Sleep With the Fishes, Dine on the Whales

But first things first... Saw that our friends at popular online casino bwin have a new game in their casino: Amazon Adventure. Looks like a good bit of fun. It's a 16-reel slot game with 10 lines to win. In the spirit of an Amazon Adventure the bonus rounds are played at waterfalls and volcanos. There is also a scatter bonus where you can win if you get a random set of 7s or more. There are a lot more games like this for players that like slot play at home. They also have a great interface to play blackjack online and to play roulette online . http://www.gulfcoastpoker.net/

WSOP - WWF, WPT - WCW This is going a little 90s, but if the two forces of poker were wrestling federations it's pretty obvious now to see that the WSOP is the Titan winning the battle and the WPT is the now struggling rival that one day might get swallowed up by the big boy. The parallels are obvious here, WSOP like the WWWF, later the WWF, and later still the WWE gobbled up many local poker tournaments and rebranded them circuit events just like Vince McMahon's federation spread like a virus across the U.S. Both organizations have the single flagpole events with the WSOP's Main Event and the WWF's Wrestlemania. Both "sports" are yearlong journeys toward their main event with every participant wanting to be one of the final two. The WPT and WCW have a lot in common too. Both grew and festered and really ignited a broader following to their "sports" by being on a cable station not normally associated with their entertainment fare. Travel Channe...

It's the year end so a little bit of a fun column. To make it a little easier we'll assume that the wrasslin' was real. This will be a multi-part column. Let's start with an easy one: Greg Fossilman Raymer - King Kong Bundy If Greg ever goes full bore and shaves the pate totally, he won't have too much heavy lifting to get to King Kong Bundy's physique. I'm not sure he'd have to "get into shape" as much as stay out of shape. King Kong Bundy was actually a pretty smart guy. The Fossilman wore his funky shades on his way to his Main Event bracelet and fooled everybody in thinking he was dumber than he really was. Both are giants but both seem to be teddy bears at heart. John Juanda - Ricky the Dragon Steamboat Okay, David the Dragon Pham was too obvious. The Dragons may share a nickname but that's about it. Ricky the Dragon was one of the more underated wrestlers out there. He took bumps with a generation of greatness, when his peers were ...

This latest scandal on UB could just be a computer glitch. It could be a freak occurrence that just happened to happen when the face of their company was playing limit poker. Allegedly he's been on a tear... playing limit poker. Allegedly not only isn't he a good limit poker player he's been a bit of a fish of that game. And he's been on a bit of a tear. Last go around everything smelled real funny, real funny and finally people were able to show it was. This go round, this would be brutal for poker. If Hellmuth goes down we all suffer greatly. I don't think it lights a fire under the collective asses in Congress to regulate it I think it puts a fork in a "rogue" industry. Of late I've been pimping bWin poker ( https://poker.bwin.com/poker.aspx ) for many reasons. Anybody that follows international sports will know they advertise on AC Milan's jerseys. You might see David Beckham wearing one in the next couple of weeks. What's significan...

Giant killers, the itsy bitsy Spiders chew up the Griz. After party. President holding national championship trophy. Not the craziest party I've been too. Spiderman was standing next to me. Chew on this. Hopefully, Tremayne will win a few more titles. We'll have to track him down every year as he's a redshirt frosh this go around. Red Bull gives you wings Vaughn ran for 100+ and might just join former backfield mate and Arizona Cardinal Tim Hightower in the NFL next year. http://www.gulfcoastpoker.net/

In the stands. Game faces on. First Touchdown was the old pass back to the quarterback. Wes with QB Eric Ward after we rushed the field. Notice the winning scoreboard behind. 24-7. Did I mention we won. Taking a shot with Spider great, Sean Barber at the after party. NFL linebacker with Redskins, Eagles, and Chiefs. Pregame photo with Brian Jordan, another spider great. Pro football player with the Atlanta Falcons and All Star baseball player with the Atlanta Braves, Cardinals and more. Probably one of the best, and most underrated athletes ever. Class guy too. Huge weekend for us. 2800 students and we win the national championship over a big state school. www.gulfcoastpoker.net

Last night we held our little satellite tournament and David Anderson came in and best 9 others. I got to heads up action with David and his aggression prevailed. Final hand I over-commited with K9 and had to call when he shoved over my raise on me pre-flop. He had A10 of spades. I hit a K on the turn but he flushed on the river. Better hand and better player won. Congratulations David. He claimed he was getting bowled over by the deck all night but he obviously played well with the right cards. He was on my right and raising in position on me all night. It was a little frustrating. I got plenty of big hands that held to enable me to make it to the final two, so I got nothing to bitch about. Lots of others were getting coolered and Aces and Kings were going around the table like they were going out of style. If it was a cash game it would have been a REALLY interesting night. Just a little note, I'm off to Chattanooga to watch the Richmond Spiders football team, my team, in the Nat...

On the front page of www.gulfcoastpoker.net under the poker news section Daniel Negreanu's linked poker blog kind of answers my own question that I posed a few posts ago. I play small ball, know where I am in the hand and then watch my opponent catch on the river. Usually it works out that the river card also improves my hand but makes his. You can tell by my tongue in cheek cyncism on the front page about getting rivered that I'm tired of this happeneing. It happens in online poker and in live poker. In one texas hold 'em tournament I called a guy until the river with second pair--tens. The flop was king high but he was last to act and I felt like was betting some sort of draw. On the turn, he looked like he wasn't improving and threw out another just go away bet when I'd check to him out of position. I call. His river bet didn't bring a flush or a straight card but was a Queen. This time he bet with some confidence and I felt I was beat. Yet, it was...

Wanted to talk quickly about the bubble hand that knocked me out a few away to the money. But before I do that I want to briefly mention a poker/casino website we'll be working with. I'm very excited about https://casino.bwin.com/casino.aspx where they have online blackjack, online roulette, as well as a great poker site that I'll cover more indepth in the coming weeks. I don't play blackjack online much, nor do I play roulette online, but I'm a fan of their gaming having poked around the site a little bit. The online blackjack and roulette is smooth action with quality graphics and an easy to use interface. The also have a great reputation in Europe with probably a little more oversight than many of the traditional sites. It looks like a great alternative to all the pseudo-American sites that have been in hot water so much recently. I'll be talking a good bit about their poker in the coming weeks as they have some good promotions for trips to the Aussie M...

17 times in the last 1oo years. The last time was the Xmas before Katrina. Relax you fearful superstitious types, this isn't christmas. I've put some photos on the blog and a couple of videos of my dogs playing. Took them a little bit to get used to it and then had a bit of a blast. Now they are trying to warm up. Also, congrats to Justin "Lockdowntex" Allen who won the Winter Bayou classic main event. It's his third cash in the last couple of months and his first first place finish. www.gulfcoastpoker.net

www.gulfcoastpoker.net

Dogs playing in snow. www.gulfcoastpoker.net

www.gulfcoastpoker.net

You want to make the Final Table of the Main Event? Get profiled in the Gulf Coast Poker.NET's Who's Who. Last go around it was Gabe Costner and T.K. that duked it out. This go around Jeremy "The Chemist" Gaubert and Matt "Cub" Culberson who just need to outlast seven other players. Gaubert, as you'll remember is from Lockport, LA, and cashed in the Main Event at this years World Series. He's done a lot online as well. We'll try and get some of the action on the main page as it happens. www.gulfcoastpoker.net

So I root for the Richmond Spiders. They are in the semi finals in the divison of college football that actually has a playoff. They avenged their loss to Armanti Edwards and just plain nasty team that is Appy State. Appy State won the last three national titles, and last years team which lost a lot to graduation was probably as good as the bottom half of the top 10 in the BCS divison. So it was a bit of an upset. Though they did lose a lot to graduation. The Spiders though lost Tim Hightower the rookie running back stud for Arizona, so we lost some too. No excuses right. I'm pumped for that. If the Spiders can get by UNI I'm headed to Chattanooga for the title game. Problem is, beating UNI at UNI is near impossible so likely I'm not making a pre-christmas road trip. In hoops those same UR spiders lost to in state rival ODU. What's the point poker fans? Well, I'm wearing my Spiders sweatshirt the night after in Harrahs, New Orleans, and an ODU grad sitti...

So I think I'm having a pretty good week in a pick 'em pool I play for small change. I look up the results and see I'm in first going into Monday night. Than I see I went with 41 for the o/u or tiebreaker. I see Vegas had it at 48. Probably should have gone somewhere around there because of the Texans but was holding out hope on the Jags d. I rue not taking Texans because them against Jville has at least once and maybe twice bounced me from a HUGE survivor pool late in the season. Then, I see if it's 41 or under I win regardless of who wins the game. Nice. Last night I check my phone for the score and it says with 6 minutes left it was 20-3 or some such nonsense. Suh-weet. Later I get on the computer and don't check the real score just the spreadsheet. Without looking too closely it looks like I win via the tiebreaker. Today I'm in the Bayou Classic tournament, first time I'm playing for a backer, somebody is playing jockey with me as the horse, and I...

Liked the over in the Saints-Packers game. Thank you to the Saints for taking care of it by themselves. I also set a goal for what to win at Harrahs tonight. That also went over. Wish I could take credit for it. Played like a donkey in spots and got rewarded for it. Twice I bet into a multi-way pot with air and little draw only to hit. Once I thought I was open ended (but had a pair and a gutter), the other time I had decided to play diddly like it wasn't from the preflop. Those were fun. When I showed Queen-three to take down a pot a solid player made a face of absolute confusion. Delicious. He proceeded to pay me off four successive times when I settled back down. My big hand was flopping top set. Of course my third 8s came with had a 7 and a 5 and two hearts. I cbet... if you can call it that, three times the pot. $95. Too much? Two callers, actually one guy came over the top for the rest of his chips but not quite a raise. Sweet? Turn is a 7. Okay. I shove. T...

After some frustration in the Harrahs tournament and finally some in their post tournament cash game (outkicked with trips, by one, lower end of a flopped straight where I checked called the nuts to the river [pat myself on the back for sniffing out the tight nit had the nuts and losing the minimum], kings losing to a guy who was priced in with 2s because of lose preflop calls by two big stacks, you know how that goes, bad beat whine, bad beat whine, cooler whine etc...). Anyway, somehow I stretch all that action into one buy-in, but now I'm tilted so I need a break. I decide to meet up with Gene D to talk about the site, play some limit poker, and play with the fishies in the small buy-in evening tournament we sometimes play. Gene gets caught up with work, so as I'm killing time there, and I really didn't feel like hold 'em or being patient after a frustrating morning session. So I play some half and half. I looking to work on Omaha so why not at low stakes. Granted I ...

Clonie Gowen, claims when Full Tilt started she was offered THE role of a female face for the company. Apparently, 1% of the company was being offered to other pros for a paltry 30k. As we found out with Ultimate and Absolute there tend to be a lot of companies owning one another. The software company would actually make the money as Full Tilt pays it huge liscensing fees. Clonie states, in a meeting in Phil Ivy's suite, that she and several other early owners were promised a chunk of the software companies where the real money was at. Then, Full Tilt didn't pay her a dividend. Then they wanted her to not be a representative any more and tried to fire her. She's suing saying the company is worth a couple of billion and through her verbal agreements she is owed millions. Will be interesting to see if this brings to light just how much money Full Tilt makes. Now, Phil Ivy's Craps addiciton doesn't sound all that damaging considering he could be pulling in mil...

also, the guy whose regular tourney I play in is hosting his annual heads up tournament next sunday. any advice for heads up play besides pressure, pressure, pressure? I consider myself a good heads up player, maybe not as good as Gene D but for a while I was doing alright online HU. Number 1, like all poker be flexible and number 2 like all poker use selective agression. Obvious huh, not very helpful either? Per #1 flexibility: If you feel your opponent tighten up to match your style (which is tight correct?)--open it up. If you feel outmatched be willing to take gambles and push with overcards preflop (or draws post-flop). If the player is better it is to your detriment to play a lot of hands with him. Keep getting your chips to the middle any time you feel 50% or better. You'll win a lot of pots from the guy if he's any good cause he'll bide his time, course he wakes up to a big pocket pair--you'll get snapped. If you feel superior avoid the coin flips. See flo...

Note to self when I'm sitting at the Main Event table... run like I'm Peter Eastgate. Turn and River the nuts and let my opponents bluff into me. That kid was living right. www.gulfcoastpoker.net

First off congrats to Reid Gilbert. Kid got it done, weathered some early storms and made it all the way to the final table. People should be getting in line to back him... as he delivers. Individually, I'm happy overall with my performance at the IP. I outlasted most of the field in the Main Event despite being card dead except for four hands. One knocked me out, QQ that was called by a solid player who claimed he was calling because he's such a bad player (Uh oh... those never go well). He had AJ o/s. The three other hands I got? KK, AK, KK. Wow. And I'm complaining about being card dead? I'm a greedy S.O.B. huh? Not really, I got them three hands in a row. Total: three sets of blinds and 1 limper during the third level. Not even an ante lagniappe. All I did was 3x each hand. I got KK first and it was folded around. I showed to set up opportunities to steal and reinforce my tight image in later rounds. I get AK next and it's folded to me. I make a...

Appreciate the feedback on the previous post. Very informative. So much of my decisions are based on reads. Usually I'm successful with it, but sometimes I overthink things a bit. here I didn't think through the information my opponent gave me thoroughly enough. He wanted me to call for the same reasons I should have called. Odd how an action can be beneficial for multiple players in poker sometimes. BTW, I didn't make two final tables. I finished 10th in the 6pm. The IP was merging at 9 for the noon tournaments. Maybe they actually merged at 10 (for the 6pm tournaments) and I finished 11th. I didn't really count after I tried a steal on an undefended big blind (player was still on break so too the button) in an unopened pot to me (next to the empty button). A tight girl was in the SB. My stack was 3/4s of hers. I decided I was shoving with anything as I was so short and so much money was there. She said... uhhh, I call. Hello KK. Goodbye Bill. Bill not h...

Standard 1-2 game in Biloxi. Get AA utg. Limp. Next two limp. Tight kid after you raises to 17. Three callers. You are sitting with about 500 in front. What now? You bet 77. Tight kid asks how much you got left. He's got about 277. He flat calls (you are pretty sure he has a hand like Kings). Next guy calls (pretty steady and hasn't gotten out of hand after three hours of playing). Fold, fold. Flop is Jd9d5h. What now? You check. (Bad Check?) Tight kid puts in 100. (125 behind). Next guy goes over the top for 283 more. What do you do? You ask him if he'd call a 77 bet with Jacks. He said he has worse. You are incredulous and you say 9s? He says, "You guys are going to be really mad if I hit my hand." What do you do? What do they have? www.gulfcoastpoker.net

Another quick poker note. One of the purposes of this blog, that I sometimes forget is to track my mistakes, not just to get abuse from my entire reading audience (my mom and dad) but also to pound them into my head so I won't do it again. Sometimes I forget the obviousness of 1-2. There is no subtlety there. Matt Byrant hits on that a bit on his blog Pobody's Nerfect (I believe that was the slogan of a failed Nerf Golf game) which is a good read and like the Honest Player's blog will be linked on GCP imminently. Anyway, one mistake in my session yesterday was not betting my hand. I get a little out of line with 5h3h. I raise it from middle position. I have a chip stack and depending on the action of the others it's a hand I'm going in with the intention of bluffing... or hitting and blindsiding somebody. Of course board texture will determine bluffing. I get a couple of callers and a min-re-raise. Guy calls the new total (24 maybe? I was leading ou...

Got away from 2nd best hand a lot in the Harrahs tournament today. Then, I ran into AQ on a Q high board. I had QJ in the BB. I got away again. Next hand KQ in the SB. Tight button raises. I call. Flop is Queen high I'm short stacked. I check he bets. I call. Turn is a brick. I realize I can check call for the rest of them or shove them in there (like I should have done on the flop). I push he calls. AQ again. Oh. Then I burn through 3 buy-ins in the cash game. Guy chased to river a flush on my trips. Made a call against the nuts with a redraw that wasn't a redraw. Guy shoved the nuts on a small pot. Why would he chase away his customer. I called yet my spidey sense was tingling--that's what he wants you to think. It's just odd because, I wouldn't think my image would justify a bet like that. It worked so maybe I out-leveled myself. Then I go on a bit of heater. Walk out a decent winner including tourney buy-in and Monday night's loss I was...

Alright, I'm back. I'm now half the man I used to be... or now everything I own is only half of what it used to be... no, no, no, I now have a better half. Yeah, that's the line. I'm married and returned from the honeymoon. Had some ups and downs in the poker room in the lead in to the marriage with my friends in town. More ups than downs so that was good. Gene D tells me he was on a heater before his wedding too, so if I get to play tonight we'll find out if that marriage karma is over or not. Some quick thoughts... Spent the h-moon in Disney World. They had the Wine and Food Festival at Epcot. I encourage anybody who likes to eat (isn't that everybody, it's like saying I like to sleep, breathe and circulate blood through my body, or when really full I also like to relieve myself or kind of like 20 year olds on myspace saying they like to party--no kidding) and has to go to Disney World to time it around this event. We got plenty of Photopass pictur...

Thomas Wyatt. He wrote the poem below. Circa Reget Tonate--means the thunder reverberated through the realm. It references an ancient Greek poem. Wyatt's imagery refers to a crisis of his time: a King with a bit of matrimonial bloodlust (and incidentally turned the Christian world upside down because of it). Wyatt's viewpoint was from his literal viewpoint in the Tower of London as Ann Bolynn was beheaded by Henry the VIII. However, I think the poem works well with the state of affairs facing the country now. Literal in places becomes figurative, but still a lot of it works. Anybody that thought I wrote it. Thanks but not true. Okay... nothing to do with Poker there. Looking forward to Gene D recounting his conquest of Shortys. Sounds like he had a night and a half. Played Saturday at Boomtown and saw some odd things. I bubbled two off the money. Fun. Card dead all morning, and just kept waiting and waiting. Made moves to keep my stack from sinking into the felt bu...

http://rumorsandrants.com/2008/10/david-west-has-obamas-back.html www.gulfcoastpoker.net

Who list his wealth and ease retain, Himself let him unknown contain. Press not too fast in at that gate Where the return stands by disdain, For sure, circa Regna tonat. The high mountains are blasted oft When the low valley is mild and soft. Fortune with Health stands at debate. The fall is grievous from aloft. And sure, circa Regna tonat. These bloody days have broken my heart. My lust, my youth did them depart, And blind desire of estate. Who hastes to climb seeks to revert. Of truth, circa Regna tonat. The bell tower showed me such sight That in my head sticks day and night. There did I learn out of a grate, For all favour, glory, or might, That yet circa Regna tonat. By proof, I say, there did I learn: Wit helpeth not defence too yerne, Of innocency to plead or prate. Bear low, therefore, give God the stern, For sure, circa Regna tonat. www.gulfcoastpoker.net

Yesterday I played my weekly double. Did fine in the morning tournament at Harrahs. I looked down at Queens and had a bad feeling. Evil man shoves with JJ. I call. Suicide Bomber scenario that used to always knocked me out. Da Rock of Aces was dealing and threw the Jack in the door. A guy I regularly final table with tells me after the hand he folded a Queen. I said you should have said it during it and I would have had a shot at the case queen. It always comes once somebody announces there is only one left in the deck. I left Harrahs pretty unaffected by my "bad beat." The last two times I final tabled I hit my set on overpairs... so it happens. Then I realized I was fine so why was I leaving. All the folks that went busto in the tournament were hitting the cash games on Tilt. Just like Monday night after that Saints debacle. A room full of tilters... easy money. Now, if I was tilting I just go home but this time why leave? I crushed the cash game. Made some tou...

See Reid's comment on the post below. Last night after the Saints game, with an open-ended time frame (no trapping here because of ladies) I met up with the Tiltin' Texan, and cash game specialist Joe Busch at Harrahs. I lost half my buy-in with two pair on the first hand. Guy had a weird tricky straight. And this time my read was right as I minimized my loss. Then it was smooth sailing. Despite being down to less than a 100, I got dealt hands and they held and this morning I walked out a big winner. Got a new Harrahs hat when I coolered a guy. I had 8s9s. Flop was 10d7s6s. We got it in after some action, he said, "I got a straight," I said, "So do I with a redraw." On cue the turn was the 5s. Ouch. Was just thinking I hadn't gotten a straight flush in a while. Called a guy down with King high, Jack kicker to beat his King high crap kicker. So I was playing good as well as running good. Course it's a lot easier to play good when you are running goo...

My lady (remember say it with the inflection of the Pina Colada song) had to go to a Charity Ball at the Hilton. I would therefore drop her off and play at Harrahs until she was ready to go. Sounds like a plan. Right? I hate playing under the spectre of a timetable. In the past I've either pressed when I shouldn't to turn a quick profit or left angry because I didn't have time to amass one. Last night started with a guy running a mini-angle on me. I had a weak top pair, two to a flush on board. I bet he called. Turn was a brick, he checked, I bet, he called. River paired the board and gave the third to the flush. I was done. He got his hand as close to the table as a WWE referee to the mat on the third count when the hero is in trouble--but doesn't hit. I followed suit and checked. He pulled back, THE HULKSTER GOT OUT OF THE PIN (Jim Ross echoing through my mind) and then reached for his chips. He got me in his trap. He fired out more than a small bet. I ...