Friday Freeroll at the IP

I qualified for the freeroll that the IP is having friday. They are having a $20,000 freeroll to all of their regular poker players. You actually had to log in "Time" to qualify. I did not think I was going to qualify, but I called and what do you know...I qualified. "Wild" Bill and I are going to head down to the coast and try to snap off the Thursday night tournament and then I am going to give it my best shot on Friday.

A couple of cool things:

Adsense--I have signed up for adsense. If you see all kinds of ads on my blog page. Click on them. I will make money and put it towards my poker tournament buy ins. Help a brother out and I will give you a percentage of my take.

LA Poker Classic--LJ Naquin from my hometown is in 26th place with about $200,000 in chips. He is in the money though and he has a good shot for the final table. I grew up with his children, and Jacob and Lester are very solid players themselves.

"Wild Bill"--we have an official nickname change. I tried to get my buddy Bill P's nickname to stick from his buddy "lets poker" Martin. "Lets poker" Martin called him "Shady". Well, I have already had several people refer to Bill as "Wild Bill". So it's official.

Wild Bill and I are going to go to Biloxi and try to wreck some havoic

"On my signal...unleash Hell" Russell Crowe's character in Gladiator

Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras

I have been spending lots of time with my family and friends lately. I have been in a party haze since Mardi Gras. I am trying to get my wits about me. I ma getting entirely too old for Mardi Gras, and drinking for 5 days straight. Also, it kind of sucked that we did not get a whole lot of "Tourist" in the Harrah's poker room. It seemed that the ones that did show up would by in for $140.00.

I have been playing a little online, and I have made a couple of trips to Shorty's. I have been running OK lately. Not winning alot, but also, not losing alot.

Will be heading to Tunica in a few weeks. I will keep you posted.

"There must be some kind of way out of here, said the joker to the thief"

Jimi Hendrix "All along the Watchtower"

Online session

I was able to pull off a sweet session online tonight. I played in several online tourneys and then moved to the limit$5-$10 game on pokerstars. I picked up $250.00 inthe 5-10 game. Spoke to "shady" bill earlier and he was kicking himself about the boomtown tournament today at noon. I was suppose to play but wound up sleeping too late. I think he was a little hard on himself and I talked to him about it. I know he is a good player, and I believe that we are all on the verge of "making it happen".

Our network of players is very strong:

Me, "Shady"Bill P, David "Davey" B, Parfait, Jason"Tex" H, Joe"The Nuts"B, Ray "LL Cool Ray" B, Paul S, Alex P, Lester and Jacob N, "Big Mike", Chris J, Chris "Merle" B,

Keep your eye out for one of these people...I think we are on the edge of "Making it Happen"!!!!

Peace...

"Genius is one percent inspiration, Ninety-Nine per cent perspiration"

Thomas Edison

Variance is humbling

As you can tell by the title, variance has been brutal to me in the past 3 months. Just yesterday I was in a hand that had a $1000.00 pot 4 ways where I flopped a straight against a set, and 2 flush draws and the dealer pairs the board on the river. I did the research on the hand and after the turn I was a 67% favorite. We had just started the table and it was the 4th hand. We all had to start with $300.00. Below is the hand:

I am on the button with 10-6 of spades and 4 of us limp. In the hand there was me, sailor, spoon and a rough looking fellow I had never seen before. The flop comes 9-8-7 with 2 clubs. There is a raise, re-raise ans spoon calls from the cut-off. I ship it in to try to take the pot down right there. Call...call...and spoon goes in the tank. He basically tells everyone he has a nut flush draw, but calls anyway. Spoon has A9c, Sailor has KJc and rough guy has a set of 8's. Like I said earlier, the board pairs on the river with another 7.

I am sick that all 3 of these people new someone had to have a straight, yet they all called knowing they were behind. Oh well...

Last night I played in the weekly Thursday night tournament at the Isle of Capri in Lake Charles. It was a $30.00 but-in with $20.00 re-buys/add-0ns. 65 people showed up. I dumped $90 dollars in the tournament and got down to the last 5. there was $3350.00 dollars in the prize pool, and first place was $1350.00. I got Aces cracked with 2 people all in to bust us down to the last 5. There was one big stack only because he went head up with a big stack. I had the second biggest stack with the leader having me covered by over half.

Once the negotiation started the big stack says we will take $1000.00. Once the other 4 of us chopped the rest we would all get $440.00. I did not want to make the deal. Something was eating at me giving $1000.00 to the big stack "un-contested". They convinced me that it was a good deal, and I had that "Urban Legend" rolling around in my head also that..."The person that usually refuses the chop is the next one that bust out". Sort of a Karma thing. I agree...and thats that. Makes up for the lost on the huge pot above.

Peace...

"Allegedly, your situation, for you, would be concurrently improved, if I had two hundred dollars in my back pocket right now"

Ben Afflecks Character Chucky in "Good Will Hunting"

Back from the IP

I just got back for a week of playing at the IP in Biloxi for the "IP Poker Classic". Again...it was a good run for me. It seems I always do well at the IP. The tournaments were run well, and the crew was just as hospitable as last time. Ronnie and his crew did a great job. The only down side was there was not as many people as last time, and the Beau Rivage tried to compete having a 6:00pm tournament in parallel with the IP's second chance tournament. They had some great giveaways for the super bowl also.

I cashed 3 times in the week.
Boomtown's weekly. $65.00 buy in with 24 players. I got 6th for $160.00
IP's second chance. $200.00 buy in with 68 players. I got 4th for $900.00
Beau Rivage's 6:00pm. $200.00 buy in with 84 players. I got 8th for $580.00

I also ran good in the cash games. I had one huge Bad Beat that I will outline a little later, and then I made a terrible call with pocket kings that cost me an extra $300.00. I did well overall for the entire week in the cash games.

Kudos goes out to the other people from Houma who cashed in the tourneys. LJ Naquin took first place in the Saturday $1000.00 buy in, and David "Davey" Bourg took 3rd for over $3000.00 to go along with his other cash which I think was 5th. Way to go Davey!!!.
Barron Whipple also cashed in several tournaments over the weekend. He got 3rd in the one I got 8th in.

Now for the bad beat (I hate BB stories, but I have to give you something). I started with $350.00 in a 1-2 NL game, and I got my stack up to about $650.00. I am in the 10th seat and the button is in the 4th seat. Everyone folds around to me, and of course, I look down at Aces. I make it $35.00 to go. Seat one I will call "Knucklehead" raises to $75.00. I re-raise it to $150.00, and knucklehead ships in his whole stack. He has exactly $35.00 more that I have which means he shipped in close to $500.00. I show the aces and he says "Oh man, I am dead".
He does not show his hand. A king comes on the flop which makes me think I may be beat with pocket kings. Turn card comes a brick, and he again proclaims "I'm done". A jack hits the river and he says..."Oh no...I got 2 pair" and turns up K-J off suit. There was stunned silence at the table as everyone realizes the stupidity of what he did and we witnessed. I take off my headphones and he apologizes profusely. He comes shake my hand and apologizes again. I say "It happens" and I walk away. sick...so sick.

"So...I guess this is where I tell you what I learned my conclusion...right...well my conclusion is...
Hate is baggage...life is too short to be pissed off all the time...its just not worth it"

Edward Furlongs Character Danny in "American History X"