A Talkin' Donkey: RaisingCayne's Random Ramblings

Live Tournament Win!

2008-10-17T11:35:00.000-07:00

So yesterday afternoon I got a text message from Matt, inviting me to join him at a local casino's weekly Thursday evening deepstack poker tournament. Being intrigued, I promptly inquire with the roommate about his interest, and we quickly decide that we're down to take part. Call Matt and get the details of the event, skip out of the office a little early, jaunt home to let the dog out, (literally, not a metaphoric reference to ghey activities with Joshua... we had to let his elderly pooch relieve himself before lockin' him indoors for another ~4 hours,) and we were quickly off to the live game with plenty of time to spare before the 6:30 start.

Well, fast forward a few hours, and ... I won! Took down 1st place out of 29 entrants for a $615 score on the $60 buy-in! Since I apparently love the bulletpoint format, following are some miscellaneous details & thoughts about the experience, (my first ever non-home game live tournament cash... let alone victory)...:

Never underestimate the incompetence of humankind. While there was definitely a handful of players there that knew what they were doing... there was far more that certainly did not! To me, as far as skill level is concerned, ~$50-$100 LIVE tournaments are similar to the $10 buy-in MTTs online.
My reads rock! People don't seem to try very hard to mask their holdings. I was surprised by the number of physical tells that were easily picked up on, not to mention betting patterns being very easily decipherable. (Pardon my floating my own boat here, but that's my arrogant nature, and if you visit this blog you're used to it by now.) Every single time I made a move that was due to a read, it worked out exactly as intended. Love it when a plan comes together.
Some people just don't have a clue! This one OLD bitch, (who actually started the tournament giving Matt an angry earful about his bad attitude / poor etiquette, for his choice to only show one of his hole cards after winning a pot,) couldn't understand the game if she was Doyle Brunson's mistress! The old hag (who wore a nasty looking perpetual scowl on her face, as if someone had put poison ivy in her Depends,) had just 9k in chips w/blinds at 1,500/3k, and she chooses to LIMP from MP... her and the BB see a flop of 389, BB checks, she shoves for her other 6k into a pot of 8,500, and the BB makes the call with 73o. She turns over AJo... and after bricking the turn & river she vents about her bad "luck," and the big blind's "gamble" of a call!!!??? WTF?! Some people should stick to Pinochle!
It's my belief that building one's own table image, or at least understanding of what one's own table image has become, is as much, if not more important than getting reads on villains themselves. After purposefully illustrating a very weak/tight nature throughout the first couple levels, I was able to easily exploit the tables' belief that I only played top holdings.
And, (in this week's note from Captain Obvious,) winning tournaments does require a bit of luck. While I cannot recall ever getting it in behind, I did have the fabulous good fortune to be dealt QQ and JJ while five handed, and in the cash... each held up to knock out competitors' Ax hands that had pushed into me, and this catapulted me to a massive lead going into the final three. Without these two huge pots, taking down the tournament would've required much more of a grind.
Taking first place not only won me the $615 prize, but also entry into the casino's monthly $1,500 freeroll, which takes place this Sunday. That's where I'll be to watch NFL games this week. Evidently the handful of tourney winners, and those with the most hours logged at their live games for the month get free entry into a 3table tourney where the top 9 make the cash in a monthly giveaway.
I suppose I really didn't "net" all that much, considering I did tip $75 to the very friendly dealers, and gifted my two buddies a return on their buyins, to make it a freeroll for 'em... and, of course, spent a decent chunk on contraband before the night was over. But still, I've got ~$350 I didn't have at this time yesterday! Good enough to put me in a good mood going into the weekend.

Curious of readers' thoughts on the dealer tip after the tourney win. Any insight into what's standard? I was informed ~10% is considered pretty decent, so I just sort of picked an amount a little higher. But after tipping the $75, the staff seemed almost overly appreciative... lead me to think I may have gone overboard, although didn't think this was the case. Maybe they just weren't used to a nice guy winning, I don't know.

Hope all is well with you and yours. Have a great weekend...

'Til next time...
Respect is all you have left in the morning,
~RaisingCayne

Mookie Win

2008-10-16T08:18:00.000-07:00

I won the Mookie last night! So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

Unable to provide any real recap of the tourney, as I wasn't paying any attention. Played from a buddy's house and just donked it up during sessions of bong hits and bad television. Fun time gettin' down to head's up versus Donkeypuncher. Won a key flip when I shoved AJ into his 77 and sucked out, and that was pretty much it from what I recall. Gettin' me into position to compete for the win was a wicked 4-outer at the Final Table when I over-shoved KK on a 299 flop against 4 villains, and one havin' 22... rivered King was nice.

Thanks to Zeem for hittin' me up on the IM with a reminder/inquiry about the tournament just minutes before it started! Would not have remembered to register without the reminder! (Not sure if this merits a financial reward, or share of the winnings, but it at least deserves a blog post thank you.)

Well, 'til next time...
In the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, 'au revoir, gopher,'
~RaisingCayne

October Update

2008-10-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

Long time no post, and lots of recent happenings. So, here's a long personal rant, with zero poker content. Read at your own risk.

I quit my job! ...

A little while back I received my formal offer to transition to Memphis, TN, and suffice it to say, my employer was not willing to make it worth my while to consider a cross country relocation. Realizing my future wasn't in the organization, I lost the necessary motivation to dedicate myself to time in a cubicle, and decided to quit my job in favor of other opportunites.

Provided 8 weeks of notice when I presented management with the news of my decision a few weeks back, and am working through the end of this month. My last day, fittingly, being this Halloween.

Looking into a few different specific local opportunities, but updated my resume and just gettin' it out there in general as well. The future is really up in the air with no even vague plan yet reached. Que Sera Sera...

Considering 'going pro' by just playing poker for a living. Yes, a ridiculous, laughably unreasonable idea, considering my four figure bankroll and all. But hey, a guy can dream!
So... let me know if anyone's aware of a need for a lazy, unmotivated financial analyst in the area of South King County, WA. (I swear my resume is more selling.)

Went to San Francisco a few weeks back...

Went with ten friends down to the Bay Area for a weekend adventure. Pretty fun city.

Stayed in the most ghetto hotel I've ever passed out in. A buddy arranged the trip, and booked us at the 'Grant Plaza' in Chinatown. It was ridiculous. It didn't spoil the trip or anything, it was just hilarious how poor the accomodations were.

My friends drink, a lot! Vacationing with them to states where hard liquor is sold on every corner is likely not a great idea for my liver. It was ridiculous how many bottles were bought and polished off immediately by simply being passed among us.

Cocaine's a hell of a drug. Just for the record.

"Exotic Asian Massage" establishments have nothing to do with massage. There wasn't a single Ashmead Degree in the place! One would think illegal brothels would go about their business a little more nonchalant, but evidently that's not the case. (Don't judge me!)

Street performers sure are an odd lot. Crazy what some people will do to not have to "work" for a living.

The San Francisco warf was real entertaining. Some great food choices, neat tour & activity options, plenty of killer shopping opportunities, etc.

Unfortunately did not have opportunity to hook up with LJ, Lucko, or Bayne while in the same city as they were over the specific weekend. Hopefully I'll get to meet 'em in Vegas over the weekend of 12/13.

For the record, taking co-ed vacations to celebrate forthcoming weddings is nothing like the traditional bachelor/(ette) party! My friends kept trying to refer to the trip as a bachelor/slash/bachelorette party... but this does not exist! I'm very confident that had I been in charge of the itinerary, the trip would've been a bit more memorable. But I digress.

My country, tears of thee...

The proposed "bailout" that worked its way through legislation is the worst idea since I tried to patent the DVD-rewinder for video stores. It wholly defeats any remaining idea that this remains a laissez-fairre economy. Free market my ass! The government is attempting to charge taxpayers for the mistakes of a specific industry. Ridiculous. John Adams is turning over in his grave.

I've always been a very liberal democrat in most all senses of the terms, and this bailout makes me sick! I'm damn near a Socialist in my basic idealogies and this level of government involvement in the economy seems despicable. A presidential candidate with any party label that would've stepped up and questioned this thing's logic could've won my vote.

While I do hope Barack Obama is our next President, I again feel like my vote is simply picking between the lesser of two evils. But dude a better choice to me if only for the minor benefit of possibly salvaging some international respect for the US. After the last 8 years of that fucking monkey 'Dubbya' representing our masses, this seems necessary, and I'm afraid the rest of this world would see McCain as simply more of the same.

Miscellaneous notes...

Missed Al's "Bash" in favor of my San Fran adventure. All the many writeups out there make it sound like a great time was had by all. Maybe next year.

Evidently a couple of bloggerment regulars had HUGE scores recently. Jamyhawk's buddy 'closerx5' took 3rd place in Full Tilt's Sunday $750k, for over $50,000!!! AND, sprstoner took down FTP's $109 rebuy for ~$58k!!! While I don't know either of these guys personally, it's still pretty freakin' cool to just know of their stories, and I can at least share in the excitement a little bit.

Watched Ironman the other night. That movie Rocks!

Tried to break up with that slut I've been sleeping with for awhile now, but, like George Costanza, evidently it didn't take. Despite my consistent, blunt, repetitive communications that I'm uninterested in any real relationship with her, she remains adamant that she'd still like whatever company I'm willing to offer. So yes... I'm going to a special place in hell for this one. ... Now I've got a gal coming over every other weekend, buying me pot, cleaning my house and preparing meals and shit, all between passionless sex sessions. (Don't judge me!)

Well, 'til next time...
Yes, that will be all, Ms. Potts,
~RaisingCayne

LPR Win. ... And a PokerStars Weekend.

2008-08-25T22:12:00.000-07:00

Took down the LPRT last night! Good times. Don't go giving me too much credit though, as I did have some wicked suckouts go my way to get to the victory. Most notably was my hammer besting big slick AIPF. (Sorry Closerx5!) Also had QQ overcome AA at the final table to knockout Neo3gs. Not to mention turning a Queen when my pocket ladies were heads up against Waffles' K5s on a 55T flop. I run good. Other than those three suckouts for huge pots, also contributing greatly to the victory was the fact that I dropped the hammer like fifteen fucking times. I had 72o so many times it was funny. Given it was a bloggerment I of course took these hands as opportunities to represent monsters, and I was fortunate enough to not get called out on my shenanigans too many times, and these bluffs helped build and maintain a decent stack throughout. Thanks again to IT for hosting!

Got an insane amount of online tournament play in last weekend, as I probably logged twenty hours of play between Friday evening and Monday morning. I 4-tabled various PokerStars MTTs all day on Saturday, with very "meh" results. Netted a couple hundred bucks over the weekend, but was without any real decent scores. Won another (my 3rd) seat to the Sunday $1.5million which I promptly again cashed out for the tourney dollars. (Double shootouts rock.) Also ran real deep in a $40k tourney, but ended well short of the Final Table for just a ghey cash. Didn't get anything going in the Sunday $1.5 million, and fell out far short of the cash. (Although the donkey play witnessed did make me optimistic for future chances, and ambitious to make this big tournament a weekly routine.)

Well, 'til next time...
BOOOOOM!
~RaisingCayne

PokerStars... and James Lipton

2008-08-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

PokerStars rocks! I had another halfway decent night at the online felt last night, cashing in both the tournaments I played, albeit for petty sums. Again just squeaked into the cash in a $11 180seat SnG, and did the same in the ~$33 23:00 MTT, netting around ~$50 on the night for the small cashes. But more valuable than the petty profit is what my recent PStars success has done for my confidence. I'm back in that cocky frame of mind where I expect to win when I register for something. Really looking forward to the Sunday $1.5million now! And without many other big plans for the weekend, I hope to get lots of MTT play in over the next few days, and am optimistic of my chances for some decent results. We'll see...

-----

Unapologetically ripping off Riggstad's recent blog idea, below are my answers to James Lipton's ten routine questions from Bravo's Inside the Actor's Studio.

1. What is your favorite word?
~Pontificate.
2. What is your least favorite word?
~Religious.
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
~Nudity.
4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
~Hypocrisy.
5. What sound or noise do you love?
~Applause. (Stadium sized applause like concert or sporting event... NOT the faux-plause heard after a coworker's speech, or manager presentation, etc...)
6. What sound or noise do you hate?
~Small dog's bark/yap.
7. What is your favorite curse word?
~Cockfag.
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
~Broadcasting... sports announcer, radio dj, or just a voiceover guy.
9. What profession would you not like to do?
~CEO.
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
~Welcome!

...'til next time,
Welcome!
~RaisingCayne

Problem Solved

2008-08-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

So I discussed a small quandary yesterday regarding playing in this Sunday's $1.5 million guarantee tournament on PokerStars, given my lack of sufficient bankroll it was difficult to justify not unregistering to get the tournament dollars despite my significant ambition to play. Well... I solved the dilemma last night, by simply winning another seat! Took down the identical satellite tournamant two nights in a row! I rock.

...I'm humble too,
~RaisingCayne

Tuesday Evening Poker

2008-08-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

Quick rundown of last night's session...

FullTilt blows for me lately. Didn't cash in a single thing yesterday, failing in: both the Daily Doubles, the $28k, the $4k HORSE, and the Skillz game.
Regarding that Skillz game, evidently I still suck at Stud. While I love me some Razz, I just can't ever seem able to find a comfort level with Stud-high, and last night's Skillz game was definitely no exception.
PokerStars rocks for me lately. Was out of all five of my tourneys on FullTilt by 8:30 last night so switched sites to my lesser bankrolled option. Played a ~$12 satellite and an $11-180-peep SnG... took down the Double-Shootout satellite for a $200+$15 seat to Sunday's $1.5 Million Guarantee, and squeaked into the cash in the SnG for a tiny profit.
While it's completely irrational for me to justify playing in the big Sunday tournament, given my PStars bankroll is under $200, and I can unregister for $215 in tourney dollars, I still really want to play in the event. The tournament was the source of my biggest online score ever (20 months ago,) and I haven't taken part in this huge Sunday tournament in a long long time. Got plans to play nearly exclusively on PokerStars the rest of this week in hopes of increasing my bankroll there to a point where I could at least feel less guilty for not taking the $T. I got five more days to think about it. We'll see.
Got a call early this morning from the poker-incompetent uber-donkey good buddy of mine, HitmanBobby, bragging about his 3rd place finish in FullTilt's Daily Double A last night for ~$1,050! The biggest online score of his brief online poker career! I'm completely happy for him, and ecstatic to hear he finagled his way to a four figure score, albeit I do have to admit a level of astonishment. While the dude's a great friend of mine, our routine poker discussions consistently display his lack of real insight into fundamentals of the game as well as an unwillingness to improve via any other means other than personal experience. Don't get me wrong, I've witnessed him become an exponentially better poker player over the last two years, it's just I was not yet predicting a Final Table finish in a significant MTT... let alone 3rd place finish in a ~1,100-person tourney. (Insert blind squirrel/broken clock analogy here.) Nice work Bob.

Hope everyone's doin' alright in their own adventures on the online felt. 'Til Next time...

...I'm RaisingCayne, and that's news to me.

Running Good...

2008-08-18T18:15:00.000-07:00

Contrary to assumptions reached from the title, this is actually NOT a poker brag post. Oh, it's a brag post alright, just not really poker related. ;-)

Got a surprise visitor last Friday, and kicked off my weekend with some hot sex. I should maybe apologize for my unruly aggression post-rebuy period in the donkarama, and my lack of "gg" as I exited, given my attention to poker was stolen away by an exotically robed enchantress. (Okay, I'm not "sorry," but you get my point.)
Went to my 10 year High School reunion Saturday and had the awesome pleasure of fooling around with the girl I had the wicked huge crush on a decade ago!! W00t!... Boom!...etc. I am still on an ecstatic high from the experience. Didn't nail her or anything, but had a hot time fooling around, and we did part ways with each other's number and plans for a future rendesvous, as she evidently resides in my fair city of Federal Way.
And speaking of my fair city... I just got pulled over by Federal Way's finest on the way home from work today. Like a douchebag, I totally rolled through a stop sign and deservedly got nailed for it. Provided my license, registration, and 13-month-ago-expired proof-of-insurance certificate. After being told to "hold tight" the officer returned very quickly to review ~$450 worth of fines that could be charged, (as my front license plate simply resting on my dashboard was also a big no-no.) He then went on to state that he confirmed on his computer that I hadn't been pulled over in years, and that I had been living within the city limits for over five years without any interaction with the local police force... and evidently that was "worth receiving a warning." Fuck yeah Federal Way FiveOh!
Got home and opened the bag of Peanut M&M's that the roommate's girlfriend left in my living room... first one out of the pouch is a double-peanut! (Okay, so I'm not sure this point is really brag worthy, but it sure felt like proof of my continued good fortune.)

So, I'm going into this evening's poker session on a good luck roll of sorts. Hopefully I can turn into some tournament results in my MTT game.

The reunion was a total blast, and is well worth a whole post given the incredibly entertaining occassion. (Complete with Springer-esque white trash bitch fight! VERY High School.) Another time I hope, as this evening I just wanted to get this good-luck-gloating out of my system...

'Til next time,

Take care of yourself, and each other,
~RaisingCayne

The Ides of August

2008-08-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

With little specific things in mind to share, and even less time to share my random ramblings this afternoon, I'm again going with the miscellaneous bullet-point format... Here we go:

Got a 10-year High School reunion this weekend. Making the trip to the tiny hometown to see if I can pick up any naive ladies that may have managed to forget how big of an asshole I am. Never underestimate the gullibility of the female gender!
While on the subject of my chauvinism... I have actually had a pretty consistent gal in my life of late. A single Mom that I really have no place being with, given my lack of affection for anyone under the age of 18, and my inability to commit to anything at all. But what am I going to do, tell her to stop swinging by for hot sex?! Haven't YET started feeling too guilty for my lack of emotions, so I'm figuring there's not too much harm in continuing the status quo. (And it's not like she knows this blog exists.)
It's been quite the experience being with a gal that is so wanton in her sexual desires as this one... each of her visits have been exhaustive Fuckfests. I was actually thankful she had a family she needed to get home to after our last Fuckapalooza '08. I'm evidently no longer too proud to admit fatigue in bed. An unfortunate sign of aging I think.
Spent Wednesday evening at home alone playing the Mookie and chatting it up on the radio with a bunch of folks. Good times. (Pardon the lack of individual links/thanks, as I'm afraid I'd forget at least one of the many of us that crowded the on-air room.)
And, FYI, ScottMC decided to come out of the closet with a very "UN-ScottMC-like" admission to recently discovering a fascination with the completely man-tastic game for geeky adolescents, World of Warcraft. ??!!?? WTF?! Just in case you needed a recent sign of the apocalypse, here it is! I mean I can almost sympathize with Waffles having this homo hobby, and I wasn't even too surprised to hear of Chris' cock-filled forays into this ghey subculture, given their apparent penchant for the pubescent... But, ScottMC!? I thought this was one blogger who actually had a pair. Who knew?
For the record, my above opinionated remarks regarding specific bloggers' sexuality are completely made in jest. (I provide this disclaimer wholly out of fear of physical repurcussions for my big mouth.)
It's evidently Matt's birthday this weekend, in case you wanted to shoot him a well wish over on his blog. (Old age jokes would be preferred.)
Oh, and speaking of local bloggers... I just learned that Chris evidently has NEVER experienced the joy of a professional lap dance.!? Here's hoping this isn't the case after this calendar year!
The roommate's dog got into ANOTHER fight with a skunk on my backporch a couple weeks back. Again while my sliding glass door was open! (An identical experience was had last Summer!) If you've never smelled the wrath of this malodorous rodent you should definitely knock on wood, as the aftermath of getting this vermit fired up is a disgusting experience that doesn't go away in a small amount of time. The fucking mut spent a couple weeks banned from the indoors.
Recently told my Doctor I was trying to quit smoking pot, (really with just the intention of cutting down,) and without batting an eye he handed me a heavy duty prescription for Xanax and told me to take 1/4 or 1/2 a pill just when I was feeling in the mood to get stoned. Turns out the pills freaking rock! (Already got a few refills called in to the pharm.) I don't know why I ever doubted the good Dr. Pauly's previous references to this fabulous form of entertainment, but, like MickeyD's, I'm lovin' it.
The acquisition of the business in which I'm employed has been complete. As of 08/04/08 I'm now an employee of a company whose name rhymes with intern-rational-caper, rather than a local organization whose name rhymes with darewouser. (I'm obviously committed to a consistent strong work ethic considering this post is going up late on a Friday afternoon from my desk here at the office, and was started directly after lunch. SHHH!)
My commute tripled in size, and is now a ~6 mile trip down the hill to Auburn, rather than a simple across town jaunt. Rigged.
Still wholly unsure about the future. While it's pretty obvious my position is moving to Memphis, TN on or before next Summer, I still can't state with any confidence whether I'm going to move with it, or seek a different option. I've got quite the résumé with all my work experiences now, and am real confident I could find something else. (Am even partially considering an entire career change given a recent awareness that a new casino is being built within a reasonable commute from my current abode. Even the rigged gaming industry needs financial analysts I imagine.)
No poker details worth mentioning. Really just seem to be treading water of late, with no big recent scores or any substantial bankroll movements. I have managed to build a ~$150 bankroll over at PokerStars off of just the $11 Jordan gave me awhile back. (For winning a punny nickname contest over at his blog a month or so back. Thanks again HoP!) I'm real glad I'm quasi-back on PStars as it's just been a refreshing change of pace to the poker grind to have more than one site option. (Still need to find my way to BoDog, but I digress...)
For the first time in nearly a decade, the Maddenoliday came and went Tuesday without me dropping ~$60 on a new video game purchase. For a brief moment I thought it may have been a sign of my growing up and maturing... but then I realized I still giggle at childish innuendo, so that couldn't be the case.

Well, it's after 5 on Friday, wonder if anyone's in the Donkarama...

'Til next time...

...it's in the game,

~RaisingCayne

50th post

2008-07-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

(*EDIT!!! As Schaubs so diligently pointed out, this is NOT my 50th post!? Rather just lowly no. 39!? Evidently this dumbass author decided to count the 11 'saved' ramblings that never made their way onto the site as blog posts. Hmm. Cayne having problems with prematurely completing celebrations... hmmm... weird!)
----- ...

In recognition of this minor blog milestone, and in keeping with the 'random ramblings' theme of this pointless website, provided below is an aimless listing of completely unrelated, desultory things on my brain:

Was sent a link to a video that put me in a good mood the other day. If you have a few minutes, and need a smile, check it out. (But just for the record, ladies, contrary to some opinion I do NOT resemble the main figure in the video, as my dance repertoire is much much smoother!)

This weekend is the 25th anniversary of the Tenino Motorcycle Drill Team's annual fundraiser biker rally, the Do Wa Diddy. I don't expect that to make any sense to anyone that reads this, as I've never previously mentioned my talented Father's awesome past time on here before, and don't want to explain more at the moment. But suffice it so say for now, there's a huge, wild, fucking awesome bash all day and night this Saturday. I look forward to it every year and anxiously await the weekend!

The following Friday, July 18th, is the roommate's birthday. In celebration of the anniversary of this donkey's birth, a group of us are headed to Emerald Downs, to enjoy the pony races. I've never been before and am really looking forward to it. The lazy ass roommate (whom I really don't know why I bother linking to, given he never posts on his ghey ass blog,) hasn't e-mailed out the invite with details yet, but we do hope many others will consider joining us. Should be a great time.

Still don't have television at home. Just can't bring myself to willingly sign up for another ~$50/month bill after stealing free cable for the last decade. It's sort of funny how little I've missed it after never imagining being able to live without it. The roommate is pissed about it though, so I'll likely have to give in to the very un-comcastic local service provider soon.

Felt like shit last week, and spent the holiday weekend sick on my couch. I watched the entire first season of Magnum PI on DVD. Grew a mustache. Not on purpose, it just sort of sprouted as I watched the episodes, it was weird. That show rocks though. (And I'm starting to understand the Doc's love for the Ferrari.)

Ran real deep in the $28k on FullTilt the other night, but it was just to drop out from a top ten stack in 50something place by running kings into aces. Rigged.

Bought tickets for a weekend trip to San Francisco with a small group of friends in September. Not much of an itinerary, just a couple nights at cool locations celebrating some close friends' forthcoming nuptials.

Definitely planning on being in Vegas in December over the weekend of the 13th, (someone has to dethrone the cocky current champ!)

Well, I hope all is well with you and yours. 'Til next time...

Zeus! Apollo! ...
~RaisingCayne

Fuck the $750k...

2008-06-29T16:51:00.000-07:00

Bad beat whining... seriously, not worth reading. Just venting...

Full Tilt Poker Game #7022937938: $750,000 Guarantee (51046204), Table 227 - 80/160 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:46:32 ET - 2008/06/29
Seat 1: thewizard033 (1,800), is sitting out
Seat 2: Rufus Cash (9,884)
Seat 3: RaisingCayne (2,800)
Seat 4: zupman (5,456)
Seat 5: mrrussian (3,232)
Seat 6: dartjam (5,253)
Seat 7: parlaypaul (15,684)
Seat 8: threeven (3,991)
Seat 9: StaroTequila (5,569)
mrrussian posts the small blind of 80
dartjam posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RaisingCayne [Ad Ah]
parlaypaul calls 160 ~ the utg limp from the complete donkey toolbox that's attempted to see every single fucking flop since the tourney began. Scmuck's played like a fucking clown, and his large stack was only due to a wicked suckout he had just scored when he called a raise with KJo and overshoved a QTX flop, and was called by QQ... just to suckout the straight.
threeven folds
StaroTequila folds
thewizard033 folds
Rufus Cash folds
RaisingCayne raises to 550 ~ just intended to get the blinds out, as I know the donkey assface limping from utg is gonna see the flop.
zupman folds
mrrussian folds
dartjam folds
parlaypaul raises to 15,684, and is all in ~ k, let's just get it in pre. The utg limp reshove, fucking classic.
RaisingCayne calls 2,250, and is all in
parlaypaul shows [5c Ac] ~ WTF!???? Ace fucking five!?
RaisingCayne shows [Ad Ah] ~ villain's been running like god. I feel like I'm drawin' dead with the best hand in the game all in pre.
Uncalled bet of 12,884 returned to parlaypaul
*** FLOP *** [7s 2d 3d] ~ you fucking know the gutshot's coming...
*** TURN *** [7s 2d 3d] [8s] ~ wait for it... ... wait for it...
*** RIVER *** [7s 2d 3d 8s] [4s] ~FUCK POKER!
parlaypaul shows a straight, Five high
RaisingCayne shows a pair of Aces
parlaypaul wins the pot (5,840) with a straight, Five high
RaisingCayne stands up ~ ...and looks for something to punch.

So I fall out just in time to register for the daily $32k... and I shit you not, the second fucking hand of the tourney I'm all in with 77 vs. Qs4s on a 2s7sKh board, and of course the flush hits for the dildo that calls raises with Q4 sooted and over shoves the ghey draw.

AUUUUGGGGHHHHH!!! FUCK POKER! I'm going to Grand Theft...

Running Well... and a Cash Game Hand History

2008-06-26T23:54:00.000-07:00

Even with the fear of jinxing myself, I'm still going to proclaim that I apparently am running well lately! After my winning last weekend, I've had some good results this week as well: with two $75 tokens earned, a satellite win for entry into the Sunday $750k Guarantee, AND last night I double-cashed the Daily Double tournaments, and finished the "A" in 4th place for ~$680! That's my second final table in a 1,000+ person tournament within a week, and has me feelin' pretty good about the state of my game.

Will do my best to keep up the little win streak, and have plans to get lots of tourneys in over the weekend. And I do NOT plan on cashing out the $T from my satellite win, and rather, I will be competing in the weekly big tournament this Sunday on Full Tilt. So I've got that goin' for me... which is nice.

Anyway... change of subject. Very similar to what Matt's recent posts have discussed, I too have been making a little foray into the realm of online cash games (despite a serious lack of experience, and a very unsuccessful record in previous attempts.) So with the intent of soliciting any and all help I can get, I wanted to post a hand history from last night that I believe really illustrates my inefficiencies at getting the most value out of cash game poker. Any and all thoughts are welcome...

Full Tilt Poker Game #6988060701: Table Anza (deep 6) - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:49:52 ET - 2008/06/27 ~ I'm new to all elements of cash game play, including table selection decision making. But, I feel my game is best suited for 6max, and I enjoy the ability of sitting with 200bb to begin, so have preferred these "deep" tables. And I've been experimenting at the $0.50/$1 level, (although I should probably be at the $0.25/$0.50 games being as my bankroll's still well under $5k.)
Seat 1: Boots2323 ($129.70)
Seat 2: jbellis71 ($194)
Seat 3: RaisingCayne ($230.05)
Seat 5: peragroo ($206.90)
Seat 6: Pokerlusky ($101.50), is sitting out
peragroo posts the small blind of $0.50
Boots2323 posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RaisingCayne [5s 5d] ~ I heard somewhere that this hand is gold.
volition380 sits down
jbellis71 raises to $2
volition380 adds $100
Pokerlusky has reconnected
RaisingCayne calls $2 ~ Definitely calling a min-raise with position and presto. Haven't even seen a single preflop 3-bet in the half hour I've been at the table, and didn't feel the need to bump it here with just a small pp, and the open min-raise was very non-standard, and possibly representative of a monster.
peragroo calls $1.50
Boots2323 folds
*** FLOP *** [4c 4s 5c] ~ Boom!
Pokerlusky has returned
peragroo checks
jbellis71 checks
RaisingCayne checks ~ Table has been playing UBER tight, with NO big pots and NO hands even going to showdown. I thought here that there was WAY too big of chance that ANY bet wins me the tiny pot as is, and I wanted to find a way to get the most out of my flopped full house.
*** TURN *** [4c 4s 5c] [Tc]
peragroo checks
jbellis71 checks
RaisingCayne bets $3.05 ~ I've only got so much patience, need to do something to build the pot.
peragroo folds
jbellis71 calls $3.05 ~ K. I guess that's SOME action.
*** RIVER *** [4c 4s 5c Tc] [Ah]
jbellis71 bets $7 ~ Okay, so the turn completed a flush, and the river's an ace... and villain bets into me. So he's holding something that I need to reraise to get value out of my monster flop.
RaisingCayne has 15 seconds left to act ~ I'm slow. Had to calculate what I thought would be called by either a naked Ace, or a turned flush.
RaisingCayne raises to $20 ~ Advice welcome here as in hindsight think I could've re-raised a bit more, but this is the amount I went with. Not even sure why... was close to ~3x villain's bet.
jbellis71 has 15 seconds left to act
jbellis71 raises to $40 ~ And here's where I get completely perplexed! ??? WTF does this mean? A min-re-raise river 3-bet.? Hmmm...
RaisingCayne calls $20 ~ JUST call.(!????!) WTF!? I didn't even tank either!? I guess I talked myself into being scurred of TT or AA given the min-re-raise 3-bet post-river, but with hindsight I'm thinking this is just pussy poker and I totally should've re-popped. I guess I was just contemplating the scenario of seeing villain shove in response and me not knowing what to do, (read: me making a crying call for a more than I really wanted to risk,) so went with the 'just call' option here.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jbellis71 shows [Ac 6c] a flush, Ace high ~ JUST a flush! A min-RE-raise river 3-bet on a paired board with JUST a flush!? Fawk I should've gotten a lot more out of a villain here.
RaisingCayne shows [5s 5d] a full house, Fives full of Fours ~ Yeah, Presto is gold. Why did I ever even consider that there was any chance it wasn't after how the hand played out?!
RaisingCayne wins the pot ($91.10) with a full house, Fives full of Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $93.10 Rake $2
Board: [4c 4s 5c Tc Ah]
Seat 1: Boots2323 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: jbellis71 showed [Ac 6c] and lost with a flush, Ace high
Seat 3: RaisingCayne (button) showed [5s 5d] and won ($91.10) with a full house, Fives full of Fours ~ ... but is now kicking himself as he should've gotten A LOT more out of a flopped full house!???
Seat 5: peragroo (small blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 6: Pokerlusky is sitting out

Thanks in advance for any and all advice you may have. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

'Til next time...

...Stay classy San Diego,
~Raising Cayne

Something to Talk About

2008-06-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

A month between posts again as I just haven't had much to share. Work has been overwhelmingly busy, and poker has just been an uneventful grind lately, so I've had few adventures worthy of mention. That is, until this last weekend...

Friday night I was home late from the office and was 4-tabling a bunch of random tournaments throughout the evening, and I managed to take 2nd place in the Midnight Madness! Turned $11 into ~$1,850 for my first four figure score of the calendar year. Huge thanks to Joanada, Numbbono, and OhCaptain for the railing! It was just an awesome experience playin' the tournament down with the live company, and it was far more entertaining than I expected to get use out of the microphone and headset Joanada talked me into pickin' up. That teamspeak thing is pretty cool I will admit. The one bad thing about having the railers is I can't get away with claiming my superior poker prowess was due all the credit for the score, as they were witness to a couple suckouts that were key to getting me where I went. (Two specifically for gigantic pots, when all in preflop with my QQ > AA, and my AQ > AK. Although neither spot was for my whole stack, both were very crucial to the tournament.)

The final table played real odd, as I feel I was really gifted the second place finish. Still at 9seated there were two players that were head and shoulders above the rest of the field, and for some donkey reason they get it AIPF against each other, after a back and forth raising war no less, with just AQ vs. 77 (?) and the winner (the AQ) held an incredible chiplead from there on in. And after he began appropriately applying lots of pressure on the the table, each of the rest of the field subsequently picked awfully mediocre hands to play back at him with. And it seemed like before I knew it I was head's up with a gazillion:one stack deficit. While of course I really wanted to take down first place, I'm thrilled about scoring the second place prize and my first decent score in far too long.

So I send a text message at 2:30 in the morning to a poker playin' buddy of mine just gloating over my little score, and the prick has the nerve to call me and wake me up when he reads it at 9 in the morning. Tells me it's good I had the win 'cause he's headed out to the Muckleshoot and now I can afford to join him for some live action. So... he's able to talk me into it, (obviously,) and I head out on too little sleep for a day trip of pokering. Played the $3-5 "spread" game (it's NL, but w/ a $500 max bet for some legal reason,) at the casino from 11-5 and turned $300 (which was actually and oddly the max buy in) into $812 before I took off in the late afternoon. (Even stopped by the 3Card Poker table game and left up another $40 after a half hour there.) I won't now delve into all my poker pwning that netted me the ~$500, but may post some details of the local live game another time. (Real juicy tables, definitely +EV for the decent player.)

So I get home and shower the casino funk off me, and by 7 in the evening I'm feeling good, with a pocket full of cash, and no specific plans on the evening's itinerary. And oddly enough, before I'm able to call a hooker to arrange some good old fashioned hate fucking, my cell phone rings. I get a call from a sexy cat, that's actually NOT a pro, with an inquiry if I wanted to go out and party with her. So I meet her at a local bar and proceed to get all sorts of shitty with some sexy company that I was somehow able to con into findin' me attractive. We hit up a couple locations, enjoyed far too much to drink, and really had an awesome drunk evening at the bars together. I'd say that I'm not one to 'kiss and tell', but I'm gonna 'bang and blog' here as I did take her back to my place for some hot drunk first-time passionate late night fornication. An excellent addition to an already killer weekend! The only thing I like better than pussy is new pussy.

So that was my killer weekend in a nutshell. It did have an all too too somber conclusion as I had to make my way into the office today, on a fucking Sunday, for some work. Which I expect to continue to keep me real busy into the near future. And I do still have to come to a decision as to whether to follow my organization to Memphis, TN or look for another employment option. But being the procrastinating pothead that I am, I'm sure I'll continue putting off the life choice for the time being.

Anyway, 'til next time...

I'm rich bitch!!!
~RaisingCayne

Thursday Musings...

2008-05-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

A lot of different musings on my mind today, so, going with bullet points...

Spilled a 16 oz. coffee ALL OVER MY DESK here at work this morning. I blame the obnoxious, incompetent colleague that was in my office driving me crazy with a repetitious meaningless review of facts I'm far more aware of than she is... causing me to unnecessarily shuffle paperwork with the intent of illustrating my discomfort with her presence... leading to my spilling the coffee EVERYWHERE. Really a horrible way to start one's day!
Had a nice poker win last night, taking down the 23:35 $2rebuy on FullTilt for ~$200. It did keep me up 'til 1:30 which also didn't help this morning go too well, but well worth the fatigue. I really wish I knew how to do screen shots for the blog here, as there was some portions of the tourney I really wanted to show off. Specifically, my being in 13th place with 13 remaining and the top 12 making cash... then being in 1st place with 12 remaining, and when we hit the Final Table I had over three times the 2nd place stack! I molested the bubble like it was my job! It was really ridiculous how both the cash bubble and the Final Table bubble were treated by the competition, and I was able to rape the bubbles like my name was Gary Ridgeway. Coasted into head's up play where I ran over villain who thought any hand worth a stay in blackjack was worth jamming in head's up hold 'em. GG me!
Had a meeting earlier this week with the upper management of the new company taking over my organization, and was really delightfully impressed by their honesty. Long story short, my job function IS moving to Memphis, TN on or before August 2009, and I need to make the corresponding decision whether to find other employment or move across country. Leaning toward the ladder, but I'm sure I'll have more quasi-internal debate between now and decision time. Que Sera Sera.
Made another BBT3 Final Table earlier this week with a 5th place finish in Tuesday's Skillz game. Really enjoyed the experience, as I feel I picked up some learnings about OmahaHiLo, as I had only played the game a handful of times in the past. Congrats to LilKimmer, the FTOPS OmahaHiLo winner for taking down this event as well. I was really impressed by his aggression throughout the tournament and especially at the Final Table where I again played like a pansy, never effectively vying for the top spot. (For example, with 7 people left, I get AA67 utg with just ~13 BB left and I make it 3x to go instead of jamming, !??!... get 3 callers and fold to an all in on the flop where I felt I was beat.!? Live and learn I guess.)
Mookie last night... hit a brutal suck out river 2-outter vs. Lucko in the first half hour to get to a decent stack, but gifted half of it off to a shorty's KK push vs. my 99, and then lost the remaining half when my QQ lost to AK, aipf. Ehh, standard. On a related note though, I was thrilled to learn today that Mookie is reverting back to the 3,000 chip starting stacks, rather than the shorter amount. Hopefully this will cut down on some of the donkeyrrific play witnessed in the first hour of this thing over the last couple months. (I.E... Last night's eventual 2nd place finisher Pureprophet getting it all in preflop in the first fifteen minutes with sooted 79 to oust NewinNov's big pocket pair.) It would be nice to see some semblance of actual poker strategy in this thing again in the future.
Got some horrible news Monday night that I had been dreading for the last five years! Came home from work to see the Comcast van in my parking lot, and sure enough, my illegal cable that I've had since early '03 finally got turned off. That's $50/month I've enjoyed not spending for a long time now, and am not excited for the prospect of a new monthly bill! (Long story, but I no longer have the means to reconnect the service myself.)
On a fairly related note, I watched an awesome movie last night, Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney. Really enjoyed the flick and would recommend it to all.

Well, 'til next time...
I am Sheeva the God of Death,
~RaisingCayne

Better Mood

2008-05-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

May be on the way out of my recent funk, as I've found myself in a better mood recently. I've realized a bitter tone really seemed to persist over my last few posts, (especially the recent rant I decided to delete shortly after posting,) and I feel this was simply a by-product of my recent gloom. I'll save all the details, as I never intended for this blog to get too personal, but wanted to simply share that things seem to be slowly turning for the better, and I'm feeling a bit more optimistic recently. Plan to have more positive posts up here rather than negative rants going forward. (Although, I'm not sure which are deemed more entertaining.)

On the poker front... I did finally final table a BBT3 event in last week's Riverchaser's, taking 4th place. Looking forward to a repeat performance this week, with the tourney having JUST kicked off. I also was able to cash in last night's Mookie before my donkey exit. I decided to go for what I thought was a resteal attempt with my AceNine in the BB, just to run up against Evy's AceKing on the button. Yep, that's right, I went all out with AceNine, the exact hypothetical holding I bitched about on here recently for villains' overplaying. My hypocrisy indeed has no bounds! (On a sidenote, Evy seems to really be running well of late with some solid bloggerment finishes... and also seems to be becoming quite the nemesis for me, dispatching me from a few recent events. Best of luck to her going forward, as I root for all non-TOC seat holders to win one of these last few events as the BBT3 comes to a close.)

In other poker news... I had a DEEP run in the $26, $9,500 KO tourney on FullTilt last week that was incredibly frustrating! Lost out in 21st place when my KK < AcTc AIPF. At the time I was dispatched I had a 3rd place chip stack too. I got the tourney chip leader to commit over 70% of his stack preflop with AcTc, but couldn't manage to come out on top. This was the closest I've came to a four figure score in at least six months, so the ~$100 I did cash was little consolation for me. Winning in that 67/33 spot would've put me in a dominating first place position, but, it was not to be. (I didn't even fault villain too much, as I was completely running over the table at the time with constant preflop raises, as NO ONE was playing back at me whatsoever. The chipleader understandably went for the re-steal from the button with a hand that he had to think was good against my range. Of course, his call of my re-re-raise jam was quite iffy, but I digress.)

In other other poker news... I seemed to have found a means to replenish my FullTilt bankroll via the morons that seem to frequent the 4-seat HU SnG shootouts. If you enjoy HU poker, and haven't gave these a shot, I really recommend 'em. The $6.50+$0.40 token satellite options have proved to be a great way to stock up on those tier one tokens. On a similar note, if you haven't heard already, Loretta has just started another weekly bloggerment, with the Sunday Head's Up tournament, a $26 64-person HU shootout at 21:00 hours on Full Tilt, password: shovemonkey. Should be good times.

Hope everyone's running well, 'til next time..

...I'm a talkin' donkey,

~RaisingCayne

Can't Abide Stupid

2008-05-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

So I've again been feeling like it's better to keep my mouth shut than to share much recently, but I felt it might not hurt to go on a vague rant. (Evidently I've came to the conclusion that I'm okay with running the risk of offending groups of people, just not any individuals specifically.) I've bit a fucking hole in my tongue lately to keep from filling this blog or the ghey poker table chat boxes with opinions on the outrageous incompetence witnessed of late. The only poker I've really been able to play at all lately are the Monday through Thursday BBT3 tourneys, which seem to have a consistent theme of seeing me lose out to lesser holdings. And since my venom is fueled by others in this little blogger community of ours I've thought better of illustrating individuals' ignorance publically. But... FUCK!!!

(Ha, I just said butfuck.)

It's just getting obnoxious to not be able to Final Table a single fucking time despite feeling that my play has really been improved and focused lately. Each and all of my tourney exits lately seem to come from nearly identical situations: I re-raise one of our group's uber-aggro-donk-habitual-raisers, they moronically put me on a "re-steal" (despite this play barely being in my repertoire) and jam despite (or to spite?) their ghey holdings... I call with my better hand and get prison style anal raped by their sooted bullshit. WTF!?

I won't call anyone out individually, and I'm not even referring to this week's tourneys specifically, in case anyone's attempting to jump to conclusion about my thoughts. And in fact, I'm not even referring to one, two, or even three individuals, but more just to poker incompetence in general. I can't abide stupid!

My Full Tilt 'notes' on other bloggers are getting entertaining. Given my restraint from using the blog or the girly chat, I use the 'notes' as a means of spewing my acrimony. The notes on a few tools out there have novel length rants now, it's sort of funny... sort of.

I'm just really curious when/how it's justified to jam preflop on top of a pot committed RE-raiser with AceFuckingNine?!!? Seriously!? WTF!? These donkeys don't even consider that the BEST case scenario in that spot is that they're on the badside of a coinflip, and there's a HUGE probability of their being dominated, and ZERO chance of them being ahead! I guess they just get overly drawn to the pretty matching suits on their cards, and that oh-so-attractive Ace, I don't know...

...I suppose I could understand the sexiness of the top card in our game though: that irresistable "A" in the corner of the card; with the come-hither-hole at the top of the open-leg-like lines down each side. (But for the record, I believe when people say "Fuck an A" they mean "Fuckin' A" ... they're not advising literal intercourse with the top of the alphabet, just making a reference to their being upset.) And we all know how those sexy Aces love each other's company at FullTilt... like stoner chicks on the way to a High School party, we know if we have one there's always a good chance she's gonna be lying with another before we get to the river.

Anyway... "Wooooo-saaaaaaaawwwww". ... "Serinity Now." ... "Ohmmmmmmm." .... I should really take up yoga or something. ...

Alright, I suppose I got my malice out of my system. I must be coming across like Hoy though, with an arrogant, perceived poker superiority. Please take this whole post with a grain (or tablespoon) of salt, as I suppose I'm really just venting recent frustrations. I'm just wholly embarrassed by my spot on the leaderboard, and I suppose I'm just trying to shift blame away from myself. Before anyone calls me out on my hypocrisy, (and yes, I'm a hypocritical ass at times,) I'm well aware that my play is not without the occassional suckout! In fact, yes, that was me calling off my entire ~35bb stack in the first hour of the Mookie last night in a blind battle (vs. pureprophet I think) with just AQo, vs. villain's AK, and, like that siren scene from O' Brother Where Art Thou, we saw a bitch on the river bring the other guy down. Yeah, my hypocrisy has no bounds! It's my blog, and I can whine when I want to.

With every intention of discounting my earlier conceit, I will share the fact that this BBT has really humbled me after witnessing certain players' consistency and success. I won't kiss specific ass again, like I did in my last post, but it's just abundantly clear that my game is not at as high of level as many others. And for those that know me well, (and know I'm really a much much bigger conceited prick than I even come across as,) know that this was a difficult epiphany to come to grips with! (Cayne's not exactly known for his humility. ... And he also enjoys a third person reference to himself now and again, evidently.) Seriously though, I've taken a lot of pleasure recently from watching a few others' play, and feel like my game's improved just by witnessing more successful game plans than my own be executed. But again, I don't want to sound like a kiss ass. (Although I think I am now considering a name change to TuscaloosaCayne.)

In other poker news...
A huge congratulations to Matt, who has proved that even Just Another Donkey can finagle a decent score! Great job man. Well deserved. (I won't even make any broken clock or blind squirrel references.)
I would also give more congrats to Lucko too for his latest scores, but those statements are just getting repetitive so I won't bother. Seriously though, what an amazing run of late. This guy knows how to play poker!
And a big congratulations to the folks at BDR, Live Poker Radio! Their coverage of the Borgata event was outstanding. If I didn't know any better, I would've almost considered y'all a respectable media outlet. (Almost. And, I know better anyway. I jest!) Riggstad, BuddyDank, Instant Tragedy, Perticelli, et al... all deserve recognition for the outstanding set of broadcasts! Not to mention Cheryl Hines interviewed!!!!!!! Woooot! Boom! Suh-weet! (IMO, when it comes to celebrities that occassionally play poker... she's the nuts.)

In other other news...
The roommate and I are throwin' a big party next weekend, Saturday the 17th. I usually have at least two big shindigs per year at my place and hadn't hosted one in awhile. Really lookin' forward to it. (Just in case there's any readers out there that I haven't previously invited, and that will be in the area that day, please hit me up, as I would hope you could make it over.) Gotta spend all of this weekend playing clean up in preparation. Gotta scam the lady friends into thinking my home always looks nice ya know.

Well, Riverchasers is tonight! Can't wait to see who's sooted Q9 bests my re-re-raised JJ. Good times. On a quasi-serious note though, I have enjoyed this tourney much much more than the Mookie for awhile now, and do look forward to it every week. I don't know if it's the different stack sizes or the different player pools or what, but for some reason the Wednesday routine seems to play ultra-loose and plays down much much faster compared to the other BBT3 events. I prefer the deeper stacks and earlier start time that Thursday's game provides. (Although I do completely understand the Mookie's current structure. Especially given the late start time.) Anyway, good luck all...

'Til next time...

I'm a talkin' donkey!

~RaisingCayne

If You Don't Have Anything Nice To Say...

2008-04-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

... then don't say anything at all.

At least that's what I've been thinking. Not to appear to be making excuses for having a month go between posts, but my mama taught me better than to share negativity that didn't have any chance to reap benefit. So I've been figuring why would I bother posting on here when all I seem to have to say is a bunch of expletive filled whinings.? I'm not just referring to poker either, but I've been filling bummed out in every facet of my apparently inane existence lately. I never had the intention to share my depression though, so please pardon my persistent pessimism displayed here.

On the poker front... a quick perusal of the BBT3 Leaderboard clearly illustrates that I evidently suck! Haven't had one single final table appearance in 17 fucking tournaments!?!? WTF!? And while I mean no offense to those that may be running worse in this series, (and oh yeah, they're out there,) I don't think it's reasonable to blame any bad luck for such a persistent lack of success. My results are ridiculously disappointing and while 17 tourneys may be a small sample size, it's still enough to illustrate tendencies... and my tendency is to lose! I've had some really strong first two hour showings on a couple of occassions but just can't seem to last between the points bubble and the final table bubble!?. (Read: "at crunch time Cayne crumbles like a house of cards on a fault line.")

Last night's Riverchaser's game was a ridiculously disappointing example of my BBT results! Lost out in 11th place after running my flopped nut straight into Evy's top pair, and watching while a runner runner full house ends my night. (My QTo vs. her JTo on flop of 89J... all in on flop... turn J... river 8!?!) I'm not pointing any fault at my voluptuous villain here, as the hand really played itself before and on the flop: she hit top pair w/ OESD in a limped pot and was committed to call my all in after her 3/4 pot bet on the flop. I'm just still completely frazzled over losing in that spot, as the double up would've provided me with a top 3 stack at the final table bubble, and been my first solid shot at a TOC seat. But, like the majority of opportunities I've had to better my position, it never came to fruition. Anyway,... hopefully donking it up in this evening's $1 rebuy madness will change my poker mood, who knows.

In other news...

My best friend got married last weekend. And for a guy that's adamantly against the insitution of marriage, I sure do love a good wedding! Any experience to wear a tuxedo and dance like it's a High School's Homecoming is good times in my book. (Note: if you come across a performance on YouTube that looks like me doing the lawnmower, please don't advertise!)
The roommate's on vacation! While he's off on some wild golf adventure through the Southeast of the country I got the place to myself this week/weekend. ('Naked Friday' is back in effect... visit at your own risk!)
My employer recently announced the sale of our business to a competitor. While I've been informed that I will still have a position here in South Seattle through the acquisition transition, 'til at least next Summer, I'm afraid there's a very significant chance of my getting a job offer (read: ultimatum) to move to Tennessee within the next year.?! Ehh... que sera sera. We'll see.

Well, that's about it I suppose. Hope all is well with you and yours...

I would like to wish a congratulations to those individuals that really appear to be running well in the BBT3, as their respective perfomances really deserve recognition beyond my silent envy. (I'm green with jealous rage right now...) TuscaloosaJohn, Waffles, Lucko, Loretta, Corron, TwoBlackAces, jeciimd, hoyazo... seriously, well done thus far, and good luck going forward! This group appears to be playing head & shoulders above my weak ass, and the rest of the blogger brethren. I'll have to start paying more attention to their strategy posts I guess!?

'Til Next time...

I'm a talkin' donkey...

~RaisingCayne

Trip Report

2008-03-27T18:11:00.000-07:00

With the intent of keeping this post under a novel's length, I'm going to attempt to provide a trip report via summary format. So below is a rough outline of the last few weeks in the life of RaisingCayne:

Group of ten degenerate 25-35 year old males arrive at the Vegas airport late on a Wednesday evening. (Note: United Airlines' staff need some training on the risks of over-serving their passengers, as a few in our group are able to start their vacation off way too rambunctiously hammered.)
We promptly pick up two rented minivans and hit the road to Lake Havasu. Arrive at destination hotel around midnight. (Note: playing designated driver, while on vacation with a rowdy group of drunks, sucks! Sometimes responsibility requires a level of maturity I'm simply not that familiar with.)
Pick up rented houseboat Thursday morning and hit the water (and the alcohol) before noon. Spend the next six hours drinking way too much, and offending women way too young for me. (Note: 25-35 year old men have NO place at a Spring Break location meant for a younger generation! Sadly, it turns out I don't have as much in common with 19-22 year old girls as I liked to think. A very depressing epiphany, believe me!)
In what will likely be considered the highlight of the trip years in the future, our debaucherous group get 15 minutes of fame with an entertaining appearance on TruTV's show Party Heat, a reality show that follows Lake Havasu police's beach patrol. Good times! You know, as it's just not a bachelor party without an appearance on COPS! Fortunately our party avoided any trouble, as our group had a designated driver. But tune into the former CourtTV channel sometime to watch my friend pass a sobriety test with flying colors, and then be thanked by authorities for "responsible partying."
Head back to Las Vegas early Friday morning for a couple nights of unruly behaviour in a city that was apparently built around a bachelor party theme. Arrive at Bally's Hotel & Casino after rental car return by early afternoon, and promptly check in to five adjoining rooms that are bound to be complained about very soon. (Note: room location turned out to be very fortuitous, as an adult movie was being filmed just down the hall! Our group had the distinct pleasure of meeting some big-haired, big breasted, overly made up adult film stars directly after their completing what I'm assuming were oscar-caliber performances in epic films.)
POKER: I promptly make my way to Bally's petty little poker room for some $1-2NL action. And boy, was it full of action! In just a few hours my mood changes from giddy to irate, as two horrific bad beats sway my bankroll by a four figure amount! The Cliff's notes: one hand I call off my ~$300 stack on board of QQ8 holding QT, to see villain's Q9.... turn J, river 9... my straight loses to full house, villain scoops ~$700+ pot. Grrr. And the lead-weighted straw that broke my camel's back: I have the pleasure of calling off another ~$300 in chips while holding the stone cold nuts, when my T8o flopped a painted board of 79J, and some old local jackass re-re-raises me all-in with the monster QJ... turn T, river K! My flopped straight loses to runner-runner higher straight. I watch another villain scoop another ~$750 pot after facing another wicked suckout. In just two hands my trip's bankroll is changed by at least $1,500 as I leave the tables down a net of $400, after I "should have" scooped a four figure profit! (Note: my relationship with poker has really changed in the weeks since, as I've let my tilted state persist, and I seem to have lost the ambition required to play with the necessary passion & purpose. But more on that another time I hope.)
So by then it's Friday evening, and I've turned my casual cocktail consumption into a full out binge drinking marathon, to drown my bad luck sorrows.
Meet a beautiful young African "provider" that's able to hook up quality companionship and decent cocaine at a reasonable price! (Mood begins changing for the better.)
Spend the next 36+ hours on a drug & alcohol binge that would make Chris Farley blush from his grave. All of Friday and Saturday sort of blur together in memory. Gambling fortunes turned for the better though, as I hit a 3card straight flush at a table game for a ~$400 win... and the best friend bachelor hit a slot machine prize for a ~$600 win himself.
Late Saturday night it's decided that many in our group can't afford the trip to the fancy Vegas strip clubs, so we just opt to catch 'Oooh La La' at the Paris. It was a decent show, (especially considering the cute ticket clerk opted to give our large group over 60% off the cost of the tickets. I learn from a friend that well placed $20 tips can be used profitably!)
I catch a couple hours sleep late Sunday morning just prior to heading home. Notice the sore throat I felt hit me earlier in the week has developed into a nasty illness, as I wake up feeling a bad fever, with a nasty cough, and a serious shortness of breath.
Get back home late Sunday night and feel ready to make peace with God and find a deathbed to rest on. Go to the doctor Monday morning and am diagnosed with bronchitis that developed into pneumonia! (Evidently an extended unhealthy binge spent in smoke filled casinos is a decent means of spreading infection through one's respiratory system. Who knew?) I proceed to go on a diet of Codein cough syrup and heavy duty antibiotics for the next week.
Am unable to go to work ALL of last week, as my illness kept me completely immobile and bed ridden. This extended absence fueled all sorts of fun speculation amongst colleagues as to which STD I picked up on vacation! (Note: winner in the office pool was Sandra, with her choice of "The Clap." ... I'M KIDDING!!! I swear, even after the debauchery, I remain proudly STD-free for 27 years and counting. ... I think.)
Regain my health after a solid six days of bed rest, and am finally able to return to work this last Monday. And I come home Monday evening to find that someone fucking kicked in the door to my fucking condo in an attempted break in!!! In the middle of the fucking day!!?!! Very fortunately my ADT system and my roommate's big ugly dog were together successful in keeping any actual burglary from taking place! I report the ordeal to the police, (get chastised for not using my deadbolt lock,) and am told that it appears something promptly scared away the would-be-thief, be it the dog and/or the security system. As it was obvious the schmuck was able to gain entry, but didn't bother getting away with anything, despite the visible presence of significant valuables, (not to mention a bunch of weed and other contraband and paraphernalia... which was quickly hidden upon my awaiting the officer's arrival for taking a report.)
Ordered a replacement door from Lowe's. Given the apparent funky size of my ancient doorway had to special order and wait a week and a half. Ordeal is gonna cost me a couple hundred bucks and a few hours to repair. But, I suppose it could've been A LOT worse! My roommate is away on business this week too, I couldn't imagine having to tell him his shit was stolen! I guess I shouldn't complain about his old mut dog anymore! (And I suppose I can get in the new habit of using the deadbolt too.)

Alright, well, that's that I supppose. There's the last few weeks in the life of RaisingCayne. Livin' the dream... Keepin' Princes & Kings jealous...

...I'm a talkin' donkey,

~RaisingCayne

Vegas, Baby

2008-03-03T11:11:00.000-08:00

Again, long time no post. I've came to the realization that I don't have it in me to post on here more than once or twice a month. By no means can I blame a busy schedule, or anything other than a simple lack of ambition. I'm just going to stop lieing to myself. (and my one or two readers,) by saying I will be "posting again very soon" when I know that's likely not the case. I will post routinely, just not yet sure what that routine is going to consist of!

Anyway, on to the important topic of this post... I'm headed to Vegas for an extended bachelor party in under ten days!!! Will be in Sin City livin' la vida loca from 03/12-03/16! My best friend's bride-to-be isn't too happy with me for the length of the plans, but I figured she'll get over it eventually, and I've arranged for my best friend and his 9 closest pals to spend almost a full week of debauchery in my favorite American city! Although in my previous visits I was not at all impressed by the place, we will be staying at Bally's Hotel & Casino given the smokin' deal we got for group accomodations. With plans to NOT spend a lot of time within hotel rooms, this was the most affordable option that had us in an acceptable location on the strip.

Could use some help with planning the specific festivities in case any readers have some Vegas advice/insight for me!?? Of course, at least one trip to 'The Spearmint Rhino' is in order, so I don't need that obvious recommendation. (When in Rome...!) But any and all other advice would be greatly appreciated! Including, but not limited to, the following:

Advice for 'How best to NOT get rolled by hookers!!?' (Odds of there being a late March blog post containing details of my being ripped off by Vegas' "exotics"... 7:1.)
How to get the most bang for our buck, for a group of TEN dudes planning to spend a significant amount of time and money at the World's largest strip club?. (Over/under on group tab... $1,500.) EDIT: As Fuel pointed out, this over/under was drastically understated! I've had similar tabs with smaller groups in Portland, so TEN OF US, IN VEGAS, at the world's foremost strip club!??... New over/under on group tab... $3,000!
Which casino bar on the strip most easily can accommodate room for TEN guys to drink heavily for hours on end, at a reasonable expense, while also providing ample opportunity to play "working or not working" in regards to the female patrons? (Over/under on bottles of 'Seagram's VO' consumed from bar... 4.)
Which clubs/bars/casinos/poker rooms to AVOID, if any.? As much as I'd love insight on where we SHOULD spend our time, I'd also love to hear of any places where we should NOT give our business, just in case anyone has some Vegas "must avoid" advice.? (Note: The chance of our group paying a cover charge for a "night club scene" that we could get while staying in Seattle... slim to none!)
Any other strip joints, or other bachelor party venues that should not be missed!? (Chance of returning from trip and hearing "I can't believe you did Vegas for a bachelor party and did NOT go to ____!?" ... 85%!)
When/where I might be able to squeeze in a $40-$300 poker tournament that's not a complete crapshoot in structure. While I did tell my friends I would NOT spend the whole trip within poker rooms, I do foresee me taking time out to play at least one live tourney over the stay. (Chance of my getting annoyed with the large group of friends and dissappearing to perform my own lengthy tour of Vegas poker rooms on the strip... 49.9%, despite my statement to the contrary.)
Which Sportsbook on the strip is best for a group of ten rowdy fanatics to spend an afternoon drinking and watching & gambling on random worldwide sporting events? (Over/under on wagers placed on sports for which we don't even know the rules... $500.)
How to best score/transport 'party favors'?! Is it best to carry with us on the plane, or try to score down there? Or is it best to just refrain from drug use? LOL, "just refrain," that's funny. (Over/under on number of us, out of ten, that make it out of SeaTac airport and on to the plane... 9.)
How to NOT get kicked out of a hotel that has an apparent demographic of 'retired and over 65'??! (Odds of Bally's Staff asking our group of ten 26-36 year old alcoholic degenerate males to find an alternative lodging option... 3.5:1.)
Best means of arranging private party with exotic entertainment.? Is it possible or worthwhile to arrange for exotic entertainment to be provided within one of the suites, or better to keep the exotics at the clubs? (Odds of at least one of the group of ten of us being arrested for propositioning an undercover... 4.5:1.)
Best travel option for a group of TEN to get from here to there in the city?. (Van cabs only fit so many, is limo rental worth considering?)

Well, thanks in advance for any and all Vegas advice left within the comments! I t is appreciated! This isn't going to be any real life version of 'Very Bad Things,' or anything too crazy/wild. Just a few days of partying like we were somebody else before we come back and attend another penis funeral... Oops, I mean wedding.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If ANYONE that is going on this trip is actually reading this, (I'm lookin' at you DUSTIN!,) DO NOT utter a word!!! The entire group of guests do NOT know of the bachelor party plans, and I MUST keep it this way! (Sorry you're finding out this way, but I thought posting a request for some Vegas advice from bloggers was necessary in advance of the trip!) Please please please, do NOT let on that you're aware of anything!!! The group of us going is completely unaware of the specifics of the lengthy itinerary, and I do NOT want anyone knowing that you were able to get some details where they could not! Thanks in advance for your complete confidentiality! And for your peace of mind, there's ample other activities in the itinerary that I have NOT divulged... so there will still be plenty of surprises in store.

Anyway,... onto some poker topics. Just in case you've been living under a rock for the last couple weeks, the BBT3 has begun!!! Last night's Blogger Big Game kicked off the first of FIFTY FIVE different tournamants in this latest Series of events! (Which will culminate with multiple WSOP event entries being awarded!!!) Congratulations to FTP professional Scott Fischman on capturing the first seat into the Tournament Of Champions, by taking down 'The Blogger Big Game' last night! I know many poker bloggers out there are likely frustrated that a "pro" took down this "blogger event," and now has a chance to "steal" one of the grand prize WSOP Tourney seats via the TOC... but I for one am excited about Scott's involvement! To me it reflects the popularity and sheer 'awesomeness' of Al's latest arrangement with Full Tilt. Plus, if our group of bloggers want to whine about there being pros within the player pool, why would we then even consider WSOP events anyway!? I believe the involvement of "pros" should be welcomed, and treated as providing an opportunity for us bloggers to compete with the best... not as another reason for some of us amateurs to bitch & moan about taking away opportunity.

And a little personal poker news, I managed to take down Kat's Friday Nite Donkament last Friday evening for a little bankroll boost prior to the BBT3 kickoff! I love that game... good times! I quickly took the winnings and registered for the Big Game... just to think better of the bankroll devestation that I was contemplating, and unregistered prior to yesterday's start! Spending $75 online, out of pocket, seemed a bit idiotic for my petty bankroll, and after going 0 for 2 in $14 attempts at a tier two token, I gave up any thought of taking part in the BBT3 kickoff event. However, I did already register for tonight's Monday's At The Hoy tourney though, and am looking forward to my first attempt at a TOC seat this evening, with the $26 6-max NLHE DeepStack event! Hope to see everyone there!

'Til next time... (And again... thank you thank you thank you, in advance, for any and all comments containing Vegas Bachelor Party advice!!!)

...I'm a talkin' donkey,

~RaisingCayne

Blogger Home Game

2008-02-13T10:08:00.000-08:00

Like my arrival at most social functions, I'm also fashionably late in posting a little recap of last weekend's fesitivities. If you haven't already read a recap from one the guests in attendance, there was a small gathering of Pacific NorthWest bloggers at my humble abode last Saturday evening. In attendance was myself, my roommate Joshua, my good friend Andre (non-blogger, but owner of a real nice poker table,) Mrs. Chako (the wife - Michelle,) Meanhappyguy, Matt, and SeattleJohn. (Zeem was not able to make it.) It was a real good time in all, and I'll be looking forward to similar home games in the future.

We did just two small stakes seven seat NLHE tournaments, (and one failed attempt at micro stakes cash Mixed Limit games.) It was pretty obvious from the get go that there was some actual poker players in attendance, with few, if any, irrational plays being made. (Which was a new experience for me, as I'm used to frequenting petty stakes online tourneys and the occassional random home game that are filled with donkeys unaware of basic tournament poker strategy.) Fortunately for me I was able to hold my own in the first game, and played half way decently, taking 2nd place to Joshua. I'm pretty bitter I allowed the roommate to win outright, as I feel it was primarily due to a case of awwfuckits once we were heads up. We knew we were gonna get in a 2nd tourney, and I didn't want to have the guests have to wait us out for long, (and didn't want to consider a chop thinking it would've raised a conspiracy with the two hosts splitting the whole pot,) so I decided my K6o was worth calling off my whole stack. Ghey. Next time I won't be so quick to concede.

I felt I played a real strong first tournament, making some big laydowns and well timed pushes. Pulled a jamyhawk in one hand, check/folding KK after a flop of AT4, (and having Joshua show me his TT.) Also made a big laydown against SeattleJohn, when his persistent aggression scared me away from my 9c9s on board of 2d3d4d8h. (Although not seein' his holdings and after witnessing his level of aggression throughout the rest of the evening I'm doubting that it was a smart play.) After becoming the chip leader early on, (after taking out Andre with my ATo vs. his 99 after a Ten high flop,) I was able to pretty much coast into the cash without having to make too many "moves."

The second tourney was a complete different story, as it got started well after I was more fully inebriated. Anyone that has played live poker with me before knows how I move from shark to fish in direct relation with my intake of alcohol, and by the 2nd game's start I was much closer to resembling Nemo than I was Jaws! I fittingly don't recall much specifics from the 2nd game. Andre took 2nd place to Matt, with the Wife bubbling both the first and second games, out in 3rd place.

Head over to the others' blogs for other recaps of the festivities. The Wife even has some pictures up if you cared to know what some of the Seattle blogger brethren looked like. And I really enjoyed Meanhappyguy's post here with his thoughts on each of us that were in attendance. I won't delve into any specifics myself, but I will say that it was a very friendly, very entertaining group, with NO exceptions. I believe a good time was had by all, and will look forward to doing it again down the road.

Onto other poker news... I've resumed my routine of playing at least two hours of online poker a night lately, after a prolonged hiatus earlier this year. I've had some decent successes lately; double cashing the daily doubles again the other night, and owning the $5.50 90 seat DeepStack (NONturbo, NONknockout) tournaments all week. (This SnG on FullTilt is a nightly routine for me, and is VERY +EV for anyone with patience and a decent poker IQ. I recommend it highly.) I've been feeling like my tournament game has really been on fire lately, and am looking forward to putting together a decent finish in a bigger MTT soon! (Especially after reading about Hoy's recent significant score in FTP's 50/50.) Hopefully my good results continue at tonight's Mookie. See ya there!

On a different topic... I recently humiliated myself by leaving a very rude comment on another's blog, clearly illustrating a lack of respect for one specific individual that frequents the bloggerments, (although I don't believe maintains a blog him/herself.) Anyway, without going into any details, as I'm still incredibly embarrassed by my actions, I would like to communicate a humble apology...
I'm completely embarrassed about being a fucking tool with the dipshit comment I made about not respecting one specific player. I'm an ass! I made a completely dumbfounded, moronic leap of an assumption from ONE hand a long time ago. (As I can only recall ONE experience even witnessing the individual play, and I let one fucking tiny experience lead me to draw an ignorant, and plain fucked up assumption.) And then I confound my ignorance by making the humiliating decision to share this stupid unjustified opinion with another!?... within a fucking public forum no less!? I can only communicate my sincerest apologies. I'm utterly embarrassed, and hope I can find a way to communicate this to the individual that I so rightfully offended!
My foot tastes disgusting! I feel like an ass for my hypocrisy. I always emphatically clown on the bloggers out there that seem to get so much enjoyment for berating other blogger's play, then I go and do the exact same thing... and not even on my own website, but within anothers' comments section. I'm an ass! And anyway... Evy, I'm sorry... evidently I'm a shit-talkin' donkey! Hopefully I'm able to garner some forgiveness.

Well, 'til next time...
~RaisingCayne

Home Game Talk

2008-01-28T17:40:00.000-08:00

Yet again I've really got no good reason for the extensive delay between posts, but I won't apologize as this time I can at least list excuses. I mean I didn't play any poker in weeks before just last Friday, so haven't had much to put on the ol' poker blog lately. Two primary excuses. First, Full Tilt and I had a little falling out after the first week or two of the year. We got angry... both said some things we shouldn't have... decided to take a small break from each other. I believe it's for the best. Thinking of communicating again soon though, we'll see. And second, a couple weeks back the roommate got his PlayStation3 online. It's a means for demoralizing random invisible internet villains, without the frustration of facing an aggro lucksack's rivered two outer for your tournament life.

Was able to get in some pokering this last weekend. Went down to my buddy Andre's for the game at his place Friday night. It's the home game tournament I've mentioned before; filled with dead money buy ins, without anyone that knows even basic strategy for the game. I'm pretty damn sure I won't be invited for the next one, after completely dominating the tourney again. It was a lot of fun, and really just a social occasion with just a $20 buyin and lots of booze flowing. I seriously almost started feeling bad after raping the whole table throughout. Almost. It did give me a lil' $100 profit after 2nd out of the 9 got $60. None of the competition ('cept for my buddy Andre) had any idea what they were doin'. I found it incredibly easy to separate each from their chips, (but I will admit I did have to suckout to finish off the host.) I won't post about any hands of note, as the game had lots of weird play, and my notable monster pots involved my being called by laughable holdings. It was a great time, although winning always is.

And speaking of home games. I'm excited to say that we're having a home game filled with bloggers at my place in under three weeks, on Saturday February 9th! With the help of Matt for putting it together, the roommate and I are hostin' a little game for local members of the poker blogger brethren. Matt, myself, Joshua, Meanhappyguy, Mrs. Chako, Zeem, and SeattleJohn are hoped to be in attendance. (Plus my buddy Andre, and his awesome poker table.) Lookin' forward to the game.

Good luck all...

Trying To Stay Positive

2008-01-07T19:57:00.000-08:00

Had a tough first week of the year at the online poker tables, without any wins of note. It's been tough to not let tilt set in after facing numerous beats lately in MTTs. Been playing at the donkeyesque $5-$20 levels, and the suckouts are sickening. The other night I lost out of BOTH Daily Double tourneys early on, each with what I felt were wicked beats. (Warning: skip down a paragraph to avoid bad beat whinings...) First, holding AcAh in mid position I make it 5x BB preflop after UTG+1 limped in... folds around to the donkey limper who calls, and we see a heads up flop of AsKc2c... and he insta-jams his whole stack (a massive overbet of the pot,)... I call off my stack with my top set "nuts", just to see villain's 8c4c, and, of course I fall to the flush that hits. Then I get deja vu just moments later in the other Daily Double tourney... holding AdAh in late position and a bunch of limpers in front. I bump it up to 6x BB to go preflop... folds around and I get only one caller from EP... heads up flop comes Kc7d8d, and just like before, EP insta-shoves entire stack on the flop... (a massive overbet of the pot,) I call off my chips with my over pair, just to see villain's 6d9d, and one of his outs to hit on the turn. WTF?!

(Warning: skip down another paragraph to avoid explicit derogatory rant directed toward anonymous internet poker donkeys...) I just can't believe how the assclowns that play at these donkey low-level stakes could possibly rationalize some of the idiotic decisions that are made! People that jam with 8-high flush draws deserve VD! Those that call 6x BB preflop raises with 69soooted deserve to have a family member find their body sodomized by a pineapple. The average douche nozzle that plays in the $5-20 scheduled MTTs on FullTilt has the poker IQ of a housefly, I swear. It's fucking ridiculous how bad the play is at these levels: Every fucking hand has five limpers with ATC... every fucking two-suit flop results in an all-in from the fucking flush draws... ace rag is the fucking nuts pre-flop... etc...

Alright, now that my little mini-rant is out of my system, I am going to do my best to stay positive. And I believe despite my recent little losing streak, there's still ample reason for optimism. Specifically, while I hate losing to moronic play, it's important to remember that facing incompetent villains is very +EV! As frustrating as it is when that bitch variance sends me to the rail from a funky beat, I should take some consolation in the fact that my game is head & shoulders above the average villain I face in these tourneys. I really should be able to consistently dominate in these daily double tourneys! I should consider adding another '08 goal, to specifically take down one of these fucking Daily Double things this year! We'll see.

Anyway, I got to thinking about the fact that there seems to be an infinite number of assclowns out there making up these tournament pools, and I wondered where they all come from. Then I remembered a little life motto of mine, to never underestimate the incompetence of humankind! In my personal and professional life I never cease to be amazed by some of the moronic decisions that I witness people make, so there's no reason for me to let incompetence witnessed during online poker surprise me either! Shit, I've witnessed executives make decisions that have had net effects involving six-figure losses... why then would I be surprised to witness some random asshat gift away $10 in tourney chips as a 5 to 1 dog? Simply put, I should not.

I have two friends of mine that play LOTS of online poker, yet are complete tools when it comes to anything resembling even the most basic of logic in their poker decision making. These two clowns consistently crack me up with their "rationalizing" their play ex post facto, and I've now finally given up all efforts on making them better players, given their apparent indifference. I stopped discussing poker play around them, and gave up trying to get them to borrow something from my poker library. It was just an epiphany of sorts when I finally realized that they were completely okay with the current state of their game! This lead me to a conclusion that the average anonymous online poker villain is probably not even trying to get better! The two penis wrinkles that took me out of the Daily Double tourneys I mentioned above were likely content with their getting the chips in behind! Ya know, 'cause they hit their flush draw, so folding wasn't an option.?! (And yes, I'm well aware that the latter straight flush draw may have actually been a tiny bit ahead post flop, but you know what I mean.)

Alright, so that's me trying to stay positive given a knowledge that I'm better than those I face in the daily MTTs that I frequent. And I should be somewhat consoled by the fact that I'm actively trying to make myself better every day, when the average retard is content with their level one thinking and donkeyriffic decision making. The analogy might be a stretch, but I suppose I now know how Bill Belichek might feel, knowing he should beat whomever is the competition, but still has to fade the variance involved in the NFL. I should consistently kick ass in low level MTTs, but damn that football sure bounces funny.

Anyway... I suppose I do have one positive result worthy of mentioning... I was able to final table the Mookie last night! Lost out in 4th place on a coinflip when my 44 fell to the AK of lucktruck, with it all-in preflop. The last twenty minutes of the game really had me understanding the rationale behind Monday's 4-way even chop in the MATH tournament! Going into 4-seated play last night, I actually had a tiny chiplead, but we seemed to simply pass the stacks around amongst us for a long while before I shoved my little pp into big slick. With 1st place taking ~3 times 4th place's prize, and the play really coming down to a crapshoot given the blind levels, I should've probably pursued or at least considered the option of a chop at that point. But at such small stakes, I really didn't want to be "that guy" that pushed for a higher guarantee. Anyway, congrats to CMitch for the win... and thanks to Mookie as always for hosting... and to the boys at BD, no scratch that, "MD/IT Radio" for the entertainment! Good times...

Well... 'Til next time... Good luck all!

~RaisingCayne

PS... GO SEAHAWKS!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2008-01-01T16:01:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! This is going to be an uber post, as I have a lot I'd like to get down. So with that being said, I'm going to recommend to the casual visitor that may have come across this post to not bother reading on. Stop now. Really. Unless one has ample time to kill, and an odd desire to know way too much about this random schmuck's many goings' on, I suggest surfing on to another page now. Again, I do not take responsibility for the moments of a reader's life lost by taking part in reading on further, and there should be NO expectations of anything to be gained from continuing. You've been warned.

My intentions with this post are many:

To review the last year of my life; both on the poker front & personally. Including a recap of December, (as I haven't posted since just after Thanksgiving.)
Take a look forward to the upcoming year. And include some New Year Resolutions of sorts. Again both on the poker front, and personally/professionally. (My goals for 2008 will even include some specific to this as-yet-completely-pointless little blog here.)
And finally, I will wish all a very Happy 2008! And include a few specific "shot outs" to some within our poker blogger community for their contributions to my finding this odd little society of ours so damn entertaining.

I'm telling you, it's gonna be a long post. Leave now. Here's another option for entertainment, rather than reading on further. No? Okay, how 'bout this? Both are likely more entertaining than proceeding. Again, you've been warned!)

My 2007 In Review...
Poker: I've had a mildly successful year on the poker front. In retrospect, I probably grade it a B-... but I'm a really tough critic on myself. While there was some great successes, I just didn't accomplish the high goals I had for my poker results, and for the level of my game in general. I still have some significant weaknesses apparent in my poker results that I had hoped to already have proven to be resolved. (But more on that another time soon.)

I did manage to take down my largest score ever less than a week into '07 with an 18th place finish in the first-of-the-year PokerStars' Sunday Million tourney... albeit for just ~$6k. January went on to be a great month for me, with two four-figure wins, and some real consistent SnG results. Unfortunately the first month of the year was by far my best, as I haven't seemed to be able to again capture the same rate of success since. Also unfortunate is the fact that this last month of December has been the toughest month on me, as measured by poker results. I experienced a REALLY tough few weeks of MTTs between major holidays, (which significantly contributed to the lack of posts here!) I couldn't seem to win anything the first few weeks of December. It wasn't until after Christmas (& after my 27th birthday, the 23rd), that I even had my first real decent day's results at the felt. But, I have managed to have a moderate last week of the year I suppose. (Including a double-cash bonus in the Daily Double where I just missed the best double finish score, and a very entertaining 2nd place finish in Kat's $1 rebuy Donkament last Friday.)

I'd prefer to focus on the positives for my '07 in poker, and besides the aforementioned January, these include the following:

I've continued to consistenly win at rates that provide me with indulgences for which I've become accustom. (But, more on that another time soon.)
I've managed to not play at levels above what I believe is manageable for my limited bankroll. While the ugly bitch we call variance has reared her homely head in my direction by way of some shitty streaks, I've managed to never feel like I lost my ass, and have always proven able to recover from the bad runs.
I've continued to gain immense invaluable experiences. Which this year include my biggest buy-in online tourneys, and more live tournament play than ever before.
And MOST notably of my poker positives... I have had more FUN playing poker this year than in recent past. I've rediscovered a passion for this game that I feel was missed for a time, during a too-blind pursuit for part-time profit. And deserving of considerable credit for this renewed exuberance is my involvement in this poker blogger community. (But, more on that another time.)

2007 Personally...
If I were to provide a meaningless grade for my 2007 as it pertained to my personal 'life goals' it would probably be a C-. And that's probably only 'cause I thought D+ was failing, and I couldn't be that cruel on myself. I am a real harsh judge though, and by no means do I want to give off the impression that my life is at all bad. As that's really not at all the case! It's just, I've had too persistent feelings of "BLAH" recently to consider myself that happy of a person. Pardon the vague reference, used for lack of a better word I suppose. ...
...Albert Einstein once defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Hard for me to question the 'Man of the Millennium,' as I've recently too often found myself with moments of apparent lossed sanity given a life of nearly unbearable routine.
But anyway, my last intent here is to whine about my life in general. It ain't at all bad! I'm gonna try to use the New Year time as a means to provide a refreshed attitude, and I plan to do my best to look forward to '08 with as much optimism as I can muster. And speaking of looking forward...

...2008!
Poker Goals. Aiming high, but hopefully not unreasonably so, the following are some quantifiable objectives for what I hope to accomplish with poker going forward into the New Year:

Have one large score online in excess of $5,000. I did it once, seems reasonable to assume I should be able to do it again.
Play at least 3 live tournaments per month, track all results, and show a profit of a minimum of four figures. With buyins of $40-$300, I think this is a very small goal that won't require much of an ROI%. While I take part in a few home game routines that I practically dominate, I haven't had the same results at more formal poker rooms. And before I go making any significant live tournament goals, I think it's best to first confirm that I'm at least a 'winning player' over a significant number of tourneys.
And on the topic of should-be-easily-attainable-objectives, I don't want to lose out on the positives of my status quo, so, ... I must assure my online poker game continues to consistently provide me with the specific indulgences that I enjoy. (But again, more on that another time soon.)
My online bankroll be in excess of $5k at year's end. May seem a little stupid considering the earlier goal of having one win of at least this size, but considering I've shown in the past a weakness for having a willingness to withdraw, I think it's important to have a goal to not just increase, but to maintain my bankroll.
Prior to 12/31/08 I plan to have my vacation scheduled for at least one week at the WSOP the Summer of '09. As I plan to play at least one preliminary event in '09, I want to know well in advance that I'll be able to comfortably afford it. Years ago I made a goal of participating in the 2010 WSOP $10k Main Event, and I think that goal, (which I still like to consider attainable,) is fairly unreasonable to expect if I can't make at least one smaller event the year prior.
And somewhat related to poker, I'd like to list one blog goal for the year. I plan to have at least one poker-related blog post per week. I believe taking part in the blogger community has improved the level of my poker game, and it has inarguably increased my enjoyment of the game. So I figure at least 52 poker related posts in '08 sure couldn't hurt anything... ('cept the blog's viewership I suppose!?) I do have lots of ideas for posts in mind, and I'm gonna be bitter if I again go extended lengths between posts.

Personal Goals. On the non-poker front, I'd probably rather not make a list of quantifiable objectives for the year. I'd much rather use a small list of vague resolutions, (as they're far less apt to bring upon depression after failing to accomplish.) Below are some New Year Resolutions I hope to keep throughout 2008, (or at least have good excuses for losing track of...):

Be more honest in general. I just find myself too often sugarcoating shit, or biting my tongue, rather than telling people what they should hear. I do too much to avoid any and all uncomfortable situations, even when I know just addressing shit would lead to better resolution.
Keep up my gym routine. Continue to go at least 3x/week.
Keep up a decent career pace. Without bothering to go into any details here, the next six months is going to involve a lot of change within my Company, and I have to assure I don't let it negatively affect my career. Long story.
And one still personal yet blog-related New Year Resolution is for me to be a bit more expressive in my writings here. Similarly to my sugarcoating shit in my personal life, I think in the past I've refrained from really communicating like myself here. ... I just foresee many raving rants where I don't hold back, and whine, curse, & moan about recent bad beats suffered at the poker felt.. and include ample derogatory belittling of random, invisible, anonymous, incompetent, poker villains. (I'll be sure and advise when a viewer's discretion warning may be necessary.)

Before I try to wrap up this incomprehensible, epic-length post, I want to wish any and all a very Happy New Year!!! (Not that I could imagine anyone reading this far, but...) I do hope everyone has the best of years in 2008! Cheers! To good luck... in poker & all one's endeavors.

Some specific well wishes...
Thanks to BamBam and Mrs. Chako for providing some recent motivation! I appreciate the mild nags. I'll do my best to not renege on future blog pledges (even if I might just be making them to myself.)
And a few big thank yous to Matt for: his initial communications... his introducing me to the Puget Sound area's best structured live play donkaments (albeit he doesn't show up very often!)... and for his work with arranging a Seattle Blogger Home Game! (Well, thanks in advance for the last one. More to come on that another time I'm sure.)
And finally, a very vague, general thank you to the entire 'poker blogger community!' The list of poker blogs/bloggers that I enjoy is too long to list here, (although I suppose I do try my best to capture 'em in the links to the side.) I cannot extend enough gratitude for all the entertainment I've gotten out of taking part in the MATH, the Mookie, Kat's Friday Night Donkament (my favorite), the whole BBT2, etc... Not to mention all the amusement from all the many blog conversations. Thank you all.

Well I don't think this post would be complete without making sure I repeat myself again somewhere, so... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

~RaisingCayne

(I tried to provide sufficient warning to not read all this drivel! ... Told ya so!)

Long Time No Post

2007-11-26T20:35:00.000-08:00

Alright, long time no post. Sorry to any and all dissatisfied visiters to this humble little blog for having not posted much at all this month. I won't go into detail about my reasons for not posting lately, or bother listing a bunch of excuses. Rather, I'll simply sincerely apologize for my lack of attention here lately and vow to do my best to post more often going forward. Hoping that'll suffice...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Mine was decent, I suppose. Pretty standard really. Early dinner with the fam, and cocktails with friends later in the evening. Good times. It was great to have a four day weekend away from work, as I've been feeling a bit on 'life tilt' lately. The small time off to relax was much needed. Again, I'll spare the personal details, I've just been goin' through some tough personal shit lately, both professionallyand socially, and it's been difficult concentrating on much of anything lately.

On to the poker front... I've had some real poor results online for a few weeks now, losing pretty consistently at my petty stakes MTTs and SnGs. Fortunately I've been doing pretty damn well live! A good friend of mine down South in the Olympia area has been hosting a weekly Saturday night poker game that's proven to be very +EV. I've made it down a few times over the last month or two and have consistently dominated. Each evening has consisted of two to four little $10 to $50 buy in tournaments of just six to ten people. But the players are just complete fish, and the dead money in attendance is ample. It would be nearly impossible to come up with anything resembling a strategy post from the home game, as the play is just horrendous, and there's not much logic or rationale that seems to go into opponents' decisions. It's just been super easy to dominate each game I've been in... I'm afraid I'll be un-invited soon!

At first I was real hesitant about enjoying the game. I was well aware of the idiotic play ahead of time, and was just unsure of the best method(s) of taking advantage of it. I was afraid the donkey calling stations and moronically loose pre-flop play would result in too many suckouts to make the game fun for me. But boy was I wrong! It's proven incredibly easy to separate the fools from their chips at this thing. The game is a player's dream, I swear. I almost have started feeling guilty for dominating... almost. It just boggles my mind why some of the same people keep showing up when they effectively have zero chance of winning. I know, it's just a petty stakes home game that's all meant just for fun, I just find it funny to witness such blatant ignorance of anything resembling strategy.

Anyway, I'll be sure and start posting much more often from here on out. Maybe I'll even delve a little into my personal goings on that have had me feeling so defeated lately. Or, maybe not, I don't know. I'd at least like to tell Mrs. Chako there's good reason I haven't tried to hit on her au pair lately, (and assure her that I'll be back to trying to finangle an introduction very soon. :-)

Hope everyone is doing well! I really wish I was sharing in the excitement of meeting up in Vegas in under two weeks, but, unfortunately this year's December blogger gathering just isn't in the cards for me!

'Til next time...

~RaisingCayne

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...

2007-11-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

...Who's the biggest blogging donkey of them ALL???

Why, it's me of course!!! It's appears obvious after looking at Al's updated Leaderboard, which clearly illustrates that I am the weakest link! I'm now the sole owner of most BBT2 events played without even making the points! That's right, a complete "0 for..." thus far. I suck!!! The poor trend continued in the Riverchasers event earlier.

So now I know what it must feel like to be the kid on the short bus that even the other "special" students make fun of! I've always thought that being the best of all the bloggers is sort of like being the hottest girl at fat camp. But, what's this mean about the one who owns the bottom of the blogger standings?! (I probably shouldn't have asked that.)

I hope the powers that be in this BBT2 thing would consider giving away a Gigli award of sorts when it's all said and done. I'd like to think my dead money donations into this thing aren't all for nothing! Hmmm... what could the prize be?

Anyway, while I'm discussing BAD poker play, now is probably a perfect time to introduce my donkey of a roommate, Joshua, to the poker blogging community. Joshua has played a few blogger events, and goes by joshuacarlsen on FullTilt. Although he's still adamant blogging is pretty ghey, he was was conned into creating his own. (I told him it was the only way we would let him play at the Seattle blogger home game Matt is in the works of arranging. More on that later, I'm sure.) Joshua's new blog is http://lategreatjc.blogspot.com/ . You may want to bookmark it for future use in logging harsh complaints about his wicked suckouts.

'Til next time... Good luck all!!!
~RaisingCayne

Tagged!!!???

2007-11-04T10:19:00.000-08:00

Alright, Astin tagged me last week. So...

A) Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog...
B) Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself...
C) Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs...
D) Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

A) Done, above.

B) Okay, but this is gonna be difficult after just revealing ten other things in a recent post...
1. I love to dance! I've got a whole repertoire of moves, (all stolen from NFL touchdown celebrations.) Don't assume wrong though, I'm not any good or anything. I'm a funky white guy with no rhythm, but I enjoy myself.
2. I hate television news! I won't rant about it, but I just can't stand watching news on television, save The Daily Show of course... John Stewart rocks.
3. I grew up in a tiny town. My graduating class in High School was 104 people, and was the largest in the town's history. Never had the ambition to live in a similar rural setting, as I've found myself more comfortable in bigger cities.
4. Left-handed people make me uncomfortable. I just find southpaws odd. I'm an athletic guy, yet when I do anything with my left hand I look like I'm having an epileptic fit. I used to be a decent pitcher in baseball, yet throwin' with my left arm I could be mistaken for a 9 year old girl. So anyone that can use that side of their body with any semblance of capably just makes me shake my head. Don't get me started on the ambidextrous!
5. The first women I ever slept with is now a lesbian. Probably not a fact I really need to advertise, but whatever. I was way too young, she robbed my virginity out from under me... I like to think I wasn't the cause.
6. I don't believe in much. I've always thought that blind faith was a scary scary thing. (Not the band, but the action... I like Clapton.) I'm an atheist, and I don't believe in ghosts, the supernatural, special powers, spirits, psychics, gods, demons, magic, etc... I get a kick out of hearing that there's people out there that actually enjoy that horrible show Ghost Hunters on SciFi. I find it ridiculous myself.
7. A popstar tried to sleep with my girlfriend in college once. Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas totally came on to my girl, right in front of me. It was hilarious. It was right after a show they did at my Alma Mater... back before the band was big, pre-Fergie. Personally, I couldn't believe she didn't leave me for him.

Well, that's that I suppose.

C) I respectfully refuse to tag others, and exercise my right not to conform.

D) No, and you can't make me.

----

On the poker front... I've had a moderate week at the low levels, taking 1st place in a $5+.50 90-seat deepstack tourney for $112.50... and cashing in a bunch of $5.50 18-seaters, (albeit they payout the top 4, and I haven't had a lot of firsts.) Played the MATH Monday night, with the new 6seat structure. But did absolutely nothing, and was in the first 20 out. I felt completely owned by both Surflexus and PirateLawyer at my first table. And was pretty crippled in one of the first ten hands. Never got anything going. Hopefully I'll fare better in the Mookie that starts momentarily, and the Riverchasers event tomorrow evening! 'Til next time, good luck all...
~RaisingCayne

Friday!!!

2007-11-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

Again, a long while between posts. I suppose I haven't had too much to say of late. Well, no, that's never true... I guess I don't have any excuse...

On the poker front: I feel I've been playing like a complete donkey so far in the BBT2 events, (as illustrated by the leaderboard!) Haven't even came close to doing anything in these events yet. Donked my way out of the Riverchasers last night as a JackAce! (Yes, I've been playing THAT bad!) But it's not as if I'm even considering the possibility of stopping, as I'm sure I'll continue to donate for the remaining weeks of the contest. I'm dead money! Congrats to Lucko and friends, and everyone else winning in the events thus far! I'm green with envy! Maybe I'll have to try this write-your-way-into-the-TOC thing, (sorry for some reason I can't link to it from work,) as winning a TOC seat via a poker win seems like a longshot for me now... not that I've got a chance to win with the fiction either, but I digress.

While I've been feeling uncomfortable thus far in the BBT2 events, my other MTT play has been consistently decent, albeit without the corresponding positive results. I keep making it deep in small buy-in tourneys, and getting my chips in good at crunch time, but haven't had a final table to show for it in a long time! It's getting frustrating!

And while I'm busy complaining, I've got a bone to pick with online poker... (and possibly specifically Full Tilt)...
...Last night I'm in a $10+1 90-seat Deepstack SnG tourney... 22 remaining, 18 pay out... holding AA in EP with a nice stack I raise it up... folds around to the button who goes all-in with a tiny stack... the small blind (with a HUGE stack) goes into the tank before just calling... BB folds... and comes to me where I'm given the choice to call a tiny amount more or fold... ONLY!???? WTF??? Why wasn't I given the chance to re-pop and get the SB to fold!???? So I reluctantly just call... flop comes 963 paint... SB min-bets into dry pot, I re-pop... he jams... I make a DONKEY call of my whole stack just to see his set of 9s, and I'm out short of the cash!
I do NOT need to be told how dumb my all in call was on the flop... but I sure am curious as to ANY thoughts why I wasn't given the chance to re-re-raise pre???!!! I host home games all the time, and never limit the amount of re-raising allowed to less than 4 or 5 times. WTF? This was just a raise, a re-raise all-in, and a call... why wasn't I given the option to raise again?!!! Made me go to bed tilted last night! Poker is rigged.

Onto personal news: I went to an awesome Halloween party last weekend! I was in the reverend-with-a-woody costume, (a pastor's penis is funny.) Had an absolute blast getting hammered with old friends. I usually host a wild costume party at my place every Halloween, but this year I had a good friend of mine on house arrest, and he requested the responsibility of hosting at his place given the dilemma. It was a great time! Lots of fun, lots of sexy costumes, lots of drugs & alcohol... Good times were had by all.

And onto even more personal news, (and I'm going to apologize in advance for my purposeful vagueness, as the following ambiguities are all intentional...), I think I damn near fell in love last weekend! Haven't felt anything like this in years, and can't stop thinking about this one gal. I can't go into ANY details, as the whole thing is very "90210," but I thought I'd at least mention where my head's been at lately.

I'm a very content single man, and have been happy enough being single the last few years, never imagining that I'd be happier with another's constant companionship. I've often even found myself questioning others' apparent perpetual search for a partner, as it confuses the hell out of me how anyone would ever choose to be with someone just 'cause they believe it beats the alternative. But, as content as I have been with being single, I know I'd be a thousand times happier with this person in my life. I'm completely smitten! I can't get her out of my head. She's incredibly beautiful, smart, funny, cool, witty, fun,... I could write a novel on how she amazes me. So, I better stop here before I do.

Before anyone asks, there is NO future with her... it's an unfortunate impossibility... I've gotta just get over her. (Long story, please pardon the lack of details.) But as sad as I am coming to grips with the fact that her and I will never be together, I could still never hold any regrets! The passionate feelings I've had over the last week, are worth ANY amount of heartache. Let me explain a little... ever since my college sweetheart left me over five years ago, (07/30/02, but who's counting,) I have never imagined feeling so much passion for another person again. That has ALL changed after the last week! In fact, I even ran into the ex at the party Saturday... and didn't feel a thing! It's like a weight has been lifted! A relationship epiphany of sorts. It's been nice.

Anyway... Onto another subject... (as that was GHEY) ... Since I've received a few recent inquiries about it, I have to post the news that unfortunately I will NOT be attending the Winter Poker Blogger Gathering in Vegas in December this year! :-( I would've LOVED to attend, but didn't have the means to justify the trip. I'm throwing a five-day Vegas bachelor party for my best friend in March (14th-18th) and just couldn't find it financially feasible to go down there twice in four months. Embarrassing as it is to admit, I just couldn't afford it! :-( Hopefully next time.

This is turning into quite the lengthy post, but I'm not quite done ranting yet. ...

So my Mom's in town visiting from San Diego, (to get away from the wildfires for one.) And my roommate Joshua, was supposed to be out of town on business all week, but his trip got cancelled at the last minute. So... I'm sleeping on an airbed in my living room, while Ma has my room... and I'm carpooling with Joshua everyday so she could use my car. ... And my car fucking breaks down on her yesterday! I leave work at 2 yesterday to come to her aid. I pick her up, take her home, and limp my car to my mechanic's. And after 24 hours at the shop he still can't figure out what's going on even after the fucking diagnostic!? I've got an '02 Nissan Sentra SE-R V-Spec Edition, with a lot of custom work done to it, and the throttle isn't responding. Stupid funky cars don't have a throttle cable or something simple, but a whole electronic throttle assembly thingamajig. It appears evident the whole stupid unit needs replaced, rather than one little part. I'm expecting a call from the shop any minute with a HUGE estimate for repair costs.! CapitalOne here I come...

That's enough random rambling for one Friday afternoon I suppose! I notice I was tagged by Astin with this meme thing... I'll get to it this weekend. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
~RaisingCayne

Rebound

2007-10-25T23:50:00.000-07:00

Just had a bittersweet victory. After losing out of the Riverchasers I found a satellite to an FTOPS event that was about to start so played a $6 rebuy for event #10. Took first place for the only seat into the $300+22 tourney. But I didn't even notice 'til after the win that it's a fucking rebuy! I can't afford to fucking rebuy or add on in a $300 event, so I imagine I'll be playing at a disadvantage throughout. But, a win's a win I suppose. I wish I could cash out for tourney dollars or sell the seat or something, but looks like Full Tilt doesn't have the option. Hell, we'll see how I do. The event's not 'til the 14th.

I'd report on more, but I'm tired... and lazy... and stoned...
~RaisingCayne

Tilted

2007-10-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

No post in long awhile. I've been on an extreme level of life-tilt lately, and it has definitely extended to the poker felt. I won't bother with specifics, just been incredibly frustrated with my life lately, and am all sorts of bitter with the world. I'd delve into my depression here, but that's probably as useful as a nazi apology. So I'll digress.

Poker has been a cruel cruel mistress lately. I feel like Waffles in the sense that I seem to perpetually lose from ahead at every table I sit at lately. I've just had a horrible run lately. It's killin' me. I feel like I'm going crazy, I can't win a single thing lately! Managed to lose my entire online bankroll, and am back to grinding it out at the petty levels. Poker fucking blows! It's enough to drive a guy crazy.

On a positive note, if I can find one, I am as excited as everyone else for this BBT2, and will be tryin' my damnedest to win one of these blogger events to qualify for the shot at the Aussie Millions trip! By no means could I afford to take part in the blogger big game on Sunday, but I did just fall out of this week's MATH... (in 34th of 82 after jjok decided to take away every pot I was involved in: Calling my JJ and QQ pre flop raises, and betting out large after TWO different AKx flops!... and finally calling my JsTs all-in with his 99 that holds up.)

Been playing a lot more live games lately, tryin' tournaments all over the county. Of course, I haven't won a single thing, but I feel my live game is getting a bit more honed. My roommate ran real well yesterday, taking down the Muckleshoot's daily noon $65 tourney, AND cashing in the Treasure Casino's 6:30 $60 superstack tourney last night. Good games Joshua!

'Til next time... Good luck all, (someone has to have it!)
~RaisingCayne

Ten Things No One Knows About Me

2007-10-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

Alright, since I was "tagged" by Mr. Bankwell, the following are Ten Things No One Knows About Me... (well, ten things no invisible internet friends know about me at least...)

1) I skipped the 3rd grade. ... Always been used to being the youngest in a crowd ever since. Graduated High School at 17, and finished college at 21.

2) I smoke a lot of pot. ... Way too much in fact. I'm an addict, having came to grips with the fact that I've grown dependent. I feel like I could use 'help,' but, like Dave Chappelle in Half-Baked, I'm afraid to seek it out for fear of getting clowned on for being in recovery "just for weed man." Don't get me wrong, by no means does my habit make me a social misfit. It's just tough realizing a dependency.

3) I don't like my job. ... I work in the finance department for a huge company, and spend over 40 hours a week in cubicle country. I do really enjoy the respect I get in my position, and I make decent enough money, I'm just a bit fed up with corporate America, that's all.

4) I once did a touchdown dance in the endzone of Qwest Field in Seattle. ... Kind of a long story, (and no, I'm not a football player,) but I once found myself sans security inside the stadium at one in the morning, so I ran down to the field to pull off a quick "sprinkler" on the Seahawks logo in the endzone.

5) My house burnt down when I was High School. ... November 5th, 1995. Got called to the principal's office out of class just to take a phone call from a 911 operator with the bad news. Vice Principal gave me a ride home, just so I could watch it burn to the ground. I grew up a lot that year.

6) I'm currently very single. ... Haven't been in love since the college sweetheart left me after graduation. I've been playing the field for the last six years, but haven't met anyone that I could see myself with.

7) I'm a democrat. ... I have very liberal political opinions, and lean far to the left with my nearly socialist theologies. I hate the current president, and am embarrassed by the image of our country that our current administration has portayed to the rest of the world.

8) I absolutely hate scary movies! ... Unlike Waffles, I absolutely detest this film genre. Why would anyone choose to be scared?! It just boggles my mind why anyone would make a conscience decision to do something that would scare them. ...

9) I hate rollercoasters. ... For the same reason above, plus the nausuea.

10) I love the show Heroes, and am watching right now. ... I'm real into it!

Alright, well that's that I guess. I suppose I will try and "tag" someone myself, and see if Matt will give this a shot.

----------
On the poker front, I did score a little win by turning an $8 satellite victory into a $300 score for taking 440th place in Sunday's $750k at FullTilt. Pushed with 88 with an M of 7 shortly after the bubble burst, called by AQ and the board went villain's way. It felt real good to cash in my 2nd attempt at this thing, but after railing the tournament through to the final table I can't help but think about "what might have been." I'm all sorts of envious of the 'pocketfive-ers' that seem to consistently come down with big big scores. Sure would be nice to Final Table one of these things myself! (Says Captain Obvious.) Back in January of this year I took down my biggest score ever by turning an $11 satellite win into ~$6k for 18th place in the PokerStars Sunday Million... when I ran KK into AA. I'd love the chance of getting down there again.

Lost out of the MATH tonight just prior to the final table. The hand that crippled me was when I caught Bayne making a move with K8o preflop, and I called his all in with my AJsuited just to see the board go his way. That's the game we play. (Note: Bayne went on to cash, and take over Hoy's leaderboard... a bit frusrating, but worth congratulations. GG Bayne! And congrats to BuddyDank who took down the tournament! GG!!!)

Anyway, better keep workin' on another satellite to a big score. 'Til next time.

"...I'm a talkin' donkey!"
~RaisingCayne

Attempting the MATH Three-Peat... and Live Play is Rigged

2007-09-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

Another Monday evening, another MATH... moments away from the start of this week's 'Monday's at the Hoy' tournament! This will mark my attempt to three-peat as champ, after I somehow managed to luckbox my way to 1st place the last two week's in a row! I'd say wish me luck, but I know no one would mean it after the last two weeks. I'm sure it's someone else's turn this week to get all the luck anyway. My roommate has been sick of hearing me gloat over my recent success, and after he read Hoy giving me more credit, he even decided to join the MATH tonight with his only goal being to take chips from me! So fyi, look out for "joshuacarlsen" at your table, he's my roommate, and HE'S DEAD MONEY! ;-) Kidding Joshua! Good luck!

I did/do really want to post a long writeup about the weekend, as I got LOTS of poker in, and had the pleasure to hook up with a fellow blogger in person! But, I don't know if I've got the means to put all the details together as I spent most the weekend heavily inebriated, and Matt already posted a great writeup on our getting together at a local card room. But I would like to say, it was great to meet you Matt! And, live play is rigged!

A brief summary from what I remember from the weekend:
-Met up Friday evening just to argue with the pitboss about limiting the tourney to 30 entries, having fifteen players not be able make it by the end of the alternates period. Donked off some money at 4-card. Left angry.
-Went to the 12:30 DeepStack ($60 entry, rather than $30) tourney at the same place Saturday. Pushed my TPKK into bottom set and was out in the third hour. My roommate, Joshua, luckboxed his way into the cash though! Taking 5th place, out of 50 or so, for a nice $100+ profit. Good game Joshua!!! Got completely wasted while playing Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em waiting for Joshua to lose out. Actually made good money while getting hammered somehow. Table games rule!
-Went and got my haircut while liquored up, and offended my stylist. (Note to self, don't make appointments while intoxicated.)
-Came back to The Treasure with Joshua, and my other friend RedheadJenn, and met up with Matt for the 6:30 tourney. Still completely drunk! My friend RedheadJenn hit nut flush on turn holding the Ah, just to see villain's flopped straight flush. Myself, I ran AKo (ALL-IN PREFLOP) into crazy Asian guy's almighty 37 soooooooted. And none of the four of us cashed.
-Sunday was Sunday... per my routine, it was spent recovering and watching sports. GO SEAHAWKS!

I do notice I was just "tagged" by Mr. Bankwell (of Poker Tart fame) with this "10 Things No One Knows About Me" thingamajig... but I'll have to do some thinkin' about that one. Next post's topic I'm sure.

Good luck all!!! Off to the MATH... 'Til next time...

...I'm a talkin' donkey!
~RaisingCayne

MATH Repeat!!!

2007-09-17T23:34:00.000-07:00

Repeated as champion of the MATH this week! Continued my really hot run in this tournament with my 3rd win, 2nd in a row! With one other 2nd place in just 7 attempts, with 6 final tables, this tournament has become my little cash cow. I've got an ROI over a 500%, with $1110 in winnings over my seven $26 buy-ins. I like the MATH!!!

I was pretty card hot throughout this bloggerment, getting big slick a zillion times, and a handful of timely pocket Tens, (althought I can't recalling being dealt a single QQ-AA.) Had one BRUTAL suckout go my way late in the tourney when I played a hand like a complete tool against emptyman. With just high card and a flush draw after the turn I just gave up my whole stack into a big pot before catching the miracle 2nd running suit on the river. It was an awful play, and I had no place in the hand. Really sick. It was garbage.

I was on a different sort of tilt after that, it was odd. I started doing really well right after, and was soon in great position to compete for the win. All the while knowing that I had just been allin after the turn with ~8 outs, in a hand I played like a complete fool. It was just odd feeling that I was only still in given the brutal suckout, and here I was gathering a nice stack late in the tourney. It was a different sort of tilt. ... But... I got over it! ;-) ... Played a great final table, (focused on not getting embarrassed again,) and went on to repeat as champ!

Fortunately, emptyman went on to take 2nd place, letting me feel a little less guilty. GG man! Again, sorry! I did/do feel awful about it. (Not like 'chop-1st-place-awful' about it... but pretty bad. :-) ... And a good game to IslandBum1 for cashing in 3rd, and wookin_pa_noob who lost out on the bubble. Thanks to Hoy for hosting... good times! And if my MATH math is right, this puts me in 4th place on the yearly leaderboard, and within just $65 from Bayne in 1st! I'll look forward to puttin' a little pressure on the top three next week. See you then!

Do notice that the blog posts recapping my recent MATH victories each detail brutal suckouts for big stacks! This isn't a coincidence. I'm a donkey! Don't go assuming too much from the numbers in this tournament... Even a broken clock is right two times a day!

I'm a talkin' donkey,
~RaisingCayne

Friday Night Gambling

2007-09-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

Went to a live tournament yesterday. The 6:30 pm $30 buy in at the Treasure Casino in Renton, that Matt turned me on to. Didn't get there 'til 6:15 though, so was #8 on the alternate list. Had a buddy of mine meet me there, and he took down $900 for a high hand jackpot with quad jacks playin $4-$8 waitin' for the tourney to start. And given his good fortune, he offered to cover my buy-in! I was freerollin'! Got into the tournament fairly quickly, before even the 3rd level started. Doubled-up early with 99 against some aggro-donk's 8d6d, with it all in preflop. But, didn't do much anything from there, fallin' out in 25th of the 52. Got knocked out bluffing at a big pot with an excessive continuation bet push, holding AhKh on a flop of 553... just to run into some donkey who flopped a set from the big blind. (The ball-wrinkle thought it appropriate to defend his blind to my 4x raise from mid position, with 58off.?)

It was a really cool tournament structure though, starting with 5,000 chips, 25/50 blinds and 20 minute levels. Thank you Matt for the recommendation, it was good times! My buddy even ended up 'quasi-cashing,' as right before the bubble burst it was agreed that the next out would get there buy-in returned... and he was the benefactor of the deal. I liked the little casino too, as by the time by buddy was out of the tourney I was up $150 playing $4-$8 against complete morons. Was a weird experience playing against such idiots, as on TWO occasions by two different people my river bet was called by a missed draw! Both times the opponent showed their NOTHING. It was mind-boggling,... not that I'm complaining. I could see myself back at that card room again in the future! And I didn't even mention their $1 well drinks!

So my buddy Andre and I had a couple girlfriends meet us up there after the tourney, and that was a bit of a bad idea. Our poker/gambling night on the town turned into an evening spent entertaining the opposite sex. We left the Treasure and went to the Muckleshoot in Auburn, so the girls could play their slot machines. I was actually up another $100 playing video poker there, but, that was before I went and lost all of the evening's winnings at the roullette wheel. And after falling down to even for the night, (and having some seafood fettuccinni at 2 am in the casino restaraunt,) I made my way home. It was a good night in all.

The night made for a tired Saturday though, and I'm lounging for the rest of the weekend. 'Til next time...
...I'm a talkin' donkey,
~RaisingCayne

Another MATH Win!!!

2007-09-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

Just won the MATH tournament! Turned $26 into an even $300. Was a much needed bankroll boost after my especially-donkeyerrific play of late. Didn't even play all too grand, as I luckboxed my way to the win, more than anything else. Had an amazing run of cards all tourney long. FOUR pocket aces (including 1 at the Final Table)... 2 pocket Kings (including the LAST hand of the tournament)... LOTS of big slicks, and AQs. Everytime I looked down I seemed to find a hand to raise with preflop, and when pushed back on I was usually holding monsters. ... And that's just my good starting hands. My ultra suckouts were even greater! Hoy will attest to this, as the hand that made my tourney early was a huge suckout on him.

Holding the hammer on the button I tried to steal Hoy's 3x BB bet from UTG with a 3x re-raise. (Ignorant decision given the situation, my only rationale was my motivation to try to show Hoy the Hammer if he folds.) Hoy thinks, then calls... Flop comes 568... Hoy bets out a fairly small bet, under half the pot if I remember right. I try to steal again and push all in on my lame draw, (not even bothering to put villian on a hand, and in hindsight I can't think of many hands within his range that he would fold to the push.) He calls, flips over JJ. Sees my Hammer. Turn's a 2... River's a 7. I double up with 2 pair. This was just one of a couple suckouts I had in the tourney, but was the most significant to the victory. Sorry Hoy. I swear, I did feel real guilty for a good three or four seconds.

Feels good to take the MATH down again. I've had a lot of luck in this tournament, with 2-1sts and one 2nd place finish, in a short time. I look forward to it continuing. Congratulations to LJ for finishing 2nd. She too seemed to have a great run of cards, showing multiple pocket Aces that held up throughout the tourney. Good game! It was 'a104l9' taking 3rd, and RecessRampage fallin' out on the bubble. (I was thrilled to just hit the cash in this one after bubbling THREE bloggerments in the last month! It was a nice moral victory when 4th place fell. Everything above third place was gravy to me tonight.) 'Til next time...

I'm a talkin' donkey,
~RaisingCayne

Losing Live, and RedheadJenn in the Mookie.

2007-09-06T20:04:00.000-07:00

Took a shot at Live play last weekend, went to the Muckleshoot last Saturday for some $3-$5 No Limit. Sat down with the $300 and left with nothing four hours later. It was real humbling, and frustrating as I just played horribly! Made some DUMB errors that really cost me: calling with hands like Top pair no kicker, while making scared folds with big drawing hands... just real bad play altogether.

Made a real ignorant decision that tilted me late: holding 47o in the small blind with about $190 in front of me, I decided to try and see a flop after LOTS of limpers, and threw in $2 more. BB checks his option, and flop comes J74 paint. First to act, I bet out the pot for $30. Get one caller from mid position, and then the button goes into the tank before pushing all in for $400+. ... And, like a dumbass... I FOLD. Midposition caller goes into the tank before folding and showing KJ... And the pushin' donkey shows AJ. F@*#!!!

I suck! Hindsight blows too, as I should have KNOWN I was ahead. In my dumb rationale I made the fold 'cause the pusher on my right had not made a move like that yet, and I for some reason read him for a monster hand. But, thinking about it longer, there was no monster hands even remotely likely in that spot: Dude had limped along with the whole table, so there was NO way he had JJ. And how/why could I still put him on a set when I held a 4 and a 7 myself!? And lastly, I knew the player wasn't the type to enter a pot with J7 or J4, as he had folded at least 80% pre-flop thus far, regardless of the action. So again, hindsight is embarrassing, I should've KNOWN I was ahead and taken down a monster pot. Instead, I went on tilt and donked off my remaining stack within the next five hands and left empty handed. Tilted me for the whole holiday weekend. And, a my buddy nouvellechef joined me for the adventure, and he left UP an even $1,000 after the same four hours at the same limits! As happy as I was for him, my envy was unbearable! Live and learn from each mistake I suppose, but I imagine it's gonna be a little while before I make another run at the live NL cash tables. One can't play scared, like I believe I did, and expect to come out ahead! Being scurred is -EV.

Anyway... had a GREAT time playin' in the Mookie last night. Talked my friend RedheadJenn into joining me in the tournament, and we both ended in the cash! Me just taking 6th place, and her getting sucked out on heads up for a great 2nd place finish. Great game Jenn!!! Good times. Thanks again to Mookie for hosting, and BuddyDank radio for providing such awesome entertainment throughout! 'Til next time...

... I'm a talkin' donkey,
~RaisingCayne

Playing Poker Wasted... the Sunday $750K on FullTilt... another MATH / another bubble... a quick Mookie exit, and attempting to repeat the Dookie!

2007-08-27T20:04:00.000-07:00

No post since last week. Lots to catch up on...

So last Friday night... went to a wedding in downtown Tacoma. LAME event all around, as I felt entirely out of place at the celebration. (It was a colleague's wedding, and I had nothing in common with any of the small group attending.) But, it was an open bar, so I stayed long enough to catch quite the buzz, and offend a few women. Anyway, made it home just before midnight and had been thinking about poker all night, so got online for some SnG play. BIG MISTAKE! ...
I was so excited to get my laptop on for some poker, I didn't even consider the fact that maybe I was drunk, and just maybe I shouldn't be playing cards!?! I wasn't even thinking about anything but playing the game I love, and didn't even consider NOT playing. Being home alone with an hour or two to kill, it was an AUTOMATIC conclusion that I was playing poker. ... I plan for the decision 'to play or not to play' to always be a conscience one from now on! ...
I compounded the EFFup, and registered into FOUR $20 SnGs of various sizes, (a 6seater, 2-9seaters, and a 45.) This $88 committment all at once is a bit above my bankroll when my game's in top form. It's ridiculously dumb when I'm at all out of my element, as I was completely on Friday night. I was so uncomfortable, it was funny: I couldn't get a single read... Multi-tabling was all of a sudden WAY faster and harder than ever before... I kept finding myself rationalizing dumb calls... making ignorant moves at big pots... over-valuing hands pre-flop... etc... It was just altogether lame. I was simply over matched at all four tables. given my lack of attention span in a drunken state. And sure enough, didn't even come close to cashing in any one of the four games, as deserved.
As hard as it may be to believe, I swear, I managed to have an epiphany while hammered! Okay, so it's not hard to believe considering "DON'T PLAY POKER DRUNK" isn't exactly an amazingly insightful revelation. But still, lesson learned nonetheless. Yes, this should be common sense, but it took my experience Friday night for me to REALLY realize I cannot afford to make such a dumb mistake again. I have NEVER felt so uncomfortable playing poker before, I just knew I was going to lose. ...
I plan for the decision to play or not to play to always be a conscience one from now on!
... anyway, ...
Played the FullTilt Sunday $200+$15 $750k guarantee tournament... (WARNING: bad beat story coming...) ... managed to play great for the first 3 hours and had a healthy stack with 1200 of the the original 4,000 remaining (top 500 some cashing,) when:
I look down at AA in the small blind. ... UTG MIN-raises... gets THREE callers before the button re-raises substantially... I realize there's so much action ahead of me that I have to try to get SOME people to fold, so holding bullets, I push my whole (significant) stack; a large over bet of the pot. ... BB folds. ... The UTG player (who is table chipleader, was playing uber-aggressive, and whom I had a great read on) INSTA-calls for 80% of his stack... 3 folders and the button goes into the tank for awhile before calling for his whole stack. ... Cards are flipped over, and it's: my AA vs. UTG's KK vs. button's AA. ... And of course, K on the flop and I'm drawing dead! F***!!! F***!!! I lose my top 100 stack DEEP in a big money MTT when holding AA all in pre... F***!!! I don't know why I play this stupid game.
...
Played the MATH the next night and F***ING bubbled! 4th place for $0 when my AKo couldn't improve vs. GCox's 99. SECOND Bloggerment bubble in under one week, as I JUST missed the cash in the Mookie last week as well. F***!!! After donkin' off the majority of my bankroll drunk, then getting sucked out on from a possible decent score, I managed to get my hopes up to cash in another blogger event and recover some bankroll... just to EFFING BUBBLE!!! F***!!!!! I don't know why I play this stupid game.
...
Just got knocked out of this week's Mookie on a REALLY bad play, SUPER early (vs. Donkey Puncher.) My Q9 vs. QQ all in on board of Q952. A very demoralizing hand, drawing DEAD when the money got in. I suck! REALLY poorly played as there was NO reason for me to ever think I was ahead in the hand. I suck! I don't know why I play this stupid game.
...
Gonna try to repeat as winner of the Dookie for a little redemption. I'm going to go google "Stud hi/lo." ...

...I'm a talkin' donkey!
~RaisingCayne

DOOKIE!!! ... FullTilt Sunday $750k... (and the F*%$#@' Mookie.)

2007-08-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

Played the mookie tonight... fucking bubbled! Got 6th place when the top 5 paid. I feel I played alright, but made a stupid move to lose. EXACTLY the same as the MATH two nights ago, I called one of Hoy's final table all-ins with a piss-poor hand that I thought was within his range. Tonight I called my small stack off with KTo against Hoy's push of all in with 99... 9 on the flop kills me. The MATH I final tabled and called Hoy's push with ATo to see his AJo and a J on the flop. Fool me once, shame on Hoy... fool me twice shame on my dumbass! I have NO idea why I made the same eff up twice in a row. I knew Hoy's range was big both times, but AT and KT???!!! WTF?! They're not hands 6seated!!! Lesson FINALLY learned, I hope.

GG ALL! Hoy didn't take this one down, fallin' out in 4th, right after Bayne... katiemother and leftylu are heads up now, with VinNay taking 3rd... leftylu ended up taking it down. Thanks BuddyDank for the entertainment! The radio show again kicked ass.

But enough about my mistakes in tournaments... I played 'The Dookie' for the first time tonight, and WON!!! a $5 blogger TURBO LIMIT HORSE tournament. Took 1st place out of 19 for a net $42 gain. I like HORSE... evidently. Never played the game before, but knew the games involved. Feel I played great, knowing when I had the odds to call, push, or fold correctly. I might have to give the HORSE tourneys a chance.

And on another poker topic... I won myself a seat at my first FullTilt Sunday $750k guarantee last night!!! Took 1st out of 49 in an $8 satellite to win me a seat. Lookin' forward to the tournament. Not to get ahead of myself by any means, but my first satellite win into the PokerStars Sunday Million six months ago netted me my biggest score ever (18th place for ~$6k,) so I'm really hopin' my beginner's luck streak continues this Sunday. Wish me luck. Until then...
I'm a talkin' donkey,
RaisingCayne

Mid week musings

2007-08-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

Wednesday evening... playing the Mookie. Pessimistic about my chances given the reigning champion and always tough MiamiDon is directly on my left. Although, I was able to chip up to 5k in the first hour given my AJ held up vs. 99 when the money got in on a Jack-high board. So, we'll see. I'd love to keep up my nice record in these blogger events, but I've yet to cash in my 3 attempts at the Mookie.

Had a crazy busy day at the office, and an even more hellish one on the calendar for tomorrow. I'll save the boring details... it's just frustrating leaving the office with uncompleted tasks and knowing I really should've stayed a few more hours, to make tomorrow less stressful. Fortunately I've got a nice weekend planned I can look forward to... leavin' work at noon Friday for the company's annual Golf Jamboree. It's always good times; a chance to get hammered with the higher-ups while chasing my errant drives all over the course. And, I've got a bachelor party Saturday that involves 18 (more) holes of golf, and a little home poker game in the evening (that I expect to be muy +EV.) And Sunday I've got pretty vanilla plans to lounge around the house and donk it up at the virtual felt. Which happens to be my favorite flavor Sunday!

On a sidenote though: WHO THROWS A BACHELOR PARTY WITHOUT STRIPPERS!? I MEAN SERIOUSLY? The groom-to-be is a real conservative friend of my roommates, and I'm really not looking forward to the day, save the poker portion of the evening. I'm a perpetual bachelor myself, so my opinion's are a bit biased, but I just don't understand a bachelor party without strippers. I mean, 'when in Rome...'? What's the deal? I thought that was the point of the event.

Picked up Madden '08 for the PS3 yesterday... provides quality entertainment in between my SnG play. Excited for the NFL Season to get underway. ... Go Seahawks!!!

I'm a talkin' donkey!
~RaisingCayne

Madden Day

2007-08-14T18:23:00.000-07:00

No poker this evening... just got off work and picked up Madden '08 for the PlayStation3. Busy.

Bellingham... and The MATH win

2007-08-06T18:36:00.000-07:00

Had a crazy wild weekend up North. Following our the Cliff's notes...
Took a friend up on an invitation to reunite with the old college gang near the alma mater (Western Wa U), and drove up to Bellingham with some friends from the Portland area. Went up late Friday night, arriving after midnight. Had a long day Saturday enjoying the area and the company of old friends. Walked downtown, visited the campus, hung out at the beach, watched a friend perform at a theater in the evening, ate like a king, and partied like I was 22 again.

College was bar none the best time of my life thus far, and I found myself in a good mood just being in the ol' stompin' grounds. There's somethin' to be said for that town; filled with beautiful people, and a real friendly vibe. Walkin' by the average person on a sidewalk one is more likely to see a smile worn, rather than the perpetual frustration on the face of the average schmuck on the street in most other places. I could see myself retiring in a town like that.

Anyway... On the poker front, I actually did get a tiny bit of play in this weekend. Funny enough I was able to pick up a random wireless connection with my laptop from my buddy's place in B'Ham, and like an addict, I got on for a half hour of PLO high. Won a buyin at the puny dime-quarter tables for $25. Came home Sunday evening (after the M's game) and took 4th place in a $10 PLO high event that netted me $93. I like that game. :-)

And... I JUST took down the MATH tournament! :-) Netted myself just under $300 for the first place finish. MUCH needed personally after the weekend I just had, and I'm actually withdrawing the majority from the bankroll. I think I got Astin's card rack somehow as I was dealt MANY premium hands throughout the tournament, and had a lot of flops go my way. Was able to recoup from donking off most of my stack on one stupid hand close to the first break. Recovered from having just 1600 chips in the second hour. After coming into the final table with an average stack, I had a big lead by the time we approached the bubble, and could afford to keep up very aggressive play onto a decent win.

Congrats to columbo for finishing 2nd and Mike_Maloney for taking 3rd. HighOnPoker lost out on the bubble in 4th. Mike entered the final table with a nice chiplead and would've had a huge advantage 3seated if it wasn't for some real tough beats. GG all! And thanks to Buddy Dank for again providing quality entertainment throughout! See everyone Wednesday at the Mookie!

I'm a talkin' donkey!
~RaisingCayne

Another hit of MATH

2007-07-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

Played in the MATH tonight. Finished 5th with the top 3 paying out. Another good tournament as I love the deep stack structure. I feel I played well, albeit again probably a bit more tight than optimal. Starting 5seated the 4th place stack had me outchipped 3:1. I was able to suckout on Hoy when my Kd8d outdrew AQo with the chips all in preflop. Then ten or so hands later, Hoy was able to finish me with another AQ, this time vs. my A8: I raised from the button and Hoy in the big blind raised me back all in. I took it for one of those 'resteal' attempts I've read so much about, so I made the (stupid call)... and didn't suckout.

Railing the final four: I see jeciimd is the short stack on the bubble. After being the bubble boy at the last blogger tourney I played, I'm pullin' for him to at least cash here. And would like Hoy to do well too, as that's where all my chips went. ... But, after a LONG 4 way battle Hoy is knocked out on the bubble. 3 seated is jeciimd now with the chiplead, with bartonf and PokerBrian322 also in the cash. jeciimd knocks out Brian real quick and has a little lead going into heads up. But, after a pretty long heads up battle, 'bartonf' is the winner! Good game all!

I'm a talkin' donkey,
~RaisingCayne

My First Friday Night Blogger Donkament...

2007-07-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

Played in the Friday Night $1 rebuy Bloggerment. And true to its reputation, it was quite the donkarama, as the rebuy period was nothing short of crazy. Every hand had at least three people all in for the first half hour. Fortunately I was able to chip up very nice and held a chip lead for awhile. Kept a healthy stack throughout and made the final table in the top three. Unfortunately I had Waffles two to my right. But, this time he was nice enough on one hand to fold his bottom pair to my overpair, and let me stay alive.

Lost half my stack on a poorly played hand to Fishiswa... let him catch two pair with 57 against my A3 on a flop of A82. ... He had just min raised my big blind from the button, I call and catch top pair, but check like a pansy. (?) He bets the whole pot, and I make the right read that it's a bluff... and JUST call (?). The turn's a seven. And I again check l(?) and he checks behind. River's a 5 and I bet 1/2 pot (?)... he calls and I witness my idiotic play cost me half my stack.

Figure the whole table has me marked as weak after seeing the hand play out. And, I'm the short stack with 6 remaining. Top three pay. ($214 in the prize pool for just 24 players in a ONE dollar tourney! REBUY FRENZY!!!) But I was able to double back through Fishiswa when my JJ holds vs. AK. Then took him out when my 88 held up vs. hisA8. Now 5 seated. Similar stack sizes all around. My money's on Waffles to win, as I've already assumed he'll be getting all of my chips shortly. I may refer to him as a 'nemesis' in a derogatory manner, but he's no doubt a more-than-worthy adversary. In fact, he knocks Buddy Dank out in 5th, and we're on the bubble. With me as the short stack. Then my AT doubles through chipleader jeciimd's KT on a ten high flop. And the bubble burst when I take out jeciimd with KT vs JQ. ... I made the cash! 2 for 3. Congrats to Waffles and butchhoward for cashing. Tough break jeciimd.

3 seated... somehow I take the chiplead from Waffles when my cards run hot for a little while. Butch is a bit short, and I'm able to take him out with Ax vs. his KQ. ... AND, for the 2nd time out of 3 blogger tournaments I'm heads up against Waffles!!! (And remember, he stacked me at Riverchasers, and went onto cash... he's running hot.) But this time I hold the chiplead going into heads up. And... long story short... I WON!!!

Heads up I took most of his stack when he chose to represent the Ten (that I held) on a board of TT55x... he again "lol"s when he knows I caught him bluffing after I push him in... but this time he doesn't have outs and can't call to catch up with a lucky river card. A few hands later I'm able to finish him off, with the exact same situation that I was able to stack jeciimd with... my AT vs. KT on a T-high flop. Ship it!

Good game all! Another very entertaining blogger tourney, and more beginner's luck. Thanks for hosting Katitude! 'Til next time...
...I'm a talkin' donkey!
~RaisingCayne

My first Riverchasers: Waffles is running hot

2007-07-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

Playing in my 2nd Blogger tournament, was hoping to continue my beginner's luck at these things with the Riverchasers event. Played incredibly tight for the first hour but managed to chip up well... just to give up a bunch when I had to fold QQ on a rag flop. Villain was good enough to show AA. (It wasn't as difficult of a fold as it might appear, the action pre-flop screamed that I was beat.) After the first break I was moved to Waffles' table...
and...

Full Tilt Poker Game #3067770662: Riverchasers Online Poker Tour (23242387), Table 1 - 100/200 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:32:15 ET - 2007/07/26
Seat 1: a104l9 (6,075)
Seat 2: Drizztdj (2,255)
Seat 3: Shlee1112 (4,425)
Seat 4: ScottMc (5,350)
Seat 5: JTS102 (5,025)
Seat 6: katitude (2,950)
Seat 7: RaisingCayne (2,820) (Fairly low stacked, with an incredibly tight image)
Seat 8: SirFWALGMan (12,070) (Had been running over the very tight table, and clowning on my weak-tight play in the chat box.)
Seat 9: iam23skidoo (12,310)
a104l9 posts the small blind of 100
Drizztdj posts the big blind of 200
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RaisingCayne [Qh Qs] (First hand better than J7o in the last five orbits)
SirFWALGMan: but i could use 24K in chips
iam23skidoo: i bet you do
Shlee1112 folds
katitude: ok which one of you fine gentlemen is going to doble me up?
ScottMc has 15 seconds left to act
ScottMc folds
katitude: double
JTS102 folds
katitude folds
RaisingCayne raises to 670 (Standard 3x+ bet preflop with the ladies.)
SirFWALGMan calls 670 (KNOWS I have a big hand, but is lookin' to either catch and stack me, or bet me off later. He's got me tagged as incredibly weak-tight, to the point where I was honestly expecting at least a call from him with ATC, if not getting my chips in preflop.)
iam23skidoo folds
a104l9 folds
Drizztdj folds
*** FLOP *** [Th 4h Ks]
iam23skidoo: no suck luck I am a rock tonight
RaisingCayne has 15 seconds left to act
RaisingCayne bets 900 (Kind of a funky bet as it effectively commits my stack and I should've just pushed the whole thing. For some reason I thought this would be enough to get him off anything lower than Tens, and if he had a King I figured I was screwed anyway.)
SirFWALGMan raises to 1,800 (Evidently he hit the flop, and wants the chips in now.)
katitude: and that is different how?
RaisingCayne raises to 2,150, and is all in (...I'm definitely seeing his cards, no real decision.)
SirFWALGMan: lol (so he was bluffing.)
SirFWALGMan: im gonna suckout on you man (he knows it...)
SirFWALGMan has 15 seconds left to act
SirFWALGMan: you know it (...and I know it)
SirFWALGMan calls 350
RaisingCayne shows [Qh Qs]
SirFWALGMan shows [3s 4s] (Yep, 34. Thought it would at least be a T or a small pair.)
*** TURN *** [Th 4h Ks] [As] (runner...)
*** RIVER *** [Th 4h Ks As] [7s] (...runner flush)
RaisingCayne shows a pair of Queens
SirFWALGMan shows a flush, Ace high
SirFWALGMan wins the pot (5,940) with a flush, Ace high
RaisingCayne stands up (and mopes)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5,940 Rake 0
Board: [Th 4h Ks As 7s]
Seat 1: a104l9 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Drizztdj (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: Shlee1112 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: ScottMc didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: JTS102 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: katitude didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: RaisingCayne showed [Qh Qs] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 8: SirFWALGMan showed [3s 4s] and won (5,940) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 9: iam23skidoo (button) didn't bet (folded)

I'm NOT trying to say anthing of the play here, as Waffles had a strong read on my weak ass, and a healthy stack that could afford to gamble. I'm just sharin' today's bad beat story. That's two out two blogger tourneys that I've been in that ended with getting knocked out by him when my chips went in ahead. I think I've found myself a blogger 'nemesis' of sorts. GG Waffles. See you finished in 5th... in the cash. Nice work. See you next time. Remember, I'm dead money...
...But I'm a talkin' donkey!
~RaisingCayne

(Oh, and congrats to Drizz for taking it down... and Buddy Dank for finishing 2nd WHILE providing solid entertainment throughout!)

Railing the 'Blogger Freeroll' (almost)... and my "social-life tilt"

2007-07-25T20:44:00.000-07:00

Currently listening to the folks at Buddy Dank Radio try to fill the time as Full Tilt technical difficulties continue to delay the blogger freeroll. Just sat down to rail the tournament for entertainment's sake. I see that Waffles was already the first to fall out! :-) After finishing FIRST at the Hoy, he finishes OUT first in the blogger freeroll. Some would say it's variance, but I'd like to think it's karma-related to his knockin' me out in 2nd in my first blogger event. :-)

Had a BAD night of poker last night. With my low point being losing out of a FTOPS satellite FINAL TABLE... with a healthy stack... while holding AA,... against 44 (?)... when I (somehow) got villain to throw in his whole stack AFTER a flop of A93 (?)... just to see a 5 on the turn and of course the effing 2 on the river. Yes, top set vs. under pair. (Ugh!) Threw me into quite the tilted state. I'm even still a little out of sorts about the one bad beat 24 hours ago, and chose to limit my play tonight to just one $20 single table SnG... which I fell from a close 2nd to out in 4th, when chip leader calls my all in for 80% of her stack with AT, and sucks out vs. my JJ.

Speaking of tilt, I faced a couple 'social bad beats' recently that has thrown me into a sort of 'love-life tilt:'
Woke up last week with a funky skin blemish on my cheek that I immediately saw the doctor about... am told I have an infection... (evidently caused from using the same electric razor for 10+ years) ... get an antibiotic and supposedly it'll clear in 5-10 days. (Ugh.) It's totally embarrassing! Looks like a mix between skin cancer and a herpes outbreak right there on my face. I'm an outgoing, social guy by nature, but right now I don't want to leave the condo before this thing clears. I'm so uncomfortable! Work even sucks this week, as I can see people around the office awkwardly notice it. I'm not just being self-conscious here either. I mean it, if I drive by a gal on the sidewalk of a street with a similar blemish, I'm blogging about my witness to the freak that belonged as the 'before picture' in a Valtrex ad. It's that bad! (And I'm that big of a hypocritical rude ass. ... Maybe I should read into that, huh, probably karma.)

And with my perfect timing, two days later I get a very surprising, very HOT, invitation from a sexy gal I just started trying to hang out with. (Whom I didn't even think I was getting anywhere with.) She tells me, "You should come over tonight... Please... I could use the company. ... Just to hang out inside ... stay in, drink a bottle of liquor, (or 2,) maybe watch movies, get stoned, I dunno..." And given my trained nose for detecting vulnerable women I of course automatically translate the invitation to: "come over tonight, get faded, and have hot first-time sex with me." Being just giddy over the rousing, unexpected proposal I quickly reply with, "I'd love to... I'll call you back when I get off work..." Without even remembering the effing HERP-lookin' nasty thing in the middle of my face. I immediately start mourning my situation and go into a social tilt that's persisted ever since. Get off work couple hours later, and call her and make up some funky excuse for having to renege on the plans. (I really hope I'm able to recover with her. We'll see.)
So then Friday night I head out to the Muckleshoot despite my face (or maybe to spite my face, I don't know.) A fairly uneventful night at the tables, but on my way to the car I check my missed voicemails. Got a HOT message from an ex-lover that moved across the country just months ago. She had got home drunk from a night out and was 'just thinking about me'. (Then goes on to explicitly describe why she 'wished I was there.') I curse the circumstances for her not still being local. I've missed her more than I ever thought I would have. Not that I would've seen her this night anyway, as my face is keeping me from any affection. But I'm still just bitter over the circumstance.

Anyway... so that's why I'm on 'life tilt.' I suppose I'll get over it. My blemish is slowly clearing (but will likely ruin one more weekend for me.) And by my count, the good side of poker variance is well past due to hit me with some great luck any moment now. And on that topic, I better find my way into at least one of the FTOPS events!

Well, The Blogger Freeroll didn't resume given Full Tilt's apparent eff-up. I'm sure it'll be rescheduled, (although I do hope my first Mookie isn't again delayed.) I'll be back at the online felt tomorrow night... and on Sunday I'll be railing a friend at a large live tournament that I helped stake him in here: http://www.tulalipcasino.com/events.aspx#Event_Details. Should be a cool event, and a decent shot of a big payout. I was going to register for it myself, but I sort of lost the buy in from my own bankroll recently. :-( I'm dead money anyway...

"...but I'm a talkin' donkey..."
~RaisingCayne

My first MATH.

2007-07-23T20:43:00.000-07:00

Like many's first hit of meth, I think I'm addicted after my first shot at the MATH. I played the weekly 'Monday's At The Hoy" tournament at Full Tilt tonight, and LOVED it. Listening to Buddy Dank radio, and chattin' with the many bloggers that I've become so familiar with has been incredibly entertaining. (I'm typing this as we approach the final table.) I've had some GREAT beginner's luck, and was chip leader for a long portion of the tourney thus far. (JUST surpassed by Waffles.) I had the bittersweet pleasure (?) of knocking out the esteemed host Hoy when I flopped top set with my TT and got him all in with his JJ. GG Hoy!

I have to give a big thank you to Hoy for being a gracious host, and welcoming me into the tournament. And a big shout out to the folks at Buddy Dank radio, as I found their commentary and music selection to be both hilarious and entertaining. I truly felt like this has been "my fifteen minutes" having been mentioned on their broadcast. (Albeit a little less exciting upon discovery of the whopping 20-people listening.) Thanks Buddy Dank, Crazedgamer, and InstantTragedy... LOVED it!

Play by play... Made the final table, and a break. Waffles now has a huge chiplead sitting at 32,180, I've got a firm second with 18,950... top four pay. With one fallout on the first hand of the FT, we're down to eight left. I've got plans to tighten way up in hopes of folding to the cash. I'd really like to cash in my first blogger tourney. Maybe garner some immediate (dumbfounded) respect amongst the blogger gang that haven't yet learned that I'm dead money.

Now down to six... in third after irongirl passes me up. Waffles still dominating. VinNay and Mike_Maloney the low stacks. Fingers crossed. I've been folding everything, as I feel Hoops15mt has been my nemesis all tourney, and he's sitting two to my left with an equal stack. ... Won a big hand against Waffles when I flopped top set with my AA. Just to give back the lead to him on the next hand. ... Oooh, took out VinNay when I called his button allin with AdTd and it holds up against K8o. ... And Maloney loses to break the bubble! ... I MADE THE CASH!!!

Final four: ... Waffles quickly goes from first to worst against Hoops. IronGirl chips up as well, leading Waffles into a short stack. I continue to fold not having any big hands and feeling chip healthy enough to wait. (Buddy Dank radio continues to crack me up with their continued coverage.) Waffles the short stack is now two to my left, but I'm too big of a pansy to ever raise his big blind. ... Waffles doubles back through Hoops, leading to a very close four way chip count, with me having a slight lead. ... Irongirl seems to be sharing my strategy as we await Hoops and Waffles to battle it out. ... But I hit a fullhouse with A2 to take a big stack from Hoops, leaving him shortstacked. ... He loses to Waffles. and now I'm well short stacked sitting 3 seated. ... Playing way too passively, I find myself getting blinded out. ... But I catch some cards and we're very even in chips 3way. ... BACK AND FORTH for awhile, before irongirl falls out in third. Facing a large deficit heads up, I get waffles all in with my top pair vs. his gutshot... and he hits his straight on the river. GG me. 2nd place for $198... ship it.

All in all my first experience with the blogger tourneys was absolutely fabulous. I haven't had that much fun playing online poker in a long time. I got some great cards, hit some awesome flops, and had one big suckout go my way. (Hit an Ace on the turn when holding AK against a short stacks all in with KJ, after a flop of KJx.) Somehow managed to fumble my way into the cash, and even got my money in right with a healthy stack heads-up. Having the distinguished honor of losing the the great Waffles. And netting $170 for my efforts.

Thank you everyone for the good time, I had a blast. See you next week!
"...I'm a talkin' donkey"
~RaisingCayne

A fool and his money part ways... A "pro" needs MY help?

2007-07-23T10:51:00.001-07:00

EDIT: Post removed! Why I ever published the inexplicable, inexcusable, enormous lapse in raitonale, that effectively advertised my complete ignorance, I'll never know. Post removed with every intention of never again coming up in conversation... or even faint memory. ...

Home Sick

2007-07-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

Went to work for 45 minutes this morning, just to go home not feeling well. Think I had a case of 'Office Anal Glaucoma', 'cause I couldn't see my ass stayin' at work this morning. Feelin' a little guilty about it, as I've got TONS of work to do on my desk, but I honestly just wasn't feelin' up to par to be very productive today. Don't have a cold or anything, just feeling like last night's 'Taco Pizza' dinner from the local italian joint was a bad idea. Seriously, who orders a Mexican style pizza from an italian joint? Live and learn I suppose.

So, home for the day, with plans to play online all day long. Starting with a $18 'bounty' tourney at UB, along with a couple $10-$20 SnGs. Also gonna be perusing PokerStars for a nice large field MTT later on. Of course, all just for warm up so I'm ready for my first ever 'Monday at the Hoy' tournament this evening. Hoping to at least avoid embarrassing myself with some donkey play. Probably too lofty of a goal though, as I'm dead money...
"...but I'm a talkin' donkey"
~RaisingCayne

First Post

2007-07-22T16:03:00.000-07:00

So, I started my own blog. No grand intentions with this, beyond providing the means for me to document my misadventures at the poker felt. Well, that and I really had planned to start playing the weekly blogger tourneys, and thought if I had my own blog, I'd feel more like one of the gang. And I figured if I was going to start donating my donkey dollars to the blogger community, I'd provide a resource for some to know who I am.

And just in case anyone was curious: Name's Cayne. I'm a 20-something financial analyst from the Pacific NorthWest. Currently residing in Federal Way, just South of Seattle. Been in love with the game of poker for at least five years now, and have experienced moderate success. Online I spend most my time (okay, money) at UltimateBet as 'CayneB.' But I also play a lot at PokerStars as '3mates.' And I JUST opened up an account at FullTilt as 'RaisingCayne.' I consider myself a decent tournament player, as I've had some considerable success with SnGs and MTTs. However, I remain incompetent of cash game play evidently as I consistently post losses with my attempts there.

I've enjoyed reading many poker blogs for a long time now, and am really lookin' forward to playing with the some of the people that I feel I already know so much about. (Hoy, Iggy, Pauly, BadBlood, PokerWolf, HighOn, Change100, Carmen, Bayne, Waffles, Rooster, Drizz, Donkey Puncher, etc...) So, not sure where I'm going to go with this blog here, as I don't foresee myself ever having anything incredibly insightful to post. But I look forward to sharing my poker perspectives, and maybe becoming a little part of the 'poker blogger community,' if I'm welcomed. I've got plans to be at the Hoy tomorrow evening, I'll be sure and introduce myself.

My recent poker escapades fortunately include a 1st place finish in a $10rebuy Pot Limit Omaha event at UB for $580 last night... but with UB's 'double addon' rebuy options, I did commit $51 into the pool. I've also been fortunate enough to win 3 seats to UB's "Sunday $200k" this week, which I cashed out for 645 Tournament Dollars in total. Of course I dumped in at least $50 to those efforts. I've been feeling great about my game lately and look forward to using these small bankroll boosts to put me on a little roll.

Went to the local Sunday morning tourney at PJ Pocket's to donk off my $45 donation this morning. (Idiotically RE-raised JJ to commit me to the pot, when BB woke up with KK.) Fortunately my freind 'RedheadJenn' ended up taking it down for a nice score. (And bought me lunch!) Been playing all day online since then, but I think I got too drunk earlier, as I can't seem to finish anything off today. Probably a good time for me to stop and call it a day, but that's not gonna happen. I'm dead money...

"...but I'm a talkin' donkey!"
~RaisingCayne