Scammers in online poker / nice work, PokerStars!

Lately had been reading about scammers in online poker world - particulary in transfer "business", where people transfer funds between different poker clients and third parties.

- One guy got scammed of 2500$, but in the end got some of it back thanks to PokerStars, who did incredible work in this matter. [Link]
- Also we can read some AIM log with interesting chat with another scammer. This one includes some great lines as
"PSYCHE!
you ain't getting shit". [Link]

And, talking about scamming - you know all those Nigerian scammers of course! Here's site, where you can look at scammed scammers. Some of pics are really funny.

Anyways...

Well, putted books a little aside for a couple of days and started playing. So far - nothing fancy. Breaking even after massively overplaying AK couple [or more] times. At least now I don't do that with AJ. UTG and UTG+1 are the spots, where I fold them without any hesitation. A-N-Y hesitation! Enough for now. Merry Christmas and don't forget to setmine!

Brain starts working. Slowly, but still. Wait me at the tables. Finally!

Sklansky's "Theory Of Poker" is finished. Did said that already at 2+2 and will say that here also - as a first book for novice player, TOP is a bitch. B.I.T.C.H. Nevertheless, it's done. The second book I took from the shelf is Largay's NLTH and I find it easy to read and very valuable. I am already done half of it and will do at least one reread for sure.

As I wrote before - I am broke. But there comes Christmas and 13th salary, so I will definetly make a deposit and start to work on things I read. Also I consider to get Idle Miner, but there are some worries about will my laptop be powerful enough. But, otherwise - well spent 50 bucks, imo.

I rig the internets! [learning and being broke in pictures]

Well, yeah, still with no bankroll. So, no playing whatsoever either. Still reading Theory Of Poker and becoming advanced in seven card stud [whadayaknow!].
Just for an update decided to show you some photos of my learning place / sweet shelf of books / my best achievement being BR-less and, of course, beautiful girl in the end [that stomack...].

As always - broke and tilted! But learning!

Yeah... First thing is, that I am too good as a person. Nobody want to pay in time for freelance jobs you've done. So I needed to withdraw almost anything I had on my FTP account [good thing is, that deposits are processed within seconds, but withdrawals take at least ten days - what a joy!]. The rest from the account I managed to tilt away, sooo.... zero-zero-zero. Seconds thing - Christmas. Thanks to all commercialization, I must find fund to presents, and that's not helping overall situation either.

Let's start to learn! Finally...

But there are plus signs, too. Got the whole library in [about my Amazon purchase You can read here]. First book I read was about Stu Ungar - just wanted something easy at the time. And that book IS easy. Not as deep as I imagined. But the good thing is, that you just storm through pages - not stumble against every second sentence. Anyways, now I am in the middle of Theory Of Poker. Man, that's a bitch! I even had a temptation to drop that book, but, I guess, I am not that ungutsy, so I promised myself to go through it. With clear mind, not just because... After that... I don't know - Gordon books or Harrington books. We'll see.

And my old friend Adil showed up - he's now a prospering coach at GrindersSchool. I think I will join them, too. When I got some extra bucks to spend. [I am waiting for a discount for this reference, hah!]

Ok. And to brighten things even more up, here's one of the most georgeous women I've seen lately [except my girlfriend, of course].

Ramblings about beer, pic of girls and, guess what, no poker!

Sometimes there's just not enough time. Or chance. Sometimes you get home late and tired and all you can think about is laying in the sofa and watch TV - no sex, no beer, no cards, no-no-no. And then there are other times, when you want to play but world around seems to be against it - someone comes, someone goes, it's the end of the working week...

Fortunately, I will have my books [already got Rolf Slotboom's book in] by tomorrow, so, even if I can't be online playing done, I will have my share of education. But all that beer... Yesterday some friends came over to congratulate my girlfriend with her birthday. Today is an actual date of her birthday - more friends, more beer. Tomorrow I will go to my friend's metal band's concert - more beer. Friday is always drinking night - even more beer. On saturday we visit girlfriends father for his birthday - again - some beer. What the hell!?!?

Why do I write this all this shit? Cause I need a brake. So I ramble some meaningless words and browse few girls [from Maxim, Bodog, WCP] for my dearest reader.

Casino staff refuses to bring me more beer. Bastardos

I can assure you - I am not even close to those big time [and "middle time and "small time"] gamblers you see in the casinos, movies and whatnot. I hate playing against the dealer any kind of games cause I constantly hate, how much I can do about the outcome. However, if, for that or another reason, I wind up behind some table, is always is Texas one. There you can see the flop for an ante and, as I read somewhere, it is a game where's casino edge is one of the smallest.

So anyways... Was there and done that couple days ago. At first me and my friend wondered through some pubs, but, as sometimes it hapends, we got to an idea of going to casino. I agreed only cause there might be a 2/4NL game going. Of course, there wasn't any NL - dealers choice with seven "omaha lovers" out of ten players wasn't an option for me. So I headed to my friend, who already played that game I told you about.

Well, I play differently - I often chat with dealer girls, friends and unknown people [yes, I drink all along] and play only about 10%-15% of hands. Not much money wasted and, you know, some loud fun. This time I even got a nickname - "karma". Many people believed I brought the luck to them [oh, well...]. Funny thing, I won or doubled ante almost any hand I played. Considering how rarely I played and my loud newfound karma friends, the floor noticed me and whispered to waitreses not to bring me more beer. Not for free, not for money. Hah. That was funny and I still doesn't quite get it, but... at least I was home earlier with 200 bucks extra. Not bad.

It's time to expand my poker library!

Guess, how much poker books I have now?

None.

Guess, how much books I ordered yesterday from Amazon?

Twenty One. Pretty significant number, isn't it.

NLHE books:
Professional No-Limit Hold 'em: Volume I
No Limit Hold 'em: Theory and Practice
How to Dominate $1 and $2 No Limit Hold 'Em
No Limit Hold 'em: Theory and Practice
No-Limit Texas Hold'em: A Complete Course
The Theory of Poker
Caro's Book of Poker Tells
Read 'Em and Reap: A Career FBI Agent's Guide to Decoding Poker Tells
Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol.1: Strategic Play
Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol.2: Endgame
Harrington on Hold 'em: Expert Strategies for No Limit Tournaments, Vol.3--The Workbook
Take Me to the River: A Wayward and Perilous Journey to the World Series of Poker
The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition
Kill Everyone: Advanced Strategies for No-limit Hold 'em Poker Tournaments and Sit-n-go's
Phil Gordon's Poker Box Set

Omaha books:
Omaha Poker
Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha

Another poker books:
Professional Poker: The Essential Guide to Playing for a Living
The Poker Mindset: Essential Attitudes for Poker Success
Your Worst Poker Enemy

Poker releated books:
One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey ',The Kid', Ungar, The World's Greatest Poker Player
Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People: The Memoirs of the Greatest Gambler Who Ever Lived

Total of 542 bucks. If we do something, we do it big!

Leaked High Stakes Poker [HSP] episode

So, if someone didn't heard that: this season's Episode 15 of High Stakes Poker is leaked from development and can be found over the internet. At first it showed up on Youtube, but got banned soon after. But, as always, there are other ways. So, if you want to spoil the glooorious celebration of waiting, you can see the episode right here.

Forgot something...

Recently there wasn't much posts with "candy" label on then. so I decided to post here a poster, I am going to buy sometime. It's the artwork of Lorenzo Sperlonga.

Why do I hate online poker?

Because it's rigged, baby!

OK, no.

Guess, why I lost two buyins and tilted off third yesterday?! Because of my laptop. Now it's about a week or so, that that damn thing don't want to work properly and freezes about once in an hour. Of course, the most funny thing here [I'm laughing here histerically] is, that more often than no, shit comes when I am involved in a big hand.

Another shit from AP? Mighty-Jack-Six-Offsuit

Well, no poker lately due some business outside, but managed to participate in Rakeback.com's invitational yesterday and finished 30th out of 450 or something. And, damn, what a terrible move I did - middlestack pushed All-in from the button [no limpers], so I figured my AQ in SB would be good in this spot. Yeah! I see two kings and the third on the flop. My desperately needed Ten to fill my gutshot straight didn't came and byeeee!!!

Did I mention that this tourney went out at Absolute Poker? Hah! And guess what!? According to Rakeback.com's management, AP forgot to set up the prizepool and still today noone knows, how much they've won. Ok, I am 30th, so I could not feel big worries about a... I don't know... a dollar, but those, who finished at the top could be pretty annoyed.

It was my first time at AP and I must say, that software runs pretty smooth. And competition, at least in the tourney I played, was very weak. But I can't say it for sure, cause, due to all the trash cards I got all evening, I didn't tangle much. But saw some amaizing things you can do with Mighty-Jack-Six-Offsuit.

Quitting poker? or "joy and pain of giving and taking"

If I wrote this post a couple days ago, it would be different, but the right things comes after water is settled, don't they? No, I didn't had horrible bad beats and my bankroll isn't busted or anything. Well, yes - due to some other matters, I withdraw most of the monies. I know, I know - bankroll is the thing you never touch, but... sometimes you must do. I don't play for a living, not even close to that, so there's no "very" hard feelings.

This and that, maybe some autumn depression even, brought some kind of boredom from poker. We all know that phrase by Worm: "grinding out on your leather ass" witch is said in that sarcastic manner. Well, I guess I got tired from that. I am still pretty confident, that my main mistake so far was playing live those couple of times. It's those live games I feel passioned about. Too bad, I am underrolled for them, cause exactly live action is what thrills me and lack of it in on-line game, grinding two, three, sometimes four tables isn't the most exciting thing in the world. Sure, there is goals you are trying to achieve and joy and pain of giving and taking, but after a while You Get Bored. Maybe it's just me and it's plain wrong, but that's my blog and basta.

So, yeah, was pretty down in mood, but... damn that bug! It bite me and there's no going back, I guess. Now I am eager to play again and to take some chips away from anyone and everyone. Even those were just couple of days, it's good to be back. I am still don't like to grind - who the fuck likes that? - but now I want to. With my shortened bankroll it will be helluva fun.

I am just as good as Daniel Negreanu / EPT is way better than WSOP

Yes! At least in one aspect: "Yes, I am pretty sure, you have me beat, but I will pay you that value bet to see that!". And those stupid wizard moves add up to pretty significant moneys overall. So after three days of playing it's time to spend some time reviewing hands and plug that leak. At least a little.

Was watching 3rd season of EPT recently and got to admit, that commentators are the waaay better, than in other shows. They having fun and that's a good thing. We don't hear about marriages and wifes all the time, as we are used to while watching WSOP.

A few funny things I encountered today whilst playing

OK. Maybe not so funny, but they made me smile. The first one comes from todays online game.
After everyone folded I raised from the cutoff with 55. And the big blind - super tight nit with stats about 5/0 called. "Wow!", I thought.

The flop came Kxx and villain checked. As K was most definetly in his range, I just checked behind [cause, yes, I am nit, too] and thought "Five". Turn brought another K. Another check and check behind. River brings me nice boat with third 5. And guess what - that rock decides to bet half the pot. That was just like a big poster - "I have a King!!!". I 3-bet him and villain goes all-in with the rest of the stack. I call and take the chips.

"What the fuck is funny there?!?", you might ask. The phrase he said after the hand:

"What a luck!!! Fish!!!"

The second comes from TV. Was watching EPT 3rd season's London event at there was some IT specialist just busted out. With all seriousness in his face he said:

"Well, I look at the people's body language, tells and stuff." Well, that "tells and stuff" cracked me up really hard.

And I saw Isabelle Mercier busting out. That wasn't funny at all. But it makes a good reason to put her photo in Poker Disasters, doesn't it?!

Doyle's interview sucked / I am a calling station

Recently Cardrunners webpage brought to us Townsend's interview with Doyle Brunson. As promising the beginning of the interview was, the worst was the rest. Except the fact that Doyle went broke hundred times, we don't hear nothing new [maybe even that isn't something new]. Nothing. And, really, there isn't any difference, are those questions asked by a poker pro or some wacko chick with long legs and stupid smile. And the end of that piece slaps you in the face with a feeling, that even a sentence isn't finished. Of course, I am the bastard, who can only shit on others and can't come up with decent post himself, but nevertheless - I have some journalist experience on my on and maybe deserve some credit. Maybe not. I don't care.

Here you can learn about player Brunson fears the most. It's Chip Reese, who last year won nearly 1.8M at the WSOP H.O.R.S.E. event or something like that.

Oh, and yes - yesterday's evening session was bad. That curious dumb kid, we call "calling station", took over me and I payed off pretty much. POW - Payoff Wizard - that was my yesterday's name. So I took some hand histories to work today - to analyze them in some quiet time. Maybe even to post some on the forums.

Candy from MAXIM:

God doesn't share his thoughts with Yang / On-line Poker returns to US / Help me bust my UB account!

Last things first.

Well, after a while I thought I should make a little rundown through some fellow blogs and news. As always, one of my favorite writers is Otis and today I enjoyed his post called "Permission to shut up granted". Good news comes from PokerNews: BarryG [with PPA and other players] recently returned from the trip down to Congress and claims, that online poker will be back pretty soon. As we know, Doyle's Room is the first bird in that direction.

To my surprise, I recently discovered, that I have 8 cents on my UB account. Can anyone send me another 2c, so I can sit with 10c at the table and finally bust my account?

About on weekly basis I tend to look at Poker Disasters stats and this mourning pretty shocked me. There are the tab, that shows referring link and one just amaized me - "jerry yang+banned from Pokerstars". Heck! The first thought was: "wait a minute - he had some sort of a deal with FullTilt. At least he wear their logo at the WSOP!". But, you got to check, right?! It appeared false alarm, but, boy, this would be interesting. God have his purposes and he don't share them with Jerry! Yikes!

It does not matter at all

It doesn't matter what the hell I wanted... I wanted to write about how well I do in the next level of stakes and how variance finally doesn't hit me in the face. Instead I will write, that I just tilted off half a buy-in after losing the first half. I will make some pasta now and try to forget, how dull I played that AQ versus lose LAG, who turned the set of tens. I just hate myself right now...

Absolute Poker news - AG Green is one of those guys

Well, I guess I can't not to mention that all bs around super-user account cheating at Absolute Poker. Recently we got to here even more news with actual names in them. The name of AG Green seems the loudest at the moment - over that guys head will soon be the sword of justice. Well, we at least want to believe that.
Point-Spreads gives as the insight of all this case and Gambling 911 mentions even more detail. It looks like the fraud involves not 700K, like previously reported, but cool 7M. These monies were cheated off in a spam of three years... Someone no really feels like being on the edge.

Damn that alcohol! / Hottt

But it's very positive, when you, when feeling drunk, can move down the stakes and don't hate yourself in the mourning in the sense of lost money.

And even more joyful is when at your table sits another steaming drunktard with 80 VP$IP. Weeee!!!! Of course, you play only because of him. And, of course, you are up two buyins or so. And then, OF COURSE, that asshole decides to quit and you find yourself against 9% nits. You can't stop playing loose and lose everything and quit minus one BI. That's life.

Since I was bad and didn't post nothing in "candy" section lately - enjoy another beaute below. Unlike previous time - now here's actual celebrity - Eva Mendez. Hotttt. Here's more of her.

WCOOP winner disqualified. About time!

Well, I don't want to express joy about someone, who didn't maybe well deserved monies, but overall I am very glad, that Poker Stars managed this shady situation in this manner. If you enter big tournament, any tournament, you should think over all the matters, what can hurt you.

Imagine the joy of bubbleboy!!!

Here is the story.

King of the suckouts

Well, just a reminder for myself - I do suckout sometimes too.

I am the bettor on every street:



Sorry, no candy today - working from home, hah.

WBCOOP: damn! I was supposed to win an X-Box!!! Bitch.

No. Don't get me wrong - WBCOOP ain't a bitch. Not me, either. Noone is a bitch. I just sometimes want to say that word. With expression.

So - WBCOOP. Went out just before second brake. 6xx-something. Damn! Even after ten hours I can't figure out, did I played wrong or not. As always, I kept myself in the middle of the pack waiti9ng for the moment, where half of people tend to be nervous. It comes about time, where blinds climb up to 200 or 300. Average stacks start to worry. They see "Wow, I am squeezed between stacks three times larger than me!" and start to make moves. At this time we don't need to make moves ourselves - just respond to other tries to steal chips.

...and it all happened.

Till my stupid mind decides to raise 2000 [300/600] in CO with AJ sooooted. Ok - it's not THAT bad move. It's standard. But then lose bigstack button reraises me to 5000. If I call - I have 6789.12 left. I call. Cause, you know - HE'S SOOO LOOOOOSE! Board comes Q high. I realize, that if I check, he will definetly put me all-in. So I push. That bastard calls with JJ and, with no help in turn and river, I am out.

And won the guy, who's blog I can't even read! Come on - what's up with that!!??!

That's why we all look at candy below and try to go on our lives.

Let's celebrate!

Bought PAHUD today. Celebrated that with good poker session. Yes... Guess who won? [I got aces]




32o

Jerry Yang at WSOP 2007 final table

Just watched his "amazing" performance with J8 in the Episode 25 of this year's WSOP. Damn! Are you serious! I am starting dislike this guy. He could pray on his knees. I think it's pretty bad to call for a Lord in such manner. And I am not some fanatic believer or whatnot.

P.S. Talking about his holiness: here's some good shots from his vacation.

Denise Pernula Playboy

It's still the most popular search entry, that leads to Poker Disasters. Thanks to pretty old post, where I mention, how stupid she looks. Oh well - come on, guys - CLICK!!!

How many Redbulls at 2007 WBCOOP?

Yeah. For me that tournament starts at 22:00. On Sunday! Before Monday! Not good.


If I manage to go deep [and I want to - 40K is good prize pool] - I will need serious doping. At this moment shopping list is as follows:
- 3 cans of Red Bull;
- 2l Fanta [can't drink Coke because of all that brandy+coke in my life];
- pack of smokes.

Poker - health friendly sport indeed!

But how! How can I resist?!?!

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 4737815

NOPE

Well, I guess this is the last post of Poker Disasters. Time passed and I realized, that I don't need this blog to be a part of poker community. I can read other blogs and comment them without being blogger myself. The best feedback on playing and events I can get through various forums. So why I waste my time here?! Thank you for reading. All the luck. And we will meet again in Your blog or forum. Here I will update something about once a month maybe - if something big happends.

Drunk people play good / how did I did a bad thing

Sunday mournings over here are the best for playing online - then all the drunk people in America enjoying midnight and playing. There are people, who calls on the river with J7c on AK high board with four hearts. Unbelievable. Unforutantely, they sometimes wake up with good hand and then there's a trouble. Thats how I lost one buy-in.

Then came tilt and after ten hands I lost preflop all-in with AK of spades. To a donk, yes. He pushed with T8 sooted. I know, I know, generally you don't want to go with all your monies with big slick, but...

So, finally, two buy-ins down, I quit.

About that bad thing, mentioned in this posts title: Wanted to have some more feedback for Poker Disasters and, with doubt in my mind, posted the adress in2+2 forums. Only few responses. And topic deleted after couple days. I realize, that that was wrong and everything. Even sent the apology letter to the man, who deleted the post. So, please, no hard feelings.

Not interesting.

Gambler types

As we know from history... yeah... today was a good session, then the next one is going to be some sort of a disaster. Hope not.

Let's change the accents one more time, like we did in the previous post - I have another bright idea. By just fooling around in my mind, I thought of another theorem. There are three majog types of people who plays poker:

- winning players [I would like to call them "people, who play comfortably and wins"];
- recreational gamblers [millions of them];
- wannabe's [me and other members of fauna].

Damn. Third category is the toughest! If there isn't no big tourney win [yes, apparently I am talking mostly about cash games] or some deep pocket to rely on, this category gives the most number of headaches and troubles. Oh, no - I do not complain! Love that. Just a thought.

A little accent there, a little accent here...

Did someone said this or am I the first one? "If you don't know when to play - no worries. The main thing it to know when NOT to play". Yes.

Proceed in scotish accent: "So full of shit I am".

Back to normal accent.

Today read interesting news concerning online poker business. "New York Times" has an interesting article about argue between U.S. and Antigua and Barbuda. Yes, concerning online gambling restrictions in da big country and all the ramblings in World Trading Organization. Gambling Dispute With a Tiny Country Puts U.S. in a Bind.

Some news concerning Poker Players Alliance can be found at Lou Krieger's. But there's nothing much - they move from San Francisco to Washington D.C.

Pokernews let us know, that now people will be able to transfer funds between Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker sites. Well, ummm, ok.

Expectations II

As I said in one of my previous posts - Fuck them! Again - one day is good profitable. Somewhat slowly the bankroll grows for another bit. Next day - I don't believe some aggro guy and blow it all away.

Hate to do these brags, really. Who cares about them except me? No one.

And it's terribly hottt over here.

Let's read some forums then...

So much fun recently! Poker and non-poker releated. Wiiiii!!!!

Recently [today and yesterday] having much fun reading blogs, bloggies and 2+2.

Of course we will start with one of the silliest things - StB in his blog mentioned about some news about the men, who sat at some slot machine and realized, that woman, who had played previously, peed all over the seat. Ain't it nice?! As a news for me came the thing, that there really are such addictive people, who can't go to toilet just because of that huge urge to gamble. My God!

Then I looked at a very good screen at S'n'G... sorry, MTT Machine blog - Chad shows us how he plays. 30" display ain't bad.

One more interesting thing - how many 30" inch displays will buy Daniel Negreanu, after he earns another biiig chunk of monies by selling two to three minutes long clips through mobile entertainment provider? That guy don't waste any time and hits the iron while it's hot. Indeed.

Like the long reading? Haley's Poker Bl-Auggh got it for ya! Weird and about... something.

Oh! And 2+2 goes crazy lately! Mostly I read NL/PL Full Ring section and I just can't remember, it was so interesting as now. Too many to mention, but I feel I definetly must move up the stakes...

Apart from poker - it seems that almost all american men loves Lindsey Lohan. Just can't understand that. Is she cute? Really? Let not have her here. Poker Disasters better votes for Jaime.

HSP4 - just one week left / Bellande / my beauty

Isn't that lovely - GSN will start airing Season Four of High Stakes Poker after just one lousy week! Can't wait to see all those guys [and gal] to play together again!

On other news - Jean Robert Bellande will participate in the next season of "Survivor". He have our local version of it, but, because of Bellande, I will take a peak on series made overseas. The show will start 20th september. Full cast can be found here.

P.S. Upgraded Poker Tracker yesterday, but PAHud just don't want to work. Will work on it further today. Anyhow, urge for playing with stats helping me is huge. As well as urge to play live - to bad I don't have a bankroll for the second.

Oh... when I will be rich, I will myself this beauty - Kawasaki Vulcan 1600:

Just be happy, you bastards!

Some very bad news also... Maybe you know, maybe you don't, but I am a frequent guest at DeviantArt. Have some friends there. One of them now missing his girlfriend/next wife for two weeks now. She went after some dinner things and never came back. The guy thinks [is almost sure], that she was kidnapped and already been transported to some foreign country. Yes, she was joung. About 24, I believe. Damn. It just makes me crazy! So, after all - we are damn happy overall, aren't we?!

Since it's a poker blog - not much read blogs recently [weekend, ya know]. There are some good posts about multiaccounting at KickAss.

The Wicked Chops in their recent entry asked a really good question: "Whatever happened to just beating the crap out of someone who owed you money?".

Expectations [the post where I'm telling how smart I am]

Fuck them!

Really.

Hate when it's happends - one day you make two buy-ins and then you expect to do the same next day. Almost always it end's up with downswing. Thank God, now, if I am down one buy-in I quit even if I really want to play further.

Since I am at FT, believe it or not, I don't use Poker Tracker. Not any more. Less guessing - more fun.

And best of all - I start to starve for some good reading.

HPP vs. OESD

About that question in previous post - it's total bullshit. Player with pocketpair will win 65% of the time, but OESD will see victory 35% of the time. Mystery solved.

So we will never know the truth, yes?

Guess so. Bill Rini in his blog published his latest Q&A with Tom Grant - the man, who accused Phil Laak in various crimes, including hiring the hitman for murder. No updates on this matter whatsoever - just short response, that all matters have been settled and Unabomber can walk free again. End of story. Shame.

More on poker: does really player with high pocket pair is 1:3 underdog to an open ended straight draw when there are two more cards to come? Must look it up - pretty interesting. [Oh my God - I am interested in odds and numbers! Help!]

Talking about help - this guy really needs help. Just hilarious video [again, thanks to Rini's post].

And just look at those legs:

Have no idea...

Yesterday [as my girl is away and I have lonely nights:)] I decided to participate in my first blogger tournament - Friday Nite Blogger Donkament. Well, for me it was more as a mourning thing, cause the tourney started at 4:00 in the mourning by my time. But, as I had still beer in my veins and shopping bag, I give it a try.

Mostly I didn't knew people I was playing against [or just their screen names], but it was super fun. At start I lived thanks to two suckouts. But what you gonna do? Three hours or so with only three pocket pairs require some luck. Anyhow, finished 6th out of 17 - KQ vs. 77 - flopped K, but 7 on the turn sent me packing. And I have no idea, did I do good or bad, hah.

Thank you, it was good event to participate in.

Let's continue about those different thoughts on poker and shit

Well, discussions about cash vs. tournament continue. Now some thoughts about this, I guess never ending talk, are posted at Otis place. And there is the same point I told few posts ago: "Don's initial statement is basically true when applied to big buy-in live tournaments". It's the whole point in my opinion, cause, if we look at the poker as decent way of getting everything in life [financially], as a job, what requires decent amount of skill given individual must have, only the high buy-in events can give you the profit needed.

If we talk about things like "little buy-in can give you many hours of fun" - yes, it is true. IF you are playing FOR fun. In this case the whole argue doesn't make many sence anymore - then it's like discussion about what is better - strawberry or vanilla ice cream.

Ok. Back to work, I guess...

...and another thing - big news to come!

If you read my previous post, then it's obvious - I didn't had much time to run through my FeedReader.

Most interesting thing happened I guess concerns Bill Rini's post about Phil Laak's past back in Thailand - drugs, hired killers and accidents. Bill goes through these gossip-like stories
pretty objectively and post is interesting to read. There's a link to some 2+2 thread, which I found pretty interesting, too [didn't read all thing though, so...]. And all these things lead to one site, which no states the following:


Should be interesting.

Want to hear funny story about hamburgers? Go to Rapid Eye Reality.
Want to read a rundown of cons'n'pros between FullTilt and Poker Stars? Go to S'n'G Machine.
Want to see miss Roderick? Click below:

Wild days... [live games rule].

Yeah! Very wild. There was bad thing, good thing and totally unnecessary thing.

The bad: my account at FullTilt contains exactly 0.24$. Yesterday played 50$ freeroll at UB - finished 74 of approx. 2500. Don't like freerolls, really.

The good: six hours of live play [four-handed about 2h and heads-up about 4h] was marvelous - never felt more strong. Killed, took all the money.

The unnecessary: spent all earned money on booze in the next two days, so you can imagine, how I feel this mourning.

p.s. forgot to mention - ThePokerBay is currently open for registration, so maybe consider to join them. Later, when the limit of subscribers will be met, the only way to register will be through invitation of existing member. I have 10 invitations, so will be able to help.

Argue about Cash vs. Tournament

Very good post from Miami Don - one of the bloggers I read very regulary. Recently he posted very good written opinion about "Cash vs. Tournament poker" matter. He, of course, was on the cashgame's side and you just can't disagree with his thoughts. From other side, Chad from SNG Machine blog did the reply to Don's post defending tourneys and life within them.

After reading both posts I tend to agree with Don more. We have everyday needs and generally can't afford to wait for the big score [if we suggest, that poker is our everyday job]. And I don't think about just bread, water and rent - I talk new laptop, trip with family, clothes for kids... It's all about that. Tournament player wants to take big score after hundreds of bustouts. That's not gonna work. Let's imagine some predator out in the jungle, who eats only animals with, ummm... one eye. He will starve to death by the time he sees his dinner and then he will be so weak, he will not catch a shit.

Tournaments must be an addition to our lifes, not the main income. Ofcourse, I am not the one who could talk really, couse, as Otis said, "Ned Flanders thinks I am a pussy", but that's how it looks to me.

Do not give me "wet fish " / lessons start to come back / and I am picky [but finally find smthn]

Since I started to spend time in poker blog community, I pretty fast started to like Otis posts in Up For Poker. Yes, sometimes some posts just weren't for me - about places I've never been, where some dudes I couldn't possibly know, do something this and that. Well, these posts are just skipped without any hard feelings. Sometimes, though, there are very very good posts. Now Otis came up with good article about young poker [and non-poker] culture of young guns, who don't have much under their belt as decent, respectful human beings/persons. There's a good phrase, that pretty much described that new generation: "Their grasp on morality, etiquette, and the golden rule is as weak as their handshake". Spot on! Go ahead and read it - it's called "TLDNR".

On Game: After happy-happy post sometime earlier I must say, that cashgames are still soft, but I am starting to make same old mistakes. Every now and then I just must to drop down about half a buy-in to crawl back up and earn something. I remember, I wrote very similar lines at the beginning of the year. Hah. OK. It's good, that my forgotten lessons doesn't cost me as much as then. The big pause in playing did some bad things, but now I learning good old truths quite faster.

And yes - how can you survive [ok, you can - I'm just saying that] without some daily doze of beauty. This time it's some pics of... Honestly, I am soooo picky. Couldn't find anything at the moment.
UPDATE: Ok. Found one good. Karen Cliche. Enjoy.

There might be some cheating on PokerStars

OK. There's "World Cup of Poker IV" going on and there are two qualification rounds for every country. My is Latvia, ofcourse. I will try to participate there, too, but with some mixed emotions. You see, there are one internet community here in Latvia and pretty big number of it will play there too. Yesterday I visited their website and read some comments, where they played with an idea to cheat at this tournament by communicating with each other whilst in tournament. Yes, we are small community overall, but the chance, that it will be going on at my table isn't pleasant. Even if I am lousy player and am bound to leave early, I still would like to do it by rules, not thanx to some possible conspiracy.

That was my brag and I will stick to it.

Enough with sadness - let's have some goods.

Post Nr.100! / Phil Laak is Da Man

Don't feel really happy about it - it's not like Nr.1000 or something. Besides, that month long pause messes up everything.

Old news, but couldn't not to post them - Phill Laak and Ali Eslami defeated poker machine Polaris. Humans win! Kill all humans!

And here's some unstrategy: we all love AJ, don't we?!

...And I was wonderful last night!

I sure hope, that my run in cashgames will not end and this is not only variance. I was on fire - read opponents hands like open book, bet right amounts and folded on time. I really begun feel comfortable.

Too bad, I ended session on losing side - enourmous pot got away, when me and other guy with big stack moved all-in preflop just to see, that we both have aces. Yes - he got himself flush. The very next hand another guy reraised all-in on the flop of J26 rainbow after my continuation bet with AK. There are some guys, who buys in with minimal amount and plays only premium cards with all-in preflop. I call them pushers. This one was pusher too, but very loose and, let's say it - dumb. I made the correct call - he had 89s, but river brought 9 and all my money went to him. I started to tilt and quitted.

But nevertheless - awesome session.

Long post about beauty of cashgames and Sepultura, about best review about Harrah's / other stuff and candy

Yeah, baby! This weekend was very great! Fryday's evening finally decided to play cash after a while and remembered, why those are the best. They are better than sit'n'goes. From now on I have a plan to focus on cashgames most of my playing time. But now I will mix them with MTT's - I guess mostly I'll be chasing 26$ tokens.

The best thing for me in cash, is that blinds stick the same. I am still too rocky and tight for tournaments and it couses great pain to me to play speculative hands in tourneys.

So, yeah, as You understood, friday was cool. Saturdays mourning was even better - about that time, when it's mourning over here, it's about 24:00-03:00 in america, so many drunk moves are made. Lovely!

After a good run for couple hours my stomack was asking for beer! It came the time of selebration - after just about five hours I would be in Sepultura concert!

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Sunday went under little minus sign, but nevertheless: cashgames, here I come!

On other news:

Pokernews time after time posts review of some poker room. In this weekend this was Harrah's turn. Boy, that review killed me! The worst words about something PokerNews didn't write in a long time!

And - YEAH - today begins another battle between human brains and computer. Unabomber, I am with you!

The First Man-Machine Poker Championship - LIVE UPDATES!

candy

High Stakes Poker Season Four

Mmmm. That's always a good news - HSP is returning to us with 4th season in August 27. The notable point at upcoming series is, that the first half will be as before - 100k buy-in, but the second will be marvelous 500k. Isn't that nice?! Eahc other's blood will try to spill such players like:

Hellmuth;
Both Brunsons;
Negreanu;
Matusow;
Harman;
Greenstein;
Elezra;
Laak;
Farha.

I all read it at PokerNews, btw.

Poke 'em

Pretty interesting post at Pokerati, actually, about tipping the dealers at the WSOP, how our new champ didn't do it and who, actually, told him not to. Read the comments - they are the better half of the post. Actually.

Not even one blogger tournament for me / gorgeos Tara Conner to make your day

Well, figured I wanted to enjoy some tourney with poker bloggers, but it seems like it will not work for me. I don't want to pay some 10$ for a start, so that leaves me with fridays rebuy frenzy. Yeah, right - if it starts at 21:00 over the pond, it's 4:00 in the mourning for me. If I don't want to drink all night [and I do not] and waste those bucks un stupid plays... So no tournament. Sad, but true.

This realisation came and make me unhappy, so call to Tara Conner was amust. After a little chat she gave me this link to make the sun brighter and the grass greener. It helped, hah.

Umm, yes, I am still at work - counting hours and minutes till the end of the day and finally logging in onto Full Tilt.

And what's up with "Blogger"?!? When I want to post an entry, he accepts "Word Verification" only the second time I do it - the first time always pops the message "ERROR" Enter the letters as they are shown in the image". Grrrr.

People will get back Neteller frosed funds / cheater get arrested for... emmm ... cheating / bohemian nights are over

First of all - Jerry Yang - how can I not to post his photo!

Well, as always, one of the best written news about Neteller we can find at Lou Krieger's blog. Good news. Tha bad news [for some involved]: "Card Cheating Expert Steve Forte Caught Cheating at Cards, Allegedly".

For a daily pin-up we can go to FatBMX again. This time it's a little hardcory and I am not even sure, do I really like it! But nevertheless - maybe someone will like it.

Finally, today will have a good quality time at the tables after work. I am not sleepy, I am not weak and I am ready to kick some ass. I really should work on my bankroll and start to play V.E.R.Y. regulary. All those bohemian weekends doesn't do me any good.

Later.

The best female poker player

Have no idea, is she "the best" or not. But she does not look like a whore. And let's admit it - most women in poker world looks like women for money. And not the best one's. Ladies and gentlemen - Erica Shoenberg.

And it's all just becouse FT mass spam email. Isn't thet nice?!

In second pic, it does look like a littlebit artificial, but what you gonna do, hah, looks good anyways.

Final table / me:revealed

Mmmmyeah. Finally ended three day drinking fest. So there's nothing much about the game. But fellow writers did good job. Thus far, the best piece about upcoming Final Table battle I found at Tao, but, I guess you all have read it already [who doesn't read it, huh?].

Well, that's about it. No much strengh over here. Even typing seems a little difficult.

And yeah - changed profile - now you can see my ugly face and stop reading my blog.

This blog is dangerous!

Just saw in few blogs this thingie and gave a shot too. Funny thing, actually...

Some visual stuff [non-poker]

Since in the last posts I showed some my photoshop skills by adding stupid text messages to some pictures, I thought, I will make some difference and put some work of own. This piece is made as logo for some [biggest and most well known in Latvia] motorcycle club's 11th anniversary. It isn't complete yet, so don't be over judgemental. As I said - no poker.

Congratulations! You are degenerate!

Yes. Just read a pretty fun article over CBS - thanx to Pot Committed person. Fun stuff about WSOP and poker as such. Just a caption for those, who haven't read it yet: "High-stakes gambling is for addicts and idiots, which makes the World Series of Poker a celebration of the sad and the stupid."

OK, all would be fine, if he didn't call lots of people idiods without knowing them. You don't have such rights, you shit. You do not! And I have rights to call you stinky names just becouse, even without knowing me found it ok to offense me. Bitch.

And you know what? He is pretty proud of it [just click his name in that column]. From one side it's even cool - get paid for being a dumbass.

Eric Seidel - GO AWAY!!! / my landlord is great

I am officially tired of seeing Eric Seidel every time I visit the PokerNews. Sure, I understand, that he is the winner of latest WSOP event, but come on!!! I am guessing, mister Seidel doesn't like that anymore either.

And how do you like that - four S'n'G and three eliminations out of the money with four-to-a-flushes!? Aghhhh. Sometimes variance hit you in the balls real hard. Nevertheless, apart from someone else could do, I still don't think internet poker is rigged.

In recent visit to 2+2 forums stumbled upon some posts about Brandy H...whathersurname. I really don't get it. Why those people make such a big deal of someone. She's not April Scott or anything.

And - YES! - I have finally cleared up my FeedReeder. Now it will be peaceful pace of reading and spme commenting again. Finally something good happends.

Met my landlord yesterday - it will be all fine with our flat. He will not make me more problems that I already have and will wait with the money. And all this becouse we both are designers /artists / whatever. Isn't he great or what?

I want some beer.

WSOP: third first day is down / stupid name for a mause pad

... and right - one more to go.

Being at work, I'm checking live updates every 20 minutes or so, so Poker Disasters will be one of the first places people can know about it! Yeah... big deal...

Anyways, visited the official site of the event and noticed one "really cool" banner with
Jen Harman. So, that is an ad of some sort of mause pad, that you can attach to your chair. Ok - thought is pretty good. But what I find funny about that, it is it's name: "DX Net Pro". Guys, if that's a "Pro" version, what is non-"pro"? You can put the mouso on, but can't move? Or what? It's just I always thought, and still am, that if there is an additional "pro" in thingies name, then there must be a simple version before. Here You can see Jen in most relaxed position ever [according to pad's marketing people].

TPB closes registration

Yep. The one and only ultimate source for all poker - The Poker Bay - has closed registration. I surely am happy for being a part of such marvelous community. I noticed it only now, couse I always stay logged in and rarely see the first page of the site, but, nevertheless, now it's closed.

Meanwhile the Day 1b is over and 1c goes on already. As Pokernews reports, all in all in ME will be "only" 6000 entrants, what is down by the third from previous year's numbers. I really can't say it's something bad or disapointing. For me, simple mortal.

They're both out in Day 1.

Oh. My. God.

Well, I guess I can congratulate You all with beginning of Main Event. Let the rants begin! So, will Gold get to this year's final table, as he had promised? I hope so - that would be more than great for him.

I guess those will be super/uber/totally old news, but I was very pleased to read about Lindgren's prop bet on a golf course. Have no clue about golf whatsoever, but, as I understood, it was one good bet worth 340'000$. Bits of action You can see at RawVegas TV and some discussion over 2+2.

I got through approx. a half of all posts. Sure, I don't read them all, but You got to take some short look on almost any of them at least. So much for fast catching up. At least I have some time to find some girl's photo for you to look at while reading my ramblings [pic from FatBMX].

About experiences at FullTilt - a littlebit later.