Gumby Poker

As always, please send my some feedback either through a comment or an e-mail. I'd like to hear from any of my readers. Regular readers may be confused because I did yet another change. Yes, this may get annoying, but I think I'm finished with the changes. I wanted to add more content to my site and felt that this template would allow me to do so. I hope this one sticks, plus the Gumby color is nice!

Went to the Cubs game yesterday and man was it hot. My girlfriend bought one of those spray bottles with a fan attached. Definitely worth the $15. I got some sun and the Cubbies won! Good times!

I've been told I'm getting a little over $100 in rakeback this month so that'll be a bonus. Haven't played a whole lot so any bit helps. I see that Absolute is running satellites to the WPT Legends Tournament in California. Maybe I'll try to win a seat for that through AP. It's at the end of August, so wish me luck.

Good Luck to Everybody Else Too!

GUMBY

To my avid or even not so avid readers, drop me a line, either through a comment or an e-mail. My e-mail is at the right of the page or here, pokergumby@hotmail.com.

Last night, I played in a multi-table tourney for $5 at Full Tilt Poker. There were 561 people in it and man did I get unlucky. I ended up cashing in 45th place, but got screwed a few times. I was short stacked from the middle throughout the end. This one player is in love with K-J and no matter what I did he'd call with it. Yes, call with it. I had the best hand both times, Ace high and won one and lost the other to get myself short stacked.

I had a player call an all in for double the pot on a flush draw and catch it on me. WOW! I know it's only $5, but when there are under 100 players, and first place is around $800, you don't play like that. Shit! I was short stacked in sb with 10-4 os. I doubled the blind, they were 400-800 and I get called. Flop of J-10-4 rainbow. I check hoping to get a bet and the BB moves all in for a little more than I had. INSTACALL. He shows K-9. What hits the river, a queen! Sonuvabitch! I'm out in 45th and get $9 for my effort, only a $4 profit.

I had been playing loose once I got short stacked because I read an article on short stack playing. It said that you can either play supertight and fold until you get a hand, which you may never get, and eventually get blinded down. Or go all in a lot and try to pick up the blinds and antes for another round. It said to stay above 7-8 big blinds to make sure people would need to pick up a hand to beat you. This is what I did and it worked successfully because eventually I got a caller when I had KK and he had K-Q. The strategy works and I'm going to employ this everytime I get short stacked.

I wasn't worried about the bubble in this tourney because it was only a few bucks, but other larger tourneys may see my play change during that timeframe. If I were to satellite into a $100 or more tourney, then the bubble money would be worth it. However, if I'm going to get that far into a tourney, I would rather try to play for the big money, because it doesn't happen often.

One of these days I'll hit a big one. I don't have nearly enough time to play in the tourneys that I want to.

Good Luck,

GUMBY

I went camping in Eagle River Wisconsin with some friends this past week. We went from Friday and I got back Tuesday night. One of our friend's parents own a nice cabin on a lake. While we're there, everybody's talking about the casino that's about a half hour away in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and I hear they have a poker room. I'm in. The only concern I had was time constraint. Poker games can run long.

I actually brought home a $1 chip as a souvenir and so I can get the name of the casino right. Lac Vieux Desert Casino was the name.

We get to there around 7ish after dinner. I had a 1lb. Burger with fried onions and cheese. Amazing! Small Indian casino and I didn't even tell anybody where I was going, I think they knew anyways. Go into the small poker room with 4 tables and only about 8 people in there. No games going. There's a sign that says Sunday tournament and I ask about it. They say it's already over. Ok. Why isn't there anybody playing then?

A few old guys, definitely regulars, are waiting for a game and I find out that they play 1/2 NL with a $100 max buy-in. I don't usually play NL, but I brought $100 for gambling and I'm going to spend it on either poker or blackjack. Guess what I did?

I sit down and wait for the action to start. We end up beginning with 4 players, the 3 old guys and me. Each of us bought in for $100 and I find out that 2 of them had just did well in the tourney. Sweet, loose callers with deep pockets. We begin and I'm BB. First had make 2 pair on turn with no callers. Second hand in SB, make a flush on turn and take the first 2 pots for about $20. Nice start. The table begins to fill up and now we have 9 players.

Lots of loose callers preflop and lots of limpers. Just my type of game. I also realize that this is an 18 and over casino so the under 21 fish are already tagged with a wristband. NICE! Few interesting hands to list here.

In BB with pocket 8s. 4 limpers. I check. Flop JJ8. I bet $7 hoping for a raise. 1 caller. He's got a Jack. I'm thinking no 10-J-Q-K-A. Turn comes low and I bet $15. He calls. River low, I bet $25. He thinks and I hope he raises. This kid has been betting with weak aces and playing a lot of hands. He just calls and I say full house and he shows his A-J. Shit, I should have checked the turn. Oh well, moving on.

Took a small pot down with 55 when nobody bets a King high flop with a preflop raise. King hits turn and I bet to take it down.

I get A-Q suited in mid position with 2 limpers in front of me. I make it $15 to go and I get a caller behind me and 1 limper to move allin for another $4. A limper raises, smells of pocket pair. Tournament I call, cash I raise. I raise it $40 more. The guy who won the tournament calls. He only has $18 in front of him so I'm basically betting blind. Flop comes, Ace high. I bet the $18 and he call with K-Q with a gutshot draw. Early position limper has 9s and no help to either of them and I take down a nice pot.

Lost some money when I played loose with a definite calling station. He bets a 9 high flop when called preflop to my raise with A-Q. I try to bully him and he calls. He bets small $8 on K turn and I should've realized that he was playing the hand to the end. He had A-9. Still up.

Lost another $20 when tight old mann(TOM), solid, makes the nut flush on turn with my 2nd pair jacks. I had A-J and raised preflop to $8. 4 callers. Q high flop and checks around. Turn makes 3 diamonds on board and I checks around. River blank and TOM makes a $15 bet and I call. He flips the nut flush with A-5 and I say nice hand.

I'm still up, but I made a big mistake where I should have hooked the fish. Early position players makes it $7 and I've got the button with 77. I call and 3 to the flop of K-Q-7. SB bets $10, this is the calling station next to me. Preflop raiser calls and I make it $50, a pot sized bet. Couple thoughts and 2 folds. I thought for sure I'd get a call. A little mistake that cost me some money, but I don't usually play NL so I'm happy with my $112 winnings. I get up when 3 fish bust out and there looks like solid players about to buy in. I can play with them, but would rather take the easy money and run. Should've had at least $50 more, but I'm happy because I'd have to play limit longer for a $100 or more win.

I keep a $1 chip for a souvenir and take another $10 for my girlfriend to play her favorite nickel slot. The Double Diamond. We sit there for a little while for some entertainment. $10 for 45 minutes is good.

The poker room host was very nice and hospitable. Got a free drink for playing. This casino runs WPT satellites every so often and larger $200 buy ins. I wish I lived closer to this casino, but then I'd be living in the woods. All in all, a good trip. Lots of drinking, boating, tubing, and drinking. We polished off 7 cases and an 18 pack of beer between 4 guys. An occasional beer was drank by the women, but they were mostly on mixers.

Not for me, but an update on my play at Full Tilt Poker. Real bad players and real bad suckouts. I have been getting killed by suckouts for about a week. I'll have the best hand preflop, on the flop, on the turn, and then get fucked by the river. It's like nobody believes that anybody ever actually has a had. I got called on a flop with top pair, 10s, I had A-10, by somebody with J-8 with no pair, no draw. Hits the Jack on turn and makes 3 of a kind on the river. Can they see something that I can't?

I put in $600 to get the 100% bonus, but it clears sooooo slow. I've played about 10 hours and it has only cleared $35. At Absolute, I can multi table 1/2 and make about $30 an hour from them. It goes into my account every $20. So I'm down $260. I'm going to try and get it back up to around $700 then cash out $600. I haven't been able to play in the tournaments there yet, but am looking forward to it because they have some good ones.

Badger Poker

I played in the freeroll bar tournaments last night and I did pretty well. It was like a deepstacks rebuy tournament because he was giving away 5K chips for every raffle ticket bought. He has raffling off Packers and Brewers tickets, a seat in the finals, and a poker chip set. I bought 2 tix for an additional 10K and didn't win anything. Some players would get short stacked and go buy more raffle tickets. Funny stuff.

I played fairly solid early. it helped getting good cards. A-Q, Jacks twice, and flopped 2 pair with K-Q in BB. I slow played them preflop by checking, then got some action from a loose player to my left. I check raised the flop, I made it 10K to go and still got a call. It's like an online freeroll, except you get to hear the players thoughts. Bad poker players cannot shut up.

After the first break, our tables get moved around. I have 41K. Some guy sits down to my right, who proceeds to play every 8 out of 10 hands. 3/4 of those he min. raises. I'm just waiting for a hand. That'll come later. I play tight, get Queens twice. Once I was in BB when solid tight player bets 2nd utg. Makes it 6K, two callers, then I push all in. Everybody folds, I pick up some loose callage.

Down to 4 tables and my first real mistake. A guy who never raises, bets on the turn of an Ace high board. He tries to bet 2K when the minimum is 4K. I take this as weakness, not a guy who doesn't know what betting actually is. I check raise him all in with bottom pair 4s and get called. He has A-J and I'm short stacked with 22K.

Break down to 3 tables and I triple up with K-J against pocket 7s and I think it was a 4-6 os. Big stack who didn't care. I sit tight and fold most hands when I get 99 in the small blind. 1 limper and the button, Mr. Minraiser, minraises to 20K. At this point he has a ton of chips. I move all in quickly, then the BB pushes all in. He had more than me. Limper folds, and the button goes, "uhhhhhhh, uhhhhhhh, uhhhhhh, uhhhhhhh. I guess I'll call." I figure these boys for 3 overs. I was wrong to who had what though. I figured the uhhh guy for a weak Ace, I've seen him call all-ins with them, and the other guy for maybe K-Q. Minraiser had K-10 and the BB had A-5 sooooted. No real help on flop. Nothing on turn, then BAM, river 10. The guy who is horrible at cards now has even more chips.

I was steaming. I can't stand these players and would love to play them for real money. The odds couldn't work in their favor enough to make it worth their while.

Maybe I'll try again next week. We'll see.

GUMBY

I played in a $4K Guaranteed rebuy at AbsolutePoker.com I played well with my original buy-in + 1 add on after the first hour. Payed the top 9 and I went out in 18th when my broadway straight with A-K lost to a full house on the river. Click here for image.

Badger Poker Freeroll

Last night, I went a played a live freeroll at a local bar through a group called Badger Poker. Around 80 people. Made some good plays early. We start with 10K in chips and get more for drinks and food so I began with 14K. Blinds start at 200-400 and get to 400-800 by the end of the first hour. So first hour play is usually wild.

Blinds 300-600. I limped in early position with K-J suited. I noticed that the pot was frequently uncontested pre-flop. BB raises. 4 to the flop. I've got position. Checks around on flop, no help to me. Turn, no apparent help to anybody, and the bettor bets. I call, other players fold. 2 to the river. I'm hoping for a small card so I can bluff him off his A-whatever. Small card and he checks. I make a 5K chip bets and he says you got it showoff. I didn't show my bluff and rake in a big one.

Right before the break, I won a coin flip with 10-10 against a guy's A-Q. Nice. Then this hand came up when tables were condensed. After the second break.

I was in the BB with A-Q and I don't look at my cards until it gets to me. Blinds 1K-2K. Guy I know as tight solid limps in mid position. This guy won a Badger Poker satellite in Vegas to get a buy-in to the WPT $5K event in Reno and busted out on the bubble in 45th or so place in the WPT event. Before I thought he was awful, but I think he has improved and plays fairly conservative.

Onward, SB calls and I make it 6K to go. He makes it 12K. SB folds, and now I'm thinking. What can he limp raise with here. Not utg and doesn't expect a raise from me because I play strong hands strong. I don't get aggressive with junk. As I'm thinking, I put him on pocket 7s at the highest pp. He may have A-K, but that probably would have raised too. So I'm either a coin flip or have him beat with a weaker ace. If I call and miss, I can get out, but I decide to move all in and he calls. What does he have? Pocket 6s. Good read and an even better move, especially when the flop doesn't have hit my hand. The turn does, making me a pair of aces and him a straight and flush draw. River blanks for a great double up.

Going down to the wire with 2 tables left, people are getting knocked out left and right. One girl gets lucky with K-Q against 3 other players. One with 9s, one with A-K, and another mucked. 2 players were all in preflop and she makes a pair of queens on flop and two pair kings and queens on the river. She has a mountain of chips now, but is to my right. She likes to see flops with garbage too, like K-6 os. She limped with it and I raised with my A-7 to grab her limp and the blinds.

I got lucky when we're down to 11 with A-5 spades against A-K os. I raised with 5 players, and tight old man goes all in. I don't have many chips so I'm stuck. I just hoped he had K-Q like he had before when he went all in. Nope. I hit runner-runner flush and am still alive. Player gets knocked out at other table so we combine to final table.

Blinds are now 5K-10K. I had about 75K so short stacked, but most of us were, except the mountain of chips girl. I don't play a hand until 2 are knocked out, then I try a steal with 4-5 diamonds and get reraised by aces. Oops! I get my chips in decent when 3 players are all in after I limp and would still had some chips left if I called and lost, only 15K. I call 3 short stack all ins with 4s and am looking at A-K, A-Q, and A-J. Not too bad. First card off is the case ace. Had a straight draw on turn, but it didn't hit.

Next hand all in blind for 15K in my BB. Mountain of chips girl says, "I'll donate from early position." What does she have 10-4 os? Nope, J-8 os and made a pair of 8s on river to beat my flopped pair of 4s. GG. I'm done in 6th place. I'm happy with my play. I could've played tigher and lasted, but I was trying to get lucky and afterall, it is a freeroll. Maybe next week. They have cash prizes next week anyways.

I watched the Professional Poker Tour's first episode and I've got some feedback. The announcers are bad. It's hard to find pairs that work well together like the WSOP guys, and Mike and Vince. I'm surprised Mark Seif isn't playing in the PPT and got suckered into hosting.

Am I to understand that this tour is a freeroll for these players by exploiting them on the Travel Channel for however much money. I wonder how you get into this league. I see players that I don't recognize and there are only 130 or so professional players. I'm just waiting to see Chris Moneymaker play against all pros all the time in an actual tournament format. I don't consider Poker Superstars on Fox Sports to be a tournament, just luck. Push with good hands and hope you don't get cracked. Jen Harman had some solid hands snapped during heads up with Chris Ferguson. Back to Chris, he's AWFUL and the luckiest player out there. If I were to get lucky for a string of days during my poker career, I'd love it to be during the WSOP main event also. However, if I was as bad as Chris, I wouldn't buy into other events because he can only lose money. Chris Moneyloser.

Enough of that sidenote, back to the PPT. The main table was sooo boring. I understand that it's the beginning of a tourney, but at least put some players at the table that will talk to each other. Noli can barely speak English, Rice was silent, but not so deadly, and whoever that woman was didn't say 1 word. I was upset when Raymer bluffed off all his chips because he likes to chat at the table and I respect his play.

Lastly, there is applause with nobody watching the event live. It's like the laugh tracks of old. Remember the Flintstones? Was there a live audience watching that taping?

I'll get an update on my play when I get another chance to right, I just needed to rant.

Good Luck,

GUMBY