4 hands and Out

I played my usual Thursday night live tournament. We had just under 60 players. Four hands in I get dealt A10h on the button. With 3 limpers to me and blinds at 100/200 I raised it to 600. Small and big blind folded. Got two callers from the original 3 limpers.. Flop comes 10,9,2. Guy bets out 1700. The other limper folded. Action on me. I am sitting there looking at high pair and high kicker. That's a huge bet. I looked at all possibilities. Did he have pocket pair and match the board?? Possible but not likely. Did he have an over pair like Jacks or Queens. He would have raised preflop. Did he have like KQ and figure he was good? So what did he have?? I though maybe K,10 or A,10 or maybe A9. I thought a long time and looking at my chip stack as we start with 5000 chips and realized that I was already down to 4000 with my preflop raise and having just paid small and big blind. Just calling only left me with 2300 in chips and I thought I was at least good. I pushed all in. He called. He had 10, 9 off suit. Yep. He hit two pair on the flop. I was floored. The turn and river gave me no help and I was out. There was no way that I put him on that hand... Isn't poker fun???

Cell Phone Ban and One Outers

Yesterday our provincial government finally got around to introducing legislation that will ban using cell phones and texting while driving. They had been talking about this for months This new law will take effect Jan 1,2010 and will carry a fine of 167.00 for violations. All I can say it is about time. I don't know how many times I have almost been hit as pedestrian by people yakking away or busy texting on their phones. I never understood the fascination with cell phones. You see I don't have one. I did get one once when one of my kids bought me one for Christmas. I literally hated the thing. Yea okay that may be weird to most people today but something about my phone ringing while I was walking down the street just annoyed the heck out of me. I really didn't like being that available. Anyways our politicians having wised up and realized that people driving having a hard enough time keeping their vehicles on the road and driving safely without being one hand short. They will still allow the hands free models though. Now if they could only come up with a law that bans brushing your teeth while driving (yes I really did see a lady doing that one day). I am not sure where she was spitting and probably don't want to know.

I have been watching Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho continue their run on The Amazing Race and they sure seem to be getting the one outers. First time they were last it was a non elimination leg and just a week ago when again they came in last the team that actually had finished first lost their passports so they were eliminated. All of us poker players know that you can't keep hitting those one outers though. It will be interesting to see if they can step up their game in the coming weeks.

Speaking of one outers I caught one the other night playing my usual Sunday night live game with about 40 players. I was dealt JJ UTG and being relatively short at our table decided to push with it. I always find Jacks hard to play and especially being first to act. Should I limp, Should I push or just put in a healthy raise. Well with the blind structure the way it was by just raising I was literally committing 2/3 of my chips anyways so I decided to push. A lady two over from me immediately pushed all in also and had exactly my chip stack. I thought oh oh I am in trouble. Then the BB decided to call both of us as he had huge stack. Big Trouble. Well the lady flipped over KK and the BB had AJ. I figured my night was over. Well the flop came QQ2, the turn was a 6 and the river brought the lovely case Jack. You gotta love it when it happens in your favour. I sheepishly muttered sorry to the lady with Kings but she took it well and I tripled up. Isn't poker fun when that happens??

Olympic Medals and Tournament Second

AS you know the 2010 Winter Olympics are being held in my backyard in about 4 months time. While I am a great supporter of sports my actual support for the Olympics has been lukewarm at best. I just think the money we are spending could have been spent on things much more needed . Having said that it's time for me and others to suck it up and support the games.

Some of the venues like the new speed skating oval are incredible while other things like the the Olympic mascots are a joke. So I like others were very apprehensive when we heard that they were unveiling the medals for the games. Would they be tacky and cheap?? Would they be goofy like some medals in previous games were??? Actually they are stunning.. I was shocked. I have posted a picture of them at the top and believe me this picture doesn't do them justice. Each medal will be unique. That's right. You win a gold medal in downhill skiing and it will be different than the gold medal for say bobsled. Each medal will weigh about 500 grams which believe me is a lot for a medal. All I can say is well done Olympic committee.

I played a live tournament last night with just under 60 entrants and believe me the old saying a chip and a chair is alive and well. Actually 3 chips. That's what I had left when things turned around. With blinds at 500 and 1000 with a 100 anti I was sitting in the BB with just 300 in chips. Yep 100 for the anti and just 200 in the BB. There were 24 of us left in the tournament at the time. I got dealt 10, 5 off suit in the BB. Figured my night was over. What's this everyone folds to the SB who actually gets to take 300 chips back and calls. He has 6,4.. I hit my 10 and double up which barely gives me enough for my SB. I get dealt A9h and with only the BB in the pot I hit my flush on the river and double up again. The very next hand I get pocket Queens on the button. Two people in the pot and I of course push and my queens hold up. I triple up. People at the table are laughing. A couple hands later pocket Kings. They hold up and suddenly people aren't laughing anymore as I now have chips to play with. I continued to get decent playing hands and hit some flops and my stack starts to grow.. After that the night is a bit of a blur (I was tired) but I managed to final table and with patience and some decent hands I ended heads up against the chip leader. He had me out chipped by at least 3-1. Suddenly my hands went dead and even though I managed to win a couple hands he soon had me all in with a Q 9 off suit. He had K10. We both whiffed on the board and his King held up. Still I was pretty pleased with a second place showing.

Million Dollar Challenge

I watched Fox's new poker show on the weekend called the Million Dollar Challenge. I had really mixed feelings after sitting through an hour of it. First of all the premiere contestant was a Catholic priest?? I mean come on... What were they hoping to draw by having him on there... He had played some poker before and ended winning his matches but he looked very uncomfortable doing it. The big saving grace of the show was Daniel Negraneau. He is personable and basically carried the show himself. Vanessa Rousso looked really nervous throughout her match. The structure of the heads up pairing was horrible as it basically was a push fest after a couple of hands. I know they can't have super slow blind levels and big chip stacks but there wasn't a lot of poker played. It was basically who lucked out with the cards. I will give it another chance though and see if the action improves.

I have been watching the WSOP 26 part episodes heading to the November Nine. I think the coverage has been excellent. That's the way poker should be shown.. The announcers are knowledgeable and funny. I know some don't like the one announcer(I forget his name) but his comments usually are bang on.

I see Phil Hellmuth hasn't learned a thing. He still pops off when things don't go his way.. Of course that makes for good TV but I had to laugh on one episode a player wouldn't shake his hand and Phil seemed a little taken aback. Well guess what Phil some people don't like you . Get over it or improve your image.

I played a live tournament yesterday and ended up in 12th after someone shoved and I called with pocket 10s. He had pocket Jacks and my night was done. The funny thing is I almost folded as I just had this feeling it was Jacks.. Got to start listening to myself

Changes

I have been really bad about posting lately and I hope to get back to normal soon here. It's been a hectic week and although a lot has happened I never seem to get the time to post about it.

First of all remember I told you I had my house for sale. Well after no offers and not clicking with our real estate agent we decided to re list with another one. We never really hit it off with the first one. He was nice guy but just didn't seem to have time for us. I guess he thought you put up a sign and it will sell. Well todays market is different. Anyways the wife did the dirty part (fired the agent) and I did the good part. I hired the lady who originally sold us the place. She was awesome then and we should have gone to her in the first place. Well what a difference. She did so much more for us in two days than what had happened in two months. She came over and restaged the house, gave us lots of tips, made up these fancy brochures with pics of our place. Took fabulous pictures and promoted the place like it should have been done. So what happened?? Well supposedly we are getting an offer this morning?? After only 4 days listing with her. Even if the offer isn't what we are expecting at least it's something. Plus we have two more showings today so lots of action.... We also gave up the place we were going to buy but made an offer on another place which is just as nice and about 25 grand cheaper. Of course the offer is subject to the sale of our place... Got my fingers crossed.

I have been playing a lot of live poker lately. A lot of tournaments locally. I did real well in the week after coming back from Vegas. I had a second, 2 fourths and 2 fifths. These are all in 40-60 player local tournaments so I was running great. I like to think its Vegas karma but it came to an end this week when I exited the 3 live tournaments I played before hitting the final table. I knew it had to come to an end sometime as you can't keep running good all the time.

Susan Jacks, The invention Of Lying and WSOP

Do you remember Susan Jacks?? She was the lead singer of that late sixties early seventies band called The Poppy Family. They had a few hits but their big one was Which Way You Goin Billy. Other big ones were That's Where I Went Wrong and Where Evil Grows. Susan was born in Canada and grew up in a suburb of Vancouver. I still remember when they came and played at my high school. They were great. Anyways I just read Susan has kidney disease and desperately needs a kidney transplant. In Canada 85% of people think transplants are good and necessary but only 14 % of people have signed donor cards. People really need to do this it could be your brother or sister that needs one. I certainly wish Susan well and hopefully she gets her kidney transplant before it's too late.



I went and saw that new movie last night called The Invention of Lying. It stars Jennifer Garner and Ricky Gervais. The movie is about a place where nobody can lie. Everyone tells the truth. Can you imagine that? Ricky and Jennifer go on a date and she tells him that really he has no chance with her as she is out of his league and that he is fat and has a stubby nose. Everyone tells everybody what they think. I wonder what our world would be like if that was true. If people told it like it is. Anyways without spoiling too much Ricky becomes the first person who is able to lie and what happens afterwords is a reflection of our life. It pokes fun at relationships, religion, genetic matching and just life in general. I found the movie concept incredibly original (nice for a change) but not quite as funny as I thought it might be. Having said that I certainly think this one is worth watching and have no hesitation in recommending it.

I see the WSOP Europe has just wrapped up and it came down to Daniel Negraneau and Barry Shulman heads up and Barry prevailed after a 5 hour marathon. I watched some of the action and hand history on the Internet and it was quite a battle. Twice Barry was all in and managed to escape. Barry of course is the father of November Nine WSOP finalist Jeff Shulman. Can Dad and Son win both in the same year?? It should be interesting.

Polanski, Amazing Race

Okay what is with all this support for Roman Polanski?? This a guy who raped a 13 year old and while awaiting sentencing escaped to Europe. I don't care what this guy has done in his career he still should serve time for this despicable act. He should have been deported long ago if anybody had some common sense. He made the mistake of going to Switzerland and was arrested. Now we have some stars like Whoppi Goldberg coming out in support of him. Give me a break. I am sure if it was there kid they wouldn't feel the same way. I hope he is deported quickly and gets what he deserves.

I watched the opening episode of Amazing Race on Sunday. This a show which up until a couple seasons ago I had never watched. I admit I got hooked and now look forward to it. I think its because of the travel aspect seeing which countries they go to.
Anyways this season they have two poker pros competing. Maria Ho and Tiffany Michelle.
The girls after a shaky start seemed to get their act together and managed not to get eliminated in the 2 hour season opener.

I found it curious that the ladies were selected for the show but after Annie Dukes run on the Apprentice I guess the producers couldn't resist the draw of these two ladies. Tiffany of course was very controversial in last years main event of the WSOP when she called a time clock on someone when she wasn't even in the hand. I am wondering if they will portray the ladies as villains in the show. It will be
interesting to see how this plays out. One of the other teams consists of two Harlem Globetrotters who should do well.