The hump part 2

Well, I've had two more chances this week to get over the hump at AJPoker. One game at Absolute, and the other in the league at Paradise.

Last night at Absolute, the deck was completely spitting at me. I could not catch a hand to save my life. So yeah, that one wasn't good.

However, tonight should've been my night. I was playing well, and catching at the same time.

One hand, I had been playing tight, so I decided to use my image in my advantage. I raise standard with Q3 suited in spades. I get 3 calls. Flop comes J86, two spades. One of the callers leads out with 400, and immediately I put him on a pair of jacks. So I decide to make his decision really, really difficult, and move all-in, thinking he'll fold, and if he calls, I have a 48% chance to catch the turn or river to scoop. He quickly calls with J7o, and I'm waiting for the spade or the queen to come to give me a win. Turn comes a spade, and the river a Seven, and I double up, and cripple him. Needless to say, I didn't mix it up after that hand on that table, because the chances of me getting called would've been high.

Unfortunately, I made a terrible error after the second break, when some stupid MIS moves all-in UTG. My first instinct was that he was a donk with Aces, but I'm holding AK, and convince myself into thinking he has a medium pair or AQ. I'm in this tournament to win it. Even though he has me covered, I have to take this chance and accumulate more chips to win this. So I call, and he turns up...ACES! Should've gone with A. I don't improve, and I'm out in 28th.

Well, after that, I head over to Stars and play a SNG. Been a while since I did that. Started out not doing too well, then as always, turned up the heat, and quickly got the chip lead. Unfortunately, I went into heads up at a 3:1 chip disadvantage, and got busted. Oh well, I took an extra $8 for my efforts. Which is more than what AJ's first place was tonight.

I still want an AJ win though.

Neteller Joys

Well, finally, on Monday, Neteller has been active.

I go to the SSA, and ask for (in a raspy voice, as I was deathly ill) a Third Party Verification form. Then I have to go through the lady at the desk saying, "Are you sure?" 150 times. After the 4th or so time of me saying yes, I'm pretty sure that means I'm sure. Well, she finally gives me something, and we head out.

Get to Kinko's and fax off the form, then head home to see if it's working.

Not working.

An hour later?

Not working.

So, I finally call Neteller again, and they needed a phone confirmation...why did they not tell me about this?! Oh well, it works now.

I just got my $84 from picking Mike Matusow for the WSOP Main Event...and got into HoldemPoker.com for their $5,000 Thanksgiving freeroll. Sweet!

Break the Silence...

I finally am hoping it's gone. Hopefully it is.

Anyway, here's the lowdown. Around my former local area, it was common knowledge that I wrote songs, a lot. I would write whenever I could and had to carry a notebook no matter where I went. You could actually see me in church: one moment, I'd be completely attentive to the goings on in whatever was happening during service, the next moment, you'd see me sitting down with my notebook writing. Also carried everywhere I went was a green binder with all my songs typed out. With my band practices, you never know when it would be needed.

So, I had written so much, and I loved it. And I was prophesied over that it was one of my greateset gifts, that I had been blessed with that talent. And I was proud of it. Maybe a little too proud.

In April of 2004, I wrote one of my last songs. I didn't make that conscious decision. Just all of a sudden, I couldn't think of anything to write. I would get ideas, and they'd just fall dead. Maybe it was my pride. Maybe it was that my head wasn't straight, or maybe even my heart. But something wasn't right.

I became worried. I fell deeply in depression, wondering why this gift had abandoned me.

Last night, I finally did something I hadn't done when feeling emotional in a long time. I wrote a song. It came back naturally, and it was one of the best feelings in the world. I'm hoping there's more to follow.

But all in all, I don't know what stopped it, but I know what restarted it. I guess it goes to show that there's a season for everything.

The hump

And no, I'm not talking about my lovely lady lumps. I don't even think I have those. *looks down shirt* NOPE!

Two weeks back, I was watching the Colts/Pats game on Mondy Night Football. The pregame talked about Manning's inability to get over the hump, the one obstacle that always plagued him. That was Tom Brady & the Pats. And they always say, once you get over that hump, it is no longer an obstacle, and you do much better.

Well, I'm at my hump. I've been at my hump for a long time, I just haven't realized it really.

I started playing private games at AJPoker in March. The first game I played in, I made it to the final table, and made it on the bubble to cash (5 cashed, I was 6th). The very next time I played at AJ, I made it to the final table again, and finished 8th, cashing on Absolute Poker.

Since then, I have made the final table 6 more times, and have yet to win it. I have cashed about 20 times on there. Yet, the one thing eluding me is to win a private game.

Well, tonight was the start of Season 5 of their league. I qualified for the finals 3 out of the 4 leagues (and the one league I didn't qualify for, I didn't play in). So, I'm going into this with almost a certainty that I will make it to the finals again.

So, I set up for Paradise, and I'm ready to play. I was dangling as a short stack for a while, then finally built up my chips to about 2600. Some move-in specialist moves in on me. I'm sitting on AQs in spades. There is 3 hands away before the break, and I figure, if I go out, I might as well go out before break, and save me some time. I also thought he had a middle pair, and I was going to be at a coinflip, so I call.

He turns up AQs in HEARTS. All I'm thinking is, "NOT ANOTHER SPLIT," as this was looking to be the 5th split I had seen at this table. Then the almost unthinkable happens: the flop brings two spades. Now I'm feeling teased, but the flirt delivered with a spade on the turn. Unreal, now I'm sitting in 8th with 30 something left.

I sat on that for a while, and made it to the final table. Jingo joined me. I think this goes to show that skill ends up paying out in the long run, as me and Jingo, as well as other regulars (sorry if I left you out), often make it to the top of the heat in these things. So, once again, I'm poised to post a win finally. One problem, I wound up getting chipped off, and getting shortstacked. So, on one hand, I make a move with K9 suited in spades. Two callers, and the flop comes ATx, two spades. Now I'm thinking I'm gonna triple up. Turn comes an Ace, but I'm still optomistic that if a spade or maybe even a king comes up, I triple up. But then I see the two callers get their money all-in. Now I'm out the door. Sure enough, one shows AT, and I'm out the door.

I cashed again. But, out of 9 final tables, and 21 cashes, I have yet to win a game here. Once again, I will state this. I'm at the hump. I'm trying not think about it, cause it's like quicksand. The more you try to fight it, the deeper in over your head you get. I know I'll get over this, I'm (and I hate to sound so cocky, but) too good not to get over this hump. I've won other places, so it's only a matter of time before I win an AJ game.

I have no idea what I'll do to celebrate it. Splooge, I guess.

Neteller Woes

Well, when I won my first freeroll online, I instantly wanted to cash it out, and put it at a better site. Well, to do that, I figured I'd have to have the verification call, since I had never deposited on Neteller. And, I was up here in Indianapolis; I had registered my phone # in Illinois. So I called Neteller to change my number before I transferred. "Well, we can't do that, just register a new account with your new address and phone number." Idiot. Doing that froze both accounts; I mean, I have two addresses, but I can't have two Social Security Numbers. So now, because of some idiot's mistake, I had to go to Anderson to have my Social Security Number verified.

Well, I was starting to tear up on the sites I had money on, and I didn't see the need to get it verified yet. Until I got involved in a player staking program, where they need Neteller to transfer my stake money to. Now's the time to do it, especially after they e-mail me saying if I don't get it verified, they're taking me off the list and sending my money elsewhere.

So I get over to Anderson yesterday, which took a brief miracle to find, and get up to the doors. CLOSED! Just 30 minutes before we got there!

So, we were going to go over there this morning, but I woke up sick, and didn't wanna go.

So hopefully, there will still be money for me Monday. Then I'll have it...hopefully.

Other than that rant, I've just been reading poker lit, trying to get my game higher. Super/System2 is finally being read. Loving it so far. Loved Negreanu's Triple Draw section. Maybe I might actually turn up a profit at UB next time. And then I just got halfway through reading Caro's tips. Amazing read. Most of this stuff is pretty obvious, just some of it hadn't been as obvious to me.

Regardless, I'm getting a lot out of it. Sadly, they cut Razz out of the book (looks like I'll be picking up SS1 sometime to read through that). But, more tips in Omaha, a lot of them I already known, but surely I can learn more from Berman. And perhaps I'll finish off the NLHE section later.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Bird Flu Hits Anaheim, CA

WATCH OUT!

Negreanu Open

Well...needless to say, I was pumped to play this one. I only got a few key hands, but played pretty solid through most of it.

Here comes critical pot #1: UTG raises (with the blinds 10/20) to 85. I re-raise 2 people away with to 250 with pocket queens, and UTG calls. Flop comes 6-T-2, two spades. UTG checked, and I bet 400, trying to knock him off what may be a draw. He delays, then RAISES 400 MORE! I jam my last 295 in, and he has to calls. He turns up...AK, both diamonds! Oh man, I coudln't be in a better position!. Two blanks doubles me up.

I get moved a couple times when I made a mistake...I think. With the Blinds 50/100, CO2 limps in. I raise on the button with K9s. Everyone folds back to CO2, who calls. Flop comes QJT, 2 hearts. He bets 300, and I raise 450 more. He then moves. At this point, if he's limping, I swear he doesn't got AK, so I call. Man, was I wrong. He turns up AK. And now I'm short stacked.

I end up jamming three times, with pocket 5s, all fold, A3s, all fold, and then get called with pocket 2s by EIGHT SIX OFF! WTF?! River comes a 6 and I'm out in 78th.

Now that just sucked. But it was a refreshing experience. I'll hopefully be back next week, to perform twice as good.

Preparing for the Poker Forum Challenge - Part 1

So, after Thursday night's total joke of a performance, I knew what it was time for. It was time for me to take a break from the tables, as it had become apparent to me that both:

A) I was not catching like I should.
B) I was playing like an absolute donk.

So, a little breather can only help. I spent my time on other endeavors. Part of it was poker-related. I installed WINE on my Linux desktop, trying to get my Poker clients up in Linux, so I wouldn't have to deal with Windows anymore. PokerStars & AP was a success, everything else failed. So I'm gonna have to either work on them, or shell out for VMWare.

My first venture back to the tables came Monday night, when Jake, his little brother Caleb, and I, played some hold'em...at stakes they could afford to lose...$0.15 buy-in tournaments.

The first game, I completely outplayed them. I have had so much shorthanded experience that it isn't funny. Granted, I'm not the best at it, but I feel my shorthanded NLHE game is incredible. There was probably one hand that first game that I sat out on, and spent my time completely outplaying them on the flop. Took Jake out first, and then I finally get the chance to take Caleb on heads up. Once again, dominating him on the flop, and letting himself dig holes for himself. I was playing so many different starting hands, that they had a hard time putting a read on me. Up $0.30

Second game, Jake took an early chip lead by taking Caleb out within 5 hands, leaving me heads up against him at a 3:1 chip disadvantage. I head him off for a long time, but used his chip lead very aggressively, and would come over the top of me after almost every post-flop raise I would make. At that point, I knew I was either going to have to catch a hand on the flop and try to get him to put his money in against me, or go big or go home pre-flop.

Eventually, I came almost to even money with him, but it was not enough. He continued to play the same strategy. After trying to bluff him out with a double gut buster on the flop, he called with two-pair. I improved on the turn with a flush draw, not to mention perhaps a pair to give me a shot for a higher two pair or a set. Unfortunately, nothing materialized, and he picked up the win.

I ended the night up a whopping $0.15. Yeah, book the cruise. But it was a good practice game. Gave me a little time to adjust to two different amateur styles of play, which I'm going to need come Dec. 3.

As you all should know, the fifth Poker Forum Challenge will be at Royal Vegas Poker on that day. It's time to start getting my focus on for this one. I slept through the first 3 levels in the first one I played with, and caught dry in the fourth one, and would like a little redemption this time around. It's gonna be tough with the bizarre structure of this tournament. Blinds double every 10 minutes. When it comes to about 60 away from the money, it becomes a short stack convention. Gonna have to practice a lot of different strategies quickly and get ready for this.

As a lot of you have read below, AJPoker.com had an altercation between TCPokerCommunity.com in the last PFC, and me more speicifically with a member of their forums named "JohnJr." I've laughed off this clown dodging me, but I still want redemption. I think the ones of us who was there all do. All in all, I'm waiting to see the seats, and actually hoping to get JohnJr at my table. If I can't earn his respect, I'll steal it from him with every chip I take from him.

Well, tomorrow night will be the Negreanu Open on Stars. I have been waiting for an opportunity to play this event, and finally get the chance to do it tonight. It wasn't for a lack of a bankroll on Stars, just a timing conflict on my part. I had registered several times, and had to unregister because something had come up. Not now. I'm ready for this. Can't wait to see my name at the top of the results. Plus, that $300+- dollars would look pretty shiny in my Stars account.

Until then, keep it real.

En memoria de Eddie Guerrero

1967-2005

Vaya con Dios, Eddie. Le veré en cielo. ¡Gracias por las memorias!

Between SBC & Linksys, there has to be a brain...

...somewhere, deep down inside, there just HAS to be!

Wow, what a frustrating evening. So I'm up here, and Jake has consistently had problems with his new wireless router. Every five hours, it loses internet connectivity. Weird, when I set up Alice's router, this never happened. Well, Linksys gave him the runaround, and he knows the minimal about this kind of stuff. So, I figured I'd give it a shot, especially after the third or so time today of resetting the Router.

So I check the properties on the Router, and kind of have a feeling what the problem is. His DNS's are blank on the router; that's a definite no-no with DSL. Same with the Domain. Ok, domain's a given: sbcglobal.net. But now, just to make sure, let's go to Linksys myself and talk to them, cause I know what to ask and how to ask it so I don't get taken for an idiot.

Well, after a short chat, they tell me: "We cannot help you any further. Please contact your Internet Service Provide for more assistance." AHA! So it IS the DNS! Well that's easy. Let's head over to SBC and ask for...WHAT?!

SBC tells me it's not their problem and to contact Linksys. Hey, too bad, already been there, you're gonna help me. "Well, if the DSL works without the router, then it's not our problem."

OF COURSE IT'S YOUR PROBLEM! YOU HAVE THE DNS INFO I NEED! WHAT?! AM I SUPPOSED BE A GREAT MAGICIAN AND MAKE MY OWN DNS?!

"We can help you set up your Router's DNS service. Here's the DNS info you need."

Ok, so, apparently, if I hadn't known what was missing from the router, hadn't known that it works perfectly still connected just with the DSL modem, and hadn't known what a DNS was, no one was gonna help me?!

I swear to God, Tech Supports are put there just to confuse people who aren't in the know. Any tech support guys reading this: come clean, are you paid to give the minimum? If so, just go to 1-800-SAFE-AUTO. Maybe you actually work there, do what you do, and HELP PEOPLE!

There's my rant for tonight. Gotta get up in the morning to call and remind Mom to drop off my bass, and my power supply for my computer with Carol so I can strum and get my Linux box working again.

Absolut Frustration

Is it just me, or does everyone automatically assume that the only way they can win now is with Stall?

Well, that's what it seems like.

Wednesday night, I get home to an offer to play an SS3 Afterburn game on apprentice. I load up my Edge Army deck and am prepared to play. HE pulls up The Rock.

2 hours later...I'm pulling my hair out wishing he'd just do something. He gets around my Strap with Vince, and gets around my ability and Old School Psychs with I can't Be Reading this right. About 70% of his turns consisted of him getting those back in his hand and nothing else. I didn't care who won, I was just glad it was over.

Today, I play an UF Afterburn game. I play my Gail & Molly deck versus Christy. Great, inferno match, and then he takes over an old school psych with the old switcheroo.

I had 40 F by the end of the game. He had EIGHT! And he was still beating me. Action, overturn one or two, and then shuffle in 3-5. oh for God sake! I play something, REVERSAL. And no matter what, if I had him down to 1 card in hand, I had no chains. If he had more than 3 cards in hand, I'd have one, and he'd have a reversal. It was annoying. On top of that, I lost my Bald to a Skirt, so I could YFH my ability to get something rolling. It was pathetic.

If someone starts going with another stall deck on me on apprentice this week...I'm gonna scream, and jump out the basement window.

I'm finally back

Well...it took me a while, but I'm back to posting on here. I finally did a long overdue overhaul of my blogs, and got rid of the generic template. I think this looks very very sexy.

Also, I finally started updating Josh In The Ghetto again! Of course, the update of that got hindered by me helping Caleb out with a comic for his science class. Of course, this involves Josh In The Ghetto characters. So we know who's to blame if it fails him.

So I'm back up in Indianapolis. Looks like to say. It's bittersweet. I miss my mom and my cats, but what can I do? I hate Southern Illinois. It's pathetic. And I'm nothing but depressed there.

At least here I feel like I'm doing something. So that helps.

I also just posted up all my blogs from Xanga up on this one. Why? I don't know. Just because I think it'll be easier to look at later than trying to remember all my old blog sites.

But yeah, that's about it. See you all later.

So I'm not the only idiot out there...

Just found this deck on TCO


Just a few months ago, I built Torrie Ask Yourself, with 10 Hello, Ladies. It was quite funny when my opponent realized what I was doing. He cried.

Randomness, YAY!

Well, I get up today and decide it's time to start flexing my muscles again. So I hit my sites and try to find out what's going down.

First site I pull up is PokerHost. They usually have some kind of Freeroll going, and I've been trying to get money there, so I decide to try to hit one. And as I'm looking through, I realize I'm in luck, as there is a 7-Card Stud Freeroll registering. At least I thought I was in luck.

I sat through 4 levels and didn't hit a single winning showdown. It was totally pathetic. I was playing great, but the cards were not there. I'd start out with a great hand, and never improve. Or I'd improve, and get drawn out on. I wound up pushing all-in with 3K3 and, again, didn't improve.

Next stop was Full Tilt Poker. Nothing really happening tournament wise, so I decide to play some .05/.10 PL Omaha. I would up getting stuck 4 bucks in that one within 15 minutes. Once again, I was getting good cards, but they simply were not holding up.

So I shimmy from there to the .25/.50 Razz table, where I'm a fixture. In the first half of my session, I caught no good cards. Then, I started catching great starting hands, and watched them dissolve into crap in no time flat. Or someone would catch the cooler on me. I was starting to get frustrated, and apparently, it was starting to show, as this next hand shows.

I'm holding A79 in third position. I like to throw people off, so I complete. I get one caller, with a 3 showing.

4th street brings me a 8, and him a 2. He bets, I call.

5th brings me a 6, and him a 5. He bets, and now I'm thinking. Does he really have it? Usually, I'm spot on here. And my gut tells me he's either go A4, or Ax hiding in the hole, and the x is probably paired up. But, he's got a lot of outs left to draw on, and I figure keeping this hand will cost me dearly. So I fold.

He shows...32325! OH MY GOD! If was frustrated before, I was sure as crap steaming now!!!! So, realizing that, I leave stuck $2.25.

An hour or so later, I jump to PokerTime, and find out their free $10 has cleared to my account finally. So I started look for an SNG to play. Wierd, I cannot find anything but SNGs already started. So, I decide I'll jump to a NL Hold'Em .05/.10 cash game.

Well, it was absolutely uneventful until 30 minutes in. I raise .30 in late position with AJo, and Button calls. Flop comes T98 rainbow. I bet .80 thinking I can take it down here, and he raises to 2.40. I'm sitting on about 7.70 at this point and he at 7.40. I'm thinking that he's on the draw too, semi-bluffing like me. So I push all-in and he calls.

Sure enough, he's drawing too, except he's got JTs. Oh great, so I'm dead to a 7, Q, or Ace. Turn comes the ace, and river a blank, I'm lucky, but I recoop what I lost earlier with the $10 Free and my double up there.

Then, my favorite poker league site, AJPoker, come to find out, is celebrating it's 1 year anniversary today, and as a gift to us all, Luke, the admin, stakes us all in the $5 Tony G at Pokerchamps. $640 Prize Pool with only 128 in. This should be a cakewalk...yeah, sure. I played HORRIBLE! So, I wound up out in the FIRST LEVEL.

30 minutes later, it's time for the Poker Whore-tel...errr...Poker Cartel tournament. I won my first tournament here, and got 2nd in another one. Other than that nothing. Especially since the list of mostly decent players got watered down by a bunch of fish whose only raises are all-in, and still manage to draw out whatever monster you're holding at the time. Plus tonight's at Absolute, and this site hates my guts. But, I figure I need to get back in the swing, so I'll play.

My first big hand, holding pocket Queens UTG+1, and knocked it up for 160, SB, a big stack, calls.

Flop comes QA9. SB checks, I bet 200, he calls. Turn comes a 9...perfect. SB pushes me all-in, even more perfect, as he turns up AJs.

But then, the fish persist to be fish. I call UTG+1 with QJo, 5 callers. Flop comes QJT. UTG bets 300, and I know he's not got the straight. He may have 89, but I doubt it, and I know if he didn't raise, he's doesn't have AK. So I call.

Turn comes a 5. Now he moves all-in. I KNOW he's not got the straight. No way. So I call.

Sure enough, he turns up KQs. River's a 9, and I'm shortstacked. Stupid fish. I must've stared at the screen for 40 seconds after that trying to regain composure. Oh well, a draw-out's a draw-out. But see what I mean? Absolute hates my guts!

Well, UTG, just before the break, I pick up JTs, and move all-in. Big stack earlier calls me and turns up ATo. Flop comes Jd Td 2s. Perfect! Just let me dodge an ace. Turn is a 5. I'm now 94%, and the turn is a 9. I'm back up to 1500, but still on rocky ground. So, now I have to play tight, and move all-in to any raise if I catch something.

Come break, I look and miraculously have survived to 146 out of 556 starting. Now I'm hoping I can survive just a little bit longer to get down to the final table. Sadly, at the end of break, blinds raise just enough to put me on the shortstack again.

So, three levels later, I catch my lucky hand, K8, and move all-in. Shorter stack calls, and then BB calls (stating pot-odds...LOL). He turns up T5, shorter stack turns up pocket jacks. I don't improve, but neither does the BB. And I pick up a $5 profit. Yippy Skippy.

THE VERY NEXT HAND, I pick up KQs, and move all-in. two callers. they check to showdown, and AK high wins it, and I'm out in 90th.

Oh well...There's always tomorrow.