Sleep With the Fishes, Dine on the Whales

Read post below before viewing. This is not a funny video.... Though, it is unintentionally funny when he says the "person you want to tap is the hot person" --true on different levels. Or when you consider the get up he's in.

So like those f'ing teenagers I'm on the YouTube. (You can never show your age better than throwing a THE before something that doesn't need it, like "I saw it on THE Television (better yet call it The BOOBTUBE ), maybe it was on THE Cable", or maybe " I found it on the THE Goo gle --adding inappropriate ssss enhances the effect, "I was shopping THE Internets" ). and I found some pretty good videos from Dook University. Normally, I hate all things dook related but I love the mental aspects of poker and trying to understand decision making processes. They have six videos dealing with different aspects of irrationality. Lots of decision being made based on irrational thought process at a table so a lot to be mulled over. I got a lot out of few of these videos applying them to poker. I will probably review them and some of the rather elementry lessons I took from them. In the first video, on arousal, they show how emotions effect motivations and d...

I prefer to remain faceless, anonymous, and just the regular average/bad poker nit that I am. Okay, I don't really think I'm a bad poker player (what player does) but I haven't done anything significant yet so, until then I like playing from the shadows. Gene knows this and likes to tease me a little bit with that random picture of that dude... that looks like me. I took it down as I don't want to confuse anybody about who I am. That guy is a fine looking fellow... but I have to say I'm even better looking. Sorry ladies I'm taken. I do have a story where I met a guy who is kind of enough to read this tripe and recognized me, which I'll get to later. Speaking of pub, I'm not sure my bubbling was worthy of front page material for http://www.gulfcoastpoker.net/ . Everybody does it, but I do appreciate Gene giving me some props. Before I continue to ramble about myself I want to congratulate Monkey for another stellar tournament showing. He's put up some...

Six years ago at a friend of mine's wedding in upstate New York, about 8 of us after the festivities made a late night journey to "local" casino Turning Stone. Cocksure that we were each going to win a grand, because that summer when many of us went to Vegas for the first time the theme was "Own the City," and own the city we did. Being first timers, and naiive and dumb gamblers we went on an incredible rush of good luck. Literally turning every craps table we encountered into winner. I think we even turned a profit by rolling dice on the late night buffet tables. So when all but two of us, all turned a profit it was reasonable to think the casinos did just print money and made their money on their shows. One night we so decimated a craps table at the Venetian they literally forced us to leave and closed the table. We had a solid two hours of winning rolls after winning rolls. We all bet the same way and hit the same numbers. It was like a living breathing Vegas...

I'm at Harrahs on Monday night playing some poker against the New Orleans regulars and the folks from Biloxi that come into town to steal from drunk Monday Night Football fans. Sorry Titan fans if we were inhospitable t o you on the felt but you realize you are walking targets, and the entire time you are playing three or four people that barely know one another are exchanging glances about your pisspoor-I-saw-it-on-TV-play and are just sitting there waiting to snap you off when you overplay two facecards or AJ or a low pocket pair. Anyway, I get there early to try and squeeze juice from the walnuts. The walnuts being the other regulars all biding their time until the football game is over and the unhappy or happy drunks show up. Yes, they are a bunch of Martians (very rocky) for the most part like myself, so shown down hands are usually premium holdings vs. one another. Why even bother to get there early? I like the Harrahs Football Box promotion where they give you a score and yo...

As GeneD mentioned on his blog on Monday we both played well and got beat by the cards. He at least salvaged a winner. I had a couple of memorable bad beats but everybody does. It's tough when things don't go your way to concentrate solely on the fact you made the right decisions and got your money in good. Don't be results oriented! It's even worse when the Monday night table is rockier than Mars because you only have a limited opportunity to get these guys to put all their chips at risk. You get those statues to move and then they suck out and it stings. That being said, I feel I played strongly enough and I'm just looking forward to this weekend and not focusing on the two outer or the runner-runner that ended my night. Instead, I should reflect on getting back to folding the second best hand as I had to do a couple of times on Monday. Minimizing your losses is a win. In fact, the only mistakes I made were a couple of missed bets at the river (still my leak). I...

We all need them. Sitting at the table, the best possible medicine sometimes is to remove yourself from the play. Imagine you are observing yourself and the opponent and see what you might be missing or what you are giving away. How many times, have you seen somebody bet into the nuts when it was obvious to you (not in the action) the other guy has a MONSTER? Probably more rarely (because everybody that reads this blog is intelligent and a good poker player :) ) how many times have you done that yourself. I'll never forget betting into a guy with the nuts with a miserable hand when the guy next to me said he saw it as soon as the flop hit. And yeah, this is me a guy who prides myself on being a good reader of people (I do pay the price for that hubris). Just like I couldn't get away from a guy who I put on a full house, playing with Lusky, and called with A high straight. He had pocket Queens. I looked at my AJ and the two jacks on the board and said he probably didn't ha...

Been away from the blog for a bit. Posting some edited parts of an email I sent to my buddy a couple of weeks ago who played in a live game where he was 90% or better favorite going to the river in 5 or more hands (in a row) and he lost them all--and of course along with that a big chunk of his bankroll. 6 hands in a row, vs. 1 and 2 outers going to the river, you have to start questioning the dealer and your opponent(s). The math on that is just too outrageous. You should barely lose a coin flip 6 times in a row, much less a 90%er. Cheating is far more common in this game, particularily home or club or side games, then anybody would expect. Get a book about card cheating (I got one at Barnes and Noble) read it and review those hands and other times the math seemed upside down. After I read it, I played at that crooked bar game I told you about and saw just about every angle being played. S..H..A..D..Y. Worst part of it, is it's fairly easy to do. I've spotted a few of those sa...

I am a donkey. Played on a very loose aggressive table with a guy raising preflop usually 25 sometimes 15. Everybody calling. My buy in looked feeble next to their stacks. Priced in on draws all night. His continuation bet would usually be 25 with pots already at 125-150 and my open ended straight draw or nut flush draws out there. By the time it'd get to me in position 2 out of 3, or 3 out of 3 would call putting it between 175-225 on a 3-1 shot. Then he'd keep pricing us in with tiny raises on the turn. Needless to say they didn't hit or I wouldn't be calling myself a donkey. Still, those early misses told me what kind of night it was going to be. I get it in later with two pair and a guy catches an Ace on the river for a higher two pair (A4s). Rebuy. Things go alright. In early positon with KK (limp), out of control raiser limps this time (1 out of 10 times he limps) and his buddies almost out of control raisers also limp. Okay, 6 in I have to fold to an...