Laziness

I have been really lazy uninspired about blogging lately. Maybe "lazy" is a better word, now that I think about it. There has been plenty of poker, plenty of thinking about poker.

I played a home game tourney Friday night, bubbling out of game one and winning game two. I played not one, but three $10,000 freeroll tournaments this weekend, plus the PSO poker league.

I even read about how SirFWALGman hates Pot Limit and ran away as quickly as he possibly could when he accidentally joined a PL ring game. I play PL almost exclusively and am really interested in talking about why PL is a superior game to NL for me.

But I am simply not in the mood. Maybe if SirF posts about why he hates it so after I asked him about it in the comments I will be more inspired.

I won a total of $12 in three $10K freerolls. Blah. I also finished 51st in yet another freeroll that started paying at 50. And I did it out of spite. Saturday's freeroll exit was even better. I went out with the hammer. Booyah!

Oklahoma is OK!

Here's a little peek into what it's like living in Oklahoma. I'm driving into work today, around 6:15 AM, my normal time. Now, I'd think if you were awake at oh-six-fifteen you'd either be 1)Gainfully employed or 2) Still drunk. Maybe the radio station I was listening to in my Nissan Pathfinder was aiming at the "still drunk" crowd. I don't know what station it was, my wife usually drives it but she is taking the car I usually drive in for brake work. The display on the radio in the Pathfinder quit about a year ago. It's going on 11 years old so as long as we know how the buttons are programmed and we don't move, everything will be okay.

So the morning radio station that my wife listens to was having a little "trivia contest." The question was which President was the first to visit all 50 states while in office. You might be thinking to yourself, "tough question." Well, no because it was multiple choice. The choices? "Benjamin Franklin (!) Eli Whitney (!!) or Richard Nixon.

It took three callers.

Successful Execution

In my last post about the Ameristar Casino in Kansas City, I took a vow to never toke there again.

Mission Accomplished.

Actually, this was much easier than I had anticipated. Since I bought in for one rack and didn't win one hand the entire rack, there wasn't much cause to tip.

Karma, you say? Bullshit.

There was a TRUE scumbag at the table. He won nearly every pot. He sat down with $30-50, and after about 10 hand he left a big pile of chips at the table and carried away two racks of white to color up. When he sat back down, I asked the dealer where all his chips went. The dealer told him he could not remove money from the table. So he took the two black chips and set them on the table. Three hands later, they were gone again. Asshole.

So I am down to my last few chips, and I manage to get most of them in pre-flop, with the usual zillion callers. I flop the nut flush, and get all in. I'm in the two seat, fishy asshole is in seat seven. The river pairs the board, and dipshit says "I'm all in" and pushes all his chips into the side pot. We are playing $3/$6 LIMIT. This dumb fuck pushes his chip stacks, probably 150 chips, INTO THE POT, mixing all his chips with everyone else's.

I don't even have a clue what to do in this situation. It's impossible to tell how much was in the pot and how much was his. I wasn't incredibly concerned because it was the second pot, and I was only in the first. I called the floor anyway, hoping maybe his hand was dead. They'll declare a dead hand on me in a HEARTBEAT, so I was hoping they would do the same to him.

Floor says "show your cards." Player to my left says "I haven't called the bet yet." Floor says "Do you want to call the $6 bet?" He says "I guess not." Floor tells me to show my cards, I show my flush, Dipshit flips over Jack-Six for a full house, and I am busted.

Is there a rule about this? What should have happened? I realize the outcome was probably "fair" but should his hand been declared dead? Felicia? Anyone?

After taking a lap around the casino looking for KingLucky and to cool off, I rebuy another rack and sit back down. The guy now has about $50 in chips in front of him. Fucking asshole ratholed again! A few hands later he goes all in with his last $2. I say "Bullshit, take some of that money out of your pocket." He says "Why?" I said "These are table stakes, you can't take money off the table, and you've done it twice. It's against the rules." He says "Sorry, they didn't give me a rule book." Dealer does NOTHING of course, and the guy loses that hand and leaves.

I won two big pots, one when a player straddled to try and change his luck and it got capped at $15, and I called with my 55. Presto made a set on the turn and I dragged a $100 pot. No toke, I bet the dealer was kind of steamed. I won another nice one with 36s(!) when I turned two pair. I finally won my way back into the black, even going ahead $20 before overplaying crazy 88 and leaving the table up $8. Not the kind of victory you hope for, but after being stuck for $150 I felt like I had slayed a dragon.

We have Searches!

The top one on this list is not surprising, but one is an absolute SHOCK!

statcounter

Thanks guys, statcounter.com rules.

Still no hits for ALCANTHANG NUDE, I'm afraid, but I'm not giving up hope.

So far i am getting hits from "frequent flopper" and "flopper" searches. Looks like all my rake rebate hawking is having some effect. It SHOULD! Anyone who plays more than once a month should be getting some kind of rebate. It's like free money!

Stats

I just added logging to this here blog, so I can see where my hits come from, etc.

And just so I can get some more search engine hits, Porn, Shana Hiatt Naked and Al Can't Hang Nude.

That ought to do it.

The Moron Raise

I have been really killing the $25 PLHE game at PokerNow. I played until 5am Sunday morning just because I couldn't leave a good table. I even ventured into NLHE land when I found a table that was just too irresistable. I played for about an hour yesterday and had one of my favorite moments. I have 33 in a blind, maybe even the big blind. EP raises .50 to $1. This, as everyone knows, is my favorite raise. It is one of the dumbest moves in poker, yet you see it hundreds of times a day. I call it "The Moron Raise."

On a side note, I googled myself and I am quoted in SEVERAL blogs saying "min raises make baby jesus cry." I forget who I stole that from, probably Otis or Pauly, but THANK YOU THANK YOU. I have NEVER EVER gotten a response when I say it at a normal ring game. I can just picture the quizzical looks on their faces when they see it. "What's a min raise?" or "Wha? Baby Jesus?" Iggy does it at the blogger table SPECIFICALLY to annoy me.

Anywho...Of course a trey flops in a rainbow, J73. So I am in a WONDERFUL position. Ordinarily this would be a tough play out of position like that. But Mr. min raiser has alerted me to the fact of his hand strength, without getting anything for it, like ANYONE folding. So of course I check. Normally I am not a person to slow play such a small set, but I figure braniac will do all the dirty work for me. He bets out, and gets one caller, plus me. The deuce on the turn matches a club, but makes a straight unlikely. He bets even larger. It works on the other guy, but I'm stayin. River is an offsuit nine. So unless he raised in bad position with 8-10 or JJ, I'm looking pretty good. Nobody raises with 8-10, and .50 would be EVEN STUPIDER (if that's possible) with JJ. He goes all in, I call and take down his AJ with my set of treys.

This got me even from when I got beaten by some guy that called my AQo pre-flop max raise with 8-10 and called my all-in bluff when the flop came 855. Rebuy! I made a DUMB comment after the hand when I said "What a Joke" and some player, not the guy who called, said "He had you beat the whole way." I said "Really?" and he said "Well, since the flop." HE had limped in front of my raise, and dropped pre-flop, so I asked him if he calls pre-flop raises with 8-10, and he said "when the time is right." He wouldn't tell me what he limped with and dropped, but suspect it was BETTER than 8-10.

So I played for a while longer and was down $1.85 when I told Mrs. Bogey I was quitting in 10 minutes after I steal some blinds to get back to even. I never actually tried to steal them, but wow it's tempting when all you need is a couple of bucks to get back to even, isn't it? Instead I won a $70 pot.

I held AQh in the small blind, and someone made that fuckwit $.50 raise again. I called the $.75 and hoped I wouldn't regret the slow play. I'd have re-raised if I wasn't suited, but I didn't want to negate the possibility of a big hand. There were a lot of players, and I didn't think a pair of queens or aces with a big kicker was going to win this. The flop came a hope inspiring 8c9hJh, two hearts. I checked and it checked around. The BEAUTIFUL King of hearts came on the turn. I checked my nut hand and the big blind bet $2. I was glad to see someone building the pot. Two people called before me, and I just called. The river was a 7c. Perfect. I still have the nut. I checked, and to my horror the big blind checked. Had I missed a bet? Player three checked and I thought I was doomed. Luckily, the button bet $5. I raised that to $20, and EVERYONE called! BB had 45h, CO had KJ (there's my fuckwit,) and button had QT.

That .50 raise was perfect for me. It wasn't enough to get the BB to fold 45s, and kept QT in on the button. Had he raised more aggresively pre-flop, I would have won a lot less money. He might have even bet his pair of jacks aggresively if he were heads up against me, making it much harder for me to draw my flush.

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Sunday I was looking at my monthly stats in Poker Tracker and saw that my VP$IP was around 35. That's a REALLY high number for me and NL. I was trying to figure out how I had gotten so loose when some player at the table called me a "nut hugger." I'm sure he meant it as an insult, but it made me laugh. No. 1, it came at the perfect time because I thought I was playing too loose. No. 2, it's FUNNY AS HELL. I AM a "nut hugger!" So what? That doesn't mean I can't play looser when I feel like I need to. I just DON'T when I playing at tables with guys who HATE "nut huggers!" Because they tend to be laggy, which is good for both my bankroll and my rake rebate. I can't tell you how many $200 pots I have seen at $25 PLHE tables lately. It actually THROWS OFF my poker tracker rake stats, because it takes 5% of the rake and doesn't account for the max rake of $3. But I'll take my share of the $3 rake without even contributing to the pot, thank you very much.

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I ordered some card protectors from www.holdemmarkers.com and from www.pokercoin.com. They look pretty cool on their websites, and I am starting to build up a collection of card protectors. I kinda like trinkets, especially ones that have a use, no matter how obscure. I will review them when they arrive.

Chat abuse

Intertops Poker promptly responded to my complaint of chat abuse against the two members during the freeroll by saying "You can turn off chat by any player by clicking [such and such} and you can turn off railbirds by clicking [such and such.]"

I responded saying I knew Iggy, and they cut off the offending players' chat without another word.

I spotted ANT the next night in another freeroll, and wished him good luck. Funny, he didn't say "thank you" or anything. How rude.

Amazing Coincedences

The first place I ever played Online Poker was at IntertopsPoker.com. My father and I shared an online sportsbook account at Intertops.com and I used that to set up a poker account. I think I just played free games to see what the software was like. The account name I set up was DougleBogey. When I decided I wanted to play for real money I set up my own account, and picked the name DuggleBogey. I wanted the same name, but had to pick something different, so I picked something as close as I could think of.

Eventually the poker craze caught up to my father, and he logged into IntertopsPoker, and it already had my screen name in it. My father doesn't really care about nicknames and whatnot, so he just played it. He's not doing to badly for a beginner.

Fast forward to tonight. I'm in the $2005 Freeroll, and unbeknownst to me, he is also playing. He takes a bad beat when his aces are beaten by 26. When my table breaks up it puts me IN THE EMPTY SEAT HE WAS IN. There are over 1000 people in this tournament, and I filled his spot, and it FREAKED OUT the whole table. They thought it was a rebuy freeroll or something.

Pretty damn funny.

Losing gracefully

I was playing in another freeroll at Intertops today. There was a player at the final table with me named ANT10682. He was in a freeroll yesterday and finished 2nd so I had some respect for him and thought he was a pretty decent player. That's not really true because he CONTINUED to make that stupid double the blind bet and getting his big pairs drawn out on. One hand I was on the BB with QJ and he doubled me up when he had QQ and the flop had two Jacks. But he only doubled the blind, which was an easy call, and the hand played itself after that.

Anyway, this hand happened:

***** Hand History for Game 1581508616
*****NL Hold'em Trny:9499870 Level:17 Blinds (3000/6000) - Saturday, February 12, 19:22:23 EDT 2005
Table $100 Freeroll(239379) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 3
Seat 2: craig1112 ( $139528 )
Seat 7: DuggleBogey ( $178182 )
Seat 8: ANT10682 ( $61290 )
Trny:9499870 Level:17Blinds (3000/6000)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to DuggleBogey [ Ts Tc ]
ANT10682 raises [12000].
craig1112 folds.
DuggleBogey raises [34000].
ANT10682 is all-In [49290]
DuggleBogey calls [21290].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8d, Jc, 9h ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7c ]
** Dealing River ** [ Ac ]
DuggleBogey shows [ Ts, Tc ] a straight, seven to jack.
ANT10682 shows [ Qs, Qc ] a pair of queens.
Player ANT10682 finished in 3 place and received $10
DuggleBogey wins 125580 chips from the main pot with a straight, seven to jack.
ANT10682 has left the table.
Game #1581511385 starts.

Now that's a tough way to go out of a tourney that you have played for 4 hours or so. But he handled it very gracefully by saying:

ANT10682: fxck ur nigg er gam,e i hope u die duggle u peace of s h i t

Now I made a WHOLE FIVE DOLLARS more than he did in this tournament, which was a FREEROLL, for christ's sake. Anyone who gets that bunched up over a bad beat playing in a freeroll shouldn't be playing poker.

And if you're wondering why I only took second when I had that big of a lead, here's the reason.

***** Hand History for Game 1581565891 *****
NL Hold'em Trny:9499870
Level:17 Blinds (3000/6000) - Saturday, February 12, 19:34:05 EDT 2005
Table $100 Freeroll(239379) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 2
Seat 2: craig1112 ( $183628 )
Seat 7: DuggleBogey ( $195372 )
Trny:9499870 Level:17Blinds (3000/6000)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to DuggleBogey [ 7h Js ]
craig1112 raises [9000].DuggleBogey calls [6000].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jh, 5h, 3d ]
DuggleBogey checks.
craig1112 bets [6000].
DuggleBogey raises [12000].
craig1112 calls [6000].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7d ]
DuggleBogey bets [12000].
craig1112 raises [45600].
DuggleBogey is all-In [159372]
craig1112 is all-In [114028]
** Dealing River ** [ As ]
craig1112 shows [ Jd, Ad ] two pairs, aces and jacks.
DuggleBogey shows [ 7h, Js ] two pairs, jacks and sevens.
DuggleBogey wins 11744 chips from side pot #1 with two pairs, jacks and sevens.
craig1112 wins 367256 chips from the main pot with two pairs, aces and jacks.

What goes around comes around I guess. He had a racist buddy there that kept saying:

Preluder3: f ur black skin

You really have to wonder about a person's mentality if they immediately go for a racist insult when they are upset. Because I'm not black, I never said I was black, and I have no idea where they got that idea. I guess when the started calling me nigger and I didn't immediatly deny it, that made it fact. I still need to send the email to intertops to get their chat turned off. I'll do that now.

Successful Evening

I played in four tournaments last night although one of them wasn't for money. In the three that were for money, I cashed in all three of them.

The first was an Intertops Freeroll, in which I finished 3rd out of 365. It took over 4 hours and overlapped with the first hour or so of the second, which was the PSO Poker League. I finished First out of 40. I was really glad to do well in it since I have had very disappointing finishes in these things since I came in second in the first one ever. While that was going on I played in another Intertops Freeroll, in which I finished 13th.

The fourth was the "championship" round of Canada vs the USA in the PSO league. I'm not sure what the prize is, but the more of your countrymen that finish higher get more points, and the eventual winner gets something, but I'm not sure what. They also get PSO points, which are as good as cash. I got 1000 PSO points for finishing first in the main tourney, plus the bulk of the prize pool, which was $80 for a $5+1 buy-in.

I was very uncomfortable playing in three tournaments at the same time, although I don't think it hurt my game much. It may have even helped, since I didn't try to make too many plays, because I wasn't trying to figure out who was trying to steal the most and bust them for it. I don't know where this inclination to be table cop comes from, it's probably a part of my personality I can't help. But when I concentrate on avoiding it or distract myself from doing it somehow, I inevitably do better in the tournaments.

Since I'm doing well in NL tourneys lately, I'm thinking about playing in the WSOP satellite tournament being held tonight. It's $110 to enter, but since there's only 40 people entered, that's a HUGE overlay of $7000. First prize is an entry in the WSOP main event and $1000 for the trip. It's open to anyone that has done a PSO promotion and will pay $110. Most of these people got in for free by completing a promotion, so the competition is INCREDIBLY weak.

They will be having one of these WSOP tourneys every month, but I'm not sure people will be allowed to buy-in again. In my opinion, it is the most likely way a good player can get into the WSOP a cheaply as possible. At least twice as likely as playing in a $1000 SNG in Vegas before the tourney, for a tenth of the cost.

If anyone reading this has done a PSO promo at any time in the past, you might still be able to get into this, although I don't want your competition if I play.

Poker Comic #13

EVERYONE MUST BE ON THIS

Everything you wanted to know about Rake Rebates and weren't afraid to ask over and over and over and over and over.

I posted this over at www.PokerSourceOnline.com to (hopefully) slow the repetetive questions about their Rake Rebate program that is going through the roof in popularity due to the 2+2 posts and word-of-mouth. If you do this, please use referral code DuggleBogey.

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So you are interested in a rake rebate. GOOD! Imagine all those suckers out there paying a rake and not getting anything back! Don't be one of them. Get involved with a Rake Rebate of some kind.

What is a rake?

Rake is how poker sites make money. When you play a game against an online opponent or several, a portion of the pot is taken away from the winner by the site that hosts the game. Usually online it is 5%, but it depends on the site and the amount in the pot. For tournaments the "rake" is added to the tournament buy-in. If you play a $30+3 tournament, The $3 from each player is the rake.

5% isn't that much, why should I care?

You'd be amazed how fast that 5% can build up. If you use poker tracker you know how many hundreds of dollars you pay in rake every month, even if you only play a few hours a week.

You're right, that's a lot of money I'm losing! What can I do about it?

Get a rake rebate! Poker rooms want to keep customers playing at their site and not leaving to play at some site that offers them a 20% bonus for buying in. So they will give you back a percentage of what you pay in rake in order to keep your business. Rake rebates started around 5%, and quickly went up to 10%. If you looked hard you might find someone who gave out 15-20%. The 27.5% offered by Poker Source Online is unparalleled.

How is the rake rebate calculated?

This is the most common question, and the most difficult to answer, because there are different poker sites that calculate in different ways. To simplify as much as possible, we will break them down into two methods (the only two that are used by offers from PSO.) One is the "Party Poker Method" and the second is the "Others method."

The "Others Method" is pretty straightforward. If you have contributed to a pot, you get your share of the rake attributed to you. "Your share" means you have to share the total amount of the rake with everyone that contributed to the pot. From "your share" you multiply by 27.5% and that's how much you get back.

For example, You are at a table with ten players, four players see the flop, including you. You have contributed to the pot so will get your share. The total rake for the hand ends up being $2.00, so your "share" of that rake is $.50. You get 27.5% of that $.50 back in your rake rebate.

The "Party Method" is the same as the "Others Method" except that you get credit for your share of the rake even if you haven't contributed to the pot. So your share is divided by the total number of people at the table who received cards. Example: You are playing at a table of 10 and fold pre-flop but 4 other people see the flop. The total rake ends up being $2 for the hand. Your share in this instance is $.20. Your share of the total rake is smaller, but should happen more often.

What about tournaments?

For sites that give rebates on tournament fees, you get 27.5% back on any fee you pay. If you buy into two $30+3 tournaments, you get 27.5% of the $6 in fees, or $1.65.

Which sites use which method?

Party Poker, PokerNow, Empire Poker, Absolute Poker, Aztec Riches and The Gaming Club Poker all use the "Party Poker Method"

Ultimate Bet uses the other method, and I'm not sure about Caribbean Sun, but I suspect they use the "Others Method."

Which one should I pick?

The "Party Poker Method" is probably the most popluar, although which is actually better depends on how you play and what game you play. It really is up to your personal preference. If you have a favorite site and there is a rebate offered there, DEFINITELY play that one. Don't switch sites just because the rake rebate is different. You'll probably regret it. Remember that rake rebate is just a bonus, the goal is still to play profitable poker. If you let rake rebate affect the way you play, it's probably not a good idea.

I'm signed up, how do I get my money?

PokerSourceOnline gives rebates in two different methods. For Absolute Poker and Caribbean Sun Poker, the cash is just put back into your account.

For all others, the sites basically forbid cash rebates, so your rebate is awarded to you in PSO points, which can be redeemed at the PSO store for merchandise or gift certificates.

How often will I get my rebate?

Rebates are awarded once a month for most sites. Others are updated twice per month.

How much rebate can I get with this?

Some people are getting THOUSANDS of dollars back every month. There is no limit to how much you get back, it all depends on how much you play.

Is it worth the hassle?

Once you have signed up, there is no hassle. You just play your normal game at your normal rate, and you get rewards every month. What could be easier than that?

Can I get a rebate at a site I already play?

Unfortunately no. Poker sites only pay affilliates to get NEW customers, not to let the poker site keep existing customers. So it is unusual for poker sites to offer rebates to existing customers. Since the best deals are always through affiliate sites, you will have to sign up at a new room to get involved in a rake rebate program. But the good news is there are many rooms on the same network that offer rebates. If you play at Aztec Riches already, you can get a rake rebate from The Gaming Club, which has the same tables. If you already play at Party Poker, you can sign up at PokerNow (look in the forum for instructions how to do this) and play the exact same tables.

Can I get a referral bonusfor my friends who sign up with FFP?

Yes you can, the referrer gets $5 or 500 PSO points for every person they recommend that accumulates a certain amount of rake.

Do I start earning FFPs right away?

If you earn a bonus for joining the room, you have to work off that bonus in rake before you can start earning rebates. In other words, NO DOUBLE DIPPING. For example: If you get $100 in bonus, you must generate $100 in rake rebate BEFORE you start earning PSO points. Bonuses are usually a better deal than rebates (unless every hand you play gets raked the full amount) you are better off with the bonus. This also applies to reload bonuses.

Recovery

Well, I recovered my $3, but just barely. It could have been better.

I bought into a PLHE $25 table at PokerNow and qickly ran that up to $65. After about a hundred hands where my best start was 99 that I had to fold to a pre-flop all-in raise, I got JJ. A player in front of me raised from $.50 to $1.50. There was a limper in front of him, so he could have raised to $2.75. This is curious, so I re-raise to $5. He re-raised to $12.75. A player after him called (!) and I called, knowing I was probably behind. Twice in the last few hands players had re-raised the max with hands like K7 and AJ, but I didn't put this player on anything that bad. He had aces or kings, at the very least. The flop was the worst possible for me. KsJc7c. The original raiser was the first to act and of course went all in for his last $15. Caught-in-the-middle guy folds I have a set of Jacks. I figure there are only three hands he could have to make that move. If he has AA or AK, I'm golden. If he has KK, I'm cooked. I figure I have a 2 out of three chance, and it's $15 to get into an $80 pot.

Well, he had the KK. What's the final rub? He won it with a King High Flush. I wonder if the middle guy had the Ace of clubs?

Jinxed

I think I jinxed myself. So much for no losing sessions in February.

Fuck. $3. How will I recover?

Pathetic

I happened across this at PokerNow tonight. So pathetic it's funny.

Riddance

I am afraid of variance. I know it has to get me sometime. I'm still working on my clearing my bonus amount at PokerNow so I can start receiving my rake rebate. All I played to clear the actual bonus was O8b, and the rake there was rarely more than $.50. So in 500 raked hands my share was probably pretty close to $25. Since I have to clear the entire $50 in rake I still had some work to do. So I have been playing $25PLHE and have not had a losing session yet in February.

You read that correctly. I have played multiple sessions every day for 6 straight days and not lost money. In fact I had a $250 weekend. I had to re-check that cashier last night to comprehend it. Especially since it was another tournament heavy weekend with PSO. They had a WSOP super-satellite on Friday and a Poker League kick-off on Saturday.

Things started very nicely on Friday afternoon as I was getting ready for the satellite. I tried to buy into a tournament at Pacific Poker, but it crashed before it even started for me. There was some overlay and some people actually played some hands and got knocked out, so I got my buy-in back doubled. Sweet for doing nothing. I brought up a $25PLHE table at PokerNow and won about $80 in an hour. I busted out of the sub-sat about halfway through the field when some dipshit (read: he eventually won a seat) crippled me. I had raised half his stack on a raggedy flop with a pair of sevens and he called cold with ace-crap and caught a bullet. I got knocked out when I caught a set of nines and lost to an open ended straight draw that hit. Back to the PLHE tables at PokerNow and I won another $35.

Saturday started poorly and I was down three buy-ins almost immediately. I consoled myself by thinking about variance and the fact that it is nearly impossible to have as many winning sessions in a row as I have had. But two huge hands in a row got me ahead by about $13. Not earth shattering, but hey, I made a big comeback.

Another fast bustout in the PSO Poker League, Canada vs USA. I went out on set over set. I had a set of threes and my opponent had nines. Back to PN and PLHE. The fishiest table I have EVER seen. One moron who claims to have won $3000 in the last three weeks playing $200 NL on Party. If he was up $3000 in that game, why was he slumming on a $25PL table? And why was he playing SO BADLY? He and another player who had over $100 called every pre-flop raise no matter what they held. They caught a few times, but I knocked the shit out of them every time I played them. Their VP$IP were 80 and 74!! I would think the table would fill with sharks just based on the average pot sizes displayed in Party's lobby, but I pretty much had these fishies to myself. I finished up around $90 after going down $50 to begin with.

My pre-super bowl game was short but sweet. I played 16 hands total and won $40. I was just catching everything. I quit when the table broke up and rather that finding another laggy game to play, I dediced to play in an Intertops Freeroll. I made the money but nothing special, busting out in 13th out of 390 when my A3 desperation all-in ran into the big stack in the big blind with A9. The tournament lasted longer than the Super Bowl, and 12 people probably went more than another hour.

I know this winning session streak can't continue like this. I pretty much have a stop loss set at three buy-ins, but I won't leave a good game just because I'm down. Maybe I'm just playing these sessions long enough that I can come back from my downswings, and I only quit when I'm ahead. One of my sessions is only 16 hands, for christ's sake.

And good riddance to the stripper. She stopped posting hand histories a long time ago because they would have exposed her as the fraud she is. She doesn't know enough about poker to know what a good play is. Read her histories early in her blog. Notice how HARD she makes it to go back and read them? Now it looks like she is done blogging. People have told her they don't want to hear about her love life, and she can't post about poker. She's not a stripper anymore and she can't bitch about the minimum wage peons she used to berate at the movie theaters she "managed." So she's left with nothing to talk about. She says she might post once a week or so. Maybe we can expect a weekly bitch about Alton Brown and the Food Network. But the "I'm not going to post much anymore" entry usually means see ya later.

The Hammer Plays

I had a great time in the Blogger tournament.

I had just finished a marathon MTT in which I finished 12th out of 880 for a 10x payoff at Pacific Poker. KingLucky was in the tournament too, and we actually played at the same table when it got down to 4 tables. I managed to outlast him when he went out with pocket sixes in 18th place. He got 10x his buy-in too. I made a really weak call with A3 vs A6 to get crippled. Crippled isn't the word, I was all in on the small blind. Still, I got out with five minutes to spare until the blogger tourney.

My first table only lasted about two hands, but it was long enough for me to lose about T400 with the hammer when someone went all in on the river, just before I did. I couldn't even complain because as soon as the hand ended I got moved. On the next table I got shafted when some moron raised my big blind pre-flop in early position with 34s and caught a straight on the river to beat my top pair. I'm just lucky there was a flush possible and it kept Volcrazy (finished 140th) from going all in. So I was down to T800 and things looked really grim.

I got moved again, and I managed to nearly double up with a big hand when I flopped broadway. Then I knocked someone out when I raised pre-flop with AK and got put all in by QQ. Flop had a K and suddenly I was leading the tournament. Amazing how fortunes change.

My big problem was that I was already exhausted from the Pacific tournament, and it was already pushing my normal bed-time. I get up at 4:30am for work, so I was looking for ways to either get a huge lead or bust. I think I found it when someone went all in for T800 in front of me and I had THE HAMMER. I called of course, and was unhappy to see my opponent held 88. This is not like Pauly who went all in and got called, I CALLED an ALL IN with THE HAMMER. Those are guts even the stripper would be proud of. My spirits got a lift when the flop had three hearts and I had the 7h. My opponent had two black eights, so I suddenly had a 35% shot. The turn gave me a gutshot straight, so I still had a chance but the river was a blank and I doubled up someone. Not a huge deal as I still had T2100.

Things went downhill quickly as I checked my big blind against just the small blind and lost T1000 when he caught something huge. Then I went out when anisotropy caught a flush on his big blind to beat my straight on the small blind. It was the tightest group of pansies that could have POSSIBLY been collected at a blogger tournament table. We even had the tournament leader at the table who was afraid to raise. Rev something or other. I have NO respect for that guy. When I was the leader I was throwing chips around like Santa Clause from a Fire Truck on a Saturday morning in December.

According to http://www.wpbtonline.com/, I finished 108th out of 151. At least I beat Lifesagrind, who NAILED 151st.

I got what I wanted. I had the lead for a while, got to make a hilarious play with the hammer, and took a few readers OUT. I got to play with DankHank, anisotropy, DonkeyPuncher, and the winner, on_thg. (Only about 10 people came in and asked who on_thg was.) What more can you ask for a measly twenty bucks?

Who am I?

With the addition of my third party skin, I had to choose a new name. I chose GoBeRude, because it is the name of my blog. So I think I will do what a lot of bloggers do and put their screen names at the various sites they play on their blog templates. Some bloggers don't do this, like Stripper, for example. She doesn't because she is afraid someone might actually see her play and see what a fraud she really is.

I have accounts at the following sites with the following names.

Party Poker: OklahomaDug
The Gaming Club: OklahomaDug
Royal Vegas: OklahomaDug
Aztec Riches: OklahomaDug
Pacific Poker: DuggleBo
Absolute Poker: DuggleBogey
Intertops Poker: DuggleBogey
PokerNow: GoBeRude

I post on both 2+2 and PSO forums as DuggleBogey

I will figure out a decent format and add that info to the sidebars.

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I was wandering through the cafeteria at work and there was a Good Morning America story on about rollover accidents in SUVs involving new drivers. The interesting part of the story I heard was this:

The part of the brain that evaluates risk isn't fully developed in people until they reach 25 years old. Until that point, teens and young adults cannot determine unreasonable risk.

Does that explain a lot of the calls you see on Party Poker or what?

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I'm looking forward to playing in the WPBT tourney tonight on Poker Stars. I haven't signed up yet, I still need to deposit money in my Stars account. Last time I played in the tournament was the last time I played at Stars, and I started an interesting trend I hope to continue tonight.

Originally I bought in for more than the tournament required. I didn't know how much the vig was and I wanted to be able to withdraw any money without having to deposit more, so I overshot the buy in by $50, in case they have a withdrawl limit. When I missed the amount I decided I would try to win the difference. I ended up winning not only the difference, but enough to buy into the tourney. Freeroll! Woohoo!

It started a trend. When I signed up for the PSO poker league at Absolute Poker, every time before the league started I would play in a $.25/$.50 NL room to kill time until the tourney started. Every week I won enough to buy my way into the league game. The entire 5 week league was a freeroll for me. Especially since I took second in one event and won around $70+ PSO prizes.

So it will be interesting to see if I can win my buyin to the WPBT tournament before it starts. Just to see if I can keep the trend going.

Development

Wow, I've really let the Poker Comic go for a long time without an update. Shame on me.

I really had fun playing a $250 Intertops Freeroll last night. I was playing Omaha at Pacific Poker when suddenly a table popped up from the Intertops software I had left running. It was a $100 No Limit Freeroll that had been going on for an hour and twenty minutes. I had $180 left and the blinds were $150. I went all in with my Q4s and lost. I have no idea why it suddenly came up.

Then I thought about it and realized I had registered for two freerolls. The second one started an hour later, so I had only lost about $100 in blinds. But it was already past 8:45pm and I get up for work at 5am. The freeroll wouldn't be done until well after Midnight. No way was I staying up to play it. But these Intertops freerolls are so easy you can just win a couple of pots and click "post-and-fold" to make it into the money.

I logged on, won 3 of the next 4 hands (limit tourney) and was up above T1500. "Not Bad," I thought. That might make the money. I played around a little longer and quit the Omaha game I was playing at Pacific.

Then this malignant little bastard joined the table when another player busted out. He raised the first hand. I had kings so I re-raised. He folded. "Odd," I though. Then he raised again. And again. And again.

"One of these," I thought to myself. "This could be fun."

And it WAS!. The most masterful performance I have ever had. I had this guy shitting his pants. I schooled this guy in unbelievable ways. If he EVER called me down I always had a monster. EVERY time he folded I showed him a bluff. Even the hammer played. He called my 7-2 all the way to the river before he folded, and I showed my 7-high. Then he raised me all the way to the river after I flopped a set of kings with no straight and no flush possible.

Unfortunately for the rest of the table, whenever they called him down he had a monster. But he could never catch on me. So he was taking their chips, and I was taking them from him.

After about 30 minutes, he was around 1000 chips, less than half what he came to the table with, and I was over T11,000.

Then I went to bed. In the morning I checked the tournament. He busted out soon after that, and didn't make the money. I finished in 21st place, clearing $1.75. I love being the Poker Police.