DB Coopers Pokerlife

Wednesday Stuff

2010-06-02T07:39:00.004-07:00

Up here in Canada we have a few lotteries one is our 649 lottery and the other is something called Lotto Max. Well this Friday the lotto Max has reached its maximum payout so there will be extra million dollar prizes awarded. You see once Lotto Max reaches 50 million dollars then some extra numbers are drawn and those tickets are each worth 1 million. Make sense?? First of all it shows you your real chances of winning if the prize has reached 50 million. In other words not much chance. Then again someone will eventually win I guess. What I would rather see is instead of one person or possibly two splitting the 50 million why not draw have 50 people split the prize. Yep draw 50 sets of numbers and make 50 people millionaires. Don't have any smaller prizes just the big ones. It would be better for the economy too. Just imagine 50 people who could go out and buy new cars, furniture , condos or whatever. Who really needs 50 million anyways?? Just a thought. Oh yea I have my ticket.

I will be playing the VERYJOSIE tonight on Fulltilt. I have been threatened with a butt kicking by Josie if I don't show up. As much as my perverted mind might kind of like that my old body might not be able to stand the pain. So I will be there. Of course Josie has a bounty on herself of an extra 5 bucks. That's worth the price of admission alone. Any time you can take money from Josie it's an extra special treat. She really hates to part with it (I know) and she will be whining afterwords for days about it that is unless she happens to win her own tourney. Now she will be hitting the bottle tonight so the likely hood of that happening is not good.. be there for all the fun and name calling.

My Monday night live game was boring and not much to report . We had 54 people show up. I went out in 19th when I was short stacked and I jammed with Qs 10s. I got called with KK. Yikes. The flop was somewhat promising as the As 6c 4d. Turn was the Ks which gave her trips but gave me a flush draw and a gut shot royal flush draw but it was not to be as the river bricked.

Online this week I have stuck to cash games and every session has been profitable. Just a nice change from tournaments. Aces held up for me twice yesterday. Once when a guy called me all the way to the river with just a pair and a lousy kicker. I love players like that. Actually I like their money better.

Coop

Aces 22/31

Flopping Quads

2010-05-31T14:08:00.003-07:00

So I was playing a cash game online today and not doing that well. I had just lost a fairly big pot when I flopped two pair and the villain turned a flush. Anyways who pops in the room but Gary. It's always nice to play with someone you know and Gary was picking up a few pots and playing well. I was still pretty card dead although I did steal a couple blinds. Then the hand happened. I was dealt 10 10 in the BB. Gary who was in middle position bumped it to 40 cents. Everybody folded to me. I raised to 1.35. Gary called. Flop comes 10 10 6. Geez I flop quads but I hate it that it's against Gary. Well sort of. No friends at the poker table. I check as does Gary. Turn is a King. I check. Gary bets 1.10. I call. River is a 4. I try to decide how much to bet. I bet a weak 50 cents. Gary raises to 4.40. I of course shove my remaining 4.87 in and Gary requests time and finally folds. I show my flopped quads feeling somewhat bad about it. I mean I love to win money but I would have rather won it from the guy to my left who was constantly reraising me. Gary commented in the chat box I guess I am going to hear about this and of course I had to relate the story. I know the situation will be reversed sometime.

Monday

2010-05-31T10:40:00.004-07:00

On the weekend I was following some of the action from the WSOP. The main event still going on is the 50,000 Players Challenge which had lots of notable names. While that was interesting my interest was more on Event 3 the first of the 1000 dollar buy in events. The reason that this event captured my interest is that it has the same structure as Event 34 the event I will be playing starting on June 18th. The structure is you get 3000 chips (yep not many) and blind levels start at 25/25 and go up every hour. I wanted to see how fast people were getting felted and it was unbelievable. They split event 3 into Day 1A and 1B. Day 1A had about 2700 entries while day 1B had just over 1600 for a total of 4345. Guess how many survived?? Just 481. That is crazy. There was just over 200 from both days. So 3864 players did not make it through a Day 1. That's about a 85% attrition rate. That's got me concerned. I play much better with bigger starting stacks usually so I definitely will have to make some adjustments when I get there. Now being a seniors tourney action will probably be a lot tighter than the open events as the OLD NITS tend to play like that. If anybody has some suggestions or has played one of these events with this structure I would love to hear their advice.

I played online on the weekend several times mostly in cash games and in all but one session ended up making a profit. The only SNG that I played I managed to win so generally it was a great couple days. The one negative thing that happened was my amazing win streak with Aces finally came to an end.

If I remember right I was in EP and I raised it up about 4.5 X the BB. Got 1 caller. Flop comes J 10 8. I made a just over a pot sized bet. He insta called. I didn't like that quick call. Turn was a 2 I think. Now I was going to bet again but I just had this feeling he had hit trips so I checked. River was a 7. Now that's not a great card. I checked. He made a small bet which smelt like I was beat but I called. He had pocket 9s. The river gave him his straight. Now I might have gotten him off that hand if I had bet on the turn but then again I might just have lost more. Who knows?

Heading out tonight to play live as the regular Monday game is back running. Be nice to get some live action.

Coop

Aces 20/29

Suckouts, Soup Nazi and Sex

2010-05-30T07:16:00.003-07:00

Do you ever feel like you are mostly on the wrong side of suckouts. I do. They happen to me way more often than I do it to other players. It can get frustrating at times but that's poker I guess. So yesterday was a pleasant surprise. You see I sucked out twice playing cash games online. It sure felt nice for a change.

The first hand I was UTG +1 when I got dealt QQ. This was pretty tight table. A lot of folding preflop and usually a lot of hands were decided preflop. Anyways UTG raises 4 times the BB. HMMM. I just decide to call. Usually here I might pump it up more but this was a tight table (or so I thought) and there was still 7 players to act. 4 more players call. I am not liking this. Way too much action. Anyways the flop comes 3,9,10. The BB and UTG check. I make a pot size bet to see where I am at. Two folds and the button (lady) goes all in for just over my pot sized bet. I think she had like just 5 bucks. The BB and UTG both fold. Its only like a 1.40 or something for me to call. Not really liking it as she has been real tight I decide of course to call. She has 33 and has trips. Yuck. The turn brings a J and the river a very lovely K to make my straight. Very nice pot. I actually felt bad for her knowing what it feels like to get sucked out on like that.

The second time it happened was later at night and I felt great doing it. There was a player who had no idea how to play after the flop. His one move was just shoving just about every time he was in a hand after the flop. Of course most times he was picking up the pot as he had everybody covered by twice as much in cash. I hate those types. You see them in the tournaments too. They just close their beady little eyes and shove every time they are in a hand and hope that they scare people away. He was also raising just about every pot too. Anyways I was in the BB and he was on my immediate left. I got dealt AKc. He was first to act and sure enough he bumps it 3X the BB. Everybody folds to me. I triple his raise. Of course he immediately shoves his remaining $32.00 as he has been doing for the last hour. Figuring he has got nothing I call for my measly 12.00. He has KK. Damn. Then the flop brings my lovely ACE and I scoop a nice pot. It was sweet. Then of course he goes off on me in the chat box about calling with AK. It was pretty funny. I just said serves you right for constantly playing like that. Then I did the best thing to even piss him off more I left the room after the next hand...... You gotta love it.

My favourite sitcom has always been Seinfeld. I know I have seen every episode and most several times. Anyways of course everyone who has seen the show remembers the famous episode where they are in a restaurant run by as grumpy old soup maker who if you don't follow the rules declares NO SOUP FOR YOU and you don't get to eat. Well the actor that played that part was in Vancouver on the weekend for a food show (figures) and was on one of our local radio stations talking about it. He has a quite a story about how he got that part and how years later that's what people remember him for. He was a Broadway actor but now makes his living now mostly from doing things like guest appearances at shows and trade shows and still gets requests for pictures and autographs from Seinfeld fans and all for just that one appearance on the show. He even sells autographed soup ladles. The actors name is Larry Thomas.

So we went and saw Sex and the City 2 at the matinee yesterday. It was really packed in there and it was playing at two theatres in the multiplex. Its actually a fairly long movie at around 2 hours and 20 minutes. I enjoyed it. Yes I know its a chick flick but it kept my little mind entertained for all 2 hours and 20 minutes. That's all I expect from a movie. I won't go into the plot a lot here but if you watched the show and saw the first movie this one is set two years later. It's funny and light entertainment. I probably see around 20 movies a year at the theatre and yes some are so called chick flicks. I have never been a huge fan of the movies like Avatar. I haven't seen it and probably never will. Totally lost on me.

Coop

Aces 21/29

Pre Weekend Stuff

2010-05-28T11:44:00.004-07:00

I watched some of the TOC online last night and it sure seemed like everyone was well aware of the prize packages because most hands were decided preflop. I railed Lightnings table for awhile and as I thought according to his blog he was really card dead. He didn't seem to be involved much. Tough break. Nice to see Keepflopping win one of the 2000.00 packages though. Hopefully he can turn that into bigger cash at Vegas.

Lately I have been playing mostly cash games online as I seem to be running real well at them. Last night I had pocket Aces (is this my favorite hand now??) hit trips on the flop and I had a guy (donk) betting into me on a non scary board (won a very decent pot). The very next hand I had pocket 9s which also hit trips on the flop. Much scarier board so I bet out . Got a caller and the turn brought a non scary card(so I checked) he bet and I raised and he folded. I honestly cannot remember the last time I had pocket pairs and both hit trips back to back. It has been awhile that's for sure. Aces held up for me twice yesterday and so my streak continues. Must be the talk Josie had with me. I always listen to Josie. See if you don't listen she just talks more...

The WSOP starts today. I read something on their site that said there is less than 500 people total in the whole world who have won WSOP bracelets. I was surprised at that figure. I thought there would have been more. Can you imagine winning one?? I know the prize money would be great but that bracelet is something your kids and grand kids could talk about and treasure for years. How cool is that??

The summer movie seasons starts today and the first big release is Sex and the City 2. Now I know Wolfshead will be first in line to see it. Ha Ha. Will I be going?? Okay start the abuse now. I can take it. Of course I will be going. I think I saw most episodes of the TV series so I will definitely be there sometime this weekend. Yes I know it's a chick flick but I tell you guys half the fun going is watching the audience pre show and after. The ladies will be out in full force for this movie. I don't know about you guys but that beats going to say a monster truck show and seeing a bunch of beer swilling guys salivating. I will post my thoughts afterwords. Can't wait can you?? Yea I bet.

Coop

Aces 20/28

Idol and Mookie

2010-05-26T21:12:00.007-07:00

I played the Mookie tonight while watching Idol on TV. I taped it so I could skim through the five zillion commercials and chit chat.

Anyways The Mookie was pretty uneventful. I never got a pocket pair over 10s but I did get a lot of middle pairs which kept me going for awhile. Lightning was at the table and took a bad one when he hit trip queens but his kicker was only a king and Ddionysus had the Ace kicker. I just basically coasted along trying to stay afloat. Josie joined our table and pulled off the 2-7 bluff and won some chips but her night ended when she pushed with KQ and pocket 8s held up.

After that I went card dead for a long time getting the usual crap of 9-2 and 6-3. Finally when I was down to just over 1000 I managed to double up twice once with KQ and the other with AJ. I was up to just over 5000 when I got dealt AJ in the BB. The button raised to 1200 with blinds at 150/300. I thought he was just trying to steal so I jammed in. Uh no he wasn't . He had AK and bingo I was out just like that. I finished a scintillating 38th. BOOOOOOOOOOO.

I have now been entered in the Blogger Battle Royale and I want to thank the people responsible. Very nice and much appreciated.

Okay so I watched the Idol finale tonight. Pretty impressive lineup although Janet Jackson sounded off key to me but then again maybe I have old ears. As for the winner I really think the wrong person won. Not that Lee wasn't great because he is but that Crystal girl mark my words will make more albums than any previous Idol contestant with the possible exception of maybe Carrie Underwood. There is already talk of her being on the Lillith Fair tour. I just loved her voice and I would pay money to go listen to her perform. She was outstanding but then again I love that kind of music. She did a song tonight with Alanis Morissette and sounded just as good if not better. As for Lee he will also do really well and is very talented but in my opinion Crystal was in a league of her own.

Coop

Aces 18/26

GRRRRRR and Old People

2010-05-25T12:56:00.006-07:00

I just finished playing a few dozen hands of 5/10 on Fulltilt. Not my usual game as I mostly play tournaments or SNGs but I do like variety (in poker). Well in other things too but I save them for dreamland.

Okay so I bought into this game for a whopping 8 bucks. I get dealt QQ in the BB. I have yes 4 limpers to my BB. I raise it to 95. Remember blinds are 5/10. Well that scares away 1 guy. Anyways the flop comes J 8 4. I bet $2.50. UTG goes all in for $2.05. The other two fold. The cards flip up and he has Q 10. I go what?? What is he calling on?? A gutshot. No flush draw. Nothing. Turn is a K. River is of course a 9 to give numbnuts from Germany or whatever his name is a straight. So I politely type in the chat box how could you call that. Never mind his donkey call preflop but after the flop. Know what he said. I was hoping?? Yes he was hoping. I hate to bring up the grassy knoll theory but this happens way too often online. Is there that many stupid players who hope or is it possible they have some program to forecast what is coming.. Yea Yea I know sounds ridiculous doesn't it. Just makes you wonder sometimes. Almost made me want to pull out my hair except there is none left to pull. Oh yea this guys avatar was the stupid donkey........ GRRRRRRRRRRRRR

I almost feel better typing that.

I watched the end of the NBC Headsup yesterday that was filmed a couple months back at Caesars. The one really noticeable thing about the final 4. They were all OLD. Well Annie isn't super old but shes 44 I think which is old enough. Nice to see the OLD people prevail once in awhile. You watch all these final tables lately and the average age is usually in their twenties.

I also saw in another blog that Mike Matusow has a bet that if 3 women win bracelets at this years WSOP he will run naked down the Strip. That might not be a pretty site. As there is a ladies only event I think that doesn't count in the 3. Should make for an interesting June and July. Theres lots of poker players that I would like to see run naked down the strip but none of them are male.

Coop

Aces 18/26

Where I live

2010-05-23T20:39:00.007-07:00

As I have mentioned before I live on an island off the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. The island itself is called Vancouver Island but the city where I live is called Victoria. We are a 90 minute ferry boat ride away from Vancouver. Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia.

Today I went downtown to snap a few pictures of where I live. It was crazy down there as it's a long weekend and we have thousands of tourists in town. Tourism is one of our biggest industries and a lot of cruise ships stop here on the way to Alaska. Sometimes we have as many as 3 or 4 in port at once. You can imagine how many tourists this brings to town.

The pictures I have taken are of our inner harbour, the government buildings, the horse drawn carriages that go all over the down town area and the Copper Girl who poses like a statue. Hope you enjoy.

Coop

The Ultimate Slow Roll

2010-05-22T11:50:00.005-07:00

You hear people bitching sometimes about being slow rolled. It's usually just because they are pissed off that their hand wasn't good enough and that the other player didn't turn the cards over fast enough. In most cases I just think people need to suck it up and worry about their own game and not worry about how fast someone turned over their cards.

Then something happened yesterday in of all places an online SNG. I was playing and it was a 9 person SNG. We were down to 3 (pays 3). First of all the guy who did the slow roll had been a jerk criticizing a couple players for their calls earlier. I had stayed out of it mostly until I had AJ on the button and I raised. Mooncoinstair12 (the jerk) immediately went all in. Now he has like me covered by 3 to 1 in chips. I fold. He flashes AK. I typed in the box AJ. He made some disparaging remark about my fold. I typed nice jam with AK buddy. Lucky I didn't have AA.

Anyways on to the hand which I wasn't involved in. The flop came A K K. GGChris94 (the other player) bet and Mooncoinstair12 called. Turn was a 3. Bet and call, River was a 9. GGChris94 jammed all in. Mooncoinstair12 typed in the chat box hmmmmmmm. Then he requested TIME. I thought wow does he have an Ace and wonder if his kicker is good or does he think GGChris has trip Kings?? Anyways when time is all most out he calls. What does he have?? KK . He flopped QUAD kings. The absolute nuts and he requested time. The guy was such a jerk. I went off on him in the chat box as there was no need to Hollywood that call up. He shut up after that. Wondering what GGChris94 had?? Two pair Kings and nines. Yea weird jam with that hand but whatever he didn't deserve to get that crap from Mooncoinstair12.

How did I end up?? I had As 9s. The flop came Qs Ts Qd. Just me and the jerk in the pot. I was really short stacked with blinds at 250/500 and I had just under 2000 chips. I pushed. Mooncoinstar12 called. He had AQ. Damn!!!. I had outs though. Then the turn brought the really lovely 7s to give me the nut flush. Yes. Then again you know this isn't going to have a happy ending (not that kind ). Anyways gets his Ace on the river for the boat and I am out. Too bad Karma didn't get him this time.

I see Lightning is organized a get together at the Rio on Sunday June 20th. I am going to do my absolute best to get over there if I can. As I mentioned in the comments box I have my family with me and it's fathers day. Of course if some miracle happens and I am still in my WSOP event it will be the final table that day. Now wouldn't that be awesome.. Dreams

Remember all my bitching about pocket Aces just killing me. Well they have won 11 times in a row for me lately?? Amazing isn't it?? Yea I know now I have jinxed myself for even typing that.

Coop

Aces 17/25

Mookie and more baseball

2010-05-20T09:35:00.003-07:00

I played the Mookie last night. I started off okay but it wasn't going to be my night. I managed to get Waffles off a hand early though as my over pair to the board got him to fold. Or did I have an over pair?? Waffles was trying to guess my hand. I finally told him I had Jacks. Sorry for the little white lie Waffles. The funny thing is I used to flash my cards or tell people honestly what I had. Not anymore. I did that a couple times last night. I tell them what they want to hear. If that makes me a bad person so be it but I don't give out free information anymore. I know others do but not this guy.

Anyways soon after I got moved to a new table and I had Wolfshead on my immediate left and Gary on my immediate right. I felt like meat in a sandwich. Now if it was two great looking ladies well that's a different matter but I was stuck between these two guys. First Gary took some of my chips when he hit trip 6's. Then Wolfshead took as whole bunch more when he had AQ and I had A 8 on a board of A K 7 4 2. Yea I know Ace Rag.

Then Lightning joined the table and he was even shorter stacked than me. I was in the BB with J 2. Two limpers to me including Lightning. The flop comes J 2 4. I make a pot sized bet with my two pair. Wolf folds and Lightning goes all in for 655. I of course call. Lightning has K J and of course catches his K on the turn to give him a higher two pair. The river is a blank and Lightning take my chips. I stick out my tongue at Lightning.

I few hands later I go all in with JJ and meet Maggie0 who has KK and she proceeds to flop a K too to add insult. I do manage to river a Jack but its not enough and I am out in 60th. Congrats to Memphis who managed to come in 4th for a decent cash.

Yesterday I was ranting about the state of baseball. I didn't deliberately pick on the Red Sox (okay I did a bit but only because I wanted to see how long it took Josie to fire a mad comment) but anyways it's not just the Red Sox and Yankees. Somebody needs to come in and really clean up the game and make it so that the poor teams have a legitimate shot at winning. I love the game and with all what's happened over the past few years with steroids and over paying players they need a strong individual to come in and tell the owners and the players union this is the way its going to be. Will it Happen?? Very doubtful.

Random Wednesday Thoughts

2010-05-19T10:36:00.005-07:00

Some Random Thoughts

1. The guy that won our main local poker tournament on Sunday finished in 91st spot during our regular season and only started with 3500 in chips (the minimum). Where as the top 5 players started with 10000. Interesting isn't it? Oh and this continues the trend of nobody in the top 5 every winning. The lady that finished second was way down in about 45th or so. Chips are good but you still need to get some card luck and play well. I started with 7500.

2. Is it just me or is anybody else really tired of watching the rich teams in baseball like the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Mets buy their teams. I am sorry but baseball needs a salary cap. I am sure the fans of some of these teams don't think so but really is that rewarding to watch your team buy itself a World Series. Are you listening Red Sox fans?? All other sports have salary caps and it's time baseball did the same. Look at the parity in the NFL now and the NHL. I personally find it sickening to watch the money thrown around to ball players. Teams should be building threw the draft and trades and not who has the most money to hand out. I played ball from the time I was 6 until just 3 years ago. Yet this year I have not sat down and watched one game. I love baseball but what's the use. Very discouraging to see teams that haven't the loot finish way down in the standings year after year.

3. 4 weeks today I will be leaving for Vegas. Even though I have been several times I still get excited like a little kid about going. This year of course there is even more excitement as I am going to play a WSOP event. There also is a lot of great other tournaments going on there as I see from BWOP's blog (one of my favourites) Binions is running there own series. I have never stayed downtown but plan to one of these days.

4. Aces just keep winning for me as you notice from my recent updates.

Coop

Aces 15/23

My Sunday

2010-05-17T11:40:00.005-07:00

On Sunday I played in my league tournament with a WSOP seat up for grabs and unfortunately I didn't win it. We had 101 entrants. Here's the good and bad.

The Good
1. I started with 7500 in chips and by the first break (3 levels) I had managed to chip up to 13000 this after losing the very first hand.
2. I folded JJ preflop to a raise and reraise and then after I folded an all in and rather strange call. They had KK and 10 10. Go figure eh. Whats the 10 10 thinking?? Anyways they both hit on the flop so it sure was a good fold.
3. I had KK, AA and QQ which all held up or won pots outright.
4. I showed my AA and for awhile all my raises got respect.
5. Felt great then got moved to my 3rd table. Then the bad started.

The Bad
1. Pretty card dead at the new table.

2. Folded an open ended straight draw after the flop and of course it hit on the turn and I would have won a huge pots as the guy who won had the other end.

2. Short stack pushed all in with about 2500. I was in the BB for 800 already and called with KQh. He had 55. It held up. Kind of a loose call. Bonehead play 1.

3. Started getting a little short and had a loose very aggressive young guy on my left who I have played against a lot. I got dealt K9h in the SB. It's folded around to me. I know if I limp he might raise with anything. He does that a lot. I decide to limp. Bonehead play 2. He raises 1500. Now the brilliant thing to do here would be to fold . I still had around 6000 chips and could pick a much better spot. So what do I do? I jam all in trying to get him to fold thinking he has nothing. Bone head play 3. He snap calls. What does he have?? AQ. Seems that hand is a bone of contention for Waffles and Lighning today. Anyways I hit my K on the flop and two hearts J 6. Looking great. Turn brings a 2 or something. River brings?? A stupid 10. Not hearts either. I was so mad at myself. I guessed wrong but in hindsight I should have given him a walk and waited for a better spot. That was my day. I was out in 25th spot which means I out lasted 76 players but that is no consolation. It was almost like I went brain dead at my new table.

My son who also played finished in 11th spot and he was disappointed too as the final table where the money and prizes was so close. I congratulated him and stayed and cheered him on until he lost.

Oh yes and I watched the Survivor final when I got home and as I pedicted that Russell guy didn't get a vote. Parvati should have won but seing Sandra win was almost as good. It seems Wolfshead doesn't like Survivor. Not sure why not but any show that has pretty girls on a beach beats watching golf, tennis or my least favourite car racing.

Coop

Aces 13/21

Getting ready for Sunday

2010-05-14T10:05:00.007-07:00

I play in a poker league where on Sunday we will be battling for a WSOP seat and 500.00 spending cash. There will around 120 players total playing. You have to play and do well during the season and finish in the top 100 in our region and the top 20 in the north island region to be able to play. In our region alone we have around 250 players. I currently sit in 10th spot and chips at the final tournament are given out as to where you finish during the regular season. I will start with 7500 chips while somebody who finished 85th say will only have 3500 to start. The players that finished in the top 5 start with 10000 chips so you can see the advantages at first anyways of finishing high up in the standings. The one thing though is that nobody in the top 5 has ever won the final tournament. Isn't that an interesting stat?

The last 2 main event winners in our league have both been ladies and they will both be there on Sunday. Two seasons ago I was the runner up and am hoping to better that this Sunday but as we all know lots can happen. My son will also be playing and it would be great if he could take it down. I would love to play another event at the WSOP. The prize is for the NLHE event that starts on June 5th. As you know I will be playing the seniors event on June 18th

Last night was our final tournament before Sunday and we had just under 70 players come out. I managed to final table and came in 4th. I started off real slow. I was getting basic junk hands until I got dealt AKd UTG. I raised it. Got 2 callers and an Ace hit on the flop. I decided then to push all in as any bet was less than the pot anyways. Surprisingly they both called. I thought Oh Oh. One had A6 the other other A 9. Still shocked they originally called with Ace rags and then called again on my shove but whatever. My AK held up and I had a huge triple up. A lot of players were gambling last night with marginal hands as they wanted to move up in the standings. It made for a very loose game last night.

The only other big hand I can remember I was dealt AA in second position. Yes my favourite hand. Blinds were 2000/4000 by this time. My stack was around 25000. UTG limps in. I decided to shove figuring that would win it right there. I got two callers and the UTG folded. One had KQ the other KJ. Yep pretty loose calls. Not sure what they were thinking although the blinds were getting high. Drum roll please Yes my aces held up. Have I told you how much I love Aces lately??? That took me to the final table.

At the final table nothing remarkable happened. I finally got taken out in 4th when a guy rivered a straight on me. Hopefully Sunday will bring some good cards and for some poker luck.

I watched Survivor this morning after taping it last night while I was out. I love the show and as I have said before I think I have seen every episode of every year. The guy that makes me laugh is Russell. Does he really think anybody would vote to give him a million bucks? He is a great strategist but you can't alienate everybody else and still expect to win. Not going to happen. He might make a good poker player though.

I am not sure who will win but it would not surprise me to see Parvatti win another million. Great player and she looks incredible just wandering around in her bikini. Even OLD guys like me notice that.

Coop

Aces 12/20

Last night

2010-05-13T08:31:00.005-07:00

I played The Mookie on Fulltilt last night and I started off great. A few hands in I was dealt A 7s one off the button. Blinds 15/30. Yea I know Ace Rag. I had only played one hand in so far and won and was feeling adventurous. I raised to 105. Donkeypuncher on the button calls and the blinds fold . Flop comes Js 3s 2s. Yep I flopped the nuts. I check as does the donkey. Damn. Turn 5h. I check again. Donkeypuncher bets 175. I call. Turn is a Qd. I ponder and decide to check hoping he bets. Nope he checks and I win a pot of 605.

A couple hands later and second to act I get AJ. I raise to 90. Astin raises me to 180. I call. Everybody else folds. Flop comes J 10 10. I check and Astin bets 290. I call. Turn is a 7. I check and surprisingly Astin checks behind. River brings another J giving me the boat. Now I know I should have bet here but I checked and so did Astin. When he showed he had 88 so I don't think he would have called anything anyways.

Then I got moved to Josie's table. Of course others might think otherwise but she is certainly the most chatty at that table. I slowly built up my stack to just over 6500.Then I got dealt 2 7 one off the button. Everybody folds to me. I raise as Josie is the BB. I know just to bug her. They all fold and I flash Josie my 2,7. She flashes me a finger or something I am sure. Good thing Boston is a long ways from me.

Later on I get dealt AA. Yes my nemesis. Keepflopping who is second to act pushes all in for around 1300 chips. I reraise and everybody else folds. Flopping has 33 and amazingly doesn't spike a 3 and my Aces hold up. I know standing ovation please.

I also have Aces later UTG and with a raise everybody folded. Geez 2/2. Gotta like it. I lost a lot of chips when two hands in a row with AK I got reraised huge and both times I mucked and was told that I was up against AA once and KK another. That's if you can believe poker players but whatever.

The hand that ended my night I was dealt J 10 in the SB. Everybody folded to me. I was going to raise but Mrs Scary in the BB had a huge stack and I am not talking about her boobs. I just called. Flop comes J 6 6. Now for some reason that I am still pissed about I decide to jam all in. I don't know if I was worried about her chips but definitely I should have just made a pot sized bet. She snap called me. She had Q 6. Yep she had trips. So I am looking for a Jack on the turn or river but it was not to be. I am out in 28th out of 93. Congrats to Tripjax who won and as usual it was fun playing. Sure beats playing tournaments where you don't know anybody. LuckiDuck even stopped by to wish us well. Thanks for that. He did get to witness my Aces holding up.

Coop

Aces 11/19

Blog ads

2010-05-12T12:46:00.003-07:00

When I started this blog about 14 months ago I decided to use Google Adsense and put a few ads down one side of the blog. I am not sure why. It just seemed like a decent idea and I might make a bit of cash. Well as you all know unless people are continually clicking on your ads or you get like 1000 visitors per day you make almost nothing. It's not really worth it. I had thought a few times of taking them down but never really got around to it. Then today I get an email from them saying I have to remove the Battle of the Bloggers 5 badge as it infringes on their policy that their ads and gambling ads can't be on the same page. I guess nobody has told Google Adsense that poker isn't gambling. Of course we all know that they don't have that same opinion. So what did I do?? I removed the Google ads. That was easy.

There exact quote was this:

(As stated in our program policies, AdSense publishers are not permitted to
place Google ads on sites with content related to gambling or casinos.
This policy includes driving traffic to online gambling sites through
links or advertisements).

I guess I will have to find other ways to supplement my income...............

Coop

Aces 9/17

Wednesday Thoughts

2010-05-12T06:33:00.004-07:00

Last night I watched the final table of the NAPT stop at the Mohegan Sun casino. Even though I knew than Vanessas Selbst had won I still like to see how the hands played out. The hands they showed certainly showed the aggressiveness of Vanessa and how she was constantly putting people to the test by putting them all in. Congratulations to her. I remember the last time Vanessa was on TV I was less than impressed with her attitude there . This time she seemed much more pleasant and that was a good thing. Hopefully she saw her last appearance on TV and learned from it.

I do have one other comment though. When she won there was no celebration and this is not a comment against her but I notice it more and more in major tournaments. Are we all so worried about being politically correct that we can't celebrate with a huge smile, a fist pump or something. Are we that worried about hurting the losers feelings that celebration is not allowed or frowned on. Cmon folks. If I somehow miraculously win a major tournament I am going to be celebrating. If people think it's in bad taste well so be it. I mean she won like $750,000. If I could do cartwheels at my advanced age I would. Let's not put poker down the path of complete boredom by barely cracking a smile when we win. Sure the other player is going to feel bad when they lose but like in all other sports (yes I classify poker as a sport) there are winners and losers. The losers have to learn to accept it. Too bad if they can't.

I am planning to play THE MOOKIE tonight on Full Tilt all being well. No last longer bets and no hockey game for distraction. There goes all my excuses.

Some thoughts on the Chicago/Vancouver series. A huge disappointment as I really thought there was only 1 good game. The others were lopsided one way or the other. The Hawks managed to stay healthy and the Canucks were seriously hurting on defense. Last night Salo was like at 40%. You could see the pain and then Edler got hit and was out before the end of the first period on a somewhat questionable hit. Of course Mitchell and Rome never played due to injury. That left there defense really suspect to Chicago's speedy forwards. Luongo didn't have a great series either. Of course the hand wringing starts now as how to be better for next year. Should be an interesting off season. I think Demitra will be gone for sure. I will be cheering for the Hawks over the Sharks as Chicago has a lot of Vancouver born on their team.

Aces 9/17

Monday

2010-05-10T11:23:00.004-07:00

I watched the hockey game last night most of it before my poker game started and I have to say this series has had the most brutal refereeing I think I have ever seen. Not just against the Canucks but against both teams. I don't usually complain about them but oh my they were horrible last night. The most blatant of course was the non call for the high stick that cut O'Brien. How could they miss that?? There was several calls that weren't made against both teams. Now I know its playoff hockey but if you are going to let things go lets be consistent. One game you are calling everything and other games nothing. It was hard to watch. Chicago looked incredibly flat last night and Luongo finally came up and played like he should be. So it's on to game 6. My prediction?? Who knows? Which Chicago team is going to show up and which Vancouver team?

I had noticed that in both my live play and online play I had been bubbling a LOT. Way too much. Someone else noticed that also. Anyways with a few adjustments and advice things have been going great online. I have noticed and cashed in every (3) tournaments online since the changes. I thank the person for the suggestions. I always figure if you can't take advice then your game will get stagnant. A different set of eyes always helps.

So then came my regular Sunday night live game. Very first hand in with blinds at 100/200 I am dealt QQ. I am one off the dealer. Two limpers to me. I bump it to 1200.I know the early limpers love those weak aces. The button instantly shoves all in. Okay remember this is the first hand.. The blinds fold as do the two limpers. Back to me. Only two hands beat me. Now the guy that shoved is a horrible player. He really does not have a clue. He could have anything. He's the guy that is usually out first or he lucks out and gets some ships and then donks them away. So I start quizzing him. Finally he says I will show regardless. Perfect clue as the I know in this case having played him many times he has Kings or Aces. I fold face up. Everybody goes wow and then he flips over the Kings so it was a good fold. We only start with 5000 chips so that put a bit of a dint in my stack. I managed after that to steal a couple blinds with aggression but I was really card dead for most of the night.

We got down to 20 players when with my stack at around 3600 and blinds at 400/800 with 100 anti and I get deal 77 on the button. 1 limper to me who is a really passive player as far as I can tell having not played him before other than tonight. The blinds are both good players but I know if I shove unless they wake up with a hand they are folding. So I shove. The blinds fold as hoped. The limper calls and flips over KK. Yep he limped with that.........My night was over as the board did not help. I know 77 is a not great hand but I needed to be aggressive and pick up chips as my stack really never got going last night. Who linps with KK?? I guess he does. That's Poker.

Twice on the weekend had Aces and both times they held up.

Coop
Aces 8/16

Sunglasses

2010-05-08T08:33:00.004-07:00

In the poker league I play in sunglasses are banned. You can't wear them. Simple as that. In one of his latest blog postings Daniel Negraneau says he would like to see them banned from poker completely. I agree with him. What is with people hiding behind the glasses? Do you have a nervous twitch when you bluff? Do you look guilty when you fire that continuation bet when you hit air on the flop? I just think they look goofy inside and you notice its more of the young crowd that seems to favour them but not all. Daniel say he would like at the start to get them banned from televised tournaments. I say right on. If you can't learn to play poker without hiding behind shades then in my opinion your in the wrong game but that's just me or you should just stay on the internet and play. Daniel has a lot of pull and respect in the poker world so we will see if anything transpires. Not sure if it will though as too many of the young pros hide behind them. Even older guys like Greg Raymer use them although his are quite funny. My poker playing son asked me if when I am playing in the WSOP if I would don a pair. I said no. I have played in Vegas before and never felt the need to. Why change now?

That was a horrendous hockey game last night. Luongo was horrible, the defence was non existent and Chicago dominated from the first drop of the puck. I think there are 5 Blackhawks that live and were born in and around Vancouver so it's like a homecoming for them. I know the series isn't over but it will take a monumental comeback to recover from this defeat. I will still be cheering but I don't have a lot of hope. It's amazing how things change so fast. Canucks won game 1 easy and were dominating the opening in game 2 and then it was like they lost their confidence and also the one position where they should be more dominant in goal they haven't. I am a big Luongo fan but he has not been great. That's the difference. The Chicago goalie has been great for the most part. Great goal tending wins Cups.

OH yea I was playing online yesterday. Just played one SNG. Anyways we were down to 8 players and I get AA in the SB. A guy in middle position raises 4 times the BB. Gets to me I reraised him double. Gets back to him and he jamms. He has me covered . Of course I call. He has KK. Perfect. Yea well then he hits his King on the flop and that's how my Aces went yesterday. Some wise Lady suggested that I count wins with my Aces even if I don't get a caller. As of now I will start doing that.

Coop
Aces 6/14

Feeling Young

2010-05-07T09:25:00.003-07:00

I was playing my usual Thursday night game last night and there was a 92 year old lady playing at my table. She is the sweetest thing. She still can shuffle the cards and deal but when she deals we all look at the ceiling (a lot of ladies have lots of practice looking at ceilings) as she flashes cards. Anyways last night she was hitting cards . She never raises just calls or folds. We have to explain each time what her options are. She had pocket tens one hand and hit a full boat on the river to knock out a guy who also hit a lower boat. She had a huge stack. I was two players over from her. I was always telling her her options as I really like her. As soon as I sat down and realized she was at our table I just thought oh well tonight just play for fun. We had close to 60 players and I finally busted in 18th when my AKd came up against pocket Kings and the board woofed on us. That was okay though. It was still fun although I did have a headache from all the explaining. I hope if I live that long I can still play. Of course if I do I will have all though old ladies chasing me around the rest home as the women to guy ratio is like 8-1. You see Josie there are older poker players than Memphis. LuckyDuck and me.

I did play one SNG online yesterday. Just a 5 buck one. Managed to win and yes oh yes Pocket Aces held up... A certain someone is teaching me about Aces... Thats okay when I am 90 she can come and feed me. I like lots of deserts.

Game 4 tonight. Heading over to the local pub to watch it. Go Canucks go. Get in their goalies face.

COOP

Aces 6/13

Bad to Worse

2010-05-05T20:00:00.005-07:00

I Played the Very Josie tournament tonight instead of the Dank/Mookie. I started off well and was up to just over 4000 chips early when I got dealt pocket Aces on the button. With blinds at 30/60 I raised to 140 hoping to get 1 caller. SB folded. BB called (Prettcat although she wasn't so pretty after this hand). Flop comes JJK. I bet 310(pot). Prettycat called (thought she had a King). Turn was a Q. I bet 930(pot). She raised all in. I thought KQ perfect. I called . She had J9. Damn. To put the icing on the cake she hit another Jack on the river. Quad Jacks beat my Jacks over damn aces.. Okay I played that okay I thought until she raised all in . What was I thinking?? She had to have a Jack. Why did I call?? You see what Aces do. Then to top it all of I asked if she would give my chips back and she wouldn't. So I told Memphis to get them and he did later. Congrats Memphis on your win. Us old guys got to stick together. Oh yea and then someone who shall not get a hyperlink commented from the peanut gallery its because I don't know how to play Aces. After that comment good luck at getting hyperlinks. Ha Ha

That didn't end my night but I was out soon after when my pocket deuces got called by 6-4 and High on Poker hit his 4. Figures a lawyer calls with 6-4. Must not have enough billable hours this month and needed my 2.00 bounty. Okay yea I would have called too as my shove wasn't huge.

Then as I type this the Canucks were down 2-0 but now its 3-2 Hawks at the end of the second. It ends 5-2. Credit the goalie of Chicago for keeping them in it in the first again. Also give the refs a star for not calling goalie interference on two of the Chicago goals but having said that Chicago was the better team last night but the series isn't over yet.

The only positive thing yesterday was I did win the two SNGs I played before the very Josie tournament. Probably because I didn't get Aces in either.

COOP

Aces 5/12

Hockey, Mookie or Dank

2010-05-05T08:48:00.004-07:00

Game 3 tonight. Starts at 6.30 my time which is 830 for you Chicago fans. The crowd should be wild although it's going to be tough to beat the noise level they had at Chicago on Monday night. Go Canucks Go...

That presents a problem. I was going to play the Mookie/Dank tonight because I would really love to win that TOC seat but as you all now us guys aren't great at multitasking. We have to concentrate on one thing at a time. So it will be a last minute decision as to whether I play. Basically I will see how the first period is going. I love the competition though and as the WSOP gets closer I really have to play more so we will see.

I was also going to play that OTHER tournament (note no hyperlink) but as I was told there was only 2 words for me (and they weren't love you) I think my presence won't be missed. That's okay as playing that and the Mookie/Dank and watching hockey would be way too much for this old brain although it's very tempting.

I have been so tired this week that I didn't go play my usual live Monday and Tuesday night games. I played some online yesterday and I was 0/4 in cashing. 3 bubbles and a horrible QQ beat. That's poker though. Looking back the last few weeks I have bubbled way too often and a lot it is because of getting involved in big pots and making dumb decisions. I seem to make a lot of dumb decisions and not just at poker.

I did play one SNG this morning and managed a win which was good for my morale. Oh had Aces yesterday and amazingly they held up against pocket 9s.

COOP

Aces 5/11

Too Much Information

2010-05-04T08:51:00.005-07:00

Modern technology has improved how we access things and in general it has made our lives a lot easier. But has it? Most people have cellphones most people have computers and of course we all have TV's.

I used to have a cellphone but then people (including my family) would phone me and ask me where I was. Why I would ask. Oh we just wondered. It's not that I was trying to hide things. I just liked never being that available. I gave up my cellphone. I love it.

Every time we do something someone knows what we have done. You go to the store and rent a movie. There's a record. You charge groceries. Everybody knows what you eat. We are constantly being tracked as to our buying habits and of course if you have a cellphone you can be tracked to exactly where you are. Then people use twitter to tell other people what and where they are and what they are thinking. Why?? Are we all desperately seeking attention?

Then you go on the internet and we have Facebook and other sites that track schoolmates. Some people put their whole lives on Facebook. I know I used it a lot. Not anymore. I don't want to be that out there. I have deleted my Facebook account and am in the process of deleting anything else out there that lets people know who I really am although I have been told Facebook stores your info. I know a lot of friends will wonder where my Facebook account has gone. That's okay.

I constantly get phoned with surveys on the telephone. I politely tell them I don't give out information. Why would you? I never fill out contest entry forms as I have found most contests sell your information to telemarketers etc. Then you get inundated for months with phone calls.

I have deleted the pictures I posted of myself on here and in future any pictures will not include my face. A year ago I wrote a post about my daughter who has some problems. At the end I named her. The post is still there but her name is gone.

Why write a blog then if I am so paranoid about privacy? I guess because for the most part I enjoy it. I also enjoy the anonymity of it. I can say what I want and nobody knows who I am. My kids don't even know about this blog.

I really enjoy other peoples blogs and read several every day. Some poker related some not. Some make me laugh, some make me sad. I learn from some posts and disagree with others. That's okay. I don't know these people other than what they write. I hope they keep writing.

To some this post may not make a lot of sense. That's okay it makes sense to me.

Not much on the poker front. Played a live tournament last night and came in 18th out of 40. Played a 4 SNGs yesterday online and only cashed in 1 (2nd). Got my aces cracked with a flopped two pair.

COOP

Aces 4/10

Heads Up Thoughts

2010-05-02T15:31:00.002-07:00

Just finished watching the round of 32 of the NBC Heads Up at Caesars Palace. Even though I know the eventual winner I always love watching this event as most of us don't get enough Heads Up practice unless you do it online as I have done a few times.

My thoughts.

1. Annette Obrestad schooled Hellmuth and I loved her calling the clock on him. She just sat back and watched him squirm. What was with his last call anyways? She got in Phil's head right from the first hand where she hit trip 3's and Phil just didn't play well. Phil's non stop dialogue was pretty funny.

2. Loved the trips over trips in the Ivey and Scotty Nguyen match. Scotty was down to 2400 in chips at one point and came back to defeat Ivey.

3. I love Phil Laak. This guy is entertaining and great for poker. Not to mention he is with Jennifer Tilly who is from the island where I live. Of course he did a have a big suck out on the end to eliminate Phil Gordon.

4. What's with David Williams ripping up a card when he realizes that he is all in with A 6 against pocket Aces? Are we in elementary school or what?? You are on TV. Bet he doesn't get invited back.

Round of 16 is on next Sunday

Aces 4/9

Easy to Assemble

2010-05-01T12:54:00.003-07:00

Those 3 words scare me. Yep easy to assemble. What they really mean is if you have incredible patience, superior assembly skills you might be able to put the thing together. If not you are driven to drink. I personally think that some of the reason I have no hair is because of those words (having kids was another but that's a whole different post).

When they were passing out the skills on putting things together I must have somehow missed the assembly line because I really have none. Zip , Zero, Zilch. I can screw a lightbulb in but even some of those new ones cause me sleepless nights.

So today with spring coming we needed new patio chairs. Of course they don't come assembled. You have to it all yourself. What happened to the day when you could just see it, buy it and take it home. Now you need a degree in engineering to do anything. Of course this box had those famous words on it. I could feel the stress coming. The box is opened and everything is numbered. Well sort of. It actually only took about an hour to put the 2 chairs together. Stop laughing. If you ever need a handyman don't call me. I am of no use. I guess when all other guys were doing construction I was too busy playing sports. When somebody suggests we go to Ikea to me that's like going to the dentist. Its scary as hell as at Ikea you assemble everything. I am so glad there isn't one on the island. I am sure my life span would be shortened.

Not muck poker yesterday although I did play one of those 90 player bounty things that my son had been playing. I did manage to cash and came in 8th. Took 2 bounties. Top 9 pay and I was pretty short stacked at the final table and with just me and the BB I pushed with A8. He called. What did he have? A 8 of spades. We both turned a straight and he rivered a flush. Figures.

The only other hand of note was I was dealt AA in the BB. I think we were down to about 40 then. The UTG raised. Next guy to him reraised him. I am sitting in the BB liking this. Everybody folds to me and I throw in a another reraise. UTG folds and the next guy jams all in. I of course call. What does he have?? AA. Yep we both had the pocket rockets. The board blanks with no flushes and we chopped. I count that as a win with Aces.

Game 1 tonight at 5PM . Go Canucks Go

Aces 4/9

Meetings and the NAPT

2010-04-30T10:01:00.005-07:00

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

2010-04-29T08:36:00.004-07:00

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)

2010-04-28T18:15:00.003-07:00

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

2010-04-28T08:32:00.006-07:00

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

2010-04-27T08:46:00.003-07:00

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

2010-04-26T09:33:00.004-07:00

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

2010-04-26T08:42:00.002-07:00

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

2010-04-25T14:01:00.004-07:00

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

2010-04-25T08:45:00.004-07:00

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

2010-04-24T08:28:00.004-07:00

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

2010-04-23T09:10:00.003-07:00

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

2010-04-22T08:28:00.002-07:00

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

2010-04-21T09:42:00.002-07:00

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

2010-04-20T14:41:00.004-07:00

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

2010-04-20T07:06:00.002-07:00

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

2010-04-18T16:21:00.003-07:00

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

2010-04-18T07:41:00.003-07:00

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

2010-04-17T17:14:00.002-07:00

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

2010-04-16T12:42:00.004-07:00

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

2010-04-15T07:08:00.005-07:00

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

2010-04-14T20:52:00.002-07:00

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

2010-04-13T10:46:00.002-07:00

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

2010-04-12T14:04:00.005-07:00

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

2010-04-08T13:06:00.004-07:00

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

2010-04-08T08:50:00.004-07:00

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

2010-04-07T06:36:00.002-07:00

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

2010-04-05T14:18:00.002-07:00

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

2010-04-05T10:44:00.005-07:00

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

2010-04-04T09:07:00.005-07:00

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

2010-04-01T09:43:00.006-07:00

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.

New Casino for Vancouver

2010-03-31T07:20:00.003-07:00

Downtown Vancouver is getting a new $450-million casino and hotel complex to anchor its new "entertainment epicentre," B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell confirmed on Friday morning.

Campbell made the announcement with David Podmore, the chair of the B.C. Pavilion Corporation, at a news conference at the proposed site for the complex — a parking lot between BC Place and the end of the Cambie Street Bridge.

The casino, which will be similar in size to the River Rock in Richmond, will also include two major hotels, five restaurants, and more than 100,000 square feet of gambling facilities, said Campbell, who called the project a catalyst for development of the area.

The new facility will be run by Las Vegas-based Paragon Gaming, replacing the company's Edgewater Casino in the old B.C. Expo 86 pavilion across the street from the new site.

That location has had troubles with poor access and parking, but the new location is expected to be more easily accessible to the public.

This new casino was announced just last Friday and is great news for the city of Vancouver. For those of you that have never been to Vancouver this casino will be located on the old Expo 86 site which is adjacent to BC Place which hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Also located on this site is GM Place which hosted the Olympic hockey tournament.

I know there is some opposition to this but I think its a totally positive move for the city. I just hope they put a great poker room in there.

I Hate Live Poker

2010-03-29T12:44:00.005-07:00

No that's not my thoughts. You know I love playing live poker and view the Internet game as a time passer and that's about it. Those words came from the mouth of Shaun Deeb (pictured above). Shaun (no relation to Freddy) is a young, fairly successful poker player who I happened to be watching play in last years WSOP Europe Main Event. They finally got around to televising it up here and its in an eight hour installments. Anyways I think this was in hour 3 if I remember right. He was sitting in the BB and Negraneau was in the SB. Daniel was being his usual chirpy self (which adds to the game). Anyways Daniel made a joke that if I just call (which he did) you will probably raise me (which Shaun did). Everybody else had folded. Battle of the Blinds. So action was back on Daniel. He made a comment about popping it back up which he did by throwing in the call with one hand and the raise with another. He didn't actually say the word raise and Shaun immediately said that's a string bet. Daniel said no I said I was going to pop it up or words to that effect. Shaun was livid and basically losing his cool. He asked for a floor ruling. The floor sided with Daniel.

That's when Shaun made the comment about I hate live poker. Okay Shaun whether you believe it or not or agree with the ruling (and the ruling was marginal) it's time to reign your anger in. Did you not know the cameras were on you?? You sounded like a 10 year old who had just had his T.V time taken away or something. It's not a big deal. Either call the re raise or fold. Simple right. If you don't like live poker stay home play the internet game. Very simple.

It seems Phil Hellmuth still can't take losing. Antonio Esfandiari took him out with a better hand and Phil went on and on about how Antonio has his number and whatever. It was quite embarrassing to watch. What was funny was when Doyle Brunson criticized Phil for his entrance. He came in like a Roman Emperor. Phil thinks its good for the game while Doyle said if people wanted to see that they would go to the theatre. I agree with Doyle. This is not pro wrestling. It's poker!!

Even though I know of course the eventual winner I love watching the hands and how they are played out. I still have 5 episodes to go.

Chloe

2010-03-28T09:22:00.003-07:00

Yesterday afternoon I went and saw the movie Chloe. I had seen some early reviews of the film which had all been mostly positive. The movie stars Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried. The movie is directed by Canadian director Atom Egoyan and was shot in Toronto. This is the film Liam was working on when his wife Natascha Richardson was killed in that horrific ski accident. I am not sure how much of it had been filmed prior to the accident but it must have been incredibly difficult for him to finish filming.

The premise of the movie is Liam and Julianne are a successful couple. He is a College Professor and she a Gynaecologist and they have one over achieving son. Sounds dreamy right. They have a great life or so one would think. Then Julianne suspects Liam is cheating on her with his students. She hires Amanda (who is a high class escort) to meet him accidentally and see where it goes. She wants Amanda to report back to her what happens. Without going into to much more of the plot you can see where this is heading. Or can you??

I thought Julianne was outstanding in her role. Here is a woman who has a successful job (doctor) yet was insecure in her relationship with an equally successful man. This movie delves into those insecurities with some twists you might not expect.
I can say I mostly liked the movie with only the last 5 minutes being a bit of a letdown.... I definitely recommend it if you like adult dramas.

Short Tournament

2010-03-24T06:54:00.003-07:00

I played a live tournament last night. There was about 50 entrants and it was a pretty short night for yours truly. I was really card dead for the first two blind levels. When we hit blinds at 300/600 I got dealt J9 in the BB. Just the SB and myself in everyone else folded. Flop comes Q 10 8. Always nice when you flop a straight. SB checked so did I hoping he would catch up a bit. Turn was a 4. Check Check. River was a 6. He checked and I made a small bet and he folded. That would be the only hand I would win.

With Blinds at 400/800 and 100 anti. I got deal KQ in the SB. Two limpers to me. My original thought was to just push as I only had 3200 in chips but I decided to just call and the BB checked. Flop comes Q 10 10. Pretty nice flop. Not really wanting to see any more cards I immediately pushed. Pot size was already 4000 plus my push of 2800. SB called as did one of the limpers . I knew I was in trouble. Turn and the River and I didn't improve. BB had K10 and the other player QJ so I was out. Not sure if I had pushed pre flop if the BB would have called anyways. He had a lot of chips and with K10 knowing the way he plays I think I was doomed no matter what I did.

Rush Poker

2010-03-23T12:23:00.003-07:00

I finally got around to trying the newest online craze Rush Poker. I know its been around for a few months now on Full Tilt but I don't have a money account there just play chips. So I hardly ever go on there but I thought I would give it a whirl. I played for half an hour twice yesterday. Once in the afternoon and once at night while I was watching boring TV. Anyways both times in that half an hour I more than tripled up what I brought in chip wise. I started with 5000 both times and the first time I had just 15000 when I turned it off. The second time I had over 18000. What did I think?? Well It was okay...... Now I know I was only playing with pretend chips but as far as Internet poker goes it wasn't bad. At least it was fast. That's one of my complaints with online poker. What do you do when you are not in a hand?? Stare at the avatars??

In live poker I am watching the other players. That keeps my mind active.

Anyways in that total hour of playing I had pocket Aces 4 times(won with 3 of them). Hit quads twice (yep really happened). Now would I play it for money.. Well as you know I have never invested a cent online but I do have a money account at Pokerstars. If they had it I would certainly give it a whirl.

Bluff Article

2010-03-22T09:39:00.004-07:00

I didn't go to my regular Sunday night tournament as I was pretty bagged after playing 7 hours on Saturday night so I caught up on my reading. I usually read a couple books a week and I always try and get the latest poker magazines.

So I am reading this months Bluff magazine and there is an article about Jeremy Fitzpatrick (pictured above). If you don't know who he is (I didn't). He is Bluff magazines Online player of the year.. His online handle is daisyxoxo. Of course everybody knows my disdain for the online game so I won't get into that here. What I will get into is how much this guy played last year. He played 9,639 online tournaments made 522 final tables and won 99 of these tournaments. He won over 1.8 million. All I can say is WOW. It's not a good wow either. Well those are impressive stats. Very impressive. My question is WHY?? Why would you play so much online?? Its mind boggling..

I did the math (with the help of a calculator). That's over 26 tournaments a day. That's each and every day..... I know he multi tables. Nobody could possibly do it any other way. He also multi screens.. But why..In the article he said some days he was playing for 15 hours. That's 15 hours of staring at a computer screen..Can you imagine? I can't. Heck I get bored after a couple. That's why I love the LIVE game so much.

In the article it says his girlfriend was there supporting him. She deserves a medal. Either that or she needs some help. Why would you sit there and watch somebody else play poker on a screen for that length of time?? Is it the money...... 1.8 million is really nice..

Of course one wonders when he had time to eat, drink, go the bathroom etc. Then I remembered that Pokerstars has that 5 minute break each hour... Gee that's almost enough time.........of course there is that other necessity in life which I wont go into here but 5 minute might not cut it with that.........

All I can say is Jeremy Fitzpatrick congratulations. You did something I could never do. Heck I wouldn't last one day doing what you did and I have run several marathons...

Charity and Poker

2010-03-21T11:02:00.004-07:00

I played in a charity poker event last night to raise money for a local person that has some medical issues. It turned out to be a fun day/evening.

It was a cheap entry 30 dollars of which 10 went to the charity portion. We started with 20,000 chips and blinds started at 100/200 and went up slowly so lots of play for the money. We also had a 5 dollar bounty on each person. I believe we had 30 entrants with 4 tables. I loved my opening table. I had played with everybody before so I was expecting to do well knowing how they all played. It didn't start out that way though. I lost an early hand when I was dealt Ace Jack in the SB. With it folding to me I raised hoping to steal the blinds. SB called. Really decent player so I knew he had something of a hand. Flop comes J88. Pretty decent flop for me. I bet out and he took forever to call but did which sent red flags for me . Turn was 6. I decided to check and so did he.. River was a 4. I decided to bet the same amount and he just called. He had A8.. flopped trips but the said he was worried I had pocket Jacks...... I wish and I wouldn't have played it that way if I had..

By the first break I was down to under 9500 chips and a little worried. Then I went of a 4 hand rush where I got dealt pocket 10s, AK twice and Pocket Queens which either won the pot before the flop with my raises or after with my continuation bets. Suddenly I was back in 27000 range and looking good. A few hands later I got dealt pocket 6s, UTG. I limped in with the two blinds. Flop comes Q64 rainbow. There was about 5000 chips in as the blinds had gone up. Both blinds checked and I thought why not check (I got greedy) and knowing one lady to be aggressive she would think my check was weak and probably bet on the turn. Turn brought an 8. SB checked. BB bet 2000. Perfect. She only had about 5300 left so I took a second and pushed all in. SB folded. She called and turned over 57 for the turned straight. The river didn't pair the board and her hand held up. Serves my right for getting greedy . It happens too much.. A definate leak in my game which I am working on fixing. Take the small pot and be happy. A bet on the flop and she would have folded for sure.

I gradually built my stack back up to well over the average and by this time we were down to 15 players I think. With blinds at 1500/3000. I raised to 12000 with AQh. Got one caller. Same lady who got the straight on me. Flop comes K73. She pushes all in . I got her covered but not by a lot. To call that on on an AQ is tough. I know she bluffs but being a bit gun shy from before I laid my hand down. She showed AJ....... GRRR . Still logically I made the right play.

I managed to pick up two bounties. The last when a guy decided to push with 54 in the SB and I had KJc in the BB . I called and he was out when the board missed.

I made the final table but was the short stack by lots... I went all in on the second hand with pocket 2s which held up and I tripled up but still very short. Then two hands later I got dealt A8 and with the blinds hitting me next pushed again. Everybody folded but the button who also pushed. He was the chip leader. The blinds folded. He had pocket Jacks. Hit a Jack on the flop but also two spades. Another spade on the turn gave me hope as my 8 was the only spade. The river was a black 4 but clubs and I was out..

They only paid top 5 but still got a lot of play for my entry and managed 2 bounties so it was a great evening and glad we could raise some money for her.

Parking and Poker

2010-03-19T08:19:00.003-07:00

So yesterday I am driving in the parking lot at my favorite grocery store and I have my signal on to pull in a parking spot that is right by the door and is just being vacated. I back up to let the lady out and then put the car in drive to pull in. Well what happens but some guy whips into the spot and I am shocked. I lean on the horn a bit and then think oh well if he wants to be a turd about it I could care less. I back up a bit and pull into another. In the meantime the guy who probably was a bit younger than me pulls out of the spot and also parks in another spot.. Geez I think I intimidated him or either that he had a guilty conscience. Or maybe he though this guy (me) might key my car when I am out in the store. Anyways he got out of his car but wouldn't make eye contact with me. I even smiled as I thought maybe he really didn't see that I was waiting for that spot with my signal on.. That's all he had to do was say that. I would have said no problem.. Hey things happen. I am not very confrontational. You gotta love parking lots....

So I have booked my week in Vegas for June and the hotel I am staying at sends me an offer of 150.00 less per week....... Wow you gotta love it ... it already was a pretty good deal... I seem to be getting offers almost everyday from some hotel there. Anyways called them up and they adjusted my price. That's why I love dealing direct with the hotels and not using Expedia or any other travel sites..... With Vegas they are always changing prices and last year my hotel went down 3 times. Each time I called and got the new price....... I love a deal. More money for poker, food and beverages!!!

So I played a live tournament last night and I think there was 60 entrants. I was card dead for one blind level until I was dealt A10c in middle position and with blinds at 200/400 I bumped it to 1300. Get one caller who is a young guy. Never played with him before but he seemed aggressive on a couple earlier hands. Flop comes 10,6,3 two diamonds. I bet out another 1300. He calls. A little too quickly.. Turn is a 2 spades... HMM I decide to check worried that he has pocket jacks or something. He checks too... which tells me he doesn't. The river is a 7 of clubs. No flush draws although a possible straight. I decide to push with my remaining 2200 chips. He thinks about it and decides to call. He has pocket 8,s?? Said he called thinking I was trying to buy the pot with a missed flush draw... Anyways kind of a weird call but I will take his chips.
I am sailing along and by the end of the third blind level I have almost tripled my starting stack. Not the chip leader but well above average....

Then I went brain dead. I made a couple very questionable calls. Not sure if I was tired or just had a case of the stupids but that's what happened. I was in the BB with A,9 and lady UTG raises to 3000 with Blinds at 400/800. Everyone folds to me and I stupidly call. The flop completely misses me. All under cards. I check and for some reason she checks too. Turn is another low card. I decide to check and she bets huge and I fold of course. She had pocket Queens. Not sure why she didn't bet on the flop and not sure why I didn't fold preflop....... I just whittled away my stack until I barely have enough for the blinds. I won't bore you with details but I played awful. I finally pushed with Q9c when the blinds were coming. Everybody folded but the BB who was priced in anyways. He had Q8. I had hope especially when I hit a 9 on the flop but he managed to hit his straight on the river and I was toast...

No Poker tonight but have a tournament on Saturday day time.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

2010-03-17T11:09:00.004-07:00

Decisions basically rule our life. From early childhood they begin. At first your parents make them for you. They decide what you wear, what you eat and what you do. Then you begin school and your decision making starts. You decide what kids to hang with, how much effort to put into school work etc. You might even decide what clothes you like. By the time you reach high school you are already making lots of decisions everyday.

Then the fun begins. Your decisions now will start to shape your life.. You are offered cigarettes, weed and alcohol over the next few years. Should you try them?? Peer pressure affects your decision making. Gee if I don't smoke this joint will my friends still like me. If I don't get drunk like everybody else on a Friday night will I have any friends?? These are all tough decisions but they are your decisions..

Your hormones kick in. Who should you ask out?? Which girl or boy depending on your sexuality or in today's world maybe both. These are all critical decisions.

Then you start dating..One wrong decision here and you could be a father or mother at an early age... See how decisions rule our lives..... It goes on and on.

It's the same in the poker world.. Every time you sit down at a tournament or ring game you are faced with decisions. Should you fold preflop... should you raise with a marginal hand and try and steal the blinds?? How much to bet?? Should I do a continuation bet on the flop?? Are my Trips good or does she have her Flush?? Its almost mind boggling. You might make 50- 100 decisions in a hour depending on your cards and the speed of the game.

The secret to a successful poker player is making the right decisions the majority of the time. Oh sure you can make a right decision and still get sucked out on. It happens to all of us. It hurts knowing you did everything right but still lost. Yet I can live with that.

What I can't live with is when I make bad decisions and lose. To me that is way worse. Then again you learn from your bad decisions. At least I know I do.

All those decisions I made in school a lot were bad. I smoked cigarettes for about a year.(never since), Tried a lot of weed (it just made me goofy). I drank alcohol (still do but moderately)

I had unprotected sex at 14 with a 16 year old girl (true story). I had sex with a lot of other girls almost all of it unprotected and I guess I was just lucky that a baby didn't come of it. Those were bad decisions (unprotected part that is). Some would say the sex part at such an early age too. It was a different world then though.

I think I learned from all those decisions. I try and learn from the wrong decisions I make now......

Now I have to decide what to go make for lunch.......... Soup or Sandwich??

Kings!!!

2010-03-16T07:10:00.003-07:00

Last night I played a live tournament with I think around 54 entrants. I was seated at a very passive table which I liked because I am not a passive player. I am not a big believer of limping unless I have a very marginal hand in late position and I just want to see a flop. Usually I am raising or folding. Anyways second hand in I get Pocket 4s UTG. I really hate small pocket pairs and especially being first to act. I thought whatever blinds were cheap enough so I limped with the thought any raise and I am folding. 5 limpers behind me. Told you it was passive. Flop comes 10,6,3. Not a horrible flop but not great either. I check, guy next to me min bets and everyone calls. Action back to me. I was thinking of folding but thought whatever its cheap enough. Turn is a 7. I check and everybody checks. Geez what is this?? River brings a lovely 4. I now have trips but also with 5 other people in the pot and with a straight possibility I am not loving my hand. Guy who was in the BB bets but its only twice the Min so I thought whatever I called as did one other guy. My trip 4's were good. So I take down a decent pot. That hand played weird though.

I then preceded to get Ace Jack 3 times in the several hands and with me raising I took two of those hands preflop and also got a couple limpers off their hands. So I was slowly building my stack. Definitely the chip leader at my table. The third time I got Ace Jack I raised preflop got one caller. Flop comes KQ4. HMM. I did a continuation bet and the old guy folded. Not sure what he had but probably Ace something.

I was sailing along when I got 10,3 clubs in the BB. Blinds were now at 400/800. Two limpers to me I checked. Flop comes AAQ with 2 clubs. I hollywood it a bit studying the flop and decide to check. One guy bets out 1200, other guy folds and trying to show confidence in my flush draw I come along. Turn is a 10. Okay card but not if he has a Queen. I make eye contact and smile and then I check. Reading his look he has me on an Ace. Too funny so he checks too. River is 5 of diamonds. I bet and he disgustedly throws his hand away and comments you had trips right. I just smiled.

We were down to 22 players when I got dealt Pocket Kings in early position. Blinds were now 500/1000. I raised it to 3500 and surprisingly two very tight players (both the blinds) called. Flop comes J 8 4. Rainbow. SB checks. BB goes all in. BB is an older guy who plays pretty tight. Action is on me. I have him covered but not by much. What does he have?? Ace Jack?? Pocket Queens?? Aces?? In the back of my mind I think did he really hit Trip jacks. I decide to call. SB takes a long time and decides to fold. We flip and yep he had pocket Jacks and hit his trips. I am severely crippled. SB said he had pocket 6's.

Very next hand I get pocket 2's and with the blinds coming I go all in which only covers the BB. 5 Callers. Flop comes 10,3,5. Checked all around, Turn is a 6, Check check. River is a 7. Everybody checks. Somebody caught their 7 on the river and my night is over.

I am not sure if I could have folded the Kings but I did consider that he had the pocket Jacks and should have gone with my gut feeling. Tough to fold though. That's twice in the past 3 weeks were Kings did me in on a relatively safe board. Both times guys caught their trips. it's one of those times where you just got to shake it off and look forward to the next game..........

She's Out of My League

2010-03-14T09:19:00.004-07:00

We all remember someone who we thought was Out of Their League. For me it was back in high school and the girls name was Starr( Yep real name). I remember watching her walk the hall in her short skirts and I was like a puppy. She was perfect. Of course she was totally out of my league. I don't think she knew I existed. Then suddenly in grade 11 Í wasn't such a nerdy guy anymore and she still looked incredible. We actually got to know each other. I occasionally drove her and her friend to school but any romantic thoughts on my part were just that thoughts. I realized that I had no chance with her but it was still nice to just talk to her.

That's the premise of a movie I saw last night. Without giving too much of the plot it involves a guy who was just dumped by his girlfriend and wants to get back with her. Basically he lacks self confidence and really has a kind of dead end job. Then he meets this perfect girl who is totally hot and way out of his league. I won't spoil the movie but I have to admit I laughed a few times. It reminded me of the film Something about Mary. There is a scene that involves shaving that had me really laughing. Should you run out and see this?? It's worth seeing but I might wait for video.

So that was my Saturday night. I was invited to a home poker game which would have been fun and certainly could have been profitable.

Annie Duke Win and an Early Exit

2010-03-12T06:40:00.005-08:00

In case you missed it NBC had its annual Heads up Invitational event at Caesars Palace on the weekend. They invite 64 of the top pros (with a couple of online qualifiers mixed in). If you haven't played at Caesars you need to. It is my favourite poker room. I know people on the AllVegas poker site go on and on about the Venetian but until they stop pumping floral crap into the air I will avoid it like the plague. I love Caesars tournament room with all the pics of the pros hanging on the wall. Classy Place.

Anyways Annie Duke managed to prevail in the final over Eric Seidel. Annie reached the final with wins over Andy Bloch, My man Darvin Moon, Paul Wasicka, Jerry Yang and Dennis Phillips. So congrats to her. I was glad to see a lady take it down with Vanessa Rousso so close last year. NBC will televise the event over a few weekends starting in April. Be fun to watch it!!

I played a Live tournament last night with 59 entrants and it was an an early exit for me. First hand in my two pair ran into Trips, which depleted my stack somewhat but soon after my table got broke down and I got moved. Second hand at a new table I got dealt J,10 in late position with a couple limpers before me I also limped along with the two blinds. Five of us to the flop. Flop comes KKQ. Early position guy bets. I am open ended so I call as does one of the blinds. Two people folded. Turn is a lovely Ace. Early position guys bets again and looking at what I have left I push. The BB calls and early position guy then pushes. BB calls him too. The river is a 6. BB has two pair Kings and Queens. I have of course a straight. Early position flips over KQ for the flopped boat. I didn't see that coming.

Tournament Second place and a little Roulette

2010-03-09T08:58:00.003-08:00

One of my favourite blogs that I read has nothing to do with poker but the lady is a very entertaining person and always has great stories and insights into her life. You can read her here. Well yesterday she had a post about a new chat site called chat roulette so the curious person I am I checked it out. Yea it was weird. Linda called it creepy. I just found it weird. All of a sudden you have this random face on your computer and if they don't like you or vice versa you hit the next button and a new face appears.You can see them and talk with them. Oh and of course the odd body part appears. Yea there was some of that. I did talk briefly with this 30 something married lady from Vermont. Is it Weird?? Yea. I could see it filling a void with some shy people. Would I try it again?? Not likely but check it out and see what you think.

I played my regular live tournament last night. I think 47 people showed up. I started off the night the right way. First hand in I was in the SB with pocket 10's. With 5 limpers to me and blinds at 100/200 I bumped it to 1400 and everybody folded. Just what I wanted. Happy to take the first pot. A good omen.

I then went card dead for awhile which was a shame as I felt comfortable as this table and felt I could do well. Our table broke down with a few eliminations and I got moved. Then I started hitting hands. Pocket Aces which after I raised preflop with one caller held up. I had J9 offsuit in the BB which rivered a straight on an unraised pot. The queen on the river gave it to me and also gave another player his two pair. That was the end of his night. I was sailing along until I got pocket 8's. A young guy in early position raises 3.5 times the BB. Knowing how he plays I doubled his raise which was my mistake. I should have pushed. Anyways he called. The flop comes 10,7,3 rainbow. He checked blind which made me think. Should I push or see another card. I checked. Big mistake. Ace on the turn. Check check. I knew he hit his ace though. The river was a Jack I think. He checked and so did I. Of course he hit his ace. I mucked. Boy was that dumb play or what.

I was still in though and gradually started building my stack back up. We were down to 6 players I think when I got those pocket 8,s again. Same guy raised in EP and this time I pushed. He called . He had pocket Aces. Yikes. You know where this is going. I hit my 8 on the river and doubled up huge. He was crushed and went out shortly after. You gotta love those 2 outers well you love them when you are on the right side of them...

We got down to Heads up with a lady who I had never played before. We played for a long time with both of us ahead in chips and back and forth. With her ahead in chips slightly I was dealt Q10.The flop comes KK6. I checked and so did she. The turn was a nice 10. I checked hoping she would bet but she checked again. The river was a 2 I think. Figuring I was good I pushed. She snap called me. Yep she had the King. She had slowplayed it all the way. Good play on her part. I was down to a couple thousand and went out a couple hands later. Still it was a good night and happy with second place. Wish it was a win though.

Lowering the limit

2010-03-08T09:02:00.004-08:00

Every Friday night we go out to one of the local pubs or restaurants for dinner mainly because I am sick of cooking by that time. When I go I usually have a couple glasses of Red wine(that's my beverage of choice) and of course a meal of something. The pubs are usually packed with couples and people who come straight from work. They have a few drinks and then head home. The parking lot is also packed with cars. Why is that important? Well they are proposing to lower the limit on what makes you impaired from .08 to .05. That's a pretty big drop. If I drive I can have 2 glasses of wine now and be well under .08 but probably right around the .05 mark. So what this will mean is that I of course will now only have 1 glass of wine. Do I think this is a good thing? Absolutely. I never have more than 2. If we stay longer I switch to pop or juice. The thing is that I am in the minority. While we were there Friday night I counted the drinks people were having at 3 nearby tables. Most had 4 mugs of beer at least in the time I was there. Would that make them over the limit? Without a doubt. Yet they all got in their respective cars and drove home. Pretty scary isn't it. The police could stamp out drinking driving by just watching and stopping people as they leave the bars on any Friday night. I think most people don't realize that it doesn't take much to put you at the limit and that's not the only issue here. You don't have to be at the limit to suffer loss of driving skill and reaction time. It's really made me think. So from now on Friday nights will be one glass of wine and that's it. If I want any more I walk to the pub or take a cab home. I wish more people would follow my lead but as you people just don't think.

I didn't play any live games this weekend but I did play a couple online tournaments. I usually play a cheap buyin 45 player tournament. Anyways in one we were down to 11 players and 7 get paid and I got dealt KK in middle position. The blinds had gotten to the point that really my only play was to shove as any 3 times or higher preflop raise was more than 2/3 of my stack. There was already 1 limper in the pot. So I shoved hoping really to take the blinds and antis and maybe 1 caller. I did get one caller who had just a few more chips than me. What did he have? Jack 9 off suit. Yep. He of course caught his 9 on the flop and Jack on the river and I just stared at the screen. No more comment is needed on his call.

Later that night I thought I would play another. We were down to 21 players. I think I was sitting at about 7th of 21 in chips. I got dealt pocket 9's on the button. Already 2 limpers and still the blinds to act. I popped it 6x the BB hoping to take it down. The BB called and everybody else folded. I was a little worried and thought he might have an over pair. Anyways flop comes JJ9. Yep I flopped a boat. He checked and I of course checked behind hoping he would catch up a bit. Turn was a 10. He made a half pot size bet (I was hoping he thought I had nothing) and I took my time think of all my options. I finally just called. Well the river was the worst card possible(well at least in my mind). Yep another Jack. He instantly pushed and even knowing I was beat (yea I know very dumb play) I called. He had King 10. Yea he got his boat on the river. What bugs me about this hand (well the way I played it was bad) but he also called my preflop raise with King 10 off suit. Would you make that call? Not me.

Love is Blind (no poker content)

2010-03-05T06:31:00.004-08:00

Earlier this week I reconnected with someone who I had known very well several years ago. For the sake of this story lets just call her B. We had played on the same mixed ball team, we had skied together and someone who I considered a pretty good friend. She worked with my wife yet I was probably a little closer friend than my wife mainly because of the ball connection. At that time she was living with a guy who was the father of her child but everybody could tell it was not going to last. They were just two different people and they never did anything together.
So they broke up and B was on her own for a couple years. We still maintained contact but our ball team had split up so I didn't see her very much.

Anyways I heard she met someone else and it was getting serious. I was really happy for her and then I heard they were getting married, I was surprised but again if she is happy that's great. I hadn't met the guy. So both my wife and myself got invited to an engagement party for her. Anyways we went and I got to meet the guy who we will call S. I have always considered myself a pretty good judge of character and immediately I got this bad vibe. That was my first reaction but I thought okay I will give this guy a chance.

Anyways part way through the party I was chatting with B and laughing about something that had happened while we were playing ball and S came over gave me this look and instead of joining or listening to us talk basically steered B away from me. It was really weird. Was he jealous?? I mean I was there with my wife and me and B were just great friends. Was he jealous of that? I was concerned and upset. Then later on at the party I noticed S chatting a way too friendly to another lady there. That was weird too. I think my initial reaction was bang on. As we left the party I turned to my wife and said B is making a big mistake and my wife was quite surprised although she had also noticed S being a little too friendly to other ladies there. Yet B seemed so happy.

Anyways to marry this guy B had to quit her well paying job and leave her friends and move to another city which also brought up red flags for me but that is what happened. They decided to get married in Las Vegas and then we lost contact with B. A couple years passed by and then we moved from the city where we used to live.

I think you can see where this story is going. B and S are no longer married. I am not sure what happened but B told us she is back living and working where we used to live. In the emails she seemed happy so that's good.

It's just that I don't know how she couldn't see that this guy was a jerk. It was obvious to me right away. He was an insecure flirt. She deserved much better than that. I guess love is blind.

Is Online Poker Rigged (Part 2)

2010-03-03T07:09:00.004-08:00

About 11 months ago I wrote a post here regarding the online game. I had read a bunch of comments about people doubting the validity of the online game on the All Vegas Poker site in the discussion forum.

If you go back to that post you can see that a lot of people have some serious doubts about the game. I have never had so many people leave comments regarding their experiences online. I still get comments regarding that post.

As you know I am not a big fan of the online game. I have never made a deposit but I do have a money account at one of the major sites (won it in freerolls).

The biggest complaint I hear from people is getting called with hands that shouldn't be in the pot and somehow they hit their one or two outer on the river. Does this happen in live poker?? Oh sure occasionally but it almost seems that these people know what card is coming in the online game. Do they?? Hopefully not but why were they in the pot. Are they just bad players who get lucky?? That could be.

The other biggest complaint is the amount of high hands that show up online. I know playing a 1.00 buyin tournament on February 3rd on a site which will remain anonymous I had quads 2 hands in a row. Quad 8s and Quad 10s. I kept the hand history as I know people wouldn't believe me. What are the statistical likely hood of that happening?? I know playing live tournaments and I play 3 or 4 times a week I can go months without quads but online I get them about every other week at least. Of course some people say its because of the amount of hands dealt online but to me it seems a bit out of whack to what happens live.

The online game is now a multi million dollar business with all the leading poker pros having sponsorships and such. So they would never kill the golden goose. I wonder if any of them have ever investigated the actual mechanics of how these sites are run. Have they ever been to the center of where the online is run out of?? Or do they just take their sponsorship money and close their eyes. I think the latter is more likely. I admire Darvin Moon for not taking a sponsorship offer before the Main Event Final Table last year.

I know most of my poker playing friends play far less online now than they used to. Why?? The bad beats they were getting. Way over over proportional to what happens in the live game. It seemed if they moved up in dollar value it happened more. Does that make sense??

I think the online game could be great if it was run like our lotteries with government overseeing the operation and taking a certain percentage and say putting that into health care or education. They would still have lots for sponsorships of the poker pros. Now these sites are run and we have no idea where all the money goes. It certainly doesn't help the people of Canada or the U.S. I know this might not be a popular viewpoint but if the online game in my mind is going to be legalized here in Canada and the U.S. that's what needs to be done. Otherwise how do we know everything is above board?? Right now we don't. When people make a deposit they trust that it will be run fairly and that the percentages will hold up on a consistent basis. That's the least they can expect.

I am not saying it isn't above board right now but there sure are a lot of doubters out there. It would be great to wipe out that doubt and know when you sit down at your laptop everything odds wise is exactly the same as live play.

I know personally I love the live game. I love the interaction with the players, the dealers and the chips. I played poker long before there was an online game. The online game does have a huge place in poker today. It has opened up the game to millions who might never have played and that's a good thing. What are your thoughts on the online game??

End of the Games and some Poker

2010-03-02T07:08:00.004-08:00

So I along with 80% of Canadians (according to polls) watched the final gold medal hockey game between the U.S. and Canada. What a game. Ends in an overtime win for Canada. Two evenly matched teams just like the women's final. Having said all that I actually enjoyed seeing the true amateur athletes win their medals much more. The joy on their faces after all the years of hard work makes the Olympics what is. Don't get me wrong I am a huge hockey fan but these players all go back to their million dollar jobs afterwords while the speed skaters, figure skaters and skiers go back to their real life. That is for them a 9-5 job and massive training afterwords. Sure some get corporate sponsorship but its not like they get rich doing what they love. They do because they love it. That's a huge difference than getting paid millions to play a sport. One thing the Olympics did was bring out the patriotism in this country like I have never seen it before. We have never been a huge flag waving nation but this Olympics seemed to unite the country in support of our athletes. if we gained nothing else from these games this feeling of all being united was worth it.

I played a live tournament on Sunday night with I think about 44 players. I ended up 6th. Two memorable hands that got me to the final table. I got dealt AK in middle position. I raised and got two callers. Flop comes Q,10,6 rainbow. Surprisingly one of the callers bet, I called (it was cheap enough) and the other guy folded. Turn was a lovely Jack. He checked and so did I hoping he would catch up or something. River was a 9 and he went all in. I of course called and won a huge pot. He had King 10. Guess he didn't put me on Big Slick.

The other big hand I was dealt on the button A2 Clubs. I limped in and the flop J 9 8 with 2 clubs. 4 people in the pot and 1 lady makes a less than pot sized bet so I come along and the other 2 fold. Turn is a blank and she makes the same bet. Still cheap enough for me to see another card although I am not a flush chaser but the bet was so small. The river brought me a lovely 5 of Clubs. She immediately pushed all in and I of course called with the Nuts. She was out as I had her covered. She had relatively slow played a flopped straight and under bet a flushy board. Got to the final table and I badly overplayed a high pair to a flopped straight and I was crippled but still a pretty good night

Sunday Morning

2010-02-28T11:25:00.003-08:00

Just sitting on my sofa her watching the second last event of the Olympics which is the mens 50 KM ski race. Great to watch and as I type this a Canadian is sitting in 4th place. Should be a good finish.

Of course we are all waiting for the final event the Gold Medal hockey game between the U. S. and Canada. It should be a classic. Even though I of course will be cheering madly for Canada we as fans are the winners. These Olympics have turned out to be a huge success. My oldest son managed to get tickets to the bronze medal game last night and said he will never forget the feeling of being there.

They just announced the flag bearer for Canada for the closing ceremonies and it seems it will be Joannie Rochette (pictured above) the figure skater who got a bronze medal. That of course wasn't the story. Her mom died suddenly just after arriving at the games. A lot of athletes would not have been able to continue but Joannie skated and somehow managed to skate brilliantly and with tears in her eyes took the bronze medal behind the great Korean and Japanese skaters. You couldn't help but get choked up watching her skate so its a great choice.

The puck drops in 30 minutes............

The Olympics

2010-02-26T09:32:00.003-08:00

As you know the Olympics are on right now where I live and although I was a bit of a skeptic beforehand it has turned out to be tremendously successful with a few hiccupps.

The bad

1. The death of the Georgian bobsledder. It was terrible and I feel for his family but it was a tragic accident.

2. Lack of snow at one of the venues. It was a real concern but they managed to work around it. The funny thing was at Whistler where most of the snow events took place there was tons of snow.

The good

1.Lindsey Vonn winning the downhill. Boy can she ski and she sure looks great doing it.

2. Clara Hughes winning another medal for Canada in speed skating. She is the only athlete from any country to ever win More than one medal in both summer and winter Olympics. Her summer medals were in cycling. There have been a couple others win one medal in both but never multiple. On top of it what a great lady.

3. The skeleton win by Jon Montgomery (he is on Oprah today) and then walking through the Whistler Village drinking a jug of beer that was passed to him. That was a Canadian moment.

4. The cross country skiing. If you have never done it you might not realize how hard it is to go that fast. They are incredible athletes and deserve more funding.

5. Canada and US womens final. The two best women's teams meet again. Canada won but these teams are so even.

More to come this weekend

Hopefully I am back

2010-02-26T09:07:00.003-08:00

Okay its been 4 months since my last post and that's unforgivable but a lot of things have happened since then. Some good, some not so good.

1. Still playing poker live 3 nights a week. My game I think has improved a lot in the last year and I am making better decisions. That's what this game is all about.

2. Still playing online at Pokerstars. I really hate the online game and really don't trust the random selection of cards and that's why I only play 1 dollar 45 player sitngoes. I just do it to pass time and am constantly amazed at the suckouts online and people calling with obscure cards and then straighting or flushing out. It's almost like they know whats coming. More on that later.

3. Had a bit of a health issue which seems to be under control. It was weird I had trouble swallowing food. Turns out my esophagus doesn't work properly. You know how they found that out. I had to swallow whole marshmallows while lying on a scan table without chewing them. Try doing that?? It was horrible but it did show the problem. I now have some great medication and everything seems to be back to normal. I had lost 17 pounds and being a runner I am pretty skinny anyways so that was pretty scary.

4. I booked a Vegas trip for June (first one this year) and I am going to play in one of the events leading up to the main event. Really looking forward to it. Only 1000 dollar buy in. I can't believe I just wrote that as 1000 is a lot of money.

5. Still was following a lot of my favourite blogs while I took a writing hiatus. you know who you are. Found a couple new ones too.

Good to be back

4 hands and Out

2009-10-23T08:03:00.003-07:00

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

2009-10-22T08:26:00.005-07:00

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

2009-10-16T08:23:00.005-07:00

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

2009-10-14T08:23:00.003-07:00

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

2009-10-09T09:14:00.004-07:00

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

2009-10-04T09:38:00.004-07:00

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

2009-10-01T08:36:00.004-07:00

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.

Cholesterol Results

2009-09-29T08:03:00.002-07:00

Just before I went to Vegas I had my cholesterol checked again. I was one guy who never thought would ever have a problem with this. I had been a long distance runner for years and I thought I ate a pretty good diet. Sure I ate too many cookies and cake but I always thought my running would take care of it. Boy was I wrong as I have related before. My last test was a disaster. My HDL (good cholesterol) was okay but my bad cholesterol LDL was horrible and my triglycerides were way over the normal. My doctor wanted to put my on cholesterol lowering medication but I resisted because I am really stubborn and I hate taking medication. I decided to prove to my doctor I could get it down without help from the little pills. I consulted a dietitian who put me on a pretty strict diet although she said a lot of what I was doing was good. Just a few adjustments.

What I did was cut out all coffee, no alcohol except for red wine, beef only once a week, either chicken or vegetarian the rest of the time. I ate oatmeal every morning with ground flax added. This is the oatmeal you cook not that instant stuff. I cut out all cookies and all sweet stuff period. No white sugar or flour. Lots of raw vegetables with yogurt based dip. Sounds boring?? Its not. I feel so much better. Getting rid of coffee made me less jumpy too.

So what happened???

My old results
Cholesterol 7.32 Normal is between 2.00-5.19
Triglycerides 3.52 Normal is between 0.45-2.29
LDL Cholesterol (the bad stuff)4.80 Normal is 1.50-3.39
HDL Cholesterol 0.92 Normal is over 0.90 Mine was okay

As you can see the only good news was that my good cholesterol was okay. Everything else wasn't

My new results after two months of the diet

Cholesterol 4.09 Normal is between 2.00-5.19
Triglycerides 1.38. Normal is between 0.45- 2.29
LDL Cholesterol 2.67 Normal between 1.50-3.39
HDL Cholesterol 0.79 Normal is over 0.90

As you can see my results were awesome. Even my doctor was shocked. You see she had given me a prescription for medication and thought that's what had made the big turn around. When I told her it was strictly diet she was impressed. The only thing she didn't like was that my good cholesterol had gone down but everything else was within range. I was really pleased and will continue this way of eating from now on. I feel great and I sleep great. The best thing is no medication. I go for another test sometime in December. Hopefully the results will be good.

Columbine

2009-09-26T09:22:00.003-07:00

I just finished reading the excellent book written by Dave Cullen on the true story of what really happened at Columbine High School. On April 20th 1999 Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris entered Columbine High School and systematically executed 13 people. They then committed suicide. It was one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history and shook school systems around the world.

After the shootings so much misinformation came out about the two killers such as they were devil worshippers, part of a trench coat mafia. That they were bullied and thats why they did this. It went on and on. None of that was true. The true story is that these were two pretty normal kids at least on the outside from two good families who for their own sick reasons decided to go on a shooting rampage. Just three days before the shootings the boys had attended their prom before graduation. Everything appeared normal and they seemed happy but little did people know they had been planning this for months. Led by Eric who definitely was the ring leader. They managed to get guns and built bombs. The author took almost ten years to finish the book and really got inside the minds of the two killers. He even had access to the tapes the boys left their parents as a good bye message

What I found so disturbing was the fact that they were so easily able to acquire weapons. While the shootings were horrible they could have been a lot worse if the bombs they built had gone off. Literally hundreds could have been killed.

Cullen's book is a very disturbing yet eye opening read and I really enjoyed it. I know as a parent after Columbine I never looked at school as a completely safe place for my kids again. I also felt sorry of course for the families who's kids were killed but I also found sympathy for the Klebolds and the Harris's. They not only lost their sons too but have to live with the horror of realizing what their kids did in their last day.

Vegas After Thoughts

2009-09-26T09:08:00.003-07:00

The Highlights

1. Playing at Caesars Palace. Great room.
2. The Bus driver on the Deuce. She really needs her own comedy show.
3. People watching. The best place in the world for this.
4. Superb service by the older guy(forgot his name) in the Flamingo breakfast place near the buffet.
5. Having a jug of beer at the Pioneer Saloon in Good Springs.
6. Winning a tournament even if it was a donkfest.
7. Playing a fun cash game with the drunks at Osheas.
8. Relaxing at the Adult Pool.

The Not so good
1. Poor drink service at most casinos if your just playing the slots. Never seen it so bad. It was different if you were playing the tables or poker.
2. Rooms at the Flamingo. Second time staying there but the rooms need an upgrading.
3. Indifferent service when out for dinner. This was a first for us in Vegas as usually the service has been outstanding.

It was a fun week as always and of course the highlights outnumber the bad stuff. I always say if you can't have fun in Vegas you can't have fun anywhere.

Counting the days until we go back

Vegas Day 7

2009-09-25T11:51:00.003-07:00

Got up and headed over to Caesars Palace for their noon tournament. This is a 80 dollar buy in that gives you 5000 in chips and for an extra 5 dollars you get an additional 2500 in chips which everybody takes. There was 51 entrants in tournament. Before the tourney started I strolled around in their back tournament room looking at all the great pictures they had up on the wall. People like Ivey, Brunson, Negraneau and Hellmuth. Truly a special place to play. I got seated at my table and checked out who I was playing. There was young French Canadian who spoke very broken English and a very attractive older lady who at first I thought was from England but turned out she was from Vancouver. The rest of the players were a mix of young and old. Early on I got dealt pocket 7's in the SB and decided to limp in with 3 others. Flop comes AA2. Action on me I put a bet of 300 out there, two guys folded and the player to my right raised to 600. Hmmm . Did he have an Ace? I decided to call and see what the turn brought. It was a 7........ YES. I decided to check and he bet 1200. HMM Just call or raise?? Knowing only 2 hands would beat me right now that being Pocket Aces or A7. I thought for awhile feigning weakness and decided to push. He was startled I could tell. I honestly expected him to fold but he called and had me covered by a bit. He turned over AJ for trip Aces and was floored when I turned over pocket 7's for the Full house. He still had outs though but the river was 6 and suddenly I had a huge chip stack.

Not a lot of memorable hands after that but one comes to mind. Again in the SB I got dealt 3,8 off suit. Just me and the BB. Flop comes 3,8,K. Two pair. I decided to check to see what he did. He bet and I just called. Turn was a 6. We both checked. River was a 2. I decided to bet and he took a long time calling but he did and flipped over KQ. My 3,8 took it much to his disgust but I just smiled and said Small Blind special.

We were down to 23 players when two hands settled my fate. I got dealt AQ. I raised and French guy calls. Flop comes down Q65. I bet and French guy decides to go all in. He had been pushing a lot and I was questioning what he had. I had him covered but only by around 3000 chips or so. I decided to call. He flipped over Pocket 4's. Yes. Well sort of Yes. The turn brought a 3 and the river brought a 7. Yep he got his straight. I was crushed. But that's poker. Not sure how I could have played that hand different except I guess by folding but I was the favourite going in.

The very next hand what do I get dealt but Pocket 4's. Being somewhat on tilt and now short stacked I decided to push. Everyone folded but Vancouver lady who called and flipped over AK. Big slick had not won all day in 3 previous times as all of us at the table noted. This time I wasn't so lucky as the flop comes 963, turn was 2 and the river brought the killer Ace. I was out in 23rd and very disappointed. Vancouver lady smiled and said sorry but hey she made the right move by calling. I suddenly hated pocket 4s!!!

I loved the tournament and will definitely go back and play again. For the money the structure was good and its a great room with excellent dealers and waitresses. Highly recommend.

For dinner went to the Outback restaurant and had an excellent meal and great friendly service from the waitress. Spent our last night down at the Paris Piano lounge and listened to the guys again.. Great as always

Flew home the next morning. Great flight. We were both sad at the airport though as a week goes too fast but we are already planning our next trip in the spring.

Vegas Day 6

2009-09-24T08:26:00.004-07:00

We got up early and decided to walk down to the Venetian and Treasure Island. I love the inside of the Venetian and always make a point of going there but I like so many others can not stand the smell in there. Its something they are pumping in the air. I really wanted to play in their poker room but after a few minutes I always have to get out of there. I keep hoping someone there will grab a brain and realize that some people can't stand the smell. They must have had some complaints you would think??

We headed over to Treasure Island. Played a few slots there and walked by the Poker Room which was completely dead but it was only 11 AM.
Walked back to the hotel had a couple hours at the pool and decided to head over to watch Big Elvis at Bills. We have seen him a couple times and its always an entertaining free hour. We sat with a couple from Pittsburgh and got in a great discussion about the American Medical system. Being from Canada they were quizzing us about our system. Boy did they have some wrong information. Our system isn't perfect but every Canadian is covered, can go to any hospital or medical clinic and get treated. It costs us very little. We were floored that they paid like 800 a month and had a 2500 dollar deductible. It seems they have been getting ads that our system is horrible. That is so untrue and I guess there are factions in the U.S. that don't want a reasonably priced system that covers everyone.

After watching Big Elvis decided to take the Deuce downtown. We had never taken the Deuce before having always taken a cab down. It was fine,relaxing and cheap. We wandered around downtown. I was really impressed with the Golden Nugget and would stay there if I ever decided to stay off the Strip. We ate dinner at Tony Romas. Food was okay but again terrible service and the waiters tip reflected the level of service we got. He never once came back after we got our meals to ask if we wanted anything or how things were. He wasn't even friendly when we were ordering.

We took the Deuce back to the strip and had the funniest bus driver I have ever met. She was talking on the speaker the whole ride. She had the whole bus laughing. Telling people what to do and if they didn't she was going to stop and have a Conversation with them. She was telling the ladies who were standing to snuggle in close to the guys. It went on and on. By the time we got back to our hotel my sides were hurting from laughing so much.

Played a tournament at Osheas again. Not a lot of interesting hands. I think there were 15 in the tournament. When were down to 5 I got dealt KQ. Flop comes KJ6 rainbow. Being somewhat short stacked I pushed. He had called. Had J9?? of course he caught his J on the river and I was out in 5th.

We walked over to Bill's and listened to the Karaoke. A lady got up and did a tribute to Patrick Swayze who had just died. She sang a couple songs from the movie Ghost and was it was really entertaining.

Headed back to the hotel and looking forward to playing tomorrow at Caesars Hotel where they have a great noon tournament.

Vegas Day 5

2009-09-24T07:59:00.003-07:00

Got up early and decided to play the 10 AM Flamingo tournament. This is a 60 dollar entry fee with only 1500 in chips. Terrible structure but it was in the hotel where I was staying so I thought I would give it a go. These kind of tournaments you need to get chips early or you are basically shoving with anything. Its either that or get blinded away. Of course I was basically card dead for the first few orbits. I finally got a hand and with a dwindling stack pushed with AJ. I got a caller who had KK. He had me covered but I managed to catch my Ace on the flop and I doubled up. Still pretty short stacked though and a few hands later and being on the button I decided to shove with pocket 6s. Unfortunately the BB woke up with pocket Aces and I was out in 13th out of 27. Made a mental note not to play this kind of tournament again. Tough to play poker when you only have such a limited amount of chips to start.

Decided to take the shuttle over to the Rio. As usual checked out the WSOP store in Rio but didn't buy anything. We walked from there over to the Palms and the Gold Coast. First time in the Palms for me. Not overly impressed. Probably wouldn't go back. Seemed really dark in there. Liked the Gold Coast though. Staff seemed friendly at its part of the same ownership as Sams Town. Had a bite to eat at TGIF which was decent food for the price. After dinner started talking to an older couple from England who had flown to Chicago and drove from there to Las Vegas using Route 66 some of the way. We ended up taking the shuttle from the Rio back to the strip with them and showing them some of the sites.

I decided to play the 9PM Osheas tournament. The structure isn't much better than the Flamingo but oh well when you have a non poker playing spouse you take what you can get. Pretty uneventful tournament. Only 12 entrants and I lasted until 5th when my AK after hitting an Ace on the flop came up against trip 3's. Tried to get into the drunk cash game out front but there was a wait so headed back to the hotel.

Vegas Day 4

2009-09-23T08:21:00.004-07:00

Got up and walked over to the Victorian Room at Bill's for breakfast. Food was okay again but service was not good. This we found in about half the places we ate ( more on that later) We decided to head down to the adult pool at the Flamingo. We used it a lot on our last trip. Very relaxing as its not crowded. A lot of the hotels have these so called adult pools now. They charge the guys an entry fee (10 bucks) and ladies are free. Spent a couple hours there reading and working on a tan. As you probably know tops are optional in these pools for the ladies and a great many take advantage of this. I grew up in Vancouver which has a clothing optional beach called Wreck Beach and I spent a lot of time there with friends in my late teens and early twenties so its no big deal to me. Nice to see standards are relaxing as people in Europe have been doing this for years. I know some people might not agree but then of course they don't have to go in. It's all about choice.

We decided to head over to Sams Town having never been there before. We took the shuttle from Harrahs and arrived there hungry so we decided to go to their buffet. The buffet while not great was okay and the price was right. We wandered around the hotel,played a few slots, checked out the poker room which only had one table running . Looked like mostly older locals so probably not much money to be made there. While I liked the hotel I certainly don't think I would stay there as there is not much around that area. I prefer the Strip. Still nice to visit though.

Got back to the hotel and decided to play 1-2 at the Flamingo. Won a hand early when dealt K10 and the flop came K78. I bet and everyone folded. A few hands later I got dealt A7. I limped in with 3 others.Flop comes A97 rainbow. Nice flop. I bet twenty.Everyone folded except old guy who raised me to 50. That's when alarm bells should have gone off. Does he have A9??. I called like an idiot. Turn was a 6. He pushed all in. I had about 50 dollars left and stupidly I called. Yep he had A9. The river was a J and that was my buy in. I thought about rebuying but I always like sticking to a plan. If I get felted that's it. Sure I could have come back but some nights its just better to walk away.

Found the wife and headed over to the Mirage and had a late night bite to eat at Carnegie's again. Great food. Poker on the night down 100 dollars. Still up 177 for the trip.

Vegas Day 3

2009-09-22T10:20:00.007-07:00

We got up and decided to do the pool thing. Went down to the main pool and it was packed. 10 AM and tough to find a chair. We managed though but made a mental note to go to the adult pool in future. Much more relaxing and even though it costs 10 bucks its worth it. After a couple hours of sun, reading and people watching we decided to head over to the Mirage for lunch. Had a lunch at an incredible place called the Carnegie Deli. Food was great and huge. Massive portions. After lunch played a few slots at Mirage and wandered the Strip for awhile. Did dinner at the Victorian Room at Bills. It was okay. Not great not bad. After dinner decided to head over to Osheas for cash game. Tables were full and a bit of a wait. They had a 7 PM tournament starting so I decided to enter that instead. They only had 10 entries so just 1 table. Its kind of a donkey fest chip wise but hey its poker. I managed to do all right early. Got pocket queens and won a decent pot. A few hands later I got pocket jacks. I raised . Got one caller. Flop comes A,6,8. I checked, he bet and I folded. He showed an Ace. When we got down to 5 and I was getting short stacked with only 2000 chips. I got pocket 3,s. Pushed, everyone folded. Next hand I got pocket Kings. Someone raised preflop. I was going to call but looking at my chip stack decided a push was a better option. He called with Q,10?? My Kings held up and we were down to 4.
I started getting some cards and my stack starting building. The short stack decided to push and I looked down and I had AdJc. After a lot of thought I called. He flipped over AhJs. That got a lot of laughter until 3 diamonds hit the flop and the turn gave me another diamond for the flush and he was gone. Down to 3. Only winner gets paid. I had the huge chip lead at this point. One other guy was very short stacked and I was the BB. He pushed and not costing much more I called with a brutal 10,5 off suit. Well he only had 8,4. Told you it was donkey fest. Anyways I flopped two pair and we were down to 2. I had about a 3-1 chip lead and he asked for a chop. First prize was 300 dollars. He suggested 150 each. I said no way how about 180-120. We finally settled on 170-130. Good deal for him and a profit for me of 125 after taking off my buy in. I would have played it out but he was nice young kid there with his girlfriend who was pretty excited that he did that well. Fun table. Not great poker but a pleasant way to spend a couple hours.

After that found the wife and headed down to Paris and listened to the young guys on the dueling pianos there. They were excellent. There was some pretty drunk people there who were throwing money at them to play songs. Literally giving them 20 bucks per song. They were making a killing. Fun to watch and after a couple glasses of wine that was our night.

Vegas Day 2

2009-09-21T08:08:00.004-07:00

We got up early and went down to the front desk and got a room change. Much better room than before but we have to admit the Flamingo is really starting to show it's age. Next trip we might try somewhere else. I do love the location and the pool though.

We met friends for lunch at Margaritaville. Had a great lunch and then they offered to take us out for some sight seeing as they had car. We never rent a car so we were game for it. They took us out into the desert to a place called Good Springs. It's a semi ghost town. Just a few houses and a saloon called the Pioneer. This is the bar where Clark Gable sat and got drunk while they searched in the Las Vegas hills for the plane that had crashed carrying Carol Lombard. They had a small room where the had a wall of incredible pictures of Gable. Really interesting. The bar itself is really small. Four tables but the pitcher of beer was cold and tasted great.

We then drove back to where they were staying which was at Southpoint. I was really impressed. First time there. Really nice hotel and their room was really spacious.
Took a tour of the casino and liked the way it was setup and the poker room looked comfortable and they had 2 tables going. Might even stay there sometime.

They drove us back to the strip and dropped us off. We had a quick dinner and then I decided to head over to Osheas for some 1-2. Why Osheas?? Well it was Friday night and that place always has lots of drunks playing. Sure enough. I got seated right away and realized I was the only sober person at the table. Beer and drinks were flowing. I got seated next to an attractive retired lady from Arizona who preceded to tell me her life story in between drinks. Pretty funny.

I got hot right away. I had pocket 4's and hit trips and won a decent pot. This would be the only time I liked pocket 4's on this trip (more on that later). I had pocket Aces, Kings, and even 7-9 off suit which hit trip 9's. Seemed every pot I played I won. Not huge pots but my original buy in of 100 bucks was really growing.

Arizona lady had pocket Aces cracked when she pushed all in and got called by AJd who caught his flush on the river. It didn't even phase her as she bought in again.
She kept up chatting away to me and told me the guy in seat 2 had asked her to dinner and she wasn't sure she wanted to go. I agreed with her it might not be a good choice. That got her laughing. A few minutes later Arizona lady decides she's hungry and guy in seat 2 gets up and away they go for dinner leaving their chips on the table. He grabs her hand as they are heading out the door which brought on lots of discussion as to what kind of dinner they were going to get. I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt. What a fun table. I played for another hour and a bit and maintained my profit and decided to leave when 2 sober aggressive young guys joined the table. Meanwhile Miss Arizona still hadn't come back which was still a topic of discussion as people were waiting for seats. I made a profit of 107 dollars and had a fun night.

Vegas Day 1

2009-09-21T07:45:00.003-07:00

I had a direct 2 hour 15 minute flight to Vegas which left and arrived on time. We got on the tarmac at Vegas and pulled up to the hangar and we all stood to disembark and after a couple minutes the captain informs us that we can't leave the plane until a customs person comes to escort us off the plane. Huh! It must have been 15-20 minutes before that happened. Even the captain was getting a little annoyed. Anyways I guess coffee time was over we finally were able to disembark. We get to customs and a plane from somewhere in South America had landed before us so the customs wait was long. It was interesting watching the customs guys grill the Hispanic people on the flight. They even had them do the fingerprint thing. One guy was asked to go to the back room with one of the agents which of course got me and a couple passengers joking about the rubber glove thing. Anyways we get to customs and it was basically waving us through. Just asked a couple quickie questions. Totally different than the flight in front of us.

Get out to the cab and absolutely no wait. Gave the cab driver 20 bucks and said take me to the Flamingo and whatever left is your tip. Cab fare was 12.20. It's amazing how fast they get there when you do that.

Check in was slow at the Flamingo even though there was only 5 people in front of us. Took about a half hour. Anyways finally get to our room and was pretty disappointed with it. It was old, had a stained carpet and just not very nice. Had a much better room last time. We decided to wait until morning and request a room change.

We went for a quick dinner and then decided to head over to Harrah's and see the twins on the dueling pianos. Place was packed but we grabbed a table at the back and unfortunately only one of the twins was there but they had a guy on the other piano. He was good but I missed the back and forth banter the twins have but still a pleasant way to spend the first night in Las Vegas.

Played a few slots and had a couple drinks and made it a bit of an early night. No poker.

Back from Vegas

2009-09-19T18:14:00.004-07:00

Well the week flew by down there. I am not sure how people go for just 3 or 4 days. A week isn't enough for me. The weather of course was incredible, the poker fun, the people watching as usual was the best.

I plan on in the next few days writing about what I did but here are a few brief snippets

1. Never road the DEUCE before but had the funniest bus driver. Its almost a post in itself.
2.Played for the first time at Caesars Palace and enjoyed the room. Great tournament.
3.Great direct 2.5 hour flight on our best airline Westjet!!! I love you guys.
4.Went to a saloon somewhere out in the desert at a place called Good Springs.
5.Only took two Cabs. One to the airport and one to my hotel. Both drivers were excellent and never tried to take me off course.
6. Visited Sams Town for the first time.
7. Great story at the HMMMM Adult Pool at the Flamingo.
8. Had one tournament win.
9.Played a funny cash game at O'Sheas. I love that place.

Now I have to get caught up reading other blogs

2 days until Vegas

2009-09-08T11:19:00.005-07:00

I can't believe its almost here. 2 more days and then its a week in Vegas. Really looking forward to it. Been scrambling around doing a lot of last minute things like buying a long distance card so I can call home without getting ripped off by the hotel. Haven't started packing yet (tomorrow). I was going to take the laptop with me but a week away from the computer will be a good thing. Plan on playing some poker, 3 or 4 tournaments and hopefully some cash game action too. Its always harder when your spouse is not a poker player to fit it all in but I have to say my wife is incredibly understanding. Not sure if we will take in any shows but will decide when we get down there. We have a couple friends (both poker players) meeting us near the end of our week who I will play a tournament with and also another couple when we first get there for drinks. Am I excited or what? It's been over a year since the last visit.
I am planning on writing a journal while I am there so I can post it all back here when we return.

Talked to a guy who just got back from there and it seems the cab drivers are up to there old tricks of taking people the long way to their hotels. He got charged 28 bucks from the airport to Harrahs. Its about a 15 buck trip. I stay at the Flamingo and what I do is give the driver 20 bucks before he turns the meter on and tell him that I know the fair is around 13 and the rest is his tip. They are more than happy that way.

Wish me luck.

Picture Memories

2009-08-31T09:20:00.005-07:00

I can't believe its been almost two week since I posted anything.

Basically I spent the 2 weeks going though the garage getting rid of things I don't need or use. The best part of that was going through old pictures and photo albums. That brought a lot of laughs and a few sad moments too. The laughs were looking at pictures of family, friends and myself in earlier years. Its amazing how much some people change over the years and others seem ageless. The sad moments were seeing pics of family that are no longer with us. With the digital age upon us our kids and grandkids will probably never have the fun of doing what I did. Everything these days gets loaded onto your computer and stored on some site (like Facebook) and basically forgotten. Of course the quality of pictures today are amazing but looking at some of the old shots including black and white ones brought back a lot of memories. Don't get me wrong I love my digital camera and the ease of use but there was always something exciting about after a long trip when lots of pictures where taken and waitiing for them to come back developed. You would open the envelope and laugh at some of the crazy shots that had been taken. Now of course you see them instantly. Not quite the same but a heck of a lot cheaper.

Still have the house for sale. Getting lots of people through but nobody seems to be buying. None of the places in our neighbourhood have sold. Talking to the agents it seems its the domino effect. A lot of people looking have places to sell themselves and until they sell nothing else sells. This is the longest its ever taken for me to sell a place. A couple times we sold in a week or less with more than one offer. Times sure have changed.

As far as poker goes I played four live tournaments finishing 15th in one (52 entrants), twice finished 11th and way down in another when someone caught a 2 outer on the river to send me home early. Thats it for poker.

Drinking,Driving and a Tournament

2009-08-25T08:43:00.005-07:00

I was playing my usual Monday night live tournament last night and some interesting conversation broke out at table. One of the guys at our table was complaining about cops sitting up the street from bars and watching patrons leave and once they got in their cars pulling them over and making them take breathalyzers. He was going on and on about this saying it was sneaky and shouldn't be done. I guess he had been pulled over but had only drank one beer so he was okay. A couple people agreed with him. I just sat silently for a long time thinking the conversation would end and trying my best to ignore it. I have to say though it was really getting to me. People who drink and drive should lose their licence. When I am out at a bar that I have driven to the most I ever drink is one glass of wine. If I want to drink more I don't drive. Simple as that. If they want to pull me over I am happy to oblige them. In fact I am happy they are out there. I don't want to be hit by someone who's had too much to drink and I don't want any of my family members or friends to be hit either. Finally after a lengthy time I said I have no problem with that and the conversation ended.

The tournament last night had just under 50 people and I was at a wild table. Super aggressive after the flop. People were pushing and I just kind of laid back and waited for cards. Finally got pocket 10's, I raised got one caller who pushed all in. I called. He had me covered. He had AJh. Flop was 10,Q 6. with two hearts and of course I now had trips but he had a straight and flush draw but the turn and river were blanks and I doubled up.
Other than that a pretty uneventful night. Later on I got dealt pocket 9's. Lady UTG raised which was more than 3/4 of my stack. I figured she had AK, AQ or a pocket pair. Figured it was push or fold. Not much use just calling. So I pushed, everyone else folded and she called. She had AQ and she hit her Ace on the turn and I was out in 16th spot.

Real Estate and a 5th Place

2009-08-21T14:06:00.006-07:00

Have I mentioned how much I love real estate agents? Almost as much as I love some lawyers.. Actually there are some great people that are real estate agents it just seems the bad ones you notice.

We have had our place up for sale for about 4 weeks which is probably the longest its ever taken us to sell. I know the market is not the greatest except for certain price ranges but when we put it up we had a about 3 showings and then nothing for 2 weeks. Suddenly this week we have had 4 showings. So things are picking up a bit. All the real estate agents so far have been good except for 2 instances. The first is pretty minor and that is the real estate agent forgot to lock the door so basically anybody could have come in stole us blind but really I guess that's a mistake I can overlook. What happened last night was very unprofessional.

What happens when other real estate agents want to show your house is they make an appointment with your agent who then phones you to confirm the time and then responds back to that agent saying its okay to bring people through. They usually like an hour time frame to bring their clients through which is more than adequate. You of course have to tidy up ,take the dog and leave the house empty for the hour. The agent gets in through the lock box on the door. So last night while I was poker we had a showing from 630-730. The wife took the dog and left and got back at 730. Started making her lunch and doing other stuff. At 10 minutes to 8 the dog started barking and there were people in our house. Now this agent didn't knock, just used the lock box and in he came. The wife was shocked and quickly grabbed the dog and left but she was pretty upset. She could have been in the shower or in bed or whatever. The agent mumbled something about that they were behind schedule. Yea well if that's the case how about a courtesy telephone call to let us know. Then it would have not been a problem. That would have been the professional way to handle it and we would have understood as things happen. Even knocking would have been good but that didn't happen either. I think some agents need some people skills. It just like when you are out house hunting yourself and go to open houses. Some agents are great they chat you up tell you about the place etc. while others just sit there and pass you a sheet and barely smile. Its amazing how much more of an impression a friendly,professional agent can make.

I Played a live tournament on Thursday night and with 55 people I managed a 5th place showing so that was okay. Not a lot of memorable hands but I managed a good lay down on one and bad one on another. The first one was I was dealt A10h in the BB. It was raised to me and with everyone else folding i just called. Flop comes A86. I bet Liking my Ace with on Okay kicker and the original raiser went all in. HMM. It was fairly early on but I had him covered if I called but only by a few hundred chips. After a lot of thought I folded face up. He showed and had AJ. Good fold on my part.

The second memorable hand I was dealt Pocket 10's UTG. I raised 3.5 times the BB hoping to take it right there. I got one caller the lady in the BB who is ultra aggressive and a good player. Flop comes 854 rainbow. She makes a pretty large bet which screams that she either has an over pair or AK or is trying to buy the pot. I just couldn't pull the trigger. I even asked if she would show if I folded. She said yes which even more likely said I was probably good. I folded. She had AQ suited.
Terrible fold although she could have caught her Ace or Queen on the turn or the river I guess

Other than that I managed to win my share of pots and ended up going out in 5th when the chip leader caught his straight on the river and that was my night. Still a decent showing.

Up and Down Night

2009-08-19T08:15:00.004-07:00

I played my usual Tuesday night live tournament last night and early on I knew it was going to be a decent night when sitting in the BB with 2,9 off suit and the flop comes 296 rainbow. I of course won that pot when I bet and everyone folded. Soon after I got moved to a new table and I got dealt AKh. A lady in early position who is an excellent player and who already had a decent stack bet just over 3 x BB. I just called and everyone else folded. Flop came Q86 with 2 hearts. She bet again big which looked like a continuation bet so liking the amount of outs I had and hoping to push her off the hand I went all in. She insta called and flipped over pocket Kings.Whoops. Still had lots of outs though and I hit my Ace on the turn and just to rub it in more caught my flush on the river. A nice double up.

I was sailing along until 3 consecutive hands changed my fate. I again got dealt AK this time in the BB. I had 2 limpers to me and with blinds at 400/800 I raised to 3000. One guy folded and the lady in the SB after some thought pushed. It was only 400 more to call and I did of course. She had A5c. Awesome but of course she hit her 5 on the flop and then the turn and river brought AA. She had her full house and I took a bit of a hit to my stack. The very next hand in the SB I got dealt 95d. I limped in with 2 others. Flop brought 2 diamonds. I just checked and someone bet the minimum so I called just to see another card. The other guy folded. The turn brought another diamond. Got my flush but not liking just having a 9 high and not wanting another card to come bet enough to put the original better all in. She called and looked surprised when I turned over my flush which held up. You got to like those SB specials. While I was still stacking my chips I got dealt Pocket Kings. I raised to just over 3 x the BB and only the BB called me. Flop come QJ6 rainbow. He bet pretty big and I immediately put him on AQ. Without doing a lot of thinking (big mistake) I pushed all in. He inst called me and turned over QJ for a flopped two pair. Yikes. I couldn't get my third King or get the turn or river to pair to give me a higher two pair and just like that I was out as he had me covered. I am still thinking about that hand and wondering if I over played it. I just couldn't put him on QJ. I probably should have thought it through better before pushing especially when he bet out. Any thoughts?

The Story Behind DB Cooper

2009-08-18T10:02:00.003-07:00

When I first signed up to play online poker a few years back they of course asked for a user name and for some bizarre reason I chose DB Cooper. I constantly get asked or my name gets commented on by mostly older players. The young players for the most part have no idea who DB Cooper was.

I have always been fascinated with the legend of DBCooper. Did he get away with it?? Is he still alive somewhere or did he die parachuting from the airplane??

On November 24,1971 a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked a Northwest Airlines flight and demanded 200,000 in cash and two parachutes. He handed the Flight Attendant a note saying he had a bomb .The plane landed at Seatac Airport and his demands were met. All the passengers and one Flight Attendant were allowed to leave. The plane was refuelled. The mysterious man now known as DB Cooper said he wanted to head towards Mexico. He was told that the fuel would not carry them that far and they agreed on refuelling again in Reno Nevada. The plane then took off. The one remaining flight attendant and the 3 crew were ordered to stay in the cockpit and not come to the back. They were also told not to pressurize the cabin. About an hour into the flight the pilot noticed a red light signalling a door had been opened. This was somewhere over southern Washington state. They crew having been told to not come back proceeded to Reno landed the aircraft and discovered that DB Cooper was gone. He had parachuted out with the money strapped to his body.

To this day nobody knows whether he died on the way down or somehow got away with it. The only evidence ever found was near Vancouver Washington in 1980 a child digging in the sand discovered close to 6000 dollars of the money near Vancouver Washington. The FBI confirmed this was part of the 200,000 as the serial numbers matched. This tells me that DB Cooper survived the jump and possibly buried the money in different spots.

You have to remember these were the days before there was basically any security at airports.

So what really happened to DB Cooper? I don't think we will ever know but his legend lives on. Personally I think he got away with it.

The Time Travellers Wife

2009-08-17T11:22:00.004-07:00

This weekend we walked over and saw The Time Travellers Wife at our local theatre. I had seen a couple people reading the book and had seen the previews and and was mildly optimistic that it might a decent movie. I was pretty disappointed and a bit creeped out. The movie is about a guy who like the title says travels through time but never knows when he is going or where. On one of his travels through time he meets his future wife who at the time is about 6 years old. The story follows a ragged plot line and jumps from past to present to future. I suppose if you had read the book you could follow it better but I just didn't think whoever adapted the screenplay from the book did a very good job. I was actually fairly bored watching the movie and kept looking at my watch. The creepy part was that when he travelled through time he does so naked. Now there is nothing wrong with being naked but he kept going back to see his future wife and just something about that whole context of a grown man meeting a 6 year old and then marrying her later that I just found a bit weird. Maybe I was reading too much into it. My better half enjoyed the movie more than than me. Anyways I would wait for the video on this one.

As you can probably tell I go to a lot of movies. There is something about sitting in a theatre watching the big screen that I just love. Oh sure you can see movies at home on big screen TVs but it's just not the same.

Wildlife and Last Nights Game

2009-08-14T08:07:00.008-07:00

It seems up in northern Alberta conservation officers went in and shot dead 12 black bears who had the audacity to frequent the garbage dump. Imagine the nerve of those bears coming into our wilderness area and going through the trash. Actually all kidding aside I can't believe that we still have Neanderthal conservation officers who think that the solution to a wildlife problem is to shoot them. This was not in a major city or a bear threatening people but this was bears wandering into a garbage dump that wasn't properly fenced. The nearest town had a population of just over 100 people. I was sickened when I read the article here

Where I live when I go for a run or walk I frequently see deer. Sometimes in packs of 3 or 4. I always stop and watch them. There are literally dozens that live in the wooded area near me. I feel fortunate to live here and yet every so often some person will complain with a letter to the editor about the deer. Well guess what folks where do you want these animals to go?? We have built into there natural habitat and we have to learn to co exist with them. Now I know deer aren't the same as bears but you get the idea.

There were ways around the cull of the bears in Alberta but the gun slinging officers took the easy way out . Shame on them and shame on Alberta for allowing this to happen.

I played my usual Thursday live game last night with about 50 players. I started off well when in the very first hand I got dealt QJ in the dealer position. I limped in with 4 others. Flop comes Q64. I bet got one caller. The turn was a J giving me two pair. I bet. She called. River brought an ace. I was a little concerned but bet out fairly big. She finally called after a lot of thought. She had AK so my two pair were good. Good pot and I was glad she overplayed her AK and didn't raise preflop.

My night went well. I was getting decent cards and building my stack when I hit pocket Aces UTG and put in a pretty decent raise. Guy next to me went all in.
Everyone folded back to me and of course I called. He had KJd. He hit his K but the Aces held and I was sailing along.

I took a huge hit when I got dealt AK clubs. Guy in EP raised and I just flat called him. Then the BB pushed all in. The loose young guy in EP called and action was on me. Should I call, push (young guy and me had about the same amount of chips) or fold as to call was over half my stack. I elected to just call. BB had AQ, young guy had J9. I hit my K on the flop but young guy hit his straight on the river and won a huge pot. He sheepishly said he was just trying to steal when he first raised and would have folded if I pushed. That one stung.

I managed to win a couple small pots later but eventually went out when we were down to 2 tables. I think I was 12th place.