I love this pic...

Donkeys are what makes this country great!

In an effort not to offend Stewman (too badly, at least) I will keep this short and sweet.

I am proud to be an American.

I am proud to be part of a system where we, the people, are the voice of this country.

I am proud of all the republicans and independents who crossed party lines this election day and did what was best for this country.

I am proud my party has regained control of BOTH the House of Representitives and the Senate.

I am proud to be a democrat.

I am proud to be a donkey.

~ NBA ~

Goodbye, Bill Frist and Jim Leach

It's official... Jim Leach LOST his bid for re-election. I can't help but to think that his proposal of the Leach-Goodlatte Bill (what later became known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that was eventually attatched to the Safe Ports Act) is what did him in.

And with that piece of shit Bill Frist not running for re-election, we don't have to worry about him for awhile... at least until 2008.

I knew he would call

Who says chasing doesn't pay off...I knew he would call. This was the first hand and I was playing great till my AK and AA lost to JJ and QQ respectively. Finished 4th.

PokerStars Game #6938116967: Tournament #35404793, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2006/11/08 - 00:28:51 (ET)
Table '35404793 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: blondejag (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: robplaygame (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: Stewman20 (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: TheBull953 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: CrucialJ8897 (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: maxm86 (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: Drowndrown (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: kutch79 (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: rgreen77 (1500 in chips)
robplaygame: posts small blind 10
Stewman20: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Stewman20 [4h 6d]
TheBull953: folds
CrucialJ8897: calls 20
maxm86: folds
Drowndrown: folds
kutch79: folds
rgreen77: calls 20
blondejag: calls 20
robplaygame: calls 10
Stewman20: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ah 3s 5c]
robplaygame: checks
Stewman20: checks
CrucialJ8897: checks
rgreen77: checks
blondejag: bets 20
robplaygame: calls 20
Stewman20: calls 20
CrucialJ8897: folds
rgreen77: calls 20
*** TURN *** [Ah 3s 5c] [Th]
robplaygame: checks
Stewman20: checks
rgreen77: checks
blondejag: bets 20
robplaygame: calls 20
Stewman20: calls 20
rgreen77: folds
*** RIVER *** [Ah 3s 5c Th] [2c]
robplaygame: checks
Stewman20: bets 200
blondejag: raises 200 to 400
robplaygame: folds
Stewman20: raises 1040 to 1440 and is all-in
blondejag: calls 1040 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Stewman20: shows [4h 6d] (a straight, Deuce to Six)
blondejag: shows [4c Kh] (a straight, Ace to Five)
Stewman20 collected 3120 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3120 | Rake 0
Board [Ah 3s 5c Th 2c]
Seat 1: blondejag (button) showed [4c Kh] and lost with a straight, Ace to Five
Seat 2: robplaygame (small blind) folded on the River
Seat 3: Stewman20 (big blind) showed [4h 6d] and won (3120) with a straight, Deuce to Six
Seat 4: TheBull953 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: CrucialJ8897 folded on the Flop
Seat 6: maxm86 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Drowndrown folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: kutch79 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: rgreen77 folded on the Turn

Open letter to Barry Shulman

Cardplayer article

Mr. Shulman,

Hi Mr. Shulman, my name is Stewman. As you may guess that is not my real name but due to national security reasons I cannot disclose my real identity to you. I am writing to you in regard to your recently published article (link above) on your website Cardplayer.com. While I share in your angst and frustration with the recently passed legislation regarding on-line poker and the underhanded methods it was introduced for a vote, I am troubled by your article on Cardplayer.com. While this is your business and right to publish what you want on your magazine, I feel this is in poor taste. As you can see by the comments left by other readers, they share in the same sentiment as me. We go to your site to read about poker not about your views. I understand the theme of the article is about poker but it comes across poorly. I could rant some more and truly delve into the politics on this subject but this is a blog about poker not politics and my loyals readers (what's up Donks) want poker content. Your loyal readers, subcription buyers,I'm sure your ad buyers and myself would appreciate what we have come accustomed to and that is true poker content.

In closing I just want to say I hope everyone able to vote today did. It truly is your duty, not just a right.

Sincerely,
Stewman

I miss you, Las Vegas...

No España Amigo's

So as my loyal readers have probably figured out by now, I did not make it to Barcelona. I didn't even make it into the tournament. I was unable to successfully qualify after spending all night Friday trying to enter. I had obligations Saturday morning which didn't allow me to play at all that day. Well there is always the PCA through PokerStars.

Speaking of PokerStars, I have made my first deposit and am working to release my bonus. Seems like I need to play many more hands than on PartyPoker but maybe I am wrong. I have been playing $.50/1 and was successful until last night when I didn't quit when I was ahead. I had made around $20 playing Saturday. Played some last night and within 1.5 hours, I had turned $20 into $60 playing those limits on a short-handed table. Amazing when you think about it. Anyways instead of quitting like a good donkey would, I continue playing. Next thing I know in about 1-1.5 hours I have lost all $60. When will I learn to quit when ahead.

Saturday night I decided to play a double shootout with top 2 getting entries in to the $215 Sunday million guaranteed. I won my first table making it to the final 8 and at least $35. I busted 7th when my AK lost to AQ. I reraised original raiser with my AK and then jammed a flop of OJ7. I went all in for last 700 and he called and I was out.

Then I mistakenly entered a $10 rebuy tourney (thought it was another double shootout) for the Sunday guarantee and was playing great building my stack nicely without rebuying. I'm in 1st position and open a pot with 99 and get min raised by the sb. Flop comes 1094. sb instantly moves all in and he is the only person who has me covered at the table. If I win, table leader and probably top 10 overall. I call and he has 10's for top set. Bad luck. So that was that. I like PokerStars so far but the tourney's are huge there because of PP going away. The Sunday million was a joke with over 6000 entrants. Nice paydays though. I railed the final table. Winner took down about 170k. I going to try to enter one of these Sunday tourney's in the near future. This last one payed out top 970 I believe. I tend to do well in these large tourneys but then again most of my experience in large fields like this are free rolls where people play like maniacs.

Something good is bound to happen with all the BS I've taken tonight

So I played my step 3 and busted out on the 3rd hand I even called my opponents hand. 5 limpers at 10/20 blinds. I'm in the cutoff with KJo. SB raises to 75. everyone calls. Flop comes KJ4. SB bets 20 guy in 3rd position makes it 70, guy next to him bumps it to 400 and I make 1200. 3rd position goes all in and an immediate call by the guy who raised to 400. I type in the message field you got pockets 4's and I call after some deliberation. 2nd raiser shows pocket 4's and the other guy had KJ also. Out like that.

I then immediately play a step 1 and win. Go to step 2 and on the 2nd hand 3 limpers to me on the button and what do I have 2 FREAKING BLACK ACES. I make it 120 to go and the BB raises to 400. I push all in and he calls with KJ of hearts. Flop comes QJ6 with one heart. Turn is another heart so he has a flush draw, opened ended straight draw and 2nd pair. River is a 10 and I'm out. What a donkey for calling my all in with KJs. He had 2000 left if he folded. Still plugging away but looking bleak.

Side note on the aces..that was the first time out of probably 10-12 times having them in the past 3 days that I lost. So I can't bitch too much I guess.

NBA beat me to it

I just read a comment by NBA regarding my last poker post saying that he took down a 81 player MTT last month. I can't say I completely remember this but it wouldn't surprise me if it happened. I have searched the logs of this blog and I can't find any posts relating to this. So I'm calling on my loyal followers of the Donkey Nation to scour whatever resources you can to verify this win by NBA. For now I give my congrats to NBA on taking it down and being the first of the group (hopefully River rat or Sinatra won't dispute this statement...wait they don't participate anymore so now worries there) to win a MTT. I would also like to thank NBA for taking the wind out of my victory by stating it was a mere $5 buy-in and a turbo tourney at that. You sure know how to make a donkey feel great about his achievements.


Barcelona update:

I have made it to step 3 of the Poker Classic SNG qualifier. If I win this then I'm in the tourney. I waited 3 hours to play last night and I was the only one to register. I did check the tickets and bonuses section of pokerroom and it stated it has a cash value of $600 so if I don't play it I think I can cash out the ticket for $600. Not bad. I have sent pokerroom support an email to verify this. While waiting to play, I won exactly $100 playing 2-4 in about 30 minutes yesterday. I won most of my hands with less than premium cards playing a lot of suited connectors and one-gappers. Quality of play in the game was not very high. People calling down with Ace high and other crappy play like that. I would have played longer but I haven't had much sleep the past few nights while trying to qualify for the Barcelona tourney.

One more thing. I want to give props to Dell. I got my screaming fast new dual core pc in Wednesday after ordering it Sunday night. Got a 20" digital flat panel monitor also. It is so nice to be able have multiple apps open at once and not have to wait forever like on my other pc. Other specs are 2gb of ram, 300gb hard drive, sound blaster audigy audio card, 256mb ATI radeon card, dual optical drives (dvd-rom and dvd RW) and a free upgrade to Vista which I will definitely wait on upgrading too until MS has released some patches since I know for a fact there will be some major bugs with that OS. Total cost of the PC with tax was a little over $1400 which isn't bad considering the monitor itself is almost $400 and I upgraded the hard drive, sound card, video card, and montior.

The Coke and Mentos Guys are back

Coke and Mentos

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was only a matter of time. I finally won my first on-line MTT besting 196 players. Sure it was only a $5.50 turbo NLH tourney on Poker Room but a win is a win. I pocketed $294 for a $288.50 profit. I entered the final table 3rd in chips and knocked out 4 out of the last 5 people catching an amazing rush of cards. AK back to back followed by A10 back to back and got 3 all ins on those. The final hand I had A2 vs A3 and a 2 on the turn sealed it for me. I believe I'm the first of the group to take this large of a MTT down..not completely sure though.