Formerly a BLOG
Text Box: 2009 12-7 This date is one of great importance for our country, and for me personally. In 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States began the Second World War. Many lives were lost in the act of defending the freedom and lives that we hold so close to our hearts. Those that fought in those battles, and supported those soldiers, in the field and at home, are heroes to this nation. They have been named “The Greatest Generation”, and I would like to add my name to the list of those that feel the gratitude each day for their sacrifices. For me, this date holds even more meaning. On that day, my father celebrated his birthday. By celebrating, I mean that he was already on his way to boot camp and off to fight along with the others that were defending our country. I lost my father a few years ago, and now I have today, Pearl Harbor Day, his birthday, to remind me of him even more vividly than the rest of the year. Today, more than most, I miss my father. If you are reading this, and you have the opportunity, please do me, and yourself a huge favor; call your parents. Tell them that you’re thinking about them. Tell them you love them. And stay close to them. Once they are gone, you’ll always wish you had taken those chances more often. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD. I LOVE YOU. I MISS YOU. 11-23 WOW! Lots to talk about on the poker side of things. I’ll start with the last BSPL game of 2009. Going into the game, I was 10 points behind the leader with one game, and only 8 players left. This isn’t an impossible task, but it’s VERY close. When the leader went out, not nearly as early as I had hoped, it was time for me to turn it up a notch. I was playing well, but wasn’t exactly getting the cards I thought I would need to make up the points. After taking a couple bad beats that hurt but didn’t cripple, and my first bad read of the week, we went to heads up and an offer was made TO me to chop. I asked for a minute and did the math. We counted chips and I was behind by a couple grand so if we chop, I get second place points. That made up 9 of the 10 I needed to win the league. Not enough, I had to win the table to win the league. So we chopped the cash and played it for the points. Back and forth for a while, I built up to the chip lead and ended up getting my money in 80-20 favorite only to see a gut shot straight hit the river. Second place at the table, second place in the league. GG me. Congrats to Chris for her league win. But you have to admit, I made it memorable. Then we moved on to the Championship table. After totaling the points for the league, and all players getting chip stacks that were comparable to those points, we settled in for a long night. I played well, stealing when I could, and getting paid off at least a little each time I had the best of it. Then my second bad read of the night happened. I was in the highjack, and knew that the cut-off, button and BB were ready to fold. Knowing this, I took a shot at stealing the blinds with a raise holding 7-9 off. Not my normal move, but also not that far out of character for me when I’m on my game, and tonight I was on my game! I raise, c-o and button fold. SB looks and folds and I’m ready to pick up the pot. This is where my read was bad. The BB had NOT looked at her cards yet. Not sure why I had that feeling that she hated her hand before, but she looked at it for the first time, and mucked it face up, 7-5 off. WHEW! Dodged a small but important bullet. That made me tighten my concentration up and thanks to that misread, I read better the rest of the night than I ever have before. At one point, I actually thought to myself “This must be How Ivey feels ALL THE TIME!” It was amazing. Once again, I was playing well. And this time, I decided to start trusting myself. If I had a read, I went with it. No more second guessing. This was never more evident than in the following hand. Blinds were at 200-400 and it folded to the button who thought for a minute, then raised to 2000. During that bet, a couple things led me to put him on A-K. The small blind considered for a minute (or seven), then mucked. I looked down at 2-4 of spades. This is usually an auto-fold situation, but because of my read, I took a moment. I asked to see wht he had behind and it was less than 10,000. So 2000 to call with implied odds of over 6 to 1, and no risk after the 2000 call. Not to mention, knocking out the player that bad beat me in the last BSPL game. (Revenge was NOT a factor) I made the call and saw the flop. 2-8-4. I liked it a LOT! Knowing I would have to fade runner-runner to lose, and also thinking that the c-bet was coming if I check, I did just that. I check, button shoves, snap-call and he looks disgusted. He shows A-K air and I show my 2 pair. Brick brick and I’m up in chips and we lose our first player. From there I continued to play well, only losing a couple pots here and there but keeping pot control as my main concern. Once again, I get to heads-up. This time the money is bigger, but the resulting chop isn’t that surprising. We chop the money and play for the trophy. After chipping away to get a small lead, I flop 2 pair holding K-9 on a K-J-9 board. I bet, get raised, and I shove. Small deliberation later and a call from Adam. He shows pocket jacks and I’m sitting pretty as a 90-10 favorite. Bigger favorite than the first game, same result. After turning a J a brick hits on the river and once again, I get bat beat out of a win. The final hand didn’t matter much, as it was a race to one pair. So I played some of the best poker in months, and still get ran down twice. It may sound like I’m bitter, but I’m actually thrilled with how I played. I know bad beats happen, and I take them without much reaction. Those two took me a couple minutes to shake, but I got past them pretty quick. Thanks to everybody that made this years BSPL one of the most memorable. Off the felt, Ohio has finally voted to allow casinos into the state. Four will be built, one of which will be in Columbus, downtown near the Bluejackets arena. While I am happy about this, I am also concerned about how the media is slanting the coverage both on television and in the papers. Of course, that is to be expected when the same company owns both the newspaper and the largest of the television station in the area. The casinos have what they want, the chance to print money and create new opportunities here in Ohio. The people have what they want. The chance to try their luck without driving 2 to 4 hours to get to a state next to Ohio that allows casinos. And now the media has what they wanted too. More chances to complain and stir up controversy where there shouldn’t be any. Instead of looking at the positive impact that this WILL have on the local economy, they will instead drill into the heads of those non-thinking followers about drugs, crime, prostitution and domestic violence. In a couple years when they open the doors, the media will have some people convinced that it is because of the casinos that they just got a ticket for driving 97 in a 45 zone. 10-31-09 Happy Halloween!! And what more appropriate holiday could come at this time for me? I have had the scariest run of cards in the past month. At the WSOP-Circuit event this week I was as card dead as anybody could possibly get! I went 2 levels with NO pocket pairs and no card higher than a 6. I don’t even know how that’s possible! 80 minutes with no playable hands. During the entire tourney I had about 4 hands that were worth playing. Once I had 2-2 in a limped pot and flopped a set. Once I had A-Q in a raised pot and went all-in on a Q high board to chop with Eskimo Clark. Last hand before a break it folded to me in the SB and I saw an ace as I was short stacked and shoved on the BB who snapped called. I had A-8, he had A-9 and we chopped that one. First hand back from break I had A-A in a raised pot from the button. I shoved and got snap called by K-6 off suit. (WTF?) Obviously he flopped K-3-K and turned a 6. GG me! So I’m hoping that my run bad is finally in the past and I can keep my head up and focus on the future. I’m keeping this short this time. The final BSPL game is this coming Friday, followed by the championship table. So next week will have a lot more to talk about. Until then, 10-14-09 With the accelerated schedule that I have had to go with to make sure all of our BSPL games are completed, we needed to get 2 of the tourneys in on one night this month. As it turned out, that worked out better for me than I could have anticipated. After getting very low in chip early in both tourneys, I was able to grind my way back and take both of them using some what different styles during heads-up play. The first was more of a straight forward. Pretty close to even in chips for most of the match until I made a call and my paired 3 held up. And then grinding away in the second and making a strong comeback from about 4-1 chip deficit. It looks like I’ve finally found my game again, but is it too late? One more league tourney and I’ll let you know. With the WSOP-ME final table just around the corner, I’ve been thinking about some of my earlier predictions. I’ve said that, in my opinion, Phil Ivey and James Akenhead are the two players to watch. Phil is coming in short stacked to the table, but not to the blinds. That doesn’t mean he’s going to sit back and wait to move up the pay-out ladder. He’s going to be playing to win and if any of the big stacks think they can bully him off a hand because the cash is better one spot higher, that’s going to end badly for them. I’m most interested in seeing the rest of the table’s faces if and when Phil doubles up that first time. I bet you’ll be able to see the pure dread on their faces as they realize that they are all playing for second place. However, even though I’m picking Ivey to win it all (along with the rest of the poker community), it would not surprise me in the least to see him make a quick exit. He’s not playing for second place, he’s going big, or going to the golf course. As for James Akenhead, he doesn’t get the consideration or respect that he deserves. He’s a strong player that is showing staying power. He’s been at this for a while now and if anybody at that table overlooks him, he’ll make them pay. I look for him to build slowly, show a lot of patience, and pick his spots well. That’s what he does. No matter what happens, the only player at this time that I’m not rooting for will remain Jeff Shulman. He has turned this into his own personal protest against Harrahs and the WSOP. He doesn’t respect the bracelet, so it’s my opinion that he doesn’t deserve it. Go November 8!! Hit the rail Jeff!! See you on the felt, 09-12-09 The past year and a half has been a time of change, unrest, and uncertainty in my life. I’ve been through many challenges, both personal and professional, and so far I’m still alive and kicking. The road behind me has been a reminder to me that life is always a challenge. I also know that the road ahead will be full of pitfalls as well as rewards for making it through these difficult days. There are more changes for me in the near future. One that will impact others, on a much smaller scale, as well as me. I will update everybody about that within the next month or so. In the meantime, when this blog isn’t updated as often as I have been able to do in the past, please bear with me. Change doesn’t always come easy for me. After quite possibly my worst results ever at a BSPL night, I find myself looking at a tough hill to climb, but I’m NOT giving up yet! Congrats to Gilkey for a second straight win (even if it was a chop, jk) and get ready for a flurry of activity in the league games as they may be combined and will at least be accelerated within the next month if a couple things happen. Tourney at the CSC this Thursday if I’m in town and from there it’s all depending on outside influences. Until I know more, 09-04-09 I have been a bit behind on this blog lately. For any of you that read this with any regularity, I apologize for that. I’ll try to be more consistent from here on, but I should warn you that I have a few things coming up that may slow me down again. I’m not going to talk about them until after they have come to conclusion. So for now, I’ll get back to the poker talk. For a week or so, I tried to keep my focus on the online challenge that I’ve mentioned a few times here. If you are not familiar with it I’ll recap. I and a few others each started with $10 in an account for various online poker sites. The challenge started as a cash game only race to $1000. It started and stopped a few times, and as of right now, it’s on again. I recently took the bank roll I had of just under $50 and bounced it up to just over $200. All that in about 4 days. I’ve slacked off a little over the past week or so, but I will force myself to get back after it. According to the buzz I’m currently sitting in 2nd place by about $100. Not an impossible task, but I still need to get grinding. The restrictions on game selection have been lifted. All games at all levels are now fair game. I’ve played quite a few sit-n-gos and had very good results. If it gets close, or I see that any of the others are within $100 of the goal and I’m still back more than $300, I’ll shove into a large tourney and roll the dice in a donkament for my challenge life. As for the Alzheimer’s HORSE tourney after the BSPL game, it didn’t exactly go off the way it was supposed to. We ended up playing a smaller buy-in and only threw half the add-ons into the jug. We have now cracked the $400 mark, but we’re still far behind the goal. Oh well, maybe we’ll catch the right situation and pull it out of our,,,,,, uh,,,,, thin air? That’s all I have for tonight. It’s been a long and stressful day and week for me. Hopefully I’ll be able to iron a few things out so I can talk about them here. Until then, thanks for the support. It’s easy to see who your friends are when things are going in the wrong direction. 07-30-09 UPDATE!!! The Alzheimer’s Association H.O.R.S.E. tourney will be held after the BSPL game on 8-14-09. Buy-in will be 40+10 with an optional 10 for double starting chips. This is the modified format so Hold ‘Em, Omaha High, Razz, Stud High, and Omaha 8 or better until heads up. Then it’s NLH the rest of the way. Hope you can make it. I’ll be sending an email out soon. 07-28-09 With the 2009 WSOP on hiatus until November, we have time to think about, talk about, fight about, who we think will do what during the final table. Two names that people will recognize are Jeff Shulman, and a “lesser known” player that seems to show up from time to time, Phil Ivey. A lot of people have already given the bracelet to Phil. I’m not quite in that group,,, yet. I do believe, as does most of the poker community that Phil Ivey is by far the best player on the planet right now, and has almost everything lined up in front of him to take this title. If he was a little deeper in chips I would already be putting his name on the list of ME winners. Last year, Kelly Kim came in as the short stack and blinded himself down until he was mathematically required to call, picked up KK in the BB and doubled once, and then folded his way up the money ladder one spot and getting himself another $250,000 or so. If you expect Phil Ivey to fold his way up to one or two more spots on the money list, you don’t know Phil. When he sits down, even though he’s sitting 8th in chips, he still has more than 30 BB and can do some serious damage to the other players, not to mention they REALLY don’t want to give him more chips to work with. I would not be surprised to see Phil be the first one off the table, but I also would not be surprised to see him pick up that bracelet either. If he doubles up just once early, I’ll be looking at the faces of the other players as they think to themselves, “Oh S#!T!! We’re all playing for second.” Jeff Shulman, as much as he deserves the respect for his accomplishments, might be the least talented player at the table. I’m not trying to cut him down, I just think he has been on a true heater and should be feeling like he’s on a free roll from here out. Also, he has come out and said that if he does win the bracelet, he would throw it away. Since then he’s backtracked a little, and is now deciding just how to dispose of it. I’m guessing that SpadeClub.com will find a way to get in on this one. So sorry Jeff, I’m NOT pulling for you. Just because you, as a CardPlayer Magazine executive, have a problem with the governing body of the WSOP, you still should show respect to the other players that work very hard to get where you have stumbled into. One other named pro, for those that pay atteantion, is James Akenhead. Do NOT overlook him. He has talent, and he runs good. He’s probably my pick to get to heads up with Ivey right now. As long as Phil makes it to the first break. The two players I’m pulling for right now, and this IS subject to change by November, are obviously Phil and James. Now, I think we can work out a little pool for this, so if you’re interested in grabbing a player blind and throwing an “apple” or two into a bucket, let me know. Until next time, 07-24-09 The other day, in one of my rare ventures into online poker, I wanted to see a few hands and take my mind off the headache I was experiencing. So I logged onto a popular online poker site that will remain nameless unless they decide to hand out some swag, and bought into an 18 player s-n-g. These usually take about an hour or so, and that was about the limit of my attention span that day. About fifteen minutes after I get started, a guy walks up to the door and tells me that they’re working on the utilities and the electric is going to be shut off for a couple hours. WHAT??? Are you kidding me? I don’t play online for about 3 months and 15 minutes after I start a tourney I’m going to lose power? This has to be a sign that I’m not SUPPOSED to play online, right? I ask him when it will shut down and he tells me it’ll go off in about 15 or 20 minutes. I say thanks for the info, and decide that if I’m going to get shut off from this tourney, I might as well do all I can to build a stack that might be able to take getting blinded down to the money. The tourney pays 4 spots and there are still 17 in, OUCH! I pick up a couple hands, play a couple weaker players off their hands and end up almost quadrupling up in the next 10 minutes. I know this isn’t enough to get through, and I keep the pressure on. Also, during those hands that I’m not involved in, I make some preparations for the power going out. It isn’t just the fact that my laptop battery now lasts about as long as my daughter’s room stays clean, it’s also that when the power goes, so does the cable modem. However, I do still have a dial up account for some reason, and I grab a phone cord. We get down to 8 players, still have power, 7, still have power, 6,,,,, 5,,,,, BOOM!!! There it goes. One from the money and me with some chips, and none of that will matter. The other stacks are about half of mine, but they’re playing so tight that as soon as they see the “SITTING OUT” next to my name, they’re going to blind me off. I hit the dial up connection, pray my battery hold long enough to get past one more player and cross my fingers. As the table comes back online, my fears have been realized and in the couple minutes I was away, I’ve lost about 3 rounds of blinds and antes. WOW! These guys sure know how to kick a guy when he’s down. Instead of just hitting the “I’M BACK” button, I just watch the cards I get. J-3, Q-5, 2-6. No reason to bother with these since every pot is getting raised. The BB hits me and I pick up A-Q. As usual, UTG pops it and the others fold. To his surprise, this time I go from “SITTING OUT” to RE-RAISE!! He pauses for about half a second before mucking at the speed of sound. SURPRISE! Next hand it folds to the SB who limps, and I pop it again. KILL POT! On my button the UTG raises, then there’s a shove so I let my 9-9 hit the muck. After a call the cards flip as A-K against Q-Q with the queens having big slick covered in chips. The board bricks out to the turn and the A on the river keeps the bubble alive. Will somebody just bust so I don’t waste my buy-in please!!!! Similar hands play out and after 7 rivers save the all-in players, I finally get involved with the shorty and call his shove with my A-J and see his A-6. Of course, a 6 flops and I’m sure my battery will give out before the money. J on the turn, brick on the river and GG shorty. CASH! Now I’m ok with whatever happens. I hate the idea that I should be able to take these guys but probably won’t have a chance. Next hand, 2 all-ins and I pick up A-K. Tough decision in this spot, but for some reason I lay it down and see the AA vs KK fight play out to move me up the payout ladder one more spot. I bust the third place stack with a 8-8 vs. 5-5 and we’re heads up with my battery light flashing like crazy. First hand of heads-up I find KK and shove thinking I won’t get to see if I get called but the power holds, and so does my hand. As the river hits and my hand holds up for the win, the screen goes blank. I don’t even get to see the “Congratulations” pop up on the screen. The most horrific situations and worst conditions and somehow I pull it off. This has to be a sign that I SHOULD play online more!! Well,,,,,, maybe. 07-19-09 The BSPL is going pretty well, even though I seem to be saving my best results for the second tourney each month, the one that doesn’t count. For the third month in a row, I’ve won the second tourney and had to settle for just getting cash and not as many points as I need. However, SWJ is playing her best poker right now so I don’t want it to sound like I’m taking anything away from her performance. Lat night I would have played MOST of the hands the same way even if the cards were face up. So I’m happy with how I’m playing, I just need to get my results to show that. Off the felt, I watched part of the British Open this weekend and was in complete awe of Tom Watson. He played so well and was the perfect representative of a gentleman’s game that more should be said about him and his actions. When a shot didn’t quite go the way he intended, he took his lumps and moved on with grace and dignity. Not all the competitors can say that, including the headliner of most weeks, Tiger Woods. How many times did he slam a club into the ground or his golf bag after a miss-hit or a bad bounce? Tiger missing the cut was talked about as a horrible thing for golf, but I say it’s better for him NOT to play the weekend if he’s acting like a spoiled brat that needs a time out, and that’s just what he got. TIME OUT TIGER!!! Go sit in the corner of your billion dollar mansion and pout where we don’t have to watch! Thankfully, we have a TRUE GENTLEMAN and SPORTSMAN leading the way. Thank you Mr. Watson. I wish some of the players in the game of poker would take after your lead. When you experience a bad beat, losing your cool just makes you look like more of an ass than you might actually be. Show that you have class. Take your lumps, and move on to the next hand. Character is shown in the way you act when life doesn’t go well for you. Show your true character. And for those of you that having a 59 year old leading a major on the final day just shows that the level of competition has dropped off, think again. Tom Watson may be 59, but he’s an in-shape 59 year old with skills. It’s not like he’s overweight, going blind, unaware old man. He’s 59. At one time maybe I would have thought that was old, but that was before I was closer to 50 than 20. To me, it shows that if you take care of yourself, keeping your body and MIND sharp, golf, like poker, is a game that you can play for a lifetime. So thank you again Mr. Watson. For reminding us that even though people may get caught up in the flavor of the day that gets all the hype, there is more to golf than just one name. After all, Tiger may be the best in the world at this time, but he sure as hell didn’t invent the game. 07-17-09 SPOILER ALERT!!! WSOP INFO IN THIS BLOG I know I usually save this for AFTER the BSPL so I can update points, but a lot has happened in the past couple days and I wanted to get it out. First off: congrats to Phil Ivey, Jeff Shulman, and the rest of the November Nine. And for Phil, AMAZING run this year! 2 bracelets and a M.E.F.T. is one of the most impressive accomplishments I can imagine. With all the excitement that will surround this final table, it can only be helped by the presence of the best living poker player (IMHO). Now let’s see if Harrahs takes this opportunity and does something with it instead of dropping the ball like they did last year. How about a little PUBLICITY!!?? Also in the past week, I have found a local card room that has 4 tourneys a week and cash games after. Granted, if you’re a limit player or a micro-stakes player this isn’t the cash game for you. 1-2 NL looks to be the only game that will get off with regularity. I’m going to attempt to swing some limit into the fray. I’ll let you know how that turns out. I haven’t been there enough to give a full review, so be looking for that in the next couple weeks. And for my friend Kenna James, BIG props for taking down the Dream Team Poker event at the Rio. You played some amazing poker and deserved the title. The Cowboy is BACK!!! And now, the 2009 WSOP is in the books,,,, mostly. Only nine players have a shot at ending their WSOP experience with the ME bracelet on their wrist. I’ll be making my pick in the next month or so, but OBV I’ll be leaning towards Ivey. I don’t think it’s +EV to ever bet against him on the felt. And I NEVER want to forget Devo. He pulled a fourth out of the Venetian Deep Stack ME. STRONG play. And then he turns around and signs with UB, GG DEVO!!! Until next time, 07-10-09 The last couple weeks since my return from Vegas, I have been taking a sabbatical from the felt. Some of the reasons for that are situational, but most of them are self imposed. After all those days, and the constant STT barrage I threw myself into, I just needed a break. It’s interesting to me that some of the best things I’ve done to improve my game have consisted of NOT playing at all. It gives me a chance to recharge the desire I have for the game. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder, in some cases. Now that I’ve been off the felt for a while, I’m craving the competition again. I miss most of the aspects of the battle. The people (most of them), the logic, the feel, even the tactile sensation of the cards and chips in my hands, are all missing for me right now. Prior to today, I was mostly ok with not playing. I had things to do, and still do, but I just didn’t miss the game. Today, I MISS THE GAME! I plan on hitting the tables as soon as possible. Tomorrow at the very latest I’ll be moving chips again. For all of you that might be at my table in the next few weeks, be cautious. Because to paraphrase one of the most famous quotes in my lifetime; “I have a fever. And the only prescription is,,, more cowbell,,, I mean POKER!” 06-29-09 What a trip! Granted, the results could have been better, but for a week in Vegas, it still worked out ok. As usual, the satellites at the WSOP are a money factory. By far, they are the best EV anywhere during the year. When you can buy in to a STT for $175, and 90 minutes later have a $500 toke and be playing 3-handed for another $120 cash, then you just can’t justify NOT playing them as often as you can get a seat. I turned around my trip, paid for my flight, my hotel (granted it was almost ALL comped, thanks Rio), played 2 WSOP events, and all I paid was cab fair. I’ll second guess my decisions to play those events a few times over the next few months, but I’m thrilled with my decisions on the felt. Of the thousands of hands I played during my trip, I’d only like to have 3 of them back again. Sure I had results in other hands that went the wrong way for me, but my reads and decisions were dead on,,,, except in those 3. Gotta love the World Series of Poker. I had planned on getting downtown to play in The Grand and the Binion’s Classic. I did make it into one of the events at Binion’s, but I only played cash at the Nugget. I just couldn’t walk away from the STTs at the Rio. I have already started working out some details for next year. I have talked to a backer and plan on spending most of the series out at the Rio next year. I’m working on my plan for my bankroll, my time away from the felt, and even the entertainment side of things while I’m there. Even if I don’t make it into one of the bracelet events, it WILL be a profitable trip. As for the BSPL, our July game is being moved. When the schedule first came out, it didn’t look like a problem, but as with everything in life, things change. The voted aren’t all in yet, but it’s looking like a 2 week delay. I want to take this last part and wish the best of luck to a couple of the guys still at the WSOP. KJ (Kenna James), Devo (Bryan Devonshire), and AJ (Andrew Jeffreys). I’d LOVE to see all three of you guys at that final table in November. For you and the others that I know and respect that are still at the series,,,,  06-16-09 Sorry about the delay in posting BSPL results. I’ll have to do that when I get back after the 24th. And they’re off!!! Each year about this time, I make the journey out to the happiest place on earth (I don’t care what Disney says), Las Vegas. It’s that magical time of year that brings thousands of participants out to the World Series of Poker. So it’s time for me to head west too. I’ll be at the Rio starting Tuesday, and staying for a week or so, depending on my results. I doubt I’ll be updating much until I return, but who knows. I’ll do what I can. I’m adding a WSOP page to the side menu. IF I can update, it will be added there. This part was written after day one of event #2. BEFORE Ivey decided to wake up and play this year. As for the rest of the series, I’m just interested in seeing it play out.= and rooting for Devo as always. I have resisted the chance to make prop bets on or against players winning bracelets, POY point bets, and many other options. However, that doesn’t stop me from forming opinions on performances. The boldest statement I have made is probably that Ivey will win at least one bracelet, and Bonomo will finish in the top 5 of POY points. No wagering involved,,,, as far as you know.  As for my plans during this year’s series, those are still up in the air a bit. At the moment, my backer wants me to play in The Grand and Binion’s Classic. Not sure how many events but since the deal doesn’t include travel, it will come down to what I can scrape up for personal expenses.  Until I return from the land of Lost Wages, 05-28-09 And they’re off!!! The WSOP has begun with one of the most anticipated events in the history of tournament poker. The $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event #2 will be memorable no matter how it shakes out. The field was sure to attract the best players thanks to the huge buy-in, and it did not disappoint when it comes to the marquee worthy entrants. From Doyle to Daniel to “Elky” and the Phils, this field is fully loaded. It contains so many tables that would be looked at like the line up of the 1927 Yankees. Imagine looking to your left and seeing Meusel, and Gehrig. Then to ease your nerves you look right and see Babe Ruth. That’s the feeling you would have had at Table 58 when you’s see Huck Seed, Greg “FBT” Mueller and Doyle Brunson. Or maybe you’d feel better at Table 90 with Phil Laak, Erick Lindgren, and Ted Forrest. The field is obviously tough. I’m betting on Justin Bonomo, but hoping that Moneymaker has a good run, he really is a good guy that has gotten a bad run in the media. As for the rest of the series, I’m just interested in seeing it play out.= and rooting for Devo as always. I have resisted the chance to make prop bets on or against players winning bracelets, POY point bets, and many other options. However, that doesn’t stop me from forming opinions on performances. The boldest statement I have made is probably that Ivey will win at least one bracelet, and Bonomo will finish in the top 5 of POY points. No wagering involved,,,, as far as you know. As for my plans during this year’s series, those are still up in the air a bit. At the moment, my backer wants me to play in The Grand and Binion’s Classic. Not sure how many events but since the deal doesn’t include travel, it will come down to what I can scrape up for personal expenses. Maybe a week, maybe more, it just depends on air and accommodations at this point. If and when things get confirmed, I’ll make sure it gets posted here and on the calendar. Other than that, I don’t have much to inform you of at the moment. I’ve been working on the books and trying to plan out my Vegas trip so poker talk just isn’t happening right now. I will have something for the next update after next week’s league game. Hopefully after a third straight high finish. So until next week: 05-09-09 Sorry for the delay in updates. Been a crazy month. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. No matter how many times I hear that phrase, I almost always find a new way to interpret it. In the poker world, looking down at rolled up kings, or seeing pocket aces, that’s a beautiful thing. And now that spring has finally hit the Ohio area, the greening of the grass and the filling out of the leaves on the trees against the sunny skies of the coming summer compared to the gloom and gray of the past season is a truly beautiful site to behold. Of course, with the upside to each case, there is a down side. Not everybody knows how to handle that much beauty at once. It has been an increasing problem on the roads that the drivers that seem to be amazed by the beauty, and can’t stop gazing at the wonders or the start of spring, also stop watching where they’re driving, what they’re doing, and completely forget that there are other people in the world that are trusting them with the ability to pay attention to what they’re doing, and help everybody get from point A to point B alive and unharmed. For those people that can’t; put down the cell phone, refrain from staring at the duck flying to the pond, the dog walking it’s owner, gawk at the women that are finally able to wear less clothing, read the paper, eat a burrito, pass out fast food to the kids in the back seat, fix their eyeliner, tie their shoes, or even change out of work clothes into shorts (ok, maybe I did that once or twice) while driving, GET OFF THE ROAD!!! You’re only asking to hurt somebody else. If you want to kill yourself that way, more power to you, but stay away from me, my family, and my friends you MORONS!!!!! Ok, I took a minute and I’m a little calmer now. Back to the beauty thing. At the tables, when you look down and see a HUGE hand a lot of people do the same thing as those previously mentioned “drivers”. They stop paying attention to the rest of the world, and start getting their money into the pot. Everybody has at one time done this very thing. Your hand is more than a little likely to be the best and you stop worrying about anybody else, relax, and start throwing chips into the middle. The problem with that, as with idiots on the road, is that there are other players at that table. Of course, the difference is, this time you WANT to hurt them. If you automatically start firing each time you have that lock hand, you’ll end up never getting any action and missing out on money that should have ended up in your stack. If you stop paying attention to those other players, you might just miss a chance to maximize your return on each bet. There are many times that you may pick out that a player is weak, on tilt, or maybe feels very strong. Each of those situations will give you the opportunity to play a different way in order to extract the most from each player. The weaker ones, if they’re the only ones left to act, may need to be coaxed into playing that hand and catching up a little. The guy on tilt, if you raise him the right amount, may push his whole stack at you. The strong player, you can check raise him into the pot and possibly get him pot committed before he realizes it. Big misses come down to more than just AK seeing a flop of 358; they also come from missed ROI. Beauty is a gift to all of us. The fact that we can appreciate it and marvel at it is one of the true wonders of the world. Just remember that with the ability to admire that beauty, comes a responsibility. Make sure that in the moment of taking in beauty, you don’t do harm to other,,, unless you can get their chips. 04-11-09 Contradictions are a common occurrence in poker, and in life. The simple fact that poker is less gambling and more skill is lost on most of society. This misconception is helped along with the fact that a lot of poker players that make it onto a televised final table will gamble on big hands, giving the producers the drama that they crave for the show. The idea that skill is the driving factor in the decisions made at the table by the best players is lost when the percentages show up on the screen as a 50% to 50% chance of a pro holding AK going up against a pocket pair of 44. The general public see this and are convinced that a “coin flip” is a gamble, so poker must be gambling. What most of those viewers don’t understand is the rest of the factors that must be considered when throwing chips into a pot without being a heavy favorite. There are times when the money risked is an acceptable loss for the chance to eliminate a player. With one more player gone, moving up the prize money ladder can mean thousands to each player still in the game. Also when a player is so short stacked that the only reasonable action is to fold or commit their whole stack. If the blinds and antes are eating away a stack that will only last once more around the table, and an above average hand is found, it can be mathematically correct to get your money in as a slight underdog. Not that all players are dreaming about getting their money in with the worst hand, but sometimes it’s still the right decision if you’re playing to win. Poker players need to find a balance between the goal of getting the chips that are on the table with a total disregard for money. Of course, that is an extreme example, but it still demonstrates that the gamble in poker is less gambling than most people may see. This is also true away from the felt. Many times in a day each person had risks to take that contradict their beliefs. The need to be safe and out of harm’s way is weighed against the need to speed to work so you’re not late, giving the chance to lose your job (safe 40% speed 60%). The desire to keep healthy eating habits goes up against the convenience of the fast food joint on the corner (healthy 30%, greasy burger 65%). The chance to get the woman of your dreams vs. losing the girl you’ve been with for the past six months (dream girl 28% girl you have 63%). Notice that the numbers don’t always, and very rarely, add up to 100%. This is due to the fact that maybe you’ve been late before, the traffic may stop you from speeding, the fast food joint might have a salad, the dream girl still hates you, and the girl you’re with finds out you’re still thinking about the dream girl and dumps your butt because of it. Contradictions are very prevalent on and off the felt. It’s just pretty interesting to me that when questions are asked of situations, from how to play a hand to which girl to ask out, most people are expecting to hear an answer that is a clear black and white answer. There’s too much grey area to hope for that. I’m learning to embrace the contradiction in my life, even appreciate them. I hope everybody else can do the same. I’m off the box now, until next time, 04-01-09 This past weekend I played my way into a 2k guaranteed tourney on an online site. With 414 runners, and 63 of them making into the money, I promptly went out 64th. Bubble me baby! For the most part, the tourney was an experience of frustration. Included in that was my K-K < A-8 (THAT crippled me late on the bubble) and the player on my right (same as A-8) going all-in for about 30 straight hands. I wish that was an exaggeration, but unfortunately for all at the table, it’s not. But no sour grapes. It was at least interesting. And a big THANKS to PokerNews for putting up the jack! I have recently been in touch with some players that are interested in improving their game. Some to become the best they can be, and others that just want to improve their results in the home games they play on a regular basis. I am flattered by the fact that they respect my opinions and would like my assistance in their quest. AS those that know me would testify, there is no lack of confidence in my game. The fact that I’m being asked for my input adds to that confidence. One player in particular plays mostly online. This does present a unique set of restraints on my ability to help him. The strength of my game has always been in live games where I can play more of a feel game. The math knowledge is there for me, but I most of the time I only use it as a fall back for those situations that are a really close decision. For me, online poker is mostly math, and only partially based on feel. The betting patterns are the only part of the game that I can pick up on. Granted that is a large part of every game and should be viewed as one of those important things to focus on during play. I have taken a couple players into my confidence in the past. These were not really “coaching” sessions as much as strategy sessions. Discussing the way situations can be turned to the advantage of positions at the table other than the button, the use of c-betting on the turn instead of the flop, when chip stacks are no longer at a level that a standard raise is viable, etc. These are all issues that have many options and each option creates another set of situations that has many options that create situations,,, you get the point. The hardest thing to get new players to realize is that there is never a time when one answer can apply to a given situation. You may think that if you’re down to 4BB in a tourney and the player on your right shoves, has you covered, and you pick up AA that you should call every time. What if you are on the bubble, there are already 3 players in the pot, and making the money gives you your rent money for the month? Not as easy as it sounded in the beginning is it? The only advice I plan on giving right now is that an keeping an open mind to every situation and learning to think through those situations is quite possibly the most important thing to work on in improving your poker game. I’m off the box now, until next time, 02-17-09 The Alzheimer’s Association event helped add to the donation that will be made later this year, and overall was an evening of poker. How successful it was cannot be measured by the amount raised or the level of play. Unfortunately, not every player exhibited the best etiquette or grace. Most of the time, as the regular players in the BSPL will attest, the manners and flow of the game are at a pretty high standard. I am very proud to be part of a group of individuals that show respect to the other players and to the game. This wasn’t exactly the case on Friday, but it wasn’t a huge problem either. I hope all that were offended can allow the issue to pass and chalk it up to just “one of those nights.” Other than the poor actions and attitude that we endured, the night was still a chance to have some fun and play the game that we love. I know this won’t be the last time that this type of behavior will show it’s face, as it wasn’t the first, but I hope we learn from it and allow ourselves to take advantage of the opportunity to grow not only at the tables, but in life. Ok, off the box. And right onto another box. Mental note: When you want to complain about taking constant bad beats, either live or online, DO NOT celebrate when you turn around and hand out several during a single session. It amazes me how perspective can change for a player so quickly. I have taken my share of horrific beats, as I’m sure we all have. I do not like them and it’s little consolation that yes, I did get my money in good and just got unlucky. However, I do my very best to not complain about it. If the players giving those beats get a little confidence that they are playing well, even after hitting a 3 outer to win a pot, then in the long run, I’m sure the money will end up in front of me, and they’ll finish the game on the rail. I’ve been excited about putting beats on others, but not proud of it so there’s no reason that I should celebrate it. Getting my money in bad and getting lucky shows just how poorly I played the hand. There are exceptions to every rule, but in general, getting my money in bad is something I try NOT to accomplish with great regularity. And now, off box number two. Until next time, 01-04-09 Another new year. A clean slate. A chance to leave the past in the past and look only to the present and the future. What a GREAT concept, don’t you think? Except that when we leave the past behind, and only focus on the “now” and the “yet to come”, we tend to stop learning from our past mistakes. Not only in poker, but in life. The past couple years I’ve been dealing with some personal demons. Almost every aspect of which I brought on myself. The only blame that can be placed, is on my shoulders. I hope to find closure on some of these issues in the beginning of this year. As for some other aspects of my life, I will still need to address them. I try not to burden others with my personal trials and problems, and in fact, I try not to talk about them at all. I’m only mentioning this here so those that wonder can know that I’m getting by, and see the light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you for your support, and most of all, your friendship. Now to poker. 2009 will be a different type of year for me in the poker world. I have no idea about a tournament schedule, or if I’ll even make it to the WSOP this year (see paragraph above for explanation). I do, however, plan on playing in a few of the larger tournaments in the area including the WSOP-C events this coming fall. In addition, Wheeling Island has recently become a member casino for the USPT. Any that feel interest in becoming members of the USPT, please let me know so I can get you the best deal possible. The events that take place for the USPT at Wheeling have yet to be announced, so I’ll have to see how many of those I can actually make. I also plan on playing online a little more this coming year. The challenge that I mentioned towards the end of last year fell apart due to a few other factors (see paragraph above for explanation) and is on hold for the near future. I still plan on fulfilling that commitment, and when things start up again I’ll make sure to post about it here. I also hope to have a few cash fames in the BSP Room in 2009. The larger games in Ohio have mostly dried up, and I really miss using the different poker muscles that are needed in a cash game. Any interest, PLEASE contact me so I can get you on the cash game email list. I also have a couple goals (no, not resolutions) for my game this year. I can’t mention them here, in case you end up at my table. So for now, I’ll wish all of you a Happy New Year! I wish nothing but the best for you all in this bright, opportunity filled, new year.
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