I know, let's have a spelling contest!

I'm beginning to feel like Ike Clanton in the 1993 movie "TOMBSTONE" ..... perhaps poker just isn't my game. I've been playing really good poker over the past six months, probably the best that I've ever played. I went through a 4 month stint where while playing 3-5 times per week, I probably had 3 losing nights. And the past two live nights and the last online session, I've lost. Not big losses, but I lost and I don't like losing. LOL. Let me give you some idea of how unlucky I really was.....

Last Thursday @ Dave's, no less than 6 times during the night did I get my chips in with the best hand where Dave and in one instance, Rick, was drawing almost dead only to hit their miracle 1, 2, 3 outer to take the pot down. Last week in one hand, I had Ah, 9h and the flop was 9d, 6h, 3h. I bet Dave calls. I push all-in and Dave calls and turns over the 9s, Qh. He rivers a queen.

On party poker, no limit hold'em, I flop top set with Jacks after I raised pre-flop. I bet $50 into a $45 pot and get re-raised by a girl who flopped bottom set, sevens. I push all-in, she calls and rivers the one outer, seven.

The last hand last night at Dave's. We're short-handed, 4 players, Omaha Hi-Only NO LIMIT. I have been sucker punched about 4 times already. I'm the big blind and flop two pair with a baby flush and I bet $15. Rick calls. The turn pairs another of my cards so I push all-in for $50 more with 3 pair and a flush draw. Rick calls with no pair thinking he has a shot at low. The river is an over-card, 10. It hits his pocket 10s and he drags the pot. He had no pair on the board and a wheel gut-shot needing a four. So he only had 6 outs and hit it. That's some good playing there!

But he is the suckout king!

You want to go where?

Poker is a very social game, as long as you don't mind socializing with a tired, drunk, and unshaven lot who'd like nothing more than to separate you from your money.

Russian roulette?

No-limit is a little bit like Russian roulette, which would be a phenomenal game---you're a 5-1 favorite!---if only the penalty for losing weren't so cost-prohibitive.

Don't splash the pot....

In most cardrooms you cannot "splash the pot" as its' very difficult to discern exactly how much money is being tossed in there. When you're looking to add chips to the pot, just place them in front of you, allowing the dealer to verify the size of the bet before sweeping them into the middle.

The right to know!

You have the right to ask to see any hand that, once play has ended, hasn't been folded. It's considered bad form, however, to make such requests with any regularity---allowing your opponents to lose with dignity isn't just common courtesy, it's good poker.

Writing Team Expanding!

Effective this week I am soliciting the writing skills of a friend or two who will hopefully be regular contributors to this Blog site.... One has already agreed to assist, Rick. Hopefully we'll begin to see some of his thoughts and experiences on hands and the general state of the poker nation.

Welcome Rick and we are waiting with baited breath....

Charles

Police Raid Local Poker Room....

It's a sad state of affairs when some friends can't get together to play a little poker! WRAL reports today that 15 people were charged as "authorities" busted up the local poker ring. It went on to say that this concluded a 2 month investigation culminating with the bust. It just seems to me that they ought to have better stuff to do than waste resources, time and money to hunt down a group of adults whiling away the hours playing poker. The next thing you know they'll be busting up golf games for playing $1 Nassau or $1 Wolf.

I guess its up to us to try to put into office those people who understand that no one is being hurt at a friendly poker game. Of course, it was less than 3 months ago that it was a Class 2 misdemeanor for having a lottery ticket in your possession. LOL.

Well, hopefully this will blow over and things will get back to normal. I certainly hope so.

For more detailed information, check http://www.georgesmart.com/poker

PKR Sunday Tourney $60/$25 Re-buy

Rick and I had planned on going over to Benson to try our luck with the larger game there, but some last minute Father's Day plans had me backing out so we both went to PKR. As it turned out, it worked out for both of us as we ended up chopping 1st and 2nd money. LOL. Nice!

There were a couple of standout hands for me.... the first was before we made the final table. I was dealing at the tightest table that I've played at in a while.... especially at PKR. I believe through the entire re-buy period that we had only two re-buys! Unlike the other table where Rick was playing, they had re-buys going like crazy! Jason alone had 12 RE-BUYS! Wow! At any rate, I was able to take advantage a couple of times to the very tight play going on at my table. Once was really, really lucky! I had As, Js in the big blind and raised the $50/$100 blinds to $700 and had one caller. The flop was not friendly to my hand, but I knew that if I bet, if he didn't have a monster, he would go away. The flop was 10h, 8h 5h. I bet another $700 and he called. The turn was the 3h and I immediately pushed all in with nothing buy spades in my hand and he folded! Whew! The other hand was with Ed Flush who as we were consolidating to the final table was a monstrous chip leader. He must have had $40,000 plus chips! At any rate, due to some circumstances with Tracey, I had been very aggressive with any, practically ANY kind of hand. In this particular hand, the blinds are up to $400/$800 and Ed raises to $1700 and I look down and find Ah, Ad. I mumbled something about .... "I don't think that I can just call!" and raised it another $4,000 to which Ed quickly calls. The flop is Qh, 8s, 6d. Ed checks and I push all-in. He calls and turns over Kd, Qd and fortunately doesn't suck out on me.... LOL.

Thursday night @ PKR via Big Red

A dead night last night. I played for hours and only saw a few cards higher than a six. About the only thing that stood out were two drunk guys that farted constantly, so all-in-all it was not a pleasant night.
I did have one memorable hand, however, when I make a $15 pre-flop raise with 10x-10x and get two callers, one being the older drunk farting guy. The flop comes Qx-10x-10x - Bingo, Yahtzee, and get the monkey! I'm first to act, and make a little bet of $15, and older drunk farting guy raises to $60. I take a minute to call and give him some rope by checking the turn to him, and he goes all-in for another $180 or so. I call and turn over my quads, which beat the bejesus out of older drunk farting guy's pocket queens - talk about a cold deck!

Anyone else I'd feel bad for, but that's what the bean-eating bastard gets for farting all night long. In the immortal words of John Lennon: "Instant Karma's gonna get you…"

Cardrack?

A friend of mine that doesn't play a lot of poker was asking me about how to know when to put your chips in, when to bet? First of all, I'll say it for you Rick, "you're definitely asking the wrong guy...." LOL. I'm sure this varies by individual, and it varies based on the game you're playing, and whether its a cash game or a tourney, and who else is in the hand and will they call. And probably the most important question, do you have the nuts? It has been my experience that typically within a 4-5 hour sitting, if you have the NUTS 2-4 times, that can make for a great night. If I am playing well, it is likely that I'll actually fold what will become the NUTS, 2-4 times. LOL. Well, Tuesday night at Dave's, Eric must have had the NUTS or very close to it, 15 or 20 times. It was unbelieveable! The best example of a CARDRACK that I've ever witnessed live.... It almost seemed that if he needed a card on the flop, he got it.... if his opponent hit on the flop and Eric needed a card to make a higher/better hand, he got it on 4th or 5th street! If I flopped a monster, his monster was either better right then or it got better on the turn or river.

There are several examples but probably the two hands that stand out to me the most happened pretty late in the evening. I had Kx, 10x and the flop was Ah, Qs, Js. I like to bet a strong hand rather than slow play it (unless Dave's in of course, as he'll start the betting process for me, LOL) so I lead out with a $21 bet against a $16 pot. Eric raises to $50 and I push all in.... what do you think that Eric has for his hole cards? Ks, 10s! Same hand with the second nut flush redraw and of course the royal flush redraw. Thank goodness the flush didn't come and we ended up chopping..... Another hand, I've got pocket nines and the flop is Qx, 9x, 6x. I bet $30 and he raises to $60. I immediately push all-in and he turns over pocket queens! What a night! He cashed out big.... I think, of the short-handed game that we were playing, 6 players at peak, Rick won a very little and everyone else busted out, some more than once.... me included!

We've got to get the participation up on this game or its going to die. Personally, I'm not playing anymore unless there are at least 8 players committed to being there. It's just a losing proposition on a short-handed table with aggressive players and an aggressive rake.

Will the suck outs never end!

No, unless I quit playing poker and then they won't really end... it'll just be someone else getting sucked out on....!

So I finished second in the $60 Buy-in, $25 Re-buy, $25 Add-on tourney today to, who I believe to be the suck-out master... Elvie! In one hand, I had pocket 5's and raise about 5X the blinds when there were just 3 players remaining. Elvie calls with 10h, 4h. The flop is 4s, 6s, 9h. I bet $5,000 and Elvie calls. The turn is the 2h . I bet $5,000 and he calls. The river is 3h and Elvie bets $15,000. I fold and he shows the 10h, 4h. There just isn't any justice! No suck-outs there... I just got out-played!

A couple hands later, I get a little revenge when I have As, Jh on the button. The blinds are $1,000/$2,000 and I raise to $7,000. Elvie calls and the flop is Ah, Jd, 7s. Elvie bets $10,000 and I re-raise all-in for another $13,000. He calls and flips over Ad, 8s and thank goodness the turn and river are bricks.

He called a $5,000 pre-flop raise with A, 3 and the flop was A, K, 9. I had K, 10 and we ended up getting all our chips in and his stinky ace was good enough to get him first. Yes, I know, he didn't suck out that time, but of course, I can't suck out him. I never get to suck out on anybody!

I'll be back....

PKR Saturday Poker Tourney

I played really well today. It actually hurt to catch cards.... Yep, I said it.... Within the first hour, I had pocket Aces twice and pocket kings twice and only won one of the four hands making healthy pre-flop raises. In only one of the hands did the guy who beat me have a hand that should have called my pre-flop raise. But I expect some of that as there are several very poor players in this tourney.... it's why I go! LOL. At any rate, probably one of the bigger hands that I played near the end of the tourney went like this. I am late in the rotation and Rick was the big blind. Randy raises the $6000 Blind another $10000. Everyone folds to me and I have 7h, 7s. I'm debating whether to re-raise or smooth call and I see that Rick in the big blind is short stacked and I'm pretty certain that he will call if I call. I re-raise all-in for another $18,000 and I've got Rick covered, but not Randy. He probably has another $10,000 or so. Randy is a very tight player and it is possible that he might even lay down a bigger pair to a big raise. At any rate, Rick calls and after much, much, much.... did I say much? deliberation, Randy calls. He turns over pocket fives. And amazing as it may seem, the sevens hold up against the fives and Rick's A, X.

When we got down to two players, me and Lenny, he (and others) asked if we were going to chop, but after a big hand for Lenny that knocked out JoeBob, he was slightly ahead in the chip count so I offered to let him have second right then or we could continue to play. LOL. He opted to continue playing. I took down a big pot that left him short stacked and when I raised pre-flop with A, Q, he reraised another $20,000 and I pushed all-in. He called with an A, 8 and thankfully didn't improve..... so I took down first place and also moved into first place in points in the overall ranking for the twelve game final table championship! Nice....

What are the odds?

I'd thought that I would do this JUST for Dave. Now he'll know when he calls a BIG bet with suited connectors just how awesome it is when it/if it hits!

A Straight-Flush off 9-8 Suited 4,899 - 1
A Straight-Flush off 9-7 Suited 6,532 - 1
A Straight-Flush off 9-6 Suited 9,799 - 1
A Straight-Flush off 9-5 Suited 19,599 - 1

So now you know, if you hit that straight flush, you are definitely da' man!

Tuesday @ Dave's....

Just as expected, I landed last night with a vengeance! I bought in for $200 and did some quick double-ups. Remember my goal for this week was to UNDO Dave.... LOL. I isolated him several times and he made some good folds to keep me from winning time with family members. But I still made a nice cash out to off-set him pummeling from last week. It was 2 days later before I got the taste back in my mouth from the severe trouncing that he administered to me on Thursday of last week.

There were a couple of significant hands ..... One, I broke my "internal rule" of never raising with top set in Omaha Hi-LO when there are two cards to the low on board. I had Queens and Kh, 9h in the big blind when the flop came Q, 8d, 6d. I checked and Mikey bet $35 from middle position. Everyone folds around to me and I have to decide whether I am going to play top set and how. I was hoping that he was betting middle set or bottom set with a possible low draw so I pushed all-in for about $400 (he only had about $100 more). He immediately calls and hits his open ended straight draw and he has the only low.... SCOOPER!

Another hand of interest was Hold 'em and I'm in the big blind with Ks, 10s. There's a $20 raise made by Dave in the small blind and I call along with everyone else at the table and two guys that were driving down the beltline. LOL. The flop is 10, 10, 7.... Bingo, Bango, Bongo! Dave bets $100 and I re-raise all in. Everyone folds to Dave and he calls with his pocket 9s. Sweet.... And good old Jarod (the dealer) managed not to stick it in me and break it off.....

I flopped top pair in another when I played Ah, Jh and the flop was J, 3, 3..... I lead out betting $8 and Rick raised to $30. Yes, I know that he had a 3, but he only raised he only raised $22. LOL. Definitely a hand that I can easily get away from if he overbets.

I heard that after I left Dave hit a gut shot straight flush to bust take down a medium sized pot from Jeff B....

I should probably give Dave blogging rights on here so we can get his perspective on some of these hands.....

Monday @ PKR....

What a night! I arrived a little early since the family was using the Hurricanes tickets for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. We had a full table by 7:30 and were playing. I was pretty aggressive and had won a couple of pots with good betting and good cards. There were several hands that warrant posts.....

1) John limps in on the button with pocket nines. I check the big blind with Jc, 10h. The flop is 9c, 8h, 7s. I check as there are several aggressive players at the table and someone bets a whopping $4. There are several callers including John and I raise to $23. A pot sized bet. Everyone folds except John. The turn is Kx and I bet $75 and John pushes all in for $8 more. The river pairs the King and we're off and running..... LOL. I guess it could have been worst and I definitely want that call...... I just don't want it to hit.

2) About 7-8 hands later, I get the As, Ah on the button. Little Eddie bets $11 and there are 2 callers so I raise to $24 content with taking the pot right there. Eddie pushes all-in and I try to act weak hoping for one more caller. Doesn't work. I call and Eddie hits a two outer on the turn with his Ks, Kh. Nice.....

3) This is more a series of hands than one hand that is significant. I'm late in the rotation with worms.... 3h, 3s. The small blind attempts to raise to $7, but fails to announce raise and the old 1 chip rule lets me see a cheap flop. The flop is 4h, 5s, 7c. The small blind mumbles something about letting me hit my straight or set and when the table checks around to me I giggle and flip in a bet of $11. The big blind reluctantly calls and everyone else folds. The turn is 10d. The big blind checks and I bet $24. He looks to be scared to death and after much deliberation, calls. The river is a Ks. The big blind checks and I bet $65 figuring that he had to fold anything at this point and after what seemed to be an eternity, he calls and flips over his set of 7's. Who would have thunk it!

At any rate, that hand is important because we've just consolidated tables and all the new guys got to watch me get called all the way down to the river with an under pair. Sweet! At any rate, the next hand I get Qs, Qh. I'm late in the rotation and after about 7 limpers, I raise to $16 and there are four callers. I flop is Qc, 8d, 6d. Check, Check, Check and a guy with about $250 in front of him bets $24 and I raise to $55. Everyone folds to the better and he calls. The turn is 2x and he bets $24 and I push all-in for about $125 more and he immediately calls. Sweet... He turns over pocket sixes and I know its hard to believe but he doesn't hit the one outer on the river.

Within a couple of hands, I limp in with Ah, 7h. The flop is 7c, 7s, 5d. The guy who just doubled me up bets $11 and I smooth call. There's one other caller and me and the turn is 2s. The same guy bets $45 and I come over the top for another $65 and it folds to the better who pushes all-in for a little bit more. The river is my ace and I show sevens full of aces..... Nice!

The only other hand of significance that happened after that was I had the Ad, Ks. The flop is Kd, 10d, 6d. There are about 6 ppl in and my buddy that has now almost doubled me up twice bets $12 and I really do love this flop. At any rate, I call and there are two callers behind me. The turn is 2c. The same guy bets $20 and me and the small blind calls. The river is the 9d. Both check and I bet $55 and the small blind pushes all-in for about $15 more. My buddy folds.... and I call and announce as Dave would like for me.... "Nuts, I guess I call!"

The small blind turns over the Queen high flush that he flopped and failed to protect. And yes, I can actually suck out on some one too. I love it when that happens!

Sunday $60 Rebuy Tourney

I played very well.... considering I didn't catch any cards and ended up chopping first and second with Jeff B who is playing really well right now.....

It doesn't hurt that he also caught some cards.... in one hand, he flopped top set of 10s against a guy who flopped middle set and just for good measure.... he hit quad 10s on the river!

Nice.....

Thursday at Dave's....

I only have a couple of comments about Thursday night.... 1) I have been on a pretty sweet win streak for about the past 4 months and Dave just kept catching cards to beat me last night. The biggest loss that I've endured in about 7-8 months. 2) Dave.... your chips are mine!

I was going to lay off from playing poker at Dave's for a couple of weeks as I don't particularly care for short handed play unless its in a tournament and I'm at the final table. I like that... Short handed play is especially painful you're playing 3 handed and Dave is raising every pre-flop to $20-$30.

All I have to say is that I'll be his KRYPTONITE next week!

Most Improved Poker Player....

Ok... it's time for a new award.... And the award for the most improved poker player in the group that I play with anyways.... goes to Big Dave! Yep, he's making some moves that I haven't seen him make before. Maybe he had them all along, but just kept them tucked away in his arsenal, but over the past couple of weeks, he has executed them to perfection. I would tell you what they were, but that wouldn't be fair to Dave..... Yep, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water!

Well, I let it happen again, I let my friendship with someone cost me $$$ at the poker table....

Never again! I've actually let it happen by playing soft against someone and not re-raising them when I knew I had the nuts, but 3 different times last night, I played soft to be N-I-C-E only to have them stick it to me later in the night. It's over guys... your chips will be mine! LOL.

A miserable night of cards at PKR....

It had to be one of the worst nights of cards that I have had in quite some time. I tried to make moves with nothing twice and got called down with small pairs that took the pot. Perhaps it was the reflection on my cleanly shaven dome that was giving off some tell that I wasn't aware of.... I reluctantly moved from the 2nd table over to the first as I seriously wanted some LV revenge. I really shouldn't feel that way, he can't help it. LOL.

There were so many times that I dumped my crap to a $2 limp and even a $1 limp in the small blind trying to play the tight aggressive role to earn the appropriate table image. Didn't work. So I played 8 hours, only had one pocket pair higher than 10s and never flopped a set until the very last hand of the night. I'm the button and limp in with pocket 4s. The flop is Ac, 10h, 4h. Rick is in the small blind and bets $11... such a wimpy bet. LOL. The pot is about $11 although I'm certain that its been raked twice already. LOL. I smooth call knowing the next card will be a heart giving someone the flush. There are 3 callers and sure enough the turn is a heart. Rick checks and I check.... everybody checks. It's a checking kind of day. The river is the case 4. Get the monkey! Everybody checks.... I bet $16 into a $60 pot where people have been going all in with 2 pair and everyone folds. Rick may have killed my action by stating "out of turn" so you stayed in with a 4 and hit trips.... As soon as he said that... everyone folded. Yep, it was definitely his fault.... LOL.

Which brings me to another question, one of etiquette, so many times I have been in a hand where someone will verbalize their analysis of a raisers hand while there is still action behind them. Usually, it's Quinlan... LOL. I've heard, along with everyone else that "if you're not in the hand, keep your mouth shut" but in this instance, Rick was in the hand and, had he waited till it was his turn, there would have been no action behind him, but he verbalized it as soon as I bet... (how's that for memory!). It's my opinion that if there is any action behind you or likely to be other action behind you that you should NOT verbalize your analysis. Just looking for your thoughts......

OK... Even I suck out occassionally!

Yes, I know that it will be hard for you to believe Rick, but even I suck out on occassion. Yes, typically it is a mis-read, but sometimes it is because I know that I'm behind, getting the right pot odds and believe that if I hit, I'll get paid. This particular one is of the first variety.... the old mis-read.

PKR Monday, $1/$2 No Limit, LV has been on card hitting, sucking out tear. I've been the victim a couple of times already where I had the best hand and he sucked out on the turn or river. Yes, maybe I'm a little on tilt, but it happens. I've got Qc, Jh and the flop of Ks, 8c, X. I bet $35 into a $40 pot, LV folds so I think I may be home free. Rick raises $50 and I immediately push all-in for another $90 or so. Rick calls, I didn't like that.... I thought that he might have been on a smaller pair or even a Queen. At any rate, its too late to close the gate after the horses are out. He turns over K, 10. The turn is another Queen to which he begins mumbling to himself something about getting on the blog page.... LOL. And of course the river is a Jack giving me a full house. Ship it!

I do believe though that it was the first time that I've ever sucked out on Rick... compared to his weekly suck outs at Dave's game and in other tournaments!

Benson tourney....

Rick and I decided to take a ride down to Benson on Sunday to check out the "bigger" game that they play there. Buy-in's are $150 for $2000 chips, but you can buy double for another $100 and get another $1500 in chips. Both Rick and I decided to try the conservative route since it would be our first tourney there. You can also re-buy for $100 anytime your chip counts falls below $2000 within the first five levels. At the end of the fifth level, you may purchase an Add-On for another $150 of $5000 in chips. We both made it through the first five levels without any re-buys and both did the add-on. There are a few good players there and several donkeys. It was nice to see someone we recognized in Stone and his wife (she dealt my table).

There were no real amazing hands for me but unfortunately Rick and I were at the same table and I got to witness him getting busted out of the tournament by, what I believe to be, the worst player that I've ever seen. Rick is late in the rotation and "Big Guy" which is what they all called him, raises the $400 blind to $2,000 and Rick pushes all in for another $9,000 or so. Big Guy calls and everyone else folds. Rick turns over pocket Kings and Big Guy has Kh, 7h. The flop is Qh, 6x, 2x. The turn is heart and the river is a heart giving big guy the second nut flush and knocking out Rick. It was fun to watch as Big Guy's huge stack disappeared over about a 10 minute period with him calling huge bets with 7, 2 and 3,4. What an idiot! But I like it!

At any rate, I played very hands and earned a very tight aggressive table image which let me steal a few blinds with big bets and I ended up finishing 3rd which paid $1600! Not bad! Stone was the chip leader when I left and I believe they were going to do some sort of chop, but we didn't hang around. All in all, nice people, nice place. The only downsides were the distance (its about 50 miles from drive way to the poker house in Benson) and they permit smoking in the poker room which I don't particularly care for .... But for $1600 for a $300 buy-in, I'll just have to deal with it!

Betting a small pair...

I don't know why, but the past week or two I've been a little anxious at the table. Last night there were about 8-10 hands that I knew that I shouldn't have played, but I just wanted to.... How stupid is that!

I'm the big blind in $2/$4 No Limit Hold'em. There are about 6-7 limpers and I look down at pocket 3's. I normally don't but I thought "what the heck!" so I raised another $25 on top just to see what happened. Everyone folded except "horns blaring" Dave! This sucks, I really don't want to see a raised flop with pocket 3's. At any rate, guess what comes.... Qc, 3x, 3x! Yee haw! Quads! Get the monkey!

I check... hoping Dave has a Queen. He checks. The turn is an Ace. I bet $40, he calls. The river is a Jc. I bet $55, he calls! It's so unlike him not to go over the top. He never showed and I "got the Monkey"....

A Dream Flop....

Tuesday at Dave's Omaha Hi-Lo and I've got the 2h, 3h, 6s, 7s and I'm the big blind in $2/$4 No Limit. There are about 6 limpers and I only raise with a couple of hands pre-flop Omaha Hi-Lo and this isn't one of them. The flop is the Ac, 4h, 5s. I bet about $20 and there are 3 callers. The turn is the 6h. I love this game! I bet $40 and Rick raises $40 and I go all in for another $200 and he calls. He turns over the top 2 pair and a draw at the nut low. I've got the nut low and the nut high! Enter Jarod the incorrigible! He gives him the 6 on the river to make the boat and we chop the pot!

Nice....

Rick @ PKR on Monday Night

Rick sent me this email and I've posted it .... almost verbatim......

I had to take a few minutes to write about a couple of hands last night at PKR ($1-2 NL). I hung in there for hours, being fairly patient while not catching many cards. Once or twice I was about to throw in the towel and go get some sleep, but luckily my stubbornness kept me from leaving before the cards started coming!

I get Qs-9s in the big blind, just about everyone limps, and Lenny raises in late position to $20. Button and small blind call, I look to my left and see that a couple others are grabbing chips as well, so it's a no-brainer call with odds like that. Flop comes 8h-10s-Js - Sweeeet! I flop the nuts with an open-end straight flush draw!

Small blind checks to me, and I throw out a weakish little bet of $20 just to see what happens. Well, what happens is two callers, then Lenny raising to $60. Be still my heart! Folds to me, and I decide that I'm done slow-playing, since my hand can easily turn to garbage on the turn. I raise another $80 to get isolation against Lenny. It folds to him, and he doesn't hesitate long before moving all-in for another $110 or so.

I call and he turns over pocket jacks, for top set. He's rooting for Ed to pair the board, which (of course) he does. Lenny now has his arms in the air celebrating his full house, when I quietly inform him that the card that boated him (8s), made my straight flush! That alone was worth the price of admission!

20 minutes or so later, I get Ax-Qx in middle position. There's a $10 straddle (I love this game!), and I make a small raise to $25 to see what shakes out. Three callers later (I told you I love this game!), the straddler raises to $50, and everyone calls around to the small blind, who asks if he can raise (uh-oh). I have my A-Q ready to toss into the muck, but I breathe a sigh of relief when he only raises another $25, the minimum. Everyone calls, and we have a nice little pot going.

The flop comes K-J-10 rainbow, and I have the nuts (did I tell you I love this game?)! Small blind leads out with a $50 bet (come to Papa!), and there's one other caller before it gets to me. Even with the huge pot, I decide to take a little chance and not push all-in. I still want action, and I raise another $100. Small blind calls, and the other player folds. At this point, the way the hand was played, I put the small blind on pocket aces. If he had kings he would be acting stronger.

Brick comes on the turn, small blind checks to me. At this point I don't mind seeing a river, so I bet $125, and he quickly calls. Another brick on the river, and he checks to me again. He's got about $350 or so left, but I want to be sure I get paid, so I just bet another $125. He thinks for a minute, and gives a crying call, turning up pocket aces.

He gave a textbook example of how not to play aces. He didn't push heavy pre-flop, even with a lot of money in the middle. He gave everyone odds to call when it got to them, almost regardless of their cards. Worse, however, was that he didn't have the discipline to get away from the hand when a coordinated flop came, with an opponent raising him heavily. Did I mention that I love this game! :-)

Sunday $60 Rebuy Tourney

The overwhelming message from this event is relative to Jack.... the elder Jack. Don't raise him unless you know that you have him beat. He WILL CALL! Doesn't matter what he has.... Just after the rebuy period ended, this is a No Limit Hold'em Tournament. I got through the re-buy period as the chip leader at my table without any rebuys. This is about the 2nd or 3rd hand after the rebuy period ended. I'm on the button and have Js, Qs. The blinds are $200/$400 and I limp in. There are no raises and the flop is Jc, 10h, 8s. It checks to me and I bet $1000 with the top pair and the gut shot. The only caller is Jack. The turn is the 8d. He checks and I bet $1000. He calls. The river is the 9d. He quickly bets $1200 and I push him all in for another $900 which leaves me with about $1600. He turns over Kh, Qd. The nut straight. He called all my bets with nothing until the river!

I thought that I had him beat, I thought that he had 10's with an A or K. My lesson is learned.... The next time that I play at his table, he will go bye-bye!

No Limit Omaha Hi-Lo @ Dave

What a flop! I'm in the big blind of $2/$4 No Limit Omaha Hi-Lo and have Ac, 2c, Js, Qs. There are about 7 limpers. The flop is Kh, 10h, 3c. I'd like to have a flush draw with the hearts, but other than that, I'm not folding this hand no matter what the bet. I bet about $9 just to build the pot and everyone calls around Dean who is on the button. He raises it to $30 which is ok with me too. There are two other callers. The turn is the 4c. Now I'm definitely not folding! It checks around to Dean who bets $50, I call and there are 2 other callers. The river is the 9d which means I've got the nuts and there is no low. I bet $50 and Daves calls and it puts Dean all in and he calls. As expected, he flopped a set and Dave never showed. Scooper!

$110 Tourney on Party Poker

I've played a few tourneys on party poker, but typically play cash games there. I thought that I would give it a shot last night to kill a little time. This was a $110 Buy-in with $40K guaranteed. The hand that knocked me out .... you know, you do the right thing, make the right move.... and I'm certain that this guy is either related to Dave or Rick...... I've got pocket Kings. Blinds are $50/$100 and there are couple of limpers. I'm the big blind and raise to $800. There's one caller. The flop is Jc, 7s, 2h. I bet $1,500 and my opponent raises all in. I call and he flips over Jh, Qc. It's perfect for me until he hits a queen on the river.

The old 2 pair suck out.... Nice!

PKR WSOP Qualifier....

Well, I am going to give this one a shot.... it's a 10 week event where the winner of each weekly contest earns a seat at the series championship table where the winner of this event will WIN a seat WSOP Main Event ($10K seat and $1150 expense money). My goal is to win every week and not have to play in the championship...... How would that be!

The only bad thing about it is that it is on Tuesday nights which conflicts with Dave's.... But if they start on time, I can probably make both.

Let me know if you have any questions.... you should bring your dead money in and let's play!

For more detailed info about the WSOP, check http://www.georgesmart.com/poker

LOL.

PKR - $55 Buy-In (Rebuy) Sunday Tournament

First of all, don't tell Joe... apparently Ed has been making a little extra on this tournament as Joe advertises it as $55, but Ed is charging $60! LOL. Everybody is entitled to a little profit.... At any rate, I gave him a bunch of crap about that yesterday. I decided yesterday that I would try to spice it up a little and be very aggressive during the rebuy period and all that really did was cost me some money. Typically I'll get through the rebuy period of these tourneys with either no rebuys or one at the most. Typically it is none. So I've played very well for the most part, when we got down to 6 handed, I kicked it up a notch and raised all-in 3 times with middle or low pairs pre-flop. Very un-Charles like. I've been doing some reading this weekend and they're saying that a pair of 8's pre-flop will hold up 78% of the time. Well, maybe so, but it seems like 100% if you push all-in and DON'T get called. But if you let them see the flop, there's trouble in paradise. So, on two different occassions, I raised all-in preflop and Ed folded (very un-Ed like) and SHOWED me a higher pair than I had. LOL. That was worth the buy in right there.... At any rate, we get down to 4 handed and we chop in a 4th spot. Blinds are $1k/$2k and I'm the big blind and Ed raises it to $8k total. I push all-in with pocket 9's with another 15K. Ed is the chip leader and barely has me covered and turns over Jh, Qh. Horrible call. At best, he's looking at a coin flip (which is what it was) -OR- worst case, I've got him dominated with jacks or queens or AJ or AQ. The prick hits a Jack on the flop. So I go out in 4th...

I usually tip the dealer... his tip this day is "don't suck out on people who you hope to get a tip from...."

Don't make me mad.... I'll hit the ONE outer!

I guess I should start this one by apologizing to Jeff, but it was kind of his fault. We're at Dave's, early in the night, Omaha 8 *** NO LIMIT *** - that still doesn't sound right to me. Blinds are $2, $4 and generally you can get in with a limp but occassionally someone, usually Dave, gets a wild hair and raises pre-flop. I think there are about 2-3 hands that "possibly" warrant a pre-flop raise in Omaha 8, I would tell you what they are, but you might tell Dave. LOL. This particular hand, everyone limps. The flop is Jc, 8c, 3h. I've got 8h, 8d, 2h, 4c. The middle set with a nice low re-draw. I'm the big blind and I bet $19, just to see if anyone has anything. Since there's a $28 pot, I'm ok with taking it down right then. At any rate, there are a couple of callers and when it gets to Jeff, he raises it to $100. There's a series of folds and it gets to me and I'm about to muck thinking that he either has pocket Jacks or pocket 3's and I'm not willing to risk my stack to find out which one WHEN he begins showing his cards to the folders down at his end of the table. For some reason, it just hit me wrong. I put in the additional $81 as did ... Dave. I never saw his hand, I'm guessing it was the 9c, 10c... LOL. The turn is a 5d and I check. Dave checks and Jeff pushes all in for about $300 and I, in an apparent hurry to turn over all my chips to someone else, call. And Dave calls. I'm sure he has the 9c, 10c now. At any rate, the river is (horns blaring) the 8s. Jeff jumps up now ecstatic that the flush nor the straight got there and realizing that he had the top boat. And I verbalize something like.... "you're probably not going to like this.... " and flip my two 8's when aligned with the board... makes quads! Get the monkey! LOL.

I could tell that it had knocked the taste out of his mouth and he could't believe that I called him down calculating that I probably only had 1 out. Well, sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug. I know, I know... I promise, I'll never do it again!

Game Selection

As the cliche' goes, if you can't spot the fish, it's probably you. Make sure that there is at least one person who is stupid, exhausted, desperate, irrational, and/or drunk enough for you to outplay.

The last donkey!

Yep! That was it! The last time I'll ever be the donkey! I've been on about a 2 month tare of winning. Not just cash games, but also tourneys. Last night was the first cash game that I've walked away from minus for the night in about 2 months! It wasn't a big loss, but I had been sitting there for about 2 and a half hours paying more attention to the Carolina Hurricanes/New Jersey Devils hockey game than the poker at the table. When in about a 3 hand stretch I got sucked out on, well, 3 times. Jason was the biggest offender so when he raised my big blind from $2 to $14, I called with Ad, 6d. Not like me at all, but I was getting pissed. At any rate, the flop is 7d, 8h, 10c. I check and he bets $24 and I push all-in with about $110. I really put him on nothing and I thought that even if he had something an ace or a 9 would fix it. Ooops. He calls and turns over pocket jacks and unfortunately we hit the 9 on the turn. Now he has the higher straight and my only out is to chop the pot with another jack. Nope. The ace comes. He wins and I try to work a trade with the dealer to take back the nine, but that doesn't work.

Well, no more of that.... I assure you. But I did do the right thing and left the table to go home and watch the final period of the hockey game and what a finish. In case you missed it, they were tied 1-1 with about 20 seconds in the 3rd period. Everyone is expecting an overtime when NJ scores. The crowd is in shock! But fortunately there was one guy in the building who wasn't and it was the right guy. Coach Laviolette. He pulled Cam Ward, the goalie, and Brind'Amour won the face off and with just 3 seconds remaining Williams/Staal combine to make it 2-2. Overtime takes about 3 and a half minutes for Wallin to make a great play after a feed from Brind'amour to win the game and go up 2-0 in the series. Wow! Glad I was watching!

I hate it when that happens.....

Don't you just hate getting your chips in with the best hand only to have the poor sap that you have dominated suck out on you.... LOL. Hold on... I think that is the theme of this blog site! Oh well... it still sucks when it happens......

Sunday, PKR $60 / $25 rebuys. Two tables started and I'm down to the final two players. It's me and JackZ... sorry that's the only way that I know him. He is one of the guys that I play with at PKR with whom I would bet my house that I would win! Well, two big hands with him today. One during the rebuy period, thank goodness and unfortunately my last hand of the day!

I've got 6h, 8h in the big blind ($1000/$2000). I've got about $20K, he's got about $60K as he has been sucking out on everybody all day long.... LOL. At any rate, he limps in and I just check. The flop is Ad, Ah, 6s. I check and unfortunately he checks. The turn is a 5h. I bet $2000. He raises another $2000 and I push all in. He calls and quickly turns over the 6c, 7h. I've got him dominated! The best that he could even hope for would be a big card where he would chop.... and guess what good old Ed (the dealer) throws on the board. You got it.... the 7s. He wins. Aces and 7's. Nice!

Drinking and gambling.....

There's a really good reason why Las Vegas casinos offer free alcohol to their players: Those drinks aren't really free. Alcohol generally impairs judgement and inspires recklessness, a double whammy whenyou're making critical decisions about your money.

Enter Boston J.....

What kind of player are you?

From my daily calendar.....

You'll encounter many players who like to play loose and aggressive. They are the gamblers, bluffing frequently and occasionally winning with all kinds of junk hands. They also tend to go broke. (On your bad days, however, these types of players demonstrate a most unpleasant tendency to break you in the process).

The last hand of the night....

At Dave's we typically play about 3 different games all NO LIMIT. $2-$4 Texas, $2-$4 Omaha 8 (which I realize is not for most rational players) and ... you're probably not going to believe this.... Low Chicago... a variation of 7 card stud where the person who has the low spade is automatically going to receive half the pot. LOL. You gotta love it! I've built a reasonable stack by playing mostly tight, aggressive all night. I made a couple of "vengeful" calls... LOL. Sorry, it happens. This is Omaha 8 (hi-lo with qualifying).... I've got As, 9h, 8h, 2s and everyone typically limps in for the big blind which means pre-flop there's a $25-$35 pot. The flop is 9s, 5s, 3s.... I've got the nut flush with the nut low re-draw. Sweet! You'd think! But I think for a moment and decide to slow play.... what an idiot! I bet $19 and there are 2 callers. The turn is a 5 which brings in the boat and sure enough one of the callers had top two pair.... and if that isn't bad enough, the river is a 2... now there is a low, but I don't have it!

My fault, no one to blame but me..... Oh well... there's always next week!

Monkey night @ Dave's

It was definitely 'Get the Monkey' night at Dave's this week. I have told you of a little diddy that we do anytime anyone has Aces full or better at Dave's. We have a stuffed monkey that has a whiney scream when you press it's belly any anytime anyone gets a qualifying hand, we flip and squeeze the monkey in honor of their dumb luck. Well, he was getting quite the workout on Tuesday at Dave's this week. One of the guys there, Romey (sp?), in a period of about 5 hours in a 9 handed game received and played QUADS 4-5 times and one straight flush! I'm sure there's a leprechaun with a sore sitter somewhere.... I've never seen anything quite like it! The hand of the night.... Dave has built (at one point) a stack of over $2,000 in a $200 buy-in no limit $2-$4 game! Amazing! Romey has been building his stack as well (as you would expect with the quads and the straight flush) and has nearly $1400 in front of him. Fortunately, my stack wasn't involved with either.... LOL. At any rate, Dave has pocket 5s and Romey has pocket 3s. There is a pre-flop bet (of course) to about $20 and there are several callers. The flop comes K, 5, 3.... Romey bets $30 with his set of 3s. Dave won't stand for this and raises it to $200 with his pocket 5s. Of course, that kills all the other action back to Romey who casually goes all in for about another $1400! He then says that he is trying to be kind and save Dave some money! LOL. Dave asks him ... "Do you have Kings?" When Romey says no, Dave immediately pushes all in. They turn their cards over and Romey is without question... the underdog. There's only one 3 left in the deck. Dave is ecstatic and very excited .... even when J-rod (the dealer) delivers that fourth and final 3 on the river! LOL. Dave immediately begins trying to build support for his full house, but of course the quad 3s wins out and Dave quietly pushes his entire stack of over $1200 over to Romey who is somewhat apologetic, but extremely happy with hitting his one outer!

Oh well... just another night at Dave's!

It was TRAP me night at Dave's....

but fortunately, it didn't work out every time! LOL. Full table most of the night AND a couple of new guys that seemed determined to donkey off all their chips. One of them accidentally stumbled into a very good play and it startled both of us! LOL. At any rate, a couple of hands that turned out to be monsters.

Two different times playing NO LIMIT Omaha-8, I had AA and flopped top set with no flush or straight on the board. Both times I had people go all in in front of me.... got to love it. In both instances, they had smaller sets and were drawing to a one outer. You got to love it.

But I did get sucked out on a couple of times including by the new comer who hit a gut shot straight against my trip Aces. As it grew late, I caught a couple of hands that righted the ship. Once in hold 'em, I had AKos and Jeff raised pre-flop to $8 in $2-$4 no limit. As always, there were several callers and the flop was Kh, Qd, Jd. I bet $29 and there were a couple of callers. Dave called and Dean moved all in for another $16. The turn was a 7d and Dave bet $50 at which point I pushed all in for another $350. He called and the river was a 10c. I took Dave's $350 and Dean and I chopped the main pot as he had an Ace as well.

I cashed out up about $300..... not fantastic but considering I was in for about $600 at one point, I was happy with it!

Alrighty.... I'm back!

I have been badgered by several poker buddies to start the blog up again and .... against my better judgement, here goes...

Tuesday night at Dave's has turned into more of a dinner and a movie than poker...... 2 plasma tv's running non-stop porn and some of the best eating that I get to do. There are some times that I have to chew and turn away from the tv to keep from gagging. There's some gross stuff on there that you really don't want to see while you're eating, well, anything.

So, to the post, we're playing $2-$4 No Limit Omaha 8 (I know, that can't be right, but it is) ---- I'm the button at an 8 handed table and my cards are Ah, Qh, 2c, 3c.... I like it. Most of the time and I stress MOST of the time we're able to see a $4 flop, but there are 3 guys at the table who will raise for no apparent reason pre-flop. My personal opinion is that there are about 3 hands worth raising pre-flop Omaha 8 with and I think I've seen one of them once in my entire life. At any rate, everyone limps and the flop is 6h, 8h, Kc. Everyone checks to me and I love this flop so I bet a pot builder hoping that one of my miracle cards comes on the turn, $9. Everyone calls. I love it. The turn is 2h! Danger... Will Smith! Everyone checks to me and I bet $30, there are 2 callers and Corey raises it to $60. I push all in for another $340 or so. Dave calls (I have him covered) and Corey has me covered and calls. The side pot with Corey is about $320. I love these callers when I have the old double nut! At any rate, Jared turns the river and it is the 9d and my double nut holds up. It was a very nice pot! I received half for the nut flush and half of the other half with the nut low (Corey had A, 2 also, he got quartered) and good old Dave was drawing to the straight flush (5h, 7h) which thankfully didn't hit! I know, I probaby couldn't have laid it down either.... the old 2 outer! If there is a place on the planet where they DO hit regularly, it is at Dave's! I cashed out early with a tidy little profit.

Welcome back!

A Night to Forget....

Well, I knew one of these was possible because I'd seen a couple of guys have them, but I always hoped that I'd be able to avoid it. It was marathon night over at Corey's home game. Most of the night we were short-handed and I was staying around even till around midnight when I took a couple of big hits. It was like I was a boxing opponent of Mike Tyson when he was about 20 years old. There were three different times that I pushed all my chips in and had my opponent dominated only to end up chopping the pot. For instance, I've got AJos, the flop is A, A, 8. My opponent bets and I come over the top all in. He turns over A9os. The turn is a brick and the river is an 8..... so we chop with Aces full of eights. The only other hand that I'll tell you about is the very last hand of the night.... We've actually kicked the game up from $2/$4 No Limit to $5/$10 No Limit. I have 4d, 5d on the button. The small blind bets $20 and there are no callers except me. The flop 4c, 5h, 6d. The small blind bets $20 and I call. The turn is the 5c. The small blind bets $35 and I raise all in. He quickly calls. I turn my boat over.... fives full of fours. He turns his boat over.... fives full of sixes. That or something very close happened about 4-5 times..... It's a wonder that I didn't quit poker..... again!

I only made one New Year's resolution last year..... Not to kill anybody this year. I almost blew it that night!

Jeff's last hand of the night!

It started off rather blah-say, but we're playing just three handed and I had pocket eights! Jeff bet $15 and I raised it to $35. He calls and the flop is 7, 9, 10. He bets $30 and I go all in for about $180 more. He turns over his A, 10 and calls. The turn is a magical Jack! I really didn't sign up to bad beat him, but as it turned out, I was ahead pre-flop.

Oooops... Misread Petey!

I stopped by PKR Wednesday night while the family was tied up with hockey practice and there was another very small crowd there. We were playing five handed with me, Crazy Carl, Petey, JoeBob, and Drunk Paul (I'm not sure people actually call him that, but they probably should). Everytime I've seen him he's been drunk. Probably not the best condition to be in while you're playing poker, but I guess it makes him feel invulnerable. I have noticed that when he plays, he can't determine whether he is speeding or falling off a cliff. So far, everytime I've played with him, he was falling off a cliff. He busted out three times in less than an hour and a half on borrowed money. LOL.

Petey appears to be someone who likes to be the table captain, but the role just doesn't fit for some reason. We're playing $1/$2 No Limit. This particular hand, he raised pre-flop to $12 and JoeBob, Drunk Paul and I called. I've got 7s, 9s and the flop comes 6s, 8s, 9c. I don't think you could get me out of this hand with a handgun. So Petey bets $17, JoeBob calls, Drunk Paul folds, and I raise to $34. Petey calls and JoeBob folds. The turn is 2d. Petey checks and I bet $30. Petey calls. The river is a Ks. Petey bets $45 and I call. He asks if I have a flush, I flip over the 9 high flush and he doesn't even show his cards. LOL. I should have re-raised, but I was a little concerned about a higher flush. But still it was an OK size pot.

I basically won back the $$ that I donkeyed off on Tuesday night. LOL. But I did accomplish one thing that I wanted to... before I left, Eli showed up and I got his business card to see if we can get him to plug into our weekly game. I think he'll like our group. No Drunk Pauls in our group.

Later!

Suck out night @ PKR

Well, last night was not a good night for me at PKR. Everytime I tried to get value for my hand, I got sucked out on. Twice I flopped a straight only to have a higher straight hit on the river. One of those I won anyway as Rick was trying to suck out with a lower 2 pair. Oh, then he mumbles something about my memory and my inability to remember hands correctly for the blog... LOL. Well, I can remember when he is an a##hole. Oh, but then that's all the time so that is not really a challenge is it. LOL.

It was a very non-PKR kind of night. I was one of the first to show up and by 7:30 we only had 5 players. Jason lost with high pair about 5 times and cut his losses and got out of dodge. Then, and just for Rick, in case I don't remember this one correctly...... Bite me! I wasn't at the table when it happened. The "almost" drawing dead hand of the night came with the guy who won all the chips last night and Stone. I can't remember the guys name, he's a pain, let's just call him butthead. Apparently, in my opinion, it appears that, he raised pre-flop to about $18 or so and Stone calls. The flop is A, K, brick. Butthead bets and Stone pushes all in. Butthead immediately called. Well, can you guess what they have? Butthead has pocket rockets and Stone has the case A with a K. When I came back to the table, Stoney was goney and we were playing 3 handed. We did have one other player show up and just for tricky Ricky, I'll tell you about one other suck out that he did on me.

I had pocket deuces and flopped a set, but unfortunately, Tricky Ricky was holding a suited Ad and a 4d came on the turn which was the boards 3rd diamond. The board doesn't pair and as usual, he is extremely proud of his suck out capability and bets $25. I call just to show the room that he indeed is the suck out master.

At this point, I slipped into the donkey mode trying to double up a few times and ran into Slick Rick when I pushed all in with about $40 preflop on a hand that I straddled for $7 when he had pocket 10s! And, of course, no deuce so I moon them and leave. LOL.

How's that for memory? Biatch!

Monday @ PKR....

Another $1/$2 No Limit night @ PKR. I played like a monkey. I made two perfect reads and then, paid them off. I guess I was just tired as I also mis-played my hand one time... actually forgot what my hole cards were and thought they were something that they were not... basically stupid crap. It is amazing that I only lost a little less than $100. But I did make some very nice moves as well. I got paid when a couple of my sets hit because I had made a couple of lame plays early on.

It was a full night. I got there about 6:45 and by 7:00 we had a full table and by 8:00, there were two full tables.

Probably the most memorable hand for me of the night was against 3 players. I had Qc, 10c and the flop was 8c, 9h, Jc. There was a pre-flop raise to about $12 and 3 callers. I was in late position and there was a $20 bet on the flop and one guy called in front of me so I raised to $75 and both called. The turn was brick, 5d. Both checked and I bet $45, they called. I love the Loose/Passive player. There seems to be an abundance of them, too. The river was Ac and both checked. I bet $110 and both called and turned over smaller flushes. LOL.

I do love this game!

PKR - $2/$4 No Limit Friday Night *MONSTER POT*

As described earlier, the largest pot that I've seen at PKR happened this past Friday night. It was, as you'd expect, between Elly (sp?) and Akash. Elly came in earlier and bought in for $400 and made an unbelievably bad all-in call with no hand and very little draw when he busted out and said, "I've got to go, I'll be back in about an hour!" LOL.

This isn't going to be slam Elly post, but I was in the big blind with AKos, I raised it to $15 and there were a couple of callers. The flop was 8, 8, 3.... no bets. The turn was Ah so I bet $50 and Elly pushed all in for about $40 more. I call "hoping" he wasn't slow playing an 8 or pocket 3's. He turns over A, 3 and calls two pair, Aces and threes. Oh well, I turn over A, K for two pair, Aces and eights with a King kicker. Oooops.

At any rate, the biggest pot that I've seen at PKR happened after he returned about an hour later. He had bought in for $400 a couple of times and topped it off once or twice. In this particular hand, he raises it pre-flop to $18 which seems to be standard bet in $2/$4. There are a couple of callers and Akash raised it $50 more and everyone calls. The flop is Kh, Jd, 8d. Akash bets $100 and Elly calls and there is one other caller. The turn is a Ks. Akash bets $100 and Elly pushes all in for about $900 more. Akash deliberates for what seems like an entire season of CSI:Miami but eventually makes the call with nothing but a flush draw. The river is a Queen. Elly turns over K, Q giving him a full-house Kings full of Queens. Nice! Somewhere around $2,500!

At this point, I was up about $800 but was leaving town early Saturday morning, so I just called it a night! I don't know what happened after that.... I'm sure it wasn't boring!

PKR - $2/$4 No Limit Friday Night

What an action night! I was sitting right in the middle of the table and typically like that seat because my vision isn't what it used to be.... LOL. At any rate, there's a pre-flop raise on practically every hand and although there's a full-table, you've got to play a lot of hands or just get run over. I went up a couple hundred dollars within the first hour and then tried to play more hands to trap somebody. Well, it finally worked!

I was on the button between the two most agressive players at the table, Akash and Elly Z. Elly raised it to $12 and there were about four callers. I had Qc, Js and decided to see the flop since I knew the exact cost of that view. The flop was almost perfect: Ah, Ks, 10s. Everybody checked around to me and I decided to make a little value bet of $26 and there were three callers, Elly, JoeBob and Akash. I had already determined that on the turn I was pushing all-in, regardless of the card, but was certainly hoping that it didn't pair the board or complete the flush draw. At any rate, its the 10d. It checks to me and I push in about $250 and Elly folds and JoeBob takes a long time and finally calls. Akash folds and I turn over my straight and JoeBob turns over Qs, 7s which gives him more outs than I had hoped he would have, but after taking as long as he did, I knew he didn't have a boat. So any spade on the river and he wins and any Jack and he chops. I guess $250 was a lot to call for that size pot and those outs, but he did it. Fortunately the river was a brick and took down the pot.

It was also interesting that this was basically the same flop that knocked me out of the tournament last weekend and it was with JoeBob as well. You may remember that he flopped the top set and flopped two pair, Aces and tens. Glad that this one had a different outcome!

Omaha High - Rick Get's the Monkey!

$2/$4 No Limit @ Corey's on Tuesday night and a beautiful hand!

Rick is in position with 7s, 10c, 10d, Jd. There was no pre-flop raise and probably 4-5 players. The flop is 2s, 7c, kd and Jim, in early position, bets $12 and there are two callers and Rick raises to $45. Everyone folds except Rick who only calls. The turn is the 10s and Jim checks and Rick bets $45 and Jim calls. The river is the case 10h. Jim checks and Rick bets $50. Jim takes several minutes, probably suspecting that he's beat, then comments that the pot is too big and he has to call. He turns over pocket deuces giving him the boat, 2's full of 10's. Rick then announces.... "Get the Monkey!" and turns over the quad tens!

Very nice.....

Sometimes the cards are cruel.....

$2/$4 No Limit night at Corey's. We play a mix of Hold 'em and Omaha High. This is a game where you cannot play only good cards or your lunch will get eaten. And Dave is usually the one that is seated at the main seat with silverware in hand. Last night was really not much of an exception. He played rather loose at the beginning and sucked out on me on a couple of big hands and then he played change up all night, moving from periods of betting/raising every pot to not playing any hands for extended periods. There was a big pot with Dave where I flopped the top set on a flop of Ah, Qd, 6s. I bet $21 against a $12 pot and everybody folds but Dave and he just calls and mumbles something about the monkey and a straight flush. LOL. The turn is 9s and I bet $35 and he calls. The river is another spade and he hit his 5 high flush. I'm persuaded there will be a special place in hell for Dave.... LOL.

There were two other big hands for me for the night. Both of them involved Queens. The first happened with Jim. I've got pocket J's and the flop comes 8, 8, J. Not a bad flop for wired Jacks! I check and everybody checks. The turn is 9 and Jim bets $15 and there are a couple of callers. The river is a Queen and Jim bets $17 and I push all in with another $200 but Jim only had $87 and he calls and turns over QQ. He hit the two outer on me. Again.... when to try to get value for your hand and when to take it down. It's a tough question and apparently one that I haven't figured out the answer to just yet.

The second hand happened within 1/2 hour of that hand. We're playing Omaha high now which is a little scarier when slow playing due to the additional outs that everyone has in their hands. At any rate, I've got Q, Q, 10, 7 and the flop hits me big time.... J, J, Q! Jeff is first to act and he bets about $17 and there's one other caller. The turn is 8 and Jeff bets $30 and I call. The river is a brick and Jeff bets $35 and I raise to $70 and Jeff pushes all in. Dave folds and Jeff turns over J, and the case Queen. Talk about a cold, cruel deck!

At any rate, Dave was the big winner last night. Not sure what he won, but he cashed out over $1,100. I played all night and broke exactly even. Sometimes the cards are cruel....

Monday @ PKR.....

I dropped by PKR last evening to play a couple of hours while my wife and son were to be tied up with hockey practice. This is actually turning into a weekly habit for me. There were a couple of significant hands that warrant a post.

The first was basically the same hand from Sunday. The game is $1/$2 No Limit and I was in the big blind and there was a $6 raise. I've got Ac, 10c and call. The flop is 10, 10, 7. I check hoping that someone bets. Everyone checks. The turn is a J. I was really hoping for a card that wouldn't give straight or flush options. The small blind bets $13 and I raise to $45 (approximately the size of the pot). No one calls and the turn is the case 10. Oh, to know when to slow play.

The other hand happened a little later and I was in early position again with pocket nines. There was a $12 raise and there were a couple of callers. The flop was 10, 10, 3. (Yep, the 10's were hot)! I lead out with a $35 bet and only got 1 caller, Nate. The turn was a brick and I checked and Nate checked. The river was another brick and I checked. Nate asked, "How much will you call?" and tossed in $20. I guess I could have taken that as he was hoping that I would meaning that he had the nuts and how much can he bet that I would put in the pot. But, in fact, the way that I interpreted it was how much do I have to bet to get you to go away? Well, $20 wasn't the number. I threw in the $20 and he turned over A, K and I took the pot with 10's and 9's.

There was a huge crowd there last night. I was there before 7 and by 7 we had a full table. Before 8, there were two full tables.

Why I love and hate re-buy tournaments!

Let me give you a great example.... Saturday's tournament at PKR, the very first hand I get wired 10's and the guy under the gun, Jason, raises the $25/$50 blinds to $400 and I re-raise to $1,000. He pushes all in and I call. He's got pocket J's and of course flops a set, turns a boat and rivers a higher boat. So there you go.... both reasons in one example.

PKR - $100/$20 No Rebuys

Well, we started rather short handed with only 8 players. I had been playing pretty conservatively but took a couple of pots. After the break, JoeBob, who will raise or call with practically any two cards raises the $100/$200 blinds an additional $800. I peer down at Ac, 10c and in an uncharacteristic style, call. The flop is A, K, 10. I immediately move all in assuming that JoeBob has a medium pair or an A, no kicker. Oooops. He turns over AA. I'm pretty much drawing dead to runner/runner 10's or I could chop the pot with Q, J. No such luck. So I get to go see the Chronicles of Narnia which turned out to be pretty good.

I'll update when I find out who won the event.

PKR - $50/$5 with Re-buys

I finished 2nd in the tourney today and we chopped rather than play heads up. The hand of the day for me came while we were still in the re-buy period. I had already been drawn out on twice and re-bought for $20/$5 both times. I'm in the small blind when the blinds are $50/$100 and Randy in position 4 raises $250 on top and Brian in position 6 calls. I am getting pretty tired of getting pushed around so I call with Qc, Js and the flop comes 9h, 10c, Qh. I hit the top pair with an open ended straight draw so I immediately push all-in with about $5,000 in chips. Randy is covered and he calls and Brian is covered and he calls too. Care to guess what they have? I went from excited to depressed in a matter of seconds. I thought that I had the best hand and was trying to push out the flush draws. Randy turns over 10d, 10s and Brian turns over Qd, Qs. Neither had hearts but both flopped sets! It is amazing how many times the cards reward the agressive player and the turn straighted all that out when the Kh hits giving me the straight and the river doesn't pair the board so I triple up and go on to finish 2nd in the tournament to a rather flustered Jason.

He played a great tournament and was the short stack with 5-6 players at the table for about an hour. He must have gone all in 10 times or more. He did double up on Quinlan when Jason's big slick off suit spiked a King against Quinlan's QQ. Quinlan wasn't happy.

There was one other monster hand that Jason got just about as lucky as one person can get.... he calls Randy's all in. Randy has AQos and Jason has A3os. The flop is Q, 3, 5. The turn is a 7 and the river is the two outer.... 3.

So I guess we'll go give the $120 a shot on Sunday!

The power of 7h, 2h

Have you ever been looking at cards and just KNOW that they are going to hit. You don't know exactly how, but you just KNOW it. Well, I've seen it happen quite a few times, but two of them really stand out.

Once was a couple months back at Corey's game. Bryce folded pocket deuces to a big bet and he showed them me before he mucked them. I immediately looked at him and said, "you know they're going to hit like a banchee, right?" Well, the flop.... the other two deuces. LOL.

This past week at Corey's, I'm near the button is $2/$4 No Limit and have a look at 7h, 2h. There's about a $12 raise and I show them to Rick and tell him, I know they're going to hit. But I do the right thing and muck them. You guessed it, the flop was 7c, 7d, 7s. The raiser immediately pushed all in.

Food doesn't even taste the same anymore.

No Prisoners.....

Well, I've learned my lesson and I am not happy about the cost of the lesson. There have been quite a few times over the past months at the poker table when my "good heart" has let someone slide for the full cost/value of my poker hand. It could be any one of countless reasons that I have done it. They look pitiful, their car is in the shop, they're between jobs, their cat has diarrhea, they're a good friend. I could go on, but you get the point. I get the monster hand and instead of getting paid, I let them have the free ride and sometimes even chop the pot with them only to have them a little later in the night grab me by the back of my neck and with no kiss, no dinner and no lubricant.... well, you get the picture. LOL. No more..... if you see my cards, you'll be paying the price.

Oh, and by the way, don't be surprised if I don't get excited about it.

You know who you are.....

There are a couple of guys who play in games with me on a fairly regular basis who, let's just say, are not on my list of favorite people.... which is probably OK, since I am pretty certain they don't go play poker to spend time with me. I don't necesarily understand their disdain for me, but I can't see how they live with themselves. LOL. At any rate, we all probably have one or two of these guys and everytime they're in a pot, it makes you want to play the hand even more and so you spend an extra second or two trying to make the 7-2os look powerful enough to come back over the top! You know, you'd rather bad beat these guys out of $2 than win a $100 pot from anyone else. I don't really know how they go about getting to the top of this ever-so-popular list, but they have found their way to the top!

Last night at PKR I was fortunate enough to have them both at the same table. A veritable dream come true only to be cut short by family obligations. I love earning pots against these guys. Just before I left I entered a hand against the weaker of the two players with 9-4os playing $1/$2 No Limit when he raised to $12 pre-flop. There was one other caller and flop came 10, 9, 3 with two diamonds. He bet $16 on the flop and everyone folded to me. The turn was an Ah and he bet $23, I called. The river was a 7d and he bet $23 and I raised $75 more. He folded. My night complete... I cashed out and went to meet my lovely wife and son for dinner! Life is grand!

WSOP - My Biggest Error!

Yep. I can point right at it. Thursday night at the cash game in the poker room. It's not mis-playing a hand or bluffing at the wrong pot, it's leaving the table. I'm probably up about $400 and most of that had come within the last 20 minutes. I need to make a phone call and get up and instead of leaving my chips on the table, decide to take them with me and go back to the room for a moment. Definitely my biggest mistake of the week!

When I get up, Jeff B, moves from his seat to the one that I am vacating and when I returned about an hour or so later.... he was up about $1500! He definitely was a card rack and playing well along with it. And he even got a bigger payout when I returned. He had pocket JJ in late position and the flop was a JJ7. There was a guy to his immediate left betting into him with pocket 99. The turn was a 9 and that only increased the guys betting ferver. Jeff smooth called him both times. When the river brick hits, the guy makes a bet and Jeff pushes all in and the guy calls with about $500 or so in front of him. What a dream come true!

So.... Jeff says "Get the monkey!"

WSOP Dec 2

Day 2 was better than day 1 for me in terms of the tourney. Same tournament details.... $500/$60 and the details were traveling around the group. There were 299 entries making a total payout of $149,500 and that they would be paying 28 positions. Unfortunately for me, prone wasn't one of them. LOL.

I had AA get cracked after 2 hours and I did get down to 1 individual chip two different times. At the dinner break, I had about $3,100 in chips and was one of the shorter stacks remaining but at that point there were only about 60 people left I knew it was going to be tough for me to survive through 30 people with the blindsand the antes going up rapidly.

There were a couple of very interesting hands that happened during Day 2. I had the same cards in the same position two different times with almost identical board cards, but with different outcomes. At one point, I had rebuilt my chip stack to about $2,100 and had 86os in the big blind. Everyone folds and small blind limps in. I check and the flop is 8, 6, 6. The small blind checks and I bet $500. He calls and the turn is Q. He checks and I check. The river is a 9 and he goes all in having hit his open ended draw. I took that pot with my boat. The second happened a little later when again, I had 86os. I'm the big blind and everyone folds to the little blind who limps in. The flop is 6, 4, 4. I bet $500 and he calls. The turn is Q and we both check. The river is an 8 and the small blind bets $1,000. I knew he had me beat, but I called and he had hit his open ended with the 5, 7 as well. I knew that I should have bet the turn, but just checked because of the over card. Dang, I hate poor play on my part and that was one of the weakest hands of my week.

The hand that crippled me Day 2 was another giant suck out. I had A-10 on the button and bet $500 with $100/$200 blinds. I get one out of position caller. The flop is Ah, 10d, 5s. I bet $1,000 and he moves all in. I call and he turns over A, 5. He rivers a 5.

The hand that busted me out was of course, AA. I pushed all in with only about $1,500 left in chips and had two callers, KJ and KQ. I like it! But unfortunately for me, the flop hit everybody but me with JQ7 and the turn was another J. So there you go.

Back to the cash game! I did meet a great guy there. His name is Mike Hefner and he was actually seated with Jeff B in the first $500 tourney and Jeff pointed me out to him and he introduced himself to me. He is a purple heart recipient withthe military in Special Forces out of Fayetteville. He is recovering from a gunshot wound that he received in July in Iraq. He's still in physical therapy now and will be for a while. He was on a rush and I when I sat down at his table, he had about $3,000 in front of him from a $400 buy-in. I am now including him on our weekly poker game at ITX. I played for about 7 hours only to break even at the table. And some of that was my fault from playing 2 particular hands very soft. I hate it when I do that.

All in all though, I really enjoyed the trip and I did learn a lot. The primary thing that I learned is that I don't believe that I'll play in the $300 or the $500 buy-in tourneys again. I believe that my money would be better invested in the $1000 or even the $10,000 buy-in events in order to weed out some of the poorer quality players. I'll be back!

WSOP Dec 1

Well, my first day was..... expensive! I flew into Philadelphia to save some $$ on the flight. The flight to Philly was $100 and the flight into AC was $300. I was a little late arriving so I had no time to make any arrangements for the trip over so I had to just grab a cab. The price, $175. I told him that if I paid him $175, we'd have to play hold 'em in the car on the way over. He dropped the price to $150, but that was still more than I wanted to pay. Yes, I guess I'm cheap by nature. At any rate, I arrive in time and actually go through the casino at the Showboat on my way down to the tournament area. I stopped off long enough to play a few hands of one of my favorite casino games, 3 Card Poker. It's pretty much all luck and apparently I caught it at the right time as I plopped down $75 and hit a 30 to 1 payout with trip 10s. Now we're talking.

Today's tourney is $500/$60 No Limit Hold 'em with no rebuys. We get $1500 in chips with blinds starting at $25/$50 which I believe too few chips for this buy-in. In talking to others later, I wasn't the only one who felt that way. It almost felt like a shoot-out.

I get to the table and unfortunately didn't last long. I got pocket AA and pre-flop got all-in against QQ and JJ only to have the JJ hit a set on the river. Ouch! I said, "Damn, that's a suck out just like back home!" The table got a good laugh but I was pretty much crippled. I got JJ a couple hands later only to run into QQ that held up for him.So.... Off to the cash game. I met some great people there. It is funny though that there seemed to be a lot of red-necks there. It was an extremely small poker room that seemed to get very hot and stayed that way. I played at the $2/$5 table and while I didn't win a ton, I stayed up the entire night. I finally cashed out around 3AM and was up about $300. That plus my trips at the 3 Card Poker table basically paid for the trip and day one.

Off to the WSOP Circuit Event @ Showboat in Atlantic City

Well, I'm doing it. I'm leaving first thing Thursday morning for Atlantic City and the WSOP Circuit Event. A couple of friends are already there and I plan to hook up with them and hopefully the three of us take AC and the WSOP by storm. That's sounds really good, but this being my first WSOP event, I'm all about learning.

Don't get me wrong, I always think positively about me and my abilities and my luck. So I am expecting big things, but I'm also expecting to learn alot as well.

To those of you who I asked to go..... it won't be the same without you so let's plan the next one together!

I will be keeping a daily log and if I can get to the BLOG site, I'll be updating it regularly. If I can't get to the internet, I'll update it immediately upon my return.

Wish me luck!

Jeff B @ Harrah's WSOP Circuit Update...

While at our weekly poker game at Corey's, we received a call from Jeff B that he had JUST missed making the final table in the $500/$60 No Limit Hold'em tourney at the Showboat in Atlantic City. He did cash however for about $1500. Nice job, Jeff!

I'll edit later with more details if I can get them.

Monday @ PKR.....

I stopped by PKR last night to sit in on a few hands. I arrived around 6:55 and there was almost a full table there waiting for the game to begin. By 7:10, there was a full table and we were well into it. About 7:20 I received a call from the local police department in reference to some troubled teens who had been causing some problems in our neighborhood. Their parents had actually handled it and unfortunately the kids were arrested on some pretty serious charges. So, here I am in the middle of Raleigh NC (where gambling is illegal) in the middle of a poker game talking to a police officer on my mobile. I look down @ 4,4 trying to be witty and pay attention to the nice police officer on the phone. The flop comes and there's a small bet and re-raise before it gets to me. I take a quick glance at the board and realize the flop is 2,4,5! Touchdown! Excuse me officer, but I need to go all-in.... So I casually push my stack to the middle of the table and get one caller. Not a bad way to double up as it turns out.

Jeff B @ Harrah's WSOP Circuit Update...

He played in the $330 buy-in tourney on Monday and there were approximately 750 players and unfortunately he busted out at about 140 when they were paying about 40 places. The hand that busted Jeff out was (horn's blaring) AA... go figure. He had about 6500 chips and was raised so he re-raised all in. The other guy had about 4500 chips and A-10 off-suit and hit a four card straight. A few hands later he was the button and looked down at AQ and with only a couple of limpers pushed all-in and one of the blinds had AK. So there you go.....

He is currently still in the $560 buy-in tourney. There were approximately 250 players at the beginning and both he and Jason G are still alive. Jeff has about 11,000 in chips while Jason has around 8,400. The average chip count remaining is about $7,500. Total payout for this event will be around $125,000 to about 18 places. There are only about 50-60 players still in this tourney. Come on guys! Make the final table...... YOU CAN DO IT!

By the way, I'm seriously considering going up for at least the Thursday and Friday events if anyone is interested in going up with me, just let me know and we'll try to work something out.

Back to the point.... good luck Jeff and Jason! Play solid and good luck!

World's Shortest Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl, "Will you marry me?" The girl said "NO!" and the guy lived happily ever after. He went fishing, hunting, played poker and golf, drank beer and farted whenever he wanted.
The End

I know this really doesn't have anything to do with poker, but I liked it!

Jeff B @ Harrah's WSOP Circuit Update...

He has played in a cash game and a Sit-n-go and is up $2600! He's going to give me a full update later in the day! He is scheduled to play in a $330 buy-in tourney and the rumor is there are 750 players. They're experiencing a registration melt-down right now.

Keep checking in! Good Luck Jeff! We're pulling for you!

And then there were QUADS!

Sunday night @ PKR after the tourney, we're playing $1-$2 No Limit and I get to watch as one of my new best friends and poker buddies, Rick, had a three-way pot with Michael and Stone. There was a smallish pre-flop raise of about $12. Rick had pocket 3-3, Michael had A-4, Rick has 3-3, and we never saw Stone's hand. Flop comes A-3-6 with two clubs. Michael is first to act and bets $16. Rick raises to $40, Stone calls. Michael asked if Rick had a hand, and Rick said "not yet." Turn comes a 4, giving Michael two pair. Michael checks, Rick bet $40 and both of them call. At this point there's probably around $280 in the pot. The river is the case 3. Michael checks, Rick goes all-in for around $140 or so. Stone folds and Michael calls, thinking he's either bluffing with a busted flush draw, or has A-K or A-Q which would have given Michael a higher two-pair. Quads scoop a nice little pot. We've really got to get a monkey at PKR.

I assume Stone either had the busted flush draw, or an ace with no kicker. Somebody.... get the monkey!

How can you call a big bet pre-flop with 5-8 suited?

That's what the new guy at PKR asked me..... How can you call a big bet pre-flop with 5-8 suited? Well, he had recently stayed in with a garbage hand to a large raise that I made pre-flop and took down the pot by hitting one of them with trips. So it was lesson time at PKR. Again... $1-$2 No Limit. I look down at 5d, 8d. The new guy is in the big blind and after about 7 limpers including me, he raised it to $16. There were 4 callers and I thought that this could be a great opportunity to get lucky so I called. The flop comes 6s, 7c, 9s. Not the nuts, but I loved it! The new guy bets $25 and there is one caller and I call. The turn is a 2d and our new guy bets $50 and I'm the only caller. The river is a Qh and my new best friend goes all in for about $120 more. I immediately call and turn over the 2nd nut straight. He shows his aces and immediately requires therapy and help with his breathing. I love this game!

Now I've got a buy a truck from Jim.....

Well, Sunday night after the $120 buy-in tournament, we're playing the cash game, $1-$2 No Limit and there are 10 players. I look down at 9, 9. There's a $12 raise and about 4 callers including me. The flop is 4, 4, 2. I'm now thankful to the raise for getting out most that would have had a 4. Jim bets $2 and I raise to $20. Jim is a cautious player and announces pre-turn that he'll check the turn. The turn is a 7 and I bet $65. Jim calls and everyone else folds. Jim announces again that he checks the river. The river is (horns blaring) a 9. I bet $75 and he calls. I immediately begin apologizing because I am pretty certain that he has a larger pair and I probably rivered him. And of course, he shows the cowboys. Now I've got to buy my next truck from him.

My memory sometimes is excellent!

You may remember a few weeks back "Two "questionable" beats in one weekend!" - well, revenge is sometimes slow in coming, but it does come.... usually. This past Friday night... we'll call it FRIGHT NIGHT at PKR. This is the night that the crazies come out, $2-$4 No Limit with max buy-in of $400. Well, I had Ah, 10d and the guy that beat me in that hand with 6, 6, 7 from the "questionable beats" weekend was in the hand. LOL. The flop was Ad, Qd, 10c. I know it was risky, but I bet $55 into about a $60 pot. The guy that busted me out of the tourney re-raised me $200 which was exactly what I had remaining. Sounds suspiciously like he was trying to isolate me. LOL. Well, he got his wish... everyone folded to me and after due deliberation, I called. He turned over one of the two hands that I suspected, QQ. So I've got top and bottom pair against the middle set. And as fate would have it, I hit the back door flush with runner-runner diamonds! Yee haw!

It was definitely "Get the Monkey" night for me!

Well, I've seen others run into cards like this, but this is the first time that it has been me. My second hand of the night I look down at pocket 9's. The flop is 9, 10, K. I bet $25 and Jeff raises about $35. I push all in and Jeff calls with K, 10 against my set. I like my position, but he could have had worst cards and it would have been ok with me. The turn is a brick and the river is the case 9! Get the Monkey! And that was just the beginning.

I'm pretty certain that I had quads 4 times and the 2 straight flushes to the K twice. If you can put an "unfortunately" in that sentence, I believe that first hand with Jeff is the only time that I was able to get all my chips in and get called.

One of the straight flushes came on the flop when I had Kc, 10c. The flop was 9c, Jc, Qc which is the way that I would want it so that the Ac could still pull the nut flush. Mike, a new guy to this game and a friend of Jeff's, bet into me on the flop and the turn, but cooled his jets on the river and I made a small bet and he called. The second straight flush came a little later with the identical cards. The flop was 9c, Qc and who gives a crap what the third card was... LOL. At any rate, Mike bets at me about 1/2 the pot. I call and everyone else folds. The turn is a brick and Mike checks. The river is the Jc! Wow! What a card. Mike checks and I bet a small bet that anybody would have to call and sure enough, he did!

By this time, anytime I was in a hand and the board paired, everyone, including me, expected me to have quads!

There was one big pot that I took down again Dave and Jim. We were playing Omaha Hi and I've got As, Ac, 3c, 4c. The flop is Ah, Qc, Jc. I bet $30 and Dave goes all in with about $75 more. Jim calls and I go all in with about $230 more. Jim folds. Dave turns over QQ with a flush re-draw. (Jim had pocket jakes). The turn is another club and Dave is dead to the case Q.

Still did OK for the night, but I am a greedy cuss and I wanted it all! Or as Jim stated at one point last night.... "I'd trade it all for a little bit more!"

AQ vs KQ - A cruel hand for Jeff!

Well... poker night at Corey's! Late in the evening and I've got pocket J's. There's a small raise by Jeff and Jim and I call. The flop is Q, Q, 10. I was the button and Jeff, being first to act, bets $30 and Jim raised $80. I was folding so fast I couldn't be clocked. Jeff immediately moves all in with about $500 in front of him and Jim quickly calls with a little over $300. Jeff shows K, Q and Jim shows A, Q. Jim takes down a huge pot when the board doesn't pair and the A plays.

The only good news for Jeff is that since he is going to AC next week for a tournament, it's best to get those kind of beats out of the way!

What a flop!

A while back I was playing online in $100 buy-in, No Limit Hold'em game and while in the big blind with 5d, 7d, no one raised, but there are 5 limpers. I made a small raise, just because I could. The flop is 4d, 6d, 8d. You got it, straight flush. I check, a guy bets $10 and everyone calls. The next card is brick and the same guy bets $25 and there are 3 callers including my smooth call. The river is an 8c. The small blind and I check and the guy to my immediate left goes all in with about $130 and 2 others including the small blind go all in on top. Fortunately I was the big stack and had everyone covered. Two of the guys flopped flushes including one with the nut flush and one with the second nut flush, the 8c gave the small blind a full house. It just doesn't get any better than that... for me anyways!

I'd like to apologize to A-K....

For those of you who read some of my early posts, you may remember A-K, my mortal enemy... well, last night they made some huge steps towards making up.

What is the perfect flop for AK? Yep, I've had it happen to me once before, AAA! We were playing $5/$10 Limit Hold'em and I was the button. It was perfect! The pot reached near maximum and I only raised or bet one time. The other guys raised and re-raised me right to victory! What a dream! It could only have been better in no limit with a lot of chips on the table.

Last night was equally as impressive. I am the button and look down at Ah, Ks, 5x, 4x in $1/$2 No Limit Omaha High Only. The flop is ..... Ad, Ah, Kh. Unfortunately for Jon, he had a big piece of it. He bets $40. I smooth call. The turn is a brick. He bets $60 and I call. The river is another brick and he tosses in his last $25 chip and of course, I call and flip over the nuts. He turns over KK. How cruel the poker gods can be!

That is truly a cold deck!

Get the monkey!

Well, one of my favorite poker buddies started what has turned into a grand tradition at his weekly Tuesday night poker game.... Everytime someone wins a hand with Aces full or better (Aces full house, quads or straight flush), he pulls out his toy monkey that screams a ridiculous monkey sound when pressed or flipped and, depending on the power of the hand, lets him scream over and over again celebrating the big hand.

Well, last night was "Monkey Night!" He came out four times! 3 sets of quads and 1 straight flush! And I didn't have a single one of them.

I would strongly recommend a practice like this for any home game. It is exciting when it happens. It is always funny. And there's nothing quite like the feeling of saying.... "Get the Monkey!"

All nighter.... 8:30PM till 9:00AM

What can I say! I know I shouldn't have done it, but it was one ugly night. I kept trying to get the most value from my hands and kept ending up with the second best hand. One hand, as an example, I've got J, Q and the flop comes J, J, Q. I check and he bets, I call. The turn is an A, I check, he bets, I call. The river is a brick. I check, he bets, I call. He turns over A, J.

A little later... Omaha 8. I am the big blind and look down at K, K, Kc, 10c. I laugh and the flop comes K, 9, 3. I make a crazy over-bet to push them out. There are three callers. The turn is a 6 and makes a possible flush draw. I bet about 1/2 the pot and get one caller. The river completes the flush (not clubs, unfortunately) and Rick pushes all in. I lay it down, but I absolutely KNOW that he was bluffing.

The crowd kept thinning out and about 3:00AM, its just me, Rick and Jeff. Both these guys are up big and I am down big. Jeff finally decides to leave and cashes out about $900, plus several hundred that he's loaned out. We shame him into buying back in and he loses $200 and leaves. So around 4, its just me and Rick. I have about $200 in front of me and he has about $1200 in front of him. I slowly build my stack back up to around $500 and the big hand hits. I've got pocket sixes and the floppy comes 6, 4, 2 rainbow. I bet about $25 and he calls. The turn is a brick and I bet about $50 and he goes all in. I look over and I've got about $420 remaining and I make some explicative and I call. He immediately realizes that he made a big mistake. I don't even remember what he had, but he didn't have many outs on the river and I dragged the pot. I know exactly how he felt, as I had been making those plays all night and losing. So now the chips have done a complete exchange. I have about $1200 or so he has less than $100. We continue to play for a couple more hours and he cashes out for $170 and I had made a miraculous comeback!

Till next time!

Poker etiquette... 101

You tell me, what should happen to a player's cards if he voluntarily shows them to another player at the table. I do it some times as I am about to muck them to someone who has already folded, but never do I do it and then continue the hand. It happened on Tuesday in no limit hold'em. I flopped the top set with a pot of about $12. I immediately bet about $16. Jeff shows his hand to Dave and says that I know you couldn't get away from this and then calls my $16 bet. I wasn't happy. And was even less happy when he hit the open ended straight and took down the pot.

I think that this is different from when a player shows his cards to everyone at the table. There are a couple of guys that I play with regularly who will bet and then show one or both of their cards to discourage others from calling and attempting to draw out on them. Once he flips his card(s), it is then the responsibility of the others at the table to surpress any comments or emotions about his exposed cards. I am not certain of what the official poker rules are pertaining to exposing your cards.

Your thoughts/comments would be appreciated. I believe that if you willingly show your cards to ANYONE, they should be considered dead, mucked, folded. Let me know what you think.

Cold deck/Cold Heart... Brain Dead!

Why do we call when we know that we're beat? Why put more money in the pot when you absolutely know that your opponent has you beat? I've given it some thought over the past 48 hours because it happened to me a couple of times on Tuesday at my regular weekly $2/$4 No Limit Hold'em/High Omaha game. I flopped bottom set to a guy that raised pre-flop. The flop was A, 6, 2..... at first I thought maybe he had A,K, but when he bet, I read him with AA. He bet $40 and I re-raised all-in. I KNEW he had the AA, but pushed anyway.

Well, it happens. I guess I would rather that happen than what happened to me in a tourney recently. I had KK and eventually pushed all-in pre-flop. There are 3 callers. AK, QQ and JJ. Talk about a cold deck! At any rate, the flop is three bricks and the turn and the river were both queens.

Oh well.... And I'm ok with a cold deck. It's poker. It happens.

Tourney @ PKR

This past weekend was sort of a heavy hockey schedule for my son's bantam hockey team so my tournament play was limited. I typically try to play in the $100 buy-in tourney @ PKR but my son's hockey game in Greensboro prevented me from being able to play in that one so I opted to play in the $55 buy-in with re-buys. I had played really well and made it to the final table and had accumulated chips to where I was 2nd in chips. In about two hands, I busted out. The big one happened when I flopped 2nd pair with the nut flush re-draw. The guy pushed all-in and I called his $4000. He had top pair and a crappy kicker and the flush didn't come. There were now about 7 people remaining and I made an offer to the short stack (he had about $6000 in chips) to let me buy his stack for $100. He accepted and I enjoyed one of the rarities in life.... I actually got to knock out of the tournament the guy who had just knocked me out. It was worth it just for that.... LOL. At any rate, I ended up finishing second and got a pretty nice return on my re-buy. The final hand playing heads up, I had QQ and raised to $4000 pre-flop. The big stack (around $45000) calls and the flop comes Ah, Ad, 5d. He pushes all-in and I knew that he didn't have an ace so I called. I was right, he was on the diamond draw and hit it on the river. That would have been the tournament turn-around. I would have jumped from about $15000 to about $30000 and we would have been almost tied, but for some reason, the poker gods continue to punish me by letting people out-draw me.

We finished up around 6:30 and my family was going to the Carolina Hurricanes game at 7PM without me so I decided to play in the cash game. I ended up cashing out about $450 up.... I like it!

4+ Hours of "heads up" Hold 'em

Well, we had our first soft attendance poker night in quite some time last night. Until around 10, there were four people playing $1/$2 No Limit. Jeff was having a rough night and finally cashed out around the 10 o'clock timeframe. Dave was whining about the wife's good graces and only played a few hands after Jeff left, but he was nice enough to lose all the chips in front of him on his way out the door. So there we were, Rick and me. We played "heads up" with $5 antes for a little over 4 hours. It's typically not something that I enjoy, but between friends the competition and the banter was alot of fun. It is especially fun if you end up with more chips than you had when you started the heads up play. It wasn't a huge victory but I was catching cards for a while. Normally it is Rick catching the cards, so it was very nice for a change to actually draw out on him. All in all, it was alot of fun.

For you whimps that didn't show up, there's always next time!

Revenge! AND one of the most entertaining poker nights in a while!

There were a couple of big stories from last night @ Corey's.... the "funniest" hand of the evening.... The game is No Limit Hold 'em, $2/$4 blinds. I am in the big blind and pick up pocket 5's. There is a pre-flop raise to about $12 and about 4 people call. The flop is K, 6, 5 and I think I'm pretty good but immediately check. Two more checks and Corey bets $58. It folds around to me and I ask ... "what did you do, flop a set?" to which Corey answers, "Yes, these 5s have been hot for me all night!" It was all that I could do not to fall over.... I'm sure you've already done the math, but unless there are five 5's in the deck, he is lying his arse off. Well I play it soft the rest of the way and he backs off his betting. The table had a great laugh over that one. Although he did muck, he shared with us that he had pocket 9's.

You may remember "Rick" from the tournament over the weekend "Two questionable beats" where he busted me out when I put him all in with one card to come and he was on a flush draw and hit it. (By the way, I understand that he went on to win that event). Well, we were playing $2/$4 No Limit Omaha High when I picked up Qc, Qd, 10h, 9h while in the big blind. There is a $4 raise and everyone called. The flop is Qs, 7h, Jd. There's about $30 in the pot so I bet $26. 3 people call me. The turn is Jh so I bet the same $26 and get 2 callers. The river is a lovely little spade and I immediately check. Everyone checks around to Rick and he bets $75. I glance at Dave and he is already fondling his fold cards so I raise another $100 and Rick calls with the second nut flush. Life is good.

There was another CRAZY hand... $2/$4 No Limit Omaha High and somehow almost everyone is all-in. I only had about $70 in front of me so it was pretty easy when it got back to me and there were approximately 7 players in that with ANY cards, I'm playing. I look down at at Jh, Jc, 7d, 5d so I call all-in and away we go. (I've only seen this sort of thing one other time and it was playing on Party Poker with play money!) I don't remember the exact order in which they came, but there were 2 diamonds on the flop and another on the turn and 7 high diamond flush "took 'er down." Its not often that you can multiply your money times seven in one hand!

There were two more hands than involved me and Dave that warrant telling. The first was about an hour or so into the game. I look down at pocket Queens. I'm in early position and Dave raises $15 on top. There are a couple of callers so I push all in and Dave is the only caller. He turns over As, 9s and cracks the ladies when he flops a 9 and turns an A. The other hand was also hold'em and I get Qc, 10c. The flop is 9d, Jd, Kh. I check and Dave bets $25 and I push all in with another $175 or so and he calls and flips over his two diamonds. Guess what, no diamond comes and I take it down.

Two "questionable" beats in one weekend!

Well, it definitely wasn't my weekend on the tournament front. Saturday I was playing in a $55 no limit hold'em tourney with re-buys through the first hour. After the re-buy period was over I got AA..... the blinds are $100/$200 and I raise $500 on top. I get one caller and the flop comes 6, 6, 7. I bet $700 and he basically pushes me all in. I call and he turns over the 5h, 6h.... and of course no additional Aces show up. Then on Sunday, $120 buy-in, I'm in the big blind and the flop comes Kh, 7d, 2d. I've got suited Ks, Js. The small blind bets $500 and I call (I knew then I should have pushed all in). At any rate, the next card is a brick and Rick bets $700, I re-raise all-in and he mumbles something about "you've got me, but I've got to call because of how much is in the pot".... he turns over Ad, 3d and of course catches the nut flush on the river. Life sucks. LOL.

But tonight is revenge! I'll post it tomorrow.