A Day of Firsts....

Peb's and I headed out for a day of fun and excitement yesterday, hoping to make a little money along the way at Casino Rama.

I bought in for $200 at my favourite Let-It-Ride table and low and behold, I'm dealt trip 3's down on the very first hand. + $195 !

Then, I never saw another winner. - $100 overall.

A Hot Hot Penny slot grabs my attention and BINGO! + $200 on the very first pull.

Then, I never saw another winner. + $60 overall.

I see a Roulette table with a board filled with nothing but black numbers. Naturally, I make my mind up that red just has to hit. I throw $50 on red and whammo! + $50 first crack.

Then, I never saw another winner. + $10 overall.

There's just something about Blazing 7's and like a moth to a flame, I can't resist the urge to play with fire. First pull = assorted 7's. + $300.

Then, I never saw another winner. + $80 overall.

A rather charming and attractive older lady takes the seat at the machine next to me.

"It's my last $5.00" she announces.

"It takes $3.00 a pull to make anything good happen" I tell her, "can I play an extra $10.00 on the machine with you?"

"Sure!" she says with a giggle.

First pull = YAHTZEE!

An attendant is required at the machine for payout. Then the attendant and the charming old girl both head off to the cashier's cage, to settle up the big winnings.

A bit later there's a tap on my shoulder and the faintest of voices says "Excuse me."

"Since I didn't actually need your $10.00" she said, "Here you go, you can have it back."

A day of firsts indeed!

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

Shit that makes me LOL....

Go ahead, it's Friday!
You know you want to.











My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

Just wondering....

Can you tell that these guys are from Bedrock?



My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

JJ is right, "MEH"....

JJ says, "Meh, it's OK."

Hand #1 ~

Guy jams me on the flop after calling a 4x raise;


no doubt that turn and river were coming at all.

Hand #2 ~

When Muhctim isn't scared of the board,


I feel the need to let'em go.

Hand #3 ~

Same game,


better result!

I did have a lot of fun in that PokerSlut game Sunday night though. The format was LHE (which I despise) but since Zooks and Scotty were both playing, I thought I'd donate another $5.50 to the kids. Charity is just what I do.

I pulled a HOY against SmBoatDrinks early on. Actually surprised me that I could get away with it, considering it was LHE!


But then I got Buddy


AND PokerGeek (with a much better hand! ;) )


Good frickin' times right there!

My donking around with suspect starters however, eventually lead to my demise. Big surprise huh? You can probably figure out how this hand went down all on your own.


It is entertaining though, to watch the suck, re-suck, then totally unnecessary boat over boat violence at the end. More good times!

So instead of donating, I guess I now have a few more PokerSlut buy-ins instead.

MEH.

*HUGE congrats go out to Josie, who just scored a 3rd. place finish in the first WBCOOP event. IN OMATARD of all things!

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

Integrity or naiveté, I'll take'em both....

Among Poker players sitting at a table, there's always been one mutual agreement. In my experience, it's generally acknowledged as code.

One Player per hand!

If we were sitting down at almost any table but MGM Table #16, we'd all agree.

One Player per hand.

What makes a HUD work?

If any one of us sat down at a table and knew that we were up against it, meaning we knew there were three friends, (not ours) sitting at the same table and trying to take our chips, we'd most likely dig in and do our best to be the player we know we can be. It's really that simple no?

You're in middle position holding 10-10 and to start the hand, buddy #1 sitting UTG makes the call. Buddy #2 folds and so do the rest of the players to play ahead of you. You make a 3x raise because honestly, you want to know where you stand.

Buddy #3 is the BB and after it's been folded around to him, Buddy #2 mentions OUT LOUD, that you've raised 4 of the last 10 pots pre-flop. Buddies #3 and #1 now both make the call. You see a Jack high flop and after action all around post flop, the turn and river create a pretty big pot. A Jack high board has you feeling pretty damn good too, only to see a sooted Jack-Duece scoop a pot with a rivered two pair. Buddy#3 is now stacking your chips and Buddy #2, well he's simply laughing and hoisting a glass towards his buddy, old #3. Bad beat huh?

Live game let's face it, at least 5 players and the dealer would all say "please sir, one player to a hand."

What's the difference online using a HUD?
The stats show you, without any work on your part, what has happened and what your douchebag buddy would have said out loud.

Now if you're one of those that wants to tell me it's a different game, go ahead.
Just make sure 'online HUD user' is part of your description when you regale us all with your stories of an amazing Poker player status.

When I STUD it up for profit the last fucking thing I ever notice, is my own cards. So don't give me the 'faster game online crap either!' Did you not know you were playing a faster online game when you registered?

Cards can't think kids, but players do.

It's my opinion that in order to consider yourself successful in the game, you need to be the one tracking stats, making decisions and more importantly, the individual deciding what is required of you now. Whatever the action at the time may happen to dictate.

To me anyways, that's the difference between actual players and those that require a technological tool to garner some success.

Perhaps I play with a certain naiveté but if that comes with integrity, I'm all for it. To me, that's what card players do.

*** I will not back down but! I will clarify my opinion for several friends that I happen to know, that play at an online level where it's all about balance. Poker sites allow the crap, why not use it if you're playing at a level that can make a differance in your life? The guy beside you is using something so....

But then again, they have Nukes so....


The definition of Humanity?
We ARE our own worst enemy.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

Irony's a Bitch & HUD's are just cheating yourself....

Right off the top, thanks Waffles! Anyone that can make me work out the thoughts in my head should be very afraid, but also, just a little proud for covering a few of the more subtle nuances of a card players thought process.

I can't begin to think of where I should start this post. Let's see, I joined our little kuh-myoo-ni-tee with every intention of taking advantage of the free lessons and information available about NLHE. Then I met a few Bloggers and suddenly, I joined in on all our Blogger games. So despite wanting to join in to gain an advantage, I found myself becoming part of a group that treats everyone the same. If I was going to get any good at NLHE, I'd have to play my way towards improvement. I'd soon learn that there would be no taking advantage of posted information about weakness or habits and it was all thanks to one simple fact,

CARDS CAN'T THINK!

You see, if the smart player chooses to take advantage of technology and all the programs and HUD's available to make them a better player, I'm all for it. It simply means that I will have a real edge at the table the next time we sit down and play, face-to-face. What a HUD or program advantage can give you is a 'bot' decision that as a percentage on the whole, is probably the correct call to make based on Status Quo. But that's really the beauty of playing cards isn't it?

Status Quo is a moving fucking target!

Add the RNG into the equation and Hell, there will be enough $1 payments made for the bad beat stories requiring telling, to pretty much wipe out the entire deficits of North America and possibly Ireland or Greece combined.

Point is in my humble opinion, if you need a HUD to play cards you're either;

A) admitting that you're beat and need the help
B) hopelessly indecisive at gambling
C) the angle-shooter we despise sitting at a table with
or
C) a cheater that sees an advantage in using a bot

This of course is just my opinion. I'm sure there are many others out there and honestly, I'd actually like to hear them too! No matter what side of the fence you hang your hat on. Don't get me wrong here, I'm certainly no pure and white snow driven angel kids.

I just get a great deal of personal satisfaction knowing that when I do manage to win, I did it without a bot, HUD or some other type of program making me feel like I did something special. Because to me without the extra help, what I've done is every bit as satisfying as doing it sitting at a live table and honestly, is there a better feeling for a card player?

And to me anyways, that's what it's all about really. The cards can't think so when I do it right all on my own, I not only beat my opponent, I beat the game. I think the personal satisfaction from that experience is what's sadly lacking in the online genre today. I-got-tech-so-I-don't-give-a-crap-how-I-win has taken over our generation and to me, quite sadly, the next few to come along as well.

The way we're going you can say 'screw it' to the Star Trek dreams of no monetary values and might as well just say 'hello,' to a world full of douchebags just looking for an edge or an angle.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

Dear Packers....

My Dear Packers,

As part owner of the team, I thought I'd take this opportunity to throw in my two cents worth on the run you've had so far in the playoffs. Please DO NOT waste what could best be described as the greatest opportunity in an NFL season, for any #6 seeded team in history. I hope that you'll continue to remain a humble and workman like team as you have, and leave the superiority complex and superstar thinking to the simple minded fan, such as myself.

The other 111,500 or so shareholders and I all agree, keep on doing what you're doing! We feel that this would be the best way to ensure that you continue to


Sincerely,

Shareholder #
xxxxxx020611

(and no, the irony of my last 6 digits is NOT wasted on me)

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

Gambling Tale #017: Comic relief in Purgatory....

The words Poker Freeroll in and of themselves, are a lot like Government Worker to me. I mean really, is there a bigger way to confuse two words of the English language just by putting them together? At least, that's what I always used to think! But after last nights Gambling Tales Freeroll I do know that it was FREE, and most definitely after nearly three hours of play I do have to admit, I feel like I just got rolled.

Okay to get a few facts straight, here are the details. The boys offered a Freeroll for 998 of their closest friends last night. If you stopped by the Gambling Tales Podcast site and had a short listen to a great conversation, you'd get the P/W and the first 1000 were in. Simple!

So as an avid listener I was one of the first in. It's just how I roll for friends. When I saw that they actually got the full 1,000 entered, I bowed a little polite bow of respect to the South. The boys I thought, must really be onto something here! It took about two full minutes to realize how smart Falstaff and Special K really were though, by opening up entirely new markets in Russia, Turkey and Kazakhstan. Genius really, just effin' genius!

A minute or two into the game was when I also noticed previous winner and Pal to Oh Captain, DeeBakes was sitting two spots to my right. 'At least someone at the table could speak English,' I said to myself. Naturally though, I was moved from Dee's table almost immediately. Thus leaving me to defend myself, with nothing more than Babelfish and google translate.

The game started out pretty much as expected for a Freeroll, with $50 in the pot and 1,000 players. Meaning of course, a full 1/3 of the field was sitting out. Not that there's anything really wrong with that I guess, I do get a kick out of the tools that continue to fold to them after an hour or so of play. Can't you just picture them sitting all frustrated in their SB saying, "Damn! Why can't I just get a hand against this guy?" I certainly can! Then there's also the free blinds available to a couple of savvy players, if they both realize what's going on. It's a little thing we like to call intelligent collusion around here. Of course in a nutshell, it takes two intelligent beings to come up with such a plan. Say, oh I don't know, like, two live players. Perhaps the ONLY two live players sitting at the table, uh you know, with 7 dead spots at it or something? But for the really seasoned Freeroller, there's also plan B! This one takes all the moxy you've got but in the end, it'll be well worth the effort it takes to consistently re-raise the only other live player sitting at your table. That is of course, unless the other player gets fed up and busts you out with pocket Astins, and your re-raise, re-re-raise, re-re-re-raise jam all in strategy, finds you holding the bottom pair of 3's, on an Ace high flop. Then my Freerollin' friend, you might want to back off the gas just a touch. But don't worry, a dead stack will move in to take your place and then there's always the chatbox. The wonderful release portal where you can tell the one other live player at that table that just stacked you, what a true Donkey play he really made. So, there is that right?

I think it took three hands total to get all of BadxxScooter's stack and despite showing him the pocket Astins the first time around,


he went with the Plan B move mentioned earlier.

At a table of dead stacks for the next 15 minutes or so, I built up a little stash of chippies. Then with no one busting at my table as of yet, I was moved to another table. One with only three dead stacks. I was honestly alright with that though, as a raise pre-flop, bet flop, checked turn and OBFV on the river,


didn't seem to work out too bad at the time.

It was around second break or so, when I noticed I was picking up the BamBamCan fan club of sorts. I channelled my inner Waffles and had as much fun with it as I could.


Hell! I even managed to somehow hold back on transferring $100.00 to one player in Turkey, despite the importance of getting him "back online the game." My restraint apparently, knows no bounds.

This was about the time I was asked the most important question in all of Poker too. If the universal translator was working correctly I was asked, "bambam, is you a man or bitch?" Using all of my Poker wiles remaining, I decided to flip a coin and ultimately went with Bitch. I also managed at about the same time I think, to pick up a real railer.


His support of me quite naturally drew the wrath of the Turkish delegation and in fact, I believe he was cussed out almost immediately.

DrChako1: I was just cussed out in a new language. how cool is that!

I really wanted to chat with my Brudder for a bit, so I took advantage of the opportunity to send our new found pals over to view a few Frantic Fridays. Oh and by the way, if you need to increase traffic at your blog from Kazackawhackyland or a few Turkeys, I highly recommend this strategy! My readership went up 161% in just 15 minutes!

I only had a few goals going into this thing.

1) Have fun
2) Cash in a 1,000 player donkfest
3) Have fun
4) and most importantly, have fun

After 2 hrs. and 43 mins. of "play" I'm pleased to report, I met all of my goals for the night!


Brudder Chako asked me in the chat, "why do you subject yourself to this?" and at the time, my answer was for Falstaff. But despite never really understanding why anyone would take the time to register and then sit out the entire game I have to admit, I saw the funniest thing along the way last night. As I witnessed one sitting out player at a minimum, triple up. No not once, not twice, not even a fully Bracelet approved THRICE during the game, but four times in a row, when the blinds came around and they were all in.

Now that alone my friends, was well worth the price of admission! Because let's face it, if we can't laugh at ourselves, (and we have some damn fine material to work with!) what can we laugh at?

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

Fine Piece of Tale....

The title just sucks you in no?
That's EXACTLY what I like about you!

The good folks over at Gambling Tales have thrown together a little game for tonight. It comes with an added bit of free cash too, courtesy of FullTilt Poker.

I'm not sure why I always invite a crowd out to these games and greatly reduce my chances of making the cash though, must be the "polite Bedrockian" thing.

The only way to get in this thing is to head over to Gambling Tales and have a listen. Even if you don't play in the game, I'm sure you'll find that the trip over there is still really worth it! Falstaff and Special K are always a pleasure to listen to and the topics they choose to discuss, just may hit closer to home than you might think!

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

Things that make you go Hmmm....

Silly Poker!


My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

OH look, a game tonight....


See you there.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

Frantic Friday: The Long Time No See Edition.... (NSFW)

Hello dear reader.
Long Time No Frantic Friday!

I honestly had no idea that it'd been so long, since I'd managed to sit down and bust out one of these things for you.

BAD Bammer!

It's been so long I guess, that one good friend actually accused me of losing my


and that hurts, let me tell you.

Well it hasn't been from a lack of great material to work with at all. I've just been so focused on improving my


I guess, I've let a few things slide around here.

Believe me it's no


to say, that things around these parts have been a little more Frantic than usual.

But that is not really a good excuse in my books, to have let you down for so long. So let's see if we can get this sucker back on track here, for at least one more week in a row!

Now I am just a tad out of practice here so let's see,


Ah yes that's right, Frantic Friday's should always contain a fair amount of


That should be easy enough huh?

Let's see what have I been doing of late, that could be considered Frantic Friday worthy?

Well the other night we had an old fashioned get together around here. There were a few friends from town, a few other folks from the big smoke and of course if you know anything about Frantic Fridays at all, there was also the


She's a pre-requisite of any good gathering around here, since she's exactly like an old jean jacket and we all know,


We did the silliest thing that night too! How long has it been since you got together with a group and played Clue? I'd forgotten how much fun that game can be, when you add a few drinks and some fun to the mix!

The amazing thing was, it was like I'd never stopped playing the game! I mean, I nailed the damn solution first try!

LIKE.NAILED.IT!


So obvious.

Let's see, what else?

Oh, my buddy Em was up last weekend. That's always cool! She even started things off on the right... UH.... foot? By recalling our favorite Frantic Friday of all time and blessing me with a


right off the bat!

I <3 my Em!

I tell you, that girl is


Soooooooooo easy on the eyes and have I ever mentioned,


OH, and something hilarious also happened over Em's visit. It seems that Em has a new man in her life right now and supposedly, the guy's an MMA Junkie. Knowing that I love a good fight, Em figured that Peb's would know all about the UFC too. Much to Em's surprise, I guess Peb's shocked her when she explained that she actually knew very little about it.

That wouldn't fly with my Em at all! She was just adamant about giving Peb's the MMA 101.

Well I can tell you dear reader, I was beside myself with laughter at the sight of this little lesson. Particularly at the point where Peb's got Em to


PRICELESS!

Okay, I have to run kids. HUGE weekend planned here in Bedrock!

I'll try not to slack off so much in The Frantic Friday department going forward, I promise. I've been working on some special material for one dedicated to the art of


They say there's a beach in that pic somewhere and yet, I just don't get it!

To say I've become very interested in these things, would be a fairly large understatement.


Don't worry kids, I'll get to the bottom of it!

;)

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....

Stuck in the middle of Baker Street....

For bringing my Peb's two of her all time favourites,
I truly hope you can RIP Gerry.






My sincerest thanks for dropping by....