It's been a couple of days!

I got my brother some mtg (magic the gathering) playable, trading cards yesterday, but doing so rekindled the desire to play mtg myself! So the last 2 days I've been playing online. Just wanted to say hi, and will be posting more later.

DB

Featured Stripper of the Week #2

But don't tell her that, she's #1 in our book! Click below for profile and pics, don't click if you don't want to see scantilly clad strippers!

On another note I played 2 home NL tourneys last night. Both were $20 buy ins and my friend Paul and I each did a $20 last longer (last longers are side bets, in each tourney whoever lasted longest between Paul and I would win the $40 in this case). He won the first tourney, I won the second! . . .


Dance Name: April
Sign: Libra
Age: 21 (almost)
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 105 lbs.
Personality: Party Girl!
Favorite Position: Behind and hard!
Status: Currently single and available/looking
Hobbies: Partying, Cooking
Favorite dish to prepare: BBQ Ribs, finger lickin' good!
Sexual Orientation: Strictly Dickly
Home Club: Club Vogue







I apologize for the photo quality, Donkeybait is on the lookout for a new digital camera! You can help by signing up w/ paradise poker through the affiliate links on the donkeybait home page!



Cool Stuff I have for sale!

This beautiful house is situated on 10 acres with breathtaking panoramic views! Luxury appointments throughout, swimming pool and jacuzzi. 3100 sq. ft. Appraised value in '03 $430,000 a real bargain at $357,500!



Gorgous 1997 Triple Black SL 500 Sport Convertible, low miles, excellent condition. Arrive in style for only $24,900.




Trying to streamline a little, lol. The benzy is a great car and if you love the country my house is about as beautiful and serene as you will find in the Mid-west. E-mail me if you are interested in either of these.

Also I have a complete commercial grade home gym. Most of the componets are by Body Solid, and all equipment is in same as new condition. It includes:

1 full set of dumbells w/ racks
Olympic sized bars and plates with plate trees
Machine cable pull down rack for back and lats
Hack squatt machine for quads, lower back and legs
flat bench
incline bench
seated bench
preacher curl attatchment
olympic sized curl bar
roman chair
ab roller
excersize mat
and medium weight punching bag
well over $5000.00 new, make offer.

New Links

I added some new poker links today. 2+2 is the definitive think tank strategy page covering just about every aspect of poker. This is the Sklansky/Malmuth stuff. Pocket Fives is a cool site my friend Matt turned me onto. They rank the top online tournament players, pretty interesting. Pokerwire is done by Full Tilt Poker and covers large events in real time. Poker Portal is a collection of hundreds of online poker links. And finally poker pulse is the Industry site that tracks traffic counts to various online poker sites. Enjoy!

Also I played 4 tournaments at my house yesterday, only 4 players, won 2. One of the players was quite drunk, and was playing like a total maniac! He continued to go all-in, repeatedly both pre flop and on the flop, occasionally on the turn. This really changed my game, usually I am the aggressor, but in this case I limped on any 2 cards I wanted to see the flop w/ except big pocket pairs and let him bet my hands. During the first match I was just looking to flop top pair to call his all in's with, alas, it never happened and I went out first in the tourney. However that strategy worked well in 2 of the 4 and is the best way to handle a crazy all-in opponet!

And the good news is . . . www.donkeybait.com has now had over 20,000 unique visitors!

Bad Break

Out in 64th. Had a5o in the BB, w/ 13K left. It was folded to the SB, he raised, and had been an active player, bullying the table, who had played more than 50% of the hands I saw dealt to him, I reraised all in (first time all tournament that I was all in), figuring to have the best hand, and that he would fold. Unfortunately he had TT this time and I didn't catch any cards. It was a tough spot, w/ the Ante's and blind sizes, plus the cards really broke against me the last hour.

2nd Break

I stole one good pot, and a couple of blinds, but it's been a poor hour overall. Stack T16,800, average 24,300. I haven't had anything to work with, and my speculative/drawing hands have been raised out preflop. I got moved to a new table w/ less than 1 min left before this the second break. I don't recognize any of the players at my new table but fortunately the 3 stacks to my left are all smaller than me, then there's a 27k stack, a tiny 300 stack, 16K, 33K, 31K, and on my right 11k. There are 79 players left. Blinds are now 400/800 w/ a 100 ante, so I'll have to pick up my reads quick, and make a move pretty soon.

1st Break Bugsy's 10K Guaranteed Shoot Out

192 players started, $3000 first place, top 20 get paid, starting chips T10K. 3 key hands in the first hour. KQo, under the gun turns a str8, brings down a 14k pot. KK early position flop 962 rainbow, bet pot pulled down a nice score. KQs, middle position, I reraised a solid player, he calls. Turn King, he bets, I call. River a blank, and he bluffs into it w/ ajo, I call and win another key pot. I sensed he was weak but he also didn't bet enough on his bluff to drive me out. Additionally I had him outchipped and he called my reraise out of position, bad idea, he should have folded or reraised. I remember him from 3 years ago when I first started playing poker. In one of my first tournaments I rivered the nut flush but lost to his Q high str8flush. I've watched his play and at the time thought he was a pretty good player. It's interesting how your perspective changes, as you become a better player and notice other players mistakes.

I lost one medium sized pot right before the break. Anyway, my stack is now T19,400 and average is T13,900. 138 players remain. Will update later.

DB

1st out of 18

on a multitable satellite into a 10K guaranteed tourney for tomorrow. I still haven't played in the 100k guarantee that I can play any time. Today's satallite cost $11 and now I'm in tomorrows $50+5 Bugsy's Club shoot out. I like their tourney alot, and plan to win tomorrow!

Bar League Results

I got second place last night out of 5 tables, probably 38 players. When it got down to heads up, they told us we only had 10 minutes left to play, and raised the blinds to 10k/20k. I did briefly catch the lead, but not the cards and finished in second place.

Wish I was back in Tunica

but unfortunately I have to do some work on my house that I am trying to sell and take care of some other business.

Last week when I went to Tunica I showed up with $400, planning on playing satellites for a shot at getting into the tournaments. I really, really tore the 1 table satellites up. They were spreading $65 1 table satellites, winner gets $550, $120 1 table satellites, winner gets $1100, and occasionally larger ones which I did not play in. I chopped (chopping occurs when the final 2, sometimes 3 players agree to divide the prize money up rather than play out the satellite) my very first satellite. All in all out of 15 satellites I won 2 outright and chopped 4 others. That's a pretty good run.

With my satellite wins I was able to play 2 tournaments as a total freeroll. the $300 NL hold'em tournament with over 850 players and the $500 NL hold'em tournament that had over 550 players. In the first I made it into the top third, well out of the money.

The second Tournament, the $500, was about as ugly a tournament as I have ever had. I never oncy had a pair or better (including pocket pairs) untill my final hand. The only pot I won was on the second hand of the tournament. The blinds were 25-25, and I had AK under the gun. I raised to 50 and everyone folded, not a bad outcome, but certainly hardly even qualifies as a pot. On my final hand, about 3 hours into the tournament, I found myself w/ KT on the button. There was one limnper, I limped, the small blind called and along with the big blind 4 of us saw a flop of QJT rainbow. I was last to act with a pair of tens and an open ended straight draw. The turn came a 9, giving me my K high straight and putting 2 spades on the board. I figured I had the best hand, knowing well that any AK could beat me, but didn't put any players on AK. Me and the original limper got it all in and we each showed KT for the 2nd nut straight. Unfortunately he was on a freeroll (we had tying hands and would chop the pot unless another spade came on the river giving him a flush and the whole pot). Even this chopped pot would have been nice as there had been signifigant action on the flop and I stood to pick up some additional chips. To my dismay the 2 of spades spiked on the river and I lost to runner, runner. Oh well.

All in all I was very happy with my tournament results, I got to play 2 tournaments for free, plus made additional money from the satellites. I wish I could say that the trip was a moneymaker, but I decided to sit down at my first ever live Pot Limit Ohaha game and got creamed. Chalk that up to more poker tuition expenses I guess.

I got a new toy yesterday, it is an Alcohawk personal alcohol breathalyzer. Recent technological advances have brought the price of these things down to less than $100, and they are accurate to .01% at a bac of .1%. You can find them on Amazon.com. The only catch is you are supposed to stop drinking 20 minutes before breathing into the unit or your results will be scewed by actual alcohol in your mouth, not your breath. I have found that waiting 10 minutes offers accurate results, plus who can stop drinking for 20 mins! I was pleasantly suprised to learn that I can have more drinks than I thought, and still be legal to drive! This thing is really cool, works great, is accurate, and educational. A couple of years ago I refused a police breathalyzer test based upon my attorney advice and figuring I would exceed .08 and get a dwi. As a result of refusing the test I lost my license for 1 year. Now I know that I would have been fine and should have blown into their silly machine, oh well.

One mroe poker hand, this one from last nights bar league. down to probably 18 players, 3 tables of 6. I've got an average stack and pick up A5s under the gun + 1. The blinds are huge, 2k/4k and knew that 2 players still to act had poor hands (by the way they responed when looking at their cards) so I pushed all in. The Big Blind, this crazy loose calling station girl, calls with k8o!!! I catch an unecessary 5 on the flop and she somehow manages to make a flush by the river to knock me out. I guess I should have done a stop and go, bet half my stack preflop, then push the rest in regardless of what comes on the flop.

Gonna try to get some things done today. Hope to check in later.

DB

I'm really, really tired

I just figured out the local dial up number from the Grand in Tunica. I've got to be up at 8am, and on the road by 8:30 for a 2:30 meeting in St. Louis, and I've been playing poker for the better part of the last 72hrs. I'll do my best to get the Tunica/WSOP circuit trip report up as soon as possible.

I tore up the 1 table satellites and won my way into 2 events, plus pocketed some nice cash. I can't wait to get down here again!

Goodnight.

DB

Forget the CPC . . .

I'm going to Tunica for a WSOP Circuit Event. Tomorrow the satellites start, Thursday a $300 NL hold'em event, Lots of fun events up to the 10k event on the 22. I've got a few things to do in town today, then If all goes well I'll drive down tonight! Finally back to the world of free drinks, and decent room rates! That alone should put me in the black! lol.

Quick update, mid game

This omaha hi low is the bomb! Yes I'm off to a good start but man, these people are donkeys! I think they are attracted to the game because of the gamble, but man, if you just wait for premium hands, and make mediocre decisions on the flop I don't think you can lose!

This is a new additon to this post (an edit), still mid game. Man, what a deal, just by watching how these omaha hilow players play, if you haven't played yet, check it out!

Killing some time, book reviews

It's about 2:15 pm, and after an uneventful evening spent reading, I woke up fairly refreshed at 11. I'm now at one of my favorite wifi watering holes drinking a miller lite, and killing time until I meet my family later.

Last night I read "The Professor, The Banker, and The Suicide King. Inside Pokers Richest Game". The book is not a novel, but is supposed to be an accurate retelling of the on again off again, 3 yr., ultra high stakes, heads up poker matches between billionaire Andy Beal and the top cash game players in the world. Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harmon, Ted Forrest, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Todd Brunson, Gus Hanson, and several others.

Aside from being an interesting "story", I enjoyed reading more about the top poker players. Ted Forrest in particular makes a very interesting read. The accounts of the big matches, which were heads up limit matches w/ blinds between 20k/40k all the way up to 100k/200k, were supposed to be accurate, either the source was very reliable or multiple people verified the accounts.

Andy, an entrepreneur and banker, was a thrifty one who flew coach not first class but apparently when he set his mind to something he went all the way. Apperently he lost 200M in some speculative outerspace rocket project, but losses like that really didn't effect a guy pulling down 200m+ a year. Andy was initially concerned about be cheated by the pro's so he insisted on playing them heads up. The pros on the other hand were concerned about going broke at those stakes so they teamed up and each put up a share of between 100k and 500k, and formed a pool of cash to take on Andy.

According to all accounts Andy was a relative beginner at first, and his game improved dramatically during the 3 years they played. The pro's all agree that even at the beginning Andy was a good player. Now I wasn't there during all this, but don't be decieved! The pros fleeced this guy for millions and millions of dollars. He stood no chance! He might get lucky, and win a few sessions, and hid did, but he was dead money! I would be willing to bet that some of his wins were strategic, so he would get hooked in for more. If he improved so much during the 3 years, how could he have been dangerous at the beginning?

Andy always wanted to play for higher stakes, and felt that that would put the pro's out of their comfort zone. The pro's always resisted, as they should. IMHO, here is the real deal. Variation in heads up play against an agressive player (and Andy was ultra agressive) can have huge, wild fluctuations. The pro's would much rather chip, chip, chip away at this donkey, than risk any huge fluctuation, that at any time could threaten some of their bank rolls.

Some of his big losses came to Jennifer Harmon and Todd Brunson, now this is a stretch, and is based on no facts, but is it possible that guys like Doyle, and Chip let him win a mil once and a while, only so the sweet Jennifer Harmon, and not as prestegious Todd Brunson could fleece him? I don't know, but these guys are no dummies. He might chalk up his losses to the sweet pretty girl and Doyle's kid as bad luck, while comforting himself in the fact the he whipped up on Doyle and Chip.

Picture this: Andy Beal, in a black hat, dark black sunglasses, button down shirt, with a random number vibrator in his shoe, and some silly stop watch he had modified by cutting off the minute and hour hands (leaving only the second hand to refer to, so he could randomize his play), and 5 racks of chips on the table that he used a some sort of a visual abbacus to figure pot odds. This is all true! What a dork! I'm sure there were many, many chuckles at his expense, even though the pro's were all very polite to Andy, the same Andy that they complemented on his expert play! These are the same pros that highly compliment the play of actor Ben Affleck (who apperently is decent), actor James Woods (who I personally watched on TV play Johnny Chan heads up and he is not very good, though he did get lucky at the beginning), and any other donkey with a large bankroll.

One of the tactics the pros used to get Andy back in the game was to send one of his top employees, who also liked poker, an autographed copy of Doyle's new book "Super System 2". Andy had lost a ton on his previous visit to Vegas, and had sworn off poker and asked the pro's to never contact him again! The book trick worked. Thus was born the new and improved Andy, with all the ridiculous accoutrements.

Finally the New York Times (I think it was) did a story on the matches that portrayed Andy as a sucker. He was insensed and defended himself through an open letter in Card Player magazine challenging the pros to a rematch, Doyle responded in another open letter and the match has yet to take place. My prediction, this time the pros are going to relentlessly slaughter this guy. Also, don't be suprised if the royalties from some hyped up tv deal make everyone involved a winner!

I would like to add that I don't want you the reader to think I am overly glorifying the pros, this isn't really coming out right, but I think you'll get the jist of what I'm trying to say. Many people compare poker to other sports and say things like what are your chances of beating Michael Jordan in 1 on 1, or taking down Tiger Woods in match play, but anyone with a chip and a chair can sit down and play poker with the best and have a shot of winning. This is true, kinda sorta. Let me explain, in a full ring game you may come out a winner one time in 10, in a tournament you make catch a rush and make the final table, but in heads up play, with equal deep stacks, against Phil Ivey you had better just push all in on any decent 2 card holding, otherwise you will be beat (this is called big ball poker and pros hate it, they prefer small ball poker). Note: Phil still has the advantage.

I started reading Mike Cappalletti's book on Omaha hi low. Suprisingly it seems to contain excellent strategy. I'm going to start the next phaze of my poker education and delve into omaha hi low. I believe this will also have the added benifit of improving my overall poker skills, plus many claim a decent omaha hi low player can earn more bets/hour than at hold'em. My main focus will remain NL Texas Hold'em tournaments, and my quest for a big, telivised final table. Time to hit the online tables!

DB

Chicago Trip Report Part 2

Good morning. Did I mention that the macadamia nut crusted sea bass at TJ's restaurant (located inside Resorts East Chicago) was delicious, I highly recommend it.

After satellite number 2 I had a couple of hours to kill so I got on the list for the 20-40 w/ a 1/2 kill, the 5-10 NL, and the 10-20 w/ 1/2 kill list. They were quite long, and when I finally got called to the 20-40 game I only had a few minutes untill my satellite started. The table was very beatable though, and I had been watching them, so I sat down, bought in for $800, and played 1 rotation. I posted 20 for the big blind, 10 for the small, and never once saw a flop in the 10 hands I was there for a loss of $30. I had to give up my seat for the satellite and it was time to start sat. #3.

Sat. # 3 was nearly identical to sat #2. I steadily built my chip stack, was very happy with my play overall and found myself on the heels of the chip leader when it got down to 3 handed. Now these things escalate fast, and you are forced to mix it up. This time my AKs went down in flames to A8o. We got it all in and he hit a flush, actually the board flushed in one of his suits! You no what they say, on offsuit hand is better than a suited one, it can make one of 2 flushes! lol. Oh well, I still love poker.

Fast Forward to Tournament Time, Wednesday 11:45 am. 15 minutes to showtime. Time to have that last cigarette. I have 2 choices here, outside on the ships deck where it is hot, humid, smelly, and packed with smelly poker players or adjacent to the poker room in the High Limit Black Jack + other negative expectation gambling games room. My favorite cocktail waitress, Heidi, is there and the room is much more luxurious than the rest of the casino, plus they have Patron tequilla at that bar. I choose the latter. Heidi and co, wish me luck as I go through my pregame ritual.

Here's how this game is set up; each player starts with T3000, rounds are 30 minutes long, blinds start at 25/50 and escalate to 50/100, 100/200, 100/200 w/ a $25 ante, 20 min break, 200/400 $50 ante/ double from here on out!. The structure starts off ok but soon, about round 6, the blinds come on pretty hard. There were 62 players, the top 8 got paid and first was 12.k.

I lost the first pot I was involved in, but it was relatively small, then I steadily built my stack up and maintained an above average chip stack throught the first 5 rounds. One interesting hand late in round 4. It's folded the the Button who makes a standard raise. The SB goes all in for a total of about 3k. I peek down at KK, hmmm, this could be interesting. I know the Button is a solid player, that also has me slightly outchipped, but he could very easily have been trying to steal the blinds. His most likely holding, imho, is either a pair or any ace, kq, kj, qj, kt. I can play this one of 2 ways, push all in or smooth the 3k hoping to trap the button for additional chips after the flop. I think and very subtley make it look like the call was a stretch, the button also calls! I got what I wanted, but be careful what you ask for right! The flop comes Q,8,3 all hearts! (I've got Kd/Kc). Since the SB is all in it's up to me and I've got about 6k left. There's a little over 9k in the middle, now alot of people say you should never bluff into a dry side pot, but in reality you need to evaluate every situation and do what needs to be done to give you the most equity in the hand. The hearts were scary but I wasn't going to let the button draw to 1 heart or an A so I pushed all in. The button folded, whew, and showed AJ. We flipped our cards over and the SB had 2 garbage clubs. The turn blanked and the river was an A! I pull down a nice pot!

It's about 20 minutes to break time and my friend Greg, who bought $100 worth of my action, came up with a hamburger and sweated my play for a bit. I find 22 in the small blind and limp in, 4 of us see a flop of 2,6, 9, rainbow (no flush draw possible). The flop was about as safe as could be and I decide to slowplay and check, it's checked around. Turn Q, I check, hoping the Q hit someone and really expecting to check raise, but it's checked around again. River a K, I bet out a measly T200 and it's folded to me. I then show Greg my hand, a flopped set of dueces, and a player across the table says "I want to see those cards". If you show your cards to anyone the rule is show one show all, and I gladly oblige, and say "flopped a set of dueces!" This is one of those times when it is a good idea to show your cards, let people know that your checks don't mean weakness.

On the very last hand before break I am dealt AKo, and raise the big blind calls. Flop is a bunch of rags and BB checks, I also check. Turn a third heart, no help. BB checks, I had already decided I was not going to lose a big pot w/ ak, plus something felt fishy. I check. River a rag, BB checks, and I check 1/2 thinking I might when the showdown. BB turns over J5 hearts for a turned flush. I asked him "did you know you had a flush? He truly was afraid to bet it because he as he said, had just seen me waiting in the bushes with my set!!! How cool is that. Man I'm in the zone, and didn't make the amateur mistake of losing alot w/ ak.

Alas all does not end well. We get down to about 24 players and I still have an above average chipsstack, but that is a little misleading because the blinds are now 400/800 and soon to be 800/1600. So in reality almost everyone is in or close to the "Red Zone"! (see Harrington on Hold'em vol 2 for an excellent explanation of chip stacks in relationship to the blinds, and how to play accordingly). I find myself on the button w/ T9o and under the gun limps, it's then folded to me. The small and big blinds are both older guys, and play like typical older guys, squeaky tight. Also the UTG player is a horrible player. He has me outchipped but is by far the biggest donkey in the tournament. I know his limp is unlikely to be a premium hand slowplayed, could be any 2 cards, and that he is very unlikely to reraise me. Now I nead to make a move at a pot soon, and since my table image was very solid I raise. I would normally raise about 4 times the BB here, but since the SB and BB are so tight why risk that much, they'll fold for less or if they wake up w/ a monster I'll lose less, so I make it 2K to go. They both fold and out of position donkey UTG just calls. Flop K,7,4 2 spades, 1 club. UTG checks, I know he doesn't have a king. Turn a T of clubs. I now know I have the best hand. He bets 1.5k I put him and his probably flush draw all in, he calls without thinking! Dealer says to flip our cards over which I do, showing 2nd pair. Donkey doesn't, and waits until the river, the 3rd club hits, then goes crazy. His hand was Q8s. The slowrolling, stupid calling donkey hit his runner runner flush to knock me out. I was a 70%+ favorite when the money went in and his call (and the way he played his hand) was the worst play I witnessed any player make in the entire tournament. I would have been chip leader, but oh well that's poker, and I still love it!

I've noticed that I almost always have the best of it when the money is in. I'm not talking about coinflips that occur, but I will be destined to experience the brunt of bad beats, while servicing my fellow competitors with relatively few in return. This is a good thing, if you have a good feel for where you are in a hand and find yourself with the best of it thats just the way it is.

I've also noticed that I need a degree of poker maturity. When Phil Ivey was knocked out of the 2003 WSOP main event I believe he was in the top 27 and took a horrible beat. He apparently shirked it off without as much as a frown, or look of dismay. Now that is one cool customer who truly see's that a bad beat is mearly a mathmatical possibility, regardless of any consequences it has on you personally. Why clutter your mind with garbage?

It was during the WSOP 1K tourney that my game really gelled, my poker quickening occured, and I feel very confident about my play, realizing that I have a long, long road ahead of me, with alot to learn and experience, but at the same time the knowledge that I can hang with anyone. I am also at a point where my learning curve as it relates to reading hands is improving startlingly fast, I don't feel like I have reached a plateau. One thing I've noticed is that I tend to give unknown players too much respect. They may at first appear to be a good player, but really are just scared, weak, tight players who disguise it well for a bit. I think this is an ok thing though. Stay inline until you get atleast an educated guess about a players style.

I seem to project a very confident table image. A few hours after the $500 tourney was over, I ventured back to the poker room to see who won the tourney and a player approached me and said "did you chop?". I was like, huh?, he goes on "you won the tournament right?", sadly I informed him that I did not. He played at my first table, and I guess he felt that I was a big favorite to win! How about that guy that checked his turned flush down to me!

You need to be respected to have a good chance of winning these things, and here are a couple of pointers on how to achieve this. First, the game moves at your pace! I am not saying that you should unecessarily delay the game, or take forever to fold 7-2 preflop, but take your time with any decision, and put any player "foolish" enough to re-raise you on ice. In one of my favorite movies of all time, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Clint Eastwood plays a renegade southerner, post civil war, with a large bounty on his head. He is confronted several times by people looking to cash in on the large bounty, dead or alive. Often he is suprised, but remains cool, handles all threats on his own time. When 4 union soldiers unexpectedly bump into him he stops, slowly turns his head and spits and then cooly says "are you gonna pull those guns or whistle dixie. The 4 soldiers freeze while Josey surveys them. Josey knew the guy on the left, the one with crazy eyes was likely to make the first move, the guy 2nd to left had scarred eyes, and 3rd from the left had a flapped holster. What about the guy on the far right? well somtimes you need a little help or gotta get lucky. Josey was faster, and picked them off 1 by 1. He was able to do this because he made excellent reads, and took psychological controll of the situation.

Secondly, make a strong slow play and make it known, even if you have to show the hand. Other players need to see that you are capable of checking a strong holding. Even If you check you could hold the stone cold nuts.

Thirdly, nearly always (95%+) raise the pot when you are first to enter preflop. So many good things happen. You may win the pot right there, you apply great pressure to those behind you, people are easier to read when under pressure, you disguise your holding, and lastly may ferret out any premium hand. I love it at a table when 3 or more players often limp, 1st in, preflop. If they respect you they are less likely to slowplay AA against you.*

And lastly I prefer to dress well. This is debatable, but for me it works. If you take poker serious, you should treat it serious, look serious, and dress serious. No tie required, but comfortable slacks, and a button down shirt do the trick. Black is also a good color. I have always felt more comfortable overdressed than underdressed but find what works for you. Whatever works for you do shower, wear clean clothes, and not appear like a shit bum. In 2002 poker nearly became extint in casino's partly because from management's perspective poker attracted, poorly dressed, smelly, players who wanted everything for free.*

Lastly, I will continue to plug, plug away. One of these days the planets will line up and I'll win one of these deals. I felt real good about my chances in this last tourney . . . and even better about my chances in the next one. gotta go now.

DB

I need to give credit where credit is due, I think it was Chris Ferguson who recently wrote about always raising first in, ofcourse I am aware of that and practice it, but reading it recently pobably made it stick out in my mind when I wrote this. Also I added a couple of benifits from raising he didn't mention: people are easier to read under pressure, and ferreting out premium hands. Also It was in The Prof, The Banker, and The Suicide King that I learned about management's view of cheap smelly poker players, but that example fit my point perfectly.

Decisions, Decisions

What to do, or rather which to do first. I went by my house, checked my mail, and opened my Amazon.com order. I now have to choose between the new issue of Cardplayer magazine, How to Win at Omaha High-Low Poker by Mike Cappelletti, or The Professor, The Banker, and the Suicide King, a novel about the highest stake poker game of all time between the top vegas pros and Andy Beal, a businessman billionaire. I think I'll start with the latter tonight, some soft reading will do me good. Trip report #2 will be up tomorrow, God willing.

Chicago Trip Report Part 1

I just got back from Chicago about an hour ago. While there I played 2 (short) sessions of 5-10 limit, 1 short session of 20-40 limit, 3 $65 single table satellites, and 1 $500 buy in multi table tourney. These tournaments are part of the Chicago Poker Championship that culminates in a two day, $2700 event this Aug. 13-14. The CPC is being held at the luxurious "Resorts East Chicago" hotel and casino situated in the beautiful city of East Chicago (think Gary, Indiana!) and nestled between a filthy marina, a heavy industrial zone, one of The Donald's less prestigous casino boats, and a couple of trashy strip joints. In all fariness Resorts is a good hotel, excellent rooms, good food, and nice amenities (except there is no high speed internet, for love or money, no business center either), just don't open the window the air quality outside isn't that great.

We, my friend Greg and I, arrived Tuesday morning around 5:30 am but couldn't check into our room untill about 10:45 (more about this later) so to kill time I checked out the poker room which runs 24/7. They spread 5-10 limit, 10-20 limit, 20-40 limit with a 1/2 kill, 5-10 NL, and 1-5 stud, however the only games available at that time were 5-10 limit and 20-40 limit. I decided to take the easy 5-10 game and bought in for $200. The game was fairly typical and straight forward poker was the way to beat these guys. One player to my right was way to agressive and I looked forward to checkraising him, but the opportunity never presented itself. Another player was dozing off between hands and he proved to be a good target. After quickly losing $60 I waited patiently for my spots and left about an hour later up $93. Enough to pay for my first satellite!

It was about 8am now and I really wanted to get some sleep and be refreshed for the noon satellite. After checking with the front desk which informed me I wouldn't be able to check in untill 2pm, I sought out a casiono host, she said she could get me in by noon, then it was back to the front desk to speak to a front desk manager, and explain I had been driving all night and needed to be ready to go for the poker tourney. She was really understanding, and w/ one call on her radio had it all set up.

Ring, ring, ring, wake up call time. I shower and head back to the poker room. The first satellite didn't go very well, in fact I was the donkey! I wasn't really in the groove and after losing some key hands early on found myself short stacked. I usually pride myself in my shortstack play but for some dumbass reason I decided to push my last chips in w/ 97 suited from late position. I did think the big blind would fold but it was still a stupid play, I could have waited for a better spot. This time I was the donkey but I vowed to not be a donkey again.

The next satellite was at 4pm so I cought a couple more hours of sleep, had my ritual 1 shot of tequilla (chilled patron, the best!) and was ready. I played really, really well. My reads were excellent and there was no doubt that I was in charge of the table. The satellite structure was as follows: T1000 to start, rounds 15 mins long, starting w/ 25/50. In round 2 I got American Airlines, raised it up from middle position, got 2 callers. Flop A,T, rag. Early guy bets out, I call, late position folds. Turn rag, early guy bets out, I know he's weak, Hope he has an A, I decide to push all in and then manipulate him into calling. So I hollywood for a bit, and then quickly shove all my chips in . . ., he thinks, and thinks and the whole time I'm thinking, call me, call me, I'm really on a flush draw, I swallow hard, stop breathing and he Calls!, with only an A! He's drawing dead and I'm sitting pretty :) We get down to 3 handed and I'm a slight chip leader when this awful hand happens.

I'm in the BB with AQs, button folds, SB calls I make a standard raise, SB calls. Flop A,4,4. SB bets I put her all in and she calls showing 33. Turn 4, river 4. Split pot, we both have quad 4's with an A kicker (the board)! Oh well thats poker. Shortly after that I find AKo in the SB. Button calls (the lucky girl), I make a standard raise, BB puts me all in, button folds, and I quickly call. I didn't want to play a huge pot here, but 3 handed you just can't lay down AKo, especially when I didn't read him for having a premium hand. He shows KQo, and when he sees my hand he said, "I thought you were bluffing", well all is good untill he catches a K high str8 on the river, now I'm out in third. I still love poker! Stay tuned, gonna take a break and update the rest later, and it gets better!

Packin'

my bags for Chicago, plan to play some $65 1 table satellite tourneys tomorrow and a $500 tourney wed. Will update from Chicago.