Cardinal Rules

I broke one of the biggest Cardinal Rules tonight; but as usual, more on that later.

This Mansion betting thing is getting pretty widespread. Pretty cool. I'm not going to make my decision on whether or not to hedge until Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm seem to be flip flopping on this one. Today, I am at 70-30 in favor of the hedge which is down from 90-10. Miami didn't look too impressive last night against the Rams; but neither team played anybody.

While I'm on the subject of football, Mr Owens finally made his debut with the Cowboys. Is anybody else a little distraught that the Cowboy fans gave TO a standing ovation when he came into the game and continued standing throughout the whole series. Maybe, I am just one to hang onto a grudge too long. I will never, ever forget (or forgive) his little antics at mid-field a few years back... and now Cowboys fans want to give him a standing O? Not this guy. I am normally quick to forvige and forget. I guess Sports is the one exception (yes, I still haven't watched a major league baseball game since the last strike) To tell you the truth, I was hoping this Hamstring and Groin was going to keep him out all year. Yes, he is a great player and yes he will probably help the Cowboys in the short term; but as for me, I dont need nor want him in a Cowboys uniform.

Ahhhh, It's that football time of year. None better. I have two fantasy drafts next week. I can't wait. One of the drafts, I am down at pick #12.... again (4th time in 6 years). I'm trying to work some predraft magic with some trades. No luck yet. Draft number 2 has me in the #3 slot so it is probably a forgone conclusion that I will take one of the Big 3.

No poker for me last night; but I did play a for a bit on Wednesday. As with others, I'm returning to the Party tables to get their reload bonus. I've had a few nice nights (up about $1K for the last two weeks) and its always nice to know that Mr Variance won't let you get too comfortable. Flop a set of Kings, no good. Lost to Mr Moron who capped preflop, flop, and turn (with KJ) on an Ace high board only to hit his gut shot on the river. How about flopping a straight. Nope. Apparently runner, runner rivered flushes beat a straight. And of course my nemisis of the last week. Flopping bottom 2 pair. Mr counterfeit card comes on river. Dang. Now of course, I'm not too happy; but at the same time, I have worked myself down to be down only $70 (from a high of over $200 down) when I broke the Cardinal rule. It's even possible that I broke 3 Cardinal rules on this one.

Cardinal Rule #1. Don't play on Tilt.
Cardinal Rule #2. Don't play when you are tired.
Cardinal Rule #3. Move tables when getting killed. This may not be a cardinal rule.

I don't really go into Tilt; but I sure do remember the guys that put the bad beats on me and I tend to push back on them. Sometimes with mediocre hands. I had been 2 and 3 tabling things, as normal. 2 of 3 tables, I am doing fine and even very good on one of the tables; but one of the tables, nothing was going right and was down around $250. I got back $100 of it; but it was starting to get late and I was getting tired. I had just gotten 3rd in a $25 SNG with my crowning blow running my mid pocket pair from the button running into Aces in Big Blind. Same thing happened to me in the Mook. In the Mook, I shouldn't even have gotten as far as I did as I got a runner, runner gut shot to survive that long. Anyway, finished in the middle of the pack there.
Back to ring play. I closed down everything except for the trouble table. I had just lost half of my table holdings on something that I don't remember. The next hand I had T9s and limped in and saw a multi hand pot. For some reason, I thought I hit my straight on turn and went crazy betting. I lost to KJ (top pair). I saw the chips go the other way and I was wondering what happened. Oops.. apparently 89TJ does not make a straight. OK, I get it. Go to Bed so all in all I lost about $150 for night. It could have been worse; but should have been a lot better.

Switching subjects...

I have been contemplating moving back to NL poker. This is where I first started many moons ago when I first deposited my first $60 into this thing we call poker. I remember being so conservative that I would open a 10c/25c table with only $5 and if I worked it up to $20, I would quit and go to another table and start the process again. Anyway, fast forward to now.

What should my thought processes be around swithcing from Limit to NL. I always try to do a little studying before I do it. I'm not much of a book reader so that is probably out. I'm thinking of going the video training route. The two prevelant NL ones out there are:

Cardrunners and PokerxFactor.

If anybody has ever used one or both of these, please let me know your thoughts. I have been using stoxpoker lately as that has a bunch of limit on it and I highly recommend it. Lately, it has even been free via ThisIsTheNuts. ThisIsTheNuts has a promotion going that if you attain $500 of rake on a site that you sign up with them on you get a month of training for free. Of course, you are also getting rakeback so it is a nice little added bonus. I definitely reccomend those guys. They have also just added a site (SensePoker) where you can get up to 60% rakeback. Just click on the links here or on the right and check them out.

That shoud do it for today. Have a great Labor day weekend!!!!!