I am THE James

I’m currently sitting here watching a guy on PokerStars play in a couple of tourneys and giving advice along the way in a certain game.  Mostly on Stud 8 and some on Stud.   He has done pretty well and is at the final table of one tourney right now with the chip lead.  Should be interesting to see if he wins.  In the time I typed this sentence he just became second in chips.  It is interesting watching people play mixed games that are weak in a couple.  Fortunately he was bright enough to seek help.  Anywho, not much else going on.

They are down to three.   He has a decent chance to win.  I guess we will see what happens.

September 13, 1975 is when it all started.  From that day forth the world has been host to THE James.  Today is the celebration of that day.  And what am I doing for this grand day?  My ass is getting up early, going to a bunkhouse kitchen and entering shooting scores into a computer.  Ya, real exciting eh?  Well, not all 4-H volunteer work is exciting, but it has to be done.  I’ll be going a little early so I can go have a birthday dinner with my friend Summer.

Have you ever had one of your friends go off in such a rage of anger that you end up touched about how much they really care about you?   That happened to me this week.  I won’t go into the why my friend went off like she did, but by the time she was done I was really touched by what she said, even if she was hopping mad when she said it.

Tomorrow, I am going with my friend Erin to see Mamma Mia.  She couldn’t get together with me today because of her working.  Believe it or not, I picked this movie.  For those of you that look at me cockeyed, realize I am a person who saw Sweeney Todd at the theatre 4 times.  Besides, the only other movie I wanted to see I promised another female friend I would go see Wednesday.

Lately, I have been playing a lot of NL Single Draw 2-7 Lowball sit-n-gos on PokerStars.  With the exception of one, I have at least cashed in every one.  In these Sngs you must make it heads-up to make the money.  Today I played 3.  I won two and finished 2nd in the other one.  I have been have somewhat poor results in triple draw limit lowball.  I found out really quick in this game how wide of an array of hands you can consistently win with.  One thing that I do like to still try and stick with is to try and only do 1 card draws while we are still 4 handed or more.  Obviously that doesn’t always become the case, but I try.

My runs in Stud 8 or Better lately have been pretty bad.  Some of it is frankly bad play on my part.  I have been making a few plays and getting too fancy.  In the last day or so, I have went back to playing with a little more sense and have at least finished ahead in every session.  I think I need to go back and focus on playing some tournaments as opposed to the cash games I have been playing.  I enjoy tournaments a lot more and I seem to focus harder on them.

Speaking of which, I have tried to pick up a couple of books to work on my Stud HI tournament game a little bit.  I am a good stud player.  I know this, but my tournament results live when I have played have been outright horrible.  My feeling is my problem comes from playing a certain style that doesn’t work as well as it should in tournaments.  I’m going to take a look at a couple of books and see if I can get some inspiration.  I may just end up getting a friend of mine to sit me down and teach me some finer points like Bill Boston taught me regarding Stud 8.

I intended to go to Atlantic City sometime this coming week for the United States Poker Championships.  That’s not happening now.  I love the schedule, but I am holding onto my money and also focusing some on my writing.  My gigs have really picked up lately, especially from one dude that has me writing a lot on poker.  I talked to the guy at PokerNews about future gigs with them and it isn’t looking real promising.  I got the “we may have work” line.  I probably won’t hear from them until around WSOP time.   That’s fine too.  Actually, if things keep going the way they are with this one client writing, I may not want to take on any other gigs for a while.  That wouldn’t upset me at all.

Anywho, have a great weekend all.  Maybe Ill come back and tell you what Summer got me for my birthday.

Pingback and bogus commenters are getting a little more creative with their comments.  I have a blog on Poker After Dark that gets a lot of bogus comments like this one.  One comment I got just today was just too funny.  It read:

“I’m the artist formally known as Beck. I have a genius wig. When I put that wig on, then the true genius emerges. I don’t have enough hair to be a genius. I think you have to have hair going everywhere.”

What???  I don’t smoke dope, but whatever this guy is smoking, I want some. 

The United States Poker Championships have released their schedule for this fall.  The event starts on September 14^th, the day after my birthday.  Funny thing is, I was thinking of going to Atlantic City the week after my birthday.  Look at the schedule for the event and you tell me if you can see why I am interested:

Sept. 14, 11:15am, Limit Hold’em, $300 + $40

Sept. 15, 11:15am, Seven Card Stud, $500 + $50

Sept. 16, 11:15am, Seven Card Stud Hi/Low 8 or better, $500 + $50

Sept. 17, 11:15am, Omaha Hi/Low 8 or better, $500 + $50

Sept. 18, 11:15am, 2-Way P/L Hold’em & P/L Omaha, $500 + $50

Sept. 19, 11:15am, H-O-S-E (Hold’em-Omaha H/L-Stud-Stud H/L), $500 + $50

What a fantastic way to open the event.  Also, there is a Stud event on the 22^nd, a PL Omaha 8 event on the 24^th, an Omaha 8 event on Oct 1, a PL Holdem event on Oct 2^nd, ANOTHER Stud event on Oct 6^th and finally another PL Omaha 8 event on October 8^th. 

I so want to go, but I really don’t know if I want to put up the money that all those events would require.  Maybe I will go play the cash games.  That sounds like a plan.  I already know I can get a room for $33 a night in Absecon.  It’s tempting folks. 

I must say that I really respect the USPC for putting out a schedule like this.  I was a little worried that they would get away from mixed games up there, but I guess my apprehension was misplaced. 

In regards to my personal life, most of my time lately has been spent either blogging or job hunting.  (Mostly for writing or blogging jobs)  I hope that somewhere down the line I can pick up a few more contracts and continue working for myself.  Also, I did apply for a Mainframe support job.  It looked like entry level and from the looks of it, not all that difficult.  There aren’t too many mainframe folks in the area.  Actually, I’m not a mainframe person either, but I do have several years IT support experience.  Hopefully that will get me a look. 

Otherwise, not much is going on at the moment.  I think it’s time to go submit myself for a couple more jobs.  Take care all. 

I still got it. At least for tonight anyway. I just took 4th in a H.O.R.S.E. tournament over at Green Valley Ranch. The structure was such where the game and the levels changed every 15 minutes. To a degree, that makes this tournament a luck fest. For those that can play limit poker properly, this isn’t as big a deal as one thinks. (more…)

Tomorrow, I embark on my summer journey as a reporter for Pokernews.com.  Starting Monday, I will be helping to cover the main event of the WSOP Circuit.  Afterwards, I will head out to Vegas for two months to help cover the World Series of Poker.  I am really looking forward to the trip overall.  There are some people I am going to miss from home, but I am really looking forward to get back out on the circuit road and hopefully reconnect with a few friends and make some new ones.

I will naturally get some time in at the tables as well, but not to the degree I have in the past.  I will primarily be going out to Vegas to work the WSOP.  I may play a couple of the Binions events or maybe ride out to Los Angeles and play at the Bike if I can get a day off during a mixed event, but I will not be playing at the World Series this year.  It is just too expensive for my bankroll right now.  Plus, to be honest, I just haven’t put in the time for anything other than Stud 8.

One good thing is that I have a couple of friends I can visit while I am out there, so I don’t HAVE to play poker on my off days.  I may finally get around to seeing some of the sights this year not related to casinos or poker, but probably not. 

Right now, I am scheduled to be out there until July 15^th.  After the 15^th, I am not sure what I will be doing.  I may stay out there another week or so and play a couple of Orleans Open events.  Then again, if a certain thing happens in my personal life, I may be going somewhere to spend some time with someone.  Everything is too iffy right now to really know.

For anyone interested, I will probably make some entries letting folks know what’s going on at the series.  Otherwise, if any of you are interested in following my coverage, go over to pokernews.com and go under live reporting.  Any entries with the nickname of compncards will be mine.  I expect that at the series, you will see me covering primarily mixed games, especially stud based games. 

Anywho, hope everyone has a fantastic summer and keeps reading as I will try and keep you abreast of my travels.  Otherwise, I will see you around the end of July.

A few days ago I posted a quiz testing your knowledge of poker.  How did you do?  Check the answers below: (more…)

Tonight, I was playing a Stud 8 or Better session that was a microcosm of how insane poker can become. Let me introduce two situations to you and you tell me what you think the outcome was on each. (more…)

I started playing inside of a casino in January 2006. I had played online mostly to this point and primarily tournaments. The WSOP Circuit was in Tunica, MS and I wanted to try my hand at live tournaments. There were 3 stud events in this set and I decided that I was a decent enough player to make a run. I arrived in Tunica and played in some satellites with a decent level of success. Two of my buy-in were paid for and I had made about $1000 in cash. Then reality hit in the form of my first live tournament. (more…)

Last night I decided that I would log onto Full Tilt Poker and try and play a mixed Sit N Go tournament. As soon as I logged on I saw a HORSE Sit N Go for $1.25 buy-in. Yes, this is micro stakes, but HORSE doesn’t go off easily in SnG’s, so I figured I would play. I love mixed games as most anyone that knows me can attest.

We started with Limit Holdem and I was on the button. The first hand I was dealt a pocket pair and I raised. Everyone folded. What? Micro Limits and a fold? A few hands later I get AK and raise. One person called, and we saw a Flop of K, 3, 4. I bet and the caller folded. This doesn’t sound very interesting; except for the fact this was micro limits. Usually at this limit, you get a lot of calling, raising, and reraising with any type of hand. I thought to myself, “Wow, this is a tight table.” Then the level switched to Omaha 8 or better. (more…)

I love 7 Card Stud High Low Split. So many people THINK they know how to play when they really don’t have a clue. I have to share an experience I had this past summer while I was in Las Vegas. I was playing an event at the Binions Poker Classic at Binions downtown. The event was 7 Card Stud High Low Split. This tournament had a nice turnout. There were almost 200 players for a stud event that wasn’t part of the World Series of Poker. The field was also stacked with great players. Barbara Enright was among the great stud players that were in the field. I knew this was going to be a tough field to overcome, but this is my best game so I was ready to play. (more…)