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VIP for the Low Roller Online

Tried a little experiment last night.

No, it did not envolve my wife, the Adam and Eve diry schoolgirl pack, or copulous amounts of Captain Morgan “Bite” (if you like lime in your Cap’n Coke I suggest give it at least a try, but snobbish me likes the real thing if I can be bothered to quarter them after buying the $.49 pack of citrus at Target).  Since this is was a poker blog you get poker more often than poke her news which if her parents are reading happened just three times over the past 12 years.

Had to test the goods before breeding of course.

Anyhow…   this month is a slight dip back into the playing pool of FPPs, FTPs, and any other acronyms used at the various poker sites for their frequent player points/VIP programs.  My intent is to achieve SilverStar again at Stars, and some variation of Iron Man at Full Tilt (this is split into Bronze, Silver, Gold, IRON MAN *cue Ozzy to jump out of your laptop looking a bit confuzzled asking you to score some Oxycontin while the rest of Black Sabbath starts up the BBBWWWWWOOOOWWWW I. AM. IRON. MAN).  Thanks to the new heroin of poker, Rush Poker is allowing people like myself (low rollers who don’t keep a lot of cash online) to achieve status at their site so I can purchase a couple of college educations from their FTP store.  Saves a lot of trouble scrapping by on ramen noodles and our new peddle-powered cars so that my kids can enjoy the wonders of Anthropology 201:  The Study of Ancient Byzantine Sponges at the college of their choice.

Or that nikon camera might come in handy hitting up the beach for the two weeks during the summer that we can be outside from 1:00-1:15pm without having to wear five layers.  I kid, its actually three weeks and thanks to global warming there’s an extra five minutes of beach volleyball and sand castles.

To the poker!  Ok, I fired up the following to see which would produce the most “points” at the two sites mentioned above in beautiful blue underline because I enjoy both and have friends working there so please support them or you’re responsible for pulling them away from the back row of Mr. Cashman two cent slot machines at the Four Queens as they try to win back their once stable paycheck while double fisting $.99 shrimp cocktails with the pissed off look of someone who just had their puppy kicked.  No pressure.

Full Tilt:  One famous “Rush Poker” table $.25/$.50 blinds (because I’m a BALLER!)
PokerStars:  Eight No Limit Omaha 8 or Better tables with $.25/$.50 blinds and a complete lack of bankroll management since I keep no more than $600 on the site at all times

The play lasted for about ninety minutes as AlCantHang hopped on the girly chat and Twitter with pictures of those delicious TastyKakes only found in the heavily wooded area of Pennsyltucky which made my mind wander back to the greatest convenience store in the world, and also the site where I spent a little time with two police officers and failing horribly to appear sober while slobbering on a freshly made philly cheesesteak after last call at the Boathouse.

Zero focus, good for writing, bad for poker.  Live and learn on the interwebs folks we’re here for you.

Ok, after ninety minutes of half attention I manage to not blow my meager bankrolls at the respective sites and managed to shuffle cash from one site to the other as par on most nights when I play at both.

PokerStars:  +$42.89
Full Tilt:  -$29.24

Since I do not play NLHE cash games often without being surrounded by the good folks who normally come here, what’s with the new “let’s-limp-aces-and-call-everything” style of play seen at Full Tilt?  The monsters under the bed radar goes way up after a can of Surly Furious and seeing this passive to the extreme play no less than four times in 90 minutes.  While I never played them for stacks, I did crack the aces twice with two pair simply because check-call all the way down is better left for a limit game.  Nonetheless, there were no horrible stackings after being down over a buy-in, I only lost a little less than a buy-in thanks to a flopped set of jacks and someone who just couldn’t fold his/her pocket fours in the last five minutes of the session.

PokerStars went better despite getting stacked five minutes after pouring said beer, and in puke-and-rally form made a decent profit on the night thanks to people who try playing Omaha Hi in a split game.

The important stuff:

Full Tilt:  147.16 FTPs  (last 15 minutes of play was during “Happy Hour” thus points were doubled, would have waited for Happy Hour to start, but sleep is a fun thing to do when your daughter is bound to wake you at 2am to search for her Rainbow Care Bear)
PokerStars:  225.18 VPPs

Note:  PokerStars gives you VPPs to “rank” you in their VIP hierarchy but gives you FPPs at the same rate while multiplied by your “rank”.  Example:  as a “SilverStar” I get a 1.5 multipler so I received *gets calculator* 337.77 FPPs to use in their store last night.

I thought it would be a wash but mutli-tabling still held king over the crack table BUT the risk of ruin is much higher with funds so far spread out, I’ll continue this little experiment throughout the month as time and cookie monster kids permit as there’s a poker game in G-Vegas next month that I will flying out for and need the practice against people who treat chips like lego blocks.

Seven for Ten

Minnesotans already blanketed by some white stuff as the shovels were not quite put away for the season and unless Punxsutawney Phil says otherwise we’ll enjoy every flurry and flake. People who like snow most likely don’t have an 5am daily commute and got stuck behind a snowplow while having to share a car for the week because the other one had a transmission that decided to cease functioning while driving 65mph down I-694 with two kids in the back that wanted nothing other than to learn how float in water.

Tax return to shore up savings? Yeah, that was a great idea at the time. Kinda feel like the couple in “Up” trying to throw change into the large jar for the trip to Paradise Falls only to have life show up at the door and say “take the hammer out again, the move is going to have to wait”. It’s the journey right? Right now that journey has frozen digits 90% of the day and a daughter who tries to make two gallons of cherry red kool-aid in a dixie cup then decides to clean up the mess by smearing in on the walls and tile with a white towel.

At least there’s a smile.

The busy end-of-the-month Sunday’s at the PokerStarsBlog give me a chance to slide on the cozy slippers of hair metal, online geniuses, and bad puns as the kids and wife vacated the porch while wrote up the Battle of the Planets, $1,000,000 Turbo Takedown, and Sunday Warm-up tournaments. While those were going on, my eye was taking a quick glance at Twitter because rumors have been swirling about a certain Minnesota sports icon looking to come back.

No, sadly if you’re one of the legion of Brett Favre fans no word from the land baron as of yet. My advice is to listen for the words from Jay Glazer or local reporter Mark Rosen NOT Ed Wants-to-stir-the-pot-and-play-with-the-big-kids Werder.

Pic cred sportsnet.ca

No, its the hometown kid. “The One”. The reason for the move from the homerdome to Target Field starting this season. St. Paul’s own Joe Mauer is on the cusp of signing with the Twins basically a contract for the remainder of his career. Effectively removing any chance of tainting the all-star catcher with Yankee pinstripes, LA Douchebagerry or Bloody Soxs should he sign contract being floated out there instead of bagging the bloated contract he could demand from the above teams.

While I will always have an interest in the local ballclub, it’s magnified when number seven is playing. Much like a golf tournament with Tiger Woods, a hockey game with Gretzky, to a Minnesota Twins fan who had to watch their hero from the 80s fall from grace and to health, because of Joe Mauer they had someone special to cheer for again. While Puckett exerted energy, Mauer’s freshly cropped sideburns brings the quiet cool. Cool enough to to be in awe but friendly enough to play some catch with the fans on a side street if asked.

Mr. Mauer it is with hope that you decide to spend half a season in the confines of downtown Minneapolis for the next decade as I’ll be there every month except in April because outdoor baseball in such a month in this state is borderline retarded (yes, I have played in snow several times). Just make the decision soon and leave the ESPN drama to Favre who has experience in such waffling and football fans have grown used to it.

Take the high road down newly named Twins Way and find a few fans that will show up regardless of team’s record (and maybe even the weather).

Flight Options Taken

Playing poker is tough enough with the swings, the beat, the grind, the math but add in antsy kids and a wife who had a tough day at the office and well playing poker gets put in the back seat with the groceries.

It came at an inopportune time last night for all three of them to express their displeasure of having to wait for the degenerate to continue a quest towards a World Blogger Championship of Online Poker final table so they could go to the restaurant they were promised once dear old dad busted out. Hour one could have happened early but I managed to make a few hands. Hour two I caught some hands. But, the thermometer reached a high and poker thinking was shut down and yes I could have just sit out and probably made the SCOOP cash, but instead I just pushed the chips away while powering down the laptop.

Dumb? Poker wise, yes. Family wise, easy decision. Anti-climatic from doing a live blog for over two hours? Grrrrrrr.

Thus the conundrum of a middling poker player having to balance Dr. Seuss stories with razor sharp total concentration (example below) just doesn’t happen. At any point during a rush that phone call has to be answered, that cry for help on subtraction problems needs to be heard, and frankly it’s a no-brainer for me to leave the felt and work out the removal of digits from my son’s homework.

There’s the 8-Game tourney later in the week that I’m eyeing as the main event is slated right in the middle of the three tourneys I’m covering and definitely is out. I did manage to carve out a little me-time as the green light was lit for a G-Vegas visit in March and barring life-threatening issues, my focus will be on one thing:

Being with good friends with good drinks and adding yet more memories with these people that went from fonted letter with various blinking icons to certified friends that I’d chat about anything with. Including the signing of Jim Thome by the Twinkies yesterday. Meh.

Splitting the Turn and River

Is there any poker downtime anymore?  The start of Tennis’ Australian Open means the Aussie Million should be kicking off… yep. Good luck to those covering and playing.

And we bloggers have our own free attempt to become high rollers once SCOOP at PokerStars rolls around. As the WBCOOP kicks off next week with a series of freerolls to enter players into the Spring Championship of Online Poker with a chance of fancy watches and bundles of cash (not to mention the probability of a dashing poker blogger writing about your exploits).

The Borgata had the single reason Southern Comfort turns a profit every year in a line that rivaled any DisneyWorld ride to enter their 2010 Winter Open. Check out his live-ish Tweet-fest from donkey-land here.

We’ll stop this poker reporting for a breaking development. Ever wonder what lady bobsledders are wearing while you watch the Winter Olympics come up soon? Wonder no more:

Much better than Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction by far.

Tonight a return to the virtual felt for me as a warm-up for next week as I’d like to be a part of SCOOP in a writer/player capacity much like Pete Rose being a player/manager/gambler for the Phillies. Except without the asshole holier-than-thou attitude and busty sidekicks while signing autographs at a Vegas sports memorabilia store. Instead I’ll surround myself with two kids that have no off button, a handle of Captain, and a signature worth less than Tiger Woods’ current endorsement deals.

Kick Em’ When They’re Up, Kick Em’ When They’re Down

(a little Vikings recap, but if you want real insight go hit up PMac’s page)

“TURN OFF THE LIGHT?!?!” - My wife who got to sleep at nine PM while I was up work until around midnight

If you do not have a government-type job or work at a bank branch today you’ll be sitting in your normal cubical none the wiser that today is a national holiday in honor of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. Maybe the reverend forgot to tell my bosses about equality in workplace vacation days as with the great weather yesterday spilling over into today my kids will be outside shoring up their snow fort as we were after the Vikings game yesterday.

Waffles learned the number one lesson of being a cooler yesterday. Never pick a team to spite them, you must feel in your losing heart that the name printed on your slip is the one that will bring victory and cash into your Dockers back pocket.

It was a good day for the Purple but the game wasn’t a rose petal trail for the Vikings victory over the Dallas Cowboys 34-3 as the highlights rolling on ESPN would have you think. The Cowboys dominated the first quarter, their offense was steam rolling as Romo was given time to find that 2nd or 3rd receiver. The defense picked on some holes in the Vikings O-line as DeMarcus Ware crushed Favre when he went unchipped, unblocked. But, due to a missed 48 yard FG when Phillips had momentum and just one yard to go and a Romo fumble the game was kept tight besides the lopsided stats favoring Dallas.

Then Favre hit Sidney Rice in stride, Ray Edwards went into some kind of beast mode after someone entered a cheat code from Madden 2010, and Romo went down and stayed down. No comeback, no life, just a ball of sulk unseen since Jay Cutler got his steak rare instead of well done at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse last week. Another missed FG by the Cowboys in the second half and another Favre-to-Rice connection put the game virtually out of reach going into the fourth quarter where the situation you’ll hear all the Cowboys’ faithful and every sportscaster with a blazer and tie have with an opinion about this morning. Might even get a few momma’s basement dwelling bloggers who got spooked away from their epic loot raid in World of Warcraft in this mix.

Deep in the fourth quarter The Vikings had the ball at Dallas’ 11 yard line facing a 4th and 3 with around four minutes or so on the clock. The three options: a) kick a field goal (also could be shown as running up the score) and its 30-3 b) have T-Jack come in to take snaps and kneel or what Chilly decided to do is c) run one of their go-to plays which is Big John Shade on a left slant in the endzone for a touchdown. For the record, I believe B and C are both viable as you’re not going to please everyone. If you do B and take the knee, there’s the hometown fan base wondering why you gave up on the game with time on the clock. Those are the folks who fueled the Free Agency grab (h/t to StB for the article)with hopes that Zygi will not pick up and leave if that suburban stadium does not come to fruitation soon (this year is certainly giving it a push). No one likes a blowout, if you played ANY form of sports you probably have experienced both sides of this. Looking up at the lop-sided scoreboard with rabid parents still cheering you on like the lights say 2-1 instead of 21-0 after that ringer team from Edina offered the future NHL prospects free private school educations and donuts from Wuollet’s on Wednesdays. Or your team of work buddies playing the local bar softball league and finding out that half of them used to play minor league ball but have since got married with kids and found grabbing an education with a career more important than chasing Crash Davis’ dream of making it to the show. Your team donned in the corporate colors goes on to demolish the other corporate teams that mostly contain players that once played T-Ball and were looking to get out from behind their actuarial tables for some night air and instead got bullet line drives coming off real athlete’s bats.

But this is different. These players are PAID to show up and perform for 60 minutes, not 50, not 55, but all 15 minutes of each quarter when they take the field. If you want to blame someone, blame the coach. Chilly should/could have subbed in T-Jack for the ending but still trotted on his best lineup despite the defeat written on the faces of everyone sitting on the opposing sideline. Even so, if T-Jack had tossed that TD pass to say Jeff Dugan, would we have the same “uproar” from Keith Brookings (who by the way was part of that 1998 Falcons team that crushed our souls)? Perhaps they were just taking out the Dirty Laundry?

I’ll leave that question open for the Cowboys’ fans out there. If the backups score on that play does your opinion of “running up the score” change?

All in all the Vikes were the better team yesterday and now travel to New Orleans for what should be great game and I won’t need to cut myself off after a few drinks since I’m off next week (but if you’d like to read the PokerStars Sunday Warm-up wrap I’d sincerely thank you for your audience as always).

Haiti Fundraiser at PokerStars

All eyes (until Sunday for Vikes fans) are currently on the tragic situation after the earthquake in Haiti.  For you online players, PokerStars has come up with a fun way to make a donation towards the cause.  Read the press release shown below:

Dear all

PokerStars.com and PokerStars.net players are offering their help to the
people of the Earthquake-ravaged Caribbean nation of Haiti. Tens of
thousands of people are feared dead and up to three million affected by
the huge tremor. Please promote this appeal as soon as possible.
Players can donate in two ways and all donations will be matched by
PokerStars and donated to the Red Cross.

Players can either

a)    Transfer to the account “Haiti Fund” using the Transfer Funds tool
under Requests menu.

Or…

b)    Players can enter one of the dummy tournaments located under
Tourney > Special called “Haiti Earthquake Relief”. Please note these are
not real tournaments, just a means for players to donate and publicly show
their efforts for the relief efforts. Players can enter the “tournaments”
for amounts ranging from $1 to $1,000.

At the time of writing this, thousands have already donated. Among those
who have donated the maximum include Team PokerStars Online player
Anders “Donald” Berg and American pro Steve Silverman.

Best wishes,

Ally Hendry
P♠kerStars

New Side to Poker Blogging

Starting today or maybe yesterday you’ll find my posts (except the dark, semi-creepy, non-Confucius filled scribbings) both here at MNPokerMag.com and my personal site Nickleanddimes, with two kids and a continuation of last spring’s fitness resolution there hasn’t been time to squeeze out enough strictly poker-related material between two blogs. Throw into the mix that Playstation 3 that I bought on Amazon while comfortably in my lucky green and red jammies with dice on them on Black Friday for the same price as those who lined up at midnight at various stores (SUCKERS!), and my little poker free time is being torn into another half.

Dragon Age: Origins has been the name of the timesuck. It takes me back to the days before I dished out money on the virtual poker tables and spent my days doleing out critical hits on lvl 50 Enchanters and hunting down the latest uber gear in Dark Age of Camelot. Except this time it’s with a clearer mind of not getting addicted to the seemingly endless storyline. For some it’s killing pixels via Modern Warfare or Borderlands, for me I enjoy the specializations and nerdery of RPG games with valliant quests to find Rexel’s mother who was lost in the woods during the Blight’s latest’s push to overcome mankind.

NERDS!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I know this. Some people do quilting in the dark, I play online RPG games and can still hit a softball further than you so there. I win at life and get the +6 DragonScale Cool Shades.

Poker will come back into focus by the weekend as the WBCOOP is starting up at the end of the month and this humble blogger would love to be on both sides of the SCOOP ticket this time. I’ll also run a live-blog here most likely for the 8-game or PLO tourney if I’m at home and grab a piece of couch that isn’t overrun by two kids hopped up on those M and M stuffed plastic candy canes.

See you then.

2009 WPBT Classic

Just two weeks ago I found myself in the poker mecca of the US of A.  Granted California’s card barns are gaining with their massive rooms and loose players that fill them, Vegas is home to the low/medium/high stakes that every aspiring poker player wants.  Many players here in Minnesota come with a strong limit hold em’ (thanks to the arcane laws of the state) base since big bet games are not allow in a casino setting.  On a personal basis the lack of no limit hold em’ doesn’t matter much since I don’t play NLHE cash games very often.  But when in Rome…

 

… or Vegas’ mirror of Rome as in Caesar’s Palace, you should be sitting down at a game.  After a hard day and night of catching up with my fellow internet scribes who were in town for our 6th annual World Poker Blogger Tour Winter Classic, it was time to sit down and play the game they we normally are spectators to.  The buy-in was $100 among the ~90 writers and friends of bloggers who braved the chilling 35 degree temps of the strip (guess who tried to go golfing in a polo shirt the day before and ended up with an expensive souvenir jacket?).  My starting table was all people I knew and they knew me so unfortunately “plays” were going to have to wait till I was a few Captain and Cokes into the tourney.

 

I drank exactly one.

 

Facing a mid-position raise from Derek I look down at AsKc on the button, being early in the tourney and very deep stacks (about 150BBs) I elected to call (mistake #1). Flop comes out a pretty Ac Ks 7c.  Derek makes a continuation bet of about five BBs and I smooth call (mistake #2).  8s on the turn and Derek pumps it up to 15 BBs to which I raise to 45BBs and he four-bet shoves.  If you’re reading this and shaking your head violently towards telling me to fold, I would have loved that advice two weeks ago.  Since I had not started my calming stream of alcohol, I spazzed out for two seconds and call already knowing what he’s going to turn over.

 

Two red aces (cue Rounders beginning game with TeddyKGB displaying his Aces Full to Mike McD).

 

15 whole minutes lasted after four consecutive years of making it at least to the final two tables.  A disappointment since this tournament is more of a social outing than blood and guts bankroll changing money (1st received $2,400).  I was more mad about missing the chatter of the table versus busting like a donkey in the early rounds.  This turned out to be a blessing in disguise since I rolled up several hundred playing craps and made a little bit at the NLHE cash games thanks to this hand which I’m pretty sure was an easy play but maybe some more grizzled vets could chime in:

 

The table is $1/$3 NLHE, a full ten players are seated.  The max buy-in is $500, but most stacks are around $300-$400 with two shorties sitting in the nine and ten seats.  Your hero is in the big blind in the two seat with about $350 from a starting…  $350, unable to make any headway after two hours.  Play folds around to the six-seat who’s a fedora wearing dude who’s played fairly aggressive post-flop, but weakish pre-flop as he limps in, the seven seat calls, a local in the eight seat raises to $15 as the shorties fold to me holding KdTd and I make the call.  The six and seven seat also call to see a monster flop for my connectors, Qd Jd 8s.  An open-end Royal Flush draw, I contain my excitement by value-checking (that’s internet sarcasm folks) and the six seat goes right to work with a $30 bet.  The seven seat folds as the local in the eight starts cutting out some chips.  After about two minutes he puts $100 on top leaving about $170 behind as I figure I only have one move and push.

 

Now my question:  Do you have any argument for calling here and possibly get the six seat involved?  Folding never came into play of course but the decision between a call and a shove did.

 

I shoved as the six seat folded very quickly and just as quick the local called with top set of queens.  While I did not get the $500 bonus for hitting a Royal Flush, I did spike an ace on the river for the nut straight to take down the pot which covered up my horrible tourney decision and save a little face as my friends walked by the table for smoke breaks in the sportsbook and admired the growing stack.

 

And hopefully forgot about the guy who busted out second.

Yes, This Thing Is Still On

Normally there’s two times during the year that my love for poker takes on a new level.  The first everyone has heard of as it’s the yearly journey towards the mecca of poker in Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker.  I’ve made the trip three times now, never as a member of the poker media but rather a sideline player nibbling at the bits along the outer cash game tables and watching my friends jot down the day’s bracelet winners for their respective outlets.

 

One year I even took the plunge and sat down in the infamous WSOP Poker Tent next to Marcel Luske and Main Event champ Joe Hachem to play in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Eight or Better.  My WSOP dreams end quickly as I sat thru eight hours of card death and really horrible bad beat stories.  For a primarily online player, I wasn’t use to adults sitting around the table whining like I sent them to bed early for throwing their happy meal toy because they didn’t get the one they wanted.  The tournament wasn’t a total wash as I managed to make a little bit of the buy-in back at the cash game tables that featured half of a table saying things like “What’s this game??” “Why are you betting so much?”.  At the $2/$5 table there must have been an average pot north of $200 as I watched one guy blow through two grand before his chips even hit the felt.

 

Back to reality in suburban Minneapolis with two kids, full time job, and a part-time one writing for a few online sites as well as my personal site the actual playing of poker doesn’t happen too often.  Most of the time my lack of play is general fatigue, as I’m getting old and not able to grind out those 12 tables nightly while getting up at 4:30am the next day any longer.  Lame for sure, but players need a recharge and for someone who writes about poker on top of playing the burn outs come quickly.  Since the fall is over and frost is hitting the ground, there’s more incentive to stay inside, thus poker-gasm number two, the winter time.  Free time normally set aside for being outside, is now time to fire up a few tables and try to earn VIP statuses at my favorite sites, or taking the trek on a rare day to Running Aces for the live variety.

 

Thus, this is why I lag sometimes in my writing when the cards are turning well enough to warrant my attention and try to grab a few bucks from the low limit tournaments and PL/NLO8 cash games.  A long way of saying I’ll try to be a good blogger in the future and not have such big gaps between posts but the tables are soft, the writer has to take a back seat to the player.

 

In two weeks I’ll be surrounded by those poker writers as the 5th annual World Poker Blogger Tour’s Winter Gathering will be taking place in Las Vegas.  100+ writers and friends of bloggers will descend on sin city to donk each other at the mixed games tables of MGM and play for some decent cash at Caesar’s Palace when the annual $100 buy-in tourney starts Saturday December 12th.  In the four tourneys I’ve played, one final table and two times down to the last two tables.  This year I will be shooting for the golden hammer, a trophy from Iggy the oldest of the old-school bloggers who has earned the nickname “Godfather of Poker Bloggers” (despite moving on to blogging about MMA, he still is very tight with this group).

 

I’ll expand more about this group in the next post should anyone want to join us in Vegas.

Two Free Lessons

Two lessons were learned this weekend at Running Aces and neither one had to do with playing a wrap draw with heavy betting behind and one card to come.

 

The first lesson was freeroll players do not all fit the stereotype.  They come to play and play hard, especially when some awesome prizes waited at the final table of the 2009 Desert Heat Shootout courtesy of the Minnesota Poker League held at the convention room at Running Aces.  The players all had stickers with their names and the bar/VFW/freeroll site they qualified from that gave them entry into this tournament. 

 

The prizes?

 

Nine entries into a $2,000 buy-in tourney at Red Rock Casino with accommodations paid for.  The field would start around 140ish for these players playing down to 20.  Once at 20 players their chip stacks would be bagged up and given fresh stacks and blinds, then the tourney resumed to play down to the nine players who would get those excellent poker trips to one of the best off-strip casinos in Vegas.  Call it a double satellite if you will since the strategy wasn’t to bludgeon the table and risk your stack on a coin flip because finishing 20th was just as good as finishing as the chip leader.

 

The play was a mixed bag at my table as players started with 100BBs holding 10,000 chips at 50/100 blinds and 25 minute gradual levels.  All of them played vastly more live poker than yours truly, and the mood around the table was lighter than what I’m grown accustom to.  Then again, I usually play with players twice my age who tell me to get off their lawn.  Willmar, Hutchingson, Park Rapids, all vying for those seats as the cards I shuffled would ultimately determine how these players would start their journey in the tournament.

 

Yep.  I was the dealer. 

 

Lesson number two, it’s definitely not as easy as it looked in the box when you’re the one washing and shuffling the cards.  Now the players were kind enough to put up with my virgin journey as a card-thrower, as I hoped to run a tight game and give the players as many hands as possible so skill would prevail and not have it come down to getting AA vs. KK (which happened, and resulted in the only bust-out at my table for the first four levels).

 

No bridging the cards, thumbs up, clean cut, remind the players of the blinds, announcing raising, calculating the to-call amounts all needed with every hand even when folded around to the big blind.  Those who know me know that if I wasn’t a database/accounting monkey I’d love to hop behind the box and deal for a living.  Just being in the cardroom with fellow degenerates for hours would complete my day as with being a father and a husband the swings of playing Omaha professionally would be too much for them and my psyche (as seen by my *ahem* run into variance this week).

 

Time to go get a Cap’n Coke and fire up another round of low limit tourneys to get over those bad afternoon rivers :)