FWD:this guy beat me on a brutal gutshot

but bullets unstuck me

And we are off

Off to Vegas in the morning, hit me for dial-a-shots

Yup, so the day is finally here. I leave for Vegas early tomorrow morning. Early enough, in fact, to force me to skip the WWdN. Well, mostly to spend some time with my lovely wife before I leave.

I had fun in the DADI last night, although I went out 17th when my all in after a low flop with Qs was set up by Stars as I was against Ks. Anywho, congrats to Hoyazo for kicking everyone's ass again. Just as big a congrats to Dave for the runner up game he played. He did have suckouts working for him and against him, but he made 2 comebacks that were pretty great to watch. He was down to about T350 early and went off for a while where he had a huge stack. Not sure what happened, but a while later, he was again down to about T1000 and ended up coming in second to Mike. A great game, well played by them, as well as others making the final table like Mookie (damn, the fro continues to grow, I was pulling for you man), DNasty (How bout them Tigers??), and Miami Don. And speaking of Miami Don, back to my Vegas trip.

So I leave the house at 5:30am tomorrow. My flight leaves at about 8am and gets me to Vegas at about 11 or 11:30am. The plan for tomorrow is pretty open but will undoubtedly involve some craps and blackjack to get us in the Vegas mood.

On Thursday, I will be meeting Don and Carmen for the noon tourney at Caesar's Palace. I stayed there in October and the poker room wasn't open yet, so I am really looking forward to seeing it. It will also be great to meet 2 more blogger friends face to face. Pretty soon, my wife won't be able to call them my fake friends anymore ;) After that, they are heading to MGM for the cash game and depending on how I feel about my tourney game, I may give it a shot. If not, lunch and an evening of other debauchery is in order no doubt.

On Friday, we are meeting up again to play the Binion's 2pm tourney. I have only been down to old Vegas once for about an hour, so looking forward to checking it out. I hear it is a dump so no big expectations, but it is a historic place for us addicts me thinks.

All in all, hopefully the money will stay with me long enough to get me home late Saturday night.

Now, in keeping with the blogger right of passage, I welcome any comments or emails for dial-a-shots from Vegas. Let me know a number and good time to call you if you are interested.

As you may have seen, I have been testing some mobile bloggage, so we'll see how that goes. I have text email posts coming from the blackberry, and picture posts coming from the camera phone. Hmm, maybe not the smartest combination. There is always the delete post option.

Good luck to all in the WWdN, The Mookie, and the WWdN: Not the this week.

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Doyle's Room is fun so far

I signed up for Doyle's room because it is now a major sponsor of the APL and they will be having APL member freerolls frequently. I played a little NLHE, 5c/10c just to get used to the software. It is a little clunky, but I can't complain about this.



I know, I swore off the cash games, but I do need to get better at them. I am still horrible but playing a lot tighter. Of course, the story behind this is a rough one in that I was up a little over $11 when I got my pocket 8's. The guy with Aces pushed pre-flop and I made the fishy call. Yes, I was just lucky, lucky, lucky. Oh well, sometimes I would rather be lucky than good.

On the flip side, I did beat the snot out of some poor dude who made me look like Gabe Thaler. He was so bad. When I sat at the table, this guy had over $40 at the $20 max table. He would call you down to the river with bottom pair, or chase until the river and then fold on the end. Once he left, I did too. I started with $20 and left with exactly $60. I also played a couple SNGs and cashed in both. I like Doyle's room so far.

Ok, off to do my chores before the big bash for my youngest's birthday. Lawn to mow, edges to weed whack, ice to get, food platters to pick up.

Enjoy the weekend.

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Testing mobile blogging

Mookie and WWdN- Not the Updates

I was out of the office yesterday on a field trip. My 5 yr old had a class trip that was a harbor cruise so I took the day off. It was a beautiful day here and the trip was a lot of fun. I don't get a lot of time like that alone with each of the kids.

I am going to be out of the office all of next week also, so work is pretty busy today. This will be a quick one but didn't want to miss another day of posting. Next week I am not sure how much I will be posting. My youngest turns 3 on Sunday so we are having a big party and I don't plan on too much poker this weekend. Posts next week all depend on whether I can get the mobile blogging going in the right direction. I am going to be in Vegas from Wednesday until Saturday (sweet!) so I won't have access to a PC and I won't be coherent enough to post anyway. A short bberry post here and there is a possibility though.

On Wednesday night, I did get to play in the Mookie. This one is getting a consistent following of about 40 and this was no exception with 42 players. Nice job pulling it together Mookie. I don't remember much but I got to the final table with a healthy stack but made a mistake when I thought Waffles was trying to steal and I pushed with A10o. This was on the bubble of course, and he turned over AKo. Luckily, the Mookie is at River Stars and I hit the nut flush, which also made me a straight on the river when a 10 of spades fell. A little bit later, my buddy Trip was the unfortunate bubble boy in my place. I got mine a bit later and was out in 3rd, leaving an epic battle between jjok and waffles for the title. It was good that I got out of the way of that one, because we all got a treat with the seesaw battle they had. jjok ended up taking it down in the end.

Last night, after the wife and I went out and did some party food shopping, I got hope in time to play the WWdn-Not the. Since Darval moved the time up to 10:30pm EST, I gave it a go. There ended up being 18 players, which was a nice increase over last week. The deck was hitting me in the face early and I was a huge chip leader after doubling through the host when I flopped a set of 3's after a raise, re-raise preflop. The next big hand I had, just before the final table, was when I cracked both AA and KK with my 10s when I flopped another set.

Down the final table, smokkee was able to chatter his way into my head. Well played, sir. He was pretty short stacked and when it folded to him in the SB and he pushed on me, I thought long and hard before folding the Tourist. He proceeded to show his A4 soooted, which would end up being the only time I would have to get him. Of course, a call in that situation would have been somewhat stupid, even though he was the short stack. Also, this is River Stars, so there is no guarantee I would have won the hand even with the domination in effect.

Alas, he did a great job of pounding away at me until I could take it no more and pushed on him...just he got his pocket rockets. He had already lifted a bunch of chips off others so it was a big chunk of me at that point. From there, I was admittedly tilted. I pushed on Hoyazo later with A2 soooted. I don't remember what he had, but lost and was put out of my misery. I made a lot of mistakes and my cards were ridonkulously bad at the final table. I did a lot of stealing to keep in it for a while, but I was destined to give my chips up to these 2 clowns. They both have a very good style that keeps you guessing all the time. At one point, I raised Hoyazo's blind and he came over the top and I folded the better hand. On the next hand, I raised it up again and he did the exact same thing. That was just begging for a call, which I luckily did not answer. He had the aces that time.

My biggest mistake late, was when I got my pocket aces and it folded around to me and I raised it up on Hoyazo's BB again. He folded that time of course. I should have limped because he loves to raise it up and punish the limpers. At that point, I was already defeated though. This can be a mental game. I hate to tune of the chat in a blogger event, but in some cases, that is what I may have to do when it gets to a critical stage.

Great job to Hoyazo for taking it down, and also big ups to smokkee for making it to heads up and coming really close to taking it down. With only 1k in chips to start the final table, it was quite a run.

Have a good weekend all.

MFFPS!!! IHYADYFPOS!!

To give proper credit, the above is a quote from Hoyazo's Uberpost from Monday, May 22nd. The permission to use said quote was requested and granted. You may want to find it for yourself in that post for more details.

Terrible night for me at the tables. I started off donking out early in the WWdN. I gorget exactly where, but it was early. I made a flush and failed to get paid off. The next hand I get pocket Jacks and raise it up 4xBB. I get one caller. I make a continuation bet on the Q high board and it was called. I check the turn, another Q, and he gets out a nice amount. I have to lay it down leaving me shortstacked. A little while later, I get pocket 3s and push and called by 2 high cards. I hit the set on the flop but she rivers the straight and I am out. I would have busted on the hand even if I limped most likely, although a stop and go might have knocked her off the draw. Hmm, food for thought.

I am swearing off the NL cash games for a while too. I just can’t seem to get it right. I guess I am just a donkey. Since I am not enjoying it at all, I can’t keep pushing it. This is how I played this and I clearly should have been able to get away from this hand, but I felt like I had a lot in the pot. When he bet then re-raised on the turn though, I really did know I was beat. He thought forever on the flop bet though, so I had him on AQ when I raised his small flop bet. I guess I should have just called it huh? Actually, I probably should never have been in the hand to begin with. Why can’t this every happen to me? Help in comments please?


> PokerStars Game #5034208179: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2006/05/23 - 23:38:35 (ET)
> Table 'Argelander' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
> Seat 1: drewspop ($48.90 in chips)
> Seat 2: mrshovels2u ($39.70 in chips)
> Seat 3: Flippo4 ($93.65 in chips)
> Seat 4: bbrad24 ($92.20 in chips)
> Seat 5: ultraman2 ($34.40 in chips)
> Seat 6: Betalot ($55.70 in chips)
> Seat 8: 50/100 ($70.25 in chips)
> Seat 9: dredeezy ($84.35 in chips)
> bbrad24: posts small blind $0.50
> ultraman2: posts big blind $1
> GIDDY UP 9: sits out
> *** HOLE CARDS ***
> Dealt to drewspop [Qh 8h]
> Betalot: folds
> 50/100: calls $1
> dredeezy: calls $1
> drewspop: calls $1
> GIDDY UP 9 is sitting out
> mrshovels2u: folds
> Flippo4: folds
> bbrad24: folds
> ultraman2: checks
> *** FLOP *** [3h Qs 8c]
> ultraman2: checks
> GIDDY UP 9 has returned
> 50/100: bets $3
> dredeezy: folds
> drewspop: raises $7 to $10
> ultraman2: folds
> 50/100: calls $7
> *** TURN *** [3h Qs 8c] [Js]
> 50/100: bets $3
> drewspop: raises $13 to $16
> 50/100: raises $13 to $29
> drewspop: calls $13
> *** RIVER *** [3h Qs 8c Js] [Jd]
> 50/100: bets $13
> drewspop: calls $8.90 and is all-in
> *** SHOW DOWN ***
> 50/100: shows [Jh Qc] (a full house, Jacks full of Queens)
> drewspop: shows [Qh 8h] (two pair, Queens and Jacks)
> 50/100 collected $97.30 from pot
> *** SUMMARY ***
> Total pot $100.30 | Rake $3
> Board [3h Qs 8c Js Jd]
> Seat 1: drewspop showed [Qh 8h] and lost with two pair, Queens and Jacks
> Seat 2: mrshovels2u folded before Flop (didn't bet)
> Seat 3: Flippo4 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
> Seat 4: bbrad24 (small blind) folded before Flop
> Seat 5: ultraman2 (big blind) folded on the Flop
> Seat 6: Betalot folded before Flop (didn't bet)
> Seat 8: 50/100 showed [Jh Qc] and won ($97.30) with a full house, Jacks full of Queens
> Seat 9: dredeezy folded on the Flop


I finished the night in a $4 180 SNG and was doing ok. I got down to 27 left when this hand happened. I was getting shortstacked and couldn’t have played this any differently, but this was my night. I asked Hoyazo if I could use his Poker Stars catch phrase after this one.

> PokerStars Game #5033928751: Tournament #25262694, $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (200/400) - 2006/05/23 - 23:16:27 (ET)
> Table '25262694 14' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
> Seat 1: BOOCHES (16858 in chips)
> Seat 2: frogbird pkr (2728 in chips)
> Seat 3: Ghislain3 (11562 in chips)
> Seat 4: legg12 (10626 in chips)
> Seat 5: ChauSingSing (12557 in chips)
> Seat 6: TheRecovery (4953 in chips)
> Seat 7: drewspop (2477 in chips)
> Seat 8: Swiitch (4426 in chips)
> Seat 9: con-doritaus (6457 in chips)
> BOOCHES: posts the ante 25
> frogbird pkr: posts the ante 25
> Ghislain3: posts the ante 25
> legg12: posts the ante 25
> ChauSingSing: posts the ante 25
> TheRecovery: posts the ante 25
> drewspop: posts the ante 25
> Swiitch: posts the ante 25
> con-doritaus: posts the ante 25
> BOOCHES: posts small blind 200
> frogbird pkr: posts big blind 400
> *** HOLE CARDS ***
> Dealt to drewspop [Js Ks]
> Ghislain3: folds
> legg12: calls 400
> ChauSingSing: folds
> TheRecovery: folds
> drewspop: calls 400
> Swiitch: folds
> con-doritaus: calls 400
> BOOCHES: calls 200
> frogbird pkr: checks
> *** FLOP *** [8s 4s Kd]
> BOOCHES: checks
> frogbird pkr: checks
> legg12: checks
> drewspop: bets 2052 and is all-in
> con-doritaus: folds
> BOOCHES: calls 2052
> frogbird pkr: folds
> legg12: folds
> *** TURN *** [8s 4s Kd] [8c]
> *** RIVER *** [8s 4s Kd 8c] [5c]
> drewspop said, "haha"
> *** SHOW DOWN ***
> BOOCHES: shows [8h 6h] (three of a kind, Eights)
> drewspop: shows [Js Ks] (two pair, Kings and Eights)
> drewspop said, "of course"
> BOOCHES collected 6329 from pot
> iamhoff [observer] said, "dam"
> *** SUMMARY ***
> Total pot 6329 | Rake 0
> Board [8s 4s Kd 8c 5c]
> Seat 1: BOOCHES (small blind) showed [8h 6h] and won (6329) with three of a kind, Eights
> Seat 2: frogbird pkr (big blind) folded on the Flop
> Seat 3: Ghislain3 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
> Seat 4: legg12 folded on the Flop
> Seat 5: ChauSingSing folded before Flop (didn't bet)
> Seat 6: TheRecovery folded before Flop (didn't bet)
> Seat 7: drewspop showed [Js Ks] and lost with two pair, Kings and Eights
> Seat 8: Swiitch folded before Flop (didn't bet)
> Seat 9: con-doritaus (button) folded on the Flop

Ok, sorry for the hand histories and the whiney bitching. Congrats out to smokkee for taking down the WWdN last night. Also a great run to the final table by Miami Don, who I will be slinging chips with in less than a week now.

See all the cool kids at the Mookie tonight. Remember, 10pm EST.

Bar Poker Night Win and a Baseball Update

Last night was the monthly championship at the bar. The tourneys all start at 7pm but my son had a game last night so I knew I was going to be late, if I made it at all. If you get there before the first break ends, you can still get in with a few blinds taken off.

My son's game got over at about 7:35 and the bar is about 20 minutes away so I gave it a shot. If it was a normal weekly game, I would have just skipped it in place of watching the Sox vs Yankees game. Since it was the monthly championship, I decided I should try to play it.

I got there as the break was happening, so I was ok. Just a little bit short-stacked, but probably close to average or just below. In my second hand, I had pocket 10s in the SB and bumped it up to 600 to go. The blinds were 100/200 and my stack was at about 3200. I got 3 callers. The flop came all unders and I pushed. Everyone folded and my stack was healthy right off the bat.

There were about 35-40 people I think in the tourney at that point. 5 tables of 7 or 8 players but since the blinds were getting up, people starting dropping quickly and taking chances. Soon, my table was broken down and I was moved.

I was pretty card dead for a while after that, but managed to make it to the final 2 tables. At that point though, I was short stacked. I had stolen a couple pots, but I was at the point where I needed to get a hand and double up, or I was done. Finally, with the blinds up to 1k/2k, and me sitting on 4k UTG, I pushed with K6h. I didn't think I could depend on getting a better hand in the next 2 and I got 3 callers.

I haven't mentioned this too much, but it has been a little harder with some of the players here since I got back from St. Louis. Everyone seems to know me and wants to knock me off. The people that stay away from me are the people that I know and play with regularly. Of course, in this case, it wasn't a big raise, but the stacks were all getting pretty short because the blinds increase fast in these tourneys.

Anyway, on the flop, one of the guys bet and one of my buddies looked at him like he was an idiot, since he wasn't checking it down, and decided to push on him. The guy calls with TPSK and my buddy has 2 pair. He takes the side pot, but the river gives me a straight with my 6 and I have some cheeps to work with.

We quickly get down to the final table and I have about an average stack when the chip up happens. I have mentioned the blind structure here before. Basically, when you get to the final table, it all comes down to the cards. The challenge is getting there, and then getting lucky once you do get there. The final chip up takes us to 5k/10k blinds. With about 40 starting players with stacks at 3500 or so, the total chips in play are about 120K. With 8 players and the blinds at 5k/10k, you do the math. It is a push or fold fest and it is all about the position if you have even a marginal hand. Late position with paint? Push.

Anyway, I had about 15k and we had one guy all in, with just his BB and I was UTG with pocket 10s again. I pushed and got one caller. My 10s held up and I was up to about 45k or so with the blinds. My blind was no good when someone pushed their 30k in and got a caller. I had 46o. It, of course, would have been good with the 44J flop but another person was gone.

Down to 4 of us, I am in the SB with A2h. The button goes all in for his last 5k and I push to make it 35k total. The BB insta-calls, putting him all in. The big stack, who had me covered at the time, but just barely, labors over his decision for about 3 minutes. Basically, if he calls with us all in, he wins if he wins the hand. At the same time, if he folds, and I win, we are heads up and he is assured second place at least. He finally folded, which I was happy about, figuring I was probably already behind the BB. I was wrong when he flipped QJo and the button flipped pocket K5d. I hit a duck on the board, it held up, and I was heads up with the chip lead.

At this point, the blind went up again to 10k/20k. The first hand, I was the BB and he folded to me pre-flop. Now, the guy I was playing with a friend and someone that was at my home game Friday night. He is nice guy. He started talking about how I had won a monthly before, and that he never did. I almost felt bad for him for a minute. With the win, you get qualified for the semi-annual regional tourney, which is a step toward the state championship again.

Anyway, on the second hand, in the SB, I get pocket 6s. I push on him and he says, "I think you made that decision before you even looked at your cards". He thought for second and then called. He had J10o. Not a bad hand, and about a coinflip to my 6s. The flop came K Q 8. The turn gave him more outs with a 3rd heart on the board with another Q. The river was a blank and it was over. I took it down. Again, I almost felt bad because it seemed like it meant a lot to him but hey. It felt really good to take it down. Almost like a little bit of validation after my finish in the National Championship. I had made a couple final tables since then, but hadn't won one. Like I said, everyone seems to know me in there now, mostly because of that one run I made, so it was nice to take it down.

Ok, some non-poker talk. My son is kicking ass at baseball. Even though he is the youngest on the team, he is pounding the ball. Since he stuck out his first 4 at bats of the year, he hasn't struck out since and has been hitting the ball hard every at bat. He is really hard on himself though when they make the play on him.

In Sunday's game, he got up with the bases loaded in the second inning. The team was down by a couple runs. Although he has been hitting well, he has had a couple bad swings on pitches out of the strike zone high. I mean like at or over his head. I told him to tuck his chin into his front shoulder and if he had to pick up his head, it was too high. Of course, the first 2 pitches were at least at his eyes, and were both called strikes. The next pitch though was right down the middle of the plate and he crushed it. It looked like it was headed to the left center gap when the left fielder ran over and made a ridiculously great diving catch on it to rob him. I thought he was going to cry. He was pretty upset as he went back to the dugout and I had to sit him down and tell him that was part of the game, the kid made a great catch, but he did everything he could have hoped. Later in the game, he got 2 hits and drove in some runs. The scariest part, for me anyway, was in the last inning when the other team was making a comeback. The inning started off 15-8 good guys, but before you knew it, they had scroed 3 runs and had men on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. The next batter lofts a lazy fly ball out to left field. Exactly where my son is playing. I see it going out there and think, "please let him catch it". He dances around under it like he has to pee or something but ends up making the catch. Phew. But wait, the runner on 3rd didn't tag up and was basically already in the dugout at this point. We are all yelling, to throw it to 3rd. He does but misses the cutoff man. Fortunately, like I said, the runner was nowhere in sight and it was an easy double play. A couple plays later, it was all over and they won. If he missed that, it would have been terrible for him. He also made a great relay throw earlier in the game when the ball got to the wall. He made a perfect, strong throw to the cutoff man, who then fired a perfect strike to 3rd to get the runner trying to stretch it to a triple. You don't see that too often at that level, so it was a great play.

In last night's game, in his first at bat, he hit the ball hard but the left fielder caught it for the out. In his second at bat, he got a nice single up the middle. In his third at bat was when he was at his best. The team was down 7-2 but had the bases loaded and there were 2 outs. They had just brought in the pitcher that had struck him out twice in the second game. A big kid with a nice fastball.

The first pitch as a called strike down the middle. The second pitch he swung and missed and he was behind it. On the next pitch though, he connected and put it out in the right center gap. He cleared the bases but, trying to stretch it to a triple, was gunned out there. Again, he was upset and I had to talk to him about the fact that he just got his team back into it and did great. All he focused on was the fact that he made an out. Oh well, we can work on that. He is doing great though.

Poker Stars Freeroll

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

WPBT Mugging

I played some hands pretty bad in both of the Gemini tourneys last night. The WPBT tourneys are not ones that I usually plan on playing, but I figured I would give it a go. It was an interesting concept that Biggestron put together and I wanted to see how it played out. It was weird playing 2 tourneys with the same starting playes at each table.

Joe Speaker got a bunch of my chips in one and finished me off in one. Actually, it may have been the same one, but I can't really remember. Both finishes were most forgetable anyway. Everytime I had a decent hand, I missed the flop, made a play at the pot, and had to fold it away when played back at. Another problem I had was defending a blind and catching enough of the flop to play as second best hand. In one hand with Miami Don, I ended up folding top pair of Qs with KQ to his pressure. I called one too many bets but couldn't raise him without pushing. Not knowing where I was, which was beat I found out anyway, I had to lay it down. Exhibit A in playing a dangerous hand that like to a pre-flop raise. The real problem for me was the fact that there were already 4 callers of the raise, plus I missed who the raiser was because my other table was popping into action at the same time. I made a quick, ill advised pre-flop call and it cost me a bunch of chips. Even though I folded it, I paid too much.

Congrats to all that did well and to Hoyazo who took down the combined tourney. Well played sir.

After I was dismissed with the hammer in one, and with a steal attempting A4 (I think) as I tried to keep chipping up, I decided to jump into one last tourney for the night.

I ended up playing in an 18 person SNG for $10+1. The deck hit me in the face early and I was a big chip leader when we got to the final table. I did fall behind a couple times but managed to suck out with KQ vs AJ in the second to last hand. With the win, I was actually up $40 after my entries to the WPBT tourneys and the SNG.

I will take it. Thanks to jjok for the railing.

PokerStars Tournament #25156318, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
18 players
Total Prize Pool: $180.00
Tournament started - 2006/05/21 - 22:32:07 (ET)

Dear drewspop,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $72.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Pokersourceonline Blogger Freeroll Tourney

Well, I did get to play and just finished...6th. I got it all in on a short stack with AKd and was called by AQs, but he spiked the queen and sent me to the rail on an important bubble. The tourney paid out the top 27 spots but the top 5 got a lot more cash and Nevada Jack chips to boot.

I hate taking bad beats, but when the payout from from $60 to $150 + $200 in poker chips, that really sucks.

Anyway, tough to complain since it was all free. Gotta go to bed now. Congrats to Dugglebogey, Katitude, and Jordan for making it to the final table. Also congrats to Drizz and Mookie for making the final 2 tables. It was fun to be in the girly chat with most of these guys during the tourney. Thanks for the mutual railing power.

Suckout City Home Tourneys

We ended up with 21 people last night at my house for an impromptu home tourney. $20 a person with the top 4 spots cashing. We played 2 tourneys over the course of the night. I finished 6th in the first and 5th in the second. I just love the bubble!

It is always interesting in the home games because we usually end up with a few people that don't really know what they are doing. It makes for some fugley beats. People chasing gutshots and flushes with no odds at all. Anyway, it was a good time, although some of the suckouts were huge.

In the first game, I was down to felt after losing a hand where I had middle pair and I pushed into a guy that I know well and I know how he plays. I figured that if he didn't have top pair, he would lay it down. Unfortunately, the blind were so big and whipping around, that he ended up calling me with a pair that was above my middle pair but below the top pair on the board. He gave it a lot of thought before making the good call.

Down to only 1 blind, I got pocket biatches but the BB had a K and the board helped him and I was out. No big deal and no bad beat there. Just bad luck.

After I went out in that one, and it got down to 3 players, the end came quickly. The same guy who put me out was a big chip leader. He raised on the button 3 handed and the SB pushed. The SB had pocket 10's and the chip leader had pocket 9's. On the flop, the chip leader got one of his 2 outs and the SB was out of the game.

Now down to 2, on the next hand, the SB calls and the BB/big stack min-raises. The SB pushed and the BB called. It was a big call too, huge pot that would have flipped the balance of the game for the SB as the new chip leader if he won.

The SB had pocket Aces while the BB/chip leader had A4c. The flop game the SB a set of Aces but came with 2 clubs. Yup, the turn completed the flush and the river was no help and the game was over to much shouting and whining. Talk about a luckbox.

In the second game, when it was down to 5, I was again a smaller stack but was able to steal some blinds, but still had only about 2 big blinds left. The big stack, who was the SB from the first game who's Aces got cracked, was in the BB and I was in the cutoff. Five handed, that means there was only 1 fold at the time, but when it got to me, I had J10o with only a couple hands to go. With 4th only paying $40, I played to win by pushing and trying to again take down the blinds. The blinds were at 2k/4k and I had 8.5k. There were only about 80k in chips altogether though, so it was a substantial amount that would put a big dent in the BB if he called and lost.

After much deliberation, he says, "I am sure you have me but I think I have to call" and flips up J9c. wOOt, I have him dominated. The flop comes down 8c 9s Qc giving me a flopped straight! Umm, but wait a minute, now he has a flush draw. The turn is a blank spade, and as someone says, "Chris is hoping for something red!", the river brings the fucking 3c and I am kicked so hard in the junk, I feel like I have been castrated.

It was 3am and I was pissed. I felt bad after because I was whining and complaining too much but that just sucked. I guess it was justice for him for getting his Aces cracked in the first game but still. Anyway, they eliminated 1 more and the top three split the rest so we could call it a night.

Oh well, no addition to my Vegas bankroll unfortunately. It was fun though. Hope to see you at the Absolute Freeroll (if I end up making it that is).

Absolute Free Money

I got very little poker in last night. It was wifey time once she got home from running some errands last night. While she was out though, I did venture onto Absolute to see what I could do with my free $10 that they sent me an email about last week. My choices were either a low limit cash game or a low buy-in SNG with my little poker bonus cash, and given my suckingness at the cash games, I figured my best bet to be the SNG.

I bought into a $6+1 (why the $5 tables are only heads up is beyond me) while also trying to catch up on a few blogs through Bloglines. Before I knew it, it was the 3rd level and 3 were already out. Ok, time to focus on the game I guess. I have no details, nothing really comes to mind, but before long, I was heads up with a little bit larger stack.

My heads up skillz have been atrocious lately and the cards were not helping me. Still, I think I am trying to play aggressively, only to get played back at when I am raising with a less than great hand. I need to start playing a few heads up SNGs to get some practice and figure out my leaks in this part of my game. Anyway, to make a long story short, I lost heads up for a $16.50 score.

I then sat at a short handed NL cash game with $10 at a 10c/25c table. It was a short buy-in with the rest of the table at around $20 each. No big stacks. I was getting beaten up by people chasing flushes and hitting on the river when I was betting with TPTK. I wasn’t giving them odds, but they didn’t care. It happened twice actually. I was down as low as $3 when I won a couple small pots to get me to $6 and then I caught a boat and got my all in called to double me up and make me a whole $2, wOOt. Just as that hand was over, wifey got home so she probably saved me from giving it back. The bottom line is that I have a little over $20 now so the build is on baby!

I have a pretty big group of guys coming to the house tonight for a home game. I have been too busy over the last month to plan out my next big home tourney and the next month or 2 will continue to be busy with work, kiddo’s sports, and the summer. Not wanting to go too long without having another nice sized game, I sent an email to my list of home tourney players as a last minute idea. I sent it on Monday and it looks like I might get 3 full tables for tonight’s game.

I will recap the madness over the weekend sometime if I can. The weekend is filled with baseball games on both Saturday and Sunday (makeup games) and a first communion party for my god daughter. What a weird term.

Trip's Questions

Ok, here are my lame answers.

What is the biggest mistake people make at a NL table?
Being a disbeliever. If someone is representing a good hand, they don’t always have it, but if you call them, they will.

What is the biggest mistake people make at a Limit table?
Sticking around to see “just one more card”

Why do you play poker?
For the thrill of the potential big score. I waste way too much money on MTTs, but it is what I like to play the most, especially with other bloggers.

If you weren't playing poker, what would you be doing?
Watching too much reality TV.

What is your favorite poker book and why?
The Moneymaker book was pretty good, not for strategy, or even how you should play anything, but the story itself was pretty cool. For strategy, the tried and true Theory of Poker is great.

Who is your favorite poker player and why?
Phil Ivey. There is no way of knowing what is going through the guys head. It is awesome stuff.

Which poker player do you dislike the most and why?
Hellmuth, just because he is an ass. I hate being berated for plays that felt right but were not. If I make stupid plays, eventually you will crush me. Why make me feel like such a chump.

Do your coworkers know about your blog?
Just one person does and he is a friend so I am pretty safe there. Most of my friends don’t even know about it, although some do. Last week I mentioned a company in one of my posts and got an email from someone I knew from my town asking about what I knew about the company. The funny thing was, he sent me email through the site so didn’t know it was even me. He follows up on any items where his company is mentioned on the web and just happened to find my blog that way. Smaller world than we think I guess.

What is the most you have won in a cash game or MTT (both live and online)?
The most I won online was a second place $720 in a $20 180 SNG on Stars. Live, the most I have won is $200 at limit hold em at Foxwoods. I look forward to topping that with Miami Don and Carmen in 2 weeks when I go to Vegas.

What is the most you have lost in a cash game or in one day total (both live and online)?
This is a guess, but I haven’t lost more than $100 in any one day online and maybe a little more than that in one day at Foxwoods.

Who was your first poker blog read?
Mean Gene. Found his blog through Google search and the links on the left were endless. Pretty cool.

What satisfies you more, your aces holding up for a big pot or a bluff working for a big pot?
My Aces holding up is more satisfying. I think it is just knowing that I got the money in ahead and got someone to come along for the ride.

Why do you blog?
I think it is mostly for the interaction with the other bloggers. I have found it very helpful for learning this game. I also enjoy meeting the other bloggers and working on gaining respect for my game while playing and learning with them. I also just think it is cool meeting other people with different life experiences and backgrounds. We all live in our little worlds and this is an outlet to reach others we wouldn’t normally get to meet.

Do you read blogs from an RSS reader like bloglines or do you visit each blog?
I read though bloglines but try to comments when it strikes me. I am a famous skimmer, so I don’t always get to comment on everything that I read, but I do like people to know they are read, just like I like to know it too.

Would you rather play poker for a living than do what you currently do for a living?
The easy answer is yes, but in reality, I am not sure. I doubt it is really that glamorous a life and my family means too much to me to be on the road too much. I am also too risk averse to not have that steady stream of income guaranteed as long as I have my job.

Do you wear a tin foil hat on occasion?
Only in thunderstorms

If you had to pin it down to one specific trait, what does a great poker player have (or do) that separates them from an average player?
I think being a risk taker is a good trait to have. Notice, I just said I wasn’t a risk taker, but if I was moreso at the table, it would make me a better player I think.

Is Drizz the coolest person on the planet for naming his baby Vegas?
I have to think so, although it could be risky when she is older. I am so glad I have 3 boys.

What is your primary poker goal and are you close to accomplishing it?
Sadly, I don’t know I have a specific goal. I guess my only true goal is keep having fun with it, and take a few shots at winning a WSOP seat over the next year or so. Not the main event, but the $1500 events would be super cool to play in. If I played more tourneys specifically for that purposes, I might be close, but, as always, I am all over the place with what I play.

What is your primary online site and why?
My primary site is Poker Stars for the tourneys. It seems like there is always a good selection of MTTs to play. I also like the fact that you can almost always catch other bloggers on there when you are on.

What site do you dislike and why?
I am not a fan of River Belle (sorry Klopzi) because they screwed me on a referral and the traffic is too low for me. I also had a hell of problem with everyone else with UB when the upgrade went through. I like the game selection at Full Tilt but the bonus clearing is a joke at my low limits.

Mookie Tourney Run

Well, I played in the Mookie last night and made a nice run to 2nd place. Congrats to Gilain on a great game. He crushed me like a bug when we got to heads up. My cards were just barely good enough to raise, but bad enough to have to throw them away when he pushed on me with his larger stack. It was a pretty quick heads up session and he did gOOt. Well played sir.

Basically, I started off trying to defend my blinds against Jules, who loves to smack me around. It didn’t work out so good and I was the short stack at our table after not too long. I then had to severely tighten up and hope for some hands. I ended up flopping a set of 5s and doubling up through Kat. I gave some chips to Xanthius, who refused to fold, EVER, if he hit any piece of the flop. I actually gave him a bunch of chips later too when I had a good starting hand and couldn’t get him to fold, even with a scary board.

Just before the first break, I was moved to a new table. I had 2355 in chips, but there were some big stacks, including smokkee with 7530. Once I got moved, the hands came and came fast. In the 3rd hand I was there, I got big slick and knocked out kegeratorman who was short stacked with pocket 4s. With 4255 in chips now, everyone folded to me in the big blind to get me up to 4330.

On the next hand, I had pocket 4s in the SB and called smokkee’s min raise. Mrs. Mookie was also in the hand, but when the board came 9 A 10, and everyone checked the flop, I put out a bet on the turn and took the pot of 900. Now up to 4930, I get AQ on the button and pop it to 900 to go. Smokkee thinks and bumps it to 1800. I decided I needed to push and pray and smokkee called with AJ. Niether of us improved and I doubled up to 9935. That made 4 hands in a row and set me on fire.

Two noteworthy hands after that, that I remember. Once was a raise from Hoyazo and his call of my push at the final table. He had A3o (?) vs. my pocket 10’s. Yeah, all the money went in pre-flop and yeah, he hit his A to take the chip lead. A while later, not to be outdone though, with my stack now at 8806, I had AJc in the BB and had been card dead for a while and too passive. It folded around to Hoyazo in the SB and he bumped it 4xBB. Thinking this is a typical Hoyazo steal play, and finally getting a somewhat playable hand, I pushed on his. He called the 6000 reraise and had me dominated with AQo. That is until the flop came K J 4…and the river brought another J. That hand got be back to second in chips to Miami Don but I was able to luck myself into the heads up battle with Gilain a while later. It was nice to play with Hoyazo at the final table, instead of my starting table like it has been lately. He is tough to put on a hand. Great game by all and congrats to Hoyazo, Miami Don, Mrs. Mookie, Darval, Xantius, Kipper, and the host for making the final table a fun time. Unfortunately, Mookie will go another day without a haircut, but he played it well to the end. Go check out his live blogging of the event..

Special shout out to Surf was railing me like it was his job. Much appreciated my man. Same to Carmen, who, along with Don, I will be meeting up with in less than 2 weeks now! wOOt!

Mookie Tourney Tonight and an idea

Ok, tonight at 10pm EST is the weekly online homegame known as the Mookie. Always a great time, great crowd, and Surf will be going for the 3-peat, so be there. There is also the added intrigue of the vaunted Austin crew taking up half the final table every week. Also, as always, Mookie will live blog the tourney. Again, all a great time.

On Monday, I talked about how I had been playing extra donkily lately. Last night, the donks were replaced by junk flicks, but still running bad here. In order to combat the donks, I need some focus and was looking for a challenge with fellow bloggers.

Ok, here is my idea. Since Mookie usually has a pretty loyal following, a lot of the players are there every week. I was thinking either before or after that tourney, we could do a one table SNG each week for 9 people that want in to the challenge. We would keep the weekly entry into the SNG low, $5 and each person would pay $20 or $25 up front into the prize pool. We could run it for 6 weeks and keep track of points for each based on finish to determine a winner. Since some people would have to miss here and there, we could count only the top 4 weeks per person during the 6 week period. If you play all 6 weeks, you get to count your best 4, but if you miss a week or 2, you don't get penalized necessarily. If we didn't have at least 7 of the 9 involved on any given week, we wouldn't count that week.

It may be too hard to coordinate, but it was just an idea. The payouts would be just like a SNG, like we did for the 45 SNG challenge.

Any takers? Any other suggestions?

Tough Luck

Well, played a little bit last night, but the luck wasn't really there for me. I started off in the WWdN, busted early, then did a quick reload on Full Tilt so I could get into the nightly bracelet race. Got boned there too, but finally won a token SNG and promptly used it for the 17K guarantee at 10pm. That started with about 900 people I think and I lasted for a while, but still finished out of the money in 196th place. Can't complain about that one. Just wasn't getting any cards and the blinds got to me.

As far as the WWdN and the bracelet race tourneys, yes, I will complain. Sorry folks but here they are. First, in the WWdN. I had my natural starting place with Hoyazo across the table from me. We have been donking it up regularly together over the past couple weeks. Starting at the same table and busting early. Last night would be no exception.

Before I post the hand history (sorry), I will admit that I probably screwed myself a little in the way I played this hand. Although I was raising pre-flop and betting after, my bets were smallish as to represent a good hand, but not bullets. Dnasty13 apologized, which was of course unnecessary but appreciated. Anyway, I would play it like this 9 out of 10 times anyway so here it is.

> PokerStars Game #4957991242: Tournament #24478377, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2006/05/16 - 20:41:23 (ET)
> Table '24478377 4' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
> Seat 1: HermWarfare (1930 in chips)
> Seat 2: Blue123 (1450 in chips)
> Seat 3: drewspop (940 in chips)
> Seat 4: mookie99 (1500 in chips) is sitting out
> Seat 6: farclan (1480 in chips)
> Seat 7: penner42 (2560 in chips)
> Seat 8: hoyazo (1590 in chips)
> Seat 9: dnasty13 (2040 in chips)
> Blue123: posts small blind 10
> drewspop: posts big blind 20
> *** HOLE CARDS ***
> Dealt to drewspop [Ad Ah]
> mookie99: folds
> HermWarfare said, "im quite good at cards"
> farclan: folds
> penner42: folds
> hoyazo: folds
> HermWarfare said, "haha"
> dnasty13: raises 60 to 80
> HermWarfare: folds
> Blue123: folds
> drewspop: raises 120 to 200
> dnasty13: calls 120
> *** FLOP *** [4s Qs 3c]
> drewspop: bets 100
> dnasty13: raises 300 to 400
> drewspop: raises 300 to 700
> dnasty13: raises 300 to 1000
> drewspop: calls 40 and is all-in
> *** TURN *** [4s Qs 3c] [Kh]
> *** RIVER *** [4s Qs 3c Kh] [6c]
> dnasty13 said, "ugh"
> *** SHOW DOWN ***
> drewspop: shows [Ad Ah] (a pair of Aces)
> dnasty13: shows [Qd Kd] (two pair, Kings and Queens)
> HermWarfare said, "doh"
> dnasty13 collected 1890 from pot
> dnasty13 said, "sorry"
> *** SUMMARY ***
> Total pot 1890 | Rake 0

The bracelet race hand was even more frustrating actually because I had a stronger hand. I didn't get the hand history unfortunately (or fortunately for you) but this is how it went.

I had pocket 4s and limped in late position with 3 others. The flop came 4 7 10 rainbow. I bet half the pot and was called by the villain. The turn was also a 7 giving me a full house. I bet out about 1/3 of the pot, hoping that he had the 7 and booyah...magic...he raised me big. I push and have him covered so I am left with 80 chips I think. The villain turns over A7o so his tourist gives him a set of 7s to my full house. I am all psyched up to have doubled up until the river brings...10. Not an ace, but a freakin 10 to pair the board and give him the bigger full house. That was painful, very painful.

Alas, I am now over it. I played a little 10c/25c NL to try and clear about $3 of bonus to get $20. Man, the Full Tilt bonuses do clear slow. I think I have another $1.50 to clear still. Hopefully I can do it tonight before I lose the little bit I have left there. At least that will be buy me into another token SNG right?

Ok, that's all I have. It is a busy day at work, so work I must. Have a good one.

Monday night at the bar

I played at the bar last night. I actually forgot to mention when I played last week there. Just as the tourney was about to start, the TD announced my finish in the National Championship to everyone, which got a little round of applause as the final Massachusetts player to finish. I don’t know if I mentioned the “big check” thing from the tourney either. When I finished 13th, although I technically cashed, I just got a regular check. Everyone at the final table, however, got one of those big checks like they give at the end of a tennis or golf tourney. You know, like the publisher clearinghouse thing. Well, I was whining to my buddy about not making it far enough to get a big check.

Well, after the TD announced my finish last week, he said that he just received a Fed Ex from the APL that day and pulls out a “big check”. My buddy had his daughter make me up the fake check to roast me with. It was pretty funny and everyone got a chuckle out of it. I ended up finishing 6th last week.

Anyway, last night, I played and finished in the middle of the pack, around 28th or so. I think my finish in the National has put a little big of a target on me there. I can’t push people off hands as quickly or easily anymore. They want to see what I have. Last night, I had this donk at my table that played every single hand and got lucky as hell time after time.

The hand that tilted me a bit was when I had A4o on the button. There were 3 limpers including the donk. The flop came A J 7 rainbow. It checked around to me and I bet out 200 into a pot of 400. It folded to him and he flat called. The next card was a 5. I bet out 400 and after a little thought called again. The next card was a 7 and he bet out 300 into the 1600 pot. Given my crappy kicker, I flat called to see that he hit the river for 2 pair of Js and 7s. I guess I played the hand too passively but still, it pissed me off that he got rewarded for chasing it.

When the blinds went up, he went out because, again, he was calling everything and his luck was turning. He had been the big stack based on his lucky earlier hands. Not just against me, but against everyone. The hand that put him out was karma I thought. The guy to my right was the BB and the donk limped in as he had been doing. The flop gave the other guy middle pair and he pushed. The donk called with…bullets. He was sitting pretty until the river gave the other guy a set of 6s and put him out. The first premium hand he had and it got cracked. The same guy who cracked him then called another preflop all in on the next hand. The guy who pushed was a small stack but had pocket Qs and the caller had 69o. The flop came 7 8 10!

I was down to 2 BBs when it folded to that same guy in the SB and he called. I was in the BB and pushed. He started to push his hand in and then realized it was only another 1k to call me. He had technically already mucked, although his hand hadn’t touched any of the other mucked cards. I said I didn’t mind if he called, so he did. I had pocket Ks, lol. I doubled up to 4k but that was short lived as the next hand folded to me in the SB and I had A4o. The BB had me covered but only by about 3k so I took a chance and pushed. The table was 6 handed and I thought I had to take the shot if I was going to go anywhere in the tourney. The BB thought for a while but correctly called me with pocket 6s, I didn’t improve, and that was all she wrote.

Comments on either of the plays I made are appreciated. I played a little bit on Stars when I got home but nothing to speak of really. Lost a few dollars at fixed limit while the wife cried watching Grey’s Anatomy. It was grand.

Last thing for today is a few new brogs linked up over on my right. Poker Junkie is a fellow Massachusetts blogger and Rory, a fine player across the pond in Dublin. I just started keeping up with their blogs and I am sure they are more exciting than me.

See you in the WWdN tonight at 8:30pm EST all.

Poker Exploits

Well, it was an ugly weekend really. I have been playing pretty poorly and creating my own bad luck in the process.

Over the course of the weekend, I managed to donk off my paltry bankroll at Full Tilt. I tried a few token SNGs and came close a couple times, but couldn't finish it off. I was hoping to win a few and give the bracelet tourneys or nightly guarantees a shot. It was horrendous. I would either just play like crap, or play ok, get to the bubble, take my shot, and bubble, or cash in the last paying spot, which doesn't get the token.

I was on yahoo chat while Sox, Weak, Kat, Surf, Gracie, and Drizz were on Saturday night. Sox and Weak were playing Razz and everyone else was getting ready for the 18K guarantee, which started at 10pm. I was on the fence on whether to buy in directly to the 18K, plus wifey was watching a movie and I wasn't sure if I should jump in or not. She didn't have a problem with it, but I was a minute too late in trying to register and missed out. Kat managed to go deep. Nice job Kat!

Instead of just packing it in, like I should have, I got Hoyazo to get into a 45 SNG with me on Stars. I managed to catch big slick twice in a row very early. I lost big chunks with both and was out in 44th place. Very nice, well played sir.

I was getting frustrated and then let the almighty, awfuckkits get to me. I had been wanting to give Razz a shot. I don't have a great handle (oh, I am clueless) on how to play, but figured I would just give it a shot anyway. I did play for a couple hours, but also did manage to lose about $50. Sweet, no mo money on FT.

Last night, I jumped onto Stars to try and strike it rich with their 5 billion hand promo. Since you have to be seated at a cash game, I played some fixed limit HE. I ended up winning about $30 in a little over an hour, which was cool. I also played a $4 180 SNG and was going pretty well when I got sucked out on and went out in 46th place.

It was around 7:30pm at that point, and since the wife was out, and the kids were all down, I jumped into the 7:45pm $10+1. I got Surf to go along for the ride too and we agreed to trade 25% (I know, he was the one that asked, I wouldn't have if I was him either, what was he thinking!?). It started out with 1491 of our closest friends. I was glad to be trading with Surf for a couple reasons. One, the obvious, he has been running ridiculously hot lately. Second, I knew it would help my concentration knowing that I was possibly impacting someone else also.

I was playing ok and bounced a couple reads off of Surf. Made a good call, with his approval, on a push by a short stack who missed the flop when I hit middle pair, top kicker and was healthy at that point. Unfortunately, when it was down to about 350 or so, I had ducks on the button and it was folded to me. I limped, which was stupid, and the SB folded and the BB checked. The flop came down 10 10 6 and I think I bet out about half the pot. He bumped it up, and with my stack, it was push or fold time. I had put about 40% of my stack in at that point anyway, and if I was going anywhere in the tourney, I thought I had to push and pray. Surf kinds sorta agreed, although he said after he wouldn't have played the hand. I shouldn't have, as the BB had flopped a full house. I was drawing dead after the flop. Nice read jackass. (Me, not surf)

I still had Surf to rail however. He, as usual, was playing great and breezed into the money with the top 135 being paid. Unfortunately, the blinds got to him before the good cards did and he ended up going out on the top 40 somewhere around 38th or 39th I think. Thanks for winning me my money back G.

Anyway, overall, not a great weekend of poker for me. Not disasterous but I think I need a new challenge to keep me focused. I have started and stopped so many challenges that I try myself that I feel like I need to involve others to keep me on the right track. I will be thinking of something to put out there. If you have any suggestions and want to join in, let me know. Have a good day all. Now go read some good blogs over to the right.

Washout Weekend

Man, I have been slacking on posting lately. I have been playing some pretty bad poker lately, which is part of the reason. Another reason is how busy I have been lately with work, baseball, etc. Enough excuses though.

I was actually home sick on Friday. I woke up and started getting ready for work but just felt like total crap. I called in, jumped onto the VPN for work, checked out a couple things, rescheduled some meetings, and fell back to sleep for a little while. My wife had left with the kids to drop off my middle son to school. About 10am, as I continued to lay on the couch feeling nauseous, I heard a truck rumbling into the driveway.

It was a truck from the nursery where my wife had bought some trees. Actually, where my wife had bought a bunch of trees. This little project started off as 4 trees along the driveway to provide a hedge between us and the neighbors. When they brought the first 4, my wife decided that she liked it so much, she wanted to go further with it so she ordered 5 more. It had been 2 weeks and she was getting pretty antsy, so it was good they were finally here I guess. While I was away, we had someone weed, mulch, edge, and put in the first 4 trees. It was a good thing too because the trees were big and impossible to move without multiple guys. It was money well spent and I was really happy that they had also dug the additional holes for the subsequent trees. Of course, since they were dug a week and a half ago, the kids had jumped in and out of them, threw rocks, dirtballs etc all over, and made a mess, but it was still good to have them dug.

They started pulling trees off the truck and they didn't look like what my wife had told me she was getting. I was expecting blue spruce trees and these were white pine or something. Plus, the old dude who was driving the truck told me that my wife hadn't paid them to put them in the holes, just drop them off. Ok, this post is going nowhere so to make a long story short, I called her, she bitched them out, they pulled out the right trees, put them in the holes. But, I had to dig out some of the backwashed dirt from each hole and felt like I was going to puke in each of them. It was grand.

Also, it has been pouring here since last week. I mean pouring. Some towns north of us got like 11 inches of rain this weekend. The baseball games all got rained out so we went furniture shopping. Like.everyone.else. It was a nightmare.

Yesterday, I feeling better and made the obligatory Mother's day breakfast. After that, my wife and her mother went out shopping for a while, then she went out to dinner and drinks with some of her friends. It is always a weird balance on Mother's day because what she really wants is some time to herself, but feels guilty because the kids think they should be doing stuff for her. Anyway, it was nice to give her some time to herself, especially with the weather so crappy here.

Ok, now that everyone is bored to tears, I will do another post on my poker exploits for the weekend. I am sure I have lost everyone on this one, so I will do a separate one. My poker exploits are always so much more riveting.

Little League baseball season has begun

So a few weeks ago I posted about my oldest son trying out for Little League. Well, last weekend was the beginning of the games for his team, and for my middle son's t-ball team.

I am the "coach" of the t-ball team and an assistant coach for my oldest son's team. I put coach in quotes for the t-ball gig because it is mostly trying to hold a bunch of 5 year olds attention. Keep them from laying on the ground or hurting themselves by not paying attention while someone whacks it off their squash.

Anyway, my oldest is actually the youngest on his team. He is a big kid for his age though and he basically looks like one of the 11 or 12 year olds on the team rather than a 9 year old. He has a great swing but has had to adjust to having other kids pitching to him. Up to this point, he has played coach pitch, or a league that used a pitching machine. With the 11 year old kids pitching, it can be intimidating for the kids until they get used to it.

His team lost both of their games last weekend. The first game was 1-0 and the second was 4-1. Both games saw very good pitching for kids at that age and skill level. We had watched a few minutes of some of the other games and the scores were much higher. It all came down to the pitching in the game.

As for my son, he got up twice in each game and struck out every time. There were some questionable strike calls but whatever. He was adjusting, but getting frustrated. At the same time, my 5 year old was dominating the t-ball circuit, lol.

Over the weekend, none of the games conflicted with the other. Tonight, however, was different. They both had games at 5:30pm. Since I am the coach for the t-ball team, I had to be there. Luckily, t-ball is only an hour, so I knew I would catch some of the Little League game after, regardless.

I got through t-ball with my son sitting on the side because he didn't feel well. This pissed me off, of course, because I was missing my other son's game to do it, and my son wouldn't even play.

Anyway, we rushed over to the other field and parked. As we walked up to the field, I could see the scoreboard, 17-1. Ouch, wonder if it is in our favor or not? We walk by a guy I know and I asked who was up. My son's team was winning. Uh-oh, what did I miss??

I walked over to my wife and she gave me a look like she was afraid to talk to me.

Me: "What did I miss?"
Wifey: "He hit an inside the park home run"
Me: "WTF? Of course he did"
Wifey: "He hit it over the center fielder's head and then they messed it up and he came all the way around."

I then realized he was up at bat right then. He hit a nice shot in the hole for a single. Woot. His team was really killing the other team and a couple minutes later he was crossing the plate. I met him in the dugout.

Drew: "I hit a grand slam"
Me: "You did?!?"
Drew: "Yeah, the bases were loaded and I crushed it over the outfielder"
Me: "That's awesome, congratulations. Sorry I missed it"

So, in his mind it was a grand slam. It was actually a double/triple with an overthrow that let him score, but still. It was a great hit over the outfielder. The coaches were raving about it when they saw me.

The next later in the same inning, he got up again and hit another shot up the middle. A nice line drive to the outfield. All in all, he was 3 for 3 with a walk. They stopped it as soon as the 4th inning was over because of the slaughter rule. It was 27-2, ouch.

He was especially excited because the coach gave him the game ball, which is something he does every game. It was a great night.

The Mookie Update a Podcast to check out

Well, I kinda played in the Mookie last night. Check out his recap. I am playing like absolute crap lately and that resulted in me going out real early last night. I ended going out on with the hammer when I thought my opponent was weak. I also donked off a bunch of chips on a hand where I was in the SB and it folded to me and I tried to steal, then continuation bet, then bet the turn. When it was pretty clear I was dead, my opponent put in a nice bet after I checked the river and I had to throw it away.

All in all, a redonkulous showing. I need to get back to basics and stop trying to be tricky. I really don't know where that is coming from, but it ain't working for me.

I ended up playing the 10:40pm $10+1 freezeout after the Mookie and played a little better. In the end, I let the donkey in me out again though and I was out around 200 of 885 where the top 162 were to cash.

Anyway, I want to send a shout out to Surflexus for his repeat win in the Mookie last night. George, nice going my friend. To get through that tough field back to back is a tough job. Also, great job by smokkee to get to heads up and make a real strong showing. Surf had him outchiped barely to start, then had smokkee down to crumbs. Smokkee made a huge comback and almost got to even again before going down for second. It was as impressive a second place as you can have though.

Good job to all that made the final table.

I think I posted about buying a video iPod a couple weeks ago when I got 2nd in a 180 SNG on Stars. I had wanted one for a while, but waited until I could justify getting the one I did. It is the 30GB model so the storage is huge.

Anyway, with that, I have been getting into subscribing to a few podcasts. My buddy's brother in law started a company called Podzinger that allows you to search for podcasts using a keyword search. I was checking it out on Tuesday night and came across Five Hundy by Midnight. It is a weekly podcast by a couple in Minnesota that talks about different Las Vegas topics. With my trip coming up at the end of this month, I can't get enough Vegas right now. I downloaded a few of the past episodes and listened in while on my train commute. It is a fun listen and I recommend you check it out if you are into the podcasts. Even if you aren't, you can go to the site and listen from there. They have some footage of the Boardwalk being imploded from yesterday (boooo!).

Check them out boys and girls.

I don't think there will be much poker tonight. If the weather holds out I have 2 baseball games with the kids to get to then a Sox/Yankees game to watch.

Have a good day all.

Neighborhood Charity

A few of the wives in the neighborhood are doing the Avon walk for breast cancer next month. It is a 3 day walk where they sleep in tents at night and walk all day. They have done a number of creative fund raisers like an NCAA pool, Masters pool, etc. Last Saturday night one of the husbands hosted a poker tourney. The buy-in was $50 with $20 going to the charity and $30 going to the prize pool. They also did a raffle for a bunch of donated prizes. It was a great idea with a great cause and I pimped it to a bunch of my buddies that play in my regular home tourneys.

The date was set for this a while ago and I had committed to play well before I knew I would be away for the tourney in St. Louis and then in Munich all week. I realized it just before I was leaving for Europe and mentioned to my wife that she should come too. There were a few other wives playing I thought, and although she had never played anything more than a single table tourney, she liked the game and would have fun. Plus, it was going to be a highly mixed crowd and I wouldn’t be leaving her at home as soon as I get back after being gone for the last 2 weekends, and all week.

We talked about it Friday night when I was home and she didn’t want to go. Basically, she didn’t want to waste the additional $50 plus another $50 for a babysitter since I would just be playing anyway. I was feeling big guilt, but at the same time I wanted to support the charity (yeah, I know, I could have just made the donation) and play in a tourney that someone else was hosting for a change. Plus, I had loaned him everything for the tourney like my tables, chips, etc. and wanted to play after not being able to for the whole week. On top of that, the raffle prizes were pretty good and I thought it would be a good time overall.

We had 2 baseball games on Saturday and then we went to a first communion party in the afternoon. I was going to have to leave a little bit early from the party so I could get to the tourney in time but I finally convinced my wife to at least call the babysitter and see if she was available. She called one of the other women to find out what the deal was, who was actually playing, then decided to go if the babysitter was available.

The babysitter was available so we both got to go. I went a little earlier to help set everything up while she put the kids to bed. They were hoping to get about 50 people but ended up only getting 28. Even still, with the entry fees plus the raffle, they raised a lot of money for the charity.

The crowd was an interesting mix in that I knew about half of them from my tourneys but the rest were friends of friends that didn’t really know what they were doing but wanted to help the cause. I was seated with the guy I went to St. Louis with, the woman who won one of my tourneys, another 2 that had played at my house before and 2 others who I didn’t know. My wife was seated with a few of the guys I knew could play, including the host. He actually had won a $3 nightly freezeout on Stars a while back with 2000 people for a nice $1K.

Anyway, the play at my table was pretty good except for this one guy who didn’t know what he was doing and it really hurt him. He had a set of Aces cracked by a runner runner flush, then a set of Jacks cracked by a rivered straight. He didn’t know how to bet and was just a calling station. It was almost like he was slow playing but it was unintentional. Anyway, he didn’t last too long. I didn’t either and I wasn’t too happy about it. I was pretty card dead then got AQh in MP and raised 3xBB. The woman who had won a tourney at my house when she was blind drunk thought for a minute than called it. The blinds were 100/200 at the time, so my 600 bet was a good amount to call and she didn’t have a big stack at all. Anyway, the flop missed me totally when it came 5 7 3. I bet out another 600 and she quickly called. I checked the turn because I didn’t think I could push her off her hand and we both checked the river. She turned over 58o and I was out of about half my stack to a pair of 5’s. Now I am pretty weak I guess because I would never call that raise pre-flop with that hand. Big blind or not. That played into my WWdN last night, too, but more on that in a minute.

Anyway, a couple minutes after that, there was a rumble on the other side of the room at my wife’s table. I heard, “she’s all in!”. Naturally, being afraid for my money already, and hoping that my wife wouldn’t be the first out of the tourney (this was before the guy at my table was out), I ran over to see what was happening. They hadn’t turned over their cards yet and my wife just says, “I had to call?!” They were just waiting for one person to act but she had called another guy’s all in. Being the ass that I am, I grabbed her cards to take a look just as the other guy folded. I looked, put them back down, turned around, and raised my hands in the air in victory. For her of course. She had pocket aces and had hit a set on the flop. The guy who pushed had hit a set of Ks on the turn. She basically doubled up+.

A little while after the break I was still short stacked and dealt pocket 10s. I pushed and was called by KQo by the same woman who had taken a bunch of my stack earlier. I was good until the river Q and I was out in the middle somewhere.

My wife was still doing great. She had about the second largest stack at the break and at the point I went out, was still sitting on it pretty well. I decided to play a side game but was distracted as the players dwindled and my wife was hanging tough. When it got to the final table and she was still in the thick of things, I pushed with crap and was put out of the side game. I had been playing like crap anyway and wanted to watch how she did.

She played great. Just sat back and played good cards when she got them. She has no clue about betting, bluffing or stealing but was catching enough cards to stay healthy. I guess she put a beat on someone with marginal cards and he was pissed. Cool. She won a nice pot with 5 people left but then started limping, then folding to raises. This happened like 3 hands in a row and it cost her about half of her stack because of the size of the blinds at that point. I wanted to say something to help her but kept my mouth shut. She was still in the game, and my ass was on the rail, so who knows what they are going better anyway right?

She then called a 3xBB bet when she was the BB and I was looking over the shoulder of the guy who had raised. It was the guy who was hosting and had won that tourney on Stars so I figured he was probably just trying to steal since he had seen her fold to every raise.

The flop came K x x and I saw him look at his cards. He had K 10o and pushed. She had him covered but just barely. If she called and lost, she was on life support. She thought for a second and called. I looked at her and said, “oh crap, he has the K, hope you do”. She rolled over KJ to outkick his ass, knock him out, and take a nice big pot!

Down to 4, she was the 3rd stack, my buddy from APL was the short stack, and the woman that put me out was the big stack, having the second stack just barely covered. My wife was the BB. My buddy folded and the 2nd stack limped. The big stack thought for a minute and then raised 4xBB, which put my wife all in with a call. She thought for a second, mentioned something about having to relieve the babysitter, and decided to call. Just for reference, 4th got $40, while 3rd was $120, 2nd was $240, and the winner was $370. The action was on the 2nd stack and he thought a minute, and then called also. The flop came out and the big stacked pushed! The 2nd stack again thought, then shrugged and called. They all flipped over their cards and my wife had the nut flush draw with A5c. The big stack had top pair while the 2nd stack had top pair, lower kicker! My buddy was sitting pretty as the short stack knowing that at least one was going out here.

The turn brought…A CLUB! My wife didn’t even realize she hit the flush actually. It happened pretty fast and I didn’t even say anything about the draw before the turn card was flipped. When the card came, everyone started cheering for her and she was pretty psyched up. The river was no help to the 2nd stack and he was out in 4th.

The final three played for another 10 minutes or so. Just after my buddy tripled up and had about 25% of the chips to my wife’s 35% and the big stack’s 40%, he proposed a split. Even though he was the small stack, he was the best player and wasn’t trying to fool anyone. He just threw it out there knowing my wife was done pretty much and the big stack might go for it too. They all readily agreed and that was it. $240 each with the extra $10 to the charity.

Nothing against my wife or the big stack, but unless he went completely card dead, I think he would have come back and won it. It was a good deal for everyone because the only way anyone makes more was if they won it and noone was a clear favorite with their stacks.

My wife was very excited, which I am sure will cost me in future tourneys! I was really happy for her though. Happy for me too since I was able to get her buy in back from her and put it back in my Vegas stash ;)

As far as the WWdN last night, it was ugly. I was doing ok for a little bit but had some playas at my table. Typical WWdN stuff really. Hoyazo, having played with me many times now knows I am not a huge defender of my blinds unless I have chips. Especially when it is early, I will fold to a raise unless I have a real good hand. Anyway, he got caught by someone else when he raised my blind with 87o and lost a chunk of his stack. Being the player that he is though, he chipped back up pretty quickly and was healthy again when a few orbits later, it is folded to him and he raises my blind again. Now he hadn’t had to show down to chip back up so I really didn’t know what he was playing other than the crappy 87o that I saw him lose with. I have KQo and decide to see the flop. It came 10 J J and I figured he probably missed. I bet out 500 into a pot of like 1100 and he raised me. I had him barely covered and thought it was probably just a typical Hoyazo play. Not wanted to be weak (Leak! Leak!), and thinking I probably had a bunch of outs, I foolishly pushed with my open ended straight draw. He had to call because my push was only a very small re-raise. I was right, he had missed, but unfortunately he did have big slick and I was dominated. Still, any Q, an A, or a 9 still gave me the pot. I missed my draw and was on life support. I wimpered out a little while later.

Did I play this like the donkey I am or what? Opinions being sought.

A big congrats to Carmen for making her first WWdN final table. Nice playing! Congrats to everyone, including Garth who also made the final table.

Have a good day all and see you at the Mookie tonight.

Trip Report-Part Deux

The second day of my trip was a long one. I was up early because the plan was to meet in the lobby at 7am for our ride to the airport. The guy that I flew out with had arranged a car to go back and forth for our flight to Luxembourg. I ran through the restaurant for breakfast looking for a cup of coffee to go. No such thing over there, unless you are lucky enough to find a Starbucks. We decided we had a couple extra minutes for our 9am flight so I had some coffee and something small for breakfast and we ran out to get the car.

The driver was outside waiting for us in his brand new 7 series BMW. What a sweet ride. Whenever the traffic on the autobahn opened up, so did the car. Well, somewhat anyway. We were consistently at 175 km/hr with a couple touches of 180. Smooth as silk on the road too.

We got on our 1 hour flight to Luxembourg to find out that we had a stop on the way at a small airport in Saarbrucken. The countryside was beautiful but the airport was on the top of a mountain. We landed like we were hitting an aircraft carrier and let out half of the people on the little jet we were in. From there, it was a 15 minute flight to Luxembourg.

We grabbed a cab and were at the office in 5 minutes. The office was on a road that looked almost like an industrial park. Every building seemed new and every banking institution you can think of was represented. Unfortunately, it was pretty sterile looking and that was all I saw of this tiny country. We walked next door to have lunch, which was a German buffet. Mmm, meat, sauerkraut, potatoes. Btw, they spoke English here.

We met with some of the people in the office and were out of there at 5pm to catch our 6:30 flight. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was about 9:30pm and I was beat. I ended up eating at my hotel bar again because I knew Thursday was going to be a long day and the plan was a night out after work on Thursday anyway. I ate my trusty ribeye and was in the room by 10:30pm. Boo, boring I know.

The next morning we got to the office by 9am. We had a good meeting during the morning and went to lunch with 3 of the people from the office. Right across the street from the office was a Lowenbrau Biergarten. We got to sit outside and enjoy the weather. As we walked to our table, I noticed that everyone was drinking beer. I don’t mean like almost everyone, I mean EVERYONE.

The head of IT from that office was next to me and, of course, turns to me when the waitress gets there and asks what I am drinking. I paused in thought for a minute and he must have picked up on it because he said he was getting “Blah blah blah”. He explained that it was a drink that was a mixture of beer and lemonade. Said he knew we had a lot to cover in the afternoon and wanted to make sure he was alert. Phew, sounded great to me. We all actually got that. It was really pretty good. A little bit sweet, but for a drink with lunch, it did the trick. I ended up getting a bowl of sausage, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes for my meal. It was a bowl of 4 different types of sausage. Good stuff. Notice a theme?

We went back to the office and were actually busy all afternoon. We didn’t get out of there until about 5:30pm. That left us plenty of time, however, to pick up the requisite kid’s gifts and drink some beer.

One of the woman in the office gave us 2 maps. One to the toy store and one to a fair that was being held near our hotel. She said it was kind of like a “spring Oktoberfest”. Hey, sounded good to us. We made our way to the toy store, grabbed some gifts, dropped them back at the hotel and we were off to find the fair.

As we were walking down the last street toward the festival, we saw a big Ferris wheel. I wasn’t really expecting that I guess and as we got closer, I noticed that it was basically a big carnival with all the little food stands, games and kiddie rides. Since we had walked all the way over there, we figured we should walk through a little and see what else was up. We walked through some of the carts and there it was. The beer hall. We walked in and there was a band playing cheesey 80’s American rock songs, but the tables were pretty much filled with people drinking liters of beer. Sweet. We sat down and took it in. Luckily, as I said before, the word beer is universally understood in Germany, so we easily got a liter of the pilsner and took in the local scene. It was pretty cool because unless we were looking for it, we wouldn’t have ended up there. It was all locals having a good time.

After we finished up our beer, we decided to take off and go to the tourist trap, known as the Hofbrauhaus. We grabbed a cab and on the way, the cabbie told us to make sure we got the Maibok. Apparently, the Maibok is 7.5% alcohol vs the standard 5% of the pilsner. Cool, good advice right?

We walked in the place was packed. Much moreso than the festival had been. In looking around, you could tell it was a total tourist spot because just about every nationality was represented. In the middle of the place was the Oom Pah Pah band playing their traditional German tunes and everyone was sitting at long tables drinking out of their huge liter mugs. We looked around and decided to sit at a table that wasn’t too full. There was a German girl and a Japanese guy sitting there. They seemed friendly enough as we sat down and ordered our first beer. We told the waitress that we wanted the Maibok and she kind of hesitated. After she asked if we were sure, off she went.

Once we got our beers, we started talking to our table mates a little. The story was something like the German girl was living with this Japanese guy in Japan in some cultural exchange program or something. She was teaching German in Japan. Didn’t know there was a big call for that, but whatever. They were both having a good time. We noticed that the guy was already well on his way and as he got more comfortable with us, he started entertaining us pretty good.

After pounding his mug a couple times with a nice loud “Mudder focker!”, then giggling like a little girl, we knew he had picked up a few English words. Of course, by that time were almost done with our first beer so we joined him in this little cheer. The next thing we knew, he was teaching us our first Japanese word. It came about because of a young lady at the table next to us who was wearing a nice low cut shirt. He started pulling the top of his shirt down and yelling out, “Sagoy!”

The German girl was nice enough to translate that into “Wow!” for us. Well naturally, “Sagoy!” was now the word of choice for us at the table.

Me and the guy I was with decided that some food was in order at this point and asked for a menu. Shockingly, the menu was in German. Luckily though, we had a German with us at that point.

Me: “What is this?”
German: “Sausage”
Me: “Hmm, what about this?”
German: “Peeg”
Me: “Huh?”
German: “Oink, Oink”
Me: “Ah”

I went with the pork. I guess I had been over sausaged at that point. Not the best idea in the world. I should have stayed safe because the pork wasn’t that good, plus it was served with some potato thing that was like a big dumpling and really squishy. Not so goot, and not anything close to something to sop us some of the booze I was putting down.

Shortly after we ate and I was well into my second Maibok, our Japanese friend started passing out at the table. Not to let that happen, our German lady friend decided she would just start smacking him in the face to wake him up. That got a big laugh out of a group at a table nearby and before you knew it, they were joining us at our table and the German girl and Japanese dude were out of there. He wasn’t going to make it any further.

It turned out that 2 of the group that joined us were from Atlanta and had met the guys they were with in Greece, and ran into them again in Germany. Apparently they were traveling across Europe for a while. Must be nice.

Anyway, I start to lose details with the beginning of my third Maibok, but suffice it to say that I made it back to the hotel around midnight that night, sans my camera. It was my old digital camera, so luckily it wasn’t something too valuable. Our good camera was at home for my son’s play (he did great and we watched the screening the night I got home, he was happy, phew), so I lucked out there. All I missed from the camera were a bunch of pictures of Smart cars, which I couldn’t get enough of for some reason, and of my drunk German and Japanese friends. Not a big loss overall. I had taken some pictures on the first day and uploaded them from the camera so I could at least prove I went.

Friday morning was my return flight. I woke up pretty early for some reason and went down to try and eat some breakfast. After I took about 4 advil, all I could eat was a pretzel (which are available all day, every day, sweet!) and drink some coffee and juice. Nothing else looked like it would stay down. Luckily, I had 4 hours before my flight home. By the time I got to the airport, I was fine and the flight home was pretty uneventful except that the internet service didn’t work.

One thing I noticed when I was checking out was how expensive everything was. I guess I didn’t pay as close attention, or I just couldn’t read the German, but man did I get boned. Of course, the company is paying so I don’t have to sweat it too much but check this out. I paid 130 euros for the hotel per night, which wasn’t too bad. When I checked in, they told me where breakfast was. Each morning, when I went in, they asked my room number and that was it. I barely ate 2 of the 3 days. Also, in my room, there was an Ethernet line for the laptop. When I plugged it in, I had service immediately. Not warning about a charge, so I just figured it was included anyway. A lot of places are doing that now, plus, if not, they usually have your browser directed to a page where you confirm the prices, etc.

Anyway, when I checked out I noticed that breakfast and the internet were on the bill for 21 euros each per day! Not to be cheap, but shit, that is about $28+ so it cost me about $170 for that stuff. Again, glad I’m not paying.

Anyway, that is about it. Nothing too exciting I guess. Sorry it was so long. I have a bunch of work to get to now. I also have to post about the charity tourney I played in this past weekend. I will give that a shot this afternoon. Have a good day.

Back in action, back to work...

Wow, that was a fast week! I have a lot to write about but little time to do it so this one will probably be brief. After my whirlwind 24 hours in St. Louis for the live tourney, and my 8 hour flight to Munich on Monday night, it was a really busy week.

When I got to Munich, I immediately slept for a few hours because I.couldn’t.get.off.the.computer on the plane. I should have been sleeping while I flew over there, but instead ending up chatting with my wife, watching the Sox kick some Yankee ass on ESPN Gamecast, and finally, playing some small limit hold em with Hoff. Playing online Poker at 37,000 feet was pretty cool.

Once I caught up on some sleep in Munich, I went on a little walking tour to see what the city was all about. I was staying at a pretty nice place there so I slept like a baby and was ready to see what Europe was all about.

Of course, being an arrogant American, I assumed that most of the people would speak English. Umm, you know what happens when you assume right? You make an ass of u and me. Anyway, After walking in circles for a while, and passing the same storefronts of XXX live nude dancing or Casino!, I decided to walk in a different direction and find some grub.

I wanted to have some traditional German food, beer, and sit outside because the weather was great. Being in a foreign land, it was tough to pick a place to eat so I decided to ask. There were a few lovely ladies trying to sell T-Mobile cell service on the sidewalk so I figured I might get lucky. No, not like that. I mean get lucky that they might be able to speak some of my language. No…well, you know what I mean.

T-mobile girl: “Blah blah blah”
Idiot American: “English?”
T-mobile girl: “My English not goot”
Idiot American: “Food? Eat?”
T-mobile girl:
Idiot American:
T-mobile girl: “Ahhh, Mcdonalds? Burger King?”

Of course right?

Idiot American: “No, German food”
T-mobile girl:

So I go over to the place she sent me to, Lamm’s. It was exactly what I was looking for as everyone was sitting in the sun drinking beer. Perfect. I motion to the dude that was waiting on the tables and he grunted me over to a table. I sat down and he came over .

Waiter dude: “Blah blah blah”
Idiot American: “Beer?”
Waiter dude: “Ya, bier”

Sweet, that was easy and I think I might have gotten lucky. No, sickos, I mean, I thought he might speak English.

He drops off my beer a couple minutes later with a menu. An all German menu of course. I took a look, for whatever reason, and, being happy with my beer, figured I could just wing it.

Waiter dude: “Blah blah blah”
Idiot American: “I don’t know, can’t read it”
Waiter dude:
Idiot American: “Umm, sausage?”
Waiter dude:

3 minutes or so later waiter dude drops off an international menu that had everything on the menu in like 6 languages. I think it was the only one they had. Of course, every.single.item on the menu was sausage with something, but hey, what the hell do I know. I mean, I know I am being an arrogant American thinking that maybe this dude could have picked up, oh, maybe one freaking English word like, um, SAUSAGE!

Anyway, another waiter dude dropped off my food and barked something at me. When I said I didn’t understand, he just kinda waved me off and started to walk away, when I just blurted out, YES. He turned and was like, ya? Good thing too. He asked if I wanted mustard apparently because that is what he brought me a few minutes later. Nice save idiot American. Who can eat sausage without it?

After that, it was smooth sailing. I had another beer or 2, basked in the sun, and walked around for about 4 hours exploring the better parts of the city. It was cool but I must have called my wife about 10 times reminding her that noone spoke English. Anyway, not a bad day. I ended up getting a nice ribeye steak at the hotel bar that night because I was so exhausted and had to go to Luxembourg the next morning pretty early. I think it was right after that, that I logged onto the laptop in my room and found Garth barnstorming through a 180 SNG. He ending up getting beat up shortly after we starting talking but it was cool to see a familiar face online anyway.

My days and nights were kind of a blur because of the time changes etc. I know at one point I talked to Garth, Mookie and I think Waffles while I was over there. I really didn’t get to play much poker at all because the time was so tight.

Speaking of which, I need to get some crap done here at work. Tomorrow, more on the trip, the Hofbrauhaus, my lost camera, and the weekend charity poker tourney once I was back at home.

It is good to be back. Have a good night all.

Quick post from the sky

Just about to land in Munich. I have been online the whole night actually. Played a little with Hoff at a 10c/20c LHE table on Stars for some fun. Railed Garth on a long run at the $3 rebuy.

Also, I just check the APL site and they listed the top 16 so here I am.

The goofy dude in the picture on the first page of photo's, number 14 is my ugly mug.

Later

Getting ready to go

I am rushing around this morning trying to get ready for my flight to Munich tonight. I ended up changing it from tomorrow to tonight because my son’s play is actually going to have another performance in June that I will be able to see. Very cool. So I am going a day in advance to check out some of Germany before my meetings start on Wednesday. Plus, I won’t have to fly overnight and have to go directly to the office for the meeting.

Anyway, last night I posted my results from the tourney this weekend and I was checking out sitemeter this morning. If you type in “poker suckouts” you will find me on Google. Wonderful. I am sure smokkee and roccoboxer would agree, haha.

That made me think of one of the hands that made a big difference at the final table this weekend. I want to see what people thought. Personally, I thought it was a donkey play but it sure did sound a lot like the beat I put on smokkee last week in the Mookie.

Down to 3 players and the blinds are huge. Like 40k/80k and noone had an M above 4. The guy with the smallest stack was on the button and pushed pre-flop. The SB folded and but the BB called off about 90% of her stack to make the call. Sorry, I can’t remember all the gory details, but those are the major details.

The button turns over A4o. In his position, that was what he pretty much had to do anyway. The BB turns over K3c. Now I know that I called smokkee with K2 sooted but it only cost me about 20% of my stack (ok, I am starting to sound defensive, I will get over it) and he had to make a move also.

Anyway, the button flopped 2 pair but that gave the BB a flush draw. The flush came on the river and the poor guy was out. The BB ended up losing later and finishing in second place.

What would you have done in that position?

Anyway, I fly tonight on Lufthansa. They have wireless internet service while in flight. See you at the virtual felt while at 40,000 feet tonight? I hope so. I loaded Stars up on the work laptop just for the occasion.

I will try to post a couple times this week, time and connection at the hotel permitting of course. Everyone have a great week.