Update

Its been awhile since the last post. Ive been on vacation and doing other things. Havent played cards much. Small tournies here and there. Might go to The Inn tonight with Mike. I'm signed up for franks new Labor Day tourny and I also have plans for starting a Poker Club at Drexel(assuming there isnt one already). Been reading up on strategy and stuff and reading Harringtons books front to back repeatedly. Recently ive played some small tournaments here and there a couple at mooses, my house, and even joels one night. Overall im probably even since i won one of them and places in the money in 4 total.

ESPN has poker on tonight but im pretty sure its gonna be ass too. Im actually getting extremely bored of watching poker on TV. I mean dont get me wrong, if I see it i turn it on, but most of the players are not worth watching. So far the best one has been Jesus and Friedman heads up. Both of those guys are amazing players and Friedman is a monster online.
I've been thinking about the tournament and see myself as the favorite yet again. Cheating will not go on because im sure everyone will have their eyes open.

Ive been thinking about a play I made recently and how it was a good play by moose but a really bad play by me. Its a little $10 buy in tournament at mooses house, there are 4 guys and we all start with 25 chips. All valued at 1. Blinds are 1/2 and its the second or third hand. I pick up 88 on the button. I raise to 6 and moose re-raises to 10. Immedietly I thought AK or AQs. Flop comes 6 Q 3 or Q x x. Anyway, moose bets out 5. I think about folding and call. Turn is a K. Now im thinking theres no way I am in the lead. Moose pushes all in (8) and I have 4 left. I fold, he shows 77.
Heres the mistakes i made:
1. If I put him on AK or AQ, I should have pushed him all-in pre-flop because i know he calls with those hands.

2. After the flop I should re-interpret the situation instead of putting him on a hand and assuming that he is holding that all the way through.

3. I should have made a quicker decision on the turn.

4. When moose bets 8 on the river instead of just betting 4 or putting me all in, i should have realized he doesnt want a call. By betting 8 and going all-in, he is showing strength because he is weak.

5. When I folded on the turn I had to put 4 chips to win a pot of 32. Im getting 8 to 1 on my call. If I fold I am left with an M of 2(meaning my stack in relation to the blinds/antes. An M of 10 or under is extremely bad.) This situation was not good and I should have called for pot odds. Even if I put him on two pair or top pair without an 8 in his hand I was still 4.6% to win(or 22 to 1) based on what i would be left with I had to make that call. soon after that I picked up 88 again but lost because 4 chips is not enough to push anyone out... BUT, i did show my eights and still they all called. We can debate how this was a wrong play but im just a sore loser...

Anyway, heres the tip of the day...
Your at a final table of a small home tournament held on labor day, you pick up KK in the small blind, what do you do.??

Well if the big blind happens to be me, moose, vinny, dariao, or whoever, and you dealt yourself or a buddy this hand, fold that shit or you get fucked up... that simple

cheated

yea so yesterday at franks more than a couple of us were under the impression the winner of the third tournament had cheated his way there... heres some facts:
They showed up together
They bet on eachother
Brandon wanted higher first place prize and then wins that same tourny
Brandon ate the cost for dans bet with me
Dan shuffled for Brandon or whatever and gave him KK twice on brandons deal
Brandon beat AQ against Kings two times all-in on his deal
Brandons prediction for the final three included him and Dan
Brandon and Dan would take a look at eachothers hole cards just about every hand
Brandon whispered in Dans ear on more than one occasion
Brandon has been caught cheating before
Brandon nor Dan ever offered cuts….
When it was Brandon Dan and Randy, all of Dans chips went to Brandon...

….therefore the conclusion is that that is way to many coincidences for them to not have cheated….
But dont listen to me, just form your own conclusion...

The player ratings

Despite how much many of you were looking forward to it... I have decided to cancel the player ratings project. Here is my opinion of the best in each area:
Best 5 low-stakes(.25,.50, $10 buy in)Cash Players(in no particular order): Ray, Me, Frank, Russo, McGovern
Best 5 higher-stakes(.50,1, $20 buy in)Me, McGovern, Dustin, Tim, Frank
Best 5 Tourny Players(in no particular order): Me, Randy, Vinny, McGovern, (insert name of the player with the highest player points after saturday who is not on this list)

Call it cocky call it what you want, but right now I really cant see anyone near me or McGovern in skill. I feel we are in a top tier that is on a different level from everyone else. If I did have to make comments about who could enter that tier it would be frank. His game is improving rapidly now all he needs is some tourny cashes.

Lucky

last night poker at franks. I picked up some pots and started with some lucky hands early. Overall I had two good moves and one bad. The good would be the Queens full of Tens against Kiddles trip tens and the nut straight against goldberg, on both occasions i made maximum profit. The bad play was calling Russo's all in with trip 10s. All in all i ended up $21 for the night. Not bad considering i took a harsh AK loss to QK when we both flopped trips. But its not like i dont hand out bad beats. Im looking forward to Saturday and don't plan on playing cards tonight, but should the opportunity arise i really can't pass it up with this streak im on, as far as im concerned i should cash out winnings every night i play. To quote an absolute dickhead "If there were no luck involved, I would win every hand." Im glad franks doing a points system and I hope to take the lead after Saturday.

And now, for the first time on this blog, its The Poker Tip of the Day.
Todays tip is how to play K3 (a.k.a. The Krablar) under the gun. Raise and do the Krablar dance... its the only way.


P.S. Last night I played the King Crab UTG and raised and took it down.

Last Night

Played in 3 tournaments with Pokey last night. We cleaned house. Chopped the first, he won the second, and i won the last one. We both ended up around $100 and continues my streak of pure domination. Hes on a good run himself. After the third tourny this one guy accused us of cheating and said "Im not stupid, i saw your signals" and other shit like that. Way to take your loss like a man buddy. If he knew me or McGovern, he would know not only that were good players but also that we dont need to cheat. Despite how easy of a game it was, i guess im probably not going to go back.

That puts me over $350 in winnings in the past two weeks(since franks tournie) Since franks tournament(and including) Adding up my cash outs, I have lost around $230 but on winning nights i have won over $600. In that I have 9 Money Finishes in around 15 tournaments, including 4 wins and 2 chops. I would put that under the category of on fire. Yes charlie, Im a tool.

Anyway, Franks tournament is coming up on Saturday and I would have to put me or Pokey as the favorite(unless I bring Feel Good Inc. with me). Probably gonna have around 20 people. I thought of an idea im gonna run by frank of having a bounty on Juan since he won the last one but we will see. My prediction Final Table is:
1.DARIAO
2.rado
3.Kittle
4.Charlie
5.Juan
6.Brandon
7.Goldberg
8.Tim McGovern










OK and my real Final Table predictions are:(In No Particular Order)(dont know if pokes or randy is playing)
1. Matt Mesisca
2. Matt McGovern
3.Vinny Baldino
4. Frank The Unstoppable Tank Busillo
5. Brandon McDonald
6. Tim McGovern
7. Randy
8.......AND





charlie ballgrab

Honorable Mentions:
Steve Goldberg
Matt Dariao