It's Friday. It's Good.

I finally cashed in a SnG on FT last night, taking down a second, which should have been a first. After it was finished I started playing on a Limit table but logged off after about 15 minutes because I was tilting. Yes, that’s right, I tilted because of a second place finish. The specifics are unimportant, I’m just sick of completely dominated hands hitting their 1,2, and 3-outers all of the time. I realize my complaints don’t hold much water since I’m ahead on FT, but sometimes knowledge and feelings take a while to get aligned.

Now, Tales from the Seriously Deluded. On the news they had Terry Shiavo’s sister on saying that they are intentionally murdering a healthy 41 year old. Healthy? If you can’t live without a feeding tube, I don’t think the word healthy can be applied here. Oh yeah, since I don’t have an actual living will, I thought I would say something here. If I’m ever in a state like that, let me die. If you don’t let me die and drag the whole thing through an embarrassing and shameful public spectacle I swear I will come back to haunt and terrorize you for the rest of your life. I have a feeling I’d make one ugly apparition, plus I would be extra pissed off at being obligated to terrorize. I want to be lazy when I'm dead.

There was something else last night that bothered me a bit. While I played poker, we of course had The Apprentice on while waiting for The Office premier. In the boardroom, DT almost fired some guy because he chewed tobacco. OK, I acknowledge that chewing on a task/job is unprofessional, but that didn’t even figure in. DT was just ripping him because he chewed, not where. He said, “I don’t want someone working for me that chews tobacco.” Yes, chewing is a disgusting habit (IMO more disgusting than smoking, but I’m a smoker so I’m biased), but imagine the brouhaha that would have erupted had he said “I don’t want any people that eat too much and get fat working me, it’s disgusting.”

You like beets? That’s disgusting, I can’t have you working for me. You part your hair on THAT side? You use Aqua-Fresh and not Colgate?

I think now would be an appropriate time to break out the South Park episode with The Museum of Tolerance. C’mon now, Donald. You can do better than that.

Everyone remember to break out the Paas and the Peeps and have a Good Friday. Fuck that, have a Great Friday.

Easter?

Last night’s episode of the WPT had some good entertainment on tap in the form of Tony G. I love that guy. Scratch that, I love watching that guy. If I had to play with him I fear I might be overwhelmed by the urge to stab him in the throat. The WPT is so much better this year, except for one thing: The freaking voice-over commercials. I realize that this gripe is nothing new to anyone, but damn, they really suck. Those little 30 second craptastic productions really take away from the shows.

While watching, every time they showed Isabelle Mercier I had the strange urge to phone Mean Gene to make sure he was watching. I don’t know Gene, have never spoken with him, and certainly don’t have his telephone number, so why I kept thinking that is truly beyond me. I gotta get away from the computer.

Being bogged down with work and school junk, I played no poker last night, but I did get to sweat Mrs. Head as she broke her four SnG losing streak and garnered a second place. Longest $5 SnG EVER. Everyone except the top 3 were out before the blinds reached 50/100. From there they battled for nearly another hour and a half, absolutely unreal. No one could bust the others. Also, just when you start to think you have seen just about everything during the long hours at the virtual tables, POW!, something else comes along. I witnessed a one of the other players in that tourney get AA eight times. Eight Times! In 90 minutes! I need better math skills (to compliment my bo staff, nunchuck, and other assorted ninja skills); I would like to know what the odds are on that happening because it certainly seems that they would be very long.

Per usual, Easter is near and I had no idea. Thank goodness I have at least a few days notice so I can make sure I don’t get out on the roads on Sunday with all of those who view strict adherence to the speed limit as being directly proportional to the strength of one’s moral fiber. Tomorrow being Good Friday, I think I’m going to cook some lamb, perhaps with some risotto. Paired with a nice bottle of wine it should serve to turn Good Friday into Great Friday.

Also, if I’m able to snatch some extra time I may try to pen an ode to the Cadbury Egg, the king of Easter delicacies.

Dot, dot, dot

I just checked the rankings board for the WPBT, 137^th. Jeeebus, I’m some kinda monkey. I gotta do better on the next one, but I can’t. Why? It just dawned on me this morning that I have school stuff going on the entire evening of the 30^th. Stupid goddamn edyookashun. Mrs. Head will probably be representing in my stead and will most likely put my past performances to shame.

Full Tilt is slowly but surely causing some, well, Full Tilt. I couldn’t win an SnG there if you stuck a gun to my head. At this point, it’s becoming more my fault than the cards, because I found myself on my last try last night expecting to get bad beat with impossible cards, not good. I need to get these thoughts readjusted, and learn to adjust because things aren’t going to get any better the way I’m thinking now. (Gee, how’s that for the most obvious statement of the week?) I also got to play a bit with Shelly at the .50/1 tables, which was a good time. She was spanking fishies like an anger management attendee in a room full of behaviorally impaired kids. Quite a pleasure to watch as I hung around with my stack about even, watching all flops come completely opposite to any good cards that I picked up. I couldn’t stay long, though, as the aforementioned SnG had me on tilt enough to know it would be a good idea to log off for the night. Oy vey.

More hard-hitting stuff on the news today….Teens are abusing cold medicine, it’s called Skittling, because they look like Skittles, how novel. They had one girl on that kicked her ‘addiction’ and is busy raising awareness after taking 94 of the tablets, what a good little citizen. How come no one can seem to grasp the fact that 94 of pretty much anything isn’t very good?

94 pieces of bacon? Delicious, but not good.

Punching someone 94 times? Fun, but you’ll probably hurt yourself as bad as you hurt them in the end.

Working 94 days straight? Challenging, but bad for anyone.

Is being a teen something that people just forget about as they get older? I hate teens, but I still remember that I was one. I also remember that abusing things is what they do. ‘Tussin, eating/smoking morning glory seeds, etc., I would try nearly anything when I was a teen to see what would bring a buzz. Hell, one time I rolled up a french fry in a napkin and tried to smoke it just to see if I could. If you would have dared me, I would have tried to drink a 40 oz. of Olive Oil just to say I did. Point is, most teens will be abusing and/or experimenting with something. I wonder why folks continue to think new laws are going to solve this?

Ah well, time to turn off the TV and try to reclaim some of the sanity I originally had when I woke up.

Oooooh, Back to Work, Back to Work.

(please sing the above title to yourself like Adam Sandler in the Back to School song. If you don't know the song, watch Billy Madison, and shame on you for not having seen it earlier)

I know that I have a ton of stuff that I need to blather about, but I seem to be in the midst of a bit of post-trip overwhelmia (yeah, I made that word up), where you return from being away only to find out that, yes, life did continue unabated while you were away and now you have to play catch up.

Sunday I received a very nice surprise: Felicia left me a comment! I didn’t think she ever read my drivel, and even if that visit was the only one, it was much appreciated. My admiration of Felicia’s strong will and poker prowess continues to grow and my prayers are with her in light of the recent news. I certainly hope that when June rolls around the situation is well enough that I can meet her at the WPBT event.

Played me some poker all of Sunday afternoon, blah, blah, blah. I ended up a bit, but nothing real special so I won’t bore you with the mundane details. Instead, I’d much rather bore you by telling you what I cooked last night. Salmon steaks with a pineapple habanero relish, a nice field green salad with a honey balsamic dressing, and some fresh asparagus. Beautiful and effing delicious.

Since I bemoaned the trials and tribulations of business travel, I thought it was worth mentioning something that is good about it. I realized when I walked into work today that business travel has one pretty big good point, and that is the fact that while you may be working, you’re not actually AT work. Top it off with some craptastic Kansas weather and I’m ready to head back to AZ already.

I was going to write something completely witty here, but I just lost it. (Yea, I know, have another toke, Head). Thinking Big will have to wait until tomorrow, I guess.

Not so Wild Horse

Thank God, finally home. End of the week travel tip: NEVER fly on America West. Their incompetence is absolutely unparalleled.

When I awoke this morning, it dawned on me why I really hate traveling for business, and it’s not any of the obvious things. Sure, I hate being away from Mrs. Head and the kids (dogs), but I can deal with that. It is an altogether more insidious and little noticed thing that makes traveling so bad……the toilet paper.

Given the average quality of the TP I encountered this week, I may as well have taken sheets of paper from the printer and wiped my ass with that. The company is paying $160/night for my room and the place doesn’t even have the decency to provide paper that is softer than asphalt. End of the week travel tip #2: Bring your own TP. Your ass will thank you.

I think I need to switch careers and become a bidet lobbyist.

Not much else was notable about the trip, other than the fact that on Wednesday I took a trip to the Wild Horse Resort and Casino for some live poker action. However, action was not in the cards, so to speak. In any of the places where I’ve played live poker, the lowest stakes you can get is 3/6. So, upon finding out that the WH spread a 2/4 game, I was pumped up to go let loose on a table that was sure to be full of chip slingers.

If I would have brought a video camera with me, I would be speaking to you today a more famous individual. Why? Because I would have been able to record something akin to capturing the Loch Ness Monster singing show tunes. I would have recorded something I have never heard of before, a TIGHT 2/4 game. Squeaky tight. So tight it made nuns seem positively slutty by comparison. Unreal. I actually took down blinds with a preflop raise. Twice.

I only had two hours to play, so putting in for a new seat would have left me with only half an hour or so, so I decided to stick it out. With the Jackpot drop there was $4 coming out of any pot with callers, so there were several pots that had only four or five bucks. On one of my preflop raises that took the blinds I showed the hammer trying to loosen these people up, and nothing happened.

There was a nice calling station to my right who put a pretty nasty beat on me, when his A5o took down my KK with runner runner 5’s. I actually laughed out loud when he turned up his cards, having called with no straight or flush draws and bottom pair on the turn with me betting the whole way. At least he didn’t raise me on the river. Having bought in with $40, his calling station ways sent him packing very shortly.

Enter the middle-aged asian guy who it seems just recently discovered the check-raise. If he was in a hand and anyone bet out before he did, you could expect a flop raise. But he wouldn’t lead out, he would only raise if someone else bet, it was kind of strange. It was also very obvious that he never had anything. If he led out, he had something, so all you had to do was get out and wait for the next one. If he raised, the way was clear to re-raise with impunity, which he would promptly chase and then fold on the river, good stuff. Unfortunately he got chewed up and spit out pretty quick as well. That was about it, though. We had a couple more bad players stop by and quickly lose their money, but mostly it was tight and pretty boring. Considering the rake and jackpot drop, I was happy to leave only $14 down. The only reason I left down that much was the splash pot hand.

At random times throughout the night, they would pick a table and dump a rack of white into the pot. Needless to say, at our 2/4 table the odds to chase were good, so I chased through the turn, else I would have ended my session dead even. Not a bad place, but not really a good one either. Maybe it was simply because it was a Wednesday, I’m not sure. Another strange thing was the fact that the highest game they were spreading was one table of 8/16. Again, most likely simply due to the fact it was a late Wednesday.

I'll be spending today and tomorrow getting reacquainted with my normal routine and hopefully getting some time at the tables and catching up on all of the blog reading.. I should return to the regular Thinking Big schedule on Monday. Until then, my head will simply be Much Bigger.

Eezy Breezy

**cue Home Simpson voice** Mmmmm…Phoeniiiiiixx……Auuuggggghhhhhhh.

There is without a doubt no better time to be in a desert climate, let me tell ‘ya. When I get back there is going to be some hard lobbying to move here ASAP. I’ll trade four months of extreme hot for some nice winter months any day of the week.

I figured that immediately upon my arrival I would be itching to get onto the computer and do a post about how pissed I was at airlines, since that is usually the effect they have on me. In an unexpected turn of events, I arrived in a great mood despite flying here on a plane not much larger than an oyster tin. The TSA didn’t even piss me off, which if you know me at all, is an extremely RARE event. I think it was the nice old lady I was seated next to on the plane. I actually got the chance to be a good boy and help her with her bags and getting on and off the plane.

Yes, I can hear you asking. “Wouldn’t you do that anyway?”

NO. Wanna know why?

Most old ladies these days are friggin’ nasty old bitches. Well, most of the ones in my area, anyway. I always thought that most old ladies were nice, but it seems in the last couple of years they are harder and harder to come by. It makes me sad, really. I mean what better feeling than helping out an old lady who’s actually nice? It’s helps out the karma and satisfies the inner Boy Scout. The last time, I held the door open for a lady (at considerable inconvenience, I might add) and she didn’t even say anything, she just looked at me like I it was my job and walked brusquely by with nary a word.

This prompted a quick, “Well fuck you too.”

“You’re awful.”

“Well, next time I’ll try to be a little less awful and not hold the door. Have a nice trip you nasty old bitch.”

Maybe not the right thing to say, but it damn sure made me feel better. This trip restored my faith. Thank You nice old lady from L.A.

-------------------

I tried to be pissed at my hotel, but I just can’t be, the weather is too damn nice right now. I was completely pumped that The Shield was starting tonight, but my hotel doesn’t have the FX channel. In fact they hardly have ANY channel that’s worth watching. I figured that it wasn’t so bad since I had the WPT to keep me company on Wednesday, but guess what? That’s right, no Travel Channel either. Meh.

Given the lack of cable channels and the fact that I am immersed in all that is nerdy this entire week, please don’t be surprised at any unusually high levels of boring shit in any of my posts this week. (Say, this one, for example)

Speaking of all that is nerdy, I thought of something I’d like to have on a t-shirt. This probably won’t make sense to quite a few, so if it doesn’t just bear with me, it’ll be over soon.

T-Shirt Witticism: I’m rejecting your packets.

Yeah I know, it’s probably already been put on a shirt already and /or is not as amusing or witty as I think, but as you can plainly see, that’s not stopping me.

----------------------------

I think I’m going to try and hit up a poker room tomorrow and actually try to profit from this trip a bit, which would be nice. Anyone have any suggestions for a good place to play in Phoenix/Tempe? A cardroom report would certainly be fun and would also help with the “I miss my wife and dogs” doldrums. What a sap I am. What a word, doldrums. Sounds like something a nice old lady or a Boy Scout would say.

HORSE Report (gonna be short)

As expected, my ass was handed to me. High Plains Drifter stopped by to wish me good luck at the start, much appreciated!

Great fun, along with the pleasure of playing with Todd Commish, UwannaBet, STB, and Mike at Poker Words, made the five bucks definitely worth it.

I did actually make it through one full HORSE, however, so that’s better than I thought. While shorted stacked on the final hand of Stud 8, I had AA 10 10 (first 4 cards)and ended up getting rivered by the low straight (I can’t remember who nailed me, but nice hand, whoever you are).

It’s just as well, I need to get packed. I have to spend all of this week in Phoenix for some training, so posts may be a bit sporadic. Anyone know of any cardrooms in the area? If I have any time (which I probably won’t) I’d sure like to get some cards in. After getting beat up at the tables (for small amounts, but beat up nonetheless) on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I finally had a smallishly profitable day today, and am kind of antsy for a bit of live play before Vegas in June.

Talk to you all tomorrow, when chances of an airplane rant will be high.

P.S.--Holy Crap, I almost forgot. I dropped my first successful hammer in the first round! After many previous failed attempts, I can now hold my head high :)

News Can Be Entertaining

For those completely tired of hearing about Michael Jackson, I’ll go ahead and offer an advance apology right now before speaking. Hearing about the goings on of the sordid business is actually a welcome relief in my part of the country, as I have suffered through the last year having to hear some bit of inane shit about the serial killer, BTK, EVERY FUCKING DAY, and I don’t even watch the local news. Despite this they manage to sneak that crap in on the wondrous vehicle that is the local news commercial. You know it, the one that says, “You’re likely to be shot within the next fifteen minutes, details at the top of the hour.”

Personally, I find all of the trial stunts amusing. I won’t hypothesize about who I think is guilty or who is not, because truthfully I have no idea. One the one hand, Jacko is richer than God and crazier than a shithouse rat, but on the other, one has to wonder if this is not another of the myriad attempts to get a piece of him. Enough about that, though. Here are some of the things I found amusing as I watched the daily train wreck:

---The Pajama-clad Jacko. I can only imagine the dialogue of the MJ’s security or medical personnel….

“Mike, are you all right? You look a bit pale. Oh wait a minute….oops….(d’oh!)”

---In doing a summary of his troubles up to this point, the news made mention of a court appearance where he showed up on crutches. Why? A spider bit him on the foot. Good Lord, that must have been one hell of a spider. I can’t help but wonder why, with all of the money that Jacko spends on everything else, more money wasn’t invested in extermination services.

---One of the myriad of lawyerly experts on the show accidentally said ‘McJackson’. This made me wonder, “If McDonalds came out with a Michael Jackson sandwich, what would it be like?” Most likely thinner than the average sandwich, with random chunks hacked out of various locations, and of course white meat. The sandwich would taste good early in it’s career, but would look and taste worse as the years went by.

-----------------

Last night I received an email from a guy, Ian, asking for a mention since I previously talked about how much I like The Contender. He’s trying to use the show’s popularity to do something worthwhile in South Africa, so if you get a chance go take a look here or here if you have the time.

-----------------

For many of the folks out there, poker after a hard day at work helps them relax. Not this guy **points at self**, and I should have known that. I came home tilted after a particularly annoying day. Held up by trains on my way to work, held up by others who seemed intent on fully expressing an appalling lack of basic technical proficiency, held up by wrecks on the way home. If you cross the threshold of your domicile cursing the world, think doubly hard before sitting at the tables.

The who, what, why is unnecessary, suffice to say I dropped close to $35 last night steaming. Certainly not a huge loss or anything, I only feel the need to mention it because I’m disappointed in myself for sitting when I knew I wasn’t in correct mindset for optimal play. Don’t be like me.

Some of the money I lost was on the $1/2 Limit game. Playing $1/2 drives me nuts (whether I'm steaming or not), and I can’t really figure out why. These days. I easily have the bankroll for this game, but still find myself at the .50/1 tables for the most part. I play $2/4 every so often and do just fine, and even when I lose a bit there I don’t feel too bad about it. The $1/2 game sets me on tilt REALLY quick for some reason, sometimes even when I have a winning session. I don’t get it, but it really does seem to be my personal Limit torture chamber for those times when I’m feeling masochistic. Has anyone just skipped the $1/2 game altogether on their way up? I think that Poker Chiq did, but I’m curious to hear anybody’s thoughts on this level.

I still have a ton of stuff to ramble about, but this is getting pretty lengthy so I’ll shut the hell up and will continue tomorrow in my efforts to Think Big, while my head, as always, remains Much Bigger.

KOTSI--Another Theory

While watching the WPT Legends of Poker at The Bike last night, for some odd reason I thought of a guy I used to be in the Air Force with. His name was Lee, and to say that he was a ‘strange guy’ would be a gross understatement.

Lee had a strange cycle. For a month or two, you could observe him day to day smoking cigarettes. Following this, the smokes would disappear and for the next couple of months you would see him with a spit cup. It seemed odd, but hell, there are plenty of people out there who do both. Then suddenly, the chewing tobacco would disappear as well, and for the next couple of months it seemed that Lee was partaking in a bit of clean living by doing neither. Sure enough, after a couple of months, smoke could be seen billowing out of his head, starting the cycle once again. So finally, I asked the question…

“What the hell, Lee? What’s with the effed up tobacco regimen?”

“I have to fool the cancer,” came the reply.

Yes friends, he was deadly serious. After getting some clarification, Lee’s Theory was clear. Not very sound, but clear nonetheless. He was convinced that by following this cycle he could literally ‘fool the cancer’. He was of the mind that if he smoked for 60 days or less, then any cancer cells wouldn’t have the chance to gain a foothold in his lungs. Same for cancer cells in his cheek. The 60 days of abstinence from either product was an extra precautionary measure he thought up in order to fully detoxify and get rid of any determined bits of cancer that may be trying to hang around.

We promptly named him the biggest idiot in the section because of this perceived ability to outrun the cancer. However, for some reason once every few years or so, I find myself wondering “What if Lee was right and knew something we didn’t?”

Last nights recollections aided in the birth of a similar theory, brought to you by the King of the Superstitious Idiots (KOTSI).

While partaking in the pleasure that is poker, one might see variance as it’s cancerous byproduct. You may have a few good sessions, but eventually it will catch up with you. What can a person do? We have to ‘fool the variance’. After a few good sessions, head over to a different game, or a different site altogether, and play there for a while. Due to your good fortune, variance will be sniffing around your usual haunts, eventually it will give up after not being able to find you. Variance hitting you pretty hard at Party? Move over to Stars or Full Tilt for a bit until variance loses the scent. Stick and move, stick and move. Variance may nip at you here and there, but you’ll keep it from sinking it’s teeth into you fully.

DISCLAIMER: Hopefully you didn’t take this seriously, it was not intended to be taken that way. It’s interesting to think about though, no?

If you missed the WPT episode last night, it’s definitely worth trying to catch on the likely rerun this weekend. Doyle, being outchipped almost 4 to 1, played some beautiful and near-perfect NL to capture the win. Awesome stuff.

That’s it for today from King of the Superstitious Idiots. The Head should be back tomorrow with your regularly scheduled programming.

I tried not to...

....but I couldn't help myself.



Thanks April for the fun link!
Geez, I've jumped on way too many bandwagons this week :)

Joining the shill ranks

I have joined the ranks of the affiliate whores, I couldn’t help myself. I have been thinking about doing this for months, but finally decided to take the plunge and start with Full Tilt. I actually emailed them the day before yesterday, but completely forgot to check my mail until I saw that Al had also joined in on the affiliate fun.

So last night I finally jumped in the pool, and I’m happy to report that the water is fine. The avatars are pretty cool, but given the fact you can’t build your own unique one, I went ahead and turned them off since they are mostly a distraction. I started things off with a $5 SnG, and I can’t really say too many good things about those. The blind levels increase too damn fast. I’m sure there is money to be made at them, but the speed of the levels will definitely require some adjustment. I believe that I’ll keep playing Stars for my SnG’s.

The ring games, however, treated me very well. Despite the fact there were only 4500-ish people playing, the games that I did find were pretty soft. I made about $55 playing one table of $25NL and one table of $.50/1 Limit. Oddly enough, most of those profits came from the Limit table, but I rarely play NL and am admittedly pretty weak-tight when it comes to the cash game.

Other than a few nitpicky cosmetic criticisms, the only thing I don’t like is the bonus situation, it really is like pulling teeth. After playing a little over two hours, I have worked off $2 worth of bonus money…oof. I am of the mind that if Full Tilt would loosen up their bonus requirements, even just a bit (i.e. instead of .06 bonus money for each point, make it .10), would help get a lot more people to the site. Could you hook that up Hank? You’re not busy or anything are you? :)

OK, so for the last time this year month week—Full Tilt—Just click on the link, download, and sign up! Starting on March 15, Bonus Code HHEAD will be working, so you won’t even have to use the banner. Help me out folks, all that cocoa butter that I have to use on my head doesn’t pay for itself, ya know.

Don’t forget, the next WPBT Event on Sunday the 13^th. As far as my entry goes, all that can really be said is “Holy dead money, Batman!”

This last Saturday I was able to take a trip to the bookstore. Yes, this seemingly humdrum event IS worth mentioning, because I don’t go very often. Why? Simply put, I can’t control myself inside of a bookstore, I want to buy everything, regardless of it’s necessity—I’m half convinced they pipe in some as-yet-unheard-of gas that makes me crazy for their wonderful books.

So after buying a sex diaries book for my friend Laura’s B-Day, I spy a table with the dastardly sign, “Buy 2 Get the 3^rd Free.” Oh Boy. The title escapes me at the moment, but Mrs, Head got some Oprah book, and I also acquired Atlas Shrugged and Positively Fifth Street.

PFS started out what I thought was a bit slow, but quickly picked up speed. Next thing I knew, it was Monday and the book was finished. Reading it was a great pleasure, but I wish I could exercise a bit more restraint. When it comes to books, I’m like a fat kid with a box of Twinkies; I devour the book as quickly as I can, afterwards wishing I hadn’t eaten so fast. Damn those bookstores though, since upon the return home (and of my senses) I found that I could have saved quite a bit of money if I had simply picked up used copies off of Amazon. D’oh.

So, in my roundabout and long-winded way, I’m saying to read Positively Fifth Street if you haven’t yet. I promise it won’t disappoint.

OK, one last thing and I’ll shut up. If you don’t already, head over and read The Obituarium, pretty good stuff there, especially the drunk tourney documentation.

Remember, I’m Thinking Big, but my head is Much Bigger.

TV is Back!

Anyone who read here knows how much I like to piss and moan about NBC and television in general. After last night though, I think television just may be on a comeback.

The Contender is effing great. Mrs. Head was teary-eyed, and future episodes may have the capacity to throw some dust in my eye as well. It’s got Sugar Ray and Rocky, good production, product placement that for once isn’t cheesy. After being bored to death with The Apprentice, and downright angry at the complete shill the was The Restaurant (can someone call OPEN from American Express and see if they'll extend our credit line?), I find myself finally acquiescing to Mark Burnett’s reality-show overlordliness. Yeah I know, it’s show business and not real, but damn if it’s not some good TV, and hopefully it will help boxing regain some of it’s former wonder.

WPT season 3 is on, The Shield will be starting soon. My goodness it’s a heady time for a couch potato.

I had a nice session at Party last night, up 36 BB’s in a little over an hour. I missed out on about 6 BB’s due to the fact that I’m giving these people WAY too much credit, but I’m not complaining as there are definitely worse problems to have. Iggy reminds us every post he makes, but good bejeebus, the people that play there are SOOOOOO freaking bad. They make the low limits tables at Stars seem like they are full of tricky sharks. Yeah, that bad.

This post isn’t very thoughtful, or thought-provoking for that matter, but what the hell, I’m short on time today. I’ll try to Think Big tomorrow.

Sticking Points

I always find it kind of surreal when I have those moments that show me how much I’ve learned and make me realize, once again, just how far I still have to go.

As I edge ever closer to 30 years on this planet, I find myself thinking a lot lately about how much I thought I knew 15 years ago. 5 years ago. Hell, even 5 months ago. Even looking back at a couple of days ago, I find myself able to marvel at the fact that I thought I knew so very much about a certain thing, only to find out that I had again only scratched it’s surface.

It’s an unconscious thing really, and I will most likely walk through this day comfortable in my knowledge and experience, only to realize tomorrow that I shouldn’t have been.

I’m nearing the point where I’ve been playing poker for 18 months. Last night Mrs. Head and I entered the $3 Sunday Stars Crapshoot, and out of almost 2200 entrants she managed to last till 1100 and I exited around 650-ish. I continued by farting around on a .50/1 table while she fired up a $5 SnG and proceeded to bubble when her A8s dropped to JJ, which consequently added insult to injury by rivering the case Jack after flopping a set. I fired up a $10+1 SnG on Party to remind myself why I don’t play them. 800 chips, yeah right. I’m going to have to get my free money roll pumped up some more before I hit those bitches again, and maybe not even then. Their crapshoot format has a grand ability to set me on giant subtle tilt, the worst kind.

Why the preceding paragraph? Well, obviously to set myself up for this one. The both of us sitting there, scowling at our laptops, made me smile. I fought off my tilt by just shutting it all down instead of steaming at a 2/4 table and instantly felt better. However, it dawned on me that Mrs. Head is at the exact place I was about 6 or 7 months into playing the game.

“Poker is making me sad and grumpy”

After her initial tear on the SnG’s, things have of course slowed down, and it sucks that all I can do is just try and explain why and help encourage her through the rough patch. She is where I imagine most of us have been after beginning to play poker regularly, the place where you’ve done some winning by patiently waiting for good cards and winning big with them and suddenly this method isn’t working as well as it once did. Sonuvabitch!! WTF?! and other colorful epithets have free reign during this period.

I point out to her the things that are obvious to me now. The need to pay close attention to betting patterns and spotting weakness in a passive game and taking advantage of it, even if you don’t have the greatest cards in your hand. Working on bubble aggression, picking the right spots and not fucking up. Realizing that a min-bet after the flop, even it is 20% of your existing stack doesn’t necessarily mean that the bettor has anything, it’s a min-bet, after all. Truly realizing that sitting and waiting for the cards is not always the best answer. Hell, this is still a problem for me many times, but I can see it much clearer these days and a majority of my play has improved greatly. I just feel bad for her that it’s a sticking point that no one can push you through, you have to get through it yourself. I don’t have any kids, but I imagine the feeling is similar, watching them struggle with something you know you can’t really help them with. All you can do is offer encouragement, you can’t do it for them.

Today Pauly said it, and others in the past have said it many times. You just have to suck it up, play through, and use every loss as an opportunity to find a lesson or a leak. Granted, sometimes you just get bad beat to no end and there is only the soul-crush, but 99% of the time there is a lesson somewhere in there.

I can’t wait until tomorrow. It means I get a chance to find out many things I thought I knew today. Thinking Big today, hopefully Much Bigger tomorrow.

Greg Raymer's Great Contribution

While playing in a $5 SnG on Stars today, along came the following situation: With an extremely passive and limp notorious table, I find KQs in late position, two limpers, so I pop it to T200 with blinds at 25/50. I get two callers which is surprising, so I make a note to play carefully if the flop doesn’t hit me. Flop comes xh xh Kd, first to act checks, second to act bets T100 into the T600 pot, so I up it to T400 to test this guy out. First to act folds, second calls. Turn comes blank club. Guy checks, and having him on a flush draw, I put him all in with one card to come. After thinking for about half his time bank, he calls with K5 of hearts, looking for the flush that never came. Not the worst play ever (though, not good), and certainly a pretty big gamble, especially when your tourney life is at stake. The thing that struck me was the comment that came shortly thereafter from the observer chat:

Random Guy: Oh well it worked for Raymer.

It is times like this that I am ever so thankful for ESPN airing that hand between Raymer and Matusow, remember it? Raymer with AJh putting Matusow’s mediocre holding to the test for all his chips. If I ever have the good fortune to meet Greg Raymer in the future, I will certainly shake his hand for making that play, since upon reflection today, I am realizing just how much cash the misinterpretation of that hand has put into my pocket.

In relation to the Golden Riviera mini-whore post from a few days ago, I have decided that even with an $80/month bonus opportunity, I will no longer play there. I thought that my recent cashout would automatically be returned to my FirePay account, the same way it came in. It seems however, that this method would be way too easy. Instead I receive the email that lets me know that I will be receiving a check in the next 20 or so days. What a GIANT pain in my ass. I have resolved from here on out to only chase bonuses that are convenient.

While I’m on the subject, I have to wonder at the fact that I rarely chase bonuses of any kind. Of the few times that I have chased them, some have turned out very well, but a large prtion have ended up in either a monumental disaster or a low-profit waste of my time. I think it’s a combination of the potential bonus money having an adverse psychological effect on me, plus a little bit of ego. Psychological in the fact that I make a few loose calls here and there that I wouldn’t normally make because I have bonus money waiting in the wings, and ego in the fact that I take a greater measure of pride and satisfaction knowing that 95% of my bankroll was built by solid and consistent play and not bonus dollars. While I believe this admission qualifies me a being a certifiable moron, the only thing I can say in my defense is that I am aware of it and given the mostly adverse effects that bonuses seem to have on me by and large, I’ll be sticking to what has worked for the time being. (NOTE: To anyone who may have taken the preceding the wrong way, I don't in any way look down at those who build their bankroll with the bonus bucks, I just wanted to relate the way it is in my own case.)

Being King of the Superstitious Idiots is hard work, believe me.

I leave you with this little light bulb moment, which came at a friends B-day party last night after my third Guinness. We were discussing a mutual acquaintance who is basically a mess where the love life is concerned. You know the type, wanting to be married so bad it consumes their every waking moment, so much so, that they lose their identity completely running around in all of the smoke and mirrors?

Here is my sage piece of Guinness-induced advice for those with love troubles: Love is a lot like constipation. If you spend all of your time running to and fro to the porcelain throne every five minutes trying to instigate a fecal event, you will only end up worn out, frustrated, and more importantly still constipated. Stop worrying about it so much, you’ll poop when you’re ready. So it is with love.

As always, Thinking Big, while my head is Much Bigger.

I had a SuperNerd Friday

It dawned on me this morning that going a day or two without reading blogs means a LOT of reading to catch up on. I can’t think of a more pleasant problem, and have enjoyed my morning thus far doing just that, catching up.

A bit of nerd history for you. I was 9 (or was it 10?) years old, and after much saving and hoarding, I finally acquired a NES. It was a banner day for me, more so being a socially rejected super-nerd growing up in an oppressively religious environment. Somehow I conned my parents into letting me put the spare TV in my bedroom, and then (unbeknownst to them, of course), proceeded to play Super Mario Bros., Pro Wrestling, and Mike Tysons PunchOut! for nearly 72 hours straight (minus meals and bathroom breaks, of course). In my lifetime it was/is the longest gaming binge EVER, where my nerdiness actually worked to my advantage for once. When asked how I managed to get away with that, my parents said, “We thought you were holed up in your room reading something.” I have never been able to stay awake that long since, even with illicit help.

My reason for not reading any postings yesterday? Fight Night: Round Two. For those who don’t know this is an Xbox game, and while I’m normally a tried and true PC gamer, the console certainly does fit the bill at times, especially now that I can play in full 55” widescreen loveliness with surround sound. My passion for video games isn’t what it once was, but on occasion you can still find me putting in a 10 to 15 hour session if I can when I get a hold of a good PC game, the most recent being Half-Life 2. It is truly a rare occasion when I do something similar with a console game.

I spent about 8 straight hours yesterday landing haymakers and inflicting all sorts of Rocky-esque shit on my virtual opponents. If you are a boxing fan and you like video games even a little bit, you should get this game (it’s available for all the consoles). Everything about it is a huge improvement over the first (which wasn’t bad), and nothing says fun quite like seeing a slow-mo replay from different angles of your opponents face getting mangled (with attendant impact blood and sweat) from a great knockdown punch.

Only one complaint: This game BEGS for a custom soundtrack option, as hearing the same selection of rap songs OVER and OVER gets very tiring. You can turn down the music portion, so it’s not a huge deal, though.

As I sit here this morning with sore thumbs and a bit of a headache from staring unblinking at the television for so long, I can’t help but be a bit wistful where my childhood videogame days are concerned. Damn, those were the days.

Quick Question

While reading BadBlood’s post this morning, he said something that made me wonder.

“…[referring to Mrs. Blood] She'd like to play in the blogger tourney if there's room…”

Could it really be a possibility that the spouses of bloggers (my wife is PUMPED to play) would be excluded? I mailed CJ telling him to sign Mrs. Head and I up for the tourney, but never got a response, perhaps I’ll mail this question to him as well. I figured that I would do a quick post asking first, hoping that someone ‘in the know’ would be able to answer.

Since spouses are many times the struts that prop up us degenerate bloggers, excluding them would be seriously (to quote the Geico caveman) “Not Cool”. For the record, I don’t really think this will happen, but given I’m so freakin’ OCD I want to make sure :)

Thanks to anyone who can ease my OCD mind. Busy with school, more tomorrow.

Update: Thanks, Chris. It didn’t even cross my mind that the Aladdin might not have room to accommodate everyone. (Yeah, I know, I'm an idiot) Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

I am a mini-whore

I arrived home last night pretty beat down, but nonetheless determined to play some poker, it’s been far too long (read: four days). ScurvyDog gave up some details on a little Prima gem, Golden Riviera Poker, so I figured I would give baby whoring a shot. Good god, baby whoring just sounds bad, lets go with mini-whoring. I shot $50 dollars over from FirePay, and proceeded to take part in some fishy goodness.

As suggested, I began at the .50/1 7-Stud tables, which were actually much tighter than I was expecting, with about every third hand getting raked, so I brought up a second table. While GR certainly isn’t the worlds worst, it CERTAINLY doesn’t live up to the self-proclaimed “Sophisticated Internet Multi-Player Poker”. There are a myriad of little things that are annoying, but the worst for me was the fact that I actually have to email support to see how many raked hands I have cleared.

Things began in typical fish schooling fashion, where I lose between 8-10 BB’s on a long odds suckout, and then proceed to work my way back. I was even/up a bit, when I decided that I indeed didn’t like playing here very much and would be cashing ASAP. I went to bed at the normal time, but found myself up again at 1:30 AM staring old man insomnia in the face. Well, I figured this was as good a time as any to finish up those raked hands, so I head downstairs and find ‘The Devils Game’.

No, I did not find a roulette wheel on my main floor. I noticed the 5-Card Stud tab on GR, and decided to check it out. Now, it may be that I’ve completely had my head way up my ass for the last year and a half, but I’ve never heard of this game. Not the way GR dealt it, anyway. The 5-Stud I always knew about, you get 5 cards dealt to you at once, and that’s it. This game was dealt like Stud. One down, One up, then 3 cards face up-one each betting round.

Here is the spot where we find my late night smarts coming to bear.

I jump on the .25/.50 table just to get my feet wet, and for some reason I am OK with the fact that antes are .10, double that of the .50/1 7-Stud game, with a bring-in of .12. Try as I might, I couldn’t seem to get the strategery of this game. It was basically everyone call every street, and hope for some kind of suckout, which usually came. After one hour, I found myself down $13 Good Lord! Is this really a poker game, or some –EV variation peculiar to Prima? Or am I just a late night no thinking idjit? I suspect it’s the latter, but I’m hoping for the former. I guess I can take a bit of solace in the fact that every hand was raked, similar to a PL or NL game.

Leaving there, I returned to the .50/1 7-Stud to try and get back to my full $100 ($50 cash + 50 bonus dollars) and actually got pretty close, but alas, some late session chasers got there and knocked me back down. Finally, 3:30 AM and I am ready for sleep, so I say fuckit and cash with $85. I can at least console myself that following Scurvy’s advice will find me with a regular $80/mo in bonus money, because only $50 didn’t seem worth the time. That, or I’m just not a good little bonus whore.

So there’s my take on Golden Riviera. Not great, but not bad either. If you should decide to do this one, don’t let the player count discourage you. The funny thing about it was, the lower the player count the more fishy and loose the play at the Stud tables got. Having mini-whored for the first time in ages, I’m now tempted to try to do that Full Tilt thing. Has anyone actually cleared that whole bonus?

Designing the new header yesterday was some good fun and reminded me that it’s been way too long since I spent any time with FireWorks. Thanks to everyone that took the time to leave some feedback on it, I’m sure I will be tinkering more with it very soon..

I’m Thinking Big, but my head is truly Much Bigger.

What Say You?

Geez I'm slamfucked busy and barely have time to jot a couple of sentences.

What are some thoughts on my new header? It was designed hastily this morning while I fielded phone calls from waaaay too many people, and I can't decide whether or not it sucks.

Sell vitamins instead

First off, many apologies for the lack of regular poker content. It seems that over the last few weeks I have been unable to put together more than three posts in a row with any kind of poker insight. I just haven’t had the energy to play. I suppose I could jump on for a few hands and a short session, but to me it’s just not worth it. If I can’t give it my best effort, it’s just not worth doing. Besides, being tired and playing poker makes me VERY susceptible to tilt and bouts of loud swearing, which Mrs. Head frowns upon. The loud part, not the swearing.

The entire day today has seen me shuffling back and forth between elation and apprehension. Why? Iggy and Hank have written an eBook on power using PokerTracker. I’m elated because I’ve wanted PokerTracker for a while, but kept putting it off because I knew I wouldn’t have hardly any time to devote learning about it’s power. This book pretty much gives me no excuse not to have it now.

Then why did you say you were apprehensive, as well?

Because for some reason the thought of forking over the $75 total for the program and eBook keeps activating the “stingy, reticent, cheap-bastard” part of my brain. Why? Who the hell knows. After dropping over two bills in the last two weeks on DVD’s, you’d think I’d be jumping at the chance to get a hold of a tool that will certainly help make me more money. Part of me is jumping, but it’s doing battle with that cheap bastard from across the brain. I know I’m gonna get it, it just may take a few days to beat that stingy guy into submission.

Man, it sure was hard to go to work today. While doing schoolwork all morning (with more in store this evening) with the usual stream of morning show drivel in the background, I found out at 11AM that I could be making $12000 per week selling vitamins! Not just any vitamins….wait for it……The world’s BEST vitamins.

Man, after deciding to change careers about 3 years ago (in an effort to make the leap from IT dabbler to full-on), it sure is disappointing to know I’ve been balls-to-the-wall trying to learn anything and everything I.T., when I could have been drinking pina coladas while watching people go to my prebuilt website to buy vitamins and make me rich. Dammit, always a day late and a dollar short………

Oh well, I’ll get the next one. Now where in the hell did I put that Carlton Sheets number? Perhaps he’s still willing to make me rich for 4 easy payments of $69.95…

Home Game Nod

After an extended hiatus, the wife and I had another home game last night. We’ve found that among all of the different formats, the participants enjoy the tournament format over all others, so we decided that we’d go that route this night.

If I had to declare an official drink of the Human Head home game, it would mostly likely be Bass, since that it what I find in my oversize paw four out of five times. However, this night I decided I should do something different. Should I give the nod to Iggy and pick up some Guinness? Naah, not tonight. The dark and heavy loveliness of that esteemed beer didn’t seem quite “right”. Should I give the nod to Al, pick up some SoCo and begin finding reasons for shots? Well, it HAS been many, many, many years (11 to be more specific) since I had any of that stuff thrown down my gullet, so the idea seemed like a good one at first. Upon further reflection, though, I realized that I have plenty of hair on my chest for the time being and decided I’d save my re-acquaintance with SoCo for Vegas in June.

After more pondering than was really warranted for such a decision…..

…it finally dawned on me that tonight’s nod would go to Red Stripe, the official drink of the Tao of Poker. I haven’t had one of these lovelies in several years, and they sound perfect for this evening.

We raised the buy-in to $10, since a couple of nights with $5 buy-ins left us feeling wholly unsatisfied. For the first time, I actually had to deal with players who are slowly but surely improving. My brother, normally the biggest fish since the appearance of the whale that swallowed Jonah, discovered that people can be bullied with chips. He got a sizeable stack in the first tourney and used it to pretty good effect, taking down a second place.

By this time I was on my fifth Red Stripe, and was fast remembering the power contained by that innocuous little bottle. A bit of herbal realignment and we were ready to begin the second tourney, this time with seven of us instead of nine, since some folks had to leave.

A friend from school, Bruce, made an appearance for the first time, who has really never played poker before, and just watched the first tourney since he showed late. As he bought in for the second one, I wondered to myself how long it would take for him to call his way to no chips as is the case with so many new players. Damn, Bruce learns effing QUICK. He lasted about halfway through the field, actually making a couple of really nice moves, including slowplaying a flopped straight to bust someone. He ended up getting knocked out when he just called with KK and I managed to hit my ace when after checking my A4o in the big blind. I’m almost scared to have him back.

In spite of my being hammered shit, the wife and I took the entire prize pool in the second tourney when we ended up together in the top two spots. Nice. Ending up +$20 for the night is always better than losing, especially when you can pull it off in such an altered state.

One thing is for sure, I need to not forget about my friend, Red Stripe, in the future. A very nice beer that allows lucidity even after seven or so are consumed. OK, maybe that’s not entirely correct, since Mrs. Head had to take over dealing duties when I accidentally raked a players entire chip stack while building an all-in pot. Surprisingly enough though, I managed to remember what each player had and get them straightened back out in a correct manner.

Nonetheless, Mrs. Head declared me ill-equipped and barred me from touching any chips or cards that weren’t my own for the remainder of the evening.

God bless her, Thinking Big at the times I cannot.