I love me some MATH

I'm a total donkey and I reloaded again, just so I can go play the MATH. Why? Because I loves the pain. But also because it is a deepstack tourney and I am going to be playing anyway - Poker After Dark final is tonight with about 1350 runners hoping for a single seat to the donktastic televised event.

See you all at the MATH.

This lion is crazy

Catching up on some of my bloglines I ran into this crazy post by Richard "the lion" Brodie.

1) Who the fuck plays $300 video poker?
2) Who hits a royal flush twice for almost 500K jackpots?
3) Where did this guy get all this money?

From what I've read Richard's not a dick. But sweet cheeses, WTF?

Cannes you feel it?

Lame title, I know. Or as my French Blogger now says "titre". WTF is wrong with Google that it has to change its language to the local one and not give you a way to get back to English?

This is parked outside my hotel (along with several Ferraris, Bentleys and Aston Martins):



Lady Moura, 344ft
A renowned superyacht in Arab hands and often seen moored in Monte-Carlo, she is owned by multi-millionaire Saudi Arabian businessman Mohammed al-Rashid. Lady Moura is so large she cannot enter the town harbor and must moor alongside the port wall. Lady Moura is reputed to have cost in excess of $100 million, carries a crew of 60, and incorporates features such as a beach resort complete with sand, a large pool with a retractable roof, and a 75ft dining table custom-made by Viscount Linley.

So I am in Cannes. And there is no live poker to be found. And that sucks. So instead I went ahead and lost almost my entire FTP bankroll playing tournaments until 5:45am. I managed to run my overpairs into flopped sets about a gazillion times in one night. It was to the point where I already knew I was behind on the flops with three small cards to my overpairs. Sick.

And the club flushes didn't help either:



I actually played a couple of decent tournaments until the wheels fell off. I tried to satellite into one of the FTOPS events and did something I usually never do - play a 6-max MTT. I actually went pretty deep and was the chip leader for a long time, as late as when we were down to 9 players. It all started when I made a great read and won a race:



At this point we were down to 14 from the starting 43 (1 place won entry and three more paid cash). And this is where I took the lead and a big stack and started hammering the table, lucko style. Obviously this backfired when some fonkey shoved with second pair on the flop and hit his 5 outer on the turn:



But don't rule me out yet. I made another great read and managed to retake the lead:



Nice two outer kept another fonkey alive:



And I was eventually out in 7th place. I was playing great but could not withstand the massive suckouts and escalating blinds. I eventually shoved my JTs straight into AK in the SB. C'est la vie.

I also played the Daily Doubles and made it deep in B until I tilted off my average stack to the chip leader. I don't want to talk about it.

Since it was 4am by then I decided to take what little I had left in my account and sign up for the Mookie. I made some good agressive plays early on and had a nice chip stack. But the BrainMC showed up to my right and I donated most of my chips to him when his quad Kings where no match to my Kings full of 5s. Presto sucks!



I managed to get some chips again but then tilted them away with some horrendous play. Eventually shoved my A4o into the big stack in the SB who called with Q9s and hit two pair on the turn. Ouchie.

Congrats to BrainMC for taking down his second blonkament in two days. On fire!

Oh, yeah - this one is for Hoyazo. While playing the Daily Double I raise UTG 2.5xBB with Aces and the big stack on the button pushed with AJo. Awesome move there JackAce:



So what's next? Spending the weekend on the French Riviera with KajaWife who is arriving today. Going to drive around Provence and take in the nightlife of Monte Carlo. Not too shabby I must say. Too bad there's no live poker anywhere. I would have loved to partake.

Technorati Claim

Technorati Profile

Not sure what this does but figured I might as well....

Poker Chimp

I ran across this chimp in one of the magazines I picked up in the cardroom in London. I think I will use it in my profile from now on....

Playing poker in London

I want to preface this post by saying that the only highlight of my recent European trip was playing live poker at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London. I love live poker. I wish I had more chances to play it. And the exchange rate at the cardroom is the best on the planet. Seriously. They will even let you buy back your USD if it is during the same day as when you sold them.

Now while I love live poker, I am probably the worst cash game player there is. I play scared at levels that are higher than I am confident in. I play too tight and eventually make a move at the wrong time.

When I was done with my meetings for the day I headed over to The Vic poker room to see what was going on. The room opens at 2pm and by the time I got there about 15 minutes later there were not enough players to start a game. The table they were going to open was a 3/3 PL Hold'em with a minimum 100 buy-in. This is GBP, not USD. So basically a $6/$6, with a $200 min buy-in. So what do I do? I buy in for the minimum. When I see the other guys' stacks I know it was a mistake. I should just get up and leave right now, but I sit there and let everyone know that in the next hour I will either go bust or I will take all their money. Smooth.

I play tight for about half an hour and then try to bluff a loose player who fights back and I fold. I then limp with 54s and double up when I make my flush on the turn and get paid off. I am up above my starting stack and pretty happy. Then the following hand occurs:

I am in MP (at this point we have a full table) and get AKo (my best hand so far, an hour into the game). UTG raises to 10 (normal pre-flop raise) and I re-raise to 25 to take it down or isolate. Everyone folds and UTG raises pot or above 50 more. This is probably the point I should think about folding but I call instead. I only have about 30 left at this point and as the dealer deals the flop from the corner of my eye I see UTG bet in the dark another 50. The flop misses me with something like Q72 and I can't fold. Especially with that bet in the dark I thought I saw. I call and he shows his set of Queens. Adios 100GBP. Thanks for the fun times fellas. I also had to pay my 10 hourly charge for the rake and so I am down 110 so far.

I always play better when in the hole for some reason. But this is not a game I want to sit back into. They have a 30+5 MTT starting in 4 hours so I go and sign up for that. I head back to my hotel to rest as I have been up for about 36 hours with all the flights and meetings and not being able to sleep in my hotel. I make it back in time to see that we are maxed out at 72 players (8 tables) and playing for 2,160GBP.

The tournament area is upstairs and there are no dealers until the final table. So this is like a big home game with small tables and people dealing the game. Fun fact: they actually have 9 sided tables which I originally thought were hexagons. We start with 1500 chips and 25/25 blinds and 20 minute rounds. Blinds go up to 25/50 and then double. Not a lot of room to maneuver.

My starting table is a mixture of super-tight and super-aggro types. There's one grungy skinny chick who is a total LAG and pushes the table around, including yours truly. I decided to wait and trap since she is two to my right but I get no cards. She attacks everyone and shows most of her uncalled hands. Eventually she stacks some old guy when he has KK and she shoves on a JJ7 board while holding 87o. Turn 8, river 8 and old guy is gone. Luckily I am moved to another table, but I don't have a lot of chips left.

At my new table I manage to survive all-in twice with A6o. Once against AQo when I river a 6 and once I chop against AJ when the board is AKQQ2. Sweet. I got moved around a lot and didn't track many hands because I didn't get any. Eventually I get to a wild table with some crazy play. When I sit down I see a QQ vs Q7s all-in pre-flop which hits a runner runner flush. I tell the table that I need their chips because I want to play some more. I have 800 left and they all laugh. A young guy (we'll call him DG from now on) tells me to be patient. But at 100/200 blinds I have to make a move soon. By the time the blinds hit me we are at 200/400 and I am already half in. it gets limped around and I shove with 87s against three opponents. I tell them I need them all to call so I can quadruple up. I make two pair on the turn and while they check it down all they can do is see me drag the 3200 pot. Sweet. Now I have some fighting room.

I take some more chips from DG when I re-raise his steal attempt and he folds. At this point we are down to 19 players from the original 72 and need one more busto to move to two tables. Our table has 6 players and in one hand DG busts three players. After a 4-way limped pot pre-flop we see a flop of 7c3c2c. SB shoves, BB shoves, CO shoves and DG on the button calls (he has them all covered):

SB - Q7 for top pair.
BB - 44 for middle pair.
CO - AcQh for nut flush draw.
DG - 6c5c for a flopped flush and straight flush re-draw.

DG takes it down and we go from 19 to 16 players in one hand. 2 tables left. I still get no cards to work with and my new table is full of big stacks. But since we are close to the money bubble (final table gets paid) I take some risks and steal the blinds when I think my opponents won't call. I actually push A4s UTG and get the BB to fold AQo face up. I then probably make a mistake by showing him my hand and asking how he could fold his hand.

Down to 10 players and the big stack is just steam rolling us. DG loses a big chunk of his chips to a weirdo French guy who calls with Aces against DG's 7s. The Frenchie calls a big stack raise with T5s and flops quads to double up again. Everyone is in total shock. The other table busts the bubble and we move to a "real" poker table with a real dealer.

As soon as we sit down I see that I am in bad shape with a serious short stack. So obviously I offer an even chop. I get a few confused looks and a few chuckles. I then put them all on notice that I have karma on my side and everyone who refuses the chip deal will eventually be knocked out (this is actually true except for the eventual winner). So when they still won't budge I go on to triple up with KQo on a Q high flop. We are down to 8. Next to go is Frenchie who calls with a 52s on a flushing board against my KQo (again) and the big-stack all-in with pocket 10s. I double up and we are down to 7. Now I have a decent stack to work with and when I finally see a primo hand (AQs) I push and get called by A7o. This is the guy I showed the A4s to earlier and he says he called only because of that. I know not to celebrate early and he obviously hits a three outer on the river to take about half my stack. Since I did this to someone earlier I am not going to tilt too hard. I still have some chips. But then the same guy makes a dumb mistake when the short stack is all-in UTG and he pushes over the top from the button with AJ. SB and BB fold (they would have called the original shove) and UTG shows AK which holds up. I ask him why he did this and nobody at the table really thinks I am right, but I still believe 3 players against the short-stack is a much better way to climb the money ladder.

A few hands later DG in the SB shoves against the BB who calls with J7o. DG shows pocket Queens and we are down to 6. J7o is a great calling hand when you are going to be eliminated, right? Why did he call? He says he thought DG was bluffing. Whaaaaaaaa? Even if he was bluffing you call with J7o? J7o???

Anyway, down to 6 I offer the following deal: We each get 300 and winner takes the extra 100. This would be a good deal for 4 of the 6 remaining players as 1st is 760 and second is 390. But nobody wants the deal, so I put them on notice again. There's an old Cypriot at my table who I can't understand at all except that his name is Michael and he is so annoyed that the chick to his right always shoves on his BB. Two orbits later when he's in the BB she shoves on him again and he says he calls blind (I saw him check his cards as they were dealt, though). She has Tens and he has Aces and we are down to 5.

Blinds are so big I have to make a move again and I shove with KQ in the CO. DG in the SB calls and shows A8o and takes me out in 5th place for a 170 payout. So I am now up 170 win - 35 buy-in - 100 cash game - 10 rake = 25GBP. Awesome. DG goes on to take it down against the old Cypriot with the following awesome hand:

All in the flop of 976 rainbow, old guy has Q9 for TPGK and DG has 86 for bottom pair and a million outs (any 5, 6, 8 or 10). 6 on the river and DG takes it down.

You might be asking yourselves if I have gone totally ghey here with my mention of DG. The answer is no. I just thought that he was the best player I ran into at this tournament and he played very well except for a small mistake here and there. I also got to talk to him during one of the breaks and learned he works for a small but pretty awesome poker site as a player, errrr... support person. He just got back from the Irish Open where he was entertaining a few qualifying players from his site. While at the Irish open he took down one of the smaller preliminary 100 events for a nice cash of 7500. He then went on to party all day and night and lost a 1000 buy-in on another pre-event. I think this kid has potential. I'll let you all know if he pops up anywhere in the future.

So with my 25 earnings what am I going to do? At this point it's pretty late, I have an early flight and the entire cardroom downstairs as well as two tables upstairs are full. I buy-in again with the minimum 25 at a NLHE .5/1 with 100 max buy-in. This is going to be a total donkfest as everyone is limping and making huge re-raises. So I sit back and wait. Eventually I get a big hand with KTs after I limp and see a flop of AcJc5h. Some guy, that tried to bluff me earlier and folded to my push, bets into me again and I shove. He thinks for a bit and calls with KTh? Whaaaa? He called with only four queens for a chop? Anyway, I miss my draw and we chop. Bummer. I then go on to run my TPTK into an overpair of Queens. So Queens got me twice in the cash games.

I was very happy with my play in the tourney though. I had a great time. I guess I don't have the patience for the cash game to be profitable. I would have ended the night dead even, but I had to pay 4 rake charge so I was actually down 4.

Just to show you what an idiot I am, before this whole European escapade I decided to go and play some NLHE on FTP, just because I have a huge bankroll (not) and I am a terrific cash game player (not). But I decided to do it in style. I played 4 tables at once and bought in for $20 in each:



I got stacked in two but made it all back when I doubled up twice in one of the other tables. I really suck. I vow not to play cash games (of the NL/PL type) until I know what I'm doing.

And just to finish off my fun trip report with some more ranting about how crappy Europe is I have a couple more nuggets for you:

1) When I headed to my hotel earlier in the day after losing 100 in the PL game the cashier in the underground station told me I am better off buying a daily pass for 6.70 than buying a return ticket for 8. I asked him how later I can use this daily pass and he said 4:30am the following day. Now this to me means that the train actually runs until 4:30am, right? No! They shut down right around midnight. So after I leave The Vic to go get some sleep before my 6am wake-up call to head to the airport I find the station locked up. Some drunk guy says I can take the bus. I stop a cab and head to my hotel. Cab ride - 35GBP. Wooooot?

2) I get to the airport in the morning and all I have is my computer bag and a small carry on. Not even the rolly type, just a small over night hand bag. But apparently in UK airports you can only go through security with a single item, no matter how big or small it is. The chick who checks me in actually tells me I can put one bag inside the other and then take it back out after I pass security. This has got to be the most retarded security requirement I have run into. Even worse than making me take off KajaBaby's tiny sneakers in order to pass them through the x-ray at JFK. Since my bags are too small to fit one in the other I check my bag with a bit of a huff. I bet they UK TSA union got some deal where they are only required to scan one bag per customer. There is no other logical reason for this.
So right before we land back in the good 'ole US of A, the flight attendant comes over and asks me if I would like a bottle of Champagne to take home with me. This has never happened to me before and I am not sure if she is puttling my leg or if this is some sort of security trick to arrest me later. But I decide to take the bottle anyway. Worst comes to worst I say that it was already on the plane so it had passed security. The real problem is when you land in ATL after an international flight you have to check your bags in again and go through security one more time. So I put the bottle in the bag praying that it will not break or pop between terminal E and baggage claim. It doesn't. It just takes a freaking hour to get there. Fun times.

Europe Sucks!

Does anyone know why Europe sucks so bad? Is there a reason for this?

I had a real fun experience with a bunch of European idiots and the only reason that I am not sitting in prison right now on assault charges is that I was just too damn tired.

Just for fun let's do this post a-la "The Amazing Race", ok?

In this leg of the race, teams travel over 5000 miles to Germany, via Paris. In this detour, while in transit at Charles-de-Gaul Airport, teams will have to maneuver through a few hundred passengers lined up at passport control, being helped by only four agents. Teams can play it safe and chose longer, winding line that is reserved for all passengers not carrying an EU passport. While this is a longer line they are guaranteed to make it through the check point, howerever, they may be late for their connection. They can chose the faster moving, shorter line for EU members. As an extra added bonus, teams may elect to fast forward by cutting in line. While this tactic will probably allow them to reach their connection in time, they may face elimination at the hands of an angry passport control agent or even worse, a lynching by an angry mob of EU members.

I chose the shorter line and cut right to the front. I then found out that in order to get to my next gate I would need to speed walk the entire length of France. It took me a solid half hour to get there. Fawk!

Oh wait, before we get too far, the flight to Paris was eventful. I get to my seat and spot a 30+ year old woman in the middle seat next to me. She has a glazed/stoned look in her eyes and her stuff is on my seat. I ask her politely if she wanted me to put her pillow and blanket in the overhead compartment or would she like to hold on to them. In slow motion she motions towards her pillow and tries to figure out where to put it. After about 3 minutes she settles on putting the pillow behind her back. I finally sit down and she asks me if I work here, with a big drawl and serious slurring of words. "Do I look like I work here?" I respond to which she says she has no idea what's going on. She's not sure where she put her luggage and where her carry-on disappeared to. I see she's in distress and ask if everything's ok and if I can do anything to help. She lays the following bomb on my right there: "Ma brooother jist died in Parisss unda myshteriousss circumstanshes...." to which I am not sure how to react at first. So now there's an alternating line of flight attendants sitting next to her and checking if she's ok. Is she under the influence of drugs or alcohol? Can she make it through the flight? Etc. Etc.

She ends up pouring her drink on the guy in the other seat who has to restrain himself from punching her lights out. She also falls asleep and puts her nasty dirty hair on my arm several times. When dinner is served they refuse to serve her a glass of chardonnay. She has no idea how to work the seat belt!!! She has no idea how to release the tray table, how to use the headphones or how to work the touch-screen entertainment system. Loads of fun.

Back to the race.

In this leg of the race teams must meet up with other teams in Germany and take a taxi into town. When they reach their destination they need to look for a conference room with several rude Germans who don't speak English even after promising they will. This will all be topped of by a fat blond man in a bright purple shirt and flowery tie joining the meeting and asking difficult questions about your product. In order to complete this leg of the race you must convince him that you know what you are talking about and then get him to commit to a proof of concept. With next steps agreed on you must race back to the airport and catch a flight to London with a connection in Brussels.

While riding the bus to the plane in Brussels some dandruffed old guy with psoriasis all over his hands decided that a crowded bus is the right time to scratch his head. It looked like a nor-easter hit the inside of the bus with flakes the size of golf balls flying in every which direction and coming to rest on all the surrounding passengers. I tried to shove a finger in my throught so that I could throw up all over this flaker, but I was only able to dry heave and scare the crap out of him and everyone on the bus. Fun times.

In this leg of the race, after being awake for almost 24 hours, teams must make their way to central London and try to check in to their hotel for the night after being notified that one half of the team has a lost bag that is now somewhere in Europe and traveling all alone in the night.

Even though we had a reservation to a crap-tastic converted townhouse near Paddington station, the semi-retarded-barely-English-speaking Indian immigrant at the front desk can't find us in the system. Turns out he can't spell or hear and eventually after searching for 15 minutes notifies us that the hotel is currently renovating many of its rooms and they have no rooms for us. Instead, he has booked us into a Quality hotel in Harrow. Where the fuck is that? Well turns out that not too far (about 15 minutes in a car). He will be glad to pay for our transportation. We wait 45 minutes for car to come pick us up and the driver has no idea where to go. Luckily he has a GPS in his car, but has no idea how to use it and combined with terribly shaking hands and problems with spelling he can't enter the address. I finally ask him to give me the device and in 3 minutes we are at our destination. We make a scene and get upgraded to really nice renovated rooms.

So now I am right around 30 hours and running on fumes but my internal clock is all messed up. So I eventually fall asleep at 5:30am with only two hours before breakfast and all day meetings. It doesn't end here. When I get back to the hotel I am notified that I am only checked in for one night and need to go back to the Shitesbury Hyde Park Paddington hotel. NO. FUCKING. WAY.

You guys straighten this mess out. I am not going anywhere.

Next up: Live poker in the UK.

The Landlord

This is too funny not to share:

WTF? DAYUM!!!

What the hell is going on? How can this be? This is complete insanity! I must be dreaming!

What am I going on and on about? FTP loves me! For real....

I played a $10 single table SNG and I could not lose a hand. I took out every player at the table. Most of them through unabashed suckouts. As my chip stack grew I was able to apply more and more pressure and get luckier and luckier. The SNG was over in 57 hands.

Here's the proof:

Hand 1: UTG pot raise, UTG+1 calls, I raise 3x with AQ and only UTG+1 calls. Flop misses me but UTG+1 checks and pushed on my c-bet. This is the first hand. I think about it a second and call. He has 99 and I hit my Q on the river. Suckout #1:



Hand 13: I am on the button and get KK. Lots of action before me from some short stacks so I bump it up to 900 (I can afford it) and UTG+1 shoves with TT and goes home:



Hand 18: SB completes and I check in the BB with T6. Flop is T65 and SB shoves and huge overbet. He has been bluffing and showing the whole time so it's an easy call. He has AT and goes home. This one was all his fault:



Hand 24: Two for the price of one. Two shorties raise and shove and I get caught in the middle with KQs. One turns over JJ and one AK so I am dead to a Q or a heart flush. Queen on the turn sends them both home. Massive suckout #2:



Hand 25: Next hand I get KQs again, this time in clubs (FTP favorite suit). Battle of the blinds gets BB all-in with AQs but another massive suckout with a K on the river. We're now in the money. Massive suckout #3:



Hand 29: Four hands later I complete the SB with 63o and BB checks with A5o. I would usually let this go, but I have almost all the chips on the table. Three diamonds on the flop of AQ7 and I have the 6d. I bet pot and BB shoves. Easy call and my flush comes on the river. Now this is not a true suckout because it was his fault for not raising with A5o 3 handed in position. But we can call it a mini-suckout #4:



Hand 57: We get to heads up and I have a 5-to-1 chip lead. The blinds are only 40/80 so there is a lot of room to play. My opponent is very tentative and folds a lot of his buttons - HUGE mistake in HU (read H-on-H for more). He gets some chips with well timed shoves, but I continue to be the aggressor and he eventually drops below 1K in chips. I now put him all-in every hand until he calls with AQs against my Q2o. Hammer flop of 722 seals the deal. He doesn't even say "gg" at the end. Massive suckout #5:



And with that boys and girls we end a single table $10 SNG in 33 minutes flat with me taking out every single player at the table:



I can't let this get to my head....

FTOPS IV set for May?

FTOPS IV Schedule

Ivey is funny

I am just catching up on some High Stakes Poker and they showed a clip from a previous episode where Negreanu is telling everyone how he went to drive a Nascar and got it to 136. Ivey replies with a bit of a scoff "I do that on the Summerlin Parkway" without the slightest change in demeanor. Daniel is left speechless and the facial expression is priceless. Just watch the first few minutes of last episode's recap:

States & Countries

UPDATE (2/21/08):
I've been to 41 states or 80% of the country.


create your own visited states map.

UPDATE (2/21/08):
I've been on every continent except Antarctica. 30 countries or 13%. Not bad.


create your own visited countries map.

CineJax

Mister TripJax has invited me to join his pet project, code named CineJax.

Head on over and see what you think.

Thanks TripJax!

Why? Why? Why?

Playing 3 tables on my tiny screen is pretty hard. I managed to avoid another disastrous min-raise snafu by bullying my opponent to fold. I hate this stupid min-raise problem on the new FTP client.

I donked it up in the mookie. I donked it up real good in the dookie.

But on my other two windows I was 1st out of 11 and 12 remaining in a 90-seat and 45-seat SNG. I think I played very well and my table image was good enough to allow me to push people off pots with air.

I have two screenshots for y'all tonight. THe first is the bubble in the 45SNG. It only pays out 6 and when we made the final table (I was chip leader still) it go very slow. I then went on to bust two shorties with one hand:



I managed to eliminate a couple of players and made it to heads-up with a slight chip lead. My opponent was playing very tight and folding his SB 4 out of 5 hands. Big no-no. At least when he played I could assume he had a hand. The following hand led to my eventual demise. I called a small raise with J8d and saw a J-high flop with two diamonds. I bet and got called. The turn was a second 8. I bet again and got a massive re-raise. I didn't think he had an 8 so I shoved my entire stack with 13 outs (9 diamonds, 2 jacks, 2 eights). None of my outs hit and to my surprise he turned over bullets:



I managed to double up on the next hand and get a workable stack but then on the following hand we both flopped top pair but he had a better kicker and it was over. I really wanted to take it down. But I will settle for second:

Blog Addict

My name is Kaja and I am a blog addict.

I HAVE to read blogs all the time. I read them at home. I read them at work. I read them when I fly. I read them when I drive. I read them on the can. I don't know why, but I do.

I use bloglines because it is the first reader I found and it has a mobile version which allows me to read it off my BlackBerry easily. I think it is a crappy reader and has a lot of room for improvement but unless I find something better, I guess I'll stick with it. I have my feeds separated into a few groups:

Group #1 - Other: This is where I have the blogs that update several times a day and are mostly gossip/entertainment/funny. I got Perez, Tyler, Adfreak, BestWeekEver, etc.

Group #2 - Poker News: All the folks who deal with the industry and post "news-worthy" items. Top of this list are the boys at Wicked Chops Poker, but also the likes of Bill Rini, Poker Prof and the actual PokerNews.

Group #3 - The Pros: Some of the guys in this group are actual pros on the poker circuit, but I also include folks who play for fun but still need to file a tax return for their winnings, like hoyazo, lucko21, sprstoner and The SNG Machine.

Group #4 - Poker Bloggers: This is by far the biggest group and include a diverse list of the poker bloggerati. Too many to mention, actually. Look my up on bloglines and you can see the full list.

Group #5 - Pokerworks: A group of talented writers who sold out and went to work for the (wo)man. I keed, I keed. The only thing I don't like about this group is that they only give a few lines of the post before you need to go over to the mothership and get bombarded by all the ads. So I grouped them here and I know to stay away if reading on my Berry.

Group #6 - ATL Bloggers: These are people I might actually get a chance to meet some day (since I highly doubt I will get a pass to get to a blogger gathering in Vegas or anywhere else). They've been really nice and have invited me to play several times, but I always had something come up (date night, sick KajaBaby, upset KajaWife, etc.). I swear I will show up one night. Only one I've met so far is BrainMC, who lives a couple of miles away from me and came to one of our neighborhood games.

Groups #7 & #8 - Tech & Real Estate: Some random stuff I follow from time to time. These usually pile up until I have time to get to them.

I have a total of 124 feeds, 186 unread posts and 362 saved posts.

Anyone have a better reader I can use? I tried Google and it was nice but doesn't work on the mobile. Any other ideas?

Think before you post

These are great:

Birthday Cash

No, I didn't cash in anything. I did make a good run in another tournament before hitting another tech-brain-fart when I tried to welcome back an idiot who had been playing 93% of hands and hitting every one of them. When we got to the final table he sat out for about a half hour and when he showed up I tried to type "welcome back", but before I could hit enter it was my turn to fold my 85o and the 'Enter' actually made me min-raise. You know how this ends.

I was 1st out of 6th remaining and ended up in 5th place when this loose donkey called a 15K raise with T6o and hit two pair against my AQ. This same idiot earlier had made a call against my big raise with K6o and turned a boat after hitting two pair on the flop. I knew I could bust him, bust he just kept getting very lucky. Oh, I also ran into AA in the big blind twice when I was on the button with a big pocket pair. Good thing I had chips both times and the BB were short stacks.

Anyway, the cash I am talking about is the kind your relatives (mom, dad, grandma, sister, etc.) give you when you are too old to shop for and not old enough to completely ignore. I did one thing so far, which I said I wouldn't do. I reloaded my FTP account with an extra $100. Not sure why. I got two $50 gift cards and instead of splitting with PS I just put the whole amount on FTP. I guess since I get some rakeback and almost all the blogger games are there it was the wiser choice. And before even playing a single hand I have a 10% ROI. They forgot to charge me the 10% activation fee on the cards when I got them. Already a winner...

Now the big question is what should I do with the rest. I have about $400 left. I thought of two things that would make me happy. The first is a big-ass LCD. I then thought it through and scratched that idea. I don't think my new laptop will support that high of a resolution anyway and it would end up being a big waste.

The next thing I thought of was an 80GB iPod video. This is kind of an impulse buy. I really don't NEED it. I don't know what I will watch on it. I know I will end up spending a ton of money on shows I really don't care about right now but will get addicted to (Lost, Heroes, 24) if I got it.

Any ideas? Does anyone know if you can put Divx movies on an iPod? Does anyone own one? Is it great?

Let me know.

Surf Contest

Surflexus is having a contest. Chose any one of these card protectors and you will final table at least two out of the three tournaments. Ship it!

Brain Fart

I am half way around the world so all my regular MTT times are off. I fired up FTP and saw they were starting a $30+3 Double Stack MTT and it didn't have a million players so I signed up. This is obviously above my roll but I figured I could play well and I like the deep stack format.

I started out nice and tight and folded some hands I would have played in the past including some middle pairs in raised pots and KQo in late position in raised pots. After folding my through about 3 orbits I had K4s on the button and the SB was very short so I put him all-in. Not only did he call but so did the BB, who bet out when the flop was K4Q. I put that idiot all-in and he called with KJs and I took them both out. That got me to around middle of the pack again.

Then in late position I got 99 and raised. SB made a huge re-raise and went all-in. I thought about it for a bit and decided he could only make this move with AK or AQ. I called and he did indeed have AKo. I hit a 9 on the flop and he was drawing dead.

Next memorable hand was a battle of the blinds where I raised with AJ in the SB and the BB called. I bet on the 82T flop and he called. A 3 came on the turn and I checked. BB shoved and I thought about this for a while. There were two hearts now and I though he might be trying to bluff here as he was pretty LAG. I called and he had A4o and I took him out.

I won a race with AK vs QQ which propelled me to 1st out of the remaining 27. I took out another player with AJ vs A9. 18 spots paid with 1st taking down about 1.5K so I was not going to make any mistakes and cash for a nice payday.

Then I had a brain fart. My mouse got stuck and when it released it had min-raised me in middle position with 52o. I was already pissed and at this point my brain froze. The BB called and we were heads up with my in position. The flop was JT9 rainbow and BB checked to me. I should have just stayed away but instead I figured I could take the pot away with a 75% bet. But BB called and the turn was another 9. BB checked it to me again and now with a very big pot I made another 75% bet. He smooth called again and went all-in on the river, which I don't even remember. There was no way I could call and after all this I was stuck way in the back of the pack.

I then lost to QQ with AJ. I worked my stack back a bit and shoved from the CO with presto. The SB went all-in and so did the BB. They turned over AA and KK. Fawk!

I was out in 21st. I was so mad at myself. I turned off the damn laptop and went to bed steaming. I am still mad. I had a golden opportunity for a nice cash and potentially a win and I blew it. And all because of a stupid mouse malfunction that then imploded into an awful avalanche. I had played very well up to that point and just plain blew it. I suck!