Res Ipsa Poker: June 2008

Friday, June 27, 2008

[O/T] Pic Dump

What do you do on a Friday evening when you're bored and don't have enough energy to do anything that matters?

I dunno. I'm busy doing really really important stuff, like clearing some of the pictures out of the memory of my crappy camera phone. Because I like to share, I give you:

"Discount Roosters"
(no not that one)

(rejected alt hed: "Cheap Cocks at Wal-Mart")

No more really needs to be said.

"Epic Fail: The Photograph"

This is such a bad picture, you can't even tell what it is. It's a sign from the local Little Caesars, offering you a combo of Crazy Bread, Crazy Sauce and a 2 Liter for ... $4.20. I intended to title this pic "Tao of Poker Fans Are Everywhere", but um, well, FAIL.

Good deal if you've got the munchies and don't mind highly mediocre starchy food though.

"Great Moments in Product Placement
Part Urp"

Hey, why not. Put the store brand antacid tablets right there in the Mexican food aisle. It's just good business bringing the product to the people like that.

Yeah, I'm bored.

[O/T] These Off Topic Posts Need A Label

TGIF, am I right?

I thought about playing last night, but ended up not. Super crappy connection (what else is new) and I got wrapped up in some completely unrelated reading. Still a little irked about the previous night's cooler as well. So rigged.

The weekend is only hours away and I'm busy thinking about what I'm going to do. Hoping to get in a little golf, but the weather forecast isn't exactly promising. I'll probably end up doing some shopping - I have some golf equipment gift certificates and have no idea what I'm going to get. I already have a new driver and picked up a couple other clubs off eBay that are working pretty well. I'll probably never change my irons. My shaky putting isn't the fault of the putter (I know, I've tried many, they're all defective). I don't really need a new bag. Hmmm. Maybe a wedge. Or some new golf balls. Decisions, decisions. Shopping sucks.

I'd again like to go play some live poker, but the local charity site shows no games again this week. It could be that there won't be much this summer - too many festivals and other things going on. I don't think I'm likely to saddle up for 90 minutes to the nearest casino, I just can't commit enough hours to make it worthwhile. I did receive a pretty cool offer from Caesar's Windsor this week, so maybe I can road trip there for a day or two some time.

Oh, yeah, I know what else I need to do. I have a free airline ticket due as a result of a bump coming back from Las Vegas in December. I have been saving the voucher for this December's Vegas trip and now that the dates are set, I should probably book the ticket ... EXCEPT for the fact that the airline in question has this week demanded massive job and wage cuts and its future looks to be very much in doubt. It'll definitely be around for a couple more months, but December is a long ways away. I have to figure out (1) if I book, would I get compensation if the airline goes belly up - since it'd be a free ticket? (2) should I use it for some other trip, like a fun getaway this summer? (3) can I even use it for December since I think it expires after a year? (4) how would a bankruptcy affect whatever I decide to do? Aargh too many things to think about. Gotta figure it out.

And I can't even have a cold drink for like six more hours. So unfair.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Optimum Donkeration

I'm starting to wonder what it would be like to play under optimal conditions.

I'm sure not doing it.

Lately, when I do play, it's usually because I'm tired but not sleepy. Or I've had a few beverages and don't want to tackle anything that would involve heavy equipment. I play with the knowledge that my internet connection could (and often does) crap out at any time, costing me pots. I play too few or too many tables. I flip back and forth between the tables and catching up on my blog reading. I play way above (in play chips LDO) what my "roll" (lol) can support.

None of that is especially conducive to good play. And I wonder why I'm treading water at best.

Oh, and yeah, I got coolered for a stack last night. Playing tired but it didn't really matter. I watched a donk overplay a couple marginal hands. I promptly get KK in late position. Donk in the big blind reraises and then shoves over the top of my four bet. Of course he has AA. The fifth bet always means aces, even when it's a tard. The turkey even left the table after taking my buy in.

Also ran QQ into AA, but I played that one ~~better~~ more conservatively and four flushed for a decent pot. AA shut down after the flop, which was kind of odd.

I allowed myself to get pushed off black AA in a different hand. I led out post flop on a connected two diamond board, had a guy raise to 5x my bet and had another guy call that. I thought for a while and dumped. Overly aggro guy had just JJ (doh), other donk had the ten high flush draw, which hit on the turn.

The end results were not pleasant, although I did recover a bit from the early stacking.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Project Positive Attitude

Wheee it's Monday. Which means nothing other than a glorious week of grinding away at work. Work work work work work.

Yay.

Oh, it's not so bad. An enjoyable weekend of golf and I'm feeling unusually upbeat. That may dissipate later when reality sets in, but for now I'm trying to accentuate the positive.

Speaking of positives ... I had a good cash session the other day, up more than 1/2 a full buyin at a deep (play chip as far as you know) NL table. I briefly found "the zone", a journey which was helped significantly by the fact that I flopped a couple sets and got paid off on a couple other big hands. I was a little disappointed that my extreme overbet for value when I rivered quad 7s did not succeed. Flush chasers seem to be able to fold when they don't get there, at least in the games I play.

It's been a while since I've been that happy with my play, so for the moment I am liking the game. We'll see how long that lasts...

Thursday, June 19, 2008

WSOP Newz, Day 21

I think the internets are broken. I was over reading the Tao of Poker, getting an update on what's shaking today at the World Serious Of Poker, and I saw this:

Here are today's final tables...

Event #33 $5,000 Stud 8 - Final Table:
Seat 1: Dawn Summers (Brooklyn, NY) - 44,000
Seat 2: Marcel Luske (Amsterdam, Holland) - 308,000
Seat 3: Steve Sung (Torrance, CA) - 207,000
Seat 4: Annie Duke (Los Angeles, CA) - 277,000
Seat 5: Alessio Isaia (Cuneo, Italy) - 398,000
Seat 6: Sebastian Ruthenberg (Hamburg, Germany) - 663,000
Seat 7: Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (Pacific Palisades, CA) - 434,000
Seat 8: Bob Beveridge (Vancouver, BC, Canada) - 280,000

Event #32 $1,500 NL - Final Table:
Seat 1: Dean Bui (Seattle, WA) - 211,000
Seat 2: Justin Hoffman (Alpharetta, GA) - 138,000
Seat 3: Jose Luis Velador (Lake Elsinore, CA) - 1,898,000
Seat 4: Dany Georges (Burbank, CA) - 1,082,000
Seat 5: Utsab Saha (Fremont, CA) - 961,000
Seat 6: Kuro Kitty (Atlanta, GA) - 716,000
Seat 7: Shane Stacey (Hyde Park, VT) - 640,000
Seat 8: Osmin Dardon (West Covina, CA) - 660,000
Seat 9: Anthony Signore (Boynton Beach, FL) - 636,000

3:19pm...

Yes, back by popular demand...
Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. Kenna James
2. Greg "Fossilman" Raymer
3. Pearljammer
4. Hoy "ICrushBloggers" Azo
5. Layne Flack

>Curious. I had to go have a look at some earlier events and there was this...

Event #30 $10K Limit - Final Table:
Seat 1: Andy Bloch (Las Vegas, NV) - 370,000
Seat 2: Rob Hollink (Groningen, Netherlands) - 893,000
Seat 3: Tommy Hang (Seattle, WA) - 578,000
Seat 4: Cy Jassinowsky (Johannesburg, South Africa) - 231,000
Seat 5: Jerrod Ankenman (Avon, CT) - 441,000
Seat 6: Chris Vitch (San Diego, CA) - 201,000
Seat 7: Brock Parker (Silver Spring, MD) - 166,000
Seat 8: JC Tran (Sacramento, CA) - 247,000
Seat 9: Dr. Chako (Seattle, WA) - 1,232,000

And then there was this one ...

Falstaff won his first bracelet at the 2006 WSOP on the same day that his home country of Italy won the World Cup (of soccer). He had been shutout since then and won a bracelet just at the right time.

Yup. The internets are definitely broken.

Or at least cracked.

{Above content ripped off wholesale from the one and only Tao of Poker which you better go read dammit, except for edited portions, which are blamed on it being 85 degrees in my office today and are my fault sorry. Photo taken by Flipchip, the best damned poker photographer in the business and - you guessed it - ripped off. Apologies to any and all who may be insulted by the above. Special apologies to Falstaff, who is a nice guy, a fit bike riding machine and who generally doesn't look all *that* much like Max Pescatori.}

Some Stuff That Doesn't Belong Here But I'm Bored

Excellence in word choice. You have to love this Associated Press report --

Jamie Lynn Spears gave birth to a baby girl Thursday morning at a south Mississippi hospital, according to a friend of the Spears family. The friend, who asked not to be identified because the family had not yet announced the baby's birth, told The Associated Press that the baby was named Maddie Briann and weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces.

The 17-year-old Jamie Lynn was the star of Nickelodeon's "Zoey 101," a sitcom about prep school friends, and is the younger sister of pop star Britney Spears. The Spears family announced in December that Jamie Lynn was pregnant. The father is Casey Aldridge, a pipe-layer from Liberty, Miss. The couple is not married but announced an engagement several months ago.

(emphasis added).

Word.

Retarded Consumer Product of the Week: The first time I'm paired with someone that has one of these ...

it's probably not going to make it through a round unscathed.

Okay, that's it for the moment. Time to play some poker instead of spewing here.

Meet Your Michigan Poker Pros: Craig Natte

This gentleman is Craig Natte. In real life, he may or may not be a marketing consultant.

According to Pokernews (which also gets credit for the pic), Natte finished 6th in WSOP Event #19 ($1,500 PLO) and picked up more than $46,000 in winnings, pushing his career tournament total over the $100k mark.

Natte lists Hudsonville, Michigan as his residence. Hudsonville is boring, agricultural going suburban, is known as "Michigan's Salad Bowl" and is notoriously conservative. The chances of a successful poker pro being from Hudsonville are about the same as those of Larry Flynt being from Provo. (Hang on while I look. Oh, drat, he was born in Kentucky.)

It is not known if Natte enjoys a cold Milwaukee's ~~Beast~~ Best Light ~~or six~~ or if he will be telling WSOP bad beat stories at Grand Rapids-area charity poker games for the next 12 months. The early Vegas line is -150 favoring "yes" in both cases.

Congratulations to Craig Natte, who is apparently really good at poker and is most likely not a douchebag unlike some other poker pros with Michigan connections.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Sum Thanks

Thanks for the donkeys.

Thanks for the added T$.

Thanks for the package to the main event of the World Series of Poker, even if I didn't come within 9 miles of ~~winning it~~ qualifying to play in the championship oh yeah I run gooood. (lol). Online poker is not my forte.

It's Tuesday and for the past couple months that has meant the Bodonkey tournament over at Bodog. Thanks to the hard work of our pal Smokkee and Nadia the Bodog blogger, we got a sweet series of tournaments and a bunch of added swag. GoldenHammer from Japan won the big prize. Well played sir and many many thanks to Bodog, an online poker site that treats bloggers more than right.

Yes.

So.

Now that the Bodonkey series is over, it's time to focus on taking advantage of the mouth breathing sports bettors (naw, I'm not talking about you) that find their way over to the Bodog poker room. Get busy and build up your roll. Just don't do it at my tables, I'm spewing enough as it is. k thanks.

See you there.

Today's Tip(s)

If you haven't already done so, surf on over to the Tao of Poker and read Pauly's post titled "WSOP Day 18: Never Trust a Junkie". I think this is one of his very best (not to diminish anything else he's written). It's that good.

While you're at it, you might want to catch up with TheTrooper97 also on the subject of addiction. The ultimate grind is when you're sweating the rent.

Last but not least, LasVegasVegas has an entry on a new Bodog client. That's seriously exciting news. More on that a little later.

Until next time, I encourage you to send good wishes to Mrs. Tripjax and family.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Mellow Gold

Good grief. It's Monday and I just found myself easing into the workweek by catching up on a few reads while whistling an easy listening favorite from the Carpenters.

Therapy. Years of it.

I hope you had a good weekend. I can think of a few people that did. Congratulations to Iggy and LJ for satelliting into the Main Freaking Event and to F-Train for cashing in Razz.

As for myself, I didn't play a hand after final tabling the Riverchasers* on Thursday. There just aren't enough hours in the weekend. I did get in a couple rounds at the golf course, did the family thing for Father's Day and watched some of the most exciting TV golf in years. I know it's selfish, but I really liked having the U.S. Open on the west coast and the broadcast in prime time - made it easier to get a bunch of stuff done without missing the coverage (since I don't have tivo).

(* not exactly as impressive as it sounds - there were only 11 runners. I also spent so much time disconnecting and reconnecting that I'm sure my table played half as many hands as the other table. My apologies.)

Back to poker.

It was pretty cool to see that Barry Greenstein won a bracelet in Razz. I'm not much of a poker fanboi, but Barry's very much one of my favorites.

I'm sure I'm not the first to say this, but it seems to me that this year more bracelets are being won by name pros - both live and internet pros - and fewer by random joes (and janes). Will this be the year that someone we all know takes down the main event?

See you at the tables.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

For Personal Use Only

For kicks, I'm going to keep track of how I run in coin flips. Please ignore this post if you're bothered by that. Or if you're afraid of the sight of blood. It will be updated periodically, although it should slide down the page in a couple days.

Th 6/12 Riverchasers. All ins: 1. Push AQs with 1600 chips (50/100) after break, on hypertilt from super bad connection. 1st push of the night, been playing loose/weak for a couple orbits. Twoblackaces shoves over the top 2 to my left for 6k total+. He shows JJ. I lose the flip.

The Forecast Calls For Mostly Grouchy

Current mental state: One of detachment.

Nothing much poker going on this week. I did watch a bunch of the Bodonkey Tournament of Champeens, at least up to the point where Drizz took a hard kick square in the nuts (KK vs T8o, T8o calling his shove). I could have played the M00kie last night, but I forgot to register in time. I'll probably pass on playing tonight and tomorrow as well. One thing that could make me change my mind is the humidity level - if it gets way up there, sitting in front of the fan and slinging virtual chips is probably about as ambitious as I'll get.

There is still some kind of poker tournament going on in Las Vegas. I find that I am following the WSOP via the net more than I expected and for that I tip my cap (or I would if I were wearing one) to the folks doing the grunt work. Nice job folks.

I still don't know if we have local charity games any more. I might look into that this weekend, but I probably won't have time.

***

In other developments, there have been dramabombs all over the poker blogosphere the last week or so. My reaction?

Living in a virtual bubble isn't always bad.

BTW, I could probably summarize my entire life with about four LOLcats. But since I like you, I won't.

***

Off topic life tilt digression coming right up.

I have, by my current count, about six categories* of things that I'm trying to accomplish with some elevated level of urgency. Prioritizing them is absolute hell. All of them range from "kinda hot" to "habanero in the eyes". They all need immediate action.

The thing is, these objectives are all conflicting to various degrees. I can't make serious progress on Goal A without at least skimping on time spent working toward Goal B, and in multiple cases, the work I do on Goal C is directly harmful (or at least complicates) Goals D and E.

I've never been especially good at multitasking - I would much rather have a single thing to work on at any given time - but this is making me absolutely crazy. I know that everyone has this issue - more time at work always means less time for personal improvement - but it's never been this bad for me. I can't figure out what to do and when, which means ...

I end up in full avoidance mode, making things even worse later on.

It looks like I need an energy rush of epic proportions. Among other things.

* I say "categories", because these are broad brush issues - one category, for example, is "get caught up on delinquent projects at work" - not real specific matters like "finish the X file".

***

Speaking of things I need, I need a vacation.

I probably won't get more than a long weekend anytime soon, but I least I can get a little mental vacation by booking my flights for Vegas in December (w00). Here's hoping that my airline of choice doesn't go bankrupt between now and then!

Six months away and I'm already excited. December really is the most wonderful time of the year.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

[O/T] Geek Test

I was visiting an office building downtown yesterday and encountered a crew doing some remodeling. The guys doing drywall mudding were wearing stilts like these:

I immediately thought: Imperial walkers!

Uh oh.

Geek.

You?

This post NOT brought to you by Wil Wheaton, who is geekier (and writes better) than I.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Air In My Neighborhood Must Be Defective

I will never understand the vagaries of WiFi. The physical stuff never changes. I have my laptop in the same position. I'm about 80 feet - or less - from the company's closest antenna. And yet I never know what my connection is going to be like. Is it going to be the good one that stays stable for hours? Is it going to be the super-crappy one where I get disconnected every twenty seconds? Will I be able to connect at all?

Once I move, I'm done with this.

Again last night it cost me "money". I didn't feel like doing a thing, so I played poker for a while. A couple hours of PLO followed by a couple hours of NLHE. Just one tabling. Nano-stakes. Play chips as far as you know. My connection started out decent, but degraded badly by the end.

This was the last straw - I have 66 and flop top set. The turn gives me an open ended straight flush draw as well. One opponent who has shown no strength. The river bricks. I get disconnected. My opponent notices and min-bets. I don't reconnect in time and he's shipped a 50BB pot courtesy of my ^&*!^%@ing ISP.

I'm not convinced that Full Tilt's software is entirely blameless either - there are times when I can reconnect to the 'net but don't get reconnected to the game server. This happened a couple times yesterday. Of course as soon as I restart the software I'm connected.

Argh.

So, anyway, what I really wanted to do last night was to go play live. Unfortunately, the local charity games don't run on Mondays (or Tuesdays) as a general rule. I'm a little concerned actually that their run may be over - I pulled up the website and it had the schedule from a couple weeks ago with a note of "no poker this week". I can't remember a time when that happened. It would really suck to lose that option, since the nearest casino card rooms are 90 minutes away.

90 minutes. You thought the rake was bad - try winning enough to pay for gas too. Yeesh.

***

It sounds like the folks that were in Las Vegas last weekend had a good time. I'm enjoying reading the reports and am looking forward to another batch after Mulligan Weekend. There's been a bunch of good stuff from people who are there for the summer ... and in a couple weeks there'll be Okie-Vegas reports. Man, I guess I better clean out my Bloglines folder in anticipation!

Until next time, I piss and moan about my internet connection.

Like you'd expect anything else. Except bad beat stories (LDO).

Monday, June 09, 2008

The Local Ark Dealer Is Gonna Be Swamped Today

Another weekend bites the dust. Sigh. We got about a foot of rain around here Saturday and Sunday, which definitely reduced the amount of work that was accomplished. I still managed to enough done so it wasn't a total waste, but still. I think we have one more day of this before it moves off and torments someone else.

I pulled up the BBT3 tournament of champions on Saturday while on dinner break and I was surprised to find it rather engrossing. Congratulations to those who won. I certainly would have picked cmitch, since he had found KK or QQ three times to pick off shoves in the first twenty minutes I saw and had accumulated a huge stack. One dubious decision undid a lot of good work in a hurry. Sorry man.

As for the Blog Banner freeroll, I ended up having fifteen minutes instead of ten. I got donked early - my shove was called (!) by a shorter stack with KQo and I lost the flip (duh) with JJ. I then went into shove-every-hand mode, which lasted the expected six or eight hands until I ran into AA. I even had a decent hand that time (KQs) but it did not come close to improving. Wheee!

No WSOP for me. Not that I came anywhere close - not at all - but I certainly would have been conflicted if I'd won a main event package. I think the WSOP not taking direct registrations from the poker sites has pretty much killed any chance that I'll ever play in the Main Event - I just can't justify tossing 10K at a tournament when there are so many other uses. If I did get freakishly lucky, I'd probably take the trip to play one of the min buyin events and bring enough to play some bigger cash games, but at least half of the win would be going straight to bills and taxes and stuff.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that way.

Anyhow, it's time to get back to work. Since I didn't spend time at the office this weekend, I'm already behind. What a joyous feeling.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Sweeping The Felts: America The Free Edition

All the poker-related stuff that I happen to feel like aggregating. Nothing more. Nothing less.

He's come a long way from night shift janitor at the Lansing YMCA. Internet poker whiz kid and proud (?) owner of the biggest fivehead around Andrew "good2cu" Robl picked up over $144,000 by finishing third in WSOP Event #4, $5000 mixed hold'em. Sadly, Robl is probably the most notable poker player with recent Michigan connections. Mittenman represent, even if the word most people over age 25 would use to describe you is "douchebag".

The hat totally hides it, brah!

Also in Event #4, noted cheater Justin "zeejustin" Bonomo finished second and Erick Lindgren - whom I have nothing bad to say about - finished first. Score one for team Full Tilt.

Crack magazine investigation discovers that West St. Paul is actually south of St. Paul, not west. In a blinding flash of the obvious, Reason Magazine determines that fantasy sports aren't really all that different than sports betting and poker and (gasp) the UIGEA might be a wee bit hypocritical.

The impetus for this heavy-duty analysis? A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear an appeal of a ruling that fantasy operators are exempt from having to pay licensing fees to Major League Baseball for stats and such. This is good news for Fantasy Sports Live (shill alert - use bonus code BONDS for max signup bennies) and other fantasy operators.

In the next edition of Reason Magazine, expect a column on the hypocrisy of the horse racing carveout, and possibly an expose on how Eastpointe (formerly East Detroit) is actually located north of Detroit. Bastards.

Seventeen states expelled from the union (alt hed: I'll take dubious business models for $600 please Alex). PurePlay, which touts itself as the largest "U.S.-compliant" online poker destination put out this press release touting massive player numbers - nearly 3 million visits per month, with 1.2 million unique visitors in April.

Theoretically, at PurePlay you can play for free and win real money - if you jump through enough hoops. You can make your life easier, however, by becoming a "VIP member" for $19.99 per month. Let's see, the press release touts payouts of $150,000 per month. A million plus members. Yeah, a lot of those lookers are being converted into diehard pureplayers I tell you what.

I would investigate the merits of PurePlay further, but residents of my state - and sixteen others - are not allowed to play on the site. Perhaps they need to fix their tout to say they're "2/3 or so of the U.S.-compliant".

Buy a dozen bagels, get a free WSOP seat? The must be a million ways to win a free seat in the World Series of Poker. Poker sites have freerolls. AOL is giving away six seats. The Poker Players Alliance would like you become a premium member and - note! terms and conditions apply! - you could win a seat (entries close June 10).

Forget all that. You can get a head start on next year (plus a cheap buzz) and win a 2009 WSOP seat - and a bunch of Phil Hellmuth-themed prizes - by drinking Milwaukee's ~~Beast~~ Best Light this summer.

We're from the government and we're here to ~~suck you dry~~ help. The New Hampshire legislature recently passed a bill to ~~extract tribute from~~ tax charity poker games three percent of gross wagering in tournaments and ten percent of the house take in cash games. Charities ~~get the crumbs~~ are allocated 8.75 percent. No word as to whether legislative leaders were accurately quoted as saying "bwahahahahah suck it you stinkin' chairities".

On the plus side for Granite State gamblers, the bill would raise the maximum bet allowed from $2 to $4, meaning that you could now wager an entire Happy Meal on your hand of jack three offsuit, instead of just the cheeseburger.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Contest Winner

Congrats to Fuel, winner of the Underbetting For Value contest. He sent in several potential winners, but this one made me LOL the hardest, plus it's Wednesday and that means M00kie and D00kie --

Full Tilt Poker Game #6605921689: The Dookie (49938252), Table 1 - 15/30 - Pot Limit Hold'em - 23:33:05 ET - 2008/05/28

Seat 1: Fuel55 (1,605)

Seat 2: VBPro7 (3,105)

Seat 4: iam23skidoo (1,425)

Seat 5: mclarich (1,365)

Seat 6: RecessRampage (1,500)

Seat 7: surflexus (1,500)

Seat 8: mookie99 (1,500)

mclarich posts the small blind of 15

RecessRampage posts the big blind of 30

The button is in seat #4

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Fuel55 [As Ts]

surflexus folds

mookie99 folds

Fuel55 has 15 seconds left to act

Fuel55 raises to 105

VBPro7 folds

iam23skidoo calls 105

mclarich folds

RecessRampage folds

*** FLOP *** [7d 5s 9s]

Fuel55 checks

iam23skidoo checks

*** TURN *** [7d 5s 9s] [4d]

Fuel55 bets 255

iam23skidoo calls 255

*** RIVER *** [7d 5s 9s 4d] [9d]

Fuel55 bets 30

iam23skidoo folds

Uncalled bet of 30 returned to Fuel55

Fuel55 mucks

Fuel55 wins the pot (765)

I almost feel like I should have redacted Skidoo's name there. Almost. nh Fuel and xfer of your massive winnings made on FTP.

That was fun. I should come up with more junk to give away.

***

Speaking of things that make me LOL, the last hand of WSOP Event #2 was reee-DONKalus. The recap, from PokerNews (official real time news provider or something like that of the WSOP) --

Grant Hinkle has the button in Seat 10. He raises to 350,000. Akenhead tries to pop it up again, this time by raising to 1.2 million. Hinkle moves all in and Akenhead quickly calls. Here it is! The moment we've been waiting for over the last two hours.

Akenhead is the one who is all in. The hands are opened:

Hinkle:
Akenhead:

Wow, a stone bluff from Hinkle and now he's in very rough shape. The shouting has begun from the gallery, who have all suddenly found that last reserve of energy to remain on their feet. Side bets are being made on what the flop will contain. Here it comes...

Pandemonium in the Milwaukee's Best Light All-In Lounge! Akenhead is dead to running cards. The crowd is absolutely floored. Akenhead cannot believe his misfortune. He knows he's on thin ice. And just to add insult to injury...

Hinkle makes quad tens! Akenhead is drawing dead. The meaningless river

Grant Hinkle is the winner of Event #2. He earns $831,462 and a coveted gold bracelet for his triumph. The winning hand was the all-powerful . completes the hand. Akenhead is eliminated in second place and collects $520,219.

Live poker, so f---ing rigged.

BTW, great reporting so far, PokerNews crew.

***

One last thing. I got three pieces of mail today. Three pieces total.

No bills.

No credit card offers.

In the mail today, I got one offer from the IP, one offer from the Rio and one offer from Harrah's.

Yesterday, I got offers from the Venetian and the IP.

You think Vegas is hurting for business?

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Look This Is It

Let's get right to the point. If you're not playing tonight's BODONKEY, you're either retarded or Canadian.

Okay, okay, maybe we can add busy. And some other countries. But I think you get the point. In addition to the usual crazy good overlay of added T$, Bodog has added another prize - a T$270 bounty on Smokkee. Are you kidding me?

Best structure ever. Huge prize pool additions. Still a shot to play for a WSOP main event freeroll. Massive bounty on Smokkee. It doesn't get much better than this, people.

I need to try and remember to sign up at lunch, since I don't get home until late. 9:05 ET is the official start time, and I think you have a few minutes grace. No passwords or other nonsense, just sign up for the Bodog Blogger Tournament and get ready to donkkkkkkkkk.

***

The BBT3 series over at Full Tilt has mercifully come to an end. I'm pretty sure that the last four months has been my worst stretch of tournament poker ever. One final table and two total cashes in 28 events is pathetic. It was a drain on both my bankroll and morale, but it was fun.

I need to remember the freeroll this weekend for people who pimped the series - I think there are about 120 people in playing for a $2k package. I probably have family obligations, so I have this sneaking suspicion that I'm in for about ten minutes of push-every-hand.

Major thanks to Al and to Full Tilt Poker for putting on this epic event and good luck to all those in the tournament of champions.

***

I played for a bit on Friday and enjoyed my best session in a few weeks, picking up a buyin and a half at the lowest of the microstakes. Maybe I just need to be drinking. I picked up an odd dollar as well at the blogger cash game (higher stakes lol).

So that's what a winning session feels like.

There have been a few signs that my luck is beginning to turn (after Friday's pre-poker bad beat, that is). Yesterday, for example, I put in a bid on something on eBay. I then realized that I had bid on an older model, making my bid rather more than the item was worth. I resigned myself to buying it anyway and went back to work. I checked my email ten minutes later and had a notice that the seller had canceled the auction - item not described correctly, to be relisted. w00. And hey, my neighbor mowed his lawn for the first time this year yesterday. Things are looking up!

Now if I can just figure out what is wrong with my putting. (lol)

***

I know I'm tardy in posting the winner of the Underbetting for Value contest. I suck. I have selected the winner and will try and get it up (and the prize transferred) tonight or at least tomorrow before the M00kie.

So, until then, bodonkey bodonkey bodonkey.