I seem to be just running even lately playing on line. Kevin has been on an unbelievable run. He is still on the first $50.00 he started with and has done quite well. Kevin's game of choice is Sit & go's or single table tournaments. He is not very fond of the cash game. I like the Sit & Go, but I seem to end up card dead near the end of the game. The blinds get high and with a short table I have to start gambling just to keep my head above water. Then I get picked off like duck in a shooting game. I tend to like the cash game. The blinds never go up. You can sit back and wait for quality hands to play. The problem here is you are playing for real money. You make a dumb play in a sit & go you're out $5.50, just the buy in. A dumb move in a cash game can cost you $25.00 real cash.That brings me to tonight's session. I started off by playing a $5.00 sit & go. I was hanging around the middle of the pack with an average chip stack of 1,850 in chips. The blinds get up to 100 / 200 now I only have just over 5 rounds before I'm blinded out and we are only down to 6 players. So I pick up pocket 9's in mid position with everyone folding to me. I figure I've been playing very tight so I really only have one move. I move the slider on the screen to all in and click raise. I get to the big blind / chip leader and he calls with an Ace 5 off suit. Well he spikes an ace on the turn and I end up sixth. A big goose egg for just about an hour of play.So I stare at the cash game button... Ahh what the hell, so I hit a $.15 / .25 no limit cash game. Well in 30 Min's I up $12.00 then I get in a hand where I have... Pocket 9's in mid position, again, with 4 people limping in. I want to see who really has a hand so I raise to $2.00 I get one call from the button. The flop is 9, 10, ace, with 2 clubs. That's a very good flop for me because I know that for some reason on line players think that any ace is very strong. I don't like the 2 clubs, but I now have trips. What I'm not crazy about is I don't have position. I bet another $2.00 and after a little pause I get called. So the is a little over $9.00 in the pot. The turn is a Jack of clubs. Now I'm not loving my trips so much because there is a straight & flush on the board. I figure I'll go with another $2.00 bet. Well, then he goes all in for another $20.00. I only have $6.00 invested in this hand, which is half of my winnings, if I call and lose I've lost half the money I have brought to the table. So I fold. I'm still up $6.00 and the game goes on. There was a time early in my game where I would have called that knowing I could be beat and moan about a bad beat afterwords.Then comes the hand that a cash game is made for. I'm in the big blind with an 8 - 7 of spades and I have 5 players limping in. I want to raise just because I don't like the fact that that many players think I'm going to let them see a cheap flop. But, it's not really a raising hand so I check. The flop is King of clubs, 8 of clubs, 8 of hearts. Nice, trips..... Well I'm first to act and would normally check, hoping to check raise, but I don't want to give a free card which could be another club. So I bet $.50. I get 2 callers. The turn is a 7 of diamonds, ohhh baby I now have eights full. I now want someone to hit their flush. I check, both players check. The turn is a jack of clubs. I have to bet first, but I don't want to scare them so I bet $1.00. The first guy raises me to $5.00 and the second guy raises him to $15.00. I have just about $26.00 in my stack so I go all in praying for 2 things. The first is both of them to call, and the second is that one of then does not have the only hand that can beat me, Pocket Jacks." Well Mister re raise to $5.00 folds. It's only $11.00 to call me, so the second guy makes the call. He has Ace King of Clubs for an Ace High Flush.I now have $71.00 and have been playing for about 1 hour. That's a $46.00 profit. I would have to win 2 $5.00 sit & go's to make the same amount of money.On the other hand, If he had pocket Jack's I would have slow played myself out of $25.00.Poker, Poker, what a thrill... Start out with the worst hand and go up hill

Wow does poker have its swings.

I was just reading my last post here. Man that seems like ages ago. I have hit a dry spell. In the last 3 weeks I've played in 7 Tournaments and one cash game. I was knocked out first 4 games in a row. Then I made it to a final table only to be knocked out in 10th place and out of the money. Then last night in the monthly game I play I was out 4th in the first game and first in the second game. The cash game was a disaster, I lost $20.00 after being up $20.00. It's times like this when you start to question why you play the game at all. The guys I play with smell blood in the water so the ball busting has reached epic proportion. Right now I'm at a crossroads. How do you reverse bad luck? I've tried to tighten up my game. I've read you just have to play through it, that the percentages, if your not making mistakes will swing back in your favor. We shall see.

Oh What A Night!!!

This is the most unbelievable night of online poker I have ever played. First, to build a little confidence I went to online poker school and played 2 sit & go’s. I finished 2nd in both of them. One of the sit & go’s lasted for over an hour. It was a great game to play in and watch. There was some real poker being played. Since I started the message board I was hoping to start an online league. So I went to Full Contact Poker and put another $50.00 in my account. The kids were running around and making a bunch of noise so as I was signing on and I accidentally signed up for a limit sit & go again! I hate limit Holdem. Anyway I told myself that when I put this money in I was always playing to win. So in Limit Holdem you have to wait, and wait. I did just that, and I won!! To be honest I was proud of myself. There were a few hands late in the game that I had a good hand but a bad feeling, so I folded only to watch some other poor chump take a beating by a monster hand. So it was around 9:00 and the kids just went to bed so it was quiet and I figured I would play just one more game. Have you noticed that when you are looking for a table the games just jump from the open games down to the running games? Well that was what was happing to me; I didn’t want to sign on another limit game. So I saw a no limit game with 6 players so I sign up and I had to wait for 10 minutes for 3 more players to sign up. I thought that was kind of strange, I mean at this time a night you have to be fast to get on a table. Well the game started and I was playing very tight. 3rd hand I pick up Ace King of hearts, I’m in early position so I raise to 100 and then the button re-raises me to 500, I was going to fold, but I was hoping for a good flop so I called. Flop comes King, six, 10, with 2 hearts. I bet the pot and the guy goes all in. I’m pot committed, so I call. He has king queen and I double up. So I’m feeling good, I kept playing tight and held the chip lead and building my stack to about 5000 chips. Here was the funny thing. We were playing for 50 minutes and no one was knocked out! Even the short stack still had over 1000 chips. The blinds were up to 200 & 400 and everyone was still in the game. I mean these guys were good. So then there was this huge hand. I get Ace Jack, 3 players fold to me so I raise to 1200, I get 2 callers and the button goes all in. I have everyone covered, but my A J didn’t look so good so I fold. The other 2 go all in. Cards flip up. Player 1 has pocket 9’s, player 2 has pocket 10’s. The guy who started all has King Jack. A jack on the turn and he knocks out the first 2 players. That drove me crazy because I folded the best hand. I would have knocked out 3 players and had a huge chip lead. Instead I lost the chip lead. The game had been running for an hour and 10 minutes and were still had 8 players. I knocked out 3 players and got the chip lead back with 6500 chips. Then everyone tightened up. So I went to work, I was stealing pots. Then I pick up queen’s I go all in and the short stack called with Ace King. My queens held up and we were down to 4. The one guy Dan had 400 chips left and has hanging on by a thread. Then I get into a few huge hands with this one guy. We were trading chips back and forth 3000 at a time. One of the other guys typed in, “You guys Love playing each other.” Then I pick up Ace 10 of spades. I raise and one guy calls. The flop hits with 2 spades and he goes all in. It only was 2000 more, so I call. He’s on a king high flush draw. The river was a spade and I have 12,000 in chips. We make the money round, Dan still hanging with 1,000 in chips, the guy I was doing battle with had 2,000. Dan goes all in, the other guy calls Dan wins and now the other guy is crippled. The very next hand Dan takes out the other guy and we start heads up. I think I had 11,000 and he has 4,000. I want this game. I’ve been playing for almost 2 hours now and I should win. 30 minutes later we are even in chips. I catch a cold run of cards and can’t fight him off. I steal a few more hands and I have him 10,000 to 5,000. Then the hand that wins’s it. I’m in the big blind. He calls, I have Jack 10, I check, the flop is Ace, King, Queen, rainbow. I check, and he goes all in. I call. He slow played pocket Queens. My straight hold up and I win. The whole game lasted almost 2 hrs. Here’s the crazy part. I look at the screen where it tells you how much you won; it says “Congratulations, $250.00 has been added to your account. What??? $250.00, this has to be a mistake. I look, I accidentally signed up for a $50.00 Sit & Go. I won $250.00. Even after typing all of this I’m still in shock!!! I put in $50.00 and now my account has a balance of $260.00. I have never played a sit & go for more than a $20.00 buy in. I just played my game and I beat some very good players. Wow, I’m still on cloud nine. It’s the most I’ve ever won at a poker game. I have to get up in 3 hours and I can’t sleep.

A Mistake That Pays Off

After all the Mother's Day stuff I thought I would play a online sit & go. I got into a limit tournament by mistake. I usually play no limit. I won the tournament. First time I ever finished in the money in a limit tournament. I had some good hands. The hand of the night was a hand I wasn't in. There were 3 of us left. I fold, small blind calls, big blind checks. The flop came king, queen, jack of spades, both players checked. The turn was the 10 of spades. All of a sudden they both go crazy. Bet, raise, reraise, reraise, and call. The river is an ace of hearts. Same thing, until one is all in. Cards flip up. One guy has a 9 of spades for a straight flush; the other has the ace of spades for a royal flush. Now I'm heads up with a slight chip lead. I know I'm going to win. Why? Because he just used all his luck on the last hand. We were trading the chip lead for awhile until my king high straight beat his jack high straight. Then I had him 5 to 1 in chips. It only took me 3 more hands to finish him off. I had pocket 7's he raised with Ace queen. I put him all in and caught a 7 on the flop for the win. The account now stands at $41.00. That's double the amount that I started with.

Art's Game

The one thing I don't like about Art's game is the blinds always double. To me this means when it gets near the end it's more about gambling and less about poker. I got into this huge hand early in the game. The blinds were 100 / 200 I was delt a king jack of clubs. 3 other players limped in, the guy before me who I've played with before and loves to raise small pocket pairs raised to 600, I called and the other 3 limpers called. The flop was king, king, 4. All 4 check to me and I bet out 1500. 3 fold and the original raiser calls. Now I'm afraid He might have ace king, or king queen. The turn was a 6, He checks, I bet 1000, he reraises me to 1500. Which told me he wanted a call. Also, for some reason I knew the 6 hit his hand hard. So if he had pocket sixes he would have a full house to my trip kings. It was only 500 to call so the pot odds were there, I call. The turn is a king!!!! He checks to me and I go all in. I could see the color run out of his face. He only has 1500 chips left. After a few minutes of him staring at me and I tried to look as strong as I could so he thought I was weak, he folded his pocket sixes face up. There were 17 players who started the game. I made the final table of 8 with a medium chip stack. The blinds were at 1000 / 2000 when we got to 6 players and I was down to 6000. I made a couple of all in bluffs to stay alive, the blinds went to 2000 / 4000 I was in the big blind with a 2 8 offsuit and had to fold to an all in bet. Next round I had 6000 chips left and in the big blind when the small blind went all in. I picked up queen 8 of spades and had to make my stand. He had a ace 8 of clubs. His ace high held up and I was out in 5th place. If I folded my 4000, The blinds went up and I would have been in the small blind for another 4000. To be honest, I should have been out much earlier. I was pulling off some huge bluffs at the final table when everyone tighten up. I felt like I played well. The game was going to end about 11:00 pm. I knew if I stayed for next game I would not get home until 3:00am and with it being Mother's Day I knew I would be in for a rough day so I called it a night.

Luck be a lady... Yea, Sometimes she's a real Bitch!!

To be honest I feel I'm an unlucky player. I'm so unlucky I have to adjust my game because of it. If I flop 2 pr and there is 2 suited cards on the flop I am ready to fold, if another of that suits on the turn on the river hits I'm ready to fold. I played 3 games last night and won one of them. I didn't finish above 5th in the other two. I find that the first 5 hands of the game will define how I play online. If I get all rags, then it will be a game of rags, if I get some hands to play then that trend will continue. The thing that I hate is when you get good hands that the flop totaly misses. If I have pocket 10's and raise get one caller,the flop comes ace, king, queen. I know I'm already beat. Do I try and catch a 10 or a jack? Not the way I draw cards. I feel like a total cooler. With that said, I'm taking my unlucky self to Art's tonight to play. Art has a weekly two table game. I like playing there, the players are good and I usually make the final table. Tonight I'm not worried about bad luck. Why? I figure I had all the bad luck I could have today. I bought a new grill at Home Depot this morning. As I was pulling into my development it came loose, slid across the bed and flipped out of the truck. It's basicly trash. $277.00 went sliding by me and was all over the street. I was a real shadow traffic alert. So I'm on my way to get another. This one will be tied down. I'm looking forward to playing tonight.

My First Session With Some Found Money

Well I thought I would take my twenty bucks for a test drive at the Party Poker tables. I figured I would go to the sit & go's. The cheapest is a $6.00 buy in. The first one I played in was a 6 player table. I lasted 8 hands. My trip 9's went down to a flush. Second game, another 6 player table, I was out in 5th. I forget how that ended, but I'm sure I did something dumb. I'm already down to $8.00, this is not going well. So I sign on to a 10 player $6.00 table. It was a great game. I was 1st or 2nd in chips the whole game until I pick up Ace queen of spades. I raise 3 x the blinds to 1800 and the big blind goes all in for 400 more. Cards flip up and he has a 10 - 2 of hearts. A 10 on the turn and I'm down to 2000 in chips. We get down to 4 players and I'm still 2nd in chips. I pick up kings and the chip leader goes all in with Queens. I call and he doubles me up. I lost 2 big hands and with 4 player left I was almost the short stack. I knock out the short stack with 2 pair and then the chip leader knocks out the other player. When we start heads up I have 3900 in chips and he has 16100. I catch 2 quick double ups and become the chip leader. 3 hands later I pick up ace king. I call and he goes all in. I call, he has king - queen. I win and end up with $27.00 in my account. I signed off up seven dollars. Stay tuned.

They won't leave me alone.....

I'm trying to empty out all of my online poker accounts. I think I'm done with online poker for now. I cashed out at Crazy Poker, I wrote about it on here, and I gave the rest of my money away at Titan Poker, I had $7.00 and you need to build it up to $50.00 before you can withdraw the money. It was quite a ride at Titan Poker. I was playing .10 / .20 NL holdem. I had my balance as high as $28.00 and then I was down to $12.00. Then one night 3 bad beats and I was pockets out broke. So that was it. Ya think? I'm just minding my own business, checking my email when I get an email from Party Poker. Now I haven't played at Pary Poker for quite some time. The last time I played at Party Poker I deposited $25.00 and cashed out $85.00 about a month later. I didn't like Party Poker because their limits were too high for me. I'm a basic nickel & dime player. The email states that they just deposited $20.00 in my account. Huh? Now I know people just don't go around giving money away so I start reading the fine print. Have to play so many rake hands, can't withdraw less than $50.00, yea, yea, I heard all this before. Bottom line, there was a Jackson in my account to play with. Nice. Well I figure I would track my progress here. See if I build the $20.00 into something. I mean if they are just going to give me money to play poker who am I to argue. So I guess I'm not done with online poker.

On a Mission at Crazy Poker...

Many online poker sites make it very hard for us nickel & dime players to cash out. Well I marched backed… Well, clicked on Crazy Poker to continue my quest to bring my balance back up to $50.00. Then I could withdraw my money. I earned this money, and I want it. It’s funny, you can deposit $25.00 but only withdraw $50.00. I started out as usual at a 6 player .05 - .10 NL Holdem table. Started with $6.00 and was only going to play premium hands. I folded 15 hands in a row until I pick up pocket jacks under the gun. Hmmmm, this sounds familiar. I got the same hand Saturday night at my home game on the 3rd hand. I overplayed them and was knocked out of the game. Well I want some action so I raised to .30 and 3 players called. The flop was all low cards with 2 hearts, neither of my jacks were a heart so I’m out of position with a flush draw on the board. The pot is $1.35 so I bet $.90. One player calls, the turn is a Jack of hearts. Boy is that bitter sweet. I catch trips, but now there is a flush on the board. I bet out another $.90 and get a quick call. Geeze, how do I get into these hands? The river is rag. Now what? I’ve made 2 good size bets and have no idea where I am in the hand. I bet another $.40, why? Who knows? He now raises to $1.00. Now I have to pay another $.60 to see this dude’s 2 hearts. Ok, I call. Cards flip up and he has a 10 5 of hearts. Now I’m under $3.00. This is not going well. I double up back to my original $6.00 when I call with pocket 6’s and flop comes ace king six. One player raises all in, I call. He has ace king, and my trips held up. I finally build my chip stack up to over $13.00 when I catch a great run of cards. I was over $50.00 and my hand limit so I signed off the table and headed to the withdraw window. Lets see what excuses they come up with this time.

The Student now knows more than the teacher!

I had a game at my house last night with the usuals. One of the usuals is an old high school friend of mine. The first real game Kevin played was at my house on December 30th 2005. He loved playing and has been playing live home games and online sit & go's too. We would email each other about our online games and he would ask me questions about his play. I would answer him honestly. I really took him into how I play. First off, I'm not a poker pro by any means, but I helped him stop making costly beginner mistakes that I learned the hard way. Kevin has become a very good player in a short time. Matter of fact he has done outstanding online. The emails were called the "Update." Well the updates have been getting shorter, he does not ask how he should have played a hand anymore. He just tells me how he did and the important hands of the game. Kevin by nature is a very competitive. So I knew that sooner or later our games would become a rivalry. A friendly rivalry, but a rivalry just the same. So now I guess I will be getting the Critique’ Last night during the third hand I went all in and got called and lost. Which made me the dealer for the rest of the game. Kevin was knocked out 2 players later. Now granted, he played a lot longer than I did, he still finished 6th. The second game I won and Kevin was 2nd. We have been heads up a lot lately. To date, I have won all of our heads up matches. So I was suprised to get the following email & my response: John, If I use one word to describe your play last it is reckless. The third hand of the first game you go all in with a pair of jacks and three low cards on the board. With Bill in the hand anything could happen. Who knows he could have had pocket queens,kings or aces. So he decided to call and he had a lot of outs. He had a spade draw which gave him 9 outs, he had a seven and a queen which gave him 5 more. He had over a fifty % chance of making his hand between the turn and the river. So you bet your entire stack to protect a pair of jacks on a fairly small pot. That play made no sense at all.Fast forward to to second game, you get a quick start and win some chips early. You then loose some chips, but still have a very good chip stack. You get dealt ace and a jack off suite and you go all-in with the chip leader still to act. The last I knew ace and a jack is a good starting hand, but it is not a premium hand. You get called by Franny with pocket queens. He has you dominated and you need an ace. You catch a miracle running cards to pull out a straight. Again what were you thinking? You then played well the balance of the game and used your big stack to bully the table. How do you think you played last night? Kevin Kevin, Ok, I will let you know what I was thinking. I get the Jacks which are a tricky hand to play. I raise a good amount and get 2 callers. Bill, who plays any two cards, and Franny who I was a little worried about. I watched Franny on the flop and knew it didn't help him. Bill, who knows what he plays? Bill is a calling machine. He's dangerous, he will call until he gives his chips away or catch something and take a boat load of chips off of you. I get a low flop which is what you hope for with Jacks. I was first to act, Normally, I would make about a 3/4 or pot size bet. I knew that would have chased Franny, but I thought Bill would call. I didn't want to give him any more cards. It was the third hand and I never thought he would call an all in that early and risk getting knocked out. I wanted to put maximum pressure on him to fold. That was an all in bet. You calling my play reckless is unfair. It was very caculated. It just didn't work out. About all the outs he had, that was after you saw his cards, if you were sitting where I was you would know that. I guess I should have took a look at the flop and folded?? My read after the flop was 1. I had the best hand. 2. I didn't want him to get anymore cards. I was right on both. Let me ask you this? If you had his cards, saw the flop, would you have called the all in bet? Now you know another spade came, but if you didn't would you have called? That is the reason for my all in. I felt it was the only way I was going to win that hand. I also thought there was a very good chance it was going to work. It didn't, but it should have. Remember one thing, I play to win. If he didn't catch that flush he's crippled and I got a huge chip stack and the rest of you are in big trouble. Ok, fast forword to the second game. I'm The blinds were 200/400 so there is 600 in the pot. I think I had 2500 in chips? That's only 4 rounds before I'm blinded out. I first to act, I have Ace Jack. if I raise 3 times the blind I'm already pot committed. I moved in. Franny did have the queens, and flopped a queen so I was in huge trouble. Catching that 10 for a straight on the river was sweet. Hey, can't I get lucky once in awhile? I've taken so many bad beats I never feel bad about laying one on somebody. I'm done playing everyone's style. I'm playing my style from now on. If you think it's reckless that's fine by me. Since we have been keeping track of our games I've played 22 tournaments and have 7 wins. Not a bad percentage. See you on Saturday. Reckless I guess the rivalry is on....

Pulling Teeth to Withdraw Money at Crazy Poker

If you read the earlier post I had a great night of online poker where I took $5.00 and turned it into $55.00. Well, it was a great night. What was not great is trying to withdraw money. Most of the sites I have seen will only let you with draw $50.00 or more. Well I knew I met that little rule so I desided to withdraw $55.00. I get an email that I haven't met the terms and agreements of playing 100 raked hands. I only played 86. They deposited a "token" back in my casino account. So I try to find my casino account. No luck. Call their support number. Get a woman with a thick english accent who after 15 minutes puts my $55.00 back in my poker account. Now I'm pissed. All I want to do is play 14 more hands, not fall below $50.00, and withdraw my money. Is that too much to ask? Well, things were going along great. I was counting my hands. I had played 18 hands. I was up $4.00 more dollars to $14.00. A happy ending to this story would be for me to cash out, withdraw my money, and give the finger to Crazy poker. Well my stories don't always have happy endings. I'm playing at a .05 -.10 NL table and this one guy who is laying a bunch of bad beats on players at the table. Well of course 2 of them get into it and start insulting each other. This leads to the following hand. The bad beater call the big blind. The bad beatie raises to .50. I have an ace nine of hearts so I call the bad beater calls. The flops comes 9, 9, 6. The bad beatie is steaming and is first to act so he bets out 1.50, I raise to $5.00 with trip nines and a ace kicker. The bad beater calls, the bad beatie also calls. My sensable side tells me that something is wrong. My sensable side is telling me to bail, I have enough hands and money to make my withdraw. Just fold and get out of this hand. My poker side is saying, "Shut the F up sissy, you have trip 9's with an ace kicker and their is over $18.00 in the pot. The turn is a 10. The steaming bad beatie goes all in for his final $10.00. I have $8.00 left, if I lose I will fall below the $50.00 level and will not be able to make my withdraw. What could this clown have? 7 - 8 for a straight? 9 - 10 for a full house? or a Nine anything else? My sensable side is screaming... "Fold Dumbass.... Fold." My poker side keeps saying, "Fold? Trip nines with a top kicker? Are you crazy?" I call the all in. Bad beater calls too!!! There is over $46.00 in the pot. The cards flip up and....... Hold on a minute, before I tell you what happens, I have wrote on here before that I want to give up online poker. The cards flip up and bad beatie has a 9 - 10 for a full house. Bad beater has a 7 - 8 for a straight. I have trip nines, with an ace kicker. the third best hand. I'm out of money at the table, below $50.00 so I can't make my withdraw. What was the river card? Who the hell knows? I tell you one thing I know, it wasn't an ace. The bad beatie types to me, "Now that's how you play poker." and leaves the table. I sit there for a moment listening to my sensable side mock my poker side. "Trip 9's with an ace kicker, Trip nines with an ace kicker, some poker player you are." I will have to try again later to build my account up over $50.00 to cash out. Trip 9's with an ace kicker. My nose is still bleeding.

Online Poker.. Just When I Thought I was Out, They Pulled Me Back In.....

I was just ready to give up on online poker. I've been beat every way you can be beat. I thought it was hurting my confidence. Well, I was itching to play. I started checking my online poker sites for any forgotten cash. What can it hurt? Party Poker, Poker Rewards, Poker Stars, Poker Room were all empty. Hmmm, How about Absolute Poker, Bodog Poker, Empire Poker, Paradise Poker? Nope, their empty too. I know, how about Purple Lounge, nope. Hmmm, Titan Poker? Nope. Now I know Ultimate Bet, Full Tilt Poker, Full Contact Poker, and Doyles Room are empty. I hate playing on the play chip tables. Whoa, wait what's this? Crazy Poker has $7.00 in my account. Bingo, I'm ready to play. Do I really have accounts on 15 online poker sites? Who cares, take me to the tables. I sat down, err, signed on to a .05 - .10 NL holdem table at 9:30 pm to see if I can turn my luck around. Well, it's 1:15am and I am signing off with $55.00 in my account. I had a run of cards and fish that you can only dream about. Some of the hands I remember: Flopped quad 10's when the flop came 10, 10, 5. I checked he bet out $2.00 I called turn was another 5 I check He goes all in for $18.00 I had $20.00 so I called. cards flip up He had quad 5's So that got me to $38.00 I was down to $25.00 when I had Ace 10 clubs. I raised and was called. The flop comes 2 clubs I bet out and was called. 3rd club on the turn. I check, he goes all in for $23.00. I look for the straight flush there was none so I call. He had a king high flush. So I was up to $48.00. Then I flopped a straight and went all in and was called by pocket Kings and pocket jacks. I was up to $60.00. I didn't want to leave, but it is getting late and I lost an all in when my trip 9's got beat by a flush. It dropped me to $55.00 so I'm calling it a night. It sure was fun! Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in......

What a night of Poker!

That's me dealing at the final table. Hank Fraley is standing behind me. Wow, what a night of poker. It was cold and rainy outside, but the poker was hot & heavy inside. I got invited to a No Limit Texas Holdem tournament hosted by Philadelphia Eagles center Hank Fraley. We took seven players from my monthly game to see if any of the “Gloucester County Rounders” could finish in the money. Tom, Tracy, Mike, Bill, Franny, Eileen, and I along with 103 players showed up at this huge 3 bay garage to play. With 110 people hitting the felt it was not going to be an easy task. I really was surprised but it didn’t take long before the rail birds started to line up around the table after getting knocked out. Franny was at my table to start so there was a familiar face at the table. I wanted to play a tight aggressive game and take control of the table from the start. I folded a ton of hands until I picked up pocket queens. I was second to act and the blinds were 50 & 100 so I raised to 400. I got on caller before the flop so I knew he was playing an Ace something. The pot totaled 950. The flop came ace, 9, 6, all different suits. So I bet 400 again to see where I am in the hand and the guy raised to 900 so I knew I was done with the hand. I won a couple of nice pots and at the break I had 5900 chips. That was almost double the amount I started with. Just before the break Eileen walked up behind me to let me know that she just became a rail bird when her full house lost to a bigger full house. After the break a few of the players at our table busted out. Then came an amazing hand that Franny was in. He was third to act and went all in with his last 1400 chips. The next guy calls, I fold, the guy after me calls. A few more called and the flop was all low cards. Then all hell broke loose. Four more people went all in. It was crazy; there were 4 different side pots. So it didn’t look good for Franny. When the cards flipped up Franny had an Ace King of diamonds. He won the main pot when a third diamond hit on the river for an Ace high flush. Two more players from our table headed for the rail. Tom was the next out. He did everything I told him not to do. Played too many hands, and out of position. Then I hit my normal run of bad cards. If I did get a half way decent hand it was in early position, so I couldn’t play. By the second break I was in the red zone with only 3000 chips. I think Mike and Tracy were out by the second break and I was in big trouble. After the second brake there was only 40 players still in. I tried to hold on, but there was nothing to play. I finally went all in with a queen three. I only had 3000 chips and I was in the big blind next hand for a 1000 chips. I was hoping that not playing any hands that my all in would get some respect since I hadn’t played a hand in a while. It almost worked, except the small blind picked up pocket Aces and my night was done. I finished somewhere in the low thirties. Hank and I started dealing for the final two tables. Franny was at the table I was dealing and ended up in sixteenth place. Hey wait, what about Bill? Well Bill almost made it to the final table. I think he busted out on the bubble in 11th place. Only the final table made it into the money. I ended up dealing the final table and Hank took $60.00 out of the pot and gave it to me for dealing. It was very nice of him. The funny story of the night came when I was dealing at one of the final two tables. I didn’t realize it, but Eagles corner back Lito Sheppard was sitting right next to me. He had his chips in a chip rack. So I look over at him and lightheartedly said, “Hey why don’t you take your chips out of that rack and stack them like a man.” Everyone starts cracking up. He said, “What’s wrong with using a chip rack?” I told him it was like poker training wheels. Lito makes it to the final table and again is sitting right next to me. So he takes his chips out of the rack and stacks them. He says to me, “You happy now?” So I said, “Yea, now that’s how a man plays.” I think he got knocked out in 8th place. So at a break Tracy told me that she couldn’t believe I was talking to Lito Sheppard that way. I didn’t know it was him. So I walked up to him and shook his hand and said I was a big fan and I was only breaking his balls. I said, “Jesus, I’m didn’t know I was telling Lito Sheppard to stack his chips like a man.” It was a great time. I would have liked to have finished better, but I felt I played well. Lady luck was not real kind to me.

Getting a chance to test my chops

Well I will get a chance this Saturday to see if all this reading and practicing is doing any good. I'm going to play in a private multi table freezeout Texas Holdem Tournament this Saturday. I was not going to go but a few players in my home game gave me a pep talk and thought I would do well. So I'm going to pack up my "A" game and give it a try. I think I do better against players I don't play with all the time. Who knows? The interesting part of this game is a lot of Philadelphia Eagles are supost to play. So I'm bring my camara and see if I get any pics to post.

An on line Whoopin'

I played 4 games at Full Contact Poker and never finished higher than 8th. The first game only lasted one hand. Thats what happens when you make your King high flush on the turn. Only to be beaten by and ace high flush. Oh well, these things happen.

Poker after happy hour

Do you ever play with someone that the more they drink the more dangerous they play. Well that happen Friday night. You can't get a read on them. The funnier thing is the more they drink, the more they win. The player I'm talking about... well you can get a look at him in my photos, he's the one with the pot on his head. He was at a happy hour before the game and brought some of his favorite brewed beverages with him. I had a hand early in the game where he raised out 1/3 of his stack. I had Ace King and wanted to put him to the test so I went all in. Now I don't recommend this against a sober player, but we was making loose raises in the game before so I felt this was a good play. He calls with Ace Queen, beautiful, He has 3 outs. I'm about 85% to win the hand and knock him out. Ya think??? Nahhh, he catches a queen on the turn and now I'm down to 325 chips. I battled back, got close to the chip lead and then I went on a cold run of cards like you couldn't believe. I ended up finishing in 5th. The only reason I finish that high was I kept talking people into calling our drunken friend who was knocking them out like Dick Chaney on a quail hunt. My favorite quote of the night was a victim who said, "I can't believe I just lost all my chips to someone wearing a pot on his head." Poker, it's a funny game.

I have come to 2 conclusions..... Conclusion # 1 Money takes the fun out of poker for me. I hate losing money playing poker. Winning money playing poker is nice, but it's not why I play. I love the game. Conclusion # 2...... Most people play poker differently when money is not involved. If you play at free sites people bet like drunking sailors on a weekend pass. They play like manaics. The other day I played a sit & go for play chips. Within 10 hands I was heads up with my original 1500 chips. I did not play a hand. The funny thing was 20 hands later I won. Boy was the other guy pissed. I would love to play a serious poker game without money involved like there was money involved. Is that too much to ask? I've found an online poker school where you pay a monthly fee and the players are there to learn the game and they take it very serious. The site is www.pokerschoolonline.com I highly recommend it if you want to strenghen your game.