Frustration

So I just played in the ESPN Protege promotion final. At one point I was chip leader after the first break but then went card dead, got disconnected while flopping a set and then got sucked out on by the 2nd chip leader. I limped in mid position (blinds 600-1200) with J10s (first mistake, probably should have raised). Button then goes all in for 3000. SB calls and BB folds. Flop comes J106 of Diamonds. SB bets 1200 and I knew he was on a flush draw. He had about 24k left and I had 9300. There was about 11k in the pot. I went all in trying to take it down right there. He instantly calls me with Kd6h. He flopped 2nd nut flush draw and bottom pair. Turn is a diamond and ighn. I personally think it was a bad call. He had 4200 invested and he called 9300 to win a little over 20k. He would have been left with 15k if he missed. I don't think I would have made it but that is just me.

I just did odds calculator on cardplayer and I was a 50.81% to a 49.19% favorite so I guess his call wasn't that bad. Just don't know if I could have made that. The only solace I can take is that the button won the main pot because he flopped the nuts. He had AQ of diamonds.

Anyways I finished 45 out of 403. If I won that pot, I would have been top 3 in chips.

At least I still got a chance for Barcelona. More on my quest for that later.

Meet "The Grinders, Inc"

Sinatra

RiverRat

Stewman

* NBA not pictured because his friends never take pictures of him at the table

Borat is hilarious

So I can't wait for the Borat movie. It will be stupid hilarious. Found this while surfing the net.

Be my wife

and the best Borat best song ever

Throw the Jew down the well

How dumb are people to sing and clap with this song? that is what makes this funny and sad at the same time.

Clarification on the previous post

So NBA went ahead and changed our blog name. Thanks for filling me in on the change btw...but at least the name was a good choice. Anyways, I feel NBA has incorrectly portrayed me and I feel it is my duty to correct these untruths.

I am not a micro-NL Limit whore. I am a low tourney buy-in ($33 and less) and a $9-$50 sng pimp. Second, I am a good poker player and the Q8 was the right play to make, just happen to be against the one person I didn't want to knock out but I wasn't thinking and ended up knocking out Mr. NBA out of a satellite which I finished 2nd on and gained entry into the $1000 buy-in prelim Festa al Lago event at the Bellagio in 2005. He of course won't let me live this down and rightly so but it doesn't mean I am a bad player.

Now that these untruths have been exposed, I and my many legions of fans can now sleep peacefully. You should be ashamed, very ashamed NBA.

Welcome to Grinders, Inc!

Q: Why the name change?

A: 2 reasons. 1) We're not afraid of change. 2) And this.

Q: Who are you?

A: We were a group of 4 guys who loved playing, talking and dreaming about poker. Unfortunately, only 2 of us took it seriously and that's who's left.

Q: Where do you play?

A: We play online at PokerStars, and live at Pechanga (in CA), and any MGM-Mirage property.

Q: Are you professionals?

A. Not even close.

Q: Well are you at least good at playing poker?

A: 3 words - Queen Eight Offsuit.

Q: Okay then... what limits do you play?

A: NBA plays $30 and $50 buy-in sit-n-go tourneys, 1-2 or 2-4 no limit holdem, 4-8 or 8-16 limit hold'em, and micro limit Razz and Omaha (I'm still learning, okay?) Stewman is a no limit hold'em microlimit whore.

Q: So why do you have a blog?

A: Because it's fun, dammit. Oh, and we hope one day maybe a famous poker blogger will stumble accross our humble little blog and link to us. Pauly, Wil, Iggy, Bill, CJ, G-Rob, and Otis)

What the FUCK!?!?

http://www.fantasyfootballandpoker.blogpsot.com/

Damn Right It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta

A brilliant editorial in today's New York Times:

The G.O.P.'s Bad Beat

So in the last 2 weeks I have spent a lot of time on PokerStars. I'm trying to qualify for the 2007 PokerStars Carribean Adventure and I am having a wonderful time taking the donkeys' money at the 1-2 NL game.

First, the PCA. They are running A TON of satellites for the event. They have both small buy-in and large buy-in MTTs, double shoot-outs and SNGs. I've played one $80 MTT and made the final 2 tables only to lose to another flopped set in the BB (I had JJ) and then when my AK all-in pre-flop lost to 8-9.

At least the ring games are JUICY. I've made quite a killing in the 1-2 NL game. It's a bit frustrating because there seems to be somebody moving all-in in every hand there is a raise PF. It's worked out so far because I have had people move in on me no less than 5 times when I held AA or KK.

I've found that I make the most money when I'm in late position and just call the PF raise with two big cards or a mid pocket-pair. I have lost A LOT of big pots with big pairs and top two, etc because of slowplayed flopped sets.

I lost a rediculous hand today when my pre-flop raise couldn't push out 2-3 os in late position and when I flopped top pair, couldn't bet him out of the pot and eventually lost to a turned set of 3s.

I'm not kidding guys... This game is soooo loose. Below are two screenshots of hand histories that shows the average size pot I'm scooping.

My Mini-Steps Quest Comes To An End...

... Well, it came to an end only because Party Poker Sucks (and PokerStars rocks). I ended up cashing out $189 (after buying in for $138) for a profit of $51. Eh. Oh well...

You know you're playing against a donk when...

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong:

PokerStars Game #6635006873: Tournament #33720836, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit
- Level II (15/30) - 2006/10/14 - 19:54:48 (ET)
Table '33720836 1' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: ThePinkMan (2040 in chips)
Seat 2: 1tipper1 (1425 in chips)
Seat 3: BigHeeb91 (1485 in chips)
Seat 4: mthoss (1200 in chips)
Seat 5: rkjmsbtch (1255 in chips)
Seat 7: jkimmeli (870 in chips)
Seat 8: TexasFredos (3220 in chips)
Seat 9: S Trump (3385 in chips)
TexasFredos: posts small blind 15
S Trump: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to BigHeeb91 [Qd Qs]
ThePinkMan: folds
1tipper1: calls 30
BigHeeb91: raises 160 to 190
mthoss: calls 190
rkjmsbtch: folds
jkimmeli: folds
TexasFredos: folds
S Trump: calls 160
1tipper1: folds
*** FLOP *** [5h 3d 2s]
yang123yang is connected
S Trump: checks
BigHeeb91: bets 500
mthoss: folds
S Trump: calls 500
*** TURN *** [5h 3d 2s] [5d]
S Trump: checks
BigHeeb91: bets 795 and is all-in
S Trump: calls 795
*** RIVER *** [5h 3d 2s 5d] [5s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
S Trump: shows [5c Kc] (four of a kind, Fives)
BigHeeb91: shows [Qd Qs] (a full house, Fives full of Queens)
S Trump collected 3205 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***Total pot 3205 Rake 0 Board [5h 3d 2s 5d 5s]
Seat 1: ThePinkMan folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: 1tipper1 folded before Flop
Seat 3: BigHeeb91 showed [Qd Qs] and lost with a full house, Fives full of Queens
Seat 4: mthoss folded on the Flop
Seat 5: rkjmsbtch folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: jkimmeli (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: TexasFredos (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: S Trump (big blind) showed [5c Kc] and won (3205) with four of a kind, Fives

I just don't understand why people defend their blinds with ANY TWO CARDS. And why is it that every time I pick up a big pocket pair, I raise, get called, flop the overpair and continuously get sucked out on??

I rasied preflop 3 1/2 x the BB... there's no reason to call that raise. And then when I bet that much on the flop, I OBVIOUSLY have an overpair, right? He had to have called thinking his pair of 5s were good, right? What did he put me on betting that much? AK? ARGH!!!

Thanks Dononvan!!

So since I haven't played poker for money in a month, time to do a fantasy football post.

I'm now 5-0 in my one league in no small part to Mr. Donovan McNabb. Who needs that punk ass T.O.? Not Dononvan, that's who. I have a 2 game lead in my division...but next week will be tough. I don't see myself pulling a 72 dolphins but I do see a playoff birth in my future. NBA had his ass handed to him by my next opponent. At least he is doing well in our other league...the one I know he cares more about. Sinatra had a tough lost thanks to Jamal Lewis and the River Rat came through and held onto a win thanks to Mike Bell not playing and gave me a 2 game cushion which I'm sure I will need.

In our other FFL league, River Rat scored a victory against Sinatra and 62 points was enough for me to win (yes I'm lucky) and of course as mentioned earlier NBA won (by 2 points) his match because his opponent and the guilty shall remain nameless didn't replace his kicker who was on a bye. I have it on good authority that if this was a money league, the change would have been made. Not NBA's fault at all so I don't blame him but if that is true what his opponent said, that is just wrong.

So NBA and River Rat move to 4-1 each, I'm 3-2 and Sinatra is 1-4...Just like the Steelers Sinatra has gone from first to worst but the season is still early so anyone is sill mathematically alive...even the Raiders.

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Now that we're "big time"...

I think we need to re-name the blog. Any suggestions?

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