T O C Here I come! ! !

I just finished first in the Skills game....wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Thanks to everyone that cheered me on!

Have a great week at the tables everyone!

Folding

In a tournament, it is sometimes correct to fold the best hand. A race is not a good idea if you are getting a lot of situations at that particular table where you are holding a certain winner and your opponents are paying you off. Why would you want to risk your chips in a race if you are getting so many chances to win with much less risk. Of course, if you have a nice chip stack and it doesn't put you at risk to lose the majority of your stack it's often a good idea to go ahead and take the coin flip situations.

50K Guarantee on Stars : Live Blogging

I'm playing the $50+5 50K Guarantee on Stars tonight and I'll be live blogging the highlights here.
It's getting ready to start in 1 minute. There are a little over 1,100 players signed up so far so the prize pool is going to exceed 50k.
I'm starting at table 31.
Update: 1,178 entrants. The top 180 make the money. 1st pays $10,602.00
Update: I picked up KK and got action. Ace on the flop and I had to let it go. I'm down to about 2,600.
Update: 20 minutes in. I just flopped a straight and I'm back up to 2,900.
Update: 26 minutes in. I had the high end of the straight on the turn and a player pushed all in ahead of me with 2 pair. The straight held and I'm up to 5,220. The average is 3,411 with 1,035 or so still in.
Update: 40 minutes in. I had to lay down JJ and QQ post flop....frustrating flops. I picked up KK and made a boat for a nice pot then caught a guy steaming and called his shove with 10 10; I end up with a straight on the hand and I'm up to 8,200. The avg is 3,800.
Update: We're at the first break. I'm at 8,260 which is 82nd of 754 with the avg stack at 4,730.
Update: I'm hanging tight 20 minutes in to the second hour. No hands to speak of. I'm at 7,685. The avg is up to 6,061. 579 players remain.
Update: 40 minutes in to the second hour and I just won a nice pot. I've been picking on a player's blinds from the cutoff and he called and check raised the flop with me hitting a jack high flop holding QJ. I thought he was probably frustrated and I made the call. He had 55 and I'm up to 11,900..... Woot! 78th of 447 remaining. Average stack is just under 8k.
Update: I decided to play AK a little unorthodox and limped in expecting a raise. No such luck and 5 to the flop. Ace high flop checks around and last player in position raises it up. I'm the only caller. A 2 pairs the board on the turn and I shove it in. He calls with A 5 and I'm up to 17k.
Update: We're at the second break. I have 17,589 which is 57th of 303 with 180 making the money. The average is 11,663.
Update: 15 minutes in to the 3rd hour and we are closing in on the money. There's 243 players left and I'm in 66th in chips with 18,639.
Update: I just folded QQ preflop with a raise and a reraise ahead of me. We're right at the money bubble. I have 17,339. The average is 16,748. I'm 71st of 211.
Update: 7 spots to the money. I have 26k for 41st of 187.
Update: We're in the money. I'm in 44th of 150 or so. I'll update the exact numbers at the break in 10 minutes.
Update: I just took a huge hit. I'm down to 7k and we're almost to the break. I had a pair of sixes on an all rag flop. Opponent sucked out with a flush draw after we were in.
Update: I just got lucky with and all in the last hand before the break. I had A 9 and shoved from the button. The big blind called with 10 10 and I turned and rivered nines. I have 11,640 at the third break. I'm 106th of 120 so I have a lot of work to do and I will have to double up soon to get the chips to work with.
Update: Down under 100 players I picked up A Q in the big blind. The utg player raised it up but he was a big stack so I thought I was probably OK to call. It was a race as he held 77 but hit a 7 and I'm out in 87th and cash for just over a hundred bucks.
This is a good tourney. I'll definitely give it another shot soon.

Good luck at the tables this week everyone!!

Razz

I've been playing a little Razz cash lately with mixed results. I've stepped up the levels I'm playing a little and I'm playing mostly 2/4 and 3/6 with a few shots at 5/10. The swings at 5/10 are a good bit larger than I'm used to and I'm still getting used to them. I post some of the highlights at Brickinthenutz. Please check them out and I appreciate any and all feedback as I'm working hard to improve my razz play.
Jusdealem has a review of Mitchell Cogert's book Play Razz Poker To Win posted on Brickinthenutz. You can read it here. I'll be ordering this book this week and have my own review of it shortly. I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Poker Stars Sunday Million

The Sunday Million on Stars has just started. My table is very tight so far. I've picked up a few great starting hands but gotten no action with them.

We started with 7,680 players and the top 1,080 make the money.

Update: I just picked up AA for the second time and won a nice pot with it. I'm a little over 13k. We started with 10k.
Update: The table has loosened up a little bit. I picked up AQ suited and raised it up and got 2 callers. I had to let it go after the flop missed me entirely. I'm still over 13k.
Update: We are 40 minutes in. I'm at 12k. I had to fold a medium pair after I got reraised big preflop. There's a lot of loose action now and people are playing much less than premium hands. I'm looking for a good opportunity and being patient.
Update: We're approaching the first break. I'm at about 12,500 and the avg is 13k.
Update: Half way through the second hour. I'm a little card dead and treading water at 13,500 or so. The average is up to 17k. We've lost 3,200 players already.
Thanks to Kat, PokerEnthusiast, Donkette, CK, DuggleBogey and everyone that has wished me luck.
Update: Finally got a hand to pay off. I picked up aces and won a nice pot. We're approaching the second break and I have 27,500 and the avg is 26,200. There are 2,900 left in.
Update: 20 minutes in to hour 3. I have 30k and the avg is 35k. Hanging in there. We're down to 2,159 players.
Update: Forty minutes in to the 3rd hour. I'm at 30,500. The average is up to 43k. We have 1,713 left in and 1,080 make the money.
Update: 22,042 at the 3rd break. avg is 57,100. getting close to the money but i need a hand pretty soon.
Update: Blinds and antes were eating me up and I had to shove from the button with no play behind me with A8. called by 89. back up to 25k... 104 to the money.... 1,184 left
Update: We're in the money. I managed to triple up with 99 hitting a set. I'm still a short stack and will have to shove again soon. We're down to 815. The money goes up again at 810 so I'll wait until after that.
Update: I'm out in 765th of 7,680. I won $460.80 not bad for an $11 investment. Thanks to everyone that cheered me on.

Sunday Million on Stars Tomorrow

I guess I have Full Tilt to thank for this. Their site went down just as I was looking for a tournament to play so I fired up Stars.
There was a double shootout about to start for a seat in the million dollar guarantee tomorrow and guess what; I made it.

Have a great week at the tables everyone!!!

30 Months and 300 Posts

This is my 300th post on this here ol' blog and I've been documenting my poker play for over two and a half years.
I love poker plain and simple. I love to play poker, study poker, talk about poker, and even go on trips that center around poker events and gatherings. The poker blogger "community" contains people from all walks of life and many of us would have never met if not for poker blogging. I have enjoyed meeting each and every one of you that I have had the pleasure to spend time with.

There has been much talk recently about the amount of mean-spirited chat during blogger tournaments and I won't spend a lot of time on this as I don't want to fan the flames of something that is already blown way out of proportion to the attention it deserves.
If you have played poker for any length of time you have been subjected to trash talk and learned that some people voice their opinions of play and players loudly and some just choose to let their play do their talking. Is there more of it in the games? Probably so. Percentage-wise I'm not so sure there's much of a difference. I mean the blogger games are drawing in crowds of around 100 players where they used to bring in 30-40 or less so doesn't it stand to reason that there will be 2 to 3 times more of this type of behaviour for all to see.
The prizes offered in the BBT3 have a great chance of bringing in even larger crowds over the next few months. Al and the others involved did a lot of work to put this thing together and I for one appreciate it very much. I haven't won a seat to the TOC but I will be there when I can trying to win and I hope to see you there too.

Main Event Seat Offered, Braves Game, Okie-Vegas Plans

It was about a week and a half ago and I was at my desk at work soaking it all in. It was a little hard to believe but I had just been offered a chance to play the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. A friend of mine had contacted me and let me know he had been offered a seat and couldn't go and wanted to know if I wanted the seat. It seems the gentleman that had won the seat couldn't go and was looking for someone that could play it.
First of all, I was and still am honoured that I was asked and don't take it lightly. I pulled up the schedule and the first thing I noticed was that it is going to run at the exact same time as Okie Vegas. Now this is a pro and a con. I already have the entire amount of time off from work that it will be running so that part is no problem. I talked to the gentleman that has the seat and everything sounded great as far as the agreement we would have. I would be responsible for travel and accomodations. This part goes on the con side but is nowhere near expensive enough to be a big discouragement.
There were a lot of pros and cons to consider and in the end after about a week of beating myself up and stressing over it I decided against playing the main event this year. I will play it but this will not be the year.
So with that out of the way a huge pressure lifted from my shoulders. Almost everyone I confided in and talked to leaned towards me going but in the end I had to go with my own feelings and for several reasons I chose not to go.
Thank you again so much for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.

Monday night was opening day at Turner Field. Kuro and Sham were going and invited me along with several other friends including Skidoo. I mentioned that I could probably get the limo from work to take us down there and everyone seemed keen to that idea. I lined it up and off we went.
The limo picked me up at work and we headed to the Cat Arena to pick up the guys. We arrived and everyone piled in. We had one more stop down the street to pick up a couple more people that were going with us. While in the parking lot of the tavern where we were meeting them, out of the blue a guy on a Segway comes riding by. One of the guys yells out to him that he will trade him the limo for the Segway. I politely remind him that the limo is not his to trade. He explains that to the Segway guy and the guy asks if anyone wants to ride his Segway. Several of the guys take turns riding it. It was awesome watching everyone take their turn.
When we arrived at Turner Field we had the "All you can eat" seats and we headed for the concession stand. They had hot dogs, burgers, fries, popcorn, peanuts, and sodas laid out and you just loaded up on whatever you want. It was great!
Unfortunately the Braves lost the game but we had a great time. Several of the guys with us had never ridden in a limo so I was thrilled that I was able to get the limo for the night.

Okie Vegas is fast approaching. It's only about 12 weeks away. If you are on the fence and undecided about going I highly encourage you to come on out and join us. I had such a great time last year and can't wait for it to get here. Head on over to The Official Okie-Vegas Website and let G know if you are planning to attend.

Well, that's about it for now. Have a great week at the tables everyone! ! !

So much to say, so little time

I've got a really huge post coming. I should have it finished tonight. It's been a really busy week and I've got a lot to talk about including:

1) My decision whether to accept a free entry to the main event of WSOP
2) Braves trip in the limo with some Atlanta poker bloggers and friends
3) Okie-Vegas plans

I should have it finished and up later tonight.