Bar League Point Standings Through 9/27

Click on link in right side bar.

I'm Tired

The joys of assoiciated with hard work and the feeling of achievement are over rated!!! However things are going great at the club, it's just that it's kinda like now I wish I ddin't have to be there all the time, but (run on sentance I know) I guess that kinda comes with territory, hell I don't know. I'm suffering from sleep deprivation, but I do have some exciting post to make soonk, including the story behind Annie Leigh Schwartz Schulte II. I'm babbling now, so I'll get back to you later. Ciao

Word of the day "Unenployable"

My calves are soar, my lower back is killing me and I feel pretty much like I've been ran over by a small truck. All because I worked a couple of days.

Friday night the GM of my club and I had a falling out. There were alot of things slipping at the club and now I get the opportunity to jump in and fix it! So last night I wasn't sure what to expect, with the club. One of my biggest concerns was who was going to show up. As it turns out, we lost 1 waitress, and 1 floor host and that's it.

So I stumble in to work at 5:30pm and started setting up the club. This is when I realized just how unemployable I am. If you too would like to ruin any future chance of gainful employment just follow my simple 2 step plan. 1- Buy a strip club and become an absentee owner for 5 years or more. 2- Play Poker! You should have seen me trying to windex down glass table tops, and clean ashtrays. I honestly don't think I even have the skills to be a busboy!

I just heard a cool quote on TV. "The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can't are both right. Which one are you?" I'll choose the later. I've gone from not knowing if I could buckle down and fix the club to seeing some awesome changes. Sometimes just a little effort can go a long, long ways. I feel great about everything at work now, we have had 3 smashing nights, and the troops are all doing a fantastic job. Ced and the crew have really stepped up to the challenge of turning Club Vogue back into the best gentlemen's club in the Mid-west!

I've got 2 birthday parties to stop by tonight, and then I'll crash early and get some hard earned ZZZZ's in and then it will be off to work early Monday to clean up from the hard weekend. I'm kinda jonesing to play poker but it looks like my next opportunity won't be untill monday night's games at the club.

Ben and Paul, sorry about yesterday, I had to take care of some business, but I lookforward to playing soon! Thanks Starr for your expert "advise" yesterday and Greg, man, without your help things would have been a clusterf@#K, Thank You.

A few minutes to kill

Wednesday night I played in 2 bar league tourneys, got 1 first and on the second made the final table.

Getting ready for work right now, I'll be at the Club from 6pm-7pm and then again from 10:30pm untill close (around 4am). If you are out tonight stop by and say hi.

Tomorrow a few of us are going to play a tournament in the afternoon, hopefully the buy in will be $50 or $100 bucks. Should be a good time.

I haven't shaved in a couple of weeks, so today I got out the rusty razor and hacked through all the scruff, but I decided to do something different. I carved a gotee! Not sure I like it yet, but I'll give it a day or two. Gotta go.

Out in first, errrr First Out I mean!

I played in the 10pm Shilo game last night, well kinda sorta, I played 1 hand. I'm in early position of our 8 handed table and find AQs. Remember the blinds are 250/500 and we only start w/ 8500 in chips giving us an M of 11 (M = Your Stack Size divided by [BB + SB + any antes] and tells you how many rounds you can last at the current level. What this means is you have to mix it up. In a large tourney w/ a starting stack size of say 10,000 and blinds of say 25/50 you can have an M of well over 100. So as much as I don't like AQs in early position throwing the hand away is a terrible play, as is limping. The hand figures to be the best and the only question is how much to raise. I settled upon a strong standard raise to 2500 straight for a couple of reasons. From early position I could raise less, but out of position I didn't want to play anymore than 1 opponet. If I was reraised I could still get away from the AQs If I sensed strength. Well I got 1 middle positon caller and 1 late position caller. Interesting, I still likely have the best hand. The flop came K,rag,rag 2 clubs, no apparent str8 draw. but did give me the nut flush draw w/ 4 clubs. I've got 6000 in chips left and the pot has over 8K in it. I want those chips! I'm first to act, hmmm what to do. What kind of hands would have called and not reraised preflop? A strong ace, or KQ are possibilities as are small and medium pocket pairs. KJs? some players might. I could check with the intention of raising all in on a semi bluff, lead out at the pot representing a pair of k's or push all in. With the pot so large in relation to our stack sizes any bet less than all in would be make a very tempting call for any top pair, flush draw, or hand like TT. The way to get those chips is to push all in, even that is a less than pot sized bet, but that move gives me 2 ways to win, my 2 opponets fold or I catch the flush. Middle position went in the tank for about 1 minute and called w/ AK, the club never came and poof I was out. It was definately an agressive play on my part, but I'm convinced the all in was the correct play. If I had raised less preflop and got the 2 callers I would have had more options on the flop but who's to say I wouldn't have been reraised by the AK?

Gonna try and get some points at tonights game.

Here's a pretty cool hand type frequency chart I found.

New Point Standings Now Up

Click below or on link in right sidebar.
http://donkeybait.blogspot.com/2005/09/bar-league-point-standings.html

Shana is gone, say hello to the new WPT hostess . . .

Courtney Friel. Here are a couple of links to get you started:
Her official page http://www.courtneyfriel.com
More pics http://www.courtneyfriel.net/gallery/
Who says change isn't good!

The Constant Gardner

I finally went and saw the only movie I have been looking forward to in quite some time. Ofttimes when our expectations are high, a letdown is common and that was partially true with this movie. The Constant Gardner is the tale of a british diplomat and his fanatical tree hugging wife. She accompanies him to Africa and gets caught up in this liberal anti pharma business stuff, and has to be silenced by the evil pharmaceutical companies before she brings to light their unethical drug testing programs.

I won't spoil the movie here, but the movie had strong political overtones that overshadowed an otherwise good story. Less time should have been spent on trying to make people hate big biz, and more time on producing a good movie! Why can't movies just be good movies without some liberal trying to further influence the gullible with underhanded techniques or yellow journalism? The cinematography was done in a shaky, rough manner that almost felt like a home movie at times. The overall effect made it seem more "real". My friend Star asked me if it was a true story, and I'm sure many others would have the same impression. I can picture a Barbara Streisand or (that idiot actor who married Madonna and runs, not only off to Africa to fight aids, but his mouth off all the time) Sean Penn citing this movie like it was fact, using it to support their anti conservative rhetoric.

The lowdown, it's worth the price of a matinee ticket or a small popcorn but not both.

Lots of links

Earlier I added 2 links. Then I added another and re-edited the post, then another, ditto, ditto.

Today I added many new links. They are all excellent links and I profit in no way from any of these links (note 2 exceptions: 1- David Williams site kinda sucks 2- I get an affiliate bonus from the Paradise Poker banners). I have waded through all the online poker garbage for you.

Poker Tracker is the hugely popular and excellent online poker tracking software. The demo allows you to import 1000 hands. A must for any serious online player. The tournament director software is an excellent tournament management tool and poker clock. It is donation ware, if you use it and like it you can donate (not to me!). Pro player David Williams's site has a blog (not a very good one), but pro Andy Bloch's World Poker Tour (unofficial) fan site is pretty good. Also a couple of poker magazine home pages, a link to everything you ever wanted to know about chip tricks, the official WPT site, pokerupdates.com and pokertells.com round out the additions. Poker Updates has cool video interviews w/ players, and covers live tourneys and www.pokertells.com has a couple of worthwhile strategy articles. Playwinningpoker is done by pro Steve Brecher and is a good resourse for online strategy. Pokerlizard.com has interviews w/ top pro's and the poker odds resourse is good to read to brush up on your odds, and hand match ups. Enjoy.

A little poker

I'm still waiting for Jeremy to e-mail me the current point standings.

Unfortunately I only added 10K to my point total this week, that is 1 8th place finish. In a way I was both lucky and unlucky to get the 10k.

The hand I misread or I pulled a T.J. Cloutier:

Fairly early I played 78o. The flop came 7,6,2 and Ben, a solid agressive player, check raised me all in on the flop. I sensed he was weak and called with my top pair, but oops, I didn't have 78o, it was 89o!!! "I remember Ben saying, who's overs are better" and I responed "Over's, I've got a pair". Luckily he had JQ and I turned an 8! My 88 held up and I made a not so smooth double up.

I'm happiest when I've got a stack, and now I could open up my game. Before long I had the tourney chip lead by a mile. Down to about 12 players and this hand comes up. Me small blind w/ KK. Aaron in late position makes a standard raise and I sense that he will call so I quickly push all in. He calls w/ AQ and rivers the A, doubles up and now my big stack is only a "normal" big stack. I make the final table w/ an average stack, but get knocked out in 8th, when my A8 gets called by the big blind who had KT. The big blind got lucky and to the rail I go. I certainly got plenty of action on key hands where I was a good favorite, but in the end an unfortunate turn of beats was to much to overcome.

On a positive note I have been crushing our cash tourneys. The last 5 times we have gotten together I have won atleast one of the tournaments outright, and in 2 instances won 2. One trend I have noticed is that I have won the first tourney we play 4 times now, and I think I relax, not to mention, drink more after the first win.

You make the play #4

Here's the set up. NL tournament, starting chips 8500, about 16 players remain. Our under the gun hero has 7000 left at a 5 handed table and finds KJo, the best hand he has seen all tourney. There is 1 active, agressive player w/ a monster stack, 1 average stack, 2 short stacks. Blinds are now 500/1000 what should our hero do, fold, limp, or raise?

Our hero infact decides to limp, he doesn't want to be pot committed w/ such a weak holding. A short stack goes all in for 3k over, the monster stack calls, and there is now 10.5K in the pot and it is 3k (1/2 of your remaining chips) to call what should our hero do now?

A few factors to consider: pot odds of 3.5 to 1 are hard to get away from, however jeopardizing 50% of your remaining chips, out of position, with an easily dominated holding isn't a recipe for tournament success! On the other hand the blinds are gonna burn away 25% of your chip stack in the next 2 hands. Think about possible hands the short stack and active, monster stack players might have.

Let me know how you would play the hand and I'll post the actual results and a detailed analysis soon.

I posted professional poker player Aaron Bartley's response in the comment section.

Great read gone bad!

In the 10pm bar tourney last night, held at Vogue, I played an interesting hand that sent me to the curb. Blinds were 500/1000 and remember each player starts w/ 8500. My stack was around 10.5k. An early position player raised to 3K straight, It was folded to me in late position and I just called. Here is my thinking here. He seemed strong, had me outchipped and I thought it was possible that he had a monster like AA or KK, but I had position on him and trusted my ability to read him on the flop, if I hit. In these fast tourneys w/ limited chips I certainly didn't want to raise and be pot commited w/ kqo. The flop came K,Q,J, rainbow (rainbow means different suits, no flush draw out there), however there certainly were many straight draws, and if he had a hand like KK, unlikely, because I had the other K, or QQ, same deal, I was in bad shape. If however he had AA, as I thought likely, I'm in great shape. I didn't feel like he could have had JJ because most players, especially intermediate level players, lead out stronger w/ JJ because they are afraid of overcards and his pre-flop bet felt to me like it was saying "please call or raise" not "please fold". (learning to play JJ like any other premium hand is essential to your poker development), anyway, AA, AK, or AQ, were the 3 most likely hands that I felt he had. I believe he checked the flop and I raised it 5k leaving only a couple left over. I could have shoved all in but I thought I was in the lead here and wanted to make sure and get all of his chips in the pot. He re-raised me all in and I called. So far so good. He showed AA and I commented "I knew it" which isn't totally true. Reality is that I thought it was likely, but wouldn't have been suprised to see AK, and AT didn't feel right. I was nearly a 2 to 1 favorite but unfortunately the turn was another J, which counterfited my 2 pair and gave him aces up. Oh well. Great read gone bad.

As is often the case after I lose or win a key hand I'll think about it and ask myself if there was anyother way to play the hand that would have resulted in losing less or winning more. In this case the only other option I had would have been to play a small pot here. By not betting into it he would have (maybe) led out small on the turn and I could have called it down, but this would have been a bad play for a couple of reasons. First, the flop was scary, I couldn't afford to let any str8draws take free cards, also there is no guarantee that he wouldn't put me all in anyway. Sometimes you just have to throw down w/ the best of it to protect your hand and hope it holds up.

Some drinks are more expensive than others

As far as transportation goes I've always liked my daily driver, a 1995 Lexus LS400. The car has always been real reliable, gets pretty darn good gas milage, Is the easiest to drive car I have ever owned and has a V8 w/ good horsepower to boot. But my favorite feature of the car is it's stock Nakamichi Sound System.

Now there are certainly louder thugged out systems, but that bass thing has never been my deal. What I like about the Naki, is that it has the best sound quality, or most accurate sound of any car stereo I have ever heard bar none, plus a subwoofer, & 6 disk in dash changer. It has never let me down, so how do I repay it for being so good to me? I KILL it, drown it to be exact.

Matt and I got a drink to go from Hoots and then headed out to Harpo's. I left my drink in the car, in the center cup holder. Later on the way back to the club I hit the breaks and my Vodka Cranberry sailed out of the cupholder straight twards the radio, and right down the throat of the cassette deck. Perfect shoot, nothing but air. Suprisingly little of the estimated 14 ozs of coctail, managed to find it's way anywhere but deep, deep inside the stereo unit. Poof, the sound died instantly. The buttons stopped working, ie. stuck on one radio station, or activiate the CD player. Matt jokingly said I hope you like 96.7, looks like you'll be listening to it for a while. I only wish. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be listening to anything for a while, atleast not while I'm driving.

My last hope and desire was that this morning, actually midafternoon, when I got up I would find that everything inside had dried out and it would work fine again, but no such luck.

One more thing, those people at Hardees are assholes. Is it just me or do people become stupider and stupiderer year after year at an alarming rate, nearly exponential. 3:30 am, I'm hungry so Matt and I swing into the Hardees drive thru for some breakfast grub, we order 2 breakfast croisants w/ ham total about $3.27. After about 5 minutes of waiting I note the time. 28 minutes later we've moved from 4th place to on deck w/ no sign of improvement in the near future. I decide I have to get a better look, so I get out of my car and walk around the SUV infront of me to peer in the drive thru window. Some fat, nasty, stupid, african american is waddling around doing absolutely nothing. I tap on the window and she just scowls. Unbelievable. I return to my vehicle and decide the breakfast isn't so important, but I am trapped between the building and a concrete curb w/ shrubs on the right, and 2 vehicles, to the front and rear. Now the way I see it this is my time and my apitite isn't what is was 35 minutes ago and I wanted to leave. I also wanted to carefully back up about 2 feet, cut the wheel hard to the right, gingerly crawl over the curb and mow down those shrubs! (you can decide for yourself whether I did what I wanted to do or not.)

I played 2 cash tournaments last night. Caleb, his friend, Peeps, Wes, Matt, and I all anted up (actually Wes passed out so it was just 5 of us. I won the first tourney, and once again busted out first in the second tourney when my 55 failed to thwart off peeps KQ. So much for presto.

Bar League Point Standings

Let the games begin! Click the link to your right (in the sidebar) "Bar League Point Standings" to find out where you're at.

Come Join Us! All tournaments are free to play. Two tournaments nightly, at 7:00pm and 10:00pm. Monday Club Vogue, Tuesday Shilo Bar and Grill, Wednesday Tropical Liquers South, Thursday Thirsty Turtle, Fri,Sat, & Sun are all open.

Updated Through 9/27/05

1 Aaron Atkins 960000
2 Benedict Nagy 830000
3 T Lockhart 820000
4 Peeps 770000
5 Chase Lucas 470000
6 Ryan Lynch 460000
7 Jay Yeager 420000
8 Jerod Mickelson 400000
9 Clayton Ridenour 350000
10 Greg Adams 350000
11 Mike Heady 350000
12 Millard Thomas 350000
13 Suzanne Stuebben 300000
14 Kaleb Leeper 270000
15 Daniel Jacob 260000
16 Greg Meyer 250000
17 Kevin O'Neal 250000
18 Buddy Thomas 240000
19 Joe Grass 240000
20 Rhonda McMillian 240000
21 Levi Blanchette 240000
22 Kate Tomlinson 230000
23 Michelle Wilhoit 230000
24 Jesse Langille 220000
25 Vaughn Asi 220000
26 Ashley Vittetoe 210000
27 Ken Jacob 210000
28 Matt Knutson 210000
29 Steve Brackman 210000
30 Annalise Hombs 200000
31 Chris Brown 200000
32 Kay Jackson 200000
33 Kevin 200000
34 Deon Baskett 200000
35 Todd McLoughlin 200000
36 Bob Harris 200000
37 Brandon McElwan 190000
38 Brett Hecker 190000
39 Jon Trunk 170000
40 Nathan Crowe 170000
Bill Weaver 160000
Josh Klingenberg 160000
Krisina Dyer 160000
Andrew Avis 160000
Gretchen Erb 130000
Greg Koebel 120000
Zeb Ore 120000
Casey Lucero 110000
Jed Lewis 100000
Sean McClusky 100000
Ashleigh 100000
Paul McCoubrey 90000
Richard Dody 90000
David Sandoval 80000
Brad Dyer 60000
Brendan Murphy 60000
Carina Mendez 60000
Gerry Blaise 60000
Kris Mitchell 60000
Linda 60000
Mike Jennings 60000
Shawn Bonich 60000
Kelly Gunderson 50000
Paul Arenson 50000
Rick Matheny 50000
Ross Reinhart 50000
Sabine Khoury 50000
Shaun Gamblin 50000
Carrie Gordon 40000
Jason Kimble 40000
Jack Lapping 30000
Jason Vipond 30000
Andrew Saeger 20000
Janet Dyer 20000
Ty Seidel 20000
Adam Masten 10000
Tony Beakton 10000
Anthony Laggart 10000
Charles Wilson 10000
Toolbox 10000

Donkey Bait Book Review Links Now Up

I added links to my bookreviews, they are on the sidebar to your right.

Speaking of reviews, I got my first copy of All In magazine the other day. It's a slick glossy mag chocked full of good poker stuff. Not all poker journalists are as good of poker players as they are poker lovers. They examined several key hands from NBC's heads up challenge that Hellmuth won, and the hand analysis ( is the plural of analysis, analysi or possibly analysiss?) , imho, were horrible. I would be willing to bet that their analysis seldomly coincided with what the pro's were actually thinking. The dude more than once mistook a set for trips, they are very different ( a set is three of a kind using both of your hole cards, trips is three of a kind using only 1 or possibly none of your hole cards), but more importantly he had poor, incorrect, and elementary understanding of poker strategems.

On the posive side they had an excellent article by Antonio Esfandiari, that was designed to plug his poker camp, but it had lots of really, really good stuff in it, as well as an insight to how he plays. There were tips from other pros as well. All in all, All In mag, is required material for any poker junkie and gets a solid thumbs up!

Happy Birthday Slenker! Some disjointed poker, and Matt's bad beat

Well I set sail with the captain, morgan that is and arrived at Hoot-n-annys for their 9pm game. My very first hand was QJ, and I was under the gun so I limped in. Now these donkeys at hoot-n-annys always call and almost always limp in and It was no suprise when 7 of us saw the flop of J,rag,rag. I led out 150 into a pot of 140 and got 1 caller. Turn a rag, I bet 300 donkey calls, and looks real weak. River another rag, I check, he checks and I win a nice pot, he had JT! What possible hand he thought he could beat I'll never know!

I had a bit of a conundrum because Matt and I had to be at the Thirsty Turtle at 10 pm for the league game, so we both decided to play a little fast. With 20 mins to go or so I peered down and found 77 in the small blind, there were 3 limpers so I made it 250 all day long, and with the blinds at 10-20 that represents a raise of about 12.5 times the big blind! Of course they all call!!! What donkeys! The flop comes A,7,4 rainbow (rainbow means no possible flush draws), about as good a flop as you can expect! I could slow play my monster set but I'm hoping these donkeys that called that huge raise might have an A, maybe AK was trying to be sneaky (bad play by the way) so I lead out a small bet of 200 into the huge pot of 1020. Against good players that would be a weak play. Unfortunately 2 donkeys fold, but Harry goes all in over the top! Of course I call in a heartbeat. Now I figure Harry has a hand like AJ, or AT, (both donkey hands) but he turns over A2!!! What a donkey! My set holds up and I drag a huge pot, while Harry acts all indignant and storms out, wow!

It's almost time to go so I slide about a third of my monster stack over to Matt (under the table) and we start playing real fast. Unfortunately one of us wins another monster pot! After a couple of all ins, a friend of ours Wes finally wins most of our chips but I've still got em covered by quite a bit so I say "to the victor belong the spoils", slide the rest of my chips to Wes and head out to the Thirsty Turtle. By the way, Wes ended up placing in 3rd, so my chips weren't wasted after all!

Matt's Bad Beat:

It was Slenkers birthday, so there was no chance of slowing down. A couple of drinks into the tourney and I find A8 in the big blind. Matt makes a standard raise from late position and I call saying "don't mess with my blinds". I put Matt on a quality hand, probably 2 bid cards. If the flop comes rags I'll lead steal at him, If not probably give up the pot, and if there is an A, I'll lead out at the pot for info and just have to trust my read. Well the flop comes rags so I lead out. Matt raises, now I know that Matt knows that I don't have to have a hand to bet at that pot, so he doesn't necessarily have to have a hand to raise me, however I still sense some strength, but throwing caution to the wind I reraise him leaving just enough chips in my stack to get way from the hand If I really want to. If he does have the big pair he's representing he'll probably shove all in, and I'm not in the mood to walk away from this large pot. Well thats exactly what happened, we got it all in and he shows QQ. The turn was an A!!! Sorry Matt, you had the best hand, but man it sure was nice for once to give out a bad beat instead of just receive them all the time!

About 1 drink later I wake up with KK, manage to screw the hand up real good, but did knock out 2 players and drag a monster pot.

Final Table Time

I grab a seat next to Kate and compare stacks, we're the chip leaders. With Millard to my left, Kate on my right, the conversation was great and with Caleb, Peeps and Chase lurking in the background along with Slenker steadily pounding Jack Daniels this was a recipe for a fun final table. A new player, Lisa or Laura was calling virtually every hand and making some miracle catches, she dealt out beat after beat. I believe that Kate and I got 4th and 5th place respectively, however it could have been 5th and 6th place. A good time was had by all.

After a little fooseball, Chase is the man here, I catch a ride to Calebs place and we proceed to . . . play more poker! 2 cash tourneys, I won the first, and busted out first in the second. I wake up around noon at Calebs in a lazy boy chair, cab it home, pick up my car, and it's about time to put together another game!

Slenker asked if I would mind posting league points on donkeybait and I gladly obliged so every Friday I'll post a link w/ our point standings, hopefully starting tonight. Chow for now.

Calling Stations are my Nemisis

It took me longer than most, but I HAVE learned that you can't bluff a calling station (a usually loose, passive player that calls with terrible holdings and chases draws, they can't be bluffed easily because they are to stupid to fold), but nonetheless they still seem to mess me up. In last nights bar tourney, I busted out fairly early w/ AK. AK is the hand that sends more people to the rail in NL tourneys than any other hand! Out of position callingstation donkey calls my preflop raise w/ 45o. Flop 873, giving donkey a gutshot str8 draw. Donkey checked and I knew donkey was weak, as donkey is very easy to read and I pushed all in. Donkey calls! and catches a 4! Oh well. Always have atleast a pair when betting into callingstation donkeys?!

Next a bunch of us, 8 to be exact played a cash tournament and . . . I won! Was heads up against Peeps for about 30 minutes and came back from behind to pull it off. I was on the button and limped w/ AQ, he pushed all in w/ A7 I called in a snap and it held up! Was a good match all in all.

I haven't forgot about the other upcoming posts I mentioned in my last post, I'll get to them eventually.

Where to begin? Lots of poker stuff!

I think I will start with last night and work back in reverse chronological order, for the most part.

Last night the poker league played at Shilo's bar and grill. I got 2nd place in the 7:00, and 5th place in the 10:00 game. Not bad I guess, but I was disappointed on how they turned out.

When the first game got down to heads up, Ryan had just busted out the other player and had me outchipped about 4 to 1. He went all in on on the first heads up hand, I folded. Then I stole some blinds (4k, 8k). Once again the blinds were so high in relation to the stack size that you don't have much of a choice, you need to catch some cards, but I did make a mistake, here it is. Ryan was on the button (heads up that is the small blind) so he is first to act pre flop then last to act in all following rounds. He just called. Now the pot has 16k, and I've got about 20k left. Obviously I need this pot, and then I need to double up. I was pretty sure he wasn't slowplaying a good hand here, and my 23s is not great but I might as well go all in here right? That would be the play most players would make, and was the play I made. This gives you 2 ways to win, he can fold, or you can make a hand in a situation where you are probably only a 60-40 dog. Like I said, I did push all in and he called and his K7o held up. Certainly not a terrible play on my part but this play would have been better, the stop and go.

A stop in go is when you raise, but not all in, and hold back enough chips to make a move at the pot regardless of what comes on the flop. The idea is that you may win with your original raise, you may catch cards, or you may win when you go all in on the flop. It is more powerful when you are first to act (out of position).

Now, some good tourney players would certainly be looking for the stop and go here but many players would not. In our hand, had I raised 10k more he probably would have called (he did call the all in, and he was unlikely to raise w/ the K7o, remember I had a read on him and knew he didn't have a premium hand. When the flop missed us both I would have lead out all in for my last 10k, and he would have thought about it and finally mucked his cards, and I would have picked up a nice pot, and be only 1 double up away from a dominating chip position!

The moral of the story is the next time you find yourself shortstacked consider the stop and go, especially if you are out of position. It can work w/ position, but you run the risk of an agressive player bluff leading into the pot on the flop, then even if you do go all in he may have to call based upon pot odds. Also if someone checks to you first then your all in doesn't have as much weight, it is more likely you are stealing than when you are first to lead into a pot with players yet to act behind you. And always remember: most flops, miss most hands, . . . most of the time! :)

I'm going to take a break, but I've got a trip report from the boats, and a drunken online $100 sit-n-go to report on later! Lots of good poker stuff and 1 horror story (I haven't decided for sure yet whether or not I'll share the horror story, but I am leaning twards doing just that) coming down the pike!

Also I added a link to www.clubvogue.biz, (my place) lots of new stripper pics there! -- Now over 25K unique visitors!

Not much to report

Began moving stuff again today at 9:30 am, took care of some business, and now It's time to . . . go out, and hopefully get a poker game on tonight!

Moving Sucks!

Yeah, I've been working on the condo, trying to make it habitable. Without Greg's help I'm not sure I would have got any of it done. Moving is quite possibly my least favorite thing to do. On a positive note I managed to sell my weight equipment, and don't have to mess with moving that!

Monday night I played poker in our bar league, and Mondays are at my place. I won the 7:00, and along w/ the other points I had for the month found myself in 8th place for our league, not too bad considering I didn't play much this month. Last night was the month end cash tourney, and my 8th place spot got me only 8k in chips. Ben and Chase both had over 1M in points and started with stacks of 18k and 14k respectively. So my strategy, besides drinking, was to play pretty fast. I was active in alot of pots, pulled down a few, lost one and found myself about even when I lookded down and found JJ. Knowing how active I had been I figured to get good action w/ the hand and managed to get myself all in w/ 2 callers. One had 99 and Crazy Bob (Crazy is meant as a compliment here) had QQ. I turned a set of jacks, but Bob had already caught his set of Q's and that was that.

One more poker hand, this one from about 1 1/2 weeks ago. Final table, 8 players left, me middle position with KK, I make my standard raise and Casey a solid, sneaky player just calls in late position. the flop comes 8 high, 2 hearts, and is pretty sizable. I can't remember if I checked or bet (I would normally lead out at that pot and would be very suprised if I had checked it) but either way I remember calling all-in in a flash and proudly turned up my KK's only to see Casey's AA. Yuch!!! He slowplayed preflop and I was trying to act weak on the flop! The bullets held up. The classic "cold deck" situation.

Word of the day "cold deck". Unlike a bad beat where you have the advantage statistically and get outdrawn, being colddecked is when the poker gods conspire to put you in a situation you can't get away from and you lose. Set over set or KK vs AA are classic examples.

Also I have had several people mention to me that they can't follow all of the poker lingo, so I have added a link on the right to a poker glossary. It has most poker lingo, but may not be updated w/ some of the new gen-x terms.