Monday, October 30, 2006

"Ship it to the Colonel"

I am back from Biloxi and I want to do a good job of recapping the action so I will probably do several post associated with our trip to the Imperial Palace for their first "Poker Classic".

The Crew: GeneD (me), BillP, Tex, Ray, Paul Shultz, Joe Bush, Brian, Lester N. and other notables that we met there were, Jockey Jarrod and Ross.

Bill and I both cashed fourth in a $200.00 buy-in for $1700 Paul S got 5th in a $200.00 buy in for about the same. All 3 of us won our seat into the main event in super satelittes.

I want to start off by saying that all the people I went with to Biloxi did well. All my friends that were there were able to add a couple of grand to their bankrolls. I added right at $2700.00. We had a good run over the week. More about that later...

Next...I want to talk about the facilities and the staff. This was a "Great Run" tournament. I was very impressed. Ronnie and his crew did a great job. He had lots of regulars like Jodie and Jason Lipscomb to help out. They were very liberal with the food comps. They had food you could pay for in the tourny area, but it did not look that appetizing. There were free pastries and bagels every morning and sandwich trays, mini egg rolls and Cheese with crackers to snack on. The drinks were free also, and between us all, we put down some beers after our wins. The Hotel was really nice also. They have been upgrading the facilities and it shows. The only incident that bothered me was the security guys hassled me because I was putting a couple of bottles of bottled water that they were giving away free in my backpack for later use. I thought it was chinchy at the time, but I got over it. Another cool thing was the tournament area was right next to the movie theatre. Anytime you wanted you could just walk into the theater and catch a movie between tournaments. They had cash sit-n-gos also along with tournament satellites. These paid out 3 spots, and they were very popular

Next I want to give some props out to my boy Jason "Tex" Henderson. Jason made it to the final table and came out 7th in the Main Event for a cool $7300 and some change. He played great poker the entire event, and the thing that made all of us the proudest at the final table is he got beat by the cards. he played perfect poker at the final table, and got sucked out on to get knocked out. He raised from under the gun with Pocket A's, Art from gulfport moved all in, and then the guy in the 10 seat moves all in. Tex stands up and says "Well...I guess I gotta call". Tex shows AA, Art shows 66 and seat 10 shows KK. Seat 10 spikes a K on the river to become the chip leader at the table. It was heartbreaking for us though.

I will write some more about the week a little later...

"Reebs. That's what we used to call them when we was kids. It's beer spelled backwards"
Brad Pitt as Early Grayce in "Kalifornia"

Friday, October 20, 2006

Redemption...of sorts for Chester

Well...I did not go back to the elderado, and I decided to go play 2-5 NL at the Horseshoe. I got in a must move game and bought in for $400.00. I was able to get my stack up to about $650.00 when I got in the following hand with an older fellow, that was playing very aggressive. I am in the 7 seat and he is next to me in the 8 seat. He has about $500

I look down at the rockets. Under the gun, I am unsure how to play them. I mean, you want action, but you don;t want a table full of people seeing the flop either. I decide to raise it to $35. 8 seat immediately raises it $65 more to make it an even hundo to go. Seat 1 calls as well as 4 around to me. I think for a second and there is over $300 in the pot, so I raise it another $350.

Now, my thought were to hopefully take it down there. If anyone wanted to stay in the hand they had to know I had a monster. If I had to see the hand I wanted to do it heads up.

8 seat ships in the rest of his chips with a loud "I'm all in". Great!!!!! I call and show my aces and seat 8 shows pocket Q's. Flop hits no one, and the turn and river brick-brick, and I take down a monster and puts me around $1250 to go.

Now...they move me to the main table and what do you know, they seat me right next to "Brian" from the Cheester incident. I put down my chips at my seat, look at him while he looks at my stack, and I can't help it...I say, "Damn man, better watch out, there are no lines on these tables" and I start to laugh like I was joking. This of course is a remark about the night before. The shoe does not have the lines on the table like the elderado that must be crossed for your chips to go in.

Well...like I said before, I had played with these guys before, and I want to give credit where credit is due, he did apologize for the chester move. Funny thing is he did not believe that I only had Ace high. He swears he had bottom pair...go figure.

I beat them up the reat of the night and cashed out over two grand. I am heading to Vicksburg for the night, and then on the Biloxi to play in the Imperial Palace WPT Poker Classic satellite events. 2 weeks worth of mid-level tournys ending with a main event next week with a $1000 buy in.

"Thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this"
Dogberry: The night constable in Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Ran into "Cheester"

The reason this blog is called this is it involves a "cheesy" move that
a guy put on me this week in Shreveport. I play here once a month as I am traveling with my job. I have been coming here probably 2 years now, again, once a month. There are some solid players here...nothing like Shorty's. There are 2 younger kids here that play for a living that I call the "2 Brians" anyone who plays in Shreveport will know who I am talking about as they are there everynight. I don't know which one I was playing when he pulled the move below.

had 2 incidents that I want to touch on. They both fall into the cheese category and both happened at the El Derado.

--The first one was against "The Brian"...not sure which one. I had AJo and he raised $35.00 pre-flop, and he got me and 2 other callers in the hand. We both had about $300.00 in front of us. After a flop of 10d 3s 9c he bets out $35.00. Everyone folds to me. I look at him and know he is on a steal. I smooth call. Turn comes another brick. He bets out $85.00. I go in the tank and think for awhile. again...I think I have the best hand with the A Jo. I again smooth call.
The river comes another brick. Here is where it gets dirty. I am in the 4 seat and he is in the 7 seat. He stacks up all his chips, and slowly moves them into the pot. He sits back for a second and I move my chips in, and he immediately mucks his cards and pulls back his bet.

Come to find out he pushed his cards up to 1/4 inch away from the line to consider it a bet. He concedes the hand and then start saying "Call the floor. It didn't cross the line buddy".

He tried to cheese out, but if he had a pair, he would have won...oh well.

--Next one has to do with a loud and obnoxious dealer . I am in a hand when we turn 4 4 K K and I hold K 9. A player that bought in for $150.00 moves all in. I call thinking we are chopping. He shows K 10, and the dealer rivers a 10. Then she proceeds to "Hoot and Holler"...going "HaHaHa...He thought he was going to chop...HaHaHaha".

incredible...Never have I seen a dealer rub in a bad beat.

"If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X+Y+Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut."-- Albert Einstein

Saturday, October 14, 2006

The 2nd one...still learning

Ok Guys and gals...I am still learning.

I want to talk about a hand that Iplayed tonight where if I was not playing a person I am familiar with, I probably would have went bust in this session.

I was at Cypress Bayou tonight and was in a 5-5 NL game. I knew I was the best player at the table,but a regular, his name is "Vinny" sat down at our table. I have been playin with Vinny for a couple of years and I know he plays fora living...very tight. The games was very loose though. I was on the button and there was a $35.00 raise that was called all around. $350.00 in the pot pre-flop. I have J-Ts, and the flop comes J-8-2 rainbow.

At this point all I am thinking about is taking down the pot with top pair. Everyone checks around to Vinny who moves in with another $200.00. Fold around to me. Now if this was anyone but Vinny, I may have called here. I was "Spooked" though. I know Vinny is thinking the same thing...take down the pot.

I go "in the tank"and start asking Vinny questions. I think I am out kicked if anything, but I can't stop thinking that if it was not Vinny, I would call. I lay it down.

Vinny shows us all pocket 2's . What a lay down. I felt like I was on a Free roll the rest of the night.

"I'll be your huckleberry"
Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday in "Tombstone "

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

The beginning of an era!!!

Hi everyone...My first attempt at a blog. My name is "GeneD", and I am a middle age professional male trying to learn more about poker, and the dynamics of the game. I have played in several major tournaments in the past 10 years. This would include the WSOP, WPO in Tunica as well as numerous circuit events and local tournaments. I have cashed in a major tournament, and I am listed on pokerpages.com. In the WSOP in '06 I came 46 people from winning a bracelet as I got knocked out 47th in the 42nd event.

I am from South Louisiana, and I consider myself an above average player in my region. I play cash games as well as tournaments. I consider myself a semi-professional poker player. I have a lot of people I would consider "In my Poker Network" that I play/communicate with. I would consider myself somewhat of an aggressive player, and sometimes this has a tendency to offend some people. I want to think I am somewhat "likeable", but hey, I am not naive. I know that some people don't care for me.

I am going to try to make this blog as humble as I can. I am still learning the game, and I hope to someday be a top player in my region. My post will be about mostly Poker, but I may throw in a some tidbits here and there. It will be about strategy and certain hands I play. If people I play with get offended by anything I say, then I want to apologize. I will be linking this to our website as we are working on a regionalized poker website focusing oin the Gulf Coast region. From Lake Charles all the way around to Tampa. Fl.

Some of the names you will here are listed below:

Bill P. who is my "Partner in Crime" for the website. I think you will see his blog also.
Joe Bush, Ray, Tex, Davey, Parfait, Marvin and Stacy, Chris James, Big Mike, Raceland Mike, Mario Mike, Paul Shoultz, Jacob and Lester, Ronnie J from New Orleans, Ruttely...and the list goes on.

I will try to leave every blog with a quote...probably inspirational...Probably from a movie...but not always.

I just want everyone to come "Peak Inside" the window of a guy who has it all, great family and friends, beautiful wife and a great life while I try to traverse the poker world and get "Who knows Where"...maybe busted

and hopefully you may learn a little something...even if it is how not to go broke ;-)

"In the game of life...play the cards your dealt"
Rounders