Saturday, July 28, 2007

Neteller to Release US Players Funds

From CardPlayer.com!!!!

Good News! NETELLER Is Returning all $94 Million to U.S. Players
Today, NETELLER announced That It Is out of Negotiations and will soon begin to implement a Plan for the Distribution of $94 Million in U.S. Funds
Today, NETELLER announced that it is out of negotiations and will soon begin to implement a plan for the distribution of $94 million in US funds. The distribution process will begin by July 30, 2007. Customers will receive an e-mail when distribution is available. The two most important things to note are: 1) Beware of scams and 2) requests will only be accepted until January 26, 2008. Here is NETELLER’s News Release.


Distribution Plan Summary

Please note that at the launch of the distribution plan, the NETELLER website will be extremely busy and may respond slowly when you browse to it. Please be patient and if you cannot log in, please try again a few hours later.

NETELLER will start the process for the distribution of U.S. member funds by 30 July 2007.

U.S. members will be notified by email when the process starts.

U.S. members should also check this site for updates.

NETELLER will issue an email to U.S. members to announce when they can begin requesting funds.

U.S. members must sign in to their NETELLER accounts to request the release of their funds.

U.S. members will not be able to request funds from the NETELLER website after January 26, 2008.

Funds will be delivered by electronic transfer to the bank account on record with NETELLER or by cheque to the member's mailing address.

NETELLER will not charge withdrawal fees.

As NETELLER is returning $94 million to hundreds of thousands of US customers, it will take some time for all payments to be processed.

Please be careful of any phishing scams. Only log in to the neteller.com website to request the return of funds. Remember it must have neteller.com as the top level domain using the https security protocol — nothing else.

Friday, July 27, 2007

RiverChasers Bubbilicous

Oh well, kind of sucks to play three hours, get yourself in position to win and then go out on the money bubble. On the flip side, I know it comes down to some cards, luck and position at the end stages of a tourney. Just wish my 88 had held against Waffles AJ. I got short stacked with Buddy Dank attacking my BB from the SB. I wasn't short stacked myself enough to warrant calling his all in jams with my measly holdings. And I didn't invoke the KOD rule on him on the third jam against my blind. Next time Buddy your arse is mine even if I'm holding J4os. Nothing personal :)

On the flip side, I have now final tabled the last 3 Maths and cashed twice, the last two Mookies and cashed once and final tabled last nites Riverchasers. Ill take my first big blogger tourney win in MD's big game coming up on August 5th.

I'm really liking where my MTT game is right now. I think every thing has started to click and a bigger score then my $1165 biggest cash is right around the corner.

As Ive said before the Riverchasers tourney is kind of a mixed game of major leaguers and bush leaguers. There is some cross over amongst the field because of our connection to AlCantHang. But the pure riverchasers stick to their own kind and chat amongst themselves and the ghey bloggers (including me) flock together like birds of a feather. The one nice thing is my old forum friend Wolfshead showed up to rail some RCers and we got to chat for a bit. Neither he nor I really spend much time out our old forum any longer.

I was basically called a donkey on a hand I mucked (the dude actually only hit his K on the river holding k8 off) where i called a $165 turn bet with 74h. I had a double belly buster at the time, the dude outchipped 2:1. It was early in the tourney as I had almost doubled up. Yes fonkey, I'm going to push those edges when its a puny part of my stack because you are never going to see it coming if i hit that straight. So why in the hell does a hand I muck show up in the last hand played with my face cards revealed on FTP? Can anyone answer me that.

Today my body is feeling much better then yesterday. I was pretty sore yesterday after tripping over my feet going up the inside stairs to my condo carrying stuff. I fell up but landed on my side and kind of twisted my back. In fact i was stiff enough that my arms were even sore and on a EP steal last nite with KQos I actually showed the cards on a misclick (blaming it on Bailey who was also in rare form last nite with the Air Conditioning on doing laps around the condo).

Now the next order of Agenda for the Go-to man AlCantHang is to create an Atlantic City Junket for us Bloggers and Riverchasers. He's talked about it and it sounds like the Boathouse Bash is tabled for the foreseeable future. How about it Al? Id assist on some details. Heck from 1996-2000 I successfully organized and race-directed 500-600 marathoners on their 26.2 mile point to point trek without losing anyone!!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Turning Stone Trip Report

So I met the limo at exit 12 of the Northway Park and Ride as the rest of the crew was motoring down from Glens Falls. Lest you think we always pimp a ride like this I'll confess that the limo is owned by a friend of Lex and Chris our driver was going to be gaming too. $60 round-trip leave the driving to Chris with beverages on board/tunes and movies (Road Trip on the return ride).

A 6 person $5 turbo sng on the way up with Snake5970 (Ray) sitting out. We Lose John I think first to Lex's dad Keith chasing (nothing new there) and sucking out a flush on the river. A few hands later I raise with AQ get two callers Keith being one. the flop is KXX check check check (me in position so I take the free card knowing Keith is a calling station). Turn comes and A... I'm looking good and push all in. Karen or Zoe bows out. Keith goes into the tank and I say.. Chase your flush Keith. I'm pretty sure he has either hit the K and is looking to get paid (or was looking to check raise/call the flop if I or Zoe had fired) or he could have a weaker ace. Nope he calls behind with KJ and of course sucks out on me when a Jack hits the river. I take over the deal after I bust out. Zoe wound up busting Keith for a winner take all.

We get to T-Rock and breakfast first at the buffet. I'm not really a big breakfast eater and compared to Caesars brunch with Randy from Aces Cracked on my first full day in Vegas and the Rio WSOP day breakfast with LJ this pales in comparison. Of course the company is good. We head to the poker room it is empty.. HMMM not like Caesars not like MGM not like the Amazon Room not even like the Orleans poker room. We are talking one table going of $1/$2 and two dudes playing $1000 max $5/$5 NL heads up. A few folks put their names on the cash game tables (Ray, Keith, Lex, John and Karen). Karen and Zoe go to play some casino games. Lex goes to play Blackjack with Dad. Chris our driver goes to play WAR and buy pull-tabs. I shoot the shit with Ray for a bit then head over to the NL heads up game which John is watching while he waits. The older out of shape fat guy busts the younger stud in the track-suit. He gestures to me that even though he has $4700 on the table he is still STUCK and invites me to sit down with him. I laugh and roll my eyes and say... I'm a cash game donkey, stakes to rich for my blood. He pays me a nice compliment which makes my day and disappears.

Lex has donked off $100+ in five minutes of BJ..... $15 table minimum took about 10 minutes he said.. The dealer was just running hot. He sits at $1/$2. His dad sits at $2/$4 no limit. Ray finally sits and says come sweat me. So I pull up a seat on the wall and pop in the IPOD and open up the FTP strategy guide to read more Andy Bloch. Did I mention its autographed by Michael Craig. I won it in that FTP special tourney they had the one I finished 13th in.

Somewhere during the AM TILT sets in. Numerous reasons. #1 being I cant find my regular glasses. I had my nice new COACH prescription sunglasses at the ready and my contacts in the bag. But I couldn't find my regular day to day glasses with the $400 lenses. Dammit. Just my freaking luck, Cash in the MATH and now risk having to invest in new glasses not just lenses which will set me back at least $600. Can't I ever catch a break. I mean I cash in the Mookie or some tourney for a nice score and next day leak under the sink sets me back $200. I swear the gods are trying to tell me that I will never get ahead..........Somewhere over the course of this day I start crossing myself and saying Hail Mary's. I'm not even a practicing Catholic anymore!!

Finally its time to register for the tourney. I have my pokerroom card which everyone must buy each day you playfor $2. I have to get a Diamond Card. I get the Diamond card and register for the tourney. A nice lady who winds up at my table signs up for the tourney after deliberating for a bit and after I advise her to take the $5 add on for an additional $500 chips and explain to her why she wants to do it... She winds up busting out on the second hand of the tourney when her two pair lose to a turned straight.

The poker room starts to fill up. I check back on Ray's progress and he is down a buy-in. Running bad seems to be the order of the day all around so far. Lex mentions no one can lay down Ace anything. Now as the poker room is filling I notice that the room is filled with tons of boys in the age range of 18-24. Now, Turning Stone is no booze so under 21's can play. Some of these lads don't even look 18. I mention to Ray that they look younger all the time.

So I take my seat with my sunglasses on (which one dude later tells me makes me look ominous after I stare him down). The #1 seat is the bust out seat, first the lady then another dude who gets moved to her seat. Then the 10 turns out to be another bad seat. John eventually gets moved to the #1 and isn't there long either. I find out later Lex busted early in the first levels with overplayed JJ. Chris and Keith out next then Karen and John from the #1 seat at my table. Zoe, Me and Ray are still in with me doing the best which isn't saying much. I went to the first break being up a little over the $4500 starting chips and here's why...

Limp Limp I look down to KK on the button. I pop it up to $600 ($75/$150 level). College boy in a Bucknell sweatshirt re pops in SB me $1200. Fold Fold from the limpers and BB. Now in the old days IG would shake in her shoes and assume shes beat with Aces maybe. Without hesitation I look at him and have this strange feeling he has the same hand. So I say... SO BE IT if you have them. I'm here to win not play girly poker ALL-IN..... Insta-call KK vs KK, we chop the blinds. I then know its going to be a long frustrating day and I'm already on Eyeglass TILT.

Ray has chipped up nicely and gets move to my immediate right when we get down to three tables (95 started the tourney). I look at him and advise him that If I push all in from the BB into his SB with ATC its a calculated move based on our chip stacks and point to the FTP book. I look at the complexion of our table. He is in the same age bracket as me although I have him by two years. there are mostly college buys at the table and a few old men. A dude gets moved to my left who I swear has Tourette's and the hairiest legs I've ever seen. He announces all his moves quite loudly: FOLD, RAISE. I CALL. His hand shakes badly when he pushes his chips across the oval line that cirles the poker table(no tell as to the strength of his hand there) I don't know whether I should be laughing or crying everytime he shouts I jump out of my seat just about. Ray and I concur later that there was something really wrong with the dude (no real social skills). I decide that maybe he as Asperger's syndrome or some such thing.

So my demise is on three hands. The hand I should have played I look down to 89s in the BB. Asian Kid from Middle position, who Ray recognizes from previous TRock trips, and who is a good player per Ray, raised to $3200 (as Trent S would say.. Magic Johnson). I like my hand, figure Asian Kid is strong... he gets an all in call from the button or Cutoff). I'm getting incredible odds now but if I call Im all in. I like the hand and figure Live cards. I decide to fold fearing dominating hands. Asian kid who has told me my Buddha Card capper is probably better luck for him then me (If only he knew) flips KK, other dude has overs but gets busted. I stare at the board in disbelief as I would have hit a str8. The Asian Kid sees my look and says you would have won the hand and I would have been pissed but understood your call had you called there. Later I push in with live cards from the button trying to knock out the old geezer who is holding Ax. He hits I dont.. Now im the small stack and all in on my sb and I cant even post the full sb blind and ante. Out IG goes to the old geezer again who is holding A4os lol..Finishing somewhere between 25th and 28th. Last woman standing.

Ray makes the final table and busts out in tenth on a hand he shouldnt have been in on but he was getting 4:1 calling the raise with the blinds and antes at what they were (and the raiser and one caller in the pot from his blind). Which leaves me to my next lament.

The structure at turning stone kind of sucks.. At the $1000/$2000 blind level the ante is $500!!! Im most tourneys at Caesar's, Foxwoods, Borgata, Taj its like $300 or so at that level. Here is the structure

$25/50, $50/$100, $75/$150, $100/$200/A$25, $200/$400/A$50, $300/$600/A$75, $400/$800/A$100, $600/$1200/A$200, $800/$1600/A$300...at the $1000/$2000, $1500/$3000 and $2000/$4000 levels the ante stays $500... I think you get the idea who crazy the ante levels are......

Anyway Chris our driver had the best day at WAR and pull tabs netting over $4000. Hes putting it towards a deposit on a new limo or car as he got some big client for the Saratoga Racing Season thats coming up. I found my glasses in their case on the seat of the limo which we returned to after Ray busted out. So eyeglass TILT was over. I'm still on I dont feel very attractive, Im ugly and fat and I feel old TILT ( tripped over my own feet walking up the stairs of my condo and twisted my back) right now and will have to get over that.

On the bright side.... My FULL TILT ROLL is looking plush and the BBT freeroll is tonite!!! I'm taking a few days off I think after tonite. Not because I'm not playing well, I had my third MATH Final table in a row and am 2/3 in cashes in that tough event.... Thanks LJ and girly chatters for the congrats and kudos....I just need to decompress for a bit.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Off to T-Rock

Mondays are always the busiest days for my job. I did get my weekly half hour off the phones to clean up stuff. Since I have no old stuff to resolve I spent it working on some claims. Then I got one hour off the phone to process claims. I had to jump back on the phone at 6 PM for my final hour. When I start getting phone calls from members rather then dentists, I know there are too many people on the phone. We now have a lot more people on the phones till 7 PM. All Work at homers are on till 7 PM we have 14 more reps going home over the next couple of months. Plus all new hires are on till at least 6 PM. I'm just hoping that I will regularly be pulled to process claims once we have an army of CSPs on the phones late. I'm also planning on seeing if once we lose overtime (Bangaloring more claim work would accomplish that) if I can go to a four day work week Monday thru Thursday 8:30 to 7 PM with Fridays off. It's a goal if I can tolerate the ten hour days.

I have hereby declared that Saturdays may be a poker free zone for IG. Why because in every tourney I played on Saturday I got beat by hands that people had no business calling some of my raises with in no limit (58os for one against my bigger pp) and Omaha 8 and razz starting hands that had my head spinning. I am beginning to get resentful against these folks who are nice people and am tired of playing people who do the same fucked up things week after week. That being said I am used to a much better caliber of play then I find in even a $10 buy-in other then the Mookie. So, I may just stick my nose in the air and say bye bye to all the little forum friends and foes Ive made. You served me well but my time with you all is done. And by the way I'm SUPERHOT on sharkscope right now and most of you people are LOSERS and always will be....

Now, Sham was the witness to some of the IG run-overs. He also thought I was having a really bad day because he thought something tragic happened to my plants when I told him I was playing IG Scissor hands and had given them haircuts. Damn, should have played up that pity party. Anyway, he gave me a good chuckle as I explained I had pruned them all back (it was a leap of faith) to stimulate regrowth and by Jebus it worked. My plants are rocking and rolling again even after the brutal beating they took in the rains that we had.

I don't get our local newspaper. I don't even get USA Today everyday anymore. So somehow I missed all this hubbub about the NBA referee scandal. If you are an avid reader of MiamiDon you will no that he has a very good grasp on the sports betting scene. I always read his stuff with interest on fading etc. He's been singing the fix has been in for a long time and guess what the man appears to have been right all along. Once again Hoyazao has an excellent Monday report on his blog about this latest scandal. Here I was thinking that nothing could top the Tour De France doping scandals that arise every year, then Michael Vick and now this. Wowzer.....

My hot reads of the weekend were the Full Tilt Strategy guide with special attention to Andy Bloch's session. I'm going to say this the man is a genius and he'd be that without going to MIT or Harvard etc. His information is presented really well. I'm pretty smart, hell I got the highest SAT score for verbal in my high school class but sometimes smarties don't present themselves well, we talk over peoples heads. Ive been mired in David Sklansky's stinking Sklansky-Chubokov numbers for a good couple of weeks now and am about ready to drop kick it over to Snake5970 to read. Then Andy comes along with his own fabulous charts and explanation and the light bulb went off in my head. Now Sklansky is a smart man (Ive heard him called pompous) but really he needs to learn to dummy down his writings and calculations for the little people. I wonder if he whispers sweet SC numbers to Brandi Hawbaker when hes "instructing" her? And what the heck happened to Brandi? What the heck happened to Jennicide and her announcement to play in lingerie at this years Main Event? Hmmm? Guess the woman with her tits on the table outdid them both.

My next really interesting read of the weekend was a Bluff magazine article on high stakes cash game player Brian Townsend aka Sbrugby. To think he only joined CardRunners on 1/1/2006 and now he plays the highest of high stakes and has the most profit of all online pros to the tune of like 5 million in one table I saw. Double WOWZEr. Maybe if Neteller funds show up in my bank account soon I will invest in Cardrunners as I intend to start playing more cash games.

Which leads me to my final segue of the evening before I sigh off for the MATH... Off to Turning Stone tomorrow. I plan on playing the noon tourney there and then donk it up at the $1/$2 Cash game. Snake gave me a little pep talk and MiamiDons Vegas words echo in my head but I still have that little feeling of agita. Its the same one when I first donned a wetsuit and swam in open water for the first time. I'm over my head............................

MONDAYS AT THE HOY up next... Password as always is HAMMER...

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Thursday nite and No Poker for IG

Two hard hard fought battles in the MATH and Mookie, two final tables, in both I came up a little short of the Moolah. I've had recent cashes in both and to come back with two final tables in one week is pretty damn good against this caliber of play. I've started to utilize the notes fields on FTP. Ive picked up more patterns on my opponents. My steals and re stealing having gotten better, no make that great. I have to believe that the bubbling means I'm about to hit it big once again. Maybe it will be Tuesday when I venture up to TRock with Snake and a bunch of other members of the APL.

I was bored with no limit on Sunday nite so I entered myself in a limit Omaha 8 SNG. I usually loathe anything limit. I'm a solid enough PL08 player and Limit Omaha is definitely not my comfort zone. So I entered this little Micro limit sng, think it was $2.25 on FTP and I dominated the dang thing from start to finish only losing the chip lead for a short period of time. My first observation is people play too many hands early on from out of position. I think this is because the blinds are low. I also know Omaha 8 is a game of the nuts (fullhouses and flushes not str8's and sets and trips) and implied odds. I was able to get paid off early on a nice scoop. I built my stack and then when the blinds were up, I was able to raise early and often to limit the short stacks playability. It was fun an a nice little break from no limit. So, I can say I won my first ever Omaha 8 limit SNG on my first attempt.

Now I have to rant.....

I haven't read Harry Potter, nor have I seen the movies. I figure I'll save them for retirement. I love love love LOTR (Lord of the Rings for those of you under a rock) and Ive never seen the movie. I probably have read the Hobbit 20 times and the trilogy about 4-5. Now, from what I hear copies of the new Harry Potter book are already circulating and the ending is going to be ruined for lots of folks. I used to work in a Barnes and Noble. We would always get books in early and they would be in boxes labeled do not release or open till XYZ date and the day was always a Tuesday. CDS, Dvds books always seem to "drop" on Tuesday. Now this book has to be in the back rooms of stores well in advance of the actual release date just to satisfy demand. And of course you are going to get employees who "steal" and then try to sell the stuff on Ebay etc. I want immediate gratification just like the next person, but Geesh people cant you wait? Anticipation and build-up is really more exciting then the actual event. Cause lets face it, once you read it you'll probably be let down because there isn't going to be anymore coming. And shame on you if you read the ending first!!!

Next, my down-state compadre Hoyazo wrote a beautious strategy article on stealing and restealing. That was some of the best poker writing I read all week. Kudos Hoy!!! He also pontificates beautifully on the SCUM bag of the year, Atlanta Falcons QB Michael Vick. Now, I remember when Eugene Robinson of the GB Packers was voted NFL man of the year and then arrested for soliciting a Hooker during SuperBowl week. He was disgraced and gave back the award. We never really heard from him again. But, I will say this.. Soliciting a hooker is nothing compared to the charges against Michael Vick. The dogfighting is bad enough, but the barbaric treatment of losing and even winning animals (electrocution, drowning, hanging, starving) etc etc. shows a complete lack of moral character. It is depravity. Now, some of you may know that I have an accounting/finance degree but I also have my Psychology degree. I have taken courses in Abnormal Psychology and Deviant Behavior. I will say this in my blog because I can... Michael Vick is a sociopath. Most people who are in prison today for crimes against humans started their careers doing nasty things to animals.

Snake just called me from the Thruway after a quick trip to Casino Niagara (his post retirement Poker Room National tour!!!. He said the topic of conversation at the tables was the salvageability of Michael "Sick" Vick's career. I don't think it can be salvaged. And I personally think he should be banned from the NFL. And I will lay odds that Vick's homeboys sell him out to save their own asses. Karma is a bitch and what goes around comes around. My comment on Hoy's blog was that the perps should be put in a pit tied to the walls and then have the dogs go after their naughty bits. I quote Senator Robert Byrd D-WV:

"I am confident that the hottest places in hell are reserved for the souls of sick and brutal people who hold God's creatures in such brutal and cruel contempt," he said.

"One is left wondering," he said. "Who are the real animals: the creatures inside or outside the ring?"

For the indictment:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0717072vick1.html

So, I'm feeling a little bit of post WSOP let down. Almost two months of great Tao of Poker writing by Dr Pauly. Plus the great PokerWorks and PokerNews coverage by Carmen, CC, Tuscaloosa Johnny, Change100, BJ Nemeth, Pauly, Amy Calistri, Alaskan Lass and all the others I dont have time to mention. The mystery of Vinnie Vinh. The Bellagio Cup, Venetian Deep Stack Extravanganza, and Binions Poker Classic reports from bloggers. The WPBT summer classic and my cashes in Vegas at Casears and the Orleans just were some highlights of my summer.

So now I'm addicted to Top Chef on Bravo. I also watched last comic standing and some of the comics are pretty damn funny. I'm loving Kathy Griffin's My Life on the D-list and cant wait till the showing Flipping out comes ( about a real estate investor who buys real estate fixes it up and then sells it and who seems to be more narcissistic and OCD then most reality TV personalities).

Saratoga is the August Place to be.... the ponies will be running soon at the thoroughbred track. And its time to get ready for some football....The Giants will soon be in training camp at SUNY Albany (not that I'm a Giants fan). I will have to forgive Snake5970 for being a Dallas Cowboys life long fan (Of course I had to needle him on how a country boy from Upstate NY could like the cowboys). As for me, Im a free-agent fan whoever propels me to the win of my football pool is my favorite team. Hopefully, I wont have to wear a paper-bag over my head for my Colorado Buffs. Bad enough having the Missou boys (RK and Sham) on my case, now I have to deal with OOSSUU74 (Oklahoma State) and of course Hench18 (Nebraska Cornhuskers alum) taking pot shots at the tables. Any other Big12ers out there... TAKE A FRIGGIN NUMBER ON RAZZING IG and her BUFFS!!!

I think drinking a Starbucks Espresso this late at nite was a bad idea :)

And LJ rock and roll in the Ladies LIPS tourney at the Orleans on Sunday!!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Do not screw with a feisty Italian Gal

Ah yes, Election time is rolling around and the phone calls from my political party have begun. I once was a card carrying contributing member. Not any more.

Hapless underpaid phone rep: Ms IG, can we count on you for a contribution at this time?

IG: (let hapless underpaid phone rep do her spiel while head rotated 360 degrees ala Linda Blair in the Exorist before firing..............

Do you know what the UIGEA is?

HUPR: No

IG: I am a poker player and until I get my money back that is being held hostage Im telling you the same thing I told the last person who called. You arent getting a bloody dime . My party , the Democrats (asshats) are just as guilty as the other party the Republicans (assclowns) for allowing this bill to be piggy
backed onto a Port Security measure.

I suggest you do a little research on the issue.

HUPR: HMMM. Im sorry that you feel that way, thank you for your time. Click!!

Damn I feel good. Time to kick some poker arse.

Friday, July 13, 2007

10 and a half months and counting (hopefully)

A few cell phone calls ago from Vegas, I mentioned to Snake... Oh well the 2008 WSOP is only about 10.5 months away. He laughed and said I always used to think that at the end of deer season.

It's Day 4 of the Main Event. Im not as eager as a beaver to catch up with the news. Mainly it means my vacation is coming to an end. But it also has to do with the fact that Snake5970 is busto, Lucko21 is busto, Fuel55 is busto, OOSSUUU74 is busto, Sprstoner is busto.

This was a Friday afternoon girly chat with Kat:

IG: im just counting months till next year again lol
badkatitude: lol...me too
badkatitude: my desire to play in it is overwhelming my concern over anyone still in.
IG : thats an apropos way of putting it Kat... We are selfish bitches lol
badkatitude: lol...i prefer the term "woman who knows what she wants" to selfish...but yeah, same thing

Neteller Update- AKA will we ever see our money again?

http://www.neteller-group.com/press/en/134.htm

Interesting how the shit hit the fan on Friday 10/13/2006 (which is my birthday) for the original UIGEA measure and Neteller decides for a Friday the 13th announcement date to let us know it make take longer then originally expected. At least they made an announcement when they said they would.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Who'd of thunk it

Online Dating

Mingle2

Pretty funny considering one of my live league mates thinks I have a potty mouth for dropping the F-bomb!!! The only "bad" words that came up were drugs, hell and another one. Guess they didnt pick up on LSD, Friggin, beyotches, bastids and for good measure fucktards and fawkers.

I just won a token in an $8.80 18-person SNG in a donkfest by moi that left me last gal standing. I was so card dead I pushed all in from the SB with 79os. The button had raised to $720, I had only a few more chippies and I figured live cards and I was the short stack so what the fawk do I have to lose?. Well the BB went into the tank and made the call of my all-in and pushed all-in himself. Sure enough the button folds. The BB had 88. Holy Mother of Pearl, my goose is cooked Flop comes down with another 8 (set for the BB) and a 6 with a couple of clubs so there are flushes out there but neither of us have clubs but Ive picked up an OESD. And I hit my OESD on either the turn or river which of course mega-tilts the BB.

The BB asks what kind of a play was that? I just type Hee Haw. Now of course I was making a move based on my little bitty stack size and my read that the button was stealing with a big stack. I knew that I was probably going out on that hand If I didnt catch a piece of the board because the button certainly was going to call my all in. Hell he was priced in to do so. I didnt expect the BB to have a legitimate hand. With a raise and an all-in he may have been tempted to just fold those snow-men so he could survive to the tokens and then it would just have been me and the button heads-up. It actually worked out better that he re-shoved and I got lucky because I not only got the Buttons preflop raise I got the BB's too. And really who cares if I look like a fonkette. I got my token for next week's MATH!!!

Now Eggman my live league commish Mike, is railing me, and I'm sure he thinks Ive gone completely nutty (which is good because I want my live league mates to realize I will play any two cards). Remember, I open raised at his home game with 79-suited and showed when everyone folded around to me.

Anyway, Ive successfully spent a ton of money this week without going anywhere. Besides the glasses, I woke up this AM to find a pool of water under my kitchen sink. Now in the old days, I might have gone on life tilt, but these days I just suck it up to being a homeowner. Come on, I take bad beats and suck-outs on a regular basis so whats a little water under the sink? Finding a plumber in the middle of a heat wave is not easy I might add. They are all out doing air-conditioning calls. So I get thru to one, $80 for the service call and of course its my P-Trap or T-trap which has cracked and gotten gunky. So the bill comes to $199. Fawk. I havent even bought a pair of shoes or a new outfit while on vacation.

I did get a nice pedicure (OPI Cranberry Scone replaced One Helluva Color) yesterday and my eyebrows and lip waxed and I get my hair recolored for the first time since May on Saturday. Oh yeah, I have to set aside $60 for my limo trip up to Turning Stone on the 24th of this month. Thats right a bunch of us from APL are heading up there for the day via limo so we dont have to drive and so we can do a turbo in the limo on the way up and back!!! Great idea Lex!!! . I plan to play in the noon tourney and try to satellite into the Empire State Poker Classic. I am targeting the Deep Stack tourney they are running at the end of the Classic as my next "big event". Im sure Ill be doing a little cash game donking there too.

Snake5970 is still having a good run at the MGM. When I talked to him today he was down a buy-in but was battling back. He flopped two pair in a multi-way pot and some old dude had limped Aces and hit a set. Yes, the old dude limped aces into a multi-way pot and got extremely lucky. He's still down for the trip (largely because of those two big buy-in tourneys at the Venetian) but has been profitable in every cash outing that he has been on barring today. MiamiDon has his number so hopefully, the two of them may meet up one of the next three days for some donkery.

Mookie tonite.. Im going to miss Riverchasers tomorrow as Ill be out of town with my dad and his two silver-grey standard poodles (Sky and Scout). We are heading to Westport, CT to visit my one and only sister Suzanne. It's going to be a pool day for the puppies and my sister's Portugese Water Dog (PWD) Beasley.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

The year in Review

I final tabled and cashed in my first MATH last nite finishing in 4th. What was even cooler was that my gal pal LJ also final tabled and finished 3rd. When was the last time two women made the cash and FT at the same time in the MATH? Probably never.

I have mentioned before that I only started playing the MATH when it moved to Full Tilt and became part of the BBT. The 10 PM start time was a little late for me. Coupled with the $20 buy-in when on Pokerstars and not a huge bankroll on-line after the Neteller fiasco I had to come to grips with the fact that the MATH buy-in would be 10-20% of my stars bankroll and a potentially expensive learning curve that could deplete my funds.

Now I missed the first few weeks of the BBT as I was in a bit of a funk back in February and March. Live Play was my focus, I was down on on-line play and to be honest I didn't feel like playing much at all. Now the MATH move to Full-Tilt opened up options to us (even with the higher $26 buyin) in the post UIGEA arena with the ability to satellite in for $8.80 at the 18 man SNG's and then the addition of the token frenzy for $6.50. And I had a re-newed focus on continuing to improve at this game that I've pretty much been successful at since the get-go.

Ive moved up the ranks from freeroller to low buy-in forum grinder. Up until last August my biggest buy-in was $10 on-line once a month or so and the occasional $20 buyin on-line. That changed after my Vegas trip last year and my live league play began. I finally met my buddy Trent who I knew from the Poker Analysis forum and who only lived a short hop up the Northway. I missed season I of the APL but after Vegas I wanted to play more live and with a change of work schedule that would allow me to get up to Ft Edward with time to spare and no speeding tickets (well I got one) I was able to join up the league.

Trent (aka LGkeeper) invited me to a home game at his house last August to meet a couple of people that would be playing in the league. I met Karen that nite and I met Ray aka Snake5970. I had never dealt before and was nervous, I was tight. I made the final table and bubbled after doubling up when I pushed all in against Snakes raise with QT when he had AK and I spiked a ten on the flop and one on the river. I wanted to bust his ass for two reasons (even if my move was a bit hee hawish in retrospect) he had qualified for the Main Event two years running and had just gotten back, and he had found it humorous that I had gotten blown off by a guy right before my Vegas trip. Even though I laughed back and said I know that's ridonkulous (the situation) he irritated me. (little did I know he was laughing with me as we kind of had the same thing happen).

We had two pre-season live games which I went deep in final tabling both times. For whatever reason I decided that Ray was a good guy even if he teased me from time to time. So I did what I had never done before, after I busted out I marched over to him and handed him my phone number. He had kind of taken me under his wing without me even asking him too even though I probably irritated the hell out of him in my shrill Jennifer Tillyish perky voice. Of course the fact that I also have her chest and youthful appearance also cancelled out any of the negatives. And my game began to improve rapidly with his coaching, cajoling and on the flip side his game got better too.

I came close to winning a seat for the Aussie Millions, I final tabled a seat for the Ultimate Poker Classic. I was getting closer and closer to bigger scores but they were slipping away. Ray was trying to teach me aggression to over-come my girly poker tendencies but I didn't think I was getting it. I went on a down-ward spiral the last few weeks of the APL in live play even though I cashed in my first Mookie on-line. The next turning point was I shot an email to Lucko21 after reading a round-table discussion that he hand Fuel55 and Matt Matros had done with CC. His reply albeit non-specific helped big time with the girly poker thing.

And then Neteller went AWOL on us Americans and Ray had some unfinished business to take care of and wasn't playing much poker at all, and APL was over till the fall. I was without most of my bankroll and my coach and best guy friend, heck make that someone who had become one of my best friends. Welcome to IG's funkytown. I'm a player and after a couple of months of I'll play when I want and stick to live I snapped out of my funk in April after my trip to Foxwoods.

I final tabled the Blogger Bracelet Race at the end of April. Another Mookie cash and FT. I had started playing the MATH and would go deep but would fall short. I even made my first Blogger Big Game and played solid making little more then the points. I had started making more aggressive moves (some really really aggressive moves on re-steals some worked some didn't). I opened up my hand ranges. It was all coming together just not always at the same time, I was doing bigger buyins (Mookie, River Chasers, BBG, and MATH were my focus) and cashing bigger just not as often Still nothing major but instead of $50-70 scores I was usually pulling down $100-$250 (on a $10-$20 buy-in).I'm getting myself in position to win, I'm just not getting the overall win. I also had Ray back working we me, but I was also working with him. In the two months he was away from the game he had noticed that mine had completely changed. I basically feel his strengths are my weaknesses and mine his. Together we have an almost perfect game.

I started the BBT late and had to scramble to get twenty in as I was bouncing down in the basement of qualifying by points. I finished up strong. Hoyazo remarked that I didn't slide in to the top 50, I played my way in. After Gigli'ing the Blogger Big game after a set over set debacle I finished up at 38th (I was 35th going into the finale).

And last nite after an hour of no results playing small-ball poker and missed flops and being card dead, I looked down to 99 right before the break and pushed all in against Buddy Dank's AK and the IG held. After the break I worked my stack up to a mid stack. And then I did what I knew I had to do. I needed to go on the Counter-offensive to the big stack (Astin at the time). He was open raising with his big stack from any position. I remembered the WPT where either Hoyt Corkins or Dewey Tomko started moving in to take position away from the Aggressor. I also invoked the KOD rule on my BB. I will admit that on a couple of occasions I didn't even look/care what my cards were. I moved in because I knew that was the right move at the time against the player I was playing in the heads-up situation.

And it payed off. I got lucky a couple of times. I gave some chips back but I final tabled and finished 4th playing for first. (I got a little crazy at the end). I had commented to LJ in girly chat that I wasn't giving up at any point and it was kind of sucky that she was in the SB when I was in the BB and we had to tangle with each other. And then a blogger who I really respect and like popped up in chat (he was railing after he got knocked out) and paid me a huge compliment and that made my day even though I didn't win. Sometimes the improvement comes in baby steps sometimes it comes in leaps in bounds. Sometimes the pieces are all there and its just a matter of putting them all together. That's kind of the way I feel right now about my game. I know I can keep improving and working on things but on any given day I am a contender.

My goals for next year (I'll be playing three years in late September):

1) Make a concerted effort to become a cash game player. Snake transitioned nicely in Vegas where he still is (rarely played cash before) and I know MiamiDon is a wealth of info (and another good friend to boot)

2) Score a cash in the $5k range in one event either live or online. After winning $1165 in one live event ($100 buy-in) $50-$60 is peanuts.

3) Win a blogger event!!! MATH, MOOKIE OR BLOGGER BIG GAME...

4) Invest in PokerTracker or Poker Office to log my results. I really really really need to take notes instead of keeping stuff in my head. This will be paramount for ring game success.

5) Do a SNG ladder challenge for myself ala Blinders.

I'm still kind of limited to my on-line bankroll which is spread out over a bunch of sites. I'm sitting on $315 in tourney credits on Bodog which I hope I can make something happen with in some of the bigger tourneys. Hopefully, the next few days will see Neteller announce that we can sign in and move our money. I'm a little concerned because one of the arrestees plead guilty. I wonder if they will release the money now knowing he admitted to pleading guilty. From what I have heard they have to release the money in order to be able to resume trading on the London Stock Exchange.

Enough of the boring retrospective.

And Congratulations to Lucko21 who is sitting on a playable chip stack moving on to Day 2B of the 2007 WSOP Main Event. He lost a big coin flip right as the clock wound down to end his day 1 play.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Vacation's Rule

Man I can get used to this not working thing. I slept in till 9 AM this morning which is unusual for me. But I spent a nervous day yesterday sweating from 2500 miles away. So, I got up went and paid a bill stopped at the bookstore without buying any new reading material and then came right home. Pool Day today. Gotta work on those tan lines. I spent a couple of hours at the pool reading and chatting it up with my neighbor Joan and her friend Marie (who knows my mother and who I've met before) and another lady from the townhouses across the way. Unfortunately the clouds moved in and it looks like thunderstorms again. Its 90 degrees and high humidity. I love it.

Back at the condo phone message from Snake (as most of you know I am cell phone- less). He's in great spirits today even after his bust-out and this is why. After we talked I suggested he go back to the Gold Coast have a nice dinner, have a couple of beers and then head down to the MGM for some cash game donkery. I knew that tourneys were probably a bad idea considering how his day and week have been going. And I know that hes been rocking and rolling at the ring games. And I know that the MGM is an aquarium. Heck I made my first cash foray there and spewed off $200 bucks with a puss on my face over the course of about 4 hours when I was out there at $1/$2.

So when I get thru to him he's sitting at the MGM fish pond waiting to be dealt in. Last nite he bought in for $200 worked it up to over $700 and gave back a little and cashed out for $600+ and a net profit of $400 for a short evening. Not a bad nites work. Boohyah Snake!!! I of course giggle/squeal: Yeah Baby!! Would I steer you wrong???!! Hopefully he'll have a few more profitable sessions on the remainder of his trip as he's out there till Sunday.

So now its off to Starbucks and to prepare myself for the MATH tonite. The master of the screen shot himself is back from vacation and up with an uber post. I don't have any tokens so I may try to earn one as I have time on my hands. I'm feeling really good and I've been playing well. I have a renewed focus on some of my fundamentals, as well as working on more advanced strategy, which include proper bet sizing to get maximum value out of pots. Ive been extremely successful at the lower limits (a good place to practice any style changes or strategies) I'm taking a lot more chances earlier on with suited connectors, gappers and small pairs and they are paying off big when they hit. Later on in the middle stages I tighten up a bit from those hands. Some of the moves seem donkilicious at times but as we all know this game is a work-in-progress.

Another thing vacation is good for is I'm enjoying catching up on my foodie magazines which Astin would just love. The new Food and Wine is fabulous it talks about eco-friendly farming and chefs who grow there own vegetables and raise their own beef/chickens/pigs etc making their own cheese and ice cream etc.. We all know I love to recycle and this issue of Food and Wine has really made me think long and hard about patronizing local farmers for fresh and organic produce and meat. We are what we eat. Id rather pay a little more to know what I'm putting into me isn't laced with pesticides and the cows aren't force fed corn and grain that is indigestible. Lets put it bluntly: Most chickens are raised in squalid conditions where they aren't allowed to roam free and they shit all over each other and hence have to be pumped up with antibiotics so we dont get sick when we eat them.

I'm off the pulpit for a while. Just remember Think Globally, Act Locally and Love your Mother Earth. (And for a great story about meeting your boyfriends mama for the first time head over to Change100's blog).

Peace All!!

Sunday, July 08, 2007

The Longest Day

No news is good news. Almost two hours into day 1C of the 2007 WSOP and I don't know how Snake5970 is faring. I probably won't know until the first break. We talked early this AM and he was trying to take the day as normal as possible. In fact he was laying out at the Gold Coast pool. I of course was nagging at him to get out of the sun because it can tire you out!! He did take yesterday off and had a great time just taking in the action from the bleachers at the ESPN feature table where Joe Hachem was holding court. Although I had read about the hands on PokerNews before we chatted. Snake was able to recite the hands verbatim back to me. I got two or three phone calls live from the RIO yesterday and that was almost as cool as being there. Today is not so cool.

Snake also was rooting for a Brit gal he had met at the cash game tables who just happened to be seated with Jane Gold. Jamie was sweating his mom in her first WSOP. Now I heard the play by play directly from Snake of a major hand that Jane Gold called down to the river. Reading it on PokerNews isn't the same as being there. My immediate reaction when I heard that she had stayed in on a hand with TT on a K high board and had called a re-raise was Ultimate Calling Station. She rivered her set against AK. Another example of being tied to a pocket pair and being rewarded for Donkey play. I suppose being tied to TPTK also isnt such a great move but in this case it was until the two-outer hit.

Now the Brit gal whose name Snake failed to get is another story... She qualified by accident. Yes sirree folks, while you and I are trying are dangest to win blogger bracelet races and satellite in, this lady signed up for the wrong tourney on PokerRoom.com and won a double (maybe triple) shootout that got her into another tourney for the actual seat which she then won. She had never played live before either until she played a ring game table at Caesar's on Friday.

So last nite I am early chip leader of AcesCracked but Pokerstars screws me up the bum. Down to four-way, I come over the top of Shams raise all-in with QQ and he shows AQ (which is the worst hand in poker for me) and of course Sham spikes an ace and stacks me. Then all in next hand with my crumbs with ATs and I get called by 53d and of course a 3 hits from the big stack and I go out. I don't know why I even bother. Why is it when you need to spike an ace with two over cards to a mid pair you never do, and if you have the pocket pair the over card always hits?

I cashed third in two sngs but didn't win enough to cover my buy ins for yesterday. This AM I was going to do errands early and then play and wait for Snakes 2 PM EDT phone call. Instead I played a sng and bubbled and then did a $10 deep stack PLO8 tourney which LJ was also in. I built up a stack. Then I laid down a hand I had $3k invested in and would have busted out on when two other people in the hand re-raised all in. So I go short for a bit and build my chip stack back up to the point where I was in the money with 30 left and 18 paying and I'm bouncing between 7th and 12th. NO CIGAR... I go out in two hands. While trying to bust a short stack holding A22x and a low board of 33x, I wind up being reraised by an aggressive player who I did have outchipped , I make the call only to get counterfeited on the river God dang it. I then bust out next on the next hand in 28th. Now I admit I was a little rusty at Omaha8 and I wasn't getting great down cards or flops but to get that close and have a nice stack and blow the wad just sucks.

So I told Snake that it didn't matter about my results today. I would be his beyotch and take every river beat and suck out and hit to my online bankroll so that the poker gods will smile brightly on him with GOOD Cardma today. And he said... Don't say that I want you to play your best today and have a good day. But, I just can't play. I'm trying not to exhibit OCD behavior by running to PokerNews every 3 minutes (5 is okay). I've done dishes, folded laundry and marinated my steak. Earlier I chatted with LJ and Kat and will probably chat with Kat again later. I haven't heard from Carmen and I know Dr Pauly has Snakes real name and seat number but in the sea of humanity and pros he didn't know if he would be able to cover him. Oh and while I'm at it Fuel55 you need to update your blog for when your playing!!! And Hoy thank goodness your back from Vacation and Ill have something else to read soon!!

Snake Updates:

Break 1- Down to about 17k- He laid down Jacks on a board of AKx. Preflop laydown of AQ to a raise and reraise. He raised with TT got one caller. Board JJx.. blank on turn blank on river. He fired each street only to have AA flipped up. He lost the most on that hand. (Similarly I laid down TT to a rag board which I had fired out on only to get re-raised on the flop during the Ladies WSOP and ultimately busted out with TT vs QQ). No pros at his table but Steve Dannenmann and Chau Giang are close by.

Break II- Down to 11k. Pep talk Time. We wont talk about the misplayed AK hand. I think I hit the nail on the head when I said your over thinking and he agreed. At this time last year he had tripled up and he was comparing last year to this year. I told him to get out there and grind.


Level 3. Phone rings (about 9:15) and my heart immediately goes into my throat... Im expecting my dad to call to firm up plans for our day trip to Connecticut to visit my sister for the day either Tuesday or Thursday. I look at the phone and its not dad and its not Snake its Carmen. She's standing on the rail behind Snake describing him to me as she wasnt sure if he was still in his original seat. She gives me his chip count and watches him drag a pot. We hang up so she can introduce herself. About 4 minutes later the phone rings and its Snake and I know something bad has happened. Carmen got there just to watch him busto... With the blinds at 200/400. He raised to 1600 and got a caller from the dude he had just won the pot off of. Snake had the Beyotches (QQ) and the board came down Jxx....with two diamonds. The other guy checked I believe and Snake fired a bullet. The dude put him on a draw and moved in. I knew right there the dude had JJ. Snake made the call and his QQ was not goot. He took the walk of shame out of the Amazon room with Men the Master close behind. (Men was scooping up souveniors while we were on the phone outside the Amazon room).

So the third time was not the charm, but I think I put it all in perspective for him when I said: In the grand scheme of things, its just another tourney and there will be a hundred more tomorrow and the next day. And he qualifed for $33 on his first attempt.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Vacation!!!

Yesterday at 1:30PM when I signed off my work computer I started vacation again!!. I spent my first vacation half day getting my eyes examined (eyes only not my head), catching up with Snake5970 from Las Vegas, drinking a Dunkin Donuts Coolata, watering my plants, laying on the couch until I could see again and I played Katitude's Donkament and one sng.

I was doing fine in the donkament my all-in with JJ called by AQ and K6 on the second hand got me to over 3000 chips. AQ two paired flop and turn but I rivered a Jack for a set.. Jacks are okay. I then took down another hand with JJ (really okay!!). Now by the time the Donkament started I could see again but my eyes were still burning and I was playing regular tourney poker not Donkament poker. I was trying to keep the pots small and control the pot size which is of course the reverse of what everyone else was doing. Right before the break I went nutso and lost all my chips to TripJax.. AQ vs his TT and another hand prior to that.

After the break (I'm now into the the donkament for only $6 or $5 with one or two max rebuys and the add-on) I'm doing well, winning some pots but short stacked. I re-raise a big stacks raise with KK only to get called by the big stacks 44. I push all in post flop on a nothing board. Turn is a 4 and I'm out. I guess that makes me the official post re-buy gigli again. But that's the way I'm going to play. Balls out either I chip up or go home. No use playing for anything but the top three.

I play a $2.25 9 person sng. Ive been doing an unofficial challenge because the play is so poor. Half the field is gone in the first two blind levels and I'm chip leader. I wind up busting out in 3rd in the money but this is so full tilt.. I call a minimum raise with 77. Hit the set, its top set. Check on a rainbow board no flush no str8 possibility. Other dude comes over the top with AA turns an A and its set over set one more time. This time on the turn. This is happening just once too often to me. So I eke out a couple of bucks for my 3rd place finish. 4 or 5 sng cashes in a row now and I'm still HOT on Sharkscope BABY.

Today I headed out to the market. When I'm home on vacation, I cook really healthy and I eat fruits and veggies. Not sure why I don't do that when I'm working.. Oh Yeah, Im lazy!!! First I call my mom to catch up with her and to make plans for later in the week to go shopping for blinds. After that, I head out to Price Chopper (I like their produce selection a little better) instead of my usual supermarket of Hannaford after stopping at Hewitt's Garden Center. Some people want to rescue kittens and puppies from animal shelters, I want to rescue neglected plants and revive them. But I don't see anything I really want to add to my collection of flora.

At the market I buy some large shrimp (a non-sequitur), pignoli and sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil for a pasta salad I will make with gemelli and Pesto sauce I already have on hand. Blueberries (thinking Jamie Gold here), raspberries, Bananas, seedless grapes, Green tea, Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi, Mesclun Greens and two ocean spray Smoothies and some blueberry scones. I hit up Starbucks on the way back for a Iced Raspberry Mocha and munch a banana.

Home to a message from Snake and an email from Carmen. I call snake's cell back and leave a message and then start doing some house stuff. He calls me back about 20 minutes later and we catch up on his Friday nite doings. He's up every cash session he has played in Vegas, not one losing session at $1/$3 (Caesar's and Gold Coast is where he has been playing) but he has yet to cash in a tourney and is a little frustrated, but in great spirits. "I thought I was an MTT player", he says. "You are an MTT player", I state but your bread and butter should be cash, as MiamiDon says... CASH IS KING." so I fill him in on Chad's Bellagio Report and Smokkee's comment about no one on the strip about no one folding an Ace in an MTT. And I tell him to stop showing his hands. In case we don't catch up tonite, we make plans so that I'm at home for his phone call tomorrow before he starts play.

After we hang up I call Carmen's cell and she calls me back and we have a nice chat as I've only caught up with her once by phone since my return from Vegas. She is hopefully going to be doing an article on Snake for PokerWorks tomorrow, so I give her Snake's cell number. While I chat with Carmen, I forget my gemelli is cooking. They are not al dente but will still hold the sauce well. I hang up with Carmen and call Snake back to give him Carm's number. He's seen a picture of me and her from Vegas (my favorite one of the trip) so should recognize her tomorrow.



After I took care of business, I slice up the sun-dried tomatoes and add that to the gemelli and pesto sauce and toss in the pignoli (pine nuts). A little more cheese and it will go nicely with my grilled flank steak and mesclun greens with basil vinaigrette. Some fresh berries on a nice piece of NY Style cheesecake and Ill be all good and ready for Poker later.

Friday, July 06, 2007

Eyes Wide Shut

My pupils are dilated to the size of saucers. Fun times. I actually feel like I'm on an LSD trip without the drugs. I'm sitting in the dark with my sunglasses on. Even with my eyes closed and behind sunglasses the flashes I'm getting from the ceiling fan as it revolves around and catches the sun coming in from the skylight in my condo is making me queasy. Now its about to thunderstorm again so at least the sky has darkened.

I've worn glasses since second grade but I still get that self-conscious feeling that Guys don't make passes at girls who wear glasses. Imagine my agita when my right contact lens popped out of my eye and eventually tore while playing poker at Caesars palace on day II of my trip. I did the old glasses on glasses off, Sunglasses on Sunglasses off rotation. I made sure no pictures were snapped of me 4-eyed and evasive measures were taken to prevent a double chin. Breathe in, stick chin out and up and Smile Pretty. Did anyone notice???. I bet not you were too busy looking at my cleavage like Waffles!!

So I headed to the optician with my trusty debit card locked and loaded from my Health care Savings account. Last year I knew I was borderline for ahem.. Bifocals. This year I bit the bullet. New Varulex lenses for my regular glasses, A pair of FENDI prescription sunglasses (selected over the Coach and Kate Spade Frames) with the same lenses and new Toric lenses for astigmatism to be demo'd. I dropped a Venetian Deep Stack Buy-in on all the above without playing a hand of poker.

I got home to a message from Snake.. "Hey girl, no real poker success to report but I had an interesting time last nite and I wish you were here to blog it" We finally caught up after he busted out of his second attempt at the Venetian Deep Stack tourney. Last nite he waddled (his words) into the ANTE-UP for Africa tourney over at the Rio Amazon Room after gorging himself at the GOLD COAST's Seafood Buffet. Now, I'm usually Ms Congeniality when I play but surprise surprise I can be pretty mouthy and I will admit to being catty at times. Let's just say Snake can be shall we say very opinionated and has no problem speaking his mind.

Now Snake has a way of telling a story and I soon forgot that I was blind as a bat and I forgot that a few minutes prior I wanted to hurl. First he railed on about the "costume" Annie Duke had on, then he mentioned the anorexic bimbo wife of some "pro" with fake tits that probably cost 15k but were to big for her cadaverous frame. She was sprawled out across some table. He said, "Yeah I had the people around me in hysterics, but they were afraid I was gonna be heard." And he told them "I don't care, I'm opinionated and I speak my mind". And I laughed and said jokingly "Oh great,first Fuel55 almost gets thrown out of the Bellagio, and now I have to worry about you getting thrown out of the Amazon room during a charity event." Now the funny thing about the Fuel55 thing was that Snake heard about Fuel's brouhaha at Bellagio over at Caesar's palace the day after it happened from people at his table. He just didn't know it was Fuel (who he's never met but "knows of' from the blogosphere)

Snake mentioned he would love to read Pauly's take on the whole Hollyweird circus that enveloped the Amazon room last nite. He said the organizers were running around trying to get the people who cashed to donate all their winnings rather then just the 50% they were required to pony up (on top of the 5k buy-in). I mentioned that Change100 had spent her post college years in the industry before giving it up and she could probably write a great article but that from the Tao of Poker, Pauly and Change100 bypassed the evening and high-tailed it elsewhere. And when he mentioned he wanted to do a fashion article on what he witnessed last nite, I almost fell out of my chair.

IG: You who spent 25 years watching men in prison jumpsuits are going to write a fashion expose? That is friggin hilarious.

Snake5970: I could write a book about all I saw last nite.

IG: Marcel Luske is a nice dresser, but I think Robert Williamson III is the sharpest dressed man in Poker, he has style. Uses color well. I don't care if Johnny Chan's shirts are Versace and cost $1k a pop they are too busy.

Snake5970: Yes, Robert Williamson is a classy dresser. Chan was in a T-shirt last nite pimping some energy drink. These guys will pimp anything. I think I'm going to jump into that CEO poker tour tourney here.

IG: You don't have to be a CEO to play?

Snake5970: No they just call it that to get the businessmen in town to play. Its getting pretty good turnouts.

IG: Well you could always call your business RP Realty and Incorporate yourself.

Snake5970: One man corporation lol

IG: Oh I won a sng last nite (the only thing I played last nite)... I'm hot on Sharkscope!!!

Snake5970: Alright you hottie go win some more.

I hung up from our phone call knowing that I have all natural 36D's or 38C's depending on the day. And that I can dress better then Annie Duke and probably smell better then her too even if I do have an extra couple pounds on my curvy frame. And I can see again!!! Time to shuffle up and Deal.

Post Script- Snake had Dutch Boyd at his table at Caesar's the other nite. Today in the Venetian Deep Stacker, he had Daniel Negreanu's "buddy" the gas guy from Florida who featured on ESPN last year at his table along with a two time Borgata Poker Open Champion who was wearing his bling.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Main Event Eve

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

Lewis Carroll- The Jabberwocky (from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

Tis the night before Day 1 of the 2007 WSOP Main Event. For some skilled/lucky person Christmas in July is right around the corner. As I was driving home from PetSmart Lewis Carroll's poem jumped into my head as I was thinking of the days ahead for some of our friends/fellow bloggers/significant others. Yeah, Carroll probably took one to many hits off a Hookah back when he wrote that poem but I think its apropo for what may be lying in wait for 5000-6000 poker players.

I got home from my errand having missed Snake5970's break-time call from the Venetian Deep Stack $1060 buy-in. Alive but short-stacked and card dead for the last hour and a half of play and a pretty low M. Tourney poker can be cruel. 5 hours into a tourney and fighting for survival and an ever elusive payday, I could sense a little frustration in his voice. But hes a ballah he knows what to do. I left a pointless message on the cell stating "You know how to play a short-stack" push with ATC".

So without further ado I wish the following people best of luck in the Main Event:

1) Snake5970 aka Fearless Ray of the Adirondack Poker League

2) Fuel55

3) OOSSUUU754

4) Lucko21

5) Sprstoner

6) George from the Adirondack Poker League

7) Chumley from the Poker Analysis forum

and of course the KOD-Cracknaces gets props too for his main event seat win (although he is sitting out the Main Event investing in school and a new car).

What kind of Champion will be born this year? Some internet prodigy who barely sees the light of day who graduated from Nintendo GameBoy to Magic the Gathering to Online Poker? Will we have another snake-oil salesman, swarmy champion like last years Jamie Gold, or a quiet and unassuming champion ala Allen Cunningham? Or a geeky, he shouldnt have won it champion ala Robert Varkonyi? Or will Jordan Morgan or Isaac Haxton, who have made the move from online to live wizardry be last man standing at the end? I'm a betting girl and I will lay odds that a female does not win the Main Event. No offense to my gender but the numbers are just against us.

Regardless someone's destiny hasnt been revealed yet and my friends will have to wade thru minefields of slively toves, frumious Bandersnatches, borogoves, and mome raths to be the last one standing. I'll be glued to the chip counts at PokerNews as well as the live blogging. All my thumbs and toes are up for the great coverage being brought to us by Change100, Dr Pauly, Mene Gene, Amy Calistri, Craig Cunningham, Falstaff, BJNemeth and all the "interns" busting their humps. Otis gets props too, I think I passed him in the hallway outside the Carnival Buffet as I was on my way to meet LJ for brunch the day of the Ladies Event. And to my lovely gal pal Carmen you rock girl. She's been bringing us all another side of the WSOP featuring inteviews with myself and MiamiDon and Change100 just to name a few.


Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Stuck in side of Condo - Rainy 4th of July

Ah yes, a day off and it decides to rain. No pool time. So that means poker time. I had intentions of waking up bright and early and doing a 8AM deep stack on PokerStars. Then I decided no, if its nice I'll sit out and read and relax. Well the weather didn't look promising so I tried a satellite into the 4th of July Barbecue tourney on FTP for $1 & change. Don't ask me why. The buy-in was only $10 for the tourney, well within my price point. I donked out of the 45 person satellite half way and played a SNG finishing #2. Then I went out to the market. By the time I got out of the market it was raining and it was too late for the 1:00 tourney on FTP.

I got home and had a message from Snake5970. So I called him up on his cell and he was out laying by the pool. Laying by the pool, on what probably will be a 115 degree day in Vegas. Its 65 here in NY. Did I mention my color is green? He is still 0-4 in tourneys but played well last nite in the 7 PM Caesar's tourney ($300 buyin). He made it down to the final two tables and insta-shoved over the top of a bigger stacks raise only to run his AK into AA. With the blinds escalating the way they do at Caesars that was the only way to play that hand. No regrets for him as they were only paying the final table in the 7Pmer. He has made up for the no tourney cashes at the cash game tables at the Gold Coast and Caesars. Twelve hours of poker yesterday and he feels good. I told him this is prepping him nicely for the long Main Event days to come.

I had told him about the Wynn tourneys and that they had extended the Deep Stack Extravagaza at the Venetian till July 10th. All the remaining events are limited to 250 players and are $1000 buyins. He may head to the Venetian tomorrow as he plans on heading back to Caesars today. Like me, he likes it there.

So I'm now playing a $2.25 MTT on FTP.. 518 donkeys started at the end of the first hour we were down to 198 and I had over 5k in chips after playing like two hands. I doubled up when my QQ hit a set against AA. I insta-pushed all in against a dude who was raising to like $1000+ with his chip stack at 4000+ every time he had a pair. I had been so card dead I said time to double up or go home. When he flipped the Aces I was like.. Shit I am home. Sometimes its great to be lucky. I doubled up again when some joker tried to bluff my Q9 top pair on flop by overplaying AK. He had no piece of the board and his bets smelled fishy.

I'm pretty card dead and have been all tourney (catching nothing of the board and down to t4065) 137 left blinds at 100/200 still plenty of poker time left. I'm not reading well but against these donkeys its ABC poker right now.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Monday 7/02/07

Not a really catchy title but for me it was a mundane ten hour day (9 hours regular plus 1 of OT) from the confines of my house on a cool summer day in Upstate NY. I did nail my bonus for another month, actually the whole #2 quarter so that will be a nice little bonus come late September. I would love to head back out to Vegas during Caesar's Poker Classic budget permitting come this October. I kicked July off with a Bam nailing my stats for today. I had like 54 phone calls in for 4.5 hours. I can type, talk, fax and be pleasant and cheerful all at once. As a Customer Service Rep I Rock if I say so myself.

Snake is safe and sound in Vegas and has his seat for the Main Event. After the Brdweb event during the WPBT and talking to Chad and MiamiDon and reading Pauly's stories about tweekers and gangstas etc. I came home and said.. Do not walk at nite from the RIO to the GOLD COAST alone with money on you!!! He went out there with 20x what I did (his buyin is 10x what mine was and he plays much bigger stakes then me and hes out there for two weeks and I was out there for like three and a half days). Get the picture??. And I am not a nervous nelly by any means.

So he will be playing Day 1C and will start at table 203 seat II. Harrahs told him today they have over 5000 already registered.

And he told me he needed a pep talk. Although he has been playing a gazillion years and me not even III and I consider him my coach even great players have self doubt. He busted out in level II of a tourney at Casears last nite and went fairly deep today but missed the cash finishing 40 something of over 200. And he was holding himself up to the bar I set. I reminded him that I didnt play a tourney the minute I walked off the plane after a 5 hour plane flight with a three hour time difference. I socialized and bowled poorly instead. Maybe that wasnt such a good idea last nite. He agreed. And he was happy with his play today and just got the bad end of a hand when he pushed with A6 off the button, with those escalating blinds and the sb called with K7. He hit a 6 but the other dude rivered the K and stacked him to about 4000 chips from like 12000.

And of course he wanted to know about my Sunday tourneys so I told him about my bustout in the Big Game before I told him how I played really well in the Full Tilt MTT making all the right moves but falling a little short of the deep money.

I gave Snake my schedule for the rest of the week..

IG: Tuesday work all day to 7 PM but im off the phone all day processing claims so I can pick up anytime.. Off Wednesday.. Thursday: Work till 7 PM probably on phones most of the day. Friday work till 1:30 PM and then vacation begins and I am off till July 16th.

Snake5970: Did I miss something? Why are you off Wednesday?

IG: UMMMMM its the 4th of July for us working folk.

Snake5970: You see, for us retired folk everyday is a Holiday

IG: You are retired and in Las Vegas God Dangit and I'm in NY why dont you just rub it in. (and hes two years younger then me too boot and he retired the week before he left for Vegas---GRRR).

And of course we both laughed and I knew his poker self doubts would resolve themselves and bigger things were going to come. And I said.. Remember the feeling I had the night of the APL championship when I just knew you were going to take it down. I have one of my weird feeling again.. These little glitches are just bumps in the road you are going to be fine. You are going to play well in the Main Event.

And then he told me that when he looks out his window of the Gold Coast in the direction of Palace Station(I think he said) there is a billboard about 4 blocks away saying something about a Snake. Of course now I'm curious as to what it says and of course I think its an omen of great impending things and want him to take a cab by it to see what it really says. And then he laughs and says. Ive taken two cabs so far (one being from the airport to the hotel with two trips to Casears already) and am seeing if I can avoid them like you did. Man do I set the bar high or what!!!

Sunday, July 01, 2007

How I went out of the Big Game by IG



Full Tilt Poker Game #2825963985: Blogger Big Game (19471102), Table 3 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:40:17 ET - 2007/07/01
Seat 1: ChapelncHill (3,255)
Seat 2: lucko21 (3,195)
Seat 3: hoyazo (3,075)
Seat 4: MiamiDon (2,925)
Seat 5: Kajagugu (2,685)
Seat 6: jeciimd (3,060)
Seat 7: irongirl01 (2,955)
Seat 8: Patchmaster (2,880)
Seat 9: TripJax (2,970)
hoyazo posts the small blind of 15
MiamiDon posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #2

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to irongirl01 [9h 9d]
Kajagugu raises to 90
jeciimd folds
irongirl01 calls 90
Patchmaster folds
TripJax folds
ChapelncHill calls 90
lucko21 folds
hoyazo calls 75
MiamiDon calls 60
*** FLOP *** [9c 7s As]
hoyazo has 15 seconds left to act
hoyazo checks
MiamiDon checks
Kajagugu has 15 seconds left to act
Kajagugu checks
irongirl01 bets 450
ChapelncHill calls 450
hoyazo folds
MiamiDon folds
Kajagugu has 15 seconds left to act
Kajagugu raises to 1,250
irongirl01 raises to 2,865, and is all in
ChapelncHill folds
Kajagugu calls 1,345, and is all in
irongirl01 shows [9h 9d]
Kajagugu shows [Ad Ac]
Uncalled bet of 270 returned to irongirl01
*** TURN *** [9c 7s As] [8c]
*** RIVER *** [9c 7s As 8c] [5d]
irongirl01 shows three of a kind, Nines
Kajagugu shows three of a kind, Aces
Kajagugu wins the pot (6,090) with three of a kind, Aces
The blinds are now 20/40
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6,090 | Rake 0


BIG OUCHIE.... .I WANT MY MOMMY!!!

Does anyone get away from this short of folding the 99 preflop which would be the weakest/tighest move known to mankind? I figured when Kajagugu called my pot size bet which was to prevent a flush draw from calling he might have two pair tops and was trying to trap. Beware of set over set on Sundays.. Last Sunday same thing happened to me.

EDITTED---my review of the hand shows that ChapelncHill (aka TripJax bro) called my pot size bet after Kajagugu checked. Kajagugu then reraised and I reraised all-in. In my haste I left out a character. Regardless I was going busto there 12th hand of the Big Game

Tune Up for the Big Game

So Saturday nite poker was like spinning my wheels. I failed in my one allotted attempt to win a token for the Big Game, Gigli'd the Aces Cracked game, finished third in a sng and bubbled or almost bubbled another in PL08. So, I called it an early evening and went to bed about 10:30 PM still trying to catch up on sleep and give my back/butt muscles a break.

I killed some time Sunday AM trying to figure out what I really wanted to do, play, read etc. At 3:20 EST I looked at the clock and realized Snake5970 would be touching down soon in Las Vegas and on his way to checking into the Gold Coast for two weeks. Waves of jealousy of course swept over me. What's a girl too do? Play Poker Dammit!!!

I had remembered seeing an email promo about a $10 + $1 tourney on FTP with the top 50 winning a copy of the Full Tilt Strategy guide. So I figured it would be a good tune-up for the big game once and if I waded thru the donkeys. And boy there were donkeys. People all in with nothing but gutshot straight draws. It was not pretty. I took advantage of a few of the donkeys and got myself into a position to cash.

Chad then popped up in chat about a last longer bet for the Big game. $20 winner take all. Since I'm a little low on FTP even after my mookie cash and was planning on direct buying in to the big game I told him: "Let me see how I do".

And I rolled. It started when I subscribed to the three strike rule (following Chad's recent strategy post to a tee)...You can pressure my BB twice but on the third time, ATC baby all-in.. So I insta-push against the bullying SB with J7os he insta called with AKsuited (OOPS he had a hand) but I hit two pair and stacked him..I only got really lucky one other time (reraising with my big stack with QQ and flopping a set against KK). I double up when I needed to and soon I found myself... GULP the chip leader not only into the money but Id won the book too... Alas, all was not to be.. I pressured the short stacked bb to my sb one too many times. Doubled him up.. Called a few all ins I should have based on my stack size (I subscribe to the Harrington 10:1 rule) and just got outfloppped or outdrawn. I battled back a few times but went out 14th of 875 for $87.50 and an autographed copy of the book.

So I'm now entered into the Big game having pretty much covered my buy-in and Im a gamer so Im gonna see if I can outlast the big dawgz in the blogger big game. I hope to be last woman, no make that person standing . Right now I am the only chica unless LJ comes into the water.. Come on in gal the waters warm!!!