Coolers And Bad Play Last Night

I lost 4 buy ins last night in under 300 hands. I played like a pay off wizard and had some coolers thrown in for good measure.


Does anyone fold this hand? Villain was pretty horrible but I felt even worse here.

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players

LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter



MP: $40.45

CO: $6.90

BTN: $14.65

SB: $41.95

BB: $13.25

whodat (UTG): $24.90



Pre-Flop: J J dealt to whodat (UTG)

whodat raises to $0.85, 2 folds, BTN calls $0.85, SB folds, BB calls $0.60



Flop: ($2.65) 8 A 8 (3 Players)

BB checks, whodat bets $2, BTN calls $2, BB folds



Turn: ($6.65) 8 (2 Players)

whodat checks, BTN bets $0.50, whodat calls $0.50



River: ($7.65) 2 (2 Players)

whodat checks, BTN bets $11.30 and is All-In, whodat calls $11.30



Results: $30.25 Pot ($1.50 Rake)

BTN showed 8 K (four of a kind, Eights) and WON $28.75 (+$14.10 NET)

whodat mucked J J J J (a full house, Eights full of Jacks) and LOST (-$14.65 NET)



This hand was right before I realized how much on tilt I was. I had notes on this guy that he only bets with strong hands. I called for time before finally saying 'screw it'and losing a bg stack. Funny thing is I was telling myself not to call because of stack sizes, so the "Spidey Sense" was right. I just chose to ignore it and it cost me a bunch. I hate myself for even posting this hand but I must be honest with myself here. My losses would've been manageable if I let this hand go...

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players

LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter



SB: $27.15

BB: $25

UTG: $62.35

MP: $35.35

CO: $27.80

whodat (BTN): $46.25



Pre-Flop: Q Q dealt to whodat (BTN)

UTG calls $0.25, 2 folds, whodat raises to $1.10, SB calls $1, BB calls $0.85, UTG raises to $62.35 and is All-In, whodat calls $45.15 and is All-In, 2 folds



Flop: ($94.70) A 9 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)




Turn: ($94.70) 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)




River: ($94.70) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)




Results: $94.70 Pot ($3 Rake)

UTG showed K K (a pair of Kings) and WON $91.70 (+$45.45 NET)

whodat showed Q Q (a pair of Queens) and LOST (-$46.25 NET)



Here is more of my stupidity. I'm beat when he raises this river but I barge right in with the worst hand. Not to mention it's an unraised pot and I forgot my own Golden Rule: Big river bets are big hands.

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players

LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter



UTG: $25

MP: $42.35

CO: $50.80

BTN: $24.65

SB: $13.60

whodat (BB): $24.90



Pre-Flop: T 6 dealt to whodat (BB)

4 folds, SB calls $0.15, whodat checks



Flop: ($0.50) 9 5 4 (2 Players)

SB checks, whodat checks



Turn: ($0.50) 7 (2 Players)

SB bets $0.25, whodat calls $0.25



River: ($1) 8 (2 Players)

SB checks, whodat bets $1, SB raises to $5.50, whodat raises to $24.40 and is All-In, SB calls $7.60 and is All-In



Results: $27.20 Pot ($1.35 Rake)

SB showed J T (a straight, Jack high) and WON $25.85 (+$12.25 NET)

whodat showed T 6 (a straight, Ten high) and LOST (-$13.60 NET)





So I had a great night! Played, and lost like a total a donkey but I really didn't feel anger afterwards. It's noone else's fault that I chose not to read hands this session or try to put these guys on a range of hands and I got what I deserved.

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.

A Little Poker, A Few Bikes......

Being a ninja, in the poker sense of the word, is the reason I joined Poker Dynasty. I feel that with the resources available to me here there is no reason I can't be successful. One of the best features is the Mini Mastermind. You meet with a group of like-minded people and discuss poker theory, go over hand histories, and/or, watch a member play a table explaining why he does what he does, all the while receiveing positive feedback on what he's doing correctly and what he may need to do to improve his game to reach the next level. It's starting to improve my game a lot and if you're interested in doing the same please click the link above and tell them whodatdare sent you. You won't be sorry you did.

The shot above was taken at Barber's Motorsports Museum in Leeds, AL, and is the "world's largest collection of vintage motorcycles and Lotus racing cars"( taken fromtheir site). It is 5 floors filled with motorcycles from around the world. The oldest one I found in my brief tour ( because this was a Christams party with free food and booze, and I llike free stuff!) was a Harley Davidson from 1908.

The racetrack here is considered to be one of the top 3 in the world. Rumor has it when Mr. Barber first built the track he had some world class racers test the track for him and give them their assessment. They said it was definitely a great track and was one of the the top 15 in the world. Mr Barber had the whole thing ripped up and redone.

This shot above was taken from the 3rd floor. You can only see 9 of the 15 bikes in this column. There are columns on each corner of a glass elevator. The second bike form the top inthis column is, you guessed it a Ninja!

This one really caught my eye because of the color and then I realized it had Michael Jordan's logo on it. He apprently loves racing and co-owns a team . If you click on this link goto gallery and pick a track for some awesome pics.

Hope you like these shots. I even talked a little poker too. That hasn't happened here in a while ;-)

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hityour hand.

Some Great Blues Work By The Fat Man

I love Blues music and growing up in Chicago gave me lots of access to it. I went to school with Muddy Waters' kids and he would play the occasional free concert in my high school, or at the local festival in the fall.

This version of the Howlin' Wolf classic was always a favorite of mine when the Grateful Dead came to town. Jerry really shines on this song and Bob Weir's voice just seems to fit really well with this style of music.

Wing, Wing, Wing....

Whodat? Dat you? Yes, it is yours truly on the wing of a KC-135 Stratotanker used by the Alabama Air National Guard for air re-fueling. My brother-in-law was gracious enough to give us a tour of this air craft, which has a crew of three. He's the boom operator and handles all the in air re-fueling. He actually lies on his belly in the rear of the plane and looks through a window to do his job and communicates with the pilot up front, the pilot waiting for fuel, while making sure the boom doesn't damage any of the jets. It is remarkable what he does. You can find more info here.

Below is a close up shot of the back of one of four engines used on this bird. Each engine creates 22,000 lbs. of thrust and it is feasible that the aircraft can fly on one engine. I wouldn't want to find out if this is true.

Thanks, Pip, for your time and for giving my 7 yr. old nephew the experience of a liftime! Ring the bell, and the next round is on me!

Unfairness is reality

in an ice cold world

where your voice is

seldom heard.

People spite you.

People strike you.

Is this really

the good life?

Or is it the hell

before heaven?

Lightning-

The calm before

the atomic war.

Thunder-

The screams of the

innocent that die,

because world leaders

can't reason why

there's a need to destroy.

A Difference In Lighting For Macro Shooting

Thanks to David for his comment on my previous macro shot and for suggesting I write up something to let others know what kind of method I'm using to get better lighting on my macro shots. A BIG thank you to George who shared his expertise to help me get up to speed. If it wasn't for him bringing in his laptop to the pool hall one day and showing me this amazing shot of a wolf spider's eight eyes I would've never bought the Canon Powershot S3 IS. I would post his shot of it here but I cannot get in touch with him as of the writing of this post.

For macro shooting the biggest challenge is getting enough light to your subject. For both of the shots above the distance from the subject to the lens is about 1/2 inch, I'd say. In super macro mode the S3 can focus at a distance of 0-3.9 inches. It is one of the best point and shoot cameras on the market for shooting macros and is relatively inexpensive, about $300. Some people spend more on a single lens and don't get the same results.

The flash for the S3 is mounted directly over the lens barell and creates the shadow you see in the top left photo. Notice the difference in the shot on the bottom right? Here's how I did it.

Simply cut a hole in the styrofoam bowl so that it fits on the end of your lens barell. I should've taken a picture of mine but I'm at work and it's at home. I cut the hole in the center of the bowl because of where the flash is located. I use the smaller sized bowl, about 8 inches in diameter. You can use larger bowls for larger subject as well. Be sure the bowl is not too snug though because you may damage the camera's motor if you forget to remove it while you turn it off. The bowl catches the light from the flash and basically re-distributes it to bring more light to your subject at these close up ranges. It's really that simple. This dirt cheap method can be used with other cameras also. If your camera's falsh is mounted on the side you just need to cut your hole differently to adjust but you should get great results. Let me know how it works out for you.

Also, click on the thumbnails for a larger image and a bit more detail.

And sorry to my other readers who are looking for poker things. I haven't posted a lot lately but will in the future.

Sunday Night Concert....

If you liked the song I posted here, you will enjoy this band's show from 1996 on my favorite radio station. This Sunday, Nov.4 at 8;00 p.m. CST they will be airing a concert recorded in 1996 at Cabaret Metro, a funky little night club in the heart of Chicago's Wrigleyville area. If you click on the link for the radio station click on the "Listen Live Now" button. Hope you enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

I hope you got a little startled at this image. Don't worry, the subject was dead and no harm came to the photographer. This was taken in super macro with the Canon S3 IS.

The thing I like about this camera is that you can literally focus to zero inches when you shoot in this mode. The drawback is that you'll create a shadow form the lens barell when you use the flash, but a friend of mine came up with a cheap solution to get rid of it. You simply cut a hole in a styrofoam bowl and attach to the end of the barell and you get even light across the whole subject, which happened here. The distance to this creepy crawlie was the depth of the bowl I used, about 2 inches. As always, click on the thumbnail for a larger image, and finer details on this guy.

Sometimes I feel like one of these guys when playing in the freeroll tournaments.

Dynasty $500 Free roll..

Last Saturday, 10-20-07, Poker Dynasty hosted a $500 free roll tournament for its members on Poker Stars.

For those that don't know what a free roll is, it's a tournament that doesn't cost any money to play. There were 23 players in the tourney and the top 9 get paid. 1st place gets 30% of the total prize pool and the percentages go down accordingly.

I was lucky enough to make the final table - 9 players left - and knew how 4 of them played as I had been playing the entire tournament with them. I started playing very tight to protect my stack and try to get a read on a few of the players, and let the short stacks fall to the way side. I didn't want to play a lot of hands unless I had something really strong to 3- bet with, so I could set up a tight image and steal blinds later. There were some very good players here, namely LaffyTaffy who had a commanding chip lead and whom I thought would win the whole thing.

Nothing exciting happenes for me until it got down to three handed between me, jnye34, and benb1253. I really cranked up the aggression here to get as many chips as possible to make the final 2 by raising a lot more and 3-betting against them. Benb and I were pretty close in chips but jnye34 had a pretty good lead but after I 3-bet him with TT this hand came up vs. benb to get me closer.


POKERSTARS GAME #12744605089: TOURNAMENT #64282157, FREEROLL HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL IX (300/600) - 2007/10/20 - 17:23:20 (ET)
Table '64282157 2' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 4: jnye34 (16890 in chips)
Seat 6: benb1523 (6674 in chips)
Seat 8: 2whodatdare (10936 in chips)
jnye34: posts the ante 50
benb1523: posts the ante 50
2whodatdare: posts the ante 50
jnye34: posts small blind 300
benb1523: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 2whodatdare [As Ks]
2whodatdare: raises 1200 to 1800
jnye34: folds
benb1523: raises 4824 to 6624 and is all-in
2whodatdare: calls 4824
2whodatdare said, "gl"
*** FLOP *** [Tc Qs 9h]
*** TURN *** [Tc Qs 9h] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [Tc Qs 9h Td] [2h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
benb1523: shows [Ad 7c] (a pair of Tens)
2whodatdare: shows [As Ks] (a pair of Tens - Ace+King kicker)

I don't blame ben one bit fo rshoving here. An Ace high hand 3 way is a pretty good hand to shove with, since you're first in you get some fold equity against my stack.

Now we're heads up. jnye34 has been playing tight the entire tournament and has been showing down very strong hands. He's gonna be hard to beat unless I get very aggressive against so I decide to open up my pre-flop raising range against him. I don't think he'll 3-bet me too much so I shoud be able to catch up to him. we went back and forth a bit and I got some chips on these two hands:

POKERSTARS GAME #12744737062: TOURNAMENT #64282157, FREEROLL HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL X (400/800) - 2007/10/20 - 17:30:53 (ET)
Table '64282157 2' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 4: jnye34 (20040 in chips)
Seat 8: 2whodatdare (14460 in chips)
jnye34: posts the ante 50
2whodatdare: posts the ante 50
jnye34: posts small blind 400
2whodatdare: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 2whodatdare [Jh 7s]
jnye34: raises 1600 to 2400
2whodatdare: raises 2600 to 5000
jnye34: calls 2600
*** FLOP *** [2c 6c Ks]
2whodatdare: checks
jnye34: checks
*** TURN *** [2c 6c Ks] [2h]
2whodatdare: bets 9410 and is all-in
jnye34: folds

I think the check on the flop was a big mistake for me. I 3-bet him here and should continuation bet here to keep up the pressure, and not let another card come to possibly improve his hand. But when he checks behind I'm betting the turn most of the time and take a nice pot here.

This next hand happened one minute later:

POKERSTARS GAME #12744752012: TOURNAMENT #64282157, FREEROLL HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL X (400/800) - 2007/10/20 - 17:31:41 (ET)
Table '64282157 2' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 4: jnye34 (14990 in chips)
Seat 8: 2whodatdare (19510 in chips)
jnye34: posts the ante 50
2whodatdare: posts the ante 50
2whodatdare: posts small blind 400
jnye34: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 2whodatdare [Th Ts]
2whodatdare: raises 1500 to 2300
jnye34: raises 2500 to 4800
2whodatdare: raises 14660 to 19460 and is all-in
jnye34 said, "got an ace"
2whodatdare said, "i know"
jnye34 said, "lol"
jnye34: folds
2whodatdare collected 9700 from pot

I think jnye was saying he had an ace, at least in my mind and when I answered him it was to say "I know you have an ace and I'm really strong."
Now I'm feeling comfortable with 70% of the chips and it's oly a matter of time... until I mess this whole thing up? Or win?

5 minutes later:

POKERSTARS GAME #12744843816: TOURNAMENT #64282157, FREEROLL HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL X (400/800) - 2007/10/20 - 17:36:51 (ET)
Table '64282157 2' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 4: jnye34 (12590 in chips)
Seat 8: 2whodatdare (21910 in chips)
jnye34: posts the ante 50
2whodatdare: posts the ante 50
2whodatdare: posts small blind 400
jnye34: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 2whodatdare [Ah Qc]
2whodatdare: raises 1500 to 2300
jnye34: raises 10240 to 12540 and is all-in
2whodatdare: calls 10240
*** FLOP *** [6d 2h 5s]
2whodatdare said, "gl"
*** TURN *** [6d 2h 5s] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [6d 2h 5s Jd] [Qh]

*** SHOW DOWN ***
jnye34: shows [Jc Jh] (three of a kind, Jacks)
2whodatdare: shows [Ah Qc] (a pair of Queens)
jnye34 collected 25180 from pot

I don't think either of us were folding here. He's a big favorite vs. my range and I love my hand.

Now jnye34 starts putting a lot of pressure on me pre-flop, which he should. He has a huge chip lead and should not slow down. He played extremely well and deserved to win. I think I played better than I have been lately, but know there are situations where I can improve. I just have to find them. Thanks to Ryan and Jared for hosting this tourney and for recording the final table. I'm looking forward to seeing parts 3 and 4 if you have them.

Comments are welcome on what you think of the hands shown here and are appreciated. Until then, good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.

8 Years Ago Today.......

....Mrs. Whodatdare and I went on our first date. Honey, you are truly an angel to put up with me sometimes, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for looking past the many quirks and faults I have. Did I mention that I have many of them?

Do you remember the night I asked you to dinner? I really thought when I asked if you wouldn't mind waiting until I got paid that you would run far and fast, but you didn't. (It had to be my game, right?) It seems like that dinner was so long ago and like it was last night too. That's because of you. You make life enjoyable. I would be incomplete without you. I love You!

Macro Monday

I hope I can stack opponents as well as I can stack these coins. Interstingly, when I was setting up this shot I noticed that some of the coins had to be placed heads up and some had to be placed the other way to get the words facing the right way.

Blogger Freeroll on Poker Stars!

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 5124214

Click the top link above to see how you can enter as well and be part of the fun! There is absolutely no catch. You don't have to deposit money onto the site so what are you waiting for?

Thanks to jonyy6788 at Poker Dynasty for the hook up on this. Good luck to my fellow bloggers and may the better cards hit my hand. Just this one time! Ok, I know I'm dead money but a man can dream......

Another Macro Monday

I might make this a regular theme here on Mondays. The shots won't always be of flowers, but when you see them in a different way and I think that makes it really intersting. This shot is full frame with a tiny bit of editing done to get rid of a dead spot on the leaf towards the bottom. Patter metering made the red bloom stand out here, which turned out cooler than I thought. So, through fidgeting and just messing around with the controls I get a good shot. Maybe that can translate in my poker game?

As always I use Thickbox on my pictures here so you can click on the thumbnail for a lager image. Thanks again to Terry's Playpen for the tutorial.

Water Lily

This is the actual water lily in the shot below. Both of these shots are full frame with no crop at all, taken with the Canon S3 IS.

A Monday Macro

Water lily taken at 9:30 a.m. This is the very center of the flower and the distance to it is about 1-1/2". Hand held photo and no Photoshop tricks were used, except for cloning a few blemishes that were on the flower itself.

A little Musical Interlude

Los Lobos is best known for their work in the movie "La Bamba", about Richie Valens. They performed all the music in the movie. This song is kind of different, but the album, Kiko is one of their best. Hope you enjoy......

Short Update

Just messing around at Bodog and playing way under-rolled. For some reason I hate playing 10NL full ring games. So I jumped up to the 25NL 6-max games and am not doing too bad, but coulld be doing better. It's taken a little while to get used to the players here but not as long as usual. Maybe my game is progressing? My goal this month is to triple what I strarted with at the site. I deposited 4 buy ins at 25, so I'll need to get to 12, not including the bonus they gave me. I still have my $T credits to use too and I guess they can be used for any tourney. After that goal is accomplished I want to be really active in the mini mastermind we are setting up over at Poker Dynasty, as well as get back to Full Tilt for rakeback, and play more hands than I have in the past.

This group study thing will really help my game, as the people lined up in it are better than me. I just hope I can contribute a lot to the group when I start excelling, which I have no doubt will happen very soon. Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand....

Ramblings

I played a $1.00 tournament on Bodog yesterday and finished in 4th place out of 148 players. While I didn't win life changing money it still feels great to get a good result and cash in a tournament. I can't say that my game has - all of a sudden - drastically improved, but I find myself concentrating more while I play. I think that's one of the biggest things I need to keep doing to improve my play. I'm finding that when I stay focused on the task at hand, whether it be pool or poker or even my job, I'm more successful.

This isn't any epiphany I recently discovered. I guess I've always known it, but for some reason it's starting to sink in. Part of that is reading Jared's answers in the hand histories at Poker Dynasty.net. The answers are simple to follow. The main message I'm getting is to think through on your actions, study hard on your game and play more hands. Better results will come when you start making better post-flop decisions.

I found my favorite radio station recently online from my hometown of Chicago and I'm loving it! The DJ's make their own playlists and you don't hear the same song played over and over. You won't hear the same playlist the next day either. It's a rock station, but there is a HUGE variety of music played. Go to link and click on Listen Live Now. Hope you like....
Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand..........

Colorful Bug and Some Live Pokah!

I found this thing after hurricane Humberto passed by Friday night. I've never seen such a colorful bug before, and the patterns on him remind me of a small flower. He was hanging around the light on the deck, along with a couple of his friends.

Oh, I played some live poker Saturday night after the 'Bama game. What a comeback that was!

We had what turned out to be a $30.00 6 man Sit and Go starting with 80 chips. Neo Black was also playing. Thankfully he was on my right so I had a litlle more free rein on when I could play. Blinds start out at 1/2 and go up around every 40 minutes, or whenever we all needed a beer.

I chipped up a little bit by making a nice check raise on one guy's flop min. bet, and made some more on a couple pre-flop raise/ c-bets.

I made a huge bluff at the 2/4 level on a calling station who I knew would not call with something like a small pair. I led him by 30 chips and I've played with him before so I had a pretty good read on his game. Well, he got talked into it by the dude next to him. What ever happened to one player to a hand? He called with a pair of 7's on a board that showed a possible flush and a straight. I was steaming for two orbits before I cooled off. I liked my bet in that spot, given the read I had on the player.

So I'm down to 30 chips and it's time for the next level, 3/6. I look over to the player on my left and say to him to watch out because I only have 5 big Blinds left and it's time to start shoving. He laughs and pays me off three hands later. This level treated me pretty well, as I got all my chips back from the station on a really weak hand. I have Jack 7, suited, and hit the 7 on the flop with a back door flush draw. He bets the minimum and I shove all in and get called by 97. Nice double up and I'm back in it now. I made a few button raises to take some blinds and I'm starting to feel more comfortable and make a few button raises to take some blinds. I was never 3-bet the entire time.

Most of the pre-flop raises by the opponents were min. raises, except for Neon Black, who nursed a small stack most of the night and played extremely well. I knew I could 3-bet him in certain situations and that he would respect it but, as I said, he was pretty short for a while. If he raised 3-1/2 times the BB I was out. If I had a decent - but not premium - hand I would call and hope to see one or two more players enter, figuring I could steal on the flop with a raise.

We're 5 handed now and I knocked out the next 2 players to take a huge chip lead. The first player I knocked off was read based. I had been raising quite a bit (3-1/2 X BB) and this guy asked why I raised so much, and he folded. The next time I was on the button I did the same thing with Ace high, just trying to steal blinds. He starts to think and he looked frustrated (Neon Black just took a bunch of his chips with a straight on the river)and shoved all in. Something just didn't feel right about his shove. His normal style of play was to call the raise and try to take down the pot on the flop with a shove. I've never seen him shove pre-flop with any pocket pair, or premium Ace holding. So I called. He had Queen ten, off suit and I rivered a straight. The next guy went soon afterward when he called with Top pair and I had him out kicked.

Out of the starting 480 chips I'm sitting with about 380 of them and blinds are now at 5/10 and moving up fast. Two places pay out and neither of these guys will catch me, although I would prefer to see Neon Black go down in flames. He was the only player I really respected in terms of playing ability. That's not a knock on the other guys, as they are friends, but when it comes to poker Neon and I were the two best players there. There wasn't much action now and it was getting late so I offered a chop so that 3rd place could get some money for his effort. I thought it was the right thing to do.

Hope you all had a great weekend. Good luck and may the good cards hit your hand....