We're Back.....Trip Report Coming

We had a blast in California last week. I'll have some links and pics to share later in the week. I have some picture sorting to do and tons of reading to catch up on. Here's a little poker oriented post to keep in good standings.

I started off my vacation by playing in Kat's rebuy tournament Friday before last. Since I was in vacation mood, I was pretty liberal during the rebuy period. We had a great time and the chat was lively as usual. When the rebuy period ended the play tightened up, but the game remained casual. I did my usual bubble performance. Gracie (she thinks I'm cute - said with a Rudolph voice in my head) managed to river a straight with her pocket Jacks to bust my pocket Aces. When all the money gets in preflop, I just don't know how to avoid these bubble finishes in this particular "tournament." The good news is the week got better after that.

I am also sending out the evites for the big game I am hosting Memorial Day weekend. It won't be a Weekend at Mookies, but it should still be fun and I am expecting some out of town bloggers to join us. If you think you are willing to travel to Atlanta that weekend, let me know and I will send you the details.

Worst.Fold.Ever.

My brother and his family were in for a visit over the weekend. Stacie and my sister in-law spent Saturday touring wineries around Dahlonega so he and I stayed around the house with the kids. While my nephew watched The Magical Singing Rodents, I suggested my brother watch me play a sit and go to get him some more experience. He doesn't get to play very often, so I am trying to help him with the basics. I played (3) $5 SNGs and placed 3rd, 1st, and 2nd. Along the way, I explained why I was doing things and the value of some hands. I am not an expert and don't read any poker books, so I let him know that this is what works for me in the small dollar single table games. Any info was more than he had already, so I wanted to help.

I have decided to make the move to the $5 SNGS from the 1 and 2 dollar games because I think my skill level allows me to play here. My goal is to be able to successfully do the $20 variety on a regular basis. I think the $10 level will be the biggest test. At that level, I have to start improving my game and decide if I want to take it more serious.

Last night, I helped my brother set up his Yahoo messenger and showed him how to use the software and filters on the play money side of Pokerstars. Our goal was to get in a play money SNG together and get him more familiar with the game and interface. Yeah, I know, collusion, please don't report me. For some reason, he was not able to register for a table as quickly as I could, so we couldn't get seated at the same game. He decided to just watch me play and I would tell him my hole cards and walk him through my game. I busted out midway in the first one so we tried it again. He wasn't able to get in, so he watched me play another one. I played this one very well, but wanted to share with you the worst fold I have ever seen in a game. I can only assume that he hit the wrong button. I had just lost an all in to his straight, but it didn't knock me out completely . With blinds at 75/150, I was in the big blind with only 30 left after posting. The small blind calls the 75 and I raise my last 30 to end this......and he folds! Uh,OK, auto all-in for the next hand......and he folds again. With my stack, I have no choice but to keep doing this. This time he calls and I have the better hand and it holds. He kept folding or losing until I got back to above 2000 and went back to my regular play. I was able to take my 30 and run it back to 6500 versus his 7000. I was absolutely amazed. I realize this is a play money, but you think that would make the game even looser. We went heads up for at least 30 minutes and it finally ended when his straight was higher than mine. If nothing else, I showed my brother the importance of aggression and not giving up the fight. That and don't play like an absolute nit.

Gotta Question, Go To The Source

While watching the blogger cash game, I just had to ask Wes a question:

BrainMc (Observer): with prostitutes, do you pay by the hour or session. As in when you blow the load, do you have to rebuy?

RecessRampage: LMAO

Fuel55: lmao

weak_player: you aren't paying for the load. you are paying for her to leave. duh.

PercentileDoom: i just roll over and fall asleep because by the time i get to the point of hookers, i'm about to pass out

This question was right in line with the great entertainment that Kat and Joanada were providing on BDR with Buddy and Tragedy.

AK Suited Falls to AK Suited

I was doing fan freakin' tastic in the Bodonkey tonight. I was very pleased with my play, my cards, and my reads. I was having my way with fellow ATL blogger Kurokitty. He was on my right and whenever he raised, I either reraised or called and bet the flop with what I was sure was the better hand. I never had terrific cards, but I was able to use what I had effectively. It was even more effective when he got in to shorty range and I was willing to go to war with my pocket pairs. I know if anyone can appreciate selective aggression, it's the Kitty.

As we neared the second break I was still in good shape. With blinds of 150/300, I pick up AK of diamonds and raise to 900. MiamiDon pushed from the big blind with almost the same number of chips than me (4500 -5000ish). I had been raising his blind quite often throughout the night and I hoping he was just getting tired of it and pushed back at me. I called and he has AK of hearts, so I'm not going to lose 92% of the time. Welcome to the wonderful world of 8% as 3 more hearts come on the board. This cripples me and I go all in on the next hand with pocket 7s and get beat by pocket 8s. I went out in 27th out of 44. While on paper, that doesn't make for a good showing, I think I was playing some of the best poker I have ever done. Some of those that were watching may snicker at that statement and I may be deluding myself. Other than the disappointment of getting knocked out on a statistically low beat, I felt great about this game. It was a big step in a change that could be occurring in my game.

I'm Losing Another Good Show

OK, let me get this straight. A great show like Jericho is cancelled but Knight Rider gets picked up. I realize that these are on different networks, but it's all competing for the same audience. Maybe if Jake had driven a Shelby GT500KR the show would still be on the air.

*UPDATE* I forgot that we also lost Journeyman and that featured a new Mustang as well as a classic one. I guess Ford had to spend all of their marketing funds on the crappier show.

Getting Paid Not To Work

It's not uncommon in the corporate world to have high level managers and executives to get fired / down sized and still walk away with tons of cash. Sometimes they are even lucky enough to get hired by a new company for millions more while collecting their severance.

In sports, how does it work when professional athletes are no longer working due to injuries? I am ignorant about how players get paid. It's probably different for each sport due to the different players' unions. I don't think a player should just be cut without pay if they are injured during practice or playing, but how long are you required to pay a player before they are considered to be unable to return to duty? I know if something happened to me and I could no longer work, I would have to rely on the long term disability that I pay for. I realize this isn't totally the same, because just because you can't play sports professionally anymore, that doesn't mean your permanently disabled.

I bring this up because, including this year's salary, the Atlanta Braves have paid Mike Hampton $65.5 million since the start of the 2005 season. He made 12 starts that year until he had to have surgury and has missed every game up until yesterday. With his first start in over 2 years, he immediately injured himself and is back on the DL for 14 days. I would think that teams would have insurance or something that pays the player's salary for them in these cases and then they can use the freed up millions to aquire a "working" player.

I know this post seems more like a bitch session than a question, but I don't know how to write this any better. This may be a better discussion at a ball game or around a poker table some time in the future.

From Worst to Final Table

I got really worried this week that I was going to make it an early night again in the Bodonkey. It started off rough and I was quickly down to 2/3 of my original stack after HighOnPoker cracked my Aces with his turned flush, so much for premium starting hands. This really deflated my spirits and then Instant Tragedy announces on BDR that I'm in the Dank position. This was quite embarrassing considering my last 2 weeks. I let my pity party last about 3 hands and then got back to my plan of more aggressive play without putting my entire stack at risk. My patience paid off because my subscription to pocket pairs finally came in and this time my flopped bottom set held up. I doubled against the small blind with his flopped 2 pair. Soon after, I flopped quads and by the time this hand was over, I was second only to Kurokitty.



When we got to the final 2 tables, my cards dried up, but I was able to hang in until I pushed my K, weak in to Dave's KQ suited at the final table. I went out in 9th and that was good enough to get my buy-in back and snag a few points. I need some more final table finishes if I want to have any chance at the freeroll.