Running Good...

Contrary to assumptions reached from the title, this is actually NOT a poker brag post. Oh, it's a brag post alright, just not really poker related. ;-)

1. Got a surprise visitor last Friday, and kicked off my weekend with some hot sex. I should maybe apologize for my unruly aggression post-rebuy period in the donkarama, and my lack of "gg" as I exited, given my attention to poker was stolen away by an exotically robed enchantress. (Okay, I'm not "sorry," but you get my point.)
2. Went to my 10 year High School reunion Saturday and had the awesome pleasure of fooling around with the girl I had the wicked huge crush on a decade ago!! W00t!... Boom!...etc. I am still on an ecstatic high from the experience. Didn't nail her or anything, but had a hot time fooling around, and we did part ways with each other's number and plans for a future rendesvous, as she evidently resides in my fair city of Federal Way.
3. And speaking of my fair city... I just got pulled over by Federal Way's finest on the way home from work today. Like a douchebag, I totally rolled through a stop sign and deservedly got nailed for it. Provided my license, registration, and 13-month-ago-expired proof-of-insurance certificate. After being told to "hold tight" the officer returned very quickly to review ~$450 worth of fines that could be charged, (as my front license plate simply resting on my dashboard was also a big no-no.) He then went on to state that he confirmed on his computer that I hadn't been pulled over in years, and that I had been living within the city limits for over five years without any interaction with the local police force... and evidently that was "worth receiving a warning." Fuck yeah Federal Way FiveOh!
4. Got home and opened the bag of Peanut M&M's that the roommate's girlfriend left in my living room... first one out of the pouch is a double-peanut! (Okay, so I'm not sure this point is really brag worthy, but it sure felt like proof of my continued good fortune.)

So, I'm going into this evening's poker session on a good luck roll of sorts. Hopefully I can turn into some tournament results in my MTT game.

The reunion was a total blast, and is well worth a whole post given the incredibly entertaining occassion. (Complete with Springer-esque white trash bitch fight! VERY High School.) Another time I hope, as this evening I just wanted to get this good-luck-gloating out of my system...

'Til next time,

Take care of yourself, and each other,
~RaisingCayne

The Ides of August

With little specific things in mind to share, and even less time to share my random ramblings this afternoon, I'm again going with the miscellaneous bullet-point format... Here we go:

• Got a 10-year High School reunion this weekend. Making the trip to the tiny hometown to see if I can pick up any naive ladies that may have managed to forget how big of an asshole I am. Never underestimate the gullibility of the female gender!
• While on the subject of my chauvinism... I have actually had a pretty consistent gal in my life of late. A single Mom that I really have no place being with, given my lack of affection for anyone under the age of 18, and my inability to commit to anything at all. But what am I going to do, tell her to stop swinging by for hot sex?! Haven't YET started feeling too guilty for my lack of emotions, so I'm figuring there's not too much harm in continuing the status quo. (And it's not like she knows this blog exists.)
• It's been quite the experience being with a gal that is so wanton in her sexual desires as this one... each of her visits have been exhaustive Fuckfests. I was actually thankful she had a family she needed to get home to after our last Fuckapalooza '08. I'm evidently no longer too proud to admit fatigue in bed. An unfortunate sign of aging I think.
• Spent Wednesday evening at home alone playing the Mookie and chatting it up on the radio with a bunch of folks. Good times. (Pardon the lack of individual links/thanks, as I'm afraid I'd forget at least one of the many of us that crowded the on-air room.)
• And, FYI, ScottMC decided to come out of the closet with a very "UN-ScottMC-like" admission to recently discovering a fascination with the completely man-tastic game for geeky adolescents, World of Warcraft. ??!!?? WTF?! Just in case you needed a recent sign of the apocalypse, here it is! I mean I can almost sympathize with Waffles having this homo hobby, and I wasn't even too surprised to hear of Chris' cock-filled forays into this ghey subculture, given their apparent penchant for the pubescent... But, ScottMC!? I thought this was one blogger who actually had a pair. Who knew?
• For the record, my above opinionated remarks regarding specific bloggers' sexuality are completely made in jest. (I provide this disclaimer wholly out of fear of physical repurcussions for my big mouth.)
• It's evidently Matt's birthday this weekend, in case you wanted to shoot him a well wish over on his blog. (Old age jokes would be preferred.)
• Oh, and speaking of local bloggers... I just learned that Chris evidently has NEVER experienced the joy of a professional lap dance.!? Here's hoping this isn't the case after this calendar year!
• The roommate's dog got into ANOTHER fight with a skunk on my backporch a couple weeks back. Again while my sliding glass door was open! (An identical experience was had last Summer!) If you've never smelled the wrath of this malodorous rodent you should definitely knock on wood, as the aftermath of getting this vermit fired up is a disgusting experience that doesn't go away in a small amount of time. The fucking mut spent a couple weeks banned from the indoors.
• Recently told my Doctor I was trying to quit smoking pot, (really with just the intention of cutting down,) and without batting an eye he handed me a heavy duty prescription for Xanax and told me to take 1/4 or 1/2 a pill just when I was feeling in the mood to get stoned. Turns out the pills freaking rock! (Already got a few refills called in to the pharm.) I don't know why I ever doubted the good Dr. Pauly's previous references to this fabulous form of entertainment, but, like MickeyD's, I'm lovin' it.
• The acquisition of the business in which I'm employed has been complete. As of 08/04/08 I'm now an employee of a company whose name rhymes with intern-rational-caper, rather than a local organization whose name rhymes with darewouser. (I'm obviously committed to a consistent strong work ethic considering this post is going up late on a Friday afternoon from my desk here at the office, and was started directly after lunch. SHHH!)
• My commute tripled in size, and is now a ~6 mile trip down the hill to Auburn, rather than a simple across town jaunt. Rigged.
• Still wholly unsure about the future. While it's pretty obvious my position is moving to Memphis, TN on or before next Summer, I still can't state with any confidence whether I'm going to move with it, or seek a different option. I've got quite the résumé with all my work experiences now, and am real confident I could find something else. (Am even partially considering an entire career change given a recent awareness that a new casino is being built within a reasonable commute from my current abode. Even the rigged gaming industry needs financial analysts I imagine.)
• No poker details worth mentioning. Really just seem to be treading water of late, with no big recent scores or any substantial bankroll movements. I have managed to build a ~$150 bankroll over at PokerStars off of just the $11 Jordan gave me awhile back. (For winning a punny nickname contest over at his blog a month or so back. Thanks again HoP!) I'm real glad I'm quasi-back on PStars as it's just been a refreshing change of pace to the poker grind to have more than one site option. (Still need to find my way to BoDog, but I digress...)
• For the first time in nearly a decade, the Maddenoliday came and went Tuesday without me dropping ~$60 on a new video game purchase. For a brief moment I thought it may have been a sign of my growing up and maturing... but then I realized I still giggle at childish innuendo, so that couldn't be the case.

Well, it's after 5 on Friday, wonder if anyone's in the Donkarama...

'Til next time...

...it's in the game,

~RaisingCayne

50th post

(*EDIT!!! As Schaubs so diligently pointed out, this is NOT my 50th post!? Rather just lowly no. 39!? Evidently this dumbass author decided to count the 11 'saved' ramblings that never made their way onto the site as blog posts. Hmm. Cayne having problems with prematurely completing celebrations... hmmm... weird!)
----- ...

In recognition of this minor blog milestone, and in keeping with the 'random ramblings' theme of this pointless website, provided below is an aimless listing of completely unrelated, desultory things on my brain:

• Was sent a link to a video that put me in a good mood the other day. If you have a few minutes, and need a smile, check it out. (But just for the record, ladies, contrary to some opinion I do NOT resemble the main figure in the video, as my dance repertoire is much much smoother!)


• This weekend is the 25th anniversary of the Tenino Motorcycle Drill Team's annual fundraiser biker rally, the Do Wa Diddy. I don't expect that to make any sense to anyone that reads this, as I've never previously mentioned my talented Father's awesome past time on here before, and don't want to explain more at the moment. But suffice it so say for now, there's a huge, wild, fucking awesome bash all day and night this Saturday. I look forward to it every year and anxiously await the weekend!


• The following Friday, July 18th, is the roommate's birthday. In celebration of the anniversary of this donkey's birth, a group of us are headed to Emerald Downs, to enjoy the pony races. I've never been before and am really looking forward to it. The lazy ass roommate (whom I really don't know why I bother linking to, given he never posts on his ghey ass blog,) hasn't e-mailed out the invite with details yet, but we do hope many others will consider joining us. Should be a great time.


• Still don't have television at home. Just can't bring myself to willingly sign up for another ~$50/month bill after stealing free cable for the last decade. It's sort of funny how little I've missed it after never imagining being able to live without it. The roommate is pissed about it though, so I'll likely have to give in to the very un-comcastic local service provider soon.


• Felt like shit last week, and spent the holiday weekend sick on my couch. I watched the entire first season of Magnum PI on DVD. Grew a mustache. Not on purpose, it just sort of sprouted as I watched the episodes, it was weird. That show rocks though. (And I'm starting to understand the Doc's love for the Ferrari.)


• Ran real deep in the $28k on FullTilt the other night, but it was just to drop out from a top ten stack in 50something place by running kings into aces. Rigged.


• Bought tickets for a weekend trip to San Francisco with a small group of friends in September. Not much of an itinerary, just a couple nights at cool locations celebrating some close friends' forthcoming nuptials.


• Definitely planning on being in Vegas in December over the weekend of the 13th, (someone has to dethrone the cocky current champ!)

Well, I hope all is well with you and yours. 'Til next time...

Zeus! Apollo! ...
~RaisingCayne

Fuck the $750k...

Bad beat whining... seriously, not worth reading. Just venting...

Full Tilt Poker Game #7022937938: $750,000 Guarantee (51046204), Table 227 - 80/160 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:46:32 ET - 2008/06/29
Seat 1: thewizard033 (1,800), is sitting out
Seat 2: Rufus Cash (9,884)
Seat 3: RaisingCayne (2,800)
Seat 4: zupman (5,456)
Seat 5: mrrussian (3,232)
Seat 6: dartjam (5,253)
Seat 7: parlaypaul (15,684)
Seat 8: threeven (3,991)
Seat 9: StaroTequila (5,569)
mrrussian posts the small blind of 80
dartjam posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RaisingCayne [Ad Ah]
parlaypaul calls 160 ~ the utg limp from the complete donkey toolbox that's attempted to see every single fucking flop since the tourney began. Scmuck's played like a fucking clown, and his large stack was only due to a wicked suckout he had just scored when he called a raise with KJo and overshoved a QTX flop, and was called by QQ... just to suckout the straight.
threeven folds
StaroTequila folds
thewizard033 folds
Rufus Cash folds
RaisingCayne raises to 550 ~ just intended to get the blinds out, as I know the donkey assface limping from utg is gonna see the flop.
zupman folds
mrrussian folds
dartjam folds
parlaypaul raises to 15,684, and is all in ~ k, let's just get it in pre. The utg limp reshove, fucking classic.
RaisingCayne calls 2,250, and is all in
parlaypaul shows [5c Ac] ~ WTF!???? Ace fucking five!?
RaisingCayne shows [Ad Ah] ~ villain's been running like god. I feel like I'm drawin' dead with the best hand in the game all in pre.
Uncalled bet of 12,884 returned to parlaypaul
*** FLOP *** [7s 2d 3d] ~ you fucking know the gutshot's coming...
*** TURN *** [7s 2d 3d] [8s] ~ wait for it... ... wait for it...
*** RIVER *** [7s 2d 3d 8s] [4s] ~FUCK POKER!
parlaypaul shows a straight, Five high
RaisingCayne shows a pair of Aces
parlaypaul wins the pot (5,840) with a straight, Five high
RaisingCayne stands up ~ ...and looks for something to punch.


So I fall out just in time to register for the daily $32k... and I shit you not, the second fucking hand of the tourney I'm all in with 77 vs. Qs4s on a 2s7sKh board, and of course the flush hits for the dildo that calls raises with Q4 sooted and over shoves the ghey draw.

AUUUUGGGGHHHHH!!! FUCK POKER! I'm going to Grand Theft...

Running Well... and a Cash Game Hand History

Even with the fear of jinxing myself, I'm still going to proclaim that I apparently am running well lately! After my winning last weekend, I've had some good results this week as well: with two $75 tokens earned, a satellite win for entry into the Sunday $750k Guarantee, AND last night I double-cashed the Daily Double tournaments, and finished the "A" in 4th place for ~$680! That's my second final table in a 1,000+ person tournament within a week, and has me feelin' pretty good about the state of my game.

Will do my best to keep up the little win streak, and have plans to get lots of tourneys in over the weekend. And I do NOT plan on cashing out the $T from my satellite win, and rather, I will be competing in the weekly big tournament this Sunday on Full Tilt. So I've got that goin' for me... which is nice.

Anyway... change of subject. Very similar to what Matt's recent posts have discussed, I too have been making a little foray into the realm of online cash games (despite a serious lack of experience, and a very unsuccessful record in previous attempts.) So with the intent of soliciting any and all help I can get, I wanted to post a hand history from last night that I believe really illustrates my inefficiencies at getting the most value out of cash game poker. Any and all thoughts are welcome...

Full Tilt Poker Game #6988060701: Table Anza (deep 6) - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:49:52 ET - 2008/06/27 ~ I'm new to all elements of cash game play, including table selection decision making. But, I feel my game is best suited for 6max, and I enjoy the ability of sitting with 200bb to begin, so have preferred these "deep" tables. And I've been experimenting at the $0.50/$1 level, (although I should probably be at the $0.25/$0.50 games being as my bankroll's still well under $5k.)
Seat 1: Boots2323 ($129.70)
Seat 2: jbellis71 ($194)
Seat 3: RaisingCayne ($230.05)
Seat 5: peragroo ($206.90)
Seat 6: Pokerlusky ($101.50), is sitting out
peragroo posts the small blind of $0.50
Boots2323 posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RaisingCayne [5s 5d] ~ I heard somewhere that this hand is gold.
volition380 sits down
jbellis71 raises to $2
volition380 adds $100
Pokerlusky has reconnected
RaisingCayne calls $2 ~ Definitely calling a min-raise with position and presto. Haven't even seen a single preflop 3-bet in the half hour I've been at the table, and didn't feel the need to bump it here with just a small pp, and the open min-raise was very non-standard, and possibly representative of a monster.
peragroo calls $1.50
Boots2323 folds
*** FLOP *** [4c 4s 5c] ~ Boom!
Pokerlusky has returned
peragroo checks
jbellis71 checks
RaisingCayne checks ~ Table has been playing UBER tight, with NO big pots and NO hands even going to showdown. I thought here that there was WAY too big of chance that ANY bet wins me the tiny pot as is, and I wanted to find a way to get the most out of my flopped full house.
*** TURN *** [4c 4s 5c] [Tc]
peragroo checks
jbellis71 checks
RaisingCayne bets $3.05 ~ I've only got so much patience, need to do something to build the pot.
peragroo folds
jbellis71 calls $3.05 ~ K. I guess that's SOME action.
*** RIVER *** [4c 4s 5c Tc] [Ah]
jbellis71 bets $7 ~ Okay, so the turn completed a flush, and the river's an ace... and villain bets into me. So he's holding something that I need to reraise to get value out of my monster flop.
RaisingCayne has 15 seconds left to act ~ I'm slow. Had to calculate what I thought would be called by either a naked Ace, or a turned flush.
RaisingCayne raises to $20 ~ Advice welcome here as in hindsight think I could've re-raised a bit more, but this is the amount I went with. Not even sure why... was close to ~3x villain's bet.
jbellis71 has 15 seconds left to act
jbellis71 raises to $40 ~ And here's where I get completely perplexed! ??? WTF does this mean? A min-re-raise river 3-bet.? Hmmm...
RaisingCayne calls $20 ~ JUST call.(!????!) WTF!? I didn't even tank either!? I guess I talked myself into being scurred of TT or AA given the min-re-raise 3-bet post-river, but with hindsight I'm thinking this is just pussy poker and I totally should've re-popped. I guess I was just contemplating the scenario of seeing villain shove in response and me not knowing what to do, (read: me making a crying call for a more than I really wanted to risk,) so went with the 'just call' option here.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jbellis71 shows [Ac 6c] a flush, Ace high ~ JUST a flush! A min-RE-raise river 3-bet on a paired board with JUST a flush!? Fawk I should've gotten a lot more out of a villain here.
RaisingCayne shows [5s 5d] a full house, Fives full of Fours ~ Yeah, Presto is gold. Why did I ever even consider that there was any chance it wasn't after how the hand played out?!
RaisingCayne wins the pot ($91.10) with a full house, Fives full of Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $93.10 Rake $2
Board: [4c 4s 5c Tc Ah]
Seat 1: Boots2323 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: jbellis71 showed [Ac 6c] and lost with a flush, Ace high
Seat 3: RaisingCayne (button) showed [5s 5d] and won ($91.10) with a full house, Fives full of Fours ~ ... but is now kicking himself as he should've gotten A LOT more out of a flopped full house!???
Seat 5: peragroo (small blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 6: Pokerlusky is sitting out


Thanks in advance for any and all advice you may have. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

'Til next time...

...Stay classy San Diego,
~Raising Cayne

Something to Talk About

A month between posts again as I just haven't had much to share. Work has been overwhelmingly busy, and poker has just been an uneventful grind lately, so I've had few adventures worthy of mention. That is, until this last weekend...

Friday night I was home late from the office and was 4-tabling a bunch of random tournaments throughout the evening, and I managed to take 2nd place in the Midnight Madness! Turned $11 into ~$1,850 for my first four figure score of the calendar year. Huge thanks to Joanada, Numbbono, and OhCaptain for the railing! It was just an awesome experience playin' the tournament down with the live company, and it was far more entertaining than I expected to get use out of the microphone and headset Joanada talked me into pickin' up. That teamspeak thing is pretty cool I will admit. The one bad thing about having the railers is I can't get away with claiming my superior poker prowess was due all the credit for the score, as they were witness to a couple suckouts that were key to getting me where I went. (Two specifically for gigantic pots, when all in preflop with my QQ > AA, and my AQ > AK. Although neither spot was for my whole stack, both were very crucial to the tournament.)

The final table played real odd, as I feel I was really gifted the second place finish. Still at 9seated there were two players that were head and shoulders above the rest of the field, and for some donkey reason they get it AIPF against each other, after a back and forth raising war no less, with just AQ vs. 77 (?) and the winner (the AQ) held an incredible chiplead from there on in. And after he began appropriately applying lots of pressure on the the table, each of the rest of the field subsequently picked awfully mediocre hands to play back at him with. And it seemed like before I knew it I was head's up with a gazillion:one stack deficit. While of course I really wanted to take down first place, I'm thrilled about scoring the second place prize and my first decent score in far too long.

So I send a text message at 2:30 in the morning to a poker playin' buddy of mine just gloating over my little score, and the prick has the nerve to call me and wake me up when he reads it at 9 in the morning. Tells me it's good I had the win 'cause he's headed out to the Muckleshoot and now I can afford to join him for some live action. So... he's able to talk me into it, (obviously,) and I head out on too little sleep for a day trip of pokering. Played the $3-5 "spread" game (it's NL, but w/ a $500 max bet for some legal reason,) at the casino from 11-5 and turned $300 (which was actually and oddly the max buy in) into $812 before I took off in the late afternoon. (Even stopped by the 3Card Poker table game and left up another $40 after a half hour there.) I won't now delve into all my poker pwning that netted me the ~$500, but may post some details of the local live game another time. (Real juicy tables, definitely +EV for the decent player.)

So I get home and shower the casino funk off me, and by 7 in the evening I'm feeling good, with a pocket full of cash, and no specific plans on the evening's itinerary. And oddly enough, before I'm able to call a hooker to arrange some good old fashioned hate fucking, my cell phone rings. I get a call from a sexy cat, that's actually NOT a pro, with an inquiry if I wanted to go out and party with her. So I meet her at a local bar and proceed to get all sorts of shitty with some sexy company that I was somehow able to con into findin' me attractive. We hit up a couple locations, enjoyed far too much to drink, and really had an awesome drunk evening at the bars together. I'd say that I'm not one to 'kiss and tell', but I'm gonna 'bang and blog' here as I did take her back to my place for some hot drunk first-time passionate late night fornication. An excellent addition to an already killer weekend! The only thing I like better than pussy is new pussy.

So that was my killer weekend in a nutshell. It did have an all too too somber conclusion as I had to make my way into the office today, on a fucking Sunday, for some work. Which I expect to continue to keep me real busy into the near future. And I do still have to come to a decision as to whether to follow my organization to Memphis, TN or look for another employment option. But being the procrastinating pothead that I am, I'm sure I'll continue putting off the life choice for the time being.

Anyway, 'til next time...

I'm rich bitch!!!
~RaisingCayne

Thursday Musings...

A lot of different musings on my mind today, so, going with bullet points...

• Spilled a 16 oz. coffee ALL OVER MY DESK here at work this morning. I blame the obnoxious, incompetent colleague that was in my office driving me crazy with a repetitious meaningless review of facts I'm far more aware of than she is... causing me to unnecessarily shuffle paperwork with the intent of illustrating my discomfort with her presence... leading to my spilling the coffee EVERYWHERE. Really a horrible way to start one's day!
• Had a nice poker win last night, taking down the 23:35 $2rebuy on FullTilt for ~$200. It did keep me up 'til 1:30 which also didn't help this morning go too well, but well worth the fatigue. I really wish I knew how to do screen shots for the blog here, as there was some portions of the tourney I really wanted to show off. Specifically, my being in 13th place with 13 remaining and the top 12 making cash... then being in 1st place with 12 remaining, and when we hit the Final Table I had over three times the 2nd place stack! I molested the bubble like it was my job! It was really ridiculous how both the cash bubble and the Final Table bubble were treated by the competition, and I was able to rape the bubbles like my name was Gary Ridgeway. Coasted into head's up play where I ran over villain who thought any hand worth a stay in blackjack was worth jamming in head's up hold 'em. GG me!
• Had a meeting earlier this week with the upper management of the new company taking over my organization, and was really delightfully impressed by their honesty. Long story short, my job function IS moving to Memphis, TN on or before August 2009, and I need to make the corresponding decision whether to find other employment or move across country. Leaning toward the ladder, but I'm sure I'll have more quasi-internal debate between now and decision time. Que Sera Sera.
• Made another BBT3 Final Table earlier this week with a 5th place finish in Tuesday's Skillz game. Really enjoyed the experience, as I feel I picked up some learnings about OmahaHiLo, as I had only played the game a handful of times in the past. Congrats to LilKimmer, the FTOPS OmahaHiLo winner for taking down this event as well. I was really impressed by his aggression throughout the tournament and especially at the Final Table where I again played like a pansy, never effectively vying for the top spot. (For example, with 7 people left, I get AA67 utg with just ~13 BB left and I make it 3x to go instead of jamming, !??!... get 3 callers and fold to an all in on the flop where I felt I was beat.!? Live and learn I guess.)
• Mookie last night... hit a brutal suck out river 2-outter vs. Lucko in the first half hour to get to a decent stack, but gifted half of it off to a shorty's KK push vs. my 99, and then lost the remaining half when my QQ lost to AK, aipf. Ehh, standard. On a related note though, I was thrilled to learn today that Mookie is reverting back to the 3,000 chip starting stacks, rather than the shorter amount. Hopefully this will cut down on some of the donkeyrrific play witnessed in the first hour of this thing over the last couple months. (I.E... Last night's eventual 2nd place finisher Pureprophet getting it all in preflop in the first fifteen minutes with sooted 79 to oust NewinNov's big pocket pair.) It would be nice to see some semblance of actual poker strategy in this thing again in the future.
• Got some horrible news Monday night that I had been dreading for the last five years! Came home from work to see the Comcast van in my parking lot, and sure enough, my illegal cable that I've had since early '03 finally got turned off. That's $50/month I've enjoyed not spending for a long time now, and am not excited for the prospect of a new monthly bill! (Long story, but I no longer have the means to reconnect the service myself.)
• On a fairly related note, I watched an awesome movie last night, Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney. Really enjoyed the flick and would recommend it to all.

Well, 'til next time...
I am Sheeva the God of Death,
~RaisingCayne