POKAH - ( unedited)

Yeah baby I'm back!!!

Last night I took down my second win for this series of the Matchroom 2005 Texas No Limit Hold'em Multi Table Tournement, it sounds cool when you say it like that. ( it's a soft game really).

Prize money was $405 which is a good return for my $20 investment, so that makes it:

1st - 2
4th - 2
5th - 1
9th - 1
15th - 1
25th - 1

That makes me points leader for the series with 2 games to go until the big one, which if I keep up I will get a bonus cash prize and free entry to the final game. I'm predicting that something will go wrong with the points, or the cash prise and the matchroom will do a swifty on me. They haven't had the points up for a while and its looking a bit suspect, especially when the second place runner is the partner of the guy runner the event. I've been kicking her butt, so she'll have to get infront of me by at least 20 positions in the next 2 games!!

I arrived at the table and I got the, " Oh no not you.......!!".
I had to laugh ( and smile) and say, "whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!........................".
The majority of the players on the table were what I condidered decent players, meaning they knew the value of thier cards and were able to change gears and pull some aggressive plays, they would also choose to push around weaker players which is expected at this level, but sometimes I think they still haven't learnt when to fold decent hands that are really drawing dead.

I'm still not sure how people perceive my game style, some think I'm lucky or really good or aggressive, and some think that I'm tight, or a rock. I hold tight until decent hands arrive and don't sit around on a hand waiting for some miricle straight like they do.

I'll fold top 10 starting hands when their is alot in of people getting into the hand, especially when they are going all-in!!!
Why play your A-T suited if there are 5 players calling or pushing a big raise or all-in, surely your odds have dropped and if every body else has an ace or a big pair, picture card, aren't you flipping coins???

I want to see a flop, if I raise preflop then I want to push out the junk so if it comes junk I can maintain value in my cards.

In the first hour I didn't play that many hands, and looked at maybe 2 or 3 which happened to be raised up maybe 3 times the blind after I called. I called the the raise on the first hand I played, J-9 suited in late position. The BB raised from 50 to 100, it came junk, there were a few bigger bets and then an all in, I folded not trying to draw to a crap hand.

I limped in once with 5-5, and played 5-5 again with a raise from 50 to 100 under the gun. I didn't hit and the pot blew out like most hands in the first hour. In fact we had Chris loose 2 all-ins in the first 3 hands, he was cranky as usual!

I could only see about 2-3 average players, they weren't calling stations, but they sure did call with alot of crap!! somtimes if the pot was big enough and it started with $200 with 4-5 callers and somebody hit any card on the flop they would go all-in with out thinking, it was tough and aggressive, but thats why I had to sit out of so many hands.

That was all in the first 20 minutes, I didn't play and more hands until I was in the big blind, I got raised out of one (you can't play 3-7 off anyway)and was able to limp into a nice 5-7 suited. A hand that I did't really have much respect for before a few weeks ago, but Doyle says that its a money hand and you can even call a raise with it ( if you are an aggressive player). So the flop came rainbow T-5-6, I had bottom pair and the backdoor straight, no flush. I bet at the $800 pot with $100 from the $100 BB. The 4 callers pre flop dropped down to only 2, I knew that they were either calling to see if they could hit thier ace or K on the turn or if it would flush for them. If they had a T they would have raised already, if not gone all-in. Trip T would not have played this soft without raising preflop.

The turn came 7 to give me 2 pair, the board set the flush draw on the turn and I didn't want to see it go wrong, Im all-in!! Softly spoken meathead pizza boy with tats calls me with K-K, dude, you farked that hand!!!! He should have raised preflop to at least 300 or 400 if not more, im sure that he would have had callers for 300, but maybe not any more than that.

The river didn't help him and I took a nice $1400 odd pot.
Sitting over $2,000 I called a few small hands and again had to back out from some all-in raises preflop, GHEY!!!!! so my stack went down to about $1,700. I was in a late pos with alot of callers, maybe 6-7 or seven, BB raises from $150 to $300. I had to call with 3-5 suited it was really good value, the flop came 7-3-8, Fark'en perfect, lets see what happens here, it checks around to me, I'm all in!! this was where I wanted to set myself up for the next hour or maybe loose! I everybody folded until it came around to the guy on my right, he sat their thinking for a while, and he was meant to fold or have crap cards, it was meant to be, but instead of folding which I know he was about to call, somebody out of the hand egged him to play it ( who then came in second at the final table).

The guy to my right called me with middle pair, A-7, the board was 2 cards to the flush, my 3's weren't good enough, he admitted that he would not have called it if it wasn't for chris to his right, GHEY GHEY GHEY, meaning I had a read on the table, but the illegal outside influence bet me! It was me against 2 players, one player who was good.

I lost my stack and had to rebuy again, I fell into the $300 and $100 blinds and didn't make anything after being rasised on the flop. But when it came around again in the final 10 minutes or so, my BB for $300 was a nice 7-6 suited. Flop came A-7-T, I bet at it for minimum chips $300, their were 5 callers which was good for pot value but bad for my hand value as it dropped. The turn came another 7 and I went all in, I knew that I'd get callers, I put my extra $400 in and had 4 callers, there were 2 hands with Ace-nothings and one 9-9. A 7 came on the river to flush somebody but i made a fullhouse and took a 4-5,000 pot!! nice!!!

I bought in for my $4000 and had about $9,000 for the final stages of the game.

This was the time when you had to be very tight, because their were alot of all-ins. After 30 minutes or so those who played a few hands didn't hit and didn't have much left, so they had only one option left which was the all-in, if you called the 200-400 which then went to 300-600 in an early position then you would have to call the all-in of somebody for 2-4,000 which was not at al worth it, you want to play a flop!!

So I only played one hand which was T-T in mid-late postion which I raised to $3,000 after only 2 callers, they all folded. If somebody wanted to go all-in they wouldn't re-raise me all-in, they would do it first to put pressure on the other player, you are only trying to put the other players to a decision, and if its not worth it then you fold. It's easier to go all-in then to call it with the exact same hand.

So many times I was about to go all-in until the person beofre me did it, and I had to fold, everybody else folded, but that was meant to be my pot!! It happened in this game, but no this hand. So, with my T-T raise to $3,000, it was really putting those 2 players who had about $5,000 all-in if they wanted to play the hand ( these were reasonable players) I knew they would fold or they would have raised already!
It was a gamble, but I took the $2,000 pot and my stack to $11,000.

I sat tight again and got moved to table one ( the final table) with still 30 odds players left. so Half the players were out and most players had about 10,000 plus or were about to go out. You need to know this, because this is what tells you how many hands you can play. You can't play with a $2,000 stack when the blinds are 400-800, somebody will raise pre flop and you'll be out before you even get in to have a look at the flop, other wise you'll need to go all-in on a prayer with A-K or a nice big pair ( small pairs can sometimes do it).

The blinds were 400-800, and AB* was sitting behind me, he said that he just went all-in with his final 1,500 with I think 4-7 off suit and made a fullhouse!! nice, that's the gamble that you need, but he was in BB I beleive. I had been letting my chip stack erode away, waiting for something to play, I called 1 or 2 hands I got raised out pre flop with Q-T and hit nothing on the J-J-7 flop when I had A-T with some solid betting to know I was up against the J ( the guy made 4 Jacks).

I was down to about $5,000 after the blinds and the 2 hands that I saw. I threw away about 3 or 4 K-9's, some suited, I threw away A-T when there were 4 big raises, I knew that would be the end if I went in, I wanted better odds than that!
I tossed K-J suited when there was another big pot with many callers, then I hit A-k off, and went all in for a late/middle position with 2 callers infront and the Blinds to come, I had maybe 3 callers and hit the ace and the King for 2 pair.


I think I took about $25,000 in that hand. The rest I don't really remember, I think before I had counted all my chips I was looking at an absurd hand, like K-K, I raised the 1,000 blind to 6,000, an aggressive play in a middle position, but with K-K it was farken nice!!

I had again a good collection of callers, which I think was about 4-5, making a nice 30,000 plus pot, the biggest so far!!! the flop comes T-bla-bla I just remember that there was a flush forming and I didn't see an ace and I had Lucky-Luke the poket cowboy! With about $20,000 in my hand I didn't want to go all-in but I didn't want to lose this pot, so I threw $10,000 on the flop to see who liked to taste my apples which by this time were rotting in the other players mouths. I think this made 2 callers, with a pot of $60,000. There was commotion and a few 'ohhh, ahhhhh, wooww... big pot.. yeah .. big pot....".

The Turn gave me the green light with more junk mail for the other players, there wasn't a straight forming and the flush hadn't come yet so my card-gods told me to push all my chips into the centre and hold my breath. They both called, it was me ( the guy who had previously won a nice pot to come back and look like he's about to loose it all in the next hand), the table chip leader ( who was in his 40's and wanted to push the others around) and the guy to my left ( who was the new guy to the match room and was passing the chips back and forth to the guy on my right for the whole time I had been at this table, he was also known as the $5,000 man, that was what he bet for about 3 hands in a row and took the blinds each time).

I took this puppy in with both hands when they showed Q-Q, and A-T, the river had nothing for them. I took the puppy in which had suddenly grown to a figure that was over $100,000. The guy to my left was out and I had broken both the legs and fractured the spine of the previous chip leader, it was official I was chip leader!

Then with in 2-3 hands, I was daised as I ran into A-J suited, ok no free hands, I wanted to protect my wealth and steal from those less fortunate than my self, I was farken Coke-a-cola in its first year of production!!!
I said in a big strong scary voice, $10,000 to play!! I don't think this was less than a 10th of my stack!, the chump to my left raises all in to $30,000 odd and thier was one other caller. I'm looking down the barrel of a man who use to scare me and intimidate me with his moves that had taken me out of so many pots previously, I knew how he played and what he wanted to do to me, he wanted to punch me in the face and steal my beautiful puppy that I had been feeding and built up to be so strong spendid!!

The flop came 8-A-3, I had the 2 cards to my flush and jack kicker on the ace, what could he have, I felt tough, i bet with strength a nice blind bet of 2,000, he calls.
I was first to speak when the second ace hit on the turn, I checked with a slow weak hand waiting for his ' you have nothing, Im putting you in so I can take the pot that you built'. Correct, but only with the pot that I built section of your thought. Before the dealer and he had counted his chips I had said call and turned my cards for the people around me to smirk and laugh at his failed bluff at the monster pot. My trips aces were too good.

Too many chips to count, the next few hands left us with 3 players.

Chris took the old chip leader out, and we battled for a while for the cash. I was up on him for about 4 times, but it only took him 1 or 2 all-ins to take me out. It was tough, he was raising preflop and I would fold my crap, I came back a few times with 5-T and raised with 7-8 suited to push him out to fold. He reraised a few of my raises when I had 8-J fearing that he had an ace.

We saw a few flops, but it was proving to be an all-in kind of battle, putting pressure on each other, I usually don't like doing the all-in bully thing, but I had to play agaist him. I raised, the blinds were Big Blind was $8,000 and we would raise to $20,000. I raised to 20k with 5-T and hit a T on the flop and went all-in. He folded and I took back a nice amount of the blinds that he stole from me.

He raised to $40,000 and I reraised with ( can't remember) he went all-in and I called, I had more chips than he did, he had A-A. He had rockets in a heads up game!!

man.............

I got him back with pocket 2's ( a weak hand I know ), when he raised to $40,000 again I tried to steal, expecting a bluff, had had A-2, nice he could only get an ace to bet me he was looking for 3 from 49 cards.

I got my stack back from that hand then went soft to all his raises, waiting, waiting
When I raised he folded, after I had big gaps in the hands I played.
He raised pre for the usual $40,000, I called and hit top pair on the board, can't remember what, I went all-in. He called with J-9 and hit nothing.

Take it home baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The dodge, the rooster, and metal of interest

It was last weekend when it dawned on me that I had/needed/was suppose to go to/was obligated/had the option/had the offer to attend a party on a Saturday night.

Back when I was in my teens and even early 20's if there was a party on it was a cool thing, it was the activity that got you through the week to the weekend. You would ask your friends if they wanted to come, and they would tell you about their parties that they new of, sometimes there would be 2 or 3 parties to go to, and at the end of the year around December there may have been the odd 4-5 parties in one weekend.

Generally the parties constisted of a location without adults, and a reason to have a party, sometimes the parents being away was the reason. As we got older, the parties grew to a new level, people had thier own place of residence where parents were not welcome and we could do what ever we pleased.

Across many different friendships you would find yourself in the most peculiar locations with people that you would rarely have the opportunity to meet otherwise. Often new friendships are built, and sometimes new love can be found.

I have been to beach parties all along the coast from Larges Bay down to Norlunga and Port Elliot, I've been to the hills, the inner city, the northern and southern lower socio-economic burbs, and I've been to the Manson's around the city.

The party that I went to was a group house warming with a few birthdays thrown in. When I received the offer I put it in my mind as a backup in-case something better came along, I didn't expect much from what this party was meant to offer.
On the night of the party I had to remind Fra* that it was on, he really didn't want to go and asked me if we could get away with not going.
I had to say that we were invited and that we had at least a month's warning, so it was hard to dodge. We waited for as late as possible to go, and hoped that we could sneak in when there were really drunk and then leave within the hour or less.

On arrival one of the party members was out the front and we had to say hello, it really wasn't going to be our seen, but we were there with ours 3 beers in hand to "MAKE AN APPEARANCE". Not wanting to be the first to walk in, Fra* and I attempted to walk in behind the other to avoid being spotted by the party holders ( we didn't want to draw attention).
Sneaking through to back section of the party,on route we made contact with the host and made it through with a small 20 second conversation as somebody else stepped into talk with him.

There wasn't anything special to this particular party, just people and alcohol, a punch bowl on tap, a disco room with disco lights and a smoke machine, there was a green shade-house with lights pointing onto smilie faces, and there was an interesting person which made this whole blog worth while.

Separate from the hosts of the party there was somebody that stood out at the party.
With-in 20 minutes of being at the party, somebody recognised Fra*, it was the the host of the partys' sister, and with her was ....mmm we'll call her Cath.
Introductions were made with us all, conversation starters were set and it wasn't long before we found out that Cath had jsut returned from the UK after studying fashion school.

Cath had on a black KISS T-shirt with a bright pink 2 stripe parker, she wore acid washed denim that hung around her waist to show her black lace underwear. Cath wore yellow converse all-stars, she had the jet black fringe cut hair of Uma Thurman from Pulp Fiction and a Labret and toungue ring.

Fra* had to ask if they hurt, Cath said that these didn't but my others did.

How many do you have? we asked, she said some number between 10 and 20.

Wow, that's alot!! where are the others? we asked.

Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla, and one on my front!!!

mmmmmm on your front, wow, really.......... I had to ask where exactly it was.

on my hood she said......


Fra* added that I had a prince albert, they asked me to show them, I said not now!!
THEY HOUNDED ME TO SHOW THEM!!!!! show us your rooster ( this word was replaced with one more appropriate) I dodged the subject quite well, and kept them chasing the idea.. I told them that I couldn't show them my Rooster ( true, I didn't want to do that), and I couldn't show them becuase I had taken my piercing out ( true,I once has an eyebrow ring, which was at home), I said that I still have a hole ( yeah like everybody does), but sorry I can't show you.
I then said that I'd show them mine, if they showed me theirs ( hoping that this would stop the whole process). Cath then proceeded to undo her pants in the middle of the party, I looked away thinking ... what the...??

When I looked back, she was doing her pants up again, phew... I'm kinda glad that I missed that, but mmmm I was still very curious.

Fra* and I stayed way past our preffered time and escaped at the right time, which was for me when Cath started to grab my rooster, and she didn't ask this time. We both left with a, " Gee, thank fark we got out of that alive!".

Picture Blogs are so easy!!!

Just add a picture with some small story attatched -easy!

Its a good idea to take your camera ( pref digital ) where ever you go in case you see something funny or interesting, and even if its not that interesting you can still use it in your blog and people will read it.

It's really just a passing time thing thou isn't it? Is that why we are blogging, for those who actually have the motivation to blog?

I have so many draft blogs I don't know if I'll ever finish them, the drafts may well end up being the majority of my blogs. I start with good intentions and then I get tired and don't go back because the current motivation for that blog is lost.

I have a few segments that I'm sure will evolve in time. The bakery has another to come, dancing was stated as part one and there must be a part 2, and I'm certain there will be a 4 and maybe a 5, not sure about 3 thou.

I like everyone else's blogs, I want to take it a step further, I still want to maintain the core of dinner pics and interesting stories, but I want a blog that has brand recognition and appeal to all audiences young and old. However, I'll have to wait until a weekend or a quite night at home arrives.



So here is my latest dish, something new, nothing borrowed, and I'm sure there's nothing blue, it's Chicken Masala ( my first ) and instead of sitting it in a steaming white rice I went with the Ye Oldee Elpaso Burrito Tortillas ( I have been wanting to do Burritos for a while now).

These were damn fine and I highly recommend these, full of taste and messy drips, the kind where you need to lick the plate because you can't get enough!!!!

It was done in a wok, and the total cooking time was only 15 minutes, including the dicing of the Capsican, tomato and onion, the lettuce was just sliced, put the Burritos in the oven for the 15 min.......... SWEET MATE!!!!!!

Just to keep you happy

I Have 6 drafts still waiting to be finished, so I'll give you this:

Tea at the Astor. Lovely.

$10 Chicken Schnitzel with Dianne, take it!!!

I will try to make this the Tuesday regular for me at least, B* gave it the thumbs up! He was only just able to eat the whole thing, he did good.

The croud was larger than the Thursday night when H* and I went, which was the week before Christmas, we had to wait for our meals due to 2 functions being on.

I said can we please have 2 pints of pale thanks, and your menus.

We got the beers and then asked about the meals, the girl behind the counter whom was also know as LIGHTENING, or flash, or speedy, or genius, I can't remember her exact name, maybe because she didn't say and we didn't ask, but she then said that meals will be at least 1 hour due to the functions on at the time.

Now come on.......... wasn't it obvious that by asking for the menus at the time of 7:00 pm and ordering a beer that we would perhaps maybe want to eat something???

I said in an undertone, ' ahhh.... so guess theeeese beers are........ free...'. Towards the end of the beer I commented to horry that I think we should walk out without paying for the beer as a protest ( sneaky bastard kinda protest ).

"whadda ya meannn.......?"

Apparently she said that there was no charge for the beers. All was sweet anyways, next time I'll still want to walk out without paying if a pub pours me a beer and neglects to tell me that meals will be at least a 1 hour wait.

Maybe next time there will be some more people to joins us??

However there is a catch, you must have at least 4 pints to make yourself worthy of an Astor regular. I think we'll get the name of the guy behind the bar next so I don't have to "oi, 2 beers thanks".

Im guessing he's a Steve, David, or maybe a phillip.

Dancing - PART ONE

This my second attempt to blog this, the first which I thought I saved as a draft was lost somehow....

I remember my first dance, it was somekind of new teacher initiative making school fun or something, they called it the middle school disco and said that it will cost $2 for all you can consume fizzy drink.

I was about 8 and the songs of the moment were "let's get physical" by ONJ, and "Oh mickey what a pitty that you don't understand" ( what ever that song was called). It was funny because the songs that were played at the disco were also used in the mornings for our PE class, also a failed initiative, who the hell makes 8 year olds do aerobics anyway? Year 7 was the year when they got it right and we played dodge ball in the mornings, now that was cool!

So the build up to the school disco was gaining momentum, kids were all asking each other, " are you going to the disco?" one would ask, " dunno, are you?" another would reply. Typical questions and prying each other for support, I guess we still do this kinda thing all the time now don't we?

i.e. Q1 " are you going to poker tonight?"

A1 "well..... maybe .. are you ??"

Q2 " are you going to see brunatex play tonight??"

A2 " well.... maybe ...DUNNO..... are you?"

I guess you can form some kind of survey based on the possiblities that 8/10 people maybe be going to a place where you may or may not want to also go to, thus you have a reasonable chance of having an okay time with maybe a few or alot of people you do or do not really know. It must be satisfying when you get it right though, yeah??

So I sat in the corner of the room sipping my fizzy drink which was fanta, cos it was kinda new on the scene. We ( the boys ) didn't really know what to do, just hanging out at the disco waiting for something interesting to happen, some kids were running around like idiots, too much fizzy drink.

Nicole Davies asked me to dance and I stepped up to the challenge. Having never danced before, other than when we had to do star jumps to " oh mickey", I didn't really know what to do. So I just copied what she did, lucky it was the 80's and the side step was the dance for us, our disco was nothing like that of 'Flash Dance. If it were 10 years earlier we would have had something similar to the the Post New York Style of the time which involved doing lines of coke and having gang-bangs in a night club called studio 54, but that's another story for this genere.

A bit of left and right motion with an occassional hip twist set the scene, and I think she was impressed, well she didn't say anything bad, I just did what she did.

I was asked by another girl, Paula Faulks, I said no. One dance was enough.

This wasn't about the music and dancing to work up a sweat, I was trying to be in and just taking the moment as it grew, yeah I could have done a few sprinkler or shopping trolley moves, but I hadn't consumed any alcohol.

This phase of the dance was purely introduction.

I had established the motion, and the vibe was building, all I needed was purpose and dancing could be a thing that I can call a past time.

Bring back the Bakery

Early saturday morning around 11am I made my usual lunch trek. I didn't head to Mac-chucks, nor did I venture to any of the other fast food-in fast food-out money suckers. I could have gone to the local BBQ chicken shop ( located on Hutt Street ) or any of the 50 million pubs or asian take aways, no I didn't do that either.

Instead I rallied my dollars together to support the local Bakery, and it soo... wasn't going to be Prices Baker, they don't even sell Pies, Pasties, or Sausage Rolls. Who the hell starts a Bakery francise and doesn't even have the basic draw items that centres the whole entire purpose of a bakery? Definately not Prices,.... they're idiots..... stupid, ignorant, and selfish idiots.... they need a good smack behind the ears!!!!!!

I went to the good wholesome family corner Dulwich Bakery, where there food is premium quality, and the serice is with a smile and no upsize questions or "that'll be an extra 25c for sauce".
Sure the prices are inflated to not take out the majority share of Villies, but they make the fillings good, and I mean good, not like ,"I made a vegimite sandwich and it was good" good, but ,"I made a farkn pork roast with 3 herbs, 2 gravies, 4 veg and a side of cauliflower with a garlic cheese sauce" good!!!

I can rave as long as I want about these delights, the only way that you'll know how good they are is if you go there yourself. Dulwich Bakery is in Dulwich, off a street across from the race course, if you can't find it then you don't have the love and desire of a good bakery and you should stop looking.
Otherwise, there is the St. Peter's Bakery which is on Stephen's Tce in St P.

GET ON IT!!

BTW - When was the last time you went to a Bakery??? and what did you have??

Stan is Cool

Thursday night I chalked up my third free movie in the Botanics, all thanks to Diageo

Donnie Darko was the movie of the night, it is understood by many to be a favorite in which some people have watched 15 times or more in a period of only 1 month.

Before going to Donnie I was asked by T what I was going to sit on, and I kindly replied," a seat???". I think I gave the correct answer, more uncertain was the question, "what is it about, I don't get it?".

Well...... it's pretty easy (suggestive sarcasm), it's like Mulholland Drive or 2001 Space Odeyssey, it's one of those ones that I got the first time then forget what the whole movie is all about until i see it again. I think there is only one other movie that I didn't get ( I can't remember what it was called thou).... (I'm sure the majority of movies I don't understand anyway).

N said that there was no simple explanation for Mulholland Drive, and Lynch didn't even have an intended meaning for the movie, it was meant to be confusing.

I said that I hypothesied it in may own way and had my own meaning. It all made sense to me and that's all that matters.

I have more to say on this, but for now just consume what you can from the Mulholland Drive and 2001 linka, and I'll post more later.

BTW, set aside about 1 hr for 2001, it's well worth it, that I promise.

2001 Space Odyssey Explained