Something that makes you go hmmm....
Why is it that the players with the most kick-ass nicknames, like Bitchpls, deathstalker, ace killer, kamikaze, etc, have cutesy wutesy photos of their kids for their avatar image?

Somedays you want to just say fuck it all.
This is one of those days.

This is telling you a lot about my play this week....got this email from my friend Tawny about the regular weekly game that I missed.

"So Tay, thinking that you would be coming Monday, positioned you at the table and they blinded you in all night. At one point, your chips were all in and you ended up winning a fair size pot but eventually, your chips' luck ran out and you placed fourth. So congratulations on finishing fourth ;)."

Yes. You read right. Apparently I do better if I'm not there.

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Last night I did the WWdN invitational on Poker Stars. I was tired as hell as it had been a rough week at school (Sidenote: I hate computers). While K and I were out for sushi before the tourney I thought to myself, "Self, you should unregister". But I didn't. And I played like a zombie with occasional flashes of mis-directed energy. I chased two pots within the first half hour where I was too logey to figure my outs (hey, big slick *looks* good) and, quel surprise, both bombed. Smartened up a bit, but could never fully come back from the short stack. File that one under "Learning Experience".

FOUR
quad fours. trip fours. full houses with fours (yes TWO of 'em!). a pair of fours.
These are all hands that I won with tonight on a Poker Stars one table SnG.
I LOVE fours!

People make 'em all the time, and I'm no exception. You don't have enough information, or any facts at all for that matter, and therefore you make assumptions. How a person plays, what the strengths are, the weaknesses, are they having a bad day, are the poker gods laughing at them on the river over and over.
I've made assumptions about myself - my no limit game has improved immensely, therefore my limit game should be better too. Nuh uh. I had a great time playing limit with Tawny on Satuday but my game, well, let's just say I had a hundred dollars worth of fun.
I've had people make assumptions about me - I'm a woman, how could I possibly know anything about poker, ergo the comments the other day while playing online "you play pretty good for a gal" and "you know if you just (fill in the blank) then your game would (fill in the blank). (Sidenote: ok I know all about that Venus and Mars crap, how men give advice with the best of intentions...but guys, honestly, to women it sounds like yet another man trying to tell us how to do things. Unless you're ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE that the woman in question is firmly on the upswing of the hormone rollercoaster, keep it to yourself.)
And I make assumptions about other people. I read yet another thoughtless comment made by someone after a hand while playing online and think "doofus" or "asshole" or "yokel" or "newbie".
Assumptions..it's what happens when you don't know the facts, and most times they'll come back to bite you on the ass.

Was cruising through Wil Wheaton's blog yesterday (yeah I KNOW I should have been teaching, but the little horrors were doing a test) and saw mention of his invitational blogger tourney...thought about it for like, umm, 3 nanoseconds, then signed up. Figured, hey, even though it starts at 4, I can slide out of work slightly early and should get home just before it starts.
Well, of course, the bus was late, and by the time I logged in it had been playing for a half hour already. Got to my "table", clicked the I'm Back button just in time to be dealt pocket rockets. Yippeee. Bet 'em high, 4x the big blind, not so high that ppl folded, one taker. flop saw another ace surrounded by rags. I checked (wanted to see if he had anything), buddy bet high. Chances of him having the other 2 aces are slim to none, so I put him on KK. I call, turn is a 10. I go all in, he ponders for about 10 seconds (an eternity on line) then calls. And yes, he does have KK - yay!
next hand, believe it or not, pocket aces again! Play it the same way, no trips this time, but I still win with top pair.
I then proceed to win the next 12 hands through a combination of playing good cards, bluffing well with bad cards and blatant pot stealing/buying. Luckily I was able to tell when the poker gods decided to stop smiling on me *quite* so well, and stayed within the top quarter placement for the next 2 hours.
But you're thinking, if that's the case, then why did you bust out at 29th of 96? Two words. Full House.
Pocket Tens, after the pre-flop betting only myself and one other player left, his stack is about the same size as mine. Pre-flop betting wasn't super aggressive, so when the flop came K 3 K, and he called me at only 3x the BB, so I put him on a mid pair like me and called. Turn came, a 10...full house to me. I bet at 5x the BB, seeing what he had, he only called again. Ok. River came crap, I went all in. He called me, I'm thinking come to me you wonderful chippies....cards turn...doesn't he have K 10??? Crap...my boat 10's over kings taken by his boat kings over 10's. Much commiseration at the table, but that's poker. And at least I went out *after* Wil and Dr. Pauly (I take my victories where I can!) *grin.

nuff said.

Off for thanksgiving dinner @ taylor and tawny's, with the thought of turkey, pie and poker dancing in my head. Alas, the poker was not to be...Keith and I drove in together so had to leave together, and no amount of cajoling could interest him in a game. Ah well.
thank god for online.

after a week of good luck (well, luck isn't the right word, but you know what I mean) at the tables, it appears that I'm in a period of watching my funds slip slide away. I've done 5 one-table SnG's in the last few days and placed between 5th and 8th. Playing tired, playing bored...neither are good but at least I'm not doing any bonehead moves like all in on a pair of 3's from middle position. As shown by a bozo yesterday on PS, that doesn't work!
On a live play note, am still disappointed that J, my partner in crime so to speak won't be around on the 13th, which means I have to, ugh, work. But still going on the Rama trip on the 15th (my first anniversary of poker!) with Tawny.

Is my problem poker? or lack of time management skills? Had a day off yesterday for the Jewish holiday, and my half-day off today. Did I:
- do laundry?
- clean up
- get groceries?
- work on lesson plans?
- update the TWS site?
- create concepts for the GLO site?
- work on the long-anticipated upgrade for my site?
NO
Instead I played poker (note to self playing poker out of boredom = the quickest way to lose, second only to playing drunk). I also knit some (obsession #2) and watched Popular on dvd.
I can't pay attention to the game if I have all these unfinished to-do list items hanging over my head; but I so looooove using poker as a procrastination device.
My own personal Catch-22. yay.

ok, so my poker was ok during the day placed well in two SnG's, one just before leaving where i placed well. listened to good music, akin to the casino rama car mix, got myself in the moooood for poker. got to T+T's, had some laughs, and the game went right in the toilet.
possible causes:
- too much laughter
- too many distractions
- not entirely comfortable ie. fully clothed and in a upright position (i love laptops and wireless connections!)
- a bit intimidated (something about taylor makes me feel like I'm about 18 and unsure of myself, therefore I start making dumbass moves like saying raise when I put down 100 to his 100...took me a sec to figure out what he meant when he said "raise what?!?". duh.
- my cards were SHITE.
but all in all i did have twenty bucks worth of fun. AND it was the first time I'd gone out first EVER. so there.

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on another note, got home and watched Dead Like Me (very dark, very funny). and then played 2 one table sng's on poker stars....second on the $6 turbo, and first on the $10 totally over 70...YAY!!!!!!!!!

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and BTW, WTF is this??? a SPAM comment?!? honestly people.....

So did a SnG last night, and it was all good...nice tight players, everyone paying attention and not being terribly stupid. At least most of us. One user, Serial, was that brand of jerk i love so much, the I'm-an-anonymous-online-user-so-I-can-say-whatever-I-want. verbally abusive, calling people retards, cursing, and the piece-de-resistance, slinging out racial slurs.
All behaviour that NO ONE would indulge in irl, because no one would stand for it. So why do some people think that because it's an online forum, that the rules of good sportsmanship and civilized behaviour don't apply to them? I have to make sweeping generalizations, but it always seems to be the early to mid 20's men (boys) who act like such freaking idiots.
On a personal level, it makes it hard to enjoy the game after that. I was pretty happy that he went out on the bubble...I may have been short stacked, but at least 1) I went out AFTER him, and 2) I made some $ to make up for my lack of attention at the .25/.50 NL table earlier.

1) doubled my $ on a 5/10 cent NL table, finished with 8.35 less the 4 i started with
2) came in second on a 45 seat SnG, won 10 less the 1.20 buy in
3) came in third on a 9 seat SnG, won 9, less the 5.50 buy in

Could have done better in #3, but getting too tired and ready to drop.

Here we go again. This in response to the PokerStars blogger tourney.
Sorry guys, I've been blogging for 3 years, but there is no way I'm handing out the address of my main one. No one should ever go that deep into my thought process...it's dark and scary.
Yes, I will jump through many hoops for yet another chance to play poker for free *grin.