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Summer Vacation

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Well not really a vacation as I have been working 24/7,  and in between moving and dealing with setting up new internet connections which for some reason takes 10-14 days to flip a switch, bunch of home improvement stuff trying to make my place liveable, working around the yard to get stuff in shape, and finally having the kids come out and visit for a while (YES!)

Anyways, it seems the boys can’t manage to keep the game going without me there, not sure what the reason is, they must all crave the TV time or something. Well you can count the number of games they have played on one hand and I have managed to make a grand total of .5 of those games really so not much to write about.

I also managed to make ith through a whole WSOP without a single post about it. Hope to be in a better situation for next year’s event and at least write about it.

Haven’t played at all online in at least two months. Been working way too much. Am really working towards getting some balance coming up in the fall when I switch to less hours at one of the jobs.

Reading lots, no TV at the house anymore which should free up some dead time for writing, studio is almost there and only have a few more reno jobs to do in the fall to get the place in shape I think.

Anyways, look for me to start getting back on the horse here and on the other sites and getting things going again.

Cards in the air folks.

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Wine and Cheese

Friday, June 26th, 2009

I do try to not whine here, I know bad beats happen.

For the past little while my AK has been getting destroyed all in preflop by the likes of AT, AJ, A6, A4, Q5, you name it but here I am in the the $3+$.30 tourney and doing really well, 38 left out of 588 and am 8th in chips and looking to make a serious run at the win when this happens.

I need to go for a walk.

Full Tilt Poker Game #13034624067: $3 + $0.30 Tournament (96612002), Table 48 - 500/1000 Ante 125 - No Limit Hold’em - 0:18:46 ET - 2009/06/26

Seat 1: Ottawa_Cowboy (18,498)

Seat 2: Momo Manuva (48,282)

Seat 3: Mogadown (38,007)

Seat 4: ChippWhore (29,218)

Seat 5: DeddMonae33 (94,308)

Seat 6: ufcgooch (49,282)

Ottawa_Cowboy antes 125

Momo Manuva antes 125

Mogadown antes 125

ChippWhore antes 125

DeddMonae33 antes 125

ufcgooch antes 125

DeddMonae33 posts the small blind of 500

ufcgooch posts the big blind of 1,000

The button is in seat #4

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to ufcgooch [4s 5h]

ChippWhore: tks

Ottawa_Cowboy folds

Momo Manuva folds

ChippWhore: 10 10

Mogadown folds

ChippWhore calls 1,000

DeddMonae33 calls 500

ufcgooch checks

*** FLOP *** [Qh 5c 5d]

DeddMonae33 checks

ufcgooch checks

ChippWhore bets 1,000

DeddMonae33 raises to 4,000

ufcgooch calls 4,000

ChippWhore folds

*** TURN *** [Qh 5c 5d] [8c]

DeddMonae33 bets 3,000

ufcgooch raises to 44,157, and is all in

DeddMonae33 calls 41,157

ufcgooch shows [4s 5h]

DeddMonae33 shows [Tc Qc]

*** RIVER *** [Qh 5c 5d 8c] [Qd]

ufcgooch shows a full house, Fives full of Queens

DeddMonae33 shows a full house, Queens full of Fives

DeddMonae33 wins the pot (101,064) with a full house, Queens full of Fives

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 101,064 | Rake 0

Board: [Qh 5c 5d 8c Qd]

Seat 1: Ottawa_Cowboy folded before the Flop

Seat 2: Momo Manuva folded before the Flop

Seat 3: Mogadown folded before the Flop

Seat 4: ChippWhore (button) folded on the Flop

Seat 5: DeddMonae33 (small blind) showed [Tc Qc] and won (101,064) with a full house, Queens full of Fives

Seat 6: ufcgooch (big blind) showed [4s 5h] and lost with a full house, Fives full of Queens

Nice freakin 2 outer, me 95% to win with one card to come.

I can’t imagine playing the hand any better and getting a worse result. 

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

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Bankroll Update

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Well I certainly haven’t been doing too many of these lately. Mostly because I haven’t been playing very much.

I had it up to just a bit over 100 times the original freeroll win but it has fallen off a little bit since then. I have played some pretty solid poker but have been on a bit of a cold streak again with having good hands hold up when they need to, most specifically AK

AK has come up short for me AIPF (all in pre-flop) against 45, 89, Q9, A6, A4, 99, KJ and a host of others.

I’ve done well again in one of the 90 player knock out tourneys coming in 5th. Made back my entry alone in KO’s which was good, too bad all the money is really in the top 3 places though.

Tried a bunch of the 36 player double shootouts too, came in 4th (bubble) in one and got knocked out in 2nd of the first round on 5 more, lots of those AK battles were in there.

Had a pretty reasonable run in the daily dollar rebuy tourney 2900 entries and I finished in 380 th place, was doing fairly well as high as 200 out of 800 but then went really card dead for a while and had to make a couple laydowns where I think I might have been good and got chipped down and eventually had to push with KJ with an M of about 4 and got beaten by A8. The top 279 got paid in this one, pretty sure I will give this one another go in the future. I needed to play more agressive when I got in that card dead spot I think, and chasing draws is something not to do when you get chipped down.

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Poker Player Nicknames

Monday, June 15th, 2009

I guess it is a sign that Poker is really reaching the level of other sports like professional boxing and mma that the better players seem to need to have a nickname now. Maybe it is marketing, or it just makes them easier to remember.

Besides great players like J6, there are a number of lesser known pros that also have a snappy moniker, just to name a few they are:

Doyle Brunson               Texas Dolly

Chad Brown                    Downtown

Chris Ferguson               Jesus

Gus Hansen                    The Great Dane

Phil Laak                        The Unabomber

Phil Hellmuth                  The Poker Brat

Randy Jenson                 The Dream Crusher<—I like this one

Dan Harrington              Action Dan

Johnny Chan                  The Orient Express, or Johnny Fucking Chan 

Antonio Esfandiari          The Magician

Howard Lederer              The Professor

Paul Magriel                    X-22

Eric Lindgren                   E-Dog

Mike Matusow                 The Mouth<—–not the home game player, yet.

Michael Mizrachi              The Grinder

Daniel Negreanu              Kid Poker

David Ulliot                     Devilfish

Stu Unger                        The Kid

Carlos Mortensen            El Matador

Isabelle Mercier               No Mercy

Hmmmm…seems the chicks don’t have as many nicknames as the men. Maybe this is the same as life in general, I have a habit of giving most of my friends nicknames, not really the same for the girls.

To get your own poker nickname, simply click on the link below and follow the instructions, I’m “gun toting hitman” which is only slightly off base.

http://nickname-generator.juaxoo.com/nicknames-poker-player.php

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Book Review: Super System

Monday, June 15th, 2009

 super-system

 

Written by Doyle Brunson and published in 1979, it was at the time one of the only books out there that thoroughly examined poker strategy. With contributions by some of the top players and minds in the game it touched on all the bases, and as Doyle said, while it does not cover everything about poker, it does cover the “White Meat” and acts as a very solid base upon which to build.

I will admit to reading a lot of poker books before this one so I found much of what Doyle wrote about the game has been covered, recycled and arguably improved on. However, the first few pages of the book are what always stay with me and the reason I read it over and over again. It is as much a book on poker as the “Art of War” is a book on business. Take some life lessons from Doyle and apply them to the rest of your life, no matter what your job is. Play hard, really hard, but play with honor.

If someone was looking for a book to read and was new to Poker, I think that Super System is a great foundation, that and Sklansky’s “Theory of Poker” are really all you need to start your poker career and take you from novice to a pretty accomplished player as long as you put in the reps. Many of today’s pros when asked would say that Doyle’s book was their start in poker, and provided them with the foundation they used to make a go of the game. With very little modification and the right work ethic, you can take it to the highest level following his game plan.

A couple of funny observations about the book, it was written when Doyle was 44 I believe; one is that he mentions he doesn’t think any of his kids will follow him into the poker world, as you know, his son Todd is one of the top players in the world today. The second is that because I have seen Doyle on TV playing the game so much, when I read the book it is his voice that I read it in, comforting, like the narration by Morgan Freeman in the Shawshank Redemption

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Phil Ivey is the poker Devil

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

mtdesmoines say-

“Ivey is a poker devil.

I don’t know what that means.
But if there is a poker devil, it’s Ivey.”

The devil logged into heads up, he was looking for some blinds to steal.
He was in a bind ‘cos he was way behind: he was willin’ to make a deal.
When he came across this young man playing on a table and playin’ it hot.
And the devil put on his poker face and said: “Boy let me tell you what:
“I bet you didn’t know it, but I’m a poker player too.
“And if you’d care to take a dare, I’ll make a bet with you.
“Now you play some pretty good poker, boy, but give the devil his due:
“I bet a stack of gold against your soul, ‘cos I think I’m better than you.”
The boy said: “My name’s durrrr and it might be a sin,
“But I’ll take your bet, your gonna regret, ‘cos I’m the best that’s ever been.”

durrrr you shuffle up your cards and play your monster draw.
‘Cos hells broke loose in Full Tilt and the devil deals it hard.
And if you win you get this shiny chip stack made of gold.
But if you lose, the devil gets your soul.

The devil opened up his cards and he said: “I’ll start this show.”
And fire flew from his fingertips as he made it a million to go.
As he fired the chips across the felt they made an evil hiss.
Then demons on the rail joined in and it sounded something like this.
When the devil finished, durrrr said: “Well you’re pretty good ol’ son.
“But if you’ll sit down in that chair, right there, and let me show you how its done.”

Fire a reraise into the pot, run boys, run.
The devil’s in the house of the risin’ sun.
durrrr just reloads, he doesn’t run out of dough.
“durrrr, does his bluff work?”
“No, child, no.”

The devil bowed his head because he knew that he’d been beat.
He laid that golden chip stack on the ground at durrrr’s feet.
durrrr said: “Devil just come on back if you ever want to try again.
“I told you once, you son of a bitch, I’m the best that’s ever been.”

Stolen and ruthlessly hacked to pieces from the Charlie Daniels band, sorry Charlie

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Finding a needle in a haystack

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Well look at what we have here…

Yep, managed to find a whole bunch more posts and now have to start loading them all in.

Will be reloading the pictures and promise to have the poker babes section up to snuff soon.

Am working on trying to get some more work to get me through the next couple of years of slow stuff so I may not have as much time for this but am going to be without a TV soon and no plans to replace it really so I think I will have some extra time free there to really work on more productive ventures like this.

Sun is starting to shine and I’m feeling a little better which is getting my energy levels up a bit.

Going to go get myself a beer and have a hamburger for dinner tonight to celebrate a “good day” as far as days go for me lately.

Buddy lent me Laird Hamilton’s book to read and I am really enjoying it. Great easy read for anyone that loves surfing.

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Poker Food: What to eat when you are playing cards

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Seeing as how a poker game can often go for hours and hours on end, tournaments especially of the WSOP and WPT variety are often played down to a certain amount of players before there is a break, it would seem logical to want to reload on some energy during the game.

The Home Game started off really strong, everyone would bring something to eat and we would set up a buffet of sorts on a side table from which the players could get up between hands or after they were knocked out of a tourney and get a plate or two to keep them going.

Somehow this slowly chipped away likes Alejandro’s stack after 10:00 until we were down to a bag or two of microwave popcorn or the Costco size bag of chips that Ontario seems to have and endless supply of.

Now we still throw together the odd shindig, of note was the Super Bowl game at Chateau Ace, the Steak night at Club J6, the Spring rolls made by English Bob, or the Pizza nights at Poker Dave’s. The Captain always the gracious host is often supplementing the game with a nice bottle of Single Malt and some nuts that are go well with the beers.

What is the perfect poker food?

Supposedly the Sandwich and Sushi were both invented so that gamblers would not have to stop their game in order to grab some nosh.

Sandwich

It was named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, an 18th-century English aristocrat, although he was neither the inventor nor sustainerof the food. It is said that Lord Sandwich was fond of this form of food because it allowed him to continue playing cards, particularly cribbage, while eating without getting his cards greasy from eating meat with his bare hands.

Makes sense, the variety of ingredients you could use are almost limitless and they are fairly easy to make, although my favourite the Clubhouse is not exactly the most game friendly sandwich around.

Personally I’m a big fan of Sushi you can easily eat almost any type with one hand during the game with little effect on your play. Not nearly as easy to make as a sandwich, but fortunately there are lots of great places for takeout in my area.

Those would seem to be the real two front runners of the game, though you see Poker Pros eating all kinds of food at the table, I guess because they have a waiters to bring them anything they need and those cool little tables to put their food on too. As long as you aren’t getting the chips and or the cards all greasy I guess anything is good. Just don’t be like that bitch Tiffany Michelle and eat french fries with your fingers after getting your hands on chips that have probably been touched by 8,000 people and being too much of a know it all to realize you should use a fork after someone mentions it.

Jamie Gold was often seen eating fresh blueberries at the Main Event and I think Daniel Negreanu’s mom makes him his food, is he a vegan? I can’t remember.

The brain apparently functions better if it has the proper amount of protein so keep that in mind with meal planning, I personally find caffeine to heighten my senses, but too much will make some people fidgety which would be problematic for a long game.

Anyways, all the food talk is making me hungry, I’m going home for dinner

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Poker and Cigars.

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Like apple pie and ice cream, steak and potatoes, Bordeaux and stinky cheese, Cigars and Poker go hand in hand.

In fact, I’m not sure one would exist without the other. Oh sure, there is always golf, but is there any other activity in the world that has you sitting around for hours and hours on end without getting bored? In the careful hands of a well seasoned poker player the cigar may even enhance ones play. A careful puff here or there, a thoughtful roll or the cigar between the lips, a chomp, a flick of the ash, these could all help a player who knew their opponent was looking for information.

Being from the True North Strong and Free, rather than the Home of the Brave, I get to enjoy the good stuff. Oh sure there are people that will tell you that you can get just as good a cigar from Nicaragua or Jamaica or some other place, but do you know who those people are? Americans. People that know and are not denied one of life’s great pleasures by the most unnecessary grudges the civilized world has seen know that the Cuban cigar is as good as it gets. It’s the the one all are measured against, and the one that they will forever be compared with. Like Wine from France, Whiskey from Scotland and Blondes from Sweden, some places just have the right growing conditions to make perfection seem easy.

I can’t really say I have a favourite because each cigar has it’s own personality of sorts, while I find the Romeo y Julieta Cedros Deluxe No. 1 to be a great all around cigar, one that is easily on par with the Coronas Especiales as my favourite day to day smoke, if my lungs could handle them all the time, and I had the income to afford them, then nothing would touch my lips other than Romeo y Julieta Churchill, and Cohiba Lanceros and Esplendidos. Sad to say that in this day of healthy living and quasi political correctness there is naught a single place that I can enjoy one of these bad boys indoors anymore. Seeing as I live in a ski resort, the winters are rough and long, the only cigars I seem to enjoy for everything but our two weeks of summer seem to be around the fire pit rather than sitting over a nice game of cards with a scotch taking all my friends money.

Which segues into my next train of thought, what is the perfect drink to go with a cigar and a poker game?

 Scotch is my preferred drink to go with a cigar, a nice single malt, usually a highland, Speyside to be specific, but I like to be flexible and sitting around drinking scotch all night doesn’t usually do much for my card playing. A nice Guinness or two is always nice, and I can last a lot longer drinking Guinness than I can scotch. If we start early in the day, the drink of choice has to be an espresso, if you don’t drink a good coffee with your cigar this is a must try, I got onto it from watching all the cigar tasters and they all drink coffee when smoking, it enhances the flavour of the cigar to say the least.

Back in the day we could sit in the cigar room and play all night drinking Guinness with a side of single malt till the wee hours of the morning.

The good old days. *sigh*

Anyways, if anyone needs to pick up some sticks, this goes for you ‘mericans too, just drop my buddy Rob a line here, http://www.cigarsofcuba.com/ here is sure to get them to you, no problems shipping them down to the US of A even. Quality stuff. No, I don’t get anything for the plug.

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Someone please hold my hair

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

While I puke.

According to our friends at Websters

Main Entry:

var·i·ance

Pronunciation:

\?ver-?-?n(t)s\

Function:

noun

Date:

14th century

1 : the fact, quality, or state of being variable or variant : difference , variation <yearly variance in crops> 2 : the fact or state of being in disagreement : dissension , dispute

 

3 : a disagreement between two parts of the same legal proceeding that must be consonant

 

4 : a license to do some act contrary to the usual rule <a zoning variance>

5 : the square of the standard deviation

 

In relation to poker, Variance usually refers to “luck”.

 

Statistical favourites don’t always win, it’s a fact, and anyone who has played online poker knows that a pair of Aces preflop is not going to hold up all the time.

 

However, there is a reasonable understanding amongst players with a knowledge of odds that AA is a preflop favourite in an all in hand against and under pair KK-22 by about 80%.

 

That means the hand should win about 4 out of every 5 hands.

 

I started tracking this a bit ago as I went through a bit of a “bumpy” road in the old bankroll

 

In terms of poker, I really don’t think there are too many things nicer than getting  your money all in against a smaller pair. I love it.

 

In the past 22 hands though I have lost 20

 

That’s a lose rate of 90% on as statistical 80% favourite hand.

 

How is this possible?

 

“Online poker is rigged dude.”

 

I know everyone has heard it it and said it, but damn, times like these really make you wonder.

 

The hands have varied from AA over KK, KK over QQ and all the way to AA-J7

I also started a running count with AK over under pairs, which is about a coin toss, so far the coin must be weighted because the count is 10-2 against on a near 50% race.

 

Live poker is rigged.

 

No not as much it seems, though there certainly are some cooler hands out there.

Full boat last night Jacks over Tens gets smoked by Aces over Tens, no way I can get away from that.

 

JJ loses to KK on a low board flop.

 

KK loses to ? On a AAT board

 

Seems every time I got a good hand there was one better out there, what do you do when that happens?

 

Yep, that’s right, you playing the crap cards, Gay Waiter hit hard for me and cracked pocket Jacks, 74 offsuit flopped trips and made a boat on the turn to crack another big pocket pair.

 

“Great so why are you complaining?”

 

Well, all those wins were given back to in the cooler hands, it’s not who wins, it’s who wins last.

 

I guess at some point this will mean I go on an 100-1 winning streak, I just hope my ship is still floating by the time the storm passes, and in the mean time I need to brush my teeth and get this yucky taste out of my mouth.

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