PokerJobber

So we are trying to get a weekly poker game together…the past two Wednesday’s we’ve had a game. Dwayne had the idea that we should start keeping a few stats so this week was the first go round at it. It turns out it was also an incredibly easy week to take stats because Dick kicked everyone’s asses. Everyone bought in for $20 and there were no reloads…well you can check out the stats below.

If anyone can think of a stat category that I missed, speak now before we get a couple weeks into this. Most importantly we need a name for our traveling poker league. Maybe a few words that create a good acronym of some sort…either using the word poker, gaming, or gambling, etc. Post any ideas in the comment section and we can take a vote.

Session Date: 12/20/2006
Location: Lansdowne, VA

*Host

Edit: I was told my numbers were slightly off…since we usually round to the nearest dollar when actually doing payouts, I rounded the numbers here as well.

Here is an email I received today from PokerStars support (More info following the email):

Hello bjtylerx,

Recently we observed that you made some statements in your chat about the integrity of the games here on PokerStars. Your comments are copied below.

At PokerStars, we take the integrity of our games very seriously. We need to ensure that players trust our site, and for that reason, we make every effort to make our poker games secure, fair and honest.

When a player makes comments suggesting that our site’s integrity is compromised, we must take action. We ask that you refrain from making these comments at our tables. We are glad you have selected PokerStars as your choice for poker enjoyment, so we are sending you this message in the hopes that we will not need to take any further action.

However, you should be aware that we will be monitoring your chat and further transgressions will result in the removal of your chat privileges.

We hope that you continue to enjoy playing at PokerStars.

Regards,

Ed A
PokerStars Support Team

—
79042545 bjtylerx this is rigged 2 12/16/2006 11:02:04 PM

Come on PokerStars…take a chill pill and look at my comment in context. The chat took place during a high stakes $5 SNG with lots of playful, joking chatting. Here is an abridged hand history from the aforementioned chat (I took out the betting and left mainly the chat for easy reading):

PokerStars Game #7476051221: Tournament #38243484, $5.00+$0.50 Hold’em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2006/12/16 - 23:00:38 (ET)
Table ‘38243484 1′ 9-max Seat #8 is the button
wehawk29 said, “i like blue men”
wehawk29 said, “do you have blue balls?”
xthecritic said, “lol”
*** FLOP *** [5c 5h 5d]
bjtylerx said, “heh”
wehawk29 said, “hey guys i had the other 5″
bjtylerx said, “papa smurfs are red”
wehawk29 said, “shhh….”
*** TURN *** [5c 5h 5d] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [5c 5h 5d Jh] [Ks]
wehawk29 said, “(jk) dont anyone take me seriously”
bjtylerx said, “don’t you know you’re never suppossed to fold any hand preflop?”
wehawk29 said, “i like to sit back and watch alot”
*** SHOW DOWN ***
k_blaze: shows [5s 7c] (four of a kind, Fives)
picowynn: shows [8c Kc] (a full house, Fives full of Kings)
k_blaze collected 920 from pot
wehawk29 said, “told ya i joke”
bjtylerx said, “5 fives!?!?”
wehawk29 said, “nh k blaze”
xthecritic said, “sick”
bjtylerx said, “this is rigged”
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 920 | Rake 0
Board [5c 5h 5d Jh Ks]
Seat 5: k_blaze showed [5s 7c] and won (920) with four of a kind, Fives
Seat 7: picowynn showed [8c Kc] and lost with a full house, Fives full of Kings

I think anyone who looks at this chat can tell I’m clearly joking…I love playing on PokerStars but don’t really like the idea of being singled out for chat observation. I’ve replied to the email asking them to look at the entire chat and asking them if they autoscan all the chats looking for similar phrases…I’ll keep you updated on any response I get.

Update: I sent PokerStars a reply pointing out the context of my joke etc…here is the response I got from PokerStars support team member Narinder (Narinder!?):

Hello Brandon,

Thanks for your response.  Thats just it, joke or not we request you do not make such comments.  We get countless emails in which players who doubt our shuffle refer to players at the table often talking about how our shuffle is rigged.

Such comments should not be made, joke or not.  We would appreciate your co-operation.

If there is anything else we can do for you, please let us know.

Regards,

Narinder
PokerStars Support Team

Holy smokes it’s PokerJobber!

Last Tuesday I finally convinced Dwayne to go to Ned Devines for their weekly poker night (8:30pm every Tuesday). I sat down and asked my fellow players how much each chip was worth (everyone does it differently)…everything made sense except the white chips were worth $1,000 (the highest denomination)…usually white chips are the least valuable, so that was odd. After getting the chip denominations I added up my stack…$3,200 starting chips…also odd. The blind structure was decent though so there was room for some actualy play. Total players: about 50-55.

Ned Devine’s allows smoking so this was a classic poker situation - players smoking and drinking with lots of loose play since it was a free roll. First prize was a $75 gift certificate to Ned’s. After the first player at our table went out a new and very familiar player was moved to our table. Her name was Darci and she was wearing dark clothes and I definitely knew her from somewhere… “Are you from the Winchester or Stephens City area?” I asked…. “No, but I lived there for about a year a long time ago” It turned out we both went to Aylor Middle School together during eighth grade about 11 years ago! She didn’t seem to remember me but I definitely remembered her…only one memory really - after Curt Cobain killed himself I remember her coming to school dressed in all black with a Cobain shirt on and she seemed upset/depressed. For some reason this stuck out in my head. I suck with names….but I guess I remember faces.

Dwayne tripled up in the first hour with AA but did have much luck besides that. Before 10pm Dwayne was out…luckily for him our fellow tablemates informed us there was another free tourney at a bar within walking distance! My only big hand at the first table was KK which I doubled up on. I was definitely below average when our table got broken up.

At table two I chipped up by taking down a bunch of small pots…table two was also where I met “Sam”. Sam had a very very small resemblance to Sammy Farha (i.e. dark skin and a mountain of chips) and another player at our table dubbed him “Sam”. Sam was hitting a lot of hands so I steered clear of him for the most part. After I knocked out two short stacks at table two, the tournament was down to nine players and we were moved to the final table.

The final table seemed to work well for me…I played fairly conservative nine handed so when I did play I got some respect (which I was a little surprised about)…but this allowed me to steal a few pots when there were mutliple limpers. I got a text message from Dwayne saying he was card dead at the other bar…Then I attempted to send a text message to Katie…in a hurry I selected who I thought was Katie from my contact list…turns out I told a friend of mine from college “Kara” that I loved her and that I was at the final table. A few minutes later she informed me that she was flattered and good luck at the final table, but she thinks I may have messaged the wrong person. doh!

After a while I found myself heads up with none other than Sam. Sam kept saying he was tired (it was a little after midnight) and that he was going to push all in with any hand. At this point he had about four times my chip stack at least. Hand number one I look down at . I put all my chips in and he shows . His hand held up and I took second. Second prize: zilch.

Interesting enough, the whole night I only once made a hand bigger than 2 pair which was a straight during the final table. Definitely a fun time and I will be going back for some more poker. Hopefully I’ll take first next time.