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Radio Live Blogging
Tuesday, February 28, 2006

I'm appearing with TripJax on the Flop tonight. It's currently 6:30 and I'm on hold. I'm in my office and several coworkers are still lurking about, so I plan to close the door (an office no-no) and bunker down.

6:35pm- I'm still on hold. Mark and the other host of the Flop were discussing playing low suited connectors. Some of the knowledge they are giving is rudimentary, but they also give a full analysis of the perils of those hands. It's interesting, because clearly they are catering to a diverse audience. In many ways, what they are doing is like live radio blogging, er, which...

6:36pm- Ooh! They are back from commercials. I'm going to be on soon. They are hyping up blogs. Mark has mentioned the DADI HUC. Mark was the winner, so of course it was 'fun to play on.'

I'm losing the clock. I'm too busy for this business. I hyped the DADI. I hope I don't sound like a tool. He kept on referring to the full name. I'm not going to correct him, because calling it the "Daddy" sounds, erm, gay.

I dropped Pauly's blog name. That's payback to him for helping me get started. Mentioned Trip and my site too. I'm a whore. Hi, new readers! Check out the links on the right for some of my favorite posts and for some of the other fine bloggers out there.

We are talking about playing online. It's convenient, and blah blah blah.

We are just about wrapping up at 6:48 or so. I've pimped DoubleAs at the end, and the whole blogging community by explaining how readers can learn a lot from blogs. I believe the line was "Anyone can get Super/System, but most people don't know about the untapped resource of blogs on the Internet."

Okay, well, that' s it. Somewhere in there I explained the concept behind blogging and the community. I hope I did the poker community proud. I'm going to ask Mark to rush posting the audio on his site. We may be appearing again in the future to pimp DADI (I don't want it too big though) and generally talk about poker and blogging. Until next time...

posted by Jordan @ 6:34 PM, ,

High On Poker Radio Premiere

It's official. Go to The Flop's webpage tonight and hear TripJax and I on the Flop at 6:30PM. The show starts at 6pm. It's on 1490AM in Florida, but you can get it online live too.

The host is Mark, the winner of DADIII HUC. We'll be talking about the DADI tournaments, the blogging community, and just about anything else that comes to mind. If you miss it, old shows are posted on The Flop's website as well.

The best part, you can here my whiny voice!

posted by Jordan @ 3:29 PM, ,

Time Management

Lately, it seems like I've been burning the candle on both ends. At the office, I am constantly moving from one crisis to another. At home, I recently went to Boston which was planned within a week, had a surprise birthday brunch for wifey Kim which was also planned within a week, and generally have been trying to keep up with everyday chores. My free time on weekends seems to be dedicated to friends' birthday parties (some, friend of friends of friends), so burnout is fast approaching. Unfortunately, this has 'gotten in the way of' attending certain blogger events, if you will.

For instance, on Sunday, after driving 4 hours from Boston, I attended a shiva (a Jewish wake) for a friend's grandmother. I would not miss it for anything because the friend is like a brother to me. Consequently, I missed the Veneno v. Katitude Heads Up match, in which V used her suckout poison to lay the smack down on the upstart. I was hoping to guest announce with Sir Waffle, but it just didn't work out that way. I can only hope that I can make the next one.

Meanwhile, I am hoping to appear on the Flop radio show this evening at 6:30 pm. You can hear me live (hopefully) from the link on the Flop's website. I'm sure it'll be in the archives in a week or two as well, so I'll keep you updated on that.

The Poker Champ and I are ironning out the details for our best of seven Heads Up series. If all goes well the first game will occur on Thursday at PokerStars in a private tourney arranged by TripJax. We will probably only play one HU SNG at that point and save the rest for a later date. This assumes that the Champ and I can both make that date/time. So far, so good.

An unnamed blogger's birthday is coming up and it was my understanding that there will be a private MTT in his honor this Sunday. Another blogger who told me of the hush-hush event just posted all the details. I'll post them here if I get the thumbs up. Otherwise, hopefully a few of you will be invited or see the post by the other blogger and join. I really want to play, but lately I just don't know with my busy schedule.

Finally, I'd like to talk about my play last night. I signed up for Doyle's Room through a rakeback program. I am working on getting an affiliate deal with the lovely rakeback people, so hopefully you'll see that banner up soon and we can all hang at Doyle's.

Doyle's is actually the same as Golden Palace, my original stomping grounds. It was interesting to go back. I played a $10 Turbo 6-p SNG. It surprised me that the blinds were at 100/200 iin seeming minutes, until I realized that Doyle's has Speed tourneys (akin to Turbos at Stars) and Turbo tourneys (akin to Roulette, I guess). I busted out of that one in 4th place on a suckout.

Meanwhile, I entered a $10 Speed 9-p SNG. I couldn't get anything going there either, and eventually went out in the middle of the pack.

As I played those two tourneys, I decided to check out the MTTs offered at Doyle's. At 10:45 or so, a $20+2 MTT was scheduled. There were only 20 players and a $1500 guarantee, so, with 20 minutes until the tourney started, I expected a big overlay. By the time the tourney was about to start, there were 98 players. I quickly clicked unregister, and then clicked register again. I'm a fickle bitch, but in the end, my desire to play for big money got the best of me.

I played my usual game, folding unless I had something impressive. The game lasted for over 2 hrs, and during that course, I was usually in the middle of the pack. On occassion, I stole chips, but the table was fairly loose, so even this was rare. When it was down to the last 20 players or so, I was in desperate shape. The blinds were high and I probably had 5-6x the BB. I got lucky with A2 v. AJ, but then went back to going the way of Broomcorn's Uncle. With a short stack, I held 33, and decided to push. I got two callers. The flop had a 3, and the river paired the board, so my full house took it down. My chip stack was still in the Rule of 10 after the blinds escalated. I played push and fold poker like only I can, getting AQ, AK, and AJ in a row, and pushing each time. The AQ was called by 99 and I won a race. The AK was folded to. The AJ was called by K9, probably because of how often I had been pushing. My A hit, twice, and I doubled up again. To cut a long story a little shorter, I placed in 7th place out of 98 players, netting a $78 profit. Subtract my SNG losses and $25 in losses on Party's 1/2 limit (don't ask), and I ended the day with a $30 profit. It's not an amazing feat, but one I am proud of nonetheless. That MTT was needed to turn the night around, and if you've been reading steadily, you know that this has been my theme lately: the comeback SNG or MTT win. I can't complain.

Lot's happening so keep your eyes open. Also, check out some of the great blogs listed on the right. You'll be doing yourself a favor, and your employer a disservice.

posted by Jordan @ 11:52 AM, ,

Boston Trip Report Pt. 1, and the Streak Ends
Monday, February 27, 2006

I went to Boston on Saturday, and returned Sunday. I did not play poker. End trip report.

So, I played a 2-table SNG with SirFWalGMan last night. I outlasted the Waffle, but only made it to the final table, where I was out first. It wasn't my best showing, and I didn't feel like I was adequately concentrating.

Meanwhile, wifey Kim was watching Dancing with the Stars on DVR, and complaining about how they delay everything. The show did not need 2 hrs just to announce a couple of names. I cannot fathom how producers think it is necessary to show recaps of recaps of recaps. How many times do I need to see the same damn clips! Humorously, as wifey Kim was making the same statement, I pointed out to her that we had DVR'ed the show for a reason, and we can just fast forward to the good parts. She still insisted on sitting through the umpteenth time that they went through each of the finalists names, pausing 30 seconds between names to build excitement. If I were the producer, the entire series would have been about 1/4 shorter than it was, but who am I to doubt the reality TV geniuses? On that same note, I cannot stand the stalling that occurs on shows like Survivor, where they take their time before announcing who is going to be tossed from the show, or they take 10 minutes to explain an obstacle course that doesn't really matter anyway. Really, people. Are they trying to tell me that in the 24 hr, 7 days per week of videotaping, the only interesting thing that happened was Jeff Probst stalling before announcing that Ruth Marie was voted off.

But that isn't poker! This is. I played at the 1/2 Limit Beginner's tables at Party last night. In a few hands, I was up $25. On one of those hands, I called bets to the river where I hit my inside straight draw. I was clearly not playing well, but at least I didn't have to be embarassed; I was at a beginner's table. Meanwhile, I couldn't get anything going at the regular shorthanded 1/2 limit table. I ended up $16 at the beginner's table and down $16.50 at the shorthanded table. With my SNG loss, it was a negative day, to the tune of $11.50. Worst of all, my 9-day winning streak ended. Of course, at least 3 of those 9-days were wins under $5 ($3.50, $1, and $0.25), but a streak is a streak. I could have kept the streak alive by quitting after winning the $25 at the beginner's table. I don't regret sticking around though. I'm just proud I was able to quit loser, before I let myself continue to play horribly. I think it may have been one of those situations when play wasn't optimal. After being in Boston overnight (no poker) and returning to NY late, I was really looking to play, and this impulsiveness does not equal good poker.

Speaking of impulsive poker, I am still working out the details with the Poker Champ to have our Heads Up match. Right now, I am going to shoot for Thursday at 9pm, but I have to make sure that the Champ is available. I see that DuggleBogey and the Champ have been having a back and forth. I'm keeping out of that. I want to just explain something for a moment. Regardless of the Champ's views on my poker abilities, tourists, and women, I don't want this to be a pile-on the Champ situation. I left a comment at the Champ's blog about showing some respect, to which he responded that he has shown as much respect as he has been given. Damn it, but he was right. I guess the other thing is that I have always been a devil's advocate and a fan of the underdog, so I don't want to just slam the guy because it has become fashionable. No matter what though, I hope we have some railbirds for our game.

If I'm not a tool, I'll also remember to listen to the Flop radio show tonight online, and contact Mark, the winner of the DADIII HUC. If all goes well, I'll be on his show with TripJax tomorrow night at about 6:30. Now I just need to follow through. This is not my specialty.

posted by Jordan @ 9:28 AM, ,

Open Seating - A Look at Table Selection
Friday, February 24, 2006

Lately, when I fire up Party Poker for some hot limit action, I've been jumping into whatever table has the highest amount of hands per hour. I know it is completely a fallacy, but my logic is that many hands per hour means a lot of folding. I'm fairly aggressive, so this is okay by me.

But as the self-proclaimed Devil's Advocate of Poker Bloggers, I pose this question: Does table selection matter, and if it does, should it?

I'm no Phil Ivey, but I want to be. I can surmise that Phil Ivey does not need to look at the precentage of players seeing a flop before he decides to play. Ivey can sit at any table and have confidence in his abilities. Most specifically, he has confidence in his ability to adapt.

That is what it is, people. Adapt or die. If everyone is very loose, adapt to that style. If that means tightening up, then go for it. As the DAPB, though, let me also suggest loosening up preflop when playing with a loose table. You might not always flop monsters, but when you do, you'll get paid off, regardless of how coordinated the flop is, at an ultra loose table.

On the other hand, if the game is uber-tight, pay attention and keep out of the tight players' way. Maybe steal some more, but pay attention to resistance and be ready to fold you 99 when you are reraised after missing the flop.

My point is this: adaptability should be as valued as any skill (and more valued than some) when you are developing your poker skills. Table-selection is great if you are a grinder, trying to make your money one way and one way only. But if you are an action player, like me, or if you want to consider yourself and all-around player, then maybe forget table selection, and focus more on reading the players at whatever table you sit.

That is all. Enjoy.

posted by Jordan @ 4:57 PM, ,

Self Control

I've heard many a blogger talk about how poker is becoming an addiction. As a man who understands (to an extent) addiction, I must concur (also, to an extent). There are times when I would rather stay home and play poker than go out and socialize with the 'real world'. But I am not upset that poker is sometimes addicting to me. Instead, I embrace it, because, at the end of the day, I truly love the game of poker, and any opportunity to play it and improve my skills is at least working toward something. You smoke cigarettes until you get sick. You do heroine until you die. You gamble until you are broke. But you play poker until you are a pro.

With that said, last night I played about 45 minutes of 1/2 limit on Party Poker, in an attempt to earn my $25 bonus there. It is kind of humorous that I am working off such a meager bonus when my gameplay lately has been so solid. In my 45 minutes I actually won $25.25, so the bonus is not that much money per se. But at least it gives me a goal, and that is worth a lot.

I was shocked, yesterday, at the terrible play at my 1/2 limit table. I know that all the fish play at Party, but I had some trouble there in the past, so I guess it changed my mental image of the Party landscape. That image is constantly being corrected by the aweful play I am seeing at the table. I'm glad I was only single-tabling (not intentionally), because I would have missed out on huge opportunities if I had been playing my usual game against anonymous players. Instead, I was playing my game against one particularly crazy donkey. The donkey, Goldie, was doing things I just couldn't understand. In one hand, he limped with 34o, called a bet on the 279 flop, hit a 3 on the turn, and called bets on the turn and river. He won that hand....against me and my pair of 2s. BUT, I played that hand because he was calling just about anything, and foolishly re-raising too.

This is what I mean about opportunity. I'm on the button with Q8o. I normally would fold, even in a shorthanded game. However, Goldie was in the BB and there was a player who had already limped in. I knew I'd get paid by Goldie if I hit, so I limped. The flop was Q-high. It's checked to me and I bet. Only Goldie calls. The turn comes down, and it's a blank. I bet. He re-raises. Now, I folded earlier to his re-raises before learning about how the table was. This time, I decided to re-raise with top pair, shitty kicker. Oddly, he re-raised me back. To anyone, this is a sign of trouble. But here, I had no confidence in his cards or play. I called. The river was a blank. I bet. He called. I won the hand. I can only imagine what he was playing. I certainly know this much though, it was NOT optimal poker.

I just don't get it. Who is this guy and why is he playing poker? I guess he is a gambler, plain and simple. I was speaking to Robbie Hole last night. He and Roose went to the All-In Club in NYC, but were turned away at the door because they didn't have 'membership cards'. What a crock of shit! We've been there a handful of times, and only now do they have membership cards. Anyway, they caught the tournament at Genoa instead. Hole went out early because of his usual loose self. On his final hand, he had 800 chips with 50/100 blinds. He was in the rule of 10. With QTo, he raised to 300. Someone pushed him all-in. He called. His opponent had AA and won the hand.

As Hole told me this, I was thinking, "What the fuck, man? QT?" I didn't say it though because I didn't want to rub it in. Fortunately, he said it for me. As he put it, he knows he shouldn't play those hands. He tells himself that before he plays. But when he is sitting down at the table, he just wants to play. Hole is a gambler. But we are going to work with him, and soon, he'll be a poker player again. Self control is a bitch. Especially when you are dealing with addictive poker.

Finally, let me commend myself. Wifey Kim had a friend and her fiance come over last night. When they left at 10:45, I immediately wanted to play poker. Wifey Kim wanted to watch our DVR'ed Survivor. I decided that her idea was better. Wifey Kim and I have a bet going. Every season we choose a Survivor contestant at the end of the first episode. If my guy/girl last longer, I get something, and vice versa. It used to be dinner, but since we are now married, we are changing it up. The winner gets a $50 giftcard to a store of their choice. Yep. It's still from the same money pool, but at least it feels like a gift. Wifey Kim will win this year. She chose Jerry, the older male Air Force guy who just found the immunity idol (exciting to all you non-Survivor watchers, right?). I chose a blonde chick, whose head is already on the chopping block.

But I digress. After the show, wifey Kim had adorably fallen asleep. My wireless laptop was calling me. "Play with me Jordan. Play!", she cried out. "Damn you harpy!" I shouted with rage (internally, as wifey Kim was sleeping next to me). "Damn you! I will not donk off my money while tired. I will not play on a whim late at night. I will not lose!" And I didn't. I kept my self control and left the computer where it sat.

Sometimes it isn't easy controlling this addiction we call poker. But sometimes, its absolutely necessary.

posted by Jordan @ 8:57 AM, ,

Keeping Stride
Thursday, February 23, 2006

Last night I decided to play in the first of ten PSO league games. If you play in 6 of the ten games, and you have the best cumulative finishes for your top 6 scores, then you win a $1500 WSOP seat and some spending money. Sounds good!

So, I signed up for the event on Absolute Poker. At about 8:30 I realized I had no dough there, and I have no dough in Neteller either. It's all on Party or UB or Stars or FullTilt or I-PokerTable. I will have to change that up soon, so that I can always join someone or something on the spur of the moment, but since the PSO league is so important to me (well, maybe not SO important), I decided to deposit $50 onto Neteller from my bank account. This is where the lovely wifey Kim comes in. My account is just about empty because wifey Kim and I have a system that I won't go into. But she didn't flinch (okay, a little flinch) when I told her I was dipping into our savings to make a $50 deposit to play poker. Of course, as a show of faith, I'm going to withdraw $100 probably. Hell, we could use the dough anyway.

Once I was signed up for the PSO league game, I checked to see who was around. Kipper and Wonka were playing the Absolute tourney as well (although Wonka joined our chat room a little while later). GCox and Trip were also online. After we were all settled in to our Yahoo chat, Joe from Check It Down joined us as well.

Joe is a newcomer to this blogger group. He started blogging in October 2005, and has been seen commenting here under his first name. This is why I stress that when possible, try to give info as to who you are when commenting. When I leave a comment (even on my own blog) I leave it as Jordan from High On Poker. I do this because you might not know who Jordan is. Or you might not know that this guy named Jordan who leaves witty and compelling comments has a blog called High On Poker. Or you might know Jordan and you might know High On Poker, but you might not make the connection. I offer that as general advice, and not specifically to Joe. As it turns out, I know Joe and I know Check It Down and I know Joe is from Check It Down. I'm just saying, is all...

Well, I lost $5 playing 1/2 limit on Party while playing the PSO MTT. I wasn't feeling the limit game, so I asked about an SNG. Trip, G, Joe and I decided to go for UB, where Joe generally plays. We also decided on a MTT SNG for $10, and as it turned out, we ended up in an 18-person, 3-table, shorthanded game. It's an interesting twist to the usual.

When we were first seated, G was across from me and Trip was on my left. I was playing fast and loose because of the shorthanded table format. Also, I sincerely believe that with the right attitude, it doesn't matter if you lose a bunch of your chips early on a play. You can get them back later if you are patient and make sure not to go all-in with the worst of it. The other three bloggers were whooping ass, but at one point, if you added my chips from the SNG and PSO MTT combined, I wouldn't have had as much as the lowest of my blogger comrades at the SNG alone. In other words, I was fairly shortstacked and remained in the middle or back of the pack for most of the game, with little surges up or down. The swings are a natural part of my style of play, something that I have moved away from generally, but am now just rediscovering.

Soon, we were down to 2 tables and all four bloggers were still around. Meanwhile, Kipper was slowly accumulating chips at the PSO tourney, and I was folding anything but premium hands, and usually pushing all-in when I did hold anything playable. My stack on the PSO reached a low of about 525. At one point on the UB SNG, I was down to 400 or so.

When we got down to the final table of the SNG, I was happy to see Joe, Trip and G still in the running. I was on the shortstack, but I had been messing with the head of one of the nonblogger competitors, and I had a good read on him. The other nonblogger was playing well, but I knew it was make it or break it time.

Zen and the Art of Poker talks about the natural rhythm of the game. I have mentioned it myself in my early posts about a style of heads up play I use, which I have dubbed Ebb and Flow poker. Last night, for the first time in a long while (if ever) I really got in touch with the rhythm of the game. Things started tightening up and I started loosening up. My aggression wasn't blind though. I could feel when it was time to move in on a hand. My shortstack grew and grew until I was one of the chipleaders. For the most part, I didn't get to many showdowns, because the blinds were high and my play would be hard to defend against unless you had a monster or balls of steel. I took out the nonblogger who I had been messing with. I truly enjoy the smack talk, and that is part of the reason why. I think my smack talk helped somewhat in setting up my prey. G lot a huge hand to Joe and was forced to push his remaining 200 or so. Joe, Trip and I called. I had T6 and hit my 6 on the flop. It was enough to take out the Skipper to my Gilligan. The remaining nonblogger was next out. While there were just four of us, I went on a rampage in a slew of hands. I raised the minimum (which was still damn high) or the pot on about 6 to 8 consecutive hands. Each time, it was folded to me and my stack got bigger. I was raising quickly and the others were folding quickly, so I got them in a submissive position working at my frantic tempo. In all reasonableness, they probably all had bad cards, but when someone played back at me, I was ready to re-raise the pot. As it turned out, for the most part, the frenzy started when I had a mid-pocket pair. I raise, everyone folds. The next hand I have an Ace. I raise, they fold. Another Ace, another raise. K-high, raise. Pair of 2s, raise. I mean, I wasn't cold-decked. But I wasn't holding monsters either. Of course, when they re-raise and I hold 66, I'm willing to re-raise back because they think I'm just bullying with garbage. That, and as a chipleader, I'll take a cointoss here.

With the non-blogger out, Trip, Joe and I made the money. Trip was out next, after a lot of back and forth. Heads up with Joe was interesting. I kept my aggression on because all those small and big blinds added up to a lot. We got him all in with two overs to my pocket pair and he doubled up. At that point, however, I had about 17K to his 6K, so it didn't hurt me. I immediately went on the offensive again because he had me barely covered in chips. Once I was ahead in chips, I was ready to make my stand. With K2 and a pre-flop raise by Joe, the flop came down A23. I believe I pushed him all-in and he called with TT. By the river, I had a fullhouse with a 2 on the turn and a K on the river. To the untrained eye, it was a suckout and I got lucky. Hell, that is the truth on the most basic level. But beyond that, my aggression allowed me to be in a situation where I could make marginal calls. He was already down to about 6K again by this hand, and a loss would not have crippled me. Luck being what it is though, I thank Joe for a good game and a graceful exit.

Joe fit in with the group extremely well. For that, I am glad. When I was discussing the blog with my bro-in-law Marc, I told him that to me, it was about building a community. That's why I started the Limit Challenge, SNG Challenge, and HU Challenge. It's also why I came up with the DADI events. Poker is great, but playing poker with people you know and like is 10 times greater.

After the SNG, with my $79 payday (booya!) and my streak continuing, I realized that I was still in the PSO MTT. I had been folding folding folding and pushing with AJ, AQ, etc. At one point, I accidentally went all-in with K6 and won against AT. But this was all during the SNG. After the SNG, I asked Kip about how many were left. The answer: 34 out of 183. I ended up going out in 34th, out of the money, after I was mostly all-in preflop. It was the first hand after the break. Still, 34th is not bad for my league stats. WSOP, here I come!

That was poker last night. It fucking rocked! I'm in the flow, feeling the game, and doing well. It's a nice change of pace. So now, I'm just keeping stride.

Be good!

posted by Jordan @ 12:51 PM,

Finding My Stride
Wednesday, February 22, 2006

I just noticed more white hairs coming into my beard. I'm 26 and I'm already mostly bald. I joke that I don't mind finding gray hairs, because at least they are hairs. But a white beard! It's official. I'm no longer George Castanza. I'm officially Mr. Celine Dion! There couldn't be a worse fate.

Last night was a fabulous night of poker. Work kicked my ass first though. Right before heading out the door at 7:10, I was grabbed by the partner who is part of our 2-man team. As it turned out, a very important document was never filed on one of my cases. It was from before the case became mine, per se, but it would have been nice if I caught it. Unfortunately, those are the breaks when you are still a young pup at this law thing.

When I got home, I re-heated my dinner and sat down with wifey Kim. She continues to be the sunshine of my life, even if her taste in televisions leaves a lot to be desired. To her credit, she is slowly converting me, and I actually found myself enjoying the music stylings of the female contestants of American Idol. Also to her credit, wifey Kim didn't so much as flinch when I proceeded to comment on the physical attributes of the contestants. My bet is that Opera girl and blond safe girl (not blond my-father-is-in-jail-boo-hoo) are going to be tossed from the show on Friday. The male group looks like a freask show, and I'll probably be watching their performances tonight (thanks for the rerun, Lost!).

Fortunately, I bought a wireless card for my laptop that connects through the USB port. The port that used to hold the wireless card is not working and hasn't been in months, so I've been plugging the ethernet in directly. This has kept me tethered to my easy chair, which is only four feet from the couch. Now that I'm wireless, I'm free to move that 4 feet, and surprisingly, I think it might be helping my game. I can now be closer to wifey Kim, and a minor change of scenery has perked me up.

Thus, last night I found my stride. During Idol, I played some more 1/2 Limit on Party. The players there are really rather aweful, and I guess this is no news to anybody but me. My luck has been fairly good lately too, so my KK held up a couple of times, as did my JJ and a couple of other big hands. My QQ fell to T2, with me betting the entire way and him hitting his T for two pair on the river, but hey, that's poker. All in all, I won about $20+ playing there in about an hour. I also cleared a fifth of the raked hand requirement to get my bonus $25.

After wifey Kim fell asleep watching a DVR'ed Real World/Road Rules Challenge, I decided to play some more. I sat down for a $16 2-table turbo SNG on Stars. They have the weirdest buy-ins. I also entered a $13 2-table shorthanded (12-p) SNG on Stars. I was doing well in both, keeping above the average for the most part. I played smart too, keeping out of big hands and picking up pots when I could. Unfortunately, I lost the Shorthanded game. I don't even remember the hand well, because at that point I was just about on the bubble of the Turbo SNG. Turbos may be my niche. I can keep out of the fray long enough to outlast most of the competition. I was one of two shortstacks when it got to the bubble but I know how to play a shortstack and was able to double up to secure 3rd place. That's where I eventually went out, with a $30+ profit. I think these 2-table SNGs may be the way for me as well. I haven't had much luck hitting the top spot, but with $30+ profit for third, I can make do with thirds until I finally hit 1st. I don't recall the exact payout for 1st, but it must be near or over $100.

I was trying to get on the Undercard of the Veneno v. Katitude HU series scheduled for noon on Sunday. Poker Champ may be a lot of things, but I guess we can't include coward. As it turns out though, he doesn't think that he can make that time, so look for the Champ and I to have our best of 7 series on some future date. Sunday night right now looks to be the favorite. I would love some railbirds to join, so expect me to announce the date and time here.

I love poker, and so do you, so check up with me later and I'll have some more pokery goodness. I have been tabbing pages in Zen and the Art of Poker so I can share some of the better portions with you. But I'm still busy as fruck, so I'll be getting back to you all later.

Ooh! One last thing. Go to PokerSourceOnline immediately and sign up for the PSO Poker League. It's a series of $5.50 MTT events on Absolute Poker, with the first event tonight. You don't have to sign up for Absolute through PSO (you can have a pre-existing account), but you do have to sign up for at least one PSO promotion (if you've done one in the past, you are good to go). I suggest Bodog, which is very easy to complete. Go for the 6000 PSO points and use bonus code NEWYEAR on the page where you tell PSO your Bodog info. This will earn you 9000 PSO points. Check out PSO's point store to see the vast amount of stuff you can get with that. As for the League, if you play in 6 of the 10 events (or more than 6, and take your best 6 scores) and you have the best score, you win a seat to any $1500 WSOP event. 2nd through 5th pays a whole lot of PSO points, for more free merchandise (including gift certificates to Party Poker). In every tournament, 1st through 3rd also get PSO points, on top of their winnings (as I understand it.

Also, VegasPokerPro has a great option on their site. Click the Tournament Feed link and you can see all the upcoming MTTs on various sites all at once. It's much better than what I usually do, openning up sites, checking MTTs and closing them down looking for the best option. Thanks VPP!

posted by Jordan @ 9:12 AM, ,

My Own Huckleberry
Tuesday, February 21, 2006

I don't know what it means to make someone your 'huckleberry' but the word just rolls off of my tongue. For that reason, I am announcing that I am my own Huckleberry. Why?

You may recall that I have been running poorly for a month or two or three or so. All the while I was trying to convince myself alternatively that it was luck, and then that it was my play.

To be honest, I think it was mostly luck. My game is solid. I play a style that is fairly aggressive and therefore, swings will happen. I've changed my game to avoid coin tosses in tournaments unless necessary and I'm constantly tuning up the game, but overall, I have confidence that I can continue to play profitable poker.

Want some short term proof? Me too. That's why I am happy to say that I am currently on a 5 or 6 day winning steak. I can't offhand remember which.

Here comes the Huckleberry part. On the night of DADIII I won an SNG and lost three tourneys (2 SNGs and DADIII). The result was that I was up $1 for the day. Now, $1 is nothing to write home about, but it helped my streak start/continue and I was done playing for the night regardless, so I booked my W.

Yesterday, I played 2 games, principally, online. I entered a 6-person $13 turbo SNG on Stars and bubbled in third place. Now, I lost because I made the same mistake I have made two other times recently. This was the hand:

I held A9. I was 2nd in chips, barely above the 3rd place player. The first place player had me covered by at least 1K and probably 2K, but overall, he had been losing his stack. He minimum raised me from the Button and I called. The BB folded. The flop was 789, rainbow. I checked. He pushed all-in. I called. He had TT.

I have (previously) held fast to the general rule that if a player pushes all-in, and it is a huge overbet (as here) on the flop, he probably missed the flop entirely and is trying to take down the hand right away. I thought that my top pair was good, so I called. I was wrong.

So, that is the first way that I have become my own Huckleberry. I have fooled myself into thinking that my rule of thumb is a hard-fast rule. It is not. In fact, from my recent experiences, it seems like the opposite is true. With these players, a large all-in overbet on the flop usually means a good hand. This goes back to something I've read in Zen and the Art of Poker, which I am currently reading. Basically, the author suggests that you not project the way that you would play on other players, because they can and do play different style than you. Here, I wasn't projecting my style, but rather the style I have seen from other players. I must admit, though, even now, a play like that would look fishy to me (no pun intended) and I'd be tempted to call.

This leads me to the 2nd way that I have become my own Huckleberry. After finishing the tournament, I played 1/2 Limit on Party Poker. I was up $13.25, and then I decided to call it a day. I ended up $0.25 for the day...continuing my streak. The streak had some effect on my decision, but so did wifey Kim and her friend who had just come over. So, all-in-all, I can't complain. Let the streak continue...

I also played at Robbie Hole's last night for another live game spectacular. This time, we only got in 2 $20 tourneys. I lost the first, but placed 2nd out of 7 players in the second, which netted a $20 profit. In other words, I broke even. The big winner of the night was Peter, a 40+ year old guy that has the personality (god bless him) of a 6 year old with a new toy on Xmas. He placed 1st in the first game, his first win so far in the 6 or so months he's been playing at Hole's. He caught some cards (hell, a lot of cards) with poor hands, but I still was glad to see him win. Yes, it sucks to have a tourist (LOLOL) win, but that's what keep the tourists playing.

Jordan, out!

posted by Jordan @ 4:51 PM, ,

You Decide #29
Monday, February 20, 2006

I am so freakin' busy today! Have you ever had one of those days where you are super busy but nothing is getting done? Instead, you are doing triage, running from one problem to another hoping to keep slightly ahead so that you don't get entirely destroyed by the tidal wave of work. That's me. But since, I didn't post much during the long weekend and I value my readers greatly, I'm going to do a clearing house on some interesting hands I already had copied and pasted into blogger.

This one will constitute

You Decide #29

It's a multi-table SNG tournament on Poker Stars. We are on Level VII (100/200/25). I am the 2nd in chips at my table, with about 8K in chips. I'm in the SB with TT. EP raises all-in for 925 on top of the 200 BB. Everyone folds to me. I raise 2075 on top, trying to isolate. I don't want the BB to call with a marginal hand and beat me. So, I raise so that he has to go all-in to call. He does just that. As it turned out, the BB had QQ.

I thought that the isolation play was a good one, but I ignored the possibility that if he had a monster, I'd be toast. I'm still not sure if my 'gamble' was a good one.

I don't have much else for you now. Time is a-wasting. Bear with me for the next day or so. I appreciate your patience.

On a quick side note, I've been playing a slew of SNGs with bloggers, and I love it. There is nothing better or more entertaining. So look me up on Yahoo IM (highonpokr, leave off the last E for +EV). See you at the tables.

posted by Jordan @ 12:21 AM, ,

Poker Champ = Poker Chump
Sunday, February 19, 2006

I'd suggest you follow the link on the right to the Poker Champ, if you want a laugh. I played against him in the first round of the DADIII HUC, and, well, I whooped him good. Of course, he believes that I played "like a fish LOLOLOLOLOL!" He also called all bloggers fish, generally.

There was one hand particularly that upset him. Here is the hand history with commentary:

PokerStars Game #4007260506: Tournament #19240675, Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I Level I (10/20) - 2006/02/17 - 21:00:18 (ET)
Table '19240675 20' One on One Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: HighOnPokr (1520 in chips)
Seat 2: TequilaMom (1480 in chips) (I give Champ credit for choosing a funny screenname and pic (see the screen shot, below).
TequilaMom: posts small blind 10
HighOnPokr: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HighOnPokr [7h Qd]
TequilaMom: raises 20 to 40
HighOnPokr: calls 20 (I call because it's a minimum raise and the blinds are tiny. I will tell you now that he had 4d7d, so I don't see where he gets his high horse.)
*** FLOP *** [Td 5d Jd]
HighOnPokr: bets 60 (The flop doesn't seem particularly scary. I have a reasonably high flush draw for heads up play. I decide to control the action and/or find out where I am with a small bet. I do not know that he has a flush.)
TequilaMom: calls 60 (He flat calls, hoping to slow play me, I guess. His move is pretty bad because two things may be occuring. Either I have a better flush, which is not likely, or he is giving me free cards with which to draw to a higher flush. However, to be fair, he may think I had top pair and that I won't give it up. Who knows!)
*** TURN *** [Td 5d Jd] [7s]
HighOnPokr: bets 200 (I hit my 7, which is nothing great, but since he only flat-called my flop raise, I may as well try to push him out of the hand. Plus, aggression is KEY heads up.)
TequilaMom: raises 400 to 600
HighOnPokr: calls 400 (The pot currently has 1000 in it. I have to call 400 to draw to my flush. I figure him for probably a draw to a flush, but I know that if he has me beat with a pair, I can always draw out on him by hitting my flush or two pair or a set. Admittedly, I'm not getting pot odds. But, it's heads up play, and his play led me to believe that he didn't have the flush, so at the very least, I have that out. It's also very early, and I'm willing to gamble because I know if I loose a bit, I can recover later. His play also seemed a bit like a bluff re-raise. So, call I did. And then this happened.)
*** RIVER *** [Td 5d Jd 7s] [8d]
HighOnPokr: checks (I hit my flush, but I recognize the possibility that he has Ad or Kd. That was my read on him anyway.)
TequilaMom: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
HighOnPokr: shows [7h Qd] (a flush, Queen high)
TequilaMom: shows [4d 7d] (a flush, Jack high)
HighOnPokr collected 1400 from pot
HighOnPokr said, "suckout!" (I admit my suckout and announce it with joy to induce tilt.)
TequilaMom said, "nh, tourist." (It works...)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1400 | Rake 0
Board [Td 5d Jd 7s 8d]
Seat 1: HighOnPokr (big blind) showed [7h Qd] and won (1400) with a flush, Queen high
Seat 2: TequilaMom (button) (small blind) showed [4d 7d] and lost with a flush, Jack high

Now, admittedly, it wasn't my best hand. BUT this is heads up poker, so playing a wider hand selection and playing aggressively are assets. More importantly, Champ played very poorly from there on out. I'm not sure if it was tilt or what, but it wasn't this one hand that won the game.

Champ wants to call me a Fish. Well, come fishing, Champ. I challenge you to a best of 7 HU series. I'll let you choose EVERYTHING. Stakes, game, site. You can choose date and time, as long as I can make it. So, put up or shut up.

Champ has a huge ego and a false sense of reality, but maybe there was something else that inspired him to talk smack. Enjoy Jordan v. Champ, the greatest hits:



(Referring to Champ's pic on his site, which actually isn't Champ at all)
TequilaMom: i look like owen wilson i think.
Dealer: Game #4007327023: HighOnPokr wins pot (40)
HighOnPokr: with less teeth, a worse nose, and no money, right?
HighOnPokr: haha

Dealer: Game #4007408921: HighOnPokr wins pot (30)
Dealer: Game #4007412165: HighOnPokr wins pot (240)
Dealer: Game #4007416746: HighOnPokr wins pot (60)
HighOnPokr: i think your fold button is stuck

TequilaMom [observer]: thanks for the invite.
HighOnPokr: my pleasure
HighOnPokr: glad you could make it
HighOnPokr: it was like a bye in the first round

Yeah. I guess he does have reason to bitch and moan.

As for the rest of the night, I won an SNG, and lost two. My total for the night was $1. In addition, Wil Wheaton placed 2nd in the DADIII event. Congrats Wil. I have to admit, I called my mom to brag how Wesley Crusher was playing in my tournament. She doesn't play poker and she worries at times about my love (read: obsession) for the game. But she and I used to watch Star Trek: TNG together, so I had to do a little bragging.

First place went to Mark from The Flop radio show, airing in FL. If all goes as planned, Trip and I will be making an appearance on the show on Tuesday. I'll keep you informed with the details.

Man, I got so much I want to write about, but I've got to go. Let me leave you with this. I was playing in an SNG with Trip and GCox. I have to admit, sometimes my reads are fantastic. I don't mean to brag, but that's exactly what I am about to do. I essentially set up a player, all the while talking to G and Trip, playing along with my ploy. There was some mindgames preflop, but I mostly remember that I hit the flop hard. Playing along with my deceptive poker action, I said to Trip and G (who knew what I had), "Oh no, I missed the flop. I'll have to check. I hope he doesn't push all-in with nothing, making me fold, because he knows I have nothing." He raised all-in. I called with my set. He showed K-high. Trip and G cracked up. I played it to a T. This is what I love about poker...when you know you got it. That night, results or no, I had it. I pulled the verbal play-by-play twice and both times my opponents fell right into it.

posted by Jordan @ 6:23 PM, ,

DADIII Smack Talk Contest
Friday, February 17, 2006

My recent post and a post by Garthmeister got me thinking. I really wanted to offer a bounty for the DADIII contest, but I've decided to do something else instead. I am holding a DADIII Smack Talking Contest. All you have to do is copy and paste some of your smack talk dialogue and post it in a comment in this here blog entry! The winner will receive a super secret poker prize. In other words, I haven't decided yet! Aw hell, this is what we'll do. The winner gets a card protector sanctioned by High On Poker, or one of my used poker books! What a crappy prize! I suppose as an alternate, you can also have a new banner made for your blog, using my mad Photoshop skills. I can even put your ex-girlfriend's head on a she-male's body! I learned that skill in college!

So, there you have it. Let the smack talking begin!

posted by Jordan @ 4:45 PM, ,

Jordan Talks Smack
Thursday, February 16, 2006

Jordan Talks Smack to You!

Hey you little whiny bitch! You think you can beat me heads up? Hahahaha! You've got to be kidding me! Aw, don't cry. Really. It isn't your fault...that you SUCK!

Huh? You want a piece of this! Well you are about to get the whole thing. See you tonight at the DADIII Heads Up Championship. $10+1 at PokerStars at 9PM, ya panty waste. That's Eastern Standard Time too, cause only prags go by the other time zones. And if you don't know, the Password is BlogsAreGay, just like you. And don't foget to bring a tissue...and a tampon, you whiny bitch!

Jordan Talks Smack to Others!
I had a great run last night. I won about $35 playing 1/2 on Bodog in about 20 minutes. I was smart enough to call it quits at that point. Meanwhile, I won a little less than $10 playing .25/.50 NLHE there. More profit! After, I switched to FullTilt. I did something that I rarely do and entered an SNG for a $24 token (to MTTs). I usually avoid Satellites because I'd rather win cash. It didn't make a difference anyway. I ended up bubbling out. Even so, I played well throughout, so I'm glad with my play. I also played a $10 6-person SNG on Full Tilt, where at one point I held probably 90% of the chips. I ended up taking 2nd though, and while 1st would have been preferable, some suckouts were bound to happen.

I held AQo in the BB. It folds to the GabboAA, the SB, who raises from 100 to 300. I reraise to 700 to determine if its a steal or a legitimate hand. He reraises me all-in for about 2.5K more chips. So, I fold. He has something legitimate, I'm sure. He shows AA. And then he realized that he was a tool and gives me an excuse to talk some smack:

GabboAA: i might have saved you some chips there
HighOnPoker: ill take full credit for saving myself chips
HighOnPoker: a lesser man would've called
GabboAA: haah, if i smooth call there you lose alot more chips
HighOnPoker: you'd think so

On the next hand, I call his preflop raise with 46s, hoping to hit. The flop is 347. He checks and I push all-in. I know he didn't pair his high cards. As soon as I push, we have this exchange:

GabboAA: i knew you were pushing
HighOnPoker: you know a lot
GabboAA: and you dont have anything
HighOnPoker: call me
GabboAA: i have A6 suited
HighOnPoker: pay to play
GabboAA: but i'll let you steal
HighOnPoker: thanks
HighOnPoker: does it feel good
HighOnPoker: letting me steal?
GabboAA: eat a &&!$
HighOnPoker: hahaha

Foolish mortal! When will they ever learn...

posted by Jordan @ 11:02 PM, ,

Sweep

I had a great night of poker last night. I was able to place 2nd, 1st and 2nd in the three tournaments we played. I thought that the quick blinds would be problematic, but I was dead wrong. If anything, they helped my game, forcing the action around me.

My strategy was to keep to good hand selections. The competition was loose preflop, but could be scared off afterwards, and I used that to my advantage time and time again.

In the first hand of the third tournament, I held AQo in the BB. All players had limped before me. I raised from 50 to 300 flat. I had two callers, Ilan, who plays a decent game, and Ian, who is still learning the ropes. The flop was Q high. Ian, in the SB, bet 500. With only 2K to start, I decided it was time to make my move. I pushed all-in, expecting to have Ilan fold and face Ian, who probably held a weaker Queen. Ilan folded and Ian called hesitantly. The poor guy only had pocket 6s, but he thought I was just bluffing hard. I guess that was the image I wanted to portray, so I was successful. Having doubled up after placing in the first two tournaments helped my table image a lot. Clearly, I was a force to be reconned with.

So, if there were 2 things that stood out about yesterday, they are these: (1) I need to work on my negotiating strategy when it comes time to chop, and (2) poker can be a lot of fun if the chemistry is right.

When the first tourney was down to 2, I had about 4K in chips and Roose had 10K. We were playing $15 turbo tourneys (10 min blinds), with payouts of $75/$30. If Roose and I chopped by chip count, I'd receive $30. Roose proposed this and I laughed, explaining how I was essentially freerolling for 1st place. I then proposed, because of the anxious onlookers, that Roose give me $35. It was a minor difference, but enough for me to mentally book a $20 win, with some added benefit than playing it out. In hindsight, I should have asked for more. Even though he had me outchipped, anything could have happened. I was playing well, and with one double-up, I'd be the chip leader. I guess I'm just too accomodating. Next time, I'm going to be a lot more careful with deals.

To my credit, when I got to the end of the 2nd tournament, I was against Hole with the same deficit. I had just short of 4K, and he had a little over 10K. We decided to play it, much to the dismay of a couple of late parties who wanted to start a new tourney. As it turned out, I finished him in a few hands, with my AJ v. AT preflop, and after hitting two pair with 26o against his one pair with 24o.

The third tournament involved more players, and in the end, it was down to Robbie Hole and I again. We discussed a deal, but again decided to play it. Oddly, I had about 4K to his 10K. I guess that is what selective aggression will get ya! Anyway, after much debate, we player all of one hand. I had 99 and he had A3o. He hit his Ace on the river, and that was that.

All in all, I made a profit of $105 (2nd for $20, 1st for $60, 2nd for $25). I placed in each of the three tournaments, and had a great time, to boot. After being knocked out of a game, Ilan dealt for a while. I was showing him my cards here or there because it was a friendly crowd. I bluffed a newbie player off of a hand with K high, although truthfully I think I had him. I then claimed that I hit my straight (there was a 4-straight on the board). Ilan busted me when he checked my cards after the hand.

Normally, this would piss me off. Admittedly, it did just that for about 5 seconds. But then I figured, fuck it. Here was a group of mixed amatuers and reasonably skilled players, and I was there to get inebriated and have fun. I started sharing a lot of my cards with the railbirds. I didn't worry about giving up strategy, and, in fact, openly discussed strategy while we played.

One player, Scotty, who used to be one of the loosest players I knew, had improved his hand requirements and was playing a totally new game. He was shocked when I made plays with K8c, or other mundane hands. He was learning, mostly from watching me, that tight was right. I explained to him how he should stay tight until he gets the swing of things. Eventually, though, you have to play the table and make moves when the time is right. We also discussed the concept of picking up blinds, a relatively simple concept for us blogger/readers, but an advanced topic for a casual player. In my AQ double-up hand, one of the low-level players said that I bet big because I wanted to pick up the blinds of all of the limpers. I explained that I knew in a loose table like this, I wouldn't get everyone out. I also explained that I can get away from my hand if I don't hit. Simple strategy, really, but interesting when you can openly share your philosophies and plays while you are making them.

All in all, it was the most fun I had playing poker in weeks, if not months. Comraderie is the best part of the game, and watching my friends improve is a joy.

I love that poker! And if you do too, I expect to see you at DADIII tomorrow. Need details? Click HERE.

posted by Jordan @ 8:39 AM, ,

Bodog Booya
Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Well, I lied. I didn't take a day off of poker. Wifey Kim is having some coworkers over today after their NYC meeting, so I have the night to spend with Mistress Poker. The plan is to head over to Robbie Hole's apartment after work for some Turbo tournaments. I haven't been to Hole's homegame in a while, but apparently they have 8 minute blind tournaments for $15. Now, I don't get the $15. $20 would be so much easier. I don't really get the 8 minutes either, but apparently, this allows them to have 3 tourneys from 8pm to midnight or so. I know there will be some dead money there, but with blinds moving so fast, it will probably be a crapshoot. No complaints from me, though. A little live action is just what the doctor ordered.

So, last night, after Valentine's Day dinner, wifey Kim and I returned home so that I could prepare the spread for her guests. As the chef of the house, I don't mind this in the least. I prepared my usual party-fare, a vegetable platter artfully prepared with onion dip, and a nicely arranged cheese platter. Wifey Kim was envisioning some hot food, but we decided that, for simplicity's sake, cold was the way to go and would compliment the wine nicely.

Once that was done, and I helped clean the apartment, wifey Kim decided to do an entire cleaning overhaul of our bedroom. So be it. Fortunately, she gave me time off to relax, and relax at my home means poker.

Not knowing how long wifey Kim would need, I decided to take a swipe at Bodog. I wanted my revenge for the -25BB ($50) in losses there while bonus clearing. The deck decided to hit me in the face. I had 97o in the BB and flopped T97. I was a little cautious after I was check-raised and reraised on the flop, but the turn was a 9 and I filled up my boat again. I felt gunshy, fearing that my opponent held TT or T9, but I just kept betting, hoping that those possibilities were as remote as they seemed. I was right, and was paid off nicely.

I flopped a 966 when holding pocket 9s for a full house. I check raised and reraised my way to a fat pot. On the river, an Ace came. I bet out and my opponent folded. He typed, "you got me on the river." I didn't respond. "what did you have?" I had to respond to that. "pay to play btch!" He didn't know what hit him.

I did lose a hand or two. AQs had a nut flush draw on the flop. I bet the whole way until I missed on the river and checked. He bet and I folded. I have a feeling he was also on the flush draw, but at that point, I decided a cut-and-run approach was for the best. If he had the tiniest piece of the board, I was toast. In hindsight, the pot was about 13$, so a $2 call may have been wise, but I was going on intuition. I figured him for top pair of Ks after some analysis. Oh well oh well.

The end result is $26 profit playing 1/2 limit. I've decided to keep a spreadsheet with daily wins/losses. I've tried to do this in the past, but I inevitably stop keeping track because after I am done playing, I just want to get up and leave. Also, my old spreadsheets were too detailed. The new ones have 4 things to enter: date, site played on, type of game (stakes included) and win/loss. This will hopefully provide some much-needed perspective.

I also have PokerTracker registered and up and running. I have to register AceHud. I've been using the demo version and I like it overall. Once I get into the swing of things, I plan on focusing on a site where PT will work and help my decisions. I'm probably going to use it mostly for limit games, because I can see how PT could cause me some problems and errors in a NL situation. I haven't played in a NL cash games in a while, so no harm no foul, anyway.

I want to play a big MTT, but I have no time. Maybe I'll enter one during/after the DADIII event this Friday. I can't believe it's so soon. I'm excited.

So, that's all people. No complaining today. Just good ole poker joy! Have a good one!

posted by Jordan @ 11:46 AM, ,

My Special Valentine
Tuesday, February 14, 2006

I posted earlier about crossed queens. Well, I suppose I should take a second to discuss my queen of hearts, wifey Kim. I can bore you all with general statements about how great she is, but I'll cut the crap and lay it out for you. I'll keep it poker focused.

Wifey Kim does not play poker. She is not interested in the least. Yet, she has always encouraged me to follow my dreams. I mentioned this here probably in my first 3 mos of blogging: One time, I was sitting in bed and wifey Kim (then fiance Kim) was standing at the wall mirror doing one of those things that girls do when staring at a mirror. Out of nowhere, a thought popped into my head. "Kim...ah, nevermind." She asked me to continue, so I did. "I know this might sound stupid, but I want to be a professional poker player." Now, as an aside, let me say that my recent run of bad luck/play (I'm inclined to think that it has been 90% luck, 10% play), has not deterred me. I think I have the base skills to make money playing poker. But I plan on taking a very slow approach, earning my way up the ranks.

"I want to be a professional poker player." What an absurd statement. Her response: "You should go for it." I couldn't believe what I heard. My (then) future wife was encouraging me to gamble with our combined future. "Are you serious? I mean, are you just saying that because you know I won't follow through." "No, I mean it. You can do it."

I'm still floored when I think back to this conversation. She is so supportive, even when I crawl into bed feeling dejected after losing a mere $20. This is (one of the reasons) why I love wifey Kim. She loves me enough to understand where I am, where I am going, and how I want to get there. And she encourages it all.

That, and she bakes me cookies.

I suppose it doesn't hurt that she's a piece of ass, too.

Happy Valentine's Day!

posted by Jordan @ 1:45 PM, ,

Crossed Queens

As Eddie Murphy and Danny Bonaduce can attest, you don't want to come across a Crossed Queen. She's likely to take you money, rough you up, and leave you with a bad story to tell the cops.

That was my evening, yesterday. I was minding my own business keeping to good cards in my $10 45-person SNG and $10 6-person SNG, when a cross Queen fell into my hands and saw me for the sucker I am. Take a look at these hands and marvel at how stupid I was, or how cruel fate was.

I am playing tight in a 45-person SNG on Stars. We are down to about 27 players and I have about my starting stack. I've been very patient so far, but the table has been pretty loose, as in terrible loose, as in terrible players playing terribly loose. In the BB, I am dealt Q6o. There are a couple of limpers, so I check. The flop is Q high. I believe that I bet about the pot, which is rather small. One player in late position calls. The next card is a blank. I make about a pot-sized bet and get called. The river is a blank. I check. He pushes all-in. I think for a minute and decide that it is a ridiculous move for him to push. He must think that I am weak with my check and is trying to win with an under pair or mid pair. I call. He has AA. Who woulda thunk!? I chalk this one up to bad timing and a well played hand on his part. G said that he slowplayed me perfectly. To me, it wasn't the slowplay that did it. It was the all-in. He was a big stack and it seemed like a blatant bluff. Well played sir!

I took a steam break. When I returned, G and I jumped into a 6-person SNG on Full Tilt. Yeah. Well, its down to 3. One guy has 5000+ in chips. Another guy has about 400 in front of him. I have 1500 or so. I have Q8o in the BB. The chip leader decides to min-raise. I call. The flop is Q high. Sweet! It is checked to me. I bet the pot. He minimum raises. Now, I'm no fool. I remember what happened last time, so I just call. I think I might be ahead, but I'm scared of the over-pair or being out-kicked. The turn is an 8, making my two-pair. I bet small, hoping for a re-raise. He pushes all-in. I decide that I'm ahead and call. He has AQ, for TPTK. I got lucky on the turn. The river though, Ace. His two-pair beat mine and I bubble out of a tourney that was pretty much a lock if I sit back and wait.

Now, I will take the blame for the first one. But remember that the top pair was gifted to me by the blinds, and that all-in raise on the river really mind-f'ed me. But I will take the blame regardless.

The second hand, though? I bet and made a wise call, hoping to improve. If I don't improve with the 8, I slow down or fold to any significant raise. I certainly don't allow myself to go all-in on the bubble. I hit the 8 and get him to push me all-in, which was ideal. I thought I was ahead and I was right. Then he hits one of his 3 outs and I'm the fool. My 8 was a three-outter, too. I don't deny that. But I rather miss my 3 outs if this was what was going to happen.

Down another $22. I think tonight I'll skip poker all together. Maybe a day off will help.

Thank you for signing up for VPP. I had a couple of new signups lately. You people will hopefully keep me from busting out entirely. So, consider it your good deed of the day. If you are signing up via VPP, I highly encourage you to do the Royal Vegas or PokerTime promotions. They are easy to clear. And if you feel like throwing a little more love my way, feel free to mention my name on the Royal Vegas site when they asked who referred you. It's HighOnPoker. I have terrible luck clearing those referral bonuses. I'm 0 for 2. But hell, at least it doesn't feel like real losing, even though I play with my all.

Sign up for DADIII, people! We currently have 17 players signed up and it's a great crowd. I almost hope that we keep this one low in numbers, but that hope is subordinate to my desire to hang with as many blogger/readers as possible. Spread the word. I thank those who already have. I'm considering putting bounties on other people. I just need to figure out what I am giving. The who is pretty clear in my head though.

Thanks for reading. I'll be the guy bleeding the chips at the table!

posted by Jordan @ 8:54 AM, ,

This Poker is Killing Me Inside
Monday, February 13, 2006

I've spent the day working away. I guess coming in on Saturday for 4 hours proved to be a good idea. Today I am less than overwhelmed and have been able to finish some back burner projects in record time.

But my brain is on poker. And poker is killing me inside.

The $50 loss on 1/2 at Bodog sure does suck. I just don't get what I'm doing wrong. I guess I could pay attention more, but how the hell are players openning 8 tables and raking in the dough. It's probably a little bit of variance too, but I just can't get over it lately. I need to spend more time playing, but I just don't have that time to give.

Regardless, when you are not having good results, does it make sense to push forward? Does it make sense to try to play MORE than you are currently playing?

I'm trying to even out the variance and give myself more experience to draw upon, but it just isn't happening.

Another thing. WeakPlayer recently was playing a $33 satellite SNG. I told him that I couldn't play in those because it is above my bankroll. He was shocked. This is nothing new. SoxLover also is shocked that my bankroll doesn't allow jaunts to the $250 live MTT at his underground club. All of this, and I can't seem to get above $300 online lately. I intentionally don't even check anymore amongst my various sites, because I'm scared of what I might find.

Which brings me to another question. I made some dough recently through referrals, but I withdrew almost all of it. I needed this money for various household expenses, and I don't want to let my bankroll grow through referrals. I want to earn it damnit. But next month...well, the referral dough is likely going to stay online. I need that dough online now more than at home. Sad, indeed. (And if I get 2 referrals on PSO, I can get a $100 gift card to Party Poker...pretty please...). By the time I get that, it'll probably be doubling my bankroll.

One last thought. I am a lawyer in NYC. I must make a lot of money! I must have money coming out of my ass, for which I will buy lots of glamorous things like a honeymoon in Tahiti or a cool apartment downtown. Yeah, well, not so. I make good scratch, but it goes fast in this expensive city. One of my pay checks each month goes to rent. The other goes to expenses and paying off student loand and credit cards. Wifey Kim and I consequently live off of her pay checks and dip into the money that should be going to credit cards and such when needed. Tahiti didn't come cheap and my wedding and rent don't either. I guess I'm saying this: if you assume I have dough, you are wrong. I just want to get that out so I don't have to explain why I'm sweating playing a $20 SNG online.

There it is. Another bitch fest post. Man I need some poker.

posted by Jordan @ 5:00 PM, ,

HighOnPoker.Net & Bodog Review
Sunday, February 12, 2006

Oh, it's on! In my never ending quest for legitimacy, I have purchased the rights to HighOnPoker.net. So, I encourage people to save 8 keystrokes and link to HighOnPoker.net rather than that old craggy highonpoker.blogspot.com. Either way though, the content is the same.

I just finished grinding away a bonus on Bodog. $50 bonus....after $50 of losses at 1/2. Treading water sucks ass, and I really want to stick it out with Bodog for a while, so that I can (a) prove that I don't suck and win back my money and (b) work on my limit game. There's something else keeping me there too. I kinda like the software.

The site has been revamped and I believe Kipper reviewed the site on his blog. If memory serves correct, Kipper said that the new site is aweful, but I must disagree. After all, it's what I do as the self-proclaimed Devil's Advocate of Poker Bloggers.

Bodog's new software is different. That is for sure. But it has some great advantages. You can see up to three screens at once, with one screen large and the other two on the side in a smaller format. The smaller format is still set up like a poker table, with the players arranged in a ring, as opposed to Ultimate Bet's mini view, which arranges all players in a line. I never could get used to the UB mini view, but as TripJax has told me, it probably just takes some time.

On that note, let me encourage people to sign up for Bodog via PSO. The requirement for the bonus is a mere 200 Bodog points, and Bodog gifts you 50 to start. If you play an hour nightly (for instance), expect the promo to take a week or so. For your troubles, I suggest you take the 6000 PSO points and use bonus code NEWYEAR to get 9000 points. That's enough for any of the usual prizes ($50 giftcards, poker table, chips, books, etc.) AND then some.

I also heard from the lovely Karol of I Had Outs that Joe, a dealer at Genoa, knew that he was mentioned in a blog. She asked which one and he named High On Poker. And to think I didn't even know that he read this tripe. He probably was just searching for anything that mentioned Genoa, but hell, it's still kind of interesting to find out that people that you 'know' have read your blog. I better stop talking shit about him though....ah, who are we kidding! (By the way, I don't believe I ever talked any smack about him at all).

That's it folks. Sign up for the DADIII event. Need details? Check a couple of posts before this or click on the banner on the right. I'm too lazy to make a hyperlink for ya.

posted by Jordan @ 2:04 PM, ,

Content
Thursday, February 09, 2006

CONtent or conTENT? I guess a little of both.

CONtent wise, I don't have much for you. I'm a bit burnt out at the office. I've been in this job for about 6 months, and only a few weeks in, coworker N_____ told me about how she is always overwhelmed and people keep piling it on. I was shocked and remained shocked for several months, able to complete work within a reasonable amount of time with only short bouts of madness.

That's changed! Even with a new guy starting, I've been taking the brunt. My two co-workers at the same level as me have finished their case evaluations and I haven't finished a quarter of mine! And the hits just keep on coming. Tonight I'll be on Long Island so that I can wake up at a reasonable hour and get to my LI deposition tomorrow. A whole day will be wasted listening to nonsense. I can't wait!

Meanwhile, I player a little poker last night. I bummed myself out with a poorly timed push in a $16 turbo. The blinds were 75/150 and I had about 1100 or so. I was in the BB with 56d and the button min raised. SB called. Usually, I'd say push or fold, what with the Rule of 10, but I felt like seeing a flop and making my choice then. The flop was K63. SB checked. I decided to make my move. I pushed all-in for about 800 more. The button folded and the SB called....with TT.

I then played a 4-person HU tourney in preparation for the upcoming DADIII HUC. I won the first match in no time. I then goded the other players as they finished their match. When we got to the finals, I was taking swings but constantly missing. I wasn't concerned though. Once I saw my shot I'd take it. I min-raised with K3. The flop was K77. He bet, which was nothing new. I re-raised big. He pushed. I called. He had T7. The truth is, I never really was thinking when I called. I'll be a lot more careful at the DADIII event.

Bummed, I took a break. I went back later and found Trip and GCox as well as a slew of other players. Trip was the only one looking to start an SNG, so we settled on a $10, 10-person turbo SNG on UB. I don't know what was up with Trip, but he got caught with AT v. AA. I think he wasn't playing his A-game, and I'm fairly sure he'll agree. But at least we had fun. I took 3rd, making a little bit of dough.

I also played some 1/2 limit and won about $25. This made it a winning night for me. A barely-winning night, but I'll take it!

Of course, I'm forgetting the .05/.10 limit game I played with DNasty early in the evening. I hadn't seen D in a while, so when I saw him on Ultimate Buddy I had to say hi. UB no longer allows railbird chat (bullshit!) so I joined up. I thought it was NL, but I was wrong. I had a great time pretending like I was brand new to online poker. D and I never officially recognized each other in the chat box, so he had a good time too, playing into my donkey play. When I won two in a row, I announced, "One more time and I'm on fire!" D followed up: "NBA Jams." "Can't buy a bucket!"

Ah, being a fool is a fine thing. That's it. I'm conTENT with my CONtent. Have a good one.

posted by Jordan @ 3:32 PM, ,

Reminder

posted by Jordan @ 8:59 AM, ,

A Short Stack of Memory
Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Hi all. I am Jordan, and I am a forget-aholic. More accurately, I have piss-poor recall with names, events, hell everything!

So, I plea to all you new bloggers or those who are considering starting a blog or those who have a blog but are considering opening a Yahoo IM account or a new online poker account:

PLEASE, keep it simple and uniform. There is a reason why I refer to myself as Jordan from HighOnPoker when I leave comments on other people's blogs. There is a reason that my Yahoo IM is highonpokr and most of my screen names online are highonpoker or highonpokr.

Simply put, I can never remember who is who. DP is fluxer. I got that after a few weeks. Kaellin is MattOnPoker. Cool. That's in my mental checklist now too. But no more, damnit! I can't seem to connect names to blogs anymore. And Yahoo IM sometimes uses people's real names on the buddylist, but screenname in chat windows and I don't know what's going on.

Now, I'm not singling out Flux or Matt. I just use them as examples. But right off the bat, I usually have problems getting associations like that in my head. I mean no offense if I ever have to ask who someone is or what blog they are affiliated with.

So, help a brother out. Keep it simple.

posted by Jordan @ 2:47 PM, ,

Foot in My Fingers

Last night, I had the pleasure of watching the WWDN tournament on PokerStars, a weekly $10+1 event hosted by Will Wheaton. I look forward to joining the game in the future, but last night I was about an hour too late, so instead I went about following TripJax from table to table. To spice things up, I offered a $5 Bounty on his head. I thought it might give him some action, but more importantly, it was fun putting a price on Trip's head. I eventually announced that the bounty was off if Trip made the final table because, at that point, I didn't want to do anything but cheer him on. And besides, once the players made $20+ at the final table, my $5 wouldn't matter much to them (and still would matter a lot to me).

I have to say, when I railbird, especially under the influence of namesake, I can sometimes be a bit chatty. Unfortunately, a lot of my comments come out terribly wrong in type. That is why I must apologize to G-Rob. His pic was of his daughter, but in my addled state, I thought it was Jon Benet Ramsey. I mean, she was a blond girl with a white cowboy hat. We don't see people like that in NYC, and I never thought of G-Rob as a family man, per se, so I thought it was just a little inappropriate irreverence on his part. Boy did I look like the horse's ass.

I did it again too. Much later, I look at the tourney and G-Rob is slaughering the competition. I type, "Damn that girl can play pokah!" referring to the pic again. I can't help but think when I see a pic on Stars that the person playing IS the pic. I mean, its obviously not true, but there it is, a little kid with 30K in chips, when the nearest competition has 8K. G-Rob and someone asked responded by asking who I meant, and whether I meant G-Rob. At that point nothing I said would sound right. Clearly, typing takes out a lot of the vocal cues in stupid comments, and all you are left with is, well, a stupid comment. I kept my mouth shut.

In a seperate chat window, Trip said, "That' s hysterical. You did it twice!" He was reacting to my comment to him about how I just put my foot in my mouth agian. I responded, "Yeah. I didn't mean to insult G-Rob or his daughter in any way. I mean, at first I just thought he was a sick fuck using Jon Benet's pic. Now I realize that I'm the sick fuck."

So, um, sorry G-Rob.

I also may have made an ass of myself by pimping this here blog. I mentioned the DADIII event at the final table because a couple of people, including kaellin (aka MattOnPoker), Trip, Sir Waffle, and some other players hadn't signed up yet (DoubleAs and Surflexus have, though. What star power!). One person asked what DADIII was, and I tried to explain. Finally I ended it with my and Trip's URLs, since this way they could get the back story. After, I realized that I sounded like a shill for my own site. Of cource, Waffle was there to point that out to me. Thanks, Waffle, ya prick!

On that note, congrats to Waffle for a first place finish! You can say a lot of things about Waffle, but one thing is for sure: the proof is in the puddin'. He is great at MTTs and I'd suggest even greater in blogger MTTs. I don't know if it makes him play better, or people play worse against him if they know who he is (or he knows who they are), but either way, he continues to place high in these blogger events. For that, he has my admiration.

A big congratulations to MattOnPoker for placing in 3rd. Matt is a low limit player, so I'm sure he is ecstatic about the shot to the bankroll.

Another congratulations to TripJax, who placed in 4th. Yep. 3 out of 4 of the top spots went to these fine individuals. They all played well, and I commend them for their efforts.

But I'm no slouch. Last night I played in three turbo SNGs on Stars, placing 1st, 2nd and 7th. The two ITM finishes were in $6 games, and (go figure) the loss was in a $16 game, but overall, I won last night. My play was solid until that final game, when I was willing to commit most of my chips pre-flop to 99. Foolish boy! I ran into a higher pair and the rest, as they say, is stupidity. In the earlier games, I played tight, moving from 1500 to 2000 or so early on when decent hands hit. I never let them go to showdown because, frankly, each new card is another chance to be sucked out on. Early, I want to slowly chip up without exposing myself too much (or make them pay big bucks to draw out on me). When the blinds get to 50/100 or so, I start stealing blinds from the button, SB and CO. No one thinks I'm stealing because thus far I don't. Early in the game, I don't need to steal the 60 BB, but I'll take the 100 BB because usually by then, I can use the chips. I push hard when I have a solid hand and eventually get aggressive when we are down to 5 players or so. All the while, I keep in mind that I do not want to be all-in, because one error all-in and its over. Of course, I still follow the Rule of 10 (less than 10x the BB and I either go all-in or fold unless I can check in the BB). Sometimes, if a lot of the stacks are short in a turbo, I'll skip the Rule of 10 though, because a min raise will do the same thing.

I'm looking forward to Lost tonight and some more pokery action. See you at the tables. I'll be the guy at the Turbo SNGs.

posted by Jordan @ 10:18 AM, ,

Weird Work Experience
Tuesday, February 07, 2006

I'm running around a lot today. I have a client in the office with one of my experts. I have some documents that just came in that need to be coordinated with three other people/entities. I have so many documents to draft/reserach/follow-up on. And then this happens....

My client who is in the office provided me with some documents. I thought I was supposed to keep them, but as he was leaving after 6 hours with the expert, he asked about the documents. I'm walking briskly to the file, and I hear my boss call me into his office.

Okay, I'm game. I'll do whatever needs to be done and get to my client.

In his office is one of the other head partners and a co-worker in the same position as me. They've been in the room for an hour at least. I don't know what they are discussing, but it is likely case evaluations or strategy.

I walk in and my boss has a big grin. Before I'm entirely through the door he asks, "Jordan, who is the best poker player you know?" I immediately think of Brunson, but I'm not sure what my boss is asking. "Know personally or generally?" I ask. "Personally." A fraction of a second later, I reply in deadpan, "Me."

They all laugh. The boss says, "I told you he so," to the other partner and coworker. I have a big grin on. I don't know what they were asking for, but it wasn't a negative. I could read that from the room. I finished, "If you don't think you are the best at poker, you shouldn't be playing." It's a little riff on my general theory that to be successful, you cannot sit down expecting to lose and/or expecting that you are playing against superior players.

Confidence goes a long way. It will serve you at the table and when your boss calls you in to ask about the best poker player you know. This, I'd bet on!

posted by Jordan @ 3:37 PM, ,

Flattery Gets You Everywhere

I have to send out a hearty thank you to all of the readers/bloggers who commented on my last post about whether there exists software that effectively lets you "see" your opponent's cards as though they were face-up when playing online poker. I will direct my good pal Roose to the site and comments. He was the one that brought up the software to me, at which point he decided never to play online again. I'm sure he has since played online, but hopefully your comments can assuage his concerns better than my broad strokes of logic that lacked any factual underpinnings.

The second thing I need to do is give a hearty thanks to all of the comments from people who usually don't comment on this here blog. Last night, I lost my $12 that I had on Titan poker at a .10/.20 NLHE table when my two pair ran into a set of threes and my top pair, top kicker ran into a set of threes. I then came in 2nd in a 6-person Turbo SNG ($10 buyin, $8 profit) and lost another 6-person Turbo SNG. Overall, my losses amounted to about $16.

I bring this up because I have been more or less steadily losing for weeks, if not months. I don't want to go into the details about my play or luck or variance or whatever, but I do want to say that losing consistently over time has gotten me, how should I put it, turned off from blogging. My output in this blog has been good, but when you are losing constantly, it's natural to doubt yourself, and in this way I began doubting the utility of this blog.

The blog was started as a pet project and remains one. You can tell how much I care about it from the fact that I often post twice in a day. I try my best to post every weekday, because when I read a blog, I like to know that I can always go back daily for new content. It's always a shame when I want to see what's going down with Blogger X only to find that he has taken an un-announced week long hiatus. Like a HS girl dating a College guy, I can't help but keep checking in, hoping that I get a response to my call. For this reason, I have made it my goal to consistently post daily.

But what happens when you consistently lose daily and consistently post daily? You essentially post about what a loser you are. Now, I'm no loser. My goal is still ahead of me. I want to make this poker thing work, and I think I have the base intelligence, dedication and skills to get me there over time. But in the immediate world, I have to force myself to post on here daily about topics that amount to me sucking.

My blog has had some modest successes that keep me going. When I first met Dr. Pauly at a homegame in NY (he got me invited to Lady Falcon Poker's homegame once...and I'm still waiting for my invitation back, Ms. Falcon...), I had a spike in readers. When I created the Limit Challenge between DNasty and I, I found a way to connect with other bloggers and fashion, in a sense, something worth following in this blog. When the SNG Challenge was started with 6 different bloggers, the community widened. The Heads Up Challenge had 8 bloggers, and the HUCII had 16. Meanwhile, my hits continued to grow until the Donkeys Always Draw Invitational was created as a way to play with a bunch of bloggers all at once in a tourney I could actually attend. I expected 20 blogger/readers, but had 62. The Omaha DADI game had an outstanding turnout as well. And now we have the DADIII HUC, and I can't be more excited (click banner on right for more details).

My point is, even with these things, what's the point if my hits are people popping in, seeing that I'm writing crap and popping out. Or, if they are just bloggers, in a self-canibalizing, incestuous diary group (of course, I still encourage them to read).

When I get comments from people like dazza, Butch, and Peter, sharing their knowledge with me and the blogosphere, I am all too flattered. I thank you, because you help me realize that this pet project is worthwhile.

Now, workplace productivity is calling my name, so I'm cutting this off. But I do encourage people to sign up for VPP and PSO. I need 2 PSO referrals (which could be one person who does and completes two promos through PSO) to get enough points for the $100 Party Poker gift certificate. In fact, if you do 2 promos, you can get a gift certificate also (just sign up for the PSO points as your promo item). And to make it easier for you, I will also let you know that if you sign up for Party Poker, Absolute Poker, PokerRoom, bodog, or Titan Poker from PSO, you can get a bonus of 9000 PSO points total by choosing 6000 points and entering the promotional code NEWYEAR when filling out the necessary online forms on PSO.

If you like this blog, you'll help a brother out, right? Because flattery will get you everywhere, but referrals will get you everywhere and a sense of charity and goodwill.

posted by Jordan @ 12:47 PM, ,

Fact or Myth: Online Poker Cheating Software
Monday, February 06, 2006

I need your help on this one folks. There are a lot of you out there who know more than me, so put in your two cents.

Roose sent me an email a week or two ago. It had a link to a site that sold software that you could use to see your opponent's cards when playing online poker. I wish I still had the link, but I looked at the site for about 9 seconds before I closed it.

I dismissed it immediately as bullshit. It may have been possible at some point, but nowadays, aren't these big poker sites able to fix bugs that allow programs like that to work? And if you buy the program and it doesn't work, do you think that the cheating software customer service is going to give you a discount? If you want to sue them, because they are probably out of the country.

As I said to Roose, If you think that the program truly works, then buy it! You'd be a fool not to! But I don't believe that such programs are possible. And if they are, god help us all!

Opinions? Has anyone heard of this stuff?

posted by Jordan @ 5:55 PM, ,

Super Blech XL

Well, last night was a gambling debacle. My congratulations to the Steelers and SteelerJosh. I hate to say you told me so, but you did.

I lost almost every single bet possible yesterday. $6 on the cointoss...lost. $20 in boxes....lost. $40 on the Seahawks getting points....lost. $40 on two $20 NL tournaments....lost. $10 on bounties...lost. If it wasn't for betting $10 on the under (47 pts) and winning my 3rd HU SNG against Veneno in our best to 3 HU tourney (for a poker prize as yet undisclosed), it would have been a day of pure losing badness. I suppose coming in 2nd out of 5 to win back my buy-in in the $15 last chance tournament should count a bit too.

It was ridiculous, but I'm not too perturbed overall. I have $70 coming from bro-in-law Marc for all of the sports bets I placed for him online. This is nice because it is effectively withdrawing poker money, which I can place as a win on my ledger. For the year, I'm down about $150, so any help is good. With that in mind, I only need two more referrals on PSO to use my PSO points for a $100 gift certificate to Party Poker. Be a kind gent and hook that up for me, will ya?

Another saving grace was that yesterday was awesome. I had a great time with the crew of guys (and only guys, thankfully) that came over for poker and the game. There was a ton of beer, most of which was drank, catered food (okay, a long party sub, but that's catering, isn't it?), and a fun gambling crowd.

Mikey Aps went out first in the first tournament, followed by Robbie Hole. The game took forever, due mostly to small stacks consistently doubling up. I thought I played rather well, but ran into some trouble from Ilan. This would be the theme of the evening. An example from the second tournament, which was short-handed by this point. Ilan is directly on my left. I have 89o, but decide to limp in the SB. The flop is T high. I bet. He calls. The flop is a blank. I check. He checks. The river is an 8, the second highest card on the board. I bet, he calls with KT. His passive play there blew my mind. But he was right all along. In another big hand, I raised fairly largely preflop with 34c. Ilan called out of position. The flop was A34. Checked to me. I bet small. He calls. The turn is a 2. I bet small. He raises. I re-raise large. He calls. The river is an 8. He checks, I bet huge, he goes into the tank. There is a straight draw, and a possible flush. He decides to call. He has A2. Fucking turn!

But, overall, I played well. Someone even said so, although I don't remember who. That's the breaks, I guess. At least I placed in the last chance tourney.

Meanwhile, I had a great time hanging out, so it wasn't a complete loss.

While I'm recounting my losses, I'll add this. In the final plays, if the Seahawks made their touchdown/extra-point, I would've won my Seahawks +4.5 (but lost Seahawks +4) bet. But there was turnover. Suddenly, I realize that if the Steelers make a touchdown, I'd win the boxes pool. Nope, that didn't happen either. Cue the wacky horn noise.

That's it for now. I don't know if the Donkeys Always Draw Invitational III (aka DADIII) Heads Up Championship had been created yet at Stars, but go take a look for yourselves. It's on 2/17 (Friday) at 9PM EST, and for $10+1, you can play heads-up with the best online poker group you can find! Light it up!

posted by Jordan @ 1:53 PM, ,

The Super Bowl of Poker
Friday, February 03, 2006

I know that the name, "The Super Bowl of Poker" was actually used by (I believe) Amarillo Slim for a tournament he used to run, but I'm adopting (read: stealing) it for my upcoming Super Bowl party.

The Super Bowl seemed to creep up on me. It felt like just two weeks ago I was winning bets on Pittsburgh and Seattle. On second thought, that was two weeks ago.

The point is, I've been so busy with other things that the Super Bowl, while being on my mind, has not been a real focus.

This year, for the first time ever, I am holding a Super Bowl party. It all started about a week ago when I realized that I had no plans, per se. I had bet $30 on Seattle, recieving 4 points (let the barrage of Steelers comments begin) because, quite frankly, I'm not genius at football. Even so, I think I made the right decision. The Steelers have been playing great, and they do have a psuedo home field advantage, but the Seahawks are no slouchers, and I expect it to be a close game. In Amarillo Slim's autobiography, he said this about sports betting (paraphrased): If you don't know anything, bet on the underdog. Most betters bet on the favorite because they want to feel like a winner, and the favorite seems like the way to go. For this reason, handicappers/bookies actually favor the underdogs with their spreads.

Add to that gem of wisdom the fact that I believed, from watching the AFC and NFC Championships, that the Seahawks played better, and viola, I made my pick on speculation alone. Bro in Law Marc piggy backed off me for about $35, rolling over his winnings from the AFC and NFC Championships (which he also piggy backed from me).

Loving to gamble, I also put $10 on the under 47. Both teams have good defense, and, as my good bud Jefe (sports enthusiast and brain trust) told me last night, to my relief, rarely do the Super Bowl games crack that number, save for a blowout. And this, hopefully, won't be a blowout.

With my bets set, I didn't expect what happened a short two days later. Marc called me up and asked me to place another $50 on the Seahawks. I was surprised, but apparently one of Marc's friends wanted in on the action. I guess this guy didn't know much about football either and decided to piggy back. I'm guessing this because everyone and their sister besides me seems to think that the Steelers are taking it down. $25 of the bet was for Marc's friend, and Marc, loving the action, decided to match his friend's bet. I couldn't help myself when I saw the spread had moved to +4.5, so I bet another $10.

That's where my sports bet stand. About $30 on Seattle with 4 points, $10 on Seattle with 4.5 points, and $10 on Under 47. I'd ask you to wish me luck, but I'm sure more than a few of you (SteelerJosh) are wishing me that other kind of luck.

With the Super Bowl approaching, I spoke to Dave Roose to see if he would want to watch the game on my new big screen TV (paid for with $450 in Bestbuy Gift Cards that I earned through PSO and VPP, and you can too!). Roose immediately asked, "and poker?" And that's how it came to be. Roose, Hole, Ilan, Platinum, Mikey Aps (aka Duesche Boyd), his buddy Vinny, and I are going to be playing some ole fashioned pokah before the superbowl. The plan is to play a tourney, probably for $25 buy-in, followed by a second tourney or a cash game. This will all start at 2PM, so I'll miss any ROW v. USA SNG online. Sorry boys.

I can't friggin' wait. The poker is actually taking a back seat to my interest in the game, but I guess it helps that I have money on it. 'Cause I likee me some gamble.

Work is whooping my ass, and if I'm smart, I'll be here tomorrow (Saturday) morning. Then I'm off to Connecticut with wifey Kim to hang out with her fast-track-to-suburban-life friends. We have dinner plans at Ruth Chris, so I can't complain.

You all have a good time this weekend. When you are rooting for the Steelers, do me a favor and don't root too hard. If they win by 3, you can still rejoice, and I get mine!

Go Steelers (by 3, only)!

posted by Jordan @ 3:15 PM, ,

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