Tao of Poker

Wiggle Wiggle

"On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow." - Nietzsche

I have a new routine. I am no longer waking and baking and drinking in old man bars around the city before noon like a vagrant and derelict. My hoodlum days are over. I awake and write for a while. Then I attempt to make a dent in reading emails in my jammed-packed inboxes and catch up on news updates. If I have time, I'll blog something on my main blog. Late mornings is when I fire up Party Poker. I had been hanging out at the $3/6 tables recently with some success. I've been taking my daily winnings and blowing it playing SNGs around lunchtime. After pissing my money away, I either write or do research for future freelance articles. Late night (around Midnight) I come home and fire up Full Tilt to work off my bonus and play in multi table tournaments.

March 9 @ 1:21am EST... Played the NL tables on Full Tilt and listened to a Bob Marley bootleg from San Francisco. I doubled up with KK against AJo. The flop: A-K-J. You see how it got ugly for the other guy. I liked his screen name... NeilDiamonds. An hour later, I doubled up with AA against JJ. Not a bad session for my first plunge onto their NL tables. The best feature for me about Full Tilt is being able to choose where on the screen my seat is. The hand histories are not bad either. Like Party Poker, they display your opponents' mucked hands on the river.

March 9 @ 11:28am EST... With A5s, I flopped the Wheel and a straight flush draw from the BB playing on a $3/6 Party Poker table. No straight flush and I win my biggest pot of the session. I played fairly tight and only saw a few flops. I took down another big pot with AQs. I flopped an ace with the nut flush draw. I encourage more players to call A3o all the way down to the river when they sit at my table.

March 9 @ 2:14pm EST... I came in 5th in back-to-back $20 SNGs. I decided to bump down a level after my horrendous run at the $50 and $30 SNGs. I'm sure all the juice I pissed away in SNG fees could pay Party Poker's entire outsourced support staff for a full week. I lost in typical fashion... my pocket 33s ran into AA. Sucks when you flop a set and and overpair hits their set too. I guess I'd rather lose like that then getting rivered on a two outer. Then I ran into AA with pocket Hellmuths. At least I had some soothing selections from the Allman Brothers Band epic live show... Live at the Fillmore East... to keep me sane.

March 9 @ 10:58pm EST... Witnessed poker history when Doyle Brunson won over $1 million at the latest WPT event in LA. Man, it's 2005 and Doyle Brunson is still winning big poker tournaments. He's been winning in big events for over fifty years. Amazing. His win at the Legends of Poker is extraordinary. That feat is similar to if Jack Nicklaus took Tiger Woodson the back nine at Augusta and schooled him. It would be like Willie Mays outslugged Barry Bonds in a home run hitting contest. You catch my drift. I would have loved to seen Doyle's games back in 1978 when he was at the top of his game. To catch a glimpse into his world must have been what it was like to watch Joe DiMaggio during his infamous 56 game hitting streak in the summer of 1941. Or being able to sit in clubs on Swing Street in New York City in 1951 and listening to Charlie "Bird" Parker perform two sets of intense music every night.


Texas Dolly
March 9 @ 11:59pm EST... Played in a $20 NL MTT on Full Tilt with Glyph. 170 players... my favorite sized field. Top 18 places paid with over $900 going to the winner. In the first Level I found KK an TT and picked up two small pots. That was it for a while. I saw flops with AQ, AK, 99... and missed everything for the next two levels. I was 80th out of 113. I ended up getting knocked out with AK. I definitely overplayed my hand and pressed when I should have simply seen a flop since I was against 88 and he raised the minimum from MP. I lost the coin flip and was booted in 87th place. Glyph held on for a little while longer and finished in the upper 70s.

March 10 @ 10:14am EST... Bad beat'd in a $20 SNG on Party Poker. My KQs lost to QJo. We both flopped a Queen and after I put the big stack all-in on the turn he caught a Jack on the river.

March 10 @ 11:00pm EST... Played in a $5 MTT Omaha hi/lo event with AlCantHang and Erik Seidel on Full Tilt. 78 players! At one point Seidel was seated next to Al. He was cool and answered as many questions as he could. Seidel answered questions too. I played tight and didn't get too many hands. When I was shortstacked, I pressed and saw a few more flops. I got a lot of suited paint... which I like in Omaha... but nothing hit for me.

March 10 @ 11:44pm EST...I folded a huge hand that would have prevented me from getting chipped out of the tournament. AsQcJsTc. I called a raise preflop in LP. The flop: Q-9-3. There was a bet and raise in front of me. I folded. I put someone on a set or an overpair. Shot, TPTK is a crappy hand in Omaha. Of course after I fold, running aces fall on the turn and river, which would have filled me up pretty good. I was disgusted at my remaining 935 in chips. I should have seen the turn. I made it to the break 39th out of 42. I ended up in 41 out of 77. Al Cant Hang took 24th and missed the money. When I logged off, Seidel was 3rd in chips with 8 players left.


March 11 @ 1:10am EST... Played a NL ring game on Full Tilt with Glyph and worked off some more of my bonus. Got tired and logged off to read a little Dan Harrington.

March 11 @ 11:03am EST... Back to the $3/6 tables on Party Poker. With John Coltrane keeping me companying, I won on a nice pot with JJ against pocket tens. Moved onto an SNG and I finally broke my losing streak. I took 3rd place and cashed in my first $20 SNG in my last 5 tries and ended an ugly streak. The slide was taking a toll on my bankroll and ego. This past week, my confidence in ring games was very high as compared to the bewildered outlook I had at the SNG tables. Man, not being able to cash consistently in SNGs on Party Poker is similar to not being able to get laid in a whorehouse. Something was off with my SNG Mojo. Let's hope I can get back to my normal winning rate on SNGs and move back up in the ranks.

March 11 @ 11:56pm EST... AlCantHang confirms that he booked a suite at The Plaza in Las Vegas for our trip in June. Yes, it's true. Derek, The Hangs, and myself are sharing a two bedroom suite! Man, I can only imagaine what the hell will be going on between the hours of 2 and 6am at "The Suite."

Recent Poker Playing Music...
1. Wilco
2. Solomon Burke
3. Phish
4. Paul Simon
5. Bruce Springsteen

I also added a few more links to my blogroll. Take a peek. That's it for now. Have a good weekend everyone. See you at the tables on Full Tilt and Party Poker. Don't forget that Poker Stars has a rare reload bonus of 20% up to $120. Take advantage now... with a slew of WSoP satellites upcoming... time to reload!