Free Money To Play Poker

Happy New Year's Eve Everybody!!

I finally got wireless installed at my in-laws! It was half a struggle. I got wireless installed in the study with absolutely no problems, but it wouldn't reach to the upstairs computer room. I eventually got a wireless repeater and got it configured. So here I am, my last day in Florida, and I am finally online.

I hope everyone has a great new year coming. A special happy new year to GaryC and his crew. Sorry I missed your tourney the other night, I bet it was a blast.

Also a special happy new year to FeliciaLee who sat next to me at an Omaha table last night at Party Poker and didn't even know I was right in front of her. I think. I'm assuming her chat was off. I hope you and Glenn have a great year coming. You're due for one.

Special thanks to all the people who used my affilliate links in the last week! I hope you take the free money and wipe the floor with those folks at Party Poker and Titan Poker.

Poker Comic #54

Actually, Santa Claus is Instant Bankroll. Free Money at Titan Poker! Free Money at Party Poker! No Deposit Required! (New Players Only) Click Here for more info!

This may be my last post in a while, as I am traveling to Jacksonville Fl for Christmas with the In-Laws. Woohoo!

On the job front, I just heard about a very tempting opportunity in Austin Tx. It's not clear if they will require me to move there or if I can travel there for a year, but I need April to tell me about my chances of finding a poker game in Texas. It looks like a LONG drive to Shreveport!

See you after New Years! (Unless I set up wireless at the In-laws...then all bets are off!)

I loves a good fight!

I have had many a disagreement on this blog. First there was the stripper. That one was epic. TraumaPoker and I had a bit of a tiff, but it seems to have worked itself out. He seems to have joined up with GaryC's mafia, as a lesser member maybe. Elvis Henry and I went around for a bit, but he seems to have come around a bit too. I learned his blog isn't very serious all the time, and He learned the same thing about this one. And then Zowie...well...that guy is just a fucking retard. Kaballah? Give me a break.

Anyway, I have had some big blowouts. Maybe I am quick to fight, but I don't want people to think if they disagree with me that I am going to start attacking them. I do have strong opinions, and I do enjoy defending them when they are questioned. BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I DISLIKE PEOPLE WHO QUESTION ME.

I like to think my opinions are very well thought out and reasoned, but let's face it, many of them aren't. I don't mind it at all when someone makes me consider if my opinion is well reasoned or not. All I can say is that your opinion had better be well reasoned too, because you can be pretty sure I am going to make you think about it. HARD.

My arguments with Veneno are a perfect example. I kind of got on her case for defending SirWaffles when he goes on tilt. I love the waffle boy as much as anyone in bloggerdom, and I hate it when I see him lose control and go broke. Even if it is entertaining, and his descriptions are usually hilarious. So when Veneno thought I was kicking him when he was down, she stood up for him. She came to realize that I'm not a Waffle-Hater, especially when I stuck up for her when she was having a difficult time.

Just because I disagree with her on many issues, doesn't mean that I don't read her blog or respect her opinions. There's a huge difference between disagreeing with someone just to piss them off and disagreeing with someone because you honestly feel that they are in the wrong. Motivation really does matter.

So when my favorite friend from the land of Oz says he is worried about openly disagreeing with another's opinion (which probably isn't even mine) I think if the motivation comes from the right place, he doesn't have anything to worry about. Fire away! Just be prepared to defend yourself.

Poker Comic #53

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Why play poker?

I'm having trouble playing online poker. It's a motivation issue.

I started playing poker because it was "fun." Poker really isn't fun anymore. Unless folding 30 hands in a row is "fun."

It's a struggle. Fold, fold, fold, fold, this is fun? Bet, everyone folds, fold, fold, fold....repeat. I alleviate the problem by playing Omaha, but it's still pretty much fold, fold, fold.

You can't be a good player unless you have patience. If you try to force things to happen, you only force BAD things to happen.

You can play more hands if you play limit. So I switch to limit. If you are playing limit just so you can play more hands, you are going to lose. Limit and No Limit aren't THAT different.

I don't have a problem being patient when I am working on a bonus. Deep down I know that even when I am folding, I am winning, so folding suddenly becomes FUN!

So the solution to my problem is RAKEBACK. I don't have a lot of possibilities for rakeback anymore, since I have accounts at most card rooms already. But there is one that I've been holding in reserver, just in case I needed a rakeback outlet.

Ultimate Bet. I hear good things. There's even a freeroll for PSO customers coming up in January that I would be eligible for if I sign up through FrequentFlopper.com.

I know there's some Ultimate Bet lovers out there, even some who read this blog. If someone can give me a pros/cons comment, I'd really appreciate it.

Off to the races

When the Oklahoma voters legalized poker and blackjack for indian casinos in November '04, the referendum also allowed the Racetracks to have some casino style gambling on their premises. So yesterday I scoped out the newly opened Remington Park Racetrack and Casino in Oklahoma City. The Casino is newly opened, the Racetrack as been there for a while.

Calling it a Casino is a bit of a stretch. It reminded me of the indian casinos before the legalized poker and blackjack. Nothing but slot machines, as far as the eye could see. They did have a small alley of machines called "Poker Alley" with some decent video poker games. Simulcast horse betting was available all over the place too, which is what makes this scheme particularly ingenious. Anyone that's been to the horse races or even an Off Track Betting site knows that the worst part is waiting for post time. It's just so damn boring. What's the best thing to do when you are bored? Feed those slot machines!

I registered for a slot club card, since I suddenly thought I was Grubby. You could accumulate points with slot and video poker play, and use those for valuable prizes....like T-shirts and coffee mugs. 200 points could be exchanged for $5 off a buffet. They offered me $3 off the $8.95 buffet just for signing up, but I refused. They said I could ask any time and get my discount.

There were only two multi-hand poker machines and one multi-strike poker machine in the entire building, and the people at those games weren't budging. I played some "Hexbreaker" which is my favorite slot machine because everything about it is unlucky. You win by getting broken mirrors, spilled salt or black cats crossing your path. Walking under ladders and stepping on a crack are winners too. Even the max bet is 13 coins. THAT'S commitment to a theme. I got up about $20 and decided I was "unlucky" enough for then.

I was only there about 20 minutes, earned a total of ZERO points on my players club card, and took off. There needs to be some serious legislation changes before I go back, unless I am just after the buffet discount.

Rebuy!

I found myself in the odd position of being completely cashed out or busted out of every poker room I am a member of....er....Of which I am a member. Whatever. A preposition is a horrible word to end a sentence with. Winston Churchill said that. He's a laugh riot, that Winston.

Anyway, the only obvious reload bonus I had was Party Poker's 20% 10x bonus for "certain" players. I read the terms and found I had to play the hands by Jan 2nd or something so I would miss most of that time when I head for Jacksonville for Christmas with the wife's family. I might get to play there as one of my assigned tasks is to set up a wireless network for the father-in-law. He's an old phone company guy so he's been holding out for years and years for DSL, even though cable modems have been offered forever. But the phone company finally got their shit together and he is now a broadband user. My mother-in-law has a laptop and would LOVE to be able to wander, so my Xmas gift to them is a wireless network, among other things.

So I might be able to complete some hands over the holiday, but I can't count on that so I kept the deposit to a reasonable $250, leaving me 500 raked hands to complete.

I got a good start on the requirement last night, playing 125 hands of PLO. Wow, the PLO players at Party Poker are horrible. PLO is kind of pick-and-choose at most poker sites, with one or two tables at each level available, if that. Party Poker is the behemoth of fishy goodness. Dozens and dozens of tables at every level, and each one of them with it's designated moron who raises EVERY.SINGLE.HAND the pot limit. You just wait for a hand, nail him to the wall, watch him rebuy, and repeat. I haven't played on party poker in a while, but my fish finder (buddy list) is still humming. It astounds me how these players spew money like it's on fire for months and months, but never get any better. Seems like a logical impossibility that they haven't either gone totally broke or improved their game.

I took my PLO winnings to the Bad Beat Jackpot tables, and scored on some incredibly lucky hands....like QQ holding up in spite of an AK flop with 5 other players. Of course that same luck worked against me when my pair of aces beat JJ but lost to a flush on the river. Go ahead, call the cap with T5h....you can't even win the jackpot with that hand, you donktard!

I basically spent the night enjoying the differences that Party Poker has to offer that no other place does. More table selection, more fishies, more options. I've kind of missed that in some of the smaller rooms I've been playing lately.

Poker Comic #52

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Advertising

There has been a lot of talk about advertising in blogs lately. Some people think it's bad, some people think it's great, most people don't care. Some people are even afraid to give their opinions on the subject.

There are ads on this blog. But they're not simply advertisements. Every blogger has an opportunity to exchange space on his blog for money. Every ad you see here is an ENDORSEMENT. You can tell the difference. It's not like using adsense or something where someone else is deciding what you are advertising. Every ad you see here has been considered and reconsidered.

If you see an advertisement on this blog, it's because that advertiser is offering you a good deal, and I highly recommend them. I play at Full Tilt Poker. I think it's one of the highest quality poker experiences you will have on the Internet. All the Poker Source Online deals come with my highest recommendation. My relationship with PSO started LONG before this blog started. It's no secret that I think anyone who is NOT associated with PSO or another similar affiliate program is a total sucker. You are throwing money away, and I'm trying to stop you from doing that.

Another blogger has said that he will not read blogs with ads on them. He feels that a blog that accepts advertisements can't be objective. Of course that's silly. But it's more inisidious than that. He's saying that we are willing to SELL our opinions. This is actually a pretty large insult, since we obviously value our opinions enough to create a blog about them. But then you think we are willing to WHORE our opinions for a few lousy bucks? Screw you.

It is possible to have advertising and not surrender your integrity. It is possible to have advertising and still produce something of value. If someone chooses to boycott blogs just because they have ads on them, then he is only costing himself.

Neglect

Sorry for neglecting this blog since last Wednesday. Thursday I headed up through the snow and the cold to Kansas City to beg for a job. There was no job to be had yet, but some very well intentioned high hopes. Things look very good, but dammit I want a commitment! Until then, I guess I need to keep my options open.

The Casino in Kansas City was a blast, because we had a little group at the poker tables, which is always fun. (Note: Intense jealousy towards all Vegas Bloger Attendees.) I finished a WHOPPING $9 up, while a friend, on his VERY FIRST LIVE POKER EXPERIENCE, finished up $270. Begginers luck seems to be very important in cups. I eventually started to stay out of any hand he decided to chainsaw his way through. Especially after he caught his gutshot on the river against my Queens and Jacks two pair.

My beats were not nearly as bad as KingLucky's, however. In one hand he has AK vs QQ and flops a king. Runner-runner queens slaughter him. On the very next hand he gets all in with K9 vs the same guy, but this time with AA. The money went in after a flop of K9 gives KingLucky the lead. Runner runner QQ AGAIN counterfeits him and gives his opponent the rest of his stack. Ouch.

I, of course, managed to stay even by fleecing the retards. On a kill pot I call with 33, only to have the "play any two" donkey after me raise. I call with half a dozen others, and flop my set of threes. I slow play the flop, calling the automatic $6 from the donkey. He bets the $12 on the turn and I check-raise him to $24. He calls and then calls my river bet. I show my set of threes, and he tries to muck, but accidentally flips AK unimproved. Unfortunately he announced that "the tide had turned" and left the table after other players "start getting lucky" against him. Wasn't I ahead the whole time? Oh I get it, when other players get better cards occasionally, they are "getting lucky."

Vegas Poker Pro

I want to thank the folks who did promotions through Vegas Poker Pro using my referral ID. I think I have credited you all with your $25 share of the referral, but if I missed anyone, please contact me via email. I know I took down the VPP banner, but anyone who clicked on in previously but haven't signed up yet will still get the $25 if they complete a promotion. If anyone else wants to I suggest using GaryC. He'll take care of you.

Poker Comic #51

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Please Please PLEASE!

Please don't try to do the Free Money at Titan Poker or Free Money at Party Poker promotions if you already had an account at those rooms before or you're not at least 21. All it does is create a hassle for Poker Source Online and a hassle for you to as you won't get the free money. Plus it makes it harder on everyone else who is legitimately trying to get the deal.

Some commenters are posting that half or more of their referrals are fraudulent. I don't want to be the guy that directed all these people to PSO who are trying to commit fraud. I just want to pass on a great deal to some people who might be able to take advantage.

To those of you who have gotten the money legitimately, thanks for signing up! I know it's hard to get to the cashout point at Titan Poker, because you have to play a LOT of hands. The Party Poker one is certianly eaiser, but I know almost everyone has Party Poker accounts already, myself included.

Another week off

The basketball game Friday night was great. Mrs. Bogey and I drove to Bricktown, a nice little tourist district in the middle of OKC with a cool little riverwalk area. We found a place to park eventually, arriving just before gametime at a sold out arena. After running back to the car to retrieve the tickets (smooooth) we walked to the Ford Center and sat down seconds before the opening tip-off. The game was interesting, and we stayed to watch the 76ers miss a last second shot, giving the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets an exciting victory. We took our time getting back to the car, so getting out of bricktown was simple and we were home in no time. The entire experience cost $5 for parking, and that's just because the guy at the office didn't give me the season ticket holder's parking pass.

Not much else happening on this week off of work. I had a week of vacation that needed to be taken or I would lose it, so here I am. I will be going to Kansas City at the end of the week, to explore work opportunities and go to the Casinos. Instead of getting there Saturday at Midnight and playing all day Sunday, this time we will be going Friday night at a reasonable hour and playing until Saturday morning. How late will probably be determined by the level of success. In other words, if I bust out early, I go home early.

Of course the home game at King Lucky's house is Saturday, so that should be fun as well. I have a lot to do around the house, and plenty of time for the online pokering, should the need arise.

New Orleans/Oklahoma City

I won't be playing in Wil's tournament tonight because I got free tickets to the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets vs. Philadelphia Iversons 76ers game tonight. Is that not the longest name for an NBA Basketball team? P H I L A D....just kidding.

I've talked to a lot of people who absolutely HATE the fact that they added Oklahoma City to the end of the New Orleans. But none of them have a good solution either. Do you just call them the New Orleans Hornets and completely ignore the fact that they aren't playing in New Orleans? If that was how it worked, couldn't we still call them the Charlotte Hornets?

Nobody thinks that just calling them the Oklahoma City Hornets is a good idea. That looks too much like we are "stealing" their team in their time of need. You can't steal something that doesn't want to be there in the first place. Maybe we are "liberating" them from New Orleans.

Nobody liked my idea...I said call them the Utah Jazz. Plus nobody got the joke. Nobody remembers the New Orleans Jazz because nobody, and I mean NOBODY follows the NBA.

Anyway, my company (as long as I still work in this location) got season tickets to the Hornets games here in Oklahoma City. Today is my turn to use them. I guess I'm lucky I got tickets so early in the season, instead of April or sometime when there's no chance I'd be able to use them.

I still need some kind of side action to make the game interesting. Al? Any action from you on the Iversons? I don't suspect you are a fan, since I've never seen you mention them in print. At least not in a memorable way.

Free Money Requires Patience

Elvis Henry has decided to be a guinea pig and attempt the Free Money at Titan Poker deal from Instant Bankroll. Turns out it requires a little more patience than I previously thought.

When he signed up, he got the following message:

ATTENTION: Due to the overwhelming demand for Instant Bankroll's Free$75, we have put a limit of 15 accounts per day. Instant Bankroll reserves the right to change this limit at anytime along with any requirements associated with this offer.

Remember this is a brand new offer and they have to talk to each and every person that does it via telephone so they can verify their address and age. They don't have a lot of people manning the phones there, so they are limiting it to 15 people per day. I don't think you have to get up at 3am to be one of the 15, you just need to call in the morning rather than the evening. If you try for a few days, you should be fine.

I know a bunch of people who have tried it, and many have gotten the free money, so it is a legit deal. I hope a lot of people are not upset that the process isn't as easy as it could be, but when you offer free money over the internet, I guess you need to be VERY careful.

Good luck to everyone who tries these offers. Patience is a virtue, which you already know if you are a successful poker player.

Poker Comic #50

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Free Money

If you don't have a Titan account already and you don't click on my "Free Money for New Titan Poker Players" Banner, then Al-Quaeda wins.

Whoo! Channeled Iggy for a moment.

I have been really bad at the poker recently. Just playing poorly. "Knowing the guy has aces, but calling with the queens anyway" badly. You know when you're in bad shape when think to yourself as you press the call button "I hope he has AK."

My ego is still getting in the way of success. I still think I can outplay these people. I think I can make BAD moves and get away with it as long as my competition plays worse. I am constantly underestimating my opponents.

There's a big difference between tournaments and ring games. The players are just plain AWFUL in tournaments. At almost every level. Multi-table and SNG tournaments.

There are a certain percentage in every tournament that are there to try to "get lucky." Nevermind that they have to "get lucky" dozens and dozens of times to win, they are going to risk it. They are going to throw that Ten-Four out there and see if it can beat four other players. Those guys might show up in the ring games once in a while. But not for long. You can buy into a lot of low buy-in tournaments and play like a donkey, but that money goes away fast in the ring games.

In one SNG that KingLucky played there were FOUR players all in on the FIRST hand. Two with AA, one with 77 and another with 55. The flop had a 7 and the Aces were drawing dead. King Lucky won the SNG of course, since one player had half the money for the table and he was a complete donk. Since all the other players were too dumb to stay out of the donkey's way, he let most of them get knocked out, then beat the dumb-ass heads up. At least it was entertaining to watch. Some of them are so bad at heads-up play it's pathetic. I guess it's because they've never been there before.

The ring game strategy is much different from the tournament strategy. Figure out who the bad players are and take their money. Figure out who the good players are and stay away from them. If the bad players catch their cards, you're screwed. If not, you're rich. When the live players are broke, time to find a new table. Thank god for poker tracker.

Slack

Slack is an interesting word. I guess technically it means when a rope is not pulled as tightly as it can be.

Slacker is an off-shoot, and I'm not sure how it is related. Maybe if someone is responsible for keeping the rope tight, yet constantly lets it go loose, he is a slacker. An irrepsonsible person. That's me.

I haven't written anything in this blog in a week. I did a comic, and did the SirWaffle banner thingy, but I haven't written anything meaningful in a week.

But it has been a rough week, as there's still a lot up in the air about my future. I'm having a difficult time getting commitments out of well-meaning people.

So cut me some slack!

Da Pokah

Poker has been up and down. (Isn't it always?) The casino last week was a rousing success. Three separate sessions of $3/$6 Limit netted a total of $300 in profit. Oddly, I got up $100 in each session very quickly, and then plateaued. After I took a break, each session resumed with a winning streak. I can only assume that it's the way I play with a double-stack profit in front of me. I will have to look at that.

Saturday after Thanksgiving was a disaster. I decided after my stellar B&M performance the previous week in Kansas City that I was a limit expert, so I donked off $100 at Full Tilt Poker trying to beat a luckbox. When you lose to someone who raises EVERY SINGLE HAND and calls down to the river with nothing, you aren't much of an expert. I lost to that person with AA, KK and AA on three consecutive hands. One of my AA's got cracked by their 72s. Oh, the irony. If you ever see LadyLabia on Full Tilt Poker, good luck.

It all found its way back to me on Sunday, as all the hands that wouldn't hold up in Limit managed to fare much better at NL. I won back my $100 in a very short session, then went up another $300. Either I'm a much better NL player than Limit player, or I just got a lot luckier on Sunday than I did on Saturday. Since I personally think I'm a better limit player, I think we'll have to go with the luck this time.

Yesterday I played in a multi at Full Tilt, and almost managed to Gigli it. I went out SECOND. Second hand, I have 66. Guy two players after me goes all in for $1500 and I just know it's a moron. I call, and he shows "Roger." Ten-four, suited of course. A Ten flops and I even screw up the Gigli by coming in 621st out of 622. Whoopee! Mr. Ten-four (with the pokeriffic nickname "Rounder22") goes out 4 hands later. CJ, I ain't.

I'm kind of bored with poker, and when I get bored I usually try to find something to work on. I think it will be my multi's. I can't remember the last time I made a final table. My participation hasn't been spectacular lately, so it's no wonder. I'm sure my shitty attitude lately has something to do with that.

I'll try to do better.

My Submission

My submission to the SirFWALGMan create a Banner Contest!!

Poker Comic #49

Poker Comic Brought to you by InstantBankroll.com New Titan Poker players receive FREE MONEY with NO DEPOSIT! New Party Poker players receive FREE MONEY with NO DEPOSIT!

That didn't take long...

I thought I would have to wait until next week to get some serious job searching done since I am working on second shift and half the company takes Thanksgiving week off.

But, I already have a job offer to transfer within the company. There are no details and there won't be until after the holiday, but things look very good. It looks like I will basically be getting what I wanted three months ago, without stepping on all the toes I would have had to in order to get it done then.

Thanks to everyone who sent kind emails or left nice comments. I really appreciate it. This community is amazing...I actually got offers of help from other bloggers who have a lot more in common with me than I knew.

I was really trying not to be too down on myself as my prospects were very good compared to a lot of my coworkers. I don't actually work for GM, I work for a contractor within the building. And my skill set is very sought after within my company. I also have moved around quite a bit within the company. The contacts I have made at different locations are very valuable.

There are still over 2000 people here that aren't as lucky as I am, so I have to keep my good news to myself for a little while. But I'm glad I could share it with all of you.

Cheers!

Will Play Poker For Food

As a commenter noted in the previous post, I might not have a job to come back to.

While that's a pretty extreme description, it was fairly right on the money. General Motors announced this morning that they are closing the automobile plant in which I work.

The announcement isn't a total shock, but hopes were that they would bring in a new product line instead of just closing the doors. But it didn't work out that way, so a lot of people are looking for jobs pretty hard all of a sudden.

It's pretty doubtful that I will be able to stay in the Oklahoma City area, since my expertise is in Factory Automation Software and all of my experience for the last 6 years is in the Automotive field. Unless someone decides to build another auto plant in Oklahoma, I'll probably be moving. I have a lot of connections in different areas, so I will be making contact with them shortly to see if there are any opportunities available.

I don't see full time poker in my future, that's for sure. Hopefully I can find something soon, or that some of the plans I have been working on for the last few months come through. Wish me luck, not just at the poker tables.

What I feel like every day!

Weekend Agenda

Saturday

9am - Say goodbye to In-laws.
12noon - Head for Kansas City
6pm - commence home game at King Lucky's
~midnight - Head for Casino (Ameristar/Harrahs)

Sunday

~8am - Take break for comped breakfast
~5pm - Take break for comped dinner
~midnight - crash at King Lucky's

Monday

9am - drive back to Oklahoma
4pm - Go to work

Tuesday

1am - Go home from work

I hope to survive.

Free Money for New Titan Poker Players

Everybody that had to ignore the previous post about Instant Bankroll because they already have a Party Poker account can get in on this deal instead! NO DEPOSIT REQUIRED. THIS MONEY IS TOTALLY FREE.






Instant Bankroll is a program offered by Poker Source Online that gives you a free $75 bankroll at Titan Poker.

Here's how it works:

You sign up for Instant Bankroll by clicking on the banner or one of these links. You also sign up for a new account at Titan Poker. Within five business days, Instant Bankroll will send you an email with a toll-free phone number to call so you can verify that you are 21 or over and that you haven't done this promotion before. The phone is often busy, especially on the weekends. Once you complete the phone call, they deposit $50 in your new Titan Poker account. Once you earn 6000 Titan Stars, you get another $25 bonus. At that point you can cash out the money or keep playing.

Only one person per household qualifies for this offer.

If you already had a real money account at Titan Poker or aren't 21 yet, please don't try to cheat the system and do this promotion.

If you go to WWW.INSTANTBANKROLL.COM without using my link, please use the referral ID "DuggleBogey." Thanks!

Table Coaches

It astounds me how many table coaches there are out there. It's one thing to think you know more than everyone else in the room, but to constantly call other players idiots and explain to them what they are doing wrong is just silly. It makes you look stupid. But I noticed yesterday, these guys are really easy to tilt.

It started when I called out of the small blind with 99. He was the BB. I flopped my set when the flop came j9x rainbow. I slow played it, which is a mistake from early position, but I didn't want to take a $3 pot with a bet. A player in middle position bet $1 and I wanted to keep Mr. Table Coach in so I just called. The turn was a K and I checked again. Table Coach checked and MP bet $3. I doubled it to $6 and Table Coach went all-in. All-in is a pretty weak move here, because it looks to me like the position player is stealing, I'm re-stealing and an all-in bet looks to me like a re-re-steal. I call and he shows QT for a straight. I river a J and he goes off like a roman candle.

Sure, it wasn't the best play in the world, but it was a BAD READ, not a bad play.

A few hands later I held QQ on the button and re-raised a double-the-blind bet from early position. The EP player went all-in and I called. He showed AK and flopped a K, doubling up off me.

Mr. Table Coach had a good time with that one, calling me an idiot yet again, saying I only get my money in with the worst hand. My reply? "You're right, I'm sorry. I'll try harder."

Yet a few hands later, he played the following hand.

He's in late position with JQo. He makes a small raise when it's folded to him. A player after him re-raises, and the very next player re-raises all-in. I don't think there's much doubt what the right play is here with QJ, but Mr. Wanna Be Pro at the $100 NL tables calls the all-in, facing QQ and KK. You might even call him lucky because he flopped two jacks, but the KK player was even luckier, as the flop was KJJ. His case J didn't come, and he was busted.

Fortunately it only took a little bit of needling to get him to rebuy, although he rebought short. That rebuy, short as it was, is sitting in my Full Tilt account. He tilted through that stack faster than Scott Lazar after folding quad aces.

I wonder if Full Tilt attracts more than it's fair share of these table coaches? They seem to make appeals to ego in their advertising, with their "Play with and against the pros" ads and the "advertise your bluffs" commericals. If you have an unreasonably large poker ego, it would seem that Full Tilt would be the place for you. But you probably wouldn't be playing at the low level tables, so I might just be talking out of my arse.

Poker Comic #48

Poker Comic brought to you by Full Tilt Poker! Play online vs. the Pros at Full Tilt Poker!

Not too much

Not too much going on with the In-Laws in town and the week long celebration of Mrs. Bogey's 40th birthday.

It's a good time for a break since I am still upset at myself for the lapse in concentration in the cruise tournament.

I just found out that I will be working the late shift next week, so I can stay an extra day in Kansas City this weekend. Just enough time for a 36-hour casino extravaganza!

Do yourself a favor and go read something better.

The Way of the Donk

Wow, did I donkey my way out of the Cruise tourney last night. It was horrendous.

I started well, doubling up with AA in the first round, then taking out two more players who overplayed their very weak hands. I lead or stayed near the leaders for the first hour and a half of the tourney, then got my head stuck up my ass so far I couldn't remove it in time to save myself.

I was playing very fast and loose, taking pots from anyone playing weak. There was only one player at the table who had a close chipstack to mine, and he was to the left of me (of course.) I had been playing loose all night, hoping to catch big hands and knock people out, or play back strong at any sign of weakness. I was taking tons of small pots when I could, and knocked out about a half dozen players. A player two to my right had been playing nearly every hand, and doubling the blind about every other hand. You know my feelings about that. I was trying to catch a hand to bust him with.

When I wasn't paying attention, the guy in front of me doubled his chipstack off the player to my left. This means he now had me covered. I wasn't concentrating really hard when I played the next hand, JQ of diamonds in early position. I was a bit distracted in the hand as the phone rang and my in-laws had recently arrived. I limped and he called, with position on me. The flop came with two diamonds, so I thought I would semi-bluff, throwing 2000 chips in the pot. He came over the top of me all in, and I insta-called, not realizing he had me covered. He had a set of fives and no diamond came to save my sorry ass.

I lost focus for two hands, and that was enough to cost me a pretty good shot at a free cruise. The guy was the overwhelming chip leader when he got my chips, but still managed to blow it at the final table. The eventual winner of the tourney was disqualified because he didn't qualify for the tournament in the first place.

Low Level Fun

I still play pretty low level poker. If I bring $500 to an NL table, there are still bets that make me nervous about my bankroll. And everybody knows that scared money is dead money.

So I thought I'd try a little experiment. I'd buy into a lower level NL table and play "Power Poker." Not that I don't play "Power Poker" all the time, I'm just not as aggressive as I could be.

I pretty much played my game, playing very aggressive when I held decent cards, not allowing people to play any hand cheaply. I could tell I was getting under the skin of a lot of players at the table. Min raises were punished. If you bet small into a large pot, you will be put to the test.

The play isn't that much different at the higher levels, except for one thing. The "extras."

There was one hand where I had AA vs KK. That went exactly as you'd expect it to at any level, the flop was all unders and the KK guy went all in, losing to my AA. The "extra" was the guy with A8 who came along for the ride.

Another when I had AK vs AQ. Again, the AQ lost his entire stack to me when a K hit the board, but the A3 that came along for the ride was a wonderful "extra."

I forgot how any ace is GOLD at the $25 NL tables, and how all draws, including gutshots, are worth the gamboooool!

It was a fun diversion, and it reminded me why I still don't play at very high levels. The players are so bad down where I play, it's tough to leave. One of the most frustrating things about playing is when your big hands don't get paid off, because your opponents are good enough to lay down their hands to obvious strength. That simply doesn't happen at the low levels. You almost always get paid off, and that's fun.

And the winner is....

The first drawing of the Oklahoma Lottery took place on Thursday night....and the first number drawn was...

867

Tommy Tutone would be rich.

Pick 3 Starts Today!

The newly legalized Oklahoma Lottery starts today. Like all lotteries, it SUCKS.

One of the reasons people are prejudiced against gambling is things like this. BAD gambling.

It's a pick 3, so the numbers go from 000 to 999, a thousand-to-one shot. And the payoff for a $1 wager? $500. Yes, that's 100% vig!

And it gets worse! You can do a 3-way box, which is a 1 in 333, but it only pays $160. and the 6-way box only pays $80. Nothing like taking more in vig than you actually pay out.

You can also pick the first two numbers or the last two numbers, for a 1 in 100 shot that pays $50. Horrible odds. Lay that hand down.

Free Money for New Party Poker Players

This has been around for a while, but I need someplace to send people who ask me about this, so if you already have an account at Party Poker, just ignore this post.


Instant Bankroll is a program offered by Poker Source Online that gives you a free $75 bankroll at Party Poker.

Here's how it works:

You sign up for Instant Bankroll by clicking on the banner or one of these links. You also sign up for a new account at Party Poker. Instant Bankroll will send you an email with a toll-free phone number to call so you can verify that you are 21 or over and that you haven't done this promotion before. The phone is often busy, especially on the weekends. Once you complete the phone call, they deposit $75 in your new Party Poker account. Once you play 500 raked hands, you get another $25 bonus. At that point you can cash out the money or keep playing.

Only one person per household qualifies for this offer. If you already have a Play Money account at Party Poker you can still do this promotion, but you have to create a NEW Party Poker account using a different Email address from your first one.

If you already had a real money account at Party Poker or aren't 21 yet, please don't try to cheat the system and do this promotion.

Poker Comic #47

Poker Comic Brought to you by Poker Source Online! Free gifts at for playing at the Best Online Poker Rooms!

I lied

I guess I was fibbing when I said I had to work second shift all week. I am actually off today for Election Day. The crazy place I work closes down on Election Day. I'm not complaining, after yesterday's 5am to 1am shift (they called me at home almost a dozen times between 8 and 4,) it seemed like I worked 20 hours straight. I could barely keep my eyes open driving home at 1am this morning.

This morning (11:30 am, hey that's still morning!) I decided to try out a new piece of software called PokerSpy. It works with Full Tilt and I still have some bonus money to work off there, so I decided to give it a shot.

Pretty interesting stuff. It tracks the hands for you (as long as you have the "store histories on hard drive" setting selected) and evaluates the play of you and your opponents. At one point in the game, it had all my opponents classified as either "Loose" or "Passive," while I was the only person labeled as "aggressive" at the table. Not coincedentally, I was the only person in positive figures at the table. Every other player was down money, I had doubled my buy in.

It also keeps details on your opponents like how many times they've folded pre-flop in the last dozen or so hands. Or warns if they played lower level starting hands in early positions, or if they didn't raise a premium hand. It displays a chart of all the players at the table, and will give individual reports on each one if you select them.

It's certainly not perfect. It put a warning on my player name when I raised from the SB with A8. Of course it had folded around to me and the BB was very passive so I knew I would just be getting the blind unless the BB had a monster. I took the blind and was happy, but the software saw that as a loose play.

It also displays the mucked cards taken to showdown by your opponents, which is nice info to have. It probably does even more than I'm mentioning, but I only used it for about 75 hands or so. Hardly an extensive test, but fun to try out new things. Does it help? A little. Is it necessary? Hardly. I'd never trade Poker Tracker for it, that's for sure.

P.S. The Poker Comic will be a little late tomorrow as it is on my hard drive at work and I won't be going in until 4:30 CST. I'll post it as soon as I get in, and I promise it will be a good one.

Morning Thunder

Well, I'm working second shift this week from 4:30pm to 1:00am so I probably won't be playing as much poker as normal in the evenings.

I looked around for good tournaments in the morning but didn't see anything that interested me. The ring game action was good though. Lots of seven-to-a-flop tables in the morning. If they're not overseas, I guess they are either up all night folks or guys who can play from work. Or unemployed guys who still manage to find poker money.

I had to work this morning to make sure all the work from this weekend went well, then I had to come back in the afternoon to work the second shift. Might make staying up late difficult. I tried for a nap, but I guess I'm just not much of a napper. Hopefully I won't snore too loudly when I fall asleep in my cube.

The enigma of gambling

I think a lot of poker players have a lot of gamble in them. Even very good poker players.

I'm not sure how people arrive at poker playing as their game of choice, but I think many of us wandered into a poker room while gambling in a casino at other table games. I doubt people go right from slots to poker, as it seems very intimidating from that perspective.

My personal fascination with Hold Em came from the broadcast of Phil Hellmuth's WSOP final table on TV. Even before hole card cams and fancy screen graphics, Hold Em was an enthralling game for me. But I also had a lot of interest in other gambling games. First blackjack, then roulette and eventually craps. But once I started playing poker, all other games faded from interest.

But I think there's an interesting enigma to gambling. Non-gamblers think that people who gamble a lot are WEAK. They are feeding an addiction, and it is definitely a BAD thing. That can absolutely be true about poker.

But what non-gamblers don't understand is that being a winning player requires exactly the OPPOSITE of that addictive behavior. They don't understand that being a profitable player means playing within your abilities, within your bankroll and within your tolerances. In fact, playing poker requires a TREMENDOUS amount of DISCIPLINE.

The last thing that comes to mind when you think of gamblers is discipline. Even poker players don't inspire thoughts of a well regimented personality. A lot of this is because poker players value their ability to deceive, so much so that they don't physically betray their discipline.

Some poker players I know are also some of the most disciplined people I know. Take a look at some of the charts, graphs and spreadsheets that players post online, and you'll see what I'm talking about. These aren't the type of people that throw thousands of dollars around on a whim. These are disciplined people who are willing to assume an acceptable amount of risk if they have an potential advantage.

Some poker players don't have this discipline, and that's why you hear about bustouts, or the occasional "I got carried away when I started with $1 blackjack bets on Party Poker," or "I blew all my winnings at the Craps table." It's a temporary, or sometimes indicative lapse in discipline. When people talk about "tilt" they are talking about lapses in discipline. The ability to control tilt is one of the most valued lessons in poker experience. Keep your discipline.

It's a very important, if not THE MOST important characteristic of a successful poker player.

EasyCure Rules

I made a comment in EasyCure's blog about how cool his licence plates are, and he made me this:



That is freaking awesome.

Thank yous

I want to thank all of those who recommended XM Radio to me when I got fed up with local radio. It was TONS easier than I anticipated. I got a Gift Card from Poker Source Online and obtained a "Roady 2" for $50 and activated it online. Now I can listen to ESPN Radio or FOX Sports Radio on my way to and from work. If sports is boring I can listen to the "American Right" channel and laugh at the current propaganda being spread by the government and their quasi brain-dead lackeys. Or the infantile whining on "Air America Radio." It's all good stuff. Funnier than the comedy channel, which isn't bad.

I want to thank TripJax for his offer to help with my HTML emergency. Like I told him, I don't know HTML from TGIF, so any changes you see on this here blog are trial and error. And error. And more errors.

I really want to thank all the fishies in the $1000 added multi-table tournaments on PokerRoom.com for playing so horribly. Except for the guy who went all in with TJ, whom I called with AJ from the BB, and he rivered the ten. We were already in the money, but I was final table bound until that donkey crippled my stack. I decided to count the people in the tournament who got knocked out with KQ, and the final tally came up at SEVEN. I don't think there's another hand that the fishies love so much that gets destroyed more often.

I went down in glorious flames when I got a swedish hammer on my BB. The flop had two hearts, and my hammer was hearts....The small blind took all his time and called my all-in. He had connected with a four on the flop (!) giving me twelve outs on two draws (coin toss anyone?), none of which came. If I had to lose, that was how I wanted to go!

Poker Comic #46

Get free prizes just for playing poker at Vegas Poker Pro. Pround sponsor of Poker Tells the Poker Comic.

To read more Poker Tells please scroll down and use the menu in the right sidebar.

Small Improvements

After looking at the new graphics on Low Limit Grinder I decided it was time to make some improvements on this here blog. Thanks to everyone who has commented so far. It's not nearly as nice as TripJax's stuff, but it's definitely better.

This blog was always sorta ugly. I haven't really worried about it that much. Most of the content is ugly in nature, so having a pretty facade didn't seem like such a big deal.

But when you start seeing the possibilities, it doesn't take too much to get inspired. Thanks guys. There are more improvements to come.

PSO gets some Competition

Everyone who reads this knows I am a huge fan of Poker Source Online. If you are playing online poker and not using an affiliate to get something extra, you're getting ripped off.

But PSO is not the only game in town. Maybe you don't like PSO, or maybe you have already played at all the rooms PSO offers.

Vegas Poker Pro might be a solution. VPP offers many of the same poker rooms as PSO plus a few more that are unique, such as Hollywood Poker or Royal Vegas Poker. Vegas Poker Pro offers Poker Chipsets, Poker Books, DVDs and Gift Certificates, much like PSO does.


If you decide to give Vegas Poker Pro a try using my link, leave me a comment or shoot me an email, and I'll give you half of what I get for referring you. Everybody wins!

Attention

This blog has been getting more attention that usual lately, and that's a good thing. Like publicity, the only bad form is none at all. Of course a lot of the attention has been negative, because of the "meanness."

I do find it interesting that I can do a "mean" post and I get dozens of comments and thousands of hits. But the few thoughtful posts thanking people or dealing with expectations gets a few nice comments and very little attention.

I guess I know how local news stations feel. Pretty soon this blog will only report shootings and stabbings in black neighborhoods.

Expectation

Expectation is a weird thing. I was really cranked up for a few tournaments this weekend, especially the Poker Cruise tournament hosted by Poker Source Online at Absolute Poker.

I didn't really play poorly in the tournament, getting into good situations and pushing other players out when I felt they were weak. I crippled myself when I called an all-in with AJs vs KQo who rivered a queen. I misjudged the size of his stack and the effect it would have if I lost based on the increasing blinds. I'm not sure if I would make the same play again If I had it to do over again.

So I have a very dissatisfied feeling about the weekend, even though I increased my overall bankroll by more than 10%. This is a substantial gain for me, and I doubt I have matched such a large gain in several months. Yet I still feel like I had a poor weekend because of my MTT tournament play.

It might also have to do with how I was winning. It seemed like every NL game I played in I got busted almost immediately, then came back in a big way. So I constantly felt like I was fighting my way back, when in fact I really fought back easily and made big strides into profit.

SNGs also seem to feel fairly unrewarding. I won one easily, covering the table when there were still 5 players left at one on Full Tilt Poker. Another few seconds and thirds thrown in for a nice overall profit, but that one game where your KK lost when 22 flopped a full house and you finished in eighth out of nine really sticks in your craw. Shouldn't you have figured out you were beat?

It's bad when winning in ring games is unfulfilling, because that's where the real money is. Scoring big in an MTT is great, but that kind of success is so infrequent that you better not count on it to make your poker play satisfying.

Maybe I need to cash out my $400 that I won this weekend and buy something to remind myself that winning money in ring games is what poker is really all about. As long as you can beat the ring games, the rest is all gravy.

You might be a donkey if....

In deference to Jeff Foxworthy, I have collected ACTUAL posts from ACTUAL blogs from people who probably should NOT be playing poker.

I decided I was going to find some poker blogs for "less than" successful players out there this morning, and I found some of the things they wrote ASTOUNDING. Most of them should have raised HUGE red flags, unless they were posted sarcastically. Based on the rest of the blogs, I have to assume they were being completely seroius.

If you have ever said or thought one or more of these things, you should seriously consider whether poker is really for you.

So here are the top 16 things I read in poker blogs this morning that made me think that these people might not be cut out for playing poker:


1. Mom knows about my gambling problem but she mostly keeps her mouth shut about it. She always reminds me of what it did to my daddy. But I already logged back in today and played a few hands...

2. I only got $1350 for the Taurus, but that was enough to get me back to the poker tables. If I hit a good run of cards, I can pay some bills and get a better car.

3. I should have walked away right there. Then I hit a bad run of cards and my buddy pulled me out of there...

4. I rolled $60 worth of pennies I had collected over the years and deposited the money into online poker rooms.

5. I haven't told my therapist about my poker problem because she'll just try and talk me out of playing.

6. I have been banned from at least three online poker rooms because of what I type in the chat window whenever I lose.

7. I wanted to throw my monitor through the window, but I still owe my landlord $245 from the last time I did that

8. I can take it as a shot with no EXCPECTATION of winning, just a little hope to get lucky, and when I lose I can deal with it no problem.

9. I have lost patience in doing things the “right” way.. I just feel like I should explore other avenues of thinking sometimes.. Who can say what way is the right way? If I am going to be a maniac I might as well embrace it.

10. I have BEYOND a doubt the WORSE luck of ANYONE EVER! If I had normal person luck, I would be winning twice as many tourneys.

11. SO then I am so fucking pissed off I take my last 460 bucks and put it on a 30/60 table.

12. Play 2/4. Lose 150. Play 5/10. Lose 250. Play 20/40...

13. I decided to take $500 and 'invest' into some higher stakes...(Current Bankroll - $758)

14. I am on a downward spiral and lost another $246 yesterday...I was playing a little out of my bankroll(5/10), but nothing major. (Current Bankroll - $638)

15. I lost about $230 at the $5/$10 tables on pokerstars and lost another $130 at the $100 NL tables on Partypoker.(Current Bankroll - $884)

16. I found out that Bon Jovi is coming here on Valentines Day next year and tickets go on sell tomorrow so I'm definitely taking my wife to that.(I know this one isn't poker related, but still....this person might need SERIOUS help.)

On the shoulders of giants...

I was reading around the Blogosphere (I know, blogs are gay, and words that start with Blogo- are even gayer....flaming perhaps) and I realized that the only reason many blogs, including mine, get any attention at all is because of the fantastic work done by others who ACTUALLY put words together that are worthy of attention and praise. The rest of us just get clicks because people are hoping to get a sliver of the same thing they read from these giants.

King of these are Pauly of The Tao of Poker and The Tao of Pauly.

Seriously, I read what to him is just a recounting of his day hanging out with Grubby and Poker Prof and I am truly mesmerized. Even when he's just posting about what they ATE. This is the writing he does IN BETWEEN the writing he does that he actually gets paid for. I've said before that it feels like stealing, and I still feel that way. It transports you, makes you want to be there, have a beer and hang out. Especially when you are trapped in cubicle hell every day at 5:30 in the morning.

And the same goes for the aforementioned Grubby. The pictures they paint with words are far from rose colored....sometimes they are harsh and depressing. But that doesn't make me any less envious of their lives. All it does is make me more envious of their ability to write, and their ability to transport people into their world, if only for a few moments of the day.

I suspect these guys know they have a gift of some sort, but I don't think they know how special it really is. They live life the way they do, and turn around and share that life in a meaningful way, with no reward except for our sincere gratitude. The gratitude of a few folks who not only take pleasure in reading them, but get to ride a bit on their coattails, stealing the occasional reader who would undoubtedly be disappointed by a direct comparison.

Here's to you guys. We owe you. Big time.

The man is simply brilliant

How can he be simple and brilliant at the same time? I don't know, but he pulls it off.

From Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert:

When I see news stories about people all over the world who are
experiencing hardships, I worry about them, and I rack my brain
wondering how I can make a difference. So I decided to start my own
blog. That way I won’t have time to think about other people.

People who are trying to decide whether to create a blog or not go
through a thought process much like this:

1. The world sure needs more of ME.
2. Maybe I’ll shout more often so that people nearby can experience
the joy of knowing my thoughts.
3. No, wait, shouting looks too crazy.
4. I know – I’ll write down my daily thoughts and badger people to read them.
5. If only there was a description for this process that doesn’t
involve the words egomaniac or unnecessary.
6. What? It’s called a blog? I’m there!

The blogger’s philosophy goes something like this:

Everything that I think about is more fascinating than the crap in your head.

The beauty of blogging, as compared to writing a book, is that no
editor will be interfering with my random spelling and grammar, my
complete disregard for the facts, and my wandering sentences that
seem to go on and on and never end so that you feel like you need to
take a breath and clear your head before you can even consider making
it to the end of the sentence that probably didn’t need to be written
anyhoo.

If that doesn’t inspire you to read my blog, I don’t know what will.
You can find the Dilbert Blog at

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/

Poker Comic #45

Poker Comic brought to you by Poker Source Online. Click to find out how to get free gifts for playing online poker at sites like Absolute Poker, PokerRoom.com and Full Tilt Poker!

Full Tilt PSO Promotion

What an adventure filled weekend!

The first bit of excitement came on Saturday when Full Tilt Poker made me a lovely offer. I see from many other blogs that they are embracing the blogger community in a big way! But the problem was I didn't have a Full Tilt account yet. So I signed up via Poker Source Online. I intended to sign up long ago, but procrastination got the better of me.

What a mistake! I began the Full Tilt promotion on Saturday while I was cooking dinner for my parents who are in town for a visit. My sauce takes about an hour and a half to cook, so I had an hour to burn until I had to work on the salad and garlic bread and get the pasta started. So I signed up and got started at Full Tilt.

I had the promotion halfway finished playing $.50/$1.00 No Limit Hold Em for that hour. The tables were very tight compared to most aquariums, but there were still enough hands were people stacked off against each other that Full Tilt Points came quickly. You need 200 Full Tilt Points to finish the promotion, and you get one point per $1 in rake. There were plenty of hands raked $3, and every hand that saw a flop raked something, so the fractions of points added up very quickly.

Sunday I bombed out of the PokerStars Blogger Tourney very quickly. About a half hour in I had built a decent stack around $3000 and called a raise of $250 from a serial raiser in early position. Blinds were still $50 and I had QQ. His freqency seemed to indicate a raise with any Ace or face, so I was prepared to push on an all under flop. The flop came QJ6. He pushed all in for his $4K before I could. Since I had the nut at the time it was an easy call. He showed AK and the Ten came on the river to give him an early lead in the tournament. I checked later and he didn't even make it into the top half of finishers. I felt like Oliver Hudson.

The pain of early elimination was alleviated by an early dinner with my parents, who treated Mrs. Bogey and I to Ted's Cafe Escondito, the best Mexican Restaurant I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. I had Pork in Salsa Verde and it is absolutely unparalleled. Everything is as fresh as can be. I had it with Pappas Mexicanas and Corn con Crema, and the combination was heavenly. The setup there is incredible too, with the best salsa I have ever tasted, along with warm flour tortillas made moments before you eat them.

We returned home in plenty of time for the $3K New Depositors Main Event at Absolute Poker that King Lucky and I struggled to qualify for by coming in the top 200 out of 377, with 100 no shows. There were 1400 entries and payouts started at 63. Only 700 or so no shows in this one. I exited early again but I can't even remember the details. I'm sure it was a donkey play that I've blocked out of my mind. KingLucky played excellent poker and managed to make the penultimate payout level. First 11 places got $75, $60 paid out to 27 places and King Lucky got 25th. He did get lucky a couple of times. Once he was all in with K9s vs KK and turned a flush. Later he was all in with 95s vs 99 and rivered a wheel. Both times I think he was all in on the big blind and more than tripled up to stay alive.

While sweating KingLucky, who moneyed in another freeroll at the same time, I finished my promotion at Full Tilt. In about another hour of play I won $150, received $10 in bonus from Full Tilt's 100% deposit bonus and completed 200 Full Tilt Bonus Points to qualify for $60 worth of PSO points.

I know most of you already have Full Tilt Poker accounts, especially those of you that got the offer that I got. If you don't, please click on my link, but click on my PSO link instead and sign up for Full Tilt Poker through Poker Source Online. You'll get the 100% deposit bonus, but you'll also get a free prize from Poker Source Online like Poker Tracker or Poker Tracker Omaha. And you'll clear the PSO bonus in no time at all.

Being famous must be nice

The best thing about being a blogger is the fame you get. Granted it's the smallest increment of fame you can get, but when someone says "I read your blog" it really feels good. It's even better when someone reads your blog and gives you something for free. It's rare, but it does happen.

But if you're Famous Movie Director Kevin Smith and you blog about playing poker all the time, you get this:



Yes, that's a custom made poker table based on the movie "Chasing Amy," Smith's third and most critically acclaimed movie. The movie's main character is named Holden McNeil, so some dedicated fan built a poker table for him based on the theme "Hold Em McNeil."

Sheesh! It's like Roseanne said back when she was funny, "When I was poor, nobody gave me shit. Now that I'm a millionaire, everything is free!"

Poker Comic #44

So much for Wednesdays only! Brought to you by Poker Source Online. Click Here for great bonuses and free gifts, just for playing poker!

Mo Money

Made the money again in another MTT at PokerRoom.com. Left in 21st place (of course the money went up at 20th place) when my AK ran into AJ. All in pre-flop, and the flop comes AQJ. No K no T and I'm out. $5+$.50, 477 players in attendance. I use the term "players" very loosely.

I figure there must be a way to buy into these things with players points or something, because at least half the field was playing it like a freeroll, or worse.

Very early in the tournament I doubled up with AA vs QQ. I had close to the starting stack of 1500 and my opponent hand over 3K, so my double up brought him back close to the starting stack. Yet it was still enough to make him tilt his way out of the tournament, going all in on every hand after that until he was gone. What makes a player do that? He's still above the average chipstack, and yet he decides "If this is how the tournament is going to be, I'm going to bust out intentionally!"

Later on, a guy is kind of talking out of his ass about how much money he makes playing poker, and how he's just killing time until a bigger tournament starts. He says "Want me to go all in on the next hand?" I say "Sure." He doesn't go all in and I say "I knew you wouldn't do it." He says "Oh yeah?" and on the next hand he says "I have Q4" and goes all in. Someone calls him with KT and sure enough, he had Q4 and takes a powder. Needless to say I was impressed. What was that guy trying to prove?

There were 250 players gone in the first hour. More early donkey action that you can almost imagine. KQ is the NUTS in this tournament, or so you would think by the number of times someone calls all in with it, or even worse, re-raises all in with it.

What is it with the fishy fascination with KQ? I see more stupid plays with that hand than any other, outside of A2 maybe.

At least I'm still doing well in MTTs. The only hand I went in behind was 77 vs 99, and after I raised it was only a few chips more to call the all in from a small stack. I figured he had me but I was pot stuck. Other than that I had a lead on most every hand I played, with very few coin tosses. On one hand I had AKs vs 99. The flop came TTJ with two of my suit, so I had outs galore(21!), and caught on the river. I can't think of another coin toss or hand where I wasn't better than 3/2 favorite.

Watch out for me on Sunday!

Poker Comic #43

Poker Comic Sponsored by Poker Source Online. Free Amazon Gift Certificates, just for playing online poker!

Formatting

Do you guys think I should keep the Poker Comic up all week by putting it above the blog title (like the "Donkeys Always Draw" graphic was for so long) or should I do what I have been doing and let it drop off the page after a day or so? I don't really want it to look like an advertisement, but since it is sponsored it might be the nice thing to do. Would it be too annoying to see the same comic for a whole week?

The Height of Simplicity

I played in the easiest tournament I've ever entered last night. I was talking to KingLucky on the phone and he said that Absolute was about to start a tournament for "new depositors." He wasn't sure if he qualified so he tried to enter it and it allowed him in. So I cranked up the Absolute software and tried it myself, and I was allowed in too. I had deposited in the last week or so, and I guess that counted. I originally opened my account over a year ago, so "new" depositors is probably a bad name for it, it should be "recent depositors."

At any rate, the tournament was a qualifier for the "new depositors main event" tournament on Sunday. All you had to do was make the top 200, and the tournament would end and you would automatically be entered into the Sunday main event. The total enrollment for this tournament was 377. So more than half the entries would be winners. Piece of cake.

Last through 177 freerolling idiots? Easy. Except that things are a bit different at Absolute. You start with 1500 chips in round one, and if you haven't played a hand, INCLUDING FOLDING ONE HAND, by round two, you are removed from the tournament and your chips are removed from the table. Apparently around 70 people didn't know this because they sat out the entire first level and BANG, we were almost halfway to the money after the first 10 minutes.

20 minutes later the rest of the all-in monkeys knocked each other out and I was qualified for the Sunday $3000 tournament. By far the fastest and easiest multi-table tournament I have ever played. I won one hand, when my AK made Aces full of fives and I called an all in by a guy with K2. I assumed a split, but called just in case the guy was a moron. Yes, he could have had a pair of fives, but I would still have had plenty of chips to make the money. I was glad to do my part to get everyone to the money faster by knocking this dumb ass out.

The Sunday main event should be fun, considering the level of competition. I think they are having one of these qualifiers per day, so there will be 1200 people in the main event. If you have an Absolute account, you might want to jump in for a laugh.

Duggle is ON FIRE

I have really bad news for those of your participating in the PokerStars Blogger Tournament. I am on FIRE in MTTs lately.

First it was Saturday Night/Sunday morning vs. 199 people in a rebuy tournament at Absolute Poker. Despite never taking a a rebuy vs 308 rebuys for my opponents, I made the final table, losing a coin toss to come in seventh.

Then on Sunday vs 428 people on PokerRoom.com, I took fourth place, netting $170 for a $5.50 buy in. I got as high as second in chips at the final table, but lost to the chip leader when I flopped top pair with K9 and a flop of 987. He flopped a straight. He was raising with any face card out of his small blind, so I was sure he didn't have A9 or TJ. I went through all the possible hands I was afraid of before going all in, but completely forgot about 56. The biggest leak in my game is overplaying my blinds.

I was lucky to make it to the final table place at all. After the third break I was all in on my big blind with 21 left, but flopped trip queens to quadruple up. I won a few very lucky hands after that too, including A7 vs KK, rivering trip sevens. KK held up very infrequently in this tournament, and I can't remember the last time time I won with them in a showdown. Lately I'm happy to win the blinds with them.

My strategy was very simple in these tournaments...win all my coin tosses. Actually that's not true, but I did beat a lot of people who call with Ax vs my middle and larger pairs. The incredible thing to me is how people call all-ins with A2 and a significant amount of their stack at risk. Maybe it's understandable when half the time the all-in raiser is either on a stone bluff or with KQ, but man is it nice to ALWAYS get paid off on your big hands. You can fold 50 hands in a row, go all in UTG and get called by A9. Ridiculous.

Anyways, if my MTT luck continues as it did this weekend with two final tables in as many tournaments, you all are cooked in the Stars tourney. Consider yourself warned!

Error in Judgement

Well, after working until 1am, I was kinda cranked up for some poker after reading those tasty blogs all night...so I see a rebuy tournament at Absolute Poker starting at 2am.

"What the hell!" I think to myself, and buy in, taking the rebuy right away to give myself 3000 chips.

Well, now it's 6:20am and I'm still fricking playing this godawful thing. Second break, I'm at the final table with seven left. Mostly idiots, which rebuy tournaments tend to bring out. Most everyone at the table has said they need to finish higher than 5th just to make money. I never rebought once after the initial doubleing, and the double add on at the first break.

I'm the short stack with 55K chips after calling a raise with 88 and folding to a K high flop, neither player had a K of course, but I had to figure one of those morons wasn't bluffing. I should have just gone all in pre-flop, one of those idiots surely would have called, but I was at an inbetween spot with my stack in relation to the blinds... Now that the big blind is 10K, there's not much doubt left anymore.

Will update tomorrow, hopefully, looks like 7th right now. OOPS, JJ! Called by AQ, rivered the Q. 7th it is!

I've been called out

It's 12:15 AM Saturday Night/Sunday Morning and I'm still at work. It's a long story but I have to cover for my second shift guy. Normally I would NEVER stay up this late for anything except poker.

In my late night boredom, I'm wandering around bloggerdom and I see that I've been called out by SirWiffleBalls. Check his site for the specific challenge.

I've been especially hard on him lately, what with calling him "Titanic" and all. Undeservedly, because he is actually one hell of a poker player. One of the qualities that a poker player needs is the ability to play with "NO FEAR." And nobody exemplifies this better than The WiffleBat. The guy could have the mortgage on the line and still bluff without a bead of sweat. I'd be peeing down my leg if I tried to bluff with more than $100 on the line.

Anyways, if I actually going to play against SirF, (which is silly because we've played against each other probably a dozen times in the past) I'm going to need some good lines to try and put him on tilt. I want to know, if you were playing a heads-up challenge with the WiffleMan himself, what would you say to try tilt him?

Hit me with your favorite SirFWALGMan tilt lines. Best one gets.....something....if I can think of anything....give me a break, it's fucking late. Free sponsorship of the next Poker Comic, maybe.

More Casino Whoring Goodness

I forgot to mention in the new stuff yesterday that Poker Source Online has started a new bonus site for Casino Bonuses called Casino Source Online.

There's no referrals or anything, just some good exclusive deals on Casino Bonuses.

News....well, kinda olds

There have been some new developments in my small universe. Nothing earth shattering, but still, I should mention them here.

First, Poker Source Online has taken over the Internet Bonuses section of the 2+2 forums. (Hint: If you've never been to the 2+2 forums, you'll never find it by googling 2+2, try twoplustwo.) The forum was previously hosted by BonusWhores (that you can google) but the BW folks decided after a month that it was too much trouble and too much money for too little profit. It seemed like everyone at 2+2 was already a bonus whore anyway. Literally.

So, much like my comic sponsorship, PSO leapt in to take up the slack. They will probably continue the sponsorship for at least a couple of months. I was always hesitant to talk about PSO in the forum when BW was hosting it, so it's kind of nice to have the chains removed and be able to endorse the place openly and wholeheartedly. There are, of course, some negative people on there who had bad experiences with PSO. No business can please 100% of the people, but the one or two who dislike the place are usually exposed as idiots or crackpots. And their competition in the affilliate business aren't very happy with them either. Because they are getting STOMPED out of existence by a place that simply does it better.

There are a couple of new blogs I am reading that I probably should mention. One is Casino Ownage by Actyper. A long time Poker Source Online forum contributor has finally started blogging. There's lots of bonus whore goodness in there, especially on the casino side which I rarely touch.

Next is Another Poker Blog by Matthew/Kornholio. He's one of the seemingly zillion Canadians from Poker Source Online. PSO bought some ads in Canadian Poker Player magazine and boy did it pay off, because it seems like half their customers are Canadian. At least the most vocal. They loves them some poker in Canada, apparently.

Poker In Arrears by TripJax has the coolest graphic for his title than any other poker blog I've seen. And he has good content too! He's one of GCox's growing mafia contingent. Currenlty running the SNG challenge, which is fascinating to watch, and tempting to join into.

I like reading poker blogs of all kinds, from micro-limiters scraping it out at the penny-levels to the Poker Pros/Semis who have bankroll swings in the tens of thousands and don't bat an eye. But the ones that tend to hold my interest the most are the low-limiters, the $25-$100NL players, the $1/$2-$3/$6 players who grind away at the low levels, chasing bonuses and feeding the fish. Maybe it's just hubris. My title says I'm small time, and while I have taken some shit off people for it, I still feel like I'm small time and I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

I may be a small fish in a small pond, but I like it plenty.

Poker Comic #42

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I've had it

I've had it with Oklahoma Radio.

I guess I got lucky when a few weeks ago I found a radio station out of Enid Oklahoma that broadcast national sports radio that I could pick up on my way to and from work. It didn't even bother me that it was Fox Sports Radio, and then changed to Sporting News Radio.

But suddenly an AM country station is bleeding all over my sports radio station. There is an Oklahoma City local sports radio station, but it is the worst excuse for sports radio you have ever heard. I switched over to them out of desperation this morning. The last couple of days haven't been as bad as normal as I get to hear them whine and moan over the state of Oklahoma football. There's nothing like hearing a guy defend his pick that Oklahoma was going to beat Texas by three touchdowns....you were only off by 50 points! "Weyell...eeef theeese stupeeeed refereeeeees would have gotten the call right one this one play, the whole game would have gone deeeeffrent!" Right. 50 points different.

But this morning, in the middle of reading celebrity birthdays, the main player, the STAR of the show, says "Baseball Sucks." Nevermind we just got to see one of the most exciting set of games in division series history, and we got to see an 18 inning marathon that was decided by a hall-of-famer. No, mr "Sports Authority" is right, baseball "sucks." I'd much rather watch his favorite college football team play for 11 games per year, including those exciting Texas Christian Cupcakes.....which your team can't even beat. They even have an ex MLB player that does their afternoon show. And he's a dipshit too.

I'm done with them. It's over. I'm getting XM or Sirius Radio so I can never listen to those local fuckwits again. I'll never have to listen to them talk about their political agendas during a sports show again. I'll never have to listen to them say "those demmycrats in warshington" again.

Anyone have an opinion on XM vs Sirius? I'm open to any and all suggestions.

PokerRoom.com finished

I finished my promotion from Poker Source Online at PokerRoom.com with mild success. I would have done better except one hand where I bluffed away $45 with the Hammer. The donkey who later insisted he only played 30% VPIP called me all the way down with 33 unimproved.

I began to doubt the 30% number when later he called my pre-flop raise with T8s. Since the flop was A88, he probably thought after the flop that it was a genius call. Since I had AA, he probably thought differently after the hand was over and I had his whole stack. He tried to trap me. NH.

All in all a very positive experience at PokerRoom.com. They offer a lot of cheap and middle level buy in tournaments, and they move along very nicely. Plenty of ring game action whenever I wanted it, enough to do some basic table selection. The software was fairly nice. I did get disconnected once (my router was the problem) and when I re-connected a couple hands later they had given my seat away. That was kind of annoying.

I never tried the java version, the download version always ran very smooth for me. The attached casino and abundance of mac only users seems to provide a pretty good supply of fresh fish. The 40% buy-in bonus was nice because I cleared it at the same time I cleared the PSO Bonus.

I'm looking forward to getting the Nevada Jack's chips to give to my father-in-law for Christmas. They sell for over $200 a set on Ebay, so I'm expecting something pretty extraordinary.

A couple more things

I thought of a couple more things about the criticism of my blog.

The guy called me a Donkey. Well, he's right, but not for the reasons he thinks. I make Donkey plays all the time. If I didn't donk off my chips every once in a while, I'd be the perfect player. I'd sound just like Phil "If it weren't for luck I'd win all of these" Hellmuth.

Here's an example. I was playing in a Tournament at PokerRoom.com on Wednesday and got QQ in the small blind. The big blind was $400 and I raised to $800 (GOTCHA! It was a limit tournament) and got instantly called by the big blind. He didn't even take a second to think about it, just called. He was a very tight aggressive player, so red flags should have gone up all over the place. The flop came with an ace. Now any non-donkey would have said "oh well" and let the hand go. But I didn't consider his stack size much of a threat, and I played him down to the river to see his AK.

Total donkey move, if you consider that I prevously had plenty of chips to cruise into the money, which was actually pretty significant. Losing that pot took me out of the money. All the extra chips I lost on the turn and the river probably would have been plenty. I left myself in a spot where I had to win a pot pretty soon, and that didn't happen.

The point of telling that story is that I, of course, am a donkey. I don't recall EVER denying the fact that I am a donkey. EVERYBODY (Hellmuth excluded) makes a donkey play now and then. Even if min betting the flop when I caught a full house is a donkey move, I don't think it invalidates the advice that min-betting and min-raising pre-flop is ALMOST ALWAYS a bad move. There are no absolutes in poker. If someone tells you that something is NEVER the right move, or something else is ALWAYS the right play, they are simply clueless. Situationally, any move can be the right move. (Except maybe checking in position on the river with the nuts. I've seen it many times, but I still don't get it.)

But just because I call people donkeys and idiots doesn't mean that I am immune to acting like a donkey or an idiot. Fuck, I do it all the time! Anybody who says they don't is a FUCKING LIAR.

I also take issue with the fact that I chastise people for min-betting and min-raising, yet I "post about hands all the time where I min bet and min raise." I searched through my blog and didn't see any NL hand histories where I min-bet or min-raise. (I assume he's talking about pre-flop min-raises, because there's NO WAY IN HELL I am against min-raising after the flop. Min-raising the turn with the nuts is a great play IMO, because it almost ALWAYS gets called, even by a bluffer.)

Since I have been playing limit poker almost exclusively for the last few months, maybe he is reading limit hand histories and seeing me min-bet and min-raise all the time? And he is just too much of a MORON to realize that I'm talking about limit poker?

Because in NL ring games and tournaments, I very rarely min-bet, and almost NEVER min-raise pre-flop. Unless you are in a tournament and the blinds are big enough that a min-raise pre-flop is actually a significant amount to the other players based on their stack size, it's a bad play. But I don't even mean to take credit for that evaluation. I actually learned it from TJ Cloutier. So maybe that guy doesn't have an issue with me at all. Maybe he needs to take it up with TJ.

Update: Yesterday he added to his list of blogs he "hates to read." Choice number two was The Blogfather. I feel honored not only to be included in such company, but to actually be listed ahead of him? I am not worthy.

I've been destructively criticized!

Using Shelly's little "who links to me" tool I discovered a blogger who linked me yesterday...unfortunately he didn't have too many nice things to say. Fair enough. I criticize pretty harshly, and should expect some critcism myself. But this guy missed the mark. Talk about totally missing the point, this one zoomed right past his cranium.

Here we go, starting with his title:

Today I start my list of blogs I hate reading

You "hate" reading my blog? Why do you do it? Did my blog become required reading for some bizarre college course? Who is forcing people to read my blog? Surely some cruel villain.

“A few hands after this genius lays down all this wisdom, I get a pair of sevens in the hole at our $50NL table. I call to see a flop of 878. I slow play it, and it checks around. Turn is a K, I min bet, get two calls and two folds. River is the case 7. I bet $1, double the minimum, and get one call.”
The above quote is from http://goberude.blogspot.com He is a donkey. The above hand is just a glimpse into how much this guy donkeys it up. This guy talks and talks about how he hates min bets and min raises in his blog and about how every time someone min raises “baby Jesus cries” Despite all this talk (and it is exactly that TALK) he posts about hands all the time where he min bets and min raises.

Beyond not knowing how to correctly quote someone in blogger, this guy totally missed the point that I played the hand weak ON PURPOSE. The problem with min-betting and min-raising (which I never did in this hand, and min-bet only once) is that it is incredibly weak and invites people to play back at you. HELLO? I wanted someone to play back at me. I was INVITING a bluff, desperate to get paid off on my monster hand. Even though this is BASIC level one thinking, it is obviously over this guy's head.

One of the turn offs to reading a blog is contradiction………it is bad enough to sit at a poker table with someone who does the opposite of what they say, it is 10 times worse to read about it. So to GoBeRude I give your blog 4 turds out of 4 because it sucks big time.

There's the mature critcism I was hoping for. I maxed out the "turd" scale!

Now let's address the fact that this guy missed the point entirely! I could have (and maybe should have) just said I got quads and got no action despite my desperate attempts to induce someone to play back at me, but I thought that was TOTALLY OBVIOUS by the way I played it, so I didn't feel like I needed to spell it out for folks. I really need to stop overestimating my readers.

The point was that some tinfoil-wearing moron took this as PROOF that hands are juiced, even though nobody played back at me. It is actually evidence that the hands aren't juiced, because someone would have a boat or some other playable hand to increase the rake. ZOOM, right over this astro-physicist's head!

I did leave a comment on the guys blog thanking him for the link....and to my non-suprise I am apparently the first non-spam comment this guy has ever gotten, even though he has been blogging since July.

Oddjack reprinted the exact same post, and THEY got it. Maybe they just like the "online poker is rigged" idiots out there too. But at least they didn't totally miss the point of my ramblings.

When I wrote for a newspaper they said never write beyond a 6th grade reading comprehension level because you will alienate a certain percentage of the circulation base. I guess this guy is one of the idiots they were talking about. I'm sorry, but I'm still going to assume some level of poker ability in my posts. Maybe guys like him can just enjoy the comics.