. When I got to the new table I had 30K and was one of the top 3 stacks in the tourney. Then the gal who was all in at my table and sucked out against my KK got hot. She hit EVERYTHING. In the last half hour of the tourney she went from about 15K to 60K.
When the countdown came, there was one guy with a huge stack who's wife was also in. They came in first with 77K. The ex shortstack took second and the wife and I took 3rd with 38K. Fun times and we come back with cash in our pockets. Always a good Valentines Day.
Since then the poker luck has been more miss than hit. Played again last weekend and did very well. Early on didn't have much for hands but hit some flops so I was doing ok. Guy just to my right was getting a complex because every time we got it in together I out flopped him. I didn't play many hands but most were against him especially blind vs blind. Then some hands came and I went to town. Busted a couple of people which won me $10 each time. Then I am sitting in the big blind, my buddy in the small blind. Everyone folds to the shortstack on the button who pushes all in. I'm calling with Q-8 suited, but to my surprise the small blind calls first. I figured he would push in with a big hand as he had been really short but made a nice double up and he wouldn't want to face me in the hand for all his chips unless he was big so I just called. Perfect flop of Q-8-7. Now I know I'm knocking out the one guy I'm sure so I put in a smallish bet to get the other guy out of the hand. He surprises me by calling. Next card is a 2 and he bets into me. I raise him and he calls again. Now I am a little worried. Last card is 3 and that puts a flush on the board. I'm thinking this hand down and the small blind checks to me. I think I have the best hand but have a sneaking suspicion he had 7-7 and hit the set of 7s so I decided not to bet so that he doesn't get the chance to come over the top of me and really hurt my stack. Luckily he has 2 pair, Q-7 and he is really disappointed to see my Q-8.
I knocked him out a little later when he pushes all in and I'm in the big blind with 9-7 and catch a 9. Make it to the final table with about 30K which puts me about 3rd or 4th. Then went completely card dead. Couldn't pick up anything to play with. I also started playing more conservatively as well. I did steal blinds a bit but since only 5 of the 10 of us got paid, I was being careful. Everyone at the table made a deal and pitched in $10 for the person who finished 6th. It was a good thing because I finally wake up with pocket queens, make a raise to 8K when blinds are 1-2 K and the big stack at the end of the table pushes all in. Here is where my brain went dead. Now I know he has seen me playing tight at this table so he has to put me on a hand. What can he be holding to want to risk 2/3 of his stack. If I had taken a minute to consider I would have put him on AA, KK or maybe AK suited. I'm a big dog to the first 2 and just better than 50/50 against the latter. Not a hand I should call. But I call like a moron and he flips over AA. No miracles for me and I'm out in 6th. Really enjoyed myself. Played good poker until the final table and even then I didn't play badly till the last hand but I put in that much time and effort and all I get to show for it is my buy in back plus the knockouts I had. Not a terrible day by any stretch but it could have been so much better.
Well that's all on my end of the field. I hope you've been luckier than I have. Have fun and don't be the Phil Helmuth imitator at the table, be the Mike Sexton imitator.
The wife and I did play in the Valentines Day tourney at Derby Lane. We have played all but one year and done pretty well. This time we did well again. It's a time limit tourney, you play 6 blind levels and then they add your chipstack with your spouse/partner's stack and the top 5 stacks get paid. They only take 50 couples and it's usually a fun relaxed tourney. Early on I noticed a couple of people at my table were people I played with before, one was especially aggressive. So I waited on him and made top pair top kicker and checked it to him. He made a very healthy raise and I went over the top of him big and took a nice chunk out of his stack. Also had a really good read on a couple of ladies at the table and took them pretty good. Wasn't getting great hands but was able to work with the few decent flops I did get. I had a little above average stack then the hands did come. I slow played AA in late position with only 1 caller and a lady I had a good read on was the only early caller. Flop was Q and 2 low cards and the lady kept calling my raises with KQ. She was shocked when I turned over AA on the river to beat her queens. This came into play later on when I raised UTG with AA and a guy didn't believe I had aces and pushed all in over the top with AK. I broke him and became the chip leader at my table. Few hands later I had KK on the button. Guy raises in early position with almost the as big a stack as me. KQ lady pushes all in with the short stack. Lady 2 places down pushes all in with a slightly bigger stack and I push all in. I was surprised when the original raiser pushed all in and then flips over 7-5 suited. KQ lady turns over KQ again, other short stack has QQ and I have KK. Unfortunately a Q hit the flop but I was able to fade the flush draw on the 7-5 and even though the one short stack quadrupled up, I still made chips on busting the other guy. A couple of hands later, the lady to my right pushes all in and I'm sitting on AJ. She had about half my stack and I was so wanting to call her. I had seen her play weak aces really strong and thought I had her but didn't want to risk so much on one hand. I should have. She had A7 and I would have broken her.
Little later the table breaks and I go to a new table where I proceed to get the worst cards for the last 30 minutes of the tourney. Everyone else is making moves and I am folding like a mad man cuz I can't pull any cards worth a damn. My wife is on an adjacent table and she was almost out but doubled up twice and had almost 10K in chips. When I got to the new table I had 30K and was one of the top 3 stacks in the tourney. Then the gal who was all in at my table and sucked out against my KK got hot. She hit EVERYTHING. In the last half hour of the tourney she went from about 15K to 60K.
When the countdown came, there was one guy with a huge stack who's wife was also in. They came in first with 77K. The ex shortstack took second and the wife and I took 3rd with 38K. Fun times and we come back with cash in our pockets. Always a good Valentines Day.
Since then the poker luck has been more miss than hit. Played again last weekend and did very well. Early on didn't have much for hands but hit some flops so I was doing ok. Guy just to my right was getting a complex because every time we got it in together I out flopped him. I didn't play many hands but most were against him especially blind vs blind. Then some hands came and I went to town. Busted a couple of people which won me $10 each time. Then I am sitting in the big blind, my buddy in the small blind. Everyone folds to the shortstack on the button who pushes all in. I'm calling with Q-8 suited, but to my surprise the small blind calls first. I figured he would push in with a big hand as he had been really short but made a nice double up and he wouldn't want to face me in the hand for all his chips unless he was big so I just called. Perfect flop of Q-8-7. Now I know I'm knocking out the one guy I'm sure so I put in a smallish bet to get the other guy out of the hand. He surprises me by calling. Next card is a 2 and he bets into me. I raise him and he calls again. Now I am a little worried. Last card is 3 and that puts a flush on the board. I'm thinking this hand down and the small blind checks to me. I think I have the best hand but have a sneaking suspicion he had 7-7 and hit the set of 7s so I decided not to bet so that he doesn't get the chance to come over the top of me and really hurt my stack. Luckily he has 2 pair, Q-7 and he is really disappointed to see my Q-8.
I knocked him out a little later when he pushes all in and I'm in the big blind with 9-7 and catch a 9. Make it to the final table with about 30K which puts me about 3rd or 4th. Then went completely card dead. Couldn't pick up anything to play with. I also started playing more conservatively as well. I did steal blinds a bit but since only 5 of the 10 of us got paid, I was being careful. Everyone at the table made a deal and pitched in $10 for the person who finished 6th. It was a good thing because I finally wake up with pocket queens, make a raise to 8K when blinds are 1-2 K and the big stack at the end of the table pushes all in. Here is where my brain went dead. Now I know he has seen me playing tight at this table so he has to put me on a hand. What can he be holding to want to risk 2/3 of his stack. If I had taken a minute to consider I would have put him on AA, KK or maybe AK suited. I'm a big dog to the first 2 and just better than 50/50 against the latter. Not a hand I should call. But I call like a moron and he flips over AA. No miracles for me and I'm out in 6th. Really enjoyed myself. Played good poker until the final table and even then I didn't play badly till the last hand but I put in that much time and effort and all I get to show for it is my buy in back plus the knockouts I had. Not a terrible day by any stretch but it could have been so much better.
Well that's all on my end of the field. I hope you've been luckier than I have. Have fun and don't be the Phil Helmuth imitator at the table, be the Mike Sexton imitator.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Singing a tune and promising the moon
Well it is going to come to pass I fear and man is it gonna be ugly. Our President is so bound and determined to push through this monstrosity of a health care "reform" bill and I cannot understand why he wants this so much. Well I wish I didn't understand it but he wants to push something major through so that he can go to his constituents and say "See, I told you I would reform health care and I have" Never mind that it won't be reforming anything, it will just be telling more people what to do. Never mind that it won't save any money but will cost more, add to our budget deficit when we can least afford to do it, and will cut down on choice and availability. None of that matters to him. But instead of me ranting on and on, let me direct you to this post which says it much better than I do: http://www.newsweek.com/id/234953?GT1=43002.
Of course everything that goes wrong is blame it on Bush, blame it on the Republicans, etc. He's been President for over a year and still it's blame Bush, blame the Repubs, blame this, blame that. Just don't blame him or you're racist. You would think someone would get the message when as democratic and liberal a state as Massachusetts actually elected a relatively unknown Republican who campaigned on going against this bill. Hello? McFly? Anybody in there??
You know he talked a good game after Scott Brown was elected. "We will do it in a bipartisan way and get everyone involved" I remember hearing. Of course I heard that during the election in 2008 but once elected what did I hear? Hey we won, someone needs to remember that. Then he invites all the dems to the White House and basically shuts out the Republicans. After that he goes to the Republican Retreat and tells them they aren't willing to work with him and the Dems. Well that's a two way street. If this health care bill had included tort reform as well as extending health care to the uninsured, the Republicans would have had to support it. As it stands now it's just an Obamanation.
Well enough for now. It's bed time. Long past actually but that iced coffee I had a couple of hours ago really charged me up I guess. Anyway good night and good luck. We're gonna need it I fear.
Of course everything that goes wrong is blame it on Bush, blame it on the Republicans, etc. He's been President for over a year and still it's blame Bush, blame the Repubs, blame this, blame that. Just don't blame him or you're racist. You would think someone would get the message when as democratic and liberal a state as Massachusetts actually elected a relatively unknown Republican who campaigned on going against this bill. Hello? McFly? Anybody in there??
You know he talked a good game after Scott Brown was elected. "We will do it in a bipartisan way and get everyone involved" I remember hearing. Of course I heard that during the election in 2008 but once elected what did I hear? Hey we won, someone needs to remember that. Then he invites all the dems to the White House and basically shuts out the Republicans. After that he goes to the Republican Retreat and tells them they aren't willing to work with him and the Dems. Well that's a two way street. If this health care bill had included tort reform as well as extending health care to the uninsured, the Republicans would have had to support it. As it stands now it's just an Obamanation.
Well enough for now. It's bed time. Long past actually but that iced coffee I had a couple of hours ago really charged me up I guess. Anyway good night and good luck. We're gonna need it I fear.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Not a good weekend sleep wise. Not a good weekend to make money playing poker either. It started on Friday night/Saturday morning. I stayed up too late goofing off on Friday night which wouldn't have been so bad but I also woke up pretty early on Saturday. Ok, no biggie, I'll just take a nap in the afternoon or sleep in Sunday Morning. Fat chance of that. Ran some errands during the day and went to play poker at Derby Lane Saturday night. I would have been better off not playing probably.
Early in the tourney we were playing short handed. Neither the small or big blind were there yet. Everyone folded to me and I just called for 50. Gal on button raises to 200. Since there is no one in the blinds, she might have a hand or she might be stealing. Probably she has something. I am sitting on A-4 of spades. Flop comes A-9-4. Bingo, top and bottom pair. I check and she bets 200. I raise to 500 and she calls. Ok she probably has an ace, maybe AK or AQ. Turn is another 4, big bingo. Made my boat. I sneakily check again and she bets 1000. Was thinking of raising but I just call. River is a 3. I debate checking to her again but want to get more out of her so I bet another 1000 which puts about 2/3 of my chips into the pot. She calls and I confidently turn over A-4 and say "Fours full." Imagine my shock when she flips over AA for Aces full of fours.
I was lucky not to lose my entire stack but that was only because she was afraid I had 44 for quad fours. Unfortunately I didn't damn. But my goose was basically cooked and soon after I lost with 10-10 to KQ off suit and that was the tournament or as Hootie Johnson (former head of the Masters golf tournament) that was the toonamint.
Soon after that I was playing straight $2 limit holdem. I hate $2 limit holdem for the most part but the poker room was giving away $500 every half hour to the best holdem hand. Needless to say I didn't come close. We did have fun though as my wife joined me soon after I got to a table then a couple of friends of ours came to the table a bit later. There was a lot of bantering back and forth and as pots were stolen, rivers were ugly or saviors, and suckouts went around the table. I got down about $70 but made it all back up before we left. Unfortunately our daughter has now failed history from 2 years ago as one of our friends teaches at my daughter's high school and my wife took two good sized pots away from her. She nailed me on two pots as well as she rivered me twice with horrible draws. Still a splendid time was had by all.
Sunday was Superbowl sunday. I was rooting for the Saints only because I dislike Peyton Manning (intensely) and thought it would be nice for the Saints to finally win something. Otherwise I have no use for the Saints as they are one of the division rivals of my Bucs. Not only did the Saints win but it was a very profitable SB for me on the betting front. I took a number of different prop bets hitting one for first player to score (Pierre Garcon at 10-1) and also a freebie for $25 from the site I bet with for first player to make a first down (Dallas Clark). I also won taking the Saints getting 5 points and betting the under. I lost only one bet (outside of the other props for first TD I took) and made a very sweet profit for the day. The commercials were also better than last year which isn't saying much and I didn't have to see a Manning in every other commercial. I even like their Oreo commercial against the Trumps, that was pretty funny. No commercials really stood out to me but most were not lame like last year. I do think Bud Light lost a lot of their commercial magic. They had been pretty dependable for good SB commercials but not this year. Any thoughts on the SB or the commercials?
Well that's enough on last weekend. I will update Valentine's Day weekend later today I hope.
Early in the tourney we were playing short handed. Neither the small or big blind were there yet. Everyone folded to me and I just called for 50. Gal on button raises to 200. Since there is no one in the blinds, she might have a hand or she might be stealing. Probably she has something. I am sitting on A-4 of spades. Flop comes A-9-4. Bingo, top and bottom pair. I check and she bets 200. I raise to 500 and she calls. Ok she probably has an ace, maybe AK or AQ. Turn is another 4, big bingo. Made my boat. I sneakily check again and she bets 1000. Was thinking of raising but I just call. River is a 3. I debate checking to her again but want to get more out of her so I bet another 1000 which puts about 2/3 of my chips into the pot. She calls and I confidently turn over A-4 and say "Fours full." Imagine my shock when she flips over AA for Aces full of fours.
I was lucky not to lose my entire stack but that was only because she was afraid I had 44 for quad fours. Unfortunately I didn't damn. But my goose was basically cooked and soon after I lost with 10-10 to KQ off suit and that was the tournament or as Hootie Johnson (former head of the Masters golf tournament) that was the toonamint.
Soon after that I was playing straight $2 limit holdem. I hate $2 limit holdem for the most part but the poker room was giving away $500 every half hour to the best holdem hand. Needless to say I didn't come close. We did have fun though as my wife joined me soon after I got to a table then a couple of friends of ours came to the table a bit later. There was a lot of bantering back and forth and as pots were stolen, rivers were ugly or saviors, and suckouts went around the table. I got down about $70 but made it all back up before we left. Unfortunately our daughter has now failed history from 2 years ago as one of our friends teaches at my daughter's high school and my wife took two good sized pots away from her. She nailed me on two pots as well as she rivered me twice with horrible draws. Still a splendid time was had by all.
Sunday was Superbowl sunday. I was rooting for the Saints only because I dislike Peyton Manning (intensely) and thought it would be nice for the Saints to finally win something. Otherwise I have no use for the Saints as they are one of the division rivals of my Bucs. Not only did the Saints win but it was a very profitable SB for me on the betting front. I took a number of different prop bets hitting one for first player to score (Pierre Garcon at 10-1) and also a freebie for $25 from the site I bet with for first player to make a first down (Dallas Clark). I also won taking the Saints getting 5 points and betting the under. I lost only one bet (outside of the other props for first TD I took) and made a very sweet profit for the day. The commercials were also better than last year which isn't saying much and I didn't have to see a Manning in every other commercial. I even like their Oreo commercial against the Trumps, that was pretty funny. No commercials really stood out to me but most were not lame like last year. I do think Bud Light lost a lot of their commercial magic. They had been pretty dependable for good SB commercials but not this year. Any thoughts on the SB or the commercials?
Well that's enough on last weekend. I will update Valentine's Day weekend later today I hope.
Monday, February 8, 2010
The difference between rights and privileges
Been thinking about this for a while but could not figure out how I wanted to say this. Say you lived in Chicago. You have never had a drivers license. Hell they got the El etc and you probably didn't need it. But you decide you want one now. So you read your book, you go to a driving school just to make sure you understand the rules of the road. You take the written test and ace it and then go out on your driving test. You pass it with flying colors. Someone at the DMV then tells you that you can't have a license because a few of your fellow citizens are afraid of you when you drive that 1965 Chrysler New Yorker tankmobile on the highway as you might flip out and crush their little Prius or Civic with your 4 ton steel monster.
What would happen in this instance? Do you think the person denied a license would be able to sue and have just cause? He isn't guaranteed a license now is he? There is no right to drive listed in the Bill of Rights, no amendment was passed to the Constitution. We are told time and again that driving is a privilege and not a right and yet to be denied a license on such grounds is unthinkable and a lawsuit resulting from it would be granted pretty quickly I am willing to bet.
All this is a lead in to my thoughts on a right we are supposedly granted by the Constitution, the Right to Bear Arms. Read it sometime. It's number 2 on the Bill of Rights which leads me to believe the Founding Fathers thought pretty highly of it. And yet, try and buy a handgun in Chicago or New York City and see how hard that is. Try to get a Concealed Carry Permit and not to have your permit revoked in Philadelphia (see how pissy they are too that because of reciprocity, Pensylvanians are getting concealed weapons permits from here in Florida and they can't revoke those unless the holder actually breaks a law) when your home is broken into. Apparently your gun "scares" some people so badly that they want to do what they can to ban you from even having a handgun. Some areas of the country pass restrictions on how many bullets your clip can hold or try to make every bullet be microencoded and trackable from the people who sell it to you. Which would make the cost of bullets very expensive. Or they refuse to issue a concealed weapons permit to you but won't tell you why.
What I'm trying to tell you is there are a lot of people out there who want you to believe that they know what's best for you. They want you to rely on someone else to help you when your life is threatened but they certainly don't guarantee someone will be there to help you in your hour of need. They tell you women especially that your body is your own to do with as you like but won't let you carry a concealed weapon to protect that body. And let's face it ladies, we may all be equal but in 95 cases out of 100, a man will outphysical a women in a confrontation. Cuz thankfully we aren't all built the same and as Pepe LePeu says "Vive la difference" We live in a free land supposedly but it's not as free as you think. You can't let them take away what you are guaranteed in the Constitution "for your own good" Keep that in mind boys and girls as its a dangerous world we live in. Remember the Boy Scout motto and Be Prepared.
On a lighter note, I mentioned I would talk about Valentine's Day in my last post, I believe. It is a tradition in the Cavemann household for Mrs Cave and I to play in the Valentine's Day couples poker tourney at the local dog track/poker room. We have played in all but one since they inaugurated the thing and about 6-7 years ago and have hit the money twice before. Though the Mrs has not had great luck in playing, I have done pretty well. It's a time limited tourney so everyone left at the end of 3 hours of play is in the running. Each couple (if both people are still left in the tourney) totals their chips and the top 5 out of 50 couple make the money. It's a fun tourney and like I said, we have had some success.
This year unlike other years, the entire tourney was No Limit Holdem. Other years it was either all Limit Holdem or Limit for the first half and then No Limit the rest of the way. I started out pretty well, didn't get much hands but make the most of them to be a little over my starting stack. Early on I was playing an A-10 in late position from seat 10 against the two blinds. The woman in the small blind in seat 4 I didn't recognize but I had played against the guy next to her in the big blind before. Older Asian dude who played loose aggressive. Flop came 3-9-10 the lady in the small blind who I had tabbed as pretty aggressive earlier checks and the guy bets out for 500. Blinds were only 50-100 and there was only 400 in the pot at this time. I put him on a pure steal or maybe a pair of 3s or 9s. I didn't want to screw around with him and have him suck out a second pair so I raised him to 1500. All folds and I pick up some chips. Then the cards were dead for a while. The lady in seat 4 hit some hands mostly against the Asian guy and played very aggressively, me and the guy next to me kept it pretty tight and dumped most of our hands. Everyone was having a good time except the Asian guy who was pretty short stacked by then and the chatter was pretty light around the table.
A little later on I pick up AA middle position. I decided to risk it everyone had folded to this point and just call. I was hoping the aggressive lady in the big blind would raise me. Unfortunately the aggressive lady just called along with 2 others. Not what I wanted with AA. Flop wasn't bad with Q-8-2. Checked to me and I make an almost pot sized raise. Seat 4 calls of course but everyone else folds. Next card is a J. I don't put her on 9-10 for the straight but QJ is a possibility. She checks and I bet 2/3 of the pot which she calls again. Not sure what to put her on but definitely a queen, hopefully not something like QJ or Q8 suited. Next card is a low blank. She thinks and then checks. Wasn't sure if I was ahead or behind but felt if I bet and she raises all in I'm screwed so I just check. She showed a queen and I breathed a sigh of relief when my AA held up. This I think set me up later to win a very big pot. Got AA again in early position and this time I made a normal raise. It gets folded around to seat 6 who thinks for a minute and pushes all in. I think he put me on middle pair or AK or AQ and even if I have JJ or QQ he is not much of a dog. Boy was he surprised when I called and flipped over AA to his AK. Took him out and almost doubled up.
By now I had a nice chipstack going. Played carefully but made a few moves to steal some pots and keep my stack up. People are getting knocked out by my wife is hanging in even though she is short stacked. She saves herself a couple of times with all in bets. Later on I get KK and raise. Get reraised all in by a guy with half my stack then two short stacks push in. I call and am ahead of 6-7 (reraising me with this?? ) KQ for the shortest stack and JJ for the other short stack. Unfortunately the one short stack gets a J but the 6-7 does not make his flush and so even though she almost quadruples up, I still get more chips from Mr 6-7 than I lose to her and two more people are gone.
Not long after our table breaks. We are down to 3 tables now. And the new table is not good to me. Lousy hand after lousy hand and people are making some crazy moves since time is running out. The short stack gal from my table who quadrupled up is hitting all kinds of stuff and passes me in chips. I am getting worried about not making the money the way the chips are flying around. Finally last hand comes around and 4-5 people get all in. A guy makes a sick straight with 8-5 and takes a massive amount of chips. He ends up with the biggest stack at my table and his wife was still in so they have a lot of chips. They end up finishing first. A guy at a different table had a monster stack and would have finished first but for that last hand. His wife was knocked out though so they got second on his chips alone. The short stacked gal ends up finishing third even without her husband as he was knocked out. Luckily Mrs Cave had enough chips to get us up to fourth so it turned out to be a good Valentines Day.
Enough of my life from a month ago. Next post will be more up to date I promise.
What would happen in this instance? Do you think the person denied a license would be able to sue and have just cause? He isn't guaranteed a license now is he? There is no right to drive listed in the Bill of Rights, no amendment was passed to the Constitution. We are told time and again that driving is a privilege and not a right and yet to be denied a license on such grounds is unthinkable and a lawsuit resulting from it would be granted pretty quickly I am willing to bet.
All this is a lead in to my thoughts on a right we are supposedly granted by the Constitution, the Right to Bear Arms. Read it sometime. It's number 2 on the Bill of Rights which leads me to believe the Founding Fathers thought pretty highly of it. And yet, try and buy a handgun in Chicago or New York City and see how hard that is. Try to get a Concealed Carry Permit and not to have your permit revoked in Philadelphia (see how pissy they are too that because of reciprocity, Pensylvanians are getting concealed weapons permits from here in Florida and they can't revoke those unless the holder actually breaks a law) when your home is broken into. Apparently your gun "scares" some people so badly that they want to do what they can to ban you from even having a handgun. Some areas of the country pass restrictions on how many bullets your clip can hold or try to make every bullet be microencoded and trackable from the people who sell it to you. Which would make the cost of bullets very expensive. Or they refuse to issue a concealed weapons permit to you but won't tell you why.
What I'm trying to tell you is there are a lot of people out there who want you to believe that they know what's best for you. They want you to rely on someone else to help you when your life is threatened but they certainly don't guarantee someone will be there to help you in your hour of need. They tell you women especially that your body is your own to do with as you like but won't let you carry a concealed weapon to protect that body. And let's face it ladies, we may all be equal but in 95 cases out of 100, a man will outphysical a women in a confrontation. Cuz thankfully we aren't all built the same and as Pepe LePeu says "Vive la difference" We live in a free land supposedly but it's not as free as you think. You can't let them take away what you are guaranteed in the Constitution "for your own good" Keep that in mind boys and girls as its a dangerous world we live in. Remember the Boy Scout motto and Be Prepared.
On a lighter note, I mentioned I would talk about Valentine's Day in my last post, I believe. It is a tradition in the Cavemann household for Mrs Cave and I to play in the Valentine's Day couples poker tourney at the local dog track/poker room. We have played in all but one since they inaugurated the thing and about 6-7 years ago and have hit the money twice before. Though the Mrs has not had great luck in playing, I have done pretty well. It's a time limited tourney so everyone left at the end of 3 hours of play is in the running. Each couple (if both people are still left in the tourney) totals their chips and the top 5 out of 50 couple make the money. It's a fun tourney and like I said, we have had some success.
This year unlike other years, the entire tourney was No Limit Holdem. Other years it was either all Limit Holdem or Limit for the first half and then No Limit the rest of the way. I started out pretty well, didn't get much hands but make the most of them to be a little over my starting stack. Early on I was playing an A-10 in late position from seat 10 against the two blinds. The woman in the small blind in seat 4 I didn't recognize but I had played against the guy next to her in the big blind before. Older Asian dude who played loose aggressive. Flop came 3-9-10 the lady in the small blind who I had tabbed as pretty aggressive earlier checks and the guy bets out for 500. Blinds were only 50-100 and there was only 400 in the pot at this time. I put him on a pure steal or maybe a pair of 3s or 9s. I didn't want to screw around with him and have him suck out a second pair so I raised him to 1500. All folds and I pick up some chips. Then the cards were dead for a while. The lady in seat 4 hit some hands mostly against the Asian guy and played very aggressively, me and the guy next to me kept it pretty tight and dumped most of our hands. Everyone was having a good time except the Asian guy who was pretty short stacked by then and the chatter was pretty light around the table.
A little later on I pick up AA middle position. I decided to risk it everyone had folded to this point and just call. I was hoping the aggressive lady in the big blind would raise me. Unfortunately the aggressive lady just called along with 2 others. Not what I wanted with AA. Flop wasn't bad with Q-8-2. Checked to me and I make an almost pot sized raise. Seat 4 calls of course but everyone else folds. Next card is a J. I don't put her on 9-10 for the straight but QJ is a possibility. She checks and I bet 2/3 of the pot which she calls again. Not sure what to put her on but definitely a queen, hopefully not something like QJ or Q8 suited. Next card is a low blank. She thinks and then checks. Wasn't sure if I was ahead or behind but felt if I bet and she raises all in I'm screwed so I just check. She showed a queen and I breathed a sigh of relief when my AA held up. This I think set me up later to win a very big pot. Got AA again in early position and this time I made a normal raise. It gets folded around to seat 6 who thinks for a minute and pushes all in. I think he put me on middle pair or AK or AQ and even if I have JJ or QQ he is not much of a dog. Boy was he surprised when I called and flipped over AA to his AK. Took him out and almost doubled up.
By now I had a nice chipstack going. Played carefully but made a few moves to steal some pots and keep my stack up. People are getting knocked out by my wife is hanging in even though she is short stacked. She saves herself a couple of times with all in bets. Later on I get KK and raise. Get reraised all in by a guy with half my stack then two short stacks push in. I call and am ahead of 6-7 (reraising me with this?? ) KQ for the shortest stack and JJ for the other short stack. Unfortunately the one short stack gets a J but the 6-7 does not make his flush and so even though she almost quadruples up, I still get more chips from Mr 6-7 than I lose to her and two more people are gone.
Not long after our table breaks. We are down to 3 tables now. And the new table is not good to me. Lousy hand after lousy hand and people are making some crazy moves since time is running out. The short stack gal from my table who quadrupled up is hitting all kinds of stuff and passes me in chips. I am getting worried about not making the money the way the chips are flying around. Finally last hand comes around and 4-5 people get all in. A guy makes a sick straight with 8-5 and takes a massive amount of chips. He ends up with the biggest stack at my table and his wife was still in so they have a lot of chips. They end up finishing first. A guy at a different table had a monster stack and would have finished first but for that last hand. His wife was knocked out though so they got second on his chips alone. The short stacked gal ends up finishing third even without her husband as he was knocked out. Luckily Mrs Cave had enough chips to get us up to fourth so it turned out to be a good Valentines Day.
Enough of my life from a month ago. Next post will be more up to date I promise.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Where Have You Gone Joe Dimaggio?
After realizing last night that movies like "The Breakfast Club" and "Sixteen Candles" are almost unknown by a large segment of the population, especially that segment that drives much of the advertising and spending dollars in this country, it is a good bet a much larger part does not recognize the origin of this post title. Then again I doubt anyone will be reading this and it amuses me so that's what counts. I just wanted to say, I have been gone for quite a while but now I am back.
I have been gone from blogging for quite awhile now, I know when I started to blog a bit I didn't realize how much work it really was to create and post a new blog on a regular fashion. After reading so much more blogs I think I am a little better prepared to write more now. I hope. A lot has happened since my last blog. The economy, led by the reckless policies of the Fed, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and some major Wall St players (AIG, Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, The entity formerly known as Lehman Bros, Citigroup, et al) has completely tanked and is now just a shadow of what it was. And that wasn't so great either because as Financial Genius Bill Fleckenstein kept saying, the economy was built for the last 8 years on the housing ATM and sooner or later that was gonna run out of cash. But the players I listed certainly didn't help matters with their foolish and utterly dangerous policies. Also the "Great" Alan I can't see any bubble Greenspan let this happen and in fact aided and abetted it. Just like his follower Ben Bernanke did as well.
What else has happened? For starters, a black man was elected President. Hope and Change y'all. After a year in office, many of the people who voted for him are still hoping for some change. The only change I see is the record deficits of the previous temp employee in that office are but a pale imitation of the ones now upon us. That and the fact he keeps trying to foist off a completely insane health care "reform" bill on the populace. Anything being opposed this loudly by this many people cannot be good. Also all of the back room deals being cut to get dissenting Dems on board cannot mean this bill is what they claim it is. Lets not even go to the supposed savings this bill will (not) produce. And the fact that it only covers HALF of the people not currently insured makes it a complete boondoggle that will cause much more grief than it cures. Of course they don't tell you anything about that.
A Republican was elected senator from Massachusetts. I thought I had seen the last of those in my lifetime when Edward Brooke (the first elected black senator btw) was defeated in 1978. Goes to show you how much of a backlash there seems to be going on against Washington. That will probably change between now and election day 2010 not to mention 2012 but it is refreshing to see none the less. Though I am a card carrying member of the Republican Party, I am coming to see more and more that the elected nimrods of both parties are much to blame for the mess our economy is currently in. I am favoring voting against every incumbent in the next election, throw them all out, and let a new set of thieves take their place. The current ones are so entrenched that all of the lobbyists have their private numbers. I am tired of seeing quasi governmental agencies like Fanny and Freddie putting money in their pockets and then watching the Congresspeople we elect to protect our interests rolling over to help Fannie and Freddie steal. Not to mention the big investment banks. Much of the blame for the current credit and housing fiasco should be laid right at the feet of Congress. Both Pres Clinton and Bush tried to rein in mortgage financing but the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee both ignored them. Why? See how much Barney Frank et al got from the people they are supposed to be overseeing. Wanna see a hoot? Watch the YouTube video from 2003 of the Federal Regulators testifying in front of the House Financial Services Committee. The head regulator (Schultz maybe? I can't remember) is castigated and basically called a liar when he told the Committee of the shenanigans going on at Fannie and Freddie. Of course the Repubs are almost as much to blame. After all they were in charge of Congress back when these hearings took place. As much as the Dems went after the regulators, the Repubs did nothing to stop them nor to overhaul the bad lending going on as they should have. So throw them all out. I want fiscal conservatives in charge who don't want to spend more money, not people who want to create more programs and entitlements for their constituents.
Enough ranting for now. I didn't want this first post back to become a long discourse on what I want or don't want to happen, just a reintroduction of ME. I just want to say it's good to be back and I hope to become a much more diligent blogger like my heroes across the bloggerverse. I'll be back soon, thats a promise.
I have been gone from blogging for quite awhile now, I know when I started to blog a bit I didn't realize how much work it really was to create and post a new blog on a regular fashion. After reading so much more blogs I think I am a little better prepared to write more now. I hope. A lot has happened since my last blog. The economy, led by the reckless policies of the Fed, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and some major Wall St players (AIG, Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, The entity formerly known as Lehman Bros, Citigroup, et al) has completely tanked and is now just a shadow of what it was. And that wasn't so great either because as Financial Genius Bill Fleckenstein kept saying, the economy was built for the last 8 years on the housing ATM and sooner or later that was gonna run out of cash. But the players I listed certainly didn't help matters with their foolish and utterly dangerous policies. Also the "Great" Alan I can't see any bubble Greenspan let this happen and in fact aided and abetted it. Just like his follower Ben Bernanke did as well.
What else has happened? For starters, a black man was elected President. Hope and Change y'all. After a year in office, many of the people who voted for him are still hoping for some change. The only change I see is the record deficits of the previous temp employee in that office are but a pale imitation of the ones now upon us. That and the fact he keeps trying to foist off a completely insane health care "reform" bill on the populace. Anything being opposed this loudly by this many people cannot be good. Also all of the back room deals being cut to get dissenting Dems on board cannot mean this bill is what they claim it is. Lets not even go to the supposed savings this bill will (not) produce. And the fact that it only covers HALF of the people not currently insured makes it a complete boondoggle that will cause much more grief than it cures. Of course they don't tell you anything about that.
A Republican was elected senator from Massachusetts. I thought I had seen the last of those in my lifetime when Edward Brooke (the first elected black senator btw) was defeated in 1978. Goes to show you how much of a backlash there seems to be going on against Washington. That will probably change between now and election day 2010 not to mention 2012 but it is refreshing to see none the less. Though I am a card carrying member of the Republican Party, I am coming to see more and more that the elected nimrods of both parties are much to blame for the mess our economy is currently in. I am favoring voting against every incumbent in the next election, throw them all out, and let a new set of thieves take their place. The current ones are so entrenched that all of the lobbyists have their private numbers. I am tired of seeing quasi governmental agencies like Fanny and Freddie putting money in their pockets and then watching the Congresspeople we elect to protect our interests rolling over to help Fannie and Freddie steal. Not to mention the big investment banks. Much of the blame for the current credit and housing fiasco should be laid right at the feet of Congress. Both Pres Clinton and Bush tried to rein in mortgage financing but the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee both ignored them. Why? See how much Barney Frank et al got from the people they are supposed to be overseeing. Wanna see a hoot? Watch the YouTube video from 2003 of the Federal Regulators testifying in front of the House Financial Services Committee. The head regulator (Schultz maybe? I can't remember) is castigated and basically called a liar when he told the Committee of the shenanigans going on at Fannie and Freddie. Of course the Repubs are almost as much to blame. After all they were in charge of Congress back when these hearings took place. As much as the Dems went after the regulators, the Repubs did nothing to stop them nor to overhaul the bad lending going on as they should have. So throw them all out. I want fiscal conservatives in charge who don't want to spend more money, not people who want to create more programs and entitlements for their constituents.
Enough ranting for now. I didn't want this first post back to become a long discourse on what I want or don't want to happen, just a reintroduction of ME. I just want to say it's good to be back and I hope to become a much more diligent blogger like my heroes across the bloggerverse. I'll be back soon, thats a promise.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
"There are no atheists in a foxhole"
I wanted to use that title in homage to one of my favorite bloggers, Rachel Lucas, who used it as her title last week and immediately started catching flak from .......... ATHEISTS. She was referring to some bad things that had happened recently in her boyfriends family and how desperate she felt at the time. The atheists apparently took umbrage to that title because according to them, there are atheists in foxholes. Lets put aside the fact that this is just a saying, and she did not coin the saying but felt it applied in her situation as she is not a religious person. Like many of us, she is feeling her way through the minefields of belief in what cannot be known and the hope that there is something more to existence. She and her boyfriend and his family were going through a very rough time and she decided to share that with her readers which is something I'm not sure I would have done, or at least not so fully. But she thought it would be important so she did.
I'm sure she regretted it once the emails and comments from various atheists started rolling in. They really got offended by her title and the fact that according to them, there are actually atheists in foxholes. Yes, I'm sure there are some atheists in foxholes just like good fences don't always make good neighbors and the early bird doesn't always catch the worm but come on people, what ever happened to common decency??? Is it that uncommon?? Do you have to come down on someone going through a bad time over the title of her post? I swear the country is getting stupider all the time. The smartest people say the dumbest things and common sense is so uncommon that it should be on the endangered species list. So you people who decided to take offense because a woman in pain felt it applied to her should be ashamed of your reaction and the way you went about telling her how you felt. You should wonder why you cannot even feel the basic human emotion of sympathy for someone going through a bad time when she needed some support from her friends and had the guts to put it out on cyberspace for all to read instead of keeping it to herself. Take a look at yourself. Is it that important to "defend" your point of view at a time like this? If you answer yes to that question, buddy I don't want to know you because obviously you care more about your own needs than anything else.
I don't read a lot of bloggers but I have a set rotation of those I enjoy for their intelligence, their humor, and their warmth. I don't always agree with them but I always enjoy reading what they think and they usually make me smile as well as think about what I believe too. There are some amazing people blogging today and Rachel Lucas is one of the best. So you asshats who feel obligated to give her a hard time take note, there are a lot of people out here like me and we don't take kindly to people who would insult someone in their time of need. If you do not have the common decency to act like a civilized human being then do the next best thing and shut the fuck up. The world would be a kindlier place if you just did that.
I'm sure she regretted it once the emails and comments from various atheists started rolling in. They really got offended by her title and the fact that according to them, there are actually atheists in foxholes. Yes, I'm sure there are some atheists in foxholes just like good fences don't always make good neighbors and the early bird doesn't always catch the worm but come on people, what ever happened to common decency??? Is it that uncommon?? Do you have to come down on someone going through a bad time over the title of her post? I swear the country is getting stupider all the time. The smartest people say the dumbest things and common sense is so uncommon that it should be on the endangered species list. So you people who decided to take offense because a woman in pain felt it applied to her should be ashamed of your reaction and the way you went about telling her how you felt. You should wonder why you cannot even feel the basic human emotion of sympathy for someone going through a bad time when she needed some support from her friends and had the guts to put it out on cyberspace for all to read instead of keeping it to herself. Take a look at yourself. Is it that important to "defend" your point of view at a time like this? If you answer yes to that question, buddy I don't want to know you because obviously you care more about your own needs than anything else.
I don't read a lot of bloggers but I have a set rotation of those I enjoy for their intelligence, their humor, and their warmth. I don't always agree with them but I always enjoy reading what they think and they usually make me smile as well as think about what I believe too. There are some amazing people blogging today and Rachel Lucas is one of the best. So you asshats who feel obligated to give her a hard time take note, there are a lot of people out here like me and we don't take kindly to people who would insult someone in their time of need. If you do not have the common decency to act like a civilized human being then do the next best thing and shut the fuck up. The world would be a kindlier place if you just did that.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Weekend Update
It was a pretty quiet weekend on the home front this weekend. No major poker tourneys to play in, or minor ones either. Was a little money tight so didn't want to spend a lot. I did play a fair amount online actually. Lately I have been playing this tourney that is half No Limit Holdem and half Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo. I'm a decent hold em player but I play a lot of Omaha and I think I have an advantage against most of the players when we play Omaha. Last 2 times I have played this tourney I have finished 4th and 3rd. I would have made the money time before that if the guy I had caught bluffing hadn't caught a runner runner straight to almost knock me out too.
So I have been slowly building a stack online now mostly playing low stakes Omaha Hi Lo ring games and these occasional tourney cashes and I have played enough to qualify for these bigger freerolls. Saturday there was a $1000 free roll that payed a top prize of $150 that I qualified for. I managed to last 4 whole hands in that one lol. I had AQ, called a raise to 80 and flopped 2 pair on A-Q-10 flop only to lose to the raiser with KJ who flopped the nut straight. Sucked to be me. I feared the straight but thats the way it goes. But I noticed I had almost qualified for a $10,000 free roll on Sunday so I played some Omaha and made a few bucks that night and played enough Sunday to qualify for the 10K tourney. That was fun I must admit. I managed to suck out a straight on the river with AK when a Jack fell. The guy I beat was PISSED. He was going off on me being a donkey, etc etc. And it was a slightly donkey play but he forgot one cardinal rule. Make sure you bet enough to not make it worth my while to stay in.
He raised to 150 over blinds of 25-50. I raised to 450 with Ace of hearts and King of Diamonds and he called along with 2 other guys. Flop came Q-10-8 with 2 diamonds. He bet 600 into a 2 thousand chip pot and I thought a second and called. I figured him for either a low pair or maybe AQ or QJ and he caught the queen. The way I watched him play, he was easily capable of raising on QJ and calling my reraise. But a king or jack wins it for me I figure. Next card is the 9 of diamonds. If he has something like QJ he has the straight already. But I have the king of diamonds along with 3 others on the board and a jack still makes my straight so at worst, unless he is holding the A of diamonds which I sincerely doubt, I have 3 jacks and 9 diamonds that will win for me, or maybe only 2 jacks if he has QJ. As it turns out, I was wrong and he had flopped a set (so he said, he never showed) and he bets 1200 on the turn. The pot had 3200 before he bet and so I figured my odds at 34-12 or a little under 3 to 1 to get a winner vs his bet of almost 4-1 pot odds and called him again. Next card is a lovely jack of clubs. He thinks a second and bets another 1200. I wait a second and raise him all in. He folds after thinking for a while and says AK so I decide to show I did have AK and that sets him off!!
He starts talking about what a donkey I am for calling, that I'm a calling station etc etc. And it was a little donkeyish as he pissed me off for calling my raise on inferior cards (I felt) and he had raised me off some other pots before when I didn't catch. But it all came down to money and odds. He gave me too good odds to stay in the pot. Yes he apparently flopped a monster, my guess is he had 8-8 or 10-10 preflop but maybe he had QQ. He wanted to keep me in the hand to suck out as much money as he could so he kept the bets reasonable but by the turn, I was getting decent odds to stay in with 3 diamonds and a gutshot straight draw. So it was proper for me to call him down. I mentioned to him that he bet 1200 into a 3200 pot and asked him what kind of odds he gave me. Well he didn't want to hear that now. Of course most players don't want to hear it when they have goofed and allowed someone to suck out on them. But unless you have quads or a straight flush, you are often times taking a chance on exactly that happening if you underbet a pot. He bets 2K on the turn and I have to let it go because I'm not getting good enough odds to call. I almost let it go anyway because the one thing about pot odds in tourneys is that you can play the pot odds perfectly right up till you go bust. Then you cannot reload and try again lol. It's not like playing in a ring game. Our table broke before I was able to watch him go bust which was too bad. What really pissed me off was someone else sucked out on him another time and he went off on that guy being a donkey etc. He may have been right as I don't remember if the guy played good odds or what, but take your beats like a man.
On Saturday night I also played some Omaha at the Dog track. I had some good luck on my first hand and won a decent pot so I was up all night while we played. I turned my $60 buyin to $160 but then went card dead. A lot of bad hands and the good hands caught crap. A-2-3-6 and the flop is JJ9 and crap like that. Twice the dealer flips one of my cards over while dealing to me and both times its a freaking Ace. When you aren't getting decent cards and the best card possible keeps getting burned it irritates you. The first time it happened I just laughed and then the very next hand I look at my cards and its A-J-A.................. and the last card is ANOTHER FREAKING ACE. If you don't play omaha, hands that contain 3 of a kind are really bad hands because you can only use 2 cards in any hand so it's hard to win with it. I was in the small blind so I called the $1 to see the flop but the last Ace didn't hit and neither did K-Q-10 to complete a straight for me so I immediately dumped to the first bet. But I stuck it out and stayed in with mostly solid hands and eventually turned it around. I did stay in on a hand that wasn't very good and got proved why you don't play crap. I ended up turning a full house 9's full of J's but lost to J's full of 9's and I had to call it down even though I figured him for that hand just because it was possible he had something else. There are some really loose players in Omaha who think any flush or full house is the nuts (it's that holdem background again, where full house over full house is nearly unheard of but in omaha you can see it quite often, especially if you play shit cards lol) and they win some big pots but if you watch, they lose it all back.
I was losing enough chips back that I was getting ready to quit if I lost enough to fall back to 60 again but the cards finally turned and I flopped a flush with an A-5 low. If someone had A-4 they had a better low because a 2-3 were on the board but the flush held up and I had a number of callers on the hand that it turned out was a winner for both ends. That pulled me from 80 to 130 bucks. I fell back a bit but hit a winner on my last hand to finish out at 130 when the table broke. So it was a successful stint on the tables even if it wasn't as successful as it could have been.
So I have been slowly building a stack online now mostly playing low stakes Omaha Hi Lo ring games and these occasional tourney cashes and I have played enough to qualify for these bigger freerolls. Saturday there was a $1000 free roll that payed a top prize of $150 that I qualified for. I managed to last 4 whole hands in that one lol. I had AQ, called a raise to 80 and flopped 2 pair on A-Q-10 flop only to lose to the raiser with KJ who flopped the nut straight. Sucked to be me. I feared the straight but thats the way it goes. But I noticed I had almost qualified for a $10,000 free roll on Sunday so I played some Omaha and made a few bucks that night and played enough Sunday to qualify for the 10K tourney. That was fun I must admit. I managed to suck out a straight on the river with AK when a Jack fell. The guy I beat was PISSED. He was going off on me being a donkey, etc etc. And it was a slightly donkey play but he forgot one cardinal rule. Make sure you bet enough to not make it worth my while to stay in.
He raised to 150 over blinds of 25-50. I raised to 450 with Ace of hearts and King of Diamonds and he called along with 2 other guys. Flop came Q-10-8 with 2 diamonds. He bet 600 into a 2 thousand chip pot and I thought a second and called. I figured him for either a low pair or maybe AQ or QJ and he caught the queen. The way I watched him play, he was easily capable of raising on QJ and calling my reraise. But a king or jack wins it for me I figure. Next card is the 9 of diamonds. If he has something like QJ he has the straight already. But I have the king of diamonds along with 3 others on the board and a jack still makes my straight so at worst, unless he is holding the A of diamonds which I sincerely doubt, I have 3 jacks and 9 diamonds that will win for me, or maybe only 2 jacks if he has QJ. As it turns out, I was wrong and he had flopped a set (so he said, he never showed) and he bets 1200 on the turn. The pot had 3200 before he bet and so I figured my odds at 34-12 or a little under 3 to 1 to get a winner vs his bet of almost 4-1 pot odds and called him again. Next card is a lovely jack of clubs. He thinks a second and bets another 1200. I wait a second and raise him all in. He folds after thinking for a while and says AK so I decide to show I did have AK and that sets him off!!
He starts talking about what a donkey I am for calling, that I'm a calling station etc etc. And it was a little donkeyish as he pissed me off for calling my raise on inferior cards (I felt) and he had raised me off some other pots before when I didn't catch. But it all came down to money and odds. He gave me too good odds to stay in the pot. Yes he apparently flopped a monster, my guess is he had 8-8 or 10-10 preflop but maybe he had QQ. He wanted to keep me in the hand to suck out as much money as he could so he kept the bets reasonable but by the turn, I was getting decent odds to stay in with 3 diamonds and a gutshot straight draw. So it was proper for me to call him down. I mentioned to him that he bet 1200 into a 3200 pot and asked him what kind of odds he gave me. Well he didn't want to hear that now. Of course most players don't want to hear it when they have goofed and allowed someone to suck out on them. But unless you have quads or a straight flush, you are often times taking a chance on exactly that happening if you underbet a pot. He bets 2K on the turn and I have to let it go because I'm not getting good enough odds to call. I almost let it go anyway because the one thing about pot odds in tourneys is that you can play the pot odds perfectly right up till you go bust. Then you cannot reload and try again lol. It's not like playing in a ring game. Our table broke before I was able to watch him go bust which was too bad. What really pissed me off was someone else sucked out on him another time and he went off on that guy being a donkey etc. He may have been right as I don't remember if the guy played good odds or what, but take your beats like a man.
On Saturday night I also played some Omaha at the Dog track. I had some good luck on my first hand and won a decent pot so I was up all night while we played. I turned my $60 buyin to $160 but then went card dead. A lot of bad hands and the good hands caught crap. A-2-3-6 and the flop is JJ9 and crap like that. Twice the dealer flips one of my cards over while dealing to me and both times its a freaking Ace. When you aren't getting decent cards and the best card possible keeps getting burned it irritates you. The first time it happened I just laughed and then the very next hand I look at my cards and its A-J-A.................. and the last card is ANOTHER FREAKING ACE. If you don't play omaha, hands that contain 3 of a kind are really bad hands because you can only use 2 cards in any hand so it's hard to win with it. I was in the small blind so I called the $1 to see the flop but the last Ace didn't hit and neither did K-Q-10 to complete a straight for me so I immediately dumped to the first bet. But I stuck it out and stayed in with mostly solid hands and eventually turned it around. I did stay in on a hand that wasn't very good and got proved why you don't play crap. I ended up turning a full house 9's full of J's but lost to J's full of 9's and I had to call it down even though I figured him for that hand just because it was possible he had something else. There are some really loose players in Omaha who think any flush or full house is the nuts (it's that holdem background again, where full house over full house is nearly unheard of but in omaha you can see it quite often, especially if you play shit cards lol) and they win some big pots but if you watch, they lose it all back.
I was losing enough chips back that I was getting ready to quit if I lost enough to fall back to 60 again but the cards finally turned and I flopped a flush with an A-5 low. If someone had A-4 they had a better low because a 2-3 were on the board but the flush held up and I had a number of callers on the hand that it turned out was a winner for both ends. That pulled me from 80 to 130 bucks. I fell back a bit but hit a winner on my last hand to finish out at 130 when the table broke. So it was a successful stint on the tables even if it wasn't as successful as it could have been.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Well Whoopdee Doo
So, apparently our Democratic challenger for president is a black man. Barack Obama. Let me get this out of the way. Yippee, hip hip hooray. Ok that's done. Now if I don't hear anything more from him for awhile, or from his stupid wife, I will be fine. Because I have some very serious doubts about his candidacy that's for sure.
First off, what has he done? Nothing at all. He's a very junior senator who has no clue about foreign or domestic policy running on a platform of "change and hope" Change for what? Hope to do what? Well according to him and especially his wife, change the tax laws to take more money from people who work for a living and give it to people who don't. I mean if you are running on a platform of "change" don't you think you want to put out some concrete plans about what you want to change? Oh one thing he is willing to change is he wants to sit down with the leaders of outlaw states N. Korea and Iran and negotiate. Negotiate what? Is he gonna negotiate Iran from sending people into Iraq and causing trouble. Thats a big duh. But then he probably doesn't believe Iran is doing anything in Iran. Ole Nancy Pelosi is even worse. Instead of giving credit to the administration when they get something right like the troop surge and General Petraeus' handling of the war over there she credits Iran for negotiating an end to hostilities in Basra. Yes that's right, I fucking RAN. She didn't credit our troops, she didn't credit the Iraqi troops who did a lot of the work in Basra, she didn't even credit the Iraqi people who have turned on Al Qaeda, nope it was due to the good will of Iran. I suppose that means we should be happy if Iran reduces it's terror operations in another country and give it credit for doing less of what it shouldn't be doing in the first place. Nancy Pelosi is a miserable excuse of a California politico who is more interested in winning elections than in supporting her own country. People like that in positions of power are what gives aid and comfort to our enemies.
Now don't get me wrong, we have a right to disagree with each other, hell this country was founded on dissent. But come on people. Some clown saying that from a soapbox on the corner is one thing but the highest ranked member of congress saying that is completely bogus and she is patently doing a disservice to the people who have gone overseas and sacrificed, some of them have sacrificed their lives, to allow her to say stupid shit like that.
Now on to other stupid shit. Seems to me Barack Obama is getting a major free pass on his affiliation with Rev Wright and the Trinity Church. Oh sure, now that he has disassociated himself from the church and from Rev Wright (and Fr Phleger too who as a lapsed Catholic really really sickens me) we are supposed to feel all warm and fuzzy about him. Yet I was reading an interview he gave a few years ago when he was a newly elected senator. The interview was mostly about his beliefs and his church association etc. In the interview he specifically says he goes to that church "every week, 11 am service" So you tell me how he misses all of those anti American, anti white diatribes ole Rev Wright is spinning out from the pulpit. How does he sit there, as a senator, a representative of his country, while Wright is going on about how the government is responsible for AIDs in this country and in giving it to black people? And he does nothing about his associations with these people until he gets called on the carpet about it by the press, amazing they even noticed considering how far over they are leaning on his candidacy (must have been the NY Times since they were big Hilly supporters) and now we are supposed to think he doesn't feel the same way? Let me tell you, if I go to church and the pastor is going on about how the government is doing all these bad things, and is telling falsehoods to get his point across, I'm not going back. I expect politicos to lie, but I don't expect the people who interpret the word of God to do that right in front of me on Sunday morning at 11 am.
So in 6 months we have the election. I know a lot of conservatives are not sold on John McCain who they call a Republican in Name Only. I know he doesn't thrill me to tears either. But I also know some other things. Like he was a man who was willing to give his life for his country. He comes from a naval family, both his dad and grandad were admirals in the navy, I think his great grandad was too actually. He is a man of principals who could have gotten released from prison camp early since he was son of an admiral but chose to stay until people there longer than him were released which meant he stayed till the end of the war. I know he supports the troops and what they are trying to accomplish in Iraq. He won't pull them out before Iraq is ready to take care of itself and as much as I don't want them over in Iraq, now that we are there, we better do the job right. He supports America's friends and won't negotiate with outlaws. I think I'll take a chance on his not being as conservative as I would like over the chance Barack Obama fucks everything up and I end up paying for the rest of my life. Cuz in 4 or 8 years ole Barry won't be around for me to kick anymore but his policies, his taxes, and his screwed up foreign policies will haunt us long after he is gone.
First off, what has he done? Nothing at all. He's a very junior senator who has no clue about foreign or domestic policy running on a platform of "change and hope" Change for what? Hope to do what? Well according to him and especially his wife, change the tax laws to take more money from people who work for a living and give it to people who don't. I mean if you are running on a platform of "change" don't you think you want to put out some concrete plans about what you want to change? Oh one thing he is willing to change is he wants to sit down with the leaders of outlaw states N. Korea and Iran and negotiate. Negotiate what? Is he gonna negotiate Iran from sending people into Iraq and causing trouble. Thats a big duh. But then he probably doesn't believe Iran is doing anything in Iran. Ole Nancy Pelosi is even worse. Instead of giving credit to the administration when they get something right like the troop surge and General Petraeus' handling of the war over there she credits Iran for negotiating an end to hostilities in Basra. Yes that's right, I fucking RAN. She didn't credit our troops, she didn't credit the Iraqi troops who did a lot of the work in Basra, she didn't even credit the Iraqi people who have turned on Al Qaeda, nope it was due to the good will of Iran. I suppose that means we should be happy if Iran reduces it's terror operations in another country and give it credit for doing less of what it shouldn't be doing in the first place. Nancy Pelosi is a miserable excuse of a California politico who is more interested in winning elections than in supporting her own country. People like that in positions of power are what gives aid and comfort to our enemies.
Now don't get me wrong, we have a right to disagree with each other, hell this country was founded on dissent. But come on people. Some clown saying that from a soapbox on the corner is one thing but the highest ranked member of congress saying that is completely bogus and she is patently doing a disservice to the people who have gone overseas and sacrificed, some of them have sacrificed their lives, to allow her to say stupid shit like that.
Now on to other stupid shit. Seems to me Barack Obama is getting a major free pass on his affiliation with Rev Wright and the Trinity Church. Oh sure, now that he has disassociated himself from the church and from Rev Wright (and Fr Phleger too who as a lapsed Catholic really really sickens me) we are supposed to feel all warm and fuzzy about him. Yet I was reading an interview he gave a few years ago when he was a newly elected senator. The interview was mostly about his beliefs and his church association etc. In the interview he specifically says he goes to that church "every week, 11 am service" So you tell me how he misses all of those anti American, anti white diatribes ole Rev Wright is spinning out from the pulpit. How does he sit there, as a senator, a representative of his country, while Wright is going on about how the government is responsible for AIDs in this country and in giving it to black people? And he does nothing about his associations with these people until he gets called on the carpet about it by the press, amazing they even noticed considering how far over they are leaning on his candidacy (must have been the NY Times since they were big Hilly supporters) and now we are supposed to think he doesn't feel the same way? Let me tell you, if I go to church and the pastor is going on about how the government is doing all these bad things, and is telling falsehoods to get his point across, I'm not going back. I expect politicos to lie, but I don't expect the people who interpret the word of God to do that right in front of me on Sunday morning at 11 am.
So in 6 months we have the election. I know a lot of conservatives are not sold on John McCain who they call a Republican in Name Only. I know he doesn't thrill me to tears either. But I also know some other things. Like he was a man who was willing to give his life for his country. He comes from a naval family, both his dad and grandad were admirals in the navy, I think his great grandad was too actually. He is a man of principals who could have gotten released from prison camp early since he was son of an admiral but chose to stay until people there longer than him were released which meant he stayed till the end of the war. I know he supports the troops and what they are trying to accomplish in Iraq. He won't pull them out before Iraq is ready to take care of itself and as much as I don't want them over in Iraq, now that we are there, we better do the job right. He supports America's friends and won't negotiate with outlaws. I think I'll take a chance on his not being as conservative as I would like over the chance Barack Obama fucks everything up and I end up paying for the rest of my life. Cuz in 4 or 8 years ole Barry won't be around for me to kick anymore but his policies, his taxes, and his screwed up foreign policies will haunt us long after he is gone.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
A donkey by any other name .....
Sure I felt ready to play in the WSOP qualifier this past weekend. I had been patient, avoiding trouble hands and big pots when I didn't have the goods, and playing aggressive when I was in a hand. Funny how things can change
We started with 10,000 chip stacks and 30 minute blinds so there was no pressure to play fast and loose to build a stack. That can work for or against you. If you are picking up some nice hands and people feel pressured to make moves with marginal hands, you can make some big chips fast but if you are on the other end, it can cost you fast. This way, you get time to settle in and play.
I started off slowly, making a few calls with suited connectors and either not hitting or getting raised off the pot. I made sure I wasn't doing anything in early position as that's just suicidal. And I'm not catching anything either. There are a couple of aggressive players at the other end of the table and so I am avoiding calling and having them raise me off it. Then I get 7-7 from early position. I want to play these and I don't want to be raised up if I limp so I raise to 200 (blinds are 25-50). I get 3 callers. Haven't raised a pot yet and as soon as I do, everyone wants to call. Flop comes A-5-4. I'm sure at least one guy has an ace and I hope he is weak like A-8 and not A-4 so I bet 400 trying to represent a big ace. Guy folds and the aggressive guy further on raises to 800. Now I'm fairly certain I am up against either a set or 2 pair because if I am on AK, he would be foolish to raise me on Ace anything else. Everyone else folds and I decide to call him. Next card is a 6, a good card for me giving me both ends of a straight draw. I check and he bets 600, which puzzled me a bit cuz it looked weak. I thought he would bet more into this one as he had been pretty liberal with his chips. If he makes a bigger bet, I probably have to chuck it as the pot odds aren't good enough for me to play this hand. To me this narrowed his hand down to a big ace or a small 2 pair as a set or top 2 pair would try to move me off the pot. Of course he may be afraid I have a set too, though I don't see that. Anyway final card is a blank. I check, he is obviously confused by my wacko play and checks showing me AQ to take it down. I felt pretty stupid and wondered if I should have pushed the last bet but I just didn't want to get involved in a huge pot on a bluff. Not at that point.
The next 2 hours or so is a blur of lousy hands and decent cards that hit nothing. I did get to see 9-3 and 10-5 a number of times each but never saw AK or a big pocket pair. I am slowly bleeding chips as the antes kick in after the first break but still have some chips at least. By time of the second break I am down to 5400 and haven't played a hand past the flop in well over an hour. The only hand I thought about playing and didn't, K-9 suited in middle position, I decided to dump because I couldn't stand a raise then. Of course no one raises, the flop is K-9-9 and I want to shoot myself.
We come back after the flop and I'm talking to the guy on my left who is also short stacked. Guy next to him has made some big chips and the guy next to him is the one I want to play against. He is obviously used to playing in low limit tables as he is making some very thin calls with 2nd and 3rd pair against raises. And winning when other guys have AK and don't catch. He knocked out the first guy on my left when he called his healthy raise with A5 suited. Flop is 9-10-J, guy makes another good sized bet and he calls that. Next card is a 5 and the guy pushes all in and Mr Low Limit calls with a pair of 5s. He has to put this guy on a complete bluff which it was cuz he had AK but still, he could have had QQ in that position too. Last card is a 2 and he takes the pot and knocks this guy out. That was the 3rd time I had seen him go to the river on a hand I wouldn't have called originally. Of course I never get cards up against him cuz I know if I have top pair, I'm going all the way with him.
But of course he gives away all his chips before I ever get a hand so I don't taste any. I do win a couple of pots from the blinds, once with 5-5 which held up all the way to the river and another with a 7-3 when I river a 7. So my stack is building back up slowly to about 7K. Then I pull AQ in the small blind. 4 people call to me and I decide to just call the blind too. I hate playing AQ in early position and if I raise it and don't catch an A or Q I probably have to fold it cuz I'm not going broke with that hand again!! Since blinds are now 300-600 I would need to raise it to at least 1500-2000 and thats a good chunk of my chips so I would rather see the flop first, then make a decision. Flop comes down Q-7-3. I bet out 1800 and get one caller, the big stack 2 places to my left. Next card is a Jack. I was going to bet another 3000 but that only leaves me a little over a thousand behind so I decide to push all in. He calls and I wonder if he has QJ but he tables Q8 so I am ahead by a good bit. Last card is a 9 (thought it was an 8 when it first flipped) and I pick up a good pot which gets me up to 17K.
After that I lose some blinds and one hand when I flop zippo with AJ. Guy to my left gets AA, guy to my right also gets them, but they keep avoiding me, as do KK and QQ. I'm down to about 14K when I pick up 10-10 on the button. Guy who is new to the table raises to 1500 from 3 seats to my right. He had just raised a couple hands ago and picked up the blinds. I raise him to 4000. He goes all in for about 11K and I start to think. I really put him on a steal on that hand. He was fairly late in the hand and it just feels right, but maybe he has a big ace. I'm favored over either hand though not by much over big ace. For some reason I didn't think he had a big pocket pair. So I call him for most of my chips and of course he has AA now. Sucks to be me. Needless to say a 10 did not hit the board and I was crippled. Not long after that I was out.
I'd like to say I played well except for that hand or I was unlucky but really, I was a donkey and I made a few mistakes during the tourney. Usually unless you are all in, you can come back from a couple of mistakes if you play solidly. But going all the way back to the 7-7 debacle earlier and the 10's near then end, I really did not play all that well when I had a good amount of chips riding on it. I'd like to think I could have gotten away from the last big hand if I had just called his raise and seen the flop but in reality I probably still would have gotten hammered. The flop was 9 and below (I actually had a straight draw on the river) and one of us would have bet after that flop for sure. And I probably would have put him on big ace then too. Maybe I would have gotten away from it but there was a pretty good chance I wouldn't have. And that's on me, I had made up my mind and didn't look at the range of hands. And I should have. His initial raise was not that big, could easily have been for a big hand. Still in the middle I didn't play poorly, I stayed out of hands a lot and when I did make something decent, I got all my value out of it. So I would grade my self a C+ or maybe B- for the day. Unfortunately I would have needed A- to hit the money that day. And some luck lol. Oh well it was a learning experience.
We started with 10,000 chip stacks and 30 minute blinds so there was no pressure to play fast and loose to build a stack. That can work for or against you. If you are picking up some nice hands and people feel pressured to make moves with marginal hands, you can make some big chips fast but if you are on the other end, it can cost you fast. This way, you get time to settle in and play.
I started off slowly, making a few calls with suited connectors and either not hitting or getting raised off the pot. I made sure I wasn't doing anything in early position as that's just suicidal. And I'm not catching anything either. There are a couple of aggressive players at the other end of the table and so I am avoiding calling and having them raise me off it. Then I get 7-7 from early position. I want to play these and I don't want to be raised up if I limp so I raise to 200 (blinds are 25-50). I get 3 callers. Haven't raised a pot yet and as soon as I do, everyone wants to call. Flop comes A-5-4. I'm sure at least one guy has an ace and I hope he is weak like A-8 and not A-4 so I bet 400 trying to represent a big ace. Guy folds and the aggressive guy further on raises to 800. Now I'm fairly certain I am up against either a set or 2 pair because if I am on AK, he would be foolish to raise me on Ace anything else. Everyone else folds and I decide to call him. Next card is a 6, a good card for me giving me both ends of a straight draw. I check and he bets 600, which puzzled me a bit cuz it looked weak. I thought he would bet more into this one as he had been pretty liberal with his chips. If he makes a bigger bet, I probably have to chuck it as the pot odds aren't good enough for me to play this hand. To me this narrowed his hand down to a big ace or a small 2 pair as a set or top 2 pair would try to move me off the pot. Of course he may be afraid I have a set too, though I don't see that. Anyway final card is a blank. I check, he is obviously confused by my wacko play and checks showing me AQ to take it down. I felt pretty stupid and wondered if I should have pushed the last bet but I just didn't want to get involved in a huge pot on a bluff. Not at that point.
The next 2 hours or so is a blur of lousy hands and decent cards that hit nothing. I did get to see 9-3 and 10-5 a number of times each but never saw AK or a big pocket pair. I am slowly bleeding chips as the antes kick in after the first break but still have some chips at least. By time of the second break I am down to 5400 and haven't played a hand past the flop in well over an hour. The only hand I thought about playing and didn't, K-9 suited in middle position, I decided to dump because I couldn't stand a raise then. Of course no one raises, the flop is K-9-9 and I want to shoot myself.
We come back after the flop and I'm talking to the guy on my left who is also short stacked. Guy next to him has made some big chips and the guy next to him is the one I want to play against. He is obviously used to playing in low limit tables as he is making some very thin calls with 2nd and 3rd pair against raises. And winning when other guys have AK and don't catch. He knocked out the first guy on my left when he called his healthy raise with A5 suited. Flop is 9-10-J, guy makes another good sized bet and he calls that. Next card is a 5 and the guy pushes all in and Mr Low Limit calls with a pair of 5s. He has to put this guy on a complete bluff which it was cuz he had AK but still, he could have had QQ in that position too. Last card is a 2 and he takes the pot and knocks this guy out. That was the 3rd time I had seen him go to the river on a hand I wouldn't have called originally. Of course I never get cards up against him cuz I know if I have top pair, I'm going all the way with him.
But of course he gives away all his chips before I ever get a hand so I don't taste any. I do win a couple of pots from the blinds, once with 5-5 which held up all the way to the river and another with a 7-3 when I river a 7. So my stack is building back up slowly to about 7K. Then I pull AQ in the small blind. 4 people call to me and I decide to just call the blind too. I hate playing AQ in early position and if I raise it and don't catch an A or Q I probably have to fold it cuz I'm not going broke with that hand again!! Since blinds are now 300-600 I would need to raise it to at least 1500-2000 and thats a good chunk of my chips so I would rather see the flop first, then make a decision. Flop comes down Q-7-3. I bet out 1800 and get one caller, the big stack 2 places to my left. Next card is a Jack. I was going to bet another 3000 but that only leaves me a little over a thousand behind so I decide to push all in. He calls and I wonder if he has QJ but he tables Q8 so I am ahead by a good bit. Last card is a 9 (thought it was an 8 when it first flipped) and I pick up a good pot which gets me up to 17K.
After that I lose some blinds and one hand when I flop zippo with AJ. Guy to my left gets AA, guy to my right also gets them, but they keep avoiding me, as do KK and QQ. I'm down to about 14K when I pick up 10-10 on the button. Guy who is new to the table raises to 1500 from 3 seats to my right. He had just raised a couple hands ago and picked up the blinds. I raise him to 4000. He goes all in for about 11K and I start to think. I really put him on a steal on that hand. He was fairly late in the hand and it just feels right, but maybe he has a big ace. I'm favored over either hand though not by much over big ace. For some reason I didn't think he had a big pocket pair. So I call him for most of my chips and of course he has AA now. Sucks to be me. Needless to say a 10 did not hit the board and I was crippled. Not long after that I was out.
I'd like to say I played well except for that hand or I was unlucky but really, I was a donkey and I made a few mistakes during the tourney. Usually unless you are all in, you can come back from a couple of mistakes if you play solidly. But going all the way back to the 7-7 debacle earlier and the 10's near then end, I really did not play all that well when I had a good amount of chips riding on it. I'd like to think I could have gotten away from the last big hand if I had just called his raise and seen the flop but in reality I probably still would have gotten hammered. The flop was 9 and below (I actually had a straight draw on the river) and one of us would have bet after that flop for sure. And I probably would have put him on big ace then too. Maybe I would have gotten away from it but there was a pretty good chance I wouldn't have. And that's on me, I had made up my mind and didn't look at the range of hands. And I should have. His initial raise was not that big, could easily have been for a big hand. Still in the middle I didn't play poorly, I stayed out of hands a lot and when I did make something decent, I got all my value out of it. So I would grade my self a C+ or maybe B- for the day. Unfortunately I would have needed A- to hit the money that day. And some luck lol. Oh well it was a learning experience.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Omaha in Florida? who'd a thunk it
Because of the holiday weekend and being a little flush with cash from finishing second on Saturday night, I decided to play in the Sunday night Omaha tourney at the Tampa dog track. I don't usually play there because it's a little bit of a haul for me to go that far and they almost never have an Omaha Hi/Lo ring game going and I don't care for low limit holdem anymore. They don't usually have that going there either come to think of it, its almost all 1-2 no limit going there. But they do have a Sunday night Omaha Hi tourney. It's not my best game by a long shot but I do enjoy it so I decided to play it.
Only about 40 people sign up. You start with 2500 in chips for $25 and you can do 1 rebuy for $20 to get 3000 chips and 1 add on at the end of the first hour for another 3K chips for $20. So I start playing. A lot of young players at my table. As Teddy KGB said "Aggresyeve and Strong like a bull". I of course folded most of my hands because I was getting utter horseshit and when I had a decent hand, someone is raising the pot and I don't have that good a hand to put my whole stack in on at best a draw and not even 50/50. You know in Omaha a lot of times you'll fold a hand and the flop will come and you are wishing you could take that hand right back out of the muck because it hit you so well? I wasn't even getting that! My hands were so bad, so many times I had stuff like 2-3-7-J all different suits and crap. So I just kept dumping hands. I played a couple and the closest I got to winning was a having a 5-6 to go along with the 7-8-9 on the board but another guy had 6-10 for the higher straight so I lost that one too. Fortunately I didn't put many chips in so it didn't cost me much.
We get to the end of the hour and they ask if I want to rebuy and/or add on. I'm thinking if I shouldn't just say the hell with it since my cards are running so bad but I take the 6000 chips for $40. We start back up and it's more of the same except now the blinds are up and it's costing me chips every go round to fold. I do get to see some of the these young guys do some stupid crap with their chips though. 3 people call the $400 big blind and the button pots it to something like 3300. He has about 20K and is one of the chip leaders. All 3 people call. Flop comes 10 and two low cards and he pushes the rest of his stack in. 2 people call, guy to my right is all in with Q-Q-9-8, guy to my left is all in with J-10-10-9 and the original raiser is in with A-A-7-3. There is no flush draw on the board to speak of and he is pissed cuz 3 people called his raise and the guy with pocket 10s makes a boat and wins a monster pot. I can tell he is normally a holdem player just from his cards and his reaction. Yes having AA in Omaha is good but not so much with a 7 and a 3. Also he thinks these people called with crap but a good wrap hand like the winner had was probably a better hand than Mr AA had, especially after the flop. Even the guy who busted with QQ had a good enough hand to call the raise with, though maybe not the all in after the flop. Anyway, this guy could have gotten away after the flop with losing less than a quarter of his stack. Instead he is down to 4K after the hand, in my range now lol, and he immediately pushes all in on the next hand and loses the rest of it. I'm thinking, I can't even sniff a decent hand and these idiots are going busto with them.
So I'm still getting blinded down but we are down to 15 people or so. We've been playing for almost 2 hours and I have not won a hand. This is getting sad. I finally get into a hand from the big blind and I've got the nut flush draw and a back door straight draw I'm not even looking at, up against a set of 8s. Turn and river are the 3 and 5 and I make the wheel I wasn't even looking for to win the hand. This puts me up to the lofty amount of 6K in chips. Guy next to me is sitting on 25. Luckily people are going bust left and right it seems. I am still bleeding chips from the blinds trying to get some kind of playable cards when the director announces we are down to 11 people and one more bust puts us at 10 and the final table. I'm down to 2K in chips again, when some guy at the other table goes all in and loses and they break the action to seat us at the final table.
I get seat 4 and luckily they redraw the button and it's at seat 6 so I have a few hands to play before the blinds come my way. The blinds are up to 1000-2000 now so I have just enough to play one hand. A couple of hands after we start up, I look down at AK of clubs and 6-9 of hearts. Not a great hand but not bad either, especially compared to what I have been getting. So I push all in. There are 4 callers at this point so I can turn my 2000 into 10,000 if I get lucky. Flop is perfect for me, 5-7-8 and I pull the nut straight. I'm sweating because there are 2 diamonds and I'm just sure someone has 2 in his hand. A couple of big stacks start betting and 2 other guys get all in on the hand. Turn is a black 10 and now I'm worried someone is sitting on a J-9 for a higher straight than I have. Last card is a 4 of hearts. Big stack lady to my right bets 10K and gets called by the remaining big stack across the table. He flips over a set of 10's, she has 5-6 for a low straight and takes the side pot (which is a lot bigger than the main pot lol) while my 6-9 hold up for a bigger straight in the main pot and 2 guys are knocked out.
So we're down to 8 people, I have a few chips though only enough for 5 big blinds, and I finally start seeing some playable cards. I get all in on another pot with one of the big stacks and another guy who is also all in and pull it out though I cannot remember what I had. I pull it out though and increase my stack to 30K while the other guy goes bust. I'm still not a big stack but I'm not tiny anymore and people are respecting my bets, some of the time at least.
A few hands later I'm on the button and look at a beauty hand, AAQJ with the AQ of hearts. Guy 2 places to my right calls the blind and the lady with the large stack between us also calls. I raise the pot which bumps it to 11K and both of them call. Not what I'm looking for at all. The flop was also not what I was looking for either as it's 7-7-6 with 2 clubs. Guy bets the pot, lady next to him repots it and I know I'm up against it now and unlike the idiot at my last table, I can put down AA in this situation which I do. Guy pushes back all in and the lady calls him. He shows 8-9-10-J for a massive straight draw and he might have had 2 clubs for the flush too but the lady shows 6-6 for a made full house and he is drawing almost dead and goes out on that hand. The lady is now the massive chip leader with something like 90K cuz he had a fair stack and she got 11K out of me too. I am down to 19K now and in last place still but at least I avoided going bust. I'm talking to the lady telling her she has the money made now as she is such a large stack that she can fold down to final 2 or 3, but she doesn't want to play that way.
We go on break and a couple of guys are giving me a hard time telling me that everyone hates me because I have been all in 3-4 times now and not busted and we are one away from the money now. We are having fun but I am sweating it cuz I do want to hit the cash too. Next lowest stack to me has between 25 and 30 K so I am a fair amount behind and blinds are up to 2000/4000 now. I fold a hand when the guy to my left raises and the lady to my right calls him. He pushes all in on the turn, all low cards with 2 hearts and the big stack lady next to me thinks about it then calls him. He had a big straight wrap that he hit and she had 2 hearts and was trying to knock him out with a flush. Now he had a little over 40K preflop so she had to put in a nice chunk of change to call him but she didn't even think about it. Heart doesn't hit the river and he doubles up and becomes chip leader on that hand.
I don't know what is going on in this lady's mind to call that hand down and to play like that with such a big chip lead. I konw she won some races and marginal hands, maybe she felt invincible or something, but in her situation I would have been avoiding going all in with anyone unless I had the nuts or a massive draw with straight and flush. Or if she was up against a small stack like me, then the risk is minimal. Instead she gives up half her stack on one shot with just a flush draw. Next hand the 2 of them tangle again. She pushes on the flop and he calls her with a big straight draw again. Which he hits on the turn. She bets, he raises her, and she pushes all in. This time she has top set but he already has a made hand so she only has 10 outs. She doesn't catch and it's good night irene for her. From chip leader to bubble girl in 2 hands. And ole lucky Kevin is cashing now. Yippee!!
We shake our heads and talk a little bit after she is gone cuz we all can't believe she donked off all her chips like that when she was this close to cashing. Then play gets intense and I keep catching some good cards. I win a small hand with a set that I couldn't bet because of all the straight cards on the board. Then one guy goes all in against the chip leader next to me and damned if he doesn't catch another straight and take him out. I then manage to take out a guy in 4th place when I flop the nut flush and the board doesn't pair up to give him a boat. He was in the same position I had been with the lowest stack and the blinds eating him up and he found a decent spot to push it, just was unlucky I had already made my hand. We play 3 handed for a while and I am getting plenty of respect when I push now as I have been all in 5 times and won every one. And they can see I'm not pushing garbage either. Even though I am small stack now, I have 50K now. One guy has about 65 and the leader has about 130K and he isn't ready to chop as he has enough to cover us both right now.
Finally I flop top two pair with AJ and bet the pot. The next bigger stack raises me all in and I think about it a second then call him hoping we have a split or he's on a draw. Nope, he has bottom set which puts me behind. Unfortunately he also has a jack which is one of my outs. I don't catch on the turn or river and finish in 3rd. I am plenty pleased by this, especially the way the first 2 hours or so went, but I really felt I had a chance to win this one if I kept playing. But enough about that, I went about 6 places further than I should have lol. And that's 2 cashes in 2 days for me which is unheard of.
Now I felt fairly ready to tackle the WSOP satellite tourney I qualified for at Derby Lane. I'll post next about that.
Only about 40 people sign up. You start with 2500 in chips for $25 and you can do 1 rebuy for $20 to get 3000 chips and 1 add on at the end of the first hour for another 3K chips for $20. So I start playing. A lot of young players at my table. As Teddy KGB said "Aggresyeve and Strong like a bull". I of course folded most of my hands because I was getting utter horseshit and when I had a decent hand, someone is raising the pot and I don't have that good a hand to put my whole stack in on at best a draw and not even 50/50. You know in Omaha a lot of times you'll fold a hand and the flop will come and you are wishing you could take that hand right back out of the muck because it hit you so well? I wasn't even getting that! My hands were so bad, so many times I had stuff like 2-3-7-J all different suits and crap. So I just kept dumping hands. I played a couple and the closest I got to winning was a having a 5-6 to go along with the 7-8-9 on the board but another guy had 6-10 for the higher straight so I lost that one too. Fortunately I didn't put many chips in so it didn't cost me much.
We get to the end of the hour and they ask if I want to rebuy and/or add on. I'm thinking if I shouldn't just say the hell with it since my cards are running so bad but I take the 6000 chips for $40. We start back up and it's more of the same except now the blinds are up and it's costing me chips every go round to fold. I do get to see some of the these young guys do some stupid crap with their chips though. 3 people call the $400 big blind and the button pots it to something like 3300. He has about 20K and is one of the chip leaders. All 3 people call. Flop comes 10 and two low cards and he pushes the rest of his stack in. 2 people call, guy to my right is all in with Q-Q-9-8, guy to my left is all in with J-10-10-9 and the original raiser is in with A-A-7-3. There is no flush draw on the board to speak of and he is pissed cuz 3 people called his raise and the guy with pocket 10s makes a boat and wins a monster pot. I can tell he is normally a holdem player just from his cards and his reaction. Yes having AA in Omaha is good but not so much with a 7 and a 3. Also he thinks these people called with crap but a good wrap hand like the winner had was probably a better hand than Mr AA had, especially after the flop. Even the guy who busted with QQ had a good enough hand to call the raise with, though maybe not the all in after the flop. Anyway, this guy could have gotten away after the flop with losing less than a quarter of his stack. Instead he is down to 4K after the hand, in my range now lol, and he immediately pushes all in on the next hand and loses the rest of it. I'm thinking, I can't even sniff a decent hand and these idiots are going busto with them.
So I'm still getting blinded down but we are down to 15 people or so. We've been playing for almost 2 hours and I have not won a hand. This is getting sad. I finally get into a hand from the big blind and I've got the nut flush draw and a back door straight draw I'm not even looking at, up against a set of 8s. Turn and river are the 3 and 5 and I make the wheel I wasn't even looking for to win the hand. This puts me up to the lofty amount of 6K in chips. Guy next to me is sitting on 25. Luckily people are going bust left and right it seems. I am still bleeding chips from the blinds trying to get some kind of playable cards when the director announces we are down to 11 people and one more bust puts us at 10 and the final table. I'm down to 2K in chips again, when some guy at the other table goes all in and loses and they break the action to seat us at the final table.
I get seat 4 and luckily they redraw the button and it's at seat 6 so I have a few hands to play before the blinds come my way. The blinds are up to 1000-2000 now so I have just enough to play one hand. A couple of hands after we start up, I look down at AK of clubs and 6-9 of hearts. Not a great hand but not bad either, especially compared to what I have been getting. So I push all in. There are 4 callers at this point so I can turn my 2000 into 10,000 if I get lucky. Flop is perfect for me, 5-7-8 and I pull the nut straight. I'm sweating because there are 2 diamonds and I'm just sure someone has 2 in his hand. A couple of big stacks start betting and 2 other guys get all in on the hand. Turn is a black 10 and now I'm worried someone is sitting on a J-9 for a higher straight than I have. Last card is a 4 of hearts. Big stack lady to my right bets 10K and gets called by the remaining big stack across the table. He flips over a set of 10's, she has 5-6 for a low straight and takes the side pot (which is a lot bigger than the main pot lol) while my 6-9 hold up for a bigger straight in the main pot and 2 guys are knocked out.
So we're down to 8 people, I have a few chips though only enough for 5 big blinds, and I finally start seeing some playable cards. I get all in on another pot with one of the big stacks and another guy who is also all in and pull it out though I cannot remember what I had. I pull it out though and increase my stack to 30K while the other guy goes bust. I'm still not a big stack but I'm not tiny anymore and people are respecting my bets, some of the time at least.
A few hands later I'm on the button and look at a beauty hand, AAQJ with the AQ of hearts. Guy 2 places to my right calls the blind and the lady with the large stack between us also calls. I raise the pot which bumps it to 11K and both of them call. Not what I'm looking for at all. The flop was also not what I was looking for either as it's 7-7-6 with 2 clubs. Guy bets the pot, lady next to him repots it and I know I'm up against it now and unlike the idiot at my last table, I can put down AA in this situation which I do. Guy pushes back all in and the lady calls him. He shows 8-9-10-J for a massive straight draw and he might have had 2 clubs for the flush too but the lady shows 6-6 for a made full house and he is drawing almost dead and goes out on that hand. The lady is now the massive chip leader with something like 90K cuz he had a fair stack and she got 11K out of me too. I am down to 19K now and in last place still but at least I avoided going bust. I'm talking to the lady telling her she has the money made now as she is such a large stack that she can fold down to final 2 or 3, but she doesn't want to play that way.
We go on break and a couple of guys are giving me a hard time telling me that everyone hates me because I have been all in 3-4 times now and not busted and we are one away from the money now. We are having fun but I am sweating it cuz I do want to hit the cash too. Next lowest stack to me has between 25 and 30 K so I am a fair amount behind and blinds are up to 2000/4000 now. I fold a hand when the guy to my left raises and the lady to my right calls him. He pushes all in on the turn, all low cards with 2 hearts and the big stack lady next to me thinks about it then calls him. He had a big straight wrap that he hit and she had 2 hearts and was trying to knock him out with a flush. Now he had a little over 40K preflop so she had to put in a nice chunk of change to call him but she didn't even think about it. Heart doesn't hit the river and he doubles up and becomes chip leader on that hand.
I don't know what is going on in this lady's mind to call that hand down and to play like that with such a big chip lead. I konw she won some races and marginal hands, maybe she felt invincible or something, but in her situation I would have been avoiding going all in with anyone unless I had the nuts or a massive draw with straight and flush. Or if she was up against a small stack like me, then the risk is minimal. Instead she gives up half her stack on one shot with just a flush draw. Next hand the 2 of them tangle again. She pushes on the flop and he calls her with a big straight draw again. Which he hits on the turn. She bets, he raises her, and she pushes all in. This time she has top set but he already has a made hand so she only has 10 outs. She doesn't catch and it's good night irene for her. From chip leader to bubble girl in 2 hands. And ole lucky Kevin is cashing now. Yippee!!
We shake our heads and talk a little bit after she is gone cuz we all can't believe she donked off all her chips like that when she was this close to cashing. Then play gets intense and I keep catching some good cards. I win a small hand with a set that I couldn't bet because of all the straight cards on the board. Then one guy goes all in against the chip leader next to me and damned if he doesn't catch another straight and take him out. I then manage to take out a guy in 4th place when I flop the nut flush and the board doesn't pair up to give him a boat. He was in the same position I had been with the lowest stack and the blinds eating him up and he found a decent spot to push it, just was unlucky I had already made my hand. We play 3 handed for a while and I am getting plenty of respect when I push now as I have been all in 5 times and won every one. And they can see I'm not pushing garbage either. Even though I am small stack now, I have 50K now. One guy has about 65 and the leader has about 130K and he isn't ready to chop as he has enough to cover us both right now.
Finally I flop top two pair with AJ and bet the pot. The next bigger stack raises me all in and I think about it a second then call him hoping we have a split or he's on a draw. Nope, he has bottom set which puts me behind. Unfortunately he also has a jack which is one of my outs. I don't catch on the turn or river and finish in 3rd. I am plenty pleased by this, especially the way the first 2 hours or so went, but I really felt I had a chance to win this one if I kept playing. But enough about that, I went about 6 places further than I should have lol. And that's 2 cashes in 2 days for me which is unheard of.
Now I felt fairly ready to tackle the WSOP satellite tourney I qualified for at Derby Lane. I'll post next about that.
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