Hella Hold'em

BBT5 - Bring it!

Full Details over at Full Tilt: BBT5

Tournament: Poker From the Rail
When: Monday, April 19th through May 24th starting at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $24+2 (or token)*
Password: 2010WSOP

Tournament: The Mookie
When: Wednesday, April 21st through May 26th starting at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $10+1*
Password: vegas1

*Winner also receives ToC entry

Tournament: Battle of the Blogger Tournaments Invitational
When: Sunday, April 18th through May 23rd starting at 19:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: Restricted freeroll**

**$2,000 Prizepool + 1st and 2nd place receive ToC entry

Tournament: Blogger Battle Royale
When: Sunday, June 6th starting at 14:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: Freeroll for BBT participating bloggers

Donate online via my Walk MS 2010 page!

In 3 weeks, I will be walking in the Walk MS 2010 event for Team Kathy. We're walking for my cousin's wife's mom, who has battled multiple sclerosis for years, and it greatly affects her everyday life. MS interrupts the flow of information between the brain and the body and eventually stops people from moving.

Every hour another person is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. For 20,000 people in Illinois and some 400,000 nationwide, that hour has already arrived.

It's not easy to pinpoint the cause of multiple sclerosis and so far, the cure rests on continued research. This is why I am writing to you: I need your help, generosity and support! Donate to our team, or come walk with us!

As a participant in the Chicago South Suburbs Walk MS taking place on Sunday, May 2, 2010, I am raising money so the Greater Illinois Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society can continue to provide programs and services for Illinois families impacted by multiple sclerosis while funding vital research into the cause and cure of multiple sclerosis.

The Greater Illinois Chapter utilizes approximately 88% of every dollar raised to fund programs that actively help people with multiple sclerosis and their families, public and professional education and research. A portion of your donation will help fund more than 350 multiple sclerosis research projects.

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation on my behalf to help me reach my fundraising goal. No amount is too small!! Online donations can be made simply by clicking on the link at the bottom of this message. You can also send a donation made payable to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to me, or print a donation form and mail it to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Every dollar makes a difference in leading the movement against multiple sclerosis.

Check out my personal page to learn why I'm walking in this great event on Sunday, May 2. You can even check on my fundraising progress, and if you've made a donation, look for your name scrolling in the fundraising honor roll. Your support is so important to me and to Kathy and to all those living with multiple sclerosis.

I truly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on my progress!

Thank you!

Donate online via my Walk MS 2010 page!

It's a crazy game, that poker....

I'm currently playing in a league game on Full Tilt. I haven't done much this season, though in my defense I've had to play on the road (literally - while in the car heading to New Mexico) and in other less than desirable circumstances. But tonight, I have the joy of playing from home sweet home - with a full belly, working broadband, and no distractions.

We'll see if things go any better.

On the way home from work tonight, I got the urge to turn the Jeep around and head to the casino. I haven't had that itch in a while. It was hard to ignore! But I did. Had a league game to get home to!

I'm applying to an MFA program in photography. If I thought I was busy before, just wait till I get in! I've been taking undergrad classes at work in photography for almost 3 years now. I've accumulated over 40 credits.... figured it's about time I get serious. The degree will help me in my current job as well as in my freelance work.

Other than that, there's a whole lot of unwatched poker on my TiVo! I have to catch up on High Stakes Poker. The rest is for bored off-season days, but HSP is a keeper. I think the new season started....

That's about all my news. Time to go try and survive the suckouts from this 45% VPIP, loose-passive table....

I'm playing Rush Poker on Full Tilt for the first time and I feel like I'm on crack!

Not that I've ever tried crack but my lord this must be what it's like! Holy hell!

Gone are my carefully crafted, detailed notes on each player. No more wondering what that other guy had. It's mildly insane.

I chose to play Limit for my first time. It seems best suited for that, at least the way I play limit, which is pretty much by statistics and straight up math.

It feels almost primal to just go back to numbers. Glorious numbers.

I think I might like it.....

It’s mid-winter in Chicago. After a brief snow melt (and nearly a month under snow cover), those white flakes are flying again. I missed the recent WPBT blogger convergence on The Mecca (aka Las Vegas), and I am jonesing - both for casino action and for warmth! The internet can’t much help with the warmth part, but it can help with the casino action. How about online casinos?

When it comes to gambling online, it “pays” to do your research - even if you’re playing for fun and not for money. Visiting a casino online and playing for free is a great way to branch out and learn new games. You can learn the rules in a no-risk environment before trying your luck in Las Vegas or at a casino online. It’s also a great way to practice and improve your skills in games you already know how to play. (Heaven knows I’m still “practicing” at no-limit hold’em!)

If you’re looking to research your online gaming options, check out the web site Online Casino Spotlight. There, you can find introductory lessons on a variety of games like video poker, hold’em, baccarat, and PAI GOW! (Crayola digestion is optional). Explore some new games and broaden your horizons.

You will also find recent online gambling news, with up to date and relevant information. For example, you can find information on a Help for Haiti poker tournament hosted by a UK online casino.

The site offers easy-to-follow navigation icons, categorized by the various casino games - poker, blackjack, roulette, slots, craps, and video poker. Explore these games, or use the global search box (with the magnifying glass icon) to search deeper. The Featured Online Casino area offers welcome bonuses for cash players, and the top 10 online casinos are listed with reviews, including features, contact information, languages supported, and currencies supported.

Scratch that gambling itch and check out a new online casino. You might even make some money, if online gambling is legal where you live.

Good luck!

Is it just me, or is Full Tilt disconnecting a lot lately?

Playing in an online league game at the moment. Feeling a bit more aggressive than usual, kind of like I want to tear a few peoples' heads off. Hmm. Not sure if this is good or bad for my game.

A couple of us 'round here are trying to get a little midweek home game going. Nothing crazy - just a casual game to scratch the itch, so to speak. I'm hoping that'll work out. I miss live cards.

In other news, since going organic, I've started attempting to cook... and with that, I've added another food blog to the universe (as if we needed more of those). You should check it out, because as I add recipes and tales of my adventures, there will most definitely be something there you can make fun of me over. I promise.

Epic Organic - http://www.epicorganic.net

I've had pocket 8's three times tonight. There's so much snow on the ground outside that I have no desire to deal with snowmen indoors.

Break time! We're playing shorthanded so not much time to type. Wish me luck :) Laters!

First off, Happy New Year! Here's to a happy, healthy, and productive 2010 to all!

With that out of the way, I suppose I should recap my resolutions for the year. None are really poker-related, as - while I still love the game - I am no longer maintaining a casino bankroll for live play, and that relegates the sport to hobby status in my grand scheme of things. Don't get me wrong - if I had the money, I'd be right back in it, as I absolutely love live poker. For now, though, the funds just aren't there, and any spare cash I've got is being sunk into my other major hobby, photography - with the hopes that I can turn that into a profitable venture in short time.

No, this year's resolutions center mostly around self-improvement, and while that tends to be the case every year, I feel I've got a better shot at success this year due to the fact that I made some big changes a month ago and am starting 2010 already on the right track. I "went organic" in late 2009, cutting out fast food and soda, and eating almost entirely organic and natural foods. (This happened after I watched the documentary movie, "Food, Inc." - Don't watch it unless you want to be shocked and appalled at the industrialized food business in the US and the scary food-like substances you're eating every day). Terrifying stuff, really.

So, my resolutions include continuing to eat organic, and learning to cook. I plan to explore some local farmer's markets in the spring, and vow to try at least 10 new foods this year. (I'm kind of a picky eater, traditionally). I've also taken up yoga, so another resolution is to continue that, expand my exercise habits, and lose weight. Third on the list, I'd like to come to a decision on going back to school, and possibly start down that road - likely for another masters degree, and likely in photography. Lastly, I'd like to save for and take at least one trip this year. There are 3 on my current list of possibilities: New Mexico in February, for a portraiture workshop; San Diego in August, for the annual world conference of my guild in Ultima Online; or, of course, Vegas.

2009 was a pretty good year in my world. There were a few bumps (some water damage at my house, a little cancer scare of the girl-parts variety, turbulence with one of my side-jobs that ultimately led to my departure, and some man issues), but there were a few high points too (an all-clear with the cancer scare, beating out a speeding ticket, a few nice little road trips, a trip to Vegas with CA April, and some potential good things to come at the day job). All in all, even the bumps in the road worked out for the best, or at least the best for now, and that's about all I can ask for.

I matched last January's performance at the Trojan Wars game again late in 2009, coming in 2 spots or so out of the money. That tends to be my MO there - go just deep enough to bubble. One of these times, it will be mine. Man I hate rebuys!

For what poker I did play, 2009 was actually a profitable year. I certainly can't retire on my winnings, but I was able to make enough to help with the bills at some crucial times. I played more poker in 2009 than I did in 2008, and I'd like to even play a little bit more in 2010. It keeps my brain ticking, and I feel like there could be a decent win out there for me this year :)

So, as I look back on 5 years of writing this blog (yes indeed, folks - hellaholdem was founded on Jan 2, 2005), I can say with certainty that poker has found a permanent place in my list of things to do. I haven't made it out to the WPBT Vegas tourneys in a few years (I could have this year, but instead decided to spend that money on a set of Alien Bees studio strobes, and set up a portrait studio in my house), but I think of you all often and have even started back up reading my doggone Google Reader feeds. (Sorry, slacked most of 2009 on that). We will meet again!

With that, I'm off to hit up a SnG on Full Tilt, and enjoy the last week of the holiday break before I have to go back to work.

Thanks for reading, and for your support these past 5 years! Here's to many more :)

It's not your day when you're down to 10xBB and finally get a playable hand in the form of AA...

My your holidays be safe and bright!

If anybody needs a quick and easy dessert to bring with to Thanksgiving dinner, here it is! It might just be my favorite part of the holidays.

Frozen Peanut Butter Pie

* 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
* 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
* 1 cup peanut butter
* 1 cup milk
* 1 (16 ounce) package frozen whipped topping, thawed
* 2 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crusts

1. Beat together cream cheese and confectioners' sugar. Mix in peanut butter and milk. Beat until smooth. Fold in whipped topping.
2. Spoon into two 9 inch graham cracker pie shells; cover, and freeze until firm.

The state of being too tired to do anything substantial but the time too early to go to bed without feeling like dinosaur... that's me, right now. So I'm playing a single table sit n' go on Full Tilt and chatting with you!

Well, not chatting, so much, as talking at you. Well, not talking, so much, as typing at you.

Anyway.

So, how many of you have turned on your outdoor Christmas lights? I admit, I'm one of those people that has occasionally turned them on the weekend before Thanksgiving (this weekend). But this year, I have refrained. I did hang the lights 2 weeks ago (because the weather was lovely), but I have not turned them on yet. And I just might hold out until after Thanksgiving, despite quite a few neighbors beating me to it this weekend.

Wow, I'm so exhaustedly restless that I almost just played K3 of spades in early position. hahahaha!!!!

I don't believe I blogged about the Trojan Wars game. What can I say - I'm not fan of rebuys, even when I make it through without having to rebuy. I went out 7th or 8th or something like that (out of 26 or 27 or something like that). Top 4 spots were slated to pay, and the top 5 ended up chopping. As per usual, Ryan put on an excellent game, and as per usual, I didn't take home any pie. (Then I gave away the rest of my money limping into pots and folding in the cash game). I do wish I'd brought my notepad - there was some insanity going on (and, Ed folded a CLASSIC quadruple-up all-in rebuy hand! I think hell froze over that night). Ryan mentioned the possibility of hosting a non-rebuy game in the spring, and I will look forward to that gleefully (as it will probably be the next live poker I play).

What about Vegas? I dunno. I lost half of the incentive to get my butt out there when my presence was no longer vital for room-sharing purposes, and the lure of buying a set of studio strobes for my burgeoning photography work is currently winning out in the desire category. Sure, I'd love to see everybody, as it has been way too long, and I'd love to play hours on end of poker, but... well, I'm not ruling it out, but I'm jonesing for a set of studio strobes pretty bad.

On a totally unrelated note, don't you hate it when you realize that someone in your life is a lot more important to you than you are to them? Damn it, anyway.

Oooh, pocket 10's! Raise and take it. Not a bad outcome.

Then give it all away with suited connectors on that, "Aww, what the hell..." attitude with a gutshot. LOL!

Then double up by flopping a straight after pushing all in and seeing I was totally dominated!

Wow, the poker action is flying around here. Well alrighty then, I'll chill out, since I'm back at the same chip count as when I started that fiasco. Hopefully somebody noted that I'm a donkey that'll chase anything, and it'll pay off for me later.

Who am I kidding? Nobody actually pays attention at this level.

Back to the Christmas thing. I spent the weekend in Frankenmuth, Michigan. Just an overnighter trip... fun place if you like Christmas. (I do, generally speaking). I managed to finish a research paper on photographer Richard Avedon in the car on the way home (thank goodness for mobile broadband, yay Sprint!) But back to Frankenmuth - check it out if you like Christmas. The Bronner's Christmas store was pretty cool, and the little main street area was nice. Lots of neat little shops. We stayed at the Bavarian Inn Lodge, which - while a bit theme-y - was quite nice too. I just wish we'd have had time to partake in the indoor miniature golfing.

Do I play too many suited connectors and one-gappers? Probably.

Since I upgraded to Snow Leopard, my version of Poker Copilot doesn't work anymore. I have to upgrade to the new version of that software for it to work with Snow Leopard, and I haven't gotten around to that. So who knows what my stats are.

Damn you, push-or-fold mode.

Well, that didn't work out so well, even with the nut flush draw. Nice typing at you all, though! :)

Riddle me this:

So, while the US passed health care reform tonight, I'm celebrating with a SnG on Full Tilt. I wanted to play one of my favorites... the 90 player turbo deep stack knock-out SnG, but that's a little too much commitment for this sleepyhead.

Several people have inquired if I'm going to Vegas this December for the bi-annual blogger tourney. I was planning to go, but recent developments have me thinking I might want to sink the grand I'd like drop in Vegas on a set of photography studio strobes instead. I haven't decided yet (and if I come across a flight under $250, I could be swayed in that direction), but making money from my new passion (photography) seems more of a +EV proposition than my old passion (poker), which tends to be -EV.

That said, I really need a vacation. I wish I would have had the cash on hand to drop on Dave Matthews tickets when they went on presale to the Warehouse fan club. That would have guaranteed my trip. (He's playing with Tim Reynolds the same weekend as the blogger tourney, and in all of the 32 Dave/Dave Matthews Band shows I've seen, none have been of the Dave & Tim variety. I'd really love to see a D&T show.

There we go. First hand VPIP, first hand won.

I forgot how many all-in scoobies play at this hour.

I've finally had some time to play Ultima Online lately. The Halloween quest is pissing me off. I've run it 32 times and I cannot for the life of me get the dream wraith costume reward. Grr.

I went to Starved Rock State Park today in Utica, IL. Beautiful place. We had some unseasonably warm weather here in Chicago today - topped out near 70. Probably the last nice weekend of 2009... and the last nice weekend for many months. The only saving grace I see to look forward to is that the Farmer's Almanac is predicting less snow than usual this year, and after being bombarded the last 2 winters, I'll take it. I hate the cold, too, but in these parts, the world doesn't stop when there's a foot of snow on the ground. It's business as usual - just with a much longer commute.

So, back to Starved Rock - took some pictures. They're up on my Flickr:
Starved Rock Nov 2009

Had some Photoshop fun with one of them - I love it. Feels like it's all tripped out in the 70's:



No, I cannot call a 4xBB PFR with QTo.

Good thing I only played a single table SnG. I'm getting antsy already.

Not much else exciting in my world. Guess I'll talk photography while I blind out of this damn SnG. I'm pretty certain (like 91%) that I'm going to end up going with a set of Alien Bees lights. All of the feedback I've read and heard from people has indicated that they're good lights at a reasonable price, with great customer support. And, they're made in the USA, which to me is a good thing.

Wow, guess you guys really don't want to hear photography talk. The world has saved you - I'm out of the SnG. :P

Ahh well. Scratched that itch. Time to go read a little bit more about the physics of light, and pass out. :)

The availability of regular poker home games in my world has dwindled. Ryan still holds an annual game, and that is awesome, but the more frequent games have dried up. The only regular poker action I'm getting lately is by an online game, a couple times a month, with a group that has their own home game tournament bracket. I found this game through a friend-of-a-friend type thing, and while I'd love to join the tournament, I'd have to travel 800 miles each way to play. Not likely, so I'll have to settle for the bi-monthly online games.

I've been enjoying this last week off of work with a little bit of poker, and Full Tilt has been decently kind to me of late. I just sat in a little turbo SnG while killing time before I have to go get ready to head to a home game. Took 2nd (and got the honor of knocking out the aggro-donk of the table). That felt good :)

The true indicator that summer is almost over is that I have almost cleared out all of the poker show re-runs on my TiVo.

An alternate indicator is that I've actually been able to play a little poker lately, and when not completely card-dead, I've been doing alright the past couple weeks. Thank goodness - the August bills will be a little tight, so I will need to invoke the Cash-Out Curse on Full Tilt...

Poker has settled into its own little niche in my life. I don't pore over poker books obsessively like I used to, though I do pick up a good one every now and then, and occasionally re-read ones I've got. I still thoroughly enjoy watching poker on TV - but not *any* poker. I won't waste my time with the more poorly done shows, just because it's poker. But High Stakes Poker or Poker After Dark still hold my attention. And I love playing, whenever I can - even more if I can get out to the casino.

I like thinking about poker. I do still pore over statistics, and review plays, and think about how I might have done things differently. I love debating poker strategy. The thinking part of poker is right up my alley.

I've come to accept that I'll never really be great at poker. I don't have the proper intuition to read players consistently. I can read situations, but when the situation falls outside the realm of predictability, and into the mind of a crafty opponent, I'm generally lost. I'm not aggressive enough, and at the rate that I have gained aggressiveness over the years, I'll be 98 years old before I play with acceptable quantities of aggression.

No, I'll never be great, but it is nice to run well enough to pay a bill or two every so often. And really, that's about all I ever wanted out of my investment in learning the game.

I do love that there's always something new to learn. I've been fascinated lately with Tom Dwan. I'm typically not a fan of the punk ass kids, but something tells me he is smart enough to adapt and grow with the game - because I'm sure once everybody plays like him, and everybody figures him out, he won't be successful anymore. But that whole notion of adapting makes me think of Gus Hansen. He had this wild, crazy image for so long, but very quietly tightened up his game - all the while, people playing him like he's insane. The smart ones make like Gumby and bend. I think Dwan is going to prove to be one of the smart ones.

And he's from Jersey, and though I only lived in Jersey for a brief handful of years, it's kind of like the home I'll always long for. That was a pretty amazing time in my life, way back when.

Really, this blog post is all about procrastinating a gargantuan task I'm about to undertake. I've got about 100 books stacked on my poker table right now (see the tie-in?), from when I had my upstairs living room painted. I want to move the bookshelves and books downstairs... but oy, they are heavy, and there are many of them... so I've been putting this off for weeks, but alas, I need my living room back. And so it goes...

I hope everybody's doing well - I certainly don't make it out to Vegas as often as I'd like, but I do think about ya's often....

Let's see: can Shelly play in a 90 player KO Turbo SnG on FTP while Skyping while typing a blog post? We shall see!

I like the deep stack turbo's - particularly the knockout part. Most of the time, I'll make a few bucks back at least, even if I don't make the money - so nicer payoff potential for less investment. Good times!

Not much doing so far. Nearly doubled up on the first hand, and all has been quiet since - though I tend to find myself suddenly short-stacked very quickly in these things!

My summer is about to begin... a couple more weeks! I've got tickets to Dave Matthews Band in 3 cities this year. w00t!

I'm looking for some new tailgating ideas. I'm currently looking into whether my fondue pot takes a voltage low enough to be powered by my car. :) Any other cool ideas? I'm almost ashamed to say I saw some tasty looking appetizers on Rachel Ray the other day. (Hey, it's summer, I catch some daytime TV....)

Well, first break and I'm nearing the 10xBB push-zone. Maybe this multi-tasking thing doesn't work so well after all...

Really? It's WSOP time again? Here's how woefully behind I am: I still have 2 new episodes of the 2008 WSOP on my DVR to catch up on. Where does time go?

As is obvious by the crickets around here, my spring trip to Vegas led to me losing my meager bankroll, and I haven't been back to the casino since! Now that my summer schedule is opening up a bit, hopefully I can change that sad, sad fact.

I've seen a handful of poker bloggers post lately about losing interest in poker. It's understandable. The "new car smell" has worn off, and the buzz has hit the bug zapper. In some cases, it's a matter of priorities; it's hard to find the time for poker when so many other things appear higher on the list. In other cases, I think some people just get sick of losing. Not everybody can be good at poker, or even break-even at it, and losing over time gives a good beating to the psyche and the wallet.

Me? I'm still interested. I do struggle to find time to play, and I do struggle to find money to play (those other "priorities" often result in me spending my bankroll on other things). But, on the whole, I still enjoy playing, and I still enjoy learning new things about the game. I still think about the game and its nuances, and still study books and the players on TV and hand histories. I just don't do all those things as often as I did a few years ago.

Home games don't come around as frequently as they used to. Friends that used to run regular games now run them annually, if at all. The lousy economy has busted up the chances of getting a pick-up game together in my neck of the woods. Tough times. Still, there are a handful of us that still love this game and savor the opportunity to get together and throw some chips around.

And maybe that's how it should be. The world sort of filters out the player base for us.

Well, that was certainly a most unlucky trip to Vegas - for me, anyway. April did quite well, at least until we got to the airport. Her wallet may be fat but that burn is gonna hurt for a while! Let's hear it for idiotic coffee shop employees and ignorant airport security people!

Anyway...

A majority of my time was spent at MGM playing 1/2 NLHE...

Tuesday night, I was fairly unlucky but playing well. I was down a buy in after two ugly QQ beats. I made it out before the river, but the damage had been done. Lesson learned: 6x BB preflop raise, not enough at these tables.

Wednesday, I was getting killed. I found myself all-in early with KK vs KK, only to get flushed out by a 4-flush onboard. Sound familiar? Just like the QQ at Majestic a few weeks ago... there goes another buy-in.

Mind you - I don't push all-in preflop with these hands, but when someone comes over the top of me for all of it preflop, it's not likely that I'm going away... KK Quandry be damned.

By dinner, the donkeyfish were in my head. I was down 2 1/2 buy-ins on the trip, and having not been up for a single moment to that point, I was feeling run over. I'd succumbed to passive, scared play and I knew it.

April and I headed to dinner at the American place in NY NY, and between her and Randy on my texts, they screwed my head back on straight. My losses weren't unrecoverable, and tomorrow was another day. Wednesday night, I played 3/6 limit with April so I could have a few drinks and just chill. Straight-up math based decision making is actually relaxing to me :) That table was crazy too, and I was splashing around playing way too many hands - but I knew it couldn't ding me for any more than my $100 buy in, so I enjoyed myself a bit.

Thursday, I went back to NL ready to play my game - and play my game, I did. I made good reads on people and made some good plays. I felt good about my game on Thursday. Still, for the 11 or so hours I played, I still ended the day down 2 buy ins, finishing off the rest of my trip bankroll and leaving me fairly despondant over the whole ordeal.

While I would certainly change how I played for the last couple hours before dinner on Wednesday, it didn't cost me much more than walking away would have. I've soul searched for quite a few hours since Thursday night, and there isn't a whole lot I could have changed. I tried beating myself up over my play, but for the most part, I don't think I could have done much better. To illustrate my luck, the one set I flopped with a pocket pair (out of 17 pocket pairs held preflop), I got flushed out by a guy that had called my preflop raise with J4 and my flop bet with bottom pair, four's. That's just how it went. Too many calling stations and not enough players that played close enough to the rules to be "predictable."

I do have a few plays that I've stored in my memory banks as notches on my belt - good reads and good plays with good outcomes that I am proud of myself for. After spending hours dissecting the bad outcomes, I'm going to move forward focusing on the good.

Variance be damned, right?

April and I took a short break from the tables Thursday to check out the dolphins and baby cats over at Mirage. I forgot my good camera in the hotel room (I know, duh... the one thing I wanted to bring my camera for!) but took a couple pictures and videos with my camera phone. They will suck but I will post them anyway! I uploaded the video to YouTube yesterday and it's still not showing. Maybe it was too large. I'll have to check. Java, the baby leopard, is friggin adorable!

We also checked out Mirage's poker room (3/6 limit) and I was not impressed. The chairs were uncomfortable, and the tables were the old ones with no cup holders. Our particular table had been leaned on so many times on the player side that it was permanently slanted away from the dealer. I guess playing at MGM spoils a person... though I may need to find a different "nice" poker room, because I realized this week that as much as I love playing at MGM, I've had a grand total of one winning session there that I can remember. ONE. That's not a very good ratio. I've probably played there more than a dozen times.

Even more baffling is that I'm continuing to have really decent success at the online .50/1.00 NLHE tables. Yeah, me. How bizarre is that?

Ahh, well. And so it goes.

Oh - we didn't play at Excalibur's digital poker tables. We did stop and look at them and... well, it looked like playing online. After watching a few hands, I really had no desire to even try them. I don't go to the casino to stare at a computer screen. I go to play cards... with actual cards... and actual chips...

Another random note... I've been having so much friggin trouble with Postgres SQL and Poker Tracker that I think I'm going to give up on it and go buy Poker Copilot for the Mac. All I really want are basic stats and the HUD, and I can get that on the Mac. PT has better stats, but it runs dog slow for me, when it runs at all. So, back to Happy Land! Back to the Mac!

I'm off to concentrate on this 90-player SNG I have running on Full Tilt. I'm 3rd of 16 and top 9 places are dancing happy. I'm working on becoming a dancer.

I'm gearing up mentally for a Vegas poker trip next week. What does that mean? Mostly, trying to forget how horrendous work has been this week, and how awful it will be when I return to likely hear that our CMS could not be restored from its recent crash and database corruption incident.

Nope. Those things will soon evaporate into the ether as I slip into my Happy Place. Temporarily, at least.

I plan to print out some tournament schedules. Any suggestions? I prefer NLHE tourneys that aren't complete crapshoots. Is there anything going on lately in Vegas with a decent structure? Low-stakes... like <$150 buy in... Suggestions welcome!

Mostly, though, I'll probably play the $1/2 NL cash games... likely at MGM. Any suggestions for a good 1/2 game at other casinos?

I'll probably try the not-so-new-anymore electronic tables, since I'm staying at Excalibur. Hey, it's close to MGM and for $41 a night, it may as well be the most luxurious suite on the Strip! I'm curious about the dealerless tables, but I have a feeling I will prefer having a live dealer (for the same reasons I prefer sitting at a live game over playing online). You just can't replace a good dealer. Sure, maybe I'll see a few more hands per hour at an automated table, but the personality of a dealer, the crowd control aspects that dealers offer, heck... just holding actual cards and shuffling actual chips... I'll try it out, but I doubt I'll favor it over having a live dealer.

I'm playing a tournament on Full Tilt Poker right now... an actual, 700+ person tourney. Haven't played one in ages. I've done lots of 90-seat SnG's, but haven't hit up a real MTT in a while. Maybe I'll get lucky :) I rarely have enough time to commit to these tourneys, but this evening is a wide open space full of whatever the heck I want to do. I thought of napping.

I don't really have any plans for my trip, other than to play poker :) Tues-Fri, March 24-27. I may go so far as to dig up some poker room reviews and maybe expand my horizons a bit... or not. I am, after all, a creature of habit.

Ya know, I've seen this situation on TV a zillion times, but just now experienced it for the first time: there's a raise, a re-raise, and a third raise in front of me. I'm holding AA. No way you're all outdrawing me. All in. Fold fold fold. Not a bad outcome.

Cash table, not the tourney. Folding a lot. It's funny how at one table I can be at a 33 VPIP while at another I'm at 13, all in the same session. LOL! Actually, I'm at 15, 16, and 33 over 5o hands at each of 3 tables. :)

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was trying out Poker CoPilot for the Mac. It's decent, but not anywhere near as robust as PokerTracker. Of course, PT's Mac version will likely never come out. So now, I'm testing out the latest PT, running Windows as a virtual machine on my Mac via Parallels. It's OK. PT gets a little sluggish at 3 tables and won't even run at 4 tables (well, the HUD won't run, which is my main concern). But, as has been established previously, it does some great number-crunching.

So we'll see what happens when this trial ends. I'm not yet sure which way I'll go. Do I forego the awesome number crunching for the joy of running flawlessly smooth under Leopard? My main desire is for the heads-up display. We'll see.

Here's a little bit of a poker nugget that's been around for a while, but that I've just finally come to know as true (and exploit). Back in the day, I spent a whole lot of time slow-playing when I flopped big-ish hands. I thought, "I don't want to scare them away!!" Of course, occasionally this is a reasonable approach, when it's unlikely they're holding anything they can call a bet with, and a free card is unlikely to decrease the value of your hand. But most of the time, especially at these low limits, you're giving your opponent way too much credit to think that betting actually scares them. They aren't that sharp. If you're holding what will be the likely winner, bet away. They'll call anyway. Only a few are strong enough as players to lay down top pair or two pair. They will call. Make the extra few bucks while you can (cuz a few hands later, you'll get sucked out on by that same calling station phenomenon!) :)

I am quite proud of myself right now. I just bullied the table captain out of a hand. Even better, I think it's a girl. Ha. Take that. Don't f with my raises, beyotch. TYVM, JJ.

My mouse hand is getting sweaty.

Tables are getting frisky. People are doing some whacked out stuff. I'm in push or fold mode in the tourney.

2nd break, I'm 224 of 331 remaining, 25% or so under the average chip stack. Not bad for seeing hardly any flops! Chip and a chair, baby.

I am curious. When my heart feels like it is beating in my throat, can you actually see my throat throbbing?

226th out of 1,170. Not bad I guess. No $.

Damn it! The best fish just got busted off my best table!! Nooooo! And my other table has turned over and a bunch of short-stacks sat down. Booooo. Methinks it is break time.

Farewell for now!