Team Never Tilt

Check out this week’s PAD. Shane is probably the only person reading this that will recognize Zeidman’s name. Man you will be sooooo conflicted watching this. (hint he does some poker commentating and might have been in an infomercial or two LOL)

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/23011821/

What a jerkoff Zeidman comes off as here…. It’s protocol for the no name guys to go after Hellmuth on camera to get their 15 minutes… But man, making things personal like this? Not sure I get the logic…

www.nevertilt.com

This is the start….it will be updating from time to time, its not perfect, but it’s a start.

There will be other tabs to add on the menu bar….like dango’s online LPT league and so on.

I will be making a sheet for all players to fill out and then i’ll be taking pictures and have them all in our players profile. Any ideas would be cool.

So Dango has joined the fray and we now have a weight loss bet as well. Basically we have a bet, first to lose 25 lbs.

Shane starts at 224.6 on his scale as of yesterday Jan 5th 2009
Dan starts at 202 on his own scale

both weights sans vetements, (picture that ladies!!)

So basically when one of us feels they have hit the weight, we will weigh in at same time on an agreed upon scale

40 bucks

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So to recap here’s where I am:

I have 5 weeks from yesterday to get down to 199. 25 pounds in 5 weeks is going to be very tough, but its not impossible. I have been down around 220 on my scale for the better part of 2.5 weeks now, just Sat and Sunday I ate like hell so my weight was inflated a little bit, I will be very surprised if I am not 218ish on my scale next Monday morning after a week of clean eats, no cheating and no booze. Scale may say only down 8 pounds, but I have lost nearly 5 inches from waist and have gone down a pant size already.

Feb 9th Jeff 50 bucks I need to be 199 or under on my scale (will provide photo evidence from my own scale, or will weigh in here in front of scott whatever you guys want)
Feb 9th Scott 75 bucks same as above
Jan 31 Donnie 50 bucks most pounds lost starting at 232 me and 236 him on his scale

Josh week to week running through Feb 23rd (added two weeks because we missed two weeks due to him not being here for weighins) Next weeks weights go from 223 for me and 240 for him.

Still open is me losing 50 in 6 months starting Dec 1st, 2008 when I weighed the afforementioned 232 on my scale. That means I would have to weigh 182 or less on June 1st of this year. I am still taking this bet (again I was 224 yesterday) and will accept any and all bets up to 75 bucks per.

LPT Online League starts tomorrow night (Wednesday, Jan 7) on Pokerstars
If you have not received the detail email, please respond.

Well yesterday Donnie and I tried to scramble to get a game together in the afternoon, but understandably people weren’t able to get out on such short notice.  So we were left to drink beer and gamboool  it up all by ourselves.  Pity.

Things started off with 2 bucks a game at darts.  I got down to a double out before Donnie in 4 of 5 games, but still went 1-4.  Shane’s not a finisher!  Frustating beyond belief.  The 2 bucks is just adding value to an already big rivalry.  For years we competed in everything sports, video games whatever, never putting money on things, but for the most part still always trying.  Throwing even a toonie on something just adds some extra OOOOOMPH.  3 or 4 beer down, down 4-1 at darts, and out 6 bucks.

We then moved onto Sorry.  The boys have added this to their rotation over at Tim’s and Santa Clause brought it to the Leighton’s for Xmas so I brought it out and we played a few games of that.  Neither of us had played the game since we were kids so we had to take time to read the directions on the box and took it slow.  Such a simple little game, but by its very nature, there’s a spite element, right up our alley.  We split the first two games and then thru 2 bucks on the rubber match and after a very swingy back and forth game, Donnie takes it down.  Score now sits at 6-2 Donnie, and up 8 bucks.

We have a bite to eat and a few more beers and get out my poker table to resume a Race to Ten we already have in progress.  Donnie was leading the race 6-3 at the start, our last game having been all the way back on Feb 23rd!  We picked up where we left off and started with Omaha.  The games were typical of Donnie and I’’s heads up, not overly aggressive (very different games than when I play Scott or Jeff heads up).  I took the first game of Omaha, and then also took the second after winning a crucial all in catching the river on an all in when being down to 24 chips.  The final hand of the Holdem game came when I called his all in push with 33 with 44 and they held.  6-4 Donnie, me up 12 dollars.

After this we became 3 handed when my buddy Zeek showed up.  We started off with short buyins of 10 dollars each, allowing rebuys whenever you want.   It started off a little slow, but then we opened it up by going from straight holdem to dealers choice.   Business certainly picked up at this point.  Each deal we changed games, some games introduced wild cards, other games were limit.  We mixed it up quite a bit.  Some of the games we spread

Blackjack (dealer being the house, I got runover dealing or otherwise at this)

1-3 dollar a hand scat

5 card draw

5 card draw with wild cards (3 times 4 of a kind took the hands down)

5 card stud

7 card stud

Razz

omaha

holdem limit and NL

pineapple

I may be forgetting some games.  The games with wildcards were sooooo much fun.  Donnie particularly liked blackjack.   I made a laydown in one of the biggest hands of the night against Donnie in a wildcard game, when i didn’t think my Jacks full was good.  Turns out he had tens full.  It was a 4 dollar raise, leaving me with only 3.25 if i call I think.  Mathematically probably not a good play, but I was tilting (surprise surprise). 

All in all a fun night and an example of what I want to host more of.  With the crazy wildcard games, I was thinking at one point, "Jesus Scott could either WIN/LOSE 11 billions at this".  Aggression and bluffing really pay off in these games.   I need/want to improve at darts.  Got some poker in.  And even played some Sorry.  I think 4 handed sorry with the TNT crowd would be hilarious.  All in all a fun night.

Hey guys. Semi serious question. I am starting little by little, by reading, watching a little of the new poker after dark, and more likely discussing poker a little with Scott and Josh to get the inkling of an inch again.

If I come back to online poker its going to have to be at the very lowest levels, both money wise, and in a sense mindset wise. Most of my poker experience online holdem wise is playing 2-4 limit. I have i would guess (and I would know exactly if i hadn’t nuked my databases) about 350-400,000 hands at this level. It would be hard for me to start over lower than this but money wise I would have to or I would have one (very short) buy in….haha

So I am thinking I would come back but playing at the lowest levels, to work on the ever important, and my biggest leak, Bank Roll Management. I know what everyone is thinking, he won’t play so low. Well I don’t have a whole lot of choice. If I wanna play at all, I would have to. So if you wanted to play, would you wait til you can afford to throw on more money or would you put on what you can. Start low, and try and Ferguson it up?

Discuss.

I have kinda dropped off the poker grid completely since my debacle back in Sept of buying in for 120 on Red Kings, getting it up to 298.50 playing poker, then losing it in 40 min playing blackjack. Wooooo. I have just recently (this week) started looking at poker sites again (check out www.highstakesdb.com, Gus Hansen has won and lost 1 million in one day a couple times this week!) and watching it on tv. I was severly burnt out, and after 3 months of zero poker involvement I am slowly coming around again.

Since I am a “goals guy” I thought I would throw my thoughts out there as Dango and blitz have done. My goals cover “gaming” as a whole rather than just poker, so bare with me:

2009 Goals

1. Play less but more focused Poker. Learn to quit when it is no longer profitable online, or when I no longer am making correct decisions. (i played about 350,000 hands online in 2008, many of which were played when it was no longer smart to continue)

2. After January, make it to the rest of the LPT’s for Season 4. It’s killing me to have missed so much.

3. Read 4 poker books minimum in 2009, starting with rereading two of my favorites
a) Little Green Book
b) The Poker Mindset

4. Host more games at my house, including a 50 dollar Horse tourney

5. Learn to play more games. This includes the HORSE games, to improve at Darts, learn to really play backgammon, relearn to play chess. You know me I love to compete, but I cannot focus all my energies on Poker or I burnout on it. So there’s got to be other ways I can take your money.

6. Write more about Poker and gaming of all sorts. I have started yet another blog to house all my “guy stuff”, poker, sports, gambling, video games. it can be found at http://shaneleighton.net/shanesroom/ and will encompass all my competitive pursuits and hobbies.

7. Get my game in shape for the casino early next year. Be playing very smart, correct poker.

8. Give myself a shot to win another LPT. It’s been way too long.

9 start playing heads up again with Donnie/Jeff/Scott and start some heads up with Josh. Heads up has been my favorite form of poker in the past, and I want to get back to playing.

This is the first time in 3 or 4 years I have not set a money goal. I took a beating in 2008. I am getting away from the money because, to an extent I cannot control that. All I can control is making correct decisions. That is my goal, getting back to playing solid poker. I used to consider myself as one of the best players in this group, and now I have zero confidence at the table. It’s time to get my game back in shape, and start playing good poker again. I am not going to worry about winning X amount but rather playing strong poker. If I play strong poker, the rest will fall into place.

2008 was a big poker year for me. I finally dove into an online training site, I landed a big score in a big field live tournament and I had a pretty good year playing cash games online.

I have a lot of momentum yet alot of questions concerning my poker future. December was one of my best months when it comes to profits and I am looking to build on that success. Here are a few things I need to work on:

1- Even though I have been doing well, (9.5 BB’s per 100 hands) I have been getting in a passive check/call type mode. I am playing too passively and If I am going to move up…

2- I need to move up to the $100’s as soon as possible. Right now I am still a bit under bankrolled for that and I honestly feel that I am a bit too passive post flop to have success moving up. I need to build my post flop play up, amp up the aggression…

3- I am still 2 tabling. There is no way I can sustain decent winrates at these levels 2 tabling. Gradually I would love to get to 4 tables sometime in ‘09. I am looking to buy an extra monitor so I wouldn’t have to overlap my screens. If other’s are able to add 10-12 tables without affecting winrates too badly I should be able to go to 3-4 tables without hurting the bottom line…

When I found out that was unemployed at the beginning of the month, I jokingly told Shane that this is where I was going to find out If I can really play poker. One month later I have played alot more hands then I had ever done in the span of a month and I have more questions then answers. Yes things are going well, but honestly I have issues in my game that need to be rectified before I can declare myself able to sustain a decent winrate. 2009 should be a defining year

Let’s say you are playing 25-50 cent online poker with a player that seems pretty bad. Very aggressive and overbets pots all the time. He stacks off and suddenly starts reloading (alternating loading the full amount of $50 with reloading $10) and is going all-in every single hand.

The other players at the table all notice this and are pretty friendly with each other. The premise is he is going all in every single hand. If you call people will fold behind you unless they have AA or KK. How good of a hand do you need to call him?

- What is your calling range when he has $10

- What is your range when he has around $25

- What is your range when he has around $50

- What is your range when he has around $100

He has been doing this for a good 10 minutes and he does not seem to want to stop anytime soon…. What are you calling him with?