The Party Poker Effect

The full migration of donkeys have finally made it to PokerStars........from PartyPoker. The tournament donkeys....that is...
I'm not going to go into detail about the Donk-itis that is happening at PokerStars but it is in full effect. Calling Station central has now arrived at 'all' of the low buy-in (lets just call them 1.00-20.00) tournaments. I thought it was bad on PartyPoker but I'm astonished at the bad play at PokerStars. Don't get me wrong....I've played here and there for three years at various sites and I've had my donkey moments. Am I the only one that has noticed? I've been playing a lot on Full Tilt and the play seems a little better there. I've suffered bad beats there as well (as we know everybody has) but the level of play is or seems to be so much better in general. FWIW.......
One place the tournament level has actually increased is the 'blogger' tourneys. Much fun to be had at these tournaments and plenty of tough/tricky players. I am looking forward to these almost on a nightly basis now but I can't play every weeknight....it's just not good for your health. I like to drink some beers while playing but too many beers and lack of sleep will quickly catch up with anybody. I'm looking forward to the PLO tourney on Full Tilt this Sunday....should be fun. Is everybody printing out the same articles on PLO strategy or what? Seems to be good restroom material for work.
I feel like I've had a cold for 3 months now. After reading Waffles blog I realize I have the same symptoms that he has for various shit....what' up with that.....pregnant....feels like it....I never felt my whole chest hurt when I coughed...maybe its a Northeast general sickness. Then again, we're all sick for paying this much to live in Massachusetts. Hmmmmmm what else.....I've been stressed out lately trying to re-finance my condo in North Conway (This is not due to Poker or any gambling BTW! So all you skeptics can go obsess over Baldy Spears or Anna Nicole Tits or Barbaro the great). It's like trying to coordinate the special Olympics or something.....not that there's anything wrong with that (for all you politically correct Nazis out there....well...then again fuck off! It's a joke...who the fuck am I kidding nobody reads this anyway...LOL) but it's an exercise in futility. It should be complete this weekend after a month. Party Time! I'm going to foxwoods in a couple of weeks. It will be a Thursday night in March.....I think the 15Th. I will be haunting the 1-2 NL (now 300.00 capped buy-in) and try a few of those ACTI STT's. I'm probably going up to play a couple of tourneys at Rockingham park this weekend also. I have to break through the bubble on that re buy. I'll probably contact one blogger to meet up. Although if there's any problems with the re-finance I won't go. Speaking of Bloggers....what' up with this...one of my favorite reads is in stealth mode......WTFC? Don't forget the WPBT on Sunday the 25Th!

Bad Storm=Bad Commute=Road Rage Dave

It wasn't the 8-10 inches of snow....it wasn't the inch of solid ice on top of said snow....it wasn't my daughter being sick with a cold....it was my damn commute to work. You would think that this

would be enough to take a day-off from work. But no, I live far away from work unlike most of the the office grinders here. I left yesterday from work at 4:30....early for me....it took a good two hours to get home (thank god for my 4-wheel drive XTerra....if it burns a few gallons of gas then so be it...it's been the best purchase EVER!). I get up this morning and luckily my wife's work cancelled (public school) so she stayed home with my daughter....who is sick with a cold. That gives me at least some comfort...but I didn't realize what I was in for this morning on my way to work. A new low for me....a 2.5 hour commute to work. Then I get to within a few miles from work and every snow plow and geriatricdriverwhowheresahatanddoesn'tusesoundjudgementanymorebuthastobeouttogotothelocalDunkinDonutstomeetwiththereothergeriatricfriendssotheycanbitchabouthelatestbodypartthataches........ decides to get in front of me. At this point it's unhealthy to be in front of Dave after a 2.5 hour hell ride. If it wasn't for the 6 CD changer that I have in my XTerra and the soothing sounds of TheWho, TheDoors, The Allman Brothers, and various Classic Rock I just may have done something stupid....well I guess I have....I kept my commute to a job I don't like anymore....or haven't liked since 2004. That my friends is a recipe for a disaster of mythic proportions. They say that an adult changes his career/occupation many times during their life. I wonder if a day like today is the catalyst that makes me finally change mine....

Get your tourney token!

Miscellany

Barbaro is dead.....Anna Nicole is dead.....who's next? Phyllis Diller? They say that death comes in threes. I'm not in any dead pool but Paula Abdul might be a good bet in the future. Just kiddin'....don't want to sound morbid or anything. I made a final table on a non-satellite or 180 player Multi! It was only a $2 rebuy on Full Tilt....but hey....I'll take what I can get. I went out 4th for $114.00 or something like that. After the beatings I've been taking at PokerStars it's actually a good payday for me. I tried a last minute 26 token entry STT for last nights FTOPS but that didn't go so well. I'm liking those $6.60 18 player tournaments for the 24+2 tokens. I got my entry to the last WPBT tourney through that as well. I will get a few more chances with last nights tourney cash. One thing I have noticed is the tournaments on PokerStars have been getting tougher. The number are down for players as well....down to about 90,000 instead of 100,000 plus. I'm starting to take more notes on players....I never really did that before. I think it does help quite a bit if you play the same tourneys often. I would really like to place in an FTOPS tourney.....I think that will be my goal this week.....well....I do have to qualify for an entry first! One tournament I do play often is the WWdN: Invitational...last Tuesday I placed 3rd for the second time in a month or so. Not too bad. I'm looking forward to the PLO tourney for the WPBT but I was hoping for PLO Hi/Lo. Those $5.00-$5.50 MTT's on PokerStars and Full Tilt are great. Good practice for some of the bigger buy-in tourneys. I'm not satisfied with NL Hold'em tourneys only.....ya have to mix it up. I didn't 'do so well on the 'Hammer-Day' tourney. I think Lucko slapped me out with his pocket J's....I had A-Qo. I figured he had either 10's or J's so I took a chance on the two overs to no avail.

This looks like a bit of fun.....
I'll be haunting the WWdN tonight also....

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..........................