OLD WEST LEGENDS - Adventures in the American West

This isn't really a poker entry today but it is about the old west in the 1870's in the United States and poker is credited with being one of the games of choice in the old west.

Unique to the United States is the period in the 1800's when there were Cowboys, Indians, Sherriffs, outlaws, gold strikes, silver strikes, gold and silver busts, and boom towns and ghost towns. The closest thing to the United States west may be Australia's outback and the history of their settlement.

I grew up watching Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Gene Autry, John Wayne, Gunsmoke and Bonanza, Wyatt Earp Bat Masterson, and Have Gun-Will Travel, to name just a few. My brothers and I had six shooter toy guns and B-B guns. When I was real young I would "ride" my stick pony all over the house and yard. Westerns and the west was a big part of my youth.

Recently my taste for the west has been sated by the HBO series, Deadwood. I have watched the first two seasons and just recently found out that season 3 will be its last and I have yet to see that. They are suppose to make two 2 hour specials on HBO to take the place of season 4 but they are not sure if they same actors will be involved. If they are not it won't be the same.

I know that Deadwood is just a glorified soap opera with some foul language and a bit more action but I do really enjoy it. It even made me wonder how true this series was and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that much of it is very factual and some is based on fact with timelines stretched and some characters painted different shades that real life and, of course, much of it is fiction.

Al Swearengen played by Ian McShane, Seth Bullock played by Timothy Olyphant and Sol Star played by John Hawkes were very real characters in Deadwood. Swearengen was the owner of the Gem Saloon and was a real son of a bitch. Sol Star and Seth Bullock did open a hardware store. Seth Bullock did go on to become a Law Enforcment officer. Many of the other characters are based on true life figures, too. Of course Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane are well known in western History, but Charlie Udder, E. B. Farnum, Dan Dority, Johnny Burns, A.W. Merrick and Tom Nuttal are all based on real people.

If you like the HBO show Deadwood as much as I do then check out this site, HBO's Deadwood - Fact & Fiction to find out the the truth behind HBO's Deadwood.

This is probably the best site I have ever found about the old west - OLD WEST LEGENDS - Adventures in the American West

Ramblings

Memorial Day has passed and the temperatures are in the mid to high 80's and approaching 90 degrees so it must be summer. My golf game took a big hit on Tuesday when I posted my worse round of the year. I hope that is not how this summer is going to go. On Friday I had my best round only to see it melt away with the summer heat on Tuesday. I'll be trying to turn it around tomorrow in an attempt to right the ship and get my summer game into tournament shape.

The problem on Tuesday was penalty strokes and 3 putting. I had a total of 3 penalty strokes and three 3 putts. Those two things put a world of hurt on your score. My putting has been going quite well up until then so I don't think it is a trend that will continue. I will just have to knuckle down a bit more and concentrate on my distance control. It also helps if you hit your approach shots closer to the hole so I think I will work on that.

Mrs. Wolverine and I went to Chuck E. Cheeses with my two grandsons today to celebrate my youngest grandson's graduation from preschool. I was impressed!! The last time I went to a Chuck E. Cheeses it was, pardon the pun, cheesey. There were mechanical musicians and skeeball and a few video games that cost an arm and a leg to play. Now they have a menu with a variety of foods (we still got pizza), awesome video games that are only one token to play and no more mechanical musicians (which I kind of missed). I had a great time playing games with my grandsons. They think I rock!! What they don't know is that emotionally I am just a few years older than them, maybe 12.

I keep saying I'm not sure what I'm going to be when I grow up.

Challenge moving upward

My new challenge on Poker Stars is moving upward, albeit slowly. I made $6 playing .25/.50 Limit Holdem and I made $1.20 on 2 table Sitngos for an increase of $7.20 and now my bankroll at Pokerstars is around $38 dollars.

I'll take it! I haven't played that much so to move up by 30% in a week makes me feel pretty good. I will have to play some more ring games and less SitNgos as, so far, that is clearly the more profitable way to go. It is just that I really like to play the SitNgos. I was headed for a nice finish today when my A/K flopped a king only to see a donkey with pocket sixes go all in and get his set on the turn and IGHN. That hurt as that would have put me in the final table with a nice little bankroll and I am pretty sure I would have made the top four and get into the money.

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I bubbled in Katitude's Friday night Donkament on Fullt Tilt. It was a fun night and Katitude tells it on her blog that it was Garth's night when he tried to break the rebuy record but fell just short with 47 total rebuys. I took a few of his rebuys. I was 0 for 4 on all ins and then hit a streak and finished at 8 of 12 for the first hours so I did quite well and built up a nice stack. Alas, it was not to be as it slowly melted away and I couldn't hang any longer and got taken out by Fishiswa.

New Challenge

I see that Chipper is working on a challenge where he is taking a micro limit bankroll on Full Tilt Poker and trying to turn it into a real bankroll.

I am going to do the same but on Poker Stars with my $30 dollar bank roll. I'm going to try to play some microlimit holdem and some low limit SitNGos and see if I can't turn this miniscule amount into a real genuine bankroll that allows me to play at higher limits.

I'll keep you posted on how I do. In the meantime, keep an eye on Chipper's blog and follow his march up the ladder of bankroll respectability.
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My daughter and I went to see Spiderman 3 on the
Imax Theater in Lansing, Michigan. It was awesome. In fact, the 40 foot high and 70 foot wide screen was a bit overwhelming and with all of the action it seemed like you were right in the middle of it. I will have to see Spiderman 3 on the smaller screen to kind of sit back and take it all in.

Mrs. Wolverine and I are going to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End this Sunday. Should be big fun. The movie is almost 3 hours long.

Rosie O'Donnell vs Elisabeth Hasselbeck

If you watch the view or keep up on hollywood happenings you know that Rosie O'Donnell and
Elisabeth Hasselbeck are having a bit of a feud at this time. I think they should put the gloves on them and have them do a 3 round bout. Elisabeth's original claim to fame was on the reality show Survivor so we know she can handle physical adversity. Rosie would certainly outweigh her and would probably be able to manhandle her in the first round and, possibly, into the second. Elisabeth has to be able to bob and weave and stick her with a jab and keep out of her reach until late into the second and into the third round then she should be able to put a serious beating on the flagging Rosie O'donnell. I see this fight going the distance and Elisabeth taking this on a unanimous decision.

In 2002 gas prices were $1.35 a gallon and now they are $3.65 a gallon. When is enough enough? How much longer can they keep jumping up? The people this really puts a crunch on are the ones making minimum wage and the price for a gallon of gas is equal to 1/2 hour's work. That's the boat my daughter is in. She uses one gallon a day so it is costing her $3.65 minimum just to get to work and home, let alone run to the store or some other activity. She was going to visit her grandfather who lives 200 miles away but can't afford the $40 dollars to drive to see him.

More this, less that

No new poker news as I have not played since my last post.

What did you think of the ending to Heroes? Pretty interesting. I don't like Nathan Petrelli so I wasn't too sorry to see him get blown up......but did we really see him get blown up? I wouldn't put it past them to say he got high enough to drop Peter off and then he went to save himself and he will be back next year. I'm not sure why the cheerleader couldn't shoot Peter. She knew he could regenerate and come back to life. Interesting twist on putting Hiro in the 16th Century. He should be able to zap himself away from there if he wants. And Siler still lives. Damn!!

My Redwings are on the ropes after needing just 47 more seconds to wind down and they would be up 3 to 2 instead of down. Damn! Piss poor call of interference with 2 minutes left in the game. Still, missed an open net by a hair and failed to clear the zone so.... what can you say? Hope they gettem tonight or the only teams left will be the Pistons and the Tigers.

I shot an 82 today. My best score of the year. I had a 38 on the front nine, including 1 birdie, and a 44 on the back nine. Just couldn't get it going on the back nine. Mostly bad drives did me in and one hole I had a really bad chip that cost me strokes. My putting let me down one time but saved my butt on several holes so I can't complain about that. The greens are in fantastic shape and rolling fast now so I have had to really concentrate on my putting and try not to blast it by the holes.

We are cooking out almost every day this summer. I have grilled steaks, shrimp, hamburgs, hotdogs, chicken, asparagas, squash, zucchini, portabellas, potatos, ka-bobs. Everything but fish and Mrs. Wolverine and I were discussing which fish to get to grill so that will be taken care of soon. Tonight I had a super big hamburg with Smoked Provolone Cheese on it and chips. And beer. Yummmo. One of my favorite meals.

Go Redwings!!

This and That

I finished 4th in two 18 player Sitngos so I was in the money but didn't win much. I was happy to make the money but both times I went all in at very bad times and was dominated both times and IGHN. Still, better than I had been doing so I am feeling good about the cards and my game.

Not so fortunate at ring game on Full Tilt. I won several hands when my pocket pairs became full houses but lost a lot when the donkeys would go all the way to the river with nothing and get that miracle card. Runner/runner flush a couple of times and several times where they made their two pair on the river. I was playing pretty tight seeing only 19% of the flops but it is hard in micro limit holdem to get some players off a hand. One guy raised preflop with 5/7 suited, flopped a flush draw but stayed to the river and got the 7 to win the hand. At least that hand I folded at the turn when I had nothing and the odds were against me. Later he raises and I have a good hand only to see him turn over A/A and take me down. Maybe his earlier play enticed me to play hard against him and it certainly worked for him. Overall he didn't win much but he was a winner against me.

My golf game is coming around. I shot 86 on Friday, 43/43 with two bad holes on each side. A 7 on the ninth hole and a 7 on the 17th hole. Even if I just bogey those holes I end up with a really nice score. I'll be back at it tomorrow and try to break 80.

Went to the East Lansing Art Fair on Saturday and had a wonderful time. Bought a couple of pieces of art and got a lot of ideas on some things my wife and I can do ourselves. Just a wonderful day walking around and looking at the artwork on a nice spring day with the temps around 70 degrees.

Tag, I'm it

I have been tagged by two of my favorite bloggers, Chipper and Counting My Outs to tell you 7 thing about me you don't already know.

1. I am the 3rd of 4 boys in my family. My youngest brother was my Mom's last attempt at a daughter and it failed miserably. Four boys all within Six years of each other. That had to be hard on my mom. I grew up in a Three bedroom house (one bathroom) and slept in a double bed with my brother until I went away to college.

2. I was a Yell Leader at Alma College. My wife and daughters kid me about being a 'cheerleader' but I have to correct them and tell them I was a Yell Leader. Two guys picking up and throwing 5 good looking cheerleaders around. What's not to like about that?

3. My first flight was in a single engine plane flown by a private pilot. I was 13 years old and I worked at a resort and one of the customers was a pilot and told everyone if they threw in $10 for gas he would take us up in a small plane and fly over Mackinac Island and the Mackinac Bridge in Northern Michigan. My parents said it was O.K. for me to go and that was my first flight. I have since flown once in a bubble top helicopter that had the doors off. Both were pretty damn cool.

4. I graduated from college with a Bachelors in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. I had all of the prerequisites filled for becoming a secondary education teacher except for the student teaching. I would have to return to college in the fall to student teach and I said the hell with it. I was tired of not having any money. I regret it to this day when Christmas and summer comes around. I would have had it made as a Science Teacher.

5. My first job after graduation was as an Identification Technician for the City of Flint Police Department. It was one of the only civilian Forensic Departments in the State of Michigan. I was CSI before CSI was cool. I processed crime scenes, photographing them, dusting for fingerprints, collecting evidence, etc. I have been an expert witness for the Prosecutor, have been to crime scenes for Bank Robberies, homocides, suicides, major drug busts, have been with Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (ATF) people when they have blown up pipe bombs. I did this for 3 years then left when the city was talking about layoffs in every department and I was low on the Seniority list.

6. I am married and have 3 daughters. My oldest is the mother of my two Grandsons, Brett and Tanner. My middle child has graduated from University of Michigan - Flint and is currently going back to school to get her secondary education certificate. My youngest is at Signal Mountain Lodge in Jackson, Wyoming, working for the summer.

7. My first trip to Las Vegas was in the late '80s. They were just building the Mirage. My wife worked for a a doctor that was a high roller in Vegas and he took us out there several times. He was comped at Caesar's Palace and Barbary Coast. The only money we spent was to gamble. He didn't use his real name in Las Vegas but used an alias. He taught me to play craps and because of him I am an expert craps player (if I do say so myself). He got my wife and I tickets to see Siegfried & Roy, Jay Leno, Anne Margaret, Tom Jones, and a few others. He was comped for most of those and we learned to slip the Matri'D a $20 to get the best seats. He died young of congestive heart failure but for a few years it was a wild ride.

I'd like to tag:

All-in In the Dark

Dugglebogey

Poker Wolf

Res Ipsa Poker

Close but No Cigar

I played in a couple of MTTs last night on Stars and Full Tilt. I had fun but no cashes. The closest was a low buy-in RAZZ tourney on Stars. I was cruising along in good shape and was down to 3 tables with the top 16 players getting paid. I was done in by this hand:

Villain showed [Qd 6s 2h Td 5d 8d 3d] and won (5250) with Lo: 8,6,5,3,2
Wolverine Fan showed [Ac 2c 6d Jh As 5h Ad] and lost with Lo: J,6,5,2,A

I was at the point where I had to make a move to get deeper into the tournament and I put it all on my last card and was done in when the 3rd ace came to bite me in the butt. We both checked on the river so my money went in prior to my last card. That crippled me and I soon went out after that in 22nd place out of 144 players.

I really like playing the RAZZ tourneys but they take soooooooo long that I really can't keep playing them. I went out after 3 hours of play. A No Limit tourney would go through 144 players in a little over two hours with the final 36 taking longer. Half would be gone after one hour.

Ramblings

No time for poker and no time for golf. May have to change the name of my blog.

My poker playing always slows down in the summer anyway so it is not unusual for me to not be playing as much poker lately. I think when I do get the time I am going to fire up some Ring games and try to build my bankroll, especially on Poker Stars. The only problem with that is I have very little room for variance and will have to start winning right out of the gate. Hopefully I can achieve that.

I did manage to money in a $5.50 MTT on Full Tilt on Monday night. I finished 35th out of about 350 players and was very happy with my play. I was a luckbox on at least two occasions but, unfortunately, things evened out when my Pocket Kings went up against Pocket Nines and he gets his set on the flop and IGHN. He had me covered by just $200 and I know he felt he needed to make a move to get deeper into the tournament but still............That one hurt because if I win that hand I double up and have an excellent chance to make the final two tables and very probably the final table. I did manage to win back about twice my buy-in so it wasn't a total bust but it could have been soooooo much better.

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Here is a Catch-22 for you.

I am hitting my mid irons at least one club longer than I was last year. I have been trying to figure out what has changed as I am using the same clubs and the same golf balls. So far I am consistantly hitting my irons one club longer than I ever have and I think it is due to my weighing the heaviest I have ever weighed.

This really sucks! I put on a lot of weight last fall and winter and it has been slow to come off. I really want to be able to hit the golf ball farther but I really don't want to be as fat as I am.

Damn! The Insanity of it all.

Sorry for lack of updates

Sorry my posting has been so spotty the past week. Part of it is being busy in the out-of-doors, part of it is not being around my computer as much and a large part of it is not having anything to say. My inspiration for posting is dwindling so I need some rejuvenation. I should be able to come up with something to get my creative juices flowing again.

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Spring is planting time in Michigan and Mrs. Wolverine is beginning to plant her flowers. This is the time of year I love to read the garden slogans carved in rocks or on signs. Here are some of my favorites.

I'm a gardener. Can you dig it?

If life deals you lemons, make lemonade. If it deals you tomatoes, make Bloody Marys.

Weed 'em and reap! (kind of a poker garden thing going here)

"The Earth laughs in flowers." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Annuals - live fast and die young.

Bloom! Damn it!

Compost happens.

I have a rock garden; last week three of them died.

I fought the lawn, and the lawns won.

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. (Cicero)

A man should never plant a garden largerthan his wife can take care of. - T.H. Everett

My youngest is gone for the summer

My youngest daughter has left for her seasonal spring/summer/fall job at Signal Mountain Lodge in the Grand Tetons National Park by Jackson, Wyoming. She is letting everyone know what she is up to by blogging about it at Signal Mountain Way. My daughter is very sweet and very funny and her writing reflects that. If you want to read up on the adventures of a beautiful 22 year on her own in the state of Wyoming you should bookmark her blog and find out how her summer goes.
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My golf game and my poker game are both like a roller coaster ride right now. I make some beautiful golf shots and then make some of the most horrible shots you can imagine. I hit a beautiful shot only to have it wind up ticking the last branch of a tree or bouncing over the green and into the sand or land on the green and then I 3 putt it.

In poker I make a wonderful read and win a big pot and the next hand make a donkey play and lose everything. Other times I have the best hand going in with pocket Aces or Kings or Queens only to see my donkey opponent call with two suited cards and get his runner/runner flush or hit the miraculous straight and IGHN.

I have managed to win some SitNgos and lose other so am just treading water right now. I need to win a couple of SitNGos on Stars so I can play in the Britbloggerment Tourney.

Just now I flopped a jack high flush only to see a donkey with A/K off go all in and I lose when the 4th diamond comes on the turn. What do you do but laugh at that shit.

Played some MTTs last night

I played in 3 low buy-in MTTs last night and cashed in one, a .25 cent No Limit Tournament where I finished 361 out of a few thousand. I was done in twice when I got Big Slick (A/K) and lost to A/6 and 5/5, respectively. I never would have made much money at a .25 cent tourney but it was still fun and I still thought I played pretty well slowly building my stack to a respectable amount.

I played a HORSE and a RAZZ tourney, too and never did build my stack up very high in either. The one thing I noticed is that these tourneys take a LONG time to play as they are a lot slower than Holdem. I was in no hurry, just watching my beloved Red Wings lose to the San Jose Sharks and playing poker. I would play both again and I think I can do pretty well in either one with a bit of luck. They are a nice change to playing only No Limit.
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My funds are dwindling some on Poker Stars. Variance has hit me pretty hard and my comfortable bankroll has fallen to uncomfortable levels. With the passage of the UIGEA I have no easy means of reloading my account so I have played lower stakes so that, if I win I will build a nice bankroll and, if I lose I will only lose a small amount. Well, those small amounts have started to add up and now I am in an uncomfortable area. My game of choice is the low buy in 18 player SitNgo. I always make it to the final table but lately I have not been making it into the final 4 where the money is. I have gotten to the final table where I am shortstacked and have been knocked out by the big stacks playing any two cards.

I have a bit of money at Absolute but the players there are soooooooooo freaking tight that it is hard to win. I have quite a bit at Full Tilt so will probably start playing there more and see if I can build up my bankroll. My Full Tilt bankroll took a $50 dollar hit in the last month so I have to be careful there as well.

Right now I am treading water until there is a change in the UIGEA. I am playing low stakes and trying to win money but I am being very careful as I love to play and don't want to deplete my bankrolls so that I am only able to play Free Rolls.