I arrived about an hour ago. My first order of business for the trip was to stop for a massage. My therapist Sue had a wonderful touch and the half hour flew by way too fast.

I was greeted by Kyle Villers and Adam Huch, our hosts for the weekend at baggage claim. We are waiting for the other ladies flights to arrive before catching the limo to the hotel.

As luck would have it, We spotted Maria Ho waiting in the baggage claim area, looking beautiful as ever!!
Tiffany “Hot Chips” Michelle showed up a few minutes later. The word is Jennifer Leigh has landed and is taxiing as I type this.

This is going to be awesome!

The new year has not started off quite the way I planned. I have missed all the great tournaments that were on my schedule due to an injury on Jan 2. This injury has kept me pretty much a home body ever since.

No Beau Rivage. No Borgata. Nothing. I haven’t even felt like taking care of business. So I am behind in emails, blogs, articles, and poker news and that is just on the business side of poker. If I look at my to do list for my personal life, my head just swims!

I am healing and plan to play in the WSOP Circuit event at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in Feburary. I so want to be there…

I was interviewed by Ashley Adams for the House of Cards.  We had a good laugh looking back on my start in poker.  You can catch the show on several radio stations and via internet.  Click here to see where to listen http://houseofcardsradio.com/pages/stationlist.shtml.  If you procrastinate, it will be archived for your listening pleasure in a couple weeks.   

Ashley is the author of Winning 7-Card Stud (Kensington Press 2003) and the new e-book, Winning at Low-Limit, No-Limit.  .Ashley contributes to  poker magazines such as Poker Player Newspaper and Poker News. 

Thanks for having me on the show!  I had a great time!

1/8/2011 8:02 am
Good Morning! When I awoke the morning I was full of idea to write about and things to expound on but that was an hour ago. Instead of coming right to my computer I allowed myself to be distracted by a few guiltless chores: making my bed led to folding up several days’ worth of pajamas. The pj folding became hanging up a few shirts, which invariably became, “Oh, I should check the dryer—turn it on for a fluff”, which then morphed into folding clothes followed by “Let’s try to match all the unpaired socks.” Next thing I know an hour has passed and I have no clue what I wanted to write about.

Isn’t that just like human nature? We fail to be purposeful in our actions and allow innocent distractions, however worthy, to take us off our planned purpose. To be a really good poker player or any other worthy pursuit, we must become disciplined in our actions. We cannot let the litany of the urgent rob us of our prime time. Our prime time must become sacred, allowing no one, activity, or thing to intrude. To get what we’ve never had, we must do what we’ve never done. ~Anonymous

I made the final table of the Borgata December Mini-Series yesterday.  This two day event $500+60 was a “one re-entry” tournament. This structure allowed for a person busting out in the first four levels to one more chance.  A re-entry structure differs from a re-buy event in that when busting, you leave your table and return to the cashier to buy in again.  This means you will get a new seating assignment, a new stack of chips, and pay the house another entry fee for a do- over.  In this case the re-entry fee was a fair $60.

One of the difficulties with traveling alone, especially for me as a married lady is the loneliness.  And this loneliness is never strong than when I run deep into a tournament. I keep my guy friends at arm’s length for several reasons: non-involved over lookers may interpret my actions incorrectly, the guy friends themselves may draw wrong conclusions, and to protect myself from unwanted advances.  Earlier in my poker travels, I tried to be one of the “guys”, but it only caused heartache and misunderstanding.  It is just to hard to separate the male-female thing when you are just hanging out in hotels and casinos—add any alcohol and the drama steps up! When a guy friend would ask me to dinner, I often missed the clues, and did not understand they were actually asking me out.  I made a lot of mistakes and hurt some feelings, so now I pretty much stay back as a loner by eating alone, no side trips, and no trips to the various bars!

This works pretty well until I find myself making a deep run and busting with an icky hand only to find myself really alone.  There really isn’t anyone there for me at that point except the only One who really matters: God.  But do I turn to Him in my hour of need?  No, I go seek solace in a beer (or three) only to feel even worse when I get back to my room.  I spend the next hours crying my eyes out, feeling so sorry for myself.  What a dumb ass I can be!  If only I had reached out to Him in my time of need, I would now feel rested and refreshed instead of bloated with a headache.  But God is good, He promises me that “weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).  And I did wake up with joy in my heart this morning.  I am so very blessed and that 5th place finished didn’t hurt one bit!

I arrived early into the poker room and was warmly greeted by Salli. Salli is the tender touch that makes this particular ladies event special. The ladies are treated to gift bags, roses, and so much more which all comes from this beautiful woman’s touch. Thanks Aunt Salli for a lovely twist on a poker tournament.

Those registering early get 500 an extra “green rooster” chips in addition to a starting stack of 5,000 chips. A dealer add-on of $10 gets you another 1,000 chips. The $150 entry event has 20 minute levels.

Actions starts at 2 PM.

Title: “Luck Be a Lady” Daytona Beach- No Limit Hold ‘em Tournament
Location: Daytona Beach Kennel Club and Poker Room
Link out: Click here
Description: Once again the Daytona Beach Kennel Club and Poker Room will host a Ladies No Limit Hold ‘em tournament as a part of the Second Annual Daytona Beach International Poker Tournament.  Come join me as we have a wonderful time together playing our game, our way!

Saturday, November 13, 2010• Cards fly at 2:00pm
Daytona Beach Poker Room – Daytona Beach, FL
960 South Williamson Blvd
Daytona Beach, FL

$150 buy-in, 5k in chips, 20 minute blinds. LIPS is one of the sponsors for this event

November 1 – 5 are given over to $80 buy-in super satellites, with event play beginning November 6 and continuing through November 14. Event buy-ins range from $115 to $550 for the championship event, which will begin with two starting days, November 11 and 12, and conclude on Sunday, November 14.

For further information, contact the poker room at 960 S Williamson Blvd, Daytona Beach, Florida 32114 (386) 252-6484
Start Time: 14:00
Date: 2010-11-13

Here is an article written by guest writer, Glenn E. Franco. Thanks for contributing, Glenn!

Many poker players out there young and old play this game with the kind of aggression that reminds me of first person shooter video games. These include games like Halo 3, Call of Duty, Rainbow Six, and Rogue Spear truly the list goes on and on. Why would these things remotely relate to poker you ask? Well, if you have ever played any of these games or similar games you will have either run into a “spray & pray” player or been one yourself. Many poker players remind me of this and I will use these games as an example to show you why playing with this stubborn unwise aggression hurts your poker game & how folding is a much more effective offensive weapon than you can ever imagine!

Picture yourself beginning play in a first person shooter as described above. When the game begins you have your weapons chosen, your ammo is locked & loaded, your health is at 100%, and you have all your special equipment (grenades, etc) ready to rock & roll. You can see your health, ammo left, & score on the screen in front of you as you navigate the game. Hits cost you health & wasted shots deplete your ammo. This seems simple but as most game players know it’s NOT. You can pick up ammo & equipment from other players in the game as you take them out and if you’re lucky you run across health upgrades in the game too. You do have just a finite amount of ammo & health at any given time throughout the game and when you’re out of health & ammo … YOU’RE DEAD. Poker is NO different!

So what kind of gamer should you be to survive in a first person shooter environment? Should you be RAMBO all gung ho, jumping out & spraying bullets wildly at your opponents? NO WAY. Sure there are many players just like this but they always find themselves on the casualty list pretty quickly. In order to survive & thrive in the first person shooter environment you have to conserve ammo & protect your health from taking too many hits. You stay under cover as often as you can keep yourself out of your opponents’ crosshair’s & choosing your shots wisely. You continually watch your back picking up every stray bullet & health upgrade you find along the way. This is how you become a successful first person shooter gamer. Poker is NO different!

A lot of poker players see folding as one of the weakest options during poker play. They either play way too many hands all the time or they get bored quickly & begin playing weak hands. They may grumble & gripe about never getting a good hand and before they know it they start playing sub par hands just to end their poker boredom. All of these players find their stacks getting smaller & smaller. Playing weak hands in poker is exactly the same as taking risky shots & wasting ammo in the video game. You are showing yourself to the other players at the table leaving cover & taking “hits” on your chip stack. Folding weak hands in poker is actually one of the ultimate offensive weapons in your poker arsenal! Folding these hands and waiting on the right hand to play saves your chip stack “ammo” and keeps you “under cover” as the other players at the table get less of a read on you & don’t see you as reckless & waiting to be trapped. The more chips you keep in your stack not only protects you from a bad beat here & there it also maximizes your winning hands. The healthier your stack is also equals you lasting longer in the game.

So guys & gals the next time you sit down to play always remember this. Folding is a GREAT offensive weapon & it’s a great way to keep you alive in the game! When you sit down at the table picture yourself as a character in a first person shooter game and look at your table mates as the enemies in this game. Picture yourself taking careful shots from cover and eliminating your enemies with great shots taking very few hits yourself. When you minimize chip losses to bad hands and play poker the right way you will find yourself both lasting longer in tournaments and finding yourself in a great position to win! This also holds true in cash games where your “chips” is your actual cash money. You definitely don’t want to be wasting ammo in that game!

In closing I just want to say that I hope this helps shed some light on the power of folding and I wish you all the absolute best on the felt!

~GLENN FRANCO