Sleep With the Fishes, Dine on the Whales

Wanted to wrap up my thoughts on some of the folks I played with. Got to mix it up with two of the bigger names on the coast and was lucky enough to knock them out. These are a pair of guys who made their poker names playing live poker vs. online poker, and that only made them more dangerous considering the venue. These guys have forgotten more poker strategy than I've learned. This will be a two part post, in this one I'll discuss those hands and in the next post, I'll give you the lessons I learned from playing them. Captain Tom Franklin who has almost 30 cashes at the WSOP, 2.6 million in earnings and a bracelet also had a pretty decent stack when we were down to about four or five tables. He joined our table and played an orbit or so. In late position I looked down at KQ o/s. There was a raise from early position from a player that didn't really apply hand ranges to position. I decided to call. Captain Tom from one of the blinds re-raises. The original raiser fold...

Saw this thread on 2+2 apparently after November Niner Steve Begleiter got knocked out he said the above. Begleiter is notable for being a former Bears Stern executive, who had some involvement in the the toxic assets that precipitated the recent economic collapse. He's not some self made internet online poker millionaire (though he did hire one upon making the final table--never too late to go to poker school I guess, and of course that coach is fellow Gulf Coaster Jonathan Little ). The sentiment, per se, of simply stating that he's wealthy really doesn't bother me that much, but there was some controversy and hate forcused at him. I started to join the fray and stopped myself deciding to post it here. Why? I'm not going to remember to get on there to follow up to any responses this might have gotten. This post provoked me... [QUOTE=tcash777;14409289]Does that me he is NOT wealthy. Okay, you are right, he should have said, "this sucks, life is so unfair, ...

You know who he is. He plays with a scowl, he's fearless and not afraid to mix it up with anybody. He's relentless, aggressively betting into any and everybody on the table no matter their position but never getting his head in too deep. I bet he kills the tables when he plays online poker . For much of the tournament he was at my table with a stack size comparable to mine. I also watched him with the resilency to rebuild his stack after a couple of bad beats back to a chip leading stack in no time. Man what an attribute. Get beaten down, and not only dust yourself off, but just not stop being controlled aggressive. He pounced on weakness from the first hand and didn't stop. Some people when you slap their hand, that's it. Lesson learned, this kid realizes just the opposite should be true. With him you play back at him and scoop a pot, he's coming right back next rotation. Most people know him as Ricky, I'm most people so I know him as that too, and I ...

Like I said I learned a ton from many of the guys I played with. I wanted to touch on some of those attributes. Let's start with the guy won the whole thing, Mike. On a good day, I hope I have his disposition and I try to, but got to commend him he pulled it off effortlessly. We started on the same table, and I went up and down a bit but had the good fortune to catch hands while my opponents caught hands--with mine being better and then I didn't stop rolling. At first, I rated Mike as passive player and a target as he folded everything. Then I recognized when he did play some hands, he did so with some finesse, and saw that he was just being patient and selective. He was aware of the table dynamics and played poker with a fun spirit, even when a couple of times the deck got ugly on him. He never, ever got down on himself. Many of my best runs are when I have the mental fortitude to not throw a pity party after a bad beat, and many of my worst are when I tilt or have the ...

Wow. Just saw that I have 400 posts under the belt, that's a lot of posts. Unfortunately, I rate maybe 5 to 10% as entertaining, I'll try and do better. Too many hands, too much minutia, and that kind of stuff. I want to enliven the blog a bit, so will work to better dedicate myself to getting creative in presentation at least. I know I can but too often I get, well, lazy. Of course another of the goals of this blog which is to chronicle my mistakes and to learn and grow from them. I also want to track what works for me, that I'm trying out, and put some post-play thought to my blog. No man is an island, and no man is a poker island , so feel free to criticize as you see fit. What an wide range of 400 posts it's been. Maybe I'll sift through them, perhaps in time for post 500, to give a choice cut. We'll see. I think I've mentioned this before and haven't done it. It's been a good week. Final tabled and cashed twice--chopped twice. The s...

There are a couple other just terrible spots with passive players willing to call off stacks with weak holdings so I know I got time. A big chipleader on my left and I mixed it up a couple of times. He won more hands but I won the biggest pot. I raised an unopened pot with pocket fives. In the SB he thought about it and called. The BB called too. The flop was King high with a 5. A set, I almost forgot what it was like to flop them. We all check the rainbow. The turn is an Ace. Okay one of these guys has to have an A or a King. If it's just a king that might kill my action a little bit but let's hope not. Check, check to me. I put out a nice bet (have an ace, have an ace, have an ace). The chipleader pauses for a while and puts out a raise. Other guy folds. Yes, he has an ace. Then I mull maybe he's trying to bully. Okay, I feign some weakness just in case he is, subtle almost imperceptible movement, not a great acting job but if he is on a bluff maybe enough...

The IP has really outdone itself and it's a shame more people aren't there to experience it. The tables are all brand new, the space redone, and the dealers all competent or better. Great structure and a well run event. John P and I signed up and agreed to exchange 10 per cent of each other. I thought about doing a last longer bet but he's relatively inexperienced so that wasn't fair. Exchanging 10% even if it was -ev for me seemed like it could make it more fun for him if I cashed and the same for me if he did. The last longer would have been over in one hand. John flopped a boat, on the turn a flush draw got there and he got it all in hoping the guy hit his flush. He didn't. He held pocket queens. River queen ball. Okay, at least John had me to sweat after doing everything right and getting crushed. Later that night in a cash game I told the table my buddy busted on the first hand. A reg asked "How do you bust on the first hand." Flop a boat, ...