Go UCONN Chicks

I'm not a big sports gambler because I tend to suck at it but I've been making bets with this guy at the poker table for the past week and I'm about 12-2 so I'm putting $300 on the Lady Huskies tonight to cover by 19.5. The spread is huge but I'm getting even money and I think Louisville is a one-woman team.

Anyways that same guy who bets me is a nice guy but very straight forward and a huge guy. He plays pots the same way against everyone, whether it's a friend or an enemy.

So on Sunday he raises pre-flop from the button to $60. He gets one caller, this kid named "G." The flop comes Q99 and G checks to him. He comes out and bets $150. G goes into the tank and asks Mark if he has an over pair, if a queen is good, and if he calls will Mark check it down? Mark doesn't say anything and G calls.

The turn is a blank and G checks. The big guy immediately says "All in" and G insta-calls with QQ. He doubles up and seemingly the hand is over.

The big guy (who is also a very good player) then cashes out and leaves the table. Two minutes later he returns and tells G that if he ever tries to pull that Hollywood shit again, he'll physically harm him (I think he said come across the table and punch you in the face). G is trying to go out and smoke a cigarette but the big guy is making him stay there to let him know he will beat his ass if he does that again.

G is feeling a bit threatened and says he won't do it again. They stop talking but then I see the big guy go outside after G goes out, so I go out to see what is going on. Sure enough, the big guy is again telling G that G isn't taking him seriously and he's not kidding when he says he's going to beat G down if he ever pulls those shenanigans off again on him.

I know that doing the "Hollywood" is a part of poker and I've done it a million times myself, so I don't see where it's acceptable for this guy to tell G that if he does it again, he'll punch him in the face.

Anyways because both players are regulars at the casino, this was the topic of discussion for at least 30 minutes at two tables. Just thought it was interesting because I think 75% of players do this type of acting when they have a monster and I don't see how it's inappropriate.

Back in business, kind of.

I went to Hollywood Park on Friday night with the plan to play all night and win millions of pesos. My gf was going out with her gay friend for his birthday and I didn't really feel like getting drunk at various gay bars in Hollywood so I saw this as an excellent opportunity to spend the night with overweight obnoxious men talking about horse racing and sports.

The night started off well and I was up about $800 or so when I got in a heated argument with my gf and I was steaming at her, but it usually doesn't effect me when I'm playing poker. It's kind of like basketball for me. Once I get on the court, I'm not really thinking about anything else. So as long as I'm not getting text messages and phone calls from her I'm okay. I just turned my ringer off.

But then I really pissed myself off. I got in a hand with the donkey of the table and the big bluffer of the table.

*** WARNING: IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT POKER, YOU'RE GOING TO THINK I'M AN IDIOT (if you don't already) AFTER READING THIS ***

I have pocket sixes on the button. The donkey calls the bb and the big bluffer comes out and bets $60. I call and the donkey calls. The flop comes K-Q-6 with two hearts. They both check to me. Perfect time to bet right? On the button, AK probably check-raising and hoping I'll bet, if the donkey has AK, KQ, KJ, KT, even a Queen or JT/AJ, I'm going to get him to call...

This is where I had one of two serious brain cramps of the weekend that both cost me a lot of money. I checked. If a scare card didn't come on the turn, I was thinking that one of them would come out and bet big on the turn. The turn was a 10 (no heart) so it was somewhat of a scare card because AJ now has me hurting, as do KK, QQ, and TT obviously. The big bluffer bets $150. This is where I had a decision to make. I know how he plays and he knows how I play so I know if I push on him and he doesn't have AJ, he has to fold. But I also know he could easily have AJ, KK, or QQ here. So I just call. The turn is a blank and he bets $210 and I make the call and he turns over TT.

Then my boy starts to tell me how badly I played the hand and I tell him that obviously I'm aware of this. He asks me "Why didn't you bet the flop?" and then the big bluffer, who I'm (casino) buddies with, also says "You know if you bet the flop, I'll fold," sarcastically. So at this point I'm like "No shit to both of you," and decided to leave because I was unhappy about the way I played the hand. I'm sure it looked like I was pissed at them but I was really pissed at myself for letting him hit his set for free.

So Friday was +$220. Of course when I leave the casino I'm instantly steaming at my gf again but that's life. I actually wrote a blog on Friday night while I was smoking a blunt but I fell asleep before I posted it.

Now Saturday I'm like 'fuck this, I'm going to make some money and no one is gonna get in my way.' So I go to the casino at noon, hoping to catch the $500-unlimited game when it starts because there's an old donk that always starts it on Saturdays. Sure enough, he's the only one there ready to play and we start three-handed. I ended up winning $2600 in four hours and moved to the $400 game after the old guy left.

Went to the $400 game and won another $1000 and left.

Sunday I went to the play the $500 tournament at HP and lost flush (turn) to boat (river) of course.

Went down to the cash games and there were some dizonks in the hizouse so I sat down and promptly lost two buy-ins. I then made a horrendous move with JJ against 77 on a flop of 447. Turn was an ace and I had put the guy on an ace and thought I could bet him off it, but that was a miserable fail and my second brain break of the weekend. The worst part is the guy I did it too was a vocal asshole and had been whining about bad beats for three hours straight. After the hand he took a 20 minute break and I got all the chips back on the next hand. When he got back he saw my stack and said "You got those chips back already? When is that horse shoe gonna fall out of your ass?" So I said "You probably think I'm lucky because I don't cry like a bitch when I take a lose a hand," and he stfu for the rest of the day. Then when the table eventually broke at 2 a.m. he comes to shake my hand and says I'm a cool guy and he enjoyed playing with me. I'm sure you did enjoy when I doubled your punk ass up on a flopped boat.

Anyways there's a situation that came up where another player physically threatened someone that I wanted to write about but this is getting too lengthy so I'll write about it tomorrow (hopefully) because I thought it was interesting.

Going to take tonight off and go play tomorrow. Here's the numbers, I'm still on my pace with my goal of ~$7k/month but I need a good April:

2009: +$25671
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873
February: 77.75 hrs., +$8520
March: 69 hrs., -$1220

April: +$3498
04.01.09: +$978
04.03.09: +$220
04.04.09: +$3620
04.05.09: -$1320

peace, GL, 4 years, dolla dolla bill y'all!

March Sadness

Tonight at midnight this beautiful month of March will finally come to an end. I just added up my sessions and I wasn’t nearly as big of a loser and it felt like. I guess the tournament win paired with my last session on Sunday kept me afloat. Without those two big wins I’m looking at a $-6k month. So basically I had so many losing sessions that it felt like I was getting my ass kicked all month long. Actually I was getting my ass kicked.

I finally ran bad taking some ugly beats. One particular in the $5/10 unlimited buy-in game at Hollywood Park. My aces ran up against KJ. Flop comes K-3-4 and I’m sure one of the two pre-flop callers has a king. One guy had made it $40 pre-flop, the button called and I made it $170 in the small blind. Both players called. On the flop I bet $250 to get a call from the king and he did. The turn was a 2 and I went all-in for $800 and he called to river the king.

I had some good luck as well in my last session so I’m not complaining. One hand in particular when I called with 8s4s on the button. The flop comes J-8-3 with two spades. One loose player bets out $50 and another loose player calls. I raise to $170 and they both call. The turn is the 4 of hearts and they check to me. I bet $350 and the initial bettor calls, then the second player puts her last $200 in the middle. The river is the 4 of diamonds and I put the player all-in for his last $400 and he insta-calls with QcJd. The other player claims she flopped two pair but she was blatantly lying. I put her on one queen or 9-10.

Anyways, with some investments such as my car, a new business and some untimely splurging, my month stung financially. I’m looking forward to getting my taxes out of the way and jumping back on the horse in April. Two months until the WSOP kicks off and I’d like to have my bankroll around $30k heading to Vegas that last weekend of May.

Outside of poker I’m playing in three basketball leagues and my game is slowly coming back, although I hate playing the post on all these teams. I never thought I’d be playing down low so much at 6’0” but I’m one of the tallest guys on all three of my squads. My high school program finished #7 in the country overall and ran away with the Washington state title so that’s always nice to see. Somehow I think I’m one of the only people ever to play for my high school and not play in college. Yes, I’m a donk. Or an idiot for quitting my junior year. Or both, obviously.

I was in four bracket pools and had Memphis. I was in first in one of them until Memphis got their asses ran. GG fellas.

I got back in the studio last night and we recorded two of my verses for some tracks that I’m feeling. I haven’t recorded on original beats that I actually own (along with my boy) in a long time so that felt good. All in all, I’m feeling real good heading into April even though March was a hit to my pocket.

Peace and good luck bruddas.

March



2009

The ship is sinking...

Sorry about the ridiculous lack of updates in the past week+, I've been busy losing money.

Ever since I ate shit in that tournament I've been going downhill but I salvaged the month with a nice win yesterday.

I'll add more detail and updated numbers later today.

Hopefully everyone else is doing better.

peace.

206

"206" seems to be my number today. I checked one of my bracket standings (the only one out of four that I even have a hope of winning) and I was in first place with a score of 206. In that one I have 13/16 of the remaining teams including Arizona. I had USC and Washington in there as well so I was unhappy about them losing (as well as being a fan of both teams).

Then my doc calls me and tells me that my cholesterol level is 206, which is high. Time to cut down on the fats and salts and increase the exercise. GL to me on that one. I'm pretty infamous for eating horrendously (horrendous is two levels worse than horrible with horrid being the middle level for those that don't know).

And the kicker? I lost 10x206 at the poker table on Saturday. If you're any good at math, that's Pretty Shitty (not to be confused with Pretty Ricky, not sure which is worse in this case).



I'll get around to updating my numbers when I have a few minutes to add them up, but I'm definitely down for the month of March, probably down around 1k-2k this month.

Hope everyone else is doing better than that.

Peace, 4 years!

I'm in the Player of the Year race

However this was the most frustrating table EVER. I was 2nd in chips when we were down to five. I have two donks in it and two nits. Easy picking for me.

We decide to chop it and I'm due $12k when the worst player (obviously the guy who ended up winning it) says he wants $500 from everyone to chop. All of us are like "pffft you're the fish here and you want money from us?" so we don't chop. I double him up on a bad call by me, then when I'm about 11x the big blind I move in with ace high and he calls me with 6-7 from the small blind and makes two pair, gg me.

Ugh. The upside of this is that I'm not quite the tournament donk that I thought I was (0-2 in tournament cashes this year), although to be honest I should have easily won this tournament when it was 6/5 handed.

(P.S. the POY race statement was a joke for those that missed the sarcasm)

March Madness

So far March has been up and up and down and down and up and up and down. Should have been up and up and up but I was really in "action mode" a bit too much on Sunday and paid off this horrible player by trying to get her off her pocket ten's on a board that was Q-8-7-7 (flop Q-8-7 and I had check-raised her on the flop).

Sometimes it happens, I made the wrong move on the wrong player.

So now I'm about a third through the month and only up like $900 or something around there.

It's time to refocus because I've been spending some money and I need to conserve it right now.

Last night I had a 'home game' at work with some co-workers. I was playing extremely loose and gambling just to keep the action going because it would have been too boring otherwise. We played $.50/1.00 blinds and for a few hands I was challenging this guy to raise blind with me. So I raise my button blind to $9 and he re-raises all-in from his big blind. I asked him if he looked at his cards and he said "no," I asked him "So you're going all-in blind?" and he said "Yeah." So I say "Okay" and call his all-in blind. Then he goes "Well I looked I have ace-high," and I'm like "Uhh... ok." Then two aces and two kings hit the board and I'm a little hot because it was a dirty play but he can still take the money since I knew I was gambling but he refuses to take the money so I'm not sure what the point of him lying about it was. Everything was cool but it completely changed the complexion of the game and playing for fun with the blind raises. I either won or lost $20, I have no idea because I rebought about three/four times and have no idea how much money I had in my pocket. I did buy everyone pizza and soda so I guess I ended the night down money.


It was nice to see Huck Seed take down the NBC Head's Up Championship, it's amazing how well he plays in that tournament. I can't believe Rousso beat Ivey but she was obviously playing well and went all the way to the 'ship.

I want to know wtf is up with the Antonious/Durrr challenge because it seems like it was a huge publicity stunt at this point. Once April/May comes around there's no way they'll be able to finish it. I think Durrr wanted to achieve living legend status and figured this would be a way to do it and I gotta give him some credit, it worked.

I also read this whole Shaniac/Shannon Shorr shit that was going on between two poker (pros) and I thought it was bullshit. Obviously I don't think Shorr deserves to be in the NBC head's up tournament but at the same time his own blog is his space to vent about whatever he wants so who really cares if he does? Shaniac obviously has nothing of his own to talk about. I have no idea who Shaniac is but he's a name on the internet and has a lot of followers who are happy to co-sign with him. I say get your own life.

My hoop game is going downhill and I'm not sure why. My room looks like it just went through Hurricane Katrina and my new car needs new brakes, not to mention my old car needs a new front bumper because I let my boy borrow it and he casually mentioned that he ran over a cone that ended up being stuck on the bottom of the car.

Time to grind!

2009 Numbers: 218.75 hrs., +$24,543; BR2: +$700
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873
February: 77.75 hrs., +$8520

March: 23.50 hrs., +$1150
03.02.09 0.75 hrs., +$105
03.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$900
03.03.09 5.0 hrs., +$1145
03.05.09 1.75 hrs., -$1900
03.06.09 3.0 hrs., +$1730
03.07.09, 6.5 hrs., +$785
03.08.09, 4.0 hrs., -$1615

4 years