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"

Circuit Event "Blues"

I am really having a hard time not being able to play in the circuit event this time around. I have to work, and since I work in a sales environment, the end of the month is the most crucial. I plan on trying to play in a few this weekend, and then hitting Coushatta next week. I may try to play in the Mega tonight also. I would love to satellite into this Main Event as well...we will see.

I have been playing a lot of online low limit MTT's on Stars and FTP. I am like Reid where
I am really getting a lot out of it. When you play in a Low limit MTT with 180 people...it is really competitive. I am seeing improvements in my game day in and day out. For those of you who don't know, Stars run 180 people MTT 24/7 every time 180 people sign up...all day long. They get 180 people...they fire one off.

Last night I played a single table SNG, and of course we all start with 1500 in chips. In the third round I was at about 1950 when a strange thing happened. The chip leader (5650) in chips goes in the tank...and in the tank...and in the tank...and gets disconnected. Well, we wind up 3 handed an hour later and the player just gets blinded out. SWEET!!!. I have seen this happen in MTT's but it is the first time it has happened to me where I am the beneficiary of the disco.

I was listening to poker road radio the other day, and heard Barry G say that the PPA is thinking that the ban could be lifted by 3Q '08. He said they got lots of good feedback from the hill, and basically no resistance. Doyle's Room is back, and I think he mentioned Party is not going to be far behind.

We are really excited about the new changes you will be seeing to the site. We have lots of good things happening, and we are really pumped. I also think that all of us as players are right where we need to be. Bill, Virge, Lusky, Eddie, Tex, Ray, Austin Martin, JoeB, Merle, Reid...look out for these guys. Good things are coming...

"They're not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - - Carpe - - hear it? - - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary" Robin Williams as John Keating in "Dead Poets Society"

Booked a small win at Shorty's

I was able to grind out a small win at Shorty's, and I had to leave right when the game got a little juicy. I lost a quarter of my stack in the third hand. The third hand in I look down at Pocket 9's from the BB. The 1 seat, that has about $140.00, raises to $30.00, and a friend of mine, Clayton V, called the raise from the 6 seat. I make a big raise to put the 1 seat all in and Clayton folds.

The 1 seat calls and tables AdQd and I table my pocket 9's. Flop comes out Jd8s5c...sweet for me right?...negative. Seat 1 goes runner-runner for a diamond flush with 10d on the turn and 2d on the river.

I plan on heading back there tomorrow to see what the action is like. There was some really cool guys there tonight. There were the regulars like Jack S and Allen, and I met a couple of other good players. One guy named Jared was on my left, and come to find out we are both in the same industry in our day jobs. Really cool guy and a good player also.

The circuit event event starts today, but I will be tied up with work for this week. I work in Sales and the end of the month is the crucial time for us. Hopefully, I can get down there to play some satellites this week. I played on Stars all week and booked some small cashes in some low limit MTT with 180 people in it. Nothing to talk about but it does keep my online bankroll alive and kicking.

Anyone coming this way for the circuit event, drop Bill and I line so we can get together and chat. We would love to meet some of you guys.

"There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!" Ben Kingsley's Character Cosmo in "Sneakers"

Heading to Shorty's...Pokerroad radio

Well...its Black Friday and the malls are pumping with sales, the retail world is being turned upside down, and I am sitting on my couch playing low limit MTT's on Stars and watching King Kong. There is no other place I would rather be right now. I just got off the phone with Wild Bill, and he is knee deep in Black Friday at the Mall in Pensacola with his Mom and Grandma.

I will be heading to Shorty's layer today...or maybe the Amelia Belle if they get a game to look at some hands live. My bankroll is not as healthy as I would like it at this time, so I am trying to work my bankroll back up to where I am comfortable firing several bullets at the circuit event with no worries. Of course that is the basis of this blog and our site. Everyday "Joe's" grinding it out on a daily basis in low-level NL games and online trying to hit it big in a tournament.

If you have been reading my blog recently, you will know that I was a big fan of poker wire radio, and I have alot of respect for Joe Sebok and Gavin Smith. I have played against Joe several World Series ago, and he is a cool guy. We both have that "traveling spirit". Well, with the collapse of poker wire radio comes the birth of Poker Road Radio. They have been working on the site, and it debuted several months back. I am trying to catch up on some episodes, but the one with Eugene Todd "Bro" is hilarious. I really like this guy. He is from "New YOOORK" and he is funny as hell. My wife listened while we where in the car, and she even likes the guy...and she has never heard of him. Gavin, Joe and Barry G give great analysis on hands and poker theory in general. I just finished listening to the episode with Johnathan Little...good stuff. I highly recommend it...well...over an out...back to the "Grind".

"I believe in a long prolonged derangement of the senses to attain the unknown... Although I live in the subconscious, our pale reason hides the infinite from us" Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison in "The Doors"

Win at Shortys...tough night at Harrah's ...and Love's Beef Jerky

I got to play back at Shorty's last Friday night and picked up a small win. The game was not as lively as it usually is, but I was able to book a winner none the less. There changed things a little there which I thought was a little strange, and several of the other players agreed. They claimed they had a "New No-Limit Game". With the action that comes from around Lafayette and New Iberia, I thought for sure it would be a 5-10 or 10-20 game or some variation of a higher stakes game. The normal blinds in the NL game there is $5 sb and $5 bb. This new game had the same exact blinds, but you could buy into the game with as much as you want. Hmmm...lets see. Usually when I play there you usually have about 6 or 7 of the players with several grand in front of them, the table was full of regulars and the juicier players are the rich ones with the most money and want to buy in for more, the blinds are the same...Yea...where do I sign up? Sorry about the sarcasm Ken and team it's just that it is basically...the same game ;-).

I had a tough night at Harrah's last night in the 1-2nl game. Bill had a nice score though. I went $600.00 deep at one time, and was able to fight back at 4:30am to cash out at $370 for a net loss of $230. It was a brutal night and I had to struggle for hours to get that back. What is really discouraging is the time rake at Harrah's. I don't want to get started on it, but I played from 7:00pm til 4:30am for a total of 9 1/2 hours...at $12.00 an hour I donated over $100.00 to the rake...Damn that hurts when I think about it. The one hand I want to talk about happened with one of our friends and fellow player from Houma who is a great guy. His name is Chris Summerral and his nickname is "Shrek". I have been playing with Chris for years going back to when there was a nice Bar tournaments in Houma every night of the week, and I have had several conversations about flopped sets. Chris had said to me numerous times, "I flop a set and you have a better hand...you are going to get all my money". Well...I had about $300.00 and I think Chris had about $160.00 when the following hand came up. I make it $30.00 with pocket Queens to go pre-flop and Chris is the only one that calls. The flop comes out 8c7d2s. Sweet flop for me. I now go in the tank and start to think. I don't want to get in a big hand with Chris because I like him and I don't want his money. We can stay in Houma if we want to take each others money. Well...I decide to check and he fires $40.00 at me. Damn...again...I don;t want to play a big hand with him so i decide to "Ship It" to let him know I have a big hand...What do you know...he insta-calls and tables pocket 7's for a flopped set of sevens. I double him up. It was a good hand and I am glad it was to a friend. That was a little taste of how my night went though. I also ran ...a King high flush into the Ace high nuts, AcQs into AhKh with an Ace hitting on the turn, and Pocket Jacks into a set of 10's where he hit his third 10 on the river after calling solid bets on all streets to get there...again...I feel like I posted a win...well how about a "Good Loss". How you like that for a Oxymoron..."Good...Loss"

I was getting out of the elevator at Harrah's and I had a weird experience. This is not meant to promote any products or anything, but Beef Jerky is a main staple for most poker players I know. I think the best beef jerky you can buy is made from Robertson's in Oklahoma and you can buy it at all Love's Truck stops. If any of you like beef jerky then pull over at a Love's Truck Stop next time you are on the road, and you will see that it rules. Well, during the WPT event in Biloxi at the Beau, Bill and I got in an elevator and I was eating a piece and the dude says, "Wow man...that's Love's Beef Jerky isn't it?" , "That shit rules. Well Bill and I got a kick out of it as I did not think that someone would recognize a piece of dried beef hanging out of my mouth...what do you know...the same thing happened last night in the elevator in the Harrah's parking garage...surreal. If your intrested...www.beefjerkynow.com.

Bill and I have a huge meeting about the site next week in New Orleans. You will see some big things coming up soon from http://www.gulfcoastpoker.net/. We have the deal with the apparel almost done as we are waiting on the gear, and we have so much traffic, the hosting company has upgraded our monthly fees as the downloads are tripling his other clients. Come back and see us ...we are pumped!!!

Peace

"From women's eyes this doctrine I derive, they sparkle still the right promethean fire. They are the books, the arts, the academies that show, contain and nourish all the world" Gabriel Macht's Character Frank James in "American Outlaw"

IP Poker Classic finish

I apologize for the late post as my tournament ended Saturday night, but we had a death in my wife's family and things have been hectic. As most of you probably know I busted out of the main event in the mid to late 30's. There were 4-5 tables left, but we were 7 handed at the time. I was a little flustered when I got bounced, and I didn't stop to count on my way out.

I have had some mixed emotions about the hand I busted out on. Let me try to set the stage first. We were at 50/200/400, and I was on a small rush after being card dead for hours and hours. I had A-J when I took down the antes and blinds to bring my stack up to $4400.00. A couple of hands later I get Pocket Queens and double up. That puts me right at $8800.00. The tournament chip leader was in the 3 seat with well over 40-50 large, and I was only one person from being the short stack at the table. The guy to my left had less than me, and everyone else was in the 18-26 thousand range.

I look down at Big Slick off on the button. everyone folds around to the 2 seat who raises it to $3800.00...around to me. I go in the tank for a second and then I say, "I have to play my rush here...I'm all in". Everyone folds around to the 2 seat. He now goes in the tank for a few minutes.

My thought process was around "Fold Equity"...I felt that I had fold equity in that situation. I was hoping he calls with A-J or A-Q...I am loving it. I figured we were in a race if he had a pocket pair, but if his PP was Jacks or less...I still had my fold equity. He had to wonder if I had a bigger pair. The more I thought about it...he did not want to see me with A-K unless he has Kings or Aces. If I double up here I am right in line with most of the players at the table with around $20,000.00 in chips. I liked my play...

...Well...He calls and tables Pocket Queens. Oh well...its the same race even if he has pocket 2's. I know he did not want to see me with Big Slick, I could see it in his mannerisms. He wanted me to have a lower pp like 10's or Jacks. The board bricks out for me...and thats a wrap.

Having talked the hand over with DirteAA, I think I should have maybe layed that one down.
I was sitting well with the chips I had, and there was more poker to be played. Did I have fold equity? The guys has queens and more chips than me. I should have put him on "The top 3" hands with the huge bet he made. I didn't have to race for my tournament life, and the 2 seat would not have been crippled if he lost...I would...and was. Oh well...

There were lots of positives that came out of this experience. I went this weekend with a goal to satellite into the main event and then win. I didn't win, but I did put myself in a position to win as I won the satellite. There were 4 of us who won. I won the seat with two older gentlemen and a young Internet pro from Ole Miss that is ranked #1 in the state of Mississippi on poketfives.com.Martin Zetner...His screen name is mmzetner.

It is kind of amazing, but I want to give a congratulations to Tim "TK" Miles from Tallahassee, Fl. TK snapped off the main event. He was at my table for the first 3 hours and we talked about the site fro awhile. Great player...great guy (Don't tell him I said that though...he prides himself on being a hardass HaHaHaHaha) ...No seriously...Congrats brother!!!! YOU ARE THE MAN!!!

"Who has a safety deposit box full of... money and six passports and a gun? Who has a bank account number in their hip? I come in here, and the first thing I'm doing is I'm catching the sightlines and looking for an exit. I can tell you the license plate numbers of all six cars outside. I can tell you that our waitress is left-handed and the guy sitting up at the counter weighs two hundred fifteen pounds and knows how to handle himself. I know the best place to look for a gun is the cab of the gray truck outside, and at this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Now why would I know that? How can I know that and not know who I am?" Matt Damon as Jason Bourne in "The Bourne Identity"

IP Poker Classic Dinner Break...7:00pm

I am still in the main event here at the IP Poker Classic. I will have alot to talk about when I get home as Bill and i discussed lots of things for us to Blog about. I had TK from my previous blog at my table from the jump and we had an interesting conversation. We talked about the site, and Bill and I agree, the site needs to get more active...look for upcoming stuff on the blog.

We are at the Dinner break, and there were 100 people exactly in the tournament. We are down to 48. I have $7475.00 in chips and the blinds are 50A/200/400. I need to make some moves fast, but I still have some room to maneuver. Wish me luck...I will try to update the blog tonight...hopefully with the final table seating and chip counts.

Notables...TK, Captain Tom F, Johnathan Little and the kid that is the board leader on pocket 5's in Mississippi...nice guy. He won his seat in the same Mega that I did. We were at the finale table last night for hours...like I said...nice guy.

Wish me luck...

(Sorry...no movie quote...I am in a hurry)

Winner Winner...Chicken dinner

Well guys, I was able to snap off the 4:00pm mega. There were over 40 players and they gave away 4 spots in the $2000.00 Main Event in the IP Biloxi Poker Classic. I was one of the final 4 that were left after the dust cleared. I was a little bummed out as the guy that bubbled the event was Nick...a really nice guy and a very good player. He is in the crowd with TK, Mike McD and the rest of the guys on the coast. He has 2% of me as we cut a deal at the final table. At least he has a horse to sweat in the main event.

I am pretty pumped as I played well and I feel good. I think I played very well, and everyone else that watched is saying this also. Now all I need to do is snap off the Main Event to make it a full circle...wish me luck

"They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Maybe that's true; maybe it isn't. I only know this: it has to make you better. It has to" James Marsden's Character Tommy in "10th and Wolf"

IP Update

I played in the $120.00 super last night with re-buys to try to get into the Main Event. We got 29 players and with the re-buys and add-ons, they were giving away 3 seats with 4th place getting $1000.00 in chips and 5th getting about $500.00 in chips. I did and Add-on at the break and went into the later stages with $2500.00 in chips with 19 people left with the blinds at antes 25 and the blinds at 100-200 with a chance to get to the top 3 for the seat. I felt good about my chances. I busted out 13th.

I played some $110.00 SNG's, and could not get anything going, so I went to the 1-2 cash table and was able to get all my money back before Midnight. Feeling good going into the Mega's today. There are 2 mega's today with one at 4pm and one at 8pm. I am going to fire a bullet at each and see if I can get in tomorrow.... Wish me luck.

"Don't you guys go anywhere. I plan to put on a hitting display" Wesley Snipes as Willie Mays Hayes in "Major League"