New Lucky Shirt

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I came tonight in a great poker mood and with a solid gameplan and the lucky blue plaid shirt my wife had picked out for me. I asked her to find me a lucky one and she pulled this unflashy unasuming preppie shirt out of the closet and paid it ont he bed. I drove to the local Wine Warehouse superstore to get a 6 pack of microbrews to take with me. I picked out some Jamaican The Demon Drink,some German favorites and one interesting The Demon Drink I was going to save til the end of the night.

I already decided that I was going to stay out of pots with mediocre cards and play lots of positional poker. I made some bets with good hands early and got lots of folders. My stack was growing at a slow and steady pace and I was conserving it.

8:06pm Blinds Still $10 - $20 and Eddie Busts out Bosey and Sammy with Deuce Eight v/s 10 2 and AK. Two rebuys !!! (Eddie took me for $1 before we started the tourney, we played heads up Rummy and he killed me. I had forgotten how to play completely)

8:22 5 way pot. I had 6c 4c in the BB. No raisers. FLOP !!! 6 3 7 rainbow. I'm the first to act and I bet $40 into a pot of about $120. Everyone calls and the it gets to Jason Fisher on the button who raises $140 more. I fold. Bub
and FNG Tony both call. Then in the cutoff position beside his brother, Jack Fisher goes all in after having flat called my bet. I am delighted to lay down my top pair of sixes. They are no good and I know that. FNG Tony goes all in as well. Jason calls and turns over the nuts. 4s 5d , he had flopped a straight. Jack has 6 4 offsuit, the same hand I had laid down.

TURN !!! 10d. No help to anyone. RIVER !!! 5h. Giving Jack the same straight his brother had flopped. I don't remember Tony's hand but it was not very good. If I had stayed it would have been a 3 way chop pot. Oh well, I was thriled with my laydown and it gave ame a good read on both Jack and Jason. Tony is gonzo.

8:27 just two hands later I get Q5 on the button and decide to limp in for what will probably be the last hand at the starting blinds. There are about 4 people in the hand including Jack and Jason again. FLOP K 5 5. I had flopped trips : ) Jason bets $80 and I go all in. Jason calles before giving his brother a chance to act. I am stunned when Jack goes all in as well. Jason then calls and I think I might be rebuying. One had K J and the other had K 9. My trips held up easily and I tripled up. TADOW !

8:44 Jason goes all in with A4 in middle position and his brother Jack tells him that he might just call so he can bust him out. Then he does just that. Showing KJ he flops a King and Jason is sent rebuying. DING DING DING everyone chants as the $20 bill surfaces.

I took a big break from writing down hands and focused ont he game. Folding and watching the play and players. I had a nice sized stack and I was planning to sit on it. We pressed 9 people into the big round table because the blinds were eating our small table up and we complained.

About 15 hands into the final table I was faced with my biggest decision of the night with Kd Jd on a flop of K 6 7. Blinds were 200 - 400. Ant had a stack bigger than me and I had already bet bet $1000 on the flop. He went all in lickety split and I sat and thought for 3 minutes. People were getting pissy and I told them to eat it. This was the tournament in my mind. If I won this hand there was no way I was going to lose the tournament. I had shown my hand before the flop came out because he had just busted and still wanted to play. He knew I had a big decision and was looking at me like "Hell, I don't know".

Somewhat reluctantly, I called. Ant had K 9. Turn and river were nothings. Jack kicker wins. I doubled up and left the chip leader as the short stack with about $1200. I had about 9-10k at that point. We were paying out 4 places thanks to the rebuys. I was happy to be looking at a certain money finish but I wanted the win and the 4 points towards the new championship superjackpot we had established last week. We are awarding points to the money finishers and taking a minimum of $20 out of the prizepool each week to set up the jackpot to be paid out in December.

I watched Tommy takeout Bosey in 4th place and it was now down to three. I was the chipleader and Ronnie was in second. Tommy got busted on a hand I can't remember and took home 3rd and a point for the chapmionship. It was now down to Ronnie and I. I had about a 2 1/2 to 1 chiplead when we started and we took turns folding to each other for about 10 minutes.

12:37am On the button with blinds of $500 - $1000 I look down at a pair of snowmen. I decide to make a move and I announce a raise. I slide int he $500 to call and then ponder my raise for a few seconds. When I mutter "All In" semi-confidently, Ronnie calls rather fast. I flip over my fair of eights and Ronnie slams down sevens. They looked like Jacks for a minute but alas. I am a 4-1 favorite going to the flop but Ronnie is know for his draw outs recently. I am dealing so I deal them fast to avoid the pressure and wha-la. The snowmen hold up like they should. James G is your winner. Thank you, thank you very much ladies and germs.

I crack open the last The Demon Drink in my cooler and prepare to taste victory. Victory Lager that is. Boy was it ever sweet. 4points towards the championship and I am only one behind Ronnie for the lead.

PS> Thanks for the help with the shirt honey.

Here's the best I can do.

Can't believe blogger wrecked my post.
I scanned the notes I took last week. You can read them if you want. No decoder ring, sorry.


NOTES 9-16-05
The final heads up hand was Jimbo against Bub.

Jimbo AK Bub 5 6 FLOP !!! 5 9 2
Jimbo went all in, Bub called and took it. Nice call.


Poker Homegame Mainpage
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As a sidenote, I played in a 3 way match with Carl and his brothers wife (she never played poker) and I scalded them for $10 each. I flopped a wheel on the 2nd hand and gutted her. Carl was helping her play and they called me down with Jack high. I think Carl was drunker that usual.

I also beat Uncle Tony Heads up for $20. Then he beat me. I think I broke even.

What's happenin' Bub?

............................NOTICE.........................
...........We are playing on Saturday this week !..............


9/16/05 Another Friday, another Tourney.

You know if you read this blog frequently (have mercy on you if you do) that I don't like playing the first pot of the night. Well, last week I did and you see what happened. Bustville.
So when I am dealt K 10h on the first hand this week I just know I'm in for it. I'd rather bea dealt 94 offsuit. I never play 94. It never hits when I fold it and in my opinion it's the ugliest hand you can be dealt in Holdem. Anyhow, back to the K 10h. I'm UTG (under the gun, means first to act preflop for you newbies)



Screw it. I had the whole blog written and Blogger shit the bed me. Maybe I need to dump this 486. But I'm tired and I am not rewriting it.

Bub won. Yea Bub.

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a Poker lesson or two

Well, it's Friday again and that means it's poker night. I felt good going into the tourney this week and I had plans to loosen up a bit after last weeks bad fold debacle. I arrived with my dad about 15 minutes late because work has been hectic lately and Fridays are the worst. My chips are waiting however and I have yet to be blinded once so things are working out superbly. I drop the pile of crap that I bring every week, including my Onyx Cigars, official blogger notepad, bubblegum and my six pack assortment of microbrews from across the world. I'm positively itching as I grab up my first hand of the nite fresh from the dealers fingertips. AQ of diamonds. Not bad. Not bad at all. I'm in the middle position with the starting blinds of $10 -$20 and I make it $60 to go. Of course, since this is the donkfest WSOP I got 5 callers and nearly lost my will to raise forever right off the bat.

When I announced my raise (a skill which Jimmy Smith has yet to master at the age of 58-65 ??? **see below**), Sammy remarked curiously that he was about to raise if I did not. I should have taken this announcemnt more seriously as you will soon see. Sammy instead chooses to just call.
FLOP !!! A 2 3 What more could I ask for ? To tell you the truth, that ace scared the pants off of me. It was at that moment that I knew what Sammy had. Well, I thought I did. I hoped he didn't but thought he might have AK. I was about to find out because he was in the small blind and he bet $200. Everyone folded to me and I pushed in my entire stack. I told Sammy to show me AK and he did. "Martha Farkn Stewart !!", I said. REBUY !!! Out on the first frickin hand. No way I was getting away from that.
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Let me tell you something. I'm 32 years old and I have been playing poker for 15 years in one form or another. I don't prefess to be an all knowing all seeing poker guru or anything but I know the basics. Call, check, raise, fold (<--- that one's still tough). I try to politely inform people of the correct proceedures when they make obvious mistakes and we have have several naggingly habitual bad habits that permeate the fabric of our game.I'm going to expound upon a few of them and mentionin the worst offenders by name.

1. Folding out of turn is very popular and about half the folks do it once or twice a night. Some are worse than others but Jimmy is by far the worst. Fellas, it only takes a few seconds to wait your turn and then gently toss your cards forwards so be patient. Friday noght only comes once a week so sit back and enjoy it. When you fold out of turn it destroys the action and affects everyone in the hand. It gives information to people on your right that their risk is lowered to enter the hand. Not to mention that it's incredubly rude and assholish.

2. Calling and then raising. As in........ "I call"...pause........."and I'll put you all in." This is bullshit. Pure and simple bullshit. Jimmy Smith is the worst for this but my old man is a close second. The proper way to do it is to say "RAISE". Saying the word raise is not in and of itself going to scare your opponents out of the hand if you have your monster. And saying the word raise is not some kind of tell that will give free information to the table and reveal the strength or weakness of your hand. The word raise is a declaration of the fact that you intend to do something other than Fold or Call. It's that simple. If you are folding then everyone understands that you have thrown your cards into the muck and that your hand is dead. No need to say the word Fold. If you want to then by all means go ahead. Nobody will mind and it might even keep people on the left of you awake. If you are calling, then just mumble "call" like everyone else and neatly slide or thwomp your chips if front of you. ( Just don't splash the pot ,Teddy, unless it's your club.)

Jimmy did this twice tonight and the second time it pissed me off royally. I had QKh and I made a 3x BB raise from the button with it. I get two callers and one of them is Jimmy across the table. When the flop came down Ac 8c 5c it's checked around to me. I make a bet the size of the pot and the Big Blind folds. Jimmy peers down at the board from behind his stubby unlit dimestore cigar for a moment and calls. The he says "And I put you all in". WTF do you do in this situation ? What would happen in a cardroom ? Is his hand dead ? Does he half to wait til the next card come up and then go all in ? I rememebr during the 25K WPT Chanpionship event that world renowned poker pro Hassan Habib mistakingly called and then tried to go all in in much the same manner. He was forced by the tournament officials to call and then see the turn card. Of course he flopped two pair and wasted no time in moving in on Tuan Lee the moment the turn hit the felt, but it could have cost him dearly if Tuan had tripped up. If I had my wits about me and my blood was not boiling I guess I could have forced him to let me see the turn card before calling or folding. I had a sneaking suspicion that my Kings were good but I was taken out of position which was rightfully mine by his jackass illegal move. I folded in utter dusgust with the veins in my nexh throbbing. I asked his son Toby if he and his dad were close. Toby replaied that they were very close but that he could handle himself. See you next week Jimmy.

(UPDATE) Direct from Robert's Rules of Poker

8. A verbal statement denotes your action and is binding. If in turn you verbally declare a fold, check, bet, call, or raise, you are forced to take that action.

9. Rapping the table with your hand is a pass .

10. Deliberately acting out of turn will not be tolerated. A player who checks out of turn may not bet or raise on the next turn to act. An action or verbal declaration out of turn may be ruled binding if there is no bet , call, or raise by an intervening player acting after the infraction has been committed.

9:46 I limp into an unraised pot in the hammer position and Uncle Tony raises it $20 more dollars to $40. Jimmy raises it to $400 and I fold. Tony calls. FLOP !!! A 2 9 Jimmy checks and Tony moves in for $4000. Jimmy stares at the board a minute and then calls showing 8 8. Tony had flopped a set of twos and he obliterates the old man. I'll give Jimmy credit for one thing, he's fearless. But he's also foolish and now he's busted.
(Hand of the Week ) Jimmy rebuys.

9:51 I hear gaffaws from the Ocatgonal table behind me and just then TJ walks by and tells me that Johnny Buzz had just tripled through both Ronnie and Uncle Bill when he made a flush with J3c. Ronnie and Bill both had pocket Kings and were stunned. Ronnie rebought and Bill lost 70% of his stack.

Just to add to my misery, Jimmy took me out of the game 20 minutes later when I got unlucky to catch top pair on the river in an unraised pot where he had turned trip fours with some weak ass hand like 10 4 offsuit. I moved over to the Octagonal table to deal for a little while. I left the Round table with my head down a bit as I peered back at the chipstacks. My Uncle Tony ( my dads youngest brother) finaly showed up to the game after months of poking & prodding and his ultra loose-aggressive style has earned him $4000 while Sammy's Ultra Weak-Tight play has him at about $3400 thank in part to my first hand donation.

Blah Blah Blah. People bust out. People suckout. People Fold. You know. Who really cares when your not playing anymore ?
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11:10 Finally........ a losers table breaks out. $20 Buyin. Consisting of myself, my dad, Uncle Bill, Ronnie, and Bosey. After we had played 3-4 hands, Jackie (lasts weeks big game winner) busts out from the final table and wants to sit down with us. Fine by me and fine by the others. Prizepool now $120. So if I win I can erase my $40 loss and actually make $60. Well, soon after Jackie sat down I started to catch some cards. I flopped a straight with 7 10 suited and slowplayed it til the river, just calling the bets being made. I made a move at the pot on the river and everyone folded, but the pot was nice.

The action was quick so I am trying to recall some of the hands for you. None really seem to come to mind except for this one. I had A 10 on the button and made a 4x BB raise. Uncle Bill called from the SB and Ronnie Called from the BB. When the flop was ten high with two clubs I pushed all in. Bill considered folding and then called with Q5c. I told him when he dropped his hand to the felt that he was a 2-1 underdog to make that flush and he just nodded. Even if I lost I was hoping to stick a needle in his brain and the collective brains of the table that chasing flushes is a bad idea. Maybe I'm sick of the suckouts, or maybe I'm just showing off my TV Poker watching skills. When the turn was a brick, I pointed out that he was now a 4-1 underdog to make his flush. The river was another beautiful brick I sent Bill to the rail.

11:23 ish (Uncle Tony busts out from the final table thanks to the same Ultra Loose-Aggressive play that got him all those beautiful chips and he gathers his sutff to go home and sleep. He has and acre of lawn to mow tomorrow and I'm sure he'll sleep til noon if his wife and kids let him)

Oh yeah. I also picked up the Midlife Crisis hand (44) and reraised my dad all in. He called with AJ remarking that he hadn't won a race all night and didn't expect to now. He didn't : )

Now we get down to heads up. It's me against Ronnie. I think I had like a 2 1/2 - 1 chiplead. The third hand of heads up I get the mother of all hands. No, not Ace Ace. Better. Q 8 suited.
Q8 is always the nuts. I have a hard time folding Q8 these days. My old man has made a poker living with the hand for the last several months online as well as at our homegame ever since winning the final table with it back in July. I started noticing shortly thereafter that, everytime I got the hand and folded it (like a sane person) the the flop hit me in the balls and left me wondering why i folded if I had a feeling it was gonna hit ? So I started holding onto it for at least a look at the flop when it was cheap. As you can see at the top of this entry, I played it on Bodog last week and totally befuddled this guy who exclaimed following the hand..."How the %&$#@ can you play that trash ?" I answered honestly. It's my dad's favorite hand. He laughed and we became fast friends.

OK. So I pick up this monster Q8 suited and I announce "ALL IN". Ronnie's head pops up from the table like he's got KK in his hand and he calls almost instantly. I'm not even worried if he has KK. WHy ? Becasue Q8 is the nuts, that's why. When he shows J9d I'm feeling a bit funny, because I love J9 alomst as much as TJ Cloutier does. I yell over to Tj. (aka Food Lion) that I'm all in with my dads favorite hand. He says, "what ? Q8 ?". I yell back......"Yeah......suited!" He askes what Ronnie has and I tell him that he in fact has my favorite hand. TJ guesses that correctly too but he's in a hand and won't come watch.

FLOP !!! A 10 7 Unelected Queen high still in the lead. TURN !!! Jc Hey, that may look like a bad card for me, but it give me some outs. Any club for a flush or a Unelected Queen will do just fine. That's 15 outs right there. RIVER !!! 9s. Damnit. No club. No Unelected Queen. And Ronnie just made two pair. But all the cards look so close together. I shuffle them around until I can arrange them into a lovely srtaight. 8 9 10 J Q Ronnie stands up in disbelief. I was starting to feel unsure myself and wanted to gather up the cards before I realized I was mistaken. Bt there it was. The gutshot straight I wasn't even looking for. I told you Q8 is the nuts
(even if it's the 2nd nuts).

Final table recap. Four left. Sammy is holding on to his stack for a change and TJs tight aggressive play has him a nice stack too. Johnny Buzz is holding his own and the short stack is Toby. We are paying out 4 places tonight thanks to all the rebuys. I'm dealing again. Johnny makes a move back at TJ by reraising him all in. TJ doesn't seem to want to, but he calls and shows AQd. The very hand I busted out with at the beginning of the night. When Johnny shows Ace Ace he looks like a genius.

Ad Qd VS Ac As

Odds against TJ Winning
Ad Qd 11.92%
As Ac 86.84%

But when I turn the first card and it's a 4 of diamonds, I can smell the suckout. TJ would indeed catch two more diamonds and pull off the suckout of the night. So long Johnny. WTF are you gonna do with the beast dan hand you can get ?? Johnny takes it better than I ever could and walks away smiling. TJ bows his head in shame as he should.

I don't recall the hand but the Great Wall of Toby (for how he stacks his chips) gets breached and he collects his 3rd place prize. I waste no time in heckling him over it since I made more by winning the losers table : ) But Kevin Harvick won the race so he was happy.

The final hand between TJ and Sammy doesn't come for another half hour at least. These two are tighter than you high school blue jeans fresh out of the dryer. It came down to a a kicker as is usually does. Sammy's K3 is taken down by TJ's K7. Not a monster kicker, but effective.

Congrats TJ. Now go get a damn haricut : )
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Ronnie mentions an idea before we break up for the night. We are now considering taking out $20 from the prizepool each week to fund a championship tournament sometime in December. We need to fine tune it a bit but somehow we want to come up with a points system that will allow the money finishers each week to accumulate points towards and entry into the Pink Sky Poker Club Championship (I came up with that name due to the ceiling consisting of pink insulation in the basement we play in). We even talked about getting a cheap bracelet or something for the winner to sport. Any ideas on where to get something like that ? Let me know.


Be sure to stop by FiveHundy by Midnight "The original Las Vegas Podcast" and brush up on your Vegas acumen.
This week features a phone call by yours truly. Even Adam Curry's Daily Source Code is high on FHBM because he featured a promo for the show on his Monday episode.

When you're between hands flash over to Iggy's Party Poker Blog and sharpen your online poker skills.

Bad Fold BBQ

8:56 I think I spotted Bosey's tell. When he has a monster hand his hands quivver like a whino who dropped his last bottle of ripple. Is that a tell ? He had AJ in his hand the flop was J 8 7. I think he liked it but he only bet $20 into an $80 pot. I had picked up a flush draw with my shitty 94d and called the bet. When the turn was a nine he bet another $20. I called. But when the river was anohter Jack (not a diamond) his hands could barely hold the chips as he put in a bet that was the size of the pot. I folded and he showed his AJ after someone else at the table asked him to show it.

9:13 In the hammer position I find myself with Q8 suited (my dads fav hand). I hardly even throw this hand away these days because it continues to prove itself lucky. I limp in with it since I'm just one off the button (that's what the hammer position is). Dad is on the button and raises it to $100. Cooter Carl calls "as usual" from the BB. It comes around to me and I remark that I'm folding this hand even thought I know it's going to hit. Bosey says "don't fold it then". FLOP !!! QQ5

9:34 Middle position with 10 4 offsuit. $20 - $40 blinds. I limp into an unraised pot. Jimmy Smith has showed up late and been allowed to buy into the game and the lucky bastard sits down on my left. I hate having his lucky silly ass on my left and he knows it. Jimmys very first hand of the night was the previous one where he got dealt pocket Kings and doubled up while nearly busting Carl. I told you he was lucky. Anyhow, so I limped in and Jimmy calls on my left from the button. The Big Blind is Action Tommy who raises a paltry $80. I call and Jimmy does as well. FLOP !!! 2c 3c 5d Everyone checks. TURN !!! 6h giving me a straight with my 4. Tommy checks and I check as well, trying to trap them. Jimmy does his usual crazy raise to $500 !!! Tommy folds. I reraise All in. Jimmy calls me showing 4 8. We both have the same straight. But when the river comes a filthy whore of a 7 he makes an eight high straight and it's all i can do to keep from shoving the old man out of his chair. Excuse me Lieutenant ........Major Tilt is on the phone.


9:54 With 89 offsuit in the BB I get to see a free flop. I couldn't ask for more when it comes out 7 10 J giving me the nut straight. Carl is the only one left in the hand with me. I check the flop and he checks. The turn is an Ace and I bet $100 hoping he has an ace. He folds. wow. great hand.


I decide to sit on the sidelines and fold fold folding to look for a good spot to get my money on the pot. I fold several hand over the next half hour that could have busted people. 9 7d would have turned a sneaky straight. K8c would have flopped trip eights at the same time that Dad would have flopped them with 89 offsuit. Perhaps I need to fold and watch the players instead of the board as it mocks me. I really think that if this were an online Party Poker Multi Table Tournament I would have made the final table. I was playing rock solid poker.

10:36 in the SmB I limp into the pot without looking at my cards. Dad folds in the BB like a jackass because he was babbling on about something and totally forgot where he was. Carl pushed all in on the flop for is last $170 so I decided to look down at my hand. I had 33. The flop had a three in it so I called. I made a FH when the turn and river were twos. Bo long Carl. I don't even remember what you had.

10:54 Final Table

I have eeked my way here through cautuious play and avoiding big pots. Unfortunatley I have never accumulated any chips either. My stack has never been above $1500. (we get $100 to start) so I am going to have to make something happen soon. The first hand I am UTG with 6c8c and I fold it. The flop comes 6 8 8 and I know the poker gods are taunting my ass.

11:27 I have not even played one single hand at the final table so far. The only face card I have been deal was a Jack that came with a deuce. I might play that hand on Bodog, but not here. So when I got Q5 in the Big Blind I was elated. I got to see a free flop with my last $800 and I couldn't get away from KKQ. I pushed. Johnny Buzz called me with his huge stack and trip kings. I was dead in the water. He even made a FH to shame me.

I left early and found out about 5 days later that Jackie had beatenUncle Bill heads up for the win.
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Take a listen to Tim Dressen's podcast about Las Vegas at Five Hundy By Midnight. I made a call into the show and he played it this week. Great tips on where to stay, eat and play in Vegas.