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Poker Ramblings

I had another very good showing at the Thursday Night Absolute Poker Shark Poker Tour $200 added MTT. I finished in third place for a nice little $47 dollar addition to my bankroll. The final 3 were pretty even in chips but I ran my A/7 into A/8 and was crippled after that. I tried to come back with a K/J hand but it ran into two pair when the chipleader called with 6/9 off and flopped the 6 and got the 9 on the river and IGHN.

Amy Calistri has an excellent article on how the NFL was an integral part in the UIGEA at Poker News: Opinion: How the NFL Grinch Stole Poker's Christmas

Congratulations to Bazkar and his new additon to the family, a baby boy!! That's 3 boys and a girl in the Baz household with the oldest being 5 and the youngest being 1 day old.

For some fun reading check out this site: Bluff The Donkey

Poker.com - Read small print

I have been playing at Poker.com trying to clear the $100 bonus for the last week or 10 days. After about 2750 FPP's I cleared $15 of my $100 bonus and continued to play raked hands to get the rest of the bonus. I got to over 7500 FPP and did not get the next installment ($15) of my bonus so I started to look into why not.

What I found really pisses me off. If you withdraw your initial deposit, you don't get the remainder of your bonus. I found this at 2+2 forums. No where does it say that plainly on the Poker.com site. In the Bonus Coupon Standard Terms and Conditions it states: Coupons expire on withdrawal.

On other sites you can withdraw your initial deposit after so many days or after playing and winning where you can continue to play with the money you have won. I do that a lot on a site so that not so much of my money is tied up and just sitting there doing nothing.

Even if I has read the "small print" at Poker.com I don't think I would have interpreted that if I took out my initial buy-in I would lose my bonus. The thing is I really like the site. It has a lot of tourneys, soft limit games and the graphics are second to none on any other site.

Still, no use hanging there if I'm not makig any bonus money when I can play at any number of other sites to earn a bonus and pad my bankroll. So I guess it is bye bye Poker.com

PokerSavvy's Restarting Blog Tour Freeroll Tournaments in 2007

PokerSavvy is starting up Blog Tour Freeroll tournaments again.

PokerSavvy's is contacting their list of bloggers that are eligible to play in their Blog Tour Freeroll tournaments. PokerSavvy is getting these started back up next year, and will be putting on a $1,000 freeroll every month just for their blogger friends! The next event is scheduled to be played on January 21st @ 3pm EST. If you would like to ensure your eligibility to play in this event, please go to PokerSavvy and let them know that you
are still interested in being a part of the Blog Tour!

To be entered into this freeroll, you must be an active blogger, and have PokerSavvy's special blogger link posted visibly somewhere on the main page of your blog. 'Active' is defined as posting at least once a month, if you update your blog any less than this, you will not be eligible to play, even if you have PokerSavvy link posted on your blog.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas
and
Happy New Year

Shark Poker Tour

I'm going to give you another heads up about the Shark Poker Tour. I joined the Shark Poker Tour 3 weeks ago to take advantage of their $200 dollar added MTT on Absolute Poker and I have finished 3rd, 9th and 4th in the last 3 weeks, moneying on two of the three.
But the Shark Poker Tour is a lot more than just the add on tourneys. There is an excellent forum, poker articles, featured players and affiliates. There are actually 3 different sites that are all related to the Shark Poker Tour. The newest one is Shark's Vegas Strip which has a lot of information on the Vegas Casinos as well as online poker rooms.

Check it out. Would I steer you wrong?

Stuff

I don't think I have ever had a flush on Bodog.

A white Christmas just seems right. It is all I have known growing up in Northern Michigan.

I have never had a horse drawn sleigh ride.

My No Limit practice is going pretty good on Absolute and Bodog.

I have gone over 80 MPH on a snowmobile and maybe even faster.

I love to go sliding in winter. Can't wait to take my grandkids sliding this year.

Arctic Cat Snowmobiles have never ever won the I-500 in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

Micro-Limit No Limit

I started dabbling in micro-limit No Limit Texas Holdem on Absolute Poker and Bodog Poker last night. I pretty much broke even but enjoyed the experience and will be playing more as I want to move my Limit Holdem Game into the No Limit realm early in 2007.

I thought I played pretty well overall. I got bluffed off one medium size pot but managed to hold my own for the most part. There are a couple of things that I think are peculiar at this level. First, why would someone raise preflop for $6 Plus dollars at a $10 Max buy-in level? It seems to me that they are putting a lot of their buy-in at stake if they are hoping of stealing the .15 cents in blinds or, maybe, the .45 cents in the pot from the SB, BB and 3 limpers. Also, in my mind, if you have a good hand you want some action to maximize your winnings. Sure you may lose to some suckouts but overall you should win with your good hands.

The second time I witnessed this happening I mentioned in the chat section that this person did not want any action with his hand and he replied back that he didn’t want to lose to a suckout. I would rather win more with my good hands and lose to an occasional suckout than to just win the blinds with a monster hand. Granted, he may get some action some of the time as there was one person that chatted they were close to calling him but in the few times I saw this happen it was instafold by everyone.

I’m going to continue to play the micro-Limit No Limit tables at Bodog and Absolute and through the end of the year and see how I fair. I’ll keep reporting on it as I go.

TILT

I have my Blog. I read lots of Poker Books. I read lots of Blogs and information on line about playing poker and strategy, etc. etc, etc.

And still, I went on Tilt last night at Poker.com after getting little in the way of good hands and, when I did get a good hand, having it beat by some donkey playing crap cards. The clincher was when I rasied preflop with A/Q suited and see a donkey make two pair with rags to beat my better hand.

I can't explain it. I really thought I was above going on tilt and could control my emotions playing this game they call Poker. Maybe it is external forces coming to play as well as the donkey play during the game. It is Christmas time and there is more stress at this time of year than normal.

I can't explain it but I hope that writing about it here will help prevent it from happening again.

I have lost $30 dollars in two days at Poker.com. I think I need to take a break from there and play another site or just take a break from playing altogether. We'll see.
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This is a Public Service Announcement and is to be taken seriously and not jokingly.

Sneeze on your sleeve, not in your hands

In fact, the doctor says, bad sneezing, wheezing and hacking techniques not only spread cold and the flu germs like the plague -- they could lead to the downfall of many when the next pandemic strikes (and infectious disease experts say the world is due).
So, a concerned Lounsbury created a how-to video, to teach the hygienically challenged among us a technique to keep our germs to ourselves. It's simple: cough into your sleeve, stupid.

I took a goodly amount of my money out of Bodog Poker as that is one site I am having trouble winning on. I’m playing at the microlimits so you have to expect some poor play but it seems like I am getting caught with second best hands too many times. I’ll pop in now and then and maybe play some of their MTTs but I am going to concentrate on clearing bonuses at Ultimate Bet Poker and Poker.com for the rest of December.

My worse defeat this week-end wasn’t so much the amount of money lost but it was the play of the Villain and then the smack talking he was doing afterwards. The hand was a simple hand where I limped in with 10/Q and he limped in with K/4. The flop had a 10 and a 4 so I bet my 10 and he raised. Now I was out of position so I was leading off. I called his raise as I had top pair with good kicker and wanted to see turn card. Turn card is nothing so I check, he bets, I call. The river is a King and I check, he bets and I call as I still didn’t think he had much and I like this board. He shows the 4/K and when I make the comment, “unbelievable” in the chat box he goes off on me. My play might not have been that good but I rarely play a hand like K/4 and to have him win the hand on the River just seemed appropriate for how I have been running at Bodog. He sits out for a while and then leaves so I don’t even have a chance to get my money back from him.
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Christmas time is here and there are a lot of people in our armed services that won’t be able to spend any time with their families. Please take the time to go to these two sites and do everything you can for our men and women in the armed forces:
Any Soldier and Lets Say Thanks in Support of our Troops

Any Soldier is a site where servicemen and women communicate where they are at and what they are doing and what are some of the things they need that would make their tour of duty go smoother and more pleasant.

Lets Say Thanks in Support of our Troops is a free Christmas Card sent by Xerox to a servicemen or women in your name. I have sent a few already.

Full Tilt Problems

The Full Tilt story and Dugglebogey is getting curioser and curioser. Now there is a second incident involving Math P and his Full Tilt account. There are quite a bit off differences between the two but the bottom line is they both lost money at Full Tilt Poker.

I had intended on making Full Tilt Poker my next site to do a PokerSavvy or Poker Source Online promotion to get extra bonus money. Now I think I will put Full Tilt aside and work on Ultimate Bet Poker as my next Bonus Poker Site. Ultimate Bet Poker has Huge 100% up to $650 First Deposit Bonus.

Poker Ramblings

Dugglebogey had some trouble at Full Tilt Poker with his account being hacked and some dickweed losing all his money playing No Limit Holdem. Go on over to his site and read up on it and then make your own decision on how you want to handle your Full Tilt account.

I want to say it reminds me of the joke where A man said his credit card was stolen but he decided not to report it because the thief was spending less than his wife did.
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The last three times I have had pocket Aces at Poker.com they have been cracked by bull shit hands. Last night it was the BB calling my Preflop raise with 5h 8h. He goes on to not only turn the flush but gets a straight, also. So I was toast two ways on that hand. At least I can understand why the BB would call my raise as he already has half of his money in tht pot anyway and his cards are suited so I can't fault his play. It is just the way the cards are falling on the flop, turn and river that is killing me. Overall, I won $5 at Poker.com and earned over 200 points towards my bonus so it wasn't a total loss.
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There were 36 brave souls at the Shark Poker Tour $5 dollar buy-in MTT at Absolute Poker last night. I chipped up pretty good early with some solid hands and made it to the final table when I was dealt pocket Tens in MP. I get all in only to find that the one other player has Pocket Aces and IGHN. Bad luck or donkey move can be debated equally but I liked my play up to that point and am looking forward to playing there again next Thursday. Do I wish I hadn't of gone all in? Sure, but I like my chances if he doesn't have a big pair and ony has A/Q or A/K there. I win that hand and, since only top five get paid, I am in the catbird seat.

Shark Poker Tour

I am a proud member of the Shark Army.
I became a member of the Shark Poker Tour to take advantages of their free rolls and low buy-in MTTs with add-ons. It turned out to be a great move as I was able to finish 3rd (out of 44) in the Thursday Night Shark Poker Tour $5 MTT, $200 added, on Absolute Poker. I am scheduled to play my second one tonight at 9PM est.

Their are actually two sites that are related regarding the Shark Poker Tour. The second site is Online Shark SatelliteTour and here is Shark’s Blog.

Shark is Steve "Shark" Hathaway and in his bio he tells of starting his online poker career by playing in free Satellite tourneys, freerolls and play chip ring games. Shark continues with

4 years later……

My freeroll sites, Shark Poker Tour and Online Shark Satellite Tour are proud to host all the online poker games that got me hooked on this great game. Beginners and skilled amateurs bet, raise and check raise (Shark members don’t check or call much) thousands of times each month in friendly competition, for huge added money prizes. Freeroll Poker Tournaments, Satellite seat events, Omaha, Omaha hi-lo, ladies only tourneys, and much more!

The Shark sites have everything from an excellent Forum to an affiliate program. You can check it out with the following link:
Online Poker Tournaments
Earn satellite seats to major poker events. Play our Freerolls, Omaha 8/b Tournaments, Low-limit Cash-added Texas HoldemTourneys and more. Check out our Poker Strategy Articles & The Shark Powered Poker Forum - Join the Shark Army!

Kicked in the Nuts

I did not have a very good night at the Poker Tables last night. Variance came back to kick me in the nuts once again on both Bodog Poker and Poker.com. The only good thing that happened is that I cleared my 200 Bodog Points to clear my bonus at Poker Source Online.

Here is the worse hand at Bodog Poker that started to let me know that it was not going to be my night. I had KhQh in the BB and called a raise from MP. There were about 4 total in this hand. The flop came 5h jh 9c and I led off with a bet and two folded and MP called and LP called. The turn was 9d and I again bet and the MP player raised and LP folded. I figured for one more bet it was worth it to see if I could turn the flush. I called and the river card was the Ah to give me the nut flush. I bet and I was raised again by MP so I called his raise and he turned over Ac9s for his fullhouse and I sent my chips his way.

That one hurt as the card that gave me the nut flush, gave him his full house and the pot.
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The two hands that were the worse for me at Poker.com were both Pocket Aces. I just had sat down at the table and after about 4 hands found A/A in MP. I raised and got 4 callers. The flop was J#, K#, K# and I knew right there I had lost that hand. I played it to the river and was shown K/J by an Early Position player.

Less than one hour later I was dealt A/A in MP again. I raised Preflop and got 4 callers again. The flop was 8#, 10#, 4# with no flush draws and no straight draws. two check, I bet, and one folds and the other two call. the turn is 6# and both players check so I bet and they call. Still no flush or staight possiblities on board. The River is a Q# and I am grinning from ear to ear until one of the players bet and the other calls. I still figure I am good here and raise and they both call my raise. They turn over Q/10 and Q/8, respectively and the chips go sliding away from me.

After that I left the table as I knew it wasn't going to be my night. That was the start of my new Limit Challenge at Poker.com so lets hope it gets better as I am in the red now.
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Another favorite Christmas Song: Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Bruce Springsteen
Best Christmas Memory: Going with my Dad every year to a Michigan Cedar Swamp to pick out a Christmas Tree. We usually got a blue spruce that didn't have many branches on the side that was against the swamp so that side went against the wall in our house. All of our Christmas trees were thin so we put a lot of home made decorations and tinsel on them to help fill them out.

Christmas and Challenge Moving

Christmas is my fovorite Holiday of the year. Here are some of my Christmas favorites.
1. Favorite Christmas Carol
a. Elvis Presley - Here Comes Santa Claus
b. Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song
c. Frank Sinatra - Winter Wonderland

2. Favorite Christmas Present - Arctic Cat Snowmobile (for whole family) when I was 12 years old.

3. Favorite Christmas Movie/TV Show - A Charlie Brown Christmas.
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My Texas Holdem Limit Challenge is moving from Bodog Poker to Poker.Com. I did not have much success at Bodog and I really like Poker.Com a lot better so I am moving the Challenge. I will start with blinds of .50/$1 and try to move up from there.

Bodog was just too out of control for me. I started playing hands incorrectly because whenever I raised preflop I would get more callers than if I had just limped in with my good hands. Really! I tried it and if I limped there would be 4 people calling and if I raised as many as 6 or more would call. It was unbelievable. That being said I am going to clear my PSO bonus there tonight and am down less than $10 dollars overall. I hope to clear the bonus and cash out a winning session tonight at Bodog.

Playing Overcards

This is the type of hand I have been having trouble with so, as is my want, I am trying to learn more about it so I can do a better job of playing against it.
PokerListings.com has a good article on playing overcards on the flop. They state the following:
[sic]most beginners would do better if they always folded their overcards.
Most importantly, you must realize that, at best, you have 6 outs to improve your hand after the flop. This translates into approximately 7-to-1 against improving on the turn (12.8%), and you are drawing to one pair.
Essentially, you need very good pot-odds to draw and, in addition, there must be other circumstances existing in your favor. This is due to a number of factors:

1. Against sets, two pairs, or overpairs, you are basically drawing dead.
2. One of your outs may complete an opponent's flush or straight draw.
3. One of your outs may give an opponent a two-pair; this is especially true when one of your overcards is an ace. More players will play and stay in the pot when they hold an ace as their side-card.
4. One of your outs may give an opponent the same pair but with a better kicker than yours.
5. One of your outs may give an opponent a set.
6. One of your outs may give an opponent a straight or flush draw, which ends up outdrawing you on the river.

On those occasions when you choose to draw, you must be fairly certain that you are drawing to the best hand and that the pot justifies calling a bet. The situation must be almost perfect for both of these criteria to be met and, as a result, it does not happen often.

The following are important factors to be taken into consideration (when you are considering drawing):

1. The best flops for overcards are rainbow flops of all rags, like 8-5-2, 9-7-3, 7-3-2, and the like.
2. Dangerous flops are connected flops, suited flops, flops containing a high pair, and flops consisting entirely of high cards. Unless you do not have a great draw yourself to go with your overcards, you should not play.
3. You want to be up against few opponents as this decrease the chances of drawing dead, or to second-best hands.
4. Holding back-door flush or straight potential will slightly increase your odds and can give you a chance of winning the pot on the turn with a semi-bluff, in case you pick up a strong draw.
5. The pot should be large, though this is seldom true in pots with few opponents (see Number 3).

Basically I have been going about this all wrong in that I always will call the flop bet to see the turn as I feel that if one of my overcards hits on the turn I can take down the pot. I can see now that this is -EV and I have been leaking a lot of money by making that bet. I will study up on this some more and maybe post some more hand histories for help from my fellow bloggers.

Agony to Ecstasy

Worse hand won in MTT at Poker.Com. I have the Aces as LZFS3. Four People called a Preflop raise of 4 times the Big Blind and all had good hands except for the guy that won w/ the J/10.

Here the best hand won but unfortunately it came before the above hand that lost.

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Played in the Shark Poker Tour Thursday night game at Absolute Poker for the first time and had a wonderul run. My cards held up every time until the last hand. I had A/A and A/K twice and they won and I had K/K and it won, too. My last hand was A/K against pocket 10s. I got my Ace on the flop but the turn brought the 3rd ten and IGHN. I hope to play in this tournament every Thursday.

Theory of Variance

I am working on what I call the Theory of Variance. My theory is that when variance hits you will lose more money to variance than you will win. People may not realize it but Variance in poker goes both ways, i.e. you can have variance when you play lesser hands and you hit the board to win and you can have variance when you have the best hands going in and you end up losing to the 2 outer on the river.

People seem to only remember Variance when they are losing to it. The strange thing about poker is that you will remember the losing hands much more vividly and longer than you remember your winning hands. I guess that is because you expect your good hands to win and when they don’t it makes a bigger impact on you. Thus, players only refer to variance when it is going against them.

Variance does work for you, too. How many times have you won w/ 2/7off (the hammer) or played 2/3 suited from the big blind and hit the wheel? Probably more than you think but you just don’t think much about it because two hands ago your aces got cracked by the donkey playing his 2/3 offsuit after your preflop raise and he hit the wheel.

My theory dictates you will lose more to variance than you will win. A couple of reasons for that is that when variance hits you will,

1. Tilt

2. Convince yourself that it will soon turn your way and you will keep playing long after you should have stopped or you will start playing hands that are not +EV.

I am still developing this theory but I am convinced that the gist of it is true. There are more eloquent writers out there and players more knowledgeable about the game than I and I would appreciate it if they could expand on this.

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I turned things around at Poker.com as I was able to play for quite a while and ended my session with a modest profit. The cards were playing fair except for two hands in a 4 hand stretch where my Aces and Kings got cracked by lesser hands. It made me go from a winning session to a losing one but I didn’t tilt and I kept plugging away until I turned things around and was up again. It just bugs me to have the two best hands (preflop) cracked by people calling raises with junk. Rewards poor play.

Variance is still slapping me in the face at Bodog. I didn't play at all on Wednesday but when I sat down at the tables today I lost two hands when the donkeys hit their 3 outer on the river. The worse one was when I raised PF w/ pocket 10s and turned the set on the flop. The hand was going beautifully as there were no cards larger than the 10 on the flop, turn or river and no flush draws. My 10s were looking good until the 9 on the river made a gutshot straight for the guy holding pocket 8s. That one hurt and I quit playing right after that but not before I had dropped my buy-in.

Beating Variance

I am running really bad on Bodog right now due to variance, and some tilt on my part. Variance is a measure of the up and down swings your bankroll goes through. Variance is not necessarily a measure of how well you play. To try to offset said variance I am trying to read up on everything I can find about it. I was at 2 + 2 Forums and was answering a question on how I deal with variance and I have basically 4 steps to deal with variance. I may chose to do just one, or a combination of the four or I will do all four to try and break through when mistress variance rears her ugly head.

1 Take a day or two off from the tables and re-read sections of my Poker Books that most directly deals with how I am playing at that time.

2. tighten up and play only the very best hands in an attempt to break the cycle of downswing.

3. Drop down in Limit

4. Play low buy in SitNgo and donkey it up as much as I can as a form of stress relief. I usually play a couple of .60 cent SitNGos at Absolute because everyone can afford to lose $1.20 and, you never know, sometimes you finish in the money and that helps break the cycle, too.

I, also, found this interesting post by Bill Rini at High Variance Poker vs. Low Variance Poker of which the following comes from.

Poker is a game that often rewards poor play and punishes correct play. It seems to follow that the higher the variance, the more likely poor play will be masked and correct play will look foolish. [sic] if you reduced the variance, perhaps you can produce better overall results by producing a more skilled player. If you change the focus from BB/100 to attaining mastery, you change many of the fundamental obstacles to becoming a long-term winning player

My plan for breaking through at Bodog is to take a day off from there and when I do go back on Thursday or Friday, to play very, very tight and try to break through to a winning session.

I found another excellent article on Variance at World Poker Tour Magazine, Living with variance…UPS & DOWNS OF POKER.
The following are some excerpts from the article.

Variance is a part of the game, you need to prepare for and adapt to it. It’s a two-pronged attack – part practical and part psychological. The practical part is recognizing that downswings happen and applying sensible bankroll management so that, should one hit, it has only a minimal chance of causing you serious problems. The psychological part is mentally preparing yourself for downswings and, when they happen, ensuring that you continue to play your best game.

The ability to rise above the bad beats, the downswings and the unplanned tournament exits is something that doesn’t come easily to anyone. Just take a look at Phil Hellmuth’s temper tantrums or Mike Matusow’s blow-ups. Yet how you cope with variance in many ways defines you as a player.

Playing your best game when you are winning is comparatively easy. It’s far harder to stay focused when you’re experiencing what seems like the worst luck imaginable.

What you need to do at all costs is avoid going on tilt. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, because tilt doesn’t just mean the wild reckless play that usually comes to mind when we mention the word.

Ultimately, you just need to keep plugging away. There’s nothing you can do to pull yourself out of a downswing except to keep playing good poker, so do whatever you can to facilitate that. Drop down a limit, play at a different site or casino, maybe take a break from poker altogether, whatever it takes. Eventually there will come a time when you can look back on the downswing and put it in its proper perspective.

Poker Book Report Wars: Snyder vs. Sklansky

There is an interesting article, Poker Book Report Wars: Snyder vs. Sklansky at Poker Book Reports that reviews The Poker Tournament Formula by Arnold Snyder, Arnold Snyder has been a professional gambler, blackjack strategist, and poker player for years in the Vegas area.

Snyder’s book outlines a much more gambling style than David Sklansky the resident professor and writer of Tournament Poker for Advanced Players. Sklansky’s book, now several years since its first publication, and before the boom, put into motion the tight-early and tight-aggressive strategy that simply made common sense of hold’em tournaments. This strategy is guided in nature by the Gap Concept described in Sklansky’s book as “you need a better hand to play against someone who has already opened the betting, than you would need to open yourself”.

Where Snyder feels The Gap is a completely misguided concept is in the smaller buy-in tournaments that many players participate daily, in local casinos, regional events and online poker sites. The underlining of Snyder’s book is based largely on position play, and pressuring your opponents, who have likely missed the flop as much as you have. This is executed in spite of your hole cards, not because of them. Snyder’s wolves say this strategy works it sheer numbers in large part because of the Sklansky type tournament opponents who know nothing more than to fold out of position or out of flop weakness.

Both concepts have merit and there is no one way to play poker but the Snyder camp feels they make a lot more final tables than the Sklansky camp. Sklansky’s strategy may get you into the money more but Snyder’s strategy is suppose to get you to the final table more.

Much of the above information was plagiarized from Marty Smith who is webmaster and book reviewer for Poker Book Report. Please check out this website as it has some very good information.

Screwed

It looks like the BCS isn't going to have the two best teams playing in the National Championship again this year. They chose a pretty good Florida team to play Ohio State instead of rematching Michigan and Ohio State, the two best teams in the country.

I think this all goes back to when they put Oklahoma in the Championship game against LSU instead of Southern Cal and Oklahoma clearly wasn't the best team. Last year they got it right with Texas and Southern Cal but this year they could have really gone for a classic matchup with the two bitter rivals replaying a classic game but instead they put in Florida who will get beat by 21 points by Ohio State.

Now Michigan is going to have to go to the Rose Bowl and prove they were the better choice by destroying Southern California. If Michigan doesn't win out there then all my arguments will have been for nought. I personally think Michigan could beat Florida 8 out of 10 times if they played.
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The ribbon is an excellent example of how my week-end of Poker went playing at Bodog and Poker.com. It seemed like every good hand I played was 2nd best to another hand. I tried tighten up and play only the best hands but even those had trouble holding up. I lost once when my full house was 2nd to a better full house.

The worse part of losing with the 2nd best hand is that you put a lot of money in the pot thinking you have the best hand. Especially when you have the best hand all the way to the river and you are raising and betting in hopes the donkey's won't stay in until they hit their flush or gutshot straight on the river.

The absolute worse is when the river card makes your hand better but, also, improves your opponents hand so that it is now best hand. You almost always have to make the crying call to ensure you are not being bluffed off the pot or to try and gain more information about your opponent.

Still, when everything was done, I almost broke even for the week-end and I acquired a lot of points to help clear my bonus at Poker Source Online so the week-end wasn't an entire bust.

Treading Water

I have just been treading water on my Limit Challenge at Bodog. I have moved up to the .50/$1 tables as this gives me the most Bodog points per hand and I am comfortable playing that level. When I am able to add to my bankroll I will move up to the next level but if today is any indication it is going to be a while before that happens.

I had A/K three times and lost every time with them. Once I turned A/K into two pair but a rivered flush did me in. One time I raised and got one caller with A/5 and he rivered his five for two pair. The third time I had A/K I got an Ace on the flop and a King on the river which was the bad news as my loan opponent in the hand completed his straight with that King and IGHN.

Do you see a pattern there? The players at Bodog at these Limits will stay around to the river as a calling station and lately they have been hitting their cards against me. Even with the good hands I got getting cracked I was able to make $1.50 and earn 15 Bodog Points. I'll give it another go on Sunday and maybe some of the rivered cards will start to go my way and I will be able to build my bankroll while I am earning Bodog Points.

88 more points before I earn my PSO bonus. Should take about a week or less.

Frist bails out of Presidential Run and some fun stuff

Frist won't run for president in 2008
Bill Frist of Tennessee, retiring from the Senate as majority leader, said Wednesday that he would not run for president in 2008.

“In the Bible,” he said in a statement from Nashville, “God tells us for everything there is a season, and for me, for now, this season of being an elected official has come to a close.”
Mr. Frist had acknowledged that any campaign for the presidency would be uphill. But his party’s loss of the Senate majority in the elections this month, on his watch, would have made it all the more difficult.

Not only does he bend the poker players of the United States over and shoves it to them in the rear, now he decides he won't run for the presidency. What a class act this guy is. If he doesn't think the Poker Players of this great country had something to do with the Republican defeat of 2006 then he is out of touch with reality.
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Compliments to Haley's Poker Blog for this link - http://dingo.care-mail.com/cards/flash/5409/galaxy.swf
Its just really fun to listen to and watch.