NFL season is underway

Well, it is here at last the new NFL season. I look forward to this time of year more than any other. If summer has got to go, that is okay in my book because it means football season is here.

Last night we had to suffer through a putrid game between the hapless dolphins and the steelers. How lucky are the steelers to get to open up against the fins at home. I mean, the dolphins looked pathetic. Who out there still believes Dante Culpepper is a good quarterback? lol. Culpepper is a second tier quarterback at best. How many times did he miss wide open receivers where all he had to do was play catch with a guy just standing there waiting for the ball and miss. He has one of the worst deliveries and he throws an ugly ball. The ball seems to sink as it gets to the receivers. The two interceptions were right in line with what was expected of him as well. he should have been picked about 4 times. Just a pathetic performance.

How about Nick Sabin? That guy is an idiot. He waits and waits and waits to throw this challenge flag on a play that was obvious was worthy of review. How dumb do you have to be to throw the flag 6 feet behind the ref so he can't see that you threw it out there until after the extra point is kicked? Why wait so long? Is the dolphin coaching staff so inept that nobody so the first of the 4 or 5 reviews before the extra point attempt that showed the guy stepped out at the one yard line?

Hey what about that dolphin defense that was supposed to be so good. They couldn't contain a third rate QB in batch. It is going to be a long season for the fins. Last year was a fluke that they finished off strong. Sabin is an idiot and the front office blew it when they brought in Culpepper when there were other better QBs out there.


The Steelers looked anything but super, but thank goodness that Al Michaels is still living in the past so that he could keep reminding us of their victory in XL. From the looks of things last night it could be a very long season for both of these teams. The steelers defense was pathetic. The dolphins won the battle at the line of scrimmage all night long, if only they had a QB or a coach that didn't have his head inserted somewhere.

Well, this weekend loos very promising with the Huskies taking the Sooners, which undoubtedly will be a good butt stomping, but, hey, it is on national television. Then the night cap. Ohio St. versus Texas in HD, be still my beating heart. Hopefully, the longhorns can take care of business again. Then the Seahawks are in Detroit Sunday morning, priceless. I hope they just beat the hell out of the lions.

Do not see THE WICKER MAN

Well, I just went and saw "The Wicker Man" with Nicholas Cage and it was one of the worst films I have ever seen, which I stopped counting at 1000. If you want to waste your money and your time to be pissed off at the ending then go for it.

This is a movie about a police officer devoted to helping others who thinks he is helping an ex-girlfriend/fiancée find her/his daughter. Instead it is all an elaborate set-up so that they can sacrifice him. Just as he finds and saves the little girl they reveal to him it is all part of a big festival where they are going to kill him so they can have a nice harvest.

To cap things off they first break each of his legs and then pull him by those legs up into a huge wicker man that they have constructed with lots of animals in it to sacrifice with him. And the best thing is his own daughter is given the torch to come light it on fire.
What fun watching the hero of the movie burn to death. Doesn't everyone want to spend their money to watch that.

Computers

Well, this week kind was filled with unexpected things. On Monday my Compaq laptop, a Presario that was only a year and a half old stopped working. As I use my laptop for my job and I could not tolerate a meltdown on the job I had to go buy yet another laptop. I am still trying to figure out of my old one is salvageable or not. Nothing is more frustrating than having computer problems. I was experiencing the blue screen of death.

I went out and bought an HP Pavilion, which happened to be $300 plus less than my old compaq just a year ago, and yet, of course, it is even better. I guess that is the silver lining in this situation.

I have purchased some utility software and am going to stay up on keeping my Laptop in fit condition, and I recommend to you all that you go out and purchase some type of software complex that will scan for everything under the sun and keep your machine in top working order. I had the Norton stuff and a spyware program on the other laptop, but I can't help but feel that I suffered some sort of an attack, but I won't know until I reformat my old Laptop.

It is well worth the investment to stay on top of things. I had hoped to buy a big wide screen laptop, but I just couldn't bring myself to doing it. I will probably purchase a huge widescreen one down the road, but I won't use it for work, at least not the work I do outside of the home. I saw a 21" screen laptop and it was awesome, HD screen and all, but it also weighed 15 pounds which is a bit much to lug around, but when I get my office redecorated maybe I will think about it, lol, or maybe just buy another 19" widescreen monitor and put it on the other side of my laptop and have 3 screens.

I missed out on the monthly PXF tourney which I forgot was even happening. Of course it happens on the day my other computer goes down, thus distracting me from the other tourney.
Oh, well, next month.

Take care and back up and clean up your machines.

Things I have noticed

I have had some thoughts that I wanted to put down for a little bit and so here goes. I have had some improved success the last couple of weeks and I have been trying to pinpoint what has changed about my game that has allowed me to go deeper in MTTs than before. I think there are a couple factors that have helped to take my game to the next level.

One of the things that I think I am doing more of is pushing my edge, or perceived edge anyway. In the past I would not commit my chips to a hand that I probably had the best hand and I allowed more aggressive players to take pots from me. I think it is very important to take advantage of those moments where it is most likely that you are ahead. This has meant that I have overbet some pots where it was a draw heavy flop in order to protect my hand. Sometimes you take it down right there, and other times someone calls you with a drawing hand or second best hand and I double through, and then there will of course be those times where they hit and you go out, which sucks, but that is how it goes.

I have also tried to not let any beat bother me, and yes, it is difficult, but what I have tried to do is focus and remember the hellacious bad beats I have put on people instead and really enjoy them. The cards all even out and so as much as it pains me to see my KK cracked by someone with TTs, at least 3 times this week, it is the call we want and that is the fact of the matter. We want the under pairs and drawing hands to call so we can double up.

The other thing that I would suggest people try and do is to slow down. You have X amount of time to act for each hand, and unless you know that you are folding without a doubt, use that time to think about what other people have, not just your hand. If you look down at TT and are in LP with a raise and reraise in front of you, a hand that you would have liked to play now becomes an unplayable hand, and for the most part you should be mucking your hand.

Take the time to think about what hands other people have and are playing, and why they are calling raises and not reraising, re-evaluate your hand on the flop and think, think, think. Just because you have AK does not mean you need to mail it in preflop, especially to a reraise of you raise. You should be asking what type of player this person is, tight, loose, would they reraise with AQ, AJ, or is it more likely AA, KK, maybe QQ and JJ, but you must think.

I have learned a great deal this week playing, and in the coming week I am going to change up a few things, because I believe that I have figured out a couple things about my own game and about how a lot of people are playing.

The third thing that I learned this week was to be more aggressive late, and to play back at aggressive players. I allowed myself to get bubbled due to not being defensive when I could and falling into the trap of thinking I need a hand to play back with, which I don't think is true at all. After all the guy that is raising every other hand is doing it with any two so why not reraise with any two if you have the chips to do it. I am not talking pushing all-in, although that is certainly an option, but instead I am talking a big reraise to find out if they are serious, and then re-evaluate the flop based on what happens. I am going to try several techniques in the future that I have seen in the past and that have given me trouble. Keep the pressure on, keep putting pressure on other people.

The final thought is playing against that loose donkey at your table. I think it is important to try and sucker them into bad situations, i.e. not raising some hands so that when you hit that big hand you can trap them with their non existent kicker, or play back at them with made hands, big pairs, and not just big drawing hands AK, AQ and the like. Keep an eye on the fish that calls down bottom pair and remember their betting patterns when they did so. Were they min betting that bottom pair, do they bet out on a flush draw hoping to build a big pot when they could have taken a card off and kept the pot smaller.

Pay attention always, and if you don't have Poker Ace HUD or something like it, I would recommend getting it to help you evaluate your table. What a great tool.

Back to Back Final Tables

Well, I have not had a lot of success in MTTs. I have had some, but it has not been a major part of my game. I generally have played SNGs and had success with those. Until this week I would say it has been very limited as far as cashes go with one here and there.

My best cash finish was the $109 MTT that I finished 9th when my JJ got cracked by a guy with A5o who hit runner-runner. I have had great success on Ultimate Bet this week and even the Poker Stars $3 rebuys which I have monied the last two times I played them. I went for a big stack and got busted with AK or who knows how far I could have gone.

I bubbled the 6-max on UB and then came back and monied it the next day after busting when my KKs got cracked, but it was a nice tourney nonetheless. I have really enjoyed the 6-max and plan on playing it everyday that I am able. It has a nice overlay and not a big field at all. After having a couple deep runs on UB I decided to play the $30 MTT with the $6000 guaranteed prize pool. It has had about 200 people yesterday and today.

Yesterday I played what I consider a solid game making moves here and there and folding some hands that really hurt. I went into the final table short stacked and ended up at one point 3 handed with a decent stack. I had a great suckout with 33s when I doubled but two hands later I raised all in to the two limpers and one called with 66s and it held up. It was a really nice cash in third, which to date was my single biggest payday in a single event.

Today I played in the same tournament and had another great run. I was down early when I had JJ and ran into AA, but luckily he couldn't help min-reraising me and I ended up folding, and of course he showed his Aces. Later I had AQ, which I had an incredible number of times today, and he min raised again preflop. An ace flopped and he minraised me again. On the turn another minraise and I shut it down and folded and he showed AA for a set, again. he saved me a lot of chips with his ridiculous min-raising, and I was thankful.

I made some huge laydowns and suffered several donkey moves, like min-raising preflop which I called with QQ, the bigstack bets pot and I repop him back 2x and he calls. The turn is a K and he checks. I think of betting out, but decide to check behind and then an Ace hits on the river. he checks and I check behind and he shows his suited Ace that he hit on the river. This guy was a big stack for a lot of the tourney and he busted before me.

I entered the FT with a very small stack and ended up finishing 5th for another great payday. In two days I have really had some fun in this tourney. I don't know what to attribute my many cashes this week, but I think it is a combination of a greater understanding of the game.

I also cashed but just missed a 100$ sat seat to the Aruba Tournament, which would have been nice. As long as I keep winning money and increasing my bankroll I am happy. I get great final table experience and I have been getting great MTT experience as well as Rebuy MTT experience and my SNGs have gone well for me too. All and all it has been a tremendous week for me and I hope that it will continue, which I have confidence that it will. I feel that I have turned the corner and I am ready to take the next step up.

Eric "Rizen" Lynch and the WSOP

You might not have heard of this man, but in the next few months I am sure you will, especially if you watch the WSOP on TV as he will undoubtedly garner some air time.

He is currently 5th in the main event with about 32 people left. Yeah, that's right, he is kickin butt and taken names.

Good luck to Eric in his quest to take down yet another big tournament. You can see videos done by Eric at www.Pokerxfactor.com if you are a member that is.

Seahawks

Well, camp opened today and I am really excited. I can't wait until tomorrow when single games tickets go on sale.

Maybe this year we can get the job done. I think that our team will be even better this year than it was last year.

The offense will be even better, yes, better, if that is possible, and the defense will be even better with more speed and experience.

So watch out NFC the Seahawks are coming and it isn't going to be pleasant for your team.

Update, thoughts on math.

Well, today is the start of the WSOP main event and I wish everyone good luck that are playing in it. This year I did not really try that hard to win a seat and I am kind of kicking myself a little. Next year it is going to be my number one goal and I think that I will start setting aside some of my bankroll just for WSOP qualifiers. I got close in one satellite and was disappointed.

I have really been crunching numbers and working on different spreadsheets and such to look at different situations in tournaments. One situation that I have been working on is the blind defense where you have someone that is stealing your blinds aggressively and what kind of stack do you need and cards to play back. It is very interesting to me when I looked at different situations and how the numbers work.

I took Ms of 10, 8, 6, 5, 4. For those of you that don't know what M is, it is your stack divided by the preflop pot size. small blind plus big blind, plus antes would make up the pot, divide this into your stack and you get M.

M is a very important number as it takes into account what it costs you to play a round. It is more telling than your BBs, because it takes into acount antes and the small blind that you have to pay. When used in conjunction with your BBs it becomes a very valuable tool.

No limit hold'em is a game in which aggression really is rewarded. You can win a hand several ways. One, your opponent folds to your bet. Two, you have the best hand come showdown. When you fold you cannot win, obviously, but you also cannot lose anymore, and it is often important to remember that.

I played in a tournament today where I watched people call down with hands like KJs and ATs when they had nothing, not even a draw. They just kept blindly calling down bets and throwing their stack to the wind.

You need to have a plan of attack when you play a hand. You need to be willing to let go of AK when you miss, other times maybe you make a play with it, maybe sometimes you reraise to that weak flop continuation bet, but there is no crime in folding an unimproved AK hand especially on the turn when faced with a big bet. Now, if you have a very short stack you should look to get all your chips in pre-flop with a hand like AK. This illustrates that you cannot play one hand the same way, as this is poker and it is always evolving depending on table dynamics.

I have had an ephiphany this week and it has given me a great feeling of confidence when playing. It is always dissappointing to lose a hand at a key moment because of a "questionable call", but in the end it is just the cards evening out. We cannot get caught up in the bad beats. There are no bad beats. The cards just come as they will come. Today, I had 76s which I limped from the button in an opned pot. The board came 7K6 and I bet 2/3 of the pot. I was called by the SB and then the 2 comes on the turn and he bets all in. I should have realized that he had a set, as this is my custom to think set when people shove like that, but I had a read on this guy that he was not the most solid of players watching him bet 500 in a 60 chip pot earlier, so I called with my two pair. My call in hindsight probably was poor when looking at his bet. I actually closed the table when I saw his set of 2s thinking, oh, well, that is how it goes. I clicked back a couple minutes later just for fun because I had a feeling that something wasn't right. Sure enough I hit a 6 on the river and won the hand. The cards just evened things out.

The better understanding you have of the math of situations the better your play will be. Today I shoved in the face of several weak limps and was rewarded by taking down pots and keeping my stack where it was or chipping up. You have to be able to make these moves.

I feel as though I am on the verge of something very nice, time will tell.

Satellite Seat won

Well, yesterday was a mixed bag of sorts. Although I did not have a hugely successful day in terms of cashes, I did feel like I played very well. I thought that my play on the whole has been very solid for the last week, although I have not played a lot.

I really enjoyed taking some time away from the tables and getting some perspective on poker and the ups and downs and loses that come from it. It is perhaps the hardest lesson to learn if you want to be a poker player. I still find myself not making some moves that I know I should be making due to courage I guess. Especially in SNGs where you need to push with perhaps any two in certain situations. It helps a lot more now that I have set up a pretty cool spreadsheet that will analyze the numbers on the fly as it were and help with some of the decision making process, or at a minimum, it can help show that a certain play was correct or incorrect after the game is over and you can sit down and crunch some numbers.

Crunching numbers can be a very gratifying experience when it shows you in black and white that you need to do things that you are not doing. It was a great comfort yesterday after I finished 3rd in a SNG when I had thought that I let some situations pass me by, but in reality I played pretty flawlessly. I thought I should have pushed all-in a couple times, but in reality, my cards were just not good enough to do it due to my opponents stack size at the time. It was very reassuring having concrete evidence that you played it correctly, instead of wondering.
Sometimes we just finish 3rd and there is nothing we can do about it.

Last night I played on Titan Poker for the first time in a Free roll set up for PokerXfactor subscribers. The prize was the final table got a ticket to play in a qualifier today that sends the top 5 on to a big tournament tomorrow. It really was a lot of fun and I think I played about as well as I could play. I made some incredible laydowns, that is if the people were truthful with what they had after the fact, which I believed most people, or I actually got to see the cards for myself.

Thinking back, and also at the time, I didn't have the feeling of, dang it, I really played that wrong. I made some plays that I thought were just outstanding. I had raised with KQss and got reraised by the big blind to 5bbs. I just called due to the fact there was so much money in the pot now. The flop came Js Xs and a card of no consequence. The BB puts in a bet that represented about half his remaing stack of which was almost 1/2 pot bet. From the time the flop hit I had thought that I was going to push all my chips in if he checked it to me, because I had two over cards and the 2nd nut flush draw. I thought I had a pretty strong hand, plus the back door straight, and straight flush draws still. Because he bet half his remaining chips and the pot was sitting at about 2900 chips now and I only had 1600 left I shoved them all in. He thought about it for a while and folded. That was a really good hand for me.

Later on when it got down to the final two tables I doubled through the chip leader when he raised and I shoved in the BB with 55 and won. I had to hold on and I did not play another hand the rest of the time. Luckily there were several people that just did not have a clue on satellite tournaments at the end and busted out by going all in when they didn't need to. There were several really short stacks left, and I am happy to say we both made it.

Final tabling any tournament is a great feeling for sure, and winning a little money and advancing is icing on the cake.

Playing poker can be very brutal

I read a lot of posts where people are constantly trying to figure out how to avoid bad beats, which is kind of funny. In order to suffer a bad beat you have to have the best hand and have somebody make a bad play, which is the essence of poker. You want people making dumb plays.

I try and not get upset at the bad beats, but it is hard because we are human and it is tough to control our disappointment. I have wanted to punch holes in walls or kick my footstool across the room many, many times, but I don't because it is poker.
I just try and count to whatever and take a breath. I also try and avoid letting the person that just sucked out on me know what I think of him, but it is hard for sure. lol


Good hand gone bad

this is an example of what I am talking about. I hope that this link works. You might have to sign up for a free membership, but it is pretty harmless.

This hand would have put me in great position as chip leader in a WSOP qualifier. It was devastatingly disappointing losing this hand. I made a perfect read on this guy and I am a huge favorite and bam, thanks for playing. lol.

Family

What would we do without family? I am eternally thankful for the family I have right now, for they are loving and supportive as a family should be. Life is too short to get bogged down with the trivial things that people worry about. I would recommend to anyone out there to get rid of the things that are not positive in their lives, and if that means letting go of friends, and I dare say, family members that have a negative influence on your life. I will always be there for my family, no matter how they have treated me in the past or present, if they needed my help, all they have to do is ask for it. Blood is blood and I would always be there for my family, whether they were always there for me or not. That is what family is for.

So if that son or daughter that has been a pest to you for all these years suddenly comes to their senses and calls or comes over, welcome them with open arms for one's family is sacred.

Back home

Well, I am back home now after a week in Las Vegas. It was a good trip with just a few minor problems. Word to the wise, leave your cellular phone in your room when you go down to the pool. lol Yes, we did have a phone get wet and go on the fritz, and if that was not enough the next day I made the mistake of trying to see if the battery was bad by putting it in our good phone which caused it to go bad. The sad thing was the phone that went in the water works fine with the battery that didn't get wet, but the phone that stayed dry is forever ruined. Oh, well, we were going to upgrade our phones in November so we just did it earlier.

The sad thing about getting a new phone is all the new gadgets you have to buy for them, chargers, cases, memory cards, hands-free devices. What is really sad is I purchased the Verizon music kit so I could link my phone to the computer and I loaded everything and it doesn' work. I am fairly computer literate and I spent hours trying to get this thing to work and nothing. Pretty sad.

Well, I did not play any poker this weekend as I was a little tired. We didn't get home until 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning and then there is all the catching up to do and unpacking, and then my daughter was coming in at 3:00 p.m. so back to the airport I went.

Sunday I watched the World Cup which was a pretty awesome game, although, France lost, it was still pretty good. I wanted Italy and France to make it to the final so it was pretty nice.

Live play in Las Vegas

If you think that you are getting burned too often online, I have a thing or two to say to you.

I was watching the WSOP and a guy had limped AA and let the BB come in for free with 72o and hit a set 77K on the flop. On the turn he waited and waited and shoved all his chips in and the guy, Rafe Furst, called off all his chips and then proceeded to suckout on the river.

Later Rafe had A8o and raised all in and was called by AK and proceeded to river a Jack to double pair the board and chop the pot again and survive. he later went on to win the bracelet.

I was playing in a tournament and got all my chips in with 88 and lo and behold this old timer woke up for the second time in 3 hands to have JJ and I was knocked out.

Today, I had AA in the BB and two limpers and then a guy goes all in. The pot is about 2700. I have 2100 left after posting the bb of 400. I made a mistake and just called meaning to go all in to get rid of the limpers, but they folded anyway.
I was HU against a local casino employee and he had 99. needless to say, he spiked the only remaining 9 in the deck(one guy said he folded a 9 preflop). I lose over half my stack after having that guy crushed.

The next hand I am in the SB with about 900 left after posting SB of 200. I have AJo and shove all in. The BB calls showing down AK, imagine that.

So the point of this is that even live you get rivered and your monster hands run into bad luck and that is poker. Just forget about it and move on. I can honestly say that when my AA got cracked I didn't think twice about it, because that is life and we all need to accept what we cannot change.

as a sidenote, I watched a donkey tourist fold the nuts against someone that was all-in because he was not paying attention in a multiway pot and when the one person folded he thought he won and did not turn up his hand but mucked it instead and lost a huge pot because he was not paying attention. It was one of the most ridiculous things I have seen in live play. He assured his demise by being unobservant.

Make the Pilgrimage to the WSOP, if you can

After checking in today at the Grandview in Las Vegas, which is pretty nice, I check out the forum to see what was going on at the WSOP and caught the Rizen post. My wife and I were going to go grab a bite as it was almost 4:00 and we had not eaten all friggin day, but lo and behold I see Rizen is at the final table.

Well, we jump in the car and run over to the Rio. Going to the WSOP was one of the coolest things that I have done in a very long time. Railing Rizen was also great fun. I had never met him before, but I felt like he was my friend, a family member almost. It was with great pride and admiration to root him on.

Walking around the WSOP hall is one of neatest experiences a poker player can ever have, outside of sitting at a table with Doyle, or Ivey and the like at a big event like this. It was just too damn cool standing next to Phil Gordon or listening to Greg Raymer discuss a hand. And then you can bump into Daniel Negreanu coming out of the bathroom or brush past Eric Lindstrom or Barry Greenstein, or Matusow, D'Agostino, the list goes on and on and on, and with each star sighting I kept thinking how cool is this.

I mean this was like the Academy Awards of Poker with all the stars that you see out and about. I even saw the guy that came in 2nd at the Bellagio WPT final that was just on TV this week. Seeing Chris Ferguson without his hat on was also kind of a wierd thing, scary looking dude, lol.

I would highly recommend that if you can come to Las Vegas during the WSOP run it is well worth it. I felt like a kid at Christmass all day long and then I also got to meet Santa, I mean, Rizen and he was just as nice as can be.

I know that this has just furthered my determination to play in some of the events at the WSOP whether this year or next year. It is without a doubt my number one goal and after today, and after today I will not forget how incredible it really is to be here and play. Now I just have to get the play part down and it will be even more magical if that is possible.

Time away

Well, this past week I have taken some time off just to decompress from the incredible run of bad beats I took last week. Poker is an incredible game and no matter how many right plays you make, you can still lose. And even if you have played perfectly, losing still takes an effect on your mental state. I am sure the longer a person plays and the more success a person has, the less of an effect a down swing will have on their mental outlook. This probably is one of the last things a winning player has to overcome.

It is just human nature to start to doubt one's ability when you are not having success, even though nothing has changed. A big problem is that often we start to get frustrated and make plays that we would not make had we not had such a bad run. I mean, they can't always hit the flop, and they can't always have a hand that beats us every time they push over the top of us, but when you are running bad it seems they do, and that brings the snowball effect where it gets bigger and bigger and before you know it you are playing bad poker.

I took some time away from playing because I just found that I was not enjoying what was going on and playing was not fun. I played some free SNGs on a new site to me and won, which was nice. I think I only played a couple real money SNGs this week and I did win two out of the three that I played and the other one I bubbled with AK, which I can accept.

All in all, by not playing and just studying up on my game you can reset your mind and come back with a fresh perspective and get back to your game. I would encourage anyone having a bad run to stop playing for a week and just read and visit forums and look at hand histories and watch other poker without playing, and then come back refreshed ready to win.

Cynthia McKinney Liberal Disgrace

Grand jury declines to indict Rep. McKinney
A District of Columbia grand jury declined to return an indictment against U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, who was accused of assaulting Capitol Police Officer Paul McKenna in an April altercation.

Doesn't this just sum up the Democratic party. Here you have McKinney attacking a police officer and then her liberal pals in DC don't indict her for assaulting this guy.

Then add in :

The House voted Friday to remove Rep. William Jefferson, who's mired in a federal bribery probe, from his seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.


Yes, the democratic party are beaming examples to our youth. Yes, the lesson learned. You can do anything if you are a powerful politico take bribes, punch police officers.

No wonder Hillary is your next candidate for president, stock swindler is perfect.

Ultimate Bet

What is it with Ultimate Bet that they cannot do a simple transfer of funds out of their site back to the site that originally deposited the money. It is amazing to me how you tell UB where to put your money, and they still screw it up and divide my withdrawal to two different places. I cannot wait to hear how they are going to rationalize how they screwed up. It came from Neteller and the policy is it goes back there, hmm. How did my money end up not at Neteller.

Ultimate incompetence abounds at Ultimate Bet.



Well, I just got back my reply from UB and they divided it because 6 weeks ago I made deposit using Firepay, and that Firepay can cancel a transfer so they pay them off oldest first. It is simply assinine that they do things like this. There is absolutely no chance of a transfer being canceled after 6 weeks have passed. UB is the most pathetic customer service out there.

Party Poker worst site to play at on Internet

Well it is official, Party Poker just blows. Today I am in two tourneys and they crash. I go to Pocket Fives and it is official there is a thread saying they are down.

I keep my tables open hoping to get back because I have a nice stack in one and so-so in the limit tourney. Finally after 20 plus minutes I just close the tables and go to tourney selection secreen and surprise surprise I can open my table and the game is going on. I am blinded down and out in the Limit tourney and lost 1/3 of my stack in the other tourney. My nice stack and all the possibilities to increase are gone by the wayside.

Keep in mind I had my tables open the whole time and Party poker never connected them back up. What is funny as wel is I had the tourney lobby open for the Limit tourney and it started and my table never opened and I had to eventually click on take seat button after I realized that it had started without me.

Party Poker has the worst customer service of any site. Their game selection screen is the laggiest(slowest) on the planet. It is not uncommon to click on a game that says it has 2 people in it and whne you get there it is a full table and they are playing the first hand. Yet, you go back to selection screen and it says that the game still needs 8 players. When you ask Party Poker about this they will tell you it is your ISP that is the problem.

I am withdrawing my money from Party Poker and unless I hit it big somewhere will not be redepositing on that POS site any time in the near future. I don't care how easy the money can be to make on that site it is just awful.

World Blogger Championship

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: 1446353

Another great, not, day on Poker Stars

Well, today was the typical day that I have on RiverStars. It is good for one to have to deal with repeatedly getting beat by people hitting runner runner straits to beat you, or the one time you get a decent hand your opponent suddenly has QQs, that is my favorite that happened twice today. I got beat by the miracle drawouts 3 times today, that was also nice.

It really is sad to see it happen so damn often. I mean come one, I don't care how many hands you have dealt, the odds of a runner runner straight are still the same. No matter how many times I flip a coin it is still 50-50 to be heads or tails, and yet the miracle hands happen all the time on Poker Stars. All the time, I must repeat.

Don't get me wrong, I know that no hand is impervious, but I play a lot and you just get tired of it. I mean, I sit at my screen and call out the exact river card on a high percentage of hands where it will be a huge suckout, especially if someone needs runner runner to win the odds they will hit go up dramatically. It is a shame that no one has all the data that they would need to prove that there is something not quite right with Poker Stars.

When I play on UB or Party Poker, you will see it, but I don't see it nearly as much.

Poker Stars not so random RNG

How is it that the river brings so many underdog hands what they need to win? What are the odds of seeing runner-runner straights, flushes, three of a kinds? Poker Stars is with out a doubt the most pathetic sites for this kind of crap. I have played on about 7 sites and I must say Poker Stars continues to be the leader of the pack for dishing out bad beats.

They will tell you it is because they deal so many hands that the odds are you will see more bad beats. Well, that is a bunch of BS because you have a separate random number generator dealing each table so it doesn't matter what has been dealt before or how many times it was dealt. Their software is not random, but then again, nothing is. They try and make it random but they come up short.

On Pocket Fives recently a top player posed the question that all RNGs are not created equal and there was a poll of sorts and the overwhelming response was that Poker Stars was without a doubt the worst site for favorite hands not holding up.

My advice to you is if you can, don't play at Poker Stars. If you are happy with the action on your site that you play stay there. Yes, they have a lot of tourneys and such, but does it really matter that you could play perfectly for 4 hours and have it all undone by a 77 to 22 dog in the wink of an eye. It is no wonder so many people will call raises with crappy hands, they know Poker Stars will reward them with their dream cards on the turn or river.

ROI Return on investment

ROI is such an important thing to so many players, and outside of the fun of the game it is why we play, to make money. I always believe that finishing ITM is more important in a lot of respects, because you can't have an ROI without being ITM.

I play mostly SNGs and it is very important to get to the money before you worry alot about anything else. I recently had a run of 15 ITM finishes with 11 of them being first. I just checked my ROI today after having kind of a down day to where things just didn't work out right, you know it is bad when your Aces get cracked by 98o by someone that doesn't know how to play a shortstack, but I digress.

My ROI has skyrocketed based on all the first place finishes, which you would expect, but it still is quite shocking. I makes me feel pretty good about not hitting the money in the 3 I just played. I was going to not play anymore today because it just didn't feel like a good day, but after seeing my results, I am inspired to hit the tables again.

ROI is very fluid if you are not getting some firsts to go with your thirds, but ITM is the place to start, don't worry about ROI until you are consistently hitting the money.

To you naysayers

Well, what do all you naysayers have to say for yourselves now after Al-Zarqawi has been found and killed? What an excellant bit of news to all our brothers and sisters who are trying to help put things back together over in Iraq.

It must have been just a terrible day for the liberals out there yesterday. A great accomplishment and they could not be happy. They have to look for why it was actually a bad thing for us. It really is amazing how biases enter into one's perception of reality.

I was amazed that an interview I saw with Mr. Berg the father of that first beheaded guy that was shown on the Internet. He was all touchy feeling about how he felt about his son's murderer being killed. He said how can anyone be happy that another human being is killed. Well, when that human being is working in concert with Satan it is not hard my friends. I don't believe that God would fault anyone for taking pleasure in the demise of an evil person. Are the rest of God's children better off and safer now that he is dead, absolutely. So rejoice and be happy for the living don't have to share this world with such a degenerate evil person.

What do you think Allah said when Zarqawi was standing at the gates? Sorry, you came to the wrong place. Let me get your one-way ticket to hell, bye now.

Rizen's Poker Blog: PokerXFactor: A review

Rizen's Poker Blog: PokerXFactor: A review

Great Day

Well today was a really good day at the tables. I took down 4 Sngs and placed 2nd in another won, which I really felt that I should have won.

I tried something new today. Every time I won a SNG I would move up to the $55 Turbos and played them. If not for a huge suckout when I had KK against 77 I think I would have monied for sure, but Poker Stars screwed me with there somewhat random number generator. lol. The guy that sucked out on me eventually got all my chips after I played 3 more hand with him and he won every single hand.


This Wednesday is a landmark day in Washington State, or at least I am assuming that's the day that the Governor will sign a totaly ridiculous law into being.

It is pretty sad that they condone their own game of chance, but want to outlaw what they percieve to be a chance game, poker. They want to protect us from the sites that won't pay out our winnings. What a bunch of crap. Christine kiss my ***.
Ms. Prentice you may pucker up as well, you bought and paid for B****.

Taking a shot

Today, I was looking for something to play as something a different and I happened on the $10,000 gauranteed 100+9 tourney on UB. With 25 minutes to go there were only about 40 people and I thought wow, what an overlay, but by the time it started it was at 96 people.

The last 109 I played was on Poker Stars with 330 or so people. In that one I managed to make the final table, so I had some high hopes for this one as well.

I played a tight position based game, but was frustrated with the fact that I had no cards. My PUFF was only 28 for the whole tourney of about 200 hands for me. Not something you dream about when playing the better players out there.

Well, I did play a few hands that I normally wouldn't play just so that my table would see that I was willing to play some hands here and there so that when I did get a hand they all wouldn't fold.

I definitely think that some players tried to bully me, but everytime someone would raise my limp someone would come over the top of them so it didn't work out too well.

I made it too about 35 or so, the blinds were 150/300 and I had 2700 when I had TT in LP with an MP 3bb raiser. I couldn't see just calling and I was having a hard time thinking about folding this hand so I pushed. I hit a set and lost to a river Ace, ouch.

All in all it was a very fun experience and I would recommend if you can afford to every once in a while take a shot at higher level competition and see where you stand. These MTTs at the 100 and 200 level that I have played have done nothing but increase my confidence that I have some game. Now if I could just get a few more cards to go with it I will be laughing as they say.

A cash would've have been nice, but I gained other things through the experience.

Washington State Outlaws Online Poker

You can read all about the particulars of this ridiculous story at Poker News.

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2006/5/washington-state-online-poker-legislation.htm

The state of Washington has to be one of the worst places to live in the US. They can't hold a fair election or count votes, but they will nonetheless tell you where you can spend your time and money.

The person sponsoring this bill Margaret Prentice is a pawn for the Casino Associations in Washington that donate to her campaigns.


Maybe some lawyers out there will challenge this law in court for all of us.

Turbo Sit and Go's

Well, the experiment is well on its way. I have played in almost nothing but turbo SNGs for since the 15th of May and I have had wonderful success. Well, I have had great success on Poker Stars. Party Poker was much more of a challenge and I eventually withdrew my money out of that account after some great success followed by a roller coaster. Party is just so frustrating because the players are just so bad that they call too often when you are counting on them to fold.

It is amazing to me how many people are clueless on how to play the SNGs, and especially the Turbos. They think that they have to be playing all kinds of hands and they risk lots of chips early. I guess in an effort to try and build a stack, which they think, incorrectly by the way, will somehow help them later. What they inevitably do is build some chips, then lose them and gain and lose and on and on. They don't know how to change gears and they are far to risky in their play. The turbos put a lot of pressure on people because they constantly worry about the blinds going up soon.

I have had a lot of wins lately where I literally did not play a real hand until around the 24th to 30th hand of the SNG, and the blinds at 75/150. I have had severeal wins lately where I never even lost a hand at showdown. You say, wow, how lucky, or how can that be. Well, I will tell you that I had very very few hands go to showdown. And usually it was where someone was all in, and usually it was from someone calling all-in with a hand that was not really good enough to call an all-in with.

The TSNG (turbo sit an go) can be very frustrating at the lower levels because so many players will call with very weak hands when they should be folding, but they just are not good enough to know this and inevitably they do suck out on you, which happens a fair bit of the time, but we do want these donkeys calling, because the odds will even out and we will win against their bad calls. It is frustrating none the less having the best hand because somebody called with QJ or KQ and having them hit.

I really do love the format of the turbo. I just bide my time watching and learning what type of players are at my table and then when the blinds get higher I start putting pressure on them and before you know it I have built up some chips and am in the money.

Over the last week I have really picked up my closing rate to where I have placed first the last 6 times I have made the money. I had 4 thirds in a row before this run. I don't think I played poorly per se in the third place finishes. One I was extremely shortstacked where I had to call a push in the BB, and I made one bad call with A8s to a pushs, when I should have waited to be the aggressor against weaker opponents.

Position position is the key. Being the aggressor is what it is all about. This works even better against better competition because they will fold the 95% of the hands they should be folding when you push on them. Bubble pressure is key in SNGs because who wants to go out 4th and miss the money.

A wonderful story of success, Lance Carr

If you feel like being moved then you need to go to www.lancecarr.com a site that will truly inspire you. This site tells the story of Lance Carr a man afflicted with a terrible disease that has left him in a wheelchair his whole life. He has been told he has only a couple years to live several times in his life, but he has not given up.

He paints and even plays poker online. You can find him at Poker Stars playing under the name Gimpygod. He is very pleasant to be at a table with. I urge you to go to his site and read about him and if you can help him out with words of hope or more if you can.

He has persevered and overcome so much and it would be truly wonderful if he could feel the love of total strangers raining down on him.

A note to Angie

You may ask yourself who Angie is. Well, Angie is someone I don't know who emailed me today. You wonder what she wrote me, well, I will tell you, but first a little background.

I recently bought a new steno machine for my work as my writer of 9 years suffered a failure on Monday so I had to get a replacement and quickly. Since I needed it fast that sort of put some parameters on my search for a replacement machine. I had in my bookmarks a place called www.Stenotrader.com so I went there first. I knew Stenograph would want my first young for a writer so they were my last resort.

Well, I found a writer and called Matthew up at Stenotrader and he was very polite and friendly and actually gave me information that he knew I might use to buy elsewhere, but he would not be deterred in his service to me. New steno machines can be over $4500. The one I picked was $2,450 recently marked down by the way, which I didn't know but Matt informed me. He also told me that a less expensive writer for $1,950 would be what I needed and that I didn't have to spend the extra $500.

My writer was overnighted to me as I requested and it got there the very next day in time for me to use it the very next day. What incredible service. The writer was in immaculate shape as were all the accessories. I have purchased 2 other backup writers over time on the Internet and not one of them has been in shape to use when it arrived.. I used my new writer yesterday and today and it is a Lamborghini as far as I am concerned.

Now, back to Angie. I posted a response on a court reporter bulletin board I belong too concerning someone looking to purchase a writer. I told them of my purchase and the price and how happy I was and what great service I received not to mention my warranties. I thought I had provided invaluable information to help others.

Then I receive an email from Angie:

Eric,

I think $1,950 for an 8000 is outrageous. I just sold one 8000 for $900 w/metal tray and new battery and traded in the other for $750. I bought both of these last year for around the same price. I replacing my StenoRam Ultras in the hope that the Passport would be coming soon. But I decided to get the Mira after training a new Eclipse user that had a Mira. Here in Southern California, they say the 8000s are worth only $500-$900 depending on the serial #.

Angie


This person has to be perhaps the most inconsiderate person I have ever received an email from. After all what is the purpose in telling someone basically that they got ripped off and were spent twice as much as they needed to. She says that she bought two writers the previous year and got rid of them within a year of acquiring them. Maybe the reason she had to get rid of them so quickly was because she got ripped off and got what she paid for. Just hilarious. She is telling me what they are worth, while proving my point that the reason you go to a reputable place like www.Stenotrader.com is to get a totally refurbished like new writer for half the price of a new writer.


Just a tip for anyone out there that wants to pull an Angie. If you think someone got ripped off, keep it to yourself. Nobody wants to know that they overpaid for anything, especially if it is true, which in this case, it was not. It is one thing to act like you know something, actually knowing what your talking about is another story. Maybe it is a California thing.

What do you think of these cards for Poker Stars

This is a screen shot of the cards I use on Poker Stars when I play. What do you think of these?

The Da Vinci Code

We went and saw the Da Vinci Code this weekend. Tom Hanks was enjoyable as always. The movie is pretty long at 2hr 45m or so, and at times I did find myself thinking, boy, this is a long movie. There is some action here and there and a couple plot twists.

I can see how this movie angers Christians kind of like Passion angered Jews. Although, in a different sense. I could not understand the Jewish anger so much having seen the Passion 5 or so times. The truth is the truth and historical events are what they are. I don't think that movie was attacking Jews or blaming them for anything. The Jews know what part they played in the crucifixion of Jesus and that is their history, not all of the Jews turned their back on the Messiah, but certainly a great many in the mob did. This movie I think is pretty entertaining although historically I think pretty thin.

As a believer in Jesus and all that he stood for I take a movie like this for what it is, fanciful speculation, and in the case of a movie they want to make a buck or two. The idea that Jesus was married to Mary Madgalene is ridiculous to me. There would have been writings depicting such, some where there would be documentation of such. To me it really is silly. da Vinci a great artist and thinker had a great imagination. You can't be a great inventor without one, but that is all this story is fanciful imagination.

Don't get me wrong, is the possibility that a group of powerful men got together and formed the church and decided what was going to be right and wrong, well that sounds about right for man. But it is not the darkest con of man. The darkest con of man is that Satan is not real. I feel sorry for the non-believers and the simpletons that will take this movie as being some kind of historical documentary.

Jesus was more than a man. He was the son of God sent down to earth to die for your sins. He was crucified and rose from the dead as he foretold he would. He walked the earth and ascended to Heaven, and he will return one day to hold us all accountable. The Bible has it all, alpha to omega. If you want to know, all you have to do is read it. It may take you a little while as it is a big book filled with history, but it also spells out our future.

The weekend

Well this weekend was bitter sweet. I think that I played really well this weekend but had mixed results. Lady luck at times was not very kind to me. I am always shocked at how many really bad players there are online playing poker. I would think that if you were going to put up your money you might buy at least one book and learn a little about what you are doing, but I have a feeling that is too much work for people out there.

I think I have read at least 8 books on playing poker, and then there are the countless hours on poker forums reading posts about playing poker and analyzing hands, and if that was not enough I belong to Cardrunners.com and PokerXfactor.com. These are two sites that are mentoring sites where successful players share what it is that makes them succeed. I look at these as investment in my future poker playing.

In the future I am hoping to put together my own poker site that will have videos that I will put together of my own playing and share with people, along with articles and other lessons, but that is the long range goal. That will come only if I achieve my primary goal, which is to become a consistent winner online. The amazing thing about online poker is you don't have to win some huge tournament to be successful, but lots of ITM finishes and an occasional 1st will reap a lot of rewards.

English the national language

How ridiculous is it that the Senate of the US has been debating and holding votes to decide if English is the national language or just the common language. First they held hearings on steroids in major league baseball, not this.

Does the fact that they are taking time to hold this debate now mean they have solved all the real problems with America? Does this mean that they have solve the problem with ever rising gasoline price gouging by the major oil companies? Thank goodness they finally solved the problem with healthcare in this country for children.

I mean, things must really be going well in the US Government that we can waste time on this bit of silliness. What a bunch of bafoons. Put it to a national vote and be done with it. Odds are it will fail anyway, because too many Americans don't bother voting and the Hispanic vote would rule the day.

The funny thing is America is under attack right now. What you say. Well, we are being invaded. It really is the most brilliant strategy that another country has ever undertaken. Given enough time, eventually there will be more Hispanic people in American than English speaking people. There will be a rise in Hispanic political candidates across the country and before long there will be even more legislation aimed at helping our neighbor to the south.

Yes, it is true. Eventually Mexico will absorb the US. It is already happening. All it takes is time and the lackadaisical attitude that Americans have to accomplish this. I mean, it is so mean to want to control your borders so that people can't illegally enter your country. Eventually the Liberals will be the downfall of this country with their touchy-feely approach to serious problems.

So, be prepared. Learn Espanol. We should be debating if Spanish should be the national language, that way we could start preparing our children for the future that will be there's.

Adios

Turbos what fun

No, not that kind of turbo.

I think I may have stumbled into a gold mine or sorts today when I decided to play a $6.50 Turbo SNG. I normally have shied away from these types of tournaments because I thought that I would do better if I had time to let my skill play out over, what I hope to be lesser skilled opponents.

While I was playing this SNG a guy at my table commented that one of the players was in 14 other SNGs. As it turned out I did a search to find him, and he was in about 8, maybe 10 other SNGs at the same time, all turbos, which was amazing to me. They looked like they were all $6.50 turbo SNGs.

Well, after I was doing the tournaments I was in I tried out this method of playing SNGs and entered 4 at one time, and to my joy, they have more of these started per minute than the normal ones. They fill up so fast that there is up to three to enter, if not more I suppose, but I entered three before the first one even started. The experiment worked rather well at that level of buy-in. I moneyed 2 out of 4, one second and one first. So out of five turbo SNGs at the 6.50 buy in I was ITM %60 percent.

As is the case at the lower levels, they just don't pay enough for your efforts. I decided that I would move up to the next level, which I believe are the $16 Turbo SNGs. I played two to start with to see how I liked them. I finished in second in one and missed the money in the other. The nice thing with the turbos is how quickly they start up more and how quickly you can play them. They generally take about 50 minutes to complete if not sooner, but no much longer.

My next experiment was to do three at once. This went really well and if not for losing a coin flip on the last hand, I could have won 2 out of 3, but I will take the seconds. I am definitely going to concentrate on playing the turbo SNGs.

I have a theory on why they are a good thing, and that is instead of having to wade through a lot of hands and possible bad beats, you can concentrate more on the important hands. There is also certain SNG principles the come into play much more quickly as the blinds rise in relation to the stacks that, frankly, many if not most at the low limits just don't understand. There was a guy at one of my tables today that was getting upset because another player(the guy playing 10 SNGs at once) and me were pushing all-in often. This put incredible pressure on him and I am sure he made mistakes because of it. Needless to say, our confused friend did not make the money.
As with any low level buy-in game there will be times when higher level moves are not successful, because the players don't realize calling an all-in with QJ just is not a good move, or 24 suited. With the turbos though there are less opportunities for the bad beat, not that you still don't get them, but with few hands you don't have to avoid as much trouble.

Ultimate Bet, worst customer service on the web

If you have a choice of places to play, and you do, I would recommend not depositing a dime into UB. Their customer service is by far the worst of any site that I have played on. You are lucky if they ever respond to you at all. They will email you telling you that you can deposit more and more money there, but they will not answer requests for Hand histories.

I have asked them four times for my hand histories and all they do is ask me for the answer to my secret question. I guess it wasn't enough that I provided my screen name and the game numbers, oh, and sent it using the email address that is on file with them. I guess these geniuses were worried that someone hacked my email account, knew my screen name and just happened to know what games I had played, and they wanted to know what cards I played. Even if it were true, who cares, it is not national security issues.

UB how not to run a business.

CardRunners.com League

This week on 5/3/06 was the first tournament in the CR league. It is a 6-max table NL format. There will be tournaments every other week for 4 months. Points are awared based on number of entrants in any given tourney, i.e. week 1 had 80 entrants so first was 80, second 79 and so on.

This was my first ever 6-max table anything. I had never played that either SNG or MTT. It seemed very aggressive at times. I have a very aggressive player to my right who raised relentlessly.

Before I played in this tournament I watched a couple 6-max videos on CR to get an idea of the style of play and strategy to employ. I found it very enjoyable and the level of play for the most part was very exceptional. I say quite a few people lay down very big pairs on scary boards and in the face of big bets. I have to say, that I have seen so many people call down with underpairs that this was a very nice change of pace. I had to lay down AAs once when the board came QJT and it was checked to me and I bet 1/2 the pot and one PF caller folded but then I was check/raised 2-3 times my bet. I thought for a little bit and mucked as I figured it was either a set or two pair with KQ and quite possible AK, which in the end it was AK.

I did not have very good luck as far as the table dynamics were. I had the biggest stack at my table and it was 3-handed. The other table was 4-handed and the other shortstack was at that table. Even though we were playing hand for hand and the same number of hands, I was paying the big blind once every 3 hands and he was paying it once every 4 hands, which is obviously a huge advantage. And the other thing was his table had 3 decent stacks and then the short stack, so there wasn't one huge stack that could run over the table like at my table where he raised 5 out of every 6 hands at a minimum. After surviving for about 3 or 4 orbits and realizing that I was getting pummeled and at a severe disadvantage I made a move with K6o when the big stack min raised me. I suppose in hindsight I should have just waited and waited and if I blinded out so be it. He had KQ and I bubbled. This was very frustrating because there really was nothing I could do to overcome my positional table disadvantage. Nobody's fault, but mine I guess for not having enough chips, but it sure doesn't make sense to me in terms of table balancing to have it the way it was. I finished 7th ahead of many top CR players so I have to be very happy about that, but hitting the money and a final table is what I really wanted.

Huge Saturday Night

Well, last night I was home by myself as my daugther was at a friend's house and my wife was at some tupperware party or something. I had not had a great afternoon of playing and was looking for some real play. I happened to notice that there was a $109 MTT that was starting up in a little bit and there were only 42 signed up for it. I thought about it for about 35 minutes on whether to play in it or not. I have always wanted to play in the big tourneys, but my bankroll is not huge and so I have not done so.

I had won $200 a couple weeks back to play in the big million dollar Sunday tourney on Stars, so I decided that I would play the Saturday night $109 and then not play on Sunday. I went for it and played the tourney.

I just played solid poker nothing spectacular. I did not play any speculative hands to speak of and kept my position in mind at all times. When I had hands that required raising I raised. I did not get out of line all night long really. I took notes on everyone and looked up every player I played against in an online database to see their results to get an idea of their skill level so that I would have a frame of reference as to what they might be capable of.

I made one move early on at the 10/20 level when I had raised with AK and got called by one good player and one loose caller. The flop came AQ7 and I bet about 1/2 the pot and got called by the good player, the turn was a 7 and I tried to think what hands he might have that would call preflop and just call on the flop. His stack was down to about 550 and any bet I would make would pretty much have him pushing all-in. I thought that he had AQ and that I was behind but the pot was huge and I had him covered, so I put him all-in and he called with AQ, I hit the K on the river and he was gone and I was up to 2500 chips at level 1.

My next big hand was when I had AA and reraises the guy to my right who raised to 3BB to 9BB. He called and the flop came AKK. He checked it to me and I checked behind hoping to induce some action on the turn. The turn was a 2 and he checked to me. the pot is 585. I bet out 185 which was very very weak. I was hoping that he would come over the top of me, or at least call. He reraised me to 370. I paused a long time and then called. The river was a Q and he pushed all in for 1550. I quickly hit call and he showed KQ for a smaller full house. I was at 4600 chips and it was level 2. I was off and running.

I had AK later and got all in against two short stacks, one had 44 and the other had QQ. I hit the K on the flop but a 4 came on the river and I lost 25% of my stack, which I quickly got back from the lose caller who raised in early position and to 300 and I reraised to 750 with AQ. He called and the flop was J high. He bet out to ckd to me and I bet about 3/4 of his remaining stack and he folded, as I thought he would. This guy had called with 34s earlier and had shown a propensity for raising any two suited and lots of other hands and calling raises with nothing. I was going to go to the river against him because I knew he was very very weak.

I made a play way later when the blinds had gotten up there. I think we were 7 handed and I had A8 of clubs UTG and raised 3BBs. I had hardly played any hands and had not actively stolen any blinds. When I raised most times people gave me credit for big hands, and they were smart, because for the most part that's what I had. I the big blind pushed all in against me. The BB had shown that he was a very aggressive player and had played many weak hands very aggressively. I was getting great odds to call against him. I did not think he had a big hand and his raise all-in was very big in relation to my raise. I did not think he had anything so I called. He had something like KT. My hand held up and he was gone.

I misplayed AAs one time UTG+1 when the UTG shortstack went all in for less than 1BB and I made a normal raise to 3BB. I should have limped in and prayed that a big stack came over the top of us. My bad. As it was it would have been very good to build a sidepot on this hand, because I lost 1bb to the shortstack who sucked out. I suffered about 3 or 4 suckouts in this tourney when I was the big favorite.

For the most part, I believe that my money went in with the best hand all but 2 hands. I finished 9th making the final table, outlasting my mentors along the way and many, many poker pros, which really validates my skills in my eyes. This was my biggest poker win in terms of payoff and competition faced. I really had a great time. If not for a suckout at the end when I had JJ and was against A5o I might have gone even deeper, but it was a good run. I even played against the 2004 WSOP Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker, who busted out 28th and was the bubble boy for this tournament. I wanted to bust him, or put a move on him, but I had a big stack to my left and could not get to him.

That was another thing about this tourney that I had to overcome. I had a huge stack to my left for a big portion of this tourney which severly limited what I could do in terms of even trying to steal blinds.

What has the world come to? Jesus offensive?

Recently I opened an account at Absolute Poker. They allow you to upload a picture to be used as your picture on their site when you play. I uploaded the picture that I use at Poker Stars which goes along with my screen name of JC_Saves, which is a picture of Jesus wearing the crown of throwns after the scourging. So yes there is a little blood and some sweat on his face. I also use this picture at Pocketfives.com on my profile page there.


The actual one at Absolute is smaller and does not show the entire head shot. it shows his face more.

This is the email that I was sent by Absolute Poker:
This is a friendly note to let you know that your recently uploaded image has unfortunately been declined. At Absolute Poker, we have an obligation to only allow images that are not offensive to any of our players or don`t contradict any of our policies. In order to remain consistent when making the decision to approve or decline an image, our Images Department uses the following criteria to decide whether or not to accept an image: Players will not be allowed to upload images that are in any way obscene, offensive, or inappropriate. This includes, but is not limited to, images that contain the following: •Each player is entitled to change the image uploaded only once. Any further uploads will automatically be deleted • Nudity • Death and dismemberment • Disgusting body fluids or other bodily secretions • Sexual Positions or innuendo • Lewd gestures or hand signals • Inappropriate cartoons • Offensive Remarks or provocative slogans (i.e. Racist remarks, Religious connotations, etc.) • Pictures obtained from Absolute Poker screenshots • Pictures of cards that may be deceptive or confusing to other players • Advertisements
Sincerely, John Ethan Team Absolute ~ Support Support@AbsolutePoker.com

As you can see by this email, how is it possible that Jesus could violate any of these? Unless maybe they are really just anti-Christian people. Perhaps Mr. Ethan is Jewish or his team members are and they have a bias against the Messiah. But whatever the reason it is obviously unacceptable, and I would not recommend playing there to anyone that believes in Jesus Christ. I certainly will take my business elsewhere. I am so thankful that I waited to deposit any money there.

Tidbits

Well, I learned one thing that I hate about Party Poker yesterday and that is that they will let you deposit with Firepay, but they will not return your money to your Firepay account, but you can use Neteller. This is totally opposite the other sites, in that, whatever site you deposit money with is where your money goes back to. So I ended up having to cashout to Neteller deposit on another site, tell them to close my Neteller account at the poker site and then I can withdraw out to Firepay. What a pain in the, well you get the idea. Also, Firepay charges a $10 fee to withdraw money, so it looks like I will have to do deposit my money and then move it into my Neteller account for free transfers to the bank.

I took all of my winnings and cashed out of Party Poker, once again. I just hate that site. Their software is terrible, their players are terrible, which does make it easy to make money there, but all in all the site is just terrible. I do not have any confidence in their card generating software either. I am not a conspirator theorist, but I have to get away from the endless bad beats that they have dealt me. The last straw was when I had KK and pushed all in and this guy at my table slow rolls me and then turns over AA. This past week I suffered no less than 7 horrific bad beats when I had my opponents dominated on Party Poker. I need a break from their BS.

I opened a Full Tilt account and spend quite a bit of the day playing SNGs there. I have mixed emotions so far. Nice to see my bad beats did follow me over here so I wouldn't be lonely. I have had a break even day and after playing five SNGs I am about even with two 2nd place finishes.

I also had a pretty good day on Stars cashing in all four SNGs I played their, which is really nice. I did not do great in the Double Shootouts that I played today, but they were like freerolls given my SNG success today so that is pretty nice. My new 19" LCD arrived today and that is really nice to play on.

I also joined Cardrunners.com today and am going to give it a try as well. It is a site like PokerXFactor with some very well known pros doing videos and instruction there.

Help Save Online Poker

There are currently a couple bills in congress that are thinking about banning online poker, which is just ridiculous. The link below will allow you to sign a petition that will send emails in your name to your representatives to let them know that you are against these bills.

http://capwiz.com/keep_it_legal/issues/alert/?alertid=8637406


Let's wipe out any thoughts of censoring our internet content.

The Sentinel movie

This was a really enjoyable movie. Keifer Sutherland is very good and Michael Douglas does a fine job with his part. This had some nice action and plot line in it. At times it was a bit hard to believe, especially at the end, but all in all very worth while seeing.

A great tourney run is dashed

Well, this week has been an up and down adventure. On Monday and Tuesday I played in a lot of tournaments but did not have much to show for it. I played really well and was just disappointed at the results. I just missed earning a seat into one of the big Party Poker Tournaments when I finished 6th when I ran into AA with my 44 and missed the seat by one.
I did win two SNGs one on Party and one on Poker Stars so that did help restore my faith in myself.

It can be very frustrating when you are playing great poker and don't have much to show for it. I am trying to just take it in stride knowing that the more good poker a person plays the more likely it is that they will have success. The cards will always do what they do, and we can't be too worried about that. I would say %80 or more of the time I get my money into the middle with the best hand. I have suffered some really bad beats in the last week, but that is all part of poker, and though they be frustrating, I do not get too bent out of shape over them like I use to.

I played in the $3 Rebuy tournament on Poker Stars today with the $10,000 guaranteed prize pool. It ended up being a lot more than the 10k. I was really playing well and on a nice run. My stack was up to 258k at one point and I was 4th in chips for a long time. I was just taking down the blinds here and there and my stack kept growing and growing. Then I had AQ suited in the BB when there was an UTG limper so I raised it to 4BBs and he went all in, which I called. He had AT with the A of clubs. I was sitting really well until the board lined up a flush and straight on the turn and he hit the flush on the river to suckout on me. This took about %40 percent of my stack.

About 25 hands later I picked up QQ when there was an early to middle position all in for 154k. I figured that he had something like AK or AQ because of the all-in nature of his bet. I called for 101k and was knocked out when he hit the A on the flop. It was very disappointing to have it all come undone on two suckouts like it did. It just reemphasizes that the cards will do what they will and we can't worry about them. I made great plays and decisions all day. This was probably my best tournament ever, and I finished 42nd for my troubles. Onward and upward.

Sunday Wrap-up

Well, I out lasted 4000 people in the Poker Stars Sunday tourney in my first try at the big money. I felt that I played really well all day. I did not get a lot of cards to work with so it was difficult to make some headway.

I had AK suited early on in early position and raised to 4BBs and someone in middle position came over the top all-in for 26 times my bet, which is a really silly bet, and then he showed that he had AA, which was nice of him to show. It was a very easy fold for me. This guy was pretty weak. If a K had flopped or even worse AK he could have gotten my whole stack, but he played it poorly and I only lost 120 chips and I still had about 2700.

Later on I had JJ and raised it to 5BBs after one person the guy above, limped and then one person went all in for 2.3 blinds which was not really a worry. The flop came 3 6 K and I bet out about 1/2 the pot that is when the other guy went all-in which was going to cost me another 900 chips to call, which would leave me with 1300 if I lost, but 3700 if I won. I thought about it for quite a while and then decided to call as I could not put him on any kind of hand that had a K in it, and his bet just seemed really odd to me. He had 46 of diamonds for middle pair. He was bluffing me and he was out of the tournament for his troubles.

I had KK later on and a short stack went all-in which was really nice for about 1400 chips I had about 7500 and I was very happy. He had A2s and proceeded to hit a full house to win. I hovered around 7K bringing it up to 9k for a little while. I drifted down to around 5k and was hovering there when I picked up JJ with the blinds at 300/600 and 30 ante. I pushed all-in and was called by AQ suited and lost as he hit a full house as well. lol All in all not a bad showing for my first big tourney.

I did not do as well in the Party Poker Cadillac Main event. I outlasted about 1/2 the field but couldn't get anything going.

I decided to try and qualify for next Sunday's PS million and played another double shootout tournament. I felt really good about my game and crushed the first table with the help of some really nice cards and flops. My son Noah was visiting and he really was loving seeing the old man wreak havoc on this table. At the second table I took my time and got down to 3 players when we decided that we would chop the remaining prizes, that is divide them equally. So for my $13 entry fee I collected $200. Not a bad capper to the day. Not bad at all.

It was a great day even though I didn't place in the big tourneys. My son got to watch me play and we had a great day socializing while I was playing in the big one's, and then he got to see me win a nice little tourney.

Sunday Tournaments

Well, today is a really big day. I am playing in the Poker Stars Million Dollar Sunday tournament, which I qualified for by playing in an $11 double shootout tournament.

I am also playing in the Party Poker Cadillac Main Event which is giving away a $69,000 Cadillac Escalade to the winner. Second is $20,700 which I think might actually be a better prize, because then you don't have to worry about the sales tax and all the other fees associated with a new car, but I guess that would be a small price to pay for a big win. I qualified for this tournament playing in a $10 qualifier.

I have wanted to play in the Poker Stars Sunday tournament for a very long time, but paying the $215 entry fee was a bit steep for my poker bankroll. I really like the double shootout format for qualifying for bigger tournaments. One day I hope to win a World Series of Poker Main Event package playing in one.

In case you do not know what a Double Shootout is I will explain.
What happens is everyone is broken down into tables and you have to win your table to advance to the next level. So it is like playing a 1-table Sit and Go, which is nice because I really like SNGs and have been quite successful at them. Instead of playing against all 81 entrants, or less, you only have to play the people at your table. I will take my chances against 8 other people, or less, any day of the week. After you win your first table, then you are advanced to the final table where you have to either win, or finish in the top two depending on how many seats they are awarding. Finishing in the top two or three spots in a SNG is a really nice deal, as I do that quite often, so I feel very good if they are paying 2 or 3 spots.

Hopefully, I will have some great news to update later.

Hilarious Sit and Go

I love the players on Party Poker. You will see people call all-ins with K8o or Q5o. It is hilarious at times. I am thankful that I just came back to playing at Party after learning of the change in blinds and starting chip stacks. Party is just so darn easy to make money on.

If you want to see a really funny SNG I am providing the link to where you can see it on PokerXFactor.com. Just register, which is free) and you can view the videos of my hand histories that I post.

http://www.pokerxfactor.com/servlet/pxf?a=mv&t=myhand&handid=5992&fn=1038_20060421_211228


Playing poker is a great source of competition. To those of you that think poker is a game of chance, I laugh. Maybe it was a game of chance for my opponents in the above game, but there was nothing of chance to the techniques I played against them. I had little doubt that I was going to win once were were in the money. And once we got heads-up, I knew there was no way that I could lose. Does that mean that I win every time I am heads up, no, not at all. I do not control the cards, but I do know that strategically I am going to make the correct moves and then the cards will decide who should win.

What a great game.

Double Shootout victory

Well, today started off a little harsh. I got knocked out 12th in two different satellite tournaments on Party Poker. I had the small stack at the table and pushed from the SB with 87 of clubs and got called by a stack that had 3x my stack in BB with A5o. I hit two pair on the flop and thought I was in the clear and then runner runner to lose. Shame really.

On Poker Stars I played one SNG so far this morning and got knocked out on a 3-way hand in which I was up against AA's once again. Lol.

I have been playing the $11 Double Shootout tournaments on Poker Stars for entry into the $1,000,000 Sunday tournament. I have played 3 so far this week. The first one I played yesterday and got knocked out with AK vs. JJ.

Then today I had AA's and went to raise and somehow it only minraised when we were 3-handed. I was really pissed because I clicked the slider but I just hit raise button, oops. This guy hit a str8t on me when I pushed having him covered by a lot on the flop. He called with 9T. Then on the next hand he flopped a flush when I hit a straight and pushed on the turn. The guy that beat me made some comment about thank you after he hit the straight to crack my Aces. He ended up finishing 4th and no satellite seat.

I immediately signed up for another DS and was kind of shortstacked the whole time. But I worked my mojo and ended up coming back to be heads up against a very weak player who had a good sized cheap lead on me for a little while. I eventually took down the first table and then went to the second table where they had been waiting.

The second table was nice. I had a total fish to my right who donated some chips my way a couple times. The key hand was when I had 77 in the BB and he limped on the button with QQ. The flop came J47 with two spades. He had no spades, I had one. He min bet the flop after I checked, then I reraised him 3x and he flat called, then on the turn he min bet again with a 3 coming. I pushed all in in case he was on a flush draw. He called for all his chips with QQ no draws. That doubled me and put me in great shapes where I continued to pick up little pots here and there. In the end I won my seat into the Sunday tourney a $215 value, sweet.

Poker is fun, isn't it.

Well, the last couple days have been great poker days. I have played really well in the MTTs that I have played. I know that sooner or later my AA will not be cracked by T8 or QQ, both rivered by the way. Lol. I was in great positions in two tournaments and go knocked out on those hands. I have had AK and go knocked out of 2 or 3 more when I didn't catch, and once on a suckout by AJ. For the most part I have gotten my money in as the favorite I would say 90% of the time so I am very very happy with my reads and plays.

The most important thing is when the money goes in, you cannot control what happens after that. I have lost a lot of races the last two days, but that is the nature of poker. There will be days where I will not lose the races and I will win one.

I hooked up a second monitor and it was really nice. I played 5 tourneys at once and was really on fire, until the bad beat storm blew in, but it was very enjoyable playing both Poker Stars and Party Poker at the same time. Party Poker can be a real pain in the ass with their games popping up over other sites and not letting you click on anything until you click their site first. With the two monitors it was not a problem at all.

I played 4 SNGs in the afternoon at the same time and it was very very nice. I can't wait to do it again. I finished first in two, one each on Party and PS, and then I finished 2nd in the other Party SNG. Took a bad beat of sorts on PS to finish 5th, but felt really good about that one too.

PokerXFactor is really paying dividends for my game, and I recommend that you find a similar teaching tool to improve your game if you care about being better.

Poker Sites

Poker Sites

I am so fed up with these sites that can't spend a few dollars and upgrade their sites with just common sense type of things. Like providing convenient hand histories to their players, UB, BODOG, Full Contact these sites do not.
Yet, Poker Stars and Party Poker have absolutely no problem doing this.

How about hand for hand play. Poker Stars does it with about 2 places before the money. Party does it 10 places before the money, which means your tourney will grind to a stop for 20 to 30 minutes while you wait for 10 people to go out. Watching grass is more enjoyable than that.

Here is a really great one. I am on Party Poker playing in a tournament and I am waiting for another to start that I am registered in. The other tournament starts and it doesn't even tell me. It doesn't open the tournament lobby window and my table, ie. Poker Stars. No, it does nothing. I have to remember that oh, by the way, I think my other tourney started and now I have to go find it. Meanwhile I have missed all those hands. Pathetic.

Party Poker has the most pathetic customer service as well. The first excuse with any problem is that it must by your ISP. I couldn't possibly be their substandard software. Their selection screen is ridiculously laggy. You can click on a SNG that says it only has 4 people and by the time you get there it is already underway. I have been in a SNG and playing and gone back to the lobby and it says we still need 4 people. Poker Stars has no problem with this, nor does UB for that matter.

Bottom line is that Poker Stars is the most professional site, bar none. Party Poker is pathetic, but they do make up for it by having some of the crappiest players on the internet. I mean, why else would people play there. This site sucks, but it is just too damn easy to make money there.

Bodog has a pretty cool interface that I wish others would adopt. It would be nice to resize the games to fit to the screen like Party Poker has done, even a dog finds a bone now and then. Having you be the center player no matter where the button starts is really nice and a few sites have this feature, all should.

Easter weekend

Well, this weekend was filled with drama. Friday night some idiot hit my car as we were almost home. Then I had to get up early to get my new tires and rims on my car, which I had waited 2 weeks to get because FedEx lost one of the rims, nice.

Then Sunday on the way home from Easter get together Pierce County who is doing some roadwork left a huge pothole that was swallowing rims left and right, hub cabs strewn all over the roadway. Needless to say, that hole destroyed one of my brand new rims. Now I get the pleasure of dealing with the local government to get satisfaction for their negligence.

On a brighter note I did finish ITM in a SNG in the morning where I was down to 1BB 4 handed. I did not give up and survived for 10 more hands with the blinds at 75/150 to finish 3rd. I was fortunate that I was playing 3 people that really did not know what they were doing short handed in a SNG. We had a big stack that had 8x the chips of everyone else and didn't know how to play them. He actually would fold his button to two short stacks. It was very very sad. I then went over to the in-laws and crushed the family NL game, which was nice. I really pissed my wife off when I sucked out on her with A7o against her 66s when she called my all-in, priceless.


On Saturday I played in a SNG where I bubbled when I had AQ with pretty decent chip stack, 2nd at the time and I pushed against the UTG raiser, big stack had about 600 more than me, he called with a 99 and it held up. I don't think it was a great call, but maybe it was. I was happy to see the lower cards, but I was disappointed not to catch and cripple him. He commented after I was gone, "that guy went all-in way too much" this is when the blinds where good sized. I went from short stack to second and what was funny was I had hands like KK, AK, AQ, AJ and yes probably some less than good hands, but it is funny how many people do not understand SNG play at the bubble and the blinds rising.

Weekend wrap up

Well, the biggest thing was Sat night UB tourney for WSOP seat. I went out 98th when I had AJo with a below average stack on the btn or CO and raised all in and was called by QQ, oh, well.
I think I played really well. I was up and then lost a big hand when a guy called my push putting him all in when I had top pair top kicker and he was on a str8t/flush draw. Unfortunately, I did not have the A of hearts or I would have busted him. I think his call on a draw was really poor. He really let me have it too for pushing. I was down to 900 chips but climbed back to chip lead at my table despite my pitiful play. lol.

Sunday I had 4 out of 6 in the moneys, but only won one. I had a guy push on me with 45s and I called with AQ and he hit a straight I think. That guy was pathetic. Calling off his chips with crappy hands, but then again that is Party Poker, where the fish are always running.

I hate Party's site. Their software is the most pathetic out there. Their support sucks and their game selection screen is very laggy. You can click on a game that is supposedly half full and when you get there they are already well into level 1. The support staff says the problem must be with my ISP, which is laughable. The only site that is like this is Party Poker. THey suck, but the money is so easy it is hard to stay away. I have never, ever lost money at Party Poker. I wish I would have played there more in the last year, but their site sucks so bad it is hard to stay around. You can only click into the wrong game so many times before you go crazy.

UB, Get a clue and allow people to download hand histories without your help or here is a news flash let people keep them on their computer if they want to, ie. see Poker Stars or Party.

Tidbits

Yesterday was a very good day on Party Poker. Is that site just incredibly soft or what? I have never seen so many bizarre calls with subpar hands. I have only played 6 sngs there, but I have 3 firsts and a third. Not bad.

I was doing great in the 3R today on Pokers Stars. It was a satellite to the Sunday tourney. I was really deap into it and a guy called a 17k all in when he had 18k with QTo when he was in the BB. I was in the SB with K4 and Pushed all in on his ass. Incredibly he called with that crapp. Shtkikker if you ever read this, you are a donk. lol. He ended up sucking out on the river for the str8t.

Then in the $20 180 on Stars there was 14 people left and I was on the button with A6o and push all in the BB calls off half her chips with A7o, simply amazing. There are so many people that are clueless out there. God bless them for playing. lol. unfortunately I was knocked out on a hand that I should have won preflop. Oh, well.

I am off to Party hoping to real in a few fish.

Turning the Corner

Well, after yesterday's dissappointing results in all the tournaments that I played, except for one 2nd that I got, today was much better. I don't feel that I played necessarily bad yesterday. I had a lot of misfortune, but I definitely played to weak at times. My finish in the 180SNG on Stars was very very disappointing finishing 24th. I played very well and just had the worst of it in the end.

I reviewed my finish last weekend in the Deep Stack where I finished 45th and put it into the PokerXfactor replayer and reviewed a lot of hands. I also put my 180 yesterday in it to take a look at what I was doing, and I definitely saw some hands that I played very very weak.

Today, I didn't play weak at all. I played in the Deep Stack on Stars and although I finished 117 out of 873, I fell that I only played two hands less than optimal, and on one I might have made a good laydowm. I had Tens in MP and did not reraise the UTG min-raising fool and as a result it was a 5-way hand on the flop. The UTG raise min bet and I just called, BIG MISTAKE, I should have repopped it 3x. The guy behind my min raised and then one fold and the LP reraised 3x the min raise. I thought about it, but folded the 10s, by the way, the flop was 8 high and ragged. I think I should have reraised preflop and definitely on the flop to isolate the UTG donk, who folded to the action on the flop.

The other hand I won, but I did not give myself a chance to get more money. I had AQ and raised, was called by the bigstack and flopped AQX. I checked and he checked it. The turn filled me up with an A and I put out a weak bet, when I should have checked to induce the big stack to try and steal it on the river. It was a win but a bad play.

I had AK with a min raise UTG and 2 callers so I pushed 4 times the pot and got insta-called by the SB with AA. I was down to 1300 chips at 200/400. I had QJ next hand and went all-in, and amazingly quadrupled up when everyone missed. I ended up back up to 23,000 chips or so. I had QQ UTG and raised it 3BBs to 2400, and big stack reraised to 4000. I was getting 2.5 to 1 to call his reraise, but I would only have 10,000 or so left. I only had about 10x the pot when the hand started, so I decided that I needed to push, because I couldn't lay this down. He could have made this move with AA-88, AK, AQ. So I called and was knocked out. Just bad timing I guess.

I played 1 NL SNG on stars while I was in the Deep Stack and I won that. That SNG was pretty fun. I felt really good about my play.

After I was knocked out of the Deep stack I was a little frustrated so I decided to go fishing at Party Poker. I played 22 SNG and got sucked out on by a really weak player who called 1/3 of his stack with T9s and hit his flush to knock me out. While I was playing this I entered what I thought was another NL SNG, but because Party Poker's selection screen sucks really bad I ended up in Turbo Limit SNG. I didn't realize it was either for several hands into it, but as luck would have it, or I should say skill probably, I went on to win it. I seem to almost always finish in the money whenever I play limit. I don't know why I don't play more limit tourneys.

All in all it was a great day at the tables. I made a couple great reads and really was cruising in the Deep stack until I hit the two coolers. Oh, well, the progress is definitely there.

Shilo Inn

I just got back from a business trip and I must say, don't ever stay at a Shilo Inn. I stayed at the one in Moses Lake, Washington and it was horrific. I only stayed there because they were supposed to have internet access, NOT! They have no channels to really speak of on their televisions either and they charge for local calls longer than 25 mins. so dial up was out of the question. I had planned on several poker tournaments that I was going to play while I had the opportunity to play in the evening.

Their continental breakfast was lousy as well. I guess I should have actually asked them about their internet service before I signed in. This place sucked bad. Shawneequah the gal in front was the only bright spot, and Ashley was nice as well. The other gal was incompetent.

40 FPP WSOP satellite

I played this even last night because my son was going to play in it for fun. This was the most absurd poker event I have ever played in. A freeroll had better play in it. I had 99 in the BB and had 4 or 5 limpers so I popped it to 15BB to take it down or isolate, and instead every one of these donkeys called that raise. The flop came 10 high but because of all the fish in the pond I had to check and one guy bets out all-in, so I figured he had to have at least a 10 in his hand, and sure enough. He had called with T7, what a joke. These players were the worst I have ever seen.

This will be my last double digit FPP tournament that I will play. I will stay with the 100 and above because these guys are just too stupid to play with, I definitely will play extremely tight and only push sets and monster hands against these type of players. Oh, well, I was glad to get knocked out.