FeliciaLee

Go Away

2007-04-16T10:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I think this journal is finished. I can't even force myself to post updates anymore. Like I said above, the site will remain for it's archives, but it is dormant.

I am busy with Two Plus Two, which has always been home, whereas this has been my prison.

I am not a "blogger" and never have been. I don't like poker bloggers, never did. They are weak and want to be humored. They sing Kumbaya and expect me to hold their hand. I am not one of you. Please go away.

Take me off of your bookmarks. Take me out of your links. I am not coming back.

If you want to live in the real world, come to Two Plus Two. If not, just keep clicking on these so-called "poker" journals, lol.

Let this horrible site die in peace.

I've Overstayed My Welcome

2006-10-20T09:43:00.001-07:00

Well, I couldn't really get help with the site. The only responses I got, were e-mail or IM requests for help or assistance with their issues, not mine.

Thanks to Pauly and Drizz for trying, though.

I think the end has pretty much come. I have wanted to forget about this journal so many times. I kept it going due to obligation I felt to Scott, the readers, myself, Glenn, etc.

I feel like one of those people that sit in your house long after the party has ended. One of those unwelcome visitors who are hard to get rid of. They don't even get it. They don't even understand that you'd like them to go, so that you can go to sleep. That uncomfortable feeling that you have just sitting there, making small talk, too shy to ask them to leave.

I'm not playing very much anymore, just a couple of times per week. I'm not really writing about poker. I'm sick of trolls who believe that a journal is something to attack, to criticize and flame. I'm sick of forcing myself to write. I'm sick of blogger.

My traffic has gone from the big days, years ago, of over 1000 unique visitors per day (not page views), down to about 100. I have continued to monitor it mostly because I love reading the search words people use to find it. That is my only laugh about the whole blogger nightmare anymore.

I was never one of you. You don't like me, don't understand me, don't get me, and I've never really fit in. I wrote here because I felt I owed Scott something. Because I hated e-mailing my stories out to dozens of people requesting them, once they fell off of the main page of 2+2. I never cared for typepad or blogger.

In the end, I feel like I've overstayed my welcome. Like I pushed myself to do something that I didn't really care for. I've long liked Live Journal, and felt a ton more freedom there, although the worst of the trolls have somehow gotten to that haven, as well :(

This is no swan song. Maybe I'll continue to write here and there. But in more ways than one, the Party is over. I just don't care enough to make it work anymore.

Sorry Scott (if you even read this anymore).

Adios,

Felicia :)

I Want to Change my Site

2006-10-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

I am having a situation about poker journals. As many of you have noticed, I have deleted just about all of the journals that I don't read anymore. There are a few that I still read not listed, but are on my Bloglines feeds. Mostly, though, I stopped reading almost all journals, and didn't want to have them on my links because I didn't feel comfortable recommending what I wasn't reading.

Some of them were good, very good. Some were atrocious, but had a following anyway. Some were mostly OT. I didn't delete anyone because I didn't like him or her, or because they didn't have me linked, or for any other type of personal drama situation. It wasn't personal.

Anyway, now I am thinking that maybe some of these guys and gals deserve a link, just not necessarily a personal endorsement from me. Pauly suggested maybe I do something like "Journals Others Recommend" or something along those lines. Make it clear that I don't personally read them, but they are recommended by others. This sounded like a great idea to me (Thanks, Pauly)!

The problem, of course, is that having deleted tons of sites, I have nowhere to begin. What I would like, is a list of every poker, and quasi-poker journal out there. I'd rather it be in alphabetical order, so that it doesn't look like I'm choosing pet journals (I wouldn't do this anyway, but readers read what they want to read, not what I write).

Does anyone know of a site with a huge blogroll on it? One in alpha order, one which will let me have the HTML code?

As a reward, I'll send you an autographed picture of my mastectomies. Ha!

Seriously, though, if I can get some help, I'll look over your site, and tell you what I think, if you'd like. I'll also link it on my main page if it's a site I believe is worth linking. No, you don't have to link me in return (I have no idea why anyone would want to link this POS anyway).

I'd offer to help you with your poker game, but since mine sucks now, too, you might not want that kind of help ;)

If you know of a roll I can borrow, please give me a holler on Yahoo: fzdyer

TIA,

Felicia :)

If I Only Had a Brain

2006-10-16T09:33:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wish I could write better. My grammar, punctuation and spelling have gone downhill quite a bit in the past year. I think if I read over my pre-chemo posts, then came back to this POS, I'd probably bawl. While I was never a great writer, I used to be able to police my own mistakes and correct them, sometimes even before I made them in the first place. These days, eh, not so hot.

Having a blog has somehow evolved over time. In the early days, before a blog was called a blog, it was an online diary, and there was rarely, if ever, a way to send the author feedback. Some authors made their e-mail addresses well known, because they liked feedback. Others posted anonymously.

A good online journal was respected, considered even somewhat sacred. How often does a normal Gomer get to read the innermost, private thoughts of another, without having stole the diary and forced open the lock?

These days, eh, so-called journals are a dime a dozen online, and trolls have made a career out of going from one to another, flaming each with comments that rarely even make sense. Throughout all of this, however, some of us have kept on. Kept to our original diary. Stayed candid. Remained a true diary. We don't write for money, we don't have ads or sponsors splashed all over, we aren't "told" how many links we need to provide in one entry.

Are we any better than the paid writers? No, I'm not trying to put myself up on a pedestal, nor am I putting anyone else down. I'm just contrasting the two, as I sit here rambling on in the morning hours.

I wish I could write better. The one thing I tend to have going for me is that I'm typically interesting. I have a crazy, morbid sense of humor. There is humor in almost every post I write, although some readers just don't get it, and would rather go somewhere and flame me in private or public. I also try to eventually, however long it takes me, get to a point. My writing could be condensed down about 90%, but then it wouldn't be a journal anymore, would it?

I think that probably the hardest thing for a true, true poker journalist would be having the attributes of being both a serious poker player, and a good writer. Most of us just don't have "it." It makes reading poker journals painful. CardPlayer coverage of the 2006 WSOP is a prime example of that. Oy, that was horrid.

I wish I could write like PC, or Boy, or Linda (pre-blog purchase), or Kent.

I wish I could play like Max, Shirley, Matt or Chris.

These things I will never be. For good or bad, I will be solely myself, of that I can promise you ;)

Yesterday's post met with some interesting compliments and criticism. Oddly enough, I just banged it out in the early morning coffee hour before Glenn even arose. I was rambling and going around in circles. I never once thought of the post, or even the subject matter. For whatever reason, most of the time the posts that I never think about get the most feedback (both good and bad). But once again, I fail to please many readers. Most IM's or e-mails fell along the lines of criticism that I wasn't hard enough on smokers, or that I was too hard on smokers. SMOKERS??? Are you kidding me? The post had nothing to do with smoking. I don't know bubkiss about smoking, having never even tried a cigarette in my life. Oh, well. There are days when trolls will be offended no matter what is written.

I am often "told" to write more about what I'm thinking and feeling given the current legislation. The fact that I am "told" to do this will only force me not to do it. I have always been the anti-peer pressure type. Everyone in my low-class, redneck town was having sex by 14, so I refused. Most of my so-called peers were smoking by 12, so I refused. Most drank their way through high school, sometimes even sneaking vodka into their lockers and adding it to OJ every morning. So I refused. Most had their first illegitimate pregnancy by 20, including all three of my ex-step sisters. So I refused.

You don't "tell me" to post something. You don't even ask politely. My journal, my subject matter. End of discussion.

And even if I felt like addressing this issue? Well, I have very little point of reference. Sure, I've been around for a long time. I'm the old schooler of the poker world in a sense. But I never cared for online poker, hence I never really followed the drama or legislation that has been slowly choking us off since the beginning. I wasn't even playing online when credit cards first were denied. Nor when PayPal took the nosedive. So solly chally, I have no educated opinion.

What you got yesterday will probably be the only post of any substance whatsoever that is floating around in my brain.

I am slowly coming to a change in my journal. Oh, so slowly. Things are happening to me, and for me, that will necessitate this journal turning into something completely different. I'm sure you've seen it coming, given my posts about quitting full-time poker. I'm simply not the same person anymore. I don't care enough to play full-time. I don't care enough to play online. I don't have enough interest in poker to write about it all of the time.

While the LJ has already been changed from a "poker" journal to a life journal, the Blogger one has remained pretty pokercentric, with the odd quip here and there for fun.

What I am becoming is still a mystery, even to me. But what I can promise you, as I have in the past, and earlier in this entry, is that I will be here, I will be candid and I will try to remain as interesting as possible.

Writing is in my blood. I wrote my first short story at around six, and have never stopped. I'm not that good, but I'm here, and here I will stay.

Felicia :)

Poker: The End of an Era

2006-10-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I read a book about gardening and rural living written in 1933. Yes, 1933, not 1993 ;)

Oddly enough, it was extremely current and applicable. I expected to be totally out of touch with the USA of 1933 and the author. Instead, I had to check the publication date a couple of times, just sure I'd misread the date (it was obvious as I got deeper into the book that it really was written in 1933).

Yes, this post really has something to do with poker, albeit tenuously.

Although I got a lot out of the book as far as gardening and simple living is concerned, what I really learned from the book is that welfare doesn't work.

The author spent a couple of chapters discussing the "new" aid that was just getting ramped up at that time, during the depression. He predicted it would only make us a country of dependent, weak-willed citizens. And here we are, almost 80 years later. What have we learned? We have learned that our country "owes" us something. If we can't or won't work? It "owes" us a living. If we can't pick our eating habits for ourselves, it needs to pick and choose what we should eat, and make certain foods illegal, starting all the way from grade school and working it's way up to gourmet, NYC restaurants.

If we can't stop "gambling," it needs to protect us from our own vices, while not exactly blaming us for the problem we have to begin with. So there are supplemented clinics for addicted gamblers. The banks and gambling sites are given the onus of keeping us out, since we are obviously not to blame for being addicts, and we need their protection.

Although the author of said book is no longer alive (obviously), I'm sure he would have predicted this scenario with ease. He said it in not so many words many times during the last two chapters of the book.

Getting the unemployed off of the dole and back into self-sufficiency won't work if you just keep handing them money and aid, patting their backs and saying "poor you, poor you, it's not your fault." It will work if you give them a task, something to live for, and no free ride.

One thing I've always liked about the poker world, is that for the most part, their thinking aligns with mine. I fit in, in certain respects. Not many poker players, true poker players who are grinders and have been around for a while, sit in the poker room singing Kumbaya and praising theory of weakness. They are typically a more conservative bunch. Not politically conservative, necessarily, that is not what I'm getting at. But they aren't the type who whine all the time that they aren't getting enough government aid. They tend to be doers, not beggers.

During the past few depressing weeks on 2+2, I have noticed that an overall trend in the serious poker community has been, "What can I do?" rather than "Help me! How can I keep playing? Fix my problems for me!" The attitude is definitely not a poor-me attitude. And maybe that is why I've always fit in at 2+2, too. The go-getters outweigh the welfare seekers by far.

I know that an era has ended. I know that we are seeing the end of the poker boom. I'm not blind. I was there before the boom, and I'm here as it has reached it's peak. It did not end the way I predicted. I figured that it would simply reach a saturation point and peak, slowly creeping back down to something manageable, rather than out of control fadness. Instead, we kind of hit a wake-up call, a brick wall.

While I'm sure that poker won't slide back into the dark ages of pre-2000, forces who are seeking political acclaim and the need to "protect us from ourselves," have scared some businesses to the point of killing the boom.

It is sort of like smoking, IMO (and yes, I have discussed this with several smokers, all of whom have agreed, since I have no personal experience).

It's not that smoking IS illegal in the US, but they have slowly cut us off during the past 20 years, thus rendering smoking an almost illegal, and definitely socially frowned upon habit and/or addiction. Cigarettes in and of themselves are not illegal. However, you can buy them only at certain places. You can smoke only at certain places. You cannot smoke in public places. You cannot smoke on airplanes, trains, buses, most restaurants, some bars, most parks, etc.

Slowly, so slowly, they are deeming smoking illegal. But yet they haven't come right out and said, "That's it, smoke your last ciggy, cuz the end is now!" Oh, no, that would drive smokers out of their minds and create riots. But if we had a time machine and could go back 50 years and tell young people what the future held for smoking, they would be outraged and appalled. They would say that it couldn't possibly happen. No way the government was going to tell them when, where and how they could smoke! Yet we have accepted these things, mostly passively, because they happened so slowly, and over time.

This is what is happening to online poker. It's not that online poker in and of itself is illegal, but slowly, over time, we are being choked off from various sites and middlemen. We can always withdraw, certainly, but we can't deposit. There is the key, that is the krux of the matter. The fish and recreational players will swim away. So slowly, oh so slowly, we are being cut off from online poker.

And that is how the boom ends. It will have a trickle down effect into every facet of the poker world. Don't believe me? Oh, you are so wrong. First FTP says a satellite won by a US resident must be played OFF of USA soil. Then Harrah's steps in and says it won't accept WSOP buy-in's from online poker sites. If you think this won't trickle into the live poker world, you are wearing rose colored glasses. The poker world has become all about tourneys. They went mad for the instant riches that come with big buy-in events. They want it now, not over time. They don't want to work too hard for it. After all, since the depression, we have been supporting Americans. We have been babying them and giving them everything. So they see something like the lottery, like a bingo game, as the American way.

When I tell people about certain cash games or smaller events, I see the light go out of their eyes when they realize that the guy with all of the chips at the final table is NOT going to be winning millions upon millions of dollars. Somehow the fact that the chips are real cash, or that the tournament is a low buy-in one, is not as exciting to them as the prospect of this guy going home a millionaire.

When I was a child, the slogan I would hear often about America was that someone with nothing could come here, work very hard, and actually have something for their hard work. Perhaps in their birth country, they could have worked 12-16 hours per day their whole lives and just barely keep from starving. But not in America. They could live the American Dream and actually have something for themselves. Buy a house, have a small business. To them, this is more than they ever could have hoped for in their lifetimes. Something too be proud of, something to pass on to their children.

Now, more and more, I hear: "America owes me something!" America owes me a living. America owes me five million dollars because I spilled hot soup on my lap in a restaurant. America owes me because I was in a car accident and have whiplash. America owes me because I had four illegitimate kids and the fathers are deadbeats and I don't want to go to work and/or can't get a good enough job to support all four and myself on a minimum wage salary. America needs to protect me from myself. I can't tell if high sugar foods are good or bad for me, so you tell me. Either outlaw them, or I'll sue for five million in order to get an easy lottery score because I gained 100 lbs. eating five pounds of Oreos every day. It's not my fault, you didn't TELL me that sugar was bad for me, so you "owe" me five million to make it go away.

Poker is not a game for the weak willed. These people don't succeed, nor have any hope of it. Online poker somewhat evened the score, allowing weaker personalities to not only break even, but succeed due to the anonymity of the Internet. But even the more shy, weak personalities came out of their shells and learned that they needed to be more aggressive, more assertive, if they were going to make a big score.

Just Friday I was at the Riverside. One shy lady was told to post at the 4/8 kill game, even though we were playing shorthanded and trying to keep the game alive. Just a few minutes later a man sat down and was told by the same dealer than he didn't need to post. Now you know I was all over that one. The woman thanked me for speaking up. She said she'd been thinking the exact same thing, but was too embarrassed to say anything.

There is no "too embarrassed" in the poker room, people! While I'm glad to have shy, scared players there, there is really no place for such wall flowers in serious poker.

Not long afterwards, a man next to me complained that his beer was warm. He had just been served. I told him to tell the cocktail waitress. He wouldn't. I did. She apologized and said she would bring him another. He was so embarrassed about the whole ordeal that he tipped her AGAIN! And she gave him another warm beer. But did he tell HER? Oh, no, he told ME! I can't stand people like that, who want to whine and complain to everyone else, while doing nothing about their own, personal situation in life.

Poker is at the end of an era. Perhaps our country is at one, too.

Felicia

Poker Blogs???

2006-10-13T11:38:00.000-07:00

To Do List:

1) Delete any "poker" blog (harhar) with mention of Spice Girls

No offense.

Why Can't I Write? And Good-Bye Party Poker

2006-10-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

I seem to wax and wane when it comes to writing about poker. I'll write a lot of inspired, theory-type posts, and then I suddenly find a brick wall in front of me and don't feel like writing at all.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I must write. I'm here to stay. Writing has always been a huge part of my life, and I'll write regardless of whether anything gets posted.

A few things that I have never written about were trip reports from this years WSOP. Remember, Glenn won the ME seat on Party? We stayed at MGM for a week and had a great time. I never wrote about it, even though some funny things happened during that week. Another chalk mark for me getting kicked out of a poker room. This time it wasn't even really my fault, although I have such a big mouth, I can understand why CRM's and various casino employees would absolutely hate to have me in their establishment. Truthfully, if I owned a casino, I probably wouldn't spread poker. And if I were forced to spread it, I would hate people like me frequenting the poker room. I have never denied that the presence of someone like myself is more of a hindrance than a help to any cardroom.

The shock of the entire WSOP experience this year was how well we were treated by Party. I wanted to hate them. I've always hated them. Hate their software, hate the glitches, hate the way they treat players. Their apathy from almost the time they entered big-time Internet poker had left me gaping with horror. Although I don't play much on the Internet, I played on Party so rarely that I didn't even keep the software on my PC. Just the thought of giving them business made my blood curdle.

So I went to MGM with a 'tude. Big chip on my shoulder, looking for someone to hear my rants and take my abuse. I couldn't have been more shocked if I'd tried. Although on the Internet Party may treat people like numbers (dollars constantly adding up in their eyes), in person they couldn't be more polite, kind and cordial. They treated us like kings, instead of the greedy peons that we are ;)

With the closing of Party tomorrow (and yes, I do consider it over, a "closing," even if they decide to return to the US market eventually and/or keep other skill-based games running in the interim), I figured I'd probably be the one and only person who would actually write something or say something kind about them. Their live personnel was outstanding. They couldn't have been more professional and wonderful if they tried.

RIP Party Poker,

Felicia :)

Glenn's Famous Blunders

2006-10-04T15:37:00.000-07:00

This repost is for Robert at Riverside. Enjoy!
-------------------------------------------
Glenn's Famous Blunders

I wasn't planning on posting today, but then Glenn made one of his biggest and best blunders ever.

There is a little background on this one, but just a few lines. Glenn and Al have always been compared as lookalikes. They don't really look that similar, but in photos, they look almost like twins.

Anyway, today I was lurking around Two Plus Two. In the other topics section, there are always dozens of posts which are just bizarre, or so funny that I laugh outloud. I have taken some of the best and funniest posts, and IM'd them to Glenn during the day, to give him a chuckle, too. He usually plays online poker ALL DAY LONG, and I know that he needs a break here and there, if only to laugh at the crazy subjects discussed on OOT.

So today I ran across a thread about guys getting blue balls. Glenn was in the other room, playing online, and after I read the thread, I copied and pasted the link for Glenn to read. He, in turn, started reading the thread and was chuckling about it.

At the same time, he was talking to Al on Yahoo about a techie project.

Glenn came across one quote in the blue balls thread that he thought was so funny, he decided to copy and paste it to my IM window.

Yes, you know what ended up happening.
----------------------------
al: no problem. i'll look it over
Glenn: You seem intelligent and cute. May I bust a nut in your face please?
Glenn: oh gawd, wrong window...
al: sweet mercy

I don't know if any of us will ever recover from this one. Nice job, Glenn!

Felicia :)

Nothing to Read Here

2006-10-03T10:07:00.000-07:00

This is NOT what I meant when I said I longed for the old days of poker, pre-boom.

I Have Better Things to Do

2006-09-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

Poker has taken on a stale, meaningless place in my life. I just don't have "it" anymore. If I ever did, that is.

I was never that great of a player (don't listen to Ted, he likes to compliment me just to be nice). I was a survivor. A break-even type player. I was crafty and sly. I could trap and fish. I used my strengths and managed to overcome huge weaknesses in order to get by. I had a fantastic memory and succeeded in Stud games. I had no temper when it came to bad beats and could continue to play well after many of them. I could select games wisely and to my advantage.

In Omaha I learned how to skate by. I learned that I could play with a decreased IQ and still win. I didn't have to have a great memory, I didn't have to know where I was in a hand. I didn't have to do much of anything save sitting in my chair and letting morons bet and raise into me when I held the nuts one way or the other. Sure, sometimes I would be quartered or worse, but the times I three-quartered someone else, or scooped, more than made up for those times I myself was chopped up, because of extreme patience, so I made a little scratch. I was never a "great" player, nor did I claim to be.

Things aren't getting better. They are getting worse. I simply don't have it. I don't have the skill, the memory or the desire anymore. I felt that this might be the case when I went on my run at Riverside. I knew that playing there everyday was a test of sorts. I would either sink or swim, and I would either love poker more than I ever have, or hate it.

Oddly, the love or hate thing didn't really happen. More like apathy. But I did realize that I can't swim. I sunk, and for whatever reason, this doesn't even bother me much. Maybe because I had become so apathetic towards poker and the crazy HE boom that has happened in the past three years. I'd come to despise the boom, and longed for the days when I could sit down with six old-timers in a middle limit Stud game and one, young, green newbie. The days when I relaxed and laughed while playing poker. The days when the dealers knew everyone at the table, and made a real effort to get to know the newbie, too.

Sure, those days were horrible, as well. Tons of dealer abuse which I could never tolerate. Gender abuse towards me somewhat. Overraking of pots. Fixed jackpots and staff who had to "pay" to work. I haven't turned a blind eye towards those days or the Bonetti's of the world. I certainly wouldn't have played pre-2000, the poker rooms were a mess.

But I long for the "love" of the game that I had. The love of the rhythm and flow of Stud. The knowledge that I was the best player at the table. The memory of every exposed card and suit, every hand.

Being blind is no cakewalk. I suddenly lose huge chunks of memory. It's simply gone. I thought it would come back, and it has, to an extent, but it waxes and wanes. People approach me about hands or situations that have just occurred (within the past six months) and I have absolutely no memory of the time, place or event.

It's like I'm floating in outer space. I say and do things that I can't remember later.

Ooooh, how I wish I had been like so many others (Shirley, Glenn's sister) who didn't struggle through chemo at all, felt like it was a "low grade flu" for a day or two, and then bounced right back. Everyone is different, I know, but even a year later, here I am, stuck in some kind of fog at times (it is soooooo much better, I know, but I still have huge chunks of missing history).

I just don't want to be "that guy," who sucks, but is playing along on his reputation of being a good player. I don't want to coast anymore. I don't want to try to get better, either.

I'm not resigning or retiring from poker (no matter how many times I say this, I still get a ton of e-mail, IM's and calls claiming I said I was quitting. Even Glenn misread my post about the Riverside and how I was going to cut down my play there, to read that I was "quitting poker; never to return"), how odd.

No threats, no promises, no swan songs. I'm not quitting. I'm a silver star now at Stars, and will continue to play for the bonuses, the points and to "break even." I can sit at a microlimit O8 game and coast. I give Glenn the freeroll entries. I am saving up to buy Glenn an Ipod. I've turned into all of those microlimit kids who are just starting out playing poker, or playing it for recreational only purposes. Go ahead and do your PTO on me. I'm a rock and I play a nut peddling game. Never claimed otherwise :)

So here I am, four years later and playing smaller, more meaningless limits than where I first started, my very first casino poker hand. And you know what? I don't really mind it.

Felicia :)
-------------------------------------------------
Online Poker Stats:

1/2 O8; .50/1 O8; 2/4 O8; .50/1 HORSE
=-30 Net winnings for Thursday, September 28, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $2105)

A New Goal

2006-09-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

Ta Da. I finally hit the brick wall. Yep, I'm done.

Curiously it didn't quite come the way I expected. First off, and most importantly, I figured I'd hate Hold'em more than I've ever hated any game in my life. Yes, even more than Chutes & Ladders, lol ;)

This didn't happen. If anything, I have a new found appreciation for HE, and can finally hear that rhythm, the flow and texture of the game. Instead of hearing nails scrape against a chalkboard in the back of my head while playing the dreaded game, I now hear music, albeit faint. Surely nothing like Stud, but it is there, and I never really thought I would grow to appreciate HE at all.

I also thought there would be one final boom at the Riverside. One guy slapping someone (a woman most likely), and getting told he "Shouldn't hit patrons" and should "sit out a few hands and calm down," while I went absolutely ape and jumped on the guy's back and gouged his eyes out (this is not out of the realm of possibility, btw).

I thought the end would come with a bang. A bang which would land me expelled from the cardroom, if not in jail. Or so absolutely fed up with the mob-like ownership that I couldn't bring myself to enter the premises again.

None of this happened. It was more like a soft crash. I just wasn't going anywhere. I was spinning my wheels. I was getting more and more choked up by the smoke. I had to listen to people cough up lungs and wheeze all day. People who are doomed (some already on oxygen). I smelled it everywhere.

One day I lent a sweatshirt from my car to another player who was cold. He is a non-smoker, btw. He left it at the front of the poker room for me to pick up the next day. I picked it up and put it back in my car. That night, when we entered the car to go home, it smelled so overwhelmingly of smoke that we both just stared at each other in shock. I mean it smelled like someone had smoked a pack of cigarettes in the car itself and hadn't opened a window. All of this, for a sweatshirt left in a NON-SMOKING poker room overnight.

Oddly enough, smoking never bothered me. My Mom smoked while I was in utero. She smoked in a dinky little 400 (max) SF trailer while I was a toddler. She smoked the entire time I was growing up, as did my ex-step father.

But I started thinking about my future. I already had cancer once, and this summer a scare with a spot on my lungs. What does my future hold if I continue to spend 40-50 hours per week in a cardroom surrounded with smokers (the Riverside allows them to stand right on the rail and blow smoke into the room)?

I started wondering about other aspects of my health. I was eating Pizza Hut almost every night, instead of the fresh fruit and veggies from my garden. I was "forgetting" to drink my shakes while at RS. Instead of getting 3-6 per day, I was getting one or two, max.

I wasn't really making any money, as anyone can see by my stats.

And I was making money online, albeit a very modest amount compared to what I could make live.

So I just decided to stop. No big boom, no blow-up. No swan songs or threats about never entering Riverside again. I have no problem with them, oddly enough. I might end up playing once a week or so.

And the car? Well, I'll work on it here at home, online. It's not forgotten. I simply have a new goal.

Felicia :)

Mostly Off-Topic Update

2006-09-19T11:04:00.000-07:00

Still having some PC problems. Not sure if I just want to wipe it clean, or try to figure it out somehow. Right now I'm in stall mode, because I'm doing so many other things.

Poker is going okay. No big wins, but no big losses, either. I can't believe I've made it this long. It's ALL HOLD'EM, ALL THE TIME, and my IQ is probably dropping daily.

I have amended my car strategy to get something in the interim. Something that gets close to double the gas mileage. While waiting for the 10k to do some SVO putting, I am getting only about 15 mpg going over Union Pass every day. That is just a waste.

I stumbled upon the bright idea (anyone else would have figured it out earlier, but with my new, diminished brain size it took me longer) after I bought a membership to Sam's Club in Bullhead.

They charge about 3-5 cents less per gallon than the cheapest place around here (Golden Valley and Kingman are typically less than BHC, but Sam's is obviously an exception). I added up that in gas savings alone, we would get back our membership costs (or very close, depending on how many days per week we drive to Laughlin).

So of course the next logical step in my thinking would be that if I bought a cheap car sooner, even though it does burn regular fuel, I could save about 1k per year! The way I'm running, it could take a year to save enough for the SVO car and converter. I need to do something sooner, even if it's temporary, and it is a hassle to buy, insure, register, etc, only to have to do it all over again in a year.

That is my amended plan. No biggie, but there ya go.

In other news, I'm looking forward to fall gardening. I have read that this is likely the most successful season in our area. It is more like summer for the rest of the country. The temps are in the 80's by day, sometimes low 90's, and drop at night. This is contrasted to temps of high 90's through 115 by day and 90 by night in the summer here.

The cooler nights help a vegetable garden. We just don't get that in the summer. The peppers have no trouble, and the root crops seem to fare well, but things that need a cooling off period at night are extremely stressed. Shading doesn't seem to help much. I built an arbor and have a strong shade cloth on it, but most of my plants still died or went dormant anyway.

Here is a post I wrote to the gardeners on 2+2 yesterday. Please feel free to skip if you're not interested. I'll send you off with a nice, little "blow me!"
--------------------------------------------
When we last heard from our heroine (harhar), she was suffering in Arizona with an average temp about ten degrees above normal. Everything was dying. The garden looked bare. All was thought lost...

Summer Update: "I have lost a lot of things over the past month. Sorry I haven't been updating.

The gypsy peppers came back hard and strong. One of my tomato cuttings got blown off of my garden cart during a freak storm, flipped completely over, and broke the main stem off. This, after months of babying the poor thing. Another cutting is thriving, though, and the original tomato plant keeps producing, even though it has been attacked by aphids and now some kind of caterpillar, grr.

The berries look just horrible. Sick, sick, sick. I had been warned that blackberries and raspberries don't do well here, and I believe it. I should have made them indoor/outdoor plants.

The sweet potatoes are taking off like gangbusters. Even the non-budding trash we planted on a whim instead of putting in the compost bin is thriving. I am starting to believe, more and more, that root plants will do very well here, since they aren't as subject to the crazy winds.

I nursed some low-water usage cantaloupe and watermelon (persian cantaloupe, desert king watermelon) seeds and got them sprouted. I hardened them off, then planted them in a bare, southern area of the garden with lots of room to spread. So far, only one cantaloupe and one watermelon has really taken off. The rest either died, or didn't sprout in the first place.

I am starting several plants indoors now and not even contemplating ever taking them out permanently. They are either cool weather crops (baby sweet lettuce) or tender crops. I have black cherry tomatoes, currant tomatoes, red cherry peppers, Italian basil, blue bush beans, little finger carrots, and two varieties of blueberries.

Glenn brought the gardening cart/greenhouse inside, put it directly in a south facing window, and we took the solar shades off to allow more sunlight in. So far, so good.

We inquired about a wind turbine, and even got permission from town, but then we ran into bad news. Although the wind is very strong here, it is erratic, as I had suspected. So the overall, average windspeed is only 6 mph. Horrible for a turbine, really, due to the patterns making maintenance a nightmare (one minute it will be dead still, the next, it will be blowing 75 mph), and the unreliability of providing usable energy for us. Oh, well!

Glenn finally got the solar oven working again. It still needs lots of work, but we are hoping to build a more permanent, cob structure around the oven, to keep it protected from the crazy wind."
-----------------------------------------
September Update: I did not give up on the garden. We killed the caterpillars and haven't had a problem with them since. Spider mites are another story, lol.

The squash stopped producing. Rather than letting it continue to suck up valuable water, I simply dug it up and composted it. C'est la vie.

The cherry tomatoes are still good. I was unsuccessful in starting black cherry tomatoes and currant tomatoes. I'll try again late this winter.

None of the berries made it. Blackberries, raspberries and strawberries are all dead. One blueberry plant (indoors) is surviving. Oy vey.

The sweet potato plants still look great. It's been about 110 days, so I dug one up. Only one potato, and it was tiny, maybe the size of a white, icicle radish! I still had Glenn cook it up anyway. I'll check another in about a week or so.

We got one Desert King watermelon. It was about the size of a cantaloupe, then split open. Luckily it was just about ripe, and edible. It tasted delicious, although it doesn't taste like a regular, red watermelon (it is yellow).

Some of the Persian cantaloupe were pollinated, then died anyway. Go figure. The plant is thriving, vines everywhere, so we are hoping for a second wind. This time I'm not pollinating them myself, but letting the few, stray bees in this area (they are rare) do it for me. I figure if I wasn't able to do it myself successfully, maybe they will succeed where I failed.

The indoor garden was a failure, even though I had a large, south facing window with a lot of heat and sun. I guess veggies really do need to be outdoors, regardless of how harsh the sun and wind is.

I am starting a fall garden now (I have heard that in Arizona this can be the most successful gardening season). Leftovers from spring/summer include:

Gypsy Peppers
Cherry Tomatoes
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Mediterranean Bush Bean
Olive Tree
Sweet Potatoes
Thompson Grape Vine

Fall Gardening Projects:

Little Fingers Carrots
Green Bunching Onions
Early French Radishes
Caesar Salad Romaine Lettuce
Gourmet Greens (lettuce)
Baby Butter Lettuce

All in progress. Not yet in progress are:

Beets
Turnips
Garlic
Horseradish
Peas

So that is it for me. How is everyone else doing? I know Ray (Zee) is a big winna, but how bout the rest of youse?
--------------------------------------------
Did you get your sex fantasy fix? Good, me either ;)

So besides gardening, Hold'em and car thoughts, what else is going on? Well, not too much. My life is so stable, so routine and nice. Most people would be bored stiff, I've no doubt, but I crave stability after my hell of a childhood and adolescence.

I am still clearing our land. One acre doesn't seem like much, until you purchase one acre in the desert. It's flat, it's bare. We still need to clear about 1/4 of the land of tumbleweeds and other weeds/bad foliage.

I have ordered two more trees. Both for drought conditions. One evergreen, one deciduous. They have been bred to grow fast in harsh conditions. We'll see how that works out. I hate buying more landscaping, instead of propagating it, but I'm almost scared to do cuttings on my existing trees, due to the rate of failure and the evergreens being so young.

Everything is growing pretty fast, for the Mohave, that is. We use our gray water, so instead of our trees only growing maybe a foot per year, they are growing at double that rate. Yay us!

Our cob/adobe making project has kind of gone down the tubes. While the bricks are awesome, and turned out fabulously, we simply lost a ton of volume to erosion. The monsoon rains can be so hard that even sundried bricks tended to melt somewhat. It was a disappointment, but the labor was worth it, IMO, because it toughened me up and made me stronger :)

Now we are gathering tons of rocks for use against the harsh winds and rain. We pile them around trees, bushes, shrubs, veggies, fences, etc. It is tough work, but at least rocks stay put and won't erode!

I had thought about getting some Pygmy Goats to help with the garden and clearing of land. I know that they are easy to care for and good in that capacity. The milk they give out is negligible so I wasn't interested for that reason.

I have changed my mind, however, because what I would really like to do is get a boat and get on the water more often. Cruising is great, I would do it all the time, but Glenn won't let me, and I know it's not really that responsible, either. Although cruiselines have been forced to be more environmentally responsible, I'm not kidding myself, I know that it's a lot of fluff, and can't be good for the oceans. The "fluff" factor is why many people won't cruise. Yeah, it's meant to be a vacation. It's meant to be games and parties and basically a floating hotel.

Maybe after about ten cruises in a year, I would get bored. I would probably start focusing more on the various ports around the world, instead of the on-board activities. I would probably go insane with the PA announcements. Golf putting, free-throws, ping-pong and other little games would get old and boring.

Last year those four cruises I took were mostly a way of healing. I just feel good on the water, on a ship or boat. I feel good in the sun, relaxing and letting the sun heal me, the ocean breeze blow in my face. I like to walk the deck. I like to do very low-impact activities. I like just being out there and rocking myself to sleep at night.

I make no apologies for those cruises, and for liking cruises, in general. But I know that Glenn would never go for that many cruises in a year, much less the 20 or so I'd like to take ;)

But he might just go for a small boat of our own. A little 25 footer with a tiny cabin, bathroom and galley. We are only 20 miles from the Colorado River. We can cruise up and down without even taking the thing overland. We can bring our dogs. Goats are obviously out of the question ;)

So that is going to cost me another 10k, minimum. I can do it. I can endure more ALL HOLD'EM, ALL THE TIME. I just need to get better at it, instead of just coasting along. I get bored, so I play in a predictable, lazy way and don't make much dough. Dumb.

Joining Sam's Club was a good decision for me. I don't really care for shopping, and I like to buy in bulk, because I'm a cheap bastid.

Although Sam's has a ton of stuff, they don't have all of the things that Walmart has. So I won't be able to completely eliminate WM from my life. And I'm too cheap to buy name brands from a more responsible mom & pop store.

SC is right across from Riverside, and also has a great feature to be able to pick out everything I want from the store, online, click for them to do the shopping for me, then go in and pick up everything the next day. No "shopping" required. This is awesome for my lazy self. Glenn likes it even more (he hates shopping more than I do).

One day I hope to buy bulk in a co-op, but the one here sucks, so there it is.

And that brings us to now, today. I hope to have more poker happenings, including funny sayings at Riverside, for you soon.

Hope you're having a great week!

Felicia :)
-------------------------------------------------
Monday Night Stats:

-$45 (4/8 Kill HE)
-$5 (2-6 HE)
=-50 Net winnings for Monday, September 18, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $2015)

Technology Disaster

2006-09-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

I have some things to write about, but the past few days have been a PC disaster for me. I won't go into details. Suffice it to say, the guy who sold me this laptop (used on ebay) never bothered to clean it up before he sold it. Glenn bought it for me right after my mastectomies, since my baby 3 lb. laptop died during the surgery. Neither one of us had the time or energy to do much with it then, and I kind of let it go.

So I paid the price a year later, with some virus problems and other messes. I'm such a cheapskate that I never stop to think about the real price that I pay when I go for these extreme bargains. In time lost, effort and headaches I spend much more than I would if I'd just bought something new and decent. I'd say 'live and learn,' but the problem is, I never learn! I just keep making those stupid, "incredible" deals year after year.

I have amended my car plan a slight bit. Nothing hugely different, just a plan I stumbled upon while thinking about my unneeded SUV, and how it gets about 15 mpg or less going over Union Pass every day on our way to Riverside.

I'll write more about that today if my poor laptop doesn't crash yet again. Wish me luck!

Felicia :)

Friday Night Stats
-------------------------------------------------
Last night:

+$40 (4/8 Kill HE)
+$30 (2-6 HE)
-$10 (2/5 NLHE)
=+60 Net winnings for Friday, September 16, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $2065)

Wednesday Night Stats

2006-09-14T10:26:00.000-07:00

-------------------------------------------------
Last night:

+$50 (4/8 Kill HE)
-$80 (2-6 HE Kill)
-$10 (NLHE Freeroll Dealers add-on)
=-40 Net winnings for Wednesday, September 13, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $2005)

More Riverside Hilarity

2006-09-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

I often talk about the Orleans, and how the locals there sometimes make up their own odds and spout them during or after big hands.

This is something that often happens at Riverside, too. They don't do it quite the same way, but they still come up with some crazy odds and statistics.

One day Glenn and I were playing in the 2-6 HE game. A local raised, another local either cold called or re-raised. The local had AK, the lone opponent had QQ. The flop came down with an ace and the local bet the maximum ($6).

http://twodimes.net/h/?z=2074325
pokenum -h ac kc - qc qd -- ad 3s 6h
Holdem Hi: 990 enumerated boards containing 3s Ad 6h
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Ac Kc 903 91.21 87 8.79 0 0.00 0.912
Qc Qd 87 8.79 903 91.21 0 0.00 0.088

The turn brought the queen (maybe the river, this has been a couple of months, but that isn't the point).

After the hand was over, the "knowledgable" local went ballistic. He jumped up from his chair and said, "That was a 47:3 shot. He wasn't getting anywhere near that to make such a call!"

Glenn looked at me like, "Huh? Three what? Where did he get those numbers???"

I said, "Must be Orleans Odds."

We both cracked up.

Felicia :)

Suck Me at the Riverside

2006-09-12T13:18:00.000-07:00

Here is the first in a series of funny happenings at the Riverside.

Lately I've developed a soft spot for the Riverside. Readers will remember how I have raked them over the coals during the past three years due to the mafia-like ownership and some of the atrocities that occur there.

Mike, the CRM, is from the sports book, however, and does not run the room the way that Bear ran it. The prize pools are correct, completely outrageous behavior is not tolerated, and Mike is a pretty laid back preson. If I could criticize him for anything, it would be that he is not a strong CRM and kind of lets everyone else run the room, like James at the Belle, but with less smarmy disgustingness that was James' personality.

One thing I like about Mike is that he doesn't shoot the messenger (me), and that he realizes that some people are out of line, but if he's not going to do anything about them, he's not going to do anything about me, either. Other CRM's have felt that others can cross lines, but not me, since they "know me," or since I'm a female. Not Mike. He may not do anything about the drunk in seat four who is cursing and rude, but he doesn't go off on me, either. I like people who treat all customers the same way, who do not pick and choose when they are going to enforce some random rule.

Anyway, Mike cracks me up. He plays a lot, and sometimes he plays pretty well. He is slightly too tight and timid. But this isn't about Mike's play, I just bring it up because he plays a lot.

One time there was a socallie sitting at our table who had a bad temper. If things didn't go his way, he tended to rant and rave. Sooooo, he calls in EP with 42s, lol. I can't remember if I called or if I was in the blind with something like Q9o. I flopped three nines and bet it all the way. I filled on the river, but it also gave the grumpy socallie a flush. He raised me, I re-raised him. I took the pot.

He was cursing at me, grumbling and mumbling about his horrible luck. He had gone through about five racks this way over the afternoon, yet made the same terrible plays over and over again. Because I was the lone female at the table, he felt he could take his anger and aggression out on me, and started cursing at me.

Mike was on one side of me. The guy on the other side of me was confused about why this dude was so mad at me, when I was ahead all along and he made such horrible plays. I shrugged and dismissed it saying, "That's the Riverside!" He went on about it, how the guy was cursing at me and nothing was being done. I said:

"I don't care what he thinks. He can suck my penis."

The guy next to me was rolling in both shock and the hilarity of the situation. Grumpy fell silent. Mike laughed and didn't say a word.

Felicia :)

Monday at Riverside

2006-09-12T11:47:00.000-07:00

I'm putting together a funny sayings post about things at Riverside. I know some of you like my humorous posts, so I'm hoping this will be a good one. I should take notes. The things I hear there are so ROFL funny that I could write a book.
-------------------------------------------------
Last night:

-$90 (4/8 Kill HE)
+$140 (2-6 HE Kill)
=+50 Net winnings for Monday, September 11, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $2045)

Ripe Saturday Melon

2006-09-11T11:24:00.000-07:00

Some really weird hands on Friday and Saturday. I mean, for me, resident rock and "boulder city" wannabe ;)

I ended up playing in the tourney on Friday at Riverside, as some of you may have noticed. Our 4/8 game went down only about ten minutes into the event, and the 2-6 didn't look very healthy either. So I let Steve "Miracle Ear" talk me into it. Mistake.

I raised a ton of limpers with AA, only got one EP limper to call. I had about double the amount of chips he had. His type of play should indicate why he had no chips. He had QQ. He turned a gutshot draw and started screaming for a nine. He got it. Then he did the "Ship ME the money!" holla. I told him he had bad etiquette. He ignored me. I said, "Sir, your behavior is out of line." He ignored me studiously. I mentioned to Glenn later that he must be friends with John Bonetti. He shut up and never made comment after that hand, so he must have thought about what I'd said, even if he would not condescend to reply or apologize.

A couple of hands later I had Q7 in the big blind. Got to see a free flop, which was Q77. I went all in with my meager remaining stack, knowing someone would have to call me anyway. Sure enough, the SB called with Q6. The turn was the case queen and we split the pot. Unlike Mr. Rude, she was aghast and groaned aloud.

I got lucky when we were down to two tables. I had A8s and only enough for the BB and 1/2 of the SB. UTG went all-in for his case 5k, so I did, too. Both blinds called. The flop came rags with two diamonds (my suit). The SB bet right out like he had something, so the big blind folded his pair. The SB turned over nothing, just KQo. The BB went ballistic and I laughed like a hyena. I told him that bluffing into a dry sidepot makes baby Jesus weep. He looked at both of us like we were mad. He had no idea what a horrible play that was. The BB explained it to him. He illustrated how he would have knocked both of us out, since my flush never got there. I don't think the SB will ever do that again. He seemed appalled once he realized what he'd done.

So I quadrupled up. And Mr. Rude Bonetti at my first table? Well, I'm happy to say that because of his horrible play, he had no chips and went all-in UTG with AJs and his case 6k. He was called by the BB who had already put 4k in and pretty much had to call. BB had T3o and spiked a ten on the river. Mr. Rude grumbled and mumbled all the way down to the loser's lounge.

I did not make any comment. I won't stoop to that level.

Oooooh, but I did, I did. Man, sometimes I can be so horrible. The times that I am at my worst, my most rude, insensitive, testosterone driven, penis-wannabe, etc, etc. are the times that I don't even mean to hurt someone. But I'll come back to that in a moment.

I finally busted out on the FT bubble when I had A8o on the button and tried to steal from the BB, who woke up with aces :)

And then, I got to go back to cash games.

Now back to my faux pas. I do this kind of stuff all the time. Why? Because I am super blunt and when I sit here typing away I think that I'm basically just writing a diary. The difference between this and a private diary is that you can read it. The public can read it. But I rarely, if ever, stop to think about that. I think of it as my own, personal, private thoughts, which cannot possibly hurt anyone.

And that is how I get into trouble. That is how I get the death threats and hate mail. I suck.

When we went into Ramada for the Saturday tournament, the CRM was there. Glenn was lagging all morning, so we didn't get there until it was sold out. I was the #5 alternate.

I finally got called to buy-in, about 30 minutes into the event. Since the structure is so good, I wasn't bothered by this at all. Maybe I should have been, but hindsight is 20/20, lol.

So I went to get my seat assignment from the CRM, and she was obviously upset at me. I knew it was regarding what I'd written in this journal. I apologized for opening my big mouth. First of all, some of the things I'd written were gossip around town, and I'm not much for gossip. I was just typing along and didn't even realize what I was saying.

I'm a moron, and I always take the blame when I'm wrong. People never realize that about me. They are used to blunt people who can dish it out, but can't take it, and never, ever apologize or admit when they are wrong. I'm the opposite of this. I can take a lot of ribbing or criticism, and I definitely am the first person to step up to the plate when I am wrong. My apologies aren't hollow or meaningless, either. I am completely sincere and sometimes lament my nature for days. If I am out of line, and am called on it, I will suffer greatly for my bad behavior.

Apologizing doesn't make it all better. It doesn't make it "go away." I'm not deluding myself, never have. Being sincere and contrite doesn't make me a martyr or wash away my faults. I'm human. I just actually SAY what many people are thinking. Some call it rude or non-PC. Others call it blunt or candid. I prefer to think that if everyone would just say what they mean, instead of always lying, the world would be a better place. But what do I know? Nothing.

Okay, so moving on to the actual tournament.

This is the one that Glenn chopped last week. The one with the outrageous bounties. Oh, yeah.

I lasted all of one hand. Or should I say I didn't even last one hand?

I was dealt into the blind with K2s. No raise pre-flop and 30 limpers.

The flop came K2x with one heart (my suit). I bet the pot. The turn was the six of hearts. I bet the pot again. The river was an offsuit queen.

One of the dozen limpers had called all the way with a three outer. AJo. The queen gave her broadway.

http://twodimes.net/h/?z=2070777
pokenum -h kh 2h - ac jc -- ks 2d th
Holdem Hi: 990 enumerated boards containing Ks 2d Th
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Kh 2h 822 83.03 168 16.97 0 0.00 0.830
Ac Jc 168 16.97 822 83.03 0 0.00 0.170

http://twodimes.net/h/?z=2070779
pokenum -h kh 2h - ac jc -- ks 2d th 6h
Holdem Hi: 44 enumerated boards containing Ks 2d Th 6h
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Kh 2h 41 93.18 3 6.82 0 0.00 0.932
Ac Jc 3 6.82 41 93.18 0 0.00 0.068

Oh yeah, baby, I run GOOT!

Poor Glenn busted out almost right after me. AKo against KQo. The board was Kxx. River queen. Ah, well, off to the Riverside.

Glenn bought into the tournament, while I stayed in cash games. My head was pounding, but the espresso only subdued it so long. Allergies have been massive recently, with the crazy weather. The swings are like 100+ degrees with full sun during the day or before the rain comes. The the temp drops down to about 75 and there are scattered showers. Then the wind blows it all around. Sun comes back out, zooms up to 100 again. Then late at night it drops off considerably. One night we got down to 66 degrees before we even made it home from the RS. So my head had been pounding, nose running, eyes watery.

Don't cry for me, I'll take it over cancer anyday! ;)

I couldn't really get anything going on at Riverside, but Glenn chopped first. The field was soooo small (everyone is mobbing over at Ramada on Saturday afternoons), that Glenn only got about $350 for chopping first place!! Oh, well. A win is a win, and we'll take it.

We went home extremely early. I think it was still light outside, but I just couldn't take the pounding head anymore.

Luckily I was able to calm down, take some allergy meds and win a little scratch online. Counts for something, I'd say!

In gardening news, we woke up this morning to find a brown snake on our back patio. I'll have to look up that snake to see if it's dangerous. Also, my poor little Desert King watermelon split open. The crazy torrents of rain, plus the scalding sun probably didn't fare well for the bugger. The good news is, it was just about ripe and is still edible. So what that it's only the size of a cantaloupe! Melon is melon and it's GOOOOOD!

Have a great week, all!

Felicia :)
-------------------------------------------------
Saturday/night:

-$20 (4/8 Kill HE)
-$60 (Ramada NLHE Tourney)
-$20 (2-6 HE)
=-155 Net winnings for Saturday, September 9, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $1995)

Friday Night

2006-09-09T11:29:00.000-07:00

-------------------------------------------------
Last night:

-$60 (4/8 Kill HE)
+$35 (4/8 Kill HE)
-$80 (NLHE Tourney)
-$50 (2/5 NLHE)
=-155 Net winnings for Friday, September 8, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $2095)

Last Night

2006-09-08T12:04:00.000-07:00

-------------------------------------------------
Last night:

$25 (2-6 HE)
=25 Net winnings for Thursday, September 7, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $2145)

Don't Be a Victim!

2006-09-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

I didn't go out and play last night. My head was pounding from the crazy weather we are having (driving rain/wind storms proceeded and followed by high heat and sun). The pollen is probably through the roof at times. My eyes are swollen and watery and my head pounds to a rhythm that has nothing to do with music. Not fun times.

Although I don't feel that great right now, I'll probably still hit the Riverside tonight. Gotta work for da man and earn my SVO car.

Glenn has hit a rough patch which is kind of amusing to me. Glenn and I have always had vastly different experiences in poker. Although he is as tight, or tighter than I am, Glenn tends to hit big hands often. He has had many straight flushes, including royals, right from the time he started playing poker for real stakes. I have only had a handful of straight flushes in my poker journey, and never a royal. Not once, in any game. Not Stud, HE, Omaha, Razz (haha). Never.

Likewise, Glenn gets some vicious runner beats. I meant brutal. Remember the 989:1? I have never had anything even remotely close to that happen to me.

Last night at RS, Glenn had another, too. He had a pocket pair, sixes, I believe. He limped, along with several dozen other limpers (lol, this is a spread limit 2-6 game, so usually everyone including the dealer and the pet dog are in every hand). A player went all-in with his case $8. Everyone called.

The flop came down A64, with two hearts. Giving Glenn a set, but a slightly scary board for the any two cards that his opponents could have. Glenn bet out and immediately got raised. The betting became heads-up, with the pre-flop all-in for the main.

Glenn filled up on the turn, with the board reading: A64A

The river was the case ace, and his opponent still betting for the sidepot showed AKo.

This is not a huge beat, but I just wanted to give an example of the things that happen to Glenn each and every day, yet so rarely happen to me. We have never figured this phenomenon out. We have examined it at each level, yet we do not have an answer other than the obvious ones: 1) Glenn has played hundreds of thousands of hands more than me (he likes online play), and 2) just random dumb luck that will eventually catch up to me.

Fun times!

In other news, I have been asked by so many people to address different poker subjects here. Some of them I simply have no interest in. The Gold subject is one that doesn't spark even one iota of interest. I have no unique perspective, nor do I really care. Sure, it's a blight on poker, but then so is Amarillo Slim, yet everyone still sucks up to him like he isn't a pedophile who sexually molested his granddaughter three times before she had the nerve to report it to her mother (his daughter). Slim makes me sick, puke, ill. Gold just makes me roll my eyes.

One subject that I have likewise had little problem with is the "new" poker scene. Young guys with the caps, sunglasses and music. I suppose some of my lack of problem with these guys is that I'm not old enough yet to be disturbed by them. I can still understand where they are coming from. The other advantage I have in that regard is that I'm a woman, and maybe more of a guiding figure to them. I do not put up with their over-the-top antics, yet I don't come online and whine and complain about them, while saying nothing. I address it, as is.

The problem with so many people in the world is their refusal to speak up. This inhibition on our part, in society as a whole, is what has contributed to the "problem." No one wants to stand up and contribute to the "solution," per se. They just want to watch someone do something out of line, then come home and vent online or to their spouses.

One of the primary reasons I refuse to speak on the phone is due to this problem. I will not listen to people who constantly whine and complain, yet refuse to do anything about their situation. They are the dead weight in our world. The frozen, the inactive, the lazy, the fearful. They watch atrocities happen each and every day, yet refuse to do a thing.

Then they think I'm going to be their sounding board. No way. I don't listen to these sob stories of those who cannot speak up or speak out. Never. My whole early life I grew up listening to my Mom whine about people every, frigging day, yet never do a thing. She dealt at some pretty scary Riverside-like cardrooms. She was slapped, hit, kicked, had drinks thrown in her face, was burned with cigars and cigarettes, cursed at. Did she ever do a thing? Nope. Instead she came home to whine and cry to us.

So getting back to poker. People LOVE whine about sitting in a game where a young person is completely lacking any poker etiquette whatsoever, due to either lack of experience in a live setting, or because they have gotten away with it in the past, so have continued their ways.

The experienced players say nothing. They don't report it, they don't stop it, they sit like frozen deer in the headlights of an oncoming car.

Until they get home, that is, where they log onto the Internet and go ballistic.

They claim they don't want to tap the aquarium, or some such. Any excuse will do other than the truth, which is usually that they lack the balls to do anything about it.

In my situation, there IS no situation. The first time it happens, I either pull the guy aside, or address him at the table. It is usually done in either a very light, joking manner, or in a more motherly, stern manner. I do not embarrass him, if I feel he is the type who would leave or become angry if embarrassed, but I make it 100% clear that his etiquette is not proper, not social, not acceptable and that he would have a better time if he behaved like the gentleman I know he could be.

Problem solved.

I have never had one further instance of abuse, except in a couple of rare times when the young guy was drinking heavily, and then usually the matter is escalated to the floorman or security.

I also have never had a young guy turn on me. Start to curse me out, or hurt me.

I've said it a million times, and I'll say it again: IF YOU HAVE THE BALLS TO PLAY POKER, YOU HAVE THE BALLS TO SPEAK UP!

Poker is not for the timid or shy. Get in there and do your duty. We have thousands of new dealers on the scene who do not run their own games. We must take charge if we want and expect a change. If you value your time in the cardroom, if you value your future, if you value playing in a safe, secure environment, you are going to have to protect your games. Failure to do so will find these games changed to the extent that you will refuse to play live (several on RGP have already quit live play).

I have little hope that anyone will listen to me. They so rarely do. But this is my journal, my rant, so there you go. The Bystander Effect is a blight on our society.

Sooooo, now that I have ranted and raved, I would like to say once again, that the things I write here are all about me. They are my experiences, my opinions, my views.

I never, ever go out of my way to "hurt" anyone, yet I so often do anyway, in my inability to censor myself. I don't, and I will not, ever censor anything here. Sure, I say what others are thinking sometimes, yet refuse to admit aloud, and it gets me into trouble, but I wouldn't have it any other way, regardless of the persecution that I have experienced.

If I inadvertently hurt anyone who reads my journal and knows me in person (I have been hearing rumors of this lately in Laughlin, ugh), I apologize. This is just a diary, the type you would keep next to your bed. I write what I am thinking, and sometimes it seems awfully harsh. But I never mean to hurt anyone, and that is simply the truth. If you find yourself offended by my personal journal, please do not continue to read. As I like to write: GTFO.

Felicia :)

Looking Up

2006-09-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

Although I haven't been writing much, things are going very well for me. I'm winning again, although I'm not on a heater or getting more than my fair share of wins/premium hands.

The Riverside is still the Riverside, warts and all. The good thing about RS is that I can pretty much say whatever I want without fear of it being taken the wrong way (see Belle) or getting booted by some super sensitive dealer.

My health is so much better than I can't even begin to describe the difference between this year and last. Although I may complain about allergies, headaches, spots on my lung, colds, etc, they are a minor inconvenience compared to the hell that I went through post-chemo.

The doctor here thought I should ween myself off of the shot that renders me spayed and masculine (lack of hormonal emotions). At first I disagreed with this idea, knowing the hell I would go through if my estrogen kicked back in and I was saddled with all of that again (pre-cervical cancer, endometriosis, mood swings). The oncologist thought that I would likely go into menopause anyway, given the strength of the poison called chemotherapy. But then I only had two doses of it. So I'm not sure where I stand in that regard. The good news is, I haven't noticed any change yet. It's only been about three weeks, but nada so far. If I have any physical or mental changes whatsoever, I'll be back in the doc's office pronto. I know that it increases my chances of cancer recurrence, but those shots are so awesome that it makes it worth it, for me, if it comes to that.

On the poker front, I've finally cooled off online a bit, and have hit a downswing. Downswings in LO8 just don't happen very often, so when they do, they seem more overwhelming than in other games like Stud. In person I am winning again, and have a good table image. Oddly enough, something Alan said is so relevant to me that I have been saying it for years. I won't go into detail, but I will say that "schooling happens," and when you are a woman, a woman who is crass, rude, dominant, aggressive and somewhat masculine, a type of implicit collusion and/or bullseye effect does tend to happen more often than to most men. It is both a help and a hindrance.

My garden is starting to perk up again. The experimental indoor gardening project failed miserably. I guess that even though I kept all of the seedlings in a warm, sunny, southfacing window, they just never got quite enough sunlight and/or warmth. Yet the cool weather plants never got the nightime drop in temperature that they need to thrive. So everything is going back outside. Some will be put in containers so that they can survive the winter by not being outdoors after the first frost.

I have only one watermelon growing. It is a yellow variation, bred for desert conditions (Desert King Watermelon). No other flowers were pollinated successfully. I don't know why. My Persian Cantaloupe likewise failed to pollinate, even with my manual help. It is a hearty, thriving plant, but has no fruit growing.

On the other hand, the bush beans that I tried to start indoors would not germinate. I got zero sprouting. When I placed one in a peat pot and buried it outside, however, the thing sprouted right up in a day! Go figure. It was like the bean was telling me, "Duh, all you had to do was put me in horrible, harsh, windy, 110+ sun scalding conditions and I would grow right up for you!"

Now I'm getting read to start carrots, lettuce and radishes outside. If they won't grow in favorable conditions, maybe they, also will sprout right up in desert conditions with all of the "wrong" elements.

Gardening is odd, so hit and miss, just like any individual poker session.

I've always loved a challenge. I'll take it!

Felicia :)
-------------------------------------------------
Last night:

+$225 (2/5 NLHE)
+$60 (4/8 HE Kill)
-$65 (NLHE Tournament)
=220 Net winnings for Tuesday, September 5, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $2120)

Last Night

2006-09-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

-------------------------------------------------
Last night:

+$5 (2-6 HE Kill)
+$110 (4/8 HE Kill)
=115 Net winnings for Saturday, September 2, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $1900)

Get Your Groove On

2006-09-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

Ah, back in the groove of things again. Nothing feels better than finding a niche, and letting things come together. It's like a puzzle and you find a piece that makes other pieces stand out, and place easily. Suddenly the momentum gets going and snowballs swiftly and easily downwards. I love that feeling.

Yesterday we decided to try this new NLHE tournament we'd heard of at Ramada. I was so out of the loop in poker until recently that I didn't even know Ramada had a real poker room. As far as I knew, they still had those two or three lonely tables at the end of the gaming pit, stocked with blackjack dealers.

Now they have many tables, with a view of their little railroad station and the train stopping by every fifteen minutes. It is nice. I love trains and the sound of the rails.

They also have promotions rivaling Riverside, while combining some of the better things that the Belle had to offer. The reason that the promos are set up with those things in mind is because the CRM has worked at both properties.

She seems like a nice woman. I knew her at the Belle as a dealer. She also worked at Riverside in many capacities. I'm not sure what her reputation is overall, but her husband's rep is one of a crook, so I keep my distance. She is also the one who referred me to doctor death, who operated on my right boob without anesthesia and held me down as I screamed and begged to be knocked out. He also failed to diagnose that I had breast cancer, and strung me along for three months. But that is "modern" medicine in Kingman, and had it's own horror story a year ago, so if you really want to read the disgusting details, have fun in the archives.

Anyway, to get back on track, now she is back from wherever they go when they wear out their welcome in Laughlin, which seems pretty often. I've heard southern California mentioned several times.

She is the new CRM and is trying to promote the room by offering promos which are pretty great, even for Laughlin. She is paying $1.25 per hour for live play, plus poker merchandise based on hours played. They have a coffee machine in the room, although the coffee is horrible. Ditto water cooler, which is great for me, because I drink so much water, and so often, that it seems only Riverside can keep up with my consumption.

She has one tournament, and it is a biggie. I have heard people talking about how great it is during the past couple weeks at RS. It is a $55 buy-in. Only $5 goes to the house. There is an optional dealers add-on for $5 which increases chip count. No rebuys.

We start with 8k in chips, and only 100/200 levels, which super gradually increase every 20 minutes. There is plenty of play in this event, even after three hours.

It is a bounty tourney, which means whenever players get eliminated, the person who eliminated him gets a bounty. Most bounties are worth $10, but they come in sealed envelopes, and there are bonus bounties worth varying amounts up to $100. That money comes from the BBJ drop ("promotional fund"), not the prize pool.

So this was the first Saturday we'd played at Ramada. We got there early, about 1pm, as I'd heard it sells out just about every week. Sure enough, there were hordes of people from every cardroom around town. The word was out.

Glenn and I rode the train for a diversion and some fun before the event. It must have brought us good luck ;)

We both started the event strong. Glenn eliminated opponent after opponent, as did I. I just happened to always have a big hand when someone else did. But they always had the 2nd biggest hand.

I got many bounties. I got so many at my table that the floorman just kept coming up to me with the envelopes, instead of asking where the bounty went. I knocked out about ten people in the first two hours.

All of my bounties were $10 except one, which was the $60 bonus. Glenn and I kept them together at first, so I don't know how many I made, but it was close to $170 in bounties alone!

I was the chip lead off and on during the first two hours, steamrolling my table.

And then I started making mistakes.

My first mistake was not demanding to know how the prize pool was calculated. The CRM just kept saying she was "working on it," and that the "final table gets paid."

So we had 88 runners altogether, and ten get paid. Sounds logical. On the surface, that is.

What she neglected to say is that she was going to try that old Belle trick of paying 6-10 only $50, instead of real money.

So that was my first mistake. I assumed that 6-10 got some percentage of the prize pool, when instead they got a pittance.

My second mistake was trying to play conservatively with a big stack, instead of continuing to steamroll the table as we got close to the final. I went from about 80k in chips down to 30k by simply sitting on my butt doing nothing. Big mistake. I had many playable hands.

So I live and learn. I truly am not meant for tournament play, and I know this, but there is no way I'll miss this tourney in the future, so I will study and read Rodman & Harrington until I learn that I cannot make these crucial errors in the future.

Sure enough, by trying NOT to bubble, I managed to bubble.

At blinds of 4/8k I was UTG with AJo and only 30k. I made a steal attempt.

A guy who'd been at my table the entire tourney, who played about 90% of his hands (southern Callie), who had been up to 100k and down to the felt by playing every hand, who made terrible calls, decided that his pocket tens were too strong to lay down (heck, 90% of his hands were "too strong to lay down!"). I got no help, and I was the bubble. Serves me right.

Glenn made the final table with a ton of chips and a few more bounties to add to his huge collection.

The prize pool was extremely top heavy, with first place winning a whopping 45%!!! 2nd through fifth won a much smaller amount.

Glenn was up and down during the final table play, but never in big danger of being eliminated.

He took out a couple more opponents and was the lucky winner of the $85 bonus bounty. That brought our total bounties up to a huge $265!!!

When play got down to four players, there was a big jump in blinds. They were 10/20k and three of the four players left had about 80k, all within 2k of each other. The chip lead, however, had about 550k! He was a nice guy whom I'd talked to for over an hour on my table.

Glenn realized that it had suddenly become a huge crapshoot for everyone except the chip lead, who was playing his big stack correctly.

Glenn proposed to the other three that they split the prize money evenly. They all realized how prudent this was, and the chip lead made the big tip. Everyone seemed happy about it.

I was playing in a dinky NLHE cash game there. 1/2 blinds on a Stud table. $40 min/$100 max buy-in. I made $56 in about 30 minutes, until Glenn's tournament ended.

We decided to head over to Riverside, which was rocking on a Saturday night, with the holiday weekend.

I started out at 4/8 HE, until I could get an Omaha seat. I was about even when I was called to O8. The players were actually playing pretty close to correctly at O8, and I couldn't catch a thing, so I was quickly down $60. I put my name back on 4/8.

The players in the 4/8 game were some of the worst I'd seen, even at RS. Lots of weird plays. In fact, the plays were so baffling that even today I'm trying to figure out what they could possibly have been thinking.

In one hand, there were a ton of limpers and I raised with AKo in MP. Many cold calls in LP. The flop came AKx, with two hearts. I bet right out in first position. I only got two callers, but they were the strangest calls I've ever seen. The first was this elderly man who bet and called down hands with no possible chance of winning. He also misstated his hands many times. I'm not sure how much of it was an act, and how much was genuine disability. I think it was some of both, but leaning towards just being totally unaware of what was going on. He was also drinking heavily.

As he was trying to call, a lady in LP was raising out of turn. She is the woman I spoke about yesterday who misplayed aces so badly that I quoted the old 2+2 expression "misplayed on every street."

She can be tricky, but most of her plays are odd just for oddness sake itself, it seems like. She is another soCallie, I believe, from overhearing her talk. She is very obese, old, and wears a wig. I'm sure her real hair cannot be nearly as hideous as the wig, but go figure. It is clear that she tries to take care of her appearance as best as possible for someone so overweight and at her age. So I'm not sure if the wig is due to cancer treatment, or just the type of thinning and balding that elderly women seems to stumble upon as they age. At any rate, she has money, and she has balls. She is trying to take care of herself and is clean and wears expensive clothing and jewelry, so I have nothing but positive to say in that regard (if you saw the people who frequent the RS, you would realize what a huge compliment this is).

She is aggressive and has balls. Only during promo hands does she play passively (like the aces in yesterday's post).

So she was raising me out of turn, just assuming that the elderly man was sooooooo slowly calling (his M.O.). George tried to halt things, and came back to the elderly man, who declared he would make it three bets, then. The table erupted saying that we can't play clock-wise, counter clock-wise, then clock-wise again, lol. Although I would like nothing more than to make it four bets myself, even I could not set my ethical standards aside long enough to take advantage of these two bumbling idiots.

I made it three bets, and no one raised again.

On the turn, the flush came right out. I looked at my opponents, but had no idea where they were coming from, given the clueless look on their faces. So I checked and the elderly man bet out. The woman called and I called, but while waiting for the river, the elderly man rechecked his hole cards and suddenly I knew I was still ahead.

I bet the blank river, getting called by both opponents.

The woman mucked instantly, the old man showed pocket queens!!! Yes, one heart. Whew!

Not long after this, we decided to leave for the night. It was past 10pm and we'd been in Laughlin since 1pm. I was beat and Glenn seemed whipped, too.

I had a few more good hands in that session. I played treys after a dozen or more limpers, lol, and flopped a set, which I bet the whole way. I could go on, but they were mostly straight up hands.

I recooped my $60 from Omaha, and made $100 more.

Good times!

Felicia :)
-------------------------------------------------
Last night:

-$60 (2-6 O8)
$110 Ramada Tourney ($60 buy-in, $170 bounties)
$160 (4/8 HE Kill)
$55 (1/2 NLHE)
=165 Net winnings for Saturday, September 2, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $1785)

Back on Track, But at what Price?

2006-09-02T12:08:00.000-07:00

Longtime readers are probably perplexed at my plan of playing everyday at the Riverside, and Hold'em, at that. Maybe you are all waiting for the other foot to drop. You aren't alone.

I kind of figured that if I got back into HE, and played like mad, everyday, around such scum that frequents the RS, I would finally get so burnt out on HE that I would quit altogether. Maybe it would drive me to online play. Maybe I would quit poker entirely. Maybe I would refuse to play HE again in my lifetime. Maybe I would get better at tourneys and go that route. In other words, I needed direction.

I still haven't gotten to that point. But you aren't alone in your thoughts that I am doing something I've never done before, and driving myself to the point of a total break. I will someday soon run full speed off of that cliff, and we will all find out where that road will take me.

As far as my horrible run, it finally seems to have stopped. But I paid a dear price for winning yesterday.

I woke up several times during the early morning hours to a blinding headache. It had been raining off and on, so I knew my allergies were going nuts. My head was pounding along with my pulse, simply throbbing. It got slightly better after coffee and allergy pills. It went up and down all day, but never left me. I figured it might be better in Laughlin due to their super low elevation and heat. It only got worse.

The massage girls stopped coming to the poker room due to lack of tipping. Figures. I tried everything. I tried two shots of espresso, which helped more than anything else. I tried gin. I tried listening to music.

Although the espresso seemed to help the most, my head was still pounding and I eventually gave up and called the spa. Oddly enough, on a Friday night they could take me at 5:30pm.

I don't remember if I was up or down at the 2-6 kill HE game, but when Glenn cashed me out of the newly started 4/8 kill game at a little after 5pm, I was up $122 ($322 in front of me).

The masseuse was a woman who wanted to play live HE, but had only seen it on TV and played via some free program on her cellphone. We talked about poker during the entire massage. She was extremely aware, and said right after touching my back with her hands one time, "Whoaaaaa, have I got my work cut out for me!" Blinding headaches seem to leave my back rigid as a board. She also remarked, "You drink a TON of water, don't you?" So she was on the up and up, not just some mindless, brainless masseuse.

The massage was good, and I wondered why I hadn't been getting more of them. My headache was gone, and although it returned here and there during the rest of the night, it was at perhaps only 10% of it's former strength.

When I got back to the poker room, the 4/8 was gone, due to the tourney starting at 6:30. I hopped into the 2-6 kill again only to quickly lose about $60. When the NLHE game was announced, I could see we were going to lose our softest spots, so I took my bills and diminished stack and moved along with the fishies.

I was able to limp into a couple of pots, but never knew when they were going to be raised and reraised crazily. Sometimes I was raised out with low pocket pairs or a decent ace, other times I got to see a flop. I didn't catch a thing for about an hour.

Gary, the crazy car dealership owner who drops about 5k per night when this game is going, was in his usual form. But this time he was challenged by the many other nutty Californians who invented this type of style and can buy and sell him any time they want. He quickly went through about 2k (within the first five hands, lol).

Another SoCallie bought in for about $500, cashed out an hour later with over 3k, almost all of it Gary's money. Besides Gary, the money was very shallow, so I put my name on the newly starting 4/8 list again, and waited for the blind to get to me.

Before my blind I was lucky to get three hands almost in a row. First I had queens. I raised to $30. Gary was in the big blind and had yet to go to the cashier for more thousands so was down to his last $60. He reraised me for that amount and turned over aces. What the heck? Maniacs get aces, too? ;)

A couple of hands later I had AJo. I limped. The flop came 9TJ with two diamonds. My ace was a diamond. I led out the pot, which was about $30. I got two callers. The turn was a total rag, so I bet $100. Folded to me.

The very next hand was my UTG. I had tens. I raised to $30. I got re-raised by an EP, timid player to $100. I smooth called, knowing I might have to lay it down to a big bet on the flop with overcards. I looked at my opponent, not the flop, and checked. He checked behind looking nervous/disappointed/deflated. I looked at the flop of all rags. The turn was another rag and I pushed in. He folded. I made about $120 at the NLHE table.

About that time, as I sat down in the new 4/8, my head started pounding a little bit again. Surely nothing like before, but it was still so early, and I didn't want to leave a good game. So I had heard they served Port up at the fancy foo-foo steak house. They had a bar, and I went up to get some. It was excellent.

I didn't score big in the 4/8, but hovered around even for an hour. On one hand, a player in the blind misplayed aces so horribly that I cannot even think of a time that I have seen them played worse than that. There were a couple of limpers, including me in LP with QTo. The flop was KQx and checked all around. The turn gave me a gutshot but killed my runner flush draw. Passed to me, I bet. She called. We both checked the river brick and she turned over aces (???). Can we all say MISPLAYED ON EVERY STREET??? She won about $36 on that hand, $12 of which was hers!!! Horrible! People will do anything and everything to get that $50 for cracked aces. Ugh!

So Glenn started yawning and hadn't slept well the night before. He asked if I wanted to go home early. Although my headache was much better with the Port, I agreed, since my game wasn't that good anyway.

I scored, I feel better, but at what cost? $90 massage (with tip), two shots of 20 year old Port ($16 with tip)...hmmm!

Felicia :)
-------------------------------------------------
Last night:

-$60 (2-6 HE Kill)
+$120 (4/8 HE Kill)
+$120 (2/5 NLHE)
=180 Net winnings for Friday, September 1, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $1620 [-50 Wednesday loss])

Glenn: UP; Felicia: Down!

2006-09-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

I'm still running horribly. Glenn tried to critique my play, thinking maybe I had begun to play bad, in response to the run. He was being constructive and we do that pretty well together. I always appreciate constructive criticism. While I have found and plugged a few more leaks during this run, poor Glenn was just flabbergasted while watching me play. He couldn't believe the cards coming off the deck during hands I'd played well up until the turn or river.

I always say that if any card is still live, that card can and will eventually come up to kill a made hand. It doesn't shock me as much as it shocks more volatile players. Maybe because I started poker playing Stud? Maybe because my Mom has dealt off and on for the past 15 years? I'm not sure, but since I'm typically a cautious, skeptical person, I don't seem to explode at one-outers like some players do.

In one hand I had pocket queens. A MP player raised the pot. I re-raised with the queens. An ace was on the flop, but he checked to me. I bet, he reluctantly called. The river was a ten. He check-raised me. I folded (putting him on maybe a weak ace) and he flashed me tens. 22:1, lol ;)

Somehow 22:1 doesn't seem like such a longshot when I think of my other crushing blows this week, although none of them are the type of blows that Glenn experienced when an opponent caught 989:1 against him.

As my star fades, however, Glenn's is rising. A player at Riverside who worked in the series this year as a floorman stated that Glenn is probably the best player he has seen on the river. Quite a compliment when you consider that this is where Cyndy Violette started out. Of course, he probably wasn't around in those days, but a compliment is a compliment.

I have always been Glenn's greatest cheerleader. He doesn't have many of those. His Mom is the type who always has to tell Glenn his shortcomings. If Glenn says he has a new job, she will demand to know how much he is making, and then rag on him, "Your brother has a new job, too, and is making xx more than YOU!"

Never mind that his brother is a loser who has been fired from every job he's ever had.

Anyway, Glenn has never had a lack of cheering from me. From the minute I saw him play poker the first time, I declared that he would someday be much better than I ever hoped to be, and would go as high as he wanted. He had to get his emotions under control, but everything else was a gimme.

Glenn, being the slow, cautious type, has chosen to rise slowly, instead of take the speedy, "Look ma, I won a one million dollar tournament only six months after I learned to play" route. It doesn't mean he's not a star, it just means he has chosen to learn the games thoroughly and completely before competing at that level.

He also doesn't have the drive or ambition to be on your TV screen every week. He could take it or leave it. Unlike me, he doesn't hate and loathe TV, but he doesn't exactly crave it, either.

Today I think I'll leave you with a response he gave to a reader on his site. Wow. Glenn is the next strategist? The new Dan? Let's see where this takes us. We have nowhere to go but up, up, up.
-----------------------------------------------------
Reader:

"If you had to pick one reason why you're running well in tourneys, what would it be?

I think I found my leak, but would love to know a reason why a successful player is doing well (besides the "I won my coin flips" line)"

Glenn:

"I'd say, adapting to the structure, playing the players and playing your relative stack size.

The tournament that I play at the Riverside is a little odd. The first hour, we play 3, 20-minute levels. There is one add-on to be taken only at the start, and there is one rebuy that you can take anytime within the first hour. I will always take the add-on, and wait for the rebuy until I need it. If I get really low in chips, I'll take it before the end of the hour. There are people that I see that will let themselves get so short and refuse to take the rebuy, that once they _do_ get a hand, they have no chips. They can double through and still have no chips. So, this is part of adapting to the particular structure.

Another part is, after the first hour, the staff wishes to hurry up the players and get to the final table. Hence, the levels change to 15-minute levels. The blinds come faster and you have to make more moves to stay ahead. I had to call AI from the BB w/ 44 once during this level to stay alive. (UTG was AI w/ AKs, but my pair held.) I looked at my chips and realized that if I did NOT go for it with my pair, that should I get a hand, I would NOT pressure anyone to fold pre-flop. For example, if I'm on the button on a steal, I may not _want_ a call. But if I have no chips, I'm at the mercy of the cards; ie: possible drawout if it's too cheap for the blind to call ATC. I don't want that to happen.

Then, once we get to the final table, it switches to 30-minute levels. I know, this is a little wacko, but you can finally play some real poker if you have chips. Like many other tournaments, however, the blinds do mostly double, so there is still lots of pressure. Plus, as you get short-handed, you have to play a little looser, as the blinds get to you faster.

So, besides the quirky-ness of our little local tourney, I'd say that you just have to make sure that you don't blind yourself out. If you get short, just remember the saying: "You have to be willing to die in order to live." Once you get to an 'M' of 5 of less (see the Harrington books), any Ace, any pair is an AI hand.

A mistake that I _do_ see people do at this point, is going AI with a marginal hand _after_ someone else already has raised. If you're short, but someone raised in front of you and you have A3o, fold, monkey! it's most likely no good. If you're in the blind with it and you're just about out of chip (say < 3 BBs), I'd say, in that case, yeah, call. Just don't OVERCALL with this type of hand. Or worse, limp in with a small pp when you're on short chips. Either shove of fold.

Speaking of the Harrington books, they are definitely suggested reading for anyone serious about tournaments!

Good luck and God bless :)

~Glenn"

Address: Final Table

2006-08-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

Glenn is a machine. I suck!
-------------------------------------------------
Last night:

+$40 (2-6 HE)
-$100 (2-6 HE Kill)
-$50 (4/8 HE Kill)
=20 Net winnings for Tuesday, August 29, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $1490 [+20 Sunday; -$150 Tuesday])

Live Play Leaks?

2006-08-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

I have been running really badly, and feeling like crap. Hence the lack of updates.

We took a couple of days off of the Riverside to recuperate.

It's so odd that I win, win, win online, yet don't do nearly as well live. In the almost four years I've played online (admittedly sporadically), I've won. I've never had to reload in any site due to going bust. I've only cashed out. Sure, I've deposited for bonuses, etc, but never due to busting out.

I think there must be something to this, but I haven't figured it out yet.
-------------------------------------------------
Last night:

$50 (2-6 HE)
-30 (2-6 O8)
=20 Net winnings for Sunday, August 27, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $1620 [-$300 Thursday])

Down and Up

2006-08-24T13:21:00.000-07:00

I was in a slump for a couple of days. On Sunday and Tuesday I lost a lot. Maybe upwards of $400 during those two days. Tough to do at 2-6 spread limit and 4/8 with a kill while playing pretty tightly.

It was one of those weird experiences when no flushes or straights come through, no matter how many outs one has. Or I would flop a flush or straight, only to be outdrawn on the river when an opponent had stayed in with two pair.

I realized, during those losing sessions, that I had two major leaks in my LHE game that I needed to fix immediately. One is easy. I shouldn't play over eight hours. I shouldn't push myself. My memory goes into the toilet, my concentration is bad, and I'm tired. I CAN play longer than eight hours, I proved that to myself during those three O8 tournaments at Orleans. But I shouldn't. The games after midnight during the week aren't that good, anyway. The players, by default, are playing much more closely to correct.

My second leak, which is much worse, and tougher to fix, is not playing good draws strongly enough. I didn't realize just how much I was losing by winning small pots when my draw did come in, but losing many other pots when it didn't. Before, my wins had always covered this leak. I was repaid by my winning draws after losing on draws that didn't come through. Regardless of how I played those draws, I always had enough "left over" to repay the ones that fizzled out.

Well, when I'm not hitting at all, it's easier to see that I'm never quite getting paid back when I win a hand. If I played better post-flop, I would never let this happen. Sure, I'm going to have losing sessions, we all do. But I could definitely see that my wins were smaller by not playing monster draws stronger and building a big pot.

So yesterday I finally won again.

The freeroll was at 6:30, and I was out in the fifth hand. One cannot play this freeroll very tightly, or it's a losing proposition. We are given only 1k in chips, and the structure is 50/100, doubling every 15 minutes. Just trying to hold on means we get to the final two tables, maybe even the final, but have no chips and end up getting zippo (only top 5 get paid). That is time wasted when we could be playing cash games or be somewhere else. The promotions at RS are so good that it is a shame to waste two hours in some dumb freeroll where even if we make no deal, and stick it out to the very end, we can only win a max of $500.

Right after I busted out, I went to the $2-6 full kill game (it's been getting started more frequently, and it's sure better than no kill, when the 4/8 isn't running). Within about ten minutes, I was called for the "hot seat," which gets me into next week's freeroll, lol. Boy, it almost seems like I'm back at AOL, and experiencing the golden handcuffs. They keep stringing us along by throwing money at us every time we simply want to leave.

Anyway, I won some dough there. Eventually the 4/8 started back up, as tourney players busted out. I broke even there. Then that game broke up for a NLHE game. I broke even there (literally like $1 down, lol). Then that game broke and we went back to 2-6 kill. I lost about $20 there.

Altogether a better session. We got there early, didn't play after midnight, and both won a little dough. Glenn won more than me, and at one point had over $400 in front of him on a freaking 2-6 game!!! Go Glenn!

See you next time,

Felicia :)
-------------------------------------------------
Last night:

-$10 (Net Tournament Winnings)
-$7 (4/8 kill HE)
-$0 (2/5 NLHE)
$49 (2-6 HE Kill)
=32 Net winnings for Wednesday, August 23, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $1900 [-$400 for Sun/Tues])

WPT Breast Cancer Charity

2006-08-23T12:48:00.000-07:00

Very Cute!

Thanks guys,

Felicia :)

Mixed Game

2006-08-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

Thanks, everyone, for the 4/8 HE feedback. The more I replay this hand, the more I hate the way I played it, and the way I have been playing the 4/8 on the weekends, in general.

I will have to revisit post-flop play more carefully in the future. It is a big leak of mine and since I'm starting to play HE again, I need to plug it immediately.

Sunday night was kind of my live play breaking point. Oddly enough, it was due to playing a mixed game we started up at Riverside. One would think that I would be in my element. Making money and having a great time. And I was. But it takes much more concentration and energy to play mixed games than just coasting along playing donkey hold'em.

At about 9pm, three young guys walked into the RS. One of them was Bryan. He was visiting his father for the weekend in Laughlin, just planning on making the move to Vegas and going pro there (having been a pro for a while already in different venues). He was of the "I'm young and great" boasting type crowd, but pleasant about it, and definitely willing to listen and learn. He is friends with Boyd, which may account for some of that attitude ;)

He had two friends with him, a couple of "prodigies" which he would like to teach. I felt one had some potential, the other didn't. He said the other had more raw talent than the one I felt had a chance, but I didn't see it, although they had been drinking so much that their eyelids were floating and he might have just been one of those guys who loses all judgment after drinking. He was so weak at HE that I couldn't even believe that he was the same guy that Bryan thought had a huge chance.

Anyway, I made some overtures about turning it into a mixed game. Although the whole table was going for it, the dealers mumbled and grumbled and even Bryan said it probably wouldn't work. So I dropped it. Later, however, the guy I thought had a chance, Danny, brought it back up, and pushed for it. Another reason I knew I liked the guy ;)

We played dealer's choice for the next six hours or so. We had no trouble whatsoever keeping the game together and filled, although no one thought it would be possible. Sandra first told us we couldn't choose any Stud games (straight high or variants) or any Draw games at all. Later she conceded that nothing in the RS rules would prevent us from playing Stud games (I can't believe this was ever verboten to begin with), so we added Razz, Stud and Stud 8 to the mix.

I had a little bit of trouble with memory and concentration, but most of it was probably due to being out of practice and/or having been playing since 5pm. I simply played tight.

Over the course of the night, I got back most of my HE losses (yeah, another losing session for me, ugh), but I never got back to even. I did, however, have tons of fun. I also reached my breaking point, leaving at 4:30 absolutely exhausted and done with poker for at least a day.

Nice change of pace, though, and I hope Bryan makes it, and that he can find some good Stud games in Vegas (his favorite game is Stud, like me).

Felicia :)

4/8 Full Kill Hand

2006-08-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

I was playing in a live 4/8 game yesterday at Riverside when the following hand came up.

I positioned myself to the left of a southern California thinking maniac. She was the small blind, I was the big blind. I had Q4s.

The flop came with two hearts (my suit), and a straight already possible. She bet out, I called, we got four overcalls.

The turn brought my flush, she bet. I felt that my best move was to smooth call her, hoping for the overcalls. I didn't raise because of the loose/passive opponents left in the hand. I also felt that given the odd chance that I was beat, I would lose less. If I won the hand, I was hoping to get many overcalls by our passive opponents who were basically playing defense against the maniac and would call down with any piece of the flop.

On the turn, two passive players called her bet. On the river just one.

My first instinct, which was to go for the overcalls, seemed like the best at the time. There were seven big bets to start the hand. After the flop, there were ten. After the turn, fourteen. After the river, seventeen.

She showed J2s for the jack high flush.

Had I played the hand harder on the turn and river, maybe I could have gotten up to 38. But of course I didn't know her hand was that strong. I was focusing more on overcalls by remaining, passive opponents than her, knowing she could have any part of that flop and keep betting out.

Of course, getting 38 bets would have been ideal, in my fantasy land, but had she had the king or ace high, I would have lost a lot more bets as well. Instead of losing only 3.5 big bets had I been beat, I would have lost 9.5.

I was so focused on Ed Miller's "going for overcalls" that I never once put her on that hand. It could have been pretty much anything. She only folded or checked when she had absolutely nothing (no pair, no gutshot, no runner draw, no ace).

Any thoughts on this? TIA,

Felicia :)
-------------------------------------------------
Last night:

-$65 (Net Tournament Winnings)
-$110 (4/8 kill HE)
$50 (4/8 kill HE)
-$100 (2-6 O8)
-$15 (2-6 HE Kill)
=-240 Net winnings for Saturday, August 19, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $2270)

Friday Nights are for Fighting

2006-08-19T12:55:00.000-07:00

I figured, after Thursday's craziness at the Riverside, that Friday would be off the hook. Sure enough, the heat was building by 6pm, and the tourney hadn't even started yet.

I'd probably just continue to play cash games and forget about the tournament, if it weren't for the cash games dying out during those two hours. The 4/8 is such a good game that the only way I can justify moving to the tournament is due to it withering up and stalling until players start busting out.

I never had many good chips except during the first hour, and that doesn't really count, because any player is allowed to make a "dealers" add-on for $15 (the whole $15 goes to the house/dealers, none of it goes to the prize pool, so I opt out) and get an extra 2500 in tourney chips. Plus the one optional rebuy/add-on can be taken any time in the first hour for 5000 in chips. So although I doubled up the very first hand, I still wasn't exactly looking pretty.

I limped in LP with Q8s. I flopped a queen and the BB let me take the lead, choosing to check instead. I turned a second pair, which ruined my runner flush and straight draws, but nevertheless strengthened my hand. I managed to keep betting the pot until I got him all-in, which doubled me through. He had QTo and never even once took the lead in the hand. Shame on him.

I got moved to Glenn's table. A much tougher table and local line-up. I still managed to hold my own, but Glenn got busted out shortly after I sat down, with AJ vs. 44.

Tommy is a local guy made good. He had a good run at the series this year, and has gotten sponsored by Bodog. He is moving to Vegas, looking for houses. He worked at a new car dealership, but quit after the series and is going to make a run at pro living. He is a tad too loose, and likes to see a lot of flops regardless of exposing premium hands to suck-outs. He is a nice guy, though, and I have been encouraging him to hang out with the right people. Unfortunately, he already had an experience with John Bonetti and the ponies. I told him to STFA from John, and get with some decent human beings. I gave him names, and I hope he makes it. He seems so vulnerable to getting pushed around and screwed by the wrong pros.

I finally met my demise in the tournament when an EP all-in, a stranger, had AJs and I had AKo. He flopped his flush, and I was crippled from 20k to 3k in one hand. After that, I tripled through with A2o vs. the two blinds, but then was forced all-in in the big blind with only 9k left (the blinds had just doubled to 4/8k). I chucked my last chip in without looking, and had the lovely beer hand, 72o, which got no help against QJo.

I got right back into the 4/8 kill, not liking the line-up of the NLHE game at all.

A 2+2er came to town from Pasadena and was playing in the game. By the time we left, he'd taken his $100 minimum buy-in and ran it up to about $500 or more. Glenn said he was extremely fortunate to run into other big hands when he had monsters.

Glenn got drunk and kept talking about poker. God, I hate it when he does this. I told him, "Why not just divide your $500 among the other nine players at the table and leave?"

I ran my stack up to about $350 in the 4/8, then had consecutive beats a few hours later. QQ demolished on the river by 32, jack high flush beat by king high flush the whole way (he never bet his hand, he check-called me from the flop, go figure).

Maniac Mike was playing the whole night. He is the guy who was OOP and limped in the NLHE game, then called my $30 raise (with AA) on my right, with 64o. He has something missing upstairs. He is a California biker, and almost came to blows with the Iranian couple, if you remember that story. He was playing the maniac off and on. Completely unpredictable. He would run from $1000 stack down to the felt and then back again over the nine hours we were there.

I finally ended the day at 1am, with a stack of $340 (bought in for $200, lost $40 pre-tourney, made $140 post tourney). Here are my overall results.

Last night:

-$65 (Net Tournament Winnings)
$100 (4/8 kill HE)
=35 Net winnings for Friday, August 18, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $2510)

Felicia :)

Last Night

2006-08-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

Blew the tourney. I might post how later.

Last night:

$60 ($2-6 spread HE kill)
-$65 (Net Tournament Winnings)
$40 (4/8 kill HE)
=35 Net winnings for Thursday, August 17, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $2485)

Felicia :)

Heater: OFF

2006-08-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally hit a brick wall. I knew it would come, but at least it came swiftly and mercilessly. I wasn't even teased for a while, I just couldn't make a hand.

First off, though, the freeroll at Riverside.

We showed up, along with about 35 other freerollers. The chips are only 1k, which is really awful considering the blinds are 50/10 and double every 15 minutes. One can give a $10 tip to the dealers for another 1k. Also, having certain high hands or cracked aces in live play adds 500 to the mix. There is no cap on the amount of "extra" 500's one can earn during the week, so live play is definitely encouraged. Glenn said someone at his table had four top ups (2000 extra chips).

The payout structure is $500/250/125/75/50 and there is usually a deal made, due to the horrendous blinds by that time. In addition, the top five earn points for the quarterly freeroll, which is the one where they give away the car plus 5k.

So we are going to be spending a lot of time at RS. The promos are just too good to beat, even if I feel some things are rigged there. I have heard rumors before that The Don has to add about 5k per week to the BBJ rake for all of these extra promotions (he takes it from the rake, obviously, but that isn't the point). I do believe this, as the promos are so frequent and good that it would seem that the poker room is almost losing money every day.

Okay, so back to the freeroll. I was cruising along, uber shortstacked, until we were down to 11. Glenn had been out for a while, and was playing cash games. We were six handed and I got AQ, figured it to be the best thing going, and went all-in. Little did I know that behind me, there were the following hands: TT, 99, 88, 86s. The guy with 86s was in the big blind and caught both a straight and flush draw, so that is why he stayed in. No one really had any chips, so three of us were busted out on the same hand when the tens held up. One would think that I could catch an ace or queen, since no high cards were dead, but the final board was 7744x, all small cards. Go figure.

I started out doing well in cash games, zooming up to $40 before the freeroll, and then things went to hell.

I misplayed my first big hand at the 4/8 kill table. I had tens, raised, bet the flop against a lone opponent who still had chips (another newbie went all-in). He check-raised me, but I didn't put him on a hand. The flop was QQx and I put him on air. He seemed like he was trying to do the, "I have a queen, get out of my pot," routine. I followed my instincts. Both the turn and river were bet, but things just got worse. The turn was an ace, the river a jack. I figured that he probably didn't have much to start, but had made his hand somewhere along the way. He certainly kept betting into a dry sidepot (by the river a substantial sidepot). Somehow I let false logic get into my head, and figured that 1) even if he had nothing to start, he'd made something that beat tens, 2) he wouldn't keep betting into a starting dry sidepot if he truly had nothing.

My mistakes in the hand were many. Misplayed on every street save pre-flop. I wouldn't even call one more bet on the river (oy). Of course he turned over air. I couldn't go with my instincts, I had to try to come up with some convoluted logic to fold on the river. Oy vey. I is retarded.

The very next hand I had kings. I hoped and prayed the table would think I was steaming due to the tens hand, but only got one caller. I flopped quads and that was my high water mark for the night. I won the high hand bonus of $50, and a miniscule pot (around $20, ugh), and things swiftly went downhill.

For two hours, every pat hand was outdrawn on the turn, river or both (runner-runner). Every drawing hand, no matter the outs, never made it. I never once made a straight or flush, although I flopped about a billion draws. I remember one hand that had so many outs I couldn't even calculate them before action was on me. I was in the big blind with T8o and flopped top two. I actually had about 16 outs to win the hand (I didn't know I was drawing so live until it was over). But of course I didn't hit. Some yahoo with something like 73s, in middle position, who called a PFR with that, got the flush.

And that is how it went, all night, every hand. Usually the beats weren't "bad," because I wasn't getting premium hands busted (made flush busted by RR straight flush, poor Glenn). They were mostly just very excellent draws. Flop is a four flush for me, backdoor straight flush, gutshot straight, top pair, etc (all in one hand, I might add, lol).

So I managed to lose $200, even with the $50 bonus. Ah, well. Tonight is another night.

Last night:

$40 ($2-6 spread HE)
-$10 (Net Tournament Winnings)
-$200 (4/8 kill HE)
=-170 Net winnings for Wednesday, August 16, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $2450)

Felicia :)

Can I get an Eco-Friendly Car?

2006-08-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

God, we are running so well that I almost hate to write about it. It's a double edged sword. If I continue to write that we are running well, regardless of the fact that I know we are on heaters, people will jump to the conclusion that I am only writing fluff reports of our play and glossing over the bad days. Even though I posted about Glenn getting bubbled on Sunday night by a runner-runner one card straight flush after flopping the nut flush.

Also, writing about it might turn off the magic ;)

Harhar.

Okay, so Glenn won the RS tournament AGAIN last night. Jeez, louise, this kid can do no wrong. Regardless of the fact that we started out not too far apart in chips at the final table (he had 31k, I had 28k), he managed to win, I only managed 5th. I'm not complaining.

Before the tourney, I had to sit in the $2-6 spread limit HE. I usually hate this game, but there were some funny characters at the table, and I made about $60 rapidly due to a couple of hot hands (pocket queens held up as well as turning a straight in the free BB).

After the tourney, we got a 4/8 full kill game going again and I doubled up quickly, but then only managed to cash out about $25 ahead.

In one tournament hand, I had T9s. There was a large PFR in front of me so I mucked. I would have flopped the straight flush draw. There were two all-in's, so I got to see my virtual hand, and I would have turned a SF.

In one 4/8 hand, I had T9s on the button. A liberal raiser to my right raised the pot, I overcalled after several limpers. I flopped the nut straight draw, and made my straight on the river. He paid me off, exclaiming he never, ever would have thought I'd play that hand. My recent looseness is still astounding regulars! I hope it lasts a while longer.

I think I'm going to keep a running total of my net winnings towards the new car here. It should be fun, and definitely will keep me accountable.

Last night:

$60 ($2-6 spread HE)
$35 (Net Tournament Winnings)
$25 (4/8 kill HE)
=120 Net winnings for Tuesday, August 15, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $2620)

Not including Glenn's wins. It's up to him if he wants to publish this or not.

Felicia :)

Don't Have a Hand? How About a Foot?

2006-08-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

I forgot about a funny incident at MGM during the series.

Bad Blood and G-Rob came to play, not even knowing we were there (I'm sure they would have chosen to play elsewhere had they known they'd have to put up with me and Glenn).

At BB's table a guy with no arms came to the table. Not the guy from the 2005 series, who has an arm which doesn't work, but a guy with literally NO arms. He played with his foot (like that other, young guy).

After a short while, I noticed that BB had doubled up. I asked him if he'd doubled up against the handicapped guy. He said:

"No, I never got involved in a hand with that guy."

I said:

"Neither has anyone else, he doesn't have any hands!"

Groans all around.

Rocks and Maniacs

2006-08-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

Things are still going rather well. I'm playing Hold'em more than ever. The one year hiatus from full-time HE really did a ton of good. While I had forgotten so many things about the game, I also left behind my misery of being forced to play HE all the time. Now I think of it more like a dance. A dance that I'm able to change with every session (and sometimes within a session). Whether I'm waltzing or moshing depends on the table dynamics. The ability or lack of ability to adjust never ceases to amaze me. Some opponents cannot change their game whatsoever, regardless of how necessary it is.

I'm going through my second reading of Ed's book. Definitely more thoroughly this time. I remember when Ed told me it was coming out, and I said I just wasn't interested, although I like Ed very much. I said I couldn't wrap myself around Hold'em anymore, I was way too burned out on the game. He told me that he'd mail it to me, to give the book a chance. I loved it immediately, but it didn't change my disgust of playing ALL HOLD'EM, ALL THE TIME. So on the shelf it went.

Now I'm looking at it in a new light. Not only are the games at RS always amusing, but they are challenging in the respect that no two games are ever the same. Unlike so many cardrooms around Laughlin, RS is never predictable, except in the fact that there will always be drama on any given day.

Usually in the summer, Laughlin is dead. The RS, however, attracts all of the southern California water crowd. They love the river. They have jetski's and seadoo's. They tend to play in the California way. Loose, aggressive, thinking maniacs. One minute the table can be pretty predictable. Loose, passive, typical locals/snowbirds. The next, a maniac will sit down and suddenly every betting round is capped.

Lately I have been getting more than my fair share of big pocket pairs outdrawn. Almost every AA, KK, and QQ have been cracked regularly, yet I get paid off on suited connectors and smaller pairs which flop sets. I am also able to check-raise whenever I want, due to the more aggressive nature that these games have taken on.

In one hand on Sunday, I was at a really volatile table with a thinking maniac. He is a youngish guy (late 20's) who obviously has lots of money. He races boats and claims he owns some kind of dealership in SoCal. I believe it, due to the way he is treated at RS. I saw him buy in for over 4k at the NLHE table on Friday night. Sometimes he would just go in blind on every hand. Other times he picked his spots. I tried to get his sister, a beautiful cocktail waitress there, to cut him off, but she claimed he knows what he is doing. Money doesn't seem to mean anything to him, and unless he has had to much too drink, he is pleasant to me (not the men, as much, but I had no problem with him).

Anyway, he was forced to play 4/8 full kill with overs on Sunday. I had to sit to his left for several hours, which means he was touching me the entire time. I don't get off on that, but since he'd dropped over 1k, some of it to me, I didn't complain.

So in the big hand, he did his normal blind raise. I was in the BB with Q4s and called. An UTG player, a tight, cautious, solid young guy also called.

I flopped the nut flush with an AKJ club board. Never got the straight flush, but this is when things got hinky. I meant to check-raise the young Californian. Instead, from UTG, the solid kid bet out. The maniac called (!?!), and I got off my CR. The maniac refused to call one more, and it was me against the kid I definitely wasn't hoping to bust.

The kid had not raised PF with AKo. Oy. He was so disappointed with the way he'd played the hand. He asked me if I'd have called if HE had been the one to raise PF. I told him no way in hell. I hope he learned to be a bit more aggressive, even with a maniac at the table.

I could go on and on about other odd hands, but they were ALL pretty odd, given the nature of the game.

Glenn and I played in the NLHE tourney at the Palms earlier that night. I didn't last that long. I tried to make a play against a calling station and it didn't work out (I had just been moved to that table and had no idea the guy was such a CS).

I survived with very few chips and got moved again. Then I managed to triple up with KQs. Then a loose, aggressive player raised out of MP with K9o (?!?). I was in the BB and went all-in with AQo. He thought for a minute, but finally said something about "giving me a bad beat" and made a horrible call with no overlay (I was the BB, there were no limpers, so calling was terrible in this spot). Men can be such creeps. I had previously thought he was an okay guy, but then this breech of etiquette combined with something retarded he said later that night (about women belonging in the bedroom) made me rethink my previous opinion on him.

Men, keep your frigging sexist and racist opinions to yourself. Please. Yes, I know you may have no penis and no balls, but I don't go around telling you that after giving you a bad beat in the poker room, do I? Likewise, you should probably keep your unwanted opinions to yourself, or maybe you will find yourself facing a gun barrel in the parking lot when you cross the line with some volatile player who has no patience to put up with your BS like I do. Do yourself a favor and keep your big mouths shut.

Okay, so anyway, to un-derail this post, I am still doing very well. I can get into a big hole (>$300 at a piddly 4/8 game) and still manage to dig my way out if I sit long enough. Poker is so easy.

During the tourney at Palms, however, I thought Glenn was going to win again. They were on the bubble, and Glenn had some decent chips. Then he flopped the nut flush in a big hand. He managed to get two all-in's out of it! One of the all-in's was the calling station I talked about before. This man had the king high flush to Glenn's ace high.

Yes, you guessed it, he got runner-runner straight flush.

He didn't seem to think this was odd in the slightest. Glenn was the bubble man, but shook it off and still played good poker at Riverside afterwards.

And so are the days of our lives,

Felicia :)

Riverside Fun

2006-08-12T12:15:00.000-07:00

Many things have been said about me. Mostly true ;) One thing that is usually never said is that I'm boring. There is always some controversy stirring up around me, for whatever reason. Some of it is brought on by myself. I seems to tackle issues head on and never veer away from looking at the world critically, rather than through rose colored glasses.

In my personal life, I'd say I'm pretty boring and most of the time uneventful. The gardening, the poker, the husband and 1.5 dogs (we actually have three, but all three together only weigh about 10 lbs.).

Anyway, things at Riverside are never dull. Always some huge happenings there. Someday maybe I'll write a book.

I took 4th in the tourney last night by dumb luck alone. I literally was all-in blind three rounds in a row. I hate to get "blinded out," but it was the oddest thing. Either so many people would go out on one hand before I could stick my chips in that suddenly I was in the blind again, tables would combine, or some other combination of craziness which necessitated I had no choice but wait until the big blind.

In one bizarre hand I had only 6k left. The blinds had just increased to 2/4k. I put in 4k with J9o and flopped absolutely nothing on a queen high, all heart board. So when the table passive, calling station bet out (she always bet the minimum), I knew I was dead and kept the 2k for the all-in SB. This is not something I normally do.

In my all-in SB, I just happened to wake up with AJo and turn an ace while I was up against Ax and K4s (K4s had flopped a king all-in).

Then the next round, I was all-in blind when the blinds suddenly increased to 4/8k and I had A7o. I runnered a straight against the same passive calling station who had only limped on the button with AQs.

Since it's summer, the tourney had a low turnout of only about 40 players. Top 8 got paid, and somehow I made it to the final table with a blind left. I was in good position, and one player was already out before the blind got to me. UTG I pushed with AQo, never one to try to just fold my way into the money (especially since no one had any chips, not even the chipleader). The BB had KT and got his ten, but I also flopped my queen. Ship it.

Soon the bubble busted, and we were in the money, albeit very low money. I once again picked up AQo and pocket tens called. I got an ace.

I then got blinded down like mad, with nothing above a ten for the next few rounds, and had no chips. Finally I busted out in fourth when the SB let me see a free flop with Q3o. The flop came AA3, two spades. I pushed with my trey, he happened to have two spades. I then got a queen, but he got spades and IGHN.

The NLHE game was already rocking next to me. I knew I had a better expectation there, so immediately bought in, without even getting paid for the tourney first. The combination of crazy Californians, crazy locals and too much discretionary income from many sources led to pots raised to $100 blind by a player almost every hand. He must have had unlimited funds, because even rebuying for 1k only lasted him four hands. He was in for probably at least 4k by the time we left.

I was rattled during my first hand because the ace of spades was so badly marked that my opponents could see the marking at the opposite end of the table. I had AKo. I was playing handcuffed and not happy at all about the situation. The guy sitting to my right had pocket tens. I had position on the table, obviously, but flopped nothing and got out. The floorman replaced the whole deck and gave a serious warning about cheating by marking cards and how someone might end up in jail that night if they didn't shape up.

I never really got anything going on in that game, although the money was very deep. I kept looking the the soft 4/8 Kill game next door to me. Eventually I requested a move to greener pastures.

I have learned the hard way that repairing a bad table image, one of being too tight, too passive, paranoid and easy to get off of hands is sometimes next to impossible. While I could have made a nice score simply sitting and waiting for a monster, I decided I'd rather play more hands and run over the 4/8. I made a little over $100 in the next hour or so, and I was happy with that.

Because of getting aces cracked, I am now in the freeroll on Wednesday. While I don't trust Riverside any farther than I can throw them, I'll show up anyway. Glenn won his entry a few days ago, so I was going regardless. This is only a 1k freeroll, but something is better than nothing, and that is what we pay the rake for.

I would like to continue with my psych series, but I just don't have the steam for it. We are playing every night except Monday's, in an effort to see how fast we can make 10k. It's not a race or anything, but this is the first time we've made an attempt to actually do something with our poker earnings rather than just build our bankroll.

Our car is five years old now, and we would like to go to a smaller car, hopefully diesel, which we can convert to bio-diesel. So we'll see how that goes.

Right now we're earning about $100 each per day, so it should only take 50 days to do this if we continue to run well.

Hope you are having a good weekend!

Felicia :)

Not Much of an Update

2006-08-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

Glenn just posted a couple of tourney reports. I just can't seem to write much. My head is pounding from allergies. My choices are to either take some meds that make me sleepy, or just sit and try to relax though it.

My friend Bill at Riverside (PT dealer) gave me a CD of his music. He plays native american flute. It is excellent, but then again, I love these types of meditative CD's. Glenn knocked Bill out on the bubble the other night at the Riverside tourney. I think I need to throw Bill a redbird or two for the CD and for busting out right before the money.

If I can get some allergy relief, I'll try to continue on with my psych series. Right now my head hurts too much to think. I am still running so ridiculously well that it's just nuts. It's like I can't lose, and I know that things will turn soon, but it sure feels good now. I even played a pit game, the WSOP game at Riverside. Not my bag, but the dealers were so horrid at reading hands that I think a player who keeps his mouth closed could possibly beat the game.

Okay, so it's off to hayfever hell for me. Talk to you soon.

Felicia :)

Riverside $2-6 Spread Limit O8

2006-08-09T13:32:00.000-07:00

A lot of you know that when I was recovering from chemo I had a hard time playing poker. I was never very good as it was, but my biggest strengths were rendered pretty much null and void.

In Omaha, I've never had to look back at my cards. I memorize them first time through, and then watch the players on the flop and after, instead of constantly sneaking peeks.

I also like to fish and trap a lot, a holdover from my spread limit Stud days while learning poker. I like to put in lots of bets and raises late in the hand, not early.

Well, chemo kind of killed that, too, because half of the time I couldn't read my hand. The suits and ranks sometimes just blurred together and I wasn't sure where I was.

Finally I am recovering some of my poker skills, small as they may be ;)

I have also loosened up considerably, and make plays now that I formerly didn't consider due to my lack of ability to read boards and take advantage of good situations.

While this is mostly just an update on me and my play, I do have a funny hand to talk about.

For three years I've been playing O8 at Riverside in Laughlin. Anyone who has been here knows it's still a pretty shady place and virtually anything goes. The dealers have to pay to work there, and hustle tips. If you don't want to tip, well, you just won't get dealt in. There are many other stories on my journal about Riverside. Suffice it to say, I could probably write a pretty interesting book about the past three years, and how the "modern" mob is still alive and kicking in Laughlin.

So anyway, the player in the O8 game are very, very loose. If I'm in a pot, it's 10:10. If I'm not, it's 9:10. Yes, every hand. It's typically passive, so not many players are worried about the pot being raised up to the full bet ($2+6=8 in 2-6 spread limit). Only if certain players are in the game will the pre-flop limping reduce to less than 100%.

I have learned not to bluff or try to steal pots in this game. Ditto raising and reraising nut low hands. They overvalue low hands to the point of almost ridiculousness.

Yesterday, however, the game was typically loose and passive pre-flop, yet was being bet regularly with nut high hands post-flop.

So I have this hand on the button: A23To

The flop comes down with a ten, two spades and two non-counterfeited low cards for me. I decide that no one has the nut flush draw since it isn't bet.

The turn completes the flush in spades with the 2s. Now I have the nut low, with two pair. I decide to bet my two pair (tens were still high pair) and nut low, figuring anyone sticking around with A2 was just killed for low. Since it was passed to me, I want to represent the nut flush and take it away from the non-nut flushes. I absolutely know that no one has the nut flush because it was passed to me twice on the button.

I got four callers, lol. So much for that!

On the river, I made one last stab, knowing that even if I was quartered, I'd still get my money back.

Not only was there another A3, but there were two flushes! One was an eight high, the other a jack. So much for representation!

No, I didn't know either of these guys, and they didn't know me, which is probably the only reason why this play didn't work. A couple of guys I've played hundreds of hours with at this table were chatting, "Now you know his non-nut flush is no good. She's not betting anything else, she's a rock!"

Boy, were they suprised when I turned up my two pair with the bare nut low!

Suddenly the whole table erupted. "What was she doing? What was she thinking?"

Although my play backfired this time, it was still a good play that I haven't been able to make for over a year, and would have worked with the regulars in the game, to give me 3/4th of the pot.

I still made over $100 in two hours, which is not abnormal for me at this game. I have my brain again. Thank God!

Felicia :)

Heater: ON

2006-08-09T11:13:00.000-07:00

We are back on heaters again. It's so hard to consistently lose at Riverside.

Glenn won the $80 tourney last night. I won in both 4/8 Kill HE and 2-6 O8 (didn't play the tournament).

Just as the NLHE game was getting started, Glenn was wrapping up the tourney and didn't want to stick around for the loose NLHE action. Oh, well. Next time!

Hopefully I can finish my psych post today. I feel so tired and uninspired trying to play and write at the same time. Not even going to mention the allergies, ugh!

Felicia :)

Rocks Can't Win Anymore! (Re-Re-Re Introduction)

2006-08-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

Before the series, I had an idea for a new type of poker psychology/theory theme that I wanted to explore. Somehow, big festivals once again got in the way of my writing. First, Glenn won a freeroll on Party into the main event, and wanted practice playing deep stack tournaments. So off to Orleans we went. For about a week (off and on) we stayed at Orleans, making several trips back and forth to make sure our garden didn't die and our dogs were being taken care of.

Then the series kind of eclipsed everything. Not only did one of my best poker friends win a bracelet (Max Pescatori), but I found myself in the position of cheerleader and counselor to some of my world class poker friends who are finding out that without heavy backing, they aren't going to be able to continue in big festivals.

The series became a circus, even featuring a real chimp. Sex and poker took on a new role as more important than ever, and I was left baffled, shaking my head and contemplating my future.

One day I saw Max sitting in the Doyle tent, signing autographs and shaking hands. I was flabbergasted. I'd never seen anything like this. A dozen "fans" stood patiently in line waiting to meet Max! I cut behind the ropes and after a hug exclaimed, "I can't do this! I can't live like this, Max! It's not about poker anymore!"

It dawned on me that poker has become something I never wanted it to be. While I am loving the fresh fish that are flown in everyday, and loving that it's more legit than it ever was, I don't like the super-star aspect of poker. I don't like the sex, the circus, the frigging chimp. I just don't fit in anymore. So back to cash games for me, if I want to stay anonymous. I always said I wanted to be the Cissy Bottoms of poker. Most people ask, "Who is Cissy Bottoms?" I respond, "Exactly."

So now it's time to move on with this psychology series that never truly got underway.

In the introduction to the introduction (lol), I outlined what type of games seem to fit what type of player. I pretty much stole Ray Zee's work on that one, but updated for present times.

In the real introduction, I talked about Hold'em coming full circle, why HE is the ideal game that spans both tournament events and cash games, and why HE will most likely continue to be the popular game in cardrooms. Obviously, we pay the price for playing all hold'em, all the time. Boredom. But when we need to pay the bills, we must put aside the boredom and keep grinding.

In the first post, I told you that rocks no longer win in poker. Not in tournaments, certainly, and we are costing ourselves a lot of dead money in cash games, as well. It is not a viable strategy for today's game. Yes, it cuts down on variance. Yes, it decreases our bankroll needs. Yes, it teaches us how to get away from hands. But we don't maximize our wins! And that is something that is being lost by rocks. So we have to loosen up.

Thank God we have Ed Milller's book, Small Stakes Hold'em. It teaches us a tight, yet very aggressive form of low limit cash games.

But many of us can't "force" ourselves to play Miller's style, when all we were taught, all of our experience tells us that being even tighter and more conservative is a winning strategy with very little variance. So we eventually go back to playing like rocks, Miller or no Miller.

Thankfully, we have a savior. Our savior comes by way of John Vorhaus. John wrote a poker psychology book without even knowing it. I have elaborated before, so go read my old posts about it if you would like to dig further into my thoughts on the subject.

What John did, I have decided to expound on. It's not some earth shattering news. It's not going to turn you from a dead rock to a world class player overnight. It's not going to change the poker world and turn it onto it's head. It's simply going to give you instruction, the best, oft-repeated instruction I can possibly give, in order to help you maximize your wins, if you have been stuck in boulder city for awhile.

And if you are already a loose player? If you are loose-passive, loose-aggressive, almost maniacal? Well, you can see how the other half lives, while at the same time, if you are cognizant, switching some of the psychological tricks around to change your own style to a better, more winning approach to poker.

So there really is something here for everyone. Unless you are already an expert, that is, and I really doubt that if you are an expert you are reading my lame bloggo, kiddies. I am the suck.

So yes, once again I've written and introduction to the two introductions and first post that I've already written. Oy, vey! I think I'm the record holder of false starts in the poker department ;)

Really, truly, though. Put on your seatbelt and helmet. This time, I'm going to un-rock your world and give you some excellent exercises to take your game to the next level.

Get ready to win!

Felicia :)

Sick in the Head

2006-08-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

Boy, am I in a lazy mood. I can't seem to play and write regularly anymore. I could do it in 2004 and prior to that, but since then, it seems like I'm either playing a lot, or writing a lot, never both.

I love the Riverside, in a sick, twisted, demented way. It's like Commerce wrapped up into 10 tables. A big argument/fight broke out between the one and three seats in our NLHE game there on Sunday. Guess where I was? Yeah, the two seat, and loving every minute of it.

The one seat was this messed up biker guy who is pretty much a maniac. He busted my aces when he called a 6x BB raise, out of position, with 64o, lol ;) He also busted my nine and queens during the course of the night, yet still went busto by 11pm (having bought in three times already).

The three and four seats were some LAer's originally from Iran. Decent couple, but not hugely experienced, just had a lot of money, and some gamble. They took almost an instant liking to me, as most middle easterners do (I have always gotten along extremely well with those from the middle east, go figure). Not sure to what extent they were working together, but since Glenn and I often find ourselves at the same table, too, I am in no position to say much about it (we avoid it like the plague if at all possible, but in a small town like Laughlin...).

Anyway, I was happy as a clam in the two seat while the one and three duked it out. I tried to somewhat keep the peace while ripping on both of them a little bit (good natured kidding), but I figured if the one seat ever crossed the line and mentioned the three seat's wife, all hell would break loose and fists would fly.

It finally did happen, when the one and four got into a big pot together. I was howling like a hyena as they both got up and started threatening physical violence.

Glenn spoiled the party by making me move to the nine seat after that.

Unfortunately, it just wasn't my night, and the streak I was on finally broke. I had almost every big hand busted, and got little action the times I didn't bust (AA, AKs). I reaped about a billion Sklansky bucks when my AA, QQ, QQ, 99 and AKo got beat either pre-flop, flop, turn or river. No love for me.

We took off last night (Monday's are typically the deadest night in Laughin during summer), and should be back in the fray tonight.

That no-cap NLHE cash game at Riverside is the absolute nuts. I have never played in a better NLHE cash game. Not at Bellagio, not at Commerce, Wynn, Excal, etc.

I can honestly say that in that regard, Laughlin has it by far. And yes, I have typically ripped on Laughlin poker. In every other regard (limit games, spread limit, Stud, O8) they suck, but at Riverside, that NLHE game is more live than any game I've ever played.

Felicia :)

Update

2006-08-06T15:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. I'm just running so ridiculously well. It seems a shame not to make the most of it. So we're going out playing quite a bit.

I also just don't seem to have the motivation right now. I have lots to talk about, from trip and tournament reports to psychology and theory. I seem to be simply lacking in desire to write. Maybe when my energy fully returns.

Ted is out of the main event :(

So is Chad and almost everyone else I mentioned (luckily the cheater, too).

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Felicia :)

Main Event Update

2006-08-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday sure was an interesting day. No, not for me. My life has already returned to the slow pace of gardening and getting more healthy. I was able to pollinate two cantaloupes and crossed my fingers that I wasn't too late. The cantaloupe and desert watermelon plants are growing like mad, so I'm happy that I put them way in the back of the garden, almost to the tumbleweed filled horse pasture (fenced in quarter acre in the corner of our property that we haven't cleared yet). Hopefully this fall we will have fresh melons and I can get stronger!

Some of my friends are still in the main event hunt. Some were knocked out yesterday in the money. One guy, still in the hunt, is an interesting story himself. Well, if you consider a poker cheat interesting, that is. More on that later.

Poor Ted hasn't gotten much press. For some reason, he is being overlooked as someone who actually has a chance to win this thing. Yeah, I shouldn't say poor Ted, he has had his share of wins and press during the past couple of years (finally), since he got back into tournament play.

Believe it or not, day 1d, when Glenn was playing, was the first time I got to visit with Ted during the series this year. I was talking to Dan after stepping away from my baby PLO game and I saw Ted looking at me, trying to get my attention in the background. I hadn't found him before this, and anyone who has seen the chaos of the main event this year knows why. But he was actually just one table off of the rail, right in the path between the cash games and where they were running sats.

After I parted from Dan, I headed to his table. He was involved in a pot right before the break, and took it down, putting his chip count just above the 30k mark. We chatted and then he told me that he wanted me to meet his daughter. We went into the hallway where he introduced us, and was obviously very proud to have family sweating him for once.

As of day four, Ted is still in, albeit a little short, but that is no problem for Ted. Go Ted!

Matt Maroon busted out with queens vs. aces. Well played, Matt! Your friends always knew you could do this.

Chad Layne is still in the hunt. Nicest.guy.ever. Another guy often overlooked, since he isn't a full-time player.

Cyndy is still in, working that short stack and surviving.

Gary Jones is a great Brit player who always impressed me with his "never go all-in" concept in big stack tourneys. I believe he went pretty deep a few years ago, as well.

Cecilia, Carlos' wife, is still in the running. Very nice woman.

And then we come to the cheater...

I hate to even mention these guys, but if I don't, no one will. It seems that the only people willing to address problems in poker are the gossip sites and me. While the gossip sites do it to get hits, I do it to warn players and try to get the scumbags banned and/or shunned at big festivals.

Back in 2004 there were two guys who got tossed from the Four Queens Classic. This was the most weird display of cheating I've ever seen, to date. Usually if someone is good at cheating, you will never know you are being cheated. Only if someone truly sucks so badly that it's completely obvious, will you catch it.

In this case, however, the two parties not only were bad at cheating, but they talked about it at the tables!!! They told the dealer they were cheating, told the floorman, the assistant TD, and everyone at the table! Now that is a spin on cheating that I had never seen before, lol.

So guess who reared his head again and is now sitting on the 32nd stack of chips? Yep, you got it, Greg Giannokostas. Yes, the same Greg who refused to play against his friend. The same Greg who got dumped to by his friend when they got to the final table, virtually insuring that he took down the Razz event (he claimed his friend was much weaker in Razz). Yes, the same guy who tried to first deny knowing his friend altogether, but got busted when he admitted they were working together, and that they had been cheating all over town.

I know it's hard to believe that two guys would just stand up and admit they were ripping everyone off, but they did. They claimed they had been playing the same way at Bellagio and Binions (during the series of 2004). They bragged that they'd cleaned up the town by collusion, soft play and chip dumping.

Maybe because they were so young, early twenties I would guess, they thought they were untouchable.

And what do I know? Obviously nothing. Obviously they were untouchable, because look who is on the leaderboard at the series! Sure, they were banned from the Four Queens, but have they been banned from other venues? Have they been shunned by the community? I'd guess no. So for all of my troubles, cheating rears it's ugly head again.

Will it stop me from writing about it? Exposing poker cheats? Nope. Although I may get nothing but trouble for all of my honesty, at least I have that same honesty to fall back on and can sleep well at night knowing I did the right thing.

Integrity is a good shield.

Felicia

Glad to be Home

2006-08-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

We are home. Glenn has a post about his main event experience.

We had a great time, but our room at MGM was unable to pick up the internet, so I couldn't update anyone. Kind of sucks.

A few interesting things happened. Odd things when I expected normal, normal things when I expected odd. So that should make some good stories later.

As soon as I catch up on rest, gardening, cleaning and laundry, I should have a post up.

Felicia :)

Watch it Glow-Grow-Grow!

2006-07-25T10:28:00.000-07:00

Well, Glenn didn't get picked for the drawing. The whole thing seemed to reek of corruption, as it was. Then again, everything at Riverside has always been that way, since opening, according to the stories I've heard.

It was really odd, most of the names drawn weren't there. They probably drew 150 names. Some of them were drawn multiple times, like more than five! Then other names of people who play every day and had a billion entries were never even picked once. A husband/wife duo also were picked, which seemed odd. Relatives of employees were allowed to be picked in the "employee" drawing as well as the player drawing! The first cousin of Don Laughlin was picked for both! Then he went on to win the player drawing tournament. Then someone said he took the cash, which is just insane, because it is 10k less than the retail price of the car! Plus he has to pay taxes immediately.

Like I said, the whole thing seemed fishy, but that is RS, love it or be "invited" up to Don Laughlin's mansion on the mountain to be "shown" his extensive gun collection and hear the 'silence is golden' speech. Don't heed the speech? Well, there are lots of people who haven't been heard of again who were regulars in Laughlin.

But enough of my conspiracy theories. I am just running so well that it's insane. I did have one bad night, on Sunday at Palms. I couldn't do a thing in the tournament. I had the type of table with a lot of passive, calling stations. Any ace, any suited cards, any pair. Half of the table were raisers and re-raisers, the other half were passive, the whole table was loose. Steal attempts were thwarted at every turn. Every pair I was dealt was outdrawn. No suited cards went anywhere. No connected cards, either. Raising was virtually pointless, although I gave it my best try, due to the calling nature of the table. A couple of times I was able to steal with the raise/CB follow-up, but literally just a couple of times in two hours. It was just one of those nights. Nothing worked.

Glenn didn't make the money that time, either, but we are running so well that we didn't even blink. I am 3:4 in the money, Glenn is 2:4, but his two were wins.

The cash games treated me equally bad on Sunday night at Palms. There was a 4/8 HE, which just sucked. The players were passive, mostly, and simply calling with anything and everything. My first hand there was in the BB with pocket queens. Raiser up, 849 callers. Flop, turn and river were low, I think the highest card out was a ten. Bet the whole way, only to be shown a rivered set by a guy who called 44 all the way.

Just a few hands later I had 77, raiser up. Rivered again by a four. Guy had A3o and called all the way for a runner gutshot ;)

And just like that, I was down $100. I moved to a new $200 max buy-in NLHE game. The players were playing approximately correctly, and I couldn't get anything going on. I made about $20, but then put my name back on the 4/8 list.

Glenn busted out and decided to play 4/8 as well. The game was sometimes more aggressive, but mostly very passive. We both lost a ton of money due to not being dealt many suited connectors, suited cards, connecting cards, etc, and when we did, nothing coming of them. I got kings, raiser up, got called by 99, Q7o and a myriad of other hands. 99 flopped a set and raised me right off. Q7 flopped top pair and stayed in. Q7 went for runner full house to beat 99, although she kept betting it even after it was clear she was beat. I got out.

Basically one of those fubar nights where nothing works and one is left scratching his head. No tilt, just eventually got tired and left.

So that brings us back to Monday night (last night) and the Riverside. The players are usually worse at RS. More aggressive, less predictable, but playing so badly that it's usually easy money.

After the so-called drawing, I briefly sat in the O8 game, lost about $19, then moved to the no-max NLHE game that Glenn said was good. I recognized almost everyone. Overly aggressive, play NLHE like it's limit, deep money players. Trickiness never works in this game. Trapping has a better chance, getting in check-raises is a gimme. Caution is very important.

I opened up a bit, but besides Glenn, I was still probably the tightest person at the table.

One of my first hands I played 87o in LP for no raise, flopped a straight, but there was a flush possible. Bet slightly under the pot, was raised by a guy who doesn't have to have anything, smooth called. Turn was another club and he checked it down with me (???) only to show me the queen of clubs. Odd, but that's Laughlin. He is actually a decent player. I guess he figured that if anyone had the king, she would be me, and he thought I might be scared of the ace.

I don't usually tilt, so instead of sulking, I did the lick-my-chops Johnny Moss routine. I knew the table, knew the players, felt the vibe, and got into the zone.

Chips started flying my way. No problemo letting the LAP's take money off of the more passive, timid players, then taking those chips off of the LAP's.

A few people were there from SoCal. Laughlin is a mix of local and mostly local snowbirds, and tourists from California. The Callies like big pots, bit hands, lots of action. Since I have experience playing at Commerce, and since I am used to their style, I just let them blow off their money. I don't pay much heed to the table talk or trash.

One guy tried to represent being a WCP. I didn't buy it from the first. For one, he made some errors that didn't indicate he knew what he was doing, much less what he was talking about. He goofed at one point and talked about a LIMIT 20/40 game with a 2k min buy-in. Right. He also goofed on TDA rules, after claiming all of these big cashes in TDA rule events. He sweated big hands too much, with nothing in the pot. He acted like he was having an aneurysm facing a huge bet or raise with only five big blinds in the pot, lol ;)

I truly love these people, and mostly he was good natured about it. I stacked him once. I had ducks and he let me see a free flop in one of the blinds. I flopped a deuce and check-called. I check-raised the turn for a 150% pot-sized bet, due to a scary turn card (straight possible, flush draw, ace). He moaned and groaned but still called. The flush got there and he decided to try to bluff me out (I think maybe he had two pair, A7, but why was he calling UTG in the first place with that?). The problem was that he had lost so many pots already that he was shallow (bought in for $800) and only had about $150 left. So naturally I called, and he said "good call" and mucked. Rebuy!

The rest of my chips came from well-timed aggression and/or good steals, good flops, good cards, etc. I was never in any danger of losing my chips, even though I only bought in for $300, lol ;)

I forgot how easy NLHE cash games are. It's like free money. No wonder I got so sick of it. But at least it's always entertaining at Riverside, and the players all had great senses of humor and rolled with my sickness (and yeah, I'm so sick).

There is a condom machine in the women's bathroom at RS. Go figure. No tampons or pads for those unlucky young women who still have that burden, but plenty of condoms.

One is a "glow in the dark" condom. I love the slogan. It says, "Turn out the lights and watch it glow-grow-grow!" That is my new catch-phrase and I have to tell everyone I meet about the condom. I wanted to buy one and give it to Glenn as a card protector, but he is too shy to use it in that way! :)

Wuss.

So if I don't update much in the next couple of days (before heading up to Vegas), have a good hearty laugh at my ridiculousness and don't forget to put it on, turn off the lights and watch it...

GLOW-GROW-GROW!

Felicia :)

Slow Week

2006-07-24T13:40:00.000-07:00

I'm kind of losing my steam for the psychology series. I guess in some ways it's lack of interest. I get an e-mail, IM or comment here and there, but most people are just sort of holding their breath, watching the series, enjoying summer, etc. Like me.

Today I worked out in the garden a lot, even though the heat is sometimes so overwhelming that it sucks the breath out of my lungs. I love gardening and truly get more pleasure out of it than anything poker has ever given me. Not to mention it is so great for my health, compared to poker (gag).

Anyway, we are wrapping things up to head up to Vegas on Thursday morning. Glenn finally got his starting day assignment. 1d, July 31st he will be starting. For those of you following CP coverage with a passion, look for Bagrowski.

Glenn also won some tickets for a drawing to be held tonight at Riverside. Twenty names will be drawn for different prizes and entry into a freeroll following the drawing. Every one of those names receives something, no matter how small (and it's not like a keychain or something, it's at least $100).

Then the twenty sit down to a two-table tournament. The winner receives a car or $7500 in cash. Yeah, I don't know how they came up with this horrible figure. The car is supposedly worth $17,000, but if you don't take the car you only get $7500, lol. Only in Laughlin.

So hopefully Glenn will get something out of it. I don't have any entries, as I haven't played much at Riverside until just the past few days. Some regular player have like 50 entries, so Glenn's four look pretty paltry right about now. Worse case scenario, he'll win some money in cash games tonight.

Have a great week,

Felicia :)

Palms $80 NLHE Tournament

2006-07-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

I cashed out of the big NLHE game ($40 max buy-in ;) and took my seat in the tournament. I was glad to see only one other woman at my table. Poor Glenn had four at his. Women in Laughlin tend to be very passive calling stations. Sometimes I'm sitting and pounding them with chips, as they mildly, passively call, only to be shown the absolute, stone cold nuts by them. It gets frustrating. They play monsters the same way they play trash. Call, call, call.

My table had a nice mix of some very young newish guys and older guys who have been around poker for a long time. No one really knew how to play except one guy who got moved away first. Then I was able to dominate the table easier.

It's hard to wiggle around much if opponents won't fold to a bet, a bluff, a raise, a check-raise or an all-in. If they are really new enough to think that maybe top pair no kicker is good, they will hunt you down for all of their chips. They always think trips are a set, and always think any straight, flush or full-house must be the nuts. So when I play in these types of events, I always have to choose my spots more carefully. Like stealing the blinds in late position. Betting a scary board when I have a feeling my opponent has something like a pair.

It doesn't always work out, and sometimes I get crippled early by making a great play that simply looks stupid in the eyes of my tablemates.

I had some chips early, but then made two plays that put me down to about 4x the big blind. In one hand, I was in the BB with AQs. One player limped, another raised for all of his chips and then the action got back to me. It was only about three more big blinds to me, so I smooth called. I could have re-raised in this spot, to get the limper out, but I knew that the small blind and the limp were virtually nothing as a side pot, and wanted to see what would happen after the flop. Plus, the limper would only have one blind left (four black chips) if he called the raiser, so pushing him for a decision pre-flop would gain me nothing.

The flop came down something like KJ9 with two of my suit. I went ahead and checked, to see what the limp/caller would do. He put in the rest of his chips. I called. He turned over A9 and had flopped bottom pair. The original raiser had 44. The turn brought a four, and I never got my flush or ten. Oh, well.

Right after that hand, I had J7s in the SB. I was allowed to limp, and I believe five of us saw the flop. Jack was the high card and I fired out a bet smaller than the pot (maybe 1000?). Only the button called. He played just about every hand, and I had never seen him raise even once. Likewise, I had rarely seen him fold, ever, even on the river. I was wary and decided to slow down. He could surely have a draw, but he could also have top pair, two pair, trips, a set. Virtually anything, in other words.

The turn paired the board and we both checked. He looked kind of deflated. Now I was almost sure I had him. The river was a total blank, so I fired again. He hesitantly called me, only to turn over pocket queens! Okay.

So here I was, crippled, down to about four big blinds left after my awesome plays, lol ;)

The cost of this tournament was $40 with a $40 optional add-on (one only) and a $5 dealer's add-on. We had fifty opponents.

I managed to stay afloat by making a few successful steals. I had maybe five big blinds when our table was broken and I was moved to Glenn's table. All but one of the women were out, thank God, due to their call, call, calling. I took the place of one of them in the two seat. Glenn was in the nine.

It was at this point that I started making some mistakes. Having not really played Hold'em tourneys in a long time, and even other tourneys, I had forgotten some things. It's not like a bicycle, where one can get back on, wobble around for the first few yards, and then get right back into it. Constant practice is the only way to play a mistake-free event.

I was really short stacked after going through the blinds. The big blind got moved to balance tables, and, and the dealer accidentally moved the button forward twice. Now the guy who should have been the small blind was given a free pass to the button, while I lost a position. I protested, but the dealer kept dealing anyway. I protested more loudly. No one said a word, not even Glenn. I tried and tried to keep him from dealing out the hand. He argued with me.

I never, ever get this. I just don't understand it. It seems to be epidemic in Laughlin and even Glenn used to argue with me and other customers when he was in the box. It's like a Laughlin thing. I don't experience it much, if at all in Vegas, LA, Foxwoods, etc. Only Laughlin. The dealer will make a mistake. A simple, little thing that we all do, every day. But instead of stopping the action, or calling the floor, or a myriad of any other course of action they could take, they suddenly start arguing with the player!!! Yes, the person who pays them, the customer. For three years I have watched this behavior by Laughlin dealers in virtually every cardroom in town, and no one seems to know why it happens, or why it's allowed. Dealers have been known to call players "stupid," "retarded," "ignorant," etc, and there is never any action taken against these dealers. The same people who pay the salary of the dealers in town are the ones constantly getting yelled at. I just don't get it. Glenn says he doesn't either. He says he has no idea why he argued with me and other customers in the box. He says he saw other Laughlin dealers do it for two years, so he just started doing it, too, regardless of whether the customer was right, or he was right.

Anyway, back to the tournament. I'm begging the guy to stop dealing, but he won't, and he's yelling at me that I don't know what I'm talking about. I explained it again and again, and finally someone at the table had the balls to speak up and say that yes, the button was moved twice, and the hand is a misdeal. I think it also helped that the TD was out and about at the tables and knew I was correct, he himself having moved the BB off of the table.

I think the dealer apologized, but this is where things went bad for the guy sitting to my left. He was obviously pretty new, but had built up a lot of chips, and was trying really hard to play correctly. He made the fubar mistake of looking at his dead hand in the cutoff before the action got to him (and the action never got to him because finally a misdeal was declared). He had pocket tens. He groaned.

The very next hand, with the button now in the right spot, I went all-in with nines and he overcalled with AQs. This is where I totally made a mistake and screwed him royally.

I said something like, "Well, I can't wish you luck in this hand, I hope mine holds up! I have pocket nines, what do you have?" He flipped over his cards, as did I. What we neither one realized is that during the whole commotion with the previous hand, an EP limper (the only woman left, and a call, call, calling station) was still in the hand! So she could see my cards and his cards. She still opted to call the all-in anyway, with the third best hand.

The flop came down Q9x, two spades. He still could drive action on his hand, but I'd pretty much killed his action, because she could see his cards and the only way she would call him is if he was beat. The turn and the river were blanks, with no flush possible. So the guy next to me would have gotten all of her chips. Why? Because she had the KJ of spades!

I apologized profusely, and he took it well, but I knew he was thinking that my big mouth screwed him out of two hands. I can't even remember the last time I did something like that. Years, most likely. But like I said, tournament poker is not like riding a bike. I was flustered and didn't even notice the meek and mild calling station trying to limp in, in EP, during the end stages of a tournament! Oy, vey.

I'm not going to go through every hand, or how I got to the final table, because I have two, much more interesting tournament and cash game stories to write up. But I did get really lucky to get there. And I screwed the poor guy who had been on my left twice more! This time, though, it was his own fault, most likely due to him being flustered, like me, and also being somewhat of a new player.

He got moved to balance the tables and I didn't expect to see him again. However, when he got moved back to our table, he was in Glenn's old seat, the nine seat, which Glenn had just vacated due to two icky beats.

At any rate, he wasn't playing that well, and in one hand I was so short stacked in the BB that I had only two chips left (half of a blind). It was folded to him in the SB and he LET ME HAVE IT ON THE BUBBLE! Wow. I was so shocked I just sat there. I didn't rake in the chips, I didn't give my cards to the dealer, I just sat in stunned silence.

In the next round, I was UTG when he was the BB and I pushed with 44. It got back to him, and he finally did the right thing and called with 88. The guy to my left told me he'd folded a four. I got up expecting fully to be the bubble, and caught a four.

That poor guy was so screwed. He went out only a hand or so later, on the bubble, after having had so many chips earlier. It was like that mistake just rattled him so much he could never get any momentum going again.

So I got to the final table, and basically got my money back. I was the shorty, and pushed UTG with JJ, only to be called by UTG +2 who had KK. IGHN, but I netted $10 and had a cash again, after playing 28 hours and bubbling in those two O8 events. Still feels good, even though the field was smaller and softer than anything at Orleans or Rio, lol.

Next up, two more tournaments and running over cash games!

Felicia :)

I Run Goot!

2006-07-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of some big posts. Suffice it to say, Glenn and I are running so ridiculously good that it's tough to keep it in perspective. Of course, running good in Laughlin isn't something to overly brag about ;) It is sort of like running good in LLO8. King of the special olympics, here we come!

In the last three tourneys I've played (the first three NLHE tourneys this year, I believe, after a long, long period of not playing Hold'em and not playing tourneys at all), I'm 3:3 ITM. More on that later. Glenn is 2:3 wins.

Glenn has some posts up about it. He is in the middle of one now, as well. Keep checking his blog if you get sick of waiting for me.

I gave Chris Fargis some last minute tips on Razz, and lookey here, he is ITM as well! Jeez, I should charge for my coaching and/or cheerleading services. Funny how I can help anyone except myself (that does seem to be changing, however).

I wonder if I could convince Chris that my services are worth 5%, hmmm!

Felicia :)

The Actress Pimps Herself at NLHE

2006-07-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

Iggy told me he missed the days when my journal was all about trip and tournament reports. I guess it was probably at it's peak during those days, before it became a true, daily diary and I began ranting and raving.

I was known for long, drawn out reports. No one, however, ever said they were boring, just long. Not much has changed, eh, except now I have long posts discussing other topics? Some readers like my theory and psychology posts best. I am in that camp. I don't really post strategy, so to speak, but I talk a lot about what is behind the hand, behind the cards, and that helps some players who are in a transition stage, working their way up from recreational players to serious players.

At any rate, since I have been running so well lately, I figured a few trip/tournament reports wouldn't be too far off topic of my recent psych series regarding loosening up. It certainly is what sparked my interest in the topic, and I hope it gives you some insight into why I have tweaked my own game, and how you might be able to do the same.

When I played in my first WSOP event, a $1500 Stud event that I freerolled into (won a NLHE sat at Binions), I played late into the evening, and was about 20 outside of the money when I finally busted. Ted went on to win the event, and to become one of my best friends in the circuit world. Another player at our table told me later, "You are the tightest Stud player I have ever seen."

Little did I know at the time, this was NOT a compliment. All this did was enable me to go around bubbling or barely cashing in event after event on the pro circuit for the next year. 15th in the 2k Stud event at Foxwoods (bubble). 5th at the HORSE event at Plaza (bubble but made a save). 17th in Stud at Four Queens (a table from bubble). 35th and 37th in the two O8 events at Orleans (bubble). 3rd in Stud 8 at Four Queens (ITM but not a big pay-out). 6th in Stud at Bucky's (first in the money). 11th in Razz at Four Queens (bubble).

So what has changed? Well, something finally snapped inside of me (more on that in the next few posts). After a year of mostly returning to non-HE cash games and playing very few tourneys, I have a new, huge appreciation for cash games. I rarely played Hold'em, being bored out of my skull, but I have always succeeded at HE. It is a huge catch-22 for me.

I'm not really very good (my apathy holding me back more than anything else), so I can hang in limit games up to about 20/40, or NLHE up to about a $500 max buy-in (if there is no max, let's say where the average player is bringing about $500 to the table).

In limit I tend to either play like a rock, or try to get creative if the table is passive and quiet. I will joke around, and tell superstitious stories that I absolutely don't believe. I will expose a card, or tell a player what I have if we are HU. I will play a blind hand blind, lol. If the stakes aren't important, and the table seems to need a clown, I will be that clown for them. This doesn't happen very often anymore, btw, although I just played it up to the hilt last night at Riverside and won a ton of money for a 4/8 full kill game (more on that later, if my fingers don't start to bleed).

In NLHE cash games, I tend to play tight unless the blinds are very small and I can limp into a lot of hands without much fear of being raised every time. Once again, if I feel I can get away with it, I play around a little bit. Loosey-goosey and passive-aggressive, sometimes rope-a-dope, sometimes lying, sometimes telling the truth. Just playing the goofball.

Most of the time, like I said before, I'm usually the tightest person at the table. Say the blinds are 2/5. I stop being a clown and play seriously. I go back to my old spread limit Stud strategy and start trying to trap. Get a second best hand to put all of his chips in the center with virtually no chance of winning (I have AA, he has AK, flops a king and thinks he's outdrawn me).

This is not "advanced" strategy, by any means. It is just tight, predictable, grinder poker. Which is why I got so sick of Hold'em, in almost any form. Three years of playing virtually nothing but HE and I just wanted to vomit.

Lately, however, as you have seen by the tone of my posts, I have decided to change my game somewhat. Loosen up, play more hands. Return to the clown who ruled the low-limit tables before the poker boom. With today's serious wannabe's, who call time and ponder over a $2 raise for five minutes, while asking the dealer over and over again how much it is to them, or how much they can raise, agonizing over their hand and a $2 raise in front of them, while finally folding with a grimace of disgust, an experienced clown is sometimes what is needed.

I've always been a good actress. All of those years of acting and voice lessons my Mom paid for insured that I'd have a heightened sense of self-importance, but wouldn't be able to make a dime at it. In poker, it can have huge advantages.

After we got home from Orleans, Glenn and I went to play a low buy-in, MTT at Palms. They used to have a good structure. I say "used to" because Dan was the CRM and made it so. But no more. Now Billy has taken over most of the management, while Dan runs both the gaming pit and the poker room as a mostly absentee manager. So Billy made sure everything went back to the quasi crapshoot quality it was before Dan arrived, while still charging the same juice to the clueless players there.

Two cash games were running when we got there, which was about an hour before the tourney. A $2-6 spread limit HE game (ugh), and a $1/2 blind NLHE game with a capped $40 buy-in (LOL). This seems incredibly stupid, and what can I say, it's Laughlin. But at the same time, an instant strategy came into my head, knowing almost all of the players in the game, and knowing how much I could manipulate them.

I usually don't sit down and play HE anymore. I don't play tourneys, especially NLHE tourneys anymore either. But Glenn needs some practice playing tourneys, for the main event, so we have been going all around, giving him the opportunity. He has played in two NLHE events at Orleans, several NLHE satellites and now three MTT's in Laughlin, as well.

But today I'm talking about the Palms, which happened on Wednesday, and the two cash games they had, as well as the tournament that night.

Glenn said he wanted to play in the spread limit. I'd rather cut off my right hand. He figured I'd just sit on their couch and wait until the tournament. But I saw the line-up, and I know how they play, so I figured I could make my tourney buy-in just sitting in the NLHE for an hour. Very little risk, really. So I bought in for the whole $40 (LOL) and took my seat. I believe we were eight-handed.

Very little to say about this game, except that I just simply let them bet into me, and took their money. I played the little girl, unsure of herself and where she is in the hand. Just became a meek little calling station. This is an act I can succeed at greatly if I'm getting the cards, and the players are slightly aggressive. With a $40 cap, the money is going in anyway, almost every hand, so there is no need for me to put all of my chips at risk pre-flop or on the flop, when I can safely just be that timid, calling station woman who isn't quite sure if she is beat or not. Playing with no kicker only reinforces my reluctance to put the chips in early. I was limping into a lot of pots, and most pots were either unraised or someone did a min-raise ($4 or $5).

This is a trick of mine that usually helps me double up at certain tables, while putting the least of my chips at risk early on with marginal hands. It comes across to the table that I don't really know what I'm doing, but the fact is, I have a marginal holding, at best. I have no kicker, I'm not sure if he has middle pair, top pair with a better kicker, worse kicker, or whatever. So by playing passively I can lose less, or win the same amount that I'd have won by being aggressive early, if I do get the call, that is. In this case, I won more.

So by the time the tourney started, my best hand had been KJs and I'd still more than doubled my buy-in.

Acting lessons have worked in ways that my Mom probably never predicted ;)

Next: The NLHE crapshoot tournament at Palms!

Felicia :)

Rocks Can't Win Anymore! (Part One)

2006-07-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

Psychological Road-Map for Changing Your Style and Winning Again

Mike Sexton recently said something that started somewhat of a small stir in the poker world. I don't want to quote him out of context, but since the quote itself isn't really the topic of discussion today, I know he'll forgive me if I do:

"Tight players are LOSING players. Tight players can NOT win tournaments."

I was asked by several players if I disagreed with his quote. Or if I was hurt by his assertion. Surprisingly (to them), I said absolutely not, that I agreed with him 100%. The structure of today's modern tournament doesn't reward tight, cautious players. It rewards more of a maniacal personality. Thinking maniacs will always have somewhat of an advantage over non-thinking maniacs, but even the most clueless, loose-aggressive players are hitting closer to the mark these days than rocks like me.

I will provide some examples, even though I know my readers don't need them, and agree with me on this point. Look at the top of the food chain in the 5k Stud event yesterday:

1 William Lin (Denver, CO, USA) $256,620
2 Shahram "Sean" Sheikhan (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $171,080
3 Cyndy Violette (Atlantic City, NJ, USA) $102,648
4 Allen Kessler (Huntington Valley, PA, USA) $76,986
5 Miami John Cernuto (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $55,601
6 Patrick Bueno (France) $38,493
7 Lupe Munquia $29,939
8 Mike Caro (Shell Krob, MO, USA) $21,385
9 Russell Salzer AKA "The Muscle" (New York, NY, USA) $12,831
10 John Womack (Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA) $12,831
11 Brian Goddard (Huntington Beach, CA, USA)

I do not know Mr. Lin. But Sean, Cyndy, Allen, John, Mike and Brian are not known for being rocks.

I am a friend of Brian Goddard's. I don't want to sound like I'm putting him down, although it is going to seem like I am when I say this. Brian has absolutely no clue. He loves Stud. That is why we are friends. We both love Stud. But Brian is one of the most clueless players I have ever played extensively against. He will bet two pair in a Stud tournament when someone else has trips showing. He will bet a pair into three other players who have threatening boards developing (four to a flush, four to a straight, two pair, etc). He doesn't do this for deceptive purposes or to try to increase his chances of a win by getting the second and third best hands to fold (when he is fourth), he does this because he simply doesn't even look at the board cards of his opponents. He always plays his own cards only, and just lives in his own little world.

Yet look at his tournament results compared to mine!

Another personal example that I can think of is Terry Myers. No.Clue. Here are some of my experiences with Terry.

http://felicialee.blogspot.com/2004/09/steamrollin-stud-8.html <----Drawing to two outs and he didn't even have a clue!

An unpublished story: In a $500 buy-in NLHE satellite (into a 5k event), I was sat at Terry's table. In one hand, I held AQs. I raised, Terry called. The flop came down Qxx. I went all-in, Terry called with virtually no hesitation whatsoever. He held AK. King on the river and that is all she wrote. That's Terry!

I have never seen anything like it. Just lost in the wilderness. Deer in headlights. But look at his stats!

(I am providing these examples as over-the-top, outlandish results in order to make a point. I have absolutely no doubt that both Brian and Terry, along with me, are losing tournament players in the long-term. The above is just meant to shock, not to prove that loose, clueless players are big winners in today's tournament world.)

I remember a couple of years ago at the WPBT inaugural event, Max and I were trying to give some helpful hints to some of the players at our table. This is usually a no-no in tournaments, a no-no in my personal book and a bad idea altogether. But it was a fun, low buy-in event, in which the players had put up money to get to play with the "pros," so once Max started in with the advice, I tried to be helpful as well.

The two tightest players I encountered were CJ and Steve Hall. Let's look at what has happened to both of them since that time.

CJ is now called "The Luckbox" because he has loosened up his tourney game, and played lots of low buy-in SNG's in order to learn to play more hands shorthanded and to learn to take chances. He has since become a force in the tournament world and can keep up with today's environment.

Steve, for all I know, is still a rock. He is still taking pics of the pros in big events, and is not a pro poker player anymore.

I do not highlight these two rocks in order to put either of them down. I like both men, and have nothing but respect for them. The only reason I bring them up is because I'm always using myself as the example of the rock who can't hang, and I want to make it clear that there are many of us in that same boat.

So what will happen to those of us who cannot compete anymore? It's really easy to say "change your style," but it's something completely different to actually do it in practice.

Ray Zee wrote an excellent article about the stages of a poker player many years ago. It addressed progressing from one stage to the next, in what is probably close to a typical player progression.

In my own play, I skipped stage one. I have been around the poker world a long time, and the first lesson I ever learned before stepping into a poker room was to play tight. To fold, fold, fold. I learned that lesson well. Too well.

But my own experience isn't the point here (although it is definitely helping me write the article). The point is that a player goes from loose and completely undisciplined with no discernment whatsoever, to the next stage, stage two:

"This stage of a player's evolution is the tight stage. Most of those that are going to go forward to become eventual winning players will enter this form."

And this is what we are going to focus on today. The tight, unimaginative player who cannot get out of the tight, rockish rut, and finds himself unable to compete anymore. He can't win in today's tournaments, he can't win at any cash games which require a player to actually play more than 9% of the hands he is dealt. He can scratch by in a low ante Stud game. He can break even or make a little dough in a capped NLHE game. He can survive in low LHE. He can nut peddle in PLO8 online. But he is handicapped by his own inability to loosen up and to read players, hands and situations well. He is a rock who will not be moved. And he is falling farther and faster behind every day!

Next: "Okay, I get it. But what can I do to change???"

It's All About Hold'em

2006-07-20T09:37:00.000-07:00

Ah, isn't it strange how things come full circle in the poker world? Predictions, both good and evil, come to pass. I'm elated when they work out well (Max winning a bracelet), I'm horrified when they go fubar (WSOP under Harrah's ownership).

I remember a few years ago telling Glenn that probably, eventually, O8 would be my best game. Yeah, here I sit, nut peddling. O8 is my best game as far as low limits go, PLO8 online, playing mixed games, tournament play, etc. It sucks to be the king of the special olympics ;)

I also told Glenn that if I decided that I wouldn't quit poker when Stud died (and it's just barely breathing), eventually Hold'em would likely be my favorite game.

In Stud, there is only so much, psychologically, one can do. Trickery is great, but deception only plays a part to a certain extent. You can't fake quads or a straight flush on sixth when three cards on your board don't match up! Your hand, and therefore your strength, is exposed. Laid bare for all to see. Stud games can be the ultimate frustrating games, whether your forte is Stud high, Stud 8 or Razz. Seven card is much better than five card, but you are still only able to do so much. You are hand tied.

Closed card games, draw games are really awesome because you can completely manipulate your opponents. But draw games aren't popular or widely played. Even the high variance action games like TDL aren't spread much, and are usually in a mixed game rotation. So deciding to make yourself a draw game specialist is even worse than being a Stud specialist.

So that brings us back full circle again, doesn't it? And that is what it always comes back to. Hold'em.

Hold'em is the perfect poker game in so many ways. I have always said that. People read what they want to read and are right now thinking I've gone mad, or am saying the exact opposite of things I've always said. That is simply not true. I have always said that Hold'em is going to be the most popular poker game for the foreseeable future, and rightly so. Hold'em mechanics are easy to learn. A beginner can sit in a game with five minutes of instruction. Limit Hold'em has an expectation which keeps the good pro afloat, yet has a high enough luck factor so that the fish is not wiped out. Max buy-in NLHE is a sort of protection for a fish, yet good players can grind out a win virtually every session.

There are absolutely NO downsides to hold'em, other than boredom. And boredom does come. It makes poker more like a job than a hobby, and we have to take frequent breaks from it.

When it all comes down to it, the only game in which I have a true chance of becoming a successful player at any stakes, as well as a successful tournament player, is Hold'em. Even O8 becomes almost HE at the higher limits. The low hands are an aside, additional outs, something good to have for an emergency back-up if things go to shite. If we get caught in a big pot bluffing. If a bad drawing hand gets some miracle. But it's pretty much about Hold'em when O8 hits the higher limits. Even high stakes pot-limit games are virtually all PLO, that is high, not eight or better. It is truly rare to find a live, high stakes PLO8 game, much less a tournament. It almost literally doesn't exist.

Which brings us back to Hold'em. I have a huge love-hate relationship with it. It is the perfect game for poker. Perfect as a cash game, both limit and no-limit. Perfect as a tournament, especially pot or no-limit. Stud is a bad tourney game. Stud, Stud 8, Razz. No Stud variant makes a good tournament game. The five betting rounds are killer. Playing 16 hours straight having to endure that kind of concentration, usually on a huge Hold'em table where one cannot see the board cards on the opposite side, can be a nightmare. I have never advocated Stud games as great tournament games. If the structure is fair, long, with a lot of chips, it turns into a race for endurance. If the structure is short with no chips, it turns into a card catching contest. There is no good way to run a Stud tournament. It sucks no matter which way you look at it. It's not a good heads-up game, either. It just bites on so many levels. Which is one reason it is dying. One of the many.

Okay, so once again, we come back to Hold'em. Where I really, truly have a chance, but no heart for it. I am totally FUBAR in every respect.

And this, my friends, is your introduction to a new series that I hope to get underway before the main event. A series about taking your game to a whole new level. By using psychology, gaming theory and simple blueprints to become a chameleon in the poker world.

I may never be a world class player, but I am going to try my best to make YOU one, if you so desire.

Stay tuned,

Felicia :)

WSOP Cash Updates

2006-07-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

Some more of my friends made it into the money, final tabled or won an event.

Ralph Perry finally got there. I don't know Ralph, but I've watched him play. You might remember him as the guy who came in 3rd at the 2002 WSOP when it was three-handed, he had jacks, Gardner had tens and Varkonyi had aces. He made the push, Gardner made the lay-down.

Mike O'Malley made the money again. Sheesh, dude, if you keep making the money, Party is actually going to have to give you a raise to keep you ;)

A guy I like a lot, Chad Layne, took 5th at the shootout final table. From the looks of things, the FT just didn't go his way. Sometimes we come back from dinner or that second day, and every move we make, someone actually has a hand. Every time we have a hand, someone has a better one. From the CP descriptions, looks like that is what happened to Chad.

Last year Chad cracked me up. The first time we really got to know each other, was in a $1500 HORSE event at Plaza. He asked if he could get my advice on Razz. At first I thought he was joking around, but then he convinced me that he'd never played Razz before. I almost fell on the floor laughing that he'd bought into a $1500 tourney having never played lowball stud.

Then at the series, Chad busted early in the 5k event, and decided at the last minute to join the Razz event. He made it farther than me, if that tells you anything, by making some sick, nasty plays. Over dinner, we talked about Razz and I gave him some advice. He was almost in the money. Of course he didn't follow any of my advice and made some more unbelievable plays after I'd just informed his table that due to my "expert instruction" he was sure to make the money! Oy, vey! In the end, though, he busted out right before the payout, I think maybe 8 players to go or something.

But despite Chad's crazy plays in ALL games, he has an excellent chance of winning tourneys, and he has a wonderful life. He doesn't play full-time because he owns an insurance claims agency (or something like that), and has a real life, including wife and kids. Basically, he's just a great guy and that is that. Go Chad!

So anyway, today I'll try to get to some of my psychological exercises meant to help us change our style at he poker tables. We'll see if that one goes over like a lead balloon, or becomes one of my "best of" type posts.

Felicia :)

Cha-cha-cha Changes!

2006-07-18T06:31:00.000-07:00

Things change so radically in the poker world, that if one types up some absolute on any given day, he can be flamed and ridiculed the next day for being such a moron.

Just because the poker world changes rapidly doesn't mean that his advice or strategy was wrong, it was just meant for a certain time and place. It can be adapted!!!

The other day I was reading Ray Zee's book again, going over some O8 theory in my head, and how it applies to tourneys. I stumbled once again upon Ray's advice about particular styles of play, particular characteristics of players and the games they may adapt to the best. Nothing in his theory is wrong, and most of it still applies today, even with the poker boom. But it definitely made me pause and remember some of the things that have changed so radically, and how players have a hard time adjusting their own play, not to mention heeding the sage advice of some top players/theorists for today's game of poker.

I remember a few years ago when I was reading Doyle's chapter in SSI on NLHE cash games. I kept thinking over and over again, "Jeez, this advice would rock in tourneys, but I think a cash game player would probably get killed these days!"

I told Glenn that it was probably good tourney strategy. Better than Sklansky's, because of the current times (just at the cusp of the poker boom).

Not long after that, someone was discussing SSI on 2+2 and Mason chimed in with almost the exact same sentiment. Some people can think about something so deeply that they almost instantly realize it's usefulness and adjust or adapt it to current conditions. I am very fortunate that I'm able to do this, although it doesn't seem to help me much in MTT's!!! For whatever reason, that is a huge shortcoming of mine, my inability to adapt greatly in that arena.

Okay, so staying on topic. I have often been able to help fledgling players decide which game is best for them. This comes from a combination of listening to them talk about poker, watching them play extensively and the things Ray said in his book. These days, it's all about Hold'em, I know (I'm not really that blind), so when I say I decide what game might be best for them, it's always about the second game they pick up. The "what comes next?" moment that they have, when they realize it's not always ALL HOLD'EM, ALL THE TIME.

The player who starts out learning and playing LHE seems to be able to adjust to NLHE easier than vice versa. Some players try to play limit after learning and playing a lot of NL. What a trainwreck. They get eaten alive. I see the inability to adjust every day. It is painful to watch. It reminds me of my own shortcomings in tourneys. The player who was forced to really learn limit first is fortunate. He tends to do much, much better adjusting to no-limit play.

Women can hang with high variance games better than men, at times. But they have to have absolutely no respect of money. No fear. Mentally it can be tough to go to a game like PLO or Stud 8 and lose huge pot after huge pot, going in as a favorite. Some men absolutely cannot take these swings, and end up steaming. Women don't tend to steam in the traditional sense as much (blowing off chips; playing badly after running badly). The problem with women in these games is that they tend to have one of two problems. They are either too timid and scared, or they are too hyperaggressive in the wrong hands (no discernment). Either can present huge problems for a woman playing a high variance game.

Razz should be a woman's game. I have always thought this. Thank God almost no one agrees with me, and I typically play against all men. Women can handle losing with a made 65 on fifth to some monkey drawing to a jack and getting an incredibly lucky runner 64. Men go absolutely ape when this happens. I have seen the most calm, controlled, professional men go ballistic. Razz can be a super frustrating game when you forget the odds, forget your edge and let the game get to you. One of the only male players who can hang tough in Razz throughout all seasons is Ted Forrest. He knows that the incredible runner suckouts are what keeps the game from dying altogether. He knows that he makes money by keeping his cool and staying sharp. He just smiles, taps the table and moves on to the next hand. Of course he wants that monkey with a jack doorcard drawing all the way! He wouldn't have any other scenario, and this is what makes him great at Stud games.

Stud High is a great game for action junkies, those who like to play a lot of hands on third, those who like to draw and chase. In good games, the ante is rather high, so players who want to play a lot of hands and go far with them are actually playing much more closely to correct. That it is a good game for them. Although they will lose in the long-term (if they are not top players), they will typically lose less than in other games. If a player is loose and aggressive on third, with no regard for money, and likes to call down a lot of hands, even if he is unsure where he is in the hand, he will tend to do better at Stud High than many other games.

Stud 8 is an awesome game in some respects, and a terrible one in others. It is awesome because a good player can incorporate a lot of trickery into his game, and deception rules. But it is frustrating because it can be the roller coaster ride of a century. When you run well in Stud 8, you think you are the king, the best Stud 8 player ever. And then when mother variance rears her ugly head, you wonder if you ever knew how to play in the first place. The trickier you are, the more deeply you think and play the game, the more of an idiot you can seem when the play doesn't work. When it DOES work out, your tablemates will be shaking your hand and congratulating you on your "world class play." Don't let this go to your head, either positively or negatively. Remember, when a good play works, everyone will proclaim you their hero. When the exact same play, under the exact same circumstances backfires, they will be calling you a moron. Both terms are incorrect. Although an advanced player is the one thinking deeply, on many different levels, this is simply good play. You aren't the master of the game, nor are you the idiot. You are simply playing good poker.

If you are the type of person who likes to overcall a lot, until your hand is made, Stud 8 is a good game for your style. If you think of yourself as a fisherman, sitting patiently and silently, while players all around you are in a rage, Stud 8 may be your best game. Yes, you can simply sit and wait, and then let them give you all of their chips when they are ramming and jamming with you in between. Typically in Stud 8, the first betting rounds are pretty light, the later rounds a chip spewing fest. Stud High is exactly the opposite. Good players slow down in later rounds.

If you're tired and/or bored, games that might keep you sane, but decrease your variance, are low limit Razz, LO8 or low buy-in NLHE. These games are pretty much no-brainers at low limits. I tend to call low buy-in NLHE "wash, rinse, repeat." Razz is easy because there are no suits or high cards to memorize. Only low cards and boards to play. It is typically a board game. Sit and wait for a good doorcard, play your board strongly.

And then we come to LO8. The Special Olympics of poker. The game where you can win a gold medal, but you are still retarded. The brain dead game of the world.

Yes, it takes a special talent to succeed at LLO8. Yes, it takes a certain personality and a ton of adjustment from typical poker. But these talents and adjustments are more like tuning DOWN your game, not ramping it up. Like listening to classical music on it's lowest volume setting, instead of the death metal volume you are used to at rock concerts. For those of us who can humble ourselves and hang out in homes for the mentally impaired, it is a gold mine. For those who want to be gorillas at the zoo, beating our chests and showing everyone how aggressively manly we are, it can spell disaster.

LO8 is the one game where passive play can consistently win. It is like no other in poker. If you can simply slow down. If you can convince yourself that you must be the turtle, rather than the hare. If you can sit and wait patiently. If you can see that overcalling with the nuts will net you 3 more big bets versus the 1.5 big bets you will net if you keep raising. If you can realize that bad beats, in the way that we typically think of them, don't exist in LO8. If you can change your mindset about poker and aggression, you can succeed greatly in this field.

It will not be that exciting. It will not cause a huge rush of adrenaline. It will not have huge swings. If you are playing correctly you won't feel like you are the master. You won't get to boast and beat your chest. You will simply make money. Slowly, surely, painlessly. It is like working on an assembly line versus speculating on the trash stock market.

Which is why I chose those three events at Orleans this year, versus my favorite games, Stud games. Because I could play in a coma. I could play with very little energy. I could play in a mild, passive, predictable way if I needed to. I could wait it out, with tons of chips and a great structure (pretty tough to do at Rio this year, given the structure and lack of chips). I could wake up and come alive when I needed to, but save my energy and strength during those times when I needed to recoop.

I still don't have what it takes to win these events. I did not build up enough chips to be a true force during the hours I played. I didn't build up enough chips to weather more than about five beats or premium hands that simply never got there. I did not take advantage of orphan pots enough (although they are more rare in LO8 than other games). I did not always know where I was in a hand. I misread my hand a couple of times in the final event (luckily during the very first level, after that I was fine). I did not do the things that full-time tournament players do every, single day, and succeed at greatly. For that, I was granted the bubble prize in two out of the three O8 events I played.

But I learned. I learned a lot. And I triumphed in the fact that I was able to play those hours, saving myself for hands which I needed all of my energy and focus. It was a huge boost to my self confidence in tournaments. I needed it greatly, as I have been out of that arena for the past year.

And it also helped me to write this post today. This post telling you theories and psychologies of different games, and how to adjust, to adapt to the ever changing poker scene. It also helped me with some ideas I've been thinking about sharing with you regarding strategies and "blueprints" which might enable you to switch up your game easier, adjust to different games and limits, as well as individual tables.

So for that, the money and time was worth it.

I learned a lot, and I hope to come back better and stronger than ever! After all, Ted and Asher both said I could hang in Stud type games up to maybe 300/600 or 400/800. I wouldn't want to disappoint them, now, would I??? ;)

Take care, and I hope this has given everyone something to chew on.

Felicia :)

WSOP Elaboration

2006-07-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, since I've had so many IM's and other requests to elaborate, I'll try my best.

I'm not going to do your homework for you, but I'll say what I think, and you can do the research yourselves.

I predicted in 2004 that although players would benefit from the poker tournament boom by winning more than statistically correct amounts from prize pools, the real money would be made by the casinos, TV stations and advertisers.

I was very doubtful that players would stick together and demand their part of the pie. I tried to help with a player's union for a time, but that didn't work out. The problem with these sort of organizations is that everyone has some kind of angle they are trying to shoot. It's poker, it's so ingrained in us to be competitive and not play as a "team," that we start naturally looking for ways to even exploit our fellow players, whose best interests we are supposed to be protecting.

As an example, all of the money that was given to Louis Asmo for the WPPA was supposed to be given back to the players. To my knowledge, that money was never given back to anyone besides Asmo, lol. People have complained about his scams with the Ohio charity games, as well.

The players who really wanted to make this happen were also hand tied. I remember talking to David Levi during the festival, and he said he couldn't play. When I asked why, and why he wouldn't support it, he said it was doomed to failure (even if Asmo hadn't been involved), because most name players are backed (sponsorship wasn't something as widespread in those days). And backed players go where the boss tells them to go. They don't go to events with a prize pool of 100k for 2% juice when the boss wants them to go to an event with a prize pool of $1 million and 8% juice. The boss calls the shots, he tells players where to be, and couldn't care less about the juice when the ROI is so much higher in the bigger event.

So players "unions" are doomed in many ways. The players who absolutely refuse to be taken advantage of, and play in raped events simply cease to exist. They play cash games only, or they play in a festival here and there which is known for treating it's players fairly.

If a player gets sponsorship, it's even worse. Now he is REALLY hand tied. His backer says "Play in the series, I don't care how much juice they are taking and how badly they are treating you, I want some kind of payback here!" The sponsor says, "I'm not paying you to play in Joe-Bob's Grand Poker Tournament for 2% juice and ad revenue which might be returned to the player. No one can see my tee-shirt at Joe-Bob's, everyone sees it at Rio!"

So what choice do these players have? Not much. Sure, there are the elite of the elite. The Greensteins, Forrests and Negreanu's who can put their feet down and still survive, but most players have to go where the backers and/or sponsors tell them to go.

Thus Rio wins. Rio wins no matter what. They win by default, no matter how badly they treat the players or media. No matter how much juice they charge, how much they lie, how much they scam. Until the boom dies, Rio will just be sitting around counting up the cash. And when it dies? No problem, they still win. Harrah's has always hated poker, and poker players. So when they feel the poker craze is peaking? They sell the WSOP name rights. And as soon as the boom starts to die? They close up all of their poker rooms worldwide, just like they did before. No sweat, they know they will make way more money with slots anyway.

It's a no-lose situation for Harrah's, it's a no-win situation for tournament players.

WSOP Happenings

2006-07-17T07:33:00.000-07:00

Wow, I never thought so much could happen in the poker world within 24 hours. Just yesterday morning I was writing about some of my friends who either cashed, or were still in the race at both the series and Orleans.

Here is an update on them, and some other happenings:

Jerrod Ankenman is the second chip lead going into the final table today!

Both Peter Costa and Thor Hansen made the cut in the O8 event (remember I stated that Thor was barely hanging on, but that he could turn it around? Turn it around he did!).

Harry Demitriou is the big story. Rio screwed up the shoot-out event so badly, that Harry took it upon himself to protest for everyone. While his manner may have not represented the very best in poker players, the result was a lot of media attention (besides CP, who were forced to take down the story almost as soon as they put it up; blackmail anyone?). He was originally treated very harshly, but then later given a full refund (which he accepted although he is a very good shorthanded player and had more than his original starting chips). It also proved to highlight some of the absolute FUBAR's going on at Rio. Whole events being changed completely AFTER players buy-in. Players being given no notice whatsoever that Rio is going to simply do whatever they want, and screw the huge juice that the players have to pony up.

Something this big is going to change tournament poker, imo. I could very well be wrong, but I do believe at this time, the horror we are seeing at Rio is going to unite the players, finally.

Rio is profiting on every aspect of the series, yet charging the players more than ever for the "privilege" of playing there! Then they further anally rape the players by changing everything with no notice, or at a moment's notice.

Something has got to give. I hope for once the players unite and stand together. The guy in the middle is suffering hugely. The guy who is not getting tons of sponsorship. The guy who doesn't have an armful of bracelets or TV recognition. The hugely successful guys who are just barely scratching by due to the lack of lots of wins recently.

These types of things are what helped drive me out of tournament poker. I had lots of reasons to get out of it, and get back into cash games, but surely what is happening at Rio was one of them. I feel so badly for the middle guys that I just want to scream.

I compare it to reality TV. How many people would make this kind of deal?

Say you are interested in being on Survivor. So you go and audition. You pass the audition with flying colors and the TV station says they are definitely interested in putting you on the show. But then they tell you this:

1) You must agree to be filmed 24/7
2) You must agree to a set of rules which may compromise your integrity
3) You cannot and will not give any interviews, magazine article or TV appearances on any other networks without the written permission of the network which airs Survivor. If you break that promise during your lifetime, you agree that the network can sue you and recover any funds you may have won
4) Your friends, family and home will be completely open at all times for interviews and camera crews, regardless of their interest in being on TV. If you are stalked, your home is vandalized or you, your friends or your family are harmed in any way due to your entire life being made public in that manner, you have no legal recourse with the network whatsoever, and can not reclaim any damages from them.
5) If you are hurt or injured at any time during the show, you cannot ask for any recompense.
6) For the "privilege" of appearing on Survivor, and the chance of winning $1 million dollars, you must put up your part of the prize pool, which is $100,000.
7) In addition, you must pay the TV network an "entry fee" of $10,000 for the "privilege" of being on television, and the work that the crew must perform to make sure you are on TV. The entry fee is non-refundable, even if you don't get airtime.

So, if you were forced into this deal, how many seasons of Survivor do you think would have been televised? How many participants do you think they would have gotten? Would people be lining up by the thousands to be able to participate?

Yet this is what cardrooms are doing to players every, single day. For playing in a tournament, the players basically sign their lives away, agreeing to let the house, the TV station and all advertisers profit greatly, while they basically pay for everything. Pay to participate, pay to appear on TV, pay for the "chance" to win part of the prize pool.

I'm not saying that poker players are such a rare commodity that they deserve tens of thousands of dollars just for their appearance. But what I am asking is simply this:

Why does everyone else get to profit from the TV poker boom except the players? The players are still 'paying' to play! Paying huge fees, and getting tons of arguments, changes, cancellations, marked cards and horribly run events! It makes absolutely no sense, except that cardrooms get away with it.

And that is really the bottom line. They get away with it, so why change?

Until players can band together and put a stop to this, it won't end. And even if they do? Will that cut off the poker boom? Will everyone eventually suffer, instead of just the middle guy?

I have no idea what the future holds, and what will happen to tournament poker. The only thing I do know is that I feel bad for the guys in the middle, the Harry Demitriou's of the world, who finally have had enough anal rape for one day, stand up, and protest.

They are my friends, somewhat my peers. And many of them are suffering greatly.

Felicia

Shout-Outs to Friends!

2006-07-16T08:14:00.000-07:00

I had another great trip to Vegas. I'll try to post about it today (just slept over 12 hours straight, I was that exhausted).

For those of you looking for me on the O8 leaderboard, you obviously didn't see my name. Two guys I like a lot, though, Chris Gregorian and Earl Kim both made the final table. Yippee :)

In other news, some of my friends are still in the running of event #23 at Rio, the 3k LHE event:

Jerrod Ankenman is the chip lead (we have played together a few times and he was a very nice guy).

I don't know Mel Weiner, but I always think of a funny story during the series that happened a few years ago in the HU event. Mel was slated to play against Hellmuth, and they were calling their names to announce the HU match about to begin. The TD called out, "Weiner vs. Whiner" is about to start.

Barry has some chips. I saw Barry on the 2nd HORSE day and some woman was asking him to autograph a shirt (?!?). I told him not to put his signature on anything, it might make it easier for the FBI to find him. Barry asked me how poker is going. Ouch. Then he asked if I was still writing. I have a feeling I'm going to hear that a lot from now on :(

Matros is still in. I also saw him at Rio for the first time on Thursday. Great guy.

Harry Demitriou scores another final table in the SH event. I love Harry, and we agree on almost everything when it comes to poker. Some people say he's negative. Well, surprise surprise, they say the same about me! I totally get where he is coming from, and if wanting the best from the poker world is "being negative," well then, so be it. Harry is a top SH player and this makes just one of many scores for him in that arena.

Peter Costa, another Brit, is still in the running in the 3k O8 event at Rio. Thor Hansen and James Van Alstyne are hanging on, but both players are capable of turning short stacks around for a big win. Go, go, go!

Look for some trip reports from me coming up in the next few days. Glenn and I are exhuasted, so we decided to scrap the final NLHE event at Orleans and just come home to rest for a few days before Glenn begins the main event (still don't have his first day starting assignment).

Hope everyone is having a great, summer weekend!

Felicia :)

Joke Post, Proceed with Caution!

2006-07-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

Well, if everything goes as planned, we'll be heading back to Orleans this evening so that I can enter the final O8 event scheduled for tomorrow. 3000 in chips, hour levels. A rock's paradise :)

During the last couple of days I've realized a lot of things. One is that I'm never going to leave some people with a good impression. I'm so backwards in so many ways, and most people simply don't get it (not their fault).

I have the most warped, morbid sense of humor. I got it from my Dad. I remember as an April Fools joke he told us that a puppy had gotten into our fence and drowned in our pool overnight. I mean, how can you pull such a prank on two little kids??? Both my brother and myself were under ten!

But the thing is, in his mind he was pulling the ultimate AF joke. He never, ever meant to be hurtful or cruel. I swore I'd never be like that, and look here, I turned out just like the dude.

Most things I say are meant to be funny or to get people to loosen up. I'll give you an example of what happened over the weekend with the bloggers. I saw this pacific Asian dude at the blogger bar at Excal. He introduced himself or vice versa, but at any rate I got the impression that he had a really, REALLY good sense of humor and could take just about anything I could dish out, and then give it back to me in spades. So I just rolled with it. First I told him his blog sucks (it does, but he is gonna work on that one, because his humor is just too good to waste), then I told him that Al had told me he was a black dude from Chicago. Oh, man, did he roll with that one. All night long, poor black dude from Chicago. He played it to the hilt. Poor Al got ripped all night long with that shtick. From now on, that will probably be his M.O. The guy is a riot, and he completely knew where I was coming from on every level.

Rini is another guy who just gets my completely screwed up sense of humor. The cancer parody thing with Ted Forrest and me was so great that it cheered me up for months. Now over a year, I suppose. The more someone digs at me and rips on me, the more I like him. One time I messaged Rini on Yahoo. He didn't answer. I messaged again, nada. I have no patience, I just assume everyone is like me and has no job, and should immediately stop whatever they are doing to pay attention to me, because I'm obviously the center of their universe ;) Finally Bill chats something like "F-- off!"

I was almost literally ROFL. Now that is the kind of guy I could marry! He has bigger boobs than me, too. Then again, he had bigger boobs than me even when I did have boobs!

See? I'm warped.

So today should give you a laugh, because I'm going to just do some lighthearted things that make me unique and special. Yes, I am a butterfly. I am the beautiful snowflake that you love to adore and cherish. You wish you could keep me forever, in a freezer. Dead. lol ;)

Things I Love

A compliment is when someone says:

1) You cold-hearted witch! You have no feelings whatsoever, do you?
2) You could be a dyke, easy! Are you a guy or girl?
3) I'm too scared to play you heads-up (at my table, I conceed the tournament) All three of these things have happened to me, too, no joke. It's quite a rush. Great feeling!
4) Gawd you're ugly. I'd hate to see what you looked like before cancer!
5) You'd make a great stripper. People would pay you to get OFF the stage!
6) You might be a hooker, but you're the ugliest hooker I've ever seen!
7) You must be a sociopath. I've never seen someone with such a lack of empathy!
8) You're cheaper than any Jew I've ever met!
9) Glenn must be a saint to put up with you!
10) Thank God you couldn't procreate! Were you this ugly even before cancer? Inbreeding hasn't treated you well, has it?
11) Thank God you can play poker, because you sure can't do anything else right!
12) I never know whether you're joking or serious! (thanks Factgirl)
13) I have to get away from you!
14) You're so skinny, if you turn sideways you just disappear
15) If you keep your face that way, it might freeze
16) Are you constipated?
17) God you stink. Did you just take a dump?
18) You're the one who doesn't believe in cell phones, right?
19) You are the most intense person I've ever met
20) I'll bet you could beat up quite a few men

Things I Hate

I consider these put-downs:

1) You are so "nice"
2) You're really quite pretty
3) Do you have a cell phone?
4) You look like you are having so much fun at the table
5) I love your blog
6) You look much younger than 37
7) Glenn really married well
8) Must be fun being friends with all of the poker "stars"
9) Why don't you enter "ladies" tournaments?
10) Hold'em is a much better game than Stud
11) Hold on, I need to answer my cell phone
12) You NEVER say anything positive
13) You have no sense of humor
14) You smell good
15) You have a great sense of fashion
16) Your feet aren't big at all!
17) Is your favorite game Hold'em?
18) You are shallow (ditzy, feminine, a flake, etc)
19) You spent a lot on that car (computer, house, outfit, hairstyle), didn't you?
20) I would love to have sex with you

Apology to Hoyazo

2006-07-12T15:27:00.000-07:00

Another person I find myself owing an apology to is Hoyazo. God, I can't help but say Hoyzano. I say Hoyzano in my head and I say it out loud. I can't seem to say Hoyazo at all, it doesn't sound right. I even just misspelled it twice while trying to type it.

Why can't I seem to either say it or spell it (I'm not going to try again)? Because I'm a moron. There are certain words I can't say anymore. I don't know if it was chemo or a lobotomy that I felt I got, but I simply can't. A drug that some cancer patients can use (I can't, grrr), is called Herceptin. I can't say it, I can't spell it. I have no idea why other than chemo is poison. Now poison I can say with ease. Go figure!

Anyway, getting back to my post. I never meant to trash this guy, ever. I don't even know him! I did make fun of him in an old post, when I said that I couldn't figure out why he was putting down Glenn. It wasn't me who actually teased him, it was Glenn, but since I wrote it in my blog (although I clearly said Glenn is the one who had said it), I'll take responsibility.

I think I said something like, "Then Glenn said to me, 'Why would you care about what anyone with Hammer in his nickname has to say about me?'" And Glenn did say that, or something very close to that.

And yes, the Hammer thing was a joke. It was supposed to be a good hearted joke, but a joke nevertheless. Because several years ago Grubby went to task to rename the "beer hand" or 72o to "The Hammer," and succeeded greatly. And Glenn and I think it's funny. So I thought it was nutty as a fruitcake that anyone would use that as a nickname (I believe there is another player who has a similar nickname). I surely didn't mean any harm, but once again, I obviously hurt his feelings.

I did play at the same table as H, and I had a fabulous time. I thought he behaved like a mature, adult human being, and had no problem with him whatsoever. I was curious at the time why I keep hearing all of these rumors that he is bashing me on his blog, but since I didn't read all of them directly, I didn't approach it. Plus we were all there to have a good time, and we were having a good time. The part about me wondering why he was going after me was actually a compliment. I was sort of like, "Jeez, he seems like an okay guy, so why am I hearing all of this stuff about him?"

Unfortunately, most of my "compliments" sound anything but, to many readers. I have a way of talking that doesn't convey the humor or good will of the situation on paper. I have an odd way of talking and try not to use many traditional cliches, but make up my own ;)

Okay, so as far as the Omaha thing goes, I barely told anyone. I never expected a horde of bloggers to show up, just two (and spouses if they wanted to come). They were the only ones I cared about. The ones who nursed me through cancer and treatment. The ones I taught, the ones I bought in (and offered to buy into this event, as well). So no, I wasn't waiting for hundreds of people to sweat me. Just those two. And perhaps they had a great reason for not showing up (I already know that one did), which was the reason for my extensive apology today. I am a moron, what can I say?

I can't remember what H said about Glenn's play, but I was told many times he called Glenn a "bad player" and I read something on his site along those lines that Glenn played badly in the freeroll. I could be completely misquoting him here, and so I am going to go back after first writing this, and make sure. It is hard for his site to load on my laptop, which is why I don't frequent it. He posts a lot of screen shots, and I have a laptop from 1982 (ask Al, lol), so it tends to freeze up. That is the reason I don't have his site linked, nor visit it. It is nothing personal, other than I'm a cheap bastid who won't pay a grand for a laptop. I got this one on e-bay for like $200 and it's 15 lbs, lol. (Btw, people might think I'm joking about that part, since I make other jokes that aren't apparent in my journal, but the part about it being a very old laptop, and it weighing a ton are true.)

Okay, I found the quote. He said, "But I actually tend to believe Felicia, because I know she is a solid poker player, and in the WBCOOP she most definitely did not play well." The part about tending to believe me, was when I said that Glenn had played on Stars. So he didn't say Glenn was a "bad player" necessarily, in general, but he said Glenn played badly in this one event. I don't know if he did, I was only there for part of it.

The reason that the FeliciaLee nickname played on the Stars freeroll and not a nickname for Glenn, was that once again, when we signed up for Stars, it had a "one account per household" policy. So only one of us could play the Stars freeroll. I think they have changed this policy now, but since I never really caught on to playing online much, Glenn just took it over. Kind of like the same FUBAR with Party.

Now, as far as my post on bad beats, he seems to think I just said, "Bad beats don't exist." Period. End of story, in no context whatsoever. What I really said was this, ""bad beats" usually are anything but...they usually are indicative of bad play." I also said many times both in that post and later posts that the person who goes around whining about bad beats usually misplayed somewhere. Before the hand, during, after. If they are a whiner, they aren't always playing wisely. They are making mistakes. Why? Because the top players don't usually lament "bad beats." They call it variance. They call it the price of playing and winning. The price of poker. It keeps poker good, it keeps it alive and thriving. So they just shrug it off. Talking about it, whining, lamenting, steaming about it does nothing more than make a player start playing badly.

In no way does this mean that a player cannot get in with the best hand at the time, and get beat by some miracle card. Some runner-runner nonsense. Some one-outer. It happens all the time. Every day, every hour, every minute. With the advent of online poker, I would expect one of these phenomenal favorites that got beat would occur every minute or even more often.

The CONTEXT of the statement was that players shouldn't dwell on them, it will only bring down their play. Let it go.

So yes, he took my position out of context. And so far, that is the only thing I can find him guilty of. Other than slander is verbal, libel is written ;) Oh, and that I don't go to his site because I'm a dinosaur with a dinosaur computer.

Okay, so to wrap it up, I apologize. I truly liked you at the table, except Glenn said it took you too long to act on your hands because you were so busy socializing. We can't all be social butterflies, lol (and yes, this is a joke, I am teasing you, do not take it out of context). Oh, and that was a joke too! I'm teasing you about taking me out of context.

I truly am sorry if I hurt you, and I think I did, because I'm getting a billion hits from your site today and you wrote quite a bit about it. I hate that I hurt you like that, because I hate being hurt myself.

I am totally FOS, which should be apparent by now, yet people think I'm being serious when I'm joking, or think I'm joking when I'm serious. I have a very, very warped sense of humor. Like I would be offended if someone called me "nice," but I love it when someone calls me a cold-hearted, ruthless bitch."

My Mom's nickname for me is "The Bitch" and she means it. Especially since I cut off her drug money (and that part is true, I did, until she agrees to go to detox).

I am candid and rude at times, but most of what I say or do is completely harmless. I can, however, tell that I've hurt you, and I truly never meant to do that.

I will, however, probably not be able to stop calling you Hoyzano in person, and I don't think I have ever been able to call you Hoyazo (only one typo that time). You can ask anyone about that one. I have thought from that first that you were Hoyzano, although I don't think that is your real name (no, I have no idea what your real name is, either, if it's not Hoyzano).

Nothing I do is meant to hurt. Nothing is meant to sting or leave permanent scars (although biting can be fun if I'm having sex with the right person, lol ;)

So for any pain I've caused you, I'm sorry, truly.

Felicia :)

Update on Some Friends

2006-07-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

Here is an update on some of my friends:

John Cernuto took 5th place in the $1500 Stud event and 15th place in the $1000 NLHE event

Katja Thater took 29th place in the $1500 Stud event and 53rd place in the $2000 PLHE event

Jean Gaspard took 131st place in the $1000 NLHE event

Dr. Max Stern took 4th place in the $300 O8 event at Orleans (a deal was made, so this is even better than it looks; I was there sweating him for the whole final table)

Dr. Maria Stern took 1st place in the Seniors Charity event at Orleans (yes, Maria qualified as a "senior" even though I told them it was impossible, given her looks, and that they should have asked for ID first)

Artie Cobb took 7th in the $300 O8 event at Orleans

Mike O'Malley took 19th place in the 5k O8 event

And my personal hero, Glenn Bagrowski took 26th place in the $225 rebuy NLHE event at Orleans

Congrats to all of you!

I am leaving out some of the bigger names who are my friends (Ted, Barry, Joe Sebok, David Levi, etc). They get plenty of publicity, they don't need my kudos ;)

Love you all!

Felicia :)

The Apology You Have Read Numerous Times

2006-07-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

I am clearly a moron. I have said this many times, although readers probably just think I'm being facetious.

In all of my posts, I try to inject a bit of humor, even if the posts are generally serious or ranting. Like Matasow. Not sure how many of you got that one, but I won't give it away, you'll have to figure it out yourselves ;)

I'm truly just some gump sitting around writing a journal that no one cares about. It's a journal, for cripes sake, and I said if I was going to do it, I was going to do it as it was intended. A private look into my innermost thoughts and feelings. A very candid, blunt look at the private diary of someone. Just because it's published, doesn't mean that I'm going to hold anything back, or somehow make it a watered down look at Felicia. This is exactly what I think, feel and say both to myself and out loud to Glenn.

Which is probably why I attract so much heat. Not only am I one of the least PC and nice people you will ever meet, but I am also very transparent. If I think it, if I feel it, it will be written here. And that can have an impact and consequences that most people don't think about.

For one, I hurt people. I hurt them deeply. I never think that I'm hurting anyone, but I do. I hurt them unintentionally. I say things that they assume are about them, when most of the time they are about me, or just about all of us in general.

I get e-mails from people thinking I am talking about them. It hurts them to read my journal when they get the impression that I am cutting them down. I'm not, but they still feel that way.

I can't seem to help it. If I think it in my head, I type it out. Or if I'm with someone in person, I just say it. That's all there is to it. I don't mean to be directly hurtful to any one person.

Which is why yesterday I stayed very general in my description of the people who hurt me. Just in case it was a misunderstanding. Just in case there was more going on than I originally thought. Because I truly don't want to hurt anyone.

But I do, as I keep saying. I do hurt people, every day. And I'm sorry for that. I don't want anyone to have hurt feelings or be sad because of my horrible, incessant, diarrhea style rambling.

The person I hold most accountable is myself. If anyone is ever hurt by my writing, I am hurting even more.

If I have ever hurt your feelings, any of you out there. If I have ever made you feel stupid or unliked, I sincerely apologize.

I am a moron, and can be the most idiotic person alive, especially when I jump to conclusions.

I'm sorry.

Felicia

Clarification

2006-07-12T07:57:00.000-07:00

I had a feeling that things weren't as they seemed in Vegas, and I was correct. Some things going on just seemed off kilter, wrong.

Although I am obviously the center of the universe and everything is about ME (haha), nothing in the previous post was any kind of attempt by others to "get me" or to "hurt me." No one was out for me, no matter how horrible the post sounded.

Perhaps I could have explained it better, perhaps not. For whatever reason, my writing has always come off as angry and very self centered. Part of it is that I am extremely self absorbed. Part of it is because somehow that is just the way I write. I don't know why.

I truly never had the impression that anyone at the blogger gathering was trying to hurt me, or "out to get me," so to speak. It was always more the feeling of pure abandonment, so that they can have their fun. Some of these people haven't been to Vegas for 10 years. Coming for this type of get together can be extremely overwhelming, and people just stop thinking of their friends and other things going on altogether. I have never once tried to blame the bloggers for this type of behavior. It happens to all of us, yes, even me included.

I often go to Vegas with the names, e-mail addresses or phone numbers of friends I'm supposed to meet there while we are in town. Dr. Al, the WPDG, a blogger, a 2+2er, etc. I forget quite often, and it is not due to any conscious thought on my part. I truly never mean to neglect a contact, or forget about them, but I often do. Vegas can be overwhelming. We get into a juicy poker game, a sat, a good tourney, and suddenly thoughts of our friends, who may be waiting around for us to contact them, leave all conscious memory! I end up apologizing profusely for leaving them hanging.

As a recent example, look at my debacle with Max, and him winning a WSOP bracelet (the first of many, I predict). What a FUBAR! What a horrible friend! I could have called him (I have his local, cell phone number, and the staff at Orleans is great about letting guests use the phones in the tourney area for free). I could have asked around about who was in the money each day, just to make sure. I could have brought our laptop and looked up the stats on CP. I could have done many number of things. Coulda, woulda, shoulda...

We all do this. And it is horrible, I have no excuse. No matter how many times Max writes and says, "It's okay, Felicia," it is not okay. He has always been there for me, and I wasn't there for him at all. Three days I ignored the series, I ignored what was going on at Rio. Mostly from being tired and self-absorbed at Orleans. I have no excuse, it was my fault.

Well, the same goes for what happened with the bloggers. And the friendship post? Well, it is very true that I am horrible at selecting friends. And if that last phone call hadn't occured, well, I surely wouldn't have written that post at all. The phone call is what killed me. It is what pretty much sealed the deal (in my own head) that the "neglect" was truly conscious and done purposely.

What I didn't know, however, was that many other things were going on at the same time. Things I wasn't privy to. Things that weren't even really my business.

I truly wish that someone had just said, "Hey, listen Felicia. We know this is important to you, but not everything is shiny, happy, Kumbaya, as you well know and preach. Sometimes other people are hurting, too."

Had I known that one fact, well, obviously the post yesterday on friendship would certainly have never been made.

While I do feel completely different and separated from recreational players, the fact remains that no one intentionally hurt me, and I don't think I made that clear in my last post.

For that, I'm truly sorry.

For my true friends, I love you and am wishing you the best.

Felicia

Max Pescatori, WSOP Bracelet #1

2006-07-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

Max got his gold, at last. It has been long in coming. I knew back in 2004 that he was going to the top.

Looking at his final table hand histories, I just can't even believe the deficit he overcame in order to win this thing! Yes, sure, we all have to get lucky at the right times, but boy-oh-boy, did he rock the house when it got down to four handed.

I am the worst friend ever, and for the first time am so embarrassed about not bringing our laptop to Vegas and/or having a cell phone. Max had no way of reaching me in order to tell me that he first made the money, then made the final table, then won the thing. I didn't find out until this morning when we returned from Vegas and I opened the e-mail from him. I am really ashamed. Max has always been there for me 100% of the time, and this time I wasn't there for him. I was wrapped up in my own tourneys at Orleans and didn't even bother to find out what was going on at Rio.

At any rate, you have a new WSOP champion and world class human being!

Max Pescatori

Felicia :)

Friendship

2006-07-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

One thing I've never been able to pride myself on is my choice in friends. I am horrible at deciding who I want as a friend, and knowing who is a true friend and who is a fraud. I have gotten stabbed in the back so many times that I'm ashamed to even talk about it.

Sometimes it's money. I've been very candid about AOL and our situation. I'm usually such a tightwad that I don't fall for scams by my so-called friends and family, but I've gotten burned a few times. Like that famous line, it was the best money I ever spent, in one respect, because I found out that I didn't actually have a friend at all.

Um, to those of you who have borrowed money from me and are reading this site, go to hell. I don't ever want you to contact me again, and don't pay me back. It was worth every penny to have you out of my life.

Jeez, I hope some of them read my journal. That felt good.

Ranting always feels good to me. I'm someone who just has to get it out, so I throw a big fit, and then it's over, and I don't have a frigging coronary or something. I'm back to shiny, happy, Kumbaya Felicia (harhar).

As far as non-money scams I've fallen for, well, there have been many, many more of those. In fact, I tend not to want to make friends these days, preferring the hermit lifestyle and the maxim of "I'd have more friends if I had no standards."

To me, a friend is loyal and giving. A friend is there during the very worst of times, along with the best. A friend gives as much as he takes. He is honest and forthcoming.

I know that it is very, very hard to be a friend of mine. I'm not deluding myself here. I have super high standards for my own lifestyle and behavior, so I have a set of similar expectations when making friends. I can't stand a flake, a small talker, a gossip, etc. I take every friendship seriously, and behave in a manner to show I care about my friends at all times. For instance, I would never hesitate to call or write (mostly write since I hate the phone) a friend who had just told me about something horrible going on in his or her life. I would keep up on that situation, frequently asking how the friend is doing, how things are getting better or whatever. I would never just leave a friend hanging out to dry.

When I got cancer, I was really surprised about who came forward, and who slunk away. It amazed me that some people I considered friends just backed off and pretty much stopped talking to me, like I had leprosy and it was spreading. Those people I've pretty much never spoken to again. Not real friends, obviously.

I understand people who have trouble approaching someone with cancer, aids, handicaps, etc. If they are up front about it and admit that they feel awkward, that is great, in my book. I can completely respect that, and hope that I will make them more comfortable as time goes by. It takes big balls to admit that one is uncomfortable.

Other people whom I'd barely talked to came forward like champs. They sent cards, messages, gifts. I was flabbergasted. I didn't even really know these people!

I guess I knew from the beginning that I wasn't a true "poker blogger" in the sense of the word that meant a casual, recreational poker player who had a full-time job outside of the poker industry. I started the blog because of 2+2. I used to post trip reports and tourney reports there, and soon people started asking me for copies of the stories (after they were archived). Eventually I was sending so many of them to so many people, that I decided enough was enough and started a Yahoo group.

This was obviously before the so-called "blogs" became so popular. I was comfortable on Yahoo and belonged to many other groups there.

Eventually Scott and Iggy whined so hard about the software of Yahoo that Scott offered to buy a domain name for me and pay for Typepad for two years. I felt so bad about it that I agreed. Probably one of my biggest poker mistakes ever (not your fault, Scott).

Right from the beginning I knew something was different between me, and the recreational bloggers. I would go to their sites, I would comment when they had a question or concern. I rarely got any thanks or feedback. I realized pretty quickly that they just wanted to whine and pout, not to learn. I aligned myself with the more serious minded players. Brits were my ideal, full-time and/or pro players were also much closer to my mindset and lifestyle.

Things came to a head in December of 2004. Joaquin was a Stud player, and asked if I would give a seminar on Stud games after the blogger tournament. He offered to pay me for my time. I said I would be delighted to talk about Stud, and that I would never accept money for my help.

After I won the blogger event (Max and I actually chopped it evenly but played for the "title"), I swear to god I have never seen such a rush of bloggers eager to get out of Sam's Town and avoid listening to me talk about Stud. Not only did Joaquin not show up at all, but not ONE blogger stuck around for the seminar.

I came home and said I was through with them. I should have stuck to my guns. Unfortunately, not long after that is when I found out I had cancer, and so many kindhearted bloggers came forward that I felt like I had to stick it out with them. I should have just said a sincere thank you and gone my own way. I was a fool, deceived by kindness and nice words.

I truly thought I had some friends in the blogger community. Just a few of them, sure, but I thought they were true-blue, not fair weather friends. Naturally I made another horrendous mistake that hurt me terribly this past Saturday and Sunday.

In fact, I was hurt so badly that I felt worse, and closer to crying, than I did when I had cancer. It was that terrible, that much of a betrayal.

Some of the bloggers whom I was still close to, I have communicated with extensively. On Yahoo, in chat, on the phone and in person. I was so unbelievably stupid to think that they really wanted my friendship and my help with poker. I taught them games other than Hold'em. I gave them lessons in O8, Stud, Razz, mixed games, Stud 8, PLO, etc. I spent a ton of time with them, and put several of them into satellites with my own money, trying to boost their confidence and show them how much I believed in them.

I was really deceived.

On Saturday I played in the O8 event. Things went really well. My readers probably know this already. I played for 14 hours and considered it an amazing stride that I was able to endure that long, given that I never thought my health would allow me to do that again.

I busted out about 36th, or eight from the money. I wasn't really even disappointed, feeling I'd acheived something that I couldn't have done last year.

I was so happy to see some of my tourney friends again. Some of them I'd not seen in a year, others I'd just seen a few days before. But what made me so happy, what impressed me so greatly, is how they kept coming over to my table, rubbing my shoulders, rooting for me. They were THERE for me.

But who wasn't there for me? The few bloggers whom I felt were my true-blue friends, though times of trouble, times of good, times of joy and pain. The ones I'd taught poker to. The ones I'd put into satellites and tournaments. The ones I'd talked to for years, given advice to, constructive criticism to. The ones I'd listened to when things went bad. The ones I'd cheered on when things were good. The ones I'd sweated through tourney after tourney, both online and live. Not ONE of them showed up during the entire 14 hours. Not one of them even called or wrote me an e-mail. Not even the ones I'd said I buy in. Yes, I had offered to buy in players whom I believed in, whom I wanted to succeed. Not only did they not show up during the entire 14 hours, they didn't call, didn't write, nada.

I had gone back to the room, hoping, praying that I had some messages from people, someone saying, "Sorry we didn't make it out there today, but thanks for the offer of a buy-in. We were so busy with the blogger event, and then something came up later, but I'm happy to see you aren't answering the phone, that must mean you're still in." Nope, nada. Not a message from anyone. Zip, zero.

Waking up on Sunday I was sad, of course, but things got even worse. When I tried to reach out, hoping to hear some story about a horrible car accident or someone in the hospital (praying that I truly was not betrayed, that they simply had an emergency come up), I was met with total apathy.

"So, where were you yesterday? I played until 2am, I was only 8 from the money."

"We were with our friends."

"Oh. I thought you were coming by?"

"We had things to do. Today we're going to watch our friends at Rio."

Worst phone conversation I've ever heard. Worst betrayal I can remember in five years. My so-called friends turned out to be my worst enemies and I never even knew it. I was completely blindsided.

I was so upset and hurt that I couldn't play. Glenn played the NLHE event at Orleans, the $540 buy-in event. There were over 300 people there, and Glenn finished at about 1am, just 15 from the money. Oy. He didn't take it as well as I had the day before, but after a few reassuring words, he bucked up and realized he played well once again. How often is it that one can win a multi-tiered freeroll on Party to get a main event seat, then right afterwards cash in a big field of a NLHE tourney without even having to do a rebuy, then the very next event, get 15 from the money??? That is a great accomplishment in my book.

And although none of the so-called friends who sold us out were there to see it and share it with us, tons of our tournament circuit friends were there, cheering us on the whole way.

Now I know who my real friends are. I hope never again to be deceived in this manner. This hurt me more than almost anything I've had to endure in my lifetime, but it's over. I ranted and raved to Glenn for 15 minutes or so, then it was over with (15 is a loooong rant for me, I usually can get over anything in about 5, lol).

I will never speak to the Judas's again. Don't contact me. Don't comment, don't write, don't call. Your efforts to contact me will not be met positively.

You do not exist anymore. I should never have trusted you to begin with. You are out of my world.

Felicia

Orleans and MGM

2006-07-11T07:55:00.000-07:00

Glenn and I came back home for about 48 hours to rest from the first Orleans trip. I don't sleep well in casinos, and that trip was no exception. I was so tired after sweating Glenn until 2:30am on July 3rd, then playing O8 from noon til about six.

On Friday, July 7th, we went up again. We arrived at Orleans about noon. Glenn tried a couple of sats, but this time wasn't so lucky. He made a nice score at the cash games, however, and kept us positive as far as bankroll goes.

We went over to Rio, saw a few people, got some swag. The newbies at FTP tried to get me to take a virtual picture with the players, and I just laughed. I already know these guys, why would it impress me to have a fake pic with them??? Heck, I don't even like some of them, and would have to black out Matasow, lol ;)

The poker craze cracks me up sometimes. The way some seemingly normal people behave around tournament players is so screwed up. I told Glenn that I should post some bogus stuff on my site, with a ton of links for sound bites that have the Reznor song "Star F-er's" in it. I'd love to have little bites of Reznor singing stuff like "...when I suck you off not a drop will go to waste..." and the whispered line, "ass kisser."

I always loved that song, way before the poker boom. It's amazing how regular people go insane when they meet someone who has been on TV or in a movie. I don't get the attraction, but whatever. It doesn't seem based on talent, looks or personality. Just something about seeing the person on a screen, larger than life, I suppose.

Okay, so we saw a few of our friends at Rio. Once again it was a circus and I wasn't very comfortable in the environment.

I got to say "I told you so" to Katja. She cashed in the Stud even that very next day after I told her things would turn around. I love being right. I get off on being smug and self-satisfied when I see my friends do well, just as I predicted.

But then Jan got knocked out of the day's event, and they were pouting once again. Crazy Germans. I thought Americans took their losses badly. I never saw such hang dog expressions in my life. I kept telling them to buck up.

I didn't see Max anywhere, but what I didn't know is that he was dominating the day's event, a $2500 buy-in NLHE event. If I'd only known what was going on, I'd have been able to sweat his final table. Instead, we got involved in two events over at Orleans on Saturday.

Glenn and I wanted to swing by Excalibur to say "hi" to the WPBT bloggers. Oy, vey. Why do I bother? I don't know. They aren't "my" people. I mainly just wanted to say hi to a very few of them, and I did.

These people don't get me. They don't understand the difference between someone who played poker first, then started writing about it, from someone who has a full-time, regular job, writes a lot, and plays donkey poker now and again. Glenn and I are so radically different from them that it's painfully obvious whenever we meet up.

I once again made the mistake of trying to help some people. They looked at me like I had two heads. This was my fault, not theirs. I can't help but try to coax them into winning, when it is the very last thing they want in the world. Nothing makes them happier than losing everything. Buy-in after buy-in, moaning and whining about their "bad luck," and they are happier than clams. But did I shut up my big, fat mouth about it? Noooooo. I could never be that bright. Glenn either.

Oh, well.

The one guy, Donkey Puncher, did ask me to teach him Chinese. I asked if he wanted to learn straight Chinese or 2-7 in the middle. He looked at me like I'd lost my mind. Then I told him he'd have to come to Orleans and I'd teach him. He said that Caesars would spread Chinese. I told him that I wasn't playing at Caesars, he'd have to come to Orleans. I could see the interest drain from his face. If I wasn't going to be there for them, they sure the hell wouldn't come to me.

They take, they take, they take. And they never give anything back.

He did seem like a cool guy, but my priorities are so much different than theirs.

Another blogger refused to sit next to me. He hates me so much that he can't even be polite for a game of HORSE. Jeez, I hate a lot of people, but I can be an adult and sit next to them at a poker table. They are so immature that it's painful.

On the bright side, however, some interesting things did happen at MGM that suprised the heck out of me!

For one, Iggy came and talked to me, and apologized sincerely for our past difficulties. He has balls, that is for sure. I have said many times that I don't care for him, that we clash, but instead of just taking the low road and bashing me on his site or in person, he actually apologized and insisted that we didn't need to like each other in order to respect each other. He also insisted he didn't dislike me the way I disliked him, lol.

He also said some nice things about Matt, which impressed me as trying to take the high road in a bad situation. So thank you, Iggy, for making an effort with such a rude, horrible person like myself. I was definitely shocked.

Maudie also stopped by and said hi. Thanks.

Hoyzano was polite at the table, and caused no problem for me. Thanks for that. Why he is always going after me or Glenn online is a big mystery to me, but I didn't cause a scene at the table. I was having fun and playing the very games I love, so I didn't go out of my way to question his constant taking me out of context or quoting things about me that simply aren't true. I don't care for a person who plays against someone for 30 minutes, then proclaims them as a "bad player" or something similar. No one can watch someone play for very little time, then make such huge, sweeping assumptions about their play. No one besides God is God.

I had a very good time that night at MGM, I'm not complaining. I have always had a good time in person with the bloggers, our lives are just radically different. But it was definitely reinforced that these people don't get me, I don't get them, I don't belong with them, and probably should stay out of their lives altogether. I'm sure they dread the very thought of my presence.

I do just want to say "thank you" to a few people who were there and tried to treat me like one of them, which I'm clearly not:

**Veneno (I think) introduced herself. Wow, what a voice! That could tilt just about any poker player. If I had that voice, I'd try to irritate everyone at my table and use it to an advantage, lol ;)
**Falstaff (funny guy)
**Rini (da man)
**F-Train & Dawn
**Otis
**Pauly (you fake!)
**Grubby
**Maudie
**Iggy
**Hoyzano (you can act like an adult, so thanks)
**Australian guy (what a riot, seems genuine)

I'm leaving some off the list, I can't remember anymore. If I didn't list your name it doesn't necessarily mean anything, I just don't recall.

And to the losers who were whispering about me behind their hands, thinking I was too retarded to see them, and talking behind my back instead of having the balls to approach me, you can blow me. I'm really not that stupid, of course I saw you whispering and giggling, you immature, moronic idiots.

Glenn and I left a little after midnight. I needed to be rested for the O8 event the next day, so we headed back to Orleans.

And that is when I had both my best and worst day ever in poker. I don't even know how to approach the worst of it. I think I'll make two, separate posts about it. One about the O8 event, one about friendship.

Stay tuned,

Felicia :)

Orleans Open

2006-07-11T06:01:00.000-07:00

In the next few days, I'm probably going to post some things that aren't really pleasant. I know, you are all thinking how rare that is ;)

So before I get to the bad stuff, I'd like to remember some of the good, as well.

I truly try to be as balanced as possible, and there is a lot of good to highlight in the poker world.

Orleans is doing a pretty frigging good job this year. I messed up on the first O8 event count. I don't know exactly how I screwed up so badly, but at least I have somewhat of an excuse. Brian kept fudging up the count on the Tournament Clock and had to correct it over and over again. So somehow the figure of 500-something got stuck in my mind, and although it was later corrected, I couldn't get rid of it. In fact, I kept counting up the prize pool in my head and it was way off. I couldn't figure out why I was so off, and I was getting angry at myself. I'm a moron, what can I say?

Anyway, regardless of being 100 players off, they are still doing a great job. And if anyone hates to admit that, she is me. I loathe the Orleans in so many ways that I don't even want to discuss it.

The satellites range from an awesome deal to a terrible one. The O8 and Stud sats take out a lot of juice for the buy-in, and give almost no play. It's better just to buy in directly if you can, or play a NLHE sat. If you can't, go downstairs and play some cash games until you can pony up $200.

Which leads me to one of the rare mistakes that I felt Orleans made. This year they kept ALL of the cash games downstairs and all of the sats & tourneys upstairs. While this may sound like a good idea on the surface (the seniors were complaining about the long walk from the garage to the tournament room), the problem is that it practically forces people to leave the Orleans after they bust out of a tourney or sat.

Instead of sitting down in a cash game, they make the long walk back downstairs and end up just leaving. They probably see the action in the poker room on the way out to the garage, but they just give up and decide to go elsewhere for better action. Perhaps if Orleans would have kept the low limit games downstairs, and put the oddball games and middle limit games upstairs they would have more cash game traffic. Whenever I bust out of an event, the first thing I look for is a mixed game, Razz game, Stud game or some other oddball game (Chinese, PLO, etc). I will sit down if they have something rare during a festival (that happens a lot). But if I have to walk three miles downstairs to the poker room through the hall of shame, I'm probably just going to pack it in for the day and escape to my room.

Besides this, though, and the other two problems I wrote about last week (lack of tournament rules available for players, changed structure on 2nd chance event), Orleans is doing a good job.

At buy-in, players receive a $5.00 comp. If they last until dinner, they receive a buffet comp. Not a partial comp, not a buy-one get one free comp, but a full comp to any meal, including the more expensive ones like seafood night. So the comp is potentially worth $20. Their buffet is no Rio, that is for sure, but it is something that they don't have to do, and did anyway. They also have fresh fruit available all day in the tournament area that is free. Once again, not sponsorship for pros, but something that they didn't have to provide, yet did.

The rooms are $50 Su-Th, $90 Fri, Sat. And they are decent. Bring your own coffee, because they are so cheap that they charge for the horrible, in-room coffee that they provide.

I was so tired yesterday that I couldn't even play in the Stud event. Yeah, I actually skipped what I went to the Orleans for in the first place! But I'm not disappointed. The trip was actually a huge victory for my morale. And Glenn's, too.

Glenn cashed in the first NLHE event he played in. It was $225 with a rebuy. He never had to rebuy. He busted out about 2:30am, just inside of the money. Yeah, the structure is THAT slow. The top 27 got paid, and he was 26th, I believe. He was very pleased with his performance, not being a tourney player and just getting back into the saddle after not really playing NLHE tournaments for a couple of years.

I played in the first O8 event. I busted out right before dinner. I never got much going on. I did well the first hour, sharing the orphan pots with another experienced player, but then tougher players got sat at our table and I wasn't able to steal nearly as much.

Finally, a WSOP bracelet holder got moved to our table and took up the aggression factor a notch. I was praying to find a hand when he was messing around with a big stack, but it never really came. Eventually I had 78TTds in the BB. He raised, I smooth called. This is not a good hand, but I was going to try to flop something and see what happened. I flopped a couple of draws. I checked, and he looked at his hole cards again. That is how I knew he didn't have a king (top card on board). So when he made a continuation bet, I called. I figured he had a draw, probably open ended or wrap, and was the favorite, but I had no chips and wanted to see if I could double up. The turn was an eight, not so great, counterfeiting my crappy low draw (not that I ever thought 78 was good for low), and pairing something I didn't need paired, but oh, well, by that time I was pretty committed. I think I had 375 left and the big bet was 200.

The river was a four, giving him two pair with his 48, and some kind of mediocre low.

But I was correct in my read, so that felt okay. No tears from me, I take my victories when I can, they don't come along often enough for me to ignore them.

Next: my second O8 event and Glenn's second NLHE event.

Felicia :)

Off to Orleans, Round Two

2006-07-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry I didn't get to any more posts yesterday. My fingers just gave out (ask Glenn, lol).

A good friend, John Cernuto made the FT of the Stud WSOP event. Go John! If I get some free time, I might go over and sweat him there. I doubt the crowds will be as overwhelming at the Stud FT, they never are. Too bad more people don't see the beauty and poetry in this game.

Congrats to Shirley Rosario for making it through another round of chemo and coming to play the 5k O8 event. No matter that she didn't make the money, the morale victory is worth millions more!

Anyway, we're off again to Vegas and the Orleans O8 and Stud events.

I hope to see all of my old and new friends there. If I don't remember you from years past, cut me some slack and remember I got a free lobotomy with chemo!

Felicia :)

More Thoughts on Las Vegas

2006-07-06T07:06:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I write something, I cringe the next day when I read it again. It doesn't come across the way I intended, or it sounds odd to me, reading it with a fresh perspective.

In a way, that is how I feel about yesterday's post.

First of all, being friends with people like Barry and Ted is not something to "brag" about. Five years ago these people weren't considered stars or heroes, they were called scumbags and degenerates. Not much has really changed, except the public's perception of full-time players.

When I watch the insanity at Rio, I always have this moment of 'what are these people doing here?' thoughts. I usually end up asking someone in the crowd, "Why is everyone gaping? Who is the attraction?" My first thought is that someone like Tom Hanks or Julia Roberts must be playing, to get that much attention. I never think that these people could possibly be railing real poker players! It seems incredulous to me.

I hate to compare it to this, but it is sort of like people gathering in masses to go to a maximum security prison and take pics of serial killers or something. Shake their hands, get autographs, gape at them. It's dirty to me. I don't think of them as stars, I think of them as scrappers and survivors in a world where they were considered scum just a few years ago.

So maybe that is why I'm accepted by them, and hang out with them. I was there before all of the insanity we see today. Plus I don't ask for anything. I am just their friend, in good times and bad.

Also, although I tend to talk about it more on my journal than anyplace else, I rarely talk about it in person. I remember earlier this year someone I've played Stud with for years was talking to me about how he'd love to meet Barry and get his perspective on Stud theory. I told him if I saw him walk in, I'd introduce him. He said, "I've played Stud with you for years! You never told me you know Barry!" I never even thought about it.

Usually people sitting around playing cash games for years aren't interested in the 4/8k players, anyway, even if I wanted to "brag" about my friendships.

So anyway, I think I botched up things yesterday. I was just so happy to see everyone, that it came across in a way I never intended.

For me, these friendships are something I cherish. A community where I truly belong.

And it has nothing to do with the player, either.

One of the first people I saw going into the Orleans on Monday was a guy who worked the floor on our Cardplayer cruise back in December. He did a good job from what I recall. He looks and acts professionally. He was wearing a white shirt, but obviously wasn't needed for the day's tourney. He came over and we started talking. He had been hired for the floor at Rio, but after three days of unimaginable hell, he quit. He came over to Orleans instead, and was much happier there, it seemed.

I also saw a woman I know from Laughlin, who decided to go pro in Vegas and has been keeping her head above water playing middle limit, mostly O8 games.

Then I saw a guy I couldn't even recall from the first time we met. He is mostly a lurker on 2+2 and we also played in cash games last year at Rio. I was crushed that I couldn't even remember meeting him years ago. It is completely gone from my memory altogether. But he is a cool guy and understood.

I saw Jody, a TD I first met when he covered my area of the WSOP Stud event a few years back. He simply stood and looked at me in shock. He couldn't believe that I wasn't the "aging albino" anymore. He said I looked horrible on the CP Cruise and that now I looked like the living again. He is a nut. He is very straight forward like me, and I respect that. He's also a goofball and I know I can say anything to him without him whining or taking it literally.

Most of the floormen from Orleans remember me as a writer. Because of the WPPA debacle. They knew I made a deal in the Stud and second O8 tourney at Orleans, but didn't recall that I was a player first, and only did writing as a favor for Louis. Ouch. That should tell me something ;)

They were awesome, and Chris even made sure I had a buffet comp as well as Glenn when the dinner break came around. Chris went further out of his way to try to find a room for us. At the time, it was the eve of the 4th, and the rooms were suites starting at $250. The Open had no more rooms available at the cut rate of $50. So we were stuck, thinking we'd have to go back to downtown like last year and get in somewhere like Golden Gate. It wasn't a rosy thought, since Glenn was expected to play until 3am, and I'd been up since 5:30am the previous day.

In the end, Chris came running over and said they'd just opened up a block of Open rooms, due to last minute cancellations. I ran to a house phone in the hall and was able to get one at $50, on a holiday!

They went above and beyond the call of duty, even though the floor gets nothing from the 3% that the dealers receive out of the buy-ins. They get nothing, and don't expect anything but a hearty "thank you" when we cash. They don't even put out a tip jar for the floor. I always tip them separately when I cash.

I could go on and on, but my point is that it's not just the "name" players who deserve my friendship and respect, it is all the people in the tourney world who go above and beyond the call of duty just out of friendship and the tight circle of protection that we need in poker.

These friendships are very important to me, and I cultivate them.

Please come back for more posts about Glenn's tournament, Asher Derei and our Stud 8 cash game discussion, looking for backing, no sign of Party, Peter Brownstein, staff at Rio, more Rio FUBAR, Van Alstyne mess and anything more I can hack out.

Felicia :)

WTF Was I Thinking?

2006-07-05T18:05:00.000-07:00

It seems like every six months or so, I go through something that makes me wonder what I was thinking. The past two days really showed me what an idiot I am.

When we got to Las Vegas, it was clear when I ran into some people who appreciate me and want to be with me.

Orleans was attracting some of the 2nd tier pros. Those who usually have backers, but not big sponsorship. Those who have had some big successes, but not enough of them. Those who haven't scored big lately, etc.

Mostly, these people are no different than those at the very top. Sometimes they simply have horrible money management, or leaks like craps. Other times they can succeed at tourneys, but not cash games.

The main point is, these are the type of people I obviously belong with (tourney pros). Whether they be first tier, second or someone like me (no tier, lol), who cannot succeed at tournament poker, but is self-reliant and never begs for buy-ins.

Even Glenn got a big glimpse of this family atmosphere when he played the NLHE rebuy event and cashed! He played against the same guys for hours, and got to know them. They came up to him the next day, told him what an awesome player he was, how impressed they were (since he is really a cash game player), how great it was to meet him, etc.

Top tourney pros protect their own. They become friends and family with like-minded individuals, and they will go to great lengths to embrace others who travel the circuit, and protect them from harm. They make other serious players feel welcome and included.

Glenn said he now knows for certain how I feel about the friends I have made in the past three years, and why I embrace those friendships and work hard to keep them. He said he hasn't felt so included in a long, long time.

Yesterday after I busted out of the O8 event, we ran over to Rio really fast, for just that purpose. I needed to see the top tier, to make sure they were all doing well (in life). To see the very people who inspire me, protect me and want to be with me. Boy, did I get an overdose!

I saw just about everyone that I wanted to see. Most of them in a rush to get back from dinner or take a pee break. I never try to hold them up, but just shoo them on their way.

Max was talking with Todd Brunson, whom I am not friends with, but only know by sight on the tourney circuit. Max quickly invited us into the discussion. Max and Todd were both out, so they were going to Todd's house for dinner. Todd seemed like a great guy, very genuine. Max was delighted with the number of e-mails and encouragement he has gotten this year from my readers. Go readers!

Barry was on his cell phone, so I'm not going to stick around for that to end (ugh). He gave me a big hug and continued on his way.

John always cracks me up. He ran into me in the hall and said, "Hey, I know YOU!" we shook hands and he invited me to some party in the FTP suite. He said to go in, he was going to hit the bathroom. Glenn and I tried to go in, but they wouldn't let us. I told them John was headed to the bathroom and told us to go in. The host said, "John who?" I said "Juanda." He asked, "Who is that?" Wow, they must just hire people off the street. We waited for John. He came back and tried to get us in, but found out that the party was only for employees and pros at FTP, so he said he wanted us to come to a different party. He apologized profusely that they wouldn't let us in. It was no biggie, I was only going in because he asked me to do it. He is such a sweet guy, it's hard to say no to him.

I was talking to James Van Alstyne as he came back from dinner about the FUBAR that Rio pulled on him last week (that is a whole other post), when Marcel came rushing up and started hugging and kissing me. He told me about an article he'd written recently, and asked me how I was doing, said I looked good, etc. Just as I was shooing them both off to get back to the tables, John Cernuto came running up, skinny as a whip already. He was grinning ear-to-ear. Look at John! Way to go! I made sure he was keeping healthy, drinking his protein shakes every day, and we just smiled until our faces ached talking about how well everything is going for both of us. He seems so glad that he got gastric bypass, and looks really good.

David Levi was playing a satellite, and a friend was sweating him. I asked the friend if he knew David (he was standing in between two players so I wasn't sure at first who he was sweating). He said David. I asked him if he gave David a kiss. He said he always kisses David. I asked David if he would rather have a kiss from his male friend, or me. David did his usual flirt and said, "Oh, always you baby, always you!" Or something along those lines.

I met the friend and even hugged him for telling me how great David and Asher were in the Israeli army, and how he admired them so much.

I ran into Asher in the hallway and we had a long discussion that should also be a separate post.

Mel Judah and I talked about how well the Orleans was doing, and Shirley. He was so bummed out about Shirley, but I was happy to read that she is bouncing back. She is so much stronger than I am. Go Shirley!

Mel said that so many pros need sponsorship now. It just won't work if they don't get some, due to the huge fields, etc. It's so tough to make a big score these days. Mel said he'd just signed on with Doyle's Room, as did Max.

I didn't see one of my best friends, although I looked for him (he'd probably already busted out, but the crowd at the rail was so thick that I couldn't tell for sure). Mrs. Ted Forrest will be very sad to hear that I didn't get to talk to him yesterday.

I virtually tackled Jan and Katja in the hallway. I have been "missing" them for two years. We just never seem to find each other. I was the typical rude, obnoxious, blunt American and forced them to stop and talk to me, lol. Then again, they are Germans, so they are known for that behavior, too! ;)

Jan was way skinnier, younger and good looking than his pics. Katja was supermodel gorgeous (to me). I love that look in women. Classy and elegant, almost aristocratic. Not the little gidget type, or girl next door blonde beach type. She is really going places. A TV show in Germany (poker), a gig with Poker Stars, the sky is the limit. She said she is running badly so far at the WSOP, but I told her things would turn around. I told her that we Americans say that the cream rises to the top, and she is the cream. They were both fabulous.

Speaking of running bad, that is the topic of my next post about our Vegas trip, I'm sure.

The one constant theme with a lot of my friends is that they are running bad, running out of money, running out of steam and need sponsorship to keep playing. I was so, unbelievably hurt for them. Poker is changing. No longer is the top pro making a score out of every 50 tourneys or so. It's more like 500 these days, due to the fields literally going up 1000%.

To every one of them, I said that brighter days are ahead, sponsorship is coming, a big score is coming, things will turn around. These people are just way too good to stay down for very long. I don't back losers, and the losers aren't my friends. These people are not only top players, but fantastic people as a whole, and they have a proven record of winning. It just takes some serious adjustment and an inflow of cash for things these days.

My day was absolutely fabulous. I was reminded once again that I belong with certain people, and not others. Wasting my time wondering what losers think, responding to posts and e-mails by people who would like nothing more than to drag me down, worrying about threats and people ripping on me or Glenn on the frigging Internet for god's sake is just a waste of my time and mind. It drives me insane, and that is not where I belong. I need to support the winners in my life, not the losers who think that 72o is cute and needs to be shoved in every other hand for a full buy-in, so they can post a screen shot and laugh it up as they devour their Nteenth beer.

I should not be explaining myself, or my position to these people. These people can't even see the forest for the trees and have no business taking up my time.

The people who are worthy of my time and spirit are the ones who are running up to me, screaming in happiness to see me and giving me a big bear hug. They are the ones who know I am genuine and sincere. They understand I am blunt and extremely candid and don't care. They don't care because they are somewhat the same, plus they are solid, self assured people, not whiners and losers.

They do not take my posts out of context and proceed to rip me apart on the Internet. They don't follow behind me and flame my comments when I'm trying to help out a new player. They don't make up stories about me or write me hate mail. They are happy to have my company and see me doing well, as I am them. They are my lifeline and have been extremely supportive of me over the years.

When I say I "love" certain people in poker, I truly mean it. And the word love is extremely difficult for me to use. It seems so overused and so shallow, because people say it all the time and then stab the person in the back the next day for a buck. So I tend not to use it.

But the truth is, I do love some of these people very much. They appreciate my friendship, unlike the many wannabe's on the Internet who simply love to flame, troll and trash me. Why I ever gave them five minutes of my time is beyond me. What I do know is that I'm going to severely cut my reading list, my links and my help to those monkeys on my back. I have said it before, and I meant it then, but I keep trying to take on one or two losers who never even appreciate my help and advice. They have no chance. They are a dead end and simply suck the life out of me. I feel like poor Ted now, always backing losers, lol. Unfortunately, Ted does it with money, I only do it with time.

I will start once again to focus on the winners in my life and cut out the losers. I make no promises, because it is obvious that I've broken them several times. Oddly enough, I only seem to have this trouble on the Internet, not in real life. I can banish the albatross in real life so easily. I'm so unbelievably rude, that he walks away and never even tries to return. But on the Internet? I don't know, it's like they keep coming. They keep trying to weigh me down. They don't appreciate me. They don't like, respect or listen to me. They make promises, but in the end, they just do what they wanted to do all along (lose their money, mostly). So why should I constantly be spending my time on them? It's insane.

Didn't someone say that in Chinese the definition of insanity was to do the same thing over and over again, yet expect different results? If that is true, then I am insane. I keep nursing along these little, fledgling players who have no intention of becoming serious players, and every time, it leads to heartache.

So let's see what will come in time.

For right now, Orleans is rocking the house. The rep that Rio has right now has gotten out, and a ton of players who would normally be there are showing up at Orleans every day instead. The O8 field was over 500 yesterday!!! They ran out of dealers. Every dealer was in the tournament, closing all of the sats and cash games. Every floorman was dealing, leaving only Brian to work the floor in a huge field. They were one table from putting Glenn in a white shirt (he can still deal legally in Nevada).

Unbelievable!

Not only that, but they cut the rake from last year, charge about 50% of the sat rake that Rio is charging, have a better structure than the WSOP, give out $5 comps when you sign up, and give a full, free dinner buffet if you are still in at the dinner break (worth $15-20 depending on the night).

There are tons of problems with Orleans. I am not a big fan of theirs. I have problems with their rules and definite problems with Brian (although the rest of the staff was fabulous). I have never really been on their side in any major conflict that they have had. I think they pretty much suck. But I have to give them credit. They are running a fantastic event. No complaints other than the rules were not available for players upon request, and they decided to change the first hour structure of the second chance event without prior notification.

I was super impressed. I have to give them that. I'll be back on Friday, already have reservations.

Anyway, links and more stories from the Vegas trip to follow. I'm beat!

Felicia :)

Off to Vegas

2006-07-03T06:54:00.000-07:00

Looks like Orleans has been an overwhelming success so far. I called yesterday and Marlin said something like 451 for the first event, over 300 had registered so far for the LHE event. He also said so far they had stuck to the structure. I heard that some people were whining about the "slow structure," and being "forced to play so long," lol.

I think I'll take it, thank you very much.

So Glenn wants to try for a sat this morning. It's a $200 NLHE rebuy event. We're headed up early so he can get into a sat or two and try to win his entry plus rebuy.

Tomorrow is the first O8 event. I'll probably play cash games to win my entry, unless the juice on the O8 sats is a good deal.

Marlin said they've had Razz cash games 24/7, so that should be fun.

Max cashed at 21st yesterday. Some incredible beats put him more in the middle of the pack early on, and he fought his way to stay alive all afternoon. He finally went out with KK vs. A3 or some such garbage.

Another Two Plus Twoer made another final table. She is upholding our record of one Two Plus Twoer at every final table so far. Go US! She also kind of looks like me, so I'll probably get a lot of inquiries about it. NO, it's not me! I'll stick with the low-rollers at Orleans, tyvm. I just don't have what it takes for these big, NLHE events. And even worse, I don't have the ambition or drive. No matter how much I push myself to play Hold'em, and no matter how well I do in an individual session, I just don't like it. Ugh, I really missed the boat.

Oh, well. Off to Orleans and the pit of hell. Talk to you in a few days!

Felicia :)

Glenn Bagrowski: Future WSOP Superstar

2006-07-02T10:50:00.000-07:00

Mike O'Malley took care of everything.

Now I can cheerlead Glenn from the rail.

Go Glenn! Here is your next poker superstar, Glenn Bagrowski!

Chipleader: Max Pescatori

2006-07-02T06:23:00.000-07:00

Looks like my buddy Max Pescatori is in the chip lead of the 2k NLHE event going on at Rio.

Go Max!

Anyone who feels like it, send him a good luck e-mail. I know he is thrilled to receive mail, and if anyone deserves it for the above and beyond heroism last year for Charlie Tuttle, he is Max.

Max is definitely the bridemaid of the WSOP. So many cashes, so many final tables, no bracelet yet. But this could be his year! He is ranked one of the best professional tournament players in the world, yet barely gets any press at all! Kind of the Ted Forrest of world class players (until 2004, that is. Go Ted!). If I could pick just one player in the entire world who deserves a bracelet and some real recognition, he would be Max Pescatori! This is the year, Donkey Kong. Go get 'em.

We might head up to Vegas early in order to sweat Max. Since today is a 3k LHE event, I'm hoping/wishing/praying it won't be so mobbed. And also that Rio has my press pass.

For the many things Max has done for me over the past two years, I'll be there if he wants me, no matter what!

Felicia :)

Felicia: The Hypocrite

2006-07-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

[Cliff Notes for the mentally impaired: I might play in the Orleans Open, I might write a few lines about the series for 2+2. Read no further, you idiot.]

Okay, I kept saying I was working on something, but never posted about it. I am learning to be more and more gun-shy as I get older. People make big promises, and most of them never deliver. Or they deliver in a really crappy way. Like a casino promising players who play over 40 hours per week for a year will get a brand new 'Vette. Then on the closing day, give them the keys to a CheVette, lol ;)

So the two things that have been going on in the past week with me are the Orleans Open and 2+2.

The deal with the Open, is that the Orleans puts it on every year, and it's a total piece of crap festival. Tons of juice, no structure, 30 minute levels. It's like expecting the Wynn and being handed the El Cortez. It's a total dump.

Last week, I somehow stumbled upon the Open's schedule. Don't ask me how. I'm sorry if someone directed me there and now I can't remember it. If you did, thank you very much!

Okay, so there is the deal. This year they decided that instead of waiting until the series was over, they were going to plant the Open right in the middle of the series and take them head-on.

Although this seems like suicide, there are a couple of reasons that they gave me for going this route. First off, they are hoping for the overflow crowd. It seems like everyone is benefiting from the Rio overflow, and they thought they may as well get some extra business, too. Second, they know that not everyone can afford 1k buy-in's and up. With the juice on satellites increasing every year (thanks Harrrah's, love ya, NOT), satellites may not even be a viable way to get in anymore. The cost of the Open events, however, are about 10%-20% of the series events, so players can afford to just buy their way in, if they want, or play some very low buy-in sats.

Older and elderly people might also be very intimidated by the chaos and mile long walks at Rio. The Open is much less crowded per square foot, and easily accessible once you find the correct entrance.

Now that I've addressed the reasons that they put the Open right in the middle of the series, I'll give my best guess on why they think they might draw some players this year versus the last few years where they've gotten the well deserved reputation of a pit of dung.

They have expanded all of the levels to include one hour limits. One hour versus thirty minutes is a real switch. Also, all of the starting chips have gone up multiple times, while they are still using the same structure that they have always used!!! So let's say 2000 starting chips for a $300 tourney. Plus you start at 15/30 and go up very gradually. That gives you 66 big bets to start with (a huge amount in this day of poker) and you won't even get to 2000 as the big bet until 13 hours of play later!!!

I can't remember exactly what we got in starting chips during the past three years, but it was more like 1/4-1/2 of that, with 30 minute levels. Plus the juice was more last year.

So anyway, I talked to one of the TD's, and they know I'm very unhappy with them, as a whole, but they said they are really trying to do the right thing. So I said I'd give them one chance. If they screw with the structure or give less starting chips after the first event, having taken 15,920 hours to get to the final table and not liking it, then I'm outta there. They brought it on themselves, I even warned them that this structure was LONG, and given their past history of wanting us poker scum outta there in a nanosecond, I figured they'd never stick with the longer structure.

But here I go again, two years later, entering the den of hell called Orleans.

I'll give it a shot at the first O8 event. If I haven't heard that they screwed with the structure, that is. Heck, I figure I can fold my way into the money! I don't even have to play for the first eight hours, lol :)

So there ya go, I'm hitting the Orleans a few times this month, if it turns out okay. And I'm sure no trip will be wasted. No matter how Orleans FUBAR's the Open, there is always the Razz game over in the cash games section. I loves me some Razz.

That was the first thing I've been working on. The second is another thing I've gotten burned on before. So naturally I'm jumping right back into the pit. I love to torture myself. Or be tortured. Masochism is my thing. Come see me sometime.

Anyway, I've written before for tourneys. I hated it. I wouldn't go back. I do, however, think that 2+2 has kind of missed the ball on big tournaments. They have always been all about cash games, and that is fine, that is great. I actually agree with that, pretty much. But new players like tournaments. They don't see them the way we old timers do. They don't see tourneys as a way to get new players into a cardroom to play cash games. They see tourney life as a separate entity, completely self-reliant in some cases. And in some cases, they are correct. It can be done. Variance is a mother, but if you have a ton of discipline and bankroll management (along with many other qualities), you can succeed.

So 2+2 has never been big on tourney forums and tourney books. Just now they are biting the bullet and really getting into things more. With the Harrington books and having Raymer as an original member, it's kind of hard to ignore it.

But they still didn't prepare for what was going to happen at Rio this year.

I was talking to Ed about the magazine (I have been for a while now, both he and Mason, in fact), and thinking of some ways to make it better. Ed had some really good ideas on Sunday night. He said that the ultimate mag might have some tourney stuff in it, too. He also named several other components that he thought would make the magazine more interesting. Right now it's kind of technical, serious and dry, IMO.

While I'm a real 2+2er at heart, and have no interest in reading about who Clonie is sleeping with now, and which mistress is on Moneymaker's arm this week, I can see a great benefit in providing tournament information more regularly on 2+2 and in it's magazine.

It doesn't have to be boring, either. Just because I'm not into gossip or rumors, doesn't mean I can't be interesting. Writing about successful 2+2er's in the tournament arena, profiling the many players who have already cashed or gotten to final tables (and we are truly representing already this year!), finding out what is being done to better the structures, the environment, the food. There are lots of 2+2er's who can write, and write well.

So since 2+2 has never been about tourneys, they never bothered to get a press pass for the series.

After I talked to Ed on Sunday night, then saw that chaos at Rio on Monday, suddenly this idea got into my head. Although I will not be at Rio during the whole of the series, I can still write down things when I am there. Kind of a "man on the scene" type stuff. Just light, and very interesting, not dry or technical.

Right now we've applied for a pass, but who knows when and if Rio will even bother to get back to us, this late in the game. We'll see.

So those are the two things that I've been busy with the past week. Just little things, things that would cause virtually no ripple in my life in years past, but are big for me now. Funny, two things that I thought I'd never do again (play at Orleans and write about tourneys), are the very things I'm planning on for this month.

But nothing heavy, just keep it simple, stupid. Keep it light. I'll only do as much as I can manage, and rest often.

Glenn is playing for his replacement seat today. Gary, my giant friend, also got in for the final. Hopefully one of them will win a seat.

Have a good weekend,

Felicia :)

"Don't Forget Your Helmet!"

2006-06-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

"Don't Forget Your Helmet!" --Eva Can Hang

Yes, I belong in the special olympics. I is dumb. Being retarded is a real handicap. Why? Because even if I win a gold medal, I'm still retarded!

I hate chemo. I feel so bad for those undergoing it right now. On the cancer forums, I read all the time, "Boy, can't wait til I'm done with this chemo, so I can get my head back on straight!" I want to cry for them. I want to say something, but I hate to discourage them. After all, they might be the exception to the rule and be thinking normally again in no time at all!

Anyway, moving on, the subject of my post was a response that Eva gave me when I told her I'd overlooked a major player at Party.

Mike O'Malley is their CRM, and has my journal linked. I'm not good friends with Mike, but poker acquaintances. I had forgotten all about his job with Party, duh!

I wonder what my IQ is right now? It's probably dropping like AOL shares in 2001.

Felicia :)

Mirage 2+2 Moderator Dinner

2006-06-29T08:31:00.000-07:00

So I left off when we were leaving Bellagio for Mirage. On the way out, I saw David in the sports book. I asked him if he was going to the moderator dinner. He shrugged and looked at the monitors. He said something about the ponies. I said, "David, it's YOUR forum!" He said the games at Bellagio were awfully good. I said, "David, you have to go!" He asked, "YOU'RE a moderator? Where?" I rolled my eyes and told him. I told him we're ALL socially awkward, he wasn't any exception. We're poker players!!! He said he would come over if the games weren't good, if the ponies weren't running, if hell froze over...something like that.

I've never cared for the Mirage. No change this time. I've only been twice since 2002, and both times due to 2+2 functions.

I spotted Ed first, who looks no different than pre-QEFTSG Ed. Well, maybe his hair is shorter, no mo' afro.

Dynasty came in not much later. He's even quieter than he is on 2+2, and pretty much the same. Always looks disgusted, always looks put out. At least he's genuine, unlike so many other online "personas," harhar.

I spotted Mat a billion miles away, just circling and circling the poker room and outside pit, looking for something, never finding it. Beautiful girl on his arm. Of course I had to ask him later how much he paid for her.

Mason came along soon. Another beautiful girl, another conspiracy that I have yet to figure out. She claims that tennis brought them together, but I'm just certain there is a backstory, lol ;)

As we were about to hit the restaurant, David came sauntering in. He claimed he couldn't stay, that the 300/600 was just too good. I said that if the game really WAS that good, he wouldn't have left in the first place. I told him it was completely unfair that he was skipping out on my one opportunity to bore him to tears by grilling him on Stud. After all, Glenn has bugged Mason for the past three years on Draw, I should get my opportunity. Oh, well, there's always Ray.

As we started towards the buffet, a guy (Durron) from Glenn's NLHE table came rushing up. He hadn't said boo to either me or Glenn the entire time we were playing. I accused him of being either retarded or from Canada. He claimed neither.

We ran into Schneids (Mike Schneider) and his friend midway through our walk. Late, as usual. Must be gay. I said a few words to Mike, and somehow he sounded kind of Australian. Don't know why, except that I'm a moron. So then I found out he is from Minnesota or something, so that makes sense...???!!!

Any time a guy has to bring along another guy friend, I just jump to the logical conclusion that he must be gay. Why? Because I'm stupid.

So we went marching through the VIP line, where I accused Mase of being cheap and having comps. I finally nailed him down to how many comps he had, and he reluctantly admitted four. Bingo, I knew it. Mase always chooses Mirage. It takes a cheap bistad to recognize another cheap biztad. Go Mason!

He did, however, insist on buying for both Glenn and Mikes gay friend, so kudos. Maybe he felt that not as many moderators showed up as he was expecting, so he still got a good deal.

Mirage totally remodeled their buffet from the last time I was there (maybe the 1900's). Although it looks nicer, getting to all of the stations is a real hike.

Mat, however, was up to the challenge! I've never seen someone my age so hyperactive. Usually by the time hyperactive people reach their thirties or forties they seem to slow down. Not Mat. He never sat still for a second.

We sat at a table with Mat, Mat's beautiful girlfriend and Dynasty. Dynasty left us as soon as humanly possible and went to sit next to Ed and the young crowd.

I found out that Mat is my Internet stalker. It started when he said that I'd posted something on my journal about him a few years ago. I denied it at first, because I don't remember anything like that. But then I remembered that I got that free lobotomy via chemotherapy, and that my memory had been wiped virtually clean. So I stopped protesting so vehemently.

Then Mat starts admitting that he's read all of these other posts that I've made. Posts on 2+2 and on my journal. And I'm teasing him and calling him my stalker. I always thought that was Vehn's job, but here Mat was reading my stuff all along, while Vehn probably couldn't give a crap. He's got other, bigger fish to fry, and that fish is called the Annie-Dukefish.

Once I started teasing Mat, he was squirming more and more. I even got him blushing pretty deeply one time. Bingo! Once I sense a weakness I have to exploit it. I kept messing with him during the whole dinner and afterwards.

Mat was interested in gelato. But he was too hyperactive to wait for the server. So he kept walking the whole of the buffet, over and over again, waiting for a time for the machine to be completely empty. He never got his gelato. He did, however, start over again about an hour after everyone else finished eating. He must have walked that buffet 20x in two hours. Probably partially to get away from ME. And who could blame him???

Yes, I liked Mat the best of all the new people I met. Yes, I'm sure he hates me, who wouldn't? I totally had to rip on him, I couldn't seem to help myself. Once he exposed his soft underbelly, I just went for the kill.

I tried to get him to go along with some kind of big scam on 2+2. I would get in a public fight with him, he would ban me, he would take away my mod privileges, chaos would ensue. Okay, no chaos, like anyone cares about me or the Omaha forums, right? I guess that was probably a bad idea.

Anyway, towards the end almost everyone defected over to the popular Ed table. Ed is really good at that, he can engage people well, and for a long time. Mat finally had enough of me and left, probably much to his relief.

Mason's wife wasn't interested in the Ed table, so we stayed to talk to her. She and Glenn got into a tennis conversation, and I took a quick nap. Naw, seriously, she was wonderful. Engaging and beautiful. I told Mason he got really, really lucky. He agreed.

Finally we wrapped it up. I tried to corner Dynasty again, but he wouldn't bite, and so I gave up.

Ed and I talked all the way to the garage about some issues with the 2+2 magazine. I was hoping we'd be able to talk about it. Since he was king of the popular table, I'd not gotten to address the issue, so I was pretty relieved that we talked for about 30 minutes during the walk and stopping here and there. He gave me some good ideas, and I hope I gave him some things to think about, too.

Glenn and I had a great time, and I love being around 2+2er's and torturing them to death. We decided to head back to Wynn and see what was cooking.

Coming next, Mixed Games at Wynn and chaos at Rio...

Felicia :)

Glenn Round II

2006-06-28T16:19:00.000-07:00

Glenn has got to be the nicest guy in the world (to be married to me, you'd better believe it).

Since he is so worried about my health and playing in the series, he decided he'd just try to win another seat.

Yesterday he played all day, while at times multi-tabling in other games. He got close a couple of times, but no cigar.

Today he did the same. He finally made it past the first tier just now.

What a fantastic guy!

Kind of hurts that no seems to recognize this. I see a billion comments on other blogs when someone wins a big seat, but pretty much nada on Glenn's. It's too bad that the bloggers have to take out the hate they feel for me on him. Some of these people have met him, played against him, sat next to him at restaurants, talked to him, etc. But they hate me so much they can't even be bothered to send a quick IM saying "good job, bro."

And I wonder why I pulled away...

Felicia :)

Hookers and Vegas (Part One)

2006-06-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, so here are some more happenings after Glenn won the 10k seat on Saturday night, and we drove up to Vegas on Sunday morning.

I think we rolled into the Wynn at about noon. I looked around for the mixed game, but there was only an interest list. I am batting about 0:829 with informal, 2+2 get-togethers. Mostly they are younger, newer guys, aged 21-26, who think some old broad is going to ruin their good time, donking it up at Wynn and trying to pick up hookers.

The more formal get-togethers are a shoo-in. They can't duck me ;)

Since we had about six hours before the moderator dinners at Mirage, we decided to play a little bit at Wynn. I sat in the O8 game, Glenn got into a couple of LHE games. It was kind of dead and we only ended up staying an hour or so.

We headed over to Bellagio after Glenn called up and found out there was a Stud game going and three names on the list. By the time we made it to the room, I was fifth on the list. Although we got up to six, none of the old dudes would play "short handed," lol.

While sitting around, I talked some with my friend Jean Gaspard, and went through some scenarios about how to fix the dilemma with the WSOP seat. I also talked to Mr. Subliminal, and we joked around about bloggers taking things so seriously that they really thought he was living in a shelter, and totally believed he lost $439,922.18. Right down to the pennies. We tried to come up with some shtick about how we left Bellagio together and had sex in his cardboard box, or in the shelter, or something.

We finally got the Stud game going, and I started off doing pretty well. I did lose with unimproved queens one hand, when my opponent made a second pair (eight & deuces), but then I won a huge pot with rolled aces.

Some players get so unlucky with rolled hands. I hear lots of stories, and Glenn has showed me so many hands online where he lost being rolled up.

I am extremely fortunate that I almost never lose with a rolled up hand. This helps me in two ways. First off, I never get a case of the MUBS, so I continually pound rolled up hands when I have many opponents drawing against me. I definitely make the most of my rolled up hands which win. Pots are typically big, because I don't chicken out when I see a four-flush against me. I just know I'm going to fill and that is that ;)

At any rate, on this hand I was extremely fortunate because the opponent next to me had the case ace as his doorcard. So I had the advantage of disbelief working for me. Also, I had been raising quite a bit with high doorcards and stealing many pots. I was involved in almost 50% of the hands thus far. We had started out a little shorthanded, plus I found myself with a lot of royal doorcards in last position when no one had opened. So between legitimate hands and stealing hands, I was in tons of pots. My opponents probably saw me as a young, cocky, WPT female wannabe who was running over the table. Although I am almost 40, to the elderly Stud players, I probably look the same age as the 20-somethings!

Okay, so I had two unbelieving opponents when I was rolled up. And I just kept pounding. One guy made his flush on sixth, but the pot was so huge that I just kept right on going.

On fourth, he tried to play the semi-bluff "raise a scary board for a free card next round" trick, but I simply kept raising him. I believe he had a jack doorcard, then caught the ten of the same suit on fourth. I saw him look down at his board, look at my board, look down again. I could almost read his mind, thinking that he had such a tough looking board, that maybe he could fool me into thinking he had a straight flush draw. Welp, all I can say is, a four card hand is not a made poker hand, so until you shove that straight flush up my azz, I'm going to keep raising!

Luckily, there was a victim caught in the middle of all of this, who kept passively overcalling everything. I'd make it one, he'd cold call, JTs guy would make it two, I'd make it three, passive guy would overcall.

Passive guy overcalled all the way to the river, then folded for one more bet! Oy, maybe Stud isn't dead after all!

Almost an $800 pot. Nice.

The game went a little dead after that, and Glenn and I decided to leave. He wasn't very happy in his game, either, and said all of the live ones went bust and took a hike.

We met at the cashiers. Glenn told the guy to give me the money. The guy asked me, "Wow, who are you to get all of the money he brings up?"

I said, "Isn't it obvious? I'm a hooker! Of course, I'm the ugliest hooker Bellagio has ever seen, but oh, well, he paid for it!"

That got everyone laughing, and one guy said, "Sadly enough, you're NOT the ugliest hooker I've seen here!"

And so, we departed for Mirage, where I had the 2+2 dinner of a lifetime.

More to come...

Felicia :)

Yes, it Really was "That" Felicia

2006-06-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

Wow, I just had one of the most bizarre weekends of my life. What a story. I guess I'll start from the beginning.

I have said before that back in 1894 when Glenn and I signed up for some online poker accounts, most, if not all sites had a "one account per household" rule. So we mostly used my name, opened Neteller in my name, and used the nickname FeliciaLee.

I never really dug online poker, so Glenn continued on while I played spottily here and there over the years. Glenn simply kept the FeliciaLee name on most sites, and when both husband and wife were allowed separate accounts, unless he was being offered a sign-on bonus or rake back, he never bothered.

Okay, so that being said, Party was another one of those sites where we only had the FeliciaLee account.

About a week ago, Glenn decided to enter a freeroll on Party for a WSOP seat.

He didn't bother to find out any of the details. You know how it is with freerolls. 5000 people enter, and only a tiny fraction move on (sometimes less than 1%).

Usually, in the weeks leading up to the series, Glenn plays freerolls here and there on different sites. He can typically tolerate a couple per month, maybe more. It is a horrible, grueling process, as I'm sure everyone knows, and it can be super frustrating.

Take last year, for instance. Glenn entered a freeroll on Paradise for ONE main event seat. The top xx players moved on to the next tier. So Glenn played 5-10 hours, and moved on in one of them. The next tier an even smaller number of players moved on, but of course there were a smaller number registered. So instead of 50 moving on out of 5000, maybe it was 25 out of 1000. Glenn once again played many hours, then moved on. Finally the real seat was being given away. ONE seat. I don't think any other place paid out. The field was big, well over 1000 if I remember correct. Glenn played about a dozen hours, and finished in FIFTH PLACE!!!

Anyone who has been through this horrible, grueling process over and over again gets sick of it mighty fast, and stops trying to win big seats via freerolls online every day.

So back to my point, Glenn usually can tolerate maybe 10 altogether in the four months or so leading up to the series.

Glenn has long been a master of the satellite. He can adjust his play so expertly that he tends to cash or qualify way more than the percentages say he should. Of course, this has a negative effect, too. He has to play long, horrible hours, and sit around hour after hour while players stall, hoping to somehow sneak into the money (thank God this practice is verboten IRL).

So Glenn moved on last week. I think the top 50 out of about 5000 on Party moved to the next tier of the main event satellite.

On Saturday, the top 16 would get seats and accommodations, everyone else would have to start over. Glenn also had a seat for the million guarantee sat on UB. He planned to play both, then we were going to head up to Vegas for a dinner that 2 + 2 owners invited us to attend on Sunday.

Glenn started at 1:30pm. I believe there were about 3300 qualifiers.

I went to bed at about 6pm (my normal time, I know, it's early, but I have to if I want to keep gardening).

Glenn was still in the sat. I don't remember how many players were left. Maybe 200. I ended up waking up in the "middle of the night," lol, about 9pm. Glenn was practically on the bubble, but also on the ropes. Even the biggest stack left only had enough chips to go around the table maybe five times!!!

Everyone was playing their best game. Mostly the shorthanded tables would fold, fold, fold. One desperate player pushing all-in, then stealing the blinds and antes to be able to survive for another round of play.

Glenn pushed in a couple of times, getting lucky to have ace-something (never getting called), small pairs (never getting called), and then AA (never getting called). Although it sounds like a nightmare that he never once got called during the last hour, the blinds and antes were so, unbelievably high that he suddenly found himself with almost a million chips. No, that is not an exaggeration, I truly mean one million.

The blinds were 75/150k, the antes were 5k, I believe. The highest stack had only a little over a million, lol. Glenn went from 300k to about 900k and then could sort of sit for a few minutes to see what happened. Most people were hovering under 500k, so he was praying they would have to take more chances and get called by comparable or bigger stacks. That is exactly what happened, and several people busted quickly out of sheer desperation and getting blinded out.

The final twenty went down to 17 pretty fast. Then the bubble. It lasted for a few minutes, but eventually a desperate stack went all-in with AT and was called by the chip lead with Q6. Chip lead made two pair, and Glenn was in.

As an odd, horrific side note, these players were stalling for literally HOURS before this tourney ended. Even though play was hand-for-hand, they were so retarded that they didn't even realize that stalling did nothing except run down the clock. THE TOURNAMENT IS HAND-FOR-HAND, PEOPLE!!!

This is the key reason that so many serious players cannot tolerate freeroll sats for big event seats. Hello!

I am thankful that live tourneys do not tolerate this form of cheating. Last year at the series, a ton of newbie, green players tried the whole stalling routine when they were close to the bubble. Over and over again, I heard the TD's on the PA announcing that if they were caught stalling, they would be disqualified from the event. Since the series has gotten so big, they can't always go hand-for-hand near the bubble, or events would take two weeks to wrap up.

Anyway, Glenn won the seat.

And then I gave him the bad news.

Um, no. YOU didn't win the seat, Glenn, I did.

Yes, I'm trying to get this changed. Yes, I'm not above using the "cancer card." No, we did nothing wrong, we simply followed Party's rules at the time that we signed up. Yes, Party knows this. No, I do not want the seat. No, I do not want to play. No, I do not believe I am strong enough to play in the ME. No, I do not think I can sit in that claustrophobic room for 12 hour days. No, I do not want to be on TV. No, I do not want to be noticed or get any attention. Yes, I'm still trying to get permission to give the seat to Glenn.

Yes, it was "that" FeliciaLee.

No, I never played a hand.

Yes, I will finish with a trip report about our bizarre Sunday and Monday in Vegas. Stay tuned!

Felicia :)

When Do You Release Your Winning Hand?

2006-06-23T07:15:00.000-07:00

Do you remember this post? Maybe you didn't even read it all, because I have posted dozens like it over the years. The main thing I want to point out in that post is the part where I talk about holding on to your cards until you are stacking the chips from the pot, and sometimes even after, if there is any doubt whatsoever.

Although that post was meant to be somewhat humorous, in response to Matt's excellent post about what makes a "good" poker blogger, harhar, most of what I was saying in such a ranting way is absolutely true. You must protect yourself in poker. This cannot be stated too many times. I know, without a doubt, that so many of you are sitting there, reading this, sighing and shaking your head. "Oh, blah, once again Felicia is telling us the most elementary things that ALL of us know, because we are such poker gods and never screw up..."

Yep, you're all so great that I see you in poker rooms giving up giant pots because some angle shooter took advantage of your supreme poker prowess. None of us are above getting scammed. I have seen Phil Ivey get scammed in a moment of distraction, and you can, too. I certainly have.

So read this post on Two Plus Two, and really think about it. Commerce is filled with scum, and most people know this. The thing that tends to confuse victims at Commerce the most is how fast the play there is. I am usually the fastest Stud player at the table, wherever I go...EXCEPT Commerce. At Commerce, I am the one requesting "time" at least once per session. The dealers there are very fast, and very competent, on the whole. The players play extremely fast, to get more hands per hour, especially when we are paying time. They are action junkies, too, and if they have to fold a hand on third, it is almost a national tragedy for them, so naturally they want to get the hand over with as fast as possible, so that they can move on to the next starting hand. Commerce is one of the only places I've played where dealers rarely have to ask daydreaming players to put their antes out. The players are ready for action, and that makes even some very seasoned, out of town vets (like me), make more mistakes. I purposely force myself to slow down and play in the manner I'm accustomed to playing (which is already pretty fast, compared to the octogenarians at Bellagio). In perhaps 100 hours of live Stud play at Commerce I've never been the victim of a known angle shot. But I have been the victim of cheating (if you're really that interested, read the archives).

Please, I'm trying to help, not hinder your poker journey. Protect yourself!

Felicia :)

Stay Tuned

2006-06-22T15:02:00.000-07:00

I'm working on something right now, so be patient and I'll have a poker post up soon. No, it's not the live cheating post I promised. That one will have to wait until I'm done with something else.

Until then, please feel free to go check out Glenn's new post.

Felicia :)

Washington Law FYI

2006-06-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

I rarely talk politics here. Even when the politics have to do with poker. There are so many, well educated people who can say it a billion times better than me.

Plus I just really am not very interested. I don't have a passion for politics.

But I have finally decided to speak up on one subject regarding poker. And one subject only. And the only reason I'm speaking is because weeks after the law was passed and activated, people who should know better are still spouting lies.

The law in Washington was proposed, backed and supported by DEMOCRATS. Yes, liberals. Yes, left-wing. Yes, the tree hugging hippies singing Kumbaya. Yes, your "own people" turned on you.

No, it has nothing to do with politics, obviously. Online horse betting is allowed. Online lotto is allowed. There is an Indian or B&M casinos on every corner. But suddenly, something that the state doesn't benefit from is illegal, and even a felony.

This is not about political sides. This is about money. Don't be a moron, do some research before you keep spouting off on 2+2, RGP and on your blog that the "right wing, ultra conservative, religious majority, born-again Christians" are once again taking away your freedoms.

Do you really think the congregation at my little, rural church has that much power??? That we ware sitting around plotting to "get you?" Put prohibition back on the law books? Tell you that you can't play poker because it's a sin and you're going to hell?

Um, no. Maybe a hundred years ago conservatives wielded that kind of power. These days it just isn't so. The tables have turned and it's the conservatives who are getting told what they can and cannot say/do in public with regards to religion.

I could post a ton of links to convince you guys that the dems are riding this baby, but you would probably just accuse me of purposely posting links that were lies. The truth is everywhere. It is the subject that everyone is discussing on RGP, 2+2 and sites all over the Internet. So do the research for yourself. It doesn't have anything to do with liberal vs. conservative. It is all about the MONEY.

Ray's New Book

2006-06-21T08:55:00.000-07:00

Probably not many of you know this. After all, who else besides me and a few other no-life losers actually surf the Internet for twelve hours per day looking for new and decent poker information? I hope most of you said "not me."

Ray Zee has a book coming out. I know, I just lost most of you to faint. It is supposed to be titled: Winning High Stakes and Short Handed Hold ’em; Expert Limit Hold ’em for Serious Cash Game & Internet Players by Ray Zee and Dave Fromm.

I hope you read that twice. Yes, he will not only be teaching you how to win high stakes games, but also shorthanded games. Shorthanded doesn't necessarily mean 5-max or 6-max, btw. I know that new players have a very hard time understanding the difference.

Ray has only written two other poker books, both considered the definitive works in their subject matter. Both are dated, but can be utilized in today's games by very easy adjustments, which I have touted time and again. An old poker book doesn't necessarily mean a bad poker book, it just means that you have to take in mind the differences in the game.

Felicia :)

Cheating and Poker

2006-06-20T07:15:00.000-07:00

Part One, Internet Poker

Although this post is aimed at beginners, and experienced online players already practice caution and diligence, I feel that anyone, at any stage of their poker journey, may benefit from another look at the topic.

Cheating is something that comes up so often in poker it is to the point of absurd. Not absurd because it doesn't happen, but absurd because it is something so ingrained in poker that it seems to go hand-in-hand with the game.

From the earliest mentions of poker, you will read about problems with cheating. I'm not going to sit here and tell you it doesn't happen, both live and online, but I will tell you some things which may help you avoid or even benefit off of cheating.

Most people are probably scratching their heads wondering how a person could possibly benefit from having a cheat, or cheaters at their table. It is not always as bad as it seems. First I want to tackle the online world of poker, and then, in another post, I'll tackle live poker.

Let's say you are about to open up the software to play at an online poker site. First you must decide what game you want to play. If you are concerned about bots and teams, the most logical thing for you to do is look for a game and limit that flies under the radar of the most likely "infected" tables.

Get into the mind of a person who would create a bot and put it at the table to play for him. If you were a cheat, where would you place that bot? Probably not the lowest stakes, but definitely not higher stakes, either. So let's just say that if you want to avoid a bot, you won't play between 2/4 and 10/20.

Let's assume pot-limit games are likely to be bot-free, so those are clear for us as far as that goes. Let's further assume that Stud games will not be infected. The one thing that the creator of a bot wants is reliable, steady income. He doesn't want to deal with the swings of variance, so he is going to choose a relatively low variance game to place his bot into. He probably is going to choose Hold'em. I would guess either low limit HE or low buy-in NLHE. So that leaves the other games theoretically free.

Now that we have narrowed down which games to play that might have a better chance of being bot-free, let's narrow down the games which might have a better chance of being cheat-free.

Cheaters benefit in games when they can squeeze a victim in between them and get him to put his chips in with the second best hand. The best hand will keep pushing you higher while the junk hand will keep pushing you even more. This is so elementary that it borders on ridiculous. In other words, if you know you are being cheated, that means the cheats aren't any good ;)

Online, this is the most common form of cheating that we see daily. The cheaters are caught by anyone with half a brain, and they go somewhere else. Some sites are more diligent than others when it comes to catching and banning these guys. But when I started this post, I assumed you were bright enough to pick the very best poker sites to play on, which have at least the appearance of integrity.

So what games would colluders sit in? The number one choice is going to be Hold'em, I believe. They have a better chance of getting lost in the crowd in HE. Just two little peons in a huge ocean. They most likely will not be playing for big money. People who play bigger pay more attention, in general. The games are fewer and farther between, less players are playing eight games at once, more players will recognize nicknames and the signs of collusion. So I think that cheaters will probably stay at 3/6 and below. In NLHE, let's say $100 max buy-in or below.

Remember, these are assumptions by me, so don't try coming back here and claiming, "I was cheated at the $500 buy-in NLHE! You said there wouldn't be any at that level!!"

While cheaters may not last very long at a site, in the meantime they might take your stack. And if you think that the site is going to go back and do your homework for you, think again. They will not be checking every, single hand history and refunding your money if they aren't alerted. You must be diligent and report suspected cheats. In addition, you must follow up on it. Also, if someone at your tables busts said cheaters, you must not think to yourself, "Oh, well he already did it for me, I don't have to do anything." Think again. You need to write to the site, or you can just kiss your money goodbye. It is a rare thing when a site writes you out of the blue, says they busted some cheats who were at one of your tables, and gives you some dough.

So now I've given you some guidelines on what games to play, and what limits. Let's move on to the fun part, where you get a chance to use cheating and bots to your advantage and have some fun with them, while frustrating them to no end, busting them both monetarily and then reporting them to the site!

There are some games where it is to your advantage to have a lot of players in the pot at times. In most forms of poker, this is not the case. Schooling is usually not a good thing, and that is why aggression is so important.

But then there is the one, the only, THE OMAHA. My, oh, my, is Omaha ever something to behold. Retard poker at it's finest.

Omaha is so different from most poker games that it really deserves it's own name. Maybe pokhim, instead of pokher, lol.

In low-limit Omaha 8, the laws of poker don't really apply the same way as other games. Sometimes aggression is not the key, but rather fishing for MORE callers, by overcalling or calling along with the absolute, mortal nuts. Seems completely the opposite of Hold'em or Stud, right? That's because it is :)

So where better than to bust a team? Where better than to have fun taking advantage of a bot? Yeah, you got it, in Omaha.

In O8, colluders only lose MORE. In O8, schooling only puts more money into YOUR hands. It is a sight to behold. So many players grumble about cheats sitting down at their table in Omaha. I grumble, myself, AFTER they are busted! Seriously, though, if they cheat in any way other than collusion, I do the ethical thing; I bust them first, not later. But that is live poker, I'm talking about online poker, where palming is impossible and stealing chips out of another stack is impossible. Collusion is really the only thing these idiots have going. And if they are stupid enough to sit down in an Omaha game, well then god bless them, I'll sit right there until I have everything.

Remember, in Omaha 8, your nut hand only gets stronger with a lot of callers, not weaker. So sit back and let the cheats give you their buy-in's. It will make you feel better during a losing streak, and you can report them as soon as they are busted, if you are so inclined.

In conclusion, here is my best contribution to the topic of cheating in online poker. I am obviously addressing new players in this post, not hardened, experienced vets. I do not have enough firsthand knowledge of online cheating to address the topic more thoroughly.

This post has taken me quite a while, because I simply don't have as much experience playing online as someone who has played quite a bit in ONE month! Over the past four years, I've only played sporadically. Glenn was kind enough to step in and give me some help with this one, although we both still maintain that we are speaking in very general, definitely disputable terms.

When you deposit money into any online cardroom, you are taking a gamble. Whether it be state law, international disaster or a myriad of other things, online poker is still a gambling endeavor. Choose wisely. Be diligent with your money and your choices. If you play at a location other than your own, personal computer, never save your password to log on automatically. If your own PC is shared with others, ditto.

If you use common sense, the likelihood of getting burned is less than if you take unnecessary chances. And yes, this is before you even sit down at the virtual felt!

Monitor the table before making the choice to sit in. Watch the players and the pot. One site may have a rake policy that makes the game unplayable. Protect your money!

I hope I have helped out one or two new online players. It was a difficult post for me, because of lack of experience, but if nothing else, I pray I have made it clear to be cautious and aware whenever you decide to play online poker.

Felicia :)

Wheaton and Diamond Redux

2006-06-20T06:13:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try to work on a real post today.

But first, I just want to apologize if I was wrong about the bloggers and Wheaton. This is why I hate listening to gossip and rumors. I usually don't spread them or give them any credence, but I felt that I got it from a good source and no one had ever bothered to dispute it over the years. Shame on me.

If it is true, that Mr. Wheaton, like all good poker players, "made his own luck," then I am all the more impressed with his poker celeb success.

Regardless of how Mr. Diamond got into a financial bind, my point is still valid, that the bloggers wield a lot of power that can be used for good. In this case, it might hook me up with some fun poker porn with a giant penis. That would simply make my day!

Felicia :)

Dustin Diamond

2006-06-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

Today there is a discussion on OOT about Dustin Diamond. He was the character, Screech in Saved by the Bell. I guess he mismanaged his money, so now he is in danger of losing his house. He obviously has a good sense of humor, as indicated by his career and selling of tee-shirts with him being a broke bum.

Anyway, I figured that the bloggers have a lot of power. Power enough to get someone like Wil Wheaton into the poker spotlight, on TV and a deal with Stars. No offense to Wil, but that is some feat!

If the bloggers wield that much power, which they do, then surely they should be able to turn some guy with a recognizable character name, and a reputation of a monster schlong , who has a good sense of humor, into the poker porn king!

I put out some feelers. Surely bloggers can turn this into something. I don't have the personality to make this happen, but I have a good reputation for copying other great ideas, lol.

I'm thinking: porn, strip poker, monster schlong, poker...something has to fit!

Felicia :)

Blogger Freeroll FYI

2006-06-19T05:27:00.000-07:00

I didn't play in the Blogger freeroll. FeliciaLee was Glenn.

Back when we first opened a Stars account, only one account per household was allowed. I learned this the hard way, after having spent the winter with my Mom in Nevada. We opened a Stars account once we retired from AOL. I think it was in the fall of 2002. When we left for the east coast spring in 2003, my Mom wanted her own account. Since we'd opened our Stars account with my Mom's address (we had our east coast house for sale at that time), we were unable to open an account for my Mom. Eventually Stars believed us about the situation and let my Mom have her own account.

Since I don't play online very often, I just assumed their policy was the same. Once again, Al bailed me out of a situation I've become to hate more and more over the years. He told me that Stars had changed their policy, and that he knew this firsthand, since he and Eva had separate accounts.

I went and read through everything on their site, and noticed that it does seem to be allowed.

So now I can open another account, an anonymous account so that I can play in peace.

I don't think I've had one Stars session in the past year or so which hasn't ended in IM's, PM's or e-mails. Someone from 2 Plus 2, here or elsewhere assumes I am playing, when it is usually Glenn. They ask me why I'm slumming in the NLHE micros. Why I'm playing Stud 8 when I said I only play O8 online. Why I'm playing in a LHE freeroll. Why, why, why. They are offended that I didn't answer them in chat. Offended that I left the table right after they sat in.

Since Glenn rarely has chat on, and I never do, I changed my location to indicate that I wasn't chatting. I also don't have avatars on, so no one would understand why I didn't "get" their pic, or why I had a pic of our Chihuahua on Stars when I've always said I don't usually post dog pics.

With a new account, I can just play an hour here or there every once in a while, working off that Stars bonus in peace and anonymity. I don't have to have some stupid avatar that Glenn put up, and I don't have to listen to people complain about my behavior or game selection.

Believe it or not, I'm not looking for attention. We opened that account four years ago, and never figured I'd become the trainwreck of bloggers back then. FeliciaLee was just some low limit Stud player. Still am, I guess. I didn't understand the impact that a nickname I wouldn't be allowed to change later would have on me. I just don't dig it.

So look for "IBustChumps" from now on at Stars, lol.

Felicia :)

Adjustment

2006-06-16T07:40:00.000-07:00

Since I can't spend twelve hours (off and on) outside anymore, I have drifted back to playing a little O8 online.

I'm not an online player. I will never be, unless illness forces me to become homebound. Even then, I would probably only play when I was so bored that I couldn't stand it anymore. I do not believe, in my lifetime, I will ever be classified as an "online player."

When I open online poker software, the only two thoughts going through my head are usually: this will help pass some time, and, I'm going to make a little scratch. No thoughts of fun and enjoyment ever enter my mind.

Okay, so that being said, since Stars is doing another bonus, I figured I may as well get the max, too. Stars has always been my favorite software, and I play there most frequently for more reasons that I won't go into right now.

The only game I can tolerate online is Omaha. I can play (in order of preference): LO8, PLO8, PLO. Forget the rest. That is it.

I have never played higher than 3/6 limit or 1/2 blind PL. The only reasons are that I am not funded for anything higher, and I can't roto-play anything higher (most likely). I want to play one table, two max, and surf at the same time. If I am forced to play more than two tables or forced to stop surfing, I simply will not play. I have many years of online experience to support these statements. I'm not whining, I'm not complaining, just stating a fact. I don't have that full-time, online grinder mindset (I truly wish I did).

Yesterday I jumped around all types of limits. I played a good looking 3/6. I played a .10/.25 blind PLO8. I played .25/.50 LO8. I don't have any feeling of false pride, or being "too good" to play a certain limit. My thoughts about poker have always been, "sit in the best game." While I AM picky about the variation I will play online (only Omaha), and the amount of tables, time, upper limits...I am never picky about the low end of the spectrum. I will play at .01/.02 if it's a good game. I don't care what anyone thinks of this, or of me. Yes, I had so many railbirds asking me what I was doing in micros that I finally had to disable chat altogether. Plus lots of time it's Glenn playing, and I didn't want him to have to deal with the questions all the time (he plays a lot more games than I do).

So yesterday I was bopping around, playing on and off for a couple of hours to stave off boredom. Something happened which reminded me of one of my constant themes in this journal, something I am screaming over and over again to readers, to try to get them to understand and help them become better players.

Adjustment.

Adjustment, adjustment, adjustment. It's almost the location, location, location of the poker world, isn't it? And adjustment/location are sort of the same thing when it comes to poker, too.

I am always telling readers that they must adjust to everything. The current "times" of poker. The venue, the game type, the limit, the players, the individual game, tourneys or cash games, live or online, the rake, the BBJ. On and on I could go.

But with some players, it just doesn't sink in. No way, no how. I could yell it from a mountain top day after day, until my throat stops making any sound, and some players will still assert that poker is a rote game, to be played in a rote way, and never to be deviated. They will assert that there is a specific poker playbook, and it should be obeyed to the letter, regardless of anything that changes.

Some of them consciously admit this. They assert on 2 Plus 2 that this is true. This takes balls, I admit, because usually these people get absolutely blasted on the forum. Lorinda is one of them. For years s/he has asserted that there are no such things as tells, no psychology in poker, and that the game should be played in a rote like manner with no deviation, period. You can imagine the flame-fest when people like this make those assertions online. Oddly enough, the field is pretty divided when it comes to this issue. There are so many new, online players who have never played live, and have never played anything but hold'em. So that is to be expected. Rote play is their bread & butter. I, myself have often said of these low buy-in, NLHE games: sit, sit, sit, shove, repeat. Or "wash, rinse, repeat." Easy peasy. It's not rocket science, that is for sure.

Okay, so those people have some balls to make these assertions, but they are correct somewhat in their limited scope of play. The rest of us, who have been virtually everywhere and seen everything know the difference.

Adjustment is one of the main keys to success.

I was playing in a good 2/4 LO8 game on Stars. I was just folding and folding, minding my own business, until I was dealt an AA5J ds hand. Raised before the flop and four of us saw it.

The flop was all low: A63, with one of my double suited suit. I was amazed when an EP player bet into me. I raised. Two players were caught in between us. I believe that one got out after calling two bets, but the other stayed in throughout all four. Yes, I realized that I didn't have a low, but I still had a decent low draw, and I wanted to make the initial bettor pay for any high draw that he had.

The turn brought a high spade, so now I also had the spade draw to go along with my set of aces (currently the nut hand).

Once again, I was bet into! How fortuitous could I be? Once again, another player stayed along for the entire ride of four bets.

The river paired the board and I was sure to have the nut high (because it paired the turn card). Once again we made it four bets. But this time, the guy who stayed along throughout the whole thing folded after two bets cold to him. Also, the aggressor once again kept betting into me and raising. He never slowed down for an instant. Not even one blink of the Stars eye.

I figured he must have some kind of low, and I obviously didn't. But we lost the guy in the middle after two bets, and the max rake had been paid long before, so I wasn't going to slow down.

Glenn even questioned me in the middle of the whole thing, asking if maybe I should slow down. I didn't answer, nor did I slow down (we usually try not to do this to each other, but he obviously couldn't help himself).

After the last bet went in, the total pot was $120 ($117 after the rake). And lo and behold, it was pushed to me. Scoopa!

The mindless raiser had 66. His low had been counterfeited on the flop, and like me, he never made a valid low, with the two high cards on the turn and river.

Once it was over, and I was out of the game, I told Glenn that in a game like .25/.50 LO8, yes, I might have slowed down. But in 2/4? I adjust. I know that some players can be trickier, or play differently than nut/nut. I'm not slowing down. The rake was taken, there was a player in between, I had the lock for high with a redraw to the nut flush. No, in this game, I'm not slowing down.

And this is why adjustment means so very much in poker. I played my opponent, plus the two players in between. I tried to get as much money into the pot as possible, knowing that sometimes I will lose the whole thing. I knew that the raiser could be capping without a nut hand, and although it is probable that he has a low, or the passive caller has a low, I'm going for more money when I have a great hand.

If the passive caller had a low, he gave up half the pot. But I understand how he could think, with all of that action, that there was no way his non-nut low could be good. So although he got out way too late if he didn't have some monster high draw to go with it, at least I was able to get him out of half of the pot, by forcing him to call more and more bets. If he did have a low, I'm sure he kicked himself after the hand. But that is what we have to do, if we want to make more money. Slowing down only would have cost me half the pot in that spot.

So there you have it. Adjustment won't necessarily turn a good player into a world-class player, but you just might get some extra scratch into your bankroll if you are able to adjust to the difference between a nut game and a non-nut game.

Felicia :)

Check-n-Raise

2006-06-15T05:54:00.000-07:00

I guess by now everyone knows about the Check-n-Raise debacle. I have been pondering and pondering how to approach it.

This is one of those instances where I hate being right. This is one of those times that I warned everyone about, but no one would listen. I knew something was rotten in Denmark back in 2004 and ranted and railed against that site.

I hate being right sometimes.

Casino Arizona Might Actually Spread Some Real Poker?

2006-06-11T06:25:00.000-07:00

Do you remember this post?

Seems that after we visited CAZ, things just spiraled downwards into a mess that equaled IWTSTH abuse virtually every hand. Lots of fighting, lots of physical confrontations. We even saw one physical confrontation when we were there back in 2004.

We said we would not return until CAZ decided to spread some real poker.

Well, I guess they have!

While I am not overly fond of the way they decided to put a reign on IWTSTH, at least it's a step in a right direction.

Much better than the floorman who told me, "I was wrong, that the IWTSTH rule is defined as players getting free information about the table, and how other players play."

Felicia :)

Crash and Burn

2006-06-10T06:53:00.000-07:00

Well, another oldie and goodie has bit the dust and decided to turn their festival into an ALL HOLD'EM, ALL THE TIME event. This year both Mirage and Commerce bowed to mo' dollas. I wasn't planning on attending the California State Championship this year anyway, but it sure is sad to see poker being defined as NLHE.
------------------------------------------
In that same vein, Glenn's latest post reminded me of the many times I have seen new, Hold'em specialists crash and burn.

Howard Lederer said it best when he warned the poker community to specialize at their own peril. I could never say it as well, nor do I have his reputation so that people will listen, but I have long said that once the current boom is over, what is going to be left?

Don't get me wrong, poker will survive. Always has. It might be just a shadow of what we have been experiencing in the past few years, but it will be there. And I truly believe that Hold'em will always be the prominent game in casino poker. I just wonder what will happen to the great games, and if we will go back to scratching like chickens just to survive.

Anyone can win a tournament. Anyone can be "hot" for a year or two and tear up the tourney circuit. We've all seen it. Seen it many times over the years. I get asked all the time, "Hey, what happened to so-and-so who was so hot back in 1999? I haven't seen or heard of him for years!"

And so the crash and burn. The biggest mistake that I see new, hot players make is that they suddenly believe they are the best thing since sliced bread after winning an event or two in short order. This is probably the worst thing that can happen to a young, new player. He's the hot item in town and getting tons of offers, attention, accolades, TV exposure. He convinces himself he is a poker god, and can do no wrong.

I remember playing at a big festival back in late summer 2004. A new 22 year old was playing, and a guy sitting beside him was chatting it up with him.

"Yeah, with the way you're running, you should enter all of the events. You could have a shot for best overall player and earn even more."

The young god bristled, "Are you kidding? I wouldn't play anything except NLHE! Those other games are bogus. They are for kids and old men. REAL poker is no-limit Hold'em."

Long-time pro tried to be polite, "Don't you think it's dangerous to make sweeping statements like that? It could wreck someone to specialize in one form of one game and refuse to learn any others, if for no other reason than to get better at their specialty by excelling in general poker ability."

Hot pro was offended, "Don't you know who I am? Haven't you seen me on TV? I have won hundreds of thousands of dollars this year playing NLHE! How much have you won? You don't know what you're talking about! Poker IS Hold'em and that is all there is to it. You old guys are living in a fantasy world. We are going to take over and you will be left behind because of your refusal to adapt to the new poker situation!"

The young guy cashed in one event during this festival. Bombed out of the rest of the NLHE events. And was virtually dead in the water for the next 18 months.

I saw him again, now aged 24. Head down, a lot more humble. Claimed he had some kind of backing deal now, and had to get a real job off and on during the past year. Did some quasi-illegal activities, according to those expose websites that abound these days.

Suddenly the young poker god didn't seem so omnipotent anymore. Much matured, much weathered, grinding out both big and smaller tourneys, playing some mixed games on the side. Kept his mouth shut. I didn't talk to him, but I could imagine the type of conversation we would have had if I'd brought it up..."Wow, I wish I'd listened to that guy back then. He's been around the poker scene for twenty years. Instead of writing him off, I wish I'd done some studying and opened up a little bit, instead of blowing all of my winnings within six months after the series. I even had to sell my bracelet. That sucked. I thought I was unbeatable. I thought I'd continue to win forever. I never thought I'd actually have to play a cash game, or play anything other than NLHE. I figured I was set for life. Who would have thought that six months later I was dead broke? That guy has supported himself even during the deadest days of poker, and I blew him off like some jackass. I was a moron, a fool."

I see young guys burn themselves out so quickly. It seems to happen overnight. On both 2+2 and poker blogs, they will win one, two, three big tourneys (or make a really high final table finish) and then strut round like false gods. They won't listen to anyone. They are way above poker advice. They use their recent results to try to convince people who have been around a long time that they are omnipotent. It's sad to see the eventual crash. Suddenly their nicknames aren't around anymore on 2+2. Blogs are shut down. Online poker sites they had an agreement with drop their name as one of the "pros."

I think probably one of the worst things that can happen is for a new player to go on a heater. It takes him much longer to recover, if he ever does, when he starts out so hot.

I remember when I went on a heater at the Belle. Seemed like every tournament I either won, or cashed in. It was so consistent that a group of regulars even petitioned the CRM to have me ejected as an "obvious cheat."

Thank God these were only small events. Or I might have never recovered. I also knew that it wasn't so much my skill at poker, as their awfulness at it, lol. I also had my cash game past to bolster me during the rough times. I did, however, fall into the trap of playing almost all tourneys, all the time. Talk about burn-out! Not only did I cool off, but I started playing more cautiously, more tight, more guarded. I got incredibly bored, especially with Hold'em. And my cash game play suffered. And on and on. Every year I was struggling to make up the deficit of my tourney entries by grinding cash games. What a horrible way of life.

It's better to be a guy who stays humble, stays grounded, cashing or winning here and there, gradually rising in the poker world, than to start so hot and then crash.

Felicia :)

Technology of the Future, an Update

2006-06-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

Dang, I love being right. If I say something positive and encouraging, I absolutely LOVE it when I'm correct. Of course, if I predict something negative and it comes to fruition, I hate being right.

I remember a loooooong time ago when I first heard about dealerless poker tables. Like almost everyone else on 2+2, I was appalled. But then I opened my mind and started thinking of the possibilities. I really put aside my gag-reflex about the whole idea, and tried to think positively.

Increase game speed by 50%? Decrease angle-shooting? Eliminate cheating (for the most part. Some cheaters will always find a way)? Keep games like Stud and Omaha alive and FAST?

Maybe this wasn't such a bad deal after all.

I have never seen one of these machines, nor played at one, but I am ecstatic to report that many players who have tried them are feeling the same way I do.

This is NOT internet poker. It's nothing like internet poker at all. That is the first thing I thought of, hence the biggest reason for my gag reflex, lol. I don't like internet poker, never have, so why would I support anything even vaguely similar?

It is still LIVE poker. You still have an opponent on your left, and one on your right. Maybe the guy on your right still stinks like he always did ;)

You will still have tells, telegraphing (albeit a bit different than before), WPT kids, table talk and everything else you have come to love about live poker.

What you won't have is misdeals, buttons in the wrong place, chip palming, stealing, dealers taking five minutes to change decks, count down decks, count down their box, get fills, make change, etc (this is not their fault and a necessary evil of a live dealer, absolutely no offense intended, that's just the way it is).

Yes, there will be bugs. Yes, there will still be some kid staring you down for two minutes while he decides if it's worth it to call your $2.00 raise. But hopefully the bugs will work out over time. Idealistically, the machines will be so smooth and so fantastic that every cardroom will want one.

I pity dealers who will be out of work, but let's be realistic, the best ones will ALWAYS have a job and always have a place to go. They will be either in the poker room or in the pit, but they will always be making good money.

I was ecstatic to read a real, live, honest report of these machines by another blogger. Just a regular guy, a yahoo like the rest of us (not a "paid" poker superstar whose best interest is to hype the machine).

Thanks, Falstaff, and please feel free to contribute to this thread, as I will continue to monitor and contribute to yours.

Felicia :)

Assumptions, Carnivals and Dealers

2006-06-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how long a first impression can last. Or even a false assumption. I am very guilty of this myself. I tend to form hard, fast opinions on things that aren't necessarily true. I try mightily to either keep my mind open or to reassess an assumption (or opinion) as time moves on, but I believe that it's human nature to latch onto something, then stick to it, no matter what. Horrible, horrible human nature.

So it should come as no surprise to me, but still does, that people assume so many things about me that just aren't true at all.

In the past, all I heard was "You only play tournaments, you never play cash games." Um, okay.

These days I hear, "You hate tournaments, you hate tournament players, you only support cash game play." Um, okay.

In the past I heard, "You hate Hold'em and will only play Stud." Um, okay.

Now I hear, "You hate Hold'em and will only play Omaha." Um, okay.

I have heard, over the years, various assumptions about the way I play. Here is one by two totally different players in the same tournament, "You are a rock." "You are a maniac." This is a good thing, btw. This was back in the days when I could adjust easily playing tourneys (I no longer posses this skill, unfortunately).

Today Drizz thought that my head would explode because of a quote by Phil Hellmuth, "Hold'em is to poker what G-5's are to airplanes --- the biggest, fastest, and best!!"

Given the context that Phil was talking about (again, I'm making assumptions, but that is my only choice in this circumstance) I do not disagree with this quote at all. I assume he was talking about his own place in the poker world; large buy-in tourneys, low juice, multiple event festivals. If that is the case, it's a no-brainer.

Lots of people hate Phil. Most people don't even know him. I don't claim to know him either. In person, he seems like an okay guy. Nice, friendly. Some social awkwardness, like most poker players. I think that he is likely telling the truth when he says that he started the whole whining shtick as a way to overcompensate for a low self-esteem. I tend to think that the reason he continues it today is partially because it is so ingrained and he cannot help himself, and partially to keep focus on HIM. It surely does. He could have faded into the background like so many other former champions. Instead, everyone still talks about Phil, for good or for bad.

He's really an okay guy away from the tables, from everything I've witnessed. Huge, sweeping assumptions can be dangerous. For me, and for everyone else.
----------------------------------
Bill Rini is perhaps trying to raise the bar on Poker Blogging. In my most generous, benefit of the doubt, positive "assumption," I'm going to credit Bill with having the best of intentions with his Carnival idea.

Maybe he is just as sick as I am about certain expert bloggers not getting any attention at all, while the snippy, gossipy, back-stabbing, ego-stroking, Mr. Popular, American, non-controversial, recreational bloggers get all of the accolades from their "friends" who write up these Best Of awards.

Yes, I am assuming an awful lot, but I'd like to give Bill the benefit of the doubt that he has EVERYONE'S best interests at heart, and would like to showcase individual posts that make certain bloggers the real BEST OF out there.

When I write up and publish my favorites, one thing I try to never, ever do, is leave someone off because I don't like him. My personal like or dislike of the blogger has nothing to do with whether his blog is great, or shite.

I don't care if he is or is not controversial. I don't care if he has me linked or not. I don't care if he likes ME. I don't care if he is American or not. I don't care if he is male or female. I don't care if he is "popular" or not.

Yes, personal bias is still going to come into play. No list like this is going to be totally objective. Sure, I'm going to choose more serious blogs, in general, than "harharlaughitupfuzzball, I'm losing my buy-in every night" blogs. That is personal preference. I cannot be completely objective when publishing MY list, nor can any of these other Best Of writers. But I try to be at least somewhat objective. I don't sit around listing my "friends," when I know that their blogs suck.

Anyway, if you are interested, please go over to Bill's blog and submit your best posts, or someone else's best posts. That way individual posts, not individual bloggers are getting the credit for their great work, and hopefully we can look beyond the poster as a whole.
----------------------------------
A newish blogger on the scene had a quote that I got a great kick out of today :

"I still really don't get it when people complain about how badly their opponents played and still beat them. To me a beat is a beat, being outplayed or outdrawn doesn't make a difference to me, except in the ways I play against that opponent the next time."

Ah, the times, they are a changin'. Thank God.
----------------------------------
Please feel free to skip the rest of this post and stop right here if you are not a dealer, not interested in becoming a dealer, or not interested in reading about dealer issues.

I have long wanted to talk about dealers. I think I have several, uncompleted posts, but I'm too lazy to go back through the archives and read them.

Many dealers would say that I am anti-dealer. That I am too hard on some of them and give them grief. I think that most dealers, however, know that I am very pro-dealer. I am often subtly encouraging my tablemates to tip (some have never played live and truly have no clue). When I am in a tournament where nothing, or very little is taken from the prize pool for dealers, and I see that they are being given the shaft, I usually rally the players who cashed together for some extra tipping in order to make it worth the time of the dealers and the cardrooms to spread good, well structured tournaments. It is in my best interest to keep the cardroom open to good ideas and good tournaments. It is in my best interest to keep the dealers happy, fast and accurate.

I also joke around to sometimes take the heat off of a dealer. If a dealer starts screwing up (and this happens a lot, we are all human) and I notice the table getting more and more tense and angry, I start some kind of shtick, which to the outside observer, or maybe even a dealer with horrible self-confidence, might look like I'm giving him trouble. In truth, I'm trying to cool things off at the table. Once again, it's in my best interest. It has little to do with protecting the dealer, it has to do with my own bottom line.

When it comes to abuse, however, I DO go out of my way to protect dealers. I call the floorman, I absolutely put a complete stop to dealer abuse, and do not tolerate it at all. I don't care if I'm in California and it's the norm, I don't care if the entire table is against me and it hurts my bottom line, it is the correct thing to do ethically and I will stand up to anyone who tries to abuse a dealer. It matters not that the abuser might be considered a world-class player. I will take him on and have. He may be a world-class player, but he sure isn't a world-class human being if he has to stoop to being verbally and/or physically abusive to a dealer!

Obviously taking a stand against abusive players is NOT in my best interest. I'll just say that again for you, because I have been in some horrible situations. My worst nightmare in dealer abuse came true at the Razz series event in 2004. I was sitting at a table with some well-known players. Howard Lederer, Dennis Waterman, Nick Frangos, Ernie Cobb, Sam Grizzle, etc. Everyone had a bracelet or three except me, lol.

The bummer was John Bonetti. He bragged about killing people back when he was in the mob. He abused almost every dealer who entered the box. He abused other players and purposely tried to "cut" dealers with his cards (zinging them into the dealers hand or chest). He laughed at them and called them every name in the book, especially when they took his abuse personally. He cursed at them, and everyone else at the table over and over again.

I complained three times. Nothing was done. Finally, I went to some people who had influence. Jan Fisher, Linda Thompson and Mike Sexton. I had to get them during a break. With their influence (not just some brand new, green yahoo like me), finally he was given some very stern warnings and told to STFU. He pretty much did this, but busted out not long after, unable to keep himself from steaming off all of his chips after being warned.

Throughout this five hour ordeal of hell, not one of the aforementioned players did anything, to my knowledge. Of course, after he was busted, a couple of them were embarrassed and tried to claim they talked to a TD about it, but I never saw this, nor did Glenn, who was sweating my table the entire five hours.

So this is something that I feel very strongly about, and I wish that more well respected players would take seriously. No dealer deserves to be "cut" because he or she dealt someone blanks. It is not the dealers fault if the player is running badly, playing badly or steaming. Don't take it out on a dealer in my presence, or I WILL get you 86'd, you can count on that.

Now, with all of this dealer kiss butt, I have to turn my attention to the present situation of dealers and what they can do to make things better for themselves, and to make more money.

I truly, 100% have their best interests at heart when I say these things, and I think readers might actually agree with me if they have really read and comprehended what I wrote previously.

First of all, if you want to increase your speed, accuracy and salary, read Mason Malmuth's book. Get it from your CRM, the library, or buy it on ebay for $2.00. I don't care how you get it, but get that book and memorize it, live by it.

You may not like Mason, and he probably doesn't care. You may hate him, his tone, his attitude and everything associated with him, but be realistic, he is your best chance to virtually doubling your income and enduring a heck of a lot less grief at the tables.

In my honest, most blunt and candid opinion, dealers should be like robots. Don't get all huffy, offended and click away. I am saying this because I like you, I want the best for you, I watched my Mom go through torture over the past fifteen years, I watched Glenn slowly increase his earnings until he was the top earner at River Palms and finally: this is the approach I, personally would take to dealing if I were in the box. If I think it's good enough for ME, then believe me, I'm not putting you down.

Dealing should be like a computer, a machine, a robot. No human "emotional" qualities whatsoever.

In general, it seems like players take out their frustration online by abusing other players in chat. Players take out their frustration in a B&M room by abusing the dealer. The dealer probably won't strike back, whereas a player might, it could be dangerous to abuse other players.

I have seen a dealer take it personally and pick up his heavy chair, striking the player over the head/back with it after a player punched him, but on the whole, most dealers are too shocked and horrified to take this kind of action (I would, lol).

My Mom has been struck from in front and behind, kicked, slapped, had cards thrown at her hands, chest and face, had drinks flung in her face, been elbowed from behind, been burned with cigarettes and of course has been verbally abused. Many of these things were tolerated up until the turn of the century, and are still tolerated in some cardrooms.

My Mom took a passive/aggressive approach to this abuse by playing dirty tricks on players like mucking their unprotected hands, reading hands incorrectly, "accidentally" dealing someone out, etc.

I do not advocate either approach (neither tolerating it, nor the dirty tricks).

I advocate what I call the robot approach.

First get it into your head: IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU!

It is never, ever about you. It is about him, and his horrible day, horrible run, horrible life, horrible wife, horrible playing and anything else you can think up. It never had anything to do with you and it never will, unless you make it about you. That is the very worst thing you can do. Don't take it personally, don't make it about you, and you will save yourself SO much grief.

Does this mean you should tolerate abuse? Heck no! No, no, no, never. Instead, let the input hit you like it would a computer.

What happens when someone tries to curse at a computer "dealer" online? Maybe the word is blocked, maybe the word goes to support, maybe it is starred out. The computer usually rejects the word. The player is reported and his chat is suspended or revoked. Sometimes he is banned from the site altogether if he is a serial abuser.

You can take a lesson from this. Do NOT compute! Call the floor. Like a computer alert when it senses something it cannot comprehend. Don't take it on yourself, call the floor. Be objective, be truthful, be accurate and report what is said. Report it like a computer would report it, with no bias, no elaboration and no drama. Let the floor handle it. That way, you are never the bad guy. Let the floor take the heat, that is what he is there for. Your tips won't diminish, they might even increase (if a dealer is THAT good and objective, I tend to increase his tips, double or even triple versus his co-dealers).

I am not rewarding the dealer for being objective, I am rewarding him for not taking it upon himself and wasting our time, not creating drama, not allowing the abuse, keeping the hands cranking out instead of stalling the game for minutes, and a myriad of other reasons.

The better you are, the more I'm going to tip you. And everyone, everyone who knows me knows that I am a tightwad. So it is in your best interest to not take anything personally and just call the floor. Boom, no decision, no heat, game over.

Taking things personally will slow up the game, cause your blood pressure to explode, cause everyone else to get into the mess, cause the game to go to crap, make you look like the bad guy, cause you to make mistake after mistake and so many other negatives that I could list them all day. Don't fall into this trap!

Do you realize that the abusive player wants to snare you? He wants you to argue with him. He wants you to banter back and forth so that he has reason to continue his abuse. He absolutely does not want you to call the floor. He would rather you be silent and ignore him so that he can continue the abuse, or for you to engage. Calling the floor kills his action and makes him look like the azzhole that he is.

It's not about you. It never is. Don't compound his mistake by making one of your own.

Be pleasant, smile, be cordial, be competent, be gracious when tipped, but never, ever engage these idiots. You are a much better person than these scumbags. Rise above it, don't stoop to their level.

Now that we have the biggest issue out of the way, what about when you make a mistake? Once again, be that robot.

You are going to have horrible nights. You are going to have misdeals, exposed cards, buttons moved twice and a virtual avalanche of other dealing problems. This doesn't have to be the nightmare that some dealers make it.

As soon as you make a mistake, and someone says something, just stop. Don't take it personally. He or she is not out to get you. It is NOT about you, nor is it even your dealing. Don't be defensive, don't lie about the situation, just stop and call the floor. Game over.

Obviously be very quick about this, when you need to call the floor. Don't slow down the game no matter what.

There are many situations where you do not need to call the floor. If you know proper procedure, you will be able to fix the error yourself with very little drama. Don't make it into a nightmare, just say thanks to the player who pointed it out, and get back to work. Don't argue with the player, don't get defensive, don't fight, use your head.

The biggest problem I have at the tables with dealers taking things personally is when I am trying to do the ethical thing, and they still argue with me. Button was moved twice, now I am able to skip the big blind and post only the small. Nothing was said by either players or dealer. Maybe the player moved the button (don't do this, please), then the dealer moved it again. Maybe the dealer accidentally moved it twice. It happens, it's part of the game. It's no one's "fault."

But dealers seem to take this more personally than any other problem in the box. They immediately get defensive. So defensive they are arguing and fighting with a player, a player who pays their salary, over some stupid plastic puck. Really, you do not want this.

Use your head. If an observant, long-time player says to you, "Um, I am supposed to be the big blind. The button is wrong," do you really think he is pointing it out in error to his detriment??? This is absurd. Why would a player purposely put himself into the big blind twice? Think for just a nanosecond, use your head.

WHY IN GOD'S NAME WOULD A PLAYER VOLUNTEER TO PAY THE BIG BLIND TWICE?

There is no logical answer. Be a computer..."does not compute..." If it makes no sense, then it is obvious that the player is trying to do the correct, ethical thing!

Why get defensive and argue with your bread and butter??? Why cause drama, a scene, an argument, slow down the game, look like a fool, trying to "reprimand" your own customers?

Just think for a minute, use your head. No one is "out to get you."

Whether your are right, wrong, being abused, being heckled, making mistakes or any other problem at the table, take it like a robot, a computer..."does not compute," and call the floor.

Not only will this make you a perfect dealer, but you will get more hands out per hour, hence more tips, you will be tipped better by regulars, you will be praised and thanked, you will have the pick of any shift, any days, any cardroom, and you will be making a heck of a lot more than any other dealer who doesn't do this. I promise you.

Glenn made an average of $30 per hour when he dealt for ten months. Towards the end of those ten months he was making better. He was fast and silent. He was praised as the "new superstar" on Cardplayer Cruises and invited back carte blanche whenever he wanted to cruise and deal.

Glenn stopped taking things personally and just started cranking out the hands. He stopped chatting, stopped trying to hold conversations in the box, stopped arguing and just called the floor. As soon as he realized that being computer-like was to his advantage, he became the best dealer that the Palms had.

And this was considered the "deadest" cardroom in Laughlin. They have the least business for the number of tables. They are known as the graveyard. Dealers dead spread more than actually deal there.

Through all of this, he still AVERAGED $30 per hour.

Think about it. Think and then lose your "humanness." Your wife, your players, your pocketbook will thank you.

Felicia :)