Let's Review What I've Learned Lately

It seems like a good time to write down some of the things I have learned lately. They aren't exactly earth shattering, but they are nuggets I would like to remember down the road.

1. Seldom bet a hand that seems average for the situation.

This is stolen from an article by Mike Caro in Bluff Magazine. The explanation is below.

This practice of betting medium hands drives me crazy. Listen. When your hand seems about average for the situation - right in the middle of what would be defined as a good hand or a bad hand - you should almost never bet. The few exceptions tend to center around wanting to stay on stage and maintain the pressure. This especially happens in 7-Card Stud, when if you're the previous bettor, pairing your board might drive an opponent out on the next bet, even if you have the worst hand. But, in general, it's unwise to bet middle hands. There - it's simple and I said it. There's almost never a motive to bet a medium hand. You can bet weak hands for posturing or as a bluff, and you can bet strong hands hoping to be called. But medium hands are the perfect hands to check.
I'll prove it. Suppose you played poker with only three cards: an ace, a king, and a queen. You shuffle and deal a single card each to an opponent and to yourself. You have each anted and now you look at your card and decide whether to bet. Well, if you have a queen, you must have the worst hand; but you might bet, hoping to bluff a king. Obviously an ace would call. And if you have an ace, you might bet hoping a king would call. Obviously a queen wouldn't call. But what would be the purpose in betting a king - the middle hand? No purpose at all. You'd get called when an ace beat you and never get called when you were the best hand against a queen. Betting this middle hand would be foolish. And that's what I want you to remember, because the same concept applies throughout poker.

2. A Wide Reraising Range preflop can be profitable in No Limit

This may be different at higher levels, but at the .10-.25 blind and .25-.50 blind level I seem to get a lot more folds than I thought I would. If an early opponent raises to 1.00 and I raise in position to $3, I get a fold over 50% of the time. So that is $3 to win $1.35.
Let's also assume when I get called the other 50% I win a pot of $5 half the time and lose a pot of $4 the other half. Here's the math.

50% * 1.35 = .67
25% * 5 =1.25
25% * -4 = -1
______________
Total +0.92

I know this does not take into account the few times when someone puts in the 3rd raise against me. This happens very rarely. I tend to think that when it does, I either throw my hand away, or I have Aces or Kings and I call and win a huge pot. It probably evens out in the end.

I stumbled across this strategy after getting frustrated by my opponents constantly folding to my preflop raises with Aces and Kings. I can get players to loosen up by raising a lot of hands, but it's very tough to establish an image online because players are changing over so fast. This discovery also led me to my next epiphany.

3. A pair of Aces or Kings is still a below average hand by the river.

Playing high pair hands in No Limit is really an art form. They consistently win small pots and lose big pots. I really think the key to making money with them is not to maximize your wins, but to minimize your losses. Here's an example from last night.

My first hand at the table I post a .25 blind in late position. The table is 6 handed. I am dealt Kd Kc. Utg calls .25 and I raise to 1.50. Rushure calls from the small blind and Pcon23 calls from the Big Blind. The utg limper folds.

So $5 in the pot and the flop is 8d 8c Qh. This is a good flop. Maybe someone called with Ace-Queen. I doubt someone smooth called with Aces. I doubt someone has an 8. It's checked twice to me and I bet $3. Hopefully it's big enough to fold a naked Ace but small enough for a pair of Queens to come along. Rushure calls and Pcon23 folds.

So $11 in the pot and the turn is Ac. Rushure checks. I don't like the Ace. If someone called with Ace-Queen, I am nearly dead. If the weak Queen called, he may fold to another bet. So there is nothing to be gained from betting here. I check it through.

The river is a 2c. So a flush got there, but I doubt that's much of a probability. A lot of times, the check through on the turn will encourage a river bluff. If the bet is not too high, I am usually willing to call it. Rushure bets $5. I call.

Rushure turns over pocket Queens for a full house on the flop. I feel like I lost the minimum on this hand which was $9.50. Now if Rushure had led out on the flop for a small amount, I probably would have raised him. Then he could have called and checked the turn. He may have got more out of me that way.

The point is that I would have lost a lot more money 2 months ago in this hand, because I would have been ready to push in with the overpair on that flop.

4. Do not raise the underbettors on a draw

Every strategy post I read on the message boards seems to recommend playing your 8 out and higher draws very aggressively. They say it helps you get paid off on your good hands and sometimes with a straight or flush draw and overcards, you are actually a favorite. However, I have found this strategy does not work against the weak timid players.

Let's say I flop an open ended straight draw with $3 in the pot on the flop. A "Underbettor" bet's .50 into me. Some would recommend a raise because it's a weak looking bet. I don't like that and here's why. The "Underbettor" will bet small when he has a monster or when he has nothing. If he has a monster, I am more than willing to take my favorable pot odds and draw to my own monster. If I hit, I will stack him. If I miss, I lose the minimum. If I raise the bet to $3, I may win a small pot, but I will lose a big pot if he doesn't fold.

I realize that just calling small bets screams out that I have a draw. Luckily the "Underbettor" does not seem to consider my cards, only the ones in his hand.

With Friends Like These .....

Last weekend was our annual summer golf weekend. For a change we went to Pinetop this year since Bill and Glen bought a home up there last year. Usually we go to Tucson and play in the heat at a 5 star resort. This year we decided it would be better to stay for free and play in 80 degree weather.

We left at 8:30 AM Friday morning from Phoenix and arrived in Pinetop by 12:00. Bill's Mercedes is a monster. I have never had the pleasure of riding or driving a car where you can pass anyone at will, even if they are already going 75 mph. His car definitely has some balls.

We grabbed a quick bite at Pinetop Lakes Golf Club and we were on our way. Bill already owed me $70 from a previous bet so that's what we decided to play for. Currently Bill is an 8 handicap and I am a 10, so he has to give me two stroke on this course. In past trips, we have had problems with Chris trying to be funny and hitting into us on holes. In order to prevent this, we let them tee off first. So my group was Bill, Adam, and I. Ahead of us was Robert, Bob, Chris, and Glen.

I did not start out well, but Bill was not playing well either. After 13 holes, Bill was hopelessly behind and made a deal. He would forfeit the $70 bet if we played the last 5 holes for $140. Usually he waits until the last hole to press. Then it's usually a coin flip. Since I feel like I am a better player, a multi hole bet is definitely an advantage for me. I said ok and we flipped the switch. We both started playing really well. We seemed to hit every green, or if we didn't we made great up and downs. We played the first 3 holes of the new match at even par.

Since Pinetop Lakes is an executive course, Bill felt he had an advantage because he only hits irons off of the tee. Bill can't keep his driver on the course so a short course is right up his alley. The 17th hole is one of the few par 4's on the course. Bill teed off and pushed his shot to the right. I used 3 wood and hit a decent shot that was fading right as well. We saw it bounce twice and even though it was close to out of bounds, we were 100% sure it was still in. As Adam was teeing off, I noticed that Chris and Robert had doubled back and were driving their cart around where my ball had landed in the rough.

After Adam hit, we took off down the fairway to look for our balls. Bill found his right away, but I could not find mine. We spent about five minutes walking up and down the right rough, but it was no where in sight.

"I think Chris took my ball" I said to Bill.

"Chris wouldn't do that. He knows there is a lot of money riding on this." Bill replied.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked. Bill said what I knew he would, which was to drive back up to the tee and hit another one. So that's what I did and of course I striped one right down the middle. If I could play my second tee ball all the time, I might be good enough for the PGA.

I wedged on to the green and had a 25 foot putt for bogey. Bill missed his up and down and was in for bogey. So I still had aputt to tie the hole. I hit a good putt, but it came up a foot short and I carded a double bogey.

The 18th hole was a par 5. Again a rarity on an executive course, but the perfect kind of hole for me to make up a stroke. I decided to go for it and hit driver, even though I had not hit one all day. My ball stayed on the course, but it did banana to the right and landed in the rough by a couple of trees at the turn of the dogleg right. Bill did the same thing.

Between the trees and my lie, I could not go for the green in two, so I laid up. My 2nd shot went a little farther than I wanted and it went through the fairway into the rough on the left, about 80 yards from the green. I did not mind being in the rough. The course was so soft that I had backed up 6 balls off the greens from the fairway during the round. Hopefully the rough will take some of the spin off and I can get it close.

Meanwhile, Bill had advanced his ball down the fairway, and hit the green in 3 shots with about 50 feet left for birdie. I hit a decent wedge shot over a big pine tree and landed about 20 feet away.

As I got to the green, Chris was there waiting for us and wanted an update on me and Bill's bet.

"Do you have a Callaway ball in your pocket?" I asked Chris.

"No, why?" he replied.

"I thought you hit my ball" I accused.

"No I wouldn't do that to you. Did you lose your ball? Rob lost his ball on that hole too" said Chris.

Bill two putted for par, so I needed birdie for the tie. I missed and made par and finished the round even on the bets. I was disappointed that I lost, but I felt good about it, because I played well and forced Bill to play 5 holes in 1 over par to beat me. I hit a good tee shot on 17 and just caught a bad break.

Here's where it get's interesting.

We finish up and we meet up with Robert, Jon, Marty, and Bob at the cart return area. I ask Robert if picked up my Callaway ball. He played coy for a while and then admitted that he did hit a Callaway ball from the right rough on 17 and then produced the ball. A Callaway with a blue logo and a red Sharpie pen line around half the ball. That is my ball. I mark it with the red sharpie to help me line up short putts. Everyone who plays with me on a regular basis knows that's how I mark my ball.

Now all hell breaks loose. I tell Bill, the bet's off. He says, "tough shit!" I yell at Robert for costing me $280. The other guys thought we should go back to 17 and play the holes over again.

Finally, Bill and I agree to ask the club pro what the ruling is. The pro tells us that since I declared my ball lost and put a new one in play, that that is the ball I have to count and I lose. If I had dropped a ball where I thought my drive was supposed to be, played that one in, and hit a provisional off the tee, then I could have counted my first ball when we found out that Robert had picked up my ball.

Now if I was in Bill's shoes, I would have declared the second part of the bet off and just owed $140. If my friend get's screwed over like that, I am going to give him a break. I don't begrudge Bill for taking the money, because we both play to win. We tend to try and play by the rules and the pro confirmed his opinion. I was a little mad at Bill, but I understood.

Robert, on the other hand, had a lot to answer for. First of all, I still don't believe that he did not know that it wasn't his ball. I know he would not hit my ball on purpose, but he probably thought he found a ball near where his was supposed to be. "I'll just hit this one and put it in my bag," Robert probably said to himself.

I told Robert, that he doesn't even play Callaway balls. How could he not know that it wasn't his? His excuse was that he was playing all kinds of different balls that day.

Now I am pissed because Robert did something stupid and it cost me $280. I would have gotten over it a lot quicker if he had just said, "Larry, I screwed up, I'm sorry, " and shown some remorse. Instead he kept insisting that he didn't know it wasn't his ball and making all kinds of excuses on why it wasn't his fault.

After dinner we go to dinner at Charlie Clark's Steakhouse. We pound a few beers in the bar and get seated in their large dining room. By now, I figure that maybe it has sunk in with Robert that he should feel bad for screwing me out of the bet. I suggest that he buy me dinner and we forget about it. For some reason he doesn't take me seriously and I buy my own dinner. Dinner was great by the way. I had their house specialty of Blackened Prime Rib, which was awesome.

After dinner, we headed straight to the Hon Dah Indian Casino. I found their poor excuse for a poker room and sat down in a 3-6 Hold'em game. There were only two games to choose from and one of them was Omaha. The rest of the guys went to the black jack tables. After 20 minutes, Marty popped his head in the 3 table poker room and said that everyone was leaving. I was on the button, so I told the dealer it was my last hand.

I was dealt Kc Qs and raised it after 4 limpers. The flop was a brick with one club. It was checked to me and I bet to see if I can get any over cards to fold. One player folded. The turn was another club. Everyone chekcs and I check it through. The river was another club so I had the King high flush. It's checked to me and I bet. I get two callers and take down the pot. I rack up with a $12 profit. I find everyone else and they are all stuck at least $100 at black jack table. Karma's a bitch isn't it?

We all leave and go back to the house to play 1-2 Pot Limit Hold'em. The game started 6 handed with Bill, Marty, Adam, Jon, Robert, and me. Within the first few hands I raise K-10 suited on the button. Jon calls and we see a flop of K-T-6. Jon bets into me. I raise the pot and Jon calls all in. Jon has T-6 for two pair. My two pair holds up.

A little while later, I am dealt pocket Kings. Marty raises in front of me preflop. I reraise and he calls. The flop comes out ten high. He checks to me. I bet the pot. He check raises me the pot. I call and Marty is all in. Marty turns over AA. Oops. The turn is a King and now I have trips. The river is no help to Marty and he's broke and done.

As the night went on, I lost a few pots to Jon and won some small pots here and there. Eventually it got down to 3 handed with Jon, Robert, and me. Rob was the short stack and Jon was the big stack.

I was determined to break Robert and take some money from Jon as well. We all swapped chips for a while, but eventually Robert was ground down and I finished him off when I rivered a baby flush against his pair. Karma is a stone cold bitch. In the end, everyone was broke except for Jon and I. Jon finished up $200 and I finished up $100.

For the second time, I was really impressed with Jon's poker game. I really concentrated on finding some physical tells and he kept fooling me. Sometimes he would talk with a good hand and then a little while later he would talk while he was bluffing. Sometimes he would act strong with a good hand. Other times he had nothing. His only weakness against me was his inability to fold a good hand against me. Twice he said he knew what I had and yet he still called a big bet on the river. I was more than happy to confirm his suspicion and take his money. I finally told him, "if you know what I have, then you should fold." I think it finally sunk in.

I was happy with the way I played for the most part. I managed to get away with a lot of bluffs short handed for some small pots. I got away from the big pots, unless I had a monster. I don't know how long we will keep playing 1-2 pot limit however. Adam, Carlo (who was not here this time), Chris, and Bill keep going broke. The money goes to the good players much faster in a no limit or pot limit game rather than a limit game. We may break them eventually.

Saturday morning I woke up hung over and tired since I had to sleep in the same room as Bill and Glen. I do not sleep well in strange beds. Bill went on a McDonald's run and brought back breakfast. This morning we played at White Mountain Country Club a regulation length course.

Right after we got there, Robert came up to me with a black label Callaway ball and said, "Larry I just wanted to show you that I do play a Callaway ball."

Due to the time in the morning, my hangover, and general anger towards Robert from last night, I went off on him. I don't care what ball he plays as long as it's his ball. What Robert kept failing to understand is all I wanted to see from him was a little remorse and an "I am sorry, I screwed up." No excuses and no rationalizations. Just own up to it. I finally berated him into saying a half hearted "I'm sorry" and I left for the first tee.

My heart was pounding from adrenaline for the first two holes, which I somehow managed to par. After the second hole, I tried to give myself a reality check. I am playing golf in beautiful weather on a fantastic course. Enjoy it god dammit! I really did try to have fun, but my golf game went into the shitter and I was miserable for 4 hours. I eventually staggered home with an 89 and a $75 loss to Bill.

I immediately went home to take a shower and a nap. When I awoke, Robert, Chris, Bob, and Jon had gone back home to Phoenix. They all had to be there for other committments so the rest of us watched the end of the third round of the PGA championship and we decided to go to the Kabuki House for dinner and then Talledega Nights for a movie. Dinner was great and the movie was a classic. This definitely put me in a better mood.

We had made a 7:30 AM tee time at White Mountain CC again for Sunday, but Adam, Marty, and Glen all bailed out so it was just Bill and I. The stakes were $75 again and this time we played some solid golf. Bill jumped out to an early lead with a birdie on the first hole while I 3 putt bogied it. I managed to string some decent holes together and finished with a 42 on the front 9. Bill had shot a 41. I was in a much better mood and I was hitting the ball pretty well off the tee. My putting was still suspect, but I was doing enough to make par, and I even made a 15 foot birdie putt. I finished him off on 18 with a bogey and took his money. I also knew that I was a lock to make another $75 on the PGA championship since I had Tiger Woods on my team.

Overall I made $175 in gambling on the trip and got to cool off in the high pines. Another great trip with lots of stories that will be told and retold over the years.

WSOP Final Table Today

I am one of the suckers who has purchased the pay per view broadcast of the final table today at 2:00 PM. I want to record it on my DVR, but it will probably be over 15 hours. I think last years final table lasted 18 hours and there are a ton more chips in play this year than last year.

So far I have not been able to set the DVR because my Cox box does not recognize that I have paid for the event, even though I have confirmed it twice by phone.

Since there will be no hole card cams, I think the main educational benefit will be the commentary of Phil Gordon and whoever they get to drop by. I have not decided yet if I will track Allen Cunnigham's play as I watch.

I think it will be very interesting to see how many hands Allen plays, how often he raises, how often he gets to showdown, etc. I have never seen a world class player play up close and this may be as close as I get.

August 11. The Day After.

I stopped watching after there were 5 left. I have recorded the rest and hope to watch it this weekend.

I have discovered the secret to winning a huge World Series Tournament:

1. When a good player is at the table, avoid him. Or play like a pussy by check folding all the time.
2. Whenever you pick up QQ, KK, or AA make sure someone else at your table picks up the pocket pair, one lower than yours.
3. Whenever you get your money in with the best hand, it has to hold up.

These three rules seem to be the road that Jamie "Ari" Gold has been following throughout the tournament. When I went to bed, he had $56 Million of the $88 Million in play with 5 players left. The actual size of his stack was just ridiculous.

Allen Cunningham definitely seemed to be the class of the table. He started out very tight and probably folded 95% of the first 30 hands. After a couple of players busted and it was obvious that the big stacks were going to wait for the other small stacks to bust, he switched it into over drive.

Allen proceeded to raise damn near every pot preflop. Nobody ever reraised him. It was either fold and give him the blinds and antes (which were over $500,000) or call him and then check-fold to his continuation bet. I must have seen Jamie Gold check fold to Allen on the flop 10 straight times. It was comical. Allen's only foil was that he doubled up one of the short stacks 3 different times. Allen was behind every time, the money went in, however you would think he would get lucky once.

The great players find a way to win without cards. They win most of their pots without having to showdown. This is definitely the way to win a deep stack tournament. Unfortunately, I am very rarely in this situation in the tournaments I play, because the structure is much faster. This was the reason that the tournament seemed to progress so much faster this year. The vast majority of these players were used to playing the fast structures on line and did not know how to slow down. There were way too many stupid raises of 20x the blind preflop and big overbet raises after the flop.

Even on the rare occasions Allen did make it to the river, he usually had the best hand. He picked off a bluff from Gold with just Ace high, that was just tremendous. Gold had been using his table talk to his advantage through most of the final table. He talked a little too long this time and Allen called a $2,000,000 bet on the river. Gold pretty much stopped talking after that pot. :0

August 14th.

I finished watching the final table. I went pretty much as I expected except for Allen Cunningham busting out in 4th. Jamie Gold ran over the rest of the table.

The key hand of the tournament was 3 handed. Here is the transcript of the hand from cardplayer.com:

Chip Count:

Jamie Gold $64,000,000

Paul Wasicka $14,000,000

Michael Binger $11,000,000

I believe the blinds were 200k-400k with a 50k ante

229. Gold limps from the button and Wasicka limps from the small blind. Michael Binger raises to $1,500,000 from the big blind. Both Gold and Wasicka call and the flop comes 10c 6s 5s. Wasicka checks, Binger bets $3,500,000 and Gold moves all in. Wasicka folds and Binger calls. Binger shows A10 and Gold turns over 43 for an open ended straight draw. The turn is the 7 and Gold makes a straight. The river is the Q and Michael Binger is eliminated in 3rd place.

According to the talk afterwards, Paul Wasicka folded 7s 8s. With 3 players left they had already locked up $4,000,000 in prize money for each of them. 2nd Place paid $6 Mill and 1st place would pay $12,000,000.

I'll will play the hand as if I am Paul.

Preflop: "7s 8s is a decent hand preflop. Let's get in cheap and see a flop. Jamie just limped so I am getting good odds. Wait, Michael raised to 1.5 MM. Jamie calls, so now I still have good odds so let's see what happens. Plus they're soooted."

Flop: 10c 6s 5s "Awesome, I am first to act and I have two aggressive players behind me. One of them should bet and I can check raise them."

I check. Michael bets 3.5 MM into a 4.7 MM dollar pot.

"That's a pretty good portion of his stack. He must have a decent hand. High pocket pair or tens with an Ace kicker. He is probably pot committed."

Jamie Gold moves all in.

"Shit! Fuck! OK calm down. I have 9 outs to a flush and 4 more outs to a straight. If all of my outs are clean I have a 55% chance to win if I see both cards. What could Jamie have? I have seen him bluff on straight or flush draws before. I can't lose to the straight draw since mine is the nuts. He could have a higher flush draw. Then I only have 6 outs. That's still a 24% chance. Michael looks like he is going to call and if he loses, then I win $2,000,000. Alright I don't want to call all in for my tournament with 8 high so I fold".

Of course a Queen of spades hit's the river and Paul would have tripled up to 39 MM and Jamie would have had 50 MM for heads up play and the remaining $6,000,000

The message boards at 2+2 are going crazy saying how bad a fold this was. I think it was as well. However, I can't fault the guy for trying to fold into an additional $2,000,000. If we ran this simulation on the Sit N Go tracker I think both decisions are positive EV it's just calling is much better.

The most appropriate response I saw said these two things: a. Draws don't always get there and b. Sometimes there are life positive EV decisions that are in direct opposite of poker EV decisions. If that $2,000,000 makes a huge difference in your life, then maybe it's better to hope for second and not deal with all of the ancillary stuff that comes in winning the WSOP.

I can't wait to see what Norman Chad has to say about this hand on ESPN.

Birthday Poker

Yesterday was my 35th birthday. As one of my friends told me, "Now you're old enough to run for President!" It's been a good 35 years and I am truly blessed to be married, have a good career, money in my pocket, and a baby boy on the way. There are not many people I would trade my life for.

I have been sticking to the game plan of playing NL Hold'em and Omaha 8OB online for the last week or two. I have been running good in the NL games and breaking even in the Omaha. Nothing too exciting is happening there because the stakes are small and I have not stumbled across any new game changing strategies.

I had not played live poker in a casino since my World Series of Poker escapades a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, because it was my birthday, I decided to leave work early and play poker at Casino Arizona. In order to keep following my bankroll guidelines, the only game I could "afford" to play is the 3-6 hold'em game.

I bought in for $100 and after one round of folding, I picked up Aces in the big blind. Everyone knows that high pocket pairs are best made for one or two opponents. By the time the betting gets to me there are 5 limpers in the pot so I reluctantly raise my Aces to build a pot that every fish in the room will chase their gut shot straight to the river for.

The flop comes down A-7-2 rainbow. I have this hand almost locked up, so I decide to slow play and check. Somebody bets and everyone calls. The turn is a 6. I check again, hoping to get my check raise in on the big bet streets. This time everyone checks around. I hate it when I miss bets. The river is a 10 and there is no flush possible, only a really screwy straight beats me.

This time I bet. I am immediately raised. Everyone else folds. I think to myself, "That's good news, I may make a little more money now." I reraise. He raises again. I look at the possible straight on the board again. Not very likely. He could also be raising with two pair, a set, or even a good ten. I wimp out and just call. He turns over 3 sixes and my hand is good.

I am off to a good start.

Later, an attractive young woman sits down on my right. She buys in from the dealer and he gives her a $5 chip. She doesn't want it so she makes change with the guy on her right. Later they get into a discussion on how the red chip is an unlucky chip. The guy on the right decides he is going to live straddle with the red chip when he is under the gun. I speak up and tell him I always raise a straddle.

The hand is dealt out and whadda ya know, I am dealt two red Aces. I raise. I am reraised by a relatively new player at the table. There is yet another raiser who caps the betting at $15 and the straddler calls the three additonal bets along with me and the original reraiser.

Four players to the flop with $63 in the pot. The flop is Ten high. I bet and get three callers. The turn is another low card. I bet again and only get one folder. The river is a Queen which concerns me a little. I was putting my reraiser on a high pocket pair and that could have rivered him a set. The pot's big and I figure they may call my hand with less. I bet and get the reraiser to call. He turns over pocket 7's and my hand is good. I tell everyone at the table that its the house rule that a birthday player's Aces are not to be cracked.

My one serious mistake of the session came against the pretty girl on my right. I was dealt T9 suited in middle position. She called in front of me and limped along. I think there were two other players in the pot. The flop came down T-7-4.

Pretty girl bets and I raise trying to protect my hand. I get one cold caller and she calls. The turn is another 4. She checks, I bet, and they both call. Now I hate my hand.

The river is a Queen. She checks, I check, and the last guy checks. She tables J-10. I see the Jack kicker and throw my cards in the muck face down. Wait a minute! Fuck! The Queen plays as the kicker on the board. So I pissed away a chopped pot with $24 coming back to me because I am a moron. This is a little mentioned benefit of playing online. The computer will always award you the pot if you deserve it, even if you misread your hand.

I decided to take a piss and a short walk to rededicate myself to paying attention. After that I hand I won a couple more and finished up $51. Overall a decent 3 hours of play.

I am growing bored with the live 3-6 games. They really are not much of a challenge to me other than trying to win as much money as possible. There are not many moves you can make and nobody seems to pay attention to table image.

When I am paying attention, I play the 3-6 Limit game very well. The money is meaningless, so I am more concerned with reading the players and figuring out how to win pots. I guess this is how the top pros feel that play in the bigger cash games. The problem is that the players are so unpredicitably bad, that it gets really tough to read their hands. I have found that it tends to be much easier to put players on hands in No Limit, since you have so much flexibility in the betting. In most cases, my bets on the turn and river depend on how strong my hand is in a vacuum and how many players are left in the hand. It's a game of, "I don't know what you have, but I have a good hand, so I'll just bet it and pray." I am still puzzled by the fact that I seem to win the vast majority of the time at 3-6, but my winning percentage at 4-8 or 6-12 is much lower. I have not seen a dramatic step up in playing skill at those higher levels. I will step back up eventually.

Current Bankroll $1500. 5% of that is $75 I broke the rule and bought in for $100.
Future Bankroll $3000. 5% of that is $150 That's enough for 4-8.
Future Bankroll $4500. 5% of that is $225 That's enough for 6-12.

Man that seems like a long way off.

Home Tournament Win!

I have been playing Omaha 8OB and NL Hold'em online since my last update. I am down a few dollars in Omaha and up over $100 in the NL games. Nothing much exciting on either site.

Last night was my second go round with the Home Game Tournament at Greg's house. $20 buy in , winner takes all. Rebuys go to the 2nd place pool.

In my last post, I wrote out my theory on how to beat the players from last week. This week we had a few new players. There were 10 in all.

Greg - Owner of the home. He works as a superintendent for a national home builder. He is still learning the game, however I spied a copy of the new Sklansky/Miller NL Hold'em book on his kitchen table so he is trying to get better.

Jason - He is the one who invited me to the game. He also is a new financial advisor at my company.

Tran - New to me. He used to live in apartment complex with Jason a few years ago.

Mike - He cracked my pocket Kings with pocket Aces last week. Seems to know what he's doing.

Kory - Another co-worker at my company. Rumor has it he is very aggressive in his card games. He mentioned that he plays in another regular game for higher stakes.

Craig - Kory's younger brother. Crazy aggressive.

"Medical" Kory - operates the machines that keep the blood pumping during a heart transplant. Decent player.

Scott - another apartment buddy of Jason's

Seth - I can barely remember his name

We started with .25 and .50 blinds and $40 in front of us. I decided to tighten up considerably from last week because there is plenty of time for the others to make a mistake and we were playing 10 handed.

The game was mostly the same as last week, with lots of limping and underbetting the pot. Lots of grumbling when I would raise preflop. I was patient as I watched Craig bluff too many times to mention and other players ship chips back and forth. Every once in a while, I would win a small pot to slowly build up my stack.

After the rebuy period expired, we lost 5 players within 30 minutes. I picked off one of them when I limped in late with Q-9 and the flop came down A-Q-9. Tran had Ace-Ten and thought it was the nuts. We got it all in the flop and my hand held up.

When it got short handed, I was the most aggressive player at the table. All of the maniacs had blown up earlier so only the tight-passive players remained. The vast majority of my hands, were raise, get called, bet the flop, everyone folds. I still can't believe how little I was reraised. I was not being a manaic by any means, but you think they would catch on eventually.

I eventually lasted until the final 3. It was me, Mike, and "Medical Kory". 1st Place was going to pay $200 and 2nd place paid $60 unless there was a deal made. This is the point where I made my one glaring mistake of the night. I was dealt 5-7 on the button and just limped in. The flop came 6-8-9 with 3 spades. I had the 7 of spades. I checked it through on the flop to slow play. Even if I hit the flush, it's probably still good. The turn was a high card. This time I bet, hoping somebody hit it. Kory calls. The river is another non-spade brick. Kory checks and I move all in. I am pretty sure he was drawing to the flush and I don't want him to call with some crappy pair.

As he folds to my big bet, Kory says, "I was drawing to the straight flush" "Oh!" I exclaim, "I guess I had one of your outs" as I turn over my 7 of spades. It's then I realize that I misread my hand and I have a 4 instead of a 5. So I won the pot with 7 high. Yea me!

A few hands later in the big blind I am dealt Q-5 offsuit. Kory limps in and Mike just completes the blind. Mike completing the blind seemed suspicious because he had just announced that he is short on chips and it's "All in or fold time". I know he likes to slow play big pairs so my spidey sense was tingling.

The flop was Q-J-9. Mike then moves all in for $35. I have about $140 left in my stack. Because I am a little suspicious I briefly think about folding and letting Kory with his big stack make the call. I decide that top pair is likely good and I just call. Kory then moves all in.

At first I was cursing under my breath, because he's supposed to just call and check it down. I have to fold and I am hoping Kory did not do something really stupid. To my surprise, Kory turns over Q-J for top two pair! Mike had J-9 for bottom two. Mike was eliminated and I was heads up with Kory. I did not do an exact count but I probably started with $140 in chips compared to his $320.

This was one of the occasions where I had to fight the urge to explain how much I know about the game in fear of letting on how good a player I am. Kory and I began to argue over where the button and small blind start. The correct rule is the small blind has the button and acts first. Obviously I know this from playing a thousand tournaments online. Kory did not believe me and had some crazy logic for figuring out that the big blind was on the button. I mentioned that I have played a ton online and I am sure I am right. Apparently that was not good enough. It was past 10:15 so no one else was awake or around to settle the argument so I just let him have his way. There was no need to elaborate on my poker exploits further just to win this small argument. Today I found a great website from Bob Ciaffone on the rules for poker tournaments so I emailed Jason with the info to pass along to the rest of the guys.

From the start of our heads up match, I basically ran over Kory. He never raised preflop. I finally made a comment about it and he tried it with 6-2. I folded that one, but I think I called the other couple of times he tried it and he stopped doing it again. I mixed up my play and won a lot of pots uncontested either preflop or with a continuation bet on the flop. On the rare occasions he played back at me, I usually let the hand go.

Before we knew it I had just over $210 in chips to his $250. I was dealt Ac 7s on the button/big blind :0. He called, I raised to $20. He called again. The flop was As-Qs-10s. He checked. I bet $20. He moved all in. I am guessing he doesn't have the made hand yet. I decide to call and he turns over Js-9c. So he has the better flush draw and outs to the straight. I have to fade 11 outs twice. The turn and river are blanks and suddenly I am huge!. Kory did not realize that I had been catching up and was surprised to only have $40 left.

Even though the blinds were only 3-6, I decided I was just going to move all in every hand from now on, until it was over or we were even in chips again. Luckily I picked up pocket 9's. He moved all in and I called. He turned over Q-5. Spikes a Queen on the turn and he doubles up to $80. Next hand I have Ace-baby. I move all in and he calls with King-baby. My ace high holds up and I am the winner.

While it was fun to win the tournament, it was a bit of a let down, because there was no one else around to enjoy it with. Everyone else had left or gone to sleep since it was 11:00 PM when we finished.

Hopefully this will turn out to be the first of many victories in the future.

Maybe I Should Have Taken The 2 Weeks?

I have resumed my poker playing for three days and I am negative each day. Nothing serious, just $25 a day, but it's still frustrating.

Last night I was invited to a friend's house for a weekly $20 Sit-N-Go they run. There were only 5 players this week. Last week they said they had 10. We started with $40 in chips and the blinds started at $0.25-$0.50. Amazingly they said the blind levels are an hour long. I asked if some of their games go until 3 or 4 in the morning. They said no, that they manage to finish by 11 or 12 and sometimes they make a deal.

My friends all seemed to play the game in a style I have a lot of trouble with. It's a loose passive and trapping game. They will limp into the pot with any two. They will call with a draw or piece of the flop. They will also slow play any decent hand. So basically their crappy hands and their good hands look the same.

I'm pretty sure the way to counteract this style of play is this:

1. Raise more with high pocket pairs preflop. Force them to call (make mistakes) with weaker hands.

2. Limp in position with connected and suited cards whenever possible. There were very few preflop raises and if they did, it was just double the blind. Get in cheap and flop a monster.

3. On the flop, it's fit or fold. If you hit your top pair or 2nd pair with good kicker, bet it with 3/4 to Pot sized bets and make them pay to draw. If you miss or you have a draw. Just check, because it's likely you will get a free card or only have to call a very small bet since they consistently underbet the pot.

4. If you bet and they raise, you better have a good hand. If not then fold it. The bluff raise is not in their arsenal.

Unfortunately, I did not remember or figure all this out until it was too late.

The eventual winner, Mike, basically made me his bitch. At the .50-$1 level I had K-J suited on the button. I raised to 1.50 and Mike called in the small blind. The flop was J-T-6 with two clubs. I bet $3 into a $5 pot and just Mike called. The turn was a King of clubs. Good news is that I have two pair. Bad news is that the straight and flush draws just got there. I bet $5 and Mike raised me all in. He looked pretty confident so I folded. That pot put me down to about $28.

A couple of rounds later, I finally deal myself a good hand on the button. Devin limps in for $1 and I stare at two cowboys. I raise to $3. Mike smooth calls again from the small blind. Jason in the big blind folds, and Devin folds. The flop is T-7-3 rainbow. Mike checks and I bet $4. Mike then check raises me all in. I don't think he has Aces because I figure he would have reraised preflop. Two pair seems unlikely with the board. He could have 3 of a kind. Wouldn't he slow play that though? The most likely hands seem like QQ, JJ or Ace-10. I call.

Mike proudly turns over pocket Aces. My Kings do not improve on the turn and river and I am out in 4th place out of 5. This is exactly what is so frustrating about this game. Two weeks ago I am dreaming of playing against some of the best players in the world at the World Series and last night I could not even beat 4 rank amateurs in a home game.

I've Fallen Off The Wagon

I decided that one week without playing was long enough. With all the poker going on in the world right now, I am anxious to get better and improve my game. I am trying to dedicate myself to learning the games of Cash No Limit Hold'em and Omaha 8 or better.

My first night back was a little disappointing. I lost about $20 last night mainly because my Aces got cracked by pocket Queens on a No Limit table. Otherwise I played ok.

Things I want to focus on while playing Omaha:

1. Reading the board and my cards. I want to stop and think what is the nuts? How many outs do I have? Too often I rush my decision based on the easy draw. I need to consider all the draws.

2. After reading my hand becomes second nature, I need to concentrate more on what my opponent could have. It is definitely more difficult to put players on hands in Omaha versus Hold'em. It's not impossible however, and I need to get better at it.

I don't think I will invest in Poker Tracker for Omaha. All I really want to know is if I am making money, so I will keep track of that on an excel spreadsheet. I don't think there has been enough information published on preflop raising or calling to have any idea what the stats mean.

I have been reading the Sklansky / Miller book on No Limit Hold'em. So far I am not very impressed. ThAll of their arguments are based on math. That's all well and good, but this takes a lot of assumptions on their part. Assuming that a player will call 20%, fold 20%, and move all in 60% of the time is almost impossible. If the math is based on assumptions then it really is just a guess.

Now if S/M had posted a hand example on their website and then polled their readers for an answer on what they would do? Then I would have a little more faith in their assumptions. Right now it looks like they have a theory and then make up the numbers to fit the theory.

There are some good nuggets of information in the book. It's best when they try to summarize a point at the end of the chapter. When they use the following phraseology, the book comes alive. If your opponent tends to fold, consider doing ________. If your opponent will call another bet on the river, consider doing ________. Things like not semi bluffing a nut flush draw if you think you can stack an opponent if you hit it, versus betting the non-nut draw if you feel you can win the pot now. These are things that most low limit players are not considering.

In fact, after I am done reading it, I may go back to Phil Gordon's book as my bible in the low limit games. I think S / M may put me on the wrong level of thinking to beat the .50-$1 NL games on Full Tilt and Poker Stars.

In the mean time, I am going to limit myself to only playing on two sites. Poker Stars and Full Tilt. I like both of the sites and I get rake back on Full Tilt. I am going to try and utilize some of their frequent player point features and win some money on free rolls. I can't generate enough points if I spread my play over 4 or more sites. My screen name on Poker Stars is "larryvq" and my screen name on Full Tilt is "Poker_Bully1". Feel free to say hello if you are one of my few readers.

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.