I've Got The Shakes

Telling someone they can't read about or play poker during the World Series is like giving a raging alcoholic a job as a bartender.

I still have not played any poker since Sunday. I could not keep myself from reading about it, however. I have not cracked an instruction book, but I can't stop logging into Cardplayer.com and the other assorted blogs to get my WSOP updates.

This is the story that's been on my mind the last couple of days.

DJ THE SKEPTIC: Bad Bets
(This story was originally published Tuesday)

By Arindam Nag
A DOW JONES NEWSWIRES COLUMN

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Internet betting in the U.S. was once dubbed "the crack
cocaine of gambling." It now seems the British online gaming industry is
falling victim to an overdose.
The CEO of BETonSPORTS Plc has been taken into custody in the U.S. amid
authorities' long-running efforts to curb online gambling. The company's
shares have been suspended in London and those of peers have been hammered by
investors.
What has puzzled some is why was BETonSPORTS was singled out when several
others have been enticing U.S. citizens to place bets on their websites.
The answer may have to do with the U.K.-listed company's role - revealed
last week - in an identity theft ring where several U.S. bettors may have seen
private information exposed to a bunch of hackers.
The documents are in the public domain - the U.S. Attorney of the Southern
District of New York put out a press statement on July 13 on its website. The
statement says a "common thread" linking a number of victims whose identities
were compromised was that they had engaged in betting using BETonSPORTS.
It may be that the company was nothing more than an innocent vehicle for
scammers, and that the detaining of its CEO has nothing to do with the
identity theft case. But given that BETonSPORTS is prominently mentioned in
the federal statement, the company needs to clarify this incident to U.K.
investors.
The company's spokeswoman in London was not immediately available to comment
on the identify theft question.
The identity theft case came to public light during the hearing of Lanre
Elekede, 30, a Nigerian native.
"During Elekede's guilty plea hearing, the investigation revealed that a
common threat linking a number of the victims whose identities were
compromised was that they had engaged in sports-related gambling over the
Internet with a Costa Rica-based web site known as BETonSPORTS.com," the U.S.
Attorney's statement said.
It also said a number of victims had submitted forms to the U.K.-listed
company in which they mentioned their names, addresses, telephone numbers,
social security numbers, mother's maiden names and credit card numbers - all
important data for online commerce.
For investors, the key question is how could BETonSPORTS, whose business has
been turning around recently on the back of a jump in U.S. revenues, allow its
systems to be compromised like this? Was it a straightforward online break-in,
or something else?
U.S. authorities take privacy laws very seriously. The FBI and other federal
agencies including the Federal Trade Commission have been aggressively
pursuing any loopholes arising out of identity theft. In a country where
online companies like eBay and Amazon.com have prospered, this is only
natural.
BETonSPORTS' U.S. business growth has accelerated with signups and customer
deposits up 70% year-over-year. But the latest turn of events makes it seem
the company's internal controls aren't up to the mark.
Even while the bigger case of its executives' troubles drags on, the company
must explain how its name got dragged into the identity theft ring case, and
must assure investors its internal controls are bulletproof in all non-U.S.
markets as well. All told, BETonSPORTS may be on weak ground when it comes
to the bigger issue of U.S. Internet gambling. In the United States vs. Cohen
case in 2000 the U.S. Attorney from the Southern District of New York won a
case against Jay Cohen for violating the 1961 Wire Act - the same law cited in
the current case against BETonSPORTS' executives.
Cohen's Antigua-based company World Sports Exchange specialized in online
sports gambling. The government argued that his firm violated federal laws by
enticing Americans to contact the firm via phone or the Internet to open a
betting account.
Cohen argued that the Wire Act did not apply to Internet gambling because it
was passed prior to the advent of the Internet. But that tack failed: Cohen
was sentenced to 21 months in prison, and fined.
Whether BETonSPORTS can rally enough industry support and initiate a change
in U.S. laws is anyone's guess. But on its own the company has not helped its
case by exposing its internal controls to a ring of identity thieves.
That means that well before it can take on U.S. Senators over the pros and
cons of online gambling, the company must launch a convincing cleanup process.
(Arindam Nag has covered business and finance for 15 years in Asia, Europe
and the United States. He can be reached at +44 207-842-9289 or by e-mail:
arindam.nag@dowjones.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-19-06 0145ET
Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

This really sucks. I just bought 1000 shares of Party Poker at 2.05 about 3 days before this happened. It is now at 1.75. Even if these legal problems are specific to BetonSports, every gaming company is going to be painted with this brush.

I have already read that Bodog has canceled a convention in Las Vegas and that some obscure poker sites have stopped taking money from US citizens and have frozen their accounts.

I would hope that the big companies with the most to lose will start to fight back. Party cannot just stop taking deposits from the US since they would lose over 60% of their business. They have a lot to fight for and I think they would be willing to do it.

If the US Senate puts off voting on the Internet Gambling act, then someone is going to have to fight a battle in court to get this thing settled. I don't think we can wait for the US Government to finally come to their senses and propose regulating it instead of banning it. That could take years of watching the UK make billions before it sinks in.

In other legal news, some of my favorite pro players have sued the World Poker Tour over the release agreement. I can't believe the WPT has dug their feet in on these stupid issues. Do they really believe they are going to make a shit load of money on using player likenesses in advertising or video games? Now they are going to have to spend money defending themselves in court, when all they had to do was copy the release from the WSOP and everyone would have been happy.

I predict the World Poker Tour will be bankrupt inside of 5 years.

Wait 'til Next Year!

My last gasp effort to win my seat into the Main Event has come up short. After numerous efforts to satellite into the Full Tilt 100 seat guarantee and the Poker Stars 150, I had to cough up the dough to play in the Poker Stars one.

There was an amazing 7700 players and 236 seats up for grabs. I started with 2500 and through 3 hours of play I was never above 5000. Not much exciting happened and went out with Ace-King vs AA and QQ.

I am going to try and take two weeks off from all poker related activities. I will try not to read any blogs, poker books, or websites related to poker. I won't be playing any hands either. It will probably end if and when I decide to buy the final table on pay per view.

In the mean time I will try and work on my golf game and start transitioning my Dad's clients at work, since he is retiring at year end.

I have approximately 1500 left in the bankroll. When I come back I am going to try and master No Limit cash games and Omaha Hi-Lo. I am going to use a tip I learned from Chris "Jesus" Ferguson about bankroll management. Never put more than 5% of your bankroll on the table. Use the 5% number as a guideline to decide if you are ready to move up. Chris has run $1 up to $10,000 using that method. I have a head start, but I plan on doing the same.

Overall, I feel good about the effort I put into qualifying. My net loss on qualifying tournaments was $1,531. Obviously the close call on Party Poker where I won $1,360 helped a lot. I played in 54 WSOP related satellites over the last 2 months. I had two really close calls and even traveled to Las Vegas to play in a live satellite where I finished 7th (4 out of a seat).

Next year will be interesting because Michele and I are expecting our first baby boy in November. All of my friends think that this year was my last chance to go, but I think Michele is understanding enough, that if I qualified, we would find a way to make it work. I guess I'll find out next year.

Cystic Fibrosis Charity Tournament

Good God it's hot outside. I know this because my truck battery died when I tried to leave work to go to the tournament. Luckily there were a few hearty souls left in the office and I keep jumper cables in the back of my truck. So after sweating my balls off, jumping my truck I made it to Barcelona.

I was very impressed. Jeff had filled the bar and there were 108 entries in the tournament. They way he was talking about it a couple of weeks ago, it sounded like it was going to be a big bust. Jeff tried to do it up right by hiring dealers and getting out the fancy blind tracker clock on a tv screen. The only flaw is that he did not hire a tournament director to rebalance tables and keep track of the bustouts. Overall he did a good job. I mean I can't expect it to run perfectly since he's never played in a real tournament before.

We started with 1000 in chips and 10-20 blinds. Rebuys were $100 for 1000 chips and there would be an add on for an additional $100 for 1000 chips at the end of the 6th level. The add on would be silly since the blinds would be 200-400 by that time.

I knew a couple of people at my starting table. Jeff, who's house we have had previous tournaments at, and Brian who says he's given up playing poker (but used to play in the big mixed games at Casino Arizona). The others all looked like novices. My strategy was going to be to play solid and never bluff. Bet big with top pair good kicker and punish any draws. Hope I get off to a good start.

My first hand in the small blind I picked up a 5-Q and completed. I flopped an open ended straight draw. It was checked through 4 players. The turn paired the Ten on the board and I led out for 50. Everyone folded. Ok I may have to bluff a little bit. :-)

A few hands later, I picked up A-10 offsuit in the big blind. There were 4 limpers so I did not feel the need to raise and build a big pot, so I checked my option. The flop was K-10-6. For some inexplicable reason I decided to bet to see where I was at. The semi-clueless girl on my left called and everyone else folded. The turn was another King. Now I am thinking that I am good, because there is a good chance she could have called with a pair of tens or a pair of 6's. Since there's another King on the board, the chances are less that she has the third one. Anyways, I still am not interested in playing a big pot, so I check. She bets 200 and I call. The river was a brick. I check again and she bets 300. This doesn't look too good. I call anyways and she turns over King-5 for trips and rakes the pot. I love it when I donk off 1/2 my stack calling down middle pair.

In the mean time, Brian was amassing a boat load of chips. Once by bluffing a big pot with 2-7 offsuit. He loved showing that one down. Then he took all of my chips and then some from the trip kings girl. Brian was bluffing into her big on the flop and the turn. By the turn, Brian had an inside wheel draw. The river completed his straight and he moved all in. The trip kings girl made a brilliant (sarcasm here) call with Ace high and Jack kicker. So Brian was a donkey in trying to bluff a calling station twice and I don't know what the hell the girl was thinking.

The blinds were starting to get big and I was starting to move all in to stay alive. I did it a couple of times at my original table before I got moved.

My new table had a big stack on my left. One of the guys from my previous table had moved with me and knew I was pushing all in a lot and was starting to tell the rest of the table about it. In the mean time, my pregnant wife is getting tired and I am going to need her to get home. She is the only one with a car that will start.

So it's folded to me and I look at 9-7 offsuit. I move all in. Somebody calls me and I spike a 9 on the turn and double up. A couple of hands later, I have J-10 and I move in again. This time the big stack calls me with........wait for it........8-9 suited. I blurt out, "Man you can call me with that hand all night!" He didn't look too happy when I said that. My Jack high holds up and now I am out of "all in" range.

We finally hit the break and I switch cars with my wife. I jump start the truck again and send her on her way. She was a real trooper tonight. She bought me a great plate of appetizer, hung out at the table with me for a while, and even stood on the rail until the break. Unbeknowst to me, she even went to Pep Boys and got my battery replaced for me. Best wife ever.

When I get back from the break, I am moved again and this time my friend Paul from the country club is across the table from me. He is an older gentleman who I have played with in Jeff's tournaments before. He had asked me about the rebuy strategy before the event, so he knew that I had some poker knowledge. Well the blinds were up to 200-400 and I had about 3600 in chips.

First hand at the new table I get 7-7 in early position. I raise all in. Fold, fold, fold, fold, until it gets to Paul. He goes into the tank for a little while. Since he is thinking about it, I figure I am a coin flip with overcards. He finally calls for all his chips with..........5-6 suited. I'll lose this one for sure. Somehow my 7's hold up against Paul's monster and now I have the second biggest stack at the table.

I tighten up a little and just play solid poker. I win a couple pots and I notice something. Everyone in this tournament seems to play really conservative. Usually these are big calling station fests. For some reason, when the blinds went up, nobody wanted to go broke. Now I could have went crazy and started raising every other hand, but I played a bit conservative and just picked my spots.

Players were busting out left and right as the blinds were going up. Eventually we got down to 5 handed. Nobody was coming to rebalance the tables, so I took charge and told everyone to grab their chips and find a new seat on their own.

Eventually I made it my final table. This table was really serious. Everyone seemed really grumpy. The guy on my left was really drunk and had no idea what he was doing. The guy on my right looked like Mark Wahlburg. I think the blinds were 800-1600 by now and I was still around 7-8 big blinds. I moved in a couple of times and won the blinds. I busted a short stack with a pair of Kings. Before long I was a slight chip leader at my table with two tables left in the tournament.

I am on the small blind. Under the gun raises 3x the blind. A decent player moves all in. He has about 1/3 of my stack. Everyone folds to me and lo and behold I have pocket rockets. I briefly consider just calling the raise to try and trap the remaining player. Then I decide, that idiots have been calling me all night so I might as well get it in now. Maybe he has KK or QQ. I shove and the under the gun player calls for all his chips.

The under the gun player turns over King-Jack offsuit and the first all in player turns over
Kh Qh. The flop is A-9-2 rainbow. For a brief moment I think I am unbeatable. Then another heart comes on the turn. Ok there's a flush draw, but I am going to fill up dammit. The river breaks my heart and the heart flush steals my 30k pot. The good news is, that I won back enough in the side pot, to only lose 3500 in the hand. So I still had around 13,000.

The blinds went up to 1000-2000. I had King 4 in the big blind. There was one limper. The small blind did not have enough chips to complete the bet. The flop came down K-Q-6. I thought about checking it down. That's what you usually do to eliminate a player. However I wanted the money in the side pot and I had top pair. No sense in waiting for an Ace to kill my hand. I bet 2000. The other player with chips moves all in quickly.

I don't even think about it and I call. What an idiot. What the hell else is this guy going to move in with? I think a part of me just wanted to go home. He turns over KQ for two pair. The all in turns over K-7. We all had the Kings. I go busto in 8th place.

First place is a new plasma 36" tv. I got a basket of cd's, DVD's, and a portable DVD player. I also got a 200 poker chip set with a case. A pretty good cash. Is it wrong if I try and sell all this stuff on eBay and reinvest it into my poker bankroll?

A Shout Out To The Bloggers

I have to apologize to anyone I met at the Blogger Gathering in Vegas last weekend. My brain was fried from playing in the WSOP satellite the night before and I had a horrible time remembering names.

I played in the tournament, but only played just past the first break. Jules from Austraila on my left was making me her bitch and already taken half my stack. When I came back from break, it was all in or fold time. A few hands in, I had As9s in the small blind. I saw 4-5 limpers and no one showed any strength. I figured I would take a chance and shove it all in and hopefully have everyone fold. If somebody did call, I would probably still have my Ace outs. Well the player I really needed to fold, was the utg player (can't remember her name) She thought about it for a little while and then gambled by moving all in with 99. That was about the worst hand I wanted to see right behind AA. So I was out.

I love Caeser's poker room, but they were having some issues on Saturday. Between our 100+ tournament and their regular tournament, there were no dealers left for the cash games. I wanted to stick around and play with the bloggers, but for some reason I did not feel like waiting an hour to get in a game. I made a really stupid decision and left looking for a open seat. Not only did the Flamingo 1-2 NL game take my buy in, but I missed out on a chance to hang out with some really fun people.

For any of those that I met and who stumble across my blog, I would be more than happy to let you link my blog to yours and vice versa. Just let me know.

Live from the World Series of Poker

My Shot at the World Series of Poker

I arrived in Las Vegas at 4:00 PM and checked into the Hard Rock Hotel. I was pleased with the room even though I had some initial trouble getting the TV to work. After freshening up a bit, I went down and caught a cab to the Rio.

The World Series of Poker 2006 is being held in the big convention center at the Rio. It is a poker player’s wet dream. There are over 200 tables in action in the main convention center. There are tournaments, satellites, cash games, tv final tables, and spectators. Outside the main room, the online poker sites have set up hospitality suites where you can sign up for their site and even meet some of the pros.

I started by walking around the room and trying to get a lay of the land. I saw too many poker celebrities to mention. I finally stopped a floor person and asked how to sign up for the $1,060 mega satellite. I was directed to the cashier cage where I forked over $1,060 in cash and received my table assignment. I still had an hour to kill, so I wandered around the hospitality suites. I picked up some free swag and wandered back to the tournament table.

As it was getting closer to the start time, I was becoming disappointed because it was obvious that there were not going to be a lot of players. The final total was 34. I figured on a Friday night, there would be a big crowd, but I guess it’s not close enough to the Main Event yet.

Play started at 7:10 PM and I must admit I was a little nervous. I was in the 1 seat so I could only really chat with the players on my left. I introduced myself to Justin, who was a younger man. I found out he had almost finished his economics degree at Carnegie Mellon, but he had put off taking his finals to play in a World Poker Tour Tournament in Southern California. Uh oh. He immediately ordered two Coronas. I would later figure out that the satellite did not mean nearly as much to him as it did to me. He bluffed off a lot of chips and was short stacked for quite some time.

The rest of the players seemed rather average. In the early rounds, I saw a few mistakes in people overplaying top pair, and raising preflop with some questionable hands. My strategy was to play very tight early and use that to my advantage later if needed.

I won my first pot by raising from the button and winning the blinds. My heart was racing and I knew I was going to need to calm down to play my A game. I decided ordering a beer was not a bad idea, so I jumped on the Corona band wagon. That really helped and I immediately felt more comfortable.

A couple of rotations later I picked up pocket fives and limped in for 50. The big blind raised to 200 and the other limpers folded to me. I decided to call and hoped to flop a set. As the dealer burned a card and dealt out a stack of three cards to turn over for the flop, I chanted to myself, “five, five, five!” The flop was 5-8-J. The raiser bets 1000, which is a bit of an overbet on the pot. I calculate how much it would be to raise, and how much I would have left. I decide to just push all in for 2500. Some how he thinks he has the odds to call and all he has is Ace-King. I double up and I am feeling really good.

A little later I flop another set with pocket Jacks. The board is 9-T-J I lead out for about ½ the pot and get called by one other player. An Ace comes on the turn and bet all in. I don’t want any draws to keep going. I have him covered by about 2,000 and he finally mucks. Now I am up to 8600 after this pot.

Things were going really well. At level 4 we were cruising along and suddenly it’s the last hand. I have Kh Qh on the button. There are two limpers for 200. I raise to 600 and they both call. The flop is 9-T-J. I flopped the nuts! The first limper now moves all in. Wow! The second limper folds. I double check my cards and say, “I call.” The first player had 9-T for two pair. The turn and river do not fill him up and I am up to 14,000 in chips by the second break.

That feeling was the absolute highlight of my poker career. For the next 10 minutes on the break I was leaving messages for Jon in Arizona and dreaming of playing in the Main Event. It really felt like it was going to happen. I was catching great cards and even better, others were catching good second best hands.

I did the math in my head and figured out that with 3,000 in starting chips and 34 starting players, that there were 102,000 chips in play. I now had 14,000 in chips at the 2nd break. If I could just maintain my stack by winning an occasional pot or stealing the blinds once in a while I could make it to the final table with an above average stack. I liked my chances in a one table sit and go paying 3 spots.

If it was at all possible, I was going to play even more conservatively, because I could afford to. The blinds at level 5 were 100-200 with a 25 ante. When we got back, there were a few people that had not made it back to their seats. I picked up pocket 4’s in the cut off and I decided to steal the blinds. The big blind was a shorter stack with about 2100 in chips and decided to reraise all in. I was getting 2-1 on my money so I called hoping for over cards. He had pocket Jacks and I lost a small pot there.

When the big blind came back around, I think we were at 100-200 blinds with a 25 ante. With 9 players at the table there was 525 in every pot in the beginning of the hand. It was folded to the small blind. Earlier he had tried to steal and I jokingly told him as my cell phone was ringing, that it was a blind stealing alarm. I need to defend. This time he only limped in. I had K-3 offsuit.

The flop came down K-J-3. The small blind led out for 600. Thinking that I am ahead, but I don’t want to let a draw play cheap or take the chance on getting counterfeited. I decide to raise to 2000. The small blind thinks for a little bit and then raises to 5000 total. Decision time.

This player had raised with weak aces before and had made some aggressive moves earlier in the tournament. I had not seen him get out of line for the last hour though. The only hands I thought someone could reraise me with were K-J for a better two pair or trip Jacks. I decided to lay it down and protect my stack since he had almost as many chips as I did.

Looking back, this is the one hand I really felt I misplayed. I even called the Bluff Radio show and asked Kenna James to analyze the hand. He said my first mistake was not raising preflop. There is 625 in the pot, why not take it. K-3 is a better than average hand, plus it would define my opponent’s hand. If he had been limping with JJ, I would have found out pretty quickly. Then after he bet on the flop, I should have just smooth called. He could be betting with a King or a Jack. I don’t think he would lead out that big with trips because I had not shown any strength at all. He would try to keep me in the hand. I can smooth call the turn and make sure a Jack doesn’t come or and Ace or 9. If I dodge those, then I am almost a lock to win the hand. My guess now is that he had Ace-King. He tried to slow play in the beginning and then was trying to take all my chips with the reraise.

After hearing the opinions of Kenna James and others on the 2+2 board, I think I missed a great chance to break him here.

From this point forward, I pretty much went card dead. I did pick up Aces once, but only picked up the blinds. I also reraised all in with AK after a tight player raised in early position preflop. I figured she would lay down anything but Aces or Kings and if she did not, then I would race for a decent chance to double up.

At the end of level 6 I had been chipped away to 8000 with the blinds going up to 400-800 with 100 antes. We had made it to the final table. I wanted to push all in against the stacks that were my size thinking I could get them to fold a very high percentage of the time. The problem was that the medium stacks were also calling stations so I wasn’t as comfortable that they would realize they should fold hands like King Jack.

The other problem is that my cards were so awful that I did not want to go bust with a hand like 10-5 offsuit. I just couldn’t live with myself. I was very patient and finally picked up 66 under the gun. I raised all in and one player called for all his chips. Before I turned it over, he asked if I had Aces. I had been playing so tight, he thought he might be beat. He turned over Kings and I did not improve. I did not have enough to even pay the big blind the next hand. I went out in 7th place after my Jack-Ten did not improve.

So the so called good news was that I made $208 back from my $1,060. When I left, I felt like I had played the best I could. I was very patient and remained focused for the entire tournament. Obviously I could have made a couple of better decisions, but I cannot fault the effort that I put into the tournament. I think that’s all I can ask of myself.

Rollin' Up A Stake And Going To Vegas

This weekend is the big Blogger Fest 2006 in Vegas. Originally I was planning on going to Vegas with my friends, Rob, Carlo, Jon,Bill, and Marty. All of them look like they are dropping out. So I may be flying solo.

Right now my plan is to roll in Friday night and try and make a score at the Mega Satellite at the Rio into the Main Event. It's $1060 to enter and they give away a seat for every 10k in the prize pool. The more players the better as this caters to my strengths of playing tight and surviving. I think the one table satellites would be tougher because I am not as strong a player short handed and heads up. I really, really, really want to qualify and tell Rob and Bill that I do not need their backing to get in to the Main Event and that I will keep any profits I make. Hahahahaha.

Saturday morning will be the Blogger tournament at Caesers Palace. I just got word that Howard Lederer and Phil Gordon are supposed to give us a little speech before the tournament so that will be cool. Plus InterPoker is giving all of us free shirts and adding some cash to the prize pool. We are starting with 4000 in chips and have 40 minute levels. I may be there all day.

I read an interesting post on 2+2 regarding the hand history of one of the qualifiers for the main event on Party Poker here http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=tourn&Number=6389026&fpart=&PHPSESSID==
I have played in a few of these $215 and it confirms that the play is soft. I did not learn too much from his hands other than this:
1. Play extremely tight. I don't think he called a raise preflop with anything less than QQ
2. Catch cards at the right time. He went on a mad rush with about 30 players left where he doubled up about 3 x.
3. Win your races.

Number 3 is what is so annoying to me about tournaments. If you play super tight, solid poker eventually you will need to win at least 3 all ins where you are a slight favorite or slight underdog. This is the only way to double and triple up when you really need it. If you play loose aggressive, sometimes you can chip up without a lot of risk and only play for all your chips as a big favorite. Even then, you occasionally get sucked out on, but at least you still have chips.

Satellites are a little different though because you are only rewarded for surviving, not winning. If you have 20x the big blind left when you qualify in a satellite, you may have taken too much risk getting there because you have so many chips.

The Quest for WSOP glory continues

I had my first experience trying to qualify with Poker Stars over the weekend. I entered the $27 rebuy satellite into the $650 qualifier on Sunday night.

I had a mad rush of cards early, including flopping the mortal nuts twice. Somehow I still managed to use two additional buy ins and then the add on for a total investment of $102 by the first break. The good news was that I was in the top 10.

I eventually made it to the final table and at bubble time, I had a medium stack. I did not feel I could fold into the win, but I didn't want to take a lot of chances either. The problem was, no one was playing sherriff and trying to pick off the short stacks as they kept stealing blinds to stay alive. There were 4 spots into the next tournament and cash for 5th place. With the blinds at 1000-2000 and 100 ante there were 7 players left. I had 37,789 in chips and in second place.

I was dealt QJo in the small blind when Wulffman with 28,880 in chips raised to 6000 from the button. It looked like a steal and he had been rather active building up from a very short stack at the final table. I decided to call and see if I flopped something.

Flop was Td 5c Jh. I led out for 10,000 assuming he would fold. Wulffman raised me all in for an additional 12,780. I really expected my hand to be good so I called. Wulffman turned over AJ to have me dominated.

So now I am under 10,000 and I am one of the short stacks. I steal a couple of times to maintain my stack. We lose one player along the way, so now we are truly on the bubble with 6 players left. I am dealt KK under the gun. I could just limp and see if can get more action, however I had been raising all in the other times and I didn't want to raise any suspicion. Sure enough, the player on my left calls and Wulffman calls from the big blind.

The flop is 7c 3c 6c and I have the King of clubs. Wulfmman checks in the BB and lowroad bets 10,757 and is all in. Wulfmann folds.

Ok push the pot to me. Wait a second.....lowroad has pocket Aces. Oh my fucking god! I type in "come on club" into the chat and the river is a beautiful 2 of clubs and I win the pot.

Lowroad does get a break when a medium stack decides to take his flush up against Wulffman's nut flush and busts out. So at least he won some money to take the sting out of getting his Aces cracked.

So I qualified for the big Sunday $650 tournament.

While I was playing the Poker Stars Rebuy, I was also playing a $75 satellite into the 100 seat guarantee in July on Full Tilt. I made the final table of that one and I was pretty sure I would get my seat. Somehow I donked myself down to 2,870 in chips at the 200-400 blind level with 6 players left. I was dealt A2s on the button. It was folded to me and I pushed in. Unfortunately the chip leader with 17,535 in chips woke up with a hand in the big blind. He called with AQ and I busted out.

I really should not have taken the chance there. I needed to steal against the stacks at 7000 to 4000 level who are not taking any chances. Hell they may not even call with that AQ in that spot. The chip leader could obviously take the chance to bust someone.

So Sunday I spent all day psyching myself up for the big Poker Stars tournament. I really felt like this would be the one and I couldn't wait to tell all my friends how I didn't need their backing and I how I will win money in the main event all by myself.

I was happy to see that when everyone was finally registered that there were 24 seats up for grabs. Almost 3 tables! The blind levels were 30 minutes and we started with 2500 chips so we had a lot of play.

I did not have any luck at all. My best hand the whole time was one pair. I was dealt pocket pairs at least a dozen times and never flopped a set. I dropped down to about 1700, when I made a check raise bluff all in with A8 offsuit. I had flopped the Ace, but I was not crazy about my kicker. A third spade hit the turn and I check raised all in. My opponent finally folded after thinking about it for a minute. He asked how big my kicker was and I lied and told him I had the flush.

That was the only time I seized an opportunity and won a decent sized pot. It was really weird because it seemed like everyone at my table was a good player. Even after identifying who was playing weak tight, someone else would jump in and steal the blinds before I got the chance. There were a couple of times where I was ready to resteal and again someone jumped in front of me.

I hope the rest of my big tournaments don't have that many good players. Since I had to rely on good cards that were not coming, I really did not have much of a chance. I finally went broke with top pair, 2nd nut kicker when a tricky player limped with AA preflop.

I am still rearing to try again and I think I will even enter a live satellite in Las Vegas when I am there for the Blogger gathering as well as hanging out with the Yuma crew at the Hard Rock. I still have 3 weeks.

Swimming against the tide

In the words of the great Billy Baxter, "When you shoot pool, somedays you make every shot and other days you hit the rail every time."

Yesterday, I was home early from work because we were getting our carpets cleaned. I decided to enter a few satellites to the World Series. Lady Luck was a screaming bitch yesterday.

Full Tilt sat to 100 seat giveaway in July

Very early and I am in the small blind with Kh Qs. I have 1,470 in chips to start. It's folded to the cutoff with 1470 in chips. He raises from 30 to 105. Button folds, I call, and big blind folds.

Flop is Ks 7h 8c. For some reason, I decide to let my opponent try to bluff off his chips. I check and he bets 180 into a 225 pot. I just call.

Turn is 7s. I check again and now he bets 330 into a 810 pot. I just call again.

River is Ad. I decide to move all in for my remaining 855. Cutoff calls with Ac Td and wins the pot.

So good read, but I should have just raised the turn all in, if I was sure. Why risk the river and having to bet or call my remaining chips?

Poker Stars $80 satellite into Sunday WSOP satellite

I was playing well and keeping above average in chips. Pretty much in the top ten for most of the tournament. We had just made it down to 2 tables. I think there were 7 spots available to win, so I definitely needed to acquire some more chips to make the final table.

When we were at 3 tables, my table was playing really tight 6 handed. It was rare that we saw a flop and I managed to steal a few blinds myself to maintain.

So I start with 4160 in chips. I am dealt Kh Tc at UTG +2. I think I can steal with blinds at 100-200 so I raise to 600. The big blind calls.

The flop is 2s 8h Td. It's a good flop in that it's unlikely that it hit anybody, but it's bad that if someone wants to play back at me, I will be uncomfortable. The BB checks and I bet 800. This guy raises all in for his last 2650. So it's 1850 to call. This player had made some bad plays in the past, so I figure I am ahead and this is a good chance to win a lot of chips. I call.

Opponent turn over Jc Ts. I have him dominated. He has 3 Jacks for outs and running straight cards. The turn is a harmless 5, but the river is the Jack. Fuck!!!!!

Two hands later I bust out when I raise all in with AJ and get called by AQ.

Poker Stars $16 Double Shoot out to Sunday WSOP qualifier.

My table is made up of a bunch of crazies and before I know it, 5 of them have busted out and we are still at the 6th level. I had a good stack but lost half of it when stealing and getting played back at when I had to lay them down.

Now I am at 2745 in chips which is tied for 2nd. The blinds are 100-200 with 25 ante. With the Ah 5h utg I decide to raise all in. Of course I run into Pocket Kings. The board gives me a glimmer of hope when I flop two more hearts. But I haven't hit a necessary flush draw in two weeks and I do not improve.

Party Poker, I played two $55 sits and busted out of those with no money. I also played the 3:00 PM $55 satellite to the 6:00 PM tournament.

I had been hovering around my starting stack of 3000. My table looked good as there were lots of reckless players willing to broke with top pair, medium kicker.

Finally I am dealt pocket Aces in the small blind. Blinds are 100-200 and I have 2570 before posting. There is a middle position raise to 600. Everyone folds to me. The raiser has 4,766 before the hand starts so he has me covered easily.

My dilemna is how much to raise? I could just shove it in now, but I don't want to scare them off. KK or QQ or AK will probably call me. But lower pocket pairs or AQ, AJ may fold. I don't want to min raise to 1200 because that seems to obvious and I want to hold some chips back to have them fold a flush or straight draw if they happen to flop one..

I decide on betting I decide to bet 1500 total, raising it 900. That leaves me 1070 left. There is 3200 now in the pot. So my idea of having some chips left over, doesn't really matter since now he will be getting the right odds to chase the flush if it hit.

So the flop is not great as it's 9d, Th, 8h. Lots of draws. I shove my last 1070 in and he calls immediately with Qs Ts. So my smaller raise worked to get the bad hand to chase. Of course it bites me in the ass when the Queen comes on the turn. So I need two Aces, 3 nines, or 3 eights to stay alive. Nope those odds are not good enough for me this day and I drown again.

Somedays you're the windshield, somedays you're the bug.

World Blogger Championship and Satellite update

I played in the freeroll on Poker Stars yesterday. I still can't believe there were over 2,200 players signed up. They must not all be poker blogs, but who cares, it's still free.

I was not having any luck at all and mostly folding my way through the first few levels. Here is the final hand.

I have 2085 in chips which is not much more than the 2000 I started with. I am dealt As Kd in late position. The blinds are 50-100. It's folded to me and I raise to 300. Born2DogBaby (2190 in chips)on my left calls and everyone else folds.

750 in the pot to the flop of 4c Qc 4s. I bet 350 in a continuation bet figuring the board should look scary and it's paired so I doubt he called my raise with a 4. I only have to sweat AQ or KQ or maybe QJ. Or if he has the Ace of clubs he may call. Born2DogBaby then raises me all in for 1890.

So it's 1435 to call into a 4320 pot. Almost 3 to 1. This raise seems like he doesn't want a call. For some reason I put him on a flush draw. I figure I am ahead of his draw and if he has a Queen, I still have 6 outs. He turns over Td Jh for an outright bluff. So I am a 3-1 favorite. The jack hits the turn and I am out.

Looking back on it now, this was a stupid call on my part. If Born2DogBaby has a Queen, I am a 3-1 dog. If it's Ace-Queen I am almost an 8-1 dog. A decent player that raises all in on a flush draw, usually has the nut flush draw, so one of my Aces would be dead.

So even though I was ahead in the hand, from a theoretical standpoint it was a horrible move.

I was playing in the $27 rebuy tournament at the same time as the Blogger tournament on Poker Stars and not having any luck there either. Everyone was gambling it up in the first few levels trying to double and triple up. I was more than willing to spend a few rebuys but I never had any decent cards to play. When I finally did get a decent hand in the rebuy period and moved all in, everyone folded because I was the only one on the table that had not played a hand in 2 levels.

Finally I got impatient after the break and with 10 BB left and A7 offsuit in early position, I raised all in. I was called by AQ and it was over after blowing a stupid $52 on a tournament I was not really paying attention to.

Overall in my quest for World Series of Poker glory I am still up $905 after 18 tournaments. My one near miss has paid for a lot of entries. Plus my success rate in the $55 sats on Party Poker has made things relatively cheap. Only 40 days left.

Guys Night Out

I did not make it to Vegas last weekend because I couldn't get anyone else to go with me. So instead I got Rob, Carlo, and Jon to go out to dinner Saturday night and then to Casino Arizona for a long night of poker.

We finally arrived around 8:00 PM and I was immediately seated in a 4-8 game. My very first hand I was dealt 2 black Kings. I raise and get two callers. The flop has an Ace. The player on my right leads out. I glance at the other opponent on my left. He looks ready to call. I muck it. Good read on my part, since when the hand was over, the both had an Ace.

The rest of the night followed the same script in that I just could not get a hand to hold up. I had lots of good starting hands this time, but never flopped anything good.

I stayed until 2:30 AM and left down $244. What a crappy run I have had at Casino AZ.

I thought I would sleep in on Sunday and be sick of poker. Unfortunately, the dogs decided to wake me up at 6:00 AM and I couldn't get back to sleep. Surprisingly I actually felt like playing poker again.

I played a satellite on Full Tilt and lost. I also lost some money in the ring no limit games again. After an afternoon nap, I logged on to Party for the 3:00 PM $55 satellite. Once again I qualified for the 6:00 PM satellite to the Main Event. I am continually surprised how easy it is to qualify in these small satellites. I am currently 4 for 8 in qualifying for the $215 tournament. This doesn't include the one tournament where my internet service went out in the middle of it and I had to call Rob and have him log on for me and coach him over the phone. On that one, I finished two spots away from qualifying but I did win $36 back.

Amazingly I am currently ahead by $1,067 in my attempts to qualify. My original plans were to spend about $3,000 trying to qualify. I may luck out and not have to spend all of my account.

After qualifying for the 6:00 PM tournament, I spent some time psyching myself up and telling myself that this was the tournament to win. When I logged on, I was surprised to learn that there would be 12 whole seats awarded in this tournament! That means there were over 600 players in this shin dig. This looks like a really good chance.

10 hands into the tournament, I busted out. Yay me!

Here's the hand:
Blinds are 20-40.
I have 2940 chips on the button with Qs Ts. One limper and I limp. The Small Blind raises to 180. The limper calls and I call. There is 580 in the pot.

Flop: 7h, Qc, Tc

Now I am trying to figure out how to double up. The Small Blind raiser bets 533 and the first limper folds. Because of the amount of the preflop raise and the position of the raisier I am putting him on a good hand. Probably AA, KK, AQ, maybe QQ. I think the size of the flop bet tells me it's probably AQ, AA, or KK. If he hit trips, he would probably bet less or even check. Maybe he has Ac Kc and is pushing a flush and straight draw.

Here's where I stand depending on my opponent's holdings:
Opponent's hand Odds
AA 73% favorite
KK 71% favorite
QQ practically drawing dead
AQ 84% favorite
AcKc 55% favorite
AcKs 77% favorite

So I decide to just raise 2x his bet to 1066. So my opponent has to call 533 into a pot of of 2179.

Now that I know the odds, I obviously should have raised more. Probably just all in. There's a good chance that he calls with some of these hands.

He calls the 533.

The turn is an Ace of hearts. So no flush yet, but it does put a straight on the board. My opponent puts me all in for 1694, leaving him with just 1100 in chips. Uh oh.

Now my chances do not look so good since if he has AQ, QQ, or AA I am beat. The only realistic hand I am ahead of is pocket Kings and the Ace probably would have scared him. Unfortunately I did not have the time to figure all this out and I call.

Luckily he only had Ac Ks so I was still a 73% favorite. But the Ace came on the river and I lost to trip Aces.

So for future reference, if I have two pair and I think my opponent might have an over pair, it's better to raise all in or at least 3-4 times my opponent's initial bet. I am a favorite, but I can lose if the board pairs or something comes runner, runner. I am not enough of a favorite to slow play.

God Damn this game can be cruel.

My Achilles Heel

The Casino Arizona has just been raping me lately. It is the only location that I do not have a winning record at. I can't figure it out.

Over my last few visits, I have felt that the level of my opponents has been especially bad. The problem is that I have not been able to find a way to take advantage of it.

Last night I must have been dealt Ace Queen at least 8 times. The only time I won with it, was when I did not raise it under the guy and by some miracle, my pair of Queens held up. On one hand in middle position I raised it after the guy on my right called preflop. It's folded around to him and he calls. I pair my Ace on the board but the board also has two 4's. He leads out and I raise. He just calls. The turn is a blank and he leads out again. Now I'm worried. I just call. River is another blank and he leads again. I make the crying call, figuring he has 3 fours. Instead he turns over Ace-King. I asked him nicely why he doesn't raise with that hand. "I guess I am just too conservative". Ya think??? These guys are playing a game that I am not familiar with.

At 3-6 on a kill pot, I am dealt QQ in the small blind. There is one raise by a player who seems to be decent, and a reraise all in by a donkey. Another donkey on the button calls. I ask how much it is to reraise (because I lose track of the bet amount after posting $2 and they take $1 for the jackpot drop). I bet $24. They all call.

The flop is 8 high. I bet and the decent player raises me and the donkey calls. Alright maybe I am up against KK or AA. The table had seemed pretty passive until that point. I just call.

The turn is another low card but it puts 3 cards to a straight out there now. The flop had 2 of the same suit. I figure everyone is still drawing because the decent player had to have a pocket pair with all the raising right?? I check and decent player checks??? and donkey checks. What the fuck? So now my initial read is a bit off and it's obvious that the other players are drawing. Now I just need to dodge the flush and straight and I might win. The river brings a 4 card straight on board of 2-7-8-9-10. I'm finished now. I check again and decent player bets. Donkey calls and I muck. Decent player had 66 and had the straight. Donkey had 2-4 suited??!!

I don't know what Donkey was doing, but the decent player was more interesting. I can understand the raise with 66 in a kill pot. I can understand the loose call of two more raises after it goes by him. What I don't understand is the raise of my flop bet? He was two cards away from a straight and there were two over cards on the flop.

I was totally confused and took a walk. I remembered that I would tell myself that if I started out losing at a table that I would switch games. Even though the players are bad, my table image is shot because no one is afraid of me.

I went to the desk and asked to be put in a 4-8 game. After folding a few hands I am dealt AA under the gun. I raise. The guy on my left calls and the button calls. The flop is 8-9-10 with 2 clubs. I have the Ace of clubs.

I bet, it's raised, it's reraised by the button. Fuck!!! I just call hoping the guy on my left will slow down. No such luck as he caps it. So 4 bets for the three of us on the flop. Now I am praying for another Ace or a club so at least I can draw at a flush. The turn is a red 3.

I check and then all hell breaks loose. Raise, reraise, I fold. Now it's heads up and unlimited raises. Each player puts in 6 raises. Let's reflect......one of these players has Queen Jack. Odds are both players have it, but I've seen crazier things. My guess was that someone had Queen Jack of clubs and was freerolling the flush. Otherwise why put in all the raises?

The river pairs the 10. Now the straight is no longer the nuts. The guy on my left leads out and the button just calls. Now it's apparent that the guy on my left just got a full house. Sure enough it's 8's full of Tens. He just won a huuuge pot playing like an idiot.

When it was all said and done I only lost $202. I made some decent laydowns that saved me a few bets. Things will eventually turn around for me there but I doubt that I will ever make the big score that it would take to even things out.

Biggest Payday Ever! Almost a WSOP seat.

When I last left this humble blog I had mentioned that I was having a lucky day on Monday. I really did not have any comprehension of how lucky I was about to get.

After qualifying in the $55 satellite, I played in the $215 WSOP satellite on Party Poker.

In the early rounds I played a little loose and aggressive when in position. I wasn't doing much until I managed to double up when I flopped a set of 8's over my opponent's set of 5's.

For the next 3 or 4 levels, I really did not play very many hands but I managed to keep my chip stack between 8 and 12 BB by restealing a few times from the tight passive guy on my right. I was really happy with my play, because this was something I wanted to concentrate on after reading numerous posts on 2+2 about restealing and how vital it is to last in tournaments when you go card dead.

Finally, I had a big hand to give me some breathing room. After folding for what seemed like 3 rounds of blinds, I found myself with Ah Ks in the small blind. The blinds were 300-600 and I started with 4,310 in chips. Our starting stacks were 3,000 so as you can see, I really had not done much yet.

Rosieace, one of 3 stacks over 12,000 at the table open raised in middle position to 1925. My best friend, TlewA, who I had survived 3 blind levels by stealing liberally from, raised all in on the button. I of course moved my 4,310 into the middle. The big blind folded and Rosieace called.

Rosieace turns over Kc Qs and TLewA turns over Ac 3s. Huh??? I can understand the call by Rosie, since she's getting good odds and can afford to gamble. I guess TLewA had somewhere else to be.

The flop was Tc 9c 4s. The turn is 4c. So now TLewA has the nut flush draw. I need to dodge 4 jacks, 8 clubs, 3 threes, and 3 Queens. 18 bad cards and 26 good cards. The river was a harmless 8s and I triple up!

I am at 12,931 in chips and only 2700 chips behind the chip leader at my table.

Soon after, the blinds moved up to 400-800 with 25 antes. So once again, my stack is not all that large. I steal the blinds once. I miss stealing the blinds and lose it right back. Then I steal again, but now I need to move all in for around 10,000 each time.

Time for another rush. I am dealt Tc 9h on the button. It's folded to me and with a starting stack of 12,306, I raise to 2400. The small blind pushes all in for 3037. Luckily the big blind folds so I don't have to make a real decision. I call the other 600 and the flop comes down
Ac 9s Kd. My opponent has Ks Jc so he is ahead. My good fortune strikes again and I turn a 3rd nine. The very next hand on the button I receive Jd Jc. Rosieace with 6200 in chips raises to 2600 under the gun. It's folded to me and I raise all in to protect my hand. Rosie calls. My Jacks hold up against her KQ. Now I am up to 23,905 and almost leading my table again.

I bled off a few chips after calling a short stack's all in with pocket 5's and losing the race. Then I got caught in fancy play syndrome. With the blinds at 600-1200 and 50 antes we are playing 7 handed. I am one off the button with As 9h. Utg folds and eagerearl limps in. Eagerearl has been tagged as a fish by me. It will be very easy to get some chips off of him if I hit a hand. I raise to 3600 to isolate him, which works. He calls as expected so now there is 9,350 in the pot and I have 17,266 left. Eagerearl has 17,522 left.

The flop is Js Qd Qh. This is a decent board to bluff at, except that Eagerearl loves to call and I bet he has flopped at least a drawing hand. He checks and I check behind. The turn is a 3h. It's checked through again. The river is the Jc. We check it down. Luckily Eagerearl has Ace 6 and we chop the pot. Wow he's even worse than I thought.

I float through a few more rounds staying around 25k. We are at the final 2 tables. Finally on the big blind I am dealt Qh Qc. Bajawa with 51,115 raises to 4050 in middle position. It's folded to me and I push all in. For some strange reason, he calls and flips over Ah 9h. "It was sooooted!" I can hear him saying as he prays for an Ace he doesn't get. Now I am pumped up to 52,982 and I officially have a big stack.

I go card dead for a little while, but I do get a chuckle from one hand. Mr. Uni Q has been raising all in for 2 or 3 levels now. It's his only move even though he has 30,000 chips and the blinds are 1000-2000 with 75 antes. So it's folded to him on the button and of course he raises all in. I am in the small blind with Ah 9h. Luckily if he had just put in a small raise, I may have tried to resteal. Instead I fold, but the big blind ishosta with 57,172 in chips calls with his pocket 9's. Mr Uni Q turns over QQ and it looks like he will double up and cause me trouble for a while. Instead, ishosta hits the last and only 9 in the deck to eliminate Mr Uni Q and make the table 6 handed.

Eventually I make the final table with 48,807 in chips. I am in 4th place. The chip leader has 96,247 and it's eagerearl so I figure those chips are in play. The top 2 places receive the WSOP tickets and 3rd, 4th, and 5th split up the rest of the money in a 50-30-20 split.

With 9 left and I am on the big blind, I am dealt TT. Eagerearl min raises at UTG+1. So now I am licking my chops. It's folded to nikzad who min raises again to 3x the blind or 6000. I don't want to play a pot with nikzad out of position because he seems like a decent player. I decide to fold. Eagerearl then pushes all in. Did I avoid pocket Aces? Nikzad folds so I'll never know.

I am UTG + 1 with Kh Jc and 50,257. The blinds are 1000-2000 with 75 antes and we are 9 handed. I raise to 5000 hoping to steal. It's folded to Nikzad who pushes in his last 8481. It's 4500 more to call into a 16,000 pot, so I have to call. He turns over Ks Qc and turns a straight. Now I am down to 40,776.

The blinds go up to 1500-3000 with 75 antes now. I lose some chips trying to defend my blind against a min raise. I call preflop and lead out on the ragged flop. Nikzad raises all in and I fold like a little girl.

Later I have raised three different times all in preflop to steal and have yet to be called. My chips are back up to 42,000.

On the button with Kd Js and the blinds are now 2000-4000 with 100 antes. 8 players left. The short stack with 12,619 goes all in. It's folded to me and I figure he could have a pretty wide range of hands. I don't think Kd Js is a good enough hand to protect so I just call. Maybe the others will join in to try and eliminate a player? Sure enough, Eagerearl in the big blind with 57,847 behind him joins in the fun. The pot is 40,657 and comes down Kh 9s 2s. Eagerearl checks and I push. I did not want to get out drawn, but maybe I should have bet less to see if Eagerearl would call with a worse hand? Eventually my hand holds up and now I have 69,239 in chips.

I hold steady and finally with 6 players left, Eagerearl makes a really dumb move and busts himself and now we've all made money. 5th place pays $1,360. I HAVE NOW WON MORE MONEY IN THIS TOURNAMENT THEN I EVER HAVE BEFORE!!!! I have 74,639 in chips and the blinds are 3000-6000. I am in 3rd place.

It all goes bad in a hurry. I have 76off in the small blind. It's folded to me and I raise to 18k. Ishosta who has me covered moves all in to defend and I have to lay down. Now I am down to 50,400. The next hand on the button I am dealt pocket 5's. Olijenab with 90,000 in chips limps in under the gun. I don't want to see a flop, but I don't want to go broke either. I raise to 25,000 figuring that should be good enough to get a fold if he's fooling around.

Instead of the hoped for fold, he raises me all in. FUCK!!!! I lay it down and he's nice enough to show me the pocket Aces. I fold until it gets to me in the small blind. I am dealt Q5 suited and I raise all in after it's folded to me. Ishosta makes a good call with 89 of diamonds. I am ahead, but not by much. He turns the 9 and rivers an 8 to eliminate me 5th.

I was really happy with the way I played. I was very patient and picked my spots at the right times. I hope this is a springboard to bigger and better things.

It's a Lucky Holiday

I played golf this morning with the normal gang down at the Country Club. I shot my usual 82 with a terrible front 9 and a pretty good back 9. I had two really lucky shots on the back nine that should have gone in the water, but somehow stayed up on the embankment instead of rolling into the lake. This was an omen.

After coming home and resting for a bit, I decided to fire up the computer for some poker. Somehow I won both of the $55 sit n go's I played by getting lucky a few times in each game to suck out.

Now I am about to qualify for another WSOP satellite. I ran up a huge stack when my JJ rivered a straight to beat two Kings. Then I had KK and won and then AA and won in 3 successive hands. I went from out of the tournament to chip leader in 3 hands!

I'll be back to post more on the bigger tournament.

Another WSOP attempt

On Sunday I tried to qualify again for the WSOP main event. I won my way in with a $55 satellite. The first satellite was pretty boring except for one hand.

There were 23 spots available and there were 24 players left. Blinds were 400-800 with 25 ante. I had 8500 in chips. There was one player at another table with 300 in chips and about 4 hands to go until he hits the blinds.

I was dealt pocket Aces in the big blind. It was folded to the small blind, who raised me. He had about 16k in chips. He could fold his way in easily, but he was fucking around.

I hemmed and hawed for a while and then called. Mathematically this is an easy fold. I knew that, but for some reason I still felt uncomfortable with my chip stack because the next closest to elimination after the mini stack was around 4000 in chips. I felt like if I called, he probably would not bet again. If he did, I would base my decision on the texture of the flop.

The flop was 3-4-5 with 2 suits. The small blind pushed in and I called. The small blind had 8-7 and my hand was good. I have no idea why he would push in there? That's almost as bad as my decision preflop. I guess he had chips and could afford it.

After that little scare, I coasted in and sat down for dinner. The next tournament started at 6:00 PM. I will run through the hands I played and see if I could have played them any better.

1. 3260 in chips. I am dealt 6s 5s in middle position. One limper in front. I limp for 60. 2 other callers.
The flop is 3d, 2h, 6d. It's checked to me and I bet 150. Everyone folds.

2. 3380 in chips. I am dealt Ac, Ah in the cutoff. It's folded to me and I raise 3x the blind to 180. Button folds and both blinds call.
The flop is a beautiful Ks Kc Ad. The blinds both check and I check it through setting the trap. The turn is a 9s. This time the Big Blind bets 450 into the 540 pot. I smooth call and the small blind folds. The river is a 2c. Now the Big Blind bets 2595 which basically puts me all in. I raise my last 155. He calls and flips over Kh 2h for Kings full of 2's. My Aces full is a winner and I double up.

3. 6730 in chips. Blinds are 50-100. I am dealt 6s, Js. 5 folds to me and I decide to try and steal the blinds by raising to 300. Button folds, but both blinds call. Ugh.
Flop is 4d, 7d, 8d. The small blind bets 375 and BB calls. I fold.

4. 6430 in chips. Blinds are 50-100. I am in the big blind with Ac, 5s. It's folded to the button who min raises to 200. I call. The flop is 5c, 8c, 5h. I check and the button bets 360 into the 450 pot. I try to do some math to figure out how much I should raise to charge him a high price on a flush draw. I raise to 1400. The button reraises all in. It's 1847 more to call so I do. Button turns over Qs, Ah and my hand is good. My stack is up to 9927.

5. 10,827 in chips. Blinds are 100-200. I am in late middle position with Ad, Js. It's 4 folds to me and I open for 600. Everyone folds except the big blind who calls. The flop is 2h, Ks, 3s. I continuation bet for 700. He folds.

6. 11,027 in chips. Blinds 100-200. I am dealt Ac, Kc in the big blind. Middle position (emigo) calls. Cutoff (H2Oman23) raises to 625. I just call. Emigo had 3179 chips at start and H20man23 had 5833. Should I have raised? This looks like a decent push. I am not in good position and it would be nice to take it down here. The other side of the coin is that I have a big chip lead at the table and why risk it on a possible coin flip?
The flop is 4h, 6h, 8c. I check, emigo bets 200. H20 man raises to 825. I fold. Emigo called the raise. The turn was Ah. That puts up a possible flush. Emigo min bets 200 again. This time H20 folds. I'd love to know what Emigo had there. The min bet on the flop looks like a flush draw blocking bet, but who knows?

7. 10,202 in chips. Blinds 150-300. I have Kh, 7h on the button. It's folded to me and I try to steal and raise to 900. The small blind raises all in to 4622. The big blind folds and I fold. The small blind(titlegambler) has been a bit crazy.

8. 9302 in chips. Dealt 7h, 7c in middle. I raise and win the blinds.

9. 9752 in chips. Blinds are 200-400. I have As, Kh in the small blind. UTG raises all in to 716. It's folded to me. I reraise all in. Titlegambler in big blind folds.

Is this right? Should I just call or put in a smaller raise? If I raise smaller, maybe it entices the crazy big blind to play a weaker hand.

My hand does not improve and the UTG pair of 7's wins the race.

10. 9036 in chips. I have Kd, Js in the cut off. The blinds are 200-400. The big blind is all in for 320. It's folded to me and I raise to 800. Everyone folds and it's another race. I pair my Jack on the turn and win a small pot.

11. 9556 in chips. I have 9s, 9h utg. The blinds are 200-400. I raise to 1000. One fold, then a call. Wedgewood who has me covered 2-1, raises to 5200. I fold and the other caller folds.
The big blind was all in so I get to see Wedgewood's pocket Kings. Nice escape I must say.

12. Down to 7756 in chips. Blinds are still 200-400. I have 6d, 6c in the small blind. Folded to the button who raises to 1300. I reraise all in. The BB folds and the button folds. This is a nice steal reraise. I may need to learn how to do this more often with a wider range of hands.

13. 8556 in chips. Blinds are 300-600. I am dealt Jh, Ks two off the button. There is an UTG (Bestdeal2222) min raise to 1200. Bestdeal has 22383 in chips. I just call. This is probably a mistake. I have some protection in that there are probably not a lot of people looking to play a pot with the 2nd biggest chip stack at the table. But I still have 4 players left to act behind me. I think now that this is a raise or fold situation. Sure enough, the big blind calls.

The flop is 7d, 9h, 2d. The pot is 4200. The BB checks and bestdeal min bets 600. I just call hoping to take it away on the turn. This is screaming for a big raise here.

The turn is 6s. Bestdeal bets the minimum again and I fold. Very vaginal.

14. 6756 in chips and blinds are 300-600. I am dealt pocket 9's in middle position. There are 3 folds in front of me and I raise to 2000. There are two folds and then Braves77 raises all in for 6343. I call praying for Braves to turn over big unpaired cards. No such luck as I see pocket Aces. I was left with less than the big blind after that and played a few more hands before getting knocked out by 4 Kings.

I finished 42nd out of 187.

Overall, I started out very fast and was getting some great hands. When things slow down and I go card dead for awhile, I need to learn how to maintain or continue to build up my stack. I was looking for open steal attempts, but one thing I have never really done is resteal.

I definitely think that I need to resteal every once in a while to build up my chips. Look at the math. If I open steal, then I only win 1.5 bets. If I resteal, then I win the initial raise of 3-4 bets plus the blinds. That's 4.5 to 5.5 bets. If I am at 15-20 BB in my stack, then that is a great increase. I would only have to do this move once every 3 rounds to be the same effectiveness as open stealing.

I also did some more digging at 2+2 in the MTT Anthology section. I looked at the hand histories of some of the winning tournaments. One move I noticed a lot was check raising a paired board on the flop. I think this is a pretty successful bluff, especially if it's heads up or 3 handed. There are not a lot of hands that decent players are willing to call with on these boards if someone shows aggression and represents the three of a kind. I'll just keep working to get better.

Quick Hit at Casino AZ

So I had a couple of hours to kill before a 5:30 PM business event in North Scottsdale. I did not feel like working and I couldn't go home, so I went to the casino.

I was seated in a very loose passive 4-8 game and sat in the 3 seat. After folding the first 9 or 10 hands I had reads on at least half the table. There were 4 players that were willing to play any two and call all draws to the river. There was an old lady in seat 8 who would only raise if her hand was unbeatable. I saw her call down with 3 of a kind, twice without raising. I also overheard her saying something about never raising with QQ or KK because an Ace always hits the flop. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Now I only have about 90 minutes so I am looking to make a decent score. Under the gun, I limp with Ace-8 of hearts. Normally I muck this, but I am not afraid of a raise here. After putting my $4 in, the dealer reminds me it's a kill pot. Oh! I put in the other $4. Every other player at the table calls!. I guess we all have odds to chase now.

The flop is As - 8s - Th. A great but vulnerable hand with this many players. The small blind was a younger guy who I had not seen get out of line yet, led out for 8. The BB called. I raise trying to force some guys out. I get a loose call from one guy who is now all in and another call. The blinds also call. The turn is a Jh. Ok that made an inside straight or the weaker straight. However it gives me a nut flush draw.

The small blind leads out again. Now I am thinking he may have a set. The table has been really passive. He has bet into me twice. I don't think he is bluffing, but he may not realize how strong my hand is. The big blind folds, I just call. The all in guy is still paying attention and the last loose guy calls.

The river is a black 2. Now the small blind checks. Ok there's no full house and I don't think he would give up on his set now. He must have top pair. I value bet and get a call from the guy behind me and the small blind. My hand is good as they turn over AK and AQ. The all in guy mucked.

I think my profit was over $120 in the hand. That was an awful lot of chips to stack for the next 3 or 4 hands.

Now that I think about it, I probably should have raised the turn when the flush draw came. I'm pretty sure I had enough equity in the pot to do it. Plus it might have convinced the last guy to fold, although I doubt it.

I should have just got up right there. But of course I had an hour left to kill.

I think I actually played very well for the remaining hour, but I lost most of my gains until I left with a $47 profit. I made some good decisions on the river and saved some bets. Here are some of the interesting hands.

The younger guy in the 1 seat raised under the gun. 2 seat folds and I look at TT. I think about reraising here, but I dread having a bunch of players call 3 bets behind me. I folded. The big blind was the only other caller. The flop came out Ace-Queen-Queen. The BB checked and UTG followed through with a bet and won the pot. He actually showed his cards and had 99.

So the question in hindsight is, should I have reraised? I am definitely sure that I could not call a bet or a raise on that flop. Was my position bad enough, that a fold was the right play?

Later I play Jack 10 off on the big blind for one bet. I think there are 5 people in the pot. The flop is Jack-2-2. I lead out hoping everyone folds. Instead I get 3 other callers. There is no flush draw out there and no possible straight draw. So there's a good chance someone has the 2. The turn is another 2. Maybe there isn't another two in someones hand?? I bet this time and only get one more caller. This guy is very loose and could be calling with a smaller pocket pair.
For some reason, my gut tells me to check the river which was an 8. So he announces, "I think you're bluffing so I'm gonna bet".

I think about it for a little bit. Then I ask him, "How much do you think I'm bluffing? Would you call a raise?" He doesn't give a straight answer but he looks like he is trying to goad me into raising. I just call and he turns over the 4th 2 for 4 of a kind. At least I lost the minimum.

Overall it was nice to book a win in a live game. Now I'm jonesing for another trip to Vegas. Maybe in June.

1st chance at the WSOP

I just finished a $55 satellite on Party Poker to qualify for their nightly $215 satellite into the World Series Main Event. In the 55 they give away one seat for every 5 players. I started slow, but got lucky a couple of times when my pocket pairs had another stack about the same size or larger, dominated. I basically cruised into the entry for the last 30 minutes.

I will try to post hands from the $215 later tonight.

The $215 satellite offers one seat for every 55 players. There were 196 players registered so there are only 3 seats up for grabs. I never did see the payout for the remainder of the cash.

Level 1 20-40 blinds

Ok, we're off. I win my first hand when I raise on the button with KQ suited. The blinds fold. I rock!

2 off the button, I am dealt 3s 3c. Folded to me and I call 40. Everyone folds to small blind who completes and button checks. Flop is 6d, Jd, Td. Small blind checks and Big Blind bets 100. I fold.

Very next hand I have Js Td. Folded to me in middle position. I call 40. One caller behind me and Big Blind checks. Flop is 8s, 7s, 6c. BB checks, I check, and late player checks.
Turn is Kc. BB bets 200 and I fold.

I fold 2 hands then I am dealt Qd, Qh in UTG +1. I raise to 120. Everyone folds except the BB. He calls. Flop is Jc, 7s, 5c. BB checks and I bet 200 into a 260 chip pot. BB folds. I have 3100 in chips.

I have 3h 8c in BB and I check fold on flop.

I have 8s 9s in small blind and fold to a preflop raise. He was the only one in the pot. Maybe I should have played it but the flop was 7h, 4s, 2h so I would not have hit anything anyway.

I fold my button and then I am moved to a different table.

First hand at new table and I am dealt 7d 7s in middle position. There is a raise to 80 by the player in front of me (this is the min raise). I call. One more caller behind me and both the blinds call. 5 players in the pot for 400. Flop is 8c, 4h, Jd. Three players check to me. There is only one player behind me. The player in front of me who raised preflop has checked this ragged flop. I decide to see if I can take it down or at least winnow the field. I bet 300.

The BB calls the 300. The turn is Kd. Now there are 3 overcards on the board and I don't think my opponent is on a draw of any kind, so he probably has a Jack or an 8. He checks and I check. The river is the Ks. The big blind goes all in for 830. There is 1830 in the pot and 830 to call. It' s not worth getting crippled on this long shot yet. I fold. I am down to 2660 in chips.

We are now at level 2 with 30-60 blinds.

I fold 3 hands, and then I am in the big blind with 7h 6c. Two limpers and the small blind completes. I check. The flop is Qc, Kd, Ad. No chance for me here.

I have 3h 3c in the small blind. Two limpers, I complete and BB checks. The flop is 4c, 2d, Js. Missed again. I check fold.

I am on the button and am dealt Qd 9h. The table seems pretty tight. It's folded to me on the button so I raise to 120. Both blinds fold. My stack is now at 2630.

I fold 4 hands in a row and then I am dealt 4h 4c in UTG + 3. One caller in front of me, and I call. The cutoff calls and both blinds complete. Flop is Jd, 8d, Td. Another check fold.

I fold another hand and I am moved to another table. I am at 2570 in chips.

I fold 6 hands in a row.

It's now level 3 with blinds at 50-100.

I am dealt Ad Qd in the big blind. UTG min raises to 200. It's folded to small blind who calls and I call. Flop is 7c, 5c, 6c. Small blind leads out for 100. I fold. Eventually the other two players get it all in. UTG had raised with Jd Kc. Small Blind had called with Ac, Ts. They both played the hell out of their flush draws and the last club hit on the river. Should I have reraised preflop? In hindsight, I would have had to win it preflop, because they would have called a reasonable bet on the flop and I would not have led out again on the turn.

I fold 11 hands in a row! Mostly horrible cards. A couple playable hands but there was a raise in front of me, so I mucked them.

On the button I am dealt Jh Ts. One limper and I call. Both Blinds come along for a flop of 2s, 5c, Qh. Missed again. The limper in front of me bets 100 into a 400 pot. He has 1800 behind. The blinds both have me covered by 2-1. I play tight and fold. Should I raise here with nothing into 4 players?

Next hand I get Ks Jh. There is an early position raise so I fold.

Now we're at Level 4. 100-200 blinds. I have 2070 in chips. I am the short stack at the table. The biggest stack is 17,148. There are 3 others in the 2000's and 4 players in the 4000's.

I fold 11 hands in a row again.

I am dealt Ad Qc at UTG + 2. I am all in for 1770. Everyone folds so I pick up 300.

We are now at Level 5 with 150-300 blinds. I have 1620 in chips so it's getting desperate.

I fold 4 hands. I am dealt Ac Kd on the button. I am starting with 1620 in chips. It's folded to me. I raise all in and the blinds fold. Back up to 2070 chips again.

I fold one hand. The next hand is Ah 9c. I am 2 from the button. It's folded to me again. I raise all in to 2070 and pick up the blinds. I am now at 2520.

I get Ac 7c the next hand. It's folded to me again. I decide not to push in this time since it would be the 3rd time in 4 hands. I fold. The button raises to 750 and the BB called. The flop was 8s, 8c, 7h. The BB led out for 525 and the button folded. Maybe my hand was good, I don't know.

I fold 11 hands in a row again. 3 off the button I am dealt 7s 7h. It's folded to me and I raise all in for 2070. Everyone folds again and I pick up 450 in blinds. I am really starting to wish I could get called just I can have a chance to double up.

I fold one hand.

The level changes to Level 6 and blinds are now 200-400. I have 2520 in chips.

The next hand is Kh Th in UTG + 1. Ok I am two hands from eating 600 in blinds. It's time to get lucky. I push. I get an all in behind me for 3900 and another all in for 2799. This is not good.

One player has KK and the other has AK. Neither of them has a heart and the flop of Qh, 4h, 6s gives me a brief glimmer of hope. But the turn and river are non hearts and I am out in 99th place.

Another lost month

So my poker bankroll is now down to 2992. It hasn't been this low since June of 05. It was only a $400 loss for the month versus the $1000 and $900 loss the previous two months, but it still sucks.

I made a $300 deposit into Absolute poker to do some bonus whoring. The more I play, the more I realize that it might take a million years to work off this $300. I think I get around $10 for every 1000 raked hands I play. Luckily I signed up with a rake back affiliate, so I get to play at a little discount.

The software at Absolute is not the greatest. I found a color scheme that I can deal with. There is not a great selection of games. They seem to max out around 15,000 players, so I don't think there is a chance for me to 3 and 4 table the low limit games. Plus I have not run into a lot of fish at those levels either.

I lost what was left in my Full Tilt account by playing ill advised No Limit ring games again. I feel like my game is getting better, however I get bored very easily. I want to keep my play to one or two tables to try and get a read on the players. The problem is you never see a showdown in No Limit, so it's hard to get comfortable with what hands my opponents are playing and how they are playing them.

My goal this month is to do my research and pick two sites where I will try to win my World Series seat. My bankroll is not where it needs to be, but let's face it, I am having a new baby in November and my poker play will probably be curtailed considerably in 2007. This may be my last shot for a few years.

I am looking for a site that will let me satellite into their bigger tournaments and use those satellite tokens on any tournament I want. It does me no good to play a tournament to win an entry to another tournament right after, when I can't be there for 10 hours at a time. I think the winners are going to be Full Tilt and Poker Stars, but I need to be sure.

Poker blahs

I am still struggling with motivation. Losing sucks and lately it has been sucking my inspiration from the game. I used to get more motivated to come back from a loss, but now the loss has been so big, that I dread the long hours it will take to build back up.

I have been good about not trying to move up and make it all back in one session, but it's hard to resist.

It's been a while since I have been in the running in a multi table tournament. This is the pattern that has been consistent: 180 man $22 tourney on Stars last night.

1. Wait for good hands that don't come early. Watch as idiots lose chips in big pots that you are not in.

2. Start to lose patience and lose 1/3 of my stack by raising with medium hand and laying down to reraise, or missing flop and continuation betting but getting called.

3. Blinds are up and I steal blinds a couple of times.

4. Somebody calls my all in raise and sucks out. I am out in 80th place.

Here was the end last night:

I have 1185 in chips. Blinds are 50-100. I am dealt Ad 5s on the button.

It's folded to me. The small blind has 1265 in chips and the big blind has 5460 in chips.

This is an obvious raise, the question is whether it should be all in or just 300. I decide 300 since there are still 7 minutes left in this level, and I'll still have 7 big bets if I have to fold to a reraise or miss the flop.

The small blind moves all in and the big blind folds. I fold as well.

Next hand in the cut off, I am dealt Kh 8d. It is folded to me again. Now I decide I need the chips. Note: this may not be the best move in retrospect, but there are only a few minutes left now in the level. This is the exact opposite of my thinking in the previous hand. I raise all in.

I am called by the big blind who has 1140 chips with 33. I guess he was looking to gamble.
Flop is Ad Ks 6c. Yeah I have a King! He is down to 2 outs. Turn is an 8c. I have two pair, but it doesn't matter since it still doesn't beat 3 of a kind, which is my opponent's only chance. River is the 3. Fuck!

I play a $22 Sit and Go on Stars the night before last. I have been playing more Sits one table at a time, to work on my game. I play solid and make it to heads up. My heads up play is relatively weak, but I am getting better. Pokerstars Sits tend to give you a lot of play heads up. Even on the final hand, we both had about 13-15 big blinds left.

My opponent should have been out when we were 3 handed. I had over 8000 in chips and my 2 opponents had less than 2000. He rivered a 6 for 3 of a kind and stayed alive. Eventually we made it to heads up and he was still alive.

My opponent, Spkrothhouse had reraised me a couple of times all in and watched me fold. He had also over bet all in preflop once as well. I was starting to believe that when he overbet the pot, that he had nothing and that when he bet small, he had the goods. Here is the last hand.

Larryvq 6460
Srkrothhouse 7040.
Blinds are 200-400 with 25 ante.

Larry posts the small blind and has the button.

I am dealt Ac 6s. I raise to 1225 and he calls.

Flop is 4s 4h Ks. He bets all in for 5815 into a 2450 pot. This smells like another bluff. I have about the worst hand I would call with. I call.

Skrot turns over Jh 8s. I caught him with his hand in the cookie jar.

Of course he spikes an 8 on the turn and I don't get my Ace on the river.

I need a Big Score!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Miracle SNG Comeback

So I took a couple of days off and fired up a $22 sit and go on Party last night. I was just playing one, because I was watching the concert DVD of Journey from 1981. Things were going my way, as I hit trips on the first hand and won a big pot. I made it to three handed and then knocked out the short stack to get heads up. Starting heads up I had 13465 chips and Burke21 had 6535. Blinds were 300-600.

A couple of hands later, I call a reraise on the button with KQ of clubs. The flop is 6s, 4s, 6d and Burke21 pushes in 2471 chips. I can't call and now it's tied.

A little later, I catch a diamond flush with Jc 2d. I win 2400 chips and my lead is up to 12701 to 7299. I run my lead up to 15000 to 5000 and stall for a little time, so the blinds will go up to 400-800 with a 25 ante. I figure I can just start pushing all in, since he has played passive for the most part.

For the next three hands I push all in, but it's easy because I am dealt AQ, AK, AJ. On the AJ hand, he calls his last 5000 with Kh 2d. Of course he hits his King on the flop and now we're tied again.

The next hand, I start with 10102 and he has 9898. I post the big blind and I am dealt 10d 7d. Burke just calls from the button. The flop is 8d 6d, Qh. So assuming that Phil Gordon's rule of 2 and 4 is correct, I have 12 outs times 4, so a 48% chance to win the hand, assuming that 10 high is no good. Heck if I throw in the 3 tens, it's a 60% chance. I check and Burke21 leads out for 1600. I push all in and he calls with 9s 8c. I get no help on the turn or river so now I am practically dead. I have 204 left and Burke21 has 19,796.

Remember the blinds are 400-800 with 25 antes. I will have to double up at least 3 times just to have more than the blinds. So here's what happens:

1. 4h, 2h win with pair of 2's
2. 6d, 6s win with 6's and 4's
3. 8d, 3s win with pair of 8's
4. 10s, 5d win with pair of 5's I now have 3264 in chips
5. I fold 6d, jh on button
6. Jh, 9d I push from big blind and hit straight 7-J now I have 5678 in chips and I am back in this thing.

Eventually I came all the way back and won the final hand when my Ace Queen held up against his Queen Eight.

Possibly the greatest comeback ever!

What Have I Learned From Losing Last Month?

I have officially seen the worst downswing in my brief poker playing history. I hate reading other player's posts about their losing streaks so I will not detail the individual hands.

The culmination of this streak was my trip to Las Vegas last weekend with my friend Tom and his two friends Brad and Ken. I believe the total wreckage of the weekend was down $1,500.

Here is what I believe I have learned during the last 6 weeks of losing:

1. If you start out bad at a table, it's best to just change tables or change games.

I have never been a big proponent of the loss limit camp to betting strategy. If the game is good, you should be patient and wait for the cards to turn. It's all one big session. That is all true, however there are other things that override that strategy.

When you start out losing, you are building a bad table image. I sat at the 6-12 table at Caesers with some of the worst players in Vegas. For the first two hours, I did not win a single hand. These players are not afraid to play a hand with me, because they haven't felt the sting of losing against me. They are happy to chase their long shot draws because it never enters their mind that they are hopelessly behind in the hand. Why should it, every time they play against me, they win? The only way to change this image is to go on a mad rush of cards and punish the table for an hour. This seems to very seldom happen, so I think the best strategy is to get up and find a fresh table.

2. You have to be even more patient at No Limit then Limit in cash games

The only way to make money in a No Limit cash game on the internet is to hope that your great hands, match up with somebody's pretty good hand. There are very few opportunities to outplay your opponents in low limit online NL hold'em. The key is to keep throwing bait in the water by playing solid hands along with a few speculative ones. Once you land the nuts, you need to get lucky and hope someone else really likes their hand. Hopefully your stack has not been eroded by bad beats or impatient play, so that when you double up with your monster, it makes a profit for the session instead of just getting you back to even.

I say patient, because I have often lost it, after receiving a number of good hands in a game and not getting paid off. Eventually you start to get fancy and try checking or slow playing. Then it comes back to bite you in the ass.

Overall, I am going to take a few days off from playing and figure out a new plan. I am probably going to have to drop down to 2-4 online and grind it out in the cash games again. With live poker, I guess I am going to have to back to the 3-6 games to regain my confidence and bankroll. Or I may just concentrate on the Steps and see if I can make a big score to rebuild the bankroll in a hurry. I still feel that I have not been outplayed, however I did notice one difference in my play at 3-6 versus 6-12.

At 3-6, the game feels easy to me. I can concentrate more on the players, and less on how much money I have in front of me. I know I am not describing this well, but I feel like I know what the players are going to do, before they do it at 3-6. It's near impossible to read their hands sometimes, but at least I can get a read on whether they are weak or strong.

Down the Steps and Back Up again

In my last post, I bragged about making it to step 4 in the Party Poker Mini Steps. I played in one and was busted down all the way to a free roll in step 1. Since then I have clawed my way back and I am at step 4 again.

I have only played one since then. I had a chance to do some damage with 5 players left. I raised from the small blind with AK suited. The BB came over the top all in for quite a bit more. There are some occasions where I might have folded this, but I saw a chance to double up and put myself in great position. Plus, because it looked like such a blatant steal on my part, that he could be pushing with a wide variety of hands. Sure enough he had Ace Jack. 2-1 favorite preflop turns into drawing dead on the flop as he flops two more Jacks and I am out. Luckily just back to step 4 again.

What's really going to suck is getting to step 5 and getting unlucky. I think there is no money for the bottom 5 spots. I would have to think that maybe a proper strategy would be to steal like crazy in the beginning. Everyone will probably be playing incredibly tight. Then when they are sick and tired of you, pray for good hands in the middle rounds and set traps. Between waiting 30 minutes for the tables to fill up, and how tight the players are in the early rounds, this may be the winning strategy.

As for ring games.....I think I am going to start concentrating on 2-4 6 man limit games. Possibly moving up to 3-6 if I am running good. The only site that has a decent selection of 10 player games at 3-6 is Party Poker, and they seem to be infested with tight aggressive players. The 6 player games are much more loose.

According to some of the reading I've done on 2+2, the average vpip in a 6 handed game should be around 25%. Most of the games I've seen poker tracker stats for, have players in the high 40's.

In the mean time, I am trying to clear some bonuses for Party Poker, so this is a way I can play more raked hands per hour.

Moved up to Mini Step 4, 1 away from big money

I managed to dominate a step 2 and move up to step 3. Early in the Step 3 I was dealt AA. I raised and my opponent called. The flop came out 10 high. I bet 1/2 the pot. He raised all in, which was a big overbet. I figured if someone had a real strong hand, they would have bet less or just called. So I called and sure enough, he had pocket Kings. The turn and river did not help him, and I had a quick double up.

From there I played carefully. The blinds started to increase and I managed to steal a few. A couple of times, players played back at me and I had to lay down. Overall, I was slowly chipping up.

Then at level 5 with blinds at 200-400 I was dealt pocket Queens on the button. I started the hand with 4868 in chips. 6 players are left. One fold then Jeff710 goes all in for 1110. Dabeers34 who has 3024 in chips, just calls. I decide to push all in thinking I can pick up the dead money from the blinds and Dabeers. It helps that I cover Dabeers just in case he is slow playing a monster. The blinds fold and Dabeers folds, so it's heads up. Jeff710 shows a pair of 3's and my hand is good. That pumps me up to 7688 in chips with 5 players left.

The final four get a free entry back to level 3 so that is a major bubble point. Nobody likes to go backwards. I am now looking to steal a little more when the situation is right. 2nd place in chips is kbooya with 4283 so I have a cushion.

I wait a few hands. They fold to me in the BB. (They must be trembling in terror). On the button I am dealt As 3s. I raise to 1800 which is now 3x the big blind. I win 900 in blinds. Next hand I am dealt Ac 9c. I open raise to 1800 and win 900 in blinds again. Third hand I am dealt Ac 9c again. Again I open raise, this time from UTG to 1800. kbooya raises me all in for 3183. So it's 1383 to call into a pot of 5883. I am getting over 3 to 1 to call, so I have to. I am hoping he has a small pair. He turns over pocket 9's. However, I get lucky and spike an Ace on the turn and now I am pumped up to 13,871 with 4 left.

Here's where we stand:
larryvq 13871
dutchkid52 4675
Oman7 340
Dabeers 1114

So the strategy is to implicitly collude with dutchkid and play every hand with Oman and Dabeers in the blind. Also to put pressure on dutchkid since he will be in no mood to call any raises with the others so short.

However, the next hand Dabeers wakes up with Ace-Jack and moves all in. Dutch calls with T9o in the big blind and loses. So now Dabeers has 2528 with the blinds at 300-600, so he has a little wiggle room.

Oman is eliminated by Dutchkid the next hand so here's the latest chip count:
Larryvq 13,571
dutchkid 3901
Dabeers 2528

with 300-600 blinds, I feel like I could almost just hang around and do nothing. Both of these players have been weak-passive so I should probably steal occasionally just to maintain my chips.

It took at whopping 58 hands before we finally eliminated another player!!!!

There was a point where I lost the chip lead and even was down to 4x the Big Blind, but I scratched and clawed my way back to the lead, because these guys just would not steal the blinds.

When it was all over we were up to 400-800 blinds with a 25 ante. I didn't even know they had antes in the sit and gos.

Somehow Dutchkid managed to finish in the top two with me and we are on to Level 4. If I manage to get a top 2 placing there, it's on to the final level where first prize is $2000.

More 8-16 knowledge

I am really beginning to believe that 8-16 at Casino Arizona is the best level of poker. I played for 4 hours last night and lost $4. The play was very loose and mostly passive the entire night.

Here is why I lost. My pocket Aces had 4 callers and the big blind made it to the end with 6-2 offsuit and spiked his 3rd 6 on the river. I lost another pot when the turn made 3 of the same suit on the board. My opponent rechecked her hole cards. Then the 4th suited card came on the river. She lead into me and I had to muck my trip 4's.

Both of those were semi bad beats that are going to happen from time to time when you play with bad players. My mistake was trying to play J-10 offsuit from late middle position 3 different times. Twice it was raised behind me and I had to call another bet. That's $32 wasted dollars right there because I was impatient.

However, I did manage to play well in other situations where I have spewed chips in the past. I threw away my hand on the button 4 or 5 times after it was folded to me. Usually I would auto raise, but my competitors were probably going to call at least 60% of the time. I had crappy cards and I think all I would have done was dig myself a hole if I had bluffed at the blinds.

Also I won two pots by pushing a draw on the flop and turn. My opponents check folded on the turn. One time I even got paid off, when my nut flush draw hit on the river.

Another small mistake was that I was UTG +1. UTG posted a straddle. UTG was a loose aggressive player. He was far too loose, but every once in awhile he would play a little sneaky. I had Ace-Queen of diamonds and reraised to isolate. The big blind called and UTG called. The flop was rags, nothing over a 9. Checked to me, and I continuation bet. I get the big blind to fold, but the UTG calls. The turn was a deuce. Check and I bet again. Again he calls. I now think he must have some piece of the flop and will call it down. The river is a 10. He checks and I check hoping my Ace high is still good. He turns over 5-7 for a pair of 5's. He said he would have folded on the river, because he didn't believe I had anything, but I could have changed his mind with one more bet.

As for online poker.....Full Tilt kicked me in the nuts the other night. My very first hand of .50-1 No Limit, I bought in for the maximum of $100. I was dealt two Kings. The player to my immediate right, raised to $5. I raised to $20. He called. The flop came out 10 high and he bet $20. I raised to $60. He reraised all in. I am praying he doesn't have Aces. I call and he turns over the Aces. Down a quick $100 after one hand. I proceeded to lose another $60 or so on two different tables over the next 2 hours.

I am still at a loss for how to make money at these no limit games. My problem is that I seem to win the small pots and lose the big ones. It's not that I am getting sucked out on, it's that by the time I figure out I am hopelessly behind in a hand, I have lost $10-$30 while, I only seem to win pots of $5-$10 at a time. I keep trying to remember Phil Gordon's mantra of big cards, big pots and small cards, small pots, but it doesn't seem to be working.

I have been very careful about position and rarely find myself in bad position in these spots. It just seems that players hit trips against me when I have top pair and a good kicker, while the opposite does not seem to be holding true.

Bad Month?

I have not calculated the damage yet. I will try and do that tonight when I get home. I am guessing I am down about $1,000 for the month.

Edit: Update. Bankroll on 2/1/2006 $5254
Bankroll on 3/1/2006 $4310

For some reason, I still cannot beat the $55 sng's at Party. They seem even more fishy since the software conversion. I swear in the last 10 I have played there have been at least 3 players gone by the 3rd level from vastly overbetting the pot and someone making a loose call.

Then, as it gets down to the nitty gritty, I seem to have the uncanny knack of making the correct mathematical shove, only to find one of the blinds waking up with a high pocket pair.

Last night was supposed to be a home game at my house, but I could not round up enough players. So off I went to Casino Arizona. My plan was to play 6-12 or 8-16 and try to win at least $130 to free roll the tournament at 7:00.

I was seated right away at a 6-12 table and the first thing I noticed was that a couple of players had at least $500 in front of them. I think the usual buy in is $200 which is one rack of blue $2 chips. I was in the 2 seat and I noticed that the 8 seat, in addition to having a mountain of chips, was drinking vodka straight.

Now I have read many times that if the table is loose, that you should tighten up a little bit. My problem all night was that I had crappy cards and whenever I started with good cards, it was in bad position.

Vodka man proceeded to play every hand for the next 4 hours, raising about 1/2 of them. I think at one time he pumped himself up to over $1,200. I had targeted him as someone I would like to play pots with, since he is likely to have crappy cards and is too drunk to fold.

I probably played 6 or 7 hands with him and I think I lost all but one. Every time I had a hand, he woke up with a better one. The one time I tried to run a bluff, he caught enough of the flop to call it down. The good news is, except for the bluff, I probably lost the minimum.

In fact one time, I had pocket Kings in the small blind. There were 2 limpers before it got to vodka man, who put in the obligatory raise. I thought of reraising, but I knew that I was not going to push out the limpers and it looked like the big blind was already getting ready to fold. I thought, "the pot is going to be multi way. KK does not play well in those pots. Let's keep it small and see the flop". In hind sight, this is a bad play, since I should be "value" betting a hand this good. The chances of me winning are far above average and I need to take advantage of it, no matter how bad I am running. So the flop contains an Ace. I check, first limper bets, and gets two calls before it gets to me. I am sure someone has an Ace, probably a weak one, so I fold. When it's all said and done, there were two aces out there and the winner of the pot spiked a set. So I got lucky to only lose 2 small bets, but it was a bad play.

The rest of the table seemed to know what they were doing, but played a little looser than my taste. They played suited connectors under the gun and often called with two gappers in late position. I won some money off of the other players, but I just was not getting the cards.

There seems to be a pattern at Casino Arizona that every time that I try a new level, I need to lose my first few times playing. I have never felt like I was outplayed, but that the cards seem to have a vendetta. Once I break through with a win, I seem to be fine.

So the strategy question from last night is: What is the proper preflop raising strategy if one player is raising all the time? It is tough to isolate because people were calling preflop, expecting a raise from him later and perfectly willing to call one or two bets more. So basically raising pocket pairs, was not narrowing the field.

After posting this question on 2+2 and reading the responses, here's what I came up with.
1. You need to value raise the AA and KK hands, no matter how many people are in the pot. They are just too powerful to call with.
2. Try to move into the 9 or 1 seat to get directly to the right of the maniac. Then when he raises, you can reraise right away and not have a couple of callers caught in the middle. This will help to isolate raiser.
3. Feel free to play high suited connectors on the button and cutoff for a raise. These pots will have the odds to call and can be huge if you hit.
4. Avoid playing anything but the very best cards in early position. You will leak too many chips, if someone wakes up with a hand, or you end up dominated.