"gettin'hammered"

Announcements from Friends on the Felt

2011-12-12T20:31:00.001-05:00

Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet and play with some really nice people from within the world wide poker community. Some were there to compete, some were there to entertain and some were there to entertain the thought of competing while working!

One of the first gentlemen I had the privilege to meet was Mark Hoke from Short Stacked Radio. Mark was setting up camp in the main hall in order to broadcast live throughout the weekend of events. Fortunately, I was seated at a table next to his set-up and was able to listen in on all the broadcasting throughout the weekend. I had tuned in to several broadcasts of the show before but never had a face to go with the voice.. now i do! Mark is pictured above (on the right) with Cris Belkewitch (Bustout Poker Pro).

Anyway, Short Stacked Radio has taken the poker world by storm since it's debut July 5th, 2011. The show features guests from all walks of life within the poker community. You will hear weekly from top representatives of the Poker Players Alliance and PokerNews.com, and just recently Phil Helmuth joined the show to discuss his upcoming charity event scheduled. There have been many, many noteable names that have joined in on the broadcast. If you would like to know more about Mark, the show and their past and future guests follw this link http://shortstackedradio.com/about-us/ . And if you would like to join Mark and his guests during the broadcast of a show just follow this link via Ustream http://www.ustream.tv/user/ShortStackedRadio .
Now let's get to the big announcement, one of many that have already been made and certainly just a few of many more to come! Here is a post from Mark that will fill you in on the latest big announcement...

"Very excited to have been personally selected and authorized by the Epic Poker League to cover the EPL Main Event #3 at the Palms next week! It's a great honor for Short Stacked Radio and we hope you'll all be a part of it. We'll be right on the floor at the players lounge with poker's elite of the game, EPL executives plus some of the great friends we've made along the way! Broadcasts will start on Wednesday, Dec 14th at approximately Noon PST and we'll be there all week until the end of the event on Sunday. Tune in at www.shortstackedradio.com all week long!"

Please follow us on our Short Stacked Radio Facebook page, Twitter @shortstackradio and my personal twitter - @HokesHouse.

Another gentleman I had the privilege to meet was Chris Torina (CEO and President) from Deep Stacks Live. Chris is pictured at the left (on the right) with Mark Hoke.

Mike Matusow

Michael Mizrachi

DeepStacks Live is poker's premier live training organization that promotes & conducts quality educational courses throughout the world. Their training programs are dedicated to the success of you, the poker player. DeepStacks Live Team is represented by quite a few well known poker players.... Mike "theMouth" Matusow... Michael "theGrinder"Mizrachi... Tristan "Cre8ive" Wade... Justin "Boosted J" Smith... Jason Lee... and Jennifer "Jennicide" Leigh just to name a few!

DeepStacks Live's announcement....

A new poker tour is set to hit North America in 2012. DeepStacks announced it will launch the DeepStacks Poker Tour, a multistop televised tour that will deliver the DeepStacks pros and great tournament structures and guarantees to casinos across North America beginning in February 2012.

The first stop on the tour will be at Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls, New York, from Feb. 15 to 19, 2012. The $1,500 DeepStacks Poker Tour Western New York Poker Championships will offer a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool and will be televised with award-winning commentator Joe Stapleton alongside analyst and Team DeepStacks Pro Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade.

Season 1 of the North America DeepStacks Poker Tour will also include stops in California, Nevada, Oregon and Quebec.
“DeepStacks has established itself as a leading brand in the poker industry. Now we’re giving players a chance to play against some of the best pros in the world on TV, without having to go broke,” said DeepStacks CEO Chris Torina. “The DeepStacks Poker Tour is tournament poker how it should be — great value, top pros and exciting television programming.”

Jason Lee

Team DeepStacks Pros are expected to play in every DeepStacks Poker Tour event.

DeepStacks also named PokerNews as its official media partner for the DeepStacks Poker Tour. PokerNews will provide live updates for every event, including chip counts, photos. hand-by-hand updates, and recaps of every event each day. Here is a link to DeepStacks Live Poker Tour official site http://deepstackspokertour.com/our-team#

“PokerNews is the industry leader in tournament coverage and live updates," said Elaine Chaivarlis, PokerNews editor in chief. "We are thrilled to be the official media partner of DeepStacks Poker Tour and will deliver top-notch coverage of its events. DeepStacks' ability to bring champion poker pros to play in affordable buy-in events is a big win for poker.”

Read more: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2011/12/deepstacks-poker-tour-north-america-2012-pokernews-media-11585.htm

Next is a couple I have known for several years but finally had the opportunity to meet in person. This couple would be Jeff and Nikki Griffith from Bustout Poker! I met Jeff a few years back during a Mastadon Weekend with a group of poker bloggers. It wasn't until here recently that I had the pleasure to see him again and meet his wife. If you've been on my blog or my Facebook, at all, you already know that I am a big fan of Bustout Poker!! These are some great people who have a passion that most of us share.. poker. But they have taken that passion to another level with Bustout Poker!

"Bustout Poker is the brain child of semi-professional poker player, Jeff Griffith. In June 2009, the Columbia, SC native realized that there was no premium apparel line that the poker community could identify with. After sharing his vision with lifelong friend and successful entrepreneur, Jimmy Hancock, Bustout Poker, LLC was born. In addition to offering high quality poker inspired apparel, including hoodies, fashion T-shirts, and hats, we have also begun to introduce our own line of innovative poker related accessories. To date we have sold products in over twenty-two countries around the world."

"At Bustout Poker our primary mission is not to be just another poker t-shirt company, but to build a complete poker brand that represents everything great the poker world has to offer and more importantly, one that poker players everywhere can be passionate about!"

Here is a direct link to the site http://www.bustoutpoker.com/index.htm or you can just click on one of the many banners that are available here on my blog.

So, what's the big announcement with Bustout Poker!?! Well, I'm still not sure of an exact date yet, but Bustout has a new line (brand) of gear coming out soon! Grinder Gear Clothing Co. You can check out the Facebook info and pics here https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bustout-Poker/158397707872?ref=ts#!/grindergearclothing AND you can go to http://www.grindergearclothing.com/ and register at Grinder Gear Clothing Co. for some upcoming promotions to kick things off!

Last, but definitely not least, is my buddy from Canada, Jeff Burnett aka the AceTenBomber. Jeff is a professional poker player that I met online a couple of years ago during a competition with Victory Poker. Since our online meeting I have had the opportunity to travel to Canada and meet him, his wife Cindy and several members of his Team... The Bomb Squad. In recent weeks I have had the opportunity to make posts from my blog onto the home page of the official AceTenBomber site. Here is a link that will provide more information about Jeff, his passion for poker and his team... The BombSquad! http://www.acetenbomber.com/

I featured Jeff in one of my earlier posts on my blog if you would like to visit it as well. So, on to the announcement! There are actually two announcements coming from the AceTenBomber camp, but I am only able to give you info about one of them at this point in time. The other, well... I'm still in waiting for it myself, but I've been teased with the upcoming notification.

Anyway, the most recent announcement...... In a time when good news in the poker world is sometimes as rare as getting delt a Royal Flush……today Orillia native Jeff Burnett known in the poker world as THE ACETENBOMBER signs a sponsorship deal with Canada’s premium poker club establishment, PlayGround Poker Club of Kahnawake, Quebec. While the undisclosed financial terms are kept under-wrap, the PlayGround deal is now Jeff’s second major sponsor supporting Canada’s ACETENBOMBER. The other major sponsor on Jeff’s jersey is RMS, »Refund Management Services. RMS is Canada’s premium tax refund experts for winning Canadian gamblers who play in the USA and want the US tax returned from their winnings across the boarder. PlayGround Poker Club of Kahnawake Quebec is without a doubt the TOP professional poker room for players and professionals in Canada. The luxurious surroundings, excellent dealers, and spectacular food at The Rail, and the clubs stated purpose of creating such a unique poker club >For the players – By the players< is the real deal. Here's a link to go check out the Playground http://www.playgroundpoker.ca/ . Hosting multiple poker tournaments featuring celebrities, sports superstars, and international poker pros is what makes the trip across the Mercier Bridge so worth it, you just never know who you might be sitting down beside at a poker table.

Canada’s ACETENBOMBER has spawned a grass roots following of poker players and fans from all over Ontario, Quebec and internationally. Burnett has appeared on major television broadcasts as well as many TV tables along side the likes of pros Gavin Smith, Huck Seed, Greg Mueller, Andy Bloch, and ,many others. The Bombers unique and energetic table play antics combined with his all Canadian red jersey has created a poker following phenomena, with thousands of Bomber Nation fans, and his own group of networking poker players who make up his very own Team Bomb Squad the brand just keeps getting bigger each and every year. A CEO of his own formed company acetenbomber.com a website that allows players and fans to interact with the Bomber and all the Nation, post blogs, create profiles, blog, and chat, are just some of the things this site offers as well a very successful poker clothing line. The site gets over 3000 hits on average per day and over 140,000 on average per month with last March breaking a all-time record of 240,000 in just one month!!!

Well, I think I'm gonna call it it night on this one. I'm sure that there will be plenty more announcements from all my friends across the felt, and when they are out... I'll let you know!
Thanks Mark! for the invite and the opportunity to be on the show! and Chris... wow! good luck with all your upcoming adventures!! and Jeff & Nikki... good luck to you guys as well, good (great)things are happening!! and to my bud Jeff Burnett... dude, hurry up with the new announcement, now I have to do an adendum to the post!! just kidding!! Good luck to you as well my friend.... hope to see all of you again real soon!!! chapelout
GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome

Top Five...No Buys! with Alternative Suggestions!

2011-12-10T02:30:00.007-05:00

Whether it's for a birthday, anniversary or for the upcoming Christmas present... here is a quick "No Buy" reference list to use while you are out shopping for that special poker player in your life. Actually, don't waste your time or money for anyone with theses items!

1. Automatic Card Shuffler- These shufflers are actually more trouble than their worth. ... unless of course you can find one of these on a great deal---------------------------------->>>>>

Otherwise you will find the actual machine in a future yard sale or donated to a local recycling bin. So, save your money and consider getting them some really nice playing cards from Copag. Go to

http://www.copagcards.com/ and order them now!

2. Poker for Dummies Book- Unless it is a gag gift, this book is also a waste of time and money. It's obvious that if your buying for a poker player they probably already have the basic knowledge of the game. There are plenty of good books available for the poker player in your life, and most of them are not going to be insulting as this one would. My suggestion.... go to http://anteupstore.com/ChrisBelkewitch.html and order "The Poker Journey" by Cris Belkewitch. I had the opportunity to meet and play with Cris in a recent charity event, he's a great guy and has a lot to share in his book!

3. Cheap Poker Saying T-Shirts- These shirts may seem funny to you, but most poker players want to be taken seriously. These shirts may be worn around the house, while doing yard work or maybe even in the bedroom, but if they make it off the hanger on the day of a tournament or big event it's probably gonna be the undershirt to the one that is intended to be worn! Again, save your time and money... have a good laugh when you see them, but leave them on the rack! If you really want to impress the poker player in your life, get them some Bustout Poker Gear!! Go to http://www.bustoutpoker.com/ and check out the best poker apparel and accessories on the market! Whether it's for him or her Bustout has what you are looking for! Just click on one of the banners on the sidebars here on my blog and see for yourself!

call Bryan at 262-490-3812

4. Fold Up Table Tops- Here is another item that will soon be seen in the next garage sale on the block! Do yourself a favor and don't crowd the kitchen or dining room table with these cheap table toppers. Convenient and portable, yes. But don't waste your time or money... unless of course you just want to keep the game from coming to his or your house next week ( and any other week for that matter!). If you really want to impress this player/host and his guests go to http://www.offtiltpokertables.com/ and check out the best poker tables made on the planet! Choose from their stock of inventory or have it custom made for the player in your life! There is a link at the top right of the sidebar of my blog. It will be the best investment ever made in your poker journey for a table, not just any table... the best on the planet! from OffTilt Poker Tables!

5. Silly Costume Sunglasses- I know, I know... Greg Raymer. Well, it worked for him, but don't expect the same results for them! Again, most poker players want to be taken seriously! They want to look good, feel comfortable and be taken seriously. You want them to be able to say that about the glasses they are wearing!?! Then get them some Blue Shark Optics! Follow this link http://www.bustoutpoker.com/accessories or any Bustout banner on my blog and check out the glasses made specifically for poker players! These are not shades you want to wear to eliminate the sun, they are glasses made to hide your eyes and enhance your image and clarity of the cards! I've seen them and I've worn them... check out the different styles!

http://www.acetenbomber.com/2011/12/top-five-no-buys-with-alternate-suggestions/ you can also check out the poker apparel and accessories here on the AceTenBomber's site...

well, that's it for now...chapelout GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.

..."The" Grinder...

2011-11-08T02:23:00.003-05:00

Grinder is a term used to describe a tight, rock-like poker player that approaches the game with an attitude and mentality of one that is fearless to any and all given aspects of the game. In poker there are those who will consider themselves grinders because of the long and tenacious hours and sessions that they have put there body and mind through, but there is only one who is known as "TheGrinder"! If you know anything about poker and the poker community you know who I am referring to... Michael "TheGrinder" Mizrachi.
Mizrachi is one of my favorite players because of his attitude and approach to the game, but also because of his ruthless disregard to what/how most traditional poker players are going to engage themselves within the game itself to establish a dominant presence at any table. You don't become a champion just because you have a cool nickname, you have that name BECAUSE you have proven yourself as a champion!

    Mizrachi has been grinding it out for quite some time now and has the battle scars to prove that he has what it takes, not only to crush the opposition on the felt but also, to withstand the many obstacles that are going to come your way in life in general as well. Granted, I don't know "TheGrinder", never spent any time with him personally and couldn't tell you what the real Mizrachi, outside of the persona he has established within the poker community is like... but I do know that the man is a proven champion.
    Mizrachi took the poker world by storm back in 2005 when he finished fifth at the World Poker Open in Tunica, captured his first WPT title at the LA Poker Classic AND cashed in seven events during the WSOP. In 2006 he continued his WPT dominance... again at the World Poker Open with a second place finish and then by taking down the Borgata Winter Open. He was also named CardPlayer's Player of the Year for 2006.
These accomplishments established Mizrachi as one of the best players on the felt. But it wasn't enough to keep Mizrachi satisfied. He wanted to conquer the game, the opponents and the titles within the WSOP as he had done in the WPT. Although it didn't come as quickly for him as it did in the WPT events he continued to battle with the tenacious never give up attitude that eventually paid off in 2010. At the start of the 2010 WSOP Mizrachi took down his first WSOP Title by crushing the field of the $50k Players Championship Event, and final tabled three more events... finishing fifth out of seven thousand three hundred nineteen players in The Main Event. Most recently, Mizrachi has captured another title... the first ever WSOP Europe 10k Holdem Split Format.
I will be playing in a charity event this weekend and hope to have the opportunity to meet "The Grinder"! He is one of many pro's who have committed and are scheduled to participate in the events. The U.C.A.R.E. Charity Poker Tour will be in Richmond, Virginia this weekend at the Holiday Inn I-64 West End. There will be four tournaments scheduled and there will be a live deepstack poker training session sponsored and held at the event by... Michael "TheGrinder" Mizrachi.
    For more info you can follow the link www.ucarecharitypokertour.com or just scroll down and read some of my previous posts that provide all the links to introduce you to the event, the founder, the host location and the sponsors!

Gone Huntin'... for Fish

2011-10-29T17:41:00.003-04:00

Over the years I have had the opportunity to go fishing with family and friends and I even have some good stories to tell, one in particular that my youngest brother and I will never forget... he carries a scar as proof of the story and a constant reminder of our very first fishing trip. But today I want to talk about the "fish" you will undoubtedly run into on the felt. And hopefully with a little patience, observational skills and a little luck on the river for yourself you will be able to hook, reel and gut their stack!

In poker, a "fish" is the term used to describe bad players. Whether you are playing in a tournament or (preferably) a cash game you want some fish at your table! And in most cases you want them to be seated to your right so you can capitalize on thier mistakes! However, when playing with unknown players you will want to be cautious early on until you can recognize the fish at the table and categorize them. Categorize them!?! Yep... just as the fish in the river, there are different types of fish you will see on the river!

There are basically three types of fish in poker.

The first and usually the easiest to play with/against are commonly known as "calling stations". These players just hate to fold! They will play any two cards, draw for farfetched opportunities and will call your flop bet with any pair, draw or even Ace high. For the most part, position, betting and any other strategy that is applied by good players is not relevant because in most cases it is not even recognized by the fish. So, continue to play your game against them, but don't get crazy with it... fish are bad players, but they do have winning sessions! The only bullet you may want to refrain from using against the "calling station" is any kind of bluffing strategy. Remeber, these players hate to fold, thus leaving your bluffs with a minimal profitability rating! The best thing to do against any calling station is to stick to your game plan, control the pot size and maximixe your profits by exploiting their obvious mistakes! Keep in mind that they will win some pots, but don't get discouraged or berate the players decisions or abilities at the table... you do not want to scare the fish away!!

The second type you want to be aware of are referred to as a/the "rock". These players are complete opposites from the calling stations. The "rock" is an extremely tight player who folds a lot. They have a tight range of hands usually waiting for premium hands (AA,KK,AK,AQ or suited face connectors etc.) regardless of their position. It's usually easy to steal their blinds and post flop pots from late position, especially the button, with a well calculated bet/raise. Pre-flop they will fold to the raise and post flop they will usually fold even their premium hand if they didn't hit the flop. Drawing is not what they want to do. It is very difficult to get money out of these players. While bluffing was not recommended against the calling station, slow playing your hand is something you want to avoid against the rock. Giving the opportunity to see free cards to a rock is never a good thing, make a reasonable raise pre-flop and a c-bet post flop to find out where you are. Most of the time the c-bet will end the hand, but if it doesn't... beware! Control the size of the pot or just lay it down, getting money/chips out of these players is like squeezing blood from a rock (thus the name!). So, if you end up in a big pot and have to shove or call a shove it's in your best interest to have the nuts!

And now we come to.... the "maniac". These players deserve the reference as maniacs!! These players, like the calling stations, want to be in every hand and usually play extremely aggressive (from any position). Of the three types of fish you definitely want the maniac on your immediate right! Any sign of weakness from their opponents will entice extreme aggression. These players will force the action, overplay there cards and donk off chips left and right. The maniacs are the hardest to contend with because you never know what they might be playing. Ace-rag, suited-connector there's really no telling. But if you are patient, stick to your game and bait them well when you have a strong (made) hand, just sit back and let the fireworks begin!

As mentioned before, these are bad players... but even bad players have winning sessions. My advice... PlaySmart.BePatient.StayFocused

chapel out..........GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome............

Become a Better Poker Player

2011-10-26T02:56:00.003-04:00

After countless hours of research on this topic I have come to the conclusion that you can read as many books, blogs, articles... watch as many dvd's, videos or television events... and study as many local, pro or televised players as you want/can. But the only real opportunity to actually becoming a better player is to...

Play as much poker as you can!

I am in NO WAY implying or suggesting that you cannot learn, improve and as a result become a better poker player from the options listed above. All I am saying is... you can do all those things, know all the rules, objectives, strategies and be the most informed player at the table, but if you are not out there on the felt applying what you know and gaining the experience at the tables it is going to be a rude awakening to expect what should happen to what will happen against actual players!

chapel out... GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome

Hoyt BRICKEN Corkins

2011-10-17T00:14:00.002-04:00

It's been a while since I have continued my posts about some of my favorite poker players, so... today I will throw another one out in the mix.

Yep! Hoyt Bricken Corkins. Personally, I like his middle name and if I ever get to meet him personally I may even throw it out there at him (maybe!). I enjoy watching Hoyt play because of his table presence that is quickly established when he sits down at the table. Even if he had not already established himself as a world class champion I think his table talk, demeanor and especially his strategic aggression would certainly get everyone's attention rather quickly!

Hoyt is also known and recognized by several nicknames. "Cowboy", "Mr. move All-In" and on the WPT..."Nightmare!"
http://vodpod.com/watch/1042816-hoyt-corkins-and-phil-hellmuth

In May of 1989 Hoyt established himself as a competitor to be reckoned with when he entered the 20th WSOP and finished 4th in the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha event. Between 1989 and 1992 Hoyt became a well known fixture the poker tables and especially at final tables. His first WSOP bracelet came in May 2002 during the 23rd WSOP in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event.

After the 1992 WSOP Hoyt took some time off from poker to take care of some family issues. After 11 years Hoyt returned to the competition and played in a 2003 WPT event. He registered for the 2003 World Poker Finals. Played his game as if he had never gone anywhere, and took down the title and a record payout of $1,089,200. Since then Hoyt has once again established himself as a world class champion. He now has 2 WSOP Titles and 2 WPT Titles and too many cashes to list here. Follow this link

http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=20525

to check out Hoyts complete tournament profile from Hendon Mob Poker Stats.

As a tournament competitor myself I look forward to the day to meet Mr. Corkins, and hopefully it's not as I sit down and look to my left! Even if it is I will cherish the moment and make the best of the opportunity to play with, in my mind, a legend of the game. But until then I will look forward to railing or watching him on tv.

Thanks Hoyt for being a true and well respected gentleman of the game and Keep the Faith my friend! Hope to see you on the felt soon!

chapelout...GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome

Tough Way to Make an Easy Living

2011-10-16T12:59:00.007-04:00

We've all heard the saying..."playing poker is a tough way to make an easy living."

Most people who have played the game seriously and have had a reasonable amount of success have probably thought about or maybe even considered making that next step ( more like a well calculated triple jump) to playing full-time for a living.

If that thought or consideration has ever crossed your mind, been suggested to you, or has been a dream that has slowly resinated into an extremely motivated "can do" attitude... you might want to consider some important questions before you commit to that decision.

Do You Love to Play Poker?... If you are going to make the decision to play poker for a living, you better LOVE to play poker and LOVE to play for long periods of time. Playing once or twice a week for six, eight, ten hour sessions is one thing. Are you ready to play ten, twelve, even fourteen hours a day... for three, four maybe even five or six days (nights) a week? Poker now becomes a (your) business, and it's your JOB to see that it is successful. It's no longer a hobby, a supplement to your income, or just something to help you "get away". It won't take long for the fun, excitement and overall enjoyable experience you once had for the game to turn into a daily grind just as it was during your previous job. Even if you are good at it and are successful, if you don't love to play... you will soon begin to hate it!

Can You Handle the Pressure?... Depending on the circumstances of.... whether you are single or married (with children) is going to present quite a bit of pressue for you to be successful. The mortgage payments, car payments, insurance payments and ALL the other monthly bills are still going to keep coming in whether you are successful or not. You are no longer punching a clock each day and collecting a paycheck every week for that time invested. As a poker player you may invest forty, fifty, even sixty plus hours a week and have nothing to show for it. For several weeks! Remember, this is a return on your investment business. Your investment is not just your time anymore... it's your money as well. Before, you could invest forty to fifty-five hours at a job and knew there was a paycheck coming. Now it's up to you to insure there is a return on that investment. Keep in mind that you can't, you don't and you won't win evry time. No one will!! Losing is never fun, especially when others depend on your success.

What About Other Expenses?... If you are looking at only the entry expenses of your adventure you are not going to last very long. Unless you live near a casino or plan to uproot the family and move closer to a casino there are going to be travel, food, lodging and supplementary spendings while you are on the road. These expenses can and will eat away at your bankroll for entries if you are not careful and prepared. Sure, the thought of enjoying the free breakfast at the hotel, stocking and making sandwiches from the hotel fridge in your room and staying within walking distance of the events is a good idea, to start out. But you will soon find out that the breakfast (if you get there) is not as good as the picture shown, those sandwiches you pulled out of your back pack are not as good six to eight and a half hours later, and the walk to and from the event was decided upon on a clear sunny day!

Your Bankroll and the Consequences?... If you are strictly a tournament competitor you should have a good idea of the entry level you want to play and have at least... one hundred and fifty to two hundred entry fees available.

No one goes into professional poker thinking that they are going to fail, but plenty of people who try just don't make enough money to survive and provide. If you are supporting a family you should think about what the consequences will be for them above all. If your poker adventure does not go as well as you may have planned you should always have a backup plan in place. Jobs are difficult to come come by these days, so have a plan in place to return to a job if at all possible. There is no shame in making the effort and falling short of the expected goal you have set. Keep in mind that there will be plenty of opportunities to pursue the goal again, if you prepare for those opportunities. If you bust out, you can always rebuild your bankroll and try again somewhere down the road. But don't put yourself, or your family, in a position where you cannot recover just because you can’t accept you are not good enough. Get back in the game at a lower level, work hard on your game and when you have established the confidence and the bankroll again, give it another shot.

You HAVE TO PAY Your Taxes!... I understand that this is not a question to consider. It is a must, there is NO option...unless you just want to be charged with a felony and spend an unreasonable amount of time in a jail cell with someone who, well we won't go there, and you should not have to if you are prepared in advance to take care of your responsibilities!!

I understand that these are NOT the only questions you should consider before pursuing a career in poker. Each persons opportunity is going to require specific questions, comments, suggestions, complaints and obstacles to hurdle before the commitment is made to follow their dream, pursue their goal or just give it their best shot. You will never know the outcome if you never try, all I'm saying is... hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst! And if you are prepared, it won't be sooo bad!

...chapelout... GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome...
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.... Backing ... Staking ... Sponsors ...

2011-10-11T20:07:00.006-04:00

Over the years I have had the opportunity to aquire several "backers" for tournaments, some fellow players who have "staked" me in cash games, and have signed on with a few sponsorships that provided them with advertising opportunities for monetary and/or bartering compensation

(comped meals/lodging/transportation/clothing, etc.) for me in return. Each opportunity had it's own arrangements and details that were discussed BEFORE any final agreement of terms for all parties involved. The only contracts that were involved were with the sponsorships, and there was only one that I can recall that required me to sign a contractual agreement. From 2007 until the present time I have had the opportunity to be backed in thirty-two events, cashing in nineteen of them. There were six different backers involved, each backing five events with the exception of two who had six. The only time I had a make-up agreement was with one of the backers of six events, we had initially agreed upon nine events but he has since passed. And yes he was paid, payment was arranged after every event. The cashes for my backers went 3/6, 2/5, 4/5, 5/6, 2/5, 3/5. Back to the subject of the post...

A backing agreement is when a person... whether it be a friend, family member, business associate or another player... invests their money into a player by providing partial or complete entry fee costs into events for the player. Some investors may even provide other arrangements for transportation, lodging and meals during the event with a make-up agreement, but most investments are for entries only.

Each arrangement is determined between the two parties involved. Most of the time the investor is going to back (pay for) players entry fees for a percentage of the players winnings. If it's a one time deal the arrangements may be made to the investors benefit with a higher percentage to the investor due to the financial risk he/she is making. For one time investments the player may be looking at collecting only 25%-40% and the investor collecting the 60%-75% of the winnings. All arrangements are different though. If it is a long term agreement it is usually going to be a 50/50 split. These terms should be discussed and agreed upon beforehand!

There are other factors that can and should be considered by both sides before any arrangements are decided upon. If as mentioned earlier there is an agreement for any other incidentals that are provided there needs to be an arrangement as to where and when that money is collected (re-imbursed). Where does not mean a location, and when is not what time! Where is in reference to where is the money coming from, off the top of the winnings, from the players portion of the split, before or after taxes are deducted. When comes into play when it's a long term agreement. Does investor want payment after every cash/win or at the end of an agreed upon time frame (every 90 days or every 3 events maybe). There is also the option to the parties involved to be under a "make-up" agreement. That is when the investor agrees to a long term partnership with the adventure and expects that all previous entries paid and any other incidentals will be re-imbursed when the player has a substantial cash/win. Here is an example of a "make-up" agreement:

Player enters into agreement with Investor to be backed for four stops on the WSOP Circuit, with a 50/50 term and a "make-up" agreement. Of the eighteen events at each stop (total of 72 events) that are available Player is able to compete in five or six events during each stop (20-24 events total). Investor expects payment after each cash/win. At the first stop Player registers for five events with a total cost of $1935.00, which is an average of $387 per event. Player does well but does not cash/win. Player moves on to next stop, registers for six events at a cost of $2490.00, an average of $415 per event. Player again plays well during the first three events but does not cash. In the fourth event of the second stop Player makes the final table and finishes 3rd cashing for $24,700.00. Great news for Player and Investor. Here's where the arrangement needs to be covered in detail before agreement on the terms of payout. Option #1- With the 50/50 terms (only) Player pays Investor $12,350.00 and keeps $12,350.00. If there is a make-up agreement in place there is Option #2 or Option #3. Option #2- Player pays investor the 50/50 $12,350.00 for each. Then Player pays investor for the 5x$387 events= $1,935.00 and the 4x$415events= $1,660. That's a total of $3,595 paid out from Players winnings and is now left with $8,755.00. Option #3- Investor allows Player to take the $3595 make-up out of the $24,700 leaving $21,105 and then the 50/50 provides each $10,552.50, BIG DIFFERENCE for both parties involved! Most Investors want the biggest return on their investment but understand that by allowing Player to take it off the top it is a way to say Thank You for the time, mental, physical, and emotional investment grinding out for their return of investment.

Where backing is a term used for tournament events, staking is basically the same but in reference to providing a bankroll for a player in cash games. The stakes in the game are usually gonna determine how much the player will be staked for. If it is a $1/$2 cash game the investor will probably want to make sure that the player has an initial buy-in of at least 100 big blinds ($200) and possibly additional monies of the same amount to provide a re-load opportunity. The higher the blind structure for the game the higher the stake for the player will be. Some investors will do a 50/50. Player invests, in the same $1/$2 scenario, $200 and Investor puts up $200. In the later case the two would absorb the loss, or split the profit 50/50. In the first scenario where the investor has all the money there should be terms agreed upon beforehand as to the payout of any profits. Normally the investor will expect at least a 60/40 split due to the investment. It could go several ways just as the backing scenarios were explained. Some investors may just say give me my investment back and 25% of the profit. Here's an example and several payout scenarios:

Investor stakes Player 100% in a $1/$2 cash game with a $200 buy-in and a $200 re-load. Player grinds out on the initial $200 for a profit of $1,100. Option#1- Player returns to Investor with $1,500. With a 50/50 split both leave with $750. Option #2- Player returns to investor with $1,500. Player re-imburses the $400 investment from Investor and leaves $1,100 to split 50/50 for $550 each. Option #3- Player returns to Investor with $1,500 there's no initial reimbursement of the investment ($400) for the session but there is a make-up agreement, as explained before. Player lost $400 in a previous session and now has returned from this session with $1,500. Player pays investor $400, leaving $1,100 to split 50/50 for $550 each.

There are soooo many ways to make arrangements of terms to agree upon, just be sure that all of those agreements are in place beforehand! Over the years I have played in ten times more tournaments than cash game sessions and with each cash game session staked there were always different arrangements for payout. The only option I never encountered was the make-up scenario in reference to cash game sessions, the option is there mainly to secure the investors interest and investment for a long term arrangement, but I never had to agree to those terms.

I've had this post in draft mode for quite some time now, so I'm gonna go ahead and publish this part and provide a PartII to finish up with the Sponsor/Sponsorship aspect real soon!

.......chapel out!........GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.....

...the STRADDLE and SLEEPER bets...

2011-09-30T20:49:00.002-04:00

In the game of poker the play is centered around the act of betting to generate a pot to win at the end of each hand. Each game has it's on variations of betting allowed and/or mandated. Some games require "antes", others mandate "blinds".

An "ante" is a forced bet required by all players in the game to generate a pot to play for, before the hand is dealt. After the cards are dealt each player has the option to check, increase the pot with a bet, call the additional bet, raise the initial bet or fold. In the game of Texas Hold'em though there is a required "blind" bet from only two players. The first two players to the left of the player who is the dealer are referred to as the "small blind" and the "big blind". A $1/$2 Hold'em cash game refers to the blind structure of the game. The $1 being the small blind and the $2 being the big blind.

In some games there is an additional blind bet that is allowed that is referred to as a "straddle" or a "sleeper" aka... Mississippi straddle bet. A straddle is an optional and voluntary raise of the big blind before the cards are dealt. They are basically the same, just named from the position you might be making the bet from. The straddle is commonly used from the "UTG" (under the gun) position, which is the first person to act after the big blind. . When it is used in any other position it is referred to as a sleeper or a Mississippi straddle. The main reason for a straddle bet is to, in effect, "buy" the rights or privilege of acting last, which is normally the big blinds privilege, barring a raise before it gets back to the big blind. This isn't always the case for the implemented straddle either. There are re-straddle options and a raise of the straddle that will change the outcome of who actually acts last.

Now that you know about the straddle options, should you put this into your pre-flop arsenal!?!Whether or not you have in the past here are a few things to consider before you do so (again).

1. The only advantage to a straddle is that you get to act last during the pre-flop round of betting. You also have to consider that you have put in a raise with no information about your hand and if your straddle is raised you will need a very nive to a premium hand to be able to call, eventually resulting in a waste of money..... so, don't straddle.

2. If you are playing in a lower stakes game than you are accustomed to your straddles may be a way to double the blinds from the onset of the hand....so, straddle.

3. If you feel you can get opponents out of their comfort zones or it may force them to fold it may work out to your advantage...so, straddle.

Some players will insist that the straddle will add more excitement to the game due to the increase of the pots generated (especially if there are antes and blinds). Some will say that it takes away from the game due to the changing of positions that occur. Others will say it's just a fool's bet and a dumb thing to do. But there are those who believe that if played correctly it can be very profitable and may be the answer to getting out of a slump.

Personally, I don't care to straddle. But I don't mind if others do, I get see my cards and still have the option to fold. Whatever the reason or by whatever reasoning you have convinced yourself to use a straddle....

good luck to ya! cause most of the time it's only gonna be a sweetener to the pot for someone who actually had info to decide upon.

chapelout...GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.

Skill...The Great Poker Debate...Luck part2

2011-09-27T22:40:00.000-04:00

Some of the responses and comments about this here debate HERE and in other forums with the same topic and discussion are pretty interesting. Here are a few I have found:

Mr. XXXX, I hope you are still reading comments posted here.

I am the Litigation Support Director for the Poker Player's Alliance and in that capacity I was a major force in seeking to have the Cigital study done.

Your basic criticism of the study is not invalid, but is actually beside the point. The study does not BY ITSELF prove that poker is a game of mostly skill. What is does is validate a key and very important part of the overall argument that poker is a game of mostly skill.

What is validates is that poker is most frequently resolved by decisions made by the players, not by the turning over of the cards. And even when the cards are turned over, 50% of the time decisions of the players have thwarted the result that would have occurred had the cards alone been the deciding factor.

Proving this was extremely important to the overall effort. Most folks unfamiliar with poker assume that turning over the best hand is how poker is decided most of the time. They therefore conclude that poker is mostly decided by what cards a player is dealt.

By showing these folks that the actual deal of the cards does NOT decide the outcome the vast majority of poker hands, we then force them to consider and think about how the game is played vs. how the game is dealt.

Once we have them thinking about how the game is played, we can then educate them on all the various factors BESIDES the cards a player holds that must be considered in making the decision to check, bet, call, raise or fold.

And that is where we ultimately prove that skill at making correct decisions is only partially based on the cards and, in fact, most often the actual cards are the least important factor in making that decision.

And thats when the light bulb goes off over their heads and we have convinced them, as we have in 3 courts so far, that the evidence that poker is game of mostly skill is "overwhelming."

Patrick Fleming
PPA Litigation Support Director
*************************************************************************

I respect the data. I also respect your questioning of the data. And I believe, also being a card carrying member of the PPA, that this matter of skill versus luck cannot be answered simply. The reason for this is the elements of choice, will, endurance, deception and determination. Your examination of the study and I believe the study itself does not take into account the specific skill level of the participants and the opponents nor the amount of hours they had played continuously, whether they were simultaneously playing multiple tables or even multiple sites and if they normally played at these higher stakes, the strategies they were employing.

Taken these other factors into account is important for resolving the way a person plays certain hands, certain games, certain stakes and even on certain days. One of your photos begs the question, "If there's so much skill why cant Phil win them all?" There are a lot of answers for this. First of all that question assumes that Phil is the most skilled poker player. Let's say, "he is the most skilled player." There are other factors (most of which I mentioned above) besides luck and chance that can destroy his bids for victory. You can also make this same argument in the game of golf. If it's all skill then why can't Tiger Woods win them all? I think you can give me a great number of reasons and they would probably have parallels to the reasons Phil Hellmuth has troubles.

I suppose I am trying to say that each player takes a different mindset or psychology into each and every game he plays just as a golfer or boxer would. None of us play the same every day or every hand. Poker relies on your ability to adapt to an ever changing landscape of situations that data alone cannot predict or examine.

The data and the ensuing arguments show that the game of poker is complex and does require a good measure of skill. That is becoming more and more obvious as we progress to an inevitable "day in court".

XXXXX
************************************************************************

chapelout....GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome

SKILL...The Great Poker Debate...LUCK part1

2011-09-27T22:29:00.000-04:00

Poker is a game of high-risk AND chance. So, luck IS a necessary part of the game, but skill is required to eventually win out!?!

I've heard both sides of the story/argument. "Poker is all luck, it's the luck of the draw/cards!" or even, "Poker is a game of skill, luck has no bearing... a game of skill I say!"

The Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines Skill (noun) as:

a. the ability to use one's knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance.

b. dexterity or coordination especially in the execution of learned tasks.

c. a learned power of doing something competently; a developed aptitude or ability.

The Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines Luck as:

a. a force that brings good fortune or adversity.

b. the events or circumstances that operate for or against an individual.

c. favoring chance.

Skill in poker requires having a proficient ability for reading one's opponent, a developed aptitude of/in making the right decisions, and the dexterity to adapt to the given (and ever-changing) environment. Being lucky or unlucky in poker depends on whether you or your opponents are catching fortunate or adverse cards at fortunate or adverse times. A winning player (at the time) will likely classify the game as one of skill in order to draw attention to his/her skillful talent. The losing player (at the time) may suggest that the play in question was luck of the draw in order to save face of their own abilities.

In a single hand of poker luck is going to prevail more often than skill. But in a tournament or a long session of play the advantage that a skilled player has from hand to hand may be minimal to begin the session but it will increase throughout the session. In any single session though it is possible for the worst player at the table to walk away a winner and the best player to lose.

Personally, I feel the skill in poker is dependent upon the player(s) involved in the game. In other words, Poker is a game of luck that is manipulated by the skill of the player(s).

Skilled poker players are going to do one of two things when it comes to allowing luck to be involved into the equation in any given hand. One: they are going to put themselves in a position to get lucky at the expense of their competitor and/ or two: they are going to avoid situations where luck has too much of an influence on the outcome.

I do know that there is enough luck involved in poker to keep horrible players thinking they are great and it's convincing those same players that others are just lucky. As far as answering the question, "how much of poker is luck and how much is skill?" I doubt there will ever be a logical answer or explanation.

Thanks to the internet games there have been some recent studies and in depth research about poker over the past few years. Until the internet play there were not many players who were open to allowing people to record, study and then report on their play, so it was difficult to get the information necessary to even have a study. Two reports from a recent study have atrracted a great deal of attention. The first was a large scale examination of over 1 million hands played. This study was carried out by the Cigital Group, a consullting firm in Washington, DC. The two main findings were:

1. Three quarter of all hands played never made it to a showdown.

2. Only 12% of those hands were won by the best hand.

So, during this study 88% of the time a player was able to bet, raise or re-raise his/her opponent and suggest/convince that opponent that they should just lay it down (the best hand). That my friends is where the skill comes into play in poker! That doesn't mean that 88% of the time you bet, raise or re-raise someone they are going to lay it down. Luck plays a role, of course, in the impact of the random turn of a card, the flukiness of the flop, the unlikely river card. That's not only the nature of the game; it's an inherent feature of every interesting thing that people do. But what it does suggest is that the players that held these winning hands that never made it to a showdown could have done just as well holding two blank pieces of paper in place of their cards. It was their strategy (skill) that took it down.

The definitive study will not be one that tracks hands, it will track players. The really convincing data would be those that followed individuals in a variety of games over an extended period of time and found that some had consistently better results than others.

Unfortunately, it isn't going to be easy to do this, as another study of online poker by Ingo Fielder and Jan-Philipp Rock at the University of Hamburg discovered.

They examined the results of over 51,000 online players and found, to their (and my) surprise, that the majority of them play fewer than 100 hands, lose their bankroll and quit. They conclude, if you're concerned, that poker is overwhelmingly a game of skill.

In my next post I will provide responses to some studies that have been provided over the past few years.

chapelout for now.....GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome

...Full Tilt Ponzhi...

2011-09-20T16:56:00.003-04:00

Manhattan’s U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara claimed on Tuesday that Full Tilt Poker and its board of directors operated the company “as a massive Ponzi scheme against its own players.”

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said on Tuesday they were filing legal papers as part of a civil money laundering complaint that alleged Full Tilt Poker improperly used funds of online poker players to pay members of its board of directors, including famous poker players Howard Lederer and Christopher “Jesus” Ferguson, $440 million since April 2007.

Bharara announced the filing of a motion to amend a forfeiture and civil money laundering complaint that was filed in April, alleging that Full Tilt and board members Lederer, Ferguson and Rafael Furst, together with Full Tilt CEO Ray Bitar, defrauded poker players out of some $300 million by not maintaining funds at the company sufficient to repay players.

“Full Tilt was not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme,” Bharara said in a statement. “Full Tilt insiders lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited.” Federal prosecutors have drawn up an amended complaint that names Bitar, Lederer, Ferguson and Furst, adding them to the original complaint which was filed seeking $3 billion from Full Tilt Poker and unrelated poker companies, PokerStars and Absolute Poker. The proposed amended complaint claims that in 2008 and 2009 Full Tilt sent emails to its players and posted messages on online poker message boards, assuring players that “unlike some companies in our industry, we completely understand and accept that your account money belongs to you, not Full Tilt Poker.” But the new complaint claims that the company did not have enough funds to repay players and that by March 31 Full Tilt only had $60 million or so in its bank accounts while owing $390 million to players around the world, including $150 million in the U.S.

Federal prosecutors claim that Full Tilt’s board members got rich because the company used player funds to pay them massive amounts of money that largely was transferred to their accounts in Switzerland and other overseas locations. Specifically, the feds allege that Bitar pocketed $41 million and Lederer got $42 million. Jesus Ferguson allegedly was allocated $87 million in distributions and received at least $25 million, federal prosecutors claim.

U.S. government lawyers believe that Full Tilt Poker started to face a growing cash crunch in 2010 because it could not collect funds from U.S. players due to the federal government’s efforts to disrupt the payment processors that facilitate the flow of funds in the online poker industry. Indeed, Bharara’s office believes that by August 2010 Full Tilt’s payment processing network had been severely disrupted and that the company could no longer withdraw money from U.S. players’ bank accounts. So instead, the feds claim, Full Tilt continued to credit player accounts without disclosing its inability to fund those credits, letting players make online poker bets with $130 million of “phantom funds” that resulted in a massive shortfall when other players won the bogus money in poker games.

According to the proposed complaint, when the U.S. government unsealed an indictment against Bitar and effectively shut down Full Tilt’s U.S. operations in April, Full Tilt’s leaders realized they were facing a serious cash crunch but continued to accept foreign player funds while facing $300 million in liabilities. In June Lederer allegedly told others at Full Tilt that the company only had $6 million and Bitar worried in an internal email about a “run on the bank.”

Full Tilt has previously denied any wrongdoing and recently tried to explain its actions to its many irate customers, saying it had been a victim of a massive heist perpetrated by a payment processor and the U.S. government’s moves against the online poker industry.

data source provided as reported by http://www.forbes.com/

the.C.bet

2011-09-19T20:44:00.000-04:00

"C"ontinuation betting is a bet that is made after the flop by a player who initially raised pre-flop. Most aggressive players are going to follow-up their pre-flop raises with a "C" bet in just about any situation the board may present them on the flop.

The first, easiest, and most obvious situation to "C" bet is when you have a premium hand and hit the flop and now have a strong-dominant hand. By making a pre-flop raise you have already suggested that you have a strong hand so you should continue that aggression with a bet of at least half to two thirds the size of the pot.

Here is an example to help out:

You are in a $1/$2 holdem game. You have QJ suited in late position. It folds around to you and you raise to $8. Small blind folds and the big blind calls your raise. The flop comes out Q76. The big blind checks to you. This is a classic position for you to bet out with a "C" bet of at least $12-$14. At this point the "C" bet continues your aggressive play, serves to protect your top pair and forces drawing and mid pair hands to have to invest more to see the hand play out which is building the pot for you! In a cash game and one that has a straight flush jackpot you should be cautious when the board comes with suited connectors or connecting cards as this one did, but the aggressive play only forces the opponent deeper into his/her stack to see it play out.
Another area that will come into play for a "C" bet is when you have flopped an open ended straight opportunity. You raise pre-flop with with KQ, the flop comes 10 J 8. Even though you have not actually hit the flop you have made a connection and have several outs that may come. An A or 9 which gives you 6 opportunities or a K or Q adds even more. Making a "C" bet is in your best interest here, by checking you jeopardize your aggressive table presence you've established.

Another spot when you should consider making a continuation bet is when you miss the flop completely after showing aggression preflop. Although you don't have a solid hand at this point, you still most likely have outs on your opponent, and you might be able to take down the pot right away. Here's a good example:
You're playing $1/$2 , and have AK suited in the cutoff. It folds to you, you raise to $9, and the big blind calls. The flop comes down 4-8-10 with one card of your suit. Although you really don't have much of a hand here, I'd bet out if the big blind checks to you. By checking they show that they don't have much either, so you should fire out $12 here to see if you can take the pot. Worst case scenario, he/she calls and you most likely have six outs (any ace or king) to win plus the backdoor flush draw.
Next up... the double barrell.

chapelout....GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome

some data source provided from pokersite.com

the.VALUE.bet

2011-09-19T18:57:00.002-04:00

One of the most profitable plays in No Limit Holdem is the value bet, when applied corectly! A value bet is a bet you want to make when you feel you are ahead in a hand and can entice a caller(s) that would lead to a nicer payoff at showdown.

Good hands only come around ever so often, so it is necessary to extract as much of a return on your investment as possible when you have that opportunity!

Here is an example of value betting when you are ahead:

You are in a $1/$2 NL Holdem game and get dealt AK under the gun. You raise to $9 and get one caller from late position. The flop comes A73. At this point you have top pair/top kicker and probably feel confident that you have the best hand. A medium size bet, half the value of the pot, is probably what you want to bet. This looks (and actually is) a continuation bet, but it is also a value bet to entice an affordable call from the other player. It doesn't show dominant strength and as mentioned may just reak continuation bet enough to get the call. The turn comes K. Now you have top two. You may be inclined to check, hoping for an opportunity to check/raise but it is more profitable in the long run to bet out again with a medium size bet. If you check and get a check in return you just lost the opportunity to increase the value of your ROI in a favorable position with the strength of your hand. The river comes 2. The board is now A73K2. At this point you want to make a bet about one third of the pot. If your opponent calls, with top pair or a lower valued two pair, you have gotten paid off from each bet and take down a nice pot!

A value bet can also be used as a river bet when there is a question as to where your hand stands. And here is an example for that situation:

Again you are in a $1/$2 game. You have 10,8 suited and call from late position. You, the blinds and the button are all in the hand with no pre-flop raise. The flop comes 10,7,6. You bet out a "feeler"/"protector" bet of $5 (into an $8 pot) to see where your top pair stands. You get one caller. Now you are heads up. The turn is a 2. Again you bet out, $10 this time and get called. The river comes an 8. This makes for a scary board with any 9 making a straight. What to do now.... theVALUEbet!

If you check on the river there are two things that can happen. The first is that he checks as well, and shows down an inferior hand. In this case, you'll win no extra money. The second is that he fires out a medium sized bet, and you have to call with your top two pair. He then shows down the straight, and you lose the medium sized bet.

Now, if you do bet out, there are three things that can happen:
    The first is that your opponent folds if they have a poor hand. In this case you earn no extra money, and it's the same outcome whether you check or bet.
    The second situation is that you bet out, and your opponent calls with a worse two pair, or top pair. In this case you win an extra bet on the end, because if you had checked they would have checked behind.
    The third case is that you bet out, and your opponent has the straight and raises. In this case you can simply fold your hand, and lose the medium sized bet.

As you can see, in situations #1 and #3 it's a wash regardless if you bet or check, but in situation #2, you actually earn an extra bet on the end. Because of this, you should always fire out in these situations, because it is actually more profitable to bet than it is to check.

Ok, so if you we look at each case:

Your opponent has nothing. Regardless if you check or bet, you're still winning the same sized pot.
Your opponent has a decent hand, but not the straight. In this case, if you check, you win nothing extra, but if you bet out, he'll call and show down the worse hand. In this case, betting wins you extra money.
Your opponent has the straight. If you check, they'll bet, and you'll lose a medium sized bet. If you bet, they'll raise, you'll fold, and you lose a medium sized bet. So once again, no difference.

chapelout.........GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome

some data status provided from pokersite.org

Canada Trip... Part II

2011-09-06T21:09:00.004-04:00

As I made my travel and stay arrangements for my trip I was able to arrive earlier than the plans for the tournament and stay longer than expected due to the awesome deals I aquired by flying out on a certain day and time and departing on a certain day and time. The original plan was to be there from Sunday through Wednesday, the days of the tournament. Because of the deals I was able to leave the Thursday before the event and come back the following Friday which gave me extra time to enjoy the trip and actually get to see the sites throughout the area.

As a bonus to being able to participate in the Montrea Open Charity Event I also had the opportunity to finally meet the man who introduced me to the opportunity to play in the event and actually invited and sponsored my initial entry into the event. I actually met him, Jeff Burnett, online during a video contest to become Victory Pokers next Poker Pro. Jeff is the founder of a poker team called the BombSquad. He is also known as the "AceTenBomber". If you would like to know more about Jeff I have already featured him in one of my earlier published posts.

Back to the trip... another bonus to the trip was the opportunity to visit an awesome poker club in Kahnawake, Quebec. We spent about four and a half days at The Playground Poker Club. It was awesome! Jeff had made arrangements with Playground to expect the team to be coming in quite a bit while we were in the area. I cannot begin to tell you how nice the club, the staff, the restaurant and the food was during or visits there.

Here are some photos of some of the characters you might see at the Playground on any given night!

Yep, That's Erik Cajelais. Had the opportunity to meet and play some cash game sessions with him, until he made his way into the high stakes games that is! Super nice guy though! I also had the opportunity to meet Gavin Smith, Andy Bloch and Marc Karam. And at the Monreal Open got to play on the same table as Huck Seed, Greg Mueller, Andy Bloch and Gavin Smith as well!

You cannot beat the food that comes out of the kitchen at the restaurant, The Rail, inside the club. We were treated like royalty with the food that was brought out to us throughout our entire visit. There was always something going on there. Cash games from noon til 6am, daily tournament schedules and special events that bring out even the big guns! I can't wait to get back out there again, and again!

Here's a few shots of the BombSquad invading the Playground Poker Club.

And some photos of the team back in Montreal during the Montreal Open!

Well I guess that's it for tonight. Maybe soon I can get some info together on some of the squad and feature them here as well. Great bunch of guys and gals that came out for the event. And one that we will never forget but will NOT discuss, at least here in this forum!

chapel out for now...GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome

some photos provided by canadapoker.com and various facebook accounts

My Trip to Canada... Part I

2011-09-06T18:57:00.001-04:00

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to take a trip to the Canada. I was there primarily for the opportunity to play in a charity poker tournament. The tournament was The Montreal Open, the major sponsor was FullTilt and the venue was the LeWindsor Hotel.

The Miriam Foundation was chartered in 1910 as Miriam No. 17, a local chapter of the national organization United Order True Sisters, Inc. (UOTS). On its property in Webster Groves, Missouri, Miriam founded and operated the Rosa Bry Convalescent Home and Rehabilitation Program from 1914 until 1956, when the program merged with Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

In 1954, Miriam began providing assistance to cancer patients and cancer-related organizations throughout the St. Louis community through Miriam Cancer Services.

Miriam School was established in 1956 to serve children with developmental disabilities. Following the establishment of Special School District and other public school special education programs, the Miriam School's focus changed in 1962 to serve children with multiple learning disabilities.

Miriam school
The mission of the Miriam School is to encourage children with multiple learning disabilities to recognize and successfully meet their potential.

The Miriam School serves 96 children, pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in small, ungraded classrooms with a ratio of ten students per teacher. Children come to the Miriam School with unique academic, social and personal challenges and the professional faculty provides an individualized education plan and curriculum designed to meet each child’s needs.

Contact Information
Miriam Foundation501 Bacon Avenue
St. Louis, Missouri 63119-1512
phone: 314.962.6059
fax: 314.962.0482
Please contact Andrew Thorp or Sarah Scott in the Miriam Foundation office for more information regarding giving opportunities.

The site for the event was the Le Windsor Hotel.

Historically it was Canada's first Grand Hotel.

Le Windsor, formerly the Windsor Hotel, is one of downtown Montreal’s most prestigious and historic landmarks, boasting two breathtaking ballrooms and Peacock Alley. Built in 1878, the Windsor Hotel was considered the palace of Canada. Its breathtaking ballrooms and the Peacock Alley have been, throughout its history, host to world dignitaries such as Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Her Royal Highness, then Princess Elizabeth, Prince Phillip and Sarah Bernhardt and more recently, Tony Blair, to name but a few.

Some of the attractions and sites throughout the area were breathtaking. The historical architecture, the nightlife views and the overall experience of the visit was awesome! Here are a few of the images of Montreal I had the pleasure of seeing and experience while there.

This was my first trip to Canada and I have to say I am anxious to get back to see more!

I hope to be able to get back again soon and have the opportunity to take my family with me the next visit. When I left the states I think it was about 78 degrees. When I arrived in Montreal it was 9 degrees. This was at the end of March and through the first week of April.

The Integrity and Authenticity of Online Poker... Part III

2011-09-05T23:50:00.002-04:00

Okay Kenny, here we go! This is going to be a tough topic to discuss because of all the angles that you can look at it from. But I will start with your question, or suggestion for this topic:

"I would love to hear your views on the integrity and authenticity of todays online poker, can a good player win or is it just for the donks?"

First, I will begin with my experience as an online player. I have been a live on the felt poker tournament competitor since 1999. I was introduced to the internet forums of online poker by my brother. I had some reservations about the whole deposit my money into an account which I have no idea where it's going and what might happen to it syndrome. But after railing a few tournaments with my bro and checking out some of the payouts he had recieved I finally decided to make my first deposit and play for real money.

I quickly realized that the majority of the so-called poker players on the internet were more or less just a room full of gambling idiots! Yes I said it... a bunch of gambling IDIOTS! But that's before I had learned any of the poker lingo and realized that I was speaking pokeretiquettely wrong. I should be calling them Donkeys! Okay, idiot...donkey... whatever!?! They are NOT poker players though! They are gamblers, and there is a huge difference between the two.

I have won countless low/mid-level entry sit and go's. I have won two freerolls with over 14 thousand players involved in each, one with just over 11 thousand, and I won the $100 US Online Poker Championship that consisted of 4,644 players who qualified for the event. Oh yea, you want to know if a good poker player can win online! My bad.

Finding a person that has the traits of becoming AND maintaing the status of being a successful online poker player... IS RARE! Extremely rare! As mentioned before I have had some success playing online poker, but... I did not have the consistent and continued success that I thought I was capable of. Many... most.... actually, the majority of good poker players will never reach or even realize their potential when it comes to online play. There is really no one reason why though, there are many, many reasons why! Collusion, manipulation of the programming, ghosting, selling off seats have already been discussed, and many other opportunities to cheat will always play against the online hopefuls. Outside of the factors that a player cannot control are the factors that one must possess, control and maintain in order to be successful.
These are the traits that I feel are necessary for a good poker player to be successful, whether it is online or on the felt:
1. Patience 2. Discipline 3. Reasonable Intelligence 4. Attitude 5. Experience
6. Strategic Aggression 7. Confidence
But not necessarily in that order. The order of importance is going change from game to game, and event to event depending upon the venue, the players and many other circumstances!

*Reasonable Intelligence will be the foundation of a successful poker player. I'm not saying you have to be good in school, make good grades, have a degree or anything like that. I'm just saying that a successful player will be one who knows and understands the basics of the games and has the ability to understand and apply the mathmatics and variances applicable in order to make sound and solid decisions based on the variables that apply at any given time within the hand or the understanding of your opponents. You must be able to think, absorb and make critical decisions quickly. And these decisions are, for the most part... not based on factual information ... but on the understanding of the who, why and possible probabilty of circumstances that would allow, require or mandate the decision to be made. You can't just leave all your decisions up to a feeling or gut instinct you know!
*Discipline is going to incorporate most of the traits that have been mentioned and more. A successful player is going to be disciplined enough to be patient for the right cards to play, have the right attitude to hadle a string of bad luck and even shaking off the unfortunate collection of bad beats. Another area to have great disciplne with is managing your bankroll. I have already published a post about that area if you want to go back and read it as well.
*Confidence is also a necessary trait. And you have to be disciplined enough not to allow that confidence to emerge as anything other than that. Becoming cocky and developing an unwanted asshole rep is not something you want. I understand developing a table presence and not allowing someone or certain situations to push you or roll you over, but that again goes back to discipline! Confidence ultimately comes down to how a player feels, responds to, and adjusts to the decisions they have made. Whether it is pertaining to bluffing, applying strategic aggression or just accepting that the right thing to do is to lay it down or walk away. Being confident as to when, where and how to apply these staategies is crucial and requires total commitment and confidence in those decisions, and that confidence must be evident to those at the table. The tougher the decision requires the utmost of confidence and discipline.
*Experience! In order to develop the traits that I have dicussed it is obvious that you are gonna have to get out there, get in the game and gain as much experience you can in order to understand why you are gonna be doing what you are doing. We can sit here and discuss poker, poker strategy, the influences, variables and variances of the game until we are shriveled up and blue! Keep in mind though, the rules and objectives of the games don't change, just new concepts and applications of these concepts to the game so keep an open mind about the opportunity to learn something new any and every chance you can get!
Finding a person that possessses and has been able to maintain these traits is a difficult find. Thus the reason you will always see the number of players within the poker community continue to rise and the reference to successful poker players remain at a minimal percentage of the total community. Those who are able to balance an intelligent foundation with discipline and confidence are most likely those who are going to become a long term profitable player!

Another angle to consider is what you deem to be successful. There are are athletes, scholars, business owners and poker players who have never been recognized for their long and enduring careers that have been profitable without ever winning the big game, being crowned the cream of the crop or was ever established as the leader of the industry.
Now days there are sooo many gamblers that call themselves poker players! Among the millions of players there are only gonna be a handful of players that are recognized as successful. But it really just depends on your comfort level of success. Personally, If I am able to continue to maintain a profitable return on my investments I consider myself a winner.
Well Kenny, I don't know if I was able to answer your question!?! Here is how I have come to visualize my chances at winning games and tournaments online. Imagine a white line drawn in the middle of the desert. On one side of the line you see a crowd of people who are casually intermingling while drinking and sharing the water they were able to obtain. They have plenty of room to allow each other their personal space also allowing the possibilty to even recognize some of them and even get a reasonable estimate of the number of people on that side. On the other side of the line is a mass of people that are unable to raise their arms above their heads without hitting someone and the crowd fades out into the horizon. The first group mentioned are the poker players you may run across in your future online adventures. The other group that faded into the horizon, well that's the mass of idiot gamblers, I mean donkeys, no I do mean idiot gamblers that will eventually thirst to death from lack of water they will never find in order to sustain the lifestyle they so desire but refuse to approach in a reasonably intelligent, disciplined and confident manner.

...chapeout!...GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.

PlaySmart.BePatient.StayFocused.

The Integrity and Authenticity of Online Poker... Part II

2011-09-05T13:12:00.001-04:00

In any game, competition or business transaction there is always a sense of honor, ethics and integrity established between the competitors and/or the associates involved. No other game is going to test the limits of the honor system more than the game of poker though. While the game has been established to bluff and out smart your opponents, the landscape of the poker community is held together by an expected moral code, a high standard of ethical play and a shared and expected desire to maintain the overall integrity of the game.

A moral code in Poker!?! Absolutely!

A moral code is established by one's choice to weigh the options available and choosing right over wrong. While playing in a live forum with players, dealers, floor managers and those on the rail surrounding you it may be easy to make these decisions. Most people with good sound morals are going to be able to make these decisions on the felt or while playing in the virtual world of online poker. Those who are lacking the ethical committment are going to have a harder time doing so, especially in the comfort of their own home while competing online and considering whether or not they would even get caught or weighing out the severity of the penalty if they did get caught.

Online poker is now a multi-billion dollar industry. And when there is money involved, especially the money involved in highstakes games and highroller tournaments on these online sites it is going to be tempting to waver a bit from the morals and ethical decisions one might general be inclined to choose while at a live event.

One of the issues with the cheating within the online community is not necessarily how or why players are cheating. For the most part the how and why are obvious. It's the "who" that has created a lot of concern over te past few years.

Aaron Angerman from PokerPages reports that some of the high profiled players and operational owners, board members and network/site staff within the online community have become who they are due to the immoral and unethical decisions they made to acquire their money and status.

Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo, Josh "JJProdigy" Field, and Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi were just a few of the highest profiled online players who were reported, investigated and ultimately charged with violating the player rules and regulations and were suspended, funds withdrawn from and some even banned from certain sites.

Josh "JJProdigy" Field was the first high profile player to be investigated and subsequently suspended and banned from online sites PartyPoker, PokerStars and FullTilt for multi-accounting tournament events and cash games. Josh started his online play with PartyPoker at the age of 14. Within a few months he had increased his $100 starting deposit well into the six figure range. It wasn't until the teenager was 16 that he made his mistake. Josh had entered the $500k Guaranteed Tournament on PartyPoker and managed to outlast the field to take down $140k for top prize. The only problem was, "JJProdigy" had been eliminated from the field early on and the winner of the event was "ABlackCar". After boasting of his credentials as the winner of the event an investgation was started and quickly concluded that Josh had indeed won the event but by means that were against the rules, regulations and policies of the site, multi-accounting the event.Nearly $200k was recovered from his account and he was banned from the site.

Another case involving the same issues of multi-accounting came not long after the Josh incident and it involved 20 year old Justin Bonomo. Circumstances were different with Justin as he was reported and outed by his peers and other players who were sucspicious of his play. He too was investigated, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and was banned from PartyPoker and PokerStars as well. Both of these players have apologized to the online poker community but have a long way to go to restore any respect from their peers. Both have blamed their bad decisions on their youthful ages and experience with proper and ethical decisions, (and greed!).

There are sooo many ways to cheat when it comes to playing on the online sites. "Ghosting" is when you are being informed by phone, instant message, texts, or inperson of cards, bets and upcoming intentions in the hand by other players at the same table. "Multi-Accounting" events and cash games that gives a player obvious advantages, especially in cash games at the same table. "Seat-Selling" is another way some high profile players have been able to take down games and events as of late. An arrangement is made between the parties involved that would allow the better, more experienced and higher profiled player to buy a seat in a tournament late in the final stages of the event. This allows the player to by-pass the long grueling hours of getting to the point of the game where the poker playing skills of playing position, betting, bluffing and table/hand experience and strategic aggression to prevail for such a player. Especially when such player who is known as a higher profile player to have the opportunity to hide behind anothers screen name.

The ultimate cheat(ers) though would be a group of players back in 2007 that were dominating events and games with astonishing success rates and practically no losing records. This group was using what is now known as a "Super-User" account. During a particular tournament on the Absolute Poker site several suspicious players in the tournament requested that the tournament transcript be investigated due to suspicious play from a player named "POTRIPPER". During the investigation it was discovered that the account was a "super-account" and had the capabilities of seeing ALL the hole cards from ALL the players in the tournament. The account was traced bak to Allan Grimmard aka AJ Green, the IP address was traced back to Scott Tom. Green was once Absolute Poker's Vice President of Operations and Tom was part owner of the company!

to be continued! okay Kenny, I'm finally gonna get to the topic you requested. hang in there and I will do my best to cover it from all the angles!

...chapelout...GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.

data source provided from pokerpages

The Integrity and Authenticity of Online Poker... Part I

2011-09-05T13:09:00.001-04:00

There is NO DOUBT that this topic will be discussed through multiple posts and discussions.

So let's get this discussion started with a bit of history.

Online poker is the game of poker played via the internet. In late 1997 Randy Blumer decided to create and launch a forum for poker players to play for free on the internet. The intention was to gather the interest of the general public, advertise the opportunity to play online and then capitalize on the interest of playing for real money! After only a brief stint of the free play with play money and advertising in Card Player Magazine Randy introduced and launched "Planet Poker". It was January 1st, 1998 when Planet decided to provide the first real money game, and the game was a $3/$6 cash game. By the early summer of 1998 Planet Poker had a huge following and was only getting bigger. At that time nearly all the internet players were on dial-up connects. The "www" itself was still trying to work through it's problems and it was common that some connection problems took two, three hours and sometimes up to three and four days to correct. Can you imagine that happening now!?!

Technical problems were common and Planet Poker desperately needed to upgrade the enhancements of more features, a wider variety of games and most importantly a customer service and technical support team. As these issues were being discussed, planning, hiring and training put into place there was a crash within the system that required several days of "downtime" to correct and maintain before re-launch. Unfortunately for them though a new site Paradise Poker launced during their downtime and was able to scoop up a majority of the established players they had. Within ninety days Paradise was able to accumulate about 1500 players. It took Planet twice as long to establish their first four hundred. It wasn't long that Planet realized that the competition was now off the tables and now into the behind the scenes of the daily operations and options available to provide to the customers.

Once the competition was established Planet Poker began to invest their income and resources into new capabilites for the site. But the gap between the two cardrooms in reference to number of players, game options for the players, graphic enhancements and player registration and deposits was pretty much insurmountable for Planet vs. Paradise. It wasn't until 2004 that Planet was able to establish a full and complete staff and provide the upgrades that were already available... not only at Paradise, but now there were multiple sites available! At this particular time though a recent newcommer had taken a hold on the market and was averaging about 100,00 players a day, compared to the 1,200 at Planet, and about 10,000 at Paradise.

As time goes by online sites begin popping up as commonly as local Wal-Marts and as quickly as your vacation from work comes to an end.

As of March 2008, there are fewer than forty stand-alone cardrooms and poker networks with detectable levels of traffic. There are however more than 600 independent doorways or 'skins' into the group of network sites.As of January 2009, the majority of online poker traffic occurs on just a few major networks, among them PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and the iPoker Network.

By February 2010, there are approximately 545 online poker websites. Within the 545 active sites, about two dozen are stand-alone sites (down from 40 in March 2008), while the remaining sites are called “skins” and operate on 21 different shared networks, the largest network being iPoker which has dozens of skins operating on its network. Of all the online poker rooms PokerStars.com is deemed the world’s largest poker site by number of players on site at any one time.

Okay, now that we have established the online poker community os sites, let's get into the controversy that has developed over the years about the integrity of the play on these online sites.

to be continued... chapelout

....GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome...

date source provided from wikipedia and pokerpages

...Your Poker Bankroll...

2011-08-30T22:26:00.002-04:00

Most of the information and advice you will hear or find about managing a bankroll is not always what you really NEED to hear to provide you with a concrete foundation for managing your bankroll.

In order to gain the best information about your bankroll you really need to offer up some key information to whom you are asking in order to provide a realized perception of your intentions with and for that bankroll.

...So, let's just start with the game itself...

What is poker to you? Is it just a game that you will play with neighborhood friends three to four times a year!?! Or is it an entertainment hobby, like bowling, that you will invest some money and time into each week that can be managed from the entertainment fund of the household inome each week/month!?! Or have you, over the years, allowed this hobby or your competitive nature to compel you to enter into a higher stakes more competitive game that requires you to have extra bullets if you want to remain competitive at the table without considering the restraints of the weekly/monthly income. If you are at this point, you are "obsessed" with the passion of the competitiveness of the game and you now need a "managable bankroll" to play with so you don't have to jeopardize your expected, necessary "liferoll". Or is poker something you are considering doing for a living as a profession!?!

If poker is just an entertainment outlet with friends and family, the neighborhood quarterly block meetings and you would and can just play for pennies or non-monetary plastic chips, it is obvious that you don't need a bankroll! But if you play a few times a month and up to one time a week you are going to need to establish the beginnings of a bankroll that may be large enough to help you through some of the bad nights and keep you from dipping into the allotted expense from the household income. I used bowling as an example earlier, but the only corillation was that it was a regularly scheduled event each week. Bowling has weekly dues that you expect to incur and are prepared to pay and is usually budgeted. With poker, if you want to compete you need to have an established fund that you can resort to that will not infringe upon that household income and create unexpected expenses! So you should save from your winnings to create a scenario that would allow you to buy-in to the game at least two to five times within any given session. That means, if your typical buy-in is $50, with $1/$2 blinds you should bring $100-$250 with you each time. But only bring what you are willing and comfortable losing! Just because you started with $100 six weeks ago and you now have twelve hundred dollars in your bankroll, don't bring it all with you. If you are fortunate to see a return on your investment early, you should bank that money for future sessions that are going to see you going home losing your initial and supplementary buy-ins for any given night. Then, even after a losing session you are still availaable to play the next week without going into the household income.

Now, if your are at the point where the weekly game with friends is alright, you continue to see a reasonable amount of a return on your investment and you now feel like you are ready to move up to a more competitive game keep in mind that the stakes are now higher, the buy-ins are now higher and your buy-ins available to play will also need to increase. At this point you will need to have at least eight to ten buy-ins if you want to go two deep in the buy-ins. That means if the average or minimal buy-in is now $100 you will now need a bankroll of $800-$1,000. BIG difference huh!?! Even if the you are still in a $1/$2 blind game? Yep! There is now more money on the table. The blinds are more likely to be raised more which creates a larger pre-flop investment that leads to a larger investment each round of betting to see the hand to the river. And, if you are now playing in a new game with unfamiliar players it is going to be more competitive and more expensive to get to a showdown. Yes, this also means that if you bring your winning ways to the new game your return on your investment will also go up. True, continue to play confidently but expect that when you do lose, you will lose more and at a more rapid rate to your stack and bankroll as well!

Just remember, the more aggressive you are, and the more aggressive the game and it's players are the larger the bankroll you will need! If you are willing to risk four buy-ins at a higher stake game you should be prepared to now invest $400 instead of $200. In any case, at this level for every buy-in your going to add per session your bankroll needs an additional five buy-ins added to it in order to maintain it. So, if you are willing to go four buy-ins deep, your bakroll should have at least twenty buy-ins now! Here is a better, visual perception at what you should be looking at in relation to your buy-ins and how deep your bankrool should be in relation to the value and number of buy-ins within a given session.

BIs	BIs in Dollars for a $200 Max Buy Game
2	$400................................BR=$2,000
5	$1,000.............................BR=$5,000
8	$1,600.............................BR=$8,000
10	$2,000.............................BR=$10,000
15	$3,000.............................BR=$15,000
20	$4,000.............................BR=$20,000
25	$5,000.............................BR=$25,000
50	$10,000...........................BR=$50,000

Basically what it is telling you is: If you want to play in a $200 max buy-in game and you are willing to invest 2 buy-ins ($400.00) to maintain the integrity of your bankroll you need to have at least a $2,000 bankroll to insure that you can afford a losing session, or three, and get back in the game without having to extract from your liferoll the next time you get to play!

So take this for what it's worth. Keep in mind that if you want to keep your hobby or obsession out of the household income for expenses, aka liferoll, don't get yourself in an overwhelming position at the table during any given session. Consider the guidlines you must establish to properly manage your bankroll and allow yourself the understanding and acceptance that sometimes it's better to just walk away from a losing session in order to allow the integrity of your bankroll to be maintain and get you back in the game... the next time!............. stay tuned for more to come IF you think you are ready to make that next step, did I say step, I meant monumental triple jump!

chapelout for now!... GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.

some data source provided from pokerlistings.com

FAQs...answered

2011-08-26T02:15:00.004-04:00

    Over the years I have been asked quite a few questions about myself personally and about my poker adventures. So, I figured what better forum to respond than here!
   When and where did you get started playing poker?   Well, I first learned the various games of poker back in junior high, now known as middle school. When it was too cold or too wet to be outside with the neighborhood kids we would meet up at a friends house and play cards in his basement. I was one of the youngest of the group but was one who could catch on to the rules, objectives and insights of the games pretty quickly.
    What was your favorite game, then and now? Back then it was a game called "acey-duecey" "high-low" or "in-between". You turn two cards face up beside each other leaving an empty space in between in order to turn a third card up between them. When the first two cards are revealed you wager a bet that the next card revealed would be in-between the first two cards. If it falls in-between you win the amount you wagered (up to the amount in the pot). If it falls outside the two cards you lose and the wager goes into the pot. BUT if you match one of the two cards, you pay double your wager. And five-card draw.
    Now though, I am a No-Limit Holdem tournament competitor! But I also enjoy Pot Limit Omaha to put into the mix in cash games. At some of the cash game circles we will play 2+1... Two rounds of NLH and one round of PLO. I prefer NLH in tournament formats though.
    Are you a serious competitor or play just for fun? In the 70's and 80's,( I am a product of the 60's), I played for the fun of it and for limited and minimal stakes. But in 1991 I was able to start playing in several home games with guys from our bowling leagues. I managed several bowling centers and bowled 3/4 nights a week, thus giving me the opportunity to play cards 3/4 nights a week. And it gave me the opportunity to host games as well. These games were dealers choice games and were competitive but again were at limited and minimal stakes.
   It wasn't until 1999 that I was introduced to Texas Holdem and a tournament format of poker. That night the host offered an option to play at a tournament table playing Texas Holdem or join the usual dealers choice cash games. Out of curiosity I played the tournament that night, and every night there on. Due to the tournament format and the new betting structure with the NLH game I became extremely competitive!
    Are you an online competitor?   I started playing online in 2001. But it wasn't until 2004 that I got really involved in the online community. I have played quite a bit on FullTilt, PokerStars, UB, and BoDog... but mainly on FullTilt and PokerStars. I played regularly online from 2004-2008, mainly in private forums on FullTilt with a group of poker bloggers from all over the country in the Battle of the Bloggers. Since then I have not played that much, especially now since "Black Friday" here in the US. The only site I play now is the clubWPT site in tournaments for seats at WPT Events.
    Do you prefer live or internet games?    Most definitely live games! I am a live tournament competitor! I love to be at the table, across and beside the competition. I love the interaction, the table talk, the stories and the opportunity to meet new people. It's just an all around better experience in my opinion.
    Do you have any notable finishes or cashes?   On-line I competed with a group in a private forum called "Battle of the Bloggers". I really enjoyed this group. When I joined in 2006 there was about thirty-five players involved. In 2008 there was over a hundred. But it was a great bunch of players from all over the country. And it was extremely competitive because of the payouts and the qualifying for the year end tournament that provided WSOP seats as payouts! Over the years I played I made many final tables, cashed quite a few times, had one victory and several second place finishes. But my biggest wins online came in the open forum. In 2007 I took down the FullTilt $100 U.S. Online Poker Championship. There were qualifier rounds throughout the month and just over 1,400 players in the final competition. Then I was able to take down two freerolls, one on FullTilt and one on PokerStars, each with over 11k players.
    In live events I have done quite well over the years. Outside of home games played 2/3 and sometimes 4/5 nights a week. I have had the opportunity to play in numerous charity events as well. My first ever live organized event was in 2001 and I finished 4th out of 884 participants. That tournament is what actually got me into the competitive mode and passion for the tournament formats of competition. I have cashed and won several underground tournaments. From 2001-2008 I only played in home games tournaments and local charity events. But from 2008- the present I have traveled quite a bit to compete in larger events. This past year I even went to Montreal, Canada to play in a FullTilt sponsored charity event for The Miriam Foundation to benefit families with children who have autism. Charity events are my favorite events!
    Do you have any favorite players?   I have many players of interest that I follow and for different reasons. The late Chip Reese... no explanation needed! Allen Cunningham... because of his patience and attitude! Dan Harrington... because of his consistentcy Gus Hansen... because of his eratic yet calculated aggression! Daniel Negreanu... because of his personality, openness to the fan base and his ability to enlighten the game with his insight of people and the game itself, and of course his incredible reading ability. and Barry Greenstien for all his charitable works! There are more... Antonio Esfandiari, Michael Mizrachi and on and on. One that I must mention is Jeff Burnett, a Canadian poker player who I met while competing to be Victory Pokers next poker pro. I did not win the competition ( finished 3rd), but gained a great friend and have since joined forces with Jeff ,aka theAceTenBomber, as a member of his poker team! But my favorite person within the poker community is Dan Fleyshman ( post published about him earlier on my blog)
    Do you have a favorite hand(s)?   My favorite hands are the ones that I can win with a bluffing strategy. I love to go into a hand not even knowing my hole cards and commit to bluffing out a winner to take down the pot. As far as favorite hole cards... 7/8 suited and 10/J suited.
    My favorite hand ever played was when I had AA on the button with a raise, re-raise and all-in before my action. I was 4th overall in chips but 2nd at my table. I could afford the call to see the flop so I called. Seven of the nine players see the flop. I hit an A on the flop and last to act just call down the bets to the river. Five players remain elegible to bet after the flop action. When the river comes I hit the last A for quads. I am sitting first person to the left of the dealer and when she asked for a winner we all revealed our cards. There was KK that had a full house (KKKAA), two players with two pair, two players with a straight to the ace, a muck and my quads. The dealer announced Kings full of Aces wins. She began to push the stack to the guy two seats to my left who was the chipleader at the table (and overall) before the hand began. I politely tapped her on the shoulder and looked down at my cards. There are two tables remaining from 12 that started the tournament at the time and about 60 people crowded around the tables watching. As she followed my eyes to my cards she quickly stood up, held her hands out to ask for "quite please!" This got the attention of the floor manager as well. She looked back at me and said, "why didn't you say anything, you haven't said a word all day!?!" I quitely responded, "I prefer to let my cards do the talking!" She then announced, I stand corrected, Quad Aces wins the pot, and we now have a new chipleader!" She turned, smiled, sat down and returned to her duties. Later that day with only four people remaining, i am still the chipleader after about four and a half hours of play, I have AA again and flop an A on a AQ? flop. Turn is a blank so I go all-in. Up against the player 2nd in chips. She hesitates and then mulls around for about 3 minutes. I wanted to go ahead and show her my cards but it would eliminate my hand. She finally and reluctantly called. Another Q hit the river giving me Aces Full, BUT giving her... Quad Queens. I was out the very next hand going all-in in the dark and finished fourth (out of 884).
    Where did Chapel and theGETSOMEguy come from? "Chapel" actually comes from the online community of players. My screen name was always in relation to my passion for the UNC Tarheels! in ChapelHill, NC. While online playing and chatting the other players would refer to me as Chapel. The name "theGETSOMEguy" came during several qualifying rounds and the final day of a live charity event. There was an older gentleman and his friends who were watching the tables from the rail. From time to time if I wanted a player heads up in the pot I would say to him/her, "c'mon in... get some!" Well as the day progressed I overheard this gentleman saying... that's the get some guy, and pointed at me. As I moved from table to table throughout the day I would hear in the background... get some! get some! During one of the breaks a group of people approached me to wish me good luck and the gentleman emerged from the group and said, "that's the Get Some Guy!, go get'em Get Some!" From that point on I was theGETSOMEguy.
    What about PBS and GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.?   PBS is something I came up with to help me at the tables. It's one of the mottos I write on a sticky note and post in my car for the ride to a game, tourney or event. Got the PBS from TV when there was only three or four channnels to watch, and most of the time it was information or educational shows. But PBS for me stands for, PlaySmart.BePatient.StayFocused... As far as the GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome, that is something I use to remind me of my commitment to my family. Being away and competing takes alot of time away from the ones I love the most and to remember those who are less fortunate in their lives and to help out whenever it's possible. So I encourage myself to GetSome...PBS and finish in the money, GIVEBACK... tithe and donate to charity or to those in need, and GetHome... well that's pretty self explained!
    Who is the man behind the blog?    I am just an ordinary man with an extreme passion to be successful at what I love to do... compete! Whether it's sports, sales, finding, collecting or the obvious... playing poker! I am a product of the sixties (1966). Blessed to have been born into such a wonderful family. I was born into a christian family, but I am a Christian by choice! The oldest of four children (3 boys and a girl). I am married to my beautiful wife, Melissa. Married for 15 years now, but together for almost 19 years. We have two beautiful children, both girls and... a grandson! My dad went to ChapelHill so I grew up a Tarheel fan...atic! Lived throughout the western part of North Carolina growing up, but have lived in a small college town, Clemson S.C., for the past twenty-one years. It is awesome, halfway from Atlanta and Charlotte, surrounded by lakes and mountains, and the college community and environment is awesome... especially with all the ACC/SEC/NCAA sporting events that come to town! Attended Southern Wesleyan University from '91-'95. Worked as a Behavior and Educational Therapist for twelve years, in Retail Management with Wal-Mart and CVS Pharmacy for seven years and have been playing poker pretty much full-time since 2008. I thank God every day for the experiences I have had throughout my lifetime, for the family he gave me and the family I created and... for the opportunity to do what I love... compete in poker tournaments!!

"Who Cares What You Folded"

2011-08-23T20:15:00.002-04:00

Outside of splashing the pot and giving the dealer a hard time.... having to sit through a post-hand commentary of what someone folded, and how he (or she) could have hit runner runner with J,7 off-suit to take down a pot. Or, even if it's just a quick comment after a raised flop and bet at a 3,9,6 board entices people to share that they folded 3,9 or 3,6 or A,3 or A,6. But what's even worse is if you play with someone who immediately darts for the muck cards to recover and reveal their folded cards that paired the board on the flop, or had given them an open ender to shoot at. Normally when I hear a comment such as, "man... I folded 3,9!" I just say, " as you should have", but most of the time I just keep my mouth shut.

Another irritating occurence, especially if it is continuous throughout the game, is the "If" factor!... "If I had called the turn to see the river", "If I had raised pre-flop", "If, If, If". If is the biggest word in the dictionary, may not be the longest, but definitely the biggest! And the worst being..."If the dealer had not given you that J on the river, (my pair of three's would have won the pot I was calling each bet with four over cards already on the board). Or, "C'mon dealer, you're killing me on the river every hand!" Leave the dealer out of it! The cards are shuffled and dealt randomly (if their not, you are in the wrong game!), the dealer has NO control over what you see on the board.

I don't appreciate at all though, if I am in the hand or not, when those who have folded react in obvious disgust (to the flop,turn or river), make any kind of suggestive motion, noise or exclamation, or even just turn to the player(s) to the side of them and commence to converse about the hand in play. Especially if it's the turn or river, that pretty much narrows down and gives away discrete information to those involved in the hand!

I am not saying that I don't like or object to table talk about previous hands played. I actually enjoy hearing about a collective perception of how others played their hands and what information they are willing to divulge as to how they made their decisions. But if you are not in the hand and want to express your disgust about what could've, should've, would've happened... keep it to yourself. You want to talk about the hand, call me... be in the hand! "Who Cares What You FOLDED!"

......chapel.out..............GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome

Texas Gamblers Reunion...nka...the WSOP

2011-08-15T23:10:00.001-04:00

continued from earlier post....

In my earlier post "The Texas Gamblers Reunion" was introduced and was "eliminated" just as quickly. In 1969 Johnny Moss outlasts the other competitors to capture the only Texas Gamblers Reunion title. Benny Binion jumps on the opportunity to host the event and gives it a new name, the World Series of Poker. In 1970 Johnny Moss once again prevails as champion, but this time it was a unanimous vote from the other competitors. And in 1971 at the 2nd Annual WSOP, Johnny Moss takes down the title again with a win at the very first "freeze-out" tournament format event.

That brings us to 1972, and the 3rd Annual WSOP. In 1972 the format remained as a freeze-out tournament with a $5k entry. But, in 1972 the tournament field was "open" and the field almost doubled to thirteen players. Along with the original seven invitees, there were other notable names: TreeTop Straus, Aubrey Day, Corky McCorqoudale, Jimmy Cassella, Sid Wyman, and Long Diddie.

With the new venue, new format and now the new players involved Benny Binion was excited to get the tournament started. At the time it was just another gathering of the best poker players around who came together to battle it out, just like any other night for these players. But things would change dramatically after the 1972 event. In the crowd in attendance as an interested on-looker was Ted Thackery Jr., a beat writer from The Los Angeles Times. At the time Ted was assigned to another story developing in the area but was interested in what was going on in the new Poker Room at the Horseshoe Casino and Hotel. Thackery may have been the catalyst for the new format that was instituted the year before. It has been noted that he had discussed with Amarillo Slim and Benny Binion that the general public would not be excited or even interested in sitting around watching a bunch of guys with funny names just push a bunch of chips around for several days. "You got to have a winner, a real winner," Thackrey said. "You need to find some way to make it a contest. If you want to get the press involved and turn the World Series into a real sporting event, you need to give it some structure, create some drama, and make it like a real tournament." Binion took that advice and instituted the freeze-out tournament, opened up the registration to allow more players, and the winner of the 3rd Annual WSOP provided plenty of drama for the event for the upcoming decade! That winner was Amarillo Slim. It came down to Slim and... yep, Johnny Moss. With that victory Slim provided what we know as the "Moneymaker Effect", but before MoneyMaker even knew what a deck of cards was!

Amarillo Slim Preston would spend the rest of the 1970's as the Ambassador of Poker and the WSOP. He was a guest on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson eleven times. Featured in the press more times than able to count, portrayed and even filled roles in major motion pictures and even wrote a best-selling book.... all in the name of poker. This would NOT have happened had Johnny Moss won his third straight WSOP. Slim was more outgoing, outspoked, more colorful and crowd pleasing... not taking anything away from Moss and his poker playing, he just didn't have the personality to sell poker like Slim did. Slim provided enough attention and hype about the WSOP that CBS Sports filmed the WSOP and was televised for the first time in 1973............ to be continued.

chapel out.........GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.

The Texas Gamblers Reunion

2011-08-12T17:45:00.002-04:00

In 1969 the part owner of the Holiday Casino, Tom Moore, and a poker enthusiasts with a vision for the future of poker, Vic Vickery, came together with an idea of an annual event for the top poker players in the world. Vic was the one with the idea and Tom was the one who had the property to allow it to happen.

Back then there were only a handful of poker players that could be categorized as professionals. Vic happened to have an inside track on those players and was able to communicate and generate the interest from the players to participate in the envisioned event. As the interest grew the men realized they needed to do something to set apart their event from others. As a result, they gave the event a name, "The Texas Gamblers Reunion", and enticed the players with a declaration to crown a "Grand Champion" of poker from the results of the event. The meetings were set, the date was scheduled and the invitations went out. Unlike today, the participants were on an invitation only basis. Whether or not an RSVP was given, everyone that was invited was in attendance. The cast of players included: "Amarillo Slim" Preston, "Puggy" Pearson, Johnny Moss, Chill Wills, Benny Binion, "Jimmy the Greek" Snyder, Rudy"Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, and the ever popular Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson.

    The event was not publisized, did not have any media involvement and the results were only known to those who were "in the know" within the poker community at the time. One, if not the main reason there was no press involved was because of the high stakes of cash involved between the players. Not because of the money though, but because of the interest the IRS may have had in the money invoved! Unlike todays scheduled events, "The Texas Gamblers Reunion" was a marathon of multiple high stakes games that ran for several days until the competition withdrew and left one man standing to be hailed as the TGR Champion. In 1969, Johnny Moss prevailed as the overall Champion of the Texas Gamblers Reunion. In fact, Moss would become the only TGR Champion.
    Even though the event was hailed as a success from the players, there were no more events scheduled beyond the inaggural event. This was not announced to the players at the time though. As time grew near for the second annual TGR and no invitations were recieved, Benny Binion, owner of the Horseshoe Casino decided he would assume the opportunity to invite the players to his casino. At that time though, the Horseshoe Casino did not even have a poker room. That was soon revised and established to accomodate the players invited. Once again players were invited to come out and compete in sevral high stakes games for several days. There were seven players invited, and there were seven players in attendance. This time though, the champion would be considered the World Series of Poker Champion, and unlike the last man standing format from the TGR, there was a vote from all the players who had participated. All the players were asked to provide, on a secret ballot, who they considered the second best player of the field. Second best!?! Yep, second best. When they were asked who was the best, everyone voted for themselves. The result of the voting... Johnny Moss takes down the 1970 WSOP Championship and was provided a Silver Cup from the organizors of the event.
    As with the TGR, Benny Binion knew that there was a lot of work to be done if this competition was going to survive to be an annual event as he wanted and had hoped. These concerns were addressed and in 1971 the WSOP format was changed from its inagguaral format as a marathon of poker games to a direct buy-in into a "freeze-out" tournament. A freeze-out means that the players will buy-in for a set amount of money, if you are knocked out you are eliminated from the competition... no re-buys or add-ons.
    For the second annual WSOP the event was scheduled as a $5,000 Texas Holdem Freeze-Out Tournament. Once again, the same seven players were invited, and the same seven players returned. And, once again, Johnny Moss prevailed as champion. This time though, he was not voted or elected "best all-around player", he actually captured the title, World Champion, by winning the first ever World Series Of Poker tournament event. Oh yea, let's not forget the $35k payday!

to be continued... chapel out, for now!... .GetSome.GIVEBACK.Getome.

The AceTenBomber

2011-08-11T00:21:00.004-04:00

Now that I have completed the 2011 WSOP November Nine preview of all the players we will see at the final table, I want to introduce you to some of my favorite poker players. The list will include some players you WILL recognize, players you SHOULD recognize and some that you will SOON recognize. Some are tournament players, some cash players, some pros and some aspiring to gain that achievment.

Tonight I want to introduce you to a good friend, Jeff Burnett, I met while competing against him in an online video contest in hopes to qualify to compete live for the chance to be sponsored, for one year, by an online poker site, Victory Poker, as their new poker pro. Jeff and I spent the first eight to ten months communicating via Facebook, e-mails, texts and phone calls. Throughout this time I was impressed with his intense excitement, positive attitude and more than anything his love for.... his family! Yep, bet you thought I was gonna say poker huh!?! Well, the guy does have a passion for his poker. He has a dream, has set his goals, and commits himself to becoming the best poker player he can be.... AND he wants to have as much fun with it as humanly possible!

From what I understand Jeff grew up in Toronto, Canada. He is now living in Orillia, Canada with his wife of fifteen years, Cindy, and his children, Skylar and Jordan. He started playing poker in 2005. Apparently he enjoyed the game! He is now one of the most recognizeable players from Orillia to Montreal. Jeff plays in local casinos and other tournament venues. He has also run a non- profit league for several years. One of Jeff's passions in poker, as well as mine, is playing in charity events. I recently had the opportunity to meet Jeff personally when I made the trip to Montreal to play in The Montreal Open, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byhB2rE84mo&feature=related , a charity tournament to benefit the Miriam Foundation, http://www.miriamfoundation.org/content/foundation.html . Jeff is also a Canadian Poker Tour member. Some of his notable accomplishments in poker are: he won the Rama Open in 2008, and finished second in 2010. He captured the voting title in the Victory Poker contest ( I finished third). He has also participated and qualified for the final day of the Montreal Open each year he has played. He made his first TV appeareance on SportsNet in 2008 when he finished 28th out of 1600 players. In 2011 he made the final day, was seated at the feature TV table along side of FullTilt pros Gavin Smith, Greg Mueller, Huck Seed, Mark Karam, AND seated right beside him.... his wife Cindy! Even though FullTilt sponsored the tournament and there were several big name pros on hand, Andy Bloch, Eric Cajelais, Gavin Smith, Greg FBT Mueller, Huck Seed..... you couldn't help but notice that TheBomber owned the show. When he was there it was electric. Until Cindy arrived that is! This year, Cindy emerged from the Bomber hype and hooplah to, for at least a moment, take the spotlight. But with the energy, excitement and table head-game antics that Jeff has at the tables he was able to reel it back in.

Jeff was also a prominent figure at the grand opening of the BEST Poker Club in Canada... The PlayGround Poker Club! http://www.playgroundpoker.ca/ . Oh yea, Did I mention he has been featured in three top poker magazines!

    Jeff also has started a Poker Team called the BombSquad. Has his own website business to promote the AceTenBomber brand and his Team, http://www.acetenbomber.com/ , and recently aquired a new sponsor from RMS, http://www.rmsexperience.com/ .
    Even after all this, all the plans and goals in poker, all the wins, cashes and the hopes and dreams. The one thing that sets him apart for me is knowing that if you asked him what the most notable accomplisment in his life would be.... I'm pretty confident that he would tell you, Family... meeting and marrying his wife Cindy and the wonderful creation of their two children! Then again it might very well be meeting and becoming best friends with Mike MacDonald. Seeing that Mike is given credit for assuring the Bomber graduated and was eventually able to figure out the basic fundamentals of math and poker.... Na, it would be family!

chapel out, for now!......................GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.

Catch Me.... If You Can!

2011-08-09T21:53:00.000-04:00

In an earlier post, I gave some general information out about Table Position. Tonight I will do the same with another key element in the game of poker, "bluffing". There is no doubt in my mind that if you are not bluffing in the game of poker, there is NO WAY you will become a successful player.

Whether you are betting in hopes of representing a card that you do not have that hits the board, or whether you have orchestrated a bluffing strategy and will see it to the end no matter what, bluffing has to be one of the bullets that you must fire from time to time. In some games, depending on the format and the players involved it may be more often. Bluffing, stealing and squeezing are all related actions, the same... but different! And whether or not you can pull it off may actually depend on.... your position. If you are going to incorporate playing your position it is imperative that you learn, establish and also incorporate bluffing into you game.

Bluffing is NOT something you want to do, just because. There should be a reason or a strategy that leads you to believe that you can take the pot down with a bluff. Mainly, taking advantage of your position!

Position - The Weapon of Choice for Bluffing

Example: You are on the button in a 1/2 game. There are three players on the flop, including yourself. The flop comes [ A 9 2 ]. You have 7,8 suited. The first player checks, then the second player checks as well. Being last to act, you decide that since your opponents checked before you, you might be able to scoop up the pot. You bet $3 and happily see that all your opponents fold and you take down the pot.

This is a classic example of using your position to take down a pot. Because you were able to see your opponents act before you, this gave you enough information so that you decided to bluff and win this pot. So, if the action is checked to you, depending on how many players are in the pot and how loose the game is, you will often win the hand outright then and there.

Can Math Solve the Bluffing Equation?

Let's use an example where you are playing in a $3/6 limit hold'em game with four callers on the flop: small and big blind, one limper and yourself. That makes it a $24 pot. The blinds and limper check to you. Should you try and steal this pot? Let's do the math.

If you bet out, it involves risking a small bet of maybe $6 to try and bluff the pot. If you win, you will be up $18. This means the pot is laying you 4:1 odds. Because the pot is giving 4:1 odds, this means that you must win this pot 1 out of 5 times in order to break even with your bet - or 20% of the time.

To figure out whether or not it will be profitable to bluff in your position, you combine this little bit of math against your own poker skills and intuition to ask yourself this: If I bluff now, will I win this pot more than 20% of the time? If the answer is yes, then you want to bet at this pot! If the answer is no, then it'll be a losing long-term proposition for you. This is why careful observation of your opponents play is crucial. Knowing when a play is profitable and when it isn't, is how you make money with bluffs.

The Semi-Failed Bluff - To Continue or Not?

So, lets say 1 out of 5 times you do take the pot down right then, meaning that it's a break even play. Let's say that on the times that you don't win immediately, your opponents simply call and you're looking at a turn card. Say that everyone still in the hand checks to you - should you bet again? Well, it certainly depends now doesn't it!

The hardest part about bluffing is knowing when to really dial up the aggression and when to slam your foot on the brakes. Trying to push over an opponent with a monster hand or standing down to an opponent with a weak hand are the two worst mistakes to make while bluffing, because they'll cost you the most money. This is why you want to try and analyze exactly what your opponents may be holding that they're still in the hand with against you.

Look at what is on the board and try to figure out what hand your opponents would call you with. Are they loose enough to call that inside straight draw or call with bottom pair? Are they predictable players that only call top pair? But most important, are they weak enough to call the flop and fold the turn? The mistake that most aggressive players make is they don't try to understand their opponents; they just want to bully them. Your decision to continue should be a smart one: keep bullying if you have a good chance, but otherwise, give up.

The Actual Failed Bluff

Ok. There was only one opponent left on the river. You were sure they were going to fold, so you bet it out. They called with bottom pair and you have King high. You're sick to your stomach and embarrassed to boot. The first thing that goes through your head at this moment is: how on Earth did they call that?

Reality check: Don't do the stupid thing and try to convince yourself that your opponent made a mistake. While your opponent might have made a bad call, it was a worse move for you to try to bluff out a calling station! It's a rule of thumb that you can't push out a calling station, because they simply don't know any better.

Practice Makes Perfect!

While this article isn't an entire primer on all the different angles on bluffing, the best lesson you can have on how to properly bluff is to simply go out and try it yourself. Everyone has to learn the hard way eventually, no matter how much you read on strategies. The key is to learn from your mistakes on how aggressive you can be and then tone it down to match the style of the table. Most important though, is to actually try and bluff. Being nervous or scared is a very natural thing and getting over that emotional block is an important part of controlling your nerves and mindset to make good plays. Keep at it and you'll be doing well in no time!

chapel out!............... .GetSome.GETBACK.GetHome

additional information provided gathered from tightpker.com

NNP 9

2011-08-09T20:35:00.000-04:00

***Sam Holdem***

Not only is Sam Holden a member of the 2011 WSOP November Nine... he is the November Nine. Sam endured three long days of being very patient with his "short-stack", and was able to hang on just long enough to qualify for an extended break and the muchly saught after invitation to return in November. As for being the short stack, he stated in a recent interview with ESPN.com ... "I was actually feeling quite relaxed being on the short-stack because I am confident in my short-stack play, having a lot of experience playing a lot of on-line multi-table tournaments."

The twenty-two year old from Canterbury, UK is now the only hope for the UK to add a bracelet winner to the final totals. Holden doesn't have a lot of live tournament experience, he played in several events in England and Ireland in 2010 to prepare for the 2011 WSOP. His best finish was 14th in a UKIPT Edinburgh Event for about $10k. His internet play though, has been extremely successful with cashes toataling over $285k! As you hear about many of the internet players these days, Holden started playing online while in college. The difference with Holden though, unlike many of the other students who have pursued poker... Holden actually graduated ...with a degree in forensic science.

chapel out............. GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.

NNP 8

2011-08-09T18:33:00.000-04:00

***Anton Makievsky*** On day seven of the 2011 WSOP Main Event, this twenty-one year old Ukranian captured the chip lead with, at the time was, the largest pot of the event. Makievsky, who may be unknown to most, can easily be recognized by the aqua and yellow lettered jacket he has worn throughout the tournament. After winning the hand against Christopher Moore, everyone in the room wanted to know who Anton Makievsky was, that's for sure. That one hand propelled him into the chip lead by an overwhelming $21million chips. The hand started with a raise from Makievsky and a call from Moore. Flop comes K J J and the fireworks begin. Makievsky puts out a continuation bet of $400k, only to get raised by Moore to $1.1million. Makievsky re-raises to $2.8million. Moore looks up and announces "all-in", SNAP-CALL from Makievsky. When the cards are revealed Moore realizes that he is dominated. Makievsky shows K J, which gives him a full-house. Moore shows A J, Trips No Good. Moore needs an A and an A only to survive the hand. Turn and river come 6,4. Moore now has $1.7million left and Anto Makievsky is the most saught after name on every search engine on the net!

If Makievsky, who IS a member of the 2011 November Nine, but no longer the chip leader, is able to pull off another massive pot early at the conclusion of the final table, he would be in good shape to make a run for the 5th Ukranian to earn a bracelet for this series AND become the youngest player to ever win the WSOP Main Event. Makievsky currently sits in eighth place in chips and returns with a $13.8million chip stack.

chapel out........ GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.

NNP 7

2011-08-09T16:33:00.001-04:00

"Whatever happens, happens!"

That's the attitude ***Pius Heinz*** says he will bring to the table when the November Nine return to battle for the 2011 Main Event Bracelet and.... the $8.7million for the ultimate Championship in poker!

Heinz, a twenty-two year old from Cologne Germany, will be the first German to be represented as a member of the November Nine. Heinz got his start and early success in poker on the virtual felt. His most notable online accomplishments came in July of 2010 when he captured the FTP Sunday Mulligan for $61,000 and won the PokerStars $150,000 Guarantee and taking down $29,000. As of late though, Heinz has posted two impressive live tournament accomplishments to add to his resume. First, he final tabled a $1500 No Limit Holdem event early on in this years series, eventually finishing seventh and collecting $83,286... and now... well, Heinz is now back home with $782,000 on break from the Main Event. Heinz will return to the table with $16.4million in his chip stack and be in seventh place in chips.

Heinz told ESPN.com that even if he should ultimately win the Main Event, the money won’t change him much as a person.

"Honestly, I'm not that big a spender," Heinz said. "I always look after my money, that's how I've always been. I might get a nice place to live, and buy my parents something. My sister and brother, too. They have a couple of wishes I can help with."

chapel out............GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.

NNP 6

2011-08-09T02:30:00.001-04:00

Today the November Nine Preview will feature the oldest player remaining at the table. *Bahdi"Bob"Bounahra*

Badih is originally from Lebanon, is a part-time resident of Ft. Lauderdale Fla.,and currently resides and calls Belize City home. Badih is forty-nine years old, has three children and does business as a wholesaler running a grocery business. He also runs a private poker room in the Princess Casino in Belize City, Belize.
Badih has eight listed cashes from live tournament events going back to 2008. His largest cash was for a first place finish for $30,054.00 in a $1,020 LAPT Second Chance Tournament. His only recorded WSOP cash, outside of the one he will recieve in November, is for fifty-first place in a $2,000 No-Limit Holdem event during the 2008 WSOP for $7,500. By making the final table, Badih is now gauranteed to make at least $782,000 which he and all the November Niners have already taken home with them.

Due to his extreme patience throughout the conclusion of day seven and eight of the tournament and the opportunity to double-up with a brilliant act of disguising his pocket kings against John Hewitt to entice a much anticipated and quickly called all-in bet, we will have the opportunity to spend some additional time with this mild mannered, low keyed poker enthusiast in November.

chapel out ....................GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.

...Position...

2011-08-08T21:54:00.001-04:00

Table position in poker, specifically Texas Hold'em, is a crucial part of a players game. Whether you have been playing poker for twenty minutes or twenty years, if you do not understand, know how to recognize, and be able to incorporate the advantages of position into your game... it is going to be difficult for you to be successful.

Specifically speaking, your table position is where you are in relation to the dealer button. There are generally three areas of table position: early, middle and late.

Being in an early position means that once the cards are dealt and the action of betting begins you will be one of the first few players to act. More often than not, especially pre flop, being in an early position tends to be a disadvantage. After the flop the first player left of the dealer, or the person "under the gun" assumes the early position and the action moves around. The disadvantage comes from having to be one of the first to act during each betting cycle during this particular hand, which means everyone else can just sit back and respond to your action. You don't have the option to know what the third or fourth guy over is going to do from that position.

Being in a middle position really isn't much better, having minmal advantages and quite a few drawbacks. You now have the opportunity to gain some info on the early position players, but you may still have 3-5 players behind you still to act. This position is also one that ends up getting trapped into a pot due to the earlier chip commitments, or even and unfortunate to have to lay down an invested hand due to a properly played "squeeze".

The late position players actually have reference names, the next to last player to act is the cut-off and the last to act is the button. Being in these positions allows the player to become more creative with their game, and opens up the opportunities for raises, re-raises, bluffs and steals. Most aggressive players are very active in these positions and will take advantage of the position and situation regardless to what cards they may have in their hand.

Now that you are aware of these table positions, how are you going to incorporate them into your game!?! The first thing you need to do, and always remember... you should always be constantly aware of your position on the table, and not just your own! If you pay attention to the other players and attribute their actions to their position you might just catch them in a few situations that will be extremely beneficial to you, whether it be monetarily or just information for future purposes in play.

chapel out!.............GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome

Poker Etiquette Part II

2011-08-08T18:34:00.000-04:00

Like any other sport or game, poker does have its own set of rules regarding proper behavior. The rules of poker etiquette may or may not be written down in "the book". You know "the book", you hear about it all the time! "Well, 'the book' says this and 'the book' says otherwise." Like most rules on proper behavior, etiquette, when it comes to the game of poker, is more concerned with player safety, fairness of the game, and keeping a friendly atmosphere throughout the entire game. But poker etiquette is more than just behaving properly when you're playing the game. There are certain technical things that are deemed as unacceptable behavior in poker. I have already mentioned one in an earlier post (thus the part II)... splasing the pot! Today I will mention a few more, starting with:

Don't Blame The Dealer ! Don't throw your cards or chips at the dealer, and if you believe in karma... don't forget to tip your dealer! Dealers, and I happen to be one of them at least one night a week now, are there to do a job. A job that most players do not want to be bothered with while playing. For those of you who insist on complaining about the bad cards you're getting and the bad beats you are going through during any given session and can only attribute it to being the dealers fault... maybe you should just take a break and re-join the table at a later time, or a later date!

Don't Play Out Of Turn! Whether you are folding, betting or raising... please do so only when it is your turn to act. You are giving out information to other players that they do not rightfully deserve at that time, and can influence or even change the decision of other players still to act in the hand... especially if it causes a chain reaction of out of turn play from the other players.

Show One Show ALL! If you are in a hand and are able to "take it down" before the "showdown" and decide to show your cards to the player to the left or right of you, it is only fair to the rest of the table that you show them as well. It is not fair to the other players that you are providing information on your play to a select few.

Please Pay Attention! The dealer and the other players at the table are not "re-play commentators" The game should have some sense of "flow" and that is difficult when there are players who allow their phone calls, text messages, FB and Twitter posting to interfere with that flow. If all that stuff is soooo important, take a break away from the players who actually want to play.

to be continued.......... chapel out! GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome

NNP 5

2011-08-07T13:38:00.000-04:00

If you have been following the 2011 WSOP the next player to be previewed should need no introduction at all. For those of you who have not, here is ***Ben Lamb***

Ben is 26 years old and is from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is now living in.... Las Vegas though. He has been on a tear throughout the series this year. Where to begin:

* He won the $10k PLO Championship

* Went Heads-Up in the $3k PLO Championsip

* Final-tabled th $50k Players Championship (8th)

* Finished 12th in the $10k No Limit Holdem 6-Handed

* And is a member of the November Nine from the

$10k Main Event

* Do I need to mention he leads the points for the

Player of the Year!?!

You might recall seeing Lamb before in the 2009 Main Event. He made it down to the final two tables before busting out in 14th. He has been competing as a professional since 2004. Lamb currently has 1 WSOP bracelet, 4 career WSOP final table appearances (three in PLO events and one in an 8-game mix format) and has had at least three in the money finishes in the last three WSOP he has attended for a total of twelve. In 2006 he captured the tatle at the United States Poker Championsip and a Spring Championship of Online Poker (both in NLH events).

chapel out............ .GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.

NNP 4

2011-08-07T12:09:00.000-04:00

Todays November Nine preview will feature

***Phil Collins***

Let's go ahead and get the answer to the obvious question out of the way... No, he is NOT related in any way to the drummer from Genesis! His mom was just a fan and decided to name her son after him, even his middle name (Phil David Collins). Collins, aka Phil "USCphildo" Collins, doesn't seem to be having a problem making a name for himself in the poker community. He broke into the poker world as an internet player, with winnings accumulating over $3million early in his career. He has also done quite well in live tournaments with sixteen live cashes, ten from the WSOP circuit, but this years cash has already exceeded his career live cash totals. It has yet to be seen by how much this total will be exceeded by though!

Another answer to a frequent question is about the "USC" in his online screen name. If you guessed the University of Southern California you are...wrong! It stands for the University of South Carolina. Collins met his wife and graduated from USC in 2006 before moving out to Las Vegas to pursue poker full-time. He is originally from Aiken, SC. Outside of his accomplisments online and in live tournaments, as well as his calm demeanor at the tables what sets him apart from the other players is the following he had from all of his friends, family and fans from the rail. If you watched any of the final coverage on tv you will remember the outburst from the rowd of a famous Phil Collins song "In the Air Tonight" every time he won a hand. Apparently there was something in the air those nights and I'm sure he hopes it will linger on and follow him when he returns in November.

2011 WSOP Re-Cap and Niner Preview

2011-08-07T10:35:00.000-04:00

The 2011 WSOP had 58 scheduled events hosted at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. Eighty-Five nations and 105 countries were represented by the 75,672 total entries.This breaks the previous total entry record that was established with 72,966 from the 2010 series. The top five countries represented were:

1. United States-4,604 2. Canada-486 3. United Kingdom-288 4. France-213 5. Germany-156.

Thus far, with only the main event champion to be decided, 10 countries have been represented as bracelet winners from the 2011 series. These countries are:

USA- 37, Canada- 4, France- 4, UK- 3, Russia- 3, Ukraine- 2, Brazil- 1, Greece- 1, Pakistan- 1, and Sweden- 1.

The total prizepool generated for the series, also a new record, came to $191,999,010.00. Forty-six of the fifty-eight tournaments generated a prize pool of over $1million. Even though the $10k Main Event fell 454 entries short of the 2010 total it was still the 3rd largest field ever, and the 1st place payout has not gone below $8million since the 2005 event that paid the winner $7.5million (Joe Hachem). This year the Champion will graciously accept $8,711,956.00. Not a bad payday for 11 days of work, and that includes an almost 4month vacation after only 8 days or 72 hours of work!

The 2011 WSOP Main Event is now down to the final nine players. The November Nine will return to the Rio All Suite Hotel on November 5th-7th, 2011 to compete for poker’s biggest title and over $8.7 million in prize money.

The WSOP November Nine originate from seven different countries and they truly represent the world’s very best in live tournament poker.

Name	Number of chips	WSOP Bracelets	WSOP Cashes*	WSOP Earnings*
Martin Staszko	40,175,000	0	4	$22,875
Eoghan O'Dea	33,925,000	0	5	$37,516
Matt Giannetti	24,750,000	0	8	$205,451
Phil Collins	23,875,000	0	8	$48,769
Ben Lamb	20,875,000	1	12	$2,157,249
Badih Bounahra	19,700,000	0	1	$7,582
Pius Heinz	16,425,000	0	1	$83,286
Anton Makiievskyi	13,825,000	0	0	0
Sam Holden	12,375,000	0	0	0

I will try to get back in and post a preview for Phil Collins soon.

chapel out......... .GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.

NNP 3

2011-08-07T02:12:00.000-04:00

***Matt Giannetti*** is a 26 year old who grew up in Clifton Park, NY. Spent time in Austin Texas and attended the University of Texas where he studied computer engineering. Matt is, was,well... has been a professional online poker player known as "hazards21", and is an establisheded and successful high stakes cash game player as well. Matt began his live tournament career in 2006 and came into this years WSOP tournament schedule with 14 previous live tournament cashes, ten of which came from WSOP events. You would think that Matt had to feel pretty confident about his opportunity to grind out another successful tournament cash, but this summer has been a struggle. Little did he know that eight days later, from the beginning of the 2011 WSOP Main Event, he would be sitting in 3rd position at the final table as a member of the 2011 November Nine and a strong contender with a $24.75 million chip stack. And I'm sure the friends that have some stake in his main event appearance this year are quite pleased with the position he is (they are) now in!

chapel out.......... .GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.

NNP Part 2

2011-08-06T22:59:00.000-04:00

OK, I 've got a few minutes left here and will try to get another quick NNP in the books, or on the pages or on the screen... whatever!?! Next on the list, as mentioned will be:

***Eoghan O'Dea*** pronounced "Owen O'Day"

will rejoin the final table with $33.9 million in chips and in second place. This 26 year old Irishman followed in his dad's footsteps by pursuing and realizing the achievement of making the final table at the WSOP Main Event. Eoghans father, Donnacha, reached the final table in 1983 and again in 1991. This is not the first successful tournament for Eoghan though. He finished 2nd at the 2008 Ladbrokes Poker Million for $260,000 and a 2nd place finish at the 2009 WPT Marrakech Main Event for just over $388,000. He has also had five WSOP cashes ( three this year) putting his career live tournament earnings well over $700k. Eoghan is also an accomplished on-line player (intruder123) with a win in the iPoker Euoropean Championship and a 2nd place finish in the Poker Millions. Not a bad resume for a tenty-six year old, but there is still room for improvement and additions..."You dream to win the WSOP Main Event," he says in a recent interview. "It's the best in poker and that would be pretty amazing for me to win it. Achieving that dream is a pretty big factor... apart from the money!"..... to be continued, next up, Matt Giannetti.

chapel out.......... .GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome.

The "November Nine".... circa 2011

2011-08-06T19:37:00.000-04:00

Just a few weeks back 6,865 people decided to come off the hip for $10k... plus travel and lodging expenses... to compete in the largest live tournament event on the planet, the WSOP Main Event! Each of these players having their own attitude, game plan, personality and establshed goals to bring to the table(s). For some it might be... just get me through day one without my nerves causing me to puke on someone! For others it might be... just get me in the money. And for others it might be... please, please please don't show me on tv, my wife thinks I'm at a motivational conference for work! But I can pretty much stake my oldest sons college fund on the notion that ALL of the players want to be announced as a November Niner. (Don't worry, I have 2 daughters!)

Throughout eight loooong days of grinding it out on the felt 6,856 of these players recieved invitations that were unwelcoming for the most part. These invitations were to request their attendance "on the rail". For some I'm sure it was devastating, especially if it was provided to them before the announcement of "the bubble boy(/girl). For those who made it into the money it may have been just as diffcult, but less painful. And for those who made it further, maybe into day seven or eight it had to be heartbreaking. Knowing you had made it that far and gotten soooo close, only to be rivered by a 4 flush board to cancel out your flopped straight that would send you to the rail to observe the November Nine announcement instead becoming a participant.

As you now know the November Nine has been established and they are now "on break" for the next four months. These nine men are now home with a healthy chunk of change already added to their bankroll (9th place money was paid out to all the niners at the conclusion of forming the final table). If you watched any of the coverage of the Main Event you have had the opportunity to get to know some of the niners already. You've seen their faces, heard their voices, gotten a tidbit of information from the announcers and may have even googled them to find out more. I'm sure there will be plenty of interviews and information provided from and about each of these players, but for now,and the next few days, I will introduce you to the November Nine circa2011. I will begin with:

***Martin Staszko*** will rejoin the table in November as the chip leader with $40.1 million in chips. Martin is the first player fro the Czech Republic to make the final table at the Main Event and is the second oldest player at 35 years. He has been an online player for several years. Before coming to Vegas for the 2011 WSOP he had only played in four major live events, these being on the EPT circuit. (European Poker Tour). His play at these tournaments provided him with just over $83k. Once he arrived in Vegas though, he wasted no time trying to accumulate as much felt experience in the WSOP by playing in fifteen events on the 2011 WSOP schedule leading up to the Main Event. Apparently that new found experience has paid off quite well for Martin. With his play thus far in the 2011 WSOP he has already surpassed his lifetime total of events played and cash won. Will he be the next Main Event Champion!?!

Next, maybe tomorrow, we will take a look at the young Irishman "Owen"....Eoghan O'Dea that is.

........ .GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome. .....chapel out

Poker Etiquette... Does It Really Matter!?!

2011-08-05T21:42:00.000-04:00

Etiquette in Poker is similar to sportsmanship in other venues. Some may even be established as "unwritten rules" that are accepted and for the most part adhered to by all parties involved. Poker etiquette is no different, unless you are new to the tables and you are picking up habits, so-called strategies and outright unacceptable behavior from what some might call poker wannabes. Once you have establisehed yourself as a poker player, not necessarrily a gambler but a.... poker player.... you too will hopefully feel the same way as most poker players do about poker etiquette.

For me, the most irritating thing to see and have to deal with is.... splashing the pot! "Splashing the pot" is a term used to refer to the action of a player who intentionally, unnecessarily and sloppily thrusting their chips onto the table into the middle of the pot disrupting other players table space and most commonly the established pot on the table. And my question is... !?!Why!?! This action generally forces the dealer to have to gather up the chips, re-stack and count them in order to ensure the bet, call or raise is correct. All this does is slow the pace of the game down! Especially if there is an established pot on the table from previous bet collections and the splash disrupts the pot. Splashing the pot can usually be stopped rather quickly if you are playing in an organized event that provides a floor manager. Of course, that means you now have to wait on the floor manager to make it over to your table. Usually before it even gets to that point, if the splasher is provided a warning from the dealer it can be eliminated even quicker... but if you are in a home game or in a tournament that doesn't provide a floor manager it will be up to the players or host to encourage the splasher that this action is unnecessary and unacceptable.

Unless I am missing out on something here I don't see any advantage or strategic purpose of the splash. Unless of course you just want to irritate the other players and dealer. Note to splasher... splashing does not create or provide others at the table that you are some big shot at the table or in the poker community. If anything it is going to reveal your inexperience and immaturity on the felt. So please, please, please.... the next time you want to be recognized or gain some attention at your table, try check raising an aggressive player with a chipstack that can double you up and let the pace of the game flow, please!

....................GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome..................... chapel out!

Back in the Saddle... AGAIN!

2011-07-03T12:20:00.000-04:00

Wow! It's been almost a year since I last posted anything here at "Gettin'Hammered!" So much has happened over the past year I don't even know where to begin.
Well, poker related... I finished 3rd in the Victory Poker Pro Challenge. Thanks! to all of you who voted!! Don't remember the total number of votes but we did get into the 6k range I think!?! Not too shabby for a small town poker player from South Carolina! During the competition I had the opportunity to meet many interesting people across the globe and have continued to stay in touch with most of them. As a result of one of those meetings during the competition I joined a Poker Team that is based in Canada. The founder of the team is Jeff Burnett, aka... the AceTenBomber... Jeff is well known in the poker world throughout Canada and has been interviewed on several occasion in several top Poker magazines. Earlier this year I had the opportunity to travel to Canada for 11days to meet Jeff and play in The Montreal Open. The Montreal Open is an annual charity event sponsored by FullTilt and many other companies to help raise money for the Miriam Foundation. This foundation provides help, education, love and support to families with members suffering with autism. We also spent quite a bit of time playing poker at The Playground Poker Club just outside of Montreal. This place was awesome. Tournaments scheduled everyday, cash games running all day from noon-6am, and the food.... the food from "The Rail Bistro and Grill" was fantastic!! Can't wait to get back up there again!! I've also had the opportunity to meet up with my brother Jason, aka TripJax, and play in some local charity events, cash games and who would miss out on the annual NewYear'sDay Tourney, oh yea, he did this past year (but for a good reason!) I have been pretty busy either playing in local tournaments, charity events and/or dealing in many cash games as of late! AND, starting July30th I will be hosting some pretty nice EOS(every other saturday)Tournaments. July30th a 6maxShootOut will get things started. Also have a HeadsUp Bracket, a DeepStack Freezeout and a MainEvent scheduled. All tournament players will be provided with a hot meal and beverage (July30th, Rib-Eyes off the grill!) and there will be cash games available as well!! Want more info about the tourney dates, times and details just shoot me an email at chapelnchill@yahoo.com. I won't even get into the BlackFriday mess with on-line poker! Got alot to do today to get ready for a tournament later so I will end it here for now. Hope to be able to get back in here before this time next year. Got a lot of cool stuff to talk about, just need more time to get it going! GetSome.GIVEBACK.GetHome..................chapelout!

In Pursuit of Victory...TeamVictory!

2010-07-31T21:25:00.000-04:00

Yep! I am still alive...and kicking! Just wanted to get the word out that I am competing for an opportunity to become VictoryPokers next PokerPro! I could use all the help in the pursuit. Just follow the link provided http://contest.victorypoker.net/victorypoker/ My video is named "Railing is NOT an option...i felt!" I got a late start in the contest, submitted my video over two months into the contest, but I have acquired enough votes to move into sixth place thus far. The deadline for video entry was actually scheduled for today but it has been extended until Oct.31st so there's still a chance to get your own video in the running. The lucky winner get $100,00 in tournament buy-ins, a furnished condo on the Vegas strip, a new car, a new watch and much, much more! !!GETyourGAMEonHERE...VictoryPoker.net...GETyourGAMEonHERE!! chapelout

A Tale of Two Hands...

2010-01-02T02:01:00.000-05:00

  Today, yesterday now, I had the opportunity to participate in an annual New Years Day tourney.This was the 6th annual and my third. Good times...good times! Started the day meeting up with my bro' Tripjax at a local bar...Wild Ace Pizza and Pub. Had a calzone and several "hazed and infused" drafts. Gooood stuff. Then finished it all off with two shots of Evan Williams Honey Reserve Bourbon, even better stuff. If you are ever in Greer, S.C. Wild Aces is a great spot to hang out. Great food and plenty of options of cold beverages.
Anyway, back to the purpose of the post.  After looking back over my tourney play there are two hands that I will remember most. The first one is being dealt as the announcement that the next hand will be "the final table". At this point I have about 15k in chips and I'm the dealer. First to act goes all-in which is about half my stack and I am ready to call, until  there is a snap call from the chip leader at the table. As the action folds to me I look down at AK. If I call I put my tournament life at risk. Win the hand I am the chip leader ,or close, going to the final table. Lose the hand and I go short stacked. I FOLD.  I show my cards as I fold and get ribbed for it. I proceed to deal and the flop comes A9K...J..K! Wow, what I would do to have that hand back. Well, about 2 hours later and being 1 of 3 remaining in the tourney I am dealt that hand again, AK. Again I have about 15k but in the big blind this time. First to act folds and small blind put out a bet that put me close enough to all-in as you can get. This time, and it being only the second time I get AK in the whole tourney, I go all-in. Of course chip leader calls, by the way, same chip leader as earlier. This time I feel pretty good, look down to see AK suited vs. A 10 off. All goes well until the river, and I exit in third place to a 10. In hindsight I CALL hand 1 and fold hand 2. Do it all over again....I play both hands the same way I did.
   Got NO complaints here though. Had a GREAT time! Couldn't ask for a better group of people to hang out and play cards with, and the hosts... they are AWESOME!!! Thanks for opening up your home to us. Cant wait to do it again. Gotta go for now, my bed is calling me...calling me a fool for not being in it. Good night to all and all the best in 2010!    -chapel out-

"Is there anybody... out there?"

2008-09-16T18:56:00.000-04:00

Well, hello there! As you can see I have not had very much time to give to my blog here lately. Lots of other more important stuff to deal with and take care of. Had a minute tonight to actually get on the computer and browse, so I thought I would drop by my own blog for a moment and see if it still existed. Can't believe it's still here. Hope to be able to throw some stuff at ya real soon.! But for now, I must move on and help with homework. ---chapel, out.---

Crushed by Three's times Four.....Twice!

2008-03-12T00:11:00.000-04:00

Tonight I played in three tournaments. One hosted by Pokerbling.com (great job Daveeyboy), which I have been playing for about 6 weeks now. Usually about 25 or so players. Great bunch and highly competitive. Each night there is a usual payout ($10+$1 buy-in) AND the host of the tournament, Daveeyboy, provides a bracelet from his .com site (Pokerbling.com). If there are any hosts of tournaments that want to add an extra bonus to their tourney you should check out his site. Anyway... was playing pretty good early and made it to the first break but after the break all went down hill from there. My KK runs into AA depleting 1/2 of my stack and then two hands later and two hands in a row my flopped sets meet up with rivered higher sets. Oh well!
As I am into the second hour of the first tourney of the night I am also playing in another tourney hosted by LuvinPoker. Here again, a great bunch of people from all over the US and beyond and highly competitive players. This was only my 3rd time playing with this group but I have enjoyed each tourney. Once again I get a good start into this tourney. Chip up quite a bit and fell pretty good about the possibilities. Then it happens...my KK runs into AA and AA holds up against me. Then the next two hands crush me. I get 77 raise the pot X3 and get 3 callers. Flop comes 3 7 9... awesome!bet the pot and get a quick caller and two hesitated callers.?.?.? Turn comes K. Again I bet the pot which puts two of the three all-in and another with about 2k more left than myself. River falls...3... at this point I expect that my boat is looking pretty good so I go all-in and expect a fold fro the lone player with chips to lose. Little did I know that this guy is holding....3,3...Once the call was made all hands revealed. AA, KK, 77, and the beneficiary of 3 all-inners...3,3...WOW!!!
Finally, I registered for the ($10+$1 rebuy) $15,ooo gauranteed tourney. Got to about 9k in chips early on and for the third time tonight my KK ran into AA again, but this time it was KK vs. AA vs. AA. Three minutes before the break I lose 6,800 chips and I'm left to scrap my way back up. I wanted to go ahead and sit out but the very next hand I get dealt AA. Pot gets raised twice before getting to me and I push all-in. Get two callers. AA vs KK vs QQ. Finally I'm on the AA end of the deal. Only thing is the flop has yet to come. And when it did it comes K,Q,9. Great! Par for the course for tonight! For some reason I took advantage of the 30 seconds left to rebuy and the opportunity to add-on to get back to 3500 in chips coming back from the break. Got about 20/25 minutes into the 2nd hour when I get AA again. I've built my 3500 up to about 9800 and I'm extremely cautious. Raise the pot X3 and get (1) caller. Flop comes 32A. Sweet! Who holds 45 with a pot x3 raise? I check, he bets the pot and I come over the top. He calls.?.?.? Turn comes 7. I check and he checks.?.?.? River comes and its a 3. Board is now 32A73......45 is now dominated with my boat. I go all-in and before I could even relish in the thought that I would now be in the top 10 with half the field gone and no more rebuys/add-ons my avatar disappears. I look at the guys hand in the hand history and for the 2nd time tonight I am crushed with pocket 3's that river for quads. Feel your pain bro'. Feel you pain!
*****See you at the Mookie***** chapel, out!

!!Finally!!

2008-03-07T16:15:00.000-05:00

It has been quite a while since I last made it to a final table at a Battle of the Bloggers Tournament. This all changed Wednesday night when I was able to take advantage of a few pocket pairs that came my way. Unfortunately, I ended up knocking out my bro' when my pocket Q's both mated up with the other two on the flop. It's a flop you always hope for with a pocket pair, but even today, two days later it haunts me that I had to lower the boom on Trip. I thought I had pushed all-in to the let him know "I had the goods", but instead I had clicked on the bet pot button. Before the flop I knew he was pretty strong with a 3x the BB raise. Figured he had AA,KK, or AK. But after the flop came I knew it would be nothing but trouble no matter what he, or I did. QQvsAJsuited. He's on a runner runner straight draw and a NUT flush draw. As soon as the flop hit I typed....Nooooooooooo! But he had already come over the top and the new "no chat" with all-ins rule, well you see where I'm going. Anyway, I was able to lead the tournament from that point for the next hour plus, but once we hit the final 2 tables I went almost 45 minutes without seeing a card in my hand over an 8. Not bluffing that point, not one card over an eight. Once at the final table I yoyoed in the standings and chip count until the blinds and all-in steals were able to take me out of contention. Not sure who ended up winning (finished 5th/6th here) but Alcanthang and 2blackaces were up at the top when I signed off. Mean_G was playing a good game and it wouldn't suprise me if he was able to pull it out. Congrats to whomever it was and looking forward to the next time! -chapel, out-

??Wassup??

2008-03-03T00:30:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been about three months since I last posted. Work, holidays, work, afterschool activities and work have consumed most of my time. Since my last post my poker gaming has been active but eratic. Fortunately, my play has been quite well until that much undeserving suckout hits me. I've made a couple of trips to Ga. to meet and play with some fellow bloggers and players. Each trip was fun and entertaining but not so much profitable. Also played in my second (annual) New Years Day tourney as well. Once again, fun, entertaining and met some great people, but the tourney was not profitable. Did manage to rack up my tourney entry and a couple hundred extra bucks in the cash game though, so all-in-all...good trip. Best thing was I was able to see the my Bro' (TripJax). Had just spent time with the family for the holidays the week before and saw our other brother I hadn't seen in over 2 years.
Most recently I have ventured out into other private games on FullTilt. Have been playing in the PPT(PremierePokerTournaments) where I have been the only U.S. player in the group. But mostly I have been playing in local home games and a tourney in Ga. Two weeks ago I played in a $100, (1)rebuy tourney. The rebuy could take place at anytime, but only once. We started with 4k in chips. After playing 1hour and 48 minutes our table was busted and I left the table without losing a single hand in the tourney and had 46k. Got to the new table, first hand was QQ which knocked out 99 and added about 18k to the stack (thanks to a flop of Q95...). Played about an hour at this table before losing my first hand of the tourney to a bigger kicker...AKvsAJ board ATT35. After 4hous and42mins and being moved around 2 more times and making the final table I lost my 2nd hand of the tourney, which ended up being my last had of the tourney. I'm in the big blind with AK. Get two callers and raise the pot x3 the bb. BB at he time was 6k. I'm in 2nd place with about 96k in chips. Both other players call my raise...flop comes K33. I bet 18k, get a fold and the last player to call continuously says under his breath, bluff...three or draw over and over. After about 30 seconds I decide to show him my K but didn't get it over in time before he calls out all-in ( he's the chip leader with about 124k). I pause for 3-5 seconds and announce call. The look on his face was complete terror. I filp over AK....he shows J5....J5....what? Yep, Jfn5...of course he did not expect a call but was fortunate enough to catch 5,5 on the turn and river to runner,runner KICK MY ASS out of the tourney with only my 2nd lost hand of the day.Domination to Dominated in the matter of about 5 seconds. Can't remember a better played tourney I have ever participated in. 80 players, 54 rebuys, 4hours and 42minutes of play, and end up on the rail in 6th place after losing my second hand of the tourney. !!SuckAssMule!!
Oh well, guess it could be worse...or at least I've convinced myself it could. Especially after tonight...QJ with a QQJ flop that got crushed by KK in the hole and a K on the river. Enough of the bad beats...Hope to see you on the felt during the BB3. Chapel...out!

FYI

2007-11-14T17:57:00.000-05:00

No! Not "For Your Information". Today, actually Monday, it was "Forget Your Instincts". That'swhat I did anyway. While writing a post about the unlucky week I had at the BBTwo last week I seriously considered not playing in the Monday addition of the tournaments (MATH). Instead I convinced myself to forget my instincts and join the party. As last week went I started out on a good note and played pretty good with the cards provided. Actually I didn't get to play very much with the good cards that were provided. I never could get any callers to play when I had cards to play. And when I (limped in) called the quickly raising blinds, due to the added turbo element this week, the blinds would usually get raised tremendously and I would fold away. Only once would I have actually won any of the limp calls I eventually folded so it wasn't that bad to fold away. Unfortunately, Monday was no different from the way things have gone thus far for me in the BBTwo. Hopefully things will turn around tonight in the Mookie! Otherwise it looks like it's gonna be a looong 9 weeks. By this time last season (after 6 tournaments) I had already made 3 final tables finished in 2nd at the MATH and finished in the points 5 times and in the money 50% of the time. Thus far this season 6 entries, 0 points,
0 money and a quest for a TOC seat seeming to be an impossibility. Oh well, no sense in getting down about the whole situation, I've got a beautiful wife, 2 wonderful children, a good job, and when people want to visit they don't have to go to the hospital or the local penetintuary, they stop by the ole homestead! Life is good! My God is an Awesome God!
See ya on the felt! -out-

!!No Such Luck!!

2007-11-12T18:06:00.000-05:00

This week has been a tough one at the tables for me. Played in the MATH this past Monday and was knocked out after a pretty good run and getting the ole donkdonk delivery to my doorstep. Wednesday night at the Mookie I feel much better about my game, start off slowly and work my way into the 2nd hour(with about 2 minutes left) and decide to push with my pocket pair only to run up against 2 other pocket pairs and the lowest of the three raking the pot and sending me to the rail once again. Finally on Thursday, again well into the 2nd hour I have managed to work my way up into the top 3 positions and feeling pretty comfortable about making it deeper into this event. Unfortunately, during one of my BB hands that gets a minimal raise I decide to stay with only one player and 9/10 off suite to play with. Well, the flop comes 7,9,10. 1st to act bets a reasonable bet but did not really convince me of any added strength, so I make a substantial raise, with my top two pair and the opponent, with little to spare at this point goes all in. Did I just get trapped with a flopped straight? Is there a made set already... doesn't matter at this point I've invested 3/4 of my stack, gotta go. Call the all-in and see that I am ahead at this point when opponent reveals JJ as hole cards. The turn comes and helps neither of us... then the dreaded river. Turned away momentarily hoping to turn back and be the overwhelming chipleader! Didn't happen... river comes another 7 giving opponent a better two pair and crippling my chipstack and spirits for the rest of the tournament. I did manage to hang around for about 20/25 more minutes and double up on several occasions but the blinds had gotten to a point that I could not do any damage with the stack I had, eventually putting it all-in with AK and losing out to A 10 when the flop throws out A 10 10. Not sure what the turn and river did but when I turned back to look the tables had been rearranged and I was no longer participating. Oh well, that's about par for the course for me this week. Start the week off with a win vs 2699 freerollers then can't get through to the 3rd hour of the events that really matter. Looking forward to getting into a new week of the BBTwo(dangit, theres 5 more bucks I owe my brother) and hopefully giving myself a chance to vie for that seat to the Aussie Millions.
Thanks to all the BBtwo(chit,did it again) tournament hosts and good luck to all the players this week. Noticed the new addition to this weeks MATH is Turbo. Not sure about the turbo, may hold off and save the $26 for the later tournaments in the week, but more than likely I will cave and be there. For now....-out-

$100 United States Freeroll Champion

2007-11-05T21:33:00.000-05:00

Yep, you heard it right. Champion! As my brother put it "King of the Freeroll Donks". It all started as a way to kill time while watching Sunday Night Football and an opportunity to hone the skills required to donk out on a few bloggers throughout the upcoming week. Little did I know that I would actually work my way through 2699 other players and finish atop the leaderboard as Champion! This was a loooong drawn out and eventually an extremely exilerating experience. Of course there were times where I just wanted to dump the whole load and just hit the sack but the challenge and outspoken challengers in the chat only inspired me to roll on. Due to my screen name I get a lot of haters on me from the get go, but I'm used to that now. Anyway, wish I knew how to picture the final screen and post it here but at 3:20am and 6:10am alarm coming I gave up rather quickly on how to do it. I did take a picture of the screen with my razor phone and text it to several fellow players throughout the day. Sooner or later my daughter (13 years old) is going to teach me how to navigate through all the extras in the bloggers world and I'll be able to dress up this lame sight.

Well, it's 9:40pm and The Hoy is not visible in the registration screen. Dude, where's my Hoy? Going for another look. Hope to see you there. Good luck to all! -out-

Oh yeah, Thanks Bro' for the pimpin props on your blog...hope to give you something else to write about in the a.m. See ya there! -out-

Big Game: Title Defense for TripJax

2007-10-22T16:12:00.001-04:00

After a very loooong day at work I had the misfortune of missing yet the opportunity and pleasure of railin' the first of many BBTwo tourneys for this new season. This ended up being an exciting tourney due to the fact that my bro, TripJax, was defending his BBT title from the season ending BBT tournament from the first season. Trip was getting alot of heat at the tables last night but was able to disregard the comments from the table and the rail to stay focused enough to reach the final table. Once at the final table Trip became quite aggressive and a risk taker on several occasions. It was all good though. The turning point for him at the final table was when he took out the closest contender, who at the time had been the chip leader most of the time. After flushing him out and knocking out two players in another hand soon after, Trip was the overwhelming chip leader and it stayed that way until his AA met up with jeciimd's KK, during a very competive heads up battle and the flop provided jeciimd another K for a set and a great opportunity, which he and his cards took advantage of, to eventually walk away with the first title of the new season. Congrats go out to both players for a well played tournament. Patience and tenacity from both parties were evident, but the defense came just a bit short of realization. Great game! See ya next time....out!

!!!OOOUUUCCCHHH!!!

2007-10-14T15:49:00.000-04:00

All was going well and as planned for my game plan in the WCOOP. Went 23 minutes into the tourney and played only 2 hands. One was a BIG big blind (AA), the only mistake I made was I instant messaged my brother about it and it actually posted on the chat board. Arrrggg. I guess the only good thing was they didn't get cracked. The very next hand I play my small blind and flop a straight 5,6 suited flop comes 4,7,8 rainbow. 5 players in the hand. Check. Betting proceeds and just call (after 2 raises ahead of me). Down to 3 players. Turn and river comes 10,Q. Pot is now over 7,000 and I take it down over a set of 8's and two pair Q8's. Feeling pretty good at this point. 35 minutes in and got over 17,000 chips. Auto fold a couple of hands to get a drink and get comfortable on the chase again. Another orbit goes by without a play and my big blind gives me KJ hearts. Raised the blinds by three times and two players stay. Flop comes Q,1O,A 2 hearts(A is a club). Bet comes out 4oo I raise to 1200, fold and call. Turn comes 9 of clubs. Bet comes 800, I raise to 2400...call. Flopped the straight, got a flush draw with K high and a possible straight flush draw!!???!! River comes 2 of hearts. 6,000 is the bet, I call and player shows A,8 hearts. Out flushed by one digit and cost me over 9,000 chips. !OUCH! A few hands go by, maybe two. Just about to auto fold to walk of the flush beat and I get dealt KK. Stayed in and got lucky to have two pre-flop raises ahead of me! Called and flop comes K,2,10 rainbow. 3 players. Check, I push all-in ( about 4700) get a quick call from one and a hesitated call from other. With the calls two players are all-in. Hands flop. I have KK with a set already, quick caller shows AA, hesitater shows K,10 and has two pair. At this point pockets aces are dominated by other 2 players and I'm in the lead. Turn comes 8 and no help to any. Then the dreaded river. Pair the board, pair the board! No such luck, you got it...... River comes A and my first WCOOP is over inside the first 44 minutes of the tourney.
Although I think I played my hands as well and as cautious as I could... I am still OUT! Upset, hmmm not really, Disappointed...most definitely!! Really just wanted to have an opportunity to play deep into the tourney for the experience and the commrodary with fellow bloggers across the country. Oh, well. As Scotty would say...."that's poker BABY!"At this time I will rejoin the tourney as a railer and cheer on the bloggers I do know. Especially my brother, Tripjax! Until next time, remember...Happiness is not a destination, rather a means of transportation...Enjoy the ride, while it lasts! -chapel, out-

!!!!Registered Correctly Today!!!!

2007-10-13T13:23:00.000-04:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 9562836

!!!!Registered Today!!!!

2007-10-12T03:03:00.000-04:00

Pokerstars World Championship of Online Poker: This is a No Limit Texas Holdem Event Exclusively for Bloggers!

Registration Code:3578728

!!!Register Today!!!

2007-10-10T19:34:00.000-04:00

!!Poker Stars!! World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!!

.........................Exclusively......................for !Bloggers!

October 14th, 2007

!!!Back In The Saddle Again!!!

2007-09-25T00:03:00.000-04:00

After several weeks away from poker to enjoy the really good things in life....Family, friends, and a few Yuenglings here and there I am ready to play again. After numerous failing attempts to make deposits into my online accounts my Super Cool bro' dropped a few entries into my account and allowed me to be...well, as successful as my deposit attempts were. Gotta go for now but hope to see everyone soon. out

!!Ready..... Break!!

2007-08-24T23:38:00.000-04:00

Now's the time to take a well deserved break from poker. I will continue to play some... very little...live tournaments for awhile, if any. Online will be late night and probably freerolls for awhile until I can replenish my funds due to cleaning out accounts for daughters massive school deposit. Anyway Good Luck to ALL and to ALL a Good Night! -out-

Necessary Cutbacks

2007-08-09T23:22:00.000-04:00

After playing in a couple of home games in the past few weeks, a busy work schedule and sooooo many things to do and take care of around the house I've decided to cut back on some, alot....most of my poker playing for awhile. I've really enjoyed getting back to the home games and mixing it up online, but my oldest daughter is enrolling in a private school this year and I will be using some, alot,... most of my poker funds to make a substantial deposit to lessen the dent from a monthly draft throughout the year for tuition and such. We are also planning a last hoorah for the kids before school starts back, going to Dollywood and staying in the Gatlinburg area as well as a trip to visit my bro (you may know) TripJax...Look out bro, you've been warned. Let the neighbors know as well!

Home Games Revisited

2007-07-23T22:07:00.000-04:00

I have had so much fun and have been so intrigued with the opportunity to meet and play new people, characters, each week that I have gone quite some time now without visiting my regular or what used to be regular home games. Although I think about and plan to be there each week I find myself hanging out on Monday nights with the anticipation to play the Hoy! Then there's Wednesdays & Thursdays with the Mookie and the RiverChasers(don't get to play as often due to work) and of course let's not forget The Big Game. Each of these tournaments are riddled with great players, conversationalist and characters that l have enjoyed getting hammered by. Thus the reason for the Title Page of this blog. Tonight though I will be visiting a game I abandoned quite a few weeks ago, not because of the game or the players there, I actually miss it there because it supplemented my income each week for about 2 1/2 years, give or take a few weeks. If I win the first game I'll probably have time to get back and scratch that online itch. -Later, out-

!!!NEXT!!!

2007-07-16T21:10:00.000-04:00

Finally... Inventory is over. Life (at work anyway) can return to normal....as normal as it can get that is. Results of our inventory were not as good as we were hoping for but well under the average for the company as a whole. We ended up shrinking out about a <1.2>. Doesn't sound like much but when you consider we inventory against sales for the year of just over $70million. <1.2> equates to a loss of.... well alot, just over $700,000. OK, enough about work. Now I can get back to focusing on what's important. Spending time with my wife and kids for the summer, and making plans to see the rest of my family that lives outta state, and having the opportunity to play more poker!! Gotta go for now. See ya on the felt. The Hoy is calling, answer...answer!
-out-

2007-07-09T15:10:00.000-04:00

Well it has been a full week since my last game and/or post. Feels more like a month. Work has been extremely strenuous as we are preparing for our yearly inventory (with 5+ million $$$ in inventory), both kids have been here and there... beach, gatlinburg, six flags and carowinds... spending mucho $$$. I sometimes wonder how my parents were able to make it with 4 of us running around throughout the years. Celebrating the 4th was left up to the family and in-laws this year. Work kept me occupied throughout. As the week ended and my long weekend (off friday-monday!) began we were blessed with a visit from my sister and her family from NC. They actually live next to my bro TripJax. It was a great time! It was only the 2nd time they have made the trip here so we tried to get out and do as much as we could with everyone. Spent most of the time at the pool, grilling out just about every meal and reminising about the past. With my sisters 3 kids (all girls), my two (girls) my neice and her girlfriend myself and my brother-in-law (Spanky) were quite out numbered.... 9 to 2. Won't go on about the details, but we enjoyed every moment and only wished they had stayed longer... or lived closer- Hope it doesn't take 10 years to get them back!
Will say that we went to see the new Die Hard movie! Live Free or Die Hard. Great movie! As a fan of all the Die Hard movies I couldn't wait to get there. Kids went to see Rattatuie and the Teens + went to see the shsocker 1408. All got great revues from the family, next...Transformers!
Will get back to the felt talk as soon as I get back to the felt. May have to play at a home game tonight-WG's was out of the idt Visas. Damnit! Just got a text from my wife who is visiting her 94 year old grandfather in the hospital. Text reads...Fire Alarm is sounding here at the hospital. Will call with details! If not playing I'll be railin' after the home game! See you at the Hoy! Hopefully across the table from ya! -OUT-

!Full Tilt on Full Tilt!

2007-07-02T15:40:00.000-04:00

After making the final table and watching my brother take down the BBT Finale I decided to continue into the night on Full Tilt. I registered and played in a 69+6 guaranteed tournament shortly after the finale and was doing quite well. Quite well until about three minutes before the third break that is. Normally I sit out about 3-5 minutes early for each break but as I clicked sit out next hand Q Q shot up on th screen. At this time I'm the dealer and had plenty of time to get back in the hand. With 4 players ahead of me already in the hand after a minimal raise I raise the amount of the pot at the time and everyone calls. Great!?! Yes it was . Flop comes out AQQ!
As the betting begins the SB player bets the pot amount, BB player calls, next player folds, player to my right calls. At this point I am in the top 10 and only the SB player has more chips than me at our table. With 2 of the other 4 players already all in and 1 folding leaving only the table (and tournament) chip leader and me sitting with Quad Queens! Of course I go all in and get a very quick call from chip leader. Chip Leader shows AA(FH-Aces over Queens), BB shows KJ (Straight draw) and to my right KK (2 Pair). YES! Now all I have to do is dodge that last Ace. Turn comes out and it's the last King in the deck. One more to go. I get up off the chase and walk away not wanting to witness the last card. After about 3 steps I turn around check the screen, only to see the little rectangle box in the middle of the table. No need to check last hand played. The only card in the deck that could beat me comes out and my Quad Queens get CRUSHED by Quad Aces!
After a cigarette and a few rants to my dogs Pugsley and Wednesday, cause they were the only ones awake and the only ones that would have listened anyway I go back and enter another tournament. This time a 90 player SnG with 20+2 entry. First hand out I get AA in the pocket as the BB. The first raise in the beting was to 90, reraised to 420, then an all-in from the dealer. 5 people end up all-in on the first hand, thought I was in a freeroll or a rebuy tournament! AA vs. AA vs. KK vs. 10 10 vs. 2 2. The flop, turn and river misses everyone as far as digits, but the board ended up with 4 clubs. Of course I hold the Aspades and Ahearts.
After the BBT, a quick exit in a token tourney I did not discuss, and the 2 tourneys I just described I decided it was time to go to bed, or at least get off the computer. Wouldn't have mattered if I had stayed on anyway, when I got up today and completed all my duties for the day I signed on to try again while the kids were outside playing in their clubhouse only to find I now have $1.12 in my account. Oh well, enough venting for now. Good Luck to all on the tables. Hope to see you out there soon. Look for me on a freeroll table for now! -OUT-

BBT Finale: !Trip Jacks 4 TripJax!

2007-07-02T11:33:00.000-04:00

What a night at the Blogger Big Game! TripJax takes advantage of a double up at the final table with, what else... trip jacks .... and pushed his way all the way to the title. It wasn't an easy road but it was well worth the ride. TripJax, Hoyazo, Rake Feeder , Ddionysus, and Dabag take home the cash and the final three provide a marathon finale. It looked as though RakeFeeder was going to push his way to the title, he even had support from some of the railers. But Trip and Hoy had other plans. The play from the final three players wasn't the only interesting and entertaining highlights of the night. There was also a rant provided to the final table by MiamiDon about how great each of the players were! Don was unfortunately on the recieving end of 2 bad beats, or were they really bad beats? Anyway, he spewed for a while after the two unfortunate beats and got quite a reaction from several of the players. For me this was a side of Don I had never seen but I think it was all in jest. It was entertaining though!
On a personal note, I did manage to make it to another final table! But that was well short of the result I was wanting and needing to qualify for the Freeroll. Didn't do too bad for the intermident season I participated in. I played in only 13 events ( 11 MATH, and 2 Big Games). Was able to token my way into 10 of the 13 events (which includes both Big Games!). Made it into the points 5 times with 4 final table appearances 3 cashes ...with my best finish being 2nd place to mntrider. I'm not sure about the final standings for the points or the money, but looks like I will fall just short of the qualifications to make the freeroll. Didn't make the 20 required tournament entries, due to my work schedule, will probably finish in the top 25 on the moneyboard, but looks like I will miss the top 50 in points as well. Oh well. Maybe next time... hope there is a next time! This was a great series of tournaments. Thanks to all who were responsible!
Congratulations again to TripJax! !WTG Bro! As well to the other cashers... Very nice game Hoy! Better luck next time Rake! -OUT-

BBT Hat Trick!

2007-06-26T18:05:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate Bayne from the BBT (Battle of the Bloggers Tournaments) for captuing the first "hat trick" ever of the tourney. Bayne was able to capture the title at the Mookie(Wed), the Rivercahser(Thur), and at the Hoy(Mon) becoming the only player to hold all three titles at one time, GREAT JOB Bayne!
With only 12 appearances(ChapelncHill) in the BBT tournaments (11 hoys & 1 Big Game) I am just getting warmed up and familiar with the players of the tournaments. Today as I read through many of the bloggers posts as I do every Tuesday I see that this is the last week of the season and Sundays Big Game will be the last tournament of the season. It has really been a pleasure to have had the opportunity to play thus far and I'm looking forward to the Big Game to hopefully capture my first title. Came close on several occasions with 4 final tables, 3 cashes and my best finish being 2nd to mntrider in my 2nd or 3rd tourney. Thanks to my brother you all know as TripJax for introducing me to the tournaments and to everyone else for the great experience each Monday. Hope to see ya at the tables on Sunday! Good Luck to All! Oh yea- forgot about the Freeroll- sitting in 22nd on the moneyboard and 60th on the overall- hope its good enough! Maybe a win at the Big Game Sunday will secure a spot!
-Chapel-OUT-

Jacked...

2007-06-26T00:05:00.000-04:00

Ace-Jacked is more like it! Sitting pretty good at the Hoy tonight. Got somewhere between 12&14 thousand in chips and sitting in 4th place. We're almost at the 2nd break when I get dealt KJ suited. Raised the pot and continue to bet when the high on the flop is a J. Continue the bet with a fold and hesitated call. Needless to say the hesitation was bait. I bit, continued to bet and got Ace-Jacked. Lost over 10k with only moments to the break. The very next hand, or very soon thereafter I'm dealt Q 10 suited. Cracknaces raises to the equivalance to half my stack. I call, hit the 10 on the flop and go all-in. I show top pair and yes, Crackn shows AJ ! (J of hearts) I Had the hand all the way to the river when the 4th heart came out and once again, in no more than 3 hands, I got Ace-Jacked. From 4th, to out in 24th that quick. Had I've done what I normally do and sit out next hand with 5 minutes to the break (so I have time to stretch, smoke and make a deposit-tmi huh) I would still be playing and not venting on this post.
Oh well, maybe next time! Did gain some points for the effort, and I desperately need those. Oh, and cracknaces, yes I did just call with 1/2 my measly stack. I've gotten down to less than 35 chips on 3 different occasions and come back to finish in the top 5. Once to win, so yes just a call will suffice for me, just in case I don't hit the flop. Until next time, I'm OUT... Literally.
gl to the remaining bloggers at the Hoy. See ya next week!

And what have you got?

2007-06-25T19:14:00.000-04:00

A man and his wife spend the weekend at the casino. He hits it big but doesn't inform her. Unfortunately for him she knows about his big rake. As they are driving home at a steady rate of 60 mph, with the wife behind the wheel, the husband looks to his wife and says, "I know we've been married for quite some time now, but I want a divorce." The speed of the car increases to 70mph but the wife is silent. Moments later the husband speaks again, " I will be the one to keep the house, it is in my name." Still nothing from the wife except another increase in the speed of the car to about 78mph. "And as long as we're discussing it the bank accounts, credit card and all the investments will stay in my name as well!" At this point the wife buckles her seatbelt. This becomes a concern of the husband. Especially when he noticed they were now doing 85mph and headed straight towards a concrete bridge. At this point with a nervous tone in his voice he said, "Are you not going to ask for anything?" With only about 100yards to the bridge and in a calm voice she responded, " I already have all I need!" "And what have you got?" he nervously replied. Just before impact with the bridge she emphatically screamed..."I have the airbag!"

What the...

2007-06-25T17:42:00.000-04:00

To get things started here I want to give you a couple of questions and a short haha. Just something to make ya think!

Question 1:
If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who already had 8 kids... 3 were deaf, 2 were blind, 1 was mentally retarded, and she had syphilis. Would you recommend she have an abortion?

Question 2:
It is time to elect a new world leader and only your vote counts. Here are the facts about the 3 candidates.

Candidate 1 - Associates with crooked politicians and consults with astrologists. He's had 2 mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8-10 martinis a day.

Candidate 2 - He was kicked out of office twice. Sleeps until noon each day. Used opiumin college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.

Candidate 3 - He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke and has an occasional beer. He has never cheated on his wife.

Which of these candidates was your choice?

#1 is Franklin D. Roosevelt

#2 is Winston Churchill

#3 is Adolph Hitler

Hmmm - makes you think huh!?! Oh yea, if you answered YES to the abortion question... you just killed Beethoven.

Thanks to LRL!

Gotta get back to the Table. The felt is calling me. Need to get warmed up for the Hoy tonight! Hope to see you there and hopefully back here again! -OUT-

forgot the haha - check out next post.

Remember this!
Amateurs... built the ark!
Professionals... built the Titanic.