BBT3 Badge In Full Effect

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Bodonkey Gigli

I didn't think I could do any worse than last week, but I managed to Gigli last night. Once again I got bounced in the Bodonkey with flopped set over set. This time I spewed my chips to the Lovely Elf when her pocket Aces found another bullet on the flop and I hit a third 4. As you can see, either I learned nothing from last week, or I'm running very cold. Speaking of cold, I have a bad case of casino crud, flaring allergies, or a bad spring cold. Fun times.

Biloxi Blues

My neighbors and I headed down to the Beau Rivage in Biloxi last Friday morning. Thanks to Mike "Andretti" H at the wheel, we got there in record time. We checked in, grabbed an early dinner and then decided to do a little blackjack action. Jeez, what a rocky start to the trip that was. We all lost our shirts right off the bat. If we had 17,18, or 19 the dealer had 20, otherwise the dealer had 21 and we were on 20. Boooooo! That was enough of that crap for me so they introduced me to Pai Gow. Weeeeee, that was much better. This was a game that didn't just suck the bills out of your wallet. Great drinking game since there are so many dealer pushes.

On Saturday, we spent the morning playing more Pai Gow and then grabbed some lunch. It didn't take long before I bombed out of a satellite SNG to the bigger tournaments, so I hit the 1/2 NL tables. Mike H and Chris made it to heads up in the satellite and chopped the $550 prize. The Beau has over a dozen tables in their main room and had a few more set up upstairs in one of the ballrooms. Mike "Main Event" G and I pretty much had our way our table and it was nice to have a "winning" day.

We saw Clonie Gowan and Kristy Gazes in the tournaments and cash game. They were doing the WPT Boot Camp in the other ballroom and came over when they were finished. We passed Kristy as we headed down the escalator and a Latino guy behind us shook his head and said "she ain't got no bootie." He thought we were checking her out and didn't realize we were just commenting on her because she's a poker player. That would have been quote of the weekend if I had not busted one on Mike H at the Pai Gow table. For some reason he likes to tell strangers that he is related to whoever he is standing near. This time, he was telling the lady next to us that he was my son. I responded "I'm not his Daddy, I'm just doing his Mom." This got a good laugh out of the table and even the dealer was in on the BURNNNNNNNN!

Sunday's results were not very good at all. I failed in another satellite attempt (Mike G chopped) and killed myself at the 1/2 table in the afternoon. Actually, the cash game could have been great to me if I wasn't such a huge bet, bluffing dumbass. I stacked myself in the first few hands when I pick up the bitches in late position and call the raise from the guy under the gun. The flop comes K high, he bets big and a reraise all-in. From the comment he made before the flop, I thought he had Jacks. Nope, AK for the gentleman and I reach in my pocket for another buy-in. I was able to run this back up to even a few hand later and told myself it was time to get up, settle down and come back later. Oh noooooooo, I can't do that. I've just been dealt AK in first position. I'll just limp and hope to get reraised. No reraise...Damn. The flop comes K high with a straight draw. What should I do? Of course, check it and let him catch. But I'm not done yet, let's check raise the river for half a buyin with a 4 card straight showing. Then we see him table a Mook (10,8) for the straight to my top pair top kicker. That's OK, shake it off because I get A,K 2 hands later and this time, I'm going in with both guns blazing. That's fine and dandy unless the guy to your left has pocket Queens and takes me to the woodshed as I fire at every street. Sometimes I think I am 2 different players at the table and I never know who is going to show up.

Surflexus came down on Saturday and backed me in the 6PM Sunday night tournament. This was a huge boost to my confidence that he was willing to do this for me and not feel like he was just throwing away money (I hope!). Those of you that have met him know what a great guy he is, but I can tell you from hanging with him for the past couple of years, you won't find a better guy that is willing to help you with your game or be a great friend. My treat at Neuvo Laredo is in order next week. I made it to near the end of level 6 when my 66 in the small blind was bested by 77 in the big blind. Hey, at least I got knocked out by a WSOP circuit winner. One of our crew, Chris, made it deep in both the Saturday night (14/110ish) and Sunday night (12/105ish) games, but only the final 9 paid.

I finished off the trip with another attempt at the 1/2 game late Sunday night. Oh, what could have been. This time I was too aggressive again and I ran people out of pots when I was ahead and tried another river bluff that didn't work. At least this time I finished even, so it was just more practice. The biggest lesson I learned for the week was slow down in my cash game and get more aggressive in my tourney play. I finished down for the trip, but it was worth it for the great time I had over the long weekend. Thanks to all of the fellas for showing me a great time. If we can snag the same deal some other time, I'd be willing to go again.

Gigli + 1.

Eh, at least I lasted longer than the world's worst poker player. I made it a quick exit from the Bodonkey last night when I pushed on the flop with bottom set on a 2,4,6 board and get called by pocket 6s. Booooooo! My alarm bells went off when Riggstad min raised the initial bettor after I checked the flop. I'm still not good enough to lay down a set, even the bottom one. I knew if I just called, I would still have all of my money in by the next 2 streets, so go ahead and try to take the pot there or hope he has a big over pair. That has been my quickest exit from a tournament in quite a while.

Since it was still early, I played my first low dollar SNG on Bodog. This time I doubled up quickly when I had top set over the poor guys middle set. I was able to sit on those chips for quite a while and with my superior play in a $4 game, I showed them what bloggers are made of when I took 1st. Ok, in reality, I had dropped down to 5th of 5 and was then able to battle my way back for the win. I'm trying to get in some practice before my trip this weekend. I am so psyched!

How?

How does an F2 tornado go through downtown Atlanta for the first time in history, strike the Georgia Dome during the SEC Championship basketball series, blow tons of metal debris around the streets, destroy buildings, blow out windows in skyscrapers cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and no one is killed? Amazing!

Updated: If you look to the immediate right of the tallest building on the far left, you can see the funnel that went through downtown. This guy took an awesome picture.



Under the category of what could have been, the Bama vs. MSU game was in OT and that kept tens of thousands of people indoors instead of on the street right when the tornado hit. Many people probably owe their life to the kid that hit the shot sending the game to OT. Another averted disaster was at the Old Mill Lofts in Cabbagetown. One of the buildings lost the roof and most of the floors collapsed on top of each other. Fortunately this building was still under renovation and most of the upper units had not been rented or sold.

If that wasn't enough, Saturday brought another round. This time at least 2 people were killed in areas north of town. Check out this powerful cell that blew through.




After they showed the paths of the 24 hours worth of storms and tornadoes, we realized how close everything was and how lucky we were and went practically untouched. Our community was sandwiched in between most of the strong cells. We mainly had lightning Friday night and 15 minutes of strong wind and hail on Saturday, but that was about it.

The week previous a tornado touched down in a neighboring city while we were having our big game at Kaj's. We figured we were a safe as we could be in his basement, but we were calling home to tell our families to take cover for a little while. This is the most tornado activity that I can ever remember.

Meh, Jacks Can Kiss My Ass

I had a decent showing in the Mook. I can't credit any great play, just spectacular cards. I flopped trips 3 times and got paid on them pretty well. I hated to bust out my buddy Surf, but hopefully it gave him better focus for the 25K. I didn't have too much in the name of cards when we got to the final 2 tables and made a preflop push that ran in to the big blind's pocket Kings. This booted me out at lucky 13. That padded the ole bankroll by a buck and three quarters and score some points for the BBT3. Weeeeeeeee!

I was rocking in the Riverchasers until KngofKngs cracked my Aces with his Jacks that tripped up on the flop. He called both my raise and healthy reraise preflop. When the flop came K,10,J, I pretty much knew he had tripped up, but I figured Kings. He only had about 1400 left and the pot was over 5K so I wasn't folding. I went ahead and put him all in. He had the pocket Jacks, but I could still win with any A, or Q. The turn was a K and that increased my outs a little, but I didn't hit. That took half of my good stack, but I still had more than the starting amount. Man, if my Aces hold up there I'm in great shape for a while. Unfortunately for me, that was the turning point in the game. I never could get anything going except a few steals here and there. and eventually Gary finishes me off with his pocket Jacks. Jacks may be good for some cool dudes, but they sure have it in for me.

On a live poker note, I will be joining Surf and my neighbors for some spring break action in Biloxi next weekend. I won't be playing in the big tournament that Surf will, but I'm looking forward to some 1/2 NL and maybe some $100 tournaments. I might give one attempt at a satellite event for the Sunday night tournament, but we will have to wait and see.

Return To The Mook

13th out of 102. I don't remember anything about it. This is just for my record keeping.

Add To My Wish List

Stacie gets tired of my saying "buy me that!", but this time I really mean it. When this bitch is legal in the US, I am so getting one. If Hillary is elected president, I'll just get one when I move to Europe. I usually say Canada, but these are sold there yet either.
















It looks like there might be a similar one built with less horsepower and runs on natural gas for low emissions. The performance on these is not spectacular, but for what I do 90% of my driving, I would imagine it would be extremely fun. Hell, even Jeremy Clarkson liked it.

OK, This Is Just Too Awesome

Mondo talent on these dudes. These are just 220cc bikes to boot.

Great Neighborhood Action

OK, technically Kaj and I aren't in the same neighborhood, but we live so close to each other I still consider us neighbors. He and his crew have welcomed me, my friends, and the rest of the ATL bloggers with open arms, and lucky for us, open wallets, ;). Although I did not continue my streak of cashes with them last night, it was great to see Kuro, Weak (I officially stop calling him a blogger, but we can call him a poker Playa'), and Surf in the top 3 payout spots.

Kaj had a great long structure, good buy-in and huge turnout. Other than the WPBT summer game I attented last year, this was the largest live tournament I have ever played in terms of both size and money. I really liked my play in the game. I know you don't come here for poker wisdom, usually it's just a log for me to remember and gauge my progress, so here are 3 small highlights. I folded to an all-in river push by "Limpy" while holding A,10 with 2 other Aces on the board. I figured I was beat by a weak Ace that boated up, an Ace with a better kicker, or she hit her flush with suited connectors. I'm positive I was beat and I did find out that she didn't have the case Ace because Paul folded A,7 preflop. He didn't like seeing the boat happen, but he was completely correct folding it preflop. I was talking to her about the hand a little later and told her I would have called a smaller bet, and that's when she realized that we weren't playing with our usual starting stacks. I just didn't want to risk my tournament life to so many hands that beat me. It knocked me from 10K down to 8K, but I'm impressed that I could lay that down. Hey, for me, that's progress.

Later, I pulled off a great hammer bluff from the small blind when I reraised against a known tight player that had opened with a raise. My death hand was against Lee, my nemesis of the last 3 tournaments. As usual, I had the better hand when I pushed against him but since he opened the pot he wasn't going to let it go. We had almost the exact number of chips when called. My A,J suited falls to his K,10. He flops 2 pair but giving me the straight draw and by the river any A, J, Q or heart will win it for me. It was not to be as he hits another King for the boat. I will eventually get back on the winning side against you sucka. We joked all night about how I'm going to have to get it in dirty and crack his aces for some payback.

We started up a 5 handed .25/.50 cash game next with Ski, Kaj, David, Player X, and myself. Nothing real exciting at this table. It started off rough for me when I slow played A,J from the big blind and hit top pair on the flop with J, 10, 2. I checked to let David take the lead. He bets and I raise him slightly more than min. He flips over the Jack to get a read on me and I keep averting my eyes I look at his face. I finally smile and tell him to put the rest of it in there. He says OK and does. I show him my hand and ask if he has a 10 or a 2 under there. He says no and holds on to his until all of the cards are dealt. When the river Queen appears, he flips over his J,Q. Sonofa! So that knocks me from my $20 buy-in down to less than 5. I really don't remember to much of how it happened, but when I cashed out, I had run it up to $37.

It's probably about time for me to host a big game or I may make a trip to Biloxi with some of the other fellas. I talked to Surf last night about some Okie-Vegas options. Since I had my dates wrong, I don't know if I'm going to have enough vacation time to do it along with a Vegas trip this year.