WBCOOP Time

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Registration code: 554151

Cherokee

I took my confidence up to the Harrah’s Cherokee poker room the weekend before Christmas. I was originally going to drive up Friday after work and stay until Sunday morning, but when making my reservations, I decided to drive up Saturday morning and just spend Saturday night. What a great decision that turned out to be due to the snow storm that hit the area Friday night. The roads were clear Saturday but I counted almost 20 cars that were stuck or abandoned in the fairly short distance from the NC state line to Cherokee. While driving in Georgia, the sun was shining and I had no idea that I would even see snow on this trip. That all changed as soon as I was about ¼ mile in to NC. It was bizarre, I looked in the rear view mirror and could see bright sun shining on the Georgia side with no snow anywhere, but on the NC side, it was grey with snow all over the ground.

The first thing I did when I hit Cherokee was head to Pizza Inn to get my beloved Taco Pizza and as usual, it didn’t disappoint. I had a great waitress and she kept me hooked up and even brought me 4 pieces of chocolate chip pizza for dessert. I could only eat 2, but she was sweet for trying.

After lunch, I checked in to my room and then drove a mile up the road to Harrah’s. It has changed so much since we buzzed through it some time last year. The new lodging portions under construction look like it triple its current size within 2 years. The poker room is easy to get to from the side and you don’t have to walk through the smoking section. They have 5 or 6 PokerPro cardless tables by PokerTek.

I went to the cage and loaded $400 on to my players card and sat down at a 1/2 table. I bought in for $100 to get a feel for the game. Half the table were regulars and all had more than a buy-in in front of them so I decided to wait for premium hands. Apparently, that’s not what is necessary to build your stack at this table. My first buy-in plus early profit went to the one of the old timers after we had a 3 way all-in pot while I’m holding pocket aces. His pocket sixes caught up on the river after our money was in on the flop.

Reload again and burn through most of that one with pocket kings that fell to 3 of a kind on the turn or rivered flush, I’m not sure. I gave the rest of my stack away when I pushed with pocket queens preflop and they get crushed by A6. Reload again and work my stack up to about $120. 2nd to act makes it 12 or 15 preflop and I call with AK. The guy to my left and 1 other calls as well. The flop comes A, J, 10 and the intial bettor throws out $50. I have 2 choices, fold or push. I’m thinking this is just a continuation bet, so I throw in my last hundredish. The guy to my immediate left min raises. Uh oh! The next guy agonizes and then folds and it’s back to the original raiser. He goes all in. Double Uh oh! and is immediately called. So I know I’m up against at least 1 set and probably 2 pair. The virtual cards are flipped over and sure enough, I’m in 3rd place but not drawing dead. It turns out the initial bettor flopped a set of jacks and the guy behind me had K,Q for the straight. I’m looking for 3 outs for a chop with my top pair top kicker. The straight holds up and I sink my last $100 in for another buy-in.

A different one of the regulars had run his stack up to $1200 thanks to flopping 2 flushes and a straight, but he was bleeding them off easily. I was really hoping I could use my last buy-in to get my share. I folded my way down to around $80 and then get pocket jacks. I raised it up to $10 and get 3 callers. Oh joy. The flop comes 6,J,6. Oh joy indeed. I check and then the next guy takes a stab. He gets called by the next 2 so when it comes back to me, I just shove my last $70. One guy drops, but the other 2 call. My hand holds up and I’m sitting with almost $250. I wasn’t able to do much more after that and I finally cashed out when my stack was back down to $200 even. That made me a $200 loser over the 8 hours of play, but other than maybe the AK hand, I think I did everything pretty solid against these guys. As I was leaving, I glanced over at the previous big stack and he was now down to $400 and getting attacked by the other stacks. I had had enough for the day and couldn’t hang around any longer to try and get more.

I am going to try to try and hit the casinos in Tunica,Biloxi, and Cherokee more often next year. Most likely, my next trip to a casino will be in southern Indiana. My brother and his family just moved to Cincinnati, so it looks like I will be able to check out a mid-western casino this spring. He and I will hit up Hollywood Casino and their new WPT poker room. It looks like they do $1/3 NLHE. The next closest to him is the Belterra Casino. It does a $1/2 NLHE with a $50 min and $300 max buy-in. The Horshoe is just a little bit further and does $1/2 and $1/3.

End Of The Year Poker

For 2009, I was able to keep poker as a hobby that continues to pay for itself. My last 2 live sessions unfortunately didn’t help pad the 2010 bankroll.

I bubbled the Georgia boys’ “Main Event” earlier in the month. That’s too bad, because it could have funded most of my 2010 games over at Kajagugu’s neighborhood. I was very happy with the way I played and it help me feel like my 2009 success was not just a streak of good luck. With 4 of us left and me barely with the second largest stack, I raised with pocket jacks preflop from the button. The small blind reraises. His total stack has about 3 big blinds less than me and if I fold or just call, I still have about 10 big blinds left. On the previous hand, he had just knocked out “Main Event Mike” when his A8 bested Mike’s pocket queens. With this in mind, I decided to just call and hope no paint comes on the flop. The flop comes out and there is nothing higher than a 9 on the board. He is first to act and shoves all-in. I got the flop I wanted and put him on a A high, maybe top pair, top kicker so I call. It was the correct call as he had AK. I had to sweat the next 2 cards but couldn’t stay ahead as he hits a K on the river. I unsuccessfully pushed with my short stack on the next hand and got eliminated on the bubble. It was a bummer, but I gave it my best and I’ve put worse beats on others this past year.

I will finish the year by playing in the Mookie tonight. This will mark only my second appearance in this game for all of 2009. The other time was back in May. I must play more often in 2010. This isn’t a resolution as much as a revelation that I played very little blogger games this year. I genuinely like most of the players and I love joining Buddy (damn, it's been a while, all my links are dead) and Joanada on the air. I guess the biggest reason I play so little is the toll it takes on me the next day if when I go deep and it kills my necessary sleep time. I realize that makes me a wuss, but it’s true. I am too susceptible to headaches as it is and getting little sleep is a sure fire way to bring one on. This time I have Thursday off, so naturally I’ll go out in the first level. See you there........OK, after looking at the lobby this morning, I take it I'm not the only one who is missing from these games lately. Hopefully more will sign up and I can catch up with some bloggers.

Next post – Cherokee.

Home Game Success

Wow, I think November was the first time I haven't blogged for an entire month. I guess since I've joined Twitter, I get out my little smart ass remarks and don't come here as often. The other reason is quite frankly, I've really got nothing much going on right now.

I was really hoping to make it to Vegas next week for the Winter WPBT Event, but it's not going to work. I already had it scheduled as vacation but didn't have the trip booked. When I was ready, Stacie said she couldn't commit because she was concerned that she was going to have to help her mom after her surgery. Fortunately, her mother didn't need surgery so it looked like the trip was back on, but heavy spending in November killed it from a financial perspective. We made alternate plans and will do a staycation for our long weekend and do some Atlanta stuff like seeing the DaVinci exhibit at the High. Next year, I am just going to go ahead and book the flight as soon as it dips below $300 and just deal with other things if they come up. It's just too easy to talk ourselves out of spending more money after paying for expensive house and car maintenance items.

It might be just as well that I'm not going anyway because my lucky poker streak may be nearing the end. I played in the regular game with Kajagugu last night and I chopped for most of top place in the first game along with collecting 4 bounties and getting to keep my own. This put me on a freeroll for the second game but I didn't cash. This ended my sick run of winning or chopping for first in 7 of the last 7 home games in his neighborhood and mine. I finally came back to reality when I didn't even cash in the second game. I really hope the no cash was just a fluke, because my neighborhood is having our higher buy-in Main Event this afternoon and it should be a decent prize pool. I already jinxed myself when I made a comment after the first game so I figured it is safe to blog about it now. I was bragging and then was immediately smited.

Since I am not going to Vegas and I have a few extra dollars in my poker fund, I think I will make a run up to Harrah's Cherokee some time before Christmas. The have a good size poker room that only has the video tables, but I have heard it's a good opportunity to make a little dough and it's smoke free. They still don't serve alcohol and I don't know if that will change. I don't care that I can't drink, but I wonder how it affects the play at the table. It's always great to see the drunk guy keep reloading. Hopefully they will come premedicated or just bring their own mixers like their going to a football game. Speaking of football, I must with Stacie's Clemson Tigers good luck today in the ACC Championship. It was great to see them make it, but they have a tough game against Bayne's Yellow Jackets.

Fantastic Birthday Weekend

It wasn’t done specifically for any celebratory reasons, but last weekend turned in to a birthday weekend full of fun activities. I began the beginning of my 40th year by cashing in both games at Kajagugu’s neighborhood. That was a nice boost to the live bankroll and I cleared enough to pay my buy-ins for the next 3 months with 2 games each night. During football season, the games in my neighborhood dry up so I really look forward to spending the evening with the EG friends once a month.

Saturday was spent chilling around the house watching football and playing small stakes cash games online. Auburn was able to extend their undefeated season under our new coach. That was subsequently squashed yesterday against Arkansas but I’m still pleased so far. We need a ton of work, but they have proven that the are capable of putting lots of points on the score board.

Speaking of small stakes poker, I rarely can clear any bonus programs that online poker sites run because I don’t play enough when it comes to time or the monetary stakes it takes to accumulate points. Another reason is because I haven’t needed to deposit to PokerStars or FullTilt since my initial deposit to each several years ago. FullTilt did have a Take 2 promotion that didn’t require any deposit to qualify. It was the easiest I have ever participated in because it had such easy terms. I didn’t play quite enough to take full advantage, but I did make $25 of the $50 available. To do it, I played less than 1 hour a day at (2) .02/.05 games at the same time for as many days as I could. I was able to reach the 3rd level by playing 15 of the 30 days. I didn’t realize I was making enough points while playing on my lunch hour so I let some days slip. If I had been paying more attention, the full $50 would have been very easy just by playing 25 of 30 days. I’ve now signed up for the Ivey’s share thing they have going, so we’ll see what that will get me.

Sunday was a full day. It started with me going to Best Buy and picking up my birthday present. I got a Samsung BD-P1600 Blu-Ray player. I am totally digging on this player. It has great load speed along with Netflix, You Tube, and Pandora applications that I can take advantage of since my router is very close to my big screen set up in the bonus room. I have been watching this model since it came out earlier this year but I wasn’t willing to pay over $200 for it. A couple of weeks ago, everybody lowered the price to 199.99 and Wal-Mart even had it for 189.99 I think. Since it wasn’t a must have purchase, I figured I would wait until Black Friday and see what specials could be had. I was willing to wait, but Best Buy had the player with a $50 gift card for 199.99 so I figured that was about as good as it was going to get. I used the gift card to replace a dead UPS and picked up The Dark Knight on Blu-Ray.

In addition to taking most people’s money on Friday night, I was given 2 tickets to the Braves’ season ending game at home. When I got back from Best Buy, I joined Kajagugu, Kajakid, 2 other dads from the poker game along with their kids and we motored down to the ball park. We had a great time but had to leave a little early due to some other party commitments for Kajagugu. We were there long enough for me to get my smiling mug up on the big screen. We left during the 7th inning and the score was tied. I give the players a ton of credit because the game ended up going 15 innings. This was the last game of the year and they still gave the fans more than their money’s worth. Well done fellas.

I got home in time to head to dinner at one of my all time favorite restaurants, Kobe Steaks. You can’t beat their fried rice with bucket loads of the chili paste. I usually order double on the fried rice and this gives me to save for another meal with a little bit of the filet and vegetables I have left. I’ve been to other Japanese steak houses but this one is still the tops for me. It was a fantastic ending to a fabulous weekend that fell perfectly in to place.

Historic Flooding And Words From a Jackass

We had rainfall that measured in feet over the weekend and it caused severe flooding in and around Atlanta with 10 confirmed deaths so far . Our neighborhood is near the Chattahoochee River, but we were never in any danger of having any flood damage at our house since we live on a ridge that overlooks the city. It was still bizarre to watch the news and see all of the damage that is only a few miles from our house in multiple directions. Our county and the 2 neighboring ones are going to account for about $250 million in damage. At one time we had 3 separate interstates closed because they were completely submerged by flowing rivers. At one point, the DOT was actually reporting fish on the interstate.

I have a preferred route that I get to and from work, but it was closed until this afternoon. Luckily, my secondary route wasn't affected and it didn't add but about 5 minutes to my commute. I was able to take my normal route home and was amazed to see the high water marks on the trees and bridge supports.

We've now had a few days of sunny skies but we could have some more coming this weekend, but it isn't expected to be any where near the amounts we had last weekend. Thankfully, we have Kanye to put it in to perspective.

Who Watches My Chips?

Stacie went to Charleston with her best friend over the long weekend and that left me home alone to hang with the fellas for a couple of nights of poker. Kajagugu kicked things off Friday night with a couple of 10 man tourneys. I followed up with a .25/.50 cash night at my place on Saturday after the boys finished watching the Dawgs lose to OSU.

Surflexus, who hasn't blogged in over a year now, joined us for some card action Friday night. He got knocked out of the first game and joined the other early victims who were jamming to Rock Band. Those that have been to Okie-Vegas know that Surf can rock the mic, but did you know he can play piano as well? What a Renaissance man! I was not able to join the band, not that I wanted to, because I was the chip leader in the game. When we got down to 3, we just couldn't kill the short stacked Paul. As we usually do, we decided on a chop so we could get to the second game. We split up the prize pool and I took a 20 spot higher than the other 2 since I had them both covered. I didn't cash in the second game, but I still cleared a profit for the night.

That leads us to Saturday night at my place. I wanted to host a cash game with blind levels a little higher than we normally do. 9 disappointed UGA fans joined me to tilt away their money. I was able to run my stack up to over a hundred due to some more than usual aggressive play and I have been trying to maximize my pots. My new style of play was working well until I tangled with the other big stack at the table. My new found aggressive behavior took me just a little too far when I semi-bluff reraised all in with a flopped 2 pair. He snap calls and shows the flopped straight. I get no paired board love and kiss away roughly 125 on that hand. Why did it have to be against the only other player at the table who could bust me? Because I got greedy that's why. I could have easily folded to his reraise. So did I learn my lesson? Of course not, I gave him my next buyin when I pushed with KK against another one of his reraises on the flop. He turns over another flopped straight and this time I'm drawing dead. Hey, it's 1:30 in the morning and I've lost 2 buy-ins. Screw being a good host, get out! Just kidding, they played it out until roughly 2 and then we called it a night. While I wasn't happy about kissing away a nice stack at the cash game, I managed to keep the weekend to a loss of only 60 bucks. That was well worth the price of admission for a couple of nights with good friends playing a game I love.

The only other thing of note I did over the weekend was watching Watchmen. Really good flick. If you have a spare 3 hours, you should check it out. I knew almost nothing about it so it was it was a pleasure to see it live up to the fanboy hype. I may have to check the library to see if they have a copy of the graphic novel. Hopefully my county is not too Puritan to keep such a piece from their collection.