Mrs Shark on a Heater

Long Time Shark Veteran, Goran "BlueLynx" from Surannhammar, Sweden (on right). I couldn't communicate with my pal Goran 1 year ago. Now, his IM's are in perfect english and he spells better then me. His play has improved as well and I won't let Raisin play against him at AP. They both pound the ATM's there pretty hard. I hope to meet Goran and his family some day soon. It would save me $$ not having to mail packages to Sweden also! (ha!)

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Poker Coach Tommy Angelo on Folding FOLDING



Time to go check on RaisinHavoks (Mrs Shark) parents in Port Orchard, WA. We head for the Edmonds ferry for the 90 min trip to the in-laws. Its Saturday mornin and we are almost blinded by the sunshine since we have not seen any in 2 months. It's a rain forest here. You need new wipers in yer truck every couple a weeks here. Rain gear becomes "casual attire". 16 more months and we move to Vegas. Yes baaaybee.

I always let Raisin drive because I hate to drive. We finally make it to their nice 3 acre spread and Grampa Bill is burning a fire on the property as usual. Hes 80 and loves his yard and especially a good fire. Raisin is going to fix a bunch of things around the house since Bills hands aren't working as well as they once did. Shes great at fixing everything and I don't even have to fix door knobs around our home now. Thats a big plus because I can't fix much of anything. I can screw in light bulbs like nobodies business but thats about it.

She can knock out walls, do light electrical, does great tile work and plumbing.

Her mom (Pat)is the sweetest lady ever and makes world class Pecan pie. I take a nappy on the couch and wait for repairs to be complete.

Big hugs and we are off to our good friends (hikerbiker, rogerthat) for the night. They live in a nice home on a hill with a great view of the sound. It's only about a 20 min. drive.

They make a sweet RIBEYE dinner (shark fav steak,rare please)and its off to the local Casino. Hiker and Rogerthat are PaiGow players (when not playing online tourneys)and Raisin wants to play the new game called Texas holdem. I figure they will only have 3/6 so I will probably just watch them play and catch the Olympics on the tube. I have very little interest in 4/8 now and will not play 3/6.

The All Star Casino and bowling alley is a nice little casino with horrible TV reception and 2, 3/6 games. Oh well. I put my name up for 4/8, grab a Miller lite and start watching the Olympics.

I met a nice guy at the bar "Terry" who is a dealer there. He is interested in online Poker so I signed up another recruit for my Army. He sounds like a good player and asked good questions about my fav game (short limit). As with most LIVE players he has not played much "short" or seen a game as aggressive as online short. After a nice chat I go to check on the troops. Hiker has just completed his second 4 of a kind and is rollin with a profit of $100. Roger is down a lil and Raisin is torturing the 3/6 table that appears to be donkified in seat 1 thru 8 (shes in 9). 2 hrs in shes got $330 in front of her after a buyin of $100. cha ching.

She said the whole table would call her all the way to the river with bottom pair, a naked ace or less. Huge pots for 3/6. Shes had 1 beer to many (5?) so I talk her into a cash out. They are having a $110 buyin in the morning so we both plunk down the $110 for Sundays Tourney.

Sunday morning, time for breakfast and a lil NL Tourney action. 34 lopasses started. Not a great structure, 15 min. blinds start at 50/100. They are staggered blinds so they don't always double and you do receive 5000 chippies. Raisin was out early (hangover) and it was down to about 18 players when I hit this flop. A 2 4. I got the 3 and a 5. Even NRG70 coulda doubled up with this flop and I slow played it for a complimentary double. The big guy next to me said "why did it take you so long to get it all in, you had a str8?" Uhh..lessons aren't free fat boy.

I then won 2 all ins when behind (I have not had any key suckouts in a month, I was due) and had a decent stack going to the final table. Pretty strong final table play as I proceeded to not see a PAINTED card for the next 45 min. I stole a few blinds with my rags and was in push or fold mode when this hand sent me to my Grand Cherokee. I'm in the BB, folded around to the small blind (agg. good player)who does what I expected and raised to 7000. Blinds are 1500/3000 and I have about 9K. I look down at a monster (best I had seen at final) A4o. I take a long think and decide to push. I expect (and hope) to see QJ to KQ. She calls, has me covered and flips over KJo. I like it. Its 57% to 42% and i'll take that in this situation.

Jack flops and its gg, nh. 8th place was good for $100 (first was 1200) so I broke even this weekend and Raisin was +120.

Recruited a very nice young man for the Army at the Tourney break. Strong, aggressive play from my new friend, Jason. Hes a hard workin (Naval shipyards) Poker player who could moonlight as a bouncer. He final tabled also and I was impressed by his aggressive raisin and fearless play.

I was very proud of my brides ring play and am sure she is ready for bigger games. +230 in 2 hrs at 3/6. Thats only 19.16 BB per hour.

Minus about $20 for beers (ha!).

Next Tourney for Sharkmasta is Tulalip $110 buyin on Thurs. Hopefully it won't be another "bad beat" knockout early. I am going to play 10/20 this weekend also either at Tulalip or Muckleshoot Tribal money printing machines.

Note on bad players: I may pick on the huge number of bad players at times but i'm really trying to report the truth (as I see it). I admit that I have a ton to learn (especially live) and many of the beats I have been taking lately could be avoidable if I was building a bigger stack early.

I have goals to be playing the $500 to 1000 buyins (with good structures!) when we move to Vegas in 16 months. So these 100 buyins are a good start to get where I need to be.

Many of the $100 buyin players are people that a $100 entry is not a big outlay. Many more are players that are WPT TV nuts. You see the huge overbets often. Thats what they see on TV (they don't correlate the blinds/stack size). Some seem so proud when their big pair get the blinds with a 10X BB rayz.

Tour NEWS, Great turnout for our $1 REBUY on Saturday (Absolute). 88 laggs entered and it was a hoot I heard. AP forgot to add $100 as promised and I am working on them today. Thx to all that supported the cause and played! We will be doing more of these as requested.

Omaha at Stars 2/9! Huge turnout (over 500) for Omaha! We will be adding Omaha to the regular schedule. Good pushing and prodding by "ConnJure" on the Omaha gig.

Bonus Coverage: (lol) Played the late shift last night (midnight to 4am) 3 tabled AP (1 table) and UB (2), $3/6 short. Was getting almost 500 hands an hour (1 table was 3 handed). Was down $330 early and a lil tilty with runner runner beats the norm when I finally caught fire and dismantled 2 tables and posted a nice win on the third one (AP). +360 at 4:20AM and shut er down. I have been getting a few requests for hand histories so heres a link to my 2 favorites from last night.

Crazy Hands Linkage

UB's software is so fast, still the best. I'm working on a rakeback deal there so I can 5 table UB more often. The players are tougher then average but the speed, cool graphics and Pokertracker work well there. You must request UB support to allow you to play more then 3 tables at once, but they will accomodate. Email me if you need help adding tables at UB.

This week.....Please Bet, Rayz or Fold....no checkin or callin in this Army!