Super Mega Ultra Tilt

Many days I just simply hate poker. No bad beat stories today. No clever witticisms. I just am not capable of dealing with suckouts and very tiltable. There you go kids, your key to playing me -- suck out on me and I will whine like Hellmuth.

Go get 'em.

Oh Canada

Just got back from three days in Ontario. My wife and I fell in love with the Niagara Falls area late last year, especially a little town called Niagara on the Lake, on the shores of Lake Ontario. We did the touristy stuff last time we were there, but this time we got a nice room in a bed and breakfast and planned to hike, bike, and relax.

Well, not quite what we hoped. Lots of rain meant only one bike run, and no hiking. We still had lots of fun, but my girl was disappointed that her plans did not work out.

I did get to play a little poker. Can I mention how much I HATE capped 50BB buy-in no limit poker? It's not poker, it's craps until you can get a deeper stack. Played for an hour at Casino Niagara and lost with AK to the mighty Q9. Then I played a while at Seneca and got it all in with AA raising a late position's flop continuation bet with pocket sevens, only to see him turn a gutshot and river a flush. Made some of it back and then it was time for the tournament.

Worst. Tournament structure. Ever. You start with $600 in chips, unlimited rebuys for one hour, 15 minute levels. 25-25, 25-50, 50-75, 50-100. Then they do a dealer tip add-on. Long story short I do two "top-off" rebuys early and finish at the break with $1950 when my top pair holds up against a club draw. I hate getting it all in with a pair, but the structure demands it and the shoddy play made it easier to bear.

Speaking of shoddy plays, I lasted less than twenty minutes after the break after building my stack to $2600 in about three hands. Across the table is the biggest donkey I've ever seen in live play. He had been playing next to me at the cash game and he was happy to get it all in with a gutshot or a 10-high flush draw, or bet big on the come. And I'm not talking LAGgy, I'm talking "I'm playing craps with cards."

I find A-10 on the button and raise 3x to 600. All fold except donk in BB. Flop is A-K-6 rainbow. He looks at me, looks at his chips, and bets $1000. This is one of those getting more common times in my live play where I have been paying attention, and I know that I know that I know that he has a weak pair, the King, or a gutshot. If I had $10K in chips maybe I could get away from this hand, but what else can I do with only 2K but push. He calls immediately.

With King 5 soooooted. I don't have to tell you what the turn card was, and I did not river a better two pair. The donkey has the audacity to taunt after he catches his 22%.

I don't care if someone outdraws me normally. It stings in a cash game, but that's what reloading is for. But when someone is that bad (who in the blue hell thinks K5 is good there), I make a good read, and get him to call all in drawing to 7 outs (with me having 8 outs of my own if he catches the 5 and not the King), that stings. I may have been less than charitable.

The bankroll is looking a bit slimmer than I had hoped 30 days before Mayhem. Back to the double shootouts and rebuys I guess! Onward and upward!

Rough Day

Had a rough afternoon at the tables, but hoping I recover at the local tourney tonight. Looks like both Bob and Don will be there, which makes for a better time. Hope I got all my donkey out, because my cash game play was horrible.

Played well in satellites, and in fact was doing really well in the $11R until the table CL decided two undercards to the board and an OESD was enough to call off $5000 chips on the button after a flop bet from UTG and my reraise all in. My big pair no good to that "monster".

Hey, folks like this long term are going to make me win big pots, but my bankroll is not short-term variance friendly right now......

UPDATE: I actually won the first level of a shootout.......I had forgotten what that looked like. These shootouts used to be gold for me, but I've had a real cold streak lately.

Craptastic

I actually like being a lawyer.

However, weeks like this drive me pretty nuts.

I've been working under the assumption that I was going to be trying a group of cases in May. I was excited, because it's been since December for me and I like trying cases more than anything. However, this case involves our foreign car manufacturer as well as our domestic client, and they are a bit more picky.

Long story short, they aren't comfortable with anyone but the counsel they've already worked with, so my former boss at my former firm is blowing into town to try the case. Which means even if I am trying the case I will be relegated to briefcase-holding duty.

Sigh.



I post this as a vent because I've played exactly 4 hours of poker this week and netted $11.05 and have nothing witty or intelligent to say.

OK, this was funny

This from I Had Outs, a great blogging tandem that I read with frequency and so should you (the good combination of humor, solid writing, and frequent updates=goot):

God grant me the serenity to accept the cards that I am dealt
The courage to bet when I have the best hand
And the ability to suck out when I am wrong

Quick Question

When did reraising with King Ten off become standard tournament play? Sorry, just a satellite vent. Looking forward to playing some real poker next week, as tonight's hardly qualifies....

BOOM -- almost

I was well on my way to a big score in the 5R on Stars last night. First time I've ever had a million chips. Unfortunately I busted eighth when a player limped with Aces and I hit a King on the flop in the BB. All them chips, they went in, and all them chips, they slid the other way. Very risky way to play Aces, but it worked out for him so he must be a genius!

I should have seen it coming, and I definitely could have gotten away from the hand. Especially from the guy who did the limping -- that was the problem with the play. The aggression was good, the not stopping and thinking was bad. I had the right read on him, just let fatigue and bravado get the best of me -- I could have at least put him on a better hand and bailed with plenty of chips left.

Hey, at least I made all of my classic poker book mistakes all at once in one hand -- I went broke in an unraised pot with one pair tangling with the one guy who could bust me because I did not fear the limper and without worrying about what he had versus what I had. It's Phil Gordon meets Doyle Brunson meets Gyd in a dark alley with socks full of nickels. (there ya go Slart)

Thanks to all for the rail support. Dutchy, Slart, Tejas, RJS, Duque, and anyone else I missed, I appreciate the support. My profit will still spend, even though it could have been much more. I felt like I played really well, mixing up my game. But frankly I was also a card rack for a good while. Still loads of fun.

Of Mothers and Fathers

I am not often one to brag. While I may sometimes come off as cocky, it's mostly for comic effect, so true braggadocio is not something I engage in except to taunt Bengals fans.

However, over the years, I have always bragged about the fact that I found it pretty cool to be one of the few __-year olds I knew with parents that were still together. I was beating the odds, I would crow.

The day after my Thanksgiving 2005, my dad left my mom. They're still separated, and they will not be getting back together, as both have seen lawyers. They will not make their 35th anniversary.

I am tied up in knots about the whole thing for various reasons, and it is leaching into much of the rest of my life. My dad left for a bunch of reasons I am sure, but he says it comes down to "we were growing apart" and concerns he had with my mom's health (she's heavy and apparently was smoking again). While I am not going to judge someone for ending a marriage (I know things can get tough -- even though he promised for better or for worse), the way he did it is what is giving me an ulcer. I say that because he left without ever giving my mom a chance to fix things. He also told everyone, including his two children, that it was temporary when it is now obvious that he never had any intention of going back. Now he's started the divorce process without seeking counseling, talking things through, or ever giving his marriage another shot. Not fun to pick up the pieces of my mom the last couple of weeks after he saw the lawyer.

Further, this is also a pattern. My grandfather, for whom I am named, also left his wife after 25+ years of marriage. He too waited until his kids were grown and "they could handle it." He at least gave counseling a shot, but I now face not only the pain of dealing with a broken family (and my sister just found out she's pregnant), but also the fear that if both of them did it, I will too. I take my marriage seriously, and I love my wife more than I thought possible, but it's something that makes me a bit insecure to say the least -- that idea that it not only can happen to anyone, it has happened to everyone in your bloodline. It troubles me that I now have to fight a family legacy as well as the already hard pressures of married life.

I love my parents. I love my parents together. I don't love this situation. I certainly don't love being a parent to my ailing mother. I don't relish the idea of watching my mom have to work through this. I am not "handling it." I'm a bit irrational and depressed. I know we'll all get through this, but it's not how I pictured things would go. Especially since I always wanted to name my first boy after my dad -- I can never do that now even if he and I patch things up.

So, to say that playing poker is a good and necessary release of tension these days is the understatement of the year.

Well Isn't this Fun

I doubt I will ever write much on this, but I like being able to comment on the blogs of my friends. So, we'll call this a test post and see if something develops. Thanks to MoeSyzslak for making "Gyd Smash" a catchphrase to be proud of. Imagine a 300 lb. man growling like the Hulk at the poker table after a suckout. That's me in a nutshell. A very large nutshell.

Anyway, on with the show. Hi, I'm Jay, a lawyer by trade who is also a poker junkie. I am 31, and I have a beautiful wife who is very understanding about this poker "fad" as long as I keep buying her massages.

Poker has been an interesting hobby for me, I must say. I've been playing seriously for about a year, and I feel like I am slowly beginning to get a grasp of the game. It's been a fun ride -- I have very little bankroll, but that's mostly by choice. I am still playing this game as a hobby and for fun, not as a lifestyle, so when I make a big score I cash out and buy stuff, and I will play above my bankroll if that's where the fun is. I'll learn.

I post and learn about poker from the fine people at www.dbpoker.com and www.wptfan.com. Great things to be learned at both places, and great communities to be a part of. Our next gathering, to be hosted by the mean and aggressive MK, is in AC in May. I'm looking forward to it.

Generally, I think too many people blog about poker -- how many people grinding it out at .25/.50 really have all that much to say that will revolutionize the game? I certainly do not have anything to offer to the community as a whole that can't be found in the annals of much better players, and much better writers. So, if I do decide to pursue this thing, it won't be about poker as much as it will be about life from the eyes of a novice poker-playing law school grad. So, you know, ignore all the blogs by Seif. Or Bloch. Shut up.

Anyway, thanks for reading this. Enjoy!