Mr. non-Clutch

A.V. you are dead to me. That's right Adam Vinatieri fans....Mr. Automatic misses an easy field goal in the SuperBowl and I lose a lock on a $50.00 square in a SuperBowl pool. That would have netted me a cool 1250.00. You fucking suck A.V. You are dead to me now....3 seconds left in the quarter and you pull a Scott Norwood. A.V. = Automatic Villian.....A.V. = Asshole Vile.....A.V. =Missing the only field goal that would personally benefit Dave.

Thin skin

This is hilarious......I remember this lady being very annoying during one of those "ladies only" WPT tourneys. Looks like somebody that has a blog thought her to be extremely annoying as well....

Good to go-GiftToGo

or.....is it GiftToGo? Yeah, thats it.....I caved and got a GiftToGo Visa card and deposited....50 to Stars and 50 to FTP. I won my 26.00 token on the first 6.60/18 two table Tourney. I think that I should play more of these for other tourneys such as the 35K nightly. I just realized that this blog is more than two years old! More than two years of meaningless drivel about Poker and Miscellaneous Stuff......but I'm not tired of it. If anything it lets me get stuff off my mind. Like Barbaro for instance....WTF is it with this story that captivates the press? It's a fucking race-horse....it happens all the time...it's not a famous person. For the love of all that is good and holy.....the fucking horse is dead OK! Speaking of H.O.R.S.E.s.....I played a 1.00 buy-in on PStars last night and came in 17th for a whopping $2.69....woohoo!....It was fun but what a waste of 4 hours....4 fucking hours! It was good practice so not a 100% waste.

WPBT First Event....I had a good run toward the final table but I pushed 7,500 from the SB with As-5s into jhazen. He had me covered in the BB and held A-Ko. He of course made the right call and sent me to the rail in 11th. I figured I had the best hand but then again pushing from the SB seems to be an automatic call for anybody in the BB as it looks like a blatant steal. I remember reading a poker book that goes into the probability of good hands in the blinds when everybody else folds. I forget which book it was....hmmmmmmmmmm....maybe it was an article I don't know. Whatever the theory is it came true....but I needed chips. I do believe that I sucked out with pocket J's to an over pair before that. I rivered a straight to the J's and doubled-up right after the second break. I also lost half my stack when the same player sucked out on me. In my mind the push with As-5s was the right move at the right time but it turned out to be the wrong time. Reminds me of a line from a song. "Must've been the right place....but the wrong time"! I forget the name of that song to......man I'm on a roll.

I'm starting to like Full Tilt a lot more now. I've been on PStars for a couple of years and have taken some horrid beats lately....but so has anybody and everybody. I will however be haunting the WWdN tonight....if I can successfully get my angelic daughter to go to bed on time.

Poker Withdrawals....

Not money withdrawal problems....POKER WITHDRAWAL problems. I haven't played more than a few 1-5.00 MTT's lately/past two weeks. I haven't kept a substantial amount on any poker site account or Neteller since the UIGEA was signed in Oct. I would deposit 50 here....50 there...sometimes building on a couple of tournament cashes or blogger tourney cashes. I haven't really been on a streak since August. I was playing the 4.40/180 tourneys on PStars and really killed 'em. I had one first place for 216.00 and two second place finishes for 144.00 apiece and also a 4th place for 80.00 or something like that....all within two weeks. I don't know why I stopped playing them...I guess I got over confident and started buying in to the slightly bigger MTT's. This is not good for someone who hasn't been practicing bankroll building since '04. I started to like those 15.00+1.50 NL MTT's on PStars and had some small cashes...but that will also kill a bankroll quickly. I was getting burnt out on Poker Tourneys lately. I decided to empty my PStars account but leave a few dollars for a couple of small buy-in MTT's. I played a Stud8 1.00 MTT on Friday...I got knocked out with quad 5's.....the guy that knocked me out had Quad 10's with two tens hidden....LOf'nL. I then went to UB to play my last couple of bucks there...I entered a 2.20 bounty tourney and got bitch-slapped out when someone called my all-in after a raise and a re-raise. He had K's I had A's.....cracked A's.....LOL burnt out.
This leads me to why I don't keep a large amount of money on a Poker Site or Neteller. I figured the recent happenings with online poker and funding options would be attacked. I used to use ePassporte in '04 for my first 6-12 months of poker site funding. (I still have the account and recently logged into it but I think that they want 35.00 just to access it again. Is it worth it? I just don't know). Party Poker was all the rage and I was learning and losing quite a bit. I would deposit 100 and promptly go to the 1-2 Bad beat tables or even the 3-6 limit tables...bad learning experience. I didn't 'get it' until I dropped to the lowest limit tables...but I soon discovered the 'satellite' tourney. I actually qualified for a good amount of the 216 and once for the 640.00 Party Million. I played well but couldn't cash. I blew through quite a bit trying to qualify for the Party Million cruise....close but no qualifying. When ePassporte got too expensive I found Neteller and was happy. It was about in May '04 that I derailed my Poker habit by investing in Real Estate. I bought a Ski condo from my brother-in-law in '04. My wife and I were only married a year and didn't have my daughter yet. We were actually on the way back from Foxwoods and I said "hey, T is selling his condo in North Conway.....I think we should buy it!" I had some extra money from my previous condo that I made a Kings ransom after it was sold. I sold that when I lived in Nashua, NH and then bought my late-grandfathers house in Lawrence, MA. So I had a bunch of money and paid off my Nissan XTerra. I also had enough left over to either remodel my new small house or buy something else. My wife thought it was a good idea and 2 and a half years later it is worth 40,000 more than I bought it for. I'll take that instead of the bankroll. Anyway, when I did buy the condo I started paying out two mortgages. I also have two sets of bills for those two mortgages. It's quite a place on a 9-hole golf course w/pool, tennis, clubhouse, etc. I can and do rent the condo year round...but high gas prices and other things have slowed the rentals to a crawl. These bills are on top of all the other car payments and other things. In 2005 we had an addition to the family....I have a daughter.....the most important thing in my life.......enter the daycare bill! My wife and I both have full-time jobs but it's still pretty friggin' expensive to live in Massachusetts.
So my Real Estate investment is the best investment I've ever made but I have a conflict. Should I fund my ePassporte account and play online....or continue to enjoy my mini sabbatical from online poker. I've been watching more movies lately......Reading more books lately.......getting more sleep lately. I only play after my daughter is sleeping so that was never an issue. Well....it was an issue when my newborn daughter was home for the first couple of months and I decided to stay up all night and play online poker. That soon became the bane of my wife's existence. I couldn't understand why she would be upset when I was playing all night...but I was also sleeping half the next day away and that was the real problem. So I know why that could be a problem....and I fixed that. wow....am I rambling here or what? I do have plenty of 'live' games and tournament to play in. I've done pretty well in the area around here....but I get the withdrawals still. I'll sit and watch TV.....maybe have a book (Currently reading Harrington on Hold'em Volume 1.....why the fuck did I wait this long to read this book? I love MTT's and I didn't pick this book when it came out.....I must be an idiot...it's so much more advanced than the Cloutier/McEvoy Championship PL/NL Hold'em) and my brand new Compaq Presario w/wide screen is sitting there in all its wireless glory....sigh...The WPBT is starting again soon....to fund or not to fund and bite the bullet....That is the question!

Having a good time lately checking into other blogs I didn't know about. Mostly some good natured rivalry banter with others like Lolaschaubs (GG...although you must have been freaked

out after the first half...ADMIT IT!) about the Patriots....they gave it a good run this year but they were missing a few pieces. Who knows....another wide receiver and a defense without the flu might have sent them on their way to yet another Superbowl victory. Oh well, here's to Peyton...you better win dude! The Pats have a ton of salary cap space and some high draft picks...this may be your last chance! I hate da fucking Bears....I hate the Steelers (although I was happy for the Bus)....and I hate the fucking Yankees. Expel your demons Peyton....nobody wants to hear about you being compared to Dan Marino for 20 years now do they? Speaking of rivalry talk....the ultimate rivalry is just around the corner....RedSox-Stankees....is there anything that compares? Only the Pats-Colts is starting to approach the same galaxy of rivalry. Please chime in if you think that there are better rivalries.....

No matter how well you cheat....

You'll be caught sooner or later!

That's a hoot. How 'bout them Patriots! The legendary Schottemheimer chokes again. I bet that everybody in the football world gasped when he decided that he needed to don the headset with 6 minutes left. Poor L.T. boohoo. The S.D. Chargers weren't concentrating on the game in the second half. You could see it. I was sitting there watching and Brady is just the coolest under pressure. Belichick is KING!

Eat Camera!

This dynasty keeps on rollin'. San Diego next. Did anybody see the camera that Bill Belichick smashed into the photogs' face? Then he pushed a bunch of other photographers out of the way after the Belichick-Mangini huggle.

Not a bad start

Not too bad a start to 2007. I didn't play as well as I should have at the final table but it's not a bad cash for me anyway....

2007

Hope this year will be better than last for Poker profits. I can't really start a bankroll of any notable size. I want play more cash games but MTT's are a passion for me. Small cashes here and there in tournies but no final tables lately. The last final table I was about to get on in a PStars MTT was foiled by a bad laptop PC power connection. The damn thing died with 14 left and I was 5th in chips. I bought a new laptop with a wide-screen...good stuff. That is the first step for my goals in 2007.

1. Cash in a Sunday Major....came close but no cigar in '05.
2. Win a blogger tourney....came close but no cigar in '06.
3. Win another live tournament in a charity or bar setting for 1,000.00 plus. (This goal has been attained in years past but not for more than 550.00).
4. Play in the Foxwoods Poker Finals during the Spring....probably a 600.00 NL tourney.
5. Start and maintain a bankroll for Poker only!
6. Go to Vegas and try a WSOP qualifier.
7. Meet other bloggers at WPBT summer classic.

Other than that I hope everybody has an awesome 2007!!!!!!

Crazy Cristmas at Foxwoods

So, the wife and I went to Foxwoods on Christmas night. We had spent enough time with the family...so...don't go and get all high and mighty on us now. It took a while to get there since there was some traffic...I thought there might be no traffic but there is traffic 24/7 these days. I think we got there around 3:30 or so. My mother-in-law wanted to spend time with our daughter and told us to "go have a good time". Far be it from me not to have a good time at Foxwoods. We had plenty of time to kill...so we went straight for the bar. I thought this may be a good time to bring up the WPBT during the summer. She has the summer off...being a teacher and all. I figured I haven't gotten to one yet so this may be a good time. July is the next one I think..but I also read some blogs where they said that "all good things must come to an end..." wait.....I haven't gotten there yet!
We had reservations at the restaurant 'Al Dente' at 6:00. So after some drinks and some quality time alone we head down to the restaurant. We ordered food....wine....and then a family of four comes through the door and talks to the host. I look over...then I look at the four seat table next to us....I said "There sitting here next to us"....my wife is like "no way". Soon enough we have a family of four with a 15 mo. old toddler and a 4 year old sitting next to us. Sure enough the 15 mo. old is throwing stuff around and causing chaos. They order a bowl of noodles or something.... Why are you bringing your kids into the low-light/high-end restaurant when there is a family restaurant right next door? I don't get it....some people are clueless. No offense but if we didn't have a 20 mo. old toddler ourselves I would have asked to move. I mean they were nice...the kids were nice...but you're ordering a bowl of $20.00 noodles for gods sake.
Gamble time. My wife heads for the slots...for a while then goes to bed at 8:30. I'm going to the poker room thank you. I signed up for the 1-2 NL...as usual. This table had a full mix of amazingly loose-aggressive asians, a couple of fat white guys like me, crazy Koreans, ridiculous Russians, and Pot-Jamming Jews. I noticed this before I even sat down! I bought in for 200.00 (max is 300 now..used to be 100). Few people left the table over the course of the next 6 hours...I may have been there longer. For most of the night the table was as follows...to my left was two guys who switched seats with each other in the 5th and 6th seats. I was in the fourth seat across from the dealer. One guy was a loose-aggressive Korean? The other guy who switched seats with him a couple of times was a chunky Hispanic looking kind of guy. I realized later the reason they switched seats was due to the fact that they had to visit the ATM more than once and they would switch seats to change their luck....it didn't work to well. Next to them in the 8th seat was this skinny white guy with sun glasses...he was good. He didn't say a word all night (had a scar on the side of his face)...but he was tight-aggressive. Next to him was crazy-loose Asian guy in the 9th seat. Not to sure about this but I think Kim Jong-Il was in the 10 seat. There was a fat white guy there earlier who was a pretty good player but he went home and Kim (North Korean dictator) took his place. I say this because he looked exactly like him. Earlier in the evening a young kid from Conn. was sitting to my right and I was joking about Kim Jong-Il sitting across the table...he had no idea what I was talking about. I asked him if he had seen 'Team America'...he says "yeah"....I said he was the "Korean dictator who they made fun of the whole movie"...he says "Osama Bin-Ladin"? Jeez...Kids today. I'm 36 but this kid made me feel like a wise old genius. I told him to look up 'Kim Jong-Il' when he goes on the Internet....check into some current events dude...OK! Anyway, the guy in the 1st seat was another white guy who "lives 2 miles away". He was a funny guy. During the course of the evening a Russian guy sat down at the table in early position. He had these other two guys looking over his shoulder. They were all really well dressed...almost like some Russian Mafia types. He got knocked out pretty quickly...as he was walking away I quoted a line from a movie. I said "In my country...we cut ov fingerth" in my best Russian accent...the guy in the 1st seat says "What, mine of yours"? in his best Chevy Chase (Spies like Us) impersonation. We started howling and high-fiving each other across the table...fucking hilarious. We stopped laughing and all that stuff when all 3 Russian Mafioso turned around and looked back at the table....oops!...they walked away...I don't even think they heard us...but..they were all built like linebackers so both of us just shut up. I have to say it's frustrating when the wait staff can't come by the table with regularity. They come by 5 times in an hour then 1 in hour....it sucks. In the 2nd seat was this other Russian guy who was there for a couple of hours. He was a calling station and I got into it with him with my K's. This is how the hand went. I had K's under the gun...I raised to 10....guy a couple of seat over from me raised to 20. The Russian guy calls. Everybody else folds. I called and a flop of Qx-6x-7x falls. The Russian guy goes all-in for about 35-40 more...I called. The guy that raised me folded his pocket J's. The Russian guy calls a raised and a re-raise with Qx-7x.....crazy but typical in 1-2 NL at foxwoods. An 8x falls on the turn and the beautiful 6 falls on the river....I win with the higher two pair! He walks away and is replaced by a bunch of people throughout the next few hours. A Bunch of people filled in the seats 3 and 4 in the next few hours but one of them was a crazy raisin' Asian. He was loose-aggressive but Kim Jong-Il busted him and a few others after raising and pushing into to many pots. I did get Aces at some point during the night. I raised everybody out but the calling station. I preceded to make him pay me off in a big way on each street. You know its a good night when your K's and A's don't get cracked. I got paid off in a big way from both. There were these two Israeli looking guys who sat to my right for a while. One left after playing every hand...he played them well but the other guy got knocked out by Kim Jong-Il as well. Two black guys came to fill in the table when seats opened up. One of them kept pushing to double-up but to no avail. Both were sent home soon enough. At around 4:00AM I started to lose concentration. I left at +130 so I had fun. I walked into the room at 4:30 and my wife was just getting up. She tends to get up at 5:00AM whether she has to or not. She goes to the slots at 5:30 and precedes to hit a 650.00 dollar pot on a 1.00 slot machine. We both ended up leaving with much more than we went with so this Christmas was excellent!
I can't believe how much foxwoods is growing..I checked out the progress on their expansion....it's probably going to be done in the spring. The place is so big...I walked by the bingo hall at 4:15AM....the place is like a football field. Rumours were flying about a dealer strike on New Years eve also. I asked a couple of dealer in the poker room and they said that it was true. They've been getting 100% benefits for a long time and Foxwoods wants to cut them to be a little more competitive with the norm. They better be careful of they will lose their dealers to Mohegan Sun in the Spring. BTW Mohegan Sun is opening a highly rumored new poker room with expansion this Spring also. I will have to check that out...I suppose it will be impossible to go unless it is during a week night though.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everybody

Aces to you all......I hope everybody can enjoy the Holidays..........................

I Bubbled again...

This time in the WWdN. I'm on a bubble streak like never before. 4 tournaments in the past month including one live charity tourney. It seems like there is one critical mistake that does me in each time and dooms me to the dreaded bubble. This time I had 'Astin' sitting to my right...I had 9x-4x0 and a flop of Qx-6x-Qx fell. I was in the BB so I had to check. He/She checked and a 9x fell on the turn. I checked just in case and 'Astin' went all in with about T4,500 to my T4,200. I figured the button was coming soon and 'Astin' may be slow playing a Queen. I folded. Big mistake. 'Wigginx' raised just about every hand after that. I lost a pot and was down to 1,800 soon after. My last hand I had Ah-3h..inst-push into the BB. He has As-Ks...and I am toast. Out 6th on the bubble. This was extremely frustrating and I shut the PC down and crashed in bed. I couldn't stick around for the 'ITM' play and after....I was sick and tired. I thought I played well but that's poker. Easy money some of the time....Dead money some of the time....never easy money all the time. I see that there are a couple of players from the N.E. area on these tourneys...I know about 'Hammerlovers' blog but I wonder if xlm25...something or other has one. He's from Nashua, NH...give me an email. (vze2tbkc@verizon.net) Maybe someday we can venture out to Vegas for the WPBT summer classic or something. I really want to get out to meet some of these other bloggers....and I don't want to look like a total fucking Noob that doesn't know anybody.
My daughter was still awake for the first hour and I couldn't fully pay attention. It's another one of my 'Don't do' list of things for Poker. That is play poker while the daughter is sick or not sleeping. She fell asleep well before the first break and I was able to concentrate. I don't do this often...especially lately since she has been sick with another ear-infection. The past two weeks have been interesting and tough. This is the second ear-infection in the past 6 months. The last time my wife and I were at the hospital until 4:30 AM. This time however we at least knew what we were in for. So anyway, since she was feeling better I was really looking forward to this tourney. I was playing very well after the first hour and soon made my way to the final table. I doubled up at the final table but a bad bluff and a non-call sealed my bubble-fate again. I think every tourney player must go through this phase...before they start winning them. Money is a little tight lately also so I'm not sure if I'll be playing on PStars until the holidays are over. I've been playing a lot of UB tourneys but funds aren't exactly being replenished with a healthy win rate.
I'm breaking tradition this year for Christmas....I'll be at foxwoods! My wife is from the south shore of Mass. and usually we go from her mothers house back up north to my parents house on the way back to our own house. BUT NOT THIS YEAR!!! My daughter will be able to spend quality time with her grandmother and my wife and I will be headed for the Woods! I'll see my whole family on Christmas eve anyway...why see them all day for two days in a row? If anybody is looking to play some poker at foxwoods on Christmas night then send an email and I'll meet you in the poker room eventually (probably after 8:00PM).
Miscellany : Red Sox (spending like a drunken sailor on shore leave) have been making the right moves for this season. Bullpen improvement-Top notch. Outfield improvement-Very nice (if Nancy Drew's shoulder is medically sound and can play more than Trot). Starting pitching-Top Notch! Lineup-Top Notch! Defense-not so much (but it didn't do much for them last year or the year that they won the World Series. Spend away! It's not my money....and it already is the most expensive seat in MLB. I really like the fact that the Sox are making in-roads to the Japanese market. The Dice-Man cometh!!! The Pats are looking good and headed to the playoffs again. Once again...I trust Bill. He has earned the right to make a couple of mistakes. He is to football what the Dice-Man is to Japanese baseball.....DOMINANT! I haven't played any live poker for a while (except of course the Rebuy tourney that I bubbled at Rockingham Park in NH) and I am looking forward to playing the degenerates that will be at Foxwoods on Christmas night (except for me I'm no degenerate just dedicated). I guess it's been a while since I last posted. There's just so much interesting stuff to read on the internet/blogs etc. Check into that Brandy Hawbaker/Capt. Tom Franklin/'Dutch' Boyd fiasco....fascinating stuff....perfect fodder for Pauly to elaborate on.

New Look same content

What do you think of the spiffy new template for the blog? Who am I asking? I think maybe one or two people may see this...anyways....

I got sick of the old look on Pokerandmisc so here you go. Go tell everybody...PokahDave is ready! Ready to post the same old bad beats and miscellaneous crap. I've been playing a lot of low buy-in tourneys on UB and PStars. I tried the 3 RB on PStars last night...I didn't make the money but I lost some of course. I also bubbled the 1.00 RB on UB...out at 61....60 get paid...but only 6.30 or something. I had A-10c....and I was the short stack...what the hell else am I going to do? Fold? Lately i've been trying to blast through the bubble...it's nerve wracking without a big stack but I used to fold to the money. This is where I need some improvement...play around the money bubble. I do think that one final table in a big tournament is worth a hundred small cashes so we'll see how this turns out. I guess I'll be able to play quite a few since I'm NOT IN VEGAS! I actually may be at Rockingham Park this Sunday to get in some live poker. I bubbled the 40.00 rebuy last time I was there...6th place out of 50-5 places paid...sigh. Just remember 1 final table in a large tourney is better than 100 ITM's.

Well looky here....

I didn't know the bounty last week was going to go to the donkey that is Dave......

What's that saying? Life's a bitch.....

Then you marry one.....

You Better You Bet

When I say I love you you say you better
You better you better you bet
When I say I need you you say you better
You better you better you bet
You better bet your life
Or love will cut you like a knife

-Pete Townsend

I saw 'The Who' on Saturday at the Boston Garden. They did not disappoint this self-professed sucker for classic rock. I also found a web page that has Pete Townsend's diary thing on it... he's talking about Zak Starky (Ringo Starr's son....Zak.....blows him away on the drums...seriously....he gives the Who energy that they need) the drummer for 'The Who' among other bands. The new album translates well 'live'. I heard it on the radio and thought it sounded a lot like 'Classic' era stuff. The fact that they sound so good over 40 years after they started is nothing short of miraculous. There are plenty of 'YouTube' videos that will back that opinion up. I get goosebumps when they break into 'Amazing Journey/Sparks'. If you haven't heard the most powerful performance by any band then go listen to the remastered version of 'Live at Leeds'....it's incredible.
I haven't been doing much in the poker world. I can't go to the WPBT winter classic and that shouldn't surprise anyone. I want to meet these people who keep stacking me in the WPBT tourneys and the WWdn.not. I also want to meet the people who's blogs I read all the time and reduce my workplace productivity....but I can't. I'll just have to settle for the smaller buy-in tourneys that I can still afford. If I didn't have two mortgages and ten-thousand other bills I would be able to play a hell of lot more. I made my financial situation so...stop bitchin' Dave....
I've been playing a lot of low buy-in PL Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, and Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo tourneys. PokerStars is getting better at offering these types of tournament for the low-limit poker hack. There is a 1.00 buy-in HORSE tournament every night that packs 'em in...lots of fun to be had with these tourneys. I should make a Friday night tournament on PokerStars. Maybe I'll call it the 'FriDave'. I'm usually not going out anywhere on a Friday...especially during the Winter months. I just don't know if anybody will show up. I guess I'll check into it....maybe get a DS NL tourney or something.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! There I said it....PC people be damned! This should be the best Christmas ever...my daughter will be 19 months old tomorrow.....man did that go by fast! This post doesn't make much sense but neither does anything else in this humble blog. I should call it 'Poker and lots of other shit' or something like that. Nah, that's already taken. It's just a place for me to blow off steam. Feel free to correct any grammatical errors.