Housecleaning

I cleaned up my side-bar a little today and removed some links to blogs that sadly have not updated in a long time. If I removed your link and you still wanted to be linked, please let me know at surflexus AT comcast dot net.
I haven't had time to update much lately because I have been playing a lot of live poker. I played a tournament Wednesday night. The top 3 got paid out of about 40 players. When it was down to three, my friend Gordon and I were both in the money. We were all three about even in chips. I managed to get the other guy all in while I was ahead but he hit an ace on the river which crippled my stack and I went out in third a few hands later. Gordon won several hands by re-raising all in then finally got stung when the other guy held AA and finished shortly after that in 2nd. I felt really good about my play in this tournament. I was getting really great reads on the other players using a combination of physical tells and sizes of bets. I'm getting better in live tournaments at being a little more patient between bets and thinking my way back through the hand. I utilize all former knowledge of the players in the hands along with current table conditions and anything that would cause them to be playing out of character to put them on a range of hands. With this information, I am making a lot of what I feel confident are great raises and even better laydowns. The times I saw their hands after a big fold, I had made the correct play.
I played Friday night at The Poker Cat Arena. It was a great time as always. We played in a similar fashion to the game at C.C.'s a few weeks ago. The player in the dealer seat calls a game and you play that game for a full orbit. The button skips the player that called the game when it comes back around and the next player calls a game. We play all the bracelet games and throw in a little Badugi and Chinese poker. There are a few variations played with double flops and reverse flops but we mostly stick to standard bracelet games. The play is good and I really enjoy these games. This week the pre-flop betting became a little more aggressive than usual, and I folded a few hands that would have been monsters post-flop; almost like telling a bad-beat story but without the bleeding...lol. In the beginning of the game, we only had four players and it was fun playing short-handed. If you have read my blog for any length of time, you know that I love short-handed play. I was running very well during these hands, but then the table filled and I had to slow down and adjust. I did a fair job of this and also tightend up a bit on my pre-flop range of hands. We discussed a possible weekend trip to Tunica.
Kurokitty is in the 400k on Full Tilt today. I will be an interested railbird. Go Kurokitty Go!!!!!!!!!!!

Tunica Booked

Mrs. Surf and I have booked a room at The Grand in Tunica for our anniversary. We will be there April 29 - May 1. I'm planning to play the Sunday tourney at the Gold Strike while we are there. I think the buy-in is $325 or so. I'm playing fairly well lately most of the time but I have a few things to shore up in my game between now and then so I have a few smaller tounaments scheduled between now and then.
I mentioned it previously but I again want to extend a big thanks to Garth for taking time out of his schedule to hang out with us on M Street in Georgetown. We ate dinner at Clyde's. It was a great time and the food was very good. It was a part of D.C. we wouldn't have seen if not for Garth.
There were plenty of great restruants to select from in A.C. and Jordan gave me some great advice. We ate at several nice places including RiRa and I spotted a few more that I want to try next time. Two days in AC is really nowhere near the time needed to explore the place. I plan on being there at least four or five days next trip. Hopefully I can arrange to meet with some bloggers there next trip. The weather was very iffy this time and Jordan had a wedding to attend; maybe next time.
Next up on the calender is Weekend at Mookie's. I'm trying to fit this in to my calender this month but I have to be honest; it's not looking good. Never the less, I'm checking out flights and I'm going to try and squeeze it in.

Home from AC and DC

The trip to D.C. and A.C. went very well. Here are the highlights:
1. 3 days of meetings near D.C. with several colleagues. I made some really great business contacts and sealed a trip to Tennessee to do some consulting work in a few weeks.
2. Mrs. Surf and I had a fantastic dinner with Garthmeister including an introduction to "Yuengling" which unfortunately they do not have here in Georgia.
3. Stayed at the Tropicana in AC and played a few tournaments at the Hilton. I didn't money in either but Mrs. Surf made the final table and the money with an 8th place finish in one of them.
I'm very tired so I will end it by saying all in all it was a super trip and I made two nice runs at the blackjack tables. Of course to beat my ego down a little and keep me in check Mrs. Surf also won more than I did there also...lol. Thanks to Mrs. Surf for winning enough to cover the trip and make up for anything I left there....

Water Out of Fish

In the poker world, the term fish is common. You are typically looking around the table measuring your opponents for weaknesses and tells you can use for later chip extraction. So what do you do when you look around and all you see are solid experienced players. To complicate matters, you are playing a variety of games that aren't your strongest. This is the situation I found myself in last night at CC's .
The lineup: CC , Kuro , Sham, Transfish, Weak , and myself.
The good news for me: I have played with everyone at the table more than once so I'm a little familiar with how they play.
The bad news for me: I have played with everyone at the table more than once so I'm a little familiar with the fact that they are all solid players.
I had made a formidable game plan to play differently tonight to throw everyone off-balance. I feel I have a somewhat tight image and I definitely don't play a super-aggressive game as far as any of these fine folks know so I will fire out some good bluffs and get them frustrated enough to start calling me about the time I wake up with some real hands..........at least that was my thought. The mixed games put that thought quickly to rest as I could in no way get comfortable with bluffing very often at this table so I settled in to a somewhat tight game with the exception of seeing a lot of cheap flops as often happens at a friendly home game.
I won some decent pots and lost some hands I stayed in way past when my cards and my reads said were wise, but I had a great time. I did lose one huge pot to CC when he chased a flush and caught it on the river to cause me to have to re-buy, but I think he had at least 25-35% odds to hit his outs so it wasn't a horrible call on his part. Aside from that one hand, it was about a break-even night.
Thanks CC for having all of us over for a game. I had a great time and you have without a doubt the nicest table outside of a casino that I have ever played on!!

I leave tomorrow for a week. Hopefully when I return I will have some hands from AC to discuss.

Good luck at the tables this week everyone.

New Friends

One thing I really love about playing poker is the friendships that you make with people you otherwise would have never met. I have recently met several nice folks and just want to say how much fun I have had playing with them. I'm sorry if I leave anyone out but here's the list as I remember:
Dan, Empire, Bridget, Ben, Matt, Doug, Hal, Vicki, Harvey82, one-poker-fly(mad skillz...watch out), and anyone I have played with recently that I didn't mention. Thanks for the great times everyone!!!

Atlantic City is booked

Mrs. Surf and I are heading out for a little trip in about a week. Our first stop is Falls Church, Virginia March 12-14 for some meetings I have for work. While there, we are meeting up with Garth for dinner.
After Falls Church, we are going to Atlantic City for 3 or 4 days. We are staying at the Tropicana. Thanks to Jordan for all the info on rooms and poker rooms.
If anyone has tourney info or any recommendations for food or poker in AC please let me know.