J-Dawg's Poker Extravaganza

Played a little pokah at J-Dawg's earlier this week. It's a weekly game, but because of various reasons, this was only my second time to play there in the last two months. It seems that life keeps getting in the way of poker.

There were nine punters which made for a full table. David the Cable Guy was back from his tour in Germany and played for the first time in several months.

Larry the Mailman smoked a brisket, so we made BBQ sandwiches with chips on the side and cantalope for dessert. Tasty!

The bitchin' and moaning started on the second hand when I raised UTG with pocket rockets in a game of limit hold 'em. Of course, I had six callers. These guys didn't come here to fold hands! I rivered an ace, giving me a set, which beat Ray Ray's two pair.

Bobby Dee had a grip on the high hand jackpot when he hit quad 9's in an Omaha high hand. It didn't hold though. Farmer Harry rivered quad aces in another Omaha hand and took down the HHJ for 14 big ones!

I never really hit a big hand, but I got paid nicely on the ones I was in and cashed out for $40, doubling my buy in.

Nice!

I'm up a little over $200 since I started my three tabling experiment on Full Tilt a few weeks ago. So far, so good.

Heading for Vegas for a few days this Saturday, so I won't be posting for a week or so, but I should have some interesting stories when I get back.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy trails!

Running Good!

We didn't have a game at J-Dawgs this week, but I did play at Tin Man's $5 tourney. And I played in a tournament at a local bar Saturday night to make up for no poker at J's.

I was the third player out at Tin Man's. I was the BB and with three limpers in front of me, I pushed AJ off for 6BB. "Bondo" Chris called with K9 off and flopped a straight. Bondo didn't take care of my chips and he was KO'd shortly.

Bluffing Bev, Bondo and I started the $2 cash game three handed, but we were joined by Sonny Boy, Tin Man and the Philly Fanatic within the next 15 minutes.

Sonny Boy won a big pot off of Philly early, when his straight flush to the Q beat Philly's ace high flush.

I had a good night at the cash game, cashing out for $23 with only one re-buy.

Wheeee!

I won one of the biggest pots of the night, around $10 when Tin Man pushed after the flop for over $4. Tin Man is normally pretty tight, and had raised 3X pre-flop, so I was afraid he had flopped two pair on an AT7 board. The flop had hit me and I had a decision to make with TPTK. I tanked for a minute and finally made the call. Tin Man tabled pocket fours and didn't improve. Yea me!

Tin Man invited me to join him and his wife, Little Annie Okie in a tourney at a local bar. I had played in a league there a couple years ago, but decided I didn't want to commit the time necessary to win the title. But I figured playing one time might be fun.

It was great seeing some of the guys I used to play with and catching up with them. There were 18 in the tournament and I ended up in third. I had forgotten how fast the blind levels rise, doubling every 15 minutes. We started with 500 chips each, and the blinds were 400-800 when I finally busted. I lost when my pocket twos went down to 8-3 off.

I've been running good on the vitual felt lately. I've been 3 tabling for a couple of weeks, starting at the $11-18 man level. The variance was a little too high for my taste, so I dropped back down to the $6 level this week.

So far, including rakeback, I'm up a little over $150 since I started the experiment. That puts my Full Tilt account at another all-time high!


Gotta love that!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope everyone has a great week.

Happy trails.

Can You Hear Me Now?

I had the pleasure yesterday of witnessing this little five year old girl, Lilly, receive the gift of hearing, when she was fitted for a pair of hearing aids our Heart of Texas Sertoma Club provided for her.

She giggled when the audiologist turned them on, and then her mom teared up. You see, it's the first time she has ever heard normally.

I never get tired of going to see these kiddos get the help they need. It makes all the work we do throughout the year raising funds worthwhile.

Thank you Lilly, for making my day!

Happy trails.

"A Guy Walks Into A Bar"

Ouch!

That's gonna leave a mark!

WSOP "November Nine" Is Set

The "November 9" is set.

Tip O' the Hat to "Tao of Poker"



Final Table Chip Counts:

Jonathan Duhamel - 65,975,000
John Dolan - 46,250,000
Joe Cheong - 23,525,000
John Racener - 19,050,000
Matthew Jarvis - 16,700,000
Filippo Candio - 16,400,000
Michael Mizrachi- 14,450,000
Soi Nguyen - 9,650,000
Jason Senti - 7,625,000

Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi is the only one I recognize, but eight of the nine are pros, with the oldest player only 36 years old.



November Nine/Final Table Payouts:
1st - $8,944,138
2nd - $5,545,855
3rd - $4,129,979
4th - $3,092,497
5th - $2,332,960
6th - $1,772,939
7th - $1,356,708
8th - $1,045,738
9th - $811,823

Who's your pick to win?

I think his first name will begin with a "J"!

Lucki Duck Has the Crabs!

We had nine players show for Tin Man's $5 NLHE tournament last night.

I got off to a slow start when I lost my about 25% of my stack early in the tourney. I had A9 in the BB and checked. I made TPTK with the 9 high flop and bet a little over 1/2 pot. Philly Phanatic called and Josh, who had limped from the SB, folded.

The turn was a 6 and I led out again. Philly thought for a minute, then called. The river was a 4, which completed a gut-shot straight for anyone who had a 5. I checked and Philly bet 1/3 pot. I called with my top pair, but got beat by Philly's pocket fives.

I went card-dead for a couple of rounds and mentioned to the table that I was gonna start whining if I didn't start getting some playable hands. It must have worked, because the next two hands were AK sooooted, and AQ. I flopped top two with Big Slick and managed to get it all in on the turn against Big Daddy's gutter straight draw. His J didn't hit and I had a much needed double-up!

I raised 4X from the SB with Big Chick (had one limper in front) and took down the pot pre-flop.

Sonny Boy, Philly Phanatic and I got ITM, with Sonny getting felted first when he pushed 98 offsuit after whiffing the flop. Philly had been folding to almost every c-bet, but called with his flush draw (J5). Sonny hit his 9 on the river, but unfortunately for him, it was a diamond, giving Philly his flush.

Philly had a slight chip lead heads-up, but with blinds at $50-100T and only $900 in play, we decided to chop it, rather than playing bingo for the top prize.

In the $2 cash game, I was dealt the crabs (pocket 3's) twice and hit my set both times!

SAH-WEET!

I doubled up on the first one, and tripled up on the second!

WHEEEEEE!

Overall, I came out a $23 winner.

On the internet scene, I have been three tabling the $10 and $11-18 man tourneys on Full Tilt. So far this week I'm up about $35.

I think I'm playing pretty well,and would be up more if not for some sick beats. The worst was at the second level of a $10 tournament (blinds $20-40T), when a regular, who I had determined from previous experience, played very tight early in tourneys, re-shoved my early position raise. I had KK and was afraid of aces, but there's no way I can fold here.

The villian tables QQ, but hits a Q on the flop. Then, just to piss on my grave, FT gives him ANOTHER Q on the turn. Gotta love it!

Anyhoo, I'll stick with my plan to play at the $10-11 level as long as I can make a little scratch!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy trails.

Lucki Duck's Poker Week

I made my way over to J-Dawg's last Wednesday for J-Dawg's Poker Extravaganza.

We haven't gotten together in several weeks because J's A/C unit was on the fritz. I love playing poker, but not enough to play in a house with no air conditioning on a hot summer night in central Texas!

Larry the Mailman won the high hand jackpot with a straight flush to the eight. Farmer Harry had it till then with quad nines, but it didn't hold up.

I didn't have any memorable hands, but did enjoy seeing everyone after a long layoff. I didn't even make them play Badugi!

The crowd at Tin Man's $5 buy-in tournament on Friday was sparse, with only seven players. I wasn't able to get much going early in the tourney and ended up pushing from late position with QT suited for 7 BB. Kind of a loose push that received a loose call from Big Daddy's K5 offsuit. Big Daddy hit his diamond flush on the turn, when the fourth diamond hit the board and I was finished.

As I was getting up from the table, three more showed up for the $2 buy-in cash game. "Bondo" Chris (ursonvs600 on Full Tilt), "Sonny Boy" Scott (my son, and jaws202 on Full Tilt), and my daughter, Meridith "M2", who seldom plays. Bluffing Bev had already busted from the tournament, so the five of us sat down and started pitching cards.

I started fast, chipping up to $6 quickly. Big Daddy, Freddie the Grocer, Debbie, Phillie Phanatic and Tin Man joined us within the next half hour.

My first name was the topic of conversation for most of the night. Everyone has known me as "Pete" all these years, not realizing it is a nickname. When searching for me on the WSOP website to see how I was doing, I was listed under my given name, which is "Pressly." They were all surprised to learn this info, and became even more intriqued when I said, "You think Pressly's unusual, you should hear my middle name!"

Freddie the Grocer got on the internet via his cell phone and googled my name, trying to weed out some info that might reveal my middle name. Freddie is an excellent poker player, so having him distracted by his search was definitely a good thing!

I got K7 four consecutive times! I don't know what the odds of that happening are, but pretty high I would think. I mentioned after the second time that I had had K7 twice in a row. I folded the third one face up and got my stack in on the fourth one when I flopped two pair. Freddie called and tabled K8 for TPTK. Sonny Boy called for an eight on the turn and PRESTO!

Eight.

Crap.

I had Freddie covered, but still lost over half of my stack.

In my final two hands of the night, I had Big Daddy drawing thin on the river both times (3 outers) and he hit them both times, so I figured it was time to call it a night and limp home $9 lighter.

On the internet scene, I have decided to move up from the $6 level to the $11 level, continuing to play mainly 18 man tournaments. I used to play at the $11 level a couple years ago with some success, but developed some leaks in my game and moved down until I could figure out what I was doing wrong. I'm playing better and am going to give the elevens a shot again. I'll let you know how it goes.

That's all that's going on in Lucki Duck's poker world. I hope your upcoming week is productive and profitable.

Happy trails!

WSOP Baby!

I flew to Vegas last week to play in my first WSOP, event #54, NLHE with a $1000 buy-in.

Also on my agenda was a lunch date with Jonathan Little and a few of the coaches from the FloatTheTurn.com website, which was providing my buy-in and three nights at the Rio.

Nice!

Ms. Lucki Duck and I enjoyed meeting and discussing poker with the FTT crew. In addition to Jonathan (who would Final Table a WSOP limit hold 'em tournament the next day, cashing for $73,000+) were JOhnDaytOn, JasonKobe, and HotJenny.


(L to R: Lucki Duck, Jon Little, JOhnDaytOn, JasonKobe, HotJenny and husband Collin)

JOhnDaytOn specializes in NLHE, 16 tabling the $55 sit and goes on Pokerstars. HotJenny's forte' is the Super Turbos on Full Tilt, also 16 tabling at the $50-60 level. JasonKobe plays the $50 and $100 Double or Nothing Tourneys on Pokerstars, juggling an incredible 30-35 tables at a time! All of them are in their mid 20s, living the high life and making a living at poker. Fun times and I learned a lot from each of them!

As a bonus, Johnny Chan was eating a couple tables over from us.

I signed up a day early for my event and once my seat was assigned, I went to find my table so I wouldn't have to look for it on the day of the tourney. While there I saw Phil Ivey and Vanessa Russo playing. Too cool!

Event #54 began at noon last Thursday. It was a four day tournament, with two day ones (A and B). The plan was to play down to 15% of the field on the first day, with day two on Saturday, and wrapping up the event on Sunday.

My goals were:
1) Win a hand.
2) Make the first break (two hours in).
3) Make the dinner break (six hours in).
4) Make the second day.
5) Cash.
6) Make the final table.
7) Win a bracelet!

The starting stack size was 3,000 chips, with the blinds at 25-25, and one hour levels. Lots of time to play some poker! Of the almost 3,900 players in the tourney, 3,100+ were playing on this day 1A.

I reached my first goal on the third hand, checking my BB with QT offsuit. The flop gave me a gutter straight draw, which hit on the turn. I bet and the villian folded.

I lost a fair amount of chips when I raised from middle position with pocket nines and was called by the BB. I c-bet a Q-4-Q flop after the BB checked, but was then check-raised. I folded. I know it sounds nitty, but I didn't want to go down with this hand and decided to wait for a better situation.

Our table broke just before the first break and I was moved to this guy's table!


I knew right away that this was gonna be an interesting table!

Just a few hands in we hit the break and I had accomplished my second goal, limping in with 2,400 chips.

During the break, there were two bracelets awarded from previous events. One went to Mike Lee and a second to Chance Hornung. The best part was the playing of the National Anthem, as both winners were from the states.

Blinds were up to 50-100 at level three. I was still playing tight aggressive poker, picking up a few pots, but not gaining any traction. The guy to my left was extremely tight, playing only three hands in the 2+ hours we played together. His hands were JJ, QQ, and KK, hitting sets on the flop all three times. Amazingly, he just check-called the hand every time, winning the minimum amount possible.

As the blinds eroded my stack, I pushed from late position for 12 BB with JJ and was called by the big blind's 66. Thankfully, the jacks held and I hit the second break shortly after with 2,200 chips.

About a half hour into level five our table broke and I was moved again. With blinds at 100-200 and a 25 chip ante, I was card dead and getting short, waiting for an opportunity to push and double up. I was the BB when the button open raised 10x the big blind, screaming of a steal attempt. The first card I saw in my hand was an ace and I knew I would push this hand, but I was hoping my kicker would be good, just in case the villian had a hand. I slowly squeezed out the second card, another ace... sah-weet! I pushed and was called by the BB's K4 offsuit. He hit his four on the flop, and the turn was an ugly K, giving him two pair.

Did I mention that the flop also had two eights, thus giving me aces-up and the double up!

Whew.

Now at level six (100-200, 50 ante), the short-stack raised 3X. I looked down at AJ and pushed my 3,200 chip stack. The blinds folded and the raiser insta-called. "Uh-Oh," I thought to myself, but he tabled AT and my hand held, putting me above 6,000 chips for the first time in the tournament.

I reached my third goal when I went on the dinner break with 5,400 chips. The field had dwindled from 3,100+ down to 630 at the break.

Apparently, the dealer removed all the face cards from the deck while I was at dinner, because I didn't see one for the next hour. With the blinds climbing, I was able to steal a few pots, but my stack continued to shrink. Shortly after moving into level eight, two players with HUGE stacks were moved to my table and sitting to my left, so the stealing portion of my game was over.

My final hand was an open shove with QT offsuit for seven BB from the cutoff. One of the big stacks called with A6 offsuit. I didn't improve on the flop, but the villian had a straight draw which he hit on the turn and my World Series was over.

As I was leaving the room, the dealers were instructed to start racking chips, because day 1A was over. As Maxwell Smart might say, "Missed day 2 by THIS much!"

My final tally was 450th out of 3,138 day 1A players. Not too bad for my first try.

Known players in event #54 were Chris Ferguson, Layne Flack, Maria Ho, Jeff Madson (former WSOP Player of the Year), Scott Montgomery, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Dennis Phillips, Gavin Smith, Jennifer Tilly, and Jerry Yang. Unfortunately, none were at my tables, so I didn't get the opportunity to play against them.

Overall, a great trip that will not be soon forgotten!