Ok, gotta just jump back on the horse. Writing has been really difficult for me for a couple of weeks now. I’m not really interested in saying nothing, and when your are a not so gifted writer the BS just ends up coming out just like BS.
So I’m just gonna try an go through a little life report and see if it generates some sparks. And for kicks I’ll work backwards.
I’ve been utterly useless today, sleepwalking through another day. Having some bizarre chest/throat/head thing going on is no fun to boot. Combine that with horrible eating habits, an accumulation of 6 hours sleep in the last 2 nights and you have my general state of being somewhat realized. I was fully intending to drop the kids off at the bus stop, turn right around and go back to bed. For some stupid reason I couldn’t make myself do it and found myself at my desk some 45 minutes later.
I really had a great nite playing cards last night, results-wise, meh…up a small bit, but I still feel like I am playing really great. Early in the mook, I lost some chips to a re-raise so I had to be patient. Fortunately (unfortunately as you will see) I woke up with QQ in the cutoff and I had one limper to me. I raise about 4x the blinds to lose the ace/crap play hoping for a fold or a chance to push. I got a call from the BB and the limper folds. JJx comes the flop, and I can’t see checking here. My only option is min raise or push. Being me, I pushed and was called by TT. ..hiiiyyyyyeeeeahhh . I’ll spare you the rest.
Big props to my ATL brethren for getting 1st and 2nd in the mook last night. Way to represent BRAIN and Surf!!
So I sign up for the 2nd chance horse and a 22+2 turbo. I can’t say much about the horse game, I played my usual questionable hands and had some fun. I hate Stud, I have no concept as to how to play this as 2 pairs usually take it down..or so it seems. I freaking dominate the 22 and my head is getting bigger since I knocked Gracie out of HU4 earlier.
Grace and I have been trying to get together a few times, but being the holidays and my lack of playing time over the last 2 weeks we had a tough time getting together. When I sparked up the old poker machine, imagine my delight when I see the little yellow smiley next to peacecorn in the girly chat. So I think to myself, “Self, you might as well bite the bullet and get yourself tore up by a former WSOP player and uber cool lady.
Something happened though about mid way through the first game. I felt goot! I felt in command. I switched up a little from the bet, raise, fold school and took some chances. Go figure, I start catching and rolling.. I made one questionable call in the third game with TPFD top pair flush draw. I held the Q and put Gracie on AQ- QT she pushed the turn and I knew she did not want a call, but I gave it and her trashy 2-pair held up. Other than that, I bobbed and weaved my way to 3-1 fairly quickly. I think we were done with all 4 matches in under an hour, or close to it.
I do not want to give the impression that I somehow outplayed her, I just got cards when I needed them… end of story.
Work has been creating a bit of tilt for me lately as I go through periods of utter boredom to frantic frustrating juggling to finish ‘emergency’ projects. I’m still the guy they come to when they get stuck or can’t figure something out…so as long as there are persons of questionable intellect in my workplace, I’m good. I still have a ‘crossing every finger’ type opportunity that is beginning to look bleak, but I’ll hold up hope till I hear something.
So Tuesday night at the wheetie was a trial in frustration. I made a hammer play fairly early and couldn’t get some donk off Ax soooted. I should have paid attention, since it turns out he was a calling station overvaluing aces on a couple of occasions. Then it just turned into one of those games where i didn’t get paid off when I wanted action, my moves missed completely, then frustration took over.
Its a snowball effect that creeps into MTT’s for me a bit. It seems like I can take a a sequence of hands and roll on up, but if I get beat bad or have a string of plays with decent hands that don’t hit, I get frustrated and things move south. In late stage situations, I usually have chips to lose, and this doesn’t affect me, but early in tournaments a bad hand can ofter spell early destruction for me, as evidenced in both blogger tourneys I played this week.
I’ve been thinking alot about temperament and am not going to continue playing when I am not concentrating. My temperament and my concentration goes hand in hand. Essentially, if I’m concentrating in the moment, my actions are not dictated by my feelings. And all good cash and tournament players that I know are able to remove emotions from the decision making process.
Saturday and Sunday I spent in bed or on the couch as I was overrun with exhaustion and the onset of a cold. The wife was super spectacular at taking the kids away to let me wallow and rest. She was also retuning my favor from Friday when I let her sleep all day….she bounces back in ~24 hrs…..I’m still hacking up pieces of lung and sound like I’ve had my larynx removed 5 days later.
Ahh what else. Turkey day was awesome. I am lucky enough to have most of my family within driving distance and was able to hit up lunch at big bro’s house and dinner at my wife’s aunt’s.
The wife is almost done for the semester and is gearing up for 3 big finals in Constitutional Law, Torts and a 3rd one I’m forgetting, you lawyers out there can feel her pain I’m sure. This means she will be spending a vast majority of her time the next two weeks studying, reading, and sleeping possibly allowing me to concentrate on poker and house stuff.
So that just about catches me up on what I’m not posting about for the past week. I’m looking forward to hitting the virtual felt tonight all hopped up on cold medicine…..yipee!!
One of my buddies sent me this link…HA!
A recent study suggests that parents are often unaware of their children’s drug use. Here are some warning signs parents should look out for:
Higher incidences of sass-mouth
Child begins using slang such as “groovy,” “hepcat,” and “23 skidoo”
Happiness, creativity
Infographic Teen Drugs R
Becomes very jittery when watching Mad Money With Jim Cramer
Displays glazed eyes and sullen mood whenever parents initiate long discussions about the problems with drugs
Tracks used needles all over the house
Son is type of kid who wears shorts in dead of winter
I’ve had a bit of trouble lately posting. I’ve used this place as an outlet in the past and it evolved into…..something.
I have vowed to ‘shit or get off the pot’ in the proverbial sense, but tend to fall back into my all too comfortable routine. Something akin to build, bust, re-buy, I accomplish, lose, reevaluate. On the poker side, I have nothing to reevaluate, I am what I am, but evolving. My main problem, and a theme running through my posts is consistency, and my desire to find some semblance of it.
I have what it takes to be a great player, I think. My shortcomings are in the realm of analytical skills (putting your opponent on a range of hands), bankroll management ( picking the right game and sticking with it), and discipline (not getting lit and playing way above my bankroll).
In my opinion, discipline is the most troublesome, I think it is something very hard to teach or learn…you’ve got it or not. What I’ve got is that little devil sitting on my shoulder saying: ‘Psst, Brian give it a shot…why not? Someone’s got to win right?’
Totally lottery winner type thinking, and I only do that for poker. I’ve taken a bit of a step back in some respects. At the height of my playing I was online EVERY night, up till 12-4AM most nights, sleep be damned. I’ve trimmed it down to once or twice a week, but it hasn’t resulted in more selective play or better decision making. troubling indeed. I’ve just got to figure out what makes this game work..I need to strip it down and make it mine, and I keep telling myself I’m getting there, but seeing the same results. Am I doomed to be a break-even player? I keep waiting for a breakthrough that might not be coming.
So on to other things…. I am constantly impressed by the talent of what I reluctantly consider my ‘peers’. The quotes are there to emphasize that the word peers implies equals, and I am not equal to these guys.
Otis is a constant source of inspiration, he writes with his heart, and cares not for the consequences. His talent lies in his ability to get it out there in such a readable and easily understood manner. He gets things out in his writing that make you want to hear more, to get inside. It’s humbling.
Pauly is so himself it is scary….truly comfortable in his own skin, fully aware, always observing. Luckily for us he is always reporting as well. His latest post struck a bit of a nerve.
“So the next time you get an alumni magazine and you get pissed off that a dumb ass moron that couldn’t even jerk off properly who is all of a sudden a real estate mogul in Macau with a modelesque wife and a private jet, remind yourself that none of this matters.
Like David Mamet said in his play Edmond, “No one is keeping score. No one cares.”
Actually he’s wrong on that. There is someone keeping score and there is someone that cares… and it’s you. And unless you let those notions go, you are going to be living your life in a way that’s not your own. You’d be living a life that is motivated by getting a blurb in your alumni magazine. In short, that’s pathetic.
You cannot read other people’s minds, so stop worrying about what other people may or might not think about you. Most of the time we’re way off base and if someone thinks you’re a loser or asshole… then so what?”
1. Know why you play poker before you play it.
2. Don’t live your life to impress your peers.”
Thanks for that Pauly. I am keeping score, but my problem is that I need validation as well. I think a lot of people have this issue. They carry it without knowing why, or where to get it. I know I’ve sought some sort of validation here with mixed results. But when it comes down to it, who the fuck cares? What difference does it make if I am accepted or not? When it comes down to brass tax I am the ultimate judge.
Why am I doing this? Because its fun. Not good enough, I’m not 20 years old I have to hold myself in a higher light.
What am I getting from this? 3 years of throwing money around trying to prove I belong to something. Sad, poor excuse….get something you can put your fingers on or bail..this is a waste of freaking time unless you can do that.
Sorry this is such a long and winding post…I have more, but I’m tired of typing now. Something big is on the horizon for me and I have to go and get it. My problem is that I don’t know how to get what I want, it has always come to me.
Also, I’ve done some housekeeping on the right hand side here and have added some very excellent blogs to it. Please go check these out if you have not yet.
I can officially call the 2nd stop on the APBT a success.
For the first tournament, we ended up with 9 players.
IIRC Seat 1- Butch 2- Amy 3- Brain 4- Weak 5- Surf 6- king 7- me 8- cc 9- Rufus
Surf went out first and I went 2nd when weak turned a 4 card flush to my aces. (which reminds me I did not pay off my bounty) The Dutch oven came in about 45 min late so he George and I started up a little cash game. Rufus joined soon after and I lost track of the main table until they split 3 ways. I’m pretty sure it was weak, Brain and CC splitting.
For the second tourney we got Dutch, and my wife decided to play as well giving us a snug fitting 11.
Seating was 1- Weak 2- skidooWife 3- Butch 4- Dutch 5- George 6- King 7- CC 8- Brain 9- Transfish 10- Rufus 11- Me.
I got the Gigli award when I was crippled by my OWN WIFE with TT vs her AK. She flopped a King and I could not get her off of it. 2 or 3 hands later I pushed with AJo and was once again beaten by weak. This time he had 99. My wife made a questionable call with JT on a raggy drawing board to double weak up. She confided in me last night that she was very upset about her play there, and made me promise not to make her play against the mean old bloggers anymore. Seriously though, her call bothered her in the fact she wouldn’t have made the it if she had stopped to think, and just got caught up in the action….rookies.
In a strange turn of events, my buddy John got called away by his wife. They had a baby on Tuesday, and she was having trouble keeping her food down all day. She was very fussy and seemed to be uncomfortable, so John’s wife decided it was time to go to the hospital. John bolted and my wife went over to their house to watch their other child.
I felt it was my civic duty to play out the tourney with John’s chips, everyone agreed. Rufus came back in and played my wife’s short stack.
About 4 hands in, I turned into a card rack, and had some chips to use to my advantage. I took some fairly large pots with A3 vs A2 (blind battle), AQ vs ?? (queen flopped), and one close call I had was with CC when I open raised (KQc) for the umpteenth time, he pushed with A8 and I had a very tough call. I put him on small to mid pairs and decided it was worth a call to take a big stack and a dangerous player out. There were nothing but blanks on the flop and turn, and I called for the king on the river, but did not get it…..I got the queen instead and busted CC.
Down to 3 handed (Me, my brother, butch) my brother could not catch a card to save his life and I got him out. Butch was playing very tough and it was really hard for me to put him on a hand all night, he stole from me a few times and I decided to make a stand with 8Ts (the sooted mook!)I had him covered but was behind to his Jx. I flopped an 8 and he did not catch up.
Closing in on midnight everyone decided to leave. I was a little bummed, but I totally understand. I live in the sticks and almost everyone had a drive of 30 minutes or more. All I had to do was stumble upstairs ( I was about 8 beers in by that time)
So, what does a buzzing poker player to do with sleeping kids and a wife who is MIA?….Well play more poker of course.
I logged in to FT and just looked around to see who was on. I saw fastpitch27 doing well and railbirded him for awhile. Spoke with waffles in girly chat for a bit. Played a few hands of 1/2 razz. Then joined a $5 45 person. I completely dominated that one as I got a FH on the first hand then a flopped str8 on the 2nd…I took 2 people out and cruised to the final table, rarely moving below first place. Unfortunately I got a bit unlucky HU an ended up in 2nd.
Arron popped on PS for awhile and I watched him play 5 draw, then tried myself for a bit….losing $20.
I stupidly joined a 100+9 sng on ps and went out 6th….what can I say….it was the beer talking.
Finally the wife came home around 3. The baby was fine after all, just overfed according to the doctor, better safe than sorry I suppose.
I want to thank everyone who came over for making the drive, and I hope everyone had a good time. We have a pretty solid group of players here in Atlanta and we were well represented. I definitely look forward to playing with you all again and can’t wait till next time!!
HI ALL! Come and play the Thursday Bash! If a donk like me can win it then so can you!!!
I’m also gonna be playing Gracie in HU4 matches, and I just might play the last DADI as well since I donked my way into a token last nite…right SLB?
The MOOK was a good time last night as I went out in 14th overplaying KT in the Cutoff, yay me! Maybe I’ll make it into Waffles video experience, where he outplayed me with the hammer.
I’m tired.
I’ve been tired all week. I think my body is preparing itself for something and is storing energy in the fat around my midsection, then again, maybe not. I’m just gaining weight.
I’ve made almost all of the preparations I need for the blogger game on Saturday. To say I’m overly excited about this would be an understatement. My usual actions in similar situations is to:
A. Manage to piss someone off without knowing I’m doing it.
B. Piss someone off fully intending to piss that person off.
C. Piss myself of by making an ass of myself.
D. Piss the wife off for making an ass of myself.
E. Get piss drunk and pass out/black out doing all of the above.
Knowing myself is a good thing sometimes, and I will strive to do none of these on Saturday, but no guarantees.
I have a ‘not as earth shaking as the blogfather pulling the plug’ possibility coming up that only 3 other people are aware of. It’s weighing on me and am desperate for a positive result without even having one in sight. I really hate waiting on thing which I have no, or little control over.
So wish me luck if you will, on opening new doors.
Hear ye hear ye. Here we go!
Please be at my house by 7PM, If you want to come earlier, please do! BrainMC is coming at 3:30 to enjoy libations and AUB/ALA on the big screen. Maybe I can convince him to switch back and forth to the OSU/Mich game since Auburn laid an egg vs GA.
Below are the expected attendees and my oh so sharp commentary.
Confirmed attendees:
The ultimate aggro-donk, a style crafted by many years of questionable play. I’ll be placing a $10 bounty on my head, so come and get it!
Unquestionably one of the most solid players of the group with a perfect mix of aggressive and selective plays, my odds on favorite to take this thing down….unless I can suckout on him.
This cagey veteran can overplay mid-pairs like nobody’s business, watch out!
Hopefully Kelly hasn’t fallen off the face of the earth, I know your busy dude, but post an update or something! If Kelly emerges from his shaolin hiding place he will be a force to be reckoned with, a very solid tight-agg player.
I’ve only played with trauma on occasion, so I can only assume he is a balla, and should be treated as such.
Venerable poker pro and all around great guy, Aaron is coming off a hot week in Vegas to take our money, leave your wallets at home!
TransFish AKA Mrs. Weak
Amy is the donk to to Aaron’s weak. Sorry Amy, I just couldn’t resist.
Angela AKA Mrs Surf
I’ll be nice to the misses if she promises to be nice to me.
Frequents the WWDN and Mook, also will be playing the HU3. I eventually tracked down a web presence for him. I hope he doesn’t mind me posting it, but Google is my bitch.
king1112
No blog…he gets a pass, he’s my brother. You all have my permission to point and laugh at him, but you will have to remember that blogs are ghey, and he doesn’t have one….Hmmmm.
The Dutch Oven
Also getting a pass is my neighborhood buddy who is one hell of a player. Watch out for the skinny dude smoking a cigar, if you look into his eyes you may turn to stone.
Still a maybe….CCCome on Craig, you know you want to!
SO..If you think you are coming and not on this list, then contact me!
23skidoo ATE gmail.com
For anyone wondering about the blogger beta, I switched yesterday. I haven’t noticed alot of changes, but haven’t looked at too much yet.
Feels good to take down another blogger game….I knew I was feeling good on tourney tables and this really went well.
Down to 5 handed things started getting crazy as the chip lead changed several times. Eventually I caught trip 8′s to cripple our humble host heads up and take the inaugural CC’s Thursday Bash.
Congrats on a great game go out to CC! Also kudos to the Pirate for taking 3rd and Lok1 for bubble boy. And who can not forget Kat who got fooked on the bubble again!..
Umm, or not.
Believed to have been brought to America as stow-aways on banana boats, Cuban Tree Frogs are the largest tree frogs in North America. They are notorious for cannibalism…if there are other species of frogs in the tank, or even specimens of the same species, they have been known to feast on their neighbors!
Say thanks to waffles
Full Tilt Poker Game #1216607240: The Mookie – Fish n Donks (8304316), Table 3 – 25/50 – No Limit Hold’em – 21:30:17 ET – 2006/11/08
Seat 3: iam23skidoo (1,565)
Seat 5: Maudie (2,428)
iam23skidoo posts the big blind of 50
Dealt to iam23skidoo [2s 7h]
Maudie raises to 200
iam23skidoo calls 150
Now, I thought about using the ‘regular’ hammer raise here, but I think Maudie is not stealing and has a solid hand. SO my plan here is just smooth call and bet out if the flop is blanks or scary. My plans are foiled though as this is the flop:
*** FLOP *** [7d 4d 7s]
Now I have to check since I know she will continuation bet this ‘horrible’ flop.
iam23skidoo checks
Maudie bets 400
iam23skidoo calls 400
Smooth call FTW!
*** TURN *** [7d 4d 7s] [7c]
DQB! thats right…. No way she can put me on 7′s I’m just hoping she has a big pair.
iam23skidoo checks
Maudie checks
*** RIVER *** [7d 4d 7s 7c] [9d]
iam23skidoo bets 450
Gotta get something in the pot….maybe she puts me on the 9 or a smaller pair.
Maudie has 15 seconds left to act
Maudie raises to 1,000
BINGO!
iam23skidoo calls 515, and is all in
Maudie shows [Jh Js] (a full house, Sevens full of Jacks)
iam23skidoo shows [2s 7h] (four of a kind, Sevens)
iam23skidoo wins the pot (3,155) with four of a kind, Sevens
Unfortunately I could not make the chips work for me as I went out in 15th. On a good note, I got a token and used it on the HORSE tourney, which I am still hanging in right now. I need to make a token for the next Big Game and DADI X.
Also, I’ll be playing in CC’s inaugural Thursday game on PokerStars and you should too!!!
