Sleep With the Fishes, Dine on the Whales

I've been running well in tournaments and it seems my cash game has suffered. I go through spells where I feel like I'm a good cash game player or a good tournament player but rarely do both go well at the same time. Obviously, I ran well in the tournaments of the Bayou Classic, winning single table satellites and doing well in big MTTs. Sure enough I sit down at the cash tables and it's like the wind is completely out of my sails. No longer is my tight image enough to isolate one opponent after the flop, I'm playing three or four players everytime. I try and protect a smaller top pair and nobody goes anywhere. Course an overcard comes and it all breaks down from there. For a while, I started to question my ability. I refocused and did some thought about the differences between the two games. What did I do different after a slate of tournaments vs. what I was doing beforehand in cash? I did some reading including this blog and self-reflection. Number 1, I am p...

Gene and I are talking about playing in the Dream Team World Series of Poker Event in Mid July. Or perhaps helping the buy-ins to a team that agrees to wear Team GCP jerseys if we can't make it. Obviously, bloggers would get first preference, and by helping it wouldn't be much but it'd be a little something. That is an event I'm really looking forward to playing and I'm happy and surprised the World Series snapped it up so quickly. Hopefully, future tournaments will incorporate it into the schedules for a couple of events. I think they'd get a big participation and take some edge off all the midweek seriousness you get in a typical tournament. You get three players and there are two prize pools. One for the top finishing individuals and a seperate one for the top finishing teams. The reports from all the pros that played it was it was the most fun they had playing poker in years. The team concept gave even more of a sweat for the guys on the rails. Also,...

Dan the Man... Last week we just discussed Dan possibly blogging on GCP. This week he's the chipleader 10 handed. Yes, right now in the New Orleans WSOP Circuit Event Bayou Classic he's hours away from another final table (after final tabling at the Beau). Go Dan! It's funny, I quasi advised him not to buy into the Main Event. Glad he didn't listen. Though, I did say, "Are you here to play? Then play." That was before I asked him about some other poker matters and changed my tune a bit advocating a little bit of caution. My wife and I met him for dinner and I enjoyed getting to know Dan a little better. (He's rocking the GCP hat which he told me he'd wear when he wins the whole kit and kaboodle tomorrow and they take some pics). Dan's a great guy, and I always root for the nice guys to finish first. After dinner, he woke up to pocket rockets... shortly after cracking them and sent Shaun Deeb to the rail and now sits on the biggest chip st...

Dead Money Tournament Champion David Anderson gave it a great run yesterday. Seated at a loaded table that include Michael Binger, the world's loosest player Soheil Sommesadenorother, and another pro with slightly less eye-popping results, David held his own. Anderson played three memorable hands with Michael Binger. On an A22xx board (with three hearts) David made a huge river call with AQ to split a pot. He also doubled up through Binger with top two pair on a QJx board when Binger called with Q10 (?). Later he crippled the Ultimate Bet patch wearing pro when he nimbly tiptoed through a hand inducing a even looser call from Binger. David ran into a similar problem as Tex last year. Nine hours into the tournament his table lost exactly 0 players. Binger was the first to fall. Soheil Somethingorother stack went up and down like piston but he didn't get knocked out. Late in the night David got moved to another table to suddenly be a chip dwarf. The pressure was quickly applied a...

First off want to give a shout out to Alex Wood. Frequently see him at the last two or three tables of the Harrahs weekly tournament. Just saw he finished second in event 10 for over 11k. Great job man! Send us a pic to get you on the site and destroy your anonymity. I ran well in the 9pm second chance tournament last night. Got there an hour early with the intent to play a satellite and free roll the small buy-in. Got seated in a turbo, which I hate, but we had to do it to finish in time. With three handed and the 9pm already kicked (they pay two winners), I twice watched my opponents suck out on each other with baby cards runner-runner straights to stay alive. Since they were doubling the blinds every hand, we finally agreed to chop three ways. Turns out, I got overpaid in a satellite last week because they gave us a $500 chip and $100 cash. Last night we each got $350 after paying the dealer a $50 tip. So one prize pool was 1200 and the other was 1100. I'm guessing I ...

Some thanks yous. Again, thanks go out to the Honest Player and Southpaw Rounder for getting Byron and Ray to contribute to the logo. Also, thanks Byron and Ray as well. Very happy with the final product. Thanks again to the Mighty Mac who put the final touches on a truly collaborative effort. Taking my scrawled concept drawing and tweaked all the way to the end was an nice evolution to watch. Got the rest of the hoodies in, so bloggers contact me when you want to pick them up. Should have the rest of the hats in tomorrow. I got three testers done (as seen in the pics below), red, gold, and silver logo. Red comes out best, and is what we are making most of them. But we'll take orders in most colors. If you got a request, we might be able to do it, too. I'm ordering another batch from some folks that want to buy some gear, and might have them done by Monday. So, get your order in if you want one by then. Okay, enough, Gear pimpin... Congrats to Kai, Southpaw Rounder, ...

Alright here are some bad photos of some our gear. Better photos coming. Help support Gulf Coast Poker.NET by buying some gear. I think the logo came out pretty sweet. The hats come in black. Logos can be red, (San Antonio Spurs) silver, or Saints Gold. The gold one is a good alternative to your typical Saints Sunday game day Fleur De Lis. Hats are $25 a pop. Silver is my favorite. Red is sharp too, though. Don't stop with just a hat. We are also selling hoodies. Your choice zipper or unzippered. Hoodies come in Navy(red logo), Gray(red logo), Black (red, silver or gold logo). Hoodies go for $35 up to XL. Sorry big boys they charge us more for 2XL and 3xL ($40.00) I know these photos are turgid. We should have some T-shirts and other stuff soon enough. Drop me an email at Wildbill (the "at" sign) gulfcoastpoker.net if you want to order. We do paypal but you have to pay their juice. Otherwise we accept checks or cash. Shipping is on your end too. Best way is to schedule a...

Ultimate Bet ultimate user, Annie Duke, discovered what it's liked to be in a Cereusly rigged poker game. With an outcome that was predetermined no matter what the flop or the turn were... Rivers won. That seems to be the story in all the poker sites coverage of Celebrity Apprentice. And yes, they use equally bad and unoriginal poker analogies. Annie did everything right and got bad- beated (won't be the last one). Worse yet, with a Trump relative or in-law (as I've seen written) on the board of Joan River's charity, everybody knew it was going to happen. Also, suddenly with monster fund-raiser Annie going up against Joan Rivers, a woman who's been in show business since people wore the current state of her face as a mask in Vaudeville, yet has no deep pocketed friends to speak of (save perhaps Trump himself), the criteria was skewed in Joan's favor. Suddenly, it wasn't just about raising money for charity it was about decor and other ambiguous factors. T...

Joan Rivers wins Celebrity Apprentice. At the very end Trump looked at Annie and asked if she knew what he was about to say. She perked up thinking she had won, and he gave her the bad news. More to come... www.gulfcoastpoker.net

I talked with my in-laws earlier this week about Celebrity Apprentice. "I hate ANNIE Duke!" my sister in law said. "I can't stand her," my mother in-law agreed. Oh. Joan Rivers who for 90% of the show is likable (she's the only one who gets out of saying who should be fired most of the time--this past week an exception), has won a place in their heart. I guess. Maybe the dislike her least. The whole "POOKAH PLAYER!" rant, I hope wasn't met in agreement. Last week, Annie did nothing but set herself up to make the final. Of course her self-loving and pride was poured on a little too thick. You can't fault her for rejoicing in beating Clint Black at his own game (writing a jingle) but the unrestrained jubilation was a little thick to say the least. I hate when big time pros over celebrate a hand because their opponent lost it. Professionals should be above this. Duke, while not quite rubbing it in Clint Black's face, came close ...

In one of my cash sessions with Eddie, I played with a guy I've seen around the room quite a bit. He always seems to have chips so I was eager to study his game. As the rest of the table was pretty piss poor, I felt like me and him would do the carving. We played one hand, together and I think he outplayed me. I couldn't call, contemplated making a move as he was good enough to get away from a hand, but I gave up knowing their were easier spots on the table. He had a ton of chips and was using them proficiently. One fat kid, who looked as comfortable in his own skin as I felt the day after camping in a posion ivy patch. He was overmatched but didn't realize it. Anyway, he stare menacingly at the good player whenever they'd get into a hand and then raise into him. The guy picked up on it from the get go, and would casually roll out a bet that was half the fat kid's stack. He'd winced like he took a fastball to the stomach. Then he'd fold. Then, he...

So Eddie Baby was in town. Got plenty of jazzfest, poker and a little disc golf in there. The eating, as always is the best part of the fest, and my one day joining him there the wife and I tore up the food booths. I try to get something different every year, this time it was Jamiacan food. Jerk Chicken, jerk chicken patties were good. While waiting in line though I eyed the african chicken skewers and spinach and know what I will try next year. Think it's Gambian food. The Duck Po-Boy which I loved last year, disappointed. The wife tried a Vietnamese dish very similar to one at a restaurant Gene introduced me to. She loved it at jazzfest. When I tried to get her to try Vietnamese food she didn't like it. I'd say they tasted exactly the same. Least she'll give it another try, maybe. She was in heaven with her Fried Green Tomatoes and Iced Tea a little later. We decided to watch some Bon Jovi, a band I'm not really a fan of per se, but one who I debated wi...