5 Questions for: MEATS

Meats has been a CPMG poker icon for a number of years now. Always outspoken and opinionated, he has a take on every hand, and has never once been wrong. He does however have great taste in chili.

He's never seen a tournament structure that he really liked, and in fine Meatsian fashion, he has turned my "5 Questions" into 6 questions, by adding one at the end. NH sir.

Nickname: Meat

Age: 28

Hometown: Cortland, Ohio

Hobbies: Golf, Fantasy Football

1. What was your first CPMG experience? I played in a Meetup game at Coleman's stuffed into his tiny apt with 30+ other people, half of which were new. It was alot of fun and I came back week after week. That was in the Spring of 05.

2. Prefer tourney or cash? This is a tough question. At times I much prefer the one over the other. But all-in-all, I think it is close to an even split. A few years ago I played in 40+ POY events and played every single 1-2 game Coleman had. I was one of the only people who would play 1-2 and the tournaments. But since I have to make a stand, I will say that I prefer cash games 55-45 over tournaments.

3. What pro player do you think you play like? This is a tough question. I tend to be very analytical, especially when I play a cash game, and when I play a tournament I am really looking to allow any skill advantage I have to come through. So I would say that in a tournament I do play alot like Phil Hellmuth, and I do occasionally blow at someone who does something really stupid. In a cash game, I think I play more like a Howard Lederer, I really look at the math portion of the game. This isnt to say that I never play by feel, as I certainly do. But I do let math dictate alot in a cash game, as I try to get the money in as good as I can.

4. 3 favorite hands? It was be easy to say AA and big hands like that, but that is the easy way out. Some of my favorite hands include 8-T and 7-9. I won my first big online tournament with 8-T, so it will always be one of the ones I look to play. Another hand I really like to play is QJ. I think that it can be really deceptive at a poker game. I try not to go nuts with it, but it can be a very good multi-way hand.

5. It’s the first hand of the WSOP main event, and you have bought in with every penny of your bankroll. One person goes all-in, and another calls. It folds to you, and there is no one else to call behind you. You look down at AA. What do you do? No doubt I call here with AA. Despite my immense skill as a poker player, I will not be close to the the best player in the room. So I will need to try and get as many chips as I can, and it is very unlikely no matter how long I sit around that I will find a better spot than this o get my money in.

6. (Briefly recall a great hand you've played) - ADDED BY MEATS...So it's my 2nd day in Vegas and I go to the Venetian and accidentally get seated at the 2-5 with Dohar and Diablo. There is this guy who is just running over everyone. A couple rounds in I am up about 100 when I pick up AQ suited and I raise from late position to 20$. I get 2 callers one of which is the crazy player. The flop is 9 8 3 with 2 spades, I put out a stand continuation bet of 35$, getting 1 player to fold but the crazy player calls me. He had over 800 in chips when the hand started. The turn was a red 4 and it went check-check. The river is a 2 clubs and I check to him. He fires 100$ into a pot of 130$. I was almost certain he had a draw, based on the fact he checked the turn. 6-7, T-J, 7-T, or 2 spades and all of those draws missed. I thought about it for about 30 seconds and slide in a full red stack of 100$. He turns over T-7 off suit for a busted straight and I say A high and flip over my AQ. The guy goes apeshit and he leaves with the UB pro on his left to do some coke.

No love this weekend

Getting a little sick of tournaments. Enough said there.

No love in the cash game this week either. Didn't play well and had 2nd best all night. My little man told me to stay home. Guess I shoulda listened. One thing for sure, I was at the wrong table. My table was much more conservative. Also, Hip and Meats were hitting everything. Jamie was there and hitting the board as well. I generally call every bet he makes, but he had me beat this week. There's always Nautica! I'll probably head down there Tuesday night. Early Thursday morning, me and the wife are headed back to NC for a mini-vacation. Gonna do some hiking, biking, and canoeing. Can't wait.

Up next...the beginning of my "5 Questions" series.

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Check out this website for some great t-shirts, hats, coffee mugs, etc. I just ordered a couple items today. You can even design your own shirts.

My little man...

KRAMER: Now what does the little man inside you say? See you gotta listen to the little man.
GEORGE: My little man doesn’t know.
KRAMER: The little man knows all.
GEORGE: My little man’s an idiot.

My little man is right about 90% of the time when I play poker. Unfortunately, I only listen to him about 40% of the time. But I am learning. Learning from past mistakes and learning to listen to the little man. When he tells me to cash out, he is almost dead on. He KNOWS when I am at my high water mark in chips at the table. There is almost always a point in a session where I am ahead. I am learning that if I want to make money at poker (instead of hang out with friends while playing poker), I need to cash out when the little man says I should. The little man knows all...

"Hey Kramer! Are you in?"

"You kiddin'?! You see those ladies showin'? You think they're scared?!

Nautica...who needs a casino?

Final score...up $620. Went on a roller coaster ride for a while. Started off up a few hundo, then got A9 beat by Q9 on a 99x board. Turn was a Q after I got all his $$ into the pot. Ouch.

Donkey hand of the night...I was around even and got A-10 off in late position and limped. Flop is 10xx, all hearts, and I have the Ah. I bet like $20 and get raised to $60, and take another card. Brick. Kd. I check and the other guy pushes for $204. Seemed like a huge bet for the flush. I really thought my top-top on the flop may have been good and he was chasing away the flush draw. I call and hit the A-high flush on the river. Dude gives me the deer-in-the-headlights look, and I say I called him and want to see his cards, and he flips Jxh, for a flopped flush, and I turn over the crushing blow. Oops. Better lucky than good. Slacks and Colin were at my table. Slacks berated me for chasing every flush, and Colin just kinda shook his head. Hey, when you're running good, play every hand.

I later lost with a 10-high flush to a J-high flush, and the roller coaster continued. There was a guy to the right of the dealer that was just awful...I mean bad. But people kept giving him chips. I gave him about $60 at one point. One hand, he thought he had the wheel, but only had a pair of 4's. He was betting into my boat on a board of A33xA. He bets $50 on the river, and although I thought he rivered me, I called anyway. He had 99. Ship it. I later got him with a set of 4's and then a nut straight, which took all his money.

Best and last hand of the night for me... I limp with 6-7 suited,and flop is 578. I dont remember how the betting went, but I know I bet the flop. Might have been raised on the flop, but turn was a 7. There was more betting, and the river gave me QUADS. I look the guy dead in the eye and gave him my sad face. Check. He insta-pushes a stack into the pot, and I go all-in. He gives me the rest of his money. TY for calling. Not sure if I had him on the flop, but I surely had him on the turn.

So, 2 minutes later I am still stacking chips when they come to collect another $15 seat fee. No thanks. The target on my back was huge, even though I busted 3 guys that left the table.

Other hands of note:
* Caught trip 3's two hands in a row. Announced I only played the 2nd hand becaus eI had one the last. Worked well.
* Made a great bluff on the car salesman next to me. I flopped a gutshot/flush draw/straight flush draw, bet, got raised. LEAD OUT on the turn when I bricked, then put him all-in on the river after I bricked again. He folded. Whew.
* Folded KK on a board of 723A. He bet the flop like he had a set, then went nuts on the turn. Easy fold. Didn't lose a ton like I usually do with AA/KK.

Other CPMG'ers in attendance...Meats (up almost $300), Slacks (up $75), TK (up $60), RP (not sure how he did), Brad Laidman (up, not sure how much), Mailman (up), Gross (down when I left), Colin was way up from what I hear, and Hip got his AA cracked by some moron that called $75 preflop with 5-6 off and flopped 2 pr. HUGE pot at the $2-5 game. I know that pain. It can haunt you. You're solid Hip, keep playing the way you play and you'll get it back.

The place wasn't very busy, but maybe people aren't aware it's open all week now. Link to their website is on the right, or you can click here

Weekend update

Well, the team tourney went smoothly. There were quite a few naysayers that were dead wrong in their predictions. Turbo Tom even said it would end in a fistfight. FAIL!!

It was a great time, as you can see from the pics. Me and my crazians went deep, but my A-10 ran into Colin's AK and I was crippled, along with Dohar's AQ vs. AK. Karl couldn't pick up a playable hand. I saw him lay down JJ preflop to what turned out to be top 2 pair and a set of 3's that turned into quads, so great laydown there. Oh well, we'll get them next time. See the post on the CPMG board for more details and TK's pics.

The cash game went pretty bad for me. Got AA cracked by 10-7 off after I raised to $17 preflop. Brandon was on fire and couldn't miss. He's a gambler. I wish he came to the cash game all the time. Good dude, but he throws money into every pot. Unfortunately, he was hitting everything hard. I lost $400 and change.

Luckily, the weekend was not over for me. Busted out of Dave's tourney in the usual way, by getting SUCKED OUT as a huge favorite. I got JJ busted by K-10 and then AQ busted by 8-9 to hit the rail. You cant win a tourney without luck.

Once again, the cash game saved me. I cashed $715 on a single $150 buy-in, and Meats did even better, cashing $810 on $140. We didn't go up against each other much, but I did give him a few bucks. He was hitting everything. I had to get lucky.

For some reason, J5 suited has been my money hand lately. I cracked KK with it by boating up. Later, I flopped the nuts with a 5-7 and a board of 3-4-6. Got paid!!

I also called a HUGE bet from Grayday of $100 in a $150 pot with middle pair when I knew he just held a big A. Right on. I saw Meats call a huge river bet with a flush on a double-paired board. NH sir.

So, I finished the weekend up a little. I think I'm gonna hit up Nautica this week. EVERYONE is winning down there. Oh, except for Slacks. Karma dude. You've successfully isolated yourself from just about the entire group. Is that the plan?

Dave's 5/3

Almost made the final table in the tourney, but alas, it was not meant to be. My AQ didn't hold up against Jack T-way's Q-10 and it was the crippling blow that sent me to the rail after being my table's chip leader for the last couple hours. No way Jack was going anywhere with those chips either. He gave them away in about a half hour. Tourneys suck.

Thankfully, there was a cash game. First hand, I get QQ, make a nice raise, and everyone at the table is like "here comes Diablo with the action"...WTF, I had QQ!! Flop is something like 10-high and I bet out, Ryan Rufe raises, and I put him all-in, and his set of 7's holds up. NH. I lose a hundo right off the bat, add on, then add on another about 30 min later. Played pretty bad for most of the night and was on a roller coaster. I'd get back to +150 or so, then miss a draw and give it all back. Chased a HUGE pot where I had an open-ender that would have put me way up. Bricked out.

TK brought some AWESOME popcorn with no salt. Tasted like packing peanuts.

Luckily, Tony and Danny C were still there, and I hit a couple of hands against TK (me and TK were paying each other off all night), so I managed to eke out $200 in profit from the cash game. With 15 min left in the night, and at my high point, I cash out. Meats calls me a pussy. Thanks buddy. Sorry for the hit and run, lol.

So the win streak continues. Well not exactly a streak, but I am on such a great run at the cash game. Which is why I'm NOT going to Vegas in June with everyone. I've had my cold dose of reality in Sin City. No need to get punched in the gut again. I'd like to hold onto my bankroll this time.

Another Nautica win

Up $560 at Nautica Thursday night. Read more here. Nothing spectacular, but I was sitting there at one point thinking "I am definitely the best player at this table". Not to sound cocky, but the others were just bad players. I had most of the chips on the table as well. I've got that confidence back where I can sit there and say to myself "No one is going to take this stack away from me". I knew when I was beat, I played smarter/tighter, and walked away when at my high point.

I haven't been keeping accurate records lately (superstition when on a win streak), but I have won something like 12 of 14 cash sessions. Definitely a combination of luck and better play. The better play comes from better hand selection, tight/aggressive style, switching gears to a different style when necessary, and less bluffing of people that don't fold to bluffs.

Sent an email to my teammates for the team tourney with some strategy notes. We're going to be a well-oiled poker machine. Watch out.

After Nautica, me and Meats went to Champps at Crocker Park for a bite. They had karaoke going and there were a couple girls and 1 guy that were damn good. Found out that Meats likes Celine Dion. Huuh? I have a one-word reply for you sir...Aerosmith.

What a weekend

First off, the weather this weekend was fantastic. Sunny and in the 80's. Hit up Nautica Friday night, along with about 8 other CPMG'ers. Sat down and immediately got every hand crushed. I had 2-pr about 6 times and got them all beat. I played a couple of them badly, and the others there was no way to get the others to fold. So I finally get pocket 2's and raise it to $12 preflop and got a few callers, 1 of which was Brad Laidman. I flop a set of 2's on a board of K-10-2 with 2 clubs. There was a bet, a raise, then Laidman calls. I push over the top, get one caller, and Laidman calls as well. I was up against top 2 and Brad's nut flush draw, and I held up. That took me from down $300+ to up about $200. I built it to about a $350 profit, then got top 2 (AQ) cracked YET AGAIN, and dropped most of my profit. Somehow, in about an hour, I managed to build it back up to a $325 profit, and I got the hell outta there.

A couple of Nautica notes:
* The dealers are really hot or miss. The 2 dealers we had didn't know what day it was. These guys were awful. Several misdeals, a few times they turned a card before the betting was done, etc. The dealer asked the one volunteer to go fetch me some chips, and he just got that deer in the headlights look, and got totally confused. He did manage to make it back to the table with my stack and a half of low society.
* The charity hosts apparently supply the food that's for sale. This weekend, there wasn't much there, but there was a large roaster full of some really good rigatoni and meatballs. I had 2 orders.
* Parking is $6 on the weekends as opposed to $3 during the week.
* The seat fee really isn't that bad when you factor in tips, travel time, gas, etc.

So a few of us went over to Harbor Inn after the gambling. JC even showed up. Hadn't seen him in quite some time. Always a pleasure. TK was ogling the bartender's ample bosom. OK, I looked at them too. They were real, and they were spectacular.

So, Saturday at Dave's. First off, me and the wife went for a bike ride after running some errands. We had to go get her a new rim for her bike. The original had mysteriously become horribly warped, like it had been hit by a car, but we couldn't think of any explanation. Hmmm...

So, the tourney. I lost almost half my stack to Hip with 2 pr vs. his flopped set. I had top/top to start off and couldn't let it go even after Hip raised me. Rivered my 2nd pair and I bet into him. Luckily, he just called. Ouch.

So I manage to get a lot of it back and was sitting on around 7000 when I get pocket J's. Jack T-way is under the gun and leads out with a bet of 700 (blinds are at 100-200), Dave O (the chubby Harry Potter) calls, and I go all-in for like 6300 more. Jack is obviously INCAPABLE of folding pocket 10's, and flops a set of course. You have to figure, with a huge overbet like I made, I have to have a big pair or AK/AQ, right? At best, he's a coin flip, and it's WAY too early for coin flips. So he had a monster stack after that but still didn't even make the final table, then played cash for about a half hour until that was gone as well. Always a pleasure to see Jack walk through the door.

On to the cash game! I bought in for my first hundo and gave most of it to Ryan Sadd, another one who is incapable of folding after hitting the board. He cracked my AK with his K5 suited (called $12 preflop of course) after hitting his 2nd pair on the river. I have stopped bluffing Ryan. I will never bluff him again. He also MUST bet every street, regardless of his hand, if he raised preflop. TK made mention sometime during the evening that it's amazing he ever has chips.

Anyway...I started hitting hands and hitting them pretty hard. I was something like 6 for 8 on flush draws, and I played each a little differently to mix it up a bit. Lead out, check/call, check/raise, etc. Got max value for all of them. Once I was ahead about $400, I locked up my chips and got really conservative, but still kept hitting hands. It's great to have the image of a maniac that plays everything. When the cards hit, they pay handsomely.

Grayday was there and tilting, and he raised someone's $6 bet to $26, and I called out of spite with my J-10, and flopped a J. I knew he had just a big A, either AK or AQ, and raised him on the flop, then put him all-in on the river. He called me for his last $100+ with AK high and missed. That tilted him even worse, so he threw a party for Hip Hop, and gave Hip his entire stack. Twice. Holiday Inn Jim was there with his buddy,and they both gave away a bunch of money at the other table.

I managed to cash $1008 on 2 buy-ins of a hundo each. That puts me up almost $3200 in 2 weeks. Woo hoo.

Show us your tots

Went out for the 2nd annual Tater Tot contest at Bar Louie last night. Small crowd compared to last year. We missed the contest.

I'm heading down to Nautica after work today, probably around 5pm. Gonna hit and run most likely.

Wed night at Dave's

Had a good time and left with a nice win. I ate too many Little Debbie swiss rolls.

Uncle Bob showed up to spice up an already out of hand cash game. There were 2 tables, and luckily mine was a bit more conservative. Grayday brought a guy that sat at our table that just handed me money all night. Gotta love that. Danny C and Tony showed up. I stacked Danny at least once. I had AK and he had K7. He couldn't lay it down. Board was something like K559J.

Although I was up about $350 at one point, I left up almost $200. I gave some back in the last round when Grayday's guest hit his kicker with K5 vs my big slick. I had AK about 6 times last night. I also missed an open-ended straight and flush draw that would have paid nicely. Oh well, profit!

My wife is visiting a friend tomorrow night so I may hit up Nautica for a few hours. Who's in?

Saturday Night

So, just to set the record straight, I was just bustin Hip's balls with that last post. He knows I love him, I just can't beat him in a hand. He made a good call as usual. I do bluff Hip a lot and he catches me a lot. NH.

Basic rundown from Sat night:

Started off bad, got down to $80 or so, built it back up to almost $500 after shifting gears, then got AA and KK cracked by KK and AK respectively in the last 20 min of the night, and lost the last of my stack with 6-7 of hearts on a board of 45x (or 58x) with 2 hearts. I had the open-ender/flush draw.

Can't even complain about bad calls or anything with any of the hands. Danny C got lucky against my AA and KK, hitting a 2 and 3-outer, but I couldn't expect him to lay down preflop, even though I did re-raise him. On the 6-7, we were both gambling against Colin's AA when he re-raised big preflop. I am pretty sure my hand was a favorite after the flop, but Danny had the bigger flush draw with K8, and we both hit the flush.

So Danny had 2 buy-ins of $60 invested and cashed $850. That'll keep him coming back at least, and you can't hit 2-outers every time. He's not a donkey but he plays the cash game like a tourney. One thing he should really be aware of though is the slow-roll. Eventually someone is gonna blow up at him.