August 16 – Off to take our daughter to the Emergency room. We happened to select SunRise Children’s Hospital. I will spare everyone the details of our daughter’s symptoms, but it was not quite how we planned to start the vacation. The hospital was great. At least we could watch the Olympics while waiting. The wait was long so my son and I headed back to the resort to swim and goof off. We played air hockey, pool, and showed other guests the finer art of Wii bowling. Around 6:00 PM we headed back to the hospital. The drive to and from the Hospital allowed us to learn some back roads in Vegas. We arrived just about the time our daughter was being dismissed.

Sticking to the game plan I tucked the family in and headed to Downtown Las Vegas around 10:00 PM. My best experiences gambling in Las Vegas has always been downtown, so I drove to my old venue, Binion’s Horseshoe. I must say the parking garage was a tight fit, but at least there was parking. I had heard that $1-2 black jack was back at Binion’s. Well that turned out to be false, so I headed to the poker.room. I bought in to a $1-2 NL game for $50. I know. I am cheap. I do like the challenge of spinning gold out of straw. I won a few hands. My biggest win came as a small blind special with 74s. Two fours came on the flop and I had one caller all the way. I believe I was up to around $75. A new player came to the table. Oh before I forget the Olympics were on and when the US men won the swimming relay the place erupted in applause. It was really cool. The very first hand with the new player I flopped top two pair, Kings and nines. I bet out $15. He went over the top of me $40, essentially putting me all-in. My gut told me that he flopped a set. I ended up mucking my hand. Two hands later I limped in with KQ. The flop came KQ7. I bet $15. Again this guy goes over the top of me. I put him on AQ, so I pushed in my stack. He immediately called. He turned over AQ. For a second I felt like Daniel Negreanu. Everyone reading this can guess the outcome. An Ace hit on the turn and I lose site of a $200 + pot. I went on tilt. I quickly congratulated the player and stormed out of the casino. I acted like a total idiot. That is the way my play has been online, always getting out drawn on the turn or river. Oh I was frustrated because I thought I played excellent poker. I finished my beer watching the Freemont Experience.

I got in the car and got turned down a street with construction that ran by the Golden Nugget. It was quite serendipitous because the street headed me straight for the Stratosphere and I made it back to the resort in record time with little to know traffic. Thank goodness I noticed the police offer patrolling and I was not speeding.

Play on!

Las Vegas Trip Report August 15-22, 2008

August 15 – Driving from Phoenix area to Las Vegas. We arrived at Hoover Dam approaching dusk. The cost to park was ridiculous ($7) but well worth it to view the Damn up close. Our daughter did not care for it much. Apparently she is terrified of heights.

I believe we arrived in Las Vegas around 7:00 PM. I had not been to Las Vegas since 1991, so I was not sure what to expect. The skyline definitely changed significantly. Our trusted Google map brought us right to our resort, Wyndham Grand Desert Resort.

I made several trips to the car to unpack. I was too cheap to pay the bell hops. Our accommodations were nice. We made a grocery list and I headed to a store called Von’s and to Jack in the Box for dinner. I found the store and picked up supplies for the week. There were only two checkout lines open. I was about eighth in line and there were at least 20 people behind me. It was ridiculous. Definitely all walks of life were out shopping on a Friday night.

Next stop Jack in the Box. I got my order and against my normal practices I checked the content. I was a sandwich short. I parked and walked inside where the quickly corrected the order. After dinner my son and I decided to go for a swim. Man that pool water was cold. We ended up chilling in the hot tub!

Although I was anxious to hit the tables I decided it would be best to stay put for the night. I thought I could kill time playing online. NOT! The internet at the resort sucked.

Rather than an uber post I will post one day at a time!

Play on!

Thought I would share this brief adventure and even include a bit of poker.



Last night I decided to do some yard work to please the boss. I pruned and weeded the bed along the side of our house. It was not a problem and I had energy to burn. I have been inspired to create another water feature so I decided to start digging the hole. I used a shovel and a pick axe, having a grand old time. I hit something hard so I got my 30 pound rock spike. Wham! Wham! Sphhhhshhhhhh! I hit the #@%&*( main sprinkler line. I was pissed! I turned off the water to the house. How the F... was I going to cut this line. I could not get a hack saw in there. Hmmmm! My wife bought me a all-in-One tool a few years back. It took n act of Congress to figure out how to install the saw blade, but I finally managed. In the pool of water I was only able to cut 3/4 through the pipe. I had to dig deeper into the swamp I created then finsih the job with a mud splattering hack saw. I got the piece of pipe out and boogied to Lowes to buy parts. I returned with a compression fitting two couplers and a end cap.



Note to readers - PVC compression fittings suck! Oh I forgot to add since the water was turned off my wife was let's say "Less than Happy"! I tried four times to get the damn compression fitting to stop leaking. I finally gave up and debated a trip back to Lowes. Hmmm! I bought the end cap for a reason, so I just capped the pipe and turned the water back on. No leak!



Saga continues - Oh I forgot to mention that I did buy two couplers, but I did not have a piece of pipe to connect the two. I stopped at Lowes on the way home from work and got the PVC pipe. I did learn from my boss that there should be a cut-off valve specific to the sprinkler system. I found and opened the box. I was staring at the valving with my sun glasses on trying to study the configuration and figure out how to turn off the water. Then I saw it it laying on top of the pipe. A SNAKE! I was thankful I did not just reach in and attempt to turn a valve. I am not sure what type it was. I poked it with the screw driver. The snake did not put up much of a fight then slithered into the hole next to the pipe. I was thinking to myself -"Man life is full of surprises!"



After several cuts of PVC I got the leak repaired and the water back on.

Poker story will have to be later!

Hello Internet!

I have not posted in a long time. Poker is not the hot topic these days. My only poker comment is that I lose more often than I win when I have pocket aces. Enough said!

I am going to start writing on this blog anything that happens to get under my skin. Here is today's WTF moment.

We are at the farmer's market downtown Austin. There is a line about 8 persons deep to get a pint of freshly picked blueberries. This non-english speaking lady walks by the entire line and right up to the vendor. "How much?" The farmer explains 3 or 4 times the prices. Lady knods her head. "I take two." The young lady starts to package two pints. "No! No! No! One this size."

Vendor prepares a half pint. The the lady tries paying with WIC. The vendor is like sorry we do not take WIC. "You You take! Just like money."

The lady walks away.

I am primarily kicking myself in the buttocks, because I did not ask this lady to get to the back of the line. It was not worth any hassle, but she should follow the rules.

I have experienced several other WTF moments and hopefully I will post those soon.

Howdy Bloggers! I have not been inspired to write in a very long time. However, for some strange reason I decided to read some of the old blogs. Scotts' post of the song by DropKick Murphy for some reason inspired me. Perhaps I will see you at that show. Never heard of them, but I liked it!

My state in the poker world is simple. I have no cash at any sites, so I am back to chasing the freerolls. I am not finding very many good freerolls. At poker time I can no longer consider their site a freeroll. They require one raked hand per day to play in their freerolls. That is a crock. Others freerolls have 5000 players so it is a crap shoot. If anyone knows of good sites were I have a shot to win cash please send me a comment or e-mail. I did finally get my last little bit of stash back from Neteller. I still enjoy playing SNGs for FPPs at PokerStars.

Locally I play in a couple tournaments a month. I thought I would share my experience on Monday night. There were 22 persons in the tournament. Essentially I played AJ suited, pocket kinds, then AJ suited again. Both times with AJ I lost to AKo. I was out with the second AJs. I felt I played the hands correctly, so I was not upset. I then moved to the cash game.

The first couple of hours it was a normal NL Holdem cash game. Soon we had 11 players so we split to two tables. I landed at the crazy table. We ended up playing pineapple, crazy pineapple, Omaha, and Holdem. They would do straddles and double straddles. I thought it was totally insane, but I sat there drinking whiskey and water and more importantly extremely patient. I was down to my final 6 bucks when my luck changed. I built up a stack of something around $30 when they decided to play Omaha H/L. The river brought me the nut flush and the nut low. I raked in an $80 pot. It was a nice feeling. So for the first outing ot 2008 I am plus $42. Perhaps I should quit! :o)

To end 2007 I lost with pocket Aces to 57o to finish on the bubble. I was totally on tilt! I still have no clue how he could call a 4X raise. The flop came 553.

What else can I complain about. My back is mucked up, so I can not play golf. It has been a long time since my back was this whacky. Hell to get older.

I doubt anyone reads this silly blog, but once again I am going to attempt to post more often.

Play on!

"Nice to have a huge Stack"

I am not sure why but it is really hard to be motivated to post. I continue to grind at the low limits on Poker Stars, but I am definitely lacking inspiration to blog. Just now in a micro SNG I lost with jacks full of aces to queens full of aces. I had top pair all-in and my only caller hit a king on the turn to topple my queens. Maybe I should not be playing tonight.

Any way I wanted to share what happened a couple of Monday nights ago. There is a live tournament in Cedar Park. This time I believe there were 24 players. I was sitting at a table of very tough players, so my MO was to be aggressive early and hopefully build up a stack.

The third hand of the night I had pocket Kings. I made it 3x and got two callers. The flop came 67Q rainbow. I think I made it about 6x and same two callers. The turn and river were small cards and not chance of a straight or flush. My only fear was two pair. I made it 8X which would have left me short stacked. Both players called instantly. I went "oh shit"! On had AQ and the other had QJ. I almost tripled up.

The remainder of the night I could raise in position and force action. I called one all-in and lost, but other than that things went my way.

Two interesting hands came later in the evening. I was under the gun with QJ of clubs. The flop came AAK with 2 clubs. There was a reasonable bet of 2X the BB. I called. The turn came the ten of clubs, giving me a royal flush. Here is where I think I made a mistake. The raiser after the flop checked. I immediately went all-in hoping he would think I was stealing the pot and I assumed he had an ace. He thought about calling me for a long while then mucked stating "I bet you have JQ of clubs". I definitely had to show the cards to the table! If I had this situation again I would have checked and hoped that he caught something on the river. Oh well!

Another hand that was interesting was a player went all-in from early position. Everyone folded and it was up to me. I felt obligated to call even though I had 96o. I commented nines have been hitting the flop all night. A nine hit on the flop and my pair of nines held up to the two over cards.

Nothing two eventful until I was heads up. The player I was heads up against had played extremely smart all night. Twice he slowed played pocket aces perfectly and took down enormous pots. I think heads up I only had him by $500 in chips. I alternated between agressive and conservative. I was waiting for a moment to win this tournament. WE exchanged chips for about 30 minutes. I was in the SB and limped in with A5. The flop came 529 or something like that. I made a small bet and the other player went all-in. I felt he was trying to steal so I insta-called. He turned over 54o and my kicker won me the tournament. It was nice to win $187 in profit.

The good news is that I shared the spoils with the family and my better half will let me play again. These games are on a Monday night so it does impact our weekly flow of life. Now I am working my bachelor points so that I can play twice a month.

Play on!

Well I obviously have not blogged in a long time. I have been meaning to, but for some reason never make it a priority. Here goes a quick shot at catching up.

Two weekends ago I went to Plano, TX for some baseball, golf, and gambling. It only took 2 hours to get through Waco, but we did make it to the Rangers Indians game. Here is a great game if you go to a baseball game, Pass the Cup! In our case it was cap night so we played pass the cap. Rules to the game are:

1. Everyone in your party puts $1 into the cup
2. One person starts with the cup
3. The person with the cup is now attached to the batter at the plate.
4. If the batter gets out you put in another $1, if he gets a hit you take out $1, double $2, and a triple $3, if he hits into a double play you put in $2, if he hits a homerun you get all the money in the cup (everyone then re-antes)
5. Pass the cup and the next person has the next batter.
6. Odd rules - Fielders Choice put in a buck. An error put in a buck, a walk or hit by a pitch is a push and you pass the cup. End of the game all money in the cup is divided back out equally.

It is really a fun game.

We also played a dice game called ships, captain, and crew. Everyone put $1 in the pot. You roll five dice. You must roll a 6,5, and a 4. One you do that then the remaining two dice make up your score. Every player gets three rolls. The person with the highest score drags the pot. So I roll and I get 654 on my first roll and two 4's my score is 8. Since I have two more rolls I can stay put or try to improve my eight. The person who drags the spot and starts the next round. A round is complete when everyone has had a turn.

Saturday night we did manage to play some dealer's choice. I was down most of the night until we played 5 card draw 6's are wild. I hooked up with a straight flush.

I did play in one big tournament here in town with 38 players. I had a full house only to get beat by a bigger full house. I knew it, but could not let my boat go!

Monday night I am going to give it another shot. Hopefully I will have better luck and make it into the money.

Soccer boot camp has been going on all week, so I spend 3 hours per day at the soccer fields. It has been fun for me, but I can not say the same thing for our daughter. The run their asses off in the morning, then work on skills at night.

Hopefully I will be able to get back to doing one post per week. My fingers are tired, so I am not in typing shape.

Peace!

"Victory Casino"

It has been awhile since I posted. We have been traveling across the US. Our first stop was Memphis. There was a poker room across the street from our hotel and Binion's was just 14 miles away. I resisted and did not play. Next stop was St. Louis. I had played at the Ameristar in the past. Once again I resisted the urge to play. Next stop Chicago. No casinos in Chicago area that I was aware if, but did manage to catch a Cubs game. Note I did have wireless access and played on-line at every Hampton Inn. Final destination was Boyne Falls Michigan. There was a casino 12 miles from the resort. I set out Tuesday night to play poker. I arrived and put my name on the $1-2 NL Holdem table. I only had the minimum bankroll. As I was waiting to be seated I saw the dealer take chips from every player and make an announcement. I asked someone what was going on. It turned out that they were taking their rake. I immediately thought $5 every thirty minutes was steep, especially for a conservative player with a tiny bankroll. I opted to take my name of the list. I went to the sports bar and watched the Yankee -vs red Sox game with a couple of cold beers. I thought the rake was unreasonable, but it could have just been the way it was done. Any thoughts from my two readers would be appreciated.

I still wanted to play poker and the next casino was an hour away. I had enough driving to do so I opted against the adventure. The next best thing was a freeroll at a bar in Petosky Michigan. I arrived and downed a Guinness as I got the scoop. The game was upstairs and the players were fighting for a chance to play in the Michigan regional tournament. Win the regional and you get a trip to the WSOP 2007. Since I was not there for the points I basically was playing for fun. They were a nice group. Toby greated me and made me feel comfortable. He bought me a Pabst Blue Ribbon. I had not had a Pabst in 20+ years. The part I liked most is Pabst bottles have a poker card under the cap. If you guess the card correctly you get a free beer.

I got seated at a table with Toby who had already secured his spot in the regional. I was not getting very good cards. One hand I had KQo. The flop came AQ7 rainbow. I made a modest bet. Toby raised. I called. The turn was uneventful but I just checked. Toby made it $150. I did not put him on an ace so I called. I do not recall the river but Toby bet out again. I still did not feel he had the ace. I thought about it for quite awhile which is unusual for me. Usually I am quick to react. I decided I had the best hand, but I did not raise. I was not ready to go home. Turned out I had a great read on him and significantly increase me stack. I made it to the final table, but I was getting short stacked. I decided to go all-in with AJs. I got two callers, AQo and K8s. Of course the K8 caught the flush and I was eliminated 7th. I need to look up the name of the bar, but I must say they were very hospitable and I had a great time. Cheers to the Petosky poker players and best of luck at the regional.

One side note I did not play this but they did have a cool bar poker game where players had remotes and played on the TVs located in the bar. We need that in Austin. Also Cheers to Toby for making me feel part of the group and buying me a tequila shot. The shot seemed watered down, but hey who can knock the generosity.

I just doinked my entire bankroll on Pitbull poker going all-in with pocket jacks. I was up against pocket queens. I still have my Pokerstars bankroll and hope to get back into some freerolls.

Before I conclude I must share a funny story. My boss went to pick up some lunch today. he game back to the office with his adrenaline pumping. "You will not believe what I just found." When he got into his truck he saw a tuft of hair stuck to his front bumper. I popped open the hood to see a hariy thing caught in the fender well. He pounded on the hood and saw two beady eyes. It was a racoon. i suggested we take a stick and go try to prod him out of the engine. My boss was still astonished that this creature survived the 90 mph trip into the office. As we poked with a yard stick we realized there were two racoons. We decided to leave the hood up and perhaps they would work their way out and escape. After about an hour I saw one of the racoons on the engine. My boss started sounding the car alarm to scare it away. All he managed to do was scare it back into the engine and get others interested. After another inspection there were not two racoons, but three. Around 3:00 PM today all three managed to venture out and make it to the ground. My boss ran down the stairs and moved his truck. The mystery question is what vehicle did they choose next. I thought it was hilarious. They were so cute! :o)

Anyway we had a great time in Michigan. I definitely plan to go back to Memphis and play poker at Binions.

Play on!

"Tilt of the Worst Kind"

For all two readers of this humble blog I apologize for taking so long to post. This Sunday I experienced the ultimate tilt and I have to share. For those of you who are parents this is a must read.

I take our 7 year old to a birthday party. There are approximately 15 children at this party. The had the "Mad Scientist". Most of these kids would not listen. The Father of the birthday boy told this one boy 5 times to put all four legs of his chair on the floor and quit hitting the wall. The sixth time my tilt began. I walked across the room and set all four legs on the ground. Please leave the chair on the floor. No sooner than I get back to my seat the kid is at it again. Fortunately for him the Dad made him get out of the chair.

The entire presentation kids would push each other wanting to participate in each activity. It drove me absolutely nuts. I tried focusing on the 5 kids who were behaving. That goodness our son was one of them. Focusing on the positive did not help. The kids kept pushing, kept playing with balloons, stealing balloons, and ignoring adults. Oh the tilt was incredible!

If it were my party I would have put the Hammer down and I am not talking 72 off suit.

Finally we go outside to make some slime. Oh man the tilt continued! I want yellow, no I want red! No I want yellow! Can we eat this stuff? No! I want green. Can we eat this stuff? NO! I was so on tilt I wanted to force feed them the slime.

So the moral of this story is a 7 year old birthday can put you on Tilt. Give your child $150 and avoid the party.

I think I am still on Tilt!

Play on!

"Size Does Matter"

I was excited yesterday because I was going to play in the Monday Night Cedar Park tournament. I really like the structure because you only get $1500 to start. It was $20 buy-in.

I arrive a little bit on tilt because the baseball coach called for a last minute batting practice and I still needed to stop at the store for beer and money. I did arrive 5 minutes before the start but I hate cutting it that close. I quickly downed a couple of beers and I was ready to go.

At my table there were 2 players that appeared to be easy marks. The second or third hand I got pocket aces. I wanted to profit so I bet $200. I got one caller. I continue to bet $200, because nothing was threatening on the board. I managed to take half the stack of one of the strongest players in the tournament.

I moved away from the easy table to a tougher table of players I have never played with before. I was holding my own and grabbing a few more chips here and there. The broke down one of the tables and we shifted to two tables. The second hand of the new table I get AQo. I make a small raise and get one caller. Flop comes Q74 (2 diamonds). Other player bets $500, which was about a fourth of my stack. I put him on a queed but I knew I had the better kicker. What I did not pay attention to was the size of his stack. He had a huge stack of chips. My all0in did not make a dent in his stack, so he called my all-in chasing a flush. Of course he hit it on the turn and I was drawing dead. Out in the middle of the pack. Man I hate that!

I played in a cash game afterwards. It was a lot of fun but I managed to lose $8.

My lesson was that size does matter and when there is a table change I need to look around, spending some time analyzing the table, the new players, their position, and the size of there stack. I may not have played the hand much differently but in hind site I should have put him on the flush draw and just called his $500.

Play on!

"Sailing and Poker"

It has been a little while since I updated this humble blog. This past Sunday I had the pleasure of crewing in a regatta. There were only three of us, so I actually had to do some work. Other than a less than ideal start we had a pretty good race. We did have a little luck in that the fastest boat made a navigation error. The boat ended up correcting course, but the mistake did cost them. They had to spot us 33 seconds per mile so when the math was completed we won by just 9 seconds. Man it was fun! Sailing across the water is so peaceful. I must say the captain did one hell of a job to keep us in the race. There was another San Juan 7.7 that we constantly changing positions with. I think we ended up beating them by only 28 seconds.

I could go on about sailing, but the unique thing is that they hosted a freeroll NL holdem tournament after the regatta. I learned an interesting lesson during this tournament. Many of the players had never played NL Holdem before. I tried playing my normal game and I really should have shifted gears and been the aggressor. I ended up going all-in with pocket tens. I was called by A7o and of course an ace hit on the river. People who have never played in a NL holdem tournament can be dangerous in that they do not have a clue as to what they are doing. If I am in this situation again I am going all-in early and often.

Somehow I managed to sweet talk my lovely wife into letting me play poker Monday night. It was an interesting tournament. There was one new player that I could not get a read on. There is one hand I wish I would have played differently. I truly should have used Slansky's advice on this hand. I had AK of spades. They player to my right raised it to $4K prior to the flop. That was a quarter of his chips. I think I should have raised him all-in and taken my chances. Unfortunately I folded. He showed an ace, but I do not think he had a strong kicker. He may have called my all-in, but hind sight tells me it would have been worth the chance.

I ended up going all-in with KdQd and got walloped by a set of two's. I finished in 5th place. It may have been worth it to play big slick early and take a shot at the new guy. it turns out that he was a loose aggressive player. At one point he went all-in with T5o and of course ran into a big hand.

I am not sure when I will play poker again, but I do know I am going sailing on Sunday.

Peace!

"Victory is Sweet"

This Saturday night I went to a "guys night out party". The party consisted of alcohol, food, music, and poker. We had nine players start a $20 buy-in NL Holdem tournament. I had to scramble to get there on time. We had a 2 hour baseball practice. After practice we had to rake the field. I rushed home, but I did manage to fly into HEB for some tecate and pretzels. I took a very fast shower and out the door I went. I was a little on tilt. When I arrived there was a friend of mine there that I knew in Houston. I ate a slice a pizza and chugged a tecate. I was ready to go.

Early in the tournament I had TJo and the flop came TTJ. I checked. The other player checked. On the turn there was a flush and straight potential so I checked again. I set the trap for the other player to catch a hand. I led out with a modest bet and he raised me. I made another raise of $2K. He called and I took a third of his stack.

I bluffed more than usual with some reasonable sized bets. I built a reasonable chip stack. I did call an all-in once and lost, but the person was short stacked.

We were down to the final three and all were in the money. I got AKo. The host went all-in. I had to call. He had a medium pocket pair. The turn brought an ace and I took him out. I was heads up against a solid opponent. We battled for along time. I was not going to make a mistake. He would call my big blind and I would just check. Everytime he hit his straight I would fold or check it down. So I never lost a large sum of money. He thought I was psychic. Then came the final hand where I had the opportunity to give him a taste of his own medicine.

I looked at my cards in the small blind and saw AA. I just called the big blind to slow play the aces. He raised, so I popped back the magic words "All-in". He immediately called. He called with Q5o, so I think he thought I was trying to buy the pot. A queen did come on the flop giving me a scare, but I did win pocketing a nice c-note.

There was a cash game going on and I was feeling no pain. We were listening to a DVD of Rush live in Germany for their 30th reunion. I have not been a huge rush fan, but that DVD rocked. I held my own for several hours. It was 3:15 AM when the host and I were playing a hand heads up. I was holding pocket tens in the small blind. I made a small raise. The big blind called me. The flop came 548. I bet out. The big blind goes all-in for about $15 dollars. It was the host of the party. My beer infected brain could not put him on the correct hand. I ended up calling. He turned over 45o for two pair. I did not feel bad since the money was going to the host. The lesson here is to take my time and think about what potential hads the opponent may have. I did not think about it at all.

Any rate I had an awesome time and a net profit of $60.

I am going to miss the next installment of the race for the bracelet. Oh well! Baseball and the kids come first. Perhaps I will show up late and jump into a cash game.

Play on!

"Living on Prayer"

This Monday I played in a nice tournament with 27 players. I made the final table when I experienced the Bon Jovi song "Living on a Prayer". I am sure every poker player has heard or song this tune during a tournament. We were down to 4 people, so I was in the money. Of course I like that. To my left was a huge stack of chips. I was in the small blind with 89 of diamonds. The blinds were 500/1000. I raised it to $3K. The big blind (chip leader) calls. The flop comes ten of diamonds, jack of diamonds, and jack of spades. I bet $2K. The chip leader raises it another $2K. I immediately go all-in. I mean seriously I have an open ended straight flush draw, a possible straight, and a flush. The chip leader immediate calls me and turns over JT for the insta-boat. Crap I am praying for the straight flush. The prayer was not answered. Thanks a lot Bon Jovi.

It was a fun tournament. Everyone was bitching about the amount of starting chips and the blinds structure. Hell I loved it because you played cards and could not gamble aggressively with chips. We started with $1600. To me it played exactly like most SNG's I have played on-line. I was patient. I played aggressive when I need folks to drop their drawing hands. I played sly when I had the nut, maximizing my chips. I managed two bluffs and both worked. I think I made one mistake where I limped in at the final table in early position. Of course I was raised and I basically donated money. I ahd one lay down which I will never know if it was good or not. I had a straight, but the board showed 4 spades. I had the 9 of spades. There were three better spades available and the player to my right popped a pretty good raise. Upon review I think he stole the pot from me, but it was to early in the tournament to risk half my chips.

Absolutely a great time! I did not take enough beer! At the final table I definitely wanted one more. Another funny thing was the table thought they picked up a tell on me because I looked down at my chips three times in a row after a nice flop. It may have been a tell, but I won the pot. I then continued to use that movement even when I had a weak hand. I definitely need to work on making sure I have no tells.

Well sports season is about to kick in, so poker will be taking a back seat. Hopefully I can skip baseball practice once per month and continue to play in the Cedar Park series. I would like to win the bracelet. Hee Hee!

I will continue playing freerolls when I can. Finished a few spots out of the money last night.

Play on!

"Opening the door for Casino's in Texas"

I heard on the radio today that one big concern about Perry privatizing the Lotto is that it would bring Casino gambling to Texas. Unfortunately I did not get to here them elaborate, but my thought was Bull Shit sensationalism. Casino gambling in texas will require a vote! Privitization of the Lotto will not cut it. It would solve a bunch of problems in Texas, but it is no happening soon.

I have been playing a little on-line. I took a couple bad bad beats today with pocket jacks and pocket kings. Other than that I am grinding. I could not play in the local game this week because of the sports field lottery. I did get the fields we needed. Sports are definitely going to get in the way of poker for the next couple of months. I am hoping to play in a big tournament on February 12th in Cedar Park. This tournament will have about 20 - 30 persons. Part of the money goes to a six month prize pool. If you accumulate the most points during the six months you win the pool. It should be a ton of fun. I may only get to play in February so hopefully I will win! hee hee!

Next I am going to post the lyrics to a poem that I believe Tex Ritter made into a song. I thought the concept of using a deck of cards to pray was cool. This may need to be on my other blog, but it is a deck of cards.

Deck of Cards

A young soldier was in his bunkhouse all alone one Sunday morning over in Afghanistan. It was quiet that day, the guns and the mortars, and land mines for some reason hadn't made a noise. The young soldier knew it was Sunday, the holiest day of the week. As he was sitting there, he got out an old deck of cards and laid them out across his bunk.

Just then an army sergeant came in and said, "Why aren't you with the rest of the platoon?"

The soldier replied, "I thought I would stay behind and spend some time with the Lord."

The sergeant said, "Looks like you're going to play cards."

The soldier said, "No sir, you see, since we are not allowed to have Bibles or other spiritual books in this country, I've decided to talk to the Lord by studying this deck of cards."

The sergeant asked in disbelief, "How will you do that?"

"You see the Ace, Sergeant, it reminds that there is only one God.
The Two represents the two parts of the Bible, Old and New Testaments.
The Three represents the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
The Four stands for the Four Apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
The Five is for the five virgins that were ten but only five of them were glorified.
The Six is for the six days it took God to create the Heavens and Earth.
Seven is for the day God rested after working the six days.
The Eight is for the family of Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives, in which God saved the eight people from the flood that destroyed the earth for the first time.
The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy. He cleansed ten but nine never thanked Him.
Ten represents the Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses on tablets made of stone.
The Jack is a reminder of Satan. One of God's first angels, but he got kicked out of heaven for his sly and wicked ways and is now the joker of eternal hell.
The Queen stands for the Virgin Mary.
The King stands for Jesus, for he is the King of all kings.

When I count the dots on all the cards, I come up with 365 total, one for every day of the year. There are a total of 52 cards in a deck, each is a week, 52 weeks in a year.

The four suits represents the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Each suit has thirteen cards, there are exactly thirteen weeks in a quarter.

So when I want to talk to God and thank Him, I just pull out this old deck of cards and they remind me of all that I have to be thankful for."

The sergeant just stood there and after a minute, with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart, he said, "Soldier, can I borrow that deck of cards?"

Play on!

"Banned from Internet Poker"

I know I have not posted in quite awhile. I doubt anyone reads this crazy blog anymore anyway. A story to share and a poker tournament blunder.

Last weekend on Friday evening I lost the last of my bankroll on Poker Time and Bugsy Club. I still had some money in my Neteller account, so on Saturday I thought no big deal I will pick a site and move the last of my Neteller monies. WRONG! Neteller was no longer permitting US citizens to deposit money at any gambling institution. Congress, you suck! So my answer was that I needed to start playing the freeroll circuit again. The truth is not many sites have freerolls. I found a freeroll that started at around midnight at Poker Time. There were 5000 players fighting for $1000. I think they paid the top 260 positions. At 3:00 AM I found myself in 20th place. I had ATs. I went all-in. Of course the river gives the other player a flush and I am out 20th. The good news is I won a whopping $4.50. I am now back in action with internet gambling. I plan to grind away and maybe play some more freerolls. But for all practical purposes I am banned from the internet.

Last monday night I played in a local game with a $20 buy-in. It was kind of strange because we had 12 players at one table. I did not really care for it, but I rolled with the flow. We got down to 7 players and I was short stacked. Of course I was eliminated 7th. I limped in UTG with 56s and caught a piece of the flop with middle pair with a flop of 567. I pushed all-in. I got one caller. Well it turns out that the caller had flopped a straight. Where I made my mistake was not paying attention that the only two players that could call my all-in were the blinds. The BB had 48o for the straight. Ok yes I should not have limped with 56s. If I was going to gamble I should have pushed all-in pre-flop. But the lesson I am taking away is that I need to pay attention to who my potential opponents were. Needless to say I had fun. Definitely a good group of guys to play with. I liked the old format of 2 $10 games, but sometimes that does take to long. We do typically have to work on Tuesday.

Play on!

"Sometimes Poker Sucks"

I just finished doing some work and preparing for a workshop this weekend. Lets play a few hands of poker before I turn in for the night. My stack is dwindling rapidly at Bugsy Club. I join a .05/.10 NL ring game with $3. The table is full. I am the button when I am dealt pocket aces. Comes around to me I bet the pot (~.30). I get one caller. The board comes 223. Other player goes all-in. Did he really call my raise with a 2? I call! Pocket aces go down in flames to 92 offsuit. I decide to rebuy for another $3. First hand I am dealt is pocket ladies. This time no messing around I go all-in. I get one caller. Guess what he had? Yup! Pocket aces!

Poker really sucks when you can not play in your local neighborhood weekly tournament. It was tonight. Probably a good thing based on the last two hands. Last time I played I did manage a 1st place and a 3rd place finish.

I am going to miss next Monday's game also. Hopefully I can get a couple of folks over to celebrate my birthday the following weekend. Going to be difficult to narrow the list down to just 7 people, but I will come up with something.

I am down to $7 at Bugsy and only $23 left in Neteller. I am thinking about joining Full Tilt if they do not have aminimum buy-in. My online days appear to be numbered! I just may have to do the freeroll circuit again. Did I mention that Bugsy's Bonus policy sucks!

Ciao

“Please Break a Glass!”

The title of this belated post comes from Christmas Eve dinner. One thing that typically causes the family to not to speak to each other are heated discussions on politics and religion. Therefore, my brother-in-law instructed me to break a glass if the conversation went in a direction toward politics or religion. We got a couple of good laughs when I mimicked breaking a glass, but never really had to do so. However, in this little blog of mine there is nothing to stop me from discussing politics and poker.

I was reading the Austin American Statesman the other day and there was an article about the Texas horse industry. Once again I was enlightened as to how stupid Texas politicians really are. The gist of the article is that the Texas horse industry is declining due to the larger purses in OK, NM, and LA. They article hints that it is because these other states immediately approved gaming machines, generating larger purses for horse races.

OK Texas Politicians! Listen! Please listen! At every Texas Horse track pass a bill that will permit the establishment of a Poker Room. Poker is not like one-arm bandits. Poker rooms will generate revenue to create larger purses for the horse races. Larger purses mean more revenue. Large purses mean keeping horse breeding in Texas. Large purses keep Texas money in Texas. Oh lets see who benefits? Texans!

Sorry Mom, but the only worthwhile legislation passed by Texas lawmakers is the new tobacco subsidy, I mean Tax.

OK I will break my beer glass and leave politics. I have played some poker over the holidays. I managed to win a $1 buy-in at Bugsy Club this past week. I have been on a down swing at that site, so this was a little boost of $12.50. I am grinding away trying to build my bankroll back up. I have been playing at Bugsy for about 4 months and still have not earned any of my bonus. This aspect of Bugsy Club sucks. Do not get lured into their deposit bonus schemes.

I played in some live games in Austin. I have one 2nd place and two 3rd place finishes. Third is like kissing your sister because you just get your money back. One of the games I was a huge short stack and went all-in four times doubling up each time. It was great. I ended up in second place once playing 84o. The board paired my four and a player went all-in. Eights had been hitting the board all night long to I called. Sure enough an 8 came on the turn! Pretty risky, but fun!

I played in a tournament in Houston. I did not do well because a person called me with pocket nines after I put her all-in. I had A2s. The flop brought KQ7 with two cards being spades giving me a flush draw. I had not played a hand all night so I went all-in. I cannot believe with a board like that she called my all-in move. Needless to say I was crippled when the flush or ace did not hit. The next hand I had pocket 6’s. I went all-in only to be called by three other persons. I was out early. I then became the dealer when it was down to the final 8. When it was heads up I dealt for about 40 minutes and they just kept exchanging blinds. I went crazy so I had to quit dealing. I found two important lessons from this poker session. One was never deal when two ladies are heads up! The other was that I risked my chips unnecessarily against a novice player. I could have just checked it down and only pushed when I achieved the nut flush. I have to do a better job adjusting to player styles. I usually play with people who know what the hell they are doing and it makes the decisions more clear.

I will be playing again this Wednesday. Hopefully I can finish in the money again. It looks like there will be 12 players so probably just one game for a $20 buy-in. Usually we play two $10 buy-ins, which is what I like.

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas or Holiday. I better not get started on that subject or I might have to break a glass!

Peace!

"Just peachy"

Howdy! Things could not be better at this second. Watching the PPT! Eating Botanas de Harina (Hot & Spicy Picante Snax Mix)! Spanish is a reflection of one of April's recent posts. I am drinking hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps. And I am playing in a $1 HORSE tournament at Bugsy. Oh yea! I have the movie "the Da Vinci Code" waiting in the wings.

It sounds like I am just peachy; however, I am sad. I read today that Iggy is going on hiatus and his blog is going down under. I plead to you Oh master to continue your blog. Write about anything you wish - your current work place drudge, a bowel movement, a fishing trip, swilling multiple Guinness, the quest for World Peace. I mean just write! Anything you write is better than anything else on this planet. I did write a recent post about Death to Poker Blogs, but the great blog "Guinness and Poker" must not fall victim to the bureaucratic BS that goes on in the US. Perhaps we should all pitch in and move Iggy to DownUnder, so he can legally make a living playing online poker. IGGY please JUST WRITE!

Monday night I played in a local tournament. It was NL Holdem with a $20 buy-in. My kinda of game. There were 24 players. I nice group. I hope to play again. I played extremely well. I ended up finishing 8th place when I went all-in from the big blind with QQ. I got called by A9. An ace appears on the flop and I am sad. If I win this hand I am confident I finish in the money. instead I am out. I checked out the cash game, but it did not feel right to me. Instead I ended up dealing to make the tournament go smoothly.

I did want to mention one strange hand. I was in the small blind with A6o. I called the raise. They deal the flop and I look down. I have no cards. I am like crap what happened. The players who had mucked looked through the muck pile and handed me what they felt were my two cards. I was not sure they gave me the right cards. We decided to just check it down. The bizarre part is I won when a 6 landed on the river. I am usually religious about putting a coin on my cards. I was not drinking much so I can not blame it on alcohol.

I did win a nice pot once with 83o. I felt the guy was weak and an ace came on the flop. I played the hand like I had an ace. He folded on the river giving me a nice stack of chips.

OK right now I am the chip lead in the HORSE tournament. I am playing aggressive in the RAZZ round. So far won two large pots. Hopefully I can hang on to make a couple of bucks.

Time to plop in the movie.

Good night!

Bonus Code IGGY Damn it!

“ZERO Imagination”

I have been slamming Greg Davis for years. Once again he proves to me that he has zero imagination. Oh lets run a QB sneak! Oh Lets run a QB sneak! Oh wait Lets run a QB sneak. The freaking offensive coordinator has two of the best backs in the country and a huge full back in Henry. Oh wait! QB Sneak!

Horns tried to come back, but the 51 yard field goal was amazing. Hats off the Wildcats for having some imagination!

I will always believe Davis sucks! Man I hope Colt is OK!

Let’s try to change the subject and add a bit of poker content. I signed up at Bugsy Club because of the 100% deposit bonus. What a joke! I have played for about a month and I have only earned 10 bugsy points. I need 100 per $10 of bonus. Yes I am playing some low stakes, but crap I have been logging the hours.

I am about to play in a pot limit Omaha H/L SNG. I am also going to play in a NL Holdem tournament. I have been hitting the alcohol pretty hard, so we shall see what happens. The other night I won the Omaha H/l SNG.

I did manage to beat our 7 year old son today in NL holdem with pocket aces. Then he cleaned out the bank playing black jack!

I just was put all-in with the nut low and the river brought me the wheel! I now have 5K after the first hand. Nice start on a table named after our daughter.

Well I ended up 3rd in the Omaha game, but knocked out with AA in the NL tournament. Person hit two pair on the river.

I am watching Tora Tora Tora.

I am going to regress to last week with one of my more embarrassing moments. I took our 7 year old son to the Longhorn –vs OSU game. We stopped at the Dog and Duck for a quick beer. We then headed to Bevo Street. The tailing gating was happening. My son notices a huge trophy on a table. What’s that? Lets ask. Turns out it was the home of the winning brisket. They invited us to try it. Wow! Was it ever good! Then two gentleman who work for Enterprise car rental offered me a couple of free beers. We headed to the stadium. I had never arrived at my seat 40 minutes before kick off, but our son was excited. By the way Mr. T – thank you for the tickets! After buying our son a Texas size corn dog we headed to our seats. Our row was crowded so I decided to go in one row above. I lifted my son down the correct row. I then stepped over the edge. My ankle hit a concrete edge and I rolled it. I did a face plant right into the metal bench. Everyone was very nice. Fortunately my ankle did not get wrecked. Just one of life’s more embarrassing moments. Our son had a second Texas Size corn dog. He made it through the entire game but passed out on the way home. The 8 block piggy back ride was tough on Dad. The really cool part is I made it home from 15th street in just 21 minutes. The new toll roads are awesome.

One last note! A big shout out to the U7B Sharks and the U10G Clash. Including the tournament the Sharks had a record of 12-1-1 with 88 goals scored and 22 given up. The Clash went undefeated! I am going to miss soccer. It was a great season.

I am not looking forward to waking up in the morning and reading about the Horns defeat. I am sad!

At least Monday night I can play in a poker tournament.

Cheers!

“Yet another Bubble Finish”

This was an interesting way to finish in a tournament. I was invited to a local home game and I decided to check it out. It was a great group of guys and I had a ton of fun. Of course I did not like how it ended, but I think it was totally my fault for not thinking ahead.

The blinds were ridiculously high ($8k - $16) and we were down to 4 players. I made it through one orbit and I had passed up an all-in opportunity with A8o. I think this was a hand I would later regret not playing. The player to my left was down to a single $1K chip. I had $21K. I had enough for the BB, but the cards were horrible and I had to muck them in hopes that the short stack would get knocked out. What I did not anticipate was that he would become the big blind with only $1K and I was in the the small blind with $5K. With the amount that low of course the chip lead called us. The BB turned over AKs. The chip lead turned over A5o and I had QTo. There was no help for anyone, so the BB won the pot, I lost to the A5 and was out on the bubble. The funny part of the story however is that the person with a single chip ended up doubling up like 7 times in a row and finished in 2nd place.

This all boils down to me not managing my chips properly and paying attention to the blinds. On the previous orbit when I had A8o and some chips, I should have taken my chances against the chip lead, who was to my right. If he calls and I win I would have had enough chips for another round or two.

Over-all I played well and was the chip leader for a long time. I did lose half my chips when top pair on the flop lost to pocket aces. I new he had aces, but the pots odds were appropriate to call and I had the large chip stack.

We played a second tournament, but I could not make any cards nor put in any good positions to make a bluff at the pot. I finally went all in with pocket 7’s. I got one caller. The flop came 3J7 all spades. I was excited to see my set hit only to realize the caller had AT of spades. The board did not pair, so I was on my home!

This group plays every Monday night. It is doubtful my better half will permit me to play every Monday, but I am going to shoot for twice per month.

Another big weekend coming up, but I am taking our son to the Longhorn game Saturday night. It should be a blast.

Go Horns!