Tales from Tunica...Hanging out with Moneymaker

I have been playing in Tunica all week as I am working out of my Memphis office this week. I have been running fairly well, but its the "What If's" that are killing me. My main weakness has been playing on a clock here. I am not staying in Tunica this trip, so i have to drive back to Memphis every night. I get there for the nightly tournament at 6 or 7 every night, and then hit the cash games after. I usually like to play until 10 or 11 so I can get back to the hotel at a decent hour for some sleep before work. For the past 2 nights, I mucked on the last hand that I played UTG, and would have hit big hands. I have talked to Davey recently, and he is right that I need to open up my game more and if I am in a good game...stay...Don't leave.

There is a "6th Degrees of Separation" situation I caught myself in recently, where I got to meet Chris Moneymaker and hang out with him at my friends house. I got a call several months back from one of my top salespeople in Memphis...Jeff. Not only do we work together, but I am also proud to call Jeff a good friend and confidant. We talk often and Jeff has been a social poker player for years himself. He called me months back on a Saturday night and said, "Hey Man...you aren't going to believe who is moving in next door to me right now". We went through the game of ,"No Guess...No Guess"...etc. Well, I think you guys have figured out who it was. The man that started the Poker revolution, Chris Moneymaker. Jeff and him have since become close friends and are rivals as Jeff is a big Memphis fan and CMM is a big Vols fan. When I went to Jeff's house, CMM was in the street at the front of Jeff's driveway putting a Vols magnet on Jeff's mailbox. Really nice guy and down to earth. We hung out at Jeff's and chatted about College Basketball, Bay 101 and Jeff's new pool. He is one hell of a nice guy, and said for me to look for him at this years WSOP. He could not make this years Bay 101 because he just had a baby (He got 2nd there several years ago). Chris...if your reading this..."Congratulations again on that 2 week old baby girl...and GO VOLS" ;-)

I played in the $125.00 buy-in event at the Gold Strike Monday night. There were 43 people in it and I bubbled in 8th place...they paid 6. I played the whole tournament with this young phenom on my right named Grant Watson. He had just got back from Vegas, and we started talking. He cashed twice at the WPT World Poker Open in January at the Gold Strike. One was 5th for around $10,000 and the other one was 8th for $6500. We cut a deal when we moved to the final table, and he got 4th place so I picked up a small bone.

Played in the cash game at the Horseshoe on Tuesday and booked a decent win. I got in the game for $330.00, and got that up to $685.00. I kept looking at the clock as the chip was moving around to my side the table, and I wanted to get out without hemorrhaging any chips. Well, they dealt the cards when I UTG, and I looked down at pocket 9s9h and I quickly check hoping to see a cheap flop and hit my set. Villain in the 2 seat fires out $35.00 and gets 2 callers around to me. I go in the tank for a second...My last hand of the night...raiser with 2 callers...one of them has to have a pair bigger than nines...I muck. Flop comes out 9d4h5c. Original raiser jams with the last $120.00 he had in fron of him and shows the pocket tens when everyone folds. I convinced myself on the ride back to Memphis that a 10 was coming on the turn or river...yea...It was coming.

Saw some terrible tournament play here. It amazes me the way some people play. Here's one I saw. 2nd level with the blinds at 50-100. Girl in the 1 seat raises to 500 from UTG. She gets 3 callers. Flop comes out Kd10s2h. She jams...gets 2 callers and show QsQh and her 2 opponents had KhJh and Ks10h. She walks away mumbling to her friend, "I never get lucky in these things".

The next night, I am in the same situation where I have booked a winner. I am again contemplating leaving. I decide that this is my last hand and look down at KsQh. the flop comes out 10c4hAs. There is a bet of $15.00 with a raise to $30.00 to me. GSSD...nah I pass and start to rack my chips. Don't you know the Jack ball comes on the turn, and the 2 guys left get all of their chips in, and they show down a set of 4's against a stone cold bluff...Yea...its time for me to leave.

Watched the last episode of "The Wire" last weekend. I must say that I think that this series may have been better than "The Sopranos"...I know ...I know ...I am reaching here, but it was a good show. Now it is over.

"SSSHHHHIIIIITTTTTTTTT" Isiah Whitlock as Congressman Clay Davis on the "The Wire"

HLB heading to the State Championship

Tough night. I went to Lafayeete to sweat my brother in law in the Louisiana 5A Basketball State Chapionship at the Cajun Dome. My brother in law is the Athletic Director at HL Bourgeious High School. HL also happens to be my alma mater, and it is the first time that we have ever made it to the State Championship in Basketball...wait a minute...its the first time for any major sport. We were pretty pumped and excite, we decided to stop at Shorty's to get a quick session in before we went on to Lafayette and the Cajun Dome. I booked a small loser in the 2 hours that I was able to play. There were numerous regulers there as well as my LAG Asian friend Jessie. There were several other Asian players in the game as well as Jessie. I took some ugly stares when I called them out for the "English Only" rule. They all seemed to look at me like I was being a hardass when I pointed this out. I was actually a little upset that the dealer did not point it out sooner. I got about $400.00 deep in the game and I cashed out 2 hours later with $365.00.

The game turned out to be a great game, and I was really proud of my B-n-Law as his team played the best that the could. He really hung in there like a professional even letting his 2nd and 3rd teamers get some playing time once it got to where they were not going to win. I could tell that they were happy to be get in the state championship game. It was really cool. It was also very heartbreaking to see them lose. It is a shame that one of the teams had to lose.

I havent been doing to much lately except staying busy at work. Doing the daily grind of telecom. I see alot of good things happening at my company. I think our sales team is really coming around, and hopefully our corporate office will back us up as we are on a tear.

I am watching the WSOP 2006 main event and I cannot belive this guy Dimetri Nobles. I am not critiziing his play, but he had some spots were he could have played a little less agrresive and he would have got even further than he did.

Oh well...Heading to Memphis next week, so I will be getting in lots of time at the tables in Tunica. Hopefully I will have something to blog about

"If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, to be the best that you can be, I don't care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game, in my book we're gonna be winners" Gene Hackman as Coach Dale in "Hoosiers"

Finally booked a winner in Biloxi

Bill and I headed over the the coast Friday night, to play at the IP and get some time under our belts for the tournament on Saturday. The IP has a promotion that if you log in 5 hours of live play between the times of 3pm and 11pm on the Friday night that you get in the $10,000 guaranteed tournament on Saturday at noon for $20.00. We got there right at 6pm and got logged in. I don't know whether I would recommend doing this if you are trying to play in the tournament on Saturday. It could cost you alot to get in the tournament if you have a bad session. I would say that its a good deal if you are planning on playing poker Friday night. If you are going to play poker Friday night somewheres...it just as soon be the IP.

I booked a solid winner on Friday night (FINALLY!!!). Bill and I were able to play on the same table and he was on my right in the 6 seat, and I was in the 7 seat. I did not start off well at all getting sucked out on numerous times, but I just sat there and stayed focused and tried to play solid poker. I made a run to the ATM machine and now was $600.00 deep in the game at about 10pm. Then the poker gods decided to shine on GeneD and cut me a break...I look down at AcAs in a 3 way pot. I jam on the flop, and I was called by a solid player with just top pair of 9's. Bill and I looked at each a little stumped that he would have called me there, but hey, "Ship it ot the Colonel". I drag a huge pot. While I am sitting there stacking my chips, I glance down at my cards that were dealt to me...What do you know...AcAs. Guy in the one seat that just arrived in the game with $400.00 raises to $45.00. I am really cautious now as I don't want to mis-play these babies and give any chips back. I smooth call here to see what kind of flop we get. The flop drops on the board as 9s7h3d. Yes!!!! That flop could not have helped him. He must have a big pair Jacks, Queens or Kings. He leads out $75.00. I jam here again and he says, "I guess it's going to be a quick night for me...I call" and he tables QsQc. The turn and river brick out and bam...There you have it. I cashed out at 11:15am with around $1400.00, and was looking forward to the tournament tomorrow and seeing Ray, Alex, Sam, Mitch and Brandon for Ray's Bachelor party.

We found out that if you get there early on Saturday and you play in the live games, you also get extra chips for the tournament. 8-11am you get 1000...9-11am you get 500 and 10-11 you get 250. Bill and I stayed at the Laquinta Inn that was brand new...Like they had opened 2 days before this. We were the first ones in the room, and it was comfortable. The breakfast hit the spot also. We head over and get in the cash games at 10am, and we both pick up and extra 250 in chips. I bust out early, but Bill takes 6th or 7th. The 2 crucial hands I had were with this "lunch box" that showed up last, sat to my left and new nothing about what was going on. He knew nothing about the Friday night deal or the extra chips...safe to say he was not a tournament player. The first hand we get involved in I look down at 10c10s. He raises and I smooth call. Flop comes out 9c6s2d. He checks and I bet out 250 and he calls. The turn brings the 4s. He checks and I get 700 and he calls. The river is the Qd and he checks...I check and he tables AcQs. The very next hand I look down at KsKc and I am in the BB. Everyone puts in the 100 and it limps around to me, and I raise it to 700. Everyone folds except the villain to my left. The flop hits 10s7d2s. I jam and he insta-calls with pocket 10's. I need a King to survive. The turn is the 9s giving me the spade re-draw, and the river bricks...and thats a wrap. I head over the Beau and the Hard Rock to check things out while the rest of the crew finish the tournament.

I had one key hand in the cash game after the tourney. I was in with several of my bachelor party buddies. Brandon in the 2 seat, Sam in the 3 seat and Alex in the 7 seat. I sat down with $200.00 in the 4 seat, and instantly flopped a set on the first hand to bring my stack up to around $300.00. I worked my stack up to about $350.00 when i glance down and see pocket Aces. I immediately start to think of last night, and I have a bad feeling. Brandon raises form UTG to $15.00, and he only has about $100.00 left in front of him. I make it $75.00 to go and the guy to my left calls. Brandon sticks the rest of his chips in, and we both call. Flop comes out K-brick-brick. I look at Brandon because I am trying to get a read on whether he has the pocket Kings. Yea...I think he has them, so I jam to try to get some value out of the hand in a side pot with the guy to my left. He folds....Great!!! ...but not so...Brandon surely turns over the Kings, but the guy to my left folds pocket Jacks...Turn is a Jack...river a brick. It kind of sucked for me, but I was happy for Brandon. At least the money stayed between us, and it could have been worst if guy to my left calls...I take a big hit then.

I continue to play in LL MTT's online and have cashed in a few. Its not alot of money, but I do get to see alot of hands. Below are a couple of my online hands:

This one was the catalyst of this tournament. I think I got 148th out of several thousand people.
This is the type of hand you dream of when you are in a big tournament

PokerStars Game #15532451536: Tournament #77444934, $2.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2008/02/24 - 22:42:44 (ET)
Table '77444934 219' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: yorgi73 (14058 in chips)
Seat 2: mes_75 (4467 in chips)
Seat 3: GCPGeneD (10187 in chips)
Seat 4: cash_luck (6188 in chips)
Seat 5: pokercrook4 (7849 in chips)
Seat 6: mr_alterboy (5932 in chips)
Seat 7: callinC (4095 in chips)
Seat 8: MRSCHEEZE (7309 in chips)
Seat 9: rizzo888 (13173 in chips)
yorgi73: posts the ante 50
mes_75: posts the ante 50
GCPGeneD: posts the ante 50
cash_luck: posts the ante 50
pokercrook4: posts the ante 50
mr_alterboy: posts the ante 50
callinC: posts the ante 50
MRSCHEEZE: posts the ante 50
rizzo888: posts the ante 50
mes_75: posts small blind 300
GCPGeneD: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to GCPGeneD [Kc Kh]
cash_luck: folds
pokercrook4: folds
mr_alterboy: raises 5282 to 5882 and is all-in
callinC: calls 4045 and is all-in
MRSCHEEZE: raises 1377 to 7259 and is all-in
rizzo888: folds
yorgi73: folds
mes_75: folds
GCPGeneD: calls 6659
*** FLOP *** [7c 8c 7h]
*** TURN *** [7c 8c 7h] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [7c 8c 7h 4c] [3c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***GCPGeneD: shows [Kc Kh] (a flush, King high)
MRSCHEEZE: shows [Ad Ks] (a pair of Sevens)
GCPGeneD collected 2754 from side pot-2
mr_alterboy: shows [Ts Js] (a pair of Sevens)
GCPGeneD collected 5511 from side pot-1
callinC: shows [Qh As] (a pair of Sevens)
GCPGeneD collected 16930 from main pot
bodysnatchas is connected
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 25195 Main pot 16930. Side pot-1 5511. Side pot-2 2754. Rake 0
Board [7c 8c 7h 4c 3c]
Seat 1: yorgi73 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: mes_75 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: GCPGeneD (big blind) showed [Kc Kh] and won (25195) with a flush, King high
Seat 4: cash_luck folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: pokercrook4 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: mr_alterboy showed [Ts Js] and lost with a pair of Sevens
Seat 7: callinC showed [Qh As] and lost with a pair of Sevens
Seat 8: MRSCHEEZE showed [Ad Ks] and lost with a pair of Sevens
Seat 9: rizzo888 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

The hand that crippled me after this hand was A-J (Me) against K-J (Villain) ...we get it all in pre-flop...and a Kings hits on the river. If I win this pot I think I would have been chip leader.

"Does your boss know your using his house for a party? Cause I just put a call into him. Yeah, we went to school together. I helped cheat on his economics final or he wouldn't have graduated so he owes me big-time....You know another class I took at Harvard? Business Ethics. I don't steal other people's mother fucking clients, but in your case I'm going to make an exception. I'm going to take everyone; your B-level sitcom stars, your reality-TV writers, when I'm done with you, you're gonna be repping sideshow freaks. You need Jo-Jo the Dog-Face-Bitch-Boy? Call Josh Weinfuck, the lightweight pen-stealing fuckface" Jeremy Piven as Ari Gold on "Entourage" Episode with Gary Busey

Another 2 outer and busted in Lake Charles

I played in the weekly re-buy tournament in Lake Charles last week, and could not get nothing going. You start with 2000 in chips, and the rebuys and AO's you get 4000. There was a LAG player on the other side of the table from me playing anything with an ace aggressively. I busted out the first time when I look down at AhQs in the CO seat. The LAG player raises 4x the blinds (100-200 i think). I jam here and the LAG player calls and tables As10d. Flop comes KsJs9c and has me still ahead. Turn peels off the 10s. He jumps up when he sees the 10, but wait as I just hit my straight. River comes out the 5s. That should have clued me in on what the night was going to have in store for me. I fire a re-buy bullet to no avail. I dump $50.00 into the tournament and decide to try my luck elsewhere.

I see an older gentleman with his glasses down on his nose walking with a limp and a cane towards the 5-5nl table, and I stopped and I recognized the limp. Yes...it was Flyboy moving through the place. Flyboy is one of the famous gamblers in the area, and is known for action...and lots of it. Whether you playing poker, gin or pool, if you want to bet high in the Southeast, Flyboy is who you are looking for. I personally watched him play pool numerous times for $1000.00 a snap one-hole. The poker room manager commented when I was buying chips, "You going to that 5-5 came aren't you...Flyboy...some people love to play with him and some people hate to play with him". There is another older LAG Asian player that is a local (Kim-Jo...I think is his name). There were 5 people in the 5-5 game and there was thousands on the table. I pull out $300.00 and sit down 6 handed...I liked the game, and I liked my chances. This was a spot were I knew I could make some money. I play tight, and fold often and watch as Flyboy and the LAG Asian guy takeover the table. They both have huge stacks and are gambling at every turn. There was a huge guy in the 4 seat (Over 300lbs) that they said started with $400.00 and had $1900.00 in front of him. Flyboy busted him single handedly over the length of 3 hands in a 15 min span. The guy left without knowing what hit him. The last hand went like this. Fly raises preflop to $20.00 everyone pitches except Big Boy who smooth calls.

Flop comes out KhQc3d. FB fires out $125.00..BB calls. Turn comes 7s...FB fires $250.00 and BB goes in the tank before calling after 2 minutes. River brings the 3h. FB has him covered and jams ...BB calls in agony and tables KcQs and FB turns over As3c...and that was a wrap for BB.

I am playing good, solid poker and staying about even. An hour and a half in I start to bleed down to $250.00. FB and the LAG Asian both have thousands in front of them. I am in the SB when I catch the hand I was waiting for...and turned out to be one to put me straight into following in Big Boy's footsteps right out the door scratching my head. I looked down at 9dQd. I am in the 2 seat and LAG Asian player in 5 with FB in the 6 seat. everyone limps and me and the BB knuckle also. Flop comes out 4dQhQc. I check and everyone checks around to the FB who fires out $45.00, and I call as does LAG Asian. Turn brings the 9s..."Yatzee". We check around to FB again, and he fires out $45.00 again. I pop it to $100.00 straight. LAG Asian player calls and FB folds. The river brings the As. I check, and he asks me how much I got left. I said around $100, and he puts me all-in. I call, and he says, "Thank You" and slaps down the 2 red Aces. He looks at FB and says, "That's how you bust those tight players". I don't know how I could not have gone busted there. Limped with aces, and he hit a 2 outer on the river. He had over $2000.00 in front of him, and I had $250.00. There is no way he is folding pocket aces.

There I was ...following in Big Boy's footsteps out the door wondering what just happened.

"They fooled you 1,000 times, just like they fooled me. But this time, I'll fool somebody. I'll stay in this race. I'm on my own and out for blood. Listen to me, you hicks! Lift up your eyes and look at God's blessed and unfly-blown truth" Sean Penn as Willie Stark in "All the Kings Men"

Not much happening

Like the title says...not much happening my way. I have been grinding it out online in LL MTT's on Stars, and trying to see as many hands as I can. We are going to be having a local satillite to the Main Event of the Beau Rivages Spring Break Poker Classic coming soon. Those of you in my local network, you should be hearing something real soon. We are also working with a local company with another of the charity events. Hopefully, you will be seeing that on the site soon. I played at Boomtown last Wednesday when Bill had a nice finish. Have I ever said here how much I hate limit poker? Well...now I have. I have not seen people play so much trash in all my life than I saw last Wed. I mean, we all started out playing limit right? But man...I saw a guy raise pre-flop with 9-2 off...same with 8-2 off ...J-3 off...it did not matter. I saw a guy raise preflop with 9-1o off suit and get 7 callers then he C-Bet the flop when the flop came out A-K-6. I mean one of the other 7 people who called had to have an Ace or King in their hand...on and on.

Below is the last hand I busted out of on Stars:

*********** # 1 **************
PokerStars Game #15362295112:
Tournament #77765244, $3.00+$0.40
Hold'em No Limit - Level XI (600/1200) -
2008/02/17 - 22:15:35 (ET)
Table '77765244 2' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: GCPGeneD (7335 in chips)
Seat 3: mka in da ho (13865 in chips)
Seat 7: PapaRon1 (5800 in chips)
GCPGeneD: posts the ante 75
mka in da ho: posts the ante 75
PapaRon1: posts the ante 75
GCPGeneD: posts small blind 600
mka in da ho: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to GCPGeneD [Td Kd]
PapaRon1: folds
GCPGeneD: calls 600
mka in da ho: checks
*** FLOP *** [3c Kc 5h]
GCPGeneD: checks
mka in da ho: bets 3600
GCPGeneD: raises 2460 to 6060 and is all-in
mka in da ho: calls 2460
*** TURN *** [3c Kc 5h] [5d]
*** RIVER *** [3c Kc 5h 5d] [7d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
GCPGeneD: shows [Td Kd] (two pair, Kings and Fives)
mka in da ho: shows [6h 4s] (a straight, Three to Seven)
mka in da ho collected 14745 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 14745 Rake 0 Board [3c Kc 5h 5d 7d]
Seat 1: GCPGeneD (small blind) showed [Td Kd] and lost with two pair, Kings and Fives
Seat 3: mka in da ho (big blind) showed [6h 4s] and won (14745) with a straight, Three to Seven
Seat 7: PapaRon1 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

YYYYeeeeaaaaaaaaaa...I must be playing bad. "mkaindaho" actually sucked out on the very next hand to win the tournament. This has been my life lately. When I can't get to a Casino, I play LL MTT's. I am headed to Lake Charles for work tonight, so I will fire a bullet at their weekly Wed re-buy tourney.

We are going on Goondingy's bachlor party this weekend, so I hope to have a couple of cool stories for you'll. We are planning on playing in a couple of tournaments, so hopefully one of us...Alex/Ray/Mitch/Bill...will do something in the tournaments.

I saw the movie "Even Money" last weekend. It was OK. Better than some of the other gambling movies. The quote below is what starts off the movie.

"But the truth is... we all want more. Some take a chance for the rush of winning. Some for love. But you can't have your dream without laying something on the line. The key is not to risk what you can't afford to lose. You might think you're different. But someday... you're gonna want more too. The question is... What are you willing to lay on the line?" Kelsey Grammer as Detective Brunner in "Even Money"

Random Blog...

Not much going on lately as we are just wrapping up Mardi Gras down in the South. It always gets that way by the time Mardi Gras day comes around where you are glad its over. I want to Congradulate Virge on Satilliting into the first FTOPS event. We will be pulling for you.

I played at Shorty's Monday night, and broke even after about 2 1/2 hours. I was there when they started the game, and the following hand is what jumped off the session. I am in the 7 seat. The max buy-in is $300.00, and we start with 9 players with the blinds at 5-5. I am in the BB, and Mr. Tom from the golf course is to my left UTG. He limps along with everyone around to Nick in the 3 seat who makes it $20.00 to go. There are 5 callers including Jack S in the 9 seat and Mr. Tom. I pitch. Flop comes down 2c3h2s. Mr. Tom brings it out for $20.00. Everyone calls around to Nick who bumps it to $100.00. Everyone folds except Tom and Nick. Turn card brings the 8d. Tom knuckles and Nick shoves. Mr Tom goes in the tank for several minutes before he calls. He table 10c-10d...Nick tables KsQh...river is the Kd. Yeeeaaaaaaaa
I look around and sure enough...I am back at Shorty's. Nothing changes around there.

I have decided to stop posting about all the bad hands I play, and how unlucky I have been. Everyone hates bad beat stories. I played last night in my weekly $50.00 tournament in New Orleans. I got in a few crazy hands, and ended up busting out when I had 8 big blinds left when the blinds were at $500-$1000. I looked down at A-Js UTG with 11 people left, so I open shove and called by pocket kings...see ya.

...sorry for the spelling but it seems the spell check in bloger is hosed.

"Conspiracy theorists of the world unite" Will Smith as Robert Dean in "Enemy of the State"

Great article

I haven't been doing much lately, so I thought I would re-post some more informational stuff for you guys. I have been re-building slowly but surely. I played the Wednesday weekly at Boomtown last night, and played well. Lost one key hand where I had top pair with a flush draw where if I hit my flush, I would have been chip leader. No Dice though. I lost a race to get knocked out when I was called by A-10o when I had pocket 5's. In remembrance of Heath Ledger, I heard a guy call Pocket Kings "Brokeback Mountian".

I won 2 LLMTT's on Stars this week and get 2nd in a LLSNG. Not big wins, but it still felt good to do well. The e-mails are below:

PokerStars Tournament #75283099, No Limit Hold'emBuy-In: $3.00/$0.25
45 playersTotal Prize Pool: $135.00 Tournament started - 2008/01/27 - 00:17:01 (ET)Dear GCPGeneD,You finished the tournament in 1st place.A $42.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.You earned 101.42 tournament leader points in this tournament.For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at

PokerStars Tournament #75632737, No Limit Hold'emBuy-In: $3.00/$0.40
18 playersTotal Prize Pool: $54.00 Tournament started - 2008/01/29 - 22:06:31 (ET)Dear GCPGeneD,You finished the tournament in 1st place.A $21.60 award has been credited to your Real Money account

PokerStars Tournament #75038190, No Limit Hold'emBuy-In: $3.00/$0.40
10 playersTotal Prize Pool: $30.00 Tournament started - 2008/01/24 - 23:50:55 (ET)Dear GCPGeneD,You finished the tournament in 2nd place.A $9.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

I want to give a shout out to "Captain Stacks" and Johnny "Bubble Boy" Gomez...Where are you guys? Did you guys forget how to log on to your PC's ;-) .

This is a great article that was posted on 2+2 by "MasterLJ"...and re-posted on Full Tilt Forum by our own "Virge". I felt it was strong enough to re-re-post on my personal blog. Kudos to Master LJ:

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(NL Theory) Approach to HU - beating loose/passives and BR management

As promised here are a few excerpts from the article I was going to submit, but decided not to.

Some of you might find this article a little basic, some might find it very useful. I think there's at least a blurb or two for everyone of any/all skill levels.

It's not as polished as I'd like it to be but I'm kind of itching to get some hands in today.Hope you enjoy my Carpal/Tunnel post!

Use this article as a guide to learning HU NL poker. Do not use this article as a 1-2-3 formulaic approach to beating HU NL. Although certain concepts are presented in a 1-2-3 formulaic approach it is important to try to understand and emulate the thought processes beneath the strategy. My biggest breakthrough in poker came when I started asking “why?” Why is this play profitable? Why is this bluff profitable? Why is this a leak? Why did my opponent call me there? Some of this material may seem basic, some might be slightly more advanced.

Hand ranges in HUNL are the widest of any format. Voluntary Put in Pot (VPIP), or the percentage a player sees the flop, are on average much higher than standard play in other formats such as 6max or Full Ring. This means that aggression and hand reading are going to be the two primary skills for besting opponents. The reason these skills are crucial is because the main profit in HUNL comes from forcing your opponent to leave equity on the table. This is easier (and hence, theoretical max win rates are so much higher than 6max or Full Ring) because the hand ranges are so wide, suggesting that the average winning hand is going to be fairly low. Many players come into HUNL with a 6max mentality for hand values (they need at least top pair to showdown in most cases) which creates a pocket of profit since the average winning hand in a HUNL situation is going to be much less than top pair.

Hand Reading: In order to learn to peer into your opponent’s soul, there is simply no substitute for playing countless hours of poker and reviewing your sessions. Hand reading inherently requires empathy. Some people have a natural gift for empathy, some don’t. Almost everyone can fine tune their sense of empathy and practice is the key to doing so. The first rule of hand reading is to ask yourself “if I were to have hand XY, how would I play it in a straightforward manner?” This applies to low and micro stakes where typically players are not that tricky because they do not assume (or care) that you are thinking critically about each hand. The second requisite skill for hand reading is recall. Recall is defined as one’s ability to remember past hands and to remember your opponents “line” or pattern of betting they undertook. Since almost all major Poker sites provide space for note taking, coupled with programs like Poker Tracker and PokerAce HUD, there is no excuse to not have excellent recall. To learn how to read hands better I strongly suggest playing heads up limit. Yes, low limit HU limit is a losing proposition due to rake but it will help you develop a sense of relative hand strength since you will be showing down much more often.

Aggression: This is the bread and butter of HUNL. Aggression is the key to success in HUNL. I have seen a problem with many budding HU poker players, they take the term “aggression” the wrong way, meaning they are constantly bombarding their opponent with large bets, firing 3 barrels with no pair and no draw and trying to win every pot. When you hear the term “aggression” in any hold’em context it should always be synonymous with “controlled aggression” or “constant pressure.” Generally speaking you always want to have significant (25%+) equity in any pot in which you are going to pursue aggressively. Imagine a typical $1/$2 HUNL game. Your opponent makes a standard raise on the button (OTB) and you call in the BB with XY. There is $12 in the pot. The flop comes down giving you an open-ended straight draw (OESD) which is generally above 25% equity even against a flopped set. You have a roughly 32% chance (using the 2%/4% rule you have 8 outs x 4% = 32%) of making your straight by the river. Your opponent makes a standard continuation bet of $8, and you raise to $24. What are we trying to accomplish? First off, simply calling out of position (OOP) with a straight draw is not going to be profitable long term unless you have extremely high implied odds. Implied odds take into account the amount of money you will be able to extract off of your opponent when you make your hand. Since we generally do not have the correct implied odds in this situation in standard 100BB situations, we must create another method of extracting profit. Enter Fold Equity (FE). Simply put, Fold Equity is the percentage that your opponent folds to your bet. In other words, how often can you make your opponent leave money on the table? Remember, making your opponent leave both equity and money on the table is exactly how profits are made in HUNL. In our example hand there is $20 in the pot ($12 pre flop + $8 from our opponent’s continuation bet) we raise to $24 making the pot $44. Some basic math tells us that our bluff needs to work 24 times out of 44 (risking $24 to win $20) or roughly 54.5% of the time. This may seem astronomical but there are a few key factors in our favor. First off, your opponent is only going to make a pair on the flop 1 in 3 times. With just that fact alone, our opponent should be folding 66.66% of the time. In practice we must add draws into the equation, but we also gain several advantages in a practical setting. Opponents are rarely going to continue with bottom pair, underpair to the board, gutshots with an over, and even second pair weak to mid kicker. Some opponents may fold mid pair good kicker and top pair weak kicker to flop aggression. But wait! There’s more! Since we decided to utilize “controlled aggression”, meaning we have equity in the pot, our flop check-raise doesn’t have to be nearly as successful as the math suggests since we make the nuts with our OESD roughly 1 in 3 times if we are allowed to see the river. Not to mention we have opportunities to semi-bluff the turn if we are called on the flop. In our example, let’s assume villain calls our raise to $24, there is now $58 in the pot. This gives us an even better chance to semi-bluff, since a bet of $49 into the $58 pot ($107 total) means that our bluff must only work 49 times out of 107 (45.79%) and of course we still have equity going to the river as well as the opportunity to bluff the river, as well as the chance that we made our hand on the turn.

Beating Down the Passive Players:
If you are a serious HUNL player you no doubt practice some form of game selection. While everyone will have their ideal match up, many players like to play loose/passive players. These players are identified by high VPIP and low PFR and a propensity to call OOP. Often these players can limp the button as well.

The best strategy to employ against these players is to go for value in position and pounding on them out of position. In fact, being OOP can be more profitable than being IP against these players assuming they have some key characteristics such as calling 3bets WAY too light and calling flop check raises much too light. On the button you should be raising with the top 60-65% of your hands. There is no need to play raggedy hands even IP against calling stations, their willingness to call makes very bad hands lose value. You can open up your button range against loose/passives if you have a very high success rate of taking down the pot on the flop, and/or getting them to fold with a bet on the turn. On the flop you should be c-betting 70%+ and betting all pairs for value as well as draws. All reasonable draws should be double barreled as to build a large pot for the river where you can get value when you make your hand or you can bluff a scare card, or check behind on a dismal river that doesn’t help you represent a hand.

When playing OOP there are a few things to factor in. First, is your opponent limping the button? If so, are they calling raises? I usually employ a 4-4.5 x BB bet when raising OOP. If they have an unwillingness to call I am going to raise with any two cards until they adjust. More likely than not they will catch on and start to call some bets or possibly limp-re-raise (LRR). When this occurs my range becomes 22+, JT+ and sometimes some suited connectors. I am cbetting 100% of flops and double barreling any scare cards. If I turn a strong draw I might elect for a check raise all in (CRAI) if villain has shown a propensity to bet when checked to. This shouldn’t happen often given that we are playing a loose/passive player, so more often than not I am simply going to fire a second barrel.Against a LRR I have to have a read in order to call lightly OOP and/or shove over. If I have a good sense that my opponent is simply frustrated from being bombed on IP, I will call LRRs with KJ type hands. Obviously you have to go with it on a K or J high flop, or any reasonable draw. With 99+ I’m going to 4bet shove if pot size permits as I find that villain’s will often call with small pocket pair when frustrated.

When the pot is unraised and a flop is seen I love to apply pressure. This works especially well against opponents who have a PFR of 10-20%. Those opponents tend to tell you what they have pre-flop so that when they limp OTB you can assume their hand is weak (and it usually is). In that respect, if the flop comes down A33 and villain cbets, I am going to raise with ATC. So long as you get your bet-sizing right you should be able to profitably run this play with fold-success rates of 55%. Imagine the pot is $4 and villain bets $2, the pot is now $6, if you raise to $8 that should be more than enough to raise out air and only needs to succeed 57% of the time. I generally don’t like raising with no equity whatsoever, but the aforementioned case is the exception. I will CR a wide variety of flops with as little as bottom pair. The key though is that ONE BARREL IS NOT ENOUGH! I can’t stress that enough, the “play” is two-fold as loose/passive players will call flop CRs with almost any piece, however the profit comes in on the turn where they are much more hesitant to continue in the pot without a big hand when you fire again. If villain calls flop CR and turn lead you can generally give up unless you get a beauty of a river to bluff at.

Bluffing:
This aspect of Hold’em took me the longest to understand. I still certainly do not fully understand bluffing as I’m always amazed at what opponents are willing to call with. First and foremost, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BLUFF PLAYERS OFF TOP PAIR AT LOW STAKES. Just save yourself the trouble. I can’t count how many times I said to myself “This guy has top pair no kicker, Imma bluff him out!!!!” It is just not profitable. The types of hands you want to fold with your bluffs are:
1. Better high cards (you fold JT, flop is 286r, you cbet and fold out A3)
2. Bottom or 2nd pair (you hold 29o OOP, opponent limps the button, you check, flop is 3 7 J, you check to opponent, opponent pots you CR, opponent mucks A3o
3. Underpair (you hold A3 you raise OTB, opponent calls with 33, flop is K97, you cbet to take down the pot)
4. Draws – You can only really take an opponent off a draw with a big check-raise or on the river. A good example is a hand like 86 on a T67 flop, check-raising this flop can make villain fold a large amount of hands that have very strong draws against you and tons of equity (J8 has about 35% equity in this pot but can’t call a raise). You can hopefully remove an opponent off of a flush or straight draw by a CRAI on the turn.

Pay attention to these cases when you are making bets. A bet should always accomplish 1 of 2 things:
1. Fold better hands
2. Extract value out of worse hands

Always, always, always bet for one of the two reasons. Notice “to see where I’m at” is not on that list? Good, because that’s the worst reason to raise or bet. Bluffing is no different, and if you can blur the line between bluffing and value-betting you are going to make your opponents continue to guess. For example, against certain breeds of loose/passives I will value-bet ace-high on the flop since they float with weird hands like Q9o on a 265 flop.

Finally, I will end this segment on beating up loose/passives by giving you the ultimate advice. If you’re not in the driver’s seat during the hand, you are probably behind. When your edge is massive there’s really no need to stack off in marginal spots. A marginal spot against a loose/passive could be as “good” as having an overpair or TPTK facing a push. They are called loose/passives for a reason, and if you aren’t driving the action in the hand there’s a really good chance you are beat.

Bankroll Management and Variance:
I had found, and digested, a very nicely done post on winrate and variance:http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...light=Variance
I had also created an Excel spreadsheet based on the concepts in the article:http://www.savefile.com/files/1292691

What you can take from the article? Answer: Winrate is king. If you aren’t really beating up your stakes you should move down. A player winning at roughly 5.75 PTBB/100 has a 23% chance of breaking even after 10k hands. That’s reasonably significant. It’s my opinion that if you can’t beat the game for 5+ PTBB/100 or higher moving down one level will provide a much higher winrate and significantly lowered variance.

As far as bankroll you really shouldn’t play with anything less than 30 buyins for casual players and 50+ for pros (I prefer 100 personally). Shot taking against really bad opponents is completely acceptable but you should set, and stick to, your stop loss.
--"MasterLJ"

"If your going through some shit in your life chances are somebody else has gone through the same thing before ya. And they've written about it. Some poet or philosopher has been through the same type of crap, and they've written about it. And when you find that poem or piece of writing. You think bloody hell this bastard has just summed it all up. It's kinda comforting. Know what I mean?" A quote for a Heath Ledger film "Two Hands"

Random Blog...

I apologize for the delay, but I haven't had much to talk about lately. The Dead Money tournament went off without a hitch last weekend. It was good to see Martin and Ed again, and the rest of the folks seemed really nice also. I want to congratulate "Philly Tom" on the win, and it is even more exciting that he will be blogging on www.gulfcoastpoker.net with his exploits starting last Saturday with the win through him actually playing in the tournament. It will be cool getting blog updates from one of the players from our tournament. I hope we can do it again next year, and we will be looking for some more tables if anyone out there is interested in being a table captain. If you are interested, please drop Bill or I an e-mail. I don't have any cool party stories as I did not hit the bars/casinos with those guys.

I played in a tournament last Thursday, and will again play tonight. There were 42 people in a $50.00 freeze-out with the blinds going up every 15 min. Of course the drunk guy sitting to my left has been playing completely erratic...and has chips. They are paying 5 places and I make it to the final table with 8 people left. I am down to 12 big blinds when I look down at A-Jo. I ship it in, and the drunk guy with 21 BB's (not that he would know what that meant) calls. Everyone else pitches to the muck. He rolls K-Qo. Great...60-40 favorite. Flop hits the board 10s-9h-3c...Ok...I now jump to a 70-30 favorite...turn peals off the Jd...78-22 favorite...Ks on the river.

Last night I am playing online and I seldom get involved with the chat program...calling people donkfish etc. Last night, after a few frosty cold ones...I did. I am in a ST-SNG on stars and we are down to 7 people when I raise nice pre-flop from the button with Jh-Js. I bet enoght that there is no way I can get away from the hand. The only caller I get is one of a few player that had me covered...the Big Blind. Flop comes out Jd10h7h. I ship the rest of my chips in the middle and the villian calls. He tables 8h-4d. Turn is the 4s and the river is the 9d...and all the chat room eropts with ... "vgh"..."Nice" ...etc. I couldn't help myself. You know what he wrote back to me in the chat box? "I was getting tired and my back hurts...I wanted to go to bed"...Thanks buddy...I needed that. You were trying to end your tournament and give me your chips, but you couldn't even do that right. ;-).

The highlight of my last few online session was getting to mix it up with Lilholdem954. Thats right, seems Chad "lilholdem954" Batista was at my table, and the chat room exploded with lurkers asking questions...compliments etc. The strange thing was that I was playing in a NL turbo with a 45 max...in a $3.25????? Stars run these in the SNG/Multi-Table/Micro section. They jump off every 30 seconds. The minute one jumps off...there are instantly 15-20 people already in the next one. Guess he needs some practice

Thats it folks...I will try to get in more action soon...

"Look, Ed, you put **anybody** on television sixteen hours a day, and sooner or later they're going to fall off a table and land on a cat" Adam Goldberg's character John in "EdTV"

A look at the Dead Money Final Table

No end in site

We had the 2nd Dead Money Satellite tourney Tuesday night, and the host, Robert Dinger, locks up the 2nd Houma seat for the final table. We had a nice turn-out of 17 people, and I would like to thank all the guys and gals that came to play. We really had a good time, and sitting at the table with Davey and Parfait is always a hoot. Those guys make the game fun.

My play...well, I wasn't overall happy with my play, but I was in a good spot several times. I just could not hold on. I played a hand bad against Davey when I called off over 1/3 of my stack with a weak Ace. An ace hit the board, and I was trying to lose as little as possible if I was out kicked. After the river card, I thought that maybe my ace was good. I said, "I guess I am going to make the hero call"...You know, the ones that you are a genius if your right, but your an idiot if not...I was wrong. He had 2 pair.

I busted out with pocket 10's against pocket 4's. We got it all in pre-flop, and a 4 pealed off on the turn. I thought 4 to 1 would be a solid favorite...oh well. Then I played online last night...I bust out when my pocket Jacks ran into pocket 7's and 7 is in the window on the flop. Wait a minute...4 to 1 is a favorite isn't it? Oh well...enough sarcasm and whining. I will just keep doing as I am told...get it in with the best of it.

I read a blog that has really put my wheels to turning. The person who wrote it was a professional poker player at one time, and he went back to work. I tell people that I am a semi-professional because I still keep my day job. When I am running good with a pocket full of money, and people would ask me, "Your a solid player and winning alot...why don't you just play for a living...". I would tell people, "I haven't been forced to play for a living...I think I could if I had to". Its being the Poker Gods whipping post ...and reading blog post like this that keep me showing up for work everyday.

(Reprinted with permission from the author Matt Maroon)
November 27, 2007

Why I Quit Playing Poker For A Living, Pt. 1

A lot of people ask me why I quit playing poker. When people ask a question like that they're expecting a fairly brief answer, and unfortunately the full version is a long story that's hard to tell in any reasonable amount of time. So I usually give them the executive summary, which was that I felt it was time to move on. That's definitely true, though somewhat vague. But it's better than the answer they seem to expect, which ranges from "I went broke" to "I lost my house in a bad game of 5 card stud. Then my wife left me. And she took the dog," depending on how much they know about poker.

Luckily for me that wasn’t the case. At one point I just knew it was time to find another path through life. Like a bad poker player who just got his pocket aces cracked on the turn, though, I kept pushing it. I continued to play long after my instincts told me give up and suffered the consequences. Had I understood myself better, I could have saved a lot of pain, and a nice chunk of money. But I didn’t. I overstayed my welcome and paid dearly for it.

Why it was time to quit, and why poker eventually ceased to be what it used to for me is hard to explain to someone who doesn’t play it for a living, and near impossible for someone who doesn’t even play as a hobby. I'll try my best for both though. To understand, there are a few things that one has to know about playing poker.

The most important is that no matter how well you play, you often lose. It's just part of the nature of the game, and, for that matter, any game largely subject to random events. Even the best poker players can lose for a very long time. Depending on the variant you're playing that could mean months, or even, in rare cases, years. Losing streaks are an unfortunate fact of life. In fact, for a professional poker player, they're the most unfortunate.

Another thing to understand is that in poker you can't fake it, or at least you shouldn’t. If you're a writer, or an accountant, or a lawyer, or have just about any other occupation I can think of, you can phone it in when you need to and nothing too bad will happen. You can go to work, fly under the radar for a day, not be your fully productive self, and you'll still get paid. They won't cancel your health insurance and you'll still accrue your vacation time. It's likely nobody will even notice, and if they did, they might be understanding, since everyone is in that position sooner or later. At some jobs you can get away with this for days at a time, and a lot of people make entire careers out of it.

Not so in poker. You can play badly for a day, but you're just costing yourself money. You might get lucky and win, or you might not and lose, but you'll win less or lose more than you should have. Either way if you're playing badly you're costing yourself money. In a game where the best player has only a one or two percent edge, playing badly is far worse than not playing at all. It's the only job I know of where, 100% of the time, you will only hurt yourself by functioning suboptimally.

Moreover, there's a huge difference between playing at 100% and 90%. Poker is a game of very fine edges, where you are rewarded for making a lot of good decisions that are, mathematically speaking, only slightly better than the alternatives. So while a programmer who is having a bit of an off day but is still almost as productive as normal can make progress, a poker player who is making almost as many decisions correctly as he normally does can actually go from being a significant winner to a significant loser. If you can't bring your A game to the table, you're better off staying home.

Poker is also an extremely complex game. So much so that computers are unable to function at even a passable level. (Contrast this to chess, where they are able to consistently outperform even the best humans.) As such, nobody plays their best game of poker at all times. It's impossible. Sometimes you're going to be off of your A game. We are irrational, emotional creatures. That's not our fault; we're a product of evolution, and those same emotions that once kept us from choosing the wrong mate or being eaten by a lion hamper us in daily life. And nowhere do they hurt us more than at the poker table, a battleground where cold math, logic and objectivity are a person's only assets, and everything else is a liability.

Playing badly happens a lot more frequently than one might expect, even for the players with the tightest reigns over their emotions (which I was once one of, but am no longer). And it happens the most when you're on one of the inevitable losing streaks. A losing streak in poker is almost inexplicable to someone who hasn’t experienced it. The best way I can translate it to normal people is this:

Imagine you go to work every day and do your absolute best. You work as hard as you can, do everything perfectly, or at least as close to it as humanly possible, and throughout the day, every 15 minutes, your boss comes over and tells you that you are an idiot. Each time he tells you that everything you do is wrong, even if you know it's not. Then instead of paying you, he forces you to write a check to the company.

That's about how stressful losing streaks are. You question everything you do. Every decision you're faced with seems tough, and almost every one you make turns out, in hindsight, to have been wrong. You doubt your ability, because as a human, you've been programmed to equate success with good decision making and failure with bad. You tell yourself over and over that you just have to keep playing the way you always have and it will turn around, but deep down you start to doubt it. You have no choice, it's operant conditioning in action.

Because of the variance, poker is also a game in which very little can ever be known for certain. The high fluctuations make proving any useful theory only possible in hindsight. You can mathematically examine your past results and prove that you are a winning player or a losing player to a high degree of certainty, but it takes such a large sample size that once done, it's entirely useless. You can determine that your wins over the last year (if you played a hell of a lot of hands over that time) were outside of the range attributable to luck. You can discover your realistic minimum and maximum expectation for that time, and if the bottom of the range is above zero, you're mathematically certain to have been a winning player.

But that was last year. The game has changed. You've made changes to your game, and aren’t playing the same way anymore. Your opponents are different. Maybe you moved up a limit or two so they're a little tougher, or maybe you stayed at the same game but the field changed. You can't prove that you are a winner, only that you were. So on a losing streak, you can't simply turn to math or logic to console you, because it can only help explain the past. Ask it if you are playing well right now and the only answer you get is "I don't know. Play a year and ask me again."

The other option is, and many people take this approach, to simply never question yourself, no matter what. Just keep playing the same way and assume that any bad runs are simply due to luck. This, too, is extremely dangerous, because the minute you're wrong, you're headed for broke. The Peter Principle will ensure that you will, at some point, hit a level of competition that's too strong for you, and your ego won't let you adapt. You'll march blindly into the poorhouse.

So being good at poker, at least professionally, means walking a fine line between the two extremes. You must be willing to consider that you should adapt, but not be too hasty to do so, because changing a winning game can be just as bad as not changing a losing one. You must simultaneously have faith in your own abilities and question whether or not you could be playing much better. It's a delicate balance, and one that takes an incredible emotional toll on you.

This is, in a nutshell, why playing poker is often referred to as a "hard way to make an easy living." It's all the stress of the losing streak. To put it in perspective, I once met someone who quit a job as an air traffic controller, long considered the most stressful job in existence, to play poker for a living. He did it for a year and claimed to have made about 25% more than he would have at his job, but went back to his old career because, as he said, it was "far less stressful".
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There you have it folks. This is the life that we all wish to live... The life that we all dream about. We read all the books, and watch all the poker superstars on television. It's all out there though...and we have to go get it!!...oh well...back to the grind

"Natural ability-wise, yes, he had the quickest mind. Stuey's problem is he doesn't understand the object of the game, which is to accumulate wealth, improve your lifestyle and provide for your family"...A quote from Chip Reese when asked is Stu Ungar was the most talented player he had ever seen.

The Tunica trip doesn't come together...

As quick as a road trip comes together, it can evaporate. I am a little bummed out about not making the trip to Tunica this year in January, but it could be a blessing in disguise. I have been trying to re-build my bankroll recently, and not getting much help from the poker gods. I have been playing small ball poker on the internet, and just trying to see as many hands as I can as fast as I can. I am up to playing 3 tables at a time, but playing for nickels and pennies is tough. I have been trying to play more LL MTT's though which at least I can try to focus more trying to win 1st place. I have also downloaded Bodog, and am checking out the interface. The one thing that I was impressed with was I tried to put money on BD with my card, and it was declined. They have actually tried to contact me to see what they could do to help...even a phone call. I am also thinking of buying a cardrunner/Xfactor account and watching some videos.

We are having the 2nd Dead Money Table in the Houma this Tuesday if anyone would be interested in playing. The last chance table will be Friday in New Orleans, and the final table will be this Saturday. Just got off the phone with Austin Martin as he is on the road home from Tunica right now. He will be coming to New Orleans this weekend also for the annual pokerfest.

I caught the stomach virus that has been going around last week, and it was the most cruel ordeal I have had in a long time. I never get sick, so to be stuck at the house for days with not being able to keep nothing down. Everything that went in my stomach came out 20 min later. It was brutal.

I have been running so bad lately that I have again...started to re-read some of my books, and trying to take stock in my poker knowledge to try to figure out if the variance is torturing me or am I just playing bad. I am an active reader of lots of different forums, and I have read lots of different post from poker players about gambling, variance, playing for a living, debts, bankroll management...etc. I don't have a huge bankroll right now, but at least I don't owe anybody any money from poker debts. I talked about a post from Mark Newhouse about Dustin "Neverwin" Wolf in past blogs. Now, I want to point you guys to a post by a "Humbled" neverwin where he writes about something that I fear more that losing my bankroll. I will post about another topic I have read in a later blog...I think it is also posted on 2+2

http://www.neverwinpoker.com/forums/content/Shooting-Off/47687/My-debts-apoligies-and-some-words-of-wisdom/

"First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?" Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecture in "The Silence of the Lambs"

Heading to Tunica

Thats right folks, getting in the Jeep and heading on down to burn up some satellites. It is so funny that I have told several of my poker playing friends in the last week that I had no plans on making it to Tunica this year. It was funny as Wayne Hatcher and I both said that we have no plans to go, but we didn't know...we might wind up there if the cards fall right. Then I ran into Mrs. Judy Rhodes at Shorty's last night who has cashed several times in the past 5-6 years at the World Poker Open. We both talked about how this will be the first times in years that we do not go to Tunica for January...well looks like I will be going.

I have played in numerous live sessions recently and have "Maintained". I know none of us play poker just to "Maintain". It sucks buying in for $400.00 and cashing out for $365.00...then the next night but in for $350.00 and cash out for $415.00. I was actually able to get up last night at Shorty's. I was $300.00 deep in the game and I was sitting with about $450.00 when the following hand went down. They had just moved an older lady to our table in the 2 seat and I was sitting in the 7 seat in mid-position. I looked down at AcKc and decide to limp along with 6 other people just to change things up a little. Flop hits the table 10c9h4s. I fire out $35.00 and everyone folds except this lady. The turn peals off with the Jc. I fire out $65.00 and she smooth calls. I am completely in the dark as to what she may have...I am stumped. The river comes the 8h and I fire my last bullet...she again smooth calls and table 7h3d. WTF!!!!!!. Doc and I just look at each other and both of us busted out laughing. Yes people...this is the way they play at Shorty's.

Everytime I watch "Rounders" I pick out more and more things that I haven't seen before. I think I may have blogged about this before, but one of things that bothers me the most is the first big hand he plays with KGB. If watch the hand closely once Teddy says, "No...I don't have the spades"...you will see that he turns over the Pocket Aces like he owns the man...like he has the nuts. This bothers me because the hand never would have came out like that, because he did not know whether MattMcD had pocket 9's which would have gave him 4 9's to beat Teddy's Aces over 9's. Oh well...I also noticed that in the scene with Roman and Maurice that the actor that plays Maurice is actually that guy that plays Luca on ER, Goran Visnjic...Damn I watch too many movies.

"Jon Dillinger was killed behind that theater in a hale of FBI gunfire. And do you know who tipped them off? His fucking girlfriend. All he wanted to do was go to the movies" John Cusack's Character Rob in "High Fidelity"

3 steps forward...1 backwards

I apologize for not blogging lately, but the holidays have me spending lots of time with the family and winding down for the year. I haven't done much, so there isn't much to talk about. It sucks when you run bad, and then it makes you start to play bad. I am not happy with how I have been playing, and I have to work on opening my game up some more. I think I have been playing too tight, and that builds frustration when the cards don't come your way.

I have been traveling to Shorty's lately to play in the 5-5 Nl game they have there, and the roller coaster ride continues. I played a 4 hour session each night for the past 3 nights, and I won the first 2 and lost last night. The game was good, and they had alot of the same characters such as Allen, Mustang Mike, Jared and even Tex showed up and was doing fairly well when I left last night. They had 3NL tables going, and the jackpot was up toi around $68,000.

The first night I had a score, and I came home pretty pumped booking an $800.00 winner. I was starting to think that the poker gods may give me some grace. I went back for the next night and immediately went down $300.00. I got back in for $300.00 to make me $600.00 deep in the game, and lost half of that on the 5th hand from there. I grinded...and grinded. No big pots, just small to medium solid pots. I was able to cash out with $775.00 for a small win...but a win none the less. Last night I went back, and was really feeling good even though I felt I was pushing my luck. I probably should have taken a couple of days off and play online, but I wanted to play my rush if thats what it was...it wasn't. I dropped $200.00 where I mad a completely stupid call for my last $75.00 with A7 on a flop of 3-3-A(Don't remember the suits)...check to me I bet out and the villain smooth calls. turn dumps a 7 on the board. Villain check-raises me all-in...and I call like an idiot while the villain roles 3-6...the river bricks.

Those are the kind of plays I was making. I was trying to force things to happen and wound up spewing chips. The thing that bothered me was the hands I dumped. In mid-position I dumped K-9o to a $20.00 raise. 5 people went to the flop of K-K-9...ouch. I dumped 10-9s (my favorite hand) in another huge pre-flop pot...the dealer dumps 10-10-9 on the board...F^%$ Me!!! I should have gotten up and left. I pulled out $200.00 more and donked that off and came home.

I know some of you are saying, "Damn Man...Whats wrong with this guy...$800+$175 =$975.00 -$400...Damn...he is a $575.00 winner". Its just that I know I can play better than I have been lately. Scared Money is Dead Money. I also need to work on keeping the pots proportional...Don't play big pots unless you have the goods.

Oh yea... I want to give a shout out to a couple of guys. One is a local handyman from Delcame. I walked in to shorty's with my GCP hoodie on, and this guy I never met before calls out, "Hey GeneD...How's it going". He was a local guy that has been reading the site/blogs and wanted to tell me how much he liked the site. The 2nd person is a local player named Jared. We keep finding ourselves sitting next to each other at the tables, and I really like the guy. He has a solid game, a cool job and a baby girl he is proud of..."Keep it real brother!!!"

I was given the boxset for the first season of HBO's "The Wire", and It has me hooked...this is one badass show...check it out

"I'll do what I can to help y'all. But, the game's out there, and it's play or get played. Its that simple" Michael Williams as Omar in "The Wire"

Dead Money kicks off with a great tournament

We kicked off the dead money tournament last night, and we had a great turn out. We were able to pull together 17 people to have 2 tables, one with 8 players and one with 9. Tex showed up a little later to just check it out. We paid out 3 spots with the 1st place winner getting the seat at the final table and their entry fee back. The 2nd and 3rd place finishers both got cash prizes.

Those of you that have not seen our "Dead Money" pages, you can click on the links below to check out our super/megas. If your homegame is interested in joining our network, you can contact Bill or I for more details. ***This is a Non-Profit Event*** (In case any John Q Laws happen to read my blog)

http://www.gulfcoastpoker.net/Featured%20Home%20Games.htm

http://dead-money-poker-tournament.blogspot.com/

We are going to build a page for the tournament on thew site, so check out the www.gulfcoastpoker.net for results and pictures of the participants and winners.

I played on a LLMTT on stars this morning...there were 1500 people in it. They paid 180 people and I bubbled the cash in 192nd place when I got it all in with AKs against AJo...the torture continues. All I can do is continue to get all my money in with the best of it, and hope that he poker gods will let me out of variance hell.

"Get out of the water. There are sharks everywhere, look" Scott Caan as Bryce in "Into the Blue"

Dead Money tonight

We are having our local tournament for the "Dead Money" satellite tonight. We are shooting for at least 10 players, but we will work something out if we get more than that. Last year we were able to pull together 25, and we hoping to be in that same range tonight. This is the 5th year we are having the tournament, and we are pretty happy that we made it this long. I can remember the first year where I thought we would never be able to pull off another one...wow...4 years later and we have sent 4 players to the Main Event. That, in itself, is something to be proud of...way to go Bill!!!!!

We got the official schedule of the 2008 WSOP and it is posted on our site. You can view the schedule at http://www.gulfcoastpoker.net/. They are having 8... $10,000 events this year with the first and last events both being 10 large to buy-in.

I played at Shorty's this weekend and at the Amelia Belle. I got in a hand with a local Asian Player here named "Jessie". I have been gambling with Jessie for over 10 years now in pool, poker, flipping coins...whatever. Jessie is a gambler ...until he disappears on the boats for months at a time to get pumped back up. Don't get me wrong, I like Jessie, I like Jessie because he makes the same calls ...over and over again. The hand we played out is below.

I am at the table in the 8 seat with about $275.00, and Jessie site down in the 6 seat. I am in the BB with 3c6d, and their are 5 limpers to me...I knuckle the table. The flop comes out 4s5d9s. Old guy with the cigar in seat 1 makes it $20.00 to go, Jesse calls as do I. The turn brings the 7h. Bingo...I have my hand. OGWC fires out $35.00...and Jessie raises to $90. I go in the tank...

...Could he have 6-8? Yea...its possible...but I don't think so. I think he is on the spades. Jessie is a gambler and if he raised here with the spade draw, he is going to go all the way with the hand. I jam here...and he calls and tables As2s. River brings the Ks and thats a wrap.

I say "Good Hand Man", and Jessie shrugs his shoulders and says, "What do you want me to do?"...nothing at all Jessie. I want you to make that same call everyday of the week and twice on Sunday. I want you to put all of your chips in the middle as an 80-20 dog. Amazing how variance plays cruel jokes on us. I am not even going to get into the online hands. I will give you a small taste though. LLMTSNG on stars with 27 players. We are head up and I have the villain covered by $400.00. He jams with Kc10s and I call with AsJh...and lose...thats the way it goes

"Any man thats got the guts to sell his soul for love has got the power to change the world, you didn't do it for greed, you did it for the right reason, maybe that puts God on your side, to them that makes you dangerous, makes you unpredictable, thats the best thing you can be right now" Sam Elliot as the Caretaker in "Ghostrider"

Running Bad...Playing Bad

That's right folks, the variance is again catching up with me. It is very discouraging as it seems to happen every year at this time. Right between Thanksgiving and the New Year, the variance seemed to catch up with me. Once this starts, my game starts to go to shit also. I start to push hands, and start to loose my patience which is not a good recipe.

Played in the FTF (FullTiltForum) freeroll Sunday night and played bad. Congrats to DirteAA for winning the tournament. Way yo go EDDDDEEEEAAYYYYYY ;-). I then got deep in a 180 player MTT on stars, and was the Chip Leader for awhile. I was second in chips when we got down to 3 tables, and I donked out like a donkfish.

I cashed in the Bi-monthly tournament at Boomtown Saturday. Bill and I were both still in it when we got down to 2 tables, and I was confident that we would both make the final table. Bill goes out with Aces...AGAIN. Boomtown has some kind of curse on Bill when it comes to busting out of their tournaments with Aces. This is like...the 10th time that has happened. They had moved us to the final table, and I was the small stack when the following events transpired. The tournament director asked us if we want to pay 6 places ...or 10 as what was advertised. I was in the 8 seat next to Craig Mordock, a local attorney and accomplished local player, and another local legend name "Back to Back" AKA "BB"(Don't know his real name). They are screaming to pay 6 places for a higher pay out and I am keeping quiet as I am curious to see what transpires. Everyone else at the final table had healthy stacks, and the chip leader was in the 2 seat. The TD announces that it must be a majority to change the payout. Well, she ask , "Who wants to pay 10 places. 5 people raise their hand...and everybody just looks around...and then all stares come to me ...the shortstack at the table. What am I to do? ...of course I raised my hand. I just kind of felt that I let BB and Craig down. They were not happy with me, but I sure as hell did not want to be the deciding vote, and the chip leader was one of the people that voted to pay 10...oh well. BB and Craig...if you guys read this...I apologize.

I have decided to move down until the first of the year to try to get my bankroll back healthy. I have been playing some home games and bar tournaments. I cashed last night in a local tournament here in New Orleans. There were 41 players and I got 5th...heading to play in another one tonight.

I want to give a shout out to my Man...Ira "ActionJunkie" Gibbs from Tampa. Ira and I worked together several years ago, and we use to hang out and chase women in Orlando, He is a great guy, but it is so funny that I never new he played poker until I talked to our old Boss. We have re-connected, and I looked him up and it seems Ira is playing way ahead of where I am at. He is living in Vegas, and he satellited into the Main Event of the 5 Diamond Poker Classic at the Bellagio coming up next week. Go get 'em Ira!!!!!...I will be sweating you on the net.

"Let's put the women and children to bed and go lookin' for dinner!" Craig Sheffer as Joe Kane in "the Program"

Go get em Nic!!!

I am posting this to say good luck to Nic "Nic the Greek" Gellepis from Tallahassee, Fl who made it to the final table at Harrah's Bayou Classic $5000.00 Main Event. Nic bubbled the mega that I played and won in Biloxi, MS at the IP Poker Classic, and I cut a deal with him when we were 6 handed. He actually had 2% of me in the IP main event. He and TK travel together, and TK told me they use to be roommates years ago.

GOOD LUCK NIC!!!!!!!!!!

Circuit Event...I visit the "Cave"...Chip Reese Passes away

I was able to make it down to the circuit event last week, and fire a bullet at a $300.00 event. I could not get any traction what so ever. I was in the 4 seat at my table. I had "Monkey Boy" on my right, and then they moved Herbie Montalbano into the 2 seat. For those of you who know MB know he is a character. He made the table a little entertaining. After that, I fired a bullet at the single table satellites. I got down to 3 people with Tom Becnel and a new player that really was making rookie errors. At one time he had the big stack with the blinds at 200-400, and Tom only had 800 left in the BB. Tom ships in his last 400 in chips and announces all in. I fold as fast as possible...and the kid folds...Huhhh? WTF!!! Tom and I just looked at each other and shrugged. I thought for sure Tom and I would outplay this guy. Well, I tried to be too aggressive and pushed with a moderate holding, and the kid woke up AQo. The worst part is, 10 seconds after I get knocked out they chop, and both said they would have agreed to chop 3 ways if someone would have brought it up. Duh!!!!

I went down to check out the Main Event yesterday. Looks like TK (Timkrank online) snapped off the $1000.00 event on Sat...Your boy is on a tear lately. He told me everything has been going right for him. Nic also was playing yesterday. I am not sure who is still in it. There was one guy from Houma that I knew that was playing, and that was Mitch Lecompte. Mr. Mitch lived across the street from me for about 8 years as I was growing up...great guy and a solid player.

I made it to the online "Cave" in Lockport Sunday to hang out with Virge, DierteAA and Lusky. It amazes me to see those guys work the dual monitors and such. It really has me understating that I am way behind in the online world. I am going to try to set up some new accounts online and try to start fresh. There are so many tools that you need to be as good as those guys. Oh well...better late than never. TK showed me a picture of his set up at his house in Tallahassee. He has a cool set up with a big screen TV mounted on the wall that he can play the final tables on. It was something else. Oh yea...I also saw that our own Virge is ranked 15th in the state of LA on pocketfives.

Wild Bill and I just got back from the circuit event...We were meeting with Nolan Dalla about the site when Jason Lipscomp announced that Chip Reese had passed away suddenly. RIP my man!!! It is official here http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/article/10365/chip-reese-1951-2007


"A whole human life is just a heartbeat here in Heaven. Then we'll all be together forever" Robin Williams as Chris Nielson in "What Dreams May Come"