4/12/2008

Look at that Pebbles Gooooo.....

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I sit and watch by far, the 2nd. greatest challenge known to man.

The Masters!

Second only to women, Augusta is a true challenge of man's perseverance, fortitude and determination.

Then Peb's log's on and jumps into a $3.30 challenge. Next thing you know, we get a message from ANI and it reads;

ANIguy shows a straight flush, Eight high
ANIguy wins the side pot (9,200) with a straight flush, Eight high
karthik1 shows a straight, Eight high
ANIguy wins the main pot (15,295) with a straight flush, Eight high

WooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooT !!!!!!!!!!!

Donkette then sends a chat, while Peb's is All-In in her little 90 player game. Peb's is in sixth place All-In, and holding K-K. She gets a caller. The caller is holding 2-6 off-suit and is the chip leader at the moment. (nice hand Gus!!!) Peb's manages to hold on, despite the 3-5-K flop, and makes a massive double-up, all the way to final table.

My Donkette ask's, "what name is she playing under?"

"PebblesCan" I respond.

Next thing you know, "Gooooooooooooo Peb's" appears in the chat. ;o)

Peb's ended up taking down 4th. place when her sooted Asian-Jew, was no match for a sooted J-7 call, by another chip leader. (they rock ! "it was only another 44,000 to call!")

So we found some idiot we know, playing in a game at the final table. Time to root for the home team I figure! So cheer him on we did. All the way to a second in another 90 player event. Peb's, Bam AND Donkette behind you, HOW DO YOU LOSE???

;o)

Peb's decided to play in just one more event. Money bubble was her reward. Funny thing? She lost when her BB sooted Asian-Jew, just couldn't hold on against another sooted J-7.

Weird karma, if you ask me.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

It ain't easy being TuckFard....

Another Friday, another dominating performance by the TuckFards!

Last night was the charity MTT poker event for the hockey kids. A group of 8 TuckFards invaded the event and WOW ! We were in rare form last night for certain. With three tables left, ZAP, myself, Pebbles, QueenK, DonKaaa, Suzy_Q, brudder Carson and the lovely Redneck TuckFard, were all still in play! WoooooooT !

I was the first of us out in a shamefull display of Bam-Bammed'ness! Who knew the sooooted "Bammer," would not hold up against any Ace? WTF ??? It's 9-3 sooted after all! It should be dominating ATC don't you think? Honestly, I was just having some fun and I figured the guy might be good enough to let any weak Ace go against a player that has only shown the nutz and instantly went over the top of his weak ass raise. I should know better but oh well, it was all in the name of charity. At least I got the biggest belly laugh and TIME from DonKaaa, when I had to flip my cards over.

I knew right away the night was going to be a lot of fun and a fairly tough struggle. With all of the tables and seats available to draw to, DonKaaa, Pebbles and I all draw table #1. Un-real!

Carson and I set up the event for the charity organizers and made a format that allowed for about two hours of play, at reasonable levels. You want supporters to get the feeling that they got their monies worth, you know? The levels after the two hour point, became really aggressive. As they say, "The price of poker is going up."

It took no time to get down to final table, with the levels becoming huge by stack size comparison. Tucks that made it were Carson, DonKaaa, Redneck and Suzy_Q. HALF THE TABLE !!! Pebbles stepped up to the plate and dealt for the final table.

Finishing order ended up being;

-Suzy_Q out in 7th. - a serious short stack starting the table.
-Redneck out in 3rd. - Some great reads early on in the going.
-DonKaaa out in 2nd. - I admit to pressuring him to push at the end. (TuckFard nutz no less!)

And our winner was brudder Carson. What a great game he played. Everyone of the Tucks that made it to final, deserved to be there for sure. But my boy Carson, well he's playing some of the best poker I've ever seen him play. It's really great to see and I know he'll keep it going now that he's really on his game.

Congrats brudder! A well deserved win.

Thanks to all the Tucks for coming down and helping out so much. I've already been thanked by those in charge and they wanted to make sure that I passed on their utmost appreciation, for everything you all did to make the night a success for the kids.

And Masseman! A special thanks to you dude! The hit of the night by far for the crowd? Those amazing chips you supplied for the game. Offering up a set of quality clay to cover 120 players....well....you're just the best man!

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

4/11/2008

Playing in the reign....

NO ! I was not out running around in the pouring rain, looking for someone else to sing happy birthday to Kat! This is about my, “office.” The $0.50/$1.00 and $1.00/$2.00 STUD HI games, I use to fund my Blogger events.

I don’t know if it’s the weather and the fact that Spring just doesn’t seem like it’s ever going to get here, but chat down there is just re-Donkulous of late. Now the names are changed to protect the innocent, (and me at the "office.") but as an example, I offer you the following;

83R76 : nh earlier bob!
bigbabob : ty
83r76 : sarcastic there a hole
Dealer: subatomic shows Kc-Kh-7c for a full house K's and 7's
Dealer : 83r76 shows Ad-3s-Ah for three of a kind Aces.
83r76 : rip u a new one soon
83r76 : stopd mudfok her
Dealer : subatomic wins the pot ($62.00) with a full house K's and 7's
83r76 : wtf did you call with that crap?
83r76 : I had Ace showing you donkey
83r76 : hahaha gonna bust U tomic
83r76 : like learning to play suba swipe?

(***note*** The above was highly modified for creative license purposes)

Now I know this is not extremely terrible compared to some of the stuff going on in the chat elsewhere on the sites, but it is very new to me in my “office” area. These games are about patience, study, timing and focus. There really is no time to chat if you’re doing everything right and still in a hand. So there’s typically very little discussion and a lot of good poker. I in fact, have yet to type a word in the chat box when logged in to the “office.” (yes, even when I know a blogger by name that has sat down at my table) I know it's got to be hard to believe when you see me at a blogger game. But that’s Bam-Bam at play, not the guy hard at work. You all know 'that' guy. He’s a lot like you against me in NLHE, trying to rape and pillage chips off of some poor unsuspecting beginner, playing the game poorly at best. But often throwing cash around like it’s play chips.

So with the combination of the beginning players and the seasoned veterans out there trying to play the game, added to the importance of paying the utmost attention to the action as it happens, there has always been very little if any, chat in the box.

But this has changed tremendously over just this past winter. All of a sudden, everyone has to comment on a hand or the play of another player. None of it ever a polite nh or gg. ALL of it total and utter trash, or degrading and demeaning commentary to another. I’ve been trying to figure out what all this is saying about our society as a whole. I mean, someone had to raise these people right? Is it genetics that make them do what they do and play poker? Is there a specific type that must play the game and get incredibly violent and aggressive after a loss? Could it literally be as simple as, just completely poor upbringing from the previous generation? I don’t really know the answer, but I don’t really want it to change too much either to be honest.

I find I seem to do my best work while the poorly raised with demented genes, argue to no end with the aggressive kid next door that has no parental guidance. But I do have to admit that I wouldn’t have noticed any of this at all to be honest, except I took it upon myself to look back at a whole bunch of hand histories recently, and it’s amazing what’s being typed into that little chat box as you’re about to take down another monster pot with the nutz!

So here’s to not seeing the D-Bags and A-Holes hang out with the blogger brethren forever. ( I hope ) They obviously and very clearly reign supreme, just ask them!

But good lord, please bless them and keep them playing in my cash games!

My sincerest thanks for dropping by….

4/10/2008

No really! I AM trying.....

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If you haven't already done so, go congratulate the Kinder, Gentler Worst Poker Player for taking down the mookie last night. He deserves it.... Honest! Waffles played a good game from what I could see, as we played down the last two tables of the event together. It actually felt a little strange waiting until that late in one of these events to run into him. We've been joking about his "magnetic" personality, attracting the steel plate in my head or something like that. I think in the 10 events I've managed to make it out to in this little BBteetwee thingy, Waffles and I have started at the same table in at least 7 or 8 of them for sure.

I played decent enough last night I guess, I think I'll give me a B+. I leaked every once in a while here and there but all in all, I played above average. The real secret was, I played! I took some great advice from a smart & beautiful friend and I had fun. Of course I am a fun specialist of sorts so it comes pretty natural to me anyhow, but I tried to have even more fun than normal. In the chat, with the tunes I was listening to, (damn dial up just won't run BDR to my great disappointment) and even with the beverage of choice for the latter stages of the game. I chose to go with a wonderfully aged Amber Rum with exactly one drop of lemon. Whimsy, folly, even insane I know! But I put the Scotch up on the shelf and left it there to pout. We'll get over it and make amends I'm sure. I might even try talking to it over dinner tonight. We'll see how it goes. ;o)

In the end, this was the best I could do.

I got in a few hands that I maybe shouldn't have and lost a few chips that could have made a difference later on in the game. Then I finally made a bit of a move from slightly behind, only to catch on the flop.

It wasn't enough though, as another river card took care of re-sucking the suck and IGH.

As always, sincerest appreciation goes out to those railbirds goofy enough to get behind this kid and root me on. It always means so much to me. Also thanks to all the final table folks!

Best one I've been to yet, thanks to each of you. I wish nothing but luck for you all, unless of course we're in a hand together. ;o)

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

4/09/2008

My Kuh-myoo-ni-tee redux II ....

For new readers, here is what the title of this post is all about.

My Kuh-myoo-ni-tee
My Kuh-myoo-ni-tee part II

I've been blessed with an amazing group of friends here in Bloggeritaville. So much so, that Kat and I had a chat just the other day about how much we both wish we could make it to every single blogger get together going on this year. Alas, I need to pick and choose based on nothing but the planned dates for the ones I can make it out to.

Right now, the list looks like this.

Weekend at mookies - at best, 10/90. Things change and I have the info. on perma-ready.

Summer WBPT in Vegas - might be hard to pass up, since I think some TuckFards might be going gratis courtesy of a great league and some great poker play. call it 90/10.

Okie-Vegas - oh how I want to make this one! Currently 50/50.

Al's bash - Although it'll be great to see Al, Riggs, Donkette, ANIguy, Snakster, Pert and the others, there ain't no way in hell that I'm missing this one! Now that my one and only Blogger crush has told me she can't wait for a (((hug))) Odds = 100%

Seeing everyone again, is a sure fire way to fill this kid with some much needed freakin' happy. I can't wait and I'll update the status of each as they get closer.

But I need to take a second, to talk about my community.
The visibles if you will.

We have a group of kids, (aged 7 - 11) with the opportunity of a lifetime. These young men and women, are some of Canada's best up-and-coming Hockey stars. No! That is not my personal opinion. At the age of 7 - 11, these kids are rated! Un-real!!!
But they are not wealthy. They play with the heart of..... well! A Canadian Hockey player! But their parents use everything they have, to keep them playing for the Winter season. When this chance of a lifetime for some of these kids came along, the well was dry. Bone dry! It looked like it would be an opportunity wasted.

What does my community do? Rallies to find a way. But not just one way, NO ! Several !!! From bottle drives to Irish Pub nights, to donations of cash and draw prizes, to the ultimate degeneracy, A POKER TOURNEY!

The kids have been invited to play hockey in Ireland! As teachers. The "thrive and drive," for the game there right now, is huge among the age group. Who better to be spokespersons for our national game, than some kids playing for the love of it?

So a group got together and created a bunch of ways to raise the funds. I love my community! As I said, one of the ideas was a Poker MTT. The issue was, no one actually knew what to do. They had 40 people or so willing to pay to play. They had our Canadian Legion offering up the space, tables and cheap booze. They had the idea. What they didn't have, was the organization.

I see an opportunity, to step up to the plate and knock one out of the park. hmmmm... Wrong game! I see an opportunity, to pick up the puck fom behind the net, and go coast to coast for the kids. ( yeah. Definately better!)

I throw my two cents in and put my name out on the ice, for the kids. What a daunting task this is going to be! NOT !!!! Why you ask? My visible/invisibles of course! Brudder Carson say's, "Sounds like a great idea. I'll help." Masseman on TuckFard Monday nights, who also runs our amazing league games on Sunday's say's, "great idea. I'll help." DonKaaa and QueenKaaa say, "we'll help." Then, "I won't play HORSE, but I'll take all your TuckFard Open money," Redneck TuckFard say's, "I'll help." ZAP of the TuckFard league say's, "That sounds great. I'll help." No surprise at all here, The beautiful Suzy_Q say's, "count me in. I'll help."

I tell you my dearest invisibles, I am the luckiest damn kid on the planet! BAR NONE !!!! I have you all, (CND) and ya'll(US) and I have the bestest of friends to surround me. To give you a little idea of how much help everyone has been, our friendly fund raiser for 40 players this Friday night, has just turned into a 120 player MTT for the kids!

And that's what this is all about. The kids!

I am beyond fortunate to have my Pebbles, and I thank my lucky stars every single day. I am honoured that some of you out there, have called me out by name as a friend. And I can't begin to tell you, how blessed I feel because of it, and how much I feel the same.

But here's a cheers to my local community and the friends that surround me.
You are without a shadow of a doubt, the best friends that a kid could ask for.

CHEERS ! I love you all.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

4/08/2008

TIME(sq).......

That’s what Monday night was all about.

Tears In My Eyes !!!

First there was “The Open,” where between ANIguy, Donkette, brudder Carson and PushMonkey, I couldn’t keep myself upright in the chair, let alone fight back the tears of laughter. The chat during the night was absoloutely hilarious. I was laughing so hard at one point, Pebbles just grabbed the keyboard from me and she jumped in on the fun. I literally couldn’t have typed anything if I wanted to. Peb’s always says, “I love to see you laugh.” Well last night, she got to be in love, a lot!

The TuckFards #1 supporter and top salesperson of the month, did another great job of getting a few more players out to the 8:00pm HORSE game as well. Yes, our Donkette was friggin’ relentless on everyone. She even recruited a “ringer” to stop by and take on the TuckFards at their own game, when she managed to talk my one true blogger crush Minidonk into playing. That was a great treat! It certainly put a much bigger smile on this kids face, to get to see her again. Her run through the field and eventual runner up finish, brought out some serious railbird support. That was great to see too. Great game mini! Great game!!!
You should really write about it and maybe put it on the internet for everyone to see! If only there was a place where you could do that, you know. Like your own personal little writing place where we could stop by and see whats been going on.
That would be nice! :o) (heh)

Everyone that comes out to our fun filled Monday nights, should be very proud of one thing. You’re some of the best there are out there, at making me happy!

===================

The TIME damn near returned in the MATH after having aces cracked by Waffles. I’d built up to near double stack from a few hands early. One in particular was running my K-K into a weak ace and somehow, I managed to hold on for the win. I made a few plays here and there, some that worked out well, others that I was able to get away from. Then in early position I picked up the pocket aces. Of all the ways to play the hand here, I chose a min-raise. WHY? I wanted players in and I had two known agro’s behind me. I initially figured that I’d be re-raised and could pop it up at that point, to get a little better value out of them. Nope! Just smooth called. The flop came and went with me adding a bet of $400 that was called and then on the turn, we got all our chips in. Waffles had outplayed me fantastically and IGHN. Simple as that. He got in cheap ‘cause I let him. He managed to get a gutshot draw on the flop and I couldn’t price him out. Then when I firmly believed I could put him on a hand like TPTK as a real possibility, (based solely on previous winning hands) he jams the pot with the nuts and all I can say is, well played. So instead of settling in with a nice comfy chip lead from being the best pocket aces player in the world, I settled in to reading and re-reading my HH’s from the nights play.

Waffles said, “I don’t know bam, I think you go broke there a lot.” And you know what? I think he’s right. I looked at every conceivable option on how to play that hand there, and there was no real way to win. If I jam pre, I MIGHT pick up the blinds and WILL look like an idiot. If I merely call, the hand would have played out the same exact way and I still lose. If I make a standard 3x raise, there is no doubt in my mind that I still get called, the hand plays out the same and I lose. How about the pot sized raise, or maybe even slightly larger you ask? Say what you want about it but the facts are, he had a hand he wanted to see a flop with and was going to IMHO no matter what. (except the Donkey move of jamming pre I think) The only way I could salvage anything out of that hand at all would be, to lay them down when he jams the pot.

I guess I’m just not that good at this game yet.

He has the HH posted up if you'd care to take a look and offer me all the free advice in the world.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by….

4/07/2008

Another weekend that was.....

A Birthday weekend recap. (well, at least what I can remember of it!)

Friday night was a make up game for team TuckFard poker. This was because of the game being scheduled and then cancelled from the Easter weekend. What a shame! I had to play poker on the night of my birthday. Oh well, somehow I’ll get over it.

The night was full of side shots, beers and scotches with friends and strangers alike. There was another birthday being celebrated that night as well, and the two of us bellied up to the bar together early, for the mandatory double-shot of happy birthday wishes. All in good fun. The ‘anti-Al’ thing went on all night, as shots of something or other were constantly heading my way. I’m not even sure what some of them were to be honest. I can recollect the Grand Marnier, Jack Daniels, Tequilla, SoCo, a dark rum and of course a few scotches. Add the beer chaser to each of those in multiples of at least two and, I think it’s fair to say that the taste buds were just about destroyed for the remainder of the night. Other shots of mostly unrecognizable alcohols kept streaming my way as the night went along. I mean, how rude would it have been to turn away a gift from a friend? So with many salutes and cheers and the obligatory happy birthday, I kept the glass washer busier than hell. So busy in fact, that a box of test tubes eventually required opening to allow the bar to keep up with the demand. That seemed like a sign to me of some kind. Could it be possible that I should slow down a touch? I took a little break and went outside to consider my options.

A quick check of the time on the cell and I noticed I’d missed a call. I missed the pay-back happy birthday as sung by our beautiful Kat and damn! That just wouldn’t do. I dialed her up and managed to get in a dial-a-shot with her, as she was on her way to crushing her very own Therapy™ event at the same time. Truly sweet to see her win one of those Donkaments. Well deserved if you ask me.

The break didn’t last too very long, as I returned to my table to find another beer and shot had been delivered. Cest’ la vie! It didn’t seem to affect my poker play all that much, until I got down to heads up that is. I was dominated chip wise by about 7 to 1. My honourable opponent agreed to go all-in blind, (as I was nearly there anyhow) until we had a winner. It only took one hand mercifully, and I take home second place points for the team. It was another great week for us, as brudder Carson and TotalTilt both came away winners, to go with another strong showing by DonKaaa as well. I guess we should start at least looking at making some plans for a possible WsoP in Vegas trip gang. It might just actually happen.

What else happened Friday, let’s see…. Oh yeah that’s right! I offered up a challenge to someone and it looks like after a few particulars are hammered out, it will be accepted and played out in the next few weeks. My opponent needs to return from a well deserved Vegas trip first, before we get it all squared away.

Then Saturday with a full foot of snow still covering ½ of the back deck, Pebbles and I continued our search for the perfect Margarita while sitting outside and enjoying the long awaited beautiful weather. This of course, took all day! I mean, when one is in search of a perfected Margarita, one cannot rush things. Add to this, the fact that we were in shorts on a deck with a foot of snow still covering it, and you have the makings of a very long and tedious afternoon. We struggled through, the best we could. Although we did find a few good ones, the perfect Margarita still eludes us. Undaunted however, we will forge on in pursuit of the perfect one, every opportunity we get this Summer. It’s out there somewhere and damn it, we’ll persevere until we get it right!

In fine form from a day full of research, it only seemed appropriate to grab a glass of scotch and make a little call. I dialed up The Wife and asked her to pass me on to the Birthday boy. I’d heard that ‘Chez Chako’ was having a little get together with a few friends and I figured I’d interrupt with a little birthday dial-a-shot of my own. The attempt was successful and I let them get back to their regularly scheduled night of entertainment, without the drunken ramblings of yours truly.

Sunday brought one of my favorite things to the fore, THE OPEN HOUSE! The day that our course opens it’s doors and welcomes back the golfers. This can only mean one thing! It’s less than a week ‘till I swing a club like a maniac with the real “boy’s of Summer.” That made Peb’s and I so happy to know, we both bellied up to the bar to celebrate. ( I think I see a pattern forming here. Nah! Can’t be!) Our golf club community is small and friendly all season long. But there is a lull in contact over the Winter, as everyone goes their separate ways. Seeing a few friends over a drink, (or twelve) and knowing that we could be golfing as early as this upcoming weekend, makes this kid all giddy with excitement.

So it was a fantastic birthday weekend from what I can remember, with the only real goal not attained, being the discovery of the perfect Margarita. But then again, that just makes it another sunny Summer weekend in my books.

Good times. Damn good times indeed!

My sincerest thanks for dropping by….