1st Rule Of Poker

Well I have come to realize that to have a successful poker blog it takes a lot of work. Not only is it time consuming to think of new topics and write about them, but you also end up doing a lot of reading yourself. I try to keep up to date with everyone else’s blog and hope to slowly create connections with other blogs online. I don’t like to only read blogs that are of high ranking because that would say that no new blog is worth reading, so I try to read as many new blogs as possible. But doing that and keeping up with the blogs I already like can be tough. I know I miss some but hope to keep up with most.

I would like to give a shout out to several of my readers that have been very encouraging to me and their positive feedback has helped me to continue blogging. Before some of you were generous enough to link, and read my blog I started to lose faith and contemplated an early retirement but thanks to you I have made it through the bad beats and hit my rush. If you are looking for REAL poker bloggers these are the people you want to talk to. Thanks again:

Jordan , Steele , Short-stacked Shamus , River run , Mortal_one, along with many others who have posted comments along the way.

I received a comment earlier from someone saying that another blogger had pimped my site in a post. Excited to see what someone else had said I went to Go Be Rude which is where the supposed post was. I went on reading several posts of his and although I liked the content I couldn’t find the post. I sent a message back to the source and found that there was a mistake. I think it was a good mistake because I liked the blog. I would have liked to post a comment in the comment box but I don’t have a Google ID. Maybe someone can go there and post one for me, let him know his ears should be ringing.

His latest post “Running out of Steam” is right where I was just a few months into blogging so I can only imagine the walls that long time bloggers run into. The biggest thing that got me through the tough spot was other bloggers. Knowing that what I was writing was actually being read and comments of encouragement in each post. It sounds to me that he feels the pressure to write spectacular posts all the time. I don’t really think that his readers expect that. I think his biggest problem is that he is editing his posts because he thinks they are dull. They might be but sometimes they are just what someone else is thinking about, and thus an interesting topic to them. You cant always write to please everyone. Just write what you think about, be honest and descriptive and usually people like you will find it interesting. Some of the most random, rambling posts can be the most fun to read.

Anyway, everyone who reads this post should go read his blog and either kick him when he is down or try to cheer him up. I figure either way it will give him the spark he needs to make blogging fun again.

This poker rule has a few bad side effects. Players can pick up tells by the way you play with your chips. If you watch the way a player plays with their chips all the time when he is nervous he will shuffle faster. The rate they shuffle will usually be the same as their heart rate. Often when a player has a bad hand, or is on a bluff a player will screw up their shuffle or drop a number of chips. The better they are at shuffling the better this tell is. Obviously if they cant shuffle and always drop chips it’s a worthless tell. Once you start playing with the chips it becomes a very difficult habit to break. I have tied rubber bands around my hand, taped my fingers everything. I still cant stop. I have become very aware of what I do with them so as not to reveal any information, but it would be much better not to start. It can hurt your hands. After doing the same motion for 6, 8, 12 hours straight your forearm will really start to hurt. It such a habit it keeps hurting all day. This can cause long term damage like repetitive stress problems and carpal tunnel syndrome.

The only real up side of playing with your chips is that it looks cool. Once you realize all the bad side effects you should make it one of your poker rules and don’t start.

This is just an after thought to chip shuffling. If you absolutely do have to play with your chips at the table always use the smallest chip possible. I have lost more then a few chips while doing different chip tricks. Usually its something I am doing while not thinking about it. I usually don’t know how many chips I have and the player next to me just won a pot. Then all of a sudden I think I might have dropped a chip but not sure if I dropped two or just one. There is one chip next to my hand and one that is a little closer to the other player stacking his previous pot. I ask him if its his chip and usually they say I don’t know. Sometimes I get the chip and sometimes I flip for it. Either way I know over the long run I have lost chips that were mine. So at least make that the chip you lose is as smallest in your game. You should only play with the $1 chips.

I have been working hard this last month trying to network with a number of other blogs so that people hear and can comment on what I have to say. Well now I am getting blogger comment spam, that’s the first sign that new random people are finding my blog. I am quite sure that this is possibly the only good thing I can get out of comment spam because after just a few days I am already tired of deleting them from my posts.

Just incase any one wanted to know I am not interested in Viargra, Cialis, or any other form of penis enlargement or medication. I also have no interest in weight loss products or herbal pills. As for other poker related sites, just ask maybe ill post a link if you have a good site, well actually if you spam people you can go to hell. Also although I don’t know what soma is I am sure I don’t want or need that either.

I just wanted everyone to know so as there is no confusion in the future, thanks for asking, now go F**K OFF.

Well yesterday I went down to the casino really early with plans to play all day. For some reason I decided to start off on tilt and quickly lost my buy in. Now when playing limit Texas Hold’em I only bring one buy in and figure I can just come back tomorrow if I don’t play well enough to continue. So after that horrible display of poker I came home and sat around for a while looking for something to do. Well since I had not played online in months, I said I am in! I asked a friend to transfer me a few bucks so that I could blow it online and he said he was going to play in two tournaments in the next 27 min. One on poker stars and one on full tilt. I asked if he had enough to spot me and he made the transfers. They were just $11 NL trnys, no rebuys. My goal was to come in first to win back what I lost earlier. So to avoid bad beat stories I only played one hand in each tournament. 30 min into the stars trny I get AQ and make good size bets with an all in on the river and get called down by AK. 45 min into the other trny I get KK all in vs. AK and 77. The flop was AA6 so I was drawing dead. So much for making any money back or even getting a little entertainment out of the night.

So here is the new plan. Tomorrow I leave for a nice little vacation. Hopefully I will get to play a little poker while sitting on the beach looking over the Caribbean. Not sure if I will be making any posts but we will see. Good luck everyone.

Well the plan was to not play poker for a week, but guess what!!! There is FREE wireless Internet in my room. I might not be able to resist playing a poker tournament on the beach. Even if I don’t do that I just found out that they have a poker night on Thursday. That is right, Texas Hold’em in the Caymans, if that’s not screaming drunk poker I don’t know what will. Even though they are $12 bux a pop, the mudslides followed by shots are the way to go. I had a banana mudslide for breakfast this morning. Nothing is cheap down here, and it does not help that the dollar is only worth 80 cents here. But hey its vacation its all getting signed to the room and ill worry about it at the end of the week.

This post is kind of a short ramble, it is already 5pm so I have had more then one island special. I had to type this message in word first so that it would catch most of my spelling errors. Believe me I don’t need any help spelling poorly. Ok that’s it!

Well I am back from the beach and home in the below freezing temps. It was a great time. The poker night was kind of like what thought it would be, and that is just entertainment and luck. There were 21 people in the tournament. Two tables one of 10 and we squeezed 11 at the other. Several people had very little experience with poker and had to be explained the rules. Now poker, well all gambling is illegal in the Caymans so there was a 10 entry fee and the prizes were bar tabs, bottles of rum and rum cakes. I brought a 6 pack and had 3 before the game started. The blind structure was very fast and so you had to play fast. I was able to steal 7 limpers money with AK and then lost a few small pots with only small bets trying to steal. My final down fall was with 9 people left (bubble boy) I tried to steal the BB from the SB with K7 and 84 called me because he said he had to. It was not a suited 84 if you were wondering and he did not have a lot of chips, and only a very few if he lost. So he hit his 8 and I was sent packing.

One neat outcome from this is I got to talk to 4 guys I met down there who were war veterans and purple heart recipients. Three of them had lost one leg from the knee down and one had lost both legs and half a hand. They were all in very good sprits, lots of fun and the life of the party most of the places they went through out the resort. Everyone took care of them, I am not sure they had to pay for a thing the entire time they were there. The condo was given to them to get a break from rehabilitation and people congratulated and thanked them all week. The Budweiser and Miller trucks both came by and gave them all the beer they wanted. Every night someone took them out to dinner and trips around the island were also complementary of the resort owner. There was even an article in the local news paper. Well my point was that it both brought the reality of war closer to me and it also showed how great people can be in taking care of those who do fight for me. Regardless of if you are for or against the war, the soldiers fight regardless and can always use our support.

Ok well I am done with all that and will soon be back to poker.

I played the last two days with the last of my bank roll. I lost the first half the first day and bought in with the second and last half today. I was able to start out with a few small wins and was never down for the day. That’s always nice when you need a win. That’s what I get for keeping my poker roll so small. I was up a lot more half way through the day but I really wanted to put a lot of hours in so I kept playing. Even when it dropped down to 5 handed. I really should have left then because the people I was playing against were very poor full table players but their game would be perfect for short handed. Anyway I was really hoping that the game would fill up. Which it did just not fast enough. At my peak I was up twice what I lost yesterday but now I was only up a little more. So after 7 hours of play I took off. I didn’t want to ruin my night if I came home with out an over all win over the two days. Especially after being up so much. So over all I am not really ecstatic about what I won but at least I am not down.

I was really looking for something that happened in the last two days that would be fun or funny to talk about, but there really wasn’t any thing worth talking about. I guess this is going to just have to be a dull post. With little to no real value. Maybe someone can get something out of my kind of bank roll management. Although I have a unique style and none of my other friends agree with what I do. They are more of play as many hours as you can and don’t worry about your stack. I guess that’s the most profitable way to play but I am not sure it gives you the most satisfaction in your life. By quitting when I did I get to sleep well. I would have really only wanted to play for another hour maybe two at the most. In that time I could have won more money, but if I had lost more I would have come home feeling more like I lost. You guys make the call. Do you like to play for hours or for stack size? There we go. I came up with a point. I knew I could find one in here somewhere.

Well I had gone to the casino early today so that I wouldn’t get stuck in the long lines that start to build around noon. I was able to get in a new game that had no regulars. It was early enough so they didn’t make it a must move so I was happy to be stuck with them. Everyone seemed to play tight passive. So I almost always knew what they had. Several times I was able to call in position with no draw knowing that most likely a bet or raise would win the hand on the turn. It was a really good feeling that its been a little while since I had it. With no other way to explain it but I was in the zone. I was quite accurate at putting people on hands right on the flop, and became very accurate on the turn. My favorite feeling was being able to put on a bluff which usually makes me a little nervous, but then looking at the person and relaxing because I know I have won before he even knows he is going to fold. It helps to be getting some really good hands to show down which kept my image very tight. AA vs. KK won, KK vs. AA I flopped a set, JJ vs. AK flop KJJ, Those were the kinds of hands I was getting and holding up.

So as the day is going on the person to my left keeps getting up and walking around the casino and poker room. Every time there was a pause in the game he got up and left. Well he finally left and he was 3rd man walking. If you don’t know what that is, it is designed to keep live games full so if you are the third person who leaves the table you only have a very short period of time to get back. Anyway, he stormed off and the dealer tried to say that he was going to get picked up. We all told the dealer that we wouldn’t let him (the dealer) do that. One person commented that that guy was the only reason that he was in the game. So when he comes back he already has his second beer, and every, EVERY, time the waitress comes back he gets another. After a while he starts mumbling about every hand, even ones that he’s not in. He says things like, mother F**ker, “that D**k head” and making fun of people going to the river for flush draws exclaiming that they sucked out. So finally he is in a hand which he check raises the flop with bottom pair. The turn he makes Aces up but it also makes the flush and he goes another 3 bets with the person. The river is the 4th diamond and he check calls. Although the 2nd guy had the flush on the turn the drunk goes on a rant of how he went runner runner to suck out on him. He was almost all in on that hand so he yells out “What a fish I am, What a fish I am” The funny part is that I really don’t think HE thought that he was a fish. He then stormed off from the table again and I watched him go straight to the ATM. This made me happy but when he came back he bought back in with 5 times the min buy in. My jaw dropped and I think I had to catch some of the drool before it hit the table. The entire situation was funny, it kind of sucked when he went on a winning streak and won 4 out of 5 hands. But as we all knew he was going to give it all back.