Sleep With the Fishes, Dine on the Whales

Chopped the Harrhas weekly four ways. Gave a little bit extra to the chipleader Bruce. Blinds had just hit 5000 - 10,000. You start with 5000 in chips. Had a lot of fun. Caught some cards, had hands hold up, and caught up when I was behind (once but against a buddy). Lots of patience throughout the day too, good c-betting and resilience to recover after I took a pretty big whallop mid way through. Anyway, lots of fun to see a lot of faces and friends I hadn't seen in a while. Getting a sitter for the kid, and getting all my work done to get out midweek has proven to be difficult but I managed today. John Price "is right" also cashed. I knocked him out when he woke in the big blind with qq when I had raised from the button with A7 suited and was commited to the pot. I felt bad but I would have felt worse if he had won it:). I will probably dissect some hands or review it a little more in a little bit, but wanted to get up a quick post up here after talking to a ...

Okay, I'm stepping away from online Texas Hold'em poker for a second to get to those weird thoughts. Perhaps, the title is flat out wrong. More like my opinions in general about sports and things, since none of them are that wrong. ***Heard they held a couple of poker tournament tournaments kind of head to head against the two poker casinos in southwestern Louisiana. I don't get that. Probably a lot of other players didn't either. Would be nice if either casino advertised with us, as we might have gotten a few more heads there to play. ***Commercial dude. Seems like this decade there is some actor who just becomes the go to guy for commercials. He usually has a somewhat goofy face or demeanor and maybe a great agent. There was this tall, dark haired, white guy showing up in every other commercial for a good long stretch. He's the king of commercials. Just say him in a new one recently so his reign isn't exactly over, but these other two guys started...

Okay where were we? Oh, the turn card was about to fall in the virtual world of online poker. I was probably drawing pretty slim and playing a Texas Hold em poker sit and go about as bad as you can play. Okay it wasn’t that bad… well, maybe it was. Let’s just say the one guy that beat me out of the tournament played it worse. Even if he probably got sucked out on. So anyway in the hands, I’m “ME” though that’s not my real online handle. Would like it if it was, but I’m not that succinctly creative. Rather you can find me with a much more bland moniker. Trust me if I play this bad, you might want to discover that bland moniker, and search me out on the online felt, at least until I Learn Texas Holdem a little bit better. I prefer ME to Hero, as I’m nobody’s hero, despite my propensity to make ill-advised hero calls. And why call the other guy the Villain, the Villain wins way too many of these hands for me to keep calling him the villain. Bad guys can’t win that much can they? *** TUR...

Okay got some online poker hands that I wanted to get abused for and one of my shortest live sessions ever, but I'll probably get to them in a later post as I have some random thoughts I wanted to address. But poker first, whenever I play Texas Hold'em poker live or online no matter how short the session my expectation is to win. You can't win every time, obviously, but it is still frustrating that generally any time I play a quickie I seem to lose my big pots rather than drag. I haven't had the time to play much online or live poker, as my entire family was in town, but I still got to the casino and logged into a couple of my favorite online sites. I really only played a Sit and go or two (won one, binked out early in the other). My strategy for the first was to push, any edge and lean on people as I built a stack. Almost feels like even in the lower level sit 'n gos everybody has read Moshman and is tight the first few knockouts. Like Gavin Smith's strategy ...

Continued from previous posts... At the same time, my one year old’s growing boredom with his toys and daddy’s lack of interaction made me even more frustrated. So, I’d play with him for a bit and then play a hand or two of the Texas Holdem tournament . Finally, and this is where rule number two comes into play, I get involved in a hand with a middle pair. Somehow, I had managed to win enough pots to come back from all those missed flops and I was kind of near even in chips. My Holdem poker opponent like me was just under starting chips, but I had him covered by a little bit. He limped and I raised on the button with another middle pair (I’m noticing a theme here, maybe I need to learn how to play middle pairs—maybe folding them). He and one of the blinds called. Flop came AJx two hearts. Check, check to me, and I represented the Ace with a bet. Fold by the blind, and the guy quickly called. Hmmmm. Turn was a 10. He checked I bet, a bet which I really thought would push him off his fl...

Continued from previous posts... Awesome… or not. I tried to time his nap for noon but of course that day was the one day he wanted to go to sleep at his regularly scheduled time of 10 AM. This was going to make online Texas Hold'em poker a little difficult. Most days, he fights it, and if I let him, as I have once or twice in the past he can just skip the nap and be alright. Some days, he’s winding down and dive-bombing into pillows, rubbing his eyes, and getting cranky tired. Normally, I enjoy that as it means he’ll go down quickly and sleep soundly for at least an hour. Then he’ll be in better spirits the rest of the day. On this day, I wanted him to barrel right through 10 am and maybe put him down at about 11:50. I also planned to set up snacks and activities that could be done when he woke up round about 12:55 (right when the break in the tournament starts) to keep him going for another hour or so. Then I’d have to do my best to play and entertain him til about 3:30 when the...

Continued from previous post... In the Texas Hold em poker satellite, everybody tightened up as the bubbble came and I knew I was going to have to weather some shoves and maybe some flips to get the seat. Course, had I not sat on my hands I might at that point have entered the safe zone, instead I was on the edge like I was in a turbo Sit'n go . Using that as a bad lesson for the MTT , I returned from the break and quickly got snapped off in two hands in a row, losing flips in both to get knocked out. The first hand, I isolated an opponent with a pocket pair (maybe 8s) and was getting about 4 to 1 on my money. Great spot to be 50/50 for only 1/7 th of my chips. He hit both of his overs, which I usually enjoy because it's no different than hitting one, when the rivers coming because a set still wins it for me. Usually, beats seem to have a sense of humor by teasing the player with needless bettering cards if you know what I mean. The river brought no set, and I fell a bit in...

Rule number 1, the next time I play an online multi-table Texas Holdem poker tournament it will not be with a one year old freshly off a nap, bored and wanting attention within range of my laptop. Despite the babies pictured one year olds, at least mine, aren't the most Internet savvy people in the world. Though he does know banging the space bar scrolls the screen down when websurfing. Rule number 2, the next time I play an online multi-table poker tournament I will go with my instincts and play like I play regardless of the size of the buy-in, that should always be my online poker strategy . Let's start with Rule number 1. I love my son. Probably more than anything I've loved before, but I need to remember that sometimes combining two loves does not necessarily always produce say Reese Peanut Butter Cups when you mix chocolate and peanut butter. I also love soccer and Frappacinos, but that doesn't mean I should make Frappacinos a pre-game or during game drink. Probab...

Well now we have trimmed the fat to five candidates: Dan Harrington, Chris Ferguson, Erik Seidel , Barry Greenstein , and Scotty Nguyen. Anybody questioning Harman and McEvoy's exclusion should just match their resume up with these five (or Negreanu or Ivey's for that matter). These guys are all great No Limit Texas Holdem poker and all can play other varieties just as well. Let's go from least compelling to most. Shockingly, that forces me to start with Barry Greenstein . We aren't comparing some Sit'n go specialists so even the greats, t hough separated by the width of a hair have to be separated . He is a cash game specialist and also known as the Robin Hood of Poker. Before the entry fees became too exorbitant Greenstein donated all his tournament winnings to charity, in 2006 he changed that up to earnings (minus buy-ins). Like Chip Reese, Greenstein realized as poker went mainstream to get the recognition he deserved he'd have to play tournamen...

Going back to the Poker Hall of Fame nominations, you’ll remember they are Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Tom McEvoy, Dan Harrington, Linda Johnson, and Scotty Nguyen. I’ve already made a case for those Texas Hold em poker players that I don’t think should ever be in or may be better expressed as "shouldn’t be in yet and yet is a long, long, long time" unless they do something else soon, soon, soon: Tom McEvoy and Jennifer Harman. I think Linda Johnson, despite not really being known to play poker online , should get in, probably not this year, as there are more compelling candidates which I’ll get to. Today, I’m going to look at players like Johnson who shouldn’t get in yet. On Pokerati a discussion broke out in their comments section between BJ Nemeth and owner operator Dan Michasomethingski. They kind of advanced an idea that there should be a Chip Reese threshold. The vague parameters of the Hall of Fame v...

There are ten candidates this year, almost all of them are wothy and almost all of them will eventually get in. They include World Series of P0ker Texas Hold'em poker Main Event Champions, poker authors, poker contributors, and poker greats. They are Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Tom McEvoy, Dan Harrington, Linda Johnson, and Scotty Nguyen. Anybody who ever wanted to learn poker could model themselves after any of these players and have a long and successful careeer. Conceivably you could make a case that only Linda Johnson, Jennifer Harman (sorry ladies), and Tom McEvoy don't deserve to make it. Real quickly, I'll give my thoughts though they are much better expressed on this blog . Let's elminate Linda Johnson from the won't deserve to make it one day. Fan ignorance of her is not enough to keep her out. Linda Johnson, which most people who don't bother to do a Wikipedia look up or google sea...

09.07.10 CONGRATS TO GCP BLOGGERS WILL SOUTHER AND KAI LANDRY! MARK ROSE OF ORLANDO, FL WON THE EVENT BUT A THREE WAY CHOP WAS AGREED TO THAT WAS FAIR TO ALL INVOLVED. We were rooting from afar as we had some server issues again. Kai ended up officially 2nd and Poker Monkey 3rd as they played it out for the seat, the sailboat, jewelry, pride and having nothing better to do. Monkey lost with a straight to a bigger straight and Mark knocked out Kai when he won the coinflip with over cards to Kai's pocket sevens. Chad Brown finished in the 4th place. John Stanton of St. Petersburg, FL was fifth. Mike Bradford, Jonathan Stanton, Ben Chan, and Ron Romano rounded out the final table in that order.

09.06.10 MAIN EVENT MORE MOORER: Rusty Moorer of Crestview, MS returns to day two as teh chip leader with 117k. Neal harding of Louisville, KY is second with 116k. Three from Florida follow them up iwht Mark Rose of Orlando in third with 103k, Jonathan Stanton of St. pete in 4th with 101k and Michael Ferrell of Tallahassee, FL 5th with 99k. Kai Landry, (pictured and look for his newest blog coming here soon), is just outside the top 10 with 65k. Chad Brown is still in the thick of things with 54k. David Rozas of baton Rouge, LA has 51k and is in a virtual tie with Captain Tom Franklin of Gulfport, MS. GCP blogger Jonathan Little is sitting a little over 41k. Mohammed Moeini of Biloxi is at 34k. Lots of rooting interests for us here as Ricky King of Bilxoi is also still alive at 27k. Tim Kramer of Ocean Springs, MS is at 23k. Curtis Terry of Metairie, LA has 18.6k and is just ahead of Bilxoians Larry Toncrey and The Poker Moneky each at 14k. Jankiel Dychtwald of Covington, LA and Ronald...

09.05.10 EVENT 11 BLAND VICTORY: Gary Bland of Edwarsville, Il won 23k for first place. He bested Henry Gill of Baton Rouge (4th), Cronelius O'Sullivan of New Orleans (6th), Richard Woodward of Baton Rouge (7th), and Ron Lee of Long Beach, MS (8th) at the final table. EVENT 12 PLO BILL: William Bryant of Bossier City, LA took first place and the nearly 10k that went with it. Matthew Landson of Montgomery, AL and Galen Kester of Senatobia, MS finished second and third for almost 6k and almost 4k respectively. EVENT 13 BARRY BLAZES TO VICTORY. Barry Washington (pictured, and you'd never guess he's from Oregon) beat Mohammed Moeini of Gulfport, MS (5th), Judy Rhodes of Houma, LA (6th), and Tom Darce of Prairieville, LA (8th) to win the event 13 sailboat and almost 20k.

09.03.10 CONTINUING WITH OUR UPDATES OF THE WINNERS OF THE GCPC. This go round a number of GCP.NET guys showed up in the results and on the bubble. Great job guys. EVENT 5 CHOPPING BROCCOLI: Okay, so there was no Broccoli but we know from Will "The Poker Monkey" Souther's blog this tournament was also chopped. Steven Marshall of Cumming, GA, who took a break from online poker, is credited for first place and a 22k payout. Herbie Crook of Pascagoula, MS credited for third place and 6.7k. Robert Habisreitinger of Covington, LA was credited for 5th. Barron Whipple and Poker Monkey also cashed (and chopped?). EVENT 6 CHAMBERS LIMIT CHAMPION: Walter Chambers won the Limit Hold'Em event. The former circuit event champion (pictured) added a limit title to his resume and 5.6k for first. Two Houstonians Kevin Kaylor and Joey Carlson came in second and third. Douglas Saab of Trussville, AL and Daniel Carney of Long Beach, MS rounded out the top five. EVENT 7 SOLE SURVIVOR THE...

...we are having server problems again so uploading some updates from the GCPC here until they get it fixed. 09.01.10 With all the chopping going on it's been hard to tell who has won what. This year the Beau added a survivor tournament to the mix but it turned out almost every tournament became a survivor tournament. We saw nooners being chopped not just at the final two or three players, or even at the final table, but at the final tables. We've received a number of complaints about the structure turning the tournaments into "craps fests" in the later stages and had a couple of players complain about being "harassed and hotboxed" into chops they didn't want to make. So bare with us, the scores of the top few players in any of these events may not actually be as large as they won. EVENT 1 NO HICK-UP: Thomas Hicks of Bluffton, SC was credited for first place. There was a chop of the 85k prize pool and it inovled Todd Skinner of Youngsville, LA, Frank Alp...

... Continued from previous posts... Where was I? I was in the middle of a hand from Texas Holdem tournament from some time okay. I think I had just gotten to the turn. I remember I made a tiny bet and the guy called in such a way I knew he was strong. On the river I shoved, which was huge in relation to our stacks and the pot and he insta-called with A ragNow we might have gotten all the chips in regardless, but had I bet large on the turn and followed up on the river, I don’t think he comes over the top on either. The small bet might also produce a reaction of a little embarrassment, like the guy knows he can’t fold to a bet that small and has to call. Again they'd jump all over this onine but that's the difference between poker tournaments online and live ones. Then he’s ready and probably hoping for a big river bet to get him off the hand. If you have nothing you know you can push him off and drag the pot. In effect paying for information. Also that tactic can be...

Continued from previous posts... (If you want to read from the start go to the first heading without the part two or three or four or...) Of course the girl kind of lorded it over him, asking him if she shoved if he was pot commited with 80% of his stack in there. Anybody that knows Poker Texas Hold em knew she was mocking him a little bit because she was chip giddy and this continued for way too long without there being a point to it. I kind of hate that when players become bullies literally because of their stack size when they play poker tournaments . She’d never banter that way against a stack that could hurt her (or at least she didn’t do it the entire time I was railing John) but in this situation where she had given up on the hand she had to kind of stick it to him. Saving face? For what? Just fold. Or call and muck your garbage hand as you’ve put yourself in a spot where the pot is laying you 12 to 1, or raise him all in and lose the extra bet with your garbage because...

Continued from previous posts... There was a 2 on the turn. Hard to give him quads. Possible AA or KK or 1010 but those were the only hands that beat me. At the same time A10 seemed a little weak for him to raise from EP but Texas Holdem games have changed so much these days I was hoping for JJ. He checked I bet, he called (now that range is tighter as 99, 88, or an underpair seemed less likely). I think on the river he bet and I called. He barely had anything behind and for some reason I didn’t shove on him. Which would never happen in online poker tournaments because the stacks are self-evident. And all that information is easy and readable. He actually had more than I thought and we entered the hand with similar stacks. He turned over A10 and I showed QQ. He said nice hand but I’m not sure he meant it. Yes, I surprised him with the QQ but the way it worked out it probably looked pretty reckless to him. The good thing was I immediately garnered the “he could have anythi...

Anyway, that Texas Holdem poker game table just got harder with Monkey joining it. Especially for me. The guys I was supposed to lord it over in position were the spots I was trying to avoid on the table. Bad beat. I was initially talking about QQ being a hand that followed me around. I took this pretty bad beat of fate in one of the tournaments (the one I sold pieces of myself to my friends). The dealer gave me two ordinary cards which were in the insta-muck category. It was declared a misdeal. While he reshuffled I had time to reevaluate and despite just being moved to the table I thought I should try and steal. Three steals per two revolutions and you can win a tournament, I know how to play poker , and I was getting short. I decided I was going to shove with any two if it were folded to me. The redeal went well and it was folded down to me. I looked at an Ace and slowly peeled back to see a five ugh! I hate stealing with a weak ace. So many people are wise enough to...

Speaking of the Captain when I sat next to him (sarcasm coming... I loved him on my left and loved it even better when Monkey and Guy Turner--an aggressive Biloxi player--sat to his left), I couldn't help but think back to the No limit Texas Hold'em 10k seat he won at the IP. Ironic that Monkey would join us because I thought about copying what he did at the IP. It was a tale of two days at the IP. The night before the final table when we were down to two tables and then 10 handed Monkey was sitting next to the Captain and had him legitimately flustered. This is something you can only apply in live poker because this is no online poker strategy . Monkey had enjoyed the red snappers and at one point was playing with Captain Tom's nipples. Try doing that playing online poker. And yes, you did just read that. Monkey, of course, was doing it in a fashion that had Tom laughing along with him on the outside but still off-kilter a bit on the inside. In fact, Captain Tom w...

Where was I? Playing Texas Hold em at the Beau, and I was in the middle of a hand. A guy who didn't like to fold called from the small. I called too with QQ. Flop came AQx. The caller led out (donkbet). I smoothed, the black hair-dyed guy bumped it. Donkbettor got out of the way. I stewed. At this point I didn't know much about the older guy (it's only in retrospect that I labeled him aggressive... I'll get to him later) so I tried to see what was on the board that could hurt me. Nothing really. If he had a set of aces oh well (obviously in poker tournaments you are going to go broke with second set if you are beat and most times you are not). I decided to call. The turn was a brick. I hoped he had like AK or even better AQ and I wanted to build the pot. I thought if I led out weak I could get a raise out of him, maybe tie him to the pot, and get them all in. I did just that with some weak ass bet. He bit and bet the pot. Now there was about 8 k in th...