Places to learn how to play the game

I really recommend the CardPlayer.com Forum. I've picked up a lot of useful information there over the past couple of months, not to mention being able to read most of the magazine online each month. There are the obvious bad beat stories, and the assholes, but there are also a lot of people offering up solid, honest, helpful hand history critiques and advice. I've taken some of it and continue to try to process what I've read there.

In particular - there was a thread yesterday that I read about overvaluing Ax - suited or even Ax off. I read it, thought it through and applied what I read to make the money in last nights Pokerstars $3 tourney. I know, making $9.68 for 3 hours in a tourney isn't exactly the stuff of blog legend, but not playing crap hands let me stick around a lot longer in the tourney than I had been managing, so the boost to my confidence was worth WAY more than $6.

A couple of hands of note:

1 - I catch KK in the BB, blinds are $400-800, and I am the big stack at my table with about $27k in chips. A couple of limpers, I raise to 4xBB. I get one call, which costs him about 1/3 his stack. Flop comes with no Aces, so I bet enough to push him All In. He calls, which I thought was very odd, because he's been playing a very conservative game, and I've only played premium hands and blinds up to this point, so my table image should have been granite. He goes All-in with AJ and rivers out a straight to knock off a third of my stack. I still think I made the right play, as he had to catch runner runner for the straight on the river, and his straight wasn't even the A high, it was J high. So that one goes to luck.

2 - A little bit of luck, a little bit of outplayed. Blinds are $1500-3000, and I have about $16k in chips (I've stayed playing tight, making only one really stupid call, and usually taking down any pot that I get involved in, which are incredibly few, as I was cold-decked almost all night. I played 18% of the hands I was dealt, which is low even for playing tight) when I catch 88 in Middle position. I call, as there was a short stack already calling in front of me and I didn't really want to see an all-in re-raise before the flop. BB checks and we're 3. Flop is 8 4 6 all diamonds, so I immediately think "Great! Unless one of them has the flush. Ok, I've got position, so I watch, and if they bet, release, but if the both check, put the short stack all in."

That's exactly what happened - they both checked, I put the short stack all in, BB folds, short Stack calls, and turns up the NUT FLUSH. He played me. Well. I'd still make the same play, as I think it was the right thing to do - I made him make a decision, so if he's hold 2 pair, a smaller set or just one diamond, he folds. He just happened to trap me with his flush, and I didn't catch the boat, so I was crippled. Still played better cards than I have for days, so I feel better.

Going to see Actor's Theatre of Charlotte's production of Tick Tick Boom tonight. For the unwashed, that's the play that was written (mostly) by the guy that wrote Rent and was released after his death and Rent hit huge. Dunno much else about it, except it's about his life as a theatre geek/food service industry employee in NYC. Actor's Theatre is currently the top company in town, and their last show, A Lesson Before Dying, was amazing, so I expect a good show. I don't know anyone in the cast, except the director, who I've worked with a couple of times, so it should be interesting.

Reviews for our production of Anna Karenina come out tomorrow, and Glennio and I are on pins & needles. I worked my ever-loving balls off on the lights for that show, so my ego really wants a good review, and a mention for the lights. And Suzy got two more costuming gigs today - she's doing a one-off photo shoot for CPCC (Central Piedmont Community College), and she's doing their musical which will open their new theatre next season. Can't say what it is yet, but I just email the director and expressed my interest as well. It's a show we've both done before, and wouldn't mind going back to. Plus, there's $$ involved. On that note, my buddy Stephen said he's mailing me a check today for a $100 finder's fee for giving him the CeCe Winans design gig I dropped on him last week, so I'll see who's got the best bonus and try to bonus whore that $100 into some extra cash.

Peace, love and Lucinda Williams (on my ipod right now)