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.

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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.