Well my piece of shit computer put me on tilt tonight... I was in the middle of a big hand with Aces where I was about to move all in on the flop where I felt I easily had the best hand and my computer froze up.  I was freakin out, it was against a guy I was waiting to grab all night and as soon I went to bet max my mouse stopped moving.  So needless to say I was pretty steamed.  But this is pretty much my fault, I've had this computer for years now and its been slowly going down hill and starting to do weird things.  I'm just so comfortable with it I've never wanted to switch to a new one.  I guess its about time to get rid of this piece of junk and pick up something new.  I've been doing a lot of research and getting convinced by my brother to switch over to Mac.  I've always known that Mac's are better machines but I've always been extremely comfortable using Windows.  Another thing is that I use Poker Tracker on this computer religiously while I'm playing.  I think I've mentioned it before but basically its a program that keeps track of absolutely everything that goes on during a session and data mines it all.  They haven't come out with a Mac version yet which is annoying but I was told I can run a bootcamp on the Mac to allow me to run Windows applications on it which pretty much solves my problem.  After looking at all the Mac products I think I'm leaning towards getting the Mac Mini.  I recently purchased a 42" LCD TV because I got a good deal from my little brother's work, so I'm going to be using that as my computer screen.  Apparently the Mac mini has a DVI connection so I can hook it up to the LCD and it will show great.  Right now I use dual monitors, but I think having the one 42" screen will make it comfortable to play multiple tables on and I can always still use it as a regular TV.  What I would ideally like to do is have dual 30" Apple Cinema screens but it will cost way too much money that I don't feel like spending.

I realistically won't be putting this new set-up till I move in a couple months.  Most of you know my current roommate Two.. he's going to be moving back to the States for school so me and Julie will be looking for a place for May 1st.  I will probably go out and buy the new Mac soon to use so I don't have another mishap like tonight.  But I won't set it up with the new TV till I see how much room there is in the new place.

Other then that poker has been going pretty well the last little while.  I'm playing pretty solid and really working on game selection.  I know I've mentioned this in other blogs but its still something I'm having trouble with.  And I blame it primarily on my ego.  When I'm sitting at a table and I notice there are some other good players at the table all I want to do it sit there and try to beat them.  In my mind I'm thinking 'I'm better then these guys, I don't need to get up'.  I thought this till I watched a training video on cardrunners by pretty much one of the best online cash game players in the world (Cole South aka CTS).  During the video he said something about getting up from his current table because there were too many good players at it and he didn't have a significant enough edge to continue playing.  If one of the best online players in the world can say this.. then who the hell am I??  Seriously, I need to check my ego aside and find tables more littered with fish.  At the end of the day its all about $$$$.. not if I was able to outplay some solid regular grinder. 

When I played tonight I did a good job finding weak tables and was able to win like 4-5 buyins.  Although there was one hand that has been bugging the shit out of me.  It was a situation where I had a  great read on a guy and I didn't follow through with it.  I was playing this guy for a little while and I had a feeling he was getting sick of me running over the table.  I'm going to post the hand, but basically the guy pulled a huge bluff on me when I KNEW he was bluffing but was too much of a pussy to follow through with it and ended up folding on the river.  Anyways heres the hand and I'll explain it after.

FullTiltPoker Game #5281668449: Table Elkington (6 max) - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:54:06 ET - 2008/02/16
Seat 1: iggytt ($122.30)
Seat 2: overbet56 ($111.65)
Seat 3: SecretOfMana ($380.10)
Seat 4: silleg ($230.55)
Seat 5: Binimac05 ($108)
Seat 6: Goodfella_84 ($207.45)
SecretOfMana posts the small blind of $0.50
silleg posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #2

Holecards:
Dealt to Goodfella_84 [ ]
Binimac05 folds
Goodfella_84 raises to $3.50
iggytt calls $3.50
overbet56 folds
SecretOfMana folds
silleg folds

Flop:
[ ]
Goodfella_84 has 15 seconds left to act
Goodfella_84 bets $6.50
iggytt calls $6.50

Turn :
[ ] [ ]
Goodfella_84 checks
iggytt checks

River:
[ ] [ ]
Goodfella_84 has 15 seconds left to act
Goodfella_84 bets $14
iggytt has 15 seconds left to act
iggytt raises to $112.30 and is all in
Goodfella_84 has 15 seconds left to act
Goodfella_84 has requested TIME
Goodfella_84 folds
Uncalled bet of $98.30 returned to iggytt
iggytt shows [ ] a pair of Threes
iggytt wins the pot ($47 .05)

SUMMARY :
Total pot $49.50 | Rake $2.45
Board:
[ ]
Seat 1: iggytt collected ($47.05)
Seat 2: overbet56 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: SecretOfMana (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: silleg (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Binimac05 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Goodfella_84 folded on the River

I made a standard raise from the cut off(seat to the right of the dealer ) and got called by the guy on the puck.  On the flop I make a continuation bet looking to take down the pot right there but got called.  Now on the turn I hit my King and I check it for pot control.  I'm certain I have the best hand at this point but don't want to get raised of it and was looking to extract value on the river.  He checks behind and the river brings a very interesting card, the 7 of spades.  This now makes a straight if he was drawing on the flop (5,6) and also brings a back door flush.  Now this is where the psychology really kicks in.  I know my opponent is a competent player and knows that this is a great bluff card.  So in the back of my mind when I bet the river for value, I told myself if he raises me I'm going to call.  So after I bet the river, he thinks for a while and moves all in for around another $110.  At this point, he knows I know I can't call this river bet without having at least a flush... but I know thats what he's thinking.  Although making this call would be very marginal against any other opponent, my first instincts were he had a complete bluff.  And then I choked, I started thinking too much about the hand and started to second guess myself.  Its not easy making 'hero' calls like this and I'm really pissed I didn't go with my initial instinct.  After I folded the hand the guy showed his bluff (Ace high) and took down the pot.  I'm not pissed at all that I got bluffed, thats going to happen in poker.. I'm just pissed I didn't trust my read.  Oh well, I went on to win a big pot at that table which made me not feel so bad.

Alright I think I'm going to do some more research about this Mac and I'll blog in a couple days.

Jay