I seem to have hit a small rush of bad luck when it comes to HU matches. (read " I went on tilt and busted my Full Tilt account) lol.
So I guess the poker Gods became angry at my cockiness because I felt indestructible in HU matches. So they decided to punish me with some sick coolers today. I just could not catch a break all morning. I had lost with sets over sets and my opponents kept hitting their two outers on the river. So i busted my tilt account. I would have probably ended up busting my Stars account as well but I had to leave for school lol.
I was going to try and bust my bust my Stars account when I got home from school by playing a game that I don't play often, at stakes that my Stars BR cannot support. But as much as I tried, I failed, lol. Turns out I'm actually "ok" in 5 card draw. Ha, who would have though. I spent a few minutes at a .25/.50 table playing mostly heads up and somehow I managed to double my bankroll instead of going broke.
Oh well, I guess that means more inevitable suffering in this game I like to call poker.
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Yesterday I went to my school's first home basketball game, which turned out to be quite fun. But only because my friend Furcio and I had money riding on all kinds of crazy bets. First of all we bet on the game straight up, and needless to say, we suck at handicapping games but we somehow came up with a line that had our school a 25 point favorite over the rival school.
This is how we came up with the spread:
Me: Dude, do you think you guys are going to win today?
Guy on Team: Hell yea man, we're going to kill them by like 50 points.
lol We though 50 points was a big of s stretch so we decided to make it 25. My friend took the other team -25 and I took out school +25. Here's some more of the action I had on the game (green bets are the ones I won) :
-Rival school would score first
-Saif would miss his first shot
-Kinsler would score over 19pts. (He ended up scoring 19 so it was a push)
-Danny would score less than 4 pts in the 3rd quarter.
-Total score for our school would be less than 90.
lol Our school ended up crushing the other team like 78-10, so we were way off on the spread we came up with, but it was our first time handicapping so it wasn't too bad. Aside from the bets above we also kept betting on whether a team would score in a certain possession or if free throws would be made or missed. We ended up coming up around even for the whole game, but it was still fun, knowing we had some action riding on almost every play.
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So I've still got that $50 freeze out single table tomorrow at the charity casino, and my guy Furcio decided to come with. Only problem is he's still underaged, so the plan is for me to buy him some casino chips and then use those to pay for the tourney entry instead of straight up cash. Hopefully they'll assume he already got carded at the cage so they won't card him again at the table.
I really wanna hope I have a good run of cards tomorrow and hopefully I can take it down for a nice $300. And if not me, at least my guy Furcio.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Thanksgiving Weekend...
So the Thanksgiving weekend is finally over unfortunately and it's back to school tomorrow. So here's a recap of how the weekend went...
Wednesday I decided not to go to school just to give myself an extra day on the already extended holiday weekend. The plan was to stay home and chill but I got a call from a guy from work asking if I could go in and cover for him because his aunt was sick or some bullshit like that. I didn't really feel like going but I figured I could use the extra cash. So that's how my Wednesday went, at work answering phones.
Thursday aka Thanksgiving not much went down. See, my family isn't big on Thanksgiving. Never has been, probably never will be. We still had dinner but it wasn't turkey, it was some mexican thing my cousins made. I would have rather had turkey but eh, what are you gonna do right?
Anyway, Thursday night I decided to load some money online to try to get back on the poker grind. It was a small amount though, with the hopes of turning it into something. I deposited both on Pokerstars and Full Tilt. I started playing on Stars and did extremely well on my first session. Granted it was micro stakes, but I really needed to regain some confidence in my game after the horrible live session I had on Wednesday.
Friday I had work again. My guy Furcio came to pick me up and we drove to Best Buy to check out some Black Friday deals but most of the door buster deals were gone. So then we went to Borders for a while and chilled until it was time to go to work.
I wasn't at work for 20 minutes and I was already gambling lol. My guy and I are discussing the football games from Thursday and out convo went something like this:
Me: Dude, Favre was a monster yesterday.
Furcio: I know dude, that was insane!
Me: 20 straight completions!
Furcio: No, 23.
Me: No dude, it was 20.
Furcio: It was 23 dude! How much you wanna bet?
Me: $500! (lol my greedy ass)
Furcio: lol no, make it $20.
Me: Alright $40.
Furcio: Ok deal, go look it up online bitch.
Me: I don't have to dude, it's right here! (I shove the newspaper in his face)
Furcio: Damn...
lol so that's how I made my first $40 of the day. I shoulda tried to go higher but oh well. Anyway, work was dead for a Friday night so we spent most of the night playing cards.
I ended up losing most of those $40 in fuckin Rummy. God, I hate that game. lol I don't know why I keep playing it for money since I suck so much at it. And then I was running bad in other card games like blackjack and King's Corner.
Anyway, that was friday. Saturday I spent most of the day playing poker online. But I was running bad. God, it was so frustrating, especially this Knockout Tourney on Full Tilt in which I got felted when my Q high flush was beat by a runner runner straight flush. I went on mad tilt after that and donked of more money in cash games. I decided to stop before I busted my accounts.
So today I was feeling a whole lot better and decided to play some more online. But I began to play HU matches instead, and guess what? It turns out I fuckin rule at HU matches. lol not really, but I played some sick matches.
I don't know what it was but I was playing so good. I was making some good reads and what felt like good lay downs. I won a $20, a $10, a few $2 and an $8 shootout. Hopefully my good run can continue and carry over into live play cause I plan on playing a $50 single table freeze out at the Rockford Charitable Casino on Wednesday.
So that's all for today. I'll update Wednesday night and tell ya'll how the freeze out went.
Wednesday I decided not to go to school just to give myself an extra day on the already extended holiday weekend. The plan was to stay home and chill but I got a call from a guy from work asking if I could go in and cover for him because his aunt was sick or some bullshit like that. I didn't really feel like going but I figured I could use the extra cash. So that's how my Wednesday went, at work answering phones.
Thursday aka Thanksgiving not much went down. See, my family isn't big on Thanksgiving. Never has been, probably never will be. We still had dinner but it wasn't turkey, it was some mexican thing my cousins made. I would have rather had turkey but eh, what are you gonna do right?
Anyway, Thursday night I decided to load some money online to try to get back on the poker grind. It was a small amount though, with the hopes of turning it into something. I deposited both on Pokerstars and Full Tilt. I started playing on Stars and did extremely well on my first session. Granted it was micro stakes, but I really needed to regain some confidence in my game after the horrible live session I had on Wednesday.
Friday I had work again. My guy Furcio came to pick me up and we drove to Best Buy to check out some Black Friday deals but most of the door buster deals were gone. So then we went to Borders for a while and chilled until it was time to go to work.
I wasn't at work for 20 minutes and I was already gambling lol. My guy and I are discussing the football games from Thursday and out convo went something like this:
Me: Dude, Favre was a monster yesterday.
Furcio: I know dude, that was insane!
Me: 20 straight completions!
Furcio: No, 23.
Me: No dude, it was 20.
Furcio: It was 23 dude! How much you wanna bet?
Me: $500! (lol my greedy ass)
Furcio: lol no, make it $20.
Me: Alright $40.
Furcio: Ok deal, go look it up online bitch.
Me: I don't have to dude, it's right here! (I shove the newspaper in his face)
Furcio: Damn...
lol so that's how I made my first $40 of the day. I shoulda tried to go higher but oh well. Anyway, work was dead for a Friday night so we spent most of the night playing cards.
I ended up losing most of those $40 in fuckin Rummy. God, I hate that game. lol I don't know why I keep playing it for money since I suck so much at it. And then I was running bad in other card games like blackjack and King's Corner.
Anyway, that was friday. Saturday I spent most of the day playing poker online. But I was running bad. God, it was so frustrating, especially this Knockout Tourney on Full Tilt in which I got felted when my Q high flush was beat by a runner runner straight flush. I went on mad tilt after that and donked of more money in cash games. I decided to stop before I busted my accounts.
So today I was feeling a whole lot better and decided to play some more online. But I began to play HU matches instead, and guess what? It turns out I fuckin rule at HU matches. lol not really, but I played some sick matches.
I don't know what it was but I was playing so good. I was making some good reads and what felt like good lay downs. I won a $20, a $10, a few $2 and an $8 shootout. Hopefully my good run can continue and carry over into live play cause I plan on playing a $50 single table freeze out at the Rockford Charitable Casino on Wednesday.
So that's all for today. I'll update Wednesday night and tell ya'll how the freeze out went.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
What a Donk
Look up the word donk in the dictionary right now, and you'll find my picture. Holy shit I played like the biggest donk in the world today. I just got back from my first live cash game experience and it was a complete disaster. I just want to kick myself in the nuts right now for how bad I played. I don't even feel like blogging but I just need to vent.
Basically I've come to question whether I have ANY poker skills what so ever. Not the way I was playing I don't. Sure it was my first time playing a live cash game so I was a little nervous but still, thats no fuckin excuse what so ever. So I guess I'll run through some of the retarded plays I made.
I bought in for $100 and waited til a seat at $1/2NL opened up. It hadn't even been 10 minutes that I'd been at the table and I'm on the button with JJ. I raise it to 10 and get two callers. Flop comes something like 89K. 1st guy checks and 2nd guy bets I think like 25 and I call. We check check the turn which is a blank and the river is another blank but he fires like 40 dollars. I think for a bit and then call. He had KQ and just like that I'm down to 30 sumthin dollars!
Wait it gets better. Even though I manage to double up with AJ against QK and then I crack a dude's Aces with pocket fives when I catch a miracle 5 on the river, I was still able to keep donking off my chips. I was so out of my comfort zone because I'd never played with stakes that high before, and I figured with $1/2 blinds, standard raise at the table would be 6, but somehow it was 12, not to mention this one dude who kept straddling every chance he had. So the final hand of the night came when I had j10 and flop comes 89x. I make a standard raise and the other guy puts me all in for my last 40 so I decide to call for some reason with an open ended straight draw against KK. I brick of course and that was that. I swear if I had been anybody else sitting at that table I would have been like "What a fuckin donk!" and I'm pretty sure that's what people said as soon as I left the table and I don't blame them.
God damn it, I'm really pissed off about the way I played. It's like I feel like I can't play poker for shit. Whatever little confidence I had in my game was shattered tonight. Man, I'm done I don't feel like writing anymore. This is it. I gotta reevaluate poker in my life. Maybe I'll be able to think a little better later when I'm not steaming so much.
I hate poker.
Basically I've come to question whether I have ANY poker skills what so ever. Not the way I was playing I don't. Sure it was my first time playing a live cash game so I was a little nervous but still, thats no fuckin excuse what so ever. So I guess I'll run through some of the retarded plays I made.
I bought in for $100 and waited til a seat at $1/2NL opened up. It hadn't even been 10 minutes that I'd been at the table and I'm on the button with JJ. I raise it to 10 and get two callers. Flop comes something like 89K. 1st guy checks and 2nd guy bets I think like 25 and I call. We check check the turn which is a blank and the river is another blank but he fires like 40 dollars. I think for a bit and then call. He had KQ and just like that I'm down to 30 sumthin dollars!
Wait it gets better. Even though I manage to double up with AJ against QK and then I crack a dude's Aces with pocket fives when I catch a miracle 5 on the river, I was still able to keep donking off my chips. I was so out of my comfort zone because I'd never played with stakes that high before, and I figured with $1/2 blinds, standard raise at the table would be 6, but somehow it was 12, not to mention this one dude who kept straddling every chance he had. So the final hand of the night came when I had j10 and flop comes 89x. I make a standard raise and the other guy puts me all in for my last 40 so I decide to call for some reason with an open ended straight draw against KK. I brick of course and that was that. I swear if I had been anybody else sitting at that table I would have been like "What a fuckin donk!" and I'm pretty sure that's what people said as soon as I left the table and I don't blame them.
God damn it, I'm really pissed off about the way I played. It's like I feel like I can't play poker for shit. Whatever little confidence I had in my game was shattered tonight. Man, I'm done I don't feel like writing anymore. This is it. I gotta reevaluate poker in my life. Maybe I'll be able to think a little better later when I'm not steaming so much.
I hate poker.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Ain't Life Grand & 35 to 1
Yesterday's update was mostly about my trip to the charity casino a couple of weeks ago so I'll use this update to tell ya'll about what I've been up to lately.
I'll start off with the fucking FCP's Ain't Life Grand Challenge on Pokerstars. I tried to win an entry to the tourney playing in one of the freerolls on Saturday Night. A total of 183 registered and top 9 got in. I was getting some good cards and managed to go deep, but not deep enough. I had a short stack with about 30 left but managed to triple up when I made a monster All In call preflop with 88 against AQ and K10. My eights held up and I was up to 20k and sitting nice and dandy with the field slowly decreasing. I told myself to stay away from big pots and I should be good but then I get Ad9d and decide to raise it up in early position, because most of the table was short stacked and obv playing extremely tight. Everyone folds to the big blind who pushes for like 7k more and so I had to call given the pot odds. He flips JJ and the flop comes x99. Boom, ship it! or not, as the fuckin two outer J hits on the river. Damn that really hurt me and I just played horribly the rest of the way finally getting busted in 21st.
Oh well, that was that. So tonight the actual tourney was happening and I was browsing the FCP forums and this guy was feeling generous enough to hand out a few stakes for the tourney. So he shipped me the entry fee with a standard 50/50 no stakeback. Well to make a long story short on the tourney, early on some deuche bag decides to make a huge bluff on me with Q high. It got me down to 1k which was still enough to make something happen, but then I get deal AQ on the button and make a standard raise. One caller and the flop comes 799. I check and he raises it up to 400. I check raise to 800 (I don't know why! I guess I was still tilting from getting bluffed earlier) So he goes into the tank and finally pushes for his last 250. I knew I was obv beat but I had to call and hope for a miracle on the turn or river. No such luck and I was out. lol To make matters worse, my staker was at my table so I'm sure he thought I was a total donk. I don't blame him, I played horribly.
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Ok enough of that fuckin tourney. On to better things. So my friend Furcio hit on a parlay for $200 a couple of weeks ago on Bodog and last friday we spent the whole day at work playing blackjack craps and roulette at the Bodog Casino.
Funniest shit happened, when he was playing roulette, all of a sudden I pull the laptop away from him and I place a $1.00 bet on #19. lol he starts going crazy telling me wtf is wrong with me, and I'm like "relax man, I'm feeling 19 for some reason, this shit is going to hit and when it does, you gotta split the winnings with me." lol And sure enough the fuckin ball landed on 19. We just looked at each other and went fuckin crazy. I couldn't stop laughing. Sure, he only won $35 but it was too funny. All I got for my troubles was a measly $15. lol Actually I owed him $15 from some HU poker earlier in the day so he just cleared that debt from me.
Anyway, he proceeded to lose the $35 plus a lot more on blackjack. He finally decided to let his last $150 or so, ride on a 4 game NFL teaser that ended up losing with the Jets upsetting the Steelers.
We spent the rest of the night playing Conquian (Mexican version of Rummy) and Kings corner.
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So this week is shaping up to be quite busy starting tomorrow. I really want to go play poker but I'm undecided on whether I'll go to the charity casino, or to this home game in Lincoln Park. I was set on going to the home game for sure, but then my friend Furcio said he couldn't come and I didn't wanna go play at some dude's house that I don't even know, all by myself. So as of right now, Rockford Charitable looks likes the way to go. I'll probably go pick up my paycheck at work right after school, go pay some bills, and then drive to the casino. I'm planning on playing 1/2 NL because as I learned last time, the tourneys are total crap shoots.
Hopefully I have a good session and don't get home until 11 or so. Wednesday I'm suppose to chill with one of my friends who also happens to be my ex. I'm not quite sure what's going on there, but we'll see. Thursday is Thanksgiving and I don't know what I'll be up to. My family isn't big on Thanksgiving so I'll probably just bum around the house watching Football.
Furcio wanted me to go camp outside of Best Buy Thursday night with him for Black Friday. I did it last year, and it was pretty fun, but I'm not sure if I'm going to do it again because like I said earlier, I've got some bills to pay so I'm going to be short on cash. I don't know though, I might change my mind last minute, especially if I'm able to make some money in poker tomorrow.
So that's the plan for the next couple of days. We'll see how things go. I just hope I don't donk off my money at the casino tomorrow.
I'll start off with the fucking FCP's Ain't Life Grand Challenge on Pokerstars. I tried to win an entry to the tourney playing in one of the freerolls on Saturday Night. A total of 183 registered and top 9 got in. I was getting some good cards and managed to go deep, but not deep enough. I had a short stack with about 30 left but managed to triple up when I made a monster All In call preflop with 88 against AQ and K10. My eights held up and I was up to 20k and sitting nice and dandy with the field slowly decreasing. I told myself to stay away from big pots and I should be good but then I get Ad9d and decide to raise it up in early position, because most of the table was short stacked and obv playing extremely tight. Everyone folds to the big blind who pushes for like 7k more and so I had to call given the pot odds. He flips JJ and the flop comes x99. Boom, ship it! or not, as the fuckin two outer J hits on the river. Damn that really hurt me and I just played horribly the rest of the way finally getting busted in 21st.
Oh well, that was that. So tonight the actual tourney was happening and I was browsing the FCP forums and this guy was feeling generous enough to hand out a few stakes for the tourney. So he shipped me the entry fee with a standard 50/50 no stakeback. Well to make a long story short on the tourney, early on some deuche bag decides to make a huge bluff on me with Q high. It got me down to 1k which was still enough to make something happen, but then I get deal AQ on the button and make a standard raise. One caller and the flop comes 799. I check and he raises it up to 400. I check raise to 800 (I don't know why! I guess I was still tilting from getting bluffed earlier) So he goes into the tank and finally pushes for his last 250. I knew I was obv beat but I had to call and hope for a miracle on the turn or river. No such luck and I was out. lol To make matters worse, my staker was at my table so I'm sure he thought I was a total donk. I don't blame him, I played horribly.
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Ok enough of that fuckin tourney. On to better things. So my friend Furcio hit on a parlay for $200 a couple of weeks ago on Bodog and last friday we spent the whole day at work playing blackjack craps and roulette at the Bodog Casino.
Funniest shit happened, when he was playing roulette, all of a sudden I pull the laptop away from him and I place a $1.00 bet on #19. lol he starts going crazy telling me wtf is wrong with me, and I'm like "relax man, I'm feeling 19 for some reason, this shit is going to hit and when it does, you gotta split the winnings with me." lol And sure enough the fuckin ball landed on 19. We just looked at each other and went fuckin crazy. I couldn't stop laughing. Sure, he only won $35 but it was too funny. All I got for my troubles was a measly $15. lol Actually I owed him $15 from some HU poker earlier in the day so he just cleared that debt from me.
Anyway, he proceeded to lose the $35 plus a lot more on blackjack. He finally decided to let his last $150 or so, ride on a 4 game NFL teaser that ended up losing with the Jets upsetting the Steelers.
We spent the rest of the night playing Conquian (Mexican version of Rummy) and Kings corner.
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So this week is shaping up to be quite busy starting tomorrow. I really want to go play poker but I'm undecided on whether I'll go to the charity casino, or to this home game in Lincoln Park. I was set on going to the home game for sure, but then my friend Furcio said he couldn't come and I didn't wanna go play at some dude's house that I don't even know, all by myself. So as of right now, Rockford Charitable looks likes the way to go. I'll probably go pick up my paycheck at work right after school, go pay some bills, and then drive to the casino. I'm planning on playing 1/2 NL because as I learned last time, the tourneys are total crap shoots.
Hopefully I have a good session and don't get home until 11 or so. Wednesday I'm suppose to chill with one of my friends who also happens to be my ex. I'm not quite sure what's going on there, but we'll see. Thursday is Thanksgiving and I don't know what I'll be up to. My family isn't big on Thanksgiving so I'll probably just bum around the house watching Football.
Furcio wanted me to go camp outside of Best Buy Thursday night with him for Black Friday. I did it last year, and it was pretty fun, but I'm not sure if I'm going to do it again because like I said earlier, I've got some bills to pay so I'm going to be short on cash. I don't know though, I might change my mind last minute, especially if I'm able to make some money in poker tomorrow.
So that's the plan for the next couple of days. We'll see how things go. I just hope I don't donk off my money at the casino tomorrow.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Live Poker...
I was supposed to write about my first live poker experience a while ago, but I just hadn't felt like blogging. So I guess I'll get to it tonight.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to visit this charity casino that I'd heard about online and from some tv commercials. It's an 18+ casino, so I figured this was the only opportunity I'd get to gain some live poker experience aside form rare poker game I host at my house.
So I decided I was going to play in a $100+20 Multi Table Tourney that started at 4:30. The drive there was quicker than I expected so I got there about an hour early. I registered for the tourney as soon as I got there and then just walked around getting a feel for the place. The place where the event was being held was pretty crummy looking, and the place smelled funky, but just the sound of chips being thrown around and cards being dealt was enough to get my blood pumping.
I railed the cash games for a while then I went to take a sit at my table for the tourney but no one was there yet so I didn't want to look like an idiot sitting there by myself so I walked around some more. Finally a couple of guys sat down at the table and so I went to take my seat as well. I gotta say I was a little nervous about the whole thing, because outside of playing with friends at school and at home, I'd never played live poker before. I wasn't sure how the dynamics of the whole thing might work. Shoot, when the dealer gave me my stack of chips I didn't even know what the denominations were, so I felt like a dumbass. I figured I should ask the dealer, but in my mind I was like thinking he was going to laugh his ass for asking such a dumb question. lol but I did end up asking him and he was really cool about it and explained it to me.
As my table started filling up it was becoming very obvious I was BY FAR the youngest at my table. To my left was a guy who was like 70 and to my right was a chick who was 28ish, and the rest of the table was 40ish or so. I didn't let this intimidate me though, as I figured, hey we're all starting with the same amount of chips.
So the tourney finally starts and right off the bat I get dealt pocket 3s. I limp in in early position, and after a couple of more limpers a guy in late position raises it up. I think for a little bit and fold, just because it was the first hand, and I was still a little nervous and wanted to observe the table for a bit before I got comfortable enough to play a hand. Sure, I was kicking myself when another 3 hit on the flop, but whatever. lol.
Anyway I proceeded to play a pretty tight game, again just trying to get a feel of the game and the table dynamics, plus I was getting dealt crap anyway. I finally won my first pot when I had AK and I made a small raise in late position. I got one caller and the flop came something like 7K2. I check and the other guy raises like 1,000. I think for a second then say All In. Then I hear the dealer announce that I call and he begins to burn the card to deal the turn when I say "Wait! I said all in!" and the dealer says "Oh I'm sorry I didn't hear you." The the other guy begins to get pissed off I guess thinking I was somehow angle shooting, until this guy acoss from me says to him that he heard me say all in. So the guy finally mucks his hand and I pick up my first pot =)
And from there I went card dead the rest of the way. I picked up a few small pots along the way but those were only enough to keep me around even. Then another key hand came up, and I'll try to retell it as best as I remember because again, this was a couple of weeks ago. So I'm in late position with KQ and about three guys have already limped so I make a standard raise and get one caller. Flop comes something like 725. The other guy checks, and here I think about checking for a minute, but I decide to fire a bet, just to see where I'm at. I was hoping to pick the pot here thinking he maybe had called my preflop raise with two over cards. So I wasn't too happy when he insta called. Turn is a a blank and it goes check check. The river is another blank as far as I'm concerned and the dude puts out a huge bet. I think about it for a while, and as I'm staring at the board I finally realize that there were two hearts on the flop and the way he played the hand I'm almost sure he caught the flush on the river with another heart. I finally muck and he says something to a couple of guys at the table about how I let him catch his flush with my check on the turn. Looking back at that hand, he was right, I played that horribly.
So that hand kinda crippled my stack, and I knew from the beginning that this tourney was going to be a crap shoot because of the tourney structure and sure enough the blinds started to get to me. I finally decided to push my last 2,000 or so with the blinds at 300/600. I open push with AcJc and it folds around to the Big Blind. This dude goes into the tank for like a minute, until finally he says "Alright, I'm only calling you because I'm suited" and he flips over 7d2d. Argh!!! The flop comes AJx and I'm like boom, ship it, until I realize there's 2 diamonds. So obv another diamond hits on the river and it's good game me.
The table seemed to get a kick out of this guy felting me with 72 and the dealer even cracks a joke about everyone at the table now owing the guy who busted me $500. Haha real funny. Anyway, I didn't feel as bad as you'd think I'd feel, because the whole experience was a blast. I though about sticking around for another tourney that was going to start at 7:30 but I decided to go home instead.
So that was basically it, and like I said, it was an all around awesome experience playing live poker for the first time. I'd actually planning a second trip sometime this week, but I'm not sure yet because I've got alot of stuff going on right now.
This blog entry is getting too long for my taste so that's going to be all for tonight. I'll probably do another update tomorrow at work. Adios!
A couple of weeks ago I decided to visit this charity casino that I'd heard about online and from some tv commercials. It's an 18+ casino, so I figured this was the only opportunity I'd get to gain some live poker experience aside form rare poker game I host at my house.
So I decided I was going to play in a $100+20 Multi Table Tourney that started at 4:30. The drive there was quicker than I expected so I got there about an hour early. I registered for the tourney as soon as I got there and then just walked around getting a feel for the place. The place where the event was being held was pretty crummy looking, and the place smelled funky, but just the sound of chips being thrown around and cards being dealt was enough to get my blood pumping.
I railed the cash games for a while then I went to take a sit at my table for the tourney but no one was there yet so I didn't want to look like an idiot sitting there by myself so I walked around some more. Finally a couple of guys sat down at the table and so I went to take my seat as well. I gotta say I was a little nervous about the whole thing, because outside of playing with friends at school and at home, I'd never played live poker before. I wasn't sure how the dynamics of the whole thing might work. Shoot, when the dealer gave me my stack of chips I didn't even know what the denominations were, so I felt like a dumbass. I figured I should ask the dealer, but in my mind I was like thinking he was going to laugh his ass for asking such a dumb question. lol but I did end up asking him and he was really cool about it and explained it to me.
As my table started filling up it was becoming very obvious I was BY FAR the youngest at my table. To my left was a guy who was like 70 and to my right was a chick who was 28ish, and the rest of the table was 40ish or so. I didn't let this intimidate me though, as I figured, hey we're all starting with the same amount of chips.
So the tourney finally starts and right off the bat I get dealt pocket 3s. I limp in in early position, and after a couple of more limpers a guy in late position raises it up. I think for a little bit and fold, just because it was the first hand, and I was still a little nervous and wanted to observe the table for a bit before I got comfortable enough to play a hand. Sure, I was kicking myself when another 3 hit on the flop, but whatever. lol.
Anyway I proceeded to play a pretty tight game, again just trying to get a feel of the game and the table dynamics, plus I was getting dealt crap anyway. I finally won my first pot when I had AK and I made a small raise in late position. I got one caller and the flop came something like 7K2. I check and the other guy raises like 1,000. I think for a second then say All In. Then I hear the dealer announce that I call and he begins to burn the card to deal the turn when I say "Wait! I said all in!" and the dealer says "Oh I'm sorry I didn't hear you." The the other guy begins to get pissed off I guess thinking I was somehow angle shooting, until this guy acoss from me says to him that he heard me say all in. So the guy finally mucks his hand and I pick up my first pot =)
And from there I went card dead the rest of the way. I picked up a few small pots along the way but those were only enough to keep me around even. Then another key hand came up, and I'll try to retell it as best as I remember because again, this was a couple of weeks ago. So I'm in late position with KQ and about three guys have already limped so I make a standard raise and get one caller. Flop comes something like 725. The other guy checks, and here I think about checking for a minute, but I decide to fire a bet, just to see where I'm at. I was hoping to pick the pot here thinking he maybe had called my preflop raise with two over cards. So I wasn't too happy when he insta called. Turn is a a blank and it goes check check. The river is another blank as far as I'm concerned and the dude puts out a huge bet. I think about it for a while, and as I'm staring at the board I finally realize that there were two hearts on the flop and the way he played the hand I'm almost sure he caught the flush on the river with another heart. I finally muck and he says something to a couple of guys at the table about how I let him catch his flush with my check on the turn. Looking back at that hand, he was right, I played that horribly.
So that hand kinda crippled my stack, and I knew from the beginning that this tourney was going to be a crap shoot because of the tourney structure and sure enough the blinds started to get to me. I finally decided to push my last 2,000 or so with the blinds at 300/600. I open push with AcJc and it folds around to the Big Blind. This dude goes into the tank for like a minute, until finally he says "Alright, I'm only calling you because I'm suited" and he flips over 7d2d. Argh!!! The flop comes AJx and I'm like boom, ship it, until I realize there's 2 diamonds. So obv another diamond hits on the river and it's good game me.
The table seemed to get a kick out of this guy felting me with 72 and the dealer even cracks a joke about everyone at the table now owing the guy who busted me $500. Haha real funny. Anyway, I didn't feel as bad as you'd think I'd feel, because the whole experience was a blast. I though about sticking around for another tourney that was going to start at 7:30 but I decided to go home instead.
So that was basically it, and like I said, it was an all around awesome experience playing live poker for the first time. I'd actually planning a second trip sometime this week, but I'm not sure yet because I've got alot of stuff going on right now.
This blog entry is getting too long for my taste so that's going to be all for tonight. I'll probably do another update tomorrow at work. Adios!
Thursday, November 8, 2007
I'm a Gambler...
Wow, it's been a crazy week and a whole lot has happened since my last update. lol I went from feeling great, to quitting poker and gambling in general, to playing in my first live poker tournament. But I'll break it down a bit.
It all started last Friday at work. I did not intend to gamble at all, but I knew sooner or later my friend Furcio would talk me into it, so I did something smart and only brought along $20. Turns out it would be the most painful $20 I've ever lost, lol but ill get to that in a minute. So as soon as I get to work this guy wants to bet on the Patriots Colts game but he wants the Patriots. I say no way man, Brady is a monster right now. Then I tell him I'll take the Colts if he spots me 7 points, which was around the Vegas line the Colts were getting anyway.(It was more like 6, but w.e.) I tried to talk him into it, because I figured the Colts D would keep it a close game, but he wouldn't bite so I didn't get any action on that game. At least not from him.
So work was extremely hectic which gave me and my buddy Furcio no chance to gamble. It wasn't until later that night when the place calmed down a bit, that I pulled out my $20 and offered a $20 coin flip to anyone but no one wanted to, until my guy Manny said fuck it and we flipped the coin. Heads, I win =) So I'm up $20 and immediately Furcio wants to do a $40 coin flip. lol Sure why not. Heads again, I win =) lol this sends my friend Furcio into mega tilt and wants to flip for another $50, ahh was a little hesitant but I accepted, and won again! lol I'd managed to turn my $20 into $150 in like 5 minutes. I was like "ok I'm done for the night, I've been extremely lucky but thats it. So an hour or so later, I don't know why in the world I go and ask my friend for another $50 flip. I think my crazy gorilla thinking in my head went something like this:"Ok just another $50 flip. If you win you walk away with a sweet $200 and if you lose, you're still up $100."
So Furcio doesn't want to do another flip because he says that $50 is the only money he's got left and he needs it for gas. lol But I talk him into it and he agrees. (We're the fuckin definition of a degenerate gambler, I swear!) Ok so we flip and I lose. Crap, that wasn't suppose to happen. I coax him into flipping for another $50 and I win. lol Ok, I should have walked away, but no, we do $50 again and I lose. Another $50 and I lose again. At this point I feel like shit and so I flip for my last $50 and lose. Man, that hurt. No joke, that was painful. I literally felt my knees grow weak and my stomach felt so sick. And it's funny, because technically I'd only lost $20 but it hurt a lot more than that. lol and Furcio is trying to make me feel better telling me you win some you lose some, and reminding me when I took almost $350 from him in a single night in nothing but coin flips also. I didn't care what he was saying, I still felt like shit.
So I get home, and I decide to play some poker on Bodog. I had a decent hour or so session winning back the $20 I lost at work, plus a little more. I quit before I had a chance to lose it back. So all that went down on Friday, and then the rest of the weekend was a wreck. Saturday night I played some more on Bodog but things didn't go so good this time. So I lost a few there, then made a couple of bets on soccer and football and lost both of them. By the end of the night I was on mad tilt and let my last $50 from Bodog ride on a 3 team Football parlay. Fuckin Chargers killed my action early as Adrian Peterson and the Vikings ran them over, and I mean literally ran them over as Peterson set a new rushing record.
So I woke up Monday morning feeling like shit not only because of the weekend fiasco, but I had a major tooth ache. One of my back teeth was killing me, and the stupid thing is I had a root canal on it about a year ago. Supposedly during a root canal, the nerve is killed so it doesn't hurt anymore. So I didn't go to school and I called in sick at work and went to the dentist. She said the root canal had to be redone and thats going to run me like $650. Fuck. She gave me some antibiotics and painkillers and that's been working so far as I haven't had the pain come back, and lets hope it doesn't.
Anyway, on Tuesday I decided not to go to school again, I don't even know why, but I spent the morning thinking about whether I should quit gambling. For the first time in my life, I actually considered it. No sports betting, no poker, no coin flips lol. And just focus 100% in school. Well that though lasted about 10 minutes. lol. I just love to gamble, its my life. I love the thrill of sports betting, and I most definitely love the game of poker. It's who I am, and sure I had shitty weekend, but that's part of the gamble. I'm at a point in my life where I can sustain the style of life I live. I have virtually no living expenses so I have the luxury of using the little money I make at work towards poker and sports betting. It's not as if I lose money, and then go ask people to lend me some. I use my money that I earn, so if I want to gamble it away, hey that's my choice.
Enough of that. I was going to write up on my first live poker tourney but it's getting late and I actually plan on going to school tomorrow so I'll write about it tomorrow night.
It all started last Friday at work. I did not intend to gamble at all, but I knew sooner or later my friend Furcio would talk me into it, so I did something smart and only brought along $20. Turns out it would be the most painful $20 I've ever lost, lol but ill get to that in a minute. So as soon as I get to work this guy wants to bet on the Patriots Colts game but he wants the Patriots. I say no way man, Brady is a monster right now. Then I tell him I'll take the Colts if he spots me 7 points, which was around the Vegas line the Colts were getting anyway.(It was more like 6, but w.e.) I tried to talk him into it, because I figured the Colts D would keep it a close game, but he wouldn't bite so I didn't get any action on that game. At least not from him.
So work was extremely hectic which gave me and my buddy Furcio no chance to gamble. It wasn't until later that night when the place calmed down a bit, that I pulled out my $20 and offered a $20 coin flip to anyone but no one wanted to, until my guy Manny said fuck it and we flipped the coin. Heads, I win =) So I'm up $20 and immediately Furcio wants to do a $40 coin flip. lol Sure why not. Heads again, I win =) lol this sends my friend Furcio into mega tilt and wants to flip for another $50, ahh was a little hesitant but I accepted, and won again! lol I'd managed to turn my $20 into $150 in like 5 minutes. I was like "ok I'm done for the night, I've been extremely lucky but thats it. So an hour or so later, I don't know why in the world I go and ask my friend for another $50 flip. I think my crazy gorilla thinking in my head went something like this:"Ok just another $50 flip. If you win you walk away with a sweet $200 and if you lose, you're still up $100."
So Furcio doesn't want to do another flip because he says that $50 is the only money he's got left and he needs it for gas. lol But I talk him into it and he agrees. (We're the fuckin definition of a degenerate gambler, I swear!) Ok so we flip and I lose. Crap, that wasn't suppose to happen. I coax him into flipping for another $50 and I win. lol Ok, I should have walked away, but no, we do $50 again and I lose. Another $50 and I lose again. At this point I feel like shit and so I flip for my last $50 and lose. Man, that hurt. No joke, that was painful. I literally felt my knees grow weak and my stomach felt so sick. And it's funny, because technically I'd only lost $20 but it hurt a lot more than that. lol and Furcio is trying to make me feel better telling me you win some you lose some, and reminding me when I took almost $350 from him in a single night in nothing but coin flips also. I didn't care what he was saying, I still felt like shit.
So I get home, and I decide to play some poker on Bodog. I had a decent hour or so session winning back the $20 I lost at work, plus a little more. I quit before I had a chance to lose it back. So all that went down on Friday, and then the rest of the weekend was a wreck. Saturday night I played some more on Bodog but things didn't go so good this time. So I lost a few there, then made a couple of bets on soccer and football and lost both of them. By the end of the night I was on mad tilt and let my last $50 from Bodog ride on a 3 team Football parlay. Fuckin Chargers killed my action early as Adrian Peterson and the Vikings ran them over, and I mean literally ran them over as Peterson set a new rushing record.
So I woke up Monday morning feeling like shit not only because of the weekend fiasco, but I had a major tooth ache. One of my back teeth was killing me, and the stupid thing is I had a root canal on it about a year ago. Supposedly during a root canal, the nerve is killed so it doesn't hurt anymore. So I didn't go to school and I called in sick at work and went to the dentist. She said the root canal had to be redone and thats going to run me like $650. Fuck. She gave me some antibiotics and painkillers and that's been working so far as I haven't had the pain come back, and lets hope it doesn't.
Anyway, on Tuesday I decided not to go to school again, I don't even know why, but I spent the morning thinking about whether I should quit gambling. For the first time in my life, I actually considered it. No sports betting, no poker, no coin flips lol. And just focus 100% in school. Well that though lasted about 10 minutes. lol. I just love to gamble, its my life. I love the thrill of sports betting, and I most definitely love the game of poker. It's who I am, and sure I had shitty weekend, but that's part of the gamble. I'm at a point in my life where I can sustain the style of life I live. I have virtually no living expenses so I have the luxury of using the little money I make at work towards poker and sports betting. It's not as if I lose money, and then go ask people to lend me some. I use my money that I earn, so if I want to gamble it away, hey that's my choice.
Enough of that. I was going to write up on my first live poker tourney but it's getting late and I actually plan on going to school tomorrow so I'll write about it tomorrow night.
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