A crazy hand.

This post is about a hand I playing in around 10 years ago at the Tropicana in Atlantic City. We were playing in the New Jersey State Poker championship. The tournament was Hi/Lo Stud for a $120 buyin. By the way Hi/Lo is my favorite game of all time. The Trop. used to have a weekly tournament on Sundays that I would play in as often as possible. My father and I both won it multiple times. Anyway back to the hand. I was in a pot in which a steel wheel got only quarter of the pot! (For those of you who don’t know a steel wheel is like the Royal Flush of Hi/Lo Stud, it’s A-2-3-4-5 suited.) I ended up with ½ the pot by rivering a straight flush J to 7 in spades. I had a straight and 4 straight flush in 5 cards. From 5th to 7th street the betting was capped. The lucky person in between us caught his wheel on the river. The steel wheel had it on 6th street. It was one of the most exciting hands I have ever been in. Basically there was so much noise at our table, when the hands were shown, that the whole tournament stopped for a few minutes. I only thought about the hand being I may be playing in the $2000 Hi/Lo Stud tournament at the WSOP. Good luck at the tables. Tony

WSOP Training continues.

My WSOP training continued last night. I played in a $55 HORSE tournament on Fulltilt. Felt I played well, finished in 3rd out of 23 entries. Earned $230 for my effort. More importantly it was good practice for the WSOP in a week. Played with Chip Jett at both of my tables. He was holding over me in RAZZ big time. Everytime we got into a heads up hand he would catch perfect. His board would read 2-3-4-6 by 6th! Didn’t feel that he outplayed me at all, just caught better. As for the other legs of HORSE he didn’t give me any trouble. For a change the RAZZ leg didn’t kill me, like it has been doing lately. The Holdem leg was my nemesis. It seams these days everyone knows how to play limit HE. I feel that I have almost no advantage in limit HE. Actually I don’t think anyone has a huge advantage in this leg of HORSE. The stud events are another story. RAZZ and Hi/Lo is played so poorly by some people. Hopefully at the WSOP I will shine in these two legs. If I can just play even in the other three legs think I will do fine. When we were three handed one hand of HE really put a dent in my stack. I called a raise with A-8 suited, the raiser was uber-aggressive. Really when three handed you need to be very agressive, also I had position on him for the rest of the hand. Flop came down A-7-3 and he checked to me. The light bulb should have went off in my head, thread carefully. Instead I took the lead and bet out. He called and a 9 fell on the turn. He checked again and I bet. He insta-check raised me. I should have folded at this point, something didn’t smell right. I called and a 10 fell on the turn. He bet out and I made the crying call. He had flopped a set of sevens. This hand took 75% of my stack. Now I was down like 10-1 to the 2nd place player. I could never recover from this hand and 2 hands later went out in 3rd. Hmm did I misplay this hand? Maybe but 3 handed it’s hard to get away from top pair. I will play another tournament tonight, the training continues. I can’t wait for the WSOP. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Yet more $10-20 at the Borgata

Yet another hand from my juicy $10-20 game at the Borgata this weekend. This hand just illustrates how surprised you can be when a normal winning hand holds up in this kind of environment. When what supposed to happen actually happened. I will explain further in this post. Nothing amazing happened in this hand but I think it is surprising anyway. A loose uber-aggressive player raises from under the gun. He gets 5 callers of his raise cold. Also the big blind calls for one more bet. So we have 7 players seeing a flop on K-10-3 rainbow. Pre-flop raiser leads out and everyone calls. Hmm everyone must have a piece of the flop. Turn brings another 10 and he leads out again. 4 people call the turn bet. So now we have 5 people seeing a river, the 4 of diamonds comes on the river. He bets out again and 3 people call him. He turns over A-K off and drags down the large pot. I was shocked that top pair top kicker actually held up at this table.(What did everyone else have?) We were seeing quads, full houses, flushes, and straights winning pots all day. At the very least 2 pairs were winning when we had 5 people going to the river. In a normal game A-K flopping top pair is often good enough to take down the pot. When the game degenerates to a card catching contest I wouldn’t be too confident with it. I give props to this player to bet out on the river. It does make sense being if someone had a ten they probably would have raised on the turn to protect their hand from J-Q drawing cheaply. Then again I am giving too much credit to these players to think on that level. This game was really a crazy holiday weekend card catching contest. Even though all the books say these are the games you make the most money in I really don’t enjoy playing in them. The variance in them is huge. Plus a lot of the moves I make just don’t work in this environment. Even the worst players know to make crying calls or to draw to long shots when they are getting over 20-1 on their calls. Well my results were great in this game I still prefer a table I can control. I will post about some other interesting hands from this game in the coming days. Good luck at the tables. Tony

More $10-20 at the Borgata.

This is another post about the juicy $10-20 LHE game I played at the Borgata this weekend. What a great game it was. Even though I ran into some really bad coolers I still managed to make over 20BB in 4 hours of play. (In a previous post I told about running into quads 2 times in a half an hour.) One time I had a full house, the other time had A-K, flopped top pair, top kicker. I somehow managed to not lose all my money in these hands. People were making the dumbest bluffs at this table, which made it hard to lay a hand down. One player kept bluffing at me over and over. In this particular hand I got the best of him, needed a little luck also. In middle position I brought it in for a raise with pocket Kings. Four of us saw flop of K-9-8 off. (Great flop for me.) The bluffer led out and 1 person limped in between us. I raised and the limper in between folded for 1 more bet. (A strange play at this table or any other for that matter.) The turn brings what I thought was a harmless 10. Let me back up this player and I had a history of confrontations at this table. I snapped off 3 of his bluffs in the last hour. It felt like he was always playing at me, trying to bull me out of the pots. He checks the turn and I fire out a bet. He check-raises me instantly. To me it looks like a total bluff, so I three bet. He raises again, so now I know he really did hit the gut shot on the turn. Before the river comes he bets in the dark. I pick up $40 and hold it waiting for the river. He starts goating me into raising him before the river comes. This to me is a tell also that he has the straight. I get saved on the river when a beautiful 8 comes to pair the board. I raise and get paid off. What a nice re-suck of a large pot that was. He was steamy big time after this hand. BTW he did have J-Q off, which he called 2 bets cold pre-flop! This player went through $800 in 3 hours and was still playing after I left. Got to love deep-pocketed over-aggressive bluffers. BTW there was plenty of drinking going on at the table, which is always a good sign. Later on I will post about some more interesting hands from this game. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Site review.

I have received some more good sites to review through Reviewme.com. The following post is a paid Advertisement. We will return to our show after a few words from our sponsers :-). The link to the site is below.

Casinoportalen.com


This is a casino/online gaming review site. I like to think of it like a yahoo of online gaming and video games. It's a very diverse sites. Contains reviews of Online poker sites, Bingo sites, and Online general casinos. Also has free demo downloads of many popular video games, classic and newer ones. Also has a ton of gambling news scattered through out the site. Great place to look up the rules of all worldwide gambling games. It's a very eclectic site. Even has a tab to go to gambling jokes. There is also many places to get advice on how to best play many of the casino pit games. Why buy books on the subject when you can go to this site for free. Almost forgot that there is a lot of infomation about sports betting. Including reviews of the many sports book sites. There is something for everyone on this site. Please give it a look at. That's it for now. Without futhur adoiu we return to our originally scheduled program :-). Good luck at the tables. Tony

Borgata $10-20.

Played some $10-20 LHE at the Borgata on this Memorial day weekend. The games were loose and wild, to say the least. We had one dealer who dealt a crazy 30 minute down. In 30 minutes she dealt 2 four of a kinds and 1 straight flush. One of the four of a kinds and the straight flush were flopped! Crazier thing was I was in all 3 hands! What are the chances of that. I ran into both of the 4 of a kinds with big hands myself. Managed to not loose all of my money on these hands. I flopped the straight flush against 6 limpers. Five people had already limped so I decided to see a flop with the 10-6 of diamonds. Flop come 7-8-9 of diamonds, gin! They all checked and I bet out being I was in last position. Only got 1 caller. I was praying he had the Ace of diamonds. Turn was another diamond, either the best card or the worst for me to get some action. He folded right a way. Maybe I should have checked behind. He told the table that he folded 2 pairs, but we never saw them. Of well I can't complain I won a nice little pot. Later on I will write about the four of a kind hands. Felt I lost the minimum on both of them. Good luck at the tables. Tony

WSOP Training.

My WSOP training continues. Played in a $55 HORSE tournament on Fulltilt last night. Was card dead for the entire tournament, couldn’t steal a pot either. Yet I still finished in 9th out of 19 players. The result isn’t important. What is important is that I got that far without cards in a limit tournament. If it was no limit I could have played the players, not my cards only. Limit is somewhat of a card catching contest. Also getting the most value out of the hands you make. Felt I played almost perfect poker yet the cards wouldn’t cooperate. What can you do this happens sometimes. My best hand in the limit holdem leg was A-10 off. I don’t think I was dealt a single pair the entire tournament. In all the legs of HORSE I was completely card dead, except in RAZZ. I did start with some monsters in this leg, A-3-5, 2-3-5, and A-2-6. Think I won 2 of these hands. Actually RAZZ kept me alive in this tournament. I have been complaining about how bad I have been running in RAZZ lately. I noticed that being the players were better in this tournament they were easier to get off hands. When I play in $11 HORSE or $22 RAZZ tournaments people catch a King on 4th and a 10 on 5th yet still chase to the river. In a way this is good for me, when I am making hands. When I am pairing up it can be devastating. I will play a few more HORSE tournaments in the next 2 weeks. Need to get primed up for the WSOP. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Cooler.

Was involved in a cooler last night. Thankfully I was on the winning end of it. I was playing .25-.50 No Limit on Poker stars. Had $24.5 in my stack, had bought in for my usual $20. We were at a very tight aggressive table. The 3rd position player brought in for 3X the blind. I had pocket nines and smooth called from the button. The flop came 2-3-9 with 2 spades, gin! He led out for a pot sized bet. I put him on Jacks or queens, just hoped he would be stubborn. So I raised the pot back to him. He had me covered like $45 in his stack. He pushed and I insta-called. My 3 nines held up over his 3 threes and I won the $48 pot. Set over set on the flop and I was on the good end of it. I love to play poker . I quit for the night up 2 buyins. Think I should move up to the next level. I can’t wait to go to the WSOP! That’s it for today. Good luck at the tables. Tony

A long Freeroll.

I hate people that don’t follow the rules. Last night played in a TEC Freeroll on Ultimate. There were 3500 entries, with the top 50 going on to the final on Sunday. I play in these just for fun sometimes. We are down to 54 players with one really short stack on the table. The table chip leader who has like a million chips decides he wants everyone at our table to make the top 50 and advance to the finals. He starts telling everyone to fold to the bid blind. Totally unethical even for a freeroll IMO. Then when no one agrees to it he decides to take it upon himself to get the short stack in.(He was on his right.) In one hand there are 4 people in and the shorty has like 600 chips behind. The big stack bets like 100,000 chips, everyone folds to the shorty, before he can act the bid stack says I have 6-4 off call me. Short calls and he does have 6-4. In another hand he raises everyone out on the flop. On the turn the short goes all in for 1000 into a 10,000 chip pot. The big stack folds and shows top pair top kicker. He wants to show the table that he is protecting the short stack. I don’t care if it was a freeroll this was just so annoying. I told him what he was doing wasn’t right. He decides to go to war with me. Twice he raises me all in with nothing and shows it. Tells the whole table I am mean and he will knock me out. All I wanted to do was to fairly get into the next stage and get some sleep. This was making the tournament take longer then it needed to. Maybe I was overreacting but I didn’t think it was right what he was doing. If this was a real money tournament I would have reported him to support. Anyone have any comments on this situation? That’s it for today. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Ramblings

I am running well in Online poker these days. Played a Hi/Lo SNG on Stars last night and took 2nd in it. Should have won it but my opponent was very lucky. He was calling my 3rd and 4th street raises with air. Then pairing up on 6th or 7th street. When we were heads up it was pretty much a crapshoot anyway. These turbo SNGs tend to be like this at that point. Played more low limit no limit on Stars and did well also, won 1 buy in within an hour. Problem is once I am up lose the drive to play on further. When I am down I don’t want to stop. It’s bad to be results orientated but I am. Want to put that win in my record log everyday. What it means is that I ride my loses down but quit with a small win often. This is a bad habit I have gotten into. Need to work on not caring about the days results, just look at the big picture. The big picture for me has been great in live and online poker. As for tournaments it hasn’t been good at all. I probably should just quit playing in them and stick to ring games. Problem is that I am looking for that one big score. You know that life-changing hit. (Sort of like hitting the lottery.) Many people are looking for the same thing. Guess that’s why tournament poker has exploded in recent years. Speaking of tournament poker it’s less then 3 weeks for us to go to the WSOP. I love Vegas and the WSOP even more. For all the complaints about it there is still some magic attraction that pulls me back every year. Could this be my year? Just one big win there would be awesome. I know I can do it. I have final tabled so many Hi/lo stud, RAZZ, and HORSE tournaments online. Just need to extend that out to a live tournament. In 2004 I played my first WSOP tournament and have been hooked ever since. It was the $2500 HORSE tournament that Scott Fishman won. I played really well, got lucky also. Started off with a bang, had a big stack for hours. Then I got moved to a tough table of seasoned tournament pros/high stakes players. They just killed me in the Stud leg of HORSE. Since then I have practiced Stud and think I can now hold my own. We shall see in 3 weeks. Good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – Don’t forget about the charity tournament on Sunday at Poker Stars. See my previous post for the details.

A great cause.

This was posted over at the Tao of Poker Sunday. It's a great cause so I have included on my BLOG. Please try to play in this charity event. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

One week from today on Sunday May 27th, PokerStars will be hosting a charity tournament to raise money for the humanitarian disaster in the Darfur region of the Sudan. If you cannot play, fnd out how you can donate money or help raise awareness.

If you have a blog (any blog) and have not blogged about this charity event... then shame on you. It's time for you to step up and do something positive with your little piece of the internet. Instead of bitching and moaning about bad beats or instead of bragging about how great of a poker player you are... do something extremely important and spread the word about this tournament, which happens one week from today. You can improve your karma and help out a worthy cause with one simple post.

We got less than 300 players in last week's charity tournament. That was pathetic. My goal is to get at least 1,000 players in this tournament. I need your help. Let's spread the word!




PokerStars is running the Ocean's Thirteen Darfur Charity Tournament next Sunday afternoon at 2:30pm ET.

PokerStars is teaming up with the cast of Ocean's Thirteen to help stop the suffering in the war-torn region of Darfur in the Sudan. If you have not been paying attention, over 400,000 people have already been killed. They launched Not On Our Watch. Their mission is to..."focus global attention and resources to stop and prevent mass atrocities. Drawing on the powerful voice of citizen artists, activists, and cultural leaders, our mission is to generate lifesaving humanitarian assistance and protection for the vulnerable, marginalized, and displaced."

PokerStars is donating $1 million and you can help out by playing in two diffeent charity events. You have a shot to win a ticket to the Ocean's Thirteen premiere in Los Angeles. See below for specific details.
Overview of the Ocean's Thirteen Darfur Charity Tournament:

These tournaments are special re-buy tournaments - the entire prize pool will be matched by PokerStars and donated to the Darfur relief efforts. At the conclusion of the event the prize pool, which will be temporarily awarded to the 1st place finisher, will be removed from the 1st place finisher's account. The amount will then be matched by PokerStars and sent forward to the Darfur charity. Thank you for participating — go re-buy crazy! — it's for a good cause. Good luck!

Date: May 27th 2007, 15:30 ET
Buy-in: $10 plus rebuys.
Prizes: Top 4 receive tickets to June 5th premiere in Los Angeles plus 2 nights hotel and $2k for travel/spending. Top 18 receive autographed copy of "Oceans 13" DVD. Total prize pool will go to charity. PokerStars will match the donation. The tournament is open to all players. Good luck!
I will be playing in next Sunday's event on PokerStars. Hope to see you there and please spread the word about this tournament. Online poker players are painted by the mainstream press as degenerate criminals. Here's a chance to show the world that we can do some good with online poker.

Online Tournaments and the WSOP.

Another day another frustrating tournament lost by me. I should just give up playing tournaments online. They are such a drain on my bankroll. Thankfully I can replenish the money by playing low limit no limit on Fulltilt and Poker Stars. Played in another RAZZ tournament yesterday, got close to the money but couldn’t fade the bad beats when it mattered. Again I started with the best 3 cards 1 hand and the best 4 cards another hand, only to lose on the river. So frustrating when someone who has 2 kings showing beats you on the river in RAZZ! Speaking of bad beats to get knocked out my wife played a $22 Stud tournament on River Stars(Mean Poker Stars J) yesterday. This hand was just sick to get knocked out. She got dealt rolled up Aces in Stud! Talk about getting dealt gin. A guy with a jack showing brought it in for a raise, she just called. On 4th street he paired his door card and it was obvious he had 3 jacks. They went to war on 4th and then 5th street until she was all in. He of course fulled up on the river and she didn’t. What a terrible way to get knocked out of a tournament. She rebounded rather quickly by playing another Stud tournament an hour later and taking 3rd in it. She’s trying to get prepared for the WSOP. She will be playing the $1500 Stud on the first day we are in Vegas. I will be playing in the $270 HORSE tournament at Binions that day to get ready for the $2500 HORSE tournament at the WSOP the next day. We have our whole trip, tournament wise, planned out already. We plan on playing in like 10 tournaments, wish us luck. I can’t wait for the WSOP. Good luck at the tables. Tony

RAZZ - ARG!!

I have said it before and I will say it again, RAZZ is brutal. Played in the $26 RAZZ Race for the braclets last night on Fulltilt. 61 people played in this winner take all tournament, had a nice overlay. I was in the top 4 most of the tournament, actually was in first for awhile. When were down to 3 tables my bad RAZZ luck started to happen. I kept starting with A-3-5, 2-4-7, or 4-5-6 and losing to people called my raises with an 8 or 9 showing. It's just so frustrating, this game is just so unfair. I finished in 15 after I went card dead for 30 minutes. The worst thing about it is I was playing in a $5.50 RAZZ tournament at the same time. In this one I was in the top 4 for most of the tournament. Would up taking some really bad beat/coolers late in the tournament. Finished in 12th out of 62 players. One of these days I will write about some good news here. We didn't get a chance to stop at Foxwoods so I don't have a trip report for you. Later on I may write about some No Limit hands I played at PokerStars. That's it for now. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Another site review.

Had some time to kill today so I decided to go onto reviewme.com and see if I anymore site reviews to do. (Note this post is a paid advertisement from reviewme.com.) I tried this site out this morning and loved it. I am sure there are many other places online to find free video games also but this site is excellent. Check it out for yourself.

Onlinespiele

They have action, startegy, board, card, and the original games that we all grew up with. They also have normal solitare and it's many different variations. The site is in not in English but anyone who knows the games can use it. I especially like playing Sudoku online. If you have some time to kill check it out yourself.

As for poker I have been running very well this week. Decided to reload on Pokerstars and try out their No Limit and HORSE games. Both are even softer then the games on Fulltilt. Especially thier .10-.25 and .25-.50 No Limit games. People bluff way too often in these games. Someone raised me from under the gun and I moved in on him with pocket Kings for like 4 times his original raise. He insta-calls me with A-8 off? What a terrible call that was, I doubled through. This wasn't an isolated case, were 3 other people playing just as bad at this table.

Maybe tonight I will play in the race for the braclets tournament on Fulltilt. I am not home so it all depends on what time we get back from dinner. That's it for now. Good luck at the tables. Tony

RAZZ

Now I know why everyone says RAZZ is so frustrating. It used to be my favorite leg of HORSE, being no one really plays it properly. I have gotten knocked out of my last 3 online HORSE tournaments in RAZZ. I always go in with the best hand by far. Last night’s hand wasn’t even close. I started with 4-5-6 and raised. A Jack raised me, putting me all-in. True I was short stacked and we were getting close to the money. I caught a Queen, a 2, and then running 4s. He started with J-8-7 and by 7th had a jack low to knock me out with a queen low. How unfair 4-5-6 loses to J-8-7! This has been happening to me over and over in RAZZ. When I played HORSE in the 2004 WSOP I had never played live RAZZ before. Yet I killed everyone at the table in this leg of HORSE. If we were playing nothing but RAZZ think I would have won the bracelet.(BTW – This was Scott Fishman’s claim to fame, his first bracelet I believe.) Should have been me – LOL! I felt like I had a natural ability for the game. I played RAZZ last year in the WSOP and did well but didn’t last out the first day. I played one satellite for the seat and we split the prize pool 3 ways. It just seams that online RAZZ is so different then live RAZZ. In live RAZZ is you catch good on 4th and your opponent catches bad they fold. In online RAZZ it’s like playing no-foldem holdem. I have been run down by people that caught a Jack on 4 street and a Queen on 5 street. Online the game is just a card catching contest. Need to practice playing it more before the WSOP so I will keep at it. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Fulltilt Tokens.

Played another token 18 man SNG on Fulltilt last night. I came in 2nd, won another chip. That’s 3 in a row. I have written about this before. The Chip SNGs and tournaments are so full of fish on Fulltilt. I consider myself a decent player, not great. Yet I am getting a chip in over 50% of the the 18 man ones. I have played a few of the Token Frenzy tournaments with great results also. These are of the MTT style, with like one token given away for every 4 entries. People just don’t seam to get proper tournament strategy when all the finishes pay the same. They either play too tight or too loose. You don’t need to accumulate chips, just need to have enough that you are not the short stack at the table. Last night on the bubble I saw a guy call off most of his chips, when he had an M of 8, with Q-10 off. Maybe he was getting frustrated being we were on the bubble for 20 minutes, I don’t know what he was thinking. You need patience to play in these. Last night’s was pretty long for an 18 man token SNG. Lasted almost 2 hours, which was the first time I have seen one go this long. When we were 5 handed the all in player must have won at least 15 times to avoid elimination. I survived 3 of them myself. In one hand I had K-Q of spades. The flop was J-10-3 with 2 spades. I pushed and got called by J-Q for most of his chips. I rivered a spade to survive. He was down to 220 chips. He doubled up 4 times and was in 2nd chip position 5 minutes later. After being this low he won a chip also. There was some odd play in this one. Not saying all the play was bad, people seamed to know to push when their M was low. I will continue playing in these on a daily basis. Now I need to find some $26 tournaments to use my chips in. As for live poker I really feel the itch to play some. This weekend we will try to play a short session at Foxwoods. My wife plans on playing in the Stud event at the WSOP this year. She needs to get some live Stud practice in. Hopefully Saturday morning we can play for 4 hours or so. I guess I will play some $10-20 LHE. I will post a trip report on Sunday. I can’t wait for the WSOP! Good luck at the tables. Tony

WSOP

Just 3 weeks to go until my vacation. Did I tell you my vacation is in Vegas for the WSOP! Not playing the main event but will play 2 preliminary events. May play in one of the Deep stack events at the Venetian also. All depends how I do in the Hi/Lo Stud event at the WSOP. This will be my year, I hope J. You will hear me say this like 100 more times before the WSOP. I can’t wait to go! Tonight I will play some more .25-.50 No Limit on Fulltilt, being I am running so good. See you all there. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

I like Poker, Poker's nice...

I will keep this short and sweet. Don't you love when things work right in Poker? I played No Limit for 15 minutes and made 2 and 1/2 buy ins. Went all in with aces and got called by A-J and Queens, they held up! Played a Token 18 person SNG came in second, won a chip. All my bad luck from this weekend has turned around. I like play poker :-). Good luck at the tables. Tony

Brutal Poker.

Poker can be so tough sometimes. I had some really bad luck playing yesterday. Cooler after cooler, it felt like online poker is rigged. Things have turned around today. I am home sick and playing some no limit on Fulltilt. I have been so lucky, made quads earlier and got paid off. I guess it is true over time the luck evens out. We all get the same number of good cards and rags. My outlook is totally positive regarding poker today. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Yet another Site Review.

Sorry for the pimping today. Reviewme.com has finally come up with some good reviews for me to do. Note this is a paid advertisement. This is a way for me to make a little money from this BLOG. I checked this site out in detail today. I like it a lot and think my readers will have a good time with it.

Safest Online Casinos

They have reviews of poker and table game sites. Contains special exclusive bonuses for users of their site. They also have links to a ton of places to play casino games for free. That way you can learn games before trying them out for real money. They have free money Keno, slots, blackjack, and craps games. Also have tons of video poker variations for you enjoyment. Even have links to play online Bingo, for fun or money. This site also works with MACs as well as PCs. I don't mind doing these reviews providing I like the site I am writing about. I have passed up reviews for sites I didn't care about.

Poker hasn't gone well for me today. Bad beat after bad beat. I have tried playing every different game today, to mix it up a little. Plus more practice for HORSE at the WSOP never hurts. My NL cash game has been dreadful today. I even played some live HORSE on Fulltilt today, with no luck. Oh well it's one of those days. Anyway good luck at the tables. Tony

Sports Picks.

This is another paid review, (Advertisement) from Reviewme.com. This one is right up our alley. Most people who like to play poker in person or online will be interested in this site. Sports betting goes hand in hand with poker. Whenever my brother and I go to play poker he is always betting on sports, horses, and playing Keno at the same time. He is an action junkie, like I am sure a lot of my readers are. Live Poker is a little slow so betting on sports on the side is a good way to keep you interested in between hands. Thing I like about this site is that it has articles and research for the avid sports bettor. Almost consider it like a portel for sports bettors. Click on this link and check it out for yourself.

Free tips

As for poker I haven't had much time to play this weekend. I am currently playing some No Limit on Fulltilt. This has been a very bad morning for me. Keep running A-Q into Aces, Jacks into queens, A-K into Aces, etc. We all have these type of sessions, oh well what can I do. I may play in Al's Race for the Braclets tournament tonight at 7:00 on Fulltilt. Stop by and say hi if you are online then. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Fulltilt No Limt

No limit can be such a cruel game sometimes. I had a few minutes to kill last night and decided to play a little .25-.50 on Fulltilt. I quickly lost 2 buy ins and went on temporary tilt. Which cost me another buy in and a half. I know I played poorly but couldn’t help myself. I raised the pot in late position with A-Q and took a flop heads up in position against the small blind. The flop came J-J-J what are the chances my opponent had a jack, slim. He checked and I bet ½ the pot. He insta-called which should have alerted me he wasn’t going anywhere. The turn was the seven of diamonds. He checked and I bet ¾ of the pot. Please fold I have something. He insta-called again. The river came with the 2 of spades. He checks, I like a donkey go all in. He insta-calls and has a pair of 8s, first buy in gone. This hand for some reason bothered me big time. So a few hands later, against the same player I raise with 10-J suited and flop a gut shot with 2 overs. I proceed to bet every street and again go all in on the river. I was bluffing and the donkey called me with K-7o to river a seven to make 2 pairs. I lose another buy in and was really on tilt. I should have left the table but I keep playing. If it’s any consolation he later goes all in for $74 on a flop of 4-6-9 with his pocket Jacks and loses to pocket Aces. He get busted and ships my money to someone else. I leave the table down 3 and ½ buy ins in 15 minutes. The story has a happy ending. I move to another table and get dealt pocket aces. We get it all in on the flop and he calls me with pocket 8s. My aces hold up and I quickly double up. I play for 10 more minutes and get all of my money back minus 1 buy in. Being I was on my way out this was a positive way to end my session. The play at these levels on Fulltilt is so soft. Just need to not be my own worst enemy! Good luck at the tables. Tony

WSOP HORSE

Not much new, poker wise, has been going on for me this week. I have been beating the .25-.50 NL games on Fulltilt consistently. Think it’s time to move up to the .50-1.00 NL games. Haven’t had much time to play in any MTTs. I really need to practice playing in the bigger field HORSE events. I took 2nd on Pokerstars on Saturday night in an $11 HORSE event with 175 players. (Paid around $309.) This was good for my ego and bankroll but really didn’t do much for me practice wise for the WSOP. This was a field of complete donks, some of which didn’t even know how to play RAZZ or Hi/Lo Stud properly. On Saturday night I also played in the $55 HORSE tournament on Fulltilt. Made the final table with Andy Bloch. Took some brutal beats and wasn’t able to cash, only paid 4 places. I probably got more practice in this tournament then in the Pokerstars one. I still have 4 weeks before the WSOP to get ready. This will be my year! Need to keep the confidence up, also must have no fear of bubbling in it. Trying to make the money is a recipe for failure in big buyin MTTs. I know being I have come so close to making the money in WSOP events in the last few years. Never can seam to get over the hump of making the money in these events. I can’t wait for the WSOP!! That’s it for today. Good luck at the tables. Tony

More $10-20 at the Borgata.

We played a lot of $10-20 LHE at the Borgata this weekend. My results were mixed, finished with a very small win. Of course that includes, rake, tips for the dealers, and drinks. I always count them as part of my expenses of playing. Like I wrote in my last post, there were many strange hands going on at the table we played at. In this particular hand I am dealt pocket 2s in the bid blind. The under the gun player limped, everyone folded to the cut off who brought it in for a raise. This guy was playing almost every hand dealt, so I didn’t give his raise any respect. I called as well as the under the gun player. The 3 of us saw a flop of 3-5-8 offsuit. A pretty raggy flop for sure. The flop was checked around. The turn came with a 3. We checked to the cutoff who bet out. I knew the 3 didn’t help his hand, he was stealing in position. I made the mistake of calling his bet, should have raised and knocked out the player in between us. The river brought a 4 which to me looked like a very safe card. So I bet out and the next player called me very fast. The cutoff shook his head and thought forever. After 2 minutes he folded his hand. I was about to muck my 2s, knowing they weren’t good. I decided to show them just for table image. The other player showed 2s also and we split the pot. The pre-flop raiser seamed very mad, guess he folded the winner. How could he call me with pocket 2s on the river? What a weird hand. Let this be a reminder, never muck your hand until you see your opponent’s cards! Things like this keep happening over and over again at this table. This table was one of the most profitable sessions I had this weekend. The play was just so bad. Of course I took a beating at other tables to cancel out this win. I will write about some interesting tournament hands from this weekend in the coming days. Good luck at the tables. Tony

$10-20 at the Borgata.

Played a lot of $10-20 LHE this weekend at the Borgata. I have a couple of interesting hands to write about from this game. In the first hand I am in the small blind with A-3 of diamonds. Seven people limp in so I throw the extra $5 into the pot and the big blind checks his option. Flop comes 10-7-2 with 1 diamond. I check and believe it or not so does the rest of the table. The turn comes with the 2 of diamonds, giving me the nut flush draw. I check and it checks around to the button who bets. I call and everyone else folds. The river brings an offsuit 7. He insta-bets, I don’t even need to think for a second and call right away. He states you are good and shows a K. I win a nice sized pot with Ace high. I knew he was making a position move by betting the river. Crazy thing is 9 people see a flop and Ace high wins it! Being he bet so fast on the end I picked up that he was weak and wanted me to fold. I will write about the other interesting hand later on. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Site Review.

I am trying something out for the first time. If I get negative feedback about it this will be the last time I will do any reviews. This is a paid for review from the service Reviewme.com.(Warning Advertisement.) Trying to make a little dough from this BLOG also :-). Check out this site, you won't be sorry. If you love to play poker online, for money, this site will be right up your alley.

Online Pool

They have a virtual pool game site, that you can play other players for money. What a great idea this is. When I checked it out there were over 700 players on it. Pool like poker can be learned and improved upon with practice. I have always been into playing video games, while growing up. Once the internet got so popular I started playing chess and checkers online at Yahoo. From this I started playing poker online for fun. I eventually graduted to playing for money on poker sites. I loved playing pool when I college, so this is a logical thing to do next. Check out this site, you won't be sorry.

OK. That's it for tonight. We will return to our original topic tomorrow. Poker baby! Good luck at the tables. Tony

Atlantic City Report

Got back from an AC trip yesterday. Was a good trip and a bad trip at the same time. Let me explain what happened. Played a lot of live $10-20 went up and down. Finished up a very small amount, like 5 BB in 20 hours of play. Played 2 tournaments one at the Borgata and one at the Taj Mahal. The good news is I felt I played great in both tournaments. I got deep in both but ran into bad luck in both of them. On friday played in the $50,000 guarented, had 450 players and paid 36 players. I felt I played great but I got short stacked. I woke up with Kings and pushed all in. The button had 2 aces and I was knocked out. Finished in around 100th place. On saturday I played at the Taj Mahal's $100 No Limit tournament. The field was so weak, very small too(84). I loved my chances in this one, really felt I was going to win it all. Then disaster hit me. With the Blinds at 500-1000 and a 100 ante I was dealt Queens under the gun. I had 9900 chips and decided the time was right to push. I pushed and the player after me, who had 18,000 chips insta-called with A-Q off. Everyone else folded and I decided I knew where this hand was going. I told everyone good game and I stood up. I then stated an Ace was coming on the river. The flop came 9-2-3 rainbow, ten on the turn, and guess what fell on the river?? Hmm... the suspense.... an Ace of course. With hindsight I wish I would have limped and then pushed on the non-scary flop. In this case it would have worked. Of well another tournament, another bad beat. (BTW finished like 15th, 9 places paid.) I have been running so bad in live tournaments, haven't cashed since the Borgata in January. Look for some interesting hand posts later on today and tommorrow. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Online play.

Last night I got my online playing back on track. I had a terrible weekend of play. Got killed in $1-2 HORSE and lost in .25-.50 No limit. I seam to do worse on weekends then weekdays. This all goes back to me playing better in the “non-crapshoot” games. The weekend games online are sometimes like playing bingo. I raise from under the gun with A-Q suited and gets called in 4 places. My standard bring in has been the pot in these games. Should be enough to get the garbage hands out. This weekend pocket 2s were my nemesis. I got stacked 3 times in one hour against pocket 2s. All 3 times the person either flopped a set or a full house. I lost with pocket queens, A-K, and Q-K suited. All three hands were coolers that seamed like a lock for me to win. In the A-K and Q-K hands I flopped trips. In the queens hand the board was low and villain was short stacked. Problem is people were calling pot sized bring ins or re-raises with any pocket pair. Some people will argue for implied odds when calling with pocket 2s. I personally hate calling raises with the low pocket pairs 2-5s. Anyway last night the tables were saner. I made 2 buyins in an hour. I did play another MTT, limit holdem. My bad run in these carried over from the last 2 weeks. Limit HE tournaments are really card catching contests anyway. For some reason I have had good success in them anyway. I need to play some more big buyin HORSE tournaments before the WSOP in 5 weeks. Really need to get some practice against better players. Then again playing in $55 HORSE tournaments the players may not be that great anyway. I will repeat myself, can’t wait for the WSOP! That’s it for today. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Borgata Poker

Big Borgata weekend coming up for my wife and I. We plan on playing some $10-20 and some $20-40 LHE. I have had mixed success in both lately. Haven’t really played enough $20-40, I am such a wimp J. The play is so much more under control then the $10-20 game, which at times has been no foldem holdem. I personally play better against thinking players. Someone I can actually put on a hand. The books all say you want to play in these loosey-goosey games with 7 people seeing a flop. I think these games are a crapshoot, need to show down a monster hand to win every time. Run bad at these tables and you could loss some serious coin. Of course hit a few flops and you can win a ton of money. We also plan on playing in the $50,000 guarantee tournament. For $280 you start with 6000 chips and the blinds go up every 30 minutes. This tournament is great practice for the upcoming WSOP. (Which I can’t wait to go to!) I will post some trip reports this weekend. Hope to be great positive ones. Good luck at the tables. Tony