Need to get my shit straight....

Well, it looks like I might take a few weeks off of playing this silly game of poker. I went to Pops last night after my daughters 3rd birthday party, ending up coming late, and bought in kinda short for a 1/2 NL game. I sat down with almost all regulars, people that know when Im playing scared, and Ive been playing scared for 3 weeks now. Im under a little financial stress, not shit I should really be complaining about, but I havent had to worry about paying bills in a long time, and some past shit has finally come back to bite a few the asses of a me and the people I live with, and its going to cause me problems for the next month, and possibly longer, really leaving me with very little money to gamble with. And I think its showed for a little while now.

I didnt get a whole lot of playing hands, and I didnt have position in alot of the halfway decent hands I did have, and it just seemed that the two powerhouses at the end of the table, Trav and Wes, were pretty much controlling the table, with good reason. Needless to say, I lost all the money I came in with, and got on the board with a loan from Trav for 100 bucks, I end up doubling that at some point, but get back to just slowly pissing it away, not making any moves, hesitating too much and showing some serious weakness, it was just sickening to me, and everyone else I suppose. I even got into a verbal altercation with Kevin at one point, because he essentially warned me that I was making it easy for him to push me around, even though the hand we did get involved in, I had top pair with an OK kicker, and he most likely flopped a set. Thats when the verbal assault started, I got the last word in, but it doesnt mean my pride didnt get hurt, I really wish I could get physical at these games without worrying about not getting invited back, but Im a family man now, gotta move on from the high school, beat up the asshole with the mouth days. I just heard a little too much animosity in his voice, and it made what he said very insulting, and that just popped my anger cap off, making me very hostile. Kevin, if you read this, I apologize for yelling at you, E said you were just letting me know Im playing like crap, and I shouldnt have popped off at you like I did.

I dont know, I think Im going to take a little time off, maybe only play when I really have money to work with, and just rethink my position in poker, because when I get myself in with the big boys, I let myself get intimidated too much, and I was slowly moving away from that, only to have life throw a few curveballs, and throw my shit off track, and going right back to playing scared, please take my money, poker.

What I really want, is to go back to the days where E's game was the shit, where you had so many new faces that it was pathetic how much money these people would actually lose. Sure, I saw a few guys get lucky from time to time catching cards and draws against the regulars, I was one of them at one point, but right there, at that time before the robbery, where I was coming into my own, and becoming part of the herd, waiting for new blood to come in and get tapped, it got shit on, but some pathetic motherfuckers who dont know what real hard work is. And ever since, we havent been able to have a regular game. I would go to bigslicksters game, because from what I hear he has mega-fish rolling through his spot, and that makes me wanna go real bad, but Im a loyalist, I like E too much to fake on his game, I just wish his shit was back to normal, but who knows if that will ever happen. I know a few of us who are very loyal to E, and I think were all just kinda waiting until we can find a nice spot, and get back into the groove of things, fuck it man, cant get scared forever, right? I mean, overall, it seems that those robberies at Berts place, E's, those ones in Virginia, and the cops raiding shit all over the place, its hard to find good home games, with lots of tools coming to give you their money. Im slowly learning of some cash games down this way at some of the local lodges, and I wanna run a game myself, but no one wants to drive to southern maryland, so Im kinda out here by myself.

Im a poker pro, right?

LOL, funny way to start off this story, huh?

I went to a local business today with the sole intention of teaching some newcomers to the game of poker how to play. Larry, David(Kevin), and Brian.

Now, let me start off by saying that Larry is what we might call a whale in the poker world, he owns the said business I was playing at, and the mans got money. And ofcourse, he ends up watching ESPN like the rest of us, and becomes instantly hooked. Now, the man cant go more than a day without thinking about poker. And his sole intention now is to learn the game, and to someday play with the big boys in Vegas, wheeling and dealing in Nevada being a real whale, instead of being a whale in a pond of goldfish in this state we call Maryland.

To me, being the expert pro that I am(insert sarcastic comment here). Im not happy when it starts off, simply because 4 handed poker just isnt a way to make money, I do intend on teaching Larry how to play this game, but I also intend to make the night profitable was well.

A rundown on the other three players goes like this.

Brian: Knows a little about poker, mostly the basics, and the strategies he sees on ESPN, thinks hes good because he plays with some buddies and they just arent cut out for the game as of yet. But, I have to give it to him, he played nice and tight like he should have, and ended up I believe only losing 10 bucks for the night. But, overall, Brian is deffinetely a newbie, and has alot to learn before he can hang in the games I attend(yeah, look at me knocking him when Im just as big a fish...lol)

David(Kevin): Hell, David just wasnt cut out for this game, I personally felt bad finding out his real name is David, after Ive been calling him Kevin for atleast 4 months of purchasing comics from the store, but hey, he said he never noticed me calling him Kevin until tonight, and lord knows where I got Kevin from in the first place. But, David was way over his head, but hey, he knew the basics, and he was very enthusiastic, he admitted he was mostly there for the fun, and to learn a little, but I doubt hes looking to poker as his next career move anytime soon...lol.

Larry: Larry has been bitten by the poker bug BIGTIME, he phoned me yesterday and told me he wanted to learn how to become a pro poker player. Now, to me, he is fully capable of it. Larry is an intellegent man, has complete enthusiasm for the game, and has enough money to learn this game very quickly, and not have it hurt him like the rest of us. But, Larry is a newcomer, just like the other guys, and had to learn in the line of fire tonight, and it burned him big time.

I myself actually got involved in the two biggest hands of the night with Larry. The first one, I ended up flopping top two pair, I moved all in because of the flush draw on the board. The limts were too low for me to remember, so lets just say the pot was a little over 40 dollars. So, I push all in, and Larry insta-calls me, I ask if he has a set, and he says no, I flip over my pocket Queens, and say two pair, he flips over A/5 of diamonds, and proceeds to suckout the diamond on the river for the nutflush, and Larry enjoys his big stack, leaving me with a little over 4 dollars, and the thoughts of a rebuy running through my mind.

Anyways, I end up coming back a bit, and get to a little over 20 dollars when the next hand comes up. I raise on the button to 4 dollars with 7/9 of spades, everyone calls. Flop comes down 8/10/5 rainbow, everyone checks around. tur brings a 6, giving me the straight. David raises 5, I push all in for somewhere around 20, Brian folds, Larry calls, David folds. I say straight, and Larry shows a pair of 4's., I snag the pot, Larry goes to shut the store down while the last three of us play a few more hands.

I end up walking away with over 85% of the money on the table, and hopefully with the knowledge that I taught the three of them something about poker. Larry is the one who really wants to learn, so I think Im going to have to spend a bit of time teaching him the subtleties of the game, take him to some of my home games, and let him earn his lumps in the school of hard knocks. I think Ill get him to comes to E's tomorrow night and let him learn with the tough poker players. Well see.

S.H.O.P. spells Sauna!

Went to Pops house last night with E, and Kenny. Had an interesting drive up that way joking around with E and Kenny, watching Kenny flash some girl hoping shell flash back, and freaking Kenny out because he thinks I drive like a maniac. E never complains about my driving, but Im sure I made him nervous driving my Ram 1500 like its an Eclipse. Hearing Kenny sitting in the back seat complaining like an old woman was well worth driving like I wanted to run into a tree. The ride home was just as enjoyable because Kenny is apparently one of those bitch people who drives 15 miles below the speed limit when it rains, me doing 90 down route 100 and 97 didnt do anything but make him cry like a little girl more. Next time I think Ill top off the speedometer. And just for everyone that doesnt know, Jesus was black, because Kenny says so.

Ok, back to the original intent of this blog. I really suck at tournament play. I literally blinded myself to death throughout the entire thing. I caught exactly two hands, putting myself all in both times to double up again and continue blinding off for the rest of the night. I saw maybe 4 good hands the whole night, and was not in a gambling mood, choosing instead to lay low and hopefully make a final table, but alas. I get "the beast" (for those of you who dont know, the beast is Pops favorite hand of J/10), and it was suited no less. I was UTG, and decided to pick up the 800 in blinds and antes that were on the table by going all in for a little over 3000. It folds to Keenan, who is two spots behind me, he asks for a count, and says call. I have him covered, it folds around, Keenan is hoping I have two big cards, I did, sort of, and he flips over lucky number 7's. Keenan proceeds to wait for one of my cards to spike, and Im waiting to see the beast not work for me once again. Keenan makes it to the river, and Im left with 400 in chips, all in very next hand, and lose my pair of 7's to a pair of 10's, out of the game. Maybe Keenan can play after all...lol.

I sit around for a little while because Kenny is still in the tourny, and E is dealing the final table. Eventually Travis gets around to asking me if I wanna play heads up when I come back inside from the fresh air into Pops sauna. I decline, because even though Im ahead against Trav heads up in cash games, I think playing him heads up is suicide, especially when we have even stacks. Instead, Trav, Niel, Pops, and I decide to play some low limit dealers choice, Trav fronts me the 50 dollars until Friday and we get down to business.

We proceed to start with Omaha Hi/Lo, ofcourse its a game Ive never played. But that didnt stop the deck from smacking me in the head, turning me sideways, slapping my ass, and paying me off like a mobster bookie. It was actually quite entertaining, but only because I was on the winning end. I caught any and every draw I could think of, I even won when I thought I had lost. The flops I was getting were ridiculous, and it payed off alot. I even got Pops to start ranting at a low stakes limit game, that was priceless. We played a round of Stud, Hi/Lo, Hi, Limit Hold em, and I believe Omaha Hi. I think I played in almost 90% of the hands played during the every round, and won probably about 85% of the hands I was involved in, it was sick!

Payed back Trav the 50, counted out my chips twice, came to 60. Travis recounted for me, and came out with 62 bucks. So, all in all for the night I lost 38 dollars, but it was alot of fun riding up, playing in the tourny, and learning a new game and having a ball doing it. And yes Keenan, learning new games is fun, maybe I wont be a one trick pony forever after all. Pops couldnt keep himself from complaining as usual, but only because I rivered two good hands against him. I think I pissed off Niel when I turned a set in the limit hold him, making him lose alot of money with his two pair wondering what the hell I had. And I think Trav was having a good time teaching all of us NLHE whores to try something new. E sat down maybe 15 minutes before we stopped playing, so Im sure he was distraught about that. Kinda sucks too, because the only real reason we stopped is because alot of people had to work. Oh well, its something I wouldnt mind doing again.

Hanging with the GoodFellas

Went with E to Goodfellas game last night. Ended up coming late because of the wait list. Sat around Kenny's house trying to beat him in Madden, bullshittin with E and Kenny, and watching Kenny's PS2 freeze up every 5 minutes, ended up calling off the bet because we couldnt finish the game.

Headed over to Goodfellas, sat around 4 with 205. Played for a little over 5 hours, doubled my money a few times, only to run into some bad beats, and making stupid plays, and eventually lost the last 50 of my stack to bigslickster, on the particular hand. Im UTG with A/Ko, I raise to 15, two callers, Nick and Slickster. Flop comes Q/J/3 rainbow, I push in my last 35, Slickster thinks for a sec, thinking I have pocket Kings or Aces, says he has to call, ponders, and makes the call, flipping up K/Q. His Queen lasts, Im done.

Buy in again around 10:30 for another 100 on the board. And in the course of two hands, I more than double my money.

First hand, I raise 15 with pocket Kings, two callers, Including Nick, flop comes Q xx with I believe a spade draw. I push in my last 30, Nick smooth calls(I hope Im writing this correct Nick). He smooth calls. turn, nothing, I push in the rest of my stack, and Nick just smooth calls again. River, nothing, I show my Kings, Nick says good hand, he missed a shitload of draws.

Maybe 5 hands later, Im on the button with K/9o, 4 callers, flop comes 10/J/Q. I believe there was a 15 raise, then a reraise by PokerJoJo, I raise all in because of a possible flush draw, folds around to JoJo, I ask him if he wants a count, he says yes, I tell him the amount, and he says it doesnt matter, hes calling anyway. I show the nuts, he shows the second nuts with 8/9o, my hand stands up, no chop pot, and I end up a little over 100 ahead after two hands I played into a rebuy. JoJo said he called because he thought I had two pair. Hell of a game, got tired and bowed out early, with 80 dollars profit. Finally got E to leave at 11:30 when he went from a little over 300 ahead, to only 40. I should have stayed for him, but the fucking drive is a bitch for me, and I was going down quick. Next time me and E go to a game, were gonna have to work on a time, or Im gonna have to take an afternoon nap if we need to go allnight.

Workin for the man....

I was sitting at work today. Watching my boss ride his antes and blinds into oblivion while he was waiting for a strong hand. It got to the point where he was at 3400 in chips, with blinds are 200/400/25 on partypoker. I noticed that the man in the first position raises EVERY hand. All he is noticing is the hands when he checks, other than that, he was doing paperwork,talking to me, answering phones, etc... So, I asked him to let me give it a shot. He handed the mouse right over and let me get to work.

Started off slow, was waiting myself for a proper hand to raise a good amount and go heads up with my agressive next to me. Got Q/J suited UTG, and decided to raise to 2400, leaving myself with only about 600 left to work with, got two callers, including mr one seat. Flop comes 3/7/J, two clubs, so, I have top pair with a flush draw. BB checks, I check, seat 7 checks, turn, K of clubs. So, all I have to beat is the ACE, I push my last 600 in after seat 1 checks, seat 7 calls, seat 1 calls. river, another club. I figure Im screwed at this point, but, all cards flipped over, my Queen high flush is good, and I get back into the game with a little under 10K. I start noticing that seat 1 calls with any kind of pair on the board, doesnt matter if its middle, low, or top pair, he calls. So, I work on him for awhile, eventually building my stack up to a little over 80K.

It gets down to 75 players, table is kind of tight, luckily I only have to make it to 50 to win him a seat in the main event sattelite. Luckily, even through a string of really bad flops with strong hands that I probably overplayed, I got him to the 50. My boss tells me, if he gets a seat, I get a nice grand bonus coming to me. So, lets hope and pray on that one. I was pleased with my comeback. But I still have to learn to not get too loose with the big stack.

Steves aqaurium....

Man, what a perfect name for the game that Steve has. I personally like Steve, and I respect his game. But the short bus people that got dropped off at his house last night were a massacre waiting to happen. E can tell you some of it, and to make myself look more like a tool, he warned me to walk softly and carry a big stick, only swinging it when I was sure Id get snapped off.

I swear, two guys at this game made it seem like they belonged in a 20/40 limit game or some shit. 25 preflop with 4/7 suited? After I raise 11 with 6's. Flop had to make me nervous enough with A/5/2 rainbow out there. I bet 20, call, turn brings a 7, and I just seriously have a feeling thats a bad card, so I check, guy raises 50. I fold, he shows me his 4/7, and I just cant help keeping my mouth shut calling him flipper, and telling him not to fucking irritate me because Im gonna hand him his ass when I get the chance. Well, maybe that was a bad idea, as E pointed out to me, I let these guys know my entire strategy, and he was dead on for that. Everytime I got a premium hand and flopped it, Id push too hard, and get those Corkies to fold. I did get back to even when a new guy showed up, his very first hand. I get KK on the button, he gets QQ in the big blind. I raise 11, he reraises me 40. I push my last 101 all in, he thinks about it for awhile, thinking I have A/K and its a race, he decides to call me. We flip it over, and I out last him.

Later on in the evening after a 100 dollar rebuy, Im up to 200, I get pocket 6's in middle position. I believe BB raises 15, I call, another guy in the SB calls. Flop comes 6/7/9. I flop my set, two spades on the board. SB goes all in for 93, dollars, BB calls, I call, turn brings a 7, I push my last 36 in, BB calls. river brings a blank. I think one of them hits that straight, other one misses the flush draw. Nope, I say I have a boat, SB is distraught, BB guy winces for a sec and says, "yeah, you got a boat, but I got a better one" and shows me his pocket 9's. Fucking sick hand, and Im 300 stuck at Steves house.

Steves a good host, and like E, I dont like getting run over anywhere. So, hopefully next time my stick will crack some skulls next time, because that was a donk fest and a half. Those guys love open ended,gutshot, and flush draws. Middle pair is a raising hand, and pot odds rule the roost. It was just fucking sick. And I thought Ive seen some sick shit in poker games. Never had a set over set flopped against me, but I guess theres a first for everything. I plan on getting payed next time me and E go up there.

Online Poker...

Online poker has been good to me lately. I cashed out last week for 275.00(250 after they take that damn proccesing fee). And yesterday, since I couldnt make it out to any home games, I decided to jump in a .50/1. game on Absolute. Ofcourse, I come into a room where one guy has like 170 on him, compared my 40 dollar buy in, and he proceeds to hammer the table pretty much every other hand. Now, normally I love people like this, because when you have the nuts, and make it look like your stealing, they will call you down with A high thinking its good, so, normally this is what I want.

It didnt go exactly according to plan, this prick actually got me down to 15 at one point. But, after two good hands that got me back to 40, I was back in the game so to speak. Alot of action after that, as the table filled out. Eventually I got to around 120. As I was saying before, this prick starting pushing on one hand where I raise 4 dollars with A/Qo, he then proceeds to take it to 25. I call, flop comes 10/Q/4, two clubs, he comes out for 50, I reraise like 40 more putting me all in. He calls, turn club, river blank. He mucks, I win the hand with top pair. I clean him out and he leaves before the chips move to my seat. Needless to say, I go into the history to see he pushed me with A/4o, and actually thought his bottom pair on the flop was good.

Im just glad that the cash games arent becoming a suckout fest for me, It used to be that I could double my stack up, only to get all my money in the middle with the best hand, and getting sucked out on with pitiful fucking hands. I have to say, my game has improved dramatically over the past 6 months or so, with the videos I watch, the books ive read, and the online/home games time I have put it, I realistically think this can be a plus year for me. Im already ahead atleast 4 grand since January. And, I usually only buy in for 200 at any game I play, and rarely rebuy, so I keep my losses to a minimum. All in all, I feel confident in my abilities, and my reads on people have gotten quite better. Though, when Im tired all that goes out the window, considering what happened to me friday night when I was struggling to stay awake. How do guys like Trav, Nick, Steve, Mike keep it together at 5 in the morning? I dont think Ill ever know. I made it clear a long time back, Im not a rounder, I cant do 12/18 hour sessions like them. My clock starts winding down around 1 in the morning, after that, anything can happen. Oh well, Im happy to be on the winning end of poker these days, instead of trying to play catch up.

Gotta kick off the weekend with a bang...

Well, where do I start, considering this is my first post. I guess I should bring you up to speed a little about who I am, and what I do.

I guess I could call myself an amateur poker player. I dont think I am close to being a pro by any stretch of the imagination. I find myself in games alot letting people know what I have, and exactly what I am going for in each hand I play. I would like to think that I am a good poker player, but at the games I play, if you get any kind of compliment that seems genuine, you still feel like it comes with a side of bullshit. So, I never know whether I am actually improving, or simply wasting my time, and getting lucky on those few hands that someone cant fold against me, and I just seem to come out on top.

The game last night was a perfect example. Its probably around midnight or so, in a very fun local game, that might seem like its run more for the laughs than the actual poker playing. I enjoy this game very much(no, not for the abuse people). Last night started off like any other, I get up a little on a couple of mediocre hands that flop good for me, then I get ahead by maybe, 3-400, and I get a little too loose(which seems to always happen when I have a stack in front of me). But I end up donking off a good bit of my stack, taking me down to somewhere around 50 bucks, which, as it seemed to me at the time, after I lose a big pot, wasnt mine to begin with, I almost walked away from the table when I still had money to play with.

Then, it began. I catch a few hands, and take my stack back up to around 200 or so. Feeling pretty good for getting back to even almost. Its late in the session, alot of action, alot of pre/post flop moves going on. Then my favorite hand comes........

I begin the hand on the button, with a few limpers, it gets around to Dom, who is right behind me at the table, he raises to 15, I look down and wake up with Aces on the button, couldnt ask for a better hand with Dom, because he really wanted to ship the rest of my stack with his gay ass little foan FedEx truck he uses for a card protector,so...because its Dom, I reraise to all in (170+), gets around to Steve, in the BB, calls my all in after some debate on whether I actually have a hand, or just tring to make a play for whats in the middle. Steve eventually calls, another player calls my all in for 30, maybe 40. Gets back to Dom, who too calls my all in. By this time, I am a little nervous one of these players is going to outflop me. But, to mine, and everyone elses suprise Dom and Steve both flip over pocket Queens, and niether like it when I show them the bullets. Needless to say, my Rockets hold up, I bust Dom, who wouldnt let me use his little truck to ship his stack to my pile, and Steve rebuys again. Never knew what the other guy had, but he too had to rebuy. So, overall, those hands come atleast once a night for me lately. Its happened in the exact seqeunce twice at that place. So, Im fairly certain now, that considering my table rep, if I have pocket rockets, and I pop my entire stack into the pot, Im probably going to get payed off.

Its late in the session, and I am struggling to stay awake. I have maybe a little over 600 in front of me, and am just being polite because everyone wants me to stay so I can fuck off my stack( regular occurence for me if I am tired and bored). So, I get A/8 suited in the small blind, one raise from Trav, I call, its heads up. Flop comes Q/J/3, two spades, I check, Trav bets 76, knowing im on a flush draw(see how the regulars know when Im going for the flush). After some deliberation on whether Im due for a catch, I call. Turn brings nothing, Trav bets 200(gotta make em pay for those draws, right?). After what seems like forever, and me feeling I have a live ace because I have Trav on Q/K, with a possible flush draw as well, I call. River brings me nothing, I get bitter that I didnt catch, Trav reluctantly checks as well because he knows Im not getting into the pot anymore, and flips over his set of 3's. So, just goes to show, I am a little too predictable when it comes to some of my draws, ofcourse, I dont know anyone at the table who doesnt seem obvious when hes on a nut flush, or straight draw. So, after getting my stack to down below my buy in, after a little work, and some decent acting on my part I get back to 440, and cash out the night plus 200. All in all, it was probably the funniest night Ive ever had at that game, and I cant complain when I am way ahead for the year.