One of the greats from my garage game "BillyO"

He's on SPADECLUB for only a few days now.. and look at him !

We PICK UP THE POKER ACTION with the FINAL TABLE... He's playing quality poker like Eric Seidel - WOW! BillyO is on the RAIL! (I'm with him on SKYPE at this point and we are talking MOVES to make) All the moves worked out! Even a KEY hand with him holding POCKET 4's READ ON! (Billy plays small POCKET PAIRS looser than me..)
I'm just glad it worked out for him!



















In this NEXT hand - Player MAKES a BLUFF MOVE and BILLY is ALL OVER it (saw it coming he says) He was on the RAIL in no time. (10/8 off??? - Cmon people, try to make your moves with better options.. Make em suited at least)


















Billy does a good job of using his big stack poker - He keeps the others UNDER pressure hand after hand.. He never let up..

If they limped - he raised.. If they raised - HE re-raised.. THIS PLAYER HERE - Just let BIGO take it down at the flop... (Know your players! Play the player!)



















I have no idea why the cards don't show here.. I can't remember the hand - but the other player made the PUSH - Bill with the MONSTER stack - called and TOOK IT DOWN..

You can see the "GG" remarks in the CHAT - but for some reason cards were not showing when I clicked the SCREEN SHOT.

I think BillyO had AJUNK.. but I'm not sure.

CONGRATS! TO my friend BILLYO, xfilespoker.com member and TAJ "Oh My Garage" player from years back! Billy! You come a loong way baby!

Good for you!

Yesterday it started - WSOP 2008

Well.. Another year (2008 WSOP) that I'm not going to be in Las Vegas.. You know what? That's ok with me! At least FULLTILTPOKER has the mini series for me to deal with... I have this action to look forward to and that's enough... You see.. living here in POKER DEPRIVED PENNSYLVANIA it's tough. It was like only yesterday (it seems to me) when I was there in Vegas ALL THE TIME with an average stay of 15 days.. Ahhhhh - The good old days... when GAS was cheap and flights out west were 200-300 tops.

I love Las Vegas but having a 4 year old little girl and family means much more to me .. Until she is in SCHOOL - all day. I'm staying home with the family. That, and as many of you know - I made a deal with my wife that we would PAY OFF THE HOUSE before I play in any major buy in games. This might happen NEXT year - maybe. 2010 is a LOCK if I'm still on this earth.

NOW - FOCUS HERE! GOOD STUFF COMING AT YOU IN THESE NEXT FEW LINES.. If you are looking to get a good day in day out play by play of the 2008 series.. I suggest you check out DR PAULY'S TAO OF POKER BLOG NOBODY DOES IT LIKE DR. PAULY. Pauly can get a little rough at times - but if you want the REAL FEEL of poker - you got to do it.(Newbies can thank me later for showing them the TAO OF POKER)

<<<< THIS IS A PHOTO OF DR. PAULY


Me - I'm not sad not being there - I been there done that.. (never won! Hell - never entered a major game) I covered a few series between 1994-1999 and the 2002 - 2004 and 2005. The crowds - the sounds.. I was in the heart of it all - it was awesome! But not this year.. not at this time..

I'll do what I have been doing the last few years - reading DR. PAULY and waiting for ANY poker NUGGETS on the boob tube.

Yeppers! If you are in Vegas in the next month or so - the place to be (for POKER) is at the RIO! It's an ALL SUITE hotel (I have stayed at this property many times!) I give it a 5 STAR rating... EXCEPT for it being SO DARN BIG.. Walking to the pool and back from your room can be a task... But, who the hell is going to the pool right? With all that POKER ACTION... I doubt many rounders will know if it's day or night..

So follow my advice and TAG - Dr. PAULY'S site and check in with him every day for the REAL nuggets of poker news. then come play with me in the mini series.. on FULLTILTPOKER

If you are going or are there ALREADY - GOOD LUCK! Make it happen.

I have some posts coming in the near future about a young lady that is going to play in the MAIN EVENT (SHE won her seat) and I ended up buying 5% of her action and raising another $500 for he - through donations and plan on giving that % to our local Elks Lodge. Elks care, Elks share.


So - that's about it for me today - I got some great screen shots from a game/tourney I won on FULLTILTPOKER - Funny thing was.. I won it sitting in the Elks parking lot after the BAR shut down - I had to pull close up to the building to get the wireless signal... Odd - playing poker in your car.. but hey! I won! (It was a game I really did not even want to play - Someone asked me at the bar to show them HOW TO PLAY POKER ONLINE)... lol

Another player swimming close to the "hook" of online poker. I told her to watch herself.. THE GAME IS FUN and CAN REALLY SUCK YOU IN... Here is another HOOK! Go ahead! JUMP IN! FULLTILTPOKER Sign up today!

Hope everyone is hitting quads today.

got cocky in end and well - 2nd place finish

Seems I'm the master of 90 player $10 games - but as to the $24 + games - well - NO GOOD as of yet... low 300's out of 1200+ is best I can get.

I just came in 2nd on a $10 game (90 player)

I took many screen shots - and I'm putting them up as the images tell the story best. In this FIRST SCREEN shot - you will see HOW we want our AA hands to work out... lol I knew I was in the HOT seat when I knocked out so many so early in game...




huh?? How about that one... That will get your POKER heart pumping!

Lets see the next big hand... A GOOD AMOUNT OF TIME WENT BY WITH ME FOLDING.. It did not happen for some time... Check it out.. Next major action at "27 player" to go mark...(Big part of the game - folding)











Ok - pretty cool huh - but, looks like I somehow missed one or two major hands that took me down to just about 13,000 and to tell the truth had me in a weak chip stack for first time in game - I thought FOR HOW GOOD I HAD IT GOING EARLY... Maybe I would be in trouble with the bubble being 10 players.. - I also missed the SCREEN SHOT of a hand that got me a good few chips BACK.. and that put me back in the game - HOWEVER, in this image - 27 to go at the BREAK mark.. I'm back in it... SITTING A. O . K . (funny what a good few hands can do - when you just stay CALM)

**Note the "FTOPS" guy at my table.. SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THAT MEANS??? (plays 23 hours a day is my guess) If you know - Let me know in my comments.

Ok moving on... Just before the final table I hit AJ and decide to LIMP - run into a RAISE FIGURE IT'S TIME TO GAMBLE..and get it in with my AJ vs 44 - I hit (whoo hooo) and take it down... (NOTE - I never play small pairs like this guy did - and because of the change - I do better and finish higher in tourneys these days ...
















FINAL TABLE TIME - Nice load of chippies... Let's go to work. (GOGGLES ON!!!)
























Now - This is a hand that I liked - I always feel the TRAP is set not by the players as much but by the SYSTEM... So I limp - ONLINE - I use the logic (good or bad) that I want to see something before I go nuts with AK... I used to LIVE AND DIE by THE AK hand in POKER.. NO MORE. In this hand.. I HIT the "A" on flop and BOOM.. I DROP THE HAMMER... I GO NUTS! WAR! BABY! WAR. Note - the guy can not cripple me no matter what anyway.. It was nice to see him not hit the third "J".. It happens so much to me... BUT - here - tonight, it did not, My pair of A's made it happen... How nice. :)




















THIS NEXT ONE IS A GREAT HAND! (from my side of the action)

If you play much poker... YOU GOT TO KNOW that the Player holding the AQ in this hand was a bit pissed at me... I slow roll my KK and hit my "3" of a kind.. AGAIN! I told you I drew the LUCKY SEAT... ***NOTE - the scare cards - CLUBS. This just goes to show HOW the system keeps it exciting.. Makes him feel his AQ is MORE POWER FULL AGAINST MY TRIPS and of course keeps me on edge through the TURN AND RIVER... (sorry - but it's how I feel about ONLINE) ONLINE - it's rare to see players that are IN ACTION on line "not hitting" major DRAW cards with their TOP pair - I think LIVE offers MANY more boring hands.. But that's me - that's my take and I'm sticking with it...

In a NUT SHELL THOUGH.. - THE LUCK TRAIN IS HITTING ME IN THIS GAME... I CAN NOT LOSE IT SEEMS. and guess what! I'm cool with this... I'm so due! NOW ITS TIME TO HIT A BIG SCORE.. TO HELL WITH THIS $10 level BS.





















Ok then... THIS NEXT HAND... **This is MY kind of hand** ("Owning" a player on the turn) I see more of this sorta thing happen live...(Me and other players I talk to anyways.. QUALITY PLAYERS.)




















TIME TO TAKE A HIT... My lucky streak hit a bit of a WALL when... I was hit by a "COOLER" hand. (A COOLER hand is a POKER HAND that does not go all that well..and takes a nice load of chips off a player) A great example of a cooler would be - AA being beat by say 34 clubs.. with the player hitting trip 3's on river. Here MY JJ with so few players is a GREAT HAND.. but not great enough.























OK - Well, I wish you were watching this game - because I feel this player (HEADS UP) was a little scared of me.. HIS only move it seemed was ALL IN - ALL IN.. He was pushing - pushing.. (to be fair - I was pushing too.. lol) and finally in this hand - I thought - He's on a move... Well.. I figured wrong. He had a POCKET PAIR. I was not dead.. but it was not a good flop - turn or river..

I could have picked a better SPOT... It's a mistake that cost me ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS... period. But - I have to go with my gut and I thought he was raising with junk. Who knows.. maybe he was better than I give him credit for.. Actually - that's not fair.. HE WAS A VERY GOOD PLAYER. The weak ones just GIVE UP.

He might come on here and READ ALL THIS and LET US KNOW HIS TAKE on the GAME.. That is... if we are lucky. I invited him.




I'm typing all this VERY LATE - SO there might be a few errors.. I'll check it all tomorrow.. Until then - you have the pictures at least..


















And here it is.. THE FIRST LOSER.. "2nd" place. $140.00 winner. I'll put that in my ROLL for the $24.00 games. Any thoughts or comments - GO AHEAD.. I can take it..