I try to remember that whenever I'm having a bad day. IG's two months of LifeTilt and curve balls are hopefully in the past.
Dad is out of the hospital with 6 units of someone elses Type O blood in him. His hemoglobin count was down to a 4. The Tech who took the reading said: "Is this man still conscious?" He was and is. He was severely anemic from internal bleeding which was found to have stopped on its own when they did upper and lower GI's.. He's now on Prilosec for Life. Best guess is a bleeding ulcer from the untreated Acid Reflux. I got him home Friday the 28th, did errands with him, and got covered in mud for the umpteenth time by his poodles Skye and Scout who think I am the greatest thing (they are young and rambunctious and cute as hell). Then I high-tailed it up to Fort Edward for the top tenners tourney for APL.
That was a clusterfuck and I finished 7th for $117 and that's all I'll say about that now. Look for an upcoming post on why poker shouldn't be played in a league format. I wont be returning next year for reasons Ill go into in said forthcoming post. I was so irritated most of the season that I bypassed the TOC Friday night with its guaranteed payout and got my hair done.... Apparently a few of my league- mates were dumbfounded when I passed up guaranteed money and were quite surprised when Ray told them..."She's had enough". Hell 10th thru 14th places paid $27. I figured it wasn't worth my time, aggravation or gas money to drive 40 miles up and 40 miles back for a top purse of $200. Instead I played online and cashed in a tourney on stars.. Much to my surprise they paid me the money anyway.
I did the Ladies Bracelet Race on Full Tilt which appears to be a weekly tourney at 5PM on Saturday afternoons and missed the final table jamming AQ into AA in the BB. Thats okay the person who took me out went on to win. Full Tilt continues to bitch slap me time and time again. I'm a donator there either going deep and running a good hand into a better hand or getting coolered. No Lucky breaks but I'm not whining.... I'm refusing to let it tilt me as Ive really been working on my positive mental attitude when it comes to the beats. Pokerstars on the other hand and I have a mutual understanding. I haven't had that big cash yet but Ive been playing well there in my SNGS and my tourneys. Friday nite I was 32nd out of 520 in a short handed PL08 Tourney and Thursday I was 4th in a 45 person MTT SNG. Building the bankroll $10-$20 bucks at a time.
Ive come to the realization that there are going to be SNGS where you cant hit a flop and you are just going to go busto early no matter how good at ICM play you are. I am no expert at it but I'm getting better. Now to overcome my midstage MTT inability to acquire chips.
Ive been playing around with PockerTracker 3 which is in beta mode and costs nothing. Its actually really cool and I can see how valuable this really is. I'm just getting my feet wet but am going to give some feedback on the forum they created. One thing i didn't like was I played an 18 person sng and it imported my table in but it only listed 9 entrants and you couldnt override the number of entrants. I assumed that as players busted from the other table and got moved to your table or you got moved to another table it would change the number of players based on the hand histories it was importing.. The same thing happened in the bracelet race. It listed the entrants at like 33 or so and their were over 50. Yet it pulled in hand histories of a tourney I was only observing on FTP when I had two tables up watching some blogger hijinks...
Anyway all for now... Its time for IG to hit one of those curve balls out of the park.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Ill Be Back in a Bit
I finished 5th overall in the Adirondack Poker League making it to heads-up my final week which was last Friday night.. Top Tenners tourney this week with guaranteed payout and then the Tourney of Champs next week another guaranteed payout and Im done.
Papa IG was sent by ambulance to the hospital yesterday and I've been running back and forth about 40 Miles each way while trying to work and take care of his Standard Poodles (I was able to get the breeder to check in on the dogs) and coordinate with my sister who lives two hours away in Westport CT. He's had over 4 units of blood as it appears he was bleeding internally due what we think is a bleeding ulcer which he didnt know he had. Upper GI scheduled for tomorrow which will hopefully find the cause of the bleeding.
Word to the wise guys and gals if you have symptoms of Acid reflux or Gerd get it checked out. My dad has had sypmptoms on and off for years but "endured" it. Our bodies react for a reason.
No time for basketball pools online poker or much of anything else. Im beat!!
At this point Vegas in 2008 is out. Ive been burning time up for family stuff and with the price of everything (food, gas, etc) going up and my own kideny issues I decided this is a stay at home year. I'll garden and do some concerts instead.
Papa IG was sent by ambulance to the hospital yesterday and I've been running back and forth about 40 Miles each way while trying to work and take care of his Standard Poodles (I was able to get the breeder to check in on the dogs) and coordinate with my sister who lives two hours away in Westport CT. He's had over 4 units of blood as it appears he was bleeding internally due what we think is a bleeding ulcer which he didnt know he had. Upper GI scheduled for tomorrow which will hopefully find the cause of the bleeding.
Word to the wise guys and gals if you have symptoms of Acid reflux or Gerd get it checked out. My dad has had sypmptoms on and off for years but "endured" it. Our bodies react for a reason.
No time for basketball pools online poker or much of anything else. Im beat!!
At this point Vegas in 2008 is out. Ive been burning time up for family stuff and with the price of everything (food, gas, etc) going up and my own kideny issues I decided this is a stay at home year. I'll garden and do some concerts instead.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Classy or Classless?
I have discovered one thing about myself which Ive learned by being asked to give feedback on friends hands/play or by watching those final table replays on pokerstars of the Sunday million or the $5200 freeze out with the cards exposed. I can almost predict the bet sizes and what the action will be as the play begins to unfold. But, what I've learned is that I do not listen to my own advise. I read a ton, I'm solid with the math of the game but I play scared. I fold too often post flop, too quickly when someone comes over the top of me. A little voice goes off in me that says.. I'm beat and I'm going busto and I really don't want to lose this buy-in now. I can accumulate chips early, playing the pot/implied odds game but I lose the feel for my game when it gets mid-stage when I get weak tight
That wasn't the case last Spring when my game was improving by leaps and bounds. I'm fine playing on someone else's nickel when told don't worry about going bust, Just play your game. I believe this fear crept in because of uncertainty in things I cant control. The price of gas, the falling stock market, rising interest rates, the fact that Ill be working for a gazillion years. The fact that things cost a lot more and I'm more concerned about paying my bills. That no matter how hard I/we seem to work, Im just a fawking rat in a maze spinning my wheels. Never sinking but never getting ahead either. Hence the big score alludes me and will continue to do so. But Im working on it. Self-Knowledge is the key to enlightenment.
Without a doubt PokerXfactor/CardRunners/Stox Poker would improve my game 10 fold. There in lies the rub. Time is precious. I'm trying to achieve balance in my life. Not doing too much of anyone thing. Do I pay the monthly fee to a site I may not be able to really reap the benefits of because of time? I'm sure one video a month would help me immensely. I'm a quick study, always have been always will be. But like a dieter I have reached a plateau. In order to burst thru that plateau I need to make some changes to jump start my ho-hum game.
APL is winding down. One more week left before the three final season enders. I'm pretty much a lock for the top ten tourney sitting in 6th or 7th dropping the 5 lowest scores (and that is with my two no shows). Per Ray (who crunched the numbers yesterday) the stars/planets/moons and a virgin sacrifice would all have to come together in one fiery collision for me to get scum-bagged out of the Top Tenners tourney. So, I'm thinking of not showing up for week 25. But if I show it might be for strategic reasons to keep someone on the bubble in and another person out. To say that this season has been excruciating would be an understatement. Man why do I feel this league has turned into a season of Survivor? Outwit, Outlast (some folks folding folding folding to reach the final table and bonus points which in a league that has dwindled to about 16 is easy to do) and Outplay (Haven't seen a lot of that, but I have seen major luckboxery).
Now I'm sure you wonder what that title has to do with anything Ive just said. Nada!! But it does have to do with some chat I witnessed the other nite while railing a friend in a $16 shootout to the WSOP Main Event. I was observing quietly to supply some feedback on leaks which I had pointed out about their SNG play. My horse who normally excels in shoot-outs was 3 or 4 way when a top-of the heap online player (lets just say he is ranked on P5's at the very top if not the top) showed up to either rail his horse or just be a mouthy asshat.
Comments went something like this.. I could win this in three hands... (Okay you may be good but even Annette_15 who has class takes longer to win a tourney then that) and then just some really bogus remarks about player stats, play, why did you make that call, he hasnt played a hand in hours etc, etc. My horse got to heads up and made an all-in call with a low pocket pair that got major Ha Ha Has and abuse from said known player..... Now, I am a really cool hip 47 year old, who acts a lot younger then my years and I normally get along fantastic with 20 something guys (Just ask Josh, Zach, TJ of my live league or John Penner who I paled around Vegas with last year, or my "nephew" Zackery and his buddy Nate who Ive gone to shows with). This top-ranked player could be my son and I would kick his ass. There is no need to be cocky, ballsy, rude, demeaning. Instead in your position you should be an ambassador to the game. There is a saying don't tap on the aquarium and you should exhibit some hubris. Karma is a bitch and being number one is short lived. I'd personally rather be remembered for my longevity as a class act ala Chip Reese or Alan Cunningham or Bill Edler vs. a braggard, who has nothing nice to say about "inferior" players. Besides who wants to sponser an asshat?
Rant over I'm sure you are all wondering who I am talking about. Let's just say he share's a name with one of our bloggers, who I happen to really get along with even though he himself has haters and who is known as the KOD.
That wasn't the case last Spring when my game was improving by leaps and bounds. I'm fine playing on someone else's nickel when told don't worry about going bust, Just play your game. I believe this fear crept in because of uncertainty in things I cant control. The price of gas, the falling stock market, rising interest rates, the fact that Ill be working for a gazillion years. The fact that things cost a lot more and I'm more concerned about paying my bills. That no matter how hard I/we seem to work, Im just a fawking rat in a maze spinning my wheels. Never sinking but never getting ahead either. Hence the big score alludes me and will continue to do so. But Im working on it. Self-Knowledge is the key to enlightenment.
Without a doubt PokerXfactor/CardRunners/Stox Poker would improve my game 10 fold. There in lies the rub. Time is precious. I'm trying to achieve balance in my life. Not doing too much of anyone thing. Do I pay the monthly fee to a site I may not be able to really reap the benefits of because of time? I'm sure one video a month would help me immensely. I'm a quick study, always have been always will be. But like a dieter I have reached a plateau. In order to burst thru that plateau I need to make some changes to jump start my ho-hum game.
APL is winding down. One more week left before the three final season enders. I'm pretty much a lock for the top ten tourney sitting in 6th or 7th dropping the 5 lowest scores (and that is with my two no shows). Per Ray (who crunched the numbers yesterday) the stars/planets/moons and a virgin sacrifice would all have to come together in one fiery collision for me to get scum-bagged out of the Top Tenners tourney. So, I'm thinking of not showing up for week 25. But if I show it might be for strategic reasons to keep someone on the bubble in and another person out. To say that this season has been excruciating would be an understatement. Man why do I feel this league has turned into a season of Survivor? Outwit, Outlast (some folks folding folding folding to reach the final table and bonus points which in a league that has dwindled to about 16 is easy to do) and Outplay (Haven't seen a lot of that, but I have seen major luckboxery).
Now I'm sure you wonder what that title has to do with anything Ive just said. Nada!! But it does have to do with some chat I witnessed the other nite while railing a friend in a $16 shootout to the WSOP Main Event. I was observing quietly to supply some feedback on leaks which I had pointed out about their SNG play. My horse who normally excels in shoot-outs was 3 or 4 way when a top-of the heap online player (lets just say he is ranked on P5's at the very top if not the top) showed up to either rail his horse or just be a mouthy asshat.
Comments went something like this.. I could win this in three hands... (Okay you may be good but even Annette_15 who has class takes longer to win a tourney then that) and then just some really bogus remarks about player stats, play, why did you make that call, he hasnt played a hand in hours etc, etc. My horse got to heads up and made an all-in call with a low pocket pair that got major Ha Ha Has and abuse from said known player..... Now, I am a really cool hip 47 year old, who acts a lot younger then my years and I normally get along fantastic with 20 something guys (Just ask Josh, Zach, TJ of my live league or John Penner who I paled around Vegas with last year, or my "nephew" Zackery and his buddy Nate who Ive gone to shows with). This top-ranked player could be my son and I would kick his ass. There is no need to be cocky, ballsy, rude, demeaning. Instead in your position you should be an ambassador to the game. There is a saying don't tap on the aquarium and you should exhibit some hubris. Karma is a bitch and being number one is short lived. I'd personally rather be remembered for my longevity as a class act ala Chip Reese or Alan Cunningham or Bill Edler vs. a braggard, who has nothing nice to say about "inferior" players. Besides who wants to sponser an asshat?
Rant over I'm sure you are all wondering who I am talking about. Let's just say he share's a name with one of our bloggers, who I happen to really get along with even though he himself has haters and who is known as the KOD.
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