Monday, March 30, 2009

Quick Blog on training sites...

I wanted to throw up a quick blog as I saw that Raymer is setting up a training site...

I have watched a few vid's in my online poker life and I just can't seem to swallow some of these vid's with the state of online poker. These videos are soooooo easy to fake that it is unbelievable. I know...I know...there are some out there where the players actually loses, but then why is that educational...to show me how donk out...nah...I got that down pat ;-)

Say ...Hypothetically...we decide to open a training site on GCP and we decide to make SNG videos. I decide to make a video so I get 8 other people who I know ...Wild
Bill/Reid/SPR/Goondingy/Monk/Girlfriends brother/Grandpas step kid...you get the picture

They all create new user accounts (Its very easy to do) or play on their existing accounts...whatever...who would really care?

I then get them all on AIM to tell me what they have while we all play a $16 sng...and I return all the money via paypal once I finish making my video.

WOW...I would play great...in fact...I would be willing to bet that I never make a mistake...WHAT A VIDEO!!!!!

I know...I know...I am embellishing a little here, but with all the Superusing...multi-accounting...account selling...colluding....and every other shady nuance there is...Who would really care enough to police this? These guys are known to be shady (I wont bore you with the list that includes Z-Justin and Imper1um)

In fact...I bet you could write software to mimic stars/ftp and just run it on your computer without even logging in to the server to play for real. You could sit there and manipulate to your hearts content...and then post it up as a "Session"...Stars and FTP don't sit there and watch videos that close to proclaim, "Hey...that looks and smells like our software but we have no records of this table or these players".

I don't know...am I missing something here?

Let the flamage begin....

"Everything you have seen here has been an illusion" Ed Norton as Eisenheim in "The Illusionist"

Monday, March 23, 2009

March Madness...Sunday Mill on Stars

I have been meaning to sit down and do a blog for several days now, but I just kept getting pulled away to do other things. I may have mentioned to some of you who I have discussed situations and hands with that I will "Blog about that hand"...well... I am not sure whether I will or not...sorry.

March Madness...I have a yearly MM pool where we get 16 people that all get together and and all put up a hundo in the pool. 16 ping pong balls with the numbers 1-16 are but in the box...and we all take turns sticking our arms in the box and pulling out a ball telling us what seed we get in that bracket...1 through 16. So after its all over, all 16 people have 4 teams in each major bracket....winner takes the entire $1600.00. I have won this puppy several times in the past 7 years. Once I had Syracuse as a longshot ...I think they were #4 that year and I was in with my buddy Troy (Side note...Wild Bill and I had just met several days before this and we had to go to training together in Pensacola in our new jobs...we watched this final together and celebrated)...then I won a couple of years ago when Florida won and I was 50-50 with my uncle. I couldn't make it that year to pull the balls, so My Uncle John went and picked 2 (Two) number 1's...with 1 of those being Florida.

We both made it to the ball pull this year, and we were trying to figure out who would pull...or who had the "Hot Hand". Uncle John pulled first and got #14. He insisted that I pull the 2nd ball just to see "Where were at with the luck factor"...GeneD pulls #3....Mizzou...good stuff as I heard several analyst call them a strong dark horse. My Uncle now insist that I pull again in the next round...Boooyaaaaa...#1 Pitt. We are pumped up now...we got something to sweat. Fourth round I again pull a #1...Tar Heels Baby!!!! (I was a little pulled watching them play LSU)

I played at Shorty's Wednesday night for the tourney, and this was the first time I had played there for the tourney in months...they added a couple of levels which is good. I met the guy that is staking me there so we can try to cut into my make-up. I get knocked our 18-19th...he gets knocked out not soon after. I had one hand where I felt I made a stupid...knuckle headed move and I went on tilt. I didn't lose a dime in the hand.

I was able to win my seat into the Stars Sunday Million in an $11.00 sat. I got knocked out on the following hand:

Please comment here...What did this guy have me on...pocket 6's and below to get into a flip? He thought I was going to shove with 12 BB's here with lighter than A-6o???? WTF???
Every hand I showed down once I got into "Must Jam" zone was A-J or better...He only had 24-25 BB's left...He calls off 1/3 of his stack with A-7o????

Suspicious...or was this just a bad play...the most he could pray for is a flip...I don't get it

PokerStars Game #26252458871: Tournament #147104125, $200+$15 Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (250/500) - 2009/03/22 19:11:38 ETTable '147104125 497' 9-max Seat
#7 is the buttonSeat
1: fish_eat (9100 in chips)
Seat 2: aimar7179 (38175 in chips)
Seat 3: Cjones984 (6200 in chips)
Seat 4: userpkr (5725 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 5: xxCelticFCxx (21325 in chips)
Seat 6: rdcrsn (6900 in chips)
Seat 7: GCPGeneD (6325 in chips)
Seat 8: wpaman (14025 in chips)
Seat 9: yeamanyeaman (18400 in chips)
fish_eat: posts the ante 25
aimar7179: posts the ante 25
Cjones984: posts the ante 25
userpkr: posts the ante 25
xxCelticFCxx: posts the ante 25
rdcrsn: posts the ante 25
GCPGeneD: posts the ante 25
wpaman: posts the ante 25
yeamanyeaman: posts the ante 25
wpaman: posts small blind 250
yeamanyeaman: posts big blind 500
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GCPGeneD [6d 6s]
fish_eat: folds
aimar7179: folds
Cjones984: folds
userpkr: folds
xxCelticFCxx: folds
rdcrsn: folds
GCPGeneD: raises 5800 to 6300 and is all-in
wpaman: folds
yeamanyeaman: calls 5800
*** FLOP *** [Ac 4c 2d]
*** TURN *** [Ac 4c 2d] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [Ac 4c 2d Jh] [Ah]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
yeamanyeaman: shows [Ad 7c] (three of a kind, Aces)
GCPGeneD: shows [6d 6s] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)

"Don't let people stand in your way. They're just people. like you and me! Well, maybe not like you. I don't know if I have ever met anyone like you before" Marisa Tomei as Caroline in "Untamed Heart"

Monday, March 16, 2009

More Rants...

I wish I could say that I have broken out the slump I have been in, but the cards will not cooperate. I think I have the leaks plugged between my ears now I just need the cards to cooperate. I did beat the cash games in Shreveport last week...and promptly lossed all my winnings at Shorty's on my home Friday night...on the first hand dealt to me. It was kind of surreal.

I was tired from driving and thought about just heading home, but I wanted to break up the drive a little. I texted Thomkat17 that I was thinking of stopping in Shorty's to see what was going on...and to talk to the poker room manager Deon about a couple of things. I walked up and they was a game going on with seats available. The supervisor asks me for my card, and I didn't have one, so she took my DL to go get me one at the players club. I sit down, Immediately get AcAs on the first hand OTB. There is a raise from UTG...2 callers to me...I three bet...BB four bets and puts enough out there to cover me...everyone folds around to me..."CaCaCaCaCa...Call".

I hear the BB (A guy I think is one of the worst players that plays at Shorty's) say, "Damn". The player next to him says, "Wow...what a hand for the first one dealt to you"...as the dealer puts out 10c7s2d...BB now says, "Yea...but he's not gonna like it"...I immediately stand up and get ready to hit the door as the guy tables 10-10. Most people I told this story to were amazed that the guy 4 bet with 10's...but the hand plays itself...There's no way I can fold on that board even if he just smooth calls. I already had half my stack in.

Thats the way my weekend started...and then I busted on the bubble Sat. night in a 6 handed shootout Satellite for a seat into the Sunday Millions...lit 4 hours of my life on fire...oh well. This was the "True Bubble" as I know lots of people who play in large MTT's will say "I bubbled" when they get knocked out close to the money...I got the finger...the rest of them were clicking their mouses Sun. in the Sun Mill.

Enough negativity already...Snap out of it GeneD!!!!! ;-)

Lets see...what else is happening...

I could not 2nd Monkeys comments more loudly about degenerate poker players being some nasty F*&#heads. I too have witnessed players I am playing with go to the restroom...do their business ...and leave without washing there hands. I wonder whether this is third leveling and the scumbag is trying to put people on tilt. I mean come on...are you that dirty where you can't at least wash your hands?

Layne Flacks DUI and him missing the NBC HeadsUp Championship: This was reeeeeallllllly bad...even for Layne Flack. It is safe to say that he has burned any chance of returning to the NBCHUC, and will probably wind up sending him back to rehab...again. My understanding is that he showed up for the draw party and all...he got wasted... and woke up in jail. I wonder if Russ Hamilton bailed him out? ...Other comments I read that were hilarious..."Dr Drew should get him on Celeb Rehab", and "I wonder if he tried to high five the cop"...referring to the now infamous snub by E-Dog at the H.O.R.S.E event last year.

"Tanqueray and Tab and keep 'em comin'." Bill Murray as Ernie McCraken in "Kingpin"



Saturday, March 07, 2009

Poker Rants from the coast...

I am continuing to run bad and play bad, but I plan on bouncing back as soon as I plug the leaks between my ears. I think Cort Harrington said it best on poker road radio when they discussed what was worst...playing bad or running bad. He said that its a 2 edge sword where you runnin bad...you have to question the game and your profession (With me its a Hobby/Night Job)...When your playin bad you have question yourself about everything from being a fish to the fundamentals...and when they both are happening at the same time...you just want scream at the poker gods.

I am going to talk a little about my thoughts on what I have been doing/reading/listening to that is poker related:

-Greg Raymer addresses the Republicans at this Action Committee that they had. I have alot of admiration for Raymer getting up there and tackling this issue with the Conservatives. He is absolutely right where as the fundamentals of conservative thought are rooted in "Less Government"...and having the right to make our own decisions as adults who will make a "Logical and Rational" decision on what is best for that individual. Its just that simple, and Raymer calls them out on it...Someone who wants, as he says, "Little or no government in there lives". I have to give a resounding thumbs up here for Raymer. (Side note...My thoughts on Obama's first couple of months in office...I am terrified...Never in my life have I witnessed a person in so "over his head"...its pathetic. Rush Limbaugh is going to tear his administration to threads...he can't hide from him)...but I digress...

-Poker Road Radio...I have listened to several episodes on the road this last week, and I can say that I was very impressed with Mike "SowersUNCC" Sowers. The kid was very humble and well spoken and was a pleasure to listen to. On that note we will move to one of the old timers in Eli Elezra...WOW. I had no idea his story coming up as he went all the way from being wounded in the Lebanon War and almost died ...to fishing in Alaska on one of those fishing boats that goes out for months at a time...to traveling the world with a backpack in his mid 20's. This guys has worked his ass off...there never was a "Silver Spoon" in this guys life.

-Cash Plays with Jeremiah Smith...I just finished listening to the episode with Nick "The Takeover" Shulman and Joe Cassidy. These 2 guys in one episode elevated themselves on my favorite player list...both of them. There is a discussion on "Ego" that is a must for up and coming players. Joe talks about how ego plays/played a big part in poker. He tells about how when he first got to Vegas, he would only play at The Mirage because the limits he was playin...that was "The Big Game" there. They had the same limits at the Bellagio...and more tables going at that limit, but it was not the "Big Game" there...so he stayed away. Nick talks about how "Respecting Yourself" by making every ...single decision in poker...the best decision you can make. That...to get respect from the better players, they need to see you "respecting yourself"...by not playin above your means, or taking shots that out of your range because you will always be known as "That player with alot of talent and potential...but he's not that smart". Then there is a discussion on H.O.R.S.E where they break down the basic fundamentals in each and every game. I would say that I learned more from this podcast (because I don't play horse but need to learn) than any of the others...good stuff.

-The Shorr/Shaniac issue Wild Bill put up on the front page...thats a tough one. I am going to have to came down on Shaniacs side on this one. I like Shannon and his game...hes a much better player than me and I enjoy is blog, but I have to say when I initially read it, I thought the same thing. Not that he or anyone else is not deserving, but the "Reality" of the situation is that Shannon should have not "Expected" to be included. I feel there should be a better way to seat people, but with the current climate of the NBC Heads UP ...as well as the precedent that has been set in the past years...I do not feel Shannon should have "Expected" to be included. He is a nice, quiet , low key player from Alabama that brings his A game to the table, but with out TV exposure or silly hi jinks (Hevad Kahn at WSOP)...he is just going to have to take what he can get. I personally feel Vivek "FLOG" Rajkumar and Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond should have gotten in. I also am under the understanding that there was a satellite to get in at Ceasers. Did Shannon and all the other people wanting to play in the NBC event go to the satellite and try to win their way in?...Sebok?...Hevad Khan?...not sure.

Went to High Tides Bar and Billiards last week as they had a 2 day pool tournament with some world champions there. John Schmidt was there, in fact, I think GCPs Derek Ridley actually drew John in the first round. Gary Abood and Josh Hilliard were also present. I really enjoyed getting to see some world class pool playing...and of course started my juices flowing again. I did get tired of everyone asking me what I was drinking (Red Bull).

I am going to change it up a bit on my ending quote and go with some song lyrics as these best describe how I feel about poker at the moment

"I've seen a rich man beg...I've seen a good man sin
I've seen a tough man cry...I've seen a loser win and a sad man grin...
....I heard an honest man lie
I've seen the good side of bad...And the down side of up and everything between
I licked the silver spoon...Drank from the golden cup...Smoked the finest green
I stroked the baddest dimes at least a couple of times before I broke their hearts
You know where it ends...
Yo, it usually depends on where you start
Everlast "What its Like"