Junkie

Sometimes PLO can be a painful game. But it makes you think more so it ain't a bad thing. What is a bad thing and painful is the new Guns N Roses disc, Chinese Democracy. I put it on as I played Dr. Pauly's tournament today.

I wish I hadn't.

It is a steamin' pile o' crap. Axel sounds like a dog being castrated. Slowly. The screeching he calls singing is hard to listen to. I had to put on old Guns music to make sure he didn't always sound like that. Nope, he didn't so why did he wait 17 years to sound like shit?

Now I really need to focus on the game to get that awful noise out of my head. Some Trans-Siberian Orchestra should help.

I bled some chips early chasing a nut flush and gut shot straight draw. I got those chips back on the next hand when I bluffed the river. I figured my opponent missed his flush draw and could not beat a pair of aces. Half pot bet took it down.

I then fold a lot. Cards aren't coming my way. When I do get something decent I get 3 callers to my raise and a flop that makes it ugly for me. I know I can't bluff every hand so I will be conservative for the first hour and hope it works.

I get my chance when I call a raise with A Q T T ss. I flop a set and get it all in against just a pair of jacks. That boosts me up nicely to 2850 and a position to once again pick my spots.

That works until I piss away my chips just before the break. I miss the flush on the board and bet out. I am drawing dead on the river and am down to 700. That sucked. Just a stupid play on my part. That is what I get for not paying attention.

At the first break I am in 18th place with 20 remaining. 12 people got bumped in the first session. Still a bit tilty because I should be in the top ten if I hadn't screwed it up. A little Tom Sawyer on Rock Band has helped though. I had one move and that is all in. Hope to get lucky.

I do just that with A A J 2 ss. I get called by a bigger stack with QQ. I flop an A and it is over. I just about triple up. But that means I am back to the starting stack. Quite a bit of work to do. Time to get aggressive. With 9 T J Q, I just limp to see a flop. 8 J A. I lead and bet pot and the other 3 fold. Small pot but I will take it.

I then put myself into a terrible position. I call a raise from Ingoal who is UTG. I have J J T 5 ss. Flop comes A Q 3. He checks so I do as well. Turn is a 9, giving me some more outs. Now we bets only 300. I sense he may have KK at best, maybe a set with A A. I decide to put some pressure on and make it 900. He immediately goes all in. That plan didn't work. I have only 580 behind. Pot is at 3300. If I am lucky I have about 14 outs. I figure reality is I have 10. I don't like my spot here. I type "crap" in the chat. I then proceed to type "this would be a suckout" in the chat and make the crying call to see I am up against K K. But a K spikes on the river to give me the straight. The suckout has occurred!

The cards force me to sit back and find another spot. I fold most of the time but pick spots to steal the blinds. Floating at the same chip level isn't fun or exciting but I must remember how to survive in tournament poker. Being impatient has been my downfall as of late.

Being patient doesn't work either. I run into a bad string and am a victim to a turned straight. Oh well.

El padre de los blogs

I just spent a couple of days in New Orleans. Made one quick trip to Harrahs but did not play any poker. I didn't see why I would when all the stories I have read about the N.O. Harrahs entail people taking cash off of the blackjack tables. Bloggers can lose playing blackjack there and I kept the record intact. It was only $115 but it was still a win.

I did stop by the poker room to see what kind of action they had. I watched one hand of 1/2 NL. When the guy raised in MP (to 15) and had 3 callers, I knew he was going to lose the hand. Flop was jack high. He thought and bet half the pot (30). Only one player dropped out. When the turn showed a second jack, I was surprised he bet just 30 again. Even more surprised when the next player quickly raised to 60 and he called. It was heads up now. River was a blank. Now the MP just checked and quickly folded to the 30 bet. No one showed any cards but I would be willing to bet the guy won with A J beating queens or 10s.

Next day I would find myself out at a tavern called Cooter Browns watching the Dallas Cowboys put the whooping on the Niners. At one point I texted the Rooster about the score. Got a call from him a couple of minutes later. He was in Costa Rica watching Iggy play poker. He mentioned that he was at the final table and 6th in chips. It didn't really register until 15 minutes later. Did he just say Iggy made the final table? Yes, he did. Nice cash Iggy!

The hooker wants royalties

I did something I haven't done in a long time on Sunday. I actually taped the final table of the World Series of Poker. I haven't watched it yet but I have it available to view. I am not sure why I taped recorded it. I haven't watched poker on TV in months, except for some of the WSOP events earlier but those played in the background while I did played cards online. Plus, I saw change100 working on a laptop in the background of a shot and I kept watching the shows wondering if I would catch a glimpse of Pauly or F-Train, or Otis walking around. Yep, I didn't watch it for the poker, I watched it for the bloggers.

Now after reading one of Pauly's posts, I figure I really didn't miss much. It sounded like the better game was happening after the tournament was over and everyone was partied out. You know the scene has to be the notorious Hooker Bar at the Rio.

Tao of Poker > Existentialist Conversations with Hookers: Maelstrom at the Hooker Bar
"You guys looking for a little fun?" she said which was the standard opening line from the local strumpets.I played hardball.

"Umm, that's what we were doing before you arrived."

"So where are you from?"

I pointed to Howard. He's a proper Englishman who resides in London but I blurted out, "He's Irish and I'm from Colorado."

"What's your name?""Steve," I said. "I'm Steve from Colorado. I sell propane and propane accessories."

"What's his name?" she said as she pointed at Otis who had his head down, tucked way down that it looked like he was sleeping on the bar.

"Cameron," muttered Otis.

"Have you ever been with a black girl, Cam?"

Otis instantly raised his left hand and practically shoved his wedding ring into her face.

"I have," I said in order to rescue Otis.

"Well how about we have some fun?" she cooed.

"How much does fun cost?" I inquired.

"Depends. What do you want to do?"

At that point, both slags stroked various parts of Howard's paralyzed body. Dogs, bees, and hookers can smell fear, but Howard eschewed all of their advances.

"How much for a threesome? I want to videotape both you and her tag-teaming my Irish friend."

"What's his name?"Howard remained still and silent.

"This my friend Bartley," chimed in Otis.

"We'd both do him, but you can't videotape us," she demanded.

Before I can retort with a counter offer, she instantly changed her mind.

"O.K., you can tape us, but no faces!" she said. "I don't wanna see you getting fuckin' rich by putting that shit up on the internet."

A stripper was smart enough to be concerned about Pauly putting her on the internet but somehow I was able to prevent him putting video of me standing by an Obama sign? It is a sad day when hooker outsmart you.

Of course you should go read the whole thing. Anytime Pauly gets into existential conversations with working girls- be they strippers or hookers- you know you get a good story.

Interesting

This email piqued my interest. Sadly I may not be able to get home in time to play. And I like easy money.


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The Bodog Poker Blogger

I would have been pissed if I had money on the Steelers yesterday. An apparent spread covering touchdown is taken away by refs making the wrong call. Suddenly you think you are going to win the bet but instead the zebras make you a loser.

Peter King had some comments about this in the MMQB.

The problem is the Steelers were very heavy betting favorites in this game.
One Vegas bookie said last night that $100 million was bet on this game alone,
with $66 million of that bet on the Steelers. The Steelers were four-point
favorites. Instead of winning 17-10 or 18-10, the Steelers won 11-10. Thus they
didn't cover, much to the angst of gamblers around the United States. The call
led to the conspiracy theory that somebody must have been in on the action to
influence such a gigantic swing in the betting line. I don't buy it. I would
never buy it for two reasons: 1) There are too many safeguards in place that
would cause the ruination of too many people -- the officiating crew, those in
the league office who supervise and regulate the officials all the way up to the
highest offices of the NFL -- whose lives and careers would be forever tarnished
for a few million dollars. 2) There is also the shear impossibility of inventing
some sort of fix like this to consider. How do you make up a play like that and
get the word to the officials to call it a certain way? There's no way.

I am not a big fan of King as most of what he says is stupid. I could care less about his coffee or daughter's sporting events. Plus it seems King talks out of his ass more than actual football knowledge. For example, he says there is no way they could have rigged this game. Bull! A couple years ago the Wisconsin Badgers were going to cover against UNLV until someone "accidentally" ran into a transformer that supplied electricity to the stadium knocking out power and allowing the casinos to call all bets off. Never underestimate the power of the bookie.

Chip diddler

Made an appearance in the Bodog bloggers tournament last night. Didn't do much. Diddled chips around for about 2 hours until I decided I didn't want to wait through another break and play for another hour. I pushed with K J and ran into K K. Must have looked very stupid to those at the table. But I was done. I had to get up early and was looking at 6 hours of sleep. If I was going to try to get somewhere I was either to double up now or go to bed.

Work has really taken over my life and there looks to be no end. I don't have the time to spend 3 to 4 hours playing poker late into the night just to stumble through the morning. Maybe I just need a vacation.

Oh yeah, I forgot. New Orleans

Ever have one of those trips planned that you forgot about? I forgot about my trip to New Orleans in two weeks. It was my birthday gift to self this year. Go down and check out this legendary drinking area known as Bourbon Street. Oh and I will be going to the Saints/Packers game as well.

I understand there is a Harrahs down there so I will pack my card and some gambling cash. I don't know why I have a feeling this casino will be slightly different than Vegas or Indian halls.

So is there anything special to check out in New Orleans? Please let me know. I am pretty open to experiencing this city from the insider's perspective.

Just over a month

I wasn't able to make the Bodog tournament last night. Long day at work and the need to stay sober to ensure I was in top condition for work today kept me away. I intend to play on Thursday. Going to work on little sleep and a slight buzz is doable for a Friday.

I am a bit disappointed in what has not arrived in my mailbox this year. By this time I usually have received several offers for free rooms in Las Vegas and am sorting through which one to go with. This year I have received nothing. Discounted rooms yes, free rooms, no. Even the offers have been mainly limited to a discount on a the room. No free food or booze.

I read an article a couple weeks back that mentioned how the debt burden is taking its toll in Vegas. Visitor count is down and they have decided that most freebies are off limits. Places like Harrahs have even worked to offer fewer perks for even the high rollers. It gives me the impression that I may have to pay for every bottle of beer I receive at the Pai Gow tables.

This could be an expensive trip.

Saturdays with Derek

I made a poor showing in the Saturdays with Pauly Derek tournament yesterday. Yeah, I have taken it upon myself to rename the tournament when Derek shows and Pauly is busy oggling eastern European chicks.

I made an early exit, finishing 20th. I got too giddy with a set of 8s and ran blindly into a set of kings. It sucked because I was having fun and made a mistake. Such is four card bingo.