Whodatdare's Pokah Life

We're Moving!

2009-07-01T07:48:00.002-05:00

I'm moving this blog to here if anyone still happens to read the drivel I spew. I may update here from time to time though. Please visit and bookmark the link above. Hope to read your comments there! Good luck onthe felt and may the good cards hot your hand!

Tomorrow's Video on Deucescracked.com

2009-04-28T18:39:00.002-05:00

Recently I played a "home game" on Poker Stars that consisted of 6 members from Deuces Cracked playing some micro limit hold em.

The bonus to playing against 5 other really tough opponent's was that it was recorded and used in one of the many great series that DC has every season. This game will be part of Passing The Torch, run by PygmyHero who is coaching Adrienne'sRevenge and helping her ascend to higher levels.

The other great thing about this video is DC's awesome technology of the hole card cam, where all our cards will be seen during the entire video. This enables PygmyHero, and his special guest (another coach from DC) to critique all of the players during this session, which will greatly benefit all of us and show us the weak spots to work on in our game. and They are the only poker training site out there with this feature and it is truly cutting edge. So this will be further proof of how much of a donk I really am. I ran pretty good after making some horrendous errors which I'm sure will be pointed out. I hope all my fellow BGLL members get something out of it besides knowing what a fish I can be.

Talk to you all soon....

Hmm... Anyone have some advice here?

2009-04-07T22:31:00.005-05:00

Lately I've been having some frustration with my favorite kind of fish.. the loose passive player who NEVER. RAISES. EVER. How does one combat the emotions that come with playing this type of player? I know most of the time I'll amass a nice stack from him but here's a hand I played recently that may sum it up a bit.

Here's the stats for both villains and a bit of a read... ( and sorry, Adri the converter has a 4 color deck... and the spades are yellow, ugh!)

SB is 48/0/0.3 over a smallish sample (75 hands) and has cold called JJ to my EP open, x/c on a Q high flop and call down UI, chases draws and didn't raise a rivered nut flush 3 way;

The BB is 32/20/4.7 after 50 hands and his favorite move is a x/r on the turn and is a bit more aggressive on the later streets. He's won at showdown 5 out of 15 tries so far and seems to rely on fold equity.

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 89451

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: (1.4 SB) Hero is CO with A 8

1 fold, Hero raises, 1 fold, SB calls, BB calls

Flop: (6 SB) A T 9 (3 players)

SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets, SB calls, BB calls

Turn: (4.5 BB) T (3 players)

SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets, SB calls, BB raises, Hero calls, SB calls

River: (10.5 BB) 8 (3 players)

SB checks, BB bets, Hero calls, SB calls

Final Pot: 13.5 BB

Hero shows A 8 (two pair, Aces and Tens)

SB shows T A (a full house, Tens full of Aces)

BB shows K 6 (a pair of Tens)

SB wins 12.9 BB

(Rake: $0.30)

First does anyone see a weak spot in my line? Did I over play this on the turn? Do we ever slow down our betting against him? The BB's x/r doesn't really scare that much given the read. According to stove I'm not too bad.

The real question is what is the SB thinking? Why not put in a raise somewhere? Does anyone have a good understanding on what goes through the mind of this type of player? I understand the rationale of "I don't want to lose any customers" but what gives?

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand...

2009-02-26T17:57:00.003-06:00

The last few sessions have been pretty bad for me and I'm to blame for it. Today I felt like a total spew monkey. I'm value betting really thin in some river spots with nut no pair type hands where it's clear the villain isn't folding with 3rd pair. Consistently.
I'm not focusing at all and I can feel the tilt rising in me. At least I'm recognizing that and quitting well before disaster strikes so I have that as a consolation. Going to do some review in Hold Em Manager and start to fix this crap now. And maybe run a little bit tonight as punishment!

What? A new post?

2009-02-23T22:54:00.008-06:00

Well, it's been quite a while for me but feel I must post more now since I've let my fellow Bi Gro Land Lubbers at Deuces Cracked know of this pathetic little thing I call a blog.

I'm feeling a lot more comfortable in my new shoes, aka playing 6-max limit poker. I still don't get a ton of hands in but I'm working on it more every day. This will be a short post to get the juices flowing again so bear with me, dear reader. Here's a hand I got really lucky on because I feel i played the turn about as shitty as possible, imo. I had no reads at all, as this was like the 10th hand, and I was on the phone with Mrs. whodat (or should she be Mrs. Rootbeer 2000 now?). You decide.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 47550
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: (1.4 SB) Hero is BB with 7 5
UTG calls, CO calls, BTN calls, SB calls, Hero checks

Flop: (5 SB) 7 6 5 (5 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG checks, CO checks, BTN bets, SB folds, Hero raises, UTG calls, CO calls, BTN 3-bets, Hero calls, UTG calls, CO calls

Turn: (8.5 BB) J (4 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks, CO checks, BTN bets, Hero calls, UTG calls, CO raises, BTN calls, Hero calls, UTG calls

River: (16.5 BB) 7 (4 players)
Hero bets, UTG calls, CO raises, BTN 3-bets, Hero caps!, UTG calls, CO calls, BTN calls
Let me know how badly I played this, please. I can take it. Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.

If you would, please.

2008-12-27T10:44:00.005-06:00

Hey, I never ask anyone to do anything in this blog but I'm asking you now to help out here. If you scroll down on the right you'll see a widget I added from Barack Obama's voteforchange.org. Rumor has it that Mr. President elect plays a mean game of poker. I'm asking you to take a few minutes of your time and help support the cause for getting online poker's status changed.

It seems silly to me that the NFL has a carve out to keep Fantasy Football legal (which is actually gambling), as well as Interstate Lotteries ( which is serious gambling if you look at the odds of winning), and Horse Racing (um, you guessed it....gambling) but online poker is made out to be the big bad wolf on the internet.

There is more skill involved in poker than randomly picking some numbers on a lottery sheet, or guessing which quarterback is going to light it up this week. So out of all the gambling games mentioned above we have exemptions for the ones that a monkey could do and your odds of winning would be the same.

Now let's say the monkey was playing $1/$2 No Limit Texas Hold Em with $200 and had Ac,Kc pre-flop and is up against a player who plays 40% of his hands. He bets $10 and the monkey calls. He's already a 66% favorite against the other guy's range of hands. (Examples below, courtesy of Poker Stove)

Text results appended to pokerstove.txt

765,399,888 games 1.562 secs 490,012,732 games/sec

Board:
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 66.445% 64.70% 01.74% 495236094 13336967.50 { AcKc }
Hand 1: 33.555% 31.81% 01.74% 243489859 13336967.50 { 44+, A2s+, K2s+, Q4s+, J7s+, T7s+, 97s+, 87s, A3o+, K7o+, Q8o+, J8o+, T9o }

Let's take it further. Suppose the flop comes up Ah 5c 8c and the monkey is faced with an all in bet from the opponent. Should he fold? If he does he is making a critical mistake since he is now a 91% favorite in the hand.

Text results appended to pokerstove.txt

372,240 games 0.046 secs 8,092,173 games/sec

Board: Ah 5c 8c
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 91.213% 90.59% 00.62% 337208 2325.00 { AcKc }
Hand 1: 08.787% 08.16% 00.62% 30382 2325.00 { 44+, A2s+, K2s+, Q4s+, J7s+, T7s+, 97s+, 87s, A3o+, K7o+, Q8o+, J8o+, T9o }

The point of this is to let you non-poker playing readers know you can calculate your odds of winning a poker hand in any situation by reading your cards and seeing what kind of odds the pot is offering you. If the price is wrong you fold. If it is right you must play the hand because, if you've done your homework on the game, mathematically you'll win in the long run by making sound decisions.

Poker is the only game on the UIGEA list where this is possible.

Omnivore's 100

2008-12-22T22:54:00.003-06:00

Here's something for you all to try.

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile - nope, but I've had alligator
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho OMG yes. This is awesome!
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle - not that I know of but I'm dying to.
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper - not a whole one
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. B aijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee Absolutely!
100. Snake

It Happened Again

2008-11-08T17:21:00.006-06:00

If you're a reader here you'll remember my moment of genius in this post. I really need to watch wtf I'm doing when opening up tables at Bodog because it happened once more without even knowing it.

It could've been disastrous but maybe these guys aren't that good? Or I'm just on the better side of variance. I played about 50 hands before I realized I wasn't on a play table and managed to win 10 Big Bets at a $5/$10 Heads Up cash table.

Maybe watching all those Death Donkey HU videos at Deuces Cracked is paying off because I never felt out of control during the (short by choice) match. Or, more than likely, since I didn't know I was playing for real cash I just focused on the opponent's style and how to expoit it? At any rate I think I'll pause for now.

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.

Changing Colors

2008-11-05T10:37:00.004-06:00

11-5-08

I love

the autumnal season

with the leaves

changing their hue,

and how

the political landscape

has gone from

red to blue.

A Different Kind of Poker Challenge

2008-10-29T11:16:00.009-05:00

I participated in a unique challenge that was posted in a thread here and it was really interesting to say the least.

The rules are: (copied from the post)

1) You must play at one table 100 continuous hands.

2) You must see the flop 100%.

3) You must attempt at least one pre-flop raise (PFR), if possible. We're going for 100% PFR on PT stats, so open raising and calling a 3B is fine. If it is capped to you, your PFR may not be 100%.

4) You can only buy in for 50 Big Bets.
(Stakes $.02/$.04. - 50 Big Bets = $2.00 buy in)

I played this at a Limit Hold 'Em, $.02/.04 Full Ring Table (9 handed) at Poker Stars . The reason being is this challenge is something I didn't feel comfortable with. I don't play loose at all pre-flop and this would get expensive if I tried it against players at my normal stakes. Once people adjust to your style their opening range will widen because you look like a spew monkey to them.

I tried this twice and had two totally different results. The first attempt had me busto in 28 hands (I won a $5.00 prize for this as the player to bust the quickest).

I felt frustrated raising hands like 62 off-suit and/or having to call a player's 3-bet after I open raised in early position. I knew I had little value and didn't like throwing away 3 small bets pre-flop and check folding flop after flop, or donking with a small pair and folding to raises on later streets. It wore on me pretty quickly.

The next attempt was better as I started hitting flops and running good. The table also got shorter after a few people commented on how stupid my style was and left.

Overall I got more comfortable with this sort of retarded style of playing. It clearly is a losing proposition in the long run and I don't advocate anyone consistently playing like this. But for a short stretch it opens your eyes to the value of post-flop play. That's where the most money is won in this game. Making a small mistake pre-flop is OK if you don't compound it on later streets. You must be able to hand read and know how your opponents will react to you play.

I posted the stats of this challenge below from Poker Tracker. You'll notice in the second row that my pre-flop raise (PFR) number is below 100%. In a couple of hands the play was folded around to the Small Blind who folded instead of having to call another raise from me, the idiot, in the Big Blind.

Stats :

Session 1

Hands played - 28
VPIP - 100%
Pre-Flop Raise - 100%
$ Won ($2.00)
BB/100 - (178.57)

Session 2

Hands Played - 100
VPIP - 99%
Pre-Flop Raise - 100%
$ Won - $1.53
BB/100 - +38.25

If anyone else is inspired to try this please let me know how your results turned out and what you learned from it. I'd be interested to hear.

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand..

Update

2008-10-06T15:32:00.005-05:00

One of the parameters set in 2+2 of doing this 15 Big Bet Challenge is to complete it in 3 hours and see how far you can make it up the ladder. That doesn't work too well for me as I may be interrupted with work, which was the case today. But I'll try to stick to the requirements and see how it goes.

I finished off the .05/.10 level in 144 hands. I was really card dead for about 6 orbits and saw a ton of action being thrown around. Needless to say, I was licking my chops and eager to see some hands come my way.

Most of the players are so weak passive it isn't even funny. Patience is key and you'll get paid off with your good hands like this one. I was hoping for some more action after seeing the other guys' hands, but alas.....

Thanks to Deuces Cracked for the hand history converter.

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 Limit Hold'em - 6 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: (1.4 SB) Hero is MP with 9 9

1 fold, Hero raises, 1 fold, BTN calls, SB calls, BB calls

Flop: (8 SB) 3 9 9 (4 players)

SB bets, BB folds, Hero calls, BTN calls

Turn: (5.5 BB) 8 (3 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, BTN calls, SB calls

River: (8.5 BB) 2 (3 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, BTN calls, SB calls

Final Pot: 11.5 BB

BTN mucks Qd Qh

SB mucks Jc As

Hero shows 9s 9h (four of a kind, Nines)

Hero wins 11 BB

(Rake: $0.05)

So I'm on to the next level after playing a little over an hour. I'll be back at it later this evening and hopefully have some good news to report.

Run Good

A Micro Limit Challenge.......

2008-10-05T23:34:00.006-05:00

Since I'm focusing more on Limit Hold 'Em I'm doing a challenge I read about on 2+2 in the Micro Limit Hold 'Em Section called the 15BB challenge.

You start with 15 Big Bets at a very low level. Once you make 15 BBs you move up to the next level. I'm starting at the .02/.04 level with $.60 and I'll move up to .05/.10 once I have $1.50. From there I'll move up to .10/.20 when I have $3.00, and so on and so on.

I just finished the .02/.04 level on Poker Stars in 38 hands playing some 6-max (my normal game now) and will continue tomorrow during the day. I actually did it in 15 hands after flopping quad 10's and getting action from 3 players but sadly didn't sit out before the Big Blind hit me.

Four hands later I cap AK pre-flop against a complete maniac. The flop comes 2, 7, 6 and he smooth calls, as well as doing the same on the turn and river (the turn is a 6 and the river is a 10). He beats me with the mighty power house hand of 92 soooted.

I'll keep updating my progress and see how far the 60 cents can take me. I'll post some interesting hand histories that come up.

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand...........

A Quick Quiz For You.

2008-09-28T18:43:00.003-05:00

Is there really any difference between what this person says here

And what Sarah Palin says here?

Watch CBS Videos Online

I rest my case.

The First Step.....

2008-09-16T17:25:00.003-05:00

Linked from pocketsfives.com, this could be the first step towards ensuring online poker is considered legal. Way to go, Barney Frank! Keep up the effort!

Link

More Rodrigo y Gabriela- Captain Casanova

2008-09-15T22:39:00.002-05:00

I can't get over how awesome these two are. If they come to a town near you GO! I'll be at the next Atlanta show since I doubt they'll make it to B'ham. They are releasing a live album in October so be on the lookout for it.

Seriously? Seriously!

2008-09-13T14:05:00.001-05:00

Really, WTF was this guy thinking? He must be a chronic gambler....

I Find This Funny

2008-09-10T08:14:00.001-05:00

I hope you do too. Leave a comment if you do.

You're Never Going To Believe This...

2008-09-03T17:40:00.007-05:00

If anyone still reads this blog let me apologize for not updating in a while. I'll try to do a better job of posting and thanks for reading.

So anyway, I've recently made Deuces Cracked my new home for poker training and it's an awesome site! Their videos are top quality and they offer a free 7 day trial so you can sample their product. They feature a different way of doing videos that really focuses on getting you to the next level of poker, whether it be in Limit, No Limit, or even Pot Limit Omaha. By the way this is an unpaid advertisement. I just believe in their site so much and think anyone interested in bettering their game should sign up there.

Now to the unbelievable part of the thread. As you may know I decided to focus more on Limit Hold 'Em now and it's going OK. I've watched a series on 6-max Limit at DC and am reading the tables better and grinding out some profits. I'm also trying out some new concepts from there for Heads Up Limit, but only on free chip tables at Bodog.

So I sit down at a 5/10 HU Limit table and see there's some guy sitting with 300 chips. I match his total and we start playing. He immediately starts raising on the Button which doesn't happen too much in free chip play. I figure I'll add more chips to cover him and that'll make me feel better. Well, we play some more and he's very passive when he's Out Of Position (OOP) so I float him a few times on the flop and start check raising him on the turn. He starts folding and I'm getting a good read that he can be exploited in early position a lot, and he''ll give me a lot of respect.

We play for about 20 minutes and all of a sudden he sits out, saying I play too slow.
Now here is where it gets interesting. I tell him, "Sorry, I can only play as fast as the cards are dealt, so maybe it's just that I'm a better player than you are."(trying to keep him at the table)

His response is that we should compare bankrolls if I think I'm better - common trash talk between players - and I retort that we should go sit a $500 Sit and Go and that I can't believe he's so bent while sitting at a play chip table. I mean come on, brother, it's play chips. What's the big deal? He says, "Am I really at a free chip table?" Is this guy dense or what?

So I reply, "Well the last time I checked you're sitting on a play chip table, aren't you?"

"Again, am I really?" he says yet again.

And then it dawns on me. Maybe I should check the lobby to see. It turns out I'm sitting at a 5/10 real money table!

Talk about the ultimate mis-click! I put my whole bankroll on the table and didn't even realize it! As it turned out I won about $40.00 and I'm thankful he sat out.

Next time I'll be sure to stay away from that guy and those stakes until I'm ready for them. Or am I that good already? Yeah, right!

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.......

Sears can KMA!

2008-08-11T12:41:00.006-05:00

We lost both garage door openers when we were struck by lightning so we went to Sears to purchase some new ones. We had a problem with them 3 years ago when we purchased one for Mrs. whodat that took a month of us bitching to get some results and they eventually deducted the installation charge, so cool for us. We thought it was just a fluke and we'd give them another chance since we're back in the market.

Well we went back to Sears yesterday to get our money back. We never received a call from their install team after 9 days and Mrs. whodat was hopping mad and I can't blame her. When the economy is in the dumper lke itis right now you'd think Customer Service would be a priority, but not at Sears.

After getting our refund, and Mrs. whodat giving the employee some sage advice we called my friend who manages a Lowes, went in there and bought what we needed. 5 minutes later someone calls me from Lowe's to get some more info and to confirm our address. They tell us we can expect a call fromthe install crew in about 2 days. Nope. Didn't happen. It was 3 hours and they're installing tomorrow morning!

Never again will I shop at Sears. They can KMA!

Gambool It Up, Baby!

2008-08-11T12:41:00.001-05:00

I played some live poker at the pool hall Saturday night. It was for something called FinalTableTour.com. It doesn't cost anything to play. There is no gambling involved. I had a lot of fun playing and adjusted to the structure rather quickly so I felt I had a huge advantage.

They are basically 10 handed single table tournaments with 100-200 starting blinds. You start with a stack of 2500 and the blinds go up every 10 minutes. Now here's the catch. The pool hall runs drink specials and every beer/mixed drink you buy earns you more chips. I never started with 2500 chips :) If you win your STT you get a certificate to play in the Championships held in September. If you win that I think they'll sponsor you for one/some real money tournaments at a casino of your choice. I don't know enough about that part yet. This thing just started in Alabama but is pretty big in Florida.

The games were ridiculously soft, as expected. One guy directly to my right raises UTG with KT off-suit on the second hand and shoves with air on the flop. People routinely limp/calling with any Ace rag hand. So it's a fish fry on a Saturday night. Time to gambool it up!
I open-raised to 4X BB in 5th position on a full table with AT sooted in level one, the Button calls and I have him covered. I flop top two pair with 2 to a flush showing. I shove because it's basically a pot sized bet and I wanna fatten up my stack and I have 3 beers in front of me and no more drink holders are to be found! The button eventually calls with a low pocket pair and he raps the table when he doesn't improve.

About 6 hands later I get involved in a hand with a player who seems competent. He did 3-bet one time from late position and showed AK after a flop c-bet. In the hand with him I open raise 3X BB from the Button w KT (clubs) and he smooth calls quickly in the Big Blind. The flop comes Kh, 3c 8c and he donks into me for the minimum so I shove. He tanks for what seems like 3 minutes and the dealer asks if I want to call the clock on him. I decline the option and start drinking one of the previously mentioned beers. He finally calls me with.........Ace 4 off suit, no club!

Now I'm comfortably stacked and can concentrate on my beer - er opponents - without worrying about the structure so much. The table gets 4 handed soon after and I open raise UTG w/77 and get shoved on by the short stack who apparently thought K5 off-suit was a venrable power house hand. I insta-call as it's only 300 more chips and I hit my set on the flop. Next hand I shove from the BB and show 94 off-suit after everyone folds. The woman to my right moans in disgust at this, says nothing, but is clearly impressed with my play ;)

I eventually get to Heads up with her and on the first hand I open shove with a slightly better, like T9 or something and show it again. I see her jaw clench and she's shaking her head and has this grimace on her face like she's gonna peel off my skin or something. Mind you, I haven't said a word to her. So I'm thinking she's only gonna play back at me soon thinking I'm a donkey,which I am, and a drunk one at that. I ease up for about 2 hands and fold one Small Blind, check my option in the BB and check fold a flop. Next hand I get A7 diamonds and open for 3X BB and get smooth called. The flop comes up all low cards and 2 diamonds. She check-calls my shove with KJ off-suit, hits a J on the flop and smiles at me until the diamond falls on the turn.
Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.

I DOn't Want To Go Off On A Rant Here...

2008-06-30T10:35:00.007-05:00

... But this is really stupid of the government, I think.

Mrs. Whodat calls me and lets me know our Economic Stimulus Check arrived in the mail. Sweet! It was only scheduled to get here in May, but because we filed electronically and took some normal deduction we would have to wait until "around July 4th" to receive the funds.

So all is forgiven until Mrs. Whodat opens the envelope and discovers there isn't a check in there. Instead, what we got was a letter informing us that, (these are my words and not the IRS' words at all, but you get the gist of it, I'm sure) 'this isn't the actual check you were expecting but a letter telling you that it's in the mail, and here's how we calcualted everything and blah, blah blah'. Look, I dont care how you killed the cow. Just bring me the steak already.

Now, I love and appreciate bureaucracy as much as anyone because it has such redeeming societal qualities that everyone should embrace (I hope your sarcasm level is set to high right now). But do you really want to stimulate the economy? Here's a novel idea that may work. Stop sending stupid letters that say you are getting a check and actually send the check. There. You just made a 50% savings on your postage expenditures because of me. Multiply that by the millions of these things you sent out and invest that into tax incentives for small businesses.

I know, I know. It's too simplistic of an idea to implement but it would work. If the IRS is reading this and likes the idea I hope they pay me for my genius. I'll be waiting by the mailbox for that check too.

When It Rains It Pours

2008-06-30T10:35:00.006-05:00

What a start to our summer. Went to the lake with friends last Sunday and had an awesome time. Monday Mrs. whodat's AC went out in her vehicle (anyone believe in omens?). So there goes a nice chunk of change right before our vacation. Wait,if I remember correctly didn't something like this happen last year too?

Two days later we had some nasty little pop-up storms - you know, the kind that just pop up out of nowhere - hit us pretty hard and we get this lightning damage courtesy of Mother Nature (pictured below). Joy of joys :0)

This oak tree stands at least 35 feet tall and provides a good amount of shade from the afternoon sun. There was debris scattered all over the back deck and in the backyard approximately 50 feet away from the tree.

I have some sheet rock damage in the dining room from the concussive force of the strike and have lost my desktop computer, a garage door opener, our TV we bought last year, DVD player, a sweet Keurig coffee machine, and some damamge to some outlets in the house. We're still finding little things every day.

The funny thing is my computer is on the same surge protector as my scanner, paper shredder, and monitor and they are fine. Same thing with the TV and DVD; they're hooked into the same protector as the stereo and CD player, which they work fine.

Here's a close up of part of the bottom of the tree. This strip is 10 inches wide and runs from the ground to about the 10 foot mark. Here's hoping the insurance company truly is a "good neighbor".

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand..

Sweat Session

2008-06-21T12:03:00.005-05:00

Um, no, I didn't work out although I need to start again. I had a sweat session with LaffyTaffy22 from Poker Dynasty and it went really well. I think he hit on some key areas where my game has improved already since I really haven't played No Limit (NL) in a while. Most of these things may be small but when you're rusty and your confidence is shaky it's good to hear them coming from a really good player.

Within a few hands we changed tables to target some bigger fish which I've been trying to do more frequently as table selecction (and seat selection for that matter) is extremely important nowadays.

My blind stealing attempt percentage has improved. The theory that if your opponent isn't going to 3 bet you when you're stealing means you can use any two cards for it and shut down when he plays back really paid off.

I've never really been a big fan of check raising flops in NL since I tend to c-bet almost every single pot I open raise but Laffy found a few spots to do this and it boosted my stack a bit. We also talked about ramping up my aggression in post-flop spots where I would normally shut down. Another important thing that came up was to not let myself get in marginal situations to reduce some of the variance that happens in this beautiful game. Oh, and I "obviously need to run better" as shown in the hand below. This guy was a huge calling station with stats of 57/8/.5

Here's the Poker Stove analysis on the turn:

Text results appended to pokerstove.txt
44 games 0.032 secs 1,375 games/sec
Board: Qc 5s 3c Th
Dead:
equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 81.818% 81.82% 00.00% 36 0.00 { 5c5d }
Hand 1: 18.182% 18.18% 00.00% 8 0.00 { Tc6c }

Clearly the only time I'm folding here is if my internet connection disconnects me :)

LaffyTaffy, thanks again for helping out a lowly donk like myself and I hope we can do something like this in the future. Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.

Rack 'Em Up!

2008-06-12T11:55:00.016-05:00

Well, it's that time of the year again. The Birmingham APA City Championships are this weekend and my team - Quit Talkin' Start Chalkin' - made it again. We start play on Saturday morning and if we're fortunate enough we'll play 3 more matches Sunday and go to the APA National Team Championship in Las Vegas for chance at the $25,000 prize . Over 85 teams will compete this year and if I'm not mistaken 5 go to Vegas (could be 4, not entirely certain). Hopefully we're one of those teams. I'll try to take some phots and write something about this tournament after it's all done. Here's a vid to get you in the mood from Johnny Lang. You'll see a photo of Minnesota Fats in here at the 1:44 mark and again at the 3:19 mark. Also, the Duchess of Doom is pictured at the 2:15 mark.

Why Limit?

2008-06-12T11:55:00.015-05:00

I was going to respond to Flamm in the comment section but thought it would be better in a post.

There are a few reasons why I'm going with Limit right now.

It's easier to play when I'm at work. My connection isn't stable the whole time and I'd hate to have 50 BBs invested in a hand and have the connection drop. I don't play at work all the time but right now business is really slow and I can get in a couple hours of play easily.

Most of my mistakes are post-flop and those mistakes lead to losing stacks (100 Big Blinds) in NL. By playing Limit I'm controlling the amount I lose when I make mistakes. I'm also keeping my bankroll alive as I've been on a bad swing for a while. I want to get this back up to a comfortable level.

I've done a few session reviews on 2+2 in the Micro Stakes Limit section and it's a really good way to improve one's game. These session reviews are something I think would work very well in the Mini Masterminds at Poker Dynasty. You get to see what works and what doesn't against different types of villains, and there are a lot more hands that go past a pre-flop raise and a c-bet.

I'm also re-reading Small Stakes Hold Em by Ed Miller. It seems at the levels I am grinding the opponents play too many hands are really straight forward in their playing style. Not many villains know how to value bet strong drawing hands/combo draws and I think I have an advantage there.

Oh, here's the larger scale picture of the macro from the previous post too. Almost for got to add this. Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand

It's Been A While

2008-06-07T20:44:00.006-05:00

So glad to see people care enough to wonder why I haven't posted anything in looonng time (Flamm). Thanks to anyone out there who still drops by. Poker-wise, I've decided to play Limit Hold 'Em to make Iron Man at Full Tilt for their mid year bonus. Free money really intrigues me and if they're giving it away I might as well grab it.

Phot0-wise I'm loving my Canon Powershot S3 IS and the Raynox DCR-250 Macro lens! Here's some I took a few minutes ago while out on the deck. I'll show the macro first and follow up with a post showing you the full picture. The shot below is, as I usually do here, full framed and un-cropped. Make some guesses as to what you think it is, and you'll have bragging rights for a while.

Marvelous Macro

2008-04-20T15:32:00.005-05:00

Here's a better example of what the Canon S3IS with the Raynox DCR-250 Macro add-on lens. The picture below was taken late Saturday night beneath the light on my deck. It was taken through the Raynox at 8x optical zoom and he is about 3/4 of an inch in length. Both of these shots can be clicked on for a larger image view without taking up your whole screen. Thanks to Terry Fletcher for his tutorial on how to implement thickbox.

This is the same insect taken at full magnification (12x optical, 4x digital) and I focused on where the antennae connect to his head. This Raynox lens gives such great detail! Hope you like these. Please leave a comment if you do.

Peacock Feathers

2008-04-17T13:05:00.003-05:00

This was taken at my daughter's birthday party at a petting zoo from about 20 feet inthe air. Full framed, uncropped shot at full magnification (12x optical, 4x Digital).

No Poker Today, But Some Cool Pics I Took

2008-04-08T17:05:00.007-05:00

So this past Sunday I'm relaxing on the deck and chatting with Mrs. Whodat and this little anole comes running by. Luckily I had my camera handy.

He's sitting there doing what looked like push-ups, and then shows off his dewlap to attract females (can't say that I blame him...it's a beautiful day and I'm sure the lady anoles are cruising as well)and defend his territory.

They're about 9 inches long and this particular reptile is the only one native to the U.S. They're commonly confused as chameleons as they have the ability to turn brown also. There was actually a brown one on my deck. I almost caught a shot of him grabbing a bug but it wasn't meant to be.

Below is a closer shot of him taken with full maginifcation on my Canon S3 IS (12x optical, 4x digital)

The shot below was even closer as he scurried to another beam on the deck. All these shots are full frame and no cropping at all. Hope you enjoy these. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Poker, Poker, Poker

2008-04-03T11:12:00.006-05:00

In a recent post I talked about losing focus on what games I wanted to concentrate on and I think I've come up with an idea that will work. I'm going to stay with NL 6-max for the most part on Full Tilt Poker and Bodog. I'm also going to drop down a level at FTP to work out some of my leaks. But I'll be playing 6-max Limit on Poker Stars since my bankroll is quite smaller there. Playing limit will give me something to do at work during the slow times (semi-brag, I guess).

There's a new site that I would like you to try out called The Poker Basement run by one of my mini mastermind members, Flamm. He's a successful player who's turned $84.00 into well over 4 digits and is really generous with his time. His site is very good to get your feet wet if you like playing online poker but just don't know where to begin.

He has some great articles for beginners, bank roll building, reviews of training sites, books and software, and if you get stuck in a hand you can email the hand history to him and he'll analyse it for you. Kind of like having a personal coach.

So now you're thinking, 'great, but what's the catch'? That's the best thing about The Poker Basement. There isn't one because it's a FREE SITE. Please check out his content and leave him a comment. His site will be huge one day and you can say you were there in the beginning. Until then, good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.

Bartlett Pear Blooms

2008-03-20T17:01:00.005-05:00

These are the blooms from a Bartlett Pear tree in my neighbor's yard. This particular bloom had 4 or 5 flowers on it and was no larger in diameter than a silver dollar coin. Each individual flower is about the size of a U.S. nickel.

Below is a magnified version of one of the flowers to show the stamens up close. These are hand held shots and are also uncropped.

Wednesday

2008-03-12T17:28:00.011-05:00

I've been bouncing back and forth recently between playing Limit Hold 'Em (LHE), Full-Ring No Limit Hold 'Em (NLHE), and 6-max NLHE and seem to be losing focus. I like all three games, as they each have their own merit, but by playing all three I'm seeing a lot of variance now. I think I need to pick one and stick with it and hopefully it'll be soon. I've been talking to NeonBlack about this and he's given me some good advice on Full-ring if I decide to go back to that game, so thanks for that, Neon. Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.

Yesterday My daughter was excited to pick the first flower from the phlox plant on our deck and I wanted to get some shots of it with the Raynox lens before it wilted. This is a sign that warmer days will reamin constant, since this perrennial is usually the first to bloom down here. The first shot is kind of close up to show scale. That is whodat's thumb in the top left of the frame. These are all full framed, uncropped shots.

This second one is shot with full 4x optical zoom and 12x digital zoom to get closer.

The third one is taken with 21x digital zoom. The Canon S3IS is capable of 48x digital zoom, but this photographer isn't steady enough to get a good shot. Yet. Hope you enjoy these and leave a comment if you like.

Macro Monday

2008-03-02T23:17:00.007-06:00

So I'm playing fetch the ball with my Golden Retriever to wear her butt out and I spy this weed coming up in the lawn. The flowers looked pretty cool so I thought I'd give it a look through my Raynox lens to get up close. This lens allows you to really get inside the subject, almost like having a microscope. The flower you see below is slightly larger than a grain of rice, so imagine how small the bug is that's sitting on the top here. This is a full frame, hand held shot using the magnification (21x) from my Canon S3 IS.

As always, you can click on the thumbnail for a larger image. Comments welcome.

Incredible Billiards Video

2008-02-27T22:07:00.006-06:00

Anyone who enjoys playing pool will love this video of Semih Sayginer. He's a world class 3 cushion billiards player and it's unreal what he does in this video.

New add-on lens for macro shooting

2008-02-27T22:07:00.005-06:00

I'm getting used to my Raynox DCR-250 macro lens and wanted to share a shot here. I'm trying to find interesting things to shoot for a macro feature here so this is the first in what will be a semi-regular thing.

This is a hand held, non-cropped, full frame shot at 21x magnification with my Canon S3 IS. I'll reveal what this actually is after a few people take some guesses. As always, I'm using thickbox so you can click on the image for a larger view.

Sat. Night Home Tourney

2008-02-25T15:46:00.007-06:00

Went to a friends house for a semi- regular tournament this past Saturday night. 8 runners showed up for the $30.00 buy in tourney. There were 2 players I had no experience with so my strategy was to play this like a Sit & Go; tight early playing only premium hands with some c-bets thrown in to keep the weak passives/donk bettors honest.

The blinds started at 1/2. First hand I'm in the Big Blind and was running late so I didn't get to play it. Next hand, in the SB I get 77 and raise it up to 7 and get 2 callers. The flop comes Q 9 6 which doesn't help me and I check. Normally this is a spot I c-bet when playing in cash games but I know one of the players likes to bet (usually 1/2 pot or less) with any piece of the flop so I check with the intention of calling. No such luck as it's checked around. The turn brings me a 7. The card is great for my hand but brings a possible straight so I protect my hand by betting 2/3 pot and I take it down. Nice start.

I pretty much sat back from there and waited for opportunities to come up to gain some chips. Most of the hands I played I opened in the CO or button and would take it down with a strong c-bet. The general feel I got was that my aggression was going to pay off in the right spots. Most of the players don't really have a good concept of how to properly bet, or assess their opponent's ranges except NeonBlack whose always dangerous in terms of poker play.

A good example was one of the unknowns is in middle position. UTG opens to 4, and he min. raises to 8. All fold except the opener who is getting great odds here with any two cards. Flop comes Axx with a flush draw out there. Unknown openly groans and starts shaking his head. I knew right away he had KK. So UTG leads for a bet and Unknown calls. Turn comes a deuce and UTG leads again. Unknown shoves and loses when UTG shows A2. He's not happy but if he raises more pre-flop he gets him to fold.

So I noticed that the UTG guy will be susceptible to some light 3-betting since I'll have absolute position on him. I get to do it to him twice. One time he outright folds pre-flop. Next time he calls and checks the flop. I had like QT off , miss the flop completely and give him a stiff c-bet. He tanks for a few minutes and stares at me saying "I know you have AK. I don't think I can call though." Thanks. You just told me you have maybe mid pair with a weak kicker. If you call here I'm double barelling you 'cuz I know you're folding that weak sauce. Too bad he folded.

Nothing else really happened except when we got to the bubble. 3 places pay. 3rd place gets their buy in back and 2nd gets double that. I have a nice stack after earlier knocking out NeonBlack, who was getting pretty low on chips. He shoves in early position and I'm on the Button w/ 77 again. I know he needs chips and will shove a huge range here so call, as the blinds were on life supprot and hanging on for dear life. He shows KQ spades and I send him to the pool table when he doesn't improve.

The chip leader has a giant stack so my play now is to avoid him for the most part and punish the shorties. Thanks to Ryan's Sit & Go videos and my Mini Mastermind group at Poker Dynasty for improving my bubble play a lot. I knock one of them out and am in the money. I get it to Heads Up and start shoving any 2.

The blinds are now 20/40 and I have right around 11 or 12 BBs so I'm not folding much. I get no action when I shove. We go back and forth for a few hands until he finally open shoves. I know he doesn't have a pocket pair, as he LOVES to trap people with big hands. I figure I'm a 60/40 with my T9 os and call. He shows A7 os. Just about what I figured he have. I hit a T on the flop to take the lead. If this holds up I'll be in great position to win my third tourney here. ( I've won twice and placed in the money 4 out of 5 times ). Sadly an ace hits the river. I'm sure I a case could be made for folding the hand since my M was right at 11 and my calling range should be really tight. I went with my read here so I'm not worried too much about it.

I did stack him in the cash game that followed, although he only bought in for 10BBs. What is that weak sauce buy in after winnig the lion's share o fthe money? LOL. We played 1/2 NL. I bought in for 30 BB and was one of the biggest stacks on the table. Most everyone else bought in for 10- 20BBs I had 88 UTG+1 and raise it to 6, get one caller (10BBs). I hit my set and lead/ call his shove for the win. The cash game didn't last too long though and I made a little bit more so all in all it was a good night.

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand....

Sweet Emotion....

2008-02-11T11:32:00.000-06:00

I’ve been listening to the P.O.T.U.S. ’08 channel on XM Radio lately (I know, politics is boring) and heard an interesting piece during the news segment that got me thinking a bit about poker. Okay, I think about poker quite often so this was another excuse.

Since I’m in sales I know that a lot of purchases are based on emotion. If you can get your customer emotionally involved in the product you’re presenting your closing rate shoots through the roof. In the news piece, the reporter was talking about a study that was done to see how emotion can affect your spending habits. They showed a control group a short movie about a boy and his mentor where the mentor dies horribly in the end and found that customers -feeling very distraught after the show- were willing to purchase bottled water at 4 times the normal rate. Another group was shown a different movie and they refused to pay such an exorbitant price. Their reasoning skills weren’t affected by their emotions at all while the other group clearly was.

What does this have to do with poker? Since we play this game for money it means everything. If you can’t control yourself after someone hits a 4 outer on the river to beat you it will cost you more money than the hand you just lost. I’m guilty of it and I think we all are to some extent.

Think of it this way. You just lost a little on that hand. How much more do you want to lose because of it? Let your emotions fly and you’re guaranteed to lose like no other. Reign them in, stay focused and patient, and the money begins to flow your way. Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand…..

Wow! Some Amazing Guitar Work! (Rodrigo Y Gabriela)

2008-01-23T17:12:00.000-06:00

This song is from Rodrigo Y Gabriela's latest CD and it's titled Tamacun. Watch the way Gabriela strums the triplets here. She is creating all the percussion sounds you hear by hitting the strings and the face of the guitar. If your toes aren't tapping to this tune you have no soul. Enjoy.

A Belated Resolution

2008-01-08T16:29:00.000-06:00

One of the things I really want to work on this year is improving my patience. Not just in poker where it is absolutely essential for success but also in my personal life. I've been trying to focus more on this recently, like not yelling (too loudly) at the idiots that seem to go 10 mph slower than the speed limit every day on my way to work, and learning to let the minor irritants that happen every day just slide off. I don't think this is something I can master in a few weeks but it is really something I need to address to improve myself. I'm sure a lot of other people do as well.

I think patience is a very important trait to have while playing poker also. Being impatient has cost me dearly. One way has been by reacting to opponents bets and not thinking through the situation clearly. That leads to bad decisions, which we all know is the start down the road to ruin. Another way for me personally is by trying to force action with less than strong hands. I play a pretty tight game so the mistakes I make after the flop hurt a lot more since I don't play 24-28% of my hands. Patience and sound reasoning will vastly improve my play so I'll start now. One thing I'll try to remember is "don't sweat the small stuff.... because it's all small stuff."

Thanks for reading and may the good cards hit your hand...

Coolers And Bad Play Last Night

2007-12-18T20:10:00.000-06:00

I lost 4 buy ins last night in under 300 hands. I played like a pay off wizard and had some coolers thrown in for good measure.

Does anyone fold this hand? Villain was pretty horrible but I felt even worse here.

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players

LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP: $40.45

CO: $6.90

BTN: $14.65

SB: $41.95

BB: $13.25

whodat (UTG): $24.90

Pre-Flop: J J dealt to whodat (UTG)

whodat raises to $0.85, 2 folds, BTN calls $0.85, SB folds, BB calls $0.60

Flop: ($2.65) 8 A 8 (3 Players)

BB checks, whodat bets $2, BTN calls $2, BB folds

Turn: ($6.65) 8 (2 Players)

whodat checks, BTN bets $0.50, whodat calls $0.50

River: ($7.65) 2 (2 Players)

whodat checks, BTN bets $11.30 and is All-In, whodat calls $11.30

Results: $30.25 Pot ($1.50 Rake)

BTN showed 8 K (four of a kind, Eights) and WON $28.75 (+$14.10 NET)

whodat mucked J J J J (a full house, Eights full of Jacks) and LOST (-$14.65 NET)

This hand was right before I realized how much on tilt I was. I had notes on this guy that he only bets with strong hands. I called for time before finally saying 'screw it'and losing a bg stack. Funny thing is I was telling myself not to call because of stack sizes, so the "Spidey Sense" was right. I just chose to ignore it and it cost me a bunch. I hate myself for even posting this hand but I must be honest with myself here. My losses would've been manageable if I let this hand go...

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players

LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: $27.15

BB: $25

UTG: $62.35

MP: $35.35

CO: $27.80

whodat (BTN): $46.25

Pre-Flop: Q Q dealt to whodat (BTN)

UTG calls $0.25, 2 folds, whodat raises to $1.10, SB calls $1, BB calls $0.85, UTG raises to $62.35 and is All-In, whodat calls $45.15 and is All-In, 2 folds

Flop: ($94.70) A 9 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: ($94.70) 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($94.70) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $94.70 Pot ($3 Rake)

UTG showed K K (a pair of Kings) and WON $91.70 (+$45.45 NET)

whodat showed Q Q (a pair of Queens) and LOST (-$46.25 NET)

Here is more of my stupidity. I'm beat when he raises this river but I barge right in with the worst hand. Not to mention it's an unraised pot and I forgot my own Golden Rule: Big river bets are big hands.

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players

LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG: $25

MP: $42.35

CO: $50.80

BTN: $24.65

SB: $13.60

whodat (BB): $24.90

Pre-Flop: T 6 dealt to whodat (BB)

4 folds, SB calls $0.15, whodat checks

Flop: ($0.50) 9 5 4 (2 Players)

SB checks, whodat checks

Turn: ($0.50) 7 (2 Players)

SB bets $0.25, whodat calls $0.25

River: ($1) 8 (2 Players)

SB checks, whodat bets $1, SB raises to $5.50, whodat raises to $24.40 and is All-In, SB calls $7.60 and is All-In

Results: $27.20 Pot ($1.35 Rake)

SB showed J T (a straight, Jack high) and WON $25.85 (+$12.25 NET)

whodat showed T 6 (a straight, Ten high) and LOST (-$13.60 NET)

So I had a great night! Played, and lost like a total a donkey but I really didn't feel anger afterwards. It's noone else's fault that I chose not to read hands this session or try to put these guys on a range of hands and I got what I deserved.

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.

A Little Poker, A Few Bikes......

2007-12-14T11:37:00.001-06:00

Being a ninja, in the poker sense of the word, is the reason I joined Poker Dynasty. I feel that with the resources available to me here there is no reason I can't be successful. One of the best features is the Mini Mastermind. You meet with a group of like-minded people and discuss poker theory, go over hand histories, and/or, watch a member play a table explaining why he does what he does, all the while receiveing positive feedback on what he's doing correctly and what he may need to do to improve his game to reach the next level. It's starting to improve my game a lot and if you're interested in doing the same please click the link above and tell them whodatdare sent you. You won't be sorry you did.

The shot above was taken at Barber's Motorsports Museum in Leeds, AL, and is the "world's largest collection of vintage motorcycles and Lotus racing cars"( taken fromtheir site). It is 5 floors filled with motorcycles from around the world. The oldest one I found in my brief tour ( because this was a Christams party with free food and booze, and I llike free stuff!) was a Harley Davidson from 1908.

The racetrack here is considered to be one of the top 3 in the world. Rumor has it when Mr. Barber first built the track he had some world class racers test the track for him and give them their assessment. They said it was definitely a great track and was one of the the top 15 in the world. Mr Barber had the whole thing ripped up and redone.

This shot above was taken from the 3rd floor. You can only see 9 of the 15 bikes in this column. There are columns on each corner of a glass elevator. The second bike form the top inthis column is, you guessed it a Ninja!

This one really caught my eye because of the color and then I realized it had Michael Jordan's logo on it. He apprently loves racing and co-owns a team . If you click on this link goto gallery and pick a track for some awesome pics.

Hope you like these shots. I even talked a little poker too. That hasn't happened here in a while ;-)

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hityour hand.

Some Great Blues Work By The Fat Man

2007-12-05T11:45:00.000-06:00

I love Blues music and growing up in Chicago gave me lots of access to it. I went to school with Muddy Waters' kids and he would play the occasional free concert in my high school, or at the local festival in the fall.

This version of the Howlin' Wolf classic was always a favorite of mine when the Grateful Dead came to town. Jerry really shines on this song and Bob Weir's voice just seems to fit really well with this style of music.

Wing, Wing, Wing....

2007-11-28T13:22:00.000-06:00

Whodat? Dat you? Yes, it is yours truly on the wing of a KC-135 Stratotanker used by the Alabama Air National Guard for air re-fueling. My brother-in-law was gracious enough to give us a tour of this air craft, which has a crew of three. He's the boom operator and handles all the in air re-fueling. He actually lies on his belly in the rear of the plane and looks through a window to do his job and communicates with the pilot up front, the pilot waiting for fuel, while making sure the boom doesn't damage any of the jets. It is remarkable what he does. You can find more info here.

Below is a close up shot of the back of one of four engines used on this bird. Each engine creates 22,000 lbs. of thrust and it is feasible that the aircraft can fly on one engine. I wouldn't want to find out if this is true.

Thanks, Pip, for your time and for giving my 7 yr. old nephew the experience of a liftime! Ring the bell, and the next round is on me!

2007-11-14T08:39:00.000-06:00

Unfairness is reality

in an ice cold world

where your voice is

seldom heard.

People spite you.

People strike you.

Is this really

the good life?

Or is it the hell

before heaven?

Lightning-

The calm before

the atomic war.

Thunder-

The screams of the

innocent that die,

because world leaders

can't reason why

there's a need to destroy.

A Difference In Lighting For Macro Shooting

2007-11-08T11:08:00.002-06:00

Thanks to David for his comment on my previous macro shot and for suggesting I write up something to let others know what kind of method I'm using to get better lighting on my macro shots. A BIG thank you to George who shared his expertise to help me get up to speed. If it wasn't for him bringing in his laptop to the pool hall one day and showing me this amazing shot of a wolf spider's eight eyes I would've never bought the Canon Powershot S3 IS. I would post his shot of it here but I cannot get in touch with him as of the writing of this post.

For macro shooting the biggest challenge is getting enough light to your subject. For both of the shots above the distance from the subject to the lens is about 1/2 inch, I'd say. In super macro mode the S3 can focus at a distance of 0-3.9 inches. It is one of the best point and shoot cameras on the market for shooting macros and is relatively inexpensive, about $300. Some people spend more on a single lens and don't get the same results.

The flash for the S3 is mounted directly over the lens barell and creates the shadow you see in the top left photo. Notice the difference in the shot on the bottom right? Here's how I did it.

Simply cut a hole in the styrofoam bowl so that it fits on the end of your lens barell. I should've taken a picture of mine but I'm at work and it's at home. I cut the hole in the center of the bowl because of where the flash is located. I use the smaller sized bowl, about 8 inches in diameter. You can use larger bowls for larger subject as well. Be sure the bowl is not too snug though because you may damage the camera's motor if you forget to remove it while you turn it off. The bowl catches the light from the flash and basically re-distributes it to bring more light to your subject at these close up ranges. It's really that simple. This dirt cheap method can be used with other cameras also. If your camera's falsh is mounted on the side you just need to cut your hole differently to adjust but you should get great results. Let me know how it works out for you.

Also, click on the thumbnails for a larger image and a bit more detail.

And sorry to my other readers who are looking for poker things. I haven't posted a lot lately but will in the future.

Sunday Night Concert....

2007-10-31T12:11:00.002-05:00

If you liked the song I posted here, you will enjoy this band's show from 1996 on my favorite radio station. This Sunday, Nov.4 at 8;00 p.m. CST they will be airing a concert recorded in 1996 at Cabaret Metro, a funky little night club in the heart of Chicago's Wrigleyville area. If you click on the link for the radio station click on the "Listen Live Now" button. Hope you enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T12:11:00.001-05:00

I hope you got a little startled at this image. Don't worry, the subject was dead and no harm came to the photographer. This was taken in super macro with the Canon S3 IS.

The thing I like about this camera is that you can literally focus to zero inches when you shoot in this mode. The drawback is that you'll create a shadow form the lens barell when you use the flash, but a friend of mine came up with a cheap solution to get rid of it. You simply cut a hole in a styrofoam bowl and attach to the end of the barell and you get even light across the whole subject, which happened here. The distance to this creepy crawlie was the depth of the bowl I used, about 2 inches. As always, click on the thumbnail for a larger image, and finer details on this guy.

Sometimes I feel like one of these guys when playing in the freeroll tournaments.

Dynasty $500 Free roll..

2007-10-26T11:47:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, 10-20-07, Poker Dynasty hosted a $500 free roll tournament for its members on Poker Stars.

For those that don't know what a free roll is, it's a tournament that doesn't cost any money to play. There were 23 players in the tourney and the top 9 get paid. 1st place gets 30% of the total prize pool and the percentages go down accordingly.

I was lucky enough to make the final table - 9 players left - and knew how 4 of them played as I had been playing the entire tournament with them. I started playing very tight to protect my stack and try to get a read on a few of the players, and let the short stacks fall to the way side. I didn't want to play a lot of hands unless I had something really strong to 3- bet with, so I could set up a tight image and steal blinds later. There were some very good players here, namely LaffyTaffy who had a commanding chip lead and whom I thought would win the whole thing.

Nothing exciting happenes for me until it got down to three handed between me, jnye34, and benb1253. I really cranked up the aggression here to get as many chips as possible to make the final 2 by raising a lot more and 3-betting against them. Benb and I were pretty close in chips but jnye34 had a pretty good lead but after I 3-bet him with TT this hand came up vs. benb to get me closer.

POKERSTARS GAME #12744605089: TOURNAMENT #64282157, FREEROLL HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL IX (300/600) - 2007/10/20 - 17:23:20 (ET)
Table '64282157 2' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 4: jnye34 (16890 in chips)
Seat 6: benb1523 (6674 in chips)
Seat 8: 2whodatdare (10936 in chips)
jnye34: posts the ante 50
benb1523: posts the ante 50
2whodatdare: posts the ante 50
jnye34: posts small blind 300
benb1523: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 2whodatdare [As Ks]
2whodatdare: raises 1200 to 1800
jnye34: folds
benb1523: raises 4824 to 6624 and is all-in
2whodatdare: calls 4824
2whodatdare said, "gl"
*** FLOP *** [Tc Qs 9h]
*** TURN *** [Tc Qs 9h] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [Tc Qs 9h Td] [2h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
benb1523: shows [Ad 7c] (a pair of Tens)
2whodatdare: shows [As Ks] (a pair of Tens - Ace+King kicker)

I don't blame ben one bit fo rshoving here. An Ace high hand 3 way is a pretty good hand to shove with, since you're first in you get some fold equity against my stack.

Now we're heads up. jnye34 has been playing tight the entire tournament and has been showing down very strong hands. He's gonna be hard to beat unless I get very aggressive against so I decide to open up my pre-flop raising range against him. I don't think he'll 3-bet me too much so I shoud be able to catch up to him. we went back and forth a bit and I got some chips on these two hands:

POKERSTARS GAME #12744737062: TOURNAMENT #64282157, FREEROLL HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL X (400/800) - 2007/10/20 - 17:30:53 (ET)
Table '64282157 2' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 4: jnye34 (20040 in chips)
Seat 8: 2whodatdare (14460 in chips)
jnye34: posts the ante 50
2whodatdare: posts the ante 50
jnye34: posts small blind 400
2whodatdare: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 2whodatdare [Jh 7s]
jnye34: raises 1600 to 2400
2whodatdare: raises 2600 to 5000
jnye34: calls 2600
*** FLOP *** [2c 6c Ks]
2whodatdare: checks
jnye34: checks
*** TURN *** [2c 6c Ks] [2h]
2whodatdare: bets 9410 and is all-in
jnye34: folds

I think the check on the flop was a big mistake for me. I 3-bet him here and should continuation bet here to keep up the pressure, and not let another card come to possibly improve his hand. But when he checks behind I'm betting the turn most of the time and take a nice pot here.

This next hand happened one minute later:

POKERSTARS GAME #12744752012: TOURNAMENT #64282157, FREEROLL HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL X (400/800) - 2007/10/20 - 17:31:41 (ET)
Table '64282157 2' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 4: jnye34 (14990 in chips)
Seat 8: 2whodatdare (19510 in chips)
jnye34: posts the ante 50
2whodatdare: posts the ante 50
2whodatdare: posts small blind 400
jnye34: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 2whodatdare [Th Ts]
2whodatdare: raises 1500 to 2300
jnye34: raises 2500 to 4800
2whodatdare: raises 14660 to 19460 and is all-in
jnye34 said, "got an ace"
2whodatdare said, "i know"
jnye34 said, "lol"
jnye34: folds
2whodatdare collected 9700 from pot

I think jnye was saying he had an ace, at least in my mind and when I answered him it was to say "I know you have an ace and I'm really strong."
Now I'm feeling comfortable with 70% of the chips and it's oly a matter of time... until I mess this whole thing up? Or win?

5 minutes later:

POKERSTARS GAME #12744843816: TOURNAMENT #64282157, FREEROLL HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL X (400/800) - 2007/10/20 - 17:36:51 (ET)
Table '64282157 2' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 4: jnye34 (12590 in chips)
Seat 8: 2whodatdare (21910 in chips)
jnye34: posts the ante 50
2whodatdare: posts the ante 50
2whodatdare: posts small blind 400
jnye34: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 2whodatdare [Ah Qc]
2whodatdare: raises 1500 to 2300
jnye34: raises 10240 to 12540 and is all-in
2whodatdare: calls 10240
*** FLOP *** [6d 2h 5s]
2whodatdare said, "gl"
*** TURN *** [6d 2h 5s] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [6d 2h 5s Jd] [Qh]

*** SHOW DOWN ***
jnye34: shows [Jc Jh] (three of a kind, Jacks)
2whodatdare: shows [Ah Qc] (a pair of Queens)
jnye34 collected 25180 from pot

I don't think either of us were folding here. He's a big favorite vs. my range and I love my hand.

Now jnye34 starts putting a lot of pressure on me pre-flop, which he should. He has a huge chip lead and should not slow down. He played extremely well and deserved to win. I think I played better than I have been lately, but know there are situations where I can improve. I just have to find them. Thanks to Ryan and Jared for hosting this tourney and for recording the final table. I'm looking forward to seeing parts 3 and 4 if you have them.

Comments are welcome on what you think of the hands shown here and are appreciated. Until then, good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.

8 Years Ago Today.......

2007-10-11T15:52:00.004-05:00

....Mrs. Whodatdare and I went on our first date. Honey, you are truly an angel to put up with me sometimes, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for looking past the many quirks and faults I have. Did I mention that I have many of them?

Do you remember the night I asked you to dinner? I really thought when I asked if you wouldn't mind waiting until I got paid that you would run far and fast, but you didn't. (It had to be my game, right?) It seems like that dinner was so long ago and like it was last night too. That's because of you. You make life enjoyable. I would be incomplete without you. I love You!

Macro Monday

2007-10-11T15:52:00.003-05:00

I hope I can stack opponents as well as I can stack these coins. Interstingly, when I was setting up this shot I noticed that some of the coins had to be placed heads up and some had to be placed the other way to get the words facing the right way.

Blogger Freeroll on Poker Stars!

2007-10-11T15:52:00.002-05:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 5124214

Click the top link above to see how you can enter as well and be part of the fun! There is absolutely no catch. You don't have to deposit money onto the site so what are you waiting for?

Thanks to jonyy6788 at Poker Dynasty for the hook up on this. Good luck to my fellow bloggers and may the better cards hit my hand. Just this one time! Ok, I know I'm dead money but a man can dream......

Another Macro Monday

2007-10-06T17:18:00.003-05:00

I might make this a regular theme here on Mondays. The shots won't always be of flowers, but when you see them in a different way and I think that makes it really intersting. This shot is full frame with a tiny bit of editing done to get rid of a dead spot on the leaf towards the bottom. Patter metering made the red bloom stand out here, which turned out cooler than I thought. So, through fidgeting and just messing around with the controls I get a good shot. Maybe that can translate in my poker game?

As always I use Thickbox on my pictures here so you can click on the thumbnail for a lager image. Thanks again to Terry's Playpen for the tutorial.

Water Lily

2007-10-06T17:18:00.002-05:00

This is the actual water lily in the shot below. Both of these shots are full frame with no crop at all, taken with the Canon S3 IS.

A Monday Macro

2007-10-06T17:18:00.001-05:00

Water lily taken at 9:30 a.m. This is the very center of the flower and the distance to it is about 1-1/2". Hand held photo and no Photoshop tricks were used, except for cloning a few blemishes that were on the flower itself.

A little Musical Interlude

2007-10-06T17:18:00.000-05:00

Los Lobos is best known for their work in the movie "La Bamba", about Richie Valens. They performed all the music in the movie. This song is kind of different, but the album, Kiko is one of their best. Hope you enjoy......

Short Update

2007-10-01T11:08:00.000-05:00

Just messing around at Bodog and playing way under-rolled. For some reason I hate playing 10NL full ring games. So I jumped up to the 25NL 6-max games and am not doing too bad, but coulld be doing better. It's taken a little while to get used to the players here but not as long as usual. Maybe my game is progressing? My goal this month is to triple what I strarted with at the site. I deposited 4 buy ins at 25, so I'll need to get to 12, not including the bonus they gave me. I still have my $T credits to use too and I guess they can be used for any tourney. After that goal is accomplished I want to be really active in the mini mastermind we are setting up over at Poker Dynasty, as well as get back to Full Tilt for rakeback, and play more hands than I have in the past.

This group study thing will really help my game, as the people lined up in it are better than me. I just hope I can contribute a lot to the group when I start excelling, which I have no doubt will happen very soon. Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand....

Ramblings

2007-09-22T11:46:00.001-05:00

I played a $1.00 tournament on Bodog yesterday and finished in 4th place out of 148 players. While I didn't win life changing money it still feels great to get a good result and cash in a tournament. I can't say that my game has - all of a sudden - drastically improved, but I find myself concentrating more while I play. I think that's one of the biggest things I need to keep doing to improve my play. I'm finding that when I stay focused on the task at hand, whether it be pool or poker or even my job, I'm more successful.

This isn't any epiphany I recently discovered. I guess I've always known it, but for some reason it's starting to sink in. Part of that is reading Jared's answers in the hand histories at Poker Dynasty.net. The answers are simple to follow. The main message I'm getting is to think through on your actions, study hard on your game and play more hands. Better results will come when you start making better post-flop decisions.

I found my favorite radio station recently online from my hometown of Chicago and I'm loving it! The DJ's make their own playlists and you don't hear the same song played over and over. You won't hear the same playlist the next day either. It's a rock station, but there is a HUGE variety of music played. Go to link and click on Listen Live Now. Hope you like....
Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand..........

Colorful Bug and Some Live Pokah!

2007-09-13T17:37:00.002-05:00

I found this thing after hurricane Humberto passed by Friday night. I've never seen such a colorful bug before, and the patterns on him remind me of a small flower. He was hanging around the light on the deck, along with a couple of his friends.

Oh, I played some live poker Saturday night after the 'Bama game. What a comeback that was!

We had what turned out to be a $30.00 6 man Sit and Go starting with 80 chips. Neo Black was also playing. Thankfully he was on my right so I had a litlle more free rein on when I could play. Blinds start out at 1/2 and go up around every 40 minutes, or whenever we all needed a beer.

I chipped up a little bit by making a nice check raise on one guy's flop min. bet, and made some more on a couple pre-flop raise/ c-bets.

I made a huge bluff at the 2/4 level on a calling station who I knew would not call with something like a small pair. I led him by 30 chips and I've played with him before so I had a pretty good read on his game. Well, he got talked into it by the dude next to him. What ever happened to one player to a hand? He called with a pair of 7's on a board that showed a possible flush and a straight. I was steaming for two orbits before I cooled off. I liked my bet in that spot, given the read I had on the player.

So I'm down to 30 chips and it's time for the next level, 3/6. I look over to the player on my left and say to him to watch out because I only have 5 big Blinds left and it's time to start shoving. He laughs and pays me off three hands later. This level treated me pretty well, as I got all my chips back from the station on a really weak hand. I have Jack 7, suited, and hit the 7 on the flop with a back door flush draw. He bets the minimum and I shove all in and get called by 97. Nice double up and I'm back in it now. I made a few button raises to take some blinds and I'm starting to feel more comfortable and make a few button raises to take some blinds. I was never 3-bet the entire time.

Most of the pre-flop raises by the opponents were min. raises, except for Neon Black, who nursed a small stack most of the night and played extremely well. I knew I could 3-bet him in certain situations and that he would respect it but, as I said, he was pretty short for a while. If he raised 3-1/2 times the BB I was out. If I had a decent - but not premium - hand I would call and hope to see one or two more players enter, figuring I could steal on the flop with a raise.

We're 5 handed now and I knocked out the next 2 players to take a huge chip lead. The first player I knocked off was read based. I had been raising quite a bit (3-1/2 X BB) and this guy asked why I raised so much, and he folded. The next time I was on the button I did the same thing with Ace high, just trying to steal blinds. He starts to think and he looked frustrated (Neon Black just took a bunch of his chips with a straight on the river)and shoved all in. Something just didn't feel right about his shove. His normal style of play was to call the raise and try to take down the pot on the flop with a shove. I've never seen him shove pre-flop with any pocket pair, or premium Ace holding. So I called. He had Queen ten, off suit and I rivered a straight. The next guy went soon afterward when he called with Top pair and I had him out kicked.

Out of the starting 480 chips I'm sitting with about 380 of them and blinds are now at 5/10 and moving up fast. Two places pay out and neither of these guys will catch me, although I would prefer to see Neon Black go down in flames. He was the only player I really respected in terms of playing ability. That's not a knock on the other guys, as they are friends, but when it comes to poker Neon and I were the two best players there. There wasn't much action now and it was getting late so I offered a chop so that 3rd place could get some money for his effort. I thought it was the right thing to do.

Hope you all had a great weekend. Good luck and may the good cards hit your hand....

Creepy Crawlie.....

2007-09-13T17:37:00.001-05:00

So I walk into work one morning and find this little guy waiting in the bathroom, just wanting to be shot. So shoot him I did with the Canon S3IS in Super Macro mode with spot metering so I didn’t get enough focus on his face. The distance to the subject is about 1" with optical zoom set at 48X. I did a little editing through Photoshop 6. Don't know enough about the program yet, so I hope this turned out alright. The image was rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise as well.

In Memory of Souls Lost....

2007-09-11T13:57:00.000-05:00

I think Iced Earth said it best in this video. I get chills watching this.

I'm sure we all remember exactly where we were and what we were doing 6 years ago today.
I recall thinking, "We're going to war" and hoping my brother would somehow make it through another tour in the Middle East. He's a Cavalry Scout, so he's half nuts ;-) He fought in Desert Storm and spent another 18 months during "Shock and Awe" fighting with the 3rd Infantry Division and 101st Airborne. It looks like he may be deployed again after his Drill Sergeant gig is up early next year. God Speed, brother. And God Bless all our troops who sacrifice so much and receive so little in return. You are all heroes in my eyes.

A Great Guitarist

2007-09-09T16:18:00.000-05:00

Michael Schenker is truly one of the greatest guitarists to ever play and this song, Captain Nemo, is one of his best. His playing style is easily recognized when you hear songs by the Scorpions or UFO.

Ozzy Osbourne wanted him to play in his band after Randy Rhoads passed away, and it is documented that Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones wanted him to join also. He is an absolute master in his craft who plays so fluidly it is jaw dropping.

It's Been a While

2007-08-31T11:48:00.000-05:00

So, how's everyone doing? I haven't played much poker this month, so not much to talk about on that front. I've been messing around at Bodog a little, playing TheEnd79 some play chip HU just for shits and giggles.

I did play in their New player tournament once and qualified for a better than normal deposit bonus, a credit for their $10k guaranteed tournament and a subscription to Card Player, so I'll fart around there for a while. I only have $150 on the site so it looks like small buy-in games or Sit & Go's for the time being. The Sit & Go's seem pretty easy to beat . The skill level of players- as other people have said for a long time- is very different from Full Tilt. I've seen some pretty crazy play in my limited time there. I intend on clearing the bonus, profiting, and getting out, because I don't have rakeback (can anyone get me switched over?) and because of the litigation Bodog is facing right now. Has anyone read the latest blog entry from Bill Rini? Anyone believe in omens? Your thoughts about this issue?

I just got a new camera last week as a belated birthday gift. Thanks to George (check out the macro on the cicada) for giving me some info about this and taking the time to show me the ropes on macro shots. I'll be posting some pics on my flickr account very soon if you want to check them out. Still getting a feel for the camera so it may be later on next week, but this thing is awesome! I'll post a few of my 35 mm pics from vacation soon and give a link if anyone is interested.

I hope all of you are hitting your flops hard and getting those chips! I plan to be playing more in September. See you at the tables, good luck, and may the good cards hit your hand.....

2007-08-20T16:29:00.000-05:00

Interesting conversation to start our vacation to Chicago with Mrs. whodatdare. It's 4:45 a.m. and we've just left Birmingham, AL.

me: Hey honey, how many bugs do you think will hit the windshield today?

Mrs. whodat: I don't know. Why?

me: What do you think the over/under will be?

Mrs. whodat: Um, 50!

me: I'll take the over. You're such a fish!

Mrs. whodat: I want to change it to 500.

me: I'll still take the over, fish!

Mrs. whodat: I hate this already!

1-1/2 hours later, getting ready to cross the Tennessee River....

Mrs. whodat: Did you remember to shut the garage door?

me: Um, I think, OH ****!

Mrs. whodat: Who's the fish now?

Randomness..... And Vacation Time!!!!

2007-08-09T12:29:00.000-05:00

Haven't played much this month. I've had a lot of things going on like getting my alternator fixed, getting the wife's car tuned up for our trip to Chicago tomorrow, and today, on the hottest day the AC needed servicing . Have ever noticed how life happens when you're busy preparing for something else? It is so hot today. Birmingham set a new record today at 103 degrees. When I woke up at 6:00 this morning it was 80 degrees with the humidity at a comfortable 71%. Can you say "UGH!"

I managed to get in a very short session a few days ago. I played a little looser than normal, running at 25/18/4 which is way above what I'm used to playing. But after data mining I noticed this table was very passive. There was a point where I raised pre-flop 6 times in a row and never met resistance.

I had a few more ups and downs during this session but never felt the players would or could out play me. If I can find tables like this all the time I could really improve my bankroll and achieve my next goal of jumping up to the next level. Afer vacation I'm going to try out Sixth Sense to help with table selection. Thanks to Jared and Ryan for the info they give over at Poker Dynasty. They really run a great site.

In that light, I want to congratulate Flamm on his great run in the FTOPS event 1 last night (Aug. 8) He finished 54th out of over 4,000 people for a nice cash. It was fun railing and supporting you on your run. Hopefully I'll be in that position one day soon. Keep up with your efforts and great things will come to you.

Oh yeah, here's a hand to peruse while I'm on vacation. I'll be back in about a week. Comments are welcome and encouraged.

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 6 Players - (LegoPoker Hand History Converter)

whodatdare (SB): $26.70

BB: $24.85

UTG: $15.80

MP: $25.00

CO: $14.55

BTN: $49.70

Preflop: whodatdare is dealt 7 T (6 Players)

2 folds, CO calls $0.25, BTN folds, whodatdare calls $0.15, BB checks

Flop: ($0.75) 9 3 A (3 Players)

whodatdare checks, BB checks, CO bets $0.75, whodatdare calls $0.75, BB folds

Turn: ($2.25) 8 (2 Players)

whodatdare checks, CO bets $3.50, whodatdare raises to $12.75, CO calls $9.25

River: ($27.75) 6 (2 Players)

whodatdare bets $0.80, CO calls all-in for $0.80

Pot Size: $29.35 ($29.35 Rake)

whodatdare had 7 T ([7c Tc] a flush, Ace high) and WON ($14.55)

Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

2007-08-01T16:12:00.000-05:00

Not the one you're thinking of from the chant. The original Jerry. I've seen him, and the Grateful Dead more than any other band in my life. His guitar playing is extremely under-rated by the public, but he was truly phenomenal to see live. I hope you enjoy this song. It's called Peggy-O and this is one of the best versions I've ever heard.

Happy birthday, Jerry, on what would've been your 65th. You are sorely missed but still revered for the indelible mark you left on my soul.

This Looks Fun.....

2007-07-21T13:04:00.002-05:00

I found a nice vid of the descent down my favorite mountain stage. This was filmed with a steady cam mounted on the handle bars.This is part one and lasts about 6 minutes. The descent is about 9 miles long, so he is probably hitting speeds of 55 mph or higher. If you like roller coasters I think you will love this.

Pyrenees Mountains....

2007-07-21T13:04:00.001-05:00

The Pyrenees Mountain stages start tomorrow and are famous for very steep climbs -some of the steepest in the Tour- and blisteringly fast descents with speeds reacing over 55mph.

The top picture is a descent down Plateau-De-Beille. You think there is any room for error? They won't have to worry about that, as this is the mountain top finish fpr tomorrow's stage.

The bottom picture is part of the climb up Plateau-De-Beille and gives you a sense of how close the crowds are and what the riders experience during all this. They get so close that at times riders cannot see the road ahead.

These photos are copied from pezcycling.com (top) and steephilltv.com

I added thickbox to my pictures so you can click the thumbnail for a larger image. Many thanks to Terry for all his help. If you like what you see why not stop by his site and add it to your blog? Thanks for reading.

My Favorite Stage in the Tour De France

2007-07-17T10:04:00.002-05:00

Alpe d'Huez is the most famous mountain climb in the Tour De France. While the tour route varies from year to year, l'Alpe d'Huez has hosted a stage finish almost every year since 1976. The Tour de France first finished a stage on l'Alpe d'Huez in 1952. That stage was won by the Italian Fausto Coppi. The climb up Alpe d'Huez is 13.8 km at an average gradient of 8.1% with 21 hairpin bends marked with panels honoring the winners of each stage that has finished there. Having finished there for the 22nd time in 2001 the authorities have had to start again at the bottom with a double panel honoring Fausto Coppi and Lance Armstrong..
As the most legendary climb in recent Tour history, the Alpe has been the scene of chaotic crowds in the past 10 years. In 1999 Giuseppe Guerini won the stage despite being knocked off his bike by an over-enthusiastic spectator who stepped into his path to take a photograph (the photographer later sought out Guerini to apologize). The 2004 Tour De France route featured an individual time trial up Alpe d'Huez, which became a chaotic scene crowded with nearly a million fans, some of whom could not resist pushing their favorite rider toward the top. Armstrong won the stage and his time was only 1 second slower than the official record set by the late Marco Pantani of 37 minutes, 35 seconds.

Unfortunately this stage is not on the Tour this year. Usually after the descent from Galibier the riders climb Alpe D'huez, but this year they veer their way into Briancon for the finish.

2007-07-17T10:04:00.000-05:00

Le Tour De France just finished the Alp mountain stages with a climb of Col Du Galibier, which is one of the toughest this year.

Taken from wikipedia:

The Col du Galibier (el. 2645m, over 9000 ft) is a high mountain pass in the southern region of the French Dauphine Alps near Grenoble. It is often the highest point in the Tour De France. It was first used in 1911.

The climb to the summit in today’s stage is 18.1 km (about 10 miles) long at an average of 6.9% (height gain: 1245m). The maximum is 10.1% at the summit.

To watch these riders climb these is absolutely amazing. And to think they have the Pyrennes on the horizon.

A Couple Hand Histories, As Promised

2007-07-08T16:45:00.003-05:00

My table from the othere night was filled with calling stations and maniacal fish, luckily for me! I think I played badly on this first hand by not betting the turn because the villain is a fish who bets the river with nothing quite often. All comments are welcomed, because I'm not an expert.

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 6 Players - (LegoPoker HH Converter)

SB: $22.15

BB: $49.45

whodatdare (UTG): $24.65

MP: $29.10

CO: $25.00

BTN: $9.50

Preflop: whodatdare is dealt 7 7 (6 Players)

whodatdare raises to $0.85, MP calls $0.85, 3 folds, BB calls $0.60

Flop: ($2.65) 8 9 K (3 Players)

BB checks, whodatdare bets $1.80, MP folds, BB calls $1.80

Turn: ($6.25) A (2 Players)

BB checks, whodatdare checks

River: ($6.25) 5 (2 Players)

BB bets $3.00, whodatdare calls $3.00

Pot Size: $12.25 ($12.25 Rake)

BB had 2 J ([2d Jd] Ace King high) and LOST (-$5.65)

whodatdare had 7 7 ([7c 7d] a pair of Sevens) and LOST (-$5.65)

Another hand wih the same villain. He's tilting because UTG out drew him for 2 pair on the river when he had TP. I was hoping UTG would stay in as he was calling very light.

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 4 Players - (LegoPoker HH Converter)

whodatdare (SB): $54.65

BB: $32.95

UTG: $66.30

BTN: $23.65

Preflop: whodatdare is dealt 9 9 (4 Players)

UTG raises to $0.50, BTN raises to $1.85, whodatdare calls $1.75, BB folds, UTG calls $1.35

Flop: ($5.80) 2 9 K (3 Players)

whodatdare bets $2.80, UTG calls $2.80, BTN raises to $9.00, whodatdare raises all-in to $52.80, UTG folds, BTN calls all-in for $12.80

Uncalled bet of $31.00 returned to whodatdare

Uncalled bet of $0.00 returned to BTN

Turn: ($52.20) 7 (2 Players - 2 All-In)

River: ($52.20) 6 (2 Players - 2 All-In)

Pot Size: $52.20

BTN had A A (a pair of Aces) and LOST (-$23.65)

whodatdare had 9 9 (three of a kind, Nines) and LOST (-$23.65)

The Start of Something Good?

2007-07-08T16:45:00.001-05:00

Hopefully. July is starting off pretty good for me. I played a short 320 hand session and made just shy of 3 buy ins. I applied some of the things Mo and I discussed about post-flop play and it's working very well so far. I timed my aggression better tonight by not c-betting every single hand and I stilled got paid off on my big hands. I'll post some of those here and in this blog as well. Until then good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.

2007-07-08T16:45:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note today for now. I really haven't played too much since the Dyansty member game. I must say that was one great game to play in. It played like no other game I've played at the 25 NL level. Open raising, no limping, and lots of 3-bets pre-flop.

I did figure out some things about my game by actually thinking about some of my weaknesses that were exposed. They stuck out to me in that game, but wouldn't have been exposed by playing with regular 25 players, so it was worth it to play. Thanks to MO for some timely advice as well on how to immediately improve on post-flop play.

Linkin Park & Jay Z

2007-07-02T16:02:00.000-05:00

So I'm searching around for a cool video to post from a certain artist next month, on what would've been his 65th birthday, and run into this gem. I always like when artists put a spin on the original song to show how diverse it can actually be. I really think the song is beautiful and I hope you enjoy.

So.....

2007-06-27T18:38:00.000-05:00

Heads up Sit & Go's are out for now. I don't like the swings and there's no future in it for me. I haven't played that much but when I have I have been:
a) pretty unlucky by pre flop bluffing with KK into QQ and seing a Q on the flop.
b)Playing on tilt and doing the same dumb things that I thought I had a handle on.

Apparently not all the time. So I have hit a little downswing in June and lost 6 buy ins. I'm sure there are peoople who see that kind of swing in a session, but I don't play 3k hands per day. If I'm lucky I get in 500 ona week night. I'm still okay in the bankroll dept. so I just need to grind out some hours and profit. If I have time tonight I'll be playing ata table of players from here. It's an exercise brought up by Flamm to learn from each other and it should be pretty fun, provided I don't lose 4 buy ins quick. If my daughter cooperates and gets to sleep (and STAYS asleep) I'll stop in for a few hands and donate a little. It'll be good to get some feedback on how some hands were played. Advanced thanks to Ryan for taping and making this a video for us. Hope things are going good in Vegas at the WSOP for you, Jared, MO and all the rest who are out there. Maybe next year I can fly out and hang for a while.

Nothing Special

2007-06-19T16:07:00.000-05:00

Played last night for a couple hours and lost $1 over 450 hands. Yawn.....
I made a bad pre-flop read that cost me half a stack (TT vs.QQ), and 3 hands later lost a race with Big Slick against a short stack's small pair, but kept my head in the game and didn't let it affect me too much. Got paid off later by 3-betting light in late position that set up an image in my favor when the big cards came.

I started playing some heads up sit & go's for a change of pace and they seem to be profitable for me. I like the fact that they don't take too long to finish and the players are incredibly weak.

APA City Update.....

2007-06-07T13:39:00.009-05:00

Here is a breakdown of the City Championships for us. We lost our match Friday night, ( I won my match here) but luckily this is a modified double elimination tournament, meaning you are guaranteed to play at least two matches. After that, even if you've won your first two you will be sent home if you lose. So we had one more chance to stay alive on Sat. afternoon. I missed our 2 p.m. match because of work, but we managed to eke out a victory. Our next match was at 7 p.m.
The format is like this: You can play up to 5 people on your team. Each player is handicapped with a skill level; 3 being the lowest(for males) and 7 being the highest. But, your team is only allowed to play up to 23 skill level (SL) points during the match. Now in a tournament the team that wins 3 out of 5 indivdual matches first moves on to the next round. Both of our previous matches came down to the fifth match, and both of those went "double hill" which means whoever wins that final single game moves on. We quickly beat up this opponent 3-0. Sweet, we'll be home by 10:00, get a good night's sleep and be back at 9:00 a.m. to kick some ass.
Sunday was completely different. We need to win 3 more times to get to Vegas. I blew a chance to put us up 2-1 by scratching on the 8-ball in my first game against a SL3, putting her on the hill. But I didn't lose my cool. I was definitely playing better than this foe. My shot making has improved a lot in the past few months and I'm shaping the cue very well now. But, sadly to say, I screwed up on another 8-ball. We were playing on Ivan Simonis felt and it was WICKEDLY fast which will throw a ball out of the pocket if you hit too hard. Guess what I did? I hit too hard and rattled the pocket, leaving my foe an easy two ball run out. That, just like other things in life sometimes, is the way it goes.
Next match we put up our big gun, a SL 7. He gets a SL 6 so the race is 5-4. Our 7 must win 5 before the other guy gets to 4. I must add that he broke his elbow playing basketball 3-1/2 weeks ago and had a screw put in about 10 days before this tournament. To see him playing back at his best - and he was - in such a short time is remarkable The 6 wins the break and the first game is in his favor after 2 innings. We're down 1-0. Next game he makes the 8 on the break. Now our 7 is down 2-0 after 2 games, but manages to get to double hill by playing some killer defense, and wins the final game. We're all tied up, 2-2 with one match to come.
Both of our teams only have a SL 3 left to play. It's a race to 2. Our 3 has only been playing competitively for 3 months and he's shaking. I've been there myself. As a 3 on my first Vegas experience, I had to play the final match, but mine was "sudden death ". One game to decide who wins and mine was to get into the money. He's playing a female and she's not nervous at all. In fact, she runs 6 balls on her break in the first game and eventually wins the first game.
Our 3 comes back and does the same thing to her in the next game, but misses the 8-ball twice. If you've never been in this type of pressure situation it's grueling. Your team is living and dieing on every shot. Now, the other 3 is feeling it too. She starts shanking easy, strraight in shots so he redeems himself and ties up the score, 1-1. The next game decides our fate. It came down to the 8-ball, and our guy rattled the pocket. So, that was that. better luck next year.....
Let me end by saying this about the pool league. It's very hard to qualify for City. You have to play a 16 week schedule against 12 + teams and be in the top three to qualify for a playoff and win that to get into City. You get 3 chances to do this in a year. If you're lucky enough to qualify you are going against 80 other teams for 4 spots to go to Vegas. ( I stated 5 in my Previous post, and that was wrong) My personal record in City matches now stands at 8-1. I've been to City 5 times now, so I can't complain too much, but it hurts when you lose. To quote Roger Federer after his loss in the French Open this year, "The disappointment goes away pretty quickly." And it will. I am now a captain again and will build a team I think can win next year. Right now after 5 weeks we're in 2nd place, one point out of first. My motto is and always be "Win Three each week and the rest will take care of itself." Here's to next year...........

And Now For Something Completely Different

2007-06-07T13:39:00.008-05:00

I figured I would throw out something different in my musical taste, which is extremely varied. This band came to City Stages in B'ham 2 years ago and ROCKED the place! Hope you enjoy this and look for them on tour.

Dimmu Borgir Video

2007-06-07T13:39:00.007-05:00

This is th eband I saw last week in Atlanta and what an incredible show it was! Rapid, pounding drums. Chunky, blazingly fast guitars. Head banging. Circle mosh pits. Throwing body surfers to teh front of the stage. (In my case, since I was in the front, throwing them to the body guards) Body guards catching surfers and helping them get to their feet while said concert goer calmly walks back into the crowd. Yep, good times.

80 In, 5 Out. APA Style

2007-06-07T13:39:00.003-05:00

Eighty teams will begin the APA City Championship tournament tonight. Five teams will have to bring their best games and get a little lucky to punch their ticket to the National Team Championships. This is the biggest tourney of the year and why I play so much pool. I mean, a free trip to Vegas? Hell yes!

Hopefully Neon Black will be out showing his support for old whodatdare....... No poker this weekend, obviously but good luck on the felt to all of you and may the good cards hit your hand.

Dear Ace King, I Hate You Sometimes

2007-05-29T09:27:00.001-05:00

But not last night. It was my big winner in a very short session Monday night. I played a little over 100 hands over 3 tables and was fortunate to find some incredible maniacs spewing chips lke Mt. Etna spews lava. Here are some HH's for you.......

FullTiltPoker Game #2533239228: Table Bazmorda (6 max) - $0.10/$0.25 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:08:31 ET - 2007/05/28
Seat 1: IslandAK ($26)
Seat 2: Cals-TULIP ($25), is sitting outSeat
3: HERO ($25)
Seat 4: trazz23 ($25)
Seat 5: jonny35 ($47.60)
Seat 6: Holly24 ($29.85)
HERO posts the small blind of $0.10
trazz23 posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [Ac Ks]
jonny35 raises to $0.50 His min raise pre-flop has been any two suited cards, or any face card
Holly24 foldsIslandAK folds
HERO raises to $1.75
trazz23 folds
jonny35 raises to $3
Cals-TULIP has returned
HERO calls $1.25
*** FLOP ***
[4c Td 8h]
HERO bets $4.60
jonny35 raises to $44.60, and is all in I've seen him do this move earlier with air
HERO calls $17.40, and is all in
jonny35 shows [Js Qs]
HERO shows [Ac Ks]
Uncalled bet of $22.60 returned to jonny35
*** TURN *** [4c Td 8h] [4d]
*** RIVER *** [4c Td 8h 4d] [7c]
jonny35 shows a pair of Fours
HERO shows a pair of Fours
HERO wins the pot ($47.75) with a pair of Fours
jonny35 adds $2.40

FullTiltPoker Game #2533023384: Table Marcon (6 max) - $0.10/$0.25 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:43:08 ET - 2007/05/28
Seat 1: mrk826 ($30)
Seat 2: Lorbo57 ($25) Calling Station who is very loose pre flop and giving away his chips
Seat 3: HERO ($25)
Seat 4: Air_Assault777 ($27.65)
Seat 5: WendChew ($50.95)
Seat 6: FCS Tech ($9.65)
Air_Assault777 posts the small blind of $0.10
WendChew posts the big blind of $0.25
Lorbo57 posts a dead small blind of $0.10
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [Kd Ad]
FCS Tech calls $0.25
mrk826 has 15 seconds left to act
mrk826 folds
Lorbo57 calls $0.25
HERO raises to $1.50
Air_Assault777 folds
WendChew folds
FCS Tech folds
Lorbo57 calls $1.25
*** FLOP ***
[2c Ah Qd]
Lorbo57 checks
HERO bets $2
Lorbo57 calls $2
*** TURN ***
[2c Ah Qd] [6s]
Lorbo57 bets $21.40, and is all in
HERO calls $21.40
Lorbo57 shows [3d 8s]
HERO shows [Kd Ad]
*** RIVER ***
[2c Ah Qd 6s] [Jd]
Lorbo57 shows Ace Queen high
HERO shows a pair of Aces
HERO wins the pot ($48) with a pair of Aces
Lorbo57 is sitting out

Going to the ATL tonight for a concert. Will post a trip report if I survive. It's been 10+ years since I've seen a Black Metal show, and Dimmu Borgir is at the forefront of the genre right now. It should be interesting. Until then good luck onthe felt and may the good cards hit your hand...

2007-05-24T16:13:00.000-05:00

The past week hasn't allowed a lot of time for poker. I worked the entire weekend and was busily getting the bedrooms ready for our new furniture which arrived on Monday. Vaughan Bassett forgot to rout the center rail all the way on my King bed and the hook in rail wouldn't set properly. I was seriously tilting because this particular bedroom set was recently discontinued and the delivery guys had just left.

So I did what anyone else would do when you're stuck. I McGiver'ed my way through it. I had to use my knife and hack through the wood until the hook was exposed enough to connect with the rest of the bed. It looks awesome with a low profile footboard and makes the room appear larger now.

I did get a tiny bit of play in (500 hands) and made 2 buy ins along the way. Things are becoming easier now with my added aggression. These guys just added a new video that is outstanding. You need to check out this site if you haven't already. If all goes well I'll get in some playing time tonight. Good luck onthe felt and may the good cards hit your hand......

And DOWN The Stretch They Come!

2007-05-19T11:35:00.001-05:00

A half hour before the Preakness goes off I get a call from my Dad. He was a jockey and it's where I get my love for horses from. I have a customer in the store so I couldn't talk as long as I wanted but he gave this tid bit. He says, "Watch out for Curlin. He's gonna win today." I guess it's true that Father knows best.
Congratulations to Robby Albarado and Curlin on your win. Its not many times a horse gets passed at the quarter pole and comes back to win. Sucks for Street Sense though. Another year without a Triple Crown winner..... I hope we see one soon.

A Little About the APA

2007-05-19T11:35:00.000-05:00

Mo left a comment for me about the APA and I thought I would talk a little about my history with it in this post.

I've been a member since 1995 if memory serves me well. I always enjoyed playing pool in my younger years in the 'burbs of Chicago but I was never any good at the game. My friends gave me a nickname during this time. Johnny "No Depth Perception" was what I was called because I could not make a lengthy shot if my life depended on it. Some would say that is still the case but whatever.

I started playing in the APA as a way to meet people when I moved down South, seeing that I didn't know a soul down here. At first it was an excuse to go out, drink beer, have fun and chase skirts but I noticed that some teams were very serious about playing the game. I wanted to be on that kind of team because to me the object of playing a game is to win.

So I bounced around on a few teams playing 3 times a week and finally landed on a good team in 2001. I was a Skill Level 3 (SL3), which at the time was the lowest level a man could be. Every team needs all skill levels because the APA will only allow a team to play 23 SL team points in any match to avoid one team from loading up a bunch of 7's and killing everyone.

Our team was in the toughest division and we managed to win it and advance to City. We felt really good about our chances but you never know what can happen. To win in City you need a little luck to fall your way but it comes down to how well your lower SL's play. Your 5's and 6's will probably win 50% of their matches so if 3's and 4's stand on their heads and shoot lights out you're golden. That's what happened to us that year. I went 3-0 and our 4 did the same. Las Vegas didn't go so well. We were out after 3 matches but that left more time to play the pit games. I didn't play Hold 'Em at this point and had never heard of the game, but was invited to play by the sharks at Circus Circus. "Welcome to my parlor" said the spiders to this fly. I smiled and respectfully declined.

After that team fell apart I decided to captain my own team and find some like minded friends who wanted to get back to Vegas. It took two years to get there. My team won the same division as we did in 2001 and went undefeated in City's. We ended up tied for 65th place out of 839 teams. We also split an extra $1500 between us for that effort but that's nothing compared to the 25k 1st place. In that time I went from a SL3 to a SL5 and I'm currently at a SL4. If I play totally focused I am extremely hard to beat given my experience in the league and could easily be a 5 . In fact some opponents complain about how I play better than my rank. That's fine with me. I'll stay a 4 as long as I can. It's what my team needs and that's what matters. I'm in City's this year on a team I don't captain and I plan on our team winning again.

I hope some of you found this interesting. Mo, I'll respond on how to hit a power draw in the comments.
Until next time good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.....

The Cat's Away and The Mouse Will Play......

2007-05-12T11:35:00.000-05:00

.... Some pool. Then some poker. My wife and daughter are down at the beach so I thought I would go shoot some stick, have a few beverages and play some pokah! Neon Black will be showing up to play so it'll be fun to get my ass kicked no matter what game I play, except maybe 7 ball. I own him in that game! It'll be good to get some practice in. The new session just started in the APA. I've resurrected my old team name (Quit Talkin' Start Chalkin') and have a slew of new players, except for Neon Black, so we'll see what happens. I'm gonna try 3 tabling tonight and see how much more difficult it is to concentrate and if it affects my winrate (not that it's much to brag about). If all goes well I'll keep doing it until I'm very comforatble and then add in another table. I know there are people out there who can play 9+ tables at a time but not me yet. Small steps first. Oh, Neon is gonna be playing at the house too on a diff. site so I'll probably sweat him a bit and get him to try 6 max. He's such a nit...........:) Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand

Two of My Favorite Girls

2007-05-07T16:36:00.000-05:00

This picture was taken Dec. 16, 2006 in my back yard. It was taken early in the morning with an Olympus digital camera. No touch ups or filtering were used. The puppy seen here is a 6 week old Golden Retriever and was a Christmas gift from my beautiful wife. My daughter is 20 months old here. I love how it looks like "Goldie" is on the hunt and ready to pounce on her prey, as well as the contrast of her coat against the leaves.

Great blog to visit....

2007-05-07T15:28:00.000-05:00

I've been reading a really good blog from Australia that has a lot of interesting posts and photos and thought I'd provide a link to his work. He does rankings of some of his favorite blogs and I must say I am happy he included me in the honorable mention list. Thanks, David. Please visit his blog and tell him whodatdare sent you. I've been taking some photos and when I get some decent ones I'll be posting here for your comments/ enjoyment. Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.............

2007-05-03T15:12:00.000-05:00

My first hand Monday started good and ended badly for me.

FullTiltPoker Game #2322006372: Table Moradi (6 max) - $0.10/$0.25 - No Limit Hold'em - 15:51:53 ET - 2007/04/30
Seat 1: Tommygunn50 ($16.80)
Seat 2: HERO ($25)
Seat 3: Joeballz88 ($16.40)
Seat 4: younghoons ($21.55)
Seat 5: Gamebreaker3233 ($12.20)
Seat 6: chengnes ($25.75)
Tommygunn50 posts the small blind of $0.10
HERO posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [7s Kd]
Joeballz88 folds
younghoons calls $0.25
Gamebreaker3233 calls $0.25
chengnes folds
Tommygunn50 calls $0.15
HERO checks
*** FLOP *** [7h Kc Td]
Time to build the pot...
Tommygunn50 checks
HERO bets $1
younghoons folds
Gamebreaker3233 folds
Tommygunn50 raises to $2
HERO raises to $6
Tommygunn50 calls $4
I should've popped him more here. His call likely means he doesn't have a set. He's probably on a draw and needs to pay a high price to catch it.
*** TURN *** [7h Kc Td] [8d]
Tommygunn50 checks
Now I know he is weak
HERO bets $13
Tommygunn50 calls $10.55, and is all in
HERO shows [7s Kd]
Tommygunn50 shows [Qc Js] He has roughly a 16% chance to hit his straight here...
Uncalled bet of $2.45 returned to HERO
*** RIVER *** [7h Kc Td 8d] [As]
HERO shows two pair, Kings and Sevens
Tommygunn50 shows a straight, Ace high
Tommygunn50 wins the pot ($32.40) with a straight, Ace high

Well, that was fun. I think I did the right thing in this hand, although I do agree with the line of thinking at the Dynasty that my flop re-raise was very bad. In hind sight I gave the villain just enough pot odds to call for his straight draw. I really think he was calling regardless though. But that's why I post hands at the aforementioned site. Those players are extremely good at what they do, and their advice is invaluable.

30 hands later my QQ loses to KK and I'm down almost 2 buy ins. I did manage to win back half of my losses so the day wasn't too bad, all things considered.
I called down a short stack (24BB) with AK vs. his JJ and win the race when a lovely King spikes the flop. A few hands later I get it all in with JJ and see KK across the felt. Oops.... until a J hits the turn. Suckouts suck, but whatever. I've had my share go against me too.

There are still some situations that occur post flop that I will need some adjustment on my part, and I feel my game has improved a tiny bit. I'm really focusing on learning some more of the tendencies of the regulars and it's starting to show in my play. The journey is the best part of reaching your destination and I still have a ways to go before I consider myself a decent player. It is a fun road though.

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand............

2007-05-02T13:42:00.000-05:00

So last Sunday I play for a little while my wife is at the pool and the daughter is down for a nap. I 2 tabled for an hour and got in 175 hands and made $34.00. Not a bad hourly rate, I must say. If only it could be sustained for an 8 hour day... It can if you know what you're doing. I'll get there some day. Here's a good hand/ situation that I recently started playing since reading and posting at Poker Dyansty.

FullTiltPoker Game #2316469397: Table Barbie (6 max) - $0.10/$0.25 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:29:22 ET - 2007/04/29

Seat 1: Kwoco ($26.30)
Seat 2: blocks ($54.25)
Seat 3: XherculesX ($11.40)
Seat 4: ImDaJuggernaut ($3.70)
Seat 5: HERO ($35.15)
Seat 6: RabbitCarrot ($17.70)
Kwoco posts the small blind of $0.10
blocks posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [5d 6d]
XherculesX folds
ImDaJuggernaut folds
HERO raises to $0.85
RabbitCarrot calls $0.85
Kwoco folds
blocks folds
*** FLOP *** [3s 6s 6h]
HERObets $2.05
RabbitCarrot calls $2.05
*** TURN *** [3s 6s 6h] [Ac]
HERO bets $6.15 I almost checked here to induce a bluff, but this villain is a maniac
RabbitCarrot raises to $14.80, and is all in
HERO calls $8.65
RabbitCarrot shows [Jc Ah]
HERO shows [5d 6d]
*** RIVER *** [3s 6s 6h Ac] [Jd]
RabbitCarrot shows two pair, Aces and Jacks
HERO shows three of a kind, Sixes

2007-04-26T12:58:00.000-05:00

This new approach to playing is going to pay off down the road. Aggression is what makes money in this game and that's been my bane for a while. If this works for a pro who plays $5/$10 NL who am I to think that there is a better way? I won't win every continuation bet I make but I'm determined to improve my game. This is also helping me open up my pre flop game in the right places and I'm getting more action on my big hands. I've found that when I make my raises and opponents playback they: 1) have a big hand or a big draw. 2) are floating me with a small pair. 3) are complete calling stations/idiots. Now the trick is to discern the differences in the players and make the best decisions. So, this is the first step in seriously improving my game. There will be more to come. Many more :) Good luck on the felt...........

A 180 from last post

2007-04-23T15:36:00.000-05:00

This session was horrible. I didn't play a lot of hands, as I was trying something different that was suggested to me by a respected pro player who runs this site. In this session whenever I raised pre-flop I would c-bet (pot sized raise) no matter the player or the cards on the board. I didn't get to raise much as I was severely cold decked the whole time. I don't mean getting an Ace with a low offsuit card in early position either. I mean 72, 83, 32 (about 15 times). There was a stretch - 40+ hands - where the best hand I saw was T5 offsuit. The hands I did catch didn't fare too well. When I raised I was immediately re-raised and had to release my mid pair hand, or Top Pair, Weak Kicker hands, as they don't play too well in that size pot. I felt increasingly frustrated and decided to quit after 200 hands down almost one buy in.

I can see the reasoning behind playing so aggressively post flop. It's the weakest part of my game, and the more I am consistent with raising the more my really good hands will be disguised. In the long run I'll get paid off more when they come so I have to look forward to that. Good luck on the felt....................

Another Day.....

2007-04-20T17:12:00.000-05:00

...... Another buy in to the good. I've had pretty good results recently even though I have big holes in my game. One, which I've talked about before, is not concentrating fully for every hand I'm involved in. I also need to pay more attention to the hands in which I'm not involved. One thing I'm going to start doing is guess what every player has and what their bets really mean, since basically players are having conversations through their actions. PAHUD numbers give you a good start but not the whole picture. This isn't an idea I originated. Ama300's post (and the link inside this post) from 2+2 is, as well as the newest video at PokerDynasty.net. I'll keep you posted on the progress of this new exercise.

Another Good Sunday

2007-04-16T16:58:00.000-05:00

Not only did I play a little poker, but we had our daughter's 2nd birthday party as well. This is the first year that she fully understands the whole birthday thing and just to see the look on her face makes it all worthwhile. My wife worked really hard to get a lot done in the house and I have to say thank you for everything you do. You're the best, honey!

I managed to play 2 tables and get in 365 hands for a profit of a buy in. Nothing too special stood out from the session either. I made a few mistakes that cost me some pots, didn't let it affect my overall mood, and made it right back. It was a better session than last Friday night, as I made better decisions. I have a long way to go if I want to improve for the next level. I was reading two posts, here and here, that really got me thinking. They are very well written and his blog is in my links on the right. Please visit there.

I'm doing okay at this level, especially since I've only played 6 max for about 3 weeks. I've made some blunders, but not nearly as many as I thought possible. I do think I'm missing some opportunities to exploit my opponents' weaknesses and that is costing me money. The money is better than at full ring games and if I can apply myself and study more, and get rid of some of my biggest flaws I'm sure I'll have the roll for $50NL pretty soon. But simply having the bankroll to ascend to the next level doesn't mean squat if I don't get help in the areas I posted about here. If you want help with your game you would be doing yourself a favor by registering there. It's free to join, and there are some great poker minds there. Until then, good luck on the felt...........

A Good Hand From Last Night

2007-04-14T16:43:00.000-05:00

Not every hand I played was bad, but I think I left some chips on the table here. What do you think?
FullTiltPoker Game #2205168865: Table Stanford (6 max) - $0.10/$0.25 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:59:18 ET - 2007/04/13
Seat 1 HERO ($39.10)
Seat 2: qbp305 ($43.30)
Seat 3: please no more ($24.40)
Seat 4: kiahbree ($34.40)
Seat 5: xDOCTORx ($21.60)
Seat 6: thebooboos ($45.55)
kiahbree posts the small blind of $0.10
xDOCTORx posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [9d 9s]
thebooboos calls $0.25
HERO raises to $1.10
qbp305 folds
please no more folds
kiahbree folds
xDOCTORx folds
thebooboos calls $0.85
*** FLOP *** [9h Qc 8s]
thebooboos checks
HERO bets $2
thebooboos raises to $4
HERO raises to $14.55
thebooboos calls $10.55
*** TURN *** [9h Qc 8s] [6s]
thebooboos checks
HERO checks Do you bet a little something here?
*** RIVER *** [9h Qc 8s 6s] [6c]
thebooboos bets $5.50
HERO raises to $11 Is a push better here? I just felt afterwards that he would've called. Thoughts?
thebooboos calls $5.50
*** SHOW DOWN ***
HERO shows [9d 9s] (a full house, Nines full of Sixes)
thebooboos mucks
HERO wins the pot ($51) with a full house, Nines full of Sixes
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $53.65 Rake $2.65
Board: [9h Qc 8s 6s 6c]
Seat 1: HERO showed [9d 9s] and won ($51) with a full house, Nines full of Sixes
Seat 2: qbp305 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: please no more (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: kiahbree (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: xDOCTORx (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: thebooboos mucked [Ts Qd] - two pair, Queens and Sixes

"I've Been Down So *** Damn Long.....

2007-04-14T12:26:00.000-05:00

...That it looks like up to me!" Thanks to Jim Morrison for that quote. I'm posting some hand histories here, and these are ugly. I honestly did not think at all during these hands. Sometimes I have a tendency to push my weight around at the table and it gets me in trouble when I don't stop and think about what I'm doing.

Hand #1 5th hand played and literally no reads on any players.

Seat 1: Urban2 ($21.30)
Seat 2: gerger6969 ($7.50)
Seat 3: HonestAbe 1 ($8.35)
Seat 4: HERO ($24.65)
Seat 5: mburnz8 ($22.40)
Seat 6: ACE071983 ($13.35)
Urban2 posts the small blind of $0.10
gerger6969 posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [Jh Jc]
HonestAbe 1 folds
HERO raises to $0.85
mburnz8 folds
ACE071983 raises to $1.45
Urban2 folds
gerger6969 folds
Not a bad play here. I got someone 3 betting me. Fine. I'll call and see the flop.

HERO calls $0.60
*** FLOP *** [3d 9s 9h]
HERO bets $2
ACE071983 raises to $4
HERO calls $2

Is a check better here since I was 3 bet? The min raise put up a red flag to me that was ignored.

*** TURN *** [3d 9s 9h] [Qc]
HERO checks
ACE071983 bets $4
HERO raises to $8

At this point I know I'm beat and can't help myself. This is stupid. I know it. Beat me up for it anyway. I deserve it.
ACE071983 calls $3.90, and is all in
HERO shows [Jh Jc]
ACE071983 shows [Ad Ac]

Hand #2 Another min raise on the turn and over valuing TPTK equals the same result.

Seat 2: clodoc1 ($20.05)
Seat 3: HonestAbe 1 ($12.65)
Seat 4 HERO ($25.10)
Seat 5: mburnz8 ($36)
Seat 6: ACE071983 ($24.85)
HonestAbe 1 posts the small blind of $0.10
HERO posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [Qs Ah]
mburnz8 folds
ACE071983 calls $0.25
clodoc1 raises to $0.50
HonestAbe 1 calls $0.40
HERO calls $0.25
ACE071983 calls $0.25
*** FLOP *** [9d 3c Qd]
HonestAbe 1 checks
HERO bets $2
ACE071983 folds
clodoc1 calls $2
HonestAbe 1 folds
*** TURN *** [9d 3c Qd] [8h]
HERO bets $3.50
clodoc1 raises to $7
HERO calls $3.50
*** RIVER *** [9d 3c Qd 8h] [7s]
HERO bets $15.60, and is all in
clodoc1 calls $10.55, and is all in
Uncalled bet of $5.05 returned to HERO
*** SHOW DOWN ***
HERO shows [Qs Ah] (a pair of Queens)
clodoc1 shows [Qc Qh] (three of a kind, Queens)

Hand #3 I made a play on the flop that usually works vs. min bets. But, when he plays back I know I'm beat. Why did I keep playing this hand? Some form of tilt, and again, not thinking clearly. He is telling me he's in love with his hand. Just LAY IT DOWN!!!!!
Seat 1: qbp305 ($23.90)
Seat 2: clodoc1 ($34.35)
Seat 3: HonestAbe 1 ($15.25)
Seat 4: HERO ($28.95)
Seat 5: mburnz8 ($32.95)
Seat 6: ACE071983 ($25.70)
ACE071983 posts the small blind of $0.10
qbp305 posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [Jh Td]
clodoc1 calls $0.25
HonestAbe 1 calls $0.25
HERO calls $0.25
mburnz8 folds
ACE071983 calls $0.15
qbp305 checks
*** FLOP *** [Js 8c 8d]
ACE071983 checks
qbp305 checks
clodoc1 bets $0.25
HonestAbe 1 folds
HERO raises to $2
ACE071983 folds
qbp305 folds
clodoc1 raises to $3.75
HERO calls $1.75
*** TURN *** [Js 8c 8d] [Ts]
clodoc1 bets $4.75
HERO calls $4.75
*** RIVER *** [Js 8c 8d Ts] [5d]
clodoc1 has 15 seconds left to act
clodoc1 bets $4
HERO calls $4
*** SHOW DOWN ***
clodoc1 shows [8h Ac] (three of a kind, Eights)
HERO mucks

Now, my whole session wasn't bad. I actually ended up winner for the night. I did settle down and trapped some players to get some nice scores on another table that I may post, but this blog isn't to simply brag. I want to improve. These were glaring mistakes I made last night. I may find some from last night where I won medium pots to see if I lost some value.
Good luck on the felt........

Quick recap of the weekend

2007-04-11T21:50:00.000-05:00

I didn't play much poker this past weekend, as I had stuff to do to get ready for my daughter's 2nd birthday. I played 220 hands on Sunday evening and only won a few dollars, but at one point I was up a buy in. Early in the session I had command of the table by being aggressive pre- and post flop. I also picked off a nice bluff from a short stack who shoved with air.

Then all of a sudden the dynamic on the table changed after a few people replaced the passives, and I should've left as well. The table got very aggressive and I didn't adjust to this. To be honest, I don't really know what adjustments to make. Is it correct to sit back and wait for big hands? They don't come around that often so it's pretty transparent when you start raising them post flop. Or do you open up your 3 betting range? I find it hard to do at $25NL, or I just haven't done it enough to feel comfortable. If I ever want to get to the next level I'm going to have to figure this out. Good luck on the felt.....

Tuesday's With Whodatdare

2007-03-30T07:57:00.000-05:00

Traditionally, Tuesday has not been a good winning day for your favorite hero. I looked back in my Poker Tracker stats and I lose more money here than on any other day. This wasn't the case this past one. I had another Ace Ten hand come up and played it better than I did in my previous post and wanted to share it here. I'm in the cut off (CO) seat and raise it up 3.5 times the Big Blind and get three callers, so the pot stands at $2.50 after the rake. The flop is my best friend and comes up 6d Tc Ts. Now it's time to extract some of those lovely chips from my villains! Its checked to me and I do the same, hoping that the guy behind me bets, thinking we are both weak. He bets the pot, The Big Blind folds and I call. The turn shows a Queen and now the villain checks to me. My hand is still huge, as the only cards that beat me are exactly 66 and QQ so I check behind in hopes that the Queen may have helped him and he'll call a river bet. The river card doesn't help here ( it's a 7) and I bet out $4.00 and get a call. He shows me QJ offsuit for two pair. Not too bad. I played this hand as good as can be expected, I think, unless a turn bet from me may have brought a raise from my opponent?

I did have an interesting hand on anther table. I'm dealt pocket Queens in the Big Blind and my foe this time is on the button. His Poker Tracker stats are 28/14/3.5 after 80 hands. Not bad stats, really. He's kind of aggressive so you can't believe all of his raises are strong hands but you still have to respect him somewhat. Instead of just calling I decide to 3 bet him here and he calls. That usually means his hand isn't very strong. Most people that have huge hands will shove all their chips in once you re raise them pre flop so I like my chances here. I have a very good starting hand but I'm out of position the rest of the way. I must also note that this villain has been pushing everyone around the table and hasn't shown down a hand. The flop comes up Ks Kc 6s. I check, call his flop and turn bets, which are $3 and $5 respectively. The reason I'm just check calling is because again, he's a bully and probably doesn't have much here. I'm either way ahead or way behind. The board is pretty scary, showing K K 6 4 4. Now the fun part. He shoves all his chips in. My decision just got extremely difficult. Would he really play a super strong hand this way? If he was that strong wouldn't he try to induce a bluff from me? I didn't think so and called. Can you guess what he had?

Good luck on the felt............

A Manic Monday

2007-03-29T08:23:00.000-05:00

The past few days have been busy for me and I didn't get in much playing time. Monday was a little rough and I had to dig out of a hole I created. I lost almost my whole stack against a maniac player in an over pair vs. over pair situation. I raise in late position (3.5 BB) and get a call. I have a pocket pair of Tens. The flop is somewhat coordinated with 5s 9s 8h showing. I lead out for 3/4 of the pot and the villain insta raises the minimum. I call. Normally on Full Tilt, players who do this on the flop are holding monster hands. The players here seem to play a lot tighter than other sites, and when they play their hands they play them aggressively. Seeing that I have an over pair there is no way I'm folding to this bet. My pot odds are very good if I hit my set. But here is where I made the mistake. The 7h hits and I lead out again on the turn. I should check here. My opponent has told me - with his minraise- that he likes his hand and is willing to put a lot of money in to get to showdown. That's great. If I hit my set I'm taking his whole stack. But I didn't hit my set of Tens. I should check/fold here in most cases unless I have a read that says he's full of it. I didn't because it was early in this this session on this table. As a result I lost 76 BBs here. It's okay though. It will happen in this game. Nobody is perfect and what matters most is how you play afterwards. If you find yourself hot under the collar you should sit out for a while, cool off, and collect your thoughts. The one thing I try to remember is a quote from Lou Holtz. He said, "You will never get ahead of anyone if you're trying to get even with him." Over the next 19 hands I managed to get back half of my stack, but most of it was from the other players. I played for 76 hands on this particular table and left when people dropped out.

My other table was a little better, although after my big mistake it took me a bit to get over it. I felt myself playing poorly. I did pick off a bluff from a very aggressive player that was kind of nice, but doesn't happen all the time. He was playing 51% of his hands and raised every single time pre flop. I have 55 on the button and raise it up 4 times the Big Blind. He calls from the small blind. Flop is Queen high and he leads for almost the whole pot. I raise him and he calls. This told me that his hand wasn't very strong and I could steal from him later if another scare card falls. The turn is a King and he checks. Now I'm pretty certain that he is weak. I check behind to induce a bluff from him on the river. That's what he does, and leads into me for 17 BBs. I call his ace high hand.

Over all this past Monday was a roller coaster, but I actually come out ahead. I played a total of 175 hands, cleared some bonus and came out winner for the session. I'll get to Tuesday's session later. Until then, good luck on the felt.

A Quick Little Mini Session

2007-03-25T12:22:00.000-05:00

I played very little last night. I got in one hour of play and only played one table, but mined a lot of hands through Poker Tracker. I managed to get in 72 hands in that hour and made $6.85. Not much to talk about with this session, but I do believe I missed some value out of one particular hand.

My opponent has played 70 hands with me. His stats are 20/2.5/3, so pretty tight and passive pre flop, and when he hits a hand he will usually fire off a bullet. We both have 100 BB in our stacks. He is in the small blind. I am under the gun and hold Ace, Ten of clubs and make my standard raise of 3.5 times the Big Blind. Villain calls my raise and the flop is As Ah Jh. He bets the minimum ($.25) and I think for a few seconds and make a pot sized raise. He immediately folds. Seeing that my raise tells him I obviously have trip aces, I think the better line would 've been to simply call his bet and see what he does on the turn. My hand would only become vulnerable if he held exactly JJ, or if he had two high hearts, giving him a flush draw. My innitial read was that it was very likely that he had a small pocket pair. I just felt that I let him keep some of his money by raising so big on that flop. I need to find the fine line between trapping and slowplaying big hands to extract value. So many things to perfect.... That's why I love this game!!!

Freerolls

2007-03-23T16:10:00.000-05:00

Just finished an Omaha freeroll and finished 53rd out of 2700. No cash, but a lot of fun. I think this game will help me with hand reading and I'll probably play all of these I can.

Mixed Results in 6 max

2007-03-22T15:31:00.000-05:00

OK, this session was a short one. I played on two tables, and nothing much happened until I played like a donkey in one hand. I had AsJs on the button and made my standard raise. I get one caller from the big blind and the flop comes Jack, Six, deuce, all different suits. Great. I have top pair, top kicker and bet the pot after the BB checks. I don't think I played badly up to this point. The turn is a blank. BB check calls my pot bet again. I should have known I was beat right here, but instead of thinking my way through the hand I got bull-headed and decided, once the flop hit, I was getting all my money in. That's exactly what I did and was promptly shown a set of 6's.

Top pair hands are not the hand to put my whole stack in. EVER!!!!!!! I actually look for people at the tables who do this, because they are gold mines to play against, and here I go doing the same thing. I fully see why it is so important to pay attention during every hand at the table. I was on auto pilot and never once thought about what my opponent 's range of cards could be, so I deserved to lose that money. Stupid mistake and a big leak that will be plugged. I did manage to get half of the money back from the other table so if I can get rid of what I think are very basic leaks I will be on my way to the next level in no time. Wish me luck.