I now remember why I hate no limit holdem. Got invited to play at a club, it is convenient so I went to play. Average buyin was $200, I bought in for the same. Two guys at the table raised/reraised to $30+ preflop almost every hand, but the worst part was they stalled so bad, it seemed like I was dealt about 5 hands per hour at times. I got involved a little bit trying to steal from these guys, not sure how well I played this hand:

Maniac 1 in MP raises allin to $74, I have JJ in the cutoff, I have about $350 total.

The guy on the button to my immediate left is Maniac #2, he's been doing a lot of reraising and bluffing on the flop with ATC, and he has about $400.

In hindsight, I'm not sure about the way I played this hand.

Went on the annual visit to Grandma's house in Utica, unfortunately now it is Grandma's "home," but it is a nice facility and she looks great. We stayed at the Turning Stone Inn, not in the casino, but a mile away with shuttle bus service for 24 hour degen poker players. Not that I know any of those.

I was hoping for a limit game, but the limit game there was only Friday night, apparently it is a big game, 20-40 progressing to 30-60. The 2-5 nl they call the "500 max." I have begrudgingly become a decent no limit cashgame player due to the lack of good limit games at so many card rooms. I sat down at a 1-2 table first because there was an open seat. I can't believe players are so bad in this day and age, it really blows my mind. A twentysomething kid who played too many hands and had too much to say picked up pocket queens. On a board of K-5-2, he bets, gets raised and wisely folds. Villain shows him ace king, the kid goes, "you got lucky," you had 6 outs.

As is my typical stance, I always get called for another game just as I start to feel I could dominate a particular table. But I heard the 2-5 action was good at Turning Stone, and I wisely moved up. First table was a must move, guy next to me was WSOP Bracelet winner Al Krux. I was a little surprised to see him there playing not too deep, but apparently he lives in Syracuse now.

Don't have time to get into too many details, but I picked up a few hundo in a few hours, playing at the big boy table with some big stacks. I still hate the game, but I'm learning how to deal with these big stacks, and I may try to work on my no limit skills as the limit games are harder and harder to find.

Wow, awesome show. I could write a whole review, but there have been so many on Pearljam.com, I will just copy and paste one. Here's the cliff notes...

1. Place is stripped down of all banners, kinda depressing but oh well. The concrete floors and stairs are extremely slippery, but nobody wipes out.
2. Great seats from PJ fan club, corner of the stage about 12 rows up.
3. Social Distortion "social D" is a cool opening act. Vince McDaniel tells me we saw them before at a festival in camden, which I totally don't remember.
4. Lights are dimmed, the big screens (since when does the spectrum have big screens?) show awesome all time spectrum highlight reel for about 2 mins. Theme to rocky comes on, and Eddie and co. enter the stage.
5. First song "corduroy" is a rare opener, rocks the house. Remainder of setlist attached, but some real gems were Corduroy, RearviewMirror, Mankind, Immortality, Do the Evolution, oh man they were all great. I saw eddie smiling when the crowd just sang every word to some obscure songs. Lot of pj nerds in the house.
6. Lotta love for the philly fans and the spectrum. Eddie said it is a "crazy week" in Philly. PJ, Halloween, world series, union strike. He said he always loved playing philly.
7. Probably 50% of the fans were from outside of philly, this is the only east coast city.
8. PJ is supposed to play every song in their catalog over the four nights.

Awesome!


http://community.pearljam.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=116065


October 27, 2009 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wachovia Spectrum Arena

Set List: Corduroy, Whipping, Hail Hail, Supersonic, Dissident, Unthought Known, Faithfull, Parachutes, Unemployable, Immortality, Green Disease, Not For You/Modern Girl (Sleater Kinney), Rival, Nothingman, Ghost, Do The Evolution, Why Go


1st encore: Bee Girl, Just Breathe with string quartet, The End with string quartet, All Those Yesterdays, State Of Love And Trust, Mankind, The Fixer, Go

2nd encore: Daughter, Love, Reign O're Me (Townshend), Black, Leash, Rearviewmirror, Rockin' In The Free World (Young)



-ed's several references to the spectrum and how they want to do it proud and are honored to be the last ones to play there. said he heard bruce tore the roof off the place and they weren't just going to be there as the clean up crew.
-ed saying how it's always exciting when they come to philly but he can't believe all the stuff going on this week with the world series and the spectrum coming down and halloween... and the transit strike...lol
-RIVAL!!! GHOST!!!


and finally.... ED SAYING THEY ARE GOING TO PLAY EVERY SONG THEY KNOW BY 2 AM SATURDAY. AAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Headed to borg tonite I think. Just read this post on 2 plus 2, man I love the borg!!!!


Time for a live game report Saturday 10:50pm

(71) Live games in action

(5) 2-4 LHE
(4) 3-6 LHE
(1) 7.50-15 LHE
(3) 10-20 LHE
(3) 20-40 LHE
(3) 40-80 LHE
(1) 100-200 LHE

(1) 1-2 PLO
(1) 7.50-15 Omaha H/L
(1) 10-20 Omaha H/L (1/2 Kill)
(1) 150-300 O.E.

(1) 75-150 Stud

(28) 1-2 NL
(11) 2-5 NL
(4) 5-10 NL
(1) 10-20 NL
(1) 10-25 NL
(1) 25-50 NL

(94) 11am $300 + $40 NL Tourny

BBJP $85,279


It doesn't get any better than this. Funds and time are somewhat limited, hope to get into the ten game of LHE or possibly try the pink chip game, 7.50-15 Omaha hl.

I have not been to Borgata in almost a year. I used to go a few times a month, and have had good success playing the 10 game there. Last night I had a great session. Wife gave me the go ahead, I drove the 45 minutes and got onto the list for the 10-20 limit. I was fourth on the list and I was short on time, so I jumped into a 1-2 no limit game. I hate that game. After like 20 minutes my name is called, and I am pumped. It's been a while since I played any decent limit holdem, and the borg is the place. Although, I think volume is down a lot from the past, there was only two tables each for the ten and the twenty game.

So I bring my bring my chips over from the 300 max nl game, I have almost 300 to start. I get no hands and fold for like two hours. I'm down to a hundo left, so I buy in for another two hundo. Then the fun starts. It was one of the strangest sessions I ever had, I just won pots with mediocre hands, no real monsters to speak of. I mean, some HUGE pots. Example, five limpers, I have queens in the bb, I raise, everyone calls. Flop comes ten high, straight and flush draws all around, I bet every street and get called by FOUR PLAYERS to the river! And these were tight, good players. It was very strange. I got paid off on that and a few other hands.

I finished up +30 BB, not bad for just over four hours in a ten handed game. I left with the same feeling I have had at that table so many times in the past. If I can figure out a way to get into a regular limit game somewhere, I am doing it.

So, I spent last weekend chasing after my kids at the Jersey shore. I had clearance from the wife to go to Borgata on Saturday night, but dare I say I didn't have the energy. My gambling activities for the weekend all took place at the boardwalk arcade. Surprisingly, I have incorporated aspects of game theory into playing these arcade games. I love playing the game I call the "quarter drop." There are sliding trays which push quarters over the edge. As you drop the quarters, they pile up until you get them to slide over the edge. Then you get tickets so you can redeem them for cheap crap that you could have bought a lot cheaper. So, I get two rolls of quarters and give one to the wife and dump mine into the quarter drop machine in like 6 minutes. Wife yells at me and I tell her to beat it. She thinks I am wasting too much money on this machine. She has never watched me play 20-40 holdem at the Borg.

I have done pretty well on the crane games. Some of these are really tough, as it is almost impossible to clamp an item and get it to hold all the way to the drop chute. They always fall off the wobbly hook. However, the basic strategy here is to get objects as close to the chute as possible, don't make the crane travel too far. Actually, I shouldn't give away all my secrets here, as I may play heads up vs. Hoss Tbf one day. He actually challenged me to this a year ago.

Finally, skee ball. I finally figured out that it's better to go for the 100 every time.

That is my life now.

Good job, Hoss! Congratulations to Matt "Hoss_TBF" Hawrilenko, who defeated Josh Brikis heads up in just four hands to win the 2009 World Series of Poker Event 56 - $5,000 Six-handed No Limit Hold'em.

These math guys just had a party at their house, I think another one is in order.

Great job, Hoss. Maybe we will do that heads up crane game competition one day.

Ok, I still love poker, even though I never play anymore and never update this blog. It's been a good week for the math geeks, as co-author of "The Mathematics of Poker" Jerrod Ankenman has taken down his first bracelet in the Event 42: $2500 8-game mix. Congrats to him, book sales should increase by at least one, but I have to get them to re-design the front cover, featuring walmart dice chips and cheap cards. As a chip/card aficionado, this doesn't do it for me:



The math guys all stay in a house together for wsop, they said they were doing poorly up until now, and hoss_tbf and Math of poker other-co-author Bill Chen are doing well on day 3 of the $50k horse. Gus hansen leads currently in the horse, but my man Doyle has busted out.

How about Phil Ivey lighting it up for 2 bracelets, winning a ton of cash on his sidebet bracelet props, and then Jeff Lisandro topping Ivey with 3 bracelets! Year of the pro?

I'm sad I had a conference this weekend and was unable to do a dead-money repeat in the $1500 Limit holdem shootout. I may try to do this event next year. The event lost a little this year b/c it was on the same day as the $50k horse, but still managed to draw over 600 entrants. In the past, this event was held two days before the main event, and drew all the big name pros who were shooting for that last bracelet opportunity before the main event. The guy who won this event last year was at my table, Matt Graham, has won another bracelet this year, in the PLO $10k event. I would say "congratulations," but he was pretty much a dick to me in my first ever wsop event.

Go hoss, go hoss, go hoss...Ok, I like Jen Harman better, but if either one wins I will be happy. I get all my news from pokernews.com.

I learned some limit stuff from Jen's chapter in Doyle's Super system 2. I learned stranger stuff from watching Hoss at midnight on my couch playing $1k/2k limit on fulltilt.

Some say Hoss is the best limit player in the world, but jen is no slouch, and I think Phil Ivey may have something to say about that.

I'm really bummed I couldn't make it to vegas this year. Work related stuff. I'm already plotting for next year, if they still have the limit shootout. They scheduled it this year right around the $50k horse, so I get the feeling the field is going to be very small. In past years, the limit shootout was the last event before the main event, and it was all big name pros trying to get that last bracelet before the main event. I really love that event, because you don't have to sit there folding for two days only to bust out on the bubble with nothing to show for it. Last year, I was able to bust out in 2 1/2 hours with nothing to show for it, then I tilted on cash games for three days. This year, no such luck.

I found this old hand history on my laptop. Not sure why I saved it, but maybe b/c I found the betting strange. Why sit there and check down this hand? "Caseyatthebat" is the late chip reese. Stellar lineup for a game here:

Full Tilt Poker Game #1316196715: Table Compton (6 max) - $200/$400 - $16,000 Cap Pot Limit Omaha - 22:09:52 ET - 2006/11/27
Seat 1: Gus Hansen ($12,687)
Seat 2: Flopitza ($8,595)
Seat 3: bacina ($69,474)
Seat 4: sbrugby ($107,380)
Seat 5: CaseyAtTheBat ($45,400)
Seat 6: profbackwards ($12,797), is sitting out
sbrugby posts the small blind of $200
CaseyAtTheBat posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Gus Hansen raises to $1,400
Flopitza folds
bacina calls $1,400
sbrugby folds
CaseyAtTheBat calls $1,000
*** FLOP *** [2h 4s Ac]
CaseyAtTheBat checks
Gus Hansen checks
bacina checks
*** TURN *** [2h 4s Ac] [8d]
CaseyAtTheBat checks
Gus Hansen checks
bacina checks
*** RIVER *** [2h 4s Ac 8d] [3s]
CaseyAtTheBat checks
Gus Hansen has 15 seconds left to act
Gus Hansen checks
bacina checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Gus Hansen shows [Kd 3c Qs Kc] (a pair of Kings)
bacina shows [Jh 9s Th Ah] (a pair of Aces)
CaseyAtTheBat shows [3h 5s As Qh] (a straight, Five high)
CaseyAtTheBat wins the pot ($4,398) with a straight, Five high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $4,400 | Rake $2
Board: [2h 4s Ac 8d 3s]
Seat 1: Gus Hansen showed [Kd 3c Qs Kc] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 2: Flopitza didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: bacina (button) showed [Jh 9s Th Ah] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 4: sbrugby (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: CaseyAtTheBat (big blind) showed [3h 5s As Qh] and won ($4,398) with a straight, Five high
Seat 6: profbackwards is sitting out