Ugarte updated his site with: Ugarte’s bursa303 Grovel #9. Great write up of a game in Colorado and the home game on Monday. Here’s the highlights:
Ugarte’s Poker Grovel #9 or Mayday! Mayday!… Two games to report about, but only one is a story I really want to tell. One game was a silly affair in the Colorado mountains for stakes that small children would laugh at. I did quite well. The second was a game at Ferrari’s place for home game stakes (2/4 for blind games and 5max raise for stud). It went quite poorly.
In front of Pauly and the entire staff of Rick’s, I was kicked and beaten and left bleeding. Perhaps that is a bit dramatic, but I did lose $140, and it wasn’t pretty.
I’d like to start with the small stakes game, but to the extent that anyone reads this at all, they are probably coming from other poker blogs, so I guess that I should start with the serious game. No matter how much it hurts to try to remember.
I don’t even remember the details of where it went so wrong. All I know is that in the second hand of the night, I dropped almost my entire $60 buy-in in a hand of 2/4 Omaha/8. I suppose it makes me a poor blogger that I remember almost nothing about the hand. I remember that the pot was insanely large…
The depressing tally:
Rick +210
Ferrari +45.50 (though he somehow ended up with $46)
Christian +36 (impressive comeback after an early $200 hole)
Sugarta +0.50 (which Ferrari “forgot” to give him)
Pauly -12 (nice to meet a fellow blogger; hope he comes back)
Coach -34
Swish -100 (I think. He had some serious swings and went on full tilt to end the night.)
Ugarte -140 (Jesus. Did I just write that?)
Rick played his ass off. He was aggressive. He played strong hands well and represented enough tightness that when he bet, people backed off.
Blogger Tourney Odds…
Man, I took a lot of heat for the opening (and adjusted) lines for the first WBT event, the Grublog Classic on Feb. 22. Alas, I am an entertainer at heart and this site and everything I post to the Tao of Poker should not be taken too seriously! The lines were for entertainment purposes only! It’s not like I’m actually taking bets on the Grublog Classic for my lucrative bookmaking scheme (which is basically Haley with a cellphone, a newspaper, and a notebook jotting down “steam bets” from seasoned alcoholics in the NYC metro area).
Oh my, I took a fair amount of ribbing from Felicia for picking The Fat Guy!
Even TFG had something to say… “Now that’s good for a laugh or fifteen! Everybody on that list would have me walking back to Houston in one orbit.”
Chris Halverson suggested… “If you believe that then you must be more drunk than I am. Pauly, lay off the crack pipe at breakfast. 5-1? Riiiiight. Maybe in Bizarro world…”
Indeed, the next time I post the adjusted odds I will consult a panel of experts, which will include my brother Derek, Haley, Seven Fingered Vinny, my doorman Jose, and Ina… the Russian girl from the salon on Broadway who does Haley’s bikini waxes. Ina’s English is not that good… but she knows her poker. It’s rumored that she won her airfare to America by shaking down Russian sailors near the Capsian Sea. Stay tuned… for the new lines formulated by my “motely crew”.
Oh, and for the record… I only smoke crack during prime-time! The frenzied, cooked, cocaine high makes network TV slightly more edible.
The Zen of Iggy
Great post today from Iggy about become winning players. Here’s a sample:
And that’s what it takes to become a winning player…. It takes a gut-check of our emotional discipline at the table to play each hand as they come, one by one, to shrug off the bad beats and play each hand in a vacuum. Don’t think about the money, the last hand, the last hour. Just focus on playing *this* hand correctly.
Indeed, Iggy is right. Live in the moment and focus all your energy on the now instead of the before and after.
Masao Abe, Toshihiko Izutsu, Keiji Nishitani… Iggy? Yes, Iggy! Your name shall be added to the list of great Zen philosophers!
