Everything in Moderation - Including Moderation

Inside The Heads of Donkeys

2008-10-20T20:41:00.000-07:00

So, why not start posting again? Might as well jump right in...

I was playing in a Matrix SNG the other day when I had an interesting thought at the end of a match.

I started headsup against my Ironman opponent, who had a little better than a 2-1 chip lead on me. Blinds were medium-uncomfortable, and he was putting in small button raises often. After several of these, I decided to make a Kill Phil-type stand by shoving with 75clubs. Ironman instacalled with aces, only to see me flop a 7 and hit runners for a straight. Behold the power of cheese.

What followed was a chat-barrage of OMG DONKEY LOL. I proceeded with a smiley face in chat and some aggression with my new chip lead. I ground him down, and he lost.

So my opponent was mad at me, and belittled my poker play and skill. I don't mind that. I had my reasons for playing back at him. Generally the plan is that he folds his KTo (or whatever he's got) and is subsequently a little less aggro towards my big blind. Mission accomplished. This time, I ran into aces, but still prevailed. Hooray for luck.

The take-home point to all of this was that I was surprised that my opponent immediately focused on my cards. He didn't bother to consider what I was thinking, when I believed it was a good idea to reraise all-in with seven high. He instantly launched into a diatribe about my stupidity instead of trying to get inside the head of the donkey who he was still playing. "Ok, that was a bad move, one I wouldn't make. But why did he do it? What was he considering? Was he frustrated with my raises? Tired of playing headsup? Was he reacting to my play? How did he perceive me?"

Donkeys have reasons behind their play. They are often flawed reasons, but those reasons are valid to that donkey, at that time.

I have no time or energy to devote to getting mad at plays, or players, that I consider bad. I want players to make mistakes against me, to put their money in badly. There's also a chance that I can learn something from the donkey play. In this particular case, perhaps Ironman would see it's sometimes useful to reraise a button raiser with certain hands. If I can get into the head of the donkey, I can take advantage of the same mistake later. Being a 75% favorite can't always end in a suckout.

Who Doesn't Love A Good Prop Bet?

2007-12-12T20:13:00.000-08:00

Me, actually. I'm generally a wimp when it comes to randomly wagering on stupid stuff where I don't think I have the best of it. Oh, you want the Bills and 15 points against the Pats for the Sunday night game? Ok, now I'm buying.

So when Skip talked me into a $5 HORSE sng the other day, his prop bet was just interesting enough to get me to buy in. "If one of us bubbles, and the other finishes in the money, the bubble boy pays the winner $5." Skip has a disease - he LOVES to watch me bubble.

As is normal for a $5 HORSE sng, the play was awful in the non-holdem games. Razz and Stud/8 are where Skip and I profit most, except this time it was me scooping chips from donkeys holding rough nines in razz and baby two pair in stud/8. Hello, chip lead.

On the bubble, Skip was about even in chips with the other low stack. We checked a three handed flop (with the #2 in chips sitting out), and I semibluffed my 43o wheel draw when the deuce paired on the turn. Skip raised, figuratively shouting, "Hey I have a two." I dgaf'ed, and called, hit my wheel, and got paid on the river, crippling poor Skip.

I have no idea how you calculate your odds when drawing to a gutshot against your friend when the chips mean nothing to you and drawing out will win you a prop bet the size of the entry fee... but it sure feels awesome.

Oh, and I went on to win the sng, too. Go, go donkey poker.

Donk 'n Goes

2007-11-06T01:29:00.000-08:00

Skipper told me about the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure sng's running now on Stars. The satellite tree looked really interesting, so I sat down in a $7.50 Step 1 sng. I figured I could get a *lot* of play-time out of a few Step 1 entries.

A few hands in, Skip mentions that a player in the sng has won a WSOP bracelet. Sure enough, Jon "pokertrip" Friedberg is three seats on my right. I read his bio, and discovered that he and I both have lived near Philly, and have both played live poker in southern Arizona.

I'm not sure which should surprise me more - that a live pro is sitting in a $7 sng with me, or that the two Stage 2 tickets went to the two of us. The sit 'n go ended when the third player busted out. I didn't get to play the pro heads up.

Everything Matters

2007-10-31T22:19:00.000-07:00

I've heard the following quote in the cash games at the Card Room a few times, and it's all I can do to keep quiet. "There's not enough in the pot to bet at."

I consider this attitude to be ignorant of pot odds and "the long term". If the pot is only $4, and I can win it half the time with a $2 bet, I should bet. If my opponent doesn't want the pot, that makes it even easier for me to add a few chips to my stack.

There's been a correlation so far between people espousing this disdain for small pots, and ignorance of pot odds in other situations. If I could just see the thought bubble, "It's only a $5 bet to draw to my gutshot. That's cheap. I call." Nevermind there's only $10 in the pot.

Every little bet you can save, and every tiny pot you can win that you normally wouldn't.. they all add up over time. It's not anything you're going to notice in one evening. "Oh look, I cashed out for $227 instead of $212 because I folded earlier in a few hands than a fish would." But if you play as much as much as the regulars do, it adds up.

~~

I was reminded of this concept when I read a thread on Tucker Max's messageboard. The topic of the thread was Tucker shining a spotlight on another internet writer.

The question boiled down to this: You have potential. Are you going to seize it, and risk failure to be the best you can be? Or are you going to talk a good game, but do nothing?

Folding kings the weak-tight way

2007-10-23T01:48:00.000-07:00

So I haven't quite painted the picture of the play at the Card Room. The most glaring mistakes are made in multi-way pots (and we almost never have a heads-up flop). If you flop bottom or middle pair in a 5- or 6-way pot, in first position, do you bet into the field?

Everybody at the Card Room does.

Oh, and maybe 20% of the room understands the concepts of pot odds. It's all I can do not to laugh when somebody min-raises out of the big blind after 5 people have limped in. Another interesting thing about playing at the Card Room is that while I'm dealing there, I learn a lot of tendencies, without people learning my habit at the same time.

So when I'm not at a table with Tarheel, there are few people in the game that I actually respect. Cliff, who says next to nothing, is one of them. He was UTG for this hand, and had about the same stack I did, $200 or so. He raised the $2 big blind to $10. I was right next to him, and repopped it to $25 holding kings, mentioning something about clearing the riffraff out.

Scummy Guy at the end of the table, on the button perhaps, calls my $25 cold. So much for clearing the riffraff out. When it got back to Cliff, he made it $75 total.

"Cliff's good, and he's tight, and he knows I'm the same. Can he make that raise with queens? I don't think he can. Him having the other two kings is a mathematical improbability. I'm sure enough that he's got aces that I'm going to fold now."

And show my coworker, Brandon, who's playing right next to me.

Scummy Guy got all in with Cliff, and the flop was paired with two diamonds. 755 or something like that. The turn and river were running diamonds, with the river being the ace of diamonds. At this point, I thought I might look like an ass... that Cliff has queens, or the other two kings. It sure looks like he hates that river ace, or the diamonds.

It turns out that Cliff actually had the aces. He was slow to show his hand because he didn't see the board pair, and thought that any diamond had him beat. Scummy Guy did have red sixes, but Cliff's aces-full boat was the winner.

And then I did something that is indicative of my poker personality. I showed the rest of the table my kings that I folded. (They were away from the muck.) I also told Cliff that my current stack would be his if I respected his game less.

I'm not sure what it is about me, but when it comes to poker, I have a pathological need to be right, or to show everybody else that I was right. Early in my poker playing, I was insanely weak - any raise would get me to fold a medium-strength hand. I hated being wrong, showing down a loser. I've slowly overcome that tendency, and I'm much less adverse to making a mistake or to being wrong.

This hand also reminds me of my infamous "I flopped a straight flush, and folded on the turn, correctly" post. Not only because I folded a strong hand to an even stronger one, but because I just had to know. And I had to be right.

I was a math nerd growing up. The answers were always absolute. When I figured out that x = y + 3, that was the answer. There was a lot more certainty involved when I used to say "I aced that math test", than when I thought I did well on an English composition. Perhaps that's what I lovc about poker - you never have all the information when you make your decisions.

Da Champ

2007-09-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

So, I did something in less than a month at Burning Rock College that I couldn't do in five years at UNC - I won an Intramural Champion t-shirt. That's right, I loved Carolina so much I went for the extra-credit year.

I had to overcome a massive ten player field in the billiards. It was single elimination, and I only pocketed the eight-ball once, to seal it in the finals. I'm not good, and I'm lucky. The two best players scratched on the eight-ball before facing me.

Lazarus

2007-09-19T00:50:00.000-07:00

You know, it's about time I wrote in this thing.

I have gone through my long, dark tunnel, and come out the other side. Maybe not in a better place, but definitely in a more interesting one.

I'm not even sure where to start back up.

A long period of joyous unemployment is over. Some people feel out of sorts when they aren't working for any length of time. I love it, so long as my bank account is a non-zero number. I find it amusing that I went from zero jobs to two. I am now a dealer and floor manager of a poker card room in southern Arizona. I am also the Second Assistant Coach of a women's soccer team at the local junior college. For the coaching position, I am "paid" no actual dollars. My compensation is room 'n board on campus. I have a suite all to myself - two rooms with a bathroom that connects them. I have no cable, internet, power, or water bills. But I have no paychecks.

My other job provides the cash. The cardroom is open Thursday to Sunday, in the evenings. I get no paycheck from that one either, just cash money. Tips when I'm a dealer, and half of the house's take when I'm the floor man. Pretty decent deal. Floor man is a combo job, because I can deal while I'm flooring.

There will be more posts when I describe the card room's players (horrifically bad).. and the card room's legality (good and gray).

I have also settled on changing the name of the junior college, so that nobody finds my blog by searching on google for the JC. I have decided to call the women's soccer team the "Burning Rock Lady Destroyers". It's hot in southern Arizona. So, for the purposes of this blog, I'm employed by "Burning Rock College".

So I'm doing two things I really like, and I could possibly contribute to the poker community again. Oh, and now that I'm away from all the guys I played with on a very regular basis, I can talk about poker strategy and not feel like I'm giving away the farm.

Good luck out there.

Oh, forgot this part

2007-04-04T03:25:00.000-07:00

I played my last sng over at the GF's, with the Angels on the tube. (Note to Speaker: I don't love the Angels, but the broadcasts are much easier to take if you think of two things: 1) Hudler is probably high. 2) At least I don't have to listen to the White Sox broadcaster.)

Ok, tangent over... I was playing the sng, narrating to my girlfriend what was going on.

The guy on my right had been crazy-aggro. He popped it from the button, I jammed on him (after we were already in the money) with A9o, a hand I'm not crazy about. He folded quickly.

He proceeded to fold his small blind, with me in the big blind, for the next 4 consecutive times! I snapped off Aggro Guy, and he rewards me by folding on that hand, then giving me a walk four straight times.

Good times.

HORSE on Sunday

2007-04-03T19:07:00.000-07:00

Once every four months or so, we host a limit HORSE tourney at my place, just a little something to break up the monotony of the normal NL rebuy tournaments.

The guys from Grind Or Gamble showed up, to play Poison HU before HORSE. There was live blogging and a suckout or two. I wasn't watching much, while I set up for the HORSE tourney.

The GoG guys seemed like solid guys, and at the very least, competent poker players. I hadn't read their blog before now, but they've been added. (One of these days, I'll be updating my bloglist in the left column.)

Jamin had a rough go, losing to Yosoy, then busting out first of the tourney. Nothing went his way, and I added to the misery when my ace-trash outflopped his ace-big in limit holdem. Billy made up for it by busting me and my shortstack outta the tourney while holding 62-diamonds. I made some snide comment about him not having to call my preflop raise with 62-sooted, but in retrospect it was just me being cross I got busted. He had plenty of chips, and I didn't. He wasn't taking much of a risk by seeing a flop for an extra bet out of the big blind. He probably also knew that if he hit the flop, I would be giving him the rest of my chips, as the pot would've been much larger than my remaining stack.

Oh, and Shawn won the HORSE tourney. I hate his limit play... all chasing, no odds. He donked his way to a big lead in the middle stages, then gifted everybody but me a courtesy doubleup, attempting to bust every short stack with ATxx rainbows in stud. At one point, I said loud enough for everybody to hear, "Could somebody please tell Shawn that this isn't a bounty tournament?" His irritated response was something about trying to bust people to end the tournament early.

Those were my only two surly comments all night... really.

~~

Bruiser's been pummeling my Full Tilt bankroll, cashing me out so that I'm under my "safe zone" of $300. For the last two months or so, he's been coming over early on Thursdays and Sundays to play $20-50 sng's, with a fun attempt at $2-4NL thrown in. He pays me cash, sits and plays, and at the end of the night, I pay him his winnings, if any. At one point, he had bumped my account from just under $700 to over $1K... and then down under $300. His style is nothing like mine, naturally, and rather volatile.

I've played two sng's since, and monied in both... a win and a runner-up. I feel very comfortable playing against the inexperienced, bad, and straightforward players that populate the low-limit sng's.

Let's rebuild, shall we?

To the Tustinrounders.com people

2007-03-31T12:04:00.000-07:00

Recently, word has gotten out about my blog to the people that play in my homegame. For a looong time, I kept it quiet.

In part, because I wrote whatever I wanted in this blog. And in part because I'm not a good writer, and didn't want to censor or alter my account of things. When I started it years ago, I didn't think anybody would see it at all. If it weren't for the acceptance of the poker blogger community, nobody would have.

Blame them. Ha!

So, Tustin Rounders... the accounts here are biased and incomplete, poorly written and unedited. Perhaps I didn't write about how you taught me to play limit holdem, or failed to mention how you transformed your game from retarded to tricky. I apologize for not painting a fair and unbiased picture of you. But it is my blog. They're free... go start one.

Good Poker Memories, Part 1

2007-03-31T11:46:00.000-07:00

So I was thinking... what pokery stuff should I write about? My mastery of $5 sng's? Boat over boat with Gordo and Poison at a $2/4 limit game, in the room right next to where Joe Awada was slumming at a $2/5 NL game? The adventure that is Bruiser playing on my screenname on Full Tilt?

Maybe someday, but not now.

I want to talk about one of my favorite characters in my homegame. We don't know his actual name... we prefer nicknames around here. He goes by "Pops". He's not a senior citizen, as you might expect somebody with that name to be. He's probably not even 25.

Pops is wired a little funny. He doesn't play every week, but he had been coming for a few months when the following hand came up...

There's been more trash-talking on this night than usual. Pops and Skipper, our resident punk kid know-it-all (who now reads this blog!), are in a big pot at the river. The flop had two fives, and two hearts. The third heart fell on the turn or river. There is a bet and a call on the river. Skipper rolled over his hand, showing two hearts, declaring plainly, "I've got a flush."

Pops slammed his cards down, face-up, and countered triumphantly, "Trip fives, bitch!!"

We had to remind him that three of a kind did not beat a flush. And then we had to laugh...

Picking Back Up

2007-03-31T11:27:00.000-07:00

So February and March have come and gone, without a post to this blog. Things have happened, a few of them good things. I'll start with the important ones.

My dad would now appear to be on the other side of his cancer diagnosis with a clean bill of health. He had the tumor cut out of his tongue, spent some time in hospital, healed up, starting talking normally again, and took a cruise to Egypt with my stepmom. And he knows I love him.

I quit my job at Steak Restaurant. The new management decided, after some deliberation, that they would prefer to go forward with me as a server, not a bartender. Bartending there was the only thing that was keeping me there, as the restaurant rapidly went into the shitter after the new management tried to fix the old mistakes, creating a multiplicity of new ones. I have a college degree (chemistry!), three years of field sales experience... it's long since time I got a "real" job.

I spent a weekend bartending at the Nissan Senior's Open in Newport Beach, which was pretty sweet - greenside at the 18th and 17th holes on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. I spent the following weekend in Vegas with Gordo and Poison. My first time meeting Gordo, and the guy gives me Guinness and buys a fuckin' UNC t-shirt cuz his shirts are dirty and we're gonna watch hoops in the Sports Book? That guy's more than OK in my book.

I have another of what I call "freelance bartending" assignments coming up. $25/hr plus any tips at a wedding on Wednesday? If you're reading this, thanks TonyD!

And yes, I'm aware it's a very bad thing to quit a job when you don't have another waiting for you. The guys at my poker game have told me I could be bartending/serving (50/50) at A Different Steak Restaurant. I love the offer, but I have a hunch I shouldn't be in that line of work anymore.

I'm a funk. I don't think it's depression so much as being frozen. My life needs to change, to move somewhere... but I DON'T KNOW WHERE. There's a bunch of things I could do, but what do I want to do, and why am I so afraid of starting... and failing?

If someone you loved had 24 hours to live, what would you do?

2007-01-31T03:11:00.000-08:00

So I wanted to break my blogging hiatus with a happy post. I've been playing incredibly well lately, if sporadically. My results at the Sunday tourney I host are sick. Six sigma sick... my streak of moneying in homegame tourneys got busted last Sunday at 8. I finished ITM in eight consecutive 10+ player tourneys. First, first, third, second, second (to Veneno), first, first, second.

But that's not why I'm writing. Maybe later, I'll talk about my tourneys, and the badasses I wanna join at the LAPC, but this post is about my dad.

My dad is 66 years old. This week, he's been diagnosed with cancer of the mouth. This disease usually strikes heavy drinkers or heavy smokers. My dad is neither. Unlike his three sons, I don't recall him drinking more than two drinks in a day in the last twenty years. I don't think he's ever smoked.

It's early in the situation, but it SOUNDS like they've detected it early. If it is early, they can operate, cut out the cancer, and the prognosis is excellent. My dad even said the part of his tongue they'd cut out would grow back.

I care very little about that. I'd rather have my dad alive and talking a little funny, than ravaged by cancer and slowly dying.

Although I mean that last sentence, it still hurts me to type it. Thinking about this sort of thing tears me up. It takes a lot to make me cry, but this post is trying my patience.

~~

So what's the take home message?

Life isn't short. But we all have a limited amount of time. I love my dad, and I've had a lot of great experiences with him. After I ended that phone conversation, I had a morbid thought.

"If my dad died tomorrow, what would I regret not doing with him?"

I've had a pretty good relationship with my dad over the years. He's been there during my struggles in college, me getting fired from my first legit job, and my subsequent poker playing and bartending.

What haven't I done?

I haven't watched him coach a basketball game. It sounds trivial. But it's important to me.

I haven't seen him do the very thing that he was born to do... I haven't seen him do what he loves.

I guess it would mean more if I discussed my father's background and career path. Fresh out of college, he started as a math teacher, and hoops coach, at an all-boys school. He moved on to computer stuff and check-processing at IBM, where he met my mother. It's probably over-simplifying to state that my father gave up what he loved to provide for his family. But I'm fine with that. His passion is coaching basketball. I want to see that end result of that, just one game, before he passes on. I am now mentally prepared for that event to be next week, or the year 2020.

I've been there for one practice, helping him and the kids in drills. I remember that day well.
College football is huge in Texas, and the Texas-Texas A&M game was scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend. My dad asked his team if they wanted practice at their normal time (which would cut into the football game), or if they wanted to practice early. Almost unanimously, they voted for a 9am practice on a Saturday.

I wanted to see my dad coach. I got up early, on vacation, to help him out. For those of you that know me, you know that I HATE getting up before noon if I can help it.

So I went to a 9am basketball practice. I don't actually play basketball - I grew up with soccer and baseball. I knew that if I wanted to learn hoops, my dad would've been more than happy to teach.

That day, I helped my dad with drills, fetching balls, rebounding, passing. It was grunt work, but I was able to see my father teaching these sixteen year olds.

He was authoritative, he was smart, he was effective. In the small world of Dallas high school hoops, on that day, my father was a basketball god. Maybe I wasn't his right-hand man that day, but I was at least his left pinky finger.

Practice in the gym ended, but nobody went home. I think the team was working on their fitness. My father wanted them all to run a mile. His goal was to have as many of them as possible run a 7-minute mile. In junior high, my soccer coach wanted us to run a 6-minute mile. The best I ever did was 6:12. In high school, my soccer coach wanted us to run a 12-minute two-mile. The best I ever did was 12:23. As a ninth and twelfth grader, I felt those times were pretty damn good.

My dad asked me, as a 27-year-old, to run with his kids. He asked me to pace them. He hadn't seen me play soccer in more than 7 years. He had absolutely no doubt in his mind that his son, five years out of college, could run a seven-minute mile.

NONE.

Not only could I run a seven-minute mile myself, but I could help his kids run a faster time. My father participates in all sorts of hoops drills - but endurance is not his thing. That day, I was standing in for him. Just for a half hour, I was filling in where he could not.

When my father asked me to run a 7-minute mile, I wanted a sixer. Of course, it was insanely unrealistic, but I didn't care. Four laps, six minutes... that's 90 seconds per lap. The only thing I knew about running a lap in ninety seconds was that you had to start at a sprint.

So I did. I ran the first lap in 73 seconds. Those high school kids had their eyes bugged out at the old guy, the coach's son, who was blazing a sick pace. As I passed the second group of kids, the spectators for this heat who would be in the second one, they asked me if I ran track. I shook my head slightly. As I settled into the second lap's pace, I lost steam.

I couldn't keep up that pace. Just as I suspected, I couldn't finish a 6-minute mile. I had the top two players pass me on the last lap, as I logged a 6:42 mile time. The Old Coach's oldest son could run a 7-minute mile...why couldn't all the players?

My father had no idea what kind of shape I was in when he asked me to run with his kids that afternoon. What he did know is that I still cared about running a good time, and that I would give EVERYTHING to show him and his players that I had heart. Just like when I played for my coaches, I wanted to show them that it was honorable to bust your ass to the point of exhaustion for your coach. In practice, you gave everything. On game day, you left it all on the field.

I hope my Dad looks back on that day and understands.

That day was all love, Dad, and all heart. So is today.

I know a guy

2007-01-02T02:10:00.000-08:00

My first post of 2007 should be beer-fueled. Here goes.

So I know this guy. It took several months of playing at my homegame before I learned his actual first name, Brendan. I still don't know his last name, nor do I want to. He introduced himself as Bruiser, and who am I to question a guy who looks exactly like his name?

Bruiser's not a violent guy, despite the nickname. He's been nothing but well-behaved in the time he's attending my homegame. There was one time the short, hyper-aggressive guy tried to bait him, but he didn't rise to it. Bruiser doesn't like violence. He likes gambling, and he loves booze.

After a few months, he started answering our questions. In the last several years, he's had several jobs. During one, he earned his nickname. He was a bouncer at a local dive bar. I've been to this bar. My roommate and I had a guy approach us, saying "Was somebody talkin' shit?" At the moment, we thought we were going to get stabbed. It turns out, Scribbles (that was his name, he was a tattoo artist) was just trying to make sure a drunk buddy of his wasn't getting in trouble.

Bruiser told us about this job. One night, a bar fight broke out. The whole bar was fighting. Bruiser knocked out five guys. Now, when most guys say they knocked out five guys, they actually punched three.

Not Bruiser. When Bruiser tells you he knocked out five guys in one night, he knocked out five guys. End of story. He's not lying, and he's not exaggerating. He strikes me as a man who has absolutely no need to boast about his fighting, drinking, fucking, or jail time. He comes and goes as he pleases. He follows the rules if it suits him. He doesn't need your respect.

Bruiser didn't tell this story his first or second time at my game. We had to pester the story out of him.

I think that Bruiser makes most of his money in the fall and winter taking sports bets, on football and hoops, but I have no proof of this. Pure speculation on my part, and I'm betting the farm on him not being much of a blog-reader.

So, when Bruiser told me he was considering staking me, I took notice. This was long before the Captain Tom/Brandi/Dutch saga got out, but even before that sordid tale, I had my head on straight.

During this time, Bruiser had been coming before my cashgames and tourneys started, and used my Full Tilt account to play $20 and $30 sng's. He bought in with cash, I let him play, and if he monied, I paid him in cash. He bring a case of beer, we'd drink, he'd play, and I'd give my two cents if he asked. He asked a lot. I'd tell him what I thought was the right play, and why.

He's probably played more than 20 sng's while I've watched. I think he's slightly better than even money at this point. Skipper seems to think he's skewing my sharkscope numbers.

But, I've been talking poker with Bruiser for a while. And my play in the last several months, and that guidance, have impressed him.

The original talk of the stake was me at the $500NL level in a cashgame. Then, $200NL. By the time we actually went, he wanted me to start at a $100NL table. Let's just say I'm very comfortable at this level, and it fits my bankroll just fine. But if he wants to see how I'll do in a casino setting before moving up, I'm fine with that.

I started with $100 of Bruiser's money at a $100 NL table. I ran it up to $260, and walked away at about midnight. Our split was straightforward - return whatever stake to Bruiser, and split the proceeds 50/50. I asked him directly about me losing his money. If I bust out, I owe him nothing.

At one point, he said something about there being no downside for me. I wanted to impress upon him that I would take his bankroll very seriously, and do my absolute best. "Bruiser, I can't put a dollar value on me being able to play on your bankroll. I want to do well because I always try to play my best poker. Most importantly, there's an opportunity cost associated with me playing on your roll. I want to win you money so that you feel confident about us moving up in stakes. I win, we move up, I win us more money."

After last Thursday's cashgame, Bruiser wanted to stake me for a $20 sng on FT. I figured "hey why not?" and played. With Bruiser watching, asking me a few questions, I won the sng. $90 to us.

"Let it ride."

$50 sng, coming up! Even though it started at 245am, I finished 2nd in that one, for $135. Had it not been so late, Bruiser would've had me play a $100 sng.

So I told him about the sng's at Commerce Casino before/during the LA Poker Classic in January. I mentioned that it's a bit over my bankroll to play multiple $120 sng's. LAPC could be a very interesting time.

If you'll remember, this is the series of events where Ryan made his first big splash.

Perhaps nothing will come of Bruiser staking me. The best case scenario is that he stakes me to a few $120's. I win enough $500 tourney chips where Bruiser says "Let it ride. Play a tourney."

Lately, I've been on a heater, especially where live tourneys are concerned. I'm keeping focused. Maybe nothing comes of all of this. But the tiny chance that I'm gonna blow up in 2007 has me very excited.

One day, I'll write something worth reading.

2006-12-29T05:32:00.000-08:00

Somewhere, there's a cool post, jumbled in my brain. It involves a guy named Bruiser, football wagers, sit 'n goes, and the LA Poker Classic.

I'd write, but I'm really tired now.

Oh, and mad props to Yosoy, Smokkee, and Love Elf. I thoroughly enjoyed the drinking and cards. NL razz rocks!!

Quickie

2006-12-21T18:08:00.000-08:00

Bruiser's coming over early to play on Full Tilt, so I figured I'd take this brief time to update.

It feeels like I'm the bubble king in smallish MTT's. I've finished 21st and 20th in two recent $4 180-man sng's, losing a three way race (first in vigorish with KQc!) against 55 and 99, and then running queens into rockets. But I'm playing well, so that's nice. Oh, and I monied in a $5 LO8 rebuy tourney on Stars for $25. It feels like I have a good grasp of that game, and excellent results as far as getting into the money. In this particular tourney, Skip sweated my play and we concluded that I play the turn way too aggressively when I'm in position. I need to slow down a little. ITM and a lesson learned? Nice.

~~

The Badugi tourney this past Sunday was fun, for me at least, even though I bubbled. Our Sunday tourneys are seasonal. We play three regular season NL tourneys, have a limit HORSE tourney, then three more regular season NL tourneys. Whoever has the most points at the end of the first six NL tourneys picks the next non-NL tourney. This season, it was me.

After the last Championship tourney where I busted out early, Bruiser, Skipper, Forty and I played a Badugi limit sng. I won, and we had fun. I thought a PL Badugi tourney would be interesting.

Cruel is more like it. It's a sick game, with plenty of action, and huge pots contested at low blind levels, even pot-limit. I took one dumb risk, attempting to bust Albert with two draws to a five-low against his obviously made hand. I double-bricked, and he ended up cruising on those chips to HU with Yosoy, who fought gamely, but couldn't overcome.

~~

The big upcoming event is TonyD's $50 Deepstack tourney this Saturday. I'm gonna be late, but Yosoy, Smokkee, and Love Elf will be playing. I might just bring a notepad to watch Smoke in action. I imagine that his style is nothing like mine, and I know I can learn a few things.

~~

Oh, and I signed up for pokersourceonline's instant bankroll for Absolute poker. When I spoke to the PSO rep on the phone, it sounded like I wasn't going to be able to get the free bankroll, as I had done the same with Titan. I reminded the rep that Titan no longer accepted US players. He spoke briefly with his supervisor, then gave me the go-ahead. Free money, it's-a nice!

Now is the time for a bunch of retarded shit

2006-12-14T02:02:00.000-08:00

It's 2am, and I'm a bottle of Sangiovese deep.

I love poker, in part, because I tilt far less than the average player. I consider myself mentally stronger than the average player. I'm looking specifically at Skipper, a teenager from my homegame. The same guy that taught me the basics of limit holdem, tilts like you would not believe. And I can't believe the situations that set him off.

For the longest time, I've tried to provide him with some Tilt Control. My mantra is "That Bad Player just tried to give me a large chunk of chips. The river card favored him, so he failed in his quest. So long as I keep putting myself in a good position, I will continue to give the Bad Player opportunities to give me chips. The mathematics of poker dictate that eventually, the Bad Player will succeed in giving them to me."

Last evening, Skip and I played in the same 180-man sng on Stars. I ran up a nice stack to start with, and had a few hands go against me as play proceeded. I used my HoH knowledge to play intelligently. Eventually, I had to jam my 6xBB stack with KQ-clubs. I was called by a stack almost as small as mine, then reraised by the table chipleader. I was against 55 and 99. I figured that was as nice as I could've hoped for. I still bricked, and finished 20th when 18 paid. Mister 55 was the bubble boy.

I had played the tourney well, but wasn't too out of sorts by my bustout.

Skip remained, and prospered. I advised him, and kept his head right when he got outdrawn.

He made it to heads-up. $4 tourney, and he's got $140 in his hand, playing for $210 or something.

He lost the HU matchup, against a player who wasn't very good.

He tilted off $50 in a cashgame right after that.

I can't quite get my head around his tilt, even though I've seen it on numerous occasions.

~~

Future post: In my Sunday seasonal tourney, I am the points leader. In six tourneys, I've finished 8th, 7th, 1st, 1st, 3rd, and 2nd. With 10+ per tourney, that's a pretty good string. I'm the host and banker, so I keep stats on the tourneys. This season, I decided to tally the rebuys. After six weeks, I'm the leader in total profit, and rebuys. Me. The tight guy. Apparently I'm incredibly easy to stack in the rebuy phase, but insanely tough to stack afterward. Or the cards have gone my way, repeatedly, after the first hour.

~~

If anybody is looking for me, I'm HP Drifter on Full Tilt, and Statham on Stars. The fun part... if you see HPD on Full Tilt on Thursday or Sunday, in the early evening, it's probably not me. Some of the guys from my homegame have taken to showing up early for my game, paying me cash, and playing $22 and $33 sng's under my name on Full Tilt. Chill and Bruiser are currently positive for my account.

I do this because I'm nice, and because I figure those two aren't very good at sng's. They pay me in cash, which I keep if they lose. If they win, I pay them in cash.

Last Thursday, for instance, Bruiser showed up at my place more than an hour early, drunk. This is not new for Bruiser, who hasn't had a 9-5 job in a long time. He put his case of Sam Adams in my fridge, and started playing on my account on FT.

His results: first, second, fourth, eighth, fourth. In between, he donked off two buy-ins at my cashgame. At the very end, he wanted to move up to the $33 sng. Had he not monied, I would've been slightly up, cash on hand. He ended up winning it, and I had to pay him out $140 or so.

I just won a single-table, and double-table sng, on FT, which inched my account up over a grand for the first time ever.

If this keeps up, I'll be partially cashing out of FT.

Tilt-tastic

2006-12-05T23:29:00.000-08:00

I was invited to a shorthanded game last night at Jesse's place. This is the same Jesse that still owes money to some of the people from my homegame (Derek and Russ, if I recall correctly) from our Vegas trip in July.

Word to the wise - don't loan money to jobless people when in Vegas. Sorry, Mr Subliminal.

Tim busted out, Steve tripled up and took a nap, leaving a half hour of heads-up goodness.

Me, the OC's rock of Gibraltar, versus Jesse, who never met a hand he didn't like. When we started, I had $16, with blinds at 25/50 cents. When it ended a half hour later, and I had $42. I had a chance to stack him for a $16 pot, my ATo vs his 65o. He flopped a pair, I turned a better one, he rivered two pair.

Somewhere in the middle, as the frustration mounted for him, he asked "Do you even know how to play heads-up?"

"Nope." (another pot goes my way)

It's very nice to beat somebody soundly, heads-up, who doesn't respect your style of play.

Ok, fine, a poker post

2006-12-04T05:05:00.000-08:00

Ok, it's time for an actual poker post.

First order of events... I'm going to miss the Blogger Vegas Thingy, and I'm sad about this. At the time I needed to request off of work, my company was in turmoil, and I was broke. Now that the Thingy approaches, I have almost enough money to take a weekend off (and miss my prime money-making shifts), but I can't request the days off, nor get replacements for my shifts (nor probably a decent room at the inn).

~

Seriously, I have a plan to update my blogroll. There are awesome people I read on a regular basis, but I've never mentioned them. If you're reading this, you've probably read them.

~

Smokkee and Blinders are probably brilliant Orange Co. poker players, and I've never played their live tourney. I need to correct this. If Speaker can drive for hours, 15 mph at a time, I can make the trek.

~

In the last three Sunday homegame tourneys I've hosted, I've finished first, first and third in fields of 12+. Naturally, my best play came in the tourney I didn't win.

~

In sorta-poker news, I took a few weekdays off next week. Six weeks ago, I thought my brother would be out at Mammoth by now. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. He's the family's Mysterious One. Doesn't answer email, has no cell phone. Fairly nomadic existence, too, and I'm pretty sure he likes it that way.

Why is this poker news? If my brother doesn't call me tomorrow, I might be spending Tues-Thursday at Hawaiian Gardens or Commerce, attempting to beat bad players at low limits. $100 NL, $4/8 limit, and/or $3/6 Omaha/8. Oh yeah!!

Google spreadsheets

2006-11-30T16:48:00.000-08:00

It's probably not related to the blogger/google change, but a friend of mine showed me Google Spreadsheets.

It looks a lot like Excel, but you can publish your spreadsheet so that others can view it as a webpage. For instance, here's the blind structure we used for our live HORSE tourney.

I'm excited about using this thing to make the Tustin Rounders website look purty (and informative!). And now all of the regulars will be able to see exactly how the points are looking in our seasonal rankings.

Times, They Are A-Changin'

2006-11-02T00:23:00.000-08:00

I don't have a handle on wtf is going on, anywhere.

My cashouts processed, and I have checks coming to my door. The general manager at work got fired today, and she was beloved. Several people took it hard. There were no actual tears shed, but more than one person was misty-eyed when they heard about it. I truly appreciated the district manager staring at me when she broke the news to me. I wanted to tell her, "Pardon me, but I play poker. You can't read my reaction to Kelly's firing from my face. If you'd like to know, I'm a bit surprised, disappointed, and upset about it."

Kelly was a good manager, and not the sum total of what was wrong at our restaurant, but apparently she's the scapegoat. At least two coworkers have quit in protest. Interestingly, they were bartenders. I'll miss Kelly, but I'm not about to quit. So I stand to benefit from the fall-out, so long as the Powers That Be don't decide that all the bartenders need to be swept out. If I stay, I'll be the senior bartender, and I'll see more bartender shifts than anybody else. If I had my way, I'd have two days off a week, and all bartender shifts.

If I get canned, I've got that $700 on the way. I'll spend my days at the LA casinos, grinding. $4/8 limit holdem, $3/6 limit Omaha8 full kill, and some $100 NL. Laugh all you want, but I'll give it a shot for at least a little while.

Either way, I live in interesting times. Either I'll be bartending almost exclusively, or I'll be canned and I'll play live poker on a daily basis at the lowest levels.

Wish me luck, or common sense.

Time for a cashout

2006-10-26T16:06:00.000-07:00

I just finished asking both Party and Titan to mail me a check for the full amount of my bankroll. I'm curious to see which one arrives first. Being a blind optimist, I'm assuming each transaction will be processed without problems. I'll wait for you to stop laughing before continuing.

Oh, and I still don't have a Neteller account, and see no reason to get one. I had stupidly hoped that the fact I've never used Neteller or any other intermediary would allow me to fly under the radar of the UIGEA. My ignorance needs to be corrected. I just now noticed skimmed a few docs on the PPA's website, and physical checks are also verboten. I still have playable rolls at Full Tilt, Stars, and UB.

The sum total of the Party/Titan exodus will a bit over $700. I started on Party with a hand from my Mystery Backer, and Poker Source Online threw me a free $50 to start up on Titan.

I love you, MB and PSO. I hate you, Bill Frist.

My plan for those seven Benjamins is a self-contained casino bankroll, with an eye towards a $1500 NL event at next year's WSOP. Gas to the casino, food/tips while there, and actual poker play will be contained. And I won't take anything out of the roll.

State of Affairs

2006-10-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

So much here and there, but no actual posting from me. This post will be an ugly Frankenstein-like mash-up of what I've been up to. Hide your eyes, children.

So without further ado..

It's a good thing that my first $30 sng on Party locked in profit for my Mystery Backer. In sng #2, I ran into a strong hand while six-handed and busted. In my third attempt, I saw the CO raise, the button call, and I held JJ in the small blind. I tripled the CO's bet. The cutoff folded like a good boy, but the button jammed. Huh? You really have a hand that beats jacks, and you smoothcalled on the button rather than reraise to isolate when you had the chance? I call. Oh, aces. Well played, sir. Eighth place for me.

In between my win and my second attempt, I had a fun time with Party's lobby. Specifically, I learned to hate it. Seriously, you couldn't find a sophomore comp-sci major to design a better, more easily navigable lobby? You can't take a hint from how useful Full Tilt's lobby is?

I suppose my rant is misguided. I was attempting to enter another $30 sng on Party, and got my wish. On the second hand, I flopped trip tens on a scary board, and wanted to bet the pot, only to figure out that I had actually signed up for a $30 LIMIT sng. Good job, Drifter. As I was playing, I gave my Mystery Backer a heads-up. After I won, we talked. He was sympathetic... then I told him that I actually won it. Benevolence beyond belief, he insisted that profit was mine, as I had agreed to play three NL sng's for him. His reasons for staking me included his desire to see me start up a playable bankroll on Party, and that win went a long way to giving me some breathing room. The end result looks like a $26 profit for my Backer, and a $140 starting 'roll on Party for me. Good times.

We've also agreed that I'll play in a $22 MTT, 50/50 on the entry fee, and 50/50 on the profit, if any. I'll be playing in a $40K guarantee as soon as I have the time. As a warmup, I beat half the field in a $2 MTT, to get a feel for the blind structure.

~~

Live play's been a mixed bag. Besides that win at Tony's three weeks ago, I've had a tough time getting near the money in our Wednesday and Sunday night tourneys. The last two Sundays have seen me exit with my overpair no good against a set.

Small loss. Medium win. Small loss. Medium win. That's the way cashgames have felt for me lately. I feel like I'm playing better than my results would indicate. But it's been fun.

~~

The past two Fridays, I've headed to Hawaiian Gardens with my roommate, who used to practically live there. My first attempt was sitting with him at a $20 max, $1/1 blinds, NL table. The rake is huge compared to the stakes, but the players are so bad and so loose-passive preflop as to at least partially make up for it. I ended that session down $32, but it was worth it, watching my roommate dominate the table with his loose-aggressive style.

A gambly-fish on my left had built up his stack to about $125, mostly on the disturbing multi-way hand where he rivered his gutshot straight on the river, calling bets the whole way. Two all-ins before the river, and two people betting top pair... everybody paid him. And glared at him. Nice wheel, sir.

My roommate Jeff had built up his stack to about $150 by getting all his medium-strength hands paid. His reads were pretty good, and it was plain that he was the aggressor and table captain.

Then, like a page out of High Stakes Poker, a raising war ensued preflop between the only two guys with 100+ BB's in front of them. A small opening raise from Gambly-Fish, and a 3-4x reraise from Jeff. Gambly-Fish made it $35, and Jeff went all-in. With little thought, Gambly-Fish called, and tabled his kings. Sure enough, Jeff had aces. Unlike Farha and Greenstein, the kings didn't win. Jeff ended up cashing out for something sick, +$250 or so.

I had my revenge on HG the next week. I decided to sit at the wild 'n crazy $3/6 Omaha8 game. I had heard that it was a wild game, but if you draw to strong hand and don't tilt, you can do well.

Nobody told me was that it was a full kill game. And that the kill pot was activated every time one person scooped a $50+ pot. I sat down, folded my first hand, then watched 5 consecutive kill pots. I thought I was buying into a $3/6 game, and wasn't mentally prepared for the $6/12 kill pots. I bought in for $200, with another Benjamin in reserve, but I was still concerned the game was a little over my means. Until I scooped my first kill pot. Put me up $40. I took a deep breathe, posted my $6, and folded my trash on the next flop.

I quickly noticed that there were smart players at my table, and idiots. Luckily, they had segregated themselves so as to be easily recognizeable. The three guys on my left were two rocks who drew *only* to the nuts, and another decent player. Everybody on my right was showing down 7-high flush draws and 5-2's for low. They were decidely fishy, playing poor draws too far. I had a few hands were I had a good draw, but not to the nuts (queen high flush draw, A3/A4 for low). My yardstick was who was in the pot with me. If I had two of the guys on my left in, I folded my non-nut draw. If they were out, I drew. It worked very well.

I was up about $60-70 when The Hand happened. It was a kill pot, with me in EP with A346, suited in diamonds to the 6. Six callers around to the SB, who raised. Somebody on my left (who called originally) made it three bets on what looked like a spite-reraise. Sure enough, it ended up capped with six people to the flop. $140+ in the pot, K-T-6 rainbow, one diamond. It was checked around, and the button bet. One pair, backdoor draws at a price of 15-1? I'm buying. The turn was a 4. I got a distinct impression from the checking on the flop that nobody had flopped a set, or even top two. Two bets on the turn, and five people to the river card, with the tight guys on my left all folded. The river was another 6. Konichi Wa!!!

They check, I bet, one caller, and the two people that are already all-in see my boat. And are forced to hear my exclamation, "I'm the luckiest player ever!" when I table my hand. What can I say, I'm a retard when I win a huge multi-way pot. SCOOP!

I heard a whisper of "only a six on the flop?". And I got an "Aiyaaah!" from the dealer.

Shortly after that, an insanely abrasive woman sat down next to me, so I left. The thought of her still pisses me off, and I don't want to write about it. I've never had someone annoy me so thoroughly in such a short time. My roommate was about done with his adventures in micro-NL, so we left. I was up $147 at the Rollercoaster Omaha game.

I'm very aware that next time, this volatile game might hand me my lunch, but I'll be back!

~~

One of the kids at my game, Skip, has talked me into playing a $3 Stars Limit Omaha8 MTT on three seperate occasions. I've tallied a 90th, a 17th, and a 7th. Two money finishes in three tries, against even bad players, feels nice. And a final table against 200+ is always satisfying, even I get my shit handed to me holding A26x on a 443 flop. Capping everywhere, everybody had A2xx, and the guy with the 4 scooped. Good game.

It was a shame I didn't take Skip up on his last-longer bet.

Score one for the Mystery Backer

2006-09-21T01:52:00.000-07:00

My homegame's a pretty cool affair. The cashgame on Thursday, and the rebuy tourney on Sunday are generally well-attended. We talk a lot of poker. Neagreanu flopping the nuts during High Stakes Poker and getting beat, or Molina being a little bitch during the WSOP..

Recently, I had a regular at the game marvel at the fact that I've never played for real money at Party Poker. I'm not one to ask too many questions, but I'd imagine he's flush with cash. Why? He offered to stake me on Party. His proposal: I receive $99 on Party, and play three $30+3 single table sng's. At the end of those three sng's, I'd return the $99 to the Mystery Backer, and keep 50% of any profit (if it existed). If I went busto, it was on the MB. If I turned that $99 into something less, I'd return what I could. I actually argued for five $20+2's, but he was adamant about the $30 level.

My Mystery Backer wants to remain anonymous. There are plenty of players in my game with more skills and ego than bankroll, and MB doesn't want to have to field questions. I'm fine with that, and more than a little flattered that he'd pick me.

Why me? Well, MB thinks my tight, fundamentally sound style is a good fit for the insanity that is Party sng's. I cut my teeth on $5 sng's, and I have a decent understanding of short-stack play. I'm patient, and bad players and tough beats don't tilt me. I have a pretty good grasp of short-handed and bubble play. I'm perfectly happy limping a short-stack into the money, rather than busting on the bubble in a big confrontation.

It's fairly obvious why I would accept this deal. I have no money on Party, nor a Neteller/Firepay account. I don't have any spare cash to put into another online site. I have plenty of options - UB, Full Tilt, Titan, and I can't forget my nine bucks on bodog. For every site out there, I play all the money I have there like it's the last I'll ever have. Nine on bodog, one hundred on Stars, or eight hundred on Full Tilt? If it's gone, I'm done with the site. (As an aside, this is the main reason I don't play more blogger events on Stars. For the longest time, I lacked any sort of bankroll there.)

Tonight was the transfer. My Backer wanted to watch me play a tourney, so I obliged. I sat in a $30+3 standard sng, and played. I was absolutely shocked that the fiirst hand I played, I won, especially because I was semi-bluffing on the flop and turn. UTG with AQ-clubs, I make a modest 2.5x the BB raise. Four callers, yay, and I flop a multi-draw. Broadway and the nut flush draw. I fire a bet, and three drop. The turn is a red baby, and I fire again. The last guy folds, and the pot is mine. Thank you for not making me show down a hand.

I picked up several more chips when I checked top pair to the button on the flop, turn and river. With 32s, the button couldn't help but bluff at it multiple times. When checking induces bluffs, it's a beautiful thing.

Play is insanely fast in these sng's. Before I knew it, we were down to 4, and I was third in chips. I had plenty, so I was looking to buckle down, and money. With my backer watching, I was not about to donk out of this thing on the bubble. The other players obliged, with the big stack knocking out the smallest one. In the money, oh yeah...

The big stack then busted the 3rd place finisher, QJs vs AQo. Your jack is good, luckbox.

14K to 6K heads-up with the BB at 400? No problem. Feel free to double me up on a gutshot semibluff when I have top pair. You let me have the chiplead for one hand, and refused to let your K7o go in the face of my all-in reraise. I had A8o, and it ended up winning the whole tourney. Done and done.

First pays $150 in these things. In one shot, my Mystery Backer recouped all of his investment. Even if I donk out of sng's #2 and #3, I've still made my sugar daddy some cash.

At the end of this, I'm guaranteed to have at least a pittance of my own money on Party. And that's pretty cool. The journey is nice too.

The big blind fights back

2006-09-15T02:58:00.000-07:00

Twelve players to start the Dana Point tourney, in freezeout format. Tony says "Drifter, I don't like our table." The lineup goes: Tony, Fish, Albert, Barker, me, Unluckiest Guy. UG is a solid player, but always seems to get sucked out on. Barker is my roommate, and insanely good at cash game play and reads. Tony and Albert have won plenty on Stars and FT, respectively. Basically, I'm looking at UG and Fish as my ATM's.

I start by flopping middle set against top pair against Fish. We're sixhanded, and it's 5 to the flop on this hand when the button makes a small raise and I call from the SB with pocket nines. (I don't like reraising to isolate, this early in the tourney with a pair as vulnerable as 9's.) I check the flop in the dark, and the flop comes Q-9-6. Nobody bets behind my blind check, but I bet the blank turn. Fish and his KQ called, then called my river valuebet. I didn't bust him, but I did put a serious hurting on his stack.

I stuck around, and chipped up, then down. The final table was 8, and my stack was slightly above par. I had Tony two seats on my right, and Albert directly on my left. I wondered how difficult my play in my blinds was going to be. I noticed the obvious chipleader was directly across from me, which I figured would keep me from messing with him. If either of us raised the other's blinds, we probably had a legit hand.

And then it began. I became a reraise monster. Everybody knows me as a tight player, one whose big blind can be had. The cards conspired with me, to revolt against the thieves.

"Reraise. All-in."

Big slick twice, queens once, and AJsuited. The only time I was called, Tony had talked himself into calling with his two live undercards and dwindling stack. He was right, his 53o was live to my AKo. The five was the first card off the deck, and the ace followed. It's quite a feeling to hear a collective "aw", followed immediately by a louder "aw". Maybe it's not an "aw"... it's a combination of "aw" "wow" and "hah". I'll have to listen closer next time.

Even though I was playing my cards out of the big blind, it felt to me like I was playing strong, aggressive poker. So I kept it up. I had a slowly, steadily increasing chip stack and a great feeling about the table. I kept far away from the chipleader's stack, and beat up on everybody else.

Four-handed was bubble time. I had Al on my left, chipleader Mike in front of me, and a vicodan-addled Kyle on my right. When we started 4-handed play, I had precisely 25% of the chips in play. I had a par chipstack.

Fast-forward about 45 minutes. Imagine rarely seeing a river card, let alone a showdown. At about that point, I had almost half the chips in play. And we were still four-handed!

So how'd that happen? When 4-handed began, it became fairly obvious that Michael wasn't going to play the table bully, and was very interested in coasting into the money. Albert and Kyle were unable to pick up legit hands. Kyle wasn't aggressively raising the blinds, and Albert was too shortstacked to make a move.

So that left me to react. Kyle would give me a walk in my big blind half the time, and I raised Michael's blind from the button at least 80% of the time. Albert said later on the ride home that he auto-raised every time I folded my button. So Michael kept giving up his big blind without a fight.

Kyle's stack slowly deteriorated, while Albert treaded water because nobody could find a hand to bust him. Michael bled chips waiting for the bubble to pop.

At the time I counted out my chips and realized I had almost half of what was in play, I realized that I had done just about all the stealing I possibly could. The blinds were up, and their stacks were all short - certainly they'd be forced to play back at me with anything useful. And I'm not sure I wanted to double them up while holding 92o.

On cue, Kyle jams, I fold, Albert relucantly calls. Michael folds. Kyle has Al covered by 300 chips. 97o for Kyle, 66 for Al. I had folded a 6, but his pair holds up. Kyle bubbled on the next hand.

In the money, I thought Michael might open up his game... nope. I actually folded a few buttons, electing not to continue to steal Michael's big blind. By this time, Albert had a decent stack, and I figured he was itching to reraise me to take some of the heat off.

I busted Michael when I relented, and raised his BB with K9o. He jammed, but I was getting odds to call if I wasn't dominated. In fact, I was in front of his QJo. I flopped a pair, turned two pair, and he didn't river the gutshot.

Heads-up with Albert was fun, starting with a 60/40 chiplead. We've been playing against each other since I started my homegame two years ago, so we're very familiar with each other.

I remember calling a flop bet on the button, thinking I could take the pot away from Al if I didn't hit my gutshot straight... when the turn brought the straight for me. I smoothcalled his turn bet, then jammed when he checked the river, thinking he had something like two pair and could call. He said later he folded top pair, medium kicker.

I ended it making what Albert thought was a tough call. 9-7-4 two spade flop, and Albert bet into me. I held Q9o with the queen of spades, and called. The 4 was the non-spade. I thought I had a good chance of having the best hand, but I wanted to see a safe turn. What I didn't realize at the time was that the only safe turn cards are nonspade 2's and 3's, and Q's and 9's. I'm not really going to like the rest of the deck. Stacks are getting relatively short, and I probably should've jammed.

The turn was an offsuit 5, and I feel decent about this card. Albert checked, so I bet small, figuring he was just taking a stab at the pot on the flop, and/or missed his draw. Nope. He checkraised me all-in! At this point, the pot is large, but so is his bet. I have him covered, but if I lose, he's got a 5-1 chiplead on me. If I fold, he's still got the lead, but it's 3-2 or so.

Into the tank I go. I could be drawing dead here. He does bet his draws often, and there's a chance he just hit his OESD. Something like a pair-plus-flush/straight draw is also viable. I decide I'm in the lead, but Albert has plenty of outs. I'm a favorite, so I should call.

He only had 5 outs. He had T7, and felt he could bet me out of the pot. He thought his 7 was best because I didn't raise him on the flop - he had put me on a draw. The river bricked, and it was over. I had won a homegame tourney for the first time in months.

My cards were above average, my reads were decent, and I took advantage of the tightness on the bubble to accumulate chips. Not impressive, but it felt pretty good.

A little of this, a lot of nothing

2006-09-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

And we're off to Dana Point to play a garage-kept, quick-structure NL freezeout. The last two bustouts I've had there, gone all-in and the big blind had woken up with aces and kings. Perhaps tonight it'll be queen. Either way, I enjoy it... good group down there. And the host plays in my game plenty. Tony has donated the most after his Sunday tourney wins at my place. He had two wins in a row, and I turned his tips into new copags.

Have played my normal amount live. Drank too much this Sunday during/after the razz tourney I hosted. Understatement of the month. Will speak no more of this.

I haven't played very much online. I've logged two consecutive losing sessions at limit, which is rare for me. I've dabbled in the Stars HORSE ring games, and at the razz tables. When I have playing, I've been focused on building my Stars bankroll. From fifty to almost triple that in a short amount of time. $150 is that danger zone where a bad run (or bad play) can erase everything. I'd hate that. I wanna build up, and move up. Or at least be sufficiently 'rolled for regular play in the Mook.

In the back of my mind, I know I should be focusing at the $20-30 sng's on FT, or the $2/4-$3/6 at Titan, but I haven't. It's like I've always been grinding up from pennies on different sites. My ultimate comfort zone. When and where I focus the most.

Meh. Live play now.

I'm not sure if I've ever played a WWdN

2006-09-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

I have nothing but love for the bloggers that can beat other bloggers in an MTT. I'm not that guy. Blogger MTT's are decidedly -EV for me.

So I'm having a weak moment when Poison shows up and urges me to play in the Wil Wheaton dot Net tourney on Stars. I think the entry was 5% of my bankroll. I log in, and have Wil and several other bloggers at my table. I'm scared. I play tight, and wait for hands.

I busted Hoyazo. This will be the highlight of my week.

I end up 21st out of 52. I was high, drinking beer from the time I got home at 4pm pacific.. Poison was slack, going from chiplead to moderate bitch. Not because I consider Poison a bitch, but because the guy I've got to take over for her is an insane MTT player when he's got a big chiplead. In this case, he was 23rd with 26 remaining. He stuck around, then busted in 21st.

Neither one of us busted in the money. Top 9 paid.

A New Year's Resolution on Labor Day

2006-08-28T04:20:00.000-07:00

I had a talk with the guy I consider my Poker Mentor. As an aside, my mentor is 18 years old, and is a much better poker player than money manager.

"theres a difference between playing right, and playing great"
"and you arent playing great yet"
"you need stones"
"youve got the bankroll and the money management"
"you need to put yourself in a situation where you are scared"
"otherwise you wont be playing your best game"

I've also heard that writing down your goals is a much better way to achieve.

So here we are.

And rather than have me spout reasons about why I'm at where I'm at, it's time to take my shot.

Overall, I'm a slightly profitable poker player, over the course of my career, online and live. Currently, I feel comfortable in the $5/10/26 MTT's. I feel comfortable at $.25/.50 NL. And $1/2 limit holdem. And $5 sng's, HORSE and NL holdem being my favorites. I will play higher, but these are my default settings, if you will.

I do not, and have never had, a grand on any one poker site. I have never won a non-freeroll 100+ person MTT. I've final-tabled HORSE, PLO8, limit and NL holdem though.

~~

My to-do list:

$5/10 limit, on Titan
$1/2 NL, where ever my bankroll is biggest
$30 sng's, on a regular basis
Final table a $26 MTT
Win a $5 or $10 MTT
Play in Event #27 in the '07 WSOP.

I feel I'm on the cusp of doing something great, or ...

(maybe this blog will get a little more interesting in the months to come)

Back from the Lone Star State

2006-08-22T03:30:00.000-07:00

One week off to visit my dad, stepmom, and brothers in Plano, TX. Plano's a nice suburb of Dallas, and I got an earful while I was there about TO, Parcells, and the Cowboys. My dad apparently hates actual music, and so forces us to listen to AM sports-talk radio while we're in the car. I enjoy actively rooting against Jerry Jones.. and the Cowboys.. and TO. It's a shame Parcells had to get himself mixed up in that circus.

Whatever.

My trip was nice. We play cards every night when it's a family get-together, but not holdem. Our family's game is Oh Hell. Rivalry, competition, card smarts... oh yeah, we got that.

For the second consecutive year, my neophyte relatives beat me in the only NL holdem tourney we played. Last year, I believe my youngest brother Rob won it. Again, this year was his time. I got him HU with a chiplead, but he turned a gutshot that surprised me to gain command. I bluffed off a few chips as the blinds increased, and he finished me. I'm proud of him. He hasn't played or read as much as I have, but he still hanging tough on UB, playing in their nickel/dime NL cashgames. I railbirded him during our trip. He was up for the session, but he's got some improving to do. I'm rooting for him.

Another Drifter Family tradition is baseball. Every year, we visit Dad in Texas. Every year, we see a baseball game, live. Usually the Rangers, though one time we visited the Astros.

This time, it was base-brawl. I thought it was amusing that I was following the Angels to Texas. I see them plenty, though my east coast brothers don't. The previous night, Padilla had gotten frustrated and beaned an Angel or two. That night, the Angels fell behind big, early, and never made a run. They did, however, even the beanball score late in the game. The Rangers pitchers waited until there were two outs in the top of the 9th to throw back, Adam Kennedy got plunked with a fastball in the back before charging the mound. Cue the shenanigans.

~~

Looking to avoid a scorching trip to Six Flags Over Texas, I attempted an $8 HORSE satellite MTT. I played well enough, busting within view of the bubble in 19th place out of 102 entrants. Six paid, with three seats awarded to the next days FTOPS HORSE tourney. This guy monied in it. Much respect. I wasn't really thinking ahead. With an eight dollar satellite to a $200 tourney, I didn't realize how top-heavy the prize pool would be. I also didn't realize that I'd have to forgo my brother's trip to Six Flags if I actually won a seat. Upside (upside?) was that I went to Six Flags with my bros, rode a LOT of fast and/or wooden rollercoasters, and cooled myself in the log flume ride. And since school had just started, the park with relatively empty. Which makes up for the fact it was about 102F at a little past noon.

Fun part was teaching my youngest brother the ins and outs of the non-holdem parts of HORSE. He also watched me win a $5 HORSE sng.

I also snuck into the money in a $5 FT mtt. No big deal there, except I was loving the hand I had my brother sweat me.

QQ UTG more than an hour into the tourney. I throw out a standard 3x BB raise, and the guy right next to me calls. Folds around.

I tell my brother, "I don't think he's got aces, kings, or ace-king suited. He'd reraise to isolate me with so many people behind us. I think he's got a medium-big pocket pair."

The flop was 8-8-6 with two diamonds. "That's a good flop for queens. But it's an even better flop for the hand I put him on. If he had nines, and I check to him, he HAS to bet. And I think that him betting will pot-commit him. I'm taking a risk by checking if he has AK of diamonds, but I don't think he does."

I check. He bets 60% of what he has left. I tell my brother, "Damn, I'm pretty sure he has tens or nines right here. If I'm wrong and he has sixes, it'll be pretty funny."

I jam. He calls. He shows tens. You can't put a price on the look my brother gave me as he high-fived me after the turn and river bricked. Bobby Bracelet loves check-raising douchebags, and I've gotta admit, it feels pretty fucking sweet.

I'm rooting for my bro to keep up the good work at UB, and learn as he goes. I'm not great at poker, but I love talking poker with him.

~~

Sunday night was a blast. Week 4 of our tournament season. On the second flop I saw, I called a small raise with KxQd and flopped top two pair, K-Q-2 with two diamonds. Albert checked, I bet 2/3 the pot, and Quagmire raised me 3x. Albert started bitching about how he was going to checkraise me. At this point, I loved the respect I'm getting.... I'm the tight guy, remember? After his spiel, Albert folded. I thought about how Quagmire's played big draws in the rebuy phase before. In a word.. strong. So, I figure, let's see a safe card, then proceed. The turn was another Q. Yeah, safe card. With a boat, there's no need to scare him off.. "Check."

He bets 800, I have 2700 left, so I jam, figuring the pot is plenty large and a check-call would look really suspicious. He calls quickly, stating, "I have a boat."

Wow. It isn't unless this instant that I figure out.. he flopped a set of twos. I have the queen of diamonds, so how can he call my all-in checkraise with the JT-diamonds?

Yup, deuces for Quagmire. Boat over boat, and I've doubled up in the rebuy phase.

I didn't actually intend to sit on my chips, and I did bleed some away seeing flops later on, but that was the only medium/large pot I won in the rebuy phase. It was plenty.

~~

Albert had his ass handed to him this Sunday. After my double-up, I settled back looking for good pots to play. I didn't find much. What I did have, was Albert on my right and Quagmire on my left going to WAR on three consecutive hands.

Perhaps it was just my imagination, but I'm pretty sure Quagmire checkraised Albert on three consecutive hands in the rebuy phase. It was brutal. It was poetry.

On the third checkraise, the flop was A-K-x. Quagmire checked, Albert bet, Quagmire raised all-in. Albert thought, wavered, and called, showing KT. I shook my head.

Yeah. Quagmire had top two... ace-king.

Upside for Albert was that he owned Forty Ounce in the rebuy phase. Get chips from Forty, get checkraised by Quagmire. After all that asswhipping, Albert didn't have to rebuy.

So the rebuy phase ends, and Albert is not well. Sure, his chipstack is fine, but his mental state is not.

~~

100/200/25 ante. Albert's had a rough go in the 75/150 blind level, losing every hand he's played. He raises to 600 UTG+1. I'm right behind him with black queens, and repop it to 1500. Everybody clears out, and he calls.

Which I find odd, as he started the hand with 4500. I've got more than twice that, and position, so I'm feeling pretty good. His lack of a preflop jam tells me queens is the best hand at the moment. The flop is interesting: K-T-3, all clubs. Ok, so I have the best hand, or the best draw, unless Albert has AcKx. But I don't think he does, because more often than not, he'd jam with that preflop. I'm a tight player, and while my preflop raises don't always get respect, my preflop reraises are all business.

He checks. I think. Albert could have AKo, with the ace of clubs, or no club. He could also have a medium-high pair. If he had tens, and flopped a set, it would be odd for him to check to me, just in case I had AQ-clubs, or the AK with the ace of clubs. If he had aces with the ace of clubs, it's a very interesting play. With the cards and the information I now have, I like where I am, and I figure I want to postpone a decision until I see one more card.

The turn is a red wheel card. Albert again checks. I figure one check is fine, another is just giving away free cards. I fire out what should look like a probe bet of 1200. Albert thinks, and checkraises all-in. This check-raise doesn't surprise me at all. I figure this is a very odd way to play any hands that beat me, with the exception of AxAc. I'm prepared to double him up if he's played aces into my queens like this.

He looks a little sad as I say "call." Before he flips his cards over, I tell him, "You've got jacks, don't you?"

Jd, Jc. I have the best hand and the best draw. The river is a club, and my flush beats his. The afternoon beers I drank were talkative... "Who's good at this game?!?"

It's probably wrong how good it makes me feel to narrow an opponent to a small range of hands, be right, and win a big hand.

Oh, and while I monied in the tournament, Poker Poison was still around for heads-up, though she was foiled in her attempt at a win.

Larry Flynt's Donkey Hunt

2006-08-05T00:05:00.000-07:00

Joe Speaker has the write-up. I have just a little bit to add.

He's right. I probably am the tightest player in OC. I figured with the one blind, tight was right. After all, if I only have to pay $4 per rotation, instead of $6, I should play a little tighter than normal. And normal for me varies from moderately tight to squeaky-tight.

So folded, and called a few times preflop. My first raise was with the suited hammer, 72 diamonds. The flop was nice enough, 532 with two hearts. After a few checks, I bet out, then thanked Emily (Glyphic's SO) for raising. I figure I should pretend to have aces here, and I appreciated the protection. Glyphic was having none of it, and called two bets cold anyway. I was a bit scared.

I felt better when the offsuit 7 hit. Two pair, with the hammer? Pretty sweet. I bet into Emily, and again she raised me. Again Glyphic called two bets cold, so now I was officially scared. *call* The river was an offsuit six, and we checked around. Perhaps Glyphic was trapping the obvious newbie donk (me), with his backdoored straight. He had T4-hearts, and Emily had flopped a set of 5's. I was behind the whole way, but at least saved a bet on the river.

The next hand I raised was the AK-diamonds hand. It was capped either 3- or 4-way preflop. The flop was K-T-T. Emily bet out.

What do I know about Emily? She's Glyphic's pupil, and I've seen her be very aggressive, even more than her cards dictate. I've also seen her not fold when it was very likely she was beaten. She can definitely bet out with a hand I can beat here.

I raise.

Uber-Tilt three-bets. Oh boy, I'm beat.

Emily calls, and I'm getting roughly 18-1 odds to improve my hand. I call.

The turn is another K. Board reads T-T-K, K. Emily bets again. I mentally slap myself for chopping the pot with Emily. Surely, she's got a king too, and my kicker doesn't matter now.

I raise. Uber-tilt calls. Whaaaa? And Emily does too. Seriously, who has the other king here?

The river is the case king. OMG. Apparently, *I* have the other king here. I've probably cracked Emily's aces on the turn. More interestingly, do we have a jackpot here? If Uber-Tilt has quad tens, we do. Daaaaamn.

Emily bets, I raise (because I can't just call with quads, for cryin out loud), and they both call. Emily has JJ (not playing the board!), and I see a ten in Uber-tilt's hand!

And a facecard.

Crap. No jackpot. JTo for Uber-tilt, and I scoop a monstah.

~~~

My favorite hand (pictured second, because I can't get blogger to do what I want it to.) This is the Tilt Hand.

If you'll notice the board, it's got two diamonds, and it would make a black, offsuit QT the current nuts. At this point, there's some raising going on. Uber-Tilt has the QT, and Speaker has the nut flush draw. Diamond, diamond on the turn and river, and UT still asks Speaker if he has a flush. I'm an idiot, but I'd know my straight was no good by that point. UT calls, UT fumes. GG, sanity.

~~

And here's Indian Poker. (or, if blogger still isn't cooperating, it's the 1st pic in the post).

Alan has folded and looks amused. Geek had the same hand I did, 98 offsuit. F-Train is a true pimp poker bully. Yes, that is a deuce he's showing.

I hate you right now, $26 token races

2006-07-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

I'm in a slump as far as the $26 token sng's are concerned. The Peep Races, as they are also known, have shut me out for roughly the last seven attempts. I'm oh-for my last seven? WTF? Didn't these used to be insanely soft six months ago?

Today was supposed to be the slumpbuster.

Five-handed, I'm 3rd or 4th in chips. Everybody has a comfortable amount, and we've been playing for a while. Fifth place gets a few bucks, top four get the tokens.

77 in the CO, one caller from the blinds, whom I have covered. He jammed, roughly pot-sized, on the 992 flop. I simply couldn't put him on a higher pocket pair. I smelled a stop 'n go. I called.

He shows me AQo, and it feels nice to be right about his hand. Turn 9, river Q. Ok, not so nice. I'm crippled, and out the next hand when my K9o gets owned by a set of 3's.

Blargh. I felt I played pretty darn well in this one, and I'm pretty sure that laying down those sevens would've been a mistake, anchoring me firmly in 5th place, staring at the red/orange zone borderline.

What not to do: pocket kings

2006-07-24T04:32:00.000-07:00

If you'd like strategy posts, you'll want to read other bloggers. If you want to read anti-strategy posts, I'm probably your guy. I can't tell you what you should do in a given situation, but I can clearly and definitively outline what an awful move would look like.

Exhibit A, early/mid-point of a tourney, 12 out of 17 players remaining:

You've just lost 50% of your chips, when a tight player bluffed you off of top pair (stupid KQ), when the following hand comes up.

You hold KK in the small blind at a 6-handed table. An unpredictable, fundamentally unsound, and possibly legally insane opponent minraises to 600.

You have a little more than 4K in chips, and elect to min-reraise. Why? Because minreraising feels good, because stupid equals comforting. UFUPLI opponent calls.

The flop is J-8-7, rainbow. A bystander who's seen you play a bunch before, and enjoys retarded plays, suggests you should minbet, as a followup to your stellar minraise. You agree, and bet 300. UFUPLI opponent calls. At this point, his range of hands is any two cards 6 or higher, or any suited hearts/clubs/diamonds. You are an idiot for not betting more to protect your hand.

The turn is an ace. With 2K+ in the pot, and 2500 in your stack, you elect to check. Brilliant move.

Your UFUPLI opponent moves all in, quickly. Just as quickly, you call. No, don't stop to think about it. You showed weakness, your opponent overbet, there's a very good chance you have the best hand at this point. After all, you can beat any flopped one pair hand.

Of course he had the ace. Smart players might attempt to bet smaller, to entice a call, but he probably realizes you're an idiot, and a big bet would accomplish his goal of getting all your chips.

He shows you A9o. The river is no help. You stand up, and ask your roommate for a beer.

Trying something new

2006-07-21T04:42:00.000-07:00

Wow, that was nuts. The black table was a loose, insane NL holdem game tonight. The red table? NL single-draw deuce to seven (aka lowball), and then spread-limit Badugi, 10/20 cent blinds, 20/100 cent spread. I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've ever played a Badugi cashgame. The only other time I've ever played it was right after I learned about it, I visited Oklahoma Jeff out in Havasu, and we played it, heads-up, pot-limit.

Then back to the black table for NL holdem, live straddles allowed. In our world, live straddles can be any amount, because hey, it's no-limit. 10/20 cent blinds, $20 max buy-in, and we each had at least $60 in front of us, four-handed at three in the morning. I think the biggest live straddle was $3.20 - Tarheel outdoing Skipper's $3 straddle on the previous hand.

And... now to sleep.

For Peyton

2006-07-19T17:38:00.000-07:00

I posted a message on my homegame's messageboard today about the For Peyton ebay auctions. I think The Poison is the only one that actually knows I blog, so I wanted to get the word out to the rest of them.

Hopefully, more potential bidders equals more money raised for Peyton!

And I've been drafted by my girlfriend Michelle to participate in a Relay for Life this Saturday evening. It's an American Cancer Society event designed to celebrate survivorship and raise money for cancer research. I'm pretty sure there's a lot of walking involved. The least I can do is keep Michelle company on the track. I don't think I've mentioned it before on this blog, but she's a survivor of childhood leukemia.

Take that, cancer!!

Anybody else ever fold a straight flush? and been right?

2006-07-17T02:24:00.000-07:00

My homegame takes all kinds. I've had "play any ace" tards, and players have have won multiple $10 MTT's on PokerStars in same month (his name is Tony D, his handle is Scionic).

This Sunday, we expanded the game.

$40 buyin, $30 unlimited rebuys, $20 optional addon. 3K in chips per. I figure this is just a big enough game to attract the Murderer's Row players. After all, my game usually is a small one, and it definitely is quite a drive from Westwood. (Though any Murderer's Row participant is welcome. If you met me at Hank's, you can play at my game.)

The bigger buy-in expanded the prize pool a lot, and kept many of the younger riffraff away. Adam Junior called up at 6pm, found out it was expensive, and found other things to do.

We had the Cermak brothers, Bruiser, Yosoy, Howie, 40oz, Quagmire, Tarheel, Derek, TonyD, Albert, Shawn, Chill and myself battling it out. The kiddie game is down the street. The only real player we're missing is Season 1 champ, Adam SBD.

The tourney was a normal one. Until THE HAND.

I'm normally an insanely tight player. Ask the Murderer's Row crew. Even Absinthe might admit I should loosen up a bit. For this particular hand, we were 9-handed and at 100/200/25, and there was an early limp from Cermak (who loves any ace, any two facecards, and any two suited), and a few folds before it got to me.

I had 43-clubs. This isn't stellar, but I've been known to limp in with a LOT better. I haven't played a hand in ages, so I limp. I'm playing off my reputation, mostly, and my position, if the CO and button give it to me. They do. It's folded to the SB, who calls, and the BB checks. Four to the flop, and I have position.

The flop: club, club, club.

Hello, I just flopped a flush. Then I look more closely. 7c, 6c, 5c.

Pardon me... Did I just flop a straight flush? I believe I did. *SPOOGE* With 9 players left in the tourney, and me with a medium stack, it's time to extract full value. Holy fucking shit.

The blinds check, Cermak bets 1K, and I decide to get greedy and smoothcall. I had hoped my smoothcall would be enough to frighten the blinds, but Jackie called. Three to the turn.

The turn is the 9c.

Eff You See Kay!!!!!!!!!!

I'm upset, but I'm optimistic. Certainly, Jackie and Cermak could have the ace and king of clubs, and not the eight of clubs. Let's see how this goes.

Jackie: bet 2K. (Crap, that's bad) Cermak: raise to 4K.

Has anybody reading this EVER had to go into the tank when they held a straight flush?

I did. If Cermak was a tight player, I would've folded here to that 4K bet. Ask anybody in my game about how long this decision took me.... it was about 4 minutes before I called that 4K. (Both Jackie and Cermak had me covered, but not by much.) I am seriously concerned Jackie has the 8c. If I had it, I'd checkraise like nobody's fucking business, but I'm not Jackie, so I have to go by the information I'm given.

Action to Jackie, and she jammed. Cermak calls.

When Jackie jammed I knew one thing - she had the eight of clubs. My straight flush was no good. Cermak's call just reinforces that he has the Ac or Kc... and I'm an idiot for not raising on the flop to double through him.

As much as it pained me to fold a straight flush, I did. Not only that, but I showed it to the whole damn table, before Jackie and Cermak showed down their hands. If Jackie has the ace, and Cermak has the king, I get to to look like the biggest dunce.

Everybody was, at the very least, moderately impressed with me folding a straight flush.

Jackie had Kx8c, and Cermak had AcXx.

So, I *almost* folded before I put in that 4K, but I was smart enough to fold after. I was right, my straight flush was not good enough, and I had 6.6K left after that.

I ended up in the money, finishing third. (To Jackie's 2nd, btw)

But in all the hands I've ever heard discussed in the poker blogdom, I have NEVER heard of somebody folding a straight flush. And being RIGHT.

I will not lie. I was shaken by the experience. It seriously pained and tilted me to fold a straight flush (especially when I might have won the hand by raising on the flop to shut out Jackie's OESFD).

How did I respond?

"Jackie, you've got Speaker in your phone, right?"

"Yes. Here."

*punches numbers* (gets Speaker's voicemail)

"Speaker, this is Drifter. I just folded a straight flush before the river. I have a double shot of SoCo in my hand, and was looking to do a dial-a-shot. Goodbye."

Epilogue: Jackie's straight flush won a huge pot, and she went on to finish 2nd in the tourney, which was also her first money finish at the Tustin game, and a much larger prize pool than normal for our game.

I truly am Stabby McFoldsalot.

My friends play poker

2006-07-11T02:26:00.000-07:00

Everybody was playing poker tonight.

Albert made the final three tables in the Full Tilt $20K guaranteed, which netted him about a Benjamin.

Another Tustin Rounder regular, Russ, final tabled a $5 Pokerroom MTT, finishing 6th.

I was all over the board, winning a 9-person sng, a heads-up sng, and a HORSE sng today. I also bubbled in a 2-table sng, and busted near the bubble in a $5 MTT when my aces were cracked, four to the flop, by 54s. I had a pretty good session at $1/2 limit today, and I'm on target to play enough this month to get into the FT Iron Man tourney (bronze, oh yeah).

And most impressively, Absinthe final tabled the $8K guaranteed on FT. Seriously, does ANYONE transition better from full table MTT to short-handed final table? This guy's got skills. (Later edit: he chopped first/second place money, because he's the mack daddy.

Go go poker!!

I just monied in a WSOP event

2006-06-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

Big huge asterisk.

Albert and Derek busted out of Event #2 in fairly short order. I don't think either of them saw Level 4. After a sweet session of $4/8 limit at the Bellagio, Albert and I played in the $225 Second Chance tourney that started at 11pm.

My ticket says that it was WSOP Event #53. June 27, 198 players, $38412 in the prize pool. Twelve and a half grand to first, and top 18 paid.

I finished 17th, just inside the money. It was my first ever casino tourney money finish - I've only played in about a half dozen of them. 17th paid $384.

I just shared a sixer of Heineken Light with the guys to celebrate. I know I feel way too happy about my money finish... that people wipe their ass with four hundred bucks around here. But for a guy that doesn't have an online MTT win, or a prior casino money finish, it feels really nice. The question during the tourney wasn't "Did you play in Event #2?" but "When did you bust out of Event #2?" I'm pretty sure it's a big tell when you announce to the table that you're in this tourney because you had a very good session of $4/8 limit earlier that day.

And I played pretty damn well too. I think I busted out at 5am.

So I'm not lying, only stretching the truth to the breaking point, when I tell people that I monied in a WSOP event.

(Oh, and I have no clue why my RSS feed has different size fonts. Sorry folks.)

At least one of us is moving on

2006-06-26T23:39:00.000-07:00

Event #2 of the WSOP was full on Monday at 6:30pm (taking alternates after that - sorry, Bill Gazes, you were a little too late not to be an alternate). I had played in two single table $125 satellites by that point, finishing 5th in both. One suckout at the tight table, and one bad play and emergency all-in at the loose table.

But more importantly, Albert has company in tomorrow event. Derek played in one $125 single table, and he won it. He took his two $500 lammers and $500 cash, and signed up for Event #2 right before it was announced as full.

I'm gonna root for them both tomorrow - it's pretty sweet that two regulars from my low-limit homegame are playing in a WSOP event.

And probably sit back down at the $4/8 limit, half-kill cashgame, too. Them suckers are juicy.

Off to Vegas, chasing a dream

2006-06-25T17:47:00.000-07:00

Tonight, we leave for Vegas. Yes, it's way too early for the Blogger trip, but we've got our own plans. Michelle is in my car. The other car has a Gomez, a Sanchez, a short superaggressive Jewish guy, and a former Mormon who often plays at the $3/6 razz tables on Full Tilt. Long-time homegame regular Albert is already out there.

Michelle wants a vacation, and a visit with her friend, who just had a baby.

The rest of us are here for the poker. Specifically, Event #2 of the WSOP. Albert will be buying his way in directly, and the rest of us are hoping to win our ways in with single table satellites.

We'll arrive tonight, enjoy some satellite goodness on Monday, and hopefully have our seats in Event #2 come Tuesday. It's a 3-day tourney, and being optimistic, we've elected to checkout on Friday morning. My bartending shifts are on weekends, so I won't miss any of those. This trips works nicely around the shifts I want to keep. That fact, unfortunately, is why I won't be attending the Blogger Thing later this summer. It's very expensive for me to go to Vegas on a weekend, when I factor in the money I'm missing by not working. And I'm not a good enough poker player (yet?) to use my bankroll, or a big MTT win, to finance it.

I've promised myself (and Skipper) that I'll play some $4/8 limit in Vegas, and I might give a Second Chance tourney a shot. Michelle's bringing her laptop, so I won't be 'netless.

Hopefully I'll have a happy blog post per day.

And I shall sleep tonight, dreaming of Tiffany Williamson-type luck.

How do you handle a bad beat?

2006-06-05T18:05:00.000-07:00

I thought this was amusing. The following is a part of a chat I had with one of the regulars in my homegame. He missed the cashgame following the tourney. I was telling him about how I lost my first buy-in when my opponent came from behind on the river:

Skip: i can just picture doing what you always do after a bad beat
Skip: you shrug, lean back, and look around your apartment for something that isnt there
Skip: and let out a sigh
Skip: its always the funniest
Skip: compared to my 'he cant beat me with skill, he should fucking die'

I chuckled when he told me this... I hadn't noticed it, but that's my normal reaction.

Too tasty to pass up

2006-06-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist, even though I have more experience at LO8 than PLO8... Full Tilt's got a $5 Double Stack PL Omaha/8 tourney starting in 14 minutes. Might as well blog as I go.

7:17pm: Andy Bloch has been a busy guy today, and he's signed up for this tourney. There's a lot of "red" tourneys, and most of them are him. He's exited very early in many of them, so I'd wager he's a "gamble early, gamble often" kinda guy at these low stakes. And I wonder why he's in a $5 tourney, when the $200's are chump change to him.

7:19: Albert, from my homegame, is in too. Like me, he's a moderately bad Omaha/8 player. I tend to stay away from the bad river calls he occasionally makes.

7:26: Duggle and Yosoy are also playing. We're all in chat. Duggle's our resident expert. The over/under on dumb questions I ask him in the course of the tourney is set at 5.5.

7:30: 296 to start, $1480 in the prize pool, 27 paid.

7:35 Al got moved to a table with a 12K stack and a 10K stack. We started with 3K. Eep!

7:39: 20 people out already.

7:41: I've gotten two playable hands, and chopped both. 2900 in chips.

7:49: Cheap flop, doesn't fit my hand, fold to a half-pot flop bet. Rinse, repeat. 2700 in chips.

7:53: Al gets quartered pushing the nut low (little chance for high).. He's looking at 1600 chips.

7:58: Yosoy ousted when three callers to her turn all-in all improve with the river card. Ouch. She's gone in 225th.

8:00: I just got owned, but kept a pittance in chips (500) when the river low diamond scared us both. He had flopped trip Q's, and I thought I liked my trip J's on the turn.

8:05: I just figured out that Duggle got moved to Al's table. Al's royal draw didn't hit. He still has more chips than I do.

8:11: Folded a straight draw with a flush draw on board. Flush would've given me my straight. I didn't chase. And I bet he had it.

8:13: Almost a doubleup! I decide to donk around a call a minbet on the flop with AT86, suited to the ace. I hit the gutshot straight to the ten, and the flush draw didn't get there. Two people with me to the river means I'm up to 850. I believe this will be the highlight of my tournament.

8:20: Donkey Doubleup! After a few limpers in my BB, the SB raised, so I went all-in for my 840. Two callers, and my trashy AT87ss tripled me up. No low, and my T7 boat was goot!

8:28: Al still hanging around, with 850.

8:33: Break time for PLO8. Our attention shifts to Yosoy, who just went on a big run in her 200K satellite, and is top 5 with 24 left, 9 seats to the $200K tourney paid out.

8:46: Al's out of PLO8, Duggle staying strong at the tourney chipleader's table, and Yosoy's on break. I still have an underpar, but playable, stack of chips with 3300, blinds at 60/120.

8:59: I'm short, so I potted it preflop with A39Qss. It put me out in 113th. TT4 flop, I had gotten one caller, and he checked it to me. I jammed almost potsized, and he called me with AK43. WHAAA?

Oh well, perhaps it's time to play some live poker.

A Hypothetical Poker Situation

2006-06-01T13:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a hypothetical situation for you. You're in a $8K guaranteed Full Tilt tourney, and you've made the final table. Three-handed, you bust the shortstack, and on that hand, your other opponent loses his internet connection.

You begin heads-up play with a 450K to 350K chip advantage, against an opponent who is not there. The blinds are 4K/8K/1Kante. First place pays $3500, second is $2200.

What do you do?

Welcome to my game, I'll be sucking out later

2006-05-08T02:58:00.000-07:00

Tonight I hosted my regular Sunday night tourney, only this time, I had blogger company. Poker Poison made the trek from Parts Unknown to play in my humble low-buy-in affair. Seventeen players, and we were off...

Unfortunately, the draw didn't quite work out, as I prefer to be at the same table as the new players - and we had two this evening besides Yosoy. All the first-timers were at the red table, with me at the black. After getting aces, then queens in the rebuy phase, I was insanely card dead. It seemed like every sixth hand, I'd look down at a K, then a 6. Foooooook!!!!! (fold)

Down to the final nine and short on chips, I had just passed up two chances to jam preflop, with KJo and A5o. On the KoJack hand, I noticed two players look very interested in the hand, so I folded in a pot that was folded to me. One had AJ but would've fallen to my turned trips. For the A5o, the hand was raised and called already before it got to me. Certainly, I was dominated, right? I figured as much after a guy behind me called too. Then silently swore as the flop hit... A-7-5.

Then, the blogger vs blogger action. Yosoyveneno shoved her smallish stack all-in and it was folded to me. At this point, I was on folding tilt, saw that ace, ignored the offsuit 4 kicker, and called. For less than Yosoy had. I was *that* short. 2100 in my stack, with the BB at 800, perhaps?

She had black nines. Hellmuth loves black nines. Yosoy didn't after the ace flopped, but she didn't say a peep about my bad-hand-turned-good. Acting unlike Phil, I'm sure, by taking her beat in stride. I tried really hard to gift her some chips when she was running low, but failed. My ace held up. A class act, that Poison.

On the very next hand, an awful-but-unpredictable player limps in, and I jam with JJ. Because, hey, I'm on a rush! Albert gives me credit for something moderately decent and folds KQs. The limper calls without much hesitation with 66. There's a K on the board by the end of it, but no 6, so I double up. Again. And just like that, I go from almost dead to having a useful stack of chips. Rise, Lazarus, rise!!

I managed to parlay those chips into a money finish. Poor Yosoy's final all-in was called in two places, and her AJ was beaten.

HORSE cashgame 2: Electric Boogaloo

2006-05-06T20:59:00.000-07:00

For knowing very little about the non-holdem games, everybody had a lot of fun. We'll probably have HORSE once every other month. Good stuff.

My favorite quote was know-it-all Russ showing me his JT87-ds Omaha/8 hand and telling me, "That's a pretty good hand, right?"

I think I muttered something about it "having possibilities".

Forty Ounce played stud/8 with a big sign next to his chips that read "Scoop me, please."

And Albert went on a nice, slow, simmering tilt to start the evening when I and Adam Jr dropped limit holdem beat after beat on him. I rivered a nine to beat his AJ with my A9 in one tasty instance. On another hand, he three-bet me preflop with position, then we checked it down and he mucked when I showed my unimproved AJo. Huh? "I knew you were calling if I bet, so I just checked." Clearly, this is a man who has momentarily lost confidence.

Tarheel finished down for the evening, and Shawn finished up, both of which were surprising. Albert and Quagmire bled chips during Omaha/8. For guys who appear to know poker (at least NL holdem), their grasp of O/8 needs a lot of work.

Russ was the big winner, despite getting frisky with a lot of mediocre holdings. The deck was very kind to him.

My favorite hand of the evening I lost.

(AA, black)7d in 7-stud for me, and there are a few calls before Russ completes with a 6 showing. I call, and perhaps two others do. On fourth, I catch a Td and it's checked to Russ, who bets. I raise, and everybody else folds. Russ actually states "HP's on a draw" and 3-bets. This is *exactly* what I want him to think, so I smoothcall. I figure my aces are best, and I'm very likely up against a pair of 6's or something wired in the hole. Fourth street didn't help Russ.

Unfortunately, 5th street did. It paired his fourth card, so it would appear I'm behind to 6's and 5's. My fifth is the 8h, so I might look like I've picked up a straight draw of some sort.

Sixth is a brick for us both, and I call once more, figuring my odds are good and any two pair will beat him. Russ actually asks me wtf I'm doing calling. Sadly, seventh is a brick for me as well, and I call crying, just in case Russ was BS'ing with a lonely pair of 5's. He wasn't - he had sixes up. He also mentioned that I played that hand very strangely. I figure I confused my opponent, but I just didn't win the hand.

I finished up for the evening, and I'm looking forward to Ladies Night this coming Sunday for my tourney. Unlike the usual sausage-fest, there will be at least two poker-playing females in attendance.

HORSE cashgame

2006-04-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

I had wanted to do something besides our regular NL holdem cashgame this coming Thursday, and the votes are in. We'll be playing $.50/$1 limit HORSE, ten hands per game. This should be verrrry interesting.

Benchmarks

2006-04-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

Nobody really cares, but I wanted to write it down.

I received my $50 on Titan last Thursday. Now, I've got $203 on there. I just logged off after doubling my $40 buy-in on $.25/.50 NL with black aces through QQ. His queens were red, and the flop was black and low. I thought he could've lost less on his hand, but I'm not about to offer advice after I beat somebody with AA vs QQ. Just isn't nice. And besides, it's Titan. These people are seriously awful. Every time I log in, I say, OUT LOUD, "I will not offer advice to these people."

I'm up to $502 on FT, and I'm near $600 on UB. This is very good for a low limit guy like me. Way back in the day, I deposited $300 on UB. That's the only money I've put into online poker, and that makes me feel good.

I've also got $25 on Stars and $3 on bodog. Oh yeah, I'm a baller.

"Rob the jewelry store, and tell em make me a grill."

Three Experiments

2006-04-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

In with the "new"... My new online experiment is limit holdem. I'm still working on things, logging some time at $1/2 6max on Full Tilt. In five sessions of about an hour each, I've padded my bankroll on FT by about a Benjamin. The highlight was today when I took down a $29 pot, checkraising two players on the river with the nut boat on a four-diamond board. Check, bet, call, checkraise, fold, call... Ahhhhh.

I know all my limit sessions won't go this nicely, but the money/time ratio definitely merits my continued focus. I'm going to set aside some time for an hour of limit holdem. Some days I don't play online at all, but when I do, I should belly up to a $1/2 (or $2/4 if I keep it up) limit table.

~~~

Coming soon!

I've heard good things about the Omaha/8 games at Hawaiian Gardens, so I'm thinking I'm going to give those a go soon. And hell, it's about time I bought a book about O/8. AlCantHang has suggested Ray Zee's book, and I've got a Barnes & Noble giftcard burning a hole in my pocket.

~~~

The "old" experiment. Back in the day, I used to get plenty of exercise 2-3 times a week. I played soccer on Tuesday nights and Sunday mornings, and usually hit the gym twice a week, often riding my bike there. That hasn't happened in a while. Tuesdays can get rained out, Sundays are tough to make now because I've got to open the restaurant.

So my experiment is to get at least 30 minutes of cardio a day for a month, which started with soccer on Tuesday. One win, one goal, one assist... felt nice. Today was a trip to the exercise room in my apartment complex, for a little jogging while I watched the Lakers-Suns playoff game. More interestingly, I met a new neighbor, a cute red-head. Well, not interesting to me, really.. I'm happy with my girlfriend. But I told my roommate, who is single and had previously groused about there not being any hotties in our apartment complex.

And I think I labelled this the "old" experiment because, while I don't feel it (yet), I am 30 now. I figure some pre-emptive exercise will do me some good.

The gravy train

2006-04-20T15:44:00.000-07:00

I'm way behind the times, but I finally got my $50 instant bankroll at Titan, thanks to PSO and yosoyveneno.

HPDrifterOC? That's me.

First day's update: A respectable 7th in the two-table sng. After an early suckout, I was looking at 300 chips with the BB at 30, but I battled back to get a healthy stack. After I ran into AQ in the BB on a steal, it was on to some .5/1 6-max limit.

Do you just call my flop bet with no pair, three to a flush and three to a straight, with T6 in your hand? Why, yes you did. More power to you, sir, and might I add, that was a nice runner runner flush. I never saw it coming.

I'm thinking the two-table sng's are where I need to focus. They only pay top 3, but a few cashes would pad the 'roll considerably. And I'm not fond of the 20% juice on single-table nine player sng's there.

Grr

2006-04-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

I decided it was time to jump back into the $17K Guaranteed on Full Tilt. My first attempt was atrocious - so bad, in fact, that I've put it out of my mind. I honestly can't remember why it was awful, but I know it was.

This attempt was better, even though I left with a whimper. I was card dead early, and the nice cards I had were connected to horrible flops. My ray of hope was the maniac three seats on my right. He was putting in overly large preflop raises every third or fourth hand. I resolved to double up through him, but he distinctly gave off the "I don't care if I'm dominated" vibe when he called a huge all-in with KJo. His cards were live (AQ) and his flopped jack held.

Sure enough, he made another late position preflop raise, and I came over the top with ATo. Naturally, this time he's got a hand, AQs. IGHM.

~~~

The good news for the day is that I requested off June 26-30. I'll be heading to Vegas for some satellites to Event #2 of the WSOP, and probably some cashgame fun. The guys in my homegame have Event #2 and #27 in their sights, so some of them might come with me.

Should be interesting.

Finding my place

2006-04-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about what I could possibly bring to the poker blogging world. The short answer is not much. I'm not a good writer, nor a good poker player. You won't see too much useful strategy around here. So, what can I do?

I've hosted an open game at my place since June of '04. I've invited strangers (at the time) into my home, and it's always worked out. It's a very small buy-in game, so there's little chance someone's going to find my game with an eye towards cheating. As I've hosted, I've gained contacts. If you play in my game, chances are good that you'll tell me about other homegames that I might like to play in.

A few months ago, I realized that I was a poker consigliere of central Orange County. Simply put, if you wanted to play in a homegame, you could give me a call, and I'd direct you to Dana Point or Anaheim or USC.

I had the info. I was a gatekeeper.

Don't get me wrong - I don't know every single homegame in the immediate vicinity. But it is kinda neat to have that kind of info at your disposal. Those choices. The golden ticket.

So, I'm going to start a series of entries... my Rounder Report. I'm going to write about my travels around Orange County to various homegames. Cashgames and tournaments - one time shots, and regular affairs.

Perhaps it'll be worth a read even to those not living nearby.

Come one, come all

2006-04-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

Three different SoCal bloggers have recently expressed interest in playing in my low-stakes homegame. Cashgame on Thursday, tourney on Sunday, 8pm start times. I'm psyched, but I won't name names until they actually show up.

And if they happen to read this... don't mention "blog"... nobody at my homegame knows I write about myself (and them). My game's listed on pokerpal.org and homepokergames.com/california - that's how most of them found me.

Since Murderer's Row is on hiatus, I thought it would be really cool to host bloggers. Alas, it's a long drive for almost all of them, and if you do very well at my game, you might cover the cost of gas. Still, if you want to play, let me know. This is an open invite.

~~

I dipped a toe into $1/$2 limit 6-max today, and the water's nice and fishy. I sat down with $50, left almost exactly an hour later with $92. But, damn, were those bad players. I'm definitely still learning, and my cards were nice for most of the session, but I feel a lot better about when to check/fold and when to ram and jam. I'll definitely be giving this game another shot.

JunkChipGrabMonster

2006-03-28T00:44:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed a limit Omaha/8 sng this evening on Full Tilt - my first attempt ever at one of them. To my surprise, Change100 took the chair two to my virtual left. It was no surprise, however, that she ended up busting me in 5th when I got overly optimistic from my small blind with some sort of please-fold-your-BB-to me trash hand (QJ42ss).

She had chips, and the cards to defend her big blind. Her low was one pip better, and my wishful straight draw never got there.

I felt a little out of sorts at the table. I definitely have a lot of work to do as far as when to continue being aggressive in a hand. Folding at the right times wasn't much of a problem, but betting and raising where it would've helped is on my O/8 "to do" list. I was the table donkey, but screw it, it's a decent $5 lesson.

Cheap Shots

2006-03-25T19:59:00.000-08:00

I took a cheap shot at a Main Event seat tonight. Well, sorta.

Full Tilt has freerolls running on a regular basis. Step 1 is an 1800-person deal where 36 advance. A few days ago, I finished 21st in one of them. That moved me along to Step 2.

Step 2 was tonight. 629 entrants who had to win their way in. Top 9 moved on to the Big Deal Freeroll in late April. That's Step 3, where the top 20 get Main Event seats. Yeah, you can freeroll your way to $10K seats in the Big Dance. How can you not love Full Tilt?

Tonight, I played reasonably well, and finished 67th. I even had the best of it when the BB called my all-in preflop steal. My A4-clubs against his KJo. The river was the ace I needed, but the fourth spade made him a flush.

Bunnies

2006-03-25T10:18:00.000-08:00

I think it's absolutely awesome that The Dangerous Eight are invited to hang at the Playboy Mansion.

Stop the hate. :)

Folding Overpairs The Weak/Tight Way

2006-03-22T16:38:00.000-08:00

Thursday night had its normal cast of characters at my homegame. Nothing much out of the ordinary about the nine regulars seated around me. We've played with each other enough to have a good feel for tendencies at this point.

It's a $10 max buy-in game, and Albert and I each had at least $25 in front of us when the following hand came up. Albert raised to a $1 in EP, and Shawn called in position. I had QQ in the small blind, with the aggressive JP Tarheel in the BB. I gave thought to reraising, but decided against it. Shawn's calling with anything. Albert has been quiet lately, so he may have a big hand, or he may have gotten bored and decided to put in an early raise with a suited connector. I thought a call, with the hope of trapping, wasn't the best idea, but a good gamble this one time to mix up my game.

I'm a weak/tight player, and sometimes I feel the need to throw my regular opponents off.

I called, as did JPT. The flop looked good for me, so I checked, figuring on trapping: J-6-6, rainbow. I had a hunch that nobody had a six in their hand.

JP jammed the $4 pot for his remaining $5.50. Clearly, he's got a jack. With any six, I'd expect him to checkraise any bet from Albert or Shawn. I waited expectantly for Albert and Shawn to fold to me, so I could make a fairly easy call.

Then, Albert did something I didn't expect. He called JP's bet. Shawn folded, then I went into the tank. Surely, Albert has made the same read I have - JP has a jack. So, that means that Albert can beat a pair of jacks. There's almost no way Albert would call JP with tens or nines or AK, thinking JP was betting with a baby pocket pair or a stone cold bluff. At the very least, Albert has AJ. KK and AA are much more likely than the other two queens.

I was sure of this laydown, and I had been going out of my way recently *not* to be so damn weak and fold, fold, fold in marginal/bluffable situations. I folded my queens face up, before they showed.

JP had jack-ten. Albert had kings.

Go me.

As a prologue, Russ and Skipper (who had busted out earlier in the evening and were watching Barker play online) asked me, "Why didn't you reraise preflop to see where you were?" It's a valid question, even though I hate the "to see where you were" part. It costs me an extra $3 to reraise preflop, and that's only if I'm smart enough to fold if/when Albert pushes all-in. If I reraise, then decide that my overpair is good later, I stack off to Albert.

And I got really lucky that JP is aggressive, had a J, and my overpair was only one pip better than top pair. If it's a jack, I have kings, and Albert aces... it's rebuy time.

Tier 1's

2006-03-22T09:49:00.000-08:00

I celebrated my birthday yesterday, treating it as I would any other day off. I haven't had more than one day a week off in a while, and I credit the new schedule for it. This week, I have five bartender shifts, no serving shift. Pretty sweet.

I have absolutely no explanation for my luck during Tier 1 sng's. For those of you unaware, they are $4 single table sng's that pay a $26 tourney token to the winner, and $10 to second. Nothing for third. They also come in $8-turbo and $6 flavors, with two tables condensing to a few chips for the top 4 spots.

(Hey Change!) I've played in six of these now, and have three chips to show for it.

My luckboxing started on the second hand dealt, with some idiot play. I hate min-raises, and responded with a call out of my BB with K6o. I don't know what possessed me to believe my top pair, rag kicker was any good, but I shoved all-in on the turn and my opponent had KJo. The river was my three-outer six, and I had just doubled up in donkey fashion.

Ok, so I've got chips and a horrible table image. Time to do what I do best: fold. Nobody's going to give any of my bets any respect anyway. I played perhaps two hands in the next 3 blind levels, calling a min-raise with 66, then ditching on the all-overcard flop to a bet.

The next hand I raised was jacks, in the cutoff. The BB defended, and I couldn't help but check the flop: Q-J-J. Them is most definitely quads, beeches. A ten on the turn was nice. The turn and river went check-small bet-call. He had KTo. Looks like I could've put in a decent bet on the flop, too.

Heads-up was against the other box of luck at the table, the guy who busted two players with ATo when he flopped and turned a ten against both players' KK. He favored trapping top pair during heads-up play. It bit him in the ass on the last hand. I button-raised with J9-suited, and took my free card when he checked the Q-T-3 rainbow flop. He also went check-call when a 9 hit the turn. He checkraised me for all of it when another 9 hit the river. I called, figuring if he had a better hand, my hat's off to him. He had QJ. He had picked the wrong time to stick in a big raise.

Lucky me.

Playing like ass

2006-03-14T16:23:00.000-08:00

I got my first ever root canal this week, but no good drugs to go with it. Just some not-nearly-as-nice-as-vicadan ibuprofen.

So I've been either sleeping, on drugs, or in pain recently. And I've tried to play poker in this condition. I don't recommend it.

I've had some fun donking around at the $5 HORSE sng's, and recently found the 4-person heads-up double shootout. I won the first one I tried, which probably just caused me to think, "hey this is easy". The next two saw me defeat the first player only to lose after much back and forth in the second match. I was very amused when I defeated the first opponent on the fourth hand and watched the other table to scout out the competition. Still, good fun, and probably a decent tune up for Heads-Up Challenge 3, which I've apparently missed. Oops.

Can I blame the drugs?

Drunk Luckbox

2006-03-07T03:32:00.000-08:00

Don't try this at home..

In preparation for the glorious UNC-Duke game, I gave poker-regular John P Tarheel a call to see if he had plans for the game. He did - in the Bay area. He suggested I hit Rudy's in Newport Beach. Plenty of tv's, pitchers of Guinness, and the owner is a Carolina fan!

My roommate drove, I drank Guinness and watched a great game. I even talked trash with the other owner... the Duke fan. It turns out that Rudy's is a huge UNC hangout, but the actual person Rudy is a Duke fan.

After the game, I was pumped. And really buzzed. My roommate suggested we hit the Reraise homegame, in Anaheim. He was driving, I was good to go. Picked up an 18 of Miller Lite on the way.

The Reraise homegame is a very interesting one. I was the first one of the Tustin group to play in it, and it was exasperating. The buy-in is $20, the blinds are 25/50 cents, and the regulars are aggressive to the point of absurdity. Overall, the play was poor, but it was very difficult to navigate all the bluff-raises, semibluffs, and suckouts. The regulars from the Reraise homegame are often seen at my game, busting out early and often, or stacking up copious amounts of chips.

I sat down and was into my 3rd beer when reason left me. EP raiser had already gotten 3 callers, so I closed the betting with T9-hearts from the BB. The flop was 7h-6h-3c, and my buzz bet my whole stack into everybody else in the hand, about $20 into a $16 pot. I got called immediately. And again. Two callers? Crap.

Them, 77 and 33. Top and bottom sets. At least I'm drawing live.

The turn is the 8 of hearts. Excuse me, did I just hit a straight flush? Yes, yes I did.

WOW.

Somebody later remarked that it was the only time in the history of the Reraise game that people were drawing dead by the river.

Play continued with me making several overbets, but never getting crushed in a hand. Amazingly, I ended up for the session.

I ended up in for $20 and out for $108, and I paid for Russ (who drove us home) and Barker at Del Taco. We had had an agreement that the big winner would pony up, and that was me. Though really it's a wonder I didn't bust out, considering how sloshed I was.

~~

I've also been tabbed by Joe Speaker for the LA cool kids meme thing. I've only lived in the OC for five years, so I'll have to modify it a little.

~~

I just finished an interesting night of Full Tilt poker. Two wins in $5 HORSE sng's in three tries, and a final table in the $5 late night NL holdem tourney. 8th out of 138 feels nice, even if it is only $20.

Year-to-date at low limits

2006-02-23T16:09:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, my boss asked me how often I play poker, and how much money I make on average per month. After a conversation about bankroll management, I estimated that poker buys me groceries.

It got me thinking, so I tallied my live poker play since the calendar turned to '06. I'm up $434, year to date. I figure that's one moderately decent session for the casino-visiting bloggers out there.

I haven't been to Commerce, or any other casino, this year. My homegame ($10 cashgame on Thursdays, $10 rebuy tourney on Sundays) is the biggest slice of that pie. One visit to Murderer's Row ($50 buy-in), and one to Dana Point ($20), and a few to the Reraise Homegame ($20) in Anaheim. I've wagered $360, and taken $794 off the table.

Then again, this number is a little skewed to the good. That the Murderer's Row visit was in the black is nothing short of a miracle. It's also probably human nature that I want to do the math on my live play just days after winning the Sunday tourney that I host.

Either way, I want to keep learning, improving, and thinking about my game.

Tilt rules

2006-02-23T01:40:00.000-08:00

I hit up two 18-person $5 sng's today, finishing 3rd and 1st. My traps worked, my medium-strength hands (and reads) caught bluffs. Things just fell into place. I really like the payout structure in those - top 4 get paid. Third place for those is $18, and first place for the $5 single table sng's is $22.50. It feels easier to me to get thirds in the two-tables than win the singles.

I decided to plunk a fourth of my FT bankroll at a $1/$2 razz table. $50 in, $47 out after ninety minutes. I quickly identified a maniac and two horribly obvious calling stations. It was quite an experience. I realized fairly soon that ramming and jamming on 3rd and 4th does not get your opponents to fold. Unfortunately, after building the pot with sexy starting cards, multiple bricks and pairs followed. In the span of 10 minutes, I folded big multi-way pots when I started with (A3)2 and two seperate (26)3's. It's safe to say I would've had a session in the black hand any of those hands held up.

I'm really loving Full Tilt, and it feels nice to be over $200 now.

I hope nobody saw that.

2006-02-18T20:10:00.000-08:00

Wow. The hand that busted me out of tonight's $16K guaranteed on Full Tilt was so bad, it hurts my brain to remember. But first, the back-story.

My bankroll on FT is tiny - not quite $200 yet. I've recently discovered the $4 Tier 1 sng's - 9 players, winner gets a $26 tourney chip, 2nd gets $10, third gets the bubble. I've played in three so far, and won twice. Clearly, this is lucky, though I must be doing something right to avoid early exits in these things.

So I thought, why not jump right in? There's a huge $26 tourney tonight, and I have not one, but two tourney chips burning a hole in my virtual pocket.

The $16K Guaranteed looked enticing. 750+ players when I signed up, already over the guarantee. Boobie Lover, Joe Speaker, Factgirl, Gamecock, and PokerNerd were also signed up - I had a few minutes to look for familiar names... I know the real players favor these types of tourneys. 827 entries, all told, so the top 81 divvy up a prize pool of $19.8K.

In every tournament I enter, I want to finish in the money. In this particular one, I was playing at an online buy-in a step or two above where I normally am. I'm the low-limit guy with the small 'roll, happy to take shots at $5 MTT's. This was a slightly larger shot, and I wanted to get a handle on the competition. I play a little scared and tight-weak when I move out of my comfort zone.

Early indicators showed that play would be a little tighter and a little smarter, but foolishness would abound.

I stole the blinds in the second orbit with 98o, raising from the cutoff. This hand would be one of the highlights of my tournament.

I limped with 99 in EP and was the only caller to a button-raise. The flop is eight-high, rainbow, and I figure I'll checkraise. The button had other ideas, checking behind. The turn is an ace, which I hate to see, so now it seems like checking is again a good idea, for different reasons. And the button checks behind. The river is a queen, I can't find it in my gut to bet out, and check-fold.

Ok, a misplayed hand, but at least it didn't cost me much.

The foolishness was fun to watch, at least.

Four limpers for 50, and the SB jams for 1200. He's called by AQo, and his A6o is no good by the end of it.

Flop is J-T-2, two clubs. MP bets out, gets min-raised by the button. MP calls. Turn is the ace of clubs, they check. River is a small club, MP goes all-in for a slight overbet of the pot, AKo, no clubs, calls. MP has K5-clubs.

I hate min-raises.

The gamblor on my left doubles up on a flush draw, A4-spades against AJ. TPTK no good on the river.

Finally, a hand I can enjoy. Two EP limpers for 50, so I make it 200 with KK. Gamblor min-reraises to 350. I had 1300 at the start of the hand, so I figure I'll jam if anybody else calls. Nobody does, so I decide to smoothcall. I check the 9-high flop, Gamblor goes all-in, and I insta-call to see his A5-clubs. Well, he does have that pesky ace and a runner-runner draw to a straight or flush, but nothing arrives.

I love min-raises.

Gamblor then cracks aces with K6-clubs, two clubs on the flop, all-in, river club. Nobody sent me the memo that king-rag of clubs is GOLD.

I wish I could just summarize my exit to say that I ran into kings and busted out. That wouldn't be fair to the sheer stupidity I exhibited during the hand.

It's folded to me on the button with 77. With the BB at 60 and a stack of 2800, I raise to 200. The button reraises to 420. Huh? At the time, I thought it was a min-raise. (I hate those.) I didn't have much of a read on the reraiser. He wasn't playing too many hands, or super-tight or -aggressive.

Thinking "I'd like to flop a set", I call, and see J-J-T rainbow. He bet out 600. I thought it was a little weak, and raise to 1500. He jams, and has me covered. I can fold and sit on my 900+ (M of 10!), or call. I call, convincing myself as I'm clicking the 'call' button that I'll see AK.

I'm an idiot. I see KK. I'm out in 546th. If I ever brag about how I'm a smart/good poker player, I should be reminded of this hand.

Ok, so it's a dicey raise followed by a truly awful call. Wanting to punish myself, I looked at the math. Twodimes tells me that my sevens are a whopping 52.7% to beat AKo on that board.

I hope I got all of that dumb that outta my system.

Certainly, the next $26 tournament won't end so horribly. How could it?

(At this moment, it's the 2nd hour break, and factgirl is the only blogging survivor, in 38th with 131 remaining. Goooo facty!)

~~

On the upside, my girlfriend enjoyed our Valentine's day. And she wants to get some practice before the tourney I host on Sunday night - it sounded like she might actually play in this one, if she feels ready.

Valentine's

2006-02-17T02:27:00.000-08:00

Helluva week - I hate holidays, and I work all of them, except Christmas Day. Yes, I know I need a new job.

I worked all day on Valentine's Day, and I knew ahead of time I'd be working, so Michelle picked this Friday as the day we'll be celebrating V-day. Friday is my usual off-day. As it is though, I'm missing Murderer's Row. Last week, F-Train... this week, Dr Pauly. Michelle is cool with poker, and learning it herself, but not so in love with it yet that I can beg off on my one off-day of the week and journey to the mystical poker mecca of Westwood to play in the Baddest Homegame West of the Mississippi.

Chocolate, flowers, and dinner in Huntington Beach tomorrow night....

Lead Me Not Into Temptation

2006-02-11T21:26:00.000-08:00

I've had a trying day. This weekend has been marked by the girlfriend having "a headache". No, it's not that time of the month. I visitied Kida in the hospital today. I went home, and started drinking, with online poker as my companion. Perhaps there will be a post about the $5 PL Omaha/8 tourney on Full Tilt from on_thg or drizz (as they both went late into the tourney).

My roommate needs a wingman. We've been invited to a party - the ladies want him to bring his roommate. He's driving, and dragging me along. This has all the making of a trainwreck, but I'm going... right now.

I hope she's not hot.

Wish me unluck.

Full Tilt loves me, Bodog hates me

2006-02-01T16:50:00.000-08:00

I haven't played too much in the last week or so, but I've played enough to start to love Full Tilt. I scored a final table appearance in my first ever PL Omaha/8 tourney, turning my $5 entry into $59. I feel good about fifth out of 150+, as I'm fairly inexperienced at PLO8. It's a fun game when things go your way. The $59 is nice when your FT bankroll was a pip over one hundred at the start of the tourney.

I also donked around in a Jersey Days freeroll, winning my way into the Feb 11 Jersey Days tourney. Top 9 from that event score a personalized FT jersey and an LA Kings prize package. 1000 entered in the freeroll, I finished 2nd. Top 3 moved on, so that was nice.

Oh, and I think FT's $5 HORSE sng's are sweet. I loves me some Full Tilt right about now. My second HORSE sng found Mourn on my left. I wasn't sure it was him until I asked. I played like a fool in the sng, he monied despite losing a few hands early.

Bodog gave me $40 (to go with the $2 and change I scored from freerolls there) when my roommate used me as a referral. I promptly lost two $5 sng's, with QQ being my downfall each time, both within the first 2 blind levels. The first time, I had two black queens, raised in MP, got repopped the minimum by the SB, and an EP limper (whose play had labeled him a dunce) called. I had the SB covered, but rather than jam, I decided to see a flop. All clubs, jack high.

SB jams, EP tard calls. There's a lot of action in front of me, but I have a sneaking suspicion my hand is good here, so I jam. EP tard calls, and show JT-diamonds. SB has kings, but they're red. So I need a Q or a club to scoop. No such luck, but the sidepot keeps me alive. Until I got blinded down, jammed with A8s, and the KJo caller flopped two pair.

Next sng, I get QQ in MP, raise it up, and get 27 callers. Or 5. Either way, it felt like way too many people saw the flop. No ace or king though: 7-5-3, two spades. I have the queen of spades, and bet out when it's checked to me. Two callers, turn is an offsuit 9. I get checkraised for a tiny amount, and one of the blinds has 53o. No help on the river, and IGHN. Oh well.

Update: Bodog sng #3 lasted one hand. I raised with black aces on the very first hand, got one preflop caller. He flopped a hidden set of sevens, and I'm not good enough to fold aces to a checkraise on the turn against the supposedly bad players in a $5 sng.

Date #2

2006-01-21T02:58:00.000-08:00

I'd like the record to show that I chose a date with Michelle this evening over going with my homegame poker buddies, Russ and Albert, to the Commerce Casino. I really like poker, but I've got my priorities.

I also missed this badass, the self-proclaimed Wally Pipp of the Murderer's Row tourney, win Event #1 of the LA Poker Classic, besting a field of more than 1100.

The date went well, but I bet I missed a helluva post-tourney celebration. I'd imagine Murderer's Row was out in force - I can't wait for the writeup.

Great work, Absinthe!!!

Vicarious living at Commerce

2006-01-18T01:49:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling semi-sick all week. Not deathly ill to the point where I miss work, just blah enough to be able to go through the motions, but have no energy doing so. I passed on Albert's offer to go with him to Commerce to play in some satellites for the LA Poker Classic. He's probably the best player at my homegame (myself included), so I wanted to know how he did.

His report was a sad one.

He started out at the $40 satellite, which gives you 500 in chips to start, blinds at 25/25. His playing style is generally tight. Apparently he folded for a bit, and got busted when his AQ-suited hit a flush on a turn-card that also gave somebody a set. All the money went in, and Mr Set had the board pair on the river. Bye Albert.

He moved to the $80 satellite, which starts with 1K in chips. The very first hand he played was QQ, raising several limpers by a large amount. Flop was eight high with two spades, and he raised a small flop bet. They got all-in, the flop bettor had sevens (with a spade), but turned a seven. No soup for Al.

In his second attempt at an $80, he flopped a flush with JT from the BB in an unraised pot. He bets out on the flop, getting only one caller. The turn is a brick, but Albert still has a flush, and he's openended for a straight flush. He bets big to take it down right there, and of course the ace-of-the-suit calls him, and rivers his flush. Hasta.

He played ten hands total, and lost three satellites. Harsh.

~~

I'd still like to hit up Commerce during all this. I'd skip the $40's and go right to the $80's. Friday's my off-day, but this Friday is the $330 limit tourney, and I'm horrible at limit. (And I might even have a date this Friday night. Stop laughing - she gets back from Brazil tomorrow.) If I go to Commerce, I'll go for the NL satellites.

I've got my eyes on this, and I'd really like to play my way into the fun.

I also think it's awesome that plenty of the Murderer's Row people are gunning for these tourneys, and even an out-of-town blogger or two. Good luck to you all!!

(and if I see any of you at my satellite table, I'm begging for a refund.)

I Heart Full Tilt

2006-01-17T15:06:00.000-08:00

I started with $50 yesterday on Full Tilt, and I think I'm gonna like it here. I haven't sat down in a NL holdem cashgame yet, but the games I have tried, I've loved so far.

Starting out at UltimateBet, my bread 'n butter was the $5 sng. My bankroll is tiny, but the fives were a fairly sure way of building it. So it appears on FT, and the players make more mistakes more often than I see at the fives on UB. Raises are usually of the min-or-all-in variety, which is nice when you're trying to flop a set with a small pocket pair.

Early on, it seems pretty useless to bother trapping. Bet for value - somebody's going to pay you. Nearing the bubble, everybody tightens up, so it's stealin' time. It's especially nice if you're a middle stack and there are two shortstacks almost even. They eye each other, urging the other to bust out first, while you stack their blinds. It doesn't seem like anybody's read Harrington.

I also sat at a low level Omaha/8 limit game, and it was pretty apparent who knew which hands were playable in certain situations. I remember it being a bad idea to play QJTT singlesuited when it's capped preflop.

~~

End of the day Tues: I'm at $80, which I figure affords me a buy-in to this special event (tourney #2482794) if I'm home on Friday. Goooooo HORSE!

Prop Bets, 2006

2006-01-12T02:39:00.000-08:00

Among other things, 2006 will be the Year of the Prop Bet. Stupid stuff, really, but I want to record all of them for kicks.

Jan 1: $5 wager, Shawn gave up pot for his New Years resolution. Over/under for doobage: Feb 14. I bet the over, and lost. -- Resolution broken after 4 days. Skipper wins $5.

Jan 12: $5 wager, number of times Russ says "Wow!" during the PL Omaha/8 cashgame at my place on Thursday. Over/under set at 4.5. Skipper is betting the over. -- Russ a no-show, bet off the table. Push.

Jan 12: $5 wager, Russ's win/loss for the PL Omaha/8 cashgame. Over/under set at -$30 ($20 buy-in game, unlimited rebuys). I'm betting the over (losing 30 or less). -- Russ a no-show, bet off the table. Push.

Jan 15: $1:$4 wager, Skipper gave me 4:1 odds that Derek wouldn't win the tourney's heads-up battle with Tim, the chipleader. -- Derek made a good comeback, but ran into two pair. Skipper wins $1.

Writeup To Follow

2006-01-07T03:34:00.000-08:00

I just got home from the Murderer's Row homegame, and it's late.

Change100 won the tourney, JoeSpeaker crushed the cashgame, and Ephro told the tale of The Snowman Tater Leg (83, suited or not), As Named By Oilcan Dan.

I had a great time. I folded a lot. I managed to leave the place with some money.

~~

I also had a message from a coworker reminding me I'm bartending in the evening, not the morning. And I got an email from Michelle, who found an internet cafe in Rio.

So I'm sleeping in, and my dreams will be pleasant.

Murderer's Row

2006-01-06T05:31:00.000-08:00

I did some research:

The Murderer's Row defensive lineup ('27 Yankees, winningest team of all time):
C - Pat Collins
1B - Lou Gehrig
2B - Tony Lazzeri
3B - Joe Dugan
SS - Mark Koenig
OF - Earle Combs
OF - Babe Ruth
OF - Bob Meusel

What did I learn? Those Yanks, while formidable and utterly dominant, had a few weak links. Collins and Dugan were .270 hitters with little extra-base pop.

Why does this matter?

I'm going to the LA blogger Murderer's Row homegame tonight, and I don't believe there's a Collins or Dugan in the bunch. I'm going to go play with Ruths and Gehrigs.

And I'm a bat boy.

It's the little things that amuse me

2006-01-05T09:53:00.000-08:00

While tidying up, I found a coupon for a dollar off at my local supermarket. Most curious was this note on it, in medium print:

"Excludes items prohibited by law"

Come again? So you mean I can't drop by for a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, a fully automatic machinegun and a pound of weed?

Crap.

On a personal note

2006-01-03T02:08:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how a first date goodnight kiss can turn a bad day right around.

I had the worst day at work. That's not hyperbole, as I actually cannot remember a shift I've had waiting tables, EVER, that was worse. The nadir came when the British lady insulted me, to my face, in an extended monologue. I was so enraged, words failed me. I was unable to say anything, for the most part because I'm polite and was unwilling to get myself fired at that moment. Rather than stand there and take more abuse (or fail/succeed to keep my emotions in check), I left her table wordlessly, with her in mid-sentence. Straight to a manager, explaining why it would be best for everyone concerned if somebody else were to take the table. He concurred.

I was so mad I couldn't see. For about a half hour, I was physically trembling with rage. I'm normally very slow to anger. This day summed up and concentrated all the reasons why I should get a new job. I will remember the British lady when I'm talking about my resume in a job interview. (That's on the '06 To-Do List)

But the most wonderful present was waiting for me at home. I had met Michelle at the New Year's Eve party I went to, on my roommate's urging. She had left her first message on my machine, letting me know she was headed to Brazil tomorrow for two weeks, wondering if I might like to catch a movie tonight.

Hell. Yes.

My roommate and Michelle's best friend had both made an effort to pimp us out to each other - the NYE party was our first meeting, and was pretty laid back. Conversation and billiards at a party that had absolutely nothing else going for it but the presence of the girl who had engaged my attention. I thought she was almost-out-of-my-league attractive, but a bit guarded. No clue how she felt about me. I got her business card (she's a budding jazz musician), and sent her an email that night.

So the message was a treat. She wanted to see a movie, and I struggled to come up with a better idea for something to do that might impress an artistic babe. I failed, so we decided on The Producers, at a mutually convenient theater.

I'm 16 again. I'm in a movie with a girl I don't know well, and I have no clue if this is a platonic thing or not. From what I've learned so far, I like her. Don't want to do something stupid. I figure that she wanted to see me before she left, so I put my arm around her. Halfway through the movie. Yup, I actually thought about this for a good 30 minutes.

Nothing awkward. This is good.

She sure smells nice.

Movie ends, and I walk her to her car. We hug, and I actually ask her, "Would you like me to kiss you now?" Clearly, I am socially retarded. How long as it been since I've been in this situation? Why can't I handle this with anything approaching self-assurance?

Her response was a good one - "Do you want to?" I believe I had my lips on hers just as she was finishing the word "to".

She'll be in Brazil for two weeks. And oddly enough, there is a scene in The Producers where one of the main characters gets a postcard from Brazil.

I've got hope. And she's got my address.

Pocket change on Pokerstars

2006-01-02T23:45:00.000-08:00

I traded Skipper some money the other day, $28 UB for $28 on Stars. And so the Stars SNG Experiment begins. I've got five tries (if I fail to make the money in each one), and the first one was a sad, sad bustout on the bubble. My second is going on right now.

I think this is all part of Skipper's master plan for me to eventually play $2/$4 6-max limit on PS, like he sometimes does.

(later edit)
Attempt 2: Out of the money, 6th.
Attempt 3: Currently running. Just played a sick hand - unraised pot, flop was T-9-6, two clubs. Three ways all-in on the flop, First player showed 66, second showed 99, I tabled TT. Set over set over set, and I'm the benificiary. Holy Jebus.

(even later edit)
Attempt 3 was a win! After the triple-up, I stayed chipleader for a while, before running into a few hands and bluffing off some chips. Everybody was dead even in chips while 4-handed, but my cards were nice, and my play solid on my trip into the money. I was pleased to see the most passive guy start heads-up play with me, while I had the chiplead.

Currently +$6 at PS! I think I have more than that lodged in my couch.

My stupidity is not important

2005-12-30T07:16:00.000-08:00

I'm dumb, but my poker idiocy is not important.

One of the guys from my poker game (and a great guy in his own right, even if he never played poker with me) is in the hospital.

The day after Christmas, Kida had a brain aneurysm. I'm not smart enough to know what that really means, until I look it up on webmd.com. I will classify that under Very Serious Shit until such time has he walks into my apartment and tell me to deal him in.

Knowledge about his situation is tough to come by. I know he had emergency surgery, and a stay in ICU. There was something about a surgery-induced coma, that he is since out of. His family is privvy to visits and all the info, and the info is hard to come by. While not a religious man, I know Kida is, and I've said a prayer or three to his God and/or my God to give him some help. The latest news is that he's doing better, the surgeries (plural?) have helped, he's getting better, but he's still not well enough to leave the hospital.

Today's my off day, and hopefully he'll be well enough to have me visit him in the hospital.

And yes, I'm so cheesy that I'm bringing a deck of cards and some chips. If he wants to play, we'll play. If he can't play, maybe I'll put some aces by his bedside.

He's only one month older than I am. This isn't supposed to happen.

UPDATE:
Kida is still in the hospital, recovering. As just one of the guys that knows him well, I'm not allowed to visit him. Actually, nobody is. The game plan for Kida is slow for the time being. He's recuperating, and they want to keep his blood pressure low. They also want to give him a CAT scan every day for two weeks to make sure that nothing else is going wrong in his brain, and he's healing up.

So they reason that if he had visitors, he'd perk up, and his increased blood pressure might hurt his healing, in his brain and elsewhere.

So I haven't been in to see him, but I have had his best friend promise me that he'll talk to me immediately when he's well enough to see people. This is the same best friend that snuck into the hospital to watch Kida get wheeled into the OR with a phalanx of medical staffers moving monitoring equipment with him.

He had a look of astonishment, and sadness about him.

At least he has emotions. At least he has hope. He's on the way up. I just have to wait until he's well enough to receive visitors.

~~

And it never makes me sad when I'm actually playing poker, to think about Kida. I don't - I'm always so focused on the game at hand. Everyone in the game I host, we all know Kida, almost everybody has played with him. It's afterwards, when I reflect on things, that I think about the tough times that face him... then, I get sad.

How can I help? How can I make a difference?

Right now, it's waiting. It's prayer - from a man who believes that God exists, and isn't sure of much else. In the days to come, I hope to be useful and comforting.

The Best Laydown We've Never Seen

2005-12-21T22:51:00.000-08:00

The ranking season is over, and both Albert and Russ passed me. Bragging rights for them (and we like to brag!). I was getting very low, and pushed in the CO with A9o. Shawn found a suited Big Slick in his BB, and I was out in 9th. I realized that Slick has been present the last three times I've busted out of the Tustin game. I ran into it twice, and shoved it into pocket kings.

Russ won the Double Stakes tourney, with some absolutely amazing cards. He started at a soft table, and was dealt big cards. In one rotation, he was dealt pocket kings and aces twice each. During the evening, he admitted to having aces an amazing seven times.

The big hand he folded may have been the most important though.

Ten handed, Chill raised UTG, and Russ reraised substantially from the SB. Chill immediately shoved the rest of his chips into the pot. It was a huge reraise. Everything about Chill's body language screamed "big hand". I thought for sure Russ would call and we'd see the two chipleaders fight it out with big pocket pairs.

Russ agonized. And finally, after counting it out, finding out Chill had him covered by just a few chips, he folded. Pocket kings, he claimed later.

I believe him. And I also believe that Chill had aces. I'll never know for sure.

So the deck hit Russ upside the head the entire night, but it was the big fold he made that may have made all the difference.

If that's what actually happened, Russ deserves the Number One Spot.

Respect.

Everybody else rules

2005-12-17T21:37:00.000-08:00

All the Vegas reports are outstanding. Great reads and pics all over the place! The cab ride, the Roshambo'ing, the tales of drunkeness.... all good. Oh, and the poker too. Yeah, I'm a little jealous.

~~

I've been playing more cheapy MTT's lately, and I've been in the money more often than not. Unfortunately, I'm busting out just inside the money, a loooong way from any final tables. My most recent "success" was a big score of $2 on bodog in their $1K guaranteed freeroll. Free to enter, and I got paid in real money. The concept of "something for nothing" is more appealing to me than it should be.

~~

A few of the regulars at my home poker game are abuzz over the ranking systems we've been trying out. We had a few people propose them, and ran with four slightly different ones, all on a ten-week trial. The tenth tourney is this Sunday, and we're doing it Double Stakes. Albert is the top dog in all of the rankings, except the one he proposed. I'm first in that one. Bragging rights is all that's at stakes here, but apparently we like to brag.

Follow the money

2005-12-14T16:14:00.000-08:00

I played in the $5 rebuy $10K guaranteed on UB last night. Unlike most rebuys, my table was very tight - we had maybe half a dozen rebuys in the allowed hour. Really. And one guy was ticked off at this. He was watching a buddy of his playing at easily the loosest table in the tourney. Almost every hand had more than 2 all-ins preflop. Sometimes five players, all-in before the flop, with such confrontations as A3-hearts vs 33 vs K7o vs QJo.

The all-in-leader was ChiliKing. I'm pretty sure he was into the tourney for $100, five at a time. He was probably going to have to finish 9th to break even.

By the end of the rebuy phase, that table had five of the top 12 players on the chipleader toteboard. Half the table. ChiliKing was sitting on a decent stack of 9K after the add-on. The top 5/12 had 17K+.

Just like last time, I could get any momentum going, and ended the rebuy phase with 4K, after the addon. At least I was only into the tourney for $15.50... well, $10.50 plus some points.

Just for kicks, I reviewed the standing of that table (top 80 paid). The shorties finished between 443rd and 482nd. The chipleaders finished 474th, 279th, 214th, 119th, and 10th (for just over $100).

I was also keeping an eye on Poker Ho, who is often found playing big money tourneys. He was 3rd overall at the end of the rebuy phase. He ended up 117th.

I ran into a few strong hands about a half hour before the bubble, and got busted in 133rd.

And ChiliKing finished in 6th, more than tripling his money. I think I may have found a new UB tourney whiz to watch.

Quick update

2005-12-11T18:46:00.000-08:00

The recap:

Two Sundays ago, I donked it up horribly, rebuying three times, then finishing dead last, busting out to Shawn. He called a 2/3 the pot bet with an openeder, and I called his all-in with TPTK to see his turned straight. Always nice to get your money in drawing dead with one card to come.

My cashgame play has been odd. I've been into the game for multiple buy-ins, but I ended up the night within a buy-in profit/loss. Up $8, down $5. *shrug* I seem to be doing well enough. Though I need to remember to bet into Albert on the river. He's proving to be the toughest to trap, and the least likely to bet a very strong but not nut hand when he thinks I'm up to something fishy. He flops trip tens with ATo, I turn the nut full house with my kings, and we go check-check on the river. Nice no-bet.

Last Sunday was a different story, and it was a nice one. Attendance was down a little due to college exams out there, with 8 players buying in to the first tourney. I made a timely doubleup against Albert when my J7o and his 76o flopped straights from the blinds on a scary board, T-9-8, two diamonds. I made the last raise, he agonized, then called. From there, I didn't go overboard trying to bully the table, especially with Austin's distaste for folding before the flop.

The tourney was effectively won when we were three-handed, and I raised Austin's BB with pocket fives. Nice flop: Q-9-5, two hearts. Doubleas & GCox agree: sets are a goldmine! I did not want to see a large heart hit the board, so I bet roughly the pot. And Austin checkraised me! I took some time to think before I called. The turn helped nobody, a black 3. He checked, leading me to believe he had a very strong draw, like KT-hearts or something. I bet another sizeable amount, and he checkraised me again! It wasn't much more for me to go all-in, and Austin tabled his two pair, Q5o. I had Austin covered by $600 in chips. Poor Albert was sitting there (now in the money) with almost $5K, and I have the rest of it, $42K or so. It wasn't long after that I found KQo, got all-in preflop with Al's ATo, and rivered a flush to finish it.

It wasn't even 11 yet, so we decided to play again, this time a $10 freezeout with 6 players. Second place got their buy-in back, top guy got $50. I won that one too, after plenty of back and forth with Skipper heads-up.

This was a fun hand: AQo in the SB, with two limpers. For some reason, I decided not to pop it, and called. Russ in the BB, pushed all-in, and started counting out his chips. It was a fairly large overbet, but he was probably playing the situation more than his cards. He seemed fairly sure he wasn't going to get called. So I called, and his A6o didn't improve. I'll have to remember that next time Russ is on my left with a short-medium stack of chips.

Online has been an adventure. I've coughed up some cash, five bucks at a time, in UB's $5 rebuy feeder tourney for their $300+20 WSOP satellite. 29th out of 125 and 14th out of 121, with the top 5 getting seats each time, and the top 10-11 getting into the money. In the 14th place finish, I was on the leaderboard at the second hour break, third out of 35 or so. Getting my kings cracked by A2o hurt. Trip two's, no less.

I played some $.5/$1 limit Omaha/8 and finished up a whole buck. It was my first attempt at moving up a level. It was nice to see I didn't donk my way around too badly. The table seemed just a bit more likely to raise preflop, and just a bit less likely to stick around with subpar draws. The level of play isn't a huge improvement. Time will tell if I can be profitable at this level. I sure hope so.

I monied in a $5 turbo MTT, 22nd out of 370 or so. $13 is better than nothing. I also had a fun 2nd place in a 30-person $5 sng.

My bankroll is holding steady, but I am enjoying taking shots at a few tourneys.

The Donkey-est (donkiest?) Call Ever

2005-12-06T23:57:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting hand for you. But first, a little background.

It's a $5, 10-person SnG on UB. GCox is lounging comfortably at my table, folding the trash and trouncing people with his premium holdings. It's six- or seven-handed at this point, and we've had the current BB yap about his poker knowledge. In short, he's the table expert. At a $5 table, oh yeah.

The table had been playing fairly passively, and I limp on the button with K3-clubs after two limpers, figuring I'll bet if it's checked to me on the flop. The BB Know-It-All pot-raises. He's done this at least three times now, each and every time it was his BB and it was limped around.

Clearly, he's playing the situation and his opponents now, and not his cards.

I call his raise, and see a flop that misses me entirely: 7-5-5, two spades. Predictably, the BB KIA pushes his stack in, almost a pot-sized bet. Insta-shove. This simply looks like an extension of his preflop move. "You're weak, I'm strong, you fold now."

I call.

No pair. No draw. King high. I truly believe, in my heart of hearts, that my hand has a strong chance of being best. That I'm about to call a huge bluff.

Know-It-All shows A8-spades. Nut draw semibluff. I have him covered by 2K with the BB at 60 (or I probably would've folded).

He saves his explosion for a split second, when that red three turns and the river bricks. EXPLODES in his righteous fury over the abomination that is Donkey Poker and the injustice that is Ultimate Bet. I have never been so berated.

Or amused. I just made the worst call I can ever remember making. With two cards to come, I'm 12% to win the hand.

I made a read, and stuck with it. It turned out to be horribly, horribly wrong. So often, the Donkey is screwing me. Now, I am the Donkey.

As a parting shot, I reminded him that I WANT people to call my all-ins with no pair, no draw. That he should be thanking me for such a bad call when it mattered most. I hope I came off as philosophical and not assholish.

A year ago, I would've never considered a call there. Because I was scared. Scared of being wrong. Scared of looking like a Poker Idiot in front of people (GCox among them).

So I did. I looked like a dunce. A Luckbox Without Equal. This is new to me, like I'm trying on a shirt I'm not sure I like.

But the ending was fun. NOBODY attempted to bluff me for the rest of the tourney. Well, maybe GCox threw some in there when we were headsup, but while shorthanded, I was given a very wide berth. I had the chiplead, and nobody wanted to test me to see what I'd call with next. They check, I bet, I take the pot. Good times.

I started heads-up with GCox having about a 2-1 chip advantage over me. There was some hand in there that put me comfortably in the lead (after many small skirmishes).

I raised on the button with the Hammer. The true, offsuit Hammer (I had folded a Suited Hammer face up earlier in the tourney). GCox pushed. I was getting just about the proper odds to call with any two, and called. The flop had a two, the turn and river didn't help G's unpaired hand, and it was over.

The Donkey had won. With the Hammer.

Long live Donkey Poker!!

Satellite to a satellite

2005-11-23T22:40:00.000-08:00

Today I made my first online attempt at getting to the WSOP main event. (A guy can dream, can't he?) I finished 29th out of 125 in a $5 UB rebuy. Top 5 got seats in the $300+20 WSOP satellite, and top 11 made the money. I busted out when a medium stack raised my BB, and I shoved with AQo. He probably was getting good enough odds to call with any two, and showed me JT-suited. He made two pair, I made TPTK. I go home now. Not a bad effort for $15, and probably worth a few shots in the future.

The play in the tourney was awful to mediocre, and was very reminiscent of the $10K guaranteed $5 rebuy MTT I played in a week ago.

Steals bad. Value bets good. Big hands paid.

Goooooool!!

2005-11-23T01:46:00.000-08:00

Ah, it feels nice. Calm day at work, followed by a hat trick on the soccer field (7-2 win), then a nice doubleup (+$24) at the Reraise Homegame.

The hat trick wasn't impressive in its execution. I opened the scoring with a left-footed-cross-turned-goal, then a penalty kick, and ending with another nice lefty shot. I could've had three more - I found the post twice and had a header go just wide.

The trick left me feeling all warm and fuzzy because it's been ages since my last one. I'm not a goalscorer. I'm pleased with solid defense and decent passing. Anything else is icing. The last time I had this much icing was probably eight years ago in college in a 5v5 indoor game.

The Reraise Homegame is some of the worst and toughest poker I've seen, simultaneously. Post-flop, bluffs are everywhere. Betting out bottom pair is commonplace. Preflop action often goes like this: Jack-seven suited raises UTG, 98s calls, pocket fives reraise, AKo coldcalls, everybody calls. Volatile poker at its finest. Or ugliest. Did I mention the suckouts of people who don't want to fold draws, even bad five-out-better-hit-my-kicker-or-trip-up draws?

I was puzzled with what to do when I saw the following: two red aces in the SB. UTG raises to $2, KingReraise reraises to $7. I figure King for good cards, and he hates to fold, so rather than make a small reraise, I jammed for $40 total. Everyone reluctantly folded, showing UTG's 55 and King's KTo (wtf? seriously). Even the BB wanted to play his QJ-suited. My aces would've gotten cracked by the 5 on the flop, and not paid by the other bigstack's unimproved KT.

I know that if I smoothcall the $7, UTG calls, and probably the BB. I don't want three opponents against my aces. These guys LOVE seeing flops. In retrospect, making it $17 to go was probably a good balance of stack commitment and getting only one caller, King.

The cool part of the night is that I ran into a hand in the first 10 minutes and was crippled (stupid Kournikova!), leaving me with $1.50. I asked if I could rebuy another $20, and was told 'no'. I proceeded to go on the heater of all heaters, doubling up to $3 with A8o, then tripling up with AJ-suited. Tens, then queens, then two Big Slicks added more chips to my stack. The pinnacle was rivering the nut flush against KingReraise, who was smooth-calling my on-the-come bets with middle set. At that point, I had turned that measly buck-fifty into $60 or so.

Go to hell, Captain Luckbox.

2005-11-17T18:05:00.000-08:00

I've got a case of the lazies, and it's extending to poker and blogging. Oh well. The highlights:

I think Thursday night may have been the first and last time my mom attempts NL holdem. She won two hands, then lost two big ones, and busted out of the cashgame within 45 minutes. Her big mistake was holding onto A5o way too long. She hit an ace on the river, but somebody else's AJ made a boat on the same card. Oops.

I had a down session playing NL holdem, but Russ was begging for me to play him in PL Omaha/8. We played four-handed for a few minutes with Shawn and Chris, then another hour heads-up. I turned my third $10 of the night into $36, mostly on good cards and easy decisions in Omaha/8. When Russ had something, I had zilch. When I was drawing strong or already made, Russ was sticking around and paying me.
~~

The tourney Sunday was a blur. I was busted in 10th when Jesse reraised me all-in from his BB with AJo. My kings got cracked by a turned ace, and he had me covered. I would've gone from medium-stack to chipleader - instead I went from medium-stack to cheerleader. Albert played well, trapping the overly aggressive money finishers (Quagmire, Sam, Barker) to win it.
~~

I'm a short-sighted bastard when it comes to freebies. UltimateBet is offering a Frequent Player Freeroll this Saturday, only requirements are earning 300 points through ring games from Nov 12-18. I triple tabled at quarter BB limit O/8, and signed up last night.

Short-sighted? I can't actually play in the freeroll, which starts 30 minutes after I have to clock in for my Saturday lunch bartender shift. Albert will be stepping in for me. If he can't make it, Barker will.

Nice prize pool though - $5,500 in cash, ten seats to the $1 Million Stone Cold Nuts tourney, and some other odds 'n ends.
~~

I don't play MTT's regularly, but I had some time and found a juicy one - the UB $5 rebuy, $10K guaranteed. Ten K? That's a lotta rebuys for 637 people. And they hit it, when it was all said and done for a prize pool of $10.2K. Top 70 paid.

I think UB just started $5 rebuy cash-payout tourneys. Pretty nice.

I played well, and my chips stayed steady. I don't think I ever cracked the top 15 in chips, and stayed very near the median for the whole darn thing.

With Barker, Albert, and Fast Eddie watching, I coasted into the money, still with a medium-sized stack. The hand on the bubble made me a little sad, though I think I took the safe route. A super-shorty went all-in UTG, and the table chipleader reraised a significant amount. With six players left to act behind me, and a chipstack right at the average, I mucked pocket jacks. After they showed 88 and 99, I felt a little foolish. Neither hit a set, and we were all in the money. It didn't occur to me until a few minutes afterward that if I pushed and was called, and the chipleader beat us both, I'm in the money and super-shorty isn't, based on the chipcount at the start of the hand.

I know the short stack has a huge range there, and I knew the other guy knew that. If I'm the BB or a short stack myself, it's an easy all-in.

I still wonder if I gave up too much by mucking those jacks though.

The next hand I played was my last. MP with AJ-hearts, I bumped it up normally. The button called, as did the BB. The flop was an uncoordinated J-high. Looking good unless somebody hit a small set, as I expected queens or kings would reraise preflop. BB bet $8K, about 1/3 of the pot, into me. I reraised all-in for an additional $20K. The button mucked, and the BB called with J8-suited. Which was great, until the 8 on the turn. I had him covered by less than 1K. I was pleased to see pocket sevens on the very next hand, and to see somebody raise large in front of me, but his queens held up. Top 70 paid, I finished 70th.

Oh man, I didn't need to see that. Barker continued to watch the tourney, and noticed Mister Jack-Eight at the final table, then stopped watching. Just for kicks right now, I checked the results of the tourney. Captain Luckbox won the whole fuckin' thing. $2.5K for him, $26 for me.

Despite the title of this post, I feel good about it all. I played well and made the money. Can't begrudge a guy for winning. Suckouts happen.

The take-away message, at least during this rebuy tourney, is that stealing a lot less is a good idea. Callers were everywhere, and every big hand I had got paid. I toned down my steal/bluff attempts for the first 2-3 hours, and limped a few middle pairs in more, figuring for a huge payoff if I hit a set (and for a tough decision if I raised, got 3 callers and 2 overcards). I modified my in-game strategy a little and it seemed to work very well.

The tourney cash was a tiny profit, and the O/8 workout beefed up my bankroll a bit more, with the help of coverted bonus dollars. I'm hovering in the neighborhood of $800. Not bad. I think that quarter limit O8 is easy money - and I haven't even finished Cappelleti's O/8 book. After some more experience, I think I'll give PLO8 a shot, and/or move up a level at limit O8.

I've been reading a lot more of drizz lately, hoping to pick up Omaha/8 wisdom nuggets. At least I hope they're wisdom nuggets.

Not another poker version of me

2005-11-10T16:40:00.000-08:00

Mom is here for a visit - if the last two days have been any indication, her trip will consist of rising early, tidying up my apartment, and cooking healthy dinners for me. I love my mom. We drive to work, and she gets the car while I'm working. I'm not sure what she does besides visit the library and Whole Foods supermarket to stock our fridge with colorful foods I've never tried. I've seen flower shops with less greenery than the inside of my fridge.

And really, if she's driving the car to Tijuana to smuggle drugs, I prefer blissful ignorance. But it would make for a funny story.

Over the last two evenings, I've taught her a few holdem concepts. She said she wanted to play in the games I host, so tonight's the night for that. She's a morning person, on east coast time, so I suspect she'll be at the table for two hours tops before calling it a night. I just hope the other guys are better behaved than normal.
~~~

Enter the Bluffraise

I moneyed again in the Tustin Sunday homegame tourney, third out of the last four. No wins yet, but I'm playing reasonably well. I went out with a whimper, instead of a bang. Lost a big hand, shortstack in chips, and could not find anything decent to steal with. I knew I needed something decent because of the presence of Gamblin' Jesse on my left. I eventually shoved with Q8-suited, and his K7o beat me. Fourth place out of sixteen will do.

This was the same Jesse that took a huge hand off of me in my first visit to Quagmire's homegame, a $20 buy-in, 25/50 cent blind affair.

It was a maniac game. Raises preflop with face-rag suited, or nothing. Reraises and steal-raises with nothing. You'd think it was deep-stack poker, but you'd be wrong.

I was rock-tight, owing to the most raise-happy person at the Maniac Table on my immediate right. We played our own version of raise-fold poker. He raised, I folded. Time and time and time again. I have since dubbed him "KingReraise".

I had built my twenty into $69, despite running into trip aces, when I finally had a BB unraised. I checked blind. Flop was 9-6-3, two clubs. KingReraise bet $1, and I finally looked at my cards. Those naughty Hiltons, queens. I raised to $3.50, then Jesse reraised to $10. And King called!

I was concerned, but felt I needed to make a big enough raise to get the draws out. I had a good feeling I wasn't up against a set. Two pair, maybe... they do like playing 69. So I pushed, $58 more over the top of Jesse's $10. He thought a long time, and called. King folded his OESD, 54off. Jesse tabled J9o, no clubs. One of my queens was a club. The turn was another 9, and the $140+ pot was pushed his way when I didn't see another lady on the river.

I cooled off quickly, dropped another buy-in when a few flops missed me, then turned my third twenty into $30 as the night ended. What an odd experience that table was, and sooo different from my own, relatively passive game! It's not that they were great poker players, but their style was TOUGH to adapt to.
~~~

Action-packed Endgame

Two Sundays ago, we had an interesting end to a new twist on our Sunday tourney. In honor of the WSOP episodes being televised, we played a WSOP event of our own. $20 buy-in freezeout, 10K in chips to start, with blinds & antes that followed the WSOP Main Event schedule. Well, except for their 2 hour blind levels. I decided to shorten ours to 20 minute each to make sure we finished before dawn. Antes in the Main Event start on level 4. Ours don't normally start until level 7, mainly to get the low denomination chips out of there.

At the final table, my chips weren't scaring anybody. I didn't have many. But I stuck around, and doubled with kings and aces right when I needed to. I backed into the money when MightyThor's all-in reraise was called by Sam with TPTK. Top two chipleaders fighting over an action flop: Q-J-7. Thor was #2 in chips, and showed AT to Sam's AQ. A head-scratcher right there, but I wasn't about to say anything. That's why I call him the MightyThor - the man loves to raise big and bring the thunder down. No help to him on the turn or river, and he bubbled in 5th.

Just into the money (4 paid outta 17), I proceeded to go nuts with my short stack. I pushed with 94o, 98-suited and AJo before I got caught with my hand in the cookie jar. The AJ hand set events in motion. I pushed from the SB into Albert's BB, and Al showed his QJo while considering his action. Russ, who was railbirding by now, said he'd call in a second. I was silently rooting for a call, but Albert laid it down.

The very next hand, I went all-in with K6o, and Al called instantaneously from his SB. Oops, the jig is up. KQ for him. But the first card off the deck is a six, and no help for Al! Tilt! Tilt! Tilt!!!

I like Albert, and I respect his poker game, but it is just SO MUCH FUN to put him on tilt. After reading the Tiltboys take on "implied tilt odds", it's just too tempting not to gamble a little with Albert in the hopes that he goes on tilt.

That night, he was on tilt for the rest of the night. Luckily for him, that wasn't long.

Big fat doubleup for me, and if I'm no longer short.

I had the wherewithal to avoid a nice trap set by Miguel. Two hands after my suckout, I'm in the BB with K8o. Miggy completes his SB, and I rap the felt. The flop missed me: J-9-2, all spades, though I did have a bitchin' 8-high flush draw. Miggy checked, I bet two-thirds of the pot. He called, and I began to wonder if my spade was higher than his spade.

Turn was a brick, and we checked it through. River was a brick, and I have king-high. We checked it, and Miggy shows me pocket aces, with the ace of spades. He didn't think I had the flush, he was trapping me. And after all my maniac play, I settled down after one stab at it, and lost less than I probably should have. Go me.

Two hands after that, I've got the button and two black nines. Oh good, another apparent steal from me, and I've got a legit hand this time. I bumped it up normally, and Sam, the chipleader, pushed from the BB. I insta-called, and I liked what I saw: Sam's A7-diamonds. The flop disagreed, pairing Sammy's ace. No help for me, and I was done. We did the math, and he had me covered by only 6K or so. Had my hand held, I would've had a huge chiplead against a crippled Sam, and tired-looking Albert and Miggy.

That was the last hand played. They decided to chop evenly right after, even though Sam had way more chips. Sam got the extra dollar and the credit for the win. I was feeling pretty sharp, even though it was past 2am. I wouldn't have offered them the same courtesy.

All in all, the antes were an important factor, and it was really fun to get all push-happy after I snuck into the money. I was thiiiis close to doing some real damage, and the ride sure was fun.

Mixed game, and madness

2005-11-05T19:30:00.000-08:00

Wow.

Thursday night - the mixed game. PL Omaha/8 has evil swings. My favorite hand was the PLO8 one where I scooped an $84 pot with A-2-Q-6, clubs. My least favorite was the limit holdem hand where the flop was capped, the turn was capped, and the river was 2-bet with four players. Board K-8-3, K, 7. I held 33, Skip had KT, Brian had KQ, and NewGuy had 88. As a card was burned for the river, I thought "Oh no, could I be drawing to one out? Three opponents can only be holding two kings." Sure enough.

The most evil hand was the PLO8 hand with the board reading K-7-7, 9, 2.
Russ had KKxx, Adam had 99xx, and Brian had 77xx. Brian and Russ slowplayed the flop, allowing Adam to hit his boat. Brian raked in the largest pot ever at my game, $105+. We played all PL games with a .10/.20 blinds. Twenty cents in the BB and we had a few pots over $60.

I also flopped quads in PLO/8, but my low draw was counterfeited and I took only half.

Nice action after a truly awful day at work.
~~

Friday - Bonus! Roommate Jeff scored tickets to the Rolling Stones at Anaheim Angels stadium. His company, Ameriquest Mortgage, is sponsoring the tour or some such. They've got 10K tickets, and Jeff got two. Didn't feel like inviting one of his ladyfriends, so I scored a seat in exchange for a shift as the DD. Pretty good ones, too - floor level. The stage started out in deep centerfield, then moved to the pitcher's mound area after about a dozen songs. We were in shallow left field by the foul line.

Never seen the Stones before. Keith Richards looked more human and less zombie-like than I expected. He even sang two songs while Mick was backstage changing clothes. Or taking a nap. Either way, he came back out to rock some more.
~~

This evening, I'm home from a good bartending shift (in contrast to recent annoying server shifts), and I got an invite to a homegame I've never been to. And it's in Tustin, so it can't be more than 5 miles away. $20 buy-in cashgame. Giddyup.

Real money on Bodog.com

2005-11-02T23:04:00.000-08:00

"I don't think I've ever seen a better display of tightass aggression." - Skipper, while watching me play in a bodog.com freeroll.

They have some odd freerolls over at bodog. The one I was in was a $100 guaranteed $0+0 MTT, with the first hour allowing $1 rebuys. We only got fifty-ish rebuys, so the prize pool was a hundred bucks, with $25 to first. I was rewarded with 44 cents of real money for my 36th place finish, when I couldn't fold kings on the river. They've also got some sort of $1K guaranteed $0+0 freeroll, also with rebuys. I'm going to try one of these if I can too.

It was fun - I like the bodog software. The amount of people who were on auto post/fold was staggering. I got moved to a table of 9, with 2 other live people. Definitely introduced a new element of play into the mix: who gets to steal. And the ranges of hands for limping in were huge, bluffing opportunities everywhere. I avoided getting trapped for a lot of chips when the live bigstack actually had a hand.

The lowest limits they've got have nickel/dime blinds. And I think I need at least $10 to make football bets over there.

Best of all, Albert is a special member over there, and he is kind enough to pass on the passwords some of the invite-only freerolls they've got. The quality of play is bad and more passive than I remember UB/Pokerroom freerolls being. I like that.

For now, my attempt to get something for nothing at bodog is amusing. I'm thinking I need a buck or two to start playing at the nickel-dime tables.

It's the journey, not the destination

2005-11-01T15:07:00.000-08:00

I won a 10-handed UB $5 sng last night. Ho hum. The remarkable part was how shortstacked I found myself.

With four players left, I was #2 in chips, and somebody called my BB preflop raise after limping in, then pushed all-in over the top with AQ-high on a 7-7-3 flop. I called with my 9's, and the queen on the turn crippled me.

I had 375 with the BB at 400.

UTG next hand, I didn't want to play 62o with what I figured to be the SB and the BB calling me. I won my BB hand, with only the chipleading SB calling, K9o against his QT-suited.

So I doubled up, and I'm still short. But one of the other guys is also short, and we're on the bubble. I ended up winning another all-in on the very next hand, then having to call Shorty's all-in with J5o from my very next BB - it was just 175 more. I even had two overcards to his pocket 4's. He won that, and I was shortest again.

A doubleup and a bluff later, he was out and I was in the money. I went on a sick rush of cards, and trapped the chipleader twice with big hands. I busted him in third place with AK, then took the whole thing when I flopped quads with pocket 8's.

Sure, it's only a $25 win, but the journey was FUN.

Live-blogging an UB MTT

2005-10-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

All the cool kids do the live-blogging thing. I thought I'd give it a try.

I'm a micro-limit kinda guy, and the $5 MTT ($3500 guaranteed) is my speed. Rather than hit a dive bar, my roommate and I have decided to play poker this evening. He's in a 6-handed SnG as I type this.

7:54pm: Ravioli's almost done. The chianti is breathing. I've borrowed my roommate's The Strokes cd for musical accompaniment.

8:02: And we're off to a flying start, 764 players in total. J2-offsuit. I had seen so much of J2o a month ago that my homegame buddies started calling it 'my' hand. Would've rivered a losing two pair. Losing caller had Q2-suited, pair of twos, queen kicker. I like this table already.

8:06: I like it when the bad preflop player busts the sound one. Min-raise, pot raise, pot reraise. Min-raiser folds, pot raiser pushes, reraiser calls with kings. Pot raiser was playing AJo, and flopped an ace. Please don't move me.

8:09: I defended my blind with KTo, the check-folded when EP bet out on a T-9-8 rainbow flop, and both other players calls. I lack the balls to raise everybody off the hand, due to the straight draws out there. EP wins the hand when they all check the turn, and his A6 hits an ace on the river.

8:11: I get cute and raise in the CO with T9o. Button and a blind call, and the blind bets into us with an all-diamond A-K-x flop. His bet gets it.

8:15: Plenty of multi-handed, limped flops, so I join in with a QT-diamonds. Q-J-7 rainbow flop, I bet 100, get five callers. FIVE. Turn is a 9, putting two clubs on board. Bad-playing big stack bets the pot into me. Apparently I haven't activated my brain yet. I call 600, leaving 670 in my stack. Stoooopid. Ace of clubs on the river, and he pushes. I fold. I suck.

8:19: It's official, I'm bad at this game. I raise in EP with pocket 8's, get three callers and a reraiser. I push what remains of my 670 into the middle, and get called by the reraiser with 9's. I flop a boat and more than double up. I'm back above my starting amount. And vowing to play better poker.

8:21: Folded my BB to a raise and a reraise, pitching A9o. There, that's not hard. 8's versus 10's, and the eights river a straight. Set of tens no good. And the underdog PP wins again.

8:27: The players at my table are addicted to seeing the flop. So this changes my strategy a little, at least until they bust out, or the blinds go up so they aren't as comfortable. I'm going to limp in with hands where I don't want to see 4 preflop callers. Any pocket pair lower than queens.

8:30: That didn't take long. I limped in MP with 9's, and the aforementioned bad-playing big stack potted it from the SB. One caller before me, I call, and there's one call after me. 6-6-3 flop, two clubs. SB leads out with 250 into a 750, and gets a fold. I smell horrid weakness. I push for my remaining 1200, and it gets back to the SB. He thinks. And calls. With two big clubs, right? Wrong. AK-offsuit, red. No help for him, and I've doubled up to 3.3K with the BB at 30.

Against good players, I've probably just gifted my stack to somebody. But we're in a $5 MTT, and we're not good players. (Yeah, even me. I should be out already.)

8:35: Big-stack (un-retarded, probably) min-raises from UTG, and I muck a MP AJo. Big stack wins the hand with A4o, a pair of fours by the river. And the table breaks. Nooooooooooooo!!!!

8:38: New table, I'm the BB with A9o. Two limpers, a small raise, another caller, and I muck. UTG limper pushes all-in for roughly 1.6K, everybody folds. Interesting.

8:40: 3x BB raise from me on the button with The Hammer. SB goes all-in for 2K, shows me AQ-spades after I showed my Hammer. Even more interesting.

8:44: The Strokes out, Kanye West in. Two black kings in EP. Reraiser on the button has me covered. I smoothcall preflop, and see Q-Q-8, two hearts. Check, check on the flop. Ace of hearts on the turn. Fuuuuuuuck. My last ditch bet, 600 into a 900 pot. He raised, making me commit my last 2.1K. I declined, and folded.

8:48: Rockets in the big blind, an EP raiser, and a LP caller. I pretend I'm on tilt, and push. EP calls with jacks. Normally great, except the board reads 6-5-4-3-2 by the end of it. Doh.

8:56: Pocket 6's UTG. Limp. The SB completes, BB raises. It's less than 10% of my stack to call, and he's got me covered. SB folds. J-6-5, two spades. Flopping a hidden set gets my pants snug. He bet the pot into me. Roommate Jeff was lurking over my shoulder and asked "Flush draw? Gonna raise it up?" Nope, time to get greedy. Turn was a brick, and he bet enough for me to call all-in, showing me pocket 4's. The river was the case 6. As better bloggers have written, "Them's quads, beetches." 4.4K in my stack, BB at 60. I'm 77th out of 351. Top 80 paid, and first clocks a sweet $878. That would more than double my online bankroll.

9:03: first break. Kanye is flowing, the wine tastes good, and I feel infinitely better than I did after my QT and 88 retardation. Time to buckle down and money in this bitch. This is the blind level I LOVE, 50/100. This is where it gets expensive for the bad, lucky players who have built up a nice stack. This is where the flame-outs start to happen. Let's try for that not to be me this time around.

9:14: coughed up some chips making a play from the BB. Unraised pot, a MP player and the SB. A-8-7 flop, I bet 200 into a 300 pot. MP thought and called, SB folded. Turn was another ace. Representing ace-small, I bet half the pot. He called. Surely, he must have an ace. Brick on the river, and we checked it down. K9 for me, A2-spades for him. Blah. 3.8K in my stack. On the upside, I almost got trip aces to fold.

9:17: pocket 3's in MP. Unraised pot, 7 saw the flop. Seven! Q-6-2, two diamonds. I didn't flop it, so I dropped it. A4-off takes it from 62-off when the turn and river go A-Q. Three pair no good!

9:21: I refuse to fold when I have plenty of chips and somebody min-raises my BB. I called with 84o. We checked a 9-9-2 flop, then I bet 200 into a 400 pot when the 8 hit the turn. He called, and I check-called for 100 when the river was a K. He showed me... oh yeah, Big Slick. I love you, calling with overcards with one card to come.

9:23: I won a small hand with KK on the button. A bigstacked blind called me with QT, flopped top pair, and min-bet into me. I had planned to make my move on the river, but it was an ace, so I forced myself to call there too.

9:24: New table, I raised it up in LP with A8-spades. Bigstacked blind called me with AKo, and min-bet into me with a Q-Q-J, two diamond flop. I raised him on the flop, he called. He min-bet again on the turn, a brick, and I called. River was a brick, and I couldn't force myself to put a big bet in. 2.2k after that.

9:28: 87o free look at the flop. Q-7-6, two clubs. SB min-bets. (Fuck min-bets!!) I raise 4x that, and the LP limper calls. Turn is the K of diamonds, with two diamonds now on board. I push for about the pot, praying for a fold. Wrong. AQ-diamonds had the best hand and the best draw. Out in 266th.

Ok, so that wasn't a great show of poker prowess. I pick poor spots. And really, I should've not put in another penny after AQ called my flop raise. Call it tilt. Or poor play. I should know better.

And that's another $5 of my poker education. Ignore the last table. Ignore the last hand. This is a new day, a new hand. Think, and play. Even if your instincts are whispering an answer you don't want to hear.

HUC2: Round of 8: Rock-like & Predictable

2005-10-28T22:30:00.000-07:00

My opponent in the Round of 8 for the Heads-Up Challenge was the inimitable SirFWALGMan. Trite as it sounds, I was expecting the unexpected from SirF in our heads-up matches. I figured him to be a little wild - his betting patterns would tell me next to nothing. I didn't figure on following the same gameplan as I had against Aussie Dave. For Dave, I wanted to grind out an early chip lead, and use that pressure to choke him, chip by chip. SirF would be nothing like that. We'll see few jabs here; we're playing for uppercuts.

We played the first two matches on Thursday. I took the first. The major hand was a big one. Sir raised from the button, I reraised with pocket kings. The flop was J-J-2, rainbow. Sir called all-in after I raised him, holding pocket 7's.

He had the chiplead at that point, so he was crippled, but not out. The finishing blow came when I made a decision to take free cards. Q6-diamonds on the button, and the flop came T-T-7, two diamonds. Sir checked the flop to me, I checked behind. The turn was no help, and I checked behind Sir again. The river showed me my diamond flush, and Sir checkraised me. I put him all-in, and he had flopped trips with KTo, but didn't have the boat.

The second match was longer, with plenty of back and forth.

This time, my first big pocket pair was queens, and Sir flopped two pair with A5o and took about half my chips.

Momentum was all mine after that, and I regained the chiplead. I had a chance to bust Sir, but my A9-spades went unimproved against his pocket 2's.

Sir had a chance to bust me when he flopped top pair, and I flopped middle pair. All the money went in, then I hit trips on the turn.

I had another chance to bust Sir, my J9-hearts was dominated by his A9-off. Momentum and chips swung his way right after, and I foolishly called an all-in with QJo preflop, to see his AK-hearts. My river draw to the straight was no good. It's all tied, and Sir is playing the better poker.

In the deciding match...

In the pregame chat tonight, SirF mentioned that, "The only way you're going to win is if you suckout." I thought, "The only way I'm gonna win is if I trap you with a big hand." It turns out we were both right.

SirF flopped a straight within the first ten hands. I flopped top pair, and he ended up with about 900 of my starting 1500 in chips. There's the first uppercut, right on my chin.

The next two dozen hands were absolutely no fun at all. He had a 4:1 lead on me, and bet/raised EVERYTHING. I treaded water for a little while, and then I settled on my weapon of choice - the checkraise. One of the times Sir attempted to put the game away, the river saved me. His pregame trashtalk was prophetic.

Things were a little different after I got over the 1K hump. Sir eased off his chokehold on me. I had a little wiggle room.

I called a moderate bet on the river with J-high. And won. Sir called a moderate river bet of mine with king-high. And lost to my trips. (He's a tough man to bluff on the river.)

A nice rush of cards propelled me to a 1600/1400 advantage.

And then it happened. I landed my uppercut.

Holding 86-diamonds, I flopped the nut straight: 7-5-4, with two hearts. I bet the pot, SirF called. The turn was the 3h. If Sir was chasing the flush, he's just caught it. I've got my big hand, and if I'm beaten by a better one, so be it. I checked to him. He bet out 2/3 the pot, which I figured would probably pot-commit him. I set him all-in, and he called with 62-off, one heart. He had a worse straight, but a river heart would double him up. No love for Sir on the river, and it was over.

I am looking forward to the Round of 4. At the same time I must congratulate SirF. He is insanely difficult to play against, and I'm not going to argue with anybody that says he outplayed me for our 3 matches.

Heads Up Challenge 2: Electric Boogaloo

2005-10-26T15:01:00.000-07:00

First off, thanks to Jordan over at High On Poker for setting this up, again.

I drew Aussie Dave in the first round. I hadn't read his blog before finding out I was his opponent, and had no knowledge of how he liked to play. Somewhere along the way, he mentioned that he hadn't much experience in heads-up.

Many, many moons ago, heads-up play was a gaping hole in my game. My tourney results at the now-defunct Buena Park game were indicative, with roughly three times as many 2nd places and wins. I read what I could find about heads-up, and realized that I needed to open up my game a little as it got to 4- and 3-handed. At the BP game, I wasn't involved enough, so invariably the chipleader would bust the guy in 3rd, and have more than a 3:1 chiplead on me for heads-up. Without a clue, I stood little chance of climbing out of that hole.

Am I a mano-a-mano badass now? Ha. I've been dominated on a couple different occasions, but I tend to give more thrashings than I receive. Then again, I'm usually playing players who aren't very good. And even then, sometimes I can feel very good about how I handled heads-up in a losing effort.

Match #1 with Aussie Dave was nothing special. The pots contested were very small, until he and I got into a raising war preflop. I made the third raise, committing about half of my chips with pocket eights, and Dave folded. I showed, and added the chips to my virtual stack. With a 1800/1200 advantage, I bullied a little, and tried to keep the pressure on.

I made what I consider a tough call, holding two pair with 76-suited in my hand. The board had an ace, three to a flush, and four to a straight on it when Dave bet into me on the river. I sacked up, and my call was rewarded when Dave showed only a pair of eights.

After I whittled him down a little more, I reraised Dave all-in preflop. He called with KJo, and my A5-suited flopped a five and turned an ace for the victory.

Match #2 wasn't my brightest moment. It could easily be said that the cards tried to give me the victory, and I tried my best to double Dave up whenever possible. On four consecutive buttons, I raised each time, holding AQ, AK, A9-suited, and A6. For a while, the cards loved me.

I jumped out to an early lead, Dave pulled close, then I took the lead again. Just when I thought I was a lock, I had a "wtf was I thinking" moment.

I limped on the button with 92-off, and Dave made a small raise. "Uhhh... but I'm soooo close to busting him and ending this. I wanna call." Oh brilliant. The flop completely missed me, Q-J-3 rainbow or something like that. And that's when he pushed all-in. For 175, into a 1K pot. Duuuuuh. How did I not see this coming? No pair, no draw, great odds? Umm, call. Dave had pocket kings, and boy did I look like a genius in front of Veneno and some of the guys from my homegame that also play on UB. A few hands after that, Dave and I were back to the original chipcounts.

Play lasted more than 110 hands. I think I had him outchipped more than 3:1 when we had another preflop all-in confrontation, my A6-off against his pocket tens. The ace on the flop held up, and I was on to the 2nd round to face the rock-like, predictable SirFWALGMan. Clearly this first round victory should show the other Heads-Up competitors that I'm a force to be reckoned with.

/sarcasm off

Uh... my play scares nobody, and I'm expecting a quick and bloody matchup with SirF. My helmet has a chinstrap.

Aussie Dave played well, and just needs some more experience in heads-up. The fundamentals are there for him.

Today's Trivia

2005-10-24T02:51:00.000-07:00

When it's 8pm in Sydney Australia, it's 2am in California.

When all the money goes in on the turn, and you river a 6-outer in PL Omaha, cracking Albert's straight with a full house, it sends him on a good half-hour of tilt, even though you're playing for $10.

And it feels goooooood.

Oh yeah, and I finished 2nd out of 11 in tonight's Tustin tourney. I started heads-up play against a bad, tired player who had 80% of the chips. I chipped up, then doubled up to 21K of the 65K in chips, then screwed up two consecutive hands to lose the battle. I folded the best hand, when the flush scare card hit the river and he bet it all-in (just like he did earlier in the tourney, when he had the flush), and the called an all-in on a non-threatening flop with pocket 3's to see his pocket 10's. Bad fold, bad call, game over.

Mixed game afterwards... we taught Bulletproof Kevin how to play Omaha, O/8, and 2-7 triple draw. Good times.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king

2005-10-18T15:50:00.000-07:00

At the local library, I am now known as "the guy who is always requesting poker books". Today, I had the librarians place a hold on Cappelleti's Omaha/8 book. We discussed holdem, and they mentioned that they want to expand the "gaming" section. They hinted that they'd like my input on what poker books should be stocked. I thought that was pretty cool, and I'll make up a list for them soon.

I've finished the two volumes of Harrington on Holdem, and I've enoyed the Dana Point HORSE tourney three times now. I've read the O/8 section in SS2, and some of the musings of AlCantHang and Felicia, but I thought it time to get my O/8 learn on. I'm not sure if Cappelleti's book is any good, but the OC library system only has two O/8 books, and I hadn't heard of the other guy.
~~~~

I've been running very well at the poker tables recently. Live play has been going rather well for more than a month now - I won the Tustin tourney I host twice, and I won the NL Dana Point tourney once, besting Tony, the host whose tricky play made me nervous when we got down to heads up.

Online has just started to heat up. I've won several single-table SnG's, though unfortunately that's just me screwing around at the $1 turbo and $5 regular tables. Still, it feels nice to do well.
~~~~

Every so often, I'll make a bet/raise, and I'll think "Man, that was dumb. There's no way I could have what I'm representing right now." Sometimes my play will work, sometimes not. My plan is to write down a few of these situations, study them with the goal to make less-suspicious plays when I make plays.

The consensus at my homegame is that a lot of my plays get caught. That isn't quite the case - a great number of my stabs at small and medium pots work. The bluff into the big pot, the last-ditch steal on the river... those are remembered when they fail. And that guy is me.
~~~~

My mother is coming for a visit in less than a month. I've told her about how I host poker nights twice a week, and she wants in. This should be gooooood, as I'm fairly certain she hasn't played much holdem. I vowed to teach her as much as I could before the first night. I think I'm going to ask her to promise to try both a cashgame and a tournament.

I also hope that my regulars don't embarass me (much) in front of her. Yeah, right.

She'll also get to hear the story of me putting Shawn on "poker timeout" for 6 weeks. (I've mentioned it in a previous post - when I decided to kick him out of the game in mid-September, I decided he couldn't return until November.)

Miscellaneous Update

2005-10-04T19:49:00.000-07:00

I'm really digging the new bartender gig. I get the slow shifts (Sat, Sun, sometimes Mon lunches), with the upside that while it's slow, there's football on the tube. Being paid minimum wage to watch TV and pour the occasional sprite works for me.

I'm finally in soccer shape. Playing on Sunday mornings and Tuesday nights means that each post-soccer days hurt a lot less than just playing once a week, and sporadically at that. It hasn't escaped my teammates' notice that I've been uncharacteristically strong offensively lately. A scorching left-footed shot equalized with a minute left in a tough match on Tuesday night, and I followed that up with the go-ahead assist with five minutes remaining on the following Sunday morning. For somebody that grew up playing defense forever, it felt really goooooood.

I dropped a buy-in on Thursday night at the cashgame when I flopped Broadway, and got all-in against TightGuy Adam, who rivered a royal flush on me. Hell, if I gotta lose a big hand, it might as well be to a royal. :)

And I won again on Sunday night, my second consecutive Tustin tourney, busting 5 of my 6 opponents along the way. I was alternately dumb, lucky, crafty, and smart. But mostly dumb and lucky.

This evening, I'm heading to Dana Point again, with regular Tustin-gamer Albert in tow, to partake in the $20 holdem freezeout and $20 limit HORSE tourney.

Kicking a dead HORSE in Dana Point

2005-09-29T19:16:00.000-07:00

Work, soccer, then poker made up my Tuesday. Russ had invited me to the game he plays in Dana Point. It was a $20 NL holdem freezeout tourney, followed by a $20 limit HORSE tourney, blinds up every 15 minutes for each tourney. Seven players for the holdem, and we lost one for Horse.

I finished 2nd in the holdem tourney, once again making timely (and uncalled!) first-in pushes when my chips started getting low. One of these days, Russ is going to catch me, and start giving me less credit for a hand. But for now, if I'm pushing with K7s, he's folding A9o.

It was down to heads-up, and I was way short... 3K in chips with the BB at 800, and 15K for the chipleader. I was BB to start, and Russ started jabbering about how I had to be all-in this hand, and I should do it blind. I peeked, and I saw one of Russ's favorite hands, 84 offsuit. I told him I was doing this for him, and call my opponent's all-in to see his 87 offsuit. Crap! My cards aren't even live. His hand was unimproved, but mine hit runner-runner fours to double up.

I couldn't push with the trash I was getting (he was drunk by this point and would've called with any two), so I made my stand with pocket 4's, and he called with KJo. He had two pair by the end of it, and no trips for me. All things considered, I did pretty well to stick around.

It was my first time playing HORSE (holdem, omaha/8, razz, stud, and stud/8) live, and the tourney format was nice. I made a couple of fishy moves, but I had a great double-up late in razz when my seven card hand contained two pair, sevens and twos. My other cards were just good enough to avoid elimination. I ended up busted in stud when the chipleader put me all-in preflop with AK/4 to my J8/8, and his two pair beat my queens up.

I broke even for the evening, but it was a good time and a new experience.

Winner Takes All

2005-09-26T00:56:00.000-07:00

.. and for tonight only, I can call myself "Winner".

Though I didn't exactly "take all". When it got down to three-handed, we made a deal to pay 2nd place $20 (the buy-in amount), and the winner to get the rest.

I won, throwing a huge suckout on NewGuy Kev, who barely had me covered. I made a read on the flop, stuck with my read on the turn when all the money went in, and was horribly horribly wrong. The river saved me, giving me two pair against his overpair.

The very next hand ended it all. I had Russ outchipped 6+:1, and found pocket aces on the button heads-up.

Are you kidding me?

"Call." sez I.

"All-in."

"Call."

ATo for him, and he did hit two pair on the flop. Unfortunately, that meant I had flopped trip aces. No miracle running tens, and the tourney was over.

It was nice to win a top-heavy payout tourney, even if I had to suckout to get there. Most of my decisions along the way were pretty good.

And Russ even invited me to a homegame in Dana Point, on Tuesday night I think. I've been meaning to get out an explore some more homegames, so this should be a fun experience. Russ seems to think I'd do well.

How do you beat a bully with trash?

2005-09-25T00:30:00.000-07:00

Just got home from on-my-own bartender shift #2 (10+ hours today). Consensus is that I'm not lightning fast, but I hustle and keep everything running fairly smoothly. I'm pleased so far, the money is better than serving, and I'm having more fun. When people eat at the bartop, I can yuk it up a little, or talk sports with them. Or just watch sports, if it's slow.

Overall, I feel pretty good about how I've been playing recently. I feel comfortable in the $5 3-table SnG's on UB. You play from 10-handed to 6-handed or so, then get resat. Do it again, then get resat at the final table. Each time the table fills back up, I have to remind myself to tighten back up to 10-handed preflop thinking.

Top 5 paid in the 30-person SnG. I had a nice third place finish in my latest attempt. (Same night, Kev rocked the single-table SnG circuit, triple-tabling a 2nd, 2nd, and 1st. I especially like watching my friends do well on UB.)

I need to work on my strategy when facing a table-bully short-handed. Bully was on my immediate right with 22K or so, I had 10K and OtherGuy had roughly 12K. OtherGuy would fold his button, Bully would push all-in. Not every time, but often enough so that it was obvious he was pushing marginal (trash?) hands.

During the SnG, he got out to an early lead, and made the all-in overbet move several times. On the rare occasions he was called, he showed down decent hands: AJs, 88, AKo. He also had a run where he was dealt KK, KK, AKs, and AA in about two orbits.

Right at the start of his 3-handed terror, I decided to fold ATo to a shove of his. As it became more apparent that he was pushing way too often to have great cards, my own cards were horrible. I also folded a 87suited, and an A2o (I hate ace-two offsuit), before making my stand with ... A2o and about 9K in chips. His K8o hit an 8, and I was gone. Yup, I hate ace-two offsuit. I wished I had that ATo back...

Disregarding that ATo, I couldn't find a hand. No pocket pairs, trashy offsuit low cards during the barrage, and when I held AJ-suited, he folded his small blind. I almost considered calling with K3o.

The progression of that SnG was a remarkable one. Somewhere along the way, it became clear to the Bully that I was staying out of his way. I need to keep an eye on how I play against the current chipleader, and how that person perceives my play.

The SnG also made me think of the chapter I had just read in Harrington's Volume 2. The discussion of inflection points and "zones" is something that I'm going to have to consider. If I'm going to meet opponents who are going to expand their range as far as he suggests when they're in the Red & Orange zones, I will have to start considering calling all-ins with a much larger range myself.

....

I'm gonna wrap it up here. I was going to talk about a couple of the bad folds I've made recently, in the last two cash games. I'll save it for later..

Can't wait to finish up Harrington's book, but I think that'll come too late to help me this Sunday night. I'm hosting our first ever $20 Winner Takes All freezeout tourney. About a month ago, I threw up some ideas on the messageboard Albert set up, and folks were interested in the Double Stakes tourney, and the Winner Takes All format, so we're trying both. The Double Stakes was two weeks ago, with Albert and Kevin (new guy, not this guy) splitting first. With the exception of the final hand, I thought I played some pretty good poker, and walked out with 3rd place money.

And I did it all by myself!!

2005-09-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

I feel like a little kid who just did something for the first time, and feels inordinately proud of himself.

Finally disgusted with my deteriorating, eight-year-old laptop, I bought a new desktop. On sale at Fry's for $180, I purchased the last one in the store, a return that was marked down another $10. I got it home and got Albert, a fairly computer-savvy guy in addition to being a regular at the Tustin poker game, to come over and help me start it up.

Somebody named Tony had installed Windows XP on the computer, then returned it to Fry's. Or at least somebody that wanted to call their computer "Tony". It was supposed to come out of the box with a Linux-type OS on it, but started up with XP already there, and Tony's name in the startup.

The computer was very slow, which worried Albert. I ran a Grisoft anti-virus program, showing all systems normal.

Kev came through. "Hmm, only 128MB of RAM in there? You probably want at least 256 to run Windows XP." I'm not smart enough to know this.

512MB from Best Buy later, I managed to open my computer, install the RAM, and close it up, all without screwing anything up. And the computer is now waaaay faster than before. It's wonderful.

For most people, I'm sure this exercise is on par with changing a lightbulb - nothing out of the ordinary at all.

I can't help feeling like I did something special. Perhaps it dates back to when my father, an IBMer, took me into the office on Saturday afternoons as a wee lad. Surrounded by computers that under no circumstances was I allowed to fool with. More likely, this episode reminded me that I'm inept when it comes to computers, and I don't like feeling inept.

Enough about that. Bottom line is I have a computer that I can trust again, and (thanks to my roommate) a high-speed ISP. Welcome to the 21st century.

Time to fire up UltimateBet.

Three Strikes

2005-09-10T02:20:00.000-07:00

..and you're out.

Plenty of crap going on around me. What am I doing? Treading water.

The last two cashgames have been small losses for me - probably the first time I've been down twice in a row since I started hosting. My tourney play recently has blown. I keep running into great hands held by bad players. Loose retards get dealt pocket aces, too.

I'm working ten shifts this week. One day off (Tuesday) and four double-shifts. I'm getting trained as a bartender. My restaurant has three brand new bartenders (Aaron, Horacio, and me), and the claim can be made that we all suck. We're new. We're slow. We're learning (I didn't even know what a Greyhound was). Don't order stupid frozen shit with 7 ingredients when we're busy. Seriously. I'll serve you a pint of Bud Light at that point.

My first two bartender-trainee shifts have gone well. If I continue to not embarass myself, the Sunday lunch bartender shift is mine. This is good. Serve beer, talk football, out by 6pm, play poker. Good times, I say.

Thursday was a stressful time for me. In the course of the normal $10 cashgame, I 86'ed Shawn. For those of you that haven't been kicked out of a bar in your lifetime, 86'ing is this. You've angered those in power, and you're not welcome back for a certain length of time (week, month, year, forever).

This wasn't a spur of the moment decision. Having John from the PCS rip on him might have persuaded me, but another argument with Shawn at my Thursday night game was the last straw. I consider myself a patient person, but Shawn made a liar outta me. I simply cannot stand listening to the retardation spewing from his mouth on a regular basis. Blame the drugs he's taken, blame the ADD he has (where the fuck are his meds?), but it's me that has to listen to the poo being emitted from his cakehole.

My poker game is large enough. I decided that Shawn's presence is way more of a hassle than it's worth, so he's out.

Maybe this reaffirms my status as a jerk. Maybe this means I'm going to enjoy my poker nights more now.

Time keeps on slippin'

2005-09-08T00:17:00.000-07:00

Jeff, my new roommate is cool. Plays poker reasonably well (live and on UltimateBet), and donated an octagonal tabletop to the poker-hosting gig we've got going.

Speaking of, my poker game is burgeoning. For the last two tourneys, we've had 18 (that's a full house at my place) and 16. I can't remember the last time we had a single table, for either a cashgame or tourney. My low-dollar game is well-attended, and new folks email me about it weekly. LA and San Diego have way more poker home games, but mine's pretty nice as far as Orange County goes.

I've been hosting mine for more than a year now. Albert decided to throw up a website for recording tourney money finishers, and a messageboard to talk trash.. and poker.

I had a return trip to the PCS. Albert and I didn't do much. Shawn and Miguel played like a bag of ass, and Shawn annoyed the PCS Director to the point that he told me Shawn's not invited back. Russ was with us, and won the damn thing. Go Russ!!

I just don't feel like I've had a spare minute lately. Organizing poker twice a week, and now I'm training to be a bartender at the restaurant. That role involves more hours, but the pay is nicer. There's also talk of making me the regular Sunday lunch bartender. They actually asked me, "Mike, do you like football?" A question to which I'd like to reply, "Does the Pope poop in the woods? I also enjoy drinking beer and looking at nice boobs."

A Sunday lunch bartender shift would be nice for several reasons. I'd imagine customers would drink beer (instead of foo-foo frozen drinks), and talk football. More importantly, I'd be out of the building by 5pm, giving me plenty of time to get home and organize (and play in!) my Sunday tourney.

The poker has been fun to organize. The Skipper Heads-Up Challenge is tied 2-2 (after I took Razz) going into the final game, PL Omaha/8. I'm mediocre on my best days at O/8, but Skipper was horrible at Omaha and PL seems to fit my heads-up style well.

We've got a Double Stakes tourney coming up this Sunday, our first one ever. (Normally our tourneys are $10 buy-in, $10 rebuys, $5 addons, but this one will be $20/$20/$10). And two weeks after that, we'll try our first ever $20 Freezeout, Winner Take All tourney. Should be good times.

Tustin Poker Hits The Big-Time

2005-08-28T02:53:00.000-07:00

Somebody from the cheapie poker game I host has been mentioned in Bluff Magazine. Maybe "mentioned" isn't the best description - they actually wrote a one-page article about Albert. On Thursday, he brought a copy of the Feb/Mar 05 magazine to show us. The online version doesn't have his picture, but the mag does.

I think it's pretty neat.

And this is probably the closest Albert's ever come to bragging on himself.

Could it be... Satan?

2005-08-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday marked my return to the money at my Tustin home game tourney. I'm not really sure I earned it though..

I drew the kitchen table, the smaller of the two. 13 players, top 3 paid, so 7 at the nice table and 6 at the kitchen. Miguel and Albert were at my table, with Albert on my immediate left and a new guy, Kevin, on my right.

I coughed up a rebuy very early when I limped UTG with AJo. I had been doing a lot of raising, so I thought a change of pace was in order. Five of us saw a nice flop: A-A-5. Kevin, the big blind, fired out a smallish bet. I smoothcalled, then wondered why Miguel called.

The turn was a middle card, maybe an 8, and once again Kevin lead into me. I called again. It's early, and he's brand new. I have no read on him, except hearing him say it was his very first time playing live poker.

The river was a ten, and he bet big. I pushed all-in, which startled him a little, but not enough to fold. He had pocket tens, and my passive play (I thought I was trapping) let him fill his boat on the river. Rebuy!

Miguel chased and sucked out a few times against everybody, and took a nice pot from me, to build up a hefty chipstack. Albert was playing fairly wild - he plays a lot of his draws very strongly now - and got busted once by Miggy.

I drew well at the final table, settling into my seat in between Shawn and Adam Senior. A loose bluffer on my right, and a supertight rock on my left? Excellent.

Play continued for a level after the final table consolidation, then I announced a break to remove low denomination chips. Shawn and Mikey went out for a smoke. I announced that the break was over, apparently loud enough for everyone inside to hear, but not loud enough for those outside. Shawn missed only one hand, but it was his small blind, and wasn't happy about it.

The very next hand, Shawn, who was shortstacked but not desperate, pushed all-in preflop with one limper in the pot, and me in the small blind. I announced all-in as well, wanting to get my AK-diamonds heads up against Shawn, who I barely had covered. Adam asked me for a count, and called, having me covered by a few thou.

Shawn had A5-hearts, I've got my Big Slick, and we've just run into Adam's pocket queens. Poor bastard Adam can't buy a break... there's the ace on the flop. Turn and river were no help to them, and I tripled up. $14K with the big blind still at 200 is useful, that. (you'll have to imagine the Scottish voice)

Adam busted out shortly thereafter, followed by Kat and Tree. Miguel exited a while later in 5th place, having dispersed his chips, with Albert and new guy Steven the main benificiaries. His very last hand was an interesting one, with Miggy flopping second pair with J9. He kept calling Albert's bets down to the river, where Albert busted him with a river six, to go with the two in his hand.

Me? I made a steal or two, and made a good fold to keep myself alive, but I was losing chips at a steady rate. Stupid cold deck. Patience, patience.

New guy Steven wasn't a solid, fundamentals type of player. On the bubble, he called Skipper's all-in flop bet, holding QJ to Skip's KJ, when the board read K-T-3. Skipper overbet the pot, thinking he was defending himself. He wasn't pleased to see that river ace. He offered his opponent bad odds, his opponent took it, and beat him anyway.

But it moved me into the money, first time since June 26. Go me. (I did fold K9-suited from my big blind on that hand, giving Skipper a little respect and avoiding danger myself.)

Three-handed, it became obvious that Albert was in the driver's seat. He had the chips to take advantage of Steven's odd play. Steven would not raise preflop. He limped with pocket sevens. He limped in with aces. He'd call a raise if he'd limped.

I didn't have the chips to attack. With 82K on the table, I had 9K (at my high point!), with the remainder split about evenly between the two.

Big blind at 800, I raised to 2K on the button with A7-clubs. Albert announced "all-in".

And Steven called! WTF!!! They were almost identical in chips - the loser would be out, or very desperate.

Oops.. Ace-seven is not a good hand against two opponents, even if it is almost a quarter of my chips already in the pot. Easy fold.

Albert: 66, Steven: 77. Wow.

I was sad when the ace flopped. But there was a helluva shout when Albert's 6 hit the river. And I was happy when they counted the chips out, and Albert had Steven covered by $5K. Bronze-medal money for the new guy.

$7K in chips for me, $74K for Albert. Yeah, this is fair. Albert had wanted another crack at me heads-up... my last two wins saw Albert take second. He felt that I outplayed him then, and that he's much better now. (He is.)

I saw a ray of hope. The cards went my way for the first few hands, allowing me to chip up to about $12K. I was the aggressor, and Albert wasn't happy about it. He toyed with the idea of calling one of my all-ins with 84-hearts.

When I raised it up on the button with pocket fives, Albert pushed, and I figured this would happen. He'd get tired of me being the bully and play back at me. He didn't have the unpaired big cards I was hoping for, and when he flipped those invincable pocket sixes, I knew I was toast. That hand busted Miguel with a river set, Steven with a river set, and me unimproved.

Good game, sir, well played. (And this time I mean it!)

$25 in, $80 out.