Lots of Losses

The downswing started on Thursday last week when I stopped in Casino Arizona after work and played some 3-6 limit poker with Kory. I gave Kory my book on Small Stakes Hold’em by Ed Miller and David Sklansky to borrow. Kory is fired up after reading some of the concepts and is trying to apply them to his game. I am happy to come along and offer any guidance that I can.

I liked the table that we ended up at, but I was not running well. The main pot that got me steaming a little was a strange one.

I limped under the gun with a suited Ace. A bunch of people called including an old man on my left and a middle aged gentleman on my right. I flopped the nut heart flush. I don’t remember the exact cards since it was a few days ago, but I remember that they were between 5-10 so there were straight possibilities out there. Since there were so many players in the pot, I figured I would check and see how many players would like to come along before I make a decision on raising.

The old man bet and 3 others called including myself. The turn brought another heart. Again in an effort to disguise my hand, I checked. The betting was the same. Now this old guy was pretty passive, so the straight flush possibility was already in my head. After all it was a little strange that 3 players were still in the hand with 4 of the same suit on the board.

The river was the 5th heart and now it put a 4 to a straight flush on the board. Now I am really worried about the straight flush. I figure I’ll check call. I check and the old man re-checks his cards, and then hesitates for about 15 seconds. While he is thinking, he subtly moves his right hand up and down in a checking motion. The player on my right (button) thinks he checks and goes to turn over his hand. I also pick up my cards but do not show them, when the old man exclaims that he did not check. The dealer asks if we want to call the floor. Me and the button both agree to let it slide. The old man now bets and the button calls.

I’m not afraid of the button call because I saw he had the Queen of Hearts so I know I have him beat. I think to myself that the only reason the old man would think so long was that he had a non-nut flush and was wondering if he should save his money. I convince myself that I am right and put in a raise. The old man immediately re-raises. The button realizes he’s beat and folds and I make the crying call. The old man ran a Hollywood angle shoot on me and I fell for it.

I took a break to go to the ATM and while I was up, I decided to put my name on the list for the new 1-2 max 500 game. I was called to the game about 15 minutes later and left Kory on his own to fight the old man.

This was one of the few times that I followed my system in limit hold-em where I got up after losing a buy in and changed tables. I think when I am losing, my table image becomes very bad and players are willing to chase more hands against me because they feel like I am on a losing streak and they will get lucky. It often becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. In order to win any of my money back in limit poker, I need to be able to run a successful semi-bluff once in a while to pick up a pot or two while I wait for a strong hand to get paid off.

Instead of switching limit tables, though I went to the new No Limit game. I immediately ran into what I think was pocket Aces after I reraised him with AQ suited. He reraised the minimum which forced me to call. The flop missed me and he made a 1/3 size of the pot bet, seemingly begging me for a call. I let it go and the two players on my right were nice enough to let me now that he was the tightest player at the table.

I was also amused that of the nine players in the game, I think there was only one player older than me. I think a couple of the players were not even 21 yet. I think you are allowed to gamble at 18 or 19 on the Indian Casinos but I am not sure about that. After that brief set back, I broke even for the rest of the session.

Sunday was a home tournament day. Jeff and his Dream Dealers were hosting a game at a house in McCormick Ranch. The original buy in was to be $150 but he was not generating enough interest. He lowered it to $100 and he managed to wrangle up 12 players.

There were some familiar faces from Jeff’s previous tournaments, but the one semi-celebrity was Kevin O’Donnell. Kevin has won over $1,000,000 in large buy in poker tournaments over the years and finished 21st in World Series of Poker Main Event in 2006. He seemed like a nice guy and was taking the game pretty seriously. This is never good news.

We started with 1000 chips and the blinds were 5-10. The levels were to last 25 minutes but there were some slight modifications along the way. We originally started 11 handed until the last player showed up about 10 minutes into the first level.

I was going to try and play fast and aggressive since it looked like the blinds would come up pretty fast. I did some bluffing from the button and I won some small pots and lost some others.

My highlight was pulling off a great bluff against a player named Keith. Keith has won a few of Jeff’s events and is a pretty good player. I open raised with 4c5c on the button and Keith called in the small blind. The flop was 6h-7d-Jh. Keith checked and I made a continuation bet of 70% of the pot. He made a quick call. The turn was a King of clubs. He checked again, and this time I had about a pot sized bet left in my stack. Since two of my straight outs might be dirty with flush draw out there, I wanted to end the hand now. Plus I felt like he was drawing and I might be able to get him off his hand. I pushed all in. Keith looked very pained. I thought he was going to call when he started doing math in his head. Then he looked directly at me and asked if I had a “made” hand. I responded, “yes, absolutely.” He bought it and folded. Of course I had to show him the bluff and the whole table hooted and hollered.

I lost some of those chips right back, and then I picked up ATo. I raised and the BB who had a big stack min raised me. It was the last hand before the break and the blinds were about to double. I felt like this was my chance to get some utility back so I pushed all in. He called me with 77. I hit a ten on the flop and had doubled up.

I took the $1,000 add on and had about $2,500 in chips going into the 50-100 level. There were 9 players left and the top three were getting paid. First place would be $1,100. I mainly folded for the first level at the final table and then the blinds went up to 100-200.

Now I am getting short and a few others at the table were starting to make the all in preflop moves. Finally at UTG+1 I pick up AKo. Jeff limped under the gun and I pushed all in for $2,400. A short stack of 800 called and then Kevin O’Donnell started complaining. “I know he’s got Jacks. I can’t beat Jacks. That’s the only hand he would do that with.” He talked himself into calling with pocket tens. The short stack had AQ so one of my outs was gone. We ran out the board and I missed everything. Kevin even spiked a ten on the river for an extra twist of the knife.

If I win that hand I knock out two players including the best one at the table and I have a good stack to work with. Instead I am out in 9th place. Kevin went on the chop the final prize with Keith after playing for a half hour heads up.

So after losing $220 in the tournament, I was feeling very unsatisfied. After my family went to bed, I decided to play some 1-2 NL on Full Tilt and try and make it back. This turned out to be a bad idea as well. Here were a few hands to relive.


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: Tweelingen ($285.45) -
Seat 2: Poker_Bully1 ($202)
Seat 3: count_to_ten ($80)
Seat 4: artofniza ($323.20)
Seat 5: jolohu ($252.95) -
Seat 6: YukDaDuke ($200) -


PRE-FLOP:

YukDaDuke posts small blind $1
Tweelingen posts BIG blind $2
Dealt To: Poker_Bully1


RAISE Poker_Bully1 ($9)
CALL count_to_ten ($7)
FOLD artofniza
CALL jolohu ($9)
FOLD YukDaDuke
CALL Tweelingen ($7)

Tweelingen was playing with a VPIP of 32% and raising 21% of the time so he was a little loose and aggressive.

FLOP:

Pot: $35


CHECK Tweelingen
BET Poker_Bully1 ($37) Build the pot and try to protect in case someone has the naked Ace of clubs
CALL count_to_ten ($37)
FOLD jolohu
RAISE Tweelingen ($276.45) Uh, oh. Now the big raise makes me think he has the flush but it's small and he's trying to protect.
CALL Poker_Bully1 ($156)
CALL count_to_ten ($34)
UNCALLED Tweelingen ($83.45)


TURN:

Pot: $492




RIVER:

Pot: $492




SHOWDOWN:
Tweelingen:
Horrible read by me. Nothing like getting over $200 into the pot drawing practically dead
Poker_Bully1:

count_to_ten:


Tweelingen collected $244 from side pot 1 with a flush, Ace highTweelingen collected $247 from main pot with a flush, Ace high

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $494Main pot: $250
Side pot: $244
Rake: $3

Final Board:


Seat 1: Tweelingen big blind showed [Ac 7c] and won 491 with a flush, Ace high - Net Gain/Loss: ($289)

Seat 2: Poker_Bully1 showed [Kc Kh] and lost with two pair, Kings and Fours - Net Gain/Loss: ($-202)
Seat 3: count_to_ten showed [Jd 6d] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Fours - Net Gain/Loss: ($-78)

Seat 4: artofniza didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 5: jolohu button folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-9)
Seat 6: YukDaDuke small blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-1)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: artofniza ($643.30)
Seat 2: WHYME STILL ($274)
Seat 3: FSobotka ($37) -
Seat 4: Shabooz ($101.70) -
Seat 5: Upay4myM6 ($114.70) -
Seat 6: Poker_Bully1 ($333.25)


PRE-FLOP:

Shabooz posts small blind $1
Upay4myM6 posts BIG blind $2
Dealt To: Poker_Bully1


RAISE Poker_Bully1 ($7)
FOLD artofniza
CALL WHYME STILL ($7)
FOLD FSobotka
CALL Shabooz ($6)
FOLD Upay4myM6


FLOP:

Pot: $23


CHECK Shabooz
BET Poker_Bully1 ($14)
RAISE WHYME STILL ($46) This player was playing pretty solid for the session. I don't think he called my raise with 4-7 or 2-4 so I put him on an over pair or a flush draw
FOLD Shabooz
CALL Poker_Bully1 ($32) No sense in raising since it may fold hands worse than mine.


TURN:

Pot: $115


BET Poker_Bully1 ($68) Now I can really make him pay to draw.
CALL WHYME STILL ($68)


RIVER:

Pot: $251


CHECK Poker_Bully1 And he gets there. I convince myself that there is a chance he's bluffing, since that's the only hand I can beat. Wrong again.
BET WHYME STILL ($153)
CALL Poker_Bully1 ($153)


SHOWDOWN:
WHYME STILL:

MUCK Poker_Bully1

WHYME STILL collected $554 from main pot with a flush, King high

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $557 Rake: $3

Final Board:


Seat 1: artofniza didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 2: WHYME STILL showed [Jc Qc] and won 554 with a flush, King high - Net Gain/Loss: ($280)

Seat 3: FSobotka button didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 4: Shabooz small blind folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-7)
Seat 5: Upay4myM6 big blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-2)
Seat 6: Poker_Bully1 mucked [3h 3s] - three of a kind, Threes - Net Gain/Loss: ($-274)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Changes At Casino Arizona

For the first time in a month I made a visit to the Casino Arizona after work today. There are changes afoot.

Apparently they appealed to the state lawmakers and negotiated an increase in the maximum bet size. So in addition to $1,000 limits on the Black Jack tables they have changed some of the poker games.

The old "No Limit" game was really a spread limit game of 5-150. That means that the minimum bet was $5 and the maximum bet or raise was $150. The new bet limit is $500. So now they are running a 1-2 blind spread limit with the $500 max and a 3-5 blind spread limit with the same $500 cap.

These new games will play practically like true No-Limit cash games. There is good news and bad news for this change.

The bad news is that the old 5-150 game will probably die a quick death. This had become a very profitable game for me. My theory on the reason it was so profitable was that most players tried to treat it as a "No Limit" game. They were way too loose in calling raises with pocket pairs and suited connectors. It's fine to call with these hands if you can win your opponent's entire stack if you hit. But if you are limited to $150 increments and most of the players usually had less than $300 in front of them, your implied odds go way down.

The good news is that it will play like a true no limit game. I don't think I've ever made a $500 bet in a cash game so I think the it will be very rare that the limit is hit in the 1-2 game. Plus now I can play some of the speculative hands with the proper implied odds. Hopefully I play them better than my opponents and I can still make money in the game. I will also have the added benefit that the 1-2 game should attract more of the beginners and it is more appropriate for my bankroll.

In an ironic twist, I did not play any of these new games as I was there to meet Kory for some limit poker. I was up a quick $90 in a 4-8 game, but by the time Kory joined me at the table, I was only up $20. I managed to lose $73 for the session due to some bad cards and bad decisions.

All is right with the world though. After putting Jake to bed, I fired up Full Tilt and took $240 off the donkeys at .50-1 Pot Limit Omaha so it's another profitable day.

1st attempt at Qualifying for WSOP 2009

I just entered a $69+6 satellite to the 150 Seat Main Event Guarantee on Full Tilt. It's a turbo tournament with 5 minute blind levels and you start with 1500 in chips. There are only 3 tables and 6 spots available.

Hey It's my lucky day. My table includes Scott Fischman, two time WSOP bracelet winner, and Svetlana Gromenkova, who won some big European tournament a while back. This sucks!

I joined in late and picked up JJ the very first hand. I raised and got two callers. An Ace flops but I bet anyway. The turn pairs the board and I am out of position so I check. The opponent checks it back. The river is a blank and I check hoping for a cheap showdown. My opponent min bets 30 and I call to see an A4o. Nice call preflop there. Down to 1190 from 1500 starting stack.

I raise AQ preflop, get called then reraised all in. I fold and watch 10-10 go against KK.

I pick up AK in blinds. There is a raise to 80 and a call. I shove for 900. The first raiser snap calls with AA and even though I pick up the inside straight draw on the flop and flush draw on the turn, I miss and I Go Home Now. I feel like I just lit $75 on fire.

Historically my first efforts at satellites have been poor and this one was no different.

Status Update

My poker bankroll has been stuck at $5,000 for the last 4 months. The month of March ended with $5,122 which was down $15 from the end of February. This is in spite of having to pay Bill $500 from our golf bet. I consider my poker bankroll, my "gambling" bankroll so that's why the $500 came from that.

My golf handicap is still nowhere near 5. My index is 8.2. Part of the problem with my golf game is that I keep getting sucked into playing more Tennis. I am now a part of a USTA league on Wednesday nights and I am still playing as a sub for the ATA team on Saturdays. I have been more of a full timer than a sub since everyone seems to be going out of town every weekend except for me.

I have a very competitive nature. Long ago I decided to try and keep it in check by deciding that I would play golf seriously and tennis for fun. I don't have enough spare time in my life to practice both to get as good as I want to be. Lately the tennis has been tough because I have signed up for competitive leagues where I have been getting my head kicked in every match. I don't like to lose so I want to practice and get better. Where am I going to find the time? I definitely need my two year old son Jake to pick up golf or tennis soon so I can use him as an excuse to practice more.

As for poker, I think my game is improving even though my bankroll has been stagnant. The one thing I continue to struggle with online is the one big mistake I make every session. There always seems to be a hand where I get my whole stack in way behind. It's things like calling off big bets with an over pair when the board is straightening or flushing, making a 4 bet preflop with 66 because I think racing against over cards is a good idea, or making a huge value bet with a big hand only to figure out later, that the only hand that will call me is one that beats me.

It is now 3 months until the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. I will be spending some time in April figuring out how to satellite into the tournament and make some cash while doing it.

Las Vegas Trip Report

I went to Las Vegas for the opening round of the NCAA Basketball tournament on Thursday and Friday. I expected to play a fair amount of poker against young fraternity guys all pumped up because their team won, or drunk and angry because they lost.



My friend Chris, along with Bill, and Henry were the gang ready to cause trouble. The problem was that I am the only trouble maker in the bunch. For the trip Chris and Henry played exactly zero hands of black jack. The only bets Chris made were with Bill for $10 each on the the tournament games. Bill played black jack with me for about 1.5 hours and went to bed at 10:30 on Thursday night. Henry had only been to Las Vegas 2 times and does not gamble.



Friday afternoon while watching my Arizona Wildcats run over Utah, Bill decided that he would rather leave early and try to sleep in his own bed on Friday instead of spending the night in Vegas and leaving very early the next morning. What sane man with a wife and 3 kids at home is in a hurry to leave Vegas? Especially when he is winning?! Bill had just won big bets on ASU and U of A.



I guess the city of Las Vegas was counting on me to help their economy. The trip started on a sour note as I had to pay Bill $500 from the lost golf bet. My goal was to try and win it all back by the end of the trip.



We arrived at the Paris hotel at 8:30 AM and took in the buffet. It was a decent selection highlighted by the Crepe making station. After that we decided to play black jack until Chris arrived. Once again, the black jack tables were not kind to me and I lost $130 playing on a shared bankroll with Billy.



Needless to say, I grew weary of the blackjack table and was jonesing to play poker. I left my friends for a few hours to walk over to the Caesar's Palace poker room. I jumped into a $1-$3 No Limit game and was soon making money again.



On the button I picked up Ace-Seven offsuit. There were two limpers to me and I raised to $12. I got one caller in the Big Blind as the limpers folded. The flop was 7-9-J.



The blind lead into me for $20 and I made the loose call. The turn was an Ace. He checked and I bet $40. He calls. The river is another beautiful Ace. He checks again, and this time I bet $100. Somehow he calls again and I win a nice pot. He did not show but I'm guessing he must have had a Jack with a King or a Queen.



Some time later I limp along with a few others with 22 in late position. The flop is 5-5-7. An early position limper leads out for $10 and everyone folds to me. I don't know if I believe he has anything so I call thinking maybe I can take it away on the turn. Unfortunately another player calls behind me in position so now I am probably done with the hand.



However the turn card is another 2 giving me 2's full of 5's. Now the early player leads again for $35. I decide to try and bring along the player behind me so I just call. Once again, the player behind me does not do what I want because he folds.



The river is a King. He bets again, this time $65. I had initially put him on a 7 with maybe an Ace kicker, but now I am believing that he has a 5. The question is should I raise him? I don't have the nuts and there are a few hands that beat me. However there are a lot more worse hands that will call. I pushed all in for $165. He stared me down for a while and eventually called. He made a comment about "nice catch" so I think that confirms that he had the 5 but he did not show his hand either.



I left Caesar's Palace up $300 for the session. I met up with the rest of the guys and hung out in the room watching the day's games. We decided to have a steak dinner at "The Strip" in Planet Hollywood Hotel. I had not been in the hotel since it opened and I was pleasantly surprised. It had a hip and exciting vibe and was definitely more busy than Paris. The restaurant was great although I could have done without the $7 split plate fee per diner. The 23 layer chocolate cake was fantastic and 3 of us could not even finish the one slice they gave us.



After the big dinner my non-gambling friends did not want to party. Bill wanted to go to bed and Chris and Henry wanted to walk around on the strip. I decided to stay and play poker at Planet Hollywood. Their poker room is a bit of a disaster as it is right in the middle of the gaming floor and is only separated by velvet ropes. It's very hard to hear and it's not all that comfortable.



I sat down at a $1-2 No Limit table and right away I began to get annoyed with the player in the one seat. He was in every pot and he would take a really long time to make his decisions. Some of them were a little ridiculous as it was obvious that you either call if you have it or fold if you don't. Finally on a board of 7-8-9 one player bet, the one seat min raised, and the original bettor went all in for $100 more. We waited about 2 minutes while he hemmed and hawed. I had had enough and told the dealer to put him on the clock. The dealer complied and the player looked at me with daggers and said, "Do you have someplace you have to go? Are the blinds going up?"



I calmly told him that I felt he was taking too long and I would like to play a hand. He eventually made the call only to find himself crushed. He had 5-6 for the 9 high straight, but his opponent had Jack-Ten for the Jack high straight. Apparently that busted him because he got up from the table. He hung around for another hour talking to his friend at the table but he never bought back in. It's a shame too, because I really wanted to see how he would try to attack me at the table.



I had bought in for $200 and had lost $50 in various small pots over the first 40 minutes. Then I picked up pocket Kings in late position. There was an early raise to $10. It folded to me and I made it $30. The intial raiser made it $100 and for a brief second I considered that he may have Aces. But I really wanted to get it all in, so that's what I did. He called with the Aces and unlike AIG, I was not bailed out by catching a King.

That session at Planet Hollywood was a loser and I think I left around $250 at the table.

The next day I had a $300 up swing again at Bally's before the U of A game. I also bet $100 on the University of Arizona in their game against Utah. They won easily and I was rolling.

My last session was at the Venetian. There was one big hand of note and I'm not sure if I played it correctly. It was my third hand at the table and I was in the small blind. Five players limped in for $2 and I completed in the small blind with 5-2 offsuit.

The flop was 5-3-2 with a flush draw. I lead out for $10 and they all fold except for a late position player who raises me to $30. I thought that maybe he had a small over pair or maybe a flush draw, so I moved all in for $165 more.

So what hands could my opponent have that would call my bet and be behind? Maybe tens or Jacks? Maybe a suited Ace with a pair on the board?

Looking back, I think the proper play may have been to call the raise and see what happens on the turn. If I still think he is on a draw and it doesn't come on the turn, I greatly improve my chances of winning the pot and I can bet less and still have my opponent making an easier incorrect call.

The problem with moving all in is that most of the hands that will call me are the ones that beat me? That is what happened here as he turned over the A-4 for the wheel. I did not hit any of my four outs to the full house and I was broke in 3 hands.

I bought in for another $200 and played the next 4 hours into the night. I left with exactly $200. I was never up or down more than $50 for the rest of the night.

So overall I broke even for the trip in gambling if I don't include paying Bill for the golf.

It also made me smile that when I got home, I had an offer from the Harrah's company to book my room for the World Series of Poker at some really cheap rates for the summer. Stay tuned.

Golf Bet Debacle

Bill won the "Who Is A Better Golfer" bet for 2009 today. I am sooooo frustrated with my golf game right now.

We played at Paradise Valley Country Club today because Phoenix Country Club had a tournament in the afternoon. I like the course at PV. It has some nice elevation changes and beautiful scenery since it is tucked up against Mummy Mountain and Camelback Mountain.

Bill did not play very well today, but it didn't matter because I played worse. I had at least 3 three-putts and three balls out of bounds, including two of them on the same hole.

The frustrating part (besides losing the $500 bet and having to swallow my pride) is since I have been taking lessons from Byron at the club, I really feel like my swing is improving. I hit at least a dozen really good shots today. I hit some great drives, a couple of impressive 5 woods from the fairway, and the highlight was a 3 wood from 235 yards that ended up 10 feet from the pin.

Part of me wants to go and practice harder since I feel I am close to posting some good rounds. The other part of me wants to throw my clubs in the closet and just concentrate on Tennis and Poker for a while. The club championships in Tennis are coming up in the next couple of weeks and I think I might do well if I practice a little.

PLO Heater

I am probably jinxing myself, but I am in the middle of playing on 2 tables of .5-1 Pot Limit Omaha on Full Tilt and I think I may have found 2 of the worst players ever at my table.

ginolwd (name shortened to protect my claim on the gold mine) has stats of 100 vpip, 74 pre flop raise after 70 hands. Ii7 (name shortened) has stats of 77 vpip, 4.3 preflop raise after 70 hands.

As I speak, I am up $153. ginolwd has $210 in his stack down from over $400 and somehow Ii7 has over $650. I think I will be playing until they leave the table.

OK I have left both tables as the fish have gone away. I finished up $183. I never managed to get my whole stack in against the fish, but I won enough pots to make it a good night.

I will try and post some hands later this weekend.

I thought this was a good example of getting inside my opponent's head:




Full Tilt Poker Game #11128678431: Table Elbert (deep 6) - $0.50/$1 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 1:18:06 ET - 2009/03/14
Seat 1: ginolwd168 ($280.20)
Seat 2: Poker_Bully1 ($337.65)
Seat 3: pokerdun ($161.15)
Seat 4: GoldFishCracker ($100)
Seat 5: pop1time ($196.50)
Seat 6: Ii7Ii7I ($629.65)
pop1time posts the small blind of $0.50
Ii7Ii7I posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Poker_Bully1 [Kd Ks 5h Ts]
ginolwd168 raises to $3.50
Poker_Bully1 raises to $12

I think it's standard to reraise a donkey here, especially to isolate
pokerdun calls $12
I am not thrilled he called since he seems to be an ok player.

GoldFishCracker folds
pop1time folds
Ii7Ii7I folds
ginolwd168 calls $8.50
*** FLOP *** [6s 6c 4h]
ginolwd168 bets $18.75
Even though he was playing 90% of his hands, a majority of the time he would bet big when he had the goods and small when he had nothing. This was a 1/2 bet pot, so I assumed I was still ahead, but I still had Pokerdun behind me and I did not want to get trapped by AAXX.
Poker_Bully1 has 15 seconds left to act
Poker_Bully1 calls $18.75
pokerdun folds
*** TURN *** [6s 6c 4h] [Ac]
ginolwd168 checks
Poker_Bully1 has 15 seconds left to act
Pokerdun had folded on the flop so now I was pretty confident. Bad players assume that every time someone raises they have AA or KK in their hand. His check tells me he is weak. I am pretty confident that even if ginolwd168 has a single Ace, he would have to fold it because I may have a full house and he would be drawing dead.

Poker_Bully1 bets $36
ginolwd168 has 15 seconds left to act
ginolwd168 folds
Uncalled bet of $36 returned to Poker_Bully1
Poker_Bully1 mucks
Poker_Bully1 wins the pot ($72)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $75 Rake $3
Board: [6s 6c 4h Ac]
Seat 1: ginolwd168 folded on the Turn
Seat 2: Poker_Bully1 collected ($72), mucked
Seat 3: pokerdun folded on the Flop
Seat 4: GoldFishCracker (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: pop1time (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Ii7Ii7I (big blind) folded before the Flop


Full Tilt Pot-Limit Omaha, $1.00 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB is ginowld again

BB ($384.40)

Hero (UTG) ($221.95)

MP ($160.40)

Button ($238.45)

SB ($630.40)



Preflop: Hero is UTG with J, K, A, 7

Hero calls $1, MP calls $1, 2 folds, BB bets $4.50, Hero calls $3.50, 1 fold

ginowld had been raising 75% of his hands so even though my hand is mediocre, I figure it's ahead of his range and there are a few ways I can hit the nuts so it's worth a call.

Flop: ($10.50) 3, 6, 4 (2 players)

BB bets $1, Hero raises to $9, BB calls $8

Usually these small bets meant he had nothing. I was surprised at the call, but I still had outs.

Turn: ($28.50) 10 (2 players)

BB checks, Hero checks
I will gladly take the free card


River: ($28.50) 4 (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets $24, BB calls $24

I don't have the nuts, but I'm sure he doesn't have a full house because you should always bet a coordinated board like that to charge the flush draw. He let me see the river for free. Since he's a calling station, a bet is in order. The question was how much would he call with an over pair.

Total pot: $76.50 Rake: $3

ginowld had Qh Kc 9h Qc for Queens and 4's.

Home Poker Tournament and Golf Bet

I was invited to a home poker tournament held by one of my clients in Scottsdale. He managed to get two tables full of friends and friends of friends.

The details of the night are a little fuzzy for me because I had just got back from a 5 day vacation in Cabo San Lucas and I was a bit frazzled after traveling with my wife and 2 year old.

My client, Bill was nice enough to just deal and not actually play. I have a feeling after watching the play of the others at the table that he will want to play next time. Most of the players at my table were not very experienced. In fact one time, a player in a hand with me made the nuts on the river. I bet into him ( I obviously did not know he had the nut flush) hoping to get value from my two pair and he just called! I did not want to embarrass him by asking him about it in front of the others, but I was really curious to know what he was thinking.

These types of tables are really a weakness in my game. The type of player that is loose passive and never raises is my krytponite. The problem is that I never know where I am at in the hand. Especially if there are two or three others in the hand. I'm sure the solution is to play tight in early and middle position and play nearly any two cards on the button if it is not raised. Then just sit back and wait to make a strong hand and value bet the hell out of it.

Unfortunately for me, I did not make the adjustment fast enough and never accumulated a decent amount of chips. I went out in 11th place when I turned two pair but ran into a player who had slow played a higher two pair that he had hit on the flop.

It will be interesting to see if Bill manages to put together this game on a regular basis.

As for golf, the carnage continues. I played twice in Cabo San Lucas at a beautiful course on the Ocean called Cabo Real. I shot 87 and 88. I saw some further progress in my swing changes, but the course was hard and it was new to me, which is a bad combination if you are hoping to score well.

I felt confident coming into my match with Bill today even though I was down 3.5 to 2.5. My goal was to fully commit to each shot. That is sometimes hard to do when making a swing change.

The bad news for me was that I started out horribly. I bogeyed the first hole when I airmailed my approach shot and then hit my pitch shot over the green and into the bunker. On the second hole, I hit the lake while Billy birdied it. Right off the bat I was down 3 strokes.

I played better the rest of the round, but lots of little things were not going my way. I missed a couple of easy putts under 5 feet, I hit the big tree in the fairway on 14 and it richocheted all the way across the fairway and behind another tree. In the mean time, on the few occasions that Bill hit some shots off line, he managed to find good lies or clear lines to the green.

The match was basically over by 15th hole. Bill had a six stroke lead and was playing very well. He hit a great sand shot off of a downhill lie on 16 and saved par. He had a small hiccup on 17 when he found the lake with his second shot, but he came back strong and birdied 18 to shoot 77. I shot a back nine of 39 to shoot 82 and he was never threatened.

So now I have to win three in a row to save the $500 bet. I feel like I am improving every time out, but it just has not been fast enough. Luckily there will be a 3 or 4 week break in our series as Bill has some busy weekends coming up. Hopefully this will give me a chance to improve my putting and gain more confidence in my new swing. I just want to make sure that Bill has to play as well as he did today to take my money before it's all over.

Update

I lost to Bill again in golf and I am down 3.5 to 2.5. I actually played better this round, but I had two major disaster holes on 3 and 14. I had two shots out of bounds on each and that was the difference.

The good news is that I hit some real quality shots and I think my lessons are starting to sink in.

I am playing on Full Tilt as I write this and losing at 1-2 NL. I have had the weirdest streak lately where I can't seem to win a big pot. It's not that I am taking bad beats, it's that every time I have a hand I want to get my whole stack in with, nobody ever has anything.

Right now some player named jryanm7 is giving me fits by talking a lot of smack and sitting on my left. He has played almost 1/2 of his hands preflop and has tripled his $200 starting stack. I think he might be leaving now, so I should probably go to bed. Oops wait he's back.

Tomorrow I leave for Mexico so there will be no poker until I get back.

Golf and Poker Update

The big golf match between Bill and I is now tied at 2.5 to 2.5. We played in the rain on Sunday which was not fun at all. Long story short, I was up 3 strokes, then down 3 strokes with 3 holes to play when I came back and tied it on the last hole.

As for Poker, I seem to be in a bit of a rut. I only made about $100 since January 1, so I am behind schedule for the $1,000 goal by the end of February. Running even is boring as hell. Now when Phil Ivey breaks even, he has some excitement. All the rail birds have been a twitter with the news that Phil bet $800,000 on the Cardinals + 3.5 in the first half of the Super Bowl. He also bet $800,000 on the Cardinals + 7 for the game, so he made his money back less the juice. If the Cards don't botch that last play of the half he makes 1.6 Million!!! Another prime example of why I stopped betting on sports.