Just My Two Chips

Since this blog seems to be a dead zone, (thank you, to my two followers). I figured why not try out my new apple mac book pro, and talk and talk about dead cards. Those of you who have played poker more than playing for clothing, should know, that at times cards just don't seem to be coming to you, and the ones that are coming to you just aren't coming out on the board. This is the ultimate test of patience. But during this time, instead of focusing on the fact of how bored you are getting from sitting there; watch the table, sit there and play a game of guess what he has. This game not only helps you to learn other peoples tells, betting patterns, and what gear they are in. But also its a good way to train yourself into paying more attention.

 Now trust me, it is still going to be boring, but at least it is something to pass the time. Also, figure out how the table as a hole is playing, and depending on how many hands you have folded, and if the table is playing tight, it maybe a good time to steal. But don't get carried away, and if you are trying to steal on a stone cold bluff, don't bust yourself because your bored. I don't know what the pros say is a good rule of thumb of spending for a bluff? But, when I bluff I only risk about 25% of my stack, but (and I know for a 98% fact that, the next bet I make will make the opponent fold) I will bring that rule up to 30%.

                                                                On The Grind

Due to the lack of followers, and readers for that matter. I think I'm just going to keep writing anyway.

A little bit about me, I was diagnosed with Beckers Muscular Dystrophy at the age of 13; and given till the age of 25 to live. I am now 31, still walking, fucking,fighting, and playing poker. So regardless what people thought was going to happen to me, it hasn't, I'm still here. Bottom line doctors are fatalists, and me I'm a gambler.

So with my diagnosis it has hindered me from living a normal 9-5 life style. Most jobs that I have applied for after them hearing that I have Muscular Dystrophy, they decided that I wasn't right for the position that I was applying for. To them I would like to say thank you. Thank you for not thinking that I was mentally competent to flip burgers; and thank you for assuming that sitting at a desk all day typing other peoples thoughts, would be to physically straining on my body. Even though they were wrong, it opened my eyes to the understanding that if I want anything out of this life beside a small check from SSI, that I was going to have to go and claim it myself.

   Online poker is....Online poker could be....Online poker....

 Online poker is like learning poker all over again. The pros may call it a good way to learn, but to me the only thing that I have learned, is self control. Online poker has cost me two computer monitors, one girlfriend, and probably about 15 mouse's. So the pros may be right in some ways, it has taught me how to get off my ass and head to walmart for new computer parts. And how to take bad beats. I guess I really could sit here all night, and talk about all the war stories, or players calling huge all-in bets with 7-2 off suit and catching runner, runner, runner flushes to the deuce. But why waste your vision on reading about that.

 So why not talk about certain aspects of the Online poker world that has actually helped my game, playing tourney's outside of the matrix.

 Aggression:
   I never really realized how passive of a player I was until I started playing real money on Online poker. I wasn't really passive, I just was always trying to trap people. But setting traps in the online world is a hole different ball game, then it is on the felt. Because its their either or hands that are monsters on the flop, but everyone checks, and you know if you bet there is no earnings so you check. And by the turn your hand went from a monster, to a snarling cat that is trapped underneath your porch after the neighborhood shitzu chased the poor fluffy thing half way down your block, and now its your job to get the damn thing out from under your house before animal control comes, and arrests you for terrorizing old lady gal's cat. So yes the cards still can scratch the shit out of a caller if the caller isn't to careful. But it has lost its masculinity. So the hand that use to be monster has turn into a hand that you timid bet.
  On the other side though, you could be dealt an amazing hand with amazing draws, and every single poker book in the world tells you to bet with them, and or call a raise. So you call..Nothing on the turn......Nothing on the river. Your hand went from 45% to win on the flop, to 0% at the river and your sitting staring at the screen counting in your head, just exactly how many cards you have just missed.
  So the best thing I have learned from the Online poker world, is be aggressive. If everyone folds, they fold. But most of the time your going to have some computer geek, calling you all the way down, with a low ball gut shot. If he hits it, he hits, just remember that players that chase that shit go broke sooner or later. Just try to be that person that breaks him.

The Art of Shit Talking:
 I really never thought that acting like Mike Matusow, was really a good thing. And most players that talk like him at a poker table, I always have that urge to fallow them outside and give them a few whacks just to let them know that, it may have been part of their strategy at the table, but I got a long unforgiving memory. Then I snap back out of the dream, lean back and act as if everything that person says is just another shovel full of dirt for his grave. And slowly watch as their shit talking turns them into tilt, until it gets to the point that they are standing up at the table, crying, because you called him with nuts and he has "no idea how you made that call" and "He had you the hole way."lol..
 But in the Online poker world, its actually comical to read what these people say. And every once in awhile I may give them an "lol", or (when holding a monster hand) I'll ask them "Are you sure that was a good call?"
But I don't stand by shit talking ever. I personally think it throws you off your game, because you may be the one trying to tilt everyone else. The only problem is, is that your to consumed in what your going to say next, that you end up playing your cards wrong. Then it ends up throwing you on tilt.

Patience:
 I am a very patient person when I'm playing live tourney's or cash games, but what I noticed actually very quickly. Is that when your on your computer jumping from website, to website, we want the computer to haul ass and load. Same with video games, we sit there we play say a poker game on your xbox360, and hands move as fast as you can hit the Y button. But in Online poker for some reason I was looking at it the same way as I would look at anything on my computer, as fast as possible. I would play hands that I normally would have tossed, and I would call flops when I normally would have folded, and got up and took a break, trying to understand what made me want to play that hand.
 So when I realized on how fast I was trying to make these sessions Online move. That was a big fault, that was suffering big loses. So watch hulu.com as you play, or a music website or some shit. Just don't try to speed through.

Online poker has bred many of poker pros these days, like Durrrrrr. But honestly, I treat online poker as a quick fix before I head down to the strip and play, the way the game was meant to be played. Fully dressed, smelling good, and both eyes on my opponents.

                                                        Is It Luck, Or Skill


What makes a good poker player? Or is a good poker player just a myth? I mean yes we see so many familiar faces, as we watch poker on t.v. but are they really that good? Or is it that they have a shit ton of money to throw around? Not that I hate money, and not that I'm saying that professional players aren't good. But sometimes it just strikes me as odd that most of the time, final tables end up with so many donkey's. Take the 2010 Main event Soi Nguyen came out and said that he didn't know a thing about poker except for calling, raising, and betting. But this dude made it to the final nine, in a arena filled with sharks. And then there are the poker pros like Negreanu, that man is uncanny. He is Professor Xavier on the poker table, sitting there telepathically seeing your cards, and calling them out like it was so simple to figure out what that person was holding. Negreanu is one sick individual. But I barely see him making it to the final table. Now I could be wrong and most time I am, but just seems to me that a player as sick as he, should almost always reach the final table.
 But instead, the final tables are a mixture of online players, and dudes that were on vacation that decided that it would be fun to spend $10,000 on a game that they barely know how to play. That's like me stepping onto the field with a NFL team, telling Bret Farve to go drink a Geritol, and me leading the team to the Superbowl, that shit just wont happen. But in poker its a hole different story.
 So I guess the next question would be, is it just tourneys that rate pros at the same level as an amateur. Because you figure in most tourney's that the rate of play would actually step up, and you would play better then you would in a cash game, so you aren't wasting your time and your money. But instead it seems just the opposite for most pros, and they fizzle out of the tourney way shy of the money.
 I was actually happy with the November Nine this year, and it turned out to be an epic final table. I was hoping that "The Grinder" would take it home, since I have been watching that dude forever, and it seemed poetic for him to take it, but there again I was doomed to be wrong. But it was still a very entertaining table to watch.
 This is my first blog site that I have ever decided to stick with a write more than one sentence on. And from the mixture of run-on sentences, and gibberish shit that I have wrote within this post, I now realize why I never thought of doing this before. But I'm a stubborn bastard, and I like my jigsaw thoughts. (note to self, keep writing, fuck um if they cant adjust.)
 Until next time may all your chips come my way, and all my pots be monsters.

                                        History Of Poker (or close enough)

 The birth of poker, or as I would like to think of it as. Some down and out person (we will call him Hobo, to keep the story going) was down and out, had no means to support him, and his dog Skinny. Until one night as Hobo, and Skinny was digging through peoples garbage's, looking for their weekly meal; found a deck of cards with nude paintings of women on them. The wife of this prominent home had found them, when she was getting ready to washboard the business man's pants, and in her fury, and very heated argument they were tossed like trash in to the garbage, and now rested in the hands of Hobo, and his still very hungry dog Skinny.
 Now we shouldn't pass judgement on ol' Hobo, yes he may be down on his luck, homeless, not a red cent to his name. But one thing Hobo did posses was innovation, an inventor by trade he theorized different ways on how this one deck of cards would change his life forever. Not that Hobo and Skinny had much else to do with their time, so for the first time in a long time it was time well spent.
 With his deck of 54 (that's including the jokers) he shuffled up and dealt himself many different games that him and Skinny would play. But Skinny even though a very faithful old dog that he was, just wasn't the best at keeping his cards shielded from Hobo, and so the competition just wasn't there to make Hobo feel that the game was fair. Not that Hobo was complaining, I mean winning is always the best, but it just didn't feel like winning after about 1yr. of playing with Skinny.
 So he sat an contemplated on how to get some new players. Then fate happened when another man Hobo knew, stopped by to share his take of the day. And as they all three sat there and ate, Hobo explained the games that him and Skinny have been playing. The friend didn't seem all to excited to play the game, until he learned that the games would be played with the painted women on the cards. But, to much of Hobo's surprise winning against his new opponent still didn't satisfy his need to feel like a winner. That's when Hobo's light bulb went off in his head one more time. "Stakes" Hobo said, "lets play for stakes." His friend looked at him very curiously and replied "I don't know if you know this or not, but we are homeless." Thoughts rushed through Hobo's head, and as if the answer had been there the hole time he said "well you got that nice little shed on the outskirts of town, and I have Skinny, so what ya say we play for those? If you win you get Skinny, and if win I get your shed." The man thought then shook his head in agreement. And for the first time the butterflies were flying around in Hobo's stomach as the cards were dealt.
 Six years later, Hobo and Skinny were sitting on the front porch of their new home that they had won in a poker game down at the local bar. And as Skinny and Hobo sat on the porch, Hobo realized that it was the same home from where he picked up that fateful deck, that ultimately changed his life.


 So, the moral of the story is, that anybody can win at poker. It doesn't matter how much money you make, or if went to an Ivy league college and got a P.H.D in mathematics. What makes a winner, is a person that's willing to put their ass on the line, to take whats theirs. Poker is a portrait of our primal selves. Only the strong survive.