T1B

Since Mike the CU fan is now a poker degen let's start a new thread...I'll kick it off...list some of the good/bad about your poker playing days both live/online...

For me Live:

Won a little tourney in Vegas 2 years about for about $700...not a bad score for about 4-5 hours of work...offered the guy I was heads up with a chop 3 times and he turned it down...F HIM...

Made some nice scores in local cash games and sometimes in Vegas...

Online:

Overall a loser...but have made some decent scores...bigges was a $1k score...but the problem it seems with me online the suck outs and bad beats have been tremendous...just yesterday...I had KK v QQ v JJ AIPF 3rd hand of a $24SNG...guy flops a Q...buh bye...stuff like that has derailed me so many times...plus I have been rivered more times than I can count...yesterday was another frustrating day on the virtual felt...

Let's get the chat going...also throw in some strategies that have worked/not worked for you

Haven't really played much in casinos, not that there's any lack of them here in the Phoenix area. It's just easier to log on to Full Tilt. Plus, I seem to be pretty decent online. Thanks to those two tourney wins I mentioned in the other thread, I managed to triple my initial $100 deposit, so I just made a $100 withdrawl and now I'm playing strictly with the house's money. The problem with that is, you tend to play a little looser and chase hands you normally wouldn't.

My new favorite game is the 135-player rush poker tourney. You basically play rush poker with a set pool of 135 players until you get down to the final 9, when it reverts to standard tourney rules. As far as I can tell, they only have one level, which is a $4 buy-in. Top 15 get paid, and I have made the top 6 three times out of probably 5 or 6 tries. The really nice part is, it only takes about an hour to get from 135 to the final 9.

So here are some exceptionally GROSS stories...

this is why sometimes I don't buy the whole look up your stats on Sharkscope...i am playing in another 24+2 tourney on Full Tilt...after the 2nd break...cruising along ahead of average...I have about 6k ish and the average is about 4 k ish...I have 33...no raises...flop comes 9x8x3x...so I bet out...get called...hmmm...does he have an OESD? turn...9...so I have 3s full...i bet and get re-raised...so now what? Does he think I have an OESD and he has AA and has 2 pr? So i call...he turns 88 for a flopped set of 8s...buh bye to me...just gross...and again I would flop 2 pr...bet like hell (in every tourney yesterday)...only to have some random scandi or euro donk call me down to hit a 4 outer or some shit for a gut shot or higher 2 pr...


Live...2 weeks ago...played in a 5/10 game...most guys only had 2-300 in front of them (they like to re buy multiple times)...and hope to double and triple up, etc...so I sit down with 500...I quickly run that up to about 640...I get deal QQ...I make it 45 to go in 2nd position...get 1 caller...flop is xKK...so I am like...let me see where I am at...I bet and get called...turn blank...river Q...so now I have Qs full...I check...guy bets 150...I am like does he have AK or hit his straight...so I just call (for show down value)...he has KJ...F ME...same day about 2 minutes later I open up for 45 with 2 red Aces...get THREE callers...flop comes low with all black cards...needless to say I lost with AA against A7 and some shitty two pair deal...in that session I had AA (2x), KK (1x), QQ (2x), JJ (1x) and only won 2 pots (KK pre flop and one smallish pot with QQ)...yeah I wound up a big LOSER...

Mike...good stuff...keep up the good work

Maybe it's because I play for pretty low stakes, but I don't really get too caught up in the bad beats. It sucks when it happens, no doubt, but I've caught plenty of greasy shit on the river myself. I actually beat pocket Aces with K4 offsuit in an all-in situation the other day. Not even sure why I went all in with that hand, but I must've been short stack. I didn't even win it with trip Kings. I caught 5678. Poor guy had to have been furious. Heh.

Really it was hoping sc you beat with that shit.

Well, I have a new greatest achievement. I won an $11+1 Rush Poker tourney last night for $423. Those are by far my favorite games. 135 players and it was over in less than 3 hours. Also won a 6-player sit n go for another $85 to bring my total for the night to over $500. That's half a mortgage payment! Unfortunately, I couldn't catch a break today. Such a fluky game.

The irony of it all is that I've followed college football for three decades and I've never been able to win with any consistency betting on sports. My greatest sports bet was laying $20 on the Pistons to beat the Lakers in the NBA Finals a few years ago at 6:1 odds. Meanwhile, I've barely been playing poker for a couple months and I'm doing better than I could've imagined. Go figure.

I got tremendously luck last week with what I call a "perfect storm" I had made it to the final table, but I was short stack at the table with 5500 chips. I knew I needed to make a move, and I was waiting for the right situation.

I am dealt KK from the big blind. Blinds are 1000 - 2000 at this point. I had several callers, and a guy raises at the other side of the table to 4000. Not a bad move on his part considering my chip stack. I figure this is as good a shot as I'm going to get, so I call, along with 3 others. 5 players in the hand. The flop comes K 4 7 rainbow. It gets checked around to the original raioser, and he bets 8000. That bet would put several of the players in the hand all in. Of course I call with the 1500 I had left, but he gets another caller as well. we all turn our cards over and the original raiser had AA, and the other caller had 77. The turn and the river were no help to anyone and I took the gig pot. That helped boost me to a second place finish and $250 that night. Pocket aces agaist two sets on the flop.

And I have a bad beat story too. I'm lucky that I had a lot more chips than the other guy on this hand, becouse I was SURE i had him nailed to the wall.

I'm dealt 10 10. the blinds are 500 - 1000 the big blind was raised to 3000. there are several callers, but as one of the guys folds, he accidently exposes a A 4. The flop comes a 10 7 A two spades. I hit my set, but there is a spade draw out there. I go all in 4000 hoping to push out the spade draw. I figured with the exposed A, I was WAY ahead. But, I could not have been more wrong. I bet into a set of Aces, against my set of 10's. Those have to be fairly long odds to have an exposed Ace, get an Ace on the flop, and someone having pocket Aces. Despite that bad beat, I still managed a 4th place finish and won $50.

I guess that's why we play the game.

I don't have nearly enough time to devote to travelling for poker anymore. I have cut back to my yearly/bi-yearly haunt to Vegas and a couple of trips to Biloxi a year. I still do pretty well when I go and follow my basic rules in the mysytem that are tried and true. Between work, coaching youth football, and my little sister moving back to North Carolina for college at Duke life has been really hectic. I should have more time to spare now that Tay is gone but still football in general and other obligations it probably won't be until next year I really get my groove back.