Meetings and the NAPT

Well Thursday night I always go and play a live poker game but last night I had a SSM (stupid strata meeting). If you don't know what a strata is (a certain Boston gal didn't). Its basically the owners of a condo who get together and form all the rules of the building and pass a budget. You hire a management company to do all the bookkeeping but you still need an executive. It is a thankless job. You gotta listen to all the moaning and complaining and you don't get paid for it. Anyways I went to the meeting expecting the worst. A couple people had already asked me if I would be on the executive. I was very non committal (in other words no WAY). Anyways to my shock and horror we had 7 people volunteer to do it. I just about fell off my chair. That never happens. Usually you have to beg people to be on strata. Then it's usually the really old people who do it (yes older than me Josie). Last night 4 of the 7 were under 35. One lady in her twenties. Of course this is a brand new building and a new strata. These people have no idea what they are in for. Hopefully everyone will get along and live side by side without complaining. Somehow that's not likely.

I watched the final table of the NAPT at the Venetian yesterday. Was it only me but some of the calls were really bad?? My son and I were watching and my son kept saying? Why is he still in the hand?? Good question? It even almost made Norman Chad speechless (that's not likely). The eventual winner was the deserving winner from the hands I watched. Really nice to see more poker on TV. The latest thing I hear is the NAPT is trying to get a Canadian stop possibly at the River Rock in Richmond which is a suburb of Vancouver and where I have played a few times. That would be great.

Speaking of my son. Now that he has his account back up he has twice played the 90 people 3 buck bounty tournament on Fulltilt and cashed both times. He was 4th and yesterday he won 72 bucks for the victory. He plays under the name tjmax3. If you ever encounter him say hi. I think he could give me some lessons.

I just played once yesterday in a 9 player SNG and cashed in 3rd place. I did get AA again but my min raise couldn't get a call when we were down to 3. Groan. So it doesn't change the current stats.

Hockey forecasts
Detroit in 7
Pittsburgh in 5
Boston in 7
Canucks in.......7

Aces 3/8

The Aftermath

It was another great night last night playing the Mookie. I started off well first hand dealt A 10h. Flop came with two hears. Pot sized bet and I got some chips.

First big hand for me was I was dealt KK. I raised to 120. DeepchitNJ reraised me to 240. I reraised to 780. Deepchit called. Flop comes Ks 6c Jc. Great flop but two clubs. I decided to check. Deepchit bet 680. Should I just smooth call. Nope. Pot is big enough. Don't get greedy. I raise to 1360. Deepchit folds. Said they had pocket Queens. Wish I had known. Might have got more.

A few hands later I got dealt pocket Jacks. Before it even got to me there was a raise. I decided to just call. Then there was a reraise after me and another reraise. Umm these Jacks aren't looking good . I folded. Not sure if it was a good fold or not but not going to go out with just Jacks. The last reraiser took it down. Never showed.

Then I got shifted to Josie's table. Just a few hands in there I got dealt pocket Aces. Blinds were 50/100. Morning Thunder raised to 300. I reraised her to 700. She called. Flop comes A 10 4. Great flop. She checked. I decided to check (note to self stop being greedy) Turn was a J. She goes all in for 1065. Does she really have KQ. I call. Yes she does... I am wounded. I see Morning thunder used my chips to a good cause she cashed. Damn her!! lol

Then Josie starts raising my BB every time. She finally flashes a pair of Jacks. Not the flash I wanted.

I then get moved to Gary's table. We are both short stacks. I keep getting hands when I am the SB and Gary the BB and I keep raising him. We are both waiting for the big hand. Finally I get AA again. I triple the blinds hoping for 1 caller. Oh no its Gary that calls and he has less chips than me. I wanted to get somebody elses. He has A9 suited. An Ace and a 9 come on the flop and Gary is out.

I am still on life support and with blinds at 150/300 and 25 anti I get pocket 4's in middle position. I bet about half my stack hoping everybody goes away. The BB raises. Should I call?? I decide to. Decent call he has AK. I am the favourite. The flop is all low cards. Turn is another low card. Yes. River is a Ace. Damn. I am out in 32nd.

Congrats to Josie who finished 21st, lightning36 who finished 14th and fmarra who cashed in 3rd, I also briefly was in the room with Maniac. The poker playing was excellent. Fun night. Josie also got her chat privileges taken away for 1 minute. Sure was quiet then.

Pocket aces also killed me yesterday online when someone flopped trip 9s on me. I bubbled in that tournament although I did win a 9 player SNG yesterday so not bad 1 win 1 bubble out of 2 entered.

Aces 3/8

Happy Birthday T (no poker content)

As I am getting ready to play The Mookie I am writing this.

You see It's T's birthday today. She is Two. I have never met T although I do have a couple pictures. T also has an older sister named T who is soon going to be 9 and a wonderful kid. I talk to the older T all the time and her pic is my screen saver on this laptop. I hope someday that she will meet her sister. I also hope someday she will meet me and her grandmother and her two uncles my sons. T is now living with her mom. Her name is C. C is my daughter. If this makes no sense to you you need to read this post here . I had hopes for awhile that C was coming around . We were talking and she sounded better but she seems to have slipped back. I really hope she is taking good care of you T. I know her other daughter T really misses her mom. We all do. I hope someday you will read this T. So happy birthday T.

The Mookie tonight on FullTilt

I am planning on playing The Mookie tonight again. Hopefully the result will be better than my showing last week where I finished in the 70s out of 120. No hockey game to distract me tonight(damn there goes my excuse).

So everything with my son's account has be totally cleared up with FullTilt. His account was unfrozen yesterday and he received an email from Full Tilt explaining that and also one from the Debit Company saying he could make deposits again. He learned a good lesson I think. It was a honest mistake on his part as he really didn't understand transit numbers. A good lecture from yours truly has educated him on the fact. In his first tournament back he played a 90 player 3.00 bounty thing and managed 5th for a 24.75 cash. I was happy for him. Of course I will be monitoring his account..(yea I know he's 21 but you gotta keep tabs on them)

I am just glad the whole situation is done with and we can get back to playing the occasional online tournament at Fulltilt.

I played a live game again last night with 50 people. Not great results. I did start off great when I won the second hand of the night with pocket queens.

The hand that killed me was with blinds at 200/400. I had J 10c in the SB. There was 2 limpers to me so I called as did the BB. Flop comes Q J 9 rainbow. Okay I have second pair and an open ended straight draw. There was 3 of us in the pot after the flop betting(can't remember how it went). Turn brought another Q. I checked BB bet and the button and I both called. River was a K. Great card or you would think. The BB is a really loose player and could have anything. I made a bet and he immediately went all in. The button folded. Now I had the BB covered by around 2000 chips. Like I said before the BB is a really loose(actually he's really bad) and usually one of the first out. Okay I figured he's got a 10 but not likely A 10. Wouldn't he have maybe raised preflop with that with limpers to him. I made the call. Of course he had A 10. Figures.

I was now in survival mode. An orbit later I got dealt J 5 in the BB. I just called with 2 others. Flop comes K 5 5 rainbow. I check as did an older lady. Another very aggressive, loves to bluff player bet 500 figuring we were weak. I took my time calling. I could have pushed but I thought that would scare him away. The older lady folded. Turn was a 8. No flush or straight possibilities. I checked again and so did he. Damn. The river was an Ace. Okay what to do. I know I am good. Bet or Check?? I decide to check looking like I have given up on the hand. He asks what I have left. I have 1100 left. He says I will put you all in. I snap called and doubled up.

After that my AK ran into a turned full house and I was out.

See you tonight at The Mookie

Aces 2/5

Live game

Last night I went out to my usual Monday night game. We had about 55 people show up. Very first hand in I get dealt A7c. Middle position. Blinds are 100/200 so not loving the Ace rag but it was cheap I called. I think we had 5 limpers. Flop comes down A 8 6 rainbow. Two checks to me and I was going to bet but I have a really good aggressive player on my left. I checked really quickly. He bet out 600. Everybody folded back to me. I reraised to 1400. Well he wasn't expecting that. He said I didn't like the way you checked so fast. What do you have pocket 6's. I sat there watching the big screen TV that had the hockey playoffs on. He finally folded. He said he had a good Ace. I just said got fold. Good for me as I didn't love my 7 kicker.

I was pretty quiet for awhile until I got dealt pocket Aces. Older lady to my immediate right was down to about 1300 chips and pushed. Now by this time the blinds were 300/600. We already had 1 limper in the pot. I immediately raised to 2600. I wanted just me and the all in. I don't want this multi person pot. It worked everybody folded and my Aces held up.

With blinds at 400/800 and 100 anti. My chip stack was at 5500. Not great but not in survival mode yet. I was the BB. I look down AKh. Everybody folds to the SB. Now the SB is another older lady. Really good player. Loves to raise blinds. So she immediately bumped it up to 1600. I thought she's trying to steal. That was my read. Wrong read. I shoved the rest in. She snap called. Pocket 10's. Oh Oh. Still I am about 45%. The cards didn't come in fact not a card over an 8 and I was out.

My account with Fulltilt has been reactivated but they said until the other situation (my son's account) has cleared up I can play but I can't withdraw or deposit (although they were a bit vague on the deposit part). I guess it can take up to 10-14 business days. Of course I am giving my son a hard time now.. ha ha Anyways it's good to have it cleared up. I like playing on Fulltilt (well as much as I like online poker but it is my favourite site). Someone commented if I had just sent the ID in when they requested it I would have been up and running faster. This person didn't seem to understand was that I was getting no reason or response to my emails. I was shocked when I got the original email that my account was suspended. When I finally got an explanation I was okay with it and I was assured by Fulltilt of my respect for security and privacy. I also didn't have a scanner (to copy the documents) as I work off my laptop but I do have a decent digital camera which actually worked really well. I will say this for Fulltilt after the security department got my 3rd email they were very good about explaining why. It was the original cashier dept which wasn't responding to my emails and they were the ones who suspended it. I am just glad it's over (hopefully).

Looks like the Canucks will be playing Chicago Blackhawks next round. Should be a great series. I think the bookies will be favouring the Hawks. The Canucks have the definite advantage in goal if Luongo plays like he can. The Hawks have the advantage on defence. They have some great young players. Forwards I would say it's pretty even. They have Kane and Hossa. We have the Sedins and Kesler and Samuelson. They won in 6 last year against us. The season series this year was 2 wins each. Pretty even teams. They have home ice advantage.

Aces 2/5

Full Tilt Response

I finally got an answer back re my last email. As you can see its vague beyond belief. Why am I being asked to provide this ID when thousands of others aren't. I I have edited this post at the bottom.

Their response I copied and pasted below: I blanked out my real name.





Hello

Thank you contacting Full Tilt Poker Support.

We understand your concerns with sending us your identification documents. However, we need to verify your identity for security reasons before we can reopen your Full Tilt Poker account.

Your privacy is important to us and we have procedures in place to safeguard and secure all documentation we receive. We realize the sensitivity of your information and our security measures will ensure your information is always kept confidential.

Please understand that requesting proof of identity is by no means an accusation of any prohibited activity. We often request ID to verify the identity of account holders and ownership of payment processor accounts. These account verification policies are necessary to ensure the validity of transactions, confirm registered account information and protect our players, and we cannot make any exceptions.

As soon as we receive and verify your documents, we will update you on the status of your account.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Regards,

Terry B
Security
Full Tilt Poker


( Edited)

I have since received another email which explained exactly why this is required in certain circumstances. As you know my son (21) had problems with his Fulltilt account when he signed up for his initial deposit and because his account and mine come from the same address that is what precipated all this. My deposit of course was fine his but because he entered the wrong transit number and was rejected after a week it raised red flags I guess. He has since sent in the paperwork to the Debit Company to correct. He entered the transit number of the bank he pays his bills at which is a branch of his bank but not where his account originated so I guess because we came from the same address they decided to suspend my account too. Make sense??? Sort of. If they had explained that originally then I would have accepted it but just to suspend and not explain why left me perplexed and a little angry. Anyways I have taken a digital photo of my passport and internet bill and sent it to them. I will post their reply when I get it.

FullTilt Saga Continues

As you are aware my account at Fulltilt was suspended yesterday. I have now sent them 3 emails regarding the account. I copied the latest below.


TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN!!!

I seem to be getting no response to my emails regarding my account. I got a snippy email from someone named Emma who said my account was suspended until I proved who I was by sending in copies of my drivers license etc. THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!!

I will go through what happened again for you. I opened a real money account near the first of April. I used the Insta Debit option. The money cleared my bank account on April 5th. I have proof of this. I used the 30.00 to play in some low level tournaments including THE MOOKIE and also a bit of Rush Poker. My account had dropped to about 18.00 so I thought I would top up my account by putting in another 15.00. I tried using INSTADEBIT again and got a response that it didn't go through. I tried two more times and then contacted customer service. I then got a real snippy letter from someone named EMMA who said I had to prove who I was. Why was I sent this email?? Like I said in the previous paragraph I am NOT sending copies of my drivers license and bills. With identity theft being very prevalent today there is no way I am going to do that. I am 55, a father and grandfather . I am who I say I am. If that is not good enough for FullTILT Poker then I ask that my account be closed and the 20.00 I now have in my account be mailed to me at the address I have on file. If someone in customer service really cares about providing customer Service then my account will be reopened immediately. If not then it really shows a lack of really caring about your customers. I have provided a phone number below where you can contact me. Oh and if you are wondering how my account got to just over 20.00 from just under 18.00. It was because I was still logged in playing a 9 person SNG that I came 3rd. I await your response.

Please be aware that I am posting this on my Poker Blog detailing what has happened
The link is below
http://dbcooperspokerlife.blogspot.com/

I can be contacted at MY phone number

dbcooper53.


I await their response/ As you all know I am not a huge fan of the online game and this is a prime example of why. I have now sent them 3 emails with no response. The only reason I opened a real money account with them was so I could play THE MOOKIE and the VeryJosie tournaments. Their lack of customer response is appalling in my estimation. It has now been almost 24 hours since this happened and not a peep out of them. What does that say?? It says they really don't care about the low level player. Now if I had hundreds of dollars on account I am sure that FULLTILT would have provided a response by now. i guess they really don't care about low level players like myself

Full Tilt Account Suspended

This afternoon I tried making another deposit on Fulltilt using the same method I had used before. I had originally deposited 30.00 and my online account was down to about 18.00 bucks to I thought I would deposit 15.00 just to bring it up to 30.00 with the intent of playing the MOOKIE this week and a few others. Anyways it said my deposit had failed so I sent an email to FullTILT asking why. I got a really nasty email back saying my account had been suspended. Of course I was shocked. My original deposit had cleared long ago in fact I had already earned some of the bonus you get for first deposits. Yes a whopping 3 bucks. Anyways I will Copy and paste the email I got from Full Tilt below. I AM NOT IMPRESSED!!! The email is below.
HI
Thank you for your email..

Your Full Tilt Poker account has been temporarily suspended pending verification of your identity.

Please send scanned, clear copies of the following documents to security@fulltiltpoker.com:
1) Photo ID:
One of the following: valid driver's license, passport, or other government-issued ID that clearly shows your birth date and the date of issue or expiry.

2) Proof of Address (less than 3 months old):
One of the following: bank or credit card statement, utility bill, cell phone bill, home or auto insurance papers.

Before sending copies of your documents, please ensure the following requirements are met:

* The copies are clear and legible (96 to 150 DPI or higher recommended for scanned copies).
* The copies include the full document (bill/pay stubs, folded papers and partial sections are not accepted).
* Email attachments do not exceed 3 MB and are in JPEG (.jpg) format.

If you do not have access to a scanner, we will accept digital photos of the documents providing they meet the requirements above. If your camera has a macro feature (appears as a tulip icon), please enable it and take the photo within a 12 to 18-inch distance. If your camera does not have this option, please take the photo within a 24-inch distance.

Please note that your Full Tilt Poker account will remain suspended until we receive and verify legible copies of all requested documents.

Once we process your documentation we will contact you with an update on the status of your account.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Regards,
Emma
Cashier
FullTILT Poker

I have sent them a nasty email and I am awaiting there response!!!


EDIT.. After I posted this I was still logged into Fulltilt so I tried to enter a SITNGO and it let me . I finished 3rd for a cash. I then logged out of FullTILT and sure enough it wouldn't let me log in again. Now they have just over 20.00 of my money and you wonder why I am critical of these offshore poker sites. I am still awaiting a response.

The Back Up Plan

It was raining here yesterday afternoon so with little else to do I decided to check out the new movie called The Back Up Plan.

Having seen the trailers for it I wasn't expecting a lot and it really didn't deliver a lot. The movie stars Jennifer Lopez as a 30 something pet store owner who decides to get artificially inseminated so she can have a kid. She is at the point in her life with not a decent man in site and decides that she wants a kid. Now first of all you have to get your head around the fact that Jennifer doesn't have a guy( and anybody who looks like her that's a bit of a stretch) although she isn't really my type. Anyways she gets inseminated (don't you love that word) and out of the blue she meets this great guy. Only problem is she's now pregnant and has to tell her new love the fact. I won't go into a lot of detail and spoil the flick but there are some funny scenes in it. Her dog is hilarious and there is a great scene of child birth in a kiddies pool that was really funny. Other than that it's pretty well what you expect from a JLO film. Its cutesy but not deep. The movie is quite short in length too just over 1 hour 30. This is the kind of movie we used to see when back a few years ago they had the Movie of the week on network TV. That's about what you can expect from this. It certainly was better than Date Night.

Speaking of Date Night I just saw a friend of mine who put on Facebook that they loved the movie and laughed all the way through. I was shocked. Was this the same movie that I saw and was horrible?? Shows you everybody is different.

Game 6 tonight at 6PM PST.... I will be glued to the tube watching it.

Credit cards, Canucks. Poker

First the Canucks. They played incredible last night. They trampled LA Kings 7-2. Game 6 on Sunday. Hopefully they can keep it up.

Credit cards. We all have them or most of us anyways. They are convenient to use. They make buying things easier. No more cash to carry around. Of course they are only good if you pay them off every month. I am one of those people. I have never paid a cent in interest to a credit card company. Never in all my ancient years. In fact my one of my two cards pays me 1.00 for every 100.00 bucks I spend. They actually send me a check at the end of the year. The other gives me points which I can reimburse for gift cards. I think I have related this before. What got me on this subject again was a little experiment I have been doing recently with them.

When after making a purchase you of course sign the slip. Then the clerk checks the signature or NOT. Well I have been signing my name completely different than is on the back of the card. On the card its my whole name and I have been signing just using my first initial and then my last name and even the last name looks nothing like my real signature. Why am I doing this it?? Old age senility?? Actually I just wanted to see if any clerk really looks at the signature. So far not one has asked me for ID. I could be anyone. Now I know the credit cards are changing and some already have a PIN number or your picture on the card but don't you think someone would check signatures?? Some clerks don't even look. Is it because I have a honest face?? So did Ted Bundy. If it was my company or business I sure would. When the first clerk asks me for ID I am going to thank them and if their manager is near by I will stop and give them praise for doing it. I am still waiting for that to happen.

What actually got me thinking about this was my son (the poker playing one) had decided to start playing very low stakes online (with my approval). He entered his bank info on Full Tilt using the Direct Debit option. Well he didn't wait for good old dad to check it and entered the wrong transit number. They still gave him the cash though and away he went playing 2 buck tournaments until about a week later they realized it was the wrong info. They suspended his account and he got emails from FT and the debit company explaining the error. He had to fax them the correct info and is still waiting for his account to be reactivated. You would think that before anybody got real money accounts in poker they would validate everything before letting them play but I guess not. Is there any point to all this?? Not really but in our current credit crisis you think more checks would be in order when people buy things. I guess not....

I was invited to a home poker game last night but with the Canucks on TV later I instead went out for a early dinner ,drank 3 glasses of red wine and came home played 2 online sitngoes (Bubbled 4th in both) while I watched the game.

If I play online I prefer FullTilt over PS but I really hate the Fulltilt Avatars. Come on folks can't you get better avatars or be like that other company called PKR which lets you design your own. You pick hair color, eyes, nose etc. Now that would be really fun. Just think what you could create. With all the money Fulltilt brings in you think they would have improved them.

Aces 1/4

Survivor and Poker

Okay yes I watch Survivor. I think I have seen every episode of every season. I had to PVR the one last night as I had a poker game (more on that later) to go to. It was a great episode. I know if you hate TV or aren't a Survivor fan this doesn't mean much but I love the deviousness and strategy involved. I loved watching the faces of the so called Heroes as Parvati got them good. Of course I also like watching Parvati, Amanda and Candace in their bikinis. I am old but oh my. I could watch that for hours.

I see BWOP posted on her blog the dates that some of us are coming to Las Vegas and I thank her for doing that. I have never met her but I always love reading her blog. I remember one post talking about women only events that was just a fabulous read.

Lat night I played my regular Thursday night live game. 72 people came out. Incredible turnout. I ended up 20th. Not spectacular but I didn't get a lot of cards last night.

With blinds at 300/600 I got dealt AQh UTG. Tough cards UTG. I decided to limp. Two limpers after me then an older guy (yes older than me) raises to 3200. Now this guy the hand before lost with QQ when a lady had slow played her Aces and taken a lot of his chips. Normally to that huge a raise my AQ is probably going in the muck. I just had a read on this guy so I shoved. The two limpers folded. I watched his eyes as I shoved and I knew I had him. He did call though. He had K9. The board comes 888. Turn is a lovely Ace and the river I think was a 6. Nice double up.

After that I lost a fairly decent pot to a over pair to the board. I still had decent chips though when this hand came up. I was dealt A9d. 3 of us in the pot. Blinds were 400/800 with 100 anti. The flop comes Kd Jd 10c. Same guy bets out 1200. Both of us come along. Turn is a 6 of clubs. Same guy bets out 3600. The other guy folds. I am really undecided. I have the nut flush draw. Gut shot straight draw. I don't put him on AQ as he didn't raise preflop but who knows with him. To call it would take 3/4 of my chips. Pot size including his 3600 is around 9000. I took forever well not really but it seemed long. I finally folded.. Still questioning that fold.

After that with blinds at 500/1000 (my chips were 4600) I ended up shoving with A8s. Not great but I had the blinds hitting me in two hands. Lady to my left also shoved. She had about 2500 so I had her covered. The same guy who won those two pots earlier said oh this is a really loose call but he did. He had K6 off suit (scratch my head on that one). The lady had KJ. Of course the guy hit his 6 and took us both out. The one nice thing is my youngest son was there and he ended up second. So I was happy for him. No cash involved though. This is just points for our main tournament coming up in 3 weeks. Top prize a WSOP seat at an event in Las Vegas plus cash.

I did play a couple online tournaments yesterday. I won one with Josie rail birding and then she talked me into playing another with her. I guess she was hoping to re COOP her winnings with a side bet. No side bets. Good thing as I had QQ cracked by JJ. JJ got his third J on the turn. I hear she did go onto win though as Gary and I watched in amazement (just kidding she played well)

The Good and the Bad

Lets start with the Bad

I played terrible last night in the Mookie. I started off okay second hand in I got JJ and with just the small blind completing I bumped it 90. Gotta win something.She called. I think it was Mrsalcanthang. The flop was Kd 9h 7s. The Mrs bet 180. I raised to 360 hoping she would go away and she did. Really didn't like that King.

After that I just basically maintained around starting chip level. I went up a bit and down. The last hand was a disaster. I had A6 in the SB and decided to raise the BB. He reraised me and I stubbornly reaised him. Then he put me all in. Of course like an idiot I called. He had A 9. Yep almost as bad as mine. I just checked the hand history and he rivered a straight it seems which I didn't earlier recall. I was too miffed at my stupidity. Oh well still fun to play. I was 74th out of 119. I see Waffles and Schaubs both did better than myself.

I also played 4 other tournaments online yesterday and really sucked in those too. No where near cashing... The one good thing is I did have pocket Aces and they won a hand post flop.

The Good

My Canucks won last night. What great back and forth game. It almost made losing at poker not so bad.. Game 5 is Friday I think back in Vancouver.

I see GM has repaid its loans to the U.S and Canadian governments. That is really good news. I really thought when we loaned them the billions that it was money gone. That we would never see it again. Looks like they are back on their feet. I own a GM vehicle and love it. I would get another anytime.

I managed to outlast a certain other (Josie) definately female blogger. I was watching her table while playing my own and look like she went out on an open ended straight draw that missed and someone had pocket kings and hit a King on the board too. She kindly transferred 5.00 American dollars to me. Thank you Josie

Mookie and Hockey

Tonight at 700 PM my time I will be playing the Mookie and watching Game 4 of the Canucks and Kings. When I agreed to play I had forgotten that Game 4 would be on at the same time. No problem though. I will have one eye on the Canucks and the other on my laptop (ready made excuse if Josie kicks my butt). I wish I had a 3rd eye so I could keep that on Josie as 5 whole bucks rests on me lasting longer than her. No more trash talk today. It seems someone did enough of that on another blog. Even though I haven't played live with Josie in the two online tournaments she has impressed me with her skill and someone calling her a dude and a shill just blew me away. I was going to comment further on this but I decided to leave it alone. Hopefully an apology is forthcoming.

Pocket Aces

You know the feeling. You are playing a live tournament and you peek at your hole cards and you see one red ace and then a black one. Your heart rate goes up. This is it. You have the premier starting hand in Holdem. You mentally think of all those chips coming your way. You might even start to sweat a bit. How are you going to play them.

It reminds me of when you are back in your teens (yes Josie I do remember way back then) and there was a hot girl you finally asked out. The excitement. What shall you do? Then you go out on your first date and you realize that once she opens her mouth her attractiveness goes away. You had built up all that excitement to be utterly disappointed.

Aces are like that. They seem so pretty sitting in your hand preflop but after the flop they are really just two cards. Oh they are very good cards but they really can bring out some unbelievable highs and lows. We have all felt them.

So many experts have different ways of playing them but the conventional wisdom is you want one caller. At least that's my thought on them. I remember many times seeing people push preflop with Aces and have everybody fold and I would shake my head or ask them why. Their excuse was always well I didn't want to lose with them. That to me would be like never asking that cute girl out. If you don't take a chance then you will never know.

In the last 3 days I have had pocket Aces 3 times. Twice online and once in that charity tournament that I was in on Saturday. Guess what?? I lost all 3 times. On Saturday it was a straight on the river that did me in. He called me with A9. Had him totally dominated. Yesterday online it was someone had pocket deuces that hit their trips. Just a few minutes ago I was playing a 5.00 SNG 9 player online and I had about 1700 chips. 6 players left. I was third in chips. I look down and there they are pocket Aces. How am I going to get the most from them. I think blinds were at 50/100. I raised just to 300. The SB reraised me to 600. He's obviously got a big hand. I decided to shove. He thought for a long time. Had me covered. He called. He's got pocket Queens. Yes. Flop comes 338. Turn is a........................ Queen. River is ...... It doesn't matter because it wasn't an Ace. Yep lost again. Now some would say I should have just called his preflop raise but with that flop all the chips were going in post flop anyways. It really didn't matter.

It's funny because you really don't get Aces that often. Sometimes I can go a couple weeks and not see them and I play live at least three times a week and also online. Sometimes more. They seem to come in bunches.

So in the last three appearances of those lovely Aces I am 0/3. I am glad my dating life wasn't like that. Not impressive. So in the interest of science I am for the next few months going to keep track of how many times Aces win for me. The only caveat being I must get a caller. It will be interesting keeping track of this.

Aces: 0/3

A bunch of stuff

I set up the PVR to watch the first two episodes of the NAPT yesterday. It was the event from the Venetian but guess what happened?? Most of it got preempted by some stupid car race . I was so pissed. I did get to see the last 40 minutes or so when the race was over which was time enough to see MoneyMaker get his Royal Flush in The shootout event. I will have to scan the TV listings to see if they are going to replay it.

I am sorry if I offend any car racing fans but I really hate car racing. It's totally lost on me watching a bunch of good old boys drive cars around a circle. That supposed to be fun?? I just think it's dumb. It's like watching golf on TV. Put me to sleep already. Okay now that I have offended golfers and car racing fans onto better stuff.

I played 5 Sit/goes on Fulltilt in the last couple days (in preparation for the Mookie and to kick Josie's butt) and managed 2 Firsts 1 second and 2 Bubbles. Top 3 pay. They were all the cheap 2 buck and 5 buck buy in variety but as I don't play a lot online its good to practice as I find online much different than all the local live games I play. The last one where I bubbled I got pocket Aces when we were down to 4 (I just minraised with them wanting a caller) and the only lady left in called. Flop came J 6 2.) I made a pot sized bet and the lady went all in. AJ I thought so I called. She had me covered and she also had pocket deuces........ Yikes and I was out on the bubble. This was the same lady who earlier when I said I had Big Slick in a hand commented that she would like to see that. Really she did say that..........I guess she didn't realize how old I am. Ha Ha

I played my usual Monday Night live game last night with 54 players and I bubbled (are you seeing a pattern here) final table and finished ninth. Early on I had Big Slick two hands in a row

First time with blinds at 100/200 and a raise to 800 which I called and so did another guy. Flop comes Q 10 6. The original raiser bets another 800. I folded but he got called. They checked the turn and river and guess what they both had. Yep AK both of them. That brought a good laugh when I showed what I folded.

Very next hand I get AK again. Raise to 800. Get one caller and the other two limpers folded. Flop comes KJ9 with two hearts . Not loving the heart draw I bet 2000. Pot size bet and he folded and showed his J.

We were down to 25 players later when I got dealt AJ. I bumped it up 3 X BB from late position. Got one caller (very loose player). Flop comes A 10 8. I decided to push and got called. He had K10. A bit of a strange call. My AJ held up and I doubled up.

Shortly after that our table broke down and from then on at the new table I went incredibly card dead and just was in survival mode and finished in ninth. Fairly happy as I only had one pocket pair all night(6's) which I folded after the flop.

For Richer For Poorer

That's the title of a pretty good poker book written by a pretty good English poker player by the name of Victoria Coren. This book is basically an auto biography of her life.

Vicky takes you through her 20 year obsession with the game of Poker. It started in the back rooms of poker clubs in England through her trips to Las Vegas to play in some WSOP events including several Main Events. Its a fascinating and comical look at life as women poker player especially in the early days when she was afraid to go to the underground clubs in England by herself as she would be the only lady playing.

As her game progresses and poker moves more mainstream she takes you through those days to giving several insights into old time players like Slim Preston and Doyle Brunson to the new breed like Phil Ivey and Daniel Negraneau. She gives a lot of humorous thoughts on players at the table and her own battles with depression and trying to make it as a poker player.

It culminates with her huge win at the EPT London event where she wins a million dollars and becomes a sponsored by Pokerstars. The book goes into detail of her victory at that event but does it in a great way by putting her thoughts and hands throughout the book while she keeps telling her story. I wasn't really familiar with Vicky before this although I had seen her on a couple poker shows from England that are broadcast here in Canada. In this book Vicky isn't afaid of poking fun at herself and comes acroos as someone you would want to get to know.

I found the book a pretty good read although at times it bogged down with some of her reflections on her favourite card room in England. Overall though I would definitely recommend the book.

Date Night

Date Night starts Tina Fey and Steve Carrel. These are in my opinion two of the funniest comedians today. So you think by putting them together in a movie you would have a hit but then again you need a writer who knows how to get the best out of both of them. This didn't happen in this movie.

The movie starts out great. Tina and Steve are married with 2 kids but lead a pretty boring life in New Jersey. They both have pretty boring jobs and basically are just going through the motions. There excitement consists of going on a date night every Friday to the same restaurant where they order the same things and the talk consists of checking out other couples and trying to figure out their story. Then the come home and sometimes have their once a week sex if they are both in the mood(or not). There is a really funny part where Steve is thinking he's getting lucky and Tina comes to bed putting in her mouth piece. Steve mentions that he thought they were going to do it and Tina says Oh okay and pulls out the mouth guard. You get the picture. Any hope of Steve getting aroused after that isn't going to happen.

They also find out that their best friends are separating because they are only having sex twice a week and are bored. Steve wishes it was twice a week for him and Tina so they decide to go to a restaurant in New York for a change to lighten up their life. This restaurant is so busy that without a reservation they have no hope of getting a table. They decide to impersonate a couple who had a reservation and didn't show. This is when the whole movie fell apart.

The rest of the movie revolves around a stupid plot about a missing computer flash, a corrupt District Attorney, a Italian mob guy and a whole bunch of craziness. They even throw in a ridiculous car chase and a strip club scene. The car chase was so stupid the 3 people sitting behind got up and left. I wanted to join them.

This movie had so much promise but by letting it go astray with a nutty plot like this lost me. They could have done so much more with this movie. The only other funny parts were the outakes at the end when the credits were rolling and by that time I was wishing I was anywhere else. DO NOT go see this movie it's basically a waste of time and money.

So then I go home and watch my Canucks build a 2-0 lead only to lose in 3-2 in Overtime. That completed my day.......

Charity Tournament

I was out last night to one of the local pubs to have a glass or two of wine and I ran into a couple poker players I know who told me there was a local Charity poker tournament happening tomorrrow (today).

The buyin was 40.00,no add ons or rebuys. First prize was 500.00, Second 300.00, and Third was 200.OO (two golf passes worth 200.00). We had 59 players so you can see more than half went to a local sports team but thats okay. Good cause. We started with 5000 chips and blinds started at 50/100 but went up every 20 minutes so a pretty fast structure.

I had a really uneventful day. First hand I was involved in I had pocket 10's and with 3 limpers to me on the button I jacked it up 3x and everybody folded. I won a couple small pots and basically was hovering just around 6000 chips when our table got broken down.

I moved to a new table and a few hands in I get UTG pocket Aces. Blinds were at 200/400> I bumped it to 1300. Everyone folded to the button who had only 900 left and called. The blinds folded. The button turned over A9 so I had him totally dominated but yes this is poker and he rivered a straight on me. That sucks.

A couple hands later I look down at 4,7 in the SB. For some dumb reason I decide to fold with 3 limpers already in the pot. I was still thinking about getting my Aces cracked but that's no excuse for not flipping in 200 more chips. The flop comes down 44K. Yea I would have flopped trips and after everybody checked to the button he came out firing 1200 as he caught his King. Oh that could have been so profitable.

After that I basically was incredibly card dead although I did river a straight to win a small pot. The blinds really took a leap up when we went from 600/1200 to 1000/2000. We were down to 21 players( 3 tables). I only had 5000 chips exactly what I had started with and just two hands before The blinds hit I decided to push with Q,10. I know not a great hand but the best I had seen for a couple orbits. Everyone folded to the SB who called and the BB folded. SB who doesn't have that many chips turns over K5??? I didn't get that but hey like I said its a charity event. The flop, turn and river missed us both and I was out in 20th spot. It was just one of those days when I just couldn't get anything going. I always find the structure of these events a little too fast and I much prefer a slower structure. It suits my game better.

Tonight's game 2 Of Canucks/Kings but I am going to PVR (I love my PVR) it and head out to a movie.I will watch it after I get back from the movie. I know I will take some abuse but yea it's a chick flick.(Date Night). I will let you know what I think tomorrow.

Odds and Ends

Hopefully I will get a chance to play some of the upcoming blogger tournaments so I posted the picture that is necessary to play above. Go here for details. I have never played the Mookie but might give it a shot next Wednesday as I hear some other lady blogger wants another shot at Coop's money. I don't part with my money easy so she's in for a fight.

I finally learned how to play Chinese Poker yesterday. What a great game. I love it. We were playing it last night for awhile before my regular game got under way and it was a blast. Love to play for money. Lots of strategy involved although I just have the basics down. Too bad there wasn't a site to play it online as I could see some more Josie money coming my way. Oh and my regular game sucked last night. Got knocked out by someone drawing to an inside straight when I had top two pair and he got it. The good thing about it was I got to go home early and watch my Canucks win game 1 against the LA Kings.

Yesterday I went in to sign this petition against a tax they are bringing in here in B.C. called the HST (harmonized sales tax). Anyways there was a T.V. crew in there when I was signing the petition and then they left. So I sign and as I am leaving the store they have the cameras blasting away and they ask if they can interview me for our local channel. I said sure. The reason I said sure was the reporter was exceptionally HOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. Hell I would have done anything she asked. Anyways she did her little interview with me and said it would probably be on the evening news cast. So I managed to catch a bit of the news but I didn't see myself on there. Oh well probably a good thing as my phone would have been ringing all night with friends calling.

That's what happened 14 years ago when by chance I happened to be the only one in the ER (long story) on Good Friday in Vernon, B.C. when they started bringing in the shooting victims of the second worse mass murder in Canadian history. This was terribly named the Vernon massacre. 10 members of a the Gakhal family were killed on a day when they were supposed to be celebrating a wedding. The estranged husband of one of the family killed the 10 people and then killed himself. Being in the ER that day as people were getting rushed in was something I will never forget seeing the gunshot wounds. Anyways being the only one there the T.V people wanted to interview me of course. That interview was picked up by CNN and other networks and broadcast around the world. I had friends and co workers tell me of relatives who saw it in many countries. I just wish it was for something a lot happier that I was on. So yesterday when a pretty lady stuck a mic in my face I flashed back to that day 14 years ago...

Made In Canada Poker

If you read this month's Bluff Magazine or Poker Pro (Canadian Magazine) they both have articles about online poker being legalized in Canada. What is being proposed and looks like it will happen is in the province of Quebec and the province of British Columbia (where I live) the lottery corporations are going to start running their own poker sites. All I can do is say wow. What took so long??

As we all know online poker is now a multi billion dollar industry so in my opinion it was only a matter of time before governments saw this as another cash cow. With spiraling health care costs and schools being underfunded governments have to get creative in ways of bringing in more cash. Canada like everywhere else has a aging population with not enough young people replacing us old folks so cash needs to be created somehow.

Do I think this is a good thing?? Mostly yes. I have some doubts but but if you look at all the money going off shore to these sites why not keep it in Canada and use the RAKE to pay some of our health costs. Makes sense to me.

As you know I am not a great lover of online poker I much prefer playing live but some of my doubts about online poker were because of these sites not being regulated and controlled here in B.C.. This may solve some of that problem.

The articles explain that users must be residents of the individual provinces to play on the site which is going to limit the growth potential somewhat but hey its their site they can run it anyway they want. The province of Ontario (our largest) will be watching with interest I am sure. If these two sites do get off the ground and create considerable revenue for the governments you can bet they won't be far behind in getting in on the action.

How will this affect the major sites like FullTilt and Pokerstars? Not much to start with but if it takes off and is successfull you can bet other countries will take note and want a piece of the action too. It may end up hurting a lot of the smaller sites too. Right now there are way too many sites. I can't even keep track of them all.

Is it good for poker?? In my opinion yes. It's going to bring poker even more mainstream publicity and also legitimacy. That is a great thing.

There of course will be people upset that the government is running poker sites and preying on peoples gambling habits but it's like smoking or drinking. People are going to do it anyways and people have to be responsible for their actions. I want the money to stay in Canada.

We all know the problems that Americans have had playing online so I am sure there will be considerable interest down south as to what happens up here.

Very Josie Tournament

Well it was a success again. Thanks Josie for hosting a fun few hours. We had 16 players again. I thought I was going to bubble again but we managed to work out a deal with 4 left. Memphis Mojo had the chip lead and won the most cash, Goburn1 followed up his cash last week with a solid second and Lightning36 cashed again after his win last week. Yours truly was in fourth. I did manage to collect a couple bounties including Josie who I had raised, she reraised me and I pushed. She called. I had KK and Josie had pocket snowmen. Fortunately for me my Kings held up. When we got down to 4 we traded the chip lead several times and at the end Memphis was leading when us old guys decided to chop. It was great playing with everyone and hopefully this will be a monthly or bi weekly event.

You Gotta Love Poker

I played last night in my league poker. Just over 50 players came out. My night was over rather early but not without fireworks.

Just over two orbits in I got dealt pocket 4's one off the button. One limper to me I decided to limp hoping for trips. The button min raised. The Sb and the BB folded. The limper folded. I decided to call knowing the player to my left and it being early on. We had gone heads up in our main tournament two seasons ago and she came out the winner (she won a 1200.00 travel voucher) and I came second (500.00 gift certificate to an electronics store). I know how she plays so seeing a flop early with a small pocket might be a good move. The flop comes JJ4. Gee I look smart now ... Ha Ha. Nice Flop. I check knowing she will bet if she has anything or a pair. She made a pretty big bet about 3/4 of my chips. I immediately put her on AA, KK or QQ. She likes to min raise preflop with them and she wouldn't have bet after the flop if she had JJ. I shoved and she called. I flip over my flopped full house and she flops over pocket Kings. I mentally start stacking her chips and then the turn kills me. No she didn't get her King but she did get another Jack. So now she has a full house of JJJKK which destroys my JJJ44. The river doesn't give me the case 4 and I am out...

You gotta love Poker.

River Rock Tournament

Well I managed to sneak in a tournament while I was in Vancouver for the weekend. I didn't know if I could get away but as soon as I got to Richmond (suburb of Vancouver) I grabbed a tournament schedule at the River Rock Casino and plotted which one I would somehow get to. I mean I could play cash games but every time I went into the old poker room there was always a huge wait (not different now).

I entered the Sunday noon 50.00 plus 10.00 buy in. 88 players max and it filled up. They only take registration an hour before the tournament begins. My thoughts on the new poker room. Very mixed. Its smaller than the other one which was upstairs. This one is across the street in its own venue. They do have drink service and food service now(which I guess is new). I mean they had both at the old one of course but originally when they opened this they didn't (thanks Shaubs)

This tournament you only get 2500 in chips and there are 8 tables of 11 to start. The blinds start at 25/25 and go up every 20 minutes. All those are negatives. I really hate 11 player tables and chip level and frequency of blind increase are too fast but it is what is so time to make the best of it.

The only hand I lost at showdown in this tournament was my last one. I won every hand that went to the river and if I was calling an all in I always had the best hand and the law of averages held up for me. Of course I also got bet off some hands.

My day started great. I felt confident at my table. I certainly was one of the oldest perhaps with the exception of an older Asian guy at the other end. Third hand in I got dealt pocket 3's. I limped (all limping soon ended) along with about 3 others I think. Flop comes A34 two hearts. Short Hair Lady (SHL) bet the other 2 limpers folded. I thought about just calling but with the texture of the board I decided to raise. SHL took a lot of time looked at me and folded. That's okay good start.

A few hands later I got dealt KJd. SHL (yes her again min raised). I decided to call. Flop comes 10d 9d 3c. Okay so I have a flush draw, gut shot straight flush draw and a straight draw. SHL throws out a bet (can't remember exactly how much) but I call. Just the two of us. Turn brings a Jack of spades. Okay so now I have top pair along with all those other outs. SHL bets (pretty big bet this time). I think it was about 600. Remember we only got 2500 to start although I have about around 4000 now if I remember right. I am trying to put her on a hand. AK maybe (Who knows). I thought for awhile and decide to call. River brings a Queen of hearts. I have the straight to the Queen. SHL checks and I pondered a bet and decided to just check in case she had AK and was going to check raise. She flips over pocket 9's for flopped trips and I turn over my hand. She goes wow the river killed me and then others pointed out that I had flush and straight draws from the flop. I don't think she liked my call on the turn but I did. Would you have made that call??

I was suddenly the chip leader at our table. A couple orbits later something strange happened. I got dealt pocket 9's UTG. I raised about 3.5 X the BB. I got one caller a young guy(YG). Then it came around to the SB and BB. SB folded and then something weird happened the dealer started the flop when she realized the BB hadn't acted. I saw the first card of the flop and it was a face card (not good for me). The dealer realized her mistake (before all 3 cards got exposed) BB says not to worry I was folding anyways. Dealer called the floor and the floor said reshuffle including the burn and reflop. Well then the flop comes 955. Yep I flop a boat. I check and YG who I think loved the original flop also checks (said later he had AK) and so do I.Turn check check. River I bet a tiny teezer bet and he folds. I show my boat and then someone said he saw 2 face cards in the original flop and YG looks pissed.

A few hands later our table got broken down and I proceeded to to go really card dead at the new table. I think we were down to 50 players at this point.
At the new table I had an older guy (OG) who had huge stack to my right (not great). he also smelled like he had been smoking weed all morning. Anyways a few hands after I joined the table the guy had lost some of his stack when he picked up pocket Aces. The board came 7557. When he decided to push. He got snap called by someone who had called his preflop raise with suited connectors 7,8. The river didn't help him and he stormed off not realizing or not caring that he still had chips. Aces bit him in the butt.

The table I was at was super aggressive. A couple times I raised preflop only to be reraised and I let go of my hand. Once I had AJ suited and a guy who just had JJ in the previous hand and lost this time pushed all in on me. I had him covered but it would have left me crippled if I called. Was he on tilt though?? I decided to fold. He turned over KK . Good fold.

A couple orbits later I get KK. I raised it up only to get reraised by a Young aggressive guy. I decided to push . He pondered for a couple and called. He had QQ. KK held up and a nice double up.

We got down to 3 tables and my chips were dwindling. Not a short stack but not huge either. A couple times I had raised preflop only to have people go over the top and push on me. Not liking my cards that much I folded.

We were down to 19 players (6 at our table) when I dealt A,10h. Now A 10 is not a huge hand but 6 handed with 2 folds already I thought might be good enough and I was one off the dealer so I bumped it just over 3 X BB. I had thought about pushing but I wanted the ability to get away from it if need be. My bet was about 35-40% of my stack. The dealer folded as did the SB. BB shoved. Now the BB had been doing this a lot. If it had been the dealer who shoved I would have folded as he was a super tight older guy. The BB was another YAG. Lots in this tournament. Folding I would still have around 6000 chips but blinds were at 400/800. I took a long time and finally called. He had AK so I was basically drawing to a 10 or 3 hearts. I got a heart on the flop but the turn and river bricked and I was out. Really disappointed. I thought I played well except my last call. I had bet thinking I can get away from this and then didn't do that.

The tournament only paid top 8 with the first paying between 1500.00 and 1600.00. That would have been nice.

The Poker room at the River Rock was incredibly busy and certainly could be larger.

I just read that the Edgewater casino which is downtown Vancouver on the old Expo site just expanded their poker room which is a great thing. Next time over I may check it out. I had been in the old one upstairs and it was pretty small. Of course this in the casino that is going to be replaced by that new mega complex that I wrote about here

Heading To Vancouver

I am heading over to Vancouver tomorrow morning. I am taking the ferry of course. I know a lot of people who live on the island bitch and complain about the ferry but to me its so relaxing. I usually take a book, grab something to eat and relax for 95 minutes. Sure it costs around 60 bucks but hey that's a price I am willing to pay to live where I do. My only complaint is there is no Wifi on the ferry as then I would bring my laptop and spend the time on that. Maybe someday that will happen

I will be staying about a block away from the River Rock Casino (couple pics above). I have played there a few times and it still has the distinction that I had the weirdest chop pot I have ever been in in all my years of poker playing.

I got dealt KK in a cash game. 9 players at the table. 1/2 NL. If I remember right I bumped it to 15 preflop. Got 2 callers. Flop comes 444. Yep that's right. I got a boat. Almost 50 bucks in the pot. I decided to jam with my remaining 120 I think. Guy two over insta called (has me covered and the other guy went into the tank before folding (said he had A 10 later). Guy who called flips over pocket queens and says what do you have Aces. I said nope and flipped over my Kings. Looking great. Turn is an Ace. Still looking awesome. The River is.............. another 4. Yep we played the board and chopped. If any other card had come on the turn even a Queen my King would have played. The table was stunned for a second and then of course a big wow went up. A few players from another table behind us came over to see what the fuss was. It cost me a few dollars but at least I guess I didn't lose. I will never forget that hand.

Hopefully I will get over to The River Rock while I am there. My non poker playing son and wife are coming down and I am spending the weekend with them and the kids (I have a poker playing son too). So not a lot of time for poker but I might try and sneak away for a tournament or cash game if I can. I heard they have moved the poker room which was perplexing to me as before it was upstairs in a great location. Now supposedly its across the street separate from the casino...... Pretty weird but I will check it out if possible.

Heading over tonight to play in my league poker tournament so I will get my daily fix of poker...........

I am not sure if I will be taking my laptop with me. I have to check and see if the hotel has free Wifi( I detest paying for it).

Be back Monday.

Just Bubbling

What a great tournament last night. We had 16 players at 2 tables. Starting stacks of 3000 which I love. Gives you more play and I tend to do better in deeper stack events. The usual online ones you get 1500 and that's not my style. The only regret was that Josie was NOT at my table.

I started off well won a few pots. I noticed our table was a lot less aggressive than the other as I was watching both (mainly watching Josie). We had Poker Grump at our table. I have read his blog for at least a couple years and love his writing style so it was fun playing with him. I did manage to knock him out when I had AK on K high flop with two hearts. He had AJh and had lots of outs but the hearts didn't come. I did manage 4 bounties last night with 3 of them I had the best hand going in. The fourth was against Lucki Duck and I had Q,10clubs and he had KJ if I remember right and my Queen hit. Sorry about that Duck.

Memphis Mojo had the worst beat of the night when his Kings got taken out by Queens after a Queen flopped on the very first hand. Too bad as I was looking forward to playing with him. Hopefully another time.

I did have the chip lead for quite awhile but with Josie promising food to Lightning36 he soon took over and ended up winning the whole thing. There are 2 things that will motivate guys and food is one of them. We all know what the other is. I was doomed as soon as Josie made that offer. They did a chop at the end but Lightning had a huge stack and congrats on your win. I was the Bubble Boy.

As you know Josie had A side bet with me who would last longer. I tried to tell her us OLD GUYS don't play much but we do have great staying power (of course I am talking poker here).

All in all it was a great night and it was a pleasure to play with everyone. Thanks again Josie for hosting this event. I can't wait for the next one and of course Josie's side bet. What will she think of????

Jury Duty

I was watching a episode of The Good Wife (yea I know I watch chick TV too) before I went out to a local poker tournament. Anyways in this episode the plot line revolves around a jury deliberating a verdict. The case is a girl is accused of murdering one on her college girl friends after they had had a 3some with a guy. You notice they got to get the sex part in these shows and any talk of a 3some improves ratings. Hell it got my interest. Anyways at the end the jury is excused after the girl takes a plea bargain. The jury had just voted to acquit her but never got a chance to render their verdict. The juror's felt like it was a big waste of time after all their deliberations. If you haven't seen this episode I just saved you an hour of your life.

Twenty years ago I was on a jury. The case was 2 brothers were accused of raping a girl after they had all got stoned together. If I can remember right (us old guys lose memory) she had met them and agreed to go smoke pot with them. They drove to Stanley Park I think and smoked up and then according to her they raped her.She said they held a knife to her throat while doing it. The brothers testified that it was consensual and there was no knife and she only screamed rape later.

Anyways I was excited to be on the jury. The company I worked for paid me my regular salary so it was like a holiday from work although a serious one. The jury consisted of 11 men and 1 lady. The defence lawyer put on a good case for the brothers and the prosecutor wasn't very good. Anyways the trial lasted for a week and then we went to deliberate our verdict.

We got in the jury room and all the evidence including a tool box was in the jury room for us to examine which to this day I still find bizarre. I never knew they would have evidence in the jury room and I am not sure if they still do. The tool box was found in the back of the brothers car. I think if I remember right the girl had described the tool box as the brothers had helped her earlier with her car that was having mechanical problems. This proved she was with them and as such was evidence. Now being nosy us jurors decided to look through the tool box. So what do we find at the bottom of the tool box?? Yep a knife. Similar to the one described by the girl in the trial. The thing is it was never presented to us in evidence. Really I am not making this up. We find a knife that for some bizarre reason that never got presented. So here we are all looking at each other going now what do we do. So we sent a note to the judge saying we had found this knife. As you know sometimes things are ruled inadmissible to juries.

The judge called us back in court and asked us if we could disregard this knife and we all said yes (although I am sure disbelief was on all our faces). Anyways we headed back to the jury room and then got called back to court about twenty minutes later and the judge said he had ruled a mistrial because of this. I had to bite my tongue as I wanted to say who was the idiot that didn't present this or ruled it inadmissible. How crazy is that??

We all were disappointed at having listened to all this evidence and yet never got to actually decide on the case. We also were in disbelief as to how badly this case was presented. I am not sure how our verdict would have gone but finding the knife would have certainly altered our thoughts. I mean the girl described this knife and how we she have known the brothers had such a weapon unless it was at her throat while they attacked her. I never found out if they retried this case and so there was never any closure for me on this week of my life so I could understand how those jurors felt last night on TV. That was the only trial I was ever selected for. Pretty bizarre eh.

As for poker last night. Just under 60 players. We had gotten down to 22 and I was one of the 2 big stacks at our table and I got dealt AJ suited. I bumped it just over 3x the BB. Got one caller(the big stack). Flop comes QJ6 rainbow. Now I know the caller has a wide range and plays really loose. I decide to shove with my middle pair top kicker hoping he hadn't hit his queen. Bad Decision. He calls he has Q10. I still have outs. The turn is a 10 Which give him two pair but also incrases my outs. Any Ace, King (for a straight), Jack or 6 (which) would give me a higher pair. It was not to be as an 8 was the river. Terrible shove by me in hindsight. Of course if he hadn't had a queen I would have won a pretty decent pot. Still not a really well thought out move.

Looking for to playing tonight in the Very Josie tournament.

Another 4th Place

I played another live tournament last night in our local league and ended up 4th again. We had around 38 players which was well below average but then again it was Easter Sunday.

At the first break I was siting with about the same amount I had started with. A few hands in and with blinds at 400-800 with 100 anti I got dealt AKh. I was in middle position so I raised to 2200. The lady beside me pushed all in. Then the lady to her left jammed also. The blinds folded and back to me. I had the lady to my immediate left covered but not the other lady. I had 3200 behind. I was trying to put them both on a hand. The second lady over was trying to isolate or at least I thought so. After a bit of thought and hoping I wasn't up against AA or KK I called. The lady to my left had AJ (yes) and the other had pocket Jacks. I was liking my call. Lots of outs especially if Hearts hit the flop. Sure enough I hit my King on the flop and they both didn't improve and I tripled up.

We got to the final table and I got dealt 2,9 off suit in the BB. We were down to 5 at this time. Couple limpers to me and I checked. Flop comes 227. SB checks and so do I knowing the guy across from me will bet. Sure enough he does. SB folds and I call. Turn was a 10 I think. He bets and I jammed . He called. He had A7. The river is a 9 so I had the full house which was over kill. He had me covered but a nice double up.

When we were down to 4. I got dealt Q,10. Just me and that same guy in the pot. Flop comes KQJ. I have middle pair and an open ended draw. I call. Turn was a 4. He goes all in. Tough call but I have him covered and there are a lot of chips in the pot. I make the call somewhat reluctantly. The river is a blank and he has a King. So now he doubles up.

The very next hand I am dealt A9 off suit on the button with blinds at 2000-4000. I raise to 12000 which is just around 40% of my stack. SB folds BB calls. Flop comes K 6 4. Two spades. Missed me completely but I think it missed him too. I pushed. It had missed him. He called with 8,9 of spades. Yep. Now his call on my jam is not terrible but his preflop call is really loose to say the least. He has me covered and hits an 8 on the turn and I didn't improve on the river and I am out. I know my push on the flop was taking a chance but I did have the right read unfortunately it didn't work out.

Going to play a couple small games online today to practice up for the Very Josie tourney that you can read about here

As They See Em

Play Ball!! The baseball season started last night and this morning I just finished a great book which delves into the life of a umpire both at the minor and major league level. I played a lot of ball in my youth and from my twenties to forties. I love the game but I had never really thought much about the umpires that are a part of it. The only time I really noticed them was when they blew a call (at least in my opinion). I even umped a few softball games myself.

Personally I think a baseball umpire has the hardest job in any of the professional sports. Sure hockey referees have to be great skaters and the game is fast but in baseball every pitch is being judged by an umpire where as in other sports like football, soccer and hockey mainly they are just calling penalties and offsides.

Bruce Weber the author of this book actually enrolled in one of the two accredited umpire schools. He went through the course just like all umpires do. He even actually umped a preseason inter squad game.

I had no idea how low pay the umpire has to go through at the minor league level. Actually its pretty disgusting and you really have to love the game to put up with it. Most minor league umps spend at least 8 years before they even have a chance at the major league level. The turnover in the majors is very small. Like 1 umpire every 2 years so the for the majority of the young guys the chances of making it to the Big Show is near impossible and a lot give up before they get there.

The author goes into detail about the infamous 1999 strike where several umps lost their jobs through some ill advised ploy by their union. He interviewed a lot of umps at both the minor and major league level and really made me appreciate what the life is like of an umpire. Imagine going to work everyday and having 50,000 people scream at you if they think you made a bad call not to mention the millions on TV who have the advantage of instant replay. Would you want their job?? I know now I wouldn't. I came away from this book with a much deeper appreciation of their job. Will I still boo them if I think they made the wrong call? Oh yea but maybe not as much. I mean after all that's why we go to the ball park to be entertained. I highly recommend this book.

The Money bubble

I played a home game tournament last night. It was a $30.00 buy in with a 5.00 bounty. We allowed rebuys until the end of blind level 3. We also started with 15,000chips. Just 15 players ( 2 tables) but all very decent players. I won a couple early hands but both fairly small pots.

First big hand for me I got dealt KQ. Young Aggressive guy(YAG1) raised it preflop and I was the only caller . Flop comes A K 8 all diamonds. Middle pair for me but a pretty scary board so I checked to YAG1. He bet but not a huge bet so I just called. Turn was another King. I have trips. I decided to just check knowing he was going to bet. Sure enough he put in a bet of 2200. I thought about just calling but not having any diamonds and already 3 out there I decided enough of this so I pushed all in. He wasn't expecting that. He thought for a long time and finally folded face up. He had A8. So he flopped 2 pair.

I now had a pretty decent stack and we were in the 3rd blind level. No rebuys at our table but the other table already had 4 rebuys. I got dealt AK. I raised and YAG1 pushed all in. I called. He had A 10. I had him dominated and felt really good when someone said they had folded a 10. Of course then he hits his 10 and suddenly I am crippled. I am down to 2200 chips with only 5 minutes left in the rebuy.

I decided that I would rebuy so I pushed next hand with 3,6 off suit. I hit trip 3's so suddenly I was up to just under 5000 chips. Thats still very short stacked and so I pushed again next hand with 2,3. One caller and I hit a straight. Go figure eh. I am trying to either rebuy or double up and the cards are falling for me. Now I am not a big fan of the rebuy but in home games with a small field it is acceptable. I just don't like it in big field tournaments.

So the rebuy is past and I have just under 10000 chips. I get dealt AQ. I raise and another Young Aggressive guy (YAG 2) calls. Flop comes KJ5. Now I totally miss the flop but do have a straight draw. I know if I check YAG2 is going to bet and then I basically have to fold. I decided to just push all in hoping to take the pot right there. Most know that if I am in the pot I usually have something so I thought by doing that he would fold. He insta called me. He had K 10. He also had me covered. I was feeling really bad about my play. Then I spiked the A on the turn and took down the pot. He wasn't very happy. I now had just over 20,000 in chips.

We got down to the final table of 9 of us. Then we got down to 8 when AA came up against KK preflop and the Aces held up. Just 3 hands later I look down and I have Pocket Aces. I raised it preflop hoping for just 1 caller. Guy next to me who was fairly short stacked immediately pushed all in. Perfect. Then (YAG1) who was 2 seats over and who now had a huge stack pushed all in over the top. Yikes. Of course back to me and I pushed also. YAG1 had pocket kings, guy to my left had pocket 10s. So it's AA versus KK versus 10 10. My Aces held up and I now have a huge stack. Plus I picked up 1 bounty.

We get down to 5 and I am now the second big stack but just barely as 4 of us are fairly close and 1 guy has a really huge stack. I had lost some of my stack calling a couple all ins when I was priced in and both times I lost. We were paying top 4.

Then I get dealt QQ. The Big stack made a preflop raise of 10000. Blinds were at 2000,4000 with a 200 anti. I had about 37000 in chips. By flat calling that would leave me around 27000. The only hands I was worried about were of course AA and KK and to a lesser degree AK. I decided by pushing that unless he had 1 of those 3 hands he wouldn't call and the pot was already 17,000 chips. I was happy with that. I pushed and he took a long time and finally decided to call. He had AK. Still I was ahead but not liking the 2 over cards. The flop came 863. Perfect, Turn was a 10. Yes. Then disaster as he spiked the Ace on the river and I was out.

I was still wondering about my push this morning. If I had flat called him preflop then pushed on the flop he might have folded...... How would you have played that??

A couple tournaments and Vegas

First the Vegas part. I am playing The WSOP event number 34 on June 18th. I had been planning this for weeks and was really excited about it then reading Memphis's blog here. I read that he is also entering the same event. How cool is that. Hopefully we will get a chance to meet up down there prior to the event... Even better if we both can get through day 1. That's the first goal anyways.

I played 2 live tournaments the last couple days and it was like night and day for me. Both tournaments had just under 50 entrants so a decent field. On Tuesday night it just seemed no matter what I did the cards just didn't fall for me. Twice I called short stacks all ins with a dominating hand and got sucked out on but that's poker. Then finally when I got short stacked and pushed with pocket 8's I got called with J,10 and of course the Jack hit and that was my night. Jacks were my nemesis all week.

Last night I started off strong with AJ suited early and caught a Jack on the flop and turn and won a decent pot to in the first blind level. From there I was up and down a lot.. That's the only Jacks I loved last night as you will find out. The table I was at was fairly aggressive which I usually prefer. No limping at this table. I also hit pocket Queens and pocket Kings with both holding up. The Queens I got when an early position excellent player pushed all in. I had him covered and insta called him with my Ladies. They held up !! That helped build my chips.

I sailed along never being a huge stack but always with enough chips to play with. I hit the final table with probably out of 8 the 5th stack. I played fairly conservative and bet big when I got AK there and took down a good pot.

When we got down to 4 people and I was now the short stack I got dealt 2,6 in the BB. Exciting hand eh. Everyone folded to the SB who just called. I checked. Excellent get to see a free flop. Flop comes 2,2,8. You gotta love that flop. SB older lady checked and I checked behind hoping she might catch something on the turn. I wanted a bigger pot. I was playing to win not just happy to take it down there. The turn brings a Jack. She bet (hit her J) which almost covered my stack so I pushed all in with my remaining few chips. Flipped up the cards and she had J9 I think. She looked surprised when she saw my trip deuces. You gotta love deuces they can be so deceiving. Anyways here comes the river. Yep you guessed it a Jack on the river which gave her a full boat of JJJ22 and me a a full house of 222JJ. Tough to lose like that but still a pretty decent night. I could have bet on the flop and taken it down but to me that was safe flop. What do you think???

Speaking of Jacks I was playing an online cash ring game (very low stakes) on Sunday and was dealt KQ. There was preflop raise of about 5x the BB. I was the BB. I just flat called. Flop comes Q 7 3. I bet to see where I was at and the preflop raiser goes all in for I think it was like 2 bucks. Told you it was low stakes. Ha Ha. I thought about it. Couldn't put him on AA or KK. I thought maybe AQ so I hesitated. Decided to call. He had pocket Jacks so I had him dominated. Turn was a 2 I think and the river was of course a Jack.. Told you I hate Jacks this week.