Vegas TR Day Three: 4/8 Horse Game with Jerry Buss

So I'm sitting at the Mirage O8 game, and Shifty walks up to me and says "dude, I just got Jerry Buss to play in our Horse game." Now, first off, props to Shifty for attempting to get the Horse game started. He bugged the Mirage floor all day for a game, and they eventually caved and said we could get our own Horse table as long as everyone was there at 10pm.

Anyway, I call bullshit and walk over to Shifty's $175 sng, and sure enough Jerry Buss is sitting in the seven seat. I promptly cash out from my O8 game and make sure I'm at the Horse table to police people from getting in when they weren't supposed to, make sure our guys got in the game on time, etc. Around 10pm Shifty was still going deep in the sng, but Jerry busted and Shifty yelled at me "Santi, make sure Jerry gets a seat." Most of our guys had locked up spots, but there was still a couple empties and I told Jerry we had a spot for him. He asked if he could have the available four seat and of course I said yes.

Here's Shifty's side of the story:

I was standing there bugging the shit out of the floor to open a horse game for us when jerry walks in and asks to play 40/80, they just have an interest list, so he decides to play a 175 SNG. i overhear this and lock up a seat. i walk over to jerry and say "hey you know they aren't gonna get that 40/80 off, you wanna play some horse after this SNG?" he says "really? i didn't see a horse game." i tell him they're going to open the game for us, and i'd put him at the top of the list. he says "sure, i'll play. i'm waiting for a friend, but i'll play for a while. i don't care how high you play, horse is always fun." awesome.

after about 15 min, some asian dude comes over, and hands jerry a couple of light-blue chips. i think they were 25Ks, but what do i know. jerry busts quickly after, 77 vs 10s, and i see the horse game opening. i tell him we got his seat and yell at nik. jerry sits right down, and immediately, the horse list is like 15 deep

Table make-up was me in the one, my friend Tommy in the two, Fender three, Rambler's IRL friend Dennis in the five, Deuce in the six, Rambler in the seven, and some d-bag who snuck on the interest list locked up the eight.

I guess the backstory is Jerry was waiting on a guy to pay off a bet, and so he put his name on the 40/80 interest list and the $175 sng. After seeing Jerry at the sng table, Shifty asked if he would play in our lowly 4/8 game, and I guess he said something to the extent of "I love Horse, I don't care what stakes we play." Awesome.

So long story short, Jerry played a complete rotation of Horse with us, and I think we got him for about $150, and only cause he ran kinda crappy in Razz. Everything else he seemed to play seriously, and it was pretty obv the dude just plays to win. We all made small talk for awhile, until sometime in the O8 section of the game a tiny, smoking hot asian girl in a Lakers shirt started sweating him. After that he just kinda ignored us.

During the Stud8 (last game) rotation, Shabba walked in with a couple girls from his work (hot) and started introducing us to his friends. "That's Nik, Tony, Tommy, Dennis, Ryan, the owner of the Lakers..."

Everyone, including Jerry, laughed really hard at that. Good times, probably the highlight of the trip. I'll start the rest of the report later, but I probably just blew my load.

Everyone with their own stories or pics from that game plz post, thanks.

After the Horse Game broke, Shifty, Pika, Reb, Dennis and I went down to the Venetian for an awesome late-night meal, pretty cool Shifty was able to get a great steak at 5am. By the way, the V was a great place to see beautful girls walking everywhere, edging out Bellagio. I was told however Wynn's scenery was even nicer, but I missed out on Wynn this trip. Maybe next time I can make it down there.

Still to come in my TRs is more 15/30 action (which includes one good winning session and one absolute ass kicking), more deli, the Venetian $120 Tournament with a 10 man last longer and a visit from alex the admin at CP, more drunk 4/8 hammer throwing (I actually have two Newcastles during the game :eek: ), the In n Out Challenge and a competitive bowling prop that came down to one pin. Stay tuned!

Jerry chillin' before game time with his reds and blues. A lot of people were wondering why Kid Buss was in Orlando to give the Lakers' Championship speech. The answer: Jerry was too busy kicking it with CP crew playing 4/8 Horse at the Mirage

Vegas TR Day Three: Getting Hammered and Trevi

So I woke up early yet again, even though I was out having french toast at about 6am, I was up and moving before noon. I remember texting Deuce to see if he wanted to grab some Panda Express, but he had just woken up so I had to give him some time. I decided to see what everyone else was doing, and it turned out Rambler and Trey were playing 1/2 NL at Harrahs. I figured I could check up on them and hang out while I waited for Deuce.

I witnessed a couple funny hands while I was with them, one where Rambler mini-re-raised a button min-raise to $6 pre-flop with KTos. He told me that play was for me since I play mini-bet, and to be honest it made me laugh really hard. Some guy who had limped in from MP actually popped it to $14 dollars with QQ, and then stacked off to Rambler when the flop came KKx. The turn was a King for further overkill, and to make the hand even that more entertaining one of the guy's queens came on the river. Too funny, too bad the turn wasn't a queen then river king...

So after some badgering I decide to just sit down. I can't remember too much about the action, except I somehow found myself up like $40 when I decide to raise Rambler's blind to $10 with JT of diamonds. I get a flat caller behind me that i don't notice until the hand's over and then Rambler makes it $35 to go from the BB. I just sigh and tell him "Rambler, you either have Aces or the hammer" and fold. I was waiting for him to show the hand when I turned and saw the guy who flatted my raise. Turns out I didn't notice him at first, and I could have given Rambler's hand away...thankfully the dude folded and Rambler said "you were right Nik" and showed me the hammer. Ugh, Rambler threw the hammer against me FML.

I hung out a little while longer, shooting the shit with Trey and his wife some. Turns out Trey's wife is also half-Mexican/half-white, mixed babies ftw. Finally Deuce and Fender showed up to save me from NL hell where even Rambler was pwning me, so I took my $29 in profit and went to lunch.

We went super all-out for lunch and grabbed Panda Express located in between Harrahs and Casino Royale, then we walked to Bellagio I think. Now this is where it's all a blur...I can't remember if I played 15/30 or wtf, because all I remember is the hockey game being on, and a crew of Shifty, Rambler, Dennis, Tommy and Fender fetching me to go grab a nice dinner somewhere. Pika and Deuce wanted to stay behind and watch the game/play more cards at Bellagio.

We ended up going to Trevi, a nice Italian restaraunt located in the Caesar's forum shops. I had gone there my last couple of trips and really liked the food, so I suggested to the group that we try it. On the way there we played live MFK and made fun of Phil Hellmuth for acting like a complete crybaby toolshed the night before when busting out of the $1500 WSOP NL event.

Anyway, the place delivered hard, and every single guy that went along told me it was a great pick for food. Everyone had something different, and it all looked really good. I think I had something called Penne Puttanesca with Sausage, it was penne with spicy tomato sauce, kalamata olives, and capers. I think the best looking entre was the Chicken Parmigiana that Shifty got...plates were something like $20-$25, good portions, and tasted great.

Haha I'm talking too much about food I'm sure, so after dinner we head back to Mirage and break off into our own games. I had a nice run at O8, and came up over two stacks of red after scooping a couple big hands. O8 was good to me once again, maybe I should play it more often.

Vegas TR Day Two Part II: Mesa Grill and The Rio

After walking back and changing at Harrahs, me and Fender met up with the Superdonk, Deuce, workgirl and her friend at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill inside of Caesars. Our waitress was a bit rude, but aside from that the food was pretty good, although a tad pricey. I got the grilled lamb porterhouse chops cooked medium with a side tamale. Honestly, the lamb was awesome, and tasted the best out of the other three dishes I tried (work girl's pork sirloin, Tommy's tuna steak, and fender's salmon). Oh their pesto mashed potatoes were the nuts, but overall I'd say it was a tad too pricey and not enough quantity (obv I'd say that) for the food they served. Good, not great...oh and Deuce got blindsided by an awful $16 long island ice tea...haha sucks to be him.

After dinner we all broke off, changed in our respective rooms, and met up with Shabba minus the girls at Mirage's cabline to go sweat Shifty at the Rio. We arrived and were greeted by Rambler, Dennis, A-Kid, and Pika. After checking out the packed cash games, Deuce, Shabba, Fender, Tommy and Pika decided to cab it back to the strip and I hung around with the rest of the guys to sweat Shifty. He was a couple tables deep away from the rail, so only Rambler could see enough of the action to know what was going on. Instead I walked over to Humberto Brenes' table, and since he was in the eight seat, he was right next to the rail where I was standing.

Now, for the record, I was always kinda got annoyed by Humberto's CHARRKKK coverage he gets on TV. I've always heard though that he's a great player and on the table minus the cameras he's super nice and entertaining. Those that say that were right. After sweating him a bit people would come up to the rail behind me, talk about the shark, and he'd get up at times in between hands and talk to them. Tell them "It's CHARK, CH CH CH" and give everyone a laugh. Eventually he started showing me his cards and saying "you play along with Humberto?" and I just nodded and said "sure, that's awesome." He even offered me some gum :lol:

Later on after I left Humberto's rail to talk to shifty, some douchebag kid with a hot girlfriend railed Humberto for a bit. He was loud and obnoxious, but Humberto was cool with them and the crowd that kinda gravitated toward them. After him and his girlfriend left I walked back over and Humberto started talking to me in spanish "Chica guapa si?" and I was just like "si, muy bonita, pero su novio es douchebag." That got a laugh from Humberto and made everyone else on the rail think I could speak spanish, when in reality I'm god awful. Fun times, I'm now an Humberto fan for sure.

After watching Shifty make the money, we all caught a cab back toward civilization and I think we donked it up at some more 4/8??? I think that's what we did, I may have played some O8 for awhile, honestly it's a bit fuzzy, but after O8 we all got onto another 4/8 table and played some. After the 4/8 broke around 5am I bribed Tommy and A-Kid with a free breakfast as long as they went to the deli with me, there I got some some french toast and a side of bacon. Turns out splitting a plate of bacon with me got A-Kid hooked on it for the rest of the trip as he ordered at least two more plates for himself that I know of spread out throughout the rest of the trip.

Oh and Reb called me while we were at the deli, turns out he was right behind me walking by, but was too much of a pansy to come up to me and say hi. Apparently him and Tommy were eye-fucking for awhile, unsure of whether or not one was the other, that's why he called :lol: We shot the shit for awhile until they decided to break off and go to the Paris breakfast buffet.

Next time we'll cover Rambler throwing the hammer vs me at 1/2 NL and I'll talk about the Horse game we played at Mirage with a certain well-known poker celeb.

Vegas TR Day Two Part I: Bellagio 15/30

So in suprising un-Santi-like fashion, I was up and going at 11am or so. I showered up and headed over to Bellagio to try and get in some 15/30 action. Last trip the tables were great, so I really expected some of the same. When I first got there the tables were actually nitty as shit, so I sweated the 15/30 and 30/60 games from the rail for about an hour before deciding to put my name on a list. The 30/60 game was actually really good, so I texted Deuce to let him know he should probably get in the game. Eventually the 15/30 games were to my liking (multi-way pots/alot of limping), so I threw my name on the list and was seated soon after.

If you guys ever read my blog, you'll know I almost never talk about beats, but today you're going to get some. The first hand I raised pre-flop was probably my fifth hand at the table. I raised QQ and ran into KK on an all-unders board, hooray...thankfully he didn't re-raise me pre-flop or I would have lost more. A couple hands later I get QQ in the BB with five limpers behind me, the SB completed, and I pop it. Seven players, two bets a piece see a flop of QT5 with a couple spades...weeeeeeeeee

SB checks, I lead out, get called in a couple spots, Hijack raises, Button calls, folded to me, I 3-bet, original callers who called folded, Hijack and Button called. We're now 3-way...

The turn was a King...not necessarily a good card since there's now three broadway cards on board and a straight is likely. Thankfully I bet and it only goes call, call.

The river was an awful card though, as he put out an Ace of clubs...at least it wasn't a spade I remember thinking. I opt to check and catch a bluff, Hijack bets, Button tanks and folds, and I call. He shows me QJos :steam: and rakes in a fantastic pot that I built. Blech.

I actually maintain some decent composure, and pick up small pots here and there in between my next beat. Folded to me in MP, and I raise with 55. I get called by a lpp-tard in the CO and the BB.

The flop comes down AQ5 rainbow. Check, I bet, Co raises, folded to me, I 3-bet, CO calls.

The turn is a King. I bet, Tard calls. River is another King. I bet, tard snaps and says "raise!" and I lose the minimum when I call and he shows me AK. Uggggggghhhhhh so awful.

There's a couple three-outer hands I won't get into, so I'll wrap up with a pretty fun hand with QTsooooooooted. So like I mentioned early on, the table had been really passive. Lots of open-limping, so I looked down at QT of spades from the CO with three limpers in front of me so I popped it. Unfortunately seat two woke up with a hand and 3-bet it. The blinds folded, the limpers called, and we all saw a flop of J83 all spades. Fun times...I flop a Q-high flush with a straight-flush draw.

It checks to me, and I actually donk-bet into the button, something I almost never do. I flopped the Q-high flush, but since it was such an ugly board and the button was kinda passive at times, I thought the flop might check through. I bet out, he insta-raised, and it folded back to me where I 3-bet. Meh, maybe he would have bet out :? Oh well.

The turn pairs the jack, but I know I'm still good so I bet out and the Button only calls. I figure I need to dodge some paint cards (boats) and another spade (unless it's the eight of spades, which would be a great action card for me if my opponent has the Ace of spades).

Unfortunately the river card is ridiculously gross, as it brings out a third jack. What...the...fuck. I check, and the button bets out...I go into the tank for a second, and just start cursing in my head. Obviously I have to call the river since the pot is so big, but dammit I was certain this guy had Aces or Kings. He was the player that had originally flatted my QQ raise with KK earlier, how could he not have Kings? Finally I throw six red chips into the pot and say "well I hope you have AK with a big spade"...he says "you got my hand perfect" and shows down the Ace of spades, King of diamonds.

Wow that felt good. I left the game a little after because I had dinner reservations with Tommy and work girl, only dropping $200 (two stacks of red). After the beating I took, dropping only $200 there felt like a three rack win.

I'll be back in a few to talk about the Mesa Grill and sweating the $1500 NL WSOP event.

Vegas TR Day One: Mirage 4/8 and Pastrami

So after a bumpy flight into McCarran (even after some Dramamine I almost yacked), Fender and I landed safe and sound into Vegas and made our way to Harrahs to drop bags and see what everyone was doing. After talking to Shabba, we decided to meet up in the Venetian food court for a bite to eat and wait for everyone else to get in. First we met up with Albinokid, who actually reminds me a lot of Doyle (stature, voice, overall sexiness), except with a bit more punk-style (green and yellow shoes, band t-shirt). Cool guy, reminded me a lot of my younger brother plus the cool british accent.

After eating, Shifty, Rambler, Rambler's IRL friend Dennis, Trey and Trey's wife met up with us and the eight of decided to go play some mini-bet at Mirage. The game was great, as it was us and two tourists that were constantly rotating in and out, probably based on shock and absolute monkey tilt.

Shifty was about what I pictured, and to my delight, I didn't get punched by him at any point during the trip. He had a $100 freeroll to anyone who punched me in the face, thankfully no one took him up on the offer. He was good at setting up things to do but was still laidback and cool enough to go along with whatever people wanted. Rambler was much taller than I expected...probably 6'1 or so. He was a good kid and seemed to have a lot of fun, he's much better without a computer in front of him. Rambler's IRL friend Dennis looked a lot like Turtle from Entourage, he clicked really well with all of us despite not e-knowing anyone but Rambler prior to the trip...talk about a handicap. Trey told me he would be along with his wife and to look for a guy wearing an Andre Johnson jersey and a beard, I was expecting someone old like Deuce. Thankfully Trey turned out to be a younger guy with a wife much cuter wife than he deserved ala tttthomas :lol: :wink:

Okay had to get that out of the way, onto the game. We played with a couple rules. First off, throwing the hammer got you $5 a piece, and the second was you had to show one card if your hand didn't go to showdown. Usually I just told people what my hands were, like saying "well do you want to see top pair or my kicker?" or "which king do you want to see?"

I ran like a god early on, picking up Aces a couple times and winning, and then this hand comes up. So we had been straddling some of the time, and since I was on a tear, someone said "do a double straddle" which I of course obliged. So I have a dead straddle in the two seat (i.e. I can't raise if it's only called back to me) and watch Shifty make it $16 from the four seat. Awesome. Called in one spot behind him, I think the original straddler in the one seat (I think this was Shabba) called, and I look down at Red Kings and cap (cap is 5 bets). Weeeeeeeeeee I hold and take in a big pot, Shifty's a tad bit tilted I double straddle and get Kings :P

My only time on the trip getting 7-2 while playing the 7-2 game comes up during this session. I raise somewhere from MP, my IRL friend Fender 3-bets directly behind me from the three seat, and it gets called in two spots, I only call.

Flop is QT6 rainbow

We all check to Fender, called by a random and I call while showing my hand to Shabba. I'm setting up a turn CR bluff...

The turn obliges with a 6, and now I think I can bluff Fender off a good chunk of his hands on this QT66 board. The random and I check to him, he bets, the random folds and I raise with my seven-high. Fender snap 3-bets and I puke a little in my mouth, then actually start thinking about 4-betting. He knows we're all screwing around having fun, and maybe he thinks my CR is just a play...maybe he's got QJ or some shit. I decide not to follow through with the 4-bet plan and I hem and haw over folding, after I muck he shows one card which was a ten of spades or some shit. Obv full-house tens full, no way he has any other hand. He told me later that day he had Tens full (ldo). Sweet, my one chance to throw the hammer and I run into a boat :(

After a good chunk of time people start breaking away from the game (can't handle the mini-bet heat obv), and I decide to go with Deuce across the street to Harrahs to book my room. This mini-venture turned out to suck ass, and Fender owes me one for not making him go across the street with us. First the line to register was insanely long with only two people working the desk, then some jackass closed our safe before checking out, so we had to wait while a security lady opened the safe for us. I think me and Deuce were talking shit about the Shabba fitness challenge or w/e, because as soon as she came in she started hitting on Deuce and telling him "oh you look good" or something. Deuce runs good with olllllld women apparently.

I can't remember much after that, we probably ate at the deli at some point (edit: we did, I had pastrami, it was awesome obv) and I think I dropped $400 after running like ass at 10/20. Great, I crush 4/8 but won one pot in two and a half hours at short-handed 10/20.

Tune in next time for Thursday's shenanigans which include 15/30 at Bellagio, eating at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill, and a trip to the Rio where I would sweat Shifty and Humberto Brenes.

4/8-Kill Action and a "Wtf?" Article

After work yesterday I decided it was ridiculously hot, windy, and I felt like shit...so what better to do than go down to Cap and play some cards? Actually my buddy Tony (you all know him as Fender) hit me up via text message to see if I wanted to grab food at Cap, so I decided fuck going home and sleeping, I could just hang out for awhile and eat something good off their Asian menu.

Well I walked into the room and Sam quickly said "nik, I gotta 4/8 seat for ya." Well...okay then. I wasn't actually that hungry yet, so I decided I'd sit down and let Tony play at 6/12 until he was ready to grab food, and I could just leave whenever. I played for maybe 30 minutes, missed a double gutter/flush draw combo, and also had a flopped set of Jacks get beat by a rivered flush. Fun start to the day...Eventually I hit a pretty gross gutterball in a killpot with J9 of spades to get me +$30 for the day before breaking off and going to eat with Tony.

After dinner I was about to go home before Tony convinced me to just sit down and play 4/8 with him. Ugh...they had a seat open and they were about to draw cards for the button, so how could I decline? Who cares that my right ear was plugged, hurting like a bitch, and fucking up my equilibrium right? Right. So I drew the King of clubs, received the button, and went on a nice little heater for a few hours, making a couple racks profit. I was up three racks at one point, but I ran into back to back rivered baby sets...I'll post those hand histories tomorrow, today I want to post an awesome, truly sick LHE article by Mike Matasow. Dear God, this entire article has to be a level of some sort...there are so many quotable gems in here it's hard to just pick one as my favorite.

If I had to choose...I'd say the part where he puts Mortensen on KK after she 3-bet pre-flop and then put Syracuse Chris on a flopped boat after he led the flop. Seriously, props to Mike for being able to read hands so well, that's why he's a pro ladies and gentleman.


Check-Raising the Devil by Mike Matasow

In the second week of the 2004 Series, I just missed a final table, finishing eleventh in a $2,000 Limit Hold’em event. Daniel (Negreanu) went on to win that tournament for his third bracelet. What I remember most about that tournament was a hand that came up about eight hours into Day One.

“Syracuse Chris” Tsiprailidis had pocket queens, Cecilia Reyes Mortensen was dealt pocket kings, and I looked down at two aces. Not surprisingly, the betting got capped preflop. I really didn’t know what Chris had, but I put Cecilia on kings.

When Q-4-4 flopped, Chris bet out with his full house, queens full of fours, and both Cecilia and I just called. I suspected Chris for the boat at this point, but the size of the pot was sitting on the borderline of being worth a call to try to spike an ace. When the turn came with a king, Chris bet out again and Cecilia flat-called. The pot was huge by then, but I was sure Cecilia had kings and was laying a trap for us both with her kings full.

In a cash game, you still might make a call, but saving a bet in a limit tournament is a lot more important. Although I was almost sure I was beaten, I went in the tank for awhile with my aces, wondering if I could be wrong. If there were two boats against me, they would clearly pay me off if I hit an ace on the river. This one pot would ensure that the winner would go deep in the tournament. I eventually called, hoping for a miracle ace on the river.

Miracles do happen! When that big fat perfect ace hit on the river, Syracuse Chris led out again and Cecilia raised. I reraised. Chris immediately showed his pocket queens to the spectators sitting behind him and folded. Cecilia went into the tank for about three minutes.

“I can’t believe I only called on the turn. I know you have aces. How could I play this so badly?” she moaned.

These were not deep stack tournaments in 2004; saving one bet at this point in a tournament could make a huge difference, but she finally made the call. I showed my aces full, Cecilia showed her kings full, and Chris flipped over his folded queens full.

Everyone at the table went wild when they saw the cards, and tournament players from the other tables came over to stare at the board.

In Vegas, June 10th-15th

Just a reminder I'm going to be in Vegas from the 10th-15th with some friends...if you want to meet up at the Mirage deli and grab a pastrami sandwich, drop me a line :-P

Nothing Spectacular

I only played a couple sessions this past week at 6/12 with nothing much exciting to note. I think I lost something like $20 on Tuesday and followed that up with losing a rack at 6/12 Wednesday. I ran pretty shitty early on in both session, Tuesday's session I was just lucky enough to get back close to even before the game broke.

Wednesday the action was great for most of the night. A couple very aggressive players (Raj and Ben) were there, and usually when they're playing the rest of the table loosens up and starts showing down crap. Tables like this usually bring higher swings though, so making a hand hold at this table would usually mean a huge pot, the trick is to just hold up.

I'm kinda in a hurry so I'll post some HHs tomorrow when I'm less busy, I have to get a haircut, grab breakfast with a friend, then be to work by 1pm. I know you guys don't care, so yeah sorry haha.

Sorry for the crappy update, but it's all I got. Look for me to post a couple articles I read this past weekend that I really liked and thought would be beneficial to the aspiring low stakes live LHE player. See ya then.

River Hero Call

So like I was talking about in my last entry, an interesting spot came up Thursday night where I really had to tank a river to figure out wtf I should do. Now some backstory on the table, a couple of guys were really gambling, but the rest of the players were mostly your typical live LPP calling stations.

I can't remember too much about pre-flop except that I was in seat six, and it was limped in about five spots pre and I checked my option witb 95 of hearts. So six players to a flop of 954 with two spades.

Top two in a limped pot, wet board, let's see what happens. The SB bets into me, I raise, and it gets called by seat eight (no real reads), seat one (definitely came off as laggy, and one play made him look borderline maniacal). SB called one more bet and the four of us saw an eight on the turn.

SB checks to me, I bet, called by seat seven, now seat one raises, SB calls yet again, I just call, putting seat one on an OESD (67) that got there on the turn, seat seven folds, maybe figuring he was drawing dead? I dunno, I thought it was odd he would fold for one more after getting 7:1 on his money just on the turn. So I'm assuming I'm behind to a straight, but based on seat one's earlier plays I knew that it wasn't even close to a guarantee I was behind, there was a good shot I was still ahead and planned on showing the hand down.

I'm thining to myself "pair my freaking hand" when I see a seven on the river. Oh sonofabitch if I wasn't dead before I almost certainly am now. The board is 98754, but at least the flush didn't get there. SB checks, I check, and seat one quickly bets yet again. SB takes a second and calls, and now I really start going into the tank. I don't think I've tanked longer about a hand than I did this one, and in my mind about three seconds into the tank I was almost positive I was folding. I wasn't worried too much about SB, I put him on something more like TP with a flush draw combo, maybe bottom two pair, not likely a flopped set because I'm sure he 3-bets the flop...I think I have his hand beat, it's the lagtard in seat one I'm worried about.

I started thinking about seat one playing kinda funky a couple orbits before this, so just because the only hand I personally could possibly have in his position was 67 did not mean that he in fact had to have 67. I see a lot of good young players do this with their hand reading skills...and actually this reminds me, in training for my job working with autistic kids a few weeks ago, a certain lecture slide came up that gave me an idea for a good analogy.

Autistic children, especially at a young age, are usually unable to see things from another's point of view and will answer questions based on their own PoV. For example, if a child is holding a green crayon and their mom is holding a yellow crayon, and I ask them what color crayon their mom is holding, almost all of them will say "green." Hopefully I didn't butcher that analogy, but what I'm saying is good players assign some incorrect ranges sometimes because they can't get into the heads of their lesser skilled opponents. I see players say "well shit he can't have a goofy two pair here because look at that flop, no way he calls with only midpair for two bets..." when in fact, hey, some people just like to gambooool. A lot of their plays and ranges don't make sense because they're not there to make 2BBs/hour, they're there to have fun, hit the jackpot, spew some chips, or whatever.

So back to the hand, I'm tanking, counting the bets in my head, 6sbs pre (3BB), 8sbs flop (4BB), 7BBs on the turn, 2BBs on the river equal something like 15 or 16 to one on my call...dammit Nik how sure are you he has a six? Will you go on supreme monkey tilt if you fold and see you laid down the winner? I call, uttering something like "ugh I dunno why I'm calling" and finally seat one turns over 84 for a turned two pair.

Omg sick, SB quickly turns over his cards and says "I can beat that" and shows 87 for a rivered two pair. Holy shit hero calling is awesome. I quickly grab my cards from underneath the orange $1 chip that was protecting them and say something to the extent of "oh hey my flopped two pair held" and rake in an absolute sea of red chips. Sweet, guess I can hero call 15 times based on this pot I just won :-P There are a lot of great feelings that come with playing poker, but calling down on a hand you think you lost and seeing that you in fact won is pretty hard to top. Not so much because "hey I caught you trying to bluff me" but more for the fact that "this sucks, I flopped two pair and now I'm gonna los- holy shit I'm good?!" Heh, emotional swongs.

Welcome to live low-limit LHE I guess, thanks for reading.

A Couple Quickies

Played Thursday night for a little bit, broke about even (I think I won like $25). Played late Friday night (probably started around 11pm after a quick nap) and made a rack ($200) or so in a few hours. What's kind of odd is that it was actually a bit of a slow night for me tonight in terms of hands played, I just seemed to get in with some good hands, have them hold, then fold the rest of the time. Obviously winning is the most important thing so I'm happy with the results, like I said, I just thought it was strange not to be mixing it up as much as I'm used to.

I need to talk about a hand from the Thursday night session that I thought was worth mentioning, but I guess I'll address tonight since it's still fresh in my head. Basically when I got to the table I immediately started sailvating. The table was very loose and seemed to be building a lot of pots early and often.

Seat one was this middle-aged black dude that I've played with before, defninitely far from solid. Seat two was a dealer named Chi that I've only played with once before, and during that session he was actually hemorraging chips at 4/8 for fun. It would turn out that he was playing super solid (I have a ton of respect for his game now to be honest, when he was in a hand he had the goods). Seat three was a younger white kid that looked like an online player, backwards hat, talked a lot about odds, haha whatever. He played okay, ran really good, but was still kinda loose pre. Seat four was an older Indian dude (dot, not feather) :-P who was absolutely terrible. I saw him call a bet then attempt to muck his cards immediately after calling at least three times. You didn't read that wrong, he tried to muck his hand after calling a bet on the turn. "I meant to fold, but I called..."

Serious wtf. Seat five was open for awhile but would later be filled by another dealer, she's pretty taggish but can be lappish sometimes. Seat six was a bit of a goofball player, definitely a donater. He blames dealers alot for his misfortune, but he's pretty nice to me whenever we play so I'll cut him some slack. Anyway, he's definitely LPP. Seat seven was a Lagtard who would swing from two racks of chips in front of him to six racks in front of him at least twice while I was there. Seat eight was yours truly and then seat nine was this taller asian dude who was also a bit laggy. So yeah, fantastic table. Sorry for rambling about the table make-up, just wanted to emphasize how great this table was.

So yeah, I folded my first three orbits just being absolutely card dead, but it gave me time to take mental notes and see how everyone was playing. I was actually getting afraid that perhaps my image was going to be really bad and keep me from getting paid when I finally do play a pot. So knowing what you know, I pick up red fives in EP and limp behind seat seven who was UTG. Seat nine raises, it gets called by seat one, the internetish looking kid in seat three and the blinds in four and six call as well, so do the rest of us.

Flop: KT5 rainbow

Weeee bottom set in a big multiway pot, checks to me, I check obviously looking for seat nine to bet, trap some callers in between us, then CR once it got back to me. Unfortunately seat nine checked and it gets to seat three who bets, folded to me, I raise, seat nine gurriedly threw three chips in, but once he saw that I had raised he apologized and took his chips back. Totally fine, I like it when people play quickly so if they accidentally call thinking it was only one bet I'm not gonna be an ass. Folds to seat three who just calls. Bummer. Oh well, pot was still pretty big because of the action pre-flop.

The turn was a bit of a scary card, a jack I believe, put a broadway straight out there, but I bet and was only called. The river was a harmless number card I can't remember, again I fired, seat three tanked and finally called. Obviously I was good and raked in a sweet pot.

I would go on to get fives once again, this time after two limpers. I limped behind OTB, the blinds called/checked their option and we saw a flop of 652 rainbow. Weeee middle set this time, checks to seat six who bets out, seat seven folds, and I opt to raise because of how coordinated the board was. Seat one (BB in the hand called two cold) and seat six also called.

The turn was an ace of clubs, I was really hoping it'd be a money card. It wasn't, as the players checked to me and again they both called. Hmmm wonder what they have...river was a beautiful red jack, so unless someone was super slowplaying their flopped straight (0% chance of this with these two players actually) I knew I had this hand locked up. Checked to me, I bet, seat one calls and seat six folds telling me he head 54 and that I hit the case five in the deck. Sweet, go me.

Hmm, I'm afraid this entry may be too long already, so I'll talk about the hand from Thursday night tomorrow. Basically I hero-called the river with two pair when I was all but certain I was beat by a one card straight (board was 98754), but since there was so much money in the pot I called and was actually goooooot. Haha I'm such a donkey, til next time, thanks for reading.

Heh, Shipped Some Back

Dropped $280 last night, just couldn't get a hand to hold in the middle of my session. Lost with Aces all three times I got them, and in one sick three-hand run, I lost with Jacks twice and Kings once. The flops looked good but the turns killed me on all three hands (two pair, lower pair turning a set, and a straight respectively).

Oh well, it happens obviously, just woke up from a nap so I can't remember my middle name, much less any hand histories. Maybe I'll come back later when I wake up. Doubt I'm playing tonight or Friday, but I guess we'll see.

Catch ya later

$800 Day at 6/12

Ran huge last night, so many hands just talking about one isn't possible. I'm tired so I'm gonna delay until later to talk some hands, so yeah, $800 day, makes up for last week where I think I came up $200 spaced out over something like four days lol.

Okay I lied, here's two hands.

One limper, raiser in MP, CO and Button call, I call out of the SB with 44, BB defends, limper calls.

Flop: T54 with two spades

Checks to Raiser, Button calls, I raise, BB calls, Raiser 3-bets, button folds, I cap, BB and Raiser call

Turn: 7 of spades

I still bet, BB hesitates and calls (he has the spades), Raiser calls. The BB has played with me a lot and knows I'm pretty solid, so he must have put me on the nut spades.

River: 4

Booooom quads. I bet, BB calls, the raiser mini-tanks and at this point I was really hoping he had TT and didn't raise the turn because of the flush, but eventually he just called and showed red kings. Weeee I run goot.

Sometime later it's folded to me in MP and I raise with 44. The sb who is pretty awful calls, as does the BB. The flop is K74. Checks to me I bet, SB raises, folds back to me, I notice SB has only enough chips left for a cap so I 3-bet and he caps it all-in. The turn is a four sealing up the hand for me and the river blanks out. SB disgustedly showed JJ and I won again with quad fours :-P

Okay thanks for reading, I'll post more hands later

6/12 Junkie Part II (Thursday and Saturday)

Alright well like I mentioned Thursday was a fun day. A lot of action, a lot of swinging, and I ended the day up a little over a stack. Boooooooo. One more hand from that session, will show people a "play" that is commonly used in LHE.

So like I mentioned last time, Raj was opening a ton of pots and just being a typical maniac pre-flop. He raised somewhere in EP, maybe UTG or UTG+1. I looked down at AQos and 3-bet it. I think BB may have called and then Raj capped.

Three players to a flop of QQ7 with two diamonds. Obviously a money flop for me, BB checks to Raj who bets, I raise, BB folds, Raj 3-bets and I just call. I raised in case BB was on a flush draw, wanting to charge him max value, but also felt like Raj would continue to play whatever hand he had fast. I think my AQ is actually disguised really well to this point, especially when I just call his 3-bet. Now he's almost guaranteed to lead the turn thining he's still ahead and I can pop him for two big bets.

The turn is a blank, he bets, I raise, and he finally calls. River is another blank and he check/calls to see the bad news. Fun times.

Saturday was a quick little session, I think I came up two stacks this time (yay), so about $120 combined for a couple days. Not the best winrate, but a win is a win I guess and I'll take winning a little over losing a lot anyday. I was up about a rack, but a bad last couple or orbits knocked me down a few stacks so oh well, whateva.

One hand I'll talk about is a killpot I got involved in with a maniac. Maniac raised pre-flop, and it was HU so I called out of the BB with KQos. I was actually very prepared to go to showdown with K-high against this guy, but I ended up getting a Queen-high flop.

The flop was something like Q83 with two hearts, I had the King of hearts. I check, Villain bets $12 and I CR to $24 (remember it's a killpot). Villain calls and the turn is another baby heart. I bet $24 and he calls again. River blanks out, I fire one more time and get looked up...show my hand and I'm good. Weeeeeeeeeeee....

So yeah, gotta run now, but thanks for checking back. I plan on playing a couple times this week, so see ya soon.

6/12 Junkie Part I (Thursday Night Action)

Basically I had training for my new job everyday last week avout five minutes away from Cap, so I found myself rolling by for at least a few hours everyday this past week but Friday (the Superdonk's Bday dinner/bars/club/whatever).

Thursday was probably the most action packed night of the week. I started off the day down about $140, swung all the way up to +$400 at one point, and ended with me leaving up about $50 (doh).

I was all over the map today with a lot of good hand histories I wish I could remember. I'll give me a few fun ones, but I'll use this time to tell ya I was up two racks with the plan of leaving in about an hour, picked up aces three times (twice in the BB), got involved in some heavy raising five or six players to a flop and lost all three. Straight brutal, but completely standard in this kinda game...it happens.

I'll talk about one of those hands since there was so much action. Limped in two or three spots, Raj on the button in seat eight raises (nothing new, Raj is a complete maniac at this point, raising once every three hands or so). If he's coming into a pot, whether it be AK or 54suited, Raj is raising. SB calls and I'm in the BB in the two seat with AA (club/diamond) and pump it back up to three bets. The limpers call, Raj caps, and we see a flop six ways capped pre.

The flop is super draw heavy, I believe it's something like Q94 with two spades

SB checks, I bet, limper raises, call, one fold, Raj three balls, SB calls three cold, I cap, four callers

At this point I wasn't insanely worried (I capped), but obviously at this point I have to be afraid spades and straight draws. Raj, while maniacly aggro pre-flop, doesn't get incredibly carried away after the flop. In fact, I respect his flop/turn/river game most of the time, and his 3-bet really told me he either has an overpair like Kings (he's getting coolered), Queens (coolering me with top set), maybe AQ or has the nut-flush draw (K-high draw is probable here too). I really wanted a four to come off, and I got my wish.

The turn brought out a four of spades. Oops...I meant an off-suit four. SB checks, and with three people behind me, I opt to puke on myself and check to see what happens. These players hadn't been too tricky to this point, so if it's two bets back to me I think I can correctly fold. Usually I fire this turn even though it's a scare card, but with this many players behind, I opted to check and see what happened.

The limper who raised my flop bet bet-out, limper2 called, Raj raised, SB folds, and now I decide to fold. I didn't really tank over it at all, I really thought Raj's hand just looked so much like Queens full or nut-flush, not to mention I think the turn bettor has me beat at this point as well. I almost never fold aces post-flop in this game, so me folding and with so much ease was really rare. The turn bettor end up calling, and then limper2 wakes up and says "you want to raise? here I'll raise now too" and 3-bets. Wow wtf? Interesting...

Raj caps and the three see a blank river. The first limper checks now, limper2 still bets, Raj calls and the other limper calls. Limper2 shows quad fours (nice), Raj shows AJ of spades (sick cooler), and the other player doesn't show. That was a fun hand.

I'll end this entry with one more quick HH. Some quick history, seat nine is a complete monkey donktard, in that she is just all over the map with raising and calling and w/e, basically you can't really read a hand she's playing, but you can pretty much guarantee it doesn't matter because she's awful.

Anyway she limps in, seat one limps in, I look down at red kings and raise, BB defends and seats nine and one decide to call.

The flop is K55 with a couple of spades. It gets checked to me, and of course I decide to bet. A lot of people like to get cute and check behind, then raise if anyone decides to bet the turn, but obviously that just spells out Kings full, so what's the best way to conceal a monster? The answer is bet, especially when you're playing against complete tools (see seat nine).

Anyway I bet, BB folds, seat nine starts tanking and I get scared that I maybe I shoulda checked. She calls and then seat one folds. This is good I guess, HU with the donktard that's capable of just about anything.

The turn is a six, no spades. I bet again and really hope she's on a flush draw. All of a sudden I see her trying to stack chips for a CR. Oh another quick blurb, she came to the table with four racks of chips, obviously on one of those luckbox heaters, so she's ready to spew some chips. After a quick commercial break seat nine finally gets 12 chips past the yellow line, and I snap 3-bet her. She goes back to her chips and again starts trying to stack 12 chips. AWESOME! A good analogy here is like watching a hot chick jogging down the block in a sports bra...not only that, but I get to watch it in slow motion, and she's tripping over herself to boot.

Anyway, she four bets, I snap five bet, and finally she opts to just call. Awww, no more raising? Bummer.

The river is a six, so now the board is K5566. Considering the action on the turn, I might actually be worried about pocket sixes quading up here (if I wasn't facing seat nine), but when I saw that card I thought "oh wow that might actually get me more action. Again seat nine bets, I hide my giddyness and raise, and unfortunately she just calls. I show Kings, everyone else at the table is saying "ldo (like duh obv)" to themselves and I have fun stacking a shitload of seat nine's red $2 chips. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I'll probably blog some more tomorrow morning about this session, and then go over my quick Saturday session I had with Tony and Tommy as well. No time to proof read so I hope this all is kinda grammar friendly, makes sense and was enjoyable. Thanks for reading.

First Ever High Hand Jackpot

Well after work Monday (training day...lame) I decided to head over to Capitol to play some midday 6/12 action. Game wasn't too bad...actually, the action was really good compared to most of the midday Cap sessions I've had. So I sat down around 4pm and at 4:10 pm I get black tens UTG in seat eight. I raise, get cold-called by someone in MP, and then seat seven in the BB 3-bets me. I cap and we're three handed to the flop of T66.

Wow, pretty good flop I guess. SB leads out and I opt to just call, looking to drag in the player behind me. In retrospect, I think maybe I should raise the flop and then it could get capped if BB has a big overpair. I think I just got too fancy and I could have actually disguised my boat much better.

The turn in another ten, obviously crippling the deck and makes my above paragraph look ROT, but in all honesty I think raising the flop is the right play with that much action from the BB. BB leads again and this time I really just call. Now I just want him to fire the river again or please please please boat up on the river.

The river is a three and finally the BB checks. I bet and he calls me, showing aces. Hehe, I suck out goot. I didn't think much of the hand, like "yay quads," because normally the high hand for the shift (Capitol runs a $200 High Hand promotion every eight hours) is a straight flush. The jackpot was over at 4:30 (It was now 4:10), so when seat two said "hey that's a high hand" I just kinda smirked and said "yeah like tens are good."

The floorman actually came over though and said "four tens, six kicker" and then informed me I only had to hold for 15 minutes. :shockface: Wow, HOLLLLLLLLLLLD! Long story short I held...first ever high hand jackpot. I run bad at those.

Aside from that I came up about a rack and a half for the night, so about a $500 day if you include the jackpot. Had some big pairs hold finally, and overall just ran pretty solid.

I went back to play a quick three hour session on Tuesaday and donated a couple red stacks ($40 a piece, so about 80 bucks) back to the game, but this session was much more action packed, especially for only three hours. Here's the HH for one sick pot.

Limped in two spots, one fold, and I raise red eights in MP, called by everyone behind me, and BB goes all-in for two more chips. So that's eight chips for eight players already...seven active players, one all-in.

Flop: 984 with two spades

Wowwwwww. SB donks, call, call, I raise, call, 3-bet and capped.

I think 5 players, 4 bets a piece (84 chips in the pot minus four for rake so 80 chips)

Turn: red three

SB bets, call, fold, I raise, one fold, SB calls, call


Three players, 12 chips a piece (116 chip pot)

River: 5 of spades

SB bets, call and I call

He shows K2 of spades and rakes in a sick pot...ugh blank out and I win about a rack in profit of chips...

Can't complain much though, good last couple of days, hope I can keep it up. Thanks for reading.

Rollercoaster (not of love)

Say what?

Yeah. I was up probably more than two racks at 6/12 at one point...then got straight destroyed and cashed out +$70

Went and played 4/8-Kill for a couple hours and dropped $120. Weeeeeee down $50 for the night. I suck.

One HH I guess I can remember is 74 of clubs in the BB.

Limped in all but one spot, all but family.

Flop comes 874 two spades.

Kinda gross, especially when it goes check check, bet, and a raise...Superdonk flats OTB, I opt to 3-bet and then the original bettor caps. Fuck what'd I get myself into right? I figured 84 or a set wasn't all that likely, just hoping we had some midpairs, A8s, some spades and straight draws present so I was actually ahead...

Turn was a seven. Woot. Now I'm getting killed by 87 or 88, but I'm crushing everything else so I lead, gets called in two spots.

River is a King, no flush present. I bet and SD looks me up. Good pot.

After that I guess I just ran kinda bad. Got outflopped, turned, rivered. Typical LHE session. The back end of my night is what kinda got me frustrated though. 4/8 was good for the taking but I couldn't hit a flop with overcards to save my life and my overpairs wouldn't stick for the life of me.

Oh well, riding the rollercoaster that is LHE is always fun, win or lose, guess I'd rather just be winning.

Check back next week boys, got a busy five days ahead of me. Thanks for reading.

Blech

Could not have run any worse tonight...it was pretty gross. I had this huge black dude in seat 5 doing his best to hemorrhage chips to the entire table but it just wasn't happening. He was winning with ATC and was catching monsters to boot...meanwhile I folded tons or raised pre then folded tons. I bled pretty bad today.

Down about a rack and a half, so I almost broke even for last night and tonight. All good though, maybe I'll play a few hours Friday or Saturday (I doubt it) or I'll just go in next week with a vengeance.

Maybe I'll blog some hands tomorrow, but probably not, I should be kinda busy and I'm far too exhausted to talk anymore tonight.

Sorry for the whining, promise I'll deliver harder next time. Late.

Another Fun Night at 6/12

4/8K: +40
6/12K: +240


Had a pretty good day I guess, was up almost $400 at one point at 6/12, but oh well, that's how it goes sometimes.

Toward the end of my session I lost with Kings twice, one of them being a kill pot, so that was one of the reasons I shipped back a rack of $2 chips toward the end of my session.

Here's one big hand I'll talk about...I plan on being lazy tomorrow and not doing anything all day, so look for me to update this entry a little more in depth. Tony, if you read this, let's shoot for Mongo around 1pm-ish...it's almost 5am and I still have to crash.

Okay so here was my favorite hand of the night. Pre-flop limped in like 5 spots (not joking), small blind has been a maniac and he raises. I look down at 55 and call. Gets around to button who 3-bets and then SB caps. I call and pray for a five.

Flop: 654 rainbow

Weeeeeeee

I check, Connie (seat 3, I'm in seat 2) bets, it gets raised, cold-called, 3-bet all-in and folded back to me so I cap. Pretty awesome I check/capped the flop...I was planning to CR the entire time.

Turn: 6

Boom (I hope). I bet, called in two spots

River: 3

I bet, called in two spots

I showed my boat and was obv good. Connie showed 77 for the rivered straight and the guy who 3-bet all-in actually rivered a smaller boat (he had 33). Huge pot, it was well over a rack ($200) in profit.


Ahhhh fuck it, one more hand:

Limped in four spots, small blind completes, I look down at KQ of clubs and decide to raise and build a pot. 6 players to the flop of: AT4 with the Ace of clubs on board.

I had a backdoor flush-draw and a gutty, not the greatest draw buuuut...My whole plan here initially was to raise pre-flop for value, and then check any really ragged flops. Well I saw the ace on the board, decided I had a fairly tight image, so thought I could fire the flop, see how many callers I got behind me, and then maybe fire a good turn (one I could semi-bluff with). A lot of players only raise pre out of the BB with very premium holdings...

The plan backfired though as I was called in three spots lol. But hey, Santi runs gooooot right? Of course I do.

Turn: J

I bet, get called in two spots.

River: 8

I bet, get one caller and show her the nuts. I got a pretty disgusted look from the asian girl I turned (guess she had a weak ace) and then got some chatter on the table about my hand. Apparently no one put me on KQ there haha. If anything, I'll take being lucky and showing that hand down. Not only because it was a good pot, but it gives me the image of an aggro donkey (possibly deservedly so).

Thanks for reading, check back later, I might have more.

My Brute

Semi-addicting internet game to pass the time. Check it out, it's good fun!

http://the-santi.mybrute.com/


Haven't been doing much else, might actually head out with my IRL friend Fender to Cache or Capitol tomorrow for some live low-limit LHE. Hope I run goooooot ;-)

67sooooooooted Podcast

Check it Out.

http://www.67suited.com/podcast/

Jesus Hates Easter

My younger brother wrote this as a blog entry a couple years ago. I thought of it and decided to cut/paste it. Enjoy!

For some reason, I just feel like Jesus would be irritated about our easter celebrations...I mean, sure, it's one of the two days in the year that Catholics actually go to church, but what in goddamn fuck does Jesus have to do with hunting for easter eggs?! If I ever resurrect from the dead, I sure as hell hope people find a better way to celebrate my awesomeness...like drowning themselves in my honor, maybe...and anyone that doesn't participate gets shot in the face Tarantino style...and by Tarantino I mean ridiculously exaggerated to the point of annoyance...and by ridiculously exaggerated I mean drowning themselves in my honor...what?!

PS. Peeps fucking blow...

More 6/12 Capitol ~Fun

Alright so since I last blogged about the pokers I had a sweet little 6/12-Kill and 4/8-Kill session where I came up like $400 or so. Unfortunately I played a smaller two hour session last Thursday (games died a little quickly) where I broke almost even (down about 20 bucks) and then Wednesday night I lost about $80 at 6/12 spaced out over like seven hours.

Kinda depressing to play for so many hours just to lose $80, but I guess things could have been worse. But anyway enough whining, here was my day.

I worked Tuesday night into Wednesday, so I was up at about 9:00pm on Tuesday night. Took a shower, grabbed a bite to eat, then worked until 7:30am Wednesday morning. I still like working graves...I only have to put up with customers for an hour and a half, but even then I'm usually done with my work for the night and am hiding in the back of the store lol. Time goes by so much faster on graves. After that I hung around all morning, then grabbed some pho at around 2:00pm with my boss George and my buddy the Superdonk. After that I rolled on over to Cap and the SD would join me around 6:00pm or so.

When I got to Cap, the place had a couple 6/12 games going, as well as some 4/8 and NL. Since the list was small and there were two tables running, I got right into a game. The first table was actually kinda tough, especially compared to the last couple 6/12 sessions I had played in. This table included a couple nittier older players (I guess I wasn't used to these types of players since I usually play at night and here it was 3:30 in the afternoon), and also included Davin and Wilson from my 15/30 sessions last summer.

Davin was straddling Wilson's BB and Wilson was raising Davin's BB every orbit, so they eventually loosened the table up pretty good. I was up close to a rack after playing this table, with hands I can't really remember...I'm awesome at this blogging shit I know.

I moved to the main 6/12 game after a couple hours at the outer 6/12 game and was quickly thrown into the fire. My first couple hands were AQ, I won a big pot with TPTK on one and then lost a big pot with top two a couple hands later. Two people rivered trips against me khxjknerlnlernfls.

After that I ran kinda slow, went down a little here, down a little there...the table was great in terms of action and awful players, I just couldn't get the right cards to showdown. Later on in the night was where a majority of my big hands took place. This asian-ish dude ended up sitting down in seat four (I was in the two seat) and just started 3-betting me without letting up.

I didn't mind at first because I was getting the best of him, but it just seemed like we traded money back and forth the entire night, with him eventually getting the best of me. He wasn't three-betting junk either, a lot of times he had AK-AQ or pairs...and depending on whose turn it was to win the hand, we were usually either way ahead/behind each other.

One hand that sticks out in my head is a Kill pot where I have Tens. Seat four had been really, really hot for the last couple orbits, up about two racks and the hand right before this he flopped a set of nines against pocket kings. He made it a kill pot...

So I get a limper in front of me, I raise with TT, he 3-bets, a complete monkey who has been killing me all night with awful draws calls out of seat nine, and then seat one who had limped in front of me also calls. I cap because one TT is a great hand and should be capped and two I was almost positive there was no way seat four had yet another big hand.

The flop comes 882 with two diamonds. Seat nine checks, seat one checks, I bet, seat four raises, seat nine calls, seat one folds, and I opt to just call because I'm actually scared of an overpair now. Seat four had been getting froggy pre-flop all night, but his flop raises (especially in kill pots) usually spelled out big hands. The turn was an off-suit three. Seat nine checked, I thought really hard about betting, but at this point I just wanted to showdown because I had no idea where I was. Seat four also checked...wtf? Dammit, I just gave AK or AQ of diamonds a free look at the river...

The river was a black seven so the board is 87322 and the turn checked through...I'm incredibly confident in my hand at this point. Seat nine checks, and I opt to bet, maybe getting value out of 99 or a smaller PP. Seat four looks at me and say "you can bet? ugh okay I call" and then seat nine folds...seat four shows Queens and I feel like I've been punched in the stomach yet again...blahhhhh.

Not much more exciting hands than that...I plan on playing a couple times next week, maybe one more time before I go to work Saturday night, but I think I'm going to be busy the next couple of days so I doubt it.

Thanks for reading

June Vegas Trip (10th-15th)

So a bunch of people from Cardplayer and 67suited will be attending Vegas sometime in June...I guess it's been dubbed CP3, but no one's really cleared that with me so yeah.

Anyway, the plan is for Deuce, Shabba and myself to play in the $1500 LHE Event (Event #26) that runs from June 12th through June 14th (hopefully the three of us will still be playing on the 14th). Those two may be playing other events, but as far as I'm concerned unless I can make a serious monetary splash this should be my first and only World Series event this year.

The next couple of months I plan on reading tons of LHE tournament material and practicing a bit on Stars. I've already played in a couple tourneys, but more are definitely in order. If anyone knows of any good sites or authorities on LHE tournaments, please please please post a link in the comments.

Here's a list of the guilty parties attending this trip, if you read this and aren't going, try to come out, it should be fun.

In:
Nik (10th - 15th)
Deuce (10th - 15th)
Shabba (10th-14th)
DanMcW
SilentRebel (9th - 13th)
Shifteye7 (10th - 15th)
NYRambler (10th-14th)
Fender (10th-14th)
TheAlbinoKid (9th - 15th)
iaatg6296 (from the NYRPS tournaments)
Pika - (10th - 14th)


Probables (pussies that haven't committed):
Luske
Scott
Juicybear

You Asked for it...

What's up boys? Alright well last night marked the first time I've played live in over two months...just haven't had the time. I had checked in at Cap a couple times since my last session (actually didn't blog about it suprisingly, but I made something like $550 playing 4/8-Kill over six hours. Here's an excerpt I wrote at a poker forum not to be named on January 27th

"So long story short, I work graveyard and usually on my last day of work I stay up as long as possible and try to get back on a normal sleep pattern...instead yesterday I crashed and woke up 11pm and had nothing much to do on a Monday night.

So I went to play cards, knowing full well the best game I'd be able to find would be a 4/8-Kill game and Capitol where they don't make the winner of the kill pot post a kill blind (weaksauce)...

Six hours later, I cashed out +$550 and remembered what it was like to run like a god again

Weeeeee."

Last night/this morning went just as well...played a little 6/12 early on and was having a rollercoaster of a night early. Quick rundown of the table looked like this: Seat 1 was Connie (laggy middle aged asian lady), seat 2 was an old LPP white guy, seat 4 was a lppish asian chick running like god, seat 5 was a whiney middle aged white dude named Steve, Seat 6 was another 30 year old asian girl running like god, seat 8 was me, and seat 9 was a taggy asian kid...all the other seats were filled but they didn't matter much.

The night started off pretty well with AQ soooooted and A8 sooted both flopping two pair. The first hand (AQ diamonds) was open-limped by seat two, folded to seat 6 who raised OTB, I 3-bet, call, call. Like I said flopped two pair. Bet to the river.

A8 of clubs was also in the BB, raised somewhere early, called in a few spots and I defended. CR flop, bet to the river. These two hands may have helped me semi-fluff later with a couple flush draws...I found myself flopping pretty hard out of the BB with decent connected cards and just found ways to either hit my draws or semi-bluff my way to victory.

I did mention a rollercoast though right? All my big hands were getting destroyed, which is to be expected I guess. AQ sooooted again in a kill pot, I raise and get a few callers...flop comes Q-high and I end up getting rivered by 88 (rivered set). That was pretty burtal and cost me a lot of chips. Later on KK flopped middle set and got runner-runnered...incredibly brutal hand.

So I get KK somewhere early, I think UTG+1. I raise, Connie in seat 1 calls, called in two other spots. Whiney Steve 3-bets out of the small blind, called by the BB, I cap...monster pot heading to the flop of AK9 rainbow. Top set woulda been nice, especially since small blinds aren't too aggro live, I was definitely thinking about him having AA...

He bets, one fold, I raise, Connie calls with J9 of diamonds...bottom pair, one diamond the board. First off, wow wtf? It's capped pre-flop, so yeah, huge pot, but there's an ace and a king on the board...your outs consist of maybe a nine (AA and KK are super likely) and your backdoor J-high flush. Anyway whatever, she calls and Steve calls. Turns a diamond, check, I bet, two calls. River is another baby diamond, so the board is something like AK942 with running diamonds...I like it a lot. I bet though, she raises, Steve curses alot and folds, and I just call to see the bad news. So gross.

It's okay though, two hands later I won a monster pot with 33, got four bets in on the flop against four players and two bets in on the turn against three players...I think someone flopped top pair and then made two pair on the turn...thankfully the river bricked out.

So 6/12 ran for about two hours, made a rack ($200) and after that I played 4/8-kill for the rest of the night. That was an even bigger rollercoast, but I made about $220 there, not counting the money I dropped on meals and sodas which I paid for out of my stack the entire night.

Fun night, was good to be back grinding it out with the same ol' degens I always see at Cap...hopefully my next sessions comes sooner than later. Thanks for reading.