1/2 NL fun

played the other night at winstar casino (http://www.winstarcasinos.com) just across the texas border into oklahoma. i should move there. [or not]

despite being in the middle of nothing (kinda like state line in nevada), they have a really nice poker room. they were spreading all kinds of games too, including PLO, omaha hi/lo, and no limit holdem games up to 5/10 NL. there were at least 2 maybe three tables of the "big game" going on and this was a wednesday night.

i didn't really bring much of a roll with me this trip, so i decided to play 1/2 NL. right away it was evident that these blumpkins were not serious poker players. most hands would see several people limping in or mini-raises to like $7. when i had something i would 3 bet preflop, or out of position i would call small raises with almost any two. the first hand i won was 8c4c when i picked up straight and flush draws on the turn, hit my straight and got paid by 1 pair.

i did help my image early on when i raised in early position with AA and flopped top set. i bet out into 4 other players and got 1 caller. really the only draw was a flush draw, which missed on the turn, so i went all in for about a pot sized bet thinking i would take down the pot. he called with KK!! wow, i guess he could beat a bluff or a missed flush draw, but i think he just saw his cards and they looked so nice, that he had to call. so i got to show my top set having played the hand fast and aggressively.

i almost got paid again when i flopped top 2 pair in the big blind with 10-6. i would have probably dumped the hand if someone had raised, but pocket 8s in late-ish position failed to raise preflop. he almost called my check raise all in! i showed the table my 2 pair letting them know i "always" had the goods. this gave me license to steal with any pair / any draw.

later after showing down some winners, i took down a pot with 7h4h. i called a raise to $10 in position with 5 players to the flop, which was 2c3h5h. [the other thing they all liked to do was make massive underbets.] the guy who bet the flop, bet $10 into a pot of over $50. i raised to $30 and everyone folded. i showed them my 7 high.

i can't even remember how many times i raised with middle pair or a straight draw and took down the pot. after about 5 hours of them giving me money, the crowning hand of the evening took place. the pot was unraised to me in the big blind with 99. i made a nice raise. i got 2 callers. the flop was A high, so i checked, middle position bet, the other guy folded, and i raised. he called. whoops. i didn't put him on an ace as he didn't raise preflop, and definitely not a strong ace. i thought he was probably a good enough player to lay down a bad ace, but most of the rest of the table would definitely call off their stack with top pair no kicker. i wasn't quite sure how i was going to proceed in the hand before the 9d hit the turn. i checked, hoping he would take a big stab at it. he didn't.....so i made nice value bet on the river (which did happen to complete a flush draw), and he raised! i just didn't believe him. i called and he tabled pocket 6s. i guess he was planning on stealing the pot the whole hand and figured i would be able to laydown a one pair hand. too bad so sad, i had better than 1 pair and plus i had him beat anyway.

i logged close to a +5 buyin session which was some of the easiest money ever with virtually no difficult decisions. thanks oklahoma, you're OK!

[am i seriously spewing out dad humor already.....? i'm not even pregnant.]

not to leave you hanging

in reference to the 9/20 posting below, i said i'd report what the kid held when i called his all in on the turn.

if you remember, i had 10-7, and the flop was 10-7-4. i check-raised on the flop and then lead out on the turn, when he raised all in over my bet. i called thinking he had an overpair and he had A-10 for top pair top kicker. my 2 pair held for the nice $1050 pot.

--------------
the other thing i didn't yet post was the brutal beginning to my week in texas a couple of weeks ago. i was flying to houston via dallas for a training seminar that began on monday morning. so, naturally, i left san diego on sunday. we were held up leaving due to weather in dallas and then when we finally got there, we sat on the tarmac for 25 minutes or so. they had announced that since the arrivals had been delayed into dallas, the connecting flights were also going to depart later than scheduled. i mosied (i didn't quite run, but i walked fast -- not the gay speed walking you see on the olympics, but a nice paced walk) over to my gate to fly to houston. the last passenger was just getting on and i was relieved i had made it just in time. "i'm sorry sir, we gave your seat away to a standby passenger 10 minutes ago."

wow - that sucked. we had been sitting on the tarmac for 25 minutes and i would have had plenty of time to get there. it was the same damn airline that i was connecting to (thanks american airlines -- you were not pocket Aces that day), you'd think they knew that we had landed and were waiting for a gate. maybe they could hold the very last plane of the night for the 6-8 of us that were connecting from the san diego flight. i guess not though.

i was sans luggage in a t-shirt and shorts in stormy dallas. thankfully, they hooked me up with a crappy ass hotel room for the night where i could get 5 hours of sleep and get back to the airport for a 6:20am flight. but the american flights were all full, so i had to fly american eagle to shreveport and then connect to a continental airlines flight to houston. that all went okay, except for the hotel airport shuttle almost causing me to miss the flight from dallas.

oh, but the real kicker was that continental only flies to houston intercontinental airport (Bush), not hobby, as i was originally scheduled. so i arrive in houston to no luggage. american says they can't track it cuz my final carrier into houston was continental. continental says the luggage is not in their system, so they have no way to track it. i spend the next 2 hours at the continental counter with up to 3 people trying to figure out what to do and how to find my luggage. in the end, we fill out a lost baggage claim form, and i just leave the airport, not knowing if i'll ever get it.

i rush over to the training seminar and get there about 12:30pm, not having really eaten anything yet, and in my shorts and t shirt from the previous day. i'm hoping they hadn't taken a lunch break yet, but of course they had, so i starve for an hour or two until the next break when i run to get something to eat.

when i get to the hotel that evening, i find that continental airlines had delivered my luggage that afternoon. it had flown to hobby airport based on my initial itinerary, of course.

anyway, it was a pretty "bad beat" to start my long week in texas.

[wow - those poker jokes are really really bad.....]

WSOP videos

i found some you tube videos from the espn broadcasts that show me in the wsop. these are clips from the third episode in the main event series:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Vcg5wHM1U
part 3, 2:57
(shows my arm sitting next to varkonyi on his right)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bBczPe3zro
part 6, 1:11
(shows the back of my head, next to varkonyi in the red shirt and my brother on the rail with the camera)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axh1AXI-NT4
part 7, 1:06
(best view.....congratulating varkonyi on his double up)

i'm going to try to somehow download these videos and post them, but you tube has some weird encoding.....

i knew it was a matter of time

what a blow up last night. first i donkey my way out of the syndicate tournament (lost 2 big pots with big pocket pairs, then lost flush over flush), then i get unbelievably cold decked for an entire session at oceans 11. i had QQ and JJ about 7 times in the session and didn't win one of the hands. i did win a medium size pot with KK, but that was several buy ins in.

it seemed like every time i had one of those premium pairs, i was in the blinds and had 6 people already in the pot. i made the mistake of not re-raising enough out of position. that won't be happening again.

i think three or four times i had QQ or JJ the board came paired. i made bad decisions twice to not call an all in raise in one hand when i'm pretty sure i was ahead (the guy turned out to be an absolute tard-a-thon in a box), and then pay off a relatively passive player when he raised all in on my turn bet after we checked it around on the flop. of course he had A-8 offsuit under the gun, called my preflop re-raise........and then flopped trip 8s, obviously. the donkariffic guy claimed he had K-10 on a 2-7-7-10 board after calling a pot sized bet on the flop with no pair and no draw. i doubted he could be that bad at poker, but after watching and listening to his thought process on some later hands, i do believe he called me with no pair / no draw on the flop, then when i bet the pot again on the turn, he thought his K-10 was good, raised me all in and i laid down JJ.

oh yeah, one other time i had QQ, a guy had KK and turned a set to leave me drawing dead. that was nice.

early on i attempted a bluff on the definition of a calling station. of course, i had never played with the guy and gave him credit enough to be able to lay down 3rd pair with a J kicker. my mistake. damn that AQ. i raised with it in late position, and i raised him on the flop, and bet the turn strong, and then pushed on the river. nice call with J-8, one pair. wow.

the only, and i mean the only, bright spot was flopping a boat with 99 to win a medium pot. the other player was all in preflop with AQ, but at least there was some dead money in the pot.

the highlight of the night was my final encounter with QQ. we were down to 6 handed and there was a raise under from under the gun to $16 and a call by the idiot luckbox in seat 4 (wow - terrible player and hit the shit out of every flop.....he would call almost every preflop raise and kept hitting. it was maddening). i raise to $55 with QQ. the small blind cold calls $55 as do the other 2. 4 to the flop. flop is 4-8-8. pretty good flop for me and i'm almost sure i have the best hand. KK or AA would have likely repopped it preflop. it checks to me, so i push for about $135. the small blind calls the others fold. i still might be good if he has a pair under mine like 10s or Js. then he says : "i have quads." and flips over pocket 8s. the turn is not a queen, so i muck and get the hell out of dodge. it was not my night.

i was reminded of the lesson to not chase a losing session like that. it's hard to not get more and more frustrated and end up playing worse and worse. i tried to bet my hands when i had them, but continued and continued to get outflopped.

looking forward to a bit of time off this week.....i've still had great cumulative results over the past 2 months, so i just need to shake it off.

pulled out a winner

started stuck pretty quickly on saturday night at O11, but i loved my table. there were a couple of super loose bad players at the table, so i felt like it was just a matter of time. one of the guys played about 80% of the pots and raised preflop about every other hand. in one hand, he raised, got a couple of callers, and i called in the small blind with 88. i knew i could take it down preflop, but out of position, i didn't want to play a big pot with 88 if someone called. i checked the 9 high flop which checked around. the turn was a 4, but it put 3 hearts on board, i lead out with a decent bet. the crazy loose player min-raised me. i thought he probably had a flush draw or maybe had paired the 4. i called. whoops, there goes my strategery of not playing a big pot with 88 out of position. the river was a blank, and i checked, he bet $100, which gave me about 3:1. i called and he showed a queen high flush.

our 2/3 NL game broke and i ended up sitting at 5/5 for most of the night / morning. there was a mix of players with several tighties, and a couple of loose cannons, and some solid players. i picked up some medium pots with pocket KKs twice, but slowed down a bit from the 2/3 game and played a bit tighter.

i raised a couple of limpers to $20 on the button with 4c5c. there were 3 callers. the flop was 2c3cKd, giving me an open ended straight flush draw. when you raise on the button with a speculative hand like low suited connectors, i'm not sure what more you can ask for. an early position player led out for $25 into a pot of $80. i raised to $80. he called and we were heads up to the turn, which was the 10d. he checked, and i decided to continue my semi-bluff rather than check behind and give him control. i felt he would have a tough time calling with anything less than 2 pair as i had played the hand strong and fast the whole time. i bet $200. he called relatively quickly. as it turns out, i probably should have eyed his stack before making this bet. he had only about $150 left after making the call. i should have bet about $150 on the turn to leave him with $200 on the river, so that it would be easier for him to fold on the river. anyway, the river was another blank, the 8h. he checked to me. obviously the only way i can win the pot is to push him in. i had him covered so i quickly pushed my "All-In" pumpkin into the middle. he thought for a few seconds and laid down Kc6c. wow. dodged one there. i showed him my 5 high, which got an angry "Nice hand!" out of him. i guess he must have put me on AA, AK, or KQ, or a set to fold the hand.

a bit later, i re-raised butch (of O11 infamy) in the small blind with QQ to $100. both he and the button called. the flop was Q-10-10. ummmmmm......jakepot! i wanted my action to seem pained, so i waited it out and watched butch carefully before i checked. he checked and the button bet $200. i thought for a few and pushed it all in. butch folded instantly, and the button made a pretty easy fold too with AQ [sorry brett - i was looking for butch to follow up with a continuation bet]. he had about $400-500 left which was the size of the pot, but there is really no hand he could be ahead of, except if i was making a suicide move with JJ or AK. i showed my top boat to take down a nice pot. butch said he folded KJ, but i was surprised he wouldn't try to take down the pot with his open ended straight draw, even though he was drawing dead.

anyway, after being down early, i pulled out a decent win for the session with those two big pots. after checking out my spreadsheet i started on Aug 1, that makes 20 of 23 winners.