I get an amazing quantity of spam email. It used to be that I would get almost none - I have a separate account that I used to (*cough*) sign up for poker sites, airline promotions, for contest entries and the like. This system kept my "personal" account virtually spam free, at least if you don't consider the corny jokes and stupid chain letters forwarded by one of my aunts to be spam.

In the last year or so, that has changed. I'm not exactly sure what triggered the flood - I'm thinking it was probably my listing in a professional directory, which was in turn picked up by a web crawler. I now get dozens and dozens of offers each and every day for V!agra and C!alis, important customer service alerts from banks that I don't use, special deals from "Canadian pharmacies", you name it.

Very standard, at least until the last week or so. Since that time, for whatever reason, almost half of the email I receive is in Russian!

It's very strange. And I (sadly) have to admit that it made me wonder - in Russia does Spam eat you?

**

No poker played this week. I've been meaning to write something up from a home game the weekend before last, but it's getting kind of stale. Chopped the tournament for a modest score and I was rolling in the cash game, up about 2.5 buyins, when it fell apart. Three hands of note:

1. I have JJ on the button and raise. Loose player in the BB calls. Flop contains two clubs but is all unders. Check, bet, call. Turn is another under, non-club. Same action. River is an ace of diamonds. Villain overbets the pot hugely by pushing all in and I finally make the agonizing decision to fold. He shows a busted club draw.

2. I have 75s and flop a flush. Bet it all the way down and get checkraised on the river. Sure enough, villain has the nut flush. Dear sir: You can save your river overacting for a hand where I have to pay more than $3 or $5 to call you in a $30 pot. Bad read on my part, I put him on one big card of that suit and the board didn't 4 flush.

3. Last hand of the night, I have AQo. Flop is AQx. I get stacked by loose aggressive player who happens to have QQ. Very standard.

With the tourney win, I still ended up a buyin. It's obvious, though, that I'm still not and probably will never be much of a player live. It's entertainment only.

Kat. I really didn't deserve to hit that five outer when I donkeyshoved my TPTK. That wasn't very nice.

At least I donated my stack to Garth, who must have invested a small fortune in rebuys.

**

The Stars RNG is really sticking it to me right now. Twice I've had idiots massively 3-bet me preflop with serious underdogs and suck out. Every set I've hit tonight has been runner-runnered in some fashion. TPGK with flush draw gets called down by TP with a kicker one pip better than mine.

Just the usual, I guess.

No, really, who massively 3-bets AQo or AT63 ss preflop in a NL or PL game?

Grrrrrrr.

I hate the short run.

**

I couldn't even win a slot on CC's 5 worst poker blogs list.

GG life.

**

I really wish my cell phone camera took better pictures.

You know how kids will occasionally use their finger to write "WASH ME" on the back of a particularly dirty car? The other day I saw a better one - someone had written "I WISH MY GIRLFRIEND WAS THIS DIRTY" in the dust on the back of a minivan.

**

Good thing it's golf season so I have something else to do.

(in which your hero has little to nothing new to report)

I'm always real glad when Friday rolls around. By the end of the week the stacks of work and papers to be filed have grown to cover every available flat space in my office. Clients love to pick Friday afternoon to call for status updates. I'm usually sleep-deprived and cranky. I swear, if it weren't for an office with a door and caffeine, I'd never make it.

Today I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. I was driving in to work and passed a semi going the other way. The driver was a pretty standard scruffy-looking trucker type - flannel shirt, gray beard, that sort of thing. He was puffing away on a cigarette, waiting for a red light to change.

In his passenger seat: One giant (life sized) stuffed Winnie the Pooh bear. I think it was even buckled in, but I'm not 100% sure.

For real. I'm not making this up. If there were any way to double back and get a picture, I would have.

If this was a sign, it's going to be an interesting day.


In the poker department, I continue to dink and donk around trying to hit another PokerStars milestone hand. The closest I came yesterday was +46, which would be some tiny fraction of a second away. The pure randomness of it is what fascinates me. That and the fact that it obscures the reality of my not being any good at poker. I did cut down my play money tables from 6 to 4 and that seemed to result in better decision-making.

Hit up the Mookie on Wednesday and bombed out mid-pack in standard fashion. AJo in MP, I raise. Get called by someone in late position. Flop an Ace, bet pot which is about 3/4 of my stack so I'm committed. Called, turn is a 7 and I lose to A7. You really do need some luck to survive and I used mine up somewhere else.

I also played a few hands of PLO8 with Drizz, Daddy and Derek. After they all left there was an amusing hand. I'm on the button with a very short stack (blinded away) and A229 double suited. Four players see a flop of K-6-3 no suits. MP bets pot, I have almost nothing left so I call for way less getting at least 5-1. The SB is a huge stack and raises pot. The BB is all in. MP reraises all in. The cards are flipped:

MP has top set with KK, no low or redraws.

Everybody else has a naked A2. I think I was the best of them with a backdoor flush draw to go with the backdoor wheel draw. Or someone had a pair of 5s or something. It was amusing.

Even more amusing when two bricks hit and there was no qualifying low.

That's some stellar O8 play right there. Now it's time for some stellar work.

Even more interesting, in this dream J7o won the hand (>>>> than 42o, LOL).

Hooray for active imaginations and Pokerstars!

Edited to add: Then again, I've never been rivered quite like today. Wow. Good thing play chips are free.

Despite the fact that I've been playing a fair number of hands lately, I really should just convert this into a golf blog or something. Nothing of any real interest is happening. I'm currently taking a break from the play chip PLO tables on Full Tilt after dumping about 60% of my "roll". I've already grumbled about how that's happened so I'll spare you a rehash.

Golf league was washed out last night so I also played the WWdN for the first time in a while. Wil was a no show, as was my game. I finally just pushed with the hammer, was called by ATs, flopped a 2 but lost to a re-suck on the turn.

Rigged.

I've also been idly chasing the milestone hand bonuses over at Stars. Haven't come all that close - missed one last night by a hundred hands or so - but that's not real surprising. I did have an entertaining time playing a little micro-NLHE. I finally found some players who are even bigger idiots than I am.

I feel kind of stupid for not taking advantage of the Stars reload bonus (and for playing without a bonus or rakeback in general), but I'm far too lazy to investigate available deposit options. Also a bit gun-shy about signing up for anything new or trying to use a debit or credit card.

So, anyway, that's what is happening in this little corner of the tubes. Boring, boring stuff. I have a home game to look forward to this weekend along with massive quantities of work.


I think I've mentioned that Michigan changed its charitable gaming rules a while back (last fall?) in a few ways that favor the players and really improve the playability of charity poker. Here's a concrete example:

There used to be a $500 cap on winnings per player per day. This cap applied to both cash games and tournaments which, as you can imagine, made tournament payout structures pretty ridiculous. Put in $50 and if you beat 60-80 players, you win $500. Woo.

The local cardroom put on a big tournament a couple weeks ago, something like a $175 buyin. I didn't know about it until it was already sold out. Turns out that I know one of the guys that chopped first and second and I'm told that he cashed for over $9,000.

Good for him and I bet the charity made out okay too.

It turns out I was right, yesterday was a better day.

After going out for an absurdly good dinner involving prime rib, I logged on and played for a bit. As per usual, I almost immediately got stacked. Standard. One of these times I'll get there with a redraw - or maybe I'll just stop playing 2nd set.

Things then turned around and I went up three "buyins" before giving one back when a shorty rivered a two outer. End result, plus two.

I'll take it.


As part of my quest to find a game I can beat, I also donked around with a couple micro play chip SnGs. Query: When did the microlimits get so tight? I mean, really -- I got a walk several times in the big blind! WTF? Where's the gambool?

PS: Thanks, Full Tilt RNG, for knocking me out third with a river 4 - my 97o vs. 74s, flop 94x, turn blank. I'll add that one to the collection of examples/reasons why I'd never want to be a pro. File it under "beats that would cause homicidal rage if they involved real money".


If I were one of those bloggers who are all good with words and stuff, I'd try and describe just how nice a day it was yesterday. I'm a huge fan of fall, but days like that must be why so many people say spring is their favorite season. Also, TGIF.

EDIT: Well, here's a word picture about summer:

How do I know today is going to be a better day? Well, let me tell you.

I went to Culver's for lunch today. They give you a number and bring your order out when it's ready. My number:


It's gotta be a sign.

First off, good luck to Drizz, who's this close to playing in a World Series of Poker event (#42, how cool), and to brdweb, who won the blogger satellite a couple weeks back and is on his way to do the same in Event #15.

Since the start of the WSOP is only couple short weeks away, that got me thinking ... if you were going to get your feet wet, what would be your first WSOP event? This is more a question for the casual hobbyists like myself than, say, the guys who've already played in the main event or who've won eleventeen seats via satellite.

Personally, I think I'd be most interested in Events #23 and #51, the $1500 PLO and the $1000 SHOE. I'm a fan of more-than-2-card games and I'm not delusional enough to think that I should play anything with a higher buyin.

Fun to think about. Maybe I'll try some satellites or bracelets races next year.

Here's the schedule (shamelessly ripped from Pauly):

Event #1 June 1 @ noon $5,000 World Championship Mixed Limit/NL Hold'em (3 day event)
Event #2 June 1 @ 5 p.m. $500 Casino Employee NL (2 day event)
Event #3 June 2 @ noon $1,500 NL (3 day event)
Event #4 June 3 @ noon $1,500 Pot-limit Hold 'em (3 day event)
Event #5 June 3 @ 5 p.m. $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud 8 or Better (3 day event)
Event #6 June 4 @ noon $1,500 Limit Hold 'em (3 day event)
Event #7 June 4 @ 5 p.m. $5,000 PLO w/rebuys (2 day event)
Event #8 June 5 @ noon $1,000 NL w/rebuys (3 day event)
Event #9 June 5 @ 5 p.m. $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better (3 day event)
Event #10 June 6 @ noon $2,000 NL (3 day event)
Event #11 June 6 @ 5 p.m. $5,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud (3 day event)
Event #12 June 7 @ noon $1,500 NL hold 'em / Six Handed (3 day event)
Event #13 June 8 @ noon $5,000 World Championship pot-limit hold 'em (3 day event)
Event #14 June 8 @ 5 p.m. $1,500 Seven Card Stud (2 day event)
Event #15 June 9 @ noon $1,500 NL (3 day event)
Event #16 June 9 @ 5 p.m. $2,500 HORSE (3 day event)
Event #17 June 10 @ noon $1,000 World Championship Ladies Event NL (3 day event)
Event #18 June 10 @ 5 p.m. $5,000 World Championship Limit hold 'em (3 day event)
Event #19 June 11 @ noon $2,500 NL (3 day event)
Event #20 June 11 @ 5 p.m. $2,000 Seven Card Stud 8 or Better (3 day event)
Event #21 June 12 @ noon $1,500 NL shootout (2 day event)
Event #22 June 13 @ noon $5,000 NL (3 day event)
Event #23 June 14 @ noon $1,500 PLO (2 day event)
Event #24 June 14 @ 5 p.m. $3,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud 8 or Better (3 day event)
Event #25 June 15 @ noon $2,000 NL (3 day event)
Event #26 June 15 @ 5 p.m. $5,000 HORSE (3 day event)
Event #27 June 16 @ noon $1,500 NL (3 day event)
Event #28 June 17 @ noon $3,000 NL (3 day event)
Event #29 June 17 @ 5 p.m. $1,500 Seven Card Razz (2 day event)
Event #30 June 18 @ noon $2,500 NL - 6 handed (3 day event)
Event #31 June 19 @ noon $5,000 World Championship Heads Up NL (3 day event)
Event #32 June 19 @ 5 p.m. $2,000 Seven Card Stud (2 day event)
Event #33 June 20 @ noon $1,500 PLO w/rebuys (2 day event)
Event #34 June 20 @ 5 p.m. $3,000 Limit Hold 'em (3 day event)
Event #35 June 21 @ noon $1,500 NL (3 day event)
Event #36 June 21 @ 5 p.m. $5,000 World Championship Omaha8 or Better (3 day event)
Event #37 June 22 @ noon $2,000 Pot-limit hold 'em (3 day event)
Event #38 June 23 @ noon $1,500 NL (3 day event)
Event #39 June 24 @ noon $50,000 World Championship HORSE (5 day event)
Event #40 June 24 @ 5 p.m. $1,500 Mixed hold 'em (Limit/NL - 3 Day event)
Event #41 June 25 @ noon 41 $1,000 World Championship Seniors NL (3 day event)
Event #42 June 25 @ 5 p.m. $1,500 PLO 8 or Better (2 day event)
Event #43 June 26 @ noon $2,000 Limit Hold 'em (3 day event)
Event #44 June 27 @ noon $2,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split (2 day event)
Event #45 June 28 @ noon $5,000 NL Six handed (3 day event)
Event #46 June 28 @ 5 p.m. $1,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better (3 day event)
Event #47 June 29 @ noon $2,000 NL (3 day event)
Event #48 June 29 @ 5 p.m. $1,000 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) w/rebuys (2 day event)
Event #49 June 30 @ noon $1,500 NL (3 day event)
Event #50 July 1 @ noon $10,000 World Championship PLO (2 day event)
Event #51 July 1 @ 5 p.m. $1,000 S.H.O.E. (2 day event)
Event #52 July 2 @ noon $1,000 NL w/rebuys (3 day event)
Event #53 July 3 @ noon $1,500 Limit hold 'em Shootout
Event #54 July 4 @ noon $5,000 World Championship NL 2-7 Draw Lowball w/rebuys (2 day event)

Event #55 2007 WSOP Main Event Championship $10K NL
July 6 @ noon Day 1A - 3000 Players
July 7 @ noon Day 1B - 3000 Players
July 8 @ noon Day 1C - 3000 Players
July 9 Day Off
July 10 @ noon Day 2
July 11 @ noon Day 3
July 12 @ noon Day 4
July 13 @ noon Day 5
July 14 @ noon Day 6
July 15 @ noon Day 7
July 16 Day Off
July 17 @ noon Final Table


I continue to be ice cold at the tables. Just can't catch a break. Time to hang it up for the night - I flop middle set with one player behind me. Of course he has top set and my flush redraw doesn't get there. Every. Freaking. Time.

Eureka, I've discovered the big one. The true secret of poker success.

And because I care about all six of my regular readers, I'm going to share it with you. You could just trust that I'm right or you can check it out for youself.

Are you sitting down? Got a cold beverage? Good, you might need it.

The secret is ....


That's all there is to it.

Okay, okay, so that isn't really it. Guess I'll keep looking.

Maybe it's just me, but Saturday afternoons are the devil. For the second week in a row I got pounded. We're talking Paris Hilton in an all-women's correctional facility kind of action. It's just annoying. Last week involved a fair amount of tilt. Yesterday was just sick. I found a bigger game than usual with a couple of serious donkeys sitting. I decided to shortstack it for variety. Uggggggggggggh. Let's just say that variance was not my friend.

But is it really variance when you're all in preflop with AAxx vs TTxx, you have the SAME side cards and suits as your opponent and they still hit their 2 outer?

Hate hate hate HATE HATE HATE

I'm down nearly 50% over the last two weeks.

It only took one third of the season, but I finally played my first Battle of the Bloggers Tour (or whatever it's called) event. I visited the Riverchasers tourney but didn't stay long. 54 minutes or thereabouts.

I will say that things unfolded in completely standard fashion:

1. Win a hand and chip up a little.
2. Get it all in on the flop as a big favorite against some unknown riverchasin' donkey and have them catch perfect runner-runner to lose 80% of the stack.
3. Double up and then steal a couple times.
4. Go down in flames in a battle of the blinds.

The last part was my bad. I open-pushed from the small blind with an M in the 5 range. I think I had the tourist, A7o. Garth decided to defend his blind with Q9o. Good decision, since he ended up with two pair whilst I had naught but air.

I guess I should have read Smokkee's blog before playing, then I would have known about the awesome power of Q9o! BTW, apparently 7x the BB or thereabouts is not enough to get Q9o to fold.

So, anyway, there you have it. I was also riding the wild coaster ride of play chip PLO swings, so I didn't chat. That was dumb. Next time, more chat less losing plz.

I don't pretend to try and keep up with what's new in the poker world, but this one was new to me. I logged on to Full Tilt this evening to check out the PLO games - including who's playing for big bucks (at least compared to my play chips, that is).

For a first, I find the lovely Erica Schoenberg playing $1/$2.



Huh. I didn't know she was a Full Tilt Pro. In fact, last I heard, she was a Mansion player. Then again, her main man David Benyamine is a FT pro and plays a lot of high stakes PLO and she's done well enough to get some recognition. Good for her.

So I open up the table. Here's a tip, Full Tilt -- she doesn't look like THIS:



She looks like THIS:



Please, please give her a custom avatar!

Anyhow, the rail chat was only partlymostly retarded and, to her credit, Erica was both pleasant and chatty. And as if I wasn't already a big fan, this bit from the chat pretty much seals the deal:

ROCO_SUAVE: you like Omaha alot?
EricaSchoenberg: yeah, im liking it more than hold em for sure

I think this blog needs more pictures.

to whomever it was at Full Tilt who (temporarily?) turned off my doom switch.

Always nice to get stacked right out of the gate when a donk with middle set reraises your top set all in on the flop and proceeds to go runner-runner for a straight. So much for being an 88/12 favorite and looking at a quick double up.

I guess that inspired pity or something, as the session ended in positive territory. 5% of Saturday's play chip beatdown recovered.

Current tilt level:




Anyway, no content to speak of today. Will probably miss the Wheatie tonight, then the Mookie tomorrow, then Riverchasers on Thursday. As they say, "standard".