Dont-Want-To-Play Tilt

I donked very much on purpose out of the FTOPS on Monday night, around the middle of the first hour. For a $1060 buyin. That's all you need to know about my mindset right now. I literally called an allin reraise with of all things the dreaded JackAce. And it's not like I thought there was a chance in hike that I was ahead.

Similarly, I donked my way all the way up to 3rd place out of around 300 remaining in the 50-50 last night. But then I suffered one stoopid bad beat that took half my chips, and from there I literally tossed into the garbage my still top-80 stack. On purpose. With 83o or some shit against a tight preflop raiser who was obviously calling my push.

I just didn't give a crap, and I didn't want to be playing poker.

Not sure what I've done in the past when faced with this feeling, although I remember feeling it (several times) before. Does that mean I play tonight or take another day off? I suppose only time will tell.

Miami Don final tabled one more tournament on Blowdog in the afternoon, and still another final table in the evening on Monday. That guy is really figuring shit out after a long time chasing the mtt dream without really getting the whole game about late-stage tournament play. There is almost nothing better than watching a friend advance his game like that. Hopefully Don will take some time to write about some of the changes he has made to his game almost overnight in the past few days that have brought him such awesome results.

Maybe he can teach me a thing or two about having the right mindset to play a tournament these days.

I have more questions about major areas in my life at this moment than I've probably had in quite some time. I'm not sure if that is contributing to my general poker malaise or what, but I'm just not focused on the game like I need to be if I expect to actually play the the game properly. Much of the uncertainty in my life should (hopefully) be taken care of over the next few days, so perhaps once that is done I can get back to my normal routine. For now I have no plans to play any more large-buyin FTOPS events, as believe me when I say I am just throwing my money away. Literally.

Hey, at least I write when I'm running bad. Personally I find it really cheapens the whole blogging experience if I only post when I am on a hot streak. To me this feeling of frustration and just lack of focus and desire to play is part of the fun in a sick way, part of the real poker experience. At least, everyone goes through it, some more often than others, and when you read here you've always gotten a real-world view of poker from the eyes of a regular tournament player. It ain't all fun n games folks, especially for an old tilter like me.

See ya around. Maybe I'll donk it up at some super low limit cash tonight or something to try and clear my head. Who knows.

Tilt Continues

For whatever reason, this has been one of the toughest two-week periods ever in my three years of playing poker online. For starters, my 8 to 10 suckouts and setups a night has escalated out of the blue to more like 15 to 20 a night, and when you consider that these numbers are absosmurfly real and not the least bit exaggerated, maybe a few of you at least can begin to consider what this really must feel like to go through on a nightly, hourly, almost minute-ly basis. It ain't fun. In the past two weeks, I have been recockudonked out of big tournaments after deep runs at least five or six times at multiple poker sites. I'm talking about hands like flopping the overboat in the final 100 in that pokerstars 50-50 tournament, getting my overpair donkey opponent allin and then losing to a higher boat on the turn. I have been bounced early from small tournaments, like earlier this week when I lost early in the token frenzy with a turned straight -- again allin on the flop --- to a riverflush. And I've taken horrible beats in blonkaments, like flopping a set in the MATH this week, pushing hard and getting someone to make a hopeless call but then losing to a higher set on the turn, or even in the Mookie this week when I find my only "premium" hand of the night in pocket Queens, only to run it into KK and AK and finish the hand in a distant third for another middle-of-the-pack elimination. And, although this fact is unconfirmed, it is even possible that I might have made a few straight-out bad plays mixed in there as well, which of course also seem magnified whenever you're in a run like this.

What's worse is that once again it is FTOPS time on full tilt, and once again I enter the series in a shitty poker mindset. Just maybe three weeks ago, I was playing great poker and I was feeling great about my game, and about the game in general. I won four satellites into these FTOPS events over the span of just a few days, I was playing great, actually winning 50% or more of my races, actually winning 80% of my dominating hands when allin, etc., and all of that tends to help quite a bit in making the right decisions at the poker tables. It's when you start losing 75% of your races, and losing 40-50% of your 80% favored hands that you start second-guessing yourself, not pushing hard enough on the flop and letting people stick around to suck out on you, etc., and that's when it gets really bad. Anyways, what kills me is that here we are back in FTOPS land again, and just like every single other FTOPS I have played in -- five of them now, as I recall -- except for one of the big tournament series, I enter it in a horrible poker mindset and just generally on a bad streak.

Last night I had several railbirds watching me in the HORSE megasat when some anus wanker sucked out a miracle straight on the river to eliminate me when I had flopped TPTK with my AQ against his AJ and bet out my entire stack against him along the way in limit holdem. I even tried one of those super turbo satellites half an hour before the HORSE event to try to play into there, but I couldn't pick up a good hand and as you know if you've ever played these things, it's impossible to win them without picking up at least one good hand along the way. It was a desperate move, and believe me when I say that in retrospect I'm glad I didn't play in FTOPS #3. But I did play in FTOPS #2, the $240 PLO knockout tournament I mentioned yesterday, and it was highly frustrating for me as well. I survived about an hour and 40 minutes in this thing, and even with four starting cards in every hand, I never once received AAxx, KKxx, a single double-paired hand or even a single double-suited hand. Now I'm nowhere near interested enough to try to calculate the odds of that happening, but my guess is that it has got to be way way low. So with absolutely not a single good starting hand over 100 minutes to play with, I was at an extreme disadvantage throughout the PLO tournament, growing increasingly frustrated given my poker plight of late, and eventually after those 100 minutes I ended up betting big with just TPTK on the flop against a big stack as my own stack dwindled down to less than half of average. Well, I got called by a guy who had 789x on a board with T63, so he had 9 outs to a straight. 9 outs twice, not counting some silly runner-runner draws that either one of us could hit to win. Well, two cards later he had runner-runnered a recockulous flush on me, and IGH in 490th place out of around 1200 runners. While I lasted fairly deep again considering my complete lack of cardage throughout, the frustration level just continued to mount as I received abjectly nothing to work with in the entire tournament, and I got called by a guy who had no business calling me but just couldn't let go of a 9-out draw. And of course he hit. This is the way it's been lately for me online. Get almost nothing to work with, run fairly deep anyways on all bluffs and steals, and then get recockubeat or recockusetup. The frustration is palpable.

It got so bad that I didn't even play the Riverchasers last night. That's not like me, but for the past few nights I have been logging out of the poker sites early thanks to growing tilt issues from consistent phuckage at the tables. I am not having fun at all while I play these days, and I've known for a couple of days that a break would do me good. Unfortunately, right now is not the time for me to get that break, as I had already previously qualified for the FTOPS on Thursday and again I am already signed up for the FTOPS 6-max limit holdem tournament on Friday night as well. That one oughta be a fun one to tilt my way out of for sure. But I don't even know that I will play the donkament tonight, as Monkey Hour of that thing tends to get me on raging tilt on a weekly basis, even the four times I have gone on to win that tournament over the past year. Right now is just not the time for me to get sucked out on in the same tournament 18 times in an hour.

I will leave you with my one bright spot from the night last night, which was watching Chad at full tilt "pro" Aaron Bartley's table while Bartley time and time again played recockulous starting cards in just about every one of the five HORSE games, sucking out a few redonkulous winners along the way before eventually Chad busted his ass for the $216 bounty and another ghey "I busted a donkey" t-shirt. Well, after getting donked a few times by Bartley and the regoddamdickulous cards he was playing, Chad eventually told me in the girly that he was going to play just like Bartley and see where that would get him. So Chad chased a bad hand hard in razz, and ended up sucking out runner-runner low cards.

Dealer: Aaron Bartley shows 8,7,6,3,2
Dealer: cracknaces shows 7,6,4,2,A
Dealer: cracknaces wins the pot (3,398)
with 7,6,4,2,A
Dealer: Hand #5165521026
cracknaces: just for you Bartley
Aaron Bartley: now THATS bad
cracknaces: fight fire wirh fire, how does it
feel to be donked?
Aaron Bartley: shrug, thanks for trying

That pretty much made my night. Bartley is about as bad a HORSE player as there is among the ftp "pros".

Have a great weekend everybody. Here's hoping I can turn things around before tonight's FTOPS #5 in LHE, and Sunday night's FTOPS #9, the $322 buyin nlh tournament hosted by Erick Lindgren.

Mookday, an End to the Silliness, and Thinking Before you Act in Poker

Mookie day. Why do I keep looking so forward to this thing again? Despite having no chance of ever winning this tournament, I'll always love the Mookie and it really makes the middle of the week fun for me. Unlike previous years, I've spent so much of my poker time this year focusing on cash games and lately on sngs, I have probably played a literal tenth the number of mtts that I played in the past two years. If you take the blonkaments out of the picture, it's probably even less. Big tournaments are just not something I focus on anymore like they once were. But I'm still as in to poker as ever, and hopefully that shows from my ongoing commitment to poker talk here at the blog. This despite the last couple days of fun and games here.

I don't really have a whole lot to add to everything from the past few days, other than to say that in my view I think people's reactions have far, far outpaced anything that led to those reactions, at least anything that came from me. But after the recockulous threads here from the past couple of days I guess I wanted to give some closure to the whole thing from my end. I guess first I should link to this post, which I guess says it all as far as what one blogger -- named LJ by the way -- is feeling about me these days. Hopefully everyone can go and read that post and get their jollies out about what a dick I am. Get the Jergerns™ ready guys. Personally, I would rank this as maybe the third or fourth most personally attacking post against me that I've seen in my three years plus of blogging about poker every day of the work week. It's not the worst, but it's up there. For what it's worth, and I communicated this to LJ via email last night, I do not feel the reaction is anywhere close to justified by anything I've said here. Obviously LJ disagrees with that and I support her in feeling and voicing her disagreement. I will stand by my opinion about the hand in question 100%, and personally I don't think that the way I went about mentioning my feelings was wrong or inappropriate, though again I accept that reasonable minds could maybe differ on that point. Again, I'm all about that disagreement.

I also wanted to address something that I have received personal emails and girly chats about and something which was also commented about in LJ's post above. I cannot and would not want to try to stop anyone from accusing me of "trashing" someone in my blog about a play they made. People should have whatever reaction they have to reading one of my posts or anyone's post for that matter, and if they feel a certain way then they should write it down if they see fit in whatever medium they would like. That's how I handle my own interaction with the blogiverse and I would expect nothing less from anyone else, no matter who they are. That being said, and I've written about this here before several times for my truly longtime readers, I purposely choose not to include people's names or links when I discuss a bad play that someone made in my view. I try very very hard not to call individual, identified people names in my blog, nor to ever attack them personally but always instead to keep things about poker, and on an anonymous basis at that. I generally do include names or links when I see someone make a good play -- witness again ScottMc's abuse of me in the MATH just from yesterday's post -- and I do that because I think it's nice to give credit to people for playing well when someone does it. If someone makes a big tournament score or wins a ton of money playing cash and I know about it, I am likely to blog about it and to identify them by name. But if I see a bad play, my choice is sometimes to blog about it, and when I do I almost never use someone's actual name or link. The only reason for that is that I have no desire or intention whatsoever to make someone feel bad or to embarrass them or call them out at all. There's no other sinister reasoning behind it, and I am totally confident that my true readers know this beyond a shadow of a doubt. When I'm not even using someone's name or link, then I fail to see how I can be described as trashing a person at all. If you disagree, then so be it. Disagree away. And I won't even get in to the notion of someone coming to LJ's support in her blog about how sad it is that people trash other bloggers for their play the morning after blonkaments. In LJ's blog of all places. The ironing is delicious (Trip, that reference is for you). Suffice it to say that I have for some time and will continue to comment here if I witness someone making what I view to be a bad play. It's not about sour grapes -- the AQ hand with LJ didn't even have anything to do with me at all for example, nor do many of the other hands I mention here (some of the bad plays I discuss here actually benefitted me greatly) -- but if I think there is something to be gained for someone, some wisdom to be gleaned about this game from a particular play I saw, I will continue to post about it here.

This is what I do. This blog has been therapeutic for me in many ways and it has helped to me improve my own poker game immensely. I've written about this many times before too, but I think there is obviously no coincidence that I started blogging daily in January 2005, and I made my first big mtt win at the end of that very same month, after several months of pure losing in online play. But more than helping my own game, the biggest reason I blog is to give something back to the community. I also surely see no coincidence that, for example, my blog is listed in basically every single Mookie winner's profile as far as a place they love to read, and more than that, a place where they have found significant information, help and improvement in their own poker games from reading. That is why I'm doing this, still going long and strong after three years of blogging about poker every day. Every time I see that in a Mookie profile, or see someone's comment in their own blog about something helpful to their game that they found on my blog, it empowers me. That's what keeps me going. Yes I must have more haters (literally) than any other blogger out there. I speak my mind and I don't pull many punches when it comes to poker. But say whatever you want about me, I am here trying my damnedest to help other people's games, not to tear anyone down. I have profiled literally hundreds of hands that I played poorly just to get people thinking, and to share ideas from lots of players who are highly skilled and analytical about poker. And you people have told me time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time again how horribly I played these hands. I leave the comments up there for everyone to see, no matter how derogatory or downright nasty they are to me, my game, my friends, my family, whatever. I write strategy posts. Yes it helps my own game quite often to codify and organize my thoughts on a particular element of poker strategy like this, but if you think I'm doing that just for me, then you are seeing but not really seeing, reading but not really understanding. I could write these things down on paper for myself then, or in a personal online journal that only I have access to. If you can't appreciate my desire to help others instead of hurt them through the way I deliberately decline to call out someone when I discuss a play they made that I found to be questionable or flat-out bad or whatever, and from what I post on this blog in general, then so be it. I can live with that. But to portray me as someone who is out "trashing other people" for their play after blonkaments, I find that characterization to be not only unfair, but really not accurate for a guy who takes so many steps not to even identify the person or persons I'm talking about, and for someone who is recognized repeatedly as helping so many other bloggers' games in many different ways. I spend hours every single day preparing for and writing these posts, and while I won't deny some element of blogging for my own self, it's 90% done for you. All of you. Characterizing me as someone who trashes other people in my blog is in my opinion, and perhaps my opinion alone, doing a great disservice to me as well as to the many others who read here and actually improve their own games from what I have to say. Just my two cents, and with the incredible number of haters I have out there there is no doubt a ton of disagreement with my view on this. So be it. But that my friends is all the closure I think I have on this little bit of "high school drama" as it's been described from the past couple of days.

That, and to just mention that I can't wait to see who the first donk is who posts a totally inappropriate and insulting picture of a handicapped child to make fun of people being annoyed over the past few days. Sometimes people just kill me.

Before I forget, I wanted to mention something about ScottMc's elimination of me from the MATH the other night that I failed to mention the other day. So if you recall, he reraised me preflop, I stoopidly called his preflop raise into a heads-up pot with JTs, and then had the worst possible thing happen to me which is exactly why you don't call preflop rereraises into heads-up pots with JTs: I hit the flop pretty well, just well enough to end up losing all my chips into it. The flop came all raggy with two of my suit, and I bet, scott raised, and then I reraised him allin in a large bet. Scott had pocket Kings. And yet, you know what Scott did before he called my allin raise and busted me from the tournament when my 9 outs failed to hit? He fucking thought about it! I mean, this guy had an overpair, a big overpair, and the flop had come all raggy after I had raised and called a reraise preflop, so there was no reason for him to really think I had hit this particular flop hard. And yet, when I put him to the test for all his chips early in a tournament, he actually fucking paused to think about whether he should call. That right there is a good poker player my friends. Frankly, the pause there should be automatic for anybody with just one pair on the flop at any point with a big stack in a tournament, but the bottom line is that there cannot be more than 2 or 3 bloggers total who are anything but insta insta instacalling in that spot. Scott has repeatedly shown me something with his play whenever I've sat down at his table or just watched him from the rail, and with all the ranting and raving I do about the recockulous instacallers out there, who are basically just about always wrong to be instacalling like they do, I wanted to be sure to mention this specifically here because it is just about the single best lesson anyone could learn about playing competitive poker. Overpair Kings on a raggy flop, against a guy who is known to be aggressive, first few rounds of an mtt, and yet he still stops to think for a good 10 or 15 seconds when put to the test for a large call of much of his remaining chipstack. That is a Man right there. I wouldn't have folded that hand to me in that spot either, but dam if I wouldn't have paused for a few seconds to consider the possibilities. Could my opponent have flopped a set? Two pairs? What about big draws, like an Ace plus a flush draw. Am I getting the right price here to call and be facing those twelve outs twice? Am I prepared to take on that kind of risk this early in a tournament where I think I have a skill advantage over the other players? That's the kind of analysis that a real playa does in poker, it doesn't matter what level you're at or what level the competition is either. Even a doofus can pick up a hand or flop a set just as often as you or me. Scott earned even more respect from me for that play, and I just wanted to specifically call it out here.

And, since Scott is male and not female, I don't have any issues with him on a gender basis after all. God sometimes people just kill me, have I mentioned that recently?

OK so tonight is the Mook, 10pm ET as always on full tilt, password as always is "vegas1". Be there for the most fun the bloggers have as a large group every single week, week in and week out. And I should warn you, this whole business from earlier in the week has actually created a considerable sense of calm about my game. I played a few tournaments late last night, and basically played as well and as patiently as I have played in quite some time. I took down 2 out of 3 more $55 turbo sngs for a total profit of a little over three hundy on the night in only maybe 90 minutes of play, and I even ran well in the 14.5k guaranteed 6max knockout tournament at 11pm ET Tuesday as well, eventually succumbing just before the money when I ran an Ace into a better Ace in a blind vs blind confrontation. But I'm feelin' good, and hopefully getting some things off my chest that have been bothering me for some time this week is going to help to limit my tiltability as we move forward from here. I guess what I'm trying to say is, tonight might be my night in the Mookie....Oh and tune into BuddyDank radio as well for the Mook which I imagine should be a good time as always for the Mookie. I will try to do the same as I make another deep run to the final table this evening. See you then.

Oh yeah, don't forget Tripjax's "Blogger Luck Game" coming up on Sunday night at 10pm ET on full tilt. This is an $11 buyin private tournament, the password fittingly is "lucky", and there will be 3-minute blind rounds. And the best part, 100 starting chips. Delicious. Now we will get to see just who is the luckiest of them all. I will definitely be there, and hoping desperately not to have this guy at my starting table. I may have written the book on super turbo tournament strategy, but no way I can withstand four pocket Kings in the first 30 hands of this thing. No effin way.

MATH Recap, and Cardinal Rules of Blogging

So yesterday's post was fun, but I have to admit the comments were far better, and thanks to everyone for their thoughts. I have to say though, what is it with some of the bloggers who can dish it out but cant take it in? I've got news for you, people -- it's someone's blog, and that means they presumptively can write whatever they wanna write. And the kicker is, some of you seem to have no problems grasping this concept quite clearly when it's your blog and you want to write about other people and slam on them, their play, whatever. Swear about people. Talking mega smack about them behind their backs in the girly chat. It doesn't matter to you. But when the roles are reversed, suddenly you tilt like mad when someone mentions an indisputably bad play you made, you go nuts and tilt all over my comments section. I love it, everyone loves it. And FWIW my personal favorite part has got to be when someone gets mad at me for not mentioning their name in my post or the comments. Because I'm sure if I did use people's actual names and link them and shit -- like you do when you slam on someone in your blog -- then these same people woulda been totally fine with that, right? Mmmmmm hmmmmmm.

Cardinal rule #1 about blogging: if you're gonna write angry, derisive shit about other people's play in your blog, then I say you go for it. It's your blog and I never have and never will waver from that position. But -- and this is a lesson that I had to learn myself the hard way somewhere between the 250th and 300th rudeass motherfucker comment made about me or my play in someone else's blog -- the old saying is right: if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. I'm sure some of you remember when Maigrey slammed hard on my blog one day after I wrote a post about my very large screwjob in an O8 FTOPS tournament. Remember how outofmymind pissed and hurt I was that day? Well, I got over it. I got over myself. Of course Maigrey wasn't kidding in what she said about my blog. But you know what? That was just her opinion, on that particular day in the particular mood she was in. It doesn't mean that everyone thinks that, and even if it did, that wouldn't mean that anyone else necessarily shares that opinion or that no one's opinion could ever be changed on the topic. And so what if someone out there thinks my blog is drivel? It wasn't the first time then, and it surely wasn't the last time. From all that, I realized if I'm going to write the stuff I write here on my blog, which is never actually intended to hurt anyone so much as to help me and help my readers to understand the way I analyze this game, then I simply have to be willing to accept others doing the same or similar stuff about me. I just have to accept that it's part of the whole deal of blogging about the stuff that I do.

And so do all of you.

It's that simple. There's just no choice in the matter. I don't need to link to all the posts on other people's blogs with the derogatory comments about other people and their play. You know it's there, all the people I've directed to your sites know it's there, and that's that. But the point is, when someone mentions a bad play that you made -- and believe me, it is indefensibly bad to call an allin rerereraise with AQo with 100 BBs 8 minutes in to a super stack tournament that you want to win -- and does you the fucking courtesy of not even mentioning you by name because he clearly is not trying to "out" you or embarass you in any way, you get to suck it up. You can tilt all over my comments all you want, be my guest it's a free country and so far in my 550-some blog posts I've never yet deleted anyone's comment left here, no matter how rude, how off-base or off-color, and no matter how utterly and totally wrong. If you read here often then you know I am all about freedom to say whatever you want in the blogosphere. But don't dish it out if you can't take it in. That's no way to practice free speech, it's no way to blog, and it's no way to live a life. Toughen up, get some thicker skin, and best of all -- maybe one day take a second and listen to what is being said about the play you made. It's the most valid point you've heard about the AQ hand. And I don't care what anyone else tells you on the topic.

'Nuff said? Good.

Back to non-silly stuff. A perfect-sized 27 runners exactly filled up three (edit: 5 1/2, thank you Mr. Astin) tables for the first non-BBTwo MATH in many weeks. 27 guys who were not showing up to talk shit, not showing up to win a seat in the Tournament of Champions and in fact not showing up for any purpose other than to just get down and boogie with friends and play the game that we all love to play. I for one am glad the BBTwo is over. I was never a fan of the timing to begin with in doing the BBT again this year, but when they're giving away as much free swag as full tilt offered us this time around, I understand that we had to do it.

So anyways, 27 of us came out on Monday night to play 6max nlh again. I love the format and I think it adds some interest level to the regular grind of nlh ring tournaments, an opinion which I think most of the Hoy players share. I donked early when I flopped two overcards plus a flush draw with JTs, leading me erroneously to believe I was sitting on 15 outs. Thinking I was just a slight favorite through all five cards, I set things up so that ScottMc made the big bet and I made the huge allin raise, maximizing my fold equity while also preserving my favorite status in the hand in case Scott did call. Unfortunately I made the cardinal mistake of not considering the preflop action, in which Scott had reraised solidly, so I was needlessly shocked when Scott flipped up KK, negating my 6 overcard outs and leaving me drawing to a thin 9 outs. Now I haven't hit a 9-outer in a blonkament in about 18 months, so IGH shortly after that and I've got nothing to say but "nh" to Scott and "bh" to myself for ignoring Scott's preflop raise in that spot, as well as for calling his preflop raise with JTs in the first place (thanks donka, you basically got me again last night, if not indirectly!). At least I can be happy to have contributed to the stack of the guy who led the tournament for the entire first half and who ended up making some actual cash on the day.

Speaking of which, here are this week's cashers in the third-to-last MATH of 2007:

1. $259.20 swimmom95
2. $194.40 bsquared25
3. $129.60 twoblackaces, back in the hizzy again
4. $ 64.80 ScottMc

And here is the updated MATH moneyboard for 2007, including the results of this week's tournament:

1. Columbo $1823
2. cmitch $1703
3. Bayne_s $1400
4. Hoyazo $1162
5. RaisingCayne $1110
6. Surflexus $1107
7. Daddy $999
8. twoblackaces $931
9. LJ $867
10. Lucko21 $815
11. Kajagugu $806
12. swimmom95 $804
13. Fuel55 $802
14. Astin $793
15. Pirate Wes $792
16. VinNay $775
17. Tripjax $759
18. IslandBum1 $754
18. Numbbono $754
20. Iggy $745
21. Gary Cox $734
22. Blinders $720
23. NewinNov $677
24. Waffles $650
25. XxMagiciaNxX $630
26. JJ $630
27. Mike_Maloney $612
28. ScottMc $597
29. Jamyhawk $576
30. Buddydank $553
31. riggstad $537
31. Chad $537
33. Emptyman $513
34. Byron $510
35. Julius Goat $507
36. bartonf $492
36. mtnrider81 $492
38. PokerBrian322 $490
39. wormmsu $475
40. scots_chris $474
41. whiskigrl $467
42. jeciimd $460
43. RecessRampage $434
44. Otis $429
45. leftylu $424
46. Miami Don $402
47. Zeem $389
48. Joe Speaker $384
49. Jordan $382
50. cardgrrl $371
50. lightning36 $371
52. ChapelncHill $353
53. OMGitsPokerFool $324
54. buckhoya $312
54. oossuuu754 $312
56. Mookie $304
57. Wigginx $288
58. Fishy McDonk $277
59. actyper $276
60. Irongirl $252
60. Manik79 $252
62. Wippy1313 $248
63. Easycure $244
64. Garthmeister $216
64. wwonka69 $216
66. Omega_man_99 $210
67. katiemother $209
68. Pushmonkey72 $208
69. Thepokergrind $198
70. bsquared25 $194
71. StatikKling $180
72. 23Skidoo $176
73. Santa Clauss $170
74. jimdniacc $166
75. Iakaris $162
75. Smokkee $162
77. cemfredmd $156
78. lester000 $147
79. Heffmike $145
80. Julkeus $144
81. brdweb $143
82. DDionysus $137
83. Patchmaster $135
84. InstantTragedy $129
85. NinaW $120
86. UnTiltable $118
87. Fluxer $110
88. -o-LuckTruck-o- $103
89. hoops15mt $95
90. Gracie $94
90. Scurvydog $94
92. DaBag $84
92. Shag0103 $84
94. mattazuma $82
94. crazdgamer $82
96. PhinCity $80
97. Presidentdave $79
98. maf212 $78
99. evy35 $72
100. Alceste $71
100. dbirider $71
102. kevin-with-AK $66
103. Rake Feeder $53

So we're up to 103 total players to have recorded at least one cash in Mondays at the Hoy in 2007, which to this point constitutes exactly 50 tournaments as we have held the MATH on every single Monday of the year, even on some holidays and other days when many people were not around. I'm proud of that and I'm really happy that the Hoy has been running and running strong for as long as it has been. I know that not everybody was pleased with some of the changing up I did during the past couple of months, and I certainly do wish that everyone could be happy with everything I do with the MATH every single week, but I truly do appreciate everyone coming out to play, whether it's during the BBTwo with the fabulous additional prizes available, or just the regular old weekly blonkaments, which are the things that I really have enjoyed focusing on over the past couple of years.

For the next two MATH tournaments, both will occur on a holiday of sorts. Next Monday will be Christmas Eve night, so I assume traffic will be light for sure. As a result, as I alluded to in an earlier post, I will be taking the advice from a lot of the suggestions I heard after the $10 rebuy event from last month and running a lower-buyin rebuy tournament for whoever is around like me next Monday evening. I forget offhand if it's $6 or $8, I think $6, but either way it will be a turbo rebuy, set up just like the numerous rebuy satellites full tilt runs every evening anyways, which means just a 30-minute rebuy period instead of the usual hour, and a turbo format of blinds and antes escalation. Like I said I will be there and I'll be playing to win, and I hope to see you there if you are an MOT (you know who you are) or can otherwise fit the Hoy into your Christmas Eve plans. Personally I can't think of a better early Christmas present than getting to play a turbo rebuy with a bunch of heehawing donkeys, but maybe that's just me.

Before I end this today, I wanted to take the time to extend some Big Time Congratulations to the last three winners of seats to the upcoming BBTwo Aussie Millions Tournament of Champions which were awarded on Monday. The first "last" seat goes to jeciimd, who won the freeroll on Monday night to replace the voided Riverchasers tournament from this past Thursday when full tilt's servers crashed. Jec put the finishing touches on an absolute crushing domination of BBTwo, easily the leading moneywinner in the series, by becoming only the second player to win a second seat in the ToC, bringing the total number of BBTwo tournament winners to 25. Like I said, jeciimd completely crushed the competition in BBTwo, turning a massive $2000+ profit for the series and I think completley and totally eliminating any possible doubters about the quality of his poker play after posting a large net loss in the first BBT tournament series. And the last two Tournament of Champions seats were awarded on Monday as well as part of the write-in contest that full tilt offered, which I am happy to say have been awarded to Julius Goat and Fuel55. Both of these guys have kickintheass blogs and are really fun writers to read whenever they post, and both are really nice guys to boot. So we're looking at a very nice round 27 players and 3 tables in Thursday night's upcoming BBTwo Aussie Millions ToC as well. Very nice symmetry there.

I'm going to do a post over the next two days handicapping that ToC. It's a great mix of players IMO. Some great writers and some non-bloggers and very rare posters. Some highly aggro guys and some far more passive players. We've got some solid old-school bloggers and a number of newer fresh faces in our group. There are some really strong players in there as well as some really unbelievable lucksacks IMO. The thing is, the way the BBTwo has gone, it is really hard to say that the strong players will prevail over the lucksacks, or really that any group of players will fare better than any others. In one tournament, as we've seen time and time again, just about anything can happen. If anyone gets eight pocket Kings in the thing, they are likely to be hanging around at the end. If anyone flops five sets on the night, they're probably going to be there. Flop quads three times, and you're gonna be there. Beat A6 with AA, I could go on and on, you know the routine. But more on that tomorrow. For now I will say sayonara, and if there was one piece of advice I could give to any new bloggers out there, it is not to get your panties into a bunch every time someone says something about your play that you don't like to hear. It's just a game, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and everyone plays by the same rules in the end in the blogiverse as far as being able to question poker plays or players that they run into. I'm not saying it is easy to get yourself to this point, and I'm surely not saying that I was born there myself or anything (much the opposite), but take it from me, it will doubtless make everyone's time as a blogger more enjoyable and easier to deal with.

Oh. My. God.

Oh. My God. This past Sunday was one of the tiltiest days I've ever experienced. And for me let me tell you, that is really saying something.

It all started with me losing in one of my fantasy football playoff games today to an anushead playing Ike Fuggin Hilliard, Justin Fuggin Fargas and Ronald Fuggin Curry. All on the same team. At the same time. In the playoffs. This is who my genius opponent came up with for a third of his total team in a fucking playoff game in a fantasy football league. If this isn't proof that fantasy football is the stuff luckboxes are made of, then I don't know what is. I mean, Ike Fuggin Hilliard? 9 yards today at home against the powerhouse Falcons defense. This may have something to do with the fact that Ikey boy just celebrated his 86th birthday this year. And what's up with Ronald Fuggin Curry? In a playoff game? 23 yards today, no surprise at all against the top-rated Colts defense. And Justin Fuggin Fargas?!?! Also against the strong Indy defense? No problem, plug 'im in there, right? It's only the fantasy playoffs, why not? 89 yards later, and these three shitheads have put up 24.8 fantasy points and I lose. And the best part of all? This anusass fucking sat a little player named Tom Brady this week, in favor of Brett Favre. He fucking sat Tom Brady. Against the fucking Jets. In a fantasy playoff game!!!! Did I mention that fantasy football is for lucksacks?

Speaking of donkeys getting recockulously lucky, the tilt continued when I logged in to the pc at some point on Sunday afternoon and made the mistake of looking at the final results of Saturday evening's Winner's Choice tournament on full tilt, which I satellited in to a few hours earlier on Saturday night. In that tournament, which I spent $104 to win my $216 buyin for, I got donked out recockulously just 20 minutes in when some phucknut first called my utg raise (I had KK) with what turned out to be T♣8♣. Then I bet the pot on the all-undercard flop with two clubs on it, which phuckboy also called. When the turn fell, which also happened to be a third club, I checked, doing my patented go-and-stop move planning to checkraise, and when the phuckdonk bet out, I instantly moved him allin. He beat me into the pot, of course showing the made flush and IGH that early. So it was a hideous, horrible beat that ended my run at this winner-take-all WC $12,000 prize package tournament way, way earlier than it should have. It sucked, whatever. I've taken worse beats. But what killed me was the guy bragging in the chat afterwards about how he "played the hand perfectly".

Wow. Perfectly, huh? So he calls a utg raise preflop from middle position with T8s. Is that "perfect"? Try "-EV". "Stoopid" maybe. Try "horrible" even. It's a call with several players still to act behind him, of an utg raise, with a middle sooted one-gapper. This is the stuff that donkeys are made of. Then the dinkhead compounds his assity by calling a potbet on the flop with just the naked flush draw. More -EV bullshit. I'm not saying I've never seen this before. I'm not saying I've never even done it myself -- not usually though. But when I do, I don't go around claiming that I played the hand "perfectly". That was a majorly fucked up hand that this guy played, and he got incredibly lucky to have lived to tell about it. I let him know that there was zero chance of him retaining his chip lead in this basically winner-take-all event with 64 players, a fact the truth of which I had absolutey no doubt whatsoever about.

Well, that was before I logged in on Sunday to see where the clown ended up, how early his horrible preflop and flop play cost him his shot at glory in a big WPT or WSOP event. And there he was, right at the fucking top! This guy started off being a fuckfool against me, and it just never stopped. He rode my shit all the way to the 12k prize package. After the fantasy football shit that was already going down, this thing really set me off, let me tell you. I can't stand it enough already as it is when full tilt rewards the donkeys for their horrible play on an individual hand. But to reward a guy all the way through a 4-hour tournament, it was just too much for me to handle in the midst of my ghey fantasy football loss at the hands of the triumvirate of Hilliard, Fargas and Curry. What a joke.

Then let's talk a little bit more about lucksacks. So I sit down to the Big Game on Sunday night, and on Hand #1, Astin takes the pot preflop and shows pocket Kings. On Hand #2, he flops the nut straight against Iak's flopped 2nd-nut straight. On Hand #3, he has pocket Queens, and flops a set to boot. On Hand #9 he wins the pot with a bet on the flop, and flashes pocket Kings again. On Hand #11 he cracks someone's pocket Aces with his flopped nut straight. By 10:39pm ET, less than 40 minutes in to the tournament, Astin has shown his fourth pocket Kings. He did claim in the chat that he had been dealt no pocket Aces at all to that point though, poor guy! Can you imagine? No AA in 39 minutes in a big blonkament? How do some people do it? In all seriousness though, congratulations out to Astin who rode all those pocket pairs to the huge last-minute victory to play his way in to the ToC in addition to $1242 cash money. His heads-up battle with Maudie was one for the ages, with both players seesawing into 3-or 4-to-1 chip leads at one point before Astin powered back into the lead for the last time with K3 vs J3 on a 932 flop or some shit like that. He then made a huge call of Maudie's allin reraise preflop with his QJo, and when Maudie flipped up 44, Astin proceeded to cap off his big night by turning a straight to nab the win. It was super fun to watch and I personally am really fucking happy for the guy who has been the runner-up so many times in the BBTwo and finally gets his chance to be the big kahuna. Just awesome.

Speaking of the Big Game, I also watched a blogger call an allin rerereraise preflop with AQo maybe 7 minutes in. Of course this blogger is up against the only donkey in history who rerereraises preflop with A2, and of course it's a Queen on the flop and the blogger doubles early. I'm sure I'll read all about the "read" on that hand. Actually, I won't because I won't be reading anything about that performance. Suffice it to say, it is just about the most shining example of bad, lucksacky tournament poker that I could come up with without seeing it myself. Eight fucking minutes in to a tournament that everybody who hasn't yet won a ToC seat wants to win, and you're calling an allin rerereraise with AQo. Good stuff. And then of course there were the donkorific "nice hand" comments in the chat. Nice hand? Nice hand? The last thing this person needs is a yes-man saying nice hand after a play like that. To people who don't show a lot of introspection about their game, yes-men are the worst possible thing. And coupled with everything else I had going on already on Sunday, this business was seriously more than my fragile psyche could take.

Meanwhile, I also played in Chad's Blogger Skill Game. Sadly this turned out to be anything but. I can't stand the way that in any limit of HORSE I've ever played, people will just stay in and draw with anything all the way to the river. I often joke how you would need to raise the limits up to $50,000 - $100,000 to get people to play the game like they should, and I think I'm right. For a lousy $30 buyin, someone chased a flush early, calling bets on three streets against me before hitting on 7th to take a fifth of my stack after I played perfectly and the other guy played assily. Then a few minutes later I made two low pairs on 4th street in stud hi, so I had to bet out every street. Someone called the whole way with just one high pair, and hit a second pair on the river. By the time I made the nut flush on sixth street in stud hi -- all three of these gheyass hands occurring within the first 25 minutes of the tournament, mind you -- and lost to another player's full house, I was completely over the edge and lost all control.

What does that mean, that I "lost all control", you ask? Well, it's simple. In the Big Game, I called an allin on the flop against a big stack when I held nothing at all, knowng I was heading to the rail. I had the window shut long before even seeing the flop, and I felt better instantly. In the "skill game", I autobet and autoraised just about every hand I could possibly get away with in every game, taking all of 13 minutes to purposefully donk from 3600 chips to out to bust as gigli in the first ever game of this type. I'm sure there will be more of these HORSE events, and frankly I think it's a great idea, but as I write this I have to say it feels like I will not be playing blogger HORSE again anytime soon. Not for this buyin anyways. When you're ready to start up a 100k buyin HORSE blonkament, someone please let me know. Edit: at least somebody with some actual skills ended up winning this event, as Chad busted out with the victory in his inaugural HORSE tournament, so congratualtions to him as he somehow overcame what had to be a 10-to-1 chip deficit when heads-up play began and I decided to hit the sack.

So anyways, how many of you out there can honestly say that you've 100% purposefully donked off a $75 buyin and a $30 buyin over the span of 15 minutes just because you knew, knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that you would be happier not to be playing? My guess is not many. Some, maybe, but not many. And you know what? I was right! I mean, within seconds of closing out those two games, my tilt began to recede and my mood started to improve. I had just gotten myself all out of whack due to a bunch of different things I had the misfortune of seeing, and my lack of ability to compartmentalize these things instead of letting them overtake my emotions. And turning off the pc was the smartest, most +EV thing (mentally and financially) I could have done when I did on Sunday -- trust me on that one.

I actually need to get better at sometimes just turning off the poker and moving on to something else that makes me happy. That much is obvious. Last night my "happy place" was watching the finale of "Dexter" with Hammer Wife -- easily the best show this year that no one has ever heard of. The finale wasn't quite as good as the last few episodes IMO, but that is more a commentary on how awesome this show got near the end than on the badness of the finale, which was really very well done and enjoyable and tied up all the good loose ends as the second season came to a close. So after poker to cool down I watched "Dexter", and I played a bunch with my new toy -- the Sprint HTC Touch phone. This is something I picked up on Friday, and the thing just blows me away. Not only will it help me to blog from right under my dorkwork's collective noses, but the shit has everything -- music, email, high-speed internet, touch screen, finger-scrolling, TV, and oh yeah, it's actually a phone too! I'm sure I'll write more about this one day soon, but for now suffice it to say that it was Dexter Morgan and my HTC that helped me to get over my funk on Sunday night, and to get me ready to face the online poker world again on Monday for the first non-BBTwo tournament I've held in quite some time:



Tonight's MATH will be BBT-free, a nice change for me and I know several of my blogger friends who grow tired of the constant scoring and so much riding on the performances in each. And tonight again we will be playing 6-max no-limit holdem, $26 buyin, password as always is "hammer". 10pm ET on full tilt. See you then as I try to start a new week at the virtual tables the way I've ended the past few, on a nice winning streak, and tilt-free at that. Whatever you all can do to help me on that front will be much appreciated. Including calling allin rerereraises preflop just 8 minutes in with AQo. Please give me summa that if at all possible.

See you tonight for Mondays at the Hoy on full tilt!!

The Tiltmonkey Returns

Wow. It seems a regular old night at the 1-2 nlh ring tables on full tilt has now led to a two-day (and counting) tilt-bender from another blogger. How much longer will it last? I guess we'll have to wait and see. Ima just buy some popcorn while I sit back and enjoy the show.

A fellow blogger commented to me last night in the girly chat how Tuesday was a whole day full of disputes in the poker blogiverse. I asked this person what they were talking about, and they referred to the silliness on my blog (I didn't realize I was having a fight with anyone, actually, although it seems somebody got pretty tilted, directing the anger mostly at me for some strange reason). This guy then referred to the Waffles - Smokkee thing, which I also didn't see as a big deal. I mean, so Waffles thinks Smokkee's been playing a bit tight recently. Smokkee semi-agrees with that sentiment in his blog, and frankly I would go so far as to say that I have often had a similar reaction when I've been running as bad as Smokkee has lately with his big hands. Then this person also mentioned the Waffles - Chad thing, which was a little bit pissy but still to me nothing worth getting your panties into a twist about. I mean basically, Chad I guess had been typing in "King King King" into the chat when Waffles got allin with 32 players left in the inaugural 50-50 tournament two nights ago on full tilt, when Waffles had an A2 and his opponent had K7 or something like that. The King hit on the river and Waffles was eliminated, and then he had complained in his blog about Chad rooting against him. Now while I'm not saying I would have enjoyed the taunt-chatting or whatever it was in that spot either, in general as far as I'm concerned I'm a firm believer that anybody can say whatever they want in the chat, and it would never bother me. As much as I've tilted only about a million times from poker, in all cases it's been from things that have happened to me with the cards, and/or the incredible luck I've seen go against me after thousands and thousands of hours of online play. But nobody has ever tilted me from the online poker chat in as long as I have played the game, or as long as I ever will play the game. Nobody. Period. If somebody roots against me, so be it. The Waffles we all know and love should not be complaining about that in his blog. He had a great run and played very well in a new tournament, a lot of guys we know were there to see it, and that's that. I don't care if someone was typing "die die die" about me in a tournament I was playing in, it shouldn't and doesn't really matter in my view. I wouldn't complain -- I've had people root against me at the poker tables about 10,000 times since becoming a blogger, and I've managed to gather a ton of haters out there, and I've never complained about it on my blog or even cared about it really. So to me, none of these things from Tuesday were actually big deals, although I will admit it made for some interesting reading throughout the day.

Anyways, I'm still trying to figure out how does someone get so tilted and angry at me from what happened at the cash tables the other night? In fact, as I reviewed all the hand histories and all the screenshots and all the chat, I really don't even know why I became such a focus of scorn for this poor guy. I think it was that hand where I moved allin over the top for 400-some dollars into a $30-something pot that really set the guy off. Not sure why that has to engender so much anger. So what if I knew exactly what my opponent had on that hand and made a calculated move to try to school someone who doesn't know not to overplay longshot hands against hands that are clearly well ahead. Is that really enough to set someone off on a two day tilt-rage? Wow. I guess some people are even more unstable than me out there. All I know is, I couldn't be happier if an opponent started moving allin for huge sums of money in massive cash game overbets when I've been betting and raising. I imagine I would stack that person even faster than I stacked this other blogger the other night. I mean, so you lost a significant portion of your full tilt bankroll at that game. Big deal. How many other times have you busted yourself by playing 73s and 52o and hands like that? Tens? Hundreds? Something tells me the guy will come up with some more money soon and will be back at the tables playing his particular brand of "poker" before we know it. Which I look forward to btw. Immensely.

Anyways ignoring all the silliness and anger in the comments and from the tiltmonkey's blog, which I think I will let speak for itself and leave at that, Jordan made some interesting comments about collusion and just generally about people chatting at the poker table that I found interesting and thought I would write about today.

First off, here is the hand history of the hand where this tilty blogger busted for the last time the other night:

Full Tilt Poker Game #2707052363: Table Hidden Quail - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:16:37 ET - 2007/06/19
Seat 1: bayne_s ($239.40)
Seat 2: RecessRampage ($190.60)
Seat 3: GimmeFiction ($261.25)
Seat 4: hoyazo ($433.25)
Seat 5: Victim ($137.45)
Seat 6: steamingdonkey1 ($234.60)
Seat 7: MAROMB78 ($236.35), is sitting out
Seat 8: TwistedDonkey ($229.05)
Seat 9: yobabysdaddy ($168.90)
GimmeFiction posts the small blind of $1
hoyazo posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Victim [Qh Qd]
Victim: oh in some tournament?
Victim has 15 seconds left to act
Victim raises to $7
steamingdonkey1 folds
RecessRampage: no in cash game
TwistedDonkey folds
yobabysdaddy calls $7
bayne_s folds
Victim: oh... was that $25 NL?
RecessRampage raises to $31
GimmeFiction folds
hoyazo has 15 seconds left to act
hoyazo folds
RecessRampage: dude, I don't have details
Victim has 15 seconds left to act
Victim has requested TIME
hoyazo: foldy foldy
hoyazo: ATo no good here
RecessRampage: lol
Victim raises to $137.45, and is all in
yobabysdaddy folds
RecessRampage: lmao
RecessRampage calls $106.45
Victim shows [Qh Qd]
RecessRampage shows [Ac Ad]
*** FLOP *** [2h 4c 5h]
*** TURN *** [2h 4c 5h] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [2h 4c 5h Jc] [Kc]
Victim shows a pair of Queens
RecessRampage shows a pair of Aces
RecessRampage wins the pot ($281.90) with a pair of Aces
MiamiDon (Observer): oops
Victim is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $284.90 | Rake $3
Board: [2h 4c 5h Jc Kc]
Seat 1: bayne_s didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: RecessRampage (button) showed [Ac Ad] and won ($281.90) with a pair of Aces
Seat 3: GimmeFiction (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: hoyazo (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Victim showed [Qh Qd] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 6: steamingdonkey1 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: MAROMB78 is sitting out
Seat 8: TwistedDonkey didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: yobabysdaddy folded before the Flop

***

On several occasions in blog comments Jordan refers to inappropriate chat that occurred in this hand, and to inappropriately "goading" other players to make certain plays. I guess I just don't see what is wrong in this hand. You can see the chat above. Did anyone say anything in appropriate there? I'd be interested to know what it was if anyone out there thinks someone said something that was "wrong" in some way from a poker perspective. I mean, Alan and Victim had just been discussing a previous hand where Victim had pushed allin with ATo, so when Victim raised and then Alan reraised, I typed in my usual "foldy foldy, ATo no good here." If you think that is somehow inappropriate chat at a blogger cash table, then I'm not sure what to think. I don't see what's inappropriate there. I haven't seen Jordan play a whole lot of blogger cash recently, and maybe that's part of the problem here, because this kind of thing goes on all the time at these tables, and it's just fine IMO. In most cases it's the whole reason we're playing at these tables to begin with. It's fun and we're here to chat it up and have a good time.

Am I somehow to blame for Victim's stacking there with the QQ? Am I somehow to blame, as Victim claims on his "blog", for Victim's allin reraise with the QQ there, just because I typed in "foldy foldy, ATo no good here" in the table chat? You can't really believe that, can you anyone out there? Anyone who thinks that was inappropriate, I would love to understand why.

Jordan also made the general comment here yesterday that "Even in friendly blogger games, its extremely wrong to tell someone how to act, even if you are doing it in a kidding way."

I don't think I agree with this statement, at least not in its generality, and I would love to know if you out there feel differently. I mean, for starters, I 100% agree in many specific instances it is wrong to comment. For example, I'm playing at a random non-blogger live cash table in some casino, and I limp from utg, some guy raises from MP, and then I reraise him preflop when the action gets back to me for all the rest of my chips on a massive overraise. The guy is clearly thinking of calling, and then some guy at the table who has played a lot of hands with me but doesn't know the other guy yells out "Hey donkey, Hoy limped utg and then reraised over the top allin, he clearly has pocket Aces so GET OUT!". The guy thinks and then folds his hand, flipping up pocket Queens to show what he's folding. That would piss me off, and it would be completely inappropriate in my view. So in that sense I think Jordan is clearly correct, and in fact I really can't see entertaining any argument that says otherwise. That's not proper poker conduct IMO, period.

However, Jordan's statement completely ignores the situation of a player who is currently involved in a hand trying to influence another player currently involved in the hand to make a certain play, an omission which I'm not sure was intentional or not. So, for example, if I have the nuts, is it "wrong" of me somehow to pause for 3 minutes before I smooth call an opponent's bet on the flop, just to try to convince him to bet or call more chips off to me later in the hand due to my weak act when I am in fact stronger than strong? To me, that's just poker. Great poker, if I don't say so myself. Similarly, is it wrong of me to type "Oh well I'll just take a chance" into the chat before I reraise allin preflop in an online poker game, when I know in fact that I am holding pocket Aces and will be dominatingly ahead of any hand my opponent might call with? Is that somehow inappropriate activity at the poker table in any of your minds? Because if you say it is, then #1 every single blogger I know has been guilty of this from time to time, and #2, you're wrong. Deception, trickery, and goading an opponent into calling are all part of poker, and to suggest that telling someone else at the table how to act is "extremely wrong" is I think too flip at best, and probably just a downright inaccurate statement overall. Do you people out there disagree with me on this?

I also think Jordan's statement is too extreme in that I think the line tends to get blurred when you're playing with guys you know, and/or sitting in a friendly game. And I certainly think the last part of Jordan's statement, "even if you are doing it in a kidding way", is a fuzzy line at best.

For example, I sat at the mgm poker room at a 1-2 table for more than 20 hours over two days last weekend in Las Vegas, and during most of that time we probably had an average of 7 or 8 bloggers around a 10-person table, making for a lot of fun times across the board, but also a lot of table chatter amongst the group as some of us knew each other, and even among the strangers since we were playing in a very friendly, jokey kind of a game. There were numerous hands where I made a big preflop raise, it folded around to a guy who had limped across the table, and he had a conversation with another blogger sitting next to him about his decision before folding his hand. So what? That didn't bother me in the least. Some of those times I had a monster and really wanted him to call. Others of those times I was bluffing out my ass and really wanted him to fold. The other blogger dude didn't know what I had in my hand any more than the stranger guy did. It didn't bother me, and I don't think it violated some written or unwritten rule of poker in that context. It was a friendly game, there was tons of table chatter going on and I not only thought that was ok, but I enjoyed the chatter. In fact, as I've written about previously, that kind of chat, analysis and comaraderie made the weekend as far as I'm concerned.

Similarly, there were times at that mgm cash table where some blogger at the other end of the table raised big preflop after two limpers from our end, where I know we then proceeded to have some discussion at our end of the table about what the other guy likely had, including with two or more players at our end who were still involved in the hand. Since none of us really knew what the other guy had, and it was openly a friendly, chatty game to all the players involved, this didn't bother anyone at the table and again, I say that sort of stuff is a lot of what made playing with my friends so much fun.

And as far as telling players what to do at the table "in a kidding way", I just don't think anyone is going to convince me that it's wrong of me to say something like "Uh oh, better fold that Hammer!" when a guy gets reraised preflop at a blogger cash table. It's not inappropriate to say that. It's a joke, it's funny and it's enjoyed by everyone at the table. So what if the other guy has pocket Aces and was hoping for a call. I agree that it's a fine line, but IMO it should be just fine for someone to jokingly suggest that another player fold a hand to a raise, in particular at a friendly, jokey table full of friendly, jokey guys.

Lastly, I should also note that in the tiltmonkey's blog I see the following quote in the comments:

"I do remember your consoling chat after the hand, although it did take the back seat having been in the midst of all the digs directed towards me; all of which I think were entirely uncalled for, hence my complaints."

I will say this once, and a lot of other bloggers were there who can confirm or deny my impression, but the "digs" at this table were nonexistent at first, until the tiltmonkey blogger himself took it upon himself to refer to me as an "idiot tournament player" in the chat, after which point a number of the players at the table and on the rail escalated things (escalation which I was barely even a participant in, btw). Now, I can talk smack with the best of 'em, and I surely didn't mind in the slightest, tiniest little bit that comment directed at me. I enjoyed it, because it showed the extreme frustration and tilt that my move in that hand had created in the tilty blogger. So the comment calling me an idiot didn't faze me in the least, and I didn't mention it, complain about it, or even remember it until I saw it listed in a hand history on the tiltmonkey's blog this morning. But how does a guy complain in his blog about "digs directed at him", all of which being "entirely uncalled for", after he makes that statement above to another guy at the table and that statement is what started the "digs" to begin with? That my friends is what we call L-A-M-E.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen, right? Nobody asked this tilter to start calling people names at the table, and in the end he showed how little he can take it in despite being very willing to dish it out first. Nobody cared about the names he started throwing around at the table either, don't get me wrong, but people shouldn't have to read him crying in his blog the next morning about uncalled for digs at him when he was the one calling people names in the first place and turning the chat from regular, fun and funny blogger chat into tilting rude commentary about other people's games.

Now go and pay this guy the money you owe him please. Hasn't several months been enough time by now?

See you tonight in the Mookie (10pm ET on full tilt, password as always is "vegas1"), and don't forget to re-read this post from my blog the other day before you head into tonight's latest BBT tournament. And for tonight's special bounty, anyone who manages to bust current BBT crusher Bayne within the first five players out today will receive a $11 transfer from me via full tilt to buy you in to next week's Mookie tournament.