Grandpapa Surf

I am brand new to the category of Grandfather. It's a boy!!!
He is absolutely adorable. I promise to post a pic soon.

I thought I would feel older when he got here but it seems I am experiencing the opposite. I'm glad to be a 42 year old grandfather. All three of my kids are out of high school now and I'm young enough to really enjoy watching the grandkids grow up.

I have a really good idea for anyone that catches static over their poker playing. Read, read, read. Study, study, study. Review, review, review. Be a student of the game and track your results. Find your best game that you win most playing and stick to it until you absolutely crush it. Take a portion of those winnings and buy him/her something really cool or pay off a bill with it. It's amazing what a visible result will do to clear the static. With that being said, I do advise that you look in the mirror first and analyze how much time you are playing and at what hours. Are you missing anything important you should be doing when you play? If so, maybe they are correct to be complaining. I as well as I'm sure several other players would be the first to say I've gone through periods where I definitely devoted too much time to playing and let some other things slide. Achieving a balance can be great not only for relationships but for your own health. I love to play but I try not to overdo it. If you are trying but are having a difficult time becoming profitable, I will gladly look at your stats and try my best to help you figure out why. Drop me an email or a comment and let me know. Of course there are no guarantees, but I have helped a lot of people improve their games and would gladly try to help.

Okie Vegas countdown is at 20 days.!!!

Making "Nostrodamus look like a novelty act."

If you are a serious gambler and don't read Shea's blog then you are missing out on some of the best and most diverse picks in almost all sports imaginable. Check out the long shots he has given out for free over the last couple of weeks. He has been on an incredible roll and has increased his efforts to post his picks ahead of time for your benefit.

He also manages a friend of mine , Alex Baba with his brother Shane. Alex has just been listed by the WBC rankings commission at #18 bantamweight in the world. The good news is after coming off a big win for the IBA americas title on June 1st he should move to the top 15 in the world shortly. I am proud and it is an honour to know all of you. Keep it up. Your hard work and dedication are paying off guys!!!

Back From Vacation

I got away for a few days this week and went to Destin, Florida for a little relaxation. The magnetic pull from the west was strong, but we decided not to make the trek over to Biloxi.
It was nice to get away for a few days and the weather was beautiful. My youngest two kids and their boyfriend and girlfriend went with Mrs. Surf and I. My oldest son's family stayed here in Kennesaw. They have a baby due in the next few days so travel for them was out.

It's nice to be home and back at work. I'm one of those freaks that actually enjoys what he does for a living. I have learned to take time off and enjoy it but I am a workaholic at heart. I thought at one time it would be cool to be a beach bum, but I'm no good at it. I come from a long line of workaholics so I come by it honest.

That being said, I am soooooooooo looking forward to Okie-Vegas. Everything about it is so cool from getting to ride there with Tripjax to our stop in Tunica for a little layover to meeting so many people I have talked to for so long but never met in person. Gary has really put together a great agenda. I can't freakin' wait!!!

Here Comes The Judge

I have been asked to be a judge for a karaoke contest. There are some extraordinarily talented contestants and we have had a few guest celebrities of sorts show up to hear and do some singing afterwards.
This week it was a member of KC and the Sunshine band. He sang "Boogie Shoes" which he also wrote. His sister is Joyce "Baby Jean" Kennedy, the lead singer for Mother's Finest. It is rumoured that she will be with us next week. I am a HUGE fan of hers and I really hope I get the chance to meet her.
Sometimes I feel a little bit like Forrest Gump with all the different celebrities I have met or known over the years. :)

Easy Laydown?

I got myself in a jam with queens in a 1/2 nl live game. I told you I would share the bad with the good so here's the bad.

I'm sitting in middle position at a 7-handed table. There is a straddle in play. An extremely aggressive player raises the straddle from under the gun to 12. I look down and see a lovely QQ in my hand. The players in this game love to see a flop for anything under 20 bucks so I can count on two or three callers behind me if I just call so I raise it on up to 35 to try and isolate. I get an unwelcome re-raise to 70 from the big blind who is one of the tighter players at the table. Everyone else folds out and it's me and him. I put him on one of three hands here; AA, KK, or AK suited and I'm leaning heavily on AA. That puts 124 in the pot and it costs me 35 more to call with another 88 behind. Mathematically I don't have the odds to call that range of hands and it should be an easy lay down, right? I called...and of course the flop is jack high rainbow. I check and he throws out 35 or so. I'm still thinking AA but maybe he has AK, right? I push all in. He calls and shows me the AA...................busted....sigh

So here's my question. Would it have been best to raise it up and then fold to the re-re-raise preflop or just call the original raise? I'm thinking I needed to re-raise somewhere around the amount that I did to define the hand and I just failed to lay it down when he "told me" what he had.

A Tourney and A Journey

I played a tourney with BrainMc Wednesday night. I was card dead all night. It was one of those frustrating games where I was patient, saw few flops and when I came in to a hand I felt I had a good read on the other players......and every...single...time....I determined I was in need of folding...ugh.
I want to give a huge shout out to a new blogger from BrainMc's league who just won a seat to the main event in Vegas!! WAY TO GO MAYO!!!!! Now go give him a big shout out and welcome him to blogging and the W S O P ME!!!!! He gives a great recap of his win on his blog.


It's only a little over a month before Tripjax and I make our way to Oklahoma for this guy's hoedown throwdown. If you are sitting on the fence get off and make your plans to join us.


Trip and I are planning to stop in Tunica July 18th on the way to Oklahoma for dinner and a little poker. If anyone wants to join us at the tables that night (that includes you Duggles ) let me know so we can arrange to meet up.

Results for the Week

MTT's: 16
Average Buy-In: $5.33
In The Money: 6 or 40%
Profit: $116.52
Average/100 30
Average Entrants: 228
Final Tables: 6

I'm most satisfied with the fact that every time I made the money I also made the final table. This indicates to me that I'm playing fairly optimal poker. When I began playing, like many others I leaned severely to one side of the scale. My wallet is thankful that it was the tight side. I have made adjustments to bring me more to the center and I have definitely experimented with a much more aggressive style than I currently employ the majority of the time. Of course table conditions affect where I am on a given hand, but I still lean more to the patient side of the scale.
I don't expect to maintain the percentages I currently have over the long haul, but it's a great start. I really expect to level out somewhere between 15 and 25%. I want to get a sample of probably 100 MTT's before making any major adjustments in my game. Thanks to everyone who has watched some of my tournaments and given me support. Special thanks especially to PokerEnthusiast who has watched probably half or more of these tournaments and given me his honest opinion when he saw me mis-step here and there. It's all about the journey, right folks?

I managed to win a token tonight so I will be playing The Hoy tonight. It looks to be a pretty good turnout. I haven't played this tourney often and I've only won it once which was while Hoy was on vacation and didn't even play. Hope to see you there.

Good luck on the tables this week everyone and especially you bloggers that are on their way to Vegas!!!

Great Heads Up Finale in an 18 player SNG

I just finished an 18 player sit-n-go on Full Tilt and the heads up battle on the end was a classic. We battled for probably 25 or 30 minutes heads up. His name was JimBeam88 and he was a great player and a very nice person. He was the first to wish everyone luck when we began and he played solid throughout the tourney. Heads up can be so fun if you have plenty of chips and the blinds are still kinda small, and it went back and forth for a long time. I was able to win after my miracle river card came on a hand I played poorly.
Thanks for the great game JimBeam88; I hope we get to play again.

Title Fight

I took my son and my daughter's fiance and a friend of mine with me last night to the fights. We had front row ringside seats. It was awesome. Several of my friend Shea's (bthecloser69) and his brother Shane's(bthecloser) fighters were fighting. Alex was fighting for and won the IBA Bantamweight belt. Way to go Alex!!!!!!

My results for the past week have been pretty good. I'm sticking with 2 and 5 dollar tournaments until I win over 500 then I plan to move to 5 and 10.

Results this week:
8 tournaments
in the money 50% (good thing I mentioned that I was trying to lower that, lol)
Profit/Loss +93 bucks
avg. finish per 100 Entrants: 25/100

I should have won more than I did for the results which I thought were great. This included 2 final tables with over 400 players. I guess when the buy-ins are so low it's all I can expect. I'm not going to move up until it's time though. I'm going to remain disciplined. This gets me to $393 so it's still a move in the right direction.
I'm sticking with MTT's primarily right now and logging them in on a spreadsheet. If anyone has any particular questions let me know. I'm more than willing to share my results on this, good or bad. I want to see if I can maintain profitibility playing only MTT's over an extended period of time.
Enjoy the ride.

Good luck at the tables this week everyone!!!!