Sleep With the Fishes, Dine on the Whales

Okay, back to the action. Did well in the Harrahs and wanted to review some things to kind of burn them into my mind. Noticed a couple of players throwing their bets in a challenging fashion toward their opponent (once it was me) in pots. Strong means weak? No, in both cases strong meant strong. I think the tactic is to antagonize a call. On one hand, I had kings and pumped in a raise. Big Blind called. Flop brought the A106. Yes, pocket kings do scream for aces. He led out for a 1/4 of the pot firing the chips at me. I stewed and called deciding to see what kind of action the turn brought. All along I thought of that Chad Brown quote it's harder to get mediocre players (me in this situation I guess) off of second pair than it is top pair bad kicker. The turn bricked. He made the same bet and tossed it right at me. I had to think, was he weak and how weak, a weak ace weak... or weaker (that is some weak writing right there). Could he fold top pair? The rest of the bo...

Spoke with Gene yesterday who is up in Shreveport and found out he had a pretty profitable session. Saw some faces he doesn't see too much except out there. Glad to hear he's running well. I know how hard he's been working on his new job and it's good to see poker has been a fun respite for him. He's really tackled the new year with some thunder, so keep it up man. Got to say, I'm proud of his dedication and his new approach to the game and life. Let's see I played the Wicked Chops freeroll for the Borgata Main Event earlier in the week. Over 1500 in it. I got down to almost 100 left. What hand knocked me out? AQ vs. A8 or something (preflop). Guy said I just outplayed him. That was until his kicker hit on the turn or so. Argh! The top three got prizes and all of them were at my table when I got booted. Including the guy who barely had me outchipped. Double Argh! For all three to go so deep I was probably right where I wanted to be as far as ...

There are some changes... First off, it starts in May. Seems to start a little earlier every year. Read a while ago there was an effort to gradually pull it all the way back to February some day down the line. Of course if they continue at this incremental pace, the icecaps may melt first. Big news is a no limit holdem 40k event, in honor of the 40th anniversary of the World Series (really 40?), to start off the series. Wonder if and when the qualifiers at online sites will start feeding into that event? Sites like bwin will release their qualifiers soon enough, check in on their online poker blog here for updates. I'd imagine there will be a lot interest for the first event and the biggish payday. Will the qualifiers mostly be directed at this new event, and then a solid month focused on the Main Event? I also believe it's a tester for the possible raise of the buy-in for the main event maybe as soon as next year. That's another rumor that's been going around the last...

Complete Coverage of Jason Alexander's (fake) interview with GCP after signing with Pokerstars: JA: Oh you're here. GCP: Yes. surprised? JA: I don't think I've ever been to an appointment in my life where I wanted the other guy to show up. GCP. Okay. Well, first off congratulations, many successful players strive to get the type of sponsorship deal you've just landed with Pokerstars. With you newfound fame how will that change your strategy of going out early and often in tournaments? JA: Well, I will still bust early, that's a given, but I do I have a couple of strategies at the table. To make sure nobody capitalizes on the genius that was my final table experience on Celebrity Poker... GCP: Weren't they one table tournaments? JA: You say one table, I say final table. Anyway, as I was saying, I will introduce myself not as George... er... Jason Alexander but Art, Art Van De Lay. I will throw them off the scent of my genius even further by sayin...

I don't like AQ v. AJ preflop. I got crippled at the Beau to go in the 30s with that matchup in a second chance tournament. I held the AQ. On Saturday, which I bought myself straight into, in our little satellite tournament it got to three handed and after I put my opponent on A rag, holding A (kind of rag)8, I made a big call. I had raised, he shoved. I stewed and got a couple of tells off of him. Ultimately, I looked at the third player's big stack and told myself, I had a chance to back door a knock-out even if my read was completely wrong. My read was right, but I lost when a 5 hit the board. A couple of hands later still sitting in second with a now smaller chip stack I get AdQd against his AJ. We get it in. I think the turn brought the jack. Argh. I still had chips. I folded a pair of 5s after our chipleader woke up and open bet (BIG) more than my stack. He hadn't played a hand like that for a couple of hours. He had a upper-middle pair earlier when he did....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHBVnMf2t7w&eurl=http://www.buzzfeed.com/lindseyweber/all-music-is-the-same-four-chords-ru/&feature=player_embedded www.gulfcoastpoker.net

Looks like me and Mean Gene will be heading down to the Coast tonight. Looking forward to getting some live action again. If they are still running the second chance tournaments I might play in one of those and take in some cash action. Anybody else read Daniel Negreanu's weird poker blog, confessional-type thing. Surreal experience and falling for a drop dead Kimber from Nip/Tuck lookalike in new york. Was a bit of a headscratcher. So strange that a guy that seems to have his head screwed on right seemingly losing a screw or too. I liked this take on it. http://www.betandwinpoker.eu/ . Hopefully, I'll have a couple of positive beats when I write next. www.gulfcoastpoker.net

It's an interesting study done by the addiction specialists at the Ivy League school that is probably a little behind Yale (Alex Jacob, Vanessa Selbst) in producing top flight pros of late that I wanted to comment on from a couple of different angles. The first is that study to me raises a question, is an online compulsive/addicted gambler the same as a live one? In poker, opinion is pretty strong in the disimiliarities between the two groups of players. The good live players are usually, tactically a little different than the good online players (with of course both being proficient in poker fundalmentals and sharing common core skils), and it's my experience as a mediocre player that there seems to be a gulf in style between the two groups at the mediocre level. IE mediocre players are mediocre online for slightly different reasons than mediocre or average live players are medicore. That being said it's becomming less and less common for a player to not have played both a...

Got back on to Full Tilt after a long sabbatical. So odd. Every time I take a long time off and play... I run like Usain Bolt. This time was no different. I'm really trying to decide if maybe I'm just more patient after a layoff. Indeed there were a lot of hands I thought about playing that I mucked that I would have gone broke on. Played a ton of sit n' gos and tripled my balance in about two days. Kept getting deep and cashing but only had one win, a turbo I signed up by accident (don't like turbos), and in most of the others really was a spot or two away from the real money. Still, it was nice for hands to hold and to have some online success again. Shot over to the Beau today with the intention of playing some cash and then maybe the second chance tourney. Played about 4 hours in one seat and dragged two maybe three pots. One was when I had aces and the normal table limp fest went dry to me on the button. Suhweet. I bet. BB called but thought about raisin...

Pauly, of Tao of Poker fame, was kind enough to answer an email from me soliciting some advice. I really appreciated it, especially as we've never met. Just wanted to say a public thank you as he responded in full and helped me out quite a bit. For those that don't know, his coverage of the World Series is simply the best in the business, it's the first source I go to every year. In non WSOP months he scribes an engaging read and speaks with a fresh voice because it is without much filter. Those are always the most satisfying peeks into someone else's pysche. That's why I enjoy Monkey's blog so much. You won't find a filter there. I rarely delve into that aspect of personal honesty in this public media, and even when I do it's usually wrapped in smalls obfuscations and many details are still left unsaid. Still, even those windows are most appreciated by the hanful of people that read my thoughts. Read the Timelions (linked on the labels column o...

Mark Seif - Irwin R. Schyster Seif is a lawyer. He's also been the face of Absolute Poker. Need I say more. Doyle Brunson - Rick Flair It's tough to figure out when their prime was, and by when we mean which decade. The 70s, the 80s, the 90s? When it appears they are most ready to be put out to pasture, they simply win. Sure the Nature Boy's chest started to sag like bulldog's face and Doyle's riding a hoveround type scooter, but these guys drank from some fountain of eternal youth. Phil Hellmuth - Hulk Hogan Was there any doubt. Both figures put self before profession and have reaped the rewards for being egocentric tall guys. Hellmuth showed up to the World Series dressed like Patton, Hogan used to enter the ring to the pseudo-patriotic song "I am a Real American" and neither would pass up an opportunity at self-serving press. Both are currently embroiled in scandals, Phil's professional with his association with Ultimate Bet and being reward...