Talking *hit!

I got a call from one of my longtime out of town friends today, and he tells that he had just won his first poker tournament. That's right, Shmee has caught the poker bug! I am so proud of him! Shmee, if I lived that close to casinos, I would be in so much trouble! I can't imagine Shmee at a poker table. I think that is one thing he has going for him, little Indian guy, fidgeting around, smelling everything...People must think he's a real loose cannon! So if you ever see the best looking Indian on earth at your table, be scared, be very scared!
Shmee actually was upset that I haven't "talked shit" about any of my friends. I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but I could go on and on about my friends. He actually was most concerned about my friend Chris. Chances are he will never read this journal because he is probably the busiest, most hard working accountant on the planet. I mean, i'm pretty busy at work, but I always have some time to bs w/ my boys! Chris spends more time in the office than any of my other friends, aside from maybe Brian and Rob who are in front of a computer probably just as much. But, you know, Chris has a pretty important job so I can't really fault him, he just needs to work on his ADD. Which it seems that he must be doing since you can hardly talk to him on the phone during work. So NEVER call Chris at work...NEVER. It will only lead to listening to yourself talk and listening to Chris say things like..."really,...wow..., that's crazy...", etc, etc. One time I called Chris and was having a conversation with him...I asked him some question, only to hear silence on the other end. Instead of asking Chris the question again, or asking him if he was listening, I just waited...and waited...and waited. Finally, after about 30 seconds, Chris goes "oh my god...that's crazy..." as to reply to whatever he thought I was talking about. I probably should've just hung up on him, but I know how it is! Or the time that I was on the phone with him and in the middle of the call, actually in the middle of the sentence, Chris whispers "dude, I gotta go, my boss is coming". Man, it's not like you are downloading porn or something. What, are you gonna get fired? Anyway, that's Chris, and I can't really mess with him to bad since he's my fantasy football partner. Speaking of fantasy football, we need to come up with a new team name. I can easily do it, so I guess I will, I wanted Chris to come up with something, but as I said, he's busy at work.

So Shmee wants to set up a poker tournament! He's so into it, that he's ready to play in NOVEMBER! Since Shmee lives in CA, he isn't coming back into town until Nov. 18th. And he has already told me that we are playing so that he can "take all of our money". I love it, he's already talking smack!

I received some comments to this blog, which at first I was excited about, but upon review, they are mostly spam. It seems I didn't set up the comments section to defend against this, but now it is. I did get one comment by an annonymous user "Oh my god!!" I wonder who this was from, and how thoughtful it was. Really, thanks for the input, keep using that big brain of yours! I figure it's probably one of my buddies who I told about this little journal, and he probably thinks it's "gay", "stupid", or a waste of time, but whatever.

I'm on a bit of a losing streak on UB these days, mostly because I haven't been playing very well or paying attention enough. I really have been making bad decisions and need to plug some of my leaks. These will need to be addressed: Trouble hands out of position: AT, KQ, KJ, KT, QT, QJ, JT, and dare I say it Axs. I think I have been loosening up a bit and think I can outplay my opponents, but I seem to get into more trouble than I should. So I need to fold these in early position and either raise or fold in MP. It's just that the ring games seem so loose that these should be played. Folding good hands: they say that good players are able to muck good hands when they smell trouble. I have a hard time folding big pocket pairs after the flop or after being played back at heavily. Most of the time I run into a set or two pair, or even a higher pair. Regardless if these opposing hands should've been in the hand or not, it shouldn't matter. The hardest is sniffing out the set. It seems that most low limit online players slowplay sets. So if I get checked to and bet my overpair or even top pair good kicker, and I get raised big, I should assume i'm beat? This happened this weekend when I got felted by my buddy Phil in the home game we were playing. I had KJo in MP, and since we were playing shorthanded (5), I made my standard preflop raise. Phil called from SB I think, and we were heads up taking a flop of 4 J 7. Phil checked and I bet about the size of the pot, Phil raised pretty big and I re-raised all-in and he called quickly, turning over pocket fours. It was a good hand for phil as I had beaten him earlier that night with pocket threes, and David beat him after that with pocket deuces, each time we flopped sets. Now Phil was playing pretty aggressive that night and I figured he could make a move with just about any hand when he raised my opening flop bet. I thought there was a 50/50 chance that he was on a bluff or had just a small piece of the flop. He has no problem putting all his money in on a draw. But the thing is, I got blinded. In fact, I should've folded or at least only called after the raise for many reasons other than sniffing out the set. I should've thought of the hands that he would call a raise w/ pre-flop. Pocket pairs, Ax, Suited connector. I should've been mostly worried about AJ. Also, I think Phil had tightened up a bit since he was down a good bit from previous hands and had rebought twice I think. Anyway, Phil is a good player and he made a good play. Another interesting hand occured online. It is only interesting that I read it perfectly and went broke anyway. Obviously another leak. I read a quote from Antonio Esfandiari today that said basically, if you have any inkling of a thought that you are beat, fold. I was in a SnG and had just doubled up to a pretty decent stack with KJ (Interesting that these hands always involve KJ). Anyway, I get KJ again and call from LP. We take a fourway flop of T J K. A EP limper bets very little and I immediately think AQ? Quickly, I rule that out because most people would raise with that right? Then I go with either I have the best hand and am up against a smaller two pair (JT and KT could certainly be limped with in these games this early in the tournament), or I was up against the same hand as myself and that we would chop. I ended up going all in, and he quickly called with AQo. So I read it right, just ruled it out!

As for music, these days I have been listening to a lot of bluegrass. In my car today is Yonder Mountain String Band's latest live CD. These guys really bring it! They are playing three venues in the area come Oct. Mo and I are thinking about hitting one of em', just have to decide which one! Also in my car is the last Umphreys McGee show I attended at the Recher Theatre in Baltimore. I think these guys are my favorite band right now. This was a SICK show! The third CD that is getting the most playtime is an advance copy of a David Axlerod album, due out this month. I went to my favorite record store Joes Record Paradise, and got into a conversation with one of the guys that works there and he recommended this one. It's called "The Edge", and is basically a "Best of", but what is interesting about this is that so much of it is recognizable because he has been sampled by so many rap/hip-hop artists. It's really jazzy and fushion-esque. The other two CD's in the car are Ryan Adams Heartbreaker and The Grateful Dead Reckoning, both excellent and I highly recommend. Next purchase for me is the new Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon CD.