Monday

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

Hockey, Mookie or Dank

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

PAD

I managed to catch Poker After Dark yesterday. This weeks installment is a cash game and has its usual interesting cast of players like Phil Laak,Tom Dwan,Antonio Esfandiari, Kenny Tran, Bob Safai and Phil Hellmuth. I really like the cash game format as opposed to the usual 120,000 dollar winner take all this show usually has. There has been a lot of great interaction amongst the players and of course the usual lying about what they folded. A prime example yesterday Phil Laak who was actually on a straight flush draw and he made a huge bet around 70,000 dollars and Safai who had an open ended straight draw finally folded. Asked afterwords what he had Laak said a pair of Queens. Its so funny because they can do it with a straight face knowing that Safai will see what he had on TV. I also think Dwan was getting a little tipsy as he twice asked for another round of drinks. Anyways love the show and hope they do more cash games.

I was reading Vegas Rex's blog yesterday and I guess Las Vegas had a bikini parade down the strip yesterday. They got just under 300 ladies, gave them each a bikini and 100 bucks to parade down the strip and then the Las Vegas mayor declared summer had officially started. You gotta love Las Vegas. I also loved Rex's pictures of the event.

Yesterday I mentioned that in our recent provincial election we had only 53% of the eligible voters cast ballots. Well it appears my numbers were wrong. It was actually worse as only 48% exercised their vote. That is so pitiful.

Well the final 4 of the hockey playoffs are set and it will be Chicago against Detroit and Carolina against Pittsburgh. I would love to see a Chicago and Pittsburgh final but Detroit will be tough to beat.

I played a live game last night and once again really couldn't get anything going. Managed to steal a couple blinds and also took one guy out when he pushed with A,7 and my A,K magically held up. I lost a lot of chips chasing a flush and straight draw where the odds said I should but neither materialized so I was fairly short stacked when I got AQh in middle position. I pushed got 2 callers which surprised me and when the Q hit on the flop I figured I might triple up. They were checking it down until the river when a K hit and one lady bet , got a bit of a dirty look from the other lady and a realization from me that I was gone. She flipped over K9..A strange call but she hit her river card so who am I to question. I had the other lady beat or so she said when I showed what I had. So that's 6 games in a row were I haven't final tabled. Not the kind of streak I like!!!!

Slow Playing

No not that kind of slow playing. I mean playing slow. So I was at my regular Monday night game and I think there was 45 or so there. Most of them I have played with before at some point but there is always a couple different or new people. Anyways there was this new guy there. He said before we started that he had played a lot on the Internet in cash games at Fulltilt and Party Poker. I thought great. Its always nice to get new faces and really even if they haven't played much most of us are a patient bunch and will explain rules if someone does something that's not right. The way this guy talked it looked like he would fit in perfectly. uMMMMMMMM no. The cards were dealt and when it was his turn to act he would just stare at everybodys chips for like it seemed forever before he either bet or folded. At first I thought it was he wasn't sure what to do which is common for the Internet folks who haven't played live. On the Internet of course everything is basically down for you except clicking an option. Anyways after a few hands I could see other people getting frustrated so I said a couple times the action is on you. That didn't help. I can understand after the flop if you take time to make a decision occasionally or when you are making a decision which can cost you all or most of your chips but this was before the flop everytime. The thing was this guy was winning. Not with any degree of skill either he was just hitting the cards and rivered a couple people. He was still in last night after I got eliminated. It was going to be a long night with his chip stack unless someone took a huge pot from him. I know a lot of people made comments to me afterwords wishing he would speed up. It was literally putting me to sleep waiting for him to play.

Things didn't fall right for the Canucks last night either. Getting beat 7-5 is unbelievable. They had the lead like 3 times and gave it up. Who would have thought 7 goals would get by Luongo who many consider to be the best goalie in the league. So its to the golf course for them. They have some major decisions to make in the off season. Do they resign Ohlund and Sundin. Are the twins worth 6.5 million each with the current salary cap?? Luongo is going into his option year do they try and resign him or trade him?? I know he has a no trade clause in his contract but those can be waived by the player. Should be an interesting off season

Election day here in B. C. I don't think there will be much change in who gets elected if you listen to the election polls. The most interesting thing will be the referendum on changing how we count votes. The current system is what they call first past the post. You get the most votes in a riding you are elected. Now they want to bring in a system called the STV which stands for the single transferable vote. What it would do is allow parties who say got like 18% of the vote possibly get someone elected. You would vote for your first, second and third choices. The problem is most people (me included) don't fully understand it.
What happened a few years ago was one part got like 45% of the overall vote but elected 95% of the people. This new idea would not allow that to happen. Anyways I voted for change but I doubt very much if it will pass.

Lady Luck

Luck plays a part in any poker players game. We all know this. To think it doesn't is a bit misguided. Some nights she's smiling on us and some nights you can't win. To get anywhere in a tournament whether it be a major WSOP event, WPT event or a tournament at your local casino a few times during that tournament you will need Lady Luck smiling down on you. We all try to play smart ABC poker to advance in tournaments and after playing for over 30 years I know playing smart doesn't always win. You still need that luck factor. We all have gone in with hands that were huge favourites and watched someone get their one or two outer to win the pot. We have also been on the other end too where we have called an all in and been the distinct dog on the hand and watched a beautiful turn or river come up.

Luck seems to come in streaks to me. When I am running good my hands hold up but of course that's not always the case. The hardest thing to learn is not to let the times they don't get under your skin. It's one of the things about this game that I still deal with today. You can't let it affect your game.

My youngest son plays and plays fairly well but he tends to let the so called (bad beats) get to him. I keep reinforcing that just to play his game and not to let one hand affect his game for the rest of the evening. Its a learning process and I have already noticed a huge improvement on his part. Before if someone got that one outer he would then go on tilt and that's not good. We both discuss the hands later and analyze what we did right and of course what we did wrong. I keep emphasizing to him that even if you did everything right in the hand sometimes luck just isn't with you.

Why I decided to write this post was that back on March 19th I made this post about how Frank Calo won a NLH event at Atlantic City. He called an all in with AJ and the other player had KK. The flop came K,5,2. That gave the other player top set but the turn brought a 4 and the magical 3 fell on the river. Before the flop he was a 70 to 28% dog. After the flop he was only a 6% favourite to win the hand. The 4 on the turn brought him up to 9%. Yet luck was on his side and he won.

Would he have won this tournament if he had lost this hand? Probably. He had obviously played really well and was the chip leader at this point in the tournament but he still needed that luck to be on his side in this particular hand. I had the pot size wrong in my original post as Frank pointed out to me in a comment that was submitted today and for that I apologize. I had gotten the pot size from another site and obviously it was wrong but the cards weren't. As he said in his comment that even if he had lost this race he would still have been the chip leader. The point I was making was that we all know that in tournaments you need that luck at times to be on your side and Frank certainly had it in this case.

I am not sure how Frank Calo (pictured above) found my blog amongst the thousands of poker blogs out there but thanks for reading and I look forward to seeing you win more.

On a totally unrelated topic to the poker world is something as a Canadian I am embarrassed to say still happens in our country. That is the seal hunt. This happens mainly in Newfoundland and has been a way of life for ever but it must stop. They club the seals over the head to kill them. If you have a squeamish stomach don't google it as it will sicken you. Can we not retrain these people in other jobs?? I honestly can not believe that we still allow this to happen. Very sad. It is so barbaric.

Game 5 tonight. Canucks/Blackhawks. Should be a good one!!

Vegas

I have been to Vegas a few times and went twice last year both times for a week. I have a week trip planned for September and I can't wait. Its gotten now where I really don't want to travel anywhere else. I love it there. Its not just the poker and gambling. I can get that here in BÇ casinos. Its just the vibe there. People always ask me why don't I go to Hawaii (been there), Mexico(never again) or say Cuba. Those places just don't have the thrill for me that Vegas does. I guess if you live there like the Grump or BWOP it wouldn't be the same but to me its always the best vacation. As soon as I got home from being there last August I was planning my next one. I was actually hoping to go in the spring but the better half couldn't get any vacation time in April or May so September it will be.

I read a lot of great Vegas blogs mostly poker related but one that's veers off the beaten track is Vegas Rex. He actually has two blogs which you can find here and here . He gives you a different slice of Vegas, doesn't mince words and calls it like he sees it. A very entertaining read. His pictures of different parts of Vegas are superb.

I played a live game last night and basically bombed out. I think there was just under 50 of us and fairly early on I got dealt pocket queens in the BB. I love getting high pockets in the BB. Who wouldn't?? I tend to win big pots there. They can be played and disguised well. Well not this time. A guy in middle position who was already down a bit pushed all in. Then the guy in the SB called him. Yikes. What is a guy to do? The SB I didn't worry too much about as he plays weird hands but the early guy had me concerned. After much deliberation I called. Since the SB and myself both had him covered we saw a flop of I think 953 rainbow. The SB then pushed his remaining chips in . What the?? Anyways I called as I still had him covered. He flipped over AQ. The early raiser flipped over KK. Not looking good for the main pot but when the turn and the river were blanks I at least won the side pot. It left me fairly short stacked but I managed to build it back a bit over the next orbit.

Then I got dealt A5h UTG. I am not a big fan of this hand in that position so I folded. Well every one else at the table limped in... If I had only known. The flop came Q55. Yep. Two people got a piece of it one guy having the other 5 and a lady who I think had AQ. It turned into a huge pot which would have been mine. Oh well. I still really don't like playing Ace Rag early.

I went out when getting low I pushed with Q10h and 2 hearts on the flop of 872. The chip leader at our table called me with 8,3? It was a BB special and he had bet after the flop and I thought he was just trying to steal the pot so I pushed hoping he would fold but also knowing I had lots of outs. His 8s held up and I was out.

I talked to a lot of people last night just generally asking if they played online for cash and if so at what levels. Most played but very few for cash (they felt like I do that they would rather play live). Some played the micro games. One guy told me he was watching one of the higher games online and watched a guy lose 80 grand in less than an hour. Unbelievable. Imagine sitting at a computer and blowing 80 grand staring at a screen full of cards. Not in this lifetime.

So the hockey playoffs are fully set now after last nights games so my predictions for the next round are... Detroit over Anaheim in 6, Washington over Pittsburgh in 7,
Boston over Carolina in 5 and Vancouver over Chicago in 6. First game is Thursday night here in Vancouver.

Is online poker rigged??

As I was saying yesterday I frequently read the ALL Vegas poker site. It is a fountain of information and has some great posters with lots of knowledge of the poker world and of course Vegas Poker . I love reading the threads about how to play hands which posters submit afterwords wondering if they did the right thing.

I came upon this thread and about half way down where 2 different posters questioned whether online poker was rigged. Makes a very interesting read and opens up a whole discussion on this. Who is regulating online poker at the different sites?? We all know what happened at Ultimate Bet after the series on 60 minutes. What is stopping players from collusion?? Not much although the sites claim they monitor rooms.Yea but how much monitoring?? Why does the online game seem to have so many incredible hands and people catching at the river?? Is it because more hands are played?

A couple posters defend the online game and say that the high incidents of good hands are just that there are a way more hands being played online and of course the Royal flushes and Quads are going to appear way more often.

Here are my thoughts. If you want to invest money online do so with extreme caution and do just small amounts. I personally don't. I love the live game and only use the online game to pass time and because I love playing poker and will play anytime anywhere. I would love to see the online game regulated and run out of either the U.S. or Canada. The likely hood of that happening I think is really small. Right now players are trusting the sites that everything is run above board. I worry more about collusion with players than I do about it being rigged.

I played a live game last night. I think there was just under 40 players and it was a really unremarkable night. Early on I got dealt pocket 5's in the BB and with 2 limpers in the pot decided to just call. Flop came 6,5,4 rainbow. Young guy bet 2 BB and second limper folded. Well I liked the trip 5's I had but didn't like the board that much so min raised him. He called. Chasing his straight?? Turn brought the another lovely 6 giving me a full house. He bet and I just called hoping he caught his straight on the river. The river was Q and he checked and I bet but he folded. Decent pot. After that it was basically winning the odd pot and then I became incredibly card dead and went out in 9th. Playing again tonight so hoping for a better result.

Well the match ups in one side of hockey playoffs are set now with Detroit playing Anaheim and Chicago playing our Vancouver Canucks. Should be two great series. I like the Canuck chances against Chicago if they get great goaltending like they have been. The Anaheim/Detroit series will be tough. Most experts will be picking Detroit but Anaheim sure looked good knocking off San Jose.

Hockey Playoffs (not all poker)

Okay so last night was game 2 of the first round of the playoffs. The Canucks at home to St Louis. My better half suggested we go catch the game at one of our local pubs. We have like 3 pubs within walking distance. She's not a big hockey fan but I think she needed a couple drinks after a bad week at work. Anyways we decide to sit at the bar as all the seats in front of the big screen were gone. Thats okay as they have a tv behind the bar that we can watch. I am now into month 4 of my alcohol free bit> its not that I had a problem but I drank too much New Years eve and I just said that's it for awhile. Anyways there is this guy sitting next to me at the bar. I think he was Australian. I made a comment to the bartender that I would like to see the Canucks play the Flames(her team) in the second round. She thought that would be good but the guy next to me said that the Canucks wouldn't even get to the second round. I laughed thinking this guy was a St Louis fan. Which would have been great. Its always fun to have someone cheering for the other team too. That wasn't the case. This guy just didn't like hockey so he decided to cut down the Canucks. He was trying to draw me in and also the guy next to him. He was getting on both our nerves. He was making comments like if he was at home hockey would put him to sleep. That's fine but you are in a bar filled with Canadian hockey fans. Really just drink your beer and watch the game or talk about something else or flirt with the cute bartenders. It would be like me going to Australia and ragging on whatever sport they play down there (Aussie Rules Football) Anyways after 2 periods of listening to him ramble we left and watched the 3rd period at home. The good guys won 3-0. It kind of wrecked our night a bit.

After the game Party Poker had coverage of the UK open on for a bit. Phil Hellmouth was doing the play by play. I didn't recognize any of the players but Phil was being Phil. Not liking the way anybody played. One really funny thing happened . One of the players caught AA and immediately went all in. Phil ragged on him for doing that saying nobody was going to call him and he wasted good cards. He should have played them slower Well he did get one caller who had A10. So what happened?? A 10 came on the flop and another on the river. Phil was stunned and I was rolling on the sofa laughing . Too funny.

I played a bit of Razz and Omaha online last night and had a really friendly couple of tables. Its nice when people are congratulating each other and talking online. It makes playing online more enjoyable. I like to talk and that's why I really prefer the live game. I love the interaction at the table and if you are playing online a lot of times nobody talks. Gets boring.

I was reading Cardgirls blog this morning as she is in Las Vegas for a few days. I just started following her a few months back and really enjoy her writing. I admire her for what she is attempting to do play for a living. It takes great courage and I wish her well. Seems she is going through a bit of a bad spell right now. Hope she plays her way out of it.

One of those nights

I played another live tournament last night. This one had I think 47 of us so a pretty good field. It was one of those nights that we all dream about (well the first half anyways). You know those nights when you get good playable cards in position AND you also hit flops. I had pocket queens very early and picked up a small pot. Two hands later I look down and pocket queens again. Hmm. Someone had preflopped raised so I just called. Flop came Q22. Could it get any better?? Not much. The pre flop raiser bumped it up . I just called. Turn was a blank and she bet again. I pushed all in. She had me covered but was drawing dead as she had KQ for 2 pair. Nice pot.

Next hand I pick up KQ and I min raised. Got 2 callers. Flop came KQ6. I am liking this but I just checked. Guy to my immediate left pushed all in (he was short stacked) and got immediately called. I also called. Then the 2 of us checked to the river. The guy that pushed had Q6 and the other guy had KQ also so we chopped that pot. Hands were just coming my way . I got moved to another table and 3rd hand in I get pocket 9's. There was a pre flop raise so I just called. Flop came J95. Trip 9's Turns out the guy who raised had pocket 8's so I won another pot.

A couple hands later I got dealt A5 in the big blind. What happens yep you guessed it Flop comes 655. I won another decent pot. At the break I was definately the chip leader and things were looking good. That is until disaster struck. We were down to about 16 and I got deat AKd in early position. I bumped it 3xBB (big mistake) and the lady next to me thought for a minute and pushed all in. Yikes and she had a decent chip stack. She is a pretty good player too. Anyways everyone else folded and it came around to me. Big decision. If I called her and lost I would lose about 3/4 of my chips> if I won I would be the chip leader by a lot. I thought she might have queens or jacks. Anyways I called and she flipped over Aces. Not what I wanted to see. The flop gave me a few more outs when it came Q106 but only one diamond. Needed a J for a straight but it was not to be. That crippled me and I ended up going out in 11th spot a few hands later. Still a decent showing but disappointing considering the cards I had earlier.

Hockey playoffs start tonight. We have never won the Stanley cup here (well except when there was a team called the Vancouver Millionaires in the olden days) but that doesn't count. If the stars align and they play like they can and Roberto Luongo plays like the goalie we all know he is they have a chance. Should be fun watching and the bars love it as they will all be packed. I see Daniel Negraneau in his blog
thinks Vancouver is his sleeper choice to go all the way. Hope your right Daniel.

I posted a pic of the soldier who was killed yesterday in Afghanistan. Her name was Karine Blais and she was only 21 (got the age wrong yesterday). Brave lady. My thoughts are with your family.