Old Friend

Go Colonels!

We met in junior high, probably sixth grade, maybe seventh, neither of us could remember for sure. Charles was originally from Indiana and I from Kentucky, two transplants in southeast Texas.

Both of us were sports nuts, but we seldom rooted for the same teams. What's the fun in that? You can't trash-talk your best friend if you were always on the same side. Our biggest rivalry was our favorite ABA basketball teams.

Note: For you youngsters, the American Basketball Association was a rival to the NBA in the early 1970's. It featured a red, white, and blue basketball, and stars such as Julius "Dr.J" Irving, George "Iceman" Gervin and Artis Gilmore.

Charles' team was the Indiana Pacers and mine the Kentucky Colonels. The Pacers were picked up by the NBA when the ABA folded, but the Colonels were not so lucky and went the way of the dinosaur.

As kids, we talked and lived sports. ABA, NBA, NFL, MLB, NCAA, we followed them all and could pretty much name the starting line ups of most professional teams. When playing football, we were very resourceful. When a ball wasn't available, we used a pinecone, rolling it under our feet to soften the cone and knock off the painful sharp edges. No pinecones? No problem. We would use an empty soda can. Charles and I are two of the very few people who can throw a soda can with a perfect spiral! Think it's easy? Give it a try.

We were close friends through high school, but lost track of each other as we moved on with our lives. We would see each other on occasion, but I moved out of the area in 1980 and after that we pretty much lost touch with each other, although I had run into him in 1988 at a local mall.

Charles found me through Facebook a couple months ago and we rekindled our friendship through that venue. I was going to be in southeast Texas for Thanksgiving and was able to arrange lunch with my old friend yesterday. Charles was living in Kinder, Louisana, where he was the Director of Table Games for the Coushatta casino there, so we agreed to meet in Lake Charles, about half way for us both.

I was excited and just a little apprehensive driving to our lunch meeting. I mean, what do you say to someone who was, at one time, your best friend, but you haven't seen in 22 years? Would I even be able to recognize him?

As I walked in the restaurant, actually a sports bar (what else would you expect?), I saw the back of his head, watching a football game. I guess he heard me talking to the hostess, because he turned to face me, wearing an Indiana Basketball sweatshirt! What the hell!

When meeting an old friend after a 22 year abscence, you'd like to think of something profound to say, something that might convey how much our friendship has meant over the years and how often I re-lived the memories of our school days. My first face to face words to Charles after 22 years?

"You didn't pay full price for that piece- of- CRAP sweatshirt did you!"

"I feel the love!" he said.

And it was just like old times as all those years melted away. Charles said his kids are in their thirties, one married with a kid, one single. He's engaged and will marry for the third time this spring. Between him and his fiancee, they have five grandkids. Damn he's old!

He said he had been in the casino industry for 16 years, beginning with the Isle of Capri and moving on to Harrah's and now the Coushatta casino. I also learned that we both love poker and had both recently played in the WSOP. He cashed, I didn't. I guess I'll have to get back there again, I don't want to be one-upped by some Indiana hoser!

And you can bet we'll be meeting regularly on the virtual felt, talkin' smack and laughing loud!

It'll be like old times.

Till next time, win the flips.

Happy trails.

You Can't Hide Your Lying Eyes (From Full Tilt)

Lucki Duck's Opponents

You can't hide your lying eyes
And your smile's a thin disguise
I thought by now you'd realize
There ain't no way to hide your lying eyes

I feel like Tiger Wood's ex-wife Elin. Except I only got ten bucks in my settlement. I guess she had a better lawyer!

This is the second one of these that I have received in the last few months. It makes you wonder how much cheating is going on that Full Tilt doesn't catch.

I would be interested to know how many of you that play on Full Tilt have received one of these. Let me know.

Dear Lucki Duck,

The Full Tilt Poker Security department has recently concluded an extensive investigation and we have determined that some of your opponents were in violation of our site terms.

We have permanently closed all of the offending accounts. In cases of proven cheating, 100% of the confiscated funds are returned to the players who were victimized. The reimbursement calculation is based on the number of tournaments or hands played against the offending players, and the amount won or lost against them.

We have determined that you are entitled to a refund of $10.80 which will be placed in your account in the next 72 hours.

For a number of reasons, we are unable to provide any other additional information regarding this case, including the players involved and the game type where it occurred. We thank you for your understanding in this regard. The vigilance of our players in reporting suspicious behavior is an important addition to our ongoing diligence against unethical conduct, and we carefully investigate every concern of suspicious activity.

If you believe you have witnessed unfair play at our tables, please don't hesitate to contact us at security@fulltiltpoker.com. If there is any other way we can be of assistance, please let us know.

Full Tilt Poker Security

Geez, I have enough trouble beating a square game!

Till next time, win the flips!

Happy trails.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing all my poker buds a very Happy Thanksgiving filled with hands that actually hold up and are immune to bad beats.

Spend time with your family this weekend and let them know how much they mean to you. No one likes to be taken for granted, so don't.

As for Lucki Duck, I'm driving 5 hours to the southeast with my wife and kids to spend the holiday with my in-laws. I'll make a side trip on Friday to see my sister and her family.

Food, fun, and family. A tough combination to beat!

Till next time, win the flips.

Happy trails.

Even Steven

A fun time at Tin Man's $5 NLHE Tourney. We had 11 runners sit down at two tables to pitch a few cards.

Players were falling left and right early, most becoming victims of horrendous suck-outs. Play settled down for a while and an hour and a half into the tourney, we were down to four.

I was able to steal a couple pots, c-betting missed flops in position, but as we hit the bubble, both Sonny Boy and I were short-stacked, with Music Man and Lil' Annie Okie both sitting on large stacks.

Down to 3BB at $25/50 blinds, I open shoved K-T sOOOted and was called by Sonny Boy's A-J offsuit. Neither of us paired the board and Sonny Boy had me covered, so that ended my tournament play for the night.

Being Bubble Boy sucks.

Sonny Boy didn't last much longer, but cashed in third, with Music Man and Lil' Annie Okie chopping the first prize money.

In the $2 buy-in cash game, play was once again wild and wooley! I played TAG poker, but kept missing flops and had to re-buy a couple of times. As the time got late, most of the players left and we played four handed for the last hour. I opened up my ranges and had more success as a lagtard.

The most interesting hand of the night involved Sonny Boy and myself. Sonny Boy open limped from the SB and I popped it to 50 cents from the BB with the hammer. The flop hits me HARD, 7-2-K for bottom two. Sonny Boy bets 50 cents and I push. He only had a little over $2 in his stack and I had him covered. He insta-called and I apologized before tabling my two pair. I was certain he had called with top pair and was in trouble.

Tin Man asked, "You raised with that crap?" Umm... yes.

The turn was a blank, but the river paired Sonny's jack kicker, giving him the hand and the table went crazy!

"You deserved that one!" said the Philly Phanatic. Maybe. I can't believe the hammer failed me!

We called it a might soon after and I cashed out for a $5 profit, exactly my buy-in for the tournament.

Even steven!

Till next time, win the flips!

Happy trails.

Headed To Cowboys Stadium

Sonny Boy and I are driving up to Arlington this evening to see his old high school team play. Texas high school football is BIG in Texas and this is the second round of playoffs for the teams. I expect to see 20-25,000 show up for the game and its not even the top division.

I don't care a whole lot about who wins, I just want a look at "Jerry World!" Two tickets and parking for a Cowboy game run about $450. Tonight I'll pay $8 a ticket and $10 to park. Definitly +EV!

It's a two hour drive to the stadium, so it'll be a late night for the Duck. Should be fun though.

Till next time, win the flips!

Happy trails.

Tourney At Tin Man's

We had 13 runners show for Tin Man's $5 NLHE Tournament last night. Unfortunately, your friendly blogger did not last long in this one.

We were at the third level of blinds ($3-6) and I had built my $100 starting stack to $120 when I was dealt A-K sOOOted in middle position. There was one limper in front of me, so I popped it to $16. It folded around to the small blind, Lil' Debbie, who called. The BB and limper both folded, so Deb and I were heads up.

The flop was Q-J-7 rainbow and Lil' Debbie checked. I c-bet $24 with my gut shot straight draw and two overs. Debbie called.

The turn was a 4. Debbie hesitated, then checked. I checked behind.

The river was an offsuit 8 and Debbie checked again. When she hesitated on the turn,I was afraid she might have a set, but when she checked the river, I knew she was weak and bet out $36.

"I'm too deep to fold now" she said. "I call."

Then she tables 4-2 sOOOted, pairing her 4 and crippling me.

ARRRGGG! Women. LOL!

I busted shortly after that in eighth place. Random Order and Bluffing Bev chopped first place.

I was able to make back my $5 entry fee, plus another $4 in the cash game. There weren't any real big pots, just a slow building of chips. I did manage to bluff Tin Man, Jaime, and Bondo Chris off of an orphan pot with 9 high. It was kinda fun showing that one!

Till next time, win the flips!

Happy trails.

Home Game

I played J-Dawgs Poker Extravaganza earlier this week. Farmer Harry brought pizza and after a few slices the cards were in the air.

Early in the evening I called an unraised pot from the button with Q-T sOOOted in a game of Omaha high. The flop was Q-Q-Q.

BINGO!

The hand was checked around and I bet out 50 cents in this limit game and got called by Larry the Mailman, Woody, and Ray-Ray. The turn and river were checked around and I bet out both streets, getting called by Larry and Ray-Ray, both who had full houses. SAH-WEET!

It's always nice to win a big pot early and get off to a good start.

My $20 buy-in had grown to $38 by the time we called it a night. Farmer Harry was the big winner, pocketing a $21 profit, with Carl taking it on the chin, cashing out for $1... I guess it could have been worse.

Till next time, win the flips.

Happy trails.

WSOP Main Event Down To Heads Up Play

Don't read any further if you don't want to know who's left standing (or sitting). Heads up play begins tomorrow.

Congratulations to the nine who made the FT! Eight of the nine are millionaires, that should help heal the wounds left from coming so close to history.



Jonathan Duhamel, trying to become Canada's first Main Event Champion, leads American John Racener 189 million chips to 31 million. With a 6-1 chip advantage, he's gonna be hard to beat.

The Grinder? Fifth for $2.3 million.

Not too bad. Not too bad at all.

Win the flips.

Happy trails.

Two J's, J-Dawg and Josie

After three weeks I was finally able to join my peeps at J-Dawgs Poker Extravaganza Tuesday evening. Three weeks ago J-Dawg had a softball game, so poker night was cancelled. Two weeks ago he was in Vegas, and last week poker night was on my birthday, so I missed it to be with my family.

Needless to say, it was good to see everyone again!

Farmer Harry brought pizza and J-Dawg had some left-over halloween cupcakes which were messy, but tasty. We had 12 runners pitchin' cards and talkin' smack, each had invested $20 for a seat at this dealer's choice limit game.

I started slow, getting the silver metal in several early hands. As you know, second doesn't pay well in poker and I was down $8 before getting my chair warm. Things turned around nicely and when I got up from the table I had booked a $22 profit. SAH-WEET!

Farmer Harry won the High Hand Jackpot with quad queens while playing Omaha. He hit his quads on the fourth hand of the night and it held up for the next three hours. Nice one Harry!

David the Cable Guy and Larry the Accountant were the biggest losers on the night, with Cable Guy getting rivered time and time again. It was ugly.

It was great seeing the J-Dawg crew again and winning a little coin made it even better!

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Very Josie excepted, I had a nice night on Full Tilt last night. I shipped two $6-18 man tourneys, and also picked up a fourth in another and a seventh in a $6-90 man.

It's tough busting early on a 90 man final table. First place pays $144, seventh $13.50. As you can see, it's a huge difference, but I still netted around $45 for my efforts last night.

I played tight early in Josie's tourney, picking up a few blinds along the way, but not really getting any traction. My first showdown hand was against heffmike. Mike had been raising wide from the cutoff and button, trying to steal blinds. I finally got a hand (A-5 off) that I thought was good enough to play back at him.

I missed a J high flop but c-bet and was called by heffmike. The turn was an eight and we both checked. The river was another blank, but I felt Mike was weak, either holding a busted straight draw of perhaps second or third pair. I thought I could push him off his hand and bet a little over 1/2 pot on the river. Unfortunately, Mike called and tabled top pair, relieving me of about a third of my stack.

I looked up heffmike's stats after the hand and noted that he is a top player, boasting an impressive 21% ROI at an average $20 buy-in. Wish I had looked that up before tangling with him in that pot!

Note to self: stay away from heffmike in the future!

I was able to build my stack up a little over the $3000T starting stack when we hit the final table. Sitting to my left was fmarra17, another top player. Kee-rap!

Blinds were getting high when Josie open raised from the button. I was sitting on A-J offsuit in the SB, not a hand you want to play out of position. Josie's play is similar to Gary's and heffmike's in that she will open raise light from late position in order to swipe the blinds. I thought that might be what was going on here and decided to shove in order to isolate, figuring I probably had the best hand and might pick up a nice uncontested pot.

That's when Frankie (fmarra17) re-shoved from the BB.

Ruh-Roh.

Josie folded (she claims A-Q) and Frankie showed A-K, dominating my A-J. I didn't hit my three outer and although I had Frankie covered, I was crippled and busted a couple hands later.

So, once again I came up a little short in the Very Josie, but what a fun time with a bunch of blogging degens!

Win the flips!

Happy trails.