Tao of Poker

I Know a Girl from Baltimore

SOOKIE
Aren't you that guy... Iggy?

IGBY
No... Igby.

SOOKIE
Whatever!

It was another blogger convention last night on Party Poker at the $25 NL tables. I played with the usual cast of characters with some new ones as well. It's been awesome to play with Iggy almost every night the last two weeks. Other bloggers have been shamefully flocking to our tables to join in the tumultuous lunacy. Eight of us in total last night. What pieces of work are poker bloggers. Hamlet said it best, "How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god, the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals."

Here's the lineup...
Seat 2: Iggy Goes Down
Seat 3: UWannaBet
Seat 4: CJ
Seat 5: Otis
Seat 6: Poker Code
Seat 7: Pauly
Seat 8: Glyphic
Seat 9: SirFWalgman

I played with CJ (aside from a blogger tourney) and the Poker Code for the first time. He hasn't been blogging recently, but make sure you take a peek at his site Poker Brand. There are some great shirts there!

The clouds of despair hung over my table for most of the night, yet I was destined to set it right as I floated through a sea of trouble hands. I lost my first buy very early when I flopped TPTK with a 982 flop. I had A9s and of course I threw out a big bet to ward off any flush or straight draws. One of the two non-poker bloggers at the table called. Alas, he had second pair and ended up hitting two pair. I was in mourning for the rest of the session. You have to persevere wicked bad beats in order to become a winning player. Some nights it's easy to shrug them off. Other nights, those bad beats sit and churn away at your insides like a bad dish of Chicken Vindaloo. Ah, in the end I want the ungracious fish to fall into a comfortable routine of making unprofitable plays post-flop. The more you mock the fish, the less likely they will call you down with second pair. The morbid fear of bad beats have made cowards of us all. The night will come when I will be victorious and end the heartache, until then I must sit still and ward away those foul thoughts and not allow myself to fall victim to the insolence of the fish when the cards turn awry.

Some of the best moves in NL are folding and I don't do enough of that. I folded the Hilton Sisters twice when overcards flopped. That always hurts. But I'm feeling positive about my play this past week... especially when I lay down a big pocket pair. I've been making too many vulgar mistakes aggressively playing those big pocket pairs post-flop against moderate-sized raises. I was determined to address that leak in my game before I departed for Vegas.

Big Slick was a loser for me against J9o. I had pocket aces twice (no action for them) and I never saw any hammers. Although Otis dropped a suited hammer. But unlike this past weekend, there weren't too many hammer bluffs. Not too many fancy, nor gaudy plays last night. There was a fair amount of chatter going on. Most of it involved trying to figure out who was in Seat 8. I knew it was Glyphic (he's sweated me plenty of times before most recently in my quest to win a seat in the Aussie Million) but some bloggers thought it was Wil, HDouble, Monk, and even The Film Geek.

Glyphic and I chopped a pot when we both had Big Slick. Since we both pushed, I think I lost money on the rake. Another fun night was had by all. I ened up only losing a half of a buy-in and left to play in a $50 SNG before I wrote for a little bit.

Anyway, this is how I always feel when some niblet beats my pocket aces with 24o. By the way I got a kick out of what Bad Blood wrote about a recent bad beat. He was cussing at the computer screen and MiniBlood happened to be nearby and heard his caustic tirade. Earmuffs. Teach him how to do earmuffs. (Sorry for another Old School reference.)

Hope you have a stellar Tuesday at the tables. Vegas in three days. Holiday Classic in four. Christmas in 18 days!