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.