Done
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Good luck and tell me where to send the money.
I give.
posted by GaryC @ 6:47 PM,
,
Over The Edge
*Warning! Bad beat stories and hand histories straight ahead. If you don’t like them, don’t read them.*
tilt(verb) - the act of tilting, especially useful in describing a poor poker player.
1) To spew chips off right and left due to circumstances completely out of your control.
2) To break things in your general vicinity when beaten by an inferior hand.
3) To immediately sit out and watch A-K and A-Q suited folded because you are steaming too bad to play them
Ugh! Last night was a microcosm of how things have gone for me lately on the poker front. Three hands in near succession pushed me completely over the brink and into one of the biggest bouts with TILT that I have ever had to deal with personally.
The first hand occurred in a cash game where I was heads up with a short stack. I raise in LP with A-J and only the big blind calls. The flop comes out J-2-3 rainbow and I am trying to decide how I can keep this idiot around when he fires out a pot-sized bet.(about $3.00) I smooth call and the turn is an 8 and again, I am trying to decide how in the world I can get more money out of him when he pushes his remaining $12.00 into the pot. Cool, I think to myself, I call. He flips up 5-8 off-suit and promptly catches a 5 on the river to double up. I believe that was a 5-outer and when somebody (another guy at the table) asked this joker what he was thinking, he says he was “pot committed.” Aaah, I guess when you call a pre-flop raise with 5-8 off-suit, you automatically have to put all your chips in the middle, huh?
Obviously, this is just the joker I want at my cash table, but damn, that was a tough one to stomach, especially watching this jackass dispense my money to everybody else at the table but me. By the way, this was at PokerShare and if you can find a near full table, I have seen nothing to make me think 75% of the players are just like this guy.
Fast forward through a SNG at Stars where I came back heads up and beat my opponent when my A-J beat his J-9 and we are ready for the start of the Mookie. I don’t remember the hand or the opponent but I doubled up fairly early on in this tournament. I do remember that I was ahead when I called the all-in and considered myself “lucky” to hold up.
Then comes the second hand. DrewsPop is sitting directly to my right and is in the small blind. It folds around to him and he just calls. I check with K-J in the big blind and we see a Jack high flop. He leads out a min. bet and I raise. First off, let me say right here that the reason I am raising here is that there is no way in the world he has A-J or Q-Q or better. I know this. Chris is a solid player and would have taken my blind right there if that were the case. I don’t say “solid player” from reading his blog or anything else, I’ve played at the same table with him many times and I know for a fact that if he has A-J or better there, he is raising from the small blind and I probably fold my K-J. I know from watching him play that he is a good player and I respect his game.
Anyway, for some reason, I know I am good here. I can feel it all the way down to my toes. We end up getting all the money in and he turns over Q-J and I have him dominated. That is, until the three-outer hits on the river and I am down to around 1500 chips again, instead of sitting at around 3500 and in good shape to make a run in this tournament. Let me add here that I am/was not upset with Chris or his play here. He was outchipped and needed to make a move and thought his hand was good here, so I might have done the exact same thing in his situation, but combining that three-outer with the earlier beat was not good for my psyche. I sat out for a while, steaming the entire time and by the time I got my head back in the fucking game, I was down to around 1000 chips.
Then came the final nail in my coffin last night. I move all-in with 2-2 and get called by either A-Q or A-K, don’t really remember which. Anyway, he hit his pair right off the bat to take the lead and the board puts three to a flush out there as well.(HIS flush by the way, not mine) Of course, RiverStars sees fit to tease me a little bit by giving me my set on the river, but it just happens to be the fourth diamond and his flush takes it down.
After the final hand, I immediately logged off and went to bed…..madder than a mother fucker. I will be withdrawing my money from PokerStars for a while and moving it around a bit to see if I can find some success elsewhere. I don’t think there is any big conspiracy in play here or that their RNG is out of whack, but there is absolutely no reason for me to continue to throw money away there, knowing full well that my attitude is in the crapper right now when it comes to that particular site. I don’t think that on-line poker is rigged, nor do I think their River card is always exactly what my opponent needs every.single.time. I just know that the next time that it happens there, I will be in no shape to protect what little bankroll I have left, so, rather than tilting it off like a donkey, I will be removing it and playing elsewhere for the time being. That will mean missing many of the upcoming blogger tournaments and for that I am sorry. I love these events as much as anybody, but with what happened last night and the way that my attitude is right now, I will be better served away from those tourneys anyway.
I would never want to say anything that would be taken the wrong way to another blogger and believe me, it’s not any other player or blogger that I am having a problem with right now. This is an internal battle and until I find a way to keep it under control, I will be absent. I hate that, but it appears to me that this is about the only thing I can do to help me correct the situation. I’m in a very bad way right now about PokerStars and rather than let it affect my play, I will be taking a leave of absence and playing elsewhere.
*End bad beat stories and hand histories*
Ugh indeed. See you tonight at the DADI and then I’m out of here for a while. Good luck to all the “Last Longer” teams tonight.
G
posted by GaryC @ 3:42 PM,
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Hump Day-It's About Time
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Tomorrow night beetches! Come one, come all, to the 7th incarnation of the DADI tournaments. DADI 7, Dadi, I’m Coming Home kicks off tomorrow night at 9 pm EST on PokerStars. The password has changed, this time it is “pokertrust” and be sure they are all lower case letters. With an incredible mix of add-on prizes and some very interesting last longer side bets going, this should be a smack-talking, hair-raising good time. See below for a detailed list of the add-ons for this event, then go sign up now. You’ll be sorry you missed it, I can promise you.Lots of good blogging going on out there right now. You probably shouldn’t be wasting time here right now, so feel free to move along to any of the bloggers in the roll on the right.
___
My current PSO promotion at PokerShare appeared initially like it was going to be very difficult for me to clear, but after a good night last night, my attitude has changed a bit. I was fortunate enough to hook up on a .25/.50 NL table very early last night and ended up playing on it for almost 5 hours. The names changed often throughout the night, but one thing remained exactly the same. The players at PokerShare are horrible. I even made mention to Jordan, immediately after he joined my table, that one particular player at our table was horrible. Said player then immediately went on a good run and built up about $60. After giving more than half of that back, I stacked him when my “Golden” set of 8’s turned into “Dem’s Quads Beetches!” on the turn. Twas a damn shame he didn’t rebuy and rejoin the table.
After a near 5 hour session last night at the same table, my bonus is 25% completed and it now appears that I will be able to handle the promotion in about a week’s time. Hopefully, during that time, I can remain patient and focused and book a solid profit on the site, because other than the fishy play, I don’t see a lot of reasons to play there very often.
-Their software is blah, just okay, and there are certainly better sites with much better software out there to play poker on.
-Their traffic is horribly low. I was lucky to find a decent 6-max table in my price range that stayed full virtually the entire night. This will be the only thing that remains a stumbling block with clearing the promotion in a timely manner.
While the skill (or lack thereof) of the players makes this an attractive place to play NL ring games, I don’t ever see it becoming a primary site for me. More likely, I will finish my promotion, book my win (hopefully) and withdraw the funds to start another promo somewhere else.
___
With the weekend fast approaching, I am looking forward to some drunken relaxation down at the lake place. I will be scooting out of work as early as possible on Friday and heading West to the lake. I do have to come back to work on Monday, but I will be driving in from the lake early Monday morning and then heading back down there Monday afternoon, since we have Tuesday off this year, as well.For those of you who don’t get out of the city very often, (you know who you are) my little trailer at the lake probably sounds like the epitome of redneckedness, but for some of you who have actually experienced it, I’m sure you can vouch for the following:
The peace and quiet offered at the lake is not found anywhere in the city. Unless you live in a sound-proof building and don’t get outside very much, there is absolutely no comparison. Our local ambulance service sits right across the street from my house in the city. That means that every single time they take off with lights and horns a-blaring, it seems like they are coming right into my bedroom. This occurs at a minimum of once a night and it is normally around 3 am. The loudest noises you hear down at the lake are the cows next door or a boat traveling across the water a mile away.
Saturday night offers Karaoke With Carrie And Gary down at the Crow’s Roost Bar. It’s just a little beer bar that holds maybe 70 people at most, but it will be stuffed to the gills on Saturday night. There will also be a full service liquor bar operating out of the backs of most of the vehicles out in the parking lot. When your trailer is walking distance from the bar, you can afford to get just as tore up as you feel like getting and that often means watching the sun come up down on the dock while polishing off that 30th beer. There have been plenty of nights like that down there, I assure you.
As far as the redneckedness goes, it is running rampant down at Ft. Cobb Lake, but for the most part, all the people you will ever meet down there are sincere, genuine, do-anything-in-the-world-for-you type of people. We’ve made lots of good friends down there over the last 10 or so years and we still look forward to getting away as often as humanly possible.
Unfortunately, that means that following the DADI tomorrow night, I will be “Gone Fishing” until at least Tuesday night next week. While I know I could use the break, it does nothing for the bankroll or the promotion clearing. Still, I fully realize that the breaks are good for us and this one will be good for me in the long run. I need a break, not necessarily from poker, but a break from life. Going down to the lake and cracking that first beer at 8:30 am, if I feel like it, will probably be just what the doctor ordered for this old man.
___
Surfing around the blogosphere yesterday, I noticed a request from one Miss Maudie that we try and schedule Okie-Vegas around the Jazz Festival in Norman next summer. I have no problem with that whatsoever. I also noticed that Mr. Ten Mile, my neighbor up north, mentioned his support for said schedule change and I will do what I can to accommodate. I was already planning on a later date next year anyway, so maybe we can make it work for all parties involved. I will do my best to make that happen.
I hope everybody has a great 4th of July weekend. This will probably be my last post until next week, unless I can squeeze one in before the DADI tomorrow night. Remember, go sign up for DADI now, I promise you, the smack-talk alone will be well worth the price of admission.
Later,
G
posted by GaryC @ 4:34 PM,
,
Anybody else up for this one?
PokerShare went well last night. After muddling around all week, basically breaking even, last night I found a little traction at the .25/.50 NL tables. I found a really juicy table full of nothing but lemurs and ran my short buy-in($30) up to around $120.00. With my fantabulous (read: nothing but donkeys on this site) play ruling the table, I was able to build up my stack throughout the night. The last big play was a pre-flop raise to $2 with A-A. An Ace on the flop and a boat by the turn allowed my opponent to push in $25 with middle pair on a paired board and two overs. Wow, thanks dude.
I'm out for the night, see you tomorrow night at the Mook!
G
posted by GaryC @ 8:53 PM,
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Monkey On Parade
Here's my face last night at about 9:03 pm. Note to self:
Just because you flopped three 10’s out of the big blind does not mean that Stb didn’t flop three tens also AND when your kicker is a 3, you probably don’t want to put all your money in the pot. Hee haw indeed!
I went out of the Hoyazo home game last night on about the second or third hand when I flopped three tens out of the big blind and ignored Stb’s warning that he indeed had the other 10 and a much better kicker than mine. It’s been a while since I was the first one out of a tournament, so I proceeded to log out and hit the sack. It’s funny how your mood can change in a matter of seconds. I was excited and ready to play last night and then I was out of the tournament on a donkey move before I knew what had hit me. Back to the drawing board.
I am going to dedicate myself to tournament play for the rest of the week in preparation for the upcoming DADI tournament on Thursday night. DADI 7, Dadi, I’m Coming Home is this Thursday night at 9 pm on PokerStars. The password is pokertrust (all lowercase letters) and there will be many last longer bets going on during this tourney. I will have to concede to Jordan and let him keep track of all the particulars, but I will be there as part of Team Pokertrust and will be doing my best to outlast our other competitors.
I started a new promotion at PokerShare this last weekend and so far have not done a single thing right there. I am a whopping total of $8 up for the promo, thanks to my stellar play last night in their $5 MTTT(?) which drew a total of around 40 players. I final-tabled and went out 7th for about $5 profit. The play at the NL tables is pretty weak. I know, I know, why am I not playing Limit? Because the play at the Limit tables is almost non-existent. Must research site better beforehand next time. Their traffic is very poor right now and just finding a game to play that is within my comfortable bankroll requirements is a job in itself. I will still be trying to finish this promotion, but it is not going to be easy.
With the wifey out of town until Wednesday night, I’ve had some added responsibilities added to my plate that are not normally mine. So, time normally spent on MY things, such as playing cards, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, etc. has been interrupted a bit and my normal routine stopped for the time being. I am planning on playing the Mookie tomorrow night and will definitely be there for DADI on Thursday, since the wifey gets back into town on Wednesday night and things should return to normal.
I won’t be in town this weekend at all. With the 4th of July next week, we will be singing at the lake this Saturday night and since I am not on call, I will be heading down the lake place as early on Friday afternoon as possible. I do have to drive back to the city to work on Monday, but will turn around and head right back to the lake Monday evening, since we are off on Tuesday, as well. Extended time at the lake makes this guy a very happy man. We are having a bunch of guests down this weekend and expect for the bar to be packed solid on Saturday night. The lake will probably be a mad house as well, but that is a chance we will have to take. I hope everyone has a good week and I will see you the next few nights for some tournament action.
G
posted by GaryC @ 4:23 PM,
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The Rock and Luck
Friday, June 23, 2006
Putting in the work!
For the last week, I have been slowly and steadily working on running the bankroll back up to where it belongs. I’ve been playing SNG’s on Stars all week prior to the blogger tourneys and have had enough success to foot the bill for the buy-in’s without having to redeposit. (YET) The real booster to the bankroll has been blackjack! I have not been bonus whoring the casino’s yet, but am strongly considering that option since it appears to be a solid way to clear bonuses $1 at a time.
After cashing out a large portion of my on-line bankroll for my vacation and for Okie-Vegas, I was left with around $200 on-line to play around with and that is a damned uncomfortable situation to put yourself in, let me tell you. I could have re-deposited a little bit had I felt like I needed it, but the challenge for me became to get back to basics and grind away at the lower limits and prove to myself again, that yes, I can beat that level and grow what I had left without re-depositing any money.
Now, granted, I haven’t run up the roll solely by playing low limit poker, but the roll has grown nonetheless. I’ve just switched my low limit mentality over to the blackjack tables. I’ve taken to having one table going while playing a SNG and buying in for $10. When I reach $20, I close that table and switch sites and open another table with $10. Rinse, repeat. So far, without any “tilt-fests” or “crazy betting sessions” I have run up more than $300 playing blackjack alone and now have more than $600 sitting there online. So, I am back in the game and back to being a bit more comfortable $$$-wise while sitting at a table.
Ultimate Bet appears to have finally gotten their Triple Draw problems solved and I played for about an hour last night. That game is truly like crack, if you haven’t played it, give it a shot. I would suggest a quick tutorial from SoxLover or reading the section dedicated to the draw games in SuperSytem II before jumping into the bigger limits, though. I ended the Triple Draw session up about $10 and yes, I am just as tight at the Triple Draw table as I am at the Hold Em Table.
Apparently, Hoyazo thinks that I have been mixing it up a little bit more as of late. Since my heads up, “maniac” session against SirFWalgman, there have been a few times that I have been caught trying to take advantage of my image and a few times where I was actually just playing like a flaming donkey. Back to the heads up with SirF, he had a lot of nice words for me regarding my play that night and I really appreciate it, but truth be known, it’s pretty easy to be that aggressive when you have the cards on your side. I really didn’t change up my overall play that much, I just had cards and I often play that aggressive at a short table when I have a strong hand.
I have been thinking “outside the box” and making a concerted effort to change up my play a bit, especially in the blogger events. I like the “Rock” image, don’t get me wrong, but in order for that style to be successful, I have to catch good cards. Watching the other players that I consider to be “looser” than me (which includes just about everybody) continually post strong finishes in these tournaments definitely has had an impact on my play. While I will probably never be mistaken for a loose maniac, I am trying to incorporate some of their styles into my play at the appropriate times. It hasn’t all come together yet, but it’s a work in progress.
Hand selection is the main thing that I am working on right now. As hard as it is for me to play K-J off-suit out of position, I’ve taken to limping into a few more pots with suited connectors when I do have position. The lucky 10-9 against SirF was a prime example and had that flop not hit me over the head, I could have easily gotten away from that hand post-flop. Apparently, Hoyazo pays pretty close attention. He mentioned Monday night that I was no longer going to get the “auto” respect when I stick in a raise and that’s sure okay by me. As my “Rock” image got me a lot of blinds in the past when I raised, perhaps it will get me more action in the future.
I think that’s the key to being successful playing this game that we all love. The more “change” you can put out there for others to take into account, the better chance that you will have them off-balance later, trying to get that “read” on you. I’ve never been a particularly tricky poker player, but more of a standard, 4X the BB raiser and fold a lot more than I play kind of player. But, just playing with these guys on a regular basis, guys that I know are successful, has opened up a lot of new avenues in my game and for that I am thankful. Now, seeing the moves and the styles of these other players and actually making it a part of my game are two entirely different things. Whether or not I can make the strides in my own game and have the confidence to continue to change remains to be seen, but just know this, I am working at it and will continue working at it.
For now though, I will leave you with this thought: “I am still a Rock, a weak/tight Rock, but a Rock nonetheless.”
___
My Take On Luck
Much like the rest of you, I feel like my poker game or style is an ever-evolving work of art. Some days every thing you try works like a charm and the next day, no matter how well you play, there is nothing you can do to win a hand. Playing this game as often as we play it these days requires a certain amount of patience, gamble, skill and luck. Now, I’m not about to try to put a percentage to any of those characteristics, but for anybody not to acknowledge that luck is a bit of a factor in this game we play, well that is just plain silly.
I’m not going to go into any specifics, but think back to the good runs you’ve had in tournaments and try to remember how many times you got lucky. The night I bubbled out of the $1500 WSOP seat in Iggy’s tournament, I should have been out in about seventh or eighth place, but for a 4-outer on the river rescuing me from the rail.(against TripJax no less!) I also got extremely UN-lucky on the hand that sent me to the rail. It always seems to work both ways, but it seems to me that we only tend to remember the times that it works against us, rather than the times that it works out for us. We simply blow it off with, “it’s about time I sucked out on someone!”
Do you consider yourself lucky when you pick up pocket Aces and get all the money in, get a caller and they hold up? Just the fact that you got action with pocket Aces might be considered lucky. I know that as often as I get them, more times than not I just pick up the blinds, so getting action with Aces is often fortunate. Now, when all the money goes in, how many outs do you have to dodge? Does the other guy have K-K of the same suit as your Aces, giving him only two outs? Or, does he have suited connectors, giving him the possibility of straights and flushes rescuing his hand? Did you attempt to slow play to bring somebody into the pot and let them flop a monster on you?
How about this situation? You are sitting on a monster chip lead with 3 other players left in a SNG. How many times do you call with a weak Ace and knock somebody out who was short-stacked and pushing with virtually any two cards? I understand this is part of the game and I call those pushes all day myself, but do you consider yourself lucky to eliminate the short stack and add to your stack there?
Nearly every situation can be spun into any direction you want to spin it and most assuredly, skilled players put themselves in position to “get lucky” more often than the average donkey on the internet. They are also in position to get “sucked out on” more often simply due to the fact that they are getting their money in when they are ahead more often than the average player. There are a variety of different factors that determine when and where to push. Position, stack size, strength of opponent, number of players left and strength of hand, just to name a few. Whether or not you double up often comes down to “luck.”
That’s my take on luck. I will play with people that are there to “gamble” and hoping to “get lucky” all day long, every day, but I go into those games knowing full well that they will gamble and they will get lucky occasionally. Get your chips in ahead, pull your tin-foil hat down around your ears, adjust your titanium cup and hold your breath.
See you at the tables,
G
posted by GaryC @ 3:26 PM,
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Challenge anyone?
Thursday, June 22, 2006
DADI 7 Challenge:
The Devil’s Advocate of Poker Bloggers, One Jack Short of Quads and myself, the official beer purveyor of the DADI tournaments are throwing down gauntlet, if you will. Next Thursday night, June 29th, during the DADI 7 tournament on PokerStars, the three of us will be taking on all comers in the form of a “Last Longer Team Bet.”
Load up your teams with whomever you like, this will be open to as many teams as would like a shot at our money. The wagers for this bet will be from $1 per man to as much as $10 per man, payable following the competition via Neteller or any of the poker sites where we have the ability to transfer funds.
This is our way of offering up a little something while still giving ourselves the opportunity to make a little scratch. If you think you can outlast the three of us, I have three words for you, Bring It On! See Jordan’s post today for the last longer particulars.
Please note that the password for DADI 7, pokertrust, is case sensitive. All lower case letters, please. Sign up early and get your team and amounts to either Trip, Jordan or myself, via our comments or the comments on the DADI web-site.
___
The blackjack continues to run hot and I am seriously considering the casino whore trip as laid out on Scurvy’s site. Thanks to Drewspop and Klopzi for the heads-up, I will definitely give it a look-see. It is a bit of work grinding away one dollar at a time, but in order to protect the bankroll that I have, that is the only way I see to do it at the present. So far this week I’ve run up more than $150 almost solely at the blackjack tables.
Last night started out very cold, but I went on a heater near the end that saw me turn $10 in to $50 in a span of probably 25 hands. I upped my min. bets in there somewhere, but was catching phenomenal cards the entire run. If the dealer showed 6 or less, he busted every.single.time for what seemed like 30 or 40 hands.
I plan to also get back to devoting my time to the SNG grind as well. I have played 8 SNG’s this week in preparation for the Hoyazo, WWdN and Mookie and cashed in 7 of the 8 tournaments. Four 1st place finishes and three 2nd place finishes paid all the entry fees to the tournaments that I bombed out of before the money spots. Nice work, dumbass.
Gonna have to cut it short today due to work continually kicking me in the junk. First, our computers went down for nearly two hours, forcing everything to be handwritten and now they come back up with oh, one hour left in the day to play catch up. See you tonight on the felt.
G
posted by GaryC @ 3:55 PM,
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Mookie and the Donkey
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Be there or be square!
Utterly donk-tastic play last night in the WWdN. Donk-fucking-tastic, I tell you!
Why is it when I decide I’m going to defend my blinds to a raise, I have to catch a piece of the flop? 9-3 sooted looked so damn good when it made two pair, but of course, my opponent had flopped the nuts with an all heart flop. I am such a donkey sometimes that it pains me. Oh well, luckily again, I was able to finance the venture with two 2nd place finishes and one 1st place finish in sng’s before the tourney started, so that experiment is going well and will continue tonight prior to the Mookie.
I also donked off my 24 + 2 token at Full Tilt last night. I had won it last Friday night and it was really starting to burn a hole in my pocket, so when I logged into Tilt and saw 14 of 18 already signed up for a 24 +2, I was right there with them. I played well, but ended up going out in 10th spot when my A-J couldn’t run down K-Q. I had a number of opportunities to double up in the early going but could not convince anybody to call me. I tried in vain to show as much weakness as humanly possible (and those of you who know me, know I CAN show weakness) but nobody would bite. I will definitely be giving these Token SNG’s another try in the near future.
___
I also have a confession to make:
Hi, my name’s Gary and I play blackjack on-line for real money. (Hi Gary)
For the last week or so, I have ignored all the warnings of –EV and continued to toil away $1 at a time. Last night, I ran up over $100 at the blackjack tables, so the sting of some of the losses from Poker was taken away. I am fully aware that running this hot at blackjack is not something that will continue for the long run, but for the moment, I can use any little boost to the bankroll that I can get and this has been a serious boost to an anemic bankroll.
I’ve tilted off $30 or $40 in a night at the blackjack tables before and am taking it very slowly this time. The key thus far, for me at least, is to have enough money in front of me to withstand the inevitable run of 6 or 7 hands where the dealer makes the miracle 21’s on you every.single.time. They happen with regularity, but if you can withstand those downswings and continue to press your advantages when given the opportunity, you can make money at it. Of course, you could make money flipping quarters if you went on a nice little heater also, but that is another story entirely.
For the moment, I think I will continue to dabble at the dollar tables and see what happens. Perhaps I am due a cold streak, but right now, I’m up quite a little bit and will continue to take my shots here and there.
___
***Warning-Rant Ahead!***
I don’t consider myself very involved when it comes to politics these days. I’ve never been one to voice my opinions on those types of subjects, because I figure I don’t really have much to offer up that hasn’t been offered up before numerous times. But, this morning when I got up and read the headline in our paper, it triggered a sense of hostility that I haven’t
experienced very often in my life.
“2 Missing Soldiers Found Dead.”
The article went on to say that the two soldiers had been tortured in a “barbaric” way and that their bodies had been booby-trapped and that the new leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq had executed the men personally.
I threw up my breakfast when I read that article and nearly threw up again now, just re-typing it.
How many more American lives have to be lost in a war/action that we have absolutely no chance to win? Does nobody remember Viet Nam? We had no chance to win that action, just as we have no chance to win this action. These people would rather blow themselves up and kill a few Americans than live.
My opinion on the situation is this: Bring all of our troops home and deploy them in our major cities and at our borders. Let them guard and protect the American citizens in America. I am sick to death of reading about more and more American troops laying down their lives in vain. Let these countries govern themselves and do whatever the hell they want to do and when the threat becomes great that they will attack us, light them up like a Christmas tree. Remember Nagasaki? If they continue to plot and scheme ways to kill Americans, cut them off at the pass. I, for one, would not mind a giant parking lot in that part of the world, if it meant that no more American troops had to die to accomplish it.
Sorry, but that headline just blew me away today. The two soldiers were 23 and 25 years old. What a waste.
***End Rant***
posted by GaryC @ 3:03 PM,
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Still working at it….
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
….and seeing some better results. Well, other than running my 10-10 into Kat’s A-A in the Hoyazo last night at a most inopportune time. What are you gonna do? I felt like she would lay down a less than stellar hand there to my Hoyazo, but when you’re holding pocket rockets, well, I don’t see me folding my 10’s there, no how, no way. Well played and just a bit of bad luck on my part. I went out 9th I think, first one gone from the final table, although the play was final-table tough throughout the tournament. I got lucky and flopped a straight on SirFWalgman fairly early and chipped up nicely and basically folded and stole my way to the final table. I didn’t stay up to see who won it, but the final table was a who’s who of poker bloggers.
My own little “qualifiers” for the Hoyazo went well last night. As you know, a $20 + 2 tournament is on the outer reaches of my comfortable buy-in levels and I decided last night that I would grind away at the $5 SNG’s in hopes of providing myself the buy-in beforehand. I played three SNG’s and won two of them, so I came out ahead even though I didn’t make the money in the home game. I spent a total of $38.50 (including the Hoyazo) and cashed out a whopping $45.00. That’s a grand total of $7.50 in pure profit baby! Woot! It sure seems like a wee bit of profit for about 5 hours of grinding, but this guy will take it at this point.
I also took 2nd in a SNG at Full Tilt prior to the tournament, so all in all, things are looking up. I was pretty pleased with my play last night, save for pushing against pocket Aces, and made pretty solid decisions the entire time. One of my heads up opponents last night at Stars was a true horseshoe-up-the-ass flaming lemur! Early on in the tournament, after limping in with 10-10, I slow-played a turned full house to perfection and doubled up off of him. Later, after a few people had gone out, I managed to suck out a straight on the river, earning “you’re a fish” from our genius friend. After taking a commanding lead heads up, I called his all-in with K-J vs his K-9, but a rivered 9 doubled him up and brought us back to around even. I proceeded to chop away at him with my new-found aggressive heads-up strategy and eventually wore him down, giving him one of his own “lol, gg” before he was gone. It’s always nice to beat folks that truly think they are better than you and this guy was no exception. It also never hurts when someone gifts you their whole stack after flopping top pair with a shitty kicker.
The new DADI information is available at the web-site and I am going to try to stick a banner up over on the right some time tonight. No promises about that and if something happens to all my links, you will know what happened. I’ll have to place an emergency phone call to North Carolina or Canada for a little tutorial on how to do it the right way.
Thanks for stopping by and if my “qualifiers” go well tonight, you just might see me at the WWdN.
G
posted by GaryC @ 3:46 PM,
,
Back at it…..
Monday, June 19, 2006
……but not really in the swing of things yet. What I wouldn't give for a few hands like that one.
Poker’s been real hard lately. I just can’t seem to get in any kind of groove since Okie-Vegas. I’ve tried my usual SNG’s, the Limit tables, as well as a few shots at MTT’s and just cannot seem to find any rhythm whatsoever. It has really seemed like work lately and that does not translate to good results.
I bombed out of the blogger freeroll yesterday in 386th place after a cold decking of epic proportions. I started out trying to loosen up my starting hand selection and it showed, as I plummeted down to around 1200 chips right off the bat. I was able to pick and choose a few spots to add chips and ended up all-in with top pair and the nut flush draw. The pre-flop raiser folded and I found myself at around 3K in chips at the first break. Then the cold decking began….
…..and it continued until I finally went out with 2-3 clubs and two clubs on the flop. I pushed my remaining 450 chips in praying for the 3rd club that never came. The cold deck was a shame too, because the table was very ripe for the picking. If I could have just picked up a few hands here and there, I know I could have made a much deeper run, but, that’s how it goes.
I’m going to try and qualify myself for tonight’s Hoyazo tournament, but I need to win a SNG or two first. These will be my own personal “qualifiers” and if I have a bit of success early, I will be joining the Monday Night Home Game, as well. I finally won myself a $26 token over at Full Tilt on Friday night. After idiotically buying my way into a $24 + 2 in order to join TripJax, Jordan and Katitude, I joined Kat for another $6 + .60 and was able to outlast the field and win a token. Anybody that has some tokens and feels like a game, let me know and I will be happy to join you.
***One addendum to yesterdays post, the DADI 7 tournament will be No Limit Hold Em.***
That’s all I got for today, now go read somebody worthwhile in the links to the right. If you can’t find something of interest over there, there is something wrong.
G
posted by GaryC @ 3:40 PM,
,
Newsflash!
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Check out the latest DADI offering, DADI 7, DADI I'm coming home! Thursday night, June 29th on PokerStars. The new password is PokerTrust. Believe me, we still think blogsaregay, but a pending announcement will explain the password change in due time.
Lots of great prizes offered up in this one:
First Place: Will receive a $215 token to enter a PokerStars tournament, generously donated by CMitch of O-Poker!
Second Place: Will receive an iPod Shuffle, courtesy of PokerOnAMac.com, your destination for poker...on a Mac!
Third Place: Will receive 800 VPP Points*, courtesy of VegasPokerPro.com, where you can earn great prizes like chips, gift certificates and more just for trying a new poker site!
Fourth Place: Will receive 400 VPP Points**, courtesy of VegasPokerPro.com.
The Bubble: Will receive 400 VPP Points**, courtesy of VegasPokerPro.com.
Bounty on VPP_Dave: 400 VPP Points**, courtesy of VegasPokerPro.com.
Check out the DADI website for future updates!
* Points are redeemable at the VPP store for various prizes, including $50 in Amazon.com or BestBuy gift certificates for the 800 points awarded.
**Points are redeemable at the VPP store for various prizes, including $25 in Amazon.com or BestBuy gift certificates for the 400 points awarded.
posted by GaryC @ 6:46 PM,
,
Happy Father's Day
Happy Father's Day Dad, I love you and miss you.
Gary
posted by GaryC @ 11:23 AM,
,
Gone fishing......
Friday, June 16, 2006
.....er......maybe not exactly fishing, but I am at the lake.
See you Sunday afternoon.
G
posted by GaryC @ 5:07 PM,
,
I almost forgot this...
Thursday, June 15, 2006
I have registered to play in
the PokerStars
World
Blogger Championship of Online Poker!
This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas
Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.
Registration code:
7330476
......and apparently I don't know how to copy and paste very well. Oh well, I hope this will suffice. I really do suck at the interet, but I will be there to suck at poker on Sunday.
G
posted by GaryC @ 3:16 PM,
,
Limit Rubbish
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Thanks Don, for your comments in my last post. I appreciate your opinion and also appreciate the fact that you think I have what it takes make a go of it live, albeit at fairly small stakes. After playing live in a casino twice last week, I have come to the conclusion that if one can avoid the pitfalls of the typical players out there, an average guy like me can eke out a small profit on a consistent basis. By pitfalls, here are some of the typical, consistent things I noted during the two sessions:
First off, remember that this was 3-6 Limit(the smallest limit table available here and the min. buy-in was $30)
-Lots of people bringing less than $100 to the table. I am assuming (correct me if I’m wrong on the numbers) that a minimum buy-in at this level should be $180.00. That being the case, I was buying in short, as well, for $100, but the folks bringing $40 and $60 to these tables have hardly any chance at being around for very long at all, unless they hit a big hand right off the bat. As an example, Friday night I ran K-K into A-A in about my 3rd or 4th hand and was quickly down about half of my buy-in. Fortunately, when this guy continued re-raising me after the flop, I got a bit cautious and check-called the rest of the way, but regardless, if I had only had $40 in front of me, it would have been gone due to nothing but bad luck.
-Tons of people seeing entirely too many flops. We had a full table of 10 almost the entire time and it was not uncommon for 7 or 8 to see the flop nearly every time. This makes the game harder to beat, but also makes for extremely juicy pots when your cards hold up. The beats can be horrendous also when there are this many people in each hand, but it appears to me that if you can somehow narrow the field pre-flop, anybody that plays as many hands as we do should be able to out-play the majority of these players after the flop.
-Saving/Maximizing bets. I’ve heard for a long time that the key to Limit poker is saving bets when you have the worst of it, as well as maximizing bets when you think you have the best of it. To me, this means not joining in their fishy pre-flop calls and sticking to a very strict set of starting hands. Not that I don’t play that way nearly all the time anyway, but after watching some lemur take down a huge pot with 6-9 sooted, it is sometimes difficult not to fall into that trap. Conversely, you cannot be afraid to continue raising a strong hand, no matter how scary the board gets at the end. I missed several bets when I had the best hand simply because I just had a feeling I was beat when I was still ahead.
A perfect example occurred Friday night, just as DuggleBogey walked into the room. I raised in MP with A-A and only got one caller, the loose Asian with a big stack of chips. The flop was K-10-x and I bet and he just called. The turn was my 3rd Ace and when I bet out, he simply called again. After a blank on the river, I lead out and this time he raises me and I immediately put him on Q-J to crack my set. Now, a little after-thought should tell me that this clown is probably playing K-x and maybe he made his 2nd pair on the river. Instead, I make a crying call (losing another bet in the process) and he flips up K-10 for two pair and I win the pot. The problem with the hand is that I didn’t re-raise him on the end because I was afraid of a scary board. That’s something I definitely need to work on. I’m pretty good at saving bets here and there and I’m not afraid to lay down a hand, but maximizing my big hands is something that I definitely have room for improvement.
Another thing I see these players do on a regular basis is that they all show their cards nearly every single time. Granted, most of them should, so the dealer can read their hand instead of them trying to do it, but I nearly always feel like it gives away useful information when you show your cards down. Just from the few times I’ve played with Duggle, both live and on-line, he called out my hands to the card, 3 or 4 times in our tournament on Saturday. TripJax called my hands exactly a couple of times during the weekend. This is solely from giving away too much information at the table. I love sitting next to some chatty fish that feels like he needs to explain his play after laying a bad beat on somebody, except for the pinhead that cracked my Queens with J-7 off-suit because “it’s my favorite hand, I always play it.” Thank you sir, NH.
I make it a point to conceal my cards at every opportunity. It is difficult at this level sometimes, because you almost always have a caller all the way to the river, but when I don’t have to show my cards, I simply don’t show them. Most of the other players probably aren’t paying enough attention to use it against you anyway, but you never know when it might make or save you some money, so why give the information away for free?
The starting hand selection at these tables range from “any two suited” to “any Ace will do” to “any two face cards.” That is typical of most of these players and some of them are much worse. I’m not exaggerating at all when I say the players at our local casinos are horrible, for the most part. They are typically retirees or youngsters who have watched too much poker on television. I didn’t watch the NL tables as close as I did my own, but the players there at least appeared to have deeper stacks and that was enough to scare me away from the NL tables, at least for the moment. I can’t imagine they are any better players but for now, I think I will stick to 3-6 Limit and take it pretty slow.
I need to build up my “live” bankroll a bit before making a move out there on a regular basis. After my recent string of vacation days, I am down a bit in my “hidey-hole.” Thank goodness I ended up making money in Vegas. Had I taken a bad run out there, I would have been borrowing from the wifey to finance my degenerate pastime and that would not have worked out well.
In the meantime, I think I will continue to take my shots occasionally live with my short buy-in and just sit back and nut-peddle. I don’t see how a guy can’t make money at it with the inordinate number of fish populating these games.
Bowed out of the Mookie tonight in 7th place, I think. Card dead the entire time, so, I was happy to make it that far. Jordan owes me $5 though, so I got half my buy-in back.
Later,
G
posted by GaryC @ 9:38 PM,
,
Tuesday's Further Ramblings
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Coming back down from the high that was this weekend has been a difficult prospect. I pretty much moped around and slept all day Sunday and then Monday at work, I was almost completely worthless. Somehow, I made it through the day at work and headed home last night, almost intent on playing some “on-line poker.” I got home last night, worked on my post for nearly an hour and then could hardly find it in myself to log on and play.
I fired up the Hoyazo home game on Stars to find a relatively short field. Okay, I thought, this won’t take long and I can get in some good chat while we’re at it. Almost from the get-go, my head was completely elsewhere. I raised SurfLexus off a hand early when I flopped a set of Jacks. He mentioned that he had a gut-shot that probably would have hit and I have no doubt that it would have. It probably would have been better had he called, because my head was nowhere near the game going on up on my screen.
I faltered down to around 1100 chips and got lucky. I called a raise from the big blind with A-Q and flopped TPTK. I checked and the raiser bet. Drewspop min-raised and I pushed. Pushed? That’s right, it seemed like exactly the thing to do even though there were obvious straight possibilities on the board. I was right and Chris called with the open-ended straight draw. I was able to dodge those bullets and was back to a decent stack until…
….I fell in love with TPTK again, even though all the evidence suggested I was up against a set. I was and I was dispatched somewhere around 15th place. No excuses on this end, other than I shouldn’t have been playing. I wasn’t ready to jump back in to the fray yet and it showed from the start.
Hopefully, by Wednesday, I will be in a better frame of mind and be ready to get back to some poker. I have something I have to take care of right after work on Wednesday, but I should be able to make it home in time for the Mookie. I do plan on trying to play, but I will be making sure I am thinking a little more clearly before I automatically join up.
___
After the fun that we had last week/weekend, I have set my sights on trying to get out and play a bit more live poker at the casinos. The 3-6 game is still a bit out of my bankroll at the moment, but it is so painfully obvious to me that I can beat that game on a regular basis. The players here are absolutely horrible and will call you down with no more than 3rd pair almost every time. I plan on working on the live bankroll side of things pretty hard in the coming weeks/months and taking some more shots at the 3-6 Limit game.
Watching the NL games going on while we were there, I realized that I don’t want in that game yet. The swings are huge and the players, unfortunately, are just as bad, they just seem to have more money. There were some very ugly hands and lots of huge swings for nearly everybody at the table.
I thought I would mention one hand from our 3-6 table Friday night. I raised from MP with 9-9 and 4 others saw a flop of Q-spades, 9-spades, x. Two guys went to the turn with me betting and the turn card was the case 9. After a blank on the river, I bet out again and they finally folded, but the guy next to me said that he was on an open-ended straight flush draw. Wow! The bad beat jackpot was over 26K at the time and that would have been 13K in my pocket had he hit his hand. Now, that was a bad beat I think I could have handled with a smile on my face.
___
A few random thoughts, pics and thanks from the past weekend:
SteelerJosh: The one person on the trip that I knew the least about, let me just say this, you can play poker buddy. Do not think for a second that a run of variance or bad luck will last, because you have the ability to beat any game you set your mind to beat. I have no doubt about that. You are also a great guy and are welcome back at my house any time you feel like it, so go ahead and book next year’s trip now. We had some great times at the tables and down at the lake and I want you to know how much I enjoyed it. Hit me up when you are ready to play on-line because we need to play together some more, brother. I’m sorry about your traveling woes yesterday and you are right, I would have been mad if you hadn’t called me Sunday night. Thanks again for making the trip and for all your mad computer skillz. I appreciate everything you did and especially for your kindness to my family. Casey and Little Man already miss you.
Maudie: This being the second time we’ve met up to sling some chips, I already had a good idea of what to expect, but I still want to say thank you. Thanks for meeting up with us, thanks for bringing the barbecue and thanks for playing in my little tournament at the house. I already knew what a strong player you were at the table, but this weekend sealed it for me. Watching you take those horrid beats at Newcastle and still grind your way back to near even and then watching you lose to a two-outer at my house and still come back to the money was just damned impressive. Great job at the tables and thank you so much for joining up with us. I promise I will be calling you in the near future for some No Fold Em action out at Newcastle
DuggleBogey: Again, our second time to play poker together as well and I knew what kind of player you are too. Unfortunately, the cards didn’t really agree with you in the tournament at my house, but if there was anybody there capable of laying down a hand, I know you would have been right there at the end.
I know what a sacrifice you made to show up and play poker with us and I want you to know how much I appreciate it. Taking your only weekend home in 4-5 weeks and spending it with us at the poker tables really says a lot about you. I know your wife had to be a bit disappointed and I hope she understands. Thanks again for joining us at Newcastle and at my house. It meant a lot to me that you were there. Let me know when you will be in town again and I will gladly hit up a card room with you anytime.
TenMile: You kept me on pins and needles the whole week leading up to the event and I know you had a lot on your plate at home, so taking the time to drive down here and join us for a day meant a great deal to me. I was so looking forward to meeting you, if just to chat for a while. When you agreed to join us at the poker room for a while, it just made it that much better. I only wish I had been able to play at the same table for a longer period of time.
I’m sorry about the speeding ticket on the way home and also that you had to drive all the way home on Friday night. I would have gladly had you stay at my house, had you wanted, I hope you know that. Thanks again for all the gifts you sent down in advance and thanks a million for coming down to join us. It was great meeting you and I look forward to the next time already.
___
That’s all I have for now, except to say that if you missed it, you truly missed out. I hope you all will consider making the trip next summer. The plans are already in the works.
G
posted by GaryC @ 3:18 PM,
,
Saturday-Okie-Vegas Invitational
Monday, June 12, 2006
Miss Maudie showed up with the world-famous Van’s barbecue from Norman town around Noon and DuggleBogey was right behind her. We all made our plates, ate a terrific lunch and then sat around for a bit, chatting it up. Before long, a .50/1.00 NL table was happening in the garage. Playing poker with other bloggers is definitely –EV on the bankroll front, but extremely +EV on the friendship/relationship front. I can’t tell you how many cool stories were related and we all enjoyed it very much.
Around 2:30, my local friends started arriving and with only 10 players (I mistakenly counted 11) we made a few quick phone calls to two more friends. One of those phone calls would come back to haunt all of us. Two more players showed up and off we went with 12 runners for the first Official Okie-Vegas Invitational.
Table 1 consisted of:
Ryan-One of my buddies from work. Young player, but pretty solid.
Randy-a bowling buddy. Loose would not begin to describe his play.
Bridgette-a friend of Randy’s. Unknown to me, but would prove to be loose/aggressive.
Nathan-Bridgette’s brother. Tight calling station that got no cards and overplayed what he got.
DuggleBogey-Tight aggressive with consistently 2nd best cards, it seemed.
GCox25-weak/tight, picked up a few key hands at key times.
Table 2 was the tougher table:
Maudie-Solid, aggressive and tough to deal with.
SteelerJosh-tight/aggressive-played a solid game the entire time.
TripJax-loose/aggressive the entire 5 days, I never got a read on him.
Mike-another friend of mine from work. Loose, aggressive and a pretty good player.
Chip-an old softball buddy and good player.
Gary W.-a friend of Chips and mine from way back and another good player, he was the phone call that would haunt us later.
Off we went with freshly downloaded PokerRoom tournament software and 2500 starting chips. Everybody lasted until the break and every single player took the $20 add-on for another 2000 in chips. Duggle was the only player who had to take the add-on before the break and he doubled up just prior to taking it, so he probably could have skipped it until later. Duggle was unfortunately seated between the two loosest players at the table who would call anything off and were not bluffable.
After the break, the poker got more serious, as it seemed everybody quickly realized that elimination was possible at any second. I woke up with A-A in the small blind and played it as poorly as it can possibly be played. I quickly decide to just limp in with only two other players in the hand. After a ragged flop, I checked it to Bridgette who threw out a pot-sized bet. I check-raised her and she called. A beautiful Ace came on the turn and I checked again and check-raised all-in. It turns out that Ace saved my ass as she had flopped two pair with K-9 and I got lucky to double up.
I don’t remember many particular hands, but at one point, after Duggle and Nathan had busted out, Maudie was moved to our table and took a bad beat from Randy. They got it all in pre-flop and Maudie held J-J against Randy’s 7-7. He caught his miracle 2-outer and Maudie was left with no more than 250 chips. She picked her spots beautifully from there on out and had one fortunate big blind special that gave her Trip-8’s and was able to play back to an above average stack by the final table.
Here are the knockouts prior to the final table.
12.-DuggleBogey
11.-Nathan
10.-Chip
9.-Mike
8.-Randy
7.-Bridgette
That left the final table looking something like this:
1 seat-Maudie
2 seat-GCox25
3 seat-Gary W.
4 seat-Ryan
5 seat-SteelerJosh
6 seat-TripJax
Final table minus Josh (our cameraman)SteelerJosh was the first person to be ousted at the final table, when he moved his short stack in with 7-7 and Maudie took the coin flip with A-J. Ryan went out next when his 9-9 couldn’t outrun the chip leader’s (Gary W) A-Q and we were quickly down to four players left and on the bubble.
TripJax and I were the two short stacks and with the blinds rising rapidly, we both had less than ten big blinds in front of us. I’m not sure what our “M” was, but with Jordan’s “Rule of 10” we were both down to desperation moves.
He survived twice by moving all in and then I was able to steal the blinds twice before the hand of destiny: I was in the small blind with only the chip leader behind when everybody folded to me. I looked down at A-9 and announced all-in. The word “call” came out of his mouth before I said “in.” My stomach quickly turned and he flipped up 6-6.
I caught my Ace on the flop, but it was all hearts, so he still had numerous outs, with the 6 of hearts in his hand. I thought for a second that I caught a break when the board was all hearts, but with the 4 on the turn, his 6 played and I was gone on the bubble. The bubble is quickly becoming my least favorite phrase in all of bloggerdom, as finishing there seems to be my modus operandi at the moment. Perhaps the lesson for me here is to gamble it up early and either build a significant stack or get busted out and save the frustration of the bubble finish. That certainly isn’t my style, but maybe a switch in gears earlier would do me some good.
Maudie ended up busting out in 3rd place for the $144 pay day. I didn’t see the exact hand, but the way she played throughout the tournament was damn impressive to this blogger. From a low of $250 after the first break, she was able to still maintain her patience and aggression and take down third place. Nice job, Maudie, I already knew how good a player you were, but that performance in the tourney was very impressive.
TripJax battled valiantly but in the end, Gary W’s chip stack was too much to overcome and he held on for the win. Trip made $216 for 2nd place and Gary W was awarded $360 for first place in the inaugural Okie-Vegas Invitational. Well done, Gary. He played strong all day and was a dominant big stack player. Very nice job. Trip played very solid as well and was well-deserving of his 2nd place finish. Congrats to all the money-winners on a well-played tournament and thanks to everybody for being there. It was a great tournament and I hope to have even more players next year for Okie-Vegas II.
Random pic from Okie-Vegas.
(who thinks of these things???)
___
Dial-A-Shots:
The dial-a-shots began in earnest as the tournament drew to a close and we started to prepare for the cash game.
First on the list was the Reverend AlCantHang. Al was busy with a bash in honor of his friends wedding on Friday night, but took the time to chat with us for a few minutes and the first of what would be many SoCo shots were consumed.
Next came Mr. HighOnPoker himself, the Devil’s Advocate of Poker Bloggers. Jordan was in Atlantic City with wifey Kim, but took time out to join us for a shot or two.
Katitude came next and after chatting with Kat, I will be trying to schedule next year’s get-together at a better time so she can make the trek down from Canada to join us. I already know that Kat is a tough poker player, but after chatting with her numerous times, I also know what a great gal she is and that we would get along famously from the get-go.
SurfLexus, sitting in a bar louder than my garage and fresh off of a 1st place-2nd place chop in a tourney in Tunica, was next on my list. George was originally planning on being in OKC for the meet-up, but work prevailed and he wasn’t able to attend. I look forward to next year and meeting George face to face, because I already know what a great guy he is. Congrats on the win, George.
DNasty was feeling a bit under the weather, but sucked it up and belted one back with the crew. Here’s hoping D can join us next year. I know he wanted to be here this year, but had too many other things going on right now.
Our only two failure-to-connect’s came next as Iggy and Twitch were MIA. Knowing that they would both be “in it to win it” if available, we knocked back a few more in their absence.
All in all, the dial-a-shots were a huge success, except for the fact that I turned into the drunken chip-bleeder at the table soon thereafter. We had a great time, but the effects of the alcohol would take their toll on my game. “Resident Tightbox” turned into raging bad-beat machine and the tilt that ensued was a particularly poor side effect of the drinking and boozing of the day. I bled chips like Amir Vehedi at the 2003 WSOP final table. First, when my A-K didn’t improve and I couldn’t find it in myself to get away and then when I flopped a nut flush, only to be crushed by a 3-outer on the river. A bad beat, yes, but at that point, I should have been away from the table and drinking by myself. I took a break, before coming back to bleed off another $100. Donk-tastic, I tell you. Waffles, you would have been proud.
___
After the game broke up, we decided to stay up for the hour we had left, rather than napping, and Josh and I drove Trip to the airport at 4 am, in preparation for his 6 am departure. We went straight back to the house and crashed until the wifey woke us up with the smell of sausage, bacon and B’s and G’s.
After taking Josh to the airport around 2 pm, I headed back for a nap and awoke at 6 pm to the ringing of my cell phone. It was Josh, at the airport, and his flight had been cancelled. Somehow, upon arrival in OKC, the plane he was supposed to board, was quarantined by Airport Security, due to a “suspicious substance.” It didn’t make much sense to he or I, but I jumped in the truck and picked him up for one more night in Okie-Vegas. Another 4 am wake-up call and he was at the airport for his 6 am departure. Last I heard, he was stuck in Detroit with a 2 hour delay in front of him there. Bad traveling luck indeed! Sorry Josh.
That is truthfully all I can muster today. I will have some sort of recap report tomorrow. Thanks for reading and start making plans right now to join us next year for Okie-Vegas II.
G
posted by GaryC @ 3:44 PM,
,
Day 2 and 3
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Wow! I have so much to write about and absolutely no idea where to start. Absolutely.Positively.No.Freaking.Clue!
I left off the Part 1 post on Wednesday night at 3:30 am when we finally succumbed to SoCo (see picture) and Guinness and wrapped up the Dealer's Choice game that followed the Mookie tournament. I got stuck a buy-in before the first round was up. That SteelerJosh knows how to build a freaking pot playing "Acey-Deucey." Popped me with the old "double that bet" 5 or 6 times before we got through the first pot.
When we got up Thursday morning, the plan was to head to the lake, so head we did after consuming some fine cuisine at the local Buffalo Wild Wings. We got down there and hooked the jet-ski's up to the charger and kicked back for a few beers. TripJax and SteelerJosh took out the jet ski's on a pristine Oklahoma day and rode for an hour and a half or so. It was toasty warm, but the wind, which is usually blowing a gale, was actually pretty calm for the most part. They had the lake almost to themselves on a Thursday afternoon and discovered part of the charm that is my "redneck riviera."
After loading the ski's up, we found ourselves the local watering hole, The Crow's Roost Bar. After introducing them around to all the locals, a poker game broke out. It was a $30 buy-in, unlimited re-buy tournament and we had 3 locals joining us to form a nice little 6-Max tourney.
Don't even begin to ask me about any particular hands, because at this point, the Southern Comfort was flowing and I took zero notes the entire time. I can tell you that TripJax dropped the hammer on an all-in re-raise and tilted all three of the locals while Josh and I laughed our asses off. He also called two of my hands right on the nose during the tourney. The Q-Q was not a tough one to figure out after my continuation bet, but the other hand was 7-10 soooted and while I was pondering a call, he tells one of the locals exactly what I was holding. I'm guessing that we play too much poker together, because later in the trip, I called one of his hands (A-J soooted) right on the money as well.
Since I don't really remember any hands, I will simply tell you that I got to chop up 1st and 2nd with one of the locals in the first tourney and Trip and Josh chopped in the second one. We all walked out of there with more money than we took in there and I'm sure I will be catching hell from the locals for a while, but you know what? Tough shit, that's how we bloggers roll!
After much more drinking and some arm-wrestling shenanigans, we finally headed to the trailer at around 3:00 am and passed out.
Friday brought an early wake-up call and the hour long drive back to OKC. We all showered up and headed to BrickTown which, if you haven't seen it, is really a pretty impressive piece of OKC. The Ballpark and the Ford Center are there, along with our little copy-cat from San Antonio, the river walk.
We had Chelino's tabbed as our restaraunt of choice and the local Mexican food did not disappoint. I'd give it two big thumbs up if I were a food critic, hell, I am a food critic and I still give it two big thumbs up.
Sometime during our lunch I missed a call from TenMile, but soon after settling up and getting back in the truck, my phone rang again and we arranged to meet Mile at my house. I gave him some quick directions and he was sitting there waiting for us when we turned the corner.
Coolest.Meet-up.Ever!
When you've been reading somebody's thoughts for a while, you start to form somewhat of a mental picture, not so much what they look like, but more an overall portrait of their make-up. He pulled into the driveway and it was like shaking hands with a good friend that you haven't seen in a while. I'm sure he had some trepidation, as we all do with these sort of things, but I hope he was at ease, he seemed to be.
We sat around and did the girly-chat-thing live and in person and to be real honest with you, I would have been just as happy to sit there for a few more hours, rather than head to the poker room, but we decided about 2:30 to head to the Newcastle Gaming Center and play some $3-$6 Limit Hold Em.
Miss Maudie walked in around 4:30 and by 5:30 we were all donking it up at the same table. Maudie took the brunt of the local fishery when she had three big hands cracked in about a 5 hand span. I could see the steam by the time the black lady to my left mentioned "it's my favorite hand!" 6 freaking 9 off-suit! You have to love it that they are at your table, but damn, this version of No Fold Em Hold Em can be difficult to deal with sometimes. To her credit, she rebought, grinded it out and got nearly un-stuck for the entire night by the time we got finished.
Somewhere in the midst of all of this, TenMile had to head back toward home and, after saying our goodbyes, we were back at it with 4 ghey bloggers at table 2. Trip is sitting in the 1 seat beside Fishy McGuppy. SteelerJosh is in the 6 seat, I'm in the 7 seat and Maudie is in the 8 seat after a quick move when her buddy with the 6-9 off-suit finally racked up and left.
He also played the Hammer as hard as you can possibly play it at these tables and, if not for Joe-Bob the flaming donkey spiking his Ace on the river, he would have won the hand. Donkey calls all the way to the river with A-2 and no piece of the flop or turn, but catches TP-shitty kicker and takes down the pot. (I am not exaggerating how poor the play was at the casino in the least, the players at the 3-6 tables are positively horrible here)
Finally, somewhere around 2 am, we all decided it was time and the table was quickly broke. After a near 10 hour session, I was UP a whopping $21. That's right, my hourly rate was $2.10. Fear Me! Editor's Note: This will be the last time on the trip that GCox25 is considered UP.
Coming Soon:
Saturday-BBQ-Keystone Light-Southern Comfort-OkieVegas Invitational-Dial-A-Shots and finally: Tilty McSteamalot spews chips like a 3-6 Limit player at the Newcastle Gaming Center.
More to come.
G
posted by GaryC @ 10:10 AM,
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Shenanigans
Friday, June 09, 2006
PLUS
PLUS
=
every poker player at the "Redneck Riviera" on complete tilt after the 2nd hand!
Entirely too much SoCo, beer, sun and shenanigans to do it justice yet. I'm going to have to let yesterday sink in for a little while before trying to do a write-up. The short version is that GCox25 chopped the pot on the first tournament and TripJax and SteelerJosh chopped up 1st and 2nd in the last tournament last night.
Uncomfortable beds at the lake followed at approximately 3:30 am.
More to follow............
posted by GaryC @ 9:35 AM,
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