Sleep With the Fishes, Dine on the Whales

...Continued from previous post in the middle of Texas Holdem game hand where at first I was trying to get my opponent to find a call. Then, I just started to get this really bad feeling that she was going to outdraw me. Even if it she didn’t, the pot was already big why risk my tournament life (or most of it) on this hand, many of you might say I have a long way to go to learn poker with a statement like that. Mid-stream I changed course. Yes, I was a big favorite but I didn’t need all her chips. So, I said to her “Ace Jack huh?” Yeah, suddenly I was strong enough to talk. She winced. I was pretty close. “No! Is that what you have?” she asked. I said very confidently “No.” I had hoped I hit her hand and she wouldn’t want to call and show that I was right especially if there was the chance she was no good there. I could tell she was now leaning toward fold. Maybe I did hit her hand. She folded and at the break she suggested AQ but I think it was AJ . A couple of hands later as she go...

Things had changed quite drastically and I was enjoying it. Sometimes when you feel like you've been pounded into submission in say a Texas Holdem online tournament and then you just start winning every coin race and in a couple of laps you are back to where you started, well that's how I felt. It's a good thing. Having life when you thought you were dead usually makes you a lot more grateful to be alive. That's Holdem poker for you. Even with all that being said, I still had some work with barely more than my starting stack, but I was in the 15 BB range. Now, I could shove over a limp or small raise and have fold equity. The good player who won the massive pot opened again, he had really started to open his range and lead into a lot of pots. I looked at KQ from the button and saw likely folds in the blinds and decided to shove. ...I thought I had fold equity. The Blinds folded and then the good player thought for a while. I looked at his chip stack and saw he had way...

Where was I in this post thread that will never end about a small nightly I slap-chopped. Shame for you readers that I write this all out in word in one huge post one night after I play poker and then break it up into all these little posts. It's like two weeks later and I'm still talking about the same tournaments. Oh well..in the hand, I left you spellbound on... I came out third best. Wasn't even really a poker bad beat as I let second place get there and take the side pot. Baton Rouge held AK and the small blind AQ for two pair. He’d get Aces twice in big pots and they’d hold. Ironically, even with a big stack he still gave me walks. On one hand a guy shoved on my big blind and I had garbage. Also, with the Harrahs incident fresh in my mind with Merle, I wasn’t going to commit any chips to the pot that I didn’t need to when we were playing for a chop. A strong player who was avoiding pots with me, and me him, flat called after eying me. I think he wanted ...

So, I left you in the middle of the hand. The plot could not be any thicker, so I'll refrain from saying the plot thickens. A refresher though: I was playig in the nightly Texas Hold em poker survivor tournament where top ten per cent get paid. Course there I was i this poker tournament one hand away from busting and having the option to throw all my chips in the middle but I didn't. Whatever the last guy had it was it was dead except for a four of a kind draw. And yeah, he also lacked clubs. Oh… I was live. I’d have to dodge a paired board and runner-runner clubs but a club would have been the gin card for me. I thought about the pot and saw that if I hit I’d have about 15k. Awesome. At that point I would be sitting pretty just one hand after rebuying. With the weak spots at the table and us having a pretty good breaking order I could have coasted til deep in the tournament. When the club hit the turn I was cursing myself. The board didn’t pair and another club ...

Continued from previous post... So after a few days I finally got over to the Beau Rivage to play Texas Hold'em poker in the tournament everybody else has been playing in the last couple of weeks. Minus the guys who went to the Bahamas for the PCA, ad the guys that solely play poker tournaments online . The tournament is a rebuy tournament (one rebuy or add-on in the first three levels). I must have built up a stack as he then got a big stack to bully the table wining those hands from me. I rebought after the AK hand. Here’s my hand of the new year, and considering I didn’t even see it to the river, it left a big impression on me. The Baton Rouge player limped from EP (100-200 blinds), which was unusual for him as he usually came in with a 3.5x or larger raise. Then, a tight-ish player in middle position raised to 675. He was called by the other guy at the table who I thought was a good player (he and the Baton Rouge guy were the two I was keeping an eye on), then the person next t...

Continued from previous posts but I have a feeling you realize that. Anyway was talking about the final table at the No limit Texas Hold'em tournament at Harrahs I call the Donkley. The chatter continued about me having to call there. I challenged the gentleman who didn’t want to chop a little bit. I regret it because I like him and he’s usually a nice easy going guy who takes his beats well and wins well too. Still, I reminded him that I didn’t have to call there because Merle had almost folded AQ earlier at the table, he had shoved UTG, and with King-Two many of the hands he shoves with from there crush that hand. Also, with the blinds what they were 4k was nothing to sniff at but I was't there to give out Texas Holdem poker tips . Next hand, it gets folded to me in the small blind. I raise Merle and he calls. I think I have 86 suited (it was some sort of one gapper). I flop open ended. Check call Merle. Turn a brick, I check call again. River is another brick an...

Continued from the previous two posts but you probably deduced that since this is titled part three... We get to the final Texas Hold'em table and Merle Bourgeois gets seated to my left. I don’t know Merle well but he’s a funny and nice guy when we have talked, and enough people that I know pretty well really like him, so he's okay in my book. I took a snapshot of him for the GCP page because he was a good enough sport to do it after he chopped the tournament. If you need a visual go there. Ugh, that came out short of ickey. Let's just leave it at he knows how to play poker and move on. In fairly short order, we knocked off two players to get into the money. Merle was a bit of a short stack at the time. They said an even chop would get us all $600. I had a goal of at least $500 so I was going to be willing to share. One gentleman refused it. He wanted Merle and another to get lost before divvying up the prize pool. I didn’t blame him, but from the payouts I deduced we’d o...

Continued from previous post: So at the Harrahs Donkley their weekly Wednesday Holdem poker tournament. Now that they have the Saturday tournament two I guess I'll have to come up with a name for that one too? The weekend Donkley ? Doesn't roll off the tongue. Oh well, I'll put some thought into it. Where was I? I just quizzed the kid to see if I had a shot at buying the pot with a third barrel bluff. I wasn ’t quite prepared for the answer to the question (though I'm pocketing it for next time), but I read it for real strength. It wasn ’t “Strong” is weak it was kind of like reluctant acceptance that he was tied to the hand. Maybe a quick assertive move could have gotten him to change his mind but maybe not. I finally, meekly, checked, which I hate to do but is sometimes the best poker strategy . He said “I got an Ace,” and turned over Ace rag. I nodded and mucked, knowing any hand he had beat me. He told me during the break, he had decided on the turn he was de...

So it was a pretty good week for me in the poker world. Couldn’t get over to the Southern Poker Championship at the Beau soon enough, but I was able to claw out some time on Wedesday to head over to Harrahs for the weekly tournament. Really had that Texas Hold'em poker itch and it was nice to be able to scratch it. I've had some fu and some modest success keeping my edge playig late night online poker tournaments but there is no substitute for live poker. I was delighted that it turns out they had started up the Wednesday tournament again (last week was the second week) and as usual when there is a tournament on the coast their numbers are down. I mentioned last week I either like it full or around 50. Think I’d like to amend that number to 49 or less. If they have under 50 they only pay eight instead of ten. That was the case on Wednesday. I came in with a pretty clear intention in my mind. I wanted to win at least $500 and roll that over into a buy-in or two at the Beau. So...

So, I write this before the BCS title game and it'll be published the day after the game, so bare with me for not discussing the winner or the loser. Obviously, I hope it's Auburn, but my head tells me Oregon might have an edge. Would love to be wrong on this one. I’m sure, if Auburn prevails I might have a summation of my experience but should they lose probably it’s just back to poker only content. Speaking of which the rest of this post is poker only content. I’ve heard players are mostly pleased with the Texas Holdem poker structure at the Beau. There are some early inflection points where you are going have to take risks but apparently that is going to leave plenty of play “in the money” and at the final table. I have to say, if true, that I appreciate that more. I’ve cashed a couple of times at the Beau in past events and found the latter action to be too luck dependent. I’ll have to see it for myself, as me and my source differ fundamentally on what a good structure is...

Obviously, with the PCA going on in the Bahamas and the Beau Rivage casino event just about next door there is a lot of poker for me to think about, and yet, I can't stop writing about the BCS game, it's like I'm stuck to a row of casino slots and can pull myself away. Early January, has clearly become the sweet spot for football in this country. No longer New Years day, the action is fast furious through 10 days of the first month of the year. Talking about the BCS title game and I got a little side track talking about the Saints game this past weekend. And by the way to stay on this tangent for a little bit longer, I find sportswriters using the Seahawks win justifying why the playoffs shouldn’t be revamped to be just stupid. Granted, in response to those that say the Seahawks shouldn’t have been allowed in, yes, they answered that (but they won their division of course they should be in), but to a lesser degree to counter the belief that things should be tweaked the Se...

My take it for what it is worth sports betting advice on the big game is included somewhere down here in the post. You may have to read between the lines, like a guy on ESPN essentially telling you what to bet, but it's in there. Not like I'm trying to crack the code on Ice Hockey betting odds so I have some useful information but be aware. Personally, I wouldn't bet this game but if I had to I think there is better value with Oregon getting points in probably what is a pick'em . Oh, guess I won't be subtle about it. In games, I watched both play including Oregon’s game against Stanford (who already proved they were no Stanfraud ) and Auburn against Alabama, the defenses were done and the offenses ran them ragged. Read an article on Gus Malzahn the offensive co-coordinator for Auburn, or maybe it was Chip Kelly (they kind of run together) and whoever it was said this philosophy interestingly enough arose from coaching seventh grade basketball (so pretty sure it ...

I'm going to break down the BCS title game a little bit but first I wanted to mention who excited I am about the Acadiana Series of Poker (ASOP) as I think they are going to get a big turnout and hopefully get to the numbers they had a couple of years ago where everybody at the final table got big checks. The large one day Texas Hold em poker tournament should be fun to play in. I will definitely be there for that on the 28th of this month. If you are coming bring some money for rebuys as the action will be fast and furious. There will be a lot people there with no idea how to play poker that are just supporting the cause and donating money. Don't be surprised to see five way all-ins in a lot of pots. It will play a little bit like PLO in that regard. I keep hearing how the game is going to be over 80 points and the offenses will keep running until the clock runs out. Interestingly enough, I wonder if the officials have been doing intense cardio training in the 40 day run up ...

This week I haven't been able to figure out my schedule at all as to when I’ll get over to the Beau Rivage to play some Texas Holdem poker . I believe I will be able to maybe play an event on Thursday or Friday. I have to get all my writing obligations done first, and get a babysitter or two. Didn’t have any help last week which was a busy one for me, so my apologies on my lack of communicating with any friends looking to catch up as I was jammed all week. What else is on tap for this week besides a poker tournament or two, well, some time soon Google has upped my work load on the site. In doing some research to produce better search results I discovered Google’s requirements differ from our website format a little bit for being in their Newsfeed. Essentially, to be considered a newsfeed you either have to work like a blog (odd when you think about the friction between “news” sites and blogs) or have articles that appear with at least three consecutive numbers in the web-address. ...

Some other highlights, in the closet thing I come to in online betting on sports. After some consultation and understanding Pitt had something to play for and guessing the Browns might want to lay down to get Mangini out of there, I selected the Steelers earlier in the week. I couldn't decide which NFC East game to substitute the Steelers for, I liked the Boys and the Giants. Basically I decided to drop the Boys covering vs. the Eagles because I didn't want to ride a third stringer. The Gmen had something to play for. (I loved the Redskins back door cover... sarcasm yum). If I had true mobile betting services I could have gone to CBS sports and slotted the Falcons in, like I did withe Steelers from my laptop earlier in the week. I also loved how I never benefit from one of those but only suffer them. The Chargers threatened to give me hope going into the nightcap as my rivals all had them, but their opponents couldn't eke it out. In our suicide pool every-year...

I'm in John "Price is Right" Price's pick'em league. Going into the last week, I was one game out of first. You have to pick five games against the spread each week so the betting odds are determined by the line. Lines set on Wednesdays (which gives you some gimmes if you pay attention to line shifts like GB this week set at -5.5 even though by kick off it was ~double digits). So I figured I had to go 5-0 on the week to win. I solicited some betting tips from my friends to try and help me pull off perfection Here's how Sunday played out. Short answer, and all anybody probably wants to know: I went 3-2. Had I gone 5-0 I would have tied for first (though as it turned out I shared a loss with a person that beat me, so I would have had to change my picks to tie... he was a game up on me and would have remained a game up on me). Prior to kick-offs I recognized ATL would crush the spineless Panthers on the heels of their disappointment to New Orleans. Fa...

As I stand there, I found myself in a moment familiar to being in the middle of a bluff in a Texas Holdem poker game. I can tell, she’s also processing whether or not I said I was from BasketBALLski . Now, she’s not so sure I am funny anymore and coming to grips with the fact that she is not really in on the joke. Unlike poker tournaments online you have to exist in this perpetual game of nonverbal communication. Will she call my bluff? She looks blankly at me, but still trying to be polite, “We don’t have any basketballs but perhaps there is something specific to what we do have that you’d like, have you seen our jeweled eggs” I mull it over. Or at least gave the façade of mulling it over. To “mull” requires pursing your lips and squinting a bit. At least that’s how I decided to convey my mulling to her. I purse and squint, then scratch my chin. And while I am fake mulling, I am also really mulling over the wonderful opening she just gave me by asking if I’ ve seen their jeweled...