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Tuesday, April 11th, 2006
12:13 am	Joe Lang Swiss Journ 4990 11 December 2005 The Wicked Messengers: Miles, Dylan and Selling Out in Popular Music The five years between 1965 and 1970 were arguably the most important years in American history of the 20th century. The nation was fragmenting and polarizing left and right: the philosophical ideals of progressive youth were clashing with the status quo of the establishment and the sparks were violent. The Watts riots, deaths of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Bobby Kennedy, the indictments of the Chicago Seven, and the shootings at Kent State were among a few of the explosions emanating from the wall of flame that was the late sixties. And although many look back on the music source of progression and unification of the time citing events like the Monterey Pop Festival or Woodstock, much of that progression too, came out of great turmoil. In 1961, Bob Dylan was signed to Columbia Records thanks to John Hammond, the legendary A&R man who signed stars including Robert Johnson, Aretha Franklin and Count Basie. Between ’61 and ’64 Dylan released Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin’, and Another Side of Bob Dylan. In doing so, he became the darling of the folk revival: a microcosm of the civil rights movement that, according to Greil Marcus, “was rooted in nineteenth-century and early-twentieth century song collecting” and placed “the country over the city, labor over capital, sincerity over education, the unspoiled nobility of the common man and woman over the businessman and politician, and the expressiveness of folk over the self-interest of the artist.” Whether he liked it or not, Dylan songs like “Chimes of Freedom,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall,” and “When Our Ship Comes In,” put him in the category of grade-A topical song writer, and the hero of the folk movement. In the summer of 1963, the folk music revival reached its apex. The summer saw the major exponents of the revival aligned with the civil rights March on Washington and at the Newport Folk Festival embracing and singing “We Shall Overcome.” Dylan said of his titles, “At a certain point people started to have a warped view of me—the spokesman of a generation, the conscience of this, that and the other. That, I could not relate to.” Two years later, on July 25, Dylan was scheduled to headline the Newport Festival. Pete Seeger christened the event by playing a recording of a newborn baby and proclaiming the event would be dedicated to the new world the baby would grow up in. As Greil Marcus put it All of this was suspended in the air—and, for thousands who had followed Bob Dylan’s progress as a confirmation of their own, dashed to the ground—when in July 1965 the folk singer who once dressed only in fraying cotton appeared onstage at the Newport Folk Festival with an electric guitar in his hands and a black leather jacket on his back. With a five man band behind him, he made the most raucous sounds he could: an electric noise that many signified corruption and lies…the result on July 25, 1965, was an uproar: a torrent of shouts, curses, refusal, damnation, and perhaps most of all confusion. The next year saw Dylan tour the U.S. and U.K. in support of the electric triumvirate: Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde On Blonde. With each show, the sea of boos became more and more turbulent and Dylan was demonized as a traitor, sellout and most famously a “Judas.” When the tour ended and the dust settled, and after a near mental breakdown, Dylan took almost a decade off from the road. The summer after the tour, Dylan retreated to Woodstock, New York to help his former band record their debut. In 1968, The Band, formerly the Hawks, released Music From Big Pink. Perhaps inspired by the turmoil of the previous year, the album deviated thematically and sonically from popular conventions of the time, taking “songs with family, faith, and rural life as their subjects and proceeded to imbue their values with uncertainty.” As the album was released, another music icon was reinventing himself. ********** Since the late 1940s, Miles Davis was known as the jazz innovator and his work with Gil Evans, and his classic quintet with John Coltrane and Bill Evans defined the possibilities of the idiom. Albums like The Birth of the Cool, Sketches of Spain and Kind of Blue were some of the biggest selling jazz albums in history and some of the most celebrated recordings of the genre. In between 1961 and 1964, Miles’ legendary quintet had dissolved, he was diagnosed with sickle-cell anemia, became addicted to drugs and alcohol, both his parents died, and his marriage fell apart. Miles said he was “a mess, and getting worse.” According to Paul Tingen, Meanwhile, other events in the jazz world seemed to be overtaking Miles. The freejazz movement was out on the cutting edge, bitterly dividing the jazz world into conservatives and progressives. For the first time in his creative life, Miles found himself siding with the conservatives…Miles appeared out of step with the times, and come 1964, few would have put any money on Miles’s ability to rise from the ashes again to take the lead. In 1964, Davis formed a new quintet with new possibilities. Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Ron Carter were fresh faced kids who came to make up one of the greatest ensembles in jazz history, Miles’ “second great quintet.” The rhythmic ideas of Hancock and Williams pushed Davis into new and initially uncomfortable directions that bordered on free-jazz. The quintet was critically praised and released five acclaimed albums between 1965 and 1967 including E.S.P., Miles Smiles, Sorcerer, and Nefertiti. Miles’ guidance pushed the individual members to creative heights, which in turn, demanded more from their fearless leader. In 1967, Miles took his first jolt of electricity. There has been great speculation as to why Miles decided to steer the band in a completely new direction, but a number of events most likely incited Miles to “juice up.” In 1967, John Coltrane died of cancer. The loss of Coltrane left a void not only in the free-jazz community, which Coltrane had been leading in the ‘60s, but in the jazz world as a whole. The death of his friend, influence and former band member may have shaken Miles to the core. The same year, Miles heard the young keyboardist, Joe Zawinul, playing an electric piano (who would later join Miles’ band) on Cannonball Adderly’s hit “Mercy Mercy Mercy.” Finally, Miles’ drummer, Tony Williams and his then girlfriend, Berry Mabry were in touch with the music and ideas of the counterculture. By 1968, Miles had abandoned his suits for psychedelic styles and was listening to R&B and Rock artists, most importantly Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix. “All of the forces of change were in place. He had switched over to the electric piano. He watched as Tony Williams literally invented a new approach to drums and sound. Miles was now inspired to write music and experiment with the abstract world of composition.” (Belden 29). What is interesting about Miles’ transition into electric music is that it, unlike Bob Dylan’s transition, was largely unheard by the public at first. Tracks like “Circle in the Round,” “Water On the Pond,” and “Stuff”(see the complete Columbia Studio Recordings Box 1963-1968) which clearly demonstrate the electric seeds of Miles were not released, and were kept in the vaults for years, and even the recordings that did get released often didn’t make it into the band’s setlists. In 1969, Columbia released Miles’ first fusion albums, Filles De Killamanjaro and In a Silent Way. In the confines of the studio, between the two sessions, one by one, Miles’ second great quintet dropped out, and new faces dropped in. Bassist Ron Carter was replaced by Dave Holland. Joe Zawinul and guitarist John Mclaughlin arrived and added more rock texture to the band. Eventually, there were three keyboardists: Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, but Hancock’s appearances were becoming fewer and fewer with the band. The new line up reflected the sound, and according to Dave Holland, the live dates he played with Miles during the era surprised many of the fans. “The sound of the band was new to most of the Miles Davis fan base,” Holland said. “But a lot of people went into shock when they heard the group. Because what we were doing with electronics just wasn’t a familiar sound.” (Belden 59). When the sounds of the studio finally made their way to wax, the critical responses ranged from confusion to unabashed vitriol. Filles De Killamanjaro did not draw heavy criticism because it was largely hard-bop influenced in terms of its compositional content and Miles had the same backing group he had since 1963. The Silent Way sessions, however, drew more significant resistance from the critics. The New York Times and Downbeat declined to comment on the record in any specific terms citing confusion concerning the editing and artistic goals of the album. Eight months later, with an addition of five more players to his already crowded group of eight, including Airto Moreira, Lenny White, and Larry Young, Miles Davis released the Grammy award-winning Bitches Brew. It quickly became the biggest selling jazz album in history. The double album, adorned with the psychedelic visions of Mati Klarwein, drew heavy criticism. Black playwright, critic and author Amiri Baraka called it “a bunch of noise,” (Tingen 81) jazz critic Stanley Crouch was particularly caustic and derided Miles as a “the greatest sellout in the history of jazz” (Lerner). Unfazed, Miles continued writing, performing and recording and in august of 1970, Miles played the Isle of Wight festival—the largest concert ever assembled. For the next four years, Miles released several more fusion records, some that explored rock elements more (A Tribute to Jack Johnson) and others that explored urban rhythms (On the Corner). Each album continued to draw fire from the purists, some going so far as to call it “repetitious crap,” or “an insult to the intellect of the people.” (Tingen 137). In 1975, Davis took an extended leave from music due to health problems. So were Dylan and Davis really sellouts? Backstabbers and traitors? Or were they just looking for new ways to frame their visions, new sonic palettes to take their audiences higher? In order to answer these questions, one must work with some form of a definition of just what a sellout is, and whether or not Dylan and Davis fit the mold, and if neither artist can truly be called a sellout, then what exactly is the reason for the vitriol that so many critics and purists spewed forth? The slang term of “selling out” is slippery at best, but wikipedia.org offers a seemingly clear and fair depiction of what a sellout is. Broadly speaking, it refers to the compromising of one's integrity in exchange for money or other personal gain. It is commonly associated with attempts to increase mass appeal or acceptability to mainstream society…Also, it can result in the artist(s) being afraid to show artistic evolution out of fear of alienating existing fans, which many argue is a prime example of going against one's beliefs or values in the pursuit of monetary gain. With Bob Dylan, that is assuredly not the case. In late 1964 and early 1965, Dylan, like almost everyone else in the world of music was blown away by what the Beatles were laying down. “They were doing things nobody was doing,” Dylan said. “The chords were outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid. You could only do that with other musicians… I knew they were pointing the direction of where music had to go.” (Gill 39). Dylan seemed to be getting bored with the sole acoustic music he was playing. “Out front it was a sure thing,” he said. “I knew what the audience was gonna do, how they would react. It was very automatic. I play these concerts and I ask myself, ‘Would you come see me tonight?’ And I’d have to truthfully say, no, I wouldn’t come. I’d rather be doing something else, really I would. That something else is rock. That’s where it’s at for me. My words are pictures, and the rock’s gonna help me flesh out the colors of my pictures.” (Gill 39). The fact is, Dylan had been listening to electric rock and blues since he was a kid. “Late at night I used to listen to Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed and Howlin’ Wolf blastin’ in from Shreveport,” Dylan told Rolling Stone. “I used to stay up ‘till two, three o’clock in the morning. Listened to all those songs, then tried to figure them out.” (Edmonds 69) In August of 1964, Dylan released Another Side of Bob Dylan. It was essentially Dylan’s first “fusion” album—his Filles de Killamanjaro. No, Dylan had not picked up an “unclean” electric instrument yet, but the album contained no songs that were even remotely topical, save for maybe “Chimes of Freedom.” This change definitely jarred some folk purists, but the response was hardly fierce. Shortly after, Dylan attended the recording session for his friend John Hammond’s So Many Roads album. On the session Hammond invited Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, and Robbie Robertson of the group Levon and the Hawks, and Mike Bloofield of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. “Dylan was in there checking it out,” Hammond said. “You could tell he was really digging it.” (Edmonds 66). Tracks from the session sound like the prototypes for versions of songs that would end up on Dylan’s electric excursions. Robert Johnson’s “Ramblin’ Blues” sounds extremely similar to Dylan’s “Leapord Skin Pillbox Hat” with Robertson’s telecaster lead lines and “Big Boss Man” sounds almost exactly like Dylan’s “Outlaw Blues” off of Bringing It All Back Home. Finally, when Dylan heard the Animals’ electrified version of his version of “House of the Rising Sun,” he was obviously impressed as he exclaimed it was “fuckin’ wild!” (Edmonds 69). The combination of the new electric possibilities available to him, along with the aforementioned labels bestowed upon him no doubt pushed him over the edge. “I never considered myself a folk singer,” Dylan said. “Sure, you can make all sorts of protest songs and put them on a Folkways record, but who hears them? The people that [sic] do are going to be agreeing with you anyway.” (Relic 73). Dylan was just responding to what he felt at the time, and it should be fairly clear that there was little to no economic motivation behind the change. “Music comes before breathing,” (Tingen 99) Davis once said. His outlook was very serious, but also open minded. He took his music very seriously, but at heart Miles was a blues, player, and in that tradition, he developed his sound. Because of that, he never shared idea of selling out that others believed about certain music. “I never thought that music called ‘jazz’ was ever meant to reach just a small group of people a museum thing locked under glass like all the other dead things that were considered artistic. I always thought it should reach as many people as it could, like so called popular music, and why not?” he said. “I don’t think if something is popular, it’s bad.” (Tingen 98). So philosophically, Miles is not culpable of selling out. In terms of monetary motivation, it also doesn’t appear to be the case, but is slightly ambiguous. In 1969, Clive Davis, vice president at CBS records met with Miles and said that he should play rock venues to reach larger audiences. Miles was extremely upset and rumors spread that Miles might leave the label. Nevertheless, the two eventually made up and Miles did begin playing rock venues including the Fillmore West. Even so, these meetings took place in 1969, and the In a Silent Way sessions were already completed. It would be difficult for one to say that there was an economic impetus just based on the Bitches Brew album—the sound just isn’t that much different aesthetically. So, if neither artist can be labeled a sellout according to the accepted definition, what was the reason for such castigation brought upon them from critics and purists? Bass virtuoso and Miles sideman, Marcus Miller summed it up best. “I said [to Miles], what you did ten years ago moved people so much and was so important to them and so much a part of their lives that when you stopped doing it, they felt abandoned. They thought, ‘How could you do this to me Miles? How can you make me feel irrelevant like this?” Music is a part of peoples’ lives, and so when Davis and Dylan took their music to different places, those who were unable to go with did in fact feel abandoned, and responded with anger. Joni Mitchell said, “People are afraid they can’t make the change. Not everyone is changeable. Every time you change you have to expect massive rejection.” Miller has stated in the past that he believes that different kinds of music are like different languages, each with their own subtleties and conventions. So in effect, when Davis and Dylan changed their sound, they could not be understood by purists; their new music was lost in translation. According to Miles percussion sideman, Stanley Mtume, “The problem was, the people who were criticizing that music, no one wanted to accept the fact that he was no longer playing jazz, so why are you asking jazz critics about music they don’t have a palette for? Miles never called it anything, but it was no longer jazz, that has been the fundamental problem for the whole period.” Now that all the dust has settled, the irony behind the legacy of both artists is that if the critics got what they desired and Dylan and Davis never went electric, the world would have been deprived of some of the greatest music of the 20th century. Bob Dylan nearly single handedly brought surrealist poetic writing into popular music. Although Dylan’s work prior to the electric material still was extremely strong poetically, it wasn’t until 1964 that he truly started to branch out into surrealism. As for Miles, he single handedly rejuvenated the genre of jazz into what became fusion. The antiquated genre suddenly had new life breathed into it with electricity. Bands like the Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, Weather Report, Return to Forever, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra reached out to new listeners and took the music where it had never been taken before; each band had members who played with Miles in the past. The controversy behind the change at the time truly reveals just how revolutionary the new music that both men made at the time really was. When new artists and old ones blaze a new path, it is not the place of the critic to tear down what (s)he can’t understand. In the words of Dylan, “The old road is rapidly agin’, please get out of the new one if you can’t lend a hand, for the times they are a changin’.” (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 7th, 2006
12:45 am	What the blues mean to me Someone once said, "The blues are medicine for the soul, forged in the hard times, but strong enough to bring on the good times." Willie Dixon said, "The Blues are the roots, everything else is the fruits." Another said, "The blues ain't nothin' but a good man feelin' bad." My father once simply said, "Dogs howl, people play the blues." I couldn't agree more with any of these, but today I may have truly uncovered what the blues are. Even though I've been playing them for about eight years, I never really knew. This afternoon I was sitting in my chair, feeling emotionally ill. The sun was setting, I was alone. I tried noodling on my acoustic for awhile to dull the pain, Hey Joe, dirge-like blues, whatever. I decided to try to start writing something. I couldn't come up with anything, until I revisited an old riff in D. Slowly but surely I began piecing together the song. Lyrically the parts of the puzzle were coming together effortlessly. Rage, and vitrol bled out onto the page mixing with blues pathos and poetic convention and chugging slashing flatpick downstrokes. When it was all over, I had the bones of the song together. Just needed some tweaking. And while it sounds flaky, I really feel like it was what Carlos Santana called, "A spiritual orgasm." All of the angst disappeared, and I was left with what felt to be surging endorphins. Eventually, later, the rut came back, and I downloaded several versions of "St. James Infirmary." A legendary minor folk blues piece covered by innumerable musicians. St. James Infirmary Traditional blues Dm A7 Dm I went down to St. James Infirmary. Gm A7 I saw my Sweeheart there. Dm A7 Dm Lying on a table, A7 Dm So cold, so white, so fair. A7 Dm I went up to see the doctor. Gm A7 ``She's very low'' he said. Dm A7 Dm I went back to see my baby A7 Dm And great God she was lying there dead I went down to old Joe's bar room. Down on the corner by the square. They were serving drinks as usual And the usual crowd was there. On my left stood Joe MacKennedy. His eyes were bloodshot red. He turned to the crowd around him And these were the words he said. Let her go. Let her go, God bless her. Where ever she may be. She may search this wide world over But she'll never find another man like me. When I die please bury me In a high top stetson hat. Put a gold piece on my watch chain, So the boys will know I died standing pat. Get six gambelers to carry my coffin. Six chorus girls to sing my song. Put a jazz band on my tail gate To raise hell as we roll along. This is the end of my story So let's have another round of booze. And if anyone should ask you just tell them I've got the St. James Infirmary blues. At any rate, I started playing out the piece and singing out the lyrics as I read them on the screen. As I got to the final line of the first verse, I felt chills go down my spine as I sang aloud "and great god she was lying there dead," and I got slightly choked up. The piece is like the blues written by H.P. Lovecraft, Poe, or Ambrose Bierce. It was as if the ghost of the original writer of the song (song is traditional) had grabbed me or something. I'd never felt that much from music before. Again, my emotional anguish subsided and I was left with a cool contentment and tranquility. So what is the blues? Well, sonically, I believe the blues is hard to tie down. My gut response is to say it is a minor structure derived from the blue note, which would be the flatted fifth. But I believe that it too constraining as some cuts by certain folk blues artists like Mississippi John Hurt or Elizabeth Cotton wouldn't fall into it. To me, the blues is the emotional language we all speak. It's a testament to the fact that none of us are alone; it is the music of humanity. It's the soul crying out in agony. It is undistilled. It can't be concealed with makeup, and it can't be washed away in slim fast. It can't be removed with a plastic surgeons needle. It's not in a superbowl half time show, and it doesn't espouse "family values." Bling-bling can't ward it away, and you can't sail away from it, no matter how big your yaght is. You won't see the blues in the reflections of a rim on an escalade, or in the haze emitted by a smoke machine, or a phat beat spewed out through a subwoofer. It is a playground for the subconscious, the demons and ghosts. It is the opposite of show tunes and vocal cocktail jazz. Unlike those musics, the blues seeks not to sweep hardships under the rug, but rather to expose them flaunt them, to let the skeletons in the closet out to reveal them as mere dust and bones. It doesn't numb, but intensifies. It doesn't massage, and pet--it cuts. It is an embracement of life, the good and the bad. Sam Harris, when commenting on athiesm said, "Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply a refusal to deny the obvious." I believe blues is a refusal to deny being human, at once an animal, but also something higher. The blues is a map from where we have come to where we can go. The blues is a mirror into the soul for those of us with courage enough to look into it and see warts and all. As Van Morrison put it, "The Blues is The Truth." John Mclaughlin said, "It all comes down to an intellectual game in the end if you start to consider truth, goodness and beauty which are probably the essential attributes of what we consider to be God. If something is really true, it has to be beautiful. And music is beautiful, so it has to be true. God is the most beautiful of all the beautiful and the source of all beauty, so music has to be intimately acquainted with God in some way. Let me put it another way: truth without beauty is the atom bomb." While I am an athiest, I understand what Mclaughlin is saying here, if one is to break down his definition of God. The blues is a celebration of the scars of life, and a source of pride. A reminder that we are still alive. As Hannibal Lector put it: "Our scars have the power to remind us the past was real." Long live the blues. (Comment on this)
Saturday, October 1st, 2005
2:59 am	pstars.... I have registered to play in the Online Poker Blogger Championship! This event is powered by PokerStars. Registration code: 7824580 (Comment on this)
Monday, July 18th, 2005
3:45 am	Does it get much sicker than this? (Comment on this)
Monday, July 4th, 2005
4:11 pm	Break/Misc. Well, after a last minute rally I busted in the final 650 and made a final table in a double shootout. I wanted to double early in the final table to get into a chip position to do some real damage and get shorthanded where I felt like I really had a shot at winning a seat. Well, I lost a flip with AK vs. JJ and the winner won his seat. I'm so lucky, aren't I? I am officially taking an extended break from poker that might go as far as as the fall poker classic. In the mean time I plan on getting a lot of reading done. I'm reading The Art of War right now and I thought I would highlight some interesting passages as they apply to poker and competition in general. "To lift an autumn hair is no sign of great strength; to see sun and moon is no sign of great sight; to hear thunder no sign of great hearing. What the ancients called a great fighter was not one who won, but one who excelled at winning with great ease. Hence, his victories bring him no reputation for wisdom nor credit for courage. The good fighter is able to secure himself against defeat, but cannot make certain of defeating the enemy. He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated. Hence the skillful fighter puts himself into a position which makes defeat impossible, and does not miss the moment for defeating the enemy. will continue with this later.... (Comment on this)
Monday, June 13th, 2005
2:27 am	The Pokerstars 650 WSOP debacle and my turnaround Today at 5:00 PM central standard time I played in my 3rd shot at the WSOP on pokerstars. The field was 322 players and 18 seats were given away. I didn't get a hold of many chips the entire way through but managed to cut through 301 players. I got some decent cards along the way and was able to survive to just above a short stack with 25 players left. I felt really good about my chances and confident overall in my abilities. Eventually, the cards started to cool off and I was sent to the rail after a frigid deck in 21st place. I got exactly what 322 got: nothing. Initially, after taking the beat I just couldn't really move. I wasn't all that upset, more numb. I was reserved to my fate, no matter what happened. Several people were saying things like, "I'm really sorry," or "Are you ok, man?" I was neither good nor bad. I was pretty numb. For anyone who doesn't play poker, it is about as brutal as it gets. So I decided to go run eight miles to get it out of my mind, work up some endorphins and do some thinking. So how do I feel and what should I do about it? One friend said, "I couldn't handle that, I would be looking for a cliff to jump off of right now. I would swear off poker for like six months." How do I feel? Depressed? Angry? Frusterated? How about focused. Yeah, it sucks getting bubbled in a five figure payday, I can't lie. It sucks a lot. But what am I going to do about it? Cry, whine, piss and moan about how I am the unluckiest poker player in the world? What good will that do me? What good will it do me to quit now, after putting in all this time and effort? For anyone who opts to take that path, they battle is already lost. I can't think of anything more pathetic really. That is not the path to success or greatness. It is the path of a loser, not a champion The last nine or so months have been in some ways the most difficult of my life and in others the most gratifying. In terms of my luck, both on the green felt and in many other areas of my life, I have been extremely unlucky. I really believe that I pretty much have more to complain about than anyone I personally know. I could go into detail about a lot of personal problems but this is neither the time nor place to vent such details. "Oh, but Joe, you made the money in Atlantis!" Yeah, great, but the cards fall the other way too, and now I find myself almost broke. I watch players play poker all the time. A lot of them, who are "good," players have a lot of leaks in their games. One friend of mine won a seat in just 1 try. He got aces 7 times and got all the chips in preflop over half of them. I have not been afforded such luck. On other hands he played, he made mistakes that were just sloppy. Far be it from me to say that I play optimally. I make mistakes, I make a lot. But I believe I learn from them and I become a stronger player every time I make one. After stepping back, I realize that, if these players play long enough and continue to make mistakes and not learn from them, eventually, the deck is going to turn, and it is going to be really, really ugly. They are going to feel a burn far hotter than the flames of bad luck I have recently endured and they are going to be seared, along with all their chips, left with nothing but confusion and frustration. In poker and in life, you just have to make what you believe to be the correct decisions when you find yourself in trying times, and let the results come. If they don't go your way, so be it, all you can do is learn from it, move on and grow as a person. I definately would have liked to have been on my way to the WSOP as I write this, but in some ways, my loss comes as a blessing (strange word choice, I know). Although the beats I have been taking for some time now have been absolutely brutal and this is no exception, it restored my confidence and my belief about hard work. After taking the loss I am not content to sit on my laurels and be lazy. For the last while I have been living less than optimally. I've been oversleeping, overeating, drinking, wasting time frivolously. Living like this is not beneficial to myself, and more importantly, to others. This is kind of an awakening for me. I plan on taking my game and life to a new level. I am going to sleep less, eat healthier, and work harder on my music, poker, relationships with others and overall self-actualization. I heard a quote a little while ago that I found really interesting: "There is no one more dangerous than someone who believes in what they are doing." If that is the case, next sunday, when I play in the 650 on stars and the 30 seat guarantee on fulltiltpoker.com, I guarantee there won't be more than a handful of players more dangerous than the author of these words. Peace, Joe (Comment on this)
2:12 am	My Gay Friends Apparently, while in Mexico, my friends Rich Student and Nick Korolchuck decided to have a little session of "Boys Gone Wild." While they kept the session largely private, Dan Raimer got a brief glimpse on camera. For your viewing pleasure: (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 15th, 2005
5:40 pm	The Funniest thing I have ever seen. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 10th, 2005
3:16 pm	Tha Mojo Slamma. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 15th, 2005
2:01 pm	Funniest Hand I Have Ever Played---GAMBOOOOOOLLLLLLLL!!!!! *********** # 1 ************** PokerStars Game #1358022667: Tournament #6036763, Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2005/03/14 - 22:35:11 (ET) Table '6036763 20' Seat #4 is the button Seat 1: Sooners (2750 in chips) Seat 2: txhold04 (3487 in chips) Seat 3: Colonial (960 in chips) Seat 4: andiismynick (1585 in chips) Seat 5: mojo99 (7900 in chips) Seat 6: tlc1210 (5785 in chips) Seat 7: jbklinge (6038 in chips) Seat 8: CIDERMAN ! (2700 in chips) Seat 9: PEP58 (2165 in chips) mojo99: posts small blind 15 tlc1210: posts big blind 30 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to mojo99 [7s 5h] jbklinge: folds CIDERMAN !: raises 120 to 150 PEP58: calls 150 Sooners: folds txhold04: folds Colonial: calls 150 andiismynick: calls 150 mojo99: raises 7750 to 7900 and is all-in tlc1210: folds CIDERMAN !: calls 2550 and is all-in PEP58: calls 2015 and is all-in Colonial: calls 810 and is all-in andiismynick: folds *** FLOP *** [4d 8h 8s] *** TURN *** [4d 8h 8s] [Qh] *** RIVER *** [4d 8h 8s Qh] [6c] *** SHOW DOWN *** mojo99: shows [7s 5h] (a straight, Four to Eight) CIDERMAN !: shows [Kd Jd] (a pair of Eights) Sooners said, "lmao" mojo99 collected 1070 from side pot-2 PEP58: shows [Th Ts] (two pair, Tens and Eights) mojo99 collected 3615 from side pot-1 Colonial: shows [4h As] (two pair, Eights and Fours) txhold04 said, "omg" txhold04 said, "insane" mojo99 collected 4020 from main pot PEP58 re-buys and receives 1500 chips for $10.00 CIDERMAN ! re-buys and receives 1500 chips for $10.00 ZeKGB [observer] said, "he's gay" Colonial re-buys and receives 1500 chips for $10.00 *** SUMMARY *** Total pot 8705 Main pot 4020. Side pot-1 3615. Side pot-2 1070. | Rake 0 Board [4d 8h 8s Qh 6c] Seat 1: Sooners folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 2: txhold04 folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 3: Colonial showed [4h As] and lost with two pair, Eights and Fours Seat 4: andiismynick (button) folded before Flop Seat 5: mojo99 (small blind) showed [7s 5h] and won (8705) with a straight, Four to Eight Seat 6: tlc1210 (big blind) folded before Flop Seat 7: jbklinge folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 8: CIDERMAN ! showed [Kd Jd] and lost with a pair of Eights Seat 9: PEP58 showed [Th Ts] and lost with two pair, Tens and Eights (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2005
12:25 am	An interesting post on 2+2, and a good way to look at life The wording he uses in the text lets me know where he is at on the "path," so to speak(the very beginning). Let me start with the words success and failure. These are words that mean such different things to each individual that to use them to label your accomplishments, or lackthereof, is setting yourself up for a long ardurous journey, that most won't finish. Success and failure are just ideas created by society to improperly judge others against ourselves. There are no successful people, or rather, using these words, I should say that there are no failures and everyone is a success. Quote: Everybody will eventually run worse than they thought was possible. The difference between a winner and a loser is that the latter thinks they do not deserve it. This statement is truer than anyone can know(even though I think most of you do know, it just seems impossible for me to believe that someone else can understand). What he says about winners and losers though, will keep you from attaining a more complete game. There are no winners or losers, to think that, is to let yourself be affected by negative variance. If you are not in the positive for the day, then you therefore must be a loser, and so the downward spiral begins. All of those negative ideas must be eliminated from your mind, or you will not perform to your potential. The trick is recognizing these negative ideas, since there are so many and so commonplace in our society, it is a large task indeed to sort them out as real, or just ideas created by the masses. Our labels for winners and losers simply identify individuals who play the same game a different way. Just because one person doesn't achieve the same goal that I strive for, doesn't make that person a "loser." Everyone is the same, and everyone has the same potential, some just direct their energies in different directions. The sooner you can get that into your head and really believe it, the sooner you will start to have a real understanding of the game. Quote: I am beginning to realize that most people don't have the psychological fortitude or spiritual perspective to manage the vicissitudes of this game. I also believe that of the very small number of professional poker players who have been successful for more than a few years, most of them are actually quite lucky. I believe that there are many pros who will fail once they begin to experience average luck. I really believe that everyone has the "psychological fortitude" to manage the vicissitudes of the game. It is simply a choice. A choice to change the way you think about results. Stop thinking in terms of winning as good and losing as bad. The two concepts should be grouped in your mind exactly the same. When God "blessed" man with shame, failure became a real entity we had to deal with. That is what we are trying to achieve when we label a person as a failure, we are attaching shame to A meaningless act. Throughout my life I have been around alot of people that most would classify as "failures" and not one of them seemed any different than myself. The problem comes to life when a person starts their downswing, which we classify as "losing," they begin to suspect that they may "fail" and rather than become susceptible to the shame that comes with "failure" they decide to quit. They stop because they fear things that aren't even real. The people who come to realize these negative labels aren't real, either concretely or intuitively, are the same people that do not give up, no matter how bad things seem to be running. Eventually they become the "professionals" in whatever walk of life they choose. You have to find your own way to deal with these thoughts that have been brainwashed into your mind for your whole life. Identifying every negative thought as it creeps into your mind is a start, it takes practice to monitor your thoughts, but you cannot eliminate what you do not recognize. I try very hard not to allow any negativity in my life, ask my brother(ship_it_tome) how upset I get when he is at my house, playing, struggling, for hours on end, and finally says "I can't win." We get along very well, but I get very irate with him when he utters those deadly words, as I am sure you all have muttered them at one time or another. Quote: I think you can learn how to avoid this trap of psychological betrayal. I think I'm beginning to learn it myself. It involves turning your noise filter all the way up. Turning your noise filter up will work for a time, but eventually it builds and seeps through at one time or another, and everything that has been blocked comes pouring out at once, which creates the very worst tilt imaginable. Believe me, I have been there many times. I have come to realize that it is much better to acknowledge the negative or angry thoughts as they arrive, that doesn't mean just noticing their presence, when they approach, actually talk to your mind and announce their arrival, and then identify the reasons behind them. As your mind comes to realize how trivial and meaningless these thoughts are, it will eventually stop creating them in the first place. It takes alot of time and effort to do this, but the long term results will be well worth it. OK....SO HOW DOES ALL THIS REALLY RELATE TO POKER? The game that most of us play is really very simple. You get 2 cards, 5 cards come up, and you do a little betting here and there. Best 5 card hand wins. With a game this simple, why do so many people have so much trouble ending up ahead of where they started? The real game is about people, not the cards in your hand. If you know a person well enough, you can read their hand, and once you know what they have in their hand, the game becomes a cakewalk. The problem is, we have all of these predisposed ideas of who a person is based on ideas that have been placed in our heads by our society. You have to be able to eliminate all of these ideas. Once you train yourself to be completely judgement free, you will become a more complete player. Anyone can read a persons hand based on his actions and seeing common tendencies, ie., a beginning player will commonly bet small when on a draw, and bet big when he has a made hand. What about more experienced players? What does it mean when they bet 2/3s of the pot one time, and than bet pot the next? They are certainly experienced enough to know not to bet the same pattern for the same types of hands. So how can you figure out what they have? Well, get to know him, watch him play. Try and figure out what he is thinking, he has to be thinking something. Put yourself in his spot, what kind of hand would you have if you were betting like that? Now do this for every hand for every player that is in the hand, for every player at the table, for every table that you are playing at. Try and eight table while doing this exercise. Put effort into every single hand that is played out at your table, not just the ones you are involved in, every single hand. Every time there is a showdown, and the losing hand is mucked, open up the hand history file, and see what he had. Go through the hand again and see if you can figure out why he willingly showed down a losing hand(something that should rarely be done.) I call this an exercise, but this should be done on every single hand that is played out at any of your tables for the rest of your poker career. This is how you become a real player, then you can ignore the "sng" formula and really start to play. Post flop is where the real game is at, and it is fun to play. Use your bets to pull information from your opponent, and then when you know what he has, trust your judgement 100%. If you think he is on second pair, but will not fold unless you bet your whole stack, then bet your whole stack(unless of course you have a better hand than second pair, which is unlikely since players like us can rarely beat bottom pair), even if it means your tournament is over if you are wrong. Practice trusting yourself, you will be wrong enough in the beginning to doubt yourself, but don't let that stop you. (Comment on this)
Sunday, February 20th, 2005
1:05 pm	Delayed Bluff Eagles fan was without a doubt the toughest player at my table. His chip count was indicative of that. He was a creative player who slowplayed KK and got me gor about 1k of my stack. That said, well, let's just say that when you sit down at a table with me, I am in control. 150/300 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (NL) (Tournament 9716592) - Sun Feb 20 00:00:56 EST 2005 Table $200K Guaranteed Saturday(241326) Table 16 (Real Money) -- Seat 4 is the button Total number of players : 10 Seat 1: FSUBaller (2891) Seat 2: pghopper (2005) Seat 3: DryingPole (8724) Seat 4: adonos (5340) Seat 5: Rcxslam (3570) Seat 6: daddydink (2400) Seat 7: roosterbill (1940) Seat 8: Casper1985 (6873) Seat 9: Eaglesfan1 (7060) Seat 10: PokerChris (1863) Rcxslam posts small blind (75) daddydink posts big blind (150) ** Dealing down cards ** Dealt to DryingPole [ 7h, 5h ] Eaglesfan1: that me n u would make it until the table breaks roosterbill folds. Casper1985 folds. DryingPole: oh DryingPole: yeah Eaglesfan1 raises (450) to 450 PokerChris folds. DryingPole: thats def happining FSUBaller folds. pghopper folds. DryingPole calls (450) adonos folds. Rcxslam folds. daddydink folds. ** Dealing Flop ** : [ Ah, Jd, 6s ] Eaglesfan1 bets (700) DryingPole calls (700) ** Dealing Turn ** : [ 3s ] Eaglesfan1 checks. DryingPole bets (1200) Eaglesfan1: piss off Eaglesfan1 folds. ** Summary ** Main Pot: 3725 Board: [ Ah Jd 6s 3s ] FSUBaller balance 2891, didn't bet (folded) pghopper balance 2005, didn't bet (folded) DryingPole balance 10099, bet 2350, collected 3725, net +1375 (Comment on this)
Saturday, February 19th, 2005
7:47 pm	Sorry, it was the Ad, *NM* . (Comment on this)
1:07 pm	My current poker status Well, 2005 aside from the atlantis win has not been a good year for the "Lang Attack." Can't win a tourney, side games are rather cruel. Eh, that's poker I guess. So, last night I was about to get into a "guaranteed to be juicy" 15/30 game but the list was to long so I sat 8/16 at canterbury park. On my right is this guy who just straight up needed to lighten up. This guy was a cranky guy who just wouldn't sit back and have a good time. I would say that I am far more mature for my age than 90% of my poker playing peers. When you go play poker, what are you there for, to just be miserable. Poker is supposed to be fun. I made a comment to the table, "Who do you think looks more miserable, marathon runners at about mile 18, or poker players at the table?" So this guy was being a dickhead and I'm saying stuff just fucking around, but eventually things I know he will get mad about. "I don't care what anyone says, Moses Malone was the greatest baskettball player ever. No question." "Nolan Ryan was definately the most overrated pitcher of all time." "Poker is as skillful as chess." (Oh, he didn't like that one, LOL---I guess chess is the most skillful game ever;-)---you can't even really compare the two games.) So we started talking about skill in games and I am saying shit like, "WHich is more skillful, tiddlwinks.....or kung fu?" and it's pissing him off, I can tell. I'm kidding around the whole time but it's irritating him. He was the grinch of the poker table. I guess me having a good time and helping others to do the same just wasn't his thing, LOL. I'm talking about other poker games and I go (joking, but actually, pretty much serious) "If they spread mixed games here, I would own this casino." Mr. Grinch goes, "Are you good at anything besides poker." "No, I suck at everything. I put all of my self worth on my ability to play poker hands." Later he chimes in, "Do you just play like the best 5 hands?" After I 3-bet with 89s, LOL. "Well sir, I just 3-bet with 9-high, what do you think?" So finally he starts getting on my nerves when he goes, after I say something about making a tough play: "Is this game really hard for you?" My response, very calmly as I look down to see the button: "Well, I think this game is as hard as you want to make it. For instance," I grab 8 yellow chips, "This isn't a terribly hard way to play. I can't really exercise effort if I don't look at my hand." I hadn't looked at my hand and I threw out the raise. "Raise." Suddenly, everyone who perceived me as a tight player was in the pot like it was armageddon. The blinds called instantly with glee as did UTG and at least one limper besides the grinch, maybe more. "Yeah, I guess you're right," the grinch said as he 3-bet me. Well, I'm not that much of a gambler and I'm not about to cap dark, sorry, I just don't have it in me, and I look down to see........... Two black aces. Praise Jesus. "If I lose this pot, I'm going home," I say. "Is that a promise?" Mr. Grinch sarcastically enquires. "Yup." I was 400 buried at this point and I figured it would be a fitting end to my night if I lost. I make it 4 and it gets capped to me. Although I'm not thrilled with the 357, 2 spade flop, I am still willing to cap. The turn is the Ac and they check to my and I bet. The river is Kh and they again check to me and I get a call and an overcall by Mr. Grinch and take down the 400+ pot. "Wow, that was so much fun and I like you so much, I should just keep playing until you do," I said to the grinch. The grinch didn't say anything except mumble under his breath, "You looked at your cards." The moral of the story: Never look at your cards when you raise. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 4th, 2005
10:42 am	Biggest pot I have ever lost (I think) This is just too funny. Transcript for game #1167401277 requested by mojo99(lang0593@umn.edu) *********** # 1 ************** PokerStars Game #1167401277: Hold'em Limit ($10/$20) - 2005/02/04 - 02:09:12 (ET) Table 'Pomona' Seat #6 is the button Seat 1: stogieman ($656 in chips) Seat 2: migliano ($405.50 in chips) Seat 3: mojo99 ($492 in chips) Seat 4: goldfishman ($337.50 in chips) Seat 6: judyj2 ($1038 in chips) Seat 7: tmphoto ($421 in chips) Seat 8: Itchy ($581 in chips) Seat 9: Allways Look ($460 in chips) Seat 10: zax872381 ($153.50 in chips) tmphoto: posts small blind $5 Itchy: posts big blind $10 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to mojo99 [2h 2c] Allways Look: folds zax872381: folds stogieman: calls $10 migliano: calls $10 mojo99: calls $10 goldfishman: raises $10 to $20 judyj2: raises $10 to $30 tmphoto: calls $25 Itchy: calls $20 stogieman: calls $20 migliano: calls $20 mojo99: calls $20 goldfishman: raises $10 to $40 Betting is capped judyj2: calls $10 tmphoto: calls $10 Itchy: calls $10 stogieman: calls $10 migliano: calls $10 mojo99: calls $10 *** FLOP *** [3d 2d 7c] tmphoto: checks Itchy: checks stogieman: checks migliano: checks mojo99: checks goldfishman: bets $10 judyj2: raises $10 to $20 tmphoto: calls $20 Itchy: calls $20 stogieman: folds migliano: calls $20 mojo99: raises $10 to $30 goldfishman: raises $10 to $40 Betting is capped judyj2: calls $20 tmphoto: calls $20 Itchy: calls $20 migliano: calls $20 mojo99: calls $10 *** TURN *** [3d 2d 7c] [Th] tmphoto: checks Itchy: checks migliano: checks mojo99: checks goldfishman: bets $20 judyj2: calls $20 tmphoto: folds Itchy: calls $20 migliano: calls $20 mojo99: raises $20 to $40 goldfishman: calls $20 judyj2: calls $20 Itchy: calls $20 migliano: calls $20 *** RIVER *** [3d 2d 7c Th] [4c] tmphoto said, "WHO DIDN'T KNOW THAT" Itchy: checks migliano: checks mojo99: bets $20 goldfishman: calls $20 tmphoto said, "nh" judyj2: calls $20 Itchy: calls $20 migliano: raises $20 to $40 mojo99: calls $20 goldfishman: raises $20 to $60 judyj2: folds Itchy: folds migliano: raises $20 to $80 Betting is capped mojo99: calls $40 goldfishman: calls $20 *** SHOW DOWN *** migliano: shows [5s 6s] (a straight, Three to Seven) mojo99: shows [2h 2c] (three of a kind, Deuces) goldfishman: mucks hand migliano collected $997 from pot *** SUMMARY *** Total pot $1000 | Rake $3 Board [3d 2d 7c Th 4c] Seat 1: stogieman folded on the Flop Seat 2: migliano showed [5s 6s] and won ($997) with a straight, Three to Seven Seat 3: mojo99 showed [2h 2c] and lost with three of a kind, Deuces Seat 4: goldfishman mucked [Ks Kh] (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 23rd, 2005
9:58 pm	some hands PokerStars Game #709084058: Tournament #2748833, Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2004/09/21 - 16:02:46 (ET) Table '2748833 1' Seat #3 is the button Seat 2: mojo99 (4420 in chips) Seat 3: millon (1750 in chips) Seat 4: saulr (2830 in chips) saulr: posts small blind 50 mojo99: posts big blind 100 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to mojo99 [3h Js] millon: folds saulr: calls 50 mojo99: checks *** FLOP *** [8s 8c Jh] saulr: checks mojo99: bets 100 saulr: calls 100 *** TURN *** [8s 8c Jh] [4h] saulr: bets 200 mojo99: calls 200 *** RIVER *** [8s 8c Jh 4h] [Qc] saulr: bets 400 mojo99: calls 400 *** SHOW DOWN *** saulr: shows [Kd 8d] (three of a kind, Eights) mojo99: mucks hand saulr collected 1600 from pot I dont think I can get away from this here. One could make a case for raising the turn, but I think you lose bluff inducing equity. Folding the river is possible but this guy was a clownshoe *********** # 1 ************** PokerStars Game #715158112: Hold'em No Limit ($1/$2) - 2004/09/23 - 22:23:27 (ET) Table 'Sisyphus' Seat #2 is the button Seat 1: BeavisChrist ($141 in chips) Seat 2: WarCrimes ($30.95 in chips) Seat 3: pinnen ($193 in chips) Seat 4: Linda Blair ($422.05 in chips) Seat 5: Earnest ($80 in chips) Seat 6: mojo99 ($202.95 in chips) Seat 7: Johnny_Felix ($288.60 in chips) Seat 8: coolest ($81.45 in chips) Seat 9: Itchy ($203.90 in chips) pinnen: posts small blind $1 Linda Blair: posts big blind $2 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to mojo99 [Qs Ks] Earnest: folds mojo99: raises $4 to $6 Johnny_Felix: folds coolest: folds Itchy: folds BeavisChrist: calls $6 WarCrimes: folds pinnen: folds Linda Blair: folds *** FLOP *** [Jc Td 2c] mojo99: bets $12 BeavisChrist: calls $12 *** TURN *** [Jc Td 2c] [Kh] mojo99: bets $25 BeavisChrist: raises $25 to $50 mojo99: calls $25 *** RIVER *** [Jc Td 2c Kh] [2s] mojo99: checks BeavisChrist: bets $40 mojo99: calls $40 *** SHOW DOWN *** BeavisChrist: shows [Qh Ac] (a straight, Ten to Ace) mojo99: mucks hand Blech. Well, i hate his call on the flop I think I can muck on the turn. My thinking was I had at least 8 outs, maybe as many as 13. Yeah, I think folding on the turn after the raise is the best play. PokerStars Game #722735607: Hold'em Limit ($5/$10) - 2004/09/26 - 19:26:04 (ET) Table 'Edmee' Seat #7 is the button Seat 1: mojo99 ($246 in chips) Seat 2: x Dr.Gonzo x ($427 in chips) Seat 3: Cold Warrior ($221 in chips) Seat 4: pokerdoc13 ($592 in chips) Seat 5: rasinruby ($324 in chips) Seat 6: GorilaMonson ($236 in chips) Seat 7: Mr. River ($227 in chips) Seat 8: Mistylady ($150 in chips) Seat 9: lv2gble ($127 in chips) Seat 10: Pellle ($489 in chips) Mistylady: posts small blind $2 lv2gble: posts big blind $5 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to mojo99 [Kh Ah] Pellle: folds mojo99: calls $5 x Dr.Gonzo x: folds Cold Warrior: calls $5 pokerdoc13: folds rasinruby: raises $5 to $10 GorilaMonson: calls $10 Mr. River: folds Mistylady: calls $8 lv2gble: folds mojo99: raises $5 to $15 Cold Warrior: calls $10 rasinruby: calls $5 GorilaMonson: calls $5 Mistylady: calls $5 *** FLOP *** [Kc 3c 5c] Mistylady: checks mojo99: checks Cold Warrior: checks rasinruby: checks GorilaMonson: checks *** TURN *** [Kc 3c 5c] [7h] Mistylady: bets $10 mojo99: raises $10 to $20 Cold Warrior: calls $20 rasinruby: folds GorilaMonson: folds Mistylady: calls $10 *** RIVER *** [Kc 3c 5c 7h] [5d] Mistylady: checks mojo99: bets $10 Cold Warrior: raises $10 to $20 Mistylady: folds mojo99: calls $10 *** SHOW DOWN *** Cold Warrior: shows [9c Ac] (a flush, Ace high) Hmmm, well I made him pay a lot preflop. Also, I wanted to knock out any clubs but the nut fl draw isnt going to fold no matter how the action goes. I think I can check the river here. *********** # 1 ************** PokerStars Game #723951086: Hold'em Limit ($5/$10) - 2004/09/27 - 02:50:54 (ET) Table 'Mizar' Seat #7 is the button Seat 1: onepocketpro ($650 in chips) Seat 2: Larry J ($220 in chips) Seat 3: sid11540525 ($191.50 in chips) Seat 5: cmdinh ($347 in chips) Seat 6: Schoolie ($100 in chips) Seat 7: Elliminator ($66 in chips) Seat 8: mojo99 ($259 in chips) Seat 9: Mr-Booner ($159 in chips) Seat 10: vidmark ($38 in chips) mojo99: posts small blind $2 Mr-Booner: posts big blind $5 Schoolie: posts big blind $5 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to mojo99 [9d 9c] vidmark: folds onepocketpro: raises $5 to $10 Larry J: folds sid11540525: folds cmdinh: folds Schoolie: calls $5 Elliminator: folds mojo99: calls $8 Mr-Booner: folds *** FLOP *** [3s 8h 7h] mojo99: checks onepocketpro: bets $5 Schoolie: calls $5 mojo99: raises $5 to $10 onepocketpro: calls $5 Schoolie: calls $5 *** TURN *** [3s 8h 7h] [5c] mojo99: bets $10 onepocketpro: calls $10 Schoolie: calls $10 *** RIVER *** [3s 8h 7h 5c] [8c] mojo99: bets $10 onepocketpro: raises $10 to $20 Schoolie: calls $20 mojo99: calls $10 *** SHOW DOWN *** onepocketpro: shows [As 9s] (a pair of Eights) Schoolie: shows [5h 6s] (two pair, Eights and Fives) mojo99: shows [9d 9c] (two pair, Nines and Eights) Here is why we pay off the river in LHE. *********** # 1 ************** PokerStars Game #727179735: Hold'em Limit ($5/$10) - 2004/09/28 - 13:06:58 (ET) Table 'Dresda' Seat #6 is the button Seat 2: TuristOnTilt ($521 in chips) Seat 3: Moelas ($920 in chips) Seat 4: Jay's Aces ($892 in chips) Seat 5: mojo99 ($316 in chips) Seat 6: tuan77081 ($206 in chips) G-Rex will be allowed to play after the button TuristOnTilt: posts small blind $2 Moelas: posts big blind $5 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to mojo99 [7s 7c] Jay's Aces: folds mojo99: raises $5 to $10 tuan77081: folds TuristOnTilt: folds Moelas: calls $5 *** FLOP *** [7h Kh 4d] Moelas: checks mojo99: checks *** TURN *** [7h Kh 4d] [5c] Moelas: bets $10 mojo99: raises $10 to $20 Moelas: calls $10 *** RIVER *** [7h Kh 4d 5c] [8s] Moelas: checks mojo99: bets $10 Moelas: calls $10 *** SHOW DOWN *** mojo99: shows [7s 7c] (three of a kind, Sevens) Moelas: mucks hand mojo99 collected $80 from pot Wow. If I KNEW what he had, I played that pot perfectly. *********** # 1 ************** PokerStars Game #731613919: Tournament #2848547, Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2004/09/30 - 00:27:03 (ET) Table '2848547 1' Seat #9 is the button Seat 2: tigerpup (1530 in chips) Seat 3: POpimpin10 (1880 in chips) Seat 7: rockishere (3535 in chips) Seat 9: mojo99 (2055 in chips) tigerpup: posts small blind 15 POpimpin10: posts big blind 30 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to mojo99 [6s 5c] rockishere: raises 60 to 90 mojo99: calls 90 tigerpup: folds POpimpin10: folds *** FLOP *** [6c 6h As] rockishere: bets 90 mojo99: raises 90 to 180 rockishere: calls 90 *** TURN *** [6c 6h As] [9c] rockishere: bets 240 mojo99: raises 240 to 480 rockishere: calls 240 *** RIVER *** [6c 6h As 9c] [Kc] rockishere: checks mojo99: bets 1305 and is all-in rockishere: calls 1305 *** SHOW DOWN *** mojo99: shows [6s 5c] (three of a kind, Sixes) rockishere: shows [Ad 9h] (two pair, Aces and Nines) Yummy. PokerStars Game #817304523: Hold'em Limit ($10/$20) - 2004/10/31 - 23:29:43 (ET) Table 'Leto' Seat #4 is the button Seat 1: spirit ($488 in chips) Seat 2: mizmeck ($563 in chips) Seat 3: Witto ($652 in chips) Seat 4: watjo001 ($1012 in chips) Seat 6: in25079 ($146 in chips) Seat 7: mojo99 ($450 in chips) Seat 8: mvinnie ($165 in chips) Seat 9: kickball ($505.50 in chips) Seat 10: mcgheeworld ($181 in chips) in25079: posts small blind $5 mojo99: posts big blind $10 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to mojo99 [8d Kd] mvinnie: folds kickball: folds mcgheeworld: folds spirit: raises $10 to $20 mizmeck: folds Witto: calls $20 watjo001: calls $20 in25079: folds mojo99: calls $10 *** FLOP *** [Ks Kc 5c] aabed joins the table at seat #5 mojo99: checks spirit: checks Witto: bets $10 watjo001: calls $10 mojo99: raises $10 to $20 spirit: calls $20 Witto: calls $10 watjo001: calls $10 *** TURN *** [Ks Kc 5c] [3h] mojo99: bets $20 spirit: calls $20 Witto: calls $20 watjo001: calls $20 *** RIVER *** [Ks Kc 5c 3h] [Ah] mojo99: checks spirit: checks Witto: checks watjo001: bets $20 mojo99: calls $20 spirit: folds Witto: folds *** SHOW DOWN *** watjo001: shows [Ac Tc] (two pair, Aces and Kings) mojo99: shows [8d Kd] (three of a kind, Kings) mojo99 collected $282 from pot *** SUMMARY *** Hmmm, I like the river check as it opens up overcalls and possible bluffs. 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9:21 pm	From left to right, John Dickoff, Ian Pfaff, Me (Comment on this)
8:18 pm	Flip Cup Champion 05! Ok, well I haven't updated anything in a very long time but this story just had to be written down. Over the weekend, my dad was playing a show in Madison, WI. As such, I drove him down on friday, visited old friends, then drove to Chicago so he could fly to NY, then back to Madison Saturday night. When I arrived back at my old card playing friends' house they were playing a game called flip cup. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the game, Basic Play: Flippy Cup is a team game, usually with a minimum of 4 players per team. First, fill everyone's cup with an equal amount of beer (most play with about 1/4 to 1/2 cup). The game is basically a race. One person is designated to hold up an empty cup and drop it on the table. As soon as it hits, the race begins. Each person on the team goes one at a time. The first person must chug their beer. Once finished, they must place the empty cup, right-side up, on the end of the table. They then must flip the cup over so that it lands face-down on the table. (You sort of just tap the bottom of the right-side up cup to make it flip). The next person may then proceed to chug and flip until the entire team is done. The first team to finish and flip all of their cups wins! ********** So anyway, I had never played the game before, but this house I guess is really competitive. After a buddy of mine showed me some of the finer points of the game, I was flipping it pretty consistently in one shot. I guess at one point I got a little too cocky and started talking smack (we will get to the reason for this conclusion shortly). We then went to a bar called Johnny-O's. Apparently it is one of the hipper bars in Madison. Everyone was getting pretty drunk (except me really as I had a huge meal before and only had abour 3 beers). Before we left, I was stopped by one of the guys in the crew that played flip cup with us earlier (he was on my team) approached me. We will call him Whine. He was visibly inebriated and the following dialogue insued: "You are the shittiest flip cup player I have ever seen, Fag." "Well, it was my first time, but I was holding my own a lot better than you were." "I've played hundreds of games of flip cup, I would own your gay ass." "Ok, Whine, why don't we play one-on-one; I will kick your sorry ass all over the place." "OK, FAG. We will put 80 bucks on it." "I'm not sure I am comfortable with that, this was the first time I've ever played." "NO, WE ARE PUTTING 80 BUCKS ON IT." "I don't think so Whine, but if you are so confident, why don't you give me 2-1." "What does that mean?" "Well, I put up 40 and you put up 80. Winner take all." "No, if you want me to drink more than you, fine, but that doesn't work." "Well, that's the offer, take it or leave it." "Fine, I'll still kick your faggot ass even if it isn't for money." Now, many of you are probably thinking (as I was at the time and mocking Whine), what the fuck are you doing arguing about a drinking game? Yes it is ridiculous, but I am never one to turn away a sucker. After we departed the bar, everyone wanted to go to Ian's pizzaria, but it was far too crowded. As such, many of the people went to Casa Bianca's, another cheap pizza joint. I, however, was not hungry and decided to simply walk to their house. Upon arrival I began experimenting with various flipping techniques to see if I could in fact fleece Whine. After finding a technique that worked about 90% of the time, I was ready to crush the clownshoe. Soon after my arrival, the flip cup unofficial captain began messing around with me flipping the cups. I was beating him readily and it became evident to him that I was going to destroy whine. I offered him a piece of my action and he said he was interested. Shortly after, Whine came in the door, belligerent as ever. He didn't seem too concerned with the flip cup competition. I drew his interest right back in as I flipped up a cup onto the table and said: "Hear that, Whine? That's the sound of you LOSING." "THAT'S FUCKING IT ROOKIE, I AM GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS, FAG." ***Note: As you can tell, our friend Whine is a very progressive, completely educated fellow who respects all people regardless of race, gender or sexual preference. I am guessing he is from a town like Tomah where he routinely has sex with his cousin. Whine continued, "I ONLY HAVE 60 BUCKS, SO WE WILL PLAY FOR THAT." "Fine with me, but I need an impartial judge to fill the cups. I signaled to the flip cup captain to get on it and asked him if he wanted a piece of my action. He said he did but Whine wasn't happy with that so I fronted my own money. Six cups were filled equally for each of us. Whine didn't notice he had an extra cup in front of him, totaling seven. We toasted and I readily crushed the clownshoe by 2 whole cups, (maybe even two and a half---he might not have flipped the cup he was on.) beating him completely legitimately. I took the money and and was quick to let out a piercing "YEAH. THANK YOU WHINE. YOU GOT BEAT BY THE FUCKING ROOK. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA." Whine on the other hand was pale as a sheet. "I can't believe I lost to the faggot rookie," he said. He knocked his cups all over the floor in a tantrum and sat on the couch letting out a melancholy, "I can't believe I fucking lost; I think I am going to go kill myself." Yeah, that's right, you read it. This guy actually puts his self worth on a drinking game. This man is so worthless he takes pride in flip cup. I take pride in my music, my intellectual persuits and maybe a little bit on my card playing. Our buddy whine apparently takes pride in being able to drink shitty macro brew quickly and being able to flip a plastic cup on the table. The captain was busy shouting "DOUBLE OR NOTHING!!!!!" Wayne responded, "No, I don't have any more, I can't do that." After milling around a bit and bitching, moaning and basically doing every imaginable annoying mope known to man, he opened his wallet to find his last seven dollars. "Ok, well I have seven dollars left. I am going all-in with it, we are playing again." "No, Whine, its over, you lost, I'm not playing again for seven dollars." Whine then turned to me and goes, "Either play me or GET THE FUCK OUT." "No, Whine I don't think I'll be going anywhere." "The get the fuck out!" This brilliant piece of discourse continued as I explained to Whine that I was a guest in the house and that I was friends with some of the people that lived there. Whine tried to discredit me by stating that I wasn't really friends with any of them and that no one liked me cuz I was a faggot. I didn't waste much time adding insult to Whine's injury. "Tell you what, Whine, you have a five and 2 ones, right?" "Yeah, that's what I got." I handed Whine a ten and took back two ones and said "Here, here is eight dollars, more than you have right now. It's CHARITY because of how bad I kicked your ass. We're done, Whine." Needless to say, Whine didn't like that. He said that we needed to play or "GET THE FUUUCK OUT." Neato. I sensed that this was escalating and I offered to play for the 7 bucks. He said no, it was 15. I guess he assumed that I forgot more than 1/2 of his bankroll was GIVEN to him by me. I said I would play him for 7 and that would be it. "No, it's 15." The captain interjected, "Dude, just play for the 15." "OK, WHINE I will play you for the 15 on one condition: No matter what the outcome, this ends here. You leave me alone, I leave you alone." "Ok, fine that sounds good." I then left the room to urinate and while I was gone, my flip cup captain took some of my glasses and laced them with Kahlua. If any of you are familiar with mixing Kahlua and Milwaukee's beft light, it isn't exactly prime chugging liquid, in fact, its fucking disgusting. The captain also tried to give me 7 cups as opposed to the original six. I picked up on that one. Well, as the deck was stacked against me, I lost. I gave up when I hit the Kahlua glass. Immediately I sensed something was wrong as I spit up the liquid all over. "DUDE, this one tasted fucked up. This isn't the same beer. WHat the fuck is this?" "We ran out, I put in some Sam Adams." "This isn't fucking Sam Adams unless its chocolate Boch." "OHHHH, that must be it," the captain lied. Well, I would say not more than twenty seconds after I bid WHine a "good game" he goes, "Ok, now we're playing for 30!" OMFG. This guy just wouldn't stop. At this point I was done with the game as I was being cheated and I wasn't about to give this goatfuck a chance to get his money back after teh way he behaved. It then escallated with Whine saying the old and tired, "Play me or get the FUCK OUT!!!" Well, eventually he threw my jacket out into the street and I was forced to go get it, asking the captin, who lived there if he would let me back in. He said he would. Well, I went out there, and grabbed my jacket and Wayne ended up following me to make sureI did indeed leave. He was pathetically throwing snowballs at me, and advancing on me. I was quickly backing up. He said he was going to kick my ass. As he picked up the pace I said, "Well I know I can outrun you." He screams, "Oh, so you think you are a pimp now, are you a fucking pimp?!?!" I began sprinting down the street and eventually burned him. In the end I called Amy Deslauries and she, in her typical extremely kind manner, offered her couch for me to crash on. So I slept nice, 37 dollars richer, with some of the easiest money I ever made. I did run into whine the next morning when I picked up my stuff. Everyone in the house was laughing at him as he was even the next morning constantly bitching about how he lost and how pissed off he was. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, October 29th, 2004
4:15 am	Miscellaneous stuff I found these hands to be quite interesting. PokerStars Game #809177441: Hold'em Limit ($10/$20) - 2004/10/29 - 04:33:10 (ET) Table 'Melete' Seat #10 is the button Seat 1: taate ($129.50 in chips) Seat 2: ssezor ($435 in chips) Seat 3: mojo99 ($594 in chips) Seat 4: brickyard04 ($82 in chips) Seat 5: kre8 ($673.50 in chips) Seat 6: JaysanD ($35 in chips) Seat 8: ChucktheC ($645 in chips) Seat 10: confususs ($175 in chips) taate: posts small blind $5 ssezor: posts big blind $10 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to mojo99 [Ad Js] mojo99: calls $10 Now, I am not a big fan of calling with a hand like this UTG in a game as aggressive as this (this was indeed aggressive) but I thought it was too good to fold given my opponents tendencies brickyard04: calls $10 kre8: calls $10 JaysanD: folds ChucktheC: calls $10 confususs: raises $10 to $20 A button raise eh? Now is where it gets interesting. I was pretty sure I had my man beat here, so I thought the best move here was if I wanted to play my hand for mazimum value would be to make my opponents call not one but TWO bets cold here, thereby getting dead money in the pot. taate: folds ssezor: folds mojo99: raises $10 to $30 brickyard04: folds kre8: calls $20 ChucktheC: folds So far not bad... confususs: raises $10 to $40 Betting is capped Ugh, well this doesnt mean I have the worst hand as he could do this with values I am beating but I am not happy about it. mojo99: calls $10 kre8: calls $10 *** FLOP *** [Ah 9s 3s] I opted to check here to see how the action developed, to see if my aces were actually good, as I expected. mojo99: checks kre8: bets $10 confususs: calls $10 Perfect, so now I KNOW my man has AA or a pocket pair or a worse ace. AK or AQ he pops it here. Time to get in teh driver's seat! mojo99: raises $10 to $20 kre8: calls $10 confususs: calls $10 *** TURN *** [Ah 9s 3s] [3c] mojo99: bets $20 kre8: calls $20 confususs: folds *** RIVER *** [Ah 9s 3s 3c] [Qd] mojo99: bets $20 kre8: calls $20 *** SHOW DOWN *** mojo99: shows [Ad Js] (two pair, Aces and Threes) kre8: shows [As 6d] (two pair, Aces and Threes) D'OH!!!! Oh well, I played it perfectly.... This hand is also very interesting as it quite well involves implied odds. PokerStars Game #809169065: Hold'em Limit ($10/$20) - 2004/10/29 - 04:25:00 (ET) Table 'Melete' Seat #2 is the button Seat 1: taate ($334 in chips) Seat 2: ssezor ($444 in chips) Seat 3: mojo99 ($402 in chips) Seat 4: brickyard04 ($89 in chips) Seat 5: kre8 ($512.50 in chips) Seat 7: raq_ballin ($408 in chips) Seat 10: station37 ($393 in chips) mojo99: posts small blind $5 brickyard04: posts big blind $10 ChucktheC: sits out *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to mojo99 [5s 5h] kre8: folds JaysanD joins the table at seat #6 raq_ballin: calls $10 station37: calls $10 taate: folds ssezor: raises $10 to $20 Normally I hate playing this type of hand out of position like this, but given my implied odds for hitting a set I thought I would get paid off. I also knew the raiser was a maniac and I felt I could extract mazimum value from the table. mojo99: calls $15 brickyard04: calls $10 raq_ballin: calls $10 station37: calls $10 *** FLOP *** [7c 5d Th] Sweet. Well I don't think leading at this pot is the best play, so let's figure out how to do this by observing the action... mojo99: checks brickyard04: checks raq_ballin: checks station37: bets $10 ssezor: raises $10 to $20 OK sweet, the raiser is a complete maniac so I will allow the others to call, probably drawing thin and check raise the turn. tgtbtrue joins the table at seat #9 mojo99: calls $20 brickyard04: folds raq_ballin: folds station37: calls $10 *** TURN *** [7c 5d Th] [Ks] mojo99: checks station37: checks ssezor: checks DAMNIT. That wasn't supposed to happen. Maybe I shouldnt have checked there, but leading doesnt make too much sense. *** RIVER *** [7c 5d Th Ks] [Ah] Nice card there...QJ is very unlikely so I will lead hoping to get raised by someone who spiked aces up... mojo99: bets $20 station37: raises $20 to $40 ssezor: calls $40 mojo99: raises $20 to $60 station37: calls $20 ssezor: calls $20 *** SHOW DOWN *** YESSSSSSSSSSSAH! mojo99: shows [5s 5h] (three of a kind, Fives) station37: mucks hand ssezor: mucks hand mojo99 collected $337 from pot *** SUMMARY *** Interesting as station had KT. Ssexor had A8. Though the free card turn appears to be bad, even if I led, I would get 4 total bets combined on the turn and river. I would lead, station would porbably pop, I would 3 bet (ssezor would have folded) and I would gain one more. It is pretty unlikly in my opinion that station smooth calls the turn allowing ssezor back in. Because of the way I played it, I made 6 bets on the river. Not bad. PokerStars Game #807972399: Hold'em Limit ($10/$20) - 2004/10/28 - 20:47:52 (ET) Table 'Asteria' Seat #3 is the button Seat 1: jma2c ($60 in chips) Seat 2: Shadowkiller ($1021 in chips) Seat 3: mojo99 ($315 in chips) Seat 4: jeghead1 ($456.50 in chips) Seat 6: T-Buster ($418 in chips) jeghead1: posts small blind $5 T-Buster: posts big blind $10 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to mojo99 [Qd Jh] jma2c: calls $10 Shadowkiller: folds mojo99: calls $10 jeghead1: raises $10 to $20 T-Buster: folds jma2c: calls $10 mojo99: calls $10 *** FLOP *** [Td 9c 8s] jeghead1: bets $10 jma2c: raises $10 to $20 mojo99: calls $20 jeghead1: calls $10 *** TURN *** [Td 9c 8s] [3s] jeghead1: checks jma2c: bets $20 and is all-in mojo99: calls $20 jeghead1: calls $20 *** RIVER *** [Td 9c 8s 3s] [2c] jeghead1: checks mojo99: bets $20 jeghead1: folds *** SHOW DOWN *** mojo99: shows [Qd Jh] (a straight, Eight to Queen) jma2c: mucks hand mojo99 collected $188 from pot *** SUMMARY *** Total pot $190 | Rake $2 Board [Td 9c 8s 3s 2c] Seat 1: jma2c mucked [Jc Th] - a pair of Tens Seat 2: Shadowkiller folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 3: mojo99 (button) showed [Qd Jh] and won ($188) with a straight, Eight to Queen A turn fop raise would have been optimal here. Other than that, I think if I raise the turn i lose him. (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 23rd, 2004
11:16 am	Worst play ever. *********** # 1 ************** PokerStars Game #712919427: Tournament #2765670, Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2004/09/23 - 00:10:29 (ET) Table '2765670 1' One on One Seat #2 is the button Seat 1: mojo99 (1880 in chips) Seat 2: dharder217 (1120 in chips) dharder217: posts small blind 10 mojo99: posts big blind 20 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to mojo99 [Jc Kc] dharder217: calls 10 mojo99: raises 40 to 60 dharder217: calls 40 *** FLOP *** [2c Ah Ac] mojo99: checks dharder217: bets 220 mojo99: raises 1600 to 1820 and is all-in dharder217: calls 840 and is all-in *** TURN *** [2c Ah Ac] [Th] *** RIVER *** [2c Ah Ac Th] [Kh] *** SHOW DOWN *** mojo99: shows [Jc Kc] (two pair, Aces and Kings) dharder217: shows [7s 2s] (two pair, Aces and Deuces) dharder217 said, "gg" mojo99 collected 2240 from pot No one plays 3 aces like that, so I moved in....27o. Jeezus. (Comment on this)