It’s everywhere.  You can’t find a bare spot on the poker reporting shelves and every little scent of news becomes big news – even if it’s not newsworthy – and ends up on the web, in a magazine, in a newspaper, or a blog.  Go figure that once all of the bad beats have had the shit beat out of them by airing them everywhere – and hand history reports are pasted, posted, discussed – what else is there to talk about that hasn’t been aired?  Not much…the next new tournament that’s springing up in outer JunkVille?

Some of the poker promotions that are running are really fun – although they are horrendously luck oriented – like this one!

Is Poker fun?  I’ve ran through every possible thought – and whispering echos of almost thought – about poker in the last 30 some years.  I have to admit it has a complete black side to it, even though it is still high on my favorite’s list.  I’ve written many times about its pull on people and watched what it does to most of them – you have to be there to appreciate the full scope of it.  If you’re an observer, or a non-player involved with someone that plays, you are only getting the surface of what’s really going on.  If you’re a long term player, you have a much clearer picture of what’s going on below the mirror and that, my friends, is the crux of what you are, how you handle yourself, how you deal with responsibility, your integrity, and much, much more.  Your ability to face yourself becomes part of the daily grind of living when you’re involved in poker full time. So…enough of the mind melt.

The only way to survive poker in the long term is to have an exceptionally dark sense of humor.  You have to be able to laugh or you can’t stand it. That’s where I try to keep it – full laugh mode.

I played the Million Dollar Challenge on PokerStars yesterday (yes, I did laugh), and special thanks to Glenda, I got the password from her because I don’t even get TV, let alone watch FOX.

The first hand I looked at was Presto (5-5) and it was 20 to me.  I called – last to act.  Flop 6-5-3 all spades.  One player bet $20 and three of us called.  The turn was a 6c – lead player bet 220 and two of us called.  The river? 5c.  WOOT!!!  Lead player bet 900, next player all-in for 1840 more, me too, lead player called all-in.  SWEET!  Lead Player had Qh-6h.  Second player had 10s-4s.  MOI collected 9060.  That wasn’t what made me laugh.  It was the chat window from the guy that had 6s full.  He carried on like he got a horrible beat.  He caught perfect to go busted.  Yummy!  Yah, I’m a sick bitch…been there.

I managed to win a big pot later on with KH-10H when I flopped a four flush and rivered a gut-shot broadway – busted another player that flopped a set of sevens.  He thought it sucked.  I would too if I was in his seat but I wouldn’t have typed some shit in the chat window.  LMAO again.

I kept getting moved from table to table.  After all, there were 22,609 players and they were going bust faster than the speed of light.  I picked up Aces.  Two players in front of me all-in.  Me too.  They had shit hands but thankfully the one shit hand that won the main pot had less chips than I did.  He had J-9 off and managed to clip trip jacks out of thin air.  The other player had a flush draw that didn’t get there or I would’ve been toast right there.  Then I picked up 9-9 and tangled with a short stack that had shit and his shit hit the flop.  But I still had chips.  I made another good sized pot with 5-5 and flopped a set…got no callers on the flop.

I went bust with Q-Q when I had 19K left.  It was raised to me and I raised it to 8k (blinds were 800-1600).  Got an all-in and one caller with chips.  I went all-in after the flop – big mistake on my part here – I made it almost 12K to go on a flop with 3 hearts – I should’ve pushed all-in pre-flop…gotta love that 20-20 hindsight.  The clown with chips had K-10 off, with the KH.  He rivered a flush.  I’m not knocking his play, just laughing that K-10 seems to be the favorite of so many people (including me if it’s suited and I’m in the right position).  I was out in 3692 place.  Winning any $ in this tournament would be a sheer luck factor for anyone – only the top 10 got paid.  But truthfully, I enjoyed the tournament and had fun playing it.

I did raise once UTG with J-J – got no callers and another clown that was the ‘table captain know it all poker professional of the decade playing freerolls’ informed me that it was a good raise.  I chatted back – Big Pair.  He chatted back something like, ‘more like A-8 off.’  I chatted back – It’s your story, tell it the way you want.’  He chatted back that his story was usually always the correct one.  I left it there.  He continued his chatting ‘great player’ role.  And yes, I was LMAO at most of what he said.

Let’s get to the PokerWorks H.O.R.S.E. tournament.  Glenda couldn’t make it, she was fapped.  Clearspine couldn’t make it – he’s allowing his family to take precedence over poker…good job Buddy!

djhomeschool was the star of the show.  He brought his friends Tom Bayes and GoIrish89 and the chat window never slows down when those boys are in a tournament.  I laughed my ass off over their crazy comments to each other.

PokerStars Tournament #202620498, HORSE
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50 USD
8 players
Total Prize Pool: $40.00 USD
Tournament started 2009/10/11 21:00:00 ET
Tournament finished 2009/10/11 22:15:09 ET
1: djhomeschool (Denton), $20.00 (50%)
2: Tom Bayes (Murray), $12.00 (30%)
3: Alexe55 (Marina Del Rey), $8.00 (20%)
4: cmacc85 (waycross),
5: yestbay1 (Grapevine),
6: grupper (**),
7: PokerWorks (Las Vegas),
8: GoIrish89 (Denver),

And congrats to Andrew (djhomeschool) for sucking out on out playing Tom Bayes in a big pot towards the end when they were heads-up and then vanquishing Tom to the 2nd place finish.  Thanks everyone for playing.  I have a link to Tom’s blog but there appears to be no posts there – what’s up?

Right now Glenda and I are marveling at the great play we both are witnessing in a little $2.20 PokerStars 5K guaranteed.  She has won a pot, I’ve not been involved in anything yet.  Laters…