I Finally Found A Fish......Not Me This Time

With a win from a $2 10 person SNG, I took my $10 prize to the cash table. I was up to as much as 14, but my normal cash play kicked in and I dropped to around 5. I was about to call it a night when this guy shows up with his multidollar raises preflop and on the flop. I had found the elusive chip spewing, cash-reloading, crazy raising carp. I've heard that they exist, but I've never seen one without looking in a mirror.

I've only played cash online a few dozen times and nothing above the .05/.10 level and a $10 buy-in. I'm usually the one losing my buy-in slowly over the course of a few hours, but this mad man was begging to be stacked. So when I saw someone that made me excited about the opportunity to cash, you know he was insane. I channelled a limping / trapping style of Hellmuth and waited patiently. I let many dimes pass until I had a good hand and then let him do his usual raises. Preflop, he would raise any where from 2-5 dollars when there was only 15 cent in the pot. Other than a brutal suckout and a kicker problem on my 3 of a kind, most of my hands would hold up when I pushed back at him. I was able to run my low of $5 up to $30 before he sat out and quit donating to us.

The great thing about increasing this bankroll is because it has been a freeroll from day 1. I opened up an account with OddsMaker after they sent me a $50 free deposit in the mail. "Main Event" Mike got the same deal and after running up to a couple of hundred, he cashed out. I also see Kaj took advantage of the offer. Not bad for some absolutely free money with no strings attached. Maybe I can run this up to a few hundred and then get it to Full Tilt so I can join the BBT3 fun. It's been said tons already, but thanks to Al and the fellas for putting this together. It is amazing how big this thing has gotten.

Poker and On Call Don't Mix

Friday after work, I drove north to 23Skidoo's place for our latest installment of the ATL Blogger's Cash Game. Also in attendance were Surf, Kuro, Weak (if he's done blogging, I'm done linking), and Surf's coworker. I was amazed that I made to a restaurant near his place in an hour considering it was Friday and raining. After an unspectacular dinner, I cruised over to his place to begin our game.

I arrived a little early and started shooting the shit with Ski and Kuro. As we were sitting at the table, I pulled out my big ass work phone. I am not on call very often but this happened to be one of my weeks. I didn't realize it was going to be my week when I said I would attend the latest Atl Blogger Big Game. I jokingly said I'm sure it will ring any minute now. That's the perfect cue as it rang 5 minutes later. By this time Surf and his buddy arrived. I delayed the game about another half an hour as I tracked down parts for the customer. I finally sat down to play, but got in less than 1 orbit before the customer told me he would take the parts we had in stock. Booooooo. So, my night is over as I trek back to the office and meet the customer. At this point I'm not about to drive another 45 minutes back to Ski's so I took by $12 profit from the game and will buy a quarter of a tank of gas.

I tried live poker again the next night. We had a few of us play a game and then moved on to cash. I know that the cards are not supposed to be the excuse for not playing, but with not much chance to do any preflop raising, I basically blinded myself out of the game. I was doing better in the cash game until I got stacked when my pocket Kings fell to the initial raiser's A,Q of clubs. Our favorite Scotsman can get a little loose when drinking, so I knew he would call. This is what I wanted, but he hit his A on the turn. The hands going to the river were insane (Hey, I hit my 4! and that kind of stuff). I knew that I could get paid if I had a good starting hand, but that was not to be. I know in the long run, I am and will continue to be ahead.

I made it past the 2nd break in the Bodonkey last night. I got too aggressive and unnecessarily pushed in my stack with the babiest of pairs and Blinders called me from the big blind with pocket Jacks. I had too many chips to do that move without a better hand. I need to work on my late play. Congrats to Dave for taking it down and to Kuro for another final table.

Bodonkey Final Table

I think I played a pretty good game last night in the Bodonkey. I was not flawless, but for me, it was as close as I come.

I apparently have a knack for knocking out people while they are broadcasting on Buddy Dank Radio. Last time I called off all my chips as an 40% underdog against one of the Wonkas and pulled out the winning hand. Last night's victim was Instant Tragedy. This time, I got see see a cheap flop with 3 limpers before my small blind while holding 2,4. I complete and the big blind checks. I realize this is a crap hand, but I have a fair bit more than my starting stack and it costs me nothing compared to the pot. The flop comes a perfect A, 3, 5, all of different suits. I'm first to act with my wheel and put in a crazy bet of about 1.5 times the pot. All but IT fold and we see a turn. The turn is a 6 and while I no longer have the nut straight, I do think I have the best hand still. I'm still not worried about any draws and I'm sure he has A, something, so I bet about 3/4 pot and he calls. I am not thrilled with the river because it pairs the 3 on the board. I bet the pot this time and IT pushes over the top. The only hand I'm worried about now is A,3. This is a possibility since he just limped preflop and it would have kept him in the pot after the flop. Since he didn't raise me at any point, I gotta believe my straight is still good so I call. He flips over A,10 or A,8 and I knock him out. After I busted him, he commented that he was knocked out because I got funny and played 2,4. He didn't berate me or make fun of me which I appreciate, but I also don't think we agree on how the hand was played. In my little poker mind, I did pretty damn well, not just results oriented, but processing wise. I probably could have made a little more if I let another player in after the flop, but as we all know, flopped straights never win so I wanted to reduce the field.

I had Dave on my left 2 separate times during the night. I've always enjoyed playing with him from way back in the WWDN tourney days and he is one of the bloggers on my "to meet" list. Throughout most of the tourney, I pretty much had him dominated. I promise you Dave, I wasn't just picking on your blinds with my constant raises. Of course all of my raising was eventually evened out when we were the battling blinds again. We are down to the final 2 tables, I've got 2,2 in the small blind and as usual, I raise. This time Dave does a min reraise. Hmmmmm. We see a flop of Q, 4, 4. I'm putting Dave on A, with a high kicker. I don't think it is a Q and I have almost double his chip stack, so I put him to the test right there for all of his chips, minus one. Well the Hoy manuever doesn't work worth a shit when your opponent is holding pocket rockets. So I double up Dave and give up my decent stack. At least I was right about 1 card, LOL.

I was able to hang on and make it to the final table in bottom half. I tightened up a little to let the lower stacks get knocked out and made moves when I wasn't worried about getting called while picking up some blinds. My death hand came against JL514 in another blind battle scenario. We are 6 handed and on the $T109 adder bubble. It's folded around to me and I've got Jordan covered so with A,8 I raise 3X. He jams and now I've got a decision. This is the same thing that happened to me in the Vegas blogger game last summer. If I'm willing to commit all of my chips to the hand, I need to do it preflop, otherwise fold to the reraise. I figured I was slightly ahead so I made the call and he had 9,10 so this time I'm on the 60% side. The board pairs up one of his cards and I'm left with less than a big blind. I need to work on this problem of calling near coin flips when it's not necessary. Either more folding or preflop pushing from the blinds.

I finished the night in 6th and got my tourney fee back with a little cash to boot. This has put me to a whopping 45 cents over by initial deposit 3 weeks ago. Watch out!

I Can Dodge Tornadoes Baby

Stacie and I went down to L.A. (Lower Alabama, ya'll) over the weekend to visit my Dad. Between the construction on I-85 and the weather, it made for a lot of windshield time. We came home yesterday afternoon and were hoping to avoid bad weather, but didn't leave quite early enough.

We headed out of Dothan after eating lunch and you could tell some unfun shit was coming. It was about 72 degrees with 60-70% humidity, strong breezes and grey clouds overhead. We headed north to Auburn on back roads and then would pick up I-85 for the rest of the way to Atlanta.

We were driving through a small town about 1.5 hours into the trip when we heard the tornado sirens and the loudspeakers telling residents that a tornado had been spotted. We turned on the radio and heard that it was to our northwest with a confirmed touchdown outside of Montgomery. We were heading northeast. Hmmmm, could be an intersecting course.

Stacie learned alot of East Alabama geography as we listened to the weather alerts and she was pointing out the tornado warnings along our route. For the first time in my life, I was actually looking for good areas to bail and lay in a ditch or culvert on the road side. Before we hit Tuskeegee, we had tornado warnings to our west, north, and south. They started calling off cities and counties that we had just passed through, but it appeared we were still ahead of the cell. I was sure that we would be able to get even further ahead of it once we hit the interstate, but that was 45 minutes away and I still had to stop for gas.

We stopped for gas in Auburn and we didn't have any strong winds, so it appeared that most of it was far enough away that we should be able to continue. We got on the interstate and headed North with 2 hours of constant downpour and lower speeds. The rain never let up until we stopped to pick up Dundee from our friends. I know we need the rain here, but I wish we had either left about 2 hours earlier or 2 hours later. Of course then we would have missed all of the excitement. I was expecting some tense moments with the wide tires and rear wheel drive, but the G did great.

It should be a beautiful week here in the ATL, so I'm expecting some 2 wheel action to and from work. See everybody on Tuesday at the Bodonkey.

Bodonkey, Take 2

AK suited is a great hand, there's just no reason to push with it against the raise that screams Aces! Whoops, lesson learned as I exit shortly after the first break. I think I might finally have the capability to fold this hand preflop. We'll see how well I remember these words next time.

Going Back to Cali

We just booked our anniversary trip and we are heading back to the scene of the crime. Stacie and I got married 10 years ago (in a few months) in California and we thought it would be fun to go back and see some of the things we missed the first time.

The first half of the week, we will be in the Carmel and Big Sur area doing some mountain hiking and checking out waterfalls. When we got married, we couldn't make it all the way to Big Sur because the road had washed off in to the Pacific, so this will be new for us. This area appears to be very desolate with some great preserved expanses along the coast.

We are going to finish off the week in San Francisco visiting Golden Gate Park, Muir Woods, The Presidio (George Lucasville) and some of the museums. Stacie decided to pass on Napa and Sonoma this time, but I may have some time to try out a California poker room. The only one that is close to were we will be staying is Lucky Chances. I'm not sure how I will like it since it is not the usual NL game that I am used to playing. I don't understand the "spread" and I have almost no experience in limit games. I will have to get my neighbor to give me some pointers and explain some things to me since he is more familiar with playing in California casinos.

Bodonkey, Take 1

I'm sure my stats from the game last night make me look like a crazy man. It didn't help that 2 of the hands that I had to show were a river bluff gone bad (good call Cawt) and calling off all of my chips while holding J,K off. I had a great tear of cards early but I guess I got my share before it really counted.

Evil Wonka let it be known that he didn't care for my call while holding the donkey (K,J) when he pushed in to me. Thankfully, he was nice about it. I realize he didn't understand why I did it. I am not experienced or learned enough to say I made the right call, but I can 'splain my thinking. If it is flawed, so be it. I have enough friends who will let me know and help me work on it. So here we go. I was a shorty in the big blind with not much left to fight with. When the small blind has me covered, but is not a huge chip stack, I have to give them a wide range of hole cards. When he pushed in to me, I thought it was a weaker bet than a simple raise so I put him on A,10 at best. Yes, I am still behind and figured I was 40% (worst case) with 2 live cards. At this point in the evening / tournament, I was ready to double up or go home, besides, I had 74 outs! I was able to catch a King and double through. Unfortunately, those chips didn't last long and I went out in 20th.

I really enjoyed the Buddy Dank broadcast last night. The Waffles prop bet with CK was very funny. I'm glad we were able to get away from the hater radio that I've heard my last couple of times listening. It's much more fun just listening to Buddy play stud and "interview" guests that are interested in having a good time and add to the program instead of inflating their ego by talking about luckboxes and who sucks more. I'm all for ragging your buddies, but I don't think some of the ass hat fraternity do it in good spirit.

Congrats to the Poker Cat for taking it down. Way to represent the ATL! When it comes to poker skillz in the A-town, I have a great pool of talent that I can rely on if I ever decide to elevate my game.

Funding My Way To Bodog

Well, I'm finally going to deposit in to my Bodog account and I guess the timing is great. I have tried a couple of times in the past, but my credit card companies have never played nice so I am going to do the Moneygram thing for the min deposit. I have made enough with live play this week to cover the deposit and wire fee. I thought about doing the $200 because Bodog will cover the fee, but I didn't win that much and it would come out of my buy-in for the upcoming 1/2 ATL blogger's game at 23Skidoo's later in the month.

My profitable week started at the Poker Cat Arena. After dropping 2 buyin's, I had a great Omaha hand and finished up for a little over 2 total for the night. A few nights later, I was able to take 1st in one of Kaj's short handed home games after catching my 2 outer to keep me from going out on the bubble. Nothing like raising on the button with a pair of 4s while we are 3 handed and having Kaj jam from the big blind. He's gotta be trying to exploit the bubble and bully me, right? I insta called the rest of my chips and he flipped over his 7s. Whoops, I was thinking we were racing at worst, but i caught another 4 and I get to see live what happens to him online all the time. Sorry bud, but I'm sure the next time you do that you'll be full of it, LOL.

I finished off the week with a 3 way chop last night before the Super Bowl. There were 13 of us playing before the big game and we ran a little long, so we decided to chop it up at kick-off. No need for a suckout in this game because I had a great rush of cards early and was able to build a good stack after flopping 3 of a kind twice. After that, I was only able to get pots with aggression because I didn't get too many cards when we got down to 5. I tried to force out one the short stacks with a preflop push, but he woke up with Aces and was able to more than triple up and take over the chip lead. I was squarely in second now and was able to hold that spot until we decided to end the game. Let's see if I can keep this money growing in The House That $mokkee Built. See ya on Tuesday.