Below are the 15 most recent journal entries recorded in cageyiowan's LiveJournal:

Saturday, February 14th, 2009
9:04 pm	Here I am-still cagey, but on the court My poker days are numbered....My fantasy football days are numbered...My eating pizza and drinking beer days are numbered...My hangin' at the bar days are gone... It all came to a head when Cutler hit Marshall with a meaningless pass in garbage time of the last quarter of the year. It pushed the other team to a 1 pt win vs my once 9-3 team. A 9-3 team that finished 9-8 and 1 pt out of the playoffs, which guarantees your $$ back on the season. Antonio Gates needs 1" more to get 50yards, and I win between $250-$2000, not to mention losing by 1 pt in 3 of the last 5 games of the year. I also finished 1 game out of the money in my 3 other leagues. That coupled with an early year's cold run at the poker table, and I have decided to get off gambling all together. I can play cards once in a while for fun, but gone are the days of trying to build a bankroll and grinding on why I lost or won. I have decided to get into shape and get back on the tennis trail. I'm almost 40, so I can get after it and possibly compete in some National tournaments next year. I've been running every other morning for a year now, and have been on the courts for 3 months. My shoulder seems to be holding up and I've got my legs and some of the quickness back. The first tournament I played in was a 5.5 SD Tourney, and I played very competitively and ended up losing 7-6(7-5), 7-6(7-5). I dove around the hard court and bloodied myself up pretty good. I had a bunch of people rooting for me and congratulating my effort after the match. I need to feel that passion for something, and I think it has to be tennis. I started looking at gambling as something that was making me sick. Stressing me out. Causing anger and frustration to boil inside of me. I used to be a pretty up front, honest, look you in the eyes kind of person. Poker for me kind of puts a wierd edge on my personality. I do enjoy the challenge, the rush, and the occasional stack of $20 dollar bills. But, in the long hall, it is too heart-wrenching, and will probably shorten my life. Hopefully I'll still play a tourney once in a while, or splash around in a 3-6 or 4-8 limit game, but the 2 kids at home need their papa to be healthy!! Hope to see you all around, take care, and good luck! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 23rd, 2007
6:21 am	I'm a Donkey Too This scene takes place yesterday from 3:30pm to 4:15pm. Ocean's 11. I sit down at the 1, 1 with $40 and decide to take my 1st hand which is the BB. Raised under the gun to 5, call, call, call. I look down and see AK. What the hell, I push for 40 to pick up the $20 or race for the dollars vs a pocket pair. Yep, pocket 10's and the dreaded 9 2 suited calls. No help and somehow pocket 10's beat 92. Rebuy. I then get down to about 20 bucks from the second $40 and work it up to $68(by my A10 hitting 2 pair on the flop and my pocket 10's beating AK in a race). I get 7s,8coff and for some reason(playing my rush i guess) call an $8 dollar raise. The flop is 5s,6c,10s and the raiser makes it $20. I knew he was drawing, but i still should have thrown it away. But, I do what I feel at the time was a strong play and push all in with my OESD. He calls the $33 extra with AKs. He hits and Ace on the turn and an Ace on the river. I guess I had 11 outs twice(I had the 8s) and he had 15 outs twice. Was this a terrible donkey play? I think it might have been the worst thing for me to do. I could have called and pushed on the turn if he misses the turn, and he might have check/folded. Or, i could have just folded(probably the best play in my situation). I am happy that I can make aggresive plays now, but the OESD might be something I want to stop pushing on when I know they are not going to fold. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007
6:54 am	North Park Friday I dealt and played the N.Park game again on Friday. I was card dead for about 3hrs and 45minutes with about 15 minutes of playing time throughout. There were, count them....12 players at the table! Dealing to 12 players is VERY frustrating, tiring and down right stupid. Especially to one "gentleman" named Whiskey. What a jackass. He said and did countless annoying things until I left about 12:30 in the morning. One of my only big pots of the night was against him in the second hour. He made it 11 in the cutoff after there was a straddle($4) and 6 callers. I look down on the button to see KK. I definitely want it heads up vs. him because I knew he didn't have much. He had about 40 left, so I raised it up to 100 to get the heads up action. Everyone folds to him and he puts in the 40 extra to call with AJ. Flop....J9J. So, about a 150 dollar pot and the keys to being able to play a little for the rest of the night, gone. The only other pot of significance was with one of my favorite hands, 7d8d. I flopped the bottom end of the straight with about 20 dollars in the pot. A player whom I respect bets 11 and gets called by one of the looser players. There are 2 hearts on board as well. What would you do?? I make it 40 and the initial bettor calls(he had a set) and so does the bad player. Heart on the turn and sure enough the 1st player checks and the bad player goes all in with about 50 total. I folded. The player with top set calls and misses his boat losing to the obvious flush. Early in the night these pots can make such a huge difference if you didn't plan on rebuying for another 100. Sometimes i might, but I just didn't feel like it vs. 11 other players. I just scraped by the rest of the night, collected my 80 or so for dealing throughout, and left even in playing chips. I rested on Saturday and geared up for my golf match on Sunday at La Costa. We played the North Course from the back tees(7100 yards), and I started out great. I left the first putt short on Hole #1 by about an inch dead center for par, and shot 2 over on the front. The back started with a par and finished with 3 pars, but holes #11-15 hurt me a lot. I ended with 38front, 42back for an 80. Pretty fun course, not worth $250 on the weekend. Not even close, but we played for free. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 10th, 2007
6:33 am	Take the weekend off! It is incredibly hard to not do anything for an entire weekend in San Diego. That is exactly what I accomplished this past weekend. I watched the PGA Championship...that is all. No golf at Torrey, Balboa, anywhere else, no practice, no tennis, no cardplaying(I can't wait to hear what Matt S. did to the Friday night poker game!), no movies, no beach, no nite-life. Unreal. After going somewhere or doing something for probably 13 years straight, I took it off. Once I let myself relax and realize that I did not have specific plans, my body decided to just shut down. I couldn't even move around the house without fear of falling over. Exhaustion just hit. My son had a cough, so his new found interest into becoming a pro baseball player had to take a rest this weekend as well. Does anyone know any good Baseball instructional books? Of all the sports I've played, baseball was only a 6th grade little league experience for me. My main memory from that involved our star pitcher and an uppercut to the stomach. He needed to take a game off of pitching and sure enough, I stepped in to take over on the mound. After walking 2 batters, he comes out from his new catcher position and says, "throw strikes!!" And then the uppercut to the stomach. I loved baseball at that point. If all the dirt and dust wasn't enough to seal the deal, you had the over-competitive parents and blow-throwing superstars. The kid would hit a homerun every freaking time up at the plate. My only other baseball memory was playing 2vs2 against the neighbor kids when I was 9. I guess I was doing a little too well and was crowding the plate. So, the 14 year old decides to give me chin music and plants one in my ear. Great fun. Oh well, I hope my son has a little better of a time. He is much tougher than me. Current Mood: lethargic (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, July 30th, 2007
2:03 pm	Poker Weekend, Commerce tourney next week? I walked into my "soft" 100 nl buy-in game on Friday night and much to my dismay there was someone waiting for me.... Matt "DVD" Schultz. Great. My soft game, which is almost a guaranteed winner turns into, "let's watch Matt destroy everyone in his path." Well, he did just that for awhile as he bet me off the first hand. I lost 30 dollars and started wondering what I would do in an hour when I went home broke. I then tripled up off of 2 of the regulars when a 15 dollar bet after the flop was not enough to get me off of an OEnder with QJ. When the 8 hit the turn and I had the nuts, they both bought my little act and called my remaining 40 dollar all-in. YES!! It was then time to get to the hand which would make or break my night. AJs in the small blind and Matt makes it 13 to go. I call, thinking I should probably raise to see where I was, but I just called. The flop is J7s4s and I lead out for 15. Matt makes it 50. I call. Turn is a brick undercard. I have a bad feeling he has Q's, but since his raise came from the button, i'm not convinced. I check and he bets 50 more. I call. The river is yet another brick,(i think a 10) and realizing there is 230 in the pot and I have about 200 left, I check, expecting Matt to bet at least half of the time. I am still unsure of his hand but am pretty committed, even though I missed my flush. He says he has to fire one more bullet, and calls out my hand(he says i have KJ, pretty close). He puts a 100 dollar stack in the middle and I have a tough call to make. I really have no idea what he has, but the bet seemed large enough to be a steal imo. I made the call and had the biggest amount of chips I've had in a while. Matt is a classy person and I think he was genuinely happy that I made the right decision and stepped up to the plate. I pretty much shut down after that and went card dead. My last hand was KJs and I flopped K44 and bet out 45 dollars after we had all been in for 15 pre flop x 4players. Matt raised to 90. I decided to put my tail between my legs and go home with 500 even. I think(he'll have to share with us) he was min raising me as another way to get me off the best hand, but I just felt he had a bigger king or a 4. Realistically he probably had a mid-pair and was just batting me around. I played Palomar and had some good luck on Saturday. I went all-in with AQ(i raised too much pre-flop and got pot committed) I ran it into KK and spiked an Ace on the river. +65 for the session. (i lost 140 in 3-6kill early on) The board was 5,6,7,8, so i calling for a split pot. I couldn't even believe it when the Ace hit. That NEVER happens to me. I then played Palomar again on Sunday and won 101 dollars in 20 minutes. I called a hand where my J8 counterfeited the two pair of 86 on the river. The board was 6,7,8,10,7. He said at the end, "i have 2 pair." I said, "I have 2 pair, Jack plays." The look on his face was priceless, as was the dealer's. They had no idea that I had not only sucked out by not hitting the card in my hand, but it wasn't even a chop. The jack played. Nice, 101 dollars in 20 minutes. "Get the hell out of there" said a voice in my head. And i was out. 5.5 hrs of playing this weekend for a 546 profit=99 dollars an hour. YES!! Does anyone know about the $325 tourney at the Commerce this Saturday? How is their structure? Is anyone going? (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 8th, 2007
6:45 am	Back at it...again I managed to play in a NL 100 buy in game on Friday night and walk with +168. I had AA 4times in 5 hours and they held up each time. Not much of interest happened, but I did fold middle pair on the last hand which would have netted me another 100 profit if I would have called. Oh well. Saturday I played golf at Del Mar Grand which is top notch all the way. I managed an 87 from the tips(7100+ yards). I 3 putted 4 times and hit a couple fairway woods into the woods which is unlike me. Other than that, i hit the ball well and could have shot in the high 70's or low 80's pretty easily. I then played Temecula Creek Inn on Sunday and once again didn't break 80, with an 84. I hit the ball well but just couldn't make anything happen on the greens, and had trouble out of the sand again. Bunker play should be so easy but I've got a mental block right now with it. Before the round i went to check out Pechanga's poker room. Pretty nice. I only had about 10 minutes, so I sat down in the 2-4 limit game and won 5 out of 6 hands(only 5 players), and won 26 bucks. It paid for my golf and my small loss on the course. So, now i have the poker bug again. I stop by the Palomar yesterday and play the wild 3-6 Kill game. I win 116 in 25 minutes and it could have been a lot better. I lose to a set of 6's made on the river, and a double belly buster made on the turn in a kill pot. That's expected in that game. If you can just keep your head and play from ahead with good cards, you can win huge in that game. Tonight might be another 100 NL game with Stu. I wish we could watch the WSOP Live. Poker is big, but we can't watch the biggest event on any of the 500 channels out there? That's some Bull, America. (Comment on this)
Friday, June 1st, 2007
2:35 pm	Back at it... Well, I came back to play a $50 tourney with some friends on Saturday night. It was the softest game you can find, and since I was running it I made it with big stacks and a slow moving structure. All to favor me. So, it went well for awhile and then it all fell apart. With T5000 to start, i'm up to about 9,000 and raise with KJs. I get 1 caller and then flop 3 low nothing cards. He bets 300 into a 1800 pot and I read it as a weak feeler bet, which it was. I raise to 1300(which now i realize is not near enough). He calls and then hits his Ace on the turn and his Q on the river. I made a real bluff on the turn and that cost me 3000. Damn. So, i still have about 4k left and get AJc. I flop 4 to the royal flush and go all in when i hit the flush on the turn. All-right! Well, he has K3 for 2pair and gets that 3 on the river for the fullboat. OUTAHERE. It could have been the easiest 600 ever made in a tourney, but you can't avoid luck. I did control the cash game afterwards and made 150 on the night after falling behind 3 $20 buyins. A great day of golf where i managed 3 birdies in a row for the first time in awhile, firing a 74, and a great night with old friends was definitely worth it. Poker was worth it again, as it wasn't as dull as before I quit for awhile. Great job Craig with the LL, and Mark for the 10,000 jackpot! I still havn't won 1. (Comment on this)
Monday, January 22nd, 2007
7:32 am	3/6 to NoLimit I made my first withdrawal from the Lucky Lady on Sunday afternoon. I played 3/6Kill for about 2hours. The players chased everything, and there were 2 players who would ALWAYS bet if no one had lead out. I called one all the way down with pocket 8's when there was an Ace, King and Queen on board. I played pretty Sklansky like for the most part and walked out 184 ahead. I then could not resist taking 84 dollars and playing a 1/3 NL on my way home at Palomar. I sat down and immediately got JJ. I raised to 18 and got 2 callers. Then an Ace flops with 2 clubs and everyone checks. Another club hits the turn and I check to the donkey-woman who bets 25. I think for awhile with my pair and Jack of clubs for a flush draw. I figure I have enough outs to make the call(do I?), and call, along with the other player who already had his chips in his hand. A red brick hits the river and everyone checks. I win with Jacks. Needless to say I didn't want that club after all. Some up and downs persist until the hand of the day. I get K9 in the big blind and 7 players limp. The flop comes K96 with two spades. SB checks and I bet 21. Two callers and then the SB makes it 60. He has about 250 left. I go all in for 90. Everyone folds to the button and he goes all in for about 220. SB goes into the tank. I see obvious weakness signs from the button even though he should be holding a set with that second re-raise. SB flips his cards over and he has AK. I tell him I have him beat and he says he's not worried about my hand. So, he ends up folding and the button turns over K5, with one spade. No bad beat story this time and I take down the $300 pot. By the way, the turn is an ACE!!! Nice fold SB! I leave the table a little while later and go enjoy the Colts game. Up $200. Day total=+384. I played flag football and 18 holes at Rancho Sante Fe CC on Saturday. I will be sore for about 3 more weeks. Unreal pain. Current Mood: content (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 24th, 2006
11:49 am	Instincts Wednesday at Oceans and then the PCC I was 0-3 listening to my poker instincts. Results: Loss, Loss, Loss. I played in the worst 1,1 40$ buyin game at Oceans after work and every pot was 8 handed for 1 dollar each, or a little later on it was 6 handed for 3$ each. My 40 became 28$ playing "wait to flop the nuts" with all the no skill, no brain players at the table. INSTINCT #1 5-6 players call a 3$ raise. I look down and see 4,4. (I have alot of history with 4's. The last time I played no limit at Palomer, I folded 4's to a 10 dollar raise on the very first hand sitting down. Now, it was the right play when i only had 60 dollars in front of me, and I had no idea what the table was like. If i call, there might be 5 callers behind, 2 or 1, who knows. So, I lay it down. ALWAYS PLAY YOUR FIRST HAND, says the instinct. RAISE ALL IN, says the instinct. Sure enough, he gets 1 caller and the flop is trash with a four, and he bets 30$ and gets a call. Both players show AK and AJ. God, a triple up on my first hand if I just listen to the instinct.) So, back to Oceans and Instinct #1. 5 players at 3$ each, Instinct says to go all in and get a heads up with good odds, or just rake the 15 bucks. Everyone is showing weakness. Nope, just call. Flop is crap with a King and Old tight ass man #5 bets 10. I fold and he gets one caller. Sure enough, 4 on the river. He actually only had A10 and the caller had AJ, no pairs! LISTEN TO YOUR INSTINCTS!!! INSTINCT #2 I'm down to about 30 at the same game and its a limp fest again. I flop top pair with 10,6 and bet 4. Chip leader raise me to 8 with 2 diamonds showing. I put him on diamonds and know i should go all in. I don't because i have a weak kicker and worry he has me outkicked. FOLD THEN MORON! Nope, i call and then end up raising on the turn and getting it all in with him. He turns over 3rd nut flush draw and hits it on the river. PLAY STRONG AND LISTEN! INSTINCT #3 I go to the PCC and play in the 20 player weekly. 1st level and i get KQ in the big blind. 2 callers and Big Mike mini-raises to 50 from 25 tourney chips. A nothing raise. I call and flop K64. TPGK and we all check. Turn is the J and I bet out 200. 2 folds and Mike over raises to 1200. Is he that smart? My instinct is that he has me beat and is committed to the pot(we start with 2000), and I should fold. But no, I thought he might have K10, K9. So, i don't listen, go all in and he flips over Aces. Nice hand. LISTEN TO THAT FIRST INSTINCT. I was right on all my instincts for the night and listened to none of them. So, as punishment to myself, I stayed to deal the longest tourney ever to recoup the losses for the day. Generous tipping from DVD, Ted, Greg H, and Mike was appreciated. I somehow made the 4am wake up call this morning, OUCH (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 15th, 2006
11:57 am	Saturday Another trip into La Jolla's 100 n/l game on Saturday night. this one was very frustrating. I played well and won some nice pots(about 250 worth), but whenever i bluffed it went horribly. I lost probably 175 on bluffs while gaining almost nothing on the successful ones. I'm about 45-60 dollars up toward the end and this hand happens. AK early and i make it 7 to go. Big blind makes it 18. I call with him having about 29 left behind. Flop is rags and he goes all in. He is a solid player but for some reason i put him on AQ. I call and he flips over....AQ! YES! 2 spades on the board and Qs in his hand. I happen not to have one and he proceeds to go runner runner Spades. I'm pissed because everytime all night i would get a little ahead, i would either bluff it off or get bad beat. They all said, "that's poker." Yeah, as i watch him stack the 100 pot. I just needed to avoid that 1 bad beat, plus not overbluff on bad board situations, and i would have registered around a 2-300 dollar +night. Damn. Bluffing off chips feels very poor when you don't really need to, and in this game you really don't need to. That 1 bad beat wouldn't have even bothered me if i hadn't of given all those chips away earlier. I have a feeling i'll be building a bank roll at that game SOON! (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 10th, 2006
6:53 am	Wed Night Stark Realization! I am not ready to finish in short handed situations. With about 8 people left in the tourney last night I could definitely have played a few more hands and played more aggressively. Unfortunately, Ted on my left had almost as big a stack as mine, and was playing well. I made a couple of tough laydowns and did not "Give" away chips by limping and folding, but when i did just call bets, it always bit me. As the tourney was nearing the end (5players left), i definitely could not keep track of the M situation, position, playing styles, and all the other crap...plus deal. It was way too much at too high of a pace with good players. I gave away alot of blinds and did not pick many spots to steal my own pots.(I think I stole 2-3 pots is all) I get down to about 5000 chips and make a good bluff on Zenon to pick up about a 4000$ pot. I worked it up to about even with Ted and Zenon in the final 3 and then this happens. I had just beaten Zenon in the bluff pot and I get 9,7o. He raises my 600 BB to 1500 and i call.(this is the prime example of not just calling.) Flop comes A,3,5. I represent the Ace and come out for the same bluff bet I did last hand, 1500. He thinks and calls. Blank, and i go all in with nothing(just blind aggression as i read him to be looking for a different high card.) He calls immediately and tables 2,4. Flopped wheel and i'm left with 1,000. I go all in on my next big blind with 10,3 and the "Mendenhall Luck" returns when Ted tables 9,3 and proceeds to catch his 9. Ouch. Oh well, it was a good night with alot of crazy hands. Craig goes heads up allin with Jarod with AK vs 88 and the flop is KK8! 8 on the turn! WOW. At one point early on in the tourney I fold A5 on the button to a small raise(i don't know why), and the flop is 55Q with alot of betting action after. So, 20 minutes later i get the same hand and play for a bigger raise just for the principle of it. Flop?..........557! Then I flop the nut flush vs. Tony and he bets it the whole way until i go all in on the river,when he says he knows he has me beat. I wonder if he got a tell from me, as he then ended up folding? It felt like i might get in the winner's circle, but it wasn't to be. Fun night. (Comment on this)
Monday, August 7th, 2006
7:42 am	weekend Well, a mini poker weekend comparitively speaking took place on Saturday into Sunday morning. I was able to go to the monthly tourney Saturday at 1pm. I knew I was not going to rebuy unless I managed to get my chips to a medium to medium high level in the 1st hour. I planned to play very aggressive with good hands in the 1st hour because you surely get more callers before the rebuy is over. Well, I had no good hands and tried to steal 0 pots, which was not a bad idea IMO. I finally see 2 players go in with 300 in front of me and see 44 in my hand. I think I can make it 1000 total and maybe get a coin flip or p/u some chips. No. I run into JJ and exit quietly. I always see one guy at the table sit down and just get run over by the deck. 2 seats to my left plays 10 3 on the 1st hand of the tourney, no raises, flops 2pair and proceeds to basically triple up! how does someone lose all their chips on a 10 3 7 flop when they only have a pair in an unraised flop, with 5+ players? Donkey erhhh Floyd. I have chip envy on the 1st hand! He continues to run well and is the same guy to take me out with JJ. So, I'm gone and i go to play in a work poker game to try and come out ahead for the day. No luck and all i do is drink about 10 beers and no game materializes. On the way home at 9:30 my car turns toward La Jolla and i play in the 100 buy in at Eric's. I get K10 on the first hand and flop tp with the 10. I bet the flop and the turn and get 1 caller each. I'm now halfway through my buy in and when a Q hits the turn, i bet 40 leaving 10 behind. He thinks and then asks me if i want to make it a short night. I tell him I really don't care and he mucks the same hand. K10. Nice. After some tight play, Frankie plays slow on a Q66 flop where i have Q8. I bet it the whole way until the river and check thinking he might have a 6. He bets 20 and i pay him off as he tables....Q6. Nice hand. I build back up to about 180 when this hand happens. 5 bucks to call the raise in this 1/2 game and i have J10. 4 players and the flop is 789 Yahtzee! Check, Check, Check, Check, Dammitt! turn is a Q and frankie bets 5, call, call call. River 2. Frankie puts 20 in and there is no coordinated suits ever in this hand by the way. I think and then over bet the pot to 120 just thinking he would call my obvious bluff/overbet. No luck as he says, "what, do you think i smoke crack?" Yes, but c'mon, call the bet! No luck. I finally beat the game for a couple hundred but nothing huge. Well, back to dealing and hopefully making the Wednesday game once in a while. (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 2nd, 2006
8:36 am	2-7 lowball well, it seems that you can draw 1 card to a strong hand, stand pat in good position or totally bluff when others draw hands. i didn't bluff enough and i kept getting outdrawn when i had the better draws. I got coolered getting beat by the nuts when i had 8 low. i feel better playing that game because it seems harder for looser players to lay down 9, or 10 low when you have a monster. Easier to get alot of chips out of your good hands as well. i look forward to omaha 8ob next month. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, January 30th, 2006
11:35 am	post mortem So, i just got back from the PGA show in Orlando on Saturday night. I was there for 1 week and am completely exhausted. After standing on my feet all day watch-dogging our product, every night had an activity (drinking binge) to go to. I don't see how people can drink so much and still get up and be half awake? I had probably 2-3 drinks each night and was very tired. There was an open bar every night. We rented out Universal Studios one night, went to a great restaurant another night, drink, drink, eat , eat, unbelievable. I didn't weigh myself before, but I know it is a big difference and alot of walking/running is in my immediate future. Of course i played a couple nights of poker against your everyday poker player. I should have had enough control to change the format to at least favor someone who knows what they were doing, but I was cocky and didn't think about it until i lost and figured it out. we played 20 buck freeze out tourneys. 2-3 people played aggressively with bad cards, 5-6 people played like donkeys with bad or good cards, and I usually just threw hands away. the problem is, the 1-2 people who benefitted from the bad play had 4times the chips as i did and i couldn't stop them from chasing, calling me down when i wanted to protect/play a hand. so, "just to make it interesting" and "expedite the game", they would call my bluff with nothing or chase down a runner/runner. Anyway, I lost 3 games and won 1 the first night to come out even, and I lost 2 the 2nd night and just left down 40 for the week. If I would have got ANY cards i could have easily won a couple hundread, but i am not that fortunate lately. So, before i left for Florida, I played in a 100 dollar buyin in La Jolla with Stuart. There were 11 players and 3-6 rebuys. I played really well and didn't get stung with any bad beats. I raised early with AcKc and got 1 caller. I flopped 2 clubs 10 high and the other guy bet into me a middle pot range bet. I put him on tptk and slowly made a hard decision. He hadn't played a pot yet and we were an hour in. I thought he might even have aces, kings, etc. but I thought i had to call and get some chips as the blinds were mounting. I go all in and then he waits and then makes a crying call all in with AJ, one club! So i double up and make it all the way to the final four, 3 getting paid. Numb nuts(AJ) is still there with and old guy who was getting slapped with the deck and then one really crazy player. I ended up being 2nd in chips thinking the money was mine. 865 for first, 475 for 2nd and 145 for 3rd. the blinds were 800/1600 and i had 4-5000. then i watch this happen::: all-in has J4, bigger stack has J5. Flop: J 5 8, turn: 7 river: fuckin' 6!!!! Next hand, all-in has 8 4 biggerstack K 10 flop Q J 2 turn 5 river 4 So now I'm the short stack and I get it all in with another good hand, 66 vs Q9 Flop: 10 10 8 turn: 2 river: 8 Queen good, nice hand guy who plays AJ all in with no pair, no draw, only 2 overcards, JACKASS. Enjoy the money and I'll go out on the bubble with more bitterness to hang my hat on. I'll go to Florida with no $$$ and no mojo (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, January 20th, 2006
6:20 am	Dealer Abuse Here is a not so new idea that I feel is lost on some of our better players: the dealer has no control of the cards! How many times have I been stared down, threatened and berated by players looking to change their luck or not get drawn out on. Go stare at yourself in the mirror and look at your bitter face. That is your insides coming out and surfacing as hatred. Isn't it supposed to be an enjoyable game? We are all trying to win and would like to have some luck, but having someone stare you down repeatedly is brutal. I could care less and would gladly laugh it off, but the amount of built-up anger is high and I know and can relate to how they are feeling. I appreciate dealing because it is a skill you need to use once in awhile or you will lose. I also pretty much free-roll in the tourneys because of the tips, and that helps because I havn't freakin' won forever. Believe me, after I bust out when someone hits a 3-outer on me, I can relate to getting cold-decked and getting sucked out on. I've been ahead in just about every hand i have gone out on in the last month and a half. I'm usually short stacked, but I've seen 3/4 of the winners come back from the exact position i find myself in all the time. They double thru a couple of times and then play solid. EVERY HAND HAS ITS NEW PERCENTAGES!! 20% IS STILL GOING TO BE 20% NEXT HAND EVEN IF IT HIT THE LAST FUCKING 10 TIMES IN A ROW!!! THE CARDS DON'T CARE AND YOU CAN LOSE EVERYTHING JUST LIKE ALL THE OTHER DEGENERATES OUT THERE. I try and not expose cards, I've never turned and burned, and I like dealing because i know it's a fair game and no one is getting an advantage. Little things you can do when you are dealing to assure a fair game are: Seperate like cards on the flop and the hands turned over. Don't scoop up the flop when it is AAAKQ. Take 1 ace and put it here, one ace there and put the other ace in the middle of the muck. Seperate straight connectors, flush cards and other pairs as well. These similar cards seem to come together and then throw the odds way off. I have sat at 4-8 games and have KNOWN that another of the same suit is coming on the turn or river because the dealer didn't ever do this. And the dealer was a crappy shuffler. You must shuffle all the cards and not clump the bottom or top together. Current Mood: cranky (2 Comments |Comment on this)