Tao of Poker

Friday Night Blogger Convention

Last night, I went slumming at the 50 cent tables with some of our favorite poker bloggers on Party Poker. It's been a while since I let loose and had a good time. I wonder what the four or five other players thought about the wretched insanity we all brought to the tables? I'm sure they had no idea that we knew each other. It was like that scene from Rounders... except they were playing with some seriously demented, distrubed, drunk, and disorderly people.

The Players:
Seat 2: HDouble (later)
Seat 3: AlCantHang
Seat 4: Otis
Seat 7: Dr. Pauly
Seat 8: Helixx
Seat 9: Iggy
Seat 10: Ugarte

Over an hour, I dropped $19 most of it to a hand with AlCantFold. Party Poker's wild and loose tables at micro limits especially suck when you flop a set and still have five mentally unbalanced players rampantly jamming the pot with two gappers. I flopped four sets and only once did they hold up. Alas, I wasn't really there to win money.

Poker used to be a social event for me. I love a good party. In the last year or so, I adopted a more serious approach to poker. And at times, that new mentality took a lot of the fun out of the game. Sure I have plenty of poker passion, but the fun had slowly slipped away in my most recent sessions. Last night was unlike so many other nights. I actually had a blast... losing. I guess technically everyone was on tilt, playing garbage starting hands and trying to outbluff each other. Maybe it was the liquor or the pain killers or the excitement, but that table was one of the best I ever sat down at. Even the rock-solid Ugarte loosened up a bit. I swear I saw him play A7o in early position! When HDouble sat down, he busted out the $1000 stack. Iggy wanted to show everyone he had a bigger one, so he whipped out his $1000 stack. I wished I could have stayed longer, but I had a few things I had to write before I crashed and got up early this morning to write some more.

As always it was a pleasure to sit at a table with everyone and enjoy such fine table commentary. I got to play with Helixx for the first time. I heard a rumor I might see him at the Borgata next week. Here's what he had to say on his blog:

How do you take a table where you're up 50bb and turn it into a scary proposition? add about 5 bloggers who regularly play 15/30 and up (who are 3 sheets to the wind), that's how.

last night i found a bored iggy and, after bullshitting for a few minutes, found him seated to my left at my .50/1 table on party. carson says i want loose/maniac players to my left, so i figure i'm good but with iggy at your table, anything can happen.

by the time he arrived, i had already won a hand or two but after he sat down, i literally could not lose a hand. i was hitting draws, having good hands hold up (on party, no less) and generally just doing pretty well. i was up to about $72 from my original $25 buy in when i noticed someone abusing iggy (as opposed to the other way around, like usual). alcanthang was in the house.

the banter was bordering on "i really should be writing this down" level hilarity. al went into "RAISE OR FOLD" mode and it all went -ev from there for me.

Great observations!

Australia?

Ah, I almost forgot. Tonight at 11:15 pm EST on Party Poker, I'll be playing in the $600 Aussie Million Satellite B (#78880). Check the special tournament tab. I have a shot to win a trip to Melbourne to play in the 2005 Austalian Poker Championships. See ya then.