Saturday, March 27, 2004

1 Hour Update From Planet

Come talk some trash with your fellow PJK!



When you log into Planet, there will be a Tournament tab in the lobby. Click that tab and look for our tourney (PJK Tourney). Highlight that line, then click the button to join the table. It will take a while to load up. Don't panic, let it sit for a while. Once the table comes up, you should see your name in one of the seats. Players who have not taken their seats will have a star in front of their name *. If you have a star, something is wrong, call Planet right away. You can feel free to chat (trash talk, lol) before the tourney begins. Try to find the celeb guest player.



Requesting hand histories is much easier on Planet than True or Choice. Simply click the link in the main lobby named Player's Area. When the webpage comes up, click Player's Toolset. Scroll down and request the hand history of the entire tourney. Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am.



Have a great time, everyone!



Time is ticking away. Our tournament starts in just 2 hours! Be at Planet at 9pm EST/6pm PST. Please follow the navigational instructions written in PJK Musings in order to take your seat at Planet.



If you do NOT see the "Withdraw" button on our tourney page, please call support at:

1-866-424-2155 (U.S. and Canada Toll-Free)

+011-5999-433-8848 (International)



DOMIT aka Felicia--Registered

MaudieB--Registered

tpfelt--Registered

hdouble--Registered

Paulburbon--Registered

Decker aka Lucas67--Registered

Hashimoto aka gpoker--Registered

Mean Gene--Registered

Dave aka DontPokeMe--Registered

Al aka AlCantHang--Registered

Pauly aka PaulyMcG--Registered

Scott aka TheChainsaw (fat guy)--Registered

Shift Left aka ShftLeft--Registered

Ryan aka AntiFuse--Registered

Joseph aka EyeOfSauron (EOS)--Registered

Jason (Odyssey)--Moving this week, can't make it

Anistropy--Registered--then withdrew today??

Gosain aka ChefCombo--Problems with Planet

CJ--can't make it this week, problem with DSL/PC (?)

Chad Atkins aka Cardplayer--MIA

Charles aka Ugarte--Can't make it this week

Chris Halverson--In California, can't make it this week

DP aka Internet Grinder--MIA

Dana aka Shanamouse--MIA

Daryl aka McKormick--Registered

Icey aka Iceyburnz--Registered

Iggy--Can't play this week due to watching the Soprano's

Jason aka MinorThird--On Vacation?

Jeremy aka LoveCasinoWar--MIA

Liquid Swords--MIA

Nick aka DogsPoker--Registered

Penguin--MIA

Rick Blaine aka RicksCafe--Trying to get registered

Grubby aka Nevins--Registered



The tournament is listed at the tournament registration pages right now as: PJK Tourney(Private)
Registration will open at 6pm ET on Sunday. Players will see a withdraw button IF they're registered. They will only see a "Sign Up" button if we leave space open for the entrants. Right now my tech has it maxed out at 25 players, but I can add to that when I get all your players.

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If you go to Planet's tourney page, you will see seven registered (the fourteen above, plus the celeb guest). If you do not see the "Withdraw" button, you are not registered.



Decker wants to remind you that those who are planning on funding their Planet account, through Neteller, that Planet will pay the fees if the funding is done through their site.


Thursday, March 25, 2004

Thursday, March 25, 2004

Another great Omaha night (not). I really hate this game. None of my hands stood up. During the first hour, I never got any portion of a pot. Not a half, not a fourth, not a sixth. I had to rebuy twice, pumping the pot with the nut hand on the flop, on the turn, only to be outdrawn on the river both times.



I finally went all-in right after the break when my QQ flopped a set in the BB. I turned a FH, but the lone all-in caller (who had top pair, queens, btw), rivered an emergency low.



After that, I never won a hand again, and was out in no time flat.



Glenn had a bad beat and was out even before me. He flopped top set, queens, and got a caller with top pair. This was the same clueless guy who called my all-in with no pair a few weeks ago and hit runner-runner to boot me out. Well, he did the same to Glenn, hit runner-runner to make a flush. Glenn said he didn't even have a low draw, he had nothing, just absolutely nothing.



Omaha is like my worst nightmare, lol.



James was in the poker room and commented that he liked Glenn's guest post better than all of mine. He wants them short and sweet, no commentary, no colorful characters, no length or depth. Just wham, bam, thank you, ma'am.



Men, always premature! LOL.



Anyway, James says that he is working up some new ideas for tourneys. First off, we are going to get rid of this stupid 100 in starting chips that makes the first hour such a crapshoot. We are going to get 500 in chips.



Second, he is finally going to get some chips of higher value than 100. That will make the playing of the hands so much faster and easier.



Third, he is going to make the Tuesday night $100+10 NLHE tourney into something more like $50+5. Plus he is going to add $400 to the prize pool. There will be ONE optional rebuy/add-on, for $50, so it will still be a $100 tourney, but the locals won't feel so put out that they had to put up $110 right at the beginning (they are good at deluding themselves that they don't actually spend this much for the $25 tourneys).



Fourth, he is going to cut back on the amount of players paid for the Tuesday night tourneys. Paying 10 players when only 30 enter is just ludicrous. It makes no sense to reward the top 33% of players, while punishing the winner, who should get a bigger share of the prize pool.



I told him he absolutely needs to spread a NLHE tourney. From start to end. That is what people come to play, not this limit for the first hour, NL after that, junk. No one likes it. We all accept it, we are used to it, but when I tell tourists what we are doing, they look at me like it is the stupidest thing they have ever heard. The Sahara has ten tables and packed 175 players into their NLHE tourney on Sunday. Think about it. That is what people want, not this limit to no-limit crap.



He is also thinking about starting some one table tourneys, like Sit-n-Go's, on Sundays. This is just in the primary stages of planning. Something he is kicking around. I told him that if he can work it out, I will come in on Sundays with a book and sit there waiting for each to be filled, hour after hour. Shorthanded play is my fave, so I would love playing in SNG after SNG all day long. Sundays are slow at the Belle.

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Ali was back on Thursday. I thought he had been banned from the Belle. I guess I should have known better. Cheating isn't nearly important enough to ban a player from the Belle, lol. It has to be something really bad, like manslaughter.



Heck, even the guy who HIT Ward, and cursed at him, didn't get banned. He got a three month suspension. Awww, poor guy, was the punishment just a little harsh for your crime? "You poor, widdle ting, can't play at the Belle for twee whole monts."



I guess sometime when Lavenna starts with her arguing crap I'll just reach out, call her a stupid MFer, and slap her across the head. Maybe I'll get suspended a whole three months!!! (this is a joke)



Or should I just stand behind Glenn while he is in a tournament, and tell him what hole cards the other players have, and how to play his hand? Like Ali, I won't even get suspended for that offense! I'll be welcomed right back at the Belle, just like one of the regulars! What a bonus for cheating!



At any rate, Ali was back to his usual antics. "I am so great, you guys all suck. I make 150k per year off of you horrible, sucky poker players. I haven't had to work in 15 years because I am so great and you are so bad."

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George is a new dealer at the Belle, very experienced. He is used to more standardized rules in a cardroom. He warned a player named Mike about checking with his chips, in the middle of the table.



I laughed and said, "George, no one told you? Not only is angleshooting tolerated at the Belle, but it is an accepted way of life!"



He was incredulous. No one had told him. He asked me more about it. I told him that I didn't believe many of the seniors even knew they were angleshooting, that is just the way they had learned to play poker. He still acted like he didn't half believe me. I told him about all kinds of angles that were permitted. He was appalled when I said that players constantly called bets, only to find out that there had been a raise, and then were allowed to bring back their call, although they had clearly said "Call" to a raise, lol.



The look on his face was priceless. The other locals just kept looking at me like I'd lost my mind. After all, that is GOOD poker, right?



I made sure to have Doug confirm what I was saying. "Oh, sure, they can check with chips, no problem!" Doug smiled. Life at the Belle...

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Yesterday Glenn and I went to the Mad Greek in Baker, CA. We have been there a couple of times. It was always fantastic.



For whatever reason, they had some kind of brain fart in the whole place yesterday. Everything was wrong.



They served me a Greek salad withOUT feta cheese. Hello! Feta cheese! The cornerstone of the Greek salad. When I asked about it, they said they were OUT of feta cheese. A Greek chain OUT of feta cheese??? They didn't offer to give me my money back, nothing. I am sitting there sarcastically saying that the cornerstone of the Greek salad is feta cheese, and they are out of feta cheese, but not bothering to tell their customers. All the while, this Hispanic girl who knows nothing about Greek food is looking at me like I'm the one who's lost my mind.



I ordered a meal to go, for later, but that was wrong, too. Dangit! They forgot about Glenn's strawberry shake. They acted like they had just been released from some lunatic asylum and had no idea what they were doing, where they were working, or what kind of food they were serving.



I have to say, though, the food was still fabulous, lol.



After Baker, and seeing the world's largest thermometer again, we went to Searchlight, NV, which is the hub of the poker world (LOL). They have a casino with ONE poker table. They spread 2/4 HE on Friday and Saturday nights. I predict this will be the next stop on the WPT.



If you're a woman, I wouldn't suggest going to Searchlight alone, at night.

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Glenn got an e-mail from Planet saying that they have a WPT satellite going on for 500 points. Any of you who signed up for Planet through Glenn should have been given 500 points for free, so you can play in the satellite. Maybe we'll all meet up at the Bellagio next month! Go get 'em, guys!

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I am sitting and waiting for Planet to contact me now with the finalized list of players for Sunday. If your name comes up, and you cannot play, please contact both myself and Planet immediately to have your name removed, and the $20 added back to your account.



If you have signed up and want to play, but your name doesn't appear on the list, ditto.



The tourney is at 9pm EST (6pm PST) on Sunday night, March 28, 2004.


Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Guest Post from Glenn

March 23, 2004



Glenn's report of a $110 NLHE freezeout:



Not only did I get to the final table on the "big" tourney last night at the Belle (Mon, Thurs and Fri are all 25$ entries, where as this Tues tourney is the 100+10 freeze-out), but I made 2nd place.



Normally people love to chop at the Belle, in fact, the person that took 1st, Cy, was wanting to chop when it was down to 4 players, but the current chip lead wouldn't have it. Then, in a series of battles, Cy took out both the other players! With Cy having 2/3rds of the chips, now Cy was unwilling to chop, lol.



We played heads up for a few hands, until I was all-in w/ KTo, got my K, but Cy had a suited A3 and made his flush on the river!



All-in-all, I'm very happy with how I played and that most of my good hands held up.

Monday, March 22, 2004

PJK Tournament Musings

As you can see, the structure for the tourneys has changed slightly. The programmer couldn't figure out how to add antes to Planet's software. So there will be no antes for now.



They are really working hard to make this a success for us.

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I have sent out an e-mail "feeler" to try to get us some celebrity players each week. Granted, they may have to cancel at the last minute in order to attend some juicy live game that they just heard about, but hopefully, we will have a poker celeb on most Sundays.



While some of you may think this is -EV, in reality, it is a great learning tool. If we are observant enough to learn from a tourney pro during play, and request hand histories to study the play of the pro, we can turn a present -EV situation into a future +EV.



I have already had some positive responses from my celebs. I wasn't expecting such good feedback so soon! Hopefully, this week we already have a pro lined up to play on Sunday night with us. I think I'll keep his name a secret until the big event. Maybe I'll post a "spoiler" just a couple hours before we tee-off.

-----------------------------------------

Since Planet's software is not the easiest to navigate, I'm going to post some simple instructions. Believe me when I say, I'm not talking "down" to anyone who understands how to navigate, I am talking in layman's terms for myself, LOL!



When you sign in to Planet, you will see the small screen with Roy Cooke on it. At the top, middle, there is a link that says "Tournaments." A new browser window will open. From the little pull down tabs, select the date (of March 28 for our tourney, etc.). A list of all tourneys offered on March 28 will come up. Scroll down until you see "PJK Tourney(Private)." In a day or two, it should have the button that says "Sign up." If it has this button, you are not signed up. If it says, "Withdraw," you are signed up. Click the Withdraw button if you don't want to play for that particular week.



If you unregister, then later decide you can play, you will need to contact Planet immediately.



When it is time to play, go back to that small window with Roy. Click the TAB that says "Tournament." I don't know how ours will be listed yet, but look for something like PJK, or No-Limit Hold'em with 25 player max, something to that affect. That should be us. Now highlight that tourney, then click "Join Table." You should see yourself in there along with others from the PJK community. If they aren't actually in the room yet, their nickname will be proceeded with a star *



If you are signed in correctly, your star * should disappear in front of your name.



It can be extremely slow, waiting for the table to pop up. Don't keep clicking buttons, it will come up, it just takes an age, even with my DSL.



Please write to either me or Planet if you have any trouble.


Monday, March 22, 2004

Another big turnout for the $25 rebuy NLHE tourney. We had maxed out at 50 players, with about 10+ alternates.



I got off to a rough start. In the cash game before the tourney, I dropped $125. We were playing 3/6 with a full kill. I have no idea why this game is being spread now. We were supposed to give up the 4/8 game for a 5/10. Instead, we gave up both the 4/8 and 5/10 for a 3/6???



I got some horribly rivered bad beats. I won't even go into details, but suffice it to say, I got my money in with the best hand; raising, reraising, limp reraising, check-raising. All to no avail, I lost every hand.



During the tourney, I got off to a rocky start as well. My JJ ran up against AA, and the player was so passive that I kept pumping the pot like mad, thinking I had the best hand, especially as there were never any overcards presented.



Then I went all-in with AA, and won against three opponents, but only dragged a small main pot. I ended up having to rebuy anyway when my AKo met J9o.



Once we went to no-limit, I was one of the first eliminated.



I was given a free flop in the BB with Q6s. I flopped top two pair. I shoved all-in. A LP player who had NOT raised before the flop hemmed and hawed, but eventually called. He had AQo. He had flopped top pair, top kicker.



Unfortunately, he wouldn't turn up his hand, nor would Ed make him do so, so I had no idea what he had. Ed turned an ace, rivered a blank. The guy kept looking at MY hand, and saying that I'd won, that he only had top pair.



Then he looked back at his hand, looked at the flop again, looked back at his hand...finally the table started objecting. Ed is supposed to make all-in players turn up their hands before even dealing the next card, but he won't do it. Although it is a house rule, he refuses.



So anyway, the table objected at this prolonged showdown so much that the guy finally turned up his hand. He obviously had a higher two pair.



He didn't do this as a slowroll or out of spite, he was just a new player, clearly nervous, and not having been explained the rules from Ed, didn't know that he was obligated to turn over his hand before the next card was even dealt.



So that was that. I was out.



I sweated all of the locals for the rest of the tourney. I kept running around from table to table, checking on everyone, giving them a thumb's up, etc.



Doug informed me that I should be careful, because the "new allegations" are that Glenn and I are cheating via Glenn wearing headphones, and me wearing the ionizer, which is not really an ionizer at all, but a microphone, which feeds into Glenn's headphones, as I am sweating the tourney and telling him what other players have as their hole cards.



RC is a real piece of work.

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I have already gotten a confirmation from our first celebrity guest player. He will be playing this Sunday, March 28, 2004, at Planet Poker.



If you are having any trouble signing up with Planet, or navigating the site, please write me or Planet. I know it is a little...well, clunky? To say the least.



It looks like over 25 want to play, already, so we might have to up the maximum allowed players. I wasn't expecting such a great turnout, but hey, with $1 juice, what is not to love?


Sunday, March 21, 2004

Weekly PJK Tourney at Planet

I have just heard from Planet Poker about the weekly tourney. Here is the deal with pre-registration:



If you have pre-registered for the weekly tourneys, and would like to play for that week, you will be automatically signed up via your e-mail address on Planet. The tourneys are $19+1. You may unregister any time during the week, or if there is a last minute emergency, all the way up until the time of the tournament. You will not be able to register yourself. If you see the tourney listed, and try to register, you will not be allowed. You must go through me or Planet. I get no money for doing this, so don't think I'm trying to scam you in some way. I am doing this purely for us, the poker journalizer's out here in cyberspace.



Planet tells me that only nine of the e-mail addresses I sent her of interested players even have an account on Planet. The rest have not opened an account. You will not be able to wait until the last moment to open an account. Planet has no way to password protect tournaments at this time, although they have promised this for us down the road, if we stick it out until their next software update. As compensation, they are offering us a $1 rake, which is better than anywhere else on the Internet.



Please, if you are interested in playing this tournament, like the players who wrote me on the left side of this journal, sign up for a Planet account. You do not have to sign up via the e-mail Glenn sent out, you can sign up any way you choose, taking advantage of any offer you would like. You cannot play in the weekly tourney if you don't have a Planet account.

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Planet Poker Weekly PJK Tournament: No-Limit Hold'em, 9:00 PM, EST, every Sunday evening! (starting Sunday, March 28, 2004)



Blinds


1st Level $25-$50

2nd Level $50-$100

3rd Level $75-$150

4th Level $100-$200

5th Level $200-$400

6th Level $300-$600

7th Level $400-$800

8th Level $600-$1200

9th Level $800-$1,600

10th Level $1,000-$2,000

11th Level $1,500-$3,000

12th Level $2,000-$4,000

13th Level $4,000-$8,000



Players start with $2000 in chips. Levels are 15 minutes. Ten participants pays top two. Eleven through twenty pays top three. Twenty-one through 40 pays top four. Forty-one and above pays top five.



Prize percentages are: Top two: 75%-25%. Top Three: 50%-30%-20%. Top Four: 50%-25%-15%-10%. Top Five: 50%-20%-15%-10%-5%