Nice!

So I was reading the comment from my last post and replied to it. Then I started to wonder who may have posted it? Being as sharp as I am, it took a day or so to figure out what most would have figured out in a minute or two. So, I cant believe that Richard "Quiet Lion" Brodie reads my blog! How cool is that? I always read his blog which can be found here
Lion Tales.

So now that I have one pro as a reader, I can only assume that you know, Doyle, Daniel, The Phils, Gus, Jennifer and all the others read it as well. Hi guys! You know, if you ever want to stake me or anything, I guess I would be ok with that!

As for the topic of the comment. I am sure every pro who has problem with the WPT agreement has valid points. However; I think the WPT has done alot in making poker as popular as it is today. Because of that, you see bigger fields for larger payouts. You see many more people in the card rooms, which helps the pros as well. Also, the exposure you may get, for example, from appearing in a WPT video game will do nothing but help you become recognized and maybe land some endorsement deals. I am sure I am being naive about this, but I think WPT does understand that its a two way street when it comes to their success. I do not think there agreement would in any way interfere with possible endorsements players get from other companies.

Please feel free to post your opinions, because I think this is a very interesting topic.

Oh, and I may change my tag line for the site to "What The Pros Read"! I am only telling the truth, right? Give me a hell ya Doyle!

Random Thoughts

I hope every one had a great Christmas. Not much to post, so I decided I will just post some random thoughts of mine. There will be no rhyme or reason for these thoughts. This is just completely free flowing.

Eric Lindgrens book has not impressed me so far. I am only a third of the way through.(It also should come with a warning, if you are not strong in your fundamentals, this book could cause severe damage to your bank roll)

The Book Of Bluffs has impressed me. (It also has the most powerfull statement for an endorsement that any poker book could ever have. I am talking about Amarillo Slims's statement)

I hate reraises when I hold mid pairs.

Vince Van Patton makes the WPT show what it is. He so damn goofy that he makes me laugh.

I think Courtney Friel has her work cut for her. Shana Hiatt was a perfect fit for that role.

While reading players comments in the chat box while playing online, I wonder where politeness and respect have gone.

I think alot of the young, sun glass wearing, trying to look intimidating, uber aggresive male poker players are guys who failed to make their high school football team.

I think that if you think you would rather have suited connectors than pocket aces, I want you at my table.

I think most online poker rooms will go bust in the next couple of years and we will have ten major rooms and that will be it.

Does anyone read this blog?

Phil Ivey will be condsidered the best poker player that ever lived someday.

$919 is much better than $2.20.

I think that there are so many good poker blogs out there, that this one is like the minor leagues.

I think I will make the final table of a major tournament with in the next 5 years and that will be my retirement fund.

The Hammer has jumped the shark.

Omaha 8 is not the game to play when stoned.

Chris Ferguson, Paul Phillips and Andy Bloch are biting the hands that feed them.

I think at least 5 of the so called stars of today will never be seen at a final table again. I might list who I think they are later.

I think I am done for today. Thanks for playing.

I see a bad moon rising!

I really need to avoid posts of people running bad. Whenever I read them it reminds me of how easy things can turn. For some reason it gets in my head and then I seem to lose.

Last night I entered the $20, 180 person SnG at PokerStars. I knew I was in trouble when within the first ten hands I had AA, AK, and JJ. Why is this bad? Well, because I knew the cards would turn on me, I would much rather have those hands hit me in the middle of the tournament. Turn they did.

I was up to T4000 early from those first hands. I was able to continue to chip up for a while. I was moved a couple of times, and then it happened. I was at about T7500, which put me in 4th place at the moment. I was moved to a table of absolute maniacs. And of course, I went card dead at this table. With the blinds 100/200, every single hand was opened for at least T600, with at least one, and several times, multiple callers. I never got much of chance to steal because someone always raised before me, or called the raise. I wouldnt have minded if I would have caught any decent starting cards, but it was not to be. I swear I was at this table for over an hour and I all could do was fold. Finally with my chip stack down to 4500 from being blinded away, I am in the big blind and get K8 of clubs. It was raised to only 600 from an ealry position player, two others call and because I havent played a hand in forever I call for the discount of only 350 more. The flop comes 567 of clubs! All right, I have a made second nut flush and I have a straight flush draw. I raise about the size of the pot, fold, fold and then the last player thinks for a while and calls. At this point I think he is on the nut flush draw, or maybe a straight draw. Turn is a brick and I bet about the size of the pot again. Again, he thinks for a while and calls. The turn is the Q of hearts. I am down to about T2200, so I decide screw it, if he has the nut flush, he has it, so I push. Why I did this? I dont know, I guess waiting over an hour for a hand and watching my chips disappear affected me. In hindsight, I know I am good enough to come back from just 2200, so I should have been carefull. He insta calls, he flopped a straight flush! I couldnt believe it when he turned over the 34 of clubs! That low opening raise of 600 probably cost me the pot and, just like that out in 33rd place! Ouch.

So many things I did wrong here. The first, why did I even play this hand to start with? I have to remember patience is very important. The second, why did I go all in on the river? He called both the flop and the turn, he has something, give him credit and move on. Again, I think it all goes back to being card dead for a while. When it happens you get bored, you watch your chips disappear from the blinds and antes, you feel like a wuss at the table. Just a horrible feeling. However, looking back, I could have withstood at least another hour with my chip stack. Eventually you have to get some cards to play. Damn I play dumb sometims.

I was steaming just a little at this point, so of course I entered a $30 one table SnG. And of course I played horribly and out I went in 7th.

Not good times! Not good times at all! So from now on, the instant I see a blogger writing about a losing streak, I will be running away like the wind from that blog. Just watch my smoke trials.

I'm funny, no really, I am, I swear.

So reading through my blog, a couple of things jump out at me right away.

Number 1, I really am terrible with puncuation and paragraphs. English was always my worst subject in school, and it shows here. Oh well, I have made it clear in the past that this was the case, so hopefully you can deal with it.

Number 2, and much more disturbing. I dont feel like my personality is coming out in this blog. In the real world, I am kind of a quiet guy, until you get to know me, or see my on stage or teaching a class. I am really just kind of a goof. I am definitly an "out there" type of person. However; for some reason I dont see this coming across in this blog.

I think part of the problem is with spoken words I just say what pops in my head. With the written word that is not the case. When I have time to think of what I want to say, and then it has to travel from my brain to the keyboard, some type of filtering happens. I am going to work on this.

On the poker front. Just was reading BadBloods blog. Man can I relate. I was running horribly in late summer, and when you are running bad you start to question whether you can even play the game or not. Hang in there Blood, you have a good attitude and it will turn around.

Also, from reading their blogs, I have found out that Blood and AlCantHang are my headbanging brethren! Very cool, \--/! I hope I get a chance to hang with these guys at blogger gathering sometime.

My old Bankroll is now up to 836! I am running well, and playing solid for the most part. I am getting good reads, and have been getting my money in while ahead. Cant ask for much more than that. At this rate the bankroll should be back to healthy level in the not too distant future.

Favre on Tilt!

After watching last nights game I realized Favre would be a horrible poker player. They say that he is such a competitor that he tries to make things happen and forces the ball in when things arent there. Well, as poker players we can relate to that. We get a bad beat, go on tilt and keep jamming the pot. Thats Favre. He cant except not just losing in a game, but losing a play. I can relate to that. Every hand I lose bothers me. I at times lose track of the big picture. I understand that its not about one hand, its about the entire session or tournament. Easy concept to say, but in the heat of battle not as easy to remember. That brings me back to Favre, he has never got this concept down. The only time he was close was when Holmgren was the coach, he was the only one who could reel Favre in.
We can all learn a few lessons from Favre, being an intense competitor that loves the game is one of them. These are great qualities, just avoid the down side of Favre, you dont have to win every hand. You will get a bad beat now and then, its just part of the game, Favre would never get this concept. So remember, when you are about to go tilt, think of Favre. You will thank me for this.

So this is Christmas, what have you done?

We played our Christmas show Saturday night. As usual, it was a blast. I highly recommend the raspberry margaritas on the rocks at Senor Lunas, very tasty. All went well, except I was a bit inebriated when we started the second set. Didn't cause a problem though, besides totally miscounting the beginning measures of a song and jumping into it too early. Ah, it happens, and other than that we sounded great.

As usual I haven't started my Christmas shopping as of yet, that's what Christmas Eve day is for, right? Froze my family jewels off buying a Christmas Tree on Saturday. Oh my god was it cold. For those of you not lucky enough to live in a cold weather climate, well let me just say you haven't lived until walk outside, take a breath and feel the entire inside of your nose freeze over. I am serious, it is so freeking cold here right now that you feel all the hair in your nose freeze into ice the second you inhale. It could be worse, I have the classic Polish runny nose when it gets cold out. God that sucks, if the tempature dips below 30, my nose starts running like an open faucet, its terrible. If you never had to endure this, I am envious. I always have to have Kleenex or a handkerchief with me when its cold out. So come to Wisconsin, experience icicles in your nose. How is that for a tourist slogan?

Poker has been up and down this week. The old bankroll is up to 477. I was in a $30 SnG with a habitual bluffer. The guy liked to show his hands too, so that was useful. It came down to heads up between me and him. I made a big mistake, never bluff a bluffer. I had Q 3 offsuit. I raised, he called. Flop comes down with 2, 7, A, rainbow. I raise size of the pot, he reraises. Now, I know how he plays, he slowplays when he has something and tries to bully you when he doesn't. So I reraise about the size of the pot(Here is my mistake, I should of went all in, my reraise left me pot committed). He of course reraises me all in. I have to call because I am now down to about 1800 in chips. He shows K 4 offsuit. So I read him right, just played it horribly. I should not have tried to bluff this guy, I should have waited until I actually had something. And if I was going to bluff after his reraise on the flop, I should have went all in. Very dumb on my part, I could read this guy like a book, so I should have stayed patient and waited him out. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Oh well, poker is a continual education process.

If I don't post again before Christmas, then Happy Holidays everyone.

I enjoy you too dumbass!

This is going to be a short rant post that has nothing to do with poker. You were forwarned.

I really dislike people sometimes. I especially dislike the so called music fans of Milwaukee. Milwaukee always has been and always will be a terrible music town. The difference between Chicago's and Milwaukee's music scene is just unbelievable. In Milwaukee, if you dont play covers, you arent getting shows. What brings this on? Well, one of my bands, Albatross, recorded an orginal Christmas song. We are playing a Christmas show on the 17th and decided it would be cool to create a Christmas song. In the spirit of Christmas we paid for all the studio time and reproduction costs ourselves and will be giving them away for free at the Christmas show. Anyway, OnMilwaukee.com did a small write up about it. I go to check it out, well, people are ripping us. Umm, ok, you guys havent even heard the song yet, but somehow its lame for a rock band to do a Christmas song. To add to that, OnMilwaukee doesnt have a very good pic of us, so of course people comment on the picture. Ok, so is that whats important to you? Now some have commented that they dont like our singer. Thats fine, she has voice that is different and not for everybody. We can live with that, but to rip a song you never heard? Nice to see the home town love. Please people, go see another band that plays "Play That Funky Music" and "Freebird" and leave me, my band, and other bands that dare to play original music the fuck alone.
Happy Holidays

I'm Back Baby!

Well, for those of you who happen to read this blog, I am back. I took a well needed sabbatical. Poker was ok, but the family life was getting to me. I needed time to refocus, and I have.
My life will be very different in 3 months time. My soon to be ex-fiance will be moving out, and I will more than likely have a new job. Life is about change, and I embrace it with open arms.

On the poker front, I have been playing ok. My Pokerstars account was down to $2.20 in mid November. That is not a misprint, $2.20! At about that time I saw a commercial for the release of Cinderella Man on DVD. One of the lines in the commercial for the movie is "I cant believe I cant provide a living for my family, I know what I am fighting for now" or something similar to that. Well, that was inspiring to me. I decided I could translate that over to poker. I decided there was no way I was adding money into my Pokerstars account, at least until after Christmas. So I had one choice, build that $2.20 into something. Well I have, my account is up to $415! Again I did not add any money, I just used that original $2.20. I started off by playing the .01, .02 micro no limit. Once I was up to $10 dollars I hit the $5 sit and go's. The rest is history so to speak. It is a very gratifying feeling. I will keep you updated on where the old bankroll goes from here.

On another poker note. I played in my first live tournament. It was at Oneida Casino in Green Bay. It was $65 to buy in and you could get one rebuy for $50 and one add-on for $50 more. There where about 100 people entered and I ended up 33. Not great at all, I actually played some hands very poorly. However; I did come away knowing that I could win it. I am positive of this, going in I wasnt so sure. This is yet another great confidence boost for me. Once I am on first shift you will definitely be seeing me on more live tourney's!

As for the blog, well I am not promising anything. I will update when I have something interesting to say. Think of it as maybe a weekly blog, where I will update you on the weeks happenings in my poker and personal life. Speaking of personal life, I just turned 37 on Friday! Wow, how the hell did that happen? I dont feel 37, (27 maybe, not 37) I've been told I dont look 37, so how can I be 37? We hear it all of our lives, time goes by quickly so make the most of it. The problem is, when you are young, it doesnt seem to go by to quickly so you think older people are just well, I dont know, old I guess. They really dont know what they are talking about. And then one day you wake up and find out you are 37 and wonder how the time went by so fast. I do know when thing, I am going to enjoy every damn day of being in my 30's because the big 40 is now looming in the not to distant future.