Oh, The Places You’ll Go

Man I wish I had more time off. Of course, who doesn’t? There are so many chances to meet up with the other bloggers and play some pokah.

The Summer and Winter get togethers in Vegas.
Weekend at Mookies
Okie Vegas at GCox’s
The Bash formerly at the Boathouse
Eh Vegas with Katitude

Don’t you people know what this does to family vacation time? Just kidding, I think it’s great that people are willing to organize these events and host a bunch of out of towners for a weekend. Would anyone be interested in an ATL based get together? 23Skidoo is hosting one for us locals next month if any of you think you'll want to head over for the weekend. I was thinking about something for next year. We’ve got plenty of fun stuff to do in town and the golf selections are plentiful for you duffers. I have access to a nice size clubhouse that could host a fair amount of us if necessary.

Home Game Tilt

We had a great turnout of 19 people for our latest live game last night including Surflexus, newcomer “The Rake” and his friend. It wasn’t at my house, but I still run the show at most locations. This includes bringing chips, table tops and helping the host set up the room. Then I give out the chips, collect money (thanks Mike), do the announcements and try to wrangle the herd of cats to their seats so we can start playing. We got off to a late start since people kept showing up and I was having difficulty getting it organized while introducing all of the players and running back upstairs for more chairs and counting out chips. This is where an accurate head count really helps. Thanks to all of those that responded early.

For the game itself, I entered the pot in only 3 hands. Real short, it went like this:

Fold every hand for level 1 of the blinds.
Near the end of level 2, I’m finally in a hand and open with a raise 3X the blinds and get 3 callers. Knew I was beat and fold to flop bet.
At the beginning of level 3, I’m in only my second hand and raise 3X the blinds and get 3 callers again. Knew I was beat by A,Q or K,Q and folded to flop bet.
A couple of hands later, while I’m in the BB, 4 players just call and I check with my 2,4 offsuit. Flop comes 2,2,6 with 2 spades. I decide to try something different and move in all my chips (1000) in to the pot (around 300). I want to run off flush draws, but maybe draw in someone slow playing a good pair. It was a very confusing bet and I like that. Gotta mix it up sometimes, right? It folds around to the button and he takes a long time thinking it through. He concludes I would not do that if I had the 2 and calls with his pocket 8s. I don’t blame him for that. This was exactly what I wanted. I actually saw it work for that same reason at a WPT final table. I was trying to look like a stupid bluff at a draw. The turn is a blank and he hits his 4% on the river and felts me with 8s full of 2s.

This is kind of how my last month has been going in live play. I have not played flawless, but for me, I have been making some of the best decisions in my short poker life. I usually know when I’m beat, even if I was leading preflop and when I do get my money in while I’m ahead, it isn’t holding up. I’m not talking coin flips here, I’m taking 70%+ favorite hands. Usually my problem online has been pushing in to bigger pocket pairs and getting felted. That part, I can work on. One exception was for the Brit Blogament last Sunday, when I got called by a pocket pair of 2s after I check raise the flop has me a bit puzzled. Of course he hits the third one on the turn to best my top pair good kicker. This part I just have to accept, move on and realize I've hit my miracle cards against other players in the past.

We started up a cash game when 4 of us were out and I got felted on the very first hand. I’m holding J,9 hearts on a board with no pair and 3 hearts (Ah, Kh, and another) and a straight draw showing. I decide to shove and our favorite Scottish chip slinger has Qh, 10h for the only hand that beats me. I was able to keep most of my second buy-in, but was ready to head to the house soon after the lower flush hand. I am glad I got to spend some time with The Rake and I’m sure he left a little amused at our cash table.

I see my Tournament Director / League Manager days coming to an end soon. I don’t mind hosting, but always organizing / running it is starting to take away from my enjoyment of the evening and my concentration during the game. This might be one of the reasons I have not been as successful in our neighborhood versus playing in Kaja’s. I couldn’t imagine putting on as nice of a setup as he does and still playing as well as he does while keeping up with us.

On the nights, like last, that I do get knocked out early and want to go home after socializing, I haven't be able to. If I’m hosting at my place it still sucks to get knocked out early, but it doesn’t bother me as much because I can always put stuff away later and I already have the expectation of “entertaining” for the evening. I hope this doesn’t impact the amount of games we play in 2008, but we will have to make some changes for the upcoming season.

I stayed up way too late last night and I’m beat, so no Mookie for me tonight. I will most likely be in the Riverchasers on Thursday.

Happy Thanksgiving

Not much going on around the house lately, mainly just fighting a cold. Of course a little poker here and there with our neighborhood league and some tailgating at the........ummmm...... Auburn / Georgia "game." Nice job there fellas. I have had moderate success thanks to taking 2nd in our last home game. I hope this will give me enough points to make it to our Tournament of Champions in January. We still have 3 more games to go, but I'm optimistic about my chances. I have been making the right decisions, but I'm getting slaughtered when I'm the big favorite. I guess I'm now experiencing the other side of the 20 and 30%.

I haven't played much online. I bombed out of the Riverchasers last week pretty early when I ran Jacks in to Aces preflop. He raised pretty big on the button and I thought it was just a "don't call me" steal attempt so I shoved from the big blind. Whoops, game over. Very nicely played sir. I missed my chance at a bounty when earlier, I folded a suited King that would have flopped a flush and turned a straight flush. That's OK, I don't need to get in the habit of playing K,4 of hearts, right? Of course had I known about the bounty, I might have stepped out there for the measly call.

I did win a token for the MATH, but I'll have to use it next week since the token game didn't finish before 10. I've never played in the MATH, but I decided with the BBT2, it was time to try. I also dipped my toes in the .05/.10 game, but misplayed pocket Aces while I was watching Surflexus take 7th in his rebuy tournament. Since it is proven that I can't multitask, I left the table and concentrated on the token game.

This is usually the busiest live game time for me. College football is about done, yard work is pretty much over and people have more time off with vacation and holidays so we have plenty of volunteers to host games. We have 3 neighborhood games planned, probably 1 additional at Kajagugu's, and the ATL blogger meet up at 23Skidoo's in the next 30 days. The neighbors and I will also squeeze in some more from Christmas through New Year's. Good times, and I'm thankful for my opportunities to play the game I enjoy and a wife that is cool with it.

Home Game at Kaj's

Surf, APOSEC72, and I met over at Kajagugu's place over the weekend for a few games. Some of his usual players were there along with a couple of my crew. His home game is slowing being taken over by the bloggers and our invites. I hope we aren't scaring off his neighbors from future games.

After a disappointing first game, I was able to regroup and with the help of some ridiculous premium pockets, I easily took first out of 8 for a good score. The first game was finally over and they were ready to start a new one. I told them I probably wouldn't hang around for another since we still had 5 of us left in the second. They said they would wait for a little bit in case some of the others wanted to play another. David asked if he could play both at once. Talk about Jonesin' for some poker. It turns out we wouldn't have to wait very long. I was the chip leader, but the blinds were up to push fest levels and I folded a couple of hands and then it started raining cards for me. I took 6 hands in a row and knocked out the remaing 4 players. This easily funded my first game loss and gave me a freeroll to hang around for the third.

The third game was more social, thanks to the SoCo. Al had sent a bottle to APOSEC72 as a bounty from an earlier online game. Kaj poured "shots" for our half of the table. It's hard to measure a shot when you are using the 12oz Solo cups. After setting up 4 of us, half the bottle was gone. That stuff must be made of liquid stupid. Just kidding, that's not true at all, it just seemed to turn out that way. All 4 of us emptied our chips soon after emptying our cups. It didn't help when I got knocked out with A7 in the BB versus A3 in the SB and another 3 came right out of the door.

I hope to do well in the game I'm hosting tonight. It won't be large enough for 2 full tables, but I'm glad we always have enough to fill 1. I can not express enough the quality of some of the players in our home games lately. It's hard not to have a tough time when you have Kaj and Surf in the same game. Awesome job to both on their finishes in the MATH last night. Let's see if Kaj can win his second trip to Australia.

Tagged for 7 Random Things

Kajagugu tagged me:

A). Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog...
B). Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself...
C). Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs...
D). Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog...

Since 100 things and then 7 more wasn't enough, here are another seven. After reading through my other lists, some of the original statements have changed.

I can't wear jeans every day anymore (BOOOOOOOOO!), but I still wear sneakers daily.
The $3 gas statement (that didn't last long)
I've added a 1st place chop to my WWDN tourney score (new tally is 2 firsts, 1 chop for first, 1 second)
I have now played poker in a casino. Cash at the MGM and the blogger tournament at the Orleans.
I don't ALWAYS listen to Seal now that we have BuddyDank Radio.


New Stuff:

1) I have 2 Mookie wins.

2) When I was a kid, my friend and I snuck on to the property surrounding the Federal prison at Ft. Leavenworth, KS. They had a few buffalo roaming around and a little pond where we tried to go fishing. Since we were such brilliant preteens, we brought along my BB gun replica of the Winchester '73. The fishing action got a little slow so we decided to play like Bill Cody and took a few shots at the hairy beasts. Keep in mind that this was a single cocking gun that would shoot out the BB so slow that you could watch it leave the barrel and follow it all the way to the target. The most logical target were the balls the size of bowling balls hangin low. We got a lucky shot and it hit one square on his sack. Instead of wild bucking and charging like we expected, he simply let out a snort and continued grazing, but we laughed hysterically just the same. By this time, we had been spotted by the authorities and they came charging through the field and through the loudspeaker were telling us to "stay where we are." Of course to us, that means grab your shit and run for the fence line. We ran like hell and were able to make it out before the big yellow crash truck could catch up with us.

3) I probably need glasses, but I just hate to take the time to go pick out a pair. The exam doesn't bother me as much as shoppping for the frames.

4) The drunkest I've ever been was in Orlando for Ga Tech's National Championship appearance in the Citrus Bowl back in '91. Me and some other guy killed a fifth of tequila in the parking lot of Sea World. I drunkenly stumbled my way in to park. There were a couple of girls in the gift shop helped me get in with someone else's wrist band. The last thing I remember was going up to Shamu's tank and spreading out my arms like I was going to hug him. My buddies found me laid out in the flower bed at the entrance that spells out SEA WORLD. The next day, I barely made it to my seat, but only lasted about 5 minutes in the direct sunlight before I had to retire to the emergency station. I "checked" myself in to the ambulance and they tried giving me fruit punch Powerade. I thought I was better by half time and tried to go back in to the stadium. As I was leaning against the stadiums out wall, 2 horse mounted cops came to check on me. I told them I was fine but then immediately threw up on one of the horses. I looked up and told him I would head back to the amubulance. He gritted his teeth and said "I think that would be best!" I'm positive if we had not been in such a public place, I would have gotten the wooden shampoo.

5) I had a kick ass fake ID. It was my existing license that I completely recovered the face with new rub on letters and numbers and then another clear sheet on top. I still have it.

6) I will be the only person in my immediate family to make it 40 without a divorce. I was also the oldest to get married.

7) I have never learned a foreign language. I was in the last graduating class in high school and college that did not require it.


Next to be tagged
FishyMcDonk - come back man
"Main Event" Mike G
The Rake
Hoff
Love_Elf
Mean Happy Guy
KuroKitty

Good Start for BBToo

We totally sucked in our first playoff softball game last night. It was supposed to be called at the top of the 5th because we were getting blanked 15-0, but the umpire let us have our last at bat. We managed to score 1 run to fight off the shutout.

It was an early game, so it gave me time to play a little online. Last night's Riverchasers was the first blogger game I have played in a while. I lost 1/3 of my stack early when my Ace with strong kicker hands failed to complete. Even though I was always in the bottom 10 through the first 2 breaks, I never felt it was over. I tightened up a little and waited for better cards. I never got called when I raised with good cards, so I loosened up a little to go for some steals. These started to work as well and I found myself in better than average position. Since my membership to the luckbox society is current, I was able to survive some hands where I was behind when I pushed. 1 was for a split, but the biggie was hitting my 5 outer against Bayne. I tried to represent the hand I didn't think he was holding and got lucky that I wasn't drawing dead.

I was able to keep moving up the ladder and my high water mark was 3rd, but I usually hovered around 5th and this is also how I finished. This was a much needed boost to my bankroll. I am usually only donking around the $1 SNGs any more, but I think I can move up a bit to the $5 tables with a blogger game every now and then.

Tonight is a little home game action with Surf and Kaj. I always look forward to this game and maybe I can post a nice cash.