Deck Facial, Good Questions from a Shark Veteran Player

Hockeys Scott Stevens Greatest Hits


I checked out Websters this morning:

deck facial n.

1. Your 36% to hit a flush draw arrives on the turn 50% and riv another 25%.
a. result; atm chasers and 80% "see" floppers are slow played and sent home early.
b. after capping pre UTG your set hits the flop 3-1 of the time not the std 7.5 to 1

2. You put your name on the 10/20 "wish list" after 45 min at 4/8 kill.

3. You gamble and pay to peel off the turn card cause pot is huge and hit your nut gutshot, twice in one hour.

4. 2 words. "Flopped Boat"


Had a good time at Tulalip Casino on Saturday. Sat at 4/8 (biggest limit game in room) for 2 hours and received a complimentary "deck facial" for my 20 min trip to the Tulalip Tribes money printer. I have been on a nice roll live ring lately and was feelin good as I sat down with my normal 20X the BB or $160. I recommend sitting with plenty and rebuy when I get lower then $60. These guys that rebuy 3 times ($60-80) crack me up. They crinkle up their faces like they can't believe "they" had to rebuy then slow game down waiting for chips. I wanna have a nice stack, show the table I have plenty of chips (and will be using them aggressively every time i'm in a pot)and am not gonna crinkle my face up if I need to rebuy. Its just a minor setback. I'm gonna have yer chippies. Sure, it doesnt always work out that way but I think its going to. I don't see many good players at 4/8 live. Quality of play probably compares to about .50/1.00 (online poker).

This table is more passive then most 4/8 games (is that possible) and I can see the disappointment in their faces as I raise the first three pots pre flop and of course all 6 callers do their thing (call).

The first hand 1 have 63o but i'm on the button and looking to test this table out early. We get six callers of the 8 buckers for a nice pre pot of $48. Floppage comes J82 rainbow and I like it. checks around to internet player on my right (said he played at pokerparty) who bets and I raise cause i'm gonna show down jack hi and take this pot for image. Only 1 other caller and PokerParty play chipper calls so 3 to the turn. Turn is 5 and puts 2 diamonds out there. Check, check, I bet, and flush chaser guy calls and PP guy bails. Riv no flush and a blank. I bet 8 and flush chaser folds to bet. No pair and I politely lay my 63o in middle of table so all can see that I may not have a hand while making wagers in the future.

Back door flush chaser guy gives me a death stare and I make note to self. I gotta do that again, soon. ha! 9 man ring is so slow and boring, I have to amuse myself or i'll go crazy at 30 hands an hr. So I do a similar move about 10 hands later (68o). Then as I had hoped the "deck facial" started. Of course, I get called down for the next hour and a half as I show down 2 boats (1 flopped), 2 nut flushes (1 capped pre by me with A10h where 5 players called 4 bets pre), 2 gut shots filled on turn and other assorted atrocities.

2 hours and i'm ready to head out. +302., 37.75 BB or 18.875 BB per hour. I busted out of the $90 buyin event earlier so net was +212. 95 lopasses entered and I went out about 30th. Bluffed into a guy that took a stand and it was nh, gg. The complimentary donuts reminded me of the car business so I just had my std baileys/coffee.

Every day I get up is a good day with no car business in my life. Success in Poker will keep me away from auto dealerships, so I will be working hard to make a living in this great game. I have not replaced my income as a sales closer (or finance mgr) yet but our sites and Shark membership list is growing (about 1000 new players register per month currently) and our new partner Checkrayz Poker (freerolls galore, www.checkrayz.com is rocking as well.

Keep up the good work Mike "IDRINKALOTTABEERANDPEEALOT" (screen name at Kiwi Poker)!

_____________________________

Here is a great question from one of our most popular Shark players Steve "reelcrazy" from Pennsylvania. Hes gonna be disappointed when my Seahawks lay the smackdown on his Steel curtain, hanky wavin fans this Sunday in the GAME. Hawks by 2 TD's. Steve posted this on my Forum. To see entire thread go here:
Reel Thread

Reel wrote;

I have been doing alot of experimenting lately with stats. My bankroll is limited and hard to keep up without depositing pay check money (last time i hand to dig into wifes purse was oct 05). This makes experimenting hard because I like to play tournys and if u dont make bubble money is gone.

So heres the deal, Bodog i have been playing tight tight tight aggresive, my flops seen is down to 15% but my win percentage if flop seen is over 90% (this is amazing to me) I have placed in money in every tournament but i am always short stacked at end because of so few flops seen.

Now poker time i have played a little loose, Flop seen percentage around 28% but win percentage if flop seen is down below 50%and have not been in money here for the whole month.

The obvious answer is somewere in the middle right, but what is in the middle.
I really do want to invest in poker tracker but i am computer stupid and am afraid i cant run it as $55 from my bank roll would be a pretty big hit for me. And is there still suppoort available if u do get it and how is support for us computer stupid lags. I call support for stuff and after they ramble for 5 minutes on what i need to do, i say " huh".

Just need some advise from my friendly fellow shark poker tracker users, so hit me with it.

Shark ideas;

First of all thank you for the excellent, honest post buddy. I agree with Clay on the PT but I think I know what the bigger problem here is. Tourneys are not a good way to build a bankroll (BR). They are hi risk/hi reward, are very time consuming and can dent a strong BR like nobodies business. Been there, done that. You and many others are fighting to stay afloat when you should be grinding it out at a game you can kill. $1 sits, $5 sits, .25/.50, .10/.20 or whatever game you can beat any day. Add 2, 3 or 6 tables at that level and make the new players pay your way into tourneys. You are a strong player. You probably know what limit you can tear up (Limit or NL).

Tourneys also don't get you bonus money or rakeback. My first 6 months online most of my profit was bonus money. I chewed up hands 3 tablin .25/.50 and was making about $1000 a month in bonus and 200 in rakeback. Would I preferred to play tourneys? YES. But I like $$. And to move up in the ranks I needed a BR. So many good players get stuck at 1/2 or less because they gotta play above their BR (or skill level) or play to many tourneys. I made one deposit ($350 I think) and protected that roll and didnt even take shots at bigger games (or more tourneys) until it was 300X the BB that I was playing. To play 1/2 I needed $600 bucks minimum. If it went backwards to $400 i went backwards to .50/1.00. I had a good job to add to BR but my wife was leary about my "gambling" and I wanted to show her I could beat this fun new game and prosper. We started taking vacations on extra BR about a year in. Rewards for all the grinding I did and hours pouring over PT stats, bugging top players on 2+2 (thanks stripsqueeze, mssunshine, and others) for optimal PT stats.

Josh Arieh didnt cash for 10 months after his WSOP 3rd place (2.5 million). He spent about 400K in travel and buyins in that time. Negreanu has been cashing his checks at 7-11 (for tourneys) for the last 10 months until he finally got sum cards last week and cashed 750K. These guys are both proven Tourney animals that hit the ugly bitch called variance. They had the BR to handle it. Congrats Daniel! I knew it was just variance!


Example:
I can teach you to destroy $5 Heads up sit n gos in about 30 min (if you can't already). You can beat this game for 20-30 an hour no problem. It is the lowest variance game on the net IMO. Then when you have added to BR reward yourself with a tourney entry or 2. When you make a nice hit in a Tourney take half proceeds and add to BR. Use other half to play tourneys. BR management is the key to this game. And improving with PT and game skills.

Quote from Reel:
So heres the deal, Bodog i have been playing tight tight tight aggresive, my flops seen is down to 15% but my win percentage if flop seen is over 90% (this is amazing to me) I have placed in money in every tournament but i am always short stacked at end because of so few flops seen. Now poker time I have played a little loose, Flop seen percentage around 28% but win percentage if flop seen is down below 50% and have not been in money here for the whole month.

Shark;

If these numbers are correct you need to work on what you want to accomplish and get a clearer idea on what optimal %'s are, Steve.

15% see flop is way to low (especially for low limits) Not sure what limits you play, could you post that? 90% won when see flop can't be correct but 35% is about optimal. A higher number here (like 50% means you are folding to much and not showing down hands that are winners (probably middle pairs or maybe just Ace high , especially short handed). For example I wouldnt want to be 30% "see" at 10/20 cause I would get killed but I would probably want to be about 30% at 1/2 or less since I can outplay those players more often and win more hands so I can shut er down quicker. Certainly you want to be at least 23% see at 6 handed or less. for low limit.

After thinking about this part some more I think you mean "won at showdown" not won when saw flop.

50 to 56% is good for "won at showdown". Also, keep in mind poker site stats suck. They often are incorrect. Get PT.


My suggestions for optimal PT stats. Remember, I play limit ring so NL guys may want to do more research.

Shark PT info

PT will build good habits as you improve each "leak" in your game. After you purchase it (from sharkmasta) I will tear apart yer #'s. You will have so many problems it will be scary. Plus a ton of bad habits. I was lucky and started with PT the first month online. I rarely have to think about decisions pre now. Its automatic. PT tells me if i'm where I need to be. I still struggle with my pre raise % and blind stealing %. Most would say i'm very aggress. but actually i'm not as agg as I believe optimal to be.

Purchase Pokertracker thru this link (or just try it for free, 1000 hands max)
PT LINK For Shark players

This offer to tear apart your stats and help your game is to you only Steve for posting in our Forum. I don't teach Poker currently. If you would like my help just email after loading your first 8-10,000 hands. Or just post in our forum and Clay, Conn or others will help you a ton as always.

Stacks Poker much anticipated software will be released in beta form any day. Be the first to test it out then play in our $1000 Freeroll in about a month. They will be having fun beta tourneys and be giving out prizes to players that support beta testing. Our Sharks are 800 strong at Stacks already and we will be having many big freerolls here as well as massive swaggage. Stacks Manager Kevin is jacked about our #1 ranking worldwide for Stack registered players. Our 1st freeroll will be the first private "roll" at Stacks.

Register here now, then soon you will receive your download:
http://www.stackspoker.com/?signup=st527501

All new depositors here will receive the NEW Shark hat (or tee) for 300 raked hands of .50/1.00 or higher limits.

Later this week....Strong Live Tourney "Guest" blog from Online/Live Tourney animal, heads up killer and Shark vet NRG70. Located in the Canadian Witness Protection Program NRG lives in No. Ontario. I have mapquest to his home, just email for directions.

Deck Facial, Tourney Results, Live Short Handed Action

Sharks Favorite Pro Player above Layne "Laaaaynooo" Flack


Hello Worldwide Army of chip tossin' loonies and gamblin' degenerates;

Dropped $110 down as usual for the buyin Thurs night. 95 lopass entered (loose, passive, copyrighted Shark term) and I get table 17, seat 8. No killers at this table lets shuffle up and steal!

I flop the nuts (str8) on second hand and guy in 10 seat flops 2 pr. He leads into me with 500 bet (3/4 pot) and I just call. Turn is a blank and he must sense weakness from my call and fires out 1200. hes only got about 1000 left from our starting 3000 so I raise to 2000 and he pushes. nh, gg.

He had won the first hand so my new buddee had me covered and is still in tourney with T300 (T is Tourney chips). Quickly ran my 6K stack up to 12K and was probably chip leader after first hour. I don't go around and count chips so this is just a guess. This early it doesnt matter anyway, still plenty a work to do.

I ran into my little bro ("ArtieStegman", manwhore)Mike and talked him into playing this tourney. He was short stacked early, hung in there and finished just outa money in 15th. 10th pays 250. Good job, Artie. I believe this was his first higher buyin event and he played well. He has been tearing up the fast structure 20-30 man low buyin events around town and is no rook. My criteria for good tourneys is blind structure, Arties is whether or not they have a free breakfast attached to the buyin. ha!

Card dead for next hour and then get a nasty table change with about 40 left and sittin with about 11K. 2 aggressive huge stacks to left. Blinds are 400/800 and Artie is on my right still short stacked. Strong "big stack" play as both stacks are taking turns opening for huge raises (about 3.5K) and just lookin to knock us lil stacks out. I'm not often impressed in this event but I am by these 2 guys. I'm ready to go into push or fold mode with about 25 left sittin on 8K. Can't find a decent hand in position and finally push last 8K with KJs as expected 50K stack calls with AJo and its gg nh, one toofed, no skilz shark. Out 17th. Lil bro made his move moments later.

Played well and getting better at "chippin up" early. Still much improvement to be made here. I need to be more fearless in middle stages. The blinds escalate so fast that you need to double thru a few times to survive and win in middle stages, IMO. I'll continue improving and think my hand decisions have been excellent. Just a little to conservative on entering pots and mixing it up. I have to remember that I can outplay these guys that play live twice a week and see 200 hands a month. Thats my first 1/2 hour on monday morning. Use that experience to outplay and build a bigger stack in mid stages, then punish small stacks with aggression when we have 30-40 players left.

I get grumpy when I get knocked out in any event (common knowledge with my members)so I take my customary lap around the giant Tulalip Casino and try to decide if I wanna play 4/8 since that is the biggest game going currently. No Limit seems to be the rage and plenty of $500 buyin action there, but I like limit ring. One good thing is limit will get shorthanded often lately and thats a game I won't leave. 10 hrs, 15 I don't care. Its almost always very profitable and its so much more fun. More on that 5am game later.

So I grab a seat at about 9PM on Thurs, we play a few hands and I convince table to play a KILL which means the stakes double to 8/16 if a player wins 2 hands in a row. I buy in for my regular 20X the big bet or $160 and I get pounded by river beats for 2 hrs. Huge pots, kill games and a drunken pot builder add up to one of the worst 2 hrs I have ever had live. I re-buy for another hundy when I get below 60 and was stuck $250 in first 2 hours. Couple gems from my new drunk bud. I got KK in mid position. He raises in early position ( he does this almost every hand, could have anything) I raise it to 12 bucks and he never misses a chance to cap. 4 players see flop of 3 7 J, no suits. Me and PB (pot builder)get HU by the turn which is a blank. I know I have him but it still goes bet, raise, reraise cap cause thats what he does. River queen, huge pot, bet, raise, call. He shows Q3o for a huge pot scoop. He says man, I dun that 2 you three times, you don't learn....then he laughs as he adds to his $500 stack.

I say "yes, you have been very lucky, but I want you to know I would never leave with you in my game", "if you decide to move to that table I will move with you". He mumbles something orders his 12th shot of sumthin nasty and then this comes out of his sloppy pie hole. "Hey, if you so good we should play heads up later?" cha ching! I say, "well I haven't played HU before, but i'd like to play you now". He declines and I proceed to punish him every half hour "lets play now, you have a nice stack and i'll rebuy again?" He won't play me.

I like this table. Hes making the pots huge and playing every hand. Big mouth has skills and is just running over most of the players and outplaying them post flop. I find out later hes a 20 year cardroom drunk that is a small winner playing the hyper aggressive, pot builder role. He works at liquor store 3 minutes away and has to be to work at 7am. Its now midnight and I have a lot of work to do. For the next 3 hours nothing happens. Stuck. I'm thinking about leaving at 3am (-250) but then he says something else brilliant and it fires me up. Hes sittin with about $500 and one other player has almost $400. We are now shorthanded and with a kill it seems we are playing more kills then regular 4/8 games. 5 handed. This is my game. I kept the kill for 4 hands at one point, punished the 2 big stacks and made several bluffs ridin my heater. About 6am, drunk sloppy (he goes to truck for vodka on smoke breaks, so still drunk) is down to about $140 and not so cocky. I'm now +170 for a sweet +400 swing in about 3 hrs. Finally my big cards are holding up and the poker gods are punishing the chasers and 80% see floppers.

"How bout a lil heads up sloppy dude?" haha! I can really stick the needle in if need be and hes outa gas, money and blurry from me showing him huge pairs, sets and flushies for 2 hrs. I gotta goo ta work buddee. He leaves.

Just 3 limit players in the room now and 2 nice guys say sure lets continue. We request (and receive) a rake break for the short game, and the deck continues to hit me in the face. I don't think I would need cards with 2 inexperienced short players but it certainly made it a easy on me and I felted them both in about 45 min.

+380 now, 2 no limit games going and i'm the last limit guy in the room. Its about 8am for a 13 hr session and I can wait for the regulars to roll in (about 9am) or head out. I hate leaving on a heater but i'm rummy and hit the road.

Totals, 13 hrs, -110 buyin for Tourney (no cash) +380 limit ring, profit $270 or 33.75 bb, 2.6 BB per hr. These totals include food, drinks and tips. It's part of the cost of being there so I don't subtract to inflate the bottom line. A good night. I'm proud of how I hung in there, didnt tilt (okay maybe a lil)and saw that there was an opportunity to turn it around with patience and aggression with my dominating starting hands. And then I got to play shorthanded! This is rare in many Poker rooms.

Get out and play sum live tourneys! The competition is so weak compared to a Shark buyin or even any good $20 buyin on the net.

I had another great live session today and will write about the Saturday $90 buyin and another deck facial when I have a little time.

Hope to see you all in our Sunday Shootout at Titan! 2 events! Huge freeroll and $5 buyin!

Click here for more:

Tough day at the Office.......

Steve and best buddeee, Cody.


To change things up a little i'm going to post some daily results for my online play (not just live).

Played 6 heads up sit n gos at UB. 5- $50 and 1- $20. -97. Ran bad and went 2-4.

Got tilty so I played a $50, 10 man sit n go. I have always done well in these so thought that might str8en my head out. Heads up is pretty intense and I seem to need a break at about the 90 min point.

Deck was being kind to ole Sharky for the first 45 min and I quickly built a huge stack with 4 left. Top 3 get paid (250, 150, 100) I had double the chippies of second place (T7000). I take a gander at my screen and see KK. It was destroyed by 57o (flopped 2 pr). I limped so I paid the price. as he doubled thru me on the 5 2 7 flop that looked pretty to KK HU. 15 minutes later I trap the new leader with AA vs. his A9s. Hes a 9-1 doggie but of course we get 4 of his suits and i'm out on the bubble. Yes, another bad beat story but I have good nights I write about also. We all have these nights. Tommorrow I will get up early (11am), play well and pay some bills.

2 ten dollar tourneys with no cashes puts the fun day at -174.

Tommorrow night is Tulalip Casino $110 buyin and I need to get out of the house. Even my mutt Cody appears to be ready to get rid of me for a few hours.

Great Sharkette event tonight! My lovely bride played next to me (almost cured her of weak raises tonight) for her 3 hr event, she played well and finished 5th for a nice cash. LuckisaLady was tough as nails and took this monthly extravaganza down for a $50 cash. She also took out my newest staked player "chippies" for another $20 transfer tommorrow. Chippies was third and was her usual aggressive self. Man, that grrrr can play. Shes not afaid to mix it up and applies pressure constantly. Congrats also to Tigger (2nd) and SpacieLayc (good name) 4th!

214 entered. We need to get more entries next month (last wed of every month). Tell your grrrrfriends! Its a small field, good added $$ and lotsa fun man bashing. They even made fun a ole sharky I heard. There may be repercussions.

I'm determined to light it up tommorrow. 2 consecutive losing sessions ain't gonna happen boyz and girls. I'm playing too well and jacked about Poker. Plus, I need a new roof. $15,000 worth. oh boy.

The Tourney tommorrow will pay about $3500 and thats a good start.

I love my new job, all my new (and old) friends and the support I get from so many every month.

Steve

Online Legend, Gigabet

Gigabet and Carlos Mortenson (pic)


Online Poker Legend, "Gigabet" (AKA Darrell Dicken) posted this recently in the STT forum on 2+2. Its a history of his life in poker and a fun read.

Written by Gigabet:

I cannot remember a time where I didn't know how to play the game. I think I was taught by my stepdad, but I am not sure, I was very young. I remember when I was very young, my mother and my stepdad religously went to a restaurant for breakfast every single morning, almost without exception. I can remember sitting in the restaurant, probably 7 or 8 years old, playing 5 card draw with my brothers and my stepdad while my mother finished the paper, coffee, whatever it was grownups did when I was 8 years old.

We would play with pennies, I don't think I understood the concept of money yet, but I remember enjoying it when I got to keep the pennies. Most mornings I would go with them to breakfast, if I wasn't in school, that is. Every morning we would play 5 card draw, some weird variation of blackjack that i cannot remember how it went, and gin rummy. Or solitaire, if my stepdad wanted to read the paper and david or doug(my brothers) didn't come with. I went with them to breakfast every morning until I was high school age.

In high school, I remember getting kicked out of biology class at least once a week for playing poker during class. Me and a friend would play $1-$3 stud(alot of money for a kid just starting high school) and crazy games with wild cards. I never got in real trouble for getting kicked out, cause my brother was good friends with the vice principal, so I just went to his office everytime she sent me out, and took a nap on his couch in his office.

David and Mr. Blau was his name, both were incredibly idiotic baseball freaks. Apparently 30 years in age difference is small potatoes for a cubs fan. Being tortured for almost 100 years takes away all concept of age.

While in high school, I got a job at a hotel as a desk clerk, and one of my long time friends also worked there, and my uncle worked there(who is my age, and more like a very good friend than a relative.)

After working there for a few weeks, I discovered that the owners of the hotel didn't care what we did while we worked. Hell, no one ever came and checked in, so I guess, why would they care, as long as they could keep paying minimum wage. The hotel has like 100 rooms, and 95% of the year, it would be less than 10% occupied.

Anyway, once I discovered the owners didn't care what I did while I worked, I started inviting friends over while I was working. There is an apartment in the backroom, so it isn't like they were all hanging out in the lobby, but eventually we decided to play sick gambling games(in between the sheets, man or mouse....omg, I think I still owe a friend of mine 7 or 8 thousand from back then, when I never had more than 200 in possession in one time). Eventually we stopped those games, cause someone always went broke, no matter how much they brought, it is the nature of the game to bust someone, just sick.

So we all started playing poker, I played poker in that hotel, every single night, with the same 3 people, various others came and went every night, but David(my brother), Danny(my uncle), Jeremy(my friend) and myself(me)were seriously in that back apartment of that hotel every single night for 2 years straight. We played 7stud, 5card draw, some lowball games, and a couple goofy games for, what was to us, relatively high stakes. We could win or lose 2 or 3k in a single night.

I was 16 when I started working there, and I guess you could say that was my first real taste of a poker game. Everything else I had played was for pretty low stakes, and always on the fly, and short handed. I think I won my first session there, and I remember consistently going over a week without having a losing session. I almost never lost. None of the 4 regulars lost very often, but even when it was just us 4, and no one else, we always would play games with a ton of wild cards, or lowball, cause I never would lose to them.

After playing in the hotel for about a year, we started going to this casino that was about 45 minutes from us. I got myself a fake id, I was only 17, but i don't really look much different then than now. Anyway, this was before the poker boom, in fact, this was the poker depression, all the casinos were predicting that all the pokerrooms were going to be shut down because of lack of business.

Holdem wasn't very widespread at that point in time, in the midwest you couldn't even find a holdem game on the weekends. It was all 7stud, and omaha had just gotten started too. But at the casino I went to, no one ever played the omaha game, except on saturday where a $5 blind single blind plo game would go off. It played like a 10/25 game though. These people were insane, avg pot on the turn card was 500.

I was stuck with 7stud, which I played regurlarly until holdem started getting spread again. Which was like 5 years later. Fast forward to me being 24 years old.

When I was 17, I got very interested in pool, and began playing that everyday. By the time I was 24, I was able to compete with everyone in the midwest, except for the players that were known professionals. So I started to travel around to play pool. Eventually, it got to the point where I couldn't really make any money in it. The only people who would gamble with me, were people who could beat me. My name had become fairly well known in the pool world, so players who actually stood a fair chance to beat me, wouldn't play me, cause they knew that I was a name player. It was a very frustrating time for me. Fortunately, there was usually a poker game in whatever pool hall i happened to be in, although small stakes. Occasionally, I would get some rich farmer, or a local bookie to play hu with me at higher limit. I remember once, I was in Sterling, Ill. for a pool tournament, and there was a card game going on during the tournament. It was like a 2/4 omaha 8/b game. Anyway, one of the guys in the game asked if anyone wanted to raise the limit. I was the only one who said yes. So it didn't happen. But the guy offers me a HU game, I say sure, what stakes. He said 500/1000....I said ok(I had maybe 2500 with me, 500/1000 was wayyyyyyyy over my head at that point in time.) Fortunately, I had friends who saw me win every time I played, so i was able to get 50k from 3 different people. Lol, i have 50bb for this game, not Big Bets, big blinds.....how ridiculous is this bankroll for this game. Fortunately, the people putting the money up had no idea that 50k was not even in the realm of reality in the world of 500/1000 limit holdem.

We get to his room, and he offers the cut, and he deals out 4 cards....?

I look confused, he says, I thought we agreed we were going to play limit omaha all high. What?

I didn't want to lose the game, so I said whatever. But, I had never played all high omaha before, i had seen it played, but that was plo, not limit. I'll figure it out, I say to myself.

Immediately I see that I have no chance at not losing this 50k, unless I just call call call and get lucky. I have absolutely no clue as to what would constitute a good showdown hand in that game.

For the first 3 hours we played, I nevere bet, or raised, unless I had the pure nuts. I did get lucky, i had a string where I won 12 consecutive hands. (most hands went ck ck ck)

I eventually got to the point where I felt I had a handle on the relative showdown value of certain holdings based on the texture of the board. Long story short, I ended getting stuck 43k, then being up 400k, and then being stuck again. It was unreal. We quit after playing for 14 hours, and we dead even, down to the last 100 dollars, it was unreal.

Fast forward, online pokerrooms just became public knowledge, and I get an account at pp. here comes Gigabet.

Play low limit for awhile, never spend enough time at home to really play, always on the road, it seemed. Didn't really get into it, the site basically sucked, it kept freezing up, all the time, it would freeze up for no apparent reason, and then not come back online for a day or so. This was partypoker, i remember once looking at the application, and seeing that there were 1700 players online playing, and thinking to myself that the site would crash cause they usually are only getting 1200. And, they crashed.

Every night party crashed, for a long time. I still dealt with it, and played there a little. I didn't set anything structured to play, I would just hop into whatevere, usually limit holdem or a relatively low buy in mtt. Like 20, or 30. I think my peak online bankroll was around $150 at this time.


Anyway, they eventually, starting getting more and more players, and more and more servers. Finally, when their peak hour player number avged about 17,000 during the week, their servers caught up to the constant influx of new players. This was when I started playing alot online.

I lived with a very good friend of mine, and his wife, probably still my two best friends, if you can exclude my brothers(my brothers, are without a doubt, my two best friends). We shared a pretty decent sized house, and I basically moved out of my room into the office, lol, so i could play the second I woke up.

I obviously have a psychotic case of obsessive compulsive disorder. I started playing stts, the highest limit was 100 at that time, but i wasn't playing those often. I was playing the 33s and the 55s, but only the limit stts, not the NL, I had never played NL holdem up to that point, and i didn't feel comfortable playing them. At that time, the limit stts, filled only slightly slower than the nl stts, so it wasn't a that big of a deal.

I started as a winner on party, and I continued to win, but i didn't work, and pool wasn't making me money, so i always had to withdraw money to pay bills, eat, whatever. Eventually, I had built my account up to around 600 or 700, and I decided to try the 109 tourneys. Of course, the 109s back then only had NL, they didn't even offer 109 limit stts at that time.

I already decided to play a higher limit, so I wasn't going to back off now, just cause I had to play a game I was completely unfamiliar with. Poker is poker, right? Wrong, first time I can remember, in my entire life, that I was completely drawing dead in this game. I just didn't even know where to begin. Someone would come in for a raise, i would call with 99 or something. Board would come 7 high, they would bet the pot, I would call, thinking, it isn't that much, and I probably have the best hand anyway. Now the turn card brings a 2, or some disconnected offsuit card like that. I still like my hand, but I don't feel the need to be real aggressive with it. Of course, the guy bets a little over half the pot now. I incorrectly guessed that meant that he wanted me to fold(cause the bet was so high, in my limit world, in NL, I should have been able to see that it was a bet designed to get called.) I knew poker very well, and I knew that when I thought someone wants me to fold, I try to get as much money in as possible. So I minraise, which obviously commits me all the way to the hand. Of course, he is going to read that bet as a big hand, where I thought I was being cleverly deceptive in hiding the fact that I liked my hand(cause I thought he hated his). So he shoves the rest of his chips in, and I happily call. We all know what happened next.

After that, I studied NL holdem nonstop. I read everything that was written about the game, including everything on the internet. I started playing NL exclusively, and it took me all of 2 days to get to a point where it was obvious to me that the 109 players were basically the same as the 33 and 55 dollars players, just a little less lost.

Anyway, Doug hits a couple big mtt scores, and he offers to start a regular bankroll for me and like 5 other people who live in our town. With the idea that once we get to 40,000, we finish the stake and he gets 20,000. Party had started offering 215s by this time.

We all start playing off of dougs stake, and doug was very good stt player by this time, so every day and every night one of us, and usually 3 or 4 of us would be at his house so he could make certain that we were playing the best way to beat the party stts. Not really play poker, play party poker. Doug was probably the best stt player at party at that time, and no one knew it, including him. I know it now, because some of things I remember him saying to me, while I would be playing, still aren't posted on 2+2 or any other site for that matter.

It took me 2 weeks of pretty solid play to get to a point where I could keep my account over the break even point.

Once I stayed over the even mark for a week. Hovering just over even, I won 7600 in a span of one 24 hour period. That was amazing for me. Took me another couple days to get over 10k, and then I guess whatever clicked, stayed clicked, cause I was making money faster than I knew how to withdraw it from my account.

So I get it up to 40k, and everyone else in the original starting group is still hovering around even, and they are still playing everyday. I am getting ready to give doug the 20k and he only takes 10k(which, if i remember, i had to force him to take). He feels guilty that everyone else is working so hard and not getting rewarded, so he tells them that they don't have to pay him the 20k, hoping that will ease whatever mental block was keeping them from becoming as successful as I was.

It didn't though, they continued to play for months, and I continued to win at a similar pace that I was before. Now, our friends were coming to my house, when doug wasn't home, so i could help them. Everyday, someone would come over and play, and watch me play, and listen to me, and play more, but they still just couldn't get over the hump.

I still hadn't stopped studying NL, but it came to a point where new ideas, and new material ran out. So I was forced to really think about the game on my own. All day, everyday, I was playing, I was writing my thoughts about different situations, I was teaching my friends, and i was playing again. I was absolutely consumed by poker, I was making an amount of money that was absolutely ridiculous to my standards before this rush.

Finally, I got to the point where I realized that the reason alot of the concepts that I came up with weren't working in the stts, because there aren't enough chips in play. I'd have this revelation, about something relative to poker, and I would try it out, and it wouldn't work. I couldn't figure it out. The ideas made perfect sense in my head, I just didn't get it. Finally, I figured out that the edges I was thinking about required that there be more to "go after."

So I started playing multi table events. I was still playing the 215s, but I would take a few games off what I was usually playing at that time, and play a mtt instead. I started playing the party weeknight specials. I found out immediately, that the concepts I had come up with, worked, and they worked very well.

I was making a final table 2 or 3 times a day, that was when they ran 109 mtts every other hour starting at 7:00am est. 7am,9am,11am,1pm(limit),3pm,5pm,7:10pm,(no 9pm) 11pm, and 3am.

The name Gigabet became originally known from the stts, but the name became famous after the sickest weekend I have heard about or seen since.

The prelude to the "weekend" was actually the week before. The friday special had changed from limit to NL for that week. Well, I played it and won, I got HU with EL_Tahur, who now calls himself Tera_Bet.

A week later, the friday special is back to limit holdem(wed and fri used to always be limit holdem). I win the friday special again, albeit for about a 3rd of the prize money from the week before. The following day, Party was offering a tournament that was 345 buyin, rather than the normal 250k guaranteed(I think it was actually 150k guaranteed at that time though). They advertised it well, so it had a boat load of people. I can't remember how many, but I know first was 140k. At any rate, I am the chipleader with 13 players, with a 3 to 1 chip lead over the next person closest to my stack.....except for one guy. Who I had covered by only by around a few thousand, 3bbs I think. Anyway, of course we are on the same table, I am in the small blind and get dealt KK, he is utg, and he just pushes.....which was a huge overbet, but still an understandable bet, since everyone in the field was in push fold mode, except for the two of us, and a couple others on the other table(the other two who weren't in push fold mode, we had a 3 to 1 lead on, to give you an idea of how many chips we had). So of course, I call with KK, and he opens AQ, and the flop comes QQx, lol, he didn't even hit the ace. In retrospect, I prolly should have folded. Anyway, I play the 11:00pm 109mtt and win that, can't remember the number of players, but it was 13k, so you figure it out.

On Sunday am, I play the 6am limit 109, and win that. I got HU with Danny Alaei, if anyone knows him. Good friend of mine. Then I play the big sunday event, and get 4th in that, can't remember how many were in that field, but first was around 80k. I am including monday in my weekend also, so no one gets confused. Monday, I play the party special, and win that, but even more impressive I think is that I made the final table of every single 109 mtt that ran that day starting with the 11am and finishing with the 11pm one. And I won 3 of those. I was playing as SwiftSteal in the 109 mtts, and Gigabet in the special.

After that, I was sure online poker was rigged....but who cares, since it was obviously rigged for me.

Then the Steps come....Party just can't be satisfied until I have 849704509768905760295 billion dollars.

I absolutely crushed the step tournaments when they first came out as two table events , and I played every single one of them that ran in december. I was winning every other one of them, it seemed. Party was still rigged in my favor, yes! There was one night, I had 4 two table step 5s running, and a cash game at UB. Danny Alaei and I chatted everyday(he thinks about poker the same way that I do)and in this particular session, he was watching me play the step 5s, and asking for my hole cards through aim, cause he wanted to start playing them, but he didn't feel comfortable enough at the time. Danny is chipdaddy37 on party, if anyone remembers that name.

So we are talking about how the hands are being played out, and going over my thoughts as i play through a hand, when he tells me that prahlad(spiritrock) just lost a 70k pot on the prima network. Prahlad is in my game at ub, we are playing 25/50, and we both have around 40k behind us. I am in the big blind, and prahlad has the button, and just like clockwork he raises. I have JJ(perfect timing for a hand, though i would have played anything, thinking he may be on tilt.) Long story short, I stack him, he bluffs his entire stack with absolutely nothing, and I flop top set. Meanwhile, I win all four step 5 two tables I am in. This is when Danny and I decide to go to vegas, and just stay through the world series.

My next big win was win the 15k stt tourneys, most of that info has been posted, but I played as evenkeal, played two, and won them both. they paid 100k to win.


thats about it online, now i am playing live, and that has all been posted before as well.


Gigabet

Heads up Challenge!

I'm going to devote the next 10 days to HU (heads up) sit n gos. Ultimate Bet, Full Tilt and Absolute seem to have decent HU action. I love UB and FT software and can tolerate AP. Prima (Battlefield, Pokertime) may be a 4th option if action gets hard to find but i'm not crazy about their slider bar (to bet). Maybe I can get use to it. Anyhoo, heres the deal.

I'll play as many as I can each day (depending on website work) and give a full report here (with profit/loss). For the last 7 days I have been playing, winning and taking notes on players. I'm having fun and the bad beats are not as hard to take because with 1500 chippies you can take a beat or 3 and still recover to win, often. I will play $30 to $50 sit n gos and move to $100's when I have more notes and am dialed in. Usually i'll play 2 at once and keep 1 bigger game (100-200) open for note taking. Seems to be the most action at $20 games so I may fill in with those if action is scarce.

As I have mentioned before there are many very tough $20 players at UB and i'll give a report on the other sites as well. AP has very weak competition in the 20-30 range but i'm not crazy about their clunky software. I will test the 50's out and play there more if its as soft as the $30's.

I love heads up and think I may devote more of my time to it as well as 8-12 Tourneys a week. My main game (limit 3/6 or 5/10 short) is getting hard to fire up lately and I think I just burned out on it. I have been beating that game for 2 years now, picked up a ton of bonuses/rakeback and am ready for a new challenge.

This week I have played 3 UB tourneys and had 1 cash in the UB $30 buyin, 6 handed event (I love 6 man). 170 chip tossers entered and I went out 4th for $480. 1st was 1450. and I was the chip leader briefly with 4 left but 2 coin flips came up tails and I had heads. Tough final table, strong aggressive play and 4 of us went at it for maybe an hour till I got launched.

In one of the 2 events I didnt cash in this hand came up. I'm one off button with AA and my bud (bornsupremo) happens to be on me left with a nice stack. I make a note to self to play totally different then usual since he knows all my moves before I make them. I'm gonna get his chips, I just don't know how I will trap his lagg a$$. I make a std, 3X BB raise and only the big blind calls. Perfect HU with AA.

Floppage rolls out J28 rainbow. Yaaa Baaybeee (yes baby). I bet 1/2 pot to induce a bluff and it works just like I drew it up. He pushes all his (soon to be mine) chips. About 600 more for a 1800 pot after I call. I quickly push my CALL button and S L I P. Yes, my hand twitched, moved or I had a minor stroke and hit the "fold and show" button. So the whole table saw me fold aces. One guy said "man, how can ya fold in that spot". At first I was in shock, then explained what happened. Thats the first time I have misclicked in a tourney. I guess I was due. The whole table had a good laugh and I made 1 guys day for sure. Bornholio took it worse then me and I few hands later I was toast. That will not happen again. Born cashed in 10th so at least we had 1 good thing happen in that event.

I'll be playing my favorite Tourney at the Tulalip Casino on Thurs night and will have a report on that as well. Great structure and a weak field is all I need to get outa the house. I'll be lasting longer than last week and am ready to take this event down. In 4 runs at this Tourney i'm 20th, 20th, 5th and first knockout (110th?). Usually about 120 start and I really love that size field. So with the one cash i'm +260 for about 7 hours of hard labor or $37 per hour. They pay top ten.

After I final table i'll pull an all nighter at 10/20 ring and pay sum bills.

Key Hand from 4th place finish at Ultimate Bet yesterday morning. I'm pattij in this early mornin slugfest.

Nuttin' better then a good bluff. Fired 3 bullets:

Hand #11308974-89 at Tue1amA-Final (No Limit tournament Hold'em)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 24/Jan/06 04:41:58

pattij is at seat 0 with 41270.
digger20 is at seat 1 with 49395.
dg152 is at seat 3 with 68275.
chrislo2 is at seat 4 with 75060.
The button is at seat 1.

pattij posts ante (200).
digger20 posts ante (200).
dg152 posts ante (200).
chrislo2 posts ante (200).
chrislo2 posts the small blind of 1200.
pattij posts the big blind of 2400.

pattij: 6c Td
digger20: -- --
dg152: -- --
chrislo2: -- --

Pre-flop:

digger20 folds. dg152 folds. chrislo2 raises to
4800. pattij calls.

Flop (board: 8c 5h 2d):

chrislo2 bets 2400. pattij raises to 7000. chrislo2
calls.

Turn (board: 8c 5h 2d 4h):

chrislo2 checks. pattij bets 9000. chrislo2 calls.


River (board: 8c 5h 2d 4h Jd):

chrislo2 checks. pattij bets 10000. chrislo2 folds.
pattij is returned 10000 (uncalled).

pattij opts to show 6c Td.
pattij has 6c Td 8c 5h Jd: jack high.


Hand #11308974-89 Summary:

No rake is taken for this hand.
pattij wins 42400.

I showed cause I get bored being nice.

Play great and build yer Bankroll this week!

Tulalip Tourney Results, Shark Heads up Tourney

About 100 loose passives (lopas?)tossed in 110 buckers to enter the big Tourney this week, 1/19. I'm seated at table 17 seat 1 and two seats to my left is 3rd place guy from last week that I final tabled with. Cheap cowboy hat, $3 7-11 wraparounds and a ton of gamble in him. I make a note to self (don't buy shades at 7-11) and win the draw for button. 25/50 kids, 20 min rounds and 3000 chippies.

I'm jacked for a good event with 3 final tables in my last 6 events as I look down at AJc. Nice first hand! 4 players call the 50 BB and I bump it to 4XBB (200) and all 4 callin stations do all they know and call the 200. Floppage is J 10 9 w/2diamonds. I'm glad i'm last to act with that flop, First to act is BB cowboy and he pushes all 2800 chippies in.

I immediately think semi bluff. Before we started he was trying to get everyone to put all their chips in blind on the first hand. He's totally serious and actually is taunting the table for being "chicken". I'm thinking I can get better odds by playing roulette (about a 90 sec walk) if I wanna throw it all in against this table of dead cashish and WPT wannabe sunglass wearers.

I think hes tilting because he lost all his cash playing no limit 20 minutes prior. If he flopped the nut str8 he would trap, it looks like a diamond draw or str8 draw but who pushes with 4 still to act on that flop. Folded to me and I put him on a flush draw or 9 outs. If hes on a open ender even better with 8. I think for about a minute, take a look at him and am sure I got'em beat. Call allin.

Cowboys got 82o no diamond. Shitty call PRE, bad semi bluff into 4 players and he should be toast (67% to 30%). 7000 pot, first hand. Turn blank. River Q. nh,gg. He acts like there was never a doubt. I saw him give the same look to a guy he sucked out on last week at the final table. Kinda like he knows that hes bad but hes so lucky it don't matter. Its a 20 min drive home, tourney started at 7PM. Home by 7:25. Really. lol.

Great call. Thats all I can say. I'm looking to chip up early against bad players/plays, found one, called, thats the way it goes.

Had a blast playin a $1 rebuy with me buds Born, Net, and NRG747 last night (UB). We got on IM and were rooting for each other. Net led in rebuys with 5 and I was second with 4. Only half hour rebuy period or I think we coulda got it to 10 or more. I like doing these. No pressure, play any 2 and laugh if ya suck out. Born and NRG chipped up early and Net and I got launched right after the rebuy period. Nrg got 12th outa 600, nh gg, ya atm. I'm going to set up a $1 rebuy for my crew in early February. Our first heads up event has a tentative date of 2/3 and will be at Titan.

I went over to the UB heads up sit n gos while I watched NG and Borns blinds go sky hi (turbo). Had a nice run and won 11 straight (10 $20's and 1 $30.) Then went card dead and ended the night 14-4, +200 (about 2 1/2 hrs). Played one $50 before bed and won it easily. I am starting to think the $50 sits are easier then many of the $20's. Seriously. Hard to find many 50 and up games and there are a million $20 players. Some are really good. A good $20 sit player that just one tables can make $30-60 an hour and its not hard to 2 table HU. So it figures there will be a few studs (or studettes).

So will try to locate more 50's this week. Right now Full Tilt, UB and Absolute have my favorite heads up games. I tried Poker.com today and hated it (slow and clunky with only 1000 starting chips). Played Battlefield (prima) and it seemed okay. A few games and very fast software there.

2 Heads up tips. (1) Compliment your foes. Be nice. The hardest thing to get when you are playing well is a rematch. Be nice or hope you are beating up an "ego" player. They will play you 3, 4 or maybe 5 games before they realize you aren't just lucky. Many ego players will play until their cashish is gone. cha ching!!

(2) Play for a while and then come back in to the site with your wifes account. You know how your opponents play and they will play you again even though you couldn't get a rematch from them earlier. They will run after one game again but its still a win. Mo money.

I have had a few requests for heads up games with me from my members. I will set up a night where members can take a run (or 5) at me for low stakes. Email if ya wanna take me on sumtyme. If ya beat me 4 outa 7 i'll post your pic under our "Featured Shark Players" with a nice bio of yer bad self ( www.onlineshark.com ). How bout caption "I pummeled Shark HU and sent him home for a depends change"? Free Shark tee also.

Please bet, raise or fold....no callin stations (or min. bettors) in this Army!

Shark

Chippies on Fire, Tourney results

Chippies Pic Here

Chip_Tricks in her magic hat (clik above) nh! (nice hat)

One of my Tours best players is on fire. Michelle "Chip_Tricks" from Florida (above) qualified for three big UB Tourneys last night after taking down our Titan buyin event a night prior for a $170 cash on a $5 buyin. Your hero (shark) was first launch of tourney on this hand. I have KQo in mid position and raise 4XBB, get one caller in early position. Floppage came 2Q8. I bet out a lil more then pot. Call. Turn blank. I bet out again. Call. riv, 7. no flush no str8's. Early position finally bets, I push last few chips in (500?) he shows 77. gg nh. Callin all the way with 2 overs on board hoping for a 2 outer. Typical low limit play. Typical reward for playing bad. At least be aggressive if you are gonna play a very weak hand to the riv. Raise don't call.

Back to Live Tourney action from last week. Played at Parkers Casino $55 buyin which includes a free breakfast and service from 2 grumpy waitresses that looked rougher then "X22" after a 3 day bender and a 48 hr session.

Ho hum structure 15 min levels 50/100 no rebuys, 3000 chips. About 30 laggs entered (light because of Seahawk football). Nothing exciting here, couldn't get it going and finished in middle of pack. My bride Raisin was out early and was now as grumpy as my waitress. I may try it again. I'm really losing interest in these fast structures that are set up just to get over fast and seat you at a table where the rake can pay the bills. When we move to Vegas (18 months!) I won't have to play these weak events again. My lil Samantha is a senior next year and then we can move when/if she graduates. I promised her we would leave a forwarding address but hey i'm a former car salesman so the kids are a little nervous.

Raisin continues to improve her ring limit online game and will cash her $600 bonus on Eurobet today! It only took her about 3 weeks and shes up. Sweet....Her aggression is improving and with the large rake at Pokerroom/Euro/Hollywood a profitable month of sessions is a strong effort. About $200 in rakeback, $600 bonus and $200 in profit for a +$1000 run at Euro. Shes heading back to her favorite site next (Absolute). Look out ya laggs.

2 More Tourneys, Poker Room Review and Hand Quiz later today. Play against me and my low buyin crew on 1/18 (tonight) at Titan Poker. $100 added, $5 buyin. Probably only 40-50 players. Free Shark hat if ya knock me out!

click
New to Titan clik above

Tourney Results, Hand Quiz

Played 4 Live Tourneys since 1/12. Luckily I cashed in the most important one. First up Tulalip Casino on 1/12. This $110 buyin is my favorite event in our state. 20 minute levels, 25/50 to start and 3000 chippies to punish yer unsuspecting foes with. On this nite 99 players started with dreams of the $3200 for 1st, 1800- 2nd and 1200 for 3rd.

Got off to a nice start as the play was very tight. I was in the 5 seat and I ID'ed seat 3, 6, 8 as tough players based on previous events. I quickly chipped up to about 4500 when my std. pre flop rayzes and continuation bets were met with quik folds. The tough older gent in seat 6 came over the top once and I folded to his bet. I made a note to isolate and trap him later as he was trying to run the table over when he entered a pot. He was the chip leader at our table and was a betting machine.

I'm liking the table of weak/passives when this hand came up. I'm in middle position folded around to me and I raise 3.5 BB to 350 with 10 10. BB raises to 700 and I call. Heads up to see sweet floppage of 2 8 6 rainbow. BB fires out 2,000. This is more than half my stack and the guy looks stronger then battery acid. I decided he liked that flop even more then I did and put him on KK or AA. Muck. He bragged later about having AA 4 times in first 90 minutes and said once was against me. Nice guy and I think it was a good laydown.

I chipped up to about 4500 and we were about 75 min in. So far about 30 players have been launched and 7 tables remain. Tourney Director Jeff does a nice job of organization and has good control of the room.

Fun hand #2. I'm in mid position again and the 3 seat (tight good player) calls and I take a peek at QQ. I raise it 3.5BB and only 1 call seat 3. Another pretty flop of 2 7 9 rainbow. I bet pot and he quick calls, turn is another undercard. I should get nervous here since I know he rarely plays a hand and could be trapping with 77 or 99. But for some reason I think i'm ahead and push after he checks. He quik calls and shows me the nasty 77 for a flopped set. River QUEEN! I have not sucked out in 2 months in a big hand and I was due, gg nh, I had him covered since it was the only hand he played in 70 min., I think. Nice guy, and I felt dirty. For about 2 seconds

Now with 8000 chips I can loosin up and try to see more flops. 3 or 4 more hands and then I got a great RUSH. 2 str8's in large pots and we said buh bye to 2 more and I was sittin on about 23K in chips.

I always get a kick out of the "all in" specialists. We had 2 at our table. Watch for this player at your table. Usually its a fear thing. They get a hand like AK or AQ or 77 and get excited but don't wanna be outplayed. They push it all in. Its usually an easy fold. No one wants coin flips with weak players. Once the stacks get big someone gambles with them and they usually lose a coin flip or get trapped by a big pair. We have one guy that goes all in for 4000 UTG (under the gun) twice. Buddee, the only guy that calls ya has ya beat, or you pick up chump change (blinds). Give me 3-4 of these at every table, love it.

I cruised to the final table with about 35K in chips. Average was about 30K and there were 2 huge stacks to my left. 10th place earned $250 and we quickly lost the 2 short stacks. Then I looked down at a 62 72 62 82 73 83, etc (lotsa twos usually with sixes) for about 60 minutes. No hands to note and lost a race with KQo to end my nite in 5th place for a $700 cash. The 2 big stacks were calling everything so I didnt see a good spot to bluff or gamble with my 62o monsters.

More on the other 3 events tommorrow and the hand quiz.....

On the Road, Live Tourney Action

Sharks Live Tourney Schedule this week, results next Monday.

1/11 Hollywood Casino, Seattle. $35 buyin

1/12 Tulalip Casino, Marysville, Wa. $110 buyin, $10,000 Prize Pool

1/14 Tulalip Casino, $90 buyin, $1000 added

1/15 Royal Casino, Everett $70 buyin

"The Circuit" podcast with Scott Huff & Mike Matosow, Guest Danny Negreanu

Mike "the mouth" Matosow Interview

Local Seattle Couple traveling the world. Cool blog and great pics

Pro Internet Player article. Funny stuff.

First Checkrayz Freeroll!

Shark Vet and feared chip slingin loon "clayshooter" took it down. See the great story (with pics) here click ya donk Great job, buddee! Raisin says Clay is one of only a handful of handsome Shark members.

Clay claims its the new Shark tee he wore and I must concur. Now I gotta get him a Shark hat (here in 2 weeks approx). New hats are pictured on the new OnlineShark site.

Apparently this event set an internet record for BEER chat and swilling. Be sure to register here clik to play in my partner "Beer Man" Mikes small field Freerolls this month.

If you have a success story to pump up my crew please post it here clik
There is a lot of disappointment in this game. The tough keep entering, raising and pushing all-in. When you do well let us know. We all need to see that good things happen when you are tough and don't give up.

Check out Shark Tourney Animal "Zacaronis" recent huge month culminating in a sweet cash in the 10K entry main event in Tunica last August! My favorite line by ZAC "Getting Stared Down by Kathy Liebert, she couldn't read me, because bluffing or not, I would crack up laughing" clik

Zac getting the eyeball from Pro Studette Kat




If you need some Shark members to root from the rail as you take down a final table (or try to get to final) Post here for Shark Sweat! clik ya ATM

Poker Room Review, Riverrock Casino

Headed up to a suberb of Vancouver, BC., Canada (Richmond) since in the last 3 months I have heard 2 players mention the great cardroom in the Riverrock Casino. We had Raisins cool sis in law (Jenn) visiting from Coeur d'alene, ID and headed across the border. Good idea to have your birth cert. or passport when crossing over although we just smiled, answered 2 questions and drove thru. I requested a full body cavity search but it was declined. About a 2 hr drive (+wait at border)and we were in the Casino looking for our $116. Canadian for $100 US. Seems this Casino likes to make 6% on you at arrival cause they only gave $110. Buy your Canadian cashish at home. Or sometimes US Casinos near the border pay a lil more then the going rate to attract Canadian customers.

Beautiful Hotel/Casino with great entry, rockwork and waterfall. I was nervous about the planes headin for the runway that appeared to be missing the roof by about 100 feet. How are we gonna sleep? Great rooms, and some amazing sound dampening. We didnt hear any planes from our 9th floor room. Only one complaint, horrible bed. Cheapest room (fri, sat) is 179. canadian and they kill ya on taxes for a total of 2oo. which is about 180 US. During the week you can get 139. on the net.

They have 4 restaurants and we ate a quick meal and I headed off to pay for our room. The grrrs had their eyes on the hi-limit slots (.05)

The Poker room is on its own floor with just a few slots and a nice sports bar. 20 flat screens and hockey on 18 of them. What a Pokerroom! 25 tables and the place is hoppin at about 7PM on friday night. Computerized player waiting list (flat screen), about 4 floormen (w/walkie talkeys)and well organized. I see several big games but they all seem to be no limit. Several 5/10, 1/2 NL and 1, 10/20 NL. The biggest limit game is 4/8 in the whole room. No kill. Weird. Theres about 6 going, i'm 18 on the list. Only takes about 45 minutes and I get a seat.

Lots of chips at this table and it appears no one is shy about using them. 6-8 players seeing every flop and enough raising to build sum huge pots. About 30% of the pots are capped pre flop and no one folds pre to a raise if they have money in. Not one, ever. I sat with 160. and was quickly down to about 60. Saw one guy scoop a 280. pot and several others over 200. It was wild. I missed two flush draws and was about to rebuy when I finally took down my first monster pot of the night.

I got the feeling it was a table of guys that wanted a bigger game and just wanted to gamble it up. 8 hrs later I had our room paid for and headed to bed (4:30 am). I was kinda disappointed in the +2.5 BB per hour at this table of chasers that felt group 5 hands should call 4 bets pre. But it's a win and I had a good time.

Nice room, great hotel, horrible selection of limit games, and a ton of action junkies ready to pay for your weekend.

The ladies had a good time with the slots and watched Wedding Crashers in the room. (Raisin says 2 stars). Had a nice buffet breakfast about 11 am. Poker Manager comped me 3 tix after I told her we liked the Hotel but were disappointed no Poker room rate. Ask real nice and you should be able to score this added $40 bonus after a long session. Always ask before you are ready to leave the Pokerroom. If they think you may stay a few more hours it helps your chances I think.

Played very little online this week. 2 Tourneys, One at Full Tilt, 1 at AP. Tilt I made final table (5th outa 180) for a 375 cash and at AP 9th outa 85 for $50. 1st scored a WSOP 2006 seat (11K). These were affiliate freerolls. I'll spare ya the bad beats, 73% favorite all in at Tilt and 63% all in at AP. Continue to get pounded on the river. I love small field events and will be searching for more. When I score a WSOP seat I will attempt to cash it in for 4-6 prelim WSOP events to gain live experience.

Today I played heads up sit n gos for about 75 min. on UB, went 5-1 and cashed 130. Tommorrow more heads up. My hourly rate is good the last 2 months, I just don't play enough. My friend marty409 sweated me for a while and is going to take on the sharks 1/11 at AP.

Have a good week.....

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