Poker Night Posse

Reno Update Pt. 2

2006-03-20T01:23:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a crazy weekend that saw 3 of our very own ladies playing together in the ladies only poker event, a great dinner with a special surprise, and of course, lots of poker. Everyone was coming in on Friday - St Patrick's Day, but I started my weekend a little early as I was at Lake Tahoe Thursday night...

Some friends of mine from NYC were in town to do some snowboarding in Tahoe for the week. I joined them on Thursday night for some dinner and drinks. Friday we were off to Alpine Meadows for a day of riding. They were there earlier in the week when it dumped tons of snow, but half the mountain was closed because there was too much snow. On Friday it still seemed new as there was tons of powder everywhere. Every time I fell down, it took forever to dig out of the deep snow. The following morning I agreed to take some of the group to the airport. Unfortunately, that entailed getting up at 4am to get them to Reno. It also meant that I missed out on all the martini drinking and other various forms of St Patrick's Day partying. After dropping my friends off at the airport I checked into my room at the Hilton around 6am. I took a power nap before checking out the poker action.

Later Saturday morning I went down to the tournament poker area at the Hilton with the plans of winning my way into the day's 11am event. The ladies were set to go off at 2pm. I won the first Sit-N-Go tournament I played in but it ended after 11 so I was shut out of that tournament. I gave Todd a call to see what was up and everyone was getting together soon. I met up with Carrie, Todd, Shalen, & John - and then we met up with the parents before heading to Johnny Rockets for lunch, where we met up with Tawnya & River. The girls started their tournament a little bit later and then John & I hit up the arcade for a little Mars Attacks pinball - where of course John schooled me in the finer points of pinball machine maintenance.

That evening we had made plans to meet up at La Strada in the El Dorado for dinner. Some of the crew was already drinking at Roxy's so I decided to play another Sit-N-Go before heading out for dinner. I had zero luck in the tourney so I got changed and ready to head out. Dinner was pretty good but the main course was Todd popping the question...and there was much rejoicing.

After dinner most of the crew was headed to their favorite hot spot, the Cal-Neva, home of $3 blackjack and $3 craps. They also spread 1-4/2-6 spread limit Hold'Em in their poker room. All the crazy action was still at the Hilton so I bailed on Cal-Neva. I wasn't the only one...both Reno John and John R also bailed. Blimpey and I headed back to the Hilton. He turned in for the night but I decided to check out the poker action. I got talked into playing a SNG with my buddy Champie, but then he bailed and sold his seat to another friend of his while he drank beer & smoked cigars in The Garage. I finished 2nd in that one and had won enough money for the day to buy into Sunday's event.

Sunday morning I checked out of the room and checked into the 11am tournament. I gave Todd a call to see what was up and they were still sleeping. I then reminded him that checkout was in 15 minutes!! The tournament had about 170 people signed up and were paying the top 18. I got off to a good start as I got AA on the second hand of the day. With the blinds at 25-25, I won about 250 chips when I flopped an Ace. I'm not complaining though, it could have been worse. There was a flush draw possible and it would have sucked to get pocket rockets cracked on the second hand of the tournament.

I got off to an early lead but then I played a hand very poorly. I had KJo in the BB and just checked my option. The flop comes J high and the SB checked. I bet out and was check-raised. I called the raise, but the turn card didn't help me and I was faced with an even bigger bet. I didn't want to go broke with 1 pair so I laid it down. KJo is a trash / trap hand - one that can get you into lots of trouble. That was an eye opener & I think it helped me get focused for the rest of the tournament.

I got a few big hands but the timing was off as I didn't get much action on them. I basically had to lie, steal, bluff, and check-raise to get all of my chips. I rarely had a hand go to the river, and until the last hand I was never all-in (and called) with my tournament life on the line.

The tournament had it's fair share of pros. Some of the notables were my buddy Champie, Miami John Cernuto, Roxci Rhodes, Tahoe Anderson, Vince Burgio, and other players I was familiar with but don't know their names. Vince was at my table when there were only 27 players left. He raised my BB from the button, and I moved all-in with AJo. I had plenty of chips but I knew he was an expert player and could lay a decent hand down. He asked me how much it was and I just pushed my chips out and let the dealer handle it. He seemed a little annoyed and eventually folded. A weaker player might have called me but I was fairly sure Vince was trying to make a play, otherwise I wouldn't have risked the tournament with AJo!

Another interesting hand came up when the blinds were 200-400 with 50 antes. I was in the BB and the cutoff made it 800 to go, a minimum raise. I looked down to find Q5o and decided to call. The flop came Q86 and I checked. The cutoff player bet out about 800 and I check-raised him another 2000. He immediately threw it away.

When we got down to 19 players and the bubble, it was proposed that we pay 19th place $500 out of the 1st place money. Finishing 1st was worth over 30K and only one player opposed. The problem we were trying to avoid is all of the slow play associated with the bubble. One guy finally did bust on the bubble and we were in the money. I wasn't getting any playable hands and was getting short stacked. The last hand for me came when we were at 300-600 blinds with a 75 ante. Everyone had folded to me and I moved in with 22. The players in the blinds were the least likely to call an all-in, combined with my tight image, it was an easy move to make. The SB called me with AJ and hit his J on the river. I was out in 14th place after 7+ hours of play. Overall I am totally satisfied with the way I played, and the experience from a tournament like that is immeasurable.

It was great to see so many of us make it out to Reno for the weekend! The World Poker Challenge continues thru next weekend when the WPT main event kicks off on Monday the 27th. Next weekend I'll probably be there again trying to win my way in to some of the bigger events!

-p

Reno Update

2006-03-11T19:25:00.000-08:00

Hello from Reno! I hope everyone is ready for next weekend. The money at the tables is pretty amazing. There are tons of single table tournaments to choose from. Winner-take-all satellites and cash sit-n-gos. I ran into Reno John when I heard, "Hey, pMac!" We chatted for a while until they announced a special cash sit-n-go that started with extra chips and an extra blind level. I had to bail on him and jump into the fray...

That was on Friday and ended up being the only game I jumped into. I got cut down pretty quickly when I flopped top pair top kicker with my AK when the flop came 8A8. I bet out into the preflop raiser and he reraised me all in. I had him covered and called. He flipped over 89 suited and took a big chunk of my stack. It went downhill from there and I hit the sack for the night.

Thursday I played in 3 tournaments and cashed in 1. Nothing too spectacular except that I played fairly well, and lost almost every race. I did win a couple of races today and put a pretty sick beat on a guy in a SNG. I was in the BB for 400. He moved all in from late position for his last 600. The SB folded. It cost me only 200 to see a pot with 1200 (my 400, SB 200, all-in for 600) already in it. I called blind and flipped over J4 offsuit. He had A2o, so I wasn't even that much of a dog, but the flop came with 3 hearts, and a heart on the river, and I won the pot with a flush with my 4 of hearts. Ouch! Sorry dude!

I played in a total of 5 SNGs today, finished 3rd in one and chopped for a win with a beautiful girl in another. She won at least one tournament last year at the Fall Pot of Gold, and was in the running for Best All-Around Player. She is a top level player, and she's got the looks too. Not only was it tough playing across from her and trying to focus, but the next thing I know, a bunch of guys had gathered around to cheer her on! They had even started to call out for the cards that she needed!! We traded the chip lead back and forth and she was getting incredible cards. Out of 5-6 hands, she had QQ (twice!) and AJ, and AQ. We decided to chop it up 50-50 and I was happy with that.

The SNGs are pretty loose and crazy, and the cash games are sick too. I haven't jumped into any cash games yet, but the 3-5 No Limit game is just loaded with cash! The buy in is $200 minimum, but there is a ton - thousands and thousands - on the table.

-p

Peppermill Roundup

2006-03-06T00:05:00.000-08:00

I just turned off the TV and decided to let you guys know how things went at the Peppermill this weekend in Reno. By the way, if you get a chance to to see the 1991 version of La Femme Nikita, try to watch it in French with English subtitles - it's much better than the dubbed version that I forced myself to turn off. Anyway, back to poker...

The Peppermill hosted 1 week's worth of tournaments ending this Sunday with their main event. The nice thing about their tournaments is that they are player friendly. We started with pretty healthy chip stacks, slow blind increases, and 20 or 30 minute blind levels.

I played in two tournaments on Saturday and won a total of 5 hands between them. I stayed out of the side games that night to rest up for the main event. I needed it too, because the person I roomed with snored, instead of the other way around, and woke me a couple of times. I did have a big decision to make the next morning - whether or not to enter a satellite to try to get in cheap.

I had already made the decision to play the main event since I missed Friday's tournament, so if I enter a satellite and don't get in, it'll just cost me more to play. Sunday morning I made my way down to the tournament room. (The tournament was held in their grand ballroom which was very nice and smoke free!) I got there about an hour and a half early and decided to take a seat in one of the single table satellites. The SST had 10 people and the top 2 would get into the main event. I sat down and Roxci Rhodes was on my right. I lost a couple of hands and was down early. I won a few hands and we were down to 5-6 players and Roxci moved all in with her short stack. I had 99 and made an easy call. She had Q high and failed to improve. I knocked out the player in 4th and had a huge chip lead. The other two players were even in chips and wanted to make a deal that 3rd would at least get $100. I agreed because no chip lead is safe and worth losing $540 over. I agreed to the deal knowing that very soon those two would be all in and I would have my seat. The very next hand they were all in and the satellite was over.

The main event was pretty nice. We started with 6000 in chips, blinds started at 25-50 and lasted for 30 minutes. After the dinner break, levels would go to 40 minutes. I played pretty solid to start and kept getting reraised by this old guy that seemed to always have a hand. Within the first blind level, he had won hands with AA, QQ, and JJ. This guy would either call me or reraise me almost every time I was in the hand! I finally got moved to a different table which was even crazier. That didn't last long (thank God) and I got moved to another table where, lo and behold, was my new nemesis the old guy. I didn't want to tangle with this guy unless I had a hand. His luck was running well at this new table and he was the chip leader at the table and raising sooooo many pots. I wasn't playing very many hands so I thought my raises meant something. I got AKs in early position and I raised it 3-4X the BB. Everybody folded to the old guy in late position and he raised it another 2500. I instantly moved all in and he instantly called!! Yikes!! He flipped over QQ and I won the race when I flopped a K. That pot got me up to about 11K in chips.

I lost a big pot with QQ. I raised 3-4X the BB preflop and got 1 caller. He was a weak/new player that I had played with on Saturday. The flop came KTJ. I didn't like the high cards, especially the K, but I wasn't worried about a straight since I had 2 of the Queens. I lead out and got reraised all in. Even though I had an open ended straight draw, I knew I was a dog. I finally laid it down and my newbie opponent showed me TT for bottom set.

About 4 hours into the tournament, the blinds were 200-400 with a 75 ante, and I was back down to about 6000. I got AQ of hearts and moved all in from early position. There's already about 1300 in the pot in blinds and antes. I got one caller and he flipped over KTo and I'm briefly in the the lead until the flops comes 66T. The turn is an Ace and I have a higher 2 pair. His only out is one of the 2 Tens left in the deck and he hits it on the river and my tournament is over.

On a side note: For every tournament entered, each player got $5 in food comps and I got a chance to check out Oceano's in the Peppermill...twice. Their sushi was awesome!!

Can't wait to see everyone up at the Reno Hilton in a couple of weeks!

-p

G$ Wins 5th PNP $5 HP Private Tourney!!

2006-03-02T23:07:00.000-08:00

Congrats to G$. We had 13 people, the most yet. Props to JP Morgan (Joshua), HerEvilness (Evil Red) and HotRenoNight (Reno John) for making their first appearances. Rich picks up the $5 bonty Mark put on himself. Check out the results: (Not Playing Yet? Sign Up!!)
1 gmoneypnp $32.50
2 A916Playerx $19.50
3 TheShylock $13.00
4 eye_bluff
5 bikeracer_03
6 RiverRob_PNP
7 Jp Morgan1
8 HotRenoNight
9 P.Mac
10 canman31
11 ScubaRick
12 blpisme
13 HerEvilness

HerEvilness was new and learning the keys and went to fold but accidentally called someones all-in and was eliminated as a result. Better look next week HerEvilness!!

Eye_Bluff (Mark) Wins 4th PNP Hollywood Poker Tourney

2006-02-23T23:35:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Eye_Bluff. If you're not signed up sign up at HP. Next game is next Thursday ay 9:00 pm. Table called TheShylock under Tournments-->Private Table. Email shylock@pokernightposse.com to get the password.

1 eye_bluff
2 bikeracer_03
3 RiverRob_PNP
4 canman31
5 P.Mac
6 gmoneypnp
7 TheShylock
8 blpisme

BLP Wins 3rd PNP Hollywood Poker Private Tourney

2006-02-18T17:36:00.000-08:00

The third Hollywood Poker private tourney ($5.00 + .50) had a record 11 people attending. This gave us two tables for a few minutes, until Eye_Bluff got busted out. The top three finishers were:
1). BLP_IsMe
2). GMoney_PNP
3). CanMan
We had some new attendees: Can Man, Scuba Rick and Bike Racer.

The next tourney will be Thursday Feb 23rd at 9:00pm. If you haven't signed up surf to Hollywood Poker and do so. Use Netteller or Firepay to transfer funds and you'll be good to go.

Freerollin' Part Deuce

2006-02-12T18:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the final Jersey Days Tournament on FullTiltPoker. I was fortunate enough to qualify for the final by finishing in the top 3 out of 684 in one of the many freerolls - the only way to qualify. They ran 4 freerolls daily for the month of January and the final had 352 players. I logged in and hoped for the best...

I never really got great cards but I managed to win a couple of hands. I think I only won 2 hands out of the first 50. Eventually I got some decent hands, and started to build my stack little by little. Late in the tournament I got pretty lucky when I raised all in on a bluff from middle position with K8 and got called by the BB with KJ. I flopped the 8 and doubled up. A little later I had JJ and raised all in from middle position. I got 2 callers, 99 and QQ. I rivered the J and more than doubled up.

I made it to the final 2 tables and custom hockey jerseys were only awarded to the final table of 9. I was battling with the short stack and doing a good job to avoid elimination. There's a fine line between being patient for a hand and finding a time to move all in with nothing to pick up the pot. Blinds were 1200/2400 with a 250 ante. Twenty thousand doesn't last long with blinds that big. I was finally down to less than 15000 and found a bad time to try to steal the blinds and antes. I was on the button with only 6 people at my table and the blinds about to increase. Nobody had entered the pot yet and I had J-high. I moved all in hoping to steal the pot when the BB called me with AJ. I did not improve and was busted in 12th place, just a few spots away from my very own custom FT jersey.

-p

(Thurs. Feb 9th) 2nd PNP Hollywood Poker Tourney Results

2006-02-09T22:39:00.000-08:00

-----------------------------
Next Online Tourney: Thursday Feb. 16th 9:00pm
Sign Up To Play Here
if you sign up let me know so I can send you the evite that has the password to join the table. Also the tourney will be up the day before so you can sign up ahead of time in case you are late. You can join late if you already pre-registered, if not you're out of luck.
------------------ ---------------
Results:
1st- TheShylock $25
2nd- Blimpey $10
3rd- River
4th- 916Playerx
5th- G$
6th- BLP
7th- Eye_Bluff

The 2nd PNP online tourney had 7 participants. It would have been 9 but Bike Racer got there too late and Wiscy was out of town. This week we picked up two new players; Eye_Bluff (Mark) and RiverRob_PNP.

River Rob and 916Playerx were taking down pots for the first half of the game with their aggressive betting. Later in the game I started getting cards and made a come back.

It was a good heads up battle with Blimpey (John R.). With a little deception on the final hand I was able to take down the tourney with a 4-5(o) (hit a set of 4's on the flop and checked it, calling his $500 bet, then checking on the turn, and calling his "all-in" bet to win.

I think Retired has signed up, he just didn't make it tonight, and my sister (Evil red) saw me playing tonight and wants to sign up too. So we should be running with a full table for next week.

For you folks that live out of Sac this is a good way to play. Saves on the gas $$$, though the social aspect of it is a bit different. But the crap talking is increased :-)

1st Hollywood Poker PNP Private Tourney Results

2006-02-02T23:13:00.000-08:00

Six of us met online on Feb 2nd at 9:00 pm for a $5.00 buy-in. It was a fun time. Frustrating for some (i.e getting rivered), kids waking up, but it was a good game. I'll get you next Thursday G$ (Feb. 9th).

1st- Blimpey (Big John Stud) $21.00
2nd- BLPisMe (BLP) $9.00
3rd- G$
4th- TheShylock
5th- p.Mac
6th- A916Player (Baltar)

HollywoodPoker PNP Private Tourneys Thursday Nights

2006-01-28T18:13:00.000-08:00

A handful of us are signed up to play for $$ on HollywoodPoker.com. We plan on having some "Private" tourneys on Thursday nights at 9:00pm. The buy-in will be a low $5.00. Right now the money enabled players are Shylock, Baltar, G$, and pMac. Slick Nick plans on signing up eventually as well (he's playing "play" money right now on the site). I deposited money using Firepay (took a few days because the deposit money into you account for security verification) but Rich used NetTeller which allowed him to play the same night. Both have deposit fees (when you deposit from your bank account into NetTeller or Firepay). Once the money is in either one you log into HollywoodPoker and "Deposit" selecting NetTeller or FirePay. Make sure you use the same email account when signing up for both HolywoodPoker and NetTeller/FirePay.

This site if pretty soft in terms of players. I've cased three times in tourneys with 300+. I got as high as 4th one time. I enjoy playing people head-up too. Good experience. They have a cheap $2.00 Sit & Go on "Bonner Ave" that is cool. I only bought in with $50.

Full Tilt goes Full Mac

2006-01-21T22:43:00.000-08:00

Full Tilt is the only online poker site to have downloadable software for the Mac. You were forced to run Virtual PC to run Full Tilt, PokerStars, or PartyPoker. The only Mac friendly sites were Pokerroom, HollywoodPoker, and now Daniel's site: FullContactPoker.com.

Today I broke in my Full Tilt mac software...

...by entering a $15 HORSE super satellite tournament. HORSE is a mixed game of limit poker using Hold'Em, Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Stud, and Stud Eight or Better (also known as 7 Stud Hi/Lo Split.) Doyle Brunson considers this to be one of the toughest forms of tournament poker. They are actually adding a $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament to the 2006 WSOP, after leaving it out in 2005. Read the full story here.

Today's HORSE super satellite had 93 players paying out $216 seats to the top 6, and the leftover $6 went to 7th place. I was the chip leader with about 13 people left and then I knocked out 2 people in one hand. A few hands later I lost almost half my chips. I struggled at the final table and then made a couple of hands. A couple of people got knocked out and I qualified for a seat. Once you make the final six, it's game over and everyone usually pushes all in, since there's no bonus for 1st place. Tomorrow's HORSE event should be fun.

-p

Super Bowl Tournament and BBQ

2006-01-12T02:37:00.000-08:00

Just an FYI for all of the tournament freaks out there. The Lucky Derby is hosting a $100+5 NLHE tournament on Super Sunday. Details are listed below...

First off, this tournament will start with 3500 in chips. Blinds are 20 minute levels, starting at:

25-50
50-100
100-200
200-400
400-800
500-1000

Blinds will continue to double from there. They will be paying out the final table and have a max of 70 players. Winner should get somewhere close to $2000. They also said they would take alternates during the first level only. I don't know how many people are going to lose all 3500 in the span of 20 minutes when the blinds are only 25-50, but you never know.

I don't have any info on the BBQ part, but this is supposed to start at 2:30. Not sure if the BBQ is after or what. Also, they are taking early sign ups - starting now.

-p

Jan. 6th Results- #1 Points Tourney Of 2006

2006-01-07T20:50:00.000-08:00

Check out the results here:

http://www.pokernightposse.com/results/points/2006/Jan6th_2006.htm

Freerollin'

2006-01-06T12:57:00.000-08:00

Last night I played in the FullTilt "Jersey Days" satellite tournament. FT has a "Jersey Days" tournament in February where the grand prize is a Hockey VIP package (includes limo transportation to and from the Staples Center, four suite tickets, and team gear for everyone.) Everyone that makes the final table gets their own FT custom white hockey jersey. You can't buy into this tournament, the only way to enter is through a freeroll satellite. The top 3 go to the main event in Feb. The problem is that since it's a freeroll, everyone enters and the tournament fills up to capacity, since it's free. The max limit is 1000 players and they are only taking the top 3. I've played in this freeroll before but never finishing better than 50th...

I decided to play again last night since I hadn't played a tournament yet that day. It started at 12:45am and only 684 players signed up - due to the late start. Almost 5 hours later, I eventually finished in 3rd to advance to the final event. The scariest hand went like this: We were down to 4 handed and the next one out gets nothing while the rest advance. I was fluctuating between chip leader and short stack trying to catch a hand while hoping someone goes bust. This hand I was the 3rd stack and found JJ under the gun. I was not getting good cards and they looked like Aces to me. I moved all in for over 90,000 and got called by the 2nd largest stack. He flips over KQ and it's a race but I'm still the favorite. He flops a K and my heart sinks and I feel nauseous. The flop was T8K or something like that. The turn was a 7 (I think) and my mind is frantically scanning the board trying to figure out if I have a straight draw - but it happened so fast that I don't even remember what was on the board...until the beautiful Jack lands on the river and I win the hand with 3 Jacks. That hand doubled me up and absolutely crippled the other guy. He was down to less than 7000 and automatically all in on the next hand - and then all out. Hopefully I will have some luck in Feb.

-p

Poker Game Starts Hours Into New Year

2006-01-01T17:30:00.000-08:00

Just hours into the new year, a quick game of poker started up at John and Shal's during their annual New Year's Eve Pajama Party. Nick had no trouble rounding up the players as he was determined to get a game going. John started us off with fewer chips and 20 minute blinds in an effort to end the game before sun up. Next time I suggest starting with 500 in chips for everyone, and we might get done in 3 hours! Maybe...

We tried to keep it a friendly game, even with all of the drinking. I got into Shal's secret stash of Diet Rockstar (sorry Shal) because I was planning on driving home. It worked. The players included our hosts, John and Shal, Beerman (who left early and was replaced by Tania), Bike Racer Rob, Shal's mom & her friend Pat, Tom, Scuba Rick, RJ (Lucky Charms missed out and, dare I say, accused me of keeping her out on purpose?? That's crazy talk!) - and me. I don't remember much of the game except that it lasted forever.

By the end, pushing in with any two cards was a must. Some were lucky, some were unlucky, and some were both. For example, I had Shal all in and on the ropes with my AT vs her Q9. If she loses, she's out. Of course, I can't win with the best hand and she flops a Q to double up and stay alive. A little later we are 3 handed with blinds 500/1000. Shal is in the SB, I'm the BB. She makes a big raise from the SB to 4000 which seemed fishy at the time. I looked down and found T7o and pushed all in. I had been playing very aggressively moving all in preflop and not getting called. Shal didn't look happy but I knew she was priced in to call the re-raise. She flips over a small pair (44 or 22?) and I flop a ten to double up. Eventually it was down to Shal and myself. I saw a K and moved all in. Unfortunately for me, she also had a K but had a Q to go with it and the night was finally over.

I drove home and got back to Sac just before the sun came up, around 7am I think. I had to get some sleep fast because I was planning on playing an online tourney at 11am this morning on HollywoodPoker.com. I set my alarm for 10:45, got up, rubbed the sleep from my eyes and logged on. Sunday mornings HP has a Celebrity Classic tournament with $20 bounties on all celebs and $100 on the last celeb standing. Today there were 243 of us and a handful of celebs, including Kane Hodder who played Jason in Jason X and Jon Favreau from Swingers, Michael Woods (brother to James Woods), Ronny Cox (RoboCop, Total Recall), Kirk Acevedo, Yancey Arias, and model Ashley Dorenzo to name a few.

Early in the tournament I got AK suited, hit top pair top kicker, and then rivered a flush to beat a set and double up. I don't remember much of the rest of the tournament. I did take a big pot off of Favreau when I re-raised his flop bet. He was playing aggressive and getting lucky in a few spots. He became the chip leader with a huge stack, 5X as big as 2nd place. He was at my table when he squandered it all away. I somehow made it to the final table without having AA or KK once. My best hands were QQ and AK. I don't know how I did it... The tournament ended when I got 99 - the best hand I had seen in a while, and having one of the shorter stacks at the final table, I moved all in. I was called by QQ and eliminated. I ended up finishing in 10th place out of 243...not a bad way to start the New Year.

-p (Wiscy)

We're Flooded...What's up with this rain?

2005-12-31T10:59:00.000-08:00

Check this out:

http://www.pokernightposse.com/flood/flood.htm

Updated: Viper & Mercedes Entering Ladies Only WPT Tournament

2005-12-30T20:44:00.000-08:00

**For reservations (to get the $34 rate) you MUST use this code: CASWPC6**
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yo, if you saw pMac The Devious' post from 12/28 the WPT is coming to Reno as the World Poker Challenge 2006.

Viper & Mercedes are entering the ladies only tournament on Saturday March 18th at 2pm. It's a $100 buy-in.

Some of us are going to be heading to Reno this weekend on Friday March 17th (St. Pattys Day). Room rates are only $34 if you say you're going to be playing in the tournament.

Let us know you're going so we can all hook up.

Here's a link to the Tournament Schedule..............

Thurs. Dec. 29th $10 Sit & Go Results

2005-12-30T18:23:00.000-08:00

Thurs. Dec. 29th $10 Sit & Go Results

Last night we had a last minute “Winner-Takes-All” Sit & Go with a $10.00 buy-in. 9 people came and it was the usual Die-Hards of:

1. Shylock The Schmoe $90
2. Mercedes
3. Sneaky Lee
4. Retired
5. pMac The dEvious
6. Big John Stud
7. Viper
8. River Rob
9. Peach Fuzz

-->Interesting Hands I Had:

River Ousted, Viper Wounded

In the big blind I look down at Pocket Rockets. River limps in, Viper limps in and I raise it up. River calls all-in, Viper calls the all-in, as do I. River turns over J-J, Viper has K-K, and I’m chillin’ with A-A. The pocket rockets win, River is out and Viper has been wounded badly. My chip stack is looking pretty good at this point.

Trapping Retired & Giving Him The Boot

This is one of the best hands I’ve played. After studying a lot lately I had decided that I’ve been playing too tight so I decided I was going to loosen it up a little for this game and call with some hands I normally woudn’t. On this hand I limped in with K-5(o). The flop came rag-rag-K. It was just retired and I, so I checked to see if he had the K too. He checked as well. On the turn another K hit. I now had a set. I bet the minimum bet and Retired smooth called me. I figured he had an Ace and was praying an Ace would hit on the river. It did. I checked, Retired bet out a fair amount, I went over-the-top calling “All-In”, he called, I had him covered, and Retired was out.

Mercedes Going Down Heads Up

After a back and forth battle I looked down at a pair of Ladies. Mercedes had had rasied from the SB, I went “All-In” she called flipping over 10-10 to my Q-Q. The Ladies held up and I won $90.

This was a night of having the right cards at the right time. Like the A-A, when River had J-J and Viper K-K. Total luck, but hey I’ll take it anytime :-)

World Poker Tour Satellite Tournaments At The Limelight

2005-12-30T16:17:00.000-08:00

Tier 1 - Super Satellites
Wednesdays, Thursdays & Sundays 5pm sign up / 6pm start
Begins 11/2/0530 Person Texas Hold'Em No-Limit Tournaments: $40.00 Buy-In (inc. $5.00 entry fee) = T1000 Tournament Chips (No Re-buys)

1st Place = 1 seat in Tier 2 Tournament (worth $700.00) + 20% of remaining cash prize pool
2nd Place = 45% of remaining cash prize pool
3rd Place = 25% of remaining cash prize pool
4th Place = 10% of remaining cash prize pool

Tier 2 - Limelight Championship Satellite
No-Limit Texas Hold'EmTournaments:To be held in late March 2006. $700.00 or seat voucher from Tier 1 Tournament + $50.00 entry fee= T1500 Tournament Chips (No Re-buys)

1st Place Grand Prize of 1 seat (worth $25,000) in WPT Championship Tournament, PLUS entry fee and travel/lodging accommodations to the WPT Championship at Bellagio (total prize package worth $28,000) + 20 % of remaining cash prize pool
2nd Place = 45% of remaining cash prize pool
3rd Place = 25% of remaining cash prize pool
4th Place = 10% of remaining cash prize pool

I believe that they have Super-Super-Satellites with 10 people, $10 buy-in where the winner gets a seat into a Tier-1 tournament ($40 buy-in). I'm not sure which days they do this. If anyone knows please post it under "Comments".

WPT in Reno, March 9-30

2005-12-28T00:28:00.000-08:00

The World Poker Tour is in Reno in a couple of months, beginning Thursday March 9th. It will no doubt be tons of fun. I'm a little disappointed that there is no 7 Stud event on the schedule, but there are tons of no limit events to choose from. Plus, there is a $34 room rate. Make sure to make reservations by Feb 8th so you can get those rates for the weekend.

First of all, here's the schedule on PDF. World Poker Challenge 2006

There are $200+25 tournaments every night, Super Satellites, Single Table Satellites, and Sit n Go tournaments everyday. The side action is unbelievable, even in the low-limits. (No Acey Deucey or 7 Card No Peeky) And if you want to watch the pros, and maybe some celebrities, they'll be there by the start of the main event. I went last year and had a blast. Hopefully this year will be better.

Let's get a group together...

-p

Dear Santa.......

2005-12-22T00:04:00.000-08:00

Dear Santa,

It’s been a great year for me and my family. We are so blessed to have the things we do have and we are equally blessed with great friendships. Poker has been a big part of my life this past year. Playing cards with my friends brings me a lot of joy (taking their money just adds more joy :-)). I’ve won some and I’ve lost some. That’s poker. Anyways, I wanted to write you before Christmas Eve. I’ve been thinking about some gifts that my poker friends might like. If you already have gifts picked out for them, no biggie. But if you don’t, here are some ideas.

Todd – A lifetime supply of “Fix a Flat” and a set of balls to use for a heads up match.

Carrie – GAP insurance on her next vehicle and a final table appearance at the 2006 WSOP.

Brian – A “Win” at Todd’s house and an autographed copy of “How to suck out with J-10” by Richard Dunbar.

Patrick – Pocket Aces when he’s heads up against Carrie and a new deck of KEMs (plastic really isn’t meant to be ironed…)

Curtis – Cash, cash and more cash. Divorces are so expensive.

Rob – The strength and patience to be with Tawnya (it’s the red hair) and the strength and patience to hang out with Todd (it’s Todd…..)

Shalen – A lot of women could use a cute smile, positive attitude, terrific personality and nice cans, since you gave these to her years ago, how about a nice poker chip set.

Whatever gifts they do receive this Christmas, I know they deserve them. As for me, I don’t think I need much this year. I’ve got everything a husband, father, and friend could have. I hope 2006 is good to all of us!

Rich

P.S. Some guy named Lloyd Wilkinson was talking inappropriately about Mrs. Claus a few days ago. I don’t think he deserves any presents this year. (I’m not just saying that because he got lucky and beat me at the Heavy Hitters game)

Acey Deucey, No Peaky, and Badugi

2005-12-18T02:56:00.000-08:00

We (LLyod, Sneaky Lee, Big John Stud, Shylock and myself) met up at Shylock's for some micro limit poker. Tonight we played some crazy cards, including the most volatile game of all, Acey Deucey. We stacked the deck and padded the pot on Shylock while he was holding off the cops. He comes back and he gets a 2 and a K and decides to bet the pot. The next card off is an A and he loses the entire stack per normal Acey Deucey rules. We of course gave him his money back but not until we had a laugh at his expense! There were several pot bets that went awry and had some of us digging in our pockets for more $$$. Shylock almost had to go into the piggy bank, won the next hand and barely made a dent in the monstrous pot. We eventually added crazy rules to Acey Deucey, including penalties and required pot donations for pairs, etc. It was out of control but still one of the most popular games of the night.

We all had our specialties. Sneaky Lee was #1 at any game with a wild card, Todd came away with some Acey Deucey money, and I owned the 7 Card No Peaky game, winning all but a few times. Big John Stud ordered the pizza and came up with some crazy Acey Deucey penalty variations while LLoyd was off to an early lead at Badugi, a crazy 4 card lowball triple draw game. When you find yourself holding 4 cards of different rank and suit then you are holding a....BADUGI.

We eventually got into a quick freezeout no limit hold'em tourney with 7 minute blinds to finish off the night. With such a short structure, aggression was key. Big John Stud was the first casualty. I was lucky enough to pick up Death Johnnies (JJ) at the right time and eliminated Shylock. (Ironically, he laid down JJ to LLoyd's raise and Sneaky Lee's re-raise. LLoyd won with 99. Ouch.) Sneaky Lee fell victim to my Kowboys (KK), leaving LLoyd and myself in a heated heads up battle. LLoyd doubled up once or twice before I took him out on the river. Sorry LLoyd but thanks for having a beer with me.

-p

Stay Tuned!! A Heads Up Tournament is in the works!!!! We're looking for 16 people - let me know if you are interested.

BLP Hosted Satellite Fri. Dec 16th

2005-12-17T11:39:00.000-08:00

BLP invited a few of us to his pad to join him, a couple of his buddies and his dad in a $20 buy-in NL Hold 'em tourney. There was a total of 9 of us. BLP has the tight set-up with the poker table, plastic playing cards and a ton of chips. I almost didn't come becuase I called pMac hoping to ride with him, but he was like "I don't think so" and I'm like "what do you mean" he said "I'm already here". It was like 5:30. What were you guys trying to work some sort of pre-game collusion scheme (lol)? I was hella tired but pMac talked me into coming. I'm glad he did, thanks man.

We kicked it off around 8 pm. I think through the first few hours I only played 3 hands. I raised pre-flop with 4 titties and AJ(s) but just collected the blinds (that were small at the time). I limped in once with 8,9(s) but completely missed the flop so I had to dump.

Later in the night my fortunes began to change. When I was in the big blind with some horrible cards like 8,6 off suit Baltar limped in, and him and I saw the flop after I checked the option. I paired up my 6's but since there were a bunch of over cards I kept checking, and thankfully Baltar checked it down the whole time as well. My 6's won, the first pot I had won that night.

After that I got pocket Kings when the blinds were big and took em down unchallenged after my standard pre-flop raise. Later I got pocket aces, raised to 3200 and Baltar called (yeah sucka!!). Nothing scary on the flop so I made a value bet trying to get him to raise, but he folded to my 1600 minimum bet. He smelled something fishy and made a good fold.

My “Luck Is For Losers” hand of the night went down like this: there was 5 of us still at the table. I was in the SB and BLP was in the BB. The blinds were like 1,000-2,000. The players before me all folded leaving just BLP & I. I looked down at J-10 off suit, something I normally wouldn’t play, but I felt like trying to steal BLP’s blind. I raised to 5 or 6 g’s, and in my head I’m yelling….fold!! fold!! fold!!. He didn’t. The flop came rag, 10, rag. I pair my tens….I act first and go all-in. He calls immediately and I show my J-10 and he flips over K-10, I’m out kicked…I think I’m f’d and I tell him “Nice hand” but on the turn the beautiful Jack hits giving me two pair. I win but feel bad for BLP cuz it seems he keeps getting some bad beats put on him from us PNP pros. I tell him sorry but he’s pretty pissed and doesn’t say anything. A few hands later Mercedes takes him out by hitting an 8 open the river. He seemed to be less mad at her though :-)

When it was down to the final 3 (Mercedes, me and Baltar) I looked down at A2(s) under the gun. I decided to raise to like 8,000 hoping the blinds will both fold. Baltar does but not Mercedes, she calls!! The flop come K-rag-rag all diamonds. No matter what hit I had decided I was going to go all in to take this good-sized pot down. I immediately call “all-in” and Mercedes think for like 5 minutes. I’m sweating it cuz I only have Ace high,but she folds. Yes!!! I show her my bluff hoping to mess with her mind. I love pulling off a good bluff, but in the PNP it rarely works cuz some jakyl will always call.

Going back to the game Baltar took down Mercedes shortly after my bluff and it was him and I heads up. I hate playing Baltar heads up. Since he taught me this horrible, addicting game (lol) it’s like it was martial arts and I was having to fight my “master” or something. But since Baltar’s lost a step I felt confident :-) First hand heads up he is in the SB and folds giving me his chips uncontested. The next hand I’m first to act in the SB and I look down at AQ(s)…perfect!! I go all-in and he calls with 3-3. It comes down to a coin toss. Luckily I pair up my Aces, have him covered, and the night ends. I walked away with 100 bucks to add to Viper’s “Play in the 2006 WSOP Ladies Only Event Fund”.

Luck might be for losers but it saved my a** this tourney!! J-10 offsuit rules!!!! Thanks for having me over BLP it was a fun night.

PokerNightPosse Email Accounts Available

2005-12-14T17:49:00.000-08:00

Most of us all have pokernightposse emails now. It's your nickname@pokernightposse.com

An email to them creates a carbon copy that goes to your main email account. Feel free to use these accounts like it's your main, or just when you need it.

The link for checking your email is this: http://email.pokernightposse.com
(It's also atthe bottom of our site at http://www.pokernightposse.com)

See the list of emails here.

Baltar@
BeerMan@
BettinBettie@
BigJohnStud@
BikeRacer@
BLP@
CheatSheet@
ChipStack@
D-Dogg@
DiscoDiva@
Eagle@
EvilRed@
G-Money@
HandyMan@
Highlander@
Hoopie@
Livestrong@
LuckyCharms@
Mercedes@
Monkey-D@
Murphy@
pMac@
RenoJohn@
Retired@
RiverRob@
ScubaRick@
Shylock@
SirIsaac@
SlickNick@
SneakyLee@
TakinItSlow@
TomCat@
Viper@
WeezilBoi@

For your password email shylock@pokernightposse.com

Break on through

2005-12-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

After Rich busting me out of the satellite game over at Todd and Carrie's the other night I had a home game of my own last night. We had one full table of 9 players, all tight and tough in my eyes. I have been itching to play well because it seems like lately I have had so many suckouts on me and not just that, but I seem to get the 2nd nuts more often than not - which results in a lot of mediocre finishes and a lot of tentative play on my part for fear of another bad beat. I have just decided to take the bad with the good and remember that all I can do is get my money in with the best hand, which I am doing more and more often.

Anyways, we started with 9 players and the first out was last week's rookie winner. His run of beginner's luck ended with a pair of pocket nines going down to trip kings. I don't even think he lasted the first 3 levels, tough to do well back to back when you have only played a short while. For a new player he is doing very well so far. Has a good feel for the game and he is learning - which afterall is what these games are all about, right?

So from there we had a tight-aggressive table and tight play for the next 2 hours until 3 more went out within a few hands of each other. At the point where we were 5 handed I had a pretty big chip lead and had a few chances to increase it (I folded a weak pair of aces - A 7 - to a re-raise with a board showing 6 J A, only for the other guys to show me a pair of jacks!) but I remained pretty cool and decided to protect my big stack unless I had great cards. The whole night me and my friend Dan were getting most of the big pots and so it was fitting that it ended up being him and I heads up.

Now, if you read a few posts ago I explained my deal lately with heads up NL Hold Em, I have been painfully losing time after time lately. Dan had beaten me the last two times we got to heads up and so I was determined to win this time with a 2-1 chip lead going in. We played about 20-25 hands, he got the chip lead back at one point and I won back most of his chips and we got down to me having maybe a 7-1 chip lead on him when I got the Q 8 and called his big blind. The flop came down J 8 3 and I bet out 3x the big blind. He re-raised all in, and I called after about 20 seconds. He flipped up the 2 3 for a pair of threes. I just needed two cards, not a 2 or a 3 and I won. Turn came a K and the river was the beautiful Queen of Spades. I made my two pair and finally got a heads up victory! Needless to say I felt great about breaking through and I think I am going to try to use this as a springboard. I learned a lot about heads up play last night, making a few risky re-raises that I got him to lay down and put a stop to his overly aggressive play. I turned it around on him and it worked perfectly.

Looking forward to the coming new year and a fresh slate - there is a lot of poker to be played!! Here's to a great weekend... see you on the felt...

2005 Points Race Results Using The New Weighted System We're Using In 2006

2005-12-06T14:29:00.000-08:00

Using the rating system we are implementing for 2006 these are the 2005 Points Results. We are only using the top ten scores because ladies were not allowed to join until tournament 3. I was the only person to make all events (12, I know, I’m a freak). After joining on the 3rd month the following people made every Points Tournament:
Viper – 10 games in a row
Chip Stack- 10 games in a row

After joining on month 4 Retired made every tournament (9 in a row).

From the “After Charity Tournament Joining” members (joined after the charity event) Cheat Sheetand Sneaky Lee attended the 5 remaining tournaments of the year.

All Member Results (attended 6 or more games)
1. Shylock- 194
2. Viper- 188
3. Chip- 147
4. Baltar- 127
5. pMac The dEvious- 126
6. Big Slick- 124
7. Big John Stud- 121
8. G$- 109
9. Bike Racer- 106
10. Retired- 105
11. Livestrong- 104
12. D-Dogg- 102
13. Mercedes- 96
14. River- 93
15. Highlander- 91
16. Lucky Charms- 89
17. BeerMan- 86
18. Tom The CPA- 78
19. Bettin’ Bettie- 71
20. Evil- 71
21. Weezil- 69
22. I-Man- 64
23. Hoopie- 63
24. Scuba- 48

Top “Class Of 2005” Members
1. Viper- 188
2. Chip- 147
3. pMac The dEvious- 126
4. Bike Racer- 106
5. Retired- 105
6. Mercedes- 96
7. River- 93
8. Highlander- 91
9. Lucky Charms- 89
10. Miles Moore- 78
11. Tom The CPA- 78
12. Mark-mark- 77
13. Bettin’ Bettie- 71
14. Evil Red- 71
15. James- 71
16. Cheat Sheet- 66
17. I-Man- 64
18. Hoopie- 63
19. Bruiser- 50
20. Kathy Murphy- 45
21. R.J. Ronner- 44
22. Monkey-D- 31
23. Sneaky Lee- 33
24. BLP (2 games) - 32
25. Disco Diva (2 games) - 30
26. P.T. Chick- 27
27. Tanya Nalley (3 games) - 22
28. Krista Moore (2 games) - 15
29. Joshua Moore (3 games)- 14

Top Ladies For 2005
1. Viper- 188
2. Mercedes- 96
3. Lucky Charms- 89
4. Bettin’ Bettie- 71
5. Evil Red- 71
6. Cheat Sheet- 66
7. Kathy Murphy- 45
8. Disco Diva- 30
9. PT Chick- 27
10. Tanya Nalley- 22
11. Krista Moore- 15

Top Finishers Who Joined After The Charity Event
1. Miles Moore- 78
2. Mark-mark- 77
3. James- 71
4. Cheat Sheet- 66
5. Bruiser- 50
6. Kathy Murphy- 45
7. R.J. Ronner- 44
8. Sneaky Lee- 33
9. BLP (2 games) - 32
10. Disco Diva (2 games) - 30
11. P.T. Chick- 27
12. Krista Moore- 15
13. Joshua Moore- 14

Types Of Tourneys For 2006

2005-12-06T12:47:00.001-08:00

The Points events will be held at Viper and I’s house. This keeps me from having to drive the gas guzzler with all the tables out to the boonies.

Sit & Go’s (limited to ten people) can be at whomever wants to host them. We’ll definetly be hosting some on Thursday nights. The one’s we host will most likely be $20 buy-ins. They can be any night of the week and if you need a table anyone is free to borrow one from me. I have 5 at my house (3 mine, 2 pMac’s The devious). Buy-ins can be determined by the host. You can up it or lower it, it’s all up to you. If you want to host one just send me an email with the details and I’ll send out the evite. There will be some $100 Sit & Go’s this next year as well. We call it the Die Hards Tournament.

Sattelites (more then ten but still have a limit) can be at whomever wants to host them as well. For instance BLP usually has one game a month at his house on a Friday (that isn’t the PNP Points event). For 2006 he is going to give PNP folks an evite but it will be limited to 20 people. If you want to host one just send me an email with the details and I’ll send out the evite.

Money Leader

2005-12-06T12:46:00.000-08:00

In 2006 we are going to keep track of the overall money leader for the year (in addition to the points race). This will be the amount each person NETS at PNP points events, Satellites and Sit & Go’s minus their initial buy-in. This will be recorded and the winner will be declared at the end of the year. River Rob is the king of Sit & Go’s so look for him to be towards the top.

Points Race For 2006

2005-12-06T11:12:00.000-08:00

The points race for 2005 didn’t work out as great as it could have. After looking back we should have delegated points using a weighted system that distributes more points depending on the size of the field. We also didn’t have points for the last 3 months because the events were getting pretty tense but I should have just kept it going. The results for this year will be reposted using the system explained below.

Here is it what is being proposed for next year:

· Each all-member event will be a point’s event. Sit & Go’s will not be counted because they are limited to only ten people. Your Highest Points For 10 Months Will Be Tallied. So you get two misses or two throw-a-ways. It WILL BE "Best 10 of 12" like it was for 2005.
-->First place will get the number of points that is equal to the number of participants. Example, an event with 30 people would look like this:
1st: 30
2nd: 29
3rd: 28
4th: 27
5th: 26…etc……all the way down to 1.
· Every person at each event will get points.
· The points will be accumulated and at the end of the year a Points Champion will be declared. This will be a bragging rights thing unless people want to chip in to get the top finishers trophies or something.

If you have any ideas or comments in regards to this please post them under the “How would I play it” link at the bottom of this Blog. We picked up a lot of new members after the charity event so it’ll be cool to see how they do in the points race having a full year to do it. This goes for the ladies as well who missed the first two months of 2005. Later- Shylock The Schmoe

Fishing in Rancho Murietta

2005-12-05T08:52:00.000-08:00

Rolled over to my buddy Shane’s on Saturday night (after taking a beatdown at the hands of some of the PNP members at Shylock’s place on Friday). Shane is a good friend of mine, he was the singer in my band and so it was good to see him and Carlos (the bass player). We had 4 strong years as a rock band in Sacramento, played a ton of shows (probably 100-150 of them) and we had a great following that would come to every show. Many many good times with those folks that I will never forget. I gotta admit, aside from seeing that flop come AAK when you hold the AA – the feeling of playing a guitar on stage for people who are losing their mind to the vibe in the room because of music YOU are playing is one of the best feelings in the world. It’s a feeling that you miss when it’s gone. There isn’t quite anything like nailing a song as a group of 4 individuals.. together.. destroying the room in the process. When you share that with others it forms a great bond and so it’s always good to see them. Especially when they call and say “come teach us to play Texas Hold Em”… time to go fishing!!

So I headed out to Shane’s house in Rancho Murietta, they just moved in a few months back – NICE place. Show up and there is lots of people there, only a few of us were going to play cards though. Immediately one of the dudes leaves to go get the poker table out of his truck – this has me worried. As he and I are unfolding it he tells me “I bought this with cash outs from Party Poker”. Great. The next fella comes over and reaches out to shake my hand, and had a Spade and Heart tattooed on one wrist and a Club and a Diamond on the other wrist. Gulp. The rest of the crowd looked tame, 2 girls playing with their boyfriends and Shane and Carlos (who don’t know how to even deal the game). We had a full table of 9, 10 bucks each, we decided to pay it out $60/30 for 1st and 2nd…

Started out well, making a straight and a full house early on to nearly double my stack to 9800 (started with 5300) and was on my way from there. There was a lot of bad play, and just general confusion about how (and when) to bet and what beats what, etc. There was one person who I saw call all the way down to the river with J 3 offsuit and a board showing A K 9 8 7… he was shocked when the pre-flop raiser (the guy with the table) showed A Q. He was out very quickly, within 5 or 6 hands because he didn’t fold or raise once. Just called every single bet. Hah.

Everyone just had a good time, the guy with the tats and the guy with the table were both drinking too much to be a force, especially amongst the minefield we had for a table. I cruised my way through playing only premium hands and never bluffing once. We ended up playing twice and I took 2nd twice. This is the thing with me right now, my heads up game SUCKS. I need to get past this heads up slump I’m in. I have gotten violated twice in the past week online with a 2 to 1 or more chip lead heading into heads up play and losing both times within 10 hands. I just feel uncomfortable and uneasy in heads up right now. I am hoping Pmac can come over early this Friday before my home game and help me out with some practice.

Speaking of which, if anyone is interested in attending my home game (we limit it to 20 players or less as I only have room for 2 tables comfortably in my house) please let me know. You can email me at blapask@sbcglobal.net. We are always happy to have 2 full tables, and I run a game at least once a month and never on the same night as the PNP tournaments. Usually a $20 buyin with a bounty for the previous winner. Sound familiar?

Thanks again to Shylock and Viper for hosting, Friday night’s event was fun. I am still waiting to get good cards at that house, I know it’ll happen eventually…

AA vs. KK

2005-12-02T12:03:00.000-08:00

I know it happens. It happens to everyone. Just ask Mike "The Mouth." I know it happens to him. The whole poker world knows it happens to him, because it happened to him at the final table of the WSOP Main Event. I know it happens. It happened to me last night. And it wasn't the first time.

What exactly are the odds of someone having AA vs KK? Bullets against Kowboys. Pocket Rockets, American Airlines, Aces vs a little pair of Kings. How often do you get pocket Aces? About once every 221 hands. It's the same for pocket Kings. So what are the odds? AA vs. KK?

When you look down and find KK at a full table, someone else will have AA about 4.4% of the time.

Now, there is a chance to crack those Aces, but it's small one. Your best chance is only 18.55% to win and 0.38% to tie. But, if your suits are counterfeited, it's as bad as 17.09% to win and 0.54% to tie.

It happens. It'll happen to you. It'll happen to me too, again and again. I just hope it doesn't happen for another week or so...

-p

Tales of my internet poker experience (thus far)

2005-12-01T21:13:00.000-08:00

I've been playing poker with my buddies for many many years. Now while we never played Omaha or No Limit Hold Em (more like 5 card draw and games with names like Chicago, 7-Card Barter and Challenge) I think that sitting there fighting for nickels, dimes and bragging rights taught me a thing or two about playing poker and more importantly about playing your opponent. Little did I know that these many years of seasoning and experience helped me exactly ZERO when I decided to sign onto Pokerstars for the first time!

The world of online poker (especially the one a low stakes player like I currently am sees) is like a virtual minefield. Skilled players are far and few between, bad beats and suckouts are not as uncommon, granted the shuffle/deal rate and hand-per-hour count is much higher online than live so bad beats are naturally going to occur more often.

I started it all off by playing the play money sit and gos at $300+25 play money dollars. Pokerstars is structured very well for practice play in my opinion as they will only allow you $1,000 in play money chips at once. Buyins for the play money events range from $300 upto $50,000. So as you can probably tell, the more you build your play money bankroll, the higher the buyin you can pay. What also comes with the higher buyin events is better and better play, as these players have also worked their play money bankrolls up from the original $1,000.

After a few months of grinding through these play money sit and gos I was upto playing $50k buyins and doing pretty well most of the time, I decided it was time to deposit real cash. Opened a Firepay account and put in the minimum of $50. I started slow, playing $5.50 sit and gos and my bankroll started to fluctuate up and down... I would cash here and there, sometimes finsh last sometimes win, sometimes barely make the money. I fought off of my original $50 for a good 5 months until last night. I mean it, last night as in November 30th, 2005. I finally went bust on my original $50 investment. This was a shock to me as I had always managed to cash when I needed it most.

I circled the drain for a good 3-4 weeks, never having more than $23 in my account, and even dipping down to 45 cents one time. Each and every time I was near bust I managed a cash to keep the bankroll alive. Until last night. The hand that did it to me was A 3 of Spades. I moved all in on the short stack with 4 people left (top 3 get paid) and I was called by the A 2! I had him dominated, but he managed to find the 2 on the turn and that was that. The window thanking me for playing came up and my account was bust. $1.20 left to be exact. Not enough for a $5.50 buyin (the smallest buyin).

What did I do? WENT STRAIGHT TO FIREPAY.COM. I depostired another $50. As of right now I am back upto $79 and hope to use all I have learned to keep it on the up and up. Over the course of the past 6 months of playing real money tournaments and cash games I have been as high as $234 and as low as .45, but I have always had a great time playing. $50 for 6 months of entertainment is a pretty great investment if you asked me. Besides, who am I fooling if I really believe I can make any significant amount of payback playing tournaments that last an hour or 90 minutes and net you $17.50 if you win?

Anyways, thought I'd share my experiences - internet poker is wild and loose at the low stakes tables, but so much fun. If you are a solid, tight player you can probably end up cashing over 50% of the time. I have found that I almost always cash when I really focus and am not watching TV or talking or playing more than one table at a time. Take it for what it's worth, but for someone who enjoys playing poker as much as I do, Pokerstars is my "happy place" as Mr. Gilmore (or Chubs) would say. It's all in the trips... It's all in the trips... It's all in the trips...

Defending The Robisons' Honor

2005-11-30T10:45:00.000-08:00

In response to the Schmoe's comment that the Robison's did not call back on Saturday night, I would just like to defend our honor that we did call back on Carrie's cell and left a message, but no one answered. After all, we're never against taking our friends' money! ;-) Sounds like we missed a fun time, start answering your cell phones! ;-)

We also bought a table this weekend, so we're ready to host an evening in the near future!

Monday night wrap up..

2005-11-29T16:44:00.000-08:00

I recently started playing some single table sit n go's on PartyPoker. Cashed in a few of them but I'm still in the red. I was planning on playing last night, but as I was about to turn off the TV and fire up my PC when the movie From Dusk Til Dawn started. The anticipation of seeing Selma Hayek dancing on a table in a bikini......kept me glued to the TV....What a movie!!

Authorities crack down on NYC poker clubs

2005-11-29T16:37:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK (AP) — On a busy night at the New York Players Club in upper Manhattan, vice squad officers wearing bulletproof vests and raid jackets dealt the underground poker scene a losing hand.

The team entered unannounced at 11 p.m., detaining dealers, snatching up piles of cash and sending dozens of card players home with empty pockets. Downtown, another popular card club, Playstation, also was shuttered. In all, police arrested 39 employees and confiscated $100,000.

The raids on May 26 — dubbed "Black Thursday" by one poker website — and two more last month have sent a chill through the city's clandestine poker scene.

Several members-only card clubs closed their doors after 13 arrests on Oct. 16 at the Broadway Club in the Flatiron District, where the Yankees' $25-million-a-year third baseman, Alex Rodriguez, reportedly had played. On Oct. 28, a second-floor parlor on the Upper East Side, the EV Club, became the site of more vice squad arrests.

Regulars at the Manhattan clubs, including professional card player Phil Hellmuth, have questioned the crackdown while predicting the popularity of poker and its potential for profit make it unlikely the chips will be down for long.

"People just want to play poker, and because there are no legal clubs in the city, they turn to underground clubs," said Hellmuth, a former World Series of Poker champion.

Authorities elsewhere also have taken a hard line.

In Passaic County, N.J., police converged on a shopping center basement that allegedly was home to an illegal parlor posing as a soccer club. They arrested dozens of people and seized about $60,000.

An undercover investigation in Palmer Lake, Colo., led to the arrest of the owner of a Mexican restaurant that held a Texas Hold 'em tournament. And in Baltimore, police arrested 80 poker players in the biggest gambling raid in the city since Prohibition, only to have prosecutors drop the case.

In Manhattan, at least a dozen clubs — with names like Ace Point, High Society, Hudson and All-In — once operated up to 10 tables in rented offices, back rooms and other nondescript locations, according to regulars. Countless others have sprung up in the outer boroughs and Long Island, offering local alternatives to casinos in Atlantic City and Internet games.

The clubs, unlike casinos, don't take a percentage of the pot. Instead, patrons pay about $5 per half-hour to sit at tables and play Texas Hold 'em and other card games with buy-ins as low as $40. Their ranks include Wall Street brokers, lawyers, teachers and other professionals, along with the occasional celebrity.

The Daily News has reported that A-Rod has been warned by Yankee officials to curb his enthusiasm for poker parlors — something his agent denied. Rodriguez later spoke publicly about the clubs, saying, "In retrospect, it's probably a place I shouldn't have gone."

The clubs typically ban alcohol but provide other perks: Playstation served Oreo cookies; New York Players Club offered valet parking; and the Broadway Club featured plasma televisions and a glassed-in room for high-stakes games. Front doors are unmarked, and manned by bouncers.

It is a world reminiscent of the 1998 movie Rounders, which was set largely in underground New York poker clubs and is credited with jump-starting the poker craze.

Hellmuth said he was "a bit shocked anyone's making a big deal over the New York's poker scene" — a reaction shared by an attorney for a club operator who was arrested.

"This is not the crime of the century," said the lawyer, Michael Rosen.
Indeed, playing poker isn't criminal. However, it's illegal to profit by promoting it.

Authorities say the clubs, along with evading taxes, could be funneling tens of thousands of dollars to drug traffickers or mobsters. The sizable cash flow is certain to entice armed robbers, police said.

"We realized that this was the start of a problem because there is lots of money involved," vice squad Lt. Pasquale Morena said at the time of the Players Club takedown. "We don't know where the profits from the gambling are going."

Hellmuth suggested officials simply start licensing existing clubs.

One proposed law in New York would decriminalize poker in bars and restaurants that sponsor low-stakes games, although it would not protect the poker rooms now under siege.

"Poker's so commonplace now," said state Sen. John Sabini, who sponsored the bill. "Businesses should be allowed to cash in on it."

Online Roundup

2005-11-29T00:04:00.000-08:00

I spent a good part of the day checking out the online action at Full Tilt. I emailed BLP and he wanted to know if any pros were around. I checked out one of the tables and sure enough, there were some of the Full Tilt pros playing with some online pros. At one table, Allen Cunningham, John D'Agostino, Richard Brodie (all 3 for Full Tilt) playing with Dustin Dirksen and some other well known internet players. Soon after, David Grey sat down. The biggest stack at the table was around $28K, and it was a 25/50 no limit hold'em table with a $5K max buy in. Talk about bad beats? I saw a bad beat worth about $15K that only took about 30 seconds from start to finish.

Later in the evening, I checked out Poker Stars, mainly to see if BLP was tearing up the SNGs, and found Joe Hachem, current World Champ, playing some 5/10 pot limit Omaha. I watched for a little bit before moving on.

I've been playing in a few satellites lately to try and get into a $200 buy-in tournament coming up this Sunday. I've been getting lots of practice on bubble play, as I've busted out on the bubble or half bubble in the last 3 satellites I've played. All of them had about 60+ players and would give out tournament tickets to the top 6 or 7. First one had 62 players, they gave tickets to the top 6 and cash to 7th place: I finished 8th. Next, there were 56 players, tickets to the top 6, cash to 7th: I finished 7th, just enough cash to break even on the first 2 satellites. Then, there were 66 players, tickets to 7, cash to 8th: I finished 10th. AARRRGH!!! I almost forgot about the one today, but I signed up in time. Today there were 63 players, which worked out that the top 7 would get tickets and 8th would get jacked up. As soon as the 8th place was decided, it was over. I finally got a ticket worth $216. It took 4 tries and cost me $56.

After that was over, I jumped into another satellite, this one for a much smaller tournament on HollywoodPoker. HP is a much smaller site and this satellite had only 11 players. First place gets a $33 ticket into Saturday's Celebrity Shootout (not a shootout format) where 1st place is a WPT Bellagio package. I finished 2nd in that one, good enough for almost enough cash to pay for the entry. Funny thing is that LL-Cool-W (Lloyd) was on the phone with me during the satellite calling me a poker brat. There was some awful play going on, and he said I sounded like Hellmuth!! I saw a guy move all-in on the turn with no pair and no draw. "What the heck is going on here?"

So this weekend I have 2 big tournaments to play in. Hopefully with my recent money finishes, I can put it all together this weekend too.

-p

Sat. Night (NOV. 26TH)

2005-11-28T21:33:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday night Viper & I's plans of teaching some of our friends hold'em got cancelled when they called saying they were putting their dog down that day (bummin'). So we had nothin to do (our 4 kids were with the "other parent"). So we called pMac, Evil Red & River Rob. We called the Stoltz but they dissed us (how could you :-), and the Robison's never called us back......anyways.....Evil Red really wanted to sing Karaoke so we decided we'd hit the Swiss Budha (Fruitridge & 24th). Before hitting the Buddha we met at Carolina's for some cheap but tasty Mexican food in the not-so-nice part of town.. River & Evil showed up before Viper, pMac, Aunt Pat & I. When we rolled up in my tight ass Dodge Ram (lol), River Rob and Evil we're walking out of there like they were scurred or something. We went in and ate, this place has giant burritos for only $3.50. They're freakin' huge!!! We then bounced to the Buddha and Viper and Evil each sang a couple songs. They are some good singers. Viper sang an Abba song she never tried before and sounded good. Evil did her usual Shania Twain song. ooh!! ooh! I had a couple cran & vodka's (my drink of choice). Viper wanted to go and play some poker next, but Evil still wanted to be out so we went to a shady bar right by our house called The Pocket Club (on Freeport). Viper was not feeling the place but we stuck it out. I ordered another cran & vodka and was feeling pretty good. pMac, River, Evil, Viper and I all played a game of liars dice. I spanked em all despite a last second come back from Viper. Man, it sucks when your woman is your toughest competition. Evil and River went to play pool but ran into some rude dudes who were still claiming the table. Evil almost got River beat up....lol....

So we came back to the house and finally got the game goin...a whopping $1.00 buy-in. We had a king size pot of $6.00. After some play I dropped the c-sucker on pMac. I had pocket kings, raised, and pMac called. Of course the flippin' flop comes rag-ACE-rag. pMac the devious checks to me, I bet $600, and of course he raises. I fold saying "you have me beat". Then I said the only card that can beat me came up, he said "you had pocket kings?" I said "yeah" then I asked "What did you have" he simply shrugged his shoulders smugly. A little peeved I said "what did you have c-sucker?" (hey I'm a poor loser, but I'm working on it)......Everyone at the table was shocked....I picked up that word from the HBO series Deadwood...man that show has filthy language. Anyways we kissed and made up and the game continued. Aunt Pat quit the game, pMac took River out, pMac took Viper out, pMac took me out, then it was down to Evil and pMac. pMac offered to chop it, Evil said yes, so they each took down a whopping $3.00. It was a cool night.

The Bounty

2005-11-28T21:14:00.000-08:00

Don't even bother trying to take me out. I'm only playing if I have A-A or K-K.

Another Celebrity Tournament On HP

2005-11-18T01:22:00.000-08:00

Last night I entered the Michael Woods Celebrity Invitational on HollywoodPoker. Since I made the money last week in a field of 338, finishing 36th, I've decided to give it another shot. This time there were 341 players and I finished 3rd. Definitely my highest placing in any tournament of this size. A key hand came up when we had made it to the money. Blinds were now 1500/3000. I had AK in middle position with about 27,000. A player under the gun, came in for a minimum raise to 6000. I wanted to go heads up against this player since I figured he was tilting a little bit. He had just lost a pretty big pot a couple of hands earlier, plus I had him covered. By moving all in, I thought I could scare out the other players and face this guy heads up. To my surprise, the small blind called my 27,000 bet. Then the big blind moved all in for around 95,000!! The original raiser called all in, and the small blind called all in as well. This does not look good for my AK. Someone has to have AA or KK, or both blinds have each, right? Wrong. The original raiser has JJ, the small blind has QQ, and the chip leader moved all in from the big blind with 77!! The flop comes down 8AK, 5 on the turn, and a 5 on the river and I almost quadruple up to take the tournament chip lead for the first time with over 104,000 in chips. Wow.

When we get down to 4 players I am 2nd in chips. The 2nd short stack takes out the shortest stack, and now I am barely 3rd in chips. The chip leader has almost single handedly busted the whole final table. The first hand I get once we get down to 3 players is pocket 10s. I move in and am called by AJ. Of course my TT doesn't hold up and I am eliminated in 3rd place. This tournament only costs 11 bucks to enter, and 3rd place is enough to buy my way into this tournament every week for the next 8 1/2 months!

-p

The World Series of Lucky Derby

2005-11-16T20:49:00.000-08:00

Last night I played in the weekly Tuesday night tournament hosted by the Lucky Derby. Normally this tournament ends up a little bit of a crap-shoot. There was a guy sitting next to me that was down to 400 in chips and was forced all in. By the end of the first hour had over 5000 and never showed down a "premium hand." I didn't see a pair the whole night, while I watched a guy at the other end of the table win huge pots with TT (twice in a row), KK, QQ, & JJ. Anyway, this is not about how lucky or unlucky I am. This is more about the players there and how much they drive me crazy!

First, there is one lady (for lack of a better word) that called in middle position. She has sooo many facial tells it is downright comical. When she wins the pot with A6o she lets out this little scream and says, "Aces!" Another woman, who looked like a trucker ("She's a man, man." - Austin Powers) was all in with AK vs another AK and was standing over the table yelling for her suits. They were hearts. I know this because she was yelling pretty loud. Hell, the whole Derby knew she needed hearts, and she got them.

Mike Matusow would have loved it.

-p

Celebrity Invitational on HollywoodPoker.com

2005-11-11T01:19:00.000-08:00

I used to play on Pokerroom.com all the time because I have a Mac. Then, James Woods and Vince Van Patten started promoting a site called HollywoodPoker.com and it turned out to be a "mirror site" of PR. They had their own tournaments but shared a lot of tables with the other site, which is pretty common among lots of poker sites. Anyway, I used to play a lot in their celebrity event on Thursday nights called The Michael Woods Celebrity Invitational put on by James' brother. They have bounties on the celebrities, and guest bounties, usually the winner from the week before. I remember playing when there were only 70+ players, but last night there were 338. I used to know most of the players and even made the final table several times, placing as high as fourth. It's an interesting tournament, and I've gotten a chance to chat with some of the celebs - but mainly they are just regular people and in some cases, horrible players. Last night I finished 36th, which was worth about 3x my buy in of 10 bucks.

One hand that drove me crazy happened when I had a decent stack of about 6000. A short stack moved all in and I called with A4o, and the button called as well. I was hoping to check it down because the all in player was in a desperate situation and was almost forced all in. I was hoping they had 2 face cards and that A high was good. I flopped a 4 and then turned an A but there was 4 clubs on board and I didn't have one. When the fourth club hit, I checked and the button bet out. I folded my 2 pair. The river was another 4! The button showed a J high flush and the all in player showed a Q high flush! The button player lost the pot anyway and we failed to get rid of one player who ended up more than tripling up! I managed to maintain my stack and even increase it a little with some well timed raises, but I got a little short when the following hand came up. With blinds at 600-1200, an early player moves all in with almost 3000 and I move all in with almost 6000 to isolate the all in player. I get called by a large stack. I'm way ahead with my KK (71.6% favorite) vs AK vs AT. You can see the hand history here. Unfortunately, an A hits and I am busted out in 36th place after 2.5 hours. Still a fun tournament and I'm glad I had a chance to play in it.

-p

Poker Night Posse Blog Launched!!

2005-11-10T11:19:00.000-08:00

Poker Night Posse now has their very own blog where you can hear stories from the group on some of their poker experiences, and trips.

Feel free to leave comments on any of the topics.

-PNP