GRINDINGITOUT.COM

Grinding it outs Monthly Pokerstars Tournament

2009-05-19T20:37:00Z

grindingitout.com is having another on-line Poker tournament

WHEN: Sunday May 31st at 1PM

BUY IN: $10 buy in $1 Rake...

Email me for details and a password mugsy@grindingitout.com

It will be hosted on pokerstars.com, if you do NOT have an account tell me...
we will send you a link and this tournament will be free for you...

Stay Tuned....

2009-03-29T20:09:00Z

For those of you new to the blog...

At times I take long breaks from writing while I am out and about experiencing lives curiosities, then when I settle down a bit I tell you all about my journeys and adventures. Boy, have I compiled some delectable tid bits along this hiatus.
So be patient and keep checking back over the next week or so and you will have all the juicy lil morsels to devour as you always have. I have a tendency never to disappoint my audience.
Let me wet your whistle a bit...
This is as much to get you excited about the upcoming stories as it is to remind me to write about these things...a proverbial string on finger, if you will...

Well I played in some pretty high stakes games over the past few months and have some very, very interesting stories from those.... so you'll obviously hear about those...
I trekked over to California and paid a visit to Octomom's house, and 2nd Street in Long Beach and have some really entertaining stuff about that.
I have decided to sail from California to Hawaii at some point in the near future...
I played in a card game for room and board and it ended up in a very interesting situation... LOL I think that one will be the best entry or series of entries... very amusing stuff...
And last but not least I have My World Series Of Poker Ticket...so I will see you on TV.... Yippie Ki Ya

Laterz.........

Daniel Negreanu flips his wig

2009-01-24T22:58:00Z

The guy total deserved it. This video isn't very current I think about a year old but it is funny as hell.

The future of online poker is at stake

2009-01-16T19:04:00Z

President-elect Obama has asked the American people for input. He wants us to tell him what we would like to see him do over the next four years. To facilitate this, the Obama transition team set up an area of their website for input.

To tell President-elect Obama that you want your right to play online poker in a safe and legal environment respected and protected, please follow the simple instructions below.

Together, we can all let Obama know that we demand our rights!

http://pokerplayersalliance.org/action-alert/ppavote/

Poker Stars Tournaments Hosted by grindingitout.com Starting second week in Febuary

2009-01-15T21:47:00Z

Starting in Febuary:

grindingitout.com has come to an agreement with pokerstars.com.
We will be hosting bi weekly tournaments on pokerstars...
If you play on pokerstars already GREAT! Just email me for the tournaments password and your go to the private lobby and join.
If you don't have a pokerstars account sign up through me http://www.pokerstars.com/?source=PSP7604 and I will buy you into the first bi weekly tournament on a free roll.

the tournaments will start off at $10 entry tournaments as we get closer to the world series of poker we will be having tournaments with higher buy ins to send someone to the world series of poker in July. But depending on how the tournaments go leading up we will probably end up keeping the $10 tournaments and just adding the WSOP tourneys as well.

email me for the password: mugsy@grindingitout.com or for information on the up coming tournaments

I THEREFORE ABSCOND...

2008-12-16T00:05:00Z

Yup, I made the break for it...

Just stopped thinking and moved forward... My head said go west young man (okay not so young anymore) and inspired my body to land in Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada.
From one sin city (New York) to another (las Vegas). After all this is the Poker Capitol of the world, so where else could I have ended up?

How did I conclude on this decision? Well it has to do with an old man, a newspaper, and an aggressive inner voice. Okay-Okay, let me explain:
Foremost, I was fed up with my desk job, sitting there day after day managing an office waiting for the night to come so I could get to the poker table. I was quite overwraught with ambivalence, rifling through the files of my mind, wondering if I should stay locked behind a desk and "be practical" or go run away and chase the dream. As I was contemplaing over a scotch with a friend, I saw "IT" accross the bar.
An old man reading a newspaper with an interesting headline that jumped right out at me... "Make a clean break Dave!"...(Mugsy is my Nickname, my real one is Dave) I rubbed my eyes, did quite a double take and looked again, it wasn't a mirage, it was really there. I went accross the bar and wrestled the newspaper from the old man. I intended to keep this article for maybe a framing or a constant reminder for future contemplations....
Once I laid eyes on the headline, there was a steady voice in my head that would not stop and was so loud it didn't even let me sleep. Now this wasn't your regular run of the mill inner voice, think Gunnery Seargant Hartman from "Full Metal Jacket" then you have an idea what was going on up there. When my inner voice talks, I listen, bottom line.
I don't believe in making well thought out rational decisions... sometimes you just gotta say "what the fuck" and run like a bull towards the red flag. So I did, impulsively, madly, deeply I did not skip a beat started planning that day. Then I researched, places to stay, obviously it was more attractive for me to be on the strip, so I found a botique Hotel with reasonable monthly's and made my rounds with friends and lovers, and I was off.

I do believe a lot of people think I have gone completely bloody mad (after all this is not the most practical of brainstorms), but do you think this concerned me, let my madness be the talk of the town. The great Marcus Aurelius did once say "The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
and I completely agree with him.

Some of us children are just born mad, and so we remain. Like men condemned to be outcasts, and believing that we have it all figured out and that they who think we are mad have given up on life, and are not mad at all, but sad. Saying things like "in 15 more years I can retire on full pension" ...Great see you in 15 years, in the same place, at the same job, going to the same bars, driving in your leased cars, teaching your children to do the same as you and forget their dreams and just be practical.
That road is travelled already, I know where it leads, I like the road less travelled, and thats the road I took.
I suppose the line from Willy Wonka fits perfectly here and I shall end this with the quote "We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams" (Arthur O'shaughnessy) ...
Happy Trails all...see you on the other side!

Jamie Gold Rubs it into to his opponent

2008-11-17T05:43:00Z

What's in a Poker face?

2008-11-17T01:25:00Z

We've heard a million times that some players win in Poker only because they have a good poker face, but in reality what do you need to make a poker face?

    To be honest, nothing is what you actually need. In reality, a poker face is a "blank" face - a face with no expressions, no sign of enthusiasm or disappointment and no reactions to any action that happens on the table. This is actually what makes a poker face difficult to achieve. Its in the human nature to react to things that happen around us, we laugh when someone cracks a joke, we look angry when something bad (not in our favour) happens and we smile when we're confident - all these elements make your poker face a failure!

    Imagine being dealt pocket aces - wow thats fantastic! Your natural reaction would be to grin and smile - but this would indicate the other players that you have a good hand and then good luck at getting them to call your raises or bets. A poker face needs to be straight and without any emotional indication otherwise the slimmest glimpse of reaction could give your opponents an idea of your situation and you definately don't want this!

    During a game however, especially playing with amateurs, you get one "bonus hand" to play the old vice-versa game. For one single hand, you get the option to do the opposite of what you would have naturally done. If you're dealt pocket aces, your natural reaction would be to smile, but you should be strong and react the opposite way - this will give the wrong impression to your opponents and might get them to fall into your trap and hand you their chips effortlessly.

    Why did I say one bonus hand? Because once you give off a "false tell" your reactions won't be trusted anymore - which however could mean that you're natural reactions could be misinterpretted by your opponents and you get your way again - if you reach this point, you got the game in hand because every reaction you'll make it will confuse them since they don't know if its the natural reaction or not! I will follow this up with another article on "false tells" in a week or so.

    It's nice to have a poker face, however most tells are established by recognizing betting patterns and I will touch on this later as well. Its better to establish a pattern on each and every hand. Keep a blank expression, take the same exact amount of time with each decision. Concentrate on your breathing, it helps to take short deep breaths and focus on them. Find something to do with your hands, if you play with chips, play with them the same way everytime. All these things help. Its like a baseball player waiting on a pitch, he breaths consistantly, jerks around his bat the same way everytime he gets to the plate. Some grind their feet in the dirt the same way every time or open and close their fingers on the bat. You should establish a similar routine when you are in a hand. They are watching your every move. Give them nothing!

High Stakes Poker 2007 : AA vs KK : $400 000 : Farha vs Gold

2008-10-23T23:06:00Z

Jamie Gold K K Vs Sammy Farha A A
I love watching these two go at it. This is a cash Game on High stakes poker pot gets up to about $400,000 on this one hand... Very entertaining...
Oh and my old friend Barry Greenstein is in this video, not in the hand though (strange tropical/hawaiian shirt)

No Sleep til Brooklyn.....

2008-10-11T12:57:00Z

Sleep in my life has become one of those things that other people do... like skiing and the use of umbrella's on rainy days (I just move fast and try to avoid the drops).

This week there were some cool tournements in Brooklyn one was some seedy under ground place with alot of "Characters" and the other was a charity poker event for The American Cancer Society.
Funny Enough It was mostly the same people. LOL ... Just goes to show you, seedy characters from Brooklyn do care (Well as long as we get to play poker we care 8=)

I stuck to my brain food diet (Which by the way someone asked me to post and I will soooooooon)
For those of you that don't know I carry around a list of Brain foods that my friend "shop girl" helped me prepare, and I only eat things from that list on the days I am playing poker. So I ate some salmon with red cabbage and broccolli before I went to the charity event and and i brought some blue berries (of course) and some pumpkin seeds to snack on at the table.

The charity event was actually very fun. It seems like everyone is more relaxed like even if your burnt about a particular hand you'll just kinda say to yourself 'well its for charity' and some how that calms you down. I made the final table and ended up busting out 6th because some F*cker drew out on me (lol) and I refuse to say "That's poker" like the rest of 'em.... I probably got a lil too cocky with a hand I shouldn't have .
I had Q Q and he raised I reraised, he pushes all in I knew he didnt have aces or kings, I was 100% sure of that I figured him on ace king or he was weak and posturing.... so i called... the donkey had a pair of 7's so a 7 comes on the flop and he had me covered so che sera sera... I mean I know sometimes you gotta lay down a hand like a pair of queens but i had such a good read on the guy I just knew he was weak... and he was, but I got tangled in a pissing contest and that is more what I tried to focus on. I don't like to blame everything on 'bad beats' and 'suck outs' its always better to find some personal accountibility...and mine always seems to lie with my inflated ego (some say over inflated... but they are just WRONG)

I shook everyones hand at the table and walked away without incident. It turned out to be okay because there were some woman getting drunk at the bar, they were like trying to get people to give more money to the American cancer society and shooting cranberry vodka's while we played. So I ended up drinking with them for a good 2 hours and then we all went to eat and everyone went home. I stopped off at a friends house on the way home and they had a game going so I played with them for a few hours (they play small stakes was just more of a social game) then I went home about 700 or 800 dollars richer (minus the drinks and dinner) for the day and I helped raise a bunch of money for the American Cancer Society... As Ice Cube once said..."Today was a good day"

Of course when I got home I couldn't sleep and I ended up just staying up and next day spent some time in my backyard (central park) and then made my way to Brooklyn again for the "seedy underground game" which was eventful and will certainly be my next entry... I will have it up soon....

No Election Wagering in Nevada

2008-09-24T04:40:00Z

Every four years when there is a Presidential election I usually receive one or two e-mails asking me if the Las Vegas books accept wagers on the election. The answer is NO! You cannot make a wager on the election and the Las Vegas oddsmakers do not put out a line on who will win.

Bookmakers in several other countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia will also accept wagers on the US elections. If you have a want to bet on the elction or pretty much anything I can probably point you in the right direction just ask.

HEADS UP?

2008-09-23T01:12:00Z

Anyone wanna play heads up?
Hit me up on Pokerstars
User: MugsyRusso

F*cking Barry Greenstein

2008-09-21T07:49:00Z

Well Folks its been a while since I wrote (but I'll back date it anyway so it will appear seemless) I have been completely wrapped up in the pokerstars WCOOP. I cashed out in a few events so far and today I am playing in the Main event Prize pool is well over 10MM so hopefully I can get a piece of that.
Well Knee deep in one of the tournaments very close to the money and you'll never guess who comes to my table... F*cking Barry Greenstein, whose book I happen to be reading (Ace on the river) and enjoying. So it went un eventful for a little while, was picking up garbage hands and mostly playing pitch. I had a better than average chip stack and some of the guys at the table were just "All-in crazy" so it was either call off all your chips or stay out of the hand, and there was no reason for me to do that with my comfortable chip stack.
So suddenly I pick up a hand (Ace queen off suit) I had position and just the small and big blind left to play, one the aforementioned F*cking Barry Greenstein. I bet 2 1/2 the big blind because I wanted to induce a call and see where I was at both of the blinds call. flop comes 2 8 Q rainbow, I bet 3/4 the pot, small blind folds, Big blind (F*cking Barry Greenstein) He raises about half the pot or so. So what do you make of this? Barry Greenstein is making a move on me right? Well I thought for a minute and pushed all in, he sat there for about 45 seconds then called... He turned over Q 8 (2 pair)... turn and river were squa-douche and I was knocked out of the tournement about 75 places short of the cash. F*cking Barry GreenStein lol

Phil Ivey vs Paul Jackson Heads Up skills

2008-09-03T13:24:00Z

In case you were wondering why people say Phil Ivey is the best poker player in the world this video shows pretty clearly why. This is the Monte Carlo Millions final table heads...

F*cking Erick Lindgren Video LOL Congrats Eric 2008 WSOP player of the year

2008-09-01T12:07:00Z

insomnia

2008-08-27T10:39:00Z

I have had the worst case of insomnia, I hadn't slept in 6 days (with the exception of a few 20 minute power naps on the bench of the Alantic city board walk)

So as of the last time I wrote I was running real well, taking nice chunks of money off the tables of some of NYC's heavy handed cash games. The week that followed started off a little slow mostly playing on line i played for 8 hours Tuesday and ended up down 20 bucks, at one point I was down a few hundred but won a few hands from the official table donkey and that brought me about 100 up and then a few more hands and I was $20 down and I called it a day.... it was just one of those blassie blah days.

At this point it was about 1 AM and I tried to get some sleep...but I just couldn't. I had been speaking to a friend of mine on gmail messenger and we ended up talking there til 7am. I was just laying there staring at the ceiling, I heard my sister get up for her morning shower, and once i made it to that point I was so amp'd up I just knew sleeping wasn't an option. Then I decided to listen to some of my subliminal brain exercises CD's that my friend had bought me for my birthday. LOL I feel like its a waste of time but hey it's soothing. After 45 minutes of listening to waves crash to the shore. I cranked up the opera and jumped on the treadmill.

I took a shower and headed over to get some breakfast, I knew a game downtown that started around 12 the guy who runs the game hates me. But its only because I usually take his money and never stop talking shit to him from the moment I come in to the moment I leave. I just can't help it, he is just such a tight ass that its so unbelieveably fun and you get such funny reactions that I just can't shut my mouth. But its great because he is on tilt the moment he see's me. He even told me last time that they weren't having the games anymore LOL they have had them everyday for as long as I can remember. In poker its nice not to be wanted. If they want you at the games your probably their ATM.

Anyway nothing too exciting I walked out of there with $300 or so and went to meet my friend Kate for lunch. She was in a great mood and said she was itching to go to Atlantic city that weekend I agreed and I eneded up hanging out with her all day. We drank alot and she passed out about 1am but I remained awake and just left in the middle of the night and went home to play some online poker where I won about $400 okay so over $700 for the day which felt really easy and none too exciting. I had pretty much the same routine for my morning and had to go over to the mortgage office to pick up a check, and put together another deal. 2 nights without sleep, and I'm feeling fine will write again after my weekend in AC, and tell you my galavanting and poker stories, until then...

-Mugsy Russo

I just handed a guy his worst beat ever.

2008-08-25T19:35:00Z

Later rounds of a SNG ... I find KK in my pocket...a guy ahead of me puts in a 3x the Big Blind raise (he seemed to be playing classic Harrington on hold em poker all day so I figured he had a pair) , I called and so did another guy. The flop hits : 9 9 A. The Ace troubles me a bit, and there are two diamonds on the board... It's checked to me, and I check... and the guy behind me checks. Great so I get a free card just in case one of these fuckers caught that Ace on the flop.
The turn card is the king of diamonds, putting 3 diamonds on the board, a pair of nines, and AK. And of course giving me a Full house. This hand surely has to have hit someone at least a little. It's checked to me again, I check, and the other guy bets about half the pot. The first guy folds and I took a chance with full house and called. The reason I say took a chance is because I figured either the guys is playing with pocket aces and has a better full house or he is running with a flush in which case I had him...so I took a shot.
The river card is another King! Ha Ha I flopped 4 of a kind! My opponent puts me all in. I never called so fast in my life. Just as I suspected he had pocket Ace's. I love cracking Ace's...
-Mugsy

This weekends $5000 minimum Buy in NYC

2008-08-23T07:30:00Z

I had a very long poker weekend...
I played in some bigger games then I am used to playing.
The minimum buy in was $5000 and it was a nice cash games.I did real well (walked away with about 6 grand profit) but its kinda nerve racking when you have pots up around $20,000.
Unfortunately, I had to back down a few times even when I was pretty sure I had the best hand.... But I did make some power moves as well and took down some nice pots.

One of the more notable hands I started out with a pocket pair of jacks and I was on the button. The big Blind raised but he was the aggressive sort so I wasn't really worried about him another guy called (kind of a loose player who played a lot of odd hands), everyone else folds। Flop came 7, duece,10 two of them were hearts I threw a bet out there to try to chase someone off a drawing hand it was fairly probable my Jacks were good at this point .

But anyway they both called.

Okay so the turn comes and I hit a jack so I had a set- problem is that it was a jack of hearts so now there were 3 hearts on the board। Everyone checks the turn ... the River comes it was a nonsense card 8 of spades or something and this bastard puts all in (and had me covered) । At this point there was about $37,000 in the pot (definately the biggest pot of the day) and I just sat there staring him down for about two full minutes but he was pulling a Jesus Furgeson on me and just sitting there staring ahead with sunglasses on। I asked him if he knew anything about the mating habits of the tsetse fly but he wouldn't talk ( and some donkey that wasn't in the hand started saying something about female tsetse flies only being able to have sex once in their life time, as if it was a serious question)

After over 5 minutes of thinking it through(not exaggerating) ...I decided in the end its just wasn't worth my whole stackand folded the hand... The other guy folded too... so I will never know if he had the Flush

Hey look I walked away with enough money to be extremely happy...But that hand will haunt me for the next 10 years because I will never know, and I could have took over $100,000 off that table if I had won that hand and was able to start bullying some of them around। And that guy, that freaken guy... I know he didnt have the flush, I just know itHigh stakes Poker is an adrenaline rush.....Gotta love it!!!!

How To Win At Tournament Poker, Part 2 by Chris "Jesus" Ferguson

2008-08-14T19:24:00Z

by Chris Ferguson

Last week I talked about not adjusting for tournament play, answered three specific tournament questions, and stressed that there is little difference between tournament strategy and ring game strategy. This week, I would like to expand on that by answering a fourth question, and address the two situations where it's right to deviate from simply playing your best game.
The fourth question: Surely the different payout structure between ring games and tournaments means something, doesn't it?
Yes, tournaments differ from live action in that you are rewarded for how long you last, rather than for how many chips you accumulate.

In ring game poker, the chips you save by folding are just as valuable as the chips you win by playing. In tournament play, the chips you save are actually more valuable.
Consider a typical $1,000 buy-in tournament with 100 players, where first place is worth $40,000 out of a total prize pool of $100,000.

At the beginning of the tournament everyone has 1,000 in chips with a value of $1,000. The eventual winner will have 100,000 in chips and, in live action, would be entitled to a prize of $100,000. In a tournament, that same $100,000 is worth only $40,000, meaning that, at the end, each 1,000 in chips is only worth $400. As your stack grows, the value of each additional chip decreases, which means you want to be slightly more averse to taking unnecessary risks in tournaments than you might be in live action. (And if you are at all averse to taking risks in live action, you're probably playing over your bankroll.) Don't overcompensate for tournament play. Most people would be better off making no changes at all, rather than the changes that they do make.

Having said all this, there are two cases where adjusting will help:

1. When you are just out of the money.
If you are short stacked, you need to be very careful when committing your chips, especially with a call.
If you have a large stack, look for opportunities to push the short and medium stacks around - especially the medium stacks. These players will be a lot less likely to want a confrontation with you, and it should be open season on their blinds and antes.
If you have a medium or small stack, you need to be a bit more careful. Remember, though, that the other players - even the larger stacks - don't want to tangle with you. They just want to steal from you without a fight. Be prepared to push them around a little, and even to push back occasionally when they try to bully you. This often turns into a game of Chicken between the bigger stacks to determine which large stack will let the other steal most of the blinds.

2. At the final table.
Very little adjustment is necessary until you are one player away from the final table. Here, again, you should tighten up slightly because this is the next point where the payout structure handsomely rewards outlasting other players.
Look for opportunities to push around the other players, and the smaller stacks in particular. This is good advice throughout the final table.
What about heads up?
There are no more tournament adjustments necessary. You are essentially playing a winner take all freeze-out for the difference between first and second place.
Remember: Tournament adjustments should be subtle. It is rare that your play would be dramatically different in a tournament. When in doubt, just play your best game. And if you never adjust from that, you've got a great shot of winning, no matter what game you're playing.

Poker TRUEism's

2008-08-11T19:20:00Z

If, after the first twenty minutes, you don't know who the sucker at the table is, it's you. ~Author Unknown

"poker is my first priority......anything else is just a bonus"!-Mugsy Russo

Your best chance to get a Royal Flush in a casino is in the bathroom. ~V.P. Pappy

In a game of poker, I can put the players' souls in my pocket. ~Beausourire

Poker takes a day to learn and a lifetime to master. ~Robert Williamson III

"It's hard work. Gambling. Playing poker. Don't let anyone tell you different. Think about what it's like sitting at a poker table with people whose only goal is to cut your throat, take your money, and leave you out back talking to yourself about what went wrong inside. That probably sounds harsh. But that's the way it is at the poker table. If you don't believe me, then you're the lamb that's going off to the slaughter." Stu Unger, three-time WSOP Champion

"It's not enough to succeed. Others must fail." Gore Vidal

Never give a sucker an even break.
-- Anonymous

Avoid people with gold teeth who want to play cards.
-- George Carlin

It's morally wrong to let a sucker keep his money.
-- Canada Bill Jones

Learning to play two pairs is worth about as much as a college education, and about as costly.
-- Mark Twain

A card player should learn that once the money is in the pot, it isn't his any longer.
-- Herbert Yardley (1957)

"Poker is alot like sex, everone thinks they are the best, but most don't have a clue what they are doing!" - Dutch Boyd

"Last night I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died." -- Steven Wright

Scared money never wins

Second best is first worst

"If you're too careful, you're whole life can become a fuck'in grind. (Matt Damon, Rounders)

“Experience teaches only the teachable."

Doyle Brunson