Cigars Cards and Mile Markers

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

the cold deck got a little warmer last night..........just in time too

once again last night i was determined to break this month long streak of not cashing in any tourney i play.   i was off to a good start too when about halfway through the first hour i turned a 9 high flush and felted two players.   then shortly before the break and end of rebuy period i lost 75% of my stack when i flopped top pair, K kicker.    i felt pretty deflated at that point and for the first time at this tuesday night game had to throw in another $20 for 2500 extra chips.   we were only about 15 minutes away from the end of the rebuy period so i was hoping to get it all in and double up, but it was not to be. i did win a few pots though to add a little to my stack.  i added on 3K in chips for another $20 naturally.   i started the 2nd hour with 7200 chips at 200/400.  not exactly a big stack, but i have some room to be patient.  

i have been trying to find good spots to be aggressive lately (sometimes when i don't even have a hand) and trying to time it so that my raise puts pressure on my opponents stack.  these are the situations where i don't need a hand really.  i just have to make my opponent have a hand.   so i found a spot last night.......sort of.   blinds were 300/600 and i had 5900 total.  i'm needing a double up pretty badly right now.   the cards get delt and i look down at 10/2 off suit.   bad hand..............but then everyone starts folding to me and i notice those about to act already have their cards in their hands ready to muck.  i don't need a hand now and i know this is a spot to put the pressure on the blinds and try and steal them.   so it folds to me and i insta shove my whole stack.    small blinds mucks quickly, but the big blind does not.  OOOOOOOOOOOOPS!!!  maybe i timed this one badly.  guess i'm about to find out.   so the big blind calls (for about 70% of his stack mind you = bad call) with 10/9 diamonds.   really?????????????   you called off 70% of your stack with 10/9 suited?   amazing.  naturally the guys at the table look at me like i'm the dumbest card player on the planet, but before i go further let me make it perfectly clear that i DID NOT want a call.  it was thievery i was up to....plain and simple.   so i start my usual antics of getting up and folding up my chair, shaking a few hands and putting my chip protector back in my pocket.  why you ask?  because, and i swear it, more than 50% of the time if i do this when i'm behind in the hand i catch up to win it.  i know you think i'm nuts, but it seems to work.   flop drops and i miss my deuce, turns comes and it's an 8 and i SWEAR to you that i turned around and walked out of the room................then with my back to the doorway on my way out of the house my table ERUPTS!!!!   my good ole trick worked again..................BLACK DEUCE peeled off on the river to give me the double up.   what can i say?  i'm a donk sometimes. 



nothing exciting happened for awhile after that.  i won a few pots, but with the blinds going up so fast it's not a tourney made for patience.   well, the guys in this room apparently think they can work comfortably with 10 big blinds.  i saw one guy, more than once, call a raise for 3X the big blind leaving himself only 4-5 BB's behind.  that i do not understand at all.   that's pointless to me.  knowing all this about these guys i decided last night to get aggressive with any ace 10 or higher (highest pair i saw all night was 1010).   so when i woke up with AQ, AJ or A10 and had 10-15 big blinds i just shoved.   these guys won't call that, BUT if i were to just raise it up pre flop they'll call half their stack off and then if they don't hit they fold.....leaving themselves with NOTHING to work with (and of course if i don't hit then i'm up a creek).   needless to say i shoved a lot when it was down to 7-8 people and i do this often at this room because i, more than once, got someone off A7/8 suited by shoving a nice sized stack in pre flop.  at around the 500/1000 level i once again i shoved with KJ off suit after two limpers and i got called my 1010.  ooooops.   i thanked every one and packed my stuff up again..............and guess what hit the river?    a KING.  lucky me.............again.  so i decimated the stack of the guy with 1010 and he was out shortly after.   one guy in particular, who i have played heads up with, is really getting frustrated with me at this point.   i shoved once or twice, with AQ or AJ, on his big blind and he verbally complained to me for almost 30 seconds about picking on his big blind.   he also asked me if i had 10/2 again.  hahahahahahahahaha!  i told him, while pointing to my all in stack, that it would cost him that much to find out what i had.   i knew he wasn't calling.  that guy always puts on a hollywood show when his hand sucks, but he wants to pretend like he has a tough decision.  

at 4 handed and on the money bubble someone suggested we pull $100 off the top to give to the bubble boy.  i didn't want to, but in the spirit of being nice i said ok.  now there's about $1550 left in the purse.  then bubble boy goes out (the oscar nominee) and suddenly the short stack wants to chop it 3 ways (this guy refused to chop 4 ways), so i and the other guy said no.  before i know it i've taken out 3rd place, short stack at table, when i woke up with 77 and he had A8.  the board faded his 6 outs and now i'm heads up.  i always chop at heads up and last night as much as i needed first place money ($900 ish), i said ok.  i had 160K and he had 80K and it's pretty much going all in at this point regardless..........so instead of taking a chance on going card dead i'll just settle for chopping.   so we did and i made a nice chunk of cash last night. 

so the cards are done for the week (my sunday tourney was a disaster) and i have 4 shows the rest of the week.   tonight is with copeland at Lola's and the rest of the week is with ted russell kamp.   2 are here in ftw and one is in plano.....and if all goes well next tuesday on the felt i'll hopefully play another $60 rebuy next weekend.


the "jazz odyssey" project is in the making too............big big big big sounds ahead. 





music pick of the week:  the orbans.   please go download their record.  they're good people and they make good music:

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

it's a little bit of everything this week.....

well, the week started off with the usual monday night cigar gathering and it's always bigger when the monday falls on a day like july 4th.   there's always a few extra people there and the food quality and amounts go through the roof (thank you james).  i pretty much ate a huge plate full of pig and salad monday night and was more than satisfied.   not to mention that as soon as i walked through the door i was given a CAN of stella.  not a bottle, but a CAN.  i have waited years for them to start importing stella in a can here in the states.   hopefully this will mean the end of stella in a bottle, but i doubt it.  



 and last night was my usual tuesday night tourney.   i felt great on the way there and knew without a doubt i'd play well.......and i did.   i mixed up my game a bit more during the rebuy period and it paid off big on one hand when i rivered my open ender to beat my opponents top pair that he turned.  i also felted a guy on that same hand as well.    my stack of chips last night was a massive roller coaster though.    shortly after the RB period was over we were at 300/600 and i woke up with QQ on the button.  to my delight the hijack seat raised to 2400 (leaving himself only about 3500 behind), so i know what ever he has he's not folding to a shove.   so i shoved.   i'm not flatting with QQ there in any instance.  if he has AA or KK so be it.  i was hoping he'd have AK or JJ/1010, but no.................he called with AA.   i bricked out and he doubled up.  at this point i'm very much crippled with only about 3700 chips.  the short of it is that i doubled up 2 hands later with pocket 10's and then the next time i hit the small blind i doubled up again when i flopped bottom set.   that's where my chip stack decided to ride the roller coaster.   take the first short stack out with JJ vs AQ and then shove with A10 and another short stack calls with 44.  i brick the board and he doubles up.   then i am forced to fold KQ suited after the cut off shoves and the small blind reshoves.   painful fold, but i know i'm behind and one of them can easily have AK or AQ which leaves me drawing quite quite thin.  turns out i folded the winner.  oh well.   it's all about making the right decision at that moment and i did.  it just turns out that i would have flopped and turned a K giving me trip K's which would have tripled me up.   like i said............painful fold, but it was THE right decision and i know it. 

that's pretty much the short version of the tourney last night.  i know most of you don't play cards and don't understand half of what i say in poker lingo, so i won't drag details about last nights tourney out.   i was mentally exhausted after i busted out last night because as soon as i'd get some steam rolling i'd take a hit, but i was ok with ALL OF IT because i played well and didn't make any bad calls or moves.  that's all i can really do.  funds are thin right now, so it hurts that i have to cut back to only tuesday nights for cards, but i simply can't afford to play any other tourneys right now.   my pops, the former baptist preacher, of course is constantly concerned i'm developing a gambling addiction.  i appreciate his concern, he's my pops so it's only natural, but he doesn't understand poker too much.   to him it's ALL gambling and i don't think he quite grasps the skill involved in poker......and that's ok.   he doesn't have to understand it...............i do.




next up this week is the usual wednesday night gig at Lola's with COPELAND and the gang, thursday i'm off and then my good friend TED RUSSELL KAMP is back in town for 10 days.   we have 6 full band shows and Ted has 2 other acoustic shows (denison and ftw).   i'm also in the studio with Ted and Matt Mason (a friend of Ted's from Tulsa) one day and Ted has also decided to shoot a video for a track off his new record so i'll get to be a part of that as well.   it's gonna be a busy 10 days, but it will involve good people and good music which is the only reason i enjoy playing with ted (and chris and josh).   i've said it before and i will say it again..........i don't play music that sucks anymore for money. life is too short to sell my soul anymore.  here are the details for all the shows on this TX run:

Thursday, 7/7 - Whiskey Nick's - Sherman, TX  - acoustic/Ted solo
(3605 Hwy 75 S., Right on OK/TX border)

Friday 7/8, 7pm – 8:30pm - Downtown Street Fair, Denison, TX   - full band with josh davis/chris claridy

Friday 7/8, 10pm - Midnight – T- Bones, Denison, TX   
- full band with josh davis/chris claridy 
 (101 East Main Street, www.tbones.us, (903) 464-0888)

Saurday 7/9 - Armadillo Palace, Houston, TX (w/ SHY BLAKEMAN)  
- full band with josh davis
(5015 Kirby Drive, (713) 526-9700)

Sunday 7/10, 3pm – 6pm - Fred's CafĂ©, Ft. Worth TX   - acoustic/Ted and Matt Mason
(915 Currie St, FTW www.fredstexascafe.com (817).332.0083)

Thursday 7/14, 10pm – 1:30am – Flithy McNasty’s, Fort Worth, TX 
- full band with josh davis/chris claridy ( 114 West Exchange Ave.)

Friday 7/15 – 10pm  - Woody’ s Tavern, Ft. Worth, TX –  
- full band with josh davis/chris claridy
w/ KEITH KILLOREN & MATT MASON - (4474 Bryant Irvin Rd.)

Saturday, 7/16 - noon to 4pm - Ted will be filming a music video at a cool old honky tonk on the North Side of Dallas, if you want to come celebrate with us, and possibly be in the video, please email back!

Saturday 7/16, 8PM - Love and War in Texas - Plano, TX 
- full band with josh davis/chris claridy
(601 E. Plano Parkway)


this is gonna be a good run no doubt.  an added bonus is that josh and i are headed down to galveston after the show friday night so i'll get to enjoy some beach weather on saturday during the day.    only a few errands to get done today and then it's pool time with some of my favorite people in the fort.   then sushi for dinner and then Lola's.  


also, i just found this record on itunes and had no idea it even came out this year.  this one will have to get me by until the band makes a new studio record........of which i am quite stoked about:






ok......time to eat and enjoy an afternoon in the pool.