Busted out early in Britbloggerment Tourney

I busted out in 14th place today at the Britbloggerment Tourney. It was the first time I hadn't made it until break (I believe). My play/cards was a rollercoaster ride today. I got A/A in one of the first ten hands and only won the blinds. A little while later I manage to get quad 7's and take down a nice pot that put me in pretty nice shape and I thought I was on my way. then I began to bleed chips and finally was taken out by Burnley Mik when my Pocket Queens go up against his K/Q and he gets that damn King on the flop and IGHN. Burnley Mik was a bit of a luckbox today as he won almost every race he was in. He was in the final table when I had to go so I'm not sure how he did.

No more Gigli for him, though.
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Mrs. Wolverine and I watched Blood Diamond on Saturday night. Pretty good movie with quite a bit of action. It is very unsettling to see what man is doing to his fellow man and how the children and the innocent are caught in the middle. I remember quite an uproar about our hollywood types and the "ice" they wear on the red carpet and how you are suppose to make sure they are not "conflict" diamonds. Now you hear nary a word about it.
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Please just shoot me before I have to hear anymore about Natalie Holloway.

RAZZ

I have found a new game to play along with Texas Holdem, RAZZ! I played a HORSE tournament the other night and was doing quite well but I really fell in love with RAZZ. I since have played a RAZZ one table SitNgo and got second place so now I am kind of hooked. Holdem is still my first love but RAZZ is a game I enjoy and think I can do well at as a lot of people may be playing it for fun and not because they are that good.

In RAZZ, the lowest hand wins the pot. Aces are low, and straights and flushes have no effect on the low value of a hand. The best possible hand is 5-4-3-2-A. The only part I don't like is the Bring In. The Bring In is where the highest card by suit starts the action with a forced bet. In my SitNGo I had to pay the Bring In 3 consecutive times and the cost was pretty high. Other than that, I like the game very much.
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Barney Frank Introduces Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007 and Yahoo! is going to offer real money online poker (yahoo.co.uk) to players around the world, with the exception of the U.S. and Canada. They will be joining the Boss Media network. Read the full stories for both of these at Counting My Outs.

What's up all of the sudden with treating Canadian Poker players like the US Players. Yahoo is opening live poker to everyone but US and Canada? Why not Canada?? The Canadian government hasn't passed any legislation restricting their citizens from online gambling. Guilt by association because they are our closest neighbors?

Too Funny

If you want to see one of the funniest things on the internet regarding Poker Bloggers, go to this link:
Kattitude's Blog

This may border on pure genius.
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Klopzi's Mediocre Poker just signed off today as a blogger and as a poker player. I didn't read him much but feel bad that he is leaving our group.
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Want a little fun with some video poker? Go here: Video Poker

Jacks or better and you can double up by choosing Red or Black card after each win.

Beautiful Spring Day

It was a beautiful spring day in Mid-Michigan. I played 18 holes of golf and shot an 85, 43 on the front and 42 on the back. I know I left some shots out on the course but overall was happy with my score as it is early yet and this was really the first time I had played specifically to record my score.

My putting was pretty good with one 3 putt. I did have a couple of par saving putts from the 7 to 10 foot range that helped save my score. My chipping was as good as it has ever been as most of my chips put me in position where the putt could be reasonably made.

I do have one area of my game that I have to work on. I was hitting my mid-irons one club longer than usual. When I was pulling out a 7 iron for my 150 yard shots I should have hit an 8 iron as my 7 iron was flying 160 yards or more. Same with my 6 iron. I was hitting it from 160-165 yards and I should have taken my 7 iron. Not sure if I am swinging better/smoother or if this was just a fluke. I'll go down one club next time out and see how it goes. Most times you are in better position if you come up short as opposed to going long so it shouldn't cause too much commotion if I'm not quite as long next time out.

My driving is doing quite well so I am going to stick with my lower lofted driver, which is 9 degrees, not 10.5 like I said in my previous post. Today, with roll, I was getting it out over 250 yards on several fairways. Not too shabby.

Life after UIGEA

I am seeing quite a few posts about Rep. Barney Frank and new legislature that will involve the UIGEA. I think that is very good and am very optimistic about things happening in favor of us Poker Players. However, I do have some questions.
Counting My Outs reports on an e-mail that is being sent to all World Sports Exchange customers as a courtesy to the Antigua Online Gaming Association.

The Gist of it is to contact our Senators and Representatives regarding the World Trade Organization because the WTO has found that the US’s application of its laws against Antiguan entities is protectionist and in violation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services. They say that the US credibility is at stake (which I agree).

Dugglebogey has another short post about Barney Frank taken from The Agitator.

Chipper posts the following:
It is inevitable that online gambling is going to be regulated and that the big casino companies are going to run them. I just hope that once this happens that the rakes and the taxes on playing won't be so high that it will ruin the whole thing. Rake is bad enough now, but I fear it will get worse when it's finally regulated. Time will tell.

O.K. My questions are, and these are all post UIGEA:

1. Will we be able to play all the online sites or just U.S. Sanctioned sites?

2. How long is this going to take. I put it at 24 months at the most and may be less.

3. Does Online poker really have an adverse effect on B&M Poker Rooms? IMHO online poker helps B&M poker rooms as it allows people to learn the game and then they will go to the B&M Poker rooms to play as opposed to if there were no online poker. I know I never would have gone to play live if I hadn't played online first. I wouldn't have had the confidence in my game to play against experienced players.

Guess that's it for now. It's going to be an interesting 24 months.

Out in Fifth Place

I played in the Britbloggerment tournament today on Poker Stars and finished just out of the money in fifth place. There were 19 players overall, I believe. The USA was represented by at least two of us, with Chipper and Myself playing. Chipper finished a very nice second. It was down to three players and Chipper lost most of his stack and then went on a rush to build it back up and knock out the 3rd place player and finish a nice second.

I think a good time was had by all. There was a lot of banter and some good natured ribbing amongst everyone.

My Pirate Name is.....

My pirate name is:

Iron Harry Flint

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Summertime Summertime Sum Sum Summertime

Summertime Summertime by The Jamies

It's summertime summertime sum sum summertime

Summertime summertime sum sum summertime

Summertime summertime sum sum summertime

Summertime summertime sum sum summertime summertime...

Today was the nicest day of 2007. It was sunny, it was warm, there was no wind. It was freaking perfect.

I played 9 holes of golf at Prairie Creek today and shot a 43. I 3 putted one green and blew a few other shots but still was able to manage one birdie and a few pars. The course was packed today. There were people coming out of the woodwork to enjoy the nicest day of the year.

I'm on a pretty tough schedule for the next week and will not be playing much poker. The nicer the weather, the less I play poker as I would drather be outdoors on the links hitting that little white ball than inside raising the donkeys. I don't have a laptop that I can take outside with me to play. That would be nice. Sitting by the pool, playing on Stars.....................

Maybe not. Said laptop may not be able to float when I chuck it in the pool after a particularly galling badbeat.

Bonehead Mistake

I was doing pretty well in my first HORSE tourney on Poker Stars. It was just a $1 dollar buy-in but I still wanted to do well and win some money. I was playing very tight as I did not play this variety of games much and I did not know most of the games very well. I had never played RAZZ but had played Omaha and Stud, and of course Limit (Fixed, Pot, and No Limit), so I was fairly comfortable playing most of the hands. I had made it through the second break and was in good shape to make it into the money when I made my bonehead mistake.

I didn't realize that the game had changed from RAZZ to Stud and I played my hand as a RAZZ hand. And I had a really good RAZZ hand, a winner, I believe. However, it was a lousy Stud hand. It was so stupid that I couldn't even get upset with being ousted short of the money. I deserved to be beat doing something that dumb.

I must admit I was watching TV while playing which help lead to my demise. My beloved Redwings were playing and they loss to Calgary, 3 to 2. That is where a lot of my interest was focused, helping me miss the switch in games.
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I played 18 holes of golf on Tuesday and again today at Prairie Creek. I am still playing practice rounds until the greens are ready to go, probably by Monday. They were aerated last fall and are just a bit bumpy still. By Monday they should be in good shape and then I will start playing for score.

I switched from my high lofted 12 degree driver because of all the wind in April to my 10.5 degree driver. I can hit the 10.5 degree driver farther and I get more roll because of the lower ball flight but I hit my 12 degree driver straighter. Once the wind dies down I will have to make a decision of which driver to play with. Who knows, by then I may be hitting my lower lofted driver much straighter and will stick with it. Actually it is a pretty good dilemma to have, deciding which driver to use and being happy with either one of them.

Bank Roll Management

I am going to write an article for Poker Savvy on Bank Roll Management with the point being that Bank Roll Management has never been more important for American, and possible Canadian players, since the passage of the UIGEA which made Firepay and Neteller pull out of the U.S. of A. and, eventually, Canada.

Am I on the mark here? I contend that you have to really manage your bankroll better now because it is harder to deposit since passage of the UIGEA. Before, if you had a bad session or two and drop a few hundred dollars, you just reloaded wiht neteller. Now that reload is not as smooth or easy.

I use to skip over the bank roll chapters when reading my Poker Books. Now I really am trying to manage my bankroll as well as I can because I am not willing to have a different way to redeposit at every poker room I play.
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Playing my first HORSE Tournament on Poker Stars. Made it through the first break but I really don't know what I'm doing in some of the games. Oh well, was only a buck.

The Definition of Mean

I was perusing blogger posts via Tripjax's Bloglines when I came across this post by Felicia Lee
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Vegas on Thursday

Glenn and I are most likely going to make a quick run up to Vegas on Thursday.

We will be at Venetian most of the day. Later, we might go to Wynn and/or Bellagio, if we have time.

If anyone wants to meet up, just look for me. I am not going to call you. I'm not going to drive to meet you somewhere. I'm not buying you dinner (and don't expect you to buy me dinner, either). I'm not going to let you cry on my shoulder and lie to you about what a great blogger you are, and not to give up hope, because, like me, you probably suck.

I'm not going to give you poker lessons. I might flash you my mastectomies. I won't give you a buy-in or back you in a tournament.

In other words, unless you have a strong constitution, don't bother.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Felicia :)

In other words, "leave me the fuck alone."

Hard for me to believe that at one time this was one of the revered Poker Bloggers.

Today's Score as of 7:30PM EST

I played 3 SitnGos today, one STT at Full Tilt and two 2 table SitNGos at Poker Stars. I bubbled at the Full Tilt SitNGo and made final table at both Poker Stars SitNGos and finished 6th and 7th. I probably could have folded my way into the money at two of the three but decided to go ahead and play hard like I am use to. I got beat by better hands for the most part or by fantastic flops (Full Tilt Villain beat me with a flopped flush, hearts and I had two diamonds. Why couldn't I get the flop??)

I'll keep playing but I probably will start folding my way into the money unless I have fantastic hands to play, i.e., A/A, K/K, Q/Q or A/K.

Yesterday I folded Kh Kc, 8h 8s, Qh Ts and As Jd when we were down to 5 handed and 4 finished in the money. I finished 3rd overall.

Money vs. Aggressive play? Money wins!

Folding Your Way into the Money

If you have read my previous posts you know that I have been running badly in my poker play of late. I decided to sit down at a couple of 2 Table SitNGos at Poker Stars fter a two day imposed hiatus where I didn't play any poker but studied up on the game and got my head back on right and see if Ms. Variance had left me and was my game back on straight.

Well, I crapped out of one SitNgo in 11th place with some so-so play on my part and going all in on the final hand where my Q/Q met up against K/K and 10/10. Believe it or not, we all made our sets but the Kings prevailed and I go home now. The flop was 10, rag, K and the turn was my Q. River was an Ace. What a fucked up board that was. Set over set over set and IGHN.

The other SitnGo I played quite well and was 3rd in chips when it got down to 5 handed. Four players make the money. What did I do? I folded my way into the money. And I write that line with a sneer on my face and me shaking my head as I can't believe that is how I did it.

Folding to get into the money goes against all of my poker instincts. And I didn't just fold 2/7 off or 9/5 off and such hands that you would never play anyway. I folded K/K, 8/8, and A/J when it was five handed. The Kings was the hardest fold. The Chipleader raised 3X the BB ($1200) and I folded my Kings.

I'll post hand histories tomorrow to get things exactly right as my memory may be a bit off.

I always play the bubble and shorthanded hard. I normally would have went all in immediately against the chipleader and, if he had aces so be it. But I folded!! Kings!!

The very next hand I fold 8/8 and didn't even try to steal the blinds with it. Disgusting. And all because I had been running bad and I just wanted to finish in the money. Hoping that would break my streak of bad beats. Well, it worked I got into the final four and even took out the 4th place player and ended up finishing 3rd after my A/J went up against 4/4 and I didn't improve. I quit after that because I wasn't real happy with how I played my hands in the end.

I'll sit down again tomorrow and try to get the old Wolverine Fan back. The one that goes all in with Pocket Kings.

The New Shape of Golf

These are the new shape of drivers on the Market. The technology in golf is constantly changing and the availability of titantium has really helped to revolutionize the game. Taylor Made hasn't come out with a driver of this square shape yet but it is probably only a matter of time. Especially if it proves to be a long and straight driver. I'll be watching to see if any pro players, i.e. Tiger Woods, start playing with this new square driver.

The Imus in the Morning show was canceled due to some pretty bad remarks made by the host, Don Imus against the Rutgers Womens Basketball team.

I was never a big fan of the I-man and feel he has said worse in the past but this one came back to haunt him as he said it against the wrong minority.

Bernard McGurk usually started the "comedic" discourse and then Imus would pick it up and run with it.

Unfortunately this affects a lot of people that are employed by the show. There is a good chance he will show up on Sirius Radio or XM Radio. ______________

I found out from Grind or Gamble that google has poker books online that you can read. Most are just portions but it is still worth checking out. Here's a link to PokeronaMac, Poker on a Mac and from there you can connect to google to check out the books.

Blizzard = Deal'em!!

Variance has reared its ugly head lately and I was losing every race, it seemed. I would go in with the best hand and the river would knock me for a loop.
My usual way to fix the problem of variance is to stop playing cards for a couple of days and read up on Poker Strategy to help reinforce that it wasn't just me doing donkey plays but it was the way the cards fall in this never ending game of poker.
The Blizzard of April 2007 has me changing my mind and I am going to sit down at the tables this afternoon and see if I can't put the kibosch on this variance creature.
Can't golf. Roads to slippery to go anywhere so, hell, might as well play poker.
I'll run an update on how my afternoon goes.

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AFTERNOON POKER UPDATE: I should have curled up with a good poker book (like my friend here is doing) instead of playing this afternoon. Variance was still out to get me as I was booted out of two SitNGos after going in with best hand.

My 7/7 vs. K/J (54% to 45%) lost when a 10 came on the river to complete the straight and my 10/10 vs. 6/6 (81% to 19%) went down in flames when the villain flopped a six to complete his set. I did win back some playing microstakes Limit Holdem on Poker Stars so the afternoon wasn't a complete loss.

I am going to take a break for the next couple of days and read some Sklansky and Gordon and just give my Poker Jones a rest and recoup a bit. I hope to play in the Britbloggerment on Sunday but my grandson's Birthday Party is that day so may not be able to make it. It would be easier if it was a bit later in the day but it is the Brit's tournament and we are playing it during their prime time, so................

Happy Easter from Poker Stars

This is what I got in my Easter Basket at Poker Stars

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

UTG+1 (t3395)
Wolverine Fan (t4368)
MP2 (t324)
MP3 (t3257)
CO (t2490)
Button (t5188)
SB (t2165)
BB (t4883)
UTG (t930)
Preflop: Wolverine Fan is MP1 with Kd, Kc.

1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t500, Wolverine Fan raises to t4368, 4 folds, SB calls t2115 (All-In), 1 fold, UTG+1 calls t2895 (All-In). AT THIS POINT I AM AHEAD 72% TO17% TO 10%.

Flop: (t10028) 4d, 9s, 8d (3 players, 2 all-in)I'M AHEAD HERE 84% TO 11% TO 5%

Turn: (t10028) 7d (3 players, 2 all-in)STILL AHEAD 88% TO 12% TO 0%

River: (t10028) Tc (3 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: t10028

SB has Qs Ks (high card, king).

UTG+1 has Js Jd (straight, jack high).

Wolverine Fan has Kd Kc (one pair, kings).

Outcome: UTG+1 wins t9055. Wolverine Fan wins t973.
DO YOU CALL THAT RUNNER/RUNNER/RUNNER??

That is the way my night went yesterday. I think the Easter Bunny took all my luck with him. I seem to always be going in at wrong time with second best hand after the above play. This is why it would be really hard to be a professional poker player. The odds of that board has to be astronomical.

Overheard in Congress

This was a conversation that was recently overheard in Congress.

Barney Frank, "Hi, Nancy. How has your day been?"
Nancy Pelosi, "Great, Barney. We have that ass Bush on the run now. I wan to thank you for helping get the different bills passed. Especially our bill for getting our soldiers to pull out of Iraq."

Barney, "Not a problem, Nancy. I am happy to help promote our agenda."

Nancy, "I owe you one, Barney. Let me know if you need anything."

Barney, "Well, now that you mention it I would really like to get a bill rescinded that that ass Bill Frist snuck in at the 11th hour attached to the Port Authority Bill."

Nancy, "You're talking about that gambling thing, aren't you? I don't think we really want to legalize internet gambling, Barney."

Barney, "Now, Nancy. The people are gambling online anyway. We know prohibition didn't work with alcohol in the 20's and is not working with gambling now. I think we can generate a lot of tax revenue off this internet gambling by taxing and regulating it. Plus, those online poker players have some clout because they are saying they ousted a couple of the republicans in the last election. I just want to level the playing field and make it fair to everyone. And, you do owe me."

Nancy, "You're right, Barney. I do owe you one and I think there is potential for quite a bit of tax revenue from this gambling stuff. Send me the bill you are proposing and I think I can get it through committee and on the floor for vote. How does that sound?"

Barney, "That would be great. At least we can show the American people that we are willing to debate these issues and not get them passed by cloak and dagger tactics that Frist lowered himself to."

Hey, you never know. It could happen like this.

Poker Musing

I recieved my check from Absolute Poker today. Remember how much trouble I was having with Absolute Poker two months ago because I fat fingered my e-mail address? Well, we have come full circle and today I received a check from them for my manual withdrawal.

Now I have to really start working on Full Tilt Poker to get a manual withdraw and repay Mrs. Wolverine the money she lent me for my golf membership.

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It looks like I will be unable to play in the Bloggerment3 MTT on Poker Stars this Easter Sunday. The Wolverine Clan will be out of town eating Easter ham at my daughter's house and will not be home in time to play. I will make every effor to play next week but it is going to get harder and harder now that summer is approaching Michigan.

Michigan winters are perfect for sitting back and playing online poker but when summer comes the golf clubs come out and the hours spend playing poker are replaced by chasing that little white ball around the links.

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I have placed links for some of the UK Bloggers that play inthe Donkament tournaments. They are:

Burnley Mik (UK Blogger)

Grinding It Out

Little Acorn Man (UK Blogger)

SirFortune (UK Blogger)

The Cloud (UK Blogger)

Tan Orpheus (UK Blogger)

I will be adding more in the near future.

I have really had a good time playing in the Bloggerment tournaments the last two weeks. I really hope to keep playing. Even though my Brit friends are speaking the King's English, I don't understand all of what is said in the chat. Some of it is reference to places, some to the local Football teams, and some is just Brit slang. I do enjoy reading them and hope to broaden my horizons as I continue to play.

Ramblings

Winter has returned to the Midwest and Lansing, Michigan is in a deep freeze as we speak. This gets Mrs. Wolverine and myself wishing for the warmth of the Carribean so we put on some Jimmy Buffet music and dream of warm waves washing over us as we sip boat drinks.

There are more island songs out there than just Jimmy Buffet and one of our favorites is Gene Mitchell. He has 8 or 9 CDs out with music that is every bit as good as Jimmy's. Just the titles alone illustrate that these are songs to sip Pina Coladas or Margaritas to and sing along with. Songs like Coconut in the Tiki Hut, Parrot Bay, Martinis and Bikinis and Dancing on the Beach, to name a few.

Gene Mitchell was born and raised in a harbor town on the coast of Georgia where he began writing and performing music. There is a lot of talent in the island music world, and Gene Mitchell is the cream of the crop. Head out to Sailor Boy Records and order a couple of Gene's CDs and set back and listen to the waves washing up against the shore.

More Island music

Brent Burns

James “Sunny Jim” White

Latitude Music

Jim Morris

to name just a few.

Done in by a 2 outer

I finished 6th out of 19 in the Britbloggerment 2 tourney on Stars. The hammer led to my demise and losing to a two outer finished me off.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

Button (t2665)
SB (t3291)
Hero (t3903)
UTG (t9331)
ResdentEvil (t3793)
CO (t5517)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9h, Jc. I had been playing kind of loose and this was a hand I thought could develop into something and I was in position.
1 fold, ResdentEvil raises to t600, 3 folds, Hero calls t400.

Flop: Kd, 8c, Th (2 players)

BB bets t600, ResdentEvil raises to t1200, Hero calls t600.
I couldn't ask for a better flop than this as it was an opened ended straight draw.
Turn: Ks (2 players)

Hero checks, ResdentEvil checks.

River: 6c (2 players)

Hero checks, ResdentEvil bets t600, Hero folds.
This is where I made my mistake. I was already committed for a lot of chips at this point so I should have called this bet just to see what he was playing or should have raised here to sell a bluff.
Final Pot: t4125

ResdentEvil shows [2s 7c] (a pair of Kings).
Done in by the Hammer. A typical blooger move.
Outcome: ResdentEvil wins t4125.
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This is the hand that I went out on.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

CO (t3390)
Button (t3166)
Hero (t1328)
BB (t10806)
UTG (t5068)
MP (t4742)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Td, Tc. All or nothing time. This was as good a hand as any.
1 fold, MP raises to t2400, 1 fold, Button raises to t3141, Hero calls t1103 (All-In), 1 fold, MP calls t741.

Flop: 3h, 8h, 2d (3 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: As (3 players, 1 all-in)

River: 9d (3 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t7485

Hero has Td Tc (one pair, tens).
MP has Ad Jh (one pair, aces).
Button has Jc Ac (one pair, aces).
When I saw that my opponents both had A/J I thought I was going to triple up until the 2 outer on the turn did me in. I couldn't ask for a better all in than this with two opponenets having the same cards but, alas, it was not to be.

I may not be able to play next Sunday as it is Easter and we are going to daughter's house for dinner.