Face's Poker Room

Chicago Money is Good For the Game

2011-04-12T13:06:00.002-05:00

I think that the break I took from poker was exactly what I needed. Having good recall about poker hands is usually considered a good thing, but sometimes I think that it can go the other way as well. You have to be able to forget when you get beat in a pot, too, so that you don't focus on it when you get back to playing. You just have to let time do it's thing when you take a beat down in poker, and although I hadn't completely forgotten the beat I took, enough time had gone by that it wasn't the FIRST thing I thought of when someone mentioned poker to me.

The Brewers were playing the Cubs this past weekend, and lots of Cubs fans make the trek to Miller Park to take in the game. They also stop at the poker room before and after the game, so there's usually a lot of extra action in the room. I thought it would be a good time to try and take advantage of that. Friday night's session went OK for me, and I was able to cash out on the plus side. I never had to rebuy during the session, and had no hands where my entire stack was at risk. The only bad thing about Friday's session was the fact that the Brewers lost, so I had to put up with Cubs fans being a little more obnoxious than they usually are.

It was the Saturday session that had some fun hands to talk about here. I arrived a little bit before the Brewers game, as I figured there would be some Chicago fans hitting the poker room before the game. They had five No-Limit tables going, and I was told to grab a seat at Table 9. Sometimes, just getting the right table makes all the difference in the world, and boy, did it ever on Saturday! I took my seat in Seat 3 and bought in for my usual $400, and as soon as I sat down, I found out who the current table 'captain' was. The player in Seat 7 was raising just about every hand by grabbing a handful of chips and stating, "I raise this much". Well, 'this much' was somewhere between $45-$65 and often times he would pick up the chips of the players who only called the $5. Occasionally, he would get one or two callers, and then he'd try and take down the pot at the flop. It seemed to be working for him for the most part. It wasn't hard to pick up on this pattern of play, and after about one orbit of play I decided I was going to try and shut down this style since it was causing me to not see any flops.

I was waiting for the right situation, and found myself in what I thought was the right situation when the player in Seat 1 limped, I limped with pocket 5s, the player in Seat 5 limped, Seat 7 made his raise (to $55 this time), and then Seat 1 folded. Had Seat 1 called the $55 I don't think I would have been able to pull off what I wanted to do. Since I only had Seat 5 and Seat 7 to act, I decided to repop Seat 7. Finding the right amount was the trick. I had already seen him call someone's all in reraise of $210, and I'll be honest, I wasn't looking for a call here since I'm probably in a coin flip against most of his range. Well, I decided to raise it to $350. This also left me with only about $40 behind, but it was sending the message. Well, Seat 5 thought about it for a while, but he let his hand go, and when it got to our table captain/bully, he thought about it for a long while before folding. I decided to show it, and announced to him "It was good". He then decided to get in to it a little bit with me about how could I raise to $350 with just a pair of 5s, and I told him that I would've done it with "7-2 offsuit. It didn't matter, since I wasn't playing my hand". I had two objectives by doing this: 1) get him to not raise it up EVERY SINGLE time. If someone plays back at him he's gotta adjust, right? and 2) set him up for when I actually get a big hand.

Well, that hand had no effect on his playing tactics. He still raised almost every hand, and so it just became a fold fest for me. I finally picked up a pair of Queens and decided to limp. He raised to $65, and I came back over the top to $300. He went all in almost immediately, and I called for my remaining $140 or so. I asked if he wanted to show, and I tabled my Queens, and he showed a pair of 8s. The board ran out and he didn't catch his 8, and I was able to double up. It wasn't too long after that hand that he ended up going broke against a player that flopped top set and had him covered. In talking to that player, who was seated on my immediate left, I found out that the player in Seat 7 bought in for the maximum of $600 at least 7 times. He was seated there before the player on my left had arrived, and he didn't know if he had bought in any more before he showed up, but if you include his initial buy in (I'm assuming for $600) that totals $4800! It was a shame he left, but it was nice of him to leave it at Table 9!!

The player who replaced him was a relatively decent player, but he found himself on the wrong end of it against me later into the session. The player had about $850 in front of him, and I was sitting at about $900, maybe $950, when the hand came up. He had raised preflop to $20, and I was holding pocket Tens, so calling that $20 is a no-brainer for me. Two other players came along to see the flop, and it was: K-T-9, giving me middle set. The player in Seat 7 had to act first and led out for $75, which was about a pot-sized bet. The other players folded, and I popped it to $225. I wanted to see how strong his hand really was, and the raise was enough that he would fold anything that was borderline here. He called. This told me he had something pretty decent. I was hoping it wasn't Queen-Jack since that would be a straight. Well, the next card looked pretty good to me. The turn was a King, giving me a full house, Tens full of Kings. Now, I hoped he had the straight, or even Ace-King. Since he called the $225, I figured maybe he'd call around that same amount again, so I bet $250. He went all in almost immediately, and I called just about as quickly. If he had KK, KT, or K9, more power to him. The King-Ten and King-9 seemed a little unlikely since he raised preflop, and KK is just REAL unlikely since the chances of making quads is pretty remote. He announced, "I have a full house, sir, 9s full of Kings", and he turned over pocket 9s. I turned over my hand and replied, "I have Tens full of Kings". This guy was standing as he threw his cards across the table, and his jaw nearly hit the table when he saw my hand. I can't say I did anything special in this hand. When you have two hands like that (set over set), a lot of chips are going to get in to the middle. I was just fortunate to have the higher set here. He didn't hit his 9 on the river, and the player left and chose not to rebuy.

The Brewers won that game against the Cubs, too, so my Saturday session was pretty good. It was a pretty nice way to start things off after my break.

The Worst...Beat...Ever...

2011-03-08T14:27:00.003-06:00

...or at least that's how I'm describing it. It wasn't so much the cards that ran out on the board to beat me that makes it bad (although that's a BIG part), it's all the betting and the calling that contributed to making it the worst beat I've taken.

I was invited to play cards with a group of friends over on the north side on a Saturday evening, and I had a good time playing cards there, losing a few bucks, but it was a fun night, and I hadn't gotten together with these friends in a while, so it was good to see them. I had decided that I was going to hit Potowatomi's poker room on the way home since I was practically passing the place anyway, and I knew that the poker room would be busy late on Saturday, so the action should be pretty decent.

I found myself down early when my two pair got hammered by someone who made their straight draw in a decent-sized pot. I was working my way back to even, and had $685 in front of me when the following hand came up. I'm going to try and give you as much detail as I can, and as I told someone as I retold this story, "You may want to draw a diagram". I'll give you the stack sizes of each relevant player as I mention them below.

I was in Seat 8 of the 9 seats at the table. There was currently no one in seat 9, and in seat 1 ($690), Seat 2, Seat 3 ($127), and Seat 4 ($94) were four players of Asian descent. They were all straddling, which means that they were putting out a bet of double the big blind when they would have been the first person to act. By straddling they also retained the option to raise, so it's like adding a third blind to the game. Also, when players would limp for the $10 (it was a $3-$5 game, so to limp in a straddle it would be $10) one of those players would almost always raise to try and steal the limper's bets. Since they were doing this I had made the determination that I was going to limp with the hands I'd normally play, knowing that I'd have to fold some of them, but I was also going to limp with the big hands so that I'd be able to then reraise when they were trying to resteal my limp bet. If I had tightened up so much that I only played the big hands, they may pick up on that and decide to not raise when I entered a pot, and I couldn't have that, so I was willing to sacrifice the $10 here and there to set this up. The other players in seats 5, 6(~$400), and 7 were players that seemed to be playing fairly tight and very straight-forward (bet with a hand, check with nothing).

Well, in this hand Seat 1 was the big blind, and seat 4 was the straddle. Seat 5 folded, Seat 6 called for the $10, Seat 7 folded, and I looked down and found pocket Queens (Qs Qh). I limped, anticpating the raise to come from one of the players in seats 1 through 4. Seat 1 also limped. Seat 2 limped, and Seat 3 made it $30 to go. Seat 4 moved all in for $94. It got back to Seat 6, who called the $94. Now, my plan was to originally just call the $94, or maybe reraise to $160 to put the player in Seat 3 all in, but with the player in Seat 6 calling the $94, he would have for sure called the additional bet, and I wanted to shut him out of the pot. To do that I was going to have to reraise to about $250. Since the player in Seat 6 had about $400, if he's calling the $250 he's putting the rest in, and I wouldn't have folded if he put the rest in, so rather than make it $250 or so, I decided to make sure that he'd have an all in decision, so I moved all in for my $685 to isolate the betting. What happened next was very unexpected. The player in seat 1, who had about the same as me (it turned out he had $5 more than me) thought for about 10 seconds and said that he was all in! Well, the player in Seat 3 moved all in, and when it got back around to the player in Seat 6 he still had an option, and he elected to not call for his whole stack there. Follow all that?

Now, because everyone has different amounts of chips it created multiple pots. A player can only win from another player an amount equal to what they have in front of them. So three pots got created. The first pot, the main pot, could be won be all four of us in the hand (myself, Seat 1, Seat 3, and Seat 4). That pot totalled $470 ($94 from each of the four of us, and $94 from Seat 6, who had originally called that $94, but then folded when it was reraised). The first side pot, which could only be won by myself, Seat 1, and Seat 3 totalled $99 (Seat 3 had $127, $94 was contributed to the main pot, which left him with $33, which Seat 1 and I had to match). The second side pot, which only myself and Seat 1 could win, was for $1116! I had gone all in and had contributed a total of $127 to the main and first side pot, which left me with $558, which was matched by Seat 1. This creates an unusual scenario. You can have multiple winners in the hand. Also, I could lose to Seat 3 or Seat 4 (or both), but still make money by beating Seat 1 since the second side pot was $1116.

It was time to show some cards. I asked if they wanted to show, since it's not required in a cash game, and I tabled my two Queens. Seat 1 was initially not showing, and I said to him, "If you're slow rolling me with Kings or Aces I'm going to be pretty pissed." I was trying to guess what he would call for $670, especially since he only had $10 invested at that point. At that point Seat 1 showed me one card, a King, and was telling me that I was "good". That did little to comfort me. At that point Seat 3 showed his hand, a pair of Kings. Now, after seeing that, I realized that I had very little chance to win all of the pots, since Seat 3 was crushing me and was eligible to win two of the three pots, but I could still win the big side pot. The other player said nothing and showed nothing, and the dealer went to work. He put out the following board:

2s As 6c - flop
Ts - turn
8s - river

I looked, and had made a Queen-high flush with the four spades, but the player in Seat 1 was showing the King of Spades, and had made a higher flush. It turned out he had Ks Qc. The player in Seat 4 mucked his cards, but he told us that he also had a King. So, all the Kings were out. I only had to dodge the player making a straight or flush with his King-Queen and I would've won at least the side pot. I couldn't believe he called $670 with King-Queen offsuit, especially with only $10 invested. I couldn't believe that board. Any red card on the turn or river and I rake the $1116 pot. Also, if the player in Seat 1 had folded, there would have been no third pot, and I only would have $127 invested, but in that scenario I scoop both the main pot and the other side pot, totalling $569, because I make my Queen-high flush and crack the Kings (the board wouldn't have changed regardless of the betting). Either way, when all four Kings are out and a guy's showing you a King I had to feel pretty good about winning the side pot. I was able to use a program called PokerStove to evaluate the %'s of my hand winning, and with all the Kings out PokerStove ran 1.2 million hands, and in those I won 91.6% of the time versus the 8.0% for the King-Queen offsuit (0.29% of the time we tie), and believe it or not, after the flop my % chance of winning IMPROVES to 94% (red card after that please?). Unfortunately, poker isn't played in a simulator. It was an ugly, ugly beat, and I promptly left, and decided that maybe it was time to take a little break from poker.

Aces Gets Everything...

2010-06-28T17:00:00.002-05:00

With one last full day to play poker in Vegas Dan and I decided to play in the Bellagio's poker room. I got seated in a $5/$10 No Limit game and bought in for $775. I know it's an odd amount, but that was because of some odd chips I had in my pocket at that moment. I'd like to tell you that I had some great hands, or that I ran some awesome bluffs, but this session had to be one of the most uneventful sessions that I can recall having. I did have $1508 to cash out when it was done, so I made $733, but I only had one showdown the whole session, and that was one where the small blind tried to steal my big blind and I called. We ended up checking it down and I collected that $100 pot. That was the only showdown I had the whole session, and I still managed to win that amount. I did pick up AA twice during the session. Overall, I probably saw pocket Aces about 15 times over the weekend. This led Dan to calling me an "Aces magnet". It didn't help that Dan had only seen AA once all weekend, and that was in the WSOP event where Dan had them cracked by someone else's Queen-9 where the guy open shoved with that hand. Dan had called, then watched the board come J-J-8-8-T to give the guy a straight.

Dan was seated at a $2/$5 game, and was trying to get back some of his money from earlier events in the trip. After cashing out I stopped by Dan's table to let him know I was going back up to the room for a little bit. Dan tried to give me a peek at his cards once he knew I was there, but I happened to not be looking when that happened. Dan raised to $20, and 4 players called that bet. At that point I asked Dan to give me the "hole card cam", but as soon as I asked, everyone else in the hand looked right at me, so before he showed me I told him to forget it as I didn't want to inadvertently give anything away.

The flop was: Qx - 5s - 2s. Dan had about $500 in front of him, and had three people in front of him to act and one behind. Of those players, one player in front had about $250, another had Dan covered, and the player behind Dan had almost the same amount as Dan. Well, the short stack in front of Dan led out for $50. The next guy to act, who had Dan covered, called the $50. The next guy folded, and Dan raised it to $200. The guy behind him called the $200. The action was now back on the first $50 bettor, who moved all in for a total of $255. The next guy called that all in bet. Dan tried to reraise all in, but because the all in raise was only for $55 it wasn't a full raise and the betting couldn't be reopened. So Dan made the call as did the player behind him. We had a huge pot brewing at this point already. The turn card was the 9d. The guy who had Dan covered was first to act and checked. Dan moved all in, and the guy behind him called that, although he had slightly less than Dan. At this point, the guy who had Dan covered went in to the think tank. He had already said at one point that he had a "monster" draw, so I was guessing he had 3s 4s, since that was the only monster draw that could be in play. Well, while this guy is tanking, on of the guys who was all in was showing his cards to half the table, including the short stack who was all in already. This is a no-no at the table. I normally wouldn't care, but I figured one of these two already had a set, and I wanted to Dan to win, so I mentioned to Dan that he should get a floor supervisor over here. Depending on his ruling, the guy who showed his hand might have his hand killed, or mucked. I thought that pot was large enough to fight for it like this. Dan got the floor over to the table, and although he agreed that the cards shouldn't have been displayed, he gave a warning and said that next time he'd kill the hand.

Well, eventually, the guy who was tanking finally decided to call. The river was the 3c. Everyone opened their hands. Dan had Aces, which was one of the three hands I thought he had (KK or QQ were the other two). The short stack all in had Ks 8s for a missed flush draw. The guy who was showing his cards to everyone and was all in showed 9s 6s for a missed flush draw along with having missed his two-pair or trips. The last guy, who had everyone covered in the hand, showed KQoffsuit, for top pair, but also missed his two pair or trip draw (Apparently his idea of a monster draw was much different than mine). Dan's Aces got everything!! It was a huge pot. I stuck around for the 5 minutes it took him to stack everything, but it was just over $1900 when it was all said and done. This had to be one of the more exciting hands I witnessed all weekend. Dan was laughing because he thought it was hilarious that I was such an Ace magnet that I could just walk by his table and he picked up Aces, especially considering it was only the second time he got them the whole trip. It was crazy, and I was glad to see Dan win. He needed that one.

Dan also took a break shortly after that. We both ended up back at the $2/$5 game around 3am. In that three hour session, I picked up about $280, which was highlighted by my picking up a decent pot while I was on my second buy in. I had 8d 7d, and on an 8h 5d 2d flop, another player and I got it all in for about a $900 pot. He had top pair with a Ten kicker, but the 7 that hit on the turn ended up giving me two pair and the pot. Dan was also doing well at the table, as he he put in a near $1000 profit in this session to follow up that huge session he had prior. Although we didn't cash in the tournaments we played, the cash games on the trip were very nice for us. All in all it was a pretty good trip.

Veni, Vidi, Vici, Venetian!

2010-06-27T17:00:00.014-05:00

Sunday was going to be another tournament day for me and Dan. The Bellagio was running their Bellagio Cup VI, and they had scheduled a $1000+$80 event scheduled for that day at 2pm. The Venetian was also running their Deep Stack Extravaganza, and Sunday's event was a $560 tournament that started at noon. Since I had rebounded very nicely during my last session I thought I would play a satellite for the $1k event at the Bellagio. If I won my seat there I'd play that; if not, I would go over to the Venetian and play the $560 tournament there. Dan had decided to go over to the Venetian.

I went down about 9am or so to the Fontana Room at the Bellagio to get in to the satellite, but they didn't have enough entries to run one yet. They only had 5 players signed up for a satellite. The satellite cost $240 and it's played as a one-table tournament with 10 players. The final two finishers would each receive a seat into the $1k event along with a small amount of cash. Since they were short on entries yet and I didn't want to pony up for a satellite that might not happen I decided to keep an eye on the Fontana room from the craps tables. I watched for a little over a half hour, but there was almost no activity over at the Fontana room. I cashed out from craps (down a couple bucks), and went back, but they were only up to 6 entries. I explained what I was doing, and they offered to take my cell phone number and call me if they got close to filling the satellite. I went up to the room and confirmed Dan's plans. The poker room manager called at about 10:45 and told me they were close so I headed back down. Satellites usually last about an hour, so if I didn't win my seat I thought I'd still have time to get to the Venetian by noon.

In the satellite, I had a prior WSOP bracelet winner seated on my immediate left. He won a bracelet in Pot-Limit Omaha in 2007. His name was Alan Smurfit, and he was using his bracelet as a card protector. He was a real nice guy. Unfortunately, my opportunity to chat with him was cut short during the satellite. After chipping up a little bit I was knocked down a lot when my K-K went up against someone's A-9 (and all in) after a Q-Q-9 flop. Dan arrived just in time to see an Ace show up on the turn and have a chunk removed from my stack. Since I wasn't out yet and Dan didn't want to be late to the Venetian he headed out. I managed to get my stack all in with AQ and dominated by AK. The board didn't bail me out, and I was down to a single chip. I quadrupled up on the next hand when my QJ got lucky against AA (sure, I can't have a big stack when THAT happens), but went out right after that when my A9 of clubs went up against 8-8, and I made two pair when the 8s made a flush. It was almost noon, and even though I knew I'd be late for the Deep Stack, it was time to get over to the Venetian.

I showed up at the Venetian shortly after noon. They were offering late registration so I went and got a player's club card and got registered. I could bore you with all sorts of hand stories from the tournament, but after getting a set of 6s cracked by someone and getting AA twice and KK once in the span of 15 minutes to get some chips back, I ultimately ended up in a race with AQ v. TT. I didn't win the race and I was out of the tournament.

Since Dan was still playing in the tournament I decided to get seated in the $2/$5 No Limit games. They had a huge room of cash games going so I was seated pretty quickly. The game I got in to had plenty of action. There was one gentleman at the table who was from Witchita that was a blast to play cards with. We even got some Rock-Scissors-Paper going at the table. He was talking about playing a hand he called "Witchita Slick". Apparently, it's 7-4. Obviously, it's not in the top 10% of hands, heck, it's not even in the top half, but our table sure had some fun with it. When he brought it up initially someone got dealt it, and they played it like Aces. Then, every now and then a board would show up where Witchita Slick would have hit it. Well, the topic would come up, and someone else would get dealt it and play it. Heck, even I got it once and reraised preflop with it, got called, and then bet the flop to take down a pot. It sure made the game lively!

I worked my $400 buy in up to about $700 over a couple hours, and got caught bluffing once to have my stack dip back down a lot. The big hand in the session came when my stack was at $455. I was in middle position and was dealt Tens. Mr. Witchita Slick had raised to $20 and the player to my right had called that, so I called with Tens. The player on my left also called, and the next player reraised to $125. When the action got back to Mr. Witchita he called; the player between he and I folded, but I decided to make the call. The last player to act folded and off to the flop we went. The other two players in the hand both had me covered in chips, so I figured that if I hit my Ten I'd be able to double up my stack. Well the flop was very kind to me. It came T-8-3, giving me top set. Both Mr. Witchita and I checked to the preflop raiser who bet $275. After some thought Mr. Witchita called, and I moved all in for $330, knowing that both players would have to call that, which they did. They both checked the turn and the river, which came 5 and Jack, respectively. I turned over my pair of Tens to show my set. Neither player decided to show what they had, and I had just tripled up! My session lasted a little while longer. I left when Dan found me after busting when his JJ was cracked by someone else's 8-6 (all action preflop). I had just over $1600 at that point so even though I hadn't cashed in the tournaments I played in earlier I still had a profitable day. I came, I saw, I conquered!

Playing for Some Larger Stakes

2010-06-26T23:10:00.001-05:00

Well, I was hoping that I got all my "bad" poker out of my system on Friday, after having not cashed in the WSOP event and then going "on tilt" to a certain extent in my cash game session afterwords. Dan and I got up early to hit the Bellagio's breakfast buffet and made our way over to the sports book to watch the USA play Ghana in its World Cup match. What a disappointment that was! It was a shame since we had a really good atmosphere in the sports book. Every seat was taken in the room, and the people had lined up about 5 people deep just watching the game on the giant screens. The game itself was exciting, it was just a very disappointing outcome.

I had brought a larger bankroll to Vegas for playing in cash games and tournaments this time thanks to how well I was doing back home. It was now time to put some of that to the test so I decided to sit down in the Bellagio's $5/$10 No-Limit Hold 'em game. Aside from the blinds being higher than at the $2/$5 game, the rake is done differently. At every dealer change, which occurs every half hour, the dealer collects $6 from each player and that's what the house gets instead of raking a percentage of the pot. I like this format since every player is then equally paying the rake, and not just the person winning each hand. The range of buy-in amount is slightly different for this game, too, having a range of $400 - $1500 for the initial buy in. The $2/$5 game has a range of $100 - $500. I decided to buy in for $700, and I was seated. They actually had a good number of tables that were running $5/$10. They also use orange $10 chips at the $5/$10 game, so the stacks don't look too much different in size from the ones at the $2/$5 tables, but those stacks add up pretty quick!

The action started slow for me, since I really wanted to have a good feel for the table before getting too many chips involved in a large pot. Once I had won a couple hands and dragged a couple smaller pots I started to feel in my comfort zone. It was around this time that I picke up 8-8 and raised it up to $40 preflop. I was called by three other players, which is almost never good when you're holding a middle pair like 8s. The flop helped me out tremendously: 6-7-8. I decided to lead out at this board since it was a pretty coordinated board and even though I had top set I was vulnerable to a couple of draws. After I bet $90, the short stack at the table called, and another player reraised it to $240. Once the action was back on me I decided to reraise it to $560. Even if I'm behind (and I'm only behind to T-9, 5-4, and 9-5) I still have outs to catch the full house, and this is the type of hand that I'll play strong because of its combined strength and drawing potential. Well, the all in called for his remaining $200, and after some serious thought, the guy who raised to $240 folded. I never found out what either player had, but the all in lost, and the other guy said he would have lost, so I dragged a very nice pot there.

It wasn't too much later that I picked up the 8c-6c and decided to raise it to $40 from late position. The player in the small blind called, and the big blind folded, so it was heads up to the flop, which came: J-6-4. Now I wasn't crazy about getting called preflop, but now that I've hit a piece of the flop I decided it's worth a bet so I bet $50. I was called immediately, and I already had it in my mind to be done with the hand. The turn card changed all that as the dealer put a 6 out for me on the turn. It was checked to me, and I was now hoping that my opponent had a hand with a Jack so I could squeeze a few more dollars out of him. I bet $110, and he raised it to $260. I put on a little show to think about it, plus I was trying to figure out an amount that I thought he might call, and decided to raise it to $510. He moved all in for a total of about $820, and I called that. I turned out he had pocket Aces and was slow playing them. Well, there was no Ace to save him on the river, and now I had dragged another really nice pot.

Shortly after this, I picked up pocket Kings. A player in early position raised to $30 and there was a caller, so I repopped the bet to $110. When it got back to the first raiser he thought for a minute before reraising it to $220, which was almost a minimum raise. This caused me to go in to the tank. He only had about $700 when the hand started. If I raised to $450 here, which would be normal (3x the bet), there's almost no way I can fold for the remaining $250 so it would make sense to put him all in. But if I put him all in and he snap calls I know he has Aces and I'm dead. Now, I don't think I'm going to fold Kings here no matter what, but I wanted to make sure I had that option in case he put in a 5th raise. I ultimately decided to raise it to $330. That way if he went all in I would still have the option to save the $370 it would take to call that. I might still call anyways, but I wanted to give myself the option. Moving all in takes that option away. Well, he thought for a minute before folding and I was now dragging another very nice pot; this time without any board being put out. This might be one of the few hands where I've ever even considered folding Kings preflop. I still don't know if I'd have done it, but I certainly would have put some thought in to it, that's for sure.

There was one more significant hand that I got this session, and that was pocket Aces shortly after those Kings. The guy whose Aces I cracked earlier had raised to $40 from early position. There were two callers before it got to me, and when I saw I had AA, I pushed it to $150. The original raiser thought for a moment or two, and pushed it to $400. The other players folded, and I went in to the tank again. I wasn't sure if he had a hand or was making a play because I had gotten him earlier, but he had just put in about half his stack, so I set him all in. He chucked his hand at that point, but that was still another healthy pot to drag in to my stack.

After it was all said and done, I had $3208 in front of me, for a nice little profit of just over $2500 for the session. It wasn't bad for the 5 hours I put in there. I was really looking forward to some more action on Sunday over at the Venetian.

Nut Low!

2010-06-25T22:00:00.003-05:00

Playing poker while your irritated is something you shouldn't do, and one of these days I'll learn that lesson. After being eliminated from the World Series of Poker Event #45 I decided that I'd sit down at one of the cash games in the Rio's spacious room. I signed up for the $2/$5 No-Limit game, and it took about 15 minutes for me to get a seat.

My cash game session turned in to a quick nightmare for me as in the first three hands I was dealt two pocket pairs that turned in to sets (three of a kind) and an Ace-Ten hand that made two pair with the board. The net result of those first three hands: -$650. Yikes! I spent the next hour trying to recover some of that and was doind a decent job of that when the following hand was dealt. I looked down and saw the 5d 3d. I often times will play suited connectors like this as they play very well against big hands of players that don't look for these types of hands to be played. Well, when I limped and three others limped I thought I was going to see the flop cheaply, but the player on the button had other ideas. He raised it to $25. I knew that at least one of the other three players was calling so I got my $20 in to the pot. The flop hit: K - 4 - 7, with two diamonds. Now I didn't have anything, but I was drawing to a flush with my diamonds and a gutshot straight draw, needing a 6 to complete the straight. I checked, with the plan of check-raising the preflop raiser. The next opponent checked, and the preflop raiser bet $60. I moved all in for $325, and the player squeezed between those two bets called the all in. This got the original raiser out of the hand and showed his QQ as he folded. The turn was a 9, and the river was a 2. Neither was a diamond. My opponent looked at me and said, "You're good. Your hand is way good." He was also waiting for me to turn over my hand. My only response was, "I don't think so. I've got the nut low." In poker, the best possible hand in combination with the board is referred to as the nuts and the worst possible hand is referred to often as the "nut low". Well, I had the nut low, so the +$700 pot went to the guy holding 6-high!! Ironically enough, that was the 3rd nut low for that board. The original raiser just commented on how "sick" the two of us must be to be playing the way we were.

My session didn't have much rebound to it, and before the session was over I found myelf down $1061. The trip was taking a turn for the worse, but it would be the last time I would leave a cash game down for the remainder of the trip.

WSOP Event #45

2010-06-25T16:00:00.007-05:00

Dan and I arrived at the Rio early enough to get breakfast, and we were both very pumped up about the event we were playing. I had never started a World Series event with as many chips as I was going to be starting with today. The way the events are set up you get 3x your buy-in in chips, so for our event each player would receive 4500 chips. Blind levels last an hour each, and our event started with the blinds at 25/50. In 2006, the year that Dan and I both managed to cash, we actually started our $1500 event with 1500 chips. In 2007 they changed it so that you received double your buy-in in chips, and starting last year they changed it again to triple the buy-in as it is now (last year Dan and I got in a $1000 event).

I found myself seated at Table 132, seat 9 for the start of the tournament. There were no recognizable pros at my table, and things started slowly for me. We did have two empty seats at the start of the tournament, with one of them being not sold yet, and another seat just being a player who was late. It was when this late player arrived that I got in to some trouble. Early in a tournament I'm usually going to try and only play premium hands for raises and play smaller hands for limps and hope to make monsters. Well, I was dealt pocket 8s on the hand when the player in seat 2 arrived and I called a raise of 150 from a player in the 6 seat. The player in seat 2 raised it to 425, which wasn't even 3x the first raise, but seat 6 folded. Since this was the guy's first hand I didn't want to just let him run over the table, and I just didn't believe he had sat down in to a big hand. Not that it can't happen, but it's unlikely, so I called. The flop was: K-9-7 of three different suits. He had to act first and he led out for 625. I thought about it for about 30-45 seconds, but I decided I thought he didn't have anything and raised to 1825. I left myself with about 1850 chips. He thought about it for about 2 minutes. I was just getting ready to call a clock on him when he moved all in. You can call a clock on your opponent at which point he has 60 seconds to make a decision. If no decision is made the player's hand is then folded. Well, he was now putting me to a decision for all my chips, and I didn't want to go broke with a pair of 8s while looking at that board so I folded. I then watched him raise and/or reraise the next 7 hands he played. I know that he couldn't have gotten good hands on all of them, so I really don't know if I made a good fold or not, but I figured I'd have opportunities later on to double up and get right back in it.

Over the next hour plus I ended up being all in four times. I only got called once, and it was when I had Ace-King. The player calling was the same player from the hand described above and he had Ace-Queen. My hand held up, and now I was back up to 3750 in chips. It was about one orbit after this when I was two seats to the right of the button and was dealt the 5h 4h. Because the aggressive player (seat 2) was in the big blind I decided to limp and then reevaluate if he decided to raise. Well, the small blind in seat 1 limped and seat 2 decided to check and see the flop. The flop was: Ac 2h 3c. Combined with my hand this was a straight. It was also the best possible flop I could have seen. Both of the blinds checked to me, and I bet 400 chips into the 450 chip pot. If you're wondering why I bet here it's because I often find that it's very difficult to improve a straight, and often times when you hit a straight your opponents may have hit the board since none of those cards will be in your hand when you flop the straight. Also, in this case, I knew that seat 2's aggressiveness might pay off for me if he decided to try and take it away from me by raising. Well, seat 2 never got that chance as seat 1 moved all in. Seat 2 folded, and I snap called the all in. Seat 1 was holding As 2c for two pair. With the board as it was I was a 77% favorite to win. The Ah on the turn changed all that, giving my opponent a full house. I wasn't drawing completely dead though as I could still catch the 3h to make a straight flush. Alas, my card didn't get there. I had my opponent covered, and it left me with 525 chips while the blinds were at 75/150. I then went out very shortly after that as the blinds hit me, with me being unable to improve the QT that I was dealt in the big blind against my opponents Jacks. I found this to be very reminiscent of my 2008 WSOP, when I took a beat that was pretty bad very early in the event. After discussing it with Dan, we did determine that this beat was slightly worse, although I certainly couldn't fault the other player for thinking that his two pair was good in that situation. So another World Series was done, but once the World Series is done it's now time to focus on the cash games, of which I did plenty.

A Fine Arrival in Vegas

2010-06-24T23:59:00.001-05:00

We arrived in Las Vegas late in the afternoon on Thursday. We caught our shuttle to the Bellagio where we checked in and dropped off our luggage. We then headed over to the Rio so that we could register for Friday's $1500 No Limit Texas Hold 'em event. Amazingly there were no lines during any of this process. Usually the check in lines at the hotels in Las Vegas are notoriously long, but we got very lucky. We spent a little bit of time walking around the Rio's Convention Center, visiting the Amazon Room, the large room that was now being used as the room that the events move to after their initial starting location, the Pavilion Room. When we got to the Pavilion Room I just couldn't believe how large the room was. It had over 300 tables in the room, and there was still plenty of walking space and the tables didn't seem to be too crowded amongst each other, either.

After getting familiar with the new setup of the convention center we registered for the event and got our names on the cash game list. I was called first, and was seated on the far side from where the board was that contained the lists. After sitting at this table for just a couple minutes I could tell that this was a good table at which to be. I played a few hands and then my friend Dan got seated at the same table. Figures. I travel 2000+ miles to play poker, there's 20 tables running the cash game we both want to play, and he gets called to my table. Table change requests can be made, but I had already witnessed too much awful play to consider leaving so I just decided to deal with it.

Well, this ended up working out very well for me. Before the end of the night I was up $850. I got dealt some good hands, having gotten dealt AA two or three times and also was dealt KK twice. One of the times I got pocket Aces I was against the "perfect" player for the hand. He was a player who would call a lot of hands preflop, but never raised. His girlfriend/wife was sitting behind him and watching the action, too. Well, after he called my preflop raise and then he bet in to me on the flop I knew that I was going to have a chance at a big pot. We got it all in on the flop, and I never even got to see what he had because after the board paired the turn and an Ace hit on the river I turned over my AA to show the full house I now had.

I picked up another decent-sized pot when I reraised a pot preflop with AK suited. One of the players on my right called my reraise, and the flop came: 5-5-5. Once again, even though I was the preflop raiser the other player bet in to me. Usually when this happens it's because the player is trying to "feel" out where they are at in the hand, so I sent a message by reraising enough to put him all in. He called, so now I figured he had a pair and I'd need an Ace or King to get there. What I didn't count on was the 5 that came on the turn. This actually gave me the nuts! It turned out he had 6-6, so I now had him outkicked with our quads.

There was one other pot that was sort of fun, and that was one where I had 6-4 offsuit. I picked up a pair on the flop, where I called a player's bet, and then picked up a double-gutshot straight draw card on the turn, so I raised the player to steal it but got called. The river got there so when I bet it she really didn't see the straight. In fact, after she called and I turned my hand over, she had to look long and eventually I had to point out that the 4 in my hand gave me a straight, which disgusted her to no end and she left.

All of these hands got the trip started off on the right note as I finished that session up $850. We called it quits sort of early knowing that we'd be starting our event at noon the next day.

My World Series Trip Begins Tomorrow!

2010-06-23T20:28:00.004-05:00

I always get excited at this time of year. I think part of it is because whenever I head out to Vegas for the World Series of Poker I'm brimming with confidence, ready to take on whatever gets thrown at me. I think part of it is being out there with so many other people that all have the same dream while they're out there: to win a WSOP bracelet. I think part of it is getting to see some of the best poker players in the world playing in the highest stakes series of tournaments for that year. I think part of it is knowing that I've got a chance; it may not be as much of a chance as a player like Phil Ivey might have, but I'll be sitting at that table with the best of them, and as long as I am, I'll still have a chance.

Anyway, we head out tomorrow, and I'm real excited to be getting out there. World Series, here I come!

One Last Really Good Run at Poto

2010-06-09T12:01:00.002-05:00

When I went to Potowatomi on Friday I went down full of confidence, but I was telling myself to not play too reckless just because I was running well. I decided that I would just enjoy watching the Brewers game on the monitors, and was planning on leaving shortly after that. Well, the table I got seated at appeared to have much of the same idea. Not a lot of players were getting involved in large pots, and I spent most of the first three hours that I was there in a range between being down $120 and up $180.

As the game ended I noticed a couple players getting ready to rack up and leave, and that a couple players that were waiting for a table were regulars that I feel play loose. Well, two of those players got seated at our table so I decided to hang around for a while, and I was glad I did. The first big hand that came up after that point was one where I was dealt Q – J in one of the blinds. There was a raise to $25, one of the loose players called, and I decided to make the call. One of the things to note about the loose player that called in this hand is that he likes to make a move where he calls a bet on the flop, and then will try to raise big on the turn to take down a decent-sized pot. I recalled this when the flop came Q – 5 – 2. The preflop raiser bet $55, and the loose player called. Now, I could be beat there, but I looked at it like this: if the preflop raiser is continuation betting and the loose player is setting up his move I very easily could have the best hand. With the bets that were in there the pot was $190 and it was $55 to call, so I thought it’s an easy call here, and I can reevaluate on the turn. Well, the turn was a great card for me. It was a Jack, giving me top two pair. I checked, the preflop raiser now checked (confirming the continuation bet theory), and now the loose player bet $200. I check-raised for the remainder of my stack, which was about $415, and after some thought, the loose player made the call of the remaining $215. He stated that he was on a draw, but it didn’t get there because the river was a Jack, giving me a full house. I raked in a nice pot there.

I had a hand that came up that I have to talk about just because it was such a rarity. I was dealt the 3s – 4s in the small blind. Two players limped (the two loose ones), so I limped as well. The flop was: 7s – 6s – 5s. This gave me a straight flush! Now I’ve made a straight flush before, but I’ve never gotten one with just the flop. I didn’t get much action on the hand, and I only got paid a little on the river because one of the players had the Qs and the turn card for that hand was the Ts. It was still pretty neat to see.

I wasn’t done raking pots, though. I picked up the Ah – 2h in a hand where the preflop betting was all limps. The flop there was: Th – 9h – 7h. I had flopped the nut flush. The betting after that was very weird. The early position player bet $15, the next player called that, the next player made a minimum raise to $30, the next player called that, and finally the action was on me. Usually there won’t be four players that would all want to put bets in to a one suit flop, especially since none of them could have the Ah with another heart! Normally, I would have slow played this, but given all the action I figured a raise was appropriate to try and get this hand to at least heads-up play, so I raised to $120. This drove out the first three bettors, but the last player was still thinking about it. I told him “If you’re thinking about it you better have the 8h” (for the straight flush draw). He actually turned over 8 – 8 with one of them being the heart. He decided to fold, and I showed the flush, which I don’t think surprised anyone.

I had one last hand in this session that I can go over. I was dealt 6 – 5 and decided to raise because I was in late position and thought I could steal the blinds and limps. I bumped it to $25 preflop and got two callers. This is not what you want when you’re raising with garbage so now I needed to hit something. Well, the flop was nice enough to oblige me by putting out 9 – 8 – 5, giving me bottom pair with a gutter-ball-straight draw. I didn’t say it hit me a lot, but it did hit me. This was good enough in my opinion to follow up with a continuation bet, which I made for $55. Both players called, so I decided to be done with the hand, but everyone checked on the turn when a 2 popped off. Well, the river was very kind to me, and brought me a 7 to complete my straight, but one of the tighter players at the table led out for $90. I actually took some time to contemplate this, especially because of the player who made the bet. He never really bet the river without having the nuts, or near nuts. Now, Jack-Ten actually fit the betting for everything in the hand, and although I don’t play “afraid of the nuts” all the time, I didn’t like the river bet. If I raise and he has me beat, he’s going to reraise since J – T is the stone cold nuts here, and I’ll have lost the extra raise chips. I decided calling was best. Folding really wasn’t an option. It was either call or raise. Well, unexpectedly, the player behind me also called. It turns out the first player had a set of 8s that were no longer good, and the other player had two pair (which makes sense why he also called), so my straight was good and I picked up a healthy pot! It doesn’t seem like there was a lot of betting there, but because it was a 3-way pot the pot ended being over $500! It was a nice way to wrap up the session.

My confidence was still riding high, and I felt ready to take on Vegas. Time to bring on the World Series of Poker!!

I Can Dodge Bullets, Baby!

2010-06-05T14:49:00.007-05:00

I have some greater detail about the last two sessions at Potowatomi. I decided to jot some notes down to put some hands in the blog. My run these last couple of weeks has been incredible. I ran off at least 10 consecutive sessions without reporting a loss. Not all of the sessions were huge, but to have that many consecutive sessions without losing was pretty nice. No matter how hot you’re running, you expect that at some point you’re going to take a loss. I kept waiting for that shoe to drop.

I was able to get off to a quick start when I was able to double my $400 buy in when I was dealt Aces and took it up against a player who’s very aggressive and plays drawing hands very strongly on a regular basis. Things slowed down for me a little, and even took an unexpected turn for the worse when I made a set. Here was the scenario: I was dealt 3-3 and limped before the flop. The player on my immediate left made it $25, and at least 3 other players had called that bet so when the action was back on me I decided to call. The river was a complete brick for me (K-J-7). The action was checked to the preflop raiser, who now bet $30! This was a very small bet in relation to the size of the pot (the pot had $150 in it). Everyone folded around to the player on my right, and he called. After some brief thought I also called that bet. You might be wondering why I did that. Well, after the bets that were out on the table the pot was now $210. It was going to cost me $30 to win that, and if I hit I’m likely to get paid a lot more than that. So the 7 to 1 that the pot was laying me in addition to any other money that I could get would make the call worth it, and if I don’t hit it’s a pretty easy hand to throw away if I don’t hit. Well, the turn was a 3, giving me bottom set. The player on my right and I both checked to the preflop raiser, and he checked as well. The river was a heart, putting three hearts on the board. The player on my right now bet $75. I decided to raise with my set to $150. He then thought about it for a while and raised it back to me another $150. I thought about reraising, but after going through several scenarios I thought it was better to call. The scenarios I thought about were: Scenario #1: He also flopped a big hand, possibly a set, and was slowplaying the flop and turn. The way the betting went that made sense. Scenario #2: He has two pair, and thinks it’s good. I can beat that. Scenario #3: He somehow made a flush. The betting fits the story, but the cards don’t seem to fit that story. Well, my hand was too good to fold, but I didn’t think it was strong enough to raise here. I was right, but it still cost me. He had a heart flush. It turned out he had the Kh Qh, so he flopped top pair, and the 3h on the turn picked up the flush draw. He and I had similar stacks, so looking back on it it was probably good I checked the turn because he wasn’t going to fold there, and I would have just lost more money at the river.

Things continued the downward trend when I was dealt the Ah Kh a little while later. We had a new arrival at the table who had about $2100 in chips and had everyone covered. He was also raising and reraising almost every hand, so when I was dealt big slick (AK) I decided to limp and wait for him to raise. He obliged by raising to $30, and then I repopped it to $105. He called. Once he called there I knew he had a legitimate hand so I felt I needed to hit the flop. The flop was K-6-4. I bet $185, leaving myself $200 and was prepared to get the rest in if he raised. He called, and before the turn card was dealt I put my remaining chips in “blind”. He also called that. It turns out he had picked up a big hand, pocket Kings, and after the 6 on the turn gave him a full house I was now drawing dead going to the river.

I bought in again for $400, and since it was getting late in the poker room I started to get a little more aggressive. I limped with 2d 6d from under the gun, and as the action went around the table the tightest guy at the table raised it to $25. This guy was soooo tight. He hadn’t raised all night. Another player was already calling, so I threw my $20 in there, too. The flop was pretty good considering the trash I was holding: 2x – 8d – Jd, giving me bottom pair and a flush draw. I checked, and when he bet $75 at the flop I shoved all in for $350. He thought about it for a while, and I was almost certain he had Aces, so I said to him, “I had you on Aces or Kings.” He continued to think, and so I asked him if he’d like to see a card. He didn’t turn me down, so I reached down and turned over the 2d, which I knew was on top. I actually would have had no problem if he called, since with my flush draw I also had a two pair draw and a trips draw, for a total of 14 outs, making the situation about a coin flip (49.8% to 50.2% to be exact). He showed Aces and folded. I then showed the 6d just to rub it in a little. He said he thought I had a set of 2s.

Well, that got me some chips, but I still had a ways to go. I picked up 5-4 offsuit shortly after that, and after a 6-5-3 flop, got all my chips in against another player. He called, and he tabled 6-5 for top two pair. I spiked my 2 by the river and made my straight to double up. It was shortly after this where I absolutely got away with one that I shouldn’t have gotten away with at all. I was dealt T-T and limped before the flop, as did 3 other players. After the flop was 9 – 8 – 3 I was pretty sure my overpair of Tens was good. The early player, who was also the guy who folded the Aces earlier bet $15 in to the $20 pot. The next player called the $15, and I bumped it to $75. It got back to the $15 “bettor”, and he made a comment about how “sick” I was. I think he thought I had two pair or a set of something. He only had $175 left, and I would have called if he put the rest in the pot. Well, he shows the player on his right his hand before he folds, and I noticed that the player to whom he showed his cards nearly had his eyes bug out of his head. The last player folded, and then I was told that he had Aces…again!! I almost couldn’t believe it. I never put him on it because he limped with them preflop, and since I had the overpair I thought I was good. Usually if you limp with Aces preflop you’re trying to trap somebody. Well, the guy did everything he was supposed to…except put the rest of his stack in the middle. It was unreal. I was thankful to have him at the table, since he obviously thought the nuts was always in play.

I quit shortly after that, very thankful to be on the positive side of the ledger for the evening. Apparently, to quote Phil Hellmuth, "I can dodge bullets, baby!"

Time to Build a Bankroll

2010-05-26T11:32:00.005-05:00

As I get ready for the 2010 World Series of Poker I’ve been playing some poker at the local casino, Potowatomi Casino, which is located near downtown Milwaukee. The No Limit Hold ‘em game that they spread there is primarily a $3-$5 game, meaning that the small blind is $3 and the big blind is $5. When a player buys in to the game they can buy in anywhere from $200 - $600, but no more than $600. When I buy in to the game I buy in for $400, so I’m right in the middle of that range. I was trying to keep a “regular” schedule of playing on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays they run a poker promotion that usually drew a decent number of players to the room, and Fridays tend to be the busiest night in the poker room. I had a very fortunate run at the casino that ran from about the middle of April to the beginning of June. This, of course, worked out very well for me since I was trying to build my bankroll for going to Las Vegas near the end of June.

I don’t have details from every session, but I can give you some of the highlights of some of the larger hands. I had a session that wasn’t going particularly well for me one night. I was in to my second buy in and only had that $400 in front of me, so I was down about $400. I was in seat 6, and the player in seat 2 was playing at me aggressively because I had shown him a bluff earlier and I think he was trying to “even the score”. In this hand I was dealt 8-8. I had limped, and was able to see the flop cheaply along with 5 other players, including seat 2. The flop came 8-7-4, giving me top set. Normally in this situation I would check the flop and hope for someone to bet, but since seat 2 was in the hand and was raising me almost every time I bet the flop since the “bluff” hand I decided that betting here would also prompt that same response. I led out for $65, and when he repopped it to $155, I moved all in for the remainder of my chips. Seat 2 had me covered (he had approximately $1300 in his own stack). He called almost instantly, which actually startled me momentarily in to thinking that maybe I got unlucky and he was holding 5-6 (which would be a straight), but he was holding 9-6 for an open-ended straight draw. The draw didn’t get there, and I dragged home that pot.

Winning that pot got me just back to the “plus” side, even though I had just over $800 in front of me. I got involved in a very large pot almost immediately after that. In fact, it was only two hands after the hand I just described, which is partially why it’s so shocking. In this hand I was dealt 5-5 and was in early position. I had limped with the hand, and the player in seat 9 made it $20 to go. Seat 9 had been playing very tight. I suspected he might have a large hand, but since it was only another $15 and other players were also calling I also called when it got to me. There ended up being 5 players who saw the flop, including seat 2. The flop came 6-5-2 with two hearts. I had once again flopped a set. This time I decided to check it, figuring that seat 9 would bet and it would give me an opportunity to check-raise him. He only had about $300 in front of him, and since the pot was about $100 already, almost any bet he put out there would pot-commit his stack if he had a big hand like A-A or K-K. Well, the player in seat 8 bet before seat 9 got the opportunity. I had played with seat 8 before. In fact, he was on the losing end of the largest pot I ever won, which I talked about in a prior post. He bet $35. I knew he was just fishing for information with that bet. Well, he got his answers very quickly. Seat 9 raised, making it $125. This is pretty much what I expected, and I suspected he had Aces. I didn’t expect what happened next. Seat 2 reraised, moving all in for approximately $900!! The player between seat 2 and I folded and I looked back to make sure I had the set of 5s I thought I had. I didn’t think long, but I figured if he actually had 3-4 (for the straight), or 6-6 (for a better set) that he wouldn’t have played it like that. I said, “Well, I call.” and moved my $782 in to the middle of the table. Seat 8 folded, and seat 9 was thinking about it for a while, but while he was thinking about it I could hear seat 2 mumbling/whispering, “Oh, wow, he busted me.” I’ll be honest, I was glad to hear that. Seat 9 eventually gave up the hand, stating that he had Aces. Seat 2 turned over the Ah Qh, for a flush draw, so I still had to fade some cards. No heart got there, and now I was raking in a +$1700 pot! I understood what seat 2 was trying to do, but I think he forgot to account for the other players and their stacks when making his move. I think he figured his “all in” declaration was only putting about $300 in play (which would have covered either seat 8 or seat 9). He could have reraised to $300, at which point I would have still moved all in, but he might have been able to throw it away and save almost another $500. He still might have called with his flush draw, but by moving all in he gave himself no option to do that, and as it turned out, I was just fine with that.

2010 WSOP just around the corner

2010-05-01T10:59:00.000-05:00

If you follow the blog you've noticed that I haven't been posting a lot. Well, now that the 2010 World Series of Poker is about to begin that's going to change. I've been working on building the bankroll for the trip, and most of that has come through playing at Milwaukee's own Potowatomi Poker Room, which I refer to as Poto for short. In my last post I discussed a huge hand with which I got involved. Shortly after that hand occurred, I went up to the Wisconsin State Bowling Tournament and tore the MCL in my right knee in an "accident" that occurred while up in the Fox Valley area. Due to the brace that I had to wear and the pain I had in the knee, I took some time off from playing at Poto. I've been out of the brace for about a month now so I've been trying to keep a regular schedule of playing there, and it's been working out for me so far.

I'm almost afraid to discuss it in too much detail, because I've just been on an incredible "heater" down at the poker room and I don't want to jinx it. The bankroll for the WSOP trip is shaping up nicely, and I'm really looking forward to this year's World Series of Poker. This will be the 5th consecutive year that Dan and I have made the trek to Vegas for this poker extravaganza. In our prior trips, we have typically gone out to Vegas for the opening of the World Series. This year due to some scheduling conflicts that wasn't possible so we are heading out near the end of June. I've been looking at the schedule of events, and it looks like we will be out there for all of the following events:

Fri, Jun 25th 12:00 PM 3-Day Event	Event #45: No-Limit Hold’em Structure Sheet Pre-Register Now	$1,500
Fri, Jun 25th 5:00 PM 3-Day Event	Event #46: Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better Structure Sheet Pre-Register Now	$5,000
Sat, Jun 26th 12:00 PM 4-Day Event	Event #47: No-Limit Hold’em Structure Sheet Pre-Register Now This event may take 4 playing days & 5 calendar days to complete depending on field size.	$1,000
Sat, Jun 26th 5:00 PM 3-Day Event	Event #48: Mixed Event Structure Sheet Pre-Register Now	$2,500
Sun, Jun 27th 12:00 PM 8-Day Event	WSOP Tournament of Champions Structure Sheet	freeroll
Mon, Jun 28th 12:00 PM 3-Day Event	Event #49: No-Limit Hold'em Structure Sheet Pre-Register Now	$1,500
Mon, Jun 28th 5:00 PM 3-Day Event	Event #50: Pot-Limit Omaha Structure Sheet Pre-Register Now	$5,000
Tue, Jun 29th 12:00 PM 3-Day Event	Event #51: Triple Chance No-Limit Hold’em Structure Sheet Pre-Register Now	$3,000

Now, our flights are scheduled to return home on the 29th, so I would only get in to an event that started on the 28th or 29th if I had a significant cash in a tournament prior to that, or if I won A LOT in the cash games, but it would have to be A LOT. As it stands right now, I plan to enter Event #45. As the trip nears, I'll talk a little more about the winning streak I've been on which will explain where I'm sitting at on the bankroll situation. All I can say right now is I'm REALLY excited about this year's WSOP! Shuffle up and deal already!

Sometimes, It Just All Works Out

2010-02-17T15:32:00.007-06:00

I know that some of you may have noticed that I haven't been posting as much lately. Sorry about that. I haven't been playing online as much, so I'm not getting nearly as many hands and stories to talk about. I've been enjoying the game down at Potowatomi Casino. They started offering a decent promotion during the football season that enticed me (and lots of poker players) down to the poker room on Monday evenings, and the action was pretty good so I decided to apply my poker bankroll toward playing some more live poker.

I had a very interesting session recently, and it involved one of the largest pots I've ever played in a cash game. The session started pretty quickly for me, with me going from my $400 buy-in up to $900 in the first 15 minutes I was at the table. The "big" hand being a hand where a player had straddled. To straddle means that the player that would normally be in the position to act first puts a bet of double the big blind out on the table. In order to play the other players need to call or raise that bet, but the player who straddled gets a chance to raise as well, so it's almost like having three blinds. Also, it's important to note that often times when a player straddles, if no one raises, the straddle will often raise regardless of the cards that he/she is holding. I had observed this particular player do just that the first time he had the opportunity to straddle. This was his second opportunity to straddle, and I had limped holding the Ac 7c. He raised his straddle from $10 to $50, and I elected to call with my moderate hand. Three other players also called, and five of us got to see the flop. It was: Jd 7d 2s. Now, because of the straddle's early position he often times will have to act first. This player immediately bet $75 in to the pot, and quite frankly, I didn't believe that he had anything. I didn't have much myself, but I had already seen two players already pick up their cards and were just waiting to fold, so I decided that a raise would probably take the hand down right then and there. I raised to $250, which was pretty much committing my stack. Everyone else folded except the straddle, who moved all in. He had me covered, and it was only going to cost me my remaining $100 to see the $800 pot so I called. It turned out he had nothing but a couple diamonds and was chasing the flush. He missed, and my measely pair of 7s took down the $900 pot.

Shortly after that I was moved to the main game, and that's when the fireworks really started. There were three players at the table that would raise almost every pot to anywhere from $30-$60 preflop. Now, no one can get that many good hands to be able to raise so often, so it was pretty clear that they were just trying to pick up the pots with pure aggression. We had a stretch of hands over a 45-minute period where no pot was under $500. I managed to avoid the "landmines" and worked my stack up to just under $1200 when the hand of the evening came up.

I was holding the Qc Jc. I just called the $5, but one of the three aggressive players was on my immediate left, and he raised it up to $40. I will just call him the villain for the purposes of this. He was actually a very nice guy, and I had enjoyed talking with him over the course of the evening so far. He also had around $2200 when the hand started. Everyone else folded, which was unusual, and since I felt his raising range of hands was very wide I decided to call with my hand. The flop was very uneventful: Kc Kh 9d. I really had no piece of this board. Since I missed I checked, fully expecting the villain to bet at which point I would fold and let him have the hand. Well, he checked behind me. The dealer put out the turn card: 9c. Once again, this didn't really help me, but because of the villain's check I didn't think he had much here and I had decided that I would call a smallish bet in an effort to chase down the flush. I checked, and once again the villain checked. The river changed everything. It was the 10c. Combined with my hand I now had a straight flush (9c 10c Jc Qc Kc)!! Unfortunately, the pot was SOOO small and I didn't think the villain had anything. I can't just check there since I have to act first so I fired a bet of $40, just praying that I would get called. Well, the villain thinks for a second then asks me, "So, you flopped the King, did ya?", to which I answered (truthfully), "Honestly, I didn't flop the King." He then paused for another couple seconds before asking, "Well, can I steal it from you?", to which I answered (truthfully again, mind you) "No, you can't steal it from me." You might be wondering why I told the truth. Most people don't ask a direct question about your hand, they'll ask questions similar in meaning like this. I find that telling the truth at a poker table works very well in these situations. No one ever believes what anyone tells at a poker table anyway, right? If he had asked me if I had quads or a straight flush I would have just said nothing, but when someone asks indirect questions like this about my hand I will just always tell the truth (OK...not ALWAYS, but I can't recall the last time I lied in that situation).

He paused, and then said "$120". This meant he was raising it to that amount. I now sat back in my chair. At this point I wasn't sure what he had. I knew I was winning, but I had to hope he had a King here. A King would be something that he almost certainly couldn't fold. I can tell you that I thought he was just trying to steal it, and that when I put out the next raise the hand would be over. I even went back to double check my cards to be sure I had the straight flush. After pausing for about a minute I said "$300". Before I finished getting that out he said "All In.", and just as he finished saying that I said, "I Call!" and immediately turned over the straight flush. My opponent had King-Ten for the best possible full house, but that wasn't going to win the hand. I had just won a pot of just under $2400!! Everyone at the table was going nuts talking about it.

I played for about another hour, I made a couple more bucks, and it ended up being a very nice session for me. That hand was the single largest hand of poker I ever won. Even I was shaking a little bit after playing a hand like that, and I've played plenty of poker, but....WOW...Sometimes, it just all works out.

'Twas the Night Before...

2009-12-23T15:24:00.000-06:00

I wrote and posted this one year ago and it seemed to get great reviews (and I like it, too), and it's that time of year again, so here is "'Twas the Night Before the Tourney" again:

'Twas the night before the tourney, when all through the card room

Not a rounder was stirring, except at table two
The chips were being riffled as each bet was in place,
Each player was wondering "Did he have an Ace?"

The players were day-dreaming and trying to get a good read,
while they had visions of trapping while having the lead;
The dealer was nervous, as was the pit boss,
They knew that in this pot lots of chips would be lost;

When suddenly at the table there arose such a clatter,
All the other players ran to see what was the matter;
The crowd 'round that table seemed to swell so fast,
I knew a monster pot was brewing, someone's stack wasn't going to last.

One player had bet, and another had popped it up
The action was to me, and I took a drink from my cup;
When I finally peeked at my hole cards, to my wondering eyes should appear,
Sure enough, they were Aces, and I took another drink of beer;

So casual and cool, I tried to look,
I wanted their stacks, not let my fish off the hook;
I made sure not to alarm, I announced "I call"
and now it was time to be like a stone wall

The action was back to the original bettor
I was hoping his cards were paired with a different letter
as I'm sure he'd decide to put in his whole stack
and then we'd see if my Aces could be cracked;

And he whistled, and spoke, and announced ranks by name;
"Do you have Queens, or Kings, or maybe the same?
This hand's not that bad, I don't see how I fold!"
I guessed he had Jacks, from what he had told;

And then it got quiet, not a player seemed to move
He thought he was slick, he thought he was smooth
when he shoved his chips to middle and announced "I'm all in"
the other guy folded and I was looking for a nice win.

I called and tabled Aces, and he his Jacks
I now was looking at all those chips and all those big stacks,
The dealer put out the flop, it had some paint,
One Ten, one Queen, and a Jack, Ugh! I thought I would faint;

Then I noticed something, my only saving grace
their suits all were spades, as was my Ace
I prayed and prayed as the dealer did burn,
and another Jack did he put on the turn.

Quad Jacks, that's no good, I'm down to one out
"C'mon King of Spades! One time!" I gave a shout;
The dealer burned a card, the river was comin'
If it's not that King, I'm gonna be grumblin'

The dealer spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
and put out that river card, and then jumped with a jerk,
as a spade it was, and also a King
The unbeatable Royal Flush the river did bring

I raked in the pot, it seemed so surreal
my opponent seemed upset, it was hard to conceal
It was time for me to leave with my new-found stash,
so I went to the window with my chips to cash

And as I left I looked at that table
No one could believe it, "Lucky" was my new label
And then I said to them, before I ducked out of sight,
"Better luck to you all, Merry Christmas, and good night!"

A little cheeky, perhaps, but it was still lots of fun writing this one. I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas!!

Final Table at the Bellagio

2009-11-18T13:07:00.011-06:00

I found myself at the final table of the Bellagio’s daily tournament somewhere in the middle of the pack with chips. There was one clear chip leader, and he was seated to my immediate left. I was in Seat 9, and he was in Seat 1. I was hoping that he was a tight player so that I would be able to raise most of the table to pick up chips without much resistance. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find that out right away because the player in Seat 3, who appeared to be 2nd overall in chips, was getting involved in a lot of pots early. The short stack was eliminated fairly quickly, but when we got to eight players, no one was so short that they were going to be forced all in immediately.

I started picking up some hands and was able to start raising, but if the big stack was in one of the blinds he would call me every time. Over the course of the entire final table I believe he only folded to me if he was in the blinds once. I managed to eliminate the player finishing in 8th place when his J-J ran in to my Q-Q. I picked up some blinds from people other than the big stack, then I would get involved in a hand with the big stack and I’d lose what I had won earlier to him. This cycle seemed to continue for a while. I was getting hands that I think most people would raise with when going up against the blinds. One time I had Ace-Ten when he called me with King-4. I would miss the flop and we’d end up checking it down, but he managed to hit the ‘4’ for the win. I wasn’t about to get too involved with the big stack since he could afford to take a shot to eliminate me if he so chose, but I wasn’t going to stop raising with good hands. I managed to lose to him in blind battles with Ace-Queen, King-Queen, Ace-Ten, and pocket 9s (the board flopped all over cards). I know I lost some more in there, but I remember those because I would keep showing them to prove I wasn’t trying to bluff the big stack. I do think that it gave me some credibility as I picked up the other player’s blinds.

I thought I was going to win a big pot when we got down to 7-handed play when a player limped from early position. I looked down and saw 8-8 and also decided to limp. I had just raised the last two hands and I didn’t want someone to come over the top of me “just because” they didn’t believe me since 8-8 is only a mediocre hand. The guy on the button called, and the blinds limped. The flop came:

Q-J-8

giving me a set of 8s! With the two over cards I thought for sure that someone would have hit that so I led out with a bet of 8k. The guy on the button thought for about 2 minutes before folding. Everyone else folded! I couldn’t believe that everyone had missed that board! I took out the next player with A-Q v A-J. Then we were down to the bubble. There were two short stacks, three medium stacks of which I was one, and then there was the one BIG stack. Well one of the short stacks moved all in for about 35k when I looked down and saw A-A. I called immediately, got no action from anyone else, and he sheepishly turned over his K-5 hoping that he had live cards. Unfortunately, his timing was bad. He went out on the bubble and now we were all in the money. The next short stack went out a couple hands after that and took home $830.

I managed to double up the next shortest stack when my A-K couldn’t improve against an opponent’s small pocket pair. This actually put me on the short stack with about 40k in chips. Two hands later I was on the button with 9-7. It’s not a great hand, but if I get called here I’m pretty sure my cards would be live so I decided to shove all in to steal the blinds. Well, I was called by the big blind and, for the first time in the tournament, I was now all in and at risk. My opponent showed K-J, so as I guessed my cards were live. The flop was:

K-9-5

hitting both of us for a pair. The turn was:

8

and the river was:

6!!!

giving me a straight and doubling me up!!! The guy who lost that hand was now crippled and went out within the next four hands to the big stack and received about $1600 for his efforts, and with play now three-handed these were the chip counts:

Big Stack 330k
Other player 136k
Me 110k

I proposed the idea of a chop where we would split up the $14k in the prize pool based off of chip counts. The big stack was in favor of the idea. The other player didn’t understand the idea of a chop so he didn’t want to do that, even though his buddies were trying to encourage him to take the chop. On the next hand he lost 35k to the big stack when the big stack moved all in on his raise. The shorter stack folded Ace-Queen there! I offered the chop one more time, since I figured that the other short stack and I would both get about the same as 2nd place money was supposed to be. We all agreed, and since I was now in front of the other stack I ended up taking 2nd place in the tournament. The approximate payouts for those last three spots were:

1st place - $6700
2nd place - $3730 (me)
3rd place - $3600

Third place was originally supposed to be $2480 and second place was supposed to be $4100 so I thought I came out OK. Given our positions at the table with the big stack on my left, and the short stack playing as tight as he was I thought the chop worked out well. I would have been fine with playing it out, too, but I thought at that point that the other short stack was waiting for me to raise the big stack at the wrong time or to get unlucky against the big stack.

I gave the dealers a $150 tip out of my earnings, so my net for the day was up about $3200. The tournament chopped at 11pm, so we were playing for 9 hours, and although I was fine all throughout the tournament, as soon as it was over my brain went in to shut down mode. It was a nice way to end the trip. I was leaving to return home the next afternoon so there was no way I was going to screw up and lose that payday before I headed out. I played some dice and lost, and picked some of it back up playing at the $5/$10 table Tuesday. All in all a very fun trip!!

A Satellite Shot and Bellagio's Daily Tournament

2009-11-16T16:16:00.002-06:00

When I woke up on Monday morning I was excited because I knew I was going to get some tournament play in today. I was up a couple hundred for the trip, and was hoping to play in the Bellagio’s daily deep stack tournament. During the week they offer a $330 tournament that starts at 2pm. Starting at 9am they offer satellite tournaments, and the satellite for the $330 tourney cost $90. Each satellite is a 10-person tournament, with the top two finishers receiving a tournament entry and $40 cash. Adam and I got some breakfast, then we made our way over to the poker room to get in a satellite.

The satellite structures aren’t too bad. You start with 2500 chips. Levels are 15 minutes and the blinds start at 25/50. Unless you try to play every hand you should have some chips with which to maneuver for a while. Our table put that to the ultimate test. We started our satellite around 12:30pm, and at 1:30 we still hadn’t eliminated a single player. This was getting the poker room tournament director concerned since the tournament for which we were trying to win seats began in 30 minutes. Well, blinds being what they were players started dropping like flies about 15 minutes to start time of the daily tournament. I went out in 5^th, and I went to the window and bought my way in to the tournament for the full $330. Adam managed to hang on for 2^nd and received a satellite seat.

For the daily tournament, you start with 10k in chips. Levels are 35 minutes, and the blinds start at 25/50, so you’ve got plenty of room even take a bad beat if it happens early enough. I decided to put this to the test three hands in to the tournament. It wasn’t done intentionally, but here’s how it went down. There were a couple people that limped in to the pot, but an older gentleman in the cutoff position raised it up to 275. When it got to me in the small blind I looked down and saw K-K. Now, knowing that I am going to have to play the rest of the hand out of position I decided that I wanted to win this hand right here right now so I put in a reraise to 825 chips. The big blind and all the limpers folded, and now the action was on the initial raiser. He calls almost immediately. The board flopped:

J-J-8

Obviously I don’t like the Jack, but I’m not putting my opponent on a hand like Ace-Jack or King-Jack here, so I decided to lead out with a bet for 1300 chips. My opponent calls. The turn card was an Ace. So now I really don’t like the board, but once again I just wasn’t putting my opponent on Ace-King or Ace-Queen either since he called the flop. This time I wanted to exercise some pot control and decided to check. My opponent bet 1500 back at me. I thought about it, but since I wasn’t putting him on the hands I’ve mentioned I thought he might be trying to take advantage of my “sign of weakness” when I checked so I decided to call. I didn’t put him on pocket Aces either because I didn’t think anyone would bet the big full house there. The river was a “4”. I knew that this couldn’t possibly have helped my opponent, but I was also content with trying to check this down at this point so I checked to him. He bets 3300. I still wasn’t putting him on any hands that I thought would have called me preflop or called on the flop (AA, AK, AQ, AJ, KJ). I called and was shown Queen-Jack. Ugh…ay ay ay…Now I’m down to 3075 chips three hands in to this tournament. Oh goody.

Well, losing 70% of my stack wasn’t part of the plan, but now that I’m there I ain’t gonna just mail it in. The blinds were still 25/50, so I still had plenty of chips to afford blinds. In the next level the blinds went to 50/100, but I still had enough chips to play without feeling as though I had to push. I picked up 5h-3h on the button in a pot where 5 people limped in front of me so I called. The player to act immediately after me, the small blind, made it 350 to go, and almost all the limpers called so I did, too. The flop was:

6-2-3

giving me the bottom pair and a gutshot to the straight. It’s not a bad flop for me. It’s not one I’m SUPER excited about, but when the preflop raiser bet only 500 and everyone else folded, I liked my hand a whole lot more. After all, if the preflop raiser missed, I'm good. If I'm not good, I've got the 3's for trips, the 5's for two-pair, or the 4 for the straight to nab the lead in the hand. I decided to call and the turn was a great card for me: the “4” giving me the straight. My opponent bet 2000, and since I only had 2075 I moved all in and was called immediately. I showed my hand, and my opponent mucked even before the river was dealt. I’m guessing he had an overpair and was drawing to the chop. Since he mucked I asked the dealer to not deal the river card because I didn’t want to get “unlucky” and have the straight get put on the board and then have to call the floor person over to determine if I should get the whole pot. In case you are unaware, to win at a showdown in a Hold ‘em game in MOST (and when I say most I mean every casino I’ve ever played in) casinos you must show both your hole cards, regardless of them being used or not in your hand. Since he mucked, the hand was over.

So, now I more than doubled up and was sitting at about 7100 chips. With the blinds as they were it was no problem to start mixing it up again. Over the next two hours I managed to work my stack to about 20k in chips, which at that time was about 5k over the average. I was able to do all this without ever being all in and at risk (when I was all in earlier I wasn’t really at risk because I had the straight so I don’t count that). To give you an idea of how deep-stacked this tournament is in the first 3½ hours of play we only lost 16 of the 57 players in the tournament.

It was at this point in the tournament that players seemed to start dropping pretty quickly. I managed to stay out of most of the action, and was able to pick up a couple of decent pots with some preflop reraises. By the time we hit the next break I was at just over 40k in chips. It was at this point that I started picking up some real good hands. I kept getting dealt Q-Q. By no means do I consider Q-Q uncrackable, but when you get it dealt to you five times in an hour and a half you are usually going to pick up a lot of chips. As we closed in on the Final Table I found myself to the immediate right of the player who had crippled me early in the tournament. I was able to exact my revenge when I took my Q-J and was able to limp preflop with several other players. The Jack-8-2 flop provided no real concern to me so I bet, and when this player on my left went all in I was able to call (his stack wasn’t that large anymore, go figure). He turned over King-8 for second pair and the board bricked out for him so I was able to eliminate my early tournament tormentor. :)

Shortly after that, I managed to lose about 15k in chips when I raised from late position in an attempt to pick up the blinds while holding King-Ten. I had been very successful in picking up blinds because of my stack size, but this time one of the blinds reraised all in. Unfortunately, the call was a no-brainer, and the guy even asked me “Do you have Queens again?” because I had been showing my strong hands. He turned over J-J and I had a chance to catch a King to knock him out, but it didn’t happen. We found out almost right after this that we were down to our Final Table of ten players and I went there with about 70k in chips.

Academy Wrap Up and More Cash Games

2009-11-13T16:23:00.003-06:00

After finishing up the cash games on Saturday evening I was close to even and was actually glad to not be going right back to the cash games on Sunday. There was the one day left of the poker academy and we had a dinner afterwards so it wouldn’t be until almost 10pm that I made my way back to the cash games.

Just as a wrap-up about the academy, it was really neat hearing ideas from people who were VERY successful at poker. They were all very approachable and friendly. There also were many participants that I got to know as well. One guy was at the academy because he won a poker tournament on a cruise that got him on to another cruise and in to a “champions” tournament with a pool of $100k, and he thought this would be a great help to that cause. People had come from all over. We had the 2008 Oklahoma Women’s Bowling Champion here, and plenty of people from both coasts and everywhere between. When we would break out in to groups for the live hand analysis portion of the academy we always had the same participants at each table, and at my table I had someone from Los Angeles that I was having a good time with while at the Academy. Her name is Renee, and she was kind enough to forward me some of her pics from the academy she had gotten for me to include in the blog. I’ve put together a small slideshow of my pics and some of Renee’s.

Once the academy wrapped up with the dinner Sunday evening, Adam and I made our way over to the Bellagio to get in the cash games. It was too late to get in to any of the tournaments we were interested in playing, and it was already 10pm. Once again, I bought in to the $2/$5 game at the Bellagio, and I found myself in the right seat to play for the evening. I had worked my way up from my $300 buy-in to about $450 without a showdown when I was able to get my whole stack in the middle with another player when I picked up pocket Kings and he picked up pocket 9s on an 8-high flop. That took me up to about $900. I then proceeded to work that stack all the way back down to about $175 when my pocket Aces got cracked by pocket 9s in a 5-way preflop pot that flopped the 9. Once again I worked my stack back up, eventually getting up to about $600 when the critical hand of the evening occurred.

I was in the small blind With QQ, and 5 players limped to me. Knowing that I had to thin out the field a little bit I put in a raise of $40. This proceeded to get me 4 callers, which was about 3 more than I was expecting. I was initially concerned, and the flop came:

Q-J-8 (two clubs)

Giving me top set. I also have to act first. I’ll admit it feels real good to hit that Queen, but the board was awfully draw heavy for a 5-player pot, so I decided to put out a bet of $125. I also guessed that no one would put me on QQ since often times top set might check a flop like that. I figured a board like this would have hit another player, and since I’m the preflop raiser I might get someone to put in a raise behind me if they hit this. Lucky for me, that player was the next person to act in the hand, who makes it $275 to go. Everyone else folds, and it’s back to me. Now, the guy in this seat has been riding a roller coaster with his stack (much like I have been), and he didn’t always have a hand, but he’s also the type of player that could have been playing T-9 here, too. Well, if I call, there’s almost no reason for me to not get the rest of my money in now, so without much hesitation I moved all in. This guy snap calls me, and I feared the worst. I showed the Queens, and he turned over and showed:

J-8

For bottom two pair!! He was drawing dead to runner runner for quads or runner runner to a chop. The turn was actually a nine, giving him outs to the chop/split but the river blanked and I raked in one heck of a pot.Once I got a stack like that I started playing very tight, and when I ended the session I was now up for the whole trip. I was up enough that I was looking forward to finally playing in a tournament and using some of the stuff I had learned over the past couple of days.

They Have Cash Games in Vegas, too

2009-11-13T15:20:00.003-06:00

If you’ve read the last couple of postings you might be thinking that I didn’t do anything else while out in Las Vegas except participate in the World Series of Poker Academy or watch the Main Event. Well, that just ain’t the case. The poker academy did make up a good portion of 2-2 ½ days while there, but I had about 4 ½ days out in Vegas so that left me with what I figured to be about two full days to do other things, so I didn’t waste a whole lot of that time sleeping unless I felt I had to get some sleep.

When we arrived Thursday night Adam and I decided to head over to the Wynn and get involved in the cash games there. I’ve usually done well at the Wynn so I thought this would be a good idea. Well, I was wrong this time about that. I sat down at the $1/$3 game at the Wynn and over the 5+ hours I played there I managed to lose about $500. It’s not the worst loss I’ve had, but it was the manner in how it happened. I never lost a huge pot. I just got whittled away, $35 here, $50 there, and so on and so on. I won my share of pots, but nothing big, and I was losing a lot more than I was winning. In fact I was so glad when we decided to leave that I couldn’t wait for the academy to start because I knew I couldn’t lose any more money until that next evening!! I never feel like that when I walk away from a poker game.

The schedule of the academy had us starting at 9am, and because we had the academy tournament that evening (which I’ve posted about already), I actually didn’t get my next opportunity to sit down at a cash game until about 11pm Friday evening. The poker academy tournament was being held in the Caesar’s Palace poker room so when I busted out of that I went to talk to Adam to see what he wanted to do. He had already busted out and was sitting down in a cash game. I told him I’d leave whenever he wanted to and he wanted to play a little more so I got on the short list for the poker game and got a seat about 15 minutes later. I then proceeded to play what was for me the shortest session of poker that I can recall playing in a live game. This happened because about 10 hands into the session Adam found me and said he was done with his cash game for the night. I told him I’d play back around to my big blind (I actually played one additional orbit), but I managed to pick up about $100 in the 18 or so hands I played.

The next poker session I played was after we had left the WSOP Main Event at the Rio. We had watched about the first two hours of play of the Final Table of the Main Event, but it wasn’t real exciting. Without hole card cams, which cannot be shown to the live audience for obvious reasons, poker isn’t really a great spectator sport. Adam and I tried to make the best of it, using notepads to try and jot down notes and see if we could “read” any of the players during the action. We thought that we might get to verify our reads when we got back home and compared our notes to the ESPN coverage if any of the hands we watched were part of the coverage. In those two hours of play we saw 29 hands, of which there were only 3 or 4 flops, and there was only one showdown at all. No one was knocked out, and with the blind structure what it was we both felt it could be a while before we saw any significant action, so we left about 2:30 or so. Adam had decided to get in to the 2 o’clock Daily Tournament at the Bellagio. The nice thing with this tournament is because it is such a deep-stack structure (10k starting chips, 35 minute levels, 25/50 starting blinds) no one usually gets eliminated right away. The Bellagio even allows late entries through the first four levels of play. Because of this Adam was still able to enter the tournament when we arrived.

I, on the other hand, decided to sit down at the cash games again. I sat down with my $300 in the first available seat, which happened to be seat #1 to the immediate left of the dealer. I really don’t care for that seat or the seat on the immediate right of the dealer either so as soon as another seat opened up I requested to move, and I got to move to seat #2. One of the other things I look for when trying to find a seat at the table is having a big stack, preferably a loose big stack, on my right. That wasn’t the case with my new seat (the table big stack was in seat #3), so when seat #4 opened up I moved there. I then proceeded to watch in the next half hour as seat #2 picked up pocket Kings and a middle pair that turned in to a set on a flop. Ay ay ay! Timing is everything. Well, as it turned out seat #3, although he was a big stack, he was tighter than a fat guy in spandex. So I moved again, this time to seat #8. Once again I watched the new player in my old seat pick up a lot of chips, this time when he had QQ v TT and another hand where he made the nut flush with AKsuited. In the meantime, my stack was dwindling. In fact, in one hour at this table I was down $500. So I pulled out my last buy-in I had planned for poker gambling. It was at this point where I finally turned things around. I was getting what I wanted with the seat change, too. The player in seat #6 was playing very loose, and I found him betting in to me, often times with no hand. I ended up picking up the $500 I was down, and also picked up an additional $300 or so. I was now back in sight of the even line, which considering how things were going I wasn’t sure if I would see that again.

11 Bracelets...Really Phil...With Plays Like That?

2009-11-12T11:36:00.003-06:00

I don’t think I mentioned it in the last post, but I didn’t win the tournament where I hit the straight against Greg Raymer. In fact, I was eliminated from the tournament by one of the other pros, Ali Nejad. In that hand I was dealt a pair of 5s. Ali had a big stack, and I had about 18000 in chips. The blinds were about 600/1200. Ali had raised preflop from somewhat early position, and since I had about 15 big blinds in my stack I shoved when it got to me. Unfortunately, the player right behind me called immediately and that’s what killed me. Ali was debating folding, and once he realized the price he was getting to call he made the call. The player behind me had Ace-Jack and Ali had pocket 8s. My shove was designed to get possibly a middle pair (like 8s) or maybe even get two over cards (like QJ, QT, KJ, etc) to fold. Ali actually told me he would have folded if the other player hadn’t called. As it turned out the pair of 8s held up and Ali knocked out me and the other player in the same hand.

Phil Hellmuth showed up for the second day of the poker academy, and he brought some really neat insight to it as well. Some of you may know that he was hired as Jeff Shulman’s coach for the 2009 Main Event Final Table. Jeff Shulman runs CardPlayer magazine and has been to the Main Event Final Table before. Phil actually went over with us some of the strategy that he and his team had worked with Jeff Shulman. It was actually some very interesting discussion.

When we broke out for our next “live” hand analysis Phil would go from table to table and play a few hands at each table. In this particular “live” scenario we were to act as though we were at the final table of a deep stack tournament. I was assigned a medium stack of chips and had already lost some chips because my A-J lost to someone else’s A-8 when he was raising from the cutoff (one away from the button) to try and pick up the blinds when the following hand came up at our table. Phil was in early position and raised to about three times the blind. The next player folded, and it was my turn to act. I looked down and found K-K! I paused for a moment, and since my stack was a medium / medium-short stack I just shoved, knowing that Phil would have the right “price” to call. Everyone folded and Phil called, tabling Ace-Ten. He actually stated that he was going to call, but “wasn’t happy about it”. I think he knew that from my position at the table I wouldn’t be reraising without having a hand that would be crushing his. Mike Gracz was the dealer and pro doing the analysis at our table at the time, and he ran the board and my Kings held up, so I didn’t have to “go Phil” on Phil…that might have been fun! If you aren’t familiar with Phil Hellmuth he is nicknamed “Poker Brat” for his tirades that occur when a bad beat is delivered upon him.

I hope if you’ve read these last two posts in particular that you realize I am kidding when I poke fun at Phil Hellmuth or Greg Raymer. I respect both of their poker games and am glad to have gotten some good analysis from them about various hands. I’m not a fan of Phil’s tirades, but he really is a nice person when you meet him and seems very genuine when you talk to him.

Poker School!!

2009-11-11T15:46:00.005-06:00

So this past week I had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas and attend the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Academy – November Nine edition. The WSOP Academy is a two, sometimes three, day seminar where you meet and work with professional poker players and try to improve your poker game. They give you their insights as to how to play situations. This particular academy focused on how to play deep-stack tournaments, and more specifically, late in those types of tournaments. The Main Event of the WSOP was also going to be wrapping up on that Saturday and Monday, and as part of the academy we were given tickets to attend both sessions at the Rio’s Penn & Teller Theater.

The poker players that were at the academy were 2004 WSOP Main Event Champion Greg Raymer, WSOP bracelet winner and World Poker Tour champion Michael Gracz, cash-game player and announcer for “Poker After Dark” and the “NBC Head-Up Championship” Ali Nejad, online specialist Mark “PokerHo” Kroon, former model and pro volleyball player turned poker pro Erica Schoenberg, and runner up in a televised 2004 WSOP event and poker pro with over $700,000 in earnings Shawn Rice. The 1989 WSOP Main Event Champion and 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth also was at the academy for one of the days as well. We definitely had a talented group of individuals to listen to about poker!

Each of the day’s ran something like this: Beginning of the day there would be a seminar/lecture followed by some live analysis of hands. Then we’d break for lunch, and go through the same routine in the afternoon as well. I thought the live-hand analysis sections were great. There were about 45 of us so we would break in to assigned groups of nine and go to our poker tables. A poker pro would also go to each table and act as the dealer along with providing the analysis. We’d be given a scenario to act under. For example, in one session each player had varying amounts of chips and we were to play as if we were on the bubble of the tournament. In another scenario we acted as if we were in the early stages, and in another as if we were at the Final Table. You get the idea. Each hand would be played out, then afterwords the pro would replay the hand and go over why each player did what they did with whatever decision there was to be made and give their own thoughts of how they thought the play should go. The pros would rotate each session, so each table got a different poker pro for each of the four sessions.

The seminars were interesting at times, too. It reinforced some ideas that I had for how to play, and I was able to pick up some things as well, so I thought the whole thing was great! We also had a free tournament that all the academy participants got to play in where the winner would receive a prize package valued over $4000. I didn’t win that tournament unfortunately, but the poker pros were in that tournament and there was a bounty on each of them. If you knocked out a pro you received a pair of Oakley sunglasses. An Oakley promoter was there and there were also some other Oakley giveaways for certain things (e.g. at one table they were playing the “7-2 game” where if you won a hand with 7-2 you’d win a pair of Oakleys).

I got involved in a big pot with Greg Raymer during the tournament. If you have followed the blog in the past you already know that I have some history with Mr. Raymer, and I was looking to exact some revenge (that’s said tongue-in-cheek). The poker pros were rotating the tables that they were playing at during the tournament so everyone got to play with all of them, and Greg had just arrived at the table a couple hands ago and was in the seat to my immediate right when the following hand played out. We had started with 10k in chips. The blinds were in the third level and we were at 75-150 on the blinds. I had about 12k in chips and Raymer had approximately 7k in chips. I was dealt 5-3 suited in early position. Greg was first to act and had limped, so I did as well hoping to catch something with the flop. One other player limped, the blinds called and checked, and the flop was:

K-6-2

The blinds both checked, and Greg bet about 500 chips. Now, I felt that Greg might be betting that flop with just about anything since it was a limped pot and two players had already checked the flop. I know I didn’t have anything, but I thought I could take the hand down right now if I raised, and if I was called I had the gutshot draw to the straight which, if it hit, would be VERY disguised. I raised to 1300, and as I thought the other preflop limper folded and the blinds both folded. Greg thought for a moment and called. Now I was getting the “Fossilman” stare from behind those glasses. The turn card was a miracle for me:

The four also matched the suit of one of the other cards on the board so there was now a flush draw in play, but I wasn’t that worried about it. With the pot as it was already having about 3500 in it and me having the nuts I decided to under bet the turn. I put out a bet of 1500. Greg once again stared me down for a minute and then called. The river was an 8, and it didn’t put the flush draw on the board, so I now knew I had the nuts for the hand. This time Greg fired out 2500 at the river, leaving himself only about 1500 in chips behind. “I am making it look like I am pondering a call but all I am really thinking about is Vegas and the fucking Mirage” (thank you Rounders) then I moved all in. I thought Greg would call for sure and I’d be up one set of Oakleys. Well, he goes in to to the think tank. He’s also analyzing the hand out loud (since this is an academy). At one point he said “Well, I think you played one of these streets like a fucking idiot”. He eventually folded, and since he was doing the analysis I decided to show the straight and told him that he made a good laydown. Play continued, but over the next 10 minutes he analyzed that hand quite a bit. He really thought my play at the flop was very questionable (and I’m being nice when I say that). He thought that in a five-player pot that I should realize that if he’s betting then he’s got something, and that my bet is in reality not just bluffing him, but also bluffing three others. I guess I saw it a little different with the blinds having already checked after the flop. I knew that I was bluffing, but I thought I only had to get by the player behind me and Greg. He wasn’t seeing it that way, though. It was great to get his analysis there, though.

Well, that was just one hand and a little bit about the academy. I’ve got some pictures to post and I’ve got some more about the academy and that trip, and I’ll try to include that in my next post!

Why is there a Crowd Around my Table?

2009-07-05T15:40:00.000-05:00

Table 42 Blue

As I approached my table I could see that there were an unusually large number of people gathered in that area of the Amazon Room. It turns out that my table was about 15 feet away from where one of the two final tables of the $40K No-Limit Hold ‘em Event #2 was taking place. I fought my way through the people, and I took my seat in Seat #2 at Table 42 Blue. In very sharp contrast to Table 90 Orange, this table was almost as far from any exit as I could possibly be.

I text Dan to let him know I got moved, and I settled in to get to work. I was working with about 8500 chips, so I was still a little below the average chip stack, but I still had over 20 big blinds in my stack. I was able to notice very quickly that the player on my left (seat 3) liked to mix it up with almost any two cards and was very aggressive when doing so. This came to benefit me early while I was at the table when I picked up pocket Queens, was able to raise preflop, and get him as one of my callers. The board came: 8-5-5. I led out and he decided to raise. I wasn’t 100% certain that he didn’t have a 5 in his hand, but when the action folded to me I decided that he wouldn’t have raised me there with a 5 since he probably could extract more by just smooth calling me there. That and the numbers would indicate that it is unlikely for someone to have a third 5 there. Those two things led me to repop it one more time and move all in. He thought for a while, and as soon as I didn’t hear the snap, “I call!” I knew that my Queens were good. He folded, and I raked in a nice pot.

I was able to pick one more pot off of this guy when I check-raised him off his hand with a straight draw and a flush draw, but I didn’t get a whole lot of hands at this table. The player in seat 9 was starting to get ultra-aggressive as the blinds moved up, but anytime I thought about reraising him, I would either get no hand, or someone else was getting in there and my hand was not good enough to stand up to two raises.

It was at this table that I met my Waterloo. My chip stack was about 13400. There were 44 minutes in the last level that we were playing today. The blinds were 800/400/100ante, so I had about 6 times ‘round the table worth of blinds. I was dealt Ace-King offsuit in the under-the-gun (UTG) position. In the last ten minutes several people were just shoving all in and taking the blinds down, and I was hoping to do just that here. I figured if I won this round of blinds I could easily afford to play no more hands the rest of the day, which I thought would be about three orbits at the pace we were currently playing. I decided to move all in with AK. The first three people folded, but a player who had been playing relatively tight called all in and then everyone else folded. I was hoping that he would show me a worse Ace (Ace-Queen, Ace-Jack, etc) or a pocket pair of Queens or less (although that would still mean I had to hit my hand to win). He turned over pocket Kings, which left me drawing basically to just one of the three remaining Aces. I missed, but I had my opponent covered by 1100 chips. I was in the big blind the next hand, but my 9-2offsuit was no match for the small blind’s 8-7 as I made a pair of 9s only to watch that turn in to a straight for the small blind.

As I thought a little more about the Ace-King hand and discussed it with some others, I ultimately still felt I played it fine there. You might be asking, “Why move all in right away?” (at least that’s the obvious question there), but even if I had just raised to let’s say 2500, or about 3x the big blind, when my opponent moves all in with his pocket Kings I don’t know if I would have folded Ace-King there anyway, since the only two hands I really have to be concerned with are AA or KK, and there was no way for me to know he had one of those two hands. My 2009 World Series had come to a close. At least it wasn’t as fast as last year, but the net result was still the same. It was time to shut the door on the WSOP and get concerned with the cash games, especially since a lot of my fellow poker players who were also eliminated were going to be sitting in those cash games as well.

There's a Captain at the Table!

2009-07-02T16:00:00.000-05:00

After being in the middle of the Amazon Room all day, I was relieved to find that my next table was near one of the exits, table 90 Orange. This would make leaving the table for a minute to take a break a little easier. I recognized one of the players as a poker pro, but if it wasn’t for his hat I probably wouldn’t have known his name. Luckily, Captain Tom Franklin likes to wear a cowboy-style hat that states “Captain Tom” on it. Tom Franklin has one World Series of Poker bracelet, so I knew that he’d be no pushover at the table. He was in Seat 9. I took my seat in Seat 5. There were two elderly gentlemen in Seats 7 & 8, and these two guys were hilarious. Any time the pot was unraised they would call and play, and they would almost always call all the way to the river, regardless of what they had. Because of the positions at the table, Captain Tom was playing a lot of hands and was managing to pick up lots of chips from these two. Occasionally though, one of those two guys would hit a hand and make a load of chips from somebody because of their lack of aggression.

I didn’t get a whole lot of hands to play while I was here, but I did manage to mix it up in one hand with Captain Tom that was sort of fun. Captain Tom raised, and as it got around to me I called with my pocket 6s. When the flop was J-4-7, I wasn’t too excited, but I wasn’t quite ready to fold to Captain Tom when he led out. I called, and the turn card that hit was probably the second best card that could’ve hit the board for me, a 5 (the best card would’ve been a 6 for a set). Captain Tom checked, and now I was pretty certain that his bet on the flop was a continuation bet based off of his preflop raise. I led out, and after Captain Tom gave it some very brief thought he folded, making the comment that he was pretty sure that I could beat 9-high.

We hit the dinner break while I was at this table. I had 6600 chips at the dinner break, and without seeing any official numbers I guessed that I was near the average at this point in the tournament. I went over to meet Dan, who was watching the Brewers and the NHL playoffs over in the sports book. I used the food voucher provided to grab a sandwich, filled Dan in with all the details, and then made my way back to the Amazon Room to try and push through the rest of the evening. I knew we’d be playing until about 1am, so I still had about 4 ½ hours of poker yet to go.

When I got back to table Orange 90 I was continuing to go through my dry spell of hands. I only picked up one more significant hand before our table broke. Lucky for me that hand was pocket Aces. A player in early position raised, and I reraised it about three times his bet. The action folded around to the initial raiser, and he called the bet. The flop was a pretty darn good flop for me: Ace-9-2, giving me top set. My opponent checked, and I checked, hoping that my opponent might fire at this on the turn if he thought I missed. The turn put out an 8, and it also put out a second card of a suit already on the board. My opponent checked, and I decided to lead out and bet a little less than half the pot. I would have considered checking if it hadn’t put out a card that put a potential straight and flush draw in play, but because both were now in play I bet. My opponent folded, and I won a decent pot, although it wasn’t nearly as large as I had hoped.

Captain Tom was running very well at our table, and he managed to work his stack up to about 42,000 chips. When we broke, I had about 8500 in chips, and I was off to find table 42 Blue.

Table 126 Red, Part Deux

2009-07-01T14:20:00.000-05:00

In an effort to try and be able to recall things so that I could post accurate blogs, I attempted to keep audio notes using my cell phone on the breaks. Unfortunately, I really didn’t think of this idea until later in the day. My buddy Dan got eliminated from the event prior to the dinner break, and prior to his being eliminated, we’d meet up on the breaks and discuss our current status, so it wasn’t until he was eliminated and we didn’t meet up on a break that I got this bright idea. Because of this I actually have quite a good set of notes about that first table I was at.

I left off the last post about an hour in to play. I had worked my stack from the original 3K to approximately 5100 without meeting much resistance. I had been dealt Ace-King in a hand that had been raised so I reraised, everyone folded to the initial raiser who called my bet. After a Jack-high flop he checked and I led out with a bet to take down that pot. I was dealt pocket Kings immediately following that hand and when I raised no one called. In fact, I was dealt Kings twice during the entire day, and never saw a flop with it either time (which I guess I was perfectly fine with considering what happened to me with Aces last year). Creepy Neck Guy had also built up a stack after eliminating the player in Seat 10 (pictured here). I mentioned that Creepy Neck Guy was playing quite loose, playing many hands more than most players at the table. It was at about this time I got involved in my first significant pot of the day.

The hand began with me in the small blind. Everyone folded to a player in mid to late position. He had been playing somewhat tight and appeared to be selective with his hands. He raised to about 3x the big blind. Another player called, and when I looked down at my cards in the small blind I saw As-8s. Considering the raise and the possibilities I decided to call. The big blind also called. The flop that hit the board was a Queen-high flop with two spades, giving me a flush draw. I checked, expecting to check raise the initial raiser, but to my surprise the big blind led out with a bet. The initial raiser then called the bet, and it was folded to me. I was one of the larger chip stacks at this table, so I decided to put the “squeeze” play on the players. The squeeze play is when you raise two players where player 1 bets and player 2 calls (such as the scenario here). What the squeeze play does is put a significant amount of pressure on the 1^st player who bet since he doesn’t know player 2 is going to do, and it may force him to fold any marginal hand. I didn’t think the big blind had much since if he did, he probably would have checked it to the initial raiser. Often times a player just calling will be holding a marginal hand, so the squeeze raise might chase that second player out of the hand. Well, the first part of my plan worked perfectly. The big blind folded his hand. The initial raiser (pictured) had other ideas, though. He pulled the trigger and moved all in at this point. This pretty much pointed to a big hand (set/3-of-a-kind, two pair). His stack size was close enough to my stack size that if I decided to call I was pretty sure I’d either be out or very close to out, and I wasn’t prepared to put all my chips in on a draw just quite yet so I folded, leaving me with 1800 chips.

While I sat brooding about losing a lot of chips, I thought a little more about pulling that trigger. The player who won the pot had a couple things that all should have screamed “Danger!” at me:

He had been playing tight and showing good hands to this point
Being the initial raiser, his “just call” of the lead out bet on the flop should have told me, in combination with item 1, that he probably hit this board HARD

Well, now I was stuck down about half of my original amount, and I was in need of a double up. Fortunately for me, about half an hour later I was dealt pocket Aces in late position. I raised, was reraised by the player on my immediate left (pictured), and when I moved all in, he thought for a long time but folded Ace-Queen face up. I was surprised he folded since he only needed about 600 more chips to call after his reraise, but he was running a little low, and I guess that those 600 chips he felt could be used better elsewhere.

So after nearly doubling up there I was able to win a decent pot with King-Ten against a player (pictured) who showed he was absolutely incapable of folding if he hit any piece of a board. In the hand where I eliminated him, I had King-Ten in the big blind. He made a minimum raise, so I’m pretty much guaranteed to call with any two cards that are Ten or higher (also known as a “Twenty” hand, e.g. KT, QJ, QT, etc.). The board came: King-Jack-x. I led out, knowing he’d call with any piece, and he was playing too many hands to have a good one all the time. He moved all in and, after some deliberation, I decided to call with top pair, Ten kicker. He table Ace-Jack for second pair, and soon went to the rail when the turn and river provided no help to him.

I got involved two more pots that I had notes on at this table. I was dealt Ace-Ten on the button, and with three other players just limping to the big blind I limped along and was fortunate enough to see this flop: King-Queen-Jack. This gave me the nut straight. The other thing about a board like this is it’s the type of board that would hit other players as well, so when everyone checked to me on the button, I led out with a bet of about half the pot, hoping that someone with a piece of that board would also play. As it went back around everyone folded! I couldn’t believe that no one had a piece of that at all, but it was another pot moving my way, so I couldn’t complain too much.

The last pot I remember was sort of humorous. I had 2-4suited in mid to late position. Once again several players limped, so I decided to call hoping to flop something big. I completely missed the flop, and when everyone checked to me I checked, too. The turn also missed me, and once again everyone checked to me. This time I decided to fire a pot-sized bet to take the pot down. Creepy Neck Guy kind of looked at me funny and folded, and then the guy who raised me big earlier did it again. This time my fold was pretty easy, and as soon as I did Creepy Neck Guy said to me, “I’m glad you did that (bet out) because I was gonna do that if you didn’t”. I kind of got chuckled at that. At least he and I were on the same wavelength.

Shortly after this, our table broke. I was so happy to hear this since as other tables broke down, cash games were starting, and the speaker system in our section was turned on for calling players to the table. We were directly under one of those speakers, and it was starting to get quite annoying and difficult to hear player actions at the table. Unfortunately, I got moved to….Table 129 RED, so I was still in that section. That table broke about 10 minutes later, and I got moved to my next table, 90 Orange.

Setting the Stage for Event #4

2009-07-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

Table 126 Red, Part 1

There’s something about being in the Amazon Room prior to the 1st event that’s truly open to players of all skill levels at the Rio that just gets the blood flowing for me. There is all this positive energy in the room…everyone believing that their dream is going to come true and they’re going to be the one to capture that World Series of Poker bracelet. For one person it’s going to happen, and in the case of Day 1A of the Stimulus Event there are going to be over 2600 people whose dream will be shattered before the day is over. Day 1A started with a field of approximately 3015 people. The plan was to play 10 levels today.

My day started at Table 126 Red. The Amazon Room is broken in to four quadrants, each quadrant having its own color. The Red quadrant is usually where the cash games are played so I knew that this quadrant was going to be one of the first quadrants to break down to make room for cash games later in the day.

Because we started with so many players, I planned on playing fairly tight early in the tournament (as I usually do in large tournaments). We started with 3000 chips, and it wouldn’t be until we were down to 1500 players that the average stack would double to 6000 chips, so I guessed that I could be patient and wait for spots.

As it turned out, our section was first to break down, but our table was one of the last in that section to break down. Consequently, I was able to play poker with this table for a little over 2 ½ hours. I got to know several of my table mates and their poker playing styles well during that time. The player in Seat 1 was the one who stood out the most during my time at this table. Not only did he play nearly every hand during the first hour, but he also had a creepy style of staring down the players on my side of the table. He was in Seat 1, immediately to the left of the dealer, and I was in Seat 8, which was basically on the end of the oval to the right of the dealer. Since the dealer was in the way when he wanted to look down to our side of the table, he had to stick his head out around the dealer in this particularly E.T.-like style, hence I nicknamed him “Creepy Neck Staredown Guy” (pictured here).

During the first hour if I wasn’t raising and taking down a pot Creepy Neck Staredown Guy was in almost every other pot. He won most of the pots he was in, but eventually, after getting caught in a showdown with King-Six, people started calling him to the river. I think he realized that the table caught on to his game when he got called down by Ace high twice in five minutes (he also lost both those hands). He did adjust, though, and overall I thought his game was pretty decent. It wasn’t exactly my preferred style of play, but he seemed to make it work, and he knew who to play that way against.

An Old Nemesis...

2009-05-30T13:59:00.001-05:00

Greg Raymer, the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion, with me just prior to the start of Event #4. Greg was getting ready for Day 2 of the $40k event, where he was in 2nd place in chips.

The Last Casino Stop Before the WSOP

2009-05-26T10:25:00.004-05:00

The long weekend provided me the opportunity to go play some poker at Potowatomi on Saturday evening. I called to get my name on the list, and was informed that they were running three tables and I was 42 players down on the list! I anticipated that they would be opening more tables later, but I saw no need to rush to get down to the casino. I arrived at the two-hour check in time limit, and they told me I was at the top of the list, so I went to get some chips and was called for my seat. Upon arriving I found one regular that I recognized, Turtle (aka Sam). He's a pretty good player, and as far as I can remember, I've never been there and not seen him there at some table. Another seat was also being filled, and Turtle gave us an opening shot/compliment, "Uh-oh...now the good players are showing up!"

I didn't feel like such a good player about an hour into the session as I found myself stuck about $300. I had called down a player on the river with 4th pair (and a 7 for my kicker), pretty much because he kept betting the river on several hands when no one was being aggressive, and I wanted to see with what types of hands he was doing this. He also had 4th pair, but his Ace kicker was certainly enough to win the pot. I lost a little over $100 in that pot, but I think that it may have helped me later in the session as the call down showed that at least someone was picking up on his river aggression.

I won a large pot in the middle of the session to get me back in to the black when I was able to call a middle position player's raise to $20 from the small blind with my pair of 2's. The flop was: J-8-2, and after the preflop raiser led out for $80 into the $65 pot and was called by the button, I decided to protect the bottom set with an all-in shove for a little over $300. I was insta-called by the preflop raiser, and the other player folded. My opponent held pocket Kings and called for the board to pair, which I was all for as it would give me a full house. The board bricked out and the pot got shipped my way. This put me up for the session.

I won a couple of other pots, including getting pocket Aces twice. On the first of the two pocket Aces hands I won the pot on the flop after getting two preflop callers when I raised from the small blind. The second time I was dealt them I got involved with the same player who was being aggressive at the river. In that hand I raised preflop to $30 and was called by him. The flop was: Q-9-x. I led out for $40, hoping that he hit the Queen and would raise me. He just called. Now his range of hands was all over the place, so I checked the turn after he had also checked. That appeared to puzzle him. He also checked the river, and I led for about half the pot (I bet $65). He thought about it for a while, but ultimately called and then mucked when I showed the Aces. He commented that the check at the turn had him a little confused, but it's also why I got paid off, too. He had planned on folding at the turn if I bet there, but he then thought that I might be trying to pull his maneuver after missing the board (or holding a weak pair).

I picked up one more nice pot from the player that took over in the seat where I had cracked the Kings. I had limped holding 6d-4d along with several other players when the flop came: K-3-3. Everyone checked, and I picked up an open-ended straight draw on the turn when a five came off there. The small blind bet $25 (about 2/3 the pot), and I called to see the river. It came a seven, and I was able to easily call the $75 bet at the river. I didn't raise because at the time I had about $1000, and he had about $800, and I didn't want to open the door for him to reraise and attempt to push me off my hand. Anytime the board is paired chasing the straight is dangerous so I was going to be happy if it was good there. It was as he had 6-3 for trip 3s.

That player and I got involved in one other pot. It started innocently enough when the Under-the-Gun player accidentally string bet his raise, and the dealer forced him to put out just the call amount. I was two to that player's left, so I decide to also call with the 4d-3d. Several other players also limped, and 7 of us got to see the flop. It came:

7-6-5 (two clubs)

This gave me the straight, albeit the sucker side of the straight. I'll take a flopped straight anytime, sucker or not. It was checked to me and I bet $25. Two players called. The turn was:

6

pairing the board. It was checked to me again, and this time I bet $60. The player in Seat 9, who was the player I beat with the straight earlier, check-raised me to $160. The other player got out of the way, and now it was a decision for me. That six on the turn was a horrible card. If my opponent was playing pocket 7s, pocket 6s (unlikely because its quads), pocket 5s, 7-6, or 6-5, the turn card just sealed up the hand for him. All of those hands are very possible to have limped with preflop and then flat called on the flop. He also could have 9-8 or 8-4 (unlikely, it's trash), in which case I was beat on the flop anyway, and I'm still dead now. The only hands I really thought I could be beating right now that he might have was A-6 or A-7, and I didn't think he'd check raise with A-7. He might check raise with A-6, but there are a lot more hands he'd check raise with from the other possible hands. I also started the hand with about $1200, and he had $900, and this pot was building quickly now. I mucked my hand face up. I wasn't expecting him to show, but he threw his hand in face up as well and he had 9-8 for the flopped nut straight. He probably had some worries about the 6 pairing the board, too, but the turn card definitely helped me escape there.

The session was a winning one, and I felt pretty good about the decisions I was making at the table. Hopefully my reads and decision-making will be this good later on in the week once I'm out in Vegas!

A Rush at Poto

2009-05-21T10:18:00.004-05:00

This past weekend a friend of mine and I decided to venture in to Potowatomi's casino just outside of downtown here. We had called to get our name on the No-Limit Hold 'em list prior to going there, and upon arriving we found that they had six tables going. We were told that we were about 16 down on the list, so we surmised that we had time to get something to eat. What the joker running the list didn't mention was that he had just opened that sixth table and 10-11 names were getting cleared off the list, so we were a little surprised to see the 30-person list at about 8 when we got back from eating, and along with that our names were no longer on the list.

Another "brilliant" thing they do there is that they don't give you a pager when you're on the list. Most casinos offer a pager so that you can go play other games, eat, etc., while waiting to get paged. Once paged you usually have about 10-15 minutes to get to the poker room to claim your seat. So, after getting our name on the list a second time, we decided to head downstairs to try our luck at PaiGow Poker for a little while.

If you aren't familiar with PaiGow Poker, it's a game where all the players play against one specific player, which could be the house dealer or another player at the table who might decide to "bank" against all the players for a hand. Everyone is dealt seven cards, and you have to make two hands, a 5-card hand and a 2-card hand. You can split up your hand however you'd like, the only stipulation is that your 5-card hand must be higher in poker rank than your 2-card hand. Once all the hands have been determined, you showdown. If you win both hands, you win your bet (less a 5% commission); if you lost both hands, you lose your bet, and if you split your bet is a push. There is also one joker in the deck. The joker can only be used as an Ace or to complete a straight or flush, so it's not a complete "wild" card. The game ususally involves a lot of pushes. In fact, when in Vegas, an easy way to get drunk cheap is to find a cheap PaiGow table and take all the free drinks :) I had an 11-hour session in Vegas once where I was down a whole $5 at PaiGow, but I was pretty damn liquored up by the time that session was over!

This session of PaiGow was not nearly so kind. In about 45 minutes, I didn't have one win. I got swept four times, and every other hand was a push. Not the ideal PaiGow session. That included getting swept when I had trip Kings in my 5-card hand with a pair of 2's to put in the two card hand (the dealer made a straight and a pair of Jacks). Yuck! This led to me being down about $100 by the time I got seated at the poker room. My friend wasn't nearly as lucky at PaiGow, being down about three bills at that table.

My friend got seated in the poker room first, and I was seated about 15 minutes after him. I don't know a lot of players that play at Poto since I don't play there all that often, but I recognized no one at my table, and my friend had also commented on the same thing (and he knows most of the regulars). The table seemed a bit passive, so I was able to lean on the table a little bit. In the first half hour I had picked up $150, only having to show down one hand (which I lost, but it was a strong hand). After another 30 minutes, I was up another $150. The hand which made most of the chips was one that I'll detail. I was dealt pocket Jacks (this happened to be the third time I got them in this hour). I hate Jacks. The other bad thing was that I was in the Under-the-Gun position. I'll do anything with Jacks. I might raise, I might limp, I could just flat call a raise, and depending on the action, I'll even fold them preflop [easy fold if Rock or Pete are playing and have raised before getting to me...sorry, guys, couldn't resist. :) ]. In this particular hand, I decided to limp with the intention of calling a single raise if one came up, but no one else raised, so six of us went to the flop. The flop was as good as it can be for Jacks:

Tx-7x-4x (three suits)

The blinds checked, and I led out for $25. I guessed I had the lead unless I was unfortunate enough to have allowed a blind to make two pair by giving them the free flop. Only two other players called and neither of them were the blinds. The turn card was a Queen. I led for $45, the player two to my left called, and then the button moved all in for his remaining $125. This left me in a little quandry. This would have been an easy call if the player to my left hadn't already called. It's only $80 more to me, and the pot is well worth the call at this point; but I want to shut the other player out of the pot. If I call and he is drawing to a straight or flush, he's easily got the pot odds. If I raise and he's been slow-playing me, I just gave him the rest of my stack as I'll be committed. The only thing I had going for me was the fact that when the third player moved all-in the player on my left made a noise/sigh that sort of sounded like he didn't like the raise. I was thinking about it for a minute when I decided the flat call was best. The other player went in to the think tank and even declared "This would have been easy if you hadn't called", which indicated to me in combination with his initial reaction to the raise that he would be folding here. He eventually folded, and the dealer dealt the river, which was a nine. The other player flipped up King-Ten, and I showed my Jacks to win the pot. The third player said he had Ace-Ten, and also said he'd have called if I didn't. I thought he made a great read to fold that there, although I think the river goes check-check if he calls on the turn, anyway. An interesting hand to be sure!

My buddy came over to my table a couple minutes later, telling me he had gotten busted on a King-high flush after flopping top pair and the flush draw when another player called him all the way to the river with the Ace-high flush draw, and they both got there on the river. Yuck! Since we had driven together and I could tell he wanted to leave I told him I'd play to my big blind and then leave. I usually don't like to announce this since all the other players now know I've got a limited number of hands left. Well, I was very surprised; I never lost a hand after making that little announcement! I'll give a brief synopsis of the hands:

dealt 7-7; preflop raise, two callers, one overcard on flop, lead out bet, everyone folds
dealt A-J; preflop raise, one caller, missed board, checked all the way, win showdown against A-4
dealt 9c-2c; just called preflop (playing the rush, not my normal play), flop the flush draw with an Ace on flop, bet it, everyone folds
dealt A-T; preflop call, hit the Ace on flop, bet and everyone folds
dealt Qd-Jd UTG; preflop call; the flop is Ten-high with one diamond, I check, player on left bets $25, there's another caller, I call with the intention of stealing on turn; the turn is Ad giving me both straight and flush draw, I check raise to $140 after a bet of $40 and a call, both players fold to check raise

Since the QJ was my last hand before the big blind and I was leaving, I showed the semi-bluff. That got some groans, and I'm sure it left them wondering how they might have been sitting in some of those other hands. I just couldn't believe how that table was playing! It was a fun little rush, and my buddy was getting to enjoy it a little as he got to see my hole cards to sort of play along. The Poto experience ended up being profitable as I got my PaiGow losses back and then some! Once again, just trying to slowly finish building that bankroll for the 2009 WSOP!!!

Action 'o Plenty at Casino Rama!

2009-05-19T15:23:00.004-05:00

For work this past week I was traveling to a small town a couple hours north of Toronto, Ontario, called Bracebridge. My flight was leaving Monday morning at 7:25am. When I woke and looked at the clock I was very surprised to see that it was 6:35am. I think my exact words were "Son of a .....!!". I'm pretty good about getting up for early flights. In five years of traveling for work this was the first time I had ever woke up late for a flight, and on that Monday, it was going to take a small miracle for me to make that flight in 50 minutes. I live about 15-20 minutes from the airport, so I quickly brushed my teeth, threw my luggage in my vehicle, and started to make my way there. I called the airline, and of course, the flight is right on time! I can't tell you the number of times I've had my Monday morning flights delayed, and the one time I actually need to have it be delayed it's going off right on schedule. Awesome!

I could waste the whole blog post detailing how I made the flight, but I won't do that. I made the flight (Woo Hoo!) and I was off to Toronto. After landing I picked up my rental and started driving north. I was able to get the facility where I'd be working set up with the help of one of the participants and I was relaxing at my hotel when I decided that maybe I should try and see what the poker room was like at the casino that was about 50 kilometers south of Bracebridge.

The poker room at Casino Rama has 14 tables, and 7 of them were in use. There were two $1/$2 No Limit Texas Hold 'em games, and three $2/$5 No Limit Texas Hold 'em games. The other two tables were being used for Limit Texas Hold 'em. I was able to lock up one of the seats at the $1/$2 game, and I went to the window to convert some U.S. Dollars to Canadian Dollars and then purchase casino chips. They gave me $224 Canadian for the $200 I wanted to exchange, and told me that I had 12 hours, but if I wanted to I could purchase the $200 US back at the same rate, which I thought was nice.

I sat down at the 11-handed table, and found myself at a table where it seemed like no less than 4 players were seeing a flop. When the table is that loose, I often find myself tightening things up and just waiting for decent hands, and then trying to force the action in to a heads up scenario. The plan was working, and within an hour I had worked my stack up from the $200 buy-in to about $350. It was at this point that a very interesting hand came up that involved two of the larger stacks at the table. The one player was two seats to my right, and had a little over $800 in chips. She appeared to be a regular, and from the play I had seen to that point was also pretty decent, getting her chips in to the middle with the goods. The other player was three seats to my left. He had about $550 in chips, and had hardly played any hands while I was there. I don't recall all the preflop action since I had folded, but there was a raise and at least the one call. The flop was:

Kx - Jh - 7h

The woman on my right led out with a less-than-pot-sized bet, and the player on my left made a minimum raise, which was called by the woman on my right. The turn was:

Kx (I only put 'x' because I don't recall the suit, and it didn't matter for the purposes of retelling this story)

Both players checked the turn, which I thought was odd, unless one of them had made a huge hand with that turn card. The river was:

9h

At this point, the woman on my right led out for about 1/3 of the pot. The other player made a slightly-larger-than-minimum raise, and the woman made a minimum raise after that. The player to my left didn't think long and moved all in, which was immediately called by the woman to my right. Before the cards were turned over I knew that at least one full house was in play (I thought the hands were going to be K-J and J-J given the way the action had occurred). In fact, the player on my left had K-J for the top full house. The woman turned over the Th-8h for a rivered straight flush!! Zowie! Talk about your bad spots to be in with the 2nd nuts! It really sucked for the K-J, since he knew that quads weren't in play because he held one King. To be perfectly honest, had I been in that player's shoes I lose all my chips there, too. I'm sure he checked the turn figuring that he had a lock on the hand (as I would have guessed, too). It was just a horrible river card for that guy. I was just glad to see those chips moving to my right, as I hoped to get a shot at them later (which I did). The action all makes sense if you look at it. The losing player flops top two pair, so he makes a minimum raise, but the player who won had both the straight and flush draw along with the straight flush draw, so the min-raise is an easy call on the flop. With the turn going check-check, it was just unfortunate, or fortunate depending on your point of view, that the river brought the card it brought. Oh, well...that's poker.

A short while later, I managed to pick off a decent pot against that woman. It was appearing as though she was using her stack to bully players at the table. I found myself holding As-4s and I limped for $2, and then called her raise to $12 with the hand. The flop was:

Ks-9x-4x

She led out with a bet, and although I'm not a big fan of playing bottom pair I did think that this bet could have been anything, including just a standard continuation bet so I decided to call the $21. The turn card was an Ace, giving me top and bottom pair. She led out for $40, which I flat called. The river was an apparent blank, so when she led out for $75 on the river I also just flat called. You might ask why I didn't raise, and what it boiled down to was the fact that she hadn't shown down a bad hand yet, and if I raise the river and she then sets me all in, I don't know if I could have called with top and bottom pair on a full board. Her image was such that I would have to respect her shown down hands, and she had enough chips to set me in without it being much damage to her own stack. My hand was good as it turned out because of the turned Ace. She had flopped the King and I sucked out on her.

I grabbed a bite to eat at the sports bar at the casino, and after coming back I requested to get moved to the $2/$5 game. I had just under $600, and was informed when I got moved over that I could only buy in for $500, so I had to pocket a couple chips. Things weren't going so well for me over at the new game as I was one of the shorter stacks, but after losing a couple pots early and then flopping a flush with Ah-Qh(and getting bet at on the river) to recover some of what I had lost, a new player sat down which was going to turn out to be the guy who I wanted to play against. The player was very aggressive, attempting to take down pots with pure aggression. His stack jumped early, and was able to bully a player or two, and while he was doing this he was showing his trash hands that were missing the board. I got involved in one pot with him with A-8suited, flopped the top pair (the 8), but the board was all hearts, and I was eventually pushed off my hand at the turn. He didn't show that hand, but that was OK with me. I almost didn't want to know.

My second, and last, pot with him started with me being dealt Kh-Jh. The aggressive player had raised to $25, and I called with my speculative hand. The flop was pretty decent for my hand:

Jx-8d-4d (two diamonds)

He led out for $40, and I raised to $100, figuring if he had air he would just let it go. He called, so I guessed he had some piece of the board. The turn card was under the Jack and not a diamond. He checked and I, wanting to control the pot a little bit, also checked. If I made my standard bet here of somewhere between 1/2 the pot and the pot, I thought he would call anyway, and then the pot would be so large by the river I could be very easily looking at betting or calling my whole stack. This player had made that play on the river against two other players in pots and shown bluffs when they folded, so I wanted to keep the pot manageable so I could call a decent river bet if it wasn't an over bet. I had already made the decision that I was going to call the river no matter what if it wasn't an Ace or diamond. Well, the river was the Jack of diamonds, giving me trips, but putting the flush in play. My opponent led out for $175, which was a sizeable bet, but it was small enough for me to call with my trips. I did think about it for a minute, and I was thankful that I hadn't bet the turn, since if I did and he had called there, I knew that he would have been betting my whole stack here instead of the $175. I called and waited for him to show his hand, and he turned over the Tx-7x for a missed gutshot straight draw. It was a healthy pot to rake in! That player busted shortly thereafter (on a complete bluff), and left to get some more cash. I was informed by some regulars at the table that he was a local fireman that had won a million dollars in a lottery/contest. I guess he just likes to play poker. Good for him!

I waited for him to come back for about half an hour, but he didn't return, and it was starting to approach midnight, and I had about a 30-minute drive back to Bracebridge, so I called it a night. I exchanged $224 of my Canadian money for my $200 US dollars, and still had $555 Canadian to cashout. Pretty nice considering I'm trying to build the bankroll for the 2009 World Series of Poker in a little over a week!

Maybe There is a Pot 'O Gold At the End of the Rainbow

2009-04-21T23:08:00.003-05:00

Work sent me off to Iowa City this week, and lo and behold, they've got a casino nearby. The Riverside Casino and Resort played host to a poker session for me later on Monday. The drive to Iowa City was slightly miserable as it was raining off and on. The casino is located about 20 miles south of Iowa City, and as I drove there later in the afternoon the rain was just finishing blowing through and the sun had come out. As I was heading south and came over the crest of the hill that was just west of the casino, I looked to my left, and you wouldn't believe it, a spectacular rainbow was just appearing. It was very bright, and I had to laugh because it appeared from my view where I was at that moment that the rainbow was coming down right in to the casino. I tried to get a pic with my cell phone camera, but it didn't seem to show up that well on the cell phone and trying to do that while driving was proving somewhat difficult. I was extremely disappointed about that; however, I did take it as a sign that maybe my "pot of gold" was waiting for me at the casino! Yee Haw!

The poker room at The Riverside has 14 tables. Of those, three were being used. They had a $3/$6 Texas Hold 'em Limit game, a $5/$5 Omaha game, and a $2/$5 No Limit Texas Hold 'em game going. I got my name on the list for the $2/$5 No Limit game and decided to spend my time waiting by playing craps. The buy-in range for the No-Limit game was $100-$500, so I plopped down $200 at craps in the hopes of making a quick score so I could buy in for the max at the Hold 'em game. My luck at the dice was my typical luck at craps, though, and when I got called for poker, I had to pull another $100 out just so that I'd have $265 to sit down with at the poker game.

As I sat down the first hand being played out had a board of 9-8-7 for a flop, and two players were getting some large bets in to the pot. The turn brought a 7, and when the river put out a 6 both players got their stacks in the middle....One player had 7-8 for a full house, 7s full of 8s, and the other player had 9-9 for a higher full house, 9s full of 7s....Yikes!!! I was watching the player who won the hand while he raked in his chips, and I noticed that he had about $2000 sitting in front of him. There were a couple of other players that were above $800, but this guy had a huge stack, and for the next hour I watched him hit just about everybody with it. He was getting cards though, and what made it worse was that some of the medium stacks at the table were getting hands that you just couldn't get away from. The owner of the big stack was named Archie, and man, Archie was killin' us. He made a set of 9s when someone else had AK and hit the Ace on the flop. He flopped a straight when someone else flopped a set. He turned the nut flush after another player flopped middle set. It was unreal. Lucky for me, Archie was three seats to my right, so I had position on him.

The guy on Archie's right couldn't catch a break. He hit a set of Jacks just to watch someone make a flush, then had two consecutive overpairs cracked by underpairs. I felt a little bad for him, especially since it wasn't me doing the crackin'!!

My big hand of the evening came after I was up a little bit. The table was generally loose, so I just decided to play my normal tight game. In this hand I thought that I was playing it brilliantly, then during the hand I was cursing myself for my idiotic play. It was one of those hands. The hand began by the player on my right opening the pot with a bet of $15. He was in early position and the bet seemed small since most opening bets were in the $25-$35 range, and when I looked at his stack I noticed that he had about $70 left after his raise. I looked down and found myself holding pocket Aces. I breifly thought about it, grabbed some chips that I knew would be a raise, and sent them in to the pot for a near-min-raise to $30. I did this by design. I had surmised that the short stack was going to put his stack in the middle. I also guessed that I would possibly get one of the middle or late players to maybe call the $30, then when it got back to the short stack he would shove for his $70, and then I could re-shove with a big bet, trapping the middle and/or late players calls (if they indeed called). Well, one player in mid-position called, and Archie, who was in the small blind, also called. Unfortunately, the player on my right didn't shove...he just called!! Personally, I thought this was a mistake on his part as he now had $30 of his $85 in the pot preflop. Nonetheless, I was now cursing, since instead of playing Aces heads up in decent pot, I was now playing Aces in a 4-way pot with the biggest stack at the table.

The flop was: 9-7-2 - rainbow. I was about as happy as I could be with that flop. Archie checked, and then the short stack shoved for his stack...ugh...do that before the flop. I thought about reraising, but if I do that and either player remaining comes over the top, do I just reshove and hope that they have the overpair that's under me? Or am I up against that dreaded set that I could easily see anyone playing the way the hand went so far....Hmmmm....what to do....Well, I decided to just call. I didn't think either player would call unless they had something, and guess what, they both called! Now, I was cursing myself. The turn was a King. Archie checked. I now was running out of chips to put in the pot, and I decided to just shove here. I was insta-called by the guy behind me, and Archie was thinking about it...for a l-o-n-g time. He eventually folded, and the short stack showed 8-8 for an underpair, and the insta-call was from someone who hit with his Ace-King. That meant the whole pot was getting shipped my way. It was a nice result, but I felt that I got lucky there. Granted, the pot ended up being much larger than what I was originally planning, but playing Aces against three other players is just asking to get yourself stacked off, especially when I had the opportunity to isolate. I was still a little miffed that the short stack didn't reshove, since that was part of my plan, but I guess I forgot to tell him that part.

I did have one other hand where I got sort of lucky when, after an hour of nothing but folding and having multiple players point it out, I decided to raise to $35 preflop with 7s-6s in an effort to pick up the blinds and two limpers, then after one call from the small blind I hit middle pair on the 9-7-4 flop, turned another 7, and then filled up on the river with a 6. I was betting the whole way, and got paid off by someone who just assumed I was trying to buy the pot while holding AK or AQ. He did hit either the 9 on the flop, or had pocket Tens, but I got very lucky in that hand, and it didn't go unnoticed that I raised preflop with the 7-6, either.

It was a very good session, and I was able to walk out of the Riverside Casino with my little pot 'o gold!

Sometimes, Even the Best Laid Plans...

2009-03-29T10:15:00.002-05:00

In Texas Hold 'em, I think everyone loves to get dealt pocket Aces. They look so nice when you first see them, knowing that you have the best hand at that moment. Then comes the next moment, when you have to decide how to play them. You want to win a lot of chips/money with them, but you also know that you can lose a lot of chips because you're going to be more willing to put a lot of chips in to a pot when holding Aces.

Sometimes, the decisions are easy with Aces. If you are short stacked, or if an opponent moves all in before you preflop, making the decision to call is automatic and no real thought is required. Other times, when you're not short-stacked you might raise and no one calls making things very easy, although maybe not as profitable as one would like. Then there are those times when you've got some tougher decisions. Up until you see a flop you know where you stand because, after all, you've got Aces and you know you're in the lead. After the flop is when the fun begins with Aces. Once again, sometimes it will be easy because you'll hit an Ace to make a set of Aces, but more often than not you won't so you'll be put in that situation of "What do I do with this great hand now?" and that's where it gets interesting.

I had one of those situations very recently in a tournament I was playing and I thought I'd go over it here. I was in the Big Blind with a stack of about 3400 and blinds at 100/200. There were six players left in the tournament. An opponent in early position had raised it to 500. That opponent had approximately the same amount of chips as myself. The player on the button, we'll call him naD because I don't want to use real names here, had a stack of about 9000 to 10000 chips and decided to call the 500. The small blind folded and I looked down and saw Aces. I could have just shoved for all my chips, but I was pretty sure that both players would fold and I was hoping to get a call out of one of the two players, preferrably naD because his decision to call instead of reraising had already indicated that his hand wasn't super strong. I decided to reraise and made it 1450 to go. If the first raiser had raised with a very strong hand he was going to reraise all in anyway and naD would then get out of the way and I'd get it all in. If the first raiser didn't have a strong hand he'd fold, and then naD would have a decision to make. Well, the first raiser folds, and then naD decided to call, so I got the scenario I was looking to get. The flop came:

Q T 7 (2 clubs, 1 spade; or 1 club, 2 spades, I don't remember which)

Now, there are a couple of scenarios that are going to be possible here as far as naD's hand is concerned:

Scenario #1: He's hit this hard. Possibly two pair with Q-T, maybe a set of Ts or a set of 7s, or maybe A-Q for top pair top kicker. A set of Qs seems unlikely as we probably would have gotten it in preflop. If he's hit it this hard, he's going to get his chips in the pot no matter what I do.
Scenario #2: He's semi-connected with the board. Maybe he played KQ, QJ, AT, KT, JT, or something else that has given him either top pair with a medium kicker or second pair. He also may have a straight or flush draw.
Scenario #3: He's completely missed with a hand like A-K or A-J, or he has a pair less than Tens that hasn't connected with the board. Considering my reraise this board is a whiff for him in those situations. If he's got AK or AJ he does have a gutshot straight draw, though.

Because I'm the big blind I have to act first. I thought about it for a minute. My options are pretty much going all in or to check it to naD. Running through it in my head, if I move all in and he's got Scenario #1 he's calling 100% of the time and I need to get lucky. If he's got Scenario #2, he might call, depending on his hand in the range. I would guess he would call about 60-75% of the time because he's got possibly the best hand and he can afford the chips. He might fold, though, and I don't want that either, because I'm the favorite and I want those chips in the middle. If he's got Scenario #3, he's probably not calling if I go all in. He might call with AK or maybe with a lower pair if he thinks I'm bluffing, but I didn't think so, so let's say he calls 10% of the time here, in which case none of his chips are going in and what's in the pot is mine.

Now let's look at those same scenarios if I check. If he's got Scenarios #1 or #2 and I check he's probably going to set me all in. He might check with Scenario #1, but considering the pot size and my stack I didn't think that the flop would go without any action. If he's got Scenario #3 he's going to check 90% of the time because he's whiffed, but he might take a stab because he can put pressure on me, and I really like my chances in that scenario, anyway.

Basically, I saw no upside in betting this flop since he'd be able to avoid getting his chips in the middle if he had Scenario #3 and he might fold with some hands that are part of Scenario #2's range of hands. If he's got Scenario #1 I'm dead no matter how you look at it, and I was willing to accept the risk that he didn't out-flop me there. If I check, he's getting his chips in the middle with Scenario #2, and maybe, although chances are slim, with Scenario #3. In both of those situations I'm in the lead and the chips are in the pot.

After all that thought I decided to check. With the action on naD and the pot at 3500, he set me all in for the 1950 I had remaining, as expected, and I called. He tabled J-9, giving him the open-ended straight draw and about a 35% chance to win. The turn card was an 8, giving naD the straight and the win since I was drawing dead going to the river. Sometimes, no matter how you draw it up, the cards just don't always cooperate. I thought it was an intersting hand and would share my thoughts about it with you here. Obviously, I don't enjoy losing, but I was glad that I worked the pot and my opponent in to the situation that I wanted with the hand that I had. I guess I should have just tried to take a small pot and moved all in preflop, right? Ha!

Jackpot at the State Tournament

2009-03-17T10:33:00.002-05:00

This past weekend I was at the State Bowling Tournament in Green Bay. Luckily, with the tournament being held in Green Bay, it's not so far to travel to get to Oneida's Mason Street Casino, which is where the poker room is in Green Bay. I arrived early Friday afternoon with the intention of sitting down for about a 3-4 hour session, then take a couple hour break back at the hotel, and then come back for a longer session in the evening. My session started on a downturn after I had my trip 10's get hammered by a flush in a large pot early, and then shortly after that got hit in a decent pot again when I flopped two pair (AK) on a single-suit board, only to get it all in with someone who had a lower two pair (A8), and then they hit their kicker (the 8) for the full house after we got it all in on the flop.

I started to make a comeback at the $1/$3 table, and had just about doubled up my rebuy when I was dealt a pair of Kings in late position. The player in the Under-the-Gun seat limped in to the pot, the player next to him had limped, one more player between that position and myself limped in to the pot, so when I saw KK I popped it up. I tried to pick an amount that would get one of the prior limpers to call, but not all of them, so I bet $25. The player that was under the gun was a very active player and I expected him to call with just about anything here. Well, he folds. The next player, who had been playing very well after the flop, decides to now raise to $95. That killed the other action and it was now back on me. Usually, when a player limps and then reraises from early position they have a VERY strong hand. It's actually not that unusual to see pocket Aces in that situation. The one thing I thought was odd here, though, was the fact that someone else had already limped. Usually when this limp-reraise play is made there is no other action behind you. The idea is to induce a raise from someone else and then trap that raise in the pot with your reraise. With the other limp in front of him I really didn't put him on Aces, but I was pretty sure he must have something big to try and pull this play. I had about $375 in front of me when the hand began, so if I were to reraise I would probably make it about $250 to go. If I'm putting in $250 of my $375, the rest is going in on the flop regardless of what hits the board, so I might as well bet the whole thing, right? The only thing I didn't want to hear was the automatic "I call". So, after I declared myself "All In!" (that's for you Stretch and Buck) I was very happy to hear absolutely nothing out of my opponent, as that meant he didn't have Aces. Well, at that moment, another table started going beserk about something. It turns out that over at the $3/$6 Limit table someone had lost with quad Jacks to a King-high straight flush. The Oneida Poker Room has a Bad Beat Jackpot, and it turns out that it hit because in order to qualify you have to lose with quads. The jackpot was at just over $67,000. I couldn't get up and personally check it out though as I was still involved in a hand at the moment. My opponent thought and thought and finally called. Now, at the cash game you don't need to show, but I don't play that way so I turned over the Kings, and he showed his Queens. My Kings held up and I won a very nice pot.

What I couldn't figure out, though, was why the whole room was going nuts over the bad beat. Everyone was high-fiving each other. I finally asked what was up, and the player on my left informed me that a portion of the jackpot goes to the players in the room. Apparently, Oneida splits the jackpot like this: 40% goes to the loser of the hand, 20% goes to the winner of the hand, 20% is split among the other players at the table dealt in to the hand, and 20% is split amongst the rest of the poker players in the room that had been dealt a hand at the time it happened. At every other casino poker room I've been to with a Bad Beat Jackpot, the split is usually 50% to the loser, 25% to the winner, 20% to the rest of the table, and 5% to reseed the Jackpot. As it turned out, each player in the room that wasn't at the table where the bad beat occurred received $308. Not bad for just being in the room at the time! It took about two hours to process paying out the Jackpot. Everyone, and I mean everyone, got paid in chips, so there were quite a number of chips that had to be paid out to players. I felt very bad for one individual who had left the $3/$6 Limit table to go to the bathroom and wasn't dealt a hand, as he didn't receive anything. The rest of the players at the table got a little over $2300 each. That is one expensive bathroom break!

As far as my poker for the rest of the weekend, it was pretty uneventful. After receiving my room share of the Jackpot I took my break, and my evening session ended up being a $1 loss. I was profitable up until, in the last orbit, I got KK and someone else got AA. I lost most of my profit for the session in that hand, and then lost another small pot to be $1 down for the session. I was planning on being done for the weekend, but a played a couple hours late on Saturday and had a small losing session to the tune of $41. In that session, I actually had AA against someone else's KK, but I had already lost some chips so when I doubled up that hand it didn't get me to the profitable side. I can't really complain about the poker this weekend, though, as that first session on Friday was very profitable.

On the bowling side of things, it was a pretty uneventful state tournament for me. No real good series to report. I had a couple good games here and there, but never put together a good series. A couple of people I was bowling with put together some good numbers, and one bowler of that group in particular, Iggy, put together one of the best, if not the best, 9-game series I've seen at State Tournament. He had series of 730, 737, and 648 (I think, it may have been a couple pins higher/lower), for a 9-game total of 2115. An excllent score for all-events, and just great bowling all weekend by him. Of course, if those houses weren't lefty houses it might have been a different story....just kidding, Iggy. It was very impressive.

CCPL welcomes the United Nations!

2009-03-13T19:15:00.007-05:00

The Cream City Poker League's 5th Circuit Event was definitely a unique event. Thank you again to the Mark and Anne for hosting, and for inviting the "United Nations" to be present. The taco bar was awesome! Foreign beer was provided as well (another Red Stripe, anyone?) Among those in attendance that represented the United Nations were:

Mike "The Shiek" , with can of Oil
Dan "Ruske" (loved the CCCP shirt...almost the CCPL!)
Jeff "El Sombrero" (if you didn't stay or weren't there, the beard was on through the WHOLE game)
Adam "The Mick"
Mark "JamaicaMan Raymer"
Rock and Pete "Dos Gringos" (although I don't think it qualifies as a costume for the evening)
Anne "de Brazil"

I've posted a slideshow of pics here for you to see them in costume:

Filling in for the "Secretary-General" this evening, I had a good time running the event and everything went smoothly. I had plenty of assistance when needed. Unfortunately, my results weren't so good, but there's always another game another day, right?

To provide a quick summary, the game had 13 participants. Mark and Anne had also gotten some Chinese fortune cookies that were placed with the player's chip stacks when they got to their seats so players were able to get their lucky numbers for the evening. There was no bad beat jackpot for the evening, but I didn't hear any uproar of anyone who would have hit it, although Angie did make quad 6s early in the event, but I didn't have a qualifying hand to go with my donation to that pot. The bounties landed on two of the ladies present, Jen and Angie (who has been "blessed" with the bounty every time she's played [lucky her!]). There were three rebuys during the first three levels (and almost a fourth; shoulda called there Pete, your fortune told you that you could!!) It was a long game, extending in to Sunday for the first time in a while...

The official results with updated stats and points will be provided by the Secretary-General when he is back from his state visit to Mexico, but for now the unofficial results are as follows (only those winning money):

4th - The Ruske (earned $33 for knocking out Angie)
3rd - JamaicaMan Raymer (earned $60)
2nd - El Sombrero (earned $95)
1st - Jen (earned $180 for 1st and $32 in elimating bounty hunters!!)

...and the wrap-up pics:

Congrats to all the cashers and to Jen for earning a seat to the Tournament of Champions. I think fun was had by all. I took 9th, but still had a good time as usual.

For a taste of your whiskey, I'll give you some advice...

2009-02-01T19:20:00.011-06:00

Anyone who plays poker knows about tells. Some are very obvious, others not so much. You also might think that when, or if, you play online that you can't possibly have a tell because no one can see you while you're playing poker. That simply isn't true. Betting patterns also produce tells, and there are many of those that you can pick up if you pay close enough attention online. I was playing online this past week when I ran into a player at a table that displayed a "tell" and I was able to take advantage of that tell in a couple of hands.

Before I go in to too much detail about the two hands I just want you to know that there are lots of tells you can pick up from online players' betting patterns. I'm not going to produce a list of all the ones I've come across, but a couple of my favorites are:

Betting the "odd' chips off of your stack. In online play, there is never a need to round chips up during a tournament or at a cash game, and ties will happen or people will bet unusual amounts causing players to have unusual amounts in their stacks (e.g. 13782 chips insted of 13700 or 13800, or $143.75 instead of $140 or $145). Sometimes I'll see a player bet the "odd" amount. Using the numbers in my example, a player bets 782 (or 1782 or 2782...you get the idea) of his 13782. When a player does this they are almost always willing to throw their hand away if they face significant resistance. They're telling you that "I'll bet these odd chips, and if I win, great, but if you play back at me I don't really need these odd chips". I've taken several pots away from players when I was holding absolutely nothing because they've bet the "odd" chips at me.

The long pause. In online play you have a set amount of time to make a decision, and after part of that time has elapsed a timer usual counts down your remaining time. Sometimes players will let their timer run down and then raise near the end of the time. This almost always means that they have a strong hand. The player is trying to give the illusion as though they are thinking about it because they're unsure of their hand, but they usually have a very strong hand. Think about it...you're unsure what you're going to do so you think about it, and then you decide to raise? If you were really, truly unsure of the strength of your hand most people aren't coming out raising. If I'm that unsure, I'm usually folding, or maybe calling. Now, this tell isn't 100% foolproof, as the delay can because of other factors such as a bad internet connection or playing multiple tables, but I've seen this "tell" produce accurate results for the most part.

To set up the scenario for these two hands, I had observed this Villain while playing against him online. He had a large stack at the table, and was using his stack to bully players (which is something you should do). His "tell" was when he would bet exactly what his opponent had in their stack. The first time he did this his opponent called him, and he was on a complete bluff. He then did it a second time and his opponent didn't call, but in that hand I had folded what would have been the nut hand, so although it wasn't aboslutely certain he was bluffing I was somewhat confident that he was bluffing the second time, too. Part of the reason I noticed this was because it is direct contradiction with what I've run into with some of the "regulars" that do this exact thing at the stakes I play. Normally what I've observed is that when a player bets to "set you all in" it is usually a sign of confidence. Not with this guy! That's why I noticed it so quickly I think. That brings me to the hands where I got involved with him. Something else to note about this player was that he was getting involved in about 40-45% of the hands. At these stakes, most "loose" players might get involved in about 27-35% of hands, so this player was also very loose in his starting hand selection. OK...got all that? Here we go:

Full Tilt Poker Table Padre Field - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:30:10 ET - 2009/01/30
Seat 1: Hero / Button ($141)
Seat 2: Player Seat 2 ($74)
Seat 3: Player Seat 3 ($400), is sitting out
Seat 4: Small Blind / Player Seat 4 ($557)
Seat 5: Big Blind / Player Seat 5 ($556.10)
Seat 6: Player Seat 6 ($70)
Seat 7: Player Seat 7 ($400)
Seat 8: Player Seat 8 ($406)
Seat 9: Villain ($997.10)
Player Seat 4 posts the small blind of $2
Player Seat 5 posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [5d 4d] [A "not so bad" hand. At least I'm on the button. Let's see the action.]
Player Seat 6 folds
Player Seat 7 folds
Player Seat 8 folds
Villain raises to $9
Hero calls $9 [Well, I've got position, and it's only the really loose guy in the hand right now. I decided to call.]
Small Blind / Player Seat 4 folds
Player Seat 5 folds
*** FLOP *** [8d 6c Js]
Villain bets $33
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero calls $33 [This may appear like a loose call, but because this guy is so loose I have a decent chance of getting paid if I hit the straight. I was 99% certain I was behind at this point.]
*** TURN *** [8d 6c Js] [5s] [interesting turn card! It's only bottom pair, but I've picked up a couple more outs to improve my hand!]
Villain bets $99
Hero has 15 seconds left to act [He bet exactly what I had left. Based on what he did earlier I thought he might be bluffing. I don't like calling almost $100 with bottom pair but even if I'm wrong, I have the remaining 5's and 4's to improve my hand along with a 7 to make a straight, so I decided to call.]
Hero calls $99, and is all in
Villain shows [Kc Th] [Yee Haw!! Gotcha! The tell is dead on! Now I just have to fade the three Kings and three Tens]
Hero shows [5d 4d]
*** RIVER *** [8d 6c Js 5s] [5c]
Villain shows a pair of Fives
Hero shows three of a kind, Fives
Hero wins the pot ($285) with three of a kind, Fives
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $288 Rake $3
Board: [8d 6c Js 5s 5c]
Seat 1: Hero (button) showed [5d 4d] and won ($285) with three of a kind, Fives
Seat 2: Player Seat 2 is sitting out
Seat 3: Player Seat 3 is sitting out
Seat 4: Small Blind / Player Seat 4 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Player Seat 5 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Player Seat 6 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: Player Seat 7 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: Player Seat 8 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: Villain showed [Kc Th] and lost with a pair of Fives

So I did very well that hand. Unfortunately, before my next big hand with this guy I got involved with pocket Kings against someone else's pocket Queens in a hand where the flop put out a Queen, so I lost a significant amount of my stack. Then, about 30 minutes after the above hand occurred:

Full Tilt Poker Table Padre Field - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:03:44 ET - 2009/01/31
Seat 1: Hero ($167)
Seat 2: Small Blind / Player Seat 2 ($76)
Seat 3: Big Blind / Player Seat 3 ($406.70)
Seat 4: Player Seat 4 ($515)
Seat 5: Player Seat 5 ($1,053.20), is sitting out
Seat 6: Player Seat 6 ($644)
Seat 7: Player Seat 7 ($143)
Seat 8: Player Seat 8 ($94)
Seat 9: Villain ($506)
Small Blind / Player Seat 2 posts the small blind of $2
Big Blind / Player Seat 3 posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Qs Qd] [Nice! A big starting hand!]
Player Seat 4 folds
Player Seat 6 folds
Player Seat 7 folds
Player Seat 8 folds
Villain has 15 seconds left to act
Villain raises to $15
Hero calls $15 [The Villain had been just calling a lot of reraises. I didn't want to shove my whole stack because he probably wouldn't call unless he had a monster himself. If I had reraised I knew he would call anyway so I didn't think I would be learning anything by reraising since I'd still have to deal with him after the flop.]
Small Blind / Player Seat 2 folds
Big Blind / Player Seat 3 folds
*** FLOP *** [8h Ad 7d] [Ugh! That lousy Ace had to hit the board, didn't it?!?]
Villain has 15 seconds left to act
Villain bets $152
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero has requested TIME [Well, I was going to consider folding if he had made a pot-sized bet, but since the pot was only $34, this is a huge overbet. Also, the $152 he has bet just happens to be exactly what I have left. This is tough...I mean, even a bad player is going to hit a hand every now and then. I thought a little bit about it more than I usually do (I usually don't request TIME when playing online), and after some thought, I decided to call going with the line of thinking that his bet (the "tell") could be a bluff...again. Even if I'm wrong, I got the backdoor flush draw with my Queen of diamonds...right? (that's a joke...well...sort of...really...)]
Hero calls $152, and is all in
Villain shows [Kc Tc] [Wow. I can't believe this guy keeps bluffing in the same style and as often as he does. WOW...WOW!]
Hero shows [Qs Qd]
*** TURN *** [8h Ad 7d] [8c]
*** RIVER *** [8h Ad 7d 8c] [Jd]
Villain shows a pair of Eights
Hero shows two pair, Queens and Eights [Woo Hoo! I fade the Kings and pick up a nice pot...again!]
Hero wins the pot ($337) with two pair, Queens and Eights
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $340 Rake $3
Board: [8h Ad 7d 8c Jd]
Seat 1: Hero (button) showed [Qs Qd] and won ($337) with two pair, Queens and Eights
Seat 2: Small Blind / Player Seat 2 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: Big Blind / Player Seat 3 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: Player Seat 4 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: Player Seat 5 is sitting out
Seat 6: Player Seat 6 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: Player Seat 7 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: Player Seat 8 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: Villain showed [Kc Tc] and lost with a pair of Eights

The Villain ended up going near broke about 15 minutes later when he tried the EXACT same play against the player in Seat 4, who happens to be an excellent player that I play with quite often at these stakes. In that hand on the turn the Villain bet $524 into the player in Seat 4. It was exactly what that player had, but this time the player in Seat 4 had an easy decision as the turn card had given him the 2nd nut flush. There was no reason to sit at that table after that since the money had be redistributed to either myself or players that I didn't really think I'd be able to get it out of so I called it a night shortly after that.

So, just because you're playing online, don't think that you don't have tells. Your betting patterns produce tells. Mix it up a little...unless you're at my table, then just keep the bets consistent and decipherable.

Also, for those that have their speakers on and are picking up the music I'm now adding to the blog, I'm trying to keep the music appropriate for the post, but as I did a search for "poker" in the music library online I came across something by "Foamy the Squirrel", and as you know, since the Squirrel is one of the readers of the blog I had to put it in the playlist. That one's for you, Squirrel. It doesn't sound like her in the playlist, but I'll bet it's what she's thinking sometimes...

Brrr...it's too cold to go outside, so...

2009-01-20T21:59:00.007-06:00

...I may as well play some poker, and share a couple of hands with you! It has been a little chilly outside (one day it was -16F/-27C with windchills in the -40F to -45F range). The online poker tables weren't nearly so cold to me, though. In fact, I've been running very well online lately. The two hands I'm going to post for you here have nothing to do with any skill on my part though. I thought I'd put these hands here because all too often I see people make this mistake...they give the blinds a free look at the flop. Now, if you happen to be giving ME a free look at the flop I still encourage you to do this. Don't change they way you play just because of this post. I like to see flops. In fact, every now and then I'll even give the blinds a free look at the flop, but when I do that, I'm also willing to throw my hand away if the situation warrants it.

The first hand of the two I'm going to post is one I probably wouldn't have gotten away from myself if the situations had been reversed, but I'll be real honest, I wouldn't have just limped with what the villain limped with, either. In the second hand of the two, you get to see what I would call "the perfect storm" of poker hands and draws. It's just insane!

I've changed the names of the players to "Hero" for myself, "Villain" for the opponent, and the other players are named "Player #" or by position, or both. For those of you that may not be familiar with some of the abbreviations or position names: UTG = Under the Gun, Button = Last to act after the flop, BB = Big Blind, SB = Small Blind, Cutoff = one position in front of the button, the Hijack = one position in front of the Cutoff. As usual, I will try to interject my "thoughts" as the hand progresses:

Full Tilt Poker Game Table Hollow Pine - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: Player 1 ($97.40)
Seat 2: the Hijack / Player 2 ($423)
Seat 3: Cutoff / Player 3($390)
Seat 4: Button / Player 4 ($400)
Seat 5: SB / Player 5 ($72)
Seat 6: BB / Hero ($72)
Seat 7: Player 6 ($98)
Seat 8: UTG / Player 7 ($364.90), is sitting out
Seat 9: Villain ($509)
Player 5 posts the small blind of $2
Hero posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Th 5h]
UTG folds
Villain calls $4
Everyone else but the Cutoff folds. The Cutoff also limps for the $4
Hero checks [The 5h Th isn't a great hand. I'd like to see a flop, please.]
*** FLOP *** [8h 7h Jh] [Yahtzee, baby! Even if by some miracle I'm losing, I've got a draw to the straight flush]
Hero bets $4 [The pot is only $14 right now. I'm hoping to entice someone who may have hit top pair to raise or call, and I don't want to scare them off with too big a bet.]
Villain raises to $14 [Doh! Got a live one, here!]
The Cutoff folds
Hero raises to $68, and is all in [Just in case he has a big heart, I want to give him the opportunity to fold here with a big bet as I don't want them drawing. If they already have me beat so be it. It's a 119 to 1 shot to flop a flush after all!!]
Villain calls $54
Hero shows [Th 5h]
Villain shows [Ah As] [Wow! I guessed the big heart, but not pocket rockets! Let's see if I can fade the 6 hearts that beat me (remember, the 9h gives me the straight flush)]
*** TURN *** [8h 7h Jh] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [8h 7h Jh Ts] [4s]
Hero shows a flush, Jack high
Villain shows a pair of Aces
Hero wins the pot ($147) with a flush, Jack high

If the villain raises preflop, there is a 0% chance that I call there. I won't call with T-5, suited or not, when facing a raise. I think he would have liked winning the blinds as opposed to doubling me up, which is what he did.

Here is the second hand. Once again, the names have been changed using some of the same abbreviations as before:

Full Tilt Poker: Table Padre Field - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: Button / Villain #3 ($257.60)
Seat 2: SB / Player 2 ($400)
Seat 3: BB / Hero ($74)
Seat 5: Player 3 ($415.70)
Seat 6: Player 4 ($503.60)
Seat 7: Player 5 ($58)
Seat 8: the Hijack / Villain #1 ($288.55)
Seat 9: Cutoff / Villain #2 ($235.85)
SB / Player 2 posts the small blind of $2
BB / Hero posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to BB / Hero [6d 3d]
Player 3 folds
Player 4 calls $4
Player 5 folds
the Hijack / Villain #1 calls $4
Cutoff / Villain #2 calls $4
Button / Villain #3 calls $4
SB / Player 2 folds
BB / Hero checks [I've got a bad hand with the 3d 6d. I'd like to see a flop, please.]
*** FLOP *** [5d 4h 2h] [Yahtzee!! I just flopped the nuts! I decided here that one of these players will probably bet at this flop. It was my plan to then check-raise and play the hand against that opponent heads-up or take it down right there.]
BB / Hero checks
Player 4 checks
the Hijack / Villain #1 checks
Cutoff / Villain #2 bets $12 [Aha! Here's my sucker!]
Button / Villain #3 calls $12 [Hmmm...I don't want to play this against two people, since at least one of them will be drawing to something like a flush or straight here]
BB / Hero has 15 seconds left to act [After briefly pondering my options, I decide to just shove and hopefully either the "squeeze" will get both players out or I'll probably be playing against just one of the two villains]
BB / Hero raises to $70, and is all in
Player 4 has 15 seconds left to act
Player 4 folds
the Hijack / Villain #1 has 15 seconds left to act
the Hijack / Villain #1 raises to $140 [????! This is a guy who limped preflop, and checked after the flop and is now re-reraising?!? This almost has to be a set or another player with 3-6. Geez, the 'ol limp-check-re-re-raise play...that's a new one...]
Cutoff / Villain #2 has 15 seconds left to act
Cutoff / Villain #2 has requested TIME
Cutoff / Villain #2 calls $128 [Ummm....helloooo....you've just been check-check-raise-reraised, and now you want to just flat call?!? I definitely do not like this. Although I've got the nuts right now, one of these two yahoos has to have a set, which means I need to avoid the board pairing, and if one of them has two hearts, I need to dodge all the hearts, too...yikes.]
Button / Villain #3 has 15 seconds left to act
Button / Villain #3 raises to $253.60, and is all in [O.K. Seriously. I've got the nuts. Not you. I am now firmly convinced that I'm going to be dead in this hand. Also, before any more action even occurs, I already know that no one is folding because the pot odds are too good for any hand at this point. Let's hope my straight holds up!]
the Hijack / Villain #1 raises to $284.55, and is all in [as expected.]
Cutoff / Villain #2 calls $91.85, and is all in [as expected.]
the Hijack / Villain #1 shows [2d 2s] [Well, here's a set. OK...don't pair the board!]
Cutoff / Villain #2 shows [6h 7h] [Wow. An open-ended straight draw along with a flush draw. Now along with the board not pairing, I need to see no hearts on the board or a 3 or an 8. That's a lot of cards to dodge]
Button / Villain #3 shows [Ah 8h] [Wow. The nut flush draw! At least that takes away two of the hearts, and also an 8. I'm holding a 3, so that's another card wiped out. OK...here we go!]
BB / Hero shows [6d 3d] [See?!? I have the nuts!]
Uncalled bet of $30.95 returned to the Hijack / Villain #1
*** TURN *** [5d 4h 2h] [Js] [Hooray!]
*** RIVER *** [5d 4h 2h Js] [Kd] [Hooray! Hooray!]
the Hijack / Villain #1 shows three of a kind, Twos
Button / Villain #3 shows Ace King high
the Hijack / Villain #1 wins side pot #2 ($43.50) with three of a kind, Twos
Cutoff / Villain #2 shows King Jack high
the Hijack / Villain #1 wins side pot #1 ($485.55) with three of a kind, Twos [I'd say Villain #1 cleaned up pretty nicely, all things considered...]
BB / Hero shows a straight, Six high
BB / Hero wins the main pot ($299) with a straight, Six high

Wow. Now that is the perfect storm of hands there. It's hard to believe that everyone could have hit as heavy of pieces of the flop as they did when it comes 5d 4h 2h, but hey, I guess that's poker. I was so intrigued by this hand that I was curious to see what the percentages were for winning the hand after the flop. Here they are:

Me: 28.41%
Button /Villain #3(nut flush draw): 20.98%
the Hijack / Villain #1 (set): 36.59%
Cutoff / Villain #2(open-ended str8, losing flush draw): 12.32%

I wasn't even the favorite to win after flopping the nuts! In fact, I was barely ahead of the guy with the nut flush draw...

the numbers get a little better after the turn:

Me: 50%
Button / Villain #3(nut flush draw): 12.5%
the Hijack / Villain #1 (set): 25%
Cutoff / Villain #2 (open-ended str8): 12.5%

At least I was a coin flip to win with one card to go. I'm very happy my hand held up to win. Just keep limping in on my blind, please. I like to see flops...

Bases Bay & CCPL Circuit Event #2

2008-12-01T12:54:00.004-06:00

The Thanksgiving weekend provided me with the chance to play live poker not just once, but twice as a friend of mine, Bass, had his annual Blackjack & Poker tournaments, and then on the following evening I was hosting the second Cream City Poker League circuit event at my place. Bass likes to refer to his "casino" as the Bases Bay Casino. I have yet to come up with a name of my "casino/poker room", so if anyone has suggestions please leave it in your comments...and yes, I'm serious.

I haven't played live poker in over a month. With the way my work schedule has had me shuffling I just haven't had time or the opportunity, so I was really looking forward to some action. Bass had his blackjack tournament first, and of the 30+ players I took 9th. Unfortunately, Bass was paying 8 players in the blackjack tournament...Doh! We ended up having about 40 players for the Texas Hold 'em portion of the evening. The tournament started at 8:30pm. I did very well early in the tournament, catching some big hands and getting paid for them, too. I made the final table, and I was probably 3rd in chips when we started the final table. I didn't get very many hands at the final table, though. I had enough chips and got just enough hands to keep me floating until we got to 4-handed play, and then I started to get short stacked. I managed to pick up a couple of pots, and eventually I was able to get heads up with Tim. Tim had a fantastic run at the final table, and even though we played 4-handed for what seemed like an hour, Tim propmptly knocked out Tesch (4th), Adam (3rd), and myself (2nd) all in about 10 minutes. The tournament wrapped up around 2:40am, so it was very long tournament, but it was a good time. Tim's final hand (A6) of two pair, Aces and Sixes, beat my hand, pocket Fives, in a classic race situation. Nice job, Tim!

The following evening I was participating in the second event of the Cream City Poker League (CCPL). I missed the first event while I was in London, so I was itching to play. I was almost too eager as I found myself down 750 chips out of the 2000 chips with which we started when I got a little over involved with 4th pair on a board of 5-6-8-3-K. Oops! I was able to double up a little later though when I the following hand played out between myself and Anne:

Me: 2-2 Anne: A-7 blinds 25/50 (3rd level) Me: approx 1450 chips Anne: approx 1600

I limped with my 2s, Anne limped along with me, and the blinds both called. The flop was: 7d-6c-2c, giving me the bottom set. The blinds checked, and so did I. Anne bet 150, the blinds folded, and I decided to call. Even though there was a potential flush draw out there, I don't always mind giving a card when I've got a set since there are so many outs to a full house or better, too. Well, the turn was almost a perfect card for me: 7c! This gave me the full house (2-2-2-7-7), and if Anne was playing the flush draw she just hit it on the turn. I checked again, and Anne bet 250. I would only have about 1000 left if I just called, so I decided to move all in for the remainder of my stack. Anne called with her trip 7s-Ace kicker, and I was fortunate to dodge any Aces, Sixes, or the remaining Seven to win the hand.

Play would continue through the evening. I wasn't doing a good job of keeping track of hands like I normally do since I was doing shots of cold Southern Comfort more often than needed when Adam decided that I should be doing them every time I voluntarily played a hand. We were all having a good time. I do remember the Pizza Delivery phone call prank that we played on Jim, the father of one of the players at the game. That was awesome! Very well done! I also remember seeing quad Kings during play (sorry, Igs) that was pretty impressive. Eventually, play got down to heads up play between myself and Ken. Ken got pocket Jacks when I got pocket 6s to double him up once, and then right after that I got pocket 6s again when Ken got Ace-King, and he hit the necessary card to eliminate me in second place...again! Two second place finishes in two days isn't bad.

There was one hand I did want to go over that I thought was kind of interesting. It took place between Jeff and one of the newcomers to the CCPL, Melissa. It was interesting in the way it played out and I had the opportunity to talk with Jeff about it during a break.

Jeff: KK Melissa: JJ blinds 10/15 (1st level) Jeff: approx 2000 chips Melissa: about same

These are two very big hands for seven-handed play. We started the tournament with 7 players at our table and that hadn't change here yet. Jeff raised preflop, and if I remember correctly, Melissa just called. The flop hit the board 9-x-y (I remember it was 9-high). Jeff bet, and Melissa called. The turn was either a 7 or 8. Jeff bet again, and Melissa called. The river put a T (10) out there, and now Jeff checked. Melissa bet, but her bet was only 150. With all the action up to this point the pot was about 700 or 800 chips. Jeff called, and showed his pair of Kings to Melissa's pair of Jacks. I commented at the time that the river check was interesting by Jeff. After discussing it with Jeff and thinking about it some more, I guess it wasn't the river check that was interesting as much as it was that the pot didn't get a lot larger earlier than it did. Had it been me with a 9-high flop, I probably would have done some more raising with the Jacks at the flop, which I think would have led to both players getting it all in on the flop or turn. However, once the whole board was put out, I guess the thing to keep in mind (and Jeff mentioned this, too) is that he only had a pair of Kings. The board did have at least one potential straight, and depending on what you put your opponent on for a hand, if they were playing connectors and had hit the flop, there was a decent chance that two pair could have been in play there, too. By checking you give yourself the opportunity to throw it away if the river bet is too much, but you can still call if your opponent value bets the river like what ended up happening. The other thing to keep in mind was that this was the first level of the tournament, and with the blinds as small as they are in relation to the starting stacks you've got room to maneuver and it's not necessary to get over involved in a pot where the whole board is showing if you only have a pair. One pair with the whole board showing isn't exactly a monster hand. Preflop, obviously it's a lot different, but that wasn't the case here. Anyway, I thought the hand was interesting and thought it merited some discussion here.

Bath and Trowbridge

2008-11-09T10:14:00.003-06:00

After having difficulty getting to Stonehenge in daylight hours I realized that I would have very little time to get to anywhere during daylight hours. I was here for work, and was usually finishing up somewhere between 4 and 5 o'clock PM. The people I was working with (Tony, Andy, Pete, and Vicki) all recommended that I should go to Bath and so that is exactly what I did the first evening. What a town! Fortunately they have the really neat buildings very well lit. The whole city has some very interesting architecture. There is the Royal Crescent and the Circus. When viewed from overhead they form the shape of a question mark. The Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths are a classic example of buildings having stood the test of time. The only thing I didn't like was that I was seeing all of this at dark!! I made sure to stop at a couple of pubs, including the "Saracen's Head" and the "Rat and Parrot".

On Wednesday, Tony and Andy took me to a local pub during lunch called the Royal Oak. I sampled another bitter and was encouraged to try one of the local ciders. The two have a very sharp contrast in taste!! I actually enjoyed the cider very much, it just wasn't exactly what my taste buds were ready for after having sampled a bitter. Good stuff, though. That evening, I returned to Bath, and being a little more familiar with the city's layout I did a significant amount of walking around. I went down the steps near the Pulteney Bridge and took a walk along the River Anon. I was able to visit a couple more pubs, stopping in at "Grapes" and the "Pig and Fiddle". The signs that are hanging outside the shops and pubs are pretty cool.

For lunch on Thursday Tony and Andy took me to another local establishment called "The Kicking Donkey". I had some fish and chips there along with some more bitters. I just can't get enough of that stuff! There are numerous Indian restaurants all over the UK, and that evening, a colleague of Tony and Andy's was taking a large group out to eat to one such restaurant in Trowbridge called "Tale of Spice". It was a group of about 10 of us. The food, drink, and conversation were all fantastic. I got to meet some other people (who could forget the Welsh, Paul?). There were definitely some characters there. I was "the American" for the evening. We stopped at a local Trowbridge pub called the Courthouse and took in some football (not American, mind you) while sampling some of the local bitters and ales. All in all it was a very good evening. Thanks again to Tony and Andy for asking and to Colin for picking up the tab!

Friday I wrapped things up with my group a little early and I had wanted to make an attempt to see Wells Cathedral, so I drove to Wells. Along the way to Wells I could see in the distance Glastonbury Tor, and the remains of St. Michael's church at the summit of the hill silhouetted against the setting sun. It was a really neat visual of which I wish I could have snapped a picture. I made it to Wells and found the cathedral and grounds. After walking around a little and snapping some pictures I headed in to Bath for the evening again. I managed to check off the last thing I had on my list of things to do while I was in Bath, too, which was to see the new James Bond movie "Quantum of Solace". Awesome movie!! It doesn't get released until November 14th in the U.S., and being a big Bond fan I wanted to see it while in the U.K. I had already made the determination that I would return to Bath Saturday morning before heading home so that I could see some of Bath during daylight hours. That morning I also was able to purchase a ticket to see the Roman Baths. I didn't have a lot of time to spend in Bath though, so I made quick work of the Roman Baths and then began the drive back to Heathrow. No incidents with the vehicle, and I got to Heathrow in plenty of time to catch a bite to eat before the 8+ hour flight back to Chicago. The flight home went well, and overall it was a good trip. I could have done without the car incident from last Saturday, but it was still a good trip.

On to Trowbridge!

2008-11-04T15:49:00.003-06:00

I had a long drive from London to Trowbridge to meet with my customers on Monday. Because of the hotel's location on the far east end of London I had to drive pretty much entirely across London, and on Monday morning it was real busy. Once I was outside of London the drive was pretty easy, and I was definitely getting more comfortable driving on the left side of the road with the driver's seat on the right side of the car.

I got things set up at my customer, Virgin Media, and afterwards I checked in at the hotel I was staying at, the Old Manor Hotel. The Old Manor Hotel is a Bed and Breakfast that also has packages that serve dinner, too. It's a very old converted farmhouse. It was originally built about 500 years ago, and was altered extensively around 1700. It's really neat. There are multiple buildings that have all the rooms, and it has a nice restaurant and small bar with a parlour/waiting room in the main building.

I thought I still had about an hour of light left so I thought I would try to get to Stonehenge and see it since it was only about 40 minutes away. The overcast sky, and the fact that there was less light left in the day than I thought meant that when I drove near to Stonehenge I could only see the large stones as dark silhouettes from the road. I was wiped from all the driving so I went back to the hotel for a late dinner that evening. I was looking forward to getting in to the town of Bath over the next couple of days.

A Sun-day in London

2008-11-02T22:00:00.001-06:00

After what had happened Friday night and all day Saturday I woke up Sunday morning expecting it to be pouring buckets outside and unable to really enjoy walking around London. I was pleasantly surprised to find it sunny outside. After grabbing an early bite to eat I made my way towards the river and towards Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Since I was on the far east side of London my plan of seeing the city pretty much involved starting at Tower Bridge on the east side and making my way towards Harrod's on the west end of London.

After getting some nice pictures of Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, and some other nearby buildings (see above), my next stop was St. Paul's Cathedral. On the way I stopped by the Monument that commemorates the Great Fire of 1666. Normally, you can go to the top, and I had done that the last time I was in London, but it was being refurbished and was closed to visitors. I went through Paternoster Square, and the cathedral is just outside that square. With it being Sunday, the cathedral was closed to tours, but you could walk in the back of the cathedral and look around if you weren't disturbing the worship services. Unfortunately, they don't want you taking pictures inside the cathedral, so my only pictures are of the outside and surrounding area.

Next, it was off to Trafalgar Square. I hadn't been to the National Gallery before, so I thought I would visit there and take in some of the paintings they have there. The Gallery is separated by time periods, and it was very interesting to see how artists in general changed the overall appearance of people in their paintings as it got nearer to our time. Some of the artwork dated back to the 1200's, and let me tell you, when artists painted people back then people ended up looking creepy. Anyway, lots of good stuff there, but once again, you cannot take pictures inside the Gallery.

After taking in the Gallery, I headed towards Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. I was able to get some nice pictures there. From there I headed towards Harrod's and the Hard Rock Cafe. I've been to the Hard Rock in London before, but it's the original, so I had to go back. After eating there, I made one more trip over to King's Cross Train Station to get a picture of "Platform 9 3/4". If you've seen the Harry Potter movies then you'll know that's the platform that the students use to board the Hogwarts Express. I thought my niece would appreciate seeing that pic. Finally, I headed back towards Piccadilly Circus and then back to the hotel. I was pretty satisfied with all I got done today, especially since I lost a day because of the car incident on Saturday. I did walk near the Thames to get a nice evening picture of Tower Bridge, too. Then it was time to get some rest for the 2 1/2 hour drive to Trowbridge Monday morning.

A Tale of Two Days (in London)

2008-11-01T23:49:00.000-05:00

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. OK, it wasn't either of those, but it certainly wasn't fun. I had a work trip planned that was taking me to the United Kingdom, and I was leaving on Halloween. The flight from O'Hare airport to London Heathrow was just over 7 1/2 hours long. That flight was actually the best part of the two days. I landed, picked up my luggage, and started to make my way to the hotel that was supposed to be connected to the airport. I managed to discover that it was located near a different terminal so I headed to the train and took that towards Terminal 4. As I was getting off the train someone knocked my laptop bag off of my suitcase, and as I made an effort to save it from hitting the ground something happened to two of the wheels on the suitcase that basically made the suitcase un-wheelable. So now I had to carry/drag this bag to the hotel. The hotel, where it is connected to Terminal 4, really isn't all that close. They have a long walkway that connects the two together. Anyway, eventually I was able to get to the hotel, check in, and get up to my room.

Once I arrived in my room I discovered that I didn't have any mobile phone service. To be real honest I wasn't too worried about this except for the fact that I had to contact the customer (ironically, a mobile phone provider) on Monday via phone, and I also had a 2 1/2 hour drive to Trowbridge where who knows what could happen. I called my cell phone service provider to see if they could help and of course they couldn't. Oh well, time to pick up a mobile "pay-as-you-go" phone for the week. Not a problem. I wish that had been the end of the issues, since it really wasn't too bad so far. Not great, but not absoultely horrible, either.

The next morning I went to pick up my car at the car rental. Lucky for me, they still had an automatic available. Most vehicles in the UK are manual transmission, and with the steering wheel on the right, I don't think I would've gotten comfortable trying to shift with my left hand. Unfortunately for me, Heathrow is west of London, and my hotel was on the far east side of London near Tower Bridge so I had to drive across all of London to get there. The driving was going OK, even though it felt awkward to be on the left side of the road. The real problem I was having driving in London was all the scooters and motorcycles weaving in and out of traffic. It was this that caused my next dilemma. As I was making a right turn near Piccadilly Circus, a scooter was weaving between me and another vehicle in the lane next to me when he suddenly cut over in front of me. I thought I was going to hit him so I swerved to my left, striking the curb hard and bursting the front left tire. Because I was on one of the busier streets in London, I turned as soon as I could and just parked where I could find a spot for the vehicle.

This vehicle didn't come with a spare, it only came with a repair kit, which wasn't going to fix the blown sidewall I had (see picture). Without a working cell phone I was going to be forced to leave the car and find a way to get assistance. I used one of the phone booths (Thank goodness for those old red booths!!) and was able to get a hold of the rental agency's road assistance personnel, who said they'd send somebody out and that they'd be there within the hour. I waited at the nearest intersection per their instructions, and once I saw their vehicle I flagged him down and pointed out where my vehicle was parked. As I approached the vehicle I found another person staring at it. I didn't recognize the person at first, but it turns out it was a police officer that was writing out a ticket for my vehicle! Are you kidding me!?! I tried to convince the officer about my issue, but he informed me there was nothing he could do because the ticket was "written" out in his hand-held computer thing already. Awesome!!

...and now the piano falls out of the sky and lands on me...

Just kidding, but you can probably see how I felt. Just one thing after another. The road assistance gentleman tells me he can't do anything about the tire and will need to call for a tow, and because Budget's only rental facilities near London are at Heathrow and Gatwick airports, the vehicle will need to be towed back to the rental agency, which is completely the wrong direction for me. The tow eventually shows up about 3 hours later, and after the 1 hour tow ride back to Heathrow and filling out new paperwork for a new vehicle, I was able to do the drive all over again, now only it's dark and raining out, too!

...and now I get in accident number two, right?

Nope, no incidents on the second drive through London, but it was pretty much a wasted day for me. Instead of getting out in London for all day Saturday I didn't even get checked in until almost 8pm. My body was still getting adjusted to the 5-hour time difference, too. I took a short walk near Tower Bridge, found a nice pub nearby the hotel, sat down for some bitters and some fish & chips, and just called it a night. Not a fun day, but I planned to be well rested for spending all of Sunday out and about in London!

It's all OK now, the trip got better on Sunday, and I've still got the week in Trowbridge and Bath to go. More pictures to come...

D.C. and New York City in September

2008-10-20T17:42:00.006-05:00

During these crazy economic times I got the opportunity to go to two of the busier spots in the country as far as the topic of economics is concerned: Washington, D.C. and New York City. I was working in the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D.C., and while I was working in New York I was working just a block away from the New York Stock Exchange in the Financial District. Very interesting!!

This is the third time I've gotten to D.C. in the past 1+ years, so I knew where to head to see some of the stuff I had missed the first time around. Unfortunately, there is still a lot more I wish I could see. Before I left for D.C. I was able to get online and get a reservation ticket to go to the top of the Washington Monument. It's a neat view from up there, and I've posted some pics here showing some of what you can see from the top of the monument.

On the way down the elevator inside the monument, you get to see some pretty neat rock carvings donated by each state as part of the monument. Some are very impressive!

While in D.C., one of the people I was working with was kind enough to give me a tour of the Federal Reserve Building. I was fortunate enough to get in to the Board of Governors room just after they had completed a meeting and got to sit in the chair at the head of the table there. In New York, I mentioned already that I was working very near to the New York Stock Exchange. I was about 2 blocks south of the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway where Trinity Church is located. I was even able to spend some time to go to Liberty Island and Ellis Island to see the Statue of Liberty and the building that was used for immigrants arriving in New York. The statue was neat to see, and I was able to spend some time on Ellis Island trying to track down my great-grandfather, who came to the U.S. in the early 1900's through Ellis Island.

I had a great time in both cities. It was fun getting around on foot and using the subway systems that both cities have. You get to experience so much more of the cities that way. I'm looking forward to going back again!

Vegas with the Squirrel (and Vegas Jimmy), Pt. 3

2008-10-16T16:26:00.010-05:00

With the Squirrel at her conference I thought it would be a good time for me to try and make back some of what I lost yesterday. With my bankroll somewhat diminished I thought the smart play would be to go over to the MGM and play on the $1/$2 No Limit tables there, and so I did. That decision worked out great for me, as I managed to win about $275 while playing on the tables there. Not bad for a $100 buy in! There was one hand that stuck out for me. I was dealt pocket Aces (AA) when I happened to be in first position. I decided to limp for the $2, hoping that someone would raise and then I would reraise when it got back to me. The table had been fairly active so I felt that this would be effective. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong! One by one, every player at the table just called the $2 and no one raised! We now had 9 players getting to see the flop. Against a single opponent, pocket Aces are about an 80-87% favorite to win. Against two opponents, Aces drop to about 70-75%. Against three opponents, it goes down to about 60%, and with four opponents it is less than 50%. So here I am, holding Aces, and I'm not even the favorite to win against the whole table, and I'm out of position after the flop hits, too! Awesome! (note the sarcasm).

So to the flop we go. I've already made the decision that I'm not going to go broke with Aces here since I decided to play coy before the flop and got caught by my own cleverness, but maybe the flop will help. Well, the flop comes: 6-6-4. The blinds check, in staying conservative here I check, and everyone else checks. This actually gets a small chuckle from the table when the last player checks. The turn is a 7. Once again everyone checks until we get to the end, where one player decides to bet $15, slightly less than the pot. The action folds to me, and since it wasn't too much I decide to stay conservative and just call. Everyone else folds. The river puts a Jack out there, so now the board reads: 6-6-4-7-J. I check, being content to show this down cheaply. My opponent decides that a $45 bet is warranted. Well, it's still not that much considering the way things have gone for this hand, so I decide to make the "crying call". As soon as I do, my opponent mucked his cards! He was on a stone cold bluff! I never even had to show my Aces to win! I was happy to take down the pot, but a lesson was reinforced here...Don't limp with Aces! If you do, be prepared to throw 'em away. Now I didn't throw them away, but the pot was kept small enough to stay in the hand. Had he thrown out $75, $100, or more, I think I may have been forced to accept my preflop mistake and fold. Oh, well. I got lucky that time. It sort of makes up for a little of what happened at the Wynn, or at least that's what I was telling myself.

After wrapping that session up I met with the Squirrel back at the Excalibur. We both wanted to play a poker tournament, and I had found some tournaments with decent structures that I thought we should consider. One of those was at the Hard Rock Casino. They were opening a new poker room, correction, a poker "lounge", and we decided to cab it over there to check things out. All I can say about it is "Wow! Gotta like that eye candy!" It turns out the room hadn't "officially" opened yet, and they only had one cash game going. The tournament was only expected to have a handful of entrants so the Squirrel and I opted for a different tournament. We decided to head downtown to Binion's, where I thought I remembered that they had a nightly tournament with a good structure. The Squirrel hadn't seen the Fremont Street Experience either so this would give us something to do while we waited for the tourney to start.

Well, we checked out Fremont Street, grabbed a bite to eat at Binion's diner, and when we got back to the poker room we found that there were only 10 entrants for the tournament! The tourney would still take entrants through the first three levels, but that wasn't the turnout we were expecting. We started as two tables of five, and luckily we weren't at the same table to start. That would have sucked. Levels were half an hour each, we started with 6000 chips, and blinds started at 25/50, so there was plenty of time to be patient. One more player did sign up during the second level, and with one player's elimination we all got to go to the final table! Woo hoo! Ok, I'm sort of kidding, of course we made the final table.

Because of the structure and the small number of players we had plenty of time to chat with everyone at the table, and when we combined at the table I drew the seat to the Squirrel's immediate left. Often times when talking to her I would call her by her nickname, "the Squirrel", and before long the entire table was calling her the Squirrel. The Squirrel also has a heavy weight to protect her cards, and, of course, it's a little squirrel. She likes pointing the squirrel at her opponents and the table was getting a kick out of the use of the squirrel. So much so, that one of her opponents, who the Squirrel eventually eliminated, gave the marker the name "Vegas Jimmy". The Squirrel was doing a good job of amassing chips, too, having doubled through someone with AK when the board hit her for two pair, and also when getting someone to get it all in with her when she had pocket Aces. For a brief period of time I think that the Squirrel and I were the two chip leaders. Because of the small number of players only the top three places were getting paid. When we were down to five players I was the chip leader, and had a comfortable lead over everyone else at the table. When we hit the break a couple of us started discussing possible "chop" options. We had been playing for over 4 hours at this point, and we were thinking that we felt it would be good if everyone came away with something. We decided to put to a vote the following: Taking $100 off of the 1st place money and paying 4th and 5th $50 each. The entry to the tournament was $125, so although it would be a loss, everyone would still get something. The table agreed, and play proceeded.

I was fortunate enough to find myself in first position, Under the Gun, with pocket Queens (QQ). I raised, and the player behind me immediately went all in for his remaining chips. Everyone else folded back to me, and I called and tabled my Queens. He turned over Ace-King, also known as Big Slick, and off to the races we were! The flop produced a King, and I was down to two outs to knock this player out of the tournament. I didn't get there on the turn or the river, and I suddenly found myself in 4th place in chips out of the five of us. Since 4th and 5th were paying the same thing it didn't matter to me what spot I ended up in if that was to be my fate, so I knew that aggressive play was the way to play. About a dozen hands later, everyone folded to me in the small blind (SB), and I looked down to find pocket 6s. I moved in, and the big blind (BB) woke up with Big Slick...again!! He called, and I was off to the races one more time with this guy. This time the river was the King, and I was now eliminated from the tournament. Now it was time to be a cheerleader/observer from the rail. The Squirrel was still alive.

The position I had on the rail was allowing me to observe the player who knocked me out and the hands he was playing/folding. He was an older gentleman, and he was playing very tight, folding his blinds to almost every raise. The other three players hadn't really picked up on that yet, and I was hoping that the Squirrel would as I knew she was going to need some chips soon. Eventually, the short stack and the player that was 2nd in chips at the time got it all in, and I got the opportunity to tell the Squirrel that I thought she should be stealing more. I wasn't going to tell her what the older gentleman was folding, but I was hoping that she would be able to chip up a little bit. They were now down to three players, and each of their games had to be opened up a little bit more.

It was only a short time later when Dave, the player on the Squirrel's right, raised from the button the minimum amount. From the rail I had guessed this was a steal, since it appeared that Dave had also picked up on the fact that the older guy was folding everything. The Squirrel was next to act in the small blind and she just called. She was also the short stack in chips. I didn't know what she had yet, but I probably would have pushed all in..."if it's good enough to call, it's good enough to raise". If it wasn't that good, then folding was the play. It didn't matter, as the older guy moved all in after the Squirrel's call. I knew that had to be a huge hand. In that spot facing a raise and a call in front of me, and as tight as he was playing I was expecting him to turn over AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, or AQ. Dave immediately folded, sort of confirming that I thought he was stealing, and now the Squirrel had a decision to make for all her chips. She eventually called and tabled: AJ. The older guy turned over JJ, which is almost as bad as it could get there since that left the Squirrel with only the 3 Aces to catch or to make a straight or flush. None of that hit the board, and the Squirrel and Vegas Jimmy were out in 3rd. The only thing I would have done differently was probably shoving preflop after Dave's raise, and I'm sure the old guy calls anyway and the result would have been the same. She did get $220 for her efforts. I was happy for her considering the lost wallet and cards thing had happened I did want something to go well for her after that.

Not too much to tell after that. We played some craps at Binion's, and the next morning The Squirrel (and Vegas Jimmy) headed off to the airport early because of the lack of ID. I had another brief session at the Wynn because I needed to hit the Hooter's casino to get my stamp for a contest that Hooter's is running this year, and I headed home that afternoon. It was a very entertaining trip.

Vegas with the Squirrel, Pt. 2

2008-10-14T13:37:00.016-05:00

That next morning the Squirrel headed to her conference. I was going to hit the pool for a little while so I headed down a little before 9am, but the pool at the Excalibur doesn’t open until 10am. I really didn’t want to just wait an hour up in the room to go to the pool, so I cleaned up and headed down for a late breakfast and a leisurely stroll over to the Wynn for an early session of poker.

I got a seat at a $2/$5 No-Limit table and bought in for $300. As I got to my seat I was witnessing someone’s pocket Aces being cracked by the player who was going to be on my right’s hand of 2-6. I don’t know all the details of that hand, but it was a huge pot, and my first impression of the player on my right was that he was loose. This was confirmed during my first half hour at the table. He was a foreign gentleman, and had a friend sitting behind him. He was also playing almost every hand. Often times he would show his friend his cards at the end of the hand, and because of my position at the table he was exposing his cards to me as well. Since it wasn’t during the middle of play I decided to just make mental notes about what he was showing. More often than not he was usually bluffing on the river by just placing a large bet out there. No one would call and he would take down the pot. Using that information I was planning to try and get involved with him in a big pot when I was holding a huge hand.

Things appeared to be going my way when, after this guy raised to $25 to open the pot, I looked down and found pocket Kings (KK). I just called the $25, hoping that he would follow up on the flop with a bet. Well, both the blinds called after I call. The flop came: Jack-8-3. Both blinds check, and my “mark” bet $125. I was up a little since I sat down, but I only had $350 or so, and I decided that now was the time to try to take this pot down in case he had a piece of it already I didn’t want to allow him to draw to a better hand for free. I moved all in. The first blind folded, but the other blind moved all in for less than what I had. THAT wasn’t good. I was almost certain that I was beat when that happened. About the only hand I would be beating there would be AJ, but I was guessing that the blind had either 8-8 or 3-3. Then it got back to the initial raiser on my right. I was initially hoping he would call since he had enough chips to cover me, and I could still win a side pot (although the side pot would be about $200 and I’d still lose on the hand overall). Well, he’s thinking about it when he asks the dealer if he can show me his hand. Since all the other action was complete the dealer informed him he could and then he showed me…pocket Aces!! He still hadn’t called yet, and now I was praying he’d fold since I basically had no shot at either pot. After a couple minutes he came to the conclusion that he couldn’t fold for the $200 or so it would cost him and he called. My instincts were correct about the other guy, too, unfortunately, as he turned over 8-8 for a set of 8s. No King arrived, and it was time to rebuy.

The decision to rebuy was easy with the action that table was generating. I felt I just got real unlucky that both Aces and Kings happened to be dealt at the same time (with me getting the Kings). So I bought back in for $300, and started working my stack up, slowly, but I had managed to get it up to $540. The foreign guy on my right had left about 1½ hours ago, but he had been replaced by a player who was just as aggressive, but wasn’t playing as many hands, although he was playing more than most players at the table. It was at this point when I was dealt KJsuited and this player raises to $25. I decided to call and see what the flop would bring. Everyone else got out of the way, and the flop was: K-J-4. Wow! Top two pair! My opponent led out and bet $50, and with my two pair I thought I’d lay a trap and call. The turn card was a Jack! This now gave me a full house, Jacks full of Kings. My opponent led out and bet again, this time $75. I decided to make the minimum raise to $150. I’m really hoping he’s either got a King or a Jack. I was hoping it was the Jack since it would be very hard to get away from trip Jacks here. Well, he thinks for a minute and decides to raise to $400. To call that it would only leave me with $100, so I knew he would call my reraise of all in and that’s what I did almost immediately. He called just as quickly and turned over…pocket Kings! ARE YOU F---ING KIDDING ME?!? Obviously, his pocket Kings gave him a better full house, and since the last Jack in the deck didn’t hit the river (why the hell should I get lucky?) to give me four of a kind I lost that pot. Yes, I’m bitter. That one hurt. If I had been thinking a little earlier, I would have gone and grabbed something to eat as it would have given me the opportunity to pull chips off the table; something you cannot do during play. It was getting close to time for me to leave so I could be back at the Excalibur by 5 o’clock, so I decided NOT to rebuy again and I headed back to the Excalibur to meet up with the Squirrel for dinner.

I got back to the Excalibur, and while I was in the room waiting for the Squirrel, the room phone rings, and it’s the Squirrel asking me to meet her at the elevator to let her up. I agreed and headed down. I assumed that she had left her room key in the room, and the guard at the bottom by the elevators won’t let you up without showing a room key. How I wished that were the case! I found out when I got down there that the Squirrel had dropped her wallet in the cab and had lost her cash, ID, room key, and credit cards! We tried to see if the cab was out front, but no such luck.

Here I thought I was having a bad day because of poker! My day sounds pretty good compared to that! We got back up to the room and called all the cab companies to report the lost items, but we weren’t getting anywhere as far as tracking the items down. Then she called to cancel her credit cards. There was also a new problem. I had cash on me, but when I go to Vegas I typically leave my credit card and debit card at home to not be “tempted” to use them, so I didn’t have an easy way to access cash. The Squirrel had no way of getting any, and I just lost $600 playing poker earlier. I was slightly worried that we might have to get by on what I had left for cash. I had plenty for gambling for myself, but to cover both of us along with meals and hotel, that would have been another story. After canceling the cards and after she had called home to apprise her hubby of the situation we got a late supper and turned in early for the night.

As it turned out, the next morning, the Squirrel was able to hit a bank in Las Vegas that also has branches back home that she banks at, explain her situation, and cash a check, so that part of the problem was now resolved. I did find out during the course of this that this wasn't the first, or even the second time that this has happened to the Squirrel, but actually this was the THIRD time this happened to her while out of town. Note to self: pick up a wallet with a chain for the Squirrel for Christmas, unless she's going out of town before Christmas, then get it sooner. :) We never heard back from any of the cab companies, and the wallet and credit cards were never recovered. That really sucked. Our trip wasn’t over yet, though…

Vegas with the Squirrel, Pt. 1

2008-10-14T11:00:00.013-05:00

I had an opportunity to go to Vegas in early September and decided to go. A friend of mine, the Squirrel (a nickname, obviously), was attending a work-related conference there. Her husband, with whom I bowl with and also play poker, was unable to go to Vegas, and she didn’t really want to go to Vegas by herself, so the opportunity for me to go with a room all set was there as long as I could come up with the flight. I used some of my frequent flier miles, and lo and behold, I had a very cheap Vegas trip!

The trip occurred during the opening week of the football season, and the Packers were playing that Monday night against the Vikings. We couldn’t miss that, so after I had my first poker session in the books and after the Squirrel had arrived we headed to the ESPNZone at the NY, NY casino to eat and take in the game. Of course, we got some wagers in on the game and some other games, too. I even was able to bet on the U.S. Tennis Open Championship thanks to the Sunday rainout in New York. I was fortunate to win on most of the sports bets. Packers win: check. Raiders get blown out by Denver: check. Federer wins U.S. Open: check. Packers cover prop bet: oops. Brewers win to give me my 3-team parlay: oops. Oh, well. Can’t win ‘em all.

After the game the Squirrel and I played some craps at NY, NY, and at the Excalibur. The Squirrel hadn’t played a whole lot of craps before so I played the role of instructor and guide while we were playing. For those of you that don’t know I also have served the function of a craps “dealer” at parties over the years. I used to work about 15-20 parties a year, with most occurring during the holiday season, but now I probably work only a handful during a year, if that. Now that I think about it, I think the last party I worked was this past January. It’s been a while. Anyway, I know the game rather well, and can follow pretty much every bet that’s on the table at any given time so not only can I help a person play craps to reduce the house’s edge as much as possible, I also make sure all the bets are placed properly and paid so that my friends don’t get overlooked. At a busy craps table a bet can sometimes be missed by one of the dealers, and if you don’t point it out you could very easily miss out getting paid. The Squirrel and I had a good time playing craps, and with the Squirrel’s conference starting early, we called it a night at a reasonable hour.

I know, I know...I've been busy.

2008-10-08T14:32:00.002-05:00

I know I haven't posted anything new in the last couple weeks. I'll try to take care of that this week and weekend. I've been real busy since the second week of September. I've been to Vegas and have a couple good stories from there, had a pair of work trips in Washington, D.C., and NY, NY, went to the Packers-Cowboys game, went to the second to last game of the regular season for the Brewers in conjunction with a very long bachelor party, and went to the Brewers first playoff game at home. I do have some pictures from most of the stuff and I'll be posting those, too. I need to get this stuff posted because at the end of the month I'll be traveling to the United Kingdom for work, and I don't want to be too far behind before I go! I'm so excited about that trip!

Tournament of Champions - Part 2

2008-09-16T12:16:00.010-05:00

Sorry about the delay between posts for the Tournament of Champions. There’s been a lot going on lately. I believe we left off where I had just won a significant pot because I got extremely lucky when I was trying to steal the blinds…

Because I had the chip lead I felt no real need to push too hard against my opponents as I wanted them to start chipping away at each other. This strategy was working well as I watched a couple of the other players take each other out. I picked up the occasional strong hand and was able to play back at some people as well. On one such occasion Dan, aka “Highway A”, had raised a pot where I picked up a pair of Queens and my reraise was able to force Dan to lay his hand down.

While this was going on Mark, who also is the league’s director, was starting to pick up some chips and had about half as many as I did. I looked around to see where all my opponents were at, and the approximate chip positions were:

Myself, 11000

Mark, ~5500

everyone else, <3000

With the chip positions as they were the only player that could hurt me significantly was Mark. He also happened to be seated on my immediate left, which is a bad spot for me to have him at the table. It was this fact that started my decline. We were at six players, and I found myself holding Ace-Ten. I was in early position so I raised. At a six-handed table Ace-Ten has a slightly better than 50% chance to be the best hand dealt. After I raised Mark reraised. Everyone else folded, and the action was back to me. Mark’s reraise had put in about 40% of his stack so I really didn’t think he’d be able to fold his hand. Also, I’m sure Mark was aware of the chip stacks and the fact that I was the only one who could knock him out at the moment so I decided that his hand had to be pretty strong if he was going to risk getting knocked out at this stage of the tournament. I decided to fold. That obviously put Mark and I a little closer to each other in chips.

This incident wouldn’t have made the blog except for the fact that this scenario happened two more times within about a 40 minute span. I raise, Mark reraises, and then I fold. The two times it happened after that I had Ace-Nine, which I folded for very much the same reasons as I explained earlier, and then it happened again when I was stealing with Ace-Three. That time I was banking on the fact that Mark just couldn’t keep catching hands when I was. Well, I guess I was wrong. It was that, or he just realized that he was able to steal from me in that position. Either way, it was working for him and it was killing my chip stack. After those hands took place we had basically flip flopped chip positions.

Mark was also scooping some pots by eliminating opponents. He managed to eliminate Rock when Mark got it all in preflop with 7-7 against Rock’s Q-Q. The action had gone: Mark raised, Rock reraised all in, and Mark called. Given the action I was very surprised to see what Mark was holding, but he must have known something I didn’t since the river (last card) was a 7, giving Mark a set of 7s and sending Rock to the rail. I was eliminated shortly after that when I got it all in with AQ against Don’s pair of 3s and I didn’t win the coin flip. That crippled me and I went out in 4^th place a couple of hands after that.

The final three were set, and it was at this point that Don decided to get a little creative with his raising of the pot. To fully understand what happened here you have to know that in poker, if you announce your action your statement is binding. If you don’t say anything and perform an action then that action is binding, but it must be done all at once. Well, Don announced that he as going to raise to 2400, but when he put his chips out he only put out 1400. No problem, we pointed out the “accidental” mistake and it was corrected because he announced his bet. On the very next hand, Don decided to raise again, but this time he put out 400 less than what he announced. Once again, we had him correct it, but now it was time to definitely give him a hard time about his ability to count chips. A couple hands go by, and then Don wanted to raise again. This time he grabbed his chips ahead of time, was made sure to look at me as he announced in a mocking tone, “I’m raising to 2400. Does that look right this time?” To which Adam replied, “Well, you only put 1400 out there again, so you owe another 1000!” Now, I know Don wasn’t doing this intentionally, but it was too hard to pass up ripping him for the mistakes. By the way, did I mention he’s a teacher of children? I’m guessing that those children are not our future. I sure hope those poor kids can pass their math tests!! Just kidding ya, Don.

Shortly after that Mark, now known as the “River King”, got involved in a pot with Pete. In an unraised pot, the flop had shown up with the following three cards: Ad-8d-something non diamond. Pete moved all in, and Mark decided to call. Pete turned over Kd-9d giving him the nut flush draw, and Mark turned over 7d-3d. Mark was down to only six outs, and he also had to dodge any diamond in the process! Well, the turn card missed both players, and the river was a 3, giving Mark the win and eliminating Pete.

The heads-up battle between Mark and Don didn’t last too long. The hand that crowned the champion played out like this:

In an unraised pot, the flop came Kx-8x-X. Both players check the flop. The turn was a 4. After a bet by Don and a raise by Mark, Don shoved all in. Mark thought about it and called. Don table a King for top pair, and Mark showed J4 for bottom pair. Mark needed to catch either a Jack or 4 on the river to win, and as Adam dealt the last card it was a…4!! Mark won again on the river! Mark was very gracious in his win as I think even he realized how lucky he got on those three hands…three rivers!! Wow! This, friends, is the “class of the CCPL”. Make a note of Mark's pose here as I think I can sum it up as "F.U.! Look at these hands and your new CCPL Champ!"

Tournament of Champions - Part 1

2008-09-02T11:34:00.001-05:00

Last weekend the final tournament of the second season of the Cream City Poker League (CCPL) took place. Adam was kind enough to host the championship, and the five returning champions of the seven events along with the next two highest players from the point’s standings and the two winners from the play-in event came together to form the Championship Table. As a wrinkle to the tournament structure, every player received an amount of bonus chips that was determined based on the number of points earned throughout the season, so the stacks were not even to begin the tournament.

I started with the lead in chips based on my season results, but I found myself not really able to use that advantage since I was almost getting no decent hands to start the tournament. Even when I would find myself with a borderline starting hand the players acting in front of me were raising and reraising often, eliminating any advantage I might have by getting in to the pot. So I waited…and waited…and waited.

Meanwhile one of the players, Pete S., was either getting a lot of good hands or changed his style of play significantly for this event, as it was he who seemed to be doing the most raising preflop. Other players were even pointing this out when he had raised from the first position, known as Under the Gun, several times in a row.

Also, Dan seemed to be having a good time at the tournament, seeing as he was in conversations with other players often times when it was his turn to act. It was just after he had raked a pot and was informing the rest of us that a “new groove was being formed on the table where all the chips would funnel to” him, just like “Highway A leaving Lake Delton” in the Dells when he gave himself the nickname “Highway A”. It had also been Dan’s turn to act for almost a minute while this proclamation took place. It had to be pointed out to Dan regularly that it was his turn to act. Eventually he picked up the pace on his turn.

I was still waiting to get some good hands. I managed to pick up the blinds once when a got a medium pair to raise with preflop, and had picked up a small pot when I bet a flush draw in another pot where everyone had missed the board. Because I had been playing so few hands, and it had been noticed by a couple players that I had been playing so few hands, I thought I would try to pull a steal from the cutoff position, which is one before the dealer, regardless of what I was holding the next time I was in the cutoff. When that position came up I found myself holding: Js – 2s. Not a great holding, but I was hoping that my tight image would hold up for the steal. I raised, the button folded, and Adam and Adam, who were in the blinds, both decided to call. As soon as that happened I had planned to give up the hand, but the flop produced something that I wasn’t expecting when it hit:

Jc – 7c – 2x

giving me two pair! Adam led out with about a 2/3 pot bet, and the other Adam thought about it and moved all in behind him! That brought the action to me. I really didn’t think that all three of us could have hit the board so well, and I believed one of the Adams was on a flush draw. I moved all in, hoping that if the first Adam was on the flush draw it would not give him the proper pot odds to call and he’d lay it down. Adam thought about it for a while, and after thinking he had the pot odds to call decided to also call, so now two of us were at risk to be knocked out of the tournament because of this hand (the Adam hosting, and myself). Adam turned over QJoff and knew he was behind because of my moving in, and then the other Adam turned over AJ, which really hurt the other Adam. I showed my two pair, to which everyone was surprised to see that hand. Adam called for the board to pair, which would have been fine for me as long as it wasn’t a 7 or running pair of cards. My hand held up, and I nearly tripled up in the hand. I was very surprised to see the AJ in that situation, especially since he had led out with a bet, was raised, and then reraised again by the initial raiser. I would have thought that third raise would indicated the overpair, the set, or two pair (two pair being the most unlikely with that flop). At the very least I would have thought that top pair could be thrown away there. Oh well.

After I had amassed that stack of chips, I started getting some hands, too. It was with that stack that got me to the later stages of the tournament, but I’ll save some of that action for the next post…

Tournament of Champions Preview

2008-08-25T12:40:00.002-05:00

This post is just a teaser for the next couple of posts for this blog. This past weekend the Tournament of Champions II was held for the Cream City Poker League. The game featured a whole lot of hands and action. During the course of play there was the usual discussion of playing poker “by the book”, and I think it was decided that the following chapters will be added to the book when the CCPL decides to author it:

Chapter 1: How to Steal the Blinds from Under the Gun – by Pete S.
Step 1. Play tight for three years, then raise the hell out of everyone when out of position

Chapter 2: Stealing the Blinds from Late Position and Tripling Up – by Jason F.
Step 1. Pick a poor starting hand to raise with and pump up the pot
Step 2. After blinds both call, make sure you hit two-pair or better and get them to bet in front of you.

Chapter 3: Knowing When It’s Your Turn to Act – by Dan N.
Step 1. Start up a conversation with someone right after the person on your right makes decision with cards.
Step 2. Give yourself a nickname
Step 3. Wait for the table to get irritated with the delay and have them insist you perform an action

Chapter 4: Knowing the Right Amount to Bet – by Don L.
Step 1. Verbally announce your bet, then put out a thousand less. See if anyone notices
Step 2. After everyone notices, try again on the next hand, but only short the pot by 400 instead of a thousand.
Step 3. Grab chips ahead of time, prepare for the raise, announce it and prepare to make sure everyone knows you did it right, but actually short the pot by 1000…AGAIN.

Chapter 5: Late Stages of the Tournament: Closing the Deal – by Mark S.
Step 1. Get your chips in as a 80%+ underdog at least 3 times
Step 2. On the river, get the card you need to eliminate opponents

I'm telling ya, if you follow these chapters in the book, you too, can become a great poker player...

I'll give a little more detail about each of these in the next few posts!!

Brewers vs. Cubs and the Bob & Brian Open

2008-08-04T14:39:00.011-05:00

I was really looking forward to this past Thursday and Friday. Mike was coming in to town, and Mike, Todd, Dan, and myself were heading to the finale of the four-game series taking place between the Brewers and the Cubs. The four of us only get the opportunity to get together a couple times a year (at most), and we usually golf the Bob and Brian Open on the first Friday in August, so it was pretty nice that we were able to hang out a couple days together. Dan provided the tickets (Thanks again!). The tickets were for excellent seats in the lower level between home plate and first base. Unfortunately, the Brewers didn't have their A-game with them on Thursday (or Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday) and the Cubs ended up winning the game and sweeping the series. We did leave in the bottom of the 8th inning, so we missed most of the Brewers scoring as they scored 3 of their 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th. They only needed 7 more runs to tie, though...

Friday started out bright and early, as we all met at Dan's house at 6:00am to head over to the Bob and Brian Open. If you aren't familiar with "Bob and Brian", they are a pair of local DJs that run a morning show in the Milwaukee area. Each year, on the first Friday in August, they have a golf outing they run as a fund raiser for the MACC fund (Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer). It's a great time as they have 36 holes and at least two foursomes starting on each hole. They even have enough golfers to run two shifts, one at 7:30am and one at 1:30pm. We were in the early start.

After arriving at the golf course we dropped our clubs at the club drop, checked in, and then went looking for our carts so that we could snag a couple clubs to go practice at the range. Mike's and Todd's clubs were at their carts, but Dan's and mine had been mysteriously "misplaced". After searching all over we discovered that our clubs were never making it on to the carts to be delivered to the golfer's carts. So much for practice! There seemed to be some long lines at the check-in area, too. Overall, I didn't think it was run as well as it has been in the past. Hopefully, they'll improve on that for next year.

The weather started out great, and we never had to worry about rain or getting enough sunshine because it was sunny all day. It was REALLY humid though, so about 11:00 or so it started to get real warm out there on the fairways and greens. We didn't have the greatest of golf scores as we only posted a 3-under 68, but we always know going in to the outing that we aren't going to post the best score, as usually some group comes in with some ridiculous score of 20-under par or something like that. We had a good time though. I did manage a pretty nice chip in for an eagle on a par 5, but that was my only highlight of the day.

Coolers...get your coolers here!

2008-07-29T10:19:00.005-05:00

One evening while it was raining in Albany I had the opportunity to play a little bit of online poker. I was just trying to kill some time before heading over to see the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight". I would really recommend that movie if you haven't seen it yet as it is one of the better movies I have seen in the last couple of years. Anyway, I digress. I was playing at the $.25/$.50 No Limit table when the following hand came up. For those of you that don't know my name at the Full Tilt tables is "Phantom Aces". As usual, I will try to interject my thoughts as the hand plays out:

Full Tilt Poker Game #7335581850: Table Huxley Cross - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:31:10 ET - 2008/07/22
Seat 1: FTP paramedic ($6.30)
Seat 2: Bockcara ($50)
Seat 3: bobontilt ($99.75)
Seat 4: Phantom Aces ($22.85)
Seat 5: Farodealer ($46.50)
Seat 6: riffraff999 ($34.85)
Seat 7: karway ($81.55)
Seat 8: major penalty ($50)
Seat 9: CORNpoo ($34.55)
Farodealer posts the small blind of $0.25
riffraff999 posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Phantom Aces [Ks Kd], I'm always happy to see this hand dealt to me. Now I just need another player and have to avoid the dreaded Ace on the flop!
karway folds
CORNpoo calls $0.50 - Hello other player!
FTP paramedic folds
Bockcara folds
bobontilt folds
Phantom Aces raises to $1.75 - you have to put in a raise with Kings, but I don't want CORNpoo to give up yet so I'll keep the raise small
Farodealer adds $3.75
Farodealer folds
riffraff999 folds
CORNpoo calls $1.25 - Sweet! Now, no Ace on that flop
*** FLOP *** [2s Kh 2c] - This is a GREAT flop! I've flopped the nut full house. In fact, There's almost no hand my opponent can have that the flop will have helped him, so I'm going to have to let him "catch up" by not betting and giving him a card that may help his hand.
CORNpoo checks
Phantom Aces checks
*** TURN *** [2s Kh 2c] [7d] - With that card, I'll still let him take any initiative here
CORNpoo checks
Phantom Aces checks - OK. I'm guessing that he doesn't have much. Let's give him one more free card.
*** RIVER *** [2s Kh 2c 7d] [Td] - I hope he bets SOMETHING here, or I'll have to do that.
CORNpoo bets $3.50 - Nice! Hopefully he hit something with the board! Time to raise!
Phantom Aces raises to $8.50
CORNpoo raises to $32.80, and is all in - Wow! This is an automatic call here.
Phantom Aces calls $12.60, and is all in
Uncalled bet of $11.70 returned to CORNpoo
*** SHOW DOWN ***
CORNpoo shows [2d 2h] four of a kind, Twos - Holy coolers, Batman! That really sucks. What are the chances of him flopping quads when I flop a full house?!?
Phantom Aces mucks
CORNpoo wins the pot ($44.15) with four of a kind, Twos
Phantom Aces is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $46.45 | Rake $2.30
Board: [2s Kh 2c 7d Td]
Seat 1: FTP paramedic didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Bockcara didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: bobontilt didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Phantom Aces (button) mucked [Ks Kd] - a full house, Kings full of Twos
Seat 5: Farodealer (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: riffraff999 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: karway didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: major penalty is sitting out
Seat 9: CORNpoo showed [2d 2h] and won ($44.15) with four of a kind, Twos

That, friends and readers, is about as much of a cooler as you'll ever see in poker. For those of you unfamiliar with poker jargon a "cooler" is when you hold a very strong hand, usually the 2nd best possible at the time all the money goes in, and your opponent has the one possible hand that can beat you.

Once this flop hit the board there was no way anything but getting all the money in was going to happen. My opponent was clearly going through the same thought process I was when that flop hit, it's just that his hand was the stone cold nuts! I actually had one of my friends ask me what I thought he had when he raised at the river. My only answer to him was, "Does it matter? I'm not folding to that remote of a possibility!" I'm not going to fold a Kings full full house in this situation. I'm just glad that the stakes at this table were so small when it happened because I'd have paid off anything at any level with the hand I held and the board that hit. For those of you that are curious the odds of flopping a full house when you hold a pocket pair are about 0.7% (about 136 to 1). The odds of flopping four of a kind, quads, when you hold a pocket pair are 0.25% (about 407 to 1). I don't know what the odds are of having both of those occur at the same time are, but it can't too high!

...Coolers, get your coolers here!! Only $22.85...

Tag!

2008-07-27T16:15:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine had this blog "tag" in her recent postings, and when I read it I sort of deduced from her answers that I was supposed to also do this if I had read her blog. Her blog can be found here. As it so happens, on the day I initially read it I happened to wake up at noon thanks to some hard drinking the night before and when I saw question #1 I decided that maybe that day wasn't the best day to answer the questions. After all, I rarely get up at noon and I wasn't feeling well that day.

I had to work in Albany this past week and forgot about it, but now I'm home and was going to do a post when I realized I hadn't done this, so here goes:

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:00am
2. Diamond or Pearls? not big in to either, but diamonds I guess
3. What was the last film you saw? The Dark Knight (excellent movie! Thumbs Up!)
4. Who always supports you? my family
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? a bowl of cereal, two pieces of toast, and two slices of turkey bacon during the week; eggs, bacon, and toast on the weekends
6. What is your middle name? Richard
7. What food do you dislike? Zucchini and Squash
8. What is your favorite CD? most CDs by Collective Soul
9. What type of car do you drive? Hyundai Sante Fe
10. Favorite sandwich? If you're referring to homemade sandwiches, I guess a tuna sandwich with honey dijon mustard; otherwise, from a restaurant/sandwich joint it would be a grilled chicken sandwich of some sort.
11. What characteristics do you despise? Aloofness / big ego / arrogance
12. Favorite item of clothing? shorts and a comfortable polo
13. If you could go anywhere in the world for a vacation, where would you go? Australia or Hawaii
14. What color is your bathroom? one is light blue, the other is a dark yellow
15. Favorite brand of clothing? Not big on shopping particular brands
16. Where will you retire? I like the people I know in Wisconsin, so it'll be here
17. What was your most memorable birthday? I guess my 18th or my 2nd; I got a baby brother for my 2nd birthday!
18. Favorite sport to watch? Football or Stanley Cup Playoff Hockey
19. Furthest place you are sending this? Not really sending this, but hopefully someone far away will read it!
20. Who do you expect to send this back to you? Not expecting a response because this is a blog post
21. Person you expect to send it back first? see #20
22. Favorite sayings? Most people would expect me to state "I raise" or "All in" here, but I think it would have to be "I'm picking up what you're putting down."
23. Are you a morning person or a night person? Night person
24. Pets? none right now. Traveling for work prevents that (among other things)
25. What did you want to be when you were little? An astronaut (what boy didn't?)
26. What are you today? Software Instructor / Consultant
27. What is your favorite candy? Peanut Butter M&Ms
28. What is your favorite flower? You do realize you "sent" this to a straight guy, right? I don't think I can name 5 flowers
29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Well, it was this past June 1, but now it's going to have to be next June
30. What are you listening to right now? music through my iPod on my stereo system
31. What was the last thing you ate? salmon
32. Do you wish on stars? Yes
33. Do you believe in Angels? Yes
34. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? purple
35. Pet peeves? Constant dragging of feet (literally), and poor driving skills
36. Favorite Television show? Tossup between Lost and Smallville
37. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Dan
38. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes
39. Favorite soft drink? Diet Snapple Half Iced Tea/Half Lemonade
40. Favorite restaurant? South Woods because of the service; The Brat Stop because of a good experience there
41. Hair Color? Brown
42. Siblings? 1 brother
43. What do you like most about yourself? I'm pretty laid back
44. What was your favorite toy as a child? Matchbox cars
45. Summer or Winter? Summer
46. Hugs or kisses? Kisses
47. Chocolate or vanilla? If it's just those two, chocolate, although I'm a sucker for vanilla bean
48. When was the last time you cried? It's been a while
49. What is under your bed? nothing, it's pretty low to the ground
50. What did you do last night for dinner? grilled some chicked
51. Favorite smell? Iroincally, coffee, although I'm not a big fan of drinking it
52. How many keys on your key ring? 2
53. How many years at your current job? 4
54. Favorite day of the week? Friday or Saturday, they're both pretty good, although during football season it's got to be Packer Sunday!
55. Do you make friends easily? Yes

Top Ten list of Cochenbalz 2008

2008-07-15T20:52:00.018-05:00

I've seen several "Top 10" lists about the 2008 Cochenbalz Invitational along with other people's highlights. I'd like to post mine here along with other pictures from the weekend. My Top 10 highlights of the 2008 Cochenbalz Invitational (in no particular order):

David nearly acing the elevated par 3 that had the fans surrounding it (Great Birdie!)
Constantly being amazed by Thimmesch's length and accuracy off the tee.
Getting accustomed to calling the first 18 "the front" and the second 18 "the back" and still trying to call the first nine of 18 "the front" and the second nine of 18 "the back".
John's 40 on the "back of the front" on Saturday in the two-man best ball matches which pretty much slaughtered David and myself.
As usual, feeling like I'm a midget whenever I'm around Pru. I just haven't seen you in a while.
Our foursome making an incredible putt for birdie in the scramble with Vallee playing the "Humpty Hump" from his cell phone, and then needing to have that playing for all our shots the rest of the round.
Making an 8 on Canyon #1 on Sunday. This may not seem good, but you likely didn’t see me play Canyon #1 on Friday or Saturday, did you? If you did you know why this is a highlight.
Watching Adam try and use the cart girls as his "beard" (see picture of Trav and Adam in blog)
Fitting 6 of us in a BMW to ride to Marley’s. This seems more improbable when you realize that in the backseat was a 6’8” person (Curt), his only slightly shorter brother (Keith), myself, and another 6’+ person (Trav) sitting on Keith’s lap. Saj and John appeared to be quite comfortable up front, while I’m sure anybody watching us get out of the car at Marley’s were waiting to see the clowns get out after us.
Getting a ride back to the Ramada from Marley's from the Kalahari shuttle, who drove four of us on his bus that seats 20 from Marley's and never went to Kalahari. This also included a stop at some guy's house along the way.
and of course, having a great time with some good competition and lots of drinking and camaraderie.

OK...so there's 11 instead of 10. I had more fun than I thought.

20 Dudes. 3 Days. Zero Class.

2008-07-15T11:42:00.008-05:00

OK. We don't really have Zero Class (at least not all of us), but the shirts we got for the 2008 golf outing had that phrase on there, and it was pretty funny. I got an invite to participate in this year's outing because some people had moved/dropped out/couldn't make it/etc., and had a great time golfing at Trapper's Turn. We played 36 holes on Friday, 36 holes on Saturday, and 18 holes on Sunday. That is a lot of golf! I had never played 36 holes in a day before, so I wasn't sure how I'd do over the 5 rounds of golf.

The outing was organized primarily by Trav, and many kudos to him for getting it all done! Kurt provided everyone with the great shirts for the outing. I'll have to post a picture of one of the shirts up here at some point. Thanks to Kurt and SmokeStacks, Inc., for providing the shirts for all of us. Please check out his site to see the work he does. Also, Saj provided everyone with some Miller products (cooler, golf balls, golf towel, beer). Thank you very much for that!! Because we had an 8:30am start on Friday we had to leave extremely early that morning. Adam, Bass, Marty, Trav, Vallee, and myself were on the road by about 5:30 or so. Bass has got a sweet conversion van that had a huge flat screen TV along with plenty of space for the 6 of us. It was a nice ride.

We arrived at the course, and found out that we were going to start a little late because of some rain that came through that morning. The rain delay allowed us to run to the hotel and check in, saving some time later on that evening. When we finally got started, I had one of the worst holes I've ever had on the very first hole (Canyon #1). In fact, the first 9 happened to be the worst 9 holes of golf I've had in about 5 years or so. I picked things up on the back (Arbor), and was golfing OK by the time we started our second 18 holes. The second 18 (Canyon/Lake) was significantly easier especially since it was a scramble. I started hitting drives solidly and making golf shots and was feeling good about my golf game. Because of the late start we didn't finish our last hole of golf until about 9:15pm. We had a little bit of fun on the last hole, with our foursome hitting shots simultaneously on the hole.

There was a lot of drinking to be done that night, and when it was time to golf on Saturday I was in rough shape. With the help of some Alleve I was feeling OK by about the 6th hole or so. For the rounds on Saturday we were playing two 2-man best ball matches for the first 18 holes (one match per nine), and the second 18 holes were to be a scramble. The two best golfers in the group of twenty were the team captains, and based on their knowledge of everyone's golf game and the scores shot on Friday morning two teams of ten were formed for the match play. Our matches were split 1 each, with us taking the front nine (Canyon) 2 and 1, and John and Tim taking the back nine (Arbor) 3 and 2. John shot an absolutely incredible 40 on the Arbor nine which pretty much crushed David and me.

The second 18 of the day was the scramble, and I was grouped with Thimmesch, Bucki, and Vallee. We came out of the gate hot, but bogeyed the 9th hole of the Arbor nine to make the turn at 4 under. We started the turn with a couple of birdies on the first three holes, and after making a spectacular putt for birdie with Vallee playing the "Humpty Hump" on his cell phone. We started playing that for all of our shots from that point forward. Because we were the last foursome we were able to find out that the leaders in the clubhouse were at 9 under par. We were at 8 under heading in to the par 5 18th (Lake #9), but after we all chipped a little long from 50 yards none of us were able to bring the birdie home (it would have been an outstanding putt from the back of the fringe if we had), and we finished at 8 under par, tying for second place.

We found out while eating dinner that the match play had ended with my team, Team USA, leading over Team International 6 1/2 to 3 1/2. Sunday's 18 was to be individual matches, with each nine consisting of a match, so 20 points were up for grabs. I was matched up against Dan. We started on the Canyon nine, which I wasn't too excited about since I had scored my poorest nines on the Canyon nine. For the third straight day I played very poorly on Canyon #1, although the 8 I posted on Sunday was the best of the three days. I found myself down 1, but managed to put together a very solid stretch of golf and was able to win the nine 3 and 2. Dan got me on the second nine (Arbor) 2 and 1. Dan made a great up and down on #7 to steal a hole that I thought I would win and then he tried real hard on #8 to let me back in the match, but I couldn't get the job done and was only able to halve the hole. As it turned out, the matches were split 10 points apiece on Sunday giving Team USA the win 16 1/2 to 13 1/2. It was a really good time, and I met a lot of really great guys that I look forward to doing some more golfing with soon!

When a right decision just seems sooo wrong...

2008-06-30T12:48:00.004-05:00

I had the opportunity to play the following hand over this past weekend, and I thought I'd run through the hand to allow you to get a feel for the decision-making process that goes on sometimes when playing in a cash game. Also, the end result of the hand was just too ironic to pass up the opportunity to discuss it here.

I will interject my thoughts in to the hand history as the hand plays out. To set the scenario, one of the players at the table had been playing many hands by putting in the minimum raise, and was often raising with garbage. On the couple occasions where he had recently had a decent hand he had lost. That player's name was twetty2525. The other player involved in the hand was a tight, aggressive player named Cytoviper. I've been playing fairly tight myself, as I usually do in the cash games, and was up from my $80 buy-in when the following hand came up:

Full Tilt Poker Game #7004780543: Table Begonia Bay - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 12:48:26 ET - 2008/06/28
Seat 1: caca993 ($544.65)
Seat 2: Phantom Aces ($204.90)
Seat 3: pallavicini ($208.10), is sitting out
Seat 4: mbagraduate ($41)
Seat 5: OrlandoRyan ($77.25)
Seat 6: Cytoviper ($323.55)
Seat 7: twetty2525 ($69.35)
Seat 8: Copy That Jack ($210.10)
Seat 9: G4M3ST3R ($34)
Phantom Aces posts the small blind of $1
mbagraduate posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Phantom Aces [Qh Qd] - wow! Very nice hand for the small blind. Let's hope for some action!
OrlandoRyan calls $2
Cytoviper raises to $9 - OK. I've got a raiser. Now let's hope to build a pot.
twetty2525 raises to $16 - I don't give much credit here to this raise. He's been raising a lot.
Copy That Jack folds
G4M3ST3R folds
caca993 folds
Prior to my action, I thought about reraising to $70, since that would set twetty2525 all in, but right before I hit the "Raise" button, I thought to myself "What if Cytoviper actually has a hand, and I raise right in to it?" I thought I could probably find out the same information without risking nearly as much, so I decided to raise, but to a lower amount. If Cytoviper has a big hand, he'll let me know pretty quickly.
Phantom Aces raises to $35
mbagraduate folds
OrlandoRyan has 15 seconds left to act
OrlandoRyan folds
Cytoviper raises to $125 - Well, this is a 4th raise. It certainly would indicate a very strong hand.
twetty2525 calls $53.35, and is all in - Honestly, I don't know what twetty2525 has, but even he can't be that dumb to be playing with nothing here. The action has now gone raise-raise-raise-raise-all in. I'm pretty sure Queens are dead. Easy decision now.
Phantom Aces has 15 seconds left to act
Phantom Aces folds
Cytoviper shows [Ah As] - well, the read was correct! Not bad to only lose $35 with Queens there.
twetty2525 shows [Tc Th]
Uncalled bet of $55.65 returned to Cytoviper
*** FLOP *** [Qc 3h Ac] - Whew! We both would have flopped sets. I'd have gone all in for sure here!
*** TURN *** [Qc 3h Ac] [Qs] - Are you f---ing kidding me?!? I would have made quads! There would have been another $320 in the pot, too!!
*** RIVER *** [Qc 3h Ac Qs] [2h]
Cytoviper shows a full house, Aces full of Queens
twetty2525 shows two pair, Queens and Tens
Cytoviper wins the pot ($174.70) with a full house, Aces full of Queens
twetty2525 is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $177.70 | Rake $3
Board: [Qc 3h Ac Qs 2h]
Seat 1: caca993 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Phantom Aces (small blind) folded before the Flop and would have scooped a huge pot had he called...UGH!
Seat 3: pallavicini is sitting out
Seat 4: mbagraduate (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: OrlandoRyan folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Cytoviper showed [Ah As] and won ($174.70) with a full house, Aces full of Queens
Seat 7: twetty2525 showed [Tc Th] and lost with two pair, Queens and Tens
Seat 8: Copy That Jack didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: G4M3ST3R didn't bet (folded)

It just seems so wrong that after I make that decision, and it's correct to fold there, that the "poker gods" would put that board out there to make me see that. Just plain wrong!! Well, hopefully all my reads are that good and that I can scoop a nice pot some other time. Right?

Hat Trick!

2008-06-20T12:14:00.000-05:00

Over the past weekend the last qualifying event for the Cream City Poker League (CCPL) took place. It was hosted at my place, and the turnout was a little light, as I had anticipated with the warmer weather starting to arrive and my location being so far southeast for most of the players. The final number of players was 14, so we started with two tables of 7 players each.

We settled in for what turned out to be a relatively short evening of poker. The event was over by 10:30! The last couple of tournaments had gone until close to midnight so I thought this tournament got done very quick when compared to other CCPL events.

Our table started with a complete flurry of action in Level 1 unlike action I’ve seen in any of the prior CCPL events. The table had myself, and to my immediate left, a loose aggressive player who we’ll call Player A. Almost on the opposite side of the table from me was a player who plays very solid and has had consistently high finishes in all of the CCPL events he has played (we’ll call him Player B). To my immediate right was a player who I think plays selectively aggressive, but I think overplays some weaker hands. I’ll call him Player C for this blog. I don’t want to say that the other players were of no consequence as I think most of the players in the CCPL are decent players, but myself, A, B, and C, were involved in almost all of the early action.

Before the tournament had started player B had indicated to player A that he was going to just limp in, or call, all of player A’s hands in the first two levels. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t want to see a whole lot of that since that would squeeze me between the two of them if I also got involved in hands with them. Our CCPL events start with blinds at 10 and 15, and during the first three levels you have the ability to rebuy once if you lose your whole stack. Very early in the tournament, player A was in the Big Blind so player B limped, and when it got to me I saw I had pocket Tens. I raised to an absurd amount for the level, 125 chips. Everyone folded back to player B, who also knows me well, and after thinking for a while, folded what turned out to be two over cards. I showed the Tens and we moved to the next hand. Well, on the very next hand I got dealt AK (also called Big Slick), and decided to raise the same absurd amount with only one other limper. Once again everyone folded and I showed the hand. On the hand following that I got a pair of Queens. Once again I made the same absurd raise. I just figured eventually someone would try to play back at me. One player called and I won when I moved all in on the flop and showed the Queens as I collected the pot. I took a hand off when I got two terrible cards, but on the hand following that I got a pair of Tens again. There was a limper ahead of me, so I raised to 125 again, and this time, player A made a small raise right behind me. It got back around to me, and knowing that I had a rebuy available and I still did have a decent hand I moved all in. I was called immediately and was shown…pocket 9s! I had the lead! My hand held up, and Player A had to rebuy.

Well on the very next hand, player A and I got mixed up in a hand again. This time I limped with Th 9h, and player A made it 125 to go (now the standard raise I guess). I made the call and the board flopped a pair with two hearts. I had to act first, and since player A had no rebuy available I decided to move all in, since unless he has a big pair (or trips, although that was unlikely) he would have to fold because he would be out. Even if he had the overpair I had the flush draw. Well, player A called with his QQ and his hand held up to win the pot. I still had the chip lead though since rebuys get you only 75% of what we initially started with. In the meantime, player B has been commenting on my ridiculous play so far. Player C has been quiet, but he keeps getting raised off every hand he tries to play by me. Well, a couple hands later, I get a pair of nines and with a limper in the pot, player C made the minimum raise before me. I knew that player C would play the hand, but with my Nines I didn’t want to see anyone else play so I reraised a healthy, but not too large, of an amount. Player C called and the flop hit the board as: T-9-x, giving me a set of 9s. Player C moved all in and I called instantly, showing the 9s. Player C had AQ, and was drawing to a runner runner straight. The odds of doing that are 68 to 1, so I was pretty confident my hand would hold up, and it did. This gave me a significant chip lead.

I was getting ridiculous hands throughout most of the evening. I got AA against an opponent who always bets top pair and rarely folds it and won a significant pot there. Even when I wasn’t getting good cards I still made hands. I was dealt Jack-8 and got it in against a short stack at the bubble. He had Ace-Jack, which is a hand where he’s about a 70-75% favorite to win. I made a straight at the river to eliminate him. It was unreal what I was catching for hands and boards! Eventually, my pair of 8s in heads up play held up against my opponent’s Ace-Ten in the classic race situation (all in preflop), and I won my 3^rd CCPL event, and my 2^nd in a row. I was extremely happy with my results this season, having won 3 of 7 events, although as I mentioned that night, I think any of the CCPL players that had drawn my seat on Saturday would have won the event as I was getting an incredible amount of good hands. I’m looking forward to the CCPL Tournament of Champions, where I hopefully can cap off a great season! I’m off to Virginia for a week, so I don’t think I’ll get any live poker action for the blog for next week, but you never know!

Seriously...again?

2008-06-09T13:49:00.003-05:00

If you've followed the blog you may have noticed a pattern that has developed with the last hand that I've played while out in Las Vegas, and it's not a good one. During the two prior trips to Las Vegas, my last hand was a big hand (once KK, once AA), and both times my hand got cracked for the stack that was in front of me. Part of the reason why it's been the last hand is because when it happens it tends to be about 30-45 minutes before I have to leave for the airport, and I don't want to rebuy to play that short of a period of time. Well, this trip once again ends on a large hand, but this time you need to know about the hand before that hand to know how it all went down.

I was playing at a $2/$5 No Limit table at the Bellagio, and was playing fairly tight, having only gotten involved in a couple of serious pots in the last hour+. I was in the Small Blind, and everyone started just calling the Big Blind. Well, of the eight people who had the opportunity to act before it got to me, six called the Big Blind. I looked down and saw:

2c 6s

obviously not a good starting hand, but I knew that most of the players would respect a raise from me, so I popped it to $45. Well, the Big Blind folds, and one by one they all fold. Then the player who was in the Big Blind jokingly says, "Let me guess, 7-2, right?". I had been chatting with this guy for the couple hours I was there (Nice guy from Arkansas, and he even had all his teeth!), so I decided to needle the table a little bit by responding, "You're close!", and I turned over my hand to show the table. I followed that up by remarking, "That's OK, I'll be able to do the same thing on the next hand with Aces now and you guys won't believe me!"

Well, on the very next hand I am now on the button, and once again, everyone starts limping, and I look down and I find: KK!! Unbelievable! I couldn't have set it up any better! It's not quite Aces, but in this situation, it's almost exactly what I'm looking for here. So once again, I pop it up to $45. This time, as the action went back around the table I'm getting the "evil eye" and four other players call, building a nice pot. The flop comes:

8c 6c 2c

which was about as bad a flop as I could see. Everyone checked to me, and since I know that the odds of flopping a flush are 119 to 1, and since I only had $250 in front of me to protect a $150 pot, I moved all in. As the action went back around, the guy in the hijack (two off the button), calls "I call, and you're not going to like it." Well, that can only mean one thing. He flopped the flush. Incidentally, I didn't catch the runner runner I needed for my full house. He had me covered, and I chose to not rebuy since we had to head to the aiport in about 45 minutes (I've been here before...), so once again, my last hand in Las Vegas was a large pocket pair that got cracked. Oh, how I look forward to going back.........lol.