Sleep With the Fishes, Dine on the Whales

In the cash game I took my $220 buy-in to $500 quickly. Got bluffed off a hand (not the last time it would happen on wednesday) to a guy I played with in the tournament. The few hands I saw him play there he bet big only when he made his hand, so I chose caution. I showed my terrible laydown and he showed my a gutter ball draw he shoved on the turn with. Then the very next hand I flopped a king high flush. Bet it twice with two callers each time. River brought a heart, and I couldn't fold (still sort of steaming from the bluff) to an 80 bet. Even though I knew I was beat. I don't just get bluffed the hand before I might be able to lay second nuts down. The guy had the HAND, it was like he it was written in neon on his head. Then in short order I took my chips up to $900. The big hand to get there I luckboxed a win. With AQ, I flop trip queens. On the river, after calling two bets from a very good player I hit my ace. He checked. I bet most of his stack, he shoved, ...

My buddy came in from New York on Tuesday. We played the am Harrahs tournament and saw Gene D, Davey and Alex T there. Alex chopped it with 7 players left. Nice 1k profit for him. I don't even remember my hands from the day. I know I got AA once and a guy bluffed into me. I came over the top thinking I had trapped him and he insta-mucked. Damn. Hand I love to get value on early or just bust out with it. Not to be. If I flatted, he might have shoved on the turn. Board was fairly nonthreatening with straightish cards being my only worry but I didn't really give him credit for that... so bad play on me. I got AK, hit my king and got two folds after the flop, for little. My bust out hand after being card dead came when I was short on the button, featured Davey in the BB. A guy who had been mixing it up with him bet UTG and almost everybody called to me. I look at pocket 7s. I shoved and everybody folded, UTG insta-mucked which I was worried about, but part of me wanted...

Wow, what a fiasco. Joan Rivers rips poker players a new one. Check out the 2:31 mark. Annie Duke doesn't a "AWESOME" job of defending herself and the community. Some other highlights. Rivers said "Duke is a size six. She wears six garments. 6-6-6." Brandi Roderick tried to conjugate forego and got foregoo-ed. That's goo. Not gone. Goo. By the way, this show delivers. I can't believe they ever considered having an Apprentice without Celebrities. The egos these people clash into one another like bumper cars makes for TV that is like the groin shot section of America's Funniest Videos for male watchers. It's like a pained, I can't stop watching compulsion. It's funny and at the same time terrible. Let's see in the latest episode there were exactly zero people to root for. Maybe David Lee. Jim Cramer was a guest host and fresh off of caving in like a West Virginia mine on the Daily Show he attacked Brandi Roderick for bein...

Alright maybe not tape delay the stuff that matters, though it would be nice if I could TiVo some of these tournaments I play in and fast forward to the end to see how I fared. Would make patience easier huh? Though it's not the destination it's the journey, the trite quote that rattles around my skull when I've been card dead in a large Multi-table tournament and I feel boredom onset. Maybe it's my background in soccer where they will be long spells of inactivity (especially as the up striker or goalkeeper), where as a really young kid, my attention would be diverted to a buzzing bee or the soccer moms on the sideline, but as I got older I'd stay focused knowing that in that sport suddenly there would be a spurt of action that would determine the outcome of the game. You don't know when it's going to come but you have to be ready when it does. That's tournament poker (okay deep stack tournament poker). Alright, that's a typical tangent for me. ...

Played in the weekly at Harrahs. Survived half the field only playing a hand or two. Flopped a flush and got 80% of my chips to double up. Guy who flopped a set of Jacks bet into me after I checked. I called. The turn was a brick. I checked raised. On the river I bet most of my remaining stack and he called. When he showed the set I thought I lost some value on the hand. Played with Alex T. when I got moved. I decided to try and take down some blinds or play somebody heads up with A9 suited from late middle position. Alex had about three times my bet and shoved. He almost talked me into the hand. He said, "It's the best hand I've had all day." I decided to fold, I'd pick my fights with any of the weak spots on the table and I didn't really want to bust him. I remember a guy who I had played with a couple of days in a row in Tunica had a ton of chips and he asked me if I wanted him to double me up. I think I made two pair on a flop that was draw h...

So sayeth Joan Rivers. Okay, she didn't call Annie Duke Hitler, but she did compare her behavior in the boardroom to Hitler at Buchenwald. Incidentally, oddly enough that behavior was... good (?) Duke and Rivers traded barbs and shots in the boardroom, including the much teased, "She'd spit on the ground to drown her mother if it would get her a step forward." That was Joan to Annie. Annie to her credit remained composed and about as dignified as one could be when being compared to the architecht of the Holocaust. Joan also continued to spit out the words "poker player" like it was an insult and explained Annie's alledged duplicitious behavior. So poker players you are in good company: Hitler. Strangely enough, Melissa Rivers stood up for Mamma Duke, and said she wasn't a bad person and in fact is a great game player. The best or worst line of the night, depending on your perspective, might have been when Duke was busy patting herself on the...

Email gene d or I your shirt size. Our snail's pace in getting our swag made up has been helped considerably by a lot of talented people. We hope to have gear for the New Orleans event. Also, indicate your preference for hat color, sweatshirt color and or t-shirt color. Believe we are looking at red, black, dark grey. Haven't placed an order or finalized anything yet, and not sure what exactly we are getting depending on costs, but let us know what you are interested in and we'll try to get that thing made. Thanks guys and gals. Bill www.gulfcoastpoker.net

Played in the Harrahs weekly and took 6th. Refreshing to play well after playing so badly at the Beau in their tournaments. Hopefully, my solid run of play at the weekly tournaments will bode well for the Circuit Event in May. Some quick hands. Early on my King high flush ran into an Ace high flush. I just called on the river feeling I was beat. I was. I got to play with my friend Alex T, who is back from Africa, and we only had one hand of note. I think I was in the bb with a limped pot. Board came out KJ8 (I had 8-6). I checked, mid position checked, Alex checked on the button. Turn was a king. Check, check, bet by Alex. I stewed for a while and called. I decided Alex would probably bet a king or jack on the button on the flop so I was either good or outkicked. We checked the river and he had 10 high. I felt we both had a pretty good handle on our table and then they moved me. There is a really good player, who I've seen in a pocket fives shirt before who had a ton o...

Actually not really... Lots of random thoughts. Today's picture isn't quite Ivanka Trump, but it's still worth a long look. Instead of a carefully coifed billionairess it's a cosmic hand. See it reaching for the light. It's real, no some movie special effect. It's just this big hand in space reaching through the heavens. Maybe it's God containing an outburst of hell. Maybe it's the invisible hand at work on our economy (bettet get busy). Maybe it's Odin scooping a pot from the trickster Loki. Who knows. It happened 17,000 years ago and the light is only just now getting here for us to see it. Speaking of pretty pictures the Honest Player and the Southpaw Rounder have gotten us a couple of logos. I like what we see so far. I dare say we might just have some gear to hand out when poker comes home to the New Orleans Circuit Event. This day is long in coming. Maybe I should have bullet pointed this randomness. Watched High-Stakes Poker it was...

That's what Annie Duke said to Clint Black in the opening of the show. She starts the episode off with a bang and you know she's not pulling her punches. Welcome back to the Not Quite Weekly Even Though It's a Weekly TV Show Celebrity Apprentice Annie Duke the Face of Poker Wrap-up , Annie later says "In poker it's very interesting, you have people who play to last and people who play to win." This was quickly challenged by Ivanka who points out that Duke clearly thought her strategy has been to avoid being a project manager and not really put her head on the chopping block. Yes, Ivanka (as pictured) was cracking the whip a little bit. The truth is Duke has been doing just that, but the comparison to tournament poker strategy continues. Perhaps, you could analogize it as in the early levels of tournament play, there's no need to go broke, and it's only later that you should take great risks for great rewards. Annie, certainly regained center stage ...

This past week at the Beau had its frustrations and its rewards. I saw some simply terrible, terrible play at the cash tables, and never got a run of cards to ruin the call stations. This is the kind of action I got to witness but just couldn't get a hand to exploit: I watched a board that ended up being double paired, three to a flush, get bet in all kinds of ways every street, three handed with only one folding on the river that was scooped by king high over jack high. Yeah. Unless, a stu unger zombie rose up from the grave peeled the skin off a tractor salesman from Selma, wore it convincingly selling a drawl and sat dead-eyed staring at the Cincinati Kid getting his AHA "Take on Me" dip in reality in the body of an Asian Shrimper/Hip-Hop wanna-be, these guys weren't making Phil Ivy moves and seeing into the souls of their opponents and were just looking for excuses to get rid of their money. Yet, they seemed to always get a real hand when I'd jump into the...

Big game tonight for me. As a fan of UNC that's obvious. As a bracket fiend with a little bit at stake it rises even more. I'm potentially in the thick of it on various leaderboards and I'm planning out how I'm going to hedge. Hedge? If UNC wins, I finish in the top three in a few brackets and win a nice chunk of coin. If UNC loses I win nothing. Therefore, probably my best strategy is to bet on Michigan State for a piece of my winnings. UNC wins or lose I'm assured of profiting something. Even better, UNC is favored by 7.5. Thus, there is the possibility of them winning the game outright, but not covering and I win on both sides. If UNC wins by more than 7.5 I cut into my winnings but that's a trade-off I think is worth it. Gene D is dealing with a similar situation so we are trying to develop an optimal strategy. Will have to consider the most favorable lines from the online casinos. I definitely have Carolina on the brain. Yesterday, and the picture doesn...

I played a $340 at the Beau, though I don't know if you can call what I did playing. To be concise I folded 8 or 9 times, disparaged an opponent for going out so early with AJ on a J high flop to a guy betting his hand like he held... a set (which he held), and I played exactly one hand. To give you an idea how brief my visit to the tournament was, I signed up late, but I was gone before everybody had finished buying-in. What a waste. The hand that was my death knell I made probably three mistakes on it, maybe more... Before I enumerated my donkness, let's describe the action. I'm on the BB. Mid position limps, the cut-off, the button, and the small blind limp. I look down at 97 suited. All I've done is fold. Mistake number 1: Check. No harm in putting a raise there, taking down the limpers, or thinning the field. Flop comes jack high with an 8 and maybe a four, and two of my suit. SB has been very active and he pops it with a little less than a pot sized bet. I got flu...