Genius of the Poker

2005-02-02T01:02:00.000-05:00

Still Alive

Don't want anyone to think this blog is dying. Well, it has been for the past month. Sorry for not posting this earlier but between getting engaged and being really busy at work - it seems all the creativity and energy I had previously to devote to this blog has been sucked out of me.
I still love poker and have had a chance to play a bit this year - but not as much as I'd like.
I'm stuck in a three day meeting this week - so I won't be able to attend the WPBT at Stars tomorrow - but I'll be strongly represented by my brother. Say hi to him if you see him tomorrow, he'll be playing under my account - gpoker.
Also - I hope to participate in the NY Blogger tourney this Saturday with Pauly and the NY crew. I'm sure there will be a good story or two to come of that...

Anyways - I promise to catch you all up on what's been going on in my life soon. Both in poker and other things...

Good Luck to everyone in the WPBT tomorrow!

2005-01-07T23:54:00.000-05:00

New Year's Vacation Ramblings

Well, 2005 has finally come - amazing how fast the years go by. It's been roughly a year and a few months since I started playing poker seriously and this blog is now 9 months old...
I'm actually surprised that both have lasted so long - but especially the fact that it's been almost a year and I'm still writing occasionally to you all.
I've been out in Colorado visiting my family for the first week of the new year. Of course, since both my brother and father have caught the poker bug - this doesn't mean I'm taking time away from the game.

In fact - since the WPBT in December - I feel reenergized and reinvigorated about this great game we all love. It helps that I've had a few nice runs of cards coupled with a move up to 2/4 limit on a consistent basis where the players (and the game) are much more interesting.
I've managed to build the UB bankroll to a place that comfortably supports this - and will soon begin moving more of my action to Party (as well as a portion of my bankroll) as soon as I clear the rest of my UB bonus.

Also I've recently picked up copies of Matthew Hilger's Internet Texas Hold'em (thanks Ammon) and Dan Harrington's new book Harrington on Hold'em.
Reviews of both are forthcoming - but let me just say that Hilger's book is a solid treatise for the beginning player and contained quite a few insights that I found useful.
Harrington's book is excellent - for you bloggers and players out there, that are at an intermediate level - it's a great book that details not just the plays but the rationale for plays in NL Hold'em. I can't say enough about it here - but I will post some more later on both books.

Well - not much more to say here - I'll be headed up to the Lodge in Central City, Colorado either tonight or tomorrow to try to avenge my losses the past two trips in the wild and crazy $5-$5 games.

Speaking of wild and crazy - following is the first entry on this blog by my brother from the Vegas trip the weekend of the WPBT. This concludes my Vegas stories - and hopefully will not be the last contribution by my brother - who may turn out to be the best poker player in the family... (or maybe just the luckiest)

Please enjoy it - it's a good story, everytime I read it - I wish I had stayed just one more day in Vegas.

ps - On a personal note - I proposed to my girlfriend (the ORIGINAL GotP) on New Year's Eve and she, after some deliberation, actually accepted. Talk about going 'all in'... (whew)
2005 has started (at least for me) on the best of notes.

The Orleans (By The Brother of The GotP)

The last time I saw my brother (before the weekend in Vegas) was Thanksgiving. For the past year every encounter and talk with him has been dominated by poker.

Since last X-Mas when he forced me to open up an account on Ultimate Bet and then proceeded to xfer $150 into it; I have become somewhat of a poker addict. (ed note: yeah - I FORCED him)
Poker has absolutely consumed my life, and greatly contributed to workplace inefficiency for me, as I spend precious work time reading various poker blogs and forums throughout the day.

When he told me he would be playing in the WPBT on Dec 11th, I was jealous to say the least. Going to vegas is bad enuff; but the opportunity to meet and play with the blogger community...well, I was happy for him, yet extremely envious at the same time.

Even though I myself am not a blogger; after reading blogs all day-everyday you start to feel a connection or sense of comraderie thru their writing. Kinda like the 15 year old girl in Singapore that I've been e-maili...uhhh...nevermind. (ed note: more like 13 - and gender is still indeterminate)

To make a long story short, an unexpected chain of events occurred and I had a ticket for Vegas from Fri 12/10 to Sun 12/12 (thanks, Cuz), along with a $1000 bankroll to hit the 6/12 tables at the Mirage and the 8/16 tables at the Bellagio.

I had planned all along on checking out the WPBT tourny sat morn; but when I awoke still drunk sat morn...I knew it was just not to be.

Fast Forward. As i arrived at McCarron Airport for my 7pm flight back to Denver I did a quick audit. I was up $700+ in poker, down a little over $300 in craps and blackjack, but more importantly I had only spent about 12 hours at the poker table. WTF?!? That was my whole point of coming out to Vegas!

Speaking of spending, somehow I managed to spend less than $200 in alcohol, food, taxis, and "entertainment" over the weekend. (Mas, Lolo, and brother of Lolo...I think I owe a bar tab next time). 10 shots of Crown Royal, anyone?

Anyway, as luck would have it, my flight back was overbooked. The good news though...there's a direct flight to Denver @ 11PM, and I'd arrive in Denver @ 1:30AM. Great...but what time is it now, 7pm?

That means I can: A. stay at the airport for another 4 hours or B. taxi it to the Mirage, wait 30 min for a table, play for an hour and change, and then taxi it back to the airport for my flight. Yeah...that ain't gonna work.

In comes Option C. "Uh...hi. I've been put on a direct flight to Denver leaving at 11pm, but there's no way I can get a ride on such short notice @ 1:30AM (lie), and I live 65 miles from Denver (another lie)."

"No problem sir. We can put you on the first flight in the morning. Leaves @ 9AM, and we'll get you a room in Vegas for the nite".

SOLD!!!

Immediately I call my brother.
"I'm staying another nite. Got a room @ the Emerald Suites. Right next to the Orleans. You in or you out. If you're in, I'll be at the Mirage in 30 minutes. If you're out, have a safe trip and I'll talk to you tomm."

My brother, being the "responsible" one, declined tho; so off I was to the Orleans. (ed note: I was THIS close to staying the extra day - I even ended up calling in 'sick' from home on Monday - but I had such a great weekend - one more night wasn't going to make much of a difference to me)

The Orleans spreads 2/4, 4/8 half blinds/half kill, and 6/12 half kill (at least that nite).

I played 4/8 for about 30minutes before my name was called for the 6/12 game.

Now I'm not the smartest man in the world (ed note: an UNDERstatement)...but how this half kill game on a 6/12 turns into 10/20 is beyond me. 6*1.5=9, and 12*1.5=18, right? (ed note: my brother - the college graduate... community college that is)

So 9/18, right? Apparently not.

Anyway, here I am playing a full, typical 6/12 ring game with what appears to be about 1/2 tourists and 1/2 locals. I play for a few hours and after suffering a few bad beats, getting caught against dominated hands, and dragging down some pots...I'm down about $150.

Players start leaving, as it's now 2AM or so and we're down to 7.

Suddenly, a woman stumbles over to the table, obviously drunk and freshly reloaded with what appears to be (insert liquor) and Coke.

"What are we playing here, boys? Some 6/12 with a half-kill? Well, I'm gonna be the KILLER!!!".

To which Local #1 an older gentleman who's been playing very rockishly grins and says "Please, by all means."

Everyone at the table (myself included) immediately look at each other and you can just see all of us suckers salivating on the inside and trying our best to hold back enormous grins.

First hand. Folded to drunk girl. RAISE! She's got Pocket QQ and they hold up against 2 callers.

Second Hand. Limp, Limp, action on drunk girl. RAISE!

Drunk girl wins pot uncontested on the river.

I could go on describing the next 12 or 13 hands....but for the sake of brevity let's just say drunk girl raised or re-raised every single pot pre-flop. And then she'd follow that up by betting, raising or re-raising every flop and turn.

In fact, when she was first to act she would bet in the dark. Of these first 15 hands or so...drunk girl took down about 10 of them. Some of them being 10/20 kill pots. By this time she's up at least $500...thankfully only about 25 of it is mine.

You could just see the frustration building up in the other players. Her aggression turned the rest of the table upside down.

The fact that she'd exclaim "Well, I played that hand like a little boy, didn't I?", after showing down a hand where she was both the victor and the aggressor probably didn't help either.

After 30 minutes, 3 players had left shaking their heads in absolute disbelief. So, now we're down to 4. Drunk girl, me, tight-aggressive Asian player from Canada, and old guy. I'm now down close to $200, but decide to stay as I know I will get action and can turn this session around.

I'm also thinking...drunk girl might not be so drunk...and although the word call is not in her vocabulary...she is actually making some laydowns (post-flop of course) and is otherwise absolutely running over the table.

Or as she had so eloquently prophecized... she was being the killer. Now I've read and re-read "Killer of Poker". (ed note: I think he means Vorhaus' book Killer Poker - he doesn't need to read this)

It's easily one of my favorite books on poker. I believe raise or fold....calling is for suckers. I also know, as much as my brother and father think that I'm a maniac...I am not. (ed note: my brother IS a maniac)

Drunk girl is a maniac...and she's doing a damn good job at it.

However, we're now down to four.

I can't justify cold calling 3 bets or re-raising to 4 bets with A-10 when there's 7 players....but now we're down to 4.

Time to open up, play my game, and let the chips fling into the pot. Down to four. I'm in seat 2. Asian-Canadian in seat 4. Old guy in seat 6. Drunk-girl in seat 8.

Asian-Canadian has just drove 22 hours straight and is in the hole at least $400. He's buying in with twenties now...so I think he's gonna play more conservatively....as I don't think he got much more to make the trip last.

Old guy is probably also down a few hundred and seems to be playing just for the sake of playing. He plays tight, but he's also passive.

My plan is to try to isolate drunk girl with paint and see more flops.

In a kill game with 2 players, old-guy and drunk girl. Old guy catches the nut flush on the river. No pair on the board, no straight flush possibilities. Drunk girl bets (TPTK, I Believe).

Old guy calls.

"WTF?!? How come you diidn't raise? You had the NUTS!!!" says Asian-Canadian.

"She wouldn't have called even if I raised, so why bother?" says old guy.

To which I reply, "You're right, she wouldn't call. She hasn't called all nite. She might've raised you though!"

Drunk girl smiles and shakes her head laughing. Orders another drink.

A few hands later we're in a kill pot. I'm the BB. Drunk girl posts $10, as she is the "killer". Asain-Canadian calls. Old guy calls. Drunk girl raises (surprise, surprise). I call and everyone else follows.

Flop comes 8 9 2 rainbow. Drunk girl bets. I call (10 J). everyone else calls.

Turn comes 4, no flush draw. Drunk girl bets, I raise, seat 4 and 6 fold. drunk girl re-raises. I call. (ed note: what the hell - why didn't you just cap? Maniac...)

River comes 5. Drunk girl bets. I raise. Drunk girl re-raises.

I debate calling. (Why am I even considering calling? Is there a conceivable hand that she can hold, that I have a winner with Jack high? Why waste the $20? I already misplayed the hand. Cut your losses...stoopid!)

I begrudgingly call. (ed note: not just a maniac but now a calling station)

Drunk girl looks in disgust and says, "You've got me. I missed my draw."

Shows 10 7 and mucks.

I proudly show my J 10 and say "yeah...I missed too".

The rest of the table goes in an uproar. They're both looking at me like they wanna kill me. Obviously they had my J 10 high beat on the turn when I raised and pushed them out. ooops.

Next thing I know it's 5am. I got a plane to catch in 4 hours...and I'm supposed to go to work when I get to Denver. I look around and it's still just the 4 of us....but now I notice there's actually people standing around the table just watching this crazy game.

I get dealt J 8 UTG. Call. Seat 4 and 6 also call. Drunk girl raises. Everyone calls.

Flop comes 9 10 4 rainbow. seat 6 (old guy) bets. drunk girl raises. i call. seat 2 folds.

Turn is a 2, still rainbow. old guy checks. drunk girl bets. i call. old guy calls.

River is a queen. drunk girl bets, i raise. old guy folds.

Drunk-girl ponders...says "Hmmmm....J-8?".

"Raise or fold" I tell her.

She looks at me, "Re-Raise!".

I pretend to think....I'm pretty sure she doesn't have K J for the nut straight. "Re-Raise".

She peeks back at her cards..."Re-Raise".

Now i"m not so sure....maybe she does have K-J. Either way I can't get away from this hand so....

"Re-Raise!"

She looks at the dealer..."Is it capped yet?".

Dealer says, " Heads-Up...Unlimited Raises."

Drunk girl decides to call for the first time all nite, I show my straight and she flips over two pair, Queens and Tens.

We continue playing until 6am when old guy leaves penniless.

I decide to also pack it in as i"m now up close to $400 for the session and ready to call it a nite...or a morning. I've never witnessed anyone (man or woman) play as aggressive as drunk girl in a live game...or an online game for that matter.

I did overhear her tell a gentleman (the poker manager, I believe), that she had just come back from playing a tourney at the Bellagio. I wondered to myself if she had been playing in the 4 diamonds tourney (ed note: I think he means Five Diamonds...) and was just blowing off steam, slumming in our 6/12 game at the Orleans. Regardless, Asian-Canadain and drunk girl decided to play heads-up, and I left wishing them both good luck.

2004-12-28T16:59:00.000-05:00

Post X-mas Ramblings

Well the last part of my Vegas trip report is finally up. (see below)

Sorry it took so long, writing for me needs momentum and as soon as I got back adjusted to my normal non-Vegas life - there just didn't seem enough time to properly complete the report.

Stay tuned for a Vegas story from my brother - who stayed the extra night and ran into quite a table at the Orleans on Sun nite/Mon morning.

It's a pretty good story. (I promise)

I've been running good recently - playing a lot of UB limit, working off my bonus dollars. It seems my game has been revitalized and I really think I've got my game out of the muck.
It's fun to play again - and I find myself even making reads on my opponents hands now that I'm paying attention again.

For instance, I flopped two pair, checkraised the flop, saw a Q on the turn, and when the caller bet at me - I instantly knew he had hit the higher 2 pair.
However - I needed to know if I had it right - so I called him down! :)

Seriously - I've been running good - and it feels like I've made a leap in limit. Not sure what the difference is in my game - but I'll be putting it to the test online for the next few days.

See you at the tables.

2004-12-28T16:00:00.000-05:00

Vegas - WPBT Holiday Classic Weekend - Day 2 (cont.)

So I'm back at the Mirage in my room - lying down, trying to figure out if I can get any sleep in this town. My friends are just waking up from an afternoon nap and decide to go check out the buffet. Well - actually I hadn't eaten a thing all day - and maybe this would help me sleep...
After the buffet - I saunter by the poker room and find my brother grinding away at the 6-12 game. It looks kind of good - and he's up a few hundred.
I speak to him - and though I'm having trouble standing up - the fever strikes me. I want to play some poker. I check the list - and there's no wait for a 10/20 seat?

Impulsively - I lock it up.

10/20 isn't my normal game - I've played it before at the Borgata - but 6/12 is a more comfortable game for me and the 8/16 at Bellagio is a great game...

Tonight the room's pretty crowded - and I think I've just caught a lucky break as they must've just opened a 10/20 game and cleared out the list.

I buy a rack of red and sit down in the 3s.

The first thing I notice is that the guy on my left has a huge stack of chips. There are some other big stacks at the table as well. This definitely isn't a 6/12 game.

Before I can really settle in I see KQs in SB. I call and and two others see the flop. I hit my K on the flop and bet it. And am promptly raised by the next player, while the following player calls 2 bets cold.

I'm thinking I should get out of the hand. But I call.

The turn is a blank. Meekly I check it. The raiser bets out and the next player calls.

I should just call to see the turn - but I don't know what comes over me - I check raise.

The raiser re-raises - and the caller calls the next 2 bets cold also.

Yikes! I call the reraise. And the river is an Ace...

This time I check it, the reraiser bets, and the cold caller raises.

I muck disgusted at myself.

The reraiser shows K9o (huh?) and the cold caller shows AQ for the pot.

WTF?

This was the order of the day - as this table was littered with about 3 or 4 raise'em up players.

I was soon to find out that the gentleman to left - a very aggressive British player (and nice guy) was even more frisky.

I mean - I was seeing check raises galore on this table - and not necessarily with hands. Many times I saw one of the maniac/foxes, get into a reraising war on the flop, check-raise the turn, then follow up with a river bet - and when they were called down - simply muck.

Without even seeing the other players cards!

Thrown a bit off balance with what I was seeing - and thankfully a rather poor run of cards - I was content to fold and watch in fascination. Was it possible to put any of these guys on a hand?

Perhaps I got a bit too tight, because the maniac/fox british guy to my left commented to me:
"You're a very patient man."

To which I smiled and simply told him he'd be patient too if he saw the cards I was getting.
But I stopped myself halfway - because - who was I kidding - this guy plays almost any 2 seemingly at a whim...

I wasn't sure if we were going to get along or not - when I came into a pot (finally) with KJ.
"uh oh!" the brit on my left exclaimed to the table.

I hate it when someone starts announcing stuff about me to a table - like how tight I am or whenever I check raise - I've got the nuts...
But thinking about it - if players begin adjusting to your play - you can just adjust yours in response. Of course - that's the tricky part...

Anyways I was slightly annoyed with this comment by the Brit. Of course he called anyway.
One other person took the flop - and it came J-8-x.

I bet it out. The brit raised me. The other caller folded.

Knowing that a flop raise from my friend on my left didn't really mean anything (and wanting to raise) I called. (chicken that I am)

The turn was a K.

Top two pair for me. I bet it out. Brit predictably raises. I ponder for a sec and re-raise.
Now the Brit pauses. "You're using your reputation." he tells me.
"Well - it's gonna work." I reply glibly.

He calls my turn re-raise. When I bet the river (another blank) - he looks at me, calls, and when I show him top two - he mucks...

Not sure what he had. (later he would tell me he had Kx)

After this hand - the brit (Glen - I would later find out his name - a really nice guy) went on a hot streak with his any 2 - and started killing the rest of the table.

When he left on breaks, the other side of the table would start muttering how the game was dying (some of the other maniacs had left for a new 20/40 game) with him out.
And when he would return they would clam up and wait for hands they could gouge huge pieces out of his stack.
Alas it was not to be for them. My new British friend, Glen (we began chatting amiably) was hitting cards - two pairs, straights, and baby flushes (he almost always was playing weird low cards like T8s or even 56s). He must've folded any paint he saw - cause he was rarely showing down any...

Meanwhile I played pretty tight - and my buddy Glen seemed to be sucking out on everyone EXCEPT me. Which was nice - because while he took everyone else's chips - I would play a hand and grab a nice chunk out of his stack.

I had a real interesting hand when I got a chance to see a flop from the SB with 43o. I hit a pair (bottom of course) on the flop. Glen of course bet it out - and as there were 3 or 4 other callers - I decided to make a bad call. (the second one this hand)

I hit two pair on the turn.

This time when Glen bet - one of the opportunists spotting a chance to score on him raised (probably with top pair). Someone called 2 bets cold - and I gleefully (inside) made it 3 bets.

Glen of course - made it 4 bets. Called by both and capped by me.
(I am aware that I could've been behind in this hand - but I just had a feeling I was good based on the play at this table)

The river gave me a full house with another 3.

Glen bet. One caller. A folder. And I raised again.

Both Glen and the other player look at me. I smile for them.

They both call and I flip up 43o for a huge pot!

"I did NOT put you on that hand" Glen says in amazement.
"Well you know" I told him. "Watching you has loosened me up!"

Things only got crazier when a kid - "J" sat down to my right.

This kid immediately started firing at pots upon sitting down. He actually caught some cards and built a little stack - but I wasn't really impressed as the kid had a few habits that I wouldn't recommend for a poker player.

For example if J got heads up in a pot (which he did often - as we took turns isolating), and was in position (last to act), he would sometimes hold the chips in his hand (for a call) and reach them into the pot as the first person was deciding what to do.

I NEVER once, when he did this, saw him either raise if the first person bet, or fold. He always called. And if the first person didn't bet and checked - he always bet.
Interestingly - it seemed his goal in this practice was to be able to fling the chips into the pot at the same time as the bettor.

Also - upon reaching the river I witnessed him multiple times tell people what he had. For example he was in a pot with a tough old lady (she was real aggressive) - who was calling him down the whole way. "I have an Ace!" (for top pair) J said confidently as he bet.

"I don't believe you!" the TOL replied as she raised him.

J just called (interestingly enough) and sure enough he showed an ace and took the pot.

He used this tactic many times - and to my memory - he wasn't lying once. And I only saw a few instances where his opponent actually believed him.

J (the kid) was getting pretty drunk, although he was actually pretty friendly (in a drunk way) and as he was on my right, and Glen (the brit) was on my left - I was pretty happy that I got along with both of them.
(Those poker-table alliances - they can save you quite a bit of money...)

Especially since they seemed to go to war every few hands...

Quite a few times they got into flop and turn raising wars, often pushing the best hands out of the pot! (yes - they made me lay down winners quite a few times)

It was pretty crazy, watching queen high or bottom pair take pretty decent size 10/20 pots...

Eventually, J (the kid) lost his stack - rebought, lost it again, rebought - and then built up a huge stack when he got on a run. It wasn't to last though.

To make my long story short however - I went pretty much card dead at the end. Although at my peak I was up about $500 - it bled away in a continuing adventure in missed flops and rivered hands. (which I will not detail)

Around 4am the table was still full, though the room was dying. I was having trouble seeing - and apparently (according to the dealer) had been making unconscious checking motions (pounding my fists on the felt).

I decided it was time to leave. No pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for me...

But I had a lot of fun - basically broke even. And I resisted J's pleading for me to stick around and play another hour. (did he think I was a sucker?)

(side note: worst decision of the weekend for me. Ran into Glen on Sunday - and he told me the kid burned off his whole stack (almost $1K at the time) in the next hour. Surely - I would've gotten a piece...)

When I got up to my room - I noticed my friend "lolo" passed out on the bed. I say "noticed" because he was fully clothed and still had his shoes on. Looked like I wasn't the only one who had a rought day.

I passed out almost immediately upon hitting the bed.

Day 3 - Return Home?

Sunday did not start until check out time around 2pm for me. Though I had woken at 9am and tried to convince someone to go down to the book, get the lines, and place bets for me - they all looked at me groggily like I was crazy.
I vaguely remember considering going down to the book myself - but my memory goes black from here.

After checking out, and stashing my bags - I briefly considered going out to meet the rest of the bloggers at Mandalay. But the early games were ending - I didn't have any action on the late games - and I hadn't seen my cousin (who's a big Steeler fan) all weekend and we had planned to watch the Jets - Steelers game together.

Well - the game sucked - and I'll just leave it at that. If ever a game suspiciously looked like it was fixed...

Before I knew it I was back in the poker room, killing off the last few hours before my flight. I played at a pretty passive 6/12 table - it was friendly, but a little too passive for my taste.

For example - I pushed at a pot with two aces on the flop and picked up a caller. Couldn't defintely put him on the ace - and when I paired the turn - I bet it and he called.

The third ace came on the river.

I bet. And the other player called.

I flipped up my house - figuring that I had won the pot - when the caller showed...
the fourth ace!
He flopped three aces, rivered the nuts and NEVER raised.

I just laughed.

Well time flies in a poker room - and it was time to go before I knew it. I briefly considered staying another night. I even went so far as to confirm that I could change my flight at no fee (thanks JetBlue) and book another night at the Mirage for a paltry $99...

Ok, I considered this for a looooooong time...

My brother's flight got canceled and though he could've taken a later flight, he conned the airlines into giving him a free room and a flight out tomorrow. He didn't put any pressure on me to stay - but it almost seemed like destiny to me that I was to stay and play another day.

But responsibility took hold - what clinched if for me was that it had been such a great weekend. I don't think I could've had more fun (although I could've made more money). It was a great experience and a weekend I'll remember for a long time.

I decided not to push my luck. Vegas would still be here for me another day.

And I'll be back - you can bet on that.

2004-12-21T13:14:00.000-05:00

December Bonus Whoring

I've finally settled in to the groove back in good ol' NYC.
Vegas doesn't seem that long ago - but it's long enough that I no longer hear phantom slot machine jingling everywhere I go.

Haven't done a lick of X-Mas shopping - but actually - I really only have one important gift - and I can take care of my family when I visit them in the New Year. (Procrastination is fun!)

Anyways, final trip reports from Vegas are almost ready - and I even convinced my brother to write up his last day - which was a pretty good story. He's hoping to get a few posts up on GotP so he can qualify for the next blogger tourney...

In the meantime, I've taken advantage of some of the December re-deposit bonuses on UB and Party. Actually I did this in a kind of sneaky way.

First off I withdrew a bunch of funds from my UB account. Then I redeposited that money on Party for their 20% redeposit bonus. Then I took $200 out of Party and redeposited that on UB for their 50% bonus. Can you say free $$$?

So last night, I was busy 2 tabling Party to work off my bonus (since there's a time limit). I played some basic 1/2 - playing pretty tight. On one table, I couldn't hit a hand - and I languished down about 20BB or more for most of the night.
On the other I was hot - every time it seemed I entered a hand I hit it - and there were always a few players left in the pot to pay off my 2 pair, straight or flush.

It was an odd dynamic - on the table I was running good - I could buy small pots by continuing to fire at them, getting respect from the other players if they didn't have a good piece.
Yet on the other - the same strategy would backfire - as someone would call down my Ace-high or even check raise me on the river with bottom pair!

I really feel that your table image online has a lot to do with how you happen to be running that particular session. If you're hitting hands and winning pots - people don't want to mess with you. But if your missing flops, getting outdrawn, and losing - no one seems to believe it when you bet.
Wonder if anyone else has noticed this phenomenon?

Anyways - all told I ended up even on my cold table when I finally hit some hands and took a few good size pots at the end of the session. On my 'hot' table - I continued to run over the table to the tune of +50BB.
And I cleared my bonus in one night!

Next is the UB bonus - and I'm planning on playing a bunch of 2/4 and $100NL ring games in the forthcoming month. I'm also going to finally give in and purchase Poker Tracker and start to track my play on Party.

The WPBT has reinvigorated my game - and for that I'm thankful.

On a side note - someone pulled a nice move on me in a tournament the other night that I'd like to share. It was a small NL tourney on UB - I was coasting along with an average stack, as the blinds began to move up to 25/50 (I had about 1300).

I catch AQ on the BB, everyone folds to the SB, who limps for 50.

I raise from the BB to 150. SB calls.

The flop is a harmless 4-7-9 rainbow.

The SB bets the minimum. I think about re-raising but as I haven't hit my hand - I check (coward!) and look for another card.

The turn is a T.

The SB bets the minimum again. I'm wondering if he's hit something or if my two overcards are still good. I know I should probably raise here - but I decide I want to see another card and just call.

The river is a Q.

TPTK. The SB bets the minimum a third time.

Aha! I caught him. Of course I raise the pot getting ready for him to fold.

He reraises me (twice my pot bet).

Now if I call this re-raise - I basically have to go all-in. And about half my stack is already in the pot. Not sure if my hand is good, but I think it is. And I'm pot-committed, right?

I go all-in.

He calls.

He show 4-4 for the flopped trips.

Ooops...

I just thought it was a nicely played hand by the SB. He could've easily induced a bluff with his flop and turn min bets. And he let me catch help and pot commit myself on the river.

Admittedly - I think I'd get away from this hand were my stack deeper. Also - I can't say I was giving my full concentration to this tourney.

But I thought it was a pretty nice move by the SB. (at my expense) Thought I'd share it.

*** Just received my WPBT jacket from CheckNRaise. Can I say that I am extremely impressed. The jacket is beautiful... Anyone else get theirs?
I still haven't opened an account there - but I plan to check it out. From what I've observed so far - the software is pretty solid. More to come...

2004-12-17T22:17:00.000-05:00

WPBT Holiday Classic Interlude - (Origins of Genius of the Poker)

Thanks to the WPBT Holiday Classic aftermath (an explosion of trip reports on the various blogs) - readership of every and even this humble blog is at an all time high. So I figured this would be as good a time as any to explain the name of this poker blog.

While in Vegas, quite a few poker bloggers referred to me as the 'poker genius'.

Now - I'm not one to lack for confidence but I don't think I've ever been accused of delusions of self-grandeur. (okay maybe once or twice..)

I do not think of myself as a genius - in poker and actually come to think of it - not really in anything.

Anyways - on with the story - for some background, my girlfriend, Y, is Japanese. So am I for that matter - but she was born there - and I'm fourth-generation Japanese-American by way of Hawaii-California-and finally NYC where I was born.

Her English is fine (much better than my broken Japanese). Sometimes we have some communication issues - but mostly they tend to be humor-related - and lots of English speaking people have problems with my sense of humor as well...

So the story takes place earlier this year. I'm in full blown poker-fever - and for that matter so are quite a few of my friends. Frequently we've been getting together and ending up at a friend's apartment to play single table NL tournaments. (with $20 buyins)

Not wanting her to sit on the side when this happens (and certainly not wanting to miss these tourneys) - I start to teach her how to play poker.

She's a pretty quick study - and starts to beat the computer opposition on Hoyle's Casino software on a regular basis. So I get her started on Turbo Texas Hold'em - and she seems to start doing pretty well with that too. (a prodigy?)

So I bring her over to the next game after a week or so of practice.

She holds her own. In fact she MORE than holds her own.

I'm not sure if the deck ran her over - or if she had everyone off balance - but she ends up placing in 3 of the 4 tourneys and winning 2 outright!

In one game - she was one of the last 3 - with two of my friends (both hyper-aggressive) duking it out - with huge raises back and forth. She simply patiently waited biding her time - folding until she found a hand worth playing.

My friends built a pot (as usual) and Y just called. Seemingly unaware of the monster Y was holding my friends continue to push at the pot, raising, re-raising, and then stop in utter shock as Y - goes all-in.

She's got a monster - and ends up knocking them both out on this hand - much to the delight of all the spectators.

By the end of the night - she's had fun, has most of our money in her pocket - and I'm equally happy because it looks like poker will no longer be a 'bad' word in our house.

We hop in a cab with a friend - and are on our way home.

Y, is still bathing in victorious exultation. My friend and I continue to compliment her on her play.

Suddenly she bursts out. "I am the Genius of THE Poker!"

A few minutes later after my friend and I stop holding our stomachs from laughing so hard I reassure her.

"Yes you are, honey. Yes you are..."

2004-12-14T18:02:00.000-05:00

Vegas - WPBT Holiday Classic Weekend - Day 2

The alarm goes off at 9am...

My wake up call rings at 9:15...

the alarm buzzes again at 9:30.

Finally I sit up in bed, still drunk - having seemingly blinked rather than slept. I'm still drunk, my head is muddled - and there's a room service tray parked in front of my bed with some half eaten food on it.

How the hell did that get there?

Everyone else is snoring away as I trudge off to the shower and try to cleanse myself of the previous night's festivities.
They wake up and moan as I get dressed - and then start laughing when I tell them that I'm headed off to the blogger tourney... still semi-intoxicated.

Just for the spite of it - I open the shades letting in the abundant Vegas sun, just to hear them scream before I stumble off to my cab. (heh heh)

Sam's Town is a long long ride off the strip. By the end of the ride I'm contemplating making a quick stop to (ahem) unload the previous night's poison. Hazy memories of ten shots of Crown Royal (I believe there was a special) begin to make me nauseous.

As I wander around the casino - I'm struck with the fact that I have NO IDEA where the breakfast is to be held. I walk all around the floor looking for the room until I realize the meeting rooms are upstairs. Thankfully I run into Pauly, Derek and Maudie and find the poker breakfast - where I see Charlie Shoten, Ron Rose, Tom McEvoy, Marcel Luske and various unknown bloggers chatting away at the tables.

I head directly for the coffee - throw it down as quickly as I can, try to get my bearings - and walk over to where Marcel is having a conversation with Felicia and Glenn. (who look wide-eyed and bushy tailed)

Marcel stops his conversation with them to look at me, shake my hand, and exchange introductions. What a nice guy!

I have to admit I could only understand half of what he was saying - what with coming into the middle of his conversation, my addled state, and his dutch accent. But whatever he was talking about - I was acting really interested.

Eventually the other bloggers started straggling in. I'm relieved to see various states of bedraggledness, I'm not the only one coming in from a LONG night...

I have some nice conversations with Charlie, introduce myself to Tom, but mostly spend time speaking to many of the other bloggers present. Besides those I had met the previous night - I get to meet Linda (from Poker Works), Bill Rini, Grubby, and last but certainly not least Joe the Poker Prof and the Las Vegas Vegas crew.

We then heard a speech from Charlie Shoten about his new book: No Limit Life - which sounds really interesting about his newfound philosophy on life and poker. I'll definitely pick up a copy, I thought Charlie was quite a character and a real nice guy (more on this later).

While Charlie was speaking some other pros arrived - Evelyn Ng, Kiril Gerasmov and Max Pescatori (who would play in the tourney with us).

Then Tom McEvoy did a little Q&A for us about poker to which he answered questions we had about poker. I especially liked Pauly's question about getting busted with AK in tournaments and wondering if he should lay it down more often.

Tom rightfully pointed out that AK is a drawing hand albeit a powerful one (which is my take on it exactly). However to suceed in tournaments - you must win with AK as well as beat AK invariably. (foreshadowing: this was not to be the case for me. Damn you BG!)

All in all it was great fun - I just wish I was more lucid.

And I have to admit - I was a bit star-struck. I mean - poker pros are normal people - but to an avid player like myself (and other bloggers) who religiously watches any and all poker on TV they can find - these guys are my heroes.

I don't think I can express how tongue-tied and awed I was with being able to shake hands and have conversations with them about poker.

In a word: awesome.

Anyways - after the morning session we headed down to the Sam's Town poker room for the WPBT Holiday Classic. 30 entrants - 5 places paid - and everyone revved up and ready to go.
The table banter as expected was great - usually I'm pretty silent at a tournament - but not this one.
I got a terrible draw in one sense - as I drew the 5s on the"Table of Death", with Charlie Shoten in the 2s, and Max Pescatori in the 7s.

There were also fellow bloggers - Felicia Lee (the eventual champ) in the 9s, Pauly in the 6s to my left, CJ in the 8s, Daddy in the 4s, and Grubby in the 10s.

Great. It was intimidating to have drawn both pros - not to mention Felicia - but hey what the hell I was thinking - it ought to be a good story - and a great learning experience.

Things started off with Charlie Shoten, completely belying his tight reputation - firing away at many pots. He didn't make huge raises - suprisingly betting 2xBB many times - but he hit some cards and pushed his way to a relatively nice chip count.

By the time I realized what he was doing - it was too late to make plays at him - and he was showing down some really interesting hands. To some extent - I think he was messing around.

I actually did get involved in a few pots with Charlie and took down a small pot on a flop that missed me when he checked and I bet into him (praying that it wasn't a trap).

A few more small pots - and I was even feeling pretty good. Maybe I can survive and even play this table?

An interesting hand with Charlie came up when he called my BB when it was folded to him. The SB folded and I checked it to get heads up with T5o. (great hand, huh?)
The flop came 7-8-x. I figured it missed him, so when he bet 100 (the min) - I decided to call and see if I could catch my T or maybe even make a play here.

The T came on the turn.

Top pair, no kicker - but I really had the feeling that I now had the best hand. Out of the corner of my eye while I'm thinking of what to do I see Charlie bang his fist against the felt. "Is he checking?" I thought. Now I don't know if he was pulling a move on me or not - it was my turn to act - but this made up my mind. Wisely - I only mustered the courage to bet 200T into the pot.

Charlie immediately flung out a 600T raise into the pot.

Staring at the chips that represented his raise - I felt like a deer in headlights. Did he hit this flop after all? I put him on a T better kicker - or possibly J-9 for the straight.

I wasn't really thinking of calling - and Charlie cemented this thought when he quoted from his book "Your calm, your patient, and you're waiting for the right spot".

Thanks Charlie. I mucked my hand. He flipped up 7-8 for a flopped two pair. Whew...
What the hell was I doing in that hand anyway?

I had a brief moment of terror - when Charlie (with his big stack) made another raise at me a while later and I looked down at 99. Down slightly below the 2000T buy in - I pushed.
Grubby called with a smaller stack - and Charlie called as well. (think he had overcards)

Grubby had AA for the main pot - but Charlie missed the board and I took the side pot to have exactly the same amount of chips as I started the hand with..]

Thank god Grubby was short stacked.

CJ's reported the next hand of interest at Up for Poker.
But here's my take:

It was raised in front of me and I looked down at TT. I pushed all-in. CJ saw pocket 77 and pushed with his smaller stack. Then the original raiser (apologies for not remembering who this was) - kind of shrugged and called with KQ. (think I would've done the same with a chance to triple up)

CJ hit his set on the flop and was out of his chair - but I was still ahead of KQ for the side pot - and ended up with the scoop when I rivered a straight on the 78J9x board.

Sorry about that CJ.

Now I had a hold of some chips - not quite as many as Charlie and Max - who had been hitting hands and scooping pots - but I was in good shape at about 4000T.

Unfortunately I decided to get aggressive in the wrong situation.

A few hands later it folded around to me on the button. I looked down at JTo.

"Raise" I hear myself saying. I put a bet of 3xBB (900T) into the pot.

Pauly looks down at his cards, looks up at me and pushes his stack into the middle. "All-in" he calls. The BB folds and I'm staring at Pauly my face red thinking to myself - "whoops!"

Pauly starts chatting at me that he'll show me his hand if I muck. I know he's got something good - certainly better than my JTo. But I ask for a count anyway.

Pauly's all-in is about 700+T over my 900T bet. So I'm getting better than 3-1 to call.

If Pauly has AK - I'm only a 2-1 dog. Of course if he has an over pair (AA-JJ) he's more than a 4-1 favorite. And if he's got an underpair - it's a coin flip situation.

Although my instincts scream fold (Pauly's got something big) - I just can't get myself to turn down the price I'm getting. I tell Pauly that I made a mistake overbetting my hand but now that the raise is so little - I have to call.

That's not really true. In retropsect I feel I should've laid down. But I went with my gut - and listened to the gamble in my heart and made the call. What a terrible person I am to try to bust our beloved organizer with a hand like JTo!

Pauly showed the Hilton Sisters QQ - and I knew it. I was almost embarassed to flip up my cards - I couldn't even look at the faces of the rest of the table when they saw my meager holding.

An ace came on the flop - which was what Pauly was probably fearing - but no help to me. I think I hit a J giving me a glimmer of hope - but it was not to be.

Pauly ended up with a nice stack and I was now back to under 2000T with a push stack with the blinds at 150-300 and escalating.

I actually avoided getting knocked out right after that - but although it was a good guess I don't give myself any credit for a good read. In the BB - and Max raises in EP. Charlie calls Max's raise. And I believe the Poker Prof moves all-in.

I look down and see 99.

I want to call - this is a GREAT chance to more than triple up - but I've got 2 pros behind me - and an all-in bettor who's over the top of both of them. Something is telling me this is not the time to get in with 99. I go with the force and muck and then whisper to Pauly - that I may have dropped the best hand.

Max and Charlie call the all-in - Max has 44, Charlie has overcards, and the Prof has ?? (don't remember). Max hit's a 4 for his set on the flop - no 9 comes and boy am I relieved that I didn't make that call.

Call it intuition. Call it fear. It was more of a combination of BOTH.

After this hand I caught a run of cold cards and watched as my stack diminished even further. I made a few steals - most notably with an 1400T all in bet on KTo. Felicia folded in the SB - remarking "If I was the BB - I'd call you." Of this I have no doubt. Alcanthang was in the BB and agonized for a while about calling.

To be honest - I was petrified. I really couldn't think of a hand that he could have that I would LIKE to be called with. It must've been pretty bad cards cause Al let me pass.

If I didn't thank you later Al (and I didn't) - Thanks!

So I hovered around when BG was moved two seats to my right. We had a "Genius" last longer bet of $5 - and we both had about the same amount in chips.

That's when the fateful final hand occurred. With 11 players left (and the final table awaiting) BG pushed. I look down and see AKs. I call.
I've got BG covered by about 200T (great) - and he shows 44.

"No A, no K" he shouts.

I calmly watch the flop. I'm either hitting this flop or I'm dead. But BG dodges the overcards - and I am left with 2 chips and a chair.

I bust out undramatically two hands later in 11th place - just missing the final table.

Disappointing? A little. Regrets? Yes - I wish I had just folded that JT on the button!

But this tournament was probably the most fun I'd ever had - what with the banter and the players - and even getting a chance to play with Max and Charlie. (and Felicia)

I've got a lot to learn about this game - but you know what - I can sit with these guys. (if not beat them)

I stayed to the bitter end - and watched Felicia finally take Max out in the final hand. By this time I was delirious and in major need of a nap. I said my goodbyes to those still around - and headed back to my room for some zzzzs.

I had every intention of trying to catch up with the crew at the Excalibur or Mandalay on Sunday (for football) - but it was not to be.

I even hear that Iggy showed up and I missed him!
The Blogfather himself in the house - dammit - I HAVE to meet you next time Iggy!

But I had a long night ahead of me - and a nap was most definitely NOT in my near future.

It was off to the Mirage for some ramming jamming 10/20 action...

2004-12-14T13:49:00.000-05:00

Vegas - WPBT Holiday Classic Weekend - Day 1

So I arrive in Vegas on Friday morning after changing my flight from the previous night to the early morning one. I miss out on at least one night of poker - but I figured that actually getting a little bit of sleep on Thursday night would benefit me in the long run for Saturday's festivities.

End up landing around 10am - head over to the Mirage - stand in line with a bunch of cowboys - I'll tell ya - you could certainly tell it was RODEO weekend - cowboys and cowgirls all over the town...

After dropping my bag off - I decided to head over to the Luxor where I heard a few bloggers would be stopping by to attend the ridiculously structured but cheap ($25) 12PM tourney.
When I arrived to sign up - no one was there - so I eventually succumbed to killing time at a $2-4 table when Felicia and Glenn showed up. I chatted with them for a while - when in came Otis and BadBlood for the tournament.

Well - Felicia and Glenn eventually left (no interest in the Luxor tourney) - and I sat down at the tourney only to get knocked out in 21 minutes when my AKs fell to QQ on a KQx flop. (lucky not to bust out on that hand). And finally when my AA lost to Q9s when the lady to my right turned a straight on me (KJxT board).

She was extremely apologetic - but I had no bad feelings about it - these things happen in poker. I wished her luck with my chips and got up from the tourney.

But what to do now? I saw BadBlood and Otis still in the tourney. I could hang around and wait to see how they did. But did I really want to play 2/4? The answer was quickly - no.
So instead I headed over to the Excalibur where I heard that many of the bloggers would be arriving and I was assuming heading over to the poker room.

When I got there - once again, it did not appear that anyone from the blogger crew was there. But then again - how was I to know? Other than Pauly - and BG - who said he'd be in a shamrock hat - how could I tell a blogger from a regular tourist?

So I sat down at the baby NL game (1/2 blinds) to kill some time.

Now to say this game was soft would be an understatement. It certainly wasn't passive - with 1/2 blinds, a pretty standard raise was $15. However, many of these guys wouldn't follow up their pre-flop raises - instantly giving you a read of A, high card that missed or a pocket pair with an overcard on the flop - and others gave you the same read by pushing all-in on flops they missed or were scared of.

I played relatively conservatively - though I really wanted to mix it up. The only big hand I hit was when I was raised to a paltry $8 with Ax suited - picked up 3 callers and flopped my draw. Checked to me - and I bet $15 on the flop and picked up 2 callers. The flush hit the turn - and I checked it - and one of the callers pushed. I called of course - and took his stack when he showed a smaller flush...

I won a few other big pots - but also - got my JJ cracked by overcards when the river gave a bad AK caller his A, and also had my top two cracked by a river straight on another overaggressive raiser...

I still was able to end up about $100 up when I noticed Felicia and Glenn talking to a table of players and finally recognized Pauly.

Apparently while I was locked up in the 1-2 NL game - the bloggers had arrived.
I met up with Pauly, BG, Derek, BG's brother Bob, Mrs. Can't Hang, and more.

I desperately wanted to get a seat at this blogger table - even if it was a $1-3 game. But I had to content myself with grinding away at the 1-2 NL game (with little success) for an hour or two.

Just when I finally got moved to this game - and started to enjoy myself considerably - Felicia came by to suggest we start up an Omaha 8/b game. Hey - what the hell - do I play Omaha? Not really. But a chance to learn, and play with some other bloggers? Sure.

When we got seated - I found myself with Glenn and Felicia to my left (great...) along with Otis, BadBlood, AlCantHang, and Daddy. (did I miss anyone?)

I proceeded to win a few early pots mostly due to ignorance. In fact at one point Glenn started explaining to me how Omaha was a much different board read than Hold'em because you had to play TWO cards from your hand. To which I expressed my surprise, duh, both cards must play?

(Let me again apologize to Felicia for getting her to fold a good low when I bet my bad one in that one pot. I obviously had no business in that game.)

I ended up losing my early winnings after having been explained the vagaries (thanks Glenn for making me realize the game more complexity) - but I had a really interesting time and really started to enjoy the differences in Omaha. Think I'll spend some time practicing the game online... (in low limits)

Anyways - when the game broke up finally - it was getting towards evening time and I had to meet up with my friends and brother arriving later that night over at the Mirage.

I could've stayed out and played poker with the other bloggers all night - and part of me wanted to do just that (badly) - but with regrets I said my goodbyes - and headed over to the Mirage.

I'd see everyone again tomorrow.

BlackJack? (money won is twice as sweet as money earned)

So after returning to the Mirage I met up with my buddy (we'll refer to him as "lolo" which is hawaiian for crazy) and his brother. After a quick bite to eat, we hit the floor - and since there was a waiting list for the poker room - I got sucked into playing a few friendly hours of BJ.

Now my friend "lolo" - is legendary for his BJ social skills. I think I've written about this before - but he's the kind of blackjack player that gets a table of strangers high-fiving each other, does dances like the "strong like bull" dance and the hokey-pokey on a streak, and tips dealers and waitresses like a madman, strewing red and green chips around for good karma.

We sit down at a $25 table and right away things aren't looking good for the good guys. $200 disappears in like 5 minutes. But we continue to grind away - finally hit a good shoe and I'm bouncing between -$100 and -$200 for quite some time.

Then a young lady sits down between me and "lolo" and buys in for a $100. Not sure what she's thinking sitting down at a table with the three of us - we're obviously buzzed on the way to drunk - and though we're nice guys - she's got no way of knowing this.

But soon after our luck starts to change and unsurprisingly "lolo" starts to heat up.

"Fasten your seatbelts" I tell the new girl - "we're going for a ride!"

Now every time the dealer breaks - we are pounding fists across the table. Eventually our new friend gets into the swing of things and she's pounding with us.

"lolo" orders shots of Patron for the table and starts swigging glasses of Macallan scotch like they were water. As his face begins to turn beet red - we are entertained with his versions of the "hokey-pokey" as he gets up off his seat and prances (yes - I said prances) around in a circle after every big win.

Eventually the evil side of "lolo" comes out and he begins half jokingly offering the dealer tips to bust me when he breaks his hand and I'm sitting on a 17 or less. And then he pays the dealer and exults when it happens! I'm taking it in good humor (we're still up) but the dealers are like "Do you know this guy?" and "Is he your friend?"

I even take it in stride when I stupidly walk into a punchline when I ask the dealer to "give me a little one" when hitting my 16 - to which "lolo" promptly remarks "God already gave you one!"

The table erupts in laughter - and I can only grimace at my stupidity.

Eventually the pit boss comes over and asks if we can keep it down. Things were getting that rowdy. "lolo" insists we are merely a bunch of meek gambling asians - and that the noise must be originating from another table. The pit boss takes it in good humor - but he gets his point across even to a drunk "lolo".

Which makes things even more funny when we continue to hit cards and watch the dealer break. "lolo" now thrusts his arms in the air and makes supressed screaming sounds that sound somewhat like a whale in heat. It's hard to express how funny this was - but even the dealer is cracking up now.

I'm surprised no one joined in on the fun - we were clearly the loudest (but not in an obnoxious way), funnest, youngest, rockingest BJ table in the casino. And we were HOT!

I'll spare you the rest of the details - I did start pressing my bets near the end of the streak - if only I had a little more faith earlier... I was up a pretty decent amount when "lolo" exclaimed - "one more shot of Patron! (we had had about 4 so far) and we go OUT!"

It was sad to break the table - but the streak had pretty much ended and we were peaking. So we toasted our good fortune, said our goodbyes to our new friend, Christina from LA (who at least quintupled her $100 buy in), and we cashed out and headed out of the casino to see what nightlife Vegas had to offer.

Let me just say that BJ winnings unlike poker winnings spend much easier...

And that's the story of my first day in Vegas - and how I managed not to play poker on a Friday night...

(fade to black)

2004-12-13T13:19:00.000-05:00

Return from Vegas (conscious - but barely)

A quick recap of the weekend's madness in Vegas for the WPBT Holiday Tournament. It was an insanely good time!
There was no big score for the weekend (well maybe a little one) but by Sunday I had had such a great time, everything else was just gravy.
As has been reported in other blogs - (check out Bill's Blog, Felicia, and Glenn) - Felicia Lee won the tournament. Congratulations Felicia. Although I played at her table for most of the tourney (busted out 11th) - I was lucky not to get involved in too many hands with her.
But more on this later...
As for the rest of the trip - playing with and meeting everyone was the highlight of the weekend. It's amazing how such a variety of people can meet for the first time and yet still seem like long lost friends..
Meeting some of the pros like Ron Rose, Marcel Luske, Tom McEvoy was an incredible experience as well. And getting to play with Charlie Shoten and Max Pescatori in the tourney (on the same table no less) was priceless.

As for the rest of my weekend - well I played a lot of poker (moved up to the 10-20 games), had a really lucky run and a great time at the blackjack tables, and one booze/blackjack winnings fueled romp on the town - which I would write about - but I er... forget many of the details.

I swear to write it all up - but if I don't get a few hours of sleep today I won't be any good for anything for the rest of the week.

Congratulations again to Felicia for her well deserved win - and to everyone who made it to Vegas (as well as those still out there) - it was a pleasure to meet you all.

Let's do it again soon!

2004-12-02T16:01:00.000-05:00

Getting Ready for Vegas! (and another massacre at the Lodge)

Well I wasn't planning on another Vegas trip this year - but the coincidence of a blogger gathering as well as another friend heading out (to share the costs) was too much to pass up. I'll be hitting town on Thursday night (Mirage) and perhaps unadvisedly staying until late Sunday night (so I can get my football bets in - nothing like poker and football).

Anyway - now that I'm headed out there - I can't wait to put names to the faces - and faces to the names. To some extent it'll be like meeting a pen pal. The only difference is that a few hours after meeting - we'll get to sit down across a table and try to take each other's chips!

Let's get it on!

Last weekend I spent the T-day holiday out in Denver with my family. My dad and brother are online poker addicts also - although they don't have a blog, we exchange poker e-mails and talk about poker more than just about anything for the past year. In a strange way, since I introduced them to poker last year, and online poker to be specific - I speak to them on a much more regular basis. Who would've thunk it?
Poker has made us closer as a family.

Anyways - my brother and I headed up to Central City/Blackhawk to partake in the crazy $5 limit games at the Lodge Casino. I've written this game up before - but to rehash - the $5-$5 game structure is a $5 BB and SB - with $5 being the only unit of betting - and the cap is 5 raises.

Getting to the cap of $35 is more of a momentum thing than 2 good hands facing off. Ramming and Jamming on the right table is a relatively frequent occurrence. And players often will willingly get caught in the middle - hoping to get lucky - leading to 5 and 6 way capped action before the flop.

Anyways - you get the gist.

Last time I played in the game - I didn't catch many hands - ended up playing tight-weak, then went on tilt and played loose-aggressive - which wasn't my game - and I ended up busting out about a nickel ($500)...

This time? Well let's just say that I was dealt AA twice - and lost both times. Once to J7o who wouldn't release the gutshot and hit a straight on the river.
And more painfully in a 5 way capped pot preflop - to QT who flopped a straight on a KJ9 board.
Thank god it wasn't an Ace high straight or I would've capped it to the river.
I think I won less than 10 pots all night - and of my discards I can count on one hand how many times they would've dragged a pot.

Impressively - I don't feel I went on tilt at any time. I stayed true to the game I play best - only playing good hands - loosening up occasionally in position - and not chasing draws as recklessly as my fellow players.

Even after it was clear that time was dwindling (the casino closes at 2am) - and my hope of getting back to even was getting minute - I resisted the urge to blow the rest of my chips in one of those - 'what the hell I go all-in' (in a limit game) binges.

I'm proud of myself.

Unfortunately, my table wasn't extremely friendly - I didn't really talk to anyone. Of course it didn't help my mood that I was never up in the game. Someone even made a jest about me being 'antisocial' - to which I replied - "You want to make friends? Go play blackjack." (but I said it with a 'friendly' smile)

One incident of note occurred at a showdown when the guy sitting across from me announced two small pair proudly with his 25o. The woman on the other side of the table dropped her cards face down on the table. It's unclear if she was mucking or what as they kind of fell straight down. Someone said something (I don't know what) and she turned them over faceup. She had A2 for two bigger pair.
Now as the dealer began to push the pot to her - they guy ERUPTS out of his seat screaming she mucked her hand and that the pot should be his. He just starts going off - face turning red not screaming but speaking extremely loudly to the dealer.
Finally the floor came over and ruled the pot over to the lady. He continued his tirade - now moving to the angle that a fellow player told her to turn over his cards and this was 'interference'.
This guy who seemed relatively normal until the incident was quickly showing himself to be a complete jackass. One of the worst sore losers I've ever seen.
He eventually got to someone higher up from the casino and came back to proudly tell us that they were reviewing the tape and would give him a ruling to which he fully expected to be reimbursed by the casino for the value of the lost pot.

Funnily enough- the smile was gone soon enough an hour later when someone from Gaming came down to tell him that he had been banned from the casino for 'hitting the dealer'.
Now I didn't see him hit the dealer, but he may have touched her when he was going off. And he certainly was being abusive. I was glad as hell that they kicked him out and banned him - guys like that need to find another hobby.

Anyways while I was listening to this jackass and losing - my brother had wisely sat at the 2-5 game where the blinds were 1 and 2 dollars and a five dollar pre flop raise actually had the effect of thinning the field. (what a concept!)

He ended up winning a whopping $450 which is a huge amount considering the stakes...

Anyways the drive home was made more pleasant thanks to his 'winning high'. It must've even rubbed off on me some cause I really didn't feel all that bad about losing money to those chumps.
Ok - I felt a little bad. But I never went on tilt.

8 days to Vegas.

2004-11-23T10:58:00.000-05:00

Hiatus over?

Well - the month of November seems to have passed without me playing very much at all. There's a number of reasons for this that I won't bore you with. Most recently it's been the obsessive amount of time I've spent playing Halo 2...
I thought I'd get too old for video games at some point but apparently this is not the case.

Anyways - I'm off to Colorado tonight to visit my family in Denver. While there I'm sure we'll have a few interesting home games - as my dad and brother are regular online players whose games I'm sure have evolved since I've last seen them.

Also - I'll be making at least one stop to Central City/Blackhawk where the game is 5-5 and the action is loose. Some of you may remember one of my earlier posts on the games in Central City. The Lodge (a casino) is where my poker playing dreams were launched as the first time I went there and sat at the 5-5 game I won over $1000.

Of course my last trip out I dropped about $500 - but the cards ran cold - and I did play somewhat over-aggressive.

It's a bit of a jackpot game - capping before the flop five/six ways. But if you hit some hands - you will certainly hit the jackpot.

I'm going to brush up on my Gary Carson advice on how to play these loose aggressive games - and give it a shot.

In other news - I'm seriously thinking about making it out to the Blogger tournament in Vegas at Sam's Town on December 11th. I e-mailed Pauly and it looks like there's a spot if I can make it out.

I was originally planning a trip to AC that weekend but what's the difference? Plus I would find it really exciting to meet all the people out there who's poker lives I've been following for a good part of the year.

What can I say - I'm almost definitely IN!

In preparation - I'm sure to spend some more time playing online - and though this blog is languishing - hopefully some more interesting poker things will happen in my life in the next few weeks...

Next update should be a trip report from Colorado.

2004-11-01T19:47:00.000-05:00

Vacation?

Errr.. It's been a long time since I updated my blog. Sorry to those who've come back and checked for an update. Things have been pretty busy this month - not leaving much time for poker. I haven't retired from the game - and I definitely don't plan on abandoning the GotP.

However circumstances seem to have conspired to prevent me from updating as often as I'd like.

Things should ease up in November and I hope to get back online grinding it out and continuing to improve my game. To be honest - I think I've come to a standstill or plateau in terms of my poker play.

The blogger tourney at PokerStars earlier this month was a good example. I'd been a bit out of practice - so I went back to the basics. I resolved to play mostly tight - and relatively cautious the first hour.

This was fine - but the cards didn't cooperate - and I really didn't catch a hand or a flop for the entire first hour. I was able to win a pot or two here and there to stay afloat - but by the second hour I hadn't made any progress when I picked up AK in the BB.

I raised half my stack and picked up a caller. When the board came 3 low cards - I really didn't have much choice but to push. Unfortunately the caller had a pocket pair and called almost instantaneously.
Not much that I figure I could do to change the outcome of that hand...

In my regular home game on Fridays - I've been running pretty bad as well. Usually I can use my tight image to good effect - winning enough small pots early on with a combination of slow plays and steal moves to make it down to the final few players.
But my recent lack of success seems to be something that other players pick up on. For some reason - if you aren't dragging pots, it creates a perception that you don't have a hand. Like vultures over a rotting carcass the other players start to target you - and as they know I will lay down hands - even put steal moves on me!
And I sure seem to be picking some poor times to push at pots.
It used to be that the game was so full of loose cannons - that a tight player like me could pick up quite a few uncontested pots. No longer...
The game has tightened up - and instead of unbridled aggression - slow plays - and even re-steals have become pretty common.
I just haven't made the proper adjustments - trying to play a game that really isn't my style. (too loose and sometimes too aggressive)

It's definitely something that's bothering me - and I plan to try to find my game again.

More to come on this later...

Vacation's over.

See y'all at the tables.

2004-10-19T15:06:00.000-04:00

Bad Beat Monday

It's been quite an interlude over here at GotP. My apologies to the few that check back for updates. It's been a pretty busy week - and unfortunately not much of that time has been spent either playing poker or writing about it.
Between some busy days at work, having relatives drop in for a weeklong visit, and finding myself sucked into the baseball playoffs and my 5-0 Jets - there just hasn't seemed to be time to finish updating my trip report.

Yesterday - for the first time in a while I had some free time. Of course there was that 14 inning, 5 hour Yankees-Red Sox game that I watched in it's entirety - however baseball is a poker friendly pasttime - and I was excited to spend a few hours enjoying the game (as long as the Yanks lost) and playing poker.

Unfortunately, though Boston triumphed over the bad guys - I had no such luck. The day started on a Party $50NL table. I doubled up after waiting for quite a while to get a playable hand when my AK hit two pair and Ax couldn't or wouldn't fold. (had me worried though)

I played pretty smart - even reading another hand when my top pair got chased down by a flush draw (never mind my flop and turn pot bets, apparently) - and though the flush came on the river and he checked it - I wisely checked it rather than make a stupid bet at the river. Still it was quite a pot, and though I congratulated myself on paying attention enough not to get burnt for more - it wasn't fun to see a good portion of my profit slide over to another stack.

Finally, after swimming for a while with a small profit - I catch AA. Two limpers (for $1) , I raise to $5 in MP. I catch 3 callers, the button and the two early limpers. (guess I should've raised more. The flop comes J-8-4 rainbow. It's checked, and the second limper bets $6 into the $21 pot. I think about raising here - but I think the bettor has top pair - and I'm thinking the other players will lay down to a raise - so I get greedy and smooth call.
Both other players call the $6.

The turn is a T. Now I'm not too happy about that T. JT is possible - some players will even call 5xBB preflop raise w/this hand. The raiser opens for $20.

Now I'm worried about JT or even trips. But I'm still reading top pair for some reason. I should probably lay this down - but I feel strongly that I'm ahead of the bettor. After some agonizing over the fold button - I slide the bet slider to the right and push all in for about the pot - $40.

The button calls behind me (whoops!) and the bettor goes all in too - called by the button.

The river is another T.

Bettor shows TT for four of a kind.

Button shows AJ - for the top pair I was reading on the bettor.

I muck my AA and quickly shut down Party Poker.

Sometimes I can play through a bad hand or a bad beat. I'm not really sure which this was - though I suspect I could've played this hand ALOT better. For some reason - I just felt like I should take a break for a while after this hand.

As I look back on it - the two things I could've done is to raise preflop more aggressively, and/or to have raised the flop (where I was still definitely ahead). Instead I took the risk of someone catching me (and they did) - and busting me.

No matter - at 10pm I entered Ultimate Bet's 10+1 10,000 guaranteed rebuy tournament. The overlay was pretty nice with the guarantee and as expected the turnout was over 1000 players. I wasn't planning on rebuying - in fact I'm not a huge fan of rebuy tournaments - but the top prizes were pretty attractive.

Unfortunately though I flop a set with 44 on the very first hand - it's not action time yet - and I can't convince anyone to bet into me. Much later on I get AK - raise it up - pick up too many callers - and have to fold when I miss the flop.

I still wait patiently - while the action heats up at the table and am rewarded when I get KK in LP - raise the pot and pick up 3 callers. The flop comes all undercards - and I'm good. I raise the pot and have 2 callers. A fourth undercard on the turn. I'm short stacked in relation to the pot - so I push after the callers check. I pick up two callers. One hit trips on the turn with 77 - and the other has AT for top pair.

Ooops. I rebuy.

Slightly on tilt - but forcing myself to remain tight and patient. As is the case in many rebuy tourneys - the action is being pushed and if you can just hit a few hands...

I catch JTo in the BB - it's raised 2xBB - a whole mess of callers - so of course I call.

The flop comes K-Q-8 (rainbow). I have a double belly buster straight draw. (both the A and 9 give me the straight. It's bet and called by a few callers - I call hoping to hit one of my outs.

A 9 comes on the turn. I check - it's bet and called - no messing around this time, I push hoping to pick up a disbelieving caller. I do get one - and he shows 88 for the flopped trips. I'm in good shape...

The river is a 9.

See ya. Want to rebuy? No thanks.

Actually the happy ending to this story? The UB tournament crashed and I got a message from UB saying they were refunding entry fees. The players left in the tourney get a free-roll for 20,000. I just get my money back.

Heck - I'll take it.

Looking forward to Iggy's PokerStars blogger tournament on Thursday night. Though I'll be flying to chicago tomorrow - I'll find a way to play via dial-up in my hotel room. I just wish my game were in a slightly better state.

Here's hoping I can get lucky. See you all on Thursday!

2004-10-08T15:22:00.000-04:00

Trip Report Interlude

Yes - I know, this trip report has dragged on and on. I'm working on Day 4 right now - and trying desperately to at least get the draft completed before it all becomes a faded memory.
I suppose it would have written itself if it were a more interesting story (like the last Borgata trip). It's still interesting I suppose - just not as profitable (happy) an ending.

Anyways - a couple of poker thoughts I've been having and wanted to post before the continuation of my Vegas trip journal.

I've been spending a decent amount of time lurking on the Party and UB $50/$100 NL tables. I figured out pretty early on that while the $25 NL tables were profitable - the higher games are even MORE profitable.

Seriously - I figured the competition at the $50/$100 max buy-in limits would toughen up. Not really the case. Although I've gone on some bad streaks - and made some pretty tough and potentially bad laydowns in some rather large pots - for the most part I've been pretty steadily building my bankroll on these tables.

It's kind of disappointing when I don't double up at least once through the fish in these games.

There's really not that much trickery or skill in my opinion necessary to beat the game either.

Basically I just play pretty tight - with a healthy consideration given over to position, and keep my aggressive bets within the ranges of half the pot to the pot. (in other words - I rarely overbet)

I add value to hands that can make the nuts like small/mid pockets, suited Aces (I play these too much), and the suited connectors from 78 up.
I'm much more likely to play these hands or even call a small raise in position with these hands.

I don't mess around with Ace, poor kicker or two face cards, gaps, etc... very much with few exceptions.

In general - although I believe I possess the skill to outplay most of the players I see post flop - I try to limit the hands I play to those that I feel are relatively straightforward. Either you hit your hand (or big draw), or you get out.

As for when you connect with a flop. Well - it's amazing how effective the small lead bet on the flop can be. When forced to act first - when holding the nuts (a flopped boat, straight, trips) - my favorite way to play this is to make a small bet (2x min - half pot).

If no one has anything - you win a small pot. If someone has something - you can be assured of getting raised. And you'll collect a few calls (and sometimes raises) from drawers who have no idea they're drawing dead. You may even encourage an aggressive player to try a steal-raise.

I find that over half the time - the second best hand will come over the top of my weak lead. I can either call and check the turn if I think he's aggressive - or come back over the top if I think he has a hand that he can't get away from - or if I don't want to give him another card.

In any case I find this is the strategem that makes up the bulk of my profit.

As for playing non-nut hands/draws - well all I can say is that I play them very carefully. I have on occasion made a bad read or two and gotten hurt, but for the most part - I'm very willing to lay down TPTK in the face of someone who is representing something better.

If anything - I tend to play a little weak in these situations.

For the most part - many times - once you've had your initial betting confrontation (on the flop or turn) - unless your opponent is really strong - they tend not to follow through if you've called them. Allowing you to check down to the river and see who had the better hand.

In any case - none of this any revelational poker strategy. It's low limit NLHE for chrissakes - play solid poker. But it works. (cards willing)

I may never play limit again...

Last night - I returned to the online tournament circuit - jumping into a $10 UB tourney that had a reasonable 2-300 person field. I played pretty good for the first 2 hours - making it to the bubble where the tourney generally slows down. Unfortunately I hit a nut flush on the river when a second ace came on the last card. My suited king all of a sudden looked good - for some reason I read 3 aces and not full house. I was so convinced that I pushed all in on top of his bet instead of giving him room to at least represent the house and give myself an opportunity to make another read/decision. Unfortunately he HAD been slow-playing two pair and made his house with the second ace. And I was out on the bubble.

My tournament dry spell continues.

I just withdrew a few hundred dollars from my burgeoning UB account with the intention of going after some bonus dollars somewhere. I originally intended get Party's redeposit bonus but missed the deadline over the weekend.

I've been thinking about trying out InterPoker for their 100% deposit bonus (up to $90). (thanks to Sound of a Suckout for the tip)

But do I really want to spend time on another sub-standard site grinding out my bonus?

I also read about this new site - Check and Raise on the Poker Professor's blog. It looks interesting and I registered and will check them out when they open. I'm happy to see anything that can come out with improvements to the current batch of poker interfaces. At the least it may drive some improvements from the current sites.

But you know - I'll probably just stick it in my Party account and look to play some bigger games.

That's it for now - the rest of my Vegas trip reports should be up by the end of next week.

2004-10-06T16:47:00.000-04:00

Vegas Trip Report - Day 2

Friday morning – I wake up refreshed and ready to go. Unfortunately as I shower, dress and attempt to sneak down to the poker room for some early morning action, my girlfriend wakes up and asks sleepily “where are you going?”.

“Uh – to go get some coffee..” I reply sheepishly (at the poker room – I’m thinking).

“Sounds like a good idea – hey – let’s go to the buffet” she says getting up out of bed.

Busted. And just like that – I was off… to the Bellagio buffet.

(Told you there wouldn’t be as much poker content)

The Bellagio buffet is pretty well reviewed by tourists to Vegas. I won’t spend an extraordinary amount of time on it – but for those curious – here’s my two cents.

In general – pretty standard stuff – tins of burnt bacon, greasy sausage, and the always scary looking vat of scrambled eggs. The omelettes to order were pretty damn good – I got mine with king crab and shrimp – not my typical omelette, but I was trying to get my $12 worth…

Some of the other offerings are where the Bellagio buffet really shines. Found some half decent lox along with a bagel like substance (not bad for the West Coast). Since it was late breakfast – they started bringing out some lunch items – and I was able to snag a heaping plate of shrimp cocktail. (mmmm..)

And finally they even had some desert offering out – y’know – cuz breakfast just isn’t breakfast without finishing it off with some crepes or a piece of pie.

It goes without saying that I ate too much. But I’ll be damned if I ever go to a buffet and don’t get my money’s worth. (which reminds me of a scary college episode at a Wendy’s $2.99 Super Bar, a day which will live in infamy – but that’s another story)

So finished with our 2 hour break-fast – we headed back out to the casino floor. I longingly looked over at the poker room which was beginning to fill up – but found myself somewhat unwillingly dragged off to a blackjack table tantalizingly close to the poker room.

Actually at the Bellagio the BJ tables by the poker room/sportsbook are the only ones I like to play. First off they have double deck blackjack which I prefer greatly to the never-ending automatic shoe variety. And secondly – it just seems more friendly over there. Maybe because there’s less foot traffic – maybe because the tables are usually slightly higher limits than the ones immediately past the lobby.

Anyways – I recommend you play there (if you absolutely have to play BJ). My girlfriend had ingeniously (she’s the inspiration for the title of this blog) purchased one of those little BJ strategy cards in preparation for playing. I think she had been trying to memorize the strategy thinking that you couldn’t look at the card while you played.

So we sat down at an empty ($25) BJ table. The first thing I did was tell her to pull out the strategy card. She looked at me innocently – like “what card?”.

I quickly explained that it was ok to play with the card. (although if you tip the dealers and are nice – they’ll usually give you the correct advice)

So we were off and running – playing BJ – and I soon realized as I received my first soft count hand – that I did not remember the BJ basic strategy as well as I had thought. I let slip some comment about how it was amazing how many years I’d been playing and still couldn’t remember the basic strategy.

That’s when the pit boss got suddenly interested. “How MANY years have you been playing blackjack?” she asked me.

“Uh… maybe 20. 25?” I answered without thinking.

“How old were you when you started playing, exactly?” she asked.

“How old? Well, I come from a gambling family – I probably learned how to play when about the same time I learned to count.” I proudly replied.

And you still can’t memorize the basic strategy?” she asked teasingly.

This became the running joke – as I tried to remember the proper move on split numbers and soft counts – only to check with the card and find that I was wrong a good portion of the time. (apparently – I’m a bit too apt to split and double)

The various dealers, pit bosses, and even my girlfriend found this amazingly funny for some reason. (why is everybody always picking on me?)

I just found it plain embarrassing. (though it got funny to me too after a few drinks) Halfway through the session that stupid little card moved it’s way from in front of my girlfriend to in front of me.

Meanwhile – though we were having a good time, and playing strictly by the basic strategy – we were still losing, and badly.

An interesting blackjack side note. It’s funny how many people don’t like to play at an empty table. Blackjack CAN be a social game. Not always – there’s always plenty of people who take it much too seriously. I mean if you aren’t going to have fun playing – why even bother??? But the thing I noticed is that once you get a game going on an empty table and appear to be having even a reasonable time – players start swooping in out of the crowd to take up spots.

And I’m nowhere near the most entertaining or fun blackjack player I know. Some good friends of mine who live and breathe blackjack happen to be some of the greatest people to play blackjack with in the world.

They’ve invented or adapted table antics like, the bull dance, a victory celebration inspired by Happy Gilmore, that consists of either the seated bounce and spank (use your imagination) or the more celebratory version – in which you stand up, bounce and spank back and forth behind the table.

There’s also my favorite - suspense cards (getting your double down cards dealt face down). So when the dealer doesn’t bust – you still have that last element of suspense as you see if you made your 20 or 21 on the double. The Bellagio dealers happily have no problem with suspense cards. (some places do)

They’re the kind of players that can get a whole table of strangers to stand up for a dealer break out of superstition. And turn those strangers into drunken high-fiving best friends within an hour or (usually) less.

That’s why they call themselves “Blackjack Ambassadors of Goodwill.”

Me – I’m more the quiet, subtle reaction player. But perhaps it’s because I have friends usually providing the entertainment and energy.

Without them – perhaps feeling something missing – I come out of the shell a bit.

Anyways – long story – short, -$400 in a few hours of $25 (that crept up to $50 and sometimes $100) blackjack. And yes though it was fun – it was most certainly not -$400 fun!

I don’t know what my g/f dropped at the table. Not as much, I think – as she was actually up for a while. We left when I refused to dig into my wallet any further.

I wasn’t exactly upset – but neither was I happy. I mean – I had gone from a nice start in the poker room Wednesday night – to suddenly in the hole after a few hours of BJ.

I think my g/f may have realized the slight frustration I felt – because she graciously decided to head for the pool and spa for the couple of hours before we were scheduled to see “O” and mentioned ‘whydon’tIhitthepokerroom’?

Why don’t I, indeed? I think I was gone before she could finish her sentence.

A few seconds later I was on the list at the full room. Unfortunately the 8-16 had a long list – and I just couldn’t bring myself to play 4-8.

What to do? There really isn’t much of a waiting area in the Bellagio poker room. (a minor, yet significant complaint) There were at least a 20 names on the list and no empty tables visible to open. I was in for an hour wait at least…

So I headed off to kill some time at a video poker machine, passing by the bj table we had just left and noticing it was empty and now a $50 min table…

No luck at video poker – and a poor substitute for the real thing – I went back to check on the list – but the Friday afternoon players seemed to be entrenched in their seats. I came very/very close to checking on the 15/30, 20/40 games – but quickly decided that would be a very bad idea in my current mental state.

As I wondered what my next move was – I walked by the old BJ table, empty again – and noticed it was back to a $25 min.

Next thing I knew – I was seated back in the same seat – with a pile of green $25 chips (and sans strategy card) hitting, standing, doubling, splitting, and never, never surrendering.

I must’ve been having fun – (well – I WAS winning) because in a few short minutes I was joined by other players. Actually it was a good group – one guy – a $100 BJ table decided to slum with me – and we got along great. Winning tends to build BJ friendships. We started drinking, bumping fists on big dealer breaks, and just generally having some good BJ fun. A young woman joined us soon after – and we went on another little run – and she soon became part of our little clique.

In just a short hour or so – I found myself back up the $400 I lost and even up a few hundred more.

It was at this point that I began to start thinking about leaving. Impulsively I asked to color up – much to the dismay of my new friends.

“You ever see a couple of strangers tackle someone trying to leave a hot blackjack table?” asked one of my new friends.

“It ain’t a pretty sight.” Added the other.

It was all in good humor. And I did understand their feelings. So not wanting to break the table karma – I hung around. But I scaled back my betting to a strict $25 – not wanting to tempt fate and risk the $$$ I had just won back.

Unfortunately for the table – the cards went cold – maybe I had irreparably hurt our karma already by coloring up. I bounced up and down – until I had finally lost my meager profit and at that point neither of my new friends were as adamant that I stay.

Still – I had won back my earlier loss – and was feeling pretty damn good about it.

With the bounce back in my step – I headed back to my room to get ready to go see the much ballyhooed Cirque de Soleil “O” show.

(to be continued)

2004-10-01T13:43:00.000-04:00

Vegas Trip Report - Day 1

So it was Wednesday night (seems like so long ago) and there I was at JFK getting ready to board a JetBlue flight to Vegas!

Actually I wasn’t as excited as I expected to be. There’s something missing when you fly out to someplace exciting like Vegas solo.

I remember once flying out with buddies for a bachelor party. We all showed up in sportsjackets, trying to look like high rollers and immediately ruined the illusion by high-fiving each other incessantly on meeting at the airport and screaming inane things like “Vegas, baby!”….

By the time we boarded the plane – we were three sheets to the wind, jackets crumpled and wrinkled, and the plane ride was a two hour party followed by a four hour nap…

Flying solo is a much more meditative experience in contrast.

I arrived at McCarran around 10:30. Waited a few minutes at baggage claim for my brother to arrive from Denver, picked him up and headed off to the Bellagio.

As the cab headed towards the bright lights of the Strip – I began to feel some excitement. I think it was the thought that I would be in the action soon.

We threw our bags in with the concierge, headed off to the room – and my brother immediately found a seat in an 8-16 game, while I waited next on the list.
I was soon seated at the same table – and after checking in with the poker office to get a time card (poker room rate!) – settled in to the table with five stacks of red.

The 8-16 game is a strange limit. I suppose it qualifies as low limit. It contains the usual mix of loose gambling types, rocks, and the occasional out and out fish. Really not much different from the 6-12 game I am accustomed to playing at the Borgata and Mirage.

As far as the room itself – well there are plenty of tables – it’s pretty comfortable, not anywhere near as nice as the Borgata, by comparison – but that’s a much newer room. There isn’t really much of a waiting area – so when the list gets long most people put their names on and leave – which means when a spot does open up – if you’re patiently hanging around – you might just get lucky.

Waitress service is pretty good – they come around pretty often. And the drinks were ok too – I noticed some players ordering some kind of daiquiri looking drink. When I asked what it was – I was informed it was a orange Julius… I hadn’t had one of those since I was a kid – pretty good too…

Mostly I drank jack and cokes – to such an extent that by my third visit to the room – the waitresses would just point at me and say “jack and coke”…

Nice. To be remembered.

All the dealers were as expected – very professional and for the most part friendly and funny.

All in all – a great poker room. I just wish more rooms would adopt the Borgata’s automated/video display waiting list. But it was kinda cool some nights to look up at the high limit area and see Gus Hansen, Eskimo Clark, Phil Ivey etc…

Our first table was pretty good and got better as random people kept sitting down with hardly any clue as how to play the game. It only took an hour or two before one of the loose players – “rasta-man” we called him – folded on a flop bet from me – and verbally told the table “I ain’t calling that guy – when he’s in a pot – he’s got the nuts!”…

This was to be the story of my Bellagio trip – as indeed I pretty much played tight – and mucking hands apparently is difficult to hide from players who enter 1 out of every 2 pots on average… Apparently even though I do my best to camouflage myself as an asian ‘gambling’ player – with a drink in front of me at all times, the occasional shout of ‘ai-yah’ when someone shows me an unexpected winner, and a few loose raises (on drawing hands) – it does not take a genius to figure out that I throw away the vast majority of hands I see – and if I stay in a pot – I’m usually holding something.

Still I managed to drag a few big pots when I made some boats with my pocket pairs in multi handed spots. Lucky – pretty much. My brother meanwhile was hitting hands left and right – at one point getting dealt pocket rockets 2 hands in a row (and holding up both times!).

It was pretty good action for a Wednesday night game and thanks to a steady influx of stragglers the game even stayed live till about 5-6 am. By the time the table broke I had booked a solid $300 win – but my brother meanwhile had amassed a truly massive pile of red for a profit of over $1000…

He was beside himself with excitement as he filled three racks up with red. His biggest poker win of his life. And as I was staking him for the weekend – I was equally excited. (go horse!)

What a start to the weekend! We found even more luck when we went to check with the front desk as to when we could check in for our Thursday room and found we were ok to check in right away…
(Note to players – you do not need a room in Vegas your first night there. It’s just completely unnecessary. The odds of sleeping before morning when presented with the opportunity to gamble the night away are slim to none)

After a few hours of lying in bed (but not sleeping) – listening to my brother excitedly recant every detail of his big win, we decided that we weren’t ready to sleep just yet – and headed off to the Luxor for a little low limit tourney action.

Admittedly it was sort of an anticlimax. After playing 8-16 at the Bellagio – sitting down for a $40 buy-in tournament, on no sleep and with a bunch of players who barely knew what they were doing gave me kind of a surreal “what am I doing here?” feeling.

But hey – action is action, baby.

For those looking for some details on the Luxor action – they have a 12pm tourney every day – sign up starts at 10am or so to get a spot. You start with 500 in chips – with a 100 add on for $5. The first hour is limit – and I advise you simply stay out of the action pretty much for the first hour. Then it converts to no-limit – and with the so many short stacks compared to the blind levels after the first hour – it becomes a push fest.
Still – not terrible EV for a solid player – although it will take some luck still to win.

I made it through the first hour relatively even. Not playing anything till the blinds reached a significant level (100-200). Then I won a few pots – and put a bad beat on a short stack that raised my blind with an all-in that was 2xBB. Even though I had nothing – I had to call in that situation. But the all-in player a grumpy old guy – seemed to jump out of his seat when I flipped up my 84o…
He wasn’t very happy when it ended up a winner against his AK either..
But just like that I was the table hero – as this guy apparently had not been making friends at his end of the table. I just don’t understand people like that – if you aren’t having fun…

Anyways I made it through to the final two tables (see – I told you it went fast) when they moved me over to my brother’s table. He was a short stack in late position and found a hand to push with after a few limpers. I looked down at my hand from the SB to see AQo…

I ponder it for a while – looking over at the limpers. “Let’s make a pot!” I heard myself cheer to the table as I called his all in for about half my stack…

Of course the BB (another short stack) and both limpers came in. The flop came 3 low cards and was checked. On the turn (another blank) one of the limpers tried to bet me out – but I called him immediately. The river made it 5 cards T and below. Again I called another bet from the other bettor (hey – I was pot committed!).

The bettor showed K-Q for K high – I took the side pot. For the main pot my brother showed AK – which looked to be good until the BB turned up T8o – to quadruple up and knock my brother out.

“Why’d you call me with AQ!” my brother screamed at me as he got up to leave the table. I laughed – I suppose I wasn’t taking this tourney 100% seriously and was playing kinda loose… It didn’t matter though – the BB surely would’ve called him. At least I gave him a chance to quadruple up if he’d hit.

Anyways – after some more furious betting we got down to the final table. I was playing for first place and found A2o UTG and pushed. (I had stolen quite a few blinds earlier to get to this point) It folded to the SB who barely had me covered and really, really looked like he wanted to fold his hand.
He ended up calling with Q5o – and spiked runner/runner Qs to knock me out in 5th place…

Still I was happy with how I played. Fifth place payed a staggering $100 or something like that – really you needed to finish top two to make any significant money.

We headed back to the Bellagio, mentally exhausted, barely running on adrenaline – but wired with a promising start under our belt – and four more days of action ahead.

Well I actually only got maybe an hour of sleep before my girlfriend showed up and immediately dragged me out of bed and down to the buffet. We toured the casino although I was in a half stupor, I tried very hard to make the best of it. I mean, this is Vegas – an hour of sleep is normal.

I taught her how to play video poker – a game that used to pass many a casino hour for me back in the day when my bankroll was just a few hundred dollars. Amazingly – I still enjoy the game. Much more so – now that I can afford the swings – and understand that I’m simply playing to hit a big hand (four of a kind or better) or go bust…

Anyways – Thursday night after some various gambling we headed to the MGM Grand to check out a late night performance of La Femme. It’s billed as “Artistry of the Nude”. Feeling a little sleepy – and not knowing what to expect – I figured – worst comes to worst – I’d catch a quick nap.

The theatre was set up cabaret style with small round tables and four chairs around each table. A waitress came over and took our orders for overpriced drinks. (In Vegas – if you gamble – having to pay for drinks seems blasphemous)

And then we settled in for the show.

Ahem… Well what can I say about La Femme? I definitely did NOT sleep through the show. Actually when the first act started it was a bit jarring – we were REALLY close to the stage and – well – jaded as I am – I found myself a little taken aback (but not in a bad way).

Let’s just put it this way – beautiful, talented, sexy girls. Very interesting costumes (or the lack therof), creative routines, with imaginative use of light and color.
Oh – and did I mention nudity?
As Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury would thoughtfully say “Tastefully done. It’s important. To be tasteful.”

For the $60 ticket price or whatever – I recommend checking it out. In fact – I’d probably go see it again. If that’s not a recommendation I don’t know what is. (but I wouldn't order a drink)

Well that was Thursday night – I eventually did go to sleep – for about 5-6 hours. One 24 hour day down – 3 more to go….

2004-09-28T14:50:00.000-04:00

Return from Vegas

zzzzz.... Unfortunately - being out of the office for four days means you have an immense pile of e-mail to sift through. Having slept pretty irregularly (to say the least) for my long weekend doesn't really help much either.
I'll be posting a more comprehensive trip report throughout the week. Some forewarning - there wasn't as much poker this weekend as there would be in any normal Vegas trip. I think I even went a WHOLE DAY (Friday) without playing...

However I'll write it all up anyway. Unlike my earlier Borgata trip report - there's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (well maybe a little one), but all in all it was a good trip. I made some money, played some poker, saw some great shows, and spent most of my waking hours drunk.

Some Highlights to come include:

First Night at the Bellagio (and a good one)
Revenge at the Luxor tourney
La Femme (surprisingly good!)
Giant Hot Dogs and 99 cent margaritas
The Stardust - home of Wayne Newton and Low Limit Hold'em (just like on tv!)
Cirque De Soleil - O (spectacular!)
Falling in love with Video Poker (again)
The Downs and Ups and Downs of Blackjack!
Why they call it Crap!(s)
How to lose $100 in LLHE (guaranteed)!
Flipping coins at the Sahara tourney
Hitting the Jackpot!
Letting it Ride...

See you soon!

2004-09-22T13:13:00.000-04:00

Vegas Bound

Sorry for the lack of activity recently. I'm off for Vegas tonight and I couldn't be more excited to be in the Mecca (of poker).

While a good portion of the blogger community is down in AC (sorry I missed it) - you'll find the GotP camped out in the Bellagio poker room all weekend.

Not sure if I'll be able to get in my usual 12-16 hours of play a day - but that's probably healthier anyway.

Next week - Vegas Trip Reports!

2004-09-13T17:01:00.000-04:00

Genius of the Golf?

(warning - non poker post)

This blog will return to it's normal poker programming after the following entry.

I wasn't going to write about this but then I figured - what the hell - even if none of you are interested, for posterity's sake I want to remember this round.

This Saturday was my Aoba-Kai golf club outing - and I was playing the championship match against fellow member J. He was playing to a 17 handicap and I am fortunately playing to a 27 due to the fact that Mid-Island is a course that always plays tough for me. (I think my low round there is 98)

As unnecessary background - I've been playing pretty well of late. The new Nike driver I bought off of e-bay has been great - I hit most of my drives pretty straight, with the occasional pulled shot and once in a while a slice (when I make a tentative swing). It only goes about 250 or so - but even still my mistakes are much more 'playable' than they used to be.

My short game is vastly improved - which is more a reflection on how bad it was than any real proficiency. I can make the occasional good chip (thanks to my hazy recollections of cousin Eric's lessons on chipping in Aunt Betty's hallway), and I've got a lot more confidence putting now - that at least when I pick a line - I can put the ball down that line. Occasionally they've even been going in.

A couple of weeks ago I put together a breakthrough weekend - shooting a 87 at Clearview, an 83 at Forest Park and an 84 at Van Cortlandt. (all par 70's)

All systems were go - as I prepared to play Labor Day weekend in preparation.

Unfortunately some flaws began to sink in that weekend. I shot a 96 and a 92 at Clearview and followed that up with a 99 at Emerson (a par 72). Shots were leaking right - my chips were getting ugly - and putts just didn't seem to be going down.

From supreme confidence that I would easily win with 10 strokes - all of a sudden I had some questions as to which game I would be bringing this weekend.

I hit the range the Thursday before with LT - and I managed to fix my fade problem. I have a slight tendency to line up slightly open and hit the ball from outside-in. I closed up my stance a little and concentrated on getting my hands through and voila - no more slice... err... fade that is.

It made me feel a lot better going into the weekend.

Still the night before - even though LT and I hit the regular Friday poker game, (Poker Content! - TT cracked by 78 suited and a shorthanded A2o in the SB cracked by the BB 56o) which was a good diversion - and I got home relatively early (around 12) but still I found myself unable to sleep.

I'm sure some of it was related to some jitters about the next day - but I wasn't consciously thinking about it. More of it was probably excitement and adrenaline.

In any case I didn't sleep until about 3-4am - about 3-4 hours of sleep before the boys showed up and we left for the course.

Got there early - hit a small bucket - all systems check. Chipped and putted for a little bit - not great, not bad - I guess I was as ready as I could be.

Get to the first hole (Spruce) with half the outing lined up in carts behind us. J leaks his first shot into the right hand side fairway bunker as I step up to the tee. I line it up, take a practice swing and address the ball. I expected to be nervous and have had first tee jitters before - but this was a little more than first tee jitters. Trying to ignore the apprehensive feeling I struck the ball, a solid hit (phew) - then watched in dismay as it started left, pulled through the trees and WAY into the other fairway.

Great start.

Caught a good lie in the 'other' fairway - and hit a solid 5 iron over the tree line that unfortunately was nutted and rolled in into the tree line on the other side. Punched out in front of the green, put it on - and made the putt for a 6. Fortunately - J must've been feeling the pressure even more than me - because he took an 8. And just like that I was one up.

The feeling of relief at winning the first hole was palpable. I parred the next two holes - playing pretty good and even a little loose. I'm 3 up and feeling like I might be able to put an end to this ordeal pretty early. All I had to do was just keep playing loose.

He took the par 3 4th and par 4 5th to cut the lead to 1. I parred the par 5 6th to bring it to 2. He won 7 to cut it back to 1. And I won the 8th to make it 2 again. We pushed the 9th.

Going into the 10th hole I had shot a 45 on the front 9. J had shot a 46. I beat him scratch - but even with the 5 stroke holes - I was only 2 up. Still if I kept playing like this - I felt I would win the match handily.

J even nervously made comments about how tough it was for him to give me so many strokes to me. He was certainly feeling the pressure - which made me feel a little better about how incredibly nervous I was getting.

With a stroke on the 10th (Dogwood) I managed to somehow push the hole even though my second shot to the green hit a tree - and I had to scramble to make 6 and push the hole.

Standing on 11 - a par 5 and stroke hole - I started thinking - make a good drive and second shot - get 3 up and I can coast home to the victory.

Maybe I was too loose, maybe too tight. But I 'missed' my drive cutting underneath it and toeing it into the woods about 50 yards to the right. Walking over to my ball - I was in JAIL, with trees seemingly everywhere. Tried to punch a low runner back in - hit a tree back in the other fairway. Hit another tree on my third - still on wrong side of the tree line. Four almost made it through but hit a branch and fell again inside the tree line. 5 finally punched out into the fairway - and I proceeded to take an 11 on the hole.

Kikuchi-san (J's partner) on the hole - who had been asking me incredulously what my handicap was on the front 9 - finally chimed in. "Now I see why you 27!".

Rick, who was my partner today told me to forget about the hole. I was trying my best - but inside my face was burning red as I felt my mental state start to unravel.

If this weren't such a big match (to me) - I'd pull out the big stick and take a gargantuan swing on the next driving hole to let off some steam. (and probably take an 8)

Unfortunately the next hole was a 110 yd par 3 - playing 90 something yards today. I safely wedged it on the green after J hit his shot just short but with the pin in the front. He chipped close to the hole (a gimme) - and I faced a long lag put to try to push.

I left the putt about 12 feet short.

Needing to make it - I lined it up - and hit it through the line - closing my eyes. Surprisingly it stayed on the hole - caught the edge and swirled around and in. Par saved.

"Man - you are SO lucky" Rick told me as I walked off the green sheepishly with a push.

Thinking I might have some momentum back I pull out the big stick on the 365 yd par 4 with murderous intentions now abated - but feeling that I should go for it. Still not swinging right - I hit another bad one - still on tilt and lose the hole to let him get back to even.

On the 140yd par 3 14th - I duff an 8 iron about 50 yds. (really on tilt now) Hit a wedge to the back of the green and lag putt to about 5 feet on my third. J chips to about 2 feet for his par putt and the win. I can the 5 footer for bogey - helped by the fact that I'm resigned to losing the hole already. But he let's me off the hook by pushing it just by on the gimme and we push. (phew #2)

On the 316 yd par 4 15th dogleg left - I pull a 3 iron right over the fairway bunker on the left side. If it carries the bunker - it's a great shot. J goes in the bunker and I pray for a good lie.

I find my ball - way left, inside the treeline - and in JAIL. There's no real safe lateral shot to put it back in the fairway - but there's a small opening towards the hole and it's pretty steeply downhill.

I have no idea what to do. Rick looks at it and says - "Go for it" pointing towards the green. I line it up with a 3 iron and hit a low runner pretty good. It tantalizingly heads towards the green with enough speed to get there - when (thwak!) it hits a tree and caroms right. Looks like it's back in play though and I may still have a chance.

I find my ball just in front of a tree with no chance to put a swing on it. J hits a good shot out of the bunker - I tap my ball forward a few yards and then proceed chunk a short iron, miss the green and lose the hole.

The bad news? Down 1 with 3 to go.

The good news - I stroke the last 3 holes.

On the 405 yd 16th I pull out the big stick again feeling desperate. But lo and behold even in my agitated, sleep deprived, advanced state of asphyxiation - I manage to sweep a low drive right at the fairway bunker on the left with enough topspin to go in and pop out just in front of the bunker.

Though I hit a poor second shot - J duffs 2 fairway shots - gets on in 5 - and he gives me the hole to put us back to even.

On the 560 yd par 5 17th, a hole that I HATE - I again come through with a great drive to the left side of the fairway. J hits a good one down the same line but quite a few yards behind me.

I duff (choke) my second shot 6 iron about 100 yards to the point where the fairway narrows down into a tree lined neck. J hits a poor second just into the tree line.

The pressure is now clearly getting to both of us.

His third is solidly struck back in the fairway. I have about 220 yards for my third - and opt to hit a club I can confidently hit straight, a 7 iron layup. I pull it slightly and it catches some overhanging branches - and to my dismay - kicks left back into... you guessed it - the trees.

I punch back out my 4th. Miss the green long and left on my fifth.

J misses the green - and gets on in 5.

I'm at the bottom of a hill chipping up to the plateaued green. But there's this huge area of ground under repair right in the middle of the green. (WTF?) I decide to try to hit it right in there - the soft and heavy grass should hold the ball - and I can move it laterally out and make the putt.

Goes according to plan - I two putt from my drop for 8 - and when J misses his putt for 6 and makes 7 - with the stroke we push and are even going into 18.

As we head to the 18th - I'm barely hanging on - and the tension has worn me down to the point of exhaustion. At this point I'm running on pure adrenaline - which is clearly not a good thing to power your golf game with.

I see my boys LT, Steve and Tadd on an adjoining green - and feeling the need to share the tension with someone - I walk over and let them know - LAST HOLE - ALL SQUARE.

Little did I know how interested they were - or rather, how uninterested they were in their own rounds at that point...

The 18th is a 350 yard severe dog right with a green that slants severely from right to left. It's a gimmicky hole in my opinion and I tell J that I wish that it didn't come down to a lucky hole like this one.

I don't think he agreed with me - but there's just so many luck factors - a bad bounce here, a good one there that seem to come into play on Dogwood 9. Although I've MOSTLY had bad luck on this particular hole. In fact - the 8th and 9th on Dogwood always seem to destroy my scores at Mid-Island.

J hits a great drive (considering the pressure) that fades and settles nicely in the middle of the fairway. Unable to drive this hole, feeling less than confident in my trusty Ovation 5 wood - I decide to pull the 3-iron.

I'd been hitting it left during the back 9 - which was definitely NOT where I wanted to go on this hole - so I firmed up my front side, to make sure I couldn't pull the shot left. I hit it slightly right just along the tree line - it took a few good bounces forward - and I was optimistic about my second shot.

Rick's tee shot ran into the woods on the right. As he surveyed his options - he got a crazy look in his eyes an said "watch this!". He tried to run a shot right towards the green - going through a forest of trees (and over a rock wall). It was struck well - had a chance - but inevitably hit wood - and luckily bounced left towards the fairway - though we couldn't tell whether it had made it out or not.

I don't know if it was his intention but watching this 'crazy' shot loosened me up some. And I definitely needed to clear my head of a lot of bad thoughts.

J put his second shot (a wood) onto the green safely.

As I approached my second - to my dismay I had not carried the bend far enough and there were overhanging branches in my line to the green. I figured I'd pull a 5 iron (from about 150) and hit a low runner under the tree and hope for the best.

But Rick suggested I try to turn it around the tree - reasoning that my ball tends left to right anyway. I wasn't even considering that as an option - but being far from decisive about the other shot - I decided to blindly embrace the advice.

I opened up the club, set up for an outside in strike and let my swing go.

It went high and straight - but never moved right as it headed straight for a tree left of the green and disappeared into the greenside hill. I expected to watch it bounce down the road to the clubhouse - ending my chances of winning the match...

It never appeared - but I began to resign myself to losing the match - as prospects didn't look too good for me to even have a playable third shot.

We headed down to Rick's third shot. And found it in the valley on the tree line. Again - he got another crazy look and set up for another "watch this" shot. He hit a low liner under the trees - caught the hill on the right of the green and rolled towards the hole - ending up maybe 10-15 feet.

A great shot - but I could only half-heartedly congratulate him.

There wasn't going to be any magic that could save me, I thought.

As we drove up to the 18th green I saw a ball sitting on a tuft of grass in front of a tree. Could it be my ball? As I walked up to the ball I felt pretty pessimistic about my chances of making a good shot from there if it was. But as I discovered it WAS my ball and as I took a stance against the tree - I found I could actually get a swing on it.

(This was also when I realized that Steve, Tadd, and LT had abandoned their round to drive over and watch me perspire through the crucial 18th)

The green was sloped sharply towards me, there was a bunker in front of the line to the pin - and I was facing uphill, about a 10 yard or so chip. I had a half decent lie - the ball was in some loose long grass that I could get my club through (I thought).

Rick's advice was to just hit it to the back of the green and let it run down - and that made it easier as this wouldn't be a 'touch' chip. So I leaned up against the tree, made sure I could make a backswing on the ball - and struck a firm chip that surpisingly caught the ball solidly through the grass and sent it sailing up towards the green. I saw it land and run to the top of the green and it disappeared from sight as it slowed and began taking the slope, rolling left and back (towards the pin?).

I had no idea where it had ended up - but I felt good as I heard my boys behind me and Rick on the green compliment the shot.

As I paced up to the green - I saw 2 balls - one about 5-6 feet under the hole and the other about 12 feet out.

"Which one is mine" I asked Rick.

"The closer one!" Rick said.

Man was I happy to hear that.

As I watched J line up his long putt from the front of the green (easily about 15 yards) I started to hope - I might have a chance.

He hit his putt a little short and the slope swept it down until it ended up right next to my mark.
Although I was oblivious at the time - we were now both lying 3 with a 5-6 foot putt uphill - breaking right to left. And I still had a stroke!

After watching our partners two putt home - some scary putts too - as the slope on this green makes them all adventurous - I started to make up my mind that I would go for the win.

I lined it up, allowing for the break, then changed my line slightly more on the hole and struck the ball firmly.

It skirted the hole - going thru the line and curling left about 2-3 feet past the hole.

My sentiments were mirrored exactly by Rick's scream of exasperation as the ball ran by.

Still determinedly (and perhaps defensively) I told him (and my gallery) "I went for it!"

So J had the same putt - plus got a read from mine - to at least ensure a push.

He slid it by the hole and ran past it just inside my mark.

Now I was in the driver's seat - though I didn't really realize it. So many thoughts were rushing through my head - that I wasn't even sure if this putt was to win it or just to ensure a tie.

All I knew is that I needed to make this little 2 footer.

It was a tricky little putt - downhill with enough left to right that it had to be taken outside the hole. I lined it up - nervous but not debilitatingly so - and decided rather than be too careful (and giving bad thoughts a chance to sink in) - to go ahead and putt it while I was feeling relatively choke-free.

The putter went back, the ball went forward, broke towards the hole and trickled into the cup.
Relief swept over me as I picked up the ball. Still not sure whether I had won - I walked back to give J room to make his putt. Rick gave me a fist bump - and I saw my gallery smiling and pumping their fists.

And that's when I realized - it was over...

2004-09-07T16:24:00.000-04:00

Borgata Trip - Post Mortem

Well I want to thank all of you for the feedback on weekday Borgata poker binge write up. I'm glad that there was actually a decent story in it all, it really wasn't looking that way until the very last few hours... But poker is a crazy game. (to say the least)

I was encouraged to start this blog by friends who read a trip report of mine earlier this year (see my first posts) - and while online stories are interesting - there's nothing that stimulates the senses or imprints into your memory like live play with real (and usually in poker - crazy) people.

I'm happy to say that since I started playing regularly - I am positive that I am a profitable player. Although I am only up a few hundred online, I'm up substantially more in live play (thanks to a few memorable sessions) - and I've gained a huge amount of experience as far as hands played and situations faced.

My next dream is to play in a big event - perhaps one of the smaller NL events at one of the big tournaments. Or maybe I can win an online qualifier to one of the various poker site's big tournaments. My focus will definitely change to multi table tournaments - a portion of the poker discipline that I feel relatively weak at.

In any case - I wanted to address some of the commentary on my last post.

Justin (Blogged by J) justifiedly mentions that calling an all-in bet with pocket JJ preflop is not the type of situation you should be looking to get involved with (i.e. a coinflip) in a NL game.
I don't really have a defense for this. All I can say for myself is that I was pretty certain that he was NOT holding QQ-AA.

Not completely certain. But I had a really strong gut feeling - and as I contemplated calling his all-in, that gut feeling became stronger than my rational thought (which was to fold).

You're absolutely right - and if I'm ever faced with this situation again - I hope I have the sense to fold, give up my $65 and wait for a better situation.

But ya gotta understand - this guy was really irritating me - I just couldn't back down - I couldn't...

Moving on to the next comment:

ReelBigFish mentions that one trait that you'll need to cultivate for the NL games is the ability to lay down TPTK. I couldn't agree more. Although at times it seems the NL games get pretty loose - for the most part - you'll find the bulk of the players actually have hands when they see a flop. A set is always a possibility that needs to be considered.
I'm not saying that you should play in fear of sets on every flop - but they certainly need to be taken into account when you evaluate your prospects - or get played back at on the flop.

Those of you playing NL online probably already know this. Although I will say that in my limited NL online ring game experience - that live play seems to be a little tighter (to say the least) than online games. Not sure if it's the anonymity that allows people to make bolder plays - but most confrontations I saw (live) involved 2 players w/hands.

I also feel that certain players are probably incapable of running stone cold bluffs in live play (like me!).

Speaking of tight:

ToddCommish, you and your west coast brethren JAs disappoint me. There ain't many of us JAs on the east coast - but we represent! Maybe it's because quite a few of us east coast JA's come from Hawaii JA stock - notorious for their gambling ways.
I'm also sad to hear that your 11 year old son has already become a more difficult to read poker player than both of us.
He must be a new breed...

And finally - as I mentioned at the end of my last post - I'll be heading out to Vegas in a few weeks.

It's not THAT kind of trip, as the girlfriend is coming along (which is also why I'm staying at the $$$ Bellagio) - and 10-12 hour stints in the poker room will definitely not be tolerated.

I have ingeniously and thoughtfully managed to book a room via the poker room rate - which REQUIRES me to play 6 hours each day. This thankfully ensures that I will be able to at least play the minimum amount that I require to survive in Vegas.

Hopefully she's not completely serious when she says that my designated poker playing time is "while she's sleeping". Because I'll do it, if I have to. (I can catch up on my zzz's during the shows we go to see)

Some additional storylines include introducing my father - an online poker junkie to live (casino) play. It should be interesting to see how addicted he gets when he sees how loose the low limit live games are for himself. (assuming he doesn't catch too many bad beats from the fish)

Also, I've just heard that my brother is taking up my offer to bankroll him in Vegas for the weekend. Last time this happened - well, it was an endless bad beat week in Vegas.

He's still a good bet IMHO (or I wouldn't even make the offer). I'll be especially jealous of him as he'll be able to play for uninterrupted hours at a time while I'm off being dragged sightseeing and catching the next Cirque de Soleil show... (sigh)

It's a family affair in Vegas this September.

2004-09-02T17:12:00.000-04:00

Borgata Trip Report (Day 3 – Part II)

Well this is the part of my trip I’ve been dying to write about. Think of it as a little reward for those of you who’ve managed to slog through the last 3 parts of this boring trip report.

Fasten your seatbelts – cause the real story is about to start.

Anyway, I headed upstairs and found my good friend, L and his brother-in-law at a BJ table hooting, hollering and high fiving. I sat down and watched as they reveled in the BJ action - hitting, doubling, and splitting all over the felt. (in fact – perhaps a little too much – but man, was it FUN to watch).

Eventually I couldn’t resist – I bought in for a few hundred and told myself – I’m either doubling this or losing it, but I’m going to have some fun doing it.

Three Jack and Cokes, too many cigarettes, and a nerve wracking hour later – I had $400!

That’s when I pulled off my most impressive display of gambling discipline for the week.

I colored up my chips and walked away.

It ain’t easy to walk away from a winning Blackjack session, my friend. (although it’s a fact that it’s harder to walk away from a losing session)

The short break from poker – with a few black chips jangling in my pocket and a few more hours left until the trip home – I headed back to the poker room – determined to get into some real action.

To my surprise when I returned I found open seating for 1-2 NL – a game that usually sported a pretty long list every other time I’d shown up. Was the weekday action at the Borgata slowing down?

I asked for a seat and was directed to a floorperson – who brought me over to a table with about 5/6 people seated. Something looked a little wrong to me – there were quite a few chips at the table. Hmm.. I thought the max buy in for 1-2 NL was $300?

Thinking nothing of it – I walked over to the cashier’s cage – got my max buy in of $300 in red – and sat down at the table.

That’s when I realized that something was definitely REALLY wrong. Two players had over a thousand in chips – is that even possible in a 1-2 NL game? The others had around 5/600 as far as I could tell.

That’s when the floorperson came over to tap me on the shoulder and tell me that he had accidentally sat me at a 2-5 ($600 max buy in) NL game, and did I want to move to an open 1-2 NL seat?

The table started chirping at me – “c’mon stay!” “he doesn’t want to go!”.

I looked around – I guess I must’ve looked pretty fishy, and maybe I WAS a fish in this game – but hey, I was here, and I was freerolling off of some blackjack winnings – what the hell?

“I’ll stay.” I told the floorperson to a round of applause from the table.

Man, do I know what I’m getting myself into? (I remember thinking to myself)

I was a little intimidated – not necessarily by the players – but by the stacks they had in front of them. I added my extra $100 black chip to my pile – which along my three piles of red still seemed painfully meager in comparison to the racks and piles sitting in front of the other players.

I watched the action for a bit – thankfully not getting a playable hand for the first orbit or two. I was thankful because the typical preflop raise was anywhere from $15 - $40.
Not that this was overly daunting – but hey – I wasn’t used to this.

The first hand of interest I saw – was the kid on my left raising to $25 and the guy on his left (with one of the huge stacks) re-raising him $50. Everyone else folded – and the kid called.

The flop came three low cards.

The kid led with $100 bet, pushing a stack of red forward.

The big stack on his left picked up his racks of red and pushed them all forward – ALL IN.

Now wait a minute I thought. There’s about $250 in the pot – and he’s moving in with almost $1000???

WTF?

The kid goes in the tank for a while – and for once I’m not annoyed. He’s got maybe 3 or 4 hundred left and he’s got to put it all on the line. I wondered what they were holding? I was thinking pocket overpairs for both of them. But whose were bigger?

The kid finally decides to call and pushes his stack forward.

The older big stack dude shows TT for the expected overpair.

The kid showed AKo for Ace high????

$1000+ in the pot and the dealer turns.. an ACE!

No miracle river 10 and the kid is raking a $1000 pot after making in my opinion, a ridiculously bad call.

The big stack kind of shrugs – pulls out a wad of hundreds – and reloads the rest of chips to the max $600.

Maybe this game isn’t out of my league after all.

Seats start to fill up as the room begins the early evening rush. Strangely, thought the Borgata usually puts this game in the high-limit area – we’re sitting right by the cashier window in the main room – as a line begins to form to sign up for the 7pm tourney.

Naturally – the average poker player’s eyes are drawn to any table with a lot of chips on it – and considering we’re surrounded by 3-6, and 2-4 tables – we WERE the action in the main room and all eyes seemed to be on our table.

It was kind of a cool feeling – I have to admit. It was nice to be one of the watched for a change instead of one of the railbirds – which I had been, watching the high limit games from a distance. I didn’t have many chips in front of me – but I was in the GAME.

I start to get comfortable and even make a few pre flop raises (usually to $15-$30) with hands like 22, 55, and ATs. I pick up some small pots with some very nervous flop bets of almost $40-$80 and it’s a heady feeling as everyone folds to my big bets.

Am I getting the hang of this or what?

I’m dealt AQs in LP and call a raise of about $25. Three other players take in the flop.

It comes A-Q-7. (rainbow)

It’s checked to me – what to do? I’m nervous – I don’t want to overbet and scare anyone away – but I don’t want to slowplay and let a straight/flush possibility or board pair happen.

I decide that $50 is a good number.

The kid from the last big pot raises me to $100. Everyone else folds, and I think for a bit, a little acting on my part, although I was kinda nervously double checking whether I really had top two pair.

I call, of course!

The turn is a Q.

Fireworks go off inside my head. How to play this, the virtual nuts and he must have something. I don’t put him on QQ – and I’m pretty confident it ain’t AA either. Could it be 77??? I need a grudgingly aggressive bet – like I want to be – but I’m too scared to commit my stack to the pot.

I push a $100 stack of red into the middle.

The kid thinks for a bare moment – and confidently grabs a hold of his chips and moves all-in in that smooth gliding motion that seems so unnatural with too many chips.

What the hell? Could he have AQ too?

I start rethinking my hand – am I absolutely, positively sure I have the nuts? I’d like to say that I took it all in calm and collected – but this was the first time ever that I’ve had to deal with a bet this big to me.
I can’t really even say that I analyzed the situation logically and rationally and came to some reasonable well thought out decision.

The main thought in my head was “Hell – I ain’t good enough to lay this hand down!” – I push my chips forward as a crowd gathers around the table.

He doesn’t show his hand so neither do I – as the dealer turns a river 2.

At this point I can’t wait – regardless of the fact that I called HIM. I flip up my AQ for the Q boat.

And I’m ecstatically happy as he curses “Dammit! I knew it was AQ!” as he throws his AK on the table in disgust…

$1000+ in chips are pushed my way – and I am now the proud winner of my biggest poker pot ever! Raking and stacking chips is fun – especially huge NL pots. To put this into perspective – this was at least 5x as big as the biggest pot I’d ever won.

And believe you me, I took my time with the stacking. (although it may have had something to do with my shaking hands)

The kid had just swung from a big winner to a few meager stacks of red – and I vowed that I wouldn’t let the same thing happen to me. (The kid would bust out a few minutes later – moving all in on a stone cold bluff and getting called)

No sir – these chips were going home with me. A $600 profit? That’s a pretty decent poker trip – covers my expenses and then some…

I’m counting the money in my head and trying to keep from showing how giddy I am inside, as a new player sits down at the table wearing a Gutshot jacket and mirror shades.

He plops down his max-buy in and begins chatting away – clearly one of these smarmy new school ‘geek chic’ poker player types. (does that make any sense to you guys?)

I don’t like him, right off the bat.

He moves all in on a pot at the turn (a huge overbet) and takes a pot down. He shows top set and makes some stupid wiseass crack like “C’mon boys – I’m not playing around here..”. Or something asinine like that.

I think that overbet is a little out of line with a hand that strong – I suspect he THINKS he’s much better than he actually is.

A few hands later, he raises preflop to $15 and three players call. I look down and see a couple of black jacks.

Well I want to thin the field with JJ and I have ammo – so I raise it up another $50. Back to Gutshot man – and he announces – “Well – I came here to gamble.” He shrugs. “I’m all-in”.

Fold. Fold Fold, To me.

Every fiber in my being is screaming for me to fold. But I’m frozen. A deer in headlights. “How much is it?” I hear myself asking. “Approximately.” I hear myself add hastily…

“About $615 total” he answers confidently.

Every cell in my body is tingling, my face is flushed and what the hell is that thumping sound? Oh – it’s my heart racing.

I’m in the tank, supposedly thinking about the hand, but in actuality? My entire body has gone numb and my brain has frozen up.

Eventually some coherent thoughts form. What could he possibly have?
AA, KK, QQ? Those are the only hands that are ahead of me, after all, right?

As I start to ponder – would he raise this hand to $15 hoping to set a re-raise trap with big pockets like this? For some reason this doesn’t seem to make sense to me.

What else could he have? AK, AQ are possibilities. There’s even an outside chance he’s holding TT… which would be great for me.

As I percolate these thoughts I start absently counting out $615 in chips from my stack. As I finish counting I realize - $615 is basically all profit. If I call this bet – I’ll still have my original buy-in.

I don’t know if this is stupid or not – but this makes me feel infinitely more comfortable with considering the call.

I decide to put him big cards but not a big pair. The all-in move smacks of vulnerability – and just the opposite of his statement – the unwillingness to gamble.

“Ok – let’s gamble” I hear myself say to Gutshot man as my trembling fingers push $615 in the pot. (what the hell am I doing?)

I can’t see his eyes behind the mirror shades – but I don’t think he’s too happy as the dealer flops an 8-9-T board. Again – we keep our cards hidden.

It seems like the whole room is clustered around the table. Another player in seat 1 – an asian-gambling type (eh’ ToddCommish?) asks me – “Was that a good flop?”

“That was a GOOD flop for me!” I announce to the crowd.

An Ace comes on the turn…

“That was NOT a good card” I announce as I feel my heart jump into my throat.

I’m praying for a J, Q, or 7. But a heartless 2 comes on the river.

Gutshot boy shows me an Ace. Numbly – I tell him “Ace is good!” as I flip my JJ up.

He shows AKo for the winner.

I’m absolutely stunned as I watch him rake a $1230 pot. He gibbers along in a happy fashion – and I overhear him say “I didn’t think his hand was that strong!” to another player.

That’s right, I think to myself – I had him pre-flop! (54%) The fact that it was the right call – doesn’t really make me feel much better.

Why oh why, did I just gamble away my all my winnings!

The feelings that come over me as I look down at my now depleted stack are all tilt-worthy.

Anger at the annoying Gutshot guy carefully stacking my chips into racks.

Anger at myself for jeopardizing my good fortune and blowing it.

And nausea as the reality sets in that I’ve just lost over $600 on one hand of poker.

My face is still burning a dangerous red minutes later, as I look down to find an AJ diamonds on the SB, $25 to me.

I call with 3 others and flop comes 3 low cards and 2 diamonds.

I check it hoping to get a good price on my draw.

But, no – the asian dude in Seat 1 makes $100 bet after the table checks to him.

I’m set to release my hand to the big bet, but something makes me stop.

Is it tilt? I’d like to think not – but something just seems fishy about this over bet with three low cards, no straight possibility. Could he be on a flush draw too? Would he bet $100 with just a little pair?

Would he bet so much with a set? Two pair?

I know this guy in seat 1 is capable of a bluff. I’d seen him make some suspicious big bets at other flops. I’ve also seen him play a relatively wide range of hands (for a NL game). It’s possible that he could’ve hit something on this flop.

With only suspicions, a nut draw and a much increased tolerance for gambling – I call the $100.

Everyone else quickly folds.

We’re heads up when the turn comes – a THIRD diamond. (I was too excited at the time to remember now which card it was)

I start to check the turn – but stop myself. Checking is the obvious play here. Maybe I can make it look like I’m REPRESENTING the flush, is my thought.

I bet $100.

He thinks about this and mumbles something over to the dealer.
“What’s that?” the dealer asks.
“What did you say?” I ask almost simultaneously.

“I’m all-in.” he says again more clearly as he waves his hand towards the pot in an almost nonchalant way.

The instant I hear this fireworks go off in my head.

Immediately I tell him “I call!” and flip up my AJ diamonds, never mind everyone else slow rolling at this table. I can’t believe this guy just bet all-in into my nut flush!

He mucks his cards in disgust as I rake an $900+ pot.

Feeling good again.

In fact, feeling real good. I go on a little rush as players with a few hundred dollars come into the table, bust out and are replaced by others.

The best are the blackjack players – who you can tell right away because they plop down into their seat – reach into their pocket and pull a bunch of green ($25) and black ($100) chips from their pocket.

With my new profit (which I vow to defend zealously THIS time) – I find myself calling a raise with KQo. (nice job – Mas)

The flop gives me top two pair. BJ player makes it 50 and I call.

The turn comes a low card. BJ player makes it 100 and I call again.
The river is a K.

BJ player checks. I bet 200.

He moves all in.

WTF?

I call immediately.

I show him KQ and he seems stunned. (I’m almost tempted to ask him if he can beat 20 – but I’m not that smarmy)

I rake a much smaller in volume pot – but filled with nice green and black chips and I’ve got over $1500 in my stack.

I was so excited at the time that I don’t even remember what he was holding. Maybe AK? (blackjack?)

I hit another hand a bit later with A-Q (again!) – when I flop top pair and call the bettor down to the river and outkick him when he shows K-Q.

At one point I’m sitting on top of a stack with over $2000 in chips.

I can’t contain myself – I’m just euphoric, the cards are running great – and people keep betting into my nut hands!

Is there an easier way to make money than this?

Unfortunately – I loosen up, maybe I had a few too many jack and cokes – see a few unwise preflop raises – but don’t hit any boards solidly enough to play. My stack ever so slowly begins to diminish – hardly noticeable to others – but trust me, I NOTICE.

Suddenly – I begin to feel a creepy and strange feeling that comes with being the table chip leader. All eyes are on me as every hand begins – and they stay on me until I fold.

It does become very easy to get loose with so many chips in front of you. It can even be profitable in NL – because you can hammer people out of pots with big bets at any time.

That isn’t MY style though. (not yet)

Meanwhile – the rest of the table sits and waits for you to make one big mistake. And that’s exactly what they’re doing, licking their chops – staring at my pile and waiting for an opportunity to scoop a big chunk out of it for themselves.

That’s when I notice one of my friends, A, enter the poker room to check on her brother in the 3-6 game a few tables away from me.

Suddenly trying very hard to not let my mask of cool poker nonchalance drop – I find myself doing everything I can to get her attention.

I can’t say exactly what came over me – but suddenly it was my utmost desire to get someone I knew to witness and share this moment of victory and look at the evidence of my tangible success.

In fact I wanted to scream, yell, laugh hysterically, and babble on about what had just transpired in the past hour and a half.

When she finally did walk over, after much eye contact and strenuous telepathic messaging on my part – her only comment is a raised eyebrow at my chip stack and a deflatingly, understated “You’re doing well.” – or something to that effect.

I feel an irresistible urge to take a break.

And as I head upstairs I run into the rest of my friends – we talk about what time we plan on leaving (soon) – and I excitedly recount the past hour and a half’s crazy action to them.

As I’m recounting – I realize, I’m done – there’s just no way I’m going to risk taking a big hit to my current stack. And the chances of me going any higher are, well… let’s just say they’re probably not that good.

I head back to the table – find four or five loose chip racks and begin the laborious task of racking up my huge stack while the whole table moans.

“Where are you going?” “Your not leaving are ya?” the table cries.

I ignore their pleas – “It’s time to go home” I tell them. And I head off to the cashier bustling through the still long tourney sign up line – with five racks of assorted red, black, and green chips (mostly red) teetering precariously in my clutches.

As I watch the cashier call his manager over before counting out a seemingly endless string of hundred dollar bills, the adrenaline begins to recede in my body and I’m left feeling spent, but euphoric.

As I ride the escalator up out of the Borgata poker room, I feel great – like all the hours spent here this week had been worth something after all. It wasn’t the money – I knew I’d find some wasteful (but fun) way to blow it. (starting with dinner at one of the Borgata restaurants for me and my friends)

I knew that it wasn’t as if I’d played any exceptional way either – obviously the deck had hit me over the head for the past hour and a half.

But I’d weathered some storms here – I’d faced big bets not in worthless tournament chips, but in real money.

And I discovered perhaps, that maybe just maybe – I have the heart (if not the skill) to play this game.

Hey – one can dream can’t they?

Next stop – Vegas, here I come - September 23 – 27th.

2004-09-01T10:55:00.000-04:00

Borgata Trip Report - Day 3 (Part I)

When I returned to the poker room at 9am on Thursday morning there was already a pretty fair line for the 11am tournament. I had to keep from laughing as I saw a lot of haggard faces from the previous night, undoubtedly they had all gambled the night away as I didn’t see too many different (or clean) outfits…

I signed up for the 40+20 tourney, (which didn’t sell out until the last minute actually) – contemplated playing for a few hours before the start – but then decided it was too short a session (for me) and headed for breakfast, which consisted of a huge cup of Starbucks coffee.

Side note – I don’t know what it is about poker. I mean I like to eat as much as the next person, and then some. But when I get on these poker binges – food is like the farthest thing from my mind, even a nuisance. During this trip – I can honestly say – that I basically ate a sandwich on Tuesday night, and a burger on Wednesday night.
That was it. (well there were about a dozen or so Michelob Ultra beers, and at least 20 jack and cokes too).

Someone ought to come up with a new diet, call it the poker diet.
“Action is the only sustenance I require”.

When the tournament started (about 100+ players) – I was seated at a short table – with only 8 players. (There were 11 spots at each table) Didn’t really bother me too much – although I think I would’ve preferred a full table. The table was pretty tight to start – most hands didn’t go into a showdown. But, eventually as people began to settle in – the action began to heat up…

As for me – even though at this point I was intellectually and acutely aware from my experience in the Tuesday tourney, that I needed to loosen up and play more hands in the first hour – I was unable to bring myself to enter the pot with marginal hands like J9o, KTo, T8s, even hands like KJo or JTo.

I can’t figure it – it’s like it’s against my religion or something. I’d hesitate as I thought about calling or raising with one of these hands, and as I was agonizing I’d realize the whole table staring at me – and look up and muck. Just couldn’t do it.

So for the first level – I don’t think I had a single playable hand that wasn’t a blind. Not really an auspicious start. In the second level I was able to claw back to my original 1000 when I entered a min raised multi-way pot with 33. The flop came J-J-7 and was checked around. I bet the pot on the turn and most of the table immediately folded, the last player on the button agonized for a while – then took his sunglasses off – and stared me down…

Amused – I looked up and stared back. “Do you have something?” he asked me boldly.

Smiling I told him “Call and find out.” as I waited for him to finish 'looking into my soul'.

This seemed to be enough for him as he mucked his cards, grumbling something about getting me next time…

Are these guys kidding me, for gods sakes it’s a $40 buy-in tournament! I guess everyone wants to be a big shot like their heroes on poker TV.

Anyway – this pot let me continue to coast through the second level without having to rebuy. I was thinking of reloading just in case a good hand came around – but decided to see if I could find a good hand and double through on the cheap instead.

I got my opportunity on the last hand of the first hour with 88 in EP. I raised it up to about 3xBB in early position. The button moved all in – and I called the rest of my stack. He showed AK – no help came on the board and I had a free rebuy as we hit the break.

The second hour saw my streak of unplayable hands continue. I sat and watched players get knocked out left and right as the big stacks dominated the table pushing chips at pots and putting bad beats on some unlucky and desperate short stacks.

Our table was broken when we got down to 6 and I was given a slip to find my new seat..

A little controversy here as I wandered among the tournament tables looking for my new spot. I walked right by my assigned table because I couldn’t see the number and eventually circled back and found my seat.

When I sat down a new hand was being dealt and I found myself between the button. A player from my broken table apparently thought I was trying a bit of chicanery and called a floorperson to accuse me of missing the BB on the new table on PURPOSE!

WTF? I couldn’t believe it for a sec. The floorperson simply shrugged and told him there was nothing he could do about it. When I realized what I was being accused of – man was I pissed. I started to retort to the grumpy old guy – but the floor asked me to leave it alone.

This guy kept on pissing and moaning about it – as I got angrier and angrier. Would they toss me out of the tournament if I got up and knocked him out of his seat?

Eventually I figured the best course of action was just to ignore him. If he wanted to continue the conversation upstairs – well, that would be a different story. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t…

I mentioned something to that effect in a pleasant tone and he pretty much shut up after that. At least not that I could hear – which was fine with me.

The cards still ran cold – I pushed on JJ – and picked up some blinds and antes (which were a significant amount) to help survive through level 5.

I got moved again during level 6 as my stack went from average to below-average. My new table was a younger table – and unsurprisingly an action table. I still picked up some blinds and antes to keep alive – I’m not sure whether my reputation had preceded itself or what – but no one seemed to want to give me any action.

Maybe I’m getting a little too good at chip shuffling?

Anyways made it to the second break and when I returned they moved a few really big stacks the table. Looked like it was going to be double up or nothing for me. And probably at least twice if I was gonna make any noise in this tourney.

The blinds were at 500-1000 and the antes at 100, as my stack dwindled to under 5000. I was forced to start counting hands until the BB – as I waited for a hand to push with. No luck and the BB came around of 1000 – leaving me with about 2600 left in my stack.

An EP player raised it to 2000 – and two others called.

Over to me – and realizing that this was do or die time for me – I announced to the table “All-in. BLIND!” as I pushed the rest of my chips forward.

Some of the players on my side of the table seemed to get a real kick out of this. Players on the other side leaned over to ask other – “did he look at his cards?” “Really?” “He just went all in blind?”

I was laughing on the inside – I knew I would push in this situation with just about any two cards – and the 5-1 possibility on my money made it even more attractive a situation to make a move. Plus – by announcing it – maybe I could induce a loose call or three, ne?

Well – I got my wish as another player decided to push along with me, two folded, and a medium stack on the button to my right got that “what the hell look” and called us both.

The first all-in player flipped up 88. The button showed A9o.

I put my hands on my cards and flipped them up with the whole table watching intently.

99.

My pulse raced – hey – I actually have a good hand – in fact – I’m in the lead here! The rest of the table gasped as we started to make noise that drew the attention of the rest of the tournament. Many accused me of having peeked at my cards – I didn’t – but what did I care what they thought?

Of course the flop came with an ace, and so did the turn. No help on the river and I was gone.

Before I left some of the players at my table got up to shake my hand – I guess they were impressed with my blind all-in move. But really – what else was I going to do in that situation?

It was fun – but I was more demoralized with how I had gotten to that point as I tried replaying all the hands I had seen – and wondered how many more of them I should have called.

I walked out of the room in a daze – for once I didn’t really feel like playing more poker as I rode the escalator back up to the bane of many a would-be profitable poker player, the casino floor.

Was that a blackjack table I saw somewhere off in the distance?

I didn’t know it at the time – but the best was yet to come…

2004-08-30T18:38:00.000-04:00

Borgata Trip Report - Day 2

Woke up early on Wednesday morning – but decided to stay in bed for few extra hours – just lazing around in the comfort of the Borgata’s luxurious king size bed. The thought was that the action at 9am in the poker room wasn’t really worth hurrying downstairs – and the few extra hours of snoozing would probably come in handy towards the end of a hopefully long and prosperous night.

When I finally headed down to the poker room (around 11am) – I found a reasonable amount of tables going. Once again I decided to settle into a comfortable 6-12 seat – although the list for 1-2 NL was not very long – and there were open seats for 10-20.

Although it was my goal to move up and check these games out – I didn’t yet feel comfortable enough so I rationalized that I needed to ‘warm up’ first.

Well, early in the day poker tends to be pretty tight – with action only arising when two people happen to have big hands at the same time. Unlike evening poker – which depending on how many drunks and gamblers you have on your table, can get exciting regardless of whether decent hands are being held.

I settled into the table for a nice slow grind while I watched miscellaneous Olympic events on the poker room TVs.

That was my first mistake. Not paying attention to my table.

There was a lady to my left – about whom I wondered at first whether she really knew how to play or not. She was friendly enough – but she was one of those players who couldn’t stop talking about her losing hands. She would prattle on about pocket pairs never holding up for her after being chased down by a straight, flush or two pair…

I figured she was harmless enough – even though I did notice her playing quite a few hands – as well as playing them pretty aggressively (suspiciously raising it up pre-flop a few times too many).

As I didn’t play many hands early – we just happened not to really tangle much early on in the first hour. (lucky me)

Then I started getting bored with playing my usual tight collection of starting hands. I decided to loosen up especially in late position and see if I could hit some flops.

That was my second mistake.

Each time I decided to limp in with a marginally playable hand – (Ax offsuit, KTo, QTo etc…) I was punished by my new friend, the lady on my left with a preflop raise.
Of course I called – but when I missed the flops – I found that these loose hands were getting to be relatively expensive. At least – much more expensive than I had anticipated.

And worse yet – was finding out what this lady was raising it up with. As far as I could tell she was raising with any 2 face cards (suited or not), small pocket pairs, even suited connectors on up. She would even show me – after I mucked my overcards to a low flop – and she was still in the hand with Ax off suit and leading the betting… or a small pair on a board with two high cards….

That was really killing me!

This is obviously a wide range of raising hands in her ‘repetoire’. I do have to give her credit – other people were seeing this also – and giving her plenty of action even on her big hands.
The big leak I saw in her play is that she got too attached to what she considered to be good starting cards – and chased if any piece of the flop had hit her.

Unfortunately for me – as I started to play more pots – and eventually hit some flops – which I of course led out the betting with – I couldn’t shake her – and she started to get hot.

My top pair – best kicker vs. her bottom pair? She’d hit two pair on the river. Hit my straight draw on the turn? The high end of my straight fills in just right to give her the higher straight on the river. And so on and so on… (I can recall more details – but I’d prefer not to)

Even worse – with the read I made on her – I found myself focusing in on her preflop – limping sometimes with big cards to greedily make it 3 bets when she raised one of her ‘sub-standard’ hands. It also distracted my attention from other players who might quietly sneak into one of our flops with a big hand.

Suffice it to say – I was off of my game, way off. The lady swung up and down – taking chips down during a hot streak (mostly mine) and then generously giving them away to other people. Meanwhile, yours truly was stuck for my entire buy in of $320 – having to shamefully dig into my wallet to reload my stack.

When she finally left sometime in the afternoon – I was stuck and desperately trying to keep my game together. It’s pretty hard when you’re down – to keep from loosening up too much in an effort to get your money back. You have to be in it to win it after all…

Well – I can’t really comment as to whether I was successful with playing solid poker (err… probably not) but I can say that I went on a pretty decent rush. Hitting sets, flushes, and top pairs that held up. Before long – and without going into too much detail – I was back to even, and even up a little!

So intent was I on this rush of cards – that I completely ignored the line forming for the 7pm 80+20 tournament. I figured I’d jump on the line at the last second and get a seat, no problem. Wrong. By the time my good fortune had improved my mood – and I sauntered up to the now short sign up line – they were taking down a list for alternates…

What to do? Why – I guess play more poker!

After a not so quick dinner break. (don’t order room service at the Borgata – it takes FOREVER…) I headed back to the 6-12 game. (this time I had no choice - as I put myself on the dinner list and was able to come back first in line for the 6-12 game ONLY)

Even first on the list at 9:30pm on a Wednesday night (and the list was about 20+) – I had to wait a half an hour for a seat to open! When I got seated – I was put at the same table I had played all afternoon. And lo and behold – many of the same familiar faces were seated there as well. I guess a day and a half at the same poker room with other junkies and the faces start to become familiar…

Actually this table was the first ‘fun’ table I had all trip. There were a couple of younger guys – who I found at later to be staff at a certain NYC card room, were at the table and making things interesting with a decent amount of banter and action.

One guy in particular was playing all kinds of junk hands like 93o, and playing them with a raise. When he won some pots (with 2 pairs – and low straights) and showed this junk off to the table – his ‘friends’ started mercilessly making fun of his starting hand selection.

He was completely unfazed. “This is the way I like to play poker.” he shrugged.

Needless to say – almost every time he raised (which was relatively often) – someone, either one of his buddies, me or someone else made it three bets to go. And he called the reraise every time to take in the flop.

When small cards or weird cards came on the flop – it was quite an adventure. Actually – unlike the lady earlier in the day – I think he played his hands pretty smart after the flop. He didn’t chase hopeless hands – if he stayed in – he either had hit something decent or was on a good draw.

Even though he was usually a pre-flop underdog – he started to catch a few cards – and go on a nice run to the amazement of the table.

Luckily for me – I had learned my lesson that even a loose player catches cards sometimes. You still want to have a hand (at least in limit) to play back at them….
When I came over the top – he tended to be less willing to take whatever strange draw he might have to the river.

Not so luckily – I was back down again – though not as much as earlier in the day. But at least I was having some fun. (I know, I know – winning money is FUN!) – but it’s also nice to be at a table with other friendly and even competitive players. They might have been a bit on the good side for my taste – and it was pretty tough – but it was friendly competition.

Still – I tried grinding it out even after this table broke with me stuck a hundred bucks or so with the rest of the late night stragglers. I went on a mini-rush in my new seat – but the other player who took the other seat at the new table (I had first choice) went on a huge rush – catching hands and flops like crazy.

Man – was I jealous!

I ended up making back a few big bets, but as the night got late (or early) the action tightened up again – and I decided to call it quits.

I headed back to my room around 4am, to catch about 5 hours of sleep only to return in time to register for the 11am tourney.

2004-08-29T22:24:00.000-04:00

19th Place

19th out of 77 in the Monty Memorial. The Monster (MonsterZ) was my nemesis - taking chips from me left and right in the early levels. Last hand was AQ in LT - pushed with my short stack of 2700+. The Monster in the big blind had AA.... and that was all she wrote.

Damn you Monster!

(good game)

good luck to the rest of them.

2004-08-27T16:30:00.000-04:00

Borgata Trip – Day 1

Well it was a beautiful Tuesday afternoon here in NYC – even more so because I was skipping out of the office early to head down to AC for some fun, sun…. well, maybe not
any SUN, but most certainly, and most importantly, POKER!

I arrived at the Borgata around 3pm – took a quick look at the humongous line forming at the check in line – and immediately decided to check my bag at the bell desk – and head for the action straightaway!

When I got down to the poker room I was surprised to find the room almost filled to capacity on a Tuesday afternoon. I saw some open spots for 1-2 NL – which I had been jonesing to try – but I was a little too timid to sign up for my first play of the trip. So instead I opted for a more comfortable game – the 6-12 – which had a list but not more than a half dozen names.

While I waited I met up with my friends who were coming down to check on another buddy who had made it to the final 2 tables of the 11am 40+10 NL tournament. He eventually finished 17th or so and made about $170. They told me the tournament had sold out – with a huge line forming around 8:30AM with signups starting 2 hours before the start (11am).

I was just flabbergasted to find that so many people were here in AC – playing poker during the weekday. There was another tournament – a 40+10 sattelite at 7pm – so I figured I’d play until the signup around 5 and make sure I got on line to get a seat.

When I finally got seated at the 6-12 table – I found the usual collection of semi-serious players, a couple of rocks, a gambler or two, and a few complete fish who had no idea what they were doing. The good thing about the 6-12 level is that there are enough rational players to play real poker – and though you still see all KINDS of hands being played and shown down – for the most part it’s a thousand times better than what you’ll see on the typical 3-6 or 4-8 table.

In addition a good session of 6-12 can net a few hundred bucks, a really good one, perhaps about 500. And the buy in I’d recommend - about 3-400 (just to make sure you can weather a few storms) is an amount I can deal with losing should the cards run real bad.

At my first table – I got dealt AK like 3 or 4 times – winning a few good pots when I beat someone’s ragged kicker and losing some small ones when I raised it pre-flop, and didn’t hit the board – and of course got called down or pushed out by a measly pair.

There really weren’t any hands of interest – but one thing I found was a type of player you see at the poker tables quite a lot, a young hyper aggressive (internet?) player.
This kid was throwing moves left and right – raising junk and pushing it, sometimes hitting weird two-pairs and straights for some healthy pots. He was also trying check-raise bluffs on the turn which was really amusing once I figured out what he was doing.

The first time he did it – I was holding top pair and leading the betting. When he check raised me – I immediately went to check call mode on the river. But when I saw the reluctance to show his hand down at the end – I was scratching my head as I opened my top pair – medium kicker and he just mucked.
I could’ve demanded to see his cards – but I had a pretty good idea of what type of hand he was so unwilling to show down – so I let it go.

Admittedly – he did catch me on a draw once – and got me to lay down. But when I saw him make the same play on other players, to varying success - as he was called down a few times and just mucked his junk - I realized what he was doing – and made a mental not to wait for a hand to use it against him.

Things worked out perfectly when my JT hit two pair on the flop. I led the betting with only him calling – and when he check raised me on the turn I gave him the ol’ deer in headlights act. Clutching my cards as if to muck – I reached behind with the other hand and threw in a re-raise and smiled at him.

Probably not the most profitable thing to do – cause he mucked the hand, but I just wanted to let him know that he shouldn’t be trying moves like that on me! Pride – I guess. (which cometh before the fall)

I ended the session up a few big bets – and got ready for the 7pm tournament to start.

A note on the Borgata tourneys. Indeed they seem to be pretty popular – so if you’re planning to play, even on a weekday – make sure to get there 2 hours before the start to get in line to sign up. You start with 1000 in chips with unlimited rebuys in the first hour and an add-on of 2000 for the same price. The blinds stay pretty low for the first hour – but they move up rapidly along with antes in the second hour.
It’s a reasonably well run tournament – with pretty good dealers, decent cocktail service – and competent floorpeople. I’d recommend it – not that it’s all that much better than the Trop or Taj tourneys – but the Borgata room is by far the best poker room I have ever played in.

I settled in to play my tournament game – and watched with amazement at how few people seemed to know what they were doing. Raises were usually either the minimum or wildly over-bet. Pot raises were very uncommon – and if you could flop a draw – you could usually get a good price to see it through with so many people in, and passive betting. It really made me realize what a handicap that damn Bet Pot button on UB really is!

Of course – one aggressive player could ruin this for you if they’re in the hand – so I’d recommend you note these players – and not play drawing hands against them. But the others? Get in with your suited connectors, gapped connectors, ace-suited hands!

Unfortunately, while it’s great to know this in retrospect – I didn’t at the time. I was playing my usual early tournament strategy which was strictly tight-aggressive.

Luck was on my side though – as the first decent pot I won was when I just called a min raise on the SB with 99.

The flop gave me a set – and I bet about 100 to see where everyone else was at. 4 callers with no apparent draw, and no high cards!

The turn was a J, putting a two flush out there – checked to me – and I bet 250 to claim the pot right there. It didn’t really seem to work as 2 players still called me.

On the river the board paired 4’s giving me the boat – with no flush out there, alas!
I moved all-in anyway – thinking maybe someone might put me a bluff and call, but instead ended up taking the pot down. I wonder what they had?

In the only other hand of interest I caught QQ on the BB – watched a short stack move all-in – and the player to my right call it. It was about half my stack to call – I was getting ready to push – but decided – it would be smarter to see the flop and save some chips in case an A or K should flop.
No A or K – I move all-in, player to my right reluctantly calls – and both he and the SS show AK. (good read on my part) No help on the turn and river and I more than double through to about 5000 in chips!

I reach the second hour with about 8000, after the add-on – feeling confident and strong. But then my cards go completely dead - and I watch in frustration as short stack after short stack push – pleading to be called by any ace, pocket pair, or even high cards.
Alas – I get NOTHING to even consider mixing it up – and spend an hour watching my stack slowly whittle away to the blinds and antes – while others clean up – building their stacks as I watch mine diminish.

Basically, I stumble into the second break with an average stack of about 5000 or so – with the blinds moving to 500-1000 with an ante of a 100. Which didn’t leave me with a lot of room to maneuver in terms of betting. In fact – hardly anyone with the exception of a few big stacks had room to maneuver. It was all-in or fold time.

One of the big stacks I thought completely misplayed his stack by moving all-in pre-flop with a stack of 18000+ with about 2300 in the typical unraised pot.
Of course he took down a few blinds and antes – but he tried it two too many times – getting called by a mid stack with A3o when he was raising QT – and losing. And then getting called again on an all-in bluff and losing that hand to return to the pack.

I guess some people are addicted to the thrill of being all-in, getting it all on the line. And admittedly it’s a pretty heady feeling, until someone calls you down and shows you a better hand.

You have to admire his willingness to do it four-five times in a row though, and I did even though he did bust out not long after.

Meanwhile, I was lucky to steal some blinds and antes when I moved all in with pocket 5’s, and another time with AJo. I picked up a caller the third time I moved with pocket 8’s and doubled through his KQo? Even still – with the blinds and antes continuing to move up – I was basically treading water.

Things got interesting after the third break – though I was short stacked and barely surviving - other people were being eliminated left and right. I was moved to a new table and noticed we were down to the final two tables. I found out from a floorperson that 6 places were paying seats to the 1500+80 NL tournament at the Borgata Open. Doing a quick count, there were 11 people remaining – as soon as we lost one more – we could start the final table!

That’s when the BB (4000) finally came around to me which along with the ante of 1000 – forcing me to put half my meager stack in. It was all-in or fold time. A short stack pushed from early position, and the button pushed on top of the short stack. I looked down to see Q5 spades – and decided it was all or nothing time if I was going to make it to the final table with a chance and pushed as well.
The button showed AK – hit the ace on the flop and the K on the turn, no spades – and I was bounced out around 10th place…

A good showing, but nothing to show for it.

I went back to grinding at the 6-12 for the rest of the night – but luck was not with me and I just barely managed to break even. Knowing that it would be a long day on Wednesday – I headed back to the comfortable and spacious Borgata hotel room for a couple quick hours of sleep.

Tomorrow was another day.

2004-08-27T12:56:00.000-04:00

Borgata Trip Report Coming...

Two days, one poker room, two NL tournaments, 30+ hours of play. And a happy ending?
For the half dozen of you that are interested - I'm working on it.... Hope to have Day 1 posted later today.

2004-08-23T17:29:00.000-04:00

Off to the Borgata...

Well - yesterday's blogger tourney was a no-go. It was a disappointment - take a look over at Guinness and Poker for a complete rundown of the Pacific-flaming that went on.

I was upset, because I was really looking forward to the chat as well as the challenge of taking on what would be in my opinion probably the toughest competition you can find on the internet. And friendly competition at that... (well mostly friendly)

What I wasn't looking forward to, was dealing w/Pacific's interface - really don't give you much time to make your decisions - and showdowns are completely mishandled - with the board machine-gunning out, completely lacking in the drama that makes the game really fun.

To my surprise, Pacific seem to have done good by us poker-bloggers. Along with some other people, I was half hoping they wouldn't just to see how many more creative ways we could come up with to dis Pacific.

But crediting every registered account w/$25 and adding $500 to our next tourney?
That's much better than I ever expected...

I still hope we consider moving to another site with a better interface, (Stars, UB) - but I have to say I'm impressed how generously Pacific has responded to our situation...

Enough of that...

Tomorrow I'm off to Atlantic City!

It's a bit of a spur-of-the-moment trip. Some friends are going to be in AC having a family vacation of sorts. That was all the excuse I needed to decide to make a quick trip.
I'll be staying at the Borgata - which is a great little hotel, but more importantly - I'll be playing live poker for about 48 hours (errr, hopefully not straight).

While I'm there - since I can't resist the promise of a potential jackpot, even though I realize they're kinda crapshoots - I'll also be taking advantage of the many midweek tournaments hosted by the Borgata poker room.

There's a Tuesday night 40+10 at 7pm. A Wednesday night 80+20 also at 7pm. And a Thursday morning 40+10 at 11AM (right before I leave).

I may even - (if I'm conscious that early) run over to the boardwalk and stop by Sands (home of many a drunken poker memory for me) for a Wed 2pm tournament. (although I don't know if it's hold'em or stud...) Eh - who cares - it's poker, right?

In between throwing my money away on these midweek tourneys with various AC rocks - you'll find me sitting patiently waiting for the nuts at a Borgata 6-12 table.

Or after enough liquid courage (aka Jack and Coke) - at one of the NL ring games (probably the smallest one I can find).

And if things start off well - I'll be more than happy to blow my early profits on a 10/20 table. I hear that this game is pretty profitable at the Borgata. Although I believe my reports refer to the weekend crowd rather than the Tue/Wed nite set.

It's a mini-poker vacation - I only wish I was able to drag a friend along with me to exchange bad-beat stories, and take cigarette breaks with...

I may win, I may lose - but I guarantee you, I'll have fun...

if I win.

And I'll defintiely have something interesting to write about for a change. Nothing like live poker trip reports, is there?

I just wish I had received my free Party Poker hat and t-shirt. They would make such good camoflauge...

I'll just have to hope that they look at me as another one of those gambling asians, eh ToddCommish brah?

Instead of one of those "thinks too much about poker" / "wannabe grinder" players which I am.

Back on Thursday night - see you all here!

2004-08-20T12:55:00.000-04:00

Genius vs. Maniac?

Last night I was preparing to play a number of multi tables in prep for the blogger tourney over at Pacific on sunday at 9pm EST. (75 bloggers/readers signed up)

This is gonna be a good but really tough tourney. My current NL game will work w/cards in the right situations (like who's wouldn't?) - but otherwise I guess I don't have much EV for this tourney. Should be fun though.

Anyways - there was nothing going on around 7pm so I fired up a bunch of other sites - and I realized I still had 50+ bucks at Planet - where I never play anymore. And I noticed they're holding these tournaments called double shootouts - where they have 10 single table tourneys at (5+.50) with the winners of the 10 playing a final table at 11pm for a prize pool of $500 ($200 to the winner).

What the hell - figured I'd warm up with a little NL SnG action.

Anyways - much to my surprise I sat watching the first few rounds of action with hardly ANY raising preflop at my table. Even the few raises I saw were only min raises - hardly anyone was betting the pot either preflop or even after the flop.
In fact - it appeared that no one at the table really understood the basic concepts of betting in no-limit.

I didn't get too many playable hands - but I did use one move - a BB steal tactic. Whenever 2 or 3 limpers tried to see a flop on my BB - I raised them the pot. Usually one called - and I half pot bet the flop and watched the caller run away...

This was enough to keep me afloat - and slightly ahead as the blinds started to become substantial an the field thinned out.

Then I almost made a big mistake. With QJ suited in EP - I decided to play the hand - and since the table was so passive - I figured I'd take a shot at stealing the blinds with a 4xBB raise.
Well - I picked up 4 callers, so that didn't really work.

But the flop brought me top pair with Q-x-4.
The pot was pretty big already - and I didn't want to commit my stack just yet. With as meek as the table was playing I figured I might get the right price to see another card and checked. Someone bet roughly 1/4 of the pot - 2 people called - and getting about 7-1 I decided to see another card.

The turn was a J.

Now I had two pair - I didn't have to be scared of hands like A-Q or K-Q anymore. In fact - I was pretty sure I was holding the best hand at the time. (duh) I definitely didn't want any of the above hands to catch an A or K on the river to crack me - so I bet the pot - (commiting more than half the rest of my stack) hoping to take the pot down right there.

The big stack to my left moved all-in raising me the rest of my chips. The next player folded and then another stack about the same size as mine called all-in for the rest of his chips.

WTF???

There was no flush or straight possibility. Which left the only real possibilites - over pair, lower two pair, or worst of all (for me) TRIPS...

This game is pretty fishy though and so are these bets, plus I'm feeling pot-committed with four outs to the nuts should I be behind...

I close my eyes and push... (big mistake)

The big stack shows 44 for the trips. The other caller shows A-Q.

Damn... I think to myself.

The river is a J.

Planet's interface goes a little crazy - but I realize amidst the graphical confusion on the screen - that I've hit one of my miracle outs - chopping the big stack off at the knees and eliminating another player. I now hold almost half the chips available with only 5 people remaining.

I catch one short stack moving in with paint (face cards) when I'm holding A-x in the BB. I call and knock him out when no help comes on the board.

Then I proceed to push at pots at regular intervals. Tossing away junk - but raising 4xBB on any A, suited high card, and up... The table decides to lay low and concedes the bulk of the blinds to me.

It was actually kind of frustrating - I picked up KK one time - threw in my usual raise and no one had a hand to play. I was picking up blinds but not able to get any action.

Finally I picked up AA with 3 or us left - and in an obvious ploy (to good players) I suspiciously just called the BB. 2 other players called including the BB. A face card on the flop - I checked and the table checked behind me. Another face card on the turn, no flush or straight possibility though, and I check again. A half hearted min bet comes on the turn, it's called, and I call hoping for a harmless card.

The river does not bring a third suited card or a straight that I can see. So I'm hoping that no one has two pair or trips. I check again. This time - the bet is the pot and the next player calls.

With some hesititation as to whether I'm still good - I reraise about the pot.

The bettor moves all-in. The caller folds.

Well - his all-in is a min raise back to me - so I call, feeling that I'm probably beat.

He shows top pair and is out...

The remaining player starts commenting on my play. I'm expecting to be berated for slow playing Aces to the river. (not something I'd do normally) Instead he/she was complimenting me on my tricky move. Tricky, huh?

Well I might agree with that - but it was done mostly out of fear that I wouldn't get any action if I raised my AA... But if the other player wanted go give me respect - there are ways to use that...

With this in the back of my mind and a pretty big chip lead - I started hammering away at the other player. I picked up most of the blinds pre-flop - with the occassional play back - which I would call to see if I could hit a flop. We bounced back and forth until I caught AA again.

This time I raised it up and the other player called.

When the flop came A-K-J, I was pretty sure I had him/her.

I bet the pot - and the other player moved all-in.

Call - am shown K-J for two pair, no help - and just like that I win the first round of the double shootout!

At the final table at 11pm - I again am astonished as I witness very little preflop action. A little more than the first round - but many 2xBB preflop raises - and hardly any pot raises pre-flop.

I'm starting to believe that UB's convenient pot bet button may indeed be one of the worst things in internet poker...

The action post-flop was admittedly more aggressive. Again - I stayed out of the action for the first few levels - able to stay afloat when I hit a few flops and was able to take down some small to medium pots.

As we thin down to 7 people - I've got an average stack and get KK. For some reason the table started tightening up just before... not sure why - so instead of raising 3x or 4x - after the table folds to me in the CO - I throw in a 2xBB raise looking for action.

The BB calls and we see a flop of 3 low cards.

I bet half the pot - as I've been doing after my pre-flop raises relatively consistently.
The BB raises me back. Trips? A junky 2 pair off the BB thanks to my too-small pre-flop raise?

Not at Planet Poker, I'm thinking ... I move all in and am called.

The BB shows JJ and I double up.

I hit a few more flops and hold the chip lead as we get down to 3. One situation comes up in my BB - when the short stack goes all-in and I'm holding 95s. It's about 3xBB to me. I decide to wait for a better spot and fold.

This later proves to be a huge mistake.

The short stack proceeds to move all-in again and again - as my cards go dead - and the other player loses 2 - all-in races in a row against the now decent stack.

Still I'm still the chip lead - and now the other stacks are both about half of mine.

Then the once-shortstack (screenname: bOOn - I think) starts firing away. Apparently all this heady all-in gambling had loosened his game up considerably. Equally unfortunate is that I catch a terrible run of cards and can't find a hand to play back with.

Then bizarrely, the third player, sitting on my left disconnects and is unable to get back in. This becomes really terrible because of our positions. The other active player gets free shots at the disconnected player's BB (which is automatically folding).

Intelligently, he keeps raising it up from his button - forcing me to call huge bets from my SB. And I can't catch anything half-decent to even call with...

Realizing that with the third player disconnected - that simply outlasting him will cede me 2nd place - I also tighten up - feeling that I'll be able to take my share of pots as soon as the other player slows down.

He doesn't slow down - and my cards don't change. Next thing I know - I give up the chip lead and I'm freaking out. Talk about getting off my game...

The combination of the constant raising combined with a seemingly neverending string of hands like 95o, J2o, T3o, 73o... and uh... - I'm on TILT! (in retrospect)

As the lead swings ever more in the other players favor and the disconnected player slowly bleeding off - I'm forced to make a decision.

Am I playing for first or second???

(note - thanks to Planet's interface forcing decisions in about 20-30 seconds I don't have much time to think things through...)

I get dealt Q9o - the best hand I've seen in like forever. Of course it's pot bet my Mr. Raise-it-up - and I call. The flop comes 3 clubs with me holding the 9 of clubs. I'm first to act - and I bet the pot expecting to take it down and begin a swing of the momentum back to me.

He raises me back!

I look back at my stack - if I don't make this call - I'm left with a stack that would need to double through twice to get back in the lead. But if I lose this pot - I get third place with (shame) the disconnected player getting second!

Dammit! Without really much thought (remember - I'm on tilt - screaming at the avatar on my laptop at 12:30 AM) - I push all-in.

Called and shown top pair. But the fourth club comes on the turn! Flush - and I'm back in the chip lead.

Now we dance - that slowed him down - and without the lead the other player isn't looking to press every bet. The disconnected player finally bleeds out to the blinds as we get heads up about even.

Then suddenly - I miss a few flops - have to concede a few pot and I'm behind again. Almost as if on cue - bOOn starts pushing every pot pre-flop.
And of course - I find myself once again with a string of junk cards.

THIS time - I call and see quite a few flops - but hit none of them and all this succeeds in doing is shrinking my stack even faster.

As my stack shrinks - I gotta admit - I start losing it again. I call a pot raise with Q6o. I hit the 6 for bottom pair. Check - and of course it's pot raised.

Not this time! I move all-in.

How ya like me now! (I scream at bOOn's avatar)

He calls and flips up top pair.

Aaarrghhhh!!!! (projectile flies through the air in my living room)

And that's the story of how I took second place in last night's Planet Poker double shootout.

And how I was completely outplayed, outwitted, and put off my game by some maniac with a raising fetish.

Ok - maybe not a maniac - but then a very LUCKY, aggressive player.

Alright maybe not lucky - but definitely I was very UNLUCKY.

Right?

Genius vs. Maniac, heads up? err... I'll take the maniac and lay you 2-1 odds....

2004-08-17T11:46:00.000-04:00

Figuring the Odds

As I mentioned in my last post - August is Limit month over here at the GotP. Besides the $400+ in UB bonus (thanks to SnG Heaven month), I also have a bonus to clear over at PokerStars and some hot games to get back to on Party.

Of course I'm not going completely cold turkey on NL. But I've been keeping my NL play restricted to small buy in multis on UB/Party/Stars. Unfortunately, so far without any great success. I'm pretty good at steadily building the first hour - and usually I can trap someone as the blinds begin to move up to stealable amounts to double up once or twice.

But I've found some problems as we enter the real moving time in the multis, when the blinds become high in relation to the average stack - and a pot bet can represent a significant portion of your chips. I've been forced into some tough situations trying to steal the blinds with hands like: mid pocket pairs (77 - 99), AQ, AJ. In general with hands better than this - TT and up, AK - I'm getting all in unless I have solid evidence that my hand is not the best.

But what to do when you pot raise in mid position with AJo and get called by the BB to a flop of A-T-2 (rainbow). I mean I'm as careful/tight as the next person - but I think my hand is good here. Well the BB in this situation checked - so I bet half the pot (maybe a mistake) and he moves all-in. It would take most of my stack to call his all in - and I've got almost half my stack already in the pot.

Well, there's only a few hands that I fear here - most likely being AK and AQ. I feel like AK, AA, TT would definitely have raised me pre-flop - so that leaves really AQ as the most likely possibility. He could also hold AJ - Ax (suited), or a mid pair (77-99), hell I didn't have a read on him - but for some players KQ - Q-J is even possible.

I felt like there were too many possible hands here that I had beat - and made the call.
He showed AQ. No miracle J and I'm out.
It didn't upset me, not really - but it virtually knocked me out of that multi.

Another interesting hand came up a while ago in a multi I was cruising along in on UB. I had about 5000+ in the middle of the tourney when the avg stack was about 2500 or so. I had doubled through a few times - and was proceeding to push my stack at the table and take blinds once or twice every round.
I get dealt KQs in mid position and pot raise for the steal.
The button calls the raise cold - and the SB and BB fold.

The flop comes Js Ts 2d (with me holding Ks Qs).
I've flopped the royal flush draw with 2 overcards. This gives me 15 outs to the nut straight and almost nut flush. In addition I have 2 more outs - non spade K's if my opponent is holding top pair. At the time I wasn't sure of the percentages - but I knew that except against a real strong holding like trips or 2 pair - I was a favorite.
Actually - I ran the odds on Cardplayers Odds Calculator later.
There were only 4 possibilities that had me beat. The three sets (JJ, TT, 22) and the nut flush draw (Axs). The trips were about a 58% favorite and the nut flush draw was about the same.
Any other possibility - even TWO PAIR (48%) - was an underdog against my hand.
I didn't have these figures at the time (although you can bet that I have them memorized now) - but I knew that my hand was pretty likely to be the favorite. I bet the pot.
He raised me back.
Now someone tell me if the numbers from Cardplayer are off - but at the time I figured - I had 15 outs that were good - since I didn't put him on raising me back with Axs. By my own poor math - I calculated - 47 cards left - 15 of them good for me = 32-15 - I'm about 50% to make this hand, with 2 cards to come.
Now what does he have? As I mentioned before - I don't think it's Axs - some players would call a pot raise with them preflop - but I don't think most would.
The sets are possible - with 22 a decent possibility - (since JJ and TT would in many cases reraise preflop).
But even more likely to me is a hand like AJ. In fact this is the hand I read him for.
I know how much people love JT - and it scares me at the time - since I thought I would be a dog to 2 pair at the time...
Well, even though I can just call and keep half my stack - I decide to go for the double up.
My rationale is that he's more likely to call an all-in here - than on the turn with another high card (A) or the third spade on the board.
And I have this gambling devil on my shoulder pushing my mouse hand over to the all in slider saying "let's double up!".

Well he called - and I lost the hand - when none of my 15 outs came in. I'll leave it to your speculation as to what he held and reveal it in my next post.
I'd like to offer a prize or something to the first one to guess right - but like I said - things ain't running so hot this month.

Anyways - thanks to Iggy's post - I've been spending inordinate amounts of time recently on the Party Poker's Bad Beat Beta Jackpot Tables. There is the annoying extra .25 rake but as advertised by Iggy the games are loose as all hell.
At first I made a tidy profit sitting there - seeing a few more flops than usual, and getting paid off when they hit me. It's pretty basic poker - I don't think you want to do anything fancy really - although I find I can't resist leading at pots when I have the chance and I know I'm going to stay in with a draw or middle pair...

All told I probably came away with about 25-50 BB on the 1/2 tables in the first 2 days I played at these tables.

The last 2 days have been an entirely different story.

For some reason - I decided to step down to the .50/1 tables and play 2 at a time - usually with an UB game in miniview format. I figured I could easily keep track of all 3 games and just play straightforward profitable poker with an outside shot at catching one of the bad beat jackpots...

Well that was the plan. I went on an incredible run of good starting hands from AA - TT and AK - AJ that all got busted. And sometimes I even caught the flop only to get run down on the river by a draw. I realize that at .50/1 that it's much harder to shake the draws - but this was ridiculous. People were catching gutshots, two pairs, even trips with junk and sucking me out. I'm serious - I don't know what I could've done except to have played really passively and MAYBE lost less money.

I don't want to get into limit bad beat stories. They're just a part of the game. But, suffice it to say - that I better hit a bad beat jackpot pretty soon if I'm going to show a profit on Party for this week.

Finally - last Saturday a bunch of friends got together for a little poker night during what was supposed to be a torrential downpour here in NYC as the remnants of Charley swept through. Well it was a mix of a few players who knew what they were doing vs. the rest who had almost no clue. As I expected it was a game which barely resembled poker as I know it. With limping galore, minimum raises, and out of nowhere all-in bets.
It could have been fun except that I couldn't catch a single hand to play in the first 2 games. My best playable hand for those 2 games was a QJs. Of course I limped and caught top pair - moved in with my short stack only to be called by AA and 66 that had caught the trips on the flop... Fun stuff.
The highlight of the night was a pot played by two of the rookie players. One player - a loose cannon, called the other's all-in bet with a flush only to be shown a higher flush by the bettor. As we began to reveal the pointless river - someone pointed out that a 5 of diamonds would give the caller a straight flush. Yeah - right... But sure enough - the 5 of diamonds came up on the last card giving him the one-outer bad beat. Incredible.
To sum up my night - in the last game I decided to limp with KK. Only the BB took the flop w/me. It came A-6-7. The BB checked - which meant to me that he didn't have the ace - so I moved in - hoping he'd caught the 6 or 7 and read me for a bluff.
Well he read the bluff alright - and called me with 45s. That's my fault for not raising him out of there I could see, right away. The case 8 knocked me out of any chance to even break even as I limped off to the loser's couch.
On a much smaller scale - I felt like the pros at the WSOP 2004 - I mean how the hell do you read anyone when they don't even know what or why they're doing anything. You just got to play your cards and hope for the best...

This Sunday is the Monty Memorial Blogger Tournament at Pacific Poker. Since it's been a while since the last blogger tourney (at Pacific also) - I noticed that I had only left a little less than $20 in my account. Rather than be bothered with a redeposit - I figured I'd just make the difference up on the tables. So I went and slummed on the .25/.50 tables for a few hours.
Yikes - the difference in play is astounding - although I must say I wasn't exactly playing close attention. I had run my balance down to a paltry $10 before I knew it - but a few big hands brought me back and a flopped straight with J9 vs. trips put me over the top.
Of course if I don't win anything in the blogger tourney, my Pacific account will be tapped. But I can't say I really like anything about Pacific, except that the competition is generally pretty loose.

I don't have great expectations for this Sunday's tourney. Although I have won one of these events - (Felicia's PJK-I at Planet Poker), that was a 20 person event and I think I benefited from the fact that every thought I was the Boy Genius and maybe gave me a little too much respect.
This event may have up to 50 or more bloggers and readers. And from the last few events - many of them are pretty aggressive (good) NL players. There certainly won't be any fish in this tournament - and to do well, it seems to me you'll have to make it through quite a few coin flip situations.

Wish I was playing a little better of a NL game. What I should probably do is let my brother - the family poker maniac, play for me. That'd put them all on tilt...

I saw Iggy suggest that BG (the real genius) and I have a last longer bet. Well - I don't know if I like my chances on that bet - but I'll see if BG has a creative wager he'd like to make and maybe I'll do something like that just for the fun of it.

We'll see how it works out.

Next week - if I can get out of work - I'm headed down to AC for a quick Borgata trip from Tues night to Thurs afternoon. Don't know if there will be any real hot action - but I plan to hit some of the weekday tournaments at least. I'm just fiending for some live poker action.

The following week - with the Republican National Convention rolling into town - I'll probably fly out to Denver to visit the folks, and head out a couple of days to the loose games in Central City/Blackhawk - home of 5/5 limit games with up to 5 raises. I got cleaned out my last trip - but I'm still up overall playing out there and will be looking for vengeance.

And finally - I've got my flight booked for a Vegas trip - September 23 - 27. Meeting my family out there - and hoping to drag a couple of friends along for the ride.
But basically - this September trip will be my very own little poker journey. We'll see how far I've come when I get to the Bellagio 10/20 game and maybe even the $250 max buy-in NL ring game...

2004-08-09T16:08:00.000-04:00

For the Sake of a Hat...

Well, this past week finally saw an end to July 2004 - and my month of Sit and Go madness. Unfortunately the ridiculous win rate that I had been running for July in 10 and 20 dollar (mostly 10) SnGs on UB, finally and sadly, came to an end. I don't know if I was getting hit in the head with the deck for a while - but I do know I was getting enough cards to succeed during my run in mid July.
As for the last week - well, for sure the cards I saw were tougher - and on top of that, I guess I was still playing like a man on a rush. Some bad pushes in the wrong spots - dominated hands that hit, bad beats. A combination of all 3 led me to bleed off a portion of my profits.
My half pot raises weren't scaring anyone - and because more times than not - I wasn't holding - I was finding myself in serious trouble on missed boards in situations where I had to try to either push someone out of the pot with a big bet - or say goodbye to a decent portion of my stack.

You can imagine the results of being in this spot a few too many times.

But anyway the month ended and after a scary week or two with UB not crediting any of us with our bonus dollars (see Poker Chronicles for a rant on this) I ended up with over $600 in UB bonus dollars. Now I'm sure that some UB players who play every day or even higher stakes made thousands of dollars - but $600 bonus dollars and a profit of +$300 or so for the month of July devoted solely to UB SnGs. Well - let's just say it's my best month online ever.

I AM a little burnt out on SnGs though. Who wouldn't be? For a while there it was like work - trying to get in 4-6 SnGs before bed...

But one thing I did like - was the focus that chasing this bonus gave me for a month. Instead of playing a mix of limit and no-limit ring, multi tournaments, different games, and SnGs, for a whole month I played nothing but NL Hold'em SnGs.
If I didn't get better - I would've had to seriously consider quitting.

Anyways - as August rolled around I decided to head back to Party - where unsurprisingly I hadn't played in a month. They ran a promotion there - free Party hat and shirt if you play 300 raked hands in a week or two. Well - I was planning to play anyway - not that I think I'll be caught dead in either the hat or shirt in public - but hey - it IS free!

So I thought I'd just play some .50/1 and 1/2 limit on Party - collect my 300 raked hands for the free stuff and make a tidy profit along the way.

Wrong.

To say the games were loose would be an understatement. I played pretty tight - and maybe a little too aggressive. But during the course of playing 300 raked hands over 3 or 4 different sessions - I never once held a profit.
Each session started poorly - and I found myself grinding each time just to get back to even. A raise to a $1 on a .50/$1 limit table apparently does not keep suited cards, any connectors, or even lone aces, kings, queens from playing.
A .50 cent bet on the flop certainly doesn't keep them from folding on the flop either.
At $1 you might get completely dead hands to drop - but that doesn't really help. And on the river - we all show down our hands and the best one wins.

Where the skill comes into play in a game like this, well other than playing tight - I don't really see it. Especially after playing so much no-limit, it sometimes seems like a crapshoot. Of course, if I'd been getting cards and hitting flops - well then my profit from these loose-erratic Party players would almost certainly be due to skill.

Well at least maybe I can use the Party hat and shirt one day in a casino as a fish disguise. I know if I saw someone in a getup like that - I'd be thinking mmm... Party sushi.

I also got a chance this friday to get back to the regular home game that I mentioned earlier. This past friday 14 people showed up. As I've mentioned in the past - the game is loose - but makes up for it in aggression. Although I hadn't been there for a while - the past few sessions I'd been shut out of the money - and wondering whether I was making mistakes or just unlucky.

Well in the first game - although I'm planning to show off some of the NL SnG tricks I'd been practicing all month, the cards just wouldn't cooperate. I catch one hand, a pair of 8s, and raise the pot. I pick up one caller and the flop comes A-A-2. I bet the pot again and the caller thinks about if for a while, squeezing his cards again (as if he wouldn't know if he hand a A?) and decides to call. The turn is a 7.
Now normally I'd let this pot go - a pot raise call on the flop is strong enough indication to me that the caller is holding an A. But this game is different. The caller could almost certainly have put me on a bluff - and might be holding as little as 2 high cards like K-Q or even a 2 for the 2 pair.
In fact - I was pretty certain that this was the case - so I moved all in, mentally closing my eyes - praying that I wouldn't get a quick call.
As soon as he began deliberating - I knew I was ahead. He ended up folding - grumbling about the 'lucky aces'... As I hadn't had a hand to play before this one - I flashed my 8's and from the non-chalant look on his face - I think he layed down a winner. (hee hee)

But the cards never really turned around. As we got down to the final 5 (with 3 places) - I stole some blinds, which in and of itself was AMAZING - the game had really tightened up since I last played in it. Feeling emboldened - I pot raised in EP with K9o - only to have a short stack come over the top. Since the raise was less than my raise - I called it - and he showed A5o. No help on the flop - and I'm the short stack now...
A few hands later I get a suited Qx and move in. But a big stack picks up AJo and knocks me out on the bubble.

The next game started up immediately as the 3 remaining players struck a deal. We split into 2 tables of 7 - and unfortunately I end up on the tougher table with a mix of tight-aggressive, and loose-aggressive players and all the fish downstairs...

After getting pushed out of a bunch of early pots because I'm unwilling to tangle early on with the sometimes wild overbets (it wasn't unusual to see somewhat bet 500 or more on a pot that only had 100 in chips), I pick up AKo - UTG. I raise it up to 4xBB - I'm partially hoping to take the blinds or get called by a hand like Ax or Kx...
I get called by 4 players!
And the flop comes A-K-9! (rainbow)
As I'm first to act - my first instinct is to check. But that's too suspicious - so instead I make the same 4xBB bet as I did pre-flop - hoping to give someone the impression I'm a little wishy-washy about commiting to many chips to a bluff. One player calls - and the next one puts on his poker face looks down at his cards and quietly mutters "All-in" with a wave of his hand...
It folds to me - and I consider the possibility the all-in player is holding 9-9. It's possible - but so are a lot of hands that I'd have dominated. I'm reading A-Q or even if he thinks I'm bluffing, K-x...
I count out the chips to cover him - deliberate for a while (to increase the chances of the other player calling) and make the call.
The other player folds - and the all-in bettor shows K-9 for the WRONG 2-pair.
And just like that I'm off to the races.
I survive to the final table amidst grumbling from my table that I'm guarding my stack too closely. (I had folded my BB a few times to raises) Well - what the hell was I supposed to do with the blinds still low?
At the final 7 I try loosening up - raising one time preflop with JT0 - but someone comes over the top and I have to fold. Another time an EP player makes a huge preflop bet (big enough that it's peculiar). I have AJo - and I think about it for a while. But I read small pocket pair and don't want to coinflip from the wrong side. I tell the table I'm folding a hand they wouldn't and muck. Jeers of derision are showered down on me - but I remain stolid that I'm doing the right thing. That is until the table folds and the raiser shows - Q3o for a stone cold bluff.
Ouch... had me fooled.
But I throw some blind steals of my own - and take a couple of called pots down with big bets to build my stack back up to one of the top 2 when I'm dealt AA in the BB.
Another big stack raises it up to 2xBB. I make a show of deliberation and reluctantly call (trying not to over-act). The flop comes A-K-2 all HEARTS.
And of course - there's no way I can have a heart...
Still - I have the trips and outs to the full house. I can't possibly check this flop. I have to make it look like I'm trying to make a play in case he's not holding - so I bet the pot.
He looks over at the bet - asks for the amount, hesitates a second and quickly says "I'm all-in".
I immediately reply "I call!" and flip over my aces as if they're the case QJ hearts - which they're not. I expect to see at least a heart and prepare to root against the fourth heart when he flips up KTo and more importantly - no heart!.
I rake in a massive pot - as the other player shakes their head. We discuss this pot later as he wonders if there was any way he could have bet it that would get me to lay down my hand. As I think about it - not really. But I do mention that the way he went all-in seemed to make it pretty clear to me that he did NOT have the flush.

I wave my big stack around a bit - taking blinds with a flick of the wrist - when the small stacks get involved in a big pot. Only one player remains and we're heads up with me about a 2-1 chip lead. We mix it up a little - trading pots - when the small stack offers to make a deal. I add $20 to the 2nd place money and he'll take it.
I'm tempted to decline it and just put him all-in the next few hands - but I've seen some weird things happen heads up in live play.

So I cut the deal and just like that my losing streak was over!

Now to go back to work on my limit poker game...

2004-07-26T14:33:00.000-04:00

More SnG Talk...

Well if nothing else - UB's SnG Heaven month has upped the amount of discussion on SnGs on the various poker blogs. I've been following quite a few of them and let me mention a few of them in case you've missed some of the better stuff out there.

First up - the Poker Nerd (Missives from a Degenerate Underacheiver) has a great post on SnG strategy. This is must-read stuff. I don't know if I agreed with everything in the post - but I do KNOW I picked up a couple of ideas that I think are really good.

Another blog with a good SnG focus is Crazy Game of Poker. Besides posting a running total of his SnG results - check out his July 7th post for links to some very good threads on 2+2 on SnGs.

A new blog - recently mentioned in another uber-post by Iggy - is Maximuspoker's Journal. Lots of SnG discussion already and only 6 posts old!

Finally an interesting article on the recent CardPlayer from Lee Jones. I'm not sure I agree with this 7% of a stack with pocket pair rule - it's an interesting concept, but one I'm definitely not endorsing.

Only 6 more days left in UB's SnG promotion. I hate to feel like I'm plugging for them - but it's been a pretty fun month for me. (cuz I've been winning!)
Of course they stopped handing out the bonus dollars on a weekly basis and now are promising to credit you after the month is over... We'll see. I kind of wish I had kept better track of my play - just to make sure I get credited for all the SnGs I've played.

In some ways I'll be glad to see it end. I can spend some more time on Party and Stars - and go back to working on my NL and Limit ring game.

Well - back to the grind.

2004-07-19T16:54:00.000-04:00

On a Roll..

Well it's probably nothing to be too proud of - but I've been beating $10 UB SnGs like crazy over the past week. The most profitable structure I've found is the 6 handed SnGs at UB.

Which is pretty surprising to me - I've always disliked short-handed play - but that was mostly in limit. My tendencies are to play tight, so I've always kind of felt at a disadvantage playing less than a full ring where this becomes less than optimal.

However I've found a new home in the 6 handed NL SnGs at UB. Basically the games seem go one of two ways.

One - a hyper aggressive/all-in better sits down along with the usual assortment of calling stations - and a couple of players get knocked out early in the action. This gets us down to 3 or 4 handed (with 2 places paying), with the blinds still relatively low.
Usually I'm able to wait for hands to slowplay and double up or push hands that play well heads up (small pairs, big cards) to steal pots. My early tight play usually allows me to steal hands pre flop or on the flop later in the tourney with just about any bet. This allows me to USUALLY chip up pretty steadily as the blinds move up.
The only issue with this case is if the aggressive player is the one who wins the early coin flip. If he's out there pushing bets at the table before I can get mine in - he can take the initiative away and sometimes build a nice stack. In this case - it's a bit of a toss up as I'm pretty much forced to wait for a hand to attack him.
An aggressive player - whose willing to reraise (the pot) with a weak hand when he feels the first bet is a bluff - is a very difficult opponent. Fortunately - they are few and far between - and when I find one (I think I've seen 2) - I note this fact and file away their screen name for future reference.

Two - The table is passive - with a mixture of tight and loose passive players - but with many, many unraised pots and usually 3 to 4 people seeing a flop. I don't mind this too much either - early on - I will limp with big hands again and hope to catch someone a little too eager with top or a pocket pair. Sure I run the risk of being caught - but I'm pretty cautious with QQ on a flop with an A or K for example. Most of the time - the flop is safe enough.
Other than that I stay pretty tight - and again later on in the structure - can usually steal pots when I need to chip up with a steady diet of preflop pot raises.
On flops that I hit with any two cards - again I'll slow play them - looking to milk a few bets off of someone until the river when I reveal the strength of my hand. Position helps greatly in these situations.
It takes a bit longer than the first type of table but I regularly pick up a decent size stack and as soon as the blinds reach 30/60, 40/80 I change gears and start really leaning on the small stacks.

When we get down to 3 and especially 2 - it becomes a dance of sorts with aggression being the key. In situation two I am almost a lock to chip up as I steal blinds - and almost never allow someone to limp in on my BB. With a passive player - they'll start folding the SB to me regularly which is nice.
Usually someone gets knocked out and we get heads up before someone has the chance to figure this out and set a trap.

Heads up? I know it's only a $10 level but I really have a lot of confidence in my heads up play. I have taken second at times - if I'm hugely outchipped it's pretty difficult to come back - but given a relatively even split (60/40 or closer) at the start of heads up play - I've been pretty tough. I don't raise every time from the SB, but almost every time.
Again - the no limping on my BB rule applies usually, as I'll greet just about any limped hand with a pot raise.

If the player lets me, and they usually do - I steal my way into the lead and keep leaning on them. From time to time they'll catch a big hand and chop a sizable chunk off my stack. But I usually leave my self enough of a piece to continue pushing at them.
It's a push pull affair - but I find that I have generally better instincts than the competition as to when to push and when not to.
I'm waiting for some stats from UB on how many SnGs I've played - but here's this week's results: 10 - 1st place, 7 - 2nd place, 2 - 3rd place. And this is 19 out of approximately 25-30 SnGs played I estimate.
Playing this way - I've doubled my bankroll on UB from $300 something to over $600 in the past 2 weeks. And that's in addition to the bonus dollar promotion that UB is giving for every SnG you play in.

Of course I could just be on a lucky roll. I certainly don't discount that possibility. If my roll continues on into another week or two - I may just be on to something.

SnG Heaven continues at UB for the rest of July - see you all there...

2004-07-13T12:34:00.000-04:00

Sit and D'oh!

Well SnG month sort of slowed down for me - as I hit a rough stretch last Wednesday nite. Four SnG's and not a single place - not so bad really - except that in 2 of them I got a bit desperate and got knocked out on a bluff and a bad call.
What compounded it was getting on later that night for some limit - and getting my QQ dominated by AA right off the bat - and just continuing to get hammered for the better part of an hour in hands like this. Did I slow down? No frickin' way...
Almost blew off my whole $100 buy in though...
Was I on tilt? Well it's kind of hard to stay. That feeling where that little voice inside your head starts encouraging you to play more hands was definitely there. The question was - was I listening to the voice?
Well - I don't recall - remember - I was on tilt, dammit! All I know is my UB balance moved down for the first time in a while...
It's a good thing something good came on TV - and I was able to walk away.
When I came back to the tables this weekend - things hadn't gotten a whole lot better. I played pretty much break even - placing in a few - but not winning - and finishing on the bubble at least.
Certainly not enough to get me real excited about poker. This is what seems to happen to me - I run hot for a while and play like mad - until I can barely read the cards, in fact. Then a bad run invariably hits - which first induces me to play a little sub-optimally (tilt!) - and then I get disgusted and go on a short leave of absence from the game.

The only good thing about this, is that it gives me time to take a fresh start when I inevitably return to the tables...

And luckily enough the other night - it paid off big time. I went on a little SnG run, cashing 5 out of 6 and winning 3 outright. Sure there were some good cards involved in key hands - but for the most part I played pretty tight for the first few levels.

The main tactic that seemed to work for me, at least early on - when the blinds were small - was slowplaying/limping.
I've always found it frustrating when the blinds are small - like 20/40 and a pre flop pot raise with JJ or TT - garners 3 callers - and an overcard flops.

These are not good situations to be in - and it can be difficult in a full ring with all varieties of players still left to figure out what they're holding.

I've countered this situation by basically limping with many hands early on in the games. Sure I'm taking a risk of getting my big pairs cracked - but I'm also not commiting to a pot when the flop comes unfavorably/scary. If I have the slightest inkling that someone has made a pair of aces with me holding QQ for example - really, what have I lost by getting away from the hand?

And when I hit one of these hands - I can sit back and wait for someone to bet an inferior hand or take a stab at the pot.
In general - you'll always find a few players who will make a bet at an unraised pot on the flop - and even try a pot bet steal on the turn or river. It's like fishing when you hit your hand/feel the bite, just staying patient - checking and calling - until the fish tries to yank the bait off the hook - and you smack them down/reel them in with an all-in bet.

Either they fold and are scratching their head as to what exactly you were holding or they call and (usually) are sorry for it. Amazing how many times top pair will pay off your overpair. (actually not SO amazing - I've only done this a few hundred times before I learned my lesson)

Let me stress - that this is only early on in the blind structure that I use this.

Later - when short handed and the blinds are worth stealing - I'd rather disguise my big hands with raises on other playable (and non-playable) hands...

Another side benefit is limping with hands you'd usually raise with like AK and AQ. While you obviously are vulnerable to a lucky Ax two pair - for the most part - you induce hands that will almost always be dominated into the pot. And if they catch their ace - they will almost certainly bet it and be sorry for it later.

Short handed play, of course when the blinds get higher remains the key to winning/placing in SnGs. However this revision of my early SnG play has afforded me a low risk way to enter this stage with a big stack.

And short handed (5 or less) is all about betting. But it really isn't all that hard to go from the short stack to the big stack with a little luck. So I don't really mind making it to this point without a big stack. It makes it less likely that I'll win the SnG - but I still like my chances.

Anyway - more on shorthanded play in another post. Suffice it to say that last night - playing pretty much the same tactics - i placed in another 3 out of 4 SnGs and the damage wrought to my balance last week has been pretty much eradicated!

I did suffer a slightly emotional 2nd place finish in an SnG that was tough - albeit fun. There was one of those hyper-aggressive players on the table that usually bust out early in SnGs. This was a six handed table - and he started right off the bat with pre flop pot and occasionally even all-in bets.

This type of player takes away some of my edge - as he doesn't let me see a flop with some of the marginal hands I like to play like Ax suited and small to mid pockets...
Of course if I catch a big hand...

I thought I caught him stealing when he made a pot raise over my limped JJ. I simply called the raise and saw the flop come 3 low cards. When I went all-in - I was astonished to see him show a real hand - KK!

Thus represents the downside of early limping.

Still was able to double through a few times, rebuild my stack and take out another player who I outkicked with a pair of aces in another pot.

We got down to the two of us - and I shifted gears - coming over the top of him with anything when I felt my hand was better than average (any high card)..

I think I caused him some problems as I overcame a pretty big lead to pull even - when he didn't want to gamble when I came over the top of his steal attempts pre flop.

But I got dealt AK and raised him and found him coming over the top of me. Well - I had to push there heads up, and he held 99 and held up. Damn...

Well SnG month has 18 more days left in it. I know I'm neglecting my other accounts - and missing on lots of Party action - but I'm pretty much committed to staying on these until the end of the month.

Then I'll have to get back to my limit game to try to earn all these frickin' bonus dollars...

2004-07-07T14:05:00.000-04:00

SnG Crazy (continued)

So I got home drunk last nite after taking some out of town colleagues out for dinner (shabu-shabu) and much sake and vodka... topped it off by cheating my diet, just couldn't resist Veniero's NY cheesecake...
When I get home the 2004 WSOP is on - and I watch the 7-stud event - which is pretty boring. Ted Forrest as Felicia has reported in the past is pretty cool at the table - letting Men Nguyen bust himself against the amateur - and then trapping him finally when he makes a full house to the other guys trips. Still, 7-stud just doesn't have the same appeal on TV as hold em.

And then the crazy NL event - where these guys play like a$$ for an hour and some British kid who called down many all-ins with 2nd or bottom pair ends up winning... I know that final table play gets frisky - but this was pretty ridiculous in my opinion. At least the kid - James Vogl - was a typically modest Brit, and seemed a pretty decent guy.

Meanwhile I'm firing up $10 SnGs left and right on UB. The first 2 - I get frisky and try playing lots of pots early. I'm unlucky and get chipped down quickly when none of my flops connect. It's only a matter of time since as soon as I get down to about 500 or so - I'm all in or not in... I don't make it through - and I'm trying to figure out if I'm on tilt before I fire up another pair...

Nahh - I'm ok. I fire up 2 more - one 6 handed and a full ring SnG. In the six handed - I keep playing like I have been - only I hit some cards early and double through someone when they catch top pair to my slow played trips. In the full game I play real tight and hold on to my stack, treading water as the blinds advance and the maniac players give their chips to some lucky sods.

I'm playing steady in the 6 handed game - when I flop another set. Slowplay it - and a shortstack decides to go all-in on the river - which I call. He's out and another shortstack busts out immediately in the next hand. Now, we're four handed and the blinds move to 50/100. I have a chip lead - and start shifting gears.
Now I know that a 2xBB raise is usually not enough of a committment for proper blind stealing. It usually collects lots of BB calls with a wide range of hands and partially commits you to a pot where you may be at a great disadvantage.
But 2xBB raises were winning me lots of blinds. So I stuck to them. In fact even when called - I found my opposition folding to minimum bets on the flop.
It was just too easy. I raised almost half the hands from that point on. Stealing blinds about half the time. Of the other half - I picked up the pot on the flop with a measly single bet.
Otherwise - the other player bet out and I folded unless I had hit pretty solid. Or I bet out and they raised me - letting me know I didn't belong in the pot.

As soon as we got shorthanded in the full game - I put the same basic strategy in play with about 4-5 people. It worked incredibly well when we were down to 4 (with 3 places paying out). The other guys hardly ever wanted to see a flop.
And since I was in so many pots - I was able to get lucky and catch a few unlikely hands that my opponent couldn't possibly put me on - and knock one of the bubble hangers out.

In both SnGs I was holding between 60-75% of the chips when we got down to the final 3. And the other players - were content to let me keep my lead - prefering not to mess with my stack as they fought for second place. It was unreal...

Now of course I ended up winning both SnGs - and I know this wasn't typical competition. However the $10 SnGs on UB - especially this month seem to be incredibly soft.
Check it out. or don't actually - I don't want to see any tough players in my SnGs this month.

The other night I played a bunch of SnGs - and the following humorous situation came up.

Cards had been running lukewarm. I slowplayed AA and got beat by some dude
when
he hit a J-J runner-runner. Then he typed "NEVER slowplay AA" to me. So
I told him - "you're right - I won't do THAT again..." (thinking... dick!)

I doubled up a few times with my short stack after making a few all-in blind steals
to get back to over 1000. Then I get AA again.
This time the guy that was giving poker lessons raises the pot.
I call and the BB calls.
The flop comes K high. Lesson boy bets the pot again. I call. BB folds.
The turn is blank - flush draw. He checks - I check. the river brings the
flush possibility. He bets the pot...

I type... "ooopps... I did it again."
Then I raise him all-in.

He calls and shows AK for a loser.

I type "NEVER overplay AK"

heh heh... of course I didn't cash - (lost JJ vs. AA) but it was worth it.

Meanwhile my brother a self proclaimed SnG expert's been going hog wild with UB's SnG Crazy month. He sent me the following e-mail:

"Well...I'm stuck at work today and it's really, really, really slow.
Since I can't play poker for money at work...and getting into the
freerolls is virtually impossible, (unless you sign up right when the
sign-up period begins); I decided to try some calculations. By checking
the UPC transaction history (ultimate points history), I calculated that
I played in 385$ worth of SnGs this weekend (thurs-sun). Including the
10% SNG rake; that works out to a total investment of 423.50.

My bonus dollars were only 60.00 this morning; but I think this is due
to the cutoff being Sat...so all my Sunday Sngs will be credited next
week (hopefully). Anyway...I also calculated all my tournament winnings
for this period; which equaled $746. This means I profited 322.50 on an
investment of 423.50 and should have another 122.50 on top of the 60.00
in bonus dollars comin my way. Here's a breakdown (not that you care,
but, since I went thru the trouble of computing it....I'm gonna tell
ya):

$5 SNG- total invested: 27.50 total won: 0.00 profit: -27.50
$10SNG- total invested: 176.00 total won: 250.00 profit: 74.00
$20 SNG- total invested: 220.00 total won: 496.00 profit: 276.00

Not sure if this has any meaning to it. I know that I play with more
caution and pay closer attention in the higher stakes games than the
lower...but I didn't really notice that much difference in the play or
players. I know Dad also has some statistical evidence that his
winning ratio in 10$ SNGs' has been much higher than in the $5 SNGs'."

Yeah - I think I agree - the $10 SnGs are better than the $5. I haven't played many $20 SnGs (but I plan to this month) - so I can't really comment on that yet.

We had a little debate on the worth of all these UB bonus dollars that we plan to earn. I basically see them as a rake rebate - but he views them more as free money...

Well since it's of particular interest to me now - I took a closer look at how UB awards bonus $$$.

For tournaments and SnGs you get 6 pts for every $1 house fee. So for a 10+1 SnG - you're getting 6 pts, at $0.10 a pt - that equates to a 60 cent discount on the house fee. Not great but something.

For ring games you get 1 pt for every $1 raked pot you play. Which equates to a 10 cent rake discount. You get half a point for a .50-.95 raked pot. and so on...

Really the bonus payout structure isn't all that great. But it's better than nothing...

I expect that after this month's SnG frenzy on UB - that the limit and no-limit ring games ought to be pretty stocked. And that's not a bad thing...

Well - it's back to the SnG grind. See you there...

2004-07-01T11:04:00.000-04:00

Sit N Go Heaven?

Yeah -it's been a long time since I've posted an update. Poker, I guess, has been on the wane in my life. Which is not to say that I haven't been playing...
However my online play has really dropped off. As my poker fever has begun to wear off - I find myself more apt to play carelessly. And playing carelessly is like giving money away.
Which doesn't mean I've missed a chance to play home games whenever I get the chance.

In the Friday night game - which I've learned to appreciate as the best home game I'm likely to ever find. It's not great EV for me - but a poker table, real chips, Kem cards, and above all - good aggressive competition make it as close to a real game as you'll likely find.
The reason it's not a great game for me is I keep losing! I can't put my finger on it - I've had some success playing tight - lasting to the bubble - and then making it through to place - where we usually split the pot to get the next game started.
But although the play is solid - it's aggressive, and underlying it all - it's a gambler's game more than a poker player's game.
KQ? That might as well be AK in this game the way most of the guys play. There's a few players who are real fond of the all-in move - and willing to do it with small pockets and naked aces on up...
I've correctly pushed all-in with AQ vs. KQ, AJ vs. KT, 66 vs AQ, etc... all hands with decent advantages - and lost ALL of them.
I guess I could write it off to bad luck - but I'm not one to blindly shrug off losses as misfortune without at least examining my play.
I'm certainly one of the tighter players of the bunch - for one thing - my raises tend to be smaller than typical in the game. I've experimented a bit with increasing the size of my preflop raises - but mostly what this accomplishes is either winning the blinds - or getting pot committed against another strong hand - and because of the unpredictability of the typical loose caller - unable to put the other player on a hand.
So if the flop misses me - I'm stuck in a quandary of what to do. Do I commit the rest of my stack to a bluff? Or do I let the hand go if the other player leads into the pot?
Another nuance is that there's a lot of trapping going on in the game. It's not unusual for someone to limp with AA or AK - and check the flop, especially when they hit. Usually they'll bet the turn if there's no action - but slow playing is a pretty common tactic. This moves me away from stealing - as a checked flop does not necessarily mean the first person in the pot will win the turn.
I've found myself much more passive when I enter a pot and miss the flop. This takes away my ability to pick up small uncontested pots for ammo later on.

Also because of the prevalence of action - which I'm usually not involved in, I generally don't find myself in favorable chip position when the game gets down to the end. This puts enormous pressure on me to double through someone - and it gives the loose big stacks lots of leeway to call my all-ins without risk of busting out.
Inevitably - it leaves me much fewer options on how to play my hands - it's either - all-in or fold...

And finally - and this is a problem for me, I get caught up in the action, and come off my game. After seeing KQ go all in so many times and even win, hands that I KNOW aren't that great start looking better and better. I can't help myself. It worked for them - why shouldn't it work for me?
That's how I find myself busting out calling an all in bet on AJo vs 33. Or losing with KJ vs KK. Normally I would never call with these hands - but I get a bit of 'gamble fever' - and I just say "what the hell?" and go...
It never feels good afterward.

Overall, I feel I play pretty solid in the game. Certainly more solid than the bulk of the players. But in an aggressive loose no-limit game like this - I guess the variance is pretty high. Credit is due to the cast of opponents - you won't find many weak players in the Friday night game.

I'll just have to try to keep my patience, the cards should turn, and I should find myself on the winning side more often when they finally do.

Anyways on the online front - played some crazy Party 1/2 the other night. I had read in Killer Poker as well as in some other poker anecdote about a guy entering a game and raising up a couple of pots right off the bat. Well - it was my intention to do so - but when the very first I hand I came across was 44, I figured what the hell...
Of course this didn't end up pretty, but on the next hand I was dealt KQs. So I popped again - and this time caught a Q high flop. My hand held up with 3 callers all the way..
The next hand I got AK and popped again. By now the table was thinking - either he's really lucky or really loose... I got action again but this time - the K I caught on the flop hurt me - as one of the preflop callers trapped me with KK...
Three raised pots - down a few $$$ - but I had definitely established a good table image. These guys couldn't wait to mix it up with me.
Well I swung up at one point 20+BB then down to +5BB and back up to +15BB before ending up about +5BB for the session...
I guess I maybe got a little out of hand with the aggressive play. It was fun, though. It's just not that easy to downshift your game once you start playing fast.

In any case - I think I've found the thing that will get me back on the tables for July at least. Sit N Go Heaven at UB! I play lots of these anyways - and now UB will give you half your buy in in bonus dollars at the end of every week...
That's a pretty good deal. A great marketing idea for UB - I expect the SnG's will be pretty busy - and the limit tables too - as all the SnG guys try to earn their bonuses.

That's where you'll find me all month...

2004-06-17T13:54:00.000-04:00

Tightening Up

Well - last night was one of the first nights in a while I was able to sit down and play for a significant amount of hours. A while back I was starting to get the feeling that just like many other interests I'd picked up and gotten semi-obsessed with (pool, golf, japanese to name a few) that poker was inevitably losing it's shine.
If there's one thing I wish I could change - it would be to pick one of these interests and really pursue it to as close to the maximum of my potential as possible. I find it easy enough to devote myself to pursuits to the point of generally being 'good' at them. However it seems that I become easily satisfied with reaching this level. It doesn't help that with most things as you get better at them - that getting to the next level takes much more work than it does to just become good at something.

In any case, Wednesday night presented with the opportunity to sit down and play for 5-6 uninterrupted hours along w/a new WPT broadcast on the Travel Channel proved irresistible. Combined with the fact that I now somehow have accounts at UB, Party, Stars, Pacific, and Planet (thanks to chasing down all those blogger tournaments..) Well let's just say finding a game wasn't going to be an issue.

I decided to play some NL - both tourneys and ring games. I've been giving some thought to how I play NL.

When I started out - I know I was pretty tight - but a little too willing to get all in with good starting cards regardless of the board or situation. It was just a little too early for me to understand the value of things like position, stack size, reading the board, putting other players on a hand. I simply played my hand - and if I thought it was pretty good - I went. Probably the only move in my arsenal then - was the dreaded slow play. But I usually didn't have the patience to slow play both the flop and the turn. And I wasn't real smart about picking my spots for these plays - too often I let my opponent catch up and surprise me instead...

As I started playing more online - and with the discovery of SnGs - I began to grasp the concept of aggression. I learned the value of getting the first bet out at a flop - regardless of whether I had a piece or not. Raising the blinds from an uncalled late position became a natural thing to do. At the $5 SnG level - this type of blind aggression is surprisingly effective against the mostly passive opposition found there. This is where I learned how much fun it is to raise someone out of a pot with nothing. Again - picking spots was not my strong suit. And at times I found myself giving away chips betting blindly into calling stations or even worse the nuts...

Well - I'm going to stop here before HDouble finds out that I plagarized his excellent post on the stages of poker development.

Suffice to say that I'm beginning to bring the lessons I've learned together. My current style is very similar to the way I started. I play tight, for the most part avoiding hands like A-To and below, KJ and below, even those small to mid pairs out of position.
Which doesn't mean I never play them.
I'm also back to playing semi-defensively. I find that in MOST games there's enough aggression at a table to make this just the right style. If I notice a table going passive - I'm not averse to shifting gears, but I've found this situation very few times - and usually only when short handed (6 or less).
I can lay down top pair, even two pair, and you'll rarely see me getting busted on a draw nowadays.

Armed with a better balanced game (in my opinion) I hit the tables last night. First up - was a Stars satellite to one of the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) NL Hold'em events. I played pretty tight until I got dealt KK. I made a pot raise and found 3 callers! Well I quadrupled up when a K came off the flop and we all went all in. I can't remember what they were holding - I think one guy had AK and another had QQ... Played pretty tight for awhile and caught a bad run of cards but soon after the add-on - I found AA. I raised it up and the BB contemplated and called. The flop can 10-7-4 rainbow. I made a pot bet - and the BB came over the top. I was pretty sure I had him - so I pushed, and he called w QT.
A T came on the turn - and I finished about 27th.
Surprisingly I wasn't too bothered by this. Where in the past I might have slammed my computer shut as I cursed the poker gods - I was able to shrug and start looking for the next game.
The next stop was a little NL ring action on Party along with a $5 multi at UB. I love these low buy-in multis. The buy in is cheap - it's still plenty fun me even though I'm only playing for $5 - and when I do well (which is becoming more often) I get 2-3 hours of entertainment out of it.
Well this tournament only lasted a little over an hour for me. The first hour saw me get dealt very few playable hands - once from the BB heads up - I flopped a straight draw with my junk. The SB annoyingly bet into me on the flop and I decided to call and go for it. When I missed and he bet the turn - I was getting ready to hit the fold button disgustedly when I thought about it. Folding was the wise course of action here - but for some reason I didn't FEEL like it. I have no really good reason or read - and yet I find myself hitting the pot raise button.
He thinks about this for a while and then FOLDS - showing me Ace high nothing.
Well after that genius play (sarcasm), nothing much happens until we get back from the break. Almost immediately after returning I get AA UTG. I want to get a few callers - so I raise the minimum 2xBB. Everyone folds to my amazement except the BB who calls.
the flop comes 9-9-2. He bets into me. I raise him the pot. He pushes all in. whoa!
But at this point being that most of my stack is in the pot - I'm obligated to call.
He shows me K-9o. Beautiful.

Even still - I'm undeterred - because some dude with QQ decides to slowplay both preflop and flop rounds against my ATs - and after I flop the flush and straight draw - I put a big bet to him on the turn which he only calls. And when I make the nut flush on the river and fire another big bet - he surprisingly calls - doubling me up. Thank you Party Poker NL ring games.

I even fire up a UB NL ring game - and go on a mini rush when players mistake me for a fish. One guy slowplayed his KK before the flop. And decided to bet into the pot even with the A on the flop. Well I wasn't playing bad kickers - I held a slowplayed AK and smooth called him. To his credit he fired on the turn too and after I called THAT bet - he checked the river and folded. But not before giving away about $20...

I have a real good day in both games - doubling up my buy in. I see a Party $9+1 satellite starting and decide to jump in. I haven't had much (well - any) success at Party multis. For some reason I never do well.
This time I catch a rush midway through the first hour. I get dealt in order - KK, AK, QQ and snag some decent pots to double up. Then I get AA - and decide to push in an effort to seem like I'm trying to bully the table. Someone bites with AJo - and I knock him out.
The very next hand I get ATo in early position. Think about tossing it - but I'm on a rush and Doyle says - "when I win a pot - I like to play the next hand". Well if that's the case what would he do after winning four pots? I raise.
I pick up 3 callers. Now I think that people are starting to target me. Shouldn't they be running for the hills???
The flop come A-T-J. Now - I'm thinking I'm good here. I only fear AA/TT/JJ/AJ/KQ. I think a pocket pair would've re-raised me and though AJ/KQ is possible - but really there's only one way to find out. So I bet it out. The first player raises, the second folds and the third player moves all-in... WTF???
Now - I'm getting ready to get the hell out of Dodge - but I've been seeing some pretty fishy raises and calls in this tourney. I mean I could EASILY have the best hand here. And I think I do. So I push. The initial bettor calls. He shows KQ for the made straight. The all in bettor shows A-Q. I'm second place with AT.
The K comes on the turn making a tie between the other 2 guys. (both have the straight) And the river comes... no help. And just like that I'm out.

Stupid call. But it was the first real mistake I'd made all session. Time to call it a night. I'm pretty sure now - the reason I do so poorly on Party? Is that I play down to the level of competition...

2004-06-08T14:43:00.000-04:00

No Limit Ring Games

I signed up w/pokerstars the other night. They had a 25% deposit bonus running in honor of the WSOP final table players so I took advantage of the offer and got my money in now. Now I just have to earn a couple of hundred FPP points to get the f-ing bonus. oh well...

I played in $3 Stars multi for the hell of it - and just to get used to the interface. I don't know about the rest of you - but now that I've played at almost every major poker site - UB's interface, especially their miniview just blow everyone else away. Little things like having a convenient button for both the minimum raise AND a pot raise. But it's the miniview display that does it for me. Provides all the information you need to know in a tenth of the screen space of any other site. Surprising that the other sites haven't copied some of the conveniences of the UB miniview tables yet.

Anyway 1000+ entries at the PS tourney made it pretty interesting. I easily made the money although I didn't chip up - just kept about an average stack all throughout until the endgame - when I was a short stack.
I'm getting better at these NL tourneys - more patient, less greedy (when I have a hand I usually overbet the pot and take it down), and more apt to make big (and tough) laydowns.
I think I won about 19 total pots in the whole tournament, and my flop % outside the blinds and button (where I was loose) - was under 10%...
The difficult part to balance with such a cautious approach is to keep your aggressive edge. Well - I don't feel I lack aggression as part of my game - it's easier for me to keep it reined in than to let it loose... But we'll see.

Also I've learned some lessons about AK and AQ - two hands that troubled me greatly in NL events. I don't mind pushing with these hands in certain situations - but early to mid in a tournament - I've become reluctant to get all in preflop with these hands. Aside from playing a shortstack I think I've come to the TJ Cloutier-ish conclusion that AK is just not a hand you want to put your whole tournament on. Your a coin flip with most pocket pairs, dominated by AA and KK, and any other hand other than Ax and Kx have two live cards to crack you.

Of course down to the final 60 or so and getting blinded and anted off - so I make a move all in with 45o from the SB heads up with the BB. The BB calls w/Q5 and just like that I'm out...

Played in 2 UB multis at the same time - in one tournament - had the misfortune to lose with QQ early to a flush drawer who called pot bets on the flop and turn. Luckily I had the discipline to fold the river when his card came in. But a player who made trips with his deuces basically ended that tournament for me before I got started.

In the other tournament I did a good job of executing the same game plan that I did at PS. But I was short stacked as we neared the money and picked up AK. I pot raised to take down the blinds - but picked up a caller in the SB. The flop came J-T-x. He checked and I felt my AK was still good - so I went all in with my meager stack hoping to take the pot down. He called me with KQ. Of course the A hit the turn - and I was out.

In any case feeling better about my NL game - I decided to take many blogger's advice and fire up the Party NL ring games. I thought about playing 2 actually - but settled on a UB NL table since the UB miniview and Party Poker screen fit nicely on my computer at the same time.

Now - I have had some BAD experiences in the NL ring games last year. I almost wiped out my UB bankroll in one bad session that saw me on tilt - rebuying and losing in one vicious cycle. Since then - I've pretty much stuck to limit where I feel comfortable about my play and the risk factor (at least of busting out) is much less.

But feeling more confident and also only have a few hours left in the night I resolved to give it a shot - with the limitation that I would NOT rebuy under any circumstances.

On Party I waited for one of my mid/small pocket pairs, suited connectors or Ax suited hands to hit and bled away slowly... Then I picked up AA to a big stacks KK and doubled up after the flop when it came 3 low cards.
I went on a mini rush when some more hands came in - and built my stack up to 3x the max buy-in. Then I caught QQ in the BB. A troublesome hand at times - especially in NL (but I'll take it!). I made it 5xBB to go for the three limpers. One limper called. The flop came J-8-x with 2 clubs. Even though my hand felt pretty safe on the flop - I decided to take the pot right there with a bet that would put the limper all-in.
To my surprise - he called! With 2-9 clubs!!! WTF?? A club came on the turn - and he F-ing flushed me - and just like that I remembered what I didn't like about these stupid NL ring games!
One bad beat aside - I thought things went pretty well. I'll be spending some serious time over the next week or two at UB, Party, and PS in the NL ring games.

2004-06-03T15:02:00.000-04:00

Busted in BlackHawk

Just got back from a long weekend over Memorial Day visiting my family. I had anticipated many hours of online poker as my dad and my brother are both converts to the church of poker (thanks to me). And while I did play some my first night and the second -I was running so bad online that the thought of playing later on in the weekend just turned my stomach.
However the 5-5 game in Central City/BlackHawk - that was a different story. I couldn't wait to hit the poker rooms there. In case you've never had the chance to gamble in Colorado - they have a $5 limit at the casinos in state. This makes the $5-$5 poker game the most action you can find. And this in turn - brings an element to the poker table that most players love - Gamblers!
So on Friday night - when my brother came back from work we headed out to the Lodge in Blackhawk - probably the biggest poker room in the area. My brother sat in the $2-$5 game - while I immediately got a seat at a $5-$5 table.

At first, my luck was pretty poor - as I flopped two pair only to get rivered by a straight in a medium size pot.
I sat back and watched as the cards came cold - and yet - there were an average of 4-5 players in every pot - and usually at least 3 people in every showdown.

The one caveat to the 5-5 game is that because there is no increase in betting at the turn and river - players who pick up a draw will almost always play it to the river. In THEIR eyes this really increases the value of suited cards, connectors, one gappers, and even two gappers...
This makes it pretty difficult to put anyone on a hand - and with so much action - the best hand preflop does not win as much of the time as you'd think.

My last few trips there were pretty crazy. The first time I came to the Lodge (last year) I walked away with $1000 profit after a nice rush of cards and a crazy loose table that saw the betting capped (at $30) quite a few times.
The second time - I dug myself a $400 hole before my hands finally started holding up and came back for a $200 profit.

Variance is unavoidable in a game like this. And while intellectually I knew that one of these trips I would more than likely get busted - I had a hard time seriously contemplating anything as mundane as losing - especially to THESE fish.
Anyway - the gameplan was pretty simple. Play tight. Play aggressive - and make the fish pay for their draws. When popped on the river and almost any possible straight or flush on the board that can beat your hand - save the $5 chip - they have it...
No check raise moves, no slow played preflop hands, and don't be scared to cap the betting with a good hand.
Anyways - I found myself $150 down in missed flops and drawn out small pots after a few hours.

No problem. I spent the next few hours bouncing up and down. Pull a nice pot when my flush draw hits and it's higher than some dude who's playing 2-3 spades. Lose one when my A-K hits an A and someone's ace-blank pairs up his kicker on the river.
Pocket JJs hold up for a small pot. Then they get cracked - not by overcards - but by two random cards that catch two pair on the river in a medium pot (that I made).
Up and down my stack went.

That's when the hand that killed me came around.

I was dealt KK in late position. My mouth watered as the bet was raised and reraised in front of me. Normally this might set me to worrying a bit - but on this table KQo was a raising hand - and AJo was a reraising hand. So KK? That's a real hand! I re-raised and unsurprisingly the betting was capped. It seemed every time we saw a 3-bet before the flop everyone at the table decided - hey - let's cap it up and gamble! Five players saw this flop.

The flop came three spades - and I was pretty unhappy since I didn't have the K spades. Surprisingly I was only faced with one bet on the flop. I called and the bet was only raised once - so I called again. On the turn came the Q clubs. No overcards - I started thinking my KK was good - so I raised this time - and was unsurprisingly reraised.

We hadn't lost anyone yet - and the river came another spade.

Now I figured I had lost this pot - and when an eager bet came up - I decided my KK was no good and mucked. Only one person called the bettor on the river. He showed 22 with the 2 of spades. The bettor showed AQ no spades...

That damn fourth spade took a $300+ pot away from me!

After this hand - I was crippled - down about $200. I stuck a hundred dollar bill under my meager stack of $5 chips and proceeded to go on tilt.

Not sure why I couldn't maintain my discipline - but I started playing any Ace suited, suited connectors - suited T8 (one of my favorite hands), JTo (don't know why I played this one). In short I started playing down to the level of my competition.
In addition, I violated my rules - as I tried to slowplay hands before the flop, attempted a checkraise on the river with quads (and was laughed at when he checked behind me), and I paid off hands even though I was all but certain they had hit their draw.

And much to my chagrin - I kept missing flops or worse yet catching pieces that in my now loose state - caused me to call down to the river w/losing hands.

By the time it neared closing (the Lodge closes at 2am), I had just a few chips left - which I threw away on one last hand - AJo that again - didn't hold up.

I went home - down $400, and thank god the room closed, because I may have thrown even more away.

But at the same time - I can't wait to get back there again. I don't think it was in the cards for me to win that night - and I certainly didn't help to minimize my losses. But I'll take that game anytime.
Next time - I just need to keep my composure. Easier said than done.

Thoughts on the WSOP 2004

Well as many have noted to me - I DID indeed put the jinx on the Devilfish. He got knocked out shortly after I posted my prediction that he'd win it all.
I've read a number of posts on the subject of the WSOP 2004 and how all the internet qualifiers have changed the optimal strategy of the game.

I like Paul Philips short but to the point reasoning about the so-called changes that big field tournament poker have brought.

"In summary: having 2500 entrants including untold hundreds of marginal-to-bad players doesn't make it any less of a skill game than it ever was, but it was already much less of a skill game on a short term basis than most seem to understand."

He also has a hilarious comment on Hellmuth's 'genius' laydown of QQ twice against AK and 77. Say what you want about Phil, though - he has no lack of confidence in his abilities. Not that I'm a fan or anything - but if confidence is an important part of a good player, well Phil's got no holes in that part of his game.

There's one thing I'd like to amend about my previous post on the new era of poker. The players who made the final table, and the eventual winner Greg "Fossilman" Raymer are GOOD players. As the Poker Nerd pointed out to me - these guys are 'pros' in their own right - just not as well known as the 'pokerati'.

I will say it seemed that Raymer had some really good luck at the final table - busting out 2 players who went all in - with inferior hands that caught the board. I believe he busted one guy out with TT vs. AA when a T came on the board...

When this thing gets on TV - when ESPN broadcasts it - I predict a huge surge in interest in poker. And perhaps the telecasts of some of the Omaha events will even bring a new crowd over to some of the other games. I'm not much on stud - but I think I would really enjoy playing Omaha 8/b.

Can poker get any bigger? I think it can...

As the end of the WSOP marks the end of a poker season, I can't say I've been extremely sucessful since I started playing this game about a year ago. But I've held my own, with some bad days and some good ones. If I were to take stock - certainly I'm a much better player than when I started.

Two things to work on this summer. More aggression in limit. I play limit poker weak tight. It's profitable with cards and some aggressive players at the table. I need to read situations when I don't hold nut hands but am still good and get in there and re-raise people when I feel I'm good.

And in no-limit, I need to learn to make laydowns - not always commit my stack to any Group 1 hand as soon as I am dealt it. To read situations and players better - and let those hands go when it doesn't feel right.

I feel an AC trip coming on. Soon...

2004-05-26T11:55:00.000-04:00

Watching The Big One (And the online players shall inherit the chips.)

A field of over 2400 players, ESPN cameras everywhere, and so many spectators that they had to close off Binions for a while. The 2004 WSOP sounds like a zoo.
They say they didn't anticipate the level of interest - but that doesn't make too much sense to me. I mean - this is the peak of the poker boom is it not? Next year I think they're going to have to change things somehow to accomodate the number of players and spectators...
I'm just glad I was able to see Binions at the start of the WSOP before things got crazy. I thought it was pretty crowded then - can't even imagine what it was like this past weekend.

Anyways - what's a poker fan to do if they want info on what's going on? Well there are a number of sources - most of them not updated nearly well enough, I think for the level of interest. ESPN coverage is a month or two away - so an addict looking for news has only a few sites to check out:

The Poker Professor at Las Vegas Vegas has been posting some pretty good updates and a chip count database.
CardPlayer and Pokerpages (see links on the left) are also posting updates. But they're about a day behind.
Although questionably accurate - perhaps the most timely source of info is rec.gambling.poker. You'll have to sift through quite a few posts but you can find out if Doyle is still hanging in there, and some decent posts on some of the crazy hands that have taken place.

Some of the best coverage I've found on the WSOP is on Gutshot, a UK poker site that has hand recounts, updates, and most interestingly video interviews from the players.

I watched the now infamous (on rgp) Annie Duke interview where she laments being knocked out after moving in on a 6-5-5-4 board (with KQ I think) for 28000 and was called by an Ace high.
Apparently she was flamed on rgp for calling the player who called her bluff a 'bad player' in an interview.
I can understand to a degree, her frustration - apparently she also caught a bad beat earlier when someone called a pot size bet on the turn with a J-high straight draw to her KK. And hit the draw, of course...
But I guess the thing that makes me sympathize with her rant is that - giving an interview right after being knocked out of the WSOP is not a good time to give an objective recount of your tourney.
I recall being knocked out of the Trop tourney months ago when a player called my QQ with 88 and caught a set on the flop... I was on tilt for hours...
Anyway Annie posted a long explanation on rgp. She's still getting flamed about this which I think is unfair. Apparently there's a lot of Annie-haters out there...

Phil Hellmuth has an interview too. Where he gives another arrogant if entertaining sound bite. I love his quote - Weird stuff going on - someone ACCIDENTALLY raises with 9-T when I have JJ and another player has AK. I'm SUPPOSED to win that hand but the 9-T catches 2 pair on the flop...
He continues to pat himself on the back for laying down QQ twice in a row - calling it historic that he was able to make these laydowns. (the other player had AK and 77)
To his credit he takes his loss better than Annie did - perhaps Phil is just a bit more astute in dealing w/the media now.

Dan Negreneau has a diary post about his first day bust out. And it's a much more mature and objective self analysis of how he ended up out of the WSOP. But to be fair, it's a written response - probably done some time after the emotions of busting out.

Anyways it's down to 83 and the only names (that I know) left are: Doyle, Jesus, Devilfish, Dan Harrington, and Julian Gardner (runnerup a few years ago).
On RGP they claim that 12 of the 83 are from PokerStars - and 9 of them in the top half chip count...

What this means to me is that as I read in Jesse May's great post a few weeks ago, the game HAS changed.

Just listen to the pro's bust out stories at the WSOP. They just can't understand what's going on. They're making moves - but many of the other players in the field just aren't responding.
A certain percentage are just playing their own cards, if they feel they have a strong enough hand - they call.

Another percentage is simply gambling it up.

And then there are some players weaned on poker TV that think every time a pro bets, he's bluffing a la Gus Hansen... Fear of being outplayed makes them call.

Whatever the case - it seems more true than ever that the pros have lost a great deal of their edge because of the unwillingness of many players to lay down hands in the face of their heat. They actually have to HAVE a hand to win a pot. And in many cases - it's pissing them off.

What can I say? Welcome to the new era of poker, guys!

That said - now that we're down to 4 or 5 tables - the players with more experience will surely have an edge (as long as they aren't short stacked).
I had an argument with a friend about whether it would be a pro or online player who won this year's WSOP. I felt strongly that one of the pros would win this year.
Well so far - I'm not looking too good.
But all things being equal - if Doyle or Jesus or Harrington make it down to the final table and get ahold of some chips, you gotta like their chances having been there before.
The pros ability to stay aggressive when the stakes raise and the heat turns up ought to give them a huge edge.

I'm going to go with the Devilfish as my pick to win it all. I love his hilarious comment when asked how his WSOP was going - "It's a bit like picking up matches with your ass cheeks...".
Despite his shortstack (129000) going into today - I've just got this feeling...

Which means I've just jinxed any chance of the Devilfish winning...

2004-05-24T12:28:00.000-04:00

THE GAME

Well it's Monday - that must mean it's time to update my blog. There's some interesting stuff to discuss from the past week.

I've found a regular home game to play in every week. It's full of a bunch of guys who just got interested in the game. A month or so ago - a bunch of them went down to the Taj and played in a no-limit event. From what I hear - 3 or 4 guys cashed - and 2 made the final table - and were able to cut a deal with the remaining other players...
And with that - a hardcore group of poker players and The Game was born.

One guy - who just recently moved into a new house - has an actual poker table in his basement. Now that's what I call serious...

Anyway - I was first introduced to the Game earlier this year by my buddy - and still online poker virgin - LT. It was fast and loose - with huge raises and re-raises before the flop - and people willing to call big bets on the flop w/second pair and less...

An ideal situation or so it seemed. The problem was - with so many all-ins - suckouts were commonplace - almost expected. And seeing them happen so often kinda gets you going. Well at least it get ME going. Next thing you know - you're putting all your chips in with a nut flush draw. (more on this later)

Since then the Game and it's players have matured and it's become quite a bit tighter as everyone (well - almost everyone) has improved their game. While pre-flop limping is not a commonplace occurrence - playing any two - and calling big bets w/virtually nothing has pretty much disappeared from the Game.

NOW - it's a very interesting challenge. And it's a good test every now and then for me to see how (and if) my NL game has progressed.

Last Friday, there were about 10 people at The Game - and we got in 3 NL tournaments.
All three were quite different experiences for me - as I played each tourney very differently. Let's call it Bad, Worse, and Worst.

In the first game - I played very tight conservative poker. I was able to last a decent while - but not able to pick up very many good hands to play - until I was short stacked in the final 4 and had to move all in on a draw - and got busted. Very frustrating - but with the cards I was dealt - the only way I could've done better would have been to make some moves. And I was unwilling to come out of my shell.

The second game - I got some better hands - and was able to open up my game once I got a hold of some chips.
That's when I made a mistake that almost killed me.
I called a small raise with a suited ace - with about 3 or four players. The flop came with two more of my suit with no card higher than a 10. EP moves all in with a small stack, a little more than half my chips.
The EP player is a volatile poker player, he is more than willing to get all in w/o the nuts - usually he'd slowplay a good hand - so he could have anything...
With that in mind the next player decides to call his all in - and he's got probably as many chips or more than I do.
It's folded around to me and while I know the correct move is to lay this hand down - I look at the pot and my draw - I'm getting about 2-1 on a call for a 3-1 or worse flush draw. But it IS a NUT flush draw... (the devil on my shoulder whispers in my ear)

For some reason I thought about it - and what I came up with was this:

The EP player I decided was on some kind of bluff. It's possible he has nothing - even my lone Ace could be better than what he was holding.

The all-in caller - also aware of the EP player could be weak - might have called with top pair. Certainly he HAS a hand better than mine. But if I move all-in - could he call my raise? It would be a pretty tough call - and with slowplaying such a common occurence in this game - he would have to put me on a slowplayed big pocket pair...

So I pushed all in with a flush draw.

The caller thought about it for a while - agonizing over what to do. Once I saw him hesitating - I figured I had made the right read on him at least.

He threw his hand away (T9o) for top pair poor kicker.

So now it was time to see what the all-in player had - he turned up (44). It was a semi bluff - but he had me beat with only a flush draw. When I turned over my cards - the player who had folded the T9 was perplexed to say the least. Maybe shocked and appalled would be a better wording.

I guess I would've been too. In retrospect I don't really know why I made this move. I had 12 outs (flush draw plus the 3 Aces) a 3-1 shot as expected - getting 2-1 from the pot. I guess I just felt that the flush was going to come in.

Of course - I missed all my outs and the semi-bluffer in EP was thrilled w/my move - as I had knocked out the winning hand from the pot w/my reraise. It put me on tilt for certain for quite a while.

However as fortune would have it - I caught another rush of cards - and was able to build back my stack. Most of the other better players in the game got busted out - and I was left 3 handed w/a new player to the game and another regular.

Three handed is pretty much a crap shoot - so I decided to pick on the new guy.
Dealt KQo - I raise his big blind. He reraises me all-in and had me covered. I felt pot committed with almost half my stack already in on the raise - so I called. He showed AQo much to my despair.

But a K came and I doubled through!

Now I could really push - so soon after I raised the same player all in with T4s. He called with a big pair - and while he made trips on the flop - runner runner hearts did him in as I made a flush.

I felt really sheepish about these two bad beats. This wasn't the way I wanted to win.
But I guess I'd take it. It just goes to show you - as Lancey "The Man" Howard said in the Cincinnati Kid:

Lancey Howard: Gets down to what it's all about, doesn't it? Making the wrong move at the right time.

Cincinnati Kid: Is that what it's all about?

Lancey Howard: Like life, I guess. You're good, kid, but as long as I'm around you're second best. You might as well learn to live with it.

Now that guy was pretty cool in poker's answer to the Hustler. If you haven't seen the movie I suggest you check it out. It's stud, and 5 card stud instead of hold'em - but it's still a very interesting if somewhat predictable story.

Now in the third tourney I caught a little suckout fever. I mean I played like an ass...
With and A9 suited I raised 3xBB early in the game. A short stack moved all in and everyone folded. I figured I was behind - but it was only a few hundred more to call - so I said - what the hell... To see him turn over KK - and no ace nor flush came.

Now short stacked, though early in the game, in the very next hand, a player before me makes a sizable raise (4xBB). It's half my stack and I look down at KJs. Now here's where I really don't know what's gotten into me. I call.
I can't really explain my call except to say that I was getting a little desperate. A player in late position called also.
Now the flop came down K-x-x. The first player makes another strong bet and calling it would pretty much set me all-in.
With top pair - moderate kicker and another player behind me - I'm out of this pot right?
Wrong - I move all-in. The next player moves all-in as well. And the original raiser beats us into the pot.
I know I'm doomed. The player behind me shows KQo, leaving me with 3 outs. The original raiser proudly shows off his AA. He didn't even slow play them - and he of course won the pot when no Q and no J came off...
What the hell was I thinking?

What did I learn from the Game last Friday?
My live poker NL game has a little too much gamble in it - and not nearly enough discipline. At least I feel that I'm somewhat unpredictable... Hell I can't even predict what I'm going to do half the time!

Anyway - the following day I spent some time playing limit on Pacific and Party while I played a small $5 UB tourney with 400+ players...
I went on a rush at the Party table - going from about -$25 to at one point +$40 on a 1/2 table. But some missed flops later - and ran it down to small profit.
On Pacific - which true to Maudie's posts are looser than average. I was goaded into playing some pretty borderline hands by all the calling going on. What can I say - I got a little greedy... My day was saved when dealt AA to someone's KK - I picked up a sizable pot. My previous losses playing like a fish turned into a small profit.

But I soon left those other games as the $5 NL UB tournament reached the second hour. For the first two hours I played pretty tight - nursing a stack that got smaller and smaller in relation to the growing stacks around me. Just as the blinds reached 100/200 I opened up and thanks to some fortuitous flops was able to chip up before the blinds turned me into a one-move(all-in) stack.
This is when I started playing better. I lost my share of chips - pushing at pots - but was able to get away from some big bets when I didn't have the best of it. One hand I had QQ in EP and was going to make a big raise - but decided to play it safe and raise only 2xBB. This was immediately jumped by a pot raise behind me - and then that was jumped by an all-in raise...
Earlier in the tournament - I may have called and taken my chances - but this time - it didn't feel right. So I folded - hoping not to see JJ and TT as the other hands. It was AA and KK - truly a disaster for me if I had called.
Patting myself on the back - I continued playing pretty solid - slowplaying a flopped flush to double through a big stack that made 2 pair on the river and overplayed.
Correctly calling a big river bet with a pair of Aces no kicker when another player tried to take the pot w/second pair.
Things were going good - I was one of the final 7 w/a medium stack when I picked up AJo in position. Folded to me - I made a pot raise. I did NOT want to get called. The SB thought for a while and then folded - then the BB took some time thinking and then raised me back.
For whatever reason this raise didn't make sense to me. Perhaps it was the time he took to decide to raise (although I have used this ploy in the past) - maybe it was the fact that he didn't reraise me all in. I wasn't buying it...
I moved all in.
After another agonizingly long wait - I guess the BB felt pot committed and called.
He showed down J-10 and I whooped as I pretty much had him dominated.
The flop came down - no T, no T... woohoo! no T came on the flop. But then UB flashed winner over the other player's name and I was speechless?
The board disappeared before I could read it - but apparently he had made a straight???
I busted out 8th or 7th - disappointingly...
And that's my bad beat story of the week.

Headed out for Denver on Wednesday night and the fishiest poker room I've ever been in - the Lodge in Blackhawk where I am currently about +$1100 in my last 3 trips at the crazy 5-5 game there.

Surely a story or two is on it's way.

2004-05-17T15:34:00.000-04:00

8th Place - Pacific Poker Blogger Tourney

Yesterday was the 1st Blogger Tourney on Pacific organized by Iggy at Guinness and Poker.
Kudos to Iggy for getting this tourney together. All told we had 30 participants.
Congrats to Up For Poker for winning the tournament.
I put in a decent effort - but was never really able to gain enough chips to be able to rest easy at any point in the tourney. For the first hour I was hanging on by a thread. Everytime I advanced my chip stack - I would promptly throw it away on vain attempts to grab at pots.
And the few times I was dealt hands it seemed like no one else wanted any of my action...
In any case - I survived barely the first hour - especially with the Boy Genius at my table for the latter half - stealing blinds like crazy.
If I could have bet on the winner after the first hour - I would've bet on Boy Genius. He was really applying the pressure - cards or not - and a few times I was faced with all-in calls of his flop (and even pre-flop) raises - which I declined to take.
I did manage to make some progress after the break - getting up to about 1500 (started with 800) but I was still the short stack when we got down to the final 8.
Bad Blood called from early position and with K2 suited in the BB I checked after everyone else folded.
A King came on the flop and for whatever reason I decided not to put Badblood on a K. I checked in anticipation of a steal bet. Sure enough he bet it out - and I moved all-in hoping to take down the pot.
Unfortunately he was holding KJ and called - a J even came on the turn - knocking me soundly out of the tournament.
At the time I was really upset w/myself. But after further consideration and deliberation I guess I'm just not yet good enough to make a top pair laydown in that situation.
The only thing I think I could've done - is bet out my top pair - and perhaps read a reraise from my opponent as an indication to get out of the pot...

It hasn't been a good week for the ol' Genius.

On Saturday got together w/a few friends for a couple of short handed hold'em knockout tourneys. The first game - I couldn't catch any cards until I was forced into a corner and dealt A6 suited on the BB. Two callers - and I checked. The flop was Q-9-6. Both players checked - and thinking the coast was clear I moved all-in w/my meager stack. Of course someone was holding Q-T - and knocked me out.
The second game - again not much action but made it down to 4 handed when I was dealt 88. With a big raise in front of me - I moved all in hoping for a coin flip win. The raiser called and showed J9 offsuit??? Of course a J and 9 came on the flop and another J on the turn just to rub it in.

This is the way things have been going for me recently.

I've been playing SnG's on Pacific which actually was an advantage in the Blogger tourney because the structure was identical to their SnG structure. The blinds move pretty fast - you only get 800 chips to start and the interface at Pacific while better than Planet is a little frustrating. You also - don't get much time to make your decisions...
The SnG's at Pacific (at least in the $5-$10 range) are crazy. Half the table goes out in the first 15-20 minutes usually. Which is great - but since I haven't caught a hand early - it's made other people big stacks - which isn't so great. Long story short - with the blind structure as fast as it is - it's difficult to overcome the chip advantage. I've placed 3rd in the last 4 or 5 SnG's I've played. Which is profitable - but a little frustrating. I'm going to tweak my game a bit to the aggressive side and see what happens.

2004-05-07T14:04:00.000-04:00

Playing it Blind

Sorry for the hiatus. The Vegas trip reports (as well as the trip itself) pretty much left me drained of all things poker for a while. Which didn't prevent me from playing home games, both days this past weekend of course. Nor did it keep me off the online poker sites this week.
But the thing is - now that I've gotten some live poker experience - there seems to be something missing from the online poker experience. But more on this later.

This past weekend, though I was Vegas-lagged (a much more severe condition than jet lag) all week, I found myself invited to some home poker games on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday was my regular game - hosted by my good friends at their apartment. Fresh off the Vegas trip I could hardly wait to show them what I'd learned in 50+ hours of live play. Unfortunately - what I'd learned made me a worse, not better player for this game.

My first mistake - was to loosen up my starting hands. I figured (foolishly), maybe I'd hit a few flops - and if not - maybe I could bet my way out of any bad/tough situations. But in a game where it's nigh impossible to get someone off a hand - this proved an unprofitable strategy.
Oh - I flopped some open ended straight draws - and some four flushes - and bet the hell out of them. But the problem is - someone was always willing to call. And when these hands didn't come in - I found myself short-stacked early in the first few games.

One time playing an A-5 suited - and flopping a pair of aces - I moved all in heads up with one of my friends. (I was trying to bully)
Nodding at me - and telling me "You probably have me beat..." he called and flipped up his Ace with unsurprisingly, a better kicker. I realized as I was knocked out yet again - that I needed to get back to playing my usual solid game.

I did end up winning the final tournament of the night to break even. But what I learned from that night - was that in a tight - passive (but not weak) game - where people generally pay off the best hand, the best way to play it - is to have the cards...

The next day, chagrined - I was ready to spend the day getting back on track sleepwise, when my friend LT called up. There was a Sunday afternoon game going on, and did I want to play? Did I? Yawn... Let's go!

Now this game was much more aggressive - with a bunch of guys who are willing to put you to the test at any time. It was a really interesting game as I had to make a lot of tough decisions. But if you could get your big bet out there first - in this game - the other players were less likely to call you without a strong holding. I fired quite a bit - and took down quite a few pots with nothing.

One hand in the first tourney almost got me in some serious trouble. I had a strong player to my left - and whenever we were the blinds, I had been raising him up and taking his BB. I told him "you know, I don't care what I have - if it gets folded to us - I'll raise you blind". He laughed and nodded at this, sort of believing me but not really.

But sure enough a few hands later we found ourselves in this exact situation. I hadn't looked at my cards and this was obvious as they still lay where they were dealt. It was folded around to us - (only 4 players left) and I put in a healthy raise. This time the BB called me, asking me "Did you look at your cards?"

"Nope, don't need to." I told him confidently.

The flop came A-K-7. I bet again blind. And this time he came over the top of me.

Ok - time to look and see what I'm holding, I thought. I looked down to see Q-2 offsuit. I had nothing.

Now I started thinking - he had called my preflop raise - but considering I could have anything - he may have called with just about anything. I really couldn't put him on a particular hand.
Also, he came over the top of my flop raise - he's certainly representing an A or a K.
BUT he's an agressive player too - it could be he has nothing and is using my "blind raise" technique against me...
I couldn't take the heat and mucked my cards...

He flipped up a 2-8 offsuit and smiled at me. Mother$%^!, I thought to myself.
"Good bet" I told him.

He had outplayed me. Took a small risk that I didn't have an Ace - which I may have called or raised him with (or even a K). I don't know if I would've had the balls to make this play. But I guess he was tired of me pushing him around on his BB. Lesson learned.

After we had come to this unspoken agreement on how we would play from the blinds - we knocked everyone else out and ended up the last two players left. In our newfound spirit of cooperation we made a deal to split the money.

Anyway - this hand got me to thinking about my no-limit play. I know that my current game is a little too tight and predictable. I'm also aware that there are tons of Super/System disciples out there who play the game hyper-aggressive and sucessfully. But I don't think this style really suits my poker personality.
But I'd like to become better at reading those situations where a pot can potentially be won by a big bet.

So here's my plan. The next time I play in a live home game - I'm going to do what Doyle Brunson was purported to have done. That is - in certain situations - pretend to look at my hole cards - and raise. No one else needs to know that I'm playing blind.
Then based on the situation after the flop - see if I can win that pot through pure aggression.

I read a story, I forget where, about someone watching Doyle play no-limit like this. From time to time he would simply tuck his cards under his elbow and raise the pot. He'd bet the flop too - and if anyone was left standing - he'd take a discreet peek to see what he had. Now is that poker chutzpah or what?

I'm sure it's not going to be a very profitable strategy. But by limiting myself to only being able to win the pot with a bet and not cards - it should force me to pay more attention (well actually ALL my attention) to these situations.
I'm going to look for preflop pots with not too many players, in position (or on the blinds) to try this.
Hopefully it'll be a good learning experience.

Let's see what happens...

2004-04-30T14:41:00.000-04:00

Vegas Trip Report - Last Day

Sahara NL Tourney

So it's Sunday morning - well - afternoon actually. After four days of pushing sleep deprivaton to the max - we sacked out for a robust 6 hours! Plans for checking out the early morning tournaments at Luxor or the Mandalay were out the window. However my brother had scoped out another tournament held at 7pm at the Sahara. After a quick call I even found that we could register by phone. We were in - and off to the Sahara.

We walked down the strip to the Sahara - something I wouldn't recommend you do - the part of the strip that ends with the Mirage and goes toward the Stratosphere is a depressing walk through the seedier part of the Las Vegas strip.

When we arrived at the Sahara - the poker room had about 4 tables - one of stud and 3 holdem from 2-4 to 4/8. My brother got a holdem seat right away - and I sat out waiting for one to open up. Finally after 15 minutes or so - I got impatient and asked if I could sit the 1-5 stud table.
The poker room guy looked at me and said "you sure you want to torture yourself?".

I looked over at the collection of older players and shrugged "why not - it's still poker, right?"

So there I was sitting 1-5 stud (LT would be proud of me) for the first time. I know this game, right?
First hand I get the bring in for $1. 4 other people just call the bring in. Ok - free card. Another dollar - so I call and pair up on 4th street so I bet $2. 2 callers. I get a high card on 5th - I bet $5. Everyone folds. Hey - this game isn't so bad...

An old couple on the other side of the table had been winning all the pots. In fact the first few hands I sat out after my initial win - were won by them. A player sitting next to me shook his head exasperatedly and told me "it's unreal what's going on down there." indicating the couple.

Well I told him - let's see if we can't shake them up...

No one had been pumping pots as far as I could see - so on the next hand I put a whopping $3 raise on the bring in with 3 high cards. Everyone folded but the older couple. I got a blank on fourth street - but I bet $5 anyway. The couple looked at me, at then at their cards, and the older man said grumpily "we don't like bullies!" and they both called me.
Uh oh I thought. Then I got a ten on fifth street giving me an open ended straight. $5 I said as I trickled $1 chips in the pot. They both called.

To make a long story short - I made my straight on the last card - betting them all the way - and they BOTH called me down with pairs... WTF?

After this - I had the stud table on tilt. Surprisingly - when I played a pot - the old couple kept gunning for me. Even when I had threat cards on the board they just kept calling me. I must've made almost $100 in the first 30 minutes on a small rush of cards. As the tournament neared i felt kinda bad, made some loose calls and gave some chips back.
But by the time I left I still had won the buy in ($40) and rebuy ($20) with some money still to spare. Stud- what a game!

The tournament at the Sahara started and it was a pretty good structure for a small buy in tourney. You started with 2000 in chips and the blinds at 25-25. And there was one rebuy allowed at any time during the first hour.

I pretty much sat out the entire first hour - playing one hand - and folding on the flop. My table was frozen out by a couple of aggressive players. On player in particular - a skinny British kid with some nice chip moves was just hammering away constantly at pots. There were two other players equally aggressive who fired at any pots this guy happened to miss.

This was fine with me - I just hoped to find a good starting hand - limp and then suprise them with an over the top move. But the cards never came.

After the first hour break - I got my wish when I picked up AK suited. As I planned - I limped from early position. And as expected one of the aggressive players made a healthy pre flop raise. Though I knew what I was going to do - i hesitated and stared the raiser down for a little. Then I did one of those - "I just got a read on you" sudden moves you see the pros pull on tv and pushed my meager stack in on him. He thought about it for a while and then folded nodding his head at me.

The very next hand I get AA - and raise about 3xBB. A short stack pushed all in - and another player called the short stack's raise. I pushed all in over both of them and the caller realized what a mistake he had made. He was pot committed though - so he threw his other chips in the pot. The board came 4-4-7-J-A giving me Aces full. I had more than tripled up on the first two hands...

I was cruising along with my now 20000 in chips when we hit the third hour. They broke our table much to my chagrin - as we had just gotten to know each other and were having fun.

In the third hour - my stack went up and down. But as the blinds steadily increased - and my margin got increasingly slim.

Finally it was down to the last 18 players - with 11 places paying out. I had a couple of steal attempts snapped and was down to my last 8000 with the blinds at 3000-6000. I caught J-T suited UTG and went all in. Only the BB called (as he had to) and 2 kings came on the board to put me out on the street. Unfortunately I lost to the table a$$hole who proceeded to whoop it up - and tell me "Don't you raise my big blind, baby!" as he went into hysterics as if this were a WPT event. I didn't really care but his overenthusiasm smacked of bad sportsmanship and hit a nerve. "Nice hand.. a$$hole" - I couldn't resist myself.
I wished the rest of the table good luck, flipped off the winner - and just like that - we were out of there...

Get yer nuts on the table eh?

Back to the Mirage for the final night. I told my brother - hey, let's have some fun our last night. So I sat 3/6 with him just so we could play together. And I promised him - I would be playing fast and loose. He laughed at me - but I was serious - I wanted to have some fun.

At the first table we sat at - I was true to my word - raising J-T one time and playing any ace. After scooping one pot with A-8o, the player next to me told me - "I don't play that hand". Well, I explained to him - neither do I, usually - but tonight? Tonight I'm playing any two.

He didn't really know what to make of this - but if the cards run hot - it's true any two CAN win.
I started down - and then scooped some pots with some funny looking cards to get even. I was FUN to be the idiot player for once instead of the solid rock.

The table broke up after too long - and we moved over to a new table where the fun would just get started. We met a couple of drunk Canadians - good guys - and started doing shots with them. One guy in particular kept saying "Let's play some poker eh - get yer nuts on the table and let's bet - eh?".

He was popping people liberally on the turn and river just to see what they'd do (as far as I could tell). So I figured - what the hell - let's loosen up and see what happens here...

Another guy at the table caught 2 straights in a row with some funny low suited cards (like 4-6 or 7-5) to rake two big pots. After that I started calling him "the straight guy". He kind of liked it. So the whole table started calling him that.
He didn't like it so much a little later when I flopped a flush with my J-9 suited. I checked it, then bet the turn - and he made a straight on the river with some more funny cards and popped me. I reraised him unhesitatingly - and thinking he had me - he popped me again. When I reraised again - he stopped.
I showed him my slowplayed flopped flush - and he was NOT happy.
"Sorry about that, straight guy" I shrugged as I raked the pot. He got up and left a few hands later.

I was sitting next to my brother when a memorable hand came up that I will NEVER let him forget. I was the SB and my bro was the BB. It was surprisingly (in a 3/6 game) folded around to us. "I haven't looked at my cards" I announced to the table (I was feeling the effects of the shots). "And I'm not gonna!" I exclaimed as I called gleefully.
My brother looked at me incredulously. "You're not gonna look at them? Well - I looked at mine!" he emphasized tossing in a raise. He was trying to be nice - telling me "I have a hand" in not so many words.
Well - what the hell - I called - and then proceeded to check call him all the way to the river. (I know - it's stupid, but it was fun watching the rest of the table react). Finally at the showdown - my brother flips up an A-Q for two pair - aces and queens.
I dramatically reached down and peeked at my cards - "I see an Ace!" I announced - but as I saw the second card was a low card I picked them up and threw them face up. Damn...
Suddenly the dealer came alive and announced "Flush!" and started pushing the pot towards me. What? I had caught a runner-runner diamond flush to suck him out. The table erupted in laughter - as my brother steamed. It was THAT kind of weekend for him...

Soon after feeling my oats (and the effects of alcohol) - I got many a blogger's favorite hand, the hammer - 7-2offsuit. I put in a raise - and was 3 bet by Canada. Five callers. Suddenly this didn't seem like such a good idea. But the flop came - A-7-4.
Ok - I got a piece - I called the flop bet. The turn was the magic 7. So I raised the flop bettor on the turn and apologized in advance. "You got a 7?" she asked me incredulously as she called.
The river? A deuce. When I showed this hand down for the win - the table could not believe it. "You raised and called a 3 bet with 7-2 dude!" Canada yelled at me. "Yup." I told him as I raked the chips into my stack.
"I like this guy!" Canada exclaimed as he called the waitress for some refills.

The rest of the night was a lot of fun, as for once - I was the loose unpredictable player. Now if I could just tighten up and play right - I should make even more money. But caught up in the rush of cards like I was - strange hands started looking good to me. For the life of me - I could not tighten my game up. Naked ace? call. Suited ace? raise. small pocket pair? raise...

What the hell was I doing? From a high of +250 I managed to play my stack down to just over $100 in profit. Good job Mas.

As for my brother - well he had his fifth losing day in a row. What a birthday weekend for him, huh? I really believe he just had the worst luck all week.
Other than that it was a great weekend. I learned a lot about poker, especially live play and the importance of table image. I got to see all those poker celebs in real life (and it was kinda cool). And I had achieved my personal goal of winning money for the week.

What more could you ask for?

2004-04-28T19:38:00.000-04:00

Vegas Trip Report - Part II

Waking up on Saturday my brother and I resolved to start having a better day. He had lost every single night and it was starting to get discouraging. So the solution I came up with? A good luck charm... I offered him mine - a five yen coin that's supposed to be good luck in Japan - but he looked at me like I was crazy. He said he needed a different kind of mojo - island style.
An hour later we were in the gift shop at the California looking at cheesy puka shell necklaces. This was his mojo? Well - whatever works for you...

So armed with a new good luck charm for my brother - we were off to the nearest poker room. Binions was packed again - with the No Limit event in the second day and the Stud event just getting under way. There were some satellites going on and a few tables of cash games - all pot and no-limit. Upstairs I saw Felicia sitting at a table in the stud event - and unfortunately for her the camera crews she was dreading were walking around filming random shots.

So with the action filled up at Binions - it was off to the Nugget again. Got seated at a 4/8 half kill game with a pretty loose bunch of players. Again I started with a pretty bad run - losing about $100 in almost no time at all. A couple of good starting hands on kill pots will do that to you. But I was able to make a recovery when a few big hands came in and actually held up for me.

Once again I experienced the 'friendly neighbor' phenomenon. Actually, this was happening pretty frequently throughout the week. An older Mexican guy and I started talking and then trading notes on the other players at the table. This proved profitable - as combined we pretty much profiled the other side of the table. Thanks to some of his help - I was able to put a better read on the other players at the table.
When it was time to leave the Nugget - I had booked a profit of $100+.

So it was back to the Mirage again for Saturday night action. Once again - we figured that there would be softer games at the Mirage - what with the tourists (like us) and conventioneers in the house. I sat down at a 6/12 table and found myself stunned by how tight/passive the action was. Few players took in the flop and the betting was extremely tame.
What's worse - one guy at the table was a real idiot. I played a Q-J off with a raise in late position and no callers behind me. The BB called the raise and the flop came Q-7-2. I bet the flop and the BB called. The turn was an Ace. I bet the turn - and the BB after deliberating for a while decided to muck - but before he did he showed me a Q.
"I know what you got." he told me.
"Really?" I asked him. I showed him a Q and mucked my hand.
"I don't care.." he said sternly.
"Well - I figured you show me yours - and I show you mine, dude" I told him.
He proceeded to go on a rant about how he knew what I was holding - and didn't need to see my cards, blah, blah, blah. It was the way that he was saying it - very sternly and in a nasty way.
I finally had to tell him to shut the hell up.
"What?" he said to me.
"Listen - do me a favor - Don't talk to me. ok? Cuz I just sat down and I'm already sick of hearing you." I told him.
Thankfully the rest of the table started jumping in telling him to shut up too. Otherwise things could have gotten nasty. I was really contemplating my first move should this guy get up out of his chair...

Needless to say - this made this table much less than social. I was even contemplating a table change before I got in a fist fight. But on the bright side - the idiot player kept getting sucked out on the river. I mean he had the WORST luck. Each successive beat sent him into rants of "That was so stupid! How could you call with that hand? Oh yeah - I'm a terrible player - you're great - I can't play..." Would this guy ever shut up? Yet at the same time - it was really entertaining - and I loved telling the winning player "nice hand!".

I made a decent pot when a girl sat down on my left and raised it up after I had caught the nut flush on the turn. I smooth called her - and bet into her on the river. (I thought I was being nice) But no - she popped me again on the river? I hesitated reading the board to make sure my hand was good - and told her "Sorry - I have to raise you again" And still she didn't catch the hint. She re-raised me another time. This went on for about 6-7 bets - before she called. I showed her my nut flush and she stared at her cards in horror and mucked. Must've been a K high flush...
With that $100+ profit locked in - the table became much more enjoyable.

That's when the night started to turn around. A new player came in to my left - nicely dressed but looking bedraggled. He promptly ordered a red bull and vodka and announced he was in town for a bachelor party and hadn't slept for 2 days. He was a pretty nice guy - but was there to gamble seemingly - at the first opportunity he put in a live straddle. (where the person left of the BB - makes it 2 bets before they even see their cards)
He then proceeded to pump pots - and the straddle was sure as hell getting people into the pot. It was like sharks sensing blood in the water - there's an extra bet dangled out there - and I have an ace so... Needless to say the table loosened up immensely.
In fact the new player asked if "raises out of position" were allowed in the card room? WTF? A raise out of position is basically a straddle (blind raise) allowed from any position but the SB or BB.
He started popping these out and we were off to the races.
Unbelievably this guy was actually winning with some of his blind raised hands. We sure as hell couldn't put him on any hand. He'd announce that he had to raise a hand all of a sudden and we would call in disbelief. But almost every time he bet his hand - he was holding.
The swings were unbelievable. At one point - by keeping my composure and sticking to my starting hands I had built myself up to +500. But with so many players now playing hands and raising liberally - chips started flying and I found myself getting rivered quite a few times out of big pots.
The raising guy turned out to be a pretty good player himself - and after he had the rest of us off our game - he started playing his. Unfortunately luck wasn't with him - and he ended up close to even - although at one point he had almost busted out and at another he had a mountain of chips in front of him.
I ended that session with a profit of +300. But more importantly I learned some lessons in unpredictability from this player on my right. Again - we struck up conversation and when I wasn't involved in the hand he would show me his cards. Most of the time they were ragged as he had gotten in with a straddle. But then the flop would amazingly hit - and he would bet - only to be called by 4-5 other players. He got action one almost every hand he had. And when he wasn't holding - well the hand had only cost him one big bet to get away from.
Of course - he started toning down the blind raises out of position after a while - I don't see how it could be profitable to do this every time.

I'm convinced that this was a somewhat astute tactic he was using - and while he had quite a bit more gamble in him than most poker players - he was inducing the rest of the table to loosen up their play and play any draw to the river (because of the size of the pots)
It was a good lesson - and one I resolved to put into use on the next and last day of the trip.

2004-04-27T20:15:00.000-04:00

Las Vegas Trip Report - Part I

This trip to Las Vegas was a veritable orgy of poker and.. well MORE poker. Never again do I think I will have the opportunity to go on a poker binge quite like this one. There were many lessons that I learned along the way. And by the end of the weekend - I think my live game had really improved. The final tally? - well I didn't hit the jackpot but I did show some modest winnings almost every night of my stay.

I briefly summarized the first few nights of the trip from Vegas. And well - they were alot of fun. But it wasn't until Friday that I really started to learn something from the hours and hours of play. On Friday morning (my brother's birthday) we woke up and I asked him what he wanted to do? I mean, besides play poker. Well the WSOP was starting up and I was planning to meet everyone's favorite blogger, Felicia Lee there - so it was off to the Horseshoe we go.

We made a quick stop at the California across the street first for some Hawaiian food. Amazingly the Cal is what a casino would look like in Hawaii. Everyone from the islands is there - players AND staff. If you've ever been there and have a taste for the local food - I recommend highly that you make a quick stop for some portuguese sausage and eggs, loco moco, saimin, and spam musubi. Of course I had to order all of the above...

Fueled by that feast we entered Binion's to check out the beginning of the first event of the 2004 WSOP. The place was jam packed from wall to wall. At first I didn't recognize anyone among the hundreds of anonymous faces sitting at the tables. And then I noticed Doyle Brunson being filmed at a table in the middle. And there was Men "the Master", David Pham, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Hon Le and countless others... It was a sea, no an OCEAN of tournament poker. There was definitely not going to be any side games at Binion's this day.

We headed upstairs to be find even more tables and pros as well as camera crews and onlookers ogling the players. It was here in Benny's Bullpen that I ran into Felicia and Glenn. Really nice people and Felicia provided lots of suggestions for getting into some of the action at Binions as well as one suggestion which I took - to check out the new room at the Golden Nugget right across the way from Binions.
While checking out the pros was interesting for about 15 minutes all this poker going on and no game for us was NOT going to work. So my brother and I headed over to the Nugget to check out their new room.

It's a really nice room - set up right next to their pool - and contains one novelty poker players certainly aren't used to (except for Foxwoods players) actual sunlight! The crowd in there was pretty much full of older players - I was looking for a 6-12 game but they only spread 4/8 and 10/20. Since the games didn't really look all that soft to me - I opted for the lower option. We sat down right away and I found myself on a table full of retired gentlemen.

I sat out for a while - folding hands while I observed the action. Surprisingly - it was pretty loose - with lots of suited cards and naked aces being shown down as winners. I only started with pretty good hands - but they didn't hold up at first against some of the collection of junk that caught straights, flushes and two pairs - I found myself about 100+ down by the end of the first hour. Then a local sat down at the table and started talking it up - creating even more action.

This was the first of the 'talk it up' players that I encountered over the weekend. He came in and started talking right away in a too-friendly way (hey gimme a break - I'm from the NYC) about how he just started playing the game - and was just looking to have some fun and probably giving away his chips. (which is why I started calling him Crazy Eddie) Yeah - right... I didn't see him once play other than solid starting hands - although he wasn't immune to getting rivered by some of the loose old guys. He got up from the table when he found at least the players next to him (me and some other internet player) playing pretty solidly too. Guess there wasn't enough of an advantage for him at our table.

One older guy in particular went on a pretty big rush. He took some big pots off me when he hit 2 pair on the river to a pot I had pumped up with KK and lots of callers. No ace came and I thought I was good until he raised me on the river...

I fought my way back to even - and then got cold again, missing hands and getting outdrawn. While we played some pros like Johnny Chan and Chris Ferguson sauntered in looking to see if any high limit games were going to start up. Also players started trickling in from Binions as they got knocked out of the No-Limit event (on the first day??). It was kind of amusing to see them walk in from the $2500 NL Holdem event at Binions to sit down at a 4/8 game. I mean, guys - are you addicted or what? (although - who am I to talk?)

I must've got distracted because when the time came back to head back to the Mirage (didn't want to miss the prime time action) I was down almost $200!!! When I got up - I wished everyone at the table luck - and the older guy who had been winning all the pots - got up to shake my hand. I think it was out of respect but whatever...

The only complaint I could really find about the Nugget was the fact that as a new room they have a large percentage of new dealers. In fact - the Mirage pretty much had the most consistently good dealers in Vegas. At the Nugget many of these newbies couldn't read hands, didn't know about posting, and took a long time dealing out the cards. Didn't really hurt my play - in fact I didn't really mind the slow play that much - we were just killing time after all.

As Felicia had promised they did start calling players for $125 and $225 single table satellites with cash payments (winner take all). I tried to convince my brother (a single table specialist - and a successful one at that) to let me stake him to one of these - but he wasn't interested. Something to check out on the next trip.

Back to the Mirage for the all important Friday evening rush. Luckily the list wasn't too long when we got there, so I convinced my brother to sit with me at a 6/12 game. He was down and I reasoned that if he caught a decent rush of cards - he'd be able to get to a profit in no time at all. Unfortunately this was not to be a case. He got QQ cracked by JJ when a J fell on the turn, had two big pair cracked by a rivered inside straight, and to add insult to injury lost with KK to J-4 - when the board came Q-4-7-J-4. These three bad (huge) beats basically eliminated his starting bankroll and he got up and left the table steaming.

I had some better luck. Against a new player who sat down, started talking the table up - and then tilting it with blind checks - and blind bets before the next card came down and he was first to act. He really looked like he was gambling - but I figured out after a while that he was using some of these tactics to create the image of recklessness. He made some calculated risks sure - like when he sustained pre-flop and flop raises from my brother with J-4 - to hand him a huge beat. He also did this to a number of players - when some of the loose cards he played came in. When he did actually have hands - no one (including myself) believed him. And in this way - he was able to get action almost anytime.

I learned from this - as I noticed that while I could steal pots by betting the flop and turn - they were mostly small - and only when no one had a decent draw. Also unlike players with 'loose' images - my preflop raises were thinning out the field a bit too much for my taste. I was playing too predictable - 'by the book' and any half observant player could see this. In fact a few of them that I got friendly with actually told me this in not so many words.
Most of my profit seemed to come from playing A-T and up - and outkicking the little aces that couldn't and wouldn't fold their aces regardless of kicker.

Playing tight kept the swings from going too high and low - I could 'lock up' a profit by only starting with premium hands - but it also kept me from getting too high or going on any rushes. It was ok - but I needed to be able to add an element of uncertainty to my play.

That night I watched the 'talker' for another hour or two - and instead of making strong=weak reads (that were working for most players) I read him honestly. And it was a pretty good read. When he blind checked his hands - I bet - forcing him to pay for his draws. And when he bet his hands confidently - I got out of his way. A few times when he bet into a ragged board - I raised him with nothing and caught him trying a pot steal.
Also a good side effect for me of a player like this at the table - was that he put quite a few other players on tilt - thus putting them in my hands when I was holding. Thus was a bad night turned into a good one - as I left the table with a little over a $100 in profit. (from a low of -$250)

It wasn't much but at least I was able to win back some of my losses at the Nugget.

To be continued.

2004-04-26T23:03:00.000-04:00

Update coming Soon...

Just got back from Vegas. Played perhaps 50 hours of poker in the 5 days I was there. And of course there's a story or two to tell. Will try to start getting some of it down tomorrow. For now - sleep...

2004-04-23T04:07:00.000-04:00

Update from Las Vegas

A quick update for those of you who actually look at this page over the weekend.
I arrived in Vegas on Wednesday around 4pm - and promptly hit the poker room at the Mirage. Unfortunately the weekday afternoons are populated by locals and rocks (mostly retired men). Had a good time but ended up dropping 100 on the 6/12 game over about 7 hours of play.
My brother arrived at 11pm - and after a quick psyche up we headed back to the poker room and played some crazy 3-6 together. The 3/6 game here is ridiculous as low limit gets -with players who play any 2 cards and hanging on to them if they catch any piece or any draw. Unfortunately for my brother he ran into some big hands - like when he flopped a straight and got sucked out by Q-8 when the board came 9-Q-K-8-Q. (he had J-T) They capped on the turn and river - much to his chagrin.
As for me - I almost lost another 100 but turned it around at the end - when I made a bunch of hands with an average of 4-5 callers... Won maybe 50 bucks - but they were hard earned dollars. Sat till about 5am with a bunch of guys who had the same idea as us. Who needs a room in Vegas on the first night??? (well we had one - but that wasn't the original plan.)
After a few hours rest we headed down to the Luxor for the $25 NLHE tournament. I busted out early when I flopped a pair of kings to my brothers pocket A-A... At least I gave my chips to him... He ended up finishing 6th with my chips for a profit of $60. He was ecstatic over the fact that he made the final table.
In the meantime I sat at an even crazier Luxor 2-4 table and made back my entry fee as well as paid for lunch.

Off to the Bellagio where the WPT 5 Diamond Classic was down to 22 players. The crowds weren't that bad - as all of the celebrities and most of the famous poker pros were busted out. We say TJ Cloutier (who is huge btw), Dan Harrington, Ted Forrest, and my favorite - Hon Le (I call YOU!) at the tables.
Walking around were many other poker celebs - Evelyn Ng, Antonio Esfandaria, among others.
The atmosphere was intense with each all-in showdown dramatized by both players getting up and the eventual winner screaming and pumping their fist in victory. Pretty cool...

Right now - I'm sitting in my room getting ready for bed after a break even 6 hours of 6/12 tonight. At one point I was up about 250 but I hit a stone wall of dead cards. At least I didn't lose any money. Meanwhile - some guy at my table banked about 1500 - hitting every flush draw - and his pocket pairs (which were plentiful) always holding up. Some guys just have all the luck.
Vegas is awesome for a poker player - there's always a game - and for the most part, it's filled with some pretty decent people having fun at the tables. With the exception of some grumpy old men everyone's having a good time.
One thing I've learned is not to respect the elder gentlemen at the table as much. I almost always stereotype them as rocks - but some of the loosest players are these retired men - who give their chips away on draws or loose cards that lose to better kickers.

Well - the weekend's just starting - and that's the loosest of times, or so I hear. I'm hoping to find a soft seat somewhere tomorrow night - so I can start paying for this trip.

26 hours of poker so far and going strong...

2004-04-20T15:31:00.000-04:00

Countdown to Vegas

My flight is a day away. Every second brings me closer to gambler's (and poker player's) paradise.
The good news (for you) is I'll be bringing a laptop - and will try to post some brief updates of my progress (if you're one of the few interested). Full trip reports to come next week after my return.

Expected highlights include:

Rock Gardening - weekday afternoon play with the Vegas locals
Mirage Poker Madness (weekends and nights)
How I lost my shirt at the SportsBook (the evils of sports gambling)
Low limit early morning tournament insanity at the Mandalay
Binions - a visit to Mecca
Bellagio WPT final - ogling the poker pros
Craps/Blackjack Interlude (throwing good money after bad)
Chasing the Dream - playing a super sat for the WSOP
Last Stand at the Mirage (trying to break even)

And Finally:

Las Vegas Blues - busted and going home (when are we going back?)
or
Viva Las Vegas! - Victory in Vegas! (when are we going back?)

2004-04-16T15:16:00.000-04:00

Ready, Set, Vegas!!!

5 Days 'til Vegas and I can hardly wait. Wish I was doing a bit better in limit play online - but my past few sessions have all been break-even and dangerously close to losing...
Thanks to winning a few big pots at the end - so far I haven't lost any confidence. And that's good, because I am getting psyched to hit the Mecca of Poker on Wed afternoon.

In fact right now - fellow blogger (Pauly) Tao of Poker is enjoying his own poker trip - and actually reporting on it from Vegas. Good stuff.

I'm thinking about dragging the laptop out with me - but visions of dial up connections - and knowing how little time I actually spend in the room - I just don't think the odds are very good that I'll actually make time to write something. Besides - I'll have time to gussy up all the stories after I get back.

The other day - I was getting tired of swimming on the limit tables at Party and UB and decided to enter one of UB's Aruba satellite tournaments. Figured it'd last an hour or two (at most) until I got busted (as usual).

But what was this? My first playable hand - TT. I call a 2xBB raise - and so do 3 others. The flop comes K-T-7. Perfect. I check it - a pot bet, an all-in.. am I dreaming? I push all in. And the pot bet calls? WTF? I'm worried about KK. But no -it's A-K and K-T... My trips hold up and I'm at 4000+...
Next hand - I sneak in with 4-4 and half the table limps with me (suspiciously). The flop comes down J-9-4... Trips again! I check it (of course) - and there's a bet and raise which I smooth call to the turn which is an A. Perfect (maybe). I check again - and this time someone decides to try to take the pot with a pot bet - and again the next player pushes all-in. I think about folding - but it's trips dammit!! All in! And the third player calls. They show J-9 and A-J. Neither gets help and I'm now at 10000+ in the first hour.
Can you say chip leader?

Two hands make me the boss for another hour or so - and as the field dwindles - stacks start to catch up to me. At the third hour I reach 25000 and the chip lead - but from there it's all downhill. I go card cold and get blinded and anted down. (and my steal attempts are VERY unprofitable - thanks Kirk!)

After 4 grueling hours I get down to the final 11 players - with 10 places paying - and 7 people getting Aruba chips worth $215. At this point I've been whittled down to one of 3 short stacks. It's raised from early position by one of the big stacks and I look down at 7-7. The blinds and antes will only let me go about another round or two - I decide to make a stand. I'm called by 8-9o...
You know what happens - the board comes - K-K-2-Q-Q.. I lose on a kicker as the board 2 pair makes my pocket pair pointless. Arrrgghhh....

Needless to say - I logged off of UB - and went to bed where I lay restlessly for hours replaying my many end-game mistakes in my head...

Back to practice grinding I go for the rest of the weekend...

I'm not much of a linker but if you even remotely thought the Big Lebowski was funny (and I thought it was hilarious) - and like poker - you gotta check out Hdouble's recent posts here.

There's a bunch of good poker truisms there that it'll cost you money to learn in live poker like:

Don't check raise the fish - they get pissed and when it isn't fun for them anymore - and when it isn't fun for them, it isn't profitable for you.

Always have a drink in front of you at the table - It's true - if you're drinking then you're ok (to them). You couldn't possibly know the pot odds sitting there with a beer and a smile...

And perhaps the best advice I fail to heed myself - set aside 4-5 hours when you decide to enter a tournament. Don't buy in on impulse... you're just throwing money away.
And I have conservatively pissed away $500 in UB tournaments - with nary a TEC and a few meager money finishes to show for it in the past few months....

Great post Hdouble.

Warning - Non-poker content!

Now I know this blog is for poker thoughts only. But a couple of things caught my eye today and thought I'd share 'em. What the hell - if you aren't interested - don't click - it's your loss.

1 - If you're like me - you got sucked into watching the Apprentice and you were sadly disappointed to see phony Bill win over Kwame (the man) Jackson. Kwame's big mistake - having incompetent Omarosa on his team for the final test. But reading some post-finale news on the net today - I found this writeup from an innocent bystander to the show. Could the Apprentice by fixed??? And what does that say about ALL reality-tv?
Don't ask me why I care. I'm ashamed enough as it is...

2 - Do you know who William Hung is? I can honestly say I've never watched a minute of American Idol (whew) - but I mean, how could I avoid this dude? As an Asian-American - I'm of two minds about the whole "William Hung" phenomenon.
I mean he's popular right now because most people think he's pretty funny, right? There's a minority who think he's honest, and sincere and all that other crap - but those people aren't the reason that he has a recording contract and a video for gods sakes... What bothers me is WHAT people find amusing about Will Hung...
Now on the other hand - I shouldn't be hating on a brother just cuz he's getting paid. If I were him - I'd be doing the exact same thing - and cashing in while the getting's good. And Will - if you're reading this - stay away from the groupies. You've got some freaky-deaky ones...
Here's a more eloquent piece on the topic that I fully endorse.

3 - This is just random - but why would you get a tattoo in a different language without checking at least twice with a reliable source as to what they mean?
Stupid is as stupid does...

2004-04-12T21:08:00.000-04:00

Poker Malaise

Haven't posted in a while - but poker hasn't been real high on the list of things to do in the past week. Which is odd - what with the Vegas trip coming up in a week and a half. Still - a profitable week on UB - thanks to the impatience of $5 and $10 UB SnG players. The bankroll is up to $212 from $120 a week ago. Still could have been an even better week - except for some stupid NL play that I thought I'd become good enough to avoid.
Most of the cause of these mistakes has been playing in a disinterested, distracted state - as if it were work! Poker just as all things does require a certain level of concentration to play effectively.

Case in point - this week's PJK Weekly Tournament at Planet Poker.

Only 16 people showed up - so it was akin to a big SnG. I started off ok - taking down some pots with big bets. Had hands most of the time - but when I noticed I wasn't getting action on my bets - started expanding my playing hands - and taking down blinds or betting out the flop and winning.
A few times someone came over the top of me like EOS who plays a pretty aggressive game. I gave him that pot as I didn't have anything. But I put the same move on him on another flop when he bet it out at me - and I came over the top of him with nothing...
Then came the hands that baited me into a trap.
Caught AA TWICE - and raised 2xBB - both from early/mid position. And BOTH times no one called to see the flop. Flopped an A-4-4 flop with A-4 - and everyone folded to a minimum bet on the flop.
Now most likely - no one had a hand to really play in these situations - and you can chalk it up to bad timing. But I was getting really frustrated at not being able to chip up with my premium hands.
Finally down to the final 8 and I decide to steal with A-7 diamonds. One caller. Flop comes 7-5-2 (one diamond) or something like that. Top pair - best kicker. Now I know this is a sucker NL hand. But frustrated and feeling strong - I decide to bet the flop. Then when I think about it again - I decide to bet it strongly. Suddenly I find myself typing in the amount of my entire stack! There - that ought to buy me this pot, right?
Wrong - I'm called by KK - and no A appears on the turn or river...
What a way to go out. All tournament I'm waiting for someone to walk into one of my traps - and I go and walk into one of theirs...
And this is the kind of mistake you can make if your not paying full attention. The call should have set off alarms in my head preflop. But because I'd been uncalled for the most part all tourney - I was lulled into a false sense of aggressive invulnerability.
And these are the kinds of mistakes I've been making all week.
So - it's back to square one. As I prepare for a trip to Vegas and all-night poker binges - it's time to get back to work.

For fun here's an excerpt from my brother. Who's been accused one to many times of being a maniac. He has posted some great success on UB - turning a starting bankroll of $150 into $8-900... For fun - my dad and I constantly prod him about his overaggressive tendencies and while they may work against $5 and $10 SnG players - they'd get him in serious trouble against better players. This was his response (and apologies to him for using his private rants as material - but he know I have a blog...)

I AM NOT A MANIAC!!! I AM NOT A MANIAC!!! I AM NOT A MANIAC!!!

Seriously...I am not a maniac. I play SnGs' with a tight, aggressive
style in the beginning. When the game gets short-handed and the blinds
are substantial...i open up a little bit and incorporate well-timed
(well, not always well-timed) bluffs into my game. If you call my
pre-flop raise...well, I'm gonna bet on the flop regardless of my
cards...because more times than not..the flop doesn't hit you either and
it's harder to call with nothing than to raise with nothing. And when
you fold...well, I was just looking to pick up the blinds; so I thank
you for calling my pre-flop raise and then folding after the flop. I
think I can credit this changing of gears in SnGs' to my success thus
far. By playing tight early, I often find myself getting far more
respect with my betting and raising than I should be. By the time the
table figures out that I've changed gears...well; often times they play
back at me when I've actually got a hand; and if not I let it go. But by
then, I've picked up enough small pots to allow me to maintain my
aggressive style. If I were truly a maniac, I think I'd be faring far
worse than I have thus far.

I AM NOT A MANIAC!!! I AM NOT A MANIAC!!! I AM NOT A MANIAC!!!

Clearly he's a maniac...

2004-04-05T12:45:00.000-04:00

2nd PJK Weekly Tournament (Suck-Out Sunday)

Well it's been a while since my last post. Haven't really had the opportunity to play that much poker in the past week. Riding high off last week's win at the 1st PJK Tourney - I of course, played a number of small tournaments on Monday and Tuesday. Unfortunately - while my results were better - finishing just out of the money in a few - and in the money - though at the tail end in a UB $5... still no big breakthrough.

I think one improvement I have made is to understand better the value of the big bet in no-limit. I've been viewing no-limit as a game where you want to get all your chips in the middle when you think you have the best of it. But I haven't really been distinguishing between having the best of it - as in having the nuts - or having the better side of a coin flip hand. (like small pair vs. 2 overcards)

The big bet - or as some players execute it - moving in on someone - is a move with the intention of taking the pot right there. The risk you run of course - is getting called - and being knocked out or chipped down...
If your table is relatively rational - no one will call your big bet unless they are holding the nuts or close to it.
The flaw in this at least with regards to online play - is that many players are "coin-flip" no limit players. They constantly look for these situations to get lucky and double up. And if they can make it through a few times - they can end up on top of a big stack...

So your big bet loses some value in that you have less of a chance to take the pot down online.
Anyway that's just my opinion - I'll think about this some more and experiment with different raising tactics in no-limit play to see how it works.

Yesterday was the 2nd Weekly PJK (Poker Journal Keepers) Tourney. Having won the last week - I of course had to put in an appearance - even if I was exhausted and slightly hung over from a hectic weekend. I found myself not nervous this time - but slightly distracted. Especially with the run of bad cards that I started off with. I spent most of the first 30 minutes folding hands...

It was frustrating - but with 2000 in chips to start there's some room to wait it out until you get a hand to play. I finally did and on the BB with JJ. I was getting short stacked - and when chainsaw (the fat guy) raised it from early position - I figured I'd come over the top of him and take the pot right there...

So I pushed all-in with my jacks. Unfortunately (for chainsaw) he had QQ and called me - and the flop brought me one of my 2 jacks to give me the pot.

Whoops! I typed - by all rights I should've been knocked out right there...

Instead my Jacks started a whirlwind of bad beats involving other Jacks - and QQ was jinxed for the rest of the tourney. Too bad I didn't pick up that hand again...

My second suck-out was when I was getting short stacked and looked down at a KQc on the final table. I decided to bring it in for a raise (which was half my stack at the time) - but I'd been getting respect for my 2xBB raises so I figured it was a pretty decent hand to attempt a blind steal and I sure needed to make some kind a of move.

But rickscafe called my raise and Roy Cooke (the guest pro) pushed all in. Decision time for me. I felt I was an underdog certainly - but I was pot committed and here was a chance to triple up...

I pushed in - and rickscafe called both our all-ins with AK. I got ready to sit out. (If it were a live tourney - I would have gotten out of my seat)

But lo and behold the board came 2 Q's and I trebled through on another undeserving hand.

It was that kind of night - and while I never got stacked up very high - I kept hanging in there. I survived another all-in with 99 vs Ax from the eventual winner stinkypants (dogs playing poker). And I knocked out Pauly with A8o vs his A5h - when we were both short stacked and he moved all in on me. I was the BB and felt I had to make the call as the blinds were once again eating away.

Finally we were down to the last 5. Four places paid out - and I would've been content with a money finish. I had worked my way up to the point where 2 other stacks were at about the same chip amount (around 5000). But I picked up 55 - Presto!

Roy Cooke raised it up in front of me with a decent size stack - and I moved in on him thinking I could get him to throw away the hand. In fact I was pretty sure he would...
But no - he called me down with KQo - and the flop came K-Q with no fives. Busted out on the bubble!

Well at least I lost to the pro - and he eventually made good use of my chips getting heads up with eventual winner stinkypants (from Dogs Playing Poker) before finally losing with 33 vs AQ.

It was a great time again. And I'm looking forward to next week already.

2004-03-29T11:51:00.000-05:00

Weekly PJK Tournament at Planet Poker

Well it was my first time to play with other fellow poker bloggers at the PJK weekly no limit tourney on Planet Poker Sunday nite. I was hoping to just last down to the top half with twenty something other fellow poker bloggers. I wasn't sure what to expect and was kind of nervous. But with only 20+ people I kinda planned to play like it was a big Sit and Go. That gave me some confidence because I know that I'm a profitable SnG player.

I was playing under the name: gpoker - and I think alot of people mistook me for another blogger, Boy Genius. But that's ok - I think they might remember me next week...

On the first hand that I can remember - I got dealt AA!! I raised 2xBB - which was small at the time and Felicia Lee - the organizer of the PJK tournament and blogger extraordinaire - moved all in on me...
Well I didn't have much choice (and I guess this is exactly what I was hoping for) - in the back of my mind I was kinda thinking maybe we both had AA - but she showed QQ. Still I got ready for that dreaded Q to fall and content myself to watching the rest of the way - but no - AA held up and I was sitting with double my chips.

Didn't catch too many hands after that until I was moved to another table - and limped with a pair of fours. Tripped up on the flop and made a full house on the river when deuces paired on the board. Took a pretty decent sized pot down with this. Woo hoo!

On my new table we had Roy Cooke from Cardplayer magazine on our table as a guest pro. I saw him move all-in quite a few times and win an all-in call with AQ against AK..
I kind of felt a little guilty though because we spent a great deal of time complaining about the Planet Poker interface. It is kind of primitive - one of the other bloggers was calling it Atari Poker because the graphics were kind of crude (lol)... But if they take in the feedback from the players and some of the good things on UB or Party's interface they should be fine.
If there was one issue I had - it was that when the 2 players went all in before the flop - the software machine gunned the 5 card board and then showed the winning hand immediately - while the losing hand remained hidden and then mucked... Talk about killing the suspense - that's half the fun of no-limit is rooting for or against cards...

I found myself heads up with Roy when again I raised 2xBB with AK off suit. He pushed all-in on me with a smaller stack (about 2000 to my 6000) and I had to call. Luckily I won that hand when a K came on the board and no help for him (can't remember what he had - AQ?). Woo hoo! (and whew!)

Pretty soon we got down to the final ten and I entered the final table among the chip leaders tpfelt and Mean Gene.

I was playing tighter than I usually do with a big stack - but I was seeing so much aggressive betting at times that I thought it best to stay pretty conservative and wait for the action to whittle down the field. It worked - although perhaps my tight play may have cost me a big chip lead when I got dealt AA twice in a row!! The first time I caught a caller but they folded on the turn to a pot sized bet...
The second time - everyone folded to my little 2xBB raise...

My meek play probably cost me a second time when I tried to limp with 99 and it was raised all-in and another player called the all-in. I read two bigger pairs and got the hell out of Dodge. But then the flop came 9-8-7!!! And the all-ins showed down hands like K-Q and K-J... I could of taken both stacks out if I'd stayed in that hand...

Finally we got down to the end - with me, Mean Gene, and a British player - EOS (Eye of Sauron) who posts on www.goallin.com. They were definitely much more aggressive than me - and bullied me out of pots with their preflop betting. I was content to let them go at it heads up - hoping that one would knock the other out. This didn't happen although they passed chips back and forth along with all my blind money...

We hit the break and I had about 10000 in chips in third place to EOS and Gene who had 20something each. As soon as we returned I saw JJ on BB. EOS bet out pretty strong - and I re-raised him to make sure it wasn't a blind steal. He called and the flop came J-9-7 (or something like that).

I checked the flop and he moved all in on me on the turn. I called hoping to duck a flush or straight if he was on a draw - and doubled up when he didn't make it.. Now I was back in the hunt.

Eventually, EOS knocked out Mean Gene on a pre flop all-in race. And we got heads up with EOS back in the lead. Once again EOS started eating away at my stack with constant raises. I figured I'd catch a hand eventually and reminded myself to stay patient and hopefully he'd walk into me when I was holding. Hell, trapping with big hands is what had got me this far...

I caught a break when I got to see a flop cheap with Q-5 hearts and the flop came 7-7-5. Did he have a 7? I didn't think so and bet it out strong. When he predictably moved all-in I thought I was dead but it was 2 overcards and he didn't hit and I doubled through.

Now we were on equal footing and did the blind steal dance for a while until I called a preflop raise with K-4 diamonds. The flop came 2 diamonds and I bet it.. He called and the turn came the third diamond. All-in and EOS called. He showed the Q-7 diamonds and that was all she wrote.

I couldn't believe my luck! And surely there is a lot of luck involved in any poker tournament win. And even if I didn't come away with the victory it would still have been great to play with fellow poker bloggers. It's just more fun without the morons and other idiots you sometimes encounter in the bigger site tournaments. Plus the chat was pretty funny and entertaining the whole way through.

Thanks to Felicia Lee for taking on the selfless task of organizing it - I'll be there every week I can. And next week - I have a title to defend...

2004-03-28T02:22:00.000-05:00

But it was suited...

Played some short-handed home tournament action on Friday nite. While there were some better games going on - had some friends in town so we took them out to dinner and then talked them into some late nite no limit holdem tourneys. Playing live is a much different experience from online poker - doesn't matter if it's a game with friends or a casino tournament. The advantage to playing with friends is that you know the other players - but the disadvantage is that they know you...

Also there is the trap of being thought of as a 'good' player... I don't consider myself exceptionally skilled at poker - but it's certainly something I'm trying to become. But while my friends enjoy the game - none of them currently have invested the kind of time and money I have in practicing and playing online.
Sometimes the expectations or even perhaps a tinge of overconfidence can lead you into some bad play.
For example last nite... In the first tournament in the FIRST hand - I get dealt 2-3 spades in the BB. It's raised by one of my friends in early position, an aggressive player who uses a few well timed bluffs to induce people to pay him off when he's holding the nuts.

It's the first hand so - what the hell I call the raise. Flop comes Js-7h-5s. I flop the SMALLEST flush draw. I think about it for a minute - and read that this flop missed the raiser - and bet it out. I'm called by the raiser and the turn comes 9s. Bingo! Now I'm not sure why exactly - but I do not put the raiser on 2 spades. I check hoping for a bet - but no - he checks. The river is a Ks. Hmmm.. I realize this fourth spade devalues my flush considerably- but it is conceivable that my opponent has no spades. In fact I don't think he does.
I bet the pot. He comes over the top.
Now for some strange reason - and not the first time this has happened to me - while my mind screams fold - I find myself unable to just let this pot go. All in! I wave my hand over my chips. He calls almost instantly and flips up the A-6 of spades. I was drawing dead from the start...
Well I certainly taught them all how NOT to play no-limit.

In subsequent tournaments - having learned my lesson I tighten up and play solid poker. Take third place in the next one. In the third one I'm doing well - but one player who we may have mistakenly all labeled as a weak player is wiping up the table. He calls down all-in bluffs with second or third pair and WINS. He hits every flop and wins many many consecutive pots - even though he is not betting his hands - or even slow playing them to pop us on the end. In short - to my mind - this player is so bad that he's dangerous.

Of course the way to play a calling station is to have a hand when you bet into them. I wait patiently with my small stack for a hand to come my way - and when they finally do - I start chipping away at his lead and building a stack of my own. When a flop misses me instead of "testing the waters" with an exploratory bet/bluff - I check - sure in the knowledge that a bet back at me from this player is almost definitely a hand.
But frustratingly - as I start to adjust my game play against him - he starts folding from ridiculously small raises when I bet at him. And I have pretty good hands each time. After the third or fourth time he ducks out of paying off on a pot I start to get frustrated.
Time to readjust my strategy - I take a flop heads up with him and while it misses me - it's a pretty ragged flop. I bet out a pot sized bet. He thinks about it for a minute and calls me. I still have king-high on the turn - but like Matt Damon in Rounders - I decide I'm going to outplay him right HERE. I move all in on the turn. I know he hasn't hit this board - he has to fold. But he thinks again for a while and shrugs as he calls. He has Ace-high and the river brings me no help...

I take third place again as my other friend happily scoops up second place because of my stupidity and obstinance.
OK - I think to myself - this means war.

In the next tournament I'm running along pretty good - when we get down to the last 3 again and lo and behold - the same player has built another big stack with a fortuitous run of cards. He's on my left in the BB - when we go heads up and I look down at a 6-3 off suit. Again I decide to make a play at him just to show him who's the boss. (ain't ego a damn thing?) I move all in with my 6-3off preparing to show him with a smile what I bluffed him out of his blind with when he folds and hopefully putting him a little on tilt.

He thinks about it again and says with another shrug "I call". Damn! I scream inside my head. I'm embarassed to turn up my 6-3 off, and when I do the table laughs. The BB then turns up his hand to screams of amazement from the table - he has 5-2 suited!!!

"You called me with 2-5 suited!" I exclaim. "What the hell did you think I had to call with this hand?"
He shrugs as we start the flop with me in the lead. The board comes as expected with five overcards and we chop up the pot. And now once again I find myself on the mother of all tilts... 2-5 suited!

When the night finally ends I find myself surprisingly up a few dollars thanks to a number of third place finishes which won me my entry fees back. But I never did get a chance to bust out my nemesis.

One thing I think I learned from the night. Although there didn't seem to be any sense to the way he played his cards, there certainly was alot of value in the unpredictability of his actions. At times he called all-in bets with hands that I wouldn't have dreamed of - and at others he seemed to make timely lay downs to small bets that disguised big hands.

As I shook his hand when we finally broke up the game in the pre-dawn hours I told him - "You're either the best player I've ever played against or the worst. But either way you kicked my ass tonight." He chuckled as he walked off home with all our money in his pocket.

The lesson for the night? Well I doubt that I could ever reproduce the 'strategy' that he used to play against me unless I bet without looking at my cards - but I rediscovered that an unpredictable player is a very dangerous animal.
Hopefully one day in addition to becoming the fundamentally sound poker player I strive to be - I will also figure out some way to at least cultivate the image of unpredictability. Because in no-limit, at least, being unpredictable is probably the most important asset of them all.

2004-03-25T23:06:00.000-05:00

Sit and Go Hell

Had a day off from work but unfortunately spent the bulk of it hungover from the previous night's festivities. Went to the Knicks-Grizzlies game at the Garden where a friend and I witnessed perhaps the worst played professional basketball game ever. Luckily we had the foresight to leave early - but unluckily it took about a half a bottle of scotch for us to get rid of the bad taste in our mouths... (or did that put the bad taste in???)
Once the pounding subsided enough to think clearly - I proceeded to get back to the grindstone of building back my Party Poker bankroll through $6 Sit and Gos.
Took 3rd and 2nd in 4 tries - for some reason I find the SnG's at Party to be much tighter than on UB. We still lose about half the table in the first 30 minutes - but once the table gets down to the last five the game gets really tight. You'd think it'd play into the arms of a little aggressive play at the end - but even though blind-stealing is pretty successful at the end - I usually start losing my patience and make a bad mistake.
Part of the problem is playing more than one SnG at a time. While I'm good enough to get into position to finish in the money on auto pilot - by not paying attention to the behavior of the players earlier on in the game - I have less information about their betting patterns and styles.
It feels like it's going to be a long road to recovery - I may just lose patience and (shudder) make a redeposit.

On UB I had a better day - accidentally registered for a Limit Holdem SnG (yikes!). But then won it - when late in the game my Presto (55) set up on a flop of AK5. Caught a poor guy with AK capping the raises all the way to the river. He just never believed me...
Took some of the winnings and hit another $5 tourney at UB - I've been finishing from 60-90th place pretty consistently (and frustratingly) in these. Today was no different as I made it about 2 hours in - with about 1200 left (not much) and caught a pair of sixes. Raised it up in early position and got pushed all-in by AK. Of course a K flopped and I'm out in 91st.
Just can't seem to build up a decent size pile in any of these little tournaments to go on a run...

Got some friends coming into town - and we're probably going to organize a little home tourney action for them after dinner. Almost assuredly I will not win any of these. Whenever we have a new player of players in our games - I always end up the victim of some beginner's luck...
Like the time when I ran a bluff on a newbie - and he called successive raises on the flop and turn until I finally went all in on the river and he called with a J high... Of course I had 7 high... But what the hell was he calling for? I guess I just don't have an honest face...

2004-03-23T14:57:00.000-05:00

Am I a Maniac?

From the brother of the genius:

Am I a Maniac?
Question: Short-handed play...3 players left in a SnG. Do you raise with any ace? A7o, for example.

Got this question from my brother - who is having a pretty good run at the SnG's on UB and Stars. Last I heard he had turned his initial deposit (or rather my initial transfer) of $150 to over $600...

I think it's a pretty fair question - I'm sure Cardplayer or some other site has already tackled it in fact. But I'm going to take a look at this myself - and see what I come up with.

Suppose you are first to act with A7o - 3 players left - is it profitable to raise?

The way to approach this I think is to figure how A7o matches up with other hands the blinds could hold.

Against any 2 face cards (KJo) - A7o wins 57% of the time
Against A with a lower kicker (A5o) - A7o wins 61% of the time
Against A with bigger kicker (AJo) - A7o wins 28% of the time
Against small pocket pair (55) - A7o wins 44% of the time
Against big pocket pair (QQ) - A7o wins 28% of the time

Against suited connectors - (9Ts) - A7o wins 52% of the time

I think raising with any ace is a relatively good play. Short stacked - it's a hand that gives you a decent chance vs. any but the biggest of hands. And a big stack is likely to call you with a non premium hand.
With a big stack - you can always fold your Ace-trash hand if you get played back at preflop.
Of course if your opponent is the aggressive sort - and likes to play back at you liberally - you may want to be more selective with your pre flop raising hands.
Perhaps the most dangerous and difficult thing about playing/raising A-trash - is what to do if you get called? If an A flops you are in kicker trouble. Virtually any other flop - you have to wonder what you're opponent called with. An ace with a better kicker? Small pocket pair?

I think it's the right move - perhaps not every time (vary your play) - but a pretty decent hand to run a semi-bluff blind steal. I wouldn't want to get all in with this hand - but if you did - you have pretty decent odds to have the better half of a coin flip.

So - raising with any Ace short handed - is not a maniacal play.

Raising every time with the Hammer (72o) is maniacal!

2004-03-22T14:58:00.000-05:00

Building the Bankroll?

Over that last four of five days - I've gotten an inordinate amount of time in at the tables on UB and Party. Inspired by my recent triumph in AC - I've tried to parlay that success into some profit building play on both sites. I played some SnG's on both sites - which in general I do pretty well in. And played hours and hours of 1/2 limit hold'em.
The weekend started off promisingly enough. Most of my NCAA picks had managed to survive to the round two - and I had a pretty free weekend to do whatever I wanted to. Which was in this case - play poker!
Started off with SnG wins on both Party and UB - only to unwisely waste some of the UB winnings on some $3 and $5 tournament action. I'm like an addict with these small buy in NLHE tournaments. I can't seem to say no. So far - although I've brushed up on my Cloutier - "Championship Pot Limit and No Limit Hold'em" - still have yet to see any tangible gains in my NL game.
It shocked me to read some of the advice he espouses. Basically TJ advocates a very tight and conservative approach to No Limit. Small Pairs? Throw 'em away. And if you do play them - "set it or forget it". And when he says small pairs - he means Tens on down...
This is one piece of advice I generally agree on. Small pairs are worth a limp in position - but perhaps a money losing hand in early to mid position. It's pretty difficult to call a pre-flop over the top raise with a small to mid pair...
AK? He also plays this hand much more conservatively than I've seen it played with online at least. Many times you'll see someone call an all-in preflop bet with AK - gambling that you have QQ to TT or even better a dominated ace. TJ doesn't feel that you can call an over the top raiser when someone comes over the top of you before the flop. I guess I agree - of course short stacked - is a different story - but I do notice that the pros don't really like to get into coin flip situations.
Even AA - there's a quote - "If you limp with Aces - you'll never get broke with Aces".
Talk about conservative play. But then I thought about it - and I think I've been too willing to get into these coin flip situations - and while sometimes you magically seem to win these hands - far too often I get broken on these hands.
Certainly there is a time to open up - he does talk about getting agressive when the table slows down - like when you're just out of the money - and everyone is trying to last into a money finish - or when you get shorthanded on the final table - and it's time to go for the win...
Even more enlightening was reading Harold Lederer's trip reports and article from his site. Just reading the way he thinks through a no-limit hand in some of his trip report recollections is awe inspiring. That's the level we all want to get to. Unfortunately - I'm not sure online poker is the best way to get there. People just don't seem to play rationally for the most part. So I'm not sure how beneficial it would be for an online tournament player to analyze or examine too closely what the meaning of each bet is.
Still it's something to strive for...
I have applied some of this advice to my play - tightening up significantly - and waiting for my big hands before committing my money to the pot. We'll have to see if it equals any improvement in the long run.

But this weekend was about bankroll building so - I resolved to hit the trenches - and get a bunch of hours of 1/2 play in. I played UB and Party simultaneously - as UB's miniview (the best interface in my opinion) fits nicely on my screen above Party's full table view.
The results? On Friday night - I caught a rush of cards - and some loose players for a victory of $90 - bringing my Party balance from $100 to $190.. On UB - I lost about $25 - much tighter table - and while I was up most of the way - a bad stretch cost me - and I was unable to even claw back to even.
Then on Sat night - I caught a terribble stretch on Party and lost about $75 back - not sure how it happened but it seemed that none of my draws came in - and when I hit a flop - another player who stayed in seemed to always draw me out.
By Sunday afternoon - I think I was pokered out. On one hand - I made a terrible mistake - down another $50 - I get dealt AA. My chance to start making it back - I think. Raise a couple of limpers - get re-reraised - and cap the preflop betting. Flop comes 9-7-2 rainbow. bet it out and get raised - raise again - and we cap - four players all still in. Turn is a 5. We exchange raises again - cap to $8 - only one other player left. I'm hoping now for an Ace - wondering what my opponent has. River is a 4 no flush possibilty. Raise again - and when I'm reraised I'm thinking maybe he has 2 pair - and I call.
He shows 99 - for a set on the flop - and rakes in a $70 pot...
Of course this puts me on tilt - and my luck doesn't really change - and my Party balance is down to it's last $30...
Better luck on UB - as I was able to pocket some minor earnings to bring my balance up to $140.
There appears to be something wrong with my limit play. I think I'm playing a bit loose - and while I'm pretty good at reading when someone hits an obvious draw (flushes/straights) and not paying them off on the river - a few times I think I have been bet off a pot I should have pocketed...
Also - perhaps I am betting too aggressively on draws - and top pair - committing too much money to a pot that can easily be jeapardized by a bad turn of the cards.
That's all water under the bridge - as I had no profit to show for my weekend of play. And at Party I've pretty much relegated myself to $5 SnG hell - in an effort to build back my bankroll without making the dreaded re-deposit.

One month to go before Vegas - hopefully I can tighten my game up before heading out there for 4 sleepless nights of poker madness...

2004-03-18T22:20:00.000-05:00

The Rub

"Listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker..."

UB Balance $100 Party Balance - $100

Nice round numbers, eh? Well I'd like to say that I've just opened accounts on both sites, but the truth is I've been playing UB since last year - and opened my Party account last year.
I've been up as much as $300 on UB and the same on Party - but somehow I always end up back at square one. The reason? Tournaments, no-limit to be specific.
I honestly believe that though I've learned quite a bit since I started playing poker - that I WAS a better player when I started than I am now...
And somehow I've managed to play off - not-insignificant profit, chasing the dream of a big tournament payoff.

The reason you ask? Because in no-limit, one mistake and you can be knocked out of a tournament. And somehow I seem to keep making that one mistake.

Before I learned all the concepts like position, stack size, starting hand strength, board reading and bet reading - the game was much more simple. Have a good hand? Bet it.
Now I find myself over thinking hands - and somehow still unable to overcome the tendency to not be able to give the bettor credit for his hand. Something continues to tickle my psyche, telling me that the other guy is bluffing. Sometimes this feeling is correct. But just as many times it's wrong.. dead wrong.

Take today as a good example. Playing a $3 TEC rebuy on UB - I built up a 5000 stack into the second hour. Unfortunately I lost a good bit of money on the BB - calling a raise I felt was a blind steal. Then when I caught part of the flop I played back at the bettor. Of course he had a hand - and chopped me off for half my stack...
I bled myself down to 1500 with a few more missed steals than successful ones when I caught an AQ hearts. Ok - a hand I can steal with or make a stand. Just be careful of too much action in front of me. A caller, and a pot raiser... Just the situation I was preparing to avoid. Do I fold as I had prepped myself beforehand? NO - ALL IN! The caller folds and the raiser flips up AA.
Inexcusably stupid...
I am doomed it seems to be ruled by my emotions rather than logic.

It was ok though because I was playing a $5 NL tournament at the same time tonight, and doing quite well. Down to the final 100 out of 440 starters with a decent stack at 3500. Enough to double up and be dangerous. Unfortunately, I am not getting action on my hands. Get AA? Raise 2xBB. Everyone folds. This happens frequently enough that I resolve to slow play the next big hand? Why? Because I'm an idiot..

Catch KK under the gun. Ok. Limp and wait to spring on a raiser. But NO! 4 callers and a checked BB! What the? flop comes 4-5-6. BB bets the pot. What do I do? Do I make the obvious read of a big blind special? You have to give him credit for at least 2 pair - and let this hand go, right? I watch myself click the All-in button in horror as the other players fold and the BB calls and flips up a 7-8. I am drawing almost dead to his flopped straight and finish 90th.. (50 places cash)

I'm not giving up - but I am realizing that I cannot continue to play tournament the way I have been and expect to win. I need to read the betting a little better and think through my own betting more logically.

Part of the problem I think can be attributed to rhythm. That's right, rhythm. I find myself caught in a dance of bet, call, bet, raise, call. check, bet, call, bet call, lose...
Although I hate players who take too long on each move - I have to admit - many of the mistakes I've made could've been prevented by a slight pause before I made my decision. I am certainly not good enough to play on auto-pilot. (ok - i can play limit on auto-pilot)
From now on when I decide to get involved in a no-limit pot - I will think my moves through. And not just think of all the hands that can beat me - but try to read the situation a little better and decide what to do.

Let's see if it has any effect - because I'm tired of throwing away all my profits on $3, $5, and $10 tournaments. So if you see me on your table - you may have to wait awhile before I make a decision. But once I do - think twice before you call me...

2004-03-18T17:36:00.000-05:00

Atlantic City Trip Report Redux - Day 2 Night (Last Stand at the Borgata)

Well after that horrible mistake at the Trop, I'm back in my room at 5pm in the Borgata. Thinking about napping but all I can think about is watching my chips slide across the table to those Aces. I restlessly lie there for about 30 minutes - until I can take it no longer. I get up and march down to the poker room to exact some payback.
It's Sunday night - so the room is not nearly as active as it was during the weekend. I get a seat in a few minutes at the 6-12 table right near the front desk. It's a good table - I notice 5-6 callers on average and very little raising going on. The two guys on my left are chatting away - having pretty good poker conversation. I sit down, relax - and wait for a hand to come my way.
This patience pays off as I catch a couple of cowboys - raise pre-flop and get 4 or 5 people to come in with me. I bet consistently as thankfully no ace pops up - and 2 or 3 guys even pay me off on the river with smaller pairs...
I fall into a positive rhythm and I start to catch cards and hit flops. Do I slow play at all? No way - I bet out every pot - and the rest of the table just calls me. A few times I get rivered - but a few times I get the table to fold on some scary flops like A-A-10 - even though I have no piece of it...
As I settle in and get to know the table, the player to my left - a very talkative poker player starts chatting me up. Normally I try to avoid these compulsive talkers as a rule - they usually start off friendly enough but end up getting really annoying. But this guy's ok - and even though he is playing any 2 low cards that reach - and rivering straights on people - it's funny to me because it's not me getting rivered.
I get dragged into an alliance of sorts - our side of the table vs. their side. Not the first time I've seen this. When someone from the "other side" makes a bet - we wonder aloud what they have - if someone from "our side" or even two people decide to make the call - we root for them to hit their draws. Only on a poker table. In fact it gets so bad - that when seats on "our" side open up - players from the other side request seat changes to get into our "alliance"..

It's really pretty funny. The guy next to me even starts showing me his cards when he hits one of his submarine straights or sets up his pocket pair... It's like he needs someone to be in it with him. I don't really know whether sharing cards is frowned upon or not - and in truth I don't really like the practice. But if someone wants to show me... well - what can I do?

One crazy hand that I wasn't involved in (thank god) - preflop the betting was capped - and my neighbor shows me AcKs. The flop comes QdJdTd. Yikes. It's bet and raised and my new "friend" reraises. It's capped again on the flop and everyone is just going nuts. There are 5 people still in the pot. It's bet again by the early position and everyone starts to calm down and all call the first bet. The same thing on the river. (both cards are blanks) My neigbor turns over his AK for the straight. Another player turns over a flush - and another one flips over trips. But the SB player turns over AdKd. She had flopped a royal flush! Best hand I ever saw... This puts the whole table on tilt!

I'm having fun at least - and my stack starts growing as I only play pretty good hands - and only stay in with at least a pretty good draw to a nut hand. I'm up 300 by the 3rd hour, bleed some off and then hit a few more hands and get up about 500. Eight stacks of red... I occupy myself by reconfiguring my stack into different designs. The solid eight towers. Four stacks on top of four. Two giant towers that I quickly dismantle for fear of splashing my chips all over the table.. Hey - it's something to do while I wait for starting hands to come in...
It REALLY starts annoying the "other" side of the table too. They start making grumbling comments about "seeing the flop" and "putting some of that big stack in play". "Yeah - I'll put it in play." - I tell them. "If you want some of it - come chase me.."
Towards the end - my luck cools down - and I start thinking about locking in my profit. It gets late and I start misreading flops, forgetting my down cards - just playing stupid sleep deprived poker. By the time 5am rolls around (about 12 hours of play) I'm up about $490... Down from a high of about $700 - but a good night nonetheless. I get up to leave, much to the disappointment of a few of the other hard core players who've been there the whole time. They hate to see my chips get up and walk away... But I'd sure hate to see them walk away from me - so I call it a night.
Final AC Weekend tally - a positive 140 american dollars...

Post Borgata room rates? 0 profit. But a hell of a weekend and some good lessons learned...

I can't wait to get back in the action (live). And come April 21st I will - as I head down to Vegas for my brother's 30th birthday. Can you say WSOP sattelite?

2004-03-17T23:13:00.000-05:00

AC Trip Report - Day 2 (The Road to Redemption)

Wake up or should say am woken up at 10AM by my roomate LT. All I want to do is rollover and go back to sleep. I'm disturbed by LT's meticulous shower routine - as he goes through an elaborate process of getting ready. Around 10:30 the phone rings again - it's the Terminator and she wants to get rolling. Alright, alright - I roll out of bed - run into the bathroom, splash some water in my face, change clothes, throw a hat on - and I'm good to go...
We roll into the Trop at 11am - and sign up. This time one of the floorpeople running the tournament recognizes us and smiles. She asks if we'd like to sit at the same table - and we look at each other and simultaneously say "No way!"... We sure don't want to take each other's chips. We want other people's...
So the tournament starts and I play it the way I've been doing all weekend. Tight. Luckily or unluckily, (depends how you look at it) I didn't catch very many playable hands. I win a grand total of one pot when my queens hold up against a KQ offsuit. Double up and limp the rest of the rebuy period.
At the second hour we're all in it - and I decide to rebuy and add-on. I only had about 1500 or so - so i figure the extra thou will come in handy.
I wait it out - and a loose player comes in with a big raise in early position. I look down and see another pair of pocket QQ. I'm all in and the raiser calls me and flips over - Kh9h??? I double through him and coast into the third hour. That's it - 2 hours and basically 2 pots... I'm not a big stack but I have about 5000 in chips. I'm beginning to see the value in playing this way as the loose players who have collected big stacks early in the tournament seem to be in a hurry to give them away. I watch the ebb and flow as their stacks seem to melt away. It just seems like they can't switch gears and the weak aces and suited connectors that looked good during the rebuy period seem to still look to good to get away from.
Down to the last 4 tables and I'm moved to a table full of better players. I'm one of the smaller stacks with about 5000 and the blinds are 500-1000 with 100 antes. I take down one pot on an all-in bluff and then the blinds and antes start eating away.. An early position raiser bets out 2000 - I look down and see KsQs. I push all in. The caller has AK offsuit - and we race it off. Luckily a Q comes along with 4 lower cards and I double through. Whew! The old guy who loses this pot starts going into a rant about how he can't seem to win with AK.. Sorry I tell him with a shrug - didn't have a choice there. And you know - REALLY - I DID feel sort of bad about it - but that's poker, get over it...

Now I start going on a rush - a new player sits down at the table and goes all in . I look down at AQ and call him. He shows KQ - and I take his chips. Now at about 12000. Then I catch KK with a raise in front of me - push all in and double through a big stack with AJ. I'm at 26000 and a force to be reckoned with. I start playing more aggressively and it's working! (much to my surprise) The table tightens up as we reach the final 3 tables - and about 27 people left (18 pay).
I use this to my advantage - but I wonder if I'm getting carried away when the following hand comes up. I'm in early position and see 9c9s. Blinds are 1000-2000 and antes are 200. I raise to 6000. A player behind me raises it to 12000 and everyone folds. This is it. The hand of decision. I look over at the player but he's not giving any reads. I think to myself - bigger pair? If so, then I definitely fold. But what about AK or AQ... It's a coin flip if that's what he's holding. And if he's holding one of these hands he may not want to flip coins. I decide it's either fold or all-in. Fold or all-in.
Some spirit of aggression takes over my body and I'm an observer as I hear myself say "All-in".
The other player can hardly wait to push all his chips into the pot. He has AA.
Damn... But then as the dealer starts to put out the flop I hear another player say "I see a 9!"
Sure enough the flop comes J-9-7. I'm golden. I start apologizing to the guy with aces when the turn comes K. He get up in disgust when the river comes... you guessed it... A.
I'm out and I can't believe what a stupid play I made. I should have been able to let those damn 9's go when the raiser told me he had a hand. Besides which he had an equal chip stack and we were almost down to the money finishers. Clearly this was a big mistake.
Well chalk it up to nerves and getting carried away. It doesn't make me feel any better but I think this is a lesson that will sink in...
Perhaps the only good thing to come of this is that I feel like I validated a pretty tight strategy even for these crazy rebuy tournaments. As they say - the tournament doesn't start until the rebuy ends. We'll have to see how I play it when I get dealt a bunch of good hands in the first hour...
Each tournament I got a little farther and I got a little more comfortable. I'll be back - and hopefully I won't lay my whole tournament on the line with a pair of 9's next time!
The weekend deficit stands at -350 clams.

2004-03-16T22:12:00.000-05:00

AC Trip Report Day 1 Night - (more Bad Beat Blues)

So the total for Saturday's tournament experience is -225 dollars in entry fees and add-ons. Thankfully no rebuys were sacrificed to the poker gods...
We head back to the Borgata - and I head directly for the poker room. It's time to get my money back! The room is jammed at around 10pm - the list for 2-4 and 3-6 holdem is huge. Thankfully there are only a few names waiting for 6-12 - so I sign up and wait for my name to be called. It's only a half an hour - and I'm seated at a 6-12 table... I buy in for about $320, 3 stacks of red and one of white. I like to have change for this game - and I like to be able to go deep without digging into my wallet if I hit a bad streak. There's no worse feeling than having to go to pocket at the poker table.
I sit down - fold a few hands and BAM! - I get dealt QQ in early position. I raise to 12 and mysteriously 5 people call... hmmm... Flop comes 3-4-6 rainbow. Ok - I bet - and almost the whole table calls. The turn comes a J. Still no problems I bet 12 - and now only 2 callers. The river is a 10.. I bet again - and get raised by the BB. Alright - I think, 2 pair? I call and the BB shows me 2-5 off suit.
He stayed in with a 2-5 to my raise and flopped a straight on me???
Ok - it's that kind of day for me.
The next hand I get dealt a JJ and raise again - and pick up four callers... What do these guys have? The flop come 7-10-3. I bet again and get called by 2 people. The turn is a 5. I bet and get called. The river is a 9. I bet one more time and boom - raised. Call again to see what I got caught with and it's a 7-3 offsuit. I quickly check to see if the guy was on the blind - but no - he was in middle position. These guys stay in on anything!
The 6-12 game is a lot looser than I remembered and I'm pretty much ready to go on full scale tilt. Thankfully I don't even get a tilt starting hand for a while - and get a chance to cool off. It's a long fight but eventually I get back to even at 5am - and I'm happy to make it out alive.
Time to go to bed and get a few hours of sleep before the Sunday 12pm tournament at the Trop.
The deficit remains -225 semolians.

2004-03-16T15:22:00.000-05:00

AC Trip Report Redux - Day 1 (or Bad Beat Blues)

Well, I'm back from another weekend in Atlantic City. It seems like it was such a short time - and yet the days seem to go by in a a blur of cards, drinks, and bets. Had a great time again - so you probably know how the story ends.
But let's start at the beginning. Woke up early Saturday morning, raring to go. Headed off to meet the crew in the the city. Set out around 8am and by 10am we were pulling into the Trop parking lot. We head over to the poker room for our first stop - the 50+15 NL Holdem tournament. It starts at 12pm - but we're there early to register. Good thing too - apparently you have to go get a photo Trop Poker Club id before you can register for their tournament. While waiting on line to get our pictures taken for an id - we ran into two characters who seem to be stereotypes in the world of poker.
The first guy is the one who immediately smiles at you as you approach him on the line. He then proceeds to start nervously chatting about things - it seems nice enough - until you realize about 15 minutes later that he does not intend to stop... EVER. Now you've made a new best friend - and that's the bad news.
The other guy is the guy behind you in line who's getting impatient. He showed up early to register for the tournament and they're already announcing that it may be filling up. He starts complaining about how long this is taking, pacing back and forth, cursing under his breath for every extra second he's being delayed. Just a negative person who won't shut up. He's lucky none of us are in a feisty mood or drunk. Especially since he's been pushing up in the line into the back of one of my buddys, LC, who isn't exactly someone you want to piss off. He comes close though and we decide to get him at the table.
In any case, we finally get our ids and got signed up for the tournament. Exciting stuff. I'm sitting at the same table as one of my friends - "The Terminator" so named because when she's in a pot - you're dead.
So we start up with 1000 chips - the blinds at 25-50 - and 11 people at our table, 161 in the tourney.
We both play real tight at the beginning - you have so few starting chips - I think it's the right strategy to simply wait for premium hands to get involved. And to only continue when those hands have favorable flops. I'm ok with rebuying if I get cracked - but I'm not interested in gambling it up.
Which is definitely not the same philosophy as the field. All weekend we see players rebuying as many as five or six times - and almost every player rebuying at least once (and these were $50 rebuys!). They fire at a pot - get caught, lose - rebuy and repeat cycle. If only I could've caught a few hands to crack these guys a couple of times - I'd be in great position. Unfortunately I don't catch a single premium hand during the rebuy.
I do have one fun hand though. I get dealt Kh9h on the BB - and the pushy guy from the poker id line is in the pot with me! The flop comes Kc9d5d. Two pair for me. I think about slow playing but - then think better of it and fire 50 at the pot. Everyone folds except for the pushy guy from the line who raises me 200! Yikes!
Alarms go off in my head - what does this guy have. We've already tagged him as a loose player - getting involved in too many pots. Could he have pocket 5's?
Well two pairs too good to let go - I decide to take another card and call. The Turn comes Js. No help seemingly to either of us... (although QT makes a straight) I check and he comes firing 200 at me again. Now I'm sitting there faced with the same thoughts as before. But somehow - I don't think it's trips - and I don't think it's the straight either. I think it's top pair with a good kicker (but not as good as mine).
I push all in. And now he's the one with a decision to make...
After considering for a while he mucks his hand with a muttered curse - and I have half his chips sitting in my stack. Sweet. He pushed a little too far and got caught. "Rebuy!" I hear him yell and I smile in satisfaction.
But that's the extent of the first hour action for me - I get blinded off back to even and head into the second hour with 3000 or so chips after the add-on of 2000. They break our table and I sit down with a whole new bunch of characters. These guys are swinging at pots - and taking them down more often than not - a pretty active, aggressive table. Perfect. I wait a round or so - with the blinds now at 100-200 and antes of 25. With about 2600 left in chips I get dealt UTG - QQ. I raise it to 1000 - hoping to take the blinds. I don't want to gamble - and I'm praying that no one has KK or AA. A guy two seats down pushes all in with about the same amount of chips as me. Everyone else folds...
I take another peek at the QQ and say ok, you got me, I call. He turns up 88. Whoopee! I'm doubling up - and the chant is "No 8! No 8! No 8!" - I get my wish - no 8 flops. But a 467 flop hits a 5 on the river and the fish catches a straight. Damn! For a sec I understand Hellmuth - as I shake this idiot's hand for pushing all in on his 88s when my bet is telling him he's a coin flip at best... But it was probably the best hand he's seen all tournament... I'm still not happy - but as I keep saying to myself: "That's poker".
The rest of my friends don't make it much farther but we all have fun and the tournament's run pretty well at the Trop. We leave a little dazed but determined to do better the next time.
Fast forward a few hours and we're at the Sands for the 7pm 50+15 NL Holdem with rebuys and add-on. The Sands is a smaller tourney with a much more motley assortment of players. In addition to the gamblers and other loose aggressive types - are newbies and home game players. They know a little poker but have no idea how to play no-limit. This makes them relatively dangerous in my book - because they are completely unpredictable.
At the Sands we start with only 500 in chips, a mere pittance - and the blinds start at 25-25...
Once again tight is my mantra - and I stay away from the action until I am dealt AcQc. I raise it up to 100 - and everyone folds except for one of these novices - a kid who has rebought twice already. The flop comes 3 low cards. I quickly spread out a bet of 200, half my stack in the pot... I want him to fold - really bad! He looks over the boards and stares me down for a minute or so. I avoid his gaze for a while and then after a while it becomes annoying - I stare back at him. As soon as we make eye contact, he reaches for his cards and mucks them. Whew...
I make the add on about even - and start with 1500 or so in the second hour. I win a coin flip with one player with another AQ that comes in and beats his 77s. So I double up to about 3000. I'm all the way up to about 4000 and we're about to the 3rd hour break when I get dealt AsQs (again!) and push all in on the button trying to take the blinds. An old guy on the BB looks down at this cards, squints, and shrugs his shoulders as he says "Call.". "Uh oh" I'm think to myself. He flips over Ad7d - and I'm elated.
"No diamonds!" I yell as the flop comes out. Of course 2 diamonds flop. So now I'm repeating my mantra as the turn comes... blank. And the river - no diamond! "Yes!" I say as I pump my fist. But as I get ready to sweep in the pot - someone calls out "Straight!". "What the.." I mutter in surprise. And then I look down and sure enough the flop reads 6-9-5-10-8.
I'm out. And I'm upset. As the old guy sits back down and sweeps in my chips I get up numbly and wish everyone good luck in a monotone voice.
This is much worse than getting busted out of an online tournament. I'm flush with adrenaline - but I'm out of the running. I root on one of my friends, LT, who made it to one of the final 3 tables - but he's a short stack and gets called down on an all-in gambit and busted out.
I look around and none of us are left playing. Well I guess it's time to go. Like they say - misery loves company. We exchange new bad beat stories as we leave, grumbling about our luck or the lack thereof. And we're off to the Borgata - for a quick nap and then a foray back into limit poker action where we can make the suckers bleed... Until then.

2004-03-12T22:47:00.000-05:00

Pre-AC Jitters

Well it's T-10 hours before I hit the road for a weekend in Atlantic City. One good thing about becoming a poker player - you don't have to worry about busting out too early. When I used to play blackjack - there was always the worry that a bad run would bust my bankroll too early in the weekend. Which is why many of my trips were one night forays.
With poker I can depend on playing a solid 12 hours on the first night without worry of endangering my loss limit (unless something really bad happens). In fact I find myself feeling pretty confident about coming home with a profit, even though I broke even last month (see AC Trip Report earlier this month).
Anyways - the plan is to hit the NL tournaments at the Trop and Sands on Saturday - and one more at either place on Sunday. In between - there'll be plenty of limit action - 5-10 or 6-12. And if things start going badly I can always move down to 4-8... (crossing fingers)
Going to be staying at the Borgata - a bit pricey, but that's probably where I'll play the most - and the rooms and casino are beautiful... Too bad they've been pretty tight with the comps.

In preparation for the weekend played some tournaments on UB. Started with a little $10 SnG action where I've been doing pretty well. Played tight - and stayed away from hands until there were only five left and I still had around 1000 in chips. Caught AQ on the BB. Early position raised 2xBB - I sensed weakness (don't ask how) and pot raised on top. He thought about it - had about an equal stack and pushed all-in. I called - and he showed AJo. Great! Too bad the board came all low cards with a J on the river! Damn!
Ok - I thought, that happens sometimes - so I quickly joined a $3 TEC rebuy. Made it past the rebuy period with about 3000 after the rebuy, about average. Waited to catch a hand - and got one about a half an hour into the 2nd hour with AKs. Caught a K-Q-2 rainbow flop - and pot raised to bring it down. A big stack moved all-in on me - I was worried about 2 pair - but had a feeling I was good, pushed all-in - he showed QTo! Of course the turn comes another Q and the river comes A to add insult to injury. I'm out of the tournament even though I should've doubled up!
Alright, I thought - that's 2 bad beats - let me try one more time. This time it's small $5 NL tournament. I was sure I wasn't tilted, but then I caught KcJc on the SB. Got to see the flop w/a limp - and it came Jh -10c- 7c. So I had top pair with a flush draw. Pushed all in - and got called by QQ...
Of course - none of my outs came in - and I was out early... God - I hate slow played pocket pairs!
Finally I hit the .50/1 tables to get some limit warm up - but I was so off tilt that I ended up playing a little to aggressive. I was able to stay away from bad starting hands - but bet any hand I played pretty strong. I built some drawers some big pots which they happily took from me. Was able to recover when a few hands of mine came in - and ended up even.
Ended the day with a loss of both tournament buy-ins about -$12... And I'm sure not feeling as enthusiastic about the weekend.
Well, we'll see if my luck turns around this weekend. I'll post the first of my trip report as soon as I get back on Monday.
Thanks to Felicia Lee and Up for Poker for posting links to my blog today. Hopefully there is someone out there (who isn't related to me) reading my poker ramblings finally. Welcome if you are!

2004-03-12T14:01:00.000-05:00

HOME TOURNEY FUN

Played in my friends home game tourney - was supposed to have 12
but only 8 showed up - and me and my friends were 4 of the 8. $50
tournaments - start with 10,000 and blinds start at 100-200 - go up
incrementally every round the table...

On the first tourney, was cruising when I picked up Jh 7c on the BB.
Unraised to I take in the flop. It comes 7s 7h Qh. hmmm... I figure
I'm taking this pot down - but maybe I can string someone along. I check and
then I raise 1000 - figuring that's enough to get a flush draw out -
only a 7 can call me. I get one caller. The turn comes the 3rd heart (9h)...
So I have three 7s - a flush draw, and 3 Js that fill me up - plus 3 Qs and 3 9s
to full out too and a 7 that gives me 4ofakind. I count 14 outs even
assuming that my oppenent has the flush. (unless it's the nut flush in
which case I have 10). Plus the caller was a loose player - pretty much
the whole table was making loose calls. So I couldn't rule out the
possibility of 2 pair (Qand7).
So I checked and he bet 3000. I stopped and went through all this above
and decided that I didn't think he had called me with 2 hearts. I put him
on a Q and one heart possibly lower than my J... I went all in. he called.
He had the 2-3 of hearts! The river came blank - and i was first out of
the tourney. Damn!

Took a nap - and woke up for the 2nd tourney. I ended up winning the
2nd and 3rd tourney - and felt bad by the fourth one - and tried an all-in
bluff at the river and got called by a hand..
Basically I won with aggressiver raising - when in position I would bump
pre-flop - get 1 or 2 callers and blow them out of the pot (with an astute bet) on the
flop more often than not. Caught some good hands too - and showed them down
just to keep the respectful of my raises.

Only other hand of interest - had AKs - did my usual bump of twice the
BB and got a caller. Flop came Q-J-J. Bet it out strong - got called.
Turn was an 8. Checked and the caller only bet a 1000 - so I called (perhaps
this was a loose call). River came the 10. I checked again - the other player bet
2000 - I moved all in.
This other player starts staring at the board - talking himself along my
betting patterns trying to get a read. He shows me a Q as he's thinking
hoping to get a reaction from me. I pull my cap down and flip the hood of my
sweatshirt over my face and sit there (unabomber style). He correctly reads out
loud that I don't have the J. And even more correctly decides that only AK is going
to beat him. I sit there in silence sucking on a beer. He takes FIVE MINUTES
to decide what to do!

Finally he calls my all-in - I flip up the AK and rake the pot... What
an idiot! Anyways - made a couple of hundred dollars - not bad - so far
am doing pretty good in these live games.

This weekend I'm heading down to AC for the weekend to try my hand in a few
more no-limit tournaments and 5-10/6-12 limit hold em.

2004-03-08T10:53:00.000-05:00

Tournament Advice

This weekend I got this e-mail from my brother about a situation he ran into on a UB tournament

First off, I know by now your sick of hearing my poker stories...bad
beats, gloating, etc. But I aint got any one else except Dad to talk
about this with...so suck it up.

Anyhow, played a 10+1 tourney last nite. 260something players. End up
making it to the final table ($700+ for ist place). blinds are
1000-2000, ante like 125 or 150 a person. I have 19000 in chips (probly
in 6th or 7th, leader has about 60g).

2nd hand at the final table I get pocket 10s. From middle position I
raise to 15000, hoping to steal blinds. I figured this is a big enuff
raise to knock out hands like A10, AJ, KQ, KJ, and what not (which I
don't really want drawing against me). Well, this seemingly worked out
well, until it got to the big blind, who re-raises me so that I have to
go all-in. I'm praying he's got a smaller pair or overcards, but it
really doesn't matter at this point. I've only got 4,000 left and
folding is not an option with the amount of the blinds and ante.
Anyways, I call, show my 10's, and Mfers' got AA. Needless to say I'm
the first one out after playing 2 hands on the final table. Won like
$30something...which blows; cuz I had my eye set on at least a top
three finish. Bankroll at $430.

Dad was like "You went all-in on 10s'?". And I had folded pocket 10s
pre-flop earlier in the game, but that was from the big blind; with a
raise and a re-raise in front of me that I respected. Not sure I
could've gotten away from this one tho. The flop, river, and turn were
undercards, so I think I was destined to lose big; unless I folded
pre-flop. Maybe I should've raised less initally and then folded after
being re-reaised? But, I think if I did a min raise and got re-raised
I'd be suspicious that someone was sensing weakness by my small raise
and trying to steal. I think I made the right play and was just
unfortunate. I dunno, what are your thoughts?

And here was my response:

Well - first off, one thing I've learned is that my optimal style is
two things.
1 - A style in which you are comfortable playing. If you are naturally
aggressive - it's very hard to lie in wait for big hands - or stay out
of too many pots in a row. If you're passive - it's difficult to pull off a
hyper-aggressive strategy. You have to be committed to whatever way or
method you have decided to play.

2 - The other players should dictate to you what the best way to play it is.
Aggressive table? Slow down and play it passive. Small raises with big hands
are bound to be jumped - jump back at them and sometimes they'll just
run right into you. A passive table can be bullied with pre-flop raises and you can give
credit to re-raisers when you aren't holding a top hand and let it go...

I'm naturally more passive - but the SnG's are teaching me some value in
aggression. Also - I'm learning the appropriate times to switch gears - and
how to do it.

With regards to your situation - in general I like to keep my pre-flop
raises consistently to 2XBB. So whether it's AA or a semibluff on JTo -
I raise the same amount. When the antes (which are new) late in a
tourney - I saw that this was not enough - and I might adjust to a pot
raise.. which is about 3or4XBB. That's big enough to protect your hand in
my opinion.

The problem with an early position raise that's too big is that you're
pot-committed and basically the only rational person that will come over the
top of you is the NUTS. (AA, KK, AK) Raise too little of course and you cut
down your win% on a hand.

But in my opinion you 15000 is way too big with the blinds at 2000, and you
only have 4000 more. First off - you may as well have gone all-in (what's
the difference?) A raise of 5-6000 would have been good enough - you still would have
been faced with a guess when the BB moved all in on you - but you wouldn't be
pot-committed - and at the final table - you need to stay alive first - and
chip up second. A smaller raise gives you the option. If someone has the balls to come
over the top of you with less than a bigger pair - more power to them.
You'll catch them eventually...

2004-03-05T15:11:00.000-05:00

No Limit Hold'em Advice

The other day I was getting ready for a live tournament at a friends house. A few of my friends who just started playing asked for some advice. Now I'm certainly no expert on no-limit hold-em, but there were a few basic things that I think any player figures out. We were getting ready for a 2 table - (six per table) home tournament. Here's what I told them:

1 - Starting Hands
in a short handed game (6 or less) - even mid/small pocket pairs become really powerful hands. Play them one of two ways - raise them preflop and bet them aggressively (keep betting until the other player folds or plays back (raises) you).
Watch out for calling stations when betting aggressive. If they call too fast - they may have caught a bigger pair and just aren't smart enough to be scared by your betting...
You don't want alot of callers when you play a small/mid pocket pair. When too many people call - you either set it or forget it...
The othe play is to slowplay them and look for trips - and surprise them on the river.

Any Ace becomes playable shorthanded - still be careful when playing A with a 10 or less off suit. I would play weak aces (ace with smaller kicker) with a raise preflop to make sure that anyone else in had a hand. This way I can let go of the ace when big cards (KQJ) come on the board and I don't have an Ace... (cuz I'm pretty sure they paired up) And if I catch an Ace - I can read whether someone else has me outkicked by how they bet/call/raise me after the flop. In general you flop an Ace with one in your hand - and you bet it - I think it's a pretty good bet that any caller also holds an ace...

Suited Connectors and other ilk are not good shorthanded starting hands. When shorthanded - you're looking for two big cards - there's not enough people taking in a flop to give you good pot odds draw for ONLY a straight or small flush.

2 - NEVER DRAW. This is for your Le! Don't draw in No-Limit as a rule of thumb. Four cards to a flush - and a big raise at you - Fold. Open ended straight - fold. Two over cards to a small card flop - fold.
No-limit to some extent is a game of initiative. You want to be the one making the bets - not calling them. So if someone puts in a big bet to you - and you don't have a hand yet - Let it go!

Yes - there are exceptions to this. If you're small stacked and making a stand - go for it. If the betttor is all in - and you have a big stack - take a shot. Otherwise - GET OUT.

3 - Bet Your Draws - Let's say you flop a four-flush or an open ended straight draw.. BET IT. You'll be surprised how many pots you pick up this way. And if someone calls - you can kill them - they may not read the flush even when it comes BECAUSE you bet BEFORE the flush came.

If they raise you - feel free to let it go - you're probably beat - and Rule 2 is: NEVER DRAW. The other advantage to betting your draw - is you may induce a check on the turn - giving you a FREE card to make
your flush/straight...

2004-03-04T17:10:00.000-05:00

WHAT IS THE GENIUS OF THE POKER?

It's a blog I decided to start - imitating the many others who've been generous enough to share their poker experiences with the rest of us... What's different about this one? Well - hopefully nothing - if the other blogs you've been reading are enjoyable and interesting...
About me - I started playing poker as soon as I was old enough to have my own money with my family. About a year ago - I saw along with everyone else an episode of the WPT on the Travel Channel. And what can I say I was hooked...
A few months later I had accounts on all the major poker sites - and at a poker room in Kansas City I got my first real live experience.
Since then I've been playing occasionally - and I've managed to spread the gospel of poker-obsession to all those around me, including friends and family.
Hopefully I can convince them to post here if anyone ever actually reads this...

As for the name of this blog? Well - it's a long story - and an amusing one. We'll get to it in a later post.

In the meantime - enjoy the trip reports - it's been my experience that these are like crack to a poker player.