Tuesday, May 25, 2010

White dog whiskey and What's the opposite of running like a god?

That charity tournament I keep yammering about is just about ready. AlCantHang has just about got it set up on the Full Tilt side and the lovely Katitude will get me the banners as soon as the details are final and I don't have to ask her to go back and do them again because I didn't really know the details. Please stay tuned!

On with the show!


Last Friday night, we had our May meeting of the Bourbonators. In case you forgot, that's my whiskey club. I'd link to it but it would appear that my former employer has taken down the website and we aren't exactly the most ambitious people when it comes to fixing that. I've linked to the all the posts I've labelled on that topic.

This month, we were served a "white dog" or "white whiskey". The quick version is that a white dog is a whiskey that's not aged for very long in barrels. From the SF Gate article linked in this paragraph:
White whiskey is very dependent on the flavors of that with which it was made, as opposed to that in which it was stored," says Max Watman, whose new book, "Chasing the White Dog" (Simon & Schuster, $25)
It's moonshine.

The particular drink was Death's Door's White Whiskey made in Madison, Wisconsin. I found their corporate site to not be nearly as interesting as their blog. The link to their blog will take you to a post about this particular whiskey. The really crappy picture above is of the bottle. I took it with my iPhone in the hosts unfinished basement. Live with it. White whiskey on a white table in a poorly lit room using a camera phone is nearly an impossible shot.

The picture does show the color of the spirit. It was clear and colorless. We tried it this is my opinion. It was ok. It wasn't outstanding, it didn't suck. It tasted like whiskey without that smokey, smooth flavor many will be used to. I think I might like it better mixed, but neat it was definitely meh. I'm not a particularly big fan of a good burn on my booze. This definitely had that. I guess this is what I should expect from something not aged much. I'll probably try another one of these just to see.

When it comes to poker, I've been really trying to fight off that feeling of "...I'm gonna lose again..." every time I play two cards from the top half of the gene pool.

(Picture on left...there's my beer next to some chips, they won't be there long)

A week ago, I returned to Brother's Bar and Grill after a 3 month hiatus to play some bar poker in the Minnesota Poker League. Probably the single longest stretch for me not playing live poker since, well, a pro won the WSOP main event. It felt good to get back to the felt. I stayed uber tight and patient all night, squeaking my way to a 7th place finish. Not to shabby. I think I played 10 hands all night. I ducked, I dodged and I avoided being at risk with anything less then the nuts.

I was looking forward to Friday night and the guys from Whiskey Club.

Most of the night Friday, I spent mucking hands that had gone from big favorites to super dogs with the turn of a card. My radar seemed to be working pretty well because I avoided putting extra chips in the pot when these cards came down, but it's hard to stay alive in a fast tournament when you raise pre-flop, continuation bet the flop and muck the turn because you know he just hit a flush...and your right. It gets kinda depressing after a while.

The typical hand of the night went something like this. Raise it pre-flop in middle position with AJ suited. Get four callers. Flop comes AJ9 rainbow. Early position raises and you sense they are weak. Raise it huge (you've got top two dambit). Player goes in the tank and calls. They are all in. You turn over top two, but feel sick. They have 9 10o, how can it possibly not come KQ? You're right, it can go no other way. Double ups-r-us becomes your new name. Sigh.

Even with suck outs like this, I still managed to eek out a third in the second tournament (we won't talk about the first one, I think I had KK and lost to 3 people holding ace rag when the case ace hits the flop. Super Le Sigh.

You know, poker runs like this. I know that. It's just really hard to avoid the mental trap and projecting a pattern on this and not turning it into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Tonight, I returned to Brothers for some more fun. I had decided when I sat at the table to do a 180° turn with my game. At my starting table were a few of my favorite LAGtards, some tight players and a new guy (cue ominous foreshadowing music). Normally, I muck pretty much every hand I'm dealt for the first couple of hours. Seems to work to get you really close to the points mosts weeks, but tonight I really just wanted to either win big or...

I'm in the big blind, 5 out of the other 7 people that aren't me, limp into the pot. I look down and find the hand of the devil, I mean, AQo. The blinds are 25/25 (1st level). Remember, 180°. I raise it to 150. This clears out the deadwood of about 2 hands. Weeeeeeeeeeee. Maybe I shoulda made it bigger? The flop comes AKK. I check, new guy checks (now, I remember pre, he thinks about my raise and looks a little stressed about it) and the other caller raises to 300. Now Grant and I go way back. If Grant sees check, check in front of him, he's gonna bet. I'm pretty sure that this just stealing raise, so I make 1200 (leaving my 250 behind). By the look on Grant's face, he's got nothing. Yeah me! New guy suddenly starts counting out chips.

FUDGE!

He decided he's moving it all in and says, "If you have AK for the nuts, it's yours." My immediate thought is, "Yeah, well, idiot, the actual nuts if you have a king is Aces full with someone having AA..." but I bite my tongue cuz that's just being a dick. I'm dead to one of the two remaining aces which as we all know, are in the bathroom taking a break and ain't coming out on the turn or the river.

I do know that in the real world, this isn't really a bad beat. New guys are like books you've never read still inside the box from Amazon.com. I played Grant and ignored the new guy. I didn't consider him and that was a huge mistake. I figure he's gonna stay weak/passive and let everyone else raise for him. If I call Grant and know he's just bluffing, I'll find out from the new guy if he's got a king or not by when he does. If he calls, I should probably consider he's just weak/passive and be worried. If he raises, I know I'm probably beat, but I really don't see him being the check raising kind of guy...how could I? I've only been playing him for 20 minutes.

Lesson learned. Next table please.

In case you are interested, I'm cross posting now at the Minnesota Poker Magazine web site. Go check it out!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Thank you

Lightning36 - thank you very much!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

How's this for a title

I'm still waiting on AlCantHang to confirm the details of the charity tournament, but I thought I'd float a name or at least a title for the tournament, let me know what you think...

McLovin the kids: Crubs, shoves and hammers - the WPBT Gives Back.

????Publish Post

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Gonna need a little help from my friends #WPBT

This blog has been a little on the stale side lately. Good thing this ain't my day job! Let's see, OhCountess went away to Texas for 5 days, so I go to be a single dad while she was gone. PokerPeaker, I understand your pain. She gets back and BOOM! It's Mother's Day weekend. Took the Mrs. to Target Field for our first game. You can see the pictures here, what a beautiful park. Then last weekend, our neighborhood had one of those big garage sale marketing things. I spent that week filling the garage with all of our crap. Thankfully, most of the crap sold!

The part where I ask for every one's help is coming (scroll if you want...no worries). But first, some words from our sponsors :)

As for poker? The magnificant, Sir AlCantHang, add me to the blogger freerolls in the BBT5.

So far, very fun! I played my first one on Mother's Day. Let's just say, the tournament didn't start well on my side of the computer. OhCountess wasn't all that impressed that I was playing poker, during supper on Mother's Day. But then I doubled through Shane Nickerson on the ever popular KK > AA all in shove. Like I'm laying down KK in a blogger tournament. But then a couple of hands later, Roy Winston way over played top pair with a 10 kicker, playing the passive fish to my AK, which I got nervous with and probably left some money in his stack. All of this pushed me to the top of the leader board. This is where OhCountess realized that there was a $500 top prize and ticket to the blogger championship. A few hours of card death later and I finally shove QQ into AA. Good time and a $34 profit on a freeroll. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

The second tournament was this past Sunday. I was feeling pretty saucy and decided to gift Waffles some ~1,000 chips. I was on a stone cold bluff with 83o in the BB and he was getting frisky with KQo on the button. I probably coulda won it with a shove, he never improved, but with his quality game, I didn't fall on my sword to end the day. As it turns out, he couldn't hold his wad and still busted before me. He claims he's psychic, cuz he knew I was bluffing. Too bad he can't see the bad beats coming.

Live poker? Who's had time? I haven't played bar poker in almost 3 months. Sigh. Whiskey club is this Friday, can't wait! Wanna come? Let me know. I believe we will be trying our first white dog. Should be interesting. Anyone out there like or have tried white dogs? Do you know what they are?

This is where I need your help!

So, back to the title of this post. Why do I need your help? Remember that post a little while ago about my idea of a charity tournament? (Follow the link if you need to refresh your memory) I don't have the specifics yet, but the ball is rolling! I'm so excited!!! I'm pretty sure it will be the week of June 13-19. AlCantHang is gonna be doing the set up of the Full Tilt side. I'm gonna stick with my charity of choice, The Ronald McDonald House. That seemed to make lots of people happy. It's a great cause.

How do I need your help? First off, I need a name! Anyone have a good name for this? The only idea I've had so far is "WPBT Gives Back" but that's just lame, or as Simon Cowell would say, "so karaoke." Uff. As much of a talker I am and I can't think of a name. Sigh.

Second, when the details, come are done, I'm having banners made...so then...I'll need you to pimp the hell out of this. Can we do this? I think we can!!!

I'll post the details as soon as I have them...until then, go outside and enjoy this friggin' lovely weather!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

This won't end well...

I got the following email this morning:

Dear OhCaptain,

PokerStars would like to invite you to participate in a short survey regarding mobile phone handsets and the potential for a mobile version of PokerStars.

The survey can be found at [link]. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Please complete the survey before May 18th.

Please note that we use a third party tool called Zoomerang to facilitate all of our surveys.


Thank you,
The PokerStars Team
This can't possibly end well. Poker on my phone? For money?

Sigh

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Mother's Day from Target Field home of the Minnesota Twins

We are taking OhCountess to the Twins game today at her request. It's our first time at the Twins' new home and all I can say is wow! This place is amazing!

Happy Mother's Day all you great moms out there!


-- Posted from my cell phone that starts with the i.

Location:3rd Ave N,Minneapolis,United States