Alright well I know sometimes blogs get boring to read, especially if it's just a bunch of preaching or talking, so here's some action! I'll try and give you some hands as they happen chronologically in the session. I'll set this hand up for you real quick: I had been pretty quiet up to this point, folding a lot for a few orbits...still very early in my session.
All of a sudden I find myself in a Kill Pot, stakes are 18/36. Villain1 has been on a sick heater. He's had aces twice, kings twice, and is raising garbage from every position and hitting. He's also been shown to bluff alot and has yet to call down super light...so he's playing a bit like a maniac, but still trying to find folds on the end (i.e. he's not gonna showdown a-high or a pair of threes). I felt like I could exploit him on the turn/river in this hand.
Hero has KJ of spades in MP...there is no kill-blind...the stakes simply double
Folds to hero, hero calls (no point in making it $36, usually if you play it like that you'll win the $9 in blinds...(if there is a kill-blind, I raise here), folds to button who calls, Villain raises from the BB, Hero and Button call.
Flop: 993 one spade
Villain checks, Hero checks, Button checks
I thought the flop check was a bit odd...but I had seen villain take this line with air once and with a hand once, so either was possible I guess.
Turn: T of spades
Bingo...good card I think. Villain leads out, and I think for a second before I say "raise" and throw out 24 chips into the pot. Gutterball, K-high flush draw, and two overs...I like my hand right now for the most part. The button folds and the action goes back to the maniac who asks "how much is it more to call?" The dealer tells him it's 12 chips or $36...shit. Now I know villain has an actual hand and not just some whiffed connectors or even ace-high. He tanks for a bit, and then finally calls. Bah.
River: K of clubs
Orrrrr not bah? Villain checks, and this time I push out 12 chips and think I'm value-betting vs. QQ-TT, maybe even 88-66 with the way this guy had been playing. Unfortunately villain thinks for a little while longer before saying "well alright man, I know you got a nine, nice hand" and calls. I showed Kings up only and he took a deep sigh as he showed a couple red aces...again. Mother^&*^*&Hbre...of course this guy plays like a jackass throughout the time I'm there, but picks up Aces in a kill pot against me. I really wish he could find that fold button on the turn...at Cap, there's a $35 aces cracked jackpot (not nearly as awesome as Cache Creek's $100), so the $35 back when it costs him $72 to call down in that spot isn't that great...but it definitely helps I guess. That's a tough laydown to make, especially since he under-repped his hand a bit.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
A New Yellow Chip Game (15/30)
So after an absolute awful showing at Cache, I decided to play some 9/18 against the Saturday night drunktards at Capitol. It's rare that I have a Saturday night off, so I figured I should take advantage of it. I rolled in around midnight or so and saw a 9/18 interest list with a handful of people on it, two super huge 4/8 lists, and then noticed their main table was taken up by players with stacks of yellow $5 chips. "Wow, no way...they actually got it to run" I thought to myself. Sam says "no 9/18 game, but we do have 15/30." I had seen signs saying they'd start spreading it, but no way I thought it'd run. Maybe this game would pull the NL players away from their 50bb max buy in shove monkey game ($500 buy in over there...sick gambling).
There were two open seats so I took the two seat and surveyed the table. The one seat would be open the first half of the night, the second half would be a young, muscular Asian kid with a mohawk and gangster like persona, came from the NL game. Seat three was this Asian player who kept getting coolered, it obv affected his game play and turned him super-passive. Eventually he went busted and was replaced by Sam the Floorman who plays pretty decently. Seat 4 was Chris (dealer, floor) from Cache Creek. Good player for the most part, tad more timid than I'd like a player to be, but he was def a solid thinking player. Seat 5 was this nerdy white guy wearing a practically see-through hanes t-shirt, glasses, and a Laker hat. I think his entire point of being there was to tilt me...he was the maniac at the table...played like absolute dogshit. Seat 6 was this reg Asian guy named Wilson...I overheard him say he enjoys higher staked LHE games "like this one" and it pretty much showed...he played pretty well most of the night. Seat 7 was a Slappish (slightly loose/slightly passive) Asian guy who was obv a NL player first, lhe player second. Seat 8 was empty for the first half, then later filled by a NL player (not very good at limit) and seat 9 was a mixture of people, but toward the end was this Mexican looking East-Indian guy who talked way too much and played almost as bad as seat 5. If I had to rank everyone...I'd say it'd go:
1. Wilson(6)/Me(2)/Chris(4)
2. Sam(3)/Nit(3)/Slappy(7)
3. Mohawk(1)/NLdonk(8)
4. Laker(5)/Douchebag(9)
The first couple of hands I'm going to talk about are a couple tough beats I took. I started the table off pretty slow, but I won a big pot with AK of clubs early on that eased the pain of being card dead while the Laker fan went on a murdering spree. He raised every hand with absolute shit and won every hand. He had about $2k in front of him when I left...after being down to about $400. I lulled alot, then these two hands came up within two orbits and sent me from +$300ish to down a couple hundred.
The first hand I was dealt AKos UTG+1 and raise, I get called by three spots behind me (Laker, Slappy, Nldonk) and the BB in front of me (douchebag). Flop comes A97 rainbow, checks to me, I bet, get called in every spot. Meh...Turn is a red deuce, good card. I bet, called by Laker and d-bag. I'm thinking "deuce, deuce" for the river and hear seat 5 ask for the same. "huh?" River is a two, checks to me, I bet, Laker raises and I say "wow, I thought I heard you say deuce." He gets all jumpy and starts acting nervous "haha yeah I did blah blah" so I call and he turns over 92 of spades. Ummm...yeeeeah. "He had a backdoor flush draw" I hear seat nine say...lol. Nice cold-call pre, nice flop...nice turn...lol. Sam just looks at me and says "wow, I thought that'd be a perfect river for you in a 15/30 game." No kidding man.
The next hand is probably an orbit later where I raise with a couple black kings. Laker 3-bets me (good), Slappy calls (wtf?), NLdonks calls, seat 9 calls from the BB, I cap, we're 5-handed to a flop of T-high...T64 I believe. Checks to me, I bet, all call. Turn is a J...definitely ugly...but still. Checks to me, I bet, all but slappy call. River is a 4. Great river card. Check to me, I bet, call, call, seat nine starts tanking/talking and talking about if he raises and I re-raise he pukes blah blah, he might have me blah blah...I just start praying he has AJ and thinks TP might deserve a raise. He finally just calls and I show the black Kings. Sam says "oh man that's way good" until seat nine says "that's not good enough" and shows 43 of hearts. LOL. I just hear Chris say "wow, wow wow, this is your guys' main game? I played at Bellagio vs. guys waiting for their 100/200 game who played like this, but this is your guys' main game and they play like this hahahaha." Sam says "man that's two rivers now that looked good for you" and I just respond with a "yeah, guess I just need to start asking the dealer to only deal flops and turns, no rivers :-)"
After those two hands I was stuck a couple stacks and was seriously debating hanging myself with my belt in the nearest bathroom, unfortunately the beams they have in their stalls aren't all that sturdy. I went three or four more orbits, winning a couple smallish pots and getting pretty close to even, then I started to feel the exhaustion setting in. I only slept maybe three hours after the night at Cache, so I could feel myself coming close to dozing off at the table. The Superdonk finally came over to me and said he was ready to bounce whenever I was ready, so I told him a couple more orbits and I was good. Nothing exciting happened after that as I cashed out $420 of my original $500 buy in...things definitely could have gone worse, but they also could have gone much better. Oh well, shit happens, especially playing against window-lickers in a 15/30 game. Hopefully I take a couple racks off the table next time. Thanks for reading.
There were two open seats so I took the two seat and surveyed the table. The one seat would be open the first half of the night, the second half would be a young, muscular Asian kid with a mohawk and gangster like persona, came from the NL game. Seat three was this Asian player who kept getting coolered, it obv affected his game play and turned him super-passive. Eventually he went busted and was replaced by Sam the Floorman who plays pretty decently. Seat 4 was Chris (dealer, floor) from Cache Creek. Good player for the most part, tad more timid than I'd like a player to be, but he was def a solid thinking player. Seat 5 was this nerdy white guy wearing a practically see-through hanes t-shirt, glasses, and a Laker hat. I think his entire point of being there was to tilt me...he was the maniac at the table...played like absolute dogshit. Seat 6 was this reg Asian guy named Wilson...I overheard him say he enjoys higher staked LHE games "like this one" and it pretty much showed...he played pretty well most of the night. Seat 7 was a Slappish (slightly loose/slightly passive) Asian guy who was obv a NL player first, lhe player second. Seat 8 was empty for the first half, then later filled by a NL player (not very good at limit) and seat 9 was a mixture of people, but toward the end was this Mexican looking East-Indian guy who talked way too much and played almost as bad as seat 5. If I had to rank everyone...I'd say it'd go:
1. Wilson(6)/Me(2)/Chris(4)
2. Sam(3)/Nit(3)/Slappy(7)
3. Mohawk(1)/NLdonk(8)
4. Laker(5)/Douchebag(9)
The first couple of hands I'm going to talk about are a couple tough beats I took. I started the table off pretty slow, but I won a big pot with AK of clubs early on that eased the pain of being card dead while the Laker fan went on a murdering spree. He raised every hand with absolute shit and won every hand. He had about $2k in front of him when I left...after being down to about $400. I lulled alot, then these two hands came up within two orbits and sent me from +$300ish to down a couple hundred.
The first hand I was dealt AKos UTG+1 and raise, I get called by three spots behind me (Laker, Slappy, Nldonk) and the BB in front of me (douchebag). Flop comes A97 rainbow, checks to me, I bet, get called in every spot. Meh...Turn is a red deuce, good card. I bet, called by Laker and d-bag. I'm thinking "deuce, deuce" for the river and hear seat 5 ask for the same. "huh?" River is a two, checks to me, I bet, Laker raises and I say "wow, I thought I heard you say deuce." He gets all jumpy and starts acting nervous "haha yeah I did blah blah" so I call and he turns over 92 of spades. Ummm...yeeeeah. "He had a backdoor flush draw" I hear seat nine say...lol. Nice cold-call pre, nice flop...nice turn...lol. Sam just looks at me and says "wow, I thought that'd be a perfect river for you in a 15/30 game." No kidding man.
The next hand is probably an orbit later where I raise with a couple black kings. Laker 3-bets me (good), Slappy calls (wtf?), NLdonks calls, seat 9 calls from the BB, I cap, we're 5-handed to a flop of T-high...T64 I believe. Checks to me, I bet, all call. Turn is a J...definitely ugly...but still. Checks to me, I bet, all but slappy call. River is a 4. Great river card. Check to me, I bet, call, call, seat nine starts tanking/talking and talking about if he raises and I re-raise he pukes blah blah, he might have me blah blah...I just start praying he has AJ and thinks TP might deserve a raise. He finally just calls and I show the black Kings. Sam says "oh man that's way good" until seat nine says "that's not good enough" and shows 43 of hearts. LOL. I just hear Chris say "wow, wow wow, this is your guys' main game? I played at Bellagio vs. guys waiting for their 100/200 game who played like this, but this is your guys' main game and they play like this hahahaha." Sam says "man that's two rivers now that looked good for you" and I just respond with a "yeah, guess I just need to start asking the dealer to only deal flops and turns, no rivers :-)"
After those two hands I was stuck a couple stacks and was seriously debating hanging myself with my belt in the nearest bathroom, unfortunately the beams they have in their stalls aren't all that sturdy. I went three or four more orbits, winning a couple smallish pots and getting pretty close to even, then I started to feel the exhaustion setting in. I only slept maybe three hours after the night at Cache, so I could feel myself coming close to dozing off at the table. The Superdonk finally came over to me and said he was ready to bounce whenever I was ready, so I told him a couple more orbits and I was good. Nothing exciting happened after that as I cashed out $420 of my original $500 buy in...things definitely could have gone worse, but they also could have gone much better. Oh well, shit happens, especially playing against window-lickers in a 15/30 game. Hopefully I take a couple racks off the table next time. Thanks for reading.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Return to the Creek
Not as good a return as I had hoped...down 50bbs much? Yup, dropped about $400 after running just god awful. I flopped a few sets that got beat, lost a few significant kill pots to a couple nasty rivers...oh well.
I'd talk about the session some more, but just thinking about the hands are making me go on life tilt. I'd say the dirtiest beat I received was a running straight from this older asian lady to crack my aces in a kill pot...aside from that, the hands I played weren't overly nasty or exciting...standard beats I guess you could say.
I actually have a few different days off from work this week than normal, so I may be playing a few more sessions here in the next five days or so. Stay tuned for updates.
I'd talk about the session some more, but just thinking about the hands are making me go on life tilt. I'd say the dirtiest beat I received was a running straight from this older asian lady to crack my aces in a kill pot...aside from that, the hands I played weren't overly nasty or exciting...standard beats I guess you could say.
I actually have a few different days off from work this week than normal, so I may be playing a few more sessions here in the next five days or so. Stay tuned for updates.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Return to the 9/18
So I've got to make this somewhat quick, now that I've been up for more than 24 hours...anyway, I went to Capitol mainly out of boredom yesterday and figured I'd play a six hour session or so before work. The 4/8 lists were packed, and I noticed a full 9/18 table with no waiting list so I said "f it"
Now, I've been semi-avoiding the game for a few reasons, all of which presented themselves yesterday. First off, you never know when the game is going to break. It came pretty close a few times throughout the session, once when I was stuck close to $400...
I hate having that game break when I'm stuck around a rack ($300) because if it does break, $300 turns into three racks (4/8) instead of just the one. Basically I don't want to get stuck in a deep hole and find out I'll have to dig my way out with chopsticks. Secondly, the game can get nitty. I was smart enough to leave at around 9pm instead of waiting to the last minute to go to work. The game had toughened up considerably since I sat down around 3pm, so calling it quits a bit early was the smart thing to do. Lastly, the game does softplay at times between the regs...and since it's their homecourt, there's basically nothing I can say or do to stop them, especially since some of the players in the game are dealers off shift. Thankfully they play bad enough (and seemingly) not working together so the game is still beatable, I'm just constantly weary of what's going on.
Anyway, I'm rambling now and it shows, so I'll just say I got kicked kinda hard early on. Couldn't even find cards to raise from anywhere I was so card dead, then did find some cards to raise but not hold...eventually I was down close to $400, but found some good hands and good spots to swing back to +$320 ($720 swing) before calling it a night. Weeeeeeeeee? Yeah, I'd say so.
I should be playing some 4/8-Kill tonight at the creek with the Superdonk, then maybe some 9/18 Saturday at Cap or back to the creek for more 4/8...guess we'll have to see. Hopefully I find time to come back and blog about some hands from this session though, I had a few interesting spots.
KJ of spades kill pot (kill pot is 18/36 stakes)
Aces kill pot
KJ of spades huge flop I blank out on
Catch ya guys later
Now, I've been semi-avoiding the game for a few reasons, all of which presented themselves yesterday. First off, you never know when the game is going to break. It came pretty close a few times throughout the session, once when I was stuck close to $400...
I hate having that game break when I'm stuck around a rack ($300) because if it does break, $300 turns into three racks (4/8) instead of just the one. Basically I don't want to get stuck in a deep hole and find out I'll have to dig my way out with chopsticks. Secondly, the game can get nitty. I was smart enough to leave at around 9pm instead of waiting to the last minute to go to work. The game had toughened up considerably since I sat down around 3pm, so calling it quits a bit early was the smart thing to do. Lastly, the game does softplay at times between the regs...and since it's their homecourt, there's basically nothing I can say or do to stop them, especially since some of the players in the game are dealers off shift. Thankfully they play bad enough (and seemingly) not working together so the game is still beatable, I'm just constantly weary of what's going on.
Anyway, I'm rambling now and it shows, so I'll just say I got kicked kinda hard early on. Couldn't even find cards to raise from anywhere I was so card dead, then did find some cards to raise but not hold...eventually I was down close to $400, but found some good hands and good spots to swing back to +$320 ($720 swing) before calling it a night. Weeeeeeeeee? Yeah, I'd say so.
I should be playing some 4/8-Kill tonight at the creek with the Superdonk, then maybe some 9/18 Saturday at Cap or back to the creek for more 4/8...guess we'll have to see. Hopefully I find time to come back and blog about some hands from this session though, I had a few interesting spots.
KJ of spades kill pot (kill pot is 18/36 stakes)
Aces kill pot
KJ of spades huge flop I blank out on
Catch ya guys later
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
June Swoon
So yeah...so much for finishing up those Vegas trip reports. I won Friday-Sunday and ended up finishing up a few hundred bucks poker wise...almost paid for my whole trip, which is always cool. Anyway, I've played a few Capitol sessions since Vegas, +300, +40 and now -200 after tonight...
Tonight I just ran kinda shitty. I wasn't "up" money-wise once the entire time...can't really say much about the session other than the fact that I missed a few big pots where I couldn't hold/couldn't hit or I kept finishing second with kicker problems. No big deal...
First big hand at the kill table I think I won with a rivered flush in a kill pot, so I actually went from down a hundo from the 4/8 regular game to almost even, then I got involved in this hand.
The table was extremely loose early on, and I looked down at a pair of Kings. It gets limped in like four spots, I'm in the cutoff (seat six) and raise, this terribly loose guy behind me calls, called around...
Flop: KJ7 with the King and the seven being spades...bingo?
It gets checked to this Korean guy (seat two) sitting on roughly $800 in chips (he had been there all day and possibly the night before supposedly) donks into the field, this black guy to his immediate left who plays just awful (seat three) raises, folds to me, I three-ball, guy behind me caps...everyone calls...we're four-way to the turn.
Turn: 3 of clubs
I still have the nuts...checks to me, I bet, everyone calls. I guess my hand is somehow face-up...everyone else I assume is drawing (obv lol)
River: 8 of diamonds...sweet...no spades or club
Korean guy donks, seat three raises to $10 all-in and during this time, the Korean guy is giving a semi-speech. I had seen him do this about an orbit before this where he had a fullhouse (basically the nuts) and kinda discouraged people from raising. I was pretty positive he was really strong, so I only called the ten, the guy behind me disgustedly folds Ax of spades, and the Korean guy calls the extra $2and shows T9os for the double-gutter on the flop that just had to get there. The black guy showed K8 of hearts (yeah that's no good) and dug into his pocket for another rack. Ahhhh good times.
I think I've said this in my blog pretty recently, but once again I just really want to emphasize how little I care about results now and how much it has helped my steam control/overall image and attitude at the table. I've always had pretty decent steam control, whether it's avoiding playing too loose or even too tight (yes, there is such a thing as playing too tight), I really feel like the advice I read from WillinNewHaven on Cardplayer has really helped establish my current demeanor at the table. I'll paraphrase real quick:
"Distance yourself from the results, all you can do is make as many correct decisions as possible, the rest is just cards."
It's so true, yet so many people let the results get the best of them. Whether it's a steam raise the next hand, a fear of raising AK for the next couple of orbits, or just having a shitty attitude while you're playing (no one wants to pay off the angry guy that keeps face-mucking the dealer). Anyway, what I'm getting at is people let the results of certain big pots incorrectly affect how they should be playing their hands and how much fun they are having at the table. Let's not just focus on negative thinking either...there's also players who are guilty of loosening up their standards and seeing flops with shit just because they're currently running on god-mode. It all catches up to you in the end. Remember, life is just one monster session in the grand scheme of things.
And I know it's hard to have fun at the table while you're losing, but just try it. Shoot the shit with the guy next to you, shrug off the flopped set that couldn't hold, muck the nut-flush/gutterball straight-flush combo draw (I had one of those tonight too lol) without showing the guy next to you how many outs you had...here's a newsflash: only you give a fuck. When a guy next to me shows me his hand, I could give three shits that he just missed an OESD and a Q-high flush, but I'm kinda happy he showed me what he's folding because now I know that he's only calling along with that type of hand on the flop, he's limping Q7 of clubs from MP, etc. By showing your cards, you're giving away pieces of information about how you play that players should have to pay to see. And don't think that just because it's 4/8 no one is watching...no matter what level you play at, there's always going to be someone out there paying attention.
That's enough ranting from me, thanks for reading; hopefully it helped you somehow.
Tonight I just ran kinda shitty. I wasn't "up" money-wise once the entire time...can't really say much about the session other than the fact that I missed a few big pots where I couldn't hold/couldn't hit or I kept finishing second with kicker problems. No big deal...
First big hand at the kill table I think I won with a rivered flush in a kill pot, so I actually went from down a hundo from the 4/8 regular game to almost even, then I got involved in this hand.
The table was extremely loose early on, and I looked down at a pair of Kings. It gets limped in like four spots, I'm in the cutoff (seat six) and raise, this terribly loose guy behind me calls, called around...
Flop: KJ7 with the King and the seven being spades...bingo?
It gets checked to this Korean guy (seat two) sitting on roughly $800 in chips (he had been there all day and possibly the night before supposedly) donks into the field, this black guy to his immediate left who plays just awful (seat three) raises, folds to me, I three-ball, guy behind me caps...everyone calls...we're four-way to the turn.
Turn: 3 of clubs
I still have the nuts...checks to me, I bet, everyone calls. I guess my hand is somehow face-up...everyone else I assume is drawing (obv lol)
River: 8 of diamonds...sweet...no spades or club
Korean guy donks, seat three raises to $10 all-in and during this time, the Korean guy is giving a semi-speech. I had seen him do this about an orbit before this where he had a fullhouse (basically the nuts) and kinda discouraged people from raising. I was pretty positive he was really strong, so I only called the ten, the guy behind me disgustedly folds Ax of spades, and the Korean guy calls the extra $2and shows T9os for the double-gutter on the flop that just had to get there. The black guy showed K8 of hearts (yeah that's no good) and dug into his pocket for another rack. Ahhhh good times.
I think I've said this in my blog pretty recently, but once again I just really want to emphasize how little I care about results now and how much it has helped my steam control/overall image and attitude at the table. I've always had pretty decent steam control, whether it's avoiding playing too loose or even too tight (yes, there is such a thing as playing too tight), I really feel like the advice I read from WillinNewHaven on Cardplayer has really helped establish my current demeanor at the table. I'll paraphrase real quick:
"Distance yourself from the results, all you can do is make as many correct decisions as possible, the rest is just cards."
It's so true, yet so many people let the results get the best of them. Whether it's a steam raise the next hand, a fear of raising AK for the next couple of orbits, or just having a shitty attitude while you're playing (no one wants to pay off the angry guy that keeps face-mucking the dealer). Anyway, what I'm getting at is people let the results of certain big pots incorrectly affect how they should be playing their hands and how much fun they are having at the table. Let's not just focus on negative thinking either...there's also players who are guilty of loosening up their standards and seeing flops with shit just because they're currently running on god-mode. It all catches up to you in the end. Remember, life is just one monster session in the grand scheme of things.
And I know it's hard to have fun at the table while you're losing, but just try it. Shoot the shit with the guy next to you, shrug off the flopped set that couldn't hold, muck the nut-flush/gutterball straight-flush combo draw (I had one of those tonight too lol) without showing the guy next to you how many outs you had...here's a newsflash: only you give a fuck. When a guy next to me shows me his hand, I could give three shits that he just missed an OESD and a Q-high flush, but I'm kinda happy he showed me what he's folding because now I know that he's only calling along with that type of hand on the flop, he's limping Q7 of clubs from MP, etc. By showing your cards, you're giving away pieces of information about how you play that players should have to pay to see. And don't think that just because it's 4/8 no one is watching...no matter what level you play at, there's always going to be someone out there paying attention.
That's enough ranting from me, thanks for reading; hopefully it helped you somehow.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Vegas Posts
So in case you didn't notice, I started adding Vegas blog entries as though I blogged about them in real time. For example, my first Vegas post is on June 3rd...the first day of my trip...and it follows each session for each date yada yada. The first four sessions are up, the next four should be posted sometime tomorrow. Time to sleep!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Time to Catch it Up
Alright well as has become the norm, the blog has been neglected yet again. After my royal flush, I worked 13 out of 15 days and basically hated life...went to Vegas for a week, came back and worked for a couple days, and now here I am.
Vegas was alright poker wise. I started off $700 in the hole the first night and spent the rest of the trip digging myself out of it. I ended the trip with almost all of it paid for (I think the trip cost me $200 overall...definitely cool for a five day trip).
I played at Capitol last night and started off awful, but proceeded to rebound and go on a monster heater. My lowest point was down $160, my highest point being about +$340. I ended up cashing out $300, couple that with food and drinks I paid with from my chipstack throughout the night...I had a pretty good score.
Maybe I'll play tomorrow during the day before work, but I'm not entirely sure about that. I'm gonna be a dork today and go play Rockband at my buddy's house (I can sing and play most songs I know on Medium lol)...if I don't know the songs, I usually just play guitar on medium. Fun stuff hehe :-)
Look for me to update this thing ~soon...within a week or so. I definitely want to talk about a lot of different sessions, especially the 8/16 game at Bellagio where I finally ran well/played well and a few different Omaha h/l sessions where I *gasp* was probably the best player at the table. These players were simply awful throughout the trip.
Anyway, check back soon. Thanks for reading.
Vegas was alright poker wise. I started off $700 in the hole the first night and spent the rest of the trip digging myself out of it. I ended the trip with almost all of it paid for (I think the trip cost me $200 overall...definitely cool for a five day trip).
I played at Capitol last night and started off awful, but proceeded to rebound and go on a monster heater. My lowest point was down $160, my highest point being about +$340. I ended up cashing out $300, couple that with food and drinks I paid with from my chipstack throughout the night...I had a pretty good score.
Maybe I'll play tomorrow during the day before work, but I'm not entirely sure about that. I'm gonna be a dork today and go play Rockband at my buddy's house (I can sing and play most songs I know on Medium lol)...if I don't know the songs, I usually just play guitar on medium. Fun stuff hehe :-)
Look for me to update this thing ~soon...within a week or so. I definitely want to talk about a lot of different sessions, especially the 8/16 game at Bellagio where I finally ran well/played well and a few different Omaha h/l sessions where I *gasp* was probably the best player at the table. These players were simply awful throughout the trip.
Anyway, check back soon. Thanks for reading.
Friday, June 6, 2008
JV Session Six: Mirage O8 and 10/20...see a pattern?
5/10 O8: +$115
10/20: +$60
I think I woke up around 6pm or so Friday after playing all night at Mirage and then winning some money at Harrah's 1/2NL game. I felt awful, was still running kinda shitty, so I decided to play some O8 with Shabba. I ran pretty well at O8 this trip, and think I came up about a hundo again after I rivered quads against this asian girl (not cute, but would def get a grudge hump from me) named Rose who I ended up playing alot of O8, 10/20, and even 8/16 at Bellagio with. Too bad she wasn't all that cute, because she commented on my game (poker) a few different times throughout the trip...the first time I thought it was a bit back-handed "you play omaha a lot better than you play 10/20" but she explained herself and said she meant I play Omaha better than she's seen around Mirage. Cool...whatever. I just know basic concepts and have good pre-flop card selection...but then again, everyone there is so awful it's easy to see why she'd say that.
Moving on, the 10/20 table that night was a lot of fun. Some cute thick girl with a gwen stefani hat was playing out of the one seat, a few different guys would occupy the two, deuce in three, tommy in four, me in five, pika in the seven, drunk/loud Canadian/Scot in the eight, older botox fake *****/lips (meh...not hot, sorry pika) asian chick in the nine and eventually Rose (grudge hump) moved to the 10 seat.
I ran a lot better at 10/20 this night than most of the others, as I had Kings hold a few different times, mostly against Rose. It was funny, her and Tommy kept talking a lot of shit back and forth, both obv hated each other. At one point he leaned over and thanked me for steamrolling her with the few hands I played against her so far...
I can't remember exactly how much I made, it wasn't anything significant, but Deuce crushed the game again for at least $700+. The table quieted up considerably after the Canadian guy's red bull vodkas made him too drunk to continue the obnoxious trash talk...him and I had a pretty good Mexico vs Canada shit-talk fest going which was pretty fun for all involved. I think we finally broke the game when we dropped down to five-handed (me, deuce, pika, canadian guy, and someone else)...there was basically no money to be made off the table anymore. I called it an earlier night/morning than I did the night before and tried to focus on getting enough sleep for Saturday.
10/20: +$60
I think I woke up around 6pm or so Friday after playing all night at Mirage and then winning some money at Harrah's 1/2NL game. I felt awful, was still running kinda shitty, so I decided to play some O8 with Shabba. I ran pretty well at O8 this trip, and think I came up about a hundo again after I rivered quads against this asian girl (not cute, but would def get a grudge hump from me) named Rose who I ended up playing alot of O8, 10/20, and even 8/16 at Bellagio with. Too bad she wasn't all that cute, because she commented on my game (poker) a few different times throughout the trip...the first time I thought it was a bit back-handed "you play omaha a lot better than you play 10/20" but she explained herself and said she meant I play Omaha better than she's seen around Mirage. Cool...whatever. I just know basic concepts and have good pre-flop card selection...but then again, everyone there is so awful it's easy to see why she'd say that.
Moving on, the 10/20 table that night was a lot of fun. Some cute thick girl with a gwen stefani hat was playing out of the one seat, a few different guys would occupy the two, deuce in three, tommy in four, me in five, pika in the seven, drunk/loud Canadian/Scot in the eight, older botox fake *****/lips (meh...not hot, sorry pika) asian chick in the nine and eventually Rose (grudge hump) moved to the 10 seat.
I ran a lot better at 10/20 this night than most of the others, as I had Kings hold a few different times, mostly against Rose. It was funny, her and Tommy kept talking a lot of shit back and forth, both obv hated each other. At one point he leaned over and thanked me for steamrolling her with the few hands I played against her so far...
I can't remember exactly how much I made, it wasn't anything significant, but Deuce crushed the game again for at least $700+. The table quieted up considerably after the Canadian guy's red bull vodkas made him too drunk to continue the obnoxious trash talk...him and I had a pretty good Mexico vs Canada shit-talk fest going which was pretty fun for all involved. I think we finally broke the game when we dropped down to five-handed (me, deuce, pika, canadian guy, and someone else)...there was basically no money to be made off the table anymore. I called it an earlier night/morning than I did the night before and tried to focus on getting enough sleep for Saturday.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
JV Session Five: Mirage O8 and 10/20; Harrah's 1/2 NL
5/10 O8: +$130
10/20: -$20
1/2 NL: +$140
The O8 was so good Thurs night because this doofus sat down with $600 and live-straddled for about an hour until he was out of money. Some really awesome things doofus did:
- Jammed up a 245 flop with a naked 3...about 20 minutes later I heard him say "oh you have to use two cards in Omaha. K got it...no problem, I got this game now."
- Looks at his first two cards and hear him say "wow, I got to raise, even just by looking at two cards." Turns out the first two cards was a pair of nines
- Watch him jam up a pot where he has a King-high flush draw and gutty...both for the high hand, he has no low draw...guy to my direct left has the nut flush draw to go with his nut low draw and proceeds to cornhole the doofus for an easy ~$200+ pot.
- One of the last hands doofus raises (completely standard) I call with some double suited junk out of the BB and we're heads up. The flop comes Q-high and I have a diamond flush...9-high I believe. I check, he checks behind. Turn is a blank and I now have a low draw, I bet, he raises...I think "**** I just got hollywooded by the d-bag at the table" I call. River is a blank, no low got there, I check, he bets, I call and he says with extreme confidence, "THREE QUEENS." I quickly blurt out "yeah that's not good" and show my 9-high flush with pride, which causes the four other players (we're playing 6-handed) to start laughing pretty hard...I felt bad everyone was laughing at the guy...but not really.
I ended up playing with one of the guys next day, and he told me that he had told all of his friends about the guy spewing $600, but his favorite part of the night was the fact that some guy (me) could snap-call him with a 9-high flush with such confidence and be correct in doing so, that and my "yeah that's not good" line was hilarious.
10/20 was more of the same breaking even bullshit while Deuce destroyed the table for at least $700. I think we played against a really drunk guy five handed, and I kept getting my monsters cracked by him...oh well, can't fleece the donks everytime. This table broke up around 6am, so me and Deuce parted ways and I rolled back into Harrah's still itching to play a little bit.
Harrah's was my first winning NL session of the trip. My one big hand was where I get it all-in on the turn against tens with Kings on an all-unders board. The guy was kinda short, so I think I may have won $150 or so off that hand. It was a bit of a nitfest toward the end of the night (morning), so I hung around til about 930am or so and finally called it a day.
10/20: -$20
1/2 NL: +$140
The O8 was so good Thurs night because this doofus sat down with $600 and live-straddled for about an hour until he was out of money. Some really awesome things doofus did:
- Jammed up a 245 flop with a naked 3...about 20 minutes later I heard him say "oh you have to use two cards in Omaha. K got it...no problem, I got this game now."
- Looks at his first two cards and hear him say "wow, I got to raise, even just by looking at two cards." Turns out the first two cards was a pair of nines
- Watch him jam up a pot where he has a King-high flush draw and gutty...both for the high hand, he has no low draw...guy to my direct left has the nut flush draw to go with his nut low draw and proceeds to cornhole the doofus for an easy ~$200+ pot.
- One of the last hands doofus raises (completely standard) I call with some double suited junk out of the BB and we're heads up. The flop comes Q-high and I have a diamond flush...9-high I believe. I check, he checks behind. Turn is a blank and I now have a low draw, I bet, he raises...I think "**** I just got hollywooded by the d-bag at the table" I call. River is a blank, no low got there, I check, he bets, I call and he says with extreme confidence, "THREE QUEENS." I quickly blurt out "yeah that's not good" and show my 9-high flush with pride, which causes the four other players (we're playing 6-handed) to start laughing pretty hard...I felt bad everyone was laughing at the guy...but not really.
I ended up playing with one of the guys next day, and he told me that he had told all of his friends about the guy spewing $600, but his favorite part of the night was the fact that some guy (me) could snap-call him with a 9-high flush with such confidence and be correct in doing so, that and my "yeah that's not good" line was hilarious.
10/20 was more of the same breaking even bullshit while Deuce destroyed the table for at least $700. I think we played against a really drunk guy five handed, and I kept getting my monsters cracked by him...oh well, can't fleece the donks everytime. This table broke up around 6am, so me and Deuce parted ways and I rolled back into Harrah's still itching to play a little bit.
Harrah's was my first winning NL session of the trip. My one big hand was where I get it all-in on the turn against tens with Kings on an all-unders board. The guy was kinda short, so I think I may have won $150 or so off that hand. It was a bit of a nitfest toward the end of the night (morning), so I hung around til about 930am or so and finally called it a day.
JV Session Four: Treasure Island Donkament
After woofing down a Pastrami sandwich during Game 1 of the Lakers/Celtics Finals in the Mirage Sportsbook...
Shabba talked all of us into participating in a Treasure Island donkament for like $60. We all said what the hell and decided to meet at TI around 11pm and sign up for the donkament. I felt kinda dingy, so decided to go back to the room and grab a shower and change my clothes for a long night of cards. After getting out of my shower, I noticed a text from the guys saying the donkament started at 10pm, so I took my time getting changed. Of course ten minutes later I got another text saying they'd allow late sign ups until 11pm. Grrrrrrrrreat...I power walked my way from Harrahs to TI and got there with about five minutes to spare. Everyone seemed to be having fun, so I bought in with about 8BBs in my stack and proceeded to finish third out of the five us (maybe 20th out of 50 people altogether). I ran A7 sooooooooted into Kings after the guy limped them UTG (gg squeezeplay) and was out. Deuce was the bubble boy as he finished fifth (four paid). He ran his TPGK into Ace-high (d-bag CR'd all-in with ace-high and no fold equity) and rivered the ace. GG donkament lol.
After that I headed back to Mirage to play some more O8 and 10/20...
Shabba talked all of us into participating in a Treasure Island donkament for like $60. We all said what the hell and decided to meet at TI around 11pm and sign up for the donkament. I felt kinda dingy, so decided to go back to the room and grab a shower and change my clothes for a long night of cards. After getting out of my shower, I noticed a text from the guys saying the donkament started at 10pm, so I took my time getting changed. Of course ten minutes later I got another text saying they'd allow late sign ups until 11pm. Grrrrrrrrreat...I power walked my way from Harrahs to TI and got there with about five minutes to spare. Everyone seemed to be having fun, so I bought in with about 8BBs in my stack and proceeded to finish third out of the five us (maybe 20th out of 50 people altogether). I ran A7 sooooooooted into Kings after the guy limped them UTG (gg squeezeplay) and was out. Deuce was the bubble boy as he finished fifth (four paid). He ran his TPGK into Ace-high (d-bag CR'd all-in with ace-high and no fold equity) and rivered the ace. GG donkament lol.
After that I headed back to Mirage to play some more O8 and 10/20...
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
JV Session Three: Mirage O8 and more 10/20
5/10 Omaha h/l: +$110
10/20: +$100
After getting re-charged with an In 'N Out run...
I made my way back to the Mirage poker room and decided to play some Omaha h/l with a full-kill to mix it up a little bit. LHE and hold 'em in general I guess had been ripping me a new asshole, so maybe using four cards instead of two could help me get back into gear.
I sat down and immediately recognized a dealer from the Mirage sitting to my right. His name is Barry (I think) and I actually remembered him from a summer ago. Solid player, and if he was playing in this game, it had to be "good." Anyway, I fold some shitty cards for about an orbit and spectate...everyone aside from Barry and this guy down on the other side of the table were pretty awful (from what I could judge via their pre-flop hand selection alone). I watched Barry get runner-runnered for half the pot (he flopped the nut flush) by this guy who called two bets cold on the flop to catch his running low draw. "Nice flop" was all I remember hearing lol...don't tap the glass Barry.
The first hand I actually played I raised in LP after a couple limpers. I had A278 double suited (ace-high clubs and the other diamonds), and got called in one spot behind me and the limpers called as well.
Flop came something like 346 with two spades and a club. Checks to me and I bet, guy to my direct left raises, one caller, and I call. At this point and even right now my O8 is a little hazy, but I think the correct play is to just call. I have no real clue how the guy to my left plays, but I currently have the nut low with no protection, and my only draw to the high is a gutshot straight draw with a flush draw on board.
The turn is a great card for me, a red nine. I'm now open-ended and still have the nut low. Check, I check, bet, call, and I call.
The river is a five not completing the flush...so the board is now 34569 and I have both the nut-low and nut-high. I donk-bet because I'm pretty sure it's getting checked through unless someone else has one of the same hands, both villains call, and then both muck when I show "nut-nut" for the scoop. "Weeeeeeeeeee"
Omaha guys feel free to comment on my play in that hand if it's completely off lol
Anyway, the game was a must-move, so after a little while it broke down and I ended up playing 10/20 for a few hours and making back a stack over there. I was about even on the day (I lost $200 at B earlier that day), so I was semi-relieved that I could have a winning session again and was only down $700 for the trip.
10/20: +$100
After getting re-charged with an In 'N Out run...
I made my way back to the Mirage poker room and decided to play some Omaha h/l with a full-kill to mix it up a little bit. LHE and hold 'em in general I guess had been ripping me a new asshole, so maybe using four cards instead of two could help me get back into gear.
I sat down and immediately recognized a dealer from the Mirage sitting to my right. His name is Barry (I think) and I actually remembered him from a summer ago. Solid player, and if he was playing in this game, it had to be "good." Anyway, I fold some shitty cards for about an orbit and spectate...everyone aside from Barry and this guy down on the other side of the table were pretty awful (from what I could judge via their pre-flop hand selection alone). I watched Barry get runner-runnered for half the pot (he flopped the nut flush) by this guy who called two bets cold on the flop to catch his running low draw. "Nice flop" was all I remember hearing lol...don't tap the glass Barry.
The first hand I actually played I raised in LP after a couple limpers. I had A278 double suited (ace-high clubs and the other diamonds), and got called in one spot behind me and the limpers called as well.
Flop came something like 346 with two spades and a club. Checks to me and I bet, guy to my direct left raises, one caller, and I call. At this point and even right now my O8 is a little hazy, but I think the correct play is to just call. I have no real clue how the guy to my left plays, but I currently have the nut low with no protection, and my only draw to the high is a gutshot straight draw with a flush draw on board.
The turn is a great card for me, a red nine. I'm now open-ended and still have the nut low. Check, I check, bet, call, and I call.
The river is a five not completing the flush...so the board is now 34569 and I have both the nut-low and nut-high. I donk-bet because I'm pretty sure it's getting checked through unless someone else has one of the same hands, both villains call, and then both muck when I show "nut-nut" for the scoop. "Weeeeeeeeeee"
Omaha guys feel free to comment on my play in that hand if it's completely off lol
Anyway, the game was a must-move, so after a little while it broke down and I ended up playing 10/20 for a few hours and making back a stack over there. I was about even on the day (I lost $200 at B earlier that day), so I was semi-relieved that I could have a winning session again and was only down $700 for the trip.
JV Session Two: Bellagio 4/8
4/8: -$200
Things didn't go much better at Bellagio's 4/8 game. I started off pretty well, but eventually I found my myself cold-decked and card dead down a couple racks. Overall it was pretty fun as I hung out with my friends Tony, Jason, and Deuce throughout most of the session, but getting even more stuck in Vegas wasn't good.
I can't remember any hands of interest (suprise suprise), so instead I'll just post some pics from the table.
Here's a shot of a beautiful Swedish girl playing in seat one and Jason raking in a monster pot in seat two...and you are correct in assuming the blonde had no idea we were taking the pic ;-)
Deuce coming straight from the 15/30 game to donk it up at 4/8 with us. $1k buy-in haha
Things didn't go much better at Bellagio's 4/8 game. I started off pretty well, but eventually I found my myself cold-decked and card dead down a couple racks. Overall it was pretty fun as I hung out with my friends Tony, Jason, and Deuce throughout most of the session, but getting even more stuck in Vegas wasn't good.
I can't remember any hands of interest (suprise suprise), so instead I'll just post some pics from the table.
Here's a shot of a beautiful Swedish girl playing in seat one and Jason raking in a monster pot in seat two...and you are correct in assuming the blonde had no idea we were taking the pic ;-)
Deuce coming straight from the 15/30 game to donk it up at 4/8 with us. $1k buy-in haha
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
JV Session One: Mirage NL and 10/20
NL: -$400
10/20: -$300
Third hand in Vegas I end up running Kings into Aces AI pre-flop...gg $200 right away. Oh well...not that big of a deal. After hanging out with Deuce and Eusebio for a couple more hours, I headed over to 10/20 and proceeded to lose another few stacks of red.
I was in Vegas for one night, and already I was stuck $700. Not a good start to the trip, especially since I "forgot" to go to the bank before I left Cali and only brought $1200 with me (I usually bring about $2k).
Pic of me (seat five looking like I'm singing a death metal song) and Eusebio (looks like he's either crininging or laughing at my death metal song) lol
10/20: -$300
Third hand in Vegas I end up running Kings into Aces AI pre-flop...gg $200 right away. Oh well...not that big of a deal. After hanging out with Deuce and Eusebio for a couple more hours, I headed over to 10/20 and proceeded to lose another few stacks of red.
I was in Vegas for one night, and already I was stuck $700. Not a good start to the trip, especially since I "forgot" to go to the bank before I left Cali and only brought $1200 with me (I usually bring about $2k).
Pic of me (seat five looking like I'm singing a death metal song) and Eusebio (looks like he's either crininging or laughing at my death metal song) lol
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
