Lots of good stuff coming

Hi, Last night was interesting to say the least; alcohol, poker, stalkers, cocktails, matchbooks, poker, rasberries and beer. I'm pretty tired but later today I'll post last nights poker results, some interesting stories from last night, and the 2nd Featured Stripper of the Week! Stay tuned . . . :)
DB

Not much poker to report

I stayed in last night, watched TV and pretty much just took it easy. I woke up this morning at 9:00 feeling refreshed, and then headed out to my house to do some long overdue work. I just recently put my house on the market and I'm afraid selling it may take some time. It is a unique property, very contemporary design, on 10 acres, with breathtaking views. The problem is the house only has 1 bedroom, a 1100 sq ft master. Not many people shop for contemporary homes in my market, plus the ones that do may have families. The perfect buyer for my place would be a bachelor, like myself, or an empty nest couple.

My interests sometimes border on the bizarre and to make the place more sellable I wanted to remove items that may "offend" the faint of heart. These include things like authentic voodoo masks, budda statuary, my collection of dead animals (a russian boar I killed, several geese, a lesser kudo, bear rug etc., misc. weapons like samari swords and porn. I also collect Todd McFarlane's Spawn Toy's and these look rather demonic and had to be stowed away. I opened one of the upstairs closets and a life sized inflate-a-mate, came tumbling out. (It was a gag gift/ party prop).

My friend Greg came out and helped me and together we finished the job in less than 2 hrs. Thanks also to Stacey for doing a quick, good, clean yesterday!

I really, really dislike any and all manual labor . . . I'm just not cut out for it. I've been trying to find excuses, and suceeded in putting this job off for over a week now! I know that this is a small part of the reason that poker appeals to me so much, however I am a little concerned about getting callouses from the felt, (especially along the posterior tip of your thumb where it rubs the felt when you glance at your cards)!

On a happy note, I am really looking forward to my road trip to Chicago to play in the Chicago Poker Championship.

A couple of nights ago my father and I had dinner together at this restaurant, Jacks Gourmet. I haven't been there in a while because it is a totally non-smoking establishment. So after we placed our order, we walked outside and I had a cigarette. They have a couple ashtray/urns outfront and we didn't seem to be bothering anyone. This well dressed geriatric couple ambled twards the entry and my Dad reached over and held the door for them. The old man didn't say thank you, but instead commented, in a snotty fashion "you can't do that within 20 ft of the entryway." (he was referring to a city ordinanace that bans smoking within 20 ft. of a buildings entry). I replied "what, hold a door for someone?" What a shithead! Why do people think they can but into your personal business? Anyway it was probably a good 3 minutes before my blood pressure returned to normal and I realize how little trivial things, like some asshole not minding his own god damn business, can put you on tilt. I really need to work on this, (actually I have come a long, long way), but letting people get to you is a bad thing at the poker table.

I plan to play a couple of online tourneys today, maybe go out for a drink or 2 later. Will update later if I feel like it.

DB

Best Hand, Best Draw, and a Cab

The 7:00 bar game started off kinda shaky. I was down to about 7k of my original 8.5 when blinds jumped to 1k/2k. Caleb had been playing real active and he limped in, I felt he was weak and went all in w/ 25o from the small blind and picked it up. The very next hand I dealt myself 88, Paul limped this time, I went all in, they folded and now I had a nice little chip stack.

1 rotation later I find myself in the big blind w/ A6s. Paul limped from middle position, the button called, and I rapped the table. (I thought about raising, but decided to see the flop, I wish I had raised now). Flop comes J,8,4, w/ 2 spades. I've now got the nut flush draw with an over card. I felt like this was a good flop for my hand, how should I play it, hmmmmm. I've got about 16k in chips and the pot is 7k, hmmmm, the button has about 10k and paul has about the same number of chips as I do. I decide to fire out 4k, figuring I may just bring it down right here. Paul goes all in over the top, the button folds, and I go into the tank. I decided that Paul was on a draw, probably a lesser flush draw than me. I call, he shows 9,To for an open ended str8 draw. Excellent, I'm over 70% to win the hand . . . turn off suit 7! Ouch, now I'm a big dog, the river blanked and I counted down my stack hoping to have a chip or 2 left but as it turned out our stacks were identical and I was out. I really, really liked the read, and made a great call but hey thats poker!

In the 10:00 game, the $1200 cash game, My friend Matt and I swapped out 30% of whatever we won, and Peeps and I bet a $10 last longer. Last longers are just a side bet where who ever last longest out of the participants wins the side pot.

First hand, I'm in the big blind, blinds are 250/500, 8 handed and early position guy raises to 2500 straight, the button calls, and I look down to find A3s. I've played with the button before and he's hard to read, but plays solid. I decide it's time to take control of the table, plus there is alot in the center, and I didn't sense any real strength out there. I'm all in! Early position limper thinks and calls, the button calls instantly, oooops. Early position guy shows TT, wow bad call, the button has KK, but there is a beautiful A on the flop. All is well untill a king gets turned and I'm out. Damn, I was in the zone too. Atleast the best hand held up! I've thought about that play a little, and feel comfortable with it. I think the TT should have folded, and ofcourse the KK was right to call, funny slowplay call though. If he had raised I would have been out of there, but with the speed of these things, there was just so much to gain by taking control of the table right then and there, Only a premium hand was likely to call my all in.

Next a bunch of us headed out for drinks and then It was back to the club, where I smartly decided to call a cab.
DB

Stuey Ungar: One of a Kind

Hi everyone, it's been a while. I had to go out of town for a cople of days. Not alot of poker to talk about but I did finish reading "One of a kind the rise and fall of Stuey "the kid" Ungar, the world's greatest poker player, by Nolan Dalla and Peter Alson.

You won't learn about how to play poker in this book, but If you ever wanted to learn more about Stuey, you'll learn all you wanted here. When I read a book, I usually devour it, cover to cover, in 1 or 2 days. While, I found this book to be interesting, it didn't captivate me, and I have been fooling around with it for 2 weeks now.

Stuey was the son of a illiterate, jewish, barowner/bookie from NY who was a pretty horrible father. Stuey, who never graduated high school, was a prodigy, gifted with an excellent memory, and perhaps the best card sense of anyone, ever. He won millions, they estimate over 30 million, but was continually broke and borrowing money from friends/ backers. He would wager all his money on sports and other wreckless gambles, while his drug habits grew worse and worse. Ultimately his love for his daughter couldn't motivate him enought to conquer his demons. His downward spiral of obsessive drug use led to his premature death.

I wish I had been around poker 15 or so years ago to see first hand how the game "developed", It would have been kinda cool to have played a session with the kid.

I never understand how a persons need for "action" can overide their their common sense. A smart gambler always has an edge, stuey rarely did.

I think tonight is my bar league's cash tournament. The to 40 monthly point leaders compete for $1200, split over the top 3 places. I've got alot to do today, bit I will try to update later, tomorrow at the latest.

DB

Chicago Poker Championship

The Chicago Poker Championship is being held August 1st - the 14th at the Resorts East Chicago Hotel and Casino. Check out this link for details. The main event starts on the 13th, has a buyin of $2700, and is limited to the first 140 entries. Other tournaments have buy ins around $200 -$300. Sounds like fun, e-mail me if you plan on going.

DB

Big 100k next Sunday, Todays Result

Went to register in the 100K event and the server denied my registration! I guess I waited to long or something, anyways, I still have the entry to a 100K event for next week!

Played the 10k shootout at Bugsy's Club, 192 players everyone starts w/ T10,000. Quickly built my stack up to T14,000, when this dreadful hand occured.

100/200 blinds and it's folded to me on the button w/QTs, I raise to 600, idiot donkey in the BB calls. Flop 6,T,8. He bets out the pot, I call w/ top pair and the 3rd nut flush draw. Turn, Q. He bets out the pot, I call with top 2 pair, 3rd nut flush draw. I really didn't want to play a big pot here because he had alot of chips and it was early on in the tournament (sometime soon I'll post about strategy behind controlling pot size in tournaments). I felt like he had either AT, or an overpair. He had played top pair this way several hands ago. What do you do? definately not going to fold my top 2 and flush draw to this donkey who plays top pair bad kicker like the nuts. River was an offsuit rag, he bets 5k (less than the pot), I deliberate and call. Donkey shows 79o for the flopped straight. What an donkey! called my raise out of position with trash, oh well, it's unfortunate that he got my chips, because he'll never make the money. I've still got 3k left, not long after this I get JJ and make the standard raise, AKo reraises, I call, he hits on the flop. When these things happen in tournaments there isn't much you can do.

DB

Any Ideas?

Trying to figure out how to play poker while driving! The internet connection shouldn't be a problem, I can use my sprint phone w/ a data link, but how to see the screen on my laptop? Projecting it on the windshield would be nice, but I don't know how to do that. What about those TV eyeglasses, could you see out of them enough to drive? I don't really want to prop my laptop up on some makeshift car desk, but I can't come up w/ anything else.

$2 rebuy madness, many mullets, and a well ran horse!

I've always said that I didn't like rebuy tournaments. But I've gotta tellya the $2 frenzy on paradise was actually kinda fun. I managed to get $20 into the tournament and after the rebuy period was over, at one point was in 3rd place.

Let me back up for a moment. Last night I went to visit my parents, they live about 45 minutes from me. I thought I could get a good nights sleep, and wake up refreshed, have a hearty breakfast, and then kick ass in todays tournaments. Instead, my father and I walked over to this internet cafe where I had 2 glasses of reisling. Next I walked over to a bar called The Post Office, and listened to some of the worst kareokee I've ever come across, and managed to consume 3 captains's with just a splash of sprite. I couldn't handle the country music covers, so I walked across the street to the billiards parlor, that was good for 2 more cocktails. (see picture of poorly tatooed, mohawk touting, mullet wearing, teeth missing freaks) I enquired as to what other bars were in the vacinity and was informed that there was a place next to the police station called Whisky Wild, and they had a live band!

This is where I lose count, but I know I had 2 shots, 1 jaggerbomb, 1 hypnotic, and probably 6 to 8 more coctails*. The band, Tango somethin or other, played hard rock 80's covers (my favorite) and was really, really good! I actually made a couple of new friends and had a really good time. -Maggie, drop me a line when you make it by:).

Well I stumbled out of Whisky's at about 1:30 and headed for the house, powered up the ole laptop and played poker. The rebuy tournament was alot of fun, I am going to officially change my opinion on rebuy tournaments from don't like to a fun change of pace.

I will post today's tournament results later, oh and by the way, I busted out around 15th out of 45 or so in the $2 rebuy.

*coctails, unless individually specified indicates a libation made with Captain Morgan's spiced rum and just a "splash" of sprite. No need to spare the horses!

DB

On a more somber note, a friend of mine called late last night, and her brother died in a motorcycle accident. I had met him on several occasions and he had a good heart. Brett, sorry we never got a chance to go shooting together. My heart goes out to V and her family.

You must not be afraid to die, in order to live! . . .

. . .Not sure who first said that, but I have heard pro player Amir Vahedi say it several times.

I now have a scheduling conflict. I just won a multi-table online satellit into Bodog's $100,000 gauranteed tournament this Sunday at 1:00pm. I also won entry into Bugsy's Club's $10,000 gauranteed shoot out, this Sunday at 3:00pm. I would like to mention that I won entry into these cash tournaments through satellites, and won each on my first try!

Todays multi-table satellite rewarded only the top 4 players out of 45 total with an entry to Bodog's $100k event. I was about average stacked throught most of the tourney. We played 6 handed, remember the top 4 all win the same prize, for almost an hour!

When it got down to 2 tables (about 18 players, I started playing more aggressive and came to final table 2nd in chips. However there were several players close behind me, and the chip leader was about 3x my stack. I managed to hold the #2 spot untill we got down to 6 handed, by now the blinds had started to pick up and I took a big hit. All the sudden there are 6 of us and I'm in last place w/ T1800, blinds at 300/600 and chip leader sitting on about T20,000. Action stops as the tournament takes a break, and I'm the bullseye. The chip leader played way to passively and even though he was 2 to my left I was able to steal blinds! Thank God! I picked my spots well and scrapped, and battled my way into second place. Everyone wanted to be in the top 4 and we played 5 handed forever. The chip leader bled and bled his chips away, untill finally I was in second place and he was in second to last place. Unfortunately the other big stacks were to weak to call short stack all ins and the tourney ground on and on. I did call one all in w/ KTo, I believe it was, lost and was critical for a moment, but hung in there and regained 2nd place. Then I got AKs on the button, and made my standard blind steal raise, in this case 2.5 times the blind had been working nicely. Mr. former bigstack/touney leader in the big blind pushed all in, I had him covered and called. He had K4o! Just desserts for him, he was so scared to take a hit earlier that he was widdled down, and had to make his stand like that. My hand held up and he got knocked out!

Don't ever be afraid to die! There were several instances that my tourney life was on the line, but when I was critical it was better to make that move when a double up still mattered! He never learned that lesson, and got what he deserved.

I'm going to take the rest of the night off, and go have a drink! Cheerio!
DB

Won an online satellite

Into Sundays 10K guaranteed event at Bugsy's Club, there were 15 players and I got first, but it was a real grind at the end. 3 handed the blinds were still relatively small, and nobody wanted to bust out, it drug on and on w/ me stealing right and left. Took one hit, then scrapped and stole my way back into the lead and finally knocked out #3, ensuring the top 2 an entry. I won shortly there after in the all in mode, since at this point victory was moot we both got the same prize. Good Night!
DB

You make the play #3

Ok here's the set up. online tourney $7500 guaranteed! 597 players, about 275 left. You've been playing a solid, tight game, and you are slightly above average w/ T2700. Blind are at 75/150 and you have QQ in the SB (small blind). UTG (under the gun, first to act) raises to 280, hmmm, could be a monster, or not) he has been playing solid poker too and has us barely outchipped, it's folded to the cutoff (1 before the button) who raises all in for about T2200. The cutoff has been an active player and I wouldn't be suprised at all if his raise was an attempt to steal. What is your play. Please leave a comment or 2 and I'll update the hand resolution after I have a couple of comments!

***About Me***

When I was 16 I wanted to be a rock-n-roll star, so 3 days after graduating high school I found myself on a plane headed for Los Angeles, promptly enrolled in Musicians Institue (a heavy metal music school) and soon learned that I didn't have a musical bone in my body! After 1 yr of hanging out in LA I returned to my spawning grounds to go to college. 6 months after graduating college I bought a strip club on credit. I've always gotten by on the skin of my teeth, your classic underachiever, applying as little as possible to get by, but somehow things have always worked out. Then I found poker in 2002, right before the poker explosion. I think some deep fundemental part of my being felt the early tremors of the oncoming poker explosion, and liked what it felt. Perhaps for the first time in my life something felt right, something that might possibly fit. School sure didn't, even though I did graduate with my BS in 1994, Business didn't, however my strip club has made me alot of money and been alot of fun at times, personal relationships haven't, I usually burn through a good girl in 1 1/2 to 2 years but for some reason poker just feels right. To be continued, blog style . . .

Our first poker god stopped by.

This is a reply I received from Barry Greenstein.

Thanks for the nice write-up on your blog. I think logical thinking is more
important in the long run, but since Mimi had a good teacher (me), having a
good memory made the job easy for me. However, it was sometimes difficult
to get her to extrapolate correctly to situations that were similar to the
ones she had memorized.

Barry

********* writes:

> Barry,
>
> I noticed in your book that you mentioned how Mimi was very intelligent, you gleaned this from the fact that she could remember every hand of a session. My question for you is this:
>
> In your opinion (which I value more than any other poker player out there based upon my general impression of you and your book) how important is "memory" in NL texas holdem ring games and tourneys? If a player had very superior logical decision making abilities, say in the top .5% would that compensate for having only a slightly above average memory?
>
> I've heard Doyle mention somehting along the lines of recall of certain situations being important, but I would be very interested in your opinion.
>
> Thank you for sharing your thoughts and wisdom in Ace.
>
> Also, if you care to you can check out my new pokerblog: www.donkeybait.com.
>
> Thank you for your time.
>
>*********

Paint sounds ok to me

A friend e-mailed me this the other day and I thought it would be nice to post so others may comment on it. Paint is referring to a quate from Barry Greensteins book, Ace on the River. "for me limit poker is like watching paint dry. Daniel, thanks for your thoughts, I'll add a comment below. DB

I had an interesting conversation with my father regarding limit vs. no-limit hold’em. The conversation crossed my mind after I read your favorite quote from Barry’s book. I too once thought playing limit poker was like watching paint dry. Hold’em is the defiantly Cadillac of poker. But now after playing poker for two years consistently, both my father and I believe we were better off having never owned a Cadillac because we would have lost it in a bad beat of no-limit poker.

My father and I were discussing how no-limit hold’em has left us with more COSTLY bad beats than we wish to talk about. Yesterday at a popular online poker site (which I no longer trust, lets talk about that someday) my full boat, jack’s over 8’s, was beat by a straight flush made on the river. I lost my entire bank which was doubled from what I began with. At the same time I was taking my beat my father experienced his own. He began with Ace Jack and flopped top pair (Jack, 9, 3). He raised $100 in to the $75 pot. After a long pause the loan man across the table called his bet. A Queen hits on Fourth St. Cautious my father bets $50 and receives a call from the man. The river hits an ace giving my father two pair. He pushes all-in and is called immediately with Ace Queen. $300 + lost on one hand of poker.

When bad beats happen in No-limit poker you lose everything. These beats happen to us enough times that over the long haul we have not made much money. My father claims he is down overall. In a limit games neither my father nor I have ever lost our ENTIRE bank. When we win limit poker we have always made just as much as we have in winning no-limit. I believe if you want to risk less and win more play limit.

Go to any online poker site and look at the pot averages for no-limit and limit games. Which would you think has the larger average? If you guessed limit your right. As I write this paper there are two $100/$200 limit games going on at the internet site I play on. The average pots for the tables are $707 and $1057. There are 13 $2000 no-limit buy in games. The highest and lowest averages in these games are $384 and $181. Since I like winning bigger pots I think I am switching primarily to limit games.

My father and I agreed at the end of our conversation to begin playing more limit poker than no-limit poker. Sure we still love no-limit and the huge amount of excitement the game brings. But we are more interested in huge pots. To avoid going cold turkey I will take some of my winnings from limit games and play in a no-limit game hoping that one day my bad beat is high enough to win the bad beat pot.

Donkey Bait's Reply:

Poker can be an unforgiving mistress. 3 recent beats at the boat in the 2-5 NL game account for slightly more than I was ahead there. All 3 beats occured when I was holding AA. First bad beat I limp, late position raises to 25 small blind calls I reraise to 90, late fold, small blind donkey calls. Flop is QT6 rainbow. Small blind bets out about 50, I push all in he calls, showing AT. Donkey says he thought I had KK's and that he could catch an A. What he caught was runner, runner KJ for a straight! I lose $500.

Hand #2 I'm in middle position and raise to 20 w/ AA and get 1 early position caller. Flop comes 5,rag,rag, 2 suited and early position guy bets out, I raise, he reraises, oh shit now what, I think and put him on an overpair and push all in, and run squarely into his set of fives (thank god he didn't yell "Presto"). When the money went in he had the best of it, but was still an ugly hand. I lose $425

Beat #3 Actually occurs about 15 minutes after hand #2. I rebuy for $300 and find American Airlines in late middle position. Yippe Kiyay right, Poker gods trying to make things right from that last ugly debacle. Unfortunately is was not meant to be. Under the gun +1 raises to 20, its folded to me, I would normally raise in this spot, but noticed that 2 players to my left were telegraphing that they were going to fold so I just call and it is folded around. 2 of us see a 6 high flop. Early position guy bets out about 40, I raise to 100, he thinks and calls. I put him on an overpair. Turn a 6. Surely he wouldn't have raised preflop w/any hand that has a 6 in it! He checks I push in he thinks and relatively quickly calls showing 67 suited. Oh well. I lost $300 and decide that is enough for a while!

Beats are brutal in poker and more so in No LImit. You can read on and on about how it's good that all of these donkey's are out there making these mistakes, you should win more in the long run, they say. Well it sure sux in the short run! It's kind of a 1 sided deal and here is why, If you play good solid poker, you are less likely to put your money in the pot when you don't have the best of it. Drawing, chasing Donkeys are more likely to put a beat on us than the other way around, because we would usually have folded If the situation wasn't in our favor.

If you prefer NL poker to Limit poker but want to cut down on the severity of the beats, have you considered playing in Sit-n-go tourneys. These are 1 table tournaments and you can control your risk based upon how much you want to pay for a sit-n-go. Say you buy into a $50 sit-n-go the most you can lose is that $50. Just a thought.

For me, I find it very frustrating in limit poker when I can't protect my hand w/ a pot sized bet. There are many situations in limit where you may have the best hand, bet it out, and the caller still has the correct odds to call and draw to his hand.

Only risking %15 of your poker bank roll in one session of NL is supposed to protect the winning NL player from most bad runs. We all adhere to that right! lol. If only it was that simple.

Earlier this year I decided to goat to the boats in St. Louis w/ a $300 bankroll and try and build it up from there. I built it up to about $600 only to lost it all in a $1500 pot. Once again I had AA, my opponet had KK and it went in preflop. He flopped his set, I turned the nut flush draw and his set held up! Ouch. Then I decided to play limit poker, so I started w/ another $300 bankroll and started at the bottom planning to work my way up in limits. It took about 10 sessions, moving from 3/6 quickly to 5/10 and I built my bankroll up to over $1200 and decided to take a stab at the 20/40 limit game. I scored a $950 win in my first session. It was shortly after this that the Booneville boat opened and I started frequenting them because they are so much closer.

My brick and mortar results so far this year certainly support your argument, but I am still drawn to NL. If I could just figure out how to play those aces! Lately, I feel that my game has improved a great deal, and I am going to continue to play NL, I feel that my overlay is greater there, and I can't lose on aces everytime! Thanks, Daniel, for taking the time to share your thoughts, I'll talk to you soon.
DB

1st Place good for $15 tab

I played in our local bar league, last night. When we got down to the final table someone mentioned that the winner got a $15 bar tab, I responded, rather cockily, dam, I knew I should have started a tab tonight (as opposed to paying for my drinks as I went). The poker gods chose not to punish me for this display of arrogance though and I went on to win. Heads up w/ Dave, a player I had never met before and who, imho, played very well. We went heads up for about 40 mins, at the beginning he had about 160K and I had about 35K or so. I did find one tell on Dave that helped me pick off a couple of key bluffs, but other than that he was a difficult unpredictable player. We swapped the lead back and forth several times before I finally won w/ AKo, I checked it pre. flop came rags, I checked he went all in, since it was an unraised pot he could easily have a pair. Me 2 overs and a backdoor flush draw. I finally felt that he was making a move, and he showed 56 for an open ended str8 draw, my overs held up and I won!

Next I went down to trumans bar and gril. a local wifi hotspot, and entered into an online tourney at BoDog. No luck there and it was off the the boats. Closed down the poker room at about 4:00 am this morning. The game was 2-5 NL and the buyin was $300. I left w/ only $282 of my orignal 300, after tipping etc. Best 2 card hand of the night AQo, never once had a pocket pair. I did win a nice pot w/ my AQ, heres how it went down.

7 handed play, I'm in the big blind and it's folded to Kenny on the Button. Kenny is an older guy who doesn't bluff alot, but does mix up how he plays his starting hands. He was also stuck for the day and had been playing more aggressive pre-flop than I had ever see him play before. I was getting tired of mucking my trash to his re-raises and decided the AQ was the hand to make a stand on. He made it 40 to go, hmmmmm, I felt like he really didn't want a call here, perhaps jj,tt,99. Since I was out of position I really wanted to take it down here, before the flop and felt that another 40 would do the trick w/ him. He really didn't want a call, much less a re-raise. Well, he said " I really kinda wanted to play these cards" and he thought about it for a good min. He calls. Now I know he doesn't Have AA,KK,QQ, or AK, he would have called much sooner. Flop AJJ, uuutt oh, I'm first to act. The problem here is that If he doesn't have AA, KK, QQ, or AK (Donkey Baits group 1 hands include ako, sklansky is wrong on this one)* what hand does he have that doesn't contain a J? I fired out 100 going with my earlier read, he's probably got TT but could have AQ like me. He quickly mucked his TT. Gotta go, I'll check back later.

*Especially in NL, AK can be a great hand because it is alot easier to dump than AA, or KK. if the flop missed you, you have nothing, if the flop hits you, you have top pair, top kicker, and likely your opponet has less outs than if you held AA or KK, because you are using part of the flop! . AA, KK are only 1 pair and often marry you to a big pot and a big loss. I'm not sure why Sklansky overvalues AKs as compared to AK, but either way he's wrong! AKo is a quality group 1 hand in my book.

DB

Ace on the River by Barry Greenstein

Wow, this Barry "The Robinhood of Poker" Greenstein guy is a little strange, but they say he is the winningest ring game player in the last decade. Personally, I believe he and Phil Ivey both belong in the top 3 of current best cash game specialist. Barry's book, Ace on the River, (paperback, 316 pages) is printed with quality glossy paper with excellent photos throughout, he did not skimp in any way w/ the publishers. Ace is definately not your typical poker strategy book. It applies to all forms of poker, infact many of the examples are from stud, low ball, and omaha. Ace is more of a guide to the pro poker players lifestyle, a roadmap with pointers, for how to make a living playing cards/gambling, pointing out pitfalls to avoid and expert insights into managing that volatile lifestyle. At times the text takes the perspective of the psychologist, analyzing personality flaws to watch out for and be aware of in your fellow degenerate gamblers.

The book is broken down into 4 parts:

1) The Poker World
2) Philosophy
3) Advanced Play
4) Addenda

Barry doesn't hold any punches, and in part one he paints a pretty bleak picture of the poker world. Part 2 tells you some key pointers you'll need to know if you are actually "foolish" enough to consider this as a full time occupation. Personally I wish he would have talked more about advanced play, but I'm sure he was correct to emphasize the other aspects that are in many ways more important to success than advice on how to play a certain hand. Even if a book could teach you to play as well as say Stuey Ungar, it would be difficult to consider him a success story! Some of the nuggets he drops in the Advanced Play section, I have never heard mentioned anywhere else before. There is definately some good stuff there.

You get the sense that playing poker for so long has really changed, and jaded Barry, that he is plagued by demons of guilt for not being a better father and to compensate for that he has tried to give back through his charitable donations, and by haveing a high degree of ethics at the poker table.

All in all I Highly recommend this book to anyone who aspires to become a professional poker player, but the book has little value for beginning/recreational players other than a glimpse into the professional poker players world. Thank you Barry for sharing your insight with us.

My favorite quote from the book, "playing limit poker for me, is like watching paint dry!"

DB

Gallery of Champions

Taken from Binion's Horseshoe, downtown Las Vegas. There is a photo of every WSOP main event champion! From Moss to now Hachem!

Donkeybait's First Featured Stripper!

This young vixen felt it was a great honor to be selected as our very first featured stripper and even made the comparison to Marilyn Monroe being selected as Playboy's first playmate bunny! To Learn more about her and see her pics just click the link below! I believe my Mother stops by from time to time and I do want everyone to feel at home here, so don't click if you don't want to see scantilly clad strippers! . . .




Dance Name: Reeva
Sign: Scorpio
Age: 23
Height: 5'6"
Weight: (including silicone): 122 lbs.
Personality: Outgoing and adventuresome. She has a winning personality and a smile that is irresistable!
Favorite Position: Reeva says she likes it from behind, starting slow and building to a fury.
Turn Ons: Threesomes w/ other couples
Turn Offs: She says she is sure she has some but can't think of any right now!






I apologize for the photo quality, Donkeybait is on the lookout for a new digital camera!



Refining my poker goals

Lately I've been vascilating online between tournament play, and ring games, but haven't put alot of emphasis on satelites to brick and mortar events. I so enjoyed the WSOP that I am going to make a concentrated effort to . . .win satellites to major poker events. I simply can't afford the 10k buy ins so I'll just have to win my way in!

Today I played a sit-n-go satellite, winner gets entry to tonights $200 online tourney, and in turn, 1 in every 56 or so win a 10k tournament entry. The sit-n-gos are filled w/ pretty weak players so there is a good overlay in those. My table was no exception, I love it when first in the pot is a limper 75% of the time! The player to my left was pretty active and early on called my raise w/ position and took away a pot on the turn leaving me w/ about T900 of my original T1500. Before long I pulled down a good pot and built my chips back to T1350. Only 1 player had busted when this hand came along. Me in MP (middle position) w/ AA, It goes limp, limp, me limp (I know slow playing aces from middle position is a bad idea, except I felt there was an above average chance the active player to my left would raise and I decided to make the slowplay), unfortunately the active donkey folded but to my delight the small blind raised! It got called, folded and I reraised getting heads up w/ the SB in position w/ AA (doesn't get any better than that). Flop kT5 rainbow. SB donkey bets out 400, I've only got 800 left but I gladly go all in knowing he'll call. I'm thinking you stoopid donkey AK no good! He does call but w/ AQ! What a donkey! Of course he rivers his Gut Shot and thats, that.

Also, last night I went to a friends b-day party that was being held in a cool private bar/lounge downtown. I ran into this gal I recognized from bar poker nights, but hadn't seen in several months. You know how poeple sometimes misconstrue the wierdest things, well as I'm walking away from the bar she walks past and says "nice hat", It came off kinda snobby, because I was wearing a black visor w/ a sports coat, and it did probably look pretty ridiculous, so in my mind I'm thinking something along the lines of what a bitch, right. Well as it turns out I bumped into her a while later and she started chatting me up about poker. She made a big lay down the other day (folded a fullhouse) and hasn't been able to get it out of her head since! I can relate to that. Well Carrie w/ a C if you make it here to donkeybait, with your looks, brains, and passion for poker you are going to be one scary player! I hope we get a chance to mix it up on the felt some time.

I thought about going to the local casino, about a 1/2 hr drive, and might later tonight, but I think I'll go to Hoot-n-Annys for a minute to see if any of my poker friends are going to be there. Remember I lost all my phone numbers when my cell phone drown, that really sux.
Well thats all for now, may stop in later.

I almost forgot, Donkeybaits' first feature stripper of the week will debut in less than 24 hrs!

You make the Play #2

You are playing in a 1K, 1 day WSOP event. 758 players started, Approx. 150 remain and the top 72 are in the money. You've just been moved to this 10 handed table about 15 minutes ago and have only seen trash which you've quickly mucked preflop. To your immediate left is the biggest stack you've seen yet w/ approx T25k, however he seems to be playing pretty tight as does the table. Your stack is at T2900 the others stacks are all between 5k (average) and 10k. The blinds are 150/300 w/ a 25 ante. There are about 10 minutes left in this round, There's already T700 in the pot and you are in the cutoff (late position, 1 off the button), It's folded around to you, and you squeeze out an A9s. What's your play? . . . Aahhhhhem, Actions on you seat #5 . . .

Pick your play

What's your play?Push All InRaise to 900Limp in for 300Toss 'em in the muckSnap like a twig, fling your chips at the dealer and demand a refund!

Current results

Just what is Padugi anyway?

Padugi is a 4 card, triple draw, low ball poker game that was introduced to America by . . . Paul "Eskimo" ClarkI watched Cindy and Paul play padugi and then bumped into Paul the next day and asked him how the game works. Eskimo seems pretty proud of the fact that he introduced padugi, but has also invented some games of his own! Oh boy I just can't wait! lol. Apparently the game originated in Hawaii. A raw padugi is a 4 card hand of all different suits. And a raw padugi beats all other hands except for a lower raw padugi. The best hand you can have would be A234 rainbow (rainbow means no 2 cards are the same suit). If you do not have a raw padugi you may have a 3 card padugi, say your hand is 7cJcQsKd, you would have a 3 card padug because you have 2 clubs, in this case you would have a KQ7 for low and would beat all double suited hands but not very many 3 card padugi hands! They bet after the cards are dealt and between each of the 3 betting rounds. Enjoy!

I got my copy of Ace on the River by Barry Greenstein, will read tonight and post my thoughts on it tomorrow.
DB

More pics,

The Me and Cindy pic! The price tag corresponds w/ the cheaply manufactured red and black WSOP shirt. I'll tell you guys what Padugi is tomorrow, for now just know it is a new to America, poker game unlike any other. To see more pics click on link below . . .

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Back home, a few random WSOP Impressions or I've seen all the fuss and it's no big deal.

Sorry it took so long to post, I got back last night and was pretty wiped out! . . . Where to begin; what I meant in the Title bar is that I played with the best and held my own, and also that Harrahs just sux, can't really say that enough let me reiterate, Harrahs pretty much sux. They bought the Horseshoe last year and along w/ that came the rights to the WSOP. Along with the crazy high cash bar, Players who bought into the events were given a voucher for $10 off of the buffet! How cheap is that! What they don't tell you is that your voucher expires at midnight the day your event ends. Unbelieveable. If you were at the Superbowl, and say the ball is tipped in the air and lands in your lap would you be suprised if it wasn't a regulation (wilson I believe) leather football? What if it was a cheap plastic nurf ball? What would you think? Well the WSOP had the largest payout of any world championship sporting event in the history of the universe and the cards they used were the cheapest, flimsiest, paper cards I have ever seen in my life. Even the print on the faces of the cards is weak. like the printer was almost out of ink! I actually stole the Ace of spades from a box of used up cards to bring home and show my friends. When they finish with these decks they don't need to cut them or drill them they are so flimsy they just fold the cards in half, it easily leaves a permanent crease. The same WSOP 05 hat that cost 22.00 in New Orleans cost $29 here! And to top it all off, they cut the rounds from 1 hr, to 40 mins in my event just so they could "speed it along". That more or less really made the event more of a crapshoot, I totally believe that I had a great shot of making the money, If I could have had around 15 more hands a level, maybe I would have cought some cards. How lame. Basically at Harrah's owned properties everything cost a little more and you get a little less.

Phil Ivey imho is . . . playing better poker than any other human being. He is absolutely incredible! He won his 5th WSOP bracelet a few weeks ago, and was kicking ass in the final 27, out of 5616 players at the main event. I was disappointed that he wore his hat crooked one day, just a smidgen on the gangsta side, but oh well I'll forgive him this one time!

Likewise Greg Raymers accomplishments are, well, extraordinary! He's no Chris Moneymaker!

I never have been one to seek out autographs and such, but I did approach Cindy Violet after I busted out of my event. She was playing $400/$800 limit mixed game, 1/2 2-7 triple draw, 1/2 Padugi! Thats right Padugi, I'll explain in a minute, but first I sat down at an empty table about 7 ft. away from her and waited until she was out of a hand, and asked to get my photo w/ her. She was totally cool, all smiles, even grabbed a railbird and ask them to take the photo, and we chatted for a sec. It was kinda wierd, because at first I felt like, wow she's a really down to earth, cool person, and she definately seems to be, but It didn't seem like she remember me busting her about an 1 hr before so I said, you do remember right? Cindy said, Oh yeah, the fours. I think in the past I have always harbored some silly fake arrogance thing where I would never consider pumping someones ego up by, say, asking for a photo or autograph and I realize now that it's ok. Perhaps it ads a touch of humility, but I think it was important for me to realize that . . . anyways . . .

Poker players as a group conduct themselves very well, you'd think that thousands cardsharks would be hustling every
angle they could! This years WSOP resembled a business convention more than a poker tourney!

To play poker in that event was incredible beyond belief, tournaments are so competitive and the the focus required is, well it's alot of things but exillerating, addictive and exuasting are a few words that come to mind, I loved it. My first table was pretty much dead money, when that table busted I got moved to a table w/ 4 real, situational thinking players, and for the first time something in my game really clicked. In cash games, ring games (non tournaments) you only find that kind of thinking player at the high stakes. I now know that I can hang w/ really, really good players, however my game is only just beginning, I've got a long, long ways to go!

Tournament poker: a high variance, gotta not get unlucky, addicting rush, incredible, and a shot at becoming a poker superstar . . . Cash Games, a much more sure fire job, can be a source of "reliable" income, more predictable, no high octane adrenaline rush, and can be a real grind.

I'm gonna leave you guys with some more photos, some from the Rio's Voodoo Lounge, and my pic. w/ Cindy. Chow for now,

DB

Will check in either later tonight or tomorrow I hope. Now above 3500 unique visitors and climbing! Thanks to everyone who drops me a line!

A few more pics, including the bluff magazine girls

The Bluff Magazine Girls and a few photos of the new Wynn Casion/hotel. Who says Poker isn't an aerobic sport? I've probably walked 10 miles in the last 24 hrs! Pretty tired, but I'm gonna go get a quick 15min back massage, check out the main event, and go play cards somewhere tonight, and finally go to the Vodoo lounge for an early nightcap! (Vodoo lounge is a bar w/ live music on the 51 and 52 floors of the Rio, and has an awesome view of the strip) I'll update later tonight or tomorrow.

DB

I busted Cindy Violette!

Wow, my event took back stage in a big way to the mainevent, they shortened the rounds from 1 hr to 40 mins so they could jam us through in 1 day! But there were 758 entrants, each ponied up a dime to play. Round 1 saw my stack go from T1k to less than 500, then at the end of the round I caught some hands and got it back up to 1k. Shortly there after my table broke and I got moved to the same table as Cindy Violette. If you haven't heard of Cindy Violette click on her name it is a link to her bio. She is a real big time pro, one of the best male or female! Also she isn't just a tourney player but an ultra high stakes cash game player. After I busted her, she bought into a High limit triple draw game for 40K! Cindy has also made 2 tables at this years WSOP, the $5000 pot limit, and the $2000 NL. This table was quite a bit more intimidating than my first one and I decided to check them out and play tight for a bit. About 2o mins into it I played at and pulled down a decent pot on the flop, then the next hand I took down the blinds, by this time I had a much better read on the table, plus some new found confidence. One interesting hand, it's folded to the cutoff, (thats 1 seat before the button) and cindy violette limps. small blind folds I'm in the BB and rap the table. Flop came rags, she bet I folded. Pretty boring huh, except that preflop I thought her limp was strange, and I studied her and felt like she had a monster. After I folded she showed AA. She was a little disgusted, cause she had them 3 times already and didn't win any big pots. Anyways I'm at about T1400 and limp in middle position w/ 44. Flop comes j83 2 clubs. 3 players saw the flop and it goes check, I check Cindy checks. Turn a beautiful 4! check, I check, Cindy Violetette goes all in, early limper calls, and I go all in for about 2oo more! Cindy shows a pair of 8's and early donkey had top pair all along and I tripled up! Guys I knocked out Cindy Violette, one of the top 3 female players in the wolrd out of a WSOP event! All in all I played great, my cards really sucked, was up and down, got moved to a table where to my left a guy had a monster stack, the blinds kept comming at me, the deck kept dodging me and I made my stand on the button w/ a9s. It was folded to me, I raised it up, BB put me all in, I called, bb had aq and held up. Finished right about 150th out of 758 players, about 75 out of the money. Sorry I can't leave more now but will check in later.

Phil Ivey is leading the Main Event!

DB

Registered

Table #62, Seat #8! I got one of my favorite seats, right on the end . . . where I can see all my opponets real well. Should be about 1000 contestants, 1 hr rounds and T1000 to start. Total chips in play approx. 1M. I feel real good about my tempo, it's something I've been working on, and basically I've slowed down my NL game, and have been absorbing the right info better while, giving less info to my adversaries. I will resist the temptation to make any rash moves, but plan to play an agressive game. I just finished a light breakfast of eggs benidict (my favorite), hold the hashbrowns, and a bowl of mixed melons and pineapple. I will have my tradional 1 shot of chilled tequilla right before showtime. I feel like my edge is as sharp as it is going to be and now I just have to stay focused!

I did play one satellite this morning and Charlie "Scotty Warbucks" Shoten was at my table, He is a top tournament pro and just wrote a new book "No-limit Life". He seemed like a genuinely content, good hearted person and I enjoyed our conversation, got a signed copy of his book, and won a big pot against him on the turn w/ a check raise; my read on his hand was perfect! I know now that I can play w/ one of 2003's Cardplayer Magazine top 10 players of the year, make the right read and bring down a good pot with only a pair of 8's! 30 min's till showtime, gonna go down and get settled in.

DB

Top of the morning to ya!

I slept well! Gonna try to squeeze in that third satellite. . . will be updating throughout the day.
DB

Going to bed, updates

WSOP Main Event:
58 players remain, they play down to 27 tomorrow, then they finish the last 2 days downtown at the Horseshoe.
100th place paid 77k and change, 27th place will pay over 300k, 1st 7.5 M
Notables: Phil Ivey is currently in 2nd chip place w/ 2.7M, Mike Matusow 1.5M, Greg "fossilman" Raymer 1.3M, John Juanda 950k (therer are a total of 56+M chips in play!), Ivey has approx. 5% of all chips in play!

Now over 15oo unique visitors to www.donkeybait.com!!!

I went to the Wynn tonight . . .after my second satelllite. Of course the Wynn is beautiful , but when you hear all the buzz it's kind of hard to live up to all the Hype. I can say that I still find the Mirage more capativating the the new Wynn. I'll upload some pics of the Wynn tomorrow. Daniel Negreanu is the "poker ambassador" for the Wynn's poker room, he wasn't their tonight though. They say he stops by about twice a week, ( does that mean 1 time a week?). All 27 tables were full and the list was long, so I took a few quick pics and headed twards the Palms. The Palms is not all that! Their Ghost Bar has been built up to be all that but it just looks like a cheesy, b-film sci-fi movie set. And their reknown skin bar is a tacky nightclub held outside by the pool, complete w/ concrete chairs in the pool. The Poker room on the other hand had it's ups. Their poker room is actually 2 rooms seperated by about 15 ft, w/ 6 tables per "side". One side is all low limit, the other side beneath a sign reading "High Limit Poker" consisted of only 2-5 NL hold'em. The game was juicy!!!, big pots, lots of donkeys, I think I'll go back.

Ok now for my updates . . .

Satellite #2 started off good. During the first round I had ATo 3 times in 4 hands, played it once and built my stake up through a few prudent steals and 1 good sized pot scoop to T1550 (T just means tourney chips). This interesting hand came up late in round 3, blinds are 100/200, I'm in the big blind looking at AJo (the best starting hand I had the entire satellite!), there are 6 players left and it's folded to the button who calls, the small blind completes his bet, and I raise to 400 str8 leaving me w/ T1000. The button folded and the small blind put me all in. This guy had some game, was agressive, and the deck had been running through him. after putting me all in he still had about T1700left. I went in the Tank, and really analyzed the situation and ultimately decided to fold and pick a better spot. I think I had the best hand but at the same time was at best only a 60-40 favorite. I felt I could outplay these guys and with any cards at all set a trap with less risk. I folded, he said he had AQ, but I didn't believe him for 1 second! Unfortunately my cards went dead, the blinds doubled and before long I was down to T500. I ended up all in on the BB w/ k6o, which happened to be the best hand I had seen since the aj! On hindsite I wish I would have called w/ the aj.

At the Palms I in a 2-5 NL ring game for 3 hrs, boutght in for $500 and left with $472. I misplayed one hand that cost me $70, and scooped one big $335 pot w/ TT when I flopped a set. I was gonna gloss over these 2 hands and go to bed but here's how that hand went down. Me button TT, I limper, I raise to 20 , sb folds, bb calls, limper calls.. Flop t83 2 clubs. check, check, and I check. Turn 8c, bb bets 40, limper folds , I raise to 135 total. BB says "you got a flush too" now I know he doesn't have a flush, and fell a lot better. I had to raise to 135 because I thought his most likely holding was a flush draw and had to take away his odds, If he called he was making a mistake. Anyways he did call and the river blanked, he checked as did I and my set of T's beat his trip 8's. Outside of that hand the cards really didn't like me and even theough the table was about a good as it gets, with the exception of the 1 hand I feel that I really messed up, all in all I played reallly, really good solid poker, made good reads and was happy with my play. Goodnight all, gotta get a good nights sleep, I'm gonna be on tomorrow!
DB

This is a pic of Phil Ivey sittin pretty with . . . about 1.7 million in chips maybe 85 players left. He's in the back center with the light blue hat on crooked. Layne "back to back" Flack and David Williams were both hanging out sweating him. I overheard a conversation from some donkey who busted out today, that was at Greg Raymers table. He said the "fossilman" had pocket rockets (AA) 7x today, and won on all 7 occasions! Greg's stack is approx. 2 mil! Eric Seidel is at the final table of the $1500 NL tourney that started yesterday. It was supposed to be a 1 day event but due to the size of the field they held the final table today.

For the duration of my stay in Vegas I am going to color code my posts, white will be my ramblings and green will be designated for my personal poker updates, and red for WSOP main event updates.

I'm going to play exactly 3 satellites tonight. Each satellite starts with 10 players, cost $125 and the winner takes all 1k, however often times the last 2 or 3 players will "chop" the purse, they can make any deal that all remaining players agree to. The rounds are 15 mins long and the blinds start at 25 /25, then 25/50/ then pretty much double every 15 mins. Each player starts w/ 1000 in chips, so for round one the gives you a "q" of 20 ("q" = your stack size divided by the total of the small blind + the big blind + any antes). A q of 2o means you could last 20 rounds at the current blind structure and a q of 20 is the minimum that allows you to make most plays (like re-raising preflop) in NL hold'em without being pot committed. (For more great info on q tourney strategy read Dan Harrington on Hold'Em Vol.1 & 2, by for the best texts ever on NL hold'em tourneys). In Satellites the rounds are so short, and the blinds escalate so fast that you really have to push your good hands, basically if you play to tight you'll wind up 45 mins into the thing short stacked and in bad shape.

My First Satellite didn't last to long. Early in the first round I limped in late position w/ 57o and folded to a big raise from the small blind. The next hand that I voluntarily entered the pot on occured during the very last hand of the 1st round, 2 players had already busted. Here's what happened. I was in late middle position w/ QQ, there were 2 limpers in front of me and I decided to make it 125 straight. I figured that I would probably pick up the pot right there, but the guy to my immediate left, who had played relatively loose, reraised me 375 more. He had me slightly covered. I felt like he had a hand and thought that AK was most likely but he might also play AA, KK, or even possibly a hand like JJ or TT that way. I debate going all in, and that move has merit especially because he has position on me but finally decide to just call knowing he'll be pot committed and call my allin plus this might create a good opportunity for a stop and go. If the guy has big slick and the flop comes rags then I'll push all in and scoop a nice pot, the nice thing about this move is your opponet doesn't get 5 chances to pair his A or K, only the 3 on the flop. Incidentally that is why it is sometimes a good idea to go all in w/ AK, it insures you the best chance of getting a pair and not being bet off the pot on the flop, a good move with a very short stack (q<10).>

WSOP Main Event Update The remaining 102 players are spread out over 20 tables. They just got back from dinner break, the blinds are 5k/10k w/ 1k antes, make that 100 players.

I feel good, and am thinking clearly, my focus seems good. One of the neat things about having backers and posting here to the world is that it really helps me analyze my play, and stay focused. If I go on tilt I have to answer to you guys, plus I want to play my best game for those that backed me. Time to go play satellite #2. More to come later
DB

WSOP Pictures

ESPN's featured Table w/ Mike "the mouth" Matsow





The WSOP is being held in the Rio's conference center, a room about the size of . . .3 football fields, filled wall to wall w/ poker tables. Basically the room is broken down into 5 areas, the main event, final table of yesterdays event, todays event, satellites to tomorrows event, and cash games. I set up my office in an area of empty tables, and with the help of ESPNs wireless network am able to make posts directly from the WSOP! I spotted Greg Raymer and Phil Ivey, both still running good, and Mike the mouth Matasow is at the ESPN featured table, unfortunately I have been unable to get close enough to them to get their pics. The satellites have been delayed until 5:30, and I'm getting ready to go head that direction. Usually if I am stone cold sober I like to have exactly 1 shot of tequilla before I play a satellite or touney, so I headed over to the wsop cash bar. Wow, 1 shot of rotgut tequilla will set you back $6, a budlight bottle $5, and a captain and 7 $7. Kinda uncool, the only other option is to hoof it back to the casino, and it's a pretty good hike. At the WSOP Circuit event in New Orleans they had 2 free bars set up for the players, I'm really suprised some online site didn't sponser a bar here. Full Tilt Poker does have a free hospitality suite, and were kind enough to give me a free hat and t-shirt. I'm downloading the pics now, will post them and then go play my first satellite. www.donkeybait.com just cracked 1000 unique visitors! Later

DB

Live WSOP updates coming soon!

Including my satellite results

I made it,

to the Rio that is. What a morning, I overslept, nearly missed my flight. . . but all is good. I showed up at the Rio about 1 hour ago, and went str8 to the convention center where the WSOP is being held, Mike Matasow is on the ESPN featured table but it's pretty hard to get close enough for a good look. As of 15 minutes ago they were down to 163 players in the main event. Next I went over to the New Player Registration booth and got signed up. They will be running single table satellites at 4pm (sats are mini 1 table tourneys, the winner wins entry into a bigger tourney, so for me I'll play against 9 other players, $100 each, and the winner will win a $1000 chip.). A special thanks to all of my backers:

Emily 10%
Greg 5%
Sondra 5%
Rob 2%
Bill 1%
Matt 1%

I promise I'll play my heart out!

Apparently I spilt a cocktail on my phone last night and I cant get it to take a charge or turn on which really sux because my cell was also my camera! I've been meaning to get a new phone anyway, so maybe I'll buy a new one tonight so I can upload more pictures of the event!

This blue tooth wireless thing is really cool. W/ my laptop I had 2 choices for connecting to the internet, the rooms ethernet cable for $9.95 a day or some random highsppeed wirless network that my computer located. So far it's working great!

There are only a couple of things that I want to do while I am here:

Play Poker
Check out the New Winn casino's poker room
Check out the Palms Hotel and Casino

I'm gonna go grab a bite to eat, and then head over to the convention center for the satellites, hopefully I can find another wireless network down there so I can send more updates. Chow for now . . .

DB

Packin' my bags

I've spent most of today running errends and getting every thing in order for tomorrows trip to Vegas. This will probably be my 15th trip to Vegas but my first ever entry into a WSOP event . . ., Wednesdays, 1 day $1000 buy-in, last chance for a bracelet in 05 tourney. I managed to sell 2% of myself to my buddy Greg (that works out to $20), I plan on re-reading Harrington on Hold'em Vol. 1 & 2 tonight, and on the flight (paying special attention to vol. 2's section on picking spots) , and prepare myself mentally for the biggest event of my poker career! My goal, regardless of my results, is to play a solid focused game, If I feel I played my heart out, played my A game 100% of the time, then I'll be satisified, cash or no cash! I will be posting pix and more from Vegas so stay tuned.

Also, in the first 48 hrs, thanks to 3 one line post on RGP, donkeybait now has nearly 700 unique visitors! Lots of positive e-mails too. Thanks to everyone for the support and feedback.

DB

.

don·key
Pronunciation: 'dä[ng]-kE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural donkeys
Etymology: origin unknown
1 : the domestic ass (Equus asinus)
2 : a stupid or obstinate person

My Mistake

I just realized that you do have to register to post comments, it's fast, free, confidential, and best of all it opens up the whole world of blogging! Take 1 minute to register, leave comments; you won't be disappointed.

Coming soon: Featured stripper of the week w/ pix!

Have you heard, Paradise Poker is hosting the largest freeroll in the history of mankind: One Million Dollars!(all your problems could be solved)

Illadvised bodog sports/poker wagers, partial results

The other day I logged onto Bodog.com and made my first deposit there for $100, I got an immediate 20% bonus so with my $120 bankroll I started handicapping the poker bets. The first thing I noticed was that the payoffs were horrible, many pros feel that in the field of 5600 plus,. . . the best player in the world would still be a 1000 to 1 dog and bodog (should be "UdaDog") will gladly pay 80 to 1 on say Daniel Negreanu to win, obviously these are sucker bets, but just for fun I did place a few last longer wagers. Basically this is a match up of 2 poker pros and you win the bet if the pro you pick outlasts the the other pro (- 140 for example would mean that you have to wager $14 to win $10 if that was your pick), here are my picks:

Chau Giang even vs. Doyle Brunson -140
I bet 40 on Chau and won! Total +40

Mark Sief -120 vs. Devilfish -120
Bet 20 on MS result lost :( . Total +20

Barry Greenstein -120 vs. Daniel Negreanu -120
Bet 20 on Barry Greenstein and won! ( only won $16.60 though because of the line, -120)
Total +36.60

Barry Greenstein -120 vs. Gus Hansen -120
Bet $20 on Barry and lost, Total +$16.60

Not to bad against those odds! I still have 1 open wager on Dan Harrington for $20 to outlast all previous wsop winners, it pays 10 to 1, so I'll either be up $260.60 or down $3.40 after that wager is closed, doesn't look good though, Harrington is pretty short stacked... more later

DB

Announcement - Ipod added private tourney!

Just to make things a little more interesting . . . around here I have decided to hold a private multi table tourney w/ a $5 buy in and I will personally award the winner with a brand new apple Ipod! The tourney details will be e-mailed to guests here that leave a clever, insightful, or stimulating comment, along with their e-mail address on this blog. When I deem that enough valid comments have been left (around 50), I'll set up the tourney at pokerstars.

DB

A few pics

Donkey Bait and friend April having a drink at the Trat . . .



Doyle Brunson at the WSOP Circuit Event, New Orleans May, '05


Pro Poker Grinder Timothy Van and friend Sara

Well I figured it out, how to download pics from my cell the qulity kinda sux but oh well, enjoy.
DB

You make the Play

My favorite libation used to be stoli, with just a splash of cranberry juice but lately I've been drinking Captain Morgans w/ a touch of sprite, and last night was no exception. I set sail with the Captain and arrived at . . .Hoot-n-Annys Bar and grill for their Saturday Night $100 first place freeroll NL poker tournament. About 50 people showed up last night for the $100 bar tourney and I made it all the way through to . . . , heres how it went down. . .
First a little background. Blinds are 10-20 rounds are 15 min and the blinds double every round. Each player starts w/ 1100 in chips, first place pays $100, second $40. On the very first hand, this All In Donkey in middle position goes all in for 1100, and the 3 early and 1 late position limpers all fold. Donkey man scoops the pot and shows 44.

Hand #2:
I'm in middle position, the donk is 2 to my left and there are 2 limpers infront of me when I peer down and find 77. Knowing that this particular group of donkeys like to limp in about 66% of the time and once they do they will call almost any bet that doesn't put them all in made my decision for how to play the hand easy. limp in the hopes of flopping a set and if I do, slow play it to the turn, then check raise all in and quadroople up. So I do infact limp. Donkey man raises all in, hmmmm, "what to do?" I asked myself. Here are some of the things I considered:

1. As much as I love poker, it's hard to imagine a game less enjoyable than the crazy crap shoot poker put on by Hoot-n-annys and attended by a bunch of sweaty, loud, rude drunks
2. Only one of my friends is here, perhaps she'll bust out and we can go get a drink together
3. In order to win this thing I'm going to have to win a couple of coin flips anyway
4. If I do win I'll be table captain
5. Donkey man would very likely move all in with any 2 cards 10 or higher plus all pocket pairs, could even be a pure bluff, about the only hands I don't thing he could have would be AA, or KK, he would probably slow play those!

So after carefully weighing all of my options I . . .

You make the Play, just jot down a comment about how you would play the hand and I'll post the results in the comment section after I get a reply. (Hand resolution now up in comments)

After the tourney me and a friend KG, went to a couple of bars, by an after bar party, got sloppy drunk, and I ended up crashing in a Hotel rather than risk the drive home.

I hope to add pictures soon, does anyone know how to download pictures from your sprint pcs phone's web picture storage place?

Poker update, Just busted out of a 1 table, $5.50 satellite to Bugsy's Club's Sunday 10k shootout. I took 3rd when my q4s flopped top pair and ran into a slowplayed king kong. If you haven't tried out Bugsy's Club they are definately worth checking out, the download is big, but imho they have they smoothest, best poker software of any poker site out there. Their players are a little above average, the tournaments are great, but there usually aren't alot of ring games to choose from. Bugsysclub is ran in conjunction with poker school online and poker pages, a great source for poker info and poker blogs. I'm not associated with these guys in any way, but just highly recommend their site!

My profile, + original post

When I was 16 I wanted to be a rock-n-roll star, so 3 days after graduating high school I found myself on a plane . . . Continued Blog Styleheaded for Los Angeles, promptly enrolled in Musicians Institue (a heavy metal music school) and soon learned that I didn't have a musical bone in my body! After 1 yr of hanging out in LA I returned to my spawning grounds to go to college. 6 months after graduating college I bought a strip club on credit. I've always gotten by on the skin of my teeth, your classic underachiever, applying as little as possible to get by, but somehow things have always worked out. Then I found poker in 2002, right before the poker explosion. I think some deep fundemental part of my being felt the early tremors of the oncoming poker explosion, and liked what it felt. Perhaps for the first time in my life something felt right, something that might possibly fit. School sure didn't, even though I did graduate with my BS in 1994, Business didn't, however my strip club has made me alot of money and been alot of fun at times, personal relationships haven't, I usually burn through a good girl in 1 1/2 to 2 years but for some reason poker just feels right. To be continued, blog style . .

Original Post:

I'm getting ready to go to this bar called Hoot-n-Annys, it's a mixed bag . . . and their poker night brings out some world class donkeys. First place pays $100, but several of my poker friends will be there and afterwards we usually get together and play a cash game/tourney. I'll also swing by and check up on my place to see how it's doing, I don't go there often enough and it's good for me to check on it every once in a while. gotta go will update later tonight or tomorrow.

July 9, 2005 Welcome!

Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."

Moments ago, while sitting here working on my first blog entry, the doorbell rang, it was a door to door christian/salesperson handing out flyers for their 2005 vacation bible shcool, and the flyer had that bible verse on it. It struck me that it applies equally well to blogging! I'll take that as an omen of good fortune for my blog, on to what really matters in life, poker! . . .

Poker is an all consuming passion for me, you've probably heard how the average male thinks aout sex 169 or so times a day, . . . well for the last 2.5 years I am almost always thinking, breathing, dreaming, playing or reading about poker. Lately I have been following the WSOP through blogs, and cardplayer.com even going so far as to open an onling betting account with bodog to place some small wagers on it, just to make it more interesting, (I'm no expert at sports wagering, but it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes, even Larry Holmes could figure out that the vig at bodog's online sports book should be criminal, I don't recommend following my example and wagering on the WSOP or any other contest your odds are terrible!) but I can't get away from the stark reality that I am sitting here in the midwest reading about the wsop, when every pore of my being is screaming to be there! So yesterday I decided to use some of my membership rewards points I had accumulated on my american express card to purchase a round trip ticket to vegas, for next week. Better late than never. Then a friend, a gal who happens to work for me at my gentlemens club called and wants to go too; even better I'll be hanging out at the WSOP with a strikingly sexy stripper, now if I can only convince her to back me in the $1000 buy in 1 day tourney, the one thats held in the middle of the main event. . .

I'll be taking my laptop w/ me to vegas next week and will post my thoughts/observations on things, as well as my first ever WSOP tourney results.

Thanks for stopping by and I think you'll enjoy coming along for the ride as I become a Poker Super Star, I'll occasionally refer to fun stories from my past, the strip club years, as well as share some of the more harrowing things going on in my life.

Please if you have made it this far leave a comment or two! No registration required and I will make every effort to personally reply to each e-mail I receive. You might find my profile interesting as well as the links to some poker pro's blogs, check them out!

DB

"those who hear not the music, think the dancers mad"

About Me:

When I was 16 I wanted to be a rock-n-roll star, so 3 days after graduating high school I found myself on a plane . . . Continued Blog Styleheaded for Los Angeles, promptly enrolled in Musicians Institue (a heavy metal music school) and soon learned that I didn't have a musical bone in my body! After 1 yr of hanging out in LA I returned to my spawning grounds to go to college. 6 months after graduating college I bought a strip club on credit. I've always gotten by on the skin of my teeth, your classic underachiever, applying as little as possible to get by, but somehow things have always worked out. Then I found poker in 2002, right before the poker explosion. I think some deep fundemental part of my being felt the early tremors of the oncoming poker explosion, and liked what it felt. Perhaps for the first time in my life something felt right, something that might possibly fit. School sure didn't, even though I did graduate with my BS in 1994, Business didn't, however my strip club has made me alot of money and been alot of fun at times, personal relationships haven't, I usually burn through a good girl in 1 1/2 to 2 years but for some reason poker just feels right. To be continued, blog style . . .