Poker’s been pretty brutal lately. I’ve been dialing it back lately because I find it really hard to keep my head in the game when I seem to bust out like this on a pretty regular basis.

This first hand was from a 9 person sit-n-go. These are usually my bread and butter, but I haven’t cashed in a while. The normal hyper-tight agressive with increased aggression as the bubble comes closer has been failing me. When you play like this, you are running your monster hands into hopefully the far inferior hands of weaker players. This was the 3rd hand of the tournament that I had voluntarily put money in the pot. Normally, you relish this situation…

(Alternate link if hand replayer doesn’t work)
Who didn’t see the running cards coming?

Sigh.

I moved over to the $.05/.02 NLHE to punish some more weak players.

I logged off for the night after this. Again, this was the 3rd hand for me, I had been hovering around the 6% VP$IP, just sitting around and waiting to play hard. This guy had come to this table about 2 orbits ago. I hadn’t played a hand since he sat down. Do you like how I’m a 4:1 favorite for most of the hand?

Sigh.

(Alternate link if hand replayer doesn’t work)
I should know that queen was coming. It’s a mathematical given right?

Oh great poker gods, why hast though forsaken me?

Time to take a deep breath and catch up on some reading and writing. That usually helps to keep an even keel and not just spew cash. Sounds like a really good time to catch up on Pauly’s book…that should be the ticket! You really should be reading it…

The stars finally aligned. The money has been delivered.

From the beginning, I had worried a lot about the perception of this charity tournament. There’s a lot of scammers in the poker world. I always hoped that this tournament would go smoothly so I wouldn’t be stuck holding a pile of money that was meant for the kids or give anyone the idea that this wasn’t what it seemed.

As it turns out, my wife used to work with the Administrative Assistant at the Ronald McDonald House of Rochester. The always beautiful OhCountess called her old friend and got me the low down on how we could arrange to deliver the moolah.

Did I mention what the final total was?

I’ve never been more proud of this group of people. By group of people I mean many of you reading this. 61 people registered for the tournament. So right off the top, we created a donation of $305, not too shabby at all, but you know what, we didn’t stop giving. (This is the part that actually chokes me up)

BloodyP shipped me some extra money before the tournament ever started. He wanted to give more then the $5 the tournament was collecting so added more to the donation. Drizz missed registering for the tournament so he shipped the money he would have donated playing. After busting but continuing her BuddyDank duties, Joanada didn’t feel like she gave enough, and added more too.

And it didn’t end there (cue the misty eyes):
I was having a nice run of cards and still very much alive in the tournament, so Full Tilt was still open on my laptop. Peacecorn busts and pop! The “Money has been transfered to your account” window popped up. All of Gracie’s winnings were now in my account…and then all of TBA ’s winnings were in my account and then again all of Blaargh ’s winnings! One by one the money winners were just shipping back their winnings. Numbbono added more money while listening to Joanada tell why this was a good cause. Willwonka busted and added more too. I (always link to yourself, right JJOK?) busted, wait, my $45 was going to my account any ways…no transfer pop-up.

And then, the one that really got me. The one guy that inspired all of this. The one guy who’s lovely bride wrote so well why the Ronald McDonald House is such a great place. Lightning36 shipped all of the first place money PLUS every penny of the last longer money with a reminder to me to just add all of mine and OhCountess’s last longer contribution (Add $20 from us). A $126.75 transfer was in my account.

Subtotal from the actual tournament night: $655.30. My goal was $500.

But you guys weren’t done yet.

Jordan, from HighOnPoker, sent money via PayPal, so did VinNay, and then MemphisMojo on top of his tournament contribution gave more too.

Holy crap!

Those last contributions brought it to $755.30.

I wanted to make sure I accounted for every penny. Complete transparency. If anyone needs them, I’ve kept all receipts and proofs of transfers and can provide them for you. We raised $755.30. Thank you.

Yesterday, I had the day off. I packed up the kiddos. I asked to see my wife’s friend and we introduced ourselves. I explained what happened and where the money was from. I even showed them Mrs. Lightning36’s blog post. They were very moved.

This is the picture of me giving them a cashier’s check for the total of $755.30. Yes, every penny, no rounding. I ate the cost of the cashier’s check. Big spender, I know.

I asked them to make sure to use the money so that other families can have a great experience as Lightning and his family did. It’s places like the Ronald McDonald House that help make a horrible life moment a little more bearable.

Please note: If I posted your name and you really wanted to be anonymous, let me know right away and I’ll anonymize your name and remove your link. I’m very sorry about that. No one told me they didn’t want to be listed but I also wanted to make sure everything is accounted for.

Wow. This dream really is coming true! As of tonight, there are 19 people registered who’s name is not OhCaptain. I can’t begin to thank everyone enough who has registered and/or done the quality pimping. Thanks just doesn’t seem like a big enough word. I’ll work on that.

Besides my reminder to register, play and have a good time. I thought I would highlight some really awesome posts pimping the cause. These just caught my eye. I really do want to thank everyone that posted Katitude’s awesome banner and tournament details. if you don’t find your blog linked on the left, let me know and I’ll add you to my blog roll.

Jordan, over at HighOnPoker, wrote a nice description about how the Ronald McDonald House has helped his clients. Link love…click me!

BamBam has enthusiastically challenged the world to get at least 100 donkeys ponied up. I love this idea! Link love…click me!

Probably the most moving post I’ve read, was also from the family that inspired me to get off my ass and do this. The beautiful Mrs. Lightning36 (bloggers marry up…) wrote a fantastic story about how the Ronald McDonald House was there for them. OhCountess and I were a bit misty when we finished reading that one. On the fence about this charity…read this! Link love click me!

Maybe the last reminder before tomorrow night…here’s the details! Feel free to post a reminder again on your blog. Heck, steal this banner and spread it everywhere!

This font big enough? I can make it bigger if you can’t read

It’s all coming together. This idea that at the ripe old age of 40, I find the need to do some good in the world. I first want to make sure that everyone knows how much I’ve appreciated all the help I’ve had thus far. AlCantHang did a fantastic job inserting the tournament in the place of the Mookie for one week. Thank you sir. Thanks to Buddy and Jo for allowing me to interrupt the regularly scheduled Mookie. And finally, the lovely Katitude has created this amazing banner for us. And thank you to everyone that’s encourage me to get things this far.

So, here’s the banner. I’m asking each and every one of you to please post this on your blog and share with all of your readers. This is for such a great cause, the Ronald McDonald House. Their mission: …provides a “home away from home” and offers support to families seeking medical care for their children. This kind of help is just the support that so many families need to get their kids back to health.

Thank you very much in advance to everyone that joins with me and spreads the word. And an even bigger thank you for registering for this tournament on Full Tilt Poker. Even if you are unable to play, $5 of your buy-in goes to the Ronald McDonald House. So, yeah, it’s OK to be dead money. No one will complain

So one last time, here’s the details:
Date: June 16
Time: 9PM CDT (Same time as Mookie)
It will actually be running in place of the Mookie. BDR will be broadcasting it.
Charity: Ronald McDonald House
$5 + $5(Tournament, charity)
Password= vegas1
Tournament#= 164273435

I hope to see everyone there! And thank you for any and all help you can provide.

Ok, enough flapping my jaw, it’s  time for the details of this charity thing I’ve going on and on and on and on about. Read more, but I’m hoping you’ll break out a Sharpie and block off June 16th, 9PM CDT as Charity Poker time!

Let’s remember where this all started. I turned 40 last year so this very well could be a little midlife crisis, but seeing Lightning36 and his family so well taken care of at the Ronald McDonald House inspired me.

I was really encouraged but many of you to keep this idea alive. AlCantHang offered his help in setting it up. Through various means of communication we’ve gotten this done.

The first thing you will notice is that it’s a Wednesday night, 9PM CDT. Isn’t that Mookie time? Yes, yes it is. See, I figured the best possible night to do this would be Mookie night. Most of us are already playing, we are used to it. I emailed Buddy and Jo to first ask them if it would be a good idea to take one night off of normal Mookie shenanigans and do this. They have graciously agreed. In fact, I believe the plan is to broadcast BDR as well. SWEET!

I’m hoping to get some banners ready for your pimping pleasure. I didn’t really have all the details until I could log into Full Tilt tonight after work. The banners might take a little bit. But hey, these are real details! So check it out, start your pimping please! Let’s see if we can do some good for a really deserving charity. I’m hearing rumblings about people offering bounties on themselves. If you are interested in doing something special, please let me know.

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Date: June 16
Time: 9PM CDT (Same time as Mookie)
It will actually be running in place of the Mookie. BDR will be broadcasting it.
Charity: Ronald McDonald House
$5 + $5(Tournament, charity)
Password= vegas1
Tournament#= 164273435

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My working title has been: McLovin the kids: Crubs, shoves and hammers – the WPBT Gives Back
The title showing up on Tilt is WPBT Gives Back

I’m already registered! I’m so excited! I did notice that my entire entry is going to the prize pool. Not sure that it’s supposed to do that or not. Weird.

I hope to see everyone there! If you have questions, comments ideas, want me to pimp your pimping, let me know. Link to my email address is around here somewhere or feel free to leave a comment.

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

On with the show!

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

This month, we were served a “white dog” or “white whiskey”. The quick version is that a white dog is a whiskey that’s not aged for very long in barrels. From the SF Gate article linked in this paragraph:

White whiskey is very dependent on the flavors of that with which it was made, as opposed to that in which it was stored,” says Max Watman, whose new book, “Chasing the White Dog” (Simon & Schuster, $25)

It’s moonshine.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FUDGE!

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

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

Lesson learned. Next table please.

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is where I need your help!

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

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

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

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

Today, I’m full of introspection and a desire to recalibrate my perspectives.

I need to tell you what happened to the food we collected at the January Co-ed Invitational. Seems not only am I slow at getting posts up, we just hadn’t quite gotten to Channel 1 with this years big box of food. We felt bad too since some of the food had gotten past it’s freshness date. No worries, we replaced that food. It was our fault.

Anywho, OhCountess takes the food their last Friday. Not knowing that it had limited hours that day. It was closed. Bummer. The sign on the door suggested leaving the food in the space by the door. She did just that. As she was leaving, a young girl approached the door. As my wife describes, “she looked like she was definitely in need.” OhCountess stopped and went back. She could tell the girl was more then a little disappointed that the place was closed. My wonderful wife, approached her and talked to her. “Yes, it’s closed, but are you looking for food?” The girl nodded. “Well, I just dropped off a whole big box of food, why don’t you look through it and take what you need. Oh forget that, just take the whole box.” Maybe it was fate or what ever you want to call it. Hopefully, it will make a difference in her life. I figure it’s +karma. Giving to others in need rocks.

Last week was a great reminder for me. Keeping our lives in perspective is one of our most important responsibilities but also the first thing we throw to the wayside when we get caught up in our busy lives. I got to spend small moments with Lightning36 as he took care of his family in a time when I can’t imagine as a father having to deal with.

I’ve said this before that one thing you just have to get used to working here is that people never visit our workplace for the fun of it. Usually, when people come here from out of town, they are coming because this is a place of hope when you are running out of it. I wrote on my personal blog a little while ago about charity in my life. It’s a struggle not to want to help every last person that needs it, but when people come from around the world to this place, you quickly realize that there’s no way you can. You just have to be happy to do with what you can.

So, what the hell am I doing on my poker blog writing about this personal stuff? Isn’t that why I maintain the other blog??? Yes. Yes it is. But I have questions for you poker readers. Questions I’m not sure what the answer is…so here’s where the whole poker blog thing comes in.

Lightning36 stayed at the Ronald McDonald House. This is an amazing place, I wouldn’t be offended at all if you followed that link and took a look around their website. Go, I’ll be here if you want to check it out. I used to think that it was just a McDonalds marketing ploy. Reality can be such an eye opener. Here’s there mission:

Our Mission – The Ronald McDonald House of Rochester, Minnesota provides a “home away from home” and offers support to families seeking medical care for their children.

Honestly, that’s what they do. Since I started here, I’ve been inspired by stories of co-workers, neighbors and friends do direct help for this organization. This got me thinking. What can I do to help? Before Lightning left, he was even working on ideas of things to do to help this organization.

I’ve always been impressed with the poker communities generosity. Say what you want about poker and it’s practitioners, but we give back. So here’s a couple of my ideas and I’d absolutely love to hear what you think.

This first one came in part from my last home game’s winner. Ross and I were trying to think of ideas for the next home game and keep with the usual January theme of charity but this time, focus our attention on the Ronald McDonald House. Instead of the usual can goods for extra chips, what if the add-on came in the form of actual service. You want extra chips, you join us for a day of service at the house? Would you volunteer to get extra chips in a tournament that’s all about the fun? I think I like the idea. We can always give stuff.

The other idea is a bit more straight forward. I was wondering if anyone out there would be willing to participate in a charity poker tournament on Full Tilt? I’d like to organize one, maybe for after the BBT5. That schedule is brutal enough. Maybe we could tie it into the BBT5 pimping and really promote it. If it’s gonna be me and 5 people, it’s probably just as easy to ask for PayPal donations, but if I can get some serious interest, who knows, maybe we could make a difference in some lives. What do you think? Our own WPBT charity event? (pssst….this is where you come in…)

Think about it…

I know that since the inception of this blog, I’ve definitely been a feast or famine poster. Lately, it’s been lots of famine. Where have I been? I certainly haven’t been spending much time on Twitter or even Facebook. I’ve had a lot of personal stuff in my life that needed a much larger portion of attention then normal. I’m hoping this is coming to an end soon. I frankly really miss writing and writing about poker.

I recently nuked the stuff in Google Reader. It was time to take the pressure off the idea of catching up and starting with a clean slate. I had almost missed a post by a blogger I’m proud to call my friend. Lightning36 has been around these parts for years and we’ve shared barbs on more then one occasion on our love for our baseball teams. In case you didn’t know it, Twins fans and White Sox fans don’t exactly, um, we, um, OK, I don’t like the White Sox. But there’s more to life then poker, baseball and the pursuit of yet another Central Division title.

One thing that actually sucks about working where I do is that no one ever comes here for a good reason. While I work at one of the worlds premier medical facilities (I personally think it’s the best in the world, Doc Chako, it’s up there right?), people come here seeking hope. I see Lightning just updated things, but he’s going through a really scary time for a dad. Read this, and keep them in their thoughts. As a father, I don’t even want to imagine going through this.

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So, in other news, I was reading on Twitter about CK thinking about cashing out most of her online bankrolls. I’d really been think about doing it too. With the impending onset of the ridiculous UIGEA, and the possibility of Full Tilt going before a grand jury has got me a bit squeamish. I didn’t pull everything out, just a nice tidy profit. It was enough to force me to move down. I guess I’m in rebuilding mode. I made Iron Man 2 consecutive months. Yeah me! Too bad it actually cost me money to do it. Yo, I suck!

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Which get’s me to some pimping time before the whole thing passes me by! The great and powerful Oz, otherwise known as Sir AlCantHang, did it again with the BBT5. Full Tilt Poker has pumped up prize pool with $50,000 in cash and goodies. My goodness!

As I catch up on my reading over the last week, there’s some discontent about who actually got invited to the Invitational portion of the tournaments. Now, I have to say it, I was a little disappointed I didn’t at least get an invite. Not sure if I would have gotten the time to play, but heck, I’m still blogging about poker and would definitely done a fair share of pimping (hint: my pagerank is 3 – 4 depending on the wind…just sayin’). Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to but Al a drink in December and hope for BBT6.

We’ll have to see how many of these tournaments I’ll get to play. I wish I would have know about it before I took the amount of money out of my account I did. D’oh!

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It’s been a little over two months since I last played poker in my bar league. It’s been nice getting that extra night at home with the wife and kids. OhCountess’ career has been taking some exciting turns so time together has been tougher, but I do miss playing live. I might just take Lightning there tomorrow night if the stars align and this go well for he son tomorrow.

I did get to play some live poker a little over a week ago in a local home game. The guy to the right hosts a fairly regular game. I had played in it a few years ago. It’s been +EV for me, which is always good. He hadn’t given up on my completely and continued to send me reminders of the game.
This game is a lot different then the bar poker games I had been playing. These guys are much better then the bar players. 3 and 4 betting are always possible here.

We had 9 runners on this night. My immediate reaction? Yo! A Sit-n-go! We start the game pretty deep stacked, which if you ask me, ROCKS. Tight/aggressive early and then when the time is right, Loose/aggressive with a touch of looking to gamble.

Everything went pretty much according to plan. I minded my own business, started chipping up fast late and I think I even got to be chip leader for a moment when we made the bubble (3 people). The top two getting paid. This is when I did something I do sometimes when I play live.

Online poker has one big advantage for me…real time, live chip counts. I don’t know why I can’t get myself to pay more attention to this live, I’m lazy but I forget to put on the gambling brakes and slow down when I’ve been in gamble/shove mode. This is going to shock the stuffing out of you, but for some crazy reason I played AQo like this.

I’m on the button of this self-dealt game. I squeeze AQo and raise it 3 bets (at this time, standard raise). Little blind folds, big blind shoves. Well I think for about a half a second and I call. Yeah, dumb. He tables AK. Five cards later, my stack is decimated.

I had started yawning a little earlier and I know I don’t play well tired. How do you slow down, do a chip count inventory and keep yourself from insta-calling with AQo? No, really, I’d love to know!

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One last thing. Grange95 has a post a couple of weeks ago that’s still rattling around in my head. It’s in the spirit of my Luck, Lucky and Luckier posts (here, here and here). I’ve been really thinking about why people consider poker to be nothing more then another casino gambling game. Go read his post and keep bugging me to finish the thoughts of my comment…kay?

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So, your to do list (because you go to blogs to find your busy work):

• Go send your good karma to Lightning36
• Tell me I’m crazy for taking the cream off the top of my bankroll
• Play as many BBT5 events as you can
• Tell me how to take my foot off the gas late in a tournament
• Go read Grange95’s post and bug me to finish a friggin’ thought.

Last weekend, I volunteered to host Bourbonators again. This month saw 11 guys show up for whiskey, laughter and poker. Just enough to cram pack my poker table in the basement.

I’ve got the greatest wife in the world. Have I ever mentioned that before? She’s a nurse at the local, mega, world famous hospital that shall remain nameless cuz…yeah. Google. Our basement is pretty much always set up for poker. That table I built, you got it, it’s too damn big to put away, so when we find ourselves staring down the barrel of the last Friday of the month and no whiskey club, I pop the question to OhCountess to see our availability. No problem this week, she worked in the morning so as long as I didn’t mind the random alarm clocks called OhPrincess1 and OhPrincess2 waking me up early, it was a go.

This month we had two different whiskeys to sample. The primary spirit was The Irishman Single Malt Wiskey. According to the box, it has been “…matured for over a decade and personally selected by Bernard Walsh.” I couldn’t help but think what a fantastic name that was. But I digress. It also states the spirit was “…matured in Bourbon and Sherry casks. Bourbon to mellow and sherry to add a hint of sweetness.”

The box also contained tasting notes:
Colour – Golden honey
Aroma – Great nose, floral background notes
Taste – Oily, with a strong malt character
Finish – Lingering for what seems an eternity

I think we all pretty much agreed that it was a pretty meh whiskey. It wasn’t terrible, it wasn’t great. It served it’s purpose well, but in the end was a bit forgettable. It tasted good, but had a bit more burn in the swallow then we liked. It’s worth a try, but don’t pass on the 25 year old Glenlivet getting there. A boy can dream, right? The box the bottle came in had gold foil behind the bottle. Those kinds of marketing things kinda bug me. If you want to call the color of your booze “golden” it shouldn’t need gold foil, right?

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Our other drink is the one you see pictured above. Hopefully you got this far before heading to the store to pick up a bottle of Jeremiah Weed – With Bacon!

Darrin contributed it to this months tasty treats.

Never seen it before? Well, he made. He described the infusion process like this, fry up a few pieced of bacon. Make as much as you want because bacon rocks. We don’t actually need the bacon, just the bacon juices. Nom nom! Take the grease and add it to the bottle and mix it up. Close the lid and set aside for awhile. He may have had more detail in these instructions, but I was drinking the Irishman and think about bacon. Anywho. After the proper amount of time has passed, refrigerate or maybe even put the bottle in the freezer until the grease congeals to the top. Come to think about it, it might not have been in the bottle but probably a mason jar. You would need to remove the now chunky white bacony goodness.

I was a bit surprised but damn, it really did taste like bacon. The whiskey/bacon flavor was really quite delicious but, again with total agreement, Jeremiah Weed was probably not the best choice for the base of this. It’s way to sweet for this.

I found it difficult to get my finger down. It wasn’t the taste but the over power sweet. Lesson learned.

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Well, we played poker too. Like normal, we played 2 sit-n-gos. I couldn’t possibly have been more card dead. The speed of our structure makes it really important to hit a hand or two early to get a decent stack moving to the bubble. The biggest ace I saw was ATo and the best pocket pair…ducks. Yikes. Having never really hit a hand…off to the cash game I went.

The first session cash game, was dealers choice. Since I was the host, I only played a few hands. I made a buck. I didn’t call home. I didn’t go on a shopping spree. The second session was a little smaller. We played 3 handed pot limit/cap limit omaha. Fun times While I still wasn’t a card rack, I did run a bit better over here. One of the players was fairly inexperienced and the other was DeeBakes. Dee’s got skills, the other guy was fairly new. I exploited the new guys fear and pushed him hard when I thought he was drawing and played small ball when I wasn’t strong but drawing well. Dee, I tried very hard to show weak play when I was strong and strong play when I was weak. I suppose he’s gonna read this and no better next time. Probably our biggest pot came when I out flopped him, he sucked out on the turn and I redrew to a bigger full house on the river. Pocket aces in omaha can win

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Before I go -

It’s rebuy time again! The lovely Katitude brings in Easter with the $1 + $1 donkament on Full Tilt. You can see the details in badge above! Go check it out. It’s a great time. I may not be playing. The kids are at Grandma’s…date night! As Kat did on her post, I gotta share the greatest bunny scene in cinema history

Maybe I’ll see you Friday night, you’d better play!