Party Poker Blog

Poker Journal Ramblings
We needed money real bad at home and my daddy told me I had to stop work or stop gamblin'. And I said, "Daddy, if I don't work how can I get money to gamble?" And Daddy, he said, "Son, that's what gamblers got to figure out." So I quit work.
--Johnny Moss

To celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary, I took da wife out to the Maisonette last evening. This fine French restaurant has received Five-Stars from the Mobil travel Guide for forty consecutive years, the longest in the country, making it one of the finest restaurants in the good ol USA. Starved myself all day and then gorged on:

BISQUE DE CRABE Dungeness crab bisque
FOIE GRAS CHAUD AU PANAIS ET AU RAISIN pan seared Hudson Valley foie gras with parsnip puree, grapes, and walnuts
CHATEAUBRIAND BOUQUETIERE double filet mignon, served with fresh garden vegetables "rossini" style with black truffle and foie gras

I couldn't even move when we were done. I literally had to be wheeled out of the place. And how does this concern poker, you might be asking me....well, I paid for this out of my precious poker bankroll, that's how. Yet another reason to love Party Poker!!

I still haven't made the switch back to Empire. Perhaps this weekend. I haven't played too much this week but did get hurt on the 2.4 tables one night. It was my favorite kind of game - a very loose, aggressive one, but sadly, I got my clock cleaned. I don't mind the downswing after a game like that, however. Those games are profitable more often than not for me and I realize there's a bigger variance.

Sat 3.6 and 5.10 late, late last nite and didn't do well. The 5.10 was far tighter than the 3.6. The 3.6 nearly played like 50.1 preflop but the players were playing fit or fold for the most part. Lost $60. The 5.10 was tiiiight and I broke even. Thinking about sitting 3.6 from now on.

I'm up about $50 tonite and it's still early. God bless the nut flush.

RGP has been worthless lately. So I've been spending much more time in TwoPlusTwo. Speaking of which, DavidRoss rules. I really look forward to his weekly posts. Here's a snippet:

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I have decided that the turn check-raise may be the most powerful play in poker. Almost always, the player will call down afterwards. I don't know if it's anger at getting raised or what, but I do it too. Usually player 1 bets the flop and player 2 calls. Then player 1 checks the turn and player 2 bets. Player 1 now raises and you know he's got a big hand. But player 2 will call the turn bet and also the river bet. I've rarely seen this as a bluff, but it works almost every time. I've used it several times this week when flopping monsters. Raising with position never seems to work as well, quite often there is a fold, but I've seen some horribly weak hands call down the check-raise.
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That TwoPlusTwo crowd is still tough as nails, though. They don't cut anyone any damn slack. There's one guy on there who basically responds to every hand posted with:

POORLY PLAYED ON ALL STREETS.

Gotta love that kind of support from your fellow poker players.

Playing 5.10 last nite really drove home the differences between a mid-limit tight game and the perpetually loose low limit poker games. There's one thing I really need to watch and that's river play. When it comes to calling a bet on the river, you can make a mistake two ways. One will cost you a single big bet and the other is - you can commit the mortal sin of not calling a river bet and losing an entire pot. When the pot is big it's a no brainer. But when it's heads up on the flop it can be tricky at the end. Those $10 bets can add up quick and suck up your profit for the session if you aren't careful.

I probably should post about thin value bets versus checking on the end but I'll save that for a future post.

My man Fuzz update: Started with $100 on PartyPoker. Currently up to $850 - almost all through 50.1. That's some amazing poker.

Does anyone have any insight about the Sklansky tournament book? Is "the system" even worth reading about? I'm somewhat sceptical - I've never heard the phrase "no-limit and David Sklansky" uttered in the same sentence before.

Link of the day:
Easy Money for Easier Women
Adult Porn Careers is looking for people who have at least one opening that needs to be filled. "Just about every model that we have shot wants to come back again for another shoot!"