Batface Links: Tourney Update #3

Our heroes just manged their first birdie on the difficult 212-yard par 3 fifth hole. Todd Phillips hit his tee shot to 12 feet and then canned his birdie putt to bring their score back to even.

Interestingly, Scott Fawcett whiffed his tee shot when his beer bong got tangled up in his back swing and prevented him from hitting the ball. Scott quit the hole in utter disgust.

Batface Links: Tourney Update #2

After a rocky start, our heroes have parred the next two holes. Scott Fawcett has just consumed his first beer in an effort to settle his nerves.

Batface Links: Tourney Update #1

Our heroes are off to a slow start having bogeyed the first hole, a long 467-yard dogleg left par four. Todd Phillips pulled his tee shot left only to have his ball rest between two roots of an oak tree. After having to declare an unplayable lie, Phillips punched his approach shot to well short of the green and picked up his ball with little hope of making better than double bogey.

Playing aggressively, Scott Fawcett bombed his tee shot over the dogleg, but he hit it through the fairway, where his ball carromed off an unsuspecting fan in the gallery and came to rest on top of a styrofoam cooler. Fawcett punched his second shot back into the fair, destroying the cooler. His thrid shot landed just twelve feet from the hole, but he missed his par putt and settled for bogey.

At one-over, our heroes stand just four strokes out of the lead and on pace for a first round score of 90.

On a side note, the owner of the destroyed styrofoam cooler was overheard saying," How am I supposed to keep my fuckin' Mickey's cold now? Damn that Scott Fawcett. Damn him."

Batface Links

While strange things were amiss in our home game, Batface linksters Scott Fawcett and Todd Phillips made their way to the prestigious 73rd Annual Azalea Invitational Partnership Golf Tournament in Tyler, Texas. This prestigious event pits the top amateur golfers from around the state in a star-studded three day day event.

Some amazing history surrounds the Azalea. First, it is the longest contiguous USGA sanctioned event in the United States. Also, to the chagrin of fellow Batface Tim Rogers (now on Octuple Secret Batface Probation), the Azalea was the first such event to eliminate segregationist match rules when the 1962btournament committee invited heraleded amateurs Jose "El Gato"Cabrinez and Atticus MacLean "The Cat" McOnaghey, III to compete.

The inaugral Azalea was won by pair of up and coming Texans by the name of Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson. In fact, it is claimed that Nelson and Hogan both met their future wives at the Azalea, although the future Mrs. Hogan was actually the date of Mr. Nelson and vice versa. In fact, Ben Hogan was almost disqualified from the event after being caught in flagrante delicto in a Tyler boarding house with the future Mrs. Nelson.

Since then, several legendary golfers have launched their careers by winning the Azalea, including: Tommy Bolt, Al Geiberger, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tome Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Matt Kuchar, Mark Craig and Sergio Garcia.

Assuming our satellite uplink remains intact, we'll be recounting the on course play of our two Batface heroes, Messrs. Fawcett and Phillips.

Stay tuned...




UPDATE: Fawcett and Phillips report that the pre-tournament gala featured music by the Neville Brothers and Anthrax. Phillips also said the poached salmon was "fuckin' tasty".

TBR Can See the Future

Little did TBR realize that the picture he posted on Wednesday would more accurately describe our home game last night. It is a shame. Want to post about it, but just can't.

The Sky. Is. FALLING.

Only in poker could our good buddy at pokerati have any street cred. Awesome.

Gone Missing

Something is definitely up. I believe this picture proves there was some sort of conspiracy involving these three people that only now is coming to light.

First, several sources tell me that noted Dallas law monkey TBR didn't spend his Monday or Tuesday mornings accosting the homeless for the first time in recent memory. There are rumors that he was seen here, specifically at The Sunglass Hut, then later spotted smirking, drinking a large Orange Julius, and "riverdancing" while watching teenage girls ice skate.

Second, noted FoB Clonie Gowen was, according to her web site, supposed to play in the WPT World Poker Challenge in Reno. But according to the Pokerwire updates, she didn't make it. Anyone check Dan's place? Didn't we hide his roofies?

Third, Lou Diamond Phillips's new movie, Bloodlines, in which he plays the badass lead role of Eugene "Vash" Vasher (don't ever call him "Eugene"), seems to have vanished from theaters.

UPDATE: While I remain confused as to the whereabouts of Clonie and TBR, I have found LDP. Apparently, he's been working on a video to help Dan with his game.

Batface for Mayor

Zac Crain hasn't played cards with us in a while, but he's still an official FOB (Friend of the Batfaces). Just wanted to remind folks that he will be all up in this political piece come 07, bitches. See his sweet mayoral outline here. And then ask yourself, would we really have these problems if Zac Crain were mayor of Dallas? Go Zac Crain!

P.S.: I stole this photo from Dan. You should read his poker site. The dealer in this photo is Chantel. I love Chantel. Just FYI. Go Lodge! Go Batfaces! Go Poker!

Donkey Night Analysis

A recap of the recent Batface Thurs. night game, for those who care.

Thum WAS in rare form.

I feel like I should clarify some things:

Last night's play was uniformly excellent. I'm not kidding. People played hands aggressively, re-raised at good times, made some excellent river calls when semi-bluffs didn't get there (a couple of times these calls were against me). There were a couple of donkey hands, although not the ones Adam mentions, for reasons it makes no sense to go into. The hand where Adam turned a straight against my top pair, top kicker, for example, was well-played by him, calling a pre-flop raise in position with two other callers with 6-8 [not 5-7]. To him, it FELT like he donkeyed me, but only because the reason he made the call was because he was tilty and it was his big blind. But the play was solid, and when he took down a big pot, it was the others at the table who called donkey, not me. In fact, I misplayed the hand and shouldn't have lost as much as I did.

I will say that one of the biggest donkey hands of the night was when I called a $5 raise from Fawcett with garbage and hit it, but primarily because Fawcett is good enough to get away from hands, and rarely pays people off, and he didn't there. Which is why every single one of Thum's plays made perfect sense -- he called aggressive raises from people who like to fire chips at people with less than made, because he was holding small connectors or one-holers into multiway pots where he could easily fold if he hit nothing or take huge pots if he hit, which he did more than once. This also made his truly strong pre-flop hands more effective, so that when he had, in three consecutive hands, Q-Q, Q-Q, A-A, he was again paid off, except the first time when his Q-Q ran into my K-K.

If we want to talk about bad plays, the worst play of the night easily was made by me. It was the one that helped Tim go from 500 down to 300 down. Five limpers, and with A-Ks in the big blind I raise to $10. Three callers, including Tim, who announces, Fuck it, I'm tilting. Flop comes A-Q-10 with 2 diamonds. Checked to Tim, who fires $30 at the pot. Folded to me, and I tank a bit, deciding he has a weak ace or something like K-Q, a pair with a gut-buster draw. I make the worst play I could possibly make there and call. Turn is a 5, Tim bets $50, I push all in, he calls with A-5. Just a horrible play by Tulsa. Again, people were screaming that Tim donkeyed me, but that was a hand that I allowed him to take control of and was too scared to push when I should have.

Oh, another interesting hand. Four players, fairly limpy, flop comes 10-8-7 rainbow. I bet, Thum raises big, Tim pushes all in, I go into a monster tank with 10-8. I fold, Thum calls, $400 in the pot, both show 6-9, river is an 8, I woulda tripled up. I may have cursed. Dan called later to tell me it was bad poker to fold the winner.

Donkey Night at Fawcett's

I didn't play cards last night. Here are a couple reports on what I missed. Sounds like Tum, who won for the first time since August, was extra Tummy.

- Thum was extra table captain-y. My favorite part was when Eric knocked over a few drops of after dealing. In one breath, Thum told Eric to get some paper towel (he pointed to the kitchen in case Eric didn't know where to go), told Aaron to take over shuffling duties from Eric, told me to change the TV to the Mavericks game, AND was able to identify the Van Halen song on the radio.
- At one point Thum talk-sang some Jethro Tull song, I seriously thought about punching myself in the face to try and knock myself out. Also, does fawcett own stock in minute maid?

Add this one to your bookmarks...

Mike May, east coast poker player and close friend of my man-grushee, has a neat little blog. Check out the post on his main event experience. I think he does as good a job as anyone has describing the experience, especially for all the non-seasoned pros.

Also, check out his great post on the Farha-Sheiky coin-flip. That's me in the Walter hat.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

GO BATFACES!

Hoopsy for Having

Poker is about making new friends. With that in mind, we've decided to open up the annual Batface NCAA Tournement Pick'em to the tens of readers that enjoy this blog daily. It's free to enter, and the winner will win.

In order to join the group, just go to http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/men and click on the "Sign Up" button to create a team. After completing registration, or if you already have a team, click the "Create or Join Group" button and follow the path to join an existing private group. Then, when prompted, enter the following information...

Group ID#: 102788
Password: veryflushy

Deco Chic Takes Huge Step up Poker Ladder

I'm on a break from poker. I figured that would mean I was away from blogging as well, unless I happened to come across something that couldn't be missed. I did.

We've found it strange that no one, including Pokerati, has heard from Dan since he and Deco Chic embarked on the Party Poker cruise. We've considered all the options...computer problems, he lost his cruise tickets, heavy drinking, but now it's clear he's disappeared at the hands of Mike Sexton.

Thanks to this blog, for the proof.

Running Good

It's been hard to do much pokering of late due to my life changes and what not. Fortunately, I've been able to sneak in a few hours with the BF homegame every Thursday night to keep my mind off of all things careery. Sometimes the BF game can be frustratey, cally, drinky and stupid, even forcing people to give up the game for Lent. And sometimes, no matter how hard you try and how bad you play, you just continue to get there.

The cards have absolutely runneth over me in the past month plus with nary a bit of help from me. Last week, I sat down late, and the first hand I was dealt queens. I bet it, it was called in 46 spots, an ace AND king flopped, somehow it was checked around TWICE, and I rivered the nut flush to double up. Last night, I sat down late, was dealt JTo, flopped two pair and more than doubled up. That has repeated itself in some form or fashion throughout the last several nights of poker. I may not be the best player at our player, but I'm certainly the luckiest (or at least the second-luckiest, since Tulsa still plays in the game).

DanHammer Worm Infects Internet Poker Sites; Suckouts Abound; Tagg Breaks Laptop, Kills Self

[image thanks to and via the Mad Man]

Listen Up, Tiny B

This is why folks like Tiny B and other Batfaces who berate loose play should take a lesson from Felicia Lee, who ruminates on the psychology of good poker. She explains why part of that is being tolerant of bad poker. My favorite sentence of the post is as follows:

4) I realize that poker is not chess, it is poker, and that I rarely have even as much as 5% of an advantage over the worst player at the table, because of the luck factor

Where is the Celestey J.C. Tran?

Good column wondering how they chose the folks they did for the Heads-up Tourney on NBC. Suffice to say the Asians ain't happy. Are they, Sang?

Daniel Straight

Neg takes out Clout. Ouchie hand from Pokerwire:

Daniel Negreanu knocks out TJ Cloutier
Daniel Negreanu limped in pre-flop, TJ Cloutier raised,and Negreanu called. The flop came
[10♣][7♠][3♦] and both players checked. The turn came
[8♠], Cloutier bet 20k and Negreanu called. The river came [3♣], Cloutier moved all in and Negreanu called. The players turned up:

Daniel Negreanu [J][9]
TJ Cloutier [10♥][7♣]

Daniel Negreanu eliminated TJ Cloutier with his straight. TJ Cloutier took home $25,000.

Here is DN's take on his day. Looks like his strategy paid off, as it usually does when you're drawing inside on the turn. (Can you fault T.J. for checking the flop there? Discuss.)

T.J. in the Hizzay

From Pokerwire:

TJ Cloutier busts Phil Laak
TJ Cloutier raised to 6k pre-flop and Phil Laak pushed all in. Cloutier called, and the players showed:

TJ Cloutier [Q♠][Q♣]
Phil Laak [7♣][7♥]

The board came [J][8][5][A♥][3♦] and TJ Cloutier eliminated Phil Laak with his pocket [Q]s.

Next he goes up against Daniel Negraueaneannneueau. (sp?)

Go T.J.! Go Poker! Go Home Game! Go Grifting!

Heads up! Crackers coming!

With apologies to The No. 1 Stunna, the most well-known heads-up activity in the nation got underway yesterday, and, per usual, Lasvegasvegas.com has the best coverage. Can't wait to hear how the second-round battle between T.J. Cloutier and Jennifer Tilly's hooded man-bitch works out. And if you think that sounds like jealousy, you are spot-on, bee-yotch. Erry-buddy sing!

Better raise up (raise up!)

Big chips if ya made something

Another Batface Blogger

It looks as if there is more competition amongst The Batfaces on who is the king of blogging. Our lovely and upbeat Robert, who on the side is a model for Sharp televisions, oversees this new blog. My only concern with his blog is that Gonz is a contributer. We've seen what he can do to a blog.

The Sports Guy Does Poker

Now that my favorite writer is going to the WSOP, I might have to stop by. Will Sommer be able to get us passes?

Donkey's

Somehow Peaches found time during his workday to surf ESPN.COM. He came across a pretty funny article on "Donkeyism". Again, since I can't write I will let others humor you.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/poker/columns/story?columnist=bluff_magazine&id=2347956