Pumpkin Power

If I play the WWdN tonight, I may have to channel the power of the pumpkin to ensure victory.

Why not play some stud while drunk

It is probably not the best idea to play some Stud tonight. After being out with friends all day watching the NFL, I would be best resolved to come home, ease it up a bit, and crash. But that is for wusses. I rather peck away at a keyboard, hit that damn back button again and again to correct my miskeys and try to explain what the hell is going on with my Stud game. Yeah, it makes little sense but I keep saying I usually play with a good buzz going.

So with my beloved Dallas Cowboys playing, I will plow ahead and go forward with most of my wits- whatever is left- to fend for themselves. With Tony Romo in, I have some faith. But with Vandgerjagt missing the FG, I wonder what the hell they are doing. Not by having Romo in at QB but with why they have the windbag Vandy still kicking. Totally over-rated. Pissing me off.

I have roughly 15 minutes til Stud time so I might as well get another beer. Tonight is brought to you by the Breckinridge Brewery's Remarkable Vanilla Porter. One damn tasty beer. I am glad I took a try on this brew.

About 12 minutes until the tourney starts and the Panthers are moving. Don't like it. Neither does coach Parcells. Touchdown Panthers. Ugh. The Cowboys defense is better than this. Crap!

With about 9 minutes until the beginning of the tournament, there are a whopping 13 entered. Not good. There needs to be a better way to communicate what is happening.

I was playing a SnG earlier and got knocked out when I pushed with my small stack with A J and got called with Q 10. Of course he flopped the gut shot straight and hit when a J hit on the river. Always sucks when some clown calls with Q high and gets lucky.

The Cowboys offense just had a stupid holding call that set them back 10 yards. I should probably talk more about the great tasting vanilla stout at this point. With a totally stupid call by the officials, they want to deny me of my prop bet of Tony Romo throwing a TD before he throws an interception. And the Cowboys get screwed!!!

Oh but the Stud tourney has started. Oh, tough table. BadBlood. Hoyazo. Maigrey. And CJ are the recognizable names. Pardon to those that I do not know. I am not liking this.

Somehow I get lucky early and jump ahead. Must try to be smar though. That ain't my strong suit. But by being aggressive, I may make it work. I played some strong draws hard and picked up some small pots. It didn't hurt that I had some redraws as well.

Of course, I then give it up systematically. Call Hoy down when I know he has trip Js. Maigrey sucks out on the river to crack my under cover KK. Ug! This is not what I need.

It is a funny thing when you play any game with a bring in. There is always a stretch where it seems you have to bring it in ALL THE TIME. Man does that suck.

But I do on a bit of a roll. Hit a flush and get a nice pot. But then miss out when the flush draw when I also double paired. The trips CJ had were better.

I give up another good pot when Maigrey's trip Jacks are better than my trip 7s. Damn. That hurts. Especially in Stud. I know that the some of the people at my table are better Stud players than I. That tells me I need to play that much better. And at the very least, I need to maximize my good hands. Yeah, that is a very simple premise, but when you are up against better players, it means that much more.

I am beginning to wonder if playing my good pocket pairs strongly in late position is a good idea. Later an interesting hand would arise. I had pocket 8s and saw free cards to 6th street. At that point, CJ suddenly bet it out. With an 8 high showing and possible straight, I didn't think he had me. Thus I made a move and raised his bet. When he just called, I felt good. I felt even better when he checked the river and I took it down with just the 8s.

Ok, long story short, I played a couple hands, got up, got down, and then hit two spots in a row where I ran into a flush and then my two pair wasn't good. Done in 8th out of 15.

I feel ok about the finish considering I am not a Stud player, but of course, I had a chance to do better.

Hopefully my Cowboys can do better. With 4:30 left in the 3rd, my Cowboys are down just 14-10, but they are looking good on offense. If they win the next 3, I will be buying me the Tony Romo jersey.

And wearing it proudly in Vegas, come December.

Vegas planning

Let's see...
--Days off from work- Dec 7, 8, 11---check
--Respond to April about WPBT event- vote for a tournament but with an understanding that it ain't easy to set up--- check
--Get reservations for hotel. Hey the IP is going cheap again 49,79,79. Book that for now. Hooters is slightly more at 79, 129,109. Tempting--check
--Buy plane ticket. Ouch, cost of flights is at least $50 more now, even when on sale. WTF?-- ch- um no check there.

Ok, so I don't have everything done yet, but to me the hard part is done. I need to find a better price on the flight so it is time to scrounge around. More money I save up front, the more I can gambool with.

It doesn't look like there will be any poker this weekend. Going to Madison for the double dip of Badger sports. Football in the morning and hockey in the evening. Afterwards, the watching of crazy students rioting for Halloween.

What to do next?

I just saw the post the gang at Up for Poker had on Neteller's decision to halt payments to gambling sites. Pretty disheartening. I was using both Firepay and Neteller and had pinned my hopes on Neteller staying around for the fight.

So what is next? Pokerpeaker asked whether the solution was to pile a bunch of cash into your favorite sites while you still can. While that was one of my initial thoughts, I don't necessarily think it is the right one. Just like investing in the stock market, you should always have some money (liquid assets) on the side, to be able to take advantage of opportunities, or any sudden hardships. I think your bankroll should be treated the same way.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to take advantage of PokerStars and Full Tilt's reload bonuses while they are available. Once you put that money in, you better be willing to consider it locked up. Not from a standpoint of you not being able to get your money out- I believe both of the aforementioned sites are very reputable and will not pull anything funny. But once that money is in, you won't be able to pull it back out and get it back in easily, at least as we sit now. If you couldn't tell, I believe in liquidity of some assets. There is very little liquidity here.

I will not be surprised to see some people make a run at "banking" some transfers of funds. It would be like the secondary market for the PStars tourney dollars. I would think some of the bigger bankrolls on their site could start offering to transfer money to players accounts after receiving funds via a peer to peer transfer. For example, once the money hits my Neteller account, I go to Full Tilt and transfer the agreed upon amount (of course, I take a fee to make a profit) to their player account. It would work well for winning players who have the excess bankroll on various sites. Finding a reputable partner in the transaction would be the tricky part.

For now, I sit with money still at Firepay and Neteller. I will move some to PStars and Full Tilt, maybe some to UB. But I will probably keep some on the side or cash it out. I did receive the balance from my Pokerroom account yesterday via check. Took just over one week. Not too bad. It was kind of sad though. Pokerroom is where I first played years ago before the craze started. It was tough closing that account. You never forget your first poker room.

Nothing

Played some ring game tonight. Don't quite no why. I wasn't getting any cards. Scratched and clawed my way towards even but never got there. Then when I get something, A Ks, I run it into Q Q. Ouch!

I then proceeded to get knocked around like an ugly red headed step child in the WWdN. Played way too passive. Maybe it was the raise on a board of 6 7 10. I had J J and bet out half the pot. It got raised to 350 quickly. Either my opponent flopped a set or hit a miracle flop with 8 9. Either way I didn't want to drop too much early in the tournament.

But I played pretty passively from there out. Don't know why exactly. Maybe it was the virtual slapping of the hand that cautioned me.

I tried to get some confidence back with some steals, but all I was getting was the blinds and they aren't high enough to make a difference. Dare I slow play a monster? No, not my style. Though this table was tight, I didn't want someone to crack my aces with 9 2 suited from the BB because they got a free flop.

Soon it wouldn't matter. With 10 10 in the BB, I get pocket 10s. 3 people limp. I push my last 575 in and get called in one place. He shows A 4 and promptly flops trips. Ugh!

IGHN.

Shop isn't closed

Over the last 2 weeks, I haven't play much poker. I had opportunities to play some live tournaments this weekend but that just didn't happen. After spending a week in Minneapolis for work, I was too worn out to play Friday night and opted to drink and watch college hockey.

On Saturday, I got a bit hooched watching the Badger football game and then had to work out some issues with my tenant, missing that game. Plus, after drinking for a number of hours, driving 40 miles in the rain is probably not such a great idea.

I did play a SnG though. Came in third. Interesting game. Quads were flopped twice. I was shocked there wasn't anyone claiming that online poker is so rigged.

I hope to get back into the swing of things soon.

Stupid, but not that stupid

I was the first one out of the WWdN last night. One dumb move (re-raising with my Q Q and calling the push preflop) and I was out.

It was probably a good thing though. My mind wasn't in the game. I was a tad frustrated to begin with. I was ironing some new shirts and they were pissing me off. Each one was supposed to be "wrinkle free", yet they needed to be ironed. WTF? One of the shirts even had a tag that said to "iron as needed". If it is wrinkle free, then why would it need ironing instructions?

I digress here. But as I was ironing and playing poker, I was also trying to watch the UFC fights on TV. I was waiting to see Shamrock get his ass handed to him (he did) once again by Ortiz. My mind certainly wasn't on the poker game.

So instead of making the proper laydown, I made the call with the Hilton Sisters. And was first out. Once I was out, I checked the 3/6 tables and signed the waiting lists. But then I realized- Hey you sucked in the tourney because you weren't focused. Why would a ring game be different. So I logged off. I ain't that dumb afterall.

I did get an Omaha book in the mail yesterday. Not the Ray Zee book but the Capelletti book. It was free form Full Contact Poker. I figured I may never play there on a continuous basis so I might as well use the points I had accumulated. I think I will be doing that on a number of other sites as well. It is some advice Grubby had given. Use those player points while you still can.

I may be playing some live poker over the next couple of weeks. It may start this weekend. I am either going to the Badger hockey game or playing a small tournament. Next week looks to be a slightly bigger tourney. Should be a decent time.

Don't spit on my mind

We are the people,

we are the masses you are for

We give the power and our desire must be your law

Don´t think I´m standing here all alone, one of a kind

Don´t think because you´re still there

Means that we are all blind

Don´t spit on my mind

-Helloween

Now that my anger is gone, I have stepped back and read what others (more informed) have to say. The amount of money that is being lost by fellow bloggers is amazing and quite sad. I didn't have any big affiliate deals. I was never that motivated. I just have the ads.


I did cash out of a few sites, sites that I had planned to cash out of anyway. My money still sits at Stars (where I am trying to clear a bonus) and Full Tilt. I will clean up and consolidate, something I should have done already.


I have seen some comments that I consider amazingly stupid. Pointing the finger of blame at Frist is certainly right. I don't blame the people who voted for the bill. I blame Frist for not allowing Congress to vote on the gaming bill's merits.


For some people to cry that it is yet another civil liberty being taken away is ridiculous. Face it, the Patriot Act hasn't hurt you. The government hasn't been listening in on your phone calls. They are not tracing what you are doing on the internet. 9-11 was not an inside job. Yes, to say this is part of the war on terror is ridiculous on the senators who made that claim. But to claim it is just another thing this administration is doing to take away your rights is equally stupid. Now is not the time to push your own political agenda.



So what do we do now? Sit around and mope? Of course not! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? No! I say you grab a bottle of your favorite adult beverage, take a swig, and do something about it.


For crying out loud, if you haven't joined the Poker Players Alliance by now, what are you waiting for? They are leading the fight for us. Take the time to give something back. Each time they rally the troops urging us to call our "leaders", do so. And vote next month.


We can make our voice be heard. Sometimes it just takes a little longer than we like.


But don't let them spit on your mind.

Money, money, money

Don't let Pauly fool you. He is a capitalist. He took advantage of the situation yesterday. Yes, our government may have screwed us, but it isn't the end of the world.

Here is a good article on how the stocks were affected and how you may be able to profit. Now, it focuses pretty much on what can be bought easily on American exchanges. Sorry, no Party, Empire, or 888 stock is covered in depth.

I still own some shares of Cryptologic and watched all profits disappear yesterday. However, I have traded it in the past. If there is any talk of earmarking poker out of this bill, this stock could easily move right back up.

But the analyst also comments on how poker isn't much different than buying stocks. Well thought out.

Omaha Hi/Low interest

I probably should not have been playing the WPBT POY match last night. I wasn't into the game. My body was hurting from the alcohol pour into it on Saturday. And the couple I had during the Dallas Cowboys game.

So, add in a lot of bad cards, not bad plays, and I am surprised I made 8th place. Ok, so there were only 18 runners, but it was a final table damnit!

I also must admit one thing. I didn't hear about the gaming bill going through until this morning. I don't have much to say on it. People who have followed it a lot closer than I did can do the talking.

But I do have one thought. I feel let down by my government. Whether you agree with anything the administration does or not, whether you are a passionate liberal or conservative, it doesn't matter.

What matters is that the many are hurt by trying to protect the feeble. It is not my fault that people have a gambling problem. If they cannot protect themselves are their own demons, then they deserve to suffer. Don't punish me.

I go out and enjoy my fair share of alcohol. Some may say I drink their share too. But I don't have a drinking problem. I know when to stop. I know when to give my keys to friends and let them drive me home. I own up to my personal responsibility.

If others can't, then that is their problem. To claim that gambling is a "moral threat" is asinine. It is not online crack cocaine. The government cannot protect people from their own idiocy, but that is what they want to do.

Regulation was a better answer. I can't believe the Europeans are actually doing something smarter than the Americans.