Bad Boy Blogger

Pam Beesley: I suggested we flip a coin, but Angela said she doesn't like to gamble. Of course by saying that, she was gambling that I wouldn't smack her.

"The Office – An American Workplace"

I admit, when they said The Office was being re-done for an American audience, I was a little sceptical. When I watched the first episode, I felt sorry for all those involved in it. To say it was bad would be a gross understatement. The first episode of the US version was just a rehash of the first episode of the UK version, only with far less timing and personality. After that, the second episode was about 50% rehash and 50% new. By the third episode, it seemed the US show had finally decided to just make new story lines with the old characters. The above line comes from the forth episode, which was just as funny as anything the UK series put to screen. All the awards it is getting are justified, and it's a shame that it screens at such appalling
times here in Australia.

I've been a very poor member of this blogging community of late. I haven't read another blog in weeks, and updates here have been far less often than I would like. My time now has just been sucked up by work and the added load of running the local free poker at a few pubs. Even playing poker has taken a major back seat of late, though I did manage to fit in a decent home game last weekend (and put in a good showing too).

The free poker at the pubs is going well. I'm running two different pubs – one with my Distraction even! The first pub has about 50 players, and runs really smoothly with nearly all of those players being regulars. The other pub has only just started running, and last week we had 11 players. That tournament was hell. 5 of them were interested in poker and came to the pub for that reason. These five were unfortunately drowned out by the other 6 drunkards, who only one I believe had played poker before in his life. I even had one lady tell me that when I moved the final 8 players to one table (and moving the chip leader over in the process, relegating her to second at the table) that it was a stupid way to run a tournament, because those chips were from that table over there (said in the most condescending manner possible). Did I mention that she had never played poker before this night? But I had to be nice and suggest that this is the standard way throughout the world.

But anyway, I'm sure the new game will settle itself out in time when we get a few regulars attending.

The home game on Saturday night went well. I used the software for the pubs to run it now, and things went very quickly. We got through three games for the seven runners, and I made it heads up each time for two wins and a second. On the last game, I think I knocked out everyone
when the deck hit me square in the face. I didn't really have any big starting hands for the night, besides Queens on maybe the second hand that stole the blinds. We didn't see the rockets come out all night.

After the SNG's, we started the cash game. I flopped some big hands early (and survived the 6-10 outers) to get more than my buy in back and was playing with profit from early on. Then another player went on a tare and couldn't miss.

There was one hand where I failed to make the most of it. I had AKh and managed to fill the flush on the river for the absolute nuts. I bet out a little bit against the only other player in the hand, who came back over the top of me. I thought about it – maybe considering whether I should call or not but really thinking how big a raise would he call, when I made it double his raise. He called and showed a queen high flush. What I forgot was his bet on the river was a check-raise, not a standard raise. If I had remembered that I might have just pushed all-in right there and it would have been hard for him to fold at that stage. But alas, it was another lesson learned.

Earlier in the night, I decided to get in the mood with a little online poker (Shock! Horror!). I hadn't played seriously online for quite some time, apart form a drunken SNG in the early hours of the morning last week. I had $43 left at Noble Poker, thanks to a $10 "come back" gift from them and some little SNG wins. I decided that since my B&M bankroll is in full swing now, and this was free money anyway, lets take it all to the table and see what we can do.

I bought in for $43 at a $50 table, and on the seventh hand I had my first decent hole cards, AJs in late position. I made a standard raise and was heads up with the small blind. The flop was J high and I was confident that I had the best hand, as anything better would have probably re-raised me pre-flop. I bet out $5 into a $6 pot, and he check-raised me to $10. A min-check raise never looks good to me. It looks like a bluff or a vulnerable semi-bluff. I called and the turn was a blank. He pushed for the rest of his stack, and had me covered by about $5 or so. So what was I thinking here? Absolutely nothing, my finger clicked the call button before a cognitive thought entered my brain. The river brought nothing, and the pot was shipped to myself. He had KJ and pushed into me with 3 outs. I don't think I won that pot with brilliant play, I just made the best of a poor play from my opponent – which is as much of poker as anything else really.

With the now $90 at Noble and another $53 at Full Tilt, my online bankroll is in triple figures for the first time in 2006. My B&M bankroll however is now over $500. Friday night was a +$120 session in the home game, and my yearly profit in B&M play is $140+. I have been
keeping better records of my play since the start of an actual bankroll, which has been getting funded by the poker tournaments running in the pubs. I might put a cap on that at some stage, as it can be a little misleading if there is all this money flooding in that essentially isn't from winnings. And you know, the money can always be put to better use, such as paying this month's electricity bill.

I do hope to catch up with everyone's writing soon, maybe by the weekend. Sorry to be such a bad member of the Poker Blogger's community.