Royal Poker Blog

I played a few tournaments Wednesday night with poor results. I had a decent stack in a $20 rebuy nearing the money and promptly ran KK into AA...ouch.

There's a card game tonight that I might end up playing in. We'll see how the kids go to bed. Tomorrow I'm heading out of town to watch some college hockey.

Stars hasn't officially said whether they'll be giving out WSOP seats this year. If they do I plan to use my FPPs to buy-in to one of the $1000 or $1500 NLHE events. In order to do that I need to collect a few more FPPs and get back to Platinum Star VIP level. Since I've been playing mostly lower limit rebuy events lately the FPPs have not been flowing my way. That means early next year will be a return to SnGs or at least an increase in ring game play.

One more post Sunday and we'll be into 2007!

We're heading back home tomorrow. Two youngsters and two layovers, yeah. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

Congratulations to Mike from The Poker Pub for winning the free trip to Australia to blog the Aussie Millions. Mike was the clear favorite for most of the season and deserves the win. Enjoy that free trip...err...work! :)

A lesser congratulations to PureChaos for winning the grand finale and the Aussie Millions tournament package. Sometimes a series of bad plays and calls can lead to victory. To be fair to Chaos I did not watch the final table and he may have played great there.

My tournament started off horrible when my second set ran into top set for all but 250 of my 5000 starting chips. I clawed back and really played the short stack ninja role pretty well and eventually came near my original 5000 chips. I was eventually busted when my J8 push on the button was called by PureChaos in the BB with QT. Defending your blind with QT for 40% of your stack sure seems like a solid play? I don't mean this to come across as bitter. I had been skating on thin ice ever since the set over set and was due to run into a hand. I'm simply disappointed that Chaos won the whole thing when there were so many better players left in the tournament.

I'm sure OhioMike tends to agree with me:

4.08 --- 100/200 Big hand - EgonOlsen Posted Small Blind 100
Evil666 Posted Big Blind 200
Dealing Cards
Hacksaw2000 Calls 200
natsdad Folds
DawgRoyal Folds
skinski Folds
purechaos Calls 200
OhioMike Raised to 800
ViezeMan Folds
EgonOlsen Folds
Evil666 Folds
Hacksaw2000 Folds
purechaos Calls 600
-------------------------------------------------
Dealing Flop (Td,Kh,3s)
purechaos Checks
OhioMike Bets 800
purechaos All In for 2,405
OhioMike Calls 1,605
-------------------------------------------------
purechaos has (Th, Jh)
OhioMike has (Ad, Kd)
-------------------------------------------------
Dealing Turn (Jd)
-------------------------------------------------
Dealing River (9s)
-------------------------------------------------
purechaos Wins 6,910 from pot 1 with : Two Pair, Jacks and Tens

Enough on that topic. Good luck to PureChaos and all the other Poker.com contestants at the Aussie Millions. Be sure to follow the progress through Mike's reports!

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I fired up two turbo events on Stars while playing the BPT finale. One was a 50 FPP - 5th anniversary freeroll and the other was a $5.50 normal turbo. I actually cashed in both and even took second in the $5.50 turbo for a very nice score. This makes for 4 or 5 weeks in a row with a Stars MTT final table.

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Finally, congratulations to my friend AI who recently got engaged. Good luck to both of you!

We're starting in a few minutes.

Good Luck to everyone!

Tomorrow morning we're flying home to visit family for Christmas. Though I'm not sure home is the correct term. We've been living here for over 7 years and this now feels like home. That certainly wasn't always the case, but I think the birth of our children and watching them grow have really solidified this as home.

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Saturday is the season finale of the Blogger Poker Tour: Season 2. I played good solid poker last week finishing in 24th. I pushed AQ with a M ~6 and got called by QQ crippling my stack. I was forced all-in a few hands later in the BB with Tx vs. 99. Of course I flop then T and they turn the 9. That's just how I roll. 24th was good enough to secure me 13th place and a spot in the exclusive top 20.

Here is the top 20:

Skinski's Blog	1125
Irongirl01	1016
Scary Poker	871
Poker Pub	858
Peetscheet	830
Poker Athletes Blog	749
Flopilicious	734
astinaguys poker blog	712
Perfectly Beastly	711
Freerollcalendar Weblog	708
Alex	701
I hate money	681
Royal Poker	677
Gamingology	642
Evil666	631
EgonOlsenPoker	605
riverdemon	582
PearlSnapMan Plays Poker	560
5TH Street Forum	546
Life, The Universe and Poker	538

Here's what we're playing for:

Baby Royal started crawling last week and he's now officially figured it out. Even though it's only been two years we have completely forgotten what it's like to have a mobile infant. Now nothing on the ground is safe. Right now he seems to have the most fascination with plants and power cords...wonderful.

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It was also Deja Vu in the nightly $22 PLO RA on Stars. A few weeks ago I chopped top two in this event and last Friday I bubbled in 20th. This week I was back at the final table and finished in 8th. I also cashed a Turbo satellite on Stars. Overall it was a solid evening.

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I'm currently playing in the Blogger Poker Tour Event. We only ended up with 112 total players so it's going to be more difficult to make a move up the standings if you're not already close to the top 20.

As in I need some time off...no, not from work. I've had plenty of that this week with a sick child. I actually need some time off from basketball. I'm an average skilled player with average physical size. What I lack in talent and size I attempt to makeup for in effort. I get way more than my fair share of rebounds and steals. Once in awhile even a block or two. The problem is all that effort takes a toll on the body. Especially when getting that rebound means being hammered by two 6-3 beasts.

The first game of the season I took and elbow to the head grabbing an offensive board after a missed FT. My rebound and corresponding assist got us two points, but I had to leave the game the next time down the court. I did get back in and we won. Two weeks later my head finally stopped hurting. Last week I smashed my knee on the floor trying to make a steal. I didn't get the ball and my knee still hurts. This week I bruised my hip making a steal and thumped my elbow on another diving steal.

We have a game next week and then thankfully three weeks off during the holidays. I need the rest! At some point I need to learn how to shoot because there's no way my body will be able to take this kind of abuse in ten years.

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I played a little PLO Ring last night and finished pretty much even. Tonight I plan to finish clearing a bonus on Stars and maybe play in a few tournaments too.

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Remember the tomorrow is the last Blogger Poker Tour regular event. We have 86 players registered so far and I'm guessing we'll end up with around 150 total. Hop over to the Poker Pub for more info and the password.

I wish this post was about how my poker play has been sick (good) lately. Of course it's not. Little Royal was sick last week and Baby Royal is sick this week. So dad and mom get to split time at home with a sick child and try to keep up with work remotely. The plus side is you do get a midday Royal Poker Blog update!

Friday night I got a chance in play in eight tournaments. They ranged from several $3 rebuys to the $215 UBOC Event #8. Overall it was a disappointing night with only one cash and several bubbles. Twice I placed 20^th when 18 was ITM.

In Event #8 of the UBOC I busted around 150 with the top 80 getting ITM. I had an average stack and an M of ~9 when I find AKs in the BB. There are three limpers and with a pot equal to 25% of my stack I figure a push is the correct play here. I get looked up by 88 for 90% of his stack and I’m out. Can I really play this hand any different? With 3 limpers and AK I would typically raise 4-5xBB which would commit 30% of my stack. Does the 4-5xBB raise look stronger though? I think his call was possibly loose, but my push sure smelled like AK or AQ. If that’s how he read it then I like the call with 88. After the hand he had a top 15 stack with 150 to go. That’s a pretty sweet spot to be in during a $200K guaranteed event.

Does anyone have suggestions on this hand? Blinds are 300/600 and I have about 9000 chips. One limp has 10,000 and the other two have around 6,000.

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Saturday was the last local monthly event of the season and I couldn’t get anything going. Once again we’re discussing how to improve things for next year.

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Saturday is the last Blogger Poker Tour event of season #2 and is being hosted by the Poker Pub. I’m in 12^th place and still looking solid to make the top 20. The only thing that matters now is getting enough points to maintain top 20. There’s a decent chance I get in without improving, but there’s too much at stake to not get a few more points. It looks like we’re playing Omaha Hi/Lo which is hopefully a good thing for me. On December 23^rd everything culminates in the championship event. The top 20 battle it out for 20 prizes…of course only 1 prize really matters.

Correction – it looks like O8 is now off the table for Event #7. I pretty much expected this as counting on new format the day after a planned software upgrade is optimistic at best. I guess we’re now playing deep stacks…wonderful. I understand the desire to make this event special or unique, but now the dead stacks are just going to take twice as long to blind off.

This is a paid review for CardroomSupply.com: Poker Tables, Texas Holdem Tables, Poker Chips.

When it comes to creature comforts I’m pretty much a cheap bastard. I swallow hard whenever Mrs. Royal mentions that we “need” a new piece of furniture. Hence poker games at the Royal household take place on the cheap long folding tables. I have played at a few homes games where people have splurged a little for a real poker table. They’re impressive, elegant and certainly increase the casino-like feel of a game.

If you’re the type of person that enjoys a more authentic casino poker game then CardroomSupply.com is worth checking out. As the title suggests CardroomSupply.com specializes in poker tables and poker chips. They also sell non-poker casino tables and casino chairs.

Navigation

CardroomSupply is a Yahoo! Store so the navigation, shopping cart and checkout might look familiar. This is a plus because the interface is refined and simple. From the main page you’re presented with an easy to read table on the left. CardroomSupply.com sells primarily poker tables and poker chips and the main table reflects that clearly. Pick a category and see pictures of all the offered products.

I like the feel of the webpage and it’s easy to get around in.

Products

Poker tables, poker tables and more poker tables. Interested in a Mahogany or Oak table? They’ve got it. How about a 6ft padded folding table? Yeah, they have some of those too. They have table toppers, tables with your logo and of course professional casino quality tables. CardroomSupply.com pretty much has any style poker table you could want.

Their poker chip selection is not quite as extensive, but they do offer a couple varieties of Paulson’s in addition to the standard clay composite chips you can find anywhere.

They also offer the miscellaneous items such as card racks, card cases, playing cards, timers, buttons, drop boxes, etc. If you were looking to stock your game room for a Texas Holdem tournament then CardroomSupply.com could be your one stop shop.

Prices

Having never purchased a nice poker table I had to search around a little bit to compare prices. My limited searching concluded that pricing varies a lot across the web. CardroomSupply was the cheapest for several tables and more expensive than other sites on certain tables. The one thing to remember is that CardroomSupply offers free shipping on all orders over $100…basically any poker table. The bottom line is that if you’re going to drop $1,000 on a poker table then you need to do a little shopping around. Check out CardroomSupply.com’s selection and prices and don’t forget about their free shipping.

I do own about eight different poker chip sets and as for CardroomSupply.com poker chip prices they’re decent. Their standard 11.5g clay composite sets are a little high, but who really doesn’t own one of these already? Their $1.10 per Paulson chip is a decent deal and cheaper than many other sites out there. If you’re not involved in a bulk chip order than $1.10 per chip is pretty solid.

Summary

CardroomSupply.com offers a fantastic selection of poker tables and a decent selection of poker chips and other accessories. Their prices are comparable to other online sites and they offer free shipping over $100. They’re a Yahoo! Store with a 5 star rating and even offer a toll free number if you prefer ordering over the phone. Those on the prowl for a poker table or poker chip set should be sure to include CardroomSupply.com on your list.

Perhaps you need a Christmas gift for your favorite blogger?

All of you bloggers going to Vegas are bastards. I'm stuck at home and very jealous.

It's been another busy week in the Royal household. We had a furnace puke out last week and Monday night I helped change it out. It wasn't too bad except for hauling the old, much larger, furnace up from downstairs. At one point I slipped and visions of furnace crushing heating man flashed through my head. Thankfully I'm a luck sack and held on.

Tuesday was basketball and we demolished the competition.

Last night was recovery night and tonight I'm just relaxing.

I've played a little bit of PLO Ring on Stars, but no tournaments since Saturday. I actually made two final tables on Saturday. Too bad I busted near the bottom of both and out of the real money. Getting 10x your buy-in is nice, but when 8 spots more gets you 200x it's tough not to be disappointed.

Tomorrow Mrs. Royal is going out with friends. Depending on how / when the young-ins get to bed I'll probably get a few tournaments in.

I also got a new job at work. It's a management position similar to what I'm doing now with more responsibility.

Now go read It's Just Not True! The Myths and Falsehoods in Poker.

Don't forget about Event #6 of the Blogger Poker Tour today. Only one more regular event to go after this one!

3:00 PM EST