Virtual felt just doesn't have the feel for the real thing

Can anyone help with this problem? Why is it that live poker feels so easy and the results are solid and when I go online to play poker, I can't win a freakin' hand?

The part I love about live poker is all the extra information. It's just sitting there. You find it, your read it and you make decisions that really stick.

I go online. I fold 49 consecutive hands, my M falls below 10 in the process, I fire 3 bullets at the pot (the last bullet being all of the remainder), and I get called by 3rd pair and a Q kicker.

Now granted, I was bluffing, but come on! Who assumes that 3rd pair is good enough for 75% of your stack against a guy that has folded 49 straight hands?

I swear, playing the Mookie has ruined my game. I either need to move up dramatically and get out of no-fold'em holdem, or stick to live poker...which there isn't much around here. Maybe this week will be all about Razz.

Last night was about as brutal a sit-n-go session I've ever had. When I was chip leader in one $5 sng, I get AK on the button, it walks to me, I raise it pot, like I normally would to steal the blinds, the BB pushes (his M still about 14), I call, and remember, I've only been in pots with premium hands the whole tournament, He turns over Q6o. BAM! Half my stack is gone. OK...the mistake was calling the all-in. I could have just laid down and died. One hand later, a very short stacked player takes the next half of my stack when he pushes and I call with A♥Q♥ he had pushed with A5o...and scores the five.

So tell me this...when other people see my avatar or name come up, or is there a web site out there that tells you..."if you can, put your money in with OhCaptain behind or in a coin flip...you can't loose!"??????

Sorry for the rant, but then again...ain't this one of the reasons we started these things?

January Bourbonators - A state tournament warm up?

Last night we had our monthly home game for the Bourbonators. 11 people showed for this home game. A nice number. Bodie25 was our gracious host and put together a fantastic spread.

Bourbonators is mostly about sitting around and having a good time, and that was accomplished. A lot of our discussion was focused around the coming Whiskey Fest in Chicago. The group is trying to see who can get hall passes from the wives to go away for a weekend and sample lots of good booze. I think my chances would be better going to the Great American Beer Festival. Not because it was closer, but because I actually am a bigger fan of fine beers than I am of fine spirits.

Jon also recounted the Regional Tournament for the Minnesota Poker League. He had finished 3rd, I think, on the leader board for the regular season. 3 people from my bar qualified for the state tournament bringing the number of us that will be there to 5.

Last night, the poker started with a big pot and never really let up. Lots of crazy action. I took the opportunity to reflect and practice my folding techniques. In the first game, I voluntarily put money into the pot only once in the first hour. When we were down to 5 handed, I played my first hand. A very loose player had raised the flop. His range of hands is the entire deck. I pushed all my chips in to put him to the test. He called. He had A♣Q♣ and I found myself only holding K♣J♣. I've been farther behind, but in this case, I hit a K to stay in the lead a double up.

I focused on cleaning up the dead money from here on out. I found that several of the players give off enough information to know when they've missed the flop. I built my stack up slow and methodically. I stayed out of the big pots and cleaned up the little ones. Worked well. I stayed alive until I got heads up. It was yours truly vs. Marshall. Marshall is one of our looser players, but seems to be learning with each month. He's still very aggressive, but seems to understand the game a bit better than he used to. When we got heads up, I finally started seeing some cards. I doubled through him a couple of times and won the first sit n go.

I approached the second game the same as the first. I played one hand early and tried to be tricky. Thankfully I bailed before it got to be too much of my stack. Folding the rest of the way, I got my self into the short table again and it pretty well played out like before. I cleaned up the dead money using my stack size, a nice medium stack, I pushed people out of the way and just took the chips. I got up against the head bourbonator and fellow poker leaguer John heads up. Again, I got cards when I needed them and turned John's big stack into my stack. Wow, I won both games tonight! Sweet! I think this is the first time I've won both.

Last night was a blast. Good times with good friends and a little poker makes for a fantastic night out with the guys!

Shannon Elizabeth chooses high road and skips freeroll

Here's a twist to the usual poker story, Shannon Elizabeth chooses to pass on the endorsment freeroll and just buy in rather that become a shill.

In an article posted on LaunchPoker.com entitiled "Star Pays Own Way to Aussie Millions", it is reported that she was offered free entry into the event if only she promotes the tournament. Now, I'm not sure I could turn down a freeroll into something like that, but I just found it interesting that she would rather not shill something she doesn't want to promote.

Kudos to Ms. Elizabeth.

Ahh...back to the felt - I missed live play

Week 2 of Minnesota Poker League's 'Destination Las Vegas' returned to Brother's Bar and Grill this week. I missed week 1 with the passing of my wife's grandmother. It felt great to get back to live play. If you guys think that the Mookie has plenty of donkey's, you've got to try poker league.

This is my weekly attempt to avoid making dangerous mistakes. You really need to pick good spots and make sure you aren't in a position to get sucked out on. They will call you with anything.

This week, I found myself at a table with a mix of regulars and new people. I found I enjoyed the new people for the ability to give me chips. I also avoided the players at the table that will try and trap me.

I played my usual tight game, but this time I made sure to get a little more adventurous in position. I think I'm really beginning to understand position. Even in this donkament setting, position is a huge tool. The biggest advantage is knowing when early and late position can have their most power.

EP (playing from the blinds) gives you an advantage in the ugly flops. No one raises preflop so you are going to see a lot. I use these opportunity to steal when there are regulars that I know know my game and will fold if they miss, but I never attempt a steal when there are unknowns in the pot. There is no guarantee that they have a clue what's going on.

LP (playing from the button and cutoff) provides the greatest opportunity to clean up the dead money pots. If it folds to you on the button or cutoff and there is an ace showing, a bet will either win the pot, or identify those people that already have at least a pair. I don't know that anyone besides me and Bodie25 and a very small handful of players have ever floated or even know that it can be done (Hi! Eloise).

My first real opportunity to take some chips came fairly early. I was in the BB, the were 4 limpers and the LB in the pot. The flop comes 49Q rainbow. I had checked the flop without looking (what's the point, they'd all call a raise anyway), so I looked down and found KJo. Not too shabby, I have a gut shot. I check because I really don't want to call a reraise and there's a good chance I'll see a free turn. The button does end up raising 1 bet. I called, he's knew and frankly my gut shot will be the nuts if there are no more hearts and I hit my 10. Everyone else surprisingly folds. The turn is the money card. I fill my straight. Now I bet. With 2 hearts still, I don't want him to draw cheaply to a flush. I'm actually a bit taken back, but he reraises me. 3 times my pot size raise. I think for a second and announce that I'm all in. Again, I want to make sure that anyone drawing to a better hand pays dearly. He makes the call. You'll never guess what he turns over...Q♠2♠. Wow, he called my all in with top pair worst kicker and is drawing dead. I had him covered so he stands and leaves.

I continue to play my tight game. Cleaning up some pots and generally staying out of the way of the lunacy. My table gets busted and I'm sitting next to the Well Manicured Man ( WMM - see previous posts about him for history). Eloise is also at this table, and its now down to mostly regulars. Eloise and WMM are two fairly aggressive players, there is also a guy there that I just haven't come up with a name for. He tends to drink plenty of beer. I use my free time from folding to keep observing and I think I finally have WMM perfectly figured out.

We got into one pot together. A few limpers had entered the pot and the flop comes Q92. I have second pair with 93o. I check cause, well, this hand isn't that good. It checks around to WMM and he raises it 2 bets. I don't normally spend a lot of money on second pair and well below average kicker, but I think I could be scary with the right cards to come. Everyone else folds. The turn is a blank (and less than a 9). I check, and he checks. Now, WMM guy always bets when he thinks he's ahead. His checking of the turn told me he had in actuality missed the flop. I get a sense from him that he's not happy to still have me hanging around. The turn is yet another blank and still less than a 9. I check again. He raises to 1500. A huge bet at the time and there was something about the raise that seemed off. No straights, no flushes and nothing bigger. If he had a Q, he would have bet the turn. He's also some one that would play suited connectors, but nothing connected, so he's only got one pair at best. I even believe that a 9 in his hand, he would have raised the turn. He has a physical tell that I'm 80% sure of and it said bluff as well. I make the call. He's only ace high. I take down a large pot.

They make the announcement that we are almost to points. I've got plenty of chips to coast on for a while so I tighten way up again. I'm folding AQ and AJ even in LP now. People are getting a little crazy, and my goal this season is to get LOTS of points.

As it turns out, this strategy pays off, not only do I make the points, but I also make the final 4. I doubled up making a fairly loose call for all my chips with KQ, but my read was right, he only had one over...I paired my something. I start bullying pots and just taking the blinds and dead money. When we get to 4 handed, variance catches up to me. I get AK 2 times and lose with it every time. The first time, LB raises, I have him covered in chips and if he doesn't have a pair, I'm way ahead, he calls my all in with 33. Of course he hits the set. . The next and final hand I played. I'm the LB, raise all in (no one has an M bigger than 6). I hear the chant of certain death from the BB. "I'm tired, I want to go home." That always means a suck out is coming. Always. She tables Q♣4♣ and 5 cards later, she hits the straight. Yep, I flopped 2 pair but the J on the turn and the 10 on the river sealed my fate.

A nice way to start the season! One more week of league before State!

Where has the time gone? and the money?

OK, I'm not broke, but this blog has been pretty quite lately.

First, my family suffered the loss of my wife's grandma. If you are really interested, I posted much more about this at my person/family blog. This sent our life into a tizzy for about 2 weeks. Saying we were tired just doesn't go far enough.

Normally, I post every couple days because poker has become part of my scheduled existence. Every Tuesday night, I play league poker at a local bar. That's be on hiatus for 2 weeks. Bodie25 and I usually find some place to play on any off weeks...but that dang Christmas and New Year holidays mean...very little chance to get out of the house. For pretty much the last 2 weeks, it was online poker. I played a lot of sngs.

Now, there was one exciting poker adventure, I won the friggin' mookie! But we already new this. But blogger brethren, the Mookie has ruined my game. Well, not really. But it did have a serious affect on how I thought about poker. It would seem that bloggers play better poker than your average idiot and I had high expectations after winning. This caused me to lose track of one key thing in poker, Know Your Opponent.

When I reached the final table at the Mookie, I know there weren't going to be many people that would call my all in with QTo. Most bloggers know that that is a stupid play. The average Joe at the $1 45 person sng...no so much. That's a monster. Got a gut shot straight draw...keep calling baby, you could get lucky.

This is not good for someone looking to learn more control of one's emotions, but the worst part; I was reading their hand correctly. I caught myself saying, "You hit your friggin flush, damn it! I call." WTF? I knew better, but I just couldn't stand it. I'd call just to see what a moron they were. Again, WTF?

I have taken some time away from the table and eased back the throttle. I know how to play this game. I can play very well. Lesson learned, again. Showing a flopped set isn't really gonna do any good when they hit the straight on the river. You just sometimes need to muck a made hand. That's how we make money.

Defending the Mookie

There is a very good chance that I will not be defending my Mookie title tonight.

My wife's Grandmother past away and the visitation is tonight with the funeral being tomorrow. If we get home in time to play and the Mrs. doesn't mind, I'll be playing.

Talk of poker will not be the subject I start. I can have poker brain at some of the worst times.

Hopefully, I make it to the Mookie tonight. If not, good luck all! Just make sure Hoyazo or Mookie don't win it. Why ruin a good thing? Well, Mookie can win. I think its fun to listen to Hoy's sob stories every week. It seems the well never runs dry on bad beats and bad play.

See ya on the felt!

Goals can be good - Aspirations for 2008

2007 is a year I can be proud of. I learned a lot and I even made some money. So now I look to 2008 and think about what I would like to accomplish next.

Goal 1: Learn to play Pot Limit Omaha. I know the simple part of Omaha, its poker...I get that. What I'd like to learn is how to play it well. I've got 2 games I'm comfortable with NLHE and Razz, its time to add PLO.

Goal 2: Become proficient in the cash games. I suck at online ring games. This needs to change.

Goal 3: Win another blogament. I got the Mookie and the experience of that tournament has me thinking that if I want to step up my game, these tournaments will help. They are a cheaper way to play really quality players. I plan to be in a lot more of these in the coming months.

Goal 4: Improve my writing skills. This year, I'm starting a new habit. I will reread my posts BEFORE hitting the publish button. Geez, I went to college. I graduated. I know how to write. I just need to do a much better job at it. Short-stacked Shamus writes such great posts, I'd like to write a response to the Rumble that comes close.

Goal 5: Win the Minnesota Poker League State Championship. I've qualified for the tournament, now its time to take it down. (If I win this one, the new goal is to take down the Shooting Star at the Bay 101...yeah, I know, lots of luck at that)

Goal 6: Play in a live tournament with a 3 figure buy-in. I'd really like to take a shot at the WSOP satellite that comes to the area.

Goal 7: Finish reading more books. I started the books with vigor this year, but then it took me forever to finish them. I need to just git-r-done.

I think to sum up my aspirations for 2008, it's to become more disciplined. To hon my self-control and use the noodle inside my skull.