I crash on-line again.....and the deck of cards in Iraq

Tonight, I decided to stay home and play some $22 tournaments on Party Poker. I played three of them and finished 6th, 5th, and just went out on the bubble on 4th.

I was on the dealer button with A7 suited, Chip stacks were 6K, 4K, 2K, & I had about 4 K. I decided to raise to 3,000 to steal the blinds and antes. The blinds were 800. The big blind re-raised me with 1K more. I called all-in and ran into his pair of tens. He caught one more on the turn and I was out on the “bubble”.

I can sense this was not a good play. But, I don’t know why? I could use some feedback from anyone on this play. I knew the A was strong even with a 7, with a short table.

But, should I have just raised minimum and then tossed when he came back at me? Should I have gone all-in? What was the purpose of my putting in 3 of my 4K? I think, I was thinking, I would see the flop at worst and be able to get away from it. I can now see that was faulty thinking. Nobody, who was going to play at me would just call.

Help….. Any feedback appreciated.

I think I am going to watch some poker on TV and think about this for awhile.

My on-line funds are almost depleted again. I am a steady loser on-line. In fact I have never had a big win or a series of wins like I do at Brick & Mortar games.

When will I ever learn?????

Before I turn on the TV, I will comment on last night’s play at the Palomar Club.

I think this narrative really shows the contrast of how I play on-line compared with live play.

I bought in at $100 N/L and played very tight for two hours. The table was very, very tight. When I would bet the table would either fold or the “stone-cold nuts” would call me without even a raise and let me throw money at him. Somehow, I did work my maximum buy-in of $100 up to $260 at this table.

Finally, a 2/4 game started up with a $300 buy-in. I move my chips over there.

The first hand I played was with QQ. There was a lot of action right from the start at this table. UTG called $40, two more called the $40 so I decided to raise it from the button, to $100. The blinds folded. One caller called and the person to my right went all in for $300.

I went into the “think-tank” and took about 2 minutes and finally figured out he probably had AK. I almost mucked, but decided to call. I don’t like QQ, or JJ, especially with 4 callers I was sure I was going to get drawn out on. Sure, enough he had AK, another had KJ, and another had A,J. who was all-in for the $100

Fortunately, 2,2,4, came on the flop, another 2 was the turn, and a Jack was the river. My queens held and I had $700 in front of me. I played another 4 hours and was able to leave $900 up without losing one hand I played. I played well, read well, and got away from a lot of trouble hands after the flop. I would have lost every one of the “trouble hands” I saw a flop with.

I decided to go home about 11:30 p.m. This club has to close at 2 A.M. and after midnight the games can turn wild & crazy as people try to catch-up before closing time. I would probably either double-up or go home with nothing, if I stayed till closing.

Since, I have been on a losing streak, this past week. I decided to leave with my money, and the good feeling, of knowing I played my “A” game every hand rather then take the risk.

That was probably, a good choice.


Somebody, sent this to me in an email. I liked it and present it for your reflection……


Deck of Cards

It was quiet that day, the guns and the mortars, and land mines for some reason hadn't been heard. The young soldier knew it was Sunday, the holiest day of the week. As he was sitting there, he got out an old deck of cards and laid them out across his bunk.

Just then an army sergeant came in and said, "Why aren't you with The rest of the platoon?"

The soldier replied, "I thought I would stay behind and spend some time with the Lord."

The sergeant said, "Looks to me like you're going to play cards."

The soldier said, "No, sir. You see, since we are not allowed to have Bibles or other spiritual books in this country, I've decided to talk to the Lord by studying this deck of cards."

The sergeant asked in disbelief, "How will you do that?"

"You see the Ace, Sergeant? It reminds me that there is only one God.

The Two represents the two parts of the Bible, Old and New Testaments.

The Three represents the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The Four stands for the Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Five is for the five virgins that were ten but only five of them were glorified.

The Six is for the six days it took God to create the Heavens and Earth.

The Seven is for the day God rested after making His Creation.

The Eight is for the family of Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives - the eight people God spared from the flood that destroyed the Earth.

The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy. He cleansed ten,but nine never thanked Him.

The Ten represents the Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses on tablets made of stone.

The Jack is a reminder of Satan, one of God's first angels, but he got kicked out of heaven for his sly and wicked ways and is now the joker of eternal hell.
The Queen stands for the Virgin Mary.

The King stands for Jesus, for he is the King of all kings.

When I count the dots on all the cards, I come up with 365 total, One for every day of the year.

There are a total of 52 cards in a deck; each is a week - 52 weeks in a year.

The four suits represent the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

Each suit has thirteen cards - there are exactly thirteen weeks in a quarter.

So when I want to talk to God and thank Him, I just pull out this Old deck of cards and they remind me of all that I have to be thankful for."

The sergeant just stood there. After a minute, with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart, he said, "Soldier, can I borrow that deck of cards?"