Aggressive play Good...Sometimes Bad

I checked out the local Horse Track/PokerRoom and it was impressive to say the least. They
are running quite an operation at Rockingham Park. I had this idea back in 2002 when they decided to shut down the live horse racing. I mean...it's already setup for a card room really....all that's missing is the carpeting. The place was packed...lots of old timers and "kidpokerpros". Funny thing...I graduated high school with two of the guys who work for/own BayStatePoker. I got to talking with them and rumor has it Rockingham Park may expand the poker room hours to the whole weekend and more! I say rumor because it hasn't been decided on yet. They run a great tournament....breaks weren't too long or too short. The dealers were all very knowledgeable. The structures for the tourneys are also good. I played in the 40.00-Re buy tourney and you start with T2,000. You can re buy for either 20.00 or 40.00 for T1,000 or T2,000. There are also a ton of Sit'n'Gos up to 150.00! That's a bit much for me but the 40.00 Sit'n'Go sounds doable. I didn't play any ring-games but every single table seemed to be full. The bets can only go 1-2 because of local laws but hey....who am I to complain about that? They also had Bernard Lee there for Poker coaching/lessons. I met the guy and he is an extremely nice guy and apparently is tearing up the tournament circuit lately.
So I bought in to the 40.00 dollar re buy at about 6:00PM. The first table is always the longest in the tournament so to my left was "Kid PartyPoker"-didn't look old enough to drink a beer ...to his left was some guy I can't remember...to his left was the gambling Grandma (don't we all have one of those!)...to her left was this middle-aged guy who said "I don't trust you" when he saw me observing the way he played a hand....to his left was some sideways hat goofball....to his left was a young guy that was afraid to lose his first buy-in (I told him to re buy but I don't think he understood the way it works-he also told everybody what his hand was in one way or the other)...to his left was a guy that looked like...well I don't know...I'll just call him Donald Trump (good player...I've played against him in a tournament before)...to his left was a middle-aged woman who gambles a lot (pretty good player but she was forced off of a lot of hands)...to her left and my right was a late 20's guy that played pretty well. "Kid PartyPoker" next to me was running over the table for a good hour...he had a huge stack of chips...he caught trips when he played small pairs and an ace when he played any ace so he was doing well. I talked to him about Internet sites and he seems to have a good grasp on the re buy-tourney strategy as opposed to the kid that was extremely passive. I took down a few key pots with 7h/2h (got the flush on the river) and got gambling grandma to go all-in with trips. She re bought 3 times or so. I took down another big pot with K's. The guy who "didn't trust me" went all-in with Ax-Qx...and didn't catch. The biggest pot of the night was me taking out two people after the Add-on break. I was in late position...the Guy "who didn't trust me" raised....sideways hat goofball went all-in....and I looked down at Ah-As...so naturally I went over the top and went all-in. The guy "who didn't trust me" (sounds like a James Bond Movie) called all-in with 9c-10c and the sideways-hat goofball had 9d-Jd (Two great A's cracking hands). I was a little freaked out about that but after all the cards came out I knocked out two people and chipped up big time. I moved to the last two tables after that. I took out another guy who had A-x and went all-in with his last 3,500 or so. I had Ah-Qh so I called and got my flush on the turn. I had about T23,000 at this time so I was looking good for the final table. I should have raised a couple of pre-flop pots on the second-to-last table to build up the chip stack but we weren't there for long (50-something entered...probably less than 55 and 5 placed were paid...1,200.00 for first place down to 150.00 for 5th).
The final table : to my left was an older guy who seemed knowledgeable about the game (as that would haunt me later)...to his left was this old curmudgeonly dude (imagine ol' man Withers in any Scooby-Doo episode who proves to be the criminal mastermind and is "Foiled again by you meddling kids!")...to his left was some middle aged Italian/Greek guy I think...I'm not sure but his accent was hard to peg (He kept getting called out for string bets...so I think he was lucky to be there)...to his left was the tourney chip leader (Cocky dude who was pretty drunk....but I would have been that way if I had the stack of chips too)....to his left was 'Donald Trump'....to his left was some old dude (Sopranos character for sure who I've played against in tournaments before)....to his left was a guy who got knocked out on the first hand...to his left and my right was a guy about my age who was REALLY patient (that would haunt me eventually also). I basically made one bad steal-the-blinds move at the wrong time. The guy to my left had Kx-Qx in the SB. The old curmudgeonly guy had 7x-7x in the BB....I had the 'Jackhammer' Jx-4x and I decided to raise 3X the BB which was 2,000 at the time....guy next to me goes all-in and prevents the BB from going all-in (as the old curmudgeonly guys with pockets pairs and short stacks will do..try to fold to the money). I called the SB for about 4,000 more and I caught a 4 on the flop. He catches a K on the river...fuck me.....I was crippled by that steal. My mistake is apparent. Don't bluff the short stacks with a slightly bigger stack. Anyway as the story goes the old curmudgeonly guy yells at me "What are you doing raising me! You darn whippersnapper!" and I simply said "Why are you yelling at me when you had a short-stack and didn't call with a pocket pair?" He would have caught a set as a 7x fell on the flop also!. I get yelled at by old guys who play NL and hate aggressive play and Old Asian ladies when playing Blackjack. Old curmudgeonly guy goes out 7th and I go out 6th. The last hand I was down to T6,000 which at the time was the BB. I had Kx-6x and went all-in under-the-gun (I really didn't want to be in the Blind for my last hand) everybody folded except the BB who (patient guy next to me) had Kx-8x...and to honestly we both caught two pair....my K's and 6's and his K's and 8's....can you say "Bubble-Bitch?"

Thanksgiving/Turkey Day

Whether you prefer saying "Happy Thanksgiving" or "Happy Turkey-Day" I say "Happy Four-Day weekend" as well. I am thankful for everything in my life...especially my wife and daughter....they are the world to me. In addition I say "Thanks" for all of the following :

Family
Friends
My cat 'Bruin'
Beer (oh,how I do love thee)
Poker (all its variations live or on-line)
Sports (Real and Fantasy....my fantasy ESPN football team is 10-0-1...the tie is only because I had D. McNabb and M. Colston on my decimated team last week)
The new 'card room' at the old Horse Track that my Grandfather used to bring me to...which is only about 5 miles away from my house....Woohoo!!
Bad Beats on PokerStars and UltimateBet to keep me humble. Download from the latter links to keep my degeneracy alive and the Bad Beats coming....
The N.E. Patriots
Blogger....to read other's opinions about stuff that I am interested in....and to give me a place to vent.
The U.S.A. - I mean really...if you can't deal with the laws we have here then get the fuck out........
Talk Radio....for being some of the only sane people in this world......
Canada...for Hockey and Don Cherry...he's a freakin' riot....

Say it isn't so Iggy

Your calling quits!? GuinnessandPoker was the first poker blog that I read. I guess the rest is history....check out this gem of a tribute......even though i've never met the elusive Iggy I have to say that he's some sort of marketing genius. I think that he states in his blog that he is involved with advertising or marketing.....indeed.....

Fantasy & Reality

Fantasy Sports that is :

Thank God the NFL is Back Standings

DIVISION 1
TEAM W L T PCT
DDamage Inc. 9 0 0 1.000
Boston Nailz 5 4 0 .556
EmoKid Killer 5 4 0 .556
NR Hornets 4 5 0 .444
2 Off. Lines 4 5 0 .444


DIVISION 2
TEAM W L T PCT
THE SANDMAN 6 3 0 .667
Wide Right 4 5 0 .444
Bolton Deep Ballers 4 5 0 .444
Scott Sucks 2 7 0 .222
Chelmsford XB Ballers 2 7 0 .222

9-0....that's right...ESPN fantasy footballers take notice....no stoppin' this train!

Reality :

Teh people have spoken....Dems it is across the board and soon to be across the U.S. in '08.
I am concerned with the future of Massachusetts and the U.S. but what am I going to do about it now? I voted so I'll go with the results. I read a great post about the Reality of the situation...one that I cannot control but I will live with. Special K puts it all in perspective like I wanted to but couldn't...

Lately i've been playing a lot of low buy-in tourneys at UB and PokerStars. I forgot how much I love playing those. I'll mix in a 10.00-25.00 buy-in now and then with pretty good results also. The more experience I get with these the better the results...again....patience is 'King'. The key to these huge-field tourneys is patience. I also tried Bodog in the past couple of weeks...I hate the software...I don't know maybe I just hate the software crashing on me in the middle of a big hand in a tournament. It has happened to me in the past on UB but it looks like those problems are past. I'm going to have to exercise some patience this weekend if I decide to play in the WPBT Stud/8 tourney. Lately i've been pretty aggressive with some bad results...we'll see. Last Saturday I drank keg beer at my buddies house and then attacked the Bud Light 16oz. Aluminum bottles...they went down so fast. I think I must've had 20 beers by the end of the night when I got knocked out of the 20.00+2.00 NL tourney on Stars. I got knocked out in 29th place....I can't really remember with what. I would have made the final table if I wasn't so tanked. I'm going to have to watch that when I get deep into a tourney like that...I could have cost myself a bunch of potential money.

I wanna be ELECTED!

Ugh....what an uncomfortable feeling I have on this election Tuesday. I don't think that voting DEVIL Patrick in as Massachusetts next Governor is going to help keep people in state. This friggin' guy wants to give 'illegal aliens' drivers licenses. When did 'illegal aliens' become 'immigrants' anyway. The media paints this as people "just trying to work on jobs that nobody else will work at" and blah blah blah....I don't get it. Be careful what you wish for people...YOU MIGHT JUST GET IT! The media in Massachusetts makes me uncomfortable....and I was born here. Watching Devil Patrick be ushered in by all these tax-loving democrats is just an unsettling feeling. It's like watching a recent Bill Murray movie....you know...a comedian who desperately wants and craves to be taken as a serious actor. After you see the movie you have to watch how disappointed Bill is while he watches somebody else capture the much deserved academy award. Uncomfortable. Unsettling. Inevitable. Every politician in Massachusetts will be a Democrat. I wasn't paying any attention to Michael Dukakis when he was governor but as I look back and read up on the history of his term....I cringe. That's what we are headed for people...Dukakival Patrick.....Devolve Patrick.... "Can we raise taxes to never before seen heights...YES WE CAN"!..."Can we give Illegal Aliens in state tuition and drivers licenses?....YES WE CAN"!..."Can we drive Taxachusetts into the highest taxed and least affordable place to live in the U.S.A?...YES WE CAN"! This is our future people...Unless you vote with your conscience. Enough said...I didn't even get started with the national elections...Nancy 'Bela' Pelosi wants to bury you all in debt to cover for the dregs of society for beginners. As an online poker player I'm not happy with the recent legislative move to ban online gambling. That being said...it's no reason to go ahead and vote anti-Republican. Just be aware Bill Frist will never be a candidate for President OK!....he's far to 'out there' to represent the Republican party in 2008 or 2012. There are more important things in the world people. I for one would like to keep taxes low and YES there is a global war on terrorism whether you care or not.

36 on the 30th

Well, I haven't posted much lately. I decided to take a couple days off from work for my 36th birthday and Halloween. I usually get home from work on Halloween too late to take out my 1.5 year old daughter....wait a minute....I couldn't take her out to TrickorTreat before this year anyway....but I digress. Last year I carried her to the next door neighbors....this year she practically ran down the hill...I actually had to chase her for a second! The rest of the TrickorTreat time was spent trying to calm her down from her sugar high. I also handed out candy to the locals (cute kids in costumes and slacker teenagers with no costume and bad attitudes. If you have no costume then don't come to my door looking for candy! Two punks walked up to my door with nothing but fat and attitude dripping off of them. I shit you not...one kid walked up to my door and stood there while I was holding the candy. He looks at me after standing there for a few seconds and says "What...you expect me to pick the candy up too?" I looked at him and his fat little friend and told them to get lost....ahhh wonderful Lawrence, Massachusetts. Then a half hour later my neighbors across the street were talking to each other and some punks shot a paint gun at them. It was an automatic so a bunch of pellets smashed on the poor ladys townhouse (white paint on the wall and pink paint pellets from the punk in the car)and one also hit the next door neighbor's wife in the leg. This town is pretty fucked up.

I had to cancel a Sunday night trip to Mohegan Sun because a buddy of mine was going to be in court (testifying...not for himself). The Sunday night cancellation allowed me to play the WPBT Stud event...a whopping 17 or 18 people showed up! I should have stayed away seeing as how I flamed out first. I played well....but I didn't have any luck. The two hands that crippled me and knocked me out were ridiculous. I believe it was BadBlood who replied to someone elses comment "That was more like a friggin' Train-Wreck!".....that about sums it up. The first ridiculous hand was a crippling blow by the hand of Hoyazo. We both had A-high fucking flushes...I think he had A-Q high flush to my A-J high flush....I didn't look at the hand history but it was that bad. I also had A's so I think I played it correct when I was drawing to my flush....which we both hit on 7th street. Again, I could be wrong about the exact hands but I didn't play it wrong. The second hand that knocked me out was one of the UpForPoker dudes. He had the 2-7-2...I think (again I didn't look at the hand history since I had to smash some furniture after the hand knocked me out) I had K-8-8. I knew he had nothing but position on me...he raised..I re-raised...he called...I was all-in soon thereafter. I thought that he had 2's...that was until 7-street brought another 2 for a set. Again, I may be wrong about the last hand but my read was right. So I'm not doing well lately in the WPBT. I have been doing well at these ultra-low buyin Turbo MTT's on UltimateBet. I miss playing at UltimateBet...some of my biggest wins were on that site a couple of years ago. I'm still an ultra-low stakes player to this day.
I had nothing to do on Monday the 30th (my 36th birthday thank you)so I decided to head down to Foxwoods! I went with the intention of playing the 100.00 super-sattelite that is usually offered and starts at 10:00AM. Well due to traffic and bad weather I got there at 10:30AM and found out it was cancelled. I figured I'll try a couple of ACTI STT's (Foxwoods has ACTI tourneys for 45+15...place in top three and get a buy-in to a 100+20 ACTII...place first and get a 1050 buy-in to an ACTIII...place in top 10% and get a buy-in the BigOne-10,000 WPT event Fall Poker Classic) I placed 3rd in the second ACTI to get a buy-in to the 120 ACTII....which I placed 4th in and got nothing. Second place gets another 120 for another ACTII. After three different ACT tourneys I needed a change of pace....1-2 NL Hold'em. I sat down and the action seemed pretty crazy as usual. I bought in for 100.00 because the cap 'used to be' 100. They raised it to 300.00 on Sunday the 29th. After a few hours I brought my total to about 220.00...but after a few more hours I lost concentration and left with about 50.00. I should rename myself A.D.D.....Attention Deficit Dave. I just lost concentration after playing in the same game for 6 hours. I can usually do this without a problem but not lately. I made the most money on a pocket pair of Queens and lost the most on A-Qo. Go figure...they giveth and taketh away. During the time I spent there I noticed some people. (Greg Brady lookalike who sat next to me and his name is Barry...isn't that the real name of Greg Brady?....) There was also assorted punks with sideways hats and headscarves?? and assorted piercings in their faces. The sidways hat thing bugs me the most...just want to slap the shit out the kid.....of course they always have the ghetto attitude...like the punks that came to my door on Halloween. There was also some guy playing in the ACT tournaments who looked like a cross between Bad Santa and the Gorton's fisherman.....yeah...he was a hoot. There was another guy who sat next to me who could've passed for Tony Danza...or at least I would've believed him if he told me he was his brother. I also saw another guy sitting at a table that was a virtual mountain of flesh...I mean this guy was huge. He looked like he was wearing a tire made of flesh around his neck! I'm not exactly in the greatest of shape but this guy is going to have a heart attack if somebody suprises him or scares him. Which in all honesty is possible seeing as how distracted I was with these assorted freaks. I guess I just answered my own problem...I was distracted by freaks. I lost concentration at the table because it was like a Halloween costume party in the Foxwoods poker room. The table behind us started up a 150-300 limit hold'em game....there were another bunch of mooks at that table. Some guy who looks like a Sopranos' character rakes a huge pot, looks at the rest of the guys at the table and states "Yeah...you fuckin homos....just another day at Foxwoods"!