Malaru's Blog

Well Ive been in a few tournaments now- and I prefer tournys to money games, Im not really sure why- I feel like I do better in tournaments and I feel like you get more time with your money- anyhow;

My last tournament was two sundays ago and I was the bubble boy unfortunatly- I finished 5th out of 44 w/ 4th being in the money- it was a $45 tourney

Thursday Ill enter into two more for the day, the first being another $45 tounrmanent w/ $5 bounties; and the second one starting 6 hours later is a $100 tournament w/ $25 bounties.

I like the bounties idea, you can get your buy-in back or even make some without having to be in the money.


Ive been doing alot of reading and studying in the past 3 weeks on poker play- and while Im keeping my strategy basicly my own and not trying to take strategy advice from books- what I am learning from the books is how to place my opponents as playing a certain way and keep more mental notes on how they been playing- for instance before i really read to pay attention to it in the past Id not think of paying attention to how many hands a player plays in- but in my last tournament I did- and noticed this one asian man who saw the flop like 7 of every 8 hands... and then I noticed he was aggressive also- he would often raise or open-raise a very high amount... and I made a mental note of his loose-agressive play.

One think Im going over now, and learning about ways to do- is to keep ongoing notes and temporary notes, both on your games, opponents, and sessions. To keep track of your buy-ins vs how much you leave with and to keep tabs of anything that stands out about players. I never thought much about these notes in the past, thinking well its so many hands and they change how they do stuff so often, but you know in the long run humans are creatures of habit and sense its a local card room I have a chance of seeing the same people alot, and they are bound to have habbits they stick to- if you can determain the right ones.

Another thing Ive been learning about is to pay attention to tells ahead of your action thats not directly related to your action- if Im in position 7 on a table of 10 and I look to my left and see two players just waiting to chuck their cards and the other very disinterested in the game, hell that makes me the button.

Its being very interesting to learn alot of these aspects- and finding how I act between all these things- and I found a couple flaws in my own play, for example how often I play hands and that perhaps I should be a little more selective- especially when I am one of the blinds to not let the blind make me feel obligated to chuck in that little bit more.

I wanted to make a small report of my recent visit to the 'sino. Where I had a really good time.

It seemed just about everything I touched was paying off for me- and big... I started off putting $20 into one of the 4-screen penny slots (4 games in 1 bit)- I just wanted to have fun, I know its a penny drainer- played for a bit, and left- gave it all my money $4 at a time.

Time to get to real play and decided to go sit down at the blackjack table a while- after afew good hands and being up and down a bit after cashing in for $400 I left at $600.

Nows when the fun began- I really wanted to hit the higher level slot machines so I sat down at the $5 wheel of fortune machine and started plucking away at $100- right on my last credit I won a spin- got myself $700. Cashed out up $600-

I continue on to my favorite- Pai Gow Poker and sat thru a bunch of hands- and immediatly got two flushes in a row- one causing a push and the other winning- making fairly small bets for now- 20 to 50 a hand- and placing a progressive $2 on the side bet (yes I cant resist the side bet on pai gow)- after some time and good fortune going my way I decide to play $500 on the main bet and placed $20 on the side bet.- I got a 5-card straight flush with an A-2 top-pair. I got the win for $475 and got 50:1 on the str-fl for a $1,000 bonus win. I leave the table up about $1,600.

I love to play holdem bonus- it really is a fun game its just highly volatile- and today the volatility went my way, after being up a little and down a lot I got about even again and placed $200 ante with a $25 bonus bet (I keep this one to singles most of the time cause of how bad a suck bet it is)- I got a flush on the turn with got all 4 bets paid off- for a total of $1,000 plus I had a AK offsuit for a $375 win on the bonus. I leave the table up about $1,000.

I check on the poker room- its packed, not gonna wait around- so I go back and play some 3-card for a while and a little more BJ- down about $500 between the two. I go back to pai gow and make a $1,000 wager which wins me $950 (nothing on the $25 bonus)- so I leave it after just a couple hands- and decide before I leave to do something I always wanted to do- I went and put $200 in the $100 slot machine- first yank nothing, second yank mixed bars for a 10 credit pay- I cash out with $1,000 up $800.

For the day I went in with $700 and left with $3,800. Great Day.

Made a couple discoveries this trip- the highlimit room had nothing but mini-bac and blackjack- the onyl rule variation for BJ was the dealer would stand on all 17's. On the main floor they have midi bac instead of mini.

Play was at the Seminole Hard Rock in Tampa.

I've told people in the past that basicly my family has lived where I am sense the 1800's- and with my grandmothers passing - who had the home thats been in the family for generations. I found the document that Ill hold onto for the rest of my life that just sorta made me a little more proud.

It is the original land settlement paper for the 320 acres the house/farm was on. It is from the land grants of Florida after it was purchased from Spain. It granted my (x-generations back) grandfather the 320 acres thats been intact almost ever sense via the "April 24th 1820 act of congress" for the sale of public lands. When my aunt died a few years ago the farm finally got divided up into ten- acre lots and sold off (against family wishes but thats the government for you)

It was signed by President James Buchanan on December 7th 1859. Im honestly surprised to have found the document in as good condition as it is in. So far, as for the documents and papers Ive had to read and go over this has by far been the best one.

Im actually a bit ashamed of some of the people on this site. You dont call yourselves cheats because you follow the letter of the law (usually... the vast majority of you)- but you sure dont try to follow the sprit of the law or of the games.

For example- those of you who are voltures and search a casino for a new dealer who is accidently flashing the hole cards- I consider this a cheat. Its one thing to sit down at a table to enjoy the game and have a dealer that does this once in a while- its an enitrely diffrent situation to hunt down a dealer like a pack of wolves. You say its just fine because they are flashing the cards and your not trying to cheat to get the information. But I ask where does the trying to sneak a peak start and end? Why dont you just ask for your chair to be sitting right behind the dealer or just pick up his hand and take a good long look at it.

You are obviously not there to play the game the way it is intended to be played and that makes you a dishonest subject it dont matter to me how far you take your ways or how you defend your actions.

Have I been overpaid? Hell yes, and I corrected the dealer- have I ever had a card flashed at me? No Ive not that Im aware of. Have I ever sat down at pai gow and the dealer set their hand a certain way and I think it was the wrong way? Yes, and if I was the only person at the table I asked her about it.

Again, I dont care what your defenses to the reason you take advantage of dealers or the games is- even if its because you believe the casino to be greedy SOBs who would not let go of a a rusty old penny. Its their house your visiting, their rules, your the guest- be on your best behaviour.

You want to play good strategy, you want to count cards- go ahead, by all means you should. I have no problem with strategy play or methods. But when your giong all out to see a card that you KNOW your NOT suppose to see, or when you do other things that you clearly KNOW is not how the game should be played- your just being scoundrals.

The examples of doing wrong on here are clear as day. Its like you come up to a property line in the forest and there is a sign there that says "please do not tresspass"- and then you think, well they said please- so they must have made it optional- and you cross over into their property line. Now, what if that sign said "Do not tresspass" you would then go "if they did not want me to tresspass they would put up a fence" so you tresspass anyways. Ok now they have a fence, but its just a small farm fence, not even barded wire on it and the sign is still there- your response is "Oh, well, its a simple fence to climb over, they must not reallky want us out"- and you cross over. - What am I trying to say? That the general meaning and desire you do not enter the property was always there always conveied as something you should not do. You should not need a large fence with razor wire and security cameras to make sure you stay out.

Likewise, the fact that the cards are placed face down on the table and done so quickly as as smoothly as possible should give you the hint that its not suppose to be something you see- just because the casino does not blindfold you in the dealing process does not mean they want you to see the cards. You make up your own desires and ethics as you go along, and that makes you a scoundral. You are the same type that an officer cant just ask you to stop, hes got to beat you over the head with his nightstick to remind you.

Ok, rant over. Sorry.

I enjoy reading other members blogs and sometimes I got stuff I want to say but just dont feel like making a thread for it- so why not use this space. Im sure I wont be posting on here as much as others, but ive been a stats nut all my life, though im not so sufficently trained in it as the wiz or others (ie- Im not exactly edumacated (sic)).

Im trying to decide what I want to do with my next big paycheck- I got a load o over time comming up combined with holiday pay and Ill have an extra grand hanging around- and im trying to decide is I want to go to the 'sino sense Ive not been in a while- or if I want to buy that new replacement computer- mine is getting a bit old and just pure worn out and I love playin games on my 'puter and I cant play anything newer then maybe 2008.


The wiz was asking not long ago about more areas to use his knoweldge. I am a soccer official- is there a place for me to use stats as an official on game day? Is there some sort of pattern I could do homework on and put together? Maybe I could find patterns or flaws on teams and better know if I want to run a left or right diagonal. I tell you what is hard for me to do out on the pitch is to find and remember players who constantly foul other players. Just an idea, I dont foresee how it could be used to great effect.

Well here is my first blog of I hope will be many. Even if it just ends up me talking to myself. :)