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TripJacked
Friday, August 31, 2007

Few things in life 'cause fear in me.

Actually that's total bullshit. With each year I remain on this earf, another thing seems to pop up to send shivers down my spine. I try to brush most things off as just a part of life, but some things seem to stick. Guess that's just a part of growth in a volatile world.

Take heights as an example. Growing up I had no fear of heights, or rather, if I had fear, I shunned it with youthful abandon. Nowadays I'm more like the guy on the roof of a house in the recent Milwaukee's Best commercial. If you haven't seen it, two guys are on a roof pondering the best way to start fixing a huge hole in the roof that was no doubt caused by an earlier "can drop" debacle.

As the third guy climbs the ladder to help out, he keeps his butt to the roof and scoots ever slowly to the other guys. When asked to bring the nail gun up to the two guys he proclaims, "I was thinking I could just hand you things from here," as he reaches the nail gun to them nearly 10 feet away. He of course is crushed by a falling can causing another huge hole in the roof. It's a great commercial and I was hoping to find it here, but for whatever reason they left that one off (and I can't get to youtube from work to see if it is there).

So anyway, I'm that guy on the roof scooting along like a wimp. In fact, I'm not even that. I'm the guy that climbs the ladder to the roof then climbs back down before even giving it a shot.

Fear sux.



That extra long intro had a purpose. I read this true story from The Trooper97 yesterday after finding the link through BadBlood and his post here. That is not a story you want to skip. Stop now and go check out both red links and then come back here and finish off my post.



When I first started playing poker and created this blog, we were occasionally playing a small game in my buddies garage (The Garage Mahal as we called it). Eventually the game grew. Not so big that it was on any radars, but big enough that I was no longer comfortable with the limits. I was not, and am still not, ready to play cash game poker at a level where I can lose a mortgage on any given night (even if it is part of my bankroll or not). That mentality is to my detriment as a poker player, and I realize it, but that is another story for another post.

Once the limits grew out of my comfort zone, I decided to help my buddy - and myself - by dealing one of his tables. It became excellent scratch for me and twice a week I was pulling down some excellent supplemental cash. Eventually, however, the game grew. More people started coming and the limits continued to grow. It's not that the limits were so big, but when the game is growing and there is, at times, 10k or more in and around the house, things can get tricky. I eventually resolved that the money I was making was not worth the risk I was taking on a regular basis.

Keep in mind, I'm not saying that is the case for any game. I'm just saying, that particular game became out of my comfort zone and I quit going there altogether. To date, my buddy still runs the game years later with no problems as of yet.

Still, I wonder if/when the police or the masked man will make his grand entrance.



A few years back a buddy and I were sitting at a pizza joint and poker game raids came into the conversation. I made the comment that there should be some type of online money system that is created to help solve the problem of both legality and the potential robbery scenarios. In essence, a live game such that no players bring a dime to the game or even in their vehicles (I've heard cops seize money not just from your person, but from your vehicle) and where you can prove the money you transferred was for a legal service or product.

Sort of a PayPal or Ebay for live poker.

I have not really put much thought into such a system since that conversation a few years back, but my noggin' is starting to tinker around with the idea again. I will give you my full thoughts/ideas on the subject in my next post.

Until next time, may the felt be with you.

posted by TripJax @ 5:47 PM, ,




The Wall Street Game
Thursday, August 30, 2007

Only days ago I proclaimed that I'm feeling dialed in with my poker game. It was interesting as my feeling of confidence did not stem from playing tons of poker, but quite the opposite. Time away from the game gave me a good feeling.


After I wrote that post I proceeded to fire up PokerStars and, for the life of me, I could not commit to anything. I would see a tournament opening up, but it was hours from start time. I registered and subsequently unregistered from numerous tournaments or sng's for numerous reasons. For a number of them, the multi-table sng's were taking too long to fill at the $20 level I wanted to play so I just finally lost the motivation.


I ended up playing one single table sng and eventually bubbled. Not so dialed in it seemed. But I really just decided the timing wasn't right for me and I shrugged it off as no big deal. I still felt great about my game and I was not going to let that waiver.


I did not play online poker again until last night at The Mookie. But first, I'd like to discuss my trip to New York City and my live poker with some new folks (new to me that is) at The Wall Street Game.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was flying out Monday night to NYC for a meeting on Tuesday. I was travelling alone so this left my evening plans for Monday wide open. I'm the type that could stay in the hotel bar drinking a beer and reading a newspaper alone or out on the town with friends...either way I'm content.

This time, as it turned out, Jordan was planning to play the Wall Street Game and there was an open seat for yours truly. They played two tournaments on the night, but I was only able to make the 2nd one due to my flight plans. I now realize after the fact that this was a good thing as they already had a full table for the 1st tournament.

When I first heard about the Wall Street Game I had visions of a bunch of "suits" sitting around the table gabbing about the Dow Jones and Nasdaq and plopping down $500 tournament buy-ins. During the day I'm pretty much a suit, but if I had my druthers I'd be gabbing about inside straight draws instead of margin interest rates. And when I leave work, I leave the suit behind (not literally folks). Lets just say I value my cargo shorts, dumbass t-shirts, and ratty ass flip flops.

Back to the game. As I walked into Jamie's apartment, I was welcomed by everyone with smiling faces. Everyone was extremely laid back and amicable and I just immediately felt a good vibe and didn't have the stress that can occasionally come with playing in a new poker game.

I had not eaten since breakfast so they helped me get some excellent chinese food and it arrived right when the game was starting. For quite a while I was hopping from the poker table to the kitchen to grub, but no one ever gruffed about my running back and forth. I managed to play some very laid back poker early on, but as the blinds progressed I stepped up the pace at the right times. I also managed to get Aces twice in a span of 5 or 10 minutes midway through the tourney. That helped me survive a low stack and allowed me to get back into the thick of things.

I won't bore you with stuff I don't really remember well (and no that doesn't mean a ton of suckouts I don't want to mention...just typical poker stuff), but I did end up winning the tournament, though Jordan and I chopped 1st and 2nd money. I got some extra cash since I was a 3-2 chipleader at that point and I got the 1st place nod, but honestly it could have gone either way had we played it out. Part of me wanted to play it out just for the enjoyment of playing against a buddy live, but I also knew it would be a good thing to head back to the hotel a little early as well as get out of Jamie's hair since we were the last remaining players for the night.

Let me just go ahead and say that Jamie is a very gracious host. He had one extra player in the 1st game and actually sat out of his own tournament so that person could play. That player did not RSVP, but Jamie still graciously opted to sit out. That player ended up getting knocked out on the 1st hand! Read about that as well as a snippet of the game info here.

As for Jordan, as always he was a funny fucker and as easy as ever to hang out with. Thanks again to both Jamie and Jordan for the hospitality. If you haven't already, definitely check out Jordan's much better post about the night here.

I'm running low on time at the moment, so let me just end by letting you know I cashed in the Mookie last night, but in the last paying spot. Still some money into the roll, but I was feeling good about my chances of winning once at the final table, but it was not to be. I'm pretty sure I was the chipdleader with 7 remaining and ended up going out in 6th. That sux.

I've run horrible at the Mookie this year, so it felt good to at least get a final table and a minor cash even though it wasn't much. I have high hopes for the coming weeks and sealing up another Mookie win. I can feel it blog damnit!

So since I got back into focusing on my game I've played 3 times, won one of those games, and cashed in the other. I really need to get on the ball and start playing more poker methinks.

Man this was craptastic post. Sorry yo's.

Until next time, may the felt be with you.

posted by TripJax @ 5:22 PM, ,




Vacation From Poker
Sunday, August 26, 2007

I'm back from vacation and I feel as dialed in as ever. That's strange since I haven't played poker at all in over a week. Not since this nice second place finish for $558 bones. Still, there's something about being away from poker that clears the mind and really puts a fresh perspective on the game. I want to play well and win more than ever now. Now actually doing it will be the next step.

I took the computer with me on vacation, but the condo we stayed in ended up not having any wifi access. I'm actually relieved as I was able to enjoy an entire week without the computer as a crutch. We had a great time, took a ton of pictures, and now I'm back and ready to play some poker. I didn't realize it at the time, but this wasn't just a vacation, but a vacation from poker. That's a good thing.

Unfortunately I won't have much time for online poker over the next few days as I'll be travelling. I'm headed to New York Monday night for a business meeting on Tuesday so if any of you NY bloggers want to hang out for a little while Monday night let me know.

Fushizzle.

Until next time, may the felt be with you.

posted by TripJax @ 4:23 PM, ,




Maybe I Will Play In The HUC5
Friday, August 17, 2007

Circa 2007...August...16th...9:00pm

highonpokr: yo
TripJax: yo
highonpokr: sup brother
TripJax: not much...heads up in a sng...woot!
highonpokr: woot!
highonpokr: dont suppose you have $ on stars
TripJax: a little
TripJax: $40 maybe
highonpokr: theres a $22 HU tourney at 9:15, if you are interested
TripJax: might just do that...
TripJax: i'll let ya know...
TripJax: i won...i'm signing into stars now...
TripJax: i'm supposed to be getting ready for the beach...doh!
highonpokr: nice!
TripJax: i'm in

Circa 2007...August...16th...9:13pm

Yahoo! Messenger (8/16/2007 9:11:58 PM): SoxLover has joined the conference.
Yahoo! Messenger (8/16/2007 9:12:00 PM): fluxer has joined the conference.
highonpokr (8/16/2007 9:12:50 PM): i'm glad there is this random tourney
highonpokr (8/16/2007 9:13:01 PM): the worst part of these things is the wait b/w rounds
SoxLover (8/16/2007 9:13:11 PM): i want tripjax round 1
TripJax (8/16/2007 9:13:20 PM): ha
SoxLover (8/16/2007 9:13:27 PM): like a soft draw
TripJax (8/16/2007 9:13:28 PM): any day of the week
highonpokr (8/16/2007 9:13:32 PM): didnt trip place 2nd in the first HUC?
TripJax (8/16/2007 9:13:37 PM): no i won it
SoxLover (8/16/2007 9:13:39 PM): lol
SoxLover (8/16/2007 9:13:44 PM): major suckouts
highonpokr (8/16/2007 9:13:47 PM): oh yeah
fluxer (8/16/2007 9:13:47 PM): lol
fluxer (8/16/2007 9:13:55 PM): poker all skill

Circa 2007...August...17th...1:44am



PokerStars Tournament #57898228, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $20.00/$2.00
186 players
Total Prize Pool: $3720.00
Tournament started - 2007/08/16 - 21:15:00 (ET)

Dear TripJax,

You finished the tournament in 2nd place.A $558.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

I can't remember the last time I played so well heads-up. I really fucking worked it tonight. I swear I had the last guy on the ropes and I was staring at the 1k first prize, but it just was not to be. In fact, in every single match, I really had the players on the ropes. I played small ball, keeping the pots as small whenever possible and not allowing myself to go broke on a stupid hand. It felt fucking good.

I won six matches in a row and really felt that seventh one coming, but alas, it was not to be. Here are the two crucial hands from the final match...

This one really isn't exciting, but it is when the tides turned against me when I didn't hit. I really believe it was the first time I was all-in on a coin flip the whole night, but I had the most chips, a great heads-up hand and a chance to take down the title and the $1,000...

(click the pic to see the hand in action)


If you are unable to see the hand in action, the board bricked on me and he took over the chiplead when I had him nearly 2 to 1. Then, as I kept my game plan in line, I knew I needed to get my chips back to where we would be even. If I could do that, I knew I would eventually take him down. Best laid plans...and all that shit...

(click through to see the hand in action)


For those who can't see the hand in action, we got it all-in (I had just under 1000 in chips) and he nailed his 4 on the river to runner, runner me there. It was tough, but I can't complain with $560. The shitty thing is I played so well the whole night and the two hands that didn't work for me were the two where I took the most risk pre-flop. Gotta win those sometimes.

I obviously gotta thank Jordan as I wouldn't have even played this had he not pinged me. Seems like that happens alot these days where someone inquires about a game and then that person ends up doing well.

Guess I might just have to play the HUC5 now.

I'm off to the beach Saturday morning with the family for a much needed vacation. I'll see you wankers on the flip side.

Until next time, may the felt be with you.

posted by TripJax @ 5:21 AM, ,




Poker Manager
Thursday, August 16, 2007

I've taken the advice of the King Of the Donks and downoaded the Tourney Manager. I'm currently just testing out the trial version, but I can already tell I'm going to pony up the $40 and have this program full time after I use up my 50 tournament downloads.

It was a bit of a gut check to hit the F5 button (that's how easy it is to import the hand histories) and immediately have the graphs show I'm a losing SNG player over the last 2 months. Granted, I've only played 17 SNG's in that timeframe, but only cashing in 3 SNG's over that run really smarts. I've just been running terrible lately and if you couple that with poor decision making, the losses can really add up. Special note...that picture to the left is not of my winnings. That's just one of the screenshots from their website. My graph sucked balls so I'll wait to post it until I've played enough SNG's to really paint the true picture. 17 SNG's is not even remotely enough games to truly track my progress. How about 10,000 SNG's?!

I can already tell, just from my brief evaluations of the system last night, that this program will help to keep me constantly working towards building a bankroll. Also, I've been lacking in keeping up with my rakeback and now that I have the system to help track it, I think I will be more inclined to play more SNG's and build my roll accordingly.

I'm ready to light this candle now.



While perusing the Tourney Manager forums last night, I came across an interesteing program that might be pretty cool. It is called the Poker Manager and it looks to be created by the same person who made the Tourney Manager. I think it is going into beta phase soon, so hopefully all goes well and we'll be able to give it a try soon.

In essence, it is a program that brings everything about your poker world into one tight knit place. Imagine wanting to know - from all the poker sites you have on your computer - which ones have a tournament starting in the next 10 minutes between $25 - $50. Now imagine finding the tournament you want, clicking one simple button, and the program takes you to that tourney. I don't think I can do it justice with my explanations here, so why don't you just view the demo. It looks as though there is a ton of info within the program.



Ever since I switched over from Bloglines to Google Reader for my RSS reading, I've been lacking in updating my blogroll. The one thing I miss from Bloglines that Google Reader does not offer was the ability to quickly and easily add to my blogroll on my blog template. Still, I like Google Reader enough to stick with it instead of Bloglines.

Now don't get me wrong, if you are reading this and you have a blog, most likely I have you set up in my Google Reader, but I may not have you on my blogroll within my blog. I've always been adding blogs to my Reader, but since I don't use bloglines anymore, I may have missed adding you to my blogroll. If you are reading this and I haven't added you to my blogroll, shoot me a comment and I'll try and add everyone during my vacation next week.



I broke a cardinal rule of poker last night. Don't play poker when you're not feelin' it. I went out drinking with a buddy Tuesday night and had a horrible, hungover day at work yesterday. That should have been enough to tell me it was a bad idea to play any poker. Instead, I fired up the Mookie like I always do and was gone before the 1st break (actually the hand before the 1st break). Granted, I went out on a tough river card to take me out, but even still, my head wasn't in the game. It was probably just as good that I was out of the tourney and able to go to sleep early. I feel much better today.

I'm headed to the beach with the family for a full week on Saturday so you can expect to see limited posts from me after tomorrow and until next Saturday. I'm debating on whether to take the computer at all, but I'm pretty sure the hotel we are in has wifi, so I may take it just to log on occasionally.

In know you all will cry yourself to sleep on your wee little pillows until I return right?

Until next time, may the felt be with you.

posted by TripJax @ 1:19 PM, ,




The Bird
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

A little piece of my past left me yesterday, but I had a smile on my face as it rolled away.

During my first year of college I had no car and needed some wheels for a date one night. I still lived in the same city as my parents so I called my mom to ask if I could borrow her 1991 Pontiac Sunbird. She obliged like any good mother would.

I thanked her by never returning the car back to her. It was the 2nd time she had let a son borrow a car only to have the title eventually turned over. She totaly kicks ass...for a white mom.

The picture in this post is not my actual car. Mine was white with a sunroof and definitely not as nice as this one...not even close. Still, for 16 years old, it only had 84,000 miles on it and still has some road life left.

Yesterday I donated "The Bird," as I called it, to the ALS Assocation. As I watched it roll off with the tow truck, I had a good feeling in my gut knowing a few dollars were headed in the right direction. For those that don't know about ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, check out more info here.



One day in early 2001, one of our Financial Advisors walked into the office with his suitcase in hand and was talking with fellow employees in the hallway. His suitcase fell out of his hand, but he had no reasonable explanation as to why. Though he did not know it at the time, it was the first time ALS reared its ugly head. Unfortunately it would not be the last. By 2002 he had lost most of his motor skills and by 2003 he was dead. He was in his 40's.

In 2004, another Financial Advisor in our office began to slur his speech during meetings. He had numerous hospital visits to try and determine what was wrong. He, his family and the entire office were floored to find out that he also had ALS. A fellow employee was put to rest in 2003 and yet another employee was discovering he had the same disease. It was truly disheartening.

As of today, he has fought the battle and is still living with ALS. He can barely move and is losing most of his motor functions, but he battles on. He is in his early 50's. His son has taken over his advisory business and is one of my close friends in the office.

Though my office holds a strong market share in the financial services industry, maintaining nearly 1.5 Billion dollars under management, we have less than 50 employees at our branch. To have two employees in our office stricken with the disease just seems unbelievable to me. As many of you know, between my work and playing poker, I live in a world of numbers and odds. I don't know what the odds are that two fellow employees in a small office in rural North Carolina are stricken with ALS, but it has to be slim.

It's not much, but hopefully the $1000 +/- the ALS Assoction gets out of the car will help the cause.

Until next time, may the felt be with you.

posted by TripJax @ 2:03 PM, ,




K.O.D. Kontender K'OD
Monday, August 13, 2007

In a previous post I mentioned the Sunday 100k guarantee, $10 buy-in over at PokerStars that has been attracting nearly 20,000 entrants lately. Sunday was no different as 18,524 players signed up. Since I didn't have any cash on PokerStars, I decided on Saturday I would try and find someone to trade some money with. I logged into Stars and was surprised to find approximately $35 there. I love it when I forget about money at a site. It's like finding a $20 bill in an old pair of jeans.

After hanging with the family in our pimp ass pool in the backyard, I readied myself for the tourney. Things started out rather slowly and I found myself down to about 1500 chips from our original 3000 starting stack. I managed to chip up ever so slowly when I got it all-in two hands in a row, both times holding AA. I somehow won both of those hands and was suddenly 3rd out of the remaining 10,588 players...



You'll notice I was also playing a 90 player SNG as well as keeping up with BG who was live blogging his dinner. Quite entertaining I must say. His site is blocked at my work so I had to take advantage of my rare blog reading at home and comment on his post as often as possible. I turned it into my own little forum for the day.

So back to the tournament. I hovered around 35,000 in chips for quite a while, but never could seem to break the 40,000 chip mark. All the while people kept dying off from the tourney and the top 30 chipleaders kept getting stronger. Only two hours into the tournament, nearly 16,000 players had been eliminated. This put us into the money...



At this point I was still hovering around the 35,000 chip mark and still well above average, but the average was moving quickly as players were dropping like flies. I refused to let myself donk off chips just trying to stay even, but I also didn't allow myself to be a wimp. I played some strong pots and managed to stay afloat for quite a while.

As we neared the next payout level I found myself below the chip average and needing a good hand to vault me back into the top 100 in chips with about 1370 remaining. Then this happened...





In case you are unable to click through the picture to view the hand threw the PokerXFactor hand playback, holmes nailed a Ten on the river to crack my AA after I got him all-in with his 5% chance to win the pot. I knew I was going to have to avoid many a suck out in order to be the K.O.D. and run deep in this thing, but it just wasn't my night (that's King Of the Donks for anyone wondering). In the end I was K'OD on a tough hand and won a tiny payout compared to the 1st place prize of $19k.


I did enjoy the hell out of this tourney though and I definitely plan to play it again. As I write this post the tournament is still going and only 3 hours in they are down to 500 from the original 18,500 (3000 places paid). That tells me there is money to be made in this thing. You just have to play well AND run goot.


Until next time, may the felt be with you.

posted by TripJax @ 10:39 AM, ,




PhotoJax
Friday, August 10, 2007

No poker content today folks, so consider this your up front warning that this is a post about family and kids and all that fru fru stuff.

A friend of ChickJax's recently contacted her asking if it would be okay to take some pictures of KidJax and LilJax for his portfolio. He was formerly a photojournalist and worked in commercial photography, but was now trying to make a name for himself on his own. He's always been into photography and was now ready to take it to the next level. We jumped at the chance to have the kids pictures taken.

On Wednesday we met with him and he took a bajillion pictures of both of the kids. He brought his puppy along and they all had a great time while he was taking the pictures. He also took a couple of pictures of the whole family (minus the two cats, one hermit crab, one lizard and who knows how many fish) just for us to have. The picture within this post is my favorite. By the time he snapped that pic the kids and puppy were worn slap out.

More than 12 years ago he snapped this picture of ChickJax. If you haven't noticed I'm a big fan of my wife. She's pretty cool for a white girl. Some of you ghey bloggers have had the chance to talk on the phone or via the ghey girlie chat with her so you already know she's good people. However, the bulk of the ghey blogging contingent has yet to meet her.

She doesn't know it yet, but I'm seriously gonna try and work out both her and I making the December WPBT event. She couldn't care less about poker, but she's always been supportive of my hobby and my poker travels and I think she would have a great time in Vegas. She's not afraid to drop some coin on KENO and always gets along well with my friends, so I have high hopes in her wanting to come with me. Now I'll just have to figure out how to pay for a trip for two right before Christmas. D'oh!

So honey, if you happen to read this post, consider this my initial inquiry...

Until next time, may the felt be with you.

posted by TripJax @ 2:08 PM, ,




iPoker
Thursday, August 09, 2007

I don't mean to alarm anyone, but this is my 2nd post today. Two posts in one day is unheard of by me. I must be channelling my inner Wawfuls or Jordan. I'm sure those two will love being coupled together like that.

I was going through my RSS feeds today and came across this particular post over at Gizmodo - a techie blog with tons of readership. The post is basically about techies who have hacked into the iPhone and found codes for games that don't even exist on the phone. In other words, it makes it pretty obvious that the Apple heads eventually plan to add games to the iPhone, but have yet to do so.

Normally I would give two shits about this - no more or less than two shits, i stand firm at two shits - but I got a kick out of the game they chose to highlight as potentially/eventually being available on the iPhone. For your viewing pleasure, I've added it within this post on the left. Check out our boy dbirider from The Poker Bus getting some free pimpage/advertising for his PokerOnAMac site. Gotta love it. Methinks they need Mookie on the case next time they try and photoshop a picture 'cause that one just ain't cuttin' it.

Anyway, it would be hella cool to eventually have a true poker game running on an iPhone, but I'm not holding my breath. In the meantime, lets just play along with the Gizmodo folks and make pretend poker fun.

By the way, if you are into that techie shit, definitely add Gizmodo to your RSS feeds. They are sort of the Wicked Chops Poker of tech news. Occasionally they'll show off a cool tech item or drop a funny post on us, so it's worth the read. Be forewarned, however, they have a new post up about every 5 fawking minutes it seems. I swear I don't know how they do it. They must have 75 lemurs in a small room with high speed internet access, combing the tubes for techie stuff to offer us.

I am not allowing myself to type the word techie again for the next year after this friggin' post.

posted by TripJax @ 6:28 PM, ,




Okie-Vegas Day 2: Drunken Lewey In Action

Day 2 was, on a personal note, the most anticipated day of the Okie-Vegas event. Having made it to last years Okie-Vegas, I knew the whole lake experience would be one to remember. I have to say it was a very good thing GCox updated the lake trailer from a single to a double wide. But for those in attendance, lets be honest, that thing was huge. It had more square feet than my home! Had we attempted that many people last year, it would have been extremely difficult. Well done on the house G.

I'm feeling hella lazy today, so why don't we memorialize the lake day with pictures and comments. Note, I took zero pictures during the event so these will mainly be from Maudie, Kat and F-Train. Thanks for being awesome with the camera yo's.

Oh, and this is my blog, so the pictures will primarily have something to do with me. D'oh!

And that, folks, is how I roll.

Until next time, may the felt be with you.

Note: Please let me know if any of the links are broken in this post.

posted by TripJax @ 3:04 PM, ,




Whensday?
Wednesday, August 08, 2007

First off, can anyone enlighten me on how to move the text you are currently reading just a small distance from the picture to the left. A long time ago someone commented about how my pictures and text are too close together and that I should fix my template, but I forgot (read: am too lazy) and never did anything about it. Now, however, I'd like to remedy that shit all quick and proper like.

Moving on, I've absolutely sucked in my pimpin' duties of late so I thought I'd take a moment and pimp the Mookie tonight. I love the new banner (to the left) Mook put together so I figured it was high time to show my pimp hand with it. As always Mook, well done with all of your banners.

I must admit I'm not happy with my Mook stats this year AT ALL. I just can't seem to get my footing with that tournament these days, but hopefully things will change tonight if I can make it to the tourney. Since playing these blonkaments, I've won the Mookie twice, the Big Game once, and Kat's Donkament once. I've had plenty of close calls with 2nd and 3rd place finishes, and while they help the bankroll, they don't bring home the true bacon that a 1st place does.

As for blonkament wins, that leaves The MATH (I call it The Hoy) and The Riverchasers, though I really don't play the Riverchasers enough to give myself much of a chance. The Hoy has grown on me since he brought it over to Full Tilt and made it a $24 buy-in. And though I've had my chances, I've not yet taken that tourney all the way to the top. However, just in the last few months I've finished 2nd and 3rd, keeping me at or near the top 10 of the MATH 2007 MoneyBoard. Hopefully I can add the Hoy to my list of wins here soon.



Did anyone else see the ESPN WSoP poker shows last night? I must admit it was one of the more entertaining shows of late. Of course, it didn't hurt that Phil Hellmuth, Jr. was at the final table. I'm pretty sure they only showed hands that he was involved in for the 1st hour of the show. The best part of it all was that Phil was on the short stack the entire time and anytime he got it all-in he would take insurance from Phil Ivey who was sitting in the crowd.

After about 5 all-ins, Hellmuth owed Ivey, I think, $109,000! Hellmuth ended up finishing in, I believe, 5th place for approximately $75,000. In essence he took his winnings and handed them to Ivey - and still owed Ivey money! Fucking hilarious. Ivey is Hellmuth's new biggest fan. If you didn't see the show, be sure to catch a repeat episode, which should air 1,248 more times in the next week.

The eventual winner of the tournament was a young kid who, during the "interview" portion of the show, noted he used to work for a particular financial services firm prior to becoming a poker pro. It just so happened to be my current employer he was talking about. I choose not to actually write my employers name in these here parts cause I want to keep this and that seperate. This blog and my work have zero to do with each other so I do my best to avoid meshing the two.

I mentioned in an earlier post of mine that there was craziness going on in my work life and I was hoping for the best. I'm happy to report things went swimmingly well for me. I received a healthy boost in the salary department as well as a gentle nudge in a direction that would definitely further my career within the firm. I'm suddenly excited about the future after just recently wondering if I would be headed in a different direction. Funny how things work sometimes.

That's all the time I have for today folks. Stupid title for my post today, but I couldn't think of anything else and it took me a full minute to figure out what day it was before writing this post.

Until next time, may the felt be with you.

posted by TripJax @ 4:42 PM, ,




Way To Harm Free Trade, America
Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Below is an article from the most recent BusinessWeek. You can read it directly from their site here, but I posted it in full below. My two cents...wake the fuck up America. Continue to get sued for concessions in lost gambling revenues or join the fray and make potential revenue off a game millions of Americans play regularly. You don't have to be a rocket surgeon to figure this stuff out. Just...



Wake.The.Fuck.Up.



A Web Gambling Fight Could Harm Free Trade
America's stern approach to Internet gaming may lead to broader problems with the WTO

Few paid heed in 2003 when the tiny island nation of Antigua & Barbuda started griping about tough U.S. gambling laws. The complaint: Antigua's Internet gambling operations, a major source of jobs for the country, had been hurt because Americans weren't allowed to place bets online.

Four years later, this narrow and almost comical spat has boiled over into a broader dispute involving many of America's top trading partners. What turned up the heat? In May the U.S. unilaterally decided to exclude Web gambling from its list of services covered by the World Trade Organization. To do so, it invoked an escape clause in the WTO treaty that allows a country to "modify or withdraw any commitment" to provide open access. This move—almost unprecedented—came after the WTO ruled that the U.S. violated trade rules when it blocked "imports" of gambling services from other countries.

But the dispute could be a lose-lose proposition for free trade since the U.S. may have legitimized use of a big loophole in the WTO. Meanwhile an already intense populist American backlash against globalism could be exacerbated by steep sanctions.

The escape clause invoked by the U.S. requires reparations to any WTO members that claim to be hurt by the modified agreement. The diplomats who negotiated the treaty wrote the escape clause in a way that intentionally discouraged its use. The country imposing the trade restriction had to provide "compensatory adjustment" to other countries affected by the change—a vague term that includes the possibility of enormous claims.

Antigua wants the U.S. to pony up $3.4 billion a year in concessions to cover lost gambling revenues. Seven other WTO members—Japan, India, the European Union, Canada, Australia, Costa Rica, and Macao—are also seeking unspecified but potentially big amends, saying that their Web gambling operations, either existing or to be started in the future, have been harmed.

Despite the furor, the U.S. has been unwilling to back away from its aggressive stance on Internet gambling. One reason: It's a rare area where many Republicans and Democrats agree, on both moral and law enforcement grounds. The argument is that it's too easy for minors to gamble online and for criminals and terrorists to use Web gambling to launder money. That's why the U.S. beefed up enforcement in recent years and banned the use of credit cards to place online bets.

Moreover, the U.S. says it owes nothing because it never envisioned online betting—or the World Wide Web for that matter—when the trade agreement was signed in 1994. "It never occurred to us that our schedule could be interpreted as including gambling until Antigua-Barbuda brought this case," Deputy U.S. Trade Representative John K. Veroneau told reporters in May.

Ultimately it could fall to the WTO to decide what, if any, economic sanctions the U.S. would incur. Major trading partners such as Europe and Japan could use the case to win concessions in other disputes. Smaller nations, such as Antigua, Costa Rica, and Macau, are more likely to ask the WTO to let them ignore copyright protections on software and entertainment. "You could have them be authorized by the WTO to essentially pirate stuff," says Chad P. Bown, an economics professor at Brandeis University.

On a broader level, the U.S. move, if successful, could invite other member nations to buy their way out of their trade commitments. "The last thing we want is for China or India or Russia to feel like they can withdraw some concession on intellectual property or aircraft," says Gary C. Hufbauer, a fellow at the nonprofit Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

Reason could still prevail. The U.S. and Antigua launched formal arbitration proceedings on July 24, and other trading partners have begun bilateral talks. Meanwhile, offshore betting operations are trying to gin up congressional support for legalizing Web gambling. If the U.S. doesn't change its laws, "it's going to send a signal to the rest of the world that the WTO is really kind of a one-way street for the benefit of the big economies," says Antigua's lawyer Mark E. Mendel, a partner in the Cork (Ireland) office of Mendel-Blumenfeld. "We're gambling that the U.S. will do the right thing."



Until next time, may the felt be with you.

posted by TripJax @ 3:10 AM, ,




Teh Suck
Monday, August 06, 2007

This weekend had the makings of one long brutal poker session. A weekend I was close to dubbing, "Teh Suck." I was headed towards a weekend of winning one fucking game - that being a heads-up match - among a slew of games I entered. I played MTT's and couldn't cash. I played SNG's and couldn't cash. I played cash games and donked off buy-ins. I played heads-up matches and donked all but one.

Now granted, the amount I lost wasn't anything huge, but it just sucked to play the way I was playing. I had no focus and couldn't catch a break to save my life. That's not a good combo. I was briefly chatting with Drizz and mentioned I had just made two large cash outs in the last week and a half and I was in a downward spiral ever since and he wrote, "CASH OUT CURSE!" I got a kick out of that one and told him I was running to get my tinfoil hat (yes I realize that is not a tinfoil hat, but I love that picture).

So after my above mentioned big cashouts, I left myself with a little over $250 to play around with. After my shitty ass play I found myself with $70 left by Saturday night. I had tried a couple of times to satellite into the Big Game to no avail. This is the same Big Game I FUCKING WON last time and this time I couldn't even satellite into or directly buy-in to. Not a good feeling folks, but I knew it was because of the limited bankroll I left myself after some much needed cashouts.

So I resolved to play one last game on Sunday night in lieu of the Big Game. I noticed they recently added $8, 180 player SNG's on Full Tilt. I fired one of those up and got busy. I wish I was writing this now to let you know I took the $388 first place prize, but that's not the case. I did head into the final table in 1st place, but I took a rough beat early that really set the tone for the rest of my final table experience. I take that hand and I'm at 100k in chips and in control. As it were, I had my work cut out for me.

In the end I lost my last race with my AK vs 55. Another hand where I'm sitting pretty if I take it, but instead I was out in 5th for $108 profit. It wasn't $388, but it was a nice boost to an otherwise depleted roll. I still have my work cut out for me in order to not go busto with such a small roll, but I just have to take it one game at a time.



Did anyone else see this? That's a $10 tournament with 19,203 entrants. After reading Kaja's post, I fired up the tourney and watched it while I played poker. They were right at the 3 hour mark and were very deep into the money. And by very deep I mean there were 600 players remaining...but 3000 made it in the money. Not too long after they were down to 100 and by the time I decided to close it down they were down to 30 players remaining. It had only been a little under 5 hours and had already lost 19,170 players. Unbeleivable. Methinks I'm going to have to eventually reload over at Stars sometime and try and KOD my way through that 20,000 person minefield.



Craziness at work this past Friday. Expecting even crazier stuff Monday. Hopefully I can post about it later, but right now I can't take a chance of discussing anything prematurely. I'm hoping for good things at the moment so we'll see. I'm still a little stunned about what happened Friday, but I'll just have to leave it at that. Damn could that be any more vague??!!

Until next time, may the felt be with you.

posted by TripJax @ 3:02 AM, ,




Tarded Lemurs R Us
Friday, August 03, 2007

I tend to play the roll of tarded lemur at the poker table, but sometimes other players take my place, if but for a fleeting moment. This hand is a great example...


Nice Fold Dude


Going into heads-up, holmes had me out chipped nearly 8 to 1. I chipped away at his lead and after this hand I never looked back.



In my last post, Jordan was busting my chops in the comments about my lack of posting lately. He's spot on with his comment (and funny as usual too), but he's right. Unfortunately, time for poker and/or brogging has been slim lately. Fortunately my busy schedule is for a good reason. Between lots of travelling and potential huge changes in my career, I've stayed busy. Fear not my furry little friends*, it won't be long before I'm posting 2 1/2 times a week again instead of 2. Woot.



Until next time, may the felt be with you.

*I'm not implying your furry...I'm just sayin'.

posted by TripJax @ 10:50 AM, ,




Okie-Vegas Day 1b
Thursday, August 02, 2007

I sometimes feel a tad weird writing about my drunken pokery shenanigans on days at or around a catastrophe such as the bridge collapse. However, I'm a big believer in keeping your regular routine as much as possible during tough times, so I'll go ahead and post this anyway. My prayers are with any and everyone whose lives will forever be changed by that terrible event.

If you read all the way through Okie-Vegas Day 1a, then you already know I was knee deep into some pokery goodness even though and I had just arrived in Oklahoma. I crashed hard for a couple of hours before G popped his head into the room to let me know it was time to roll.

After all the troops were rallied, we grabbed some grub at a local grill. Damn good food I must say. Maudie snagged some pics of us and I got a kick out of this one of 23skidoo...



"Excuse me waitress, but I believe I order the large..."

We then played a SNG at Maudie's house, though unfortunately I donked out rather early. I had a hexcellent time playing a live sng with my fellow broggers. I was also able to lay the groundwork of my beer guzzling for the remainder of the day during that tournament...



It wasn't long after Maudie's that we were headed for the casino. I'm happy to report I managed to double my buy-in there. I had quite a few beers and a couple shots at the table so walking away up was a miracle. I played some hands pretty well and limited my losses where possible. All in all it was one of my best live cash game showings ever. I put people to the test whenever possible and capitalized on my big hands. I doubled up through oossuuu754 on a hand I wish I could remember exactly. If you remember the action exactly let me know oossuuu754. It was an interesting hand. I also stacked a guy who had just sat down next to me. He was one of the many non-broggers who sat down in the 2 seat and felt the wrath of gheyness at the table.

Eventually Gary Carson joined us from another table and I enjoyed talking with him. He is a strange bird, but good people. My favorite point of the conversation with him was as follows (to the best of my memory, though Maudie wrote it down)...

Gary - This table is much better.
Me - 'Cause we're such great players?
Gary - No...less smoke.

No doubt, Gary, no doubt.

After the casino we headed back to GCox's house and decided to call it a night. The serious drinking and poker would begin the next day as we headed to G's lake house.

Until next time, may the felt be with you.

posted by TripJax @ 2:24 PM, ,