ship it!

i went nowhere in the free roll i had at pechanga a couple weeks back. i raised some limpers on the button with AK, the first limper min-raised me, others folded, i called. flop was K high. he check raised, and with half my chips in the pot already, i had to call, not liking it too much. obvy he had KK. nice hand.

i went to pechanga again last night, this time to purchase the main event seat from the guy who stole it from under me (kidding, doug). so the syndicate is the proud owner of a wsop main event seat (with my name on it!!!).

since i was there, i figured i might as well gamboool it up with some locals. it's kind of nice to be able to play in a room where i don't know 75% of the people at the table. plus i like playing in "casinos" vs. card rooms. i just seem to do much better.

so i'm glad i went last night. i played 5/5 NL and had one of my best nights ever. the players in that game were by far more gambly than the 2/3 at oceans. i more than doubled up at the must move table in less than an hour, then got a seat in the main game, which proved to have a much higher level of gamble than the must move table -- pretty amazing.

here's an example of a hand i witnessed soon after sitting in the main game: limps to SB who raises to $60, BB makes it $160. SB calls. flop is 8 high. SB moves in for $395. BB thinks for a minute, stacks and counts his chips, and calls. turn J, river 3. Showdown: small blind 9c9s, big blind AsJc. ummmmmm, shizzle my dizzle, mr. rogers! wtf?! such a crime that farha jr. left with $1200.

and for the most part, besides two full timers, most of the others were pretty bad. i did have the best seat in the house, i can't complain there. probably the worst player at the table had a huge chip stack ($3k) as he kept hitting draws and sucking out by making trip 6s on the river. it was like 3 times he was dead to a 6 which hit on the river, giving him winning trips. anyway, i was sitting to his direct left. i re-raised him preflop several times, and he called and then folded on the flop every time. of course i had him beat every time, but he was calling 15-20 big blinds preflop with like 65s and the like. it was brilliant.

i felt like i was in the zone and making the right reads and the right plays. in fact, i usually vividly remember the details of lots of hands, but today i can only remember a few select hands. i used to get that feeling in water polo, when i would score and then realize i didn't remember the preceeding minute of time. we called it "the zone".

here is one hand i remember: EP raises to $30 (fairly standard raise). three callers to me, including 1 player who is all in for the $30 bet. i call with Jd9d in the small blind. [i normally wouldn't play a drawing hand like that out of position, but with deep stacks later in the night, implied odds were there]. flop is K high with 2 diamonds. not a terrible flop for me. i check it, and it checks around. turn is another diamond. i lead for $50 with my J high flush, and the initial raiser makes it $115 more. now when 1 player is all in, the dynamics of a hand changes. there will be a showdown and the side pot is dry, so typically the betting is mild, unless two active players really like their hands. i call his raise. i'm thinking he might have AK with the nut flush draw. the river was a brick. i know jamie gold would cream himself for a J high flush, but i thought i would bluff catch with my flush. if he missed, there is a good chance he is going to want the side pot, which now has become significant. and i was pretty sure i would be calling any bet by him, since i would be getting 3:1 on his shove. so i check, and he shoves the river. i say outloud, "i hope you have pocket Kings.....i call." he shows KK for top set. bummer of a slow play for you bro. funny thing is, the all in player made the nut flush and won the main pot with all the $30 calls. glad he didn't have any more money on the table.

i felt like i was definitely getting respect from the full timers, like i was in their fraternity. one of them didn't believe me that i had a job. why would i lie about being an engineer?

what up

wow - it's been a while. too long, i know.

quick update:
i took 2nd (of 160ish) in a WSOP Main Event qualifier at Pechanga this past weekend. Had to settle for about $3k instead of the seat + cash. bummer. so close to dancing again. the luckbox got AA on final hand. who gets AA heads up for the title??? the final table all got a voucher to play in the same tourney later this month, so let's see if i can get heads up again!

the next night in the syndicate tourney i got heads up again with the Season 1 winner of the seat. Season 1 vs. Season 2. He went in with at least a 3:1 advantage and i got close to even, but no cigar. his 6-4o made 2 pair vs. my KK for most of my chips. i'm now in 5th place overall with 8 tourneys left. i'm feeling hot and ready to make a run!

i guess i could do worse than 2nd two nights in a row.

also, i noticed that the you tube links below are dead, so here is a new one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCCpA3k4gjA&feature=related
(2:45 in)

this week in poker!

i got back from mexico from jed's bachelor party this weekend just in time for the Syndicate event. the turnout wasn't huge, i think we had about 15 people. i started off very slow and had to make moves to stay alive as i was pretty card dead. one hand that really sucked to chop: i had J-10 suited in a re-raised pot preflop (keep in mind that we were short handed). flop is JJQ. checks to me, i go all in for about the pot. i get called by AK. turn Q. river Q. chop it up. ugh. my favorite was busting john with 88 when i raised on the button and he shoved with KsQs which amounted to about a minimum raise. i called and flopped a boat : 8-J-J. the turn gave John an Ace high flush and he erupted in cheers. i quietly reminded him that he was drawing to 1 out, the 10s for a royal flush to beat my boat [verrryy niiiiice (borat voice)!!!!] i busted in 5th with KQ all in vs. Q3 and 78. flop was 10-J-J. pretty damn good flop for me. turn 4. their 9 outer hits with the river with a 7. oh well -- i got up to oceans and had a quick but good session there.

i played last night again and there were a couple of noteworthy hands. in a limped pot, i held 8-9 and flopped the top 2 pair on a 896 board. i bet and i got 2 callers. the turn was 6. the early position player led into me, so i raised, others folded, he called. the river was a 9 to fill me up. he checked, i value bet and he called. he showed down 7-5 for the flopped straight. ummmmm.....what the fuck were you thinking guy? he let me get there as best as he possibly could and when the hand came up in conversation a few minutes later, he hadn't realized that he flopped a straight! i should have gotten his number to start having him come to our home games.

i did well at the beginning of the session after flopping a set of 4s on my very first hand at the table. i also flopped top 2 pair with AQ and got a caller, which is pretty amazing for me to win a nice pot with that hand. then our table broke and it all went to shit.

early at my new table i turned top 2 pair with AK and got raised. i called and it turns out that he had called my 3 bet preflop with J-10 and made the nut straight as i hit my top 2 pair. ouch. oh then a really brutal hand came up when i made the nut 10 high straight on the turn and bet it big to protect against the flush draw and got 1 caller. of course the board paired on the river and it was the 8-9, 2 pair ---> boat hand coming back to bite me in the ass.

i just continued to get cold decked. not a good stretch in there. i was getting ready to leave after a long sucky session, when the following hand came up:

i folded. !!!!! yea! that was my best play in this hand. i wasn't really watching the action that closely, but i know it was 3 bet preflop and there were 3 players in the hand.

the flop was AQJ. bet, call, raise to $200, call, call.
turn 3.
short stack all in for $150, all in for $500 from the middle position, insta-call all in by the button. wow. as the three players revealed their hands, we saw JJ from the short stack, QQ from the middle position, and AA from the button!!

set over set over set. wow - what a hand. brutal cooler for the Queens and Jacks. but wait for it............





river J! BAD BEAT JACKPOT BABY!!! and the crowd goes wild. if you ever want to see a bunch of old fat men get excited and hug / high five each other, this was it. Aces full of Jacks beaten by Quad Jacks! $31,000 split 40% to the loser, 20% to the winner, and 20% divided among the rest of the table. pocket AA pocketed over $12k and the winner of the hand with 4 jacks got just over $6k (incidentally, it was this kid's first time ever at oceans 11. nice.....). the table share was just under $1800, which isn't bad after running cold for several hours. pocket QQ got just a table share after stacking off, which kinda sux for him.

weird though that i almost felt guilty about leaving with more money than i came with since i didn't deserve it from the poker. but i guess that's why we pay $1 a hand in perpetuity.

so after a good start and a terrible middle, the session redeemed itself pretty damn well!

jerrett baker

you probably didn't know him if you're reading about poker, but a friend of mine died on sunday in a car accident. he was 33 and a firefighter in san diego. he was probably the most fun loving guy i know, always making you smile. whether it was laughing at him or with him, it was always good times. he was a great volleyball player and golfer and knew how to take advantage of the fun opportunities that life offers. he was a great guy and i will miss him.

here are a couple of pics from estero 2006:

Jackpot, Nevada........?

Radness! Can’t remember being happy about finding a 3-6 limit holdem game, but I was last night. I drove most of the way up to boise yesterday with 3 work colleagues (for a conference). We stayed at a town along the border of idaho and nevada called Jackpot, Nevada. If you ever get a chance, I wouldn’t recommend going there. There were 3 motels / hotels, 2 little casinos, and 1 stoplight.

I haven’t played a lot of limit holdem, but I think the adjustments aren’t too difficult…..at least to play 3-6 holdem in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. it reminded me of Swingers when they play blackjack at the $5 table with the blue hairs and bikers. it was a fun time regardless of the outcome (I doubled my $100 buy-in within a couple of hours). though you can’t price people of out of chasing draws, you can build pots as a favorite and you can get people to pay off with 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) best hands on the river.

Anyway – I’m stuck in boise for the rest of the week, so I look forward to reading any of your poker exploits to tide me over. Ready……..go!

friday 9/28 @ O11

12 hours and dead even. It could have been worse. I could have lost money. Tried to catch the last of the drunkards on Friday night, but didn’t find any at my first table. Early on I doubled up a guy who flopped trip 5s versus my pocket 10s. then I lost a $500 pot with the 2nd nuts to da noootz. I made a king high flush and of course he had the acey deucey of diamonds. I am certainly not good enough to lay down the 2nd nut flush on an unpaired board with just 3 board flush cards. I guess I’ll have to continue paying that hand off.

I finally started making some hands and made it back to even about 6am. Even wasn’t good enough though – what was the point of leaving even? I figured out that leaving even meant I could have gotten some sleep. Our table broke and I got a seat at a table with 6 ladies who were there from oklahoma for the women’s tournament. It was a bad omen to flop 2 pair with 10-9 and win my first hand there. I proceeded to miss about a bazillion (or maybe it was a gazillion, I can’t quite remember) flops in a row, and get check raised when I continuation bet with AK high. I don’t think I flopped a set all session.

There was a terrible player who was sitting 2 seats to my left. He had mentioned that he was down close to $3k. I raised in late position with J-10 and he called, which didn’t mean much, cuz he played about 70% of hands. The flop was J-9-2, which looked pretty good to me. He lead out and I raised him big, being pretty sure I was ahead. Whoops, he insta-pushed for over $300 more and I had to lay it down. He showed 9-2 as he folded. And he wondered how he could be losing money.

I did, however, make 1 nice hand. I was getting a little frisky at about noon and re-raised a middle position raiser to $25 on the button with AhJh. He called. This player was pretty tight / weak, and I hadn’t seen him play big pots except when he flopped a straight flush with Qh10h. The flop was K high with 2 hearts and he check raised my $40 bet to $100. Ok, so he’s got KQ or AK. I thought about re-raising him all in, but my hand had a lot of potential and I didn’t necessarily want to lose him. I had the nut flush draw and a back door nut straight draw with an overcard. So I called the check raise on the flop. The turn was a Jack, so I picked up a pair to go with my nut flush draw. He checked to me on the turn (see, I told you – he was weak tight). I thought about moving all in with at least 11 clean outs plus some fold equity. In retrospect, I think I should have shoved here, I’m not sure he would have been able to call with 1 pair, albeit top pair. I checked the behind on the turn. The river was the lovely 9h. he checked to me again. I value bet $125 on the river and he called pretty quickly with AK.

The last hand I played I raised in late position with Qc9c. I think 4 people called the raise. The flop was all low cards with two diamonds and an early position player lead out for $15 into a pot of $75. This was almost always either a weak made hand or a draw and I didn’t think he could stand much heat. I raised to $55, he called. Heads up to the turn. The turn was a brick and he checked, I bet $105 and he thoughtfully folded. Think long, think wrong, right? He showed QdJd for a flush draw. Of course he asked what I had and of course I had an over pair. It was either that or show the bluff. I didn’t need to generate any action though as I was planning on leaving soon. That pot put me almost back to dead even for an eventful but non-winning / non-losing session.

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.

yes, i'm still alive....

rest easy, reading public. i have not perished. i wasn't arrested for my participation in illegal card room activities. i am alive and well. i thank you all for the virtual barrage of emails i've received begging for blog updates. so buckle in cuz here we go.

i've continued to dominate the poker table basically any time i work my magic with the cards. i really don't understand how or why i'm such a god on earth as of late, but i'm enjoying the run. i think i'm at about 17 winning sessions over the last 20 with relatively minor losses on those 3.

last weekend, i played a session at 2/3 NL oceans 11 in which i was +4 buy ins in less than 4 hours. i really was running hot, and i think got increased action due to people not believing that i had "it" every time. really the cornerstone hand was after i'd won a couple nice pots. i picked up the monster 10c7c in the big blind (with about $800 behind). there was an early-middle position raise to $12 (which was a small raise in this game) and three callers. i called $9. the flop was 10-7-4. i checked, the initial raiser bet $25, everyone else folded and i raised to $65. he called. turn was the 9d for a board of 10-7-4-9, no flush possibility. i bet $100. he thought for a second and pushed all in for $340 more than my bet. do you call?

[i reasoned that he held JJ. he was a fairly new player who had really only played 1 big hand when he flopped bottom set and doubled up. results posted in a later blog entry.....]

i did lose a pretty decent pot with 10-7 when i made a straight in a 3 way pot with 1 guy all in. i lost to a straight flush. nice hand. i was able to lose the minimum though when i checked behind on the turn when we both hit our card, the Js. damn that Jack of spades -- it's the card that caused me to lose 1/3 of my chips in the main event when a guy flopped a set twice in the same hand due to dealer error.

as a going away present from the session, the table thought they would give me something nice. two short stacks and myself ended up all in preflop when i held QQ. i was sure i had them both beat, but the Q on the river sent me the $350 pot.

i've also played this week a couple of nights. there was 1 hand that continues to boggle my mind from monday night. i triple barrel bluffed a guy out of a pot and i was absolutely shocked when he showed his hand as he folded on the river. it went something like this: i called a late position raise on the button with Q-10. the flop was A high and he bet into me. i raised, he called. i had no pair. on the turn, the good news was i picked up a gut shot straight draw. he checked, i made a pretty strong bet that should make him think i had something, but could stand a call. the river came and i held Q high. it did put possible straight and flush possibilities on the board. he checked again. obviously i had to bet. the question was how much? i made a bet that would leave him only about $50 if he called and lost. he tanked for a long time and ended up folding AJ, THE TOP TWO PAIR! he had me beat if i had any other two pair, so he must have given me credit for a set, a straight, or a flush. wow. he was getting 2:1 on the call. wow again. i showed the 10c only as i folded which created quite a stir at the table. i told him i had been bluffing, but caught the straight on the river, just to make him feel good about folding.

it seems like i am honing my weak vs. strong instincts as i've been able to occasionally raise with air when i sensed weakness. i stole a decent pot from an older guy (read: rock) the other day with K high when he fumbled around before making a continuation bet on a Q high flop. he folded instantly when i raised. ESPN baby!

last night, i still came out a small winner, but took a tough beat on one hand. i flopped the ass end of a straight with 3h4h in late position (board 5-6-7) and got raised big by the button on the flop. i thought his most likely hand was a set, cuz i didn't think he would raise so big with the nuts. i couldn't put him on 8-4, but 8-9 was a completely reasonable holding. i pushed him all in and he called with 5-6 bottom 2 pair. turn K. river 5. without having seen his hand, i knew i was beat when the board paired. ouch 4 outers. if you're him do you call off your stack with bottom 2 pair? he probably had to with the odds the pot was laying him, but he had to know he was behind. oh well, poker happens.

back to even from underground

oh well -- last night i lost back what i had won on monday night playing 2/5 NL (instead of the 1/3 that we played on monday). it was still fun to play in that environment, quite different from my normal digs. the availability of insurance juices the action because even if you're all in, you still have a chance to lock up part of the pot before the river card is dealt.

there was a nutty hand that i was initially involved in that basically resulted in the table breaking up. i checked my option in the big blind with 9-8 and flopped top pair and a gut shot. i raised the weak lead of the small blind, who was the main reason most of us were sticking around at the table. he was a really bad player who was running super hot and had a lot of chips. we all knew they were on loan, and were chomping at the bit to get in a hand with him. anyway, the button smooth called my raise, then the small blind raised it up. i folded and then the button re-raised. [good fold by me as i didn't give the small blind much credit, but the button was a solid player]. after the re-raise they both got all their chips in the pot as fast as humanly possible. they had both flopped the nut straight with 7-8. and they both had a backdoor flush draw. runner runner diamonds shipped the $1500 pot to the button which was really disappointing to the rest of us. the donkey left, and the game broke up soon thereafter.

there was a 1/3 pot limit omaha hi/lo 8 or better game going on in the back room and there was no shortage of cash on the table (probably about $15k for 8 players). i sat and watched for about 30 minutes just to see how the game works. with 1/3 blinds, the game doesn't sound that big, but it was. the typical bring in was $15 with three or four to the flop. $50 on the flop was the initial bet with the pots escalating in a hurry. "Pot!" made for some big ones. if you could scoop or "sweep" as they called it, with both the high and the low you took down a nice pot. minimum buy in was $300, but that was about 1-2 hand's worth.

thanks J.T. [no, not me, the poker room host] for a fun 1st experience with underground poker.

i'm now in lovely laredo, texas and heading to dallas tomorrow night. if you want cheap mexican food and cheap real estate and don't mind the occasional carjacking or drive by, this place is for you!

underground poker

i am in texas all week and i popped my underground poker club cherry! i sat next to this lady in a rio cash game in june and she mentioned she was going to be opening a poker room in houston. well, i checked it out and it was pretty sweeeeeet. [duuuuuuude.........sweeeeeeeeeet]. it was a former restaurant and it is a perfect spot. very spacious with satellite tvs, huge kitchen facilities, great tables and chairs, and professional dealers. all three dealers were just as good as you'd find in any vegas poker room. in fact 2 of them had dealt in vegas before moving to houston. the best part about the place though, was the inexperience of some of the players. i mean, some of these guys were so easy to read and/or so bad it was laughable. [hahaha -- that's me laughing]. in tune with texas spirit, everyone was very friendly and there was nothing shady about it.

i won a few nice pots, but then donked off some chips at the end and left up 1 buyin. i actually made the high hand of the night with Aces full of Queens with AQ in my hand. thankfully the chick made a straight on the river and check-raised me all in. they never learn with a paired board.

the one thing that was completely different than anywhere i've ever played was the "insurance" factor. if 2 players are all in, the person who is ahead can lock up part of the pot by giving the house insurance, which is calculated based on the number of outs the trailing player has. the trailing player can then take the insurance and forego the pot, or let it play out. if the player who was behind in the hand draws out, the house has to pay him. i was still trying to figure out all the details as it was kind of confusing to figure if i should take insurance when i got a player in with JJ vs. my KK. i took it on the turn as he picked up a straight draw in addition to his J outs. as it turns out, i gave up $100 for taking insurance, but locked up 80% of the pot. ehhh.

i had fun and ate a great steak dinner for free. and with the added excitement of a possible raid, how can you go wrong??

i needed that night after a brutal last 2 days trying to get to houston from san diego, and then trying to find my luggage. i'll leave that story for next time...

outdraws were due

ended up with a nice session on friday night winning over 2 buyins, but it was a rollercoaster. early in the session i checked my option in the big blind with 8-2, a veritable powerhouse i normally would have three bet preflop. i flopped top pair and checkraised the two other players in the hand. they both called. keep in mind it was a limped pot. i made a nice bet on the turn, which was a 9, and they both called again! i guess my pair of 8s wasn't the best hand. the river was a 2, giving me 2 pair, not a likely card to have helped my opponents. the pot was pretty decent and i was happy to show down 2 pair. i checked, and the middle position player bet $100, which was a relatively significant bet for the pot. the other player folded, but i was new to the table and didn't know how to interpret the bet. i hadn't played with this guy and i seriously considered folding. i ended up calling as there were no straights or flushes, and he confidently showed down pocket JJ. my 2 pair took down a pot worth more than an entire buy in! it was his own fault -- he didn't raise preflop with JJ!?!?

i later double barrel bluffed with Jd9d from the big blind after three betting preflop. the guy called significant bets on the flop and the turn, but then when i luckily made a king high straight on the river and pushed all in, he folded. if i had shown down that hand, which was a pure bluff up until the river, it would have destroyed any kind of tight image i had fostered and i could have gotten paid whenever i did actually have a hand !! but sadly he didn't call. it was still a nice pot, granted one in which i got lucky.

that same guy in seat 9 turned out to be my nemesis. i thought he was a typical tight aggressive player, but he switched it up on me and called my preflop raise with 2s4s from the small blind when i held JJ. with four cards to a straight on board, his 4 made the worst possible straight on the turn. i pot controlled with a check behind. i had to call his little value bet on the river and was kind of surprised that he played 2-4 for a raise.

2 more hands against that same guy: 1) i held 4-5 and called the blind in middle position. i flopped an open end straight draw with a 2-3-K flop and turned the nuts with a 6. seat 9 and i got it all in on the turn after he pushed over my raise. i (obviously) called instantly with the stone nuts. the K on the river put me in 2nd place when he showed down pocket 6s for the boat. ouch. 2) soon thereafter i made a nice re-raise in the blind with KK and seat 9 called me again. the flop was Q high and i bet close to the pot -- he called !! i thought he must have a nice pair like JJ, or that he was slowplaying QQ waiting for me to fire big on the turn before dropping the hammer. i checked the A on the turn and he checked behind. i checked the river and he showed down AK. brutal 3 outer on the turn vs my dominating hand. i couldn't beat that damn guy!

our table broke and we moved over to a new one. i hung around for a while without many hands. i raised in late position with 4-5 and flopped 2 pair........but the flop was 4-5-6. a good, but not fantastic flop for my hand. the first player checked, the 2nd bet, and i made a good raise, happy to take it down right now. the early position player cold called 2 bets. that's not really what i was looking for, i was hoping to isolate, or just to win the pot. they both checked the brick turn to the raiser, me. my stack was just about the size of the pot now, and i didn't fancy giving it up. i could be drawing very slim vs. 7-8 or 2-3, (7-3 wasn't a likely hand for these players). i was hoping they were both on pair/straight draw hands and i pushed all in. the early position player called instantly -- whoooooooops! the other guy folded and i knew i was all but dead. i made a bad read and put my money in on a dangerous board. he of course showed 7-8 for the nuts. i then made one of my biggest recent suckouts with a 4 on the river. wow. i felt bad as i stacked the mountain of chips (hahahaha!).

i stuck around for a while and won most of the small pots i entered. it was a fun night, but that was the end of the suckouts.

in and out in vegas

i passed In 'N Out while i was in vegas. mmmmmmm..........double double. i didn't eat there though.

i did, however, play 2/5 NL cash at the venetian. was up $760 after a 5 hour session. i'm happy with how i played and i obviously hit some hands in there. i played 1/2 NL for about 20 minutes waiting for my 2/5 seat and lost about $100 there. a guy slow played aces when i hit top pair, he milked the whole way. sometimes it's harder to play well against bad players. there was a girl at the table who was very blatant in stating that it was her first time playing and that she was a donator. at least she wasn't lying. she kept getting another $100 from her boyfriend and losing it in about 15 minutes. she was a good sport though.

when i made it to 2/5, i used my initially tight image well and picked up some nice pots with marginal hands. one nice hand that has to make the blog cut is AQ. i raised a couple of limpers to $25 in late position and got 3 callers including one of the blinds. the flop was Q high and one of the limpers bet $80 into $100. i made it $185. he reluctantly called. i was sure i was good now, unless he was hollywooding me. the turn bricked. the only draw was a heart draw on the flop. i pushed all in having him covered and he called for about $150 more after some thought. sweet sweet words then came out of his mouth: "i need some help". what a beautiful phrase that is. the river was the Ad and his pair of Qs with a flush draw was no good.

i later flopped a full house with AA after i got 1 caller on my preflop re-raise from the small blind. i got 1 continuation bet out of him, but he was a pretty decent player and didn't double barrel it. he folded to my river value bet.

the last big hand i played was fairly brutal. i flopped bottom set of 4s on a 3 club board. i lead out from early position, a short stack went all in, and another guy called! i called being pretty sure i needed to improve. i checked the Kd on the turn and the other active player made a relatively small bet of $115. this screamed value bet from him, cuz i knew he played vulnerable hands very fast. i had outs and there was a chance i was good, so i called. the river was the Ac, putting 4 clubs on board and not pairing board. oh well, can't win them all. i folded to his value bet and he showed KcJc for the nuts. the other player had AA and had made a set of Aces on the river.

after my meeting, i had another chance to get in a short session and quickly was up $400. it helps to flop the nuts. i called a raise in late position with Ac4c and flopped the nut flush on a king high board. the initial raiser made a nice bet on the flop and i just called, hoping the other two in the pot would come along. they folded. on the turn, the raiser pushed all in, and i had to check my hole cards just to make sure i still had the nuts. "i have the nuts, i call." he missed his boat on the river after flopping a set of Ks for a nice pot for me.

soon thereafter i raised with AQ in late position and got 1 caller. i three barreled it making a pretty substantial bet on the river when he had check called every other street. he obviously had me beat with at least 1 pair, but the board was 10 high and i had represented pretty well. i made him feel good about the laydown though.

i lost a big hand in a re-raised heads up pot with JJ when the flop was K high. he check called the 2 spade flop. i didn't think he had a very strong hand. possibly a pair below Jacks. the turn was a third spade and he checked again. nice trap buddy. i pushed and he called with the nut flush, AsJs. he was such a dog preflop too. oh well, good catch buddy.

i won back just a little bit over the next hour before my i had to leave for my plane and left dead even on the session for the day. a bit frustrating after being up a buyin early, but overall the trip went well. i raced around trying to find the newly relocated rental car center (nice lack of signage Vegas!!) and ran into the airport, only to find my flight had been delayed.

PS they have a pretty talented HR manager for the poker room's cocktail staff. pretty talented indeed.

syndicate event #4

still awaiting my noise making for the syndicate series. it didn't happen this time.

i flopped a set of kings early on in a raised pot and bet about 5/6 of the pot on flop vs. 1 opponent. he check-called. the flop was AKJ with 2 spades. the turn was an offsuit Q. he checked, i bet for value and to protect against the flush draw and he raised. i had a strong feeling i was beat, but i had outs, so i called. maybe he had made 2 pair with AQ or had been slowplaying AJ or even pocket Js. now i had about half my chips in the pot.

the river was a brick and he checked. i checked behind and he showed down 9c10c for broadway. when you make a speculative call on the flop like that and then hit your hand, why not bet on the river with the nuts? anyway, i got off relatively cheap, but still expensive in that i lost about half my stack on the hand.

i chipped down with AK after folding to a raise on the flop following my continuation bet with air. damn that hand. i should have either checked or moved all in on the flop based on my stack size relative to the pot. that was a mistake. i think part of the problem was that i felt like a stick of butter in a frying pan. i think that day was the hottest day of the year and that living room is like a heat sink. at least 10-15 hotter inside than out.

i got eliminated when i had 22 on the button with 2 limpers in the pot ahead of me. i moved in as i still had some fold equity but was fairly short stacked and the blinds were about to go up. mark in the BB called my all-in then the cutoff, who had limped, immediately moved in himself. mark had very few chips left and ended up folding after i had completely melted in the pan. the cutoff had AA and mark showed JJ as he folded. he would have spiked his J, but i had no such luck and the AA held. with a limper in the pot, i have never seen anybody limp with AA in the cutoff seat. an invitation to disaster in my mind.

i actually was semi-relieved to get knocked out as i was in my board shorts and into the pool in about 30 seconds flat. wow -- that was about the most refreshing feeling i have ever had after being on a slow brain simmer all day.

small loss to start sept

just a couple of hands tend to make the difference. i flopped top pair with an open end straight draw and got check raised all in by a short stack, i had to call, and bricked out. her top pair, better kicker won the pot.

i raised from the small blind to $22 with QQ and was called in 2 spots. the flop was 9 high and i bet the pot. the big blind went all in for only $26 more, then another player called his bet! wow, this seems like an easy laydown with 1 pair, but for the odds i was getting (call $26 more into a pot of almost $300), i couldn't bring myself to fold. maybe i hit my miracle Q, or running straight cards. anyway, the big blind had flopped 2 little pair and the caller had flopped an open end straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. his straight came on the turn and i was drawing dead. this kid that took down the pot was a serious moron too, which made losing the pot so much more painful. he just wouldn't shut his chatty kathy ass up about the hand and why he called pre-flop and why he called on the flop, and how he thought i had an overpair, blah blah blah. i thought to myself, next time in the blinds, i'm bumping to $30 or $35.

i then proceeded to pick up some nice pairs and get little to no action with JJ, JJ, and AA.

i flopped a set of 3s in an unraised pot and somehow got it all in on the flop. the flop was A-3-6 with 2 diamonds. the small blind led for $15, player b called, i made it $40. the small blind called my raise, then player b went all in for another $65 on top of my raise. i raised his bet to $150, and the small blind shipped them in over the top of me. if i was beat, so beit, but i can't fold a set here. the small blind must have thought i was raising with a diamond draw. the small blind had me covered, so i'm all in for the main pot and all in for the side pot as well. winning this pot outright puts me back even for the night. i guess player b thought it was a tournament, cuz he flipped his hand over immediately once we were all in. he held AdJd for top pair with the nut flush draw. ok, i'm still a big favorite as his trips and 2 pair cards are dead (barring some crazy runner runner), he has 9 clean outs twice, so i'm a 70% favorite or so. wasn't sure what the small blind held yet. the turn is a 7s, which isn't a complete brick as 4-5 got there, but i'm not too unhappy with it. and the river......4d. those several big hands in a night make the difference, but i knew i played it right.

the small blind showed AQ (both black cards) for pretty much dead money in the pot on the flop. my set won the side pot, which gave me a modest profit on the hand. okay, but not exactly what i was looking for.

so i was down 2/3 of a buyin on the session. not too terrible considering how my big hands played out.

August by the numbers

i see on-line players measure their win rates in poker tracker big blinds / 100 hands ("ptbb/100"). poker tracker (a software package that helps track everything about playing poker on line) apparently calculates a win (or loss) rate using limit holdem "big bets" per 100 hands. in limit holdem, the big bet (on the turn and river) are twice the big blind. so the units equte to 2 big blinds / 100 hands.

i am tracking dollars won and hours played, but was able to do a couple of quick calculations to gauge my results.

i played 106.5 hours of live games. if we guestimate about 35 hands / hour dealt in a typical live game (that would be 17-18 hands per dealer "down"), that makes a total of about 3727 hands played. assuming a big blind of $3 (i played 1 session in a 3/5 NL game and 1 session of 2/2), my win rate works out to +63.5 big blinds / 100 hands = +32 poker tracker big bets / 100.

or in non on-line terms 21 big blinds / hour.

i know 3700 hands is not a big enough sample size to really conclude anything, but i'm happy where i'm headed.

[any of you live cash game players: how many hands do you think are dealt in an hour on average?]

Aug wrap-up session

what a month! i had 1 losing session in 11 and was up almost 25 buyins. i credit a lot of that to being on the right side of variance (running pretty hot), but i can also say i played well.

often sessions come down to 4-5 big hands that make the difference. following a session, on-line players have the luxury of reviewing their hand histories including every detail about their opponents etc. while i don't have all the hard data sitting in front of me on a screen, i seem to have pretty good recall for my big hands in a session. writing them down here in this blog also helps me digest my play and whether i thought i played a hand correctly. its been a good learning experience so far. thanks for coming along on my adventures.....

so i played in a home game last night for about 5 hours and ended down 1/3 of a buyin. i was running pretty cold and didn't really get too many hands. maybe it's a good thing though as one of the players stacked off twice with KK vs. AA and AK into AA on a K high board. and that was at a 7 handed table. pretty much coolers. the host (damn you CG!) mopped up the field as has typically been the case. he made a nice laydown when i flopped the nuts with the ace high flush and he held top pair / top kicker.

so after busting up another player with a turned straight vs. 2 pair, the game broke and i decided to head up to oceans 11 for short session. i got there about 1am and knew that i would only be playing til 4am or so when my brother was getting into town. [they drove at night due to the oppressing heat of late and a broken a/c in the car].

about 10 minutes in, i doubled up when i flopped 2 pair with KQ vs. AA. he let me get there cheap too. i made a standard raise in middle position and he just called on the button. i flopped 2 pair and bet out and he raised. i three bet him and he tanked and then pushed all in. i couldn't shove my "All In" pumpkin quickly enough. he bricked out and i took a nice pot.

i had already put in for a table change as there was some juicy action on the table next to me. a very loose aggressive player had a huge stack and there was another donkariffic guy who i've played with before (i wrote about a hand in which he told me he folded a flopped straight vs. my set on an unpaired board cuz he thought i might have a full house! i did end up with a boat, but whatever...) anyway, the table was looooooose and bluffy. i didn't need to wait that long to get paid off.

i raised a couple of limpers on the button with pocket 5s. loosey goosey called me in the big blind. the flop was ace high and he checked to me. him calling a preflop raise meant absolutely nothing. he has even told me before that hand selection is one of his least important criteria. once he is in a pot, he will call raises with any two. anyway, so he checked to me on the flop and i bet. he called. now i'm done with the hand. he probably has a hand like A-10 or A-9, and i'm drawing pretty slim. i was going to fold to a turn bet, until the jakepot card hit: a 5! he led out pretty strong. i have seen him push his hands when he thinks he has the best of it and make some pretty thin value bets on the river. i thought about raising the turn, but i knew he would lead again on the river if i looked weak. i smooth called his turn bet. river Q. he fires out a big bet of more than half of my remaining stack. i thought there was a good chance he made two pair. i pushed and he insta-called me with AQ, top 2 pair.

soon after i called after several limpers with K-9 and flopped top 2 pair. a guy who i wasn't familiar with check-raised me on the flop. i might lose him if i re-raise, so i just called. he led strong on the turn and i just called. the river brought another brick and unless he had check-raised with a straight draw, i had him. he made a big bet on the river, which i just called (instead of raising without the nuts). i knew i had him beat, but i "called" him so he had to show down his hand first. he, of course, could muck it and save himself the embarrassment but he chose to show a bluff with 3rd pair. when someone 3 barrel bluffs, i want to see what they have when i call.

anyway, it was a great session (+2.5 buyins including the small loss in the home game) to wrap up the month. later on, i'll post what my final BB/hour winrate was for the month. looking forward to the next syndicate event on monday. it's time to start making some noise.