My poker game is horrible right now. My bankroll is approx $800 from a high a year and a half ago of $5500.
I have tried to learn to play No Limit Hold'em by reading books and playing online. I think I have a lot of the basic fundamentals down, but I have some major leaks in my game.
I have a bad habit of winning small pots and losing big ones. When I used to crush the small limit poker games I prided myself on my patience preflop. I was a total nit, because I knew that when I got a good hand, the other players were not paying attention and would pay me off anyways. In 2-4 I used to lose $15-$20 of my initial $100 buy in waiting for the right hand, and then win a monster $50 pot.
In No Limit I am always catching myself trying to "open up" my game by playing suited connectors in late position or defending my blind. It may be a good strategy for the long term, but the players turn over so fast on the 6 player tables that I wonder if I should ever even worry what my image is at the table.
I still have not rid myself of the limit mindset preflop. I still get excited when I draw AA, KK, or AK. After repeated punches in the face, I know in my mind that these hands usually win a small pot with top pair or overpair, or they lose a big one when someone slow plays a set or rivers a flush against me. I try to get excited by JTs or 78s on the button, but I do not seem to flop the monster enough times to keep me from losing money.
I have also been playing bad in the weekly single table tournament games at Greg's. I keep trying to push my opponents off of hands when I have a draw. They keep calling with hands much stronger than I put them on and my draws are not hitting.
Last week I got lucky when Kory, who had 40% of the chips in play with 5 players left, got a call from his wife to go home. We paid him $40 and took his chips out of play. Suddenly after a double up on Kory's last hand when I rivered a straight with my pocket 7's versus his Queens, I was even with the remaining 4 players. I lost some of my stack to Devin, with three players left when my 15 outer did not come in, but then I flopped a set of Jacks against Jason and got all my chips in the middle. Jason had a pair of Aces with a Ten kicker and managed to go runner - runner straight to knock me out on the bubble.
Jeff is running one of his big poker tournaments in a couple of weeks, so maybe I can get my game together and make a big score there.
The final golf match between Bill and I will be this Saturday. Bill owes me $50 from our Masters bet and the renegotiated bet amount on the match is $100. So my worst case is that I lose $50. However in order to add a little more spice, we have agreed that the winner can buy a stick on name plate for our shared locker in the country club. The plate will read "Best Golfer 2007 - Larry Van Quathem" if I win. Since I don't see myself ever winning the Club Championship and getting one of those plates, I'll have to shoot for this one.
I am going to take a chance this weekend by scheduling a golf lesson with my old instructor at Talking Stick at 8:00 AM before our match. My back has felt good so I don't think that will be a problem, I just hope that he makes a minor adjustment and I start hitting the ball really well before the match. In the mean time I plan on practicing my short game today and tomorrow.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Golf Match #9, I Give Up The Lead
Bill and I played our 9th of the 10 match series last Sunday at Phoenix Country Club. It was a gorgeous morning and the course was in great shape. I had been kidding around with Bill to make sure he brought his money with him in case I won. Bill had said that he was going to hit 2 iron off of every par 4 and par 5. He felt that he had given me a few wins due to his mistakes off of the tee. Mostly I believe he has made his mistakes with his approach shots and a bad bunker shot. Bill’s strategy was to let me beat myself.
We both parred the first hole and walked up to the second tee. The pin was in the front of the green on the short par 3. Since there is a lake in front of the green, I usually try to take enough club to reach the middle of the green or back. The pin was 133 yards and I took a choked up iron instead of a full 9 iron. I hit a dead pull hook and put the ball in the water. I haven’t hit the lake on this hole in at least 10 rounds. Bill hit a good shot and a good putt that almost went in for birdie. I scraped out a double bogey and Bill took a two shot lead.
I made two great up and downs for par on 3 and 4 and picked up one stroke. On #5 the short par 4, I decided to hit 5 iron off of the tee. Marty and his friend Jeff were giving me a little shit for the conservative club choice, but the pin was in the front of the green and if I hit driver a little left or right of the green, the short pitch shot would be very tough to stop on the elevated green. So I think laying back with a 5 iron was the right choice. Unfortunately I did not execute the shot and hit it fat about 120 yards. So now I have 7 iron out of the rough short of the fairway. I hit it solid, but it drew a little left and landed in the deepest bunker on the course left of the green. Bill hit his approach in the right bunker which is also very deep.
My lie was good but I have to clear a 6 foot lip and stop the ball on a 40 foot stretch of fast green or it will roll over the green into the bunker on the other side. I had practiced this shot a little bit last Friday but it did not help on Sunday. I left two shots in the bunker before I finally got out. Bill got out on his first try and two putted for bogey. Luckily I made my 10 footer for double bogey and only lost one shot to Bill.
I missed a short 5 foot putt for par on 6 and I could have picked up 2 shots as Bill was in trouble with his approach and hit his pitch into the front bunker. It was beginning to become apparent that this was going to be one of those days where my wedge game was on. I had now hit 3 successive wedges inside 6 feet. I had made the first two putts, but I missed this one.
We both parred the 7th and we both 3 putted the 8th for bogey. On 9, I hit my approach into another bunker. This time I hit a good shot and made another up and down for par. Bill made a bogey and we were tied with a 42 on the front 9.
I pulled my drive on #10 to the left and it hit a tree solidly. I did not have a direct shot at the green so I hit a low hybrid under the trees to about 140 yards from the pin in the back of the green. There was a little wind behind me and I considered clubbing down and hitting a 9 iron to make sure that I did not go over the back of the green. I decided to go with the 8 iron because the pin felt like a perfect distance and considering I had not hit my irons very solid, I thought the chances of going over the green were slim. Sure enough I hit it very solid and it landed on the back edge of the green and rolled down the hill into the rough. Bill’s second shot was short of the green and he pitched up to about 8 feet. My pitch shot should have been easy to stop since it looked like it was sitting up in the rough. Somehow my club got stuck in the grass and the ball came out very low and ran 30 feet past the hole. I two putted for a disappointing double bogey.
I missed another short par putt on 11 that could have pulled me even again. On #12 I hit my first good drive since the 3rd hole. Bill and I both had 50 yard wedge shots to a middle pin position. We both hit our shots a little long since short was in a bunker. I played first from the fringe. My ball was tracking towards the hole the whole way and just curved off to the right at the end. I tapped in for my par and Bill made par as well.
So I am down one shot coming into our “Amen Corner”. Bill hit a good shot on 13 and ran it over the green. I hit another fat 5 iron and left it 35 yards short of the pin. However the magic wedge struck again and I hit a low spinner to 2 feet and tapped in for another par. Bill was going to be hard pressed to make par from behind the green. He gave it a solid effort but just missed the par putt and we are tied going into 14.
Bill crushed his 2 iron down the middle and I popped up a 3 wood. It was a good pop up in that it still went 180 yards and was between the stakes. I hit a great hybrid under the big pine tree, past the bunker short of the green, and into the valley below the green. Bill hit a solid approach to the middle of the green. I made another great wedge shot to kick in range and Bill 2 putted for is par.
On 15 I hit another crappy iron shot and pulled it left into the bunker. Bill hit his shot over the green and into the worst rough I have ever seen on the Phoenix Country Club course. I had a lot of bunker to carry and not a lot of green to work with since it sloped away from me. For the third time today I left a bunker shot in the trap.
After Bill watched my horrible shot, he decided to wedge out away from the pin. If he went at the pin, he could have easily hit it in the bunker or over the green into the lake. It was probably the right shot to hit no matter what I did, but I made the decision easy for him. I got out of the bunker on my second try and two putted for double bogey. Now I was behind by one stroke again.
Both of us hit our tee shots to the left on 16 and both of us had trees to deal with. Bill had to wedge out sideways. I hit a low pitching wedge to the front of the green. It looked like a great shot, but the hill in front of the green repelled my ball to the right and it looked like it might have rolled into the bunker. Bill hit his third shot long over the left side of the green. This left him with an impossible pitch shot up a hill to the short side of the green with it sloping hard away from him. He hit his wedge fat to the top of the hill. He was lucky it stayed up there, but it did. He two putted for double bogey.
I was lucky to find out that my shot had not gone in the bunker, but had rolled down the hill. I was hoping for some more magic from my wedge, but it was not to be. I hit a mediocre pitch and two putted for bogey. We are all tied with 2 holes to go.
Since I had been hitting nearly every shot with my driver to the left, I lined up to the right and tried keep my front shoulder closed. I finally hit a drive to the right, but it was too far to the right. It bounced past the fairway bunker into the rough on the right. Bill surprised me by pulling out his driver. He hit a pull hook left into the trees. We decided to look for Bill’s ball first. It was not easy to find and I helped him look for a couple of minutes. I told him that I wanted to go look for my ball because I thought it might be tourhg to find and I didn’t want to hold up the group behind us. As I was searching for my ball, Bill finally found his and hit a punch shot to 50 yards short of the pin.
When I started to look for my ball, I knew right away that I was in trouble. The rough was not very long and it was very possible that my ball had run through the rough and into the lake. I looked up and down and could not find it. Marty confirmed that the line on my ball flight was right for the lake. I declared it lost and took my drop. Then I hit my best iron shot of the day. I pured a six iron and it landed 3 feet from the cup and ran 20 feet by the hole. I still had a chance for par.
Bill had been having all kinds of trouble on 17 over the last few matches. This time he really came through in the clutch. He hit a 50 yard wedge shot to 4 feet. I had a slick downhill putt that could easily race by the hole. I made a great putt that teased the cup and stopped two feet past the hole. I made bogey from the water, but Bill did me one better.
So I get to 18 and I am down one. I pulled my 2nd shot into the trees on the left and I was in trouble again. Bill had laid up to the right and was in good shape. I found my ball on the cart path 130 yards from the hole. I took a drop in the rough and had an opening over the trees. I hit a great shot that landed on the front of the green. Unfortunately I could not get any spin on the shot out of the rough so the ball hit firmly and rolled past the hole and all the way through the green and into the rough. If that shot had stopped close to the hole I could have put a lot of pressure on Bill. Instead Bill hit his 3rd shot safely away from the water and in the middle of the green. He two putted and it was all over. It’s all tied 4.5 to 4.5. Bill’s strategy had paid off and I had made too many mistakes to secure the victory.
A couple of hours after the round, Bill called to see if we could renegotiate the bet. Bill admitted that he was very nervous the whole round and he did not like the feeling. “It’s obvious that we are equal golfers since we are tied after 9 rounds, so let’s not risk $500 on one round of golf,” said Bill. Just to hear Bill say we are “equal” golfers was enough for my ego to make me reconsider the bet. After some discussion we decided to play the next round for just $100 and whoever wins still keeps the title of “Best Golfer”. I kind of feel like a pussy for agreeing to lower the bet, but I take solace in the fact that Bill feels the same way.
We both parred the first hole and walked up to the second tee. The pin was in the front of the green on the short par 3. Since there is a lake in front of the green, I usually try to take enough club to reach the middle of the green or back. The pin was 133 yards and I took a choked up iron instead of a full 9 iron. I hit a dead pull hook and put the ball in the water. I haven’t hit the lake on this hole in at least 10 rounds. Bill hit a good shot and a good putt that almost went in for birdie. I scraped out a double bogey and Bill took a two shot lead.
I made two great up and downs for par on 3 and 4 and picked up one stroke. On #5 the short par 4, I decided to hit 5 iron off of the tee. Marty and his friend Jeff were giving me a little shit for the conservative club choice, but the pin was in the front of the green and if I hit driver a little left or right of the green, the short pitch shot would be very tough to stop on the elevated green. So I think laying back with a 5 iron was the right choice. Unfortunately I did not execute the shot and hit it fat about 120 yards. So now I have 7 iron out of the rough short of the fairway. I hit it solid, but it drew a little left and landed in the deepest bunker on the course left of the green. Bill hit his approach in the right bunker which is also very deep.
My lie was good but I have to clear a 6 foot lip and stop the ball on a 40 foot stretch of fast green or it will roll over the green into the bunker on the other side. I had practiced this shot a little bit last Friday but it did not help on Sunday. I left two shots in the bunker before I finally got out. Bill got out on his first try and two putted for bogey. Luckily I made my 10 footer for double bogey and only lost one shot to Bill.
I missed a short 5 foot putt for par on 6 and I could have picked up 2 shots as Bill was in trouble with his approach and hit his pitch into the front bunker. It was beginning to become apparent that this was going to be one of those days where my wedge game was on. I had now hit 3 successive wedges inside 6 feet. I had made the first two putts, but I missed this one.
We both parred the 7th and we both 3 putted the 8th for bogey. On 9, I hit my approach into another bunker. This time I hit a good shot and made another up and down for par. Bill made a bogey and we were tied with a 42 on the front 9.
I pulled my drive on #10 to the left and it hit a tree solidly. I did not have a direct shot at the green so I hit a low hybrid under the trees to about 140 yards from the pin in the back of the green. There was a little wind behind me and I considered clubbing down and hitting a 9 iron to make sure that I did not go over the back of the green. I decided to go with the 8 iron because the pin felt like a perfect distance and considering I had not hit my irons very solid, I thought the chances of going over the green were slim. Sure enough I hit it very solid and it landed on the back edge of the green and rolled down the hill into the rough. Bill’s second shot was short of the green and he pitched up to about 8 feet. My pitch shot should have been easy to stop since it looked like it was sitting up in the rough. Somehow my club got stuck in the grass and the ball came out very low and ran 30 feet past the hole. I two putted for a disappointing double bogey.
I missed another short par putt on 11 that could have pulled me even again. On #12 I hit my first good drive since the 3rd hole. Bill and I both had 50 yard wedge shots to a middle pin position. We both hit our shots a little long since short was in a bunker. I played first from the fringe. My ball was tracking towards the hole the whole way and just curved off to the right at the end. I tapped in for my par and Bill made par as well.
So I am down one shot coming into our “Amen Corner”. Bill hit a good shot on 13 and ran it over the green. I hit another fat 5 iron and left it 35 yards short of the pin. However the magic wedge struck again and I hit a low spinner to 2 feet and tapped in for another par. Bill was going to be hard pressed to make par from behind the green. He gave it a solid effort but just missed the par putt and we are tied going into 14.
Bill crushed his 2 iron down the middle and I popped up a 3 wood. It was a good pop up in that it still went 180 yards and was between the stakes. I hit a great hybrid under the big pine tree, past the bunker short of the green, and into the valley below the green. Bill hit a solid approach to the middle of the green. I made another great wedge shot to kick in range and Bill 2 putted for is par.
On 15 I hit another crappy iron shot and pulled it left into the bunker. Bill hit his shot over the green and into the worst rough I have ever seen on the Phoenix Country Club course. I had a lot of bunker to carry and not a lot of green to work with since it sloped away from me. For the third time today I left a bunker shot in the trap.
After Bill watched my horrible shot, he decided to wedge out away from the pin. If he went at the pin, he could have easily hit it in the bunker or over the green into the lake. It was probably the right shot to hit no matter what I did, but I made the decision easy for him. I got out of the bunker on my second try and two putted for double bogey. Now I was behind by one stroke again.
Both of us hit our tee shots to the left on 16 and both of us had trees to deal with. Bill had to wedge out sideways. I hit a low pitching wedge to the front of the green. It looked like a great shot, but the hill in front of the green repelled my ball to the right and it looked like it might have rolled into the bunker. Bill hit his third shot long over the left side of the green. This left him with an impossible pitch shot up a hill to the short side of the green with it sloping hard away from him. He hit his wedge fat to the top of the hill. He was lucky it stayed up there, but it did. He two putted for double bogey.
I was lucky to find out that my shot had not gone in the bunker, but had rolled down the hill. I was hoping for some more magic from my wedge, but it was not to be. I hit a mediocre pitch and two putted for bogey. We are all tied with 2 holes to go.
Since I had been hitting nearly every shot with my driver to the left, I lined up to the right and tried keep my front shoulder closed. I finally hit a drive to the right, but it was too far to the right. It bounced past the fairway bunker into the rough on the right. Bill surprised me by pulling out his driver. He hit a pull hook left into the trees. We decided to look for Bill’s ball first. It was not easy to find and I helped him look for a couple of minutes. I told him that I wanted to go look for my ball because I thought it might be tourhg to find and I didn’t want to hold up the group behind us. As I was searching for my ball, Bill finally found his and hit a punch shot to 50 yards short of the pin.
When I started to look for my ball, I knew right away that I was in trouble. The rough was not very long and it was very possible that my ball had run through the rough and into the lake. I looked up and down and could not find it. Marty confirmed that the line on my ball flight was right for the lake. I declared it lost and took my drop. Then I hit my best iron shot of the day. I pured a six iron and it landed 3 feet from the cup and ran 20 feet by the hole. I still had a chance for par.
Bill had been having all kinds of trouble on 17 over the last few matches. This time he really came through in the clutch. He hit a 50 yard wedge shot to 4 feet. I had a slick downhill putt that could easily race by the hole. I made a great putt that teased the cup and stopped two feet past the hole. I made bogey from the water, but Bill did me one better.
So I get to 18 and I am down one. I pulled my 2nd shot into the trees on the left and I was in trouble again. Bill had laid up to the right and was in good shape. I found my ball on the cart path 130 yards from the hole. I took a drop in the rough and had an opening over the trees. I hit a great shot that landed on the front of the green. Unfortunately I could not get any spin on the shot out of the rough so the ball hit firmly and rolled past the hole and all the way through the green and into the rough. If that shot had stopped close to the hole I could have put a lot of pressure on Bill. Instead Bill hit his 3rd shot safely away from the water and in the middle of the green. He two putted and it was all over. It’s all tied 4.5 to 4.5. Bill’s strategy had paid off and I had made too many mistakes to secure the victory.
A couple of hours after the round, Bill called to see if we could renegotiate the bet. Bill admitted that he was very nervous the whole round and he did not like the feeling. “It’s obvious that we are equal golfers since we are tied after 9 rounds, so let’s not risk $500 on one round of golf,” said Bill. Just to hear Bill say we are “equal” golfers was enough for my ego to make me reconsider the bet. After some discussion we decided to play the next round for just $100 and whoever wins still keeps the title of “Best Golfer”. I kind of feel like a pussy for agreeing to lower the bet, but I take solace in the fact that Bill feels the same way.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
One More Try at Casino AZ
Our Nanny was late Monday morning so she was going to stay on for a couple of extra hours. Since I lost the will to work at 2:30 PM and did not have to be home until 5, I decided to skip over to the casino of a quick session of poker.
I originally thought I would jump into a limit game, but then I got the itch to play the 5-150 No Limit Hybrid game instead. I got into a game right away and had 2 hours to try and make some money.
I bought in for $200 which is only 40x the big blind. I decided to try and play a little short stack poker to start. My first hand I was dealt pocket 7's in early position and I mucked them without even thinking. After I threw them away, I had a tinge of regret, but someone else raised preflop and we never even saw the flop so I can't tell if I would have flopped a set or not.
My third hand was pocket Queens. There were two limpers in the pot and I raised to $20 in middle position. I had two more call behind me and the limpers called, so there was $105 in the pot and 5 players. The flop was Jc-7c-5s. I was very disappointed that I had 4 other players in the pot with me. I guess I can give myself a little slack since I had only seen about 6 hands at the table so I had not figured out what amount to raise preflop to limit the field. Obviously $20 wasn't enough! Even so, this flop looked good for my hand. A middle aged gentleman who had limp called under the gun decided to donk bet $30 into the pot.
This bet seemed odd. He's betting into 4 other players out of position. The player to his left folded and it was up to me. I wanted to protect my hand and also find out where I am at, so I raised it to $100. The other two players quickly folded. UTG thought for a little bit and then called.
I am not happy about the call. This pot is over $300 and I only have $80 left. UTG has me covered. Now that he's called I'm thinking he has a set or maybe Ace-Jack. The turn is a red Ace so now the board is Jc-7c-5s-Ad. UTG checks and I check behind him. The river is a blank that does not complete any draws and is lower than a Queen. UTG bets $100. I think about it for a long time and decide to muck it. I just don't have a good enough read on him to think I could beat him with it. I heard a couple of other players speculate that he had a set as well so I think I made the correct laydown. The problem was that I was only there for 15 minutes and I had already lost $120.
I reloaded with another $100 and started over. I won a small pot to get over $200 briefly but it was short lived. Later I called a raise to $15 in late position with pocket 6's. Unfortunately someone else decided to reraise to $65. After one other player called, I knew if I called that a couple more may come along as well. My stack was only $200 so I don't think I quite had the right odds even with 4 players in for $65.
I made the call anyway and the flop was 7-4-4. It was almost perfect. The reraiser led out for $100 and that was all she wrote. Give me 4-5-7 and I could easily push and try to get lucky.
Eventually I was whittled down to $75. I decided to try and play it like a tournament and see if I could find a good spot to double up. I played patient poker. I folded for a couple of rounds. Then I raised with A-9 in the cutoff and steal the blinds.
Later I finally see a flop on my Big Blind with K-10. The flop comes out Kd-7d-Jc. I lead out with a bet of $30 and get one caller. He was a loose player and prone to get a little crazy. Everyone else folded. The turn was a non-diamond and I put the rest of my stack in and he folded. Now I am above $100 again.
Later a young punk who was slightly tilting, raised in middle position to $25. I looked down at Ace-Queen offsuit. I decided to take a chance and moved all in for $125. Everyone folded like lightning to the initial raiser. He took a good 90 seconds to think about it. He muttered something about if he had a pair he might call. That was good news, because I don't think he would have thought twice about playing Ace-King for all his chips. He eventually laid it down and I was up to $165.
Unfortunately my time was up and I had to go. So it was a better session than the last time I was there during the FBR Open Golf Tournament. Still not profitable though.
I originally thought I would jump into a limit game, but then I got the itch to play the 5-150 No Limit Hybrid game instead. I got into a game right away and had 2 hours to try and make some money.
I bought in for $200 which is only 40x the big blind. I decided to try and play a little short stack poker to start. My first hand I was dealt pocket 7's in early position and I mucked them without even thinking. After I threw them away, I had a tinge of regret, but someone else raised preflop and we never even saw the flop so I can't tell if I would have flopped a set or not.
My third hand was pocket Queens. There were two limpers in the pot and I raised to $20 in middle position. I had two more call behind me and the limpers called, so there was $105 in the pot and 5 players. The flop was Jc-7c-5s. I was very disappointed that I had 4 other players in the pot with me. I guess I can give myself a little slack since I had only seen about 6 hands at the table so I had not figured out what amount to raise preflop to limit the field. Obviously $20 wasn't enough! Even so, this flop looked good for my hand. A middle aged gentleman who had limp called under the gun decided to donk bet $30 into the pot.
This bet seemed odd. He's betting into 4 other players out of position. The player to his left folded and it was up to me. I wanted to protect my hand and also find out where I am at, so I raised it to $100. The other two players quickly folded. UTG thought for a little bit and then called.
I am not happy about the call. This pot is over $300 and I only have $80 left. UTG has me covered. Now that he's called I'm thinking he has a set or maybe Ace-Jack. The turn is a red Ace so now the board is Jc-7c-5s-Ad. UTG checks and I check behind him. The river is a blank that does not complete any draws and is lower than a Queen. UTG bets $100. I think about it for a long time and decide to muck it. I just don't have a good enough read on him to think I could beat him with it. I heard a couple of other players speculate that he had a set as well so I think I made the correct laydown. The problem was that I was only there for 15 minutes and I had already lost $120.
I reloaded with another $100 and started over. I won a small pot to get over $200 briefly but it was short lived. Later I called a raise to $15 in late position with pocket 6's. Unfortunately someone else decided to reraise to $65. After one other player called, I knew if I called that a couple more may come along as well. My stack was only $200 so I don't think I quite had the right odds even with 4 players in for $65.
I made the call anyway and the flop was 7-4-4. It was almost perfect. The reraiser led out for $100 and that was all she wrote. Give me 4-5-7 and I could easily push and try to get lucky.
Eventually I was whittled down to $75. I decided to try and play it like a tournament and see if I could find a good spot to double up. I played patient poker. I folded for a couple of rounds. Then I raised with A-9 in the cutoff and steal the blinds.
Later I finally see a flop on my Big Blind with K-10. The flop comes out Kd-7d-Jc. I lead out with a bet of $30 and get one caller. He was a loose player and prone to get a little crazy. Everyone else folded. The turn was a non-diamond and I put the rest of my stack in and he folded. Now I am above $100 again.
Later a young punk who was slightly tilting, raised in middle position to $25. I looked down at Ace-Queen offsuit. I decided to take a chance and moved all in for $125. Everyone folded like lightning to the initial raiser. He took a good 90 seconds to think about it. He muttered something about if he had a pair he might call. That was good news, because I don't think he would have thought twice about playing Ace-King for all his chips. He eventually laid it down and I was up to $165.
Unfortunately my time was up and I had to go. So it was a better session than the last time I was there during the FBR Open Golf Tournament. Still not profitable though.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Another Hard Fought Golf Victory
The $500 best golfer challenge between Bill and I is tied 3.5 to 3.5. Bill and I played match number 8 of the 10 match series today at Phoenix Country Club. This would be a vital match to win because there are only 3 left. If I win today then Bill would have to win outright the next two. He can't even tie or he will lose the $500 bet.
Just to be different, we decided to play from the back tees today instead of the normal white tees. The first eight holes were pretty uneventful. We both played pretty solid golf and Bill was one stroke ahead. On the ninth tee, Bill pulled his drive left and it ricocheted off of the 60 foot high driving range net and into the rough. I pounded a 260 yard drive down the right side of the fairway, racing by the big pine tree that usually gives me trouble.
Bill's recovery shot hit another tree and he was still 30 yards short of the green before his third shot. I had 122 yards to the back pin placement. I hit my pitching wedge a little fat and hit the front end of the green. I was going to have a difficult two putt since the first putt was about 50 feet away from the hole.
Bill's third shot was a horribly mishit and raced over the green and into the rough. He then wedged on to the green and two putted for a 6. I managed to hit a good putt to about 4 feet and made the second for par and a two stroke swing.
Heading into the back nine I was in control with a one stroke lead. We both bogeyed the next 2 holes. Then Bill picked up a stroke on 12 after I double bogeyed it.
The holes 13, 14, and 15 are the stretch of holes we like to call "Amen Corner" at Phoenix CC. Twelve is a 205 yard par 3 from the back tees with a lake on the right and a 5 foot deep collection area on the left. Bill stepped up and hit a dying flare right into the lake. I briefly considered hitting a 5 iron short of the green and the lake just to be safe, but my pride would not let me. I hit my 4 iron hybrid with the idea that if I can hit the green and 2 putt I might pick up 2 strokes on this hole and give myself a cushion going into the tough 14th. The shot did not come off quite as planned as I hit it a little chubby and ended up ten yards short of the green. Pretty much the same place I would have been with a 5 iron.
Bill took his drop and hit a great wedge to about 6 feet. I chipped up to 4 feet. Bill missed, then I missed. Still it was a one stroke pop to get me back to even. Bill's wife Alisha came out to join us after spending the afternoon shopping at the mall. Bill has this crazy idea that I have never beat him in golf when we have played with a family member of his. I don't think that's true, but I don't have any examples to prove otherwise. Just as Alisha showed up, I hit my drive. I hit it well, but it was pushed to the right. It started the death fade farther right out of bounds towards Osborn Road. Luckily by the time it was getting close to the fence, it was near the end of it's flight and it was low enough to actually hit the fence and bounce back into play. My first lucky break of the round.
Bill hit two iron dead right out of bounds on to road. I had to stifle a laugh over the irony of having Alisha there to see it. His third shot off the tee was not much better landing in the right rough 200 yards from the green. I had trouble of my own and had to punch a low runner under a big pine tree about 100 yards up the fairway. I then hit my lob wedge to 8 feet past the hole. My par putt just grazed the lip of the cup and I was in for bogey. Bill stumbled in with a 7 and now I am up 3 with 4 to go.
Fifteen is the last hole of Amen corner and it is another long par three over water. The pin was tucked right and there was no way I was aiming for it. I hit a six iron at the middle of the green and it drew to the left back edge of the green leaving me 60 feet to the hole for birdie. Bill finally got mad enough to hit a great shot to 15 feet.
I was facing a very difficult two putt for par. I was 60 feet away with a left to right break of about 5 feet. I started the ball with good pace and about half way there I was starting to get excited. It was heading straight for the cup. It rolled right over the front lip and bounced off the back and settled 5 feet from the cup. Almost a miracle birdie that would have ripped Bill's heart out.
After Bill recovered from almost seeing me drain a monster putt he gritted his teeth and managed to sink his putt for birdie. Now I had to make my par putt to make sure I did not have two stroke swing. My hands were shaking slightly as I brought the putter back. Somehow I put a good stroke on it and the ball disappeared in the hole for 3.
Bill had the honors on 16 and pulled his iron shot left into the trees. I hit a horrible 5 wood 200 feet high and 50 yards long just past the ladies tee. It was by far my worst swing of the day. I hit my second attempt at a 5 wood solid, but it was moving a little left and close to a small tree 30 yards short of the green. The tree was a minor hindrance, but that was not my biggest problem. I only had 20 feet of green to work with since anything short would run back down the hill and anything long would go into a very deep bunker. I hit a great shot that landed in the fringe and rolled past the pin 5 feet. I made the putt for a miracle par to tie Billy on the hole.
I stepped up to the par 4 17th with a 2 stroke lead. We both hit good drives, but mine was 30 yards past Bill's. Since Bill was farther away from the hole, he had to play first. Bill made one his worst swings of the day and hit the banana slice into the lake. Now all I need to do is keep my shot dry. I was 155 yards away from the middle of the green with a little wind at my back. Normally that is a choked up 7 iron but, I decided to use the 8 iron to make sure I could not reach the bunkers over the green. I hit my 8 iron solidly with a little draw and it hit the green and rolled to the edge of the bunker. I had to hit an awkward shot standing on my toes on the edge of the bunker for my chip, but I kept it within 7 feet. I made the putt for par and staggered home with a 7 giving me a five stroke lead going into 18. The match was over. The final score was 84 to 89.
Now I lead the series 4.5 to 3.5. All I need to do is eke out a tie in the next two matches to win the $500 bet. Our next round is scheduled for Sunday next week. We are playing with Bill's Dad. It would be unbelievably sweet if I can win the match in front of his Dad. I'll have Bill pay me Bob Barker style counting out all the money aloud right in the pro shop. It will be my greatest golf victory ever.
Just to be different, we decided to play from the back tees today instead of the normal white tees. The first eight holes were pretty uneventful. We both played pretty solid golf and Bill was one stroke ahead. On the ninth tee, Bill pulled his drive left and it ricocheted off of the 60 foot high driving range net and into the rough. I pounded a 260 yard drive down the right side of the fairway, racing by the big pine tree that usually gives me trouble.
Bill's recovery shot hit another tree and he was still 30 yards short of the green before his third shot. I had 122 yards to the back pin placement. I hit my pitching wedge a little fat and hit the front end of the green. I was going to have a difficult two putt since the first putt was about 50 feet away from the hole.
Bill's third shot was a horribly mishit and raced over the green and into the rough. He then wedged on to the green and two putted for a 6. I managed to hit a good putt to about 4 feet and made the second for par and a two stroke swing.
Heading into the back nine I was in control with a one stroke lead. We both bogeyed the next 2 holes. Then Bill picked up a stroke on 12 after I double bogeyed it.
The holes 13, 14, and 15 are the stretch of holes we like to call "Amen Corner" at Phoenix CC. Twelve is a 205 yard par 3 from the back tees with a lake on the right and a 5 foot deep collection area on the left. Bill stepped up and hit a dying flare right into the lake. I briefly considered hitting a 5 iron short of the green and the lake just to be safe, but my pride would not let me. I hit my 4 iron hybrid with the idea that if I can hit the green and 2 putt I might pick up 2 strokes on this hole and give myself a cushion going into the tough 14th. The shot did not come off quite as planned as I hit it a little chubby and ended up ten yards short of the green. Pretty much the same place I would have been with a 5 iron.
Bill took his drop and hit a great wedge to about 6 feet. I chipped up to 4 feet. Bill missed, then I missed. Still it was a one stroke pop to get me back to even. Bill's wife Alisha came out to join us after spending the afternoon shopping at the mall. Bill has this crazy idea that I have never beat him in golf when we have played with a family member of his. I don't think that's true, but I don't have any examples to prove otherwise. Just as Alisha showed up, I hit my drive. I hit it well, but it was pushed to the right. It started the death fade farther right out of bounds towards Osborn Road. Luckily by the time it was getting close to the fence, it was near the end of it's flight and it was low enough to actually hit the fence and bounce back into play. My first lucky break of the round.
Bill hit two iron dead right out of bounds on to road. I had to stifle a laugh over the irony of having Alisha there to see it. His third shot off the tee was not much better landing in the right rough 200 yards from the green. I had trouble of my own and had to punch a low runner under a big pine tree about 100 yards up the fairway. I then hit my lob wedge to 8 feet past the hole. My par putt just grazed the lip of the cup and I was in for bogey. Bill stumbled in with a 7 and now I am up 3 with 4 to go.
Fifteen is the last hole of Amen corner and it is another long par three over water. The pin was tucked right and there was no way I was aiming for it. I hit a six iron at the middle of the green and it drew to the left back edge of the green leaving me 60 feet to the hole for birdie. Bill finally got mad enough to hit a great shot to 15 feet.
I was facing a very difficult two putt for par. I was 60 feet away with a left to right break of about 5 feet. I started the ball with good pace and about half way there I was starting to get excited. It was heading straight for the cup. It rolled right over the front lip and bounced off the back and settled 5 feet from the cup. Almost a miracle birdie that would have ripped Bill's heart out.
After Bill recovered from almost seeing me drain a monster putt he gritted his teeth and managed to sink his putt for birdie. Now I had to make my par putt to make sure I did not have two stroke swing. My hands were shaking slightly as I brought the putter back. Somehow I put a good stroke on it and the ball disappeared in the hole for 3.
Bill had the honors on 16 and pulled his iron shot left into the trees. I hit a horrible 5 wood 200 feet high and 50 yards long just past the ladies tee. It was by far my worst swing of the day. I hit my second attempt at a 5 wood solid, but it was moving a little left and close to a small tree 30 yards short of the green. The tree was a minor hindrance, but that was not my biggest problem. I only had 20 feet of green to work with since anything short would run back down the hill and anything long would go into a very deep bunker. I hit a great shot that landed in the fringe and rolled past the pin 5 feet. I made the putt for a miracle par to tie Billy on the hole.
I stepped up to the par 4 17th with a 2 stroke lead. We both hit good drives, but mine was 30 yards past Bill's. Since Bill was farther away from the hole, he had to play first. Bill made one his worst swings of the day and hit the banana slice into the lake. Now all I need to do is keep my shot dry. I was 155 yards away from the middle of the green with a little wind at my back. Normally that is a choked up 7 iron but, I decided to use the 8 iron to make sure I could not reach the bunkers over the green. I hit my 8 iron solidly with a little draw and it hit the green and rolled to the edge of the bunker. I had to hit an awkward shot standing on my toes on the edge of the bunker for my chip, but I kept it within 7 feet. I made the putt for par and staggered home with a 7 giving me a five stroke lead going into 18. The match was over. The final score was 84 to 89.
Now I lead the series 4.5 to 3.5. All I need to do is eke out a tie in the next two matches to win the $500 bet. Our next round is scheduled for Sunday next week. We are playing with Bill's Dad. It would be unbelievably sweet if I can win the match in front of his Dad. I'll have Bill pay me Bob Barker style counting out all the money aloud right in the pro shop. It will be my greatest golf victory ever.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Golf Match #7 and some poker
Last Saturday I finally got to play a little poker online. I am still trying to make a $50 deposit through Epassporte on Full Tilt so I can turn around and take out a chunk of money. Until I actually receive any money from an online poker site, I'll have to believe it's all play money right now. The US government has really made a mess of this!
I started playing some cash games at .50-$1 NL. Here were a couple of the interesting hands:
I start with $98.50. For some reason, I decide to speculate and call a raise to $3.50 from Katzman55 under the gun in middle position with the 6d 8d. I get one caller behind me and the big blind comes along as well. $14 in the pot to the flop.
Flop: 4d Qd Jd.
The big blind checks, Katzman bets $14.50. Katzman had $94 at the start of this hand. I think about slow playing it, but there are still two other players in the hand. I want to fold out the higher flush draws and if someone wants to go broke with top pair, then let them do it. I raise to $58. I get the other players to fold, but Katzman goes all in and it's $32.50 more for me to call.
Of course I call and I expect to see at least one diamond in Katzman's hand or trips. Instead he has Ah Qs for top pair and no draw. Boo-yah! Poker_Bully1 rakes in a $195.50 pot.
The second interesting hand involved playing QQ out of position. I was in the small blind with $219.15 in my stack. There are two limpers to me and I raise with QhQs to $5. The big blind folds but Big_Cec and Katzman call the raise so there is $16 in the pot.
Flop: 5s 3d Js
I bet the pot of $16 and big_cec calls. Big_cec had been check raising me out of a lot of pots and playing a little crazy. I thought this would be an opportunity to win some money back. I thought he might have a medium pocket pair or a Jack with a medium kicker.
Turn: 5s 3d Js Ts
Now the flush draw just hit and a possible two pair also hit. I decide to check and try to keep the pot small. Big_cec does the nice thing and checks behind me.
River: 5s 3d Js Ts 9c
Another backdoor draw hits. I think about betting, but I don't want to get raised off of yet another hand. I decide I will call whatever Big_cec bets because there is a good chance he's bluffing or trying to value bet a Jack. Big_cec bets $35 and I call. He turned over 6c 4c for the busted low straight draw. My hand is good!
I even played in a $24 multi table tournament with 1,100 other maniacs. I got crappy cards and even got my Aces cracked. I still managed to make the money and busted out in 160th place for a big profit of $9. I had a medium sized stack near the bubble and was dead set on stealing a ton of blinds before the bubble burst. My problem was, every time the situation was right to steal, my hand was horribly bad. I just couldn't push with 2-7 off, 3-8, or Jack-4. When I did have an Ace, it was with a low kicker in early position just waiting for someone with Ace-Jack to call and bust me. After the bubble burst, all the shorties were pushing in trying to double up. I saw one guy quintuple his stack by getting a great run of cards in about 4 hands including pocket Kings against my Ace-King which busted me.
On to golf. Bill has some crazy idea that I have never beat him when a family member was with him. He doesn't count the match with his Dad where we was down one with one hole to play and lightning canceled the rest of the round. This time, his wife, Alisha was going to ride along in the cart.
I have just finished reading a golf book by Jim Hardy on the One and Two Plane golf swings. It definitely straightened out for me, which swing keys I should be concentrating on for my two plane swing. I was looking forward to playing, even though I had not played a round of golf in almost 3 weeks.
I started out very solid, while Bill had some real struggles. After 4 holes I was up 5 strokes. On the sixth hole, I missed a great opportunity to step on his throat. We both hit good drives and Bill went at the green first from 170 yards. The pin was tucked on the left side of the green behind a bunker. This hole can be tricky because there is not a lot of room over the green, before it goes out of bounds. Plus there is a slope away from you on the back side which can turn a shot that is 6 feet too long into a 2 stroke penalty. Bill's shot was fading right and took a crazy hop over the green and out of bounds. His 4th shot hit the middle of the green. If I can make par here, I may pick up another two strokes. I hit my shot crisply but it was fading a little right as well. It landed just over the bunker on the right and I never saw it bounce. I figured it landed softly and I was still in bounds. I came up to the green to discover the bad news that I had also hit it out. What a stupid mistake!
I drove back and re hit the shot and just missed the green on the left and got up and down for 6. I gave up two more shots over the next three holes and made the turn in 42 with a 3 stroke lead.
I gave up my lead on 10 after a horrible drive, pitch out, chunked 6 iron, wedge, 3 putts. Bill made a great sand save for par and it was all even.
On 11 I made a miraculous putt from off the green to save par. Bill took the lead on 14 with a par while I made bogey. I made par on 15 to Bill's bogey to tie up the match again.
On 16 we both hit good tee balls. I had 130 yards in and hit a good pitching wedge. Unfortunately I put a little draw on it and the wind pushed it a little further left into the deepest bunker on the course. Bill really hit a bad shot and hooked it left of the bunker for an impossible pitch shot over the bunker to a green sloping away from you. There is no way to hold the green from where Bill was.
I was happy to find that my ball had settled on the up slope of the bunker so I had a chance to make a decent shot. All I really needed to do was get the ball out, because Bill was going to make bogey for sure. Instead, I decelerated and took too much sand and left it in the bunker. My second attempt rolled to the fringe past the hole right where Bill's 3rd shot settled. We both two putted and I was down one again.
On 17, we were both in the fairway again. Bill hit first and put it in the bunkers on the left. Obviously trying to avoid the lake on the right of the green. I had 155 yards so I was between a 7 and an 8 iron. I decided to choke up on a 7. Usually when I choke up on a club I tend to hit a bit of a draw, so that was a perfect shot shape to avoid the water on the right. I hit the ball solidly but for some reason, the ball started to fade to the right. I thought I might catch the edge of the green, but it bounced over the green into some of thickest rough on the course. At least it wasn't wet. For about the third time that day, I hit a bad pitch shot and left myself 25 feet down hill. I hit the putt for par and it looked good the whole way. At the last second, it just veered off to the right. Bill had 20 feet for his par. He hit a good putt and it looked like it was going in as well. It stopped about 6 inches short and he made his 5.
So once again, our match was coming down to the last hole. I hit my drive left and was forced to lay up a good distance away from the green for my 3rd shot. Bill was right down the middle with consecutive 2 irons and 110 yards away from the green. I had 170 yards in and was hitting a 6 iron. I was relaxed over the shot, because I felt like I had nothing to lose. No one expects me to hit a good shot from this far away so let it fly. I hit it solidly again, but that stubborn draw found my ball again and I went into the bunker on the back left of the green about hole high. Somehow, I get a reprieve as Bill pulls his wedge again and goes into the front left bunker.
All Bill had to do was get the ball somewhere on the green. Instead, he skulled it out of the bunker, over the green and into the lake. Yes!!!!! So after the drop, he'll be chipping for bogey. I am back in this thing!
I was in the middle of the bunker, so I had to carry about 8 yards of sand and land the ball in front of the pin. This was also an easy shot to hit too hard and into the water. I made sure to accelerate the club head this time and hit a good shot. For a brief moment I thought it might go in as it scooted by the hole, one inch to the right. I was left with a 10 footer for par.
Bill hit his chip to 3 1/2 feet and had that left for double bogey. My putt was going to break a few inches to the left. I wanted to make sure I got it there, because I had been leaving putts short all day. I hit a good putt, but I gave it too much borrow and it curved around the high side of the hole settling in tap in range. I was in for 6. Bill tried to make me give him his putt, but that's not how I roll. He made the clutch putt and we finished tied.
Now our match is still tied at 3.5 to 3.5. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about the match because on the one hand, I had a big lead and should have won. On the other hand, Bill had the match won and somehow I escaped with a tie. Now the match has come down to best of 3. Stay tuned.
I started playing some cash games at .50-$1 NL. Here were a couple of the interesting hands:
I start with $98.50. For some reason, I decide to speculate and call a raise to $3.50 from Katzman55 under the gun in middle position with the 6d 8d. I get one caller behind me and the big blind comes along as well. $14 in the pot to the flop.
Flop: 4d Qd Jd.
The big blind checks, Katzman bets $14.50. Katzman had $94 at the start of this hand. I think about slow playing it, but there are still two other players in the hand. I want to fold out the higher flush draws and if someone wants to go broke with top pair, then let them do it. I raise to $58. I get the other players to fold, but Katzman goes all in and it's $32.50 more for me to call.
Of course I call and I expect to see at least one diamond in Katzman's hand or trips. Instead he has Ah Qs for top pair and no draw. Boo-yah! Poker_Bully1 rakes in a $195.50 pot.
The second interesting hand involved playing QQ out of position. I was in the small blind with $219.15 in my stack. There are two limpers to me and I raise with QhQs to $5. The big blind folds but Big_Cec and Katzman call the raise so there is $16 in the pot.
Flop: 5s 3d Js
I bet the pot of $16 and big_cec calls. Big_cec had been check raising me out of a lot of pots and playing a little crazy. I thought this would be an opportunity to win some money back. I thought he might have a medium pocket pair or a Jack with a medium kicker.
Turn: 5s 3d Js Ts
Now the flush draw just hit and a possible two pair also hit. I decide to check and try to keep the pot small. Big_cec does the nice thing and checks behind me.
River: 5s 3d Js Ts 9c
Another backdoor draw hits. I think about betting, but I don't want to get raised off of yet another hand. I decide I will call whatever Big_cec bets because there is a good chance he's bluffing or trying to value bet a Jack. Big_cec bets $35 and I call. He turned over 6c 4c for the busted low straight draw. My hand is good!
I even played in a $24 multi table tournament with 1,100 other maniacs. I got crappy cards and even got my Aces cracked. I still managed to make the money and busted out in 160th place for a big profit of $9. I had a medium sized stack near the bubble and was dead set on stealing a ton of blinds before the bubble burst. My problem was, every time the situation was right to steal, my hand was horribly bad. I just couldn't push with 2-7 off, 3-8, or Jack-4. When I did have an Ace, it was with a low kicker in early position just waiting for someone with Ace-Jack to call and bust me. After the bubble burst, all the shorties were pushing in trying to double up. I saw one guy quintuple his stack by getting a great run of cards in about 4 hands including pocket Kings against my Ace-King which busted me.
On to golf. Bill has some crazy idea that I have never beat him when a family member was with him. He doesn't count the match with his Dad where we was down one with one hole to play and lightning canceled the rest of the round. This time, his wife, Alisha was going to ride along in the cart.
I have just finished reading a golf book by Jim Hardy on the One and Two Plane golf swings. It definitely straightened out for me, which swing keys I should be concentrating on for my two plane swing. I was looking forward to playing, even though I had not played a round of golf in almost 3 weeks.
I started out very solid, while Bill had some real struggles. After 4 holes I was up 5 strokes. On the sixth hole, I missed a great opportunity to step on his throat. We both hit good drives and Bill went at the green first from 170 yards. The pin was tucked on the left side of the green behind a bunker. This hole can be tricky because there is not a lot of room over the green, before it goes out of bounds. Plus there is a slope away from you on the back side which can turn a shot that is 6 feet too long into a 2 stroke penalty. Bill's shot was fading right and took a crazy hop over the green and out of bounds. His 4th shot hit the middle of the green. If I can make par here, I may pick up another two strokes. I hit my shot crisply but it was fading a little right as well. It landed just over the bunker on the right and I never saw it bounce. I figured it landed softly and I was still in bounds. I came up to the green to discover the bad news that I had also hit it out. What a stupid mistake!
I drove back and re hit the shot and just missed the green on the left and got up and down for 6. I gave up two more shots over the next three holes and made the turn in 42 with a 3 stroke lead.
I gave up my lead on 10 after a horrible drive, pitch out, chunked 6 iron, wedge, 3 putts. Bill made a great sand save for par and it was all even.
On 11 I made a miraculous putt from off the green to save par. Bill took the lead on 14 with a par while I made bogey. I made par on 15 to Bill's bogey to tie up the match again.
On 16 we both hit good tee balls. I had 130 yards in and hit a good pitching wedge. Unfortunately I put a little draw on it and the wind pushed it a little further left into the deepest bunker on the course. Bill really hit a bad shot and hooked it left of the bunker for an impossible pitch shot over the bunker to a green sloping away from you. There is no way to hold the green from where Bill was.
I was happy to find that my ball had settled on the up slope of the bunker so I had a chance to make a decent shot. All I really needed to do was get the ball out, because Bill was going to make bogey for sure. Instead, I decelerated and took too much sand and left it in the bunker. My second attempt rolled to the fringe past the hole right where Bill's 3rd shot settled. We both two putted and I was down one again.
On 17, we were both in the fairway again. Bill hit first and put it in the bunkers on the left. Obviously trying to avoid the lake on the right of the green. I had 155 yards so I was between a 7 and an 8 iron. I decided to choke up on a 7. Usually when I choke up on a club I tend to hit a bit of a draw, so that was a perfect shot shape to avoid the water on the right. I hit the ball solidly but for some reason, the ball started to fade to the right. I thought I might catch the edge of the green, but it bounced over the green into some of thickest rough on the course. At least it wasn't wet. For about the third time that day, I hit a bad pitch shot and left myself 25 feet down hill. I hit the putt for par and it looked good the whole way. At the last second, it just veered off to the right. Bill had 20 feet for his par. He hit a good putt and it looked like it was going in as well. It stopped about 6 inches short and he made his 5.
So once again, our match was coming down to the last hole. I hit my drive left and was forced to lay up a good distance away from the green for my 3rd shot. Bill was right down the middle with consecutive 2 irons and 110 yards away from the green. I had 170 yards in and was hitting a 6 iron. I was relaxed over the shot, because I felt like I had nothing to lose. No one expects me to hit a good shot from this far away so let it fly. I hit it solidly again, but that stubborn draw found my ball again and I went into the bunker on the back left of the green about hole high. Somehow, I get a reprieve as Bill pulls his wedge again and goes into the front left bunker.
All Bill had to do was get the ball somewhere on the green. Instead, he skulled it out of the bunker, over the green and into the lake. Yes!!!!! So after the drop, he'll be chipping for bogey. I am back in this thing!
I was in the middle of the bunker, so I had to carry about 8 yards of sand and land the ball in front of the pin. This was also an easy shot to hit too hard and into the water. I made sure to accelerate the club head this time and hit a good shot. For a brief moment I thought it might go in as it scooted by the hole, one inch to the right. I was left with a 10 footer for par.
Bill hit his chip to 3 1/2 feet and had that left for double bogey. My putt was going to break a few inches to the left. I wanted to make sure I got it there, because I had been leaving putts short all day. I hit a good putt, but I gave it too much borrow and it curved around the high side of the hole settling in tap in range. I was in for 6. Bill tried to make me give him his putt, but that's not how I roll. He made the clutch putt and we finished tied.
Now our match is still tied at 3.5 to 3.5. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about the match because on the one hand, I had a big lead and should have won. On the other hand, Bill had the match won and somehow I escaped with a tie. Now the match has come down to best of 3. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Another Losing Trip To Vegas
I was in Las Vegas last weekend for a Deltasig conference. I was hoping this would be the big trip where I finally win some decent cash at the poker table.
The first night started out pretty well. After a good dinner at the Luxe in the Venetian, I went down to the poker room. I gotta say, I think the Venetian has the best room in Vegas. Plenty of game selection, satellites to their tournaments running all the time, and nice tables too. Plus there is plenty of room to walk around between the tables.
I was happy to find a 1-2 No Limit game and sat down right away. I played ABC poker and finished up at 2:00 AM with $117 profit. There really was not anything too memorable about the entire night.
After the opening session of the conference I decided to venture back to the Venetian from the Palace Station, where we were staying. I jumped into a very interesting game. There was an oriental man with mutton chop side burns who was really gambooling it up. On his left was another oriental player but he was more clean cut and very friendly. The rest of the players seemed weak and loose.
I played break even poker for about 2 hours. I even decided to add more money to my stack, in case I needed it against the crazy oriental. It was here that I made my one huge mistake of the day. I called a small raise in a multiway pot on the button with T9 off. The flop is J-8-4 rainbow. The crazy oriental bets about 3/4 of the pot and everyone folds to me. I have about $200 left in my stack and the pot is about $50 after his bet. For some stupid reason, I decide to raise all in thinking I have a good chance to get him to fold.
For future reference, when a player is wild and loose, don't ever think he will fold. You are supposed to trap him with a made hand. So naturally he insta-calls with Jack-7. Now most by the book players would probably fold that hand, but not this guy. If I hit my straight I probably could have value bet it for all of my chips. Now I am stuck all in with only a 33% chance of winning. I was not lucky enough to hit and I was felted. I stuck around for a while longer but eventually I had to leave to get back to the conference.
Later that evening before the banquet, I sat down in the Palace Station card room. I took a seat in the 1-2-4 hold'em game while I waited for a 2-4-8 seat to open up. I promptly lose about $40 in quick fashion before I move to the 4-8 game. My first hand in the 4-8 game and I am dealt pocket 7's. I quad up on the turn and manage to get a caller for every street, so I am quickly back to even. A few hands later I pair my King, with AK and bust a college student who is also there for the conference. This is the last piece of good luck I have.
I proceed to lose over $100 with pocket aces in two different hands. I keep waiting for the big pot to make it back but it never comes and I go to the dinner in a drunken state of frustration.
Dinner was good, but I was itching to get back to the Venetian. About 10 minutes after dessert and before the DJ started, I was out the door and in a cab. I found another good seat in a 1-2 No Limit table and prepared to win it all back.
There was a young player on my right who seemed pretty friendly. He had just busted out of their 10,000 chip tournament that had started at noon. He was pretty pissed because after 10 hours of good poker and outlasting over 250 players, he still lost his $540 buy in. We really only played one pot together. He took about $20 off of me with a nice bluff. He had raised first in preflop and I had smooth called on the button. He checked the flop, so I fired a half pot sized bet with my pair of jacks with a ten kicker. The turn paired the 3's on board. He checked and I made another 1/2 pot bet. He raised. I didn't think he had a 3, because the only hand I could see him raising with preflop would be A-3. It looked more like a slow played set or an over pair so I folded. He then showed me A-Q.
There was an older gentleman two seats to my left who was a pretty good player. He played position well and seemed to read others well. I didn't see anyone else at the table that played worth a damn. The problem was that I could not get any traction. My stack hovered around $250-$300 the entire night.
I reached a dangerous point in my patience about 1:00 AM. I was in serious double up or go home broke mode. Luckily my cards were so bad, that I didn't get myself in any trouble.
About 2:00 AM I began to get bored and I backed in to a brief period of zen where I truly played the players and not my cards. There was a tight, passive woman in the one seat and I was in the 7 seat. About three hands over an hour, I saw her limp in and then I raised to isolate. Everyone folds to her and she calls. The flop would come and she would check. I bet 3/4 of the pot and she folds. Once I even floated her lead out on the flop, let her check the turn, and took it away from her there. I also realized that the two players on my left were pretty tight preflop, so a couple of times, I open raised blind and took the pot on the flop. This would have been perfect if I had picked up an occasional hand to get paid off, but it never happened. I don't think I showed down a hand for the last 2 hours.
Eventually I left at 3:00 AM down $50. If it wasn't for the great conversations I had at the table, I might have gone broke from the frustration of waiting for a decent hand. I just feel I am so over due for a mad rush of cards in a No Limit Game in Vegas.
The first night started out pretty well. After a good dinner at the Luxe in the Venetian, I went down to the poker room. I gotta say, I think the Venetian has the best room in Vegas. Plenty of game selection, satellites to their tournaments running all the time, and nice tables too. Plus there is plenty of room to walk around between the tables.
I was happy to find a 1-2 No Limit game and sat down right away. I played ABC poker and finished up at 2:00 AM with $117 profit. There really was not anything too memorable about the entire night.
After the opening session of the conference I decided to venture back to the Venetian from the Palace Station, where we were staying. I jumped into a very interesting game. There was an oriental man with mutton chop side burns who was really gambooling it up. On his left was another oriental player but he was more clean cut and very friendly. The rest of the players seemed weak and loose.
I played break even poker for about 2 hours. I even decided to add more money to my stack, in case I needed it against the crazy oriental. It was here that I made my one huge mistake of the day. I called a small raise in a multiway pot on the button with T9 off. The flop is J-8-4 rainbow. The crazy oriental bets about 3/4 of the pot and everyone folds to me. I have about $200 left in my stack and the pot is about $50 after his bet. For some stupid reason, I decide to raise all in thinking I have a good chance to get him to fold.
For future reference, when a player is wild and loose, don't ever think he will fold. You are supposed to trap him with a made hand. So naturally he insta-calls with Jack-7. Now most by the book players would probably fold that hand, but not this guy. If I hit my straight I probably could have value bet it for all of my chips. Now I am stuck all in with only a 33% chance of winning. I was not lucky enough to hit and I was felted. I stuck around for a while longer but eventually I had to leave to get back to the conference.
Later that evening before the banquet, I sat down in the Palace Station card room. I took a seat in the 1-2-4 hold'em game while I waited for a 2-4-8 seat to open up. I promptly lose about $40 in quick fashion before I move to the 4-8 game. My first hand in the 4-8 game and I am dealt pocket 7's. I quad up on the turn and manage to get a caller for every street, so I am quickly back to even. A few hands later I pair my King, with AK and bust a college student who is also there for the conference. This is the last piece of good luck I have.
I proceed to lose over $100 with pocket aces in two different hands. I keep waiting for the big pot to make it back but it never comes and I go to the dinner in a drunken state of frustration.
Dinner was good, but I was itching to get back to the Venetian. About 10 minutes after dessert and before the DJ started, I was out the door and in a cab. I found another good seat in a 1-2 No Limit table and prepared to win it all back.
There was a young player on my right who seemed pretty friendly. He had just busted out of their 10,000 chip tournament that had started at noon. He was pretty pissed because after 10 hours of good poker and outlasting over 250 players, he still lost his $540 buy in. We really only played one pot together. He took about $20 off of me with a nice bluff. He had raised first in preflop and I had smooth called on the button. He checked the flop, so I fired a half pot sized bet with my pair of jacks with a ten kicker. The turn paired the 3's on board. He checked and I made another 1/2 pot bet. He raised. I didn't think he had a 3, because the only hand I could see him raising with preflop would be A-3. It looked more like a slow played set or an over pair so I folded. He then showed me A-Q.
There was an older gentleman two seats to my left who was a pretty good player. He played position well and seemed to read others well. I didn't see anyone else at the table that played worth a damn. The problem was that I could not get any traction. My stack hovered around $250-$300 the entire night.
I reached a dangerous point in my patience about 1:00 AM. I was in serious double up or go home broke mode. Luckily my cards were so bad, that I didn't get myself in any trouble.
About 2:00 AM I began to get bored and I backed in to a brief period of zen where I truly played the players and not my cards. There was a tight, passive woman in the one seat and I was in the 7 seat. About three hands over an hour, I saw her limp in and then I raised to isolate. Everyone folds to her and she calls. The flop would come and she would check. I bet 3/4 of the pot and she folds. Once I even floated her lead out on the flop, let her check the turn, and took it away from her there. I also realized that the two players on my left were pretty tight preflop, so a couple of times, I open raised blind and took the pot on the flop. This would have been perfect if I had picked up an occasional hand to get paid off, but it never happened. I don't think I showed down a hand for the last 2 hours.
Eventually I left at 3:00 AM down $50. If it wasn't for the great conversations I had at the table, I might have gone broke from the frustration of waiting for a decent hand. I just feel I am so over due for a mad rush of cards in a No Limit Game in Vegas.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Who will stand up and fight?
A nice $450 upswing in the last three days is being ruined by yet another Online Poker site saying "no" to US customers. Doyle's Room is pulling out at the end of the month.
I originally joined so I could try and qualify for a nice copy of SuperSystem 2. It's been close to a year and I still have not cleared their impossible bonus hurdle. I started with $1,200 and I am down to around $1050. They were one of the last sites that actually accepted one of my credit cards, so my plan was to qualify for the book and then pay back the credit card. Technically none of the money is part of my "bankroll" since I bought in with credit. Only the loss of $150 is included in my win/loss calculations.
The silver lining in this is that they worked out a deal with Full Tilt to transfer over money and action points. I went in last night and requested that they transfer over everything for me. I checked this morning and it had not been done yet. It may be a while.
I was a little surprised that Doyle's Room lasted as long as they did. Especially since Doyle Brunson is such an icon in the poker world, you would think he would not want to go to jail over something as silly as Online Poker. After the rumors of his arrest last week, Doyle probably figured out that as a man in his 70's, it's just not worth the hassle.
I think Full Tilt and Poker Stars are our last hope. They have built up a sizable player base so they can make enough money to gamble on fighting the United States in court to keep letting us play here.
Plus I read that the Poker Players Alliance is hiring former senator D'Amato from New York to help with the lobbying. Finally the PPA is getting off of their ass and doing something.
I wonder if the news of Doyle's Room had leaked out to the players by 2/18. I was playing $.50-$1 NL on the site and it was one of the rare occasions where all the players at the table were exceptionally bad. In a six handed table, 3 of the players were seeing over 70% of the flops. Maybe they were playing with a double up or lose it all mentality figuring it was a long shot to get their money out of the site with them leaving.
After a half hour of value betting the calling stations I had run my $100 up to $160 when I had the following great hand. The player, Yio, had started to vastly over bet some flops. If the pot was $8, he would push all in with $100. I had seen him do it at least 4 times in the last 15 minutes. One of the times he did it with pocket 7's when the flop came all low cards. He was on my left so I felt like I could trap him if the right opportunity came along.
I had the button and Yio was in the Big Blind. I am dealt KcQs and the game is 4 handed. UTG folds and I raise to $4. The small blind folds and Yio calls the $3 raise. The flop is 3d 9c Qh. Sure enough, Yio pushes all in for $193.26 (really just $160 since that was my stack size). If I had any respect for his play at all, I might have considered folding, but I had seen this move too many times. I insta called and Yio turned over 9d Ts. I am a big favorite. The turn was a beautiful Qd and the river was a meaningless Ace and I double up with a $162 profit in one hand. I'm pretty sure that is the largest hand I have ever won in online poker.
Now I just have to hope I can eventually get my money out of the site.
I originally joined so I could try and qualify for a nice copy of SuperSystem 2. It's been close to a year and I still have not cleared their impossible bonus hurdle. I started with $1,200 and I am down to around $1050. They were one of the last sites that actually accepted one of my credit cards, so my plan was to qualify for the book and then pay back the credit card. Technically none of the money is part of my "bankroll" since I bought in with credit. Only the loss of $150 is included in my win/loss calculations.
The silver lining in this is that they worked out a deal with Full Tilt to transfer over money and action points. I went in last night and requested that they transfer over everything for me. I checked this morning and it had not been done yet. It may be a while.
I was a little surprised that Doyle's Room lasted as long as they did. Especially since Doyle Brunson is such an icon in the poker world, you would think he would not want to go to jail over something as silly as Online Poker. After the rumors of his arrest last week, Doyle probably figured out that as a man in his 70's, it's just not worth the hassle.
I think Full Tilt and Poker Stars are our last hope. They have built up a sizable player base so they can make enough money to gamble on fighting the United States in court to keep letting us play here.
Plus I read that the Poker Players Alliance is hiring former senator D'Amato from New York to help with the lobbying. Finally the PPA is getting off of their ass and doing something.
I wonder if the news of Doyle's Room had leaked out to the players by 2/18. I was playing $.50-$1 NL on the site and it was one of the rare occasions where all the players at the table were exceptionally bad. In a six handed table, 3 of the players were seeing over 70% of the flops. Maybe they were playing with a double up or lose it all mentality figuring it was a long shot to get their money out of the site with them leaving.
After a half hour of value betting the calling stations I had run my $100 up to $160 when I had the following great hand. The player, Yio, had started to vastly over bet some flops. If the pot was $8, he would push all in with $100. I had seen him do it at least 4 times in the last 15 minutes. One of the times he did it with pocket 7's when the flop came all low cards. He was on my left so I felt like I could trap him if the right opportunity came along.
I had the button and Yio was in the Big Blind. I am dealt KcQs and the game is 4 handed. UTG folds and I raise to $4. The small blind folds and Yio calls the $3 raise. The flop is 3d 9c Qh. Sure enough, Yio pushes all in for $193.26 (really just $160 since that was my stack size). If I had any respect for his play at all, I might have considered folding, but I had seen this move too many times. I insta called and Yio turned over 9d Ts. I am a big favorite. The turn was a beautiful Qd and the river was a meaningless Ace and I double up with a $162 profit in one hand. I'm pretty sure that is the largest hand I have ever won in online poker.
Now I just have to hope I can eventually get my money out of the site.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
How should I have played these?
Sunday during Superbowl on Doyle's Room. $0.50-$1 No Limit. I had run up my initial $50 to $97 and now have drifted down to $75. A new player who had bought in for $100 has raised the first two hands preflop and just raised again to $4. The first hand I saw him raise 5 handed under the gun with A7 offsuit. I am in the small blind with Ac-Qd.
I could just smooth call, but for some reason I felt the need to bring this guy back to reality. I reraise to $16, pretty much hoping to win without a showdown. He min reraises to $28. I briefly consider pushing all in, but I don't want to waste 30 minutes of effort to win $25 so I can flip a coin for $75. I just call. The pot is $57 going to the flop.
The flop is A-T-7 rainbow. What is the correct play here?
Here is the range of hands that I think he could have: AA,KK, QQ, JJ, TT, AK, AQ, AJ Most players will not put in the 3rd raise with anything less than AA or KK but I think this guy's range could be wider based on the previous plays. This seems like a situation where I am way ahead or way behind.
I only have about $50 left and I am first to act. If I bet I probably fold hands like KK, QQ, JJ. If I check and he checks through I still know nothing. Why? Because if he flopped a set on a ragged board, he would check it through hoping to trap someone with a high pocket pair into betting the turn.
It looks like the best way to play this hand was either push all in and hope to fold hands like JJ or TT or fold to the 3rd raise. Or just call the first one instead of reraising out of position.
I learned all of this because I pushed all in on the flop and got called with a flopped set of 7's. I don't think my opponent played this too well, but I played it worse.
On Friday night I tried out the 5-150 game at Casino Arizona. I was curious to try it after playing 2-5 No Limit in Vegas a month ago. I felt comfortable with the stakes so I felt I was ready. I played fairly tight, trying to figure out the best strategy with this capped limit. Basically your maximum bet or raise is $150. So if the initial bet is $150, you can raise $150 and make it $300 total. The maximum buy in is $350 which tends to limit your options for post flop play if the pot is big preflop.
I thought I was playing pretty well and was up about $60 with $410 in front of me when it all started to go bad. Here were the key hands:
I had 7s8s on the button. There were two limpers plus me and the blinds for 5 players total. $25 in the pot and the flop was 9s-2s-2c. Everyone checks to me. I decide to semi bluff my flush draw since I doubt anyone has a 2. Everyone folds except a player who thought an awful lot of himself. I had seen him tilt earlier when another player had put a bad beat on him. He proceeded to raise every hand for the next 20 minutes. Recently he had calmed down however. This player decided to check raise an additional $40. I thought about moving all in, since I was not convinced he had a 2. I put him on a 9 or another pocket pair. If it's a lower pocket pair, maybe I can move him off the hand if an over card hits the turn. I decide to just call.
The turn was a 7d. My opponent bets $100. I have to fold now. I still feel like he might have had nothing and knew I was on a draw. I needed to call $100 to win $245. Not good enough odds to chase.
Soon after this hand, I am dealt AcQd in the small blind. There are two limpers and then a raise to $25. I call, the big blind calls and one of the limpers calls. I believe the pot was $110.
The flop is Qc-4s-5s. I am first to act. I did not feel good about betting into 3 other players with just top pair, top kicker. I decide to check and get more information. The BB checks, limper checks, and the initial raiser bets $75. Thinking that this was more than enough to scare the other two players out, I decide to just call. Then the big blind raises $150 to $225. The initial bettor folds and I decide to fold.
I think the call of the raise in the small blind preflop was ok. Raising seems too risky. It may eliminate all the limpers but it builds a big pot out of position. Plus who knew so many would call?
On the flop, I think a check is ok, if I am planning on raising the initial raiser. This is a standard play in limit poker to charge the draws. It might be a little excessive in No Limit or Capped No Limit, but it's a strong play. I also could have put out a bet of $50 to see where I am at. I need to protect my hand from draws plus I need to find out if the initial raiser has AA, KK, or even the remote possibility of QQ.
The way it played out, I felt like the big blind had a set and I would be drawing close to dead. I had not seen him get out of line and the only hand I could be ahead of was a flush or straight draw. I did not think he had the balls to make that kind of raise. He did show the hand after we both folded and he had 6s-7s for a straight flush draw.
So technically I was in the lead but he had 15 outs twice so the odds were about 60% for him to make his hand by the river. I think my fold was ok, given the position I put myself in. The problem was that I should have never been in that position.
These lessons are way too expensive for me!
I could just smooth call, but for some reason I felt the need to bring this guy back to reality. I reraise to $16, pretty much hoping to win without a showdown. He min reraises to $28. I briefly consider pushing all in, but I don't want to waste 30 minutes of effort to win $25 so I can flip a coin for $75. I just call. The pot is $57 going to the flop.
The flop is A-T-7 rainbow. What is the correct play here?
Here is the range of hands that I think he could have: AA,KK, QQ, JJ, TT, AK, AQ, AJ Most players will not put in the 3rd raise with anything less than AA or KK but I think this guy's range could be wider based on the previous plays. This seems like a situation where I am way ahead or way behind.
I only have about $50 left and I am first to act. If I bet I probably fold hands like KK, QQ, JJ. If I check and he checks through I still know nothing. Why? Because if he flopped a set on a ragged board, he would check it through hoping to trap someone with a high pocket pair into betting the turn.
It looks like the best way to play this hand was either push all in and hope to fold hands like JJ or TT or fold to the 3rd raise. Or just call the first one instead of reraising out of position.
I learned all of this because I pushed all in on the flop and got called with a flopped set of 7's. I don't think my opponent played this too well, but I played it worse.
On Friday night I tried out the 5-150 game at Casino Arizona. I was curious to try it after playing 2-5 No Limit in Vegas a month ago. I felt comfortable with the stakes so I felt I was ready. I played fairly tight, trying to figure out the best strategy with this capped limit. Basically your maximum bet or raise is $150. So if the initial bet is $150, you can raise $150 and make it $300 total. The maximum buy in is $350 which tends to limit your options for post flop play if the pot is big preflop.
I thought I was playing pretty well and was up about $60 with $410 in front of me when it all started to go bad. Here were the key hands:
I had 7s8s on the button. There were two limpers plus me and the blinds for 5 players total. $25 in the pot and the flop was 9s-2s-2c. Everyone checks to me. I decide to semi bluff my flush draw since I doubt anyone has a 2. Everyone folds except a player who thought an awful lot of himself. I had seen him tilt earlier when another player had put a bad beat on him. He proceeded to raise every hand for the next 20 minutes. Recently he had calmed down however. This player decided to check raise an additional $40. I thought about moving all in, since I was not convinced he had a 2. I put him on a 9 or another pocket pair. If it's a lower pocket pair, maybe I can move him off the hand if an over card hits the turn. I decide to just call.
The turn was a 7d. My opponent bets $100. I have to fold now. I still feel like he might have had nothing and knew I was on a draw. I needed to call $100 to win $245. Not good enough odds to chase.
Soon after this hand, I am dealt AcQd in the small blind. There are two limpers and then a raise to $25. I call, the big blind calls and one of the limpers calls. I believe the pot was $110.
The flop is Qc-4s-5s. I am first to act. I did not feel good about betting into 3 other players with just top pair, top kicker. I decide to check and get more information. The BB checks, limper checks, and the initial raiser bets $75. Thinking that this was more than enough to scare the other two players out, I decide to just call. Then the big blind raises $150 to $225. The initial bettor folds and I decide to fold.
I think the call of the raise in the small blind preflop was ok. Raising seems too risky. It may eliminate all the limpers but it builds a big pot out of position. Plus who knew so many would call?
On the flop, I think a check is ok, if I am planning on raising the initial raiser. This is a standard play in limit poker to charge the draws. It might be a little excessive in No Limit or Capped No Limit, but it's a strong play. I also could have put out a bet of $50 to see where I am at. I need to protect my hand from draws plus I need to find out if the initial raiser has AA, KK, or even the remote possibility of QQ.
The way it played out, I felt like the big blind had a set and I would be drawing close to dead. I had not seen him get out of line and the only hand I could be ahead of was a flush or straight draw. I did not think he had the balls to make that kind of raise. He did show the hand after we both folded and he had 6s-7s for a straight flush draw.
So technically I was in the lead but he had 15 outs twice so the odds were about 60% for him to make his hand by the river. I think my fold was ok, given the position I put myself in. The problem was that I should have never been in that position.
These lessons are way too expensive for me!
Monday, January 29, 2007
Bad Poker, Good Golf
The weekend started off badly as I managed to donk off $200 in online poker. The first hundred was due to me deciding to get cute with AK after flopping an Ace. I slow played it and let the guy with AQ hit his inside straight and take 80% of my chips. Then I tilted off the rest bluffing into a pot with an inside straight draw. No Limit causes so much frustration because you can play great for an hour, make one bad play, and destroy all the profits from the first hour.
The second $100 was lost $20 at a time. I found a good table and kept waiting to get good cards against the bad players but it just never seemed to happen. Luckily, earlier in the week I had made some profits so I think I was probably only down $40 for the week.
My main focus all weekend was the upcoming golf match with Bill. On Saturday, Michele took baby Jake to work, so I had the day to myself. I spent a couple of hours at the club practicing my short game and hitting a few drivers and 3 woods.
Sunday was the big day. I was really keyed up because if I win the 18th hole from the previous match and then win the regular match today, our score would be 3-3. I haven't been this nervous about a golf round in a while and I had to tell myself that it was just a round of golf and if I lose $500 over the bet, it won't change my standard of living. Basically, all the silly stuff you tell yourself when you are trying to calm down.
I arrived an hour early to get loose and surprisingly, Bill also arrived early. He almost never warms up, but he knew he was not going to get a mulligan off the 18th tee and he wanted to be ready.
We drove out to 18 and it was a beautiful sunny day. A lot different then when we last left the hole a week ago, just before it started snowing. I had the honor so I hit a perfect 3 wood down the middle. Bill hit a 2 iron down the left side that was hooking slightly. We drove down the fairway and found Bill's ball. He was stuck behind a tree and was not able to take a full swing. He bunted the ball forward about 20 yards. Then he hit his 3rd shot to the right and was behind the big pine tree in front of the lake which guards the green.
After Bill's drama, all I needed to do was lay up with a 5 iron. I hit it perfect and had 120 yards into the flag. The pin was back, so I all I needed to do was aim for the middle of the green. I hit a good wedge and it stopped 6 feet from the pin. Now it's virtually over.
Bill was going to have to hit a shot under the pine tree, over the water, and get the low running shot to stop on the fast green. It's nearly impossible to pull off. Bill took a swipe at the ball and it took off hot. It hit the tree and bounced right back to him. He hit the ball again, this time missing the tree but hitting the water. Somehow the ball skipped off the water and out to the edge of the fairway. He was going to pick up, but I told him he might make it for 6, so he tried and ran it over the green into the back bunker. I picked up my ball after Bill conceded and we moved on to the first tee. The score was now 3-2.
Over the first two holes, I picked up one stroke. On the third hole, I pulled my drive left and had to punch out down the fairway. Bill hit his drive further left and his ball rolled into the fairway bunker on the left side of #4. His lie was not great and he had trees in front of him. He hit his first shot solidly but it was fading to the right and took a bad hop even further to the right. He was flirting with out of bounds, so he hit a provisional. This one was worse but it was in play.
As Bill went to look for his ball, I had 200 yards into the green and decided to hit my hybrid club. I hit it perfectly with a little fade. Unfortunately it was too perfect and there was some wind behind us that I failed to notice. My ball flew over the green by 20 yards. Meanwhile, Bill was looking for his ball. He found one and hit a great pitch under a tree and over a bunker to about 25 feet.
I was still waiting for him to drive over so I could pull my wedge. Then Bill announced, "I hit the wrong ball!" Apparently he hit a Titleist Pro V1, but Curtis found another one close by and Bill realized that the first one he hit had the wrong number on it. Bill hit his ball this time and it wasn't quite as good, but it was still on the green. I hit a bad pitch and left myself with 40 feet for bogey. Bill managed to two putt for 5 plus 2 penalty strokes for a total of 7. Somehow I rolled in my long putt for bogey and now my lead was 3.
We continued to play good golf until the 7th hole, a long par 5. I have decided that I will play a 3 wood off the tee here to keep the ball in play and to stay short of the fairway bunker on the right. I can't reach the green in two, so I might as well try and stay out of the trees. My strategy paid off as I had a 110 yard shot into the pin for my third shot. I hit it perfectly and it was on the flag like a fat kid on a twinkie. It almost went in on the fly and stopped 12 inches away for a tap in birdie. Now the lead is 4.
I made a tricky bogey putt on 9 to close out the front 9 with a 40. Bill shot 44. On 10 I made my standard play of the day which was yank my drive left, punch out, hit the green and two putt. Bill did the same.
On 11 Bill made a move. He hit his drive right, but he had a shot at the green. Meanwhile I hit 3 wood as far left as anyone can hit it. It was so far left that it went into the lake on the right side of hole 12. I took a drop and hit 7 iron back into the fairway on 11. I hit a good wedge to about 15 feet. For some reason I was seeing the line very well all day, and managed to drain another big putt to save bogey. It was a good thing that my putt went in, because Bill made his birdie putt to pull within two strokes.
I got up and down for par on 12 and I made par on 13. Bill missed a 3 foot side hill putt for par and my lead was 3 again. Here comes number 14, my nemesis. This hole has pretty much decided 3 out of our 5 matches. Bill starts talking some trash about how many balls I have lost out of bounds on this hole, but I step up and rip a 3 wood right down the middle. I pulled my approach left, but hit another great chip and made the 5 footer for par. Bill made his par and I still had a 3 stroke lead.
The par 3 15th hole was playing easy for me today. The pin was back right with a bunker in front and over the lake. The pin was hard, but it made it easy for me to just hit something safe to the middle of the green. When the pin is in front, I often try to get cute and hit it close which has caused me to lose balls in the water in the past. This time I hit a good 8 iron. Once again it was too good and went over the green into the back bunker. Bill also joined me in the back bunker. My worst fears were realized when I found my ball in the bunker. My ball was half buried in the sand. The green sloped away from me down to the lake in front of the green. This was a very difficult shot. I dug my feet in and hit it perfectly. It still ran 20 feet by the hole, but at least I was putting instead of hitting out of another bunker or fishing it out of the lake. Bill and I both made bogey and we moved on to 16.
On 16 I made another great up and down for par and Bill parred as well so I still have the 3 stroke lead with 2 to play. Bill stepped up to the tee on 17 and hit a solid 2 iron down the right hand side and I hit the same drive I had been hitting all day, which was a pull left into the trees. I was forced to punch out and I had 135 yards into the green. It is important to keep the ball below the hole on 17 because the slope on this green is pretty severe. I hit it right where I wanted and had 30 feet for par. Bill hit the back of the green and had a tough 2 putt for par, but he pulled it out. I hit an ok lag to about 4 feet. Unfortunately I missed the left to right breaking putt and double bogeyed the hole. I was not too upset because I felt like I played the hole the best I could, after the bad drive. It's just that tough of a hole.
For the second time today, we are on 18 and I have a one stroke lead. I don't know what he was thinking, but Bill was in a hurry and teed off on 18 with a Driver before I had even walked off of the 17th green. I told him I had missed the putt and double bogeyed the hole.
"You are down by one now," I told Billy.
"I'm only down one? If I'd a known that, I wouldn't have hit driver!" said Billy. He had pulled his drive far left into the fairway on 17. He later admitted that he thought he was down 2 and was planning on trying to hit the green in two shots on the par 5 18th. No chance of that now.
I hit a good 3 wood and had 275 yards to the green. I wanted to get as close as I could without bringing the water into play. I figured a 200 yard shot should do the trick, so I hit my hybrid club. I hit it pretty solid but it started to fade right and landed on right hand side of the fairway and trickled into the rough. There was a good chance that I might be stuck behind the big pine tree just like Bill was earlier today.
Bill played it safe from the 17th fairway and hit it back into the fairway on 18 about 100 yards away from the pin. He flushed a wedge and stuck it 6 feet from the hole. Now I'm really in trouble.
When I found my ball, the news was even worse. I had a muddy lie, but not wet enough to declare that it was in casual water. The tree was right in my line so I could not hit it over it. The lake was sitting in front of me, waiting to gobble up my victory. The greens on the course have been running so fast, that my shot looked impossible to pull off. I decided to punch a 9 iron under the tree, over the lake, and into the bank in front of the green. Hopefully that would take enough off the shot, that it would roll onto the green and stay out of the bunkers. I hit the shot perfectly and managed to stop rolling on the left edge of the green 25 feet from the hole.
Now it's 2 putts for a sure tie. My putt was going to break about 2 feet left to right and was downhill. I hit a good putt that was a little short and broke under the hole. I was left with 24 inches for par. A gimme. I asked if Bill was going to be a jerk about it and he told me to pick it up for the par.
Now Bill has to make his putt for the tie. It had a few inches of left to right break on it, but I fully expected him to make it. He hit it a little hesitantly and that took off enough speed that it broke under the hole and he missed. Sweet Victory! I finished with an 80 and Bill had an 81. It was by far the best score for both of us in the series, but I managed to squeak out the win and now it's tied 3-3. What a great day!
The second $100 was lost $20 at a time. I found a good table and kept waiting to get good cards against the bad players but it just never seemed to happen. Luckily, earlier in the week I had made some profits so I think I was probably only down $40 for the week.
My main focus all weekend was the upcoming golf match with Bill. On Saturday, Michele took baby Jake to work, so I had the day to myself. I spent a couple of hours at the club practicing my short game and hitting a few drivers and 3 woods.
Sunday was the big day. I was really keyed up because if I win the 18th hole from the previous match and then win the regular match today, our score would be 3-3. I haven't been this nervous about a golf round in a while and I had to tell myself that it was just a round of golf and if I lose $500 over the bet, it won't change my standard of living. Basically, all the silly stuff you tell yourself when you are trying to calm down.
I arrived an hour early to get loose and surprisingly, Bill also arrived early. He almost never warms up, but he knew he was not going to get a mulligan off the 18th tee and he wanted to be ready.
We drove out to 18 and it was a beautiful sunny day. A lot different then when we last left the hole a week ago, just before it started snowing. I had the honor so I hit a perfect 3 wood down the middle. Bill hit a 2 iron down the left side that was hooking slightly. We drove down the fairway and found Bill's ball. He was stuck behind a tree and was not able to take a full swing. He bunted the ball forward about 20 yards. Then he hit his 3rd shot to the right and was behind the big pine tree in front of the lake which guards the green.
After Bill's drama, all I needed to do was lay up with a 5 iron. I hit it perfect and had 120 yards into the flag. The pin was back, so I all I needed to do was aim for the middle of the green. I hit a good wedge and it stopped 6 feet from the pin. Now it's virtually over.
Bill was going to have to hit a shot under the pine tree, over the water, and get the low running shot to stop on the fast green. It's nearly impossible to pull off. Bill took a swipe at the ball and it took off hot. It hit the tree and bounced right back to him. He hit the ball again, this time missing the tree but hitting the water. Somehow the ball skipped off the water and out to the edge of the fairway. He was going to pick up, but I told him he might make it for 6, so he tried and ran it over the green into the back bunker. I picked up my ball after Bill conceded and we moved on to the first tee. The score was now 3-2.
Over the first two holes, I picked up one stroke. On the third hole, I pulled my drive left and had to punch out down the fairway. Bill hit his drive further left and his ball rolled into the fairway bunker on the left side of #4. His lie was not great and he had trees in front of him. He hit his first shot solidly but it was fading to the right and took a bad hop even further to the right. He was flirting with out of bounds, so he hit a provisional. This one was worse but it was in play.
As Bill went to look for his ball, I had 200 yards into the green and decided to hit my hybrid club. I hit it perfectly with a little fade. Unfortunately it was too perfect and there was some wind behind us that I failed to notice. My ball flew over the green by 20 yards. Meanwhile, Bill was looking for his ball. He found one and hit a great pitch under a tree and over a bunker to about 25 feet.
I was still waiting for him to drive over so I could pull my wedge. Then Bill announced, "I hit the wrong ball!" Apparently he hit a Titleist Pro V1, but Curtis found another one close by and Bill realized that the first one he hit had the wrong number on it. Bill hit his ball this time and it wasn't quite as good, but it was still on the green. I hit a bad pitch and left myself with 40 feet for bogey. Bill managed to two putt for 5 plus 2 penalty strokes for a total of 7. Somehow I rolled in my long putt for bogey and now my lead was 3.
We continued to play good golf until the 7th hole, a long par 5. I have decided that I will play a 3 wood off the tee here to keep the ball in play and to stay short of the fairway bunker on the right. I can't reach the green in two, so I might as well try and stay out of the trees. My strategy paid off as I had a 110 yard shot into the pin for my third shot. I hit it perfectly and it was on the flag like a fat kid on a twinkie. It almost went in on the fly and stopped 12 inches away for a tap in birdie. Now the lead is 4.
I made a tricky bogey putt on 9 to close out the front 9 with a 40. Bill shot 44. On 10 I made my standard play of the day which was yank my drive left, punch out, hit the green and two putt. Bill did the same.
On 11 Bill made a move. He hit his drive right, but he had a shot at the green. Meanwhile I hit 3 wood as far left as anyone can hit it. It was so far left that it went into the lake on the right side of hole 12. I took a drop and hit 7 iron back into the fairway on 11. I hit a good wedge to about 15 feet. For some reason I was seeing the line very well all day, and managed to drain another big putt to save bogey. It was a good thing that my putt went in, because Bill made his birdie putt to pull within two strokes.
I got up and down for par on 12 and I made par on 13. Bill missed a 3 foot side hill putt for par and my lead was 3 again. Here comes number 14, my nemesis. This hole has pretty much decided 3 out of our 5 matches. Bill starts talking some trash about how many balls I have lost out of bounds on this hole, but I step up and rip a 3 wood right down the middle. I pulled my approach left, but hit another great chip and made the 5 footer for par. Bill made his par and I still had a 3 stroke lead.
The par 3 15th hole was playing easy for me today. The pin was back right with a bunker in front and over the lake. The pin was hard, but it made it easy for me to just hit something safe to the middle of the green. When the pin is in front, I often try to get cute and hit it close which has caused me to lose balls in the water in the past. This time I hit a good 8 iron. Once again it was too good and went over the green into the back bunker. Bill also joined me in the back bunker. My worst fears were realized when I found my ball in the bunker. My ball was half buried in the sand. The green sloped away from me down to the lake in front of the green. This was a very difficult shot. I dug my feet in and hit it perfectly. It still ran 20 feet by the hole, but at least I was putting instead of hitting out of another bunker or fishing it out of the lake. Bill and I both made bogey and we moved on to 16.
On 16 I made another great up and down for par and Bill parred as well so I still have the 3 stroke lead with 2 to play. Bill stepped up to the tee on 17 and hit a solid 2 iron down the right hand side and I hit the same drive I had been hitting all day, which was a pull left into the trees. I was forced to punch out and I had 135 yards into the green. It is important to keep the ball below the hole on 17 because the slope on this green is pretty severe. I hit it right where I wanted and had 30 feet for par. Bill hit the back of the green and had a tough 2 putt for par, but he pulled it out. I hit an ok lag to about 4 feet. Unfortunately I missed the left to right breaking putt and double bogeyed the hole. I was not too upset because I felt like I played the hole the best I could, after the bad drive. It's just that tough of a hole.
For the second time today, we are on 18 and I have a one stroke lead. I don't know what he was thinking, but Bill was in a hurry and teed off on 18 with a Driver before I had even walked off of the 17th green. I told him I had missed the putt and double bogeyed the hole.
"You are down by one now," I told Billy.
"I'm only down one? If I'd a known that, I wouldn't have hit driver!" said Billy. He had pulled his drive far left into the fairway on 17. He later admitted that he thought he was down 2 and was planning on trying to hit the green in two shots on the par 5 18th. No chance of that now.
I hit a good 3 wood and had 275 yards to the green. I wanted to get as close as I could without bringing the water into play. I figured a 200 yard shot should do the trick, so I hit my hybrid club. I hit it pretty solid but it started to fade right and landed on right hand side of the fairway and trickled into the rough. There was a good chance that I might be stuck behind the big pine tree just like Bill was earlier today.
Bill played it safe from the 17th fairway and hit it back into the fairway on 18 about 100 yards away from the pin. He flushed a wedge and stuck it 6 feet from the hole. Now I'm really in trouble.
When I found my ball, the news was even worse. I had a muddy lie, but not wet enough to declare that it was in casual water. The tree was right in my line so I could not hit it over it. The lake was sitting in front of me, waiting to gobble up my victory. The greens on the course have been running so fast, that my shot looked impossible to pull off. I decided to punch a 9 iron under the tree, over the lake, and into the bank in front of the green. Hopefully that would take enough off the shot, that it would roll onto the green and stay out of the bunkers. I hit the shot perfectly and managed to stop rolling on the left edge of the green 25 feet from the hole.
Now it's 2 putts for a sure tie. My putt was going to break about 2 feet left to right and was downhill. I hit a good putt that was a little short and broke under the hole. I was left with 24 inches for par. A gimme. I asked if Bill was going to be a jerk about it and he told me to pick it up for the par.
Now Bill has to make his putt for the tie. It had a few inches of left to right break on it, but I fully expected him to make it. He hit it a little hesitantly and that took off enough speed that it broke under the hole and he missed. Sweet Victory! I finished with an 80 and Bill had an 81. It was by far the best score for both of us in the series, but I managed to squeak out the win and now it's tied 3-3. What a great day!
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Golf Bet Update
I was down 3-1 and in no hurry to play Bill again since I had been playing like crap. Last Sunday, the weather was looking real cold and rainy and I was hoping for a rain out. Since Bill has 3 kids, any time he gets the ok to play golf, he tries to do anything in his power to make it happen. If the wind was blowing 40 mph and hell fire was raining down, he would try and convince me to play.
So Bill had arranged to bring out his Dad and his Dad's friend, Larry to play with us. When it was raining pretty hard at 10:00 AM I called to tell Bill that I was out. Bill got all upset and said I should at least come to the club for lunch and make a decision then. I dragged my ass out of the house and met them for lunch. Sure enough, the rain stopped and there was some blue sky out to the North so we decided to give it a shot.
I hate playing golf in the cold, especially when I have not had a chance to hit any balls and practice my putting. Naturally, everyone else in the group was ready to tee off right away without any warm up so I had to suck it up. I immediately double bogeyed the first hole when I stuck myself behind the trees on the left of the green.
Meanwhile, Bill kept plodding along making pars and the occasional bogey. After we had both parred the 8th hole, I was 6 over par and Bill was 3 over. I asked Bill, "Are you ever going to make a mistake today?" Bill then hooked his drive left into the bushes by the driving range. My drive finally found the fairway. Bill's ball was unhittable and after some discussion on whether he gets a free drop, we decided that he would take a one stroke penalty. He then put his ball in the front right bunker. I managed to just miss the green, but got up and down for par after making a 10 foot putt. Bill got out of the bunker and two putted for double bogey. Now I am only down 1.
On the back nine, my putter caught fire and I made some big putts to save par and bogey and one long 50 footer on 12 for birdie. I managed to go two up by the time we got to 15. This is the short par 3 over the lake. The pin was in front, so it was an easy 8 iron. I made a rushed swing from the top and sliced my ball into the lake. Now I gave a chance to Bill to make a move. Fortunately, for me, he hit his shot short and it spun back off the berm in front of the green and into the lake. Bill made his up and down for bogey and I missed, giving me a double bogey. Now I am up one.
16 is a short par 4 that has given me fits lately, because I cannot seem to find the fairway. Bill hit a great drive and was only 80 yards from the hole. I sliced it right and had to pitch back into the fairway. My approach was horrible again and sliced into the deep bunker on the right. This is one of the deepest bunkers on the course, so it's tough with a good lie. I had a downhill lie so I had no chance. I hit my shot heavy and left it in the bunker. Next one out and two putts for a 7. Luckily, Bill had missed his short birdie putt so I was only down 2 going into 17.
After we had started the round, the weather had managed to change to quite nice. By 16 though, some really nasty clouds had moved in and the temperature had started to drop again. We both teed off on 17 and hit good shots. The wind had picked up and I was nervous about the weather and was beginning to speed up my preshot routine. I had made up my mind after the last two iron shots I hit, that I needed to focus on trying to hit the shot a little harder to make sure that I released the club head. Naturally I overcompensated and pulled my shot 40 yards left of the green.
I immediately chased down my ball, because the weather was turning nasty and I didn't want to wait around for anyone else. I hit a great wedge shot, that almost went in. It ran 10 feet past the hole and I still had a chance for par. As I walked on to the green, I began to look for Bill's ball to see where he stood. He was not on the green, and I looked back into the fairway and he was taking a drop by the lake. Could I really be this lucky? Bill took his drop and hit a bad wedge shot, that faded right and went into the lake again!
I hurriedly tried to make my putt, which just missed so I carded a 5. Bill finally chipped on and made an 8. So now I have my one stroke lead back. On the tee for 18, it started to rain a little and it had become really dark, even though it was only 5:00 PM. I used a 3 wood trying to keep it in play. I swung hard and hit it solid, but it felt like a pull left. I lost sight of the ball immediately and asked for help. Ron and Larry said it went left along the cart path. Bill finally clutched up and hit a good drive down the left side.
As we walked to our balls, a big strike of lightning touched down a few blocks away. Our caddie had a look of terror in his eyes and we knew we would have to postpone the final hole. I jumped in the cart with the caddie and picked up my ball. I had been pretty lucky in that I had a clear second shot if we were still playing. However we had decided to play it safe and get out of the weather.
After we all arrived in the clubhouse, we decided that the next time we play, we'll go and play 18 first to finish our match and then play a regular round. It looks like our next round will be this Sunday. I am psyched up now, because if I can hang on to win this match and then win the 18 on Sunday, Bill will have gone from up 3-1 to tied at 3-3 in one day. :-) Plus the weather forecast is 69 degrees and sunny.
So Bill had arranged to bring out his Dad and his Dad's friend, Larry to play with us. When it was raining pretty hard at 10:00 AM I called to tell Bill that I was out. Bill got all upset and said I should at least come to the club for lunch and make a decision then. I dragged my ass out of the house and met them for lunch. Sure enough, the rain stopped and there was some blue sky out to the North so we decided to give it a shot.
I hate playing golf in the cold, especially when I have not had a chance to hit any balls and practice my putting. Naturally, everyone else in the group was ready to tee off right away without any warm up so I had to suck it up. I immediately double bogeyed the first hole when I stuck myself behind the trees on the left of the green.
Meanwhile, Bill kept plodding along making pars and the occasional bogey. After we had both parred the 8th hole, I was 6 over par and Bill was 3 over. I asked Bill, "Are you ever going to make a mistake today?" Bill then hooked his drive left into the bushes by the driving range. My drive finally found the fairway. Bill's ball was unhittable and after some discussion on whether he gets a free drop, we decided that he would take a one stroke penalty. He then put his ball in the front right bunker. I managed to just miss the green, but got up and down for par after making a 10 foot putt. Bill got out of the bunker and two putted for double bogey. Now I am only down 1.
On the back nine, my putter caught fire and I made some big putts to save par and bogey and one long 50 footer on 12 for birdie. I managed to go two up by the time we got to 15. This is the short par 3 over the lake. The pin was in front, so it was an easy 8 iron. I made a rushed swing from the top and sliced my ball into the lake. Now I gave a chance to Bill to make a move. Fortunately, for me, he hit his shot short and it spun back off the berm in front of the green and into the lake. Bill made his up and down for bogey and I missed, giving me a double bogey. Now I am up one.
16 is a short par 4 that has given me fits lately, because I cannot seem to find the fairway. Bill hit a great drive and was only 80 yards from the hole. I sliced it right and had to pitch back into the fairway. My approach was horrible again and sliced into the deep bunker on the right. This is one of the deepest bunkers on the course, so it's tough with a good lie. I had a downhill lie so I had no chance. I hit my shot heavy and left it in the bunker. Next one out and two putts for a 7. Luckily, Bill had missed his short birdie putt so I was only down 2 going into 17.
After we had started the round, the weather had managed to change to quite nice. By 16 though, some really nasty clouds had moved in and the temperature had started to drop again. We both teed off on 17 and hit good shots. The wind had picked up and I was nervous about the weather and was beginning to speed up my preshot routine. I had made up my mind after the last two iron shots I hit, that I needed to focus on trying to hit the shot a little harder to make sure that I released the club head. Naturally I overcompensated and pulled my shot 40 yards left of the green.
I immediately chased down my ball, because the weather was turning nasty and I didn't want to wait around for anyone else. I hit a great wedge shot, that almost went in. It ran 10 feet past the hole and I still had a chance for par. As I walked on to the green, I began to look for Bill's ball to see where he stood. He was not on the green, and I looked back into the fairway and he was taking a drop by the lake. Could I really be this lucky? Bill took his drop and hit a bad wedge shot, that faded right and went into the lake again!
I hurriedly tried to make my putt, which just missed so I carded a 5. Bill finally chipped on and made an 8. So now I have my one stroke lead back. On the tee for 18, it started to rain a little and it had become really dark, even though it was only 5:00 PM. I used a 3 wood trying to keep it in play. I swung hard and hit it solid, but it felt like a pull left. I lost sight of the ball immediately and asked for help. Ron and Larry said it went left along the cart path. Bill finally clutched up and hit a good drive down the left side.
As we walked to our balls, a big strike of lightning touched down a few blocks away. Our caddie had a look of terror in his eyes and we knew we would have to postpone the final hole. I jumped in the cart with the caddie and picked up my ball. I had been pretty lucky in that I had a clear second shot if we were still playing. However we had decided to play it safe and get out of the weather.
After we all arrived in the clubhouse, we decided that the next time we play, we'll go and play 18 first to finish our match and then play a regular round. It looks like our next round will be this Sunday. I am psyched up now, because if I can hang on to win this match and then win the 18 on Sunday, Bill will have gone from up 3-1 to tied at 3-3 in one day. :-) Plus the weather forecast is 69 degrees and sunny.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Close Call at Weekly Game
I managed to make it to the Wednesday game at Greg's last week. It was the normal cast of characters as we had 8 players. It's a new year and the guys have agreed to make some modifications to the tournament format. I'd like to think it's due to my influence, but who knows. Now the blind levels are 45 minutes instead of an hour and rebuys will get you $30 in chips instead of the old $20. Everyone starts with $40 and the blinds start at $0.25 and $0.50. They are also combining the the initial prize pool and the rebuy pool together and splitting the money as 70% to the winner and 30% to 2nd place. They used to just have winner take all on the intial prize pool and second place would win the rebuys. Overall I like the new format better.
The game pretty much progressed as usual. I had to rebuy after I got low on chips and called an all in with A-7 of diamonds. There were two other players in the pot and I knew I was behind. I just thought it might be a good chance to triple up. Plus the rebuy period was going to be over in 10 minutes, so even if I lose, I get to rebuy for more chips than I had currently.
After the rebuy, things started to go my way and I was slowly accumulating chips. With 4 people left, I was 2nd in chips. It was at this point that an interesting hand occurred. The blinds were 2-4. I had about $120 in the small blind. Craig was on my left with about $70.
It was folded to me and I looked down at Ad-Qs. Since Craig is a loose aggressive player, I did not want to give him control of the pot or let him see a cheap flop with trashy cards. I raised to $12. Craig bitched a little about my raise but he called it.
The flop came 7d-5d-2d. I checked since all I had was the flush draw and figured I would wait to hit it. Whatever regular sized bet Craig would put in, I was ready to call. Instead of putting a regular sized bet in, Craig decided to move all in. Now I had to think about things. There was $82 in the pot and it was $58 to call. If I lose, I still have chips, but not a lot of room to maneuver.
Craig is a bit crazy and could very well have nothing and just be trying to push me off the hand. My first instinct was that he had a flush draw. If that's the case, I have him crushed. Then I counted my outs. If he has a pair, then I have the 3 Aces, 3 Queens, and 8 diamonds (one of the diamonds is a Queen). 14 x 4 = 52% to win. If he has the worst possible hand like AA, then I have 3 Queens and 8 diamonds for 11 outs or a 44% chance. I still have the pot odds to call.
So I called and Craig turned over a pair of 7's with no diamond. Unfortunately, his hand held up.
I wonder if the better play is to bet the pot on that flop. I guess if the odds are good that I am ahead, then it makes more sense to try and win the pot right away. If he raises me all in, then I really have the odds to call.
So I was down, but not out. I managed to build up my stack again and before I knew it, I was heads up with Jason for the prize. Jason had about a 3-1 chip lead on me and asked if I wanted to make a deal. Since it was only 9:15 PM, I told him, let's play until 10 and decide then.
I won the first 3 pots, including one where Jason tried to check raise bluff me on the river and I called with middle pair and won. I was really on a roll when the following hand came up.
I was on the button with 7-9 offsuit. I just called the $3. Jason checked his option. The flop was A-7-7 rainbow. Yahtzee! I was determined to double up on this hand and take the chip lead. Jason checked and I checked behind him setting the trap. The turn was an 8 and Jason checked again. I checked again, hoping he would hit something. The river was another 8 which I thought was perfect. The board now read A-7-7-8-8. Jason would now think any bet I made could be a bluff.
Jason checked again, and I over bet the pot by betting $20 into a $12 pot. I was trying to sell the bluff aspect of it. Jason, moved all in and I called in a shot. It was then that I felt a swift kick in the nuts as Jason tabled 10-8 for a higher full house. I went back and ran it on a poker odds calculator the next day and I was a 99% favorite to win on the flop.
Even if I win the pot, there are no guarantees that I win the tournament since I would only have a slight chip lead and each of us would have over 30 BB in our stacks. That one stung though and I took my $65 home and cried.
The game pretty much progressed as usual. I had to rebuy after I got low on chips and called an all in with A-7 of diamonds. There were two other players in the pot and I knew I was behind. I just thought it might be a good chance to triple up. Plus the rebuy period was going to be over in 10 minutes, so even if I lose, I get to rebuy for more chips than I had currently.
After the rebuy, things started to go my way and I was slowly accumulating chips. With 4 people left, I was 2nd in chips. It was at this point that an interesting hand occurred. The blinds were 2-4. I had about $120 in the small blind. Craig was on my left with about $70.
It was folded to me and I looked down at Ad-Qs. Since Craig is a loose aggressive player, I did not want to give him control of the pot or let him see a cheap flop with trashy cards. I raised to $12. Craig bitched a little about my raise but he called it.
The flop came 7d-5d-2d. I checked since all I had was the flush draw and figured I would wait to hit it. Whatever regular sized bet Craig would put in, I was ready to call. Instead of putting a regular sized bet in, Craig decided to move all in. Now I had to think about things. There was $82 in the pot and it was $58 to call. If I lose, I still have chips, but not a lot of room to maneuver.
Craig is a bit crazy and could very well have nothing and just be trying to push me off the hand. My first instinct was that he had a flush draw. If that's the case, I have him crushed. Then I counted my outs. If he has a pair, then I have the 3 Aces, 3 Queens, and 8 diamonds (one of the diamonds is a Queen). 14 x 4 = 52% to win. If he has the worst possible hand like AA, then I have 3 Queens and 8 diamonds for 11 outs or a 44% chance. I still have the pot odds to call.
So I called and Craig turned over a pair of 7's with no diamond. Unfortunately, his hand held up.
I wonder if the better play is to bet the pot on that flop. I guess if the odds are good that I am ahead, then it makes more sense to try and win the pot right away. If he raises me all in, then I really have the odds to call.
So I was down, but not out. I managed to build up my stack again and before I knew it, I was heads up with Jason for the prize. Jason had about a 3-1 chip lead on me and asked if I wanted to make a deal. Since it was only 9:15 PM, I told him, let's play until 10 and decide then.
I won the first 3 pots, including one where Jason tried to check raise bluff me on the river and I called with middle pair and won. I was really on a roll when the following hand came up.
I was on the button with 7-9 offsuit. I just called the $3. Jason checked his option. The flop was A-7-7 rainbow. Yahtzee! I was determined to double up on this hand and take the chip lead. Jason checked and I checked behind him setting the trap. The turn was an 8 and Jason checked again. I checked again, hoping he would hit something. The river was another 8 which I thought was perfect. The board now read A-7-7-8-8. Jason would now think any bet I made could be a bluff.
Jason checked again, and I over bet the pot by betting $20 into a $12 pot. I was trying to sell the bluff aspect of it. Jason, moved all in and I called in a shot. It was then that I felt a swift kick in the nuts as Jason tabled 10-8 for a higher full house. I went back and ran it on a poker odds calculator the next day and I was a 99% favorite to win on the flop.
Even if I win the pot, there are no guarantees that I win the tournament since I would only have a slight chip lead and each of us would have over 30 BB in our stacks. That one stung though and I took my $65 home and cried.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Vegas Trip Report 1-5-07
I was very excited to get back to Las Vegas. My last trip was the solo trip to the World Series of Poker and the Blogger gathering. It was fun, but it’s always better when you travel with your good friends instead of meeting them there.
We arrived at the Palms at 6:30 PM on Friday night. We had dinner reservations at Nine Steak House in an hour. I caught up with everyone at the blackjack tables after I tried to get a bet down on the Phoenix Suns vs Miami Heat game that was starting in just minutes. To my dismay, I found out that the Palms does not take bets on NBA games because the Maloof brothers own the Kings.
So I sat down at a $10 black jack table and impressed my friends by requesting a $500 marker on my new line of credit at the casino. Since I had never done it before, I had a bunch of questions for the pit boss. Apparently it works like a delayed debit card. Take as much as you want up to the limit. Pay it back at the tables or the cage if you can. If you can’t pay it back, they will just take it out of your bank account after 30 days. I joked that after 30 days, the Maloof brothers distant cousin Guido Maloof comes looking for you to collect.
After dropping a quick $130 at Black Jack we went to dinner. The food was fantastic and the gang was having a great time. The “house” music blaring too loudly was definitely not to my liking. I had a filet mignon with some potatoes. We also shared some great appetizers of popcorn shrimp, shrimp cocktails, and fried calamari. My final bill was $120. Yeeouch!
After dinner, Rob and I hit the poker room. I got on the list and had to wait for about 30 minutes before a spot in a 4-8 limit game opened. I still felt a little rusty with the live game compared to the online game. I started out losing right away and it never really reversed itself. After an hour or so, Rob came back in and said he was going to put his name on the 2-5 No Limit list. Since I was getting bored with the 4-8 game, I told him to put me on too. It took a while but eventually I was called away after losing $130 in the limit game.
I have only played 2-5 No Limit a couple of times. I would prefer to play lower, but this was the only No Limit game they were running. I figured I would buy in for the minimum for the first couple of rotations and see how the game was. If I liked the game, I would add more cash to the stack.
It did not take long to realize that there were a couple of bad players at the table. There was an Asian man in the 3 seat to my right that was a calling station and I was hoping to trap him. Since I was playing on a short stack, I was playing extra tight. My plan was to raise a good hand preflop and then stick most of my stack in on the flop if I had more than one caller.
After about an hour, the bad Asian raised the blind to $25. It was folded to me and I had pocket Queens. I thought about raising to $75 or $100 and seeing if any overcards hit the flop. I only had $270 in front of me so my next bet on the flop if I liked it was going to be all in. This guy had me covered by a couple hundred dollars. I also thought about just raising all in. He had raised light before, so the chances of him having AA or KK were pretty small. Plus he might just be stupid enough to call me with AQ or worse. I decided to push it in and with only 2 seconds of thought, the Asian called me. When you get a call that quick, it’s usually never good news. I was wrong, it was pretty good news, he called with A-6 offsuit! So my decision was good, but my luck was bad again as an Ace hit the flop.
I thought I handled the pain pretty well. I was not upset since I want him to call with that hand all the time. I did ask him what hand he thought I was playing and he said he didn’t know. So obviously he is stuck in first level thinking and only playing his cards. That’s useful to know.
I dug into my pocket for another $300 and tried to play patient poker. It was tough going as I was not getting much to work with. Finally I did win some of my money back on two hands. I raised Ace-Jack from middle position and got two callers including the bad Asian. The flop came A-J-7 rainbow. They checked to me and I checked it through, hoping to trap. The turn was a blank and they checked again. This time I bet about ½ the pot and the Asian called. The river was another blank and he check called a $100 bet. I had him crushed. The second hand, I raised pocket Tens from the big blind after 4 callers. 3 of them stayed for the Ten high monotone flop. Since there were so many draws I overbet the pot and nobody hung around.
I was getting really tired around 1:00 AM since I had been up since 4:00 AM with the baby in the morning. I told myself I was not going to quit until the Asian got up. He finally did at 2 AM and two really attractive blonds sat down at the table to play with their boyfriend’s money. They weren’t clueless but they weren’t strong players either. In my single days I would have started ordering Red Bulls and Irish Coffees to stay awake, but I was spent and called it a night down $280 in poker.
Bill woke me up at 4:30 AM getting ready for his day. The man can’t stay up past 11 anymore and I am the one who gets to suffer for it. I can’t complain too much though, because my sleeping in skills have long eroded away and I was wide awake by 6:00 AM.
I went downstairs and had the power breakfast of a Sausage McGriddle and large Coke. I needed to replenish my cash so I went to the cage and took out another $600 on the line of credit and headed to the sports book. It was NFL playoff Saturday and I wanted to come out of sports betting retirement and make a big score. Here were the games I bet:
Kansas City +7 against the Indianapolis Colts
Seattle Seahawks -2.5 against the Dallas Cowboys
Arizona -2.5 against Washington State in college BB.
Washington -15.5 against Arizona State in college BB.
UCLA -1.5 against Oregon in college BB.
I bet $100 on each game and felt like a big time gambler. I had never bet so much on sports on my life and I was excited because I felt really confident about each of the games.
After the sports book I walked by the Poker Room. Luckily there was a spot open right away in the No Limit game. Usually I like playing poker in the morning because you often catch bad players after an all night bender and there are lots of easy pots to be won. This game was no exception as I had a 21 year old on my left who had been up all night and was playing any 2 cards preflop. I also had another guy in his mid 20’s on my right who had also been there all night drinking.
I started out slowly trying to get a read of the table. The drunk 21 year old on my left kept exposing his cards to me, so I knew I would make some money off of him. After about 20 minutes, Joe Awada, WSOP bracelet winner, sat down on my right. I thought about getting up, since this game can’t possibly be profitable for me now. However I was in position against him and I figured I would just play tight and try to avoid pots with him. Maybe I’ll learn something.
After not playing a hand for 40 minutes, I find pocket 7’s on the big blind. There are 3 other limpers when it gets to me. I guess the correct play would be to check and hope to flop a set. I figured I could raise and win the pot right there or play one other player heads up. I raised to $35 and everyone called. Shit!
The wannabe pro on my left was one of the callers and I had seen him expose one of his cards which was a red King. The flop was 9d-5d-2c. It looks pretty ragged and I think I have the best hand. I want to win it now so I bet $100 into the $140 pot. Wannabe Pro goes into the tank. He’s thinking as hard as he can while the other two players in the pot, including Joe Awada, look like they are folding for sure. All I need to do is get by this one pathetic player. He took so long that one of the other players called the clock on him. If he takes this long, I gotta think I am ahead and that he is trying to call with a draw. He finally decides that if he calls, he might as well go all in so that’s what he does. It’s $102 more to me. Since I put him on a flush draw and I am getting 3.5 to 1 from the pot, I have to call as well.
He turns over King-9 offsuit for top pair. Good read by him, I guess, although I don’t know why he is limping with that hand preflop under the gun or calling a 7x blind raise from the tightest player at the table. Anyways I am drawing to two measly outs and I don’t improve.
This may be a little results oriented thinking, but I definitely think the correct way to play that hand was to check my options and hope to flop a set. If I had done that and then maybe put a feeler bet on the flop, I think I would have got away for a lot less. I think I also learned that when a player thinks for a long, long time that he probably has some kind of made hand, but that he's just not happy with it. A draw would call much quicker.
I rebought for another $300 and managed to win about $75 back. I also got to ask Joe Awada a few boring questions. The funniest part of the session was that the Wannabe Pro kept calling him Joe Juanda. He even called his buddy on the cell phone to brag about playing with “Joe Juanda”. We all heard it and Joe Awada got a good laugh out of it.
I met the guys for lunch at Garduno’s and got to check on the first of my sports bets. It did not look good as Oregon was busy beating UCLA. I would eventually go fucking 0-5 on all of the bets. Marty asked me what the odds of doing that were. I told him the same as winning 5 in a row, have you ever done that? Officially it’s about 3%
After lunch I went up to the room to watch the football game and catch a nap. After a couple hours I was bored and went back down to the poker room. I was placed in a must move game with a beautiful line up of players. All of them looked like they were tourists playing with scared money.
Thankfully the deck hit me upside the head and every starting hand I was dealt seemed to be AK, AQ, KK, AA, etc. The one decent player at the table was on my left, and he was having horrible luck against me. Every pot he was in with me, he lost with a really good hand. Mine was always just a little bit better. When the guys came to get me for dinner, I had run my $300 up to $660.
We went out for another spectacular dinner at Delmonicos in the Venetian. I had filet mignon again with wine and different appetizers. The most exciting moment of the night was watching Dallas fuck up their playoff game against Seattle by botching a 21 yard game winning field goal. Unfortunately Seattle did not cover so I had lost my 4th bet in a row. My last hope was the Arizona Wildcats who were behind by 12 to Washington State. Eventually I would find out that the Cats managed to send the game to overtime before they finally pissed it away. After dinner, I was hoping the gang would want to stay at the Venetian and gamble since their poker room is awesome. However the gang, led by Rob, were gung ho to go to Score’s.
Scores gets rave reviews by Howard Stern in New York, but the Las Vegas version was definitely the junior varsity. It took an hour for me to find one girl worthy of spending $20 for a dance. It seemed like half of the girls had surgically enhanced bodies, but the face of a man. The Spearmint Rhino is definitely the best place in Vegas. Luckily I escaped from the club only $100 lighter and went back to the poker room at the Palms.
I had made up my mind that after losing the $500 in sports bets that I was either going to lose my $300 buy in or win big. There was no in between. I started out well when early on, there was an early position raise to $20. I had pocket Queens in middle position. I thought that no one else would call the raise, so I just called. It’s folded to the Big Blind who now raises to $120. It looked like a squeeze play. The first raiser folded and it was to me. If I just call, my only move on the flop is to push it all in. This guy had made some aggressive moves in the short time I had already been there, plus he had to figure that my hand was not that great since I just called the first raise.
I decided to gamble and move all in. There was enough in the pot, that if he calls with A-K it’s worth it. I will just pray I don’t run into an overpair. He thinks for about 20 seconds and calls with AK. Amazingly my QQ held up and I had a quick double up. Now my stack is $550 and I should be ready to roll.
It was still relatively early in the night so I had time to make more money. Unfortunately, the cards were not cooperating. Every time I had a good hand, someone would make a better hand and I would have to lay it down. The few bluffs I tried, the other player would have just enough of a hand to call. I eventually frittered away all of the profits from the Queens hand and left the table down $119.
Another big loss in Vegas. What a surprise.
Overall, I think I played pretty well. I lost the one big pot with QQ when jackass called with A-6. The pocket 7’s hand was not played optimally, but he almost laid it down. If I win one of those hands, my loss isn’t nearly as bad. Overall I only lost $185 playing poker. The rest of approximately $1,000 loss was from $500 in sports bets and the rest from blackjack.
We arrived at the Palms at 6:30 PM on Friday night. We had dinner reservations at Nine Steak House in an hour. I caught up with everyone at the blackjack tables after I tried to get a bet down on the Phoenix Suns vs Miami Heat game that was starting in just minutes. To my dismay, I found out that the Palms does not take bets on NBA games because the Maloof brothers own the Kings.
So I sat down at a $10 black jack table and impressed my friends by requesting a $500 marker on my new line of credit at the casino. Since I had never done it before, I had a bunch of questions for the pit boss. Apparently it works like a delayed debit card. Take as much as you want up to the limit. Pay it back at the tables or the cage if you can. If you can’t pay it back, they will just take it out of your bank account after 30 days. I joked that after 30 days, the Maloof brothers distant cousin Guido Maloof comes looking for you to collect.
After dropping a quick $130 at Black Jack we went to dinner. The food was fantastic and the gang was having a great time. The “house” music blaring too loudly was definitely not to my liking. I had a filet mignon with some potatoes. We also shared some great appetizers of popcorn shrimp, shrimp cocktails, and fried calamari. My final bill was $120. Yeeouch!
After dinner, Rob and I hit the poker room. I got on the list and had to wait for about 30 minutes before a spot in a 4-8 limit game opened. I still felt a little rusty with the live game compared to the online game. I started out losing right away and it never really reversed itself. After an hour or so, Rob came back in and said he was going to put his name on the 2-5 No Limit list. Since I was getting bored with the 4-8 game, I told him to put me on too. It took a while but eventually I was called away after losing $130 in the limit game.
I have only played 2-5 No Limit a couple of times. I would prefer to play lower, but this was the only No Limit game they were running. I figured I would buy in for the minimum for the first couple of rotations and see how the game was. If I liked the game, I would add more cash to the stack.
It did not take long to realize that there were a couple of bad players at the table. There was an Asian man in the 3 seat to my right that was a calling station and I was hoping to trap him. Since I was playing on a short stack, I was playing extra tight. My plan was to raise a good hand preflop and then stick most of my stack in on the flop if I had more than one caller.
After about an hour, the bad Asian raised the blind to $25. It was folded to me and I had pocket Queens. I thought about raising to $75 or $100 and seeing if any overcards hit the flop. I only had $270 in front of me so my next bet on the flop if I liked it was going to be all in. This guy had me covered by a couple hundred dollars. I also thought about just raising all in. He had raised light before, so the chances of him having AA or KK were pretty small. Plus he might just be stupid enough to call me with AQ or worse. I decided to push it in and with only 2 seconds of thought, the Asian called me. When you get a call that quick, it’s usually never good news. I was wrong, it was pretty good news, he called with A-6 offsuit! So my decision was good, but my luck was bad again as an Ace hit the flop.
I thought I handled the pain pretty well. I was not upset since I want him to call with that hand all the time. I did ask him what hand he thought I was playing and he said he didn’t know. So obviously he is stuck in first level thinking and only playing his cards. That’s useful to know.
I dug into my pocket for another $300 and tried to play patient poker. It was tough going as I was not getting much to work with. Finally I did win some of my money back on two hands. I raised Ace-Jack from middle position and got two callers including the bad Asian. The flop came A-J-7 rainbow. They checked to me and I checked it through, hoping to trap. The turn was a blank and they checked again. This time I bet about ½ the pot and the Asian called. The river was another blank and he check called a $100 bet. I had him crushed. The second hand, I raised pocket Tens from the big blind after 4 callers. 3 of them stayed for the Ten high monotone flop. Since there were so many draws I overbet the pot and nobody hung around.
I was getting really tired around 1:00 AM since I had been up since 4:00 AM with the baby in the morning. I told myself I was not going to quit until the Asian got up. He finally did at 2 AM and two really attractive blonds sat down at the table to play with their boyfriend’s money. They weren’t clueless but they weren’t strong players either. In my single days I would have started ordering Red Bulls and Irish Coffees to stay awake, but I was spent and called it a night down $280 in poker.
Bill woke me up at 4:30 AM getting ready for his day. The man can’t stay up past 11 anymore and I am the one who gets to suffer for it. I can’t complain too much though, because my sleeping in skills have long eroded away and I was wide awake by 6:00 AM.
I went downstairs and had the power breakfast of a Sausage McGriddle and large Coke. I needed to replenish my cash so I went to the cage and took out another $600 on the line of credit and headed to the sports book. It was NFL playoff Saturday and I wanted to come out of sports betting retirement and make a big score. Here were the games I bet:
Kansas City +7 against the Indianapolis Colts
Seattle Seahawks -2.5 against the Dallas Cowboys
Arizona -2.5 against Washington State in college BB.
Washington -15.5 against Arizona State in college BB.
UCLA -1.5 against Oregon in college BB.
I bet $100 on each game and felt like a big time gambler. I had never bet so much on sports on my life and I was excited because I felt really confident about each of the games.
After the sports book I walked by the Poker Room. Luckily there was a spot open right away in the No Limit game. Usually I like playing poker in the morning because you often catch bad players after an all night bender and there are lots of easy pots to be won. This game was no exception as I had a 21 year old on my left who had been up all night and was playing any 2 cards preflop. I also had another guy in his mid 20’s on my right who had also been there all night drinking.
I started out slowly trying to get a read of the table. The drunk 21 year old on my left kept exposing his cards to me, so I knew I would make some money off of him. After about 20 minutes, Joe Awada, WSOP bracelet winner, sat down on my right. I thought about getting up, since this game can’t possibly be profitable for me now. However I was in position against him and I figured I would just play tight and try to avoid pots with him. Maybe I’ll learn something.
After not playing a hand for 40 minutes, I find pocket 7’s on the big blind. There are 3 other limpers when it gets to me. I guess the correct play would be to check and hope to flop a set. I figured I could raise and win the pot right there or play one other player heads up. I raised to $35 and everyone called. Shit!
The wannabe pro on my left was one of the callers and I had seen him expose one of his cards which was a red King. The flop was 9d-5d-2c. It looks pretty ragged and I think I have the best hand. I want to win it now so I bet $100 into the $140 pot. Wannabe Pro goes into the tank. He’s thinking as hard as he can while the other two players in the pot, including Joe Awada, look like they are folding for sure. All I need to do is get by this one pathetic player. He took so long that one of the other players called the clock on him. If he takes this long, I gotta think I am ahead and that he is trying to call with a draw. He finally decides that if he calls, he might as well go all in so that’s what he does. It’s $102 more to me. Since I put him on a flush draw and I am getting 3.5 to 1 from the pot, I have to call as well.
He turns over King-9 offsuit for top pair. Good read by him, I guess, although I don’t know why he is limping with that hand preflop under the gun or calling a 7x blind raise from the tightest player at the table. Anyways I am drawing to two measly outs and I don’t improve.
This may be a little results oriented thinking, but I definitely think the correct way to play that hand was to check my options and hope to flop a set. If I had done that and then maybe put a feeler bet on the flop, I think I would have got away for a lot less. I think I also learned that when a player thinks for a long, long time that he probably has some kind of made hand, but that he's just not happy with it. A draw would call much quicker.
I rebought for another $300 and managed to win about $75 back. I also got to ask Joe Awada a few boring questions. The funniest part of the session was that the Wannabe Pro kept calling him Joe Juanda. He even called his buddy on the cell phone to brag about playing with “Joe Juanda”. We all heard it and Joe Awada got a good laugh out of it.
I met the guys for lunch at Garduno’s and got to check on the first of my sports bets. It did not look good as Oregon was busy beating UCLA. I would eventually go fucking 0-5 on all of the bets. Marty asked me what the odds of doing that were. I told him the same as winning 5 in a row, have you ever done that? Officially it’s about 3%
After lunch I went up to the room to watch the football game and catch a nap. After a couple hours I was bored and went back down to the poker room. I was placed in a must move game with a beautiful line up of players. All of them looked like they were tourists playing with scared money.
Thankfully the deck hit me upside the head and every starting hand I was dealt seemed to be AK, AQ, KK, AA, etc. The one decent player at the table was on my left, and he was having horrible luck against me. Every pot he was in with me, he lost with a really good hand. Mine was always just a little bit better. When the guys came to get me for dinner, I had run my $300 up to $660.
We went out for another spectacular dinner at Delmonicos in the Venetian. I had filet mignon again with wine and different appetizers. The most exciting moment of the night was watching Dallas fuck up their playoff game against Seattle by botching a 21 yard game winning field goal. Unfortunately Seattle did not cover so I had lost my 4th bet in a row. My last hope was the Arizona Wildcats who were behind by 12 to Washington State. Eventually I would find out that the Cats managed to send the game to overtime before they finally pissed it away. After dinner, I was hoping the gang would want to stay at the Venetian and gamble since their poker room is awesome. However the gang, led by Rob, were gung ho to go to Score’s.
Scores gets rave reviews by Howard Stern in New York, but the Las Vegas version was definitely the junior varsity. It took an hour for me to find one girl worthy of spending $20 for a dance. It seemed like half of the girls had surgically enhanced bodies, but the face of a man. The Spearmint Rhino is definitely the best place in Vegas. Luckily I escaped from the club only $100 lighter and went back to the poker room at the Palms.
I had made up my mind that after losing the $500 in sports bets that I was either going to lose my $300 buy in or win big. There was no in between. I started out well when early on, there was an early position raise to $20. I had pocket Queens in middle position. I thought that no one else would call the raise, so I just called. It’s folded to the Big Blind who now raises to $120. It looked like a squeeze play. The first raiser folded and it was to me. If I just call, my only move on the flop is to push it all in. This guy had made some aggressive moves in the short time I had already been there, plus he had to figure that my hand was not that great since I just called the first raise.
I decided to gamble and move all in. There was enough in the pot, that if he calls with A-K it’s worth it. I will just pray I don’t run into an overpair. He thinks for about 20 seconds and calls with AK. Amazingly my QQ held up and I had a quick double up. Now my stack is $550 and I should be ready to roll.
It was still relatively early in the night so I had time to make more money. Unfortunately, the cards were not cooperating. Every time I had a good hand, someone would make a better hand and I would have to lay it down. The few bluffs I tried, the other player would have just enough of a hand to call. I eventually frittered away all of the profits from the Queens hand and left the table down $119.
Another big loss in Vegas. What a surprise.
Overall, I think I played pretty well. I lost the one big pot with QQ when jackass called with A-6. The pocket 7’s hand was not played optimally, but he almost laid it down. If I win one of those hands, my loss isn’t nearly as bad. Overall I only lost $185 playing poker. The rest of approximately $1,000 loss was from $500 in sports bets and the rest from blackjack.
Friday, January 05, 2007
Prelude to Vegas
The last single guy I know is getting married in a month and we are going to Vegas to celebrate his bachelor party. We have a smokin' room rate at the Palms for $159 a night for Friday and Saturday. I was approved for my application for a $10,000 line of credit at the casino and I am ready to roll.
I was hoping that applying for a line of credit may get me some juice with the casino hosts, but it doesn't appear to be working. I left a message for one yesterday morning and I have yet to hear back. I was hoping to at least score a limosuine ride from the airport to the hotel, but I guess we will just negotiate a deal when we get to the baggage claim.
This will be the first trip where some of the regular crew will attempt No-Limit poker in the cash games. I hope I get to play on the same table with them. It should be very interesting. They have made the standard limit complaint a hundred times that in Limit poker, "you can't protect your hand and you always get sucked out on." They have not experienced the joy of getting felted when your Ace-King flops top pair and goes down to a flopped set of 3's.
I am hoping to improve my dismal record in No-Limit cash games from previous trips. I have logged approximately 15,000 hands online over the last 6 months and I feel like I am vastly improved from the last time I tried it. I even ran my online poker tracker numbers and I am now a break even player. I am sure that the first few thousand hands were a disaster, so I have made a nice comeback.
I am also planning on making a few sports bets. Here are my lead pipe locks:
Kansas City Chiefs +7 against the Indianapolis Colts
Seattle Seahawks -3 against the Dallas Cowboys
Phoenix Suns money line against the Miami Heat.
I will probably bet on the U of A and ASU basketball games on Saturday as soon as the lines are posted.
I have a feeling this weekend will be a win big or lose big kind of trip. I sure hope it's the former.
I was hoping that applying for a line of credit may get me some juice with the casino hosts, but it doesn't appear to be working. I left a message for one yesterday morning and I have yet to hear back. I was hoping to at least score a limosuine ride from the airport to the hotel, but I guess we will just negotiate a deal when we get to the baggage claim.
This will be the first trip where some of the regular crew will attempt No-Limit poker in the cash games. I hope I get to play on the same table with them. It should be very interesting. They have made the standard limit complaint a hundred times that in Limit poker, "you can't protect your hand and you always get sucked out on." They have not experienced the joy of getting felted when your Ace-King flops top pair and goes down to a flopped set of 3's.
I am hoping to improve my dismal record in No-Limit cash games from previous trips. I have logged approximately 15,000 hands online over the last 6 months and I feel like I am vastly improved from the last time I tried it. I even ran my online poker tracker numbers and I am now a break even player. I am sure that the first few thousand hands were a disaster, so I have made a nice comeback.
I am also planning on making a few sports bets. Here are my lead pipe locks:
Kansas City Chiefs +7 against the Indianapolis Colts
Seattle Seahawks -3 against the Dallas Cowboys
Phoenix Suns money line against the Miami Heat.
I will probably bet on the U of A and ASU basketball games on Saturday as soon as the lines are posted.
I have a feeling this weekend will be a win big or lose big kind of trip. I sure hope it's the former.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
My Return to a Live Casino
Since the in laws are in town and Michele needed a break, I offered to take them to Casino Arizona. I have not played in a casino since before Jake was born in November. I think the last time I played was at the Gila River in that disaster of an Aces and Faces promotion. Bad memories.
This time I was called into a 4-8 Hold'em game after 10 minutes. My table was incredibly passive. It seemed like "raise" was a dirty word. Within the first orbit I saw pocket Kings and Ace-King limp into the pot preflop.
I won a good sized pot early on the big blind with Q-2. The flop was 7-2-2 rainbow with 6 players in the pot. I checked and let the player on my right do the betting for me. A Queen on the river and I was raking in a $60 profit.
Gradually the cards went cold for an hour and I leaked away my profits. Then in a couple of hands I picked up A-9 on the button, flopped an Ace and won a small pot. Then I picked up pocket Kings in a 5 way pot and had one caller all the way to the river. So I was back up to a $50 profit.
By this time it was 12:50 pm and I was supposed to meet up with the in laws in 10 minutes. I decided to hit the restroom and scan the casino to see if I could figure out where they were. It didn't take long as I found them on the slots, trying to win a new car. They were ready to go, so I told them I would hit the head and then cash in my chips and go.
I brought a couple of racks to the table as they were just starting another hand. The dealer saw me standing behind my chips and dealt me in. They had finally filled the 3 open spots on the table since I had left, so it almost looked like a new table. I figured I'd play one last hand while I racked up the chips. I was dealt the Kd-Td in middle position. I figured limping was safe since nobody was raising. A couple of others came along for the ride and we were 5 handed.
The flop was 2-3-4 with 2 diamonds. A big black man in a nice cream colored suit with a vest and some bling lead out from the big blind. The player on my right called, I called, and 2 others called as well. I could have raised on a draw, but it wasn't the nut draw and I felt like protecting my profit. The turn was a 4 of diamonds completing my flush. The black man bet again, one fold, and I raised. Everyone else folded back to the initial better who grudgingly called. The river was the Queen of diamonds putting 4 diamonds on the board. My opponent cursed and slammed down his hand for a check. Sometimes that is an acting job when someone is slow playing a full house and hoping for a check raise. I don't have a read on him, so I have to take the small chance that my hand is still good and bet it. He called and turned over 5-6 for a flopped straight. My hand is good and I get to leave with a $122 profit.
That guy didn't know what hit him. Tall white dude comes back to the table, plays one hand, and takes half my stack. Now he's leaving! "I'm gonna kill that whitey!" At least that's what I imagine he was saying in his head.
Overall, I felt a little rusty. I had some trouble concentrating on the play when I wasn't in the hand. There was so much limping that I got discouraged from trying to put players on hands because they could be playing any 2 cards. I'm glad I won and hopefully I won't have to play live again until I go to Vegas for Brady's bachelor party in January.
On a much more sour note, I lost another golf match to Bill last Friday. I am now down 3-1. The weather was absolutely miserable with light rain and a high temperature of about 50 degrees.
I had a one stroke lead going into #9. I hit my standard slice drive to the right by the practice area, while Bill hit his drive a little less right, but was still going to have tree trouble. I couldn't go for the green due to a tree right in front of me, but I could punch it out, around the tree and get pretty close to the green. That's what I did and I was 10 yards off the green on the left with a ton of green to work with for my pitch shot. Bill had managed to put himself in the right bunker. I was really thinking I would get up and down when I hit my 52 degree wedge. Unfortunately, I hit it way too hard and I ran by the pin and off the green. Now I am short sided with a pitch to an elevated green that runs away from me. Bill meanwhile hits another great bunker shot to 5 feet and makes the putt. I pitch up and miss the 15 footer coming back for double and now I am down one.
I was down 2 going into 14 when the wheels came off. Bill hit a crappy 2 iron off the tee but he was in play. I hit 5 wood trying to keep the ball on the grass and off of Osborn Road. I hit it like a pussy and it sliced to the right and out of bounds. My 3rd shot was almost a carbon copy except it hit a tree on the right and stayed in play. I could not hit it directly at the green because of the tree, so I tried to hit a miracle 3 wood and hope it sliced into the green. Of course when I want the ball to slice it goes straight. I track it down and then hit my punch shot chunky, hit another pitch, putt from off the green, and tap in for an 8. Bill had only managed a 6, but it was enough for the win.
I finished with a 90 which is just terrible. There was a stretch earlier this year where I had not shot in the 90's for something like 20 rounds. Now I can't seem to shoot bogey golf. I haven't been this mad after a round of golf in a long time.
Bill was playing on a surgically repaired knee and shot an 84. It's not like Bill is playing that great, it's just that I can't seem to put two good shots together anymore. I guess I'll just keep working on my game. I will probably try to stretch out the next few matches so I can get my game in order before I fall hopelessly behind.
This time I was called into a 4-8 Hold'em game after 10 minutes. My table was incredibly passive. It seemed like "raise" was a dirty word. Within the first orbit I saw pocket Kings and Ace-King limp into the pot preflop.
I won a good sized pot early on the big blind with Q-2. The flop was 7-2-2 rainbow with 6 players in the pot. I checked and let the player on my right do the betting for me. A Queen on the river and I was raking in a $60 profit.
Gradually the cards went cold for an hour and I leaked away my profits. Then in a couple of hands I picked up A-9 on the button, flopped an Ace and won a small pot. Then I picked up pocket Kings in a 5 way pot and had one caller all the way to the river. So I was back up to a $50 profit.
By this time it was 12:50 pm and I was supposed to meet up with the in laws in 10 minutes. I decided to hit the restroom and scan the casino to see if I could figure out where they were. It didn't take long as I found them on the slots, trying to win a new car. They were ready to go, so I told them I would hit the head and then cash in my chips and go.
I brought a couple of racks to the table as they were just starting another hand. The dealer saw me standing behind my chips and dealt me in. They had finally filled the 3 open spots on the table since I had left, so it almost looked like a new table. I figured I'd play one last hand while I racked up the chips. I was dealt the Kd-Td in middle position. I figured limping was safe since nobody was raising. A couple of others came along for the ride and we were 5 handed.
The flop was 2-3-4 with 2 diamonds. A big black man in a nice cream colored suit with a vest and some bling lead out from the big blind. The player on my right called, I called, and 2 others called as well. I could have raised on a draw, but it wasn't the nut draw and I felt like protecting my profit. The turn was a 4 of diamonds completing my flush. The black man bet again, one fold, and I raised. Everyone else folded back to the initial better who grudgingly called. The river was the Queen of diamonds putting 4 diamonds on the board. My opponent cursed and slammed down his hand for a check. Sometimes that is an acting job when someone is slow playing a full house and hoping for a check raise. I don't have a read on him, so I have to take the small chance that my hand is still good and bet it. He called and turned over 5-6 for a flopped straight. My hand is good and I get to leave with a $122 profit.
That guy didn't know what hit him. Tall white dude comes back to the table, plays one hand, and takes half my stack. Now he's leaving! "I'm gonna kill that whitey!" At least that's what I imagine he was saying in his head.
Overall, I felt a little rusty. I had some trouble concentrating on the play when I wasn't in the hand. There was so much limping that I got discouraged from trying to put players on hands because they could be playing any 2 cards. I'm glad I won and hopefully I won't have to play live again until I go to Vegas for Brady's bachelor party in January.
On a much more sour note, I lost another golf match to Bill last Friday. I am now down 3-1. The weather was absolutely miserable with light rain and a high temperature of about 50 degrees.
I had a one stroke lead going into #9. I hit my standard slice drive to the right by the practice area, while Bill hit his drive a little less right, but was still going to have tree trouble. I couldn't go for the green due to a tree right in front of me, but I could punch it out, around the tree and get pretty close to the green. That's what I did and I was 10 yards off the green on the left with a ton of green to work with for my pitch shot. Bill had managed to put himself in the right bunker. I was really thinking I would get up and down when I hit my 52 degree wedge. Unfortunately, I hit it way too hard and I ran by the pin and off the green. Now I am short sided with a pitch to an elevated green that runs away from me. Bill meanwhile hits another great bunker shot to 5 feet and makes the putt. I pitch up and miss the 15 footer coming back for double and now I am down one.
I was down 2 going into 14 when the wheels came off. Bill hit a crappy 2 iron off the tee but he was in play. I hit 5 wood trying to keep the ball on the grass and off of Osborn Road. I hit it like a pussy and it sliced to the right and out of bounds. My 3rd shot was almost a carbon copy except it hit a tree on the right and stayed in play. I could not hit it directly at the green because of the tree, so I tried to hit a miracle 3 wood and hope it sliced into the green. Of course when I want the ball to slice it goes straight. I track it down and then hit my punch shot chunky, hit another pitch, putt from off the green, and tap in for an 8. Bill had only managed a 6, but it was enough for the win.
I finished with a 90 which is just terrible. There was a stretch earlier this year where I had not shot in the 90's for something like 20 rounds. Now I can't seem to shoot bogey golf. I haven't been this mad after a round of golf in a long time.
Bill was playing on a surgically repaired knee and shot an 84. It's not like Bill is playing that great, it's just that I can't seem to put two good shots together anymore. I guess I'll just keep working on my game. I will probably try to stretch out the next few matches so I can get my game in order before I fall hopelessly behind.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
When can I play poker?
There is still not much personal poker to write about for the last week. I bought a new laptop, mostly because I needed a faster chip to run the film editing software I have, and I have been trying to get everything from my old computer on to the new one. This includes poker software and poker tracker.
I finally have that done, but Michele's parents are in town and we have been trying to entertain them. I felt a little self conscious firing up a couple of sit and go's on the computer while my inlaws were on the couch watching tv.
Mother in law: "What is Larry doing on the computer?"
Michele: "He's playing poker"
Mother in law: "Is it for real money?"
Michele: "yep"
Mother in law: "Why is he playing on two different screens?"
Michele: "Sometimes he plays in two or three games at the same time"
On and on and on. The good news is that the 2 table sit and go I was playing went well and I won the whole thing for a $100 profit on the night.
I was supposed to play golf and maybe a little poker last Friday out at Fort McDowell. On Thursday at work I started to feel naseous and feverish. It got worse at night and I was running a fever of 101 degrees. I gobbled some Tylenol and went to bed. On Friday morning, I felt better, but not good enough to play golf or go to work. So I missed my free round of golf. The good news is I felt almost 100% by the end of Friday and I was back to full strength on Saturday.
Since I was feeling good, I played golf on Saturday with the Noon Group at the club. My pairing was a little intimidating as I was paired with the club pro, Adam. We also had a 4 handicap and another 0 handicap, and me with my big 10 handicap. I was happy to be paired with Adam though so he could see my progress on my golf swing.
I had a lesson with him last Wednesday where he told me to stand closer to the ball again and stand up straighter. He also noticed that my right knee was straightening, which was causing a slight reverse pivot. For some reason, he became obsessed with increasing my wrist cock and lag into the hitting area. I know that is a big key on hitting the ball farther, but it seemed like the least of my problems in my mind. He had me doing a silly drill that was supposed to help me release the club. I was not getting it and it ate up all the time in my lesson. I did not even get to hit a driver for him.
So I wasn't expecting much on Saturday from my round of golf. The good news was that I hit it pretty well off of the tee. The bad news was that my short game was atrocious and I fired a 3 month high of 91. Adam did say it looked like I made some good swings with the driver, coming at the ball from the inside.
Hopefully I will get to work on it a little more after work today.
In other poker news, Joe Hachem just won the Bellagio 5 Diamond WPT Event for $2.1 MM. I am incredibly impressed. He even beat Daniel Negreanu when it was 3 handed. Poker is like golf for me in this sense. There are brief moments where you feel like a pro and make a good shot or make a good read in a card game. Then you see the pros do something incredible and you realize you have a long way to go to get that good.
I finally have that done, but Michele's parents are in town and we have been trying to entertain them. I felt a little self conscious firing up a couple of sit and go's on the computer while my inlaws were on the couch watching tv.
Mother in law: "What is Larry doing on the computer?"
Michele: "He's playing poker"
Mother in law: "Is it for real money?"
Michele: "yep"
Mother in law: "Why is he playing on two different screens?"
Michele: "Sometimes he plays in two or three games at the same time"
On and on and on. The good news is that the 2 table sit and go I was playing went well and I won the whole thing for a $100 profit on the night.
I was supposed to play golf and maybe a little poker last Friday out at Fort McDowell. On Thursday at work I started to feel naseous and feverish. It got worse at night and I was running a fever of 101 degrees. I gobbled some Tylenol and went to bed. On Friday morning, I felt better, but not good enough to play golf or go to work. So I missed my free round of golf. The good news is I felt almost 100% by the end of Friday and I was back to full strength on Saturday.
Since I was feeling good, I played golf on Saturday with the Noon Group at the club. My pairing was a little intimidating as I was paired with the club pro, Adam. We also had a 4 handicap and another 0 handicap, and me with my big 10 handicap. I was happy to be paired with Adam though so he could see my progress on my golf swing.
I had a lesson with him last Wednesday where he told me to stand closer to the ball again and stand up straighter. He also noticed that my right knee was straightening, which was causing a slight reverse pivot. For some reason, he became obsessed with increasing my wrist cock and lag into the hitting area. I know that is a big key on hitting the ball farther, but it seemed like the least of my problems in my mind. He had me doing a silly drill that was supposed to help me release the club. I was not getting it and it ate up all the time in my lesson. I did not even get to hit a driver for him.
So I wasn't expecting much on Saturday from my round of golf. The good news was that I hit it pretty well off of the tee. The bad news was that my short game was atrocious and I fired a 3 month high of 91. Adam did say it looked like I made some good swings with the driver, coming at the ball from the inside.
Hopefully I will get to work on it a little more after work today.
In other poker news, Joe Hachem just won the Bellagio 5 Diamond WPT Event for $2.1 MM. I am incredibly impressed. He even beat Daniel Negreanu when it was 3 handed. Poker is like golf for me in this sense. There are brief moments where you feel like a pro and make a good shot or make a good read in a card game. Then you see the pros do something incredible and you realize you have a long way to go to get that good.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Golf Bet Update
Bill and I played a week ago. Again, neither one of us played really well. I basically screwed the pooch on the second hole by putting my tee shot in the water and then 3 putting. Bill birdied and those 4 strokes were the difference.
In the middle of the round I had shaved his lead to 1 stroke, but never tied it up. Bill tried his best to make it interesting on the last 2 holes by bogeying 17 and double bogeying 18. I had a chance to make up a stroke on 17, but I left my pitch shot short and in the bunker. I played 18 great and almost holed my approach to the par 5. I made the 5 footer for birdie to end on a good note.
Bill had knee surgery 3 days after our round. He has yet to have the follow up visit with the doctor, but he says his knee feels great. Our next match may be as close as 2 weeks away.
Since I had a severe case of the "rights" off the tee, I am taking another lesson with the Club Pro, Adam on Wednesday. I think I have figured out that my backswing is still way too flat. Thumbs up and feel like I am trying to hit a slice, should fix the problem. I actually fooled around with my video camera last weekend and figured out that I am not quite where Adam wanted me from the last time I worked with him.
I am playing a great course named We Ko Pa on the Fort McDowell Reservation on Friday thanks to an Annuity Wholesaler. I'll probably waste a really good score playing with my co-workers, but that's the way golf is.
In the middle of the round I had shaved his lead to 1 stroke, but never tied it up. Bill tried his best to make it interesting on the last 2 holes by bogeying 17 and double bogeying 18. I had a chance to make up a stroke on 17, but I left my pitch shot short and in the bunker. I played 18 great and almost holed my approach to the par 5. I made the 5 footer for birdie to end on a good note.
Bill had knee surgery 3 days after our round. He has yet to have the follow up visit with the doctor, but he says his knee feels great. Our next match may be as close as 2 weeks away.
Since I had a severe case of the "rights" off the tee, I am taking another lesson with the Club Pro, Adam on Wednesday. I think I have figured out that my backswing is still way too flat. Thumbs up and feel like I am trying to hit a slice, should fix the problem. I actually fooled around with my video camera last weekend and figured out that I am not quite where Adam wanted me from the last time I worked with him.
I am playing a great course named We Ko Pa on the Fort McDowell Reservation on Friday thanks to an Annuity Wholesaler. I'll probably waste a really good score playing with my co-workers, but that's the way golf is.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Some Lessons In NL Tournament Poker
I heard Paul Wasicka (2nd place at WSOP Main Event 2006) on Rounders, the Poker Show and he mentioned that he had blogged about his Main Event run. His blog is at www.kwickfish.blogspot.com. I went and checked it out, and man do I have a lot to learn.
Here is an excerpt from his Day 1 post:
Here is an excerpt from his Day 1 post:
Day 1 - $10,000 Main Event
Ok, here is how my day went...After calling
a few raises with suited connectors and pocket pairs and missing all flops I was
down to around 8.5k. Then there was a pot where I called a raise with QJo and
the flop came 8,7,6. He bet 225 and I made it 600 in position. He called and the
turn came a 3 (board is rainbow) and he checks. I bet 1,200 and he quickly
called. River came an ace and he checked again, now I must win this pot as he
probably has J,J or T,T so I throw out a "value" bet of 2,500 and he folds.
That put me back on track to 11k or so. Then a pot came up where someone
raised to 150 in mid position and two callers. I look down at AKo and make it
700 and everyone folds except one of the callers. Flop comes T, 6, 4 rainbow and
he checks. I bet 1,000 and he makes it 3,000. I look at his remaining chips to
make sure he can still fold, sure enough he has 7k behind and I move all-in and
he folds J,J face up. This pot brought me up to around 16k.
Shortly after I call a raise in position with T9s and the flop came A,J,8.
I immediately knew I would raise him if he bet and check if he checked, knowing
he would bet a mediocre hand that would fold to a raise and would check a
monster. Well, he checked, and I checked. Turn came a 7 and now he bets 500. Can
you be any more obvious that you flopped a set buddy? I make it 1,500 and he
quickly makes it 2,000 more. Now here I had a couple different ways to play it -
I could go all-in, knowing he'll call an all-in and 80% of my chips will be at
risk as a 4:1 favorite or I could just flat call and see if he boats up before
committing all those chips. The only problem with the latter is if the board
gets scary I might not get his whole stack if he just check/calls or
check/folds. I decide to move it and he calls after a long think and turns over
the 8,8. The river pairs the board and leaves me out of breath....just kidding,
the river bricked and I took down the 22k pot, now up to 27k.
A few rounds later I call a raise with QJo and the flop came Ad, Td, 7. The
raiser made it 500 and I decided to call, either to take it away on the turn if
he doesn't have the ace, hit the gutshot if he does have the ace, or bluff the
diamonds if he has the ace. Turn came an offsuit 9, giving me the open ender and
now he bets 1,200, leaving himself with 5,500. Easy call to make, because now
I'm sure he has the ace, and if an 8, K or diamond come, the pot is mine. River
is the 6d and he fires out 1,500. I grab my big stack of yellows (1k chips) to
put him all-in, but then think for a second and decide to throw out 4k, for a
raise of only 2.5k, which would leave him with 1,500 if he called and he was
wrong. He gave out a big sigh and thought for a while, but ultimately couldn't
stand the heat and folded A,T face up for top two pair.
Then a pot came up where I raised to 700 with AcQc and got two callers from
the button and the BB. Flop came Jc, 7c, 6 and the first guy checked. I bet 700
and the button called. BB check-raises to 2,100 and I think for a bit and decide
he has a big hand, maybe two pair or a set and don't want to play a monster pot
until I'm there, so I flat call. Plus, flat calling here might get the button in
there with clubs of his own or a straight draw that might pay me off if his
straight and my flush get there. He ends up calling the 2,100 as well. The turn
came an offsuit queen and the raiser bets a mere 1,300. Call, right? Well, not
exactly... I mean, what does this guy have?! He doesn't want to protect against
the flush draw? He had two callers behind him and now he's underbetting the pot?
There is over 9k in the pot and both of them have less than 7k in front of them.
I'm all-in. Button folds and the BB thinks forever and decides to fold,
disgusted with himself.
Now I'm up to 46k. A tight player in early position makes it 700 and I look
down at K,K right behind him. I decide to flat call, not wanting to play an
all-in pot preflop, also trying to induce a squeeze play by some of the internet
players at the table. Button calls and the flop came A,7,6. He throws out only
600 and I call and the button folds. Turn is an 8 and he checks, I check. River
is a 5, he checks, I check. He shows A,A and I show off my K,K, only losing
1,300 when most players wouuld have played an all-in pot preflop and lost over
8k.
I raise with KJs in early position to 700, one caller. The BB moves all-in
for 1,000 more and I call, as does the caller. Flop came Kd, Jd, 7 and I bet 2k,
he calls. Turn is a 7 and I go all-in and he instantly calls with A,K and the
other dude shows A,Q. I take down the pot for an 8k profit and now I'm up to 54k
and CRUISING. Average was probably under 15k at this point.
Then a pot came up where a late position raiser looks at his cards for a
split second and immediately makes it 600. I don't even bother to look at my
cards, knowing I'm going to raise no matter what cards I have. I make it 2k and
the BB immediately calls and the raiser folded quickly. Here is where I made a
crucial mistake - I should have just given up, knowing that the BB isn't going
to call a raise and a re-raise without a huge hand, but I just got so frustrated
that I read the situation correctly and had a guy wake up with a hand behind me.
I look at my cards and see a K3o and the flop came K,T,9. I should have either
check/folded or bet out and given it up if I got called or raised, but instead I
check/pulled on him and he instantly called with A,K. The turn came an A and I
was drawing dead. I lost 12k this hand and now my table image was shot, right
before the rounds were going to 100/200 with 25 in antes (where stealing becomes
a must). The table then proceded to 'high five' the guy who won, as they were so
happy that someone had finally won a pot off me and the bullying would now slow
down. Though it was pretty poor ettiquite on their part, it somehow made me feel
like a true world class player when the table is releived to see my chips
diminish.
This was a huge turning point in momentum, which is the weakest part of my
game, as discussed in the previous Pot Limit post, but I had to continue and put
this pot past me as best as I could. A round later I raise in middle position
with KQs and get called by the cutoff. Flop came J,T,7 and I bet 1,000 and he
makes it 3,000. Now, because of the K,3 incident, my bluff equity is shot and I
can't re-raise and take down the pot. So I just flat call. The turn came a rag
and I check and he bets 3k again and I call. River was another rag and it went
check/check. He shows A,J and takes it down. So many damn outs and I know it
would have been mine if I hadn't had to show that K,3 earlier. Now I have to
really tighten it up until the table breaks.
I fold most hands, then get moved to the softest table imaginable. I win a
few pots without any showdowns and then get moved shortly after to a new table
that has a few good, but unknown players at it. I steal a ton of pots the first
few rounds and I'm working my stack back to around 42k.
There was a pot where I called a raise in the SB with Q9s and the BB
called. I flopped a flush and the raiser bet 2k and I check-raised to 5k and he
called. I shoved all-in on the brick turn and he folded K,K no club face up, as
if it were a tough laydown for his whole tournament life. At this table it was
mostly preflop and flop poker, very few showdowns or bluffs, just continuation
bets and check/raises.
A pot came up where I raised in middle position and got called by the
button and the BB immediately moved all-in for 10k. I was pretty confident he
didn't have a huge hand, but had to fold, as I thought the initial caller still
to act had a huge hand and was trapping me. I had 9,9 and reluctantly mucked and
then he proudly shows off the T3o after the button folds.
I ended the day with 38k and now I'm at a table that I think will suit me
well. I have Phil Ivey across the table from me, but he has only 16k in chips at
the moment. I'm still agonizing about that K,3 blunder, but I have a good
support group here that is helping me pull through it. What I'm trying my best
to do right now is pretend that I'm starting a new tournament on Tuesday, in
which the starting chips are 25k (the average going into day 2 so far) and I'm
sitting on 38k. I'll post day 2 later in the week.
I guess I am really impressed with the way he puts his opponents on hands and his ability to think ahead about which cards can hit that he can bluff with. Sometimes these are labeled as bluff outs. His hand with KQ when he flops the inside straight draw is a great example.
I need to make sure to refer back to his posts from time to time, if I ever play a large tournament again.
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