Let's get it started in here....

After working on a few leaks in my game I'd mentioned a while back, I decided that I would take a shot at one of the 180 player MTT's on FullTilt. Definitely NOT one of my normal games. But I was wide awake and felt like I would be for some time, so why not give it a shot?

All I needed to do was, set myself a strategy on how to play the damn thing. My decision was pretty easy, I'll just play a little "snug." So I popped on the tunes, grabbed a frosty cold one and away we went.

After the first 62 hands, my stack and stats looked like this.


I think "snug" was a good word for it.

I found it very easy early on, to get paid for a couple of monster hands. The first 30% of the players seemed quite willing to stack off with anything related to TPTK, no matter how the board looked or how the hand was played. So a slow played flopped boat and a check-raise all-in when the board four flushed, managed to get me a few chips from an un-improved Big Slick who'd flopped his second Ace. Nice ! Needless to say that with play like that, 60% of the field was gone by first break.

The second hour saw a mix of play. Some of the players were obviously the same types as earlier in the game. They must have either gotten lucky on a hand against someones flopped nuts, or they were part of some Donk on Donk violence and managed to come out on top. These players seemed to have the vast majority of the chips. Goal #1 would be, to get me some of those chips! The direct opposite of these players, was a group that obviously felt the same way I did. They would also be fighting for some chips from the, "I can draw to anything" crowd.

I think the shot of my stack and stats here after 146 hands, shows that the "snug" nit that I was being was still paying off.


Seeing only 15% of the flops made for some incredibly boring poker to be honest, but I spent an awful lot of that time watching the others. I did love winning 100% of my showdowns however, as no matter how I played or what the board managed to come up with, I could still say that I was holding the nuts and I was going to get paid. Although that was only in six hands to this point, it was a pretty incredible feeling!

The really disappointing part up to that point, was the six hands I just had to let go after the river card came. A few of them cost me a fair amount of chips, as I was sure I was ahead and kept building "my" pot up at each chance. Only to see river cards change the dynamic of the hands as they played out and make my holdings appear to be minuscule by comparison to what could be out there. I got to see that I was 100% correct in my folds 3 out of the 6 times however, so I was pretty sure I did the right thing on the other half of them as well. The two players with all the chips at my table, KelsieO and 48Follower could not miss any draw. It was actually quite brutal a few of the times that they had to show down. In one hand, KelsieO had committed about half of his stack on a draw to the river, where he naturally hit of course, but was making the play all the way with nothing but a draw to gutter 2-outers and middle pairs that would win set over flopped set.

In the end, it was ultimately that style of play that ended my game as well. Play folded around to me in the SB and I had not played for some time. I open for a 3x raise from the small with the Jc-Kc. (who doesn't love crubs?) To no big surprise, I get the call from KelsieO. We see the flop of Ks-3d-Jh and KelsiO bets out pot. This does not worry me in the least, as this has been his MO for the 15 or so hands he has been at my table. I decide to re-pop it to 3x the pot, as I believe I am good here. My friend takes about three seconds to get all of his chips into the middle. I get mine all in as well and we are about to see who has what and more importantly, who has who!

My TOP2 is up against..... the Ad-10d. Stack in on another gutter? But having played NLHE for almost two years now, I knew enough to gather my things and get ready to turn the computer off. There was definitely a Queen coming. NOPE !! How about the six of diamonds and then the eight of diamonds for the runner-runner Flush my two and a half hours of great play to a 11th. place finish away! Sheeeeeesh !!!

On the bright side, what I've been doing with my newer NLHE strategy seems to be working for me right now. We'll just have to hang on for a bit and see how things go. Although I haven't gained back large amounts of the money spent learning the game over the last little bit, I have been getting paid AND... the goofs at Sharkdope took my little pet fish away as well. I guess getting paid, (even if only a little) in your last 9 games in a row, is good enough to drop the fish! And that's a pretty good start in my books.

Speaking of good starts, our Brit Blogger Boy Nick has a new Blog up and running called TwitterPoker. I was kinda' fond of his Hairy Gymnast page but, since his goal is to build a bankroll large enough to come over and see us here on the "other" continent, who am I to hold him back? :)

Another good, (dare I say great?) start was DonKaaa's introduction to the BBT4. I see a great second place result for him in Monday night's Riverchasers game!


Congrats Donnie! Nicely done indeed. Now can we get back to something really important? LIKE GOLF !!!! :)

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

Greg Gutfeld is a waste of flesh....

So some nobody said a few things about our Canadian Military, that might not have been in the best of light huh? Is this the idiot that couldn't hold a job at Maxim or Men's health Magazines, but holds the power of the 3:00am. time slot on the network famous for bringing an animated Gopher to one of arguably, the most popular Televised sports in the United States of America?

I got the right guy then right? Oh well. At least he apologised.

What?

"he forwarded the message to a Fox publicist"

It's fuck-nuts like this ass-clown, that give Americans a bad name world wide. It's really a shame too. I have as many American friends as I have Canadian to be honest, and I can't believe any one of them would waste a moment of their time, watching, listening or reading anything that this waste of flesh has or will, ever have to say.

****And right off the bat before anyone that doesn't know me gets all jammed up, I am NOT taking a return shot at the US Military here. That is NOT how I roll! These are merely a few simple facts, that are constantly buried in American History. As a Canadian, I'm proud of what both of our Nations Military Forces continue to do to protect our way of life. Seeing them stand together to do it, always makes me that much more so.****

So listen here you piece of shit, dick-nosed nobody! Humour is based on truth. That's typically what makes it so funny. Just because your tired old routine using old jokes like 'aboot' and 'EH' aren't getting any laughs these days, does not give you the right to say anything demeaning about possibly, the most successful and supportive military force in modern history.

Let's take a look at a few facts and see if we can find any humour in them, shall we?

Do you know why The White House is white dick-wad? Do you know anything about an American Army invading York, (I better tell you that that's Toronto) and burning down non-military buildings such as Parliament buildings and the private warehouses that the mighty American military, had just finished looting? I didn't think so. Back in August of 1814, we took a British / Canadian Provinces military force of our own for a little trip.

How about a couple of really simple ones? Which should we do first? WWI or, WWII? Well, World War I does come first after all.

August 1914 - Canada as part of The United Kingdom, declares war on Germany.
April 1917 - Canadians win VIMY Ridge in four days. It had been fought over by others for nearly two years.
June 1917 - First American troops land in France.
December 7, 1917 - The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.
November 1918 - WWI is over.

We stood for what we believed was right, for four full years. Standing by our compatriots and fighting where and when it needed to be done. America put 11 months into the effort, because of pressure from the Allies after The Battle of Cambrai. (A British attack that fails and the battle results in a stalemate)

In World War II, it went a little like this.

September 1939 - Canada declares war on Germany.
October 1940 - President Roosevelt, in the middle of an election campaign, promises not to send "our boys" to war, despite Liverpool England having been bombed for the 200th. time.
March 1941 - US initiates Lend Lease Act. "Allowing" Britain, China, and other allied nations to purchase military equipment and to defer payment until after the war.
August 1941 - After "the 18th. successful Major battle" by Canadian Forces of the 21 they had taken a full part in, The US announces an oil embargo against "aggressors."
October 1941 - Canadian Military estimates show a loss of 11,326 Canadian troops to date. The same day that the destroyer USS Kearney is torpedoed and damaged near Iceland, killing eleven sailors; they are the first American military casualties of the war.
December 7, 1941 - Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. Canada declares war on Japan.
December 8, 1941 - The United Kingdom and The United States declare war on Japan.
January 1942 - The first American troops land in Europe.

The rest is available in quality history books. Not the drivel offered up in the movie theaters.

I won't even bring up Korea or Vietnam. What a waste of life!

So that brings us to slightly more recent times huh?

Let's see. Operation Enduring Freedom was created on October 7, 2001. In January of 2002, the first in a long line of Canadian troops was on site and ready to assist our neighbour to the South. Seven long years and 116 fatalities later, we're not only still there by your Countries side, we hold strong and fast to several key strategical areas on the teams behalf..

Did you forget Mr. three-am funny guy, that our first four deaths in Afghanistan were from American fire? Maybe that was too long ago. How about the most recent four deaths that actually occurred a mere 3 days after your brilliant performance to nobody? Remember those four deaths asshole? Shouldn't be too hard should it? It was all over the 'real' news.

"Four Canadian Soldiers were killed while taking part in a massive operation to attack Taliban command centres and supply routes. Three other Canadian soldiers were wounded in the blast. American and British Soldiers were mostly un-injured, as the Canadian vehicles took it upon themselves to act as a shield for their protection."

I'll end it with this.

I'll just assume you have a massive ego and you don't give a crap about bad publicity, since it's better than the no publicity that you're surely used to. I also hear you're a blogger asswipe. Hence the title to this post. I hope by some miracle you're able to find this post. I'd really love to hear from you to discuss this further.

Since your not willing to stand behind our military forces, I'd dearly love to see you get in front of them right now.

Fuck you and the four assholes serving as a "panel" for discussion on news topics of the day, you ignorant and unappreciative piece of shit.

But as always,

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

A weekend at Barney's....

The good news is, jail time was never really in question at all. Unless of course you want to go all libertarian on my azz, and count the discussions at the bar with the hookers and the ride home in the cruiser. But you wouldn't hold any of that against a kid now, would you?

As I mentioned last week, Dad's got his best friend in Hospital after a massive stroke. With all that going on, I figured he could use some company for the weekend. So with that I wandered down to South Bedrock, for an afternoon and evening of comforting my old man. I could have kept on driving and went all the way South to see Al to be honest! As this became a lot closer to "Southern Comforting" than anything else.

Occasionally, I've been known to forget how it is that I come by my natural talent for alcohol consumption but, no worries!

One nearly empty bar at the house, six different bars in town, three unique bands, running in to five of his buddies and the ride home in the cruiser, all to give me a solid reminder this weekend from, "The Sponge!" Oh and one other thing came from all of this mess. One seriously weak and wounded liver, belonging to yours truly.

It's been.... well... NEVER .... since Dad and I tied one on like this and honestly, judging from the Sunday morning appearances of us both, it just might be a while before we try anything even remotely close to this again. One can hope!

The old man needed a bender so, a bender was had. Seriously good times from what I can remember. Great discussions, as we waltzed down memory lane. Remembering good times and honest discussions about the bad ones. Pulling up a few memories that had us both in stitches or, both saluting a lost friend over the passage of time. All in all like I said, great discussion with my old man. What I can't remember was, who's idea the 7:00pm Schnitzel stop was. THAT guy was a genius! I can't even begin to imagine pulling some of the crap we did over that intoxicating 13 hours, on a completely empty gut.

Dad's one of the last of his core group and the realization of his own mortality, hit him pretty hard when Bob went down last Monday. We had a pretty good discussion about that too, as Dad started to realize that this was just something else that we had in common. You see, Dad and I are closer now than we ever have been but we're still not that close. Something that this weekend may just help to get us through. The look on his face as he came to terms with the fact that I too have gone through all of this, spoke a thousand words of care to me, even though he actually said nothing at all at the time. We would talk about it later though and the rolls had reversed ever so slightly. It was Dad trying to make sure I didn't go down the dark and gloomy path, that is the loss of a friend.

"Celebrate the time you have, don't mourn the loss forever!" Barney said.

The realization that I could see in his eyes as he said it, was enough to tell me that the trip down was well worth it. My old man is going to be alright and I'm pretty sure, he's saying the same thing about me.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....