Nomo

I like this song. It's called Nu Tones, by Nomo.



If you don't listen to the DeucePlays podcast on Deucescracked, you should. They're free and top quality. This week Bart had on TheEngineer regarding UIGEA progress and discussion regarding the recent postponement. Interesting stuff.

And a couple of hands.

***** Hand History for Game 16937583741 ***** (Full Tilt)
$50.00 USD PL Omaha Hi/Lo - Saturday, December 19, 09:03:31 ET 2009
Table Colfax (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: PerfectCast ( $25.05 USD )
Seat 2: Zophar ( $45.50 USD )
Seat 3: BLUEBOY MAN ( $69.85 USD )
Seat 5: Ragnarok9 ( $53.25 USD )
Seat 6: manchman ( $25.00 USD )
PerfectCast posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
Zophar posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Zophar [ 9d Qh Js 8s ]
BLUEBOY MAN folds
Ragnarok9 raises [$1.75 USD]
manchman folds
PerfectCast folds
Zophar raises [$5.00 USD]
Ragnarok9 calls [$3.75 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ts, Qc, 2d ]
Zophar bets [$11.25 USD]
Ragnarok9 raises [$45.00 USD]
Zophar calls [$28.75 USD]
Ragnarok9 shows [Qs, 8h Ah Ad ]
Zophar shows [9d, Qh Js 8s ]
Ragnarok9 wins $5.00 USD
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kd ]
** Dealing River ** [ 5h ]
Zophar wins $88.25 USD from main pot


***** Hand History for Game 16911689950 ***** (Full Tilt)
$50.00 USD PL Omaha Hi/Lo - Friday, December 18, 09:15:55 ET 2009
Table Milano (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: JRuby ( $53.90 USD )
Seat 2: Maddox_hold ( $35.55 USD )
Seat 3: goearn ( $55.45 USD )
Seat 4: janezh ( $13.55 USD )
Seat 5: pioad ( $38.20 USD )
Seat 6: Zophar ( $69.00 USD )
Maddox_hold posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
goearn posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Zophar [ Tc Ah 6s 3s ]
janezh calls [$0.50 USD]
pioad raises [$1.50 USD]
Zophar calls [$1.50 USD]
JRuby folds
Maddox_hold folds
goearn folds
janezh calls [$1.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kd, Jh, Qc ]
janezh checks
pioad checks
Zophar bets [$3.50 USD]
janezh folds
pioad raises [$13.50 USD]
Zophar raises [$42.25 USD]
pioad calls [$23.20 USD]
Zophar shows [Tc, Ah 6s 3s ]
pioad shows [As, Td Th Js ]
Zophar wins $9.05 USD
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ks ]
** Dealing River ** [ Kh ]
pioad wins $75.65 USD from main pot


***** Hand History for Game 16888403817 ***** (Full Tilt)
$50.00 USD PL Omaha Hi/Lo - Thursday, December 17, 10:28:55 ET 2009
Table Supply (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Seat 1: Trigeminal ( $53.65 USD )
Seat 2: Ragnarok9 ( $96.50 USD )
Seat 3: dano817 ( $50.00 USD )
Seat 4: weasels ( $10.85 USD )
Seat 5: Zophar ( $63.80 USD )
Seat 6: VelvetMonkey1 ( $17.80 USD )
dano817 posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
weasels posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Zophar [ 2c Ah 4d 9d ]
Zophar calls [$0.50 USD]
VelvetMonkey1 calls [$0.50 USD]
Trigeminal folds
Ragnarok9 folds
dano817 raises [$2.25 USD]
weasels folds
Zophar calls [$2.00 USD]
VelvetMonkey1 calls [$2.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9c, 7d, 8d ]
dano817 checks
Zophar bets [$6.00 USD]
VelvetMonkey1 folds
dano817 raises [$26.00 USD]
Zophar raises [$55.30 USD]
dano817 calls [$21.50 USD]
Zophar shows [2c, Ah 4d 9d ]
dano817 shows [6s, As 2s 7c ]
Zophar wins $13.80 USD
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jd ]
** Dealing River ** [ Tc ]
Zophar wins $100.00 USD from main pot

Just the way it is.

Every couple of days or so, I plan on posting an update, yet inevitably I don't for whatever reason. I've even started typing new updates and pushing the close button after a few lines. I think I go through fazes of malaise when it comes to posting in general, whether it be here or on a variety of forums. Guess that's just the way it is, as I don't plan on changing at the moment.

It's been a busy 6 weeks since my last update. I had my show, which was lightly attended but active. I've been rebuilding a small cottage on my property, replacing the floor, building new walls, framing the door and eventually replacing the roof. I've been working on a few restoration projects, a variety of other random jobs, trying to play poker and trying get the PLO8 series made.

As far as the series goes, it seems to gain momentum, then slow down, then repeat. Around the end of September, Krantz was asking about who I could partner with for the series. I gave him a few, then some time went by, not much word aside from busy. Then around the end of October, there was a small DC meet up in NYC. When I say small, there were five of us in total. Aside from me, there were 2 other DC members and Krantz and Danzasmack. It was kind of awkward at first, as I was the first one there. Some introductions, small talk etc. By the time the other two arrived, things had relaxed a bit. We started talking about games, vids, etc. Then Chuck(Danzasmack) commented, "Did you see the Insomnia PLO8 video? That was awesome." I laughed obviously and explained, yeah that was me. After wondering whether they knew, this solidified that they had no idea who I was when I introduced myself, even after about two dozen emails with Jay and some interaction in the forums with Chuck.

After some compliments from both, we all moved on with a better understanding. Chuck and I ended up planning to do the series together, we seemed to get along well, so working together should be easy. Jay gave the ok later that week for the go ahead. So far Chuck and my schedules haven't clicked, but there's the possibility that we'll get started this week. It's supposed to debut in the beginning of January, so I don't want to wait until the last minute for the 1st episode. I really want it to be the best series on PLO8. As there's hardly any content, I feel like it's possible to set the standard.

I unexpectedly met Frank Langella today, that was pretty cool. I didn't realize it was him at first, he was wearing a hat and glasses and I was really looking at him. Then I realized I recognized this guy and a couple of minutes later put a name with the face. This was eventually confirmed after making a purchase. He plans on coming back, new customers a great, the fact that it's someone like him, even better.

I have a couple of hand histories to throw up, those will follow this, I'll probably just edit them in.

***** Hand History for Game 15891352841 ***** (Full Tilt)
$100.00 USD PL Omaha Hi/Lo - Sunday, November 08, 09:09:10 ET 2009
Table Fortin (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: Florida Evans ( $77.20 USD )
Seat 2: hippy_shot ( $26.50 USD )
Seat 3: Zophar ( $101.35 USD )
Seat 5: mmarquez101 ( $98.85 USD )
Seat 6: foxtrot_poker ( $89.45 USD )
mmarquez101 posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
foxtrot_poker posts big blind [$1.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Zophar [ Jh 9d Qh Tc ]
Florida Evans calls [$1.00 USD]
hippy_shot folds
Zophar raises [$4.00 USD]
mmarquez101 calls [$3.50 USD]
foxtrot_poker folds
Florida Evans calls [$3.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ts, 8d, Kh ]
mmarquez101 checks
Florida Evans checks
Zophar bets [$11.00 USD]
mmarquez101 calls [$11.00 USD]
Florida Evans folds
** Dealing Turn ** [ Td ]
mmarquez101 checks
Zophar checks
** Dealing River ** [ 9c ]
mmarquez101 bets [$20.00 USD]
Zophar raises [$51.00 USD]
mmarquez101 calls [$31.00 USD]
Zophar shows [Jh, 9d Qh Tc ]
Zophar wins $134.00 USD from main pot
mmarquez101 doesn't show [Ah, 4c 2d Th ]

***** Hand History for Game 16056900116 ***** (Full Tilt)
$100.00 USD PL Omaha Hi/Lo - Sunday, November 15, 10:41:36 ET 2009
Table Georgia (deep) (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Seat 1: Maddox_hold ( $100.00 USD )
Seat 2: Mr Hi Rollller ( $33.50 USD )
Seat 3: CertifiedDon1 ( $110.85 USD )
Seat 4: sargemark ( $185.10 USD )
Seat 5: PSG4LIFE ( $74.75 USD )
Seat 6: UFPokerAce ( $57.30 USD )
Seat 7: coolbreeze08 ( $180.10 USD )
Seat 8: Zophar ( $165.50 USD )
Seat 9: frockface ( $49.70 USD )
frockface posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
Maddox_hold posts big blind [$1.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Zophar [ 4h Kh As 2d ]
Mr Hi Rollller folds
CertifiedDon1 calls [$1.00 USD]
sargemark folds
PSG4LIFE calls [$1.00 USD]
UFPokerAce folds
coolbreeze08 calls [$1.00 USD]
Zophar raises [$3.00 USD]
frockface folds
Maddox_hold folds
CertifiedDon1 calls [$2.00 USD]
PSG4LIFE calls [$2.00 USD]
coolbreeze08 calls [$2.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ks, 6h, 7d ]
CertifiedDon1 checks
PSG4LIFE checks
coolbreeze08 checks
Zophar bets [$11.00 USD]
CertifiedDon1 raises [$46.50 USD]
PSG4LIFE folds
coolbreeze08 folds
Zophar raises [$142.00 USD]
CertifiedDon1 calls [$61.35 USD]
Zophar shows [4h, Kh As 2d ]
CertifiedDon1 shows [5s, 4d 2s 3c ]
Zophar wins $45.15 USD
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9h ]
** Dealing River ** [ Kc ]
Zophar wins $226.20 USD from main pot

Whoops, haha.

***** Hand History for Game 16359259635 ***** (Full Tilt)
$50.00 USD PL Omaha Hi/Lo - Friday, November 27, 10:33:18 ET 2009
Table Supply (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: motcat ( $28.70 USD )
Seat 2: sam2do ( $47.50 USD )
Seat 3: tippmann43 ( $59.60 USD )
Seat 4: FortKnox09 ( $18.90 USD )
Seat 5: Hugo_Down ( $32.80 USD )
Seat 6: Zophar ( $49.00 USD )
sam2do posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
tippmann43 posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Zophar [ 2h 4c Ah Jc ]
FortKnox09 folds
Hugo_Down calls [$0.50 USD]
Zophar raises [$2.25 USD]
motcat folds
sam2do calls [$2.00 USD]
tippmann43 folds
Hugo_Down calls [$1.75 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ad, 9d, 4h ]
sam2do checks
Hugo_Down bets [$7.25 USD]
Zophar raises [$29.00 USD]
sam2do raises [$45.25 USD]
Hugo_Down calls [$23.30 USD]
Zophar calls [$16.25 USD]
sam2do shows [Kd, 4d As 7c ]
Hugo_Down shows [2s, 3h Jh Qs ]
Zophar shows [2h, 4c Ah Jc ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jd ]
** Dealing River ** [ Ac ]
Zophar wins $29.40 USD from main pot
Zophar wins $95.90 USD from main pot

On The Road

Haven't posted much this month, here or much on any of the forums I frequent. I didn't play much last month either. Between traveling and preparing for the event that I manage, which happens to be coming up this weekend, I've had little time. I guess there's been little of interest as well.

The little I did play went pretty well. I got in only about 4k hands the whole month, all at $100PL and NLO8, but was up over 15 buy ins, so nothing to complain about really. I think 11 of the buy ins were at PL, making it 18 since the 20th of August. It's finally been a good jump up to $100 again. My step up's have usually been very difficult at first, running/playing really poorly before moving ahead, which just equals a lot of catch up. Not so this time.
Played some PLO for a few days to start this month. The first day was awful, dropped 5 buyins in about 100 hands, but not all due to bad play. 70% of the buyins were lost in 65/35+ spots, including a 90% fave situation. Unfortunately, these lead to some tilt. Bleh. Of the 100 hands I won a total of 4, including nonshowdown. The next night I played a lot better and ended up 1.5+, so recouped a little. Fwiw, it was all single tabling.

I was driving down in New Jersey a few weeks back and off to the side of the highway there was a caravan of Too Fast Too Furious cars, all the same kind of car though, pulled off on the side of the road. Most of them were out of their cars, it looked like they were trying to fix one of the cars as they were all crowded around the exposed engine. One of them had a life size rubber blow up doll under his arm. I think she had a maid's outfit on. I laughed for quite a while.

After this weekend I hope to get some volume in. I'll have the time for a change, which I'm looking forward to. Halloween is coming up soon, my daughter and I'll will have a busy weekend. Lots of free candy, yay. We've been talking about having me dress up as Willy Wonka, I hope it works out.

I'm off for now.

Glee

I like this show called Glee on Fox. I think it's got some real potential. It's a funny concept, seems to be well written and has some solid characters. I wouldn't compare it to Arrested Development or anything, but one can hope. It has the deadpan lesbian lady from 40 year Old Virgin(Store Manager), Best In Show, etc. She has a great delivery. I'm watching the pilot for the second time tonight and I still find it entertaining, that's a good thing. The rocker lawn fertilizer guy kills every time, lip-syncing Journey while working, rocking out. Awesome.

I got into two stupid arguments today, one as a Mod and one with a Mod.

As a Mod, guy's copping attitude, I explain what is accurate and why his idea's, although worthwhile, aren't too realistic. Not whether they are good or bad, but again why they aren't realistic. He thinks it's a debate, cops more attitude. Funny thing is, I'm the only person who bothered to politely respond with a serious reply, while also being someone responsible for moderating the discussions. Ugh.

Then I get into a PM convo with a Mod on 2+2. I feel like I was arguing with a 15 year old. He got annoyed about a Banking issue thread where the OP calls a USBank branch a US bank branch while discussing having a withdrawal check questioned, which leads to confusion about what US bank it is or if it's USBank, which leads to some serious, some level responses, over 4-5 pages of what bank is it? I quote someone who'd asked what stories would be good to give if withdrawal checks are questioned. Mod responds(which I didn't notice) as well as someone else, you don't have to tell them anything, as in it's none of their business.

I then respond about saying they're from sales online, etc. I also make a a comment that it would be ironic if the Us bank mentioned were USbank, jokingly. Post gets deleted, Mod annoyed by the banter, fine I say in the PM, but why did the whole post get deleted? He responds with an attitude about not wanting me to look incredibly stupid if I was serious about the bank and that the other question had been answered. I disagreed with the idea of not telling my bank anything(if asked), but told him I didn't want to argue about it. All very courteously still.

He then continues on about whether I'd received one before, they're non-descript, etc. I respond, of course I've received them, but if i were questioned about them, the last thing I'd do is "not tell them anything". What adult thinks you can do that without some sort of consequence? Regardless if it is acceptable to ask or none of their business, if they do, you can't ignore it. He then responds something along the lines of depositing at atms because they don't ask questions. I couldn't take it anymore. His logic was senseless. I couldn't believe he was responsible for NVG moderation. I should post the PM's here.

I have some interesting hands to post shortly. I just busted out of a NFG tourney, shipped KK on 8669 turn vs. QQ. River Q. Rail- wow, nh. They were serious too. Ugh railbirds.

Just some hands

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo - 9 players

UTG: $329.85
UTG+1: $91.75
UTG+2: $217.40
MP1: $61.40
MP2: $87.25
Hero (CO): $116.30
BTN: $104.00
SB: $197.65
BB: $367.60

Pre Flop:($1.50) Hero is CO with Ks 9d 7c Td
2 folds, UTG+2 calls $1, 1 fold, MP2 calls $1, Hero raises to $5, 1 fold, SB raises to $18, 3 folds, Hero calls $13

Flop: ($39.00) 8c 6h 9s (2 players)
SB bets $39, Hero raises to $98.30 all in, SB calls $59.30

Turn: ($235.60) 9h (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($235.60) Ts (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $235.60
Hero shows Ks 9d 7c Td (HI: a full house, Nines full of Tens)
SB shows 2d 3d Ah Ad (HI: two pair, Aces and Nines)
Hero wins $232.60
(Rake: $3.00)


Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Omaha

horsepucky (SB): $126.55
martin330 (BB): $311.05
RoperKS (UTG): $185.70
MrMurray (UTG+1): $76.80
Hero (MP1): $138.05
CrankRup (MP2): $113.35
Mr_Greektown (CO): $100.00
steinski (BTN): $86.15

Pre Flop: ($1.00) Hero is MP1 with Ah Th 6h As
2 folds, MrMurray calls $1, Hero raises to $4, CrankRup calls $4, 3 folds, MrMurray calls $3

Flop: ($13.00) Jh Jc Jd (3 players)
MrMurray checks, Hero checks, CrankRup checks

Turn: ($13.00) Kh (3 players)
MrMurray checks, Hero bets $8, CrankRup raises to $37, MrMurray folds, Hero raises to $124, CrankRup calls $72.35 all in

River: ($231.70) Qh (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $231.70
Hero shows Ah Th 6h As (HI: a Royal Flush)
CrankRup shows 2d Ts Ad Ks (HI: a straight, Ace high)
Hero wins $228.70
(Rake: $3.00)


**EDIT**
Had posted the wrong hand

Lazy, Busy or a Combination of the Two

I don't know why I don't update much in the summer. I think it's a combination of good weather, family time, work and poker. I sometimes will sit with the intention of, but then get distracted by things, such as right now when RustyBrooks sends me an AIM message. But tonight I'm updating and will not be deterred.

So my last post was a test intro(which I removed) for my entry into the Insomniac contest put on by DeucesCracked, which was to basically draw up plans for an 8 episode video series and produce a pilot episode, all within 24 hours. I made a PL/NLO8 series called In a Nutshell and my submission won! It was released as a regular DC video, which can be found here: http://www.deucescracked.com/videos/1006-INSOMNIA-training-video-festival-Winner-1
I received some DC gear, a sweatshirt, a couple more shirts and a DeucesCracked rubber ducky. I also was informed that a full series will be produced and I'm to talk to Krantz about it some time this month. He also invited me for a few hours of coaching and cameo on Two Months Two Million if i could make it to Vegas. Unfortunately it was such short notice and I had something that had to be done, I couldn't make it. Hopefully a rain check comes of it.

I've played hardly any O8 in the past few weeks, I've been mostly focusing on the new 7 game mix at Full Tilt and that's been generally going well. Was a little tilted yesterday and managed to still break even. I find that I almost always have an edge in 5 of the 7 games, sometimes 6 and a few times I think every game. This hand did bug me a bit, primarily the river and what the best line realistically is. Villain was a bit more laggy, but iirc was tilted a little bit.

Full Tilt Poker Game #14123790554: Table Zero (deep) - $0.50/$1 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 0:05:41 ET - 2009/08/19
Seat 1: art nahc ($207.85)
Seat 2: hishga ($57)
Seat 3: DoctorSuckout ($169.20)
Seat 4: The HomeTeam ($153.50)
Seat 5: Zophar ($170.25)
Seat 6: sjralph21 ($198.50)
Seat 7: YoungStallion17 ($118.60)
Seat 8: OtisDart ($179.90)
YoungStallion17 posts the small blind of $0.50
OtisDart posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Zophar [Ks 6c 7d Kc]
hishga folds
DoctorSuckout folds
The HomeTeam folds
Zophar raises to $3.50
sjralph21 calls $3.50
YoungStallion17 folds
OtisDart calls $2.50
*** FLOP *** [5d Ac 7c]
OtisDart checks
Zophar bets $8
sjralph21 calls $8
OtisDart folds
*** TURN *** [5d Ac 7c] [Kd]
Zophar bets $23
sjralph21 calls $23
*** RIVER *** [5d Ac 7c Kd] [Th]
Zophar bets $43
sjralph21 raises to $164, and is all in
Zophar calls $92.75, and is all in
Uncalled bet of $28.25 returned to sjralph21
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sjralph21 shows [Ts 9d 6s 3s] a pair of Tens
Zophar shows [Ks 6c 7d Kc] three of a kind, Kings
Zophar wins the pot ($341.50) with three of a kind, Kings
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $344.50 | Rake $3
Board: [5d Ac 7c Kd Th]
Seat 1: art nahc is sitting out
Seat 2: hishga didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: DoctorSuckout didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: The HomeTeam didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: Zophar showed [Ks 6c 7d Kc] and won ($341.50) with three of a kind, Kings
Seat 6: sjralph21 (button) showed [Ts 9d 6s 3s] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 7: YoungStallion17 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 8: OtisDart (big blind) folded on the Flop

I don't know if check/call is better than bet/call or bet/fold.

Last thing for now, I'll hopefully get to some interesting hh's from 7 game, is TilterRick set up 2 daily forum gatherings on Sunday, both HORSE and said if anyone wins boths they get a buyin into the FTOPS Main Event that evening. Well, I had to go ahead and do that, but of course the second one ended about an hour after the ME started,lol. So thanks to Rick for making the offer and shipping. I might play a bigger buyin MTT, definitely going to stake some more people, we'll see what else.

I'm off for now, as usual I'll try to keep up with this a bit more, but we'll see.

an intro

just an intro I made tonight for a deucescracked series contest.

Before and After

Last year I posted a pic of a chest of drawers I bought to restore. Recently someone asked if I ever finished it, which I did, so here's a before and after photo.

Before:


I cleaned it down, made about 3' of the inlay that surrounds the drawers to replace where it was missing, polished it and added new hardware. It dates from about 1805. The photo isn't the most realistic, as the flash made it a little more orange than it is in natural light.

After:

This guy is sick

Been primarily playing PLO over the past several weeks and had been running alright until Tuesday where I had a -10bi day, which really sucked. I ran like absolute crap, but also compounded it by not making adjusting to the table dynamics. There were several 80/10's and 90/20's at every table and I approached them completely wrong. I've noticed that during the day, the tables are heavily populated with this type of player, consisting of mostly Scandanavians and other Euro's. While at night, the player pool is a bit tighter, mostly US players. Because of this, the optimal style of play changes. Unfortunately, I didn't make these adjustemtns quick enough. I think if I had, my downswing would have been nearly cut in half.

At night, pots are often HU or 3 handed which allows for a higher PFR, higher c-bet %, semibluffing and increased fold equity. A little more balance is necessary, like checking back made hands, FD's etc. and post flop aggression will generally be successful.
Where during the day, very few hands are HU and 4 handed+ is very common. Because of this, hands that typically have a lot of equity PF like AAXX, KKXX, QQBX, don't play nearly as well, so should not be played as fast. Of course there will be some exceptions, like the premiums(AAJTds, KKQTds, etc). Most of the general AA/KKXX hands have just a little lower equity multiway, but are often much harder to play. Unless I can get a large % of my stack in PF, I'm limping the majority. Most of the hands that make up my PFR% in this setting are mid to premium rundowns, hands like 6789ss/ds-TJQKss/ds, etc., because they are much easier to play and have great equity multiway, while often having redraws so you can play for stacks more comfortably. If I limp KKXX and flop a set, I'm going to get action, so balance isn't as critical. Granted some post-flop adjustments have to be made, because of position and board texture(like playing bare KKxx on a K56 twotone flop maybe a little slower), but generally it's a fit or fold situation so it's easy to play. There's little PF raising, so limping is pretty reasonable.

Kept getting interrupeted while typing that last part, so it may be a little less coherent than planned. Sorry. Saw a pretty good movie last night called Talk To Me, about D.C. radio DJ Petey Greene who was influential during the 60's and 70's, starring Don Cheadle. I don't think Don Cheadle has ever done a bad job in any movie, the guy is so underrated. It had a really great soundtrack as well. Had a few songs I hadn't heard in years. Here's one to enjoy:

Made a Vid

So I was messing around with CamStudio last week and spur of the moment decided to make a $50PLO8 6 max video. I had no real plan going in, as it was more of a test run, so it ended up being an off the cuff "ghost" video. It about 45 minutes long or so and I think it came out alright for my first attempt. It's basically me describing how I play, a bit about my thoughts on PLO8 at $50 and in general. There certainly may be things others disagree with, correctly or not, but I'm always interested in feedback, which I may agree with or may not.

*To clarify, this is not a Deucescracked video, just a video I made that is hosted by DC's servers
.
The link is uploaded through the Deucescracked forums and is free to download. The link is here: MY 1st PLO8 video Once you open the link, just right click and save the file. I had trouble watching it with Windows Media Player, but it worked basically fine for me(1 sec delay) using the VLC Media player which can be downloaded for free here: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ It's an AVI file, so whatever you have that reads those files should be fine. Again, any feedback is welcome, either on the DC or here.

I've been playing mostly PLO over the past week and I think I've started to actually grasp some important concepts and even more importantly been able to utilize them consistently. I hope to post some hands soon. Cya.

More sights and sounds

Haven't been playing much the past week as I'm just frustrated with poker. At least on Full Tilt where I've been running incredibly bad. All the 55/45's+ that are big allins, I've been losing. All the 55/45's+ that I've won have been of no consequence, like 3-5 blinds or some crap like that. Sigh. It's very demoralizing. So I've been focusing on other stuff like finding great beats on youtube, reading a bit, etc.



I may be a nerd, but I am so looking forward to this. I rarely go to the movies as there's little that I really look forward to, but I think this is going to be so awesome.

Even More

The Pot Limit Omaha Book

When I was first approached to take part in a pre-release review and discussion of Tri "SlowHabit" Nguyen's upcoming eBook, The Pot-Limit Omaha Book: Transitioning From NLHE To PLO, I was pretty psyched. I'd followed the discussion about the NLHE book he wrote, co-authored by Cole "CTS" South, and the reviews of it were of high praise.
To be honest though, I didn't set the bar too high for this book before reading. The reason being is I've always been a little disappointed when I do. Most books end up just rehashing basic concepts, with little new content, so I end up taking very little from them. I can say with all honesty, this book goes above and beyond. Because there are so few PLO books, it's hard to compare this to anything. What I can say is The Pot Limit Omaha Book seems to start off where all others end.

The Pot-Limit Omaha Book: Transitioning From NLHE To PLO
by Tri "SlowHabit" Nguyen

To start off, there is basically no fluff in this book. It is 75 pages of pure content about how to play this high variance game and how to play it well. After a brief introduction, Tri gets right down to business in Chapter 2: Pre-Flop Play. In all honesty, this is the only section where you may be familiar with most of the content discussed, in some way or another. It's inevitable as pre-flop play only has so much that can be discussed that is original. But also notice that I said most, not all, because Tri managed to provide ideas that you won't see anywhere else as well expanding on previously discussed topics. When I got through the section on Calling 4-Bets, where he shows you how to calculate preflop equities necessary for proper post flop play(as I mentioned in a previous post), I knew that this book was different. I've never seen any aspect of this discussed and additionaly conveyed so it's easily understood through a series of graphs, useful equation templates and hand history examples. I was really looking forward to what was to come. SlowHabit finishes off the chapter with some great discussion of big cards and aces.

Chapters 3, 4 and 5 start to delve into a variety of aspects that are critical to successful PLO play. He starts Chapter 3: Key Concepts
by focusing on position. As it's pretty well known that position is important in just about every poker game, Tri enumerates how significant it really is in PLO by breaking down the different ways it can be utilized. He goes on to cover several other key concepts including bet-protection, value betting and bluffing, slow-playing and freerolling, as well as touching on realizing player tendencies and how to adjust your play accordingly. Chapters 4 and 5, Common Mistakes and Common Situations, go hand in hand. He touches on a variety of aspects including playing from the blinds, trouble hands and delves even further into understanding and taking advantage of +EV situations. Again in this section, there are concepts you may already familiar with. However, there are several that aren't often discussed and SlowHabit does a great job of breaking them all down so that they're easily understood and most importantly, easily adapted to your in game play.

At this point the book is half way over. My feelings about it were all positive, I felt like I was learning something new, but I still was wanting more. I had to put it on hold for a couple of days when some business matters popped up and during that time, I was reflecting on what I'd read. It was some great content, but I wasn't completely sure how significant is was going to be to actually improving my play. Learning new things and being able to utilize them are two different things. I then finished the book. While in the process I realized I had judged the information I'd absorbed too soon. It was all a lead in to be utilized with Chapters 5: Flop Play, 6: Turn Play and 7: River Play. I have one word to describe these 3 sections: RIDICULOUS. As in jaw-dropping ridiculous. As in WTF ridiculous. As in, I've never seen any of this discussed ridiculous. I'm not easily impressed, saying I was impressed here would be an understatement.

Tri starts Chapter 5 by discussing ranges and understanding your equity versus such ranges. Because you have 2 more cards than PLO, an opponents range in theory is much broader. Tri, through a variety of ways, enables you to break down and mimimize these ranges, allowing you to quickly understand where you stand. He breaks down flop texture and the relevancy of back door draws and blockers. He discusses c-betting, check-raising, and bluffing, while focusing through specific hand history examples on how and when to utilize these actions properly. While no play is set in stone, Tri provides the information needed to help you hopefully make the correct decisions. His equity examples are a great tool as well. They really pound home the concept.

Chapters 6 and 7 really compliment Chapter 5 and in some ways expand on ideas presented in Chapter 5. Chapter 7, because there are no more cards to come, is the shorter of the two. It primarily focuses on value betting, when and why, and bluffing. It's pretty straightforward stuff, but extremely important as this is where the bets are biggest and you may be stacking off. Chapter 6 on the other hand is much more in depth obviously and is filled with incredible content that WILL improve your game. Tri touches on a variety of aspects revolving around turn play, from bet-folding, fold equity and bluffing to marginal made hands and scare cards. The most interesting area I found was the discussion of Donk Betting and how to utilize it for value or as a semi-bluff/bluff. It is incredibly informative. Chapters 5-7 I feel are some of the most comprehensive discussions on post flop play ever put in print.

When I was finished with
The Pot-Limit Omaha Book: Transitioning From NLHE To PLO I felt like I'd just completed a solid coaching session, which I've never experienced with any type of poker book. Through his abilities to convey his thinking, utilization of hand histories and mathematical equations and overall understanding of PLO, Tri Nguyen has produced a PLO tool like no other. He helps you formulate a plan, preflop to the river, that enables you to have confidence that you'll be able to tackle any situation presented. I'd go so far to say if your game doesn't improve after reading this, you should quit. For a small to mid stakes player, this book will become a must. The only downside is the games are probably going to become a bit tougher, I'm glad I'm getting in now before it's too late.

I wanted to test my newfound knowledge with some actual play to see how if it really helped. Well, I've never felt as comfortable playing PLO, with virtually no instance where I felt overwhelmed and unsure. Thanks, Tri.

For more information, visit http://dailyvariance.com.

More Sounds

Couple of things in the works

Had alot going on the past few days between work, family, and poker. Went on a nasty little downswing that I compounded a bit with tilt/bad play. I've found how my TILT manifests itself, but unfortunately it isn't always evident when I'm experiencing it. Only after I've pulled back and relaxed do I have the clarity to see it. It comes down to....marginal spots. When I'm playing well, I play marginal hands and marginal spots correctly(debatable?). When I'm on tilt, I play these poorly and put myself in the position where I'm playing in them frequently. And when playing a game that is filled with marginal spots, it can become a serious, I.E. costly, problem. As a basic example, I end up valuing, thus playing, hands like AJ73ss the same as I would A246ds. See the difference?

I've had a few exciting developments involving poker in the past few days as well, one which is still tentative, so I won't get into it yet. The other, I can discuss and will be discussing further in the next couple of days.

The Pot Limit Omaha Book
What I can discuss. I was contacted by SlowHabit, a highly regarded mid and high stakes pro most recently known for Let There Be Range, the venerated eBook he wrote with Cole "CTS" South, and given the opportunity to participate in a pre-release review and discussion of his next eBook. The subject matter? PLO. I was psyched to say the least. I'm not done with it yet, and plan on doing a full review of it in a few days, but at this time, to say it's good, would be an understatement.

I was reading for a bit and then it hit me. I realized that I was actually learning something new. It was early on, in Chapter 2: Pre-Flop Play, in a discussion regarding equity and calling 4 bets. The author, through different equity calculations and graphs, shows a proper way to determine post flop EV versus a likely flop shove and how you should use this in your pre flop decision making. This is a theory that I have never seen discussed, let alone articulated, anywhere. And again, this is just in Chapter 2. Oh, Chapter 1 is the introduction.

Time to go. It's thundering, lightening, raining and hailing outside so if I lose power I want to make sure my laptop has plenty of juice.

The line

Today

Full Tilt Poker Game #11314510595: Table Chip Jett - $8/$16 Ante $1.50 - Limit Stud H/L - 19:09:46 ET - 2009/03/24
Seat 1: tvmikey1 ($167.50)
Seat 3: Esther Rossi ($534)
Seat 5: kw2370 ($74)
Seat 6: 10731 ($314)
Seat 7: Zophar ($326)
Seat 8: clowne22 ($261.50)
Zophar antes $1.50
10731 antes $1.50
tvmikey1 antes $1.50
clowne22 antes $1.50
kw2370 antes $1.50
Esther Rossi antes $1.50
*** 3RD STREET ***
Dealt to tvmikey1 [5h]
Dealt to Esther Rossi [2h]
Dealt to kw2370 [As]
Dealt to 10731 [Ts]
Dealt to Zophar [4d 8c] [5d]
Dealt to clowne22 [3d]
Esther Rossi is low with [2h]
Esther Rossi brings in for $2
kw2370 folds
10731 folds
Zophar completes it to $8
clowne22 calls $8
tvmikey1 raises to $16
Esther Rossi calls $14
Zophar calls $8
clowne22 calls $8
*** 4TH STREET ***
Dealt to tvmikey1 [5h] [8s]
Dealt to Esther Rossi [2h] [2s]
Dealt to Zophar [4d 8c 5d] [3s]
Dealt to clowne22 [3d] [3c]
clowne22 bets $8
tvmikey1 raises to $16
Esther Rossi folds
Zophar calls $16
clowne22 calls $8
*** 5TH STREET ***
Dealt to tvmikey1 [5h 8s] [Qs]
Dealt to Zophar [4d 8c 5d 3s] [6s]
Dealt to clowne22 [3d 3c] [7d]
clowne22 checks
tvmikey1 checks
Zophar bets $16
clowne22 calls $16
tvmikey1 calls $16
*** 6TH STREET ***
Dealt to tvmikey1 [5h 8s Qs] [7h]
Dealt to Zophar [4d 8c 5d 3s 6s] [2d]
Dealt to clowne22 [3d 3c 7d] [Th]
clowne22 checks
tvmikey1 checks
Zophar bets $16
clowne22 calls $16
tvmikey1 calls $16
*** 7TH STREET ***
Dealt to Zophar [4d 8c 5d 3s 6s 2d] [6d]
clowne22 checks
tvmikey1 checks
Zophar bets $16
clowne22 raises to $32
tvmikey1 folds
Zophar raises to $48
clowne22 calls $16
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Zophar shows [8c 6d 5d 3s 6s 2d 4d] a straight, Six high, for high and 6,5,4,3,2, for low
clowne22 mucks
Zophar wins the high pot ($155) with a straight, Six high
Zophar wins the low pot ($155) with 6,5,4,3,2
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $313 | Rake $3
Seat 1: tvmikey1 folded on 7th St.
Seat 3: Esther Rossi folded on 4th St.
Seat 5: kw2370 folded on 3rd St.
Seat 6: 10731 folded on 3rd St.
Seat 7: Zophar showed [8c 6d 5d 3s 6s 2d 4d] and won ($310) with HI: a straight, Six high; LO: 6,5,4,3,2
Seat 8: clowne22 mucked [Ac 4h 3d 3c 7d Th 4c] - HI: two pair, Fours and Threes

Home game fun, aka live poker is rigged

About every month and a half or so we have a home game where we play a couple of $20, 9 or 10 man S&G's. Occasionally we play cash, dealers choice, but not this past friday night. It was the usual crowd of 9, a couple of droolers, a few semi-competent players that don't understand beyond A of ABC, a couple of gamblers and me.

Things started out fine, picked up a couple of pots w/position raises preflop and chipped up from my starting stack of 4500 up to 5500. Blinds had moved up to 100/200, UTG and UTG +1 limp, and I pick up KcKd in the CO. I make it 900. SB comes over the top for 3700 total, it folds around to me and I snap call. SB shows 2h 2c. Sweet, I think to myself. Flop comes Qs Jd 3d. Turn 7d. I say, "he has one card, the 2d makes the flush". River 2s. WTF!? Sigh. I count my measly chips, trying to avoid tilting, fold the next hand and go for a smoke.
I came back in, somewhat cooled down and got back to it. A couple of hands later I overshoved a couple of limpers w/suited connectors, I figure I have pretty good equity and I was chipping up almost 4 to 1, and end up getting called by QJo. Flop was paired, no draws, turn another blank, river I hit an 8 and I'm right back in it. Over the next hour I crushed souls and took it down. One point during HU, I was about a 10 to 1 dog after a big all in, not even enough to cover the BB. I won every hand after that. The following tourney went on to crush again.

Overall, I was really happy with my play. I was comfortable and confident and I feel like I really made some good decisions. I'd like to play more live. Between comments and actions, many people pretty much play their hands face up.

Hakuna Matata, bitchez

FullTiltPoker Game #11283497250: Table Neurath (edu) - $1/$2 - Pot Limit Omaha H/L - 22:51:06 ET - 2009/03/22
Seat 1: UFPokerAce ($144.50)
Seat 2: patek17 ($317.95)
Seat 3: Zophar ($206.15)
Seat 4: blu man grp ($81.50)
Seat 5: wildting ($35)
Seat 6: moneytoburn1 ($266.20)
Seat 7: ontario_j ($249.85)
Seat 8: june32 ($77.55)
Seat 9: clown god ($202.90)
UFPokerAce posts the small blind of $1
patek17 posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Zophar [Ah Td 2h Ad]
Zophar has 15 seconds left to act
Zophar calls $2
blu man grp folds
wildting folds
moneytoburn1 folds
blu man grp adds $6.45
ontario_j folds
june32 folds
clown god folds
UFPokerAce folds
patek17 raises to $7
Zophar raises to $22
patek17 raises to $67
Zophar raises to $202
patek17 raises to $317.95, and is all in
Zophar calls $4.15, and is all in
patek17 shows [Ac As 3d 2d]
Zophar shows [Ah Td 2h Ad]
Uncalled bet of $111.80 returned to patek17
*** FLOP *** [6d 8s Kd]
*** TURN *** [6d 8s Kd] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [6d 8s Kd Jc] [Qs]
patek17 shows a pair of Aces, for high
Zophar shows a straight, Ace high, for high
Zophar wins the pot ($410.30) with a straight, Ace high
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $413.30 | Rake $3
Board: [6d 8s Kd Jc Qs]
Seat 1: UFPokerAce (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: patek17 (big blind) showed [Ac As 3d 2d] and lost with HI: a pair of Aces
Seat 3: Zophar showed [Ah Td 2h Ad] and won ($410.30) with HI: a straight, Ace high
Seat 4: blu man grp didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: wildting didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: moneytoburn1 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: ontario_j didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: june32 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: clown god (button) didn't bet (folded)

FullTiltPoker Game #11229079616: Table Zi (edu, 6 max) - $0.50/$1 - Pot Limit Omaha H/L - 21:01:06 ET - 2009/03/19
Seat 1: rummyman ($119.45)
Seat 2: Zophar ($100)
Seat 3: Captain N Coke1 ($54.40)
Seat 4: Mister Bacio ($50.20)
Seat 5: smoknprofits ($64.60)
Seat 6: shepdog1957 ($75.65)
smoknprofits posts the small blind of $0.50
shepdog1957 posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Zophar [6s Ah 3c 4d]
rummyman folds
Zophar raises to $2.25
Captain N Coke1 folds
Mister Bacio calls $2.25
smoknprofits folds
shepdog1957 calls $1.25
*** FLOP *** [As 5d Ac]
shepdog1957 has 15 seconds left to act
shepdog1957 bets $7.25
Zophar calls $7.25
Mister Bacio folds
*** TURN *** [As 5d Ac] [8c]
shepdog1957 checks
Zophar has 15 seconds left to act
Zophar bets $17.85
shepdog1957 calls $17.85
*** RIVER *** [As 5d Ac 8c] [3h]
shepdog1957 checks
Zophar bets $57.45
shepdog1957 calls $48.30, and is all in
Uncalled bet of $9.15 returned to Zophar
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Zophar shows [6s Ah 3c 4d] a full house, Aces full of Threes, for high and 6,5,4,3,A, for low
shepdog1957 mucks
Zophar wins the high pot ($75.55) with a full house, Aces full of Threes
Zophar wins the low pot ($75.50) with 6,5,4,3,A
shepdog1957 is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $154.05 | Rake $3
Board: [As 5d Ac 8c 3h]
Seat 1: rummyman didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Zophar showed [6s Ah 3c 4d] and won ($151.05) with HI: a full house, Aces full of Threes; LO: 6,5,4,3,A
Seat 3: Captain N Coke1 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Mister Bacio (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: smoknprofits (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: shepdog1957 (big blind) mucked [Ad Th Kh 7d] - HI: three of a kind, Aces; LO: 8,7,5,3,A

Big bet O8 is fun

I wish it was always this easy. Stacking off for only a chance at half.
FullTiltPoker Game #11125950233: Table Twin Lakes - $0.50/$1 - Pot Limit Omaha H/L - 22:15:16 ET - 2009/03/13
Seat 1: ray918273 ($109.35)
Seat 2: BogeyGolfer ($30.05)
Seat 3: TheRipcurl ($96.70)
Seat 4: chiseler1 ($39)
Seat 5: Agran05 ($61.50)
Seat 6: oupaintball9 ($57.35)
Seat 7: TheMatrix5 ($75.80)
Seat 8: 1stock1 ($158.55)
Seat 9: Zophar ($108.15)
ray918273 posts the small blind of $0.50
BogeyGolfer posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Zophar [8c Ac 4h 9h]
TheRipcurl folds
chiseler1 folds
Agran05 folds
oupaintball9 folds
TheMatrix5 calls $1
1stock1 calls $1
Zophar calls $1
ray918273 calls $0.50
BogeyGolfer checks
*** FLOP *** [5s 3h 2c]
oupaintball9 stands up
ray918273 checks
BogeyGolfer checks
TheMatrix5 checks
1stock1 bets $5
Zophar has 15 seconds left to act
Zophar raises to $20
ray918273 folds
BogeyGolfer folds
TheMatrix5 folds
Ronjohn adds $30
1stock1 has 15 seconds left to act
1stock1 raises to $35
Zophar raises to $107.15, and is all in
1stock1 calls $72.15
Zophar shows [8c Ac 4h 9h]
1stock1 shows [2h 6s Js 2d]
*** TURN *** [5s 3h 2c] [Qs]
*** RIVER *** [5s 3h 2c Qs] [Tc]
Zophar shows a straight, Five high, for high and 5,4,3,2,A, for low
1stock1 shows three of a kind, Twos, for high
Zophar wins the high pot ($108.15) with a straight, Five high
Zophar wins the low pot ($108.15) with 5,4,3,2,A
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $219.30 | Rake $3
Board: [5s 3h 2c Qs Tc]
Seat 1: ray918273 (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: BogeyGolfer (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: TheRipcurl didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: chiseler1 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: Agran05 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: oupaintball9 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: TheMatrix5 folded on the Flop
Seat 8: 1stock1 showed [2h 6s Js 2d] and lost with HI: three of a kind, Twos
Seat 9: Zophar (button) showed [8c Ac 4h 9h] and won ($216.30) with HI: a straight, Five high; LO: 5,4,3,2,A

I made a couple of mistakes in this hand. I don't have a problem with the min 3bet so much, as most non aces won't 4bet. What I don't like is I didn't have a plan for a 4bet and just flatted, I probably should have just gotten it in then. There are alot of flops I can't call on even though I still have the equity. This flop fell real nice, epecially if he has aces.

FullTiltPoker Game #11170860316: Table Tulane (6 max) - $1/$2 - Pot Limit Omaha H/L - 12:51:20 ET - 2009/03/16
Seat 1: Zophar ($248.50)
Seat 2: HEDOYMOK ($244.65)
Seat 3: Spicoli19 ($33.05)
Seat 4: THANKS_4_CASH ($152.60)
Seat 5: LeeFrankel ($132.50)
Seat 6: stockticker33 ($241)
stockticker33 posts the small blind of $1
Zophar posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Zophar [8c Ac 2d 6s]
HEDOYMOK folds
Spicoli19 folds
THANKS_4_CASH folds
LeeFrankel folds
stockticker33 calls $1
Zophar raises to $6
stockticker33 raises to $10
Zophar raises to $20
stockticker33 raises to $60
Zophar calls $40
*** FLOP *** [8d 2s 4c]
stockticker33 bets $120
Zophar raises to $188.50, and is all in
stockticker33 calls $61, and is all in
Zophar shows [8c Ac 2d 6s]
stockticker33 shows [5s 9s 6d Jd]
Uncalled bet of $7.50 returned to Zophar
*** TURN *** [8d 2s 4c] [9c]
*** RIVER *** [8d 2s 4c 9c] [Ts]
Zophar shows two pair, Eights and Twos, for high and 8,6,4,2,A, for low
stockticker33 shows a pair of Nines, for high and 8,6,5,4,2, for low
Zophar wins the high pot ($239.50) with two pair, Eights and Twos
Zophar wins the low pot ($239.50) with 8,6,4,2,A
stockticker33 is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $482 | Rake $3
Board: [8d 2s 4c 9c Ts]
Seat 1: Zophar (big blind) showed [8c Ac 2d 6s] and won ($479) with HI: two pair, Eights and Twos; LO: 8,6,4,2,A
Seat 2: HEDOYMOK didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Spicoli19 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: THANKS_4_CASH didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: LeeFrankel (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: stockticker33 (small blind) showed [5s 9s 6d Jd] and lost with HI: a pair of Nines; LO: 8,6,5,4,2

Weee

FullTiltPoker Game #11170707232: Table Tulane (6 max) - $1/$2 - Pot Limit Omaha H/L - 12:37:58 ET - 2009/03/16
Seat 1: Zophar ($182)
Seat 2: HEDOYMOK ($249.10)
Seat 3: Spicoli19 ($198.50)
Seat 4: THANKS_4_CASH ($153.90)
Seat 5: LeeFrankel ($83.75)
Seat 6: stockticker33 ($207.40)
THANKS_4_CASH posts the small blind of $1
LeeFrankel posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Zophar [Qs Ad 2c Tc]
stockticker33 calls $2
Zophar calls $2
HEDOYMOK folds
Spicoli19 raises to $11
THANKS_4_CASH folds
LeeFrankel has 15 seconds left to act
LeeFrankel folds
stockticker33 calls $9
Zophar has 15 seconds left to act
Zophar calls $9
*** FLOP *** [7s 9h 5d]
stockticker33 checks
Zophar checks
Spicoli19 has 15 seconds left to act
Spicoli19 bets $18
stockticker33 calls $18
Zophar has 15 seconds left to act
Zophar calls $18
*** TURN *** [7s 9h 5d] [Jh]
stockticker33 checks
Zophar has 15 seconds left to act
Zophar bets $78
Spicoli19 has 15 seconds left to act
Spicoli19 has requested TIME
Spicoli19 folds
stockticker33 folds
Uncalled bet of $78 returned to Zophar
Zophar mucks
Zophar wins the pot ($87)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $90 | Rake $3
Board: [7s 9h 5d Jh]
Seat 1: Zophar collected ($87), mucked
Seat 2: HEDOYMOK didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Spicoli19 (button) folded on the Turn
Seat 4: THANKS_4_CASH (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: LeeFrankel (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: stockticker33 folded on the Turn

A BlueFirePoker Review

As I'd mentioned before, I was lucky enough to be chosen by Deucescracked to receive a free month membership for BlueFirePoker, the hot new training site headed by the infamous high stakes cash game player and WSOP Omaha bracelet winner Phil Galfond(aka OMGClayAiken). Several well known players like PBJaxx, Fees, Samoleus and others make up this brain trust of a poker training site. All I had to do to win this was blog a video review of a Deucescracked video, series or any other DC product. Then follow up with a similar review of BlueFirePoker.

Sounds easy? Yeah it sort of is and I don't understand why so few people have grabbed the opportunity. Regardless, here's my review of a specific video and my overall impression of the site.

RyanFee 4 Tables at 50NL
Produced by RyanFee aka Fees
Session review format of 4 Tables of $50NLHE on Full Tilt

I briefly want to begin by mentioning the several reasons why I chose this video. I'd heard a lot about Ryan Fee, his table skills and his teaching ability seemed highly regarded. I didn't want to do a Galfond review because I figured the majority would do so and this content pertained to me. Although I feel I learned a bit watching Phil play David Benyamine at RailHeaven, it's not something I'm going to be doing anytime soon, so it was as much entertainment as anything else.

For a non series video, this is one of the best I've seen for ssnl. The quality of content packed into the 55 minute segment is top notch, touching on concepts that seem to rarely be discussed. What's most memorable for me out of the whole video is his discussion of P.S.R, or Pot to Stack Ratio. He touches on the differences and importance of bet sizing in raised and reraised pots in such a way that it really sinks in through actual examples. The first time he c-bet 1/2 pot, I didn't quite understand why. By the last time, I did. There are also great insights offered into c-betting, range discussion weighed against board texture and semi-bluffing. Most ideas flow really well, transitioning from one concept to the next with little downtime. The actual quality of the production itself was up to par as well, good editing, sound, etc.

As for Ryan's actual teaching ability, I'd put him up there with Krantz, OMGClayAiken and WiltonTilt, who are among the best imo, for several reasons. He coherently expresses his reasoning in a way that makes the viewer feel as though he's part of a conversation. He obviously has a wealth of knowledge as is evident when unexpected actions occur, as can be the case with session reviews. Not many uhhhs. Another reason I put him up with the top makers is because he throws out bricks of knowledge. I think of bricks of knowledge as the foundation of a solid poker understanding. These bricks can vary or overlap from game to game, level to level, are often of critical importance, but can be easily overlooked or not thought of. One from Krantz that has always stuck with me regarding HU play, "Treat TP like the nuts until the villain gives you a reason not to". The brick I took from Fees- "At $50NL, just play ABC poker. Your hand is only face up if your opponents can read hands". Thanks for that comment Fees.

I look at signing up at a training site as more than just viewing videos, I look at it as an interactive experience between viewing, feedback and forum interaction, so I wanted to touch on my general opinion of the site. Unfortunately there are some negatives involved, but I do think they are easily remedied with time and some effort. Also, I'm the first to admit that I use DC as a measuring stick. Having such a great experience there so far, it's hard not to. Given that, DC also had to face a lot of these same issues.

I think the vids could use a little more production time. There really aren't intro's, so the action just sort of begins with little set up of whats to come(this is really just a personal preference) and some vids that I saw just seemed to end either quickly or suddenly. I like finality. No DRM, is a huge plus. The library is obviously small, although filled with great content, because of how new the site is. It does however seem to be growing fairly quickly. There's no "other games" content, strictly NLHE & PLO. A little more diversity would be a plus.
The activity in the forums is a tad slow. Granted it again has the newness problem, but when I see some video discussion threads not responded to by the maker, it leads me to believe that more time could be spent interacting by the coaches. Everyone has been extremely friendly from what I've seen, just some aren't so visible(although a couple seem to really make an effort). The aspect of interaction is a big draw to a training site and when just starting up I think it's more critical a time than ever to focus on it. All of the coaches are really the stimulus of any training forum.

Thankfully, these are all growing pains that are easily resolved over time. Even in the short time I've been there, I've noticed what seems to be an increase in forum activity. Overall, I think it's a quality site that's worth being on the ground floor of. I really see great things being produced here.

Bit of this, bit of that

I finally felt like playing some nlhe last night, so I sat at a couple of tables of 50nl and turned on HoldemManager. Moment later, there's an error. Dammit, wtf. I've never had an error with it, so of course I immediately check their forum and try to figure it out and fix it. I 3bet a couple of pots and was hardly paying attention to poker, as I was now consumed by fixing the problem. Soon it became to much to focus on the game, so I sat out so I could quickly resolve the HEM issue.

About 2 hours later, I think I completely screwed it up. I had partially installed applications, partially uninstalled applications, un-backed up HH files and no clue where I now was in the process. My night of nlhe was not meant to be.

Today I figured I'd try restoring my system to a previous date. I think it may have worked, but I still don't know as HEM is still not working. "Worked"= post screwed up HEM, pre-me screwing it up worse. I posted an error log in their forum. I said something about Vista using a leap second and HEM not. I hope that's the issue. Still waiting for response, hope it's soon.

DC had a fan link for facebook, so I signed up. It's pretty weird imo. It brings up all contacts from schooling, emails, etc and all these name appear that I know I somewhat remember, but don't. Then I see their pictures and I really don't recognize them. There are faces you recognize but their names don't ring a bell and people you remember like yesterday, but are virtually strangers. One in particular that I hung out with on a pretty much daily basis would be a stranger on the street today. It's also strange how some people age way faster than others. Now I'm forced to interact with some of them again. Weird. Off to check on HEM. Next post will likely be my BlueFirePoker video review.

Steve McQueen was such a badass

Steve McQueen really was the coolest. I first saw this documentary, On Any Sunday, about 15 years ago, it's from around 1969 or so and was made by Bruce Brown and produced by Steve McQueen. McQueen would race cars and motocross whenever he had a chance, right during the peak of his movie career. He has a good amount of moto-x footage in this.

It's mostly about this dude Malcom Smith, who was basically the best rider then, sooo much better than everyone else. idk, I love classic stuff like this.

Brag: WWCD

My Deucescracked series review posted below won me a free 1 month subscription to Bluefirepoker, Phil Galfond's new training site. WooHoo! I'm looking forward to it. The stipulation is that I review one of their videos/series as well, so keep your eyes peeled for that in the upcoming weeks.

Also, if you haven't done it, listen to the Tommy Angelo Podcasts on Deucescracked, they are ridiculously good. It is all about Tilt management and strategic planning, critical stuff for your poker game.

I tilted a bit

So I played some 10/20 Stud8 last night and tilt set in for a bit. I wasn't playing ideally to begin with, but hands like this didn't help. Probably should have check called 6th, but meh.

Full Tilt Poker Game #10934635686: Table Fromm (edu) - $10/$20 Ante $1.50 - Limit Stud H/L - 22:32:21 ET - 2009/03/02
Seat 1: Shalomentor ($199), is sitting out
Seat 2: leapin1 ($385.50)
Seat 3: xxJOBOBxx ($341.50)
Seat 4: golfextreme ($264.50)
Seat 5: reerob ($546.50)
Seat 6: digablemars ($258.50)
Seat 7: Zophar ($173)
Seat 8: SEAL98 ($367.50)
golfextreme antes $1.50
digablemars antes $1.50
xxJOBOBxx antes $1.50
leapin1 antes $1.50
Zophar antes $1.50
SEAL98 antes $1.50
reerob antes $1.50
*** 3RD STREET ***
Dealt to leapin1 [7c]
Dealt to xxJOBOBxx [Jc]
Dealt to golfextreme [Jd]
Dealt to reerob [6d]
Dealt to digablemars [Js]
Dealt to Zophar [Ad Jh] [As]
Dealt to SEAL98 [7s]
reerob is low with [6d]
reerob brings in for $3
digablemars folds
Zophar completes it to $10
SEAL98 calls $10
leapin1 folds
xxJOBOBxx folds
golfextreme calls $10
reerob calls $7
*** 4TH STREET ***
Dealt to golfextreme [Jd] [4s]
Dealt to reerob [6d] [Td]
Dealt to Zophar [Ad Jh As] [9d]
Dealt to SEAL98 [7s] [9c]
Zophar bets $10
SEAL98 calls $10
golfextreme calls $10
reerob calls $10
*** 5TH STREET ***
Dealt to golfextreme [Jd 4s] [5d]
Dealt to reerob [6d Td] [5s]
Dealt to Zophar [Ad Jh As 9d] [5h]
Dealt to SEAL98 [7s 9c] [Ks]
Zophar bets $20
SEAL98 folds
golfextreme calls $20
reerob folds
*** 6TH STREET ***
Dealt to golfextreme [Jd 4s 5d] [4c]
Dealt to Zophar [Ad Jh As 9d 5h] [Th]
golfextreme checks
Zophar bets $20
golfextreme raises to $40
Zophar calls $20
*** 7TH STREET ***
Dealt to Zophar [Ad Jh As 9d 5h Th] [3h]
golfextreme bets $20
Zophar calls $20
*** SHOW DOWN ***
golfextreme shows [Ac 6h Jd 4s 5d 4c 4h] three of a kind, Fours, for high
Zophar mucks
golfextreme wins the pot ($247.50) with three of a kind, Fours
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $250.50 | Rake $3

This sort of set me over the edge for a bit. I couldn't make a hand for the life of me, and when I did, it just wasn't good enough. 345s turned to junk. Aces up losing to 7th street trips. 6th street I have 8754Q2, made low + FD and gutshot vs 88 + a 6 low draw. Of course I catch a T and villain makes a 86low. So in total I dropped 40BB's. 10 or so were tilted, 30 were just bricks and outdraws. Running bad it seems like scoops and 1/2's always go against you, running good they are for you, very frusterating.

I've come to like Pokerstars

I've really come to like Pokerstars. It's so much softer than Full Tilt, where there are a lot more of these-


I used to dislike stars for some reason. I never was fond of the client and I had a great rakeback deal with Full Tilt(which held me back tbh), so I didn't bother playing there much, primarily only 5 card draw. After blowing my roll up there a while back, I didn't bother with it.

A few weeks back, I decided to try my own $0 to hero bankroll project. It was technically not zero though, I had 97 cents. I grinded a bit of micromicro PLO8 up to $2, then ran that up to about $150 in about a week playing 5 card draw(brag-I absolutely crush that game). I then moved back over to .10/.25 PLO8, picked up another 7/8 buyins and was able to short roll 2/4 stud8. Ran up about 30BB's and started playing the 8 game mix. I'm currently closing in on a $700 stars BR and been having a lot of fun doing it.

Fwiw, the 8 game mix is so incredibly soft it's ridiculous. Most players seem to only grasp 3-4 of the games at most, so if you are competent in all of them, you'll absolutely crush the game.

And to end it, a dose of Murray. For those unaware, he's on HBO's Flight of the Conchords, which is absolutely brilliant. This was my Obamican from the 2+2 thread. It's funny how many people seemed to like it. I got about a half dozen A+'s and several PM's about it.


It really is amazing how big the original image has become. I've been pretty familiar with Shepard Fairey since he started Andre the Giant has a posse years ago. My friend Jed(linked in sites and sounds) went to RISD with him and they did a lot of work together and I still have a ton of stickers and other stuff from that campaign. I think some of it's even pretty valuable now. I only met Shepard once when Jed took me down to Shepards warehouse studio, probably around '95 or so. We went to go skate a mini ramp that he had right in his workshop and hang out for the afternoon, it was a good day.

A deucescracked review

Real Life Micro NL-Grinder: Unlimited Texas Hold Them

As mostly an "Other Games" player, I spent little time playing NLHE in recent years, especially ring games, and really felt I had fallen way behind. At the end of spring 2008, my interest in re-learning NLHE had peaked. I had some familiarity with training sites from when Cardrunners premiered and was aware of Stoxpoker and another site called Deucescracked. I looked into CR initially, but it really seemed very expensive and I regularly heard conflicting reports about it, so the training sites went on the shelf. On 2+2, DC had a sub-forum for some time and one day I happened upon a free sample video. It was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen. I went to the site, saw that the cost was extremely reasonable, and immediately signed up for a 6 month membership. It was one of the best decisions I've made.

I knew I had many core problems with my NLHE play and wanted to approach my studies from the perspective of a beginner. So I started with the basics. Watched some great TubaSteve vids, Mathematics on Holdem by WiltonTilt and others. That's when I came across the incredible series, Real Life Micro NL-Grinder: Unlimited Texas Hold Them. Looking back, I'd say this series helped my fundamentals more than anything else of seen on DC(although there are several other's that are close behind) and this is my brief review of it:

Real Life Micro NL-Grinder: Unlimited Texas Hold Them
Featuring DC Executive Producer and Coach WiltonTilt along with Deucescracked member and Wilt's student, WhiteHeatSYD

It's described as "How do you mold a beginner into an expert? WiltOnTilt and DeucesCracked member WhiteHeatSYD delve into the heart of that question in Real Life: MicroNL Grinder. Bankroll management theory, starting hand selection and general strategy development coupled with live sweat and hand history review. And keep your eyes peeled for special guest coaches!", but really is so much more.

This series details virtually everything a beginning to experienced player needs to know to beat SSNL in a primarily live-play format. Most "lessons" are conveyed in such a way that they can quickly be incorporated successfully into your own game. And, as with all DC videos, anything that you may have a question about will be cordially responded to by the video makers in each videos follow up discussion thread.

Content wise, starting hands, villains ranges, board texture and how all relate to one another are covered. As is bet sizing, 3betting, 4 betting and the math behind it. A lot of time is focused on position, how to manipulate it, how hand strengths change depending on position, basically all the critical elements related to it. Also covered are the commonly used software tools and how to utilize them to analyze your own play, evaluate villain types, how to play vs. general villain types and determine ideal table selection. Most importantly, they really get into the "WHYS?!". The explanation of why to take any specific action is broken down so it's easier to implement into your own play.

Another nice aspect of the series are the personalities involved and their ability to interact and express ideas to one another. WiltonTilt is comfortable communicating his thoughts, with an obvious familiarity with the subject matter. He's also sympathetic to the trials facing WhiteHeat, an enthusiastic Australian small stakes player whose learning process is easily related to. Whether it be the jubilation felt after a great session or the misery of variance following a session filled with coolers and cold decks, you experience it right along Wilt and WhiteHeat. The concept of seeing others getting nailed by a bad beat and they brush it off makes your own TILT management that much easier.

I'd say that this is the most complete and concise series relating to 6 max SSNL available on Deucescracked and is not to be missed.

Old School already?

I came across some clips of some daily listening in '93/94. I haven't heard Casual in years. 93 til infinity still kills imo.

I'm so lazy

I'm really lazy. I hope to get unlazy and start blogging a bit more, primarily discussing HH's and the like, as it's theraputic and educational.

Some hands that made me happy:

Full Tilt Poker $5/$10 No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo - 4 players - [url=http://www.thehandconverter.com/hands/38202]View hand 38202[/url]
The Official [url=http://www.twoplustwo.com/]2+2[/url] Hand Converter [url=http://www.deucescracked.com/?referrer=converter_2p2]Powered By DeucesCracked.com[/url]

jjhouweling (BTN): $1136.00
nadremark (SB): $328.80
Hero (BB): $502.50
philtherabbi (CO): $235.95

Pre Flop: ($15.00) Hero is BB with Ah 4h 9c Ac
2 folds, nadremark raises to $30, Hero raises to $502.50 all in, nadremark calls $298.80 all in

Flop: ($657.60) Qh 3d Th

Turn: ($657.60) 5d

River: ($657.60) Qs

Final Pot: $657.60
nadremark shows 5c Jc 6s Ad (HI: two pair, Queens and Fives)
Hero shows Ah 4h 9c Ac (HI: two pair, Aces and Queens)

Hero wins $655.60
(Rake: $2.00)


FullTiltPoker Game #9982259843: Table Trout (deep 6) - $0.25/$0.50 - Pot Limit Omaha H/L - 13:51:32 ET - 2009/01/11
Seat 1: Evening Bobby ($49.55)
Seat 2: Boardmistress ($257.85)
Seat 3: dufong1 ($113.55)
Seat 4: Dgit ($63)
Seat 5: Zophar ($134.95)
Seat 6: usmc_grunt29 ($88.15)
Evening Bobby posts the small blind of $0.25
Boardmistress posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Zophar [2s 6h Qh As]
dufong1 folds
Dgit calls $0.50
Zophar raises to $2.25
usmc_grunt29 folds
Evening Bobby has 15 seconds left to act
Evening Bobby folds
Boardmistress calls $1.75
Dgit calls $1.75
*** FLOP *** [Qs Ah 4h]
Boardmistress checks
Dgit checks
Zophar bets $7
Boardmistress calls $7
Dgit has 15 seconds left to act
Dgit folds
*** TURN *** [Qs Ah 4h] [9s]
Boardmistress bets $21
Zophar raises to $84
Boardmistress calls $63
*** RIVER *** [Qs Ah 4h 9s] [Jc]
Boardmistress checks
Zophar bets $41.70, and is all in
Boardmistress calls $41.70
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Zophar shows [2s 6h Qh As] two pair, Aces and Queens, for high
Boardmistress mucks
Zophar wins the pot ($269.40) with two pair, Aces and Queens
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $272.40 | Rake $3
Board: [Qs Ah 4h 9s Jc]
Seat 1: Evening Bobby (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Boardmistress (big blind) mucked [Ac 3c Jd Ts] - HI: two pair, Aces and Jacks
Seat 3: dufong1 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Dgit folded on the Flop
Seat 5: Zophar showed [2s 6h Qh As] and won ($269.40) with HI: two pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 6: usmc_grunt29 (button) didn't bet (folded)