I'm pretty pumped about the new James Bond. This guy looks much more serious than some of the recent bonds.. Kind like Sean Connery in the earlier films. Very tough. And it looks like they are putting poker at center stage of the action. I just saw some of the promo videos on Youtube.com. Check them out. Type in 'james bond poker' and quite a few come up. They are playing a multi-million poker match. I heard there's one crazy pot where Bond has AK on a AAJJK board or something like that. Won't tell you what his opponent has but you can probably guess. Anyway, it should be cool. I'll let you know what I think once I see it.

Just a quick entry before I head into class. Had a very weird session last night. I got my money in as favorite 4 times:

1) AA vs. AK vs. QQ preflop. Lost to both when the flop came down TJQ.
2) A2 vs. KQh on a Ah2h5c board. Heart came on river.
3) JJ vs. 99 all-in preflop. Guy hit a straight!
4) Board of TJ5, I have 55, I raise, he reraises I push he calls. He turns over 89s and turns a 7! Why the hell is he calling me?

On the other hand I won twice as a dog. I check raised on the flop when I had a nut flush draw and two overs. Guy calls with two pair, and I rivered the flush.

I also had TT vs. AA. Just called the preflop raise and I flopped a set. Guy raises on flop, I call. He raises on turn and I push and he calls. I guess I was the favorite when the money got in on that one.

Played some $2-4 on Stars this morning for about an hour. My usual 3 table setup. I have been trying to be a bit more patient and today I made it a goal to keep my VPIP % in the very tight 10-15% range. It's hard to do this when playing live or playing one table but when playing 3 or more tables it's not too difficult because you do see some premium hands. I wanted to only play JJ+, AK and in late position I would open with AJ+ and 88+ from the CO or button. I started off with AA twice and QQ once and all three times I reraised when it was raised to me and everyone folded. Very suprising because this rarely happens.

I then get TT and raise $15 from the button and both blinds call. The flop comes rags and the blinds check. I bet the pot and get check-raised by the BB. I decide to call. The turn pairs the top card which is a 7. The big blind now checks so I check too. The river is an A and the BB checks again. I check and take down the pot. He had 55. As Borat would say N I C E.

Here is another interesting hand. I'm in the SB with 22 and it's raised from the button. I know I said that I would need better hands than this, but I really felt that he could have anything. The flop comes 2 k a . I need to protect my hand so I bet the pot. He raises. I felt that he had either a big A, was bluffing or was on a flush draw. Whatever he had I was fairly sure I was ahead and I didn't want him catching up so I push.

He is on a flush draw with A 9 . The turn is a rag, but the q hits on the river and he stacks me. Damn! I'm not too upset given that I played the hand well, but if I only followed my advice and didn't play the hand I would have been fine. Oh, well. $500 down the drain on that hand.

I had a nice hand a little while later where I have AK, raise preflop from late position and am reraised by the button. The flop comes A high and I bet about 2/3rds of the pot, the button pushes and I'm now screwed. If I were playing live and had more time to think about it I might fold here. But there was a flush draw on the board and the other two cards are 57. I felt that this guy would not have called my PF raise with A5, A7 or 57. If he had a set would he really push now? Probably not. I decided that he had either a strong A or a flush draw so I called. Sure enough he had AQ and my hand held up. Sweet!

I ended up about $100 for the session. Not bad for an hour, especially given the fact that I had been stacked.

If you know me then you know that I love two things -- poker and Borat. I play poker every chance I get and I just LOVE Borat. The guy makes me laugh it sometimes hurts. A good hurt. I was so jazzed to see the Borat movie and finally got a chance last night. What a disappointment. I actually fell asleep about 2/3rds of the way through.




What I love about Borat is that he interviews real people and they think they are really talking to this strange dude. He gets them to say some very politically incorrect things and it's usually very funny. While he does do some of this in the movie, the majority of the movie is filled with staged scenes. I guess the filmmakers felt that they needed some kind of structure to keep it moving, but it just didn't work for me. I want real people, not actors. What's worse, there were scenes where they make it seem that things are real, but I was pretty sure they were staged. Anyway, I'll just need to stick to the youtube clips of his best moments. One of my favorites is linked below. Enjoy -- and if you cheat on me I will CRUSH YOU!

Borat Guide to Dating